The Librarians And the Advent List

Dec 8

Cassandra wasn't sure what had happened. Stone had come over in the evening as his clippings book had gone off with a fairly simple case that morning. He'd helped her set up the tree in the stand the day before so all they needed to do was decorate. He'd seemed in good spirits, on a high from a case and still in a good mood from the day before. He tolerated her Christmas music (she being careful to create a playlist that had no references to home) and had cheerfully been decorating.

That was until she'd unwrapped her most precious ornaments. A collection of antiques that had belonged to her beloved grandmother, the only adult in her life that had ever seen the child within her. Her grandmother had died before her tumor was diagnosed, so she never knew that her gifted granddaughter had never lived up to the future her parents had wanted. In a way, Cassandra thought, her grandmother probably would have been prouder of Cassandra the Librarian than Cassandra the Nobel Prize winner. Her parents had rolled their eyes when the box came from her grandmother's lawyer after the will was read, but they let her have the treasures. The ornaments had gone on her tree every year since she started having one, starting the year she moved out of her parents' house.

There was something about the angel that had changed something in Stone. He'd paled and gone quiet. And while he kept on decorating the tree, the atmosphere was tense. He didn't speak except to ask her to hand him things.

The thing was, he didn't seem angry, he seemed upset. His voice sounded choked. He wouldn't meet her eyes, concentrating solely on the tree.

Finally she couldn't take it anymore. "Jake . . . ."

"No!" His eyes widened as she gasped at his reaction. "No, don't . . .don't call me that. I gotta . . .thanks for having me Cassandra but I gotta go."

She nodded silently and he turned and walked to the door. He stopped and turned around, looking a bit like he was going to cry and a bit like he wanted to say something more than just "I'm very sorry," but that's all he was able to manage.

And then he was gone.

Cassandra thought about going after him, but shook her head. She'd learned that when it came to Jacob Stone, she could only push so much. She knew when to back off and this was one of the times. He would tell her what happened when he was ready.

She sighed though returning to the tree which was almost finished. She hoped she hadn't lost him completely. She'd do her Christmas list, but it was a whole lot more fun having him share it with her.

Stone looked up at her apartment from the street and almost went back. Cassandra never judged him. She would understand, she would. But he couldn't. Not tonight. Tonight it just was something he couldn't share. So he went home.

He honestly thought about stopping in a bar on that way. But he knew that there were two women who'd have been upset if he did. So he made both of them proud and went home and read a book instead.

And in the morning, he'd try to tell the one on Earth what had happened.