A/N: Back again! I couldn't leave you guys with that cliffhanger! Not with Jake bleeding out in Cassandra's arms, and more Greek idols to find and capture! Plus, my futile attempts to write more sappy Jassandra fluff. Also, a Harry Potter, Percy Jackson and Mortal Instrument reference.

Disclaimer: I do not own Librarians (except on DVD, which makes me so happy).

Please continue to review and leave comments and feedback. It's how I get better as a writer, hearing what you guys have to say.

Thanks, and enjoy!

"JENKINS!" Cassandra screamed as they tumbled through the back door. Flynn and Baird had Jacob slung between them, his arms wrapped tightly around their necks. Ezekiel followed behind them, lifting Jacob's legs off the ground. The wound from Hercules' sword was still bleeding profusely, coating his leg, Ezekiel's hands, and Flynn's jacket, which they used to tie off the wound and keep pressure, in dark, thick blood. He also had blood smeared across the front of his chest, but thank fully that was only a shallow gash, needing nothing more than a few stitches. It was the broken ribs and the near amputation of his leg that had Cassandra worried sick. Also the fact that Jacob was still unconscious and hadn't so much as uttered even a pained groan. Yeah, she was terrified.

"JENKINS!" Cassandra screamed again.

"Flynn, Jones. Over here." Baird ordered. "Cassandra, I need you to clear the center table." Cassandra didn't move from where she stood to the side, her mind running a mile a minute, factoring numbers and statistics over the likelihood of Jacob's survival due to the estimated amount of blood loss and trauma he sustained, and what it possibly meant that he hadn't regained consciousness yet. Thousands of numbers whirled in front of her vision, and yet she didn't utter word.

"Cassandra!" she jumped, startled at the hard tone of Baird's voice. She looked and saw how stricken her Guardian looked. She was pale, her blond hair seemingly white, and she had a smear of blood on her cheekbone, contrasting sharply. "Clear the table. We need to lay him down."

Shakily, Cassandra set on grabbing piles at random, running them to the closest desk, trying to do her part, trying to ignore the fact that while Baird and Ezekiel and Flynn were waiting, holding Jake in place, a small puddle of blood was dripping beneath him, staining the Library floor. She felt bile rise in her throat and gagged.

"Ms. Cillian!" Jenkins finally appeared from upstairs, hurrying as fast he could. "I heard you yell - what in Jerusalem happened to Mr. Stone?"

"Heal first. Questions later." Flynn panted. "Jenkins, we need to lie him down. The table-"

"No, not here!" Jenkins ordered, and Cassandra froze, another cluttered pile of papers clutched to her chest. Jenkins sighed and ran a hand through his white hair, making it stand in end. In another situtation, one less grim and terrifying, Cassandra might have laughed and said he looked like the guy from Back to the Future, but as it was, she was waiting with baited breath, hoping the immortal had a plan to save Jake.

"Jenkins, we're on borrowed time here." Baird said shortly.

"Yes, I know that, Colonel." Jenkins snapped, then froze, and Cassandra recognized the look on his face. It was the look she got when a brilliant thought flash through her mind, or when Jake saw a priceless piece of art, or when Ezekiel got to steal something really, really cool. "That's it. Borrowed time. Borrowed time!" Jenkins turned swiftly and ran down the hall of the Annex, leaving them gaping after him.

"Jenkins!" Baird yelled. "Jenkins! Quick, Flynn, Jones. Put him down on the table. Cassandra, put those down and see of you can find any towels. We have to try and stop the bleeding. Let it clot before we try and see how bad the damage is."

"But-" Cassandra almost argued, but stood down when she saw the surety in her Guardian's eyes.

"Cassie, I know you're scared. But we can't go right in trying to fix him. We could end up making it worse, and he could bleed out. If we stop the bleeding first, we have a shot at getting him through this intact."

Cassandra once again swallowed against the rising vomit in her throat at the mere suggestion that Jake would have to be cut apart, no longer whole. She knew she would love him with the entirety of her heart, mind, and soul no matter what happened, but she couldn't even begin to think of how this would damage him, how it would damage how he thought of himself and his place here in the Library with them, with her. Jacob Stone was only just beginning to allow himself to be himself. If he lost his leg…would he think he lost who he was?

This wasn't like getting beat up by the average bad guys, or in the bar brawls he loved so much. This was a wound caused by powerful magic. Sure, he knew the dangers of this job (they all did), but that didn't mean that they had to egg death on like this, right? Jacob had nearly died protecting them, but who was protecting him

Sometimes she wondered if there had been any progress made over the last few years, if he still thought he could carry the whole world on his shoulders and not let the burden fall to the rest of them. But then she remembered these last few weeks, when the two of them had managed to have some private moments, and before that when there was this underlying tension between them that always seemed to mean something more. Now, with everything out in the open, they hadn't done much more than hold hands, or hold each other, or steal the far to brief kiss here and there. But there was so much trust and vulnerability and openness about Jake now that their feelings were clear. Perhaps this was his way of letting his walls come down. Cassandra knew she was changing, too, by being with him, and it thrilled her. She was loved, and in love, and every time she caught Jake looking at her with those puppy dog eyes, she swooned. Every time his calloused hands touched her skin, she got goosebumps and suddenly she craved more contact, more skin. She didn't want these feelings to end. She didn't want another thing she loved to be torn from her. She deserved to be happy. Jake deserved to be happy.

Cassandra let the papers in her arms fall to the ground as she raced out to the kitchen, heading for the drawers of hand towels.

"Stop the bleeding." she murmured to herself. "We can stop the bleeding. And then Jake will be okay and he'll wake up and try not to groan in pain because he'll think that makes him weak, which is stupid but he's stubborn like that. And then I can take his hand and kiss his lips gently and tell him he was so brave and I - I love him and he'll tell me he loves me too and call me darlin and we can fix him. Yeah. It will be okay. And then we can talk and - and do whatever we want and be happy. Happy Ever After." Cassandra rambled to herself, just words flowing endlessly, but it calmed her down as she piled a dozen towels in her arms before racing back.

"I got towels!" she yelled as she burst through the door. Baird came forward and grabbed several from her. "How is he?"

"Still alive, and that's what I'm holding on to right now." Baird said shortly. "Flynn, Jones, come take some of these and lay them out where he's wounded. Wrap them tight and press down. I have tape and some Ace Bandages. We're going to make a makeshift tourniquet around his leg. Cassandra, see if you can try and wake him."

"Wake him?" Cassandra looked at her love's face. If he was awake, he would be in pain, bleeding out and dying. He would know how scared she was and it would break his heart. Wouldn't it be better if he couldn't feel all that?

"Cassandra, the longer he stays unconscious, the harder it will be to wake him up. At some point, it won't matter of we fix him because he'll be too far gone to bring back. Do you understand me?"

"Cassandra, the thought that you would die without knowing how I felt nearly killed me. All I could think about was how I missed my chance to touch you one more time, or hear your laugh, or see you smile. I love you, Cassandra Cillian. I love you so much, it hurts."

Cassandra heard Jake's voice in her head, telling her he loved her for the first time. It had been right after they captured Eros in the Library. She remembered the feeling of his lips on hers for the first time, and every time since. It had been only a short time, she knew, but she had known him for years now, and loved him what seemed like forever. She thought what life would be life without his laugh, how his eyes crinkled at the corners when he smiled, how he called her Cassie…how he held her and made her yearn for everything she had once given up hope of having.

"Jake, you need to wake up." Cassandra whispered, looking at the still, pale features of his face. "Jake…remember what you told me? How all you wanted was to touch me one more time, see my smile and hear my laugh? Please, Jake. Please, wake up." she could feel the tears on her face, but she didn't care. "We only just…we only just started to….to let ourselves love each other. Don't leave me without your love."

"Colonel Baird!" Jenkins frantic voice broke the tense silence that had wrapped around them. Cassandra looked up to see the caretaker running forward, a vial in one hand and some kind of necklace in the other. "I believe I have your solution, as well as your next location for the following idol."

"Wait…what?" Baird blinked in surprise. "What do you mean you have a solution, and the next Greek idol? How?"

"You can't mean we're going out." Cassandra interrupted. "We can't leave Jake like this! I won't! No, the rest of the world can wait! I don't care if it is the Apocalypse, again, but you know what? I've had enough! Enough saving the world. Let the world save itself this one time. This one time, can't we just….save ourselves? Can't we try and focus on saving Jake?"

"Ms. Cillian, that's what I'm doing." Jenkins said, not unkindly. "Listen quick. See this?" he held up the vial. "The elixir that cures any wounds not made from a magical weapon."

"But it was the sword of Hercules." Ezekiel said.

"Yes, so while this elixir will not cure him, it will replenish some of his blood supply, and slow the bleeding immensely, giving us more time to work." Jenkins placed the vial down on the table next to Jake's head. He then held up the necklace, which was a rather odd sort of trinket, Cassandra thought. It was something she might actually wear with one of her many colorful ensembles. It was rounded with knobs like on a watch, and it held a glass hourglass in the center.

"What exactly is that?" Baird peered at it closely.

"A Time Turner." Jenkins said. "Now, the mechanisms on this artifact are tricky, but I believe I can use it to borrow some time, as you put it, Colonel. Now, the accurate use of this trinket is to send one back in time. However, as that is hardly beneficial to us, I can alter the effects of the artifact so that instead, it will suspend time. Or, rather, it will suspend Mr. Stone in time so that his condition will not better or worsen while you are gone."

"And where exactly are we going?" Ezekiel cut in. "Another job? Look, Stone and me, we've had our differences. But he's my best mate. He's Baird's right hand, Flynn's brother, Cassandra's boyfriend. He's a Librarian. He's one of us, our family. And we don't leave each other to die. The job doesn't come before any one of us."

"Actually, it does." Jenkins said sadly. "It always does. But you are not listening to me. I am not sending you out like good little soldiers leaving the wounded to wither. I am sending you after the idol that could very well save Mr. Stone's life."

Cassandra tightened the straps her of satchel, pulling the bag closer to her, feeling the thrum of Pandora's Box against her leg. She was nervous, and she knew Flynn and Ezekiel were, too. The three of them had decided to head after the next idol, leaving Baird and Jenkins together to work over Jake. As much as Cassandra hated leaving his side, especially now, she knew she would be of better use going after the Ikhthyokentauroi.

Right now, the back door had dumped them in a seemingly abandoned store in Deer Park, Long Island. Instead of running around like chickens with their heads cut off, Cassandra has insisted that they take advantage of the lack of prying eyes and take a minute to figure out exactly what they were up against, based on their research and what Jenkins had told them before they left.

"Alright, let's go through this quickly." Flynn said. "Stone has about ninety minutes of protected time before he continues to bleed out, so we need to find these guys as quickly as possible."

"Right." Cassandra shook herself, partly to shake the daze of fear she had over her, and partly to warm herself. Though it was June, it was Long Island and they were close to the Long Island Sound, so the wind chill was actually making her shiver. "The Ikhthyokentauroi. According to the lore, they are centurion sea gods with the bodies of men, the front quarters of horses and then serpentine tails of fish. They were crowns made of lobster claws and are considered wise teachers and healers."

"Yes, and according to the research you and Stone did on the Box, we're missing two of them from Olympus. Bythos and Aphros." Flynn recited, pacing the small shop with boundless energy. "Bythos is the Ichthyocentaur of the sea depths, and Aphros is the one of sea foam, meaning if we can locate one, the other will not be far off."

"Okay, so we know all that." Ezekiel said. "And what about what Jenkins was saying? About Pisces?"

"The idols are just like Crius." Cassandra reminded him. "He was part of a constellation. The Ikhthyokentauroi are the Pisces constellation, meaning that they hold all the traits of the Zodiac as well as what's relayed in their lore. So Pisces - " Cassandra blinked and suddenly neon numbers and lines and shapes swirled before her vision, invisible to everyone else. "Pisces is the twelfth and final sign in the zodiac."

"They are selfless, spiritual, focused on their "inner journey"." Flynn interrupted. "They always places great weight on everything they say, never taking a single thing for granted. They're always willing to help others without wishing anything in return, which will come in our favor if these idols are literal to the sign. It's a water sign, artistic and intuition…"

"So basically, we're looking for super helpful man-horse-fish hybrids who like to meditate?" Ezekiel cracked, and Cassandra actually managed a small smile. Flynn barely registered the joke, completely lost in thought.

"Okay. So, clearly, since they're restricted by water, we have to head for the Sound, which is the only body of water in the area that has a chance of having both depth and foam. Let's go!"

"Oh - Flynn!" Cassandra and Ezekiel stumbled after him as he took off out the shop and then abruptly headed down the street. "Wait!"

"Come on, Librarians! No time to waste!"

"Can someone explain to me why we're on Long Island?" Ezekiel groused as they ran after Flynn. "I mean, seriously. If these two are sea gods, why aren't they, I don't know, by the actual sea?"

"Because of Camp Half Blood." Flynn said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

"Camp what?" Cassandra squeaked.

"Are you kidding me?" Ezekiel hooted. "That thing from the Percy Jackson books? That's real too?"

"All the stories are true, Mr. Jones." Flynn said in a pompous imitation of Jenkins. "Camp Half Blood is a Greek demigod training facility located on Long Island Sound. Basically, it's been abandoned for millennia, ever since Olympus was seized and imprisoned, but the location still remains as an incredibly powerful lay line. Not to mention that the centaurs used to be teachers there, and centaurs are half siblings to the Ikhthyokentauroi, so -"

"So you figured that the two sea-centaurs would be there where their brothers used to be and they'd be okay with us crashing their awkward family reunion?" Ezekiel snarked, but Flynn missed the sarcasm.

"More or less, Jones, more or less." Flynn surmised. "We don't have a lot of wiggle room to be wrong here, so I took the best chance with what information we had."

"Let's go." Cassandra eased her way past the two men and strode forward, holding her satchel and the Box to her chest. "We got a Stone to save."

"That was weird." Ezekiel said.

"Do I sound like that?" Flynn asked, waving his arm at Cassandra's retreating back. "Like -"

"A ginormous dork?" Ezekiel finished, walking ahead of the lead Librarian. "Yep. All the time."

"Oh."

They were at the edge of the Long Island Sound, underneath a rotting boardwalk. It was cooler down here than it had been above, and Cassandra was shivering in her light cardigan. The sun was going down, and Cassandra checked her watch again. They had forty minutes left until Jake left the suspension and continued bleeding out. They needed to hurry, but the idols were still yet to show themselves.

"What's taking so long?" She whined.

"I don't know." Flynn murmured. "They should have sensed up by now, and come forward."

"Maybe we have to call them. Like by their name." Ezekiel said. "One of them is probably at the bottom of the ocean after all."

"No, no, no… that's not it." Flynn dismissed with a wave of his hand. "They're the wisest of all beings, teachers. They should feel our need and want to help. Selfless and designed to relieve pain. They can feel our obvious need. So why…"

"Wait." Cassandra said. "Ezekiel's right. We have to ask."

"Huh?"

"We have to ask for their help." Cassandra said. "You said they're teachers. Teachers are supposed to help. That's their job. But they can't do anything if you don't ask. You have to be open to what they have to say, to accept their solution, even if it's not what you want to hear. That's what Jake would say."

"Actually, that's sort of what I said." Ezekiel said, but shut his mouth with an audible click at Cassandra's look. "Right. Not important."

Cassandra walked forward to the edge of the water, where the waves were barely making a froth in the sand.

"Aphros! Bythos! We seek help!"

Suddenly, the waves began to whip and foam at her feet, and she scrambled backwards. The three Libraians watched as a whirpool formed right underneath the dock, a suction of blue-black water reaching to the depths of the Sound. It kept opening and opening until it was seemingly fathomless, and then something began to rise out of it. Tips of lobster claw crowns followed by the stern and kind countenance of a man, bare chested and covered in barnacles. As he rose higher, Cassandra noticed that the part of him that was human ended around his waist, and then she saw the brown fur stippling of horse. He stopped rising before he was completely out of the water, but Cassandra knew that eventually she would see the fish tail he had hidden beneath the waves. Beside him, the foam from the waves swirled and piled high, higher than where the first creature stood, until the foam morphed itself into a symmetrical image of the first.

"Bythos, idol of the sea-depths." Flynn said formally. "And Aphros, of the sea - foam.

Thank you for answering our call for help."

"Our purpose is to give guidance to those who ask." Bythos said, his voice blurred like running water. "What is is that you seek?"

"Our - our friend," Cassandra stuttered. "He's hurt. Very badly. Dying. He was injured by Hercules and now we don't know how to heal him. We seek your guidance in how to save our friend. Please. I can't lose him."

"She loves him." Aphros said, his voice lighter like bubbles. "And a love that strong deserves a chance to flourish."

"Indeed." Bythos agreed. Slowly he reached down and ran his hand through the water around him, swirling it in small ripples. Gently, Cassandra watched as a small vial was raised from the waves and one carried it to shore. She picked it up and wondered at the almost black liquid inside the crystal bottle. "This will heal his physical wounds without any repercussions. However, I warn you that his mental state is his alone to heal from."

Cassandra nodded, though she swallowed against a lump in her throat. This had to work. There was no other choice.

"I sense there is more you three have come here for." Bythos said, eyeing them blankly. Flynn cleared his throat and glanced at the bag in Cassandra's arms where the Box hid.

"Yes. Yes, there is more. You see, we are The Librarians." Flynn began, but before he got any further, Aphros hissed and the froth are higher.

"Brother, NO!"

Suddenly, a wave of sea -foam rose above them and came crashing down, startlingly cold and knocking them off their feet. Cassandra lost her grip on her bag and it was torn form her grasp. She tried to yell out, opening her mouth, but she sucked in a mouthful of sea water and began to cough and choke, unable to take in any air. She tried to open her eyes, but the water stung and it was too murky to make out any shapes. Her limbs felt heavy and numb, and Cassandra had the fearful vision of her drowning, lost to the ocean as Jake bled out miles away, never knowing how hard she was trying to save him.

Then, it all stopped. She was lying face down in the sand, hacking and wheezing, throwing up lungfuls of salt water. Beside her, Ezekiel and Flynn were doing the same.

"I am so sorry." Bythos's voice said behind them. Fearful, Cassandra whirled around, despite her frozen and aching muscles, but she only say Bythos still standing further out in the water. Aphros was gone. "My brother was only acting out of fear and what he thought best for the two of us. He meant no real malice."

"What - what -?" Ezekiel wheezed but he resorted to a fit of coughing.

"He feared what was in your bag, Librarians." Bythos said. He held up the satchel, now completely waterlogged. "As do I, but I know why you came. I know your reason for existing and why you came to us, both selfishly and unselfishly."

"Please…" Cassandra said hoarsely. "We're trying to save millions of people. Pandora's Box -"

"Is a prison." Bythos said, but there was only truth in his voice. "But it is a necessary prison, isn't it? You called to us for help, for your friend and for the world. You wish to save them all, and as a teacher, I cannot refuse to help if I see a possible solution. I gave you what you need to help your friend, and now I will give you what you need to help the world."

And Bythos raised the bag in the air, and once more there was an incredible surge of water, though it crashed away from the shivering Librarians, submerging him in the waves. For a minute, all that was visible was the bag holding Pandora's Box inside a tower of brackish water, but then it all gently fell apart, and Cassandra's bag washed up right to the sand, and all was quiet underneath the boardwalk.