A/N: Just go with it. Behold: Plot.
Eliot was busy sauteing vegetables for the soup he was making for Cassie when Hardison came into the kitchen. "Yo, man, you seen Parker?"
"Why would I have seen Parker?" Eliot asked without looking up from his skillet.
Hardison gave him an odd look as he crossed his arms over his chest and dry-panned, "Because she told me she was comin' over here to talk to Cassie."
The chef/fighter looked up at that, "Well I haven't seen her. And I haven't heard anything from that room, either." He frowned as his mind processed what he'd just said. As there was little probability that Parker had just curled up like a cat next to Cassie and fallen asleep ... no noise was not a good sign.
In unison the pair set off down the hall toward the room Cassie had been using. They were half way there when they heard the front door open and laughter reached their ears.
"Did you see the look on his face?" Parker said animatedly. Although they couldn't see her, it sounded like she was jumping up and down.
"It was priceless, really," Cassie replied with a smile in her voice. "You'd think he'd know better than to hang out in back alleyways."
Hardison backed away from Eliot slowly as he saw the hitter turn from cool and collected to ready to knock heads together in half a second flat.
He did a complete 180 and was striding into the living room before Hardison could blink. It took the hacker a few seconds to get his wits about him, but once he did he was hot on Eliot's heels.
"Where the hell did you go?" Eliot nearly shouted at the two women when they came into his view. Both were holding canvas bags that were stuffed full of things he wasn't sure he wanted to know about.
Cassie turned to him with a smile while Parker gleefully said, "Cassie jumped off a building with me! And now she's going to show me how to make cake."
"You're not much of a bodyguard if you didn't know I was gone for an hour and a half," Cassie pointed out glibly as she attempted to pass Eliot and move toward the kitchen.
His hand shot out and grabbed her arm in a vice grip that was firm, even though he wasn't putting in enough pressure to bruise her skin. He didn't say a word as her head whipped around to face him. Parker and Hardison took a few steps back from the two as they had what could only be described as a battle of wills.
"An hour and a half?" Eliot ground out as his eyes flashed barely controlled anger.
Her chin jutted out stubbornly, "You're not my keeper, Eliot."
His eyes narrowed into slits as he pulled her closer to him minutely. She went willingly even though her muscles were stiff beneath his fingers. "You're right. I'm not. But that doesn't mean you have to be stupid about all this."
"I can take care of myself."
"Like you took care of yourself before?" he shot back. "Tell the truth now: if Teal'c hadn't been there how would that fight have gone?"
There was a storm of emotions in her eyes that only Eliot was privy to. She didn't answer verbally, so he asked again, "What if they find you again when you're alone and there's no one to help you?" He frowned, the concern he felt coloring his vision as he added softly, "No one wants that."
The watching thieves knew that something passed between the two after Eliot's words, although Cassie didn't verbally respond. After a few silent minutes had ticked by, she inclined her head toward the kitchen, "Your veggies are burning."
Eliot swore before letting go of her arm and rushing to stop the heinous crime in motion.
"Come on, Parker," Cassie said, forcing a smile to her face as she turned toward the smaller woman, "We can use your kitchen."
Parker looked at the bags dubiously as she admitted, "There's nothing in my kitchen."
"You can use mine," Hardison offered. "I've got somethin' I wanted to show you guys anyway."
Cassie nods her acceptance and stays with Hardison while Parker bounces into the other room to tell Eliot of the plan. She frowned as she realized just how young the man next to her was. He was probably about the same age as her, give or take a year. "How do you know Sam?"
"High school," Hardison replied with a smirk.
"She's twenty years older than you, how could you have possibly gone to high school with her?"
Hardison's smirk turned into a full blown grin as he replied, "Never said I went to high school with her. We went to the same high school. She left some nasty encryptions and firewalls on the computers to mess with hackers like me ... after I beat them all, she IM'ed me. I IM"ed her back, and we've been friends, I guess, ever since."
"How old were you?" Cassie could feel some of the pieces dropping into place in her mind, but this man couldn't have been that old when all this started.
"I was fourteen when I broke through her firewalls," he shook his head fondly at the memory, "About four years later -- a month before I turned eighteen, she asked for my help with a project she was working on."
Cassie thought back to four years after the Stargate Program started. The N.I.D. was running rampant and she remembered her mom grousing about how unsecured a top secret facility could be. General Hammond had asked Sam to update the firewalls ... looked like she got some help.
"Can we go make cake now?" Parker asked as she nearly buzzed with energy beside them.
"Ladies first," Hardison said with an over exaggerated bow and sweep of his arms.
"Keep stirring until the chocolate's fully in and you can't see any more lumps," Cassie ordered Parker as she put some water on to boil in the tea kettle she had (surprisingly) found in Hardison's cupboard.
"Then what?" the thief asked as she did as she was told.
"Make sure the pans are sprayed and pour the batter in evenly."
"Can I help?" Hardison asked from where he sat at his dining room table, a computer and another bottle of orange soda in front of him.
"NO," the two women said in unison. He had tried to help in putting everything in the bowl, but Hardison's idea of help apparently included dropping half a dozen eggs fresh from the farmer's market. Oh, and a cup of flour over the mess.
He then tried to claim that someone had pushed him. When Parker was at least five feet away from where he dropped them.
Hardison visibly deflated, so Cassie said, "You can help with the frosting. That doesn't involve eggs or flour."
As his face lit up, Parker chimed in with a sing-song voice, "And if you screw it up, I'll chop you into little pieces and send them express to Iceland."
He gulped as his eyes darted between the two women. He attempted a feeble laugh, but it was weak even to his own ears, "Haha. You're joking, aren't you Parker?"
Parker didn't even look at him as she lovingly and caringly poured the batter into the three waiting cake pans. Once she was finished she gave Hardison a look that made even his worst nightmares seem like a day at church next to Nana.
Cassie helped the expert thief arrange the pans on the racks in the preheated oven before reminding her that they'd need to be rearranged half way through baking so that one wasn't more done than the others.
Cassie was measuring out the ingredients for the cream cheese frosting she was going to have Hardison make when the door opened and they heard the distinctive clip of high heels on the hardwood floors.
"What's up Sophie?" Parker asked as she jumped up onto the counter, earning a slight glare from Cassie.
"Is Eliot here?" the grifter asked as she rounded the corner into the kitchen.
"Why would Eliot be here?" Hardison said dubiously.
Sophie turned to him and said, "He told Nate and me that he was making lunch and to meet here."
"Whacha talkin' 'bout?" Hardison asked with a furrowed brow as he sized up the older woman.
"Lunch is here," Eliot announced as he walked into the kitchen carrying two things: the first was a plate loaded down with sandwiches, and the second was a stainless steel stock pot covered with a matching lid. There was a delightful smell emanating from it and toward Cassie's nose.
"Smells good," Parker said as she got some bowls and plates out of Hardison's cabinet while the hacker got the spoons needed for the soup.
"Where's Nate?" Eliot put the food down on the dining room table Hardison had bought just to make the room look less big. ... And because Sophie had made him. He tried not to dwell on that last part.
Sophie motioned with her hands toward the door, "He's finishing up a call with our new client. I think he's setting up a meeting for tomorrow."
"I'm here!" Nate announced as he bounded through the door and took in the food set on the table the group was congregating around. "Looks good, Eliot."
"Thanks. I appreciate it," the hitter replied as he started putting sandwiches on plates and passing them out. He skipped Cassie and she gave him an inquiring look.
"You hardly ate solid food yesterday, and my guess is that your stomach still feels like you have the flu." He filled up one of the bowls with the delicious smelling soup and handed it to her with a spoon. "Worked great for my sister when she was pregnant."
"You have a sister?" Hardison asked in awe.
Eliot glared at him, "How else do you think I got a nephew?"
Cassie took the bowl and spoon as she sat between Parker and Sophie. She stirred the pureed mixture with the spoon for a moment, not really caring that all the noise around her had stopped as she brought the spoon up to her nose and sniffed. "Is that ginger?" she asked as she studied the smell.
"Good nose," Eliot commented as he sat down across the table from her and picked up his own sandwich.
Cassie put it in her mouth and savored the soup before swallowing with a nod and a small smile, "Rosemary and thyme, too. With a hint of sage ... and is that turmeric?"
"Curry blend," Eliot smirked with a nod of his own. "My neighbor's recipe."
"It's good," Cassie replied, taking a second mouthful as her stomach settled itself and welcomed the nourishing liquid with ease.
"You can't keep ignoring me," the voice in her head told her as she finished the last of the soup.
"Go away," Cassie muttered under her breath as she put the last spoonful in her mouth. Her hunger was sated for the moment.
"What?" Parker asked, looking up at Cassie with wide eyes.
"Hmm?" Cassie asked, the soup still hot on her tongue.
"Did you say something?" Parker expounded as she put another piece of her sandwich in her mouth.
"I won't go away so easily. There are things you must know," Ganos Lal said stubbornly in a voice that only Cassie could hear.
Anger flared up suddenly in Cassie's heart at the ascended being who was, for lack of a better word, haunting her. She clenched her fists on either side of the bowl as she stared into the empty ceramic dish. She wanted to smash something in frustration.
Without warning the bowl in front of Cassie shattered into a hundred tiny pieces. with a smash.
Sophie gasped in shock as the others stared at Cassie with wide eyes.
"What was that?" Sophie asked, trying to remain calm as everyone stared at the broken pottery.
Cassie shook her head, "I don't know."
"If you would stop ignoring me and listen to what I have to say, then you would," Ganos said rather smugly.
"Shut! Up!" Cassie shouted to the near silent table.
Eliot frowned as Nate asked, "Sorry?"
Cassie closed her eyes and shook her head as she pushed back from the table violently, "Not you, Nate." She stood up and looked around with a glare that sent a chill down even Eliot's spine. "Do the Others know you're interfering, Ganos Lal?" she asked the room in general as she spat the name out like a curse.
"Who's Ganos Lal?" Nate asked as Eliot and he stood up to try and calm Cassie down.
"Only the most annoying being in existence!" Cassie shouted out, trying to goad the Ancient into showing herself.
A woman in an ivory suit appeared behind Cassie. Her hair was cropped short and her brown eyes sad and piercing as she shook her head slightly, "Trying to insult me will not make me go away, Cassandra."
Cassie's eyes narrowed to slits as she put her hands on her hips and refused to look around. "Can't blame a girl for trying."
"How'd you do that?" Hardison asked as he jumped out of his chair and came to stand slightly behind Eliot, Parker and Sophie hot on his heels.
Ganos Lal turned to the dark skinned man and simply replied, "When one has no corporeal form, it becomes extremely easy to appear where one wills."
"What the fuck is going on?" Nate demanded, his eyes darting desperately between Cassie, their mystery guest named Ganos Lal, and Eliot. "Someone explain right now!"
Cassie finally turned her glare on the woman behind her as she said, "I'd actually like to here this, too. It's not every day you break a bowl with your mind."
Ganos nodded her head as she clasped her hands before her and started to speak, "Cassandra Fraiser has already told you my name. I am Ganos Lal, Mr. Ford, although you'd know me better as Morgan le Fay."
"Woah," Hardison said, stopping her with a frown as he held one of his hands up in the universal signal for 'stop.' "Morgan le Fay? As in Merlin? Arthur? Knights of the Round Table? All that stuff?"
Ganos inclined her head slightly at his words, "Indeed, Mr. Hardison, exactly right." A brief smile flickered across her face as she thought back to that time, a thousand years before, "Although I must say that human imagination has taken a number of liberties with the tale."
"That's all very nice and all," Cassie cut in with a raised eyebrow as she crossed her arms across her chest, "But that still doesn't explain why I'm doing things I haven't done since I was teenager."
The others looked at her sharply for a moment before Nate said, "Ignoring for the moment that this has happened to you before, let's go with the more obvious issue: What the hell is going on?"
Ganos lifted her head and her eyes settled on Cassie's stomach. "Her pregnancy is causing a few side effects that Nirrti did not plan for in her brain chemistry."
"A few?" Eliot growled out. "She blew up a bowl. With her mind."
"And she floated," Parker put in eagerly. "When I went to wake her up, she was about three inches off the bed."
Deciding to address the issues as they had appeared, Ganos Lal replied, "The bowl was reacting to the intense burst of anger Cassandra was feeling, and her desire to break something. Levitating is a common side effect in pregnancy among the Al -- those Cassandra comes from."
Cassie''s blood rushed to her feet as the almost slip Ganos had made registered in her mind. Alteran. That was the word she had been about to say. But they had died off in this galaxy a thousand years ago. That would mean ...
Before she could finish the thought, Cassie fainted, her limp body falling like a half cooked noodle to the floor with a thud.
"Are we in danger having her here?" Nate asked, ever the pragmatist, as Eliot picked her up and carried her over to Hardison's couch (which the hacker was quickly clearing of the various computer bits littered about it) with Parker hovering close by.
Ganos shook her head, "No. There are those that wish to study her and her child and use them for their own purposes, but the Others agree that she is too important."
"Others?" Sophie questioned, "Cassie mentioned 'others.' Who are they?"
"Like me," the alien explained vaguely before she turned around to watch the progress being made in trying to revive Cassie. "She will need smelling salts. The shock to her mind was great."
Eliot gave the hacker a look that asked him to get the necessary salts. Hardison took off, knowing he wouldn't find what he needed in his apartment, but Eliot had some ready in his kitchen.
"What shock?" Parker asked, trying to hold onto the evolution of the conversation and failing miserably. She sat by Cassie's head, watching over Eliot's attempts to wake her with observant eyes. "That she's an alien? I think she already knew that."
"Yes," Ganos smiled softly, "But she was under the impression that she was more human than she is."
"What is she?" Eliot asked as he ran a hand over her neck under the pretext of checking her pulse.
"A different form of human," was the answer. "She is the necessary evolution of your kind, and that came as something of a shock."
Hardison came rushing back in and tossed the small vial to Eliot, who caught it fluidly. He unstopped the bottle and waved it under Cassie's nose a few times before the woman gasped and shoved it away before sitting up.
"What the hell?" she said as she looked around. Her eyes fell on the woman still standing in the same spot in the center of the room. "Oh. Right. You again. Haven't the Others spirited you away yet?"
"The Others sent me," Ganos told her flatly with determination lacing her words and her eyes.
Cassie's heart was still beating a little fast and she was lightheaded enough to have to lean back in order to keep sitting up right. "Now why would they do that?" she accused.
Ganos bristled at that. She started to glow bright white as she shot back, "Because, among other reasons, your mother asked them to," right before turning into an annoyingly bright ball of light and flying out the window.
As her mind digested that news, and the fact that the persistent reminder of the dead was gone, Cassie found that she wanted to do nothing more than pass out again. So she did.
Unfortunately, Eliot still had the vial of smelling salts in his hand, so the bliss of oblivion didn't last for quite so long.
A/N: As I said before: just go with it. If the slight OOC-ness that is how I wrote this bothers you, you might as well stop reading now because it's not going to get better. ... and it just might get worse now that I'm in Leverage Withdrawal Mode until Season Three starts in the summer.