Under the Sunlight

Chapter 14

If Jacob was honest with himself, he knew he could have texted Cassandra and got the information he needed and had the chess set in hand by now. But instead he found himself climbing the stairs to the weather station in order to see her for himself.

He hadn't felt this surge of happiness in a really long time. Probably the last time had been the day his son was born. They were all here in the building working together. That was pretty cool on its own, he'd actually come to miss working with the others despite what he'd tried to claim earlier. But after three weeks of barely any communication from her, Cassandra was there. The woman he loved, though he hadn't quite told her that, but she knew enough of his feelings. Better still, the feelings were mutual. They weren't ready to be together, but at this moment, he didn't care. He just wanted to look at her, listen to her voice, see her smile, maybe even make her laugh.

He couldn't help flirting with her. He didn't even try to stop himself. The look she gave him back was everything. Her eyes dancing with happiness and affection. God he loved her.

But then Jones had to walk in and everything fell apart. He sighed to himself as he went back down to the chess sets after saying goodbye to Cassandra. That old feeling of failure came back. He'd put the blame all on Jones again, when it was just as much his fault as the thief's. He was the oldest and he'd tried so hard to be the leader. But he wasn't Baird, he just didn't have her knack. So the old quarrel was back and once again he'd left Cassandra feeling like she was in the middle.

And he knew he'd chastise himself in the middle of the night for it, but he did find some pleasure in mocking Ezekiel over his failure with the Italian woman. Especially when they reached the weather station and found her with Cassandra.

The Italian had set her earrings on the table and Cassandra cast a glance his way as she adjusted the headphones on the other woman's head. She smirked at him and he had to keep from laughing out loud. Wouldn't want the Italian to notice. Ezekiel's mouth hung open during the whole exchange.

Stone was actually surprised that the worldly thief hadn't picked up the thing about Cassandra that he knew. Ezekiel was very close to Cassandra after all, even if it wasn't in the same way he himself was. She'd been fairly open about her sexuality with him, almost casually mentioning a girl she'd used to date on the same evening that she'd told him about an odd habit of an ex-boyfriend. He'd had expected to be surprised by this knowledge but he found he hadn't really been. It was just another part of what made Cassandra, well Cassandra. But now considering Ezekiel's reaction to this, Jacob felt himself yet again honored by Cassandra choosing to share herself with him.

In another circumstance, he might have been jealous of her flirting with someone else in front of him. Even if like in this situation, he knew it was all an act. But he and Cassandra had an understanding, a pact sealed with a kiss. She had given him the one thing that was most precious to her: time. She didn't need to tell him that she loved him, by giving him that one gift, he knew. No one else could come between them now. The only thing that could would be themselves.

He actually had to admit that watching Cassandra out play Ezekiel at one of his games was a bit of a turn on. That was his girl right there and he almost high fived her. But she had something she needed to show Flynn and so they raced downstairs to meet up with him and Baird. But even in their haste, she threw a playful wink his way as she tossed the Italian's phone number in a trash can.

But the playfulness ended the second that Cassandra had a chance to listen to her rendering. And the stakes got very high indeed when Flynn put together what was going on and Prospero had unleashed a powerful storm over the city before escaping.