Author's Note: Set in early S2, before Some Assembly Required.

"It's probably nothing supernatural at all," said Rupert from where he was wedged next to Jenny in the broom closet. He was clearly trying to be reassuring, but the underlying nervousness in his tone made him sound like he was trying to reassure himself and not her. "It's probably just a lockdown drill."

"At night?" Jenny skeptically replied. She would have crossed her arms, or fixed him with an exasperated stare, or done something to show him that she thought he was being stupid, but he wouldn't have been able to see it due to the near pitch-black darkness of the broom closet. "Rupert, this is definitely bad. All of the lights just went off and something crashed in the gym."

"It could be some sort of power outage," Rupert lamely continued.

"Right. A power outage. Because those happen so frequently. England, you know I know about magic, so stop—" and here Jenny elbowed his side, "—trying to make me feel better."

There was a loud crash, and then a piercing scream from outside the broom closet. Jenny felt her heart leap up into her throat, but she didn't let that deter her from very pointedly adding, "See? People don't make those kinds of sounds during a power outage." She hoped to God her voice wasn't quavering.

"Fair enough," Rupert agreed. His voice was shaking, and suddenly Jenny was even more scared; if he was nervous (and this was the guy with an insane number of weapons in his book cage) this had to be pretty bad. She'd never heard him like this before.

Then he put an arm out in front of her, gently pushing her to the back of the broom closet, and said, "Stay here."

Without even thinking about it, Jenny yanked him roughly backward. "You are not going out there and leaving me in here to get eaten by whatever's rampaging through the school," she informed him, hand curled around his forearm.

"Ms. Calendar," began Rupert.

"I'm going with you," said Jenny.

Rupert turned around to face her, shaking her hand off of his arm. "No," he said matter-of-factly.

"I'm not staying in here and waiting to die!" Jenny objected. "I'm going to die with dignity, not hiding in a broom closet waiting for my guy to do all the work for me."

"Your guy?" Rupert repeated, sounding quite stunned.

Jenny felt certain that she was blushing. Thank goodness it was dark. "You know what I mean," she said hastily. "Just—if you're going to stay, I'm staying. And if you're going to go, I'm coming with you. I'm not super into waiting around while someone else calls the shots."

"I noticed," said Rupert. There was something in his tone now that, were it anyone else, might have been fond. After a moment, he said, "I'll stay with you," and stepped back to stand next to Jenny, his back resting against the wall.

There was another crash, this one closer to them, and Jenny felt a surge of panic.

"Jenny," Rupert whispered.

"Yeah?"

"You're, ah, holding my hand."

"What?" Jenny realized that she was, in fact, tightly gripping Rupert's hand in hers. "Yeah," she finally agreed, unsure of what else to say, but also not ready to let go of Rupert's hand. It was comforting to know that she wasn't alone in a dark closet with some kind of monster roaming the halls.

There were a few more seconds of silence, and then Rupert observed, "You aren't letting go."

"You have a problem with that?" Jenny replied, trying her best to sound like she couldn't care either way.

Rupert was silent. Then, quietly, in a manner that Jenny knew wasn't intended for her to hear, he murmured, "No."

Jenny was once again glad for the darkness, because she was probably grinning like an idiot. She let go of his hand a little (so that she wasn't squeezing the life out of it) and moved closer so that their shoulders were touching.

Rupert leaned into her, ever so slightly.

They stayed like that until the power came back on.