"I heard Flynn talking to Judson on my way here," Cassandra was telling Jenkins as they sat on his couch. He poured each of them a cup of tea and handed Cassandra hers. "He keeps trying to argue that it's partly his fault."

After they'd left the annex, Cassandra returned to her room to freshen up and wash her face – she did look like a raccoon – and she redid her makeup before heading to Jenkins' room. Her eyes and throat still burned from her tears, but she had finally settled down. So much had happened in such a short time.

Jenkins shook his head, carefully sipping his hot tea. "It is not his fault," he insisted. "I know he played with the wiring of the time machine, but there was no way that he could have known what happened to her, and he certainly couldn't go gallivanting through time on an assumption, either. Nicole was the only one responsible for her actions. I didn't even know about the test; that was new information for me. Then again, Judson always did keep secrets from me."

Cassandra took a sip of the peppermint tea. Jenkins always made it special for her; he preferred jasmine. She relished the warm liquid as it soothed her throat. "I feel bad for him, though. I know he cared about her. And the guilt…I know how that feels, too. It doesn't go away very quickly."

With a sigh, Jenkins put his tea cup down on the coffee table in front of them and reached for one of Cassandra's hands. "Don't you think that I feel horribly guilty about not telling you what was in the scroll?" he asked. "Your curiosity is a treasured trait, Cassandra, and being caretaker, it's my responsibility to protect the artifacts but also to protect the inhabitants of the Library from the artifacts. I failed to explain the power in that scroll. My death was my fault and mine only."

"But I didn't listen to you. You said not to open it, and I did. It wasn't the first time I didn't listen, and you paid the ultimate price."

Jenkins smirked as he glanced down at their joined hands. "If I'd told you about the spell in the scroll, would you still have opened it to read it?"

Immediately, Cassandra shook her head. "No, definitely not! I wouldn't have touched it if I'd known what could happen!"

"Then my death is my fault," Jenkins repeated, his gaze towards her gentle and full of love. "And from now on, I will reveal as much information as I can about artifacts so that everyone has the knowledge that they need to keep them safe." He lifted a hand to caress her cheek. "So, how about we both try to let our guilt go, okay? I'm too grateful to be here again, and I want to start over with you."

Cassandra was sure her heart skipped a beat. "When you say 'start over', you mean…"

Looking chagrined, Jenkins reached for his tea cup and took a sip. "Remember when you suggested that we go out? Before your surgery?"

With a grin, Cassandra answered, "Of course. It wasn't just a fear-filled request, you know."

"I do know. And, if the offer still stands, I think we should go to a movie. And dinner. At night. Tonight. Together." Then Jenkins winked.

Cassandra laughed softly, hearing her own words coming from Jenkins. "Hmm…that sounds strangely like a date," she replied, recalling his response to her.

"Not strangely. Actually."

Cassandra breathed deeply, hardly able to believe that her dream was coming true. She'd pictured them together so many times. "Thought you'd never ask."

"And isn't it true that your sole reason for stealing all of the artifacts was so that you would get caught?" Judson asked from inside the mirror. He and Nicole were in a small room located under the other lion.

"No, I – " Nicole winced where she stood as she struggled to hold up the Scales of Themis that were bound to her hands.

"Remember, if you lie, the scales will know. You must keep your arms straight out and hold them up throughout this trial."

Visually, the scales were empty, but it was easy to see that, to Nicole, they were very heavy. "All right," she admitted through clenched teeth as the weight lessened. "I might have had an ulterior motive when I started stealing. But it was justified after how long I suffered."

"Suffered? Did you go hungry? Were you homeless?"

"Initially yes!"

"But not for long. You adapted to the time period that you'd been sent back to," Judson told her. "You made friends…lovers…you secured employment."

"I had no choice but to find a way to take care of myself," Nicole defended. "I suffered emotionally."

"I see." Judson cleared his throat. "So, since you were putting so much time into stealing the artifacts – you were able to find a way to become immortal even which was quite an accomplishment – why didn't you put as much effort into stealing a time-turning artifact so that you could return?"

Nicole swallowed, her gaze dropping to the floor. "I looked. I couldn't find anything." Immediately, the scales grew heavy again, and she fought to hold them up.

"Apparently, that's not the truth."

Nicole growled in anger as she struggled with the weight. "Fine! I didn't look. I didn't care to look. It was Flynn's fault that I ended up back in time. It was his responsibility to rescue me!" The scales lessened again.

"So…so you justify your vengeful behavior – behavior, I might add, that not only killed one of the Library's employees but that also destroyed the actual Library – because you felt that it was Flynn's responsibility to come back for you?"

"Yes!"

"The Library chose you because of your skills – your physical skills, your intellectual skills and your emotional skills. Flynn thought you were dead, Ms. Noone. He mourned you…he grieved over you…and excessively I might add. You know what that's like, don't you? To grieve over someone that you've lost?"

Nicole narrowed her eyes. "Painfully so."

"So please explain to me how you could expect someone to come back for you that didn't know you were alive to start with, wouldn't have known where you ended up, anyway, and went through months of grieving before he was able to move on with his life. Librarians have been a lot of things, Ms. Noone, but a mind reader has never been one of them."

Nicole pursed her lips and looked away.

"Let's move on. You made sure that Ambrose Gethic was able to get a hold of a time machine. Why didn't you use it yourself and return?"

It was easy to see that Nicole was torn between saying what she wanted and answering the truth. Her arms were growing tired, so she was forced to say the latter. "Because that would have been too easy," she spat. "I needed Dare to get to Flynn."

"In order to plant the idea about there being only one Librarian."

"Yes," Nicole hissed.

"And didn't you scheme with Rasputin and promise him the Needle if he went along with your plan of tricking Jenkins to give up his immortality to you?"

Glancing at the scales, Nicole frowned. "Yes."

"Do you think that your love for Edward had any influence on your behavior?"

"What? Edward? No!"

Again, the scales grew heavy, and Nicole bit her lip as she tried to hold them up.

"Perhaps you'd like to try again."

Glancing up at the ceiling to keep her tears at bay, Nicole shook her head. "Dammit, Judson! I loved Edward so much. And then that bastard faked his death! How could he do that to me? After everything I'd done for him? Judson, you know what we went through! And he lied to me! Turned his back on everything!"

"Which is precisely what you did. Do you think that your anger towards Flynn was posssibly misplaced? That you were in some way trying to punish him when you really wanted to punish Edward? After all, Edward's death made you feel extremely guilty before you discovered that he was alive."

Tears were pooling in Nicole's eyes as she shrugged. "I don't know," she answered quietly. "Maybe."

"That's all the questions I have, Ms. Noone. I'll be back momentarily."

"Ms. Noone, the Library finds you guilty of both premeditated murder and purposeful destruction of the Library and all of its artifacts," Judson announced fifteen minutes later. "Because of your previous service and because of the trauma sustained from both losing Edward and being sent back in time, the Library has chosen a two-part sentence."

Nicole, who was back inside the metal coffin device in the same small room under the lion, remained silent with her arms folded.

"You will be locked away in a secret spot in the Library at a satellite location, and you will wear the Mask of Ma'at for thirty years."

"No!" Nicole exclaimed. "I'll go insane!"

Judson continued on as if he hadn't heard her. "You will experience the same suffering that you put everyone else through over and over and over. After that, your immortality will be taken away from you and you will be banished to the Socotra Islands where you will live out the rest of your days serving the native people there."

Fighting tears, Nicole asked, "Why don't you just kill me and be done with it?"

Charlene suddenly appeared beside of Judson in the mirror. "Because, Ms. Noone, you committed atrocious, heinous crimes that deserve punishment," she told the younger woman with no sympathy in her clipped tone of voice. "You did so many unspeakable things to so many people. Destroying the Library alone warranted a death sentence, but Ray was appreciative of your previous years of service and would not allow that. Flynn also begged us for mercy for you, hence the two-part sentence. Oh, and in addition to your sentence, all mention of you will be removed from the Library and all legal records of you will be purged. It will be as if you never existed."

Nicole jutted her chin out defiantly. "Whatever. Once I get to that island, I can just take my own life there and be done with all of this."

"No, you can't," Judson argued. "You will have a spell over you that will prevent you from being able to do such a thing. You will not be able to get out of this sentence or change it. The mask and the islands will be your prison."

Nicole dropped her arms as tears spilled from her eyes, the enormity of her situation finally getting the best of her. "Please, Judson. I – "

"I don't want to hear it. You deserve all that you're getting. You actually deserve more, but Ray and Flynn intervened for you."

"May I at least say goodbye to Flynn?"

Judson cleared his throat. "No. Your sentence begins now."

When the Egyptian Mask of Ma'at materialized over Nicole's face, she screamed in horror and then disappeared with a snap of Judson's fingers never to be seen or heard from again.

A week later

"Do you think Flynn will be okay?" Cassandra asked Jenkins as they sat on a bench atop a balcony in Paris with a breathtaking view of the Eiffel Tower. They'd been out to an early dinner and had decided to watch the sun set over the city before returning home.

Understandably, when Judson told Flynn of Nicole's sentencing, he'd been extremely upset. Cassandra still felt like it should have been worse, but knowing that she would suffer greatly made the Librarian feel a little better. In fact, Flynn was the only one upset; everyone else had been relieved.

"I think Mr. Carsen will be just fine," Jenkins assured her with a comfortable smile. "I'm sure Colonel Baird will be able to help him forget while away on their tethering honeymoon."

Cassandra grinned knowingly. "I suppose so. It was a beautiful ceremony, wasn't it?"

"It was. And long overdue." Jenkins scooted closer to Cassandra and put his arm around her shoulders. "You looked quite beautiful, milady."

Leaning her head against Jenkins' shoulder, Cassandra said, "And you looked quite handsome yourself. Thank you for dinner tonight, by the way."

"No need to thank me. We should have done this months ago."

"We're doing it now. That's what counts. By the way, I've got a cheesecake in the fridge at home. Care for some dessert?"

"I'd love some," Jenkins answered as they stood to head back to the magic door. "One thing first."

With no warning, Cassandra was lifted up in Jenkins' strong arms just before his mouth found hers in a hungry, lingering kiss that she never wanted to end. Dessert could wait just a little longer.

So there is my 'alternate finale'. Yes...I could have put Nicole in a torture chamber and allowed Jenkins to have his way with her, but I wanted to stick with how I thought it could realistically play out on TV.

*ahem* SHOULD have played out on TV.

Want to see the visual of the last line with Jenkins and Cassandra? Go to my twitter account... VelvetStormFF! It's a pretty one!

Are you reading my other Jenkins/Cassandra story The Knight and His Lady? If you liked this, you'll like that, too. I'll be posting for that one soon. Check it out!