Under the Sunlight

Chapter 15

The Clippings books, the main one as well as the individual ones, had been mostly quiet for a few weeks after Flynn had left. There were small missions here and there, Cassandra was on one of hers at the moment, but for the most part it had been quiet. They'd all taken advantage of the quiet to attend to their own projects as well as things that needed to be done around the Library.

Stone knew that when Cassandra was not on missions or helping with inventory that she'd been practicing magic. Out of all of them, aside from possibly Flynn, she seemed the most adept at actually getting a spell to work. They all wondered if it was the result of her being briefly turned into Merlin and that little blue spark that she kept in a pretty jar on the desk she'd claimed as her own. She'd gone into things cautiously, following all instructions to the letter and starting very very small. He'd tried with her one day and had actually managed to get a ball to float like she could. But while she could spin and juggle them, he'd only managed the one trick. So he'd left that mostly to her though they'd had many interesting conversations about the subject, she'd gotten interested in occultism and actually found an article he'd written (under another name) about early colonial occult symbolism. He missed some of the more intimate conversations they'd had pre-Peru, but he knew that this was how it had to be, at least for now. Besides, he'd never had anyone in his life like her. Actually having a conversation with someone his intellectual equal in person was frankly amazing. And one of the many reasons why he loved her.

Jacob himself was working on a paper. He'd been so busy with the Library and Max that he'd fallen behind on his publishing. His favorite alter ego Oliver Thompson had been urged to submit for an upcoming issue of a journal he'd been frequently published in, so he'd been busy writing. In between child care, taking inventory of the Library and the occasional mission, of course. He got up and stretched, his stomach was rumbling and he had a couple of hours before he needed to pick up Max from preschool. Might as well get food. He grabbed the books he'd been gathering from the Library and headed back toward the Annex door.

He passed Jones who was muttering at a mass of wires. The security system was in desperate need of an overhaul, especially after Prospero had invaded. Ezekiel had been attempting to upgrade it, but the Library seemed to not be having it. They weren't sure why, but the Library just hadn't been itself since it's return. Which seemed to be part of the problem Jones was having, along with all of the antique wiring. Stone didn't like to admit this out loud, but if anyone could get the security system to work properly, it would be Jones.

Baird was sitting at her desk, looking lost in thought. She'd been quieter ever since Flynn had left, though she was pretty busy with Jenkins most of the time. He lay his books on the desk he'd claimed and looked over at her.

"Hey Baird?"

She looked up. "Stone?"

"Want to go out to lunch?"

She smiled at him, a touch of affection in that smile. "Sounds good. Cassandra texted and said everything was finished. She decided to do a little sightseeing before she came home."

He grinned. "Good for her. We all need to do that when we can. Might as well take advantage of magic door."

Baird looked at him, a question in her eyes, but then she shrugged. He had a feeling that she'd be asking him the question over lunch instead.

Settling in at the brewpub down the road, Baird took a sip of her beer then asked how Max was doing.

"He's doin' good. The therapist said there wasn't any need to make any more appointments for him. And he did real good spendin' time with his mama and his cousins. Loves his preschool too. Been trying to decide if I want to send him to public kindergarten or put him in a private school, but that'll be over a year away, thank God. I'm tellin' ya Baird, just yesterday he was learning to walk, now he's in school."