Hi all! This one is, obviously, set during 2x08 "Point of Salvation" because I can't believe someone locked Stone & Cassandra in a freaking closet and nobody ever wrote a fic about it! The numbers in the story below designate the number of loops after Stone & Cassandra start getting left in the closet. Enjoy!
(1)
"Jones, what the hell?" Colonel Eve Baird yelled as Ezekiel Jones dragged her away.
"I need you to teach me how to fight," Ezekiel said.
"Hey!" Stone yelled with rage from the wrong side of a very locked closet door.
"Wh…" Cassandra breathed. When she finally found her voice, she banged against the frame of the door and yelled, "Ezekiel!"
"What the hell, man?" Stone yelled next to her.
Baird looked back at them for a just a moment, a helpless and confused look on her face, before the thief pulled her away without so much as a glance in their direction. Cassandra's hands fell from the door.
"What?" Cassandra breathed, a little baffled by the prospect of being locked in a closet. She banged against the door and called his name one more time.
"That ain't gonna do any good, Cassie," Stone said, perching on the corner of a nearby table. "They're gone."
"But…" she tried to protest, her voice trailing off on another sigh. "What do we do now?"
"Wait for the loop or the game or whatever to get reset, I guess," Stone shrugged. He let out a groan and added, "I really wanted that rocket launcher!"
Cassandra chuckled quietly to herself and glanced over at the pouting cowboy with a cute stare. "So you wanted the rocket launcher, not the shotgun."
"A shotgun ain't cool," he protested.
"How long do you think we'll have until it resets?" Cassandra asked.
"Well, it's Jones leading the mission, so probably not long," Stone said.
"Do you think we'll even know when…" Cassandra started.
(8)
"So how long do you think we'll have until it resets?" Cassandra asked.
"Well, it is Jones leading the mission, so probably not long," Stone said.
"Do you think we'll even know when it resets?" Cassandra asked.
"Probably not," Stone said.
Cassandra sighed, frustrated with her current situation. Her eyes settled on a spot of dirt on the closet floor, and she kicked at it with the tip of her toes. "Do you believe all of this?"
"Believe what?" Stone asked.
"I mean…a video game?" she asked. "We're stuck in a video game? It would make more sense if an overload in the quantum field created a superposition state that disrupts local space time, effectively creating a time loop." She glanced over at her closet buddy and realized he was looking at her like she had two heads. He was clearly lost. "I mean…to me," she added with a wave of her hands.
"Magic don't always make sense," Stone shrugged.
(15)
"A video game?" Cassandra asked. "We're stuck…in a video game? It would make more sense if an overload in the quantum field created a superposition state that disrupts local space time, effectively creating a time loop." She twirled around and looked over at Stone. She might as well have been speaking a foreign language. "I mean…to me."
"Magic don't always make sense," he shrugged.
"I guess you're right," Cassandra said. She wandered across the room and sank down on the floor across from the door, impatiently waiting for Ezekiel and Baird to come back. When she looked up at Stone again, she noticed him grinning. "What?" she asked.
"This is different," Stone said. "You doubting Jones. You're usually on his team."
"I'm still on his team!" Cassandra said defensively. "I just…a video game?"
"Wh…that's awesome!" Stone argued.
"The overload of corrupted code amplified virtual reality into actual reality," Cassandra said, repeating the conclusion she had reached before being banished to the closet. "We're not really in the game."
"You've just got to spoil it, don't you?" Stone accused.
"I'm sorry," Cassandra said. "I don't like just sitting here. I want to help. Especially since Baird and Ezekiel could be…"
Her voice trailed off, and Cassandra grew quiet as she drew her knees up to her chest. Stone's irritation faded into a concerned look.
"What?" he asked.
"Getting killed right now," she finished in a small voice.
"Hey," Stone said, sliding down on the floor next to her. "Don't…that ain't what's happening out there." His tone of voice betrayed his words; Cassandra knew even he didn't believe it.
(23)
"You've just got to go and spoil it, don't you?" Stone accused.
"I'm sorry," Cassandra said. "I don't like just sitting here. I want to help. Especially since Baird and Ezekiel are out there possibly…"
Cassandra drew her knees to her chest, curling into a ball against the closet wall, the thoughts a little too much for her to bear. Her voice trailed off, and Stone looked worried.
"Out there what?" he asked.
"Getting killed," she finished in a small voice.
"Hey," Stone said. He slid down on the floor next to her. "Don't…that ain't what's happening out there." Even he cringed as he said it. He didn't believe his own words, and they both knew it.
Regardless, she appreciated the effort, so she let out a small chuckle and whispered, "Try again."
He laughed, too. What else could they do locked up in a storage closet but laugh about the absurdity of what they'd gotten themselves into this week? He didn't like the thought any more than she did, but he knew they couldn't dwell on it.
"Well, hey, you just said it yourself," Stone said, trying again. "We're not really in a game. It's a virtual reality…"
"That's overriding actual reality," Cassandra finished. "This isn't real; there are no consequences."
"Right," Stone nodded. "Remember that."
"This isn't real; there are no consequences," she repeated.
"There you go," he said.
"This isn't real. There are no consequences," she repeated again, a little firmer this time. "Actually, a video game kind of does make more sense. In a way."
"What way is that?" Stone asked.
"Well, a temporal loop implies a complicated interplay of cause & effect, and Ezekiel's really more of a…just wing-it kind of guy. He's probably more likely to succeed in a video game."
It was Stone's turn to slump against the wall as he realized, "Our lives depend on Ezekiel Jones right now."
Feeling the dread suddenly radiating off of his body, Cassandra looked at him and offered, "This isn't real?"
"I think that's the one part of this that is real," Stone muttered.
(37)
Jacob Stone's body slumped with defeat against the wall behind him. "Our lives depend on Ezekiel Jones right now," he said with dread.
Cassandra immediately felt guilty for bringing him down with her and offered, "Um…this isn't real?"
"I think that's the one part of this that is real," Stone muttered, shooting a glance in her direction.
"Okay, well, we can't dwell on that, either," Cassandra said, scrambling up to her knees. "So…um…video games? You kind of didn't strike me as the video game type."
"Really?" he asked.
"I've watched you spend so much of your free time writing and reading and pouring over art portfolios that I guess I thought you wouldn't have time," she said.
"Even a genius needs something mindless every now and then," he shrugged.
"That's true," Cassandra grinned.
"What's your thing?" he asked. "The thing that takes you away from all the intellectual stuff."
Cassandra looked a little embarrassed as she said, "Project Runway."
Stone chuckled and glanced at her outfit for the day. "That don't surprise me at all," he said. "You ever played?"
"Games? Oh, not really," Cassandra said. "I had some computer games when I was a kid. Educational ones, of course."
"That don't really count," Stone said.
"Probably not," Cassandra agreed. "I probably wouldn't be very good at video games."
Stone scoffed. "I bet you could clean my clock at some of them shooting games."
"Why do you say that?" she asked with a laugh.
"All your angles and math trajectories. I wouldn't wanna play you in a carnival game," he said.
Cassandra laughed again. "I don't know if I'd be as good at mapping things like that out on a two-dimensional screen with virtual playing objects."
"Want to find out?" Stone asked with a slight raise of his eyebrows.
Cassandra stared at him for a moment with a promising grin. "Exactly what are you proposing?"
"When we get out of here, you should co…"
(44)
"All those angles and math trajectories you see," he said. "I'm just sayin' I wouldn't wanna play you in a carnival game.
Cassandra laughed. "Well, I don't know if I'd be as good at mapping things out on a two-dimensional screen…"
"How many dimensions is the plane of numbers you see in your head?" he asked.
"That's kind of different," she said. "I don't know how well I'd do with virtual objects."
"Want to find out?" Stone asked with a slight raise of his eyebrows.
Cassandra stared at him for a moment with a promising grin. Her stomach flipped the same way it'd flipped when he asked her to get a pint in England, and she asked, "Exactly what are you proposing?"
"When we get out of here, you should come over sometime," Stone shrugged.
"To play video games?" she asked.
"We can order food, make a night of it," he said casually. He raised his eyebrows at her again and asked, "What do you think?"
Cassandra smiled softly and said, "Okay."
With a grin and a little shake of his head, Stone repeated, "Okay."
Silence fell across the room, promises of future plans neither would likely remember hanging in the air. Cassandra opened her mouth as if she were about to speak when a loud noise pulled their attention towards the door.
(49)
"We can order food, Chinese or something, make a night of it," he said casually. "What do you think?"
Cassandra smiled softly and said, "Okay."
Stone returned her smile as he repeated, "Okay."
Silence fell across the room, promises of future plans neither would likely remember hanging in the air. As usual, Cassandra's brain wouldn't shut up. She was pretty sure he had asked her on a date when he asked her to get that pint in England. Unfortunately, she never got to find out, and when it came to Stone, their tumultuous beginnings left her just a little too shy to make a first official move of her own. Now, she was pretty sure he'd just asked her on a date again, but their reality wasn't real. They both knew they wouldn't remember this invitation. Making a decision, she opened her mouth to ask him just what his intentions were, but before she could say anything, a loud noise pulled their attention towards the door.
"Ezekiel?" she cried, standing up in a flash and scurrying to the window in the door.
"Baird?" Stone called, doing the same.
"That couldn't have been…" Cassandra muttered. "Could it?"
"We're still here," Stone pointed out.
"Right," Cassandra nodded. She peered around the room, looking for anything that wasn't how it had been before. "I really don't need to meet one of those rage people."
"I think we're safe in he…" he started.
(56)
"I really don't need to meet one of those rage people Ezekiel was talking about," Cassandra said, looking around the room.
"I think we're safe in here," Stone said. "Something triggers the rage people, remember? There ain't going to be a trigger in a storage closet."
"And if there is, we probably would've hit it by now," Cassandra agreed.
"Exactly," Stone said.
Still, Cassandra started wandering around the room, waving her arms across open storage lockers and underneath tables. Stone frowned in her direction.
"I thought you didn't want to meet a rage person," he grumbled.
"I don't, but…oh, I hate this," she sighed. "I hate that they're out there and we're just stuck in here. We could be helping!"
"We don't know what's going on," Stone pointed out.
"Well, what are we supposed to do locked up in a closet?" Cassandra asked, frustration seeping through her voice. On instinct, Stone laughed. Cassandra stomped her foot and said, "What?"
He chuckled again and said, "Well, I haven't been locked in a closet since I was 14, but Missy Johnson and I sure found a way to pass the time."
Ignoring the implications, Cassandra asked, "Why were you locked in a closet? Did somebody from school do that to you?"
Stone felt a little pang of sadness at her assumption, and he cautiously replied, "It, uh…it was a party game. Seven minutes in heaven."
"Oh, so you and Missy Johnson were in the…oh," Cassandra said, putting two and two together.
"You didn't go to parties much, did you?" he asked.
"Not that kind!" Cassandra said with a nervous laugh. Her face sobered, and she added, "But, I mean…that sounds more fun than this."
"Well, hey, I don't think Jones is coming back anytime soon," Stone teased, his arms out in invitation.
"Wh…really?" Cassandra asked. He was kidding. He had to be kidding.
"Unless I really misinterpreted…wow, okay, I feel like an ass," Stone said, taking a seat on the corner of a table.
Cassandra bit the side of her lip in contemplation for a moment before wandering over to stand directly in front of him. She put her hands on his shoulders and said, in a bit of a sultry voice, "You didn't misinter…"
(62)
With a little nod of her head, Cassandra lowered her voice and said, "But, I mean…that sounds more fun than this."
Stone stretched his arms out towards her and said, "Well, hey, you know I don't think Jones is coming back anytime soon."
It was a bold move; he knew it was a bold move, but this isn't real, and there are no consequences, so he decided to throw the idea out there and see if she would pick it up or throw it away.
"Wh…really?" Cassandra asked, a little surprise evident in her voice.
"Unless I really misinterpreted…" Stone started. She was looking at him with wide eyes and an inquisitive stare, and he found himself hoping that Jones would get himself killed soon so she could forget everything that had just happened. "Wow, okay, I kind of feel like an ass." He sat down on the corner of a table on the opposite side of the space.
Cassandra shook her head no and bit the edge of her lip. After a few moments, she walked over to him, coming up between his knees. She placed her hands on his shoulders, and, with that low, sultry voice he loved, said, "You didn't misinterpret anything."
"I didn't?" he asked with a little bit of hope.
"No," Cassandra said with a small grin. "Just…I don't know, here?"
"What do you mean?" Stone asked.
"I guess I just always thought our first kiss would be in the park outside the Annex or…at my door after a nice dinner just us, or…in some foreign country while researching a case, or…basically, not in a closet," Cassandra said with a shrug, dropping her arms to her sides.
Stone's hands came up and lightly caressed her arms. "You've thought about it?" he asked.
"Of course I've thought about it," Cassandra whispered.
Stone's hands settled on her waist, and his eyes found hers. She was looking at him with a little bit of wonder, her eyes sparkling with promises of what was coming next, and he decided a closet could be just as romantic as any of those scenarios she had just rattled off the top of her head. He gripped her waist a little tighter and started moving towards her. Cassandra closed her eyes.
(70)
"Of course I've thought about it," Cassandra whispered, and he didn't need to say it back for her to know that he had, too.
The weight of Stone's hands settled on her waist, and the metaphorical butterflies started dancing across her stomach as Stone looked at her with eyes filled with what could only be described as adoration. Cassandra gave the slightest little nod of her head, and he gripped her waist a little tighter. His head moved to meet hers, and she closed her eyes.
"Wait!" she suddenly cried, her eyes opening again. "What if the game resets? We won't remember this."
"Well, then, we'll probably have this conversation all over again," Stone answered.
Cassandra giggled. "Like that Drew Barrymore movie. Fifty first kisses instead of fifty first dates," she said. "And, you know, we both won't remember anything."
"The fifty first kisses part don't sound so bad," Stone said.
"No," Cassandra whispered with another smile. He started moving in again, and once more, Cassandra stopped him. "Wait! What if the game doesn't reset and Baird and Ezekiel come back to get us?"
"Well, then…that's gonna be a bit of an awkward moment," he said.
She laughed, despite herself, and with a little shove to his shoulder said, "No, what happens with us? If we do this kind of impulsive thing and then we do remember?"
Silence fell between them again, the topic too serious for either of them to tackle under their current circumstances.
"That's…you're the probabilities expert, but that's probably not gonna happen," he said.
"So cross that bridge if we come to it?" she suggested.
"Yeah, sounds good," he agreed.
Stone slid off the table and, with one arm, held Cassandra against his body. She gasped a little as he pulled her in. He curled his other hand around her face, bringing their lips together. Cassandra whimpered when their lips touched.
(86)
"So…just cross that bridge if we come to it?" Cassandra suggested.
"Yeah, sounds good," Stone agreed.
Before he even finished speaking, he'd slid off the table and pulled her in. He held Cassandra's face as he kissed her, and she whimpered when their lips touched. Encouraged by the little noises escaping her throat, he tightened his hold on her and deepened their kiss, bending her slightly backwards against his arm. Cassandra's arms wrapped around his shoulders, pressing the length of her body against his. This isn't real, there are no consequences, so they kissed without inhibition, pouring months of long-simmered, pent-up desire into this embrace.
After a few minutes, their kisses finally softened, and their lips lingered when they finally pulled apart to take a breath. Stone and Cassandra stayed wrapped in each other's arms, their heavy breaths mingling between them, and Cassandra laughed.
"How many times do you think we've done this now?" she asked.
"Not enough," Stone muttered, moving in for another kiss.
"I completely concur," Cassandra muttered just before their lips met again. Stone's hands slid a little lower down Cassandra's waist.
(94)
She felt his hands slide lower on her body, and despite the man utterly worshipping her lips, she briefly wondered what they were doing. How had they ended up here so quickly? But this isn't real, and there are no consequences, so no need to dwell on that now, she thought, as Stone picked her off the closet floor.
With one arm scooped underneath her, he adjusted his hold on her as she brought her knees up around his waist, their lips only separating for a few seconds. Stone turned them around and set her back down on the table, and Cassandra gasped again as he pulled away from her slowly, her bottom lip between his teeth.
"Where're you…" she started, her eyes opening slightly as she felt his hips slide from the grasp her legs had on him. Her eyes slid shut again as he brushed her hair back and let his lips find her neck, and she breathed, "Oh…"
"You like this?" he mumbled against her skin.
Cassandra just moaned lightly as her knees tightened against his waist. After a few more hot and heavy moments, her head turned towards the door and she said, "Jacob, really, what if they come back here and catch us?"
"Well, what was he expectin' locking us in a closet?" Stone exclaimed.
"Probably not this!" Cassandra replied. "I mean, I wasn't expecting this. Were you?"
"No!" Stone assured her. He grinned and said, "But I ain't sorry it's happening. Are you?"
(101)
"Well, what was he expectin' locking us in a closet?" Stone asked, trying to get back to the soft skin on Cassandra's neck. Less talking, he thought. Less talking, more kissing.
"Probably not this!" Cassandra squeaked. "I mean…were you expecting this? I wasn't expecting this."
Stone pulled just a little bit away. He hoped she didn't really think that, so he stayed close, his hands on either side of her on the table. "No," he promised. He looked into her eyes, grinned, and said, "But I ain't sorry it's happening. Are you?"
"No," she said. "Though…I'm sorry we're probably not going to remember this."
"I can't imagine forgettin' this," he said, placing a light kiss on her lips.
"That's the thing with magic," she said sadly. "It doesn't care what you can imagine."
Knowing she was right, Stone stood up and held her face in his palms, lightly caressing her cheeks with his thumbs. "Want to slow down a bit?" he whispered.
"Maybe a little," she whispered back.
He leaned down and captured her lips in another kiss, this one softer and sweeter than their previous kisses. His hands cradled her face as they kissed, their lips barely making a sound as they pulled away and leaned back into one another. Cassandra didn't know how many times they'd been here; try as she might, her brain couldn't calculate loops she didn't remember, but as Stone deepened the kiss and laid them back against the table, she thought she'd probably be okay with doing this a hundred more times.
Cassandra followed Baird and Stone out of the Annex after giving Ezekiel a light kiss on the cheek. Baird had gone one way, Stone the other, and she turned towards Stone, meeting him in the middle of the hallway. He was still rubbing the back of his neck in frustration, and she grabbed his elbow.
"Hey," she breathed. "Don't let him get to you."
"A step down from all awesome…" Stone said, repeating Ezekiel's words. "A step down from…really?"
Cassandra rolled her eyes. "You know that's just Ezekiel," she said, crossing her arms against her chest.
"Try to give the guy a compliment, and he…" Stone groaned.
"I know," Cassandra said with a laugh, cutting him off. "He did kind of save our lives, though. I believed you just called that badass."
"It was," Stone muttered. He groaned again and said, "We were trapped in a video game! Coolest case we ever get, and we don't remember."
"Umm…scariest case we ever get," Cassandra argued. "I'm kind of glad we don't remember. I mean…how many times do you think we died today? We went through that door…hours ago."
Stone rubbed the back of his neck again. "Yeah, that's kind of…we don't need to think about that."
"Thanks, though," Cassandra said.
"For what?" he asked.
"The thing with the grenades…I was already trying not to think about the implications of what Ezekiel had said about the game resetting every time one of us died, and then he wanted me to stake my life on a grenade, and I looked at you, and you touched my arm, and…look, I know it was just a small gesture, but it helped. So thank you," Cassandra said.
Stone grinned the grin that Cassandra thought seemed to be reserved only for her and touched her arm again. "Anytime, Cassie," he said.
Cassandra unfolded her arms, took a step forward, and wrapped him into a hug, resting the side of her head against his. Stone hugged her back, and there they stood for just a few moments, wrapped in the other's embrace. When she pulled back, Cassandra brushed her lips quickly across his cheek and found herself suddenly struck by his scent and the feel of his skin beneath her lips. Stone must have felt something, too, as he stiffened in her arms.
She stepped back a little bit further, just enough to look him in the eye. They scanned each other's faces, searching for an answer to a question they didn't know, before they leaned together, slowly and simultaneously, until their mouths met in a slow, gentle kiss. Stone and Cassandra pulled away after just one kiss, searching each other's eyes again. Cassandra's fingers touched her lips.
"Did that feel kind of…" she started.
"Familiar?" he added.
"So that wasn't just me," she said, dropping her hand from her lips. Stone shook his head. "What…what happened in all of those game loops? Would we have…why would we have…when?"
"I don't think we'll ever know," Stone realized.
"So what do we do?" Cassandra asked.
Before Stone could attempt to come up with an answer, Baird appeared in the hallway again. She took a glance at the dumbstruck couple, frowned a little in confused, shook her head, and said, "Okay, I don't want to know what this is, but figure it out later because the book's rattling."
"Again?" Cassandra sighed.
"Twice before Friday!" Baird called as she made her way into the Annex.
"It's already been twice before…" Cassandra said, trailing off as she realized no one was listening.
"I don't think magic cares," Stone said.
"But…" Cassandra sighed, looking at Stone with a slight hint of desperation in her eyes.
"We'll talk later," he promised. "Duty calls."
Cassandra shrugged her shoulders and started following him into the Annex. "Duty calls."
Thanks for reading! I love reviews ;-)