Work Text:
Pairing: Jacob Stone/Cassandra Cillian (The Librarians)
Setting: post-canon
Never could Cassandra have imagined a life like this. For the longest time, she couldn’t even picture a future of her own, didn’t dare to, knowing as she did her time was short. The tumour was an ever-present reminder, a sentence hanging over her, a limit on her life. When it was gone, she was well aware her freedom may yet have its limitations. The Library was too important to the world for her to give it up for the sake of her own wants and needs. It had taken a while to realise how easy it could be for her to have both at the same time.
With a smile stretching her lips almost impossibly wide, and tears in her eyes that she had no control over, Cassandra stood at the door and watched the scene unfolding in the room before her. Here was her family, some truly related by blood, others simply found and taken on as her own. Her son and daughter, laughing as they were hoisted high to place more ornaments on the tree by loving uncles and aunt. Gingerbread cookies and cocoa lovingly served by everybody’s surrogate grandpa.
She would never be without any of them, at Christmas, most especially. Her favourite time of year with all her favourite people present to share it with. Flynn and Eve, Ezekiel, Jenkins, little Carter and Eloise, and of course, her ever-loving and always observant husband, who had evidently seen her by the door and so came right over.
“Hey, what’s going on?” he asked, concern in his perfect blue eyes as they searched her face. “Is somethin’ wrong? Talk to me, Cassie.”
“No, nothing’s wrong,” she insisted, reaching to take his hand and squeeze it. “That’s kind of the point actually. Everything’s right. Everything’s... perfect,” she noted, gaze shifting to the scene across the room a moment more, before returning to him. “You know I don’t say that lightly, Jake, but it’s true. It really is perfect. No percentage of variance, no margin of error, nothing. I, I honestly can’t imagine anything better than this, not in my wildest dreams.”
“And I have known you have some pretty wild dreams, darlin’,” he said with a smirk that she knew so well and loved so much.
“I never thought I had a future,” she reminded him, with a contented sigh as he moved to stand behind her, her back against his chest as he hugged her close, and they watched the family scene together, his chin on her shoulder. “Then there was the Library, and you, and our team that became a family in no time at all. Now, being married, having our kids, and here we are, all together. I couldn’t be happier with my life, Jake, with our lives, and to top it all off, it’s Christmas, and everything is exactly how I always wanted it to be when I was a little girl. It’s like a dream come true.”
“Like magic,” he said softly, his breath tickling her ear.
“No,” she said, shaking her head slightly. “Magic is amazing and powerful, and useful and incredible, but it’s not... It can’t compare to what we have. It can’t compare to love,” she said, turning around in his arms, taking his face in her hands. “I love you, Jacob Stone. I love you, and our kids, and our whole family that we found in the Library. I don’t know how I came to deserve it all, but I’m so grateful and happy.”
“You more than deserve it, Cass,” he told her, holding her tighter and meeting her gaze. “You deserve every part, including the perfect Christmas. Honestly, after everything we went through to get here, saving the world and all, I think we all deserve it.”
“We absolutely do,” she agreed, bringing her lips to meet his own and kissing him soundly.