Stone nearly jumped out of his skin when he finished plating his breakfast, turned around to head to the table, and found Cassandra leaning against the counter behind him. She tried and failed at not looking too amused by Stone's fright.
"Man, you're quiet," he said. She chuckled. "Hey, you got up by yourself!"
"The bedside table helped," she admitted.
"Still," he shrugged. "What are you doing out here?"
"I heard voices," she said. She looked around the suite. "Are you alone?"
"Baird went home; it's just me today," he said.
"Is that because I was mean?" she asked, a guilty look crossing her face.
"Nah," Stone said. "It was a hard day for everyone. You hungry?"
She nodded, and he handed his plate over to her. Cassandra slid onto one of the barstools and swung her legs back and forth as she ate. When Stone had fixed up another plate of breakfast, he joined her at the counter and looked down at her legs.
"You know that's not gonna get ya out of walkin', right?" he said.
She rolled her eyes. "I know," she sighed.
"What do you say we call a truce?" he suggested.
"What do you mean?" she asked.
"You don't like bein' forced to do things, and I don't like making you do it, but we both know it's gotta happen," Stone said. "So today, I'll try to be a little more patient if you can try to be a little more agreeable. Sound fair?"
"Sounds fair," she agreed. "I'm sorry."
He shook his head. "You don't got to apologize, Cassandra," he said. "This is new for all of us. I've got a big family, but nobody's ever had anything like this done, and Baird…well, I think she's as isolated from her folks as you and Jones seem to be."
"I'm not making it easy on you," she recognized.
"You don't feel good," he shrugged. "And none of us should expect you to."
"Well, thank you for letting me off the hook," Cassandra said. "But I should still apologize to Colonel Baird later."
After breakfast and medicine, Cassandra and Stone decided to watch a movie in the living room, as Cassandra decided she needed a change of scenery. Stone insisted she sit in the recliner in an effort to keep her from laying flat on the couch, and he picked something classic and easy-to-follow from the hotel's list of OnDemand movies. Despite the simple plot, Cassandra lost the story less than twenty minutes in. Ten minutes later, she gave up trying to figure out what was going on and curled into the blanket Stone had thrown across the recliner, mindlessly watching the characters on the screen. Fifteen minutes after that, she was asleep.
When she woke up a few hours later and headed for the hotel bathroom, Stone decided to take the drill sergeant aspect out of making sure she stayed well. Instead of forcing her to get up and go for a walk, he thought he might have more success with suggesting one when she was already up and moving. Cassandra returned to the living room and found Stone sitting in the recliner. She put on an impish grin and wandered over to him.
"Get up," she said. She glared at him and added, "Chair thief."
"How about we take a walk first?" he suggested.
The smile disappeared. "Right now?" she asked, almost whining.
"You're up; why not?" Stone asked.
"Because I'm tired," Cassandra said.
"You're gonna be tired all day, Cassie," he reasoned.
She thought about it for a moment and said, "Just a few minutes, right? Then we can come back?"
"Then we can come back," he promised.
Cassandra put a robe on over her pajamas, slid her feet into slippers, and begrudgingly followed Stone out of the hotel door. Their room was situated just a few doors down from the far end of the hallway, and Cassandra exhaled heavily when Stone turned them towards the lengthier side of the corridor.
"What's wrong?" he asked.
"The hallway just looks so long," Cassandra sighed.
"So we won't do the whole hallway," he said. He pointed to the third door on his left. "Think you can make it to that third door right there?"
"Yeah," she replied. She stood up a little straighter and, with more confidence, repeated, "Yeah, I can do that."
Stone offered his arm, and she took it, linking her arm with his. She placed her other hand on their joined arms and nodded. They walked slowly, steadily, and silently down to the designated door. She smiled and looked at him when they reached it. Upon seeing his grin, hers quickly faded.
"You're going to make me go further, aren't you?" she asked.
"I think you proved yesterday that we really can't make you do anything," he teased. "But how about to the elevator there in the middle?"
"Okay," she nodded.
Every time they reached one of his little goals, he'd give her another one, and pretty soon, they'd reached the end of the hall.
"Make it to that window, and you're out of hallway," he pointed out. She beamed with pride until she turned around to see how far she'd walked. Her face instantly fell, and Stone asked, "What now?"
"I have to go all the way back now," she moaned. She looked at him hopefully and added, "Unless you'll carry me?"
"Yeah, nice try, darlin'," he replied.
She sighed, never having expected that to work in the first place. With a shrug, she said, "Well, you can't blame a girl for trying."
He squeezed her hand in reassurance, and he let her rest for a couple minutes upon reaching the window. She looked around outside for a couple minutes before she nodded. She took his arm again, and they leisurely walked back to the suite, this time, forgoing the stops they made at every few doors on the way there.
After a few minutes, Cassandra rolled her eyes and muttered, "This is ridiculous. A week and a half ago, I was running through Lithuania."
"A week and a half ago, you couldn't do really complicated equations without bleeding or passin' out," he reminded her.
"I'm pretty sure I couldn't do that right now, either," she said. She laughed and added, "I can't even follow a stupid movie for more than fifteen minutes."
"You'll get there," he said. "When you get back out there, you're gonna blow the rest of us out of the water."
She scoffed. "Like I didn't already do that."
Later that day, Stone called and placed a dinner order for the two of them from one of the restaurants downstairs. Rather than have it delivered, he opted to travel to the ground floor and pick it up himself. He slipped the key card into the door, balancing the bag of food on one arm, and opened the door. A muffled cry met his ears almost as soon as he walked in.
"Stone!" Cassandra called as soon as heard the door click.
Stone quickly put the bag on the counter and headed in the direction of Cassandra's cry. He walked into the bedroom and found it empty. He peered out into the living room when she called again.
"Jacob!" she hollered, a hint of desperation in her voice.
Alarmed by the use of his first name again, he turned to find her but paused when he realized she was behind the closed bathroom door.
"Cassandra?" he asked.
"It's okay; come in," she said.
He opened the bathroom door carefully, but he still didn't see her. The shower curtain, however, was drawn shut. "Are you behind the curtain?" he asked.
"Yes," she quietly admitted.
"Did you fall? Are you alright?" he asked with concern.
"I didn't fall," Cassandra said.
"I was barely gone fifteen minutes," he said. "What happened?"
"I wanted to wash my hair with a quick rinse and the baby shampoo, just like Dr. Shepherd's instructions said, but once I got in here, I realized I can't see where the incision was, and that made me nervous, and then I was afraid the water from the showerhead would hit my head wrong and hurt, and then I just needed to sit down, and now I'm not quite sure I can get back up," she explained.
"So you've been sittin' there for…" he started.
"Well, I don't have a watch in here, but maybe ten minutes or so," she replied. He couldn't see her face, but amid the sass, he could hear the humiliation in her voice.
One of the nurses had helped her bathe during her hospital stay, but they had been told not to wash her hair for at least 72 hours after the operation, which she hadn't hit until the previous afternoon. The nurses had removed the bandages and shown them how to care for the incision site before they left the hospital. With that taken care of, between the transition to life outside of the hospital and the thunderstorm and the miniature battles on their first day in the hotel, washing her hair had been the last thing on anyone's mind.
He let out a disapproving sigh and asked, perhaps a little too roughly, "Why did you attempt something like that by yourself?"
"Because the walking went so well, I thought I could do it," Cassandra said.
"You know I'm here to help, right?" he said.
"Not with this!" she exclaimed.
"With anything," he sharply insisted, cringing as soon as he heard the manner in which his thoughts were coming out of his mouth.
"I'm sorry!" she called. "Are you going to scold me, or are you going to help me?"
"Of course I'm gonna…" he began. He was trying to tell her he was going to help when he really thought about the situation at hand and paused. "Cassandra?"
"What?" she exclaimed, rapidly growing even more frustrated with the situation.
"You're…are you naked back there?" he asked.
"I'm in the shower, you genius dummy!" she sassily replied.
"Okay, alright, hold on," Stone grumbled. He slipped out into the bedroom and grabbed one of the towels Flynn had purchased from the dresser, silently thanking god that Flynn had bought towels much larger than the small ones provided by hotels. He returned to the bathroom and slipped the towel through the side of the shower curtain, turning his head away just in case.
"I told you I didn't even get the water on," Cassandra replied. "Are you even listening?"
"Look, I'm gonna help you, alright, but I'm not gonna help you naked, so put the god damn towel on," he said, shaking it up and down.
"Oh," she replied. She grabbed the towel and said, "Okay, give me a minute."
She told him when, and he pulled back the shower curtain to find her sitting in the bathtub, the fluffy green towel wrapped around her slender frame, and a shot of fear ran through him all over again. Her incision site had remained uncovered since being discharged from the hospital. A triangle from the front left portion of her head had been shaved, and if it wasn't for the staples in her head or the other telltale signs of surgery, Stone thought, she'd simply look like she was attempting to rock some trendy hairstyle. One of the doctors had tightly braided her hair along where they had shaved to act as a barrier and keep her hair from getting in the surgeons' way during the procedure, and Cassandra had left the braids intact, worried that undoing them would irritate the wound or painfully pull on the incision.
She was facing the outside of the bathtub, and she sheepishly looked up at him, one hand holding the fastened towel tightly against her breasts. The arm that had contained all of her IVs was a rainbow of colors from the bruising beneath her skin, something she had been concealing with her clothes, and Stone sunk to his knees by the bathtub, trying to think about anything other than how small and fragile she looked.
"Do you think you can turn so your…" he started. "I don't know how to say this."
"So the side of my head that's not half-bald is towards you?" she finished.
"Yeah," he frowned. She nodded and carefully turned herself ninety degrees. He placed his hand over the faucet and asked if she was ready. She nodded again, and he turned the water on. She squeaked and squirmed as the cool water flooded the bathtub. "Sorry, it's gonna take a second to warm up," he said.
"This is so embarrassing," she groaned. He grabbed one of the cups resting by the sink and held it under the bathtub faucet. "What are you doing?"
"Well, I'm not gonna turn the showerhead on if you think it might hurt," he said as they simultaneously looked up towards the device in question. "Keep your head back."
She did, closing her eyes, and he slowly poured the water over her head to wet her hair. A good portion of the liquid spilled over the edge of the tub, soaking one of the knees on his jeans. He groaned and stood up, telling Cassandra he'd be right back. Stone returned just a minute later in a t-shirt and his boxer shorts instead of the jeans and long-sleeved hoodie he'd been wearing a minute ago, and Cassandra's eyes grew as wide as the diameter of the cup in her hands.
"Now what are you doing?" she asked.
"I'm helpin'," Stone insisted.
"By taking your clothes off?" she asked in a high-pitched tone.
"Just trust me, okay?" he replied, the edge returning to his voice.
"Why? You don't trust me," she shot back.
"Yes, I do! I told you that before you went to the OR," he argued.
"You meant that?" she asked in surprise.
"Do I say things I don't mean?" Stone asked.
"Yes, all the time!" Cassandra said, thinking of his family in Oklahoma, completely in the dark about who he really is.
"To you?" Stone challenged.
Cassandra momentarily held his gaze before acquiescing to his argument. "No," she said. Her voice softened and she asked, "So you meant it? You trust me now?"
"I meant it," he said, getting back down onto his knees in front of the bathtub.
"I thought you were just saying that for my benefit," she admitted. "Because of the circumstances."
"Nah, I mean, I wanted you to feel better, but I know having my trust is important to you, so I wouldn't have said it if I hadn't meant it," he said as he got to work on her hair again.
"What changed?" she asked softly.
"You proved yourself," he shrugged. "You proved me wrong, and I decided not to hold you to one mistake when your personal stakes had been so high."
"Thank you," she muttered.
Stone grabbed the baby shampoo and said, "You let me know the second anything starts to hurt, okay?"
"Okay," she promised.
He carefully and silently lathered up her hair, and she frequently glanced at him as he worked. Cassandra's shoulders sunk a little as she drew the towel as close to her body as she could. He noticed her obvious discomfort and quickly pulled his hands back, asking if she was alright again.
"This is just really intimate," she replied.
Without thinking, and letting his own discomfort get the better of him, he muttered, "Yeah, well, trying to do this by yourself was really stupid." His eyes left her as he turned to fill the cup with water again.
"I'm sorry," she said again, tears springing to her eyes.
"You don't have to be sorry," he said gruffly.
"Then why are you mad at me?" she exclaimed.
"I'm not mad at you," he said, his voice softening. "Head back. Close your eyes."
She tilted her head back and he washed the shampoo away. When he was finished, he turned off the water, sat back, and looked at her. She finally opened her eyes and turned her head to face him, water dripping down her face.
"Why are you looking at me like that?" she asked.
"I'm not mad at you for trying to do something normal on your own," he said. He reached out and brushed back the hair that was dripping down her face. "I just didn't know how scared I was gonna be with this surgery thing, and even though you're fine now, seeing ya like this scares me, too, and I'm not handlin' it as well as I'd like."
"You were scared?" she asked. "You didn't show it. I mean, you were a rock during the animation that freaked everyone else out, and…okay, maybe you seemed the most uneasy of the group on the day, but you didn't really seem scared."
"You didn't see the lunatic in the waiting room," he promised. She grinned. "You were scared; I couldn't act like I was, too." They held the other's gaze for a moment before he said, "If I help you stand up, do you think you can take it from here?"
Cassandra nodded, and he stood. He helped her stand up and held onto her arm until he was sure she had gained her footing. He shot her a small smile, pulled the curtain almost all the way shut, and headed for the bathroom door.
He hung around the bedroom, wanting to be close by in case she needed more assistance, but when the water in the shower shut off again, Stone returned to the kitchen to warm up the now-room-temperature dinners he'd retrieved from the restaurant downstairs. A few minutes later, Cassandra joined him.
"Hey," she said softly.
He turned around to find her standing in the bedroom doorway in a new set of Tinkerbell pajamas from Flynn, a towel for her wet hair draped across her shoulders. She looked completely worn out, but once she had his attention, she walked over to him, holding her arms out for a hug. Cassandra wrapped her arms around his torso, and he returned the embrace, holding her tightly in the middle of the small kitchen. After a few moments, she pulled back enough to look at him.
"I'm okay," she said.
"Good," he replied.
"No, I mean…I'm okay. I know I look kind of scary right now between the hair and the staples and all the bruises, but I'm okay," she said. He nodded, and she let go, taking a seat at the counter with a grin. "So tell me more about the waiting room; apparently I missed a lot."
They woke up the next morning to a rattling noise above their heads. Cassandra slowly opened her eyes and found Ezekiel standing beside the bed, shaking a plastic cup containing her next dose of pills. He realized she was awake, and he shot her a wicked grin.
"Wakey, wakey," he teased.
Cassandra smiled and sat up from the mountain of pillows behind her, happy to see him. "Do I actually need to take those, or did you just want to wake me up?" she asked.
He pulled a water bottle and a Portland bakery takeout bag from behind his back, sat down on the edge of the bed, and said, "Drink up."
She took the pills and, as she was swallowing, reached over to the man lying next to her. She gently smacked Stone's t-shirt-clad chest a few times to rouse him from his sleep. He woke up on a groan as she started nibbling on the cinnamon pastry.
"What are you doing here?" he asked Ezekiel, his voice heavy with sleep.
"Better question: what are you two doing sleeping together?" Ezekiel asked, earning an eye roll from both of the people between the sheets.
"Did you have to say it like that?" Stone asked. "You know it's not like that."
"It's stupid to sleep on the uncomfortable couch when the comfy bed is more than big enough for two people," Cassandra passionately replied in a way that told Ezekiel that had definitely been a conversation the night before.
Ezekiel chuckled. There was enough space between them for a third person, and he'd only asked the question to get a rise out of his friends. Stone repeated his original inquiry, and Ezekiel divulged that he had arrived to be Cassandra's servant for the day.
"Did Baird tell you to come because if you don't take this seriously…?" Stone started.
"Relax; I volunteered," Ezekiel said. "It's my turn. Go home. I can handle it."
"Yeah?" Stone asked. He nodded towards the pastry and said, "That all the breakfast you could muster up for her?"
"Shut up; it's yummy," Cassandra said. Stone still looked skeptical and glanced at Cassandra. She sighed and lightheartedly rolled her eyes in response. "We'll be fine, oh my gosh. You've been in Seattle for almost a week, Stone. It's a nice hotel, but you must want to go home. I want to go home!"
"Alright, fine, but Jones, you've got to…" Stone started, pointing an accusing finger at the younger man.
"Yeah, yeah, Baird gave me the rundown," Ezekiel said. "Go."
Stone took a few minutes to get ready and gather his things before heading for the Back Door in the janitor's closet down the hall. After confirming Cassandra didn't need anything else from him, Ezekiel headed into the living room, plopped down on the couch, and fired up a video game on the flat-screen television. Cassandra wandered into the room about an hour later, still dressed in her Tinkerbell pajamas, and peered into a bag on the coffee table.
"Is this for me?" she asked.
"Oh yeah," Ezekiel said. "Goodies from the Library."
She eagerly dug through the burlap messenger bag and found a mathematics book she had been working her way through before the surgery, a science textbook from her "to read" pile, and a fairytale book she assumed Ezekiel had thrown in for fun. When she pulled out the next item, she turned towards Ezekiel and held it up. "What is this?" she asked.
He glanced over from the television and grinned as she looked thoroughly unamused by the children's science-themed coloring and activity book she held in her hands. He chuckled and said, "Stone said you had the attention span of a four-year-old right now, so I brought you a science book for a four-year-old. There are crayons in there, too."
Despite herself, she giggled, fishing them out of the bag. "Are you going to make fun of me if I actually use these?"
"Oh, absolutely," Ezekiel promised.
Cassandra looked back into the bag and dug what looked to be an ancient book from the bottom. It had a brown leather cover with its titled etched in gold on the spine. The pages inside were yellowed and well-worn but intact. She carefully flipped through it and said, "You brought me a book about magic?"
"No, I didn't," Ezekiel said.
She turned around to face him again and said, "Yes, you did. See?"
He paused his game and took the book from her hands, looking it over. "I just pulled stuff from your desk, I swear."
"Then how did it get in the bag?" she asked. "I've never read anything like this before."
Ezekiel shrugged. "I guess the Library wanted you to have it."
They spent the morning in the living room; Ezekiel played video games while Cassandra, acting upon the natural pull she felt towards the magic book that had appeared in the bag, attempted to read. When she realized she had spent an hour reading the same four paragraphs over and over because she hadn't retained any of the information, she gave up and played with the science coloring book Ezekiel had brought her. As promised, he teased her as she colored pictures of the planets, and she offered to play video games with him instead, a suggestion he quickly rebuffed. As afternoon crept upon them, Cassandra put down her crayons.
"Are you hungry?" she asked. "I'm getting hungry."
Ezekiel paused the game again and said, "Okay, what do you want?"
She shrugged. "I figured you'd just pull out your phone and order pizza."
"I'm under pretty explicit orders not to just pull out my phone and order pizza," Ezekiel revealed.
She laughed, imagining the conversation Baird must have had with him before sending him through the Back Door that morning. "Since when are you one to follow orders?" she challenged.
"You actually want pizza?" he asked.
"Yes," she sighed. "And cheesy bread."
He pulled his phone off the coffee table and said, "Coming right up."
When the pizza and cheesy bread arrived forty minutes later, Cassandra clapped like a child getting away with something while Mom and Dad weren't looking. Ezekiel set the food down onto the coffee table and opened the boxes, not even bothering with a proper table or even plates. Cassandra slid onto the floor to eat, and Ezekiel joined her. He flipped on a mindless television show, and Cassandra asked how things were going back home.
"It's quiet," Ezekiel admitted. "Flynn and I were working on something that first day, but once Baird came back, he disappeared with her. The clippings book's been calm, so I don't really want to know what they've been off doing." Cassandra chuckled, and Ezekiel continued, "Jenkins is his normal, grumpy self. I made too much of a mess; I don't respect the Library…you know, the usual." At this, Cassandra sighed. "You miss it, don't you?" Ezekiel asked.
"It's home," Cassandra shrugged.
Cassandra appeared in the doorway that separated the bedroom and the living room a couple hours after disappearing for her after-lunch nap. Ezekiel lay sprawled out on the couch reading an old book from the Library. She smiled and leaned against the doorway, watching and waiting for him to notice she was there. When he didn't, curiosity got the better of her, and she crept silently towards the couch, wanting to get a better look at what he was reading. As she peered over his shoulder, he finally sensed her presence and abruptly put the book down.
"Jeez, make a noise!" he exclaimed.
"Sorry," Cassandra giggled.
"You're up," Ezekiel said. "What do you need?"
"Nothing," she assured him. "Can we walk?"
"Yeah," he shrugged. He realized how it huge it was for her to be asking to walk and repeated, with more enthusiasm. "Yeah!"
"Outside?" she asked.
"Even better," he said.
She swapped her pajamas for knee-length leggings, a skirt, and a zip-up sweater and took a deep breath once she got outside. Ezekiel offered his arm, and she linked hers with his. The hotel had a pool, a hot tub, a playground, and a picnic area, and they leisurely strolled around the sidewalks. He tucked his hands into the pockets on his jacket and spent more time watching her than watching where they were going.
"You're feeling better," he finally said.
"Why do you say that?" she asked.
"You asked to come outside and walk," Ezekiel said.
"I was getting a little stir-crazy," she admitted.
"You're nowhere near the hellion that Baird made you out to be," Ezekiel continued.
"Oh my god," Cassandra gasped. "I still need to apologize to her."
"And you're wearing a skirt," he said.
"I always wear skirts," she laughed.
"Exactly," he said. "You look more like you than you have all week."
"I don't know if I feel that way, though," she said quietly.
"What do you mean?" he asked.
"I don't know if I can describe it," she said. "I just…don't feel normal."
"You will eventually," he said.
"I hope so," she said. "Speaking of not normal…I caught you reading a book from the Library. I didn't know you did that."
"I read," Ezekiel said.
"I didn't mean it like that," she said. "You read comic books and bank blueprints and video game cheat codes. You don't research for the fun of it like Stone and I do, and that wasn't a recreational book."
"That was for fun," Ezekiel argued.
"Ancient Egypt is fun for you?" she asked suspiciously.
"Oh yeah," he said. His tone was unconvincing, but he nodded in affirmation. "Loads. It's fascinating."
She shot him a look that told him she didn't believe that for a second, but rather than push the issue, she shrugged it off and kept walking. A few paces later, as they came upon some tables and chairs near the pool, she reached for a chair, suddenly too tired to keep going. A look of worry crossed his face, and he pulled out the nearest chair.
"Hey, here, you're okay," he said quickly, helping her sit down.
"Sorry," she sighed. She put her elbows on the table and leaned her head into her hands. "I think I need to sit for a little bit."
"That's okay," he assured her. "You're alright, though, right?"
She promised him that she was and sat back up, leaning against the back of the chair. It was too cold to go swimming, but people meandered about outside. A family passed Ezekiel and Cassandra, heading back into the hotel from the playground, and the child slowed down as they passed, his eyes fixated on Cassandra's head. His mother tugged his hand to no avail, realized what had caught his attention, and started apologizing profusely. Cassandra guaranteed the woman it was okay, and, before she could offer to explain what had happened to her to the child, the woman had scooped up the child and walked away. Cassandra looked at Ezekiel.
"Maybe I shouldn't be out without a hat or something," she muttered.
"Why?" Ezekiel asked.
"Well…because of that," she said, pointing in the direction of the mother and son. "My head does look kind of creepy. I practically look like Frankenstein."
"You look kind of badass," Ezekiel said. Cassandra rolled her eyes, believing this to be another statement said for her benefit. "No, seriously. It says you survived something awful. Let everyone know how awesome you are."
Cassandra genuinely smiled and leaned her head into her hands again as another wave of dizziness crossed through her skull. Ezekiel winced and watched her with concern.
"I'm okay," she promised.
"You don't look okay," he said quietly.
"But I am; I promise," she said.
Ezekiel started getting antsy after just a few minutes of sitting outside. When they made it back to the room, Cassandra headed for the bed, claiming she needed to lie down. He nodded, and she asked what he was going to do.
"I don't know," Ezekiel said. "I'll find something, I guess."
"I'm sorry; I know being here probably isn't very fun," she said. She shot him a playfully accusatory look and said, "Bet you're really sorry for what you did now, huh?"
Ezekiel looked at her and thought about the tumor-free scan Dr. Shepherd had shown them just a few days prior. "Nope," he said boastfully. "Not at all. Are you?"
"No," she said sincerely. "Not at all."
The next morning, Baird and Stone sat at the center table in the Annex, almost gleefully speculating about how dazed and worn out Ezekiel would be when he walked through the Back Door. Jenkins finished setting it up, and Ezekiel strutted into the Annex, a smug, victorious look on his face.
"Hey, Jones," Baird smiled. "How'd it go?"
"Yeah, how was it?" Stone asked.
"You can wipe those self-righteous looks off your faces," Ezekiel said. "That was easy! I don't know what you two were going on about."
"Easy?" Baird asked, her face falling. "She was…"
"Cassandra," Ezekiel interrupted. "Tired, sometimes dizzy Cassandra, but pretty much just Cassandra. Maybe she just likes me the best, since I was the one who got the brain grape out of her head and all."
"I don't remember you being in the OR with a scalpel," Stone grumbled.
"So there were no problems or hiccups at all?" Baird asked.
"No…and you two thought I couldn't handle it," Ezekiel chuckled, heading for the exit of the Annex. "I mean, come on, I'm awesome."
After he'd gone, Baird and Stone shared a look of resentment and discontent.
"Okay, that's not fair," Stone said bitterly.
"That's becoming an alarming theme around here," Baird said, glaring at the hallway Jones had disappeared down.
"Him escaping whatever ordeal we're goin' through?" Stone asked.
"Mm-hmm," Baird replied, humming her confirmation.
They had two more full days in the hotel, with the post-op appointment with Dr. Shepherd on the morning of the third day. Baird had promised to go to the appointment with Cassandra, so she decided to take the last day in the hotel, leaving Stone to head through the Back Door before Jenkins could close it. He found Cassandra on the suite's balcony, dressed in a simple cotton floral dress and bright colored tights, sitting in a chair with her feet propped up on the small table. She smiled when she saw him and admitted she was going crazy stuck in that room. Her cabin fever led to lunch at the café next to the hotel and another walk around the pool that evening. The following afternoon with Baird was similar, though the day started with an apology and ended with Cassandra falling asleep after failing to follow a movie she had already seen three times before.
The next morning, Baird walked around the hotel room, making sure they had gathered everything before heading downstairs to check out. In the living room, Baird picked up the magic book from the table beside the couch. She nervously thumbed through it, glancing up every few seconds to make sure Cassandra hadn't joined her. She knew as well as Flynn did that of their three charges, Cassandra was the most enthralled with magic and the most likely to want to delve into it now that nothing was holding her back, but she expected it to take more than a few days after the surgery for that exploration to begin.
"Well, that was fast," Baird muttered. She then called, "Cassandra, can you come here for a second?"
Cassandra appeared in the living room shortly after Baird called. "What's wrong?"
"Uh, nothing," Baird said. She held up the book. "What's this?"
"Oh, it's so cool," Cassandra said. "Ezekiel brought me a bunch of books from the Library, but when we were looking through them, he said he'd never seen that one before, that the Library must have wanted me to have it."
"Have you read it?" Baird asked.
Cassandra laughed. "Please, you saw me with the movie last night. Reading's completely impossible right now."
She took the book from Baird's hands and went into the bedroom to put it with her other things. Baird nodded and returned to cleaning up the living room.
"The Library gave it to her. Great," Baird muttered. She paused for a moment, shook her head, and said, "And now I'm talking to myself again."
After taking a taxi back from the hotel, Cassandra sat on the end of the exam table in the consultation room, nervously wringing her hands against her chest. Baird noticed and walked over to her, vacating the chair against the wall.
"Hey, what's wrong?" Baird asked.
"My head still hurts, so I'm a little scared this is going to hurt," Cassandra admitted, pointing to the staples that were due to be removed.
Before Baird could answer, Amelia knocked on the door and entered the room with Cassandra's information pulled up on her iPad and a cheery hello.
"How's it going?" Amelia asked, slipping on latex gloves. "Everything go alright these past few days?"
"Oh, it had its ups and downs," Cassandra replied, glancing at Baird. "Like that first car ride to the hotel."
Amelia nodded and said, "I've had patients tell me that first ride home is the Car Ride from Hell, so you're definitely not alone in hating that."
"And thunder, huh?" Baird asked, looking at Amelia.
Amelia cringed. "Oh yeah, I thought of you as soon as that started," she said. "That was really bad?"
"She called me a hellion," Cassandra said, pointing at Baird.
"What? I didn't…how do you…?" Baird stuttered. She realized how Cassandra would've found out that word had slipped from her lips and groaned, "Damn it, Jones!"
Amelia told Cassandra to lie back on the reclined exam table, and Cassandra did so with a deep breath, nerves creeping across her stomach. Amelia made her way to the head of the table so she could examine Cassandra's incision site.
"Everything went alright otherwise?" Amelia asked. Cassandra nodded. "I bet you're eager to get home."
"Yes," Cassandra sighed. Amelia smiled in understanding.
"Well, the incision site looks good, so let's get those staples out, and you should be good to go, okay?" Amelia said.
"Is this going to hurt?" Cassandra asked.
"No," Amelia replied. "You might feel a little pressure, but it shouldn't hurt."
"You want my hand anyway?" Baird asked, holding it out as an offering. Cassandra nodded and curled one hand around Baird's.
Amelia cleaned the staples and the skin around Cassandra's incision and then used a special tool to remove the staples. Cassandra squeezed Baird's hand as the first few were removed, but she relaxed a bit when she realized it really wasn't going to hurt.
"So, I don't think we ever actually talked about this, but what is it that you do for work?" Amelia asked as she worked.
"I'm a librarian," Cassandra said.
"Oh, great," Amelia said with a laugh. "No driving until you're off the post-op meds, but if you can carpool with one of your friends, you can probably go back to work in just another two weeks or so."
"Really?" Cassandra asked with excitement.
"Yeah, sure," Amelia said. She thought about it for a minute and said, "Wait a minute, all five of you work together, right? You're all librarians? Even you, Colonel? That's a bit of a career change."
"I'm more…security," Baird said. Cassandra grinned at Baird's growing discomfort with the conversation.
"Right," Amelia nodded, a little confused as to why a library in Portland would need security. She gestured to Cassandra and said, "Yeah, you and Flynn…I could see that, but the kid? The cowboy? They're librarians, too?"
"It's probably not exactly what you're picturing," Cassandra said with a laugh.
"They're a different kind of librarian," Baird added.
"Oh, what do you mean?" Amelia asked with interest.
"Well…" Baird started, her ability to explain their jobs on the fly failing her yet again.
"There's some…field work," Cassandra said, jumping in when Baird failed to elaborate. "Field research. It can be a little…unpredictable."
"Alright, well…just take it easy," Amelia said.
"Is it okay to go to the Library?" Cassandra asked.
Amelia chuckled. "You're not under house arrest, Cassandra," she said. "If you want to go curl up in a chair and read a book…"
"Attempt to read a book, you mean," Cassandra muttered with a roll of her eyes.
Amelia chuckled again as the familiar complaint rolled off of Cassandra's lips. "By all means, go ahead," she said. "But I would say no field work until you can drive again."
"At least," Baird agreed.
Cassandra sighed. It had only been a week, and she didn't feel anywhere near up to it, but she already missed being a Librarian. A few more months sounded like a lifetime. She was going to have to find something to do with all that time. Amelia finished removing the staples, cleaned the incision site again, and placed a bandage over the area. Upon hearing Cassandra had been too apprehensive about undoing the braids around the surgical area, Amelia carefully removed them while running through a list of hair products to avoid for the next month or two. As the appointment drew to a close, Amelia pulled out the iPad and scheduled Cassandra for another post-operative visit to take place in about three and a half months.
"So, you are good to go home." Amelia started, heading for the door. "Feel free to call me if anything comes up or if you have any more questions, and otherwise, I'll see you in…"
"Wait," Cassandra said. She pushed herself off the exam table as quickly as she could while still being cautious and met Amelia by the door for a hug. Amelia, slightly taken aback, took a second to return the hug, but she did, a grin crossing her face. Cassandra pulled back after just a moment, tears springing to her eyes again. "Thank you," she said. "I…I don't have any mirrors in my apartment because I couldn't look in one without thinking about how that thing in my head was going to kill me."
"Well, then, go buy one!" Amelia told her. Cassandra laughed and tearfully nodded, rubbing her eyes before the tear drops could actually slip down her cheeks. "I'll see you in a few months."
Amelia closed the door behind her, and Cassandra walked over to Baird to gather her things. Baird pulled out her phone.
"Should I call Jenkins?" Baird asked.
Cassandra's face fell. "I, um…I've felt much better these last few days, but I still don't think I'm ready for the door," she admitted.
"Okay," Baird said instantly. "I guess we need to find a rental car office."
"Actually," Cassandra said. She took the phone from Baird's hands and dialed Flynn's number. After a few rings, she said, "Oh, it's not Eve; it's Cassandra…Yeah, she's fine. She's right here. I just had a quick question for you, and Colonel Baird's phone was closer. Is the Library's Cassandra Brain Surgery tab still open by any chance?"
A few hours later, they boarded a plane from Seattle to Portland.