I&#x27;m Breathing In The Chemicals

How can you love someone like her, after everything she's done?

Because everyone deserves a second chance.

Do you like being headmaster?

I enjoy it very much, yes.

You Left Me Filled With Hate || Casseo (and Joshua Fox)

Though she was scared (scared of Theo, which was something she had never thought she would feel), her hands were steady as she leveled the gun at her boyfriend. “Move away,” she said, very softly. Her voice was even, though blatantly unnerved. And slowly (almost too slowly), she watched him stand and move away from her father, sending one last kick into the older mans side. Once Theo had moved away, though, she was at her fathers side, hand on his shoulder. “Are you alright?” Her voice was incredibly low, and her eyes were stormy. “Fine, as i— if tha— that man c-could h-h-hurt me,” coughed out the older man. Cassidy snorted derisively and then stood, stepping a few feet away before properly leveling her gun at her father.

She let off a single shot and watched as it caught her father in the leg. It would hurt, but it wouldn’t kill him. “Get out of my apartment,” she spat, voice full of malice. “Get away from my boyfriend, get out of my apartment, get away from my brothers, get out of my life. You don’t own me any longer. Get out, and never come back.” She watched as Joshua stumbled brokenly to his feet, and as the man went to speak, she shook her head. “Get out,” she spat again. “And never show your filthy face near me again. You don’t have a daughter, Mr. Fox. Leave, and don’t even think of contacting me, or Lee, or Grant, again.” There was something defeated on Joshua’s face as he swore at her and sneered. And that was enough for Cassidy. She took three steps forward and swung her fist straight into his already bloody face, smirking maliciously as he cried out in pain and jolted back, eye bloodshot and red.

“You—" She shook her head as he went to speak. "I won’t regret it, but you certainly will if you don’t get out.” And so he went, tail between his legs, from her apartment, and Cassidy turned to look at Theo. She put her gun down, darting quickly towards the door and locking it, tapping out a quick text to one of the security officers who walked around campus and asking him to kindly escort the injured Senator Fox off campus and to tell him in no uncertain terms that he was not welcome at Sky High again. “Theo,” she said quietly, looking at her boyfriend over a swollen cheek and frowning at the metallic tang of blood on her lips. “Theo, come back to me.”

Theo's face was caught between being emotionless and blank and sneering as he watched his girlfriend talk to her father. He wanted nothing more than to surge forward again and tear the man apart limb for limb, to absolutely destroy him, but he knew he couldn't, because he knew he had to let Cassidy handle this one. And then he went to talk back and he growled, taking a step forward but Cassidy was speaking before he could grab the man's neck, and he backed off. He took a deep breath and continued glaring, his eyes dark and dangerous as he looked over the other man.

When Cassidy was speaking to him, his eyes flickered over to her and he let out a low noise, his gaze still dark as he looked her over. Slowly, he was coming back, and his eyes lightened just a little bit as he blinked hard, grunting and moving to sit over to the couch, his hands going up to tangle through the hair on the back of his head. He let out an exasperated cough and kept his gaze fixed on the ground. "Give... me a moment," he murmured, his voice thick.

texts || casseo

Cassidy: Thank you.

Cassidy: For everything. For teaching me how to... feel all of the things I now do. I cannot explain how I feel for you, or any of that but... Theo, know that you mean the absolute world to me. And I wouldn't have made it through this last week without you at my side.

Cassidy: SHIELD has given me 3 hours and then... I don't know when I'll be back. But we both knew this was going to happen, yes?

Theo: They aren't going to kill you. I won't have it.

Theo: I will see you shortly.

#Text: Cassidy

Heard from Lucy lately?

We spoke the other day. It was good to hear from her.

[message deleted]

#theo did you srsly just #use a smiley face #Text: Cassidy

texts || casseo

Cassidy: Of course I will. I couldn't leave without seeing you.

Theo: Excellent. Maybe next time we can go together. :)

texts || casseo

Cassidy: I'm spending the week with my brothers

Cassidy: We need to go over new ground rules and I need to... tell them everything.

Cassidy: I'll be back soon, and then... then we can take that vacation we talked about. I promise.

Theo: Alright, love. You'll come to say goodbye in person before you leave though, right?

#Text: Cassidy

Are you afraid you can't fuck her like he did? Afraid you can't make her feel what he made her feel? Because, you know, he was the only one who ever made her feel. Afraid you can't live up to that?

You know nothing.

[message deleted]

She's going to get herself killed. How could you let her?

I won't let her.

[message deleted]

you're a pretty lousy headmaster, fraternizing with faculty.

Fraternizing with faculty, hm? It was no coincidence that our relationship was somewhat established prior to me being appointed? I suggest doing your research before you plan on heckling me again, anonymous.

You scared her, you know. Like Felix used to. Like her father used to. You're just as bad as they are. You would have killed her if she hadn't pulled you back.

No I wouldn't have.

[message deleted]

You Left Me Filled With Hate || Casseo (and Joshua Fox)

They both looked considerably worse for wear, and Cassidy could see her fathers face purpling as Theo continued to press down on his windpipe, cutting off any form of oxygen. She hissed, eyes flashing and turning stormy. But then Theo turned to her, and his eyes were just like hers, just like Felix’s, as he spoke in a cold growl. She twitched, half of her instinctively wanting to bow to the authoritative tone and superior strength, but the other half of her, the half of her that knew Theo, and knew him better than she knew herself, refused. “No,” she snapped back. “You stand down, Theo.” She used his name, because she had to pull him back. But the stutter was there, the way she stumbled over her words, despite being sure in them.

He was scaring her. And it was damn hard to scare Cassidy Fox-Williams.

"Stand down, Theo. Get off of him." Her voice shook again, and she never broke her gaze with her boyfriend, taking another step towards him, her hand absently going to the gun at her hip. She pulled it out and held it at her side, other hand reaching for Theo’s shoulder very, very slowly. There was apprehension and something akin to fear in every step; she knew he could very easily snap and turn on her. "Theo, come back to me," she murmured, voice very quiet as she got closer to her boyfriend. Her fingers brushed his shoulder and she put her palm him. "Please, don’t kill him."

When she snapped back at him, if part of Theo wasn't lingering on the surface of his sudden persona switch, then he probably would have barked orders at her, commanded her not to speak to her authority like that and that his word was law, but he didn't. He didn't because he blinked a few times before looking back down at the other man. But he didn't stop his assault. He didn't stop pushing down, and he didn't stop watching the color go out of the man's face, an almost pleased smirk on his own. But it wasn't pleasure that he was getting revenge on the man for what he had done to his girlfriend, it was pleasure because he was accomplishing his task, the goal he had set in his mind.

But then he heard her pull out her gun, and he sneered slightly as he shot a glance toward her. She wouldn't kill him. Even in his emotionless state, he knew tat she wouldn't kill him. The last utter of his name brought him back to reality, though, and he swallowed hard, pulling his hands back rather anticlimactically. He rose in an instant, and stared down at the mess of a man below him before delivering one last swift kick into the man's side. He was bordering between his facades, blinking hard and furrowing his eyebrows as he tried to pull out of it.

You Left Me Filled With Hate || Casseo (and Joshua Fox)

It was the crack that echoed through the room that made Cassidy jump into action after minutes upon minutes of staring in shocked, frozen silence. She hadn’t frozen up so thoroughly since the first time that Felix had killed someone in front of her, and god, had he hurt her that night. She remembered every second of i— and now was not the time to be focusing on it. She shifted forward, moving fluidly and voice loud and authoritative. “Theo, stop! You’re going to kill him!” As much as she loathed her father… Theo couldn’t kill him. She couldn’t watch Theo kill her father. She just… couldn’t. For his part, Joshua had landed several good hits on her boyfriend, and both of them were covered in blood (though whose blood was whose was another matter. All blood looked the same when it was spilt.)

“Hope — she’s wor— worth it,” spat out the older man, coughing and spluttering at Theo pressed down and began to choke him. His daughter was shouting, trying to reason with the angry man on top of him, but Joshua simply wanted to laugh. Did Cassidy really think that she could control either of them? Silly, simple little girl. But it was only moments later that he realised just how deadly his silly, simple little girl was as she shifted forward so fluidly, almost as if she was walking on air, her face set and voice so solid.

"Theo," her voice was imploring and pleading, but still hard. "Theo, you have to let him go. You can’t kill him. Theo, please. Listen to me…”

Ignoring his split lip, the ache in his stomach that he knew would be a bruise later, and the blood trickling out of his nose, he didn't care. He was going to kill Joshua Fox, and there was nothing that was going to stop him. Plus, the man's obvious cracked rip, cut on his forehead, broken nose and bloody lip, pleased him more than anyone could ever tell. It was worth the injuries he had in return. He could barely hear the voice that was entering his ears, he could barely even hear the distant formed words as he focused his eyes on the prize: killing the man below him.

He continued digging into him, his eyes dark and angry, cutting off his air supply more and more as he did. Of course it was worth it. It was worth it because he could cover it up with no problem. It was worth it because he'd done it so many times before. And it was damn worth it for her. "I'll see you in hell," he spat out, pushing himself even harder into him. But then her voice finally registered in his mind, and he let up just a little, just enough that he could pause while he listened to her. He swallowed hard, his gaze nearly black at this point; dead as he looked her in the eye. "Stand down, Caprica," he growled, his eyes never leaving hers.

You Left Me Filled With Hate || Casseo (and Joshua Fox)

Her hand had barely touched her cheek when she noticed the blur that sprinted into the room. She hadn’t noticed the door opening properly again, nor the startled gasp of air that came from her new visitor. Everything was happening in some sort of slow motion, but one moment her father was screaming obscenities at her, and the next he was slammed against the wall and Theo was releasing loud, vicious growls and slamming her father incredibly violently against her apartments walls. The dangerous tone in his voice, the viciousness of his eyes… All of it was completely unlike the Theo she had come to know over the last few months. Except, she recalled, that night when he had nearly choked her to death. That night where he had nearly given her what she had wanted above all else.

She let out a strangled noise as Theo delivered a solid punch to her fathers cheek, and the other man let out a roar of pain and rage. Joshua dropped like a sack of rocks and Theo was on him, and Cassidy barely noticed the blood running from her split lip as she let out a loud shout. “Stop, stop it!” But nothing seemed to deter Theo as he roared and continued shouting at her father. And Joshua was not much better, because as Theo shouted, he managed to call on his college boxing days and landed a solid punch on Cassidy’s boyfriend’s jaw. And then another, an uppercut to his chest.

And they continued, exchanging blows, while Cassidy tried to shift over into a mode that would allow her to intervene while taking minimal injury, but she knew that it was impossible; getting into the middle of the fray would only get her hurt. “Is she a good fuck, Cyprus? I bet she is. How long did — it take my skank of a daughter — to spread her legs for you?" The words came out in short bursts as he parried with the larger man, ducking punches but wincing visibly as others landed. ”She’s just like her mother. Just like the — sluts who worked campaigns. You know all about that, — don’t you, — Cyprus?" Another punch. Another landed blow into his gut, another thrown punch. ”And yet you pick someone as meaningless and pathetic as my daughter? Maybe you deserve her; she certainly deserves no better than the scum of my shoes, and you’re most definitely below that.”

If Theo wasn't so distracted by blind fury, the other man wouldn't have been able to land the punches that he was throwing at him. But he did, and god, they hurt, but there was no stopping now. His eyes were dark with rage and he roared violently, never loosening his grip on the other man's shirt and tie as he held onto him, pummeling him practically into the ground. He didn't understand how a man could be so cruel... So absolutely horrible to the point of no return, and all of his pent up rage over the years of being faced with this vile man was released in that moment, holding him down and beating into him, practically ignoring whenever the other man landed one of his own punches.

But then he was speaking, and the words that came fumbling out of the man's mouth was the last straw. He heaved himself up, pulling the man with him before throwing him as hard as he could to the ground again and kicking him in the side so hard he heard the crack. His rage was slowly toned down as the more agent and assassin side of him kicked in, and he found himself slinking down into the man, pressing his knee against his sternum and holding his hand against the man's throat, cutting off his air supply. "You're done," he finally ground out, gritting his teeth as he pressed his body weight into the other man.

You Left Me Filled With Hate || Casseo (and Joshua Fox)

It had been a few weeks since the Gala; a few quiet, silent weeks. Cassidy hadn’t heard a peep out of her father since the incident, though she had received a few… interesting, unsigned letters. Unsigned, she knew, so that he had plausible deniability. She knew her father, she knew how he worked, and that was why, as she moved around her staff apartment and put a book back on the shelf, she found it so incredibly suspicious that she hadn’t heard a single thing from him in so many weeks. He usually couldn’t go more than a few days, two weeks at most, without calling or writing to remind her of her place after she somehow disobeyed him. Granted, it hadn’t happened in years, but still… She had expected something. Anything.

(She hadn’t, however, expected the knock on the door. Theo wasn’t due to arrive for at least another twenty minutes.)

The sound made her jump, and she frowned and sucked her lower lip between her teeth. She shouldn’t be so twitchy, though she could easily pinpoint why. Deciding to defect, not having told Felix, planning her own death… All of it was very, very nerve-wracking, and despite Theo having assured her that she would survive, she still found herself unnerved. She tugged open the door, smile on her lips as she began to speak. “Theo, I didn’t expe— Father?!” Her voice broke as she took in the salt-and-pepper haired man before her, and she backed up, eyes widening as he walked in and surveyed the surroundings. “Pathetic,” he sneered, glaring towards her daughter. “You would think a government agency would provide better accommodation, but then, you certainly don’t deserve anything more than this, do you?"

She frowned harshly, backing up further as he advanced towards her. “Leave.” Her voice was solid, not like it had been so many weeks earlier when she had shaken in his presence. But she was still scared; perpetually, always terrified of her father. “Get out of my apartment. How did you even get up here?” His glare turned more vicious and she backed up further, back smacking against the wall far too soon. “Watch your tongue," he spat, glaring down at his daughter. "Worse than your mother," he ground out, towering over her. "Couldn’t you have at least picked someone better to whore yourself out to? At least your bitch of a mother didn’t think she move up. She knew her place. It’s a damn shame she never got a chance to teach you yours.”

Cassidy blanched, and scowled, standing up straight and glaring up at him. “Don’t you dare speak that way about her,” she hissed. “I know what you did to her, you mons—" Her words were cut off by a swift smack to the face, and she barely winced as her head jerked to the right, and a small smattering of blood hit the wall beside her. "Don’t you dare speak to me in that manner, you little slut. You’re worse than her. You’re absolutely useless to me, you know that? Absolutely useless. Pathetic, and worthless. You can’t even complete the simple mission that they assigned you. I warned them, I did, that you weren’t good enough for this, but they just never listened to me. They expect so much of you, but I know better, don’t I?”

Theo whistled as he stepped off of the elevator and onto Cassidy's floor. After the stressful first day back to classes, and after all of the paperwork that had come in for him to do, he was planning on just having a quiet evening. Showing up, having dinner and some good conversation, and then going back and doing some more work or even watching a film before bed. And as long as he did it with Cassidy, well, he wouldn't mind at all. A smile on his face, he stepped up to her door, moving to knock when he heard noises inside. He considered waiting for a moment, wondering if she had a guest, but then he shrugged it off and pushed open the door.

Right as Joshua Fox landed a hit on his daughter.

He was stunned. For a mere second, a mere moment, he didn't know what to do. He watched as the man screamed at his own daughter, surveyed the situation, the blood on the wall, and a darkness overtook his eyes. He didn't really know what possessed him, then, and he launched forward, dropping everything he was holding and yanking the man back by his shoulders. He backed him up against the wall with a vicious growl and held him there, tight by his collar. "Don't you dare touch her," he growled out, his voice dangerous and anything but low. "You pathetic excuse of a man," he finally barked out, pulling back and landing a solid punch to the man's left cheek. When he went clambering to the ground, Theo kicked him in the side, fury coursing through the politician's veins as he moved to one knee and grabbed him again, landing another angry punch that spattered the floor with blood. "Don't you ever-- Nothing but-- Worthless-- Don't know how--" he said, the end of each phrase being punctuated by a punch.