So I started this idea almost immediately following the episode several months ago, decided to hold it for this year's shipathon, and I'm...just barely making it, lol. Better late than never, right? Anyway, this story operates under the assumption that Cassandra's crush on Jenkins is really real and not just a reaction to her prognosis, but it is not a romance story. Their relationship here is strictly platonic.
Jenkins re-entered the hospital in New York through a janitorial closet in the darkened end of the surgical floor. Armed with the shopping bag covered in flowers that Cassandra often took to the grocery store in Portland, he wandered down the hall to where he knew the bag's owner lie recovering from the life-saving surgery he'd nearly forced her into earlier that same day. The hallway was bright, but the patient areas were darkened, and he realized his plan might not succeed. They'd arrived with her in his arms in the afternoon. She'd spent the better part of the evening in surgery. The doctors had let them see her once she woke up, but visiting hours had surely long since ended by now.
As he turned the corner to enter Cassandra's recovery wing, he found a young night nurse sitting at the desk, looking almost a little nervous. Across the room, Colonel Baird and Flynn sat on either side of Cassandra's bed. Baird was holding one of her hands with both of hers; Jenkins wasn't sure she'd let her go since Cassandra woke up. Both women were smiling at Flynn, who seemed to be in the middle of an entertaining story.
"Oh!" the nurse said, standing as Jenkins walked in. "I'm sorry, sir, but visiting hours ended at nine."
"Oh," Jenkins said. He pointed towards Cassandra and the visitors still surrounding her bed. "But my friends…"
"Oh, you're with her," the nurse said quickly with a little dismissive wave of her hand. "Okay, yeah, go ahead. My apologies."
Jenkins hesitated a moment, slightly confused. "Thank you," he said, choosing not to question anything. He cleared his throat as he approached his group, and everyone turned to look at him.
"Hey, look who's back!" Flynn said.
Stone and Ezekiel had gone home shortly after Cassandra had woken up, as soon as the earlier nurse declared that five people around her bed were simply too many right after the surgery she'd just had. Jenkins had reluctantly gone, too; he knew Colonel Baird had needed to be with Cassandra more than he did in that moment. He had left with a promise to return later that night, a little plan up his sleeves.
"Jenkins," Cassandra sighed with a smile.
She looked so different from the bright, lively woman he saw running through his Library every day, he thought, almost scarily so. Her face was pale, her blue eyes dulled, and she somehow looked small underneath the thick wrappings around her head. A protective urge overcame him, and he suddenly understood why Eve didn't want to let go of her. Jenkins moved nearer her bed, stopping just to the side of Flynn's chair.
"I don't know how long I have," he said. "The young lady over there said visiting hours were over."
"Oh, that's not going to be a problem," Cassandra said, eyeing Baird accusingly.
"I'm not apologizing," Baird said shamelessly.
"What did you do?" Jenkins asked as Flynn snickered.
"The night shift nurse over there told them they needed to leave, and Baird flashed NATO credentials at her," Cassandra revealed. "Now that poor thing thinks I'm some kind of super important government asset or something and is terrified to come over here!"
"You kinda are a super important government asset," Baird defended.
"Not one she should be scared of!" Cassandra argued.
"She'll take better care of you, and we get to stay," Baird shrugged. "This is a win-win."
Jenkins fought a grin as it looked like Cassandra wanted to roll her eyes but decided to refrain. He didn't exactly condone what Baird had done, but it was going to facilitate his plan and work in his favor, so he didn't exactly disagree with it, either. "Well, in that case," he said, "May I have a few hours with Miss Cillian?"
"Sure thing," Flynn said. He kissed the back of Cassandra's hand nearest him and pointed to the monitor on the tip of her pointer finger. "You leave that on."
"Yes, sir," Cassandra muttered.
Flynn squeezed her hand, shot her a smile, and stood to give Jenkins his spot by Cassandra's bed. He turned to his Guardian, who was making no move to leave, and said, "Eve?"
"I don't…" Baird started.
"Baird, I'm okay," Cassandra promised.
"I know, but if you hadn't been…" she started, her voice beginning to shake again.
"Eve," Flynn interrupted. "A bath and a nap, and then we'll be right back."
Baird's grip on Cassandra's arm tightened, and Cassandra looked between Flynn and Jenkins. Her gaze shifted back to her Guardian, and she softly asked, "Do you think you could do something for me?"
"Anything," Baird sighed.
"Could you call my parents?" Cassandra asked. "Their number's in my phone, but call from yours so they don't freak out when it's my number but not me."
"Okay," Baird said. "You want me to tell them what's going on?"
Cassandra nodded slowly. "They're not that far," she said. "They might want to come tomorrow."
"And when they ask to talk to you?" Baird asked, knowing that would be an inevitability.
"Tell them I'm sleeping, and I'll talk to them tomorrow," Cassandra said. "I…I can't…right now, but they should know. You don't mind, do you?"
Baird chuckled. "Getting to tell the parents that their kid is coming home…that's a nice change."
Cassandra smiled and pointed to her phone on the table by her bed. Suddenly armed with a mission, Baird let her go, grabbing the phone and heading out of the recovery area. Flynn followed her, turning on his way out to shoot Cassandra a thumbs up, a silent good job for giving Baird a task to complete. The night nurse watched them file out with wide eyes, and Cassandra shifted hers to Jenkins.
"Hi," she said softly.
"How are you feeling?" Jenkins asked.
"Physically exhausted and mentally exhilarated," Cassandra said.
"That sounds about right," Jenkins replied. "No pain at all?"
"There's kind of a dull ache in my head, but I'm also kind of used to having a headache," she said. She gestured towards the IV that had been started since he left earlier and said, "They gave me medicine, so it's not too bad."
"Are you hungry at all?" he asked.
Cassandra was quiet for a moment as she thought about his question. "Maybe?" she concluded.
Taking that as permission to proceed, Jenkins set the bag on a table and started unpacking it. Cassandra sat up a little, watching as he pulled a thermos and bowls and an iPad, among other things, out of her bag. He noticed her trying to sit up and helped move the hospital bed into a more angled position.
"What are you doing?" she finally asked, leaning back against the reclined mattress.
"I am giving you your date," he said firmly.
"What?" she asked. "Oh, no, Jenkins, you…you don't have to do that. I told you, I just couldn't process what was going on. I completely understand how you feel, and I heard what you said. Don't feel like you have to just because I'm…"
Jenkins held his hand up then to silence her, and she stopped talking. "It's not a date date," he clarified.
"Okay, now I don't understand," Cassandra said.
"I meant what I said before the operation," Jenkins said. He took a seat by her bed and grabbed one of her hands. "I love you very much, and I am very sorry if I added any sort of hurt to your already very horrible day, and now, I would very much like to see you smile, so I brought a light dinner because I'm not sure how your stomach is, and old movies on this device that Mr. Jones gave me, and I would like to share what's left of this evening with you, if you'll let me."
Cassandra, overcome by his act, felt herself beginning to tear up. "Okay," she cried, tears spilling down her cheeks.
"That is the opposite of what I was going for with this gesture," Jenkins said.
Cassandra chuckled and smiled through her tears. She curled her finger towards herself, and Jenkins moved in towards her. Cassandra tilted her head and kissed his cheek, her lips a feather-light brush against his skin.
"Thank you," she whispered.
"You're welcome," he said. Jenkins pulled a container of freshly made strawberry muffins – Cassandra's favorite – out of the bag. He pulled one out and handed it to her. She smiled, and he did, too. "Now, that's better."
She chuckled slightly and started picking at the muffin as he continued setting up his gift to her. "Ezekiel gave you an iPad full of old movies?" she asked.
"So help me god, there better be some classic movies on this thing and not just that superhero or slasher garbage Mr. Jones is partial to," Jenkins said, drawing a giggle from Cassandra.
He poured the homemade vegetable bean soup into the bowls he'd brought with him, and twisted the tray attached to the side of her bed into position. He put one of the bowls in front of her, handing her a spoon, and sat down with the other in the chair near her bed.
"Mr. Jenkins," she said quietly after a few moments, drawing his attention. "I'm sorry for how I acted today."
"You have no reason to be sorry," he said. "I should have realized something bigger was going on. You were not yourself."
Cassandra shook her head. "No, I ambushed you."
"I should have put two and two together…the hospital visit, not letting Colonel Baird accompany you, coming back acting…unusual," he said.
Cassandra shook her head again. "You wouldn't have thought to consider that I was lying to you."
"Why did you lie?" he asked.
"It wasn't your burden to carry," Cassandra said, tears springing to her eyes again. She stopped the spoon halfway to her mouth, struggling to continue eating through the tears. "I didn't want to do that to you."
"Did you think we wouldn't be devastated?" he asked. "Do you think that little of your place with us?"
"No," Cassandra said. "I knew you would be. That's why I thought it was better if it was sudden, and you just didn't know to expect it."
"Cassandra," Jenkins said, setting his own bowl aside.
She let the tears spill from her eyes again as she admitted, "I couldn't handle five goodbyes."
"Well, now you're finally telling the truth," Jenkins sighed.
"It's always been my thing, my thing to deal with," Cassandra said. "I've been alone since I left my parents' house, but then you guys happened, and you're the best thing that's ever happened to me, but then Dr. Nassir told me this was it, and I got back to the Annex and saw you and Stone and Ezekiel, and I realized that now I'd done this to all of you, too."
"It does not quite work that way," Jenkins told her.
"I know," she said. "But when I thought about telling, I felt like I'd be doing something terrible to you."
"If you don't mind me asking, Cassandra, what was your plan?" he asked.
"I'm not really sure," she answered. "I was thinking about leaving a letter in your lab, and maybe one for Baird, too. I knew I didn't have many days left, but I thought I'd make it through today."
Jenkins sighed a heavy sigh. He'd watched many friends die over his years as an immortal being, but the idea of Cassandra feeling like she had to go through this alone tugged at his heart in a way that was painfully different, and he wasn't sure what more he could say. She started eating again, so he did, too.
"How did you find out?" she asked quietly.
"You dropped your doctor's business card in the Annex," Jenkins said. "When I read that the man you'd spent the morning with was the Chief of Neurosurgery, everything made sense."
"Oh," Cassandra said.
"So while you and the others were out, I came here and spoke to your surgeon. I told him I was your family so he would talk to me," Jenkins said. "I hope you don't mind."
Cassandra smiled softly again. "How could I mind? You are my family." She was quiet for a moment before scrunching up her face in embarrassment and added, "I kind of really do have a crush on you, though. I just probably wouldn't have ever…"
She trailed off then, and Jenkins chuckled, as that, he had been able to surmise on his own, shocked as he might have been by her initial invitation. "Yes, well…infatuation is the language of a beautiful eye upon a sensitive heart," he said. "Don't ever regret expressing how you feel."
She knew he was quoting something, but she wasn't sure what it was, so she just simply replied, "That's pretty."
"As are you," Jenkins said honestly.
Her cheeks flushed slightly at that. Her post-op status had her feeling the exact opposite of pretty. Nevertheless, she smiled softly at him again and turned back to the dinner he'd made her.
"I don't think I can eat anymore," she said after just a few more minutes. "I'm sorry; you went through all this trouble."
"It was not trouble," he insisted.
Without another word, he cleared dinner, placing everything on the table beside her bed, and pulled out the iPad. He shifted his chair at a different angle to the bed, one that would allow them both to watch whatever movie they selected, and Cassandra frowned. She scooted over.
"You can sit up here with me," she said. "If you want."
She had wires coming from either side of her, so he ducked underneath the one hooked up to the monitor on her finger and settled on the side of her bed. "You might need to show me how to use this thing," he admitted, struggling to turn the modern device on.
Cassandra giggled again, unlocked the iPad, and tapped the folder Ezekiel had presumably set up on the Home screen. "Which movie do you want?" she asked.
"You choose," Jenkins said.
"They told me I might not have much of an ability to concentrate on things for a little while," she admitted as she looked through her choices.
"You solved a Sudoku puzzle you couldn't see from across the room," Jenkins reminded her. "I think you're probably going to fare just a bit better than the average patient."
Cassandra glanced over at the nurse to make sure she wasn't anywhere near her and lowered her voice to a whisper as she said, "I think I have magic, Mr. Jenkins. Not just an understanding of how to use it, like…actually have it."
"I know," he said quietly.
"But…the only people we've encountered who could actually do magic like that have been…"
He stopped her before she could finish. "Not all who harness magic are bad, Cassandra," he said. "Don't worry about that tonight."
"Okay," she agreed. She snuggled into his side then, her back tilted between his body and the arm that had naturally fallen across the top of the reclined bed, her head on his shoulder. "Is this okay?"
"Whatever makes you comfortable right now is okay with me," he promised.
She smiled again and started one of the movies Ezekiel had uploaded for them. As the credits began rolling, Cassandra turned to look up at him and softly said, "Thank you."
"You've already thanked me for this evening," he said.
"No, not for the date. For…" she started. She took a deep breath as her chest swelled with emotion again – for prying, for being there, for getting her to the hospital, for making her have the surgery, for saving her life. With a small voice, she simply repeated, "Thank you."
"Anytime, my dear," Jenkins said. "Just don't make me do that again."
"Deal," Cassandra said with a small nod. "Can I have another one of the muffins?"
Jenkins reached over and passed her a second strawberry muffin. She shifted a little bit closer to him, and his arm came down around her, holding the iPad between them as the credits on their old black and white film came to an end. Their faces illuminated by the soft glow of the tablet screen, they shared a look and a tender smile before settling in to watch the movie.
Thanks for reading! Reviews are always appreciated :)