The first time she sees him, she smells strawberries.
It's so strong she thinks for a second that it must be real. She looks around, realizes there's no way there are strawberries in this shiny elevator. Realizes that she should be a little worried.
She isn't.
She can't help it. She likes his dry humor, his overprotectiveness, the way his eyes crinkle up when he smiles. She especially likes it when she's the reason he's smiling.
She doesn't tell him, but she isn't disillusioned into thinking she's subtle either. She's tried subtle. It doesn't work out too well. He doesn't reciprocate, but then again, he's less "out there" than she is. She's okay with that. She's used to being the one who feels more.
It isn't until Flynn comes back with a healing artifact, and she comes out of the CAT scan with confirmation that it's really gone, that she starts to think she might have a future, after all. Jake smiles when she runs out to the hospital's lobby and catapults him into a hug, but there's something else in his eyes, too. She's too busy squealing and laughing and crying and hugging all of them, twice, to think about it.
"It's funny," Jake's cousin, Mellie, (he'd dragged them all to a "traditional" family barn dance) says ponderingly to Cassandra.
"What is?"
"Oh, nothing. Just that he's been with you all for what, a year? And he hasn't had a single girlfriend that entire time. I don't think he's gone for more than a month without dating since he was 15." She looks over at Cassandra slyly. "Are you and him...?"
"No!" Cassandra laughs. "No, we are just friends."
Mellie opens her mouth to say something, but Cassandra doesn't hear it because Jake comes up and pulls her onto the dance floor. She's absurdly glad that her parents made her take all of those dance lessons, while he whirls her around and around. She's focused on putting her feet in the right places, and the room is hot and loud and she's laughing, filled to the brim with adrenaline, and Jake's hands are warm in hers.
She's pretty sure she's never been happier.
Turns out, Mellie's not the only one who thinks they're dating. They've gotten more comfortable with each other, and it shows - in quick touches, small gestures (that add up to a lot more), and an overall lack of personal space between them. Apparent, (at least according to Zeke,) they're 'the most sickeningly sweet couple ever. Well, without the PDA.' She hopes Jake doesn't mind the assumptions. Turns out, he's as oblivious as she is obvious. She isn't sure if that's a good thing or not.
She wants to tell him. It's getting to be too hard not saying it. I like you. But the words won't come out. I like you.
She isn't able to say it, but at the same time she's worried it's just going to jump right out of her mouth. When he laughs at something she does, when he mutters a joke to her under his breath, when they're sitting at the fireplace and he puts his arm around her shoulders. I like you.
They're breaking into another museum to find an artifact, and it's everything Cassandra loves about the job - her adrenaline's pumping, her mind is running a million miles a minute, and Jake and Zeke are ragging on each other about something stupid, like always.
Except this time, they get caught.
Well, she does, at least. She's running around a corner because she knows where the artifact is, and suddenly she's standing like a deer in headlights, skidding to a stop.
"Put your hands up." The security guard demands gruffly. Cassandra does as he tells her, only with a little wave to tell the people watching from the shadows go, find the artifact.
She gets thrown in a cell with a crowd of drunk and terrifying people - lots of tattoos, lots of glaring. She scoots as far away from them as she can.
She's fully prepared to spend the night here, so she's surprised when less than an hour later a cop unlocks the door and gestures to her.
"It's your lucky day," he says dryly. "Colonel Baird pulled some strings, got you off the hook."
She's surprised again when it isn't Baird waiting in the lobby, but Jake.
"You survived." He says with a bit of a grin.
"Just barely." She admits. "I had some...interesting cellmates." And then, once the cop's gone - "did you find it?"
"Right away. C'mon, let's get out of here."
They drive and drive and drive, because as Jake tells it, "Zeke screwed up some shit, and now the magic door's temporarily out of order". He explains the rest of their escapade, and Cassandra tells him about her first - and hopefully last - jail adventure.
"I missed you on the mission," Jake says nonchalantly.
"I was only gone for an hour!" Cassandra replies. Then, "I missed you too."
Jake looks over at her for a second, a strange expression on his face. And then, he pulls over the car.
"What -" Cassandra barely gets out, before he's kissing her.
She kisses him back, so hard she sees stars.
"Cassie." Jake says once they break apart, his fingers still in her hair, her hands still on his chest. "I really, really like you."
"That works out nicely, then." Cassandra replies, before she kisses him again.
She smells strawberries.