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Home Again [Open to visitors but try not to all flood in]

It had been so long since Cassie had so much as seen an actual bed that it was hard not to close her eyes and fall asleep the moment she lay down in the Medbay. But there was still a lot to do first. For the long-term she was going to need several surgeries to fix the scars down her left side but for now the priority was to get her stabilized. So she was hooked up to an IV drip- oh, she remembered how those felt. And poked and prodded a little bit more before being left on her own.

She could rest now, but there was a lot to catch up on.

And probably a lot to explain.

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...

Wait, what? What?

"Jonas?" Her voice wavered. "What's wrong? What-" With her one good hand she tried to pry one of Jonas's away from his face. "Why won't you look at me?" And before she could stop herself she blurted out what she was thinking. "Am I that ugly?"

"[It's not about you!]" Jonas exploded, not even bothering to think through his words enough to eliminate the contractions. "[For once in my life, it's not about you! I killed Shiva, Cassie! I thought he'd killed you and I crushed him to death with my bare hands!]"

And now she was going to hate him. He could not even bring himself to look at her.

"O-oh." Was all Cassie could manage to say.

It's not about you.

But it was. If he hadn't thought she was dead it wouldn't have happened. Because of her Jonas had killed someone. And she'd never thought- when she had volunteered to disarm the bomb she hadn't even stopped to think about how it would affect her friends if she died.

"I-I'm sorry." She winced at how that sounded. "I mean- I- it's all right- God I mean no, it's not all right but- anyone would understand. I'd probably do the same thing in your place." She remembered wanting to kill the Scarlet Witch so much. To make her hurt but in the end she held back and she didn't understand why. Because she was a hero? But Jonas was a hero too- a better person than she ever was.

If she had to face the specter of Kang lurking over two boys she cared about- she was going to find a way to punch that mass murderer through every timeline in existence.

"I don't know what to say."

"["Young Avengers don't kill", remember?]" Jonas said unhappily. "[I thought you'd hate me. Being a Young Avenger meant so much to you and the first thing I do when you die is kill someone. Two someones.]"

Cassie could have reminded him that Iron Lad had killed Kang that one time and that it was a kind of similar situation...

...But that'd probably be a bad idea.

"Jonas, look at me." She said firmly. "I don't hate you. I could never hate you, I love you too much."

Jonas scrubbed his hands over his face, even as he obeyed Cassie's order to look at her. Part of him was relieved, so very relieved that she did not hate him, that she loved him, that they could be together and that it would all be all right. Another part -- the quiet insistent part that lived in the dark corners of the back of his mind -- whispered that nothing was that simple, that she was only saying those things and masking her revulsion. That she would replace him again as soon as someone better came around.

He did not say anything, just looked at her, trying to decide which of the two warring impulses in his head was the correct one.

"Jonas." Cassie repeated. She tried slipping her hand under his so she could touch his cheek- and just brushing her skin against his... The touch felt so good, damn it, but at the same time so strange. Both new and familiar. "I love you. I don't care what you did. You didn't care that I'd just killed a bunch of Ohm on Zokez. And no, maybe it's not exactly the same thing but I still killed them. You didn't care then and I don't care now. All I know is I need you. That's why I called for you-" She blushed a little. "I don't even know if you heard that. When the bomb was about to go off."

"[I did,]" Jonas said quietly. "[I heard you and Stacy slammed me into a wall because I phased through a few things she did not want me to phase through trying to get to you in time.]" He clasped her hand in both of his and finally, finally smiled. "[You are still beautiful, Cassie.]"

You are still beautiful.

Cassie smiled back, perhaps a bit too widely for her own personal comfort.

"Kiss me." And because it was Jonas, she knew she wouldn't have to add the word 'carefully.'

No, she did not need to tell him to be careful. Smiling faintly, Jonas leaned in and pressed his lips against hers, steadying her with a gentle hand.

It had been so long since she'd kissed Jonas- since she'd kissed anyone. She kept imagining how this would go over and over in her mind.

And just like most things she imagined, reality was 100 times better than the fantasy.

Jonas sort of wished that he had thought to put a "Do Not Disturb" sign up somewhere nearby, just in case someone was going to come to check up on Cassie. But only sort of. The rest of his mind was entirely devoted to kissing Cassie.

He had not thought that he would ever get to do this again.

Cassie would have been more than happy to keep kissing Jonas for the rest of her life. But she was out of practice and needed to take a break to breathe. Not to mention her neck was starting to hurt. Still, she kept her face close to Jonas.

"I knew you'd save me. I missed you."

"[I missed you too,]" Jonas said, reaching out to stroke her hair. "[More than I can even say.]" His fingertips met knots and he frowned. "[They have not have time to fix your hair yet? This must be uncomfortable.]"

"Huh? Oh, I guess. I haven't really noticed." There were a lot of other more painful things to deal with. "It's not really important."

"[I could comb it out for you,]" Jonas offered. "[If you would like.]"

Cassie smiled. "You're really sweet. But it's- it's really a mess. I mean well, that's obvious but..." And now she was babbling.

She'd just spent so long not worrying about her appearances, only about surviving and now that she was finally out and being cared for- well, suddenly the self consciousness came back.

But he still thought she was beautiful.

"If you want. I don't know well I can do it with one hand."

It took a bit of doing, but Jonas finally managed to communicate his need for a comb and brush to Stacy and get an acceptable facsimile. He settled himself next to Cassie again and carefully went to work.

"[Basic grooming seems to make people feel better,]" he said absently as he encountered the first snarl. "[It always makes me feel better. I just have less hair to brush.]"

"You have no hair to brush." Cassie teased. "So... what all have I missed while I was gone?" You know, other than the whole killing thing.

"[Quite true. Tell me if I pull too hard.]"

Jonas hesitated for a moment, running over his memories of the ship's logs. "[Two crew members had alien eggs laid in them, but both survived. It was decided that Schmuz, the Yeerk that had been kept in stasis, was not at fault for what Shiva had him do, and Sam Winchester chose to allow him to remain inside his head.

"[It was revealed that another crew member had a brain-dead clone on board that she had purchased back in her home reality, and the Council had to decide whether or not clones counted as 'people' or not. Several crew members came down with some sort of virus that caused them to lose control of their anger, but fortunately Medical was able to come up with a cure. Steve Burnside briefly turned into a rampaging monster, but he recovered.]"

Jonas grimaced, though Cassie could not see his face. "[We discovered that Punishment is essentially vivisection and that 'nice' Stacy can be supplanted by the prison warden personality in order to enact it. Big Zero was killed, I understand Security has their suspicions as to who, but the perpetrator may have been grabbed by GLaDOS. We met the Lensmen, who also work for the Daligig as warriors. They were able to help the Daligig program Stacy to accept Leon Kennedy as official ship Captain.

"[Kate joined Billy Cranston's Power Rangers team. Daimon Hellstrom's Dark Soul escaped and began possessing other crew members before it was captured and bound. There was a mission to a planet where people had to get married so that they could visit a city to retrieve a crystal map that is supposed to lead us to the Tapestry, which should help us fight the Ohm.]"

He hesitated, thinking hard. "[I believe that is everything of major importance. I am afraid I was not been as aware as I should have been during that time period.]"

Cassie tried to turn so she could look at him but quickly realized that was a bad idea.

"Thanks for filling me in but I was wondering how you were doing... though uh, who is- was Big Zero?"

Oh, right. Cassie was from before they had met the other team of 'Young Avengers'.

"[Another size-changer from our timeline, or a near-related one. She was a white supremacist who was dating a robot by the name of Egghead. She was part of another team calling themselves Young Avengers, though a more accurate name would have been the Young Masters of Evil.]"

...

"Oookay. I really missed a lot. I'm guessing she and I did not get along. So who do they think killed her?"

Keep holding that breath, Jonas. She was going to get back to that first question sooner rather than later.

"[I was not privy to their investigation,]" Jonas said, focusing on untangling another snarl in Cassie's hair. "[I am afraid I was not aware of who they suspected, only that no one has yet been arrested for it.]"

He really was quite busy with her hair. Really.

"O.K." That was that for Big Zero.

"So... how about my first question? What was it like for you?"

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