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"There's simply nothing else to say. I can't help you." Grace starts for the house.

"Well, you're gonna have to do better than that." Butcher argues, following as Cassius and Hughie trail behind.

"Do I? Why?" Grace asks loudly.

"Cause you made me a promise." Butcher snaps firmly.

Grace swivels around. "But then my grandchildren got incinerated." She points at him, narrowing her eyes and Cass's breath catches in her throat. "Tends to change one's perspective. There weren't even teeth left, Lamplighter had burnt them alive so thoroughly." Her voice cracks at the last word. Cass feels her heartbeat in her eyes as she stares a hole in the dirt below her. "Well," Grace glances in her direction, "I think I've had enough sun for one day." Her eyes linger on Butcher for a moment before adverting her attention to a solemn-face Hughie. "Pleasure meeting you, Hugh. Butcher." Her glare slices into the man in front of her one last time before she turns to walk away. "Cass, a moment?"

Cassius looks up as Butcher shouts. "Well, what about what you've done?"

"What I've done?" Grace turns around, looking him up and down. "To who?"

Butcher storms forward. "To me, goddamn it. To me." He points to himself. "You trained me up, manipulated me, aimed me at Homelander like a fucking howitzer. And then when it didn't suit you anymore, you just threw me away."

"Like you're doing to Hughie?" Cass finally speaks up, questioning sharply.

Butcher turns to her. "Who's side are you on?"

Her teeth grind together as she takes a step towards him. "Well, considering you lied to get me here and you're yelling at the woman whom I share a last name with, considering your own, I'd say not yours." She spits out.

Grace lips curl up at her granddaughter. "And not a day goes by I don't regret that." She tells Butcher.

"Day late, dollar short, love." He lowers his voice. "Now, I'm going to finish what you started, and I need your help. Please." He looks to Cassius, tilting his head.

She sighs through her nose before stepping off to the side, Grace doing the same. The boys were still in earshot, but Cass didn't care.

"Why?" Grace looks at her. Disappointment. Is evident in her eyes.

"I don't know why." Cass gives. Lie. She knows exactly why. Not even the possibility, or blatant lie on Butcher's part, of Bellamy coming back stopped her. She knows why.

Grace sighs. "You had a stable job at the hospital."

"I know you're not out. Not completely, it'd be impossible for you not to keep some tabs." Cass cuts the shit. She knows Grace, she knows her Gran. The woman that raised her. Which means Grace knows her too.

"I don't want you to end up like her." Grace's voice cracks on the last word, and Cass knows exactly who she's referring to. "Drowning and hiding behind a bottle won't bring them back." Every word hit Cass in the chest, like fucking bullets. "And I don't want to watch you poison yourself because of it."

"I know that." Cass says calmly, locking her jaw down, forcing her chin not to tremble.

Grace's face softens. "You're going to get yourself killed."

"I don't care." Cass replies quietly. I have nothing else to live for.

"Your thirst for vengeance won't bring them back." Grace clips. Harsh, but honest. That was how Grace was brought up, that's how Cass was raised. "It will only bring you here. Staring at fucking birds, in a house all alone."

The problem is Cass doesn't know who she is without this. She can be a nurse all day. But she knows her the end goal.

And if she has to die to get it then so be it.

"Please, Gran." She inhales sharply through her nose, almost unable to say the words that were about to come out of her mouth. If you asked her a month ago if she'd be visiting Gran and speaking on Butcher's behalf, she'd laugh in your fucking face and probably stab you too.

But she didn't come all this way, she didn't come this fucking far... she didn't give up her job, her apartment, and face the man she fucking hated and never wanted to see again to end things here. Not when they are actually this fucking close for once.

"Give Butcher what he wants." Cass says. "For me."

She's either going to drink her life away, continuing a vicious cycle, or she can at least die knowing she fucking won. Or at least gave a damn and did something, not allowing their deaths to be for nothing. She will do something. No matter the outcome.

Grace stares at her granddaughter in defeat. She's turned out far more headstrong than she could have ever hoped for, and she was proud. Cass had more fight left in her than she did.

"You can leave with something, if Butcher never comes back," Grace looks past Cass to him, "And you keep your goddamn promise this time." Butcher guilty adverts his gaze down, nodding subtly in compliance. "Madelyn Stillwell." Cass clicks her tongue.

"Vought's VP?" Butcher questions.

"Homelander's her main account." Grace says.

"Yeah, that ain't news." Butcher dismisses.

"But." Cass shoots Butcher a hard glare before nodding at Grace to continue. There's more.

"No," Grace chuckles, "But this is: They have a- what shall we say? A very special relationship."

"Eugh." Cass's nose turns up.

"Complicated, intimate, hard to quantify."

"And you know this how?" Butcher asks her.

"Still have a few fingers in a few pies." Grace explains vaguely, glancing over to Cassius, letting her know she was right. "I don't know if Homelander has a weakness, but if he does, she'll know it." She finishes.

Butcher pauses for a moment before speaking. "Good-bye, Grace."

"You want to kill yourself, that's your right," Grace shouts as Butcher begins walking away, up the path. "I won't stop you- but, Billy, not the others. Not my granddaughter." Cass stares harshly at the sparse grass.

Hughie stops, looking back at Grace. "Vengeance isn't a path to glory, Hugh." She says, eyeing her granddaughter. "It's a one-way ticket to a dead end, looking at fucking birds."

Cass sniffs, raising her head her hair flips back out of her face as she clears her throat. "Thank you, Gran." She follows Butcher and Hughie's path to leave.

"Please be careful, Cassius." Grace's hands wrap around Cass's elbow as she passes her. "I can't lose another granddaughter. I can't. There aren't enough birds."

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0вυттєявιѕ¢υιт7 ѕρєαкѕ!

Hello, hellooo... & welcome back ;)

I LOVED writing this chapter sooo muchhh!! It gave SUCH insight & explanation into Cass & her dynamic with Grace!! UGHHH <3333

I hope y'all enjoyed this chapter as much as I did writing it & would LOVEEE to hear y'all's thoughts, questions, & reactionsss so don't be afraid to comment!! Cass is a bitch, butttt... she's been through so much </3

Also Cass's mom is an oc, since the show only ever talked about Grace's 2 granddaughters, just so y'all know haha.

Until next timeeee, mwah!! <333