AN - Thank you for all the reviews, favourites, follows, and reads. It means a lot to me!
"You should tell them, Cass," Jake encouraged. The two of them were enjoying a lazy evening cuddled on the couch, not paying the least bit of attention to the movie they had put on. "They should know."
"I'll tell them eventually," Cassandra sighed. "I'm only six weeks along, Jake. Lots of people keep their pregnancy a secret during the first trimester."
"They aren't just people, though," Jake had his arm around Cassandra and subconsciously rubbed his hand along her arm. "They're family. They deserve to know."
"And they will, just not yet," Cassandra said purposefully, her head resting on Jake's shoulder. "I only just told you yesterday, don't you want it to be our secret for a little while?"
Jake smiled at that thought. It would be fun, just having the two of them know for awhile. But still. "You know I'd love that, darlin'. It's just…"
"Just what?" Cassandra lifted her head to look Jake in the eyes.
"With our line of work, things ain't exactly normal for us," he hesitated for a moment. "What if there's something magical we need to worry about?"
Cassandra giggled for a second, but stopped when she realized Jacob was serious. "You mean like, what if using the back door while pregnant causes our baby to be born with two heads or something?"
"See, I hadn't even thought of that one!" Jake exclaimed, though his worry disappeared almost immediately as the rest of Cassandra's sentence sunk in. "Our baby. I like the sound of that. Our baby." He smiled.
"I do, too," Cassandra smiled and rested her head back on Jake's shoulder. "Would you still love our baby if it was born with two heads?"
"Of course I would," Jake chuckled. "And both of our baby's heads would be gorgeous, because they have you for a mother."
"And you for a father," Cassandra added. "Do you really think we should tell the team tomorrow?"
"Honestly? As much as I would love for this to be our little secret for the next couple of months, it would really ease my mind." Jake admitted. "I'm sure Jenkins will have some knowledge on pregnancy and magic."
"Yeah," Cassandra sighed. Jake thought it sounded like she was going to say something else, but she stayed silent.
"What is it, Cass?" he prodded.
Cassandra hesitated for a moment before lifting her head to meet Jake's gaze, her eyes tearing up. "They're going to be so mad."
"Oh, darlin', no! They're not gonna be mad," Jake was taken aback by the sudden change in his wife's mood, but he supposed it was something he would be getting used to pretty quickly. "Why do you think that?"
"It's going to ruin everything," Cassandra sniffled. "Pretty soon I'll be useless. I won't be able to help on any cases. Jenkins is going to hate me. This baby is going to get in the way of his quiet annex. Once it's born he'll probably banish me!"
"Oh Cass," Jake pulled her into him and placed a comforting kiss on the top of her head. He wanted to laugh at how adorable she was acting, but he figured that doing so would only make things worse. "That ain't gonna happen. This baby is a good thing, darlin', and everyone is gonna be happy for us."
"Yes, but-" Cassandra started to say, her face buried in Jake's shoulder, but he cut her off.
"But nothin'. You're the smartest of us all, Cassie. Even once you're confined to the annex, that big brain of yours is going to be plenty useful on cases. And don't you worry about Jenkins. He acts tough, but you know as well as I do that he's a big ol' softie at heart."
Cassandra giggled, and Jake smiled as the vibrations tickled his neck. "Can you imagine Jenkins babysitting for us?" she asked.
Jake laughed as he imagined Jenkins chasing a hyper toddler through the Library. "I don't think I can imagine any of the team babysitting, actually."
"No, me neither. We might have to expand our circle of friends," Cassandra joked. "I guess we kind of have to tell them. Apparently I'm already having mood swings, they're bound to notice that."
Jake nodded. "I'm sure they will. It's hard not to notice when the most upbeat person in the room breaks down crying for no reason."
"Okay, I guess we'll tell them tomorrow then," Cassandra sighed, then began lightly tracing her fingers along Jake's arm. "But for the next few hours, it's still our little secret."
"Mmm, I like the sound of that," Jake spoke low, his eyes narrowing as he leaned over and captured Cassandra's lips in a kiss.
As it turned out, Jake was right all along, Cassandra had nothing to worry about as far as telling the team was concerned. The couple had sat everyone down first thing the next morning to break the news to them, and most everyone's reaction was as Jake expected.
Baird, though tough on the outside, exposed her inner mother hen and immediately offered Cassandra her chair, encouraging the young woman to get off her feet and take it easy. Jenkins had smiled and offered his congratulations. Flynn launched into hyperactive mode, running around the annex talking in alliteration about baby proofing and insisting the child refer to him as Uncle Flynn. It was Ezekiel whose reaction caught Jacob off guard. Jake had been expecting some kind of wise crack about not realizing the cowboy was man enough to make a baby, anything to get a rise out of him. Instead Jones grabbed Cassandra in a tight bear hug. When he finally let her go Jake could swear he saw tears in the younger man's eyes. As much as he wanted to say something, to get back at all of Ezekiel's teasing over the years, he turned his head and pretended not to notice.
"We actually had some questions for Jenkins," Jake finally said after everyone was up to date on their news. "Flynn, you might be able to help, too."
"We were wondering if there's anything we need to be concerned about, magically speaking," Cassandra continued.
"You mean, you're worried that the baby might have absorbed too much time energy? That it might be born with Time Lord DNA?" Ezekiel piped up, back to his old self. "No worries there, mate. That only happens if the kid is conceived on the TARDIS. Though, I suppose the Library is a lot like the TARDIS…."
Jake glared at Jones. "Our baby wasn't conceived in the Libra-" he trailed off and turned to Cassandra. "Wait, was it?" he added more quietly.
"Ewww!" Ezekiel whined. "I was only kidding before! You didn't do it on my part of the desk, did you? No, don't tell me. I don't want to know."
Cassandra just rolled her eyes at the boys and turned her attention back to Jenkins. "Like the back door, for example. I've already used it since getting pregnant. That won't affect the baby, will it?"
Jenkins smiled and shook his head. "I can assure you, Miss Cillian, the portal is perfectly safe for your child." Though Cassandra had opted to take Jake's last name when they married (seeing as she wasn't that close to her family to begin with) Jenkins still insisted on calling her by her maiden name. "Though I would suggest you keep your...personal activities out of the Library."
"Why? You don't actually think our baby could be born one of those Time whatzits, do you?" Jake's eyes widened.
"Of course not," Jenkins said matter of factly. "I just don't want to risk walking in on anything I can't unsee. Even with magic, there are some things that can't be forgotten."
Jake's face turned bright red and Cassandra giggled nervously and looked away.
Flynn leaned in a little closer to Jenkins and asked "Does that apply to us, too?" He gestured at himself and Baird, who elbowed the Librarian hard in the arm.
"Ew, no!" Ezekiel covered his ears with his hands and hurried out of the annex. "Animals, all of you!" Everyone watched with amused faces as Jones ran off before returning to their conversation from before.
"So we have nothing to worry about? Magic won't affect the baby?" Cassandra asked.
"Magic can indeed affect the baby, Miss Cillian," Jenkins confirmed. "But it's not likely you'll stumble onto anything that will cause you any harm. Anything that will affect your pregnancy would have to be used quite deliberately. If anything, spending time in the Library will probably have a positive effect on your pregnancy. The energy of this place tends to be quite calming, and I assure you that your unborn child will pick up on that."
Jake and Cassandra both smiled at that news, their earlier worries put to rest.
"I guess the only thing left to do is find Ezekiel and calm him down, then," Cassandra giggled.
Jake winced. "Do we have to? For the first time in ages it's actually quiet in here. I say we let the kid squirm for a little while."
At that moment, the main clippings book began to glow, and everyone's attention turned to their latest case. Baird headed off to find Ezekiel while the remaining team members gathered around the book to discover where they would be heading.