In the morning when Kevin woke up, he decided that he would make himself some breakfast and do some sight seeing. He put on some clothes and was on his way. Isabella and A.J. had arrived in Ireland and began to follow Kevin.
"It's all your fault we got lost!" Isabella bitched. "I was simply following you."
"Well you should know not to follow me!" A.J. bitched back. "What, did you think that I got smarter after death?"
"Well I trusted you. Sorry, next time I won't."
"Good, then we won't get lost."
Cassandra woke up and rolled over into the sunshine. She covered her eyes with her hand and rolled away from it. I wonder how Kevin's doing? she thought to herself. She sat up and threw off her covers and stood up. She began to look around her room. Where did I put that brush? She looked through the top drawers in her dresser and then remembered where she put it. I let Mercedes borrow it yesterday. She walked out of her room and down the hall to Mercedes' room. She opened the door and gasped. She saw Mercedes wrapped in Brian's arms. Cassandra turned around and quietly closed the door. She smiled to herself and walked down the stairs.
Nick saw her walk into the kitchen. "Honey-"
"That's so sweet," Cassandra said outloud to herself. "I am so glad that Mercedes and Brian made up."
Nick walked up close to Cassandra and quickly kissed her on her lips.
Cassandra stopped and looked around.
Nick took all of his emotion and said, "Cassandra, it is a good thing."
Cassandra heard him and, after a second of hesitation, she ran out of the kitchen.
Nick ran after her and into the living room. "Cassandra, what's wrong?"
Cassandra stopped and whipped around. "Leave me alone!" she screamed into the air.
"Honey, w-what's the matter?"
Cassandra let her tears fall. "Just stop talking to me! You're not real! It's all in my head! I'm not hearing the man that I love, it's me!"
"Sweetie-"
"Don't call me that, just stop talking to me! I don't want to hear you again! Ever!"
Nick felt his heart break as he watched Cassandra search the air with tears running down her face. He felt his own eyes begin to burn with tears. She wasn't believing anymore but he wasn't quite sure. "But I love you!" he yelled.
"You tried to kill me!" she screamed.
"No I-" He stopped when he remembered the dream that he had gone in, and the knife, and Isabella...
"I've made up my mind! I don't love you anymore! It stopped the day that you left, wherever you are! None of this is real! Right now I'm fighting with myself! Just please, leave me alone! Just like Kevin said, you're dead! My husband is dead!"
"But I'm always here!"
"I shouldn't be living in your death! Kevin was right. I need to move on. Don't you get it? Can't you see that I'm not happy? Stop constantly torturing me!"
"You think that I'm torturing you?"
"Yes!"
There was a long pause while Nick sorted out his thoughts and thought about what his wife had just said. "Fine."
"What? Who-what did you just say?"
"I said fine, Cassandra," Nick said, closing his heart. "I do whatever you ask me to and if it's what you want, then you'll never hear from me again." Nick took a deep breath and one last look at Cassandra. Then, he turned and walked out of the house.
"Nick?" Cassandra whispered. "Nick?" She looked around the living room, and then dropped to the ground. Come back, she thought. God, please, come back.
Mercedes woke up all sweaty and with a jump.
Brian rolled over. "Honey? Are you okay?"
"What?"
"Um...are you okay?"
"Where am I?" she asked looking around.
"Your house."
"Your house?"
"Your house!"
"Huh?"
"Sleep well?" Brian joked.
"No."
"Nightmare?"
"Yup!"
"Who this time?"
"Do you remember the one when Nick was tinkerbell and you were a soldier?"
"Yeah..."
"Role reversal. You were in the spandex this time!"
"Oh, wow! Um...hi!"
"Brian, you're not embarrassed are you?" she asked, giggling.
"No. What are you talking about?" Brian asked, his face gradually turning redder.
"Hmm, I wonder. Do we need a demonstration?"
"No!"
"I think so," she said leaning over to kiss him.
"Do I get a prize?" he asked kissing her again.
"Yeah."
"Definitely."
"Oh-"
"I love you."
"Is this a trick to get out of a demonstration?" she asked.
"No. I love you."
"I love you too."
"I'm sorry."
"I know you are. Now, I want something from you."
"What?"
"I'm sure you know." She smiled slyly and pulled the covers over their heads. She kissed him hard, letting her tongue roam within his mouth as he grinned to himself. They wrapped their arms tightly around each other. After a minute or so, they were both breathing hard and Brian fled from the covers. "Brian?" she questioned.
"I-I can't breathe under there!" Brian said, gasping for air.
Mercedes giggled at him. "Aw, you poor baby!"
"I know!" he whined. "What are you going to do about it?"
She shrugged. "I dunno." She grinned and planted her lips on his again.
Brian pulled away and sat up. He grabbed a piece of paper from the nightstand and a pen. "Look," he said to her.
Mercedes sat up and looked at the piece of paper. "I don't get it. It's a circle with my name in it."
"It's more than that," Brian explained. "You see, when you really love someone, you put their name in a circle, not a heart because hearts can be broken but circles go on forever."
"Oh Brian, that's so sweet!"
"I know. My dad said this to my mom and she said the exact same thing!"
"Brian you are just too cute for words."
"I know. Don't you just wanna kiss me?"
"No, but I will anyways." She smiled and kissed him again, firmly.
Cassandra, still sitting on the living room floor, drew her knees up and rested her head on them. A strange memory came to her. It was the day that she had found that rose on the bed and where she had gone. "The rose," she whispered. "It had to have been from him. It was gone the next day after I had gone to-" She stopped herself. She didn't want to admit where she had gone. "It was a perfectly logical choice for me to go there. Everyone else went there and I expect has gone there since then. So why do I feel so...so guilty?" She stood up and shook her head. "Even after, he still found a way to say that he loves me. I'm always with you, my love. Never doubt it. That's what it said. I can't believe that he would leave me a message on his tombstone. For me. It wasn't meant for anyone else. Ever. And I just told him to go away."
Night came quickly and Kevin was home by nine o'clock. Wow, it's been a long day, Kevin thought to himself. Suddenly, he heard someone talking and it was coming from upstairs. He tiptoed up the stairs and followed the noise to the attic stairs. He began to go up the stairs when he saw Mariah and Bobby coming in through the attic window. Kevin ducked down.
"Damn it Bobby. I am so sick of Ireland!" Mariah complained. "Can we make this quick tonight? Just shoot Cassandra and Kevin and we are done."
"No, shut up. They might hear you," Bobby said.
"Fine," Mariah whined.
"Now-" Bobby began.
"What ever happened to that Julie girl?"
"What? I made her leave on a mission. She couldn't respect my authority."
"Oh...that's a good reason."
"Listen, it was a damn good reason."
"What kind of mission did you send her on?"
"I sent her to Vegas. Richard had this girlfriend who was presumed to be missing for about two years until they pronounced her dead. Well I know that she is in Vegas and Julie is going to find her."
"Oh...I remember my first mission was to kill Andrew and write a suicide note. I couldn't believe they fell for it. He was such a pussy, then the whole California trick with the fake Andrew," Mariah said and laughed. "Stupid Cassandra."
Bobby cringed. "Don't say that," he growled.
Mariah gave him a confused look. "That was too good to be true, I couldn't believe that Lucy fell for that crap about how murder was the only way out."
"Yeah, we got two birds with one stone there."
Kevin felt that he was in serious danger. Damn ex-boyfriends, he thought and ran down the stairs. How can I throw them off? I know! I'll call the house on my cell phone and pretend it's Cassandra calling me. Kevin got out his cell phone and dialed the number and the phone rang. He waited until he heard Bobby and Mariah slowly creep down the stairs to listen in and then he picked up the phone. "Hello? Oh hi Cassie. What's up?...Okay...You're going to stay at Coreene's house another night?...Okay...No I'll be fine...Oh yeah...No...No problems. Okay see you tomorrow. Bye." That takes care of Cassie, now, how do I get out of here? Maybe I shouldn't go to sleep tonight. He walked over and sat down on the couch and began to watch television.
"We have to wait until Cassie comes back," Bobby said to Mariah and wandered back to the attic and out the window and Mariah followed.
The next day, Kevin left a note on the table addressed to Cassandra. He packed his suitcase and left for the airport. When Bobby and Mariah came back, they noticed the note on the table and picked it up. Bobby read it. "Dear Cassandra, bla bla, I'll be back later...I went to go run some errands and I'll see you when you get back...bla bla...Kevin. Excellent."
"That means that they'll be back soon?"
Bobby sighed loudly and rolled his eyes and headed upstairs without answering her question.
After two hours of waiting, Kevin was finally on a plane back home. He got on his cell phone and called the house. "Cassandra? Is that you?"
"K-Kevin?"
Kevin was worried. She sounded shaken up but he decided not to say anything yet. "Cassandra-"
"Oh my God, Kevin! I have been hoping that you would call."
"I'm on my way home now. I am on the plane. Will you pick me up when I arrive?"
"What? Yeah, of course. I am so glad! We need to talk."
"Okay. Later. Bye." Kevin was so tired that he fell right asleep on the plane.
Cassandra clutched the phone. She looked frantically around the kitchen. "Damn it, he's gone Cassandra!" she yelled out loud to herself. "Let it go! He's ruining your life!" She put the phone back and sat down at the kitchen table. She looked at where she was sitting and laughed to herself. "This is where I wrote that note telling Nick that I had to leave him." Her smile faded and her face turned cold. "If I did it once, I can sure as hell do it again." She tried to push the memories of her husband out of her mind and forget all about him.
Nick watched from the doorway in the kitchen. There was no doubt in his mind that Cassandra was just lying to herself but if he was going to be with her once again when she died, he figured that he should just let her have her space. "Cassie-" But he stopped himself. She had told him to leave her alone, and he didn't want to be with someone that didn't want him. He, too, tried to close up his heart, and forget his wife, his Cassandra, and move on like she said that she wanted to. He took a long look at her, then turning and walking out of the kitchen, he made up his mind never to look back.
Once Cassandra had picked up Kevin and they had arrived back at the house, she turned off the car and just sat there. "Is something wrong?" Kevin asked her. "You've been so quiet. You haven't even turned on the radio."
"I'm afraid of what I might hear," she replied, not taking her eyes off of the steering wheel.
"What are you talking about?"
"I don't want to hear the song that used to be mine and Nick's. I don't want him to start playing songs for me on the radio."
"Cassie, that's impossible."
"No, it's not."
"Are you feeling okay?"
"No, not really. Can I confess something to you?"
"Yeah, of course."
"A lot has been building up within me and I have no one to talk to about it."
"You can talk to me-"
"No, it's different. I've tried to put up a front for other people, but I can't do it anymore. It's just too much. I can't control the tears anymore. They just come at a second's notice whenever I think about him."
"Yeah. I know the feeling. I'll admit that I've shed some tears over this whole thing, but only in private with Emalia and I."
"Nick used to do the exact same thing. He would only cry in front of me but only sometimes. Maybe once or twice when things were so bad."
"But you guys always made it through."
"Well, why don't you go inside, and I'll join you in a second. All right?"
"Okay, if you say so. If you need anything just, uh, call the house on your cell phone." He smiled.
She laughed. "Thanks. I'll be right in."
Kevin got out of the car, grabbed his luggage from the trunk, and headed in towards the house.
Isabella and A.J. walked into Nick's room and saw Nick sitting on the edge of his bed. He looked extremely depressed, more than usual, and he wasn't with Cassandra like he usually was. "Yo Nick," A.J. said. "What's wrong?"
Nick didn't answer.
"You look worse than usual," Isabella added. "Are you okay?"
There was a long pause and Nick finally looked up. There was no emotion on his face, at least no emotion that Isabella or A.J. could feel and no sign that he had been crying.
"What-"
"She told me to go away," Nick finally said quietly.
"What are you talking-"
"Forever!" he said, his voice raising. "She told me that she never wanted to hear me again or for me to be around her again."
"Who?"
"Who do you think? Cassandra! My ex-wife, Cassandra."
"Oh no," Isabella said sitting down next to him. "What did she say?"
"She said that she doesn't to feel me or hear me again, that she's not happy and that I'm torturing her and that she doesn't love me. She told me to leave her alone. And now I take it that she's really not my wife."
"Yes she is," Isabella said.
He stood up. "You don't get it, do you? I don't care! She's obviously closed her heart to me so I've closed my heart to her."
"No you haven't," A.J. said.
"How would you know?" Nick snapped. "You're not me. I'm not going to hold on to someone who doesn't want me!"
"Of course she wants you," Isabella tried to insist.
"No she doesn't. J-Just leave me alone!" Nick stormed out of the room. He ran down the stairs and heard yelling. "Fuck, what now?"
"Kevin! God damn it!"
"No!" Kevin yelled at Emalia and whipped around. "No, damn you, Emalia!"
"Now what?"
"Why don't you go play with your boyfriend?"
"That's not fair!" Emalia shot back.
"It's very fair. You now what isn't fair? Is my finaceé cheating on me with someone who's shorter than she is! That's not fair!"
"I'm sorry, Kevin! I love you!"
"No, you don't. If you did, you wouldn't have..."
"I need you."
"Well maybe someday you'll realize just how much you really do need me!" With that, Kevin stormed out of the house, leaving Emalia standing there and Nick shaking his head.
"Oh, I hate to see good couples fight and tear apart," Nick said. "No...Emalia, don't cry."
Emalia had tears flowing down her face and it made Nick mad.
"Don't you cry! You're not aloud to cry!"
But Emalia couldn't hear him and her tears became more rapid.
"Damn you, knock it off! You can't cry! The one that you love isn't worlds apart from you! He's in the next God damned house!"
Cassandra finally got out of her car and slowly walked towards the guys' house. She hadn't seen Kevin storm out of the house and she didn't know that he was looking for her. She walked into the guys' house and into the kitchen.
"Sorry, Cassandra," Nick said. "I'll leave."
"Fuck you bitch!" Emalia screamed.
Cassandra looked around. "Are you talking to me?"
"I don't see anyone else here! Do you? I can't believe that you would do this to me!"
"Do what to you? Fuck you, Emalia. You dug your own grave. Kevin should know." There was a pause between them. "Why? Why did you do it? Why would you hurt him like that?"
Emalia slumped down into a chair at the kitchen table. "B-Because I didn't think that Kevin felt the same towards me as he used to and I didn't have anyone else to turn to. He was comparing our relationship to you and Nick and how perfect you guys were and how are love isn't nearly as good as yours."
"Why didn't you just talk to Kevin?"
"Because, I couldn't!"
"That's total bullshit, Emalia. I can't believe that you would say something like that. Someday you're going to realize just how much you need him."
"You know, he said the same thing."
"Did he also say that someday you're going to realize what you threw away?"
Emalia shook her head. "No, he didn't mention that."
"Well he should have!" With that, Cassandra turned and followed Kevin's path over to her house.
Nick went and sat down next to Emalia. "I'm sorry that I yelled at you," he said. "But because you can't hear me, you didn't hear me yelling at you and you're not hearing me apologize, I should just save my breath-" He stopped. "But what am I saving my breath for?" He shrugged. "Hmph. I hate seeing good couples end up like this. Take it from me, I know. Wait, this gives me a great idea. I'm gonna put them back together, with a little help from Cassandra."