Cassandra set the Bluetooth speaker on the end of the long worktable in the middle of the Annex's main workroom and turned it on. She then deftly touched a few buttons on her smartphone to connect it to the speaker and select the playlist she wanted to hear. A few seconds later, the large room was filled with the classic, lively hip-hop strains of TLC's "Sleigh Ride". She smiled and giggled and clapped her hands with delight and holiday excitement, then spun around eagerly to the several large cardboard boxes full of Christmas lights and decorations. She was just in time to catch Franklin curiously easing his long green head slowly into one of the open boxes.
"Hey!" she called loudly as she rushed over to the box. At the sound of her voice, Franklin nonchalantly withdrew his head and sat back on his haunches as he looked up at his adopted mother with large, black eyes full of innocence, as if he had had absolutely no intention at all of pulling out the box's contents and scattering them all over the entirety of the Library.
"Don't you play innocent with me, young man!" she scolded lightheartedly. "I know you better than that!" She patted his rump to encourage him to move along. The little dragon huffed in irritation at having his fun spoiled and ran off toward the staircase, claws clattering on the hardwood, and Cassandra began removing large bundles of garland made of shiny gold and silver tinsel. As she worked, she began moving, at first just bobbing her head and swaying gently to the beat of the music, but her movements quickly became gradually broader and more pronounced until she was full-on dancing around the room. Franklin, who was watching from half-way up the spiral staircase, ran back down the polished wooden steps to join the Librarian. He understood music (even though this Western music sounded very strange to his dragon ears), and understood that Cassandra's seemingly inexplicable, frenetic movements were in response to it—and he wanted to be a part of it. The tea dragon ran to her and began prancing, leaping and hopping around the young woman while he squealed and yipped in sheer enjoyment.
Jenkins, carrying yet another box of decorations from the Annex's storage closet for Cassandra, rounded the corner and stopped dead in his tracks at the sight of his wife and the small dragon cavorting wildly around the room, the infectious, rhythmic music blaring.
"Cassandra?" he called out to her, but she couldn't hear him over the music. She spied him as she spun around, though, and began laughing when she saw his bewildered expression.
"Jenkins!" she shouted, waving him over. His brow furrowed as he set the box down on a chair and lumbered over to where she was still dancing. He dearly loved his wife and wouldn't dream of denying her anything so pure and innocent as celebrating Christmas, but her infatuation with the holiday's more garish, colorful, noisy trappings could be quite stressful at times. As soon as he was close enough, she did a neat pirouette and grabbed both of his hands in hers.
"Come dance with me and Franklin!" she yelled, and he immediately stiffened. He pulled his hands away and held them up, shaking his head and frowning.
"I don't think so!" he said loudly, barely audible over the music. But Cassandra wasn't taking 'no' for an answer. She grabbed his hands again and held onto them tightly.
"Come on, sweetie—please?" she pleaded, giving him her best "puppy-dog eyes" look, and his heart melted. He smiled nervously, but the old immortal began to move to the beat of the music with her, swaying moderately from side to side, his eyes darting all around the room to make sure no one else was about who could witness this undignified frivolity.
"That's it! You got it!" Cassandra shouted encouragement with delight. Franklin screeched his approval as well. It had taken a lot of work on her part over the last few years to loosen up her very proper and straitlaced spouse, but she was finally seeing some payoff. A year ago he would never have joined in with her in such foolishness.
The longer they danced, the looser Jenkins's movements became, though they were still far clumsier than hers. His slow, awkward dance moves reminded the Librarian of a whooping crane doing a mating dance and she laughed, but he knew that she was laughing with him rather than at him. Jenkins then caught a glance of himself in the glass of the tall magic mirror, and he couldn't help but laugh at himself. He looked utterly ridiculous with his long, gangly arms and legs waving around and out from his body, but it was all right. It made his young wife happy, and Franklin was going absolutely berserk with excitement. And it made him feel good, too, truth be told, just being with the two he loved most in the world, being silly and having some fun. He grinned widely and laughed with Cassandra as he continued to dance with her.
The oblivious couple and the tea dragon were so caught up in their laughter, shrieking and dancing that none of them noticed the Back Door when it activated and swung open. Jenkins swept his wife up into his long arms and dipped her so far backward that her head almost touched the floor, causing her to scream with laughter and surprise. Franklin hopped madly around them, screeching and hooting joyously along with the redhead. As Jenkins pulled Cassandra upright again, he froze suddenly, his face blanching as his jaw fell open. Cassandra saw his horrified expression and immediately became concerned.
"Jenkins?" she asked. "What's wrong, sweetheart?" She turned her head to follow his shocked gaze, and burst into renewed gales of laughter. Eve Baird, Jacob Stone and Ezekiel Jones, newly returned from a shopping junket to Rome, stood in a row facing the couple, all three of them not even trying to hide their amusement. Jones had his cell phone up, taking video.
"Oh, yeah," the Aussie drawled as the song faded to its end. "This is so going on YouTube!" The Caretaker's eyes few wide in absolute mortification.
"You wouldn't dare!" he gasped, trying to sound outraged but managing only to sound panic-stricken. A lopsided grin twisted Ezekiel's youthful features as he turned his phone around and held it up for Jenkins and Cassandra to see.
"Not only 'would', mate—did! Can't deny the world the opportunity of seeing 'Dance, Dance, Galahad!' now can we?" The immortal's broad shoulders slumped as he watched himself cavorting on the small screen, and one hand flew up to cover the embarrassed man's mouth. He stared at the phone for a several seconds, then glanced up at Jones. Without a word Jenkins turned on his heel and fled the workroom. Cassandra called out to him futilely, then turned to give a hurt look to Jones.
"Ezekiel, how could you do that?" she demanded, dismayed. "You know how reserved he is! How could you humiliate him like that?" The thief merely snorted.
"No worries, Cassandra," he assured her lackadaisically. "I didn't really post it to YouTube, I was just having a lark on him, that's all—see?" He moved to stand next to the redhead and showed her his phone screen. He demonstrated to her that he had not only not posted the video to the internet, he had actually deleted it completely from his phone.
"I'd never do that to the old knocker, you know that!" he said patronizingly. Cassandra made a show of planting her hands on her hips and rolling her eyes in exasperation, but in reality she was greatly relieved. She glared balefully at the unrepentant thief.
"Don't you ever scare me like that again, Ezekiel Jones, or so help me...!" she scolded. The young man only laughed in her face as he slid his phone into his jeans pocket, pleased with the chaos he'd created.
"Ya know, I wouldn't laugh if I was you," chimed in Jacob, giving a quick wink at Cassandra behind the Aussie's back. Jones turned to face him.
"And why is that?" he challenged. Jacob shrugged his shoulders and distractedly rubbed the back of his neck with one hand.
"'Cause the guy you've been 'havin' a lark on', hmm? He's the same dude who fought Asmodeus—a Prince of Hell. With a toy light saber? And kicked his ass?" A look of realization came over Jones's face. He looked over at Cassandra.
"Yeppers," she confirmed slowly, rocking on her feet as she followed Jake's lead. "Once the shock wears off, I can pretty much guarantee you that Jenkins is gonna be more than just a little ticked off." The Librarian then reached out and lightly punched Jones in the shoulder.
"Oh, heck!" she said cheerfully, a grin on her face. "Who am I kidding? Once the shock wears off, he's gonna be super-pissed at you, Ezekiel! He's probably trying to decide right now which of the gazillion swords he owns will cause you the most possible pain..."
"Aw, get off!" Jones scoffed, his confidence evaporating as he looked back and forth between the two Librarians. "He's our Caretaker, he works for us, we're his bosses! Jenkins would never hurt me! Would he? I mean, he couldn't hurt me! It would be impossible!"
"I bet Asmodeus thought the same thing," muttered Jake to no one in particular.
Jones, now more than a little nervous, again looked back and forth between Jacob and Cassandra. They remained silent, however; Cassandra had a pitying look on her face. The thief turned and ran out of the room, his feet pounding down the same corridor Jenkins had disappeared into a few minutes earlier.
"JENKINS!" he hollered as he ran. "Jenkins! I'm sorry, mate, it was just a little joke! I didn't really post anything to YouTube! No harm done, hey, mate? JENKINS!"
Jacob chortled and Cassandra grinned and snickered as they high-fived each other. Stone then gathered up the shopping bags and carried them over to the worktable—after pulling Franklin out of one of the larger ones and sending him scampering across the floor with a slap on the rump and a loud "Scat on outta here, ya overgrown caterpillar!", while Cassandra went back to unpacking the boxes of decorations, dancing and singing along with her playlist the entire time.