.018 – Black

Cassandra Frasier leans cautiously backward over the railing of her apartment terrace, breathing a sigh of relief when it doesn't creak or wobble under her weight. She tilts her head back and looks at the expanse of sky above her. She purses her lips and squints her eyes, tilting her head in different positions before letting out a sigh of defeat. In the city, it is nearly impossible to see stars. The most Cassie can manage are one or two pin pricks of light; but even those are made dim by the layers of smog and polluted atmosphere.

Most nights, Cassie would simply shrug her shoulders, go back inside, and finish up some translations before she goes to sleep.

Tonight, however, Cassie has a feeling between her shoulder blades; something that she knows won't go away unless she can see the stars. She levers herself off the railing, and with one last searching glance at the sky, goes back into her apartment. Instead of doing work or going to sleep, she moves quickly around the small space – getting clothing and shoes on before grabbing her keys and leaving her apartment all together.

Twenty minutes later, Cassie is in her car and rooting through her glove compartment. She finally gets her hands on the state map she keeps there in case of emergencies and scans the various notes in pen before she finds the dot she's looking for. She traces a finger over the highway routes; mentally reviewing them to be sure she knows the way. Satisfied, she buckles her seatbelt and starts the car.

It takes her three hours and two stops to check directions before she reaches her destination.

Cassie smiles as she exits her car; the gravel of the driveway slides with each one of her steps as she makes her way up to the cabin. It takes her a few moments to find the spare key on the top of the doorframe, and then she enters the darkness of the cabin.

It still smells like pine and fish, even though she's fairly certain no one's been there since the end of summer. She brushes her fingers carefully against the walls, navigating her way slowly in the dark to the stairs. She makes her way slowly up the stairs, through the hallway, and even slower still up the ladder to the hatch on the ceiling that gives her access to the roof. She pulls herself nimbly up, and crawls over to the telescope that's carefully perched in the centre and pointed at the sky. With a grin, she lays herself carefully down and looks up through the eyepiece.

The silence of the night is broken by a shrill ring, and Cassie fumbles with the cell phone in her pocket for a moment before flipping it open and putting it to her ear.

"Cass?" A low voice rumbles in her ear. "Mind telling me why Bob Thorton is phoning me in the middle of the night saying someone's broken into my cabin?"

"Jack," Cassie says with warmth and sheepishness lacing her voice. "I didn't think you'd mind. How'd you know it was me?"

"I don't mind, Kiddo," Jack says, and Cassie can hear the tiredness in his tone. "Everyone else who'd bother to visit that place is… on assignment. So now that I'm sure it's you and not some crazy burglar, I'm left wondering why you're invading my cabin when you should be sleeping in your cozy apartment in the city."

"I couldn't see the sky properly and I –" Cassie pauses, unsure how to explain. "I needed to see stars," she finishes lamely.

"What, looking up doesn't work for you anymore?" Jack grouches.

"You can't see anything in the city; it's just a field of blackness. But then I remembered you had your telescope…" Cassie trails off as she moves the telescope a bit further to the right, and magnifies it as best as she can before settling under the eye piece again. There is a quiet moment between them and Cassie can almost hear the gears turning in Jack's brain as he tries to figure out why she's there.

"What are you looking at?" Curiosity laces Jack's tone, and Cassie's lips tug upwards into a smile.

"Sam." She says.

There's a pause.

"Cass, Sam's in the Pegasus Galaxy – my telescope can't pick that up, even if you pointed straight at it, all you would see is darkness." He replies.

"I know."

"So what are you looking at?"

"Black."

Jack doesn't say anything to that, but Cassie thinks he understands.

The next night, Cassie is stretched out once more on the roof of Jack's cabin; the telescope pointed at the spot in the sky the Pegasus Galaxy would be if you could see it. Beside her, Jack opens a beer and peers through the eyepiece before taking a sip and handing it to Cassie.

They both take comfort in seeing black.