Melt Your Heart

I hope this chapter redeems me after the last one ;)

Again, sorry for the delay in updating. NaNoWriMo broke my brain, and then it was full pelt into Christmas. So, 5 days before Christmas, I present you with the Halloween chapter of this fic. (At this rate, the Christmas chapter will be out at Easter!)

Thank you to anyone out there who is still following along with this. I appreciate you more than you know. Wishing you all a Merry Christmas & happy holidays if you celebrate, or just have a really fab weekend if you don't! Xx

Chapter 24: I Put a Spell on You

"Is the coast clear?" Abigail asked, padding across the kitchen floor in her fuzzy socks. After helping the twins to get ready for bed she had thought what the heck and put her own pyjamas on.

"Yeah, he's gone," Cassie confirmed.

Abigail hadn't needed to ask this; she had felt the anger and hurt radiate from Sam as if it was her own pain. The two of them were doing their level best to drive her to distraction.

"For what it's worth," she said, never one to mince her words regardless of whether her opinion had been sought or not. "I think you're making a mistake."

Abigail's voice was muffled now as she rummaged in the kitchen cupboard for the bottle of good scotch she always kept in case of emergencies. Cassie was family, but Sam was her friend and she'd known him a great deal longer.

"I understand why you're doing it," she continued. "But I still think it's a mistake."

Cassie watched as Abigail finally – triumphantly – pulled the bottle from the back of the cupboard. She couldn't bring herself to argue with Abigail, mostly because she didn't believe that the younger woman was wrong.

"I'll see you later," Abigail told her, aware that her cousin had said three, and only three, words to her since Sam had left. She slipped a long coat on over her pyjamas, and gripped the neck of the bottle tightly. It hurt her to leave Cassie when she could see the pain reflected in her dark eyes, but she had to do what she had to do.

Cassie sighed into the quiet, empty kitchen once Abigail was gone. She had made her bed, she thought, crossing the room to fill the kettle at the sink, and now she had to lay in it. Figuratively anyway, she had far too much to get done before she could even think about indulging in the luxury of actually sleeping.

She had a feeling that sleep wouldn't come easily to her that night anyway.

And for that she only had herself to blame.

The week slipped by.

Caught up in the kids, the B&B, plans for the shop and – of course, Halloween – Cassie barely had a moment to herself. She hardly had time to miss Sam, let alone think about him.

When she'd heard people refer to Martha Tinsdale as a bit of a tyrant (behind her back, obviously), she had thought they were overreacting, but she was beginning to change her tune on that.

Give someone a little bit of power and…

She hadn't seen Sam once.

Hadn't asked Abigail anything about him after she'd returned from his house, the bottle of scotch considerably lighter.

It turned out that laying in the bed that you made could be cold.

And lonely.

Unless your five year old twins decided to crawl in with you.

Neither James nor Catherine mentioned Sam's absence that week, but they'd already grown used to his strange hours at the hospital (as a policeman, their father had worked odd shifts too, so it hadn't been much of an adjustment) and that he often visited after they were both in bed.

Cassie hoped that Sam meant what he'd said and that he wanted to still have a role in the twins' lives, but she wouldn't blame him if he didn't want to be around any of them at the moment.

Still, heart aching as it was, Cassie wouldn't have changed her decision – she just wished she could have made it easier on Sam.

"Not to be crude, but you look like someone took a crap in your cornflakes this morning."

The comment startled Sam, and shook a reluctant laugh out of him.

"I had breakfast in the canteen, so it is possible," he joked back, but he knew that the smile didn't reach his eyes and it didn't dispel the look of concern in his colleague's eyes.

"Everything alright, Sam?" The attending, a doctor Sam had known since he had first started working at Hillcrest, put her hand on his shoulder.

"Yeah, just tired," he lied. Well, it was a half-truth. He hadn't been sleeping well, and he wished that was the cause of his low mood. He hadn't told anyone at the hospital that he was seeing Cassie, they were far enough outside of Middleton that many of his colleagues were from different surrounding towns. It wasn't that he had wanted to keep their relationship a secret, it had just seemed too precious, too fragile, to share.

And now he was glad that he hadn't.

He just didn't seem to be able to shake the feeling of ennui that had settled in since he had left Grey House on Tuesday evening.

Not even Abigail's idea of tea and sympathy – which involved more scotch that he'd consumed in a long time – had helped. He'd appreciated the gesture all the same, especially as he had expected her to take, well, not Cassie's side exactly, but he had expected her to choose family loyalty.

He missed her, though.

Fiercely.

And the twins.

But he'd stayed away, giving them all some breathing space.

It didn't make him feel any better though.

With Halloween only days away he knew he would have to face them – her – sooner or later.

Neither broken hearts nor broken bones excluded you from celebrating Halloween in Middleton.

It honestly wasn't worth risking Martha's ire.

Again.

Cassie was up early on Saturday morning, clearing the fallen leaves from the outdoor table so that she could set the twins up with carving stations for their pumpkins.

Halloween was bittersweet for her.

Jake hadn't been a fan, and they'd not spent many Halloweens together during the course of their relationship. He had always been busy – crime, even if it was chasing kids away from properties before they could egg or 'TP' them – always seemed to increase, so he was often working or on call.

But he always made time to help Cassie and the twins with the pumpkin carving, although his own attempts left something to be desired.

She was looking forward to this, and she knew the twins were too, but the loss physically hurt today. It didn't help when she heard Sam's car start up in the driveway, knowing that he was so close but that she'd pushed him so far away had her knuckling tears away before the twins came down for breakfast.

She'd put on a brave face for them, just like she'd been doing for the better part of the last two years.

"Strange request," Abigail began without preamble, approaching the counter at The Bistro. "But would you happen to own a cauldron?"

Stephanie laughed, surprised. "I have a KitchenAid and George Forman grill, but no cauldron, sorry."

She was used to these strange, impromptu visits from Abigail, but the other woman still had the ability to throw her for a loop.

"I thought it was a long shot," Abigail conceded, moving along the counter to examine the display of pastries that had recently been put out.

"May I ask why?" Stephanie asked, a patient, amused smile playing at her lips.

Abigail shrugged. "Just finishing touches for our Halloween costumes," she explained. "Cassie and I are going as witches."

"Of course you are," Stephanie replied.

"There are some people in town who probably think I don't need a costume for that," Abigail admitted, glancing briefly across at the woman whose husband had tried, quite persistently, in fact to flirt with her when he'd come to buy his wife's anniversary bouquet.

"Well, you can be quite bewitching when you choose to be," Stephanie replied, wiggling her nose Samantha Stephens style.

Abigail ignored this. Sometimes, even with all the Merriwick magic she possessed, she couldn't for the life of her decipher if Stephanie was just engaging her in friendly banter, or if she was flirting with her.

One day she would have to do something about that. After all, Abigail Pershing was a lot of things, but shy and retiring were neither of them.

For now, she had enough going on in her own life without complicating things.

She'd learned that lesson vicariously through Cassie.

"So, how are the Halloween cupcakes coming on?" she asked instead.

Cake was always a safer topic of conversation, especially where Stephanie was concerned.

"Where is Sam?"

Cassie cringed a little at Catherine's bold, no nonsense question. Tact and five year olds was not a combination that paired well together.

"He has to work today, sweetie," Cassie explained, glad that this was the honest truth.

"He said he'd help us to carve pumpkins," James added, pouting.

"He promised."

She was completely outnumbered, and feared this would only get worse as they got older.

"You both know that Sam has a very important job," she gently explained to them. "And sometimes he's not going to be able to be here, even when you really want him to be."

"Like Daddy?" James asked, ripping what remained of Cassie's heart straight down the middle.

"Like Daddy," she confirmed, amazed that her voice didn't shake, crack, or break.

Absurdly, this seemed to satisfy the twins and they had a lovely time choosing which designs to carve on their hollowed-out pumpkins (Cassie had wisely done that part of the preparation before either of the twins were awake to save herself the mess), but she couldn't help feeling the need to go off somewhere alone and just sob.

For Jake.

For Sam.

And for everything that had been taken from her children.

But there was a whole weekend of Halloween activities ahead of her, and Martha Tinsdale would not be denied.

On Sunday afternoon, Sam was finishing up his final rounds for the day before he handed over to the next shift. Despite the hard, heavy week, he found that he was actually looking forward to the annual Middleton Halloween parade and party. The fact that this might have something to do with his neighbour had not escaped Sam, and he wasn't quite sure what to do with that. There was no bad blood between him and Cassie, and she had promised not to keep her children from him, but he honestly didn't know where they stood.

Frankly, he never had.

But neither of them had seen this coming.

Not even Abigail had predicted this when she had first told Sam that her long-lost cousin and her two children were moving to Middleton, and Ms Pershing had a certain way of just knowing things.

He was all set to leave the hospital at a sensible time, shower, change into his costume (he hated this part, but he hated being subject to Martha's wrath even more) and be at the Halloween party on time.

But fate, karma, or whatever it was, had other plans for Doctor Radford.

He should have been grateful, he supposed, as the gurneys were wheeled into the ER, because it meant the awkwardness at seeing Cassie again could now be avoided.

He'd wanted to see her though, just to get things straight between them, and, damn it, he wanted to see the twins. They'd come to mean more to the man who thought he'd never be a father than he could have imagined.

"Thank you for sticking around to help us out," Doctor Wilson, the ER attending, said gratefully. "Halloween is always a nightmare, pun very much intended."

"Don't worry," Sam replied with a tired smile. "It's not my first rodeo."

With a shared look of empathy, Sam and Wilson got down to business.

Cassie had to admit that everything looked perfect. It had been worth every ounce of stress and the sleepless nights and the endless to-do lists. And, of course, Martha's constant micro-managing. But they'd made it, and everything had gone off without a hitch.

Except Sam wasn't there.

She had just assumed he would be. He might profess to not enjoy town events, but there was no way he'd miss the annual Halloween party. But she hasn't seen him all week, and she felt like she'd lost the right to ask him whether he was going to be attending or not. At least James and Catherine were too busy arguing over who'd collected the most candy to notice that Sam was missing.

Abigail, also dressed as a witch, because it was important to honour your heritage apparently, approached Cassie from behind and offered her cousin a glass of wine.

"He sent me a message," she told Cassie without preamble. "He's caught up at the hospital and he's not going to make it." She held up a finger before Cassie could get a word in. "Don't even try to tell me that wasn't what you were thinking about."

"Fine, I won't," Cassie said with a sigh, but it was a good natured one. Abigail had been a little frosty toward her after she first broke it off with Sam, but she had mellowed over the last few days, seeing how hard the decision had been for Cassie to make, and that her intentions had been good. Abigail also knew all about good intentions and where they inevitably led.

Abigail moved away, threading her way through the guests and disappearing into the crowd. Cassie sighed, sipping at her wine, and wishing that the evening didn't seem a little less magical now that she knew Sam wouldn't be able to make it. She had hoped that they would be able to clear the air, and get back to being neighbours (with a side order of friends), at least for the sake of the twins.

"How are things going with the new place?" Ryan asked, startling Cassie, which was new and unusual. Ever since her discovery about the Merriwick lineage, Cassie had been more in tune with her abilities, but she'd been so busy thinking about Sam that Ryan had blindsided her.

"Keeping me busy," she replied. Part of her was grateful to have a distraction from her thoughts, she just couldn't help but wish that distraction was anyone other than Ryan. "There's a lot to do."

"Well, if you ever need any help…" Ryan offered, letting the sentence hang.

Cassie wasn't surprised that Ryan was hitting on her, she was however surprised that he was putting himself out to try and help her. It made her feel uncomfortable, and she knew she needed to fix this before it ended in awkwardness for both of them.

She could only deal with being on the outs with one person in town at a time, and right now Sam was her priority in that area.

"That's very kind of you," Cassie replied carefully. "But I'm managing quite well, and Abigail has offered to help."

Ryan snorted, not believing her, but if she was willing to lie to him in order to reject him, well, then she could fix up the place by herself.

"Well, don't say I didn't offer," he replied, sidling away as best he could in his costume.

Alone again, Cassie went to check on the twins, hoping they were tired out so she could get away with slipping out early to take them home to bed. To her slight disappointment, she found both James and Catherine enraptured by the Halloween puppet show that Tom was putting on, and she didn't have the heart to pull them away.

She turned back for another trip around the buffet table - Stephanie had absolutely outdone herself - when she sensed him.

Felt him.

Even as she remembered what Abigail had said, she turned, her feet sweeping across the hardwood floor in her ballet flats, her eyes couldn't quite believe it.

But her heart did.

Her heart has quite a lot to say on the matter, it seemed.

Of course the very person he'd lay eyes on when he walked into the Halloween party would be Cassie. He couldn't even be surprised at this point. If fate, or destiny, or whatever kind of bullshit was going on here, really didn't want them to be together, why did they keep getting drawn back into each other's orbits like this?

Honestly, Sam would quite happily have carried on as the grumpy-but-loveable bachelor in town. He'd been fairly satisfied with his life, after all it had been a hell of a lot better than the years he'd endured being married to Linda. He enjoyed his freedom, his job, and he'd made good friends in town.

And if he wanted to get laid, or to eat dinner with a beautiful woman, well, he generally didn't have to work very hard to make that happen.

No, he'd been perfectly fine before Cassie and her children had entered his life, but he didn't want to settle for fine anymore. Even if being apart from her was causing him actual, physical agony.

Typically, she looked beautiful tonight. She always did, but something about her wicked witch Halloween costume added a more sexual edge to her usual appearance. Lust clawed at him, closely followed by another four letter word that coincidently also began with the same letter.

"That's a very original costume," Cassie observed softly as he crossed the room to her.

He looked down at his outfit. It looked like he hadn't made an effort, and he hadn't really. It had been a minor miracle that he'd even made it to the party at all. Instead of heading home to change into his tux (Radford, Sam Radford), he had thrown a clean lab coat over his shirt, tie, and trousers, and had slung his stethoscope around his neck.

"I could say the same about yours," he replied with a sideways grin, indicating her witch's costume - Abigail had insisted they match. "But I won't. You look really beautiful, Cassie."

She swallowed, hard. Being this close to him, having a normal conversation, was making her realise how much she'd missed him this past week.

"Thank you," she said, her fingers nervously twisting the floaty lace sleeve of her dress. She knew it was up to her to lead the conversation, and to set the tone for their interactions, but she was floundering. It was very unlike her, and she wasn't fond of it in the slightest.

She looked across at where a group of Middleton residents (in various states of sobriety) were dancing to the Monster Mash. Again.

"Do you want to dance?" Sam asked her, surprising her.

The last time they had danced together…well, they both knew how it handed ended. She had nearly given in to her feelings and made love with him that night, and now they felt like strangers feeling their way toward something unknown again.

When she met his eyes, somehow smoky and dark despite glowing a brilliant blue, she knew he was thinking about that night, too. Even though it was warm in the crowded room, Cassie felt her nipples harden beneath her dress at the memory of Sam's hands on her breasts, and how his tongue had slipped under the fabric of her bra…

"I don't know if that's such a good idea," she said, taking a step back even as every ounce of her was aching to pull him close.

"It's the Monster Mash," he protested, the look on his face indicating that this was apparently a safe song to dance to.

"Okay," she relented, letting Sam take her hand and lead her towards the other dancers.

Predictably, of course, the moment they started to move to the music, the song ended. Cassie looked at Sam, unsure what to do, but he took hold of her hands and pulled her in.

I put a spell on you

Because you're mine

Cassie very nearly rolled her eyes, looking around for Abigail, because this had her name written all over it, but the younger Merriwick was nowhere in sight.

It didn't mean Cassie wouldn't put serious thought into making a voodoo doll out of her.

Being back in Sam's arms felt so right that she almost cried. How could he have affected her so much in such a short space of time? She wished she could remember if it had been like that with Jake in the very beginning, but it was so long ago now and the early days of their relationship had faded into a warm, lovely haze.

Sam's hand on the small of her back, warm through the thin material of her dress, brought her back to the present or, at least, the more recent past. His body holding hers, crowding hers, reminded her of their very last kiss. She could not have known the intensity of it, but she was still feeling the effects nearly a week later.

It had kept her warm on those cold, lonely days in what would, eventually, become her shop.

Now, she was in danger of combusting, and she sensed that he knew exactly what he was doing to her.

She had to admire him for it; he certainly didn't give up easily.

This time he seemed to read her mind.

"I'm not giving up on us, Cassie," her murmured in her ear, his breath hot against her skin. "I know you need time, and space, and you need to figure out what you want for yourself but I'm not going anywhere."

The casual, self-assured way he said it brought Cassie's body temperature up to a simmer, though she shivered in his arms.

She opened her mouth, wanting to say something, but her mind had gone deliciously blank. All she could think about was how heavenly it felt have Sam's hands on her, his body pressed up against hers. She almost whined when she felt his grip on her loosen as he pulled away.

She'd been so wrapped up in him that she hadn't noticed the quiet approach of her sleepy children.

"Hi Sam!" Catherine shrieked happily, her tired eyes lighting up again. "We haven't seen you in forever and ever!"

"And ever!" James added a little less confidently, not wanting to be completely overshadowed by his sister (who was giving him a disapproving look).

He looked down at them fondly. He'd missed them, too.

"Well, I'm not sure it has been quite that long," he said, grinning at them both. "But maybe we can play some baseball together again soon. If your Mom says it's okay."

Cassie's heart very nearly leapt out of her chest when he looked at her. The fact that he still wanted to spend time with her children, even when she had ended their romantic relationship, meant more to her than she could ever express.

"Yay!" The twins cheered, both of them jumping up and wrapping their arms around one of Sam's legs in a fierce embrace.

Sam looked down at the two happy children – children who had lost their father but still had room in their hearts for him – and the very last icicle that had formed in his heart when Linda had cheated on him and asked – no, demanded – to divorce him simply just…melted.