Please excuse any random errors, English isn't my first language.
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Days had gone by with hardly anything to do beyond search The Library for new information on Apep, Flynn and Eve had gone off to Italy in search of a book that only Jenkins could pronounce and as usual Ezekiel wanted pizza. Not just any pizza though, he wanted the best pizza in the states, three minutes later Cassandra and Stone watched as he dialled up the back door to New York.
"Figures." Jacob grumbled.
"Come on then." Ezekiel hopped through the door but only Cassandra followed.
"Nah, I'm gonna call Flynn and Baird, see if he can suggest any books that could help with Apep. Bring me back a slice." Said Jake before he tugged his phone from the back pocket of his dark jeans and headed out the annex's main room.
Cassandra followed Ezekiel up the ally way and onto the main streets of New York City, placement of the sun told her it was around two-thirty in the afternoon, she smiled, math was fun. People went this way and that going about their business and daily lives without a care in the world. Ezekiel was rambling on about something to do with pizza and what made it so good when a little slice of perfect caught her eye, a book store with a window display of nothing but fairytales. Each book leather bound, some were beautifully designed with in depth drawings while others looked old and almost antique, she even spied a newer version of Aeslop's fables towards the back. It was then that Ezekiel wandered around the corner not even noticing she wasn't by his side as he continued to give his pizza speech; for a master thief he could be rather oblivious to the world around him. Cassandra would have loved to have a big bookshelf full of fairytales when she was a child but instead she'd had textbooks; which she'd liked but it would have been nice to be a child for just a little while. The Santa's not real incident flooded back to her.
Suddenly from beside her came an eerily familiar voice.
"Cassandra Cillian? Is that you?" It was hard to forget such bold red hair and big blue eyes.
The Librarian turned to see an older version of a girl she'd hoped never to see again and a man she'd tried to forget. Kehlani and Milo. Pretending she didn't hate the taller blonde, Cassandra smiled.
"Kehlani Firth, remember? Well, Kehlani Thwaites now." She giggled and gripped onto Milo's arm, seemed she'd kept him all to herself.
"Of course, how are you? It's been so long!" She feigned interest and put on her prettiest smile while trying not to fidget with the hem of her teal flounce skirt.
"It's so nice to see you again. You remember Milo, we've been married since the end of high school now. Married life is so nice, oh, I'm sorry I forgot about the -" She tapped her forehead and spoke in a tone that said her brain grape – she'd hated that at first but now just thought it was cute – was a plague. "It's not going to happen."
The tumour had ended so much for Cassandra but she'd still enjoyed school, right until Kehlani had found out. She'd always had some kind of superiority complex, younger sister of Chloe Firth the head of the cheerleading squad, rich, popular. A mean girl through and through. A bitch in all honesty. Cassandra hoped that the blonde would have grown out of it but it seemed she hadn't, it wasn't so much what Kehlani said and more the way she said it; as though she hailed from an upper class and Cassandra just cleaned the dishes.
The beautiful redhead always tried to be pleasant and considerate to everyone around her even if she didn't like them but Kehlani seemed to think it some kind of sport to put others down and drawing attention to the brain grape that had ruined her life until she found The Library was just low. Normally Cassandra would have let it slide but this annoyingly blonde woman had been doing it since seventh grade; Don't you think joining the cheerleading squad is a silly idea, don't want you embarrassing yourself. I wouldn't eat that Cassandra, it's so fattening! Are you ever gong to find a boyfriend? I guess guys don't want a ticking time bomb. Something inside her snapped, all those years of snide comments were flooding back as though she were back at school just trying to walk down the hall to math class. She lost it, most people just assumed her life was over and she'd never be able to do normal things again; so had she for a long time.
"Actually I'm married. I'm waiting for him." The words left her mouth before she'd had time to think.
"But you're not wearing a ring." Milo pointed out much to his wife's pleasure.
"It's being resized, a bit too small."
She knew that was stupid and there was no way a husband was just going to magically appear beside her but she couldn't take it anymore, couldn't take Kehlani playing the everything turned out perfect for me card despite Milo only being a few months older than the two women and already had gone bald; probably because of the stress Kehlani caused.
Suddenly the taller blonde started patting herself down in search of her cellphone that she quickly determined she'd left in the café across the street, with a don't go anywhere she ran across the street to get it. As soon as she turned to leave Milo let out a sigh of relief, Cassandra got the feeling the whole wanting to get married thing had been a little one sided.
"I'll just grab our dry cleaning."
Thankfully he vanished into the building behind her leaving the redhead stood there alone. The second he was out of sight she darted back down the ally way and into the annex, she could just stay there and never see them again but her mind wasn't thinking logically in that moment, she didn't really have a clear idea of what to do. Stone was gone, Flynn was with Baird somewhere in Tuscany, Ezekiel had gone to get pizza, there was no one to save her. Until her cerulean eyes caught sight of Jenkins descending the annex stairs holding a brown leather bound book in his large hand. Without warning she grabbed his arm so she could pull him out onto the New York streets.
"Miss Cillian-?" She cut off his question.
"We're married, you love me I love you, please play along, I'll do anything." She told him all in one breath and Jenkins' expression only grew more confused but he allowed her to push him up the ally to the book store window. The Knight didn't really know what was going on but the words we're married held his interest to the point that he wanted to know where this was going.
Just as she'd moved the older man into place Milo reappeared with an arm full of dry cleaning, he paused momentarily upon seeing a six-foot-five suit clad man with his arm looped with his high school crush's but his mind came back as soon as his wife returned. Cassandra was internally panicking – why didn't I just hide in the annex with Jenkins? - while the Caretaker just looked amused; eyes glinting with entertainment.
"Kehlani, Milo this is-" What do I call him? Galahad? No that's too outdated. Galath? Galeas? "- this is my husband, Galaes Jenkins."
"Hello." Said Jenkins in that rich deep voice of his.
"Galeas is a Professor of Medieval History." She added a little too quickly.
"Oh really, that must be very interesting." Began Milo, he tried to straighten up but there was no way his five-foot-ten form could ever be on a par with Jenkins' own. "What is your speciality?"
"Camelot." He was starting to find this fun. "Yes, with what I know about that particular subject you'd swear I'd lived through it."
Milo laughed polity, assuming he'd been in the book store since he was still holding the brown leather book he'd had when Cassandra had grabbed him. Milo couldn't help but look the older man over, Jenkins stood tall and proud filled with an authority that didn't really exist in the modern world. He had to be in his sixties and yet still had a full – and rather magnificent – head of hair, a real silver fox; Milo was loathed to admit that but he couldn't deny his jealousy. His suit had been perfectly tailored, a rich navy twill suit with notched lapels, ticket pockets and kissing buttons on the sleeves – the shorter man felt under dressed when he compared the beautiful work to his grey button down and old converse – the bow tie even suited him. Yes, Milo Thwaits was jealous.
Seeing she couldn't work the I'm married card any longer Kehlani decided to use another angle, it was pathetic really, that at the age of thirty-three the blonde still felt the need to be better than everyone else around her; surly she'd matured? How could being better, happier, than someone she'd not seen in years be important to her?
"It's very nice to meet you, Galeas." Her smile didn't reach her grey eyes. "It's so nice Cassandra found you. Very lucky" Jenkins raised an eyebrow at that. "We were just enjoying our afternoon before we get our daughters, Heather and Madison. They're seven, I bet you don't have any children do you, Cassandra?"
Jenkins had developed a dislike for the blonde woman almost the second he'd seen her and that feeling was only growing. Over his many years he'd met every kind of person imaginable; nice, evil, noble, stupid, weak-willed, brave, charismatic, genius, thoughtful, the list went on but despite all those words and more to describe Kehlani Thwaits he still chose bitch. This woman was childish and annoyingly stereo-typical, putting up with her must have been a nightmare for Cassandra.
"Actually we have a son." Cassandra found herself shooting back.
"Oh, lovely. What's his name?" Milo – who had been attempting to remain oblivious to his wife's one-upping personality – asked with a soft smile.
"Ezekiel." Jenkins blurted, it had been the first name to come to mind. Cassie was his friend and he was damn well going to make sure she won this battle even if it was stupid and pointless. "Zeke for short."
"And he's not with you? Poor boy."
Sensing the redhead had ended up way out of her depth Jenkins jumped to the rescue again. Why didn't Miss Cillian just stay in the annex rather than dragging me out? Then again, the whole situation was amusing him on some level.
"He is with my younger brother, Flynn and his wife, Eve." The knight lied almost effortlessly and flashed a smile that said trust me. "I brought Sugar Rose here away for the weekend but as usual I got distracted by books." He gestured with the tome in his left hand before tilting his head down to look at his beautiful supposed wife. "We should get going, My Love. The performance starts at eight-thirty."
Cassandra had no idea what he was talking about but decided to go with it, he was certainly making her lies seem more realistic.
"That's hours away yet, let's get drinks together before we have to get the girls." Kehlani suggested with another of her fake smiles.
"I'm afraid we cannot, we have early dinner reservations and we planned to visit the Morgan Library before that. We're sorry but we just don't have the time."
Milo Thwaits nodded seemingly happy with Jenkins' answer, he knew neither of these people liked or wanted to talk to Kehlani; nor did he really. She'd been so popular at school, so perfect and stunning, as soon as she'd shown him attention he'd fallen and fallen hard. After that she'd sunk her claws in and now he was locked in a marriage with a woman he both loved and hated; he had his girls though. Despite being twins they were both very different, Heather had inherited her mother's personality though a little muted while Madison was a Daddy's girl; she hated all the dance classes and social events Kehlani dragged her to. Madison would have much rather been at science club.
Before Kehlani could drag them back into whatever crap she came up with next Cassandra gripped Jenkins' arm a little tighter and pulled him off down the ally.
"Goodbye Kehlani, Milo, it was so nice to see you again."
Neither the redhead nor the knight spoke as they casually walked back to the annex door, she was just coming to realise how stupid the idea of grabbing Jenkins and begging him to play her husband really was; almost like she fifteen again. Jenkins though wore a slight smile, the sort that meant he was amused but couldn't show it properly. Like a perfect gentleman he held the back door open for Cassandra who thanked him and stepped inside the annex once more, only after he'd set his book down did the immoral speak.
"You know, Miss Cillian, you don't have to pretend to be someone your not. Especially for the likes of her. You shouldn't be ashamed of who you really are because the real you is already perfect, you're brave, intelligent, kind and compassionate, everything someone should aspire to be. You may not have the traditional family but you do have one, one that loves you just the way you are. Colonel Baird will protect you until her dying breath, Mister Stone cares more for you than anyone else around him, Mister Carson was prepared to give his own life to save yours and Mister Jones, well he'd probably leave you to it but he does care about you. And I will always be there to watch over you, a perk of immortality. If anything that bleached blonde idiot should be more like you, she's the one that should have been ashamed of who she is." With truth filling his eyes Jenkins walked over to the almost crying redhead and rested his large hands on her shoulders. "You are perfect just the way you are."
"Well, you're pretty perfect yourself Mister Jenkins." She smiled while wiping away soft tears.
"Of course I am, someone as wonderful as you wouldn't marry an imbecile."
Cassandra actually chuckled at that and pulled him into a hug, his chest was warm and inviting.
"Thank you for being my fake husband."
"I wouldn't want to be anyone else's."
THE END