Chapter Text
It was Friday night, and Cassie was preparing dinner in the kitchen while waiting for Sam to arrive home from the hospital. He'd had a busy week of surgeries and was looking forward to a relaxing weekend at home, and she decided to kick off the weekend by making his favorite dish for dinner.
The smell hit him as soon as he arrived home. "Chicken alfredo," he said with a smile.
"Mmhmm," she replied, returning the smile. "Thought I'd surprise you."
"You always surprise me," he said. He set his briefcase down on the chair before walking over to greet her with a kiss. "How was your day?"
"It was great, it was a really good class today," Cassie replied. "How was yours?"
Sam exhaled a deep sigh. "Long," he said, and then nodded as he added, "But good."
"Last surgery of the week went smoothly?"
"Not exactly as smooth as I wanted it to be, but it turned out well in the end," Sam replied, and when he saw Cassie's concerned look, he added, "Just some internal bleeding that made the surgery a little longer than expected."
Cassie comfortingly rubbed his arm. "Well, even if the road was a little rocky, I'm glad you got to the final destination safely."
"Yeah, me, too," Sam said, and he glanced around the kitchen at the dinner preparations. "Anything I can do to help?"
Cassie was monitoring the pasta cooking on the stove, and she gestured toward the dining room. "Would you mind setting the table? This is almost done."
Sam leaned in to kiss her, and then smiled. "You got it." He headed over to the sink and washed his hands, and then pulled a couple of plates out of the cabinet. "Just the two of us tonight?"
Cassie thought for a moment, and then replied, "You may want to grab a third plate."
"Okay." Sam grabbed another plate and some silverware and brought them to the dining room. When he returned to the kitchen to grab napkins and glassware, he noticed a bottle of wine on the counter. "Is this for tonight?"
Cassie turned to see what he was referring to, and she nodded. "Yes." She paused for a moment and then asked, "Have you been practicing your golf lately?"
Sam narrowed his eyes at the question. "Uh, yeah… usually a few times a week. Why?"
Cassie smiled and shrugged. "Just asking." She turned back to the stove.
"That's it, you're just going to leave me wondering why you asked?"
"Yup."
Sam smiled and shook his head in amusement, and then continued setting the dining room table.
Cassie heard the front door open and close, and she called, "Hello, George. We're in the kitchen."
George made his way down the hall to the kitchen. "Hi, Cassie," he greeted her, and then glanced past her as Sam walked in from the dining room. "Ah, just the person I was looking for."
"Hey, George," Sam greeted him. "What can I help you with?"
"This," George replied as he held up a piece of paper. "I saw this flier at the bowling alley." He walked over to Sam as Cassie smiled to herself at the stove.
Sam took the paper from George to read it, and then lifted his head slowly. He looked at the back of Cassie, who could feel his gaze on her as she stirred the pasta.
"A tri-city golf tournament," Sam said pointedly. "That's interesting, isn't it, Cassie?"
Cassie glanced back over her shoulder at them and nodded. "Yes, it is. You thinking about signing up, George?"
"Yeah, but we need a fourth," George replied, and then he looked at Sam. "Charlie's going to be out of town next weekend and I was thinking you might be able to fill in."
"I didn't know you played golf," Sam said.
"Not as much anymore, but I've been known to sneak a ball past a windmill or two," George replied.
Sam narrowed his eyes and glanced back down at the paper, and then he smiled. "Oh, I missed that part… miniature golf tournament."
"Yeah, there's an actual golf tournament, too, but this one's more fun," George replied. "What do you say?"
Sam checked the date at the top of the page. "Sure, I've got nothing going on next weekend."
George patted Sam appreciatively on the shoulder. "Appreciate it, Doc."
"Any time," Sam replied.
Cassie carried the pot of pasta over to the sink to drain the water, and poured it into a serving bowl. "George, I made plenty, will you join us for dinner?"
"Sure, thanks, let me go upstairs and get cleaned up," George replied, and then he looked at Sam. "Thanks again."
Sam nodded at him, and George headed up the back staircase. Sam watched Cassie carry the bowl of pasta to the island, and waited for her to look at him.
When she finally did, she smiled sweetly. "Yes, Doctor?"
Sam smirked as he walked over to her. "You know, I go along with it. I accept it as a commonly occurring thing. I find it completely and utterly fascinating… but I still don't understand it," he said, shaking his head in disbelief. "And I wish I could."
Cassie didn't need to ask him what he was talking about. "Sam…" she started.
"I know, I know, you can't explain it," he finished for her. It was the response she often gave whenever he brought up her powerful intuition.
"I know you like to have an explanation for everything," Cassie said. "I get that."
"Well, I'm a doctor… I rely on science and facts and hardcore evidence," Sam said.
"And there's none of that in this situation," Cassie said with a smile.
"No, there's not."
"Which means you have to let your mind just believe and accept what's happening, as hard as that may be."
"I'm much better at it now than I used to be," he offered.
"Yes, you are," she agreed, and patted him on the chest with both hands. "I'm very impressed with how easily you go along with it now."
"Thank you."
"Most of the time," she teasingly added.
Sam chuckled. "What can I say? Once in a while, the old Sam gets really interested in how it all works and wants to know the mechanics of it."
Cassie smiled and leaned in to kiss him. "Well, when I have a mechanical explanation for you, I promise I'll let the old Sam know, okay?"
Sam smiled and kissed her again. "Okay."
Cassie handed him the bowl of pasta to carry to the dining room, and then walked over to grab the other serving dishes of food. "Thank you for helping George out, by the way."
"I think it'll be fun," Sam said. "You know how I love a little friendly competition."
"I think you might love unfriendly competition, too," Cassie remarked.
"I do," he admitted. "Though, I gotta say, not a lot of that here in Middleton. It was much easier to find in New York."
Cassie smiled. "I bet. But Middleton does offer its own perks, wouldn't you say?"
Sam smiled and nodded. "That it does." He took a few steps closer to her. "I'm looking right at her."
Cassie's smile widened, and they shared a kiss before heading into the dining room for dinner.
…
A few days later, Sam texted Cassie when he was leaving the hospital to let her know he was on his way home from work. A few minutes later, while he was driving, his cell phone rang and Cassie's name popped up on the car's display as the caller.
He answered the call through the car's speaker. "Hi, there," he greeted her.
"Hey, Sam," she replied. "How was your day?"
Sam smiled at the sound of her instantly calming voice. "Better now, just hearing your voice. How are you?"
"I'm good, but I was hoping you could make a stop on your way home for me," Cassie replied.
"Sure. What do you need?"
"Could you pick up my wallet from the Bistro?" Cassie asked. "Stephanie called to say someone turned it in. It must've slipped between the couch cushions when Abigail and I stopped in for tea earlier."
"Of course," Sam replied. "I'll head over there right now."
"Thank you. I'll see you soon."
"Bye."
Sam drove to the Bistro and parked on the street out front. He walked inside and headed to the counter, passing Stephanie as she carried a couple of plates toward a table. "Hey, Sam. I'll be right with you," she said.
Stephanie delivered the plates to her customers and returned to him at the counter. "Are you here for Cassie's wallet?" she asked him.
"I am," he confirmed.
"I put it in the back for safe keeping, I'll get it," Stephanie said, and she disappeared through the door into the kitchen.
Sam's phone buzzed and he pulled it out of his pocket to check it. As he started reading a text message from Nick, he heard a gasp and a scream behind him. He turned around and saw a man lying on the floor, and people were starting to gather around him.
Sam immediately rushed over to them. "What happened? I'm a doctor."
"We were eating and he clutched his chest and fell to the floor," a woman explained, her voice was shaky and she was starting to cry. "He's my husband."
"Someone call 911," Sam announced to the crowd, and then asked the woman, "What's his name?"
"Harold," his wife distraughtly choked out through her tears. "Is he going to be okay?"
Sam kneeled on the ground beside him and checked for a pulse. "Harold, can you hear me?" he asked the man, and received no response. "He's alive, but he's unconscious."
Harold's wife gasped and covered her mouth with her hand. "Oh, my God, he was fine five minutes ago. Please help him."
"I'm going to do everything I can," Sam assured her, and he started performing CPR on the man.
"An ambulance is on the way," a voice in the crowd announced.
Stephanie walked out from the kitchen and saw the commotion, and she rushed over to see what was happening. "Oh, my God," she clasped her hands over her mouth at the sight, and then quickly regained her composure and announced, "Okay, everyone, let's give the doctor some room to work."
The crowd stepped back a little, and Sam continued CPR until the paramedics arrived and took over. Harold regained consciousness, and was wheeled out of the Bistro on a stretcher.
Once the chaotic scene had dissipated, Stephanie walked with Sam to the counter. "Sam, thank you so much," she said sincerely, still in shock from the situation. "That was amazing. He's so lucky that you were here."
"I'm glad I was here, too," Sam said, shaking his head in disbelief. "And I think he'll be okay."
"Wow, what a day," Stephanie said, exhaling a deep sigh. "Can I get you anything? On the house, it's the least I can do."
Sam shook his head. "No, thanks, it's not necessary. I should get home to Cassie."
"Okay, well, don't forget this," Stephanie said, and she pulled Cassie's wallet from her back pocket. "The reason you came in."
As Sam took the wallet from her, he stared down at it for a few seconds, and then looked at Stephanie. "Yeah, this is the reason I came in."
…
A few minutes later, Sam walked into Grey House from the garage entrance and into the kitchen. He expected to find Cassie in there preparing dinner, but she was nowhere to be found. He put his briefcase down and took off his suit jacket, and then went to look for her.
"Cassie," he called, and as he walked down the hallway, he heard her voice in the living room.
He found her sitting on the couch talking on the phone, and she smiled at him when he appeared in the doorway.
"Oh, he just got home," Cassie said into the phone. "Yeah, thanks for calling. I'll see you tomorrow."
Cassie hung up the phone, stood up from the couch, and walked over to Sam. "That was Stephanie. She said there was a pretty intense situation at the Bistro."
"Yes, there was," he agreed, and kissed her hello when she reached him. "A customer had a heart attack right behind me… I performed CPR until the paramedics arrived. They took over and were able to get him stable."
"Stephanie said you saved his life," Cassie said, smiling at him. "That you were quite the hero."
Sam stared at her for a beat, and then cocked his head to the side. "I think maybe you're the one who saved his life."
Cassie raised an eyebrow. "Me?"
"Yes, you," he confirmed, and then he held up her wallet. "You're the reason I was at the Bistro at that exact time."
Cassie took the wallet from him, but didn't say anything.
"You saved his life, Cassie," he repeated. "If I wasn't there… if you hadn't sent me there… I don't know if anyone else would've known to do CPR. He probably would've died."
"Well, I'm glad you were there to help him," Cassie said.
Sam wrapped his arms around her and hugged her tightly, and then pulled back from her to look into her eyes. "It wasn't a coincidence, was it?" he asked her. "That I was there at the exact time someone needed medical attention?"
"Sometimes people are just lucky enough to be exactly where they need to be," she said.
"Cassie," he said softly. "Just tell me… did you send me there so I could help him?"
Cassie's intuition was a difficult thing to explain and for others to understand, so she often skirted around the questions. But she had never outright lied to Sam about it, and right now he was asking a direct question that she had to either avoid or confirm. Avoiding it would only lead him to realize that his insinuations were probably accurate, so she knew she should just answer truthfully.
Cassie gently nodded her head. "Yes, Sam."
"It was your intuition? You knew something was going to happen at the Bistro?"
"I did."
Sam's eyes narrowed with perplexity as he thought for a few moments, and then he said, "You knew far enough in advance that something would happen for you to strategically leave your wallet there so that I could go get it later?"
Sam was one of the most intelligent people she'd ever met. It wasn't surprising to her that he would figure out the logistics of a situation like that, that he would put the pieces together. She imagined that he'd probably put them together before with previous coincidental situations, but now he was finally asking about it more directly.
"Yes, I did," Cassie told him.
Her answers were short, but what they conveyed was immense. He wasn't asking for long explanations, just simple confirmations, and she was providing that. Cassie watched him digest the information, and waited patiently for him to say something.
Sam took a deep breath and nodded understandingly. Not understanding in the sense that he knew what was going on or how she did what she did, but in the sense that he was recognizing that she had a gift far greater than he'd realized.
"I don't want you to do stuff like that, Cassie," Sam finally spoke. "Not anymore."
Cassie Nightingale wasn't one to get surprised very often, but that statement from her husband threw her. He had never been one to tell her what to do, and she had never been one to be told what to do.
"Sam, I can't just turn it off," Cassie said calmly, but she wasn't feeling calm inside. She felt nervous that he was upset about something she couldn't control, and while she was able to sense a lot of things in life, she didn't know where this conversation with him was heading.
Sam quickly shook his head. "No, no, I don't mean it like that, not at all," he clarified as his voice softened. "I don't want you to turn it off."
Cassie's body started to relax a little as she waited for him to continue.
"You have a gift, Cassie… I don't fully understand it, but I know you have it." Sam put his hands on her upper arms and squeezed them affectionately. "And I trust you and believe you when you say that you feel like something's going to happen. I want you to keep using those feelings to help people, and I want to help you help people as much as I can."
Cassie's lips curved into a smile and she breathed out a soft sigh of relief. "Good, I'm really glad you feel that way."
"But," he continued, and she prepared herself for some sort of caveat. "I'd like you to tell me when you sense that something's going to happen that I can help with," he explained. "I don't want you to feel like you need to arrange a coincidentally-timed encounter. I want you to tell me up front so I can be ready for it."
Cassie nodded understandingly. It was a reasonable request, one that made sense. He was a doctor, he liked things to be planned, he didn't like surprises.
"You know I like to be prepared," he added, and then he smiled. "I think I've mentioned it once or twice."
Cassie smiled. "Yes, you have."
"If I know I might be going into a medical situation like the one today, I should be more prepared for it, I should bring my bag with me," he said. "You and I make an amazing team, so let's work together instead of you sending me out on secret missions." He paused for a moment to gauge her reaction. "Does that make sense?"
Cassie nodded. "Yes, of course it does, completely."
"Is it… something you can do?" he hesitantly asked. "Are you comfortable being more open with me about what you see?"
"Yes. When I sense that a medical issue might happen, I will tell you," Cassie replied. "But I don't always know exactly what's going to happen. Sometimes the feelings aren't completely clear. I didn't know the man at the Bistro today was going to have a heart attack, I just knew that something was going to happen and that you'd be able to help him. I have no control over what comes to me and how detailed it is."
Sam nodded understandingly. "I get it. Just share what you can and we'll take it from there." He leaned in to hug her as he added, "We both want to help people, Cassie, so… let's do it together."
Cassie hugged him tightly. "That sounds good." She looked up at him and smiled. "I love you."
"I love you, too," Sam replied, and he leaned in to kiss her.
…
Later that evening after dinner, Sam went upstairs to his office while Cassie prepared one of the guest rooms for some occupants that would be checking in the next day.
When she was finished, she grabbed a book from their bedroom and went to join Sam in his office. He wasn't in there, but his laptop was still open, his phone and drink were still there... she assumed he just stepped away for a moment.
Cassie settled down in the armchair with her book and began reading, but within a few moments, her senses drew her eyes to the computer screen. A website was displayed on the screen, and something inside of her told her to go look at it.
She walked slowly over to the computer and started reading the screen, but it just appeared to be some medical research for an upcoming surgery. She was about to go sit back down, but then an open notebook on his desk beside the computer caught her eye.
She picked up the notebook to look at the page filled with Sam's handwriting. She started to read through it, her eyes widening more with each line she read.
"Cassie," Sam's voice surprised her, and she looked up to see him standing in the doorway. He looked nervous and apologetic as he walked toward her. "Cassie, I'm sorry, I didn't mean for you to see that."
Cassie looked at him confusedly. "Sam, what is this?" she asked, holding up the notebook.
…
To be continued…