Five years later

When the children had been first introduced to the Library, Jenkins had grumbled about it not being a playground. But as Cassandra had once said, Jenkins' bark was far worse than his bite. He warmed up to them fairly quickly, Abigail being his favorite. Within a year, Jacob was pulling them out of school as Cassandra, Jenkins and even Ezekiel could give them an education to envy. Their father too was reaping the rewards of having the art portfolios and the great art of the world just outside his door. He'd been writing for years but now with this added knowledge he was getting well deserved notice.

For two years, he'd continued to run the store as normal, going on occasional missions as an assistant but mostly serving as a consultant. Jacob had a knack for languages, Cassandra had discovered, and often he was texting her translations in between inventory or loading bags of feed onto trucks.

Three years ago, though, things changed drastically in both the Library and the Stones' lives. Six months after their wedding, Cassandra found out she was pregnant. About that same time, Mabel Collins had come back to town with her new husband. Who happened to be a Stone, a cousin of Jacob's who grew up in Tulsa. The couple had a knack for running the place and Mabel admitted though she'd loved soaring a bit, she'd discovered her passion was for the store. Jacob sold them majority ownership, started taking college classes and became an assistant in the Library.

Today was a special day. Jacob was graduating from college. He was a bit nervous standing in his suit, waiting for his family to gather so they could get to the ceremony. He rarely wore one, the last time had been his wedding day.

"Sorry Dad!" Grace yelled running through the room with a stack of scrolls. Now 15, she'd recently become a junior assistant, which mostly was a job involving fetching and carrying. "I have to get this stuff to Amy and then I'll finish getting ready."

Jacob sighed. "Fifteen minutes kiddo. Where is everyone?"

"Abby's helping Mr. Jenkins with an experiment. Kait had to change because Joey got into her paint."

"And Mom's gotta bathe Joey?" Jacob asked.

"Yep, never a dull moment!" Grace yelled running out again.

Cassandra walked in, in her second outfit of the day, their toddler son perched on her hip. "Kait's gonna be here in a moment."

"She needs to close the door, this one's a sneaky one." Jacob laughed tickling the boy and making him laugh.

Abigail came in then, "did Joey get up to no good again?"

"I was helpin'!" Joey exclaimed.

"Could you take him and make sure everything's okay with Kait? I got something I need to talk to your dad about."

"Sure," Abby smiled. "Come on trouble. But let's not help Kait too much, okay?"

Cassandra smiled and put her arms around her husband's neck, pulling him down for a kiss. "You look so handsome."

"Why thank you darlin'. But I reckon you wanted to tell me something? Or was that just an excuse to make out? Because I'm fine with that."

Cassandra giggled and kissed him again. Then she adjusted his tie. "Nope, I wanted to give you this." She handed him a white envelope, his name written across it.

He took it, looking a little perplexed. He didn't recognize the handwriting and Cassandra and their kids had given him cards already today. But maybe it was a congratulatory card from Flynn and his wife, he wasn't that familiar with his writing.

"Go on, open it," Cassandra said, bouncing a little.

He opened it and the words started magically appearing. He looked up at his wife, his mouth opening a little in shock.

"Is this what I think it is?"

She nodded. "I might have had a little discussion with the Library about you. I know you wanted to stay an assistant because of school and the kids. But it just feels right for you to become a Librarian, the three of us, you, me and Ezekiel. And the Library is in complete agreement or that letter wouldn't be in your hands. The Library ultimately chooses it's Librarians."

"Wow, I never really . . . I mean part of being an assistant was because of the kids. Joey's still little, Abby still needs me. And you, you're the Librarian. I'm just . . .I'm just me."

She nodded. "I know. But I think you were always meant to be a Librarian too. I think it wasn't a coincidence that I picked that case that lead me to you. The Library offered but it's totally up to you. So what do you say, Jacob? How about a shot at saving the world every week?" She smirked thinking of something Flynn had said to her once and altering it to their circumstances. "Twice before bedtime?"

Jacob laughed and kissed her. "Well when you put it that way, Mrs. Stone, how can I refuse?"

"Well that's settled then," she leaned over for another kiss, letting him pull her into his arms. About the time they could hear the commotion of their family coming back into the room. But over the din came another noise.

"Ooh, it's the clippings book," Grace said. "And Ezekiel's already in Switzerland."

Jacob let his forehead hit his wife's shoulder, groaning. "C'mon! I don't need to go to this ceremony but I wanted to!"

"Well, Librarian," Cassandra laughed. "It's part of the job." She broke the embrace looking excited. "Let's see what your first case is!"

Jacob just shook his head and chuckled. This was his life now and he wouldn't change it for anything. "After you, Librarian."

In Wahya, Oklahoma generations of Stones ran and continued to run the general store. And it came to pass that generations of Stones (as well as Carsens and Joneses) served the Library, saving the world every week, twice before bedtime.

The End

Thank you everyone for reading! Hope you enjoyed it!