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When Cass had first met Tim, she'd thought he was like her. Reacting to the same things she saw, and he seemed to have control over himself like he was trying to confuse her. Then as she got to know him, she realized he was something different. Other. Her father had tried to explain it once. Others. People with absolute control over their senses and minds. Others who could manipulate those around them or hear a Hawks wing beat. It had been obvious father had expected her to be Other, she wasn't. Tim was.
Tim was scary good one too. She watched him wince or flinch but never stumble. He had near perfect control. For better or worse.
Guides she had learned they were called didn't need a Sentinel but…Tim did. She saw. When he would get back to his nest, turn on the disrupters and how he relaxed. She didn't know how it worked but she knew that a sentinel would help, would share the load.
Stephanie was angry. Cass didn't like how angry Stephanie was. But the other girl couldn't see what Cass did.
The guilt and fear whenever GS were brought up. She'd never told Tim she knew, but she knew he knew she knew. She'd worried in Pairs, that he'd been broken.
***aftermath of Daughter of Acheron***
“Cass?” Tim's voice was strained; his voice wavered.
“Little brother, rest.” They had managed to escape. Cass was glad, that woman was the closest she'd ever come to killing someone since being welcomed to the family. What that woman had tried…
“Cass?” Tim's voice was weak, drugged.
“Brother…” she trailed off.
“Can you… tell me about Ballet?” she recognized this, she had read in books that Others, Guides used emotions of loved ones to help center and settle themselves. To pull themselves away from a zone. The Chinese said that Zones were a survival instinct, to sharpen one's senses. Like adrenaline masking pain. The danger according to Korean texts was that without actual danger the body didn't know when to shut off the heightened senses. Familiarity could help.
“I enjoy grace without death. New routine, to mamma mia song, will make dick and Stephanie laugh…” and she kept talking as her voice grew horse she watched Tim's pupils return to normal size and him become more present, laughing softly as she described a man “dickhead” had insisted he better at lifts then Cass was. He wasn't.
“Sleep little brother, I will be here.” Tim nodded, turning his Face into her and relaxing to an exhausted sleep. Cass had kept watch, protecting her little brother from nightmares. He could pull himself from a zone, but doing so took everything he had.
***present***
Cass smiled as she thought of him curling into her other little brother, it was sweet. She hadn't thought Jason was a Sentinel but also wasn't surprised. She was pleased that the two had bonded. She knew firsthand Tim needed it and assumed that Jason did as well. They would be good for each other.