Post-"Consequences," Cassandra realizes it's time to make things right with Jacob. Who better to help her than his twin?

As always, I own nothing to do with Leverage or The Librarians. All rights in this work are hereby given to those who do.

#

"Eliot."

Eliot Spencer looked up from the tomatoes he was dicing at the dark-haired woman standing in the doorway to the Bridgeport Brewpub's kitchen.

"What's up, Amy?"

"Your brother's friend is here to see you," Amy Palavi replied. "The redhead."

The one Jake didn't trust. Eliot finished scraping the seeds from the tomato. "She say what she wants?"

"No, but she's been in half a dozen times asking for you."

And he'd been away with the Leverage crew. Eliot had barely gotten back from saving Jake from Damien Moreau when the crew took on back-to-back jobs first in San Francisco, then in Seattle.

Truthfully, Eliot welcomed the jobs - distracting enough that he could put what he'd done in San Lorenzo behind him, at least mostly, but not so dangerous that he'd gotten into more trouble than a couple of fistfights with over-confident, under-trained thugs.

He could handle talking to one of Jake's fellow Librarians, especially in the lull between the lunch and dinner crowds.

"Be right there," he told Amy, who nodded and held the door for a server carrying a tray of food to the dining room.

Two minutes later, Eliot put the dish of tomatoes in the prep area, washed his hands, and pulled his apron over his head.

He stepped into the dining room, scanning it until he saw her sitting at a table facing away from the door. With a quick detour behind the bar to grab two beers, Eliot crossed the room and took a seat opposite Cassandra.

"Hi, Cassandra."

"Hi. Thanks," she added as he slid one of the beers across to her. "Is this table okay? I know you like to watch the door."

"It's fine, thanks," Eliot said. "So what's up? Amy says you've been asking for me for a while."

"Yes," Cassandra said. "I've been wanting to talk to you - about Jacob."

Eliot tensed. "Something wrong with Jake?"

Please, God, don't let anything be wrong with Jake, not after San Lorenzo. He almost died then - I can't take it if he actually does.

"No. No, he's fine," Cassandra hurried to reassure him, and he relaxed, if only fractionally. "Sorry, that was a bad choice of words."

Eliot took a swallow of his beer to let his pulse return to normal before prompting, "So what do you want to talk about?"

"Jacob and I - we - got off on the wrong foot," Cassandra said. "And I haven't been able to make it right."

"What happened?" Eliot asked. In all the time he and Jake spent together these days, after so many years apart, he'd never heard the full story of why Jake didn't trust this woman. Obviously, this would be her version, but it would be more than he'd heard from Jake.

"I have a brain tumor," she said. "Inoperable."

"That's rough." And he meant it. Eliot had been nearer to death than he'd ever wanted to come, more than once, but those times were sharp and sudden, or at the least not lingering like the threat of an inoperable tumor.

"And when the Serpent Brotherhood offered me a cure, I jumped at the chance." Cassandra looked down at her beer for a long moment before she met his gaze once again. "I let the Brotherhood into the Library. I didn't know they were going to -"

Eliot liked to think he'd been that innocent, once, but he doubted it. He sat silently, waiting for her to continue.

"Lamia stabbed Flynn with Excalibur. And then – I don't know how – the Library was taken off this plane of existence. And then I helped them return magic to the world, and then they locked me up. I think - I think they were going to kill me."

"Probably," Eliot agreed casually. "You'd done what they asked, and they didn't think they'd need you anymore."

"Is that what you'd do?"

"I would've, once." Eliot kept his tone even. "Not anymore. What else is there?"

Cassandra frowned. "I don't know what you mean."

"What else do you need to make right?"

"Why do you think there's anything else?" The anger in her voice - that she was probably unaware of, Eliot noted - suggested there probably was.

"I don't know whether there is," Eliot said, "so I asked."

"That's the biggest thing, anyway. After that - he said he didn't trust me. He likes me, he can work with me, but he can't trust me."

Eliot privately wondered how she'd managed to stay so innocent so long. What he said aloud was, "And you're talking to me about this because...?"

Then his eyes narrowed as a thought occurred to him. "Y'ain't asking me to make your case to him, are you?"

Cassandra's expression shifted from deer in the headlights to earnest so quickly Eliot almost missed it. Then she sat forward that earnest expression firmly set even as her fingers clenched around her beer.

"Tell me how to talk to him."

Eliot blinked, taken aback by the request.

"You know him better than anyone else," Cassandra continued, oblivious to his surprise. "How do I talk to him so he'll understand?"

She was just full of surprises, Eliot mused, hoping she'd take his momentary silence as a sign that he was considering her question. Finally, he said, "Straight up. That's the only thing that ever works in a situation like this. It's no guarantee he'll understand, but he'll listen."

Cassandra nodded thoughtfully. "I guess I just needed the reassurance that was the right thing to do."

Eliot had no idea what to say to that, so he took a swallow of beer. It was petty of him to want to be a fly on the wall when she approached Jake. It was worse that he momentarily considered calling Jenkins to ask if that could be arranged.

"Thank you," Cassandra said. "I'll talk to him tonight."

"Nope, not tonight."

"Why not?" Cassandra straightened. "I've put it off too long already. Especially since -"

Eliot could finish the sentence for her. Especially since he almost died a couple of weeks ago.

"'Cause he's my brother, and I've got dibs." Eliot quirked an eyebrow at her. "Or did you think you're the only one who has things to make right with him?"

She stared at him. "But - you're his brother. What could you -?"

"That's between me and him." Eliot kept his tone gentle, but firm.

She blushed. "Sorry." She looked away for a moment, then met his gaze again. "Thanks for talking to me."

"Not sure I said anything you didn't already know, but you're welcome."

"Sometimes, you need to hear it from someone else." Cassandra swallowed the last of her beer. "I hope your talk with him goes well."

"Hope yours does, too."