Work Text:
Dana Evans had seen med students break before, seen residents, interns, attendings and even chiefs of staff storm out of rooms with their faces directed tactfully at the floor, and every time she had managed to find them, managed to coax them back to the ER with the strength to face another day and get back to work. She was something of a master at it. A bringer of peace, she liked to coin it. A tough job, but one needed doing.
So, when it came to Victoria Javadi rushing past her, wringing her wrists and masterfully avoiding any eye contact or direct touch to hide her tears, Dana simply took it in her stride, gave it a minute, then mentally added Javadi’s name to the tally and followed her out.
Javadi wasn’t a student she’d had an awful lot of experience with over her rotation but from word of mouth, she’d heard the girl was like a baby deer; standing on shaky legs and eager to please. A sweetheart, in every sense, but sharp and perceptive. And only twenty. Lord forgive her if she got caught in the headlights every now and again.
As predicted, Dana found Javadi at one of the usual crashout spots, one of the empty emergency stairwells on the second floor, sitting with her head buried in her hands and her shoulders shaking as she quietly cried.
Dana sighed as she leaned on the door handle. “You know this is a fire exit door, right, hun? One-way? Get shut out here and you’ve got to go all the way down to the meeting point and around the front to get back in.”
Javadi sniffled, her knees still brought up to her chest. “I’m sorry,” she said, her voice muffled by her scrubs. “I’ll…I’ll be okay…i-in a minute.”
Dana gave her thirty seconds, gave her ten more, then when she didn't move and didn’t stop whimpering into her hoodie, Dana sighed and stepped into the stairwell, letting the door swing shut behind her. “Okay, kiddo, looks like we’re doing this.” She perched beside Javadi and put a comforting arm around her shoulders. “C’mon, spill it. You’ve got me as a priest for the next…ten minutes before we both have to get back.”
When Javadi raised her head and Dana saw her tear-streaked face, a pang of guilt made her mouth twitch. She softened.
“It can’t be that bad, can it?”
Victoria sniffed. “H-how, uh, how well do you know Dr McKay?”
Dana frowned. “Cassie?”
Javadi’s lip trembled. “Mhm.”
Dana blinked. She’d seen Javadi and McKay together many times - who hadn’t? - the two were practically attached at the hip, even for doctors. Javadi hung on every word, every bit of praise, every bit of advice Cassie gave her and Cassie, well, Cassie didn’t know how bad she was at keeping a poker face. Any time Javadi got a question right or made some sort of improvement, it wasn’t hard to spot the pride written on Cassie’s face. Dana hadn’t heard of any dispute between the two, nor noticed anything off between them, certainly nothing that could be putting Javadi into such a state.
“Uh, Cassie I’ve known for years.” She said. “Got to be nearly two decades by this point. For better or worse, depending on how you want to look at it.” She looked at Javadi, her frown deepening a little. “This is about Cassie?”
Victoria nodded, smearing her tears across the sleeve of her hoodie, trying to sniff them back without rubbing her eyes raw.
“What happened? Have you had a falling out?”
She made a bitter sound that sounded somewhere between a laugh and a scoff. “Yeah, something like that.”
“Wanna tell me? It’s priest’s hours, I’m sworn to secrecy.”
“You are?”
The med student looked at her with such big, wet eyes, so full of uncertainty, that Dana could understand the baby deer resemblance. Huge, doe-like brown eyes, hesitant and unsure, a quivering lip caught between her teeth, begging for gentleness. It was like looking into the eyes of a baby bird, afraid to be pushed out, afraid to leave the nest and fly. She reminded her of Emma.
“Uh-huh.”
“You promise?”
Med students, whether they meant to or not, loved reminding Dana how old she felt. She sighed.
“Sure, hun.” She said gently. “Lay it on me.”
“Okay, so-…” Victoria fought back another sob as she tried to articulate the words. “Um…this is really hard to like, say…”
What she said next, Dana had to act very hard to keep her face as neutral as possible. Javadi explained, in a manner of waving hands and stumbling words, how she and Cassie for lack of a better sentence had been having the best-concealed fling the hospital had ever seen. Six weeks and nobody, not one single nosy prying doctor in the entire hospital, had noticed that Victoria was going home to Cassie’s most nights, was frequently with her on their days off and even sporting Cassie’s hoodie into work on a few occasions. They’d started on some night out that Whitaker and Santos had organised and not one single person had noticed Victoria press Cassie into a corner and not leave until Cassie had her arms around Victoria’s waist and her mouth on Victoria’s neck.
Javadi detailed their relationship as carefully as she could; movie nights they’d had, little dates they’d been on, times they’d snuck into a broom closet when nobody was watching (which, in retrospect, Dana could’ve happily gone on living without knowing that information), everything from beginning to end.
“A-and, she’s like great…really great and um…I love being around her and with her and…” Javadi’s mouth wobbled and she looked at her feet again, holding back tears. “Cassie is a really good person. She’s not scary like Garcia or…or anything like that. She makes me feel safe and loved and happy, and I’ve never really had that before. But w-we were on a date last week, like an actual date-date, a-and I said…”
She put her head in her hands.
“I said I wanted to go public. I said I wanted t-to be with her, in front of everyone. I said…” This last part she put in a whisper that was so quiet and so ragged that Dana nearly didn’t hear her. “I said I love you. A-nd…and she didn’t say anything back. She-she hasn’t spoken to me since.”
There was a long, sniffling silence between them as Javadi’s confession hung in the air. Dana stared as she tried to process, blinking a few times as the reality of Victoria’s words hit her. Cassie and Javadi. Cassie McKay and Victoria Javadi.
Dana pinched the bridge of her nose. “Jesus H. Christ.”
Victoria sniffed again. “It’s so stupid.” She said miserably. “And now I can’t get any work done because she keeps brushing me off a-and I don’t…I don’t want to be the person that does that, you know? Hanging on her tail, making these big sad eyes all the time because she won’t talk to me. I just…I don’t know what to do. I wish I could take it back. What I said, I mean.”
Dana stuck her tongue in her cheek. Cassie. Fucking Cassie. She couldn’t count the amount of times her brain had thought those words, had been unable to give Cassie the benefit of the doubt and just for a single moment, fucking hated her. Always so goddamn irresponsible.
She loved Cassie, truly she did, but she knew better than to be naive about her. While she wasn’t cruel or bad, not by any means, Cassie could be a myriad of different things at any given time. Impulsive, stupid, rash, avoidant, detached. But she could be patient and kind and loving and warm and-
“You’re not saying anything.”
Dana blinked. Javadi was staring at her apprehensively, her tears gone, replaced by a curious expression that bore right into Dana’s head.
“Right, sorry, no-“
“You’re going to tell Dr Robby, aren’t you? And McKay will get in trouble?”
“No, no. God, no-…” Dana let out a long sigh. “I just wasn’t expecting you to tell me all that, Javadi. I thought you were going to say she shouted at you for fucking up a central line or something.”
“Oh, no. I would never fuck up a central line.”
Dana, despite herself, laughed and shook her head. “No, of course you wouldn’t.” She sat back and tried to take another deep breath. “Christ, what a shitshow.”
“What do you think I should do?”
Dana regarded her tiredly. “Did you mean what you said earlier? About taking it back? Did you mean that?”
Victoria squirmed a little, cheeks reddening slightly. “No.” She said quietly.
“Then I think you should tell her that.”
“But how? She won’t talk to me-“
“Kid, I think you know better than most people that even when people don’t want to listen, you can still make them hear it, hm? How many times have you stood up for yourself in that ER? Got people to respect you despite what they might think about you or your age? You are a lot stronger than you think you are.”
Javadi looked deeply affected. “You think so?”
“Would I be sitting here telling you to pull yourself together if I didn’t?” Dana clapped a hand on Javadi’s knee. “You’re right about Cassie. She’s a good person. She is all those wonderful things you probably think about her. But she’s worked very hard to get there, a lot more than most, and something like that, I’m sure it’s as big a deal for her as it is for you. And I have no doubt that that is playing on her mind more than she would like it to. Give her time.”
“What…what if she just…doesn’t feel that way about me?”
“Given everything you’ve just told me, she’d be crazy not to. But, if that is the case, well you’ve just got to let her go, don’t you? Wouldn’t be fair to her. Wouldn’t be fair to you.”
Victoria nodded. “Yeah, yeah, you’re…um…probably right.”
“I try to be.” Dana shrugged. “With great power comes great responsibility. You know who said that? Voltaire.”
“-Spiderman.”
Dana laughed, shaking her head. “Yeah, sure. Whatever you say, Javadi. Don’t get yourself down. Give Cassie her room and she’ll come back. She always comes back.” She got to her feet and offered her hand, pulling Javadi up with her. “Do you feel better now? No more of those tears?”
“No, yeah.” Victoria wiped her face with her sleeve, just to be sure. She smiled, shy and grateful. “Um…thank you, Dana. This was really kind of you.”
Dana nodded. “My pleasure, kid. But you can buy me a coffee from outside as a real thank you. My ass hurts from that concrete.”
Javadi smiled, this time bright and genuine. “Okay.”
Dana and Javadi went their separate ways when they returned to the ground floor, Javadi off with Santos who looked eager to get into the gossip, and Dana back to her usual post at the hub. They were met with a few lingering glances, mostly from other doctors who had witnessed Javadi storming out in tears, but nobody had the heart to say anything. They got it. Most of them and their tears had been at Dana’s mercy before too.
Cassie, however.
Cassie was leaning against the South 22 wall with her arms folded over her chest, her hoodie hanging open and wide across her shoulders, her jaw set in a deep, sulking sort of frown. She was playing absent-mindedly with the chain around her neck, rolling it between her thumb and forefinger, tugging it tight around her chin as she stared at the floor. Her eyes flicked up when she recognised Dana and Victoria walking in, watching them both acutely as they parted ways.
Dana pretended not to notice how Cassie’s eyes followed Javadi until she disappeared around the corner, nor how her gaze switched sharply onto Dana once she was gone. Instead, she merely focused on her work. The talk with Javadi had put her behind and now it was going to be a pain in the ass to catch up.
Cassie, off to her right, played with her chain a moment more, pulling at it awkwardly, before she sighed, pushed off of the wall and approached the hub.
“Hey, D. You got a minute?”
“Not really, doll.” Dana replied, peering at her computer screen through her glasses. “A bit backed up here actually.”
Cassie ignored that, leaning over with a faux friendliness that put a nauseous feeling in Dana’s stomach. “What was up with Javadi? Anything I need to know about?”
Dana made a sound that resembled a scoff. So that’s how they were playing it. “I think you’re better off asking her that, don’t you?”
There was a pause. “I’m asking you.”
Dana looked up at her. Cassie was staring back at her with a mock-dumb expression on her face, a clamped sort of smile that probed at Dana’s eyes, trying to figure out what she knew.
Dana sighed and lowered her glasses.
“Is there something you want to discuss with me, Dr McKay?”
Dana knew her stern tone would attract at least a few listeners, and she raised an expectant eyebrow as Cassie’s expression immediately tightened, eyes darting around to see if anyone heard. She stood up straight again, poorly concealed embarrassment making her hands go back to her chain and her features settle into a troubled scowl.
“Yeah, there is, actually.”
Dana leaned back in her chair. “Okay.” She looked over her shoulder. “Perlah? Cover me again?”
“Sure thing.” The nurse said, not looking up from her station. “Just don’t be long.”
Dana’s gaze did not leave Cassie’s. “I won’t be.” She stood, composed and unflinching, and let Cassie lead her off towards the lockers.
Princess, who had been slyly watching the entire interaction unfold with all the stillness of a fly on the wall, watched her go before she threw a quip over her shoulder to Perlah. “Do you think they’re fucking?”
Perlah looked up from her own work and frowned. “I thought that was McKay and Javadi, no?”
Dana watched Cassie out of the corner of her eye as they walked. The redhead had stuffed her hands in the pockets of her striped hoodie, keeping her eyes schooled to the floor, her body swaying slightly and her expression gloomy and troubled. The sight of it made Dana’s heart sink a little and inwardly she sighed.
The thought of Cassie and Javadi didn’t repulse her, didn’t even bother her that much in terms of age gaps, she’d seen worse in that regard. What bothered her was Cassie’s irresponsibility, the cold shoulder that was driving Javadi to tears and Cassie’s apparent disregard of that. To Dana, that wasn’t Cassie at all.
She folded her arms when Cassie found them a quieter spot by the lockers, glancing around to see if anyone was lingering. Cassie mirrored her, her eyes still on the floor.
“She, uh, she told you then?”
“Told me what?”
Cassie looked at her, her features loosening. She looked genuinely distraught, as though she’d been caught with her hand in the cookie jar. She tried to cover it up with a weak smile. “Okay, could you please not make this so hard? This is really difficult.”
“I don’t know, doll, I think you’ve been doing a perfectly good job of that all by yourself.” Dana replied. “Why don’t you tell me what the hell you think you’re playing at and we go from there, hm?”
Cassie stared at her, a little bewildered at Dana’s bluntness, but Dana remained steadfast. She knew Cassie’s tells, her tactics, and wasn’t about to put up with them.
“Jesus, Dana, I just…” Cassie ran a hand through her hair. “I only need to know she’s okay, alright? I need to know I haven’t…ruined her.”
“For Christ’s sake, Cassie. You’re playing hanky-pinky with the twenty-year-old med student who worships the ground you walk on and she tells you she loves you and you drop her like a stone down a well. How do you think she’s doing?” Dana sighed, putting her hands on her hips. “You are her teacher. The person she admires the most. Do you really think ignoring her and pretending none of this is going on is really the best solution? Hm? I’d never have you pegged as an idiot, Cass, but you’re proving me wrong here.”
“What? No, I just-…it’s…it’s fucking hard, Dana. I…I’m not…I’m not appropriate for her.”
“I’ll say. You should be thanking your lucky stars that Robby hasn’t noticed those big brown eyes trailing after you because then it’s a whole different ball game.”
“I don’t mean like that. I mean…”
“If it’s the age thing then I don’t see the problem-“
“I mean I’m not…good for her, Dana. I’m not good.”
Dana scoffed then saw the look on Cassie’s face. She had a hand on the back of her neck, staring at the floor as if it were about to swallow her whole, some far-off look in her eyes as her lower lip quivered.
“I can’t…I can’t give her what she deserves.” She said. “I…I’m twice her age, I have a kid, I’m an ex fucking addict with an ex fucking boyfriend who drives me up the wall. Who wants that? Certainly not what her parents are exactly expecting for her to bring back for family dinner. We can’t go on vacation or-or go out to bars all the time. All we have is this hospital, my apartment and sometimes my son’s goddamn soccer games. Victoria deserves to have a life, she deserves to go and travel or whatever you’re supposed to do when you get out from your parents. I just…it was nice, you know? What we were having but…then she said that and…I just couldn’t. She-…she shouldn’t love me. It’s better if she stays away from me. She deserves better than what I can give her.”
Dana stared at her friend. Cassie turned her back on her, her hand still at the back of her neck to hide her trembling shoulders. She let out a deep breath.
“Do you love this girl?”
Cassie turned back around. “What?”
“Victoria Javadi. Do you love her? Because she thinks you don’t and it certainly sounds like you do. Have you considered, even for a moment Cassie, that maybe you aren’t what Javadi deserves but what she wants?”
“She doesn’t know better.”
“And you get to make that decision for her, do you?”
“You don’t get it, Dana, I’m not good for her.”
Dana scoffed. “Who thinks that? Because from my standpoint the only person who seems to think you aren’t good enough for Victoria Javadi or yourself for that matter is you. And where the hell you’ve got that notion…well, who knows?” She gave her a look then, narrowing her eyes and tilting her head. “You really think you’re a bad person, Cassie? You think if I walked back into that ER and asked everyone if they think you’re a bad person I’d get any kind of negative response? Because from where I’m standing, you’re one of the most beloved doctors in this hospital. The nurses love you, the patients love you, the interns and the residents, everyone. I know that boy of yours thinks the world of you, as does that goddamn med student. I don’t think she would’ve been crying into my scrubs, begging for you not to get in trouble if she didn’t. You have pulled yourself back from nothing, put yourself through med school and a shitty breakup and come back time and time again. I’d say that’s pretty good, wouldn’t you? You need to stop putting yourself down because you think you aren’t worthy of it. You, Cassie McKay, are one of the best people I know.”
Cassie looked at her for a long time, her gloriously sad features going through a myriad of emotion, the corners of her mouth pulled downwards in a pout and her big blue eyes going soft and glassy. It seemed to hit her then, all the cold shoulder, the distance, the overwhelming fear, Dana’s words. She began to shake.
Dana stepped forward and pulled Cassie into a gentle hug. It took a second, first as a tiny sniffle, then in a shuddering gasp Cassie was tightly clinging to Dana’s scrubs and burying her face and her tears into the crook of Dana’s neck.
“Okay, okay.” Dana said softly, rubbing Cassie’s back. “It’s alright, you’re okay, doll. You doctors, such emotional creatures.” They stood there for a moment, Dana gently swaying them from side to side as Cassie held onto her. “You deserve good things, you know that right? Just like the rest of us do.”
Cassie’s sobs came in short, restrained bursts. Dana remembered her once saying she didn’t know if she still had the capacity to cry and her tears fought their way out in punchy, painful spurts of despair.
“What if I’ve fucked it up?” Cassie pulled back, wiping her face against her sleeve. “What if she just…doesn’t-what if I can’t give her everything?”
“Cass,” Dana said gently. “All she wants to hear is that you love her too. The rest will follow, okay? That’s all you need.”
Cassie’s lip wobbled but after a moment, she stepped back and nodded. “Okay.”
“Okay?”
“Y-yeah. You’re…um…you’re right. I need to…yeah.”
Dana nodded. She put a hand to Cassie’s face, letting the redhead lean into her palm. “I don’t want to hear you keep putting yourself down, got it? You have no reason to think you don’t deserve good things in life, alright? You much less than the rest of us.”
Cassie nodded again. “Yeah.”
“Good. Because it’s also really strange seeing you cry, I can’t lie.”
Cassie damply laughed. “After all this time, huh?”
“Yeah, reminds me of old times.” Dana’s hand dropped to her shoulder. “We’re getting too old for this, don’t you think?”
“You can say that again.” Cassie huffed. “Have you ever considered a career in therapy?”
Dana chuckled. “Not until today. You two are giving me a trial shift at this point.”
Cassie smiled again, this time properly, her eyes bright and amused. She straightened up, blinking back the last of her tears, inhaling a deep, sobering breath of air. “Jesus. I’m sorry. I’m…I’m having a bad day.”
“Yeah, aren’t we all? Come on, let’s go and try and make it a better one.” They slowly started back towards the hub, Dana’s hand still on Cassie’s shoulder, their hips gently bumping as they walked. “What do you think you’re going to do now?”
“Get my head out of my ass, for once.” Cassie sucked in another deep, damp breath. “Tell the girl I love that I love her, I suppose.”
Dana smiled. “Yeah? Go and get her, I say.”
“I’ll try.” Cassie turned her head as she started to leave. “And D?”
“Yeah, doll?”
“Thank you.”
It wasn’t until the end of her shift that evening that Cassie managed to finally catch Victoria out in the parking lot, heading towards her car with her head down and her backpack slung across her shoulders. The night air was cold and the breeze bit at her face as she walked.
“Javadi! Hey!”
When Victoria didn’t turn, Cassie wasn’t sure if she didn’t want to talk to her or she just simply hadn’t heard her. She broke into a gentle jog.
“Hey! Vadi!”
Still no answer. Cassie reached out and touched Victoria’s arm. The brunette whirled, jerking away and stepping back sharply, her eyes wild and surprised. Cassie raised her hands.
“Woah, woah, it’s me. It’s just me, Vadi.”
Victoria stared at her for a second, then removed her AirPods and smiled nervously. “Sorry. I had my headphones in.”
“No, no you’re okay. I didn’t mean to sneak up on you.”
Victoria nodded and put her hands in the pockets of her hoodie. “Uh, did I forget something? A chart or-“
“No, no. I just, um, I wanted to talk to you, uh, about today. And, um, about everything, really.” Cassie’s fingers flexed uncomfortably. “I heard you talked to Dana?”
“I’m not going to tell Dr Robby, if that’s what you’re worried about. I asked her not to either.”
“It’s not that. Oh my god.” Cassie sucked in a breath. “I wanted to say the way I’ve treated you, the way I left you a-after what you said…I…it was wrong of me. I shouldn’t have done that and I’m sorry.”
Victoria blinked at her. “Oh. Okay.”
“A-and that this isn’t easy for me and it just…it really threw me off guard. I don’t…holy fuck I’m doing a shit job here…. I just…I got into my own head and convinced myself I wasn’t good enough for you and-and that I don’t deserve you because you can do better, you can do so much better, oh my god.”
“Is this going somewhere, Cassie? Because I’m tired and this is starting to sound like a pity party.”
“Right, no, sorry. I didn’t mean it like that. I meant…I meant I want to be with you. I want you to be with me. Us. Together.”
“Right. We were together.”
“Yeah.”
“And then I told you I loved you and you left me in the middle of a restaurant by myself. I had to pick up the bill.”
“I know. I was…I was a coward. I didn’t know what to do.” Cassie put her face in her hands. “I was really fucking stupid, Vic.”
“It was really fucking embarrassing. And now I’m at work and you won’t even look at me. That feels even shittier.”
“I know, I know. Jesus, I know.”
Javadi looked at her sadly. “If you don’t feel the same, you can just say so.”
“I do! I’m…I’m a fucking coward, Vic, a-and, I didn’t know I felt that way until you said it and I just…I got caught up in myself and panicked. I…I was scared.” She lowered her hands and forced herself to look Javadi in the eye. “I told myself that I didn’t deserve you because I know I won’t be able to give you everything you want or deserve. Because I know when I have to meet your parents, I’m going to disappoint them. I got all these thoughts in my head about what you might think of me and just…believed it. It…it had nothing to do with you.” She took Victoria’s hand and when Victoria didn’t pull away, she held it tightly. “I love you, Victoria. I have no idea what you see in me but…but I do love you. You’re smart and capable and-and you never back out on me or see me for what I used to be. You are kind and brilliant with my son and…and my god, I really don’t deserve you. Especially after these last few days. If it’s taught me anything it’s that I love you and I really don’t know what I’d do without you. I just…I’m so sorry I treated you the way I did. You didn’t deserve that.”
Victoria stared at her with wide eyes. It took her a minute to say anything. “Well…you only needed to say you love me, I didn’t need a whole song and dance about it.”
Cassie gawped and Victoria’s eyes crinkled as she smiled.
“I’m messing with you.”
“I…you fucker.”
Victoria laughed gently and tugged on Cassie’s hand. “That was a really nice speech, though. Made me feel very loved.”
Cassie kept staring, gobsmacked. “It was either that or…I stand outside your house with a boombox or something. I can’t believe you’re laughing at me right now.”
“Dana gave me some advice when I was upset earlier. She said you’d figure out your mistakes and come back on your own. I’m guessing that’s what you’ve done?”
“After she set me straight, yeah. Pointed how much of an asshole I was being. Do you really forgive me?”
“Mm, for now. Until you fuck up again, which you will. And I will too. And you’ll forgive me then, won’t you?”
“Yes.”
“Good.” Victoria nodded and smiled brightly. “For the record, I actually forgave you before you started ranting at me. I forgave you when you started talking to me again.”
“You shouldn’t have. What I did was wrong.”
“It was, and it was shitty, but you’re sorry, aren’t you?”
“I made you cry.”
“I cry at a lot of things, Cassie. I cried at an episode of Scooby-Doo last week.”
Cassie smiled. “The one where Shaggy picks Scooby over Velma? I watched it with Harrison.”
“Total a-hole. I hope you don’t pick a dog over me. I don’t think I could forgive that.”
“Never. I love you.”
Victoria’s smile broadened. “Good. ‘Cos I love you too. And I’m glad you’ve seen sense. I just…I don’t want all of our arguments to be like that. The cold shoulder…I really didn’t like that. That hurt.”
“I’ll never do it again.” Cassie’s gaze dropped to their intertwined fingers and she ran her thumb across Victoria’s knuckles. “You’re it for me, Vic. I mean that. You’re as settled as I ever hope to be.”
“Please don’t say you’re asking me to marry you right now.”
Cassie couldn’t help herself. She burst out laughing, shaking her head. “No, no, I think it’s a little soon for that. But I like what we are…if we are something?”
Victoria smiled. “We are.”
She raised her chin slightly and Cassie met her in the middle, smiling and kissing her with her face in her hands. She hummed gently against her, kissing Cassie again felt good, like she was right where she should be. Cassie’s hands dropped to Victoria’s waist when they broke apart.
“Wanna follow me home?”
“I’d like that.”
Cassie grinned. “Okay.” She started leading Victoria through the parking lot, her heart feeling like it was fucking floating.
“One thing,” Victoria said, swinging their hands between them. “What’s a boombox?”
“Jesus Christ, Vadi. You really know how to make me feel old.”
Dana, stood over by her car, smiled as she watched Cassie and Javadi walk hand in hand, kissing and laughing as they went. Her work, if not her actual work, was done for the day. She got her keys and unlocked the door, making the mental note to print out the relationship disclosure form for Cassie and Javadi to sign when she next saw them.
With great power comes great responsibility.
Dana chuckled to herself. “Spiderman.”