Somewhere Between Ochopee and Everglade City (open)

"Because I don't belong. It's really that simple."

He coukdnt help it. He chuckled. " Sweetie if any of the two of us had the right to say those words it would be me, besides Depuity isn't it you who asked me what I do in the face of adversity recently?"

"Why do you think I asked?" She wasn't chuckling.

"You belong more then you will ever realize. And quite frankly, any that say otherwise send them my way. I'm use to being the one they hate, might as well give them a reason once in awhile."

"No, you don't want the majority of clan Toreador coming to you. Trust me. You don't. Save yourself, man. If you see a murder of Toreador coming your way, run for the hills."

He just laughed softly. "It's shiny. Get the biggest shiny you can and they all get stun locked."

"Got one, thanks. It didn't work."

"Give it say 2 weeks. Let's see what we can find out. Really what's the harm in waiting?"

"There's nothing to find out," she shook her head. "Nothing. It just is what it is, leave it at that. Please? It's better this way. It is better."

"Doesn't sound better. Besides that's something big to ignore."

"I've been trying to prove myself to this clan for a long time. For my own sanity, I have to stop. I have to. So please, let it lie. It's not worth it anymore."

"Who said anything bout proving yourself. I'm talking bout the whole disappearing for 15 days. Besides, you don't have to prove shit. You do what you've been doing. It's gotten ya this far. Your a Depuity. That's a good thing. I stopped worrying about proving myself to everyone a long time ago and just started doing what I do. Saves a lot of headaches."

"I'm grateful for the position, I am. But... I just..." Cass leaned over to turn off the water. "I wanted to be a part of them. I wanted that... I wanted it so much."

"And it's trully there loss if they choose not to include you. Sometimes the ones we call family are not related in any way."

"And that might be so, but it doesn't make it any less painful."

"No, but it shows you who you can trully count on and who you should put your effort into."

"I've done that," she shrugged as she stood, going back to filling her bag and zipping it up. "But there are just too many things at play. You can't... you can't just up and switch your clan. You can't always rely on other people, no matter how much they tell you that you can. Sometimes... you just have to man up and be able to say that... you didn't win this round. And you move on and you try again some place different."

He stood up and leaned against the wall. "Alright fair enough."

Cass slipped past Alexander, tossing the smaller bag in the bigger bag and raiding the closets for anything that might be useful later.

"So, there it is. I'm sorry it's not some exciting, epic reason."

"It hardly ever is. Your boss know?"

"Well, no one was supposed to know," she sighed.

"If you disapear without warning her I don't think she is going to just ignore that."

"I said I'd come back," she sighed again. "Give me a week. Give me some time to think, alright?"

"And I told you I wouldn't tell anyone where you went. I'm a man of my word, you'll learn that soon enough."

"Did I say I doubted you?"