Not My Finest Moment

[Will Spencer]

How long did it take for a bunch of tiny little bones to just reset and heal? For someone who didn't continuously use and abuse the healing bones, they would have been good as new by now. But William was not bright about what he did when it came to harm and himself. Not only had he fought after shattering his wrist, he'd shifted countless times which only readjusted the bones in different ways and caused them to remain out of place. The doctor was beginning to get very frustrated with Will because it didn't matter how often his bones were reset, he came back a few weeks later or a few days later and it was the same thing over again.

He'd finally relaxed some, not much, as things were still rocky in his life, but he was doing his best. Quinn had him basically on lockdown, was forcing him to interact with the student body and trying to mediate between him and Gabe. She had him working with the beast daily for him to get somewhat used to the agitation and gnawing aggression again. Which had gone fine and dandy, up until his first encounter with a brunette who's eyes he'd always recognize as his own. 

Lottie.

With nothing to stabilize him in his life, no one to go to, he'd shut himself up again in the training rooms (where everyone seemed to find him anyway) and attempted to contact Quinn who decided that she didn't want to answer his emergency call. Before he knew it, he was snarling and his claws were digging into the gray foam mats beneath him.

[Cassidy Carstyn]

Cassidy must have walked into a total of three people and one wall before she realised it was better for her to get back to her dorm to sleep it off. But in her sleep-deprived state, she took the wrong turn and ended up in a training room, locking it and tried to find her bed.

The snarling woke her up though.

Her eyes settled on the source of the snarling and she froze. "Oh crap." She gasped. In a moment of panic, instead of turning to the door to escape, she darted to the side, looking for a place to hide.

[Will Spencer]

And just as he'd unfortunately expected, the door opened and someone walked right in without taking a look to see that the room was occupied. The beast was rumbling, confusion, fury, aggression and pain were raging inside him and he knew that if he didn't do something destructive, he'd end up doing something harmful to the...fuck. His eyes lifted to the culprit and it was as though someone had jolted him with electricity. Cassidy. Of all the people in this stupid school, it had to be her.

His growling cut off into a choked gurgle and he could almost feel himself being pulled back into his own body. Yet he remained shifted. It was one of those instances that he seemed to get himself into at the worst times, and somehow never when his trainer was around. He was stuck in his shift and there wasn't currently anything he could think to do about it.

How was she supposed to know that it was him? That he wasn't going to hurt her....or that he would do his best not to. He was in control to some degree, but the aggression still burned inside of him. His paw came up and swiped his ear, like he was scratching the back of his neck. He groaned and huffed before slumping down on the floor and growling against the pain in his paw. She wasn't going to figure it out. And Quinn wasn't going to answer her phone.

[Cassidy Carstyn]

When the beast looked like it was in pain, Cassidy's panic ebbed away. Not fully but enough for her to look around and assess the situation. There was a bag near the animal and cloth strewn all around, which could only mean this was a shifter. It was still very dangerous for her to be around them since she didn't know whether or not the animal or the human was in control at the moment.

"Um...he-hello...oh God this is so stupid... A-are you human?" She asked.

[Will Spencer]

At the sound of her voice, his head perked up and allowed his eyes to meet hers. She looked nervous, as she should since he wasn't quite sure at what moment the beast would regain control or if he'd shift back soon. He was nervous too, probably more than she was because the idea of hurting Cassidy was unthinkable. If he hurt her physically, Adrian would chop him up into little pieces and feed him to her dog or something. And that would be after his own emotional massacre.

Will glanced at his bag and then at her and he figured as long as she asked yes or no questions, this could work. Was he human? He did his best to nod which was really only lifting his head up and bowing it. William realized he probably looked a little stupid with as dramatically as he was trying to answer her.

If he could just get her to come close enough to look in his bag for his phone, she'd see that it was him. And yet, he wasn't entirely sure he wanted that because he couldn't risk embarrassing himself in front of her.

[Cassidy Carstyn]

For what seemed like an eternity, Cassidy stared at the animal before it bowed it's head and relief spread through her like wildfire. It lasted for just a second before the panic set in once again. Did they have enough control over their shift? It didn't seem to since they were still in shift form.

"Um...why aren't you shifting back?" She asked curiously, though her voice was still no higher than a squeak.

She was still backed into a corner, still very frightened of the real possibility that they might just charge at her at any moment.

[Will Spencer]

William huffed a little disgruntled by the fact that she had asked a question he couldn't respond to with a simple nod or shake of his head. Why wasn't he shifting back? Because he was stuck in the happy medium of thinking like a human but looking like an animal. Not as happy as he'd like for it to be however. And while he understood her reason for the distance, he was a little frustrated by it. He hadn't lunged at her, hadn't even made any sudden moves in her direction. And yet, she looked as though he might rip her to shreds.

He had to take into consideration that she didn't know it was him though. Perhaps if she did, she might have been reacting differently. Although, it was also plausible that she wouldn't act any differently. He wasn't in control, he knew that as well as she probably did. If he was in control, he'd be human. But he wasn't out of control either. His mind was his own, but his instincts were playing tricks on him. On the one hand he wanted to run her off, but on the other, he wanted her to help him. At least to call someone who could help him. Blasted Quinn for choosing today to be unavailable.

How could he answer her though? He glanced up, down, back to her and then his eyes settled on his bag. Slowly, as to not scare her, he stepped towards his bag and nudged it with his head in her direction. When it didn't move very far, he swatted at it only to remember his paw was more or less useless and only resulted in sharp shooting pain. He snarled against the pain and huffed again in frustration. Will looked back at her and pleaded for her to understand.

[Cassidy Carstyn]

Her question was met with a huff and she grimaced. It was definitely a stupid question and she tried to convey her apologies. She wondered briefly whether she should just approach the beast but quelled it when it looked at her straight. "Oh my God." She squeaked before she realised it was then looking down at the bag.

When the bag was batted in her direction, Cassidy gasped when it started to snarl. Was it hurt? She almost considered running out of the room but it was clearly sending her a message to look into the bag.

She slowly crawled towards the bag, keeping her eyes on the beast. Rummaging through the bag, she then realised everything in it looked familiar. Turning towards the lion, realisation dawned on her.

"Will?"

[Will Spencer]

William noted her apology and he sighed. He hadn't meant to get annoyed with her, in fact it was more of annoyance at himself. This was not the time to get stuck in his shift. All he wanted was to be able to speak to her. To tell her she didn't have to be worried, that he was in control. That he couldn't hurt her. But that was a lie, he'd hurt many people before who came into the wrong room at the wrong time. And while he wasn't himself at the time, he still remembered it vividly after.

She finally got the idea about his bag and he stared at her intently while she did. It made him nervous that she was going through his stuff, but he knew she'd eventually find something to give his identity away. It was mostly clothes that she would pass through, a watch (because he was a dork that had a slight obsession with nice watches), his phone, a journal of the scribbled out letters he'd started to write to his sister, but that was buried deep in the bag.

Cassidy turned towards him and his eyes lifted to hers at the sound of his name. Yes. She'd figured it out. He nodded once and looked away, suddenly very embarrassed of the situation. He was stuck in his shift...twenty-four years old, twelve years of training and he was still getting stuck. He might as well have been an amateur.

[Cassidy Carstyn]

The, quite possibly, two seconds worth of waiting felt like forever as she looked at the beast after her question. A huge weight was lifted when she got the answer she wanted. She wanted to ask again why he wasn't turning back but she knew it would be completely stupid to ask him while he was in his shift.

A genuine albeit slightly scared smile carved its way on to the biokinetic's lips before dropping the bag on her lap. Her eyes went down to the paw he was favouring and then met with his eyes. She remembered the cast he had before and she frowned slightly.

"Did you break that while you were in your shift?" She asked, hoping the answer was a resounding yes. At least then she could do something about it. Or at least try.