Jake sat impatiently next to Flynn at the back of the room where the auction was being held. He shifted in his seat, trying to get comfortable. The old, wooden chairs they were in weren't designed to be sat on for long periods of time, and it only felt more uncomfortable to Jake, who was eager to get back home to Cassandra.

"How much longer? I feel like we've been here forever," he leaned over and whispered to Flynn.

"Not long now. They must be saving The Hands Resist Him for the end," Flynn answered. "I'm pretty sure they've auctioned off almost everything now."

The sound of a gavel being banged brought their attention back to the front, and Jake watched as they carried away the most recently won item and brought up an antique bird cage. Normally this would be heaven to the Librarian. Antiques and art being paraded in front of him, he couldn't get enough of auction sales like this. But although he enjoyed Flynn's company, he would rather have Cassandra at his side. Or at the very least he wished he'd left on better terms.

"Forget manners, I'm gonna text Cassie," Jake mumbled more to himself than to Flynn. "Just to let her know I'm alright."

Flynn glanced over with his eyes, but didn't say anything as Jake reached into his jeans' pocket where he usually kept his phone. After not finding his phone there he felt his shirt pocket, and then his remaining pants' pockets.

"Dammit!" Though he didn't shout, Jake's voice was loud enough that a few people sitting nearby looked over for a brief second to see what the disturbance was. This time Flynn fully turned his head towards his friend and raised an eyebrow in curiousity. "We left in such a rush this mornin', I forgot my phone on the charger. It's still at home."

"We'll be out of here soon," Flynn whispered.

"Can't I just borrow your phone?" Jake asked. "I don't want Cassandra to worry."

Flynn nodded and went for his phone just as they started to bring out The Hands Resist Him. "Oh, here we go!" The Librarian exclaimed as he forgot about his phone and got his paddle ready.

…

"Nice try, but 'shazbot' isn't a real word," Cassandra said dryly after Jones had placed his tiles on the board.

"Sure it is," he argued. "Haven't you ever watched Mork & Mindy?"

"Surprisingly, I have," the redhead countered. "But that's neither here nor there. English words only, Orkan isn't Scrabble regulation."

"You do know that there isn't actually an Orkan language, right?" Jones smiled at her. "Technically 'shazbot' is a word made up for a TV show. An English speaking TV show written by English speaking people. Therefore, it should count."

Cassandra raised an eyebrow at the thief and crossed her arms. It wasn't the first time he tried to pull that stunt. He had already tried to play 'gorram' and 'frak'. Though she had never watched the shows that those words were from, she had heard Ezekiel talk about them enough times that she immediately spotted the references. Mork & Mindy did catch her by surprise, though she supposed the kid's obsession with aliens explained why he had seen that show.

Realizing that she wasn't going to back down, Jones removed most of his tiles from the board. He left the 'h', 'a', and 'z' in their place, and added an 'e' to the end to make 'haze.'

"I still get the double word score," he bragged.

Cassandra shrugged. "I'm still winning," she retorted a split second later after recalculating the scores in her head.

…

"And SOLD!" the auctioneer banged down his gavel and nodded in Flynn's direction.

Flynn smiled, feeling very proud that he had just won the painting they were after. And he had only had to bid $250 over the budget Charlene had given him, a personal best as far as he was concerned.

"This is all well and good, Flynn," Jake leaned over to whisper as the auctioneer began the bidding on the next item. "but your phone?"

"Oh, right," the senior Librarian fished into his jacket pocket for his cell phone. When he found it, Jake reached his hand out to take it, but instead of giving it to Jake so that he could text Cassandra, Flynn leaned in close so that their heads were almost touching and held the phone out in front of them. "Say cheese!"

"Wha-" Jake started to mumble but he didn't have time to finish his thought before Flynn was taking their picture and sending it off.

"What better way to let the love of your life know that you're alive and well than with a picture?" Flynn asked as he deposited the phone back into his pocket.

"Alive, yes," Jake mumbled. "Jury's still out on the whole 'well' part."

Flynn's attention was back on the auction at the front of the room. "Well you can relax, because they're almost done here. Then all we have to do is write them a cheque and bring the painting home with us."

"Of course," this made Jake chuckle. "The Library has a checking account. Why do I find that so amusing?"

…

"Ezekiel, no!" Cassandra shrieked. "You can't use that word, it's entirely inappropriate!"

"So what?" Jones smirked. "It's a word. It's in English. It's legal."

"If I check the Scrabble dictionary I bet it won't be in there," Cassandra challenged.

Jones just shrugged. "Depends which Scrabble dictionary you check, kid. It won't be in the Hasbro version because they're trying to promote 'family fun,'" he held up his fingers to do air quotes as he said that last bit. "But if you consult the rules that Alfred Butts set up when he first created the game, you'll find that this word is indeed allowed. You're just mad because now I'm winning."

Cassandra sighed but didn't press the issue any further. Instead she was distracted by her phone buzzing. Ezekiel and the game forgotten, she dug into her pocket hoping to have a new message or call from Jacob.

For a brief moment Cassandra felt her heart drop when she saw that the message she was receiving was from Flynn and not Jake. Why would Flynn be messaging her instead of her husband? Had something happened to Jake? However, her panic lasted only a second when she realized that it was actually a picture message. She breathed a sigh of relief and giggled when she saw Flynn's smiling face squeezed up close to a scowling Jake. The accompanying message simply read:

saved the world again.
be home soon.
jake says hi.

Cassandra felt relief wash over her knowing that her husband and her close friend would soon be back. She tucked the phone back into her pocket and looked over at Jones, who was watching her expectantly. And then she broke into tears.

"Cassandra?" Ezekiel jumped from his seat and ran over to her. "Cassandra, what's wrong? Did something happen to Stone?" he ushered her back to the table where they had the game set up and encouraged her to sit down.

"No," Cassandra cried as she buried her face in her hands. "Jake and Flynn are fine, they're on their way back."

"Well then what is it?" Ezekiel was starting to wish he had paid more attention to Stone's warnings earlier that day. He may have been awesome at everything he tried, but Ezekiel Jones never knew what to do with a crying woman.

"It's just…" Cassandra sobbed, trying to get her words out. "he's going to be so mad."

"Who, Stone? What makes you think that?" Jones asked. "Jake loves you, Cassandra. I don't think it's even possible for him to be mad at you."

"When he finds out about our bet," Cassandra finally looked up at the thief, tears streaming down her face. "he's going to hate me. There's no way I can beat you with the tiles I have left. We're going to have to name our baby after you."

"Oh, Cassandra," Jones took her hands in his. "Don't worry about it. It's just a little friendly competition. You don't actually have to name your baby after me. We'll just keep this whole thing between us."

"Really?" she managed to choke out. "Are you sure?"

"Of course," Ezekiel hesitated for a moment and then pulled Cassandra into an awkward hug. "I'll still even babysit for you, if Stone's okay with it. Anything to put that smile back on your face."

Just then the back door burst open and Jake and Flynn stumbled out, Flynn triumphantly carrying his latest prize.

"Cassie!?" Jake instantly ran to his wife's side and glared at Jones. "What did you do!?"

Cassandra, however, pulled away from Jones and looked at Jake, a wide small on her face. "I'm fine, Jacob. How was your day?"

Jake looked suspiciously at her before eyeing Ezekiel, who looked equally confused.

"You played me!" Jones couldn't believe that she had managed that. He was normally so good at reading people. "You little sneak."

Jones stormed off, but not without a quick wink in Cassandra's direction. Just like Stone, it was near impossible for the young thief to ever be mad at the redhead.

"What was that all about?" Jake asked, watching Ezekiel walk away.

Cassandra shrugged. "Beats me. So I hear you saved the world again?" She glanced in Flynn's direction who was proudly looking the painting over.

"If you can even call winning that painting in an auction saving the world," Jake mumbled. "Honestly, it was a lot more uneventful than Flynn made it sound when he came to get me."

"I heard that," Flynn said, his back to Jake as he continued to ogle the painting. "I thought we were having a great day."

Cassandra wandered over to stand next to Flynn so that she could get a good look at the painting.

"Kind of creepy, isn't it?" she scrunched up her nose. "And what's with the evil looking doll?"

"I know, right?" Jake said as he came up beside her, wrapping an arm around Cassandra's waist. "I swear, our kid is never going to be allowed to play with dolls."

"I think it's beautiful," Flynn said wistfully, scooping up the painting. "I better get this locked up. Trust me, you don't want it left out once night time comes."

Jake and Cassandra exchanged disturbed looks as Flynn carried the painting out of the annex, presumably headed to the main Library.

"So…" Jake started once they were alone.

"So…" Cassandra repeated, turning in Jake's arm to face him fully. He wrapped his other arm around her as well, and she placed her hands on his chest.

"I wanted to text you," Jake said. "but then I realized I left my phone at home."

"It's okay," Cassandra smiled up at him. "I really enjoyed that selfie Flynn sent."

Jake chuckled at that and placed a kiss on the top of Cassandra's head.

"I'm sorry about this morning," Cassandra said after they had been silent for a moment.

"Darlin', no," Jake slid his hands up from Cassandra's waist and cupped her face. "Don't you dare apologize. If anything, I'm the one who should be sorry."

"You've been nothing but perfect to me this entire pregnancy, Jacob." Cassandra whispered. "I'm the one who's been a hormonal mess."

Jake's hands moved again, this time from her face to Cassandra's stomach. She was just barely starting to show. "Cassie, you're carrying my baby in there. You're giving me the greatest gift anyone has ever given me. You go right ahead and be as much of a hormonal mess as you want."

And with that he leaned in and kissed her. It was slow and full of love, all their fears and frustrations of the day suddenly forgotten.

"I know it's barely lunch time, but what do you say the two of us take off and spend the day at home after all?" Jake suggested. "It's been a long mornin' for but of us, I think we've earned the afternoon off."

Cassandra didn't say anything but smiled and nodded as she looped her arm through Jake's and the two of them headed out the door.