Jassandra One Shots

Crunching Leaves

The leaves crunched under Jacob Stone's feet as he wandered through the woods, the only other sounds those of birds and the occasional insect. The last mission had been harrowing and they were lucky to have made it out without serious injuries. Their Guardian had borne the brunt of it, now out of commission for a while with a broken arm. None of them had emerged completely unscathed, even their resident lucky thief had had to get stitches. Jacob had to as well, but his most visible injury was the black, blue and yellow marks under his left eye.

This was why he was here, in the silence of the woods. He'd had the habit ever since he was small when he'd run away to his secret hiding place in the woods back behind his house. He'd store his books back there and read until the sun set. Even into adulthood when the world became too much to bear, he'd take a ramble, get lost for a while clearing his head.

The forests of Oregon were magnificent and a day off after a mission often included a walk to clear his head. Usually before he went back to the Library to lose himself in his passions, free from judgmental eyes. But today was a good day to cleanse off everything that happened yesterday. Forget about the pain in his face, Baird's gruesome (though thank God it looked worse than it actually was) injury, Jones' looking his age as opposed to how he usually acted and Cassandra . . .Cassandra so brave yet so pale, covered in blood only some of which had been hers.

He'd been lost in his thoughts, letting himself walk on autopilot. He'd chosen a path that he'd been down more than once, not wanting to get lost as he lost himself. But then he realized he'd somehow taken the right fork instead of the left. Well the path was straight enough, he'd walk down aways and then turn back. Paying attention now, he walked forward, taking in the beauty of the trees. Just up ahead was a clearing where he intended to turn back.

What he found at the clearing made him stop dead. A little cabin stood in the clearing, well kept, cheerful yellow curtains at the windows. It wasn't all that startling to find cabins or shelters in these woods. Most of them were quiet, so abandoned, but this one seemed full of life. That wasn't what made him stop dead. A woman was standing on the cabin's little porch, leaning on the rail, looking off into the distance. Her back was to him, but he knew that woman anywhere. Red hair curling down over her shoulders, knee socks with cute red boots, short denim overalls over a long sleeve purple shirt and he imagined if he could see her fully some cute little pins or other jewelry. Here in the woods that he'd come to forget, he'd found Cassandra.

His foot crunched some leaves and gravel and with a start the woman on the porch turned around. She gasped when she saw him her hand over her heart.

"Jacob? What are you doing here?"

He grinned. "Could ask you the same thing darlin'."

"This is my cabin," she said motioning toward it. "I didn't know anyone knew about it. Well, I told Colonel Baird just in case I was here and no one could reach me. The cell service is a little spotty."

"I didn't know about it. I come to the woods when I have things on my mind."

She nodded, a solemn expression on her face for a moment. "Yeah, me too. That's why I'm here. Do you . . .do you want to come in? I have lemonade."

He shrugged. "Sure."

Her cabin was tiny, not much more than a room. There was a neat little bed and a tiny kitchen and a little table with two benches. She didn't have a fridge, just a cooler packed with ice and bottles of lemonade and water. Out the window he finally saw her car, parked a little ways away, just off a dirt road that he didn't realize was there.

"How did you find this place?" he asked.

"I came to the woods to think too. Probably are shocked, me being a city girl and all. But I really loved the fresh air here and I stumbled across this place one day. It was for sale, so I bought it. It's not much but it's a good place to retreat."

It hadn't escaped Jacob that while she talked she'd avoided looking at him. He knew why so when she finally came to sit across from him at the table, her eyes trained on her bottle of lemonade, he reached out and touched her hand.

"Hey, look at me," he stared at her until she reluctantly raised her head. He touched his face. "This ain't your fault."

"Jacob, you took that for me! How is it not my fault?"

"Cassie, we're a team, right? It's not just one Librarian, any more. We're the Librarians, plural. We stick up for one another and we protect each other. I'd gladly take that blow for any of you, any day of the week."

"Even though . . . ."

He sighed heavily. "Thought we were passed that. Ain't I shown you that I trust you?"

"Yes, I guess . . .I guess believing in that is hard for me. Believing in myself. Still. After all this time."

He nodded. "It is for me too. Still. After all this time. I hear my old man calling me . . . .Never mind. The thief's the only one of us who is completely confident most of the time. And even he had a hard time this outing."

"Yeah, yesterday was scary."

"Yeah, it was. But hey, we're all mostly in one piece, huh?"

She nodded and they lapsed into silence for a while, drinking their lemonade. Then Cassandra spoke, "if you ever wanna borrow the cabin, I can get you a set of keys."

"I'll think about it. I should probably be headin' out, daylight's gonna fade soon."

"I can give you a ride back to the trail head if you want, I should be getting home myself."

"That's mighty nice of you, Cassandra, I'll take you up on it."

"That'll give you a little more time to sit here with me," Cassandra blushed. "That is if you'd like. The sunset is gorgeous through the window."

Jacob looked over at her and got up from his seat. She looked a little disappointed for a moment until he sat down once more next to her. "Easier to see the sunset from this side, I reckon."

She smiled and nodded, choosing not to comment on how close he was sitting to her. And neither said a thing a few minutes later when his arm went from being slung over the back of the bench to being around her shoulders. All Cassandra did was lay her head on his shoulder as the sunset behind the pines.

The End