Stone stared down at the books he'd been reading without really seeing them, rubbing his sore, scraped knuckles. A faint headache throbbed behind his eyes, partially from being knocked in the head, partially from drinking. A part of him would've liked to drink a lot more, until he didn't remember yesterday, but the rest of him recoiled away from the idea of crawling into a bottle like his old man did whenever things were rough.

He was so focused in his own thinking that he didn't hear Cassandra approach, and he leapt halfway out of his seat when she touched his shoulder. "Jesus!"

"Sorry, sorry," she apologised quickly, holding up both hands in the classic 'harmless' posture. "I didn't mean to startle you." Biting her lip, the redhead twisted her slender hands together in front of her before asking, "How are you doing?"

He let out a sigh, looking down at the desktop again. He was aware that the others were treading soft around him, so to speak, and all in their own ways. Jones hadn't said a word to him at all—which was how he gave space. Jenkins had given him that little bit of talk last night. Baird had told him if he ever wanted to talk, she'd listen, and hadn't brought it up again. Cassandra…she tried not to push anything, but it was obvious that she worried for him. Not that he didn't appreciate the concern, because he did, God, he did, but he still remembered what Hokolonote had said to him when it was pretending to be her. You're on your own. Just like always. That one stung, even if it wasn't really her that said it.

"I'm…getting there," he settled for at last.

"Oh." Cassandra shifted her weight but didn't go anywhere. Stone had the feeling that there was more she wanted to say to him, so he waited, feeling slightly torn again—a part of him wanted to be alone, lick his wounds in private, but another part of him desperately wanted her to stay. Finally, she seemed to pluck up her courage for something and patted his shoulder. "Come with me."

Stone's eyebrows lifted, but he stood up and followed her. She scurried over to the Back Door and fiddled with the globe for a moment. "Cassie…"

"I just want to show you something, it'll only take a moment," she replied without looking up. Finally, she stood up and spun the globe; white light crackled around the edges of the Back Door. She cracked the door open slightly, poked her head through to glance around, then opened it the rest of the way, holding out a hand to him.

Unsure of what exactly she was trying to accomplish, he walked over and let her pull him through the Back Door, sending them both staggering into the darkened interior of a building. Once he shook the faint buzzing out of his ears that always came with going through the door, Stone looked around, wondering where she'd brought him. "Is this a museum?" he asked in surprise upon seeing mounted exhibits behind sheets of glass, with plaques written in another language all around.

"It's the Salar Jung museum, in India," she answered, smoothing down her skirt.

"Are we supposed to be here?" he asked in a hushed voice, aware of how quiet it was; no museum was ever this quiet unless it was closed. And if they were in India, then it was…well, he wasn't certain which time zone they were in, but it was definitely past closing.

"Strictly speaking…no. But it's alright, we have ten minutes before the guard shift changes, Jones checked for me. Come here." Cassandra grasped his arm and pulled him over to a glass case that held a very large mounted diamond, glittering serenely under the soft display lights. "This was what I wanted to show you."

He wasn't entirely certain what was so special about it, except for the fact that it was probably the biggest diamond he'd ever seen, but he didn't want to hurt Cassandra's feeling by asking, so he kept his mouth shut, hoping she'd explain and not make him guess.

"It's called the Jacob Diamond."

His gaze whipped around to her, but she was still staring at the gemstone studiously. She stepped around the case, bending slightly at the waist to look at it closer; a part of him wondered if she was envisioning the molecular patterns of the rock, seeing its lattices. "Sometimes it amazes me to know that the same minerals in my pencil's graphite are what make diamonds. You know, diamonds are made from carbon. That's all it is—carbon, one of the most commonly-found elements in the world. We're made of carbon. With enough pressure, years and years of pressure, though, it becomes one of the most beautiful gemstones in the world." She straightened up and stared at him from across the display case, pale flecks of light reflected on her face. "I mean, to think that all it takes is time and pressure to turn something so common into something so rare and beautiful."

She said it so casually, like she was just reading off the placard or recalling an article she'd read, but Stone knew that she wasn't talking about diamonds anymore, at least not entirely. His chest tightened, and there was a lump of cotton wedged in his throat that kept him from answering her. He opened his mouth, said nothing, and closed it again, aware of the unmanly tears prickling behind his eyes.

Cassandra stepped around the display and slid her arms around his middle, hugging him tight. A small, choked noise escaped his throat as he returned the embrace for all he was worth, squeezing her tightly against his chest. Seeing his old man again made so many old hurts resurface, brought up so many old resentments, and Stone couldn't remember the last time someone had done something like this for him. Had shown him affection without wanting something in return. Had taken care of him for any reason other than to know that he was okay. Cassandra doing this for him, it soothed something inside him that'd ached for so long he didn't remember how it felt to not ache.

And if he had to press his face into her soft hair to brush away the dampness on his lashes, she didn't say anything about it.

After what felt like a small eternity, Stone lowered his arms, and she took a half-step back to look up at him, her blue eyes soft and accepting. He didn't want to risk speaking aloud because he might actually end up crying if he opened his mouth, so he nodded once, hoping she understood how much this meant to him. He'd never been good at saying I'm sorry, much less saying help me, oh God, please help me.

Cassandra being, well, Cassandra, of course, she understood and returned the small nod. "Just between us, though…I like this Jacob diamond a lot more," she informed him quietly, reaching out to pat his chest.

He smiled a little and offered her his arm; she slipped her arm through his. "Is there a diamond named after you somewhere?" Stone asked as they walked back towards the door, trying to lighten the mood. He felt lighter somehow, like some weight he hadn't realised he was carrying had been lifted off his chest, the barbed wire that'd snarled around his heart so long ago not quite so tightly-wound anymore.

"No." She turned a sly look up at him. "But there's one named after Jones."

"Of course there is," he grumbled, rolling his eyes. "Don't ever let him know, he'll want to steal it just because of that."

The redhead giggled brightly, covering her mouth with her free hand to stifle the noise in case the guards had changed shift early. "I doubt it, since it's actually called the Punch Jones Diamond."

Okay, that made him smile. "Is it really?"

She nodded and linked her arm through his, leaning her head against his shoulder. With a mischievous gleam in her eye, she flashed him a rather saucy smile and said, "And don't worry. Yours is bigger."

A/N: the Jacob Diamond and the Punch Jones Diamond (snicker) are both real diamonds. The Jacob Diamond, also called the Imperial Diamond, is the fifth largest diamond in the world; it was on display in the Salar Jung Museum in 2001 and 2007 and is now in the Reserve Bank of India in Mumbai. The Punch Jones Diamond is named after the man who found it, William P. "Punch" Jones, and is still the largest alluvial diamond found in North America. It was kept in the Smithsonian Institution for several years until the Jones family bought it back; they later auctioned it.