Chapter Text
It was a few weeks after they returned from Slovakia and their adventure with the House of Refuge. Jacob arrived at the Annex early to catalogue a few more of Thompson Deter's rare book collection when he spied Cassandra asleep in one of the comfy reading chairs back in the deeper shelves. It felt rude to wake her, but she couldn't be that comfortable sleeping in the chair, with her neck crooked at such a sharp angle.
He walked over and nudged her shoulder gently. "Cassie, darlin'. Wake up."
Her eyes fluttered open like butterfly wings, then she yawned and stretched her arms high in the air. "Hey. Mmm. What time is it?"
" 'Bout 7:30. I wanted to get a jump on..." He waved the book in his hand. "Did you sleep here all night?"
Cassandra yawned again and wiped a little drool from the side of her mouth. "Mm-hmm. Musta gotten carried away in a little Galileo. The Geminid meteor shower is coming up soon. I'm looking forward to a little stargazing." She hopped up from the chair and carried her book to the desk she'd claimed as her workspace.
"I guess you told Baird where you were," Jacob said as he followed her to the other desks around the room. "She woulda called all of us looking for you."
Cassandra was sitting down at her desk and delving into another book. "Naw, she was too busy cuddling with Flynn. Eeeep." She squeaked and looked up at Jacob with wide eyes. "Please, don't tell anyone. She-- they made me promise to keep it a secret."
"Baird kicked you out of your own apartment so she could mess around with Flynn?!" Jacob couldn't believe what he was saying. "He's supposed to be finding the Library. Not shacking up with Eve."
"It wasn't like that," Cassandra argued. "They like each other. They both have tough jobs and they're taking some time off to be with each other. You know, recharge."
Jacob just shook his head. "It still isn't right, kicking you out like that."
"I appreciate your concern, but I was just fine here. I packed a few snacks, and I had access to Jenkins' tea things. It really wasn't that bad." She smiled, even if it seemed to Jacob a little forced. "Besides, it was only for one night. Oh, and please keep this to yourself. Jenkins and Ezekiel might harrass them mercilessly."
"Oh you know me. Secret is my middle name." Then Jacob finally sat at his own desk and tried to erase all the mental images of Baird and Flynn together from his brain.
They spent the day working separately, both Jenkins and Ezekiel poking their heads in now and again, but without any kind of adventures, Ezekiel's attention in the Annex could not be assured. A few hours after lunch, he called it a day and went home. Not long after that, Cassandra got a call on her phone.
"Hi, how are you?" Cassandra's voice was chipper, but Jacob couldn't hear who was on the other end.
"Oh, I slept fine here. Don't worry about it at all." He noticed her stand up and move a little deeper into the shelves.
"Nope. Your secret's still safe." There was a lengthy pause. He almost thought Cassandra had gotten far enough away or was whispering until he heard her ask, "Longer?"
Another pause. "Sure, sure. Of course it's okay. I, uh, I should probably swing by, though, and pick up a change of clothes. Don't want anyone to notice that I haven't been home." Cassandra started to walk back to her desk, straightening some piles and putting on her sweater. He couldn't be accused of eavesdropping if he could clearly hear her from where he was sitting.
But then she blushed rather deeply. "Oh, I know everything's fine. Though you didn't have to paint me a picture." A short pause. "It's ok. Well, um, I'll just ride on home and pick up some things, ok? See you soon."
"Baird?"
Cassandra didn't look up as she emptied her backpack. "Uh-huh." Then she did look up, realizing what she'd admitted and biting her lower lip. "Flynn's staying another night. You're not gonna tell, are you?"
Jacob stood up and gathered some of his things as well. "I already said I could keep a secret. I'm just thinking it'd be more comfortable if you stay over at my place the rest of the weekend."
"Really? I don't want to inconvenience you."
"It's not an inconvenience if I offer, Cassie." Part of him felt put out, but he smiled anyway, trying to put her at ease. "I've got a fully stocked kitchen with way more than just snack foods. You can bring a few books with you so you don't get bored. It'll be fine."
"Well, if you insist." Jacob just nodded back. "Okay then, sleepover it is!" And she smiled brightly back at him.
They stowed her bike in the back of his truck and drove to her place so she could pack a weekend bag. Jacob thought about following her up to say hi to Flynn and ask how things were going with the Library, but he wasn't supposed to know Flynn was here. Cassandra had promised Baird that no one else knew. As far as she was concerned, Cassie was gonna ride her bike back to the Annex on this cold, early December night. Love blinds, he thought.
A few minutes later, Cassie was skipping out the door and bouncing into the truck, sporting another megawatt grin on her face. All of a sudden, he had a really bad feeling about this.
"Well, it's not much," Jake said as he unlocked the door to his apartment, "but it's got a place to lay my head at night." He adjusted Cassandra's bag on his shoulder and motioned for her to go in ahead of him. "Most of the tables, lamps, and bookshelves were leftover from the former tenant, but I got a new mattress, sofa, and recliner with part of my stipend, you know, from that first adventure."
Cassandra nodded as she continued to look around. They'd only been living in Portland a couple of months. Not much time to personalize their homes. She noticed Jake's place was as sparsely furnished as hers. They just spent so much time at the Annex. It was like he'd said, they just needed a place to lay their heads at night.
"Bedroom's through here," he said, walking through the kitchen. "You can sleep in here and I'll take the--"
"Uh-unh," Cassandra interjected, rushing to catch up with Jake. "I won't feel comfortable with that at all. That's your space, I don't want to intrude." She took her bag from his shoulder and stepped back from the door. "If you've got an extra blanket, I'll be just fine on the couch out here."
"I don't know if I can do that, Cassie. My mama raised a gentleman." He turned his flirtatious smile on her, but she'd seen it before and she knew it was meant to charm her into taking his side.
"Well, cowboy, your mama ain't here, is she?" She smiled back, as Jake laughed at her awful southern accent. "Really, it's no big deal. The couch looks plenty comfortable."
He just shrugged and headed toward the kitchen. "Who am I to argue with the little lady." He gave her a quick wink as he opened the refrigerator and pulled out a dish with something marinating inside. It smelled wonderful. "You like steak?"
Cassandra nodded and joined him in the kitchen. "What have you got for vegetables? Plus any potatoes, or rice?" She opened up the pantry and found a box of minute rice next to some instant oatmeal packets. "Oh, I love oatmeal for breakfast! Do you have honey? Mom always made mine with honey. I remember I was about 5 or 6 and Dad was teaching me square numbers, you know, two-squared, three-squared, four-squared, etc." Jake nodded back as he set the steaks on a broiler pan.
Cassandra looked over at Jake and realized she'd almost lost herself in another memory. She gathered herself and went back to measuring the rice. "Anyway, I think I associate math with breakfast smells so often because we were always doing math during or after breakfast."
"That makes sense," Jake said. "I don't have honey. I usually mix mine with fruit, but I also have cinnamon and brown sugar."
Cassandra smiled back at his thoughtfulness. "Sounds great."
Together they got dinner ready, joking and laughing easily with one another.
The meal was better than delicious. While Jake broiled the steaks in the oven, Cassandra steamed some green beans and zucchini and served them over white rice. Jake even got out a bottle of red wine they could share, instead of the beer she assumed he'd been planning on drinking. To an outsider it would undoubtedly look like a date, but Cassandra did her best to remind herself that Jake was just a co-worker, a friend.
After dinner and cleaning up, Jake got an extra pillow and blanket for her and laid them on the couch while Cassandra dug around through her bag for her sweatpants and heavy socks.
"You mind if I sit out on your balcony for a little while?"
"It's pretty cold out."
"I know, but I like looking at the stars," she said, putting a wool cap on and wrapping a scarf around her neck. "All those pinkpricks of light. So beautiful." She smiled brightly and Jake merely gave her a "be my guest" motion with his arm indicating the sliding glass door. She took the blanket and her glass of wine to stay warm.
For nearly an hour Jacob tried reading a book on the Romanovs of the late nineteenth century, but he could hardly get past the first chapter. His mind was out on the balcony with Cassie. Finally he closed the book and went to the kitchen to boil water. He set out some hot chocolate packets, then went to his room to find a heavier sweatshirt and sweatpants. Once he was dressed, he pulled out two mugs and filled them with the hot chocolate.
"Mind some company?" he asked as he opened the balcony door.
"No, not all," Cassie said, accepting the mug. She took a sip and sighed in comfort. "Mmm, thank you. This hits the spot."
"You enjoying yourself?"
"Mm-hmm. You've got a great view in this direction. And no trees at all. Can't do much about the lights, but it's better than what we have at our place."
"Might even be better if we sat on the roof."
Cassie's eyes widened to saucers. "We can go on the roof?!"
"Sure. Landlord gave me a key."
Cassie scrambled out of the blanket and lawn chair. "What are waiting for? C'mon!"
Jacob made a quick stop in the kitchen to fill a thermos with the rest of the hot chocolate and told Cassie to get another pillow and blanket out of his bedroom. Then they climbed two flights of stairs up to the roof and gazed up at a diamond-littered sky.
After they got one blanket laid out on the roof and had settled themselves under the second one, Cassie put her hands beneath her head and sighed with contentment.
"Isn't God's handiwork beautiful?"
Jacob looked over at her smiling face, full of life and wonder and awe. "Yep, it sure is."
"Ouch. That hurt." She brought her arm down and started rubbing it.
"You okay?" Jake asked. "Did a nail poke you?"
"No, just a bee sting."
"Cassie?" He touched her arm to get her attention. "There are no bees now."
"Oh, I know. Sorry. I was looking up at the constellation Cephus, and thinking of Katherine Swan Leavitt who did calculations on the Cepheid stars, and well, her name reminded me of Swan Lake, and there are some violin parts that sound a bit like bees buzzing. It's funny, the first time I was ever stung by a bee, my dad was teaching me about geometric sequences. The Fibonacci sequence is the most famous, you know."
"I didn't."
She kept talking a little longer, recalling memories from her past. Jacob kept an eye on her, worrying one of the memories would cause a tailspin. But she didn't lose control. She just talked. Non-stop, of course, but he was able to keep up.
He relaxed and looked up at the sky. Was that a shooting star? Without thinking he made a wish. I wish...I wish that tumor wasn't gonna kill her someday.
"Sometimes I wonder how the constellations got their names. How did early peoples think the big and little dippers looked like bears?"
"I actually know the answer to that one." Jacob said, pouring her another cup of hot chocolate while he talked about how early man passed on their oral traditions with the help of the stars.
If not for the temperature they might have fallen asleep out there under God's beauty. When they could hear each others' teeth chattering, they decided to call it a night.
They gathered up their things and went inside. Jacob told Cassandra he was gonna go down to the laundry room and warm up the blankets in the dryer for a few minutes. She took the pillows with her back to his apartment.
When he got back, Cassandra was already sleeping, curled up in a ball on his sofa. He'd been afraid of this. Of her breaking through the ice he was using to protect himself. And yet--he cocked his head and spread a blanket over her--tonight was good. He'd gotten to know her a little better, and she'd respectfully left his past unquestioned and untouched. Whatever his feelings for her, Jacob felt a lot better about being able to work with Cassandra, and be her friend too.
And who knows? Maybe someday he'd be able to trust her with everything.