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Needing Cassidy Chapter 17

Writer's picture: Lacey St. SinLacey St. Sin

Quarantine was decidedly sucky. The fear and tension had quickly rampaged over the general mood and those now stuck in the medical building had isolated from each other as well. Tor directing exam rooms for the purpose, perhaps not comfortable, but at least functional. Strange how the building somehow felt...lonelier, even though it was now occupied.


It wasn’t that Cassidy needed to converse with the others, so much as she didn’t want to be left alone with her thoughts. She’d received a ‘room’ as well, given how much contact both her and Tor had with Becky it was only wise that they were included in the quarantine, even if they had yet to show symptoms. She’d spent the remainder of the day pacing the halls and obsessively checking on the samples until Tor had unequivocally banned her from the lab for annoying him.


The others didn't venture out until the evening meal had been delivered, they gathered around the small table where Cassidy had laid out the plates.


All except Becky, who elected to eat alone. The woman had, at least, accepted the flowers Gorth had brought, but company in the building didn't cheer her at all. If anything it seemed to drive her deeper into her brooding.


Cassidy sighed inwardly, wishing there was something she might to to actually help.


The others didn't seem to be in much better moods. Emily’s eyes were swollen, her rash vivid against her pale skin. She picked at her food, her usually cheerful demeanor dimmed. Even Gorth, who was generally unflappable was quiet and sullen.


“Why don’t you take the showers first?” Cassidy offered around a bite of sweet vegetable medley. Emily glanced up from her plate. “The building has it’s own private shower,” Cassidy tried to tempt the woman.


Emily didn’t respond, still a little lost in whatever thoughts had been consuming her.


“You could add my minutes to yours,” Gorth surprised Cassidy by interjecting. Always the gentleman. She wondered if the offer was just reflex or if he had caught on to what Cassidy was doing.


Whatever his reason, it worked. Emily’s face lit, just the tiniest bit. And suddenly Cassidy had a new purpose.


She had grown up on the sharp blade of poverty, her family had been too poor for any but the most basic comforts. Her parents worked so much that they might as well have been absent. Leaving her with the responsibility of raising her siblings. She’d missed school more days than she could count because there was no one else to watch the babies, trying desperately to keep up with schoolwork the teachers sent home with a toddler or, (after the twins had been born), three pulling at her attention. She didn’t blame her parents, not entirely. They had done what they could...it just….wasn’t enough. By the time that the kids aged into school she had managed to pick up a part time job, and then two, sacrificing grades for the security of a third income to keep the family fed. The vortex of her family’s needs had sucked her up, draining everything about who she was, who she might have been.


But, if there was anything that her early life had taught her it was that you had to take control of what you could and focus on that. She couldn’t control whatever this illness was, and she couldn’t control being trapped together in this building, but she could damned well work at making someone’s life a little bit better, every day. Just like she had throughout high school. The popular girls had called her pathetic when she stopped to help the elderly, or pick up a sandwich for the homeless guy that hung out back of the Chinese takeout place, but they didn’t understand, she wasn’t doing it for anyone else. She had done it for herself, because when she did, just for a moment she reminded herself the world wasn’t such a bad place, even if she was the one who had to change it. She could do that again, here. One good thing a day, to make things better.


“When was the last time you had a long hot shower and not just a quick scrub down?” Cassidy encouraged.


“Not in forever,” Emily admitted.


“The shower here gets really hot too, and I know I just stocked some new soaps the scavenging team came back with, the nice ones that don’t go into the main showers.”


“I would call you selfish, but I know you use the main showers," Emily offered a small smile.


Cassidy shrugged, relieved when the conversation turned to the slowly changing weather. A neutral topic, and far away from the doom and gloom that had been clouding the table earlier. She looked away from Emily to find Tor’s eyes on her, green eyes searching her features, his face thoughtful.


***


The sun was setting when the meal had finally ended and Cassidy had sent the others away so she could clean the front entrance. It still surprised her how quickly darkness fell here. The sun would dip down behind the buildings of the city and in minutes it was dark as midnight. She had cleaned up the plates and washed them in the utility room just off the main room, piled them on the paved stone in front of the building for whichever Livarian was on guard to collect, and was sterilizing the surfaces when she heard a distressed call from the left hall.


Odd.


She dropped the cloth she was using and rushed toward the sound, heart in her throat, worried that someone...well she couldn’t quite understand what might possibly be wrong, but the voice had sounded feminine.


“Uh...anyone?” the call came again. Emily’s voice, from the direction of the bathroom. Cassidy hurried along the hall toward the cracked door, her concern growing as she noticed the sound of flowing water.


“What’s happening?” she questioned when Emily peeked through the opening, towel clutched to her chest.


“I think a line broke or something. There’s water spraying everywhere,” Emily stepped back, allowing Cassidy to open the door farther. Sure enough a dark crack had formed in the ceiling and water was spraying downward through it. Fortunately there was a drain in the room’s center, so the water had somewhere to go, but that didn’t stop it from being a complete mess.


“Shit,” she managed, and then looked at Emily. “This is beyond my abilities, I’d better let Tor know.”


Emily nodded, pulling the towel around her tighter. “I’ll head back to my room.” She scrambled out the door, leaving soggy prints as she trailed back to the right wing of the building.


Cassidy made a mental note that she would have to mop later and excused herself as well. She hadn’t seen Tor since the meal, but there was really only one place he could be. She pushed the panel and allowed herself into the lab.


Tor was seated along one of the benches, carefully measuring droplets of something into a tiny glass beaker.


“Uh...Tor?”


He didn’t look up, but tensed enough that she knew he heard her.


“Tor, it’s important.”


“Do you want to live? Because if you like life I need to figure out how to preserve it.”


“Right, this totally is not as important as that, but…”


Tor turned toward her, green eyes spearing her with displeasure.


“Some kind of water pipe burst in the bathroom,” Cassidy breathed out, her words rapid fire, hoping to get the point across before he dismissed her altogether. “I’d look after it myself, but I’m really not familiar with your systems and I’m afraid I’d make everything worse.”


Tor said nothing, just held her with that look that he had.


“The whole bathroom is flooded,” she warned. “I wouldn’t interrupt for anything short of an emergency.”


Those were the magic words. He sighed, gently setting down the glass he’d been handling.

“I know you wouldn’t,” he rumbled. “I’ll handle it.”

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