Melt Your Heart

Hi :)

Firstly, I just wanted to say that although I'm disappointed that Good Witch has been cancelled - I have no intention of stopping writing about Cassie, Sam, and the rest of Middleton. Weirdly, the news of the cancellation has actually inspired me to write more, and I have a few things in progress and up my sleeve - plus a lot more ideas for this fic.

Secondly, there was supposed to be a ~lot more happening in this chapter, but it was just getting so ridiculously long that I decided to carve off a chunk so you could have an update on the one year anniversary of this fic being published - so thank you for all the encouragement & support :)

Thirdly, the title of this chapter comes from an AC/DC song, because I have decreed that Sam Radford is a classic rock fan and, if Hallmark don't like it, they can sue me! ;)

Chapter 20: Caught in a Witch's Spell

Sam was barely inside his house, with the lights on and the front door locked, when his cell phone started to vibrate in his jacket pocket. He took it out and smiled when he saw Cassie's name on the caller display, convinced she was going to tell him the twins had left something vitally important in his car. Or to thank him, again, for such a lovely day.

It really had been wonderful.

But when he picked up the call, all he could hear was her panicked breathing.

"Cassie, what's wrong?" he demanded, jumping straight into 'Doctor Radford' mode.

"It's Abigail…oh, Sam, please come…"

Sam was already reaching for the keys he had just set down on the kitchen table, grateful that he hadn't had time to take off his coat and shoes.

"I'll be right there Cassie, I'm on my way right now," he continued, his voice low and soothing now. He focused on her, concentrating on not increasing her panic, which had the knock-on effect of stopping him from worrying about Abigail. She had been perfectly fine when they'd left this morning, hadn't she?

"In here!" Cassie called when she heard the front door open and shut. She didn't want to risk waking up the twins – she didn't want either of them to see Abigail like this, or her this close to losing her usual cool.

Sam's skidded to a halt, just shy of the spilled wine.

"Careful, mind the glass," she instructed and, in any other circumstance, Sam would have raised his eyebrows at having Cassie's 'mom' tone used on him.

He walked around the puddle of chardonnay, and knelt beside Cassie on the rug.
"Is this how you found her?" Sam asked, rolling up his sleeves and setting to work finding Abigail's pulse. It was weak, but it was there.

Cassie nodded, ashamed to realise that tears were swimming in her eyes.

"Why don't you go and get me some water from the kitchen, a nice big blanket?" Sam suggested, taking over the mantle for 'parental voice of calm'.

She nodded again, grateful of something to do. Her mind had just gone blank. She couldn't remember a single thing from the first aid course Sam had taught at the school. He would probably remind her of that sooner or later.

It wasn't because she hadn't paid attention, or learned anything.

It was the bone-deep, soul-crushing flashbacks to Jake.

Losing Jake.

She took several deep breaths as she turned on the tap, bracing herself against the sink with both hands as she fought for control.

She was so grateful that Sam was here. Not just because he was a medical professional, but because he was him.

She might still be a little confused about what she felt for him, but she knew without a shadow of a doubt that she trusted him – with her life, with Abigail's, and with the twins'.

She came back into the room with a glass of water and a thick afghan blanket, placing them on the edge of the couch. Ascertaining that nothing was broken, Sam had manoeuvred Abigail onto the couch, propping her up on a throw pillow. He'd previously found them to be useless accessories, but was in the process of changing his mind.

Especially when he saw Abigail's eyelids start to flutter.

Cassie stepped forward, wincing as a shard of glass wedged itself into the sole of her boot. Later she'd also be grateful that she hadn't had time to take her shoes off either.

"Hey, did you kids have fun?" Abigail asked, bleary-eyed.

"Abigail, what happened?" Cassie demanded, almost pushing Sam out of the way in her haste to get to cousin's side.

"I…" Abigail trailed off, looking hopelessly up and Sam who just shrugged. "I guess I must have dozed off…"

"Abigail, you were unconscious."

Cassie looked at Sam, his arms folded across his chest and a stern expression on his face. Normally she would have enjoyed seeing him in 'Doctor Radford' mode, but for right now she was far too anxious to pay it much heed.

"Look, I might've been…over-doing things a bit lately, but I'm fine," she insisted, trying to swing her legs around so she was in a seated position.

The motion nearly sent her into another blackout.

"I don't need a hospital, or a doctor – no offence, Sam, - I probably just need a good night's sleep," she hesitated. "I might have that good night's sleep right here on the couch, though."
Sam rolled his eyes. "You should probably get checked over…"

"You can check me over any time you like Sam, I just think it'll make my cousin a little jealous," she grinned, and then winced at the stabbing pain in her temples.
Whoa, yeah. She really had overdone it.

Another wave of dizziness washed over, and she blinked to clear her blurry vision. It didn't work.

She felt the weight of unconscious drag her down, and the last thing she saw before she passed out again was Cassie's concerned face.

"We need to get her to a hospital, Cassie," he said, looking up at her from his kneeling position beside the couch. His eyes were calm but serious, and somehow that panicked Cassie more.

She blanched. If Sam thought Abigail needed to go to the hospital then something must be really wrong surely? As if picking up on her fear, not to mention the widening of her dark eyes, he reached up to squeeze her hand.

"Just to be on the safe side, okay?" he continued. "She's young, she's fit and healthy, but we should get this checked out."

Cassie nodded. His voice was like a siren song and she could see why his patients but all of their faith in him.

"I'll come with you," she told him, holding his gaze and then looking away. "Oh, the twins."
Why wasn't Jake here? Why did he have to leave her alone like this? She'd never imagined that she would ever end up a single parent, and even after all these months she wasn't used to it.

"Cassie," he said, his was calm and level and it brought her back to herself, grounded her. "You have people here who care about you – you have family – if you called Stephanie, or Martha…they'd come."

He was not going to add Ryan to that list, but there was a moment of perverse pleasure in the middle of this catastrophe when he pictured the other man trying to wrangle Catherine Russell. She would run circles around him.

"Okay," she agreed softly. "Okay, I'll do it."

When she came back downstairs from telling the twins – briefly – what was happening, Sam was waiting for her. Wordlessly, he wrapped her in his arms and just held her, pressing a kiss to her soft, dark hair. She seemed to absorb strength from embrace so that when they broke apart she felt calmer, steadier.

"Stephanie's here," she said softly, moving away from him to open the front door.

She wasn't sure she had ever been more glad to see the blonde bistro owner.

"Make sure you let me know as soon as you know anything," Stephanie said, taking both of Cassie's hands.

"I will," Cassie replied, giving Stephanie's hands a gentle squeeze. "Thank you so much for doing this."

"Of course. Any time."

From the doorway where he was waiting for the ambulance, Sam gave a knowing smile. You didn't always need to have Merriwick blood to be in the possession of good intuition.

"You go on with Abigail," Sam suggested when the ambulance arrived and two burly paramedics were loading the younger woman onto a stretcher. "I'll follow in my car."
Cassie blinked away the memories that were threatening to overwhelm her.

"I'd rather ride with you."

He thought he'd managed to hide his millisecond of surprise, but it was pointless trying to conceal anything from Cassie. It made sense to him, though. She hadn't yet confided in him the truth of what had happened to Jake – what had happened to leave her a widow – but it wasn't a stretch to assume that this was triggering for her. A fierce rush of over-protectiveness welled up inside him and, though it was Abigail who was currently in distress, it was Cassie who was at forefront of his mind.

"Of course," he agreed simply.

Cassie exhaled – she'd been sure that he would question her, debate with her but she should have known, and not just because of her gifts of perceptions, but because she knew him and knew what kind of man he was. But she was too upset right now for rational thinking.

They barely spoke to each other on the drive to the hospital. It seemed like a lifetime ago that they were coming back from such a perfect family day together, when in reality the engine hadn't even had time to fully cool when Sam started up the car again.
What was the use of this gift she had if it didn't let her see something like this before it happened, or at least give her some kind of indication of whether everything was going to be okay or not? She wished she could stop her thoughts from racing a mile a minute, or feeling like she was about to pass out, too.

She could feel her breath getting shallower, her chest tightening, so she closed her eyes. She tried to focus on inhaling and exhaling, tried to distract herself from the terrifying intrusive thoughts. Breathing deeply helped – of course it did, but it was Sam's warm hand on hers that kept the panic attack at bay.

For Cassie the rest of the journey, following Sam to the ER, sipping a terrible cup of tea in the frenetically busy waiting room, was a blur. She'd be happy to never get those memories back.

The relief she felt went Sam appeared – having traded his plaid shirt and jeans for a pair of scrubs – nearly had her running into his arms, wanting to fall into him. But again, his presence steadied her.

"She's awake now," he reassured her, answering the question Cassie had been afraid to ask.

He took her hand and led her to the recovery ward, and she let him guide her, trying to think only about seeing Abigail and the reassuring grip of Sam's fingers, instead of the crushing weight of loss she felt whenever she breathed in the universal aroma of the hospital. She didn't have the time nor the energy to lose herself in the past, Abigail needed her to be here for her now.

When they reached Abigail's bedside a young nurse was flipping through her medical chart, but she scurried away with a nod of deference to Sam.

"I'll leave you two to talk," he said, pressing a chaste kiss to Cassie's forehead before drawing the curtain around Abigail's bed.

Now it was just the two of them, and they had some modicum of privacy, Cassie sat down in the plastic chair next to Abigail's bed. Her cousin looked pale, and her dark auburn fanned across the pillow contrasted with the starched white linen, but her eyes were open and some of their usual sparkle had returned.

"You gave us quite a scare," Cassie said, aiming for levity but falling short by a mile.
Abigail tried to sit up and, again, thought better of it. Apparently magic had some very real world (and frustratingly mundane) consequences.

"Now that it's just us, are you going to tell me what's really going on?"

The 'mom' voice was back.

Abigail winced, rubbing at her still-throbbing temples. Of course Cassie would cotton onto the fact this was less a medical issue and more a Merriwick one.

"I'm sorry for scaring you but, I guess I've just been…pushing it, lately," she shrugged, and regretted it.

"Well, I'm here. I've got more time on my hands now the twins are settled at school, and we haven't really had that many guests lately…so I can look at the books, and help you out in the flower shop whenever you need it," said replied, her tone more gentle now. She had felt for a while that Abigail wasn't letting her pull her weight.

"It's not that," Abigail sighed. "I haven't been overdoing it with work…I've been…"

Cassie frowned. "You've been what?"

She sighed again, dramatically this time. She was going to have to spell this out, wasn't she? Pun halfway intended.

"Our…gifts, they work in different ways. It seems to me that you can sense things before they happen…what people are feeling…mine is more," she paused, the tiniest flicker of a wicked grin tugging at her lips. "Manipulative."

Cassie smiled wryly. "Doesn't sound like the Abigail I know."

"I've been trying to keep too many balls in the air, and I guess I just dropped a few?"

"Abigail, you could have seriously hurt yourself!" Cassie cried, unsure whether she wanted to reach out to comfort her cousin, or shake her. She didn't want to get thrown out of the hospital before she had all of the answers, though. "You're lucky that Sam is a doctor here and everyone seems to listen to him, otherwise you would have had to explain that you're sick because you've been doing too much magic!" She hissed the last word under her breath, surprised by this rush of rage. It certainly beat the impotent fear of a couple of hours ago.

"I just know what it's like living in a small town…everyone's up in your business all the time. I just thought it would be nice for you to have some time to settle in… for you and Sam to just be together, especially after you had to find out about the Merriwicks the way you did," she explained.

Calmer now, and immeasurably touched, Cassie reached for Abigail's hand.

"I appreciate the thought Abigail, I really do, but it's not necessary," she assured her, linking their fingers. "I can look after myself."

"Oh, I know you can," she replied, with as much fire as she could currently muster. "But sometimes I can feel how sad you still are about Jake, and… well, honestly Cassie, it rips me in half. And then you started to feel things for Sam, but I could tell you were trying to shut it down. I just wanted to make sure you both gave it a fair shot."

Cassie smiled, looking down at their entwined hands.

"You don't need to worry about us, Abigail, we're doing just fine."

Abigail seemed to brighten at this. "Yeah?" she asked.

Cassie stood up and arranged the blanket around her cousin, tucking her in the way she would if she was James or Catherine.

"I'll tell you all about our day when you've had some rest," she promised. "That's if the twins don't beat me to it."

"The twins? Are they okay?" she asked, rubbing at her forehead again. "I kind of ruined their perfect day out, didn't I?"

"You didn't ruin anything," Cassie replied reassuringly. "And they're both fine. Stephanie came over to take care of them – she sends her love."

"Thanks Cassie," Abigail smiled, then smothered a yawn. "Go and get some rest. I'm going to be fine."

Cassie leaned over and kissed Abigail's brow, tucking a loose strand of hair behind her ear.
Stepping out from behind the curtain, she was surprised to see Sam waiting for her. Now that the present danger had passed, she took a moment – just a moment – to appreciate the way he looked in his scrubs. She might be a witch, but she was still very much a human woman.

"Are you ready for me to take you home?" he asked, noticing how tired and pale she looked under the fluorescent lights.

She gripped his hands, grateful that she hadn't had to go through this alone.
"Please," she replied, and she let him lead her back out to where he'd left his car.

He wanted to ask her about Abigail, about what was really wrong with the younger Merriwick, but Cassie was sound asleep before he'd even pulled out of the parking lot.

His curiosity would have to wait.