Got Your Back, Always

I.VII

Dick walks up to Rachel who was reading a bible, next to Cassie, who was silently sitting next to her, "Rachel."

"I don't know what to do." Rachel looks up to Dick.

"What set you off? Were you scared?"

"Was I scared? I'm always scared."

"Listen, I need you to-"

"What? Trust you? Other people can help, is that it? No, they can't. They'll just make promises... but in the end, they'll fail. They'll all leave. Just like you." Cassie looked down and fiddled with a ring on her finger, something she did when she was guilty.

Dick sighs, "Yeah. You're right."

Rachel looks up, "What?" He moves to sit in front of her.

"You're on your own. No one can help you. Not really. I was just like you once. I thought if I leaned on someone, if I trusted them, all the pain would go away. I was wrong. And anyone that tells you any different is lying. The loss is here for good now. There's no getting over it. But you can control it. You can channel it. No one else can do that for you. Just you." He gets up to leave. Cassie tried making eye contact with him, but he just wouldn't look at her, she wasn't sure if he meant her in that statement, but she would have a talk with him later.

"I think I need to stay here a while, okay?"

"Yeah. Sure." Dick leaves, but Cassie stays.

She sighs, "Rach? Gray isn't exactly right, but he isn't exactly wrong either."

"What do you mean?" She looked at Cassie with sad eyes.

"Gray feels like he has to do everything on his own, he's always felt that way, but he's always had me to help him whenever he needs it. He feels like he did everything alone, but that's not true. He's had people there for him, he just doesn't always see it. Just like I am there for you, I always will be. I don't want you to feel like you are alone. I know what it feels like, and I don't want you feeling that way."

She nods.

"But he's also right. The loss is here for good now, and as much as I wish I could take that pain away from you, I can't. So you do need to learn to control it and work through that pain because you will be stronger for it. And unfortunately, it is something you have to do, but not alone. I will be right here. You are such a sweet and good person and you should never have to go through all the things you have, but fates a tricky bitch." Rachel laughs, and Cassie tucks a loose piece of purple hair behind Rachel's ear. "Hey, I'll help you as much as I can. And maybe one day Gray will actually admit that he was wrong."

Rachel laughed again and the two hugged. Cassie stood up to give Rachel some alone time.

Once she was outside the room, Dick said to the sister who was about to walk into the room, "Oh, she needs a minute by herself."

"God is with her."

"Right."

"Hmm."

"When she was a girl, did she ever show signs of any, um... any, um..."

"Any what?"

"Nothing." Dick hears his car start because Kory stole it. Dick and Cassie share a look before taking off to where Kory went. They get a taxi and Cassie pulls up the app to track Dick's car.

"Wait, why do you have the app that will track my car?" Dick glances at her.

"Ha, you think this is the only way I can track you? You're funny."

"What are the other ways?"

"Ya, I'm not going to tell you, otherwise you're going to get rid of them, and with your track record I'm not going to let that happen."

"Wait what? Cass, I've told you where I've gone every time I've left. I made a promise and I'm keeping it."

"And I appreciate that you have, and you better not break it anytime soon, but I also worry easily and you don't like to answer my texts."

"I guess that's fair."

"Remember why we are in this car?"

"Because Kory stole my car. How dare she?" Dick went back to his angry expression that his prized possession was stolen, and Cassie smirked because she successfully got the subject changed.

They pulled into a storage facility and they found the one Kory was in near Dick's car.

"Hey!"

Kory gasps turning around.

"You stole my car. I like my car."

"How did you find me?"

"There's an app for that," Dick puts his phone back into his jacket pocket. "This place yours?" Cassie and him start to look around.

"Think so."

"How long you been looking for Rachel?"

"Few months, I thought."

"Seems like a lot longer than a few months."

"You think?"

Dick goes to look around the room and takes pictures of a few things. Cassie does the same thing on the other side of the room. Kory sighs.

"This yours, too? What's that writing?" Dick points to the weird text hanging up.

"That looks vaguely familiar, I might have seen it in one of Donna's books," Cassie mutters looking closer at the papers.

Kory speaks another language.

Dick questions, "What does that mean?"

"I have no idea."

"Where did you say you were from again?"

"I didn't."

Dick takes a couple of more photos. Cassie starts to look at the object that looks like a tanning bed, piling more things into her theory about Kory.

Kory picks up a few papers off the table, "Raven is the first species of birds to be mentioned in the Torah."

"A man came after Rachel. He had a raven tattoo on his back," Dick recalls.

Kory looks through some more papers, "Rachel's birthday... the mortality rate spikes every year on that day. Ever since she was born, over 200,000 additional dead worldwide." Kory grabs a post-it note and says something in another language. "I think she's part of a prophecy."

They hear a loud explosion and a few books fall over. The three run out and see that there's smoke coming from the convent.

Dick says, "Rachel." A bunch of ravens fly overhead away from the explosion.