Dear redcandle17, I was very excited by your suggested tropes, but I wasn't immediately sure how to combine them into a coherent plot. When I wound up trying to write an actual Cassie/Jake romance, this was the result...but it's not the whole story. The next chapter I guess is as gen or as shippy as you want to read it, and is set chronologically earlier, so think of it as a behind-the-scenes type glimpse. :)

Huge thanks to Nilozot for betaing, any remaining errors are my own.

You've probably heard about how, after somehow managing to drive off The One, the Rachel wound up zigzagging through Kelbrid space and dropping off countless frail and recovering aliens on whatever planets they came from. It's covered pretty extensively in the second volume of Marco the Animorph's biography, "The Gorilla Speaks II: The Circuitous Way Back To Where We Started." (Critics say Marco started his own "odd/even" rule of quality, although I'm not really sure what they're talking about).

Anyway, just like everyone else in the galaxy, I too heard about the trip secondhand, because I wasn't there. The difference is that unlike the rest of the galaxy, I'd heard about the voyage before it had begun. That didn't mean I had the first idea where exactly they were, or harbored any expectations for their return.

I'd been surprised by how honest some of my answers sounded, in the few interviews I gave, mostly with people I trusted from my book releases. After so many years of having to lie to my family day in and day out, I hadn't expected any sentiment to poke through. But I really was disappointed that for all I knew, my last conversations with Marco and Tobias, and even Ax, could have been over things that were trivial, petty in retrospect. I was proud of Jake for being enough of a leader at any age to make his own decisions and do what he felt needed to be done, and I didn't feel automatically entitled to be brought along just by virtue of the memories we shared. I was secretly hopeful that he appreciated all the work I was doing with aliens here on Earth, but was also bitterly afraid that he had never really cared, and just needed to say something to justify leaving me behind.

Most of all, I missed him, far more than I'd expected. We'd grown apart on Earth, but I suppose I always knew he would answer if I needed him for any reason. Maybe worrying about his safety, even as I tried to keep myself busy as always, made things different. Or maybe the hope that he had found some part of that young, childish Jake once again had reminded me of how things used to be, and I was remembering times that were dead for no reason.

But then suddenly they were back, and I found myself dodging another round of interviews. Fortunately, Santorelli and Jeanne had had a lot of time to work on embellishing their stories, and I listened in, as curious as anyone about these two cadets who'd joined the famous Animorphs on their quest.

I was hoping that Marco would arrange the chance for me to meet them, since Tobias and Menderash spent most of their time helping Ax with his recovery and convincing him that celebratory galas appropriate to the occasion needed to be somewhere a little classier than the local Cinnabon. But it was Jake who called me instead. On the phone, this time, not approaching via morph. "Cassie? Are you there?"

"Oh my...Jake?"

"It's me," he laughed. "I was-if there's sometime we can get together, is that all right?"

"Tomorrow?" I immediately suggested. "I can make it work."

"Tomorrow's perfect."

Even then, I secretly assumed it wouldn't be. Something would come up. Ax would have a complication, the military would want Jake's expertise, Jeanne and him would have been a couple since halfway through the return trip. I couldn't bring myself to morph the familiar osprey to take to the skies, and flew as a Baltimore oriole instead, which I'd acquired a few months before just for the thrill of it. I wasn't sure whether I was supposed to be picking up new morphs, and my mood didn't really seem to need the help, but all the same...

A few minutes passed from the time when we were supposed to meet, and still no sign of him, nor any falcon that looked familiar. I started pacing, telling myself I had no reason to be irritated. After being gone for a couple years, what were a few minutes? Within a minute, a wood thrush came wheeling by. ((Cassie?)) he asked quietly.

I nodded. He started morphing, under the cover of the park.

"Sorry," he said, "late start..."

In spite of myself, I smiled.

"What?"

"Nothing. New morph? I like it."

"I can't tell who all would recognize the falcon, I thought just in case-" He broke off. "Hi."

Maybe the new morph helped me after all. Despite everything, my fears I'd lost the other Animorphs forever seemed too well-founded, too grounded in evidence I didn't have. Some morph-capable impostor could acquire a human body, even. But watching him demorph, inspired by the same motives I was for once, felt right. Cautiously, I opened my arms, and he stepped forward for a brief hug.

"You're all right," I whispered, once he pulled away.

"Yeah," he said. "I'm okay. And you? I-"

"I'm great," I said hurriedly. "Really good. Work's been busy, but I like it, most of the time, and there's always something new to think about."

He nodded. "How's Toby?"

"Toby's hoping to visit the Hork-Bajir homeworld soon, actually; there's been a push to see what kind of other trees we can bring back to support the colony here without overly disruptive consequences." I saw him look at me with a confused gaze, and figured I must have been blushing. "There are a couple humans who're going too. I didn't want to, but Ronnie Chambers is really hoping he gets to go."

Jake squinted. "Sorry, who?"

"My ex. I mean, you wouldn't remember, we decided we were better as colleagues," I sighed. "He's still been very involved in the Hork-Bajir side of alien diplomacy."

"It can't be easy. A dozen planets, and I don't think we got fresh bark anywhere." He cracked a smile.

Marco would have had something clever to say; bark versus bite, maybe? But from some of those interviews, it sounded like some of the strange aliens they met probably could bite. I felt almost awestruck, trying to take it all in.

Jake looked at me as if sizing me up. Dozens of morphs, and none of them could detect what kinds of threats we posed to each other. "I know it's a lot to ask, and I'm not waiting for an answer today, this week, any time soon. Someday, though. Can you forgive me?" I must have twitched, because he rushed on. "For asking you to stay here."

I breathed slowly. "Is that really what you need?"

"If we go our separate ways again, maybe that's fine. We did before and it worked out, getting Ax home anyway. But look, the whole way home, I was thinking it was pretty stupid, not having you. We were trying to avoid a direct confrontation with the Kelbrid, at least on their terms. Having to swing past all these different alien planets, with creatures still trying to get back on their feet, hooves, tentacles, whatever...I figure, hey, there are experts who do this for a living, why not ask a pro."

"But you were ready for a military-level approach. Even outnumbered."

"I had to be, yeah. Which...I guess was my department." He gave a shrug, half-modest, but drained of pride.

"Once it was mine," I pointed out.

He held my gaze, without pulling away. We let ourselves remember all the hats we'd worn, sliding from destructive warriors to stealth operatives without letting any trace of the strain show outwardly. I was the estreen, but he'd been every bit as talented at knowing which approach each occasion called for. Time kept pushing forward, and all the DNA we'd acquired would continue to swim deep within us. Would the dreams I once took for granted dissipate one by one, or just dissolve into something new?

I stepped closer, and Jake smiled. "Would you believe me," he asked, "if I told you I thought maybe things happened for a reason? Like, you were meant not to come along, so things could, I dunno, work out better in the long run somehow?"

"No," I said, "not really."

"Good," he said. "That does sound kind of dumb, when I put it that way."

"You think this was some kind of Ellimist trick?"

"Not the Ellimist. Just, maybe something else like that. Things that you couldn't have accomplished by coming with us then."

I squinted. "The Kelbrid did contact Earth, while you were on your way back, and I've started communications with a few of their 'diplomats'. You weren't exactly subtle about the return trip. But the negotiators just want to trade, I think, and maybe get a better price than we give the Andalites."

"Huh." A spurt of wind caught a tree branch and started dragging it towards Jake's face. He stepped out of its way, brushing my side, and I laughed.

"I'm not giving them one, right now anyway. But I don't speak for Earth."

"That's not what I meant. But as long as you like it."

"It won't come easy. The challenge is worth it, though." The Kelbrid seemed to understand what it meant to work with merely the representative from one human "country" much better than the Andalites or even the Yeerks had. Maybe they were used to being tribal, partisan to a fault. But it gave me hope to know they were willing to concede even a very territorial kind of common ground.

Jake nodded. "Then I just wanted to let you know, I'm here, and I'm happy for you. Everything I said before-you fought your battles, and you deserve to enjoy what you fought for. Whatever that looks like. If you want me to be a part of that...I'm staying on Earth now, you know where to find me. It wouldn't be because anyone needs me or wants me for their plan, just because I feel like it. Otherwise, take care of yourself."

I squeezed my eyes shut, half-expecting the colors of the park to be more vivid when I reopened them instead of the foggy blurs of the morning. We were still hidden, where we could morph out of sight of passersby. "We can't turn back time, and I don't expect it all to be the same between us." Was he flinching? "But if you think I don't want to be with you and meet Jeanne and Santorelli and everyone, then you need to talk to Ax's doctor, because something fried your brains in Z-Space, Captain."

He rolled his eyes. "Oh, not you too."

"Not me too?"

"Never mind," he said. "You, too."

"Oh!" I said. "Okay."

I stepped forward to kiss him, once again grateful for the cover of the trees. So many times as a soldier had I been anonymous, using parks to hide and morph in, but never a celebrity, reuniting with the man I loved. Even fighting to keep the world free, I couldn't really imagine being a household name. Kelbrid business was glamorous and classified, but it was still business. Taking my place with the Animorphs was stepping back into the spotlight all over again. But with my friends, with Jake, I didn't care.

"And," I said once we'd come up for air, "you have to tell me how you actually defeated the Blade ship to begin with. All Marco ever talks about is finding Ax and starting there."

"It's a long story," Jake said, smiling, "but I will. Maybe you can help us make sense of it."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"The galaxy is a big place, and I still don't claim to understand how everything works. But experience shows I figure more things out when you're here."

I took his hand. "I'm not the most reliable source. I-I thought I'd lost you, before." Had I been expecting myself to be something more than human, even then?

"You don't need to be perfect."

"Do you?"

He gave a brief squeeze. "Maybe not anymore."

My name is Cassie. I have a good job, a long commute, a loving family, and a bunch of difficult co-workers. And an occasionally distant boyfriend whose goodbyes "for now" really do mean "for now," whose guesses at the future are no worse than mine. I have no clear answers; I never have, and nothing is written in stone.

I'm only human. At least, in the ways that matter for today.