SNAFU: Update the Third

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Fandom: Animorphs
Title: Situation Normal: All Fucked Up
Pairing: Jake/Marco, Rachel/Tobias
Rating: PG-13
Summary: "We have some planning to do, because if what happened today wasn't treason it was something damned close."
Timeline: This is set post series, during the Five Years timeline, past Rematch.

Not yet beta'd. Feel free to point out anything you see.

Earlier parts are available here and here.

For sidara, who isn't feeling well.




Ten minutes later she was being escorted through the halls of the governor's mansion by a peppy young intern named Shelly who kept tripping over herself trying to keep up with Rachel's longer stride. "Ms. Wilkinson was in meetings all morning," Shelly-the-Intern gasped out, narrowly avoiding a head-on collision with a potted tree. "She's been meeting with local animal rights advocates-"

"Really," Rachel said. "Cassie?"

"Oh yes!" Shelly-the-Intern managed to miss the sarcasm entirely. "Ms. Wilkinson is very concerned with the ethical treatment of animals. She's preparing an argument to convince the governor to take a harder stand against animal cruelty and increase legal repercussions against people who mistreat any animal. Domestic, feral or wild," she added conscientiously.

That came as something less than a total shock. Rachel was amused, but not surprised. "Cassie's always been very dedicated to animal rights." They were approaching a staircase. "Are we going up?"

"Hmm? Oh, yes! Ms. Wilkinson's office is on the third floor." Shelly-the-Intern sounded slightly out of breath as she jogged up the stairs trying to keep up. "The governor is just a few doors down. He consults with Ms. Wilkinson very frequently."

Rachel rolled her eyes behind her glasses as she trailed her hand over the banister and jogged up the second flight of stairs. "I take it you and Cassie work together a lot?"

"Oh, not very often," Shelly-the-Intern demurred breathlessly. "I'm only an intern. I just work here for the summer. If I'm lucky I may be able to make some connections for after college."

"Connections are very important," Rachel agreed. She paused at the top of the stairs for a moment and hid a grin when Gave a little sigh of relief. "So which office is Cassie's?"

"Rachel?"

Rachel turned at the sound of her name, sliding her glasses off in one smooth motion. "Cass!"

Cassie looked just like Rachel remembered, though better dressed, and she'd grown her hair out a bit. She looked composed and professional, except for the battered knapsack slung over one shoulder, and the hesitant smile that crossed her lips. "They told me you were downstairs. I didn't even know you were in Sacramento."

"I caught a ride in. Hadn't seen you in a while!" Rachel thought she might be pouring the enthusiasm on a little too hard, but it wasn't entirely feigned. It had been nearly a year since she'd seen Cassie, since she'd taken the job here with the governor. And even before that, they hadn't seen much of one another.

Rachel could blame it on being married, but she didn't really spend any more time with Tobias now than before. She could blame it on work, because being a member of an elite planetary defense military squad was a pretty time-consuming occupation with no set hours, but she'd never had a lot of free time before. She could blame it on Jake, and the lingering weird he and Cassie had going on between them, but she'd had a decade to adjust.

No, she'd avoided Cassie. Cassie had avoided her right back. None of it had anything to do with weddings or Jake (well, maybe a little, but not in the teen-romance sense) or jobs, even, because it wasn't like they couldn't afford a plane flight or a long-distance phone call.

"I missed you," Rachel said. And she was only a little surprised to realize how much she meant it. "I was hoping you'd have time for lunch."

Maybe Cassie was surprised by that too, because she stopped for a moment before she said, "I know a really nice soup and sandwich place just a few blocks away. I think they won't miss me around here for a while."

"Sounds great," Rachel said quickly, because she just knew Shelly-the-Intern was about to say something about how desperately "Ms. Wilkinson" would be missed. "I'm starving. Please tell me they serve meat."

Maybe a year wasn't too long, because Cassie threw back her head and laughed. "They serve meat. Red and mooing, just the way you like it."

Rachel bared her teeth in a grin. "Shall we masticate?"

Cassie shook her head and led the way, leaving Shelly-the-Intern behind. "I hate it when you say that. It makes me think of something out of a National Geographic documentary on predators."

It felt good to laugh. "I am something out of a National Geographic documentary on predators."

Cassie looked over her shoulder and grinned. When Cassie smiled it was with her whole face. "Well, keep your teeth in while we're at the watering hole, Simba. I can trust you in public, right?"

Rachel pretended to think about it. "Will there be any gazelles?"

"Not likely."

"Then I'm good. Lead on! I sense onion soup and roast beef in my future." Rachel smirked. "And I bet we won’t have any trouble getting a cab."

***