Cassie slowly opened her eyes and blinked. As light flooded her vision, she realized disappointedly that the other side of her bed was empty. Marc's covers had been thrown aside, and judging the coldness of his sheets, it appeared he had already been up for an hour or so.
Darn. I wanted a birthday cuddle, Cassie thought, jumping as the sound of the door opened.
"Happy Birthday, Mommy!" came a shrill toddler cry.
Cassie slowly sat up, watching Elijah walk towards her. Marc was following behind with a plate of fresh food. The smell of bacon lingered through the air as they approached with her birthday breakfast.
"For me?" Cassie asked, happily grabbing the plate of food from Marc. There was a full stack of pancakes and three strips of bacon steaming on the plate. Elijah carefully sat down a glass of orange juice near her nightstand.
"How old are you?" Elijah asked.
"Twenty," she said.
"That's old."
"It's not!" Cassie exclaimed.
"Happy birthday," Marc said, leaning down to kiss her. She smiled against his lips and interlaced her fingers with his as she pulled away and stared up at him. Perhaps this was a better gift than an early morning cuddle.
"I'm going to play with Elijah downstairs. You come down when you're ready," Marc said.
"Why don't you eat breakfast with me?" Cassie wondered. "I don't mind the company."
Elijah eagerly climbed onto Cassie's bed, sneaking bites of pancakes and bacon, though Cassie didn't mind, not when he was so adorable in his thievery.
Marc sat next to her, his shoulder brushing against hers as she ate. Even during that first summer she'd been with the others, they'd always made her birthday feel like a special occasion. Of course, nowadays, her family was always here to celebrate too. They'd be coming later in the evening for a proper dinner.
Cassie ate her breakfast quickly and leaned back against the headboard, patting her stomach as she set her plate down.
"Did it taste good?" Elijah asked.
"Sure did. Who made it?" Cassie wondered.
"We did," Marc argued.
Cassie giggled. "Oh! I thought Cherie and Lillian might have."
"I helped!" Elijah exclaimed.
"Thank you," she said, squeezing his tiny hand.
Marc pressed a kiss against her cheek. "I'm going to go clean up downstairs. We'll leave you to get ready."
"Thanks," she said, watching happily as they exited the bedroom. Cassie stretched her arms and finally got the motivation to get out of bed. After a nice shower, she put on a pink sundress and headed downstairs. The others were all waiting to greet her as she did so.
"Happy birthday!" Cherie exclaimed, throwing her arms around Cassie and squeezing the young girl tight. Cassie fought for breath against Cherie's hair, but she was happy all the same. She was used to Cherie's aggressive hugs by this point.
"Two decades, huh?" Cherie said as she pulled away.
"That's right," Cassie said, grinning at her.
"Well, we'll save your presents for later this evening, when your family is here," Cherie said, patting her shoulder. "Cute dress."
"Thank you," Cassie said, blushing slightly. It wasn't every day she actually made the effort to dress up.
"You look cute," Lillian said, wandering over to her. "Happy birthday," she said, throwing her arms around Cassie.
Cassie grinned and shoved her head into Lillian's shoulder. The two had been through a lot the past few weeks, but she was glad to finally have her own sister loving and supporting her again. Their relationship was growing stronger each day.
"Darn. I wanted to give you your gift now," Conny complained as Cassie pulled away from Lillian.
Cassie chuckled and walked over to Conny to give him a hug.
"That's all right. I'm okay waiting," Cassie told him.
"What are your birthday plans?" Mitsuki wondered.
Cassie shrugged. "I guess just relaxing before my family arrives. Training was cancelled today so..." As her thoughts drifted away, a tiny hand tugged on the bottom of her dress.
"Come play with me, Mommy," he begged.
"It's her birthday, bud, let her—"
Cassie cut Marc off. "It's all right," she said, making eye contact with him. She glanced back down at Elijah and gave him a large smile. "Sure. Let's go play. Want to go outside? It's a nice day out today."
"Yeah!" he exclaimed.
"I'll come with you," Marc offered, following her out onto the porch and onto the lawn.
Cassie chased Elijah around on the grass, watching him let out shrill giggles each time she got close enough to poke him. Perhaps babysitting didn't seem like the best birthday activity, but she only got so many hours a day with him and was thankful for the hours they got to share together. She knew there was one day when Elijah wouldn't care much for these moments anymore.
What will he be like when he's ten, fifteen years old? she thought. There was a part of her deep down that wanted him to remain with her, but what if they did run into Irene and Miguel again? He was technically their son, after all.
As she watched Elijah scurry barefoot across the grass, she wondered if he would ever get to know his true parents. She hoped not. He barely knew anything about them, and she wasn't looking forward to the day that she'd have to tell him why he wasn't with them. But if Irene and Miguel did return, she could only imagine the heartbreak that must occur if Elijah were to be separated from her and everyone else. He'd lived with Cassie and the others longer than his own parents.
"I'm going to get some water," Cassie told Elijah, grabbing her water bottle and sitting on the porch steps next to Marc.
"You're going to have to take another shower," Marc teased, noticing the sweat on her arms and chest.
"It's fine. As long as I don't get this dress too dirty. You can go inside and help decorate if you want."
Marc frowned. "But I want to be outside with you."
Cassie grinned. "Thanks," she said, feeling her cheeks redden. She turned suddenly and poked him. "Hey, remember my seventeenth birthday when we sat outside and watched the stars and said all that cheesy stuff to each other?" she asked, giggling as she did so.
"Don't poke fun at me," Marc said, tickling her side. He slowly stopped his movements, allowing Cassie to catch her breath.
"Did you love me then?" he wondered.
Cassie slowly nodded. "I wanted to kiss you."
"Then why didn't you?" he asked.
"I don't know. I remember being really confused, and we were still trying to find my parents, and well, I didn't want to confront my own feelings. But I still remember that night."
"We should do that again tonight. Stargaze," Marc suggested. "Except this time we can kiss."
Cassie chuckled. "All right. That's a deal. Once the fun is over, we can sit out here and watch the stars."
"Perfect," Marc said, leaning forward to kiss her.
"Hey! Are you watching me?!" Elijah called from the lawn.
Their kiss came to a halt. Cassie turned her head, watching Elijah do half-formed cartwheels on the lawn.
"Good job!" she called enthusiastically.
The sound of the porch door opening made Cassie jump. She turned, noticing Conny walking out.
"Hey, sorry to break up the fun, but Cherie wants everyone inside for an important meeting," Conny said.
"Important, meaning me?" Cassie wondered.
Conny shrugged. "She didn't tell us the details, but I would guess so."
Cassie sighed. It seemed she couldn't even fully escape her responsibilities on her own birthday. She slowly stood, calling to Elijah.
"Why we going inside?" he asked confusedly.
"We can go back outside after, but Cherie needs to talk to us," Cassie said as she grasped onto his hand.
She hummed at the feeling of the air conditioning on her skin as she entered the cabin and took a seat on the couch, letting Elijah sit on her lap. Cherie was standing in front of the living room table with papers scattered out across it.
"What's going on?" Cassie wondered.
"We've just been given some important information from The Tiger," Cherie explained, studying the papers in front of her.
"What sort of information?" Marc asked beside Cassie.
"There's a large military base to the west of here that is under Preserver control. Apparently that base houses the most of their weaponry besides inside the headquarters itself. The Tiger thinks that taking control of this base may work in our favor and gain us a large advantage when we eventually do confront the Preservers," Cherie explained.
"Cherie and I have been talking this over, and it looks like an attack will be planned around October. We'll need to gather a large army and a lot of resources to carry this through successfully," Francesco added.
"What do we have to do with it?" Lillian wondered.
Cherie bit her lip. "Well, you don't really. But Cassie. The others have been talking, and they'd like you to be a part of the attack."
Cassie stiffened. "Me?"
"It's good for publicity, or that's their argument," Francesco grumbled. "You can give all the speeches you want and attend meetings, but if people don't see you actively fighting against the Preservers, they won't be motivated to do the same."
"And since we need a lot more supporters for this attack, knowing that you'll be a part of it might help us gain numbers quicker," Cherie added.
Cassie gulped. Though the infiltration of the Headquarters had been two and a half years ago, it still felt fresh in her mind. She felt herself trembling, just thinking about endangering herself again. She'd managed to get lucky two times in a row, and she wasn't so sure about the third. She had hoped she wouldn't be engaging in any more battles until the siege on the Preserver headquarters themselves.
"How dangerous is it?" she asked quietly.
"It won't be as dangerous as attacking the headquarters," Francesco said. "But...we are talking about an attack of a military base that it heavily guarded with extensive weaponry."
"You can't force her to go," Marc argued, his voice rising.
Cassie herself was beginning to feel slightly sick. She closed her eyes and let out a deep sigh.
"Fine. I'll do it," she agreed.
"Cassie!" Marc exclaimed, staring at her concernedly.
"Well, how else are they going to gain numbers? They're right. I haven't actually done anything so far. I'll be okay. I'm almost done with training," she said, pressing an arm on his shoulder.
Cherie glanced around. "Then it's settled—"
"Wait!" Lillian said, standing up. "I want to go with her."
Cherie raised an eyebrow. "We weren't exactly planning—"
"I want to come too," Marc stated. "You can't expect us to sit here while she goes out and endangers herself."
"I want to fight alongside Cassie," Lillian declared.
"Me too," Conny added.
"And me," came Mitsuki.
"Count me in too," Wyatt said.
Cherie let out a deep sigh and glanced around the room. She exchanged glances with Francesco before finally staring at Cassie.
"Fine. Everyone can come along. But," she added before everyone could react, "all of you should be practicing fighting techniques again and starting up training. I don't want any of you to get injured, you hear?!"
"Thank you, Cherie," Cassie said quietly, beginning to feel a lot more relieved that her friends would be willing to fight alongside her.
"Sorry to ruin the birthday festivities with this," Cherie said as she folded her things away. "But it's good to know how much your friends care about you. I'll be a part of the operation myself. We're going to work very hard to keep you protected, Cassie. You'll be in one of the safest ranks."
Cassie nodded, her heartbeat slowly dropping.
"But if we're all going, who will watch Elijah?" she wondered.
"I will," Francesco stated. "I don't get around as well these days, so it wouldn't be wise for me to take part in the mission. I'll take good care of him, I promise."
"Mommy, where are you going?" Elijah asked, only half-hearing their conversation.
"Nowhere, not for a while," she promised him, running a hand through his hair.
"Well, now that that's taken care of, it's time to start decorating!" Cherie exclaimed.