Cassie tossed and turned in her bed, having great difficulty in sleeping. Anytime she shut her eyes, the distraction of the numbers she saw in the cabin would constantly flash through her mind, rendering her completely and utterly restless. It was all she could think of in her drive back home the night before, and on her bed when she tried to sleep. She sat up and retrieved the foolscap paper from under her pillow, she turned on her lamp and once again, tried her hardest to decode it, but it seemed the longer she studied it, the harder it was for her to comprehend. She picked up her laptop from her bedside table, and as soon as it came on, she bothered the internet with questions of what those numbers could mean, but she found absolutely nothing that related to them.

She had thought that through that picture, she was finally getting close, finally going to receive some answers, she thought that finally, everything will fall into place and make sense. She never imagined going back to where she had started; a place of confusion and cluelessness. With those numbers, she felt like she had been given a clueless clue, an answerless answer. It was a comma or possibly a full stop to her investigation, she knew that she had to decode the code to get to the next page of her investigation, otherwise she would be stuck on one page and she would never get to the end of the story.

She groaned at her lack of progress, and then she placed the paper back under her pillow. She shut her eyes again trying to sleep, she was successful, but ten minutes into her sleep, her phone rang; bringing her to an annoying wake. She muttered a few curses at whoever interrupted her sleep before looking at her screen. It was Danny's name and picture popped up. Her friends had been trying to reach her all night but she ignored their calls and didn't bother reading--let alone replying their messages. She knew they were smart and that they would drill her with so many questions. She needed to see them in person to try to convince them that she was alright, if she didn't do that, they'd start investigations of their own. She took in a deep breath and not fully knowing why, clicked on the green button on her phone.

"Hello," Danny said in a rushed and relieved tone. "Goodness, where have you been. The whole of Freetown has been trying to reach you," he over exaggerated.

Cassie could not help but giggle and roll her eyes, "You better have a good reason for calling me at..." she pulled the phone off her ears to take a glance at the time, and then she placed it back "2:17am," she said.

"And you better have a good reason for disappearing and ignoring everyone. Come on Cassie, we were all worried about you, the least you could have done was to send a text saying you're fine, or something else...anything," he said in a hurt and somewhat angry tone.

She felt bad at that point, yes, she had a scare, but she knew perfectly well how worried Tyler and the rest of her friends could be. They were always worried that she would go off the rails again. "I'm sorry," she said softly "I overreacted over the issue and I know I left you guys worried, the right thing to do would have been to call, so I'm sorry, okay?" He didn't say anything "Forgive me yet?" she pressed, biting her lips impatiently.

"Not yet," he said, "Cassie everyone is worried that you're obsessing over something again. You had the same look you had when you solved the detectives' case."

"Danny, I'm not obsessing over anything okay?" she sat up, and guiltily felt for the paper under her pillow. "So stop worrying so much Daniel." She teased.

"If you say so," he said with uncertainty, but decided not to press further, in order not to anger her "but I'll only forgive you if you never call me Daniel again."

"Hmmm," she placed her hands under her chin "promise to never call me Cass baby, Cassie bear, Cassandra, or any other thing you call me again?"

"Nope."

"Well, I tried," she giggled "so I'm completely forgiven now?"

"Of course Cass baby, and I was never really mad at you, I can't be, I was just worried... we were all worried."

"Don't worry, if I'm ever in need of help, I'll let you guys know." She assured, "Bye Danny, love you." She yawned.

He waited a while before replying "Love you too Cassie, sleep tight."

::::::::::

The next morning, Cassie made it a mission to call all her friends back and reply their texts, constantly assuring them that she was perfectly fine and was only overwhelmed by the sudden news of her supposed friend's death.

When she was done with all that, she walked down the stairs to meet her parents laughing about something; too engrossed in their discussion to notice her walk down the stairs. She walked past them and into the kitchen, she grabbed an apple and some juice and walked back into the living room to join them.

"Morning mum, dad." She greeted as she sat down crossed leg on the couch, she stared at them in a contemplating manner for a while.

"Cassie I love you but why are you here?" her dad asked, she wore the most dramatic hurt expression on her face as she gasped at his statement. "It's just that you never willing sit with us, unoccupied that is." He elaborated.

"That's not true," she defended as she bit into her apple "I hang out with you guys all the time, like that time when...when...err," Her parents looked at her expectantly and clearly amused as they watched her rack her mind for any of such memory. Cassie slumped and sighed in defeat after not being able to think of one event. "Okay, you're right." She grudgingly admitted. "I'm here because I wanted to ask you a question, dad."

"Go on," he nodded.

"So, as a lawyer, in your research you sometimes come across some things that are hard to understand at first glance, right?"

"Yes, sometimes," He said, as he nodded his head and waited for her to reach her point.

She took in a deep breath and reached into her back pocket, she pulled out the foolscap paper and unfolded it. She handed it to her dad, as he took it, her mum moved closer to her father to take a peek at what was written on the paper. Both her parents furrowed their eyebrows to indicate sheer confusion, her dad turned the paper around in every direction, trying to see if it made more sense at a different angle, but it still made no sense to him.

"I give up," he sighed in defeat.

"Mum?" Cassie asked hopefully.

"I have no idea, sorry honey," She pouted, as Cassie looked at both of them dejectedly "Is this for your course?" Her mum asked.

"What?" Cassie looked at her confused before suddenly realizing that she had not told her parents where the numbers were from, "err yes," Cassie said. "It's a stupid assignment to er...test our ability to decode stuff...yeah." She laughed nervously.

Her parents gave her a queer look, but they didn't say anything; which made Cassie relieved. She hadn't yet thought of a lie to give them and she was glad they didn't question her terrible attempt at a lie. She felt terrible for lying to them, she knew lying was a shameful thing to do, she just didn't know how to explain to anyone that she was working on a dangerous case again. Her parents were finally okay with the idea of her studying criminology, if she messed up again with her obsession like she did two years ago, she was scared that they would not think twice before forcefully pulling her out of that course and shipping her off to a remote and peaceful Island where there was no sort of crime and therefore; nothing for her to ever obsess over.

"Thank you for your attempt," she quickly said, as she took the paper from her dad's hands.

She ran back to her room to get her bag and her purse and then after bidding her parents goodbye, she ran out the door and into her car. She sent a quick text to Tate which said 'Hey Tate, text me anytime you'll be in Freetown...ThanksJ'  before she drove off to Tyler's.

As soon as she was parked outside his gate, right opposite, she sent him a text and after waiting for a while, he walked out with his arms crossed and wearing a frown on his face. She stepped out of her car as soon as she saw him and leaned on her car nervously, as she bit her lips and waited for him to come to her. As soon as he got close enough, he slid both arms in his jeans as he waited for an explanation from her. She sighed defeated and rolled her eyes in frustration. She pouted and stretched her hands out to him and he reluctantly took them.

"You promised to be honest with me no matter what, we've always promised to be honest with each other ever since our rocky relationship two years ago. So tell me, babe, what happened with you yesterday?"

"I already told you I lost a-"

"Cassie please don't give me that crap about how you lost a friend, I know that's not the case, we all know. Please be honest with me babe, no matter what it is, please just be honest with me."

She bit her lips and averted her gaze elsewhere, as she slowly slipped her arms out of his hands "We also promised to trust each other," she looked him straight in his eyes, as she searched for any form of emotion "trust that I'm not doing anything crazy anymore, I've learned my lesson I'll never do anything to jeopardize what we have, because I'm obsessed with what we have," She smiled as she took his hands back in hers.

He rubbed her hands soothingly and sighed "I believe you, but if it turns out that you're doing something crazy again, and that you're lying to me, I'm not so sure I'll ever be able to trust you again. So one last time I ask, are you being honest with me?"

She waited for a while and considered telling him the truth but she knew that despite what he said about supporting her if he found out she was involved in another case, he would only try to convince her to stop. "Yes, Tyler, I am. I know I basically swirled everyone in a prickly tornado back then, I wouldn't ever go down that road again." As soon as she said that, she felt a pang of guilt and she had a really queasy uncomfortable feeling that told her something would go wrong, and that she should just tell Tyler the truth, but she didn't.

"So...what do you wanna do today?"

"I was on my way to see Tucker, he's at work with Phoebe and Matt so I was going to hang out with them for a while."

"And you weren't going to invite me?" she pouted.

"No, Tucker said hot chicks come in there all the time, so I was hoping to get lucky." He wiggled his eyebrows.

She narrowed her eyes at him and smacked him hard on his arms "Ouch," she cried as soon as she smacked him, and then she shook her hurting arms.

Tyler laughed but tried to stifle it when he saw her giving him an evil look. He took her hands, rubbed t lightly and placed tiny sweet kisses on them. "You're so cute when you're mad at me," he chuckled as he placed a kiss on her head. She rolled her eyes at him and attempted another punch before realizing that it was definitely a bad idea for her.

Together they walked to his car, but as they walked she couldn't help but feel a bit sad. She loved Tyler so much, loved all their cute fights and makeups, how sweet and understanding he was, and how much he got her. She didn't want to lose what they had to a stupid lie, but at the same time, she didn't want to lose the chance to finally have the answers to questions that have haunted her for such a long time. He opened the passenger door for her and ran over to the driver's side before driving off. They pulled up at Tucker's workplace which was as good as empty. Business there had been terrible and most of the time, it was as good as not having a job for the employees, because they were almost never working.

=========

"Woah Tucker, I can see that business is booming." Tyler laughed as soon as he walked through the doors with his arms wrapped tightly around Cassie's waist.

Tucker fake-laughed and rolled is eyes but the rest of them burst out in real laughter "Very funny bro," Tucker said, as he swung a rag over on his shoulders. They all squeezed into a small booth as they teased Tucker and ordered him around. It wasn't that they thought his job was terrible, they just didn't like the fact that he threw away his opportunity and he didn't have any plans for his life. They wanted him to be successful, they were all doing their own thing and were headed on the road to a bright future, and they didn't want him to be the odd one out. No matter how okay he seemed with his life, they knew that like most people, he wouldn't want to be that one unsuccessful friend who would squat in people's houses and beg for money all the time. That was what they were trying to avoid; in the most frustrating way they could think of, of course.

Over time, the guys went over to the bar to drink a couple of beers while Phoebe and Cassie remained  at the booth. "So..." Phoebe started off awkwardly.

"I know what you're going to say, Phoebes, and yes, like I told you when I called this morning, I'm fine," Cassie assured.

"Yeah, I'm sure you are," Phoebe said doubtfully. "Andre and I had a fight, I really needed you yesterday," she cried.

"Aww, I'm sorry honey," Cassie pulled her into her chest as she rubbed her back lightly. "I have no idea why you're even with him, he doesn't treat you well enough."

"I know, I know, and I keep telling myself I'll end things but anytime I try, I find myself going even deeper into the relationship. He just knows how to say the right things and make me feel good, and I love that." She whined." Do you think it's me, Cass?"

"What do you mean?"

"Am I the problem? Is there something wrong with me? I mean, why do I keep falling for the guys who end up hurting me?"

"Phoebe, look at me," Cassie told her, and Phoebe did as she asked "trust me, there's nothing wrong with you, you're amazing and one day you'll find the perfect guy who will only bring tears out of your eyes because of how amazing his proposal to you will be," Cassie smiled.

"Thanks Cass," she hugged her and dried her tears on Cassie's shoulders and laughed at Cassi's stink eye. "And I know I'm amazing, I just needed to hear it again," She flipped her hair.

"Now, that's the Phoebe I know," She laughed "and never cry again, we can't both be cry-babies"

"Yeah, you're right, you are a cry baby," Phoebe teased and they both laughed.

"Excuse me," Someone said and they simultaneously looked up to see a young suited up man standing before them with a peculiar look on his face.

"Yeah?" Phoebe arched her eyebrows at him.

"If I'm not mistaken you're Cassidy Meyer right?" He asked Cassie expectantly, as he stood impatiently for her reply.

"Yeah..." she looked at him suspiciously "who are you?' She cocked an eyebrow at him.

"I'm Joseph Castle," He said but she still looked at him expecting some other sort of clarification, and then he said "Avril's brother."

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Hey, guys, I'm sorry for the delay and for the shortness of this chapter, I know it wasn't my best work, but I hope you enjoyed it nonetheless please vote and leave comments, Thanks!