What Happens in Aspen Lasts in Reefside

"Well, there you have seen all the action of this first day of the Amateur Snowboarding League here in Aspen, Colorado. Join us again tomorrow, Reefside when we return here for continued coverage on the action, upsets and victories. This is Cassidy Cornell, Reefside three, saying goodnight," she told the camera with a smile just before Devin shut it off.

"Alright, Cass, that does it for us tonight. See you later," he told her as he wanted to get back to the hotel and drop the equipment off as soon as possible.

She smiled. "Good because I need to eat."

It was only seven o'clock, but the sun had set minutes ago and some of the others had already headed back to the hotel. Only Kira, Anton and they remained.

"Who here needs a ride back to the hotel?" Anton asked, unsure if Tommy or Trent had loaned any of them their rental cars.

"I'm good," Kira said, Tommy having loaned her his rental as he knew he had no plans to leave the hotel any time soon. Though honestly it was also a way to ensure Conner wouldn't keep hounding him for it.

"I could use one," Devin said quickly.

"Cassidy?" Anton asked with a slight smile.

She couldn't believe she was about to do this, but she couldn't risk Devin seeing her now undeniable attraction to their former substitute teacher. "I think I'll ride with Kira. Girls with the girls, you know?"

Kira laughed. They'd had maybe two true female bonding moments together in the last year, she knew Cassidy had to be up to something and she was a little interested to find out what. "Okay, well then I guess we should get going. Wouldn't want to get stuck somewhere."

Anton and Cassidy couldn't fight laughing at that. They tried, but failed horribly.

"What? What's so funny?" Devin asked as he glanced back and forth to the two blondes.

"See, this is why I'm riding with Kira tonight," Cassidy told Anton with another laugh.

"I suppose we were bound to hear something like that sooner or later," Anton replied, beginning to regain his composure.

"I don't get it," Kira said finally as she looked to the two of them just as Devin was still doing.

"It was after dark when Dr. Mercer and I found the cabin last night," Cassidy explained with a smile.

Anton nodded. "Drive carefully, you two."

"Thanks, Dr. Mercer, you, too," Kira said as she turned back to him and Devin for an instant as they neared their car.

Cassidy did her best to remain silent as she rode in the passenger seat. But Kira soon revealed she had other plans for her companion.

"So what's going on with you and Mercer?" she asked as they were stopped at a red light.

Glancing to his rental car in the side view mirror as they were just two cars behind them, she answered, "Nothing. We just get along. He really isn't so bad once you get to know him."

The black and yellow clad young woman shook her head slightly. "And just what you gotten to know about him?" she asked with a smirk. She knew something had to have happened at the cabin, she just wanted to hear Cassidy say it.

"He actually cares about people, he's funny, when he wants to be anyway. I don't know, he's just seemed kind of different since we got here and I like it. But then I wasn't entirely complaining before."

"Do you like him?"

"Kira! He was our teacher. How can you ask me that?" She knew her answer was yes, but she wasn't about to tell Kira that.

"Dr. O's our teacher even now and yet you know how many of the female students like him."

"Okay, he isn't unattractive, I admit. But he's just a friend, I swear."

"A teacher? Just a friend?"

"Says the one who's almost always with Dr. Oliver," Cassidy replied.

Kira wanted to challenge her there, but then Tommy was just a friend to her and the other Rangers. But that was different, being Rangers had them bound in a sort of way. What could Cassidy and Dr. Mercer have between them to become friends? "What really happened last night?"

Sighing, Cassidy knew she had to answer. But that didn't mean she had to tell her the whole truth. "We got stuck in traffic. Both of us blaming ourselves for it. If I hadn't brought so much luggage, if he'd booked an earlier flight, that kind of thing. Then the snow started falling and pretty soon it looked like a blizzard. He saw the cabin and we ducked inside. After that he found some matches and lit a fire for us and as we tried to get warm I asked him a few questions for an interview before we decided to get some sleep."

"But you mentioned he helped keep you warm, what did that mean?"

"Shared body heat more or less. We were still dressed, but we were sleeping kind of close together."

Finally pulling back into one of the lodge hotel's parking spaces, Kira asked, "Did he keep you in his arms all night?" She was kidding, laughing in fact, but couldn't resist.

"No," Cassidy answered as she removed her seatbelt. Climbing out of the car, she quickly added, "It wasn't until I laid back down after fixing the fire halfway through the night that he put his arms around me." With that she closed the car door and started walking towards the lodge, leaving Kira stunned in her seat.

"Cassidy," Anton called when he saw her in the lobby a few minutes later when he and Devin arrived.

"Hey," she told him, wanting to keep it casual as she wasn't sure quite where Kira was.

"How did you enjoy the competition today?"

"What I saw of it was good," she answered with a laugh as her talking with him had kept her attention more than the snowboarding action had.

"Looking forward to tomorrow's then?"

"Yeah, you could say so. You?"

Anton nodded. He wasn't entirely sure what he was doing here. He wanted to ask her to join him for dinner, but something was keeping him from saying the words.

As if reading his mind slightly, Cassidy said, "I think I should get something to eat. That slice of pizza earlier could only last for just so long."

She was still in front of him, his chance was there, but he let it pass. It would have been too obvious, he knew. The cabin last night, talking almost all day, then having dinner together. He knew they couldn't risk it.

"If I don't see you later, have a good night and I'll see you tomorrow, Dr. Mercer," Cassidy told him with a soft smile as she began to head off towards the dining room.

"Goodnight, Cassidy," he replied.

"Mind if I join you?" Kira asked as she saw Cassidy taking a seat in the dining room.

"You're not going to quiz me any more about last night, are you?" she asked her.

"Honestly, I'm a little worried about some of the answers you might give me after what you said outside," she replied as she took a seat across from her.

Cassidy only laughed. That was part of what she had hoped to do, to get Kira to where she didn't want to hear more about the night before. She just didn't want to be made to feel guilty or ashamed for having enjoyed it or for having wanted more.

"So when are you finally going to cut Devin a break?" Kira asked her, deciding to keep the subject off of Dr. Mercer for the rest of the night.

"We're just friends," Cassidy answered. "Always have been, always will be. So what about you and Conner?"

"Conner? Did he say something? Because if he did -" She was getting defensive, unsure of why.

"He didn't say anything. You two have just seemed kind of close yourselves lately Giving each other less of a hard time, kind of makes one wonder."

"He's a jock and not exactly the brightest of that bunch either," Kira told her friend.

"Doesn't make him any less cute or keep you from hanging out with him so much," Cassidy replied with a wink. "Besides you hang out with Dr. Oliver, Ethan and Trent also and yet you and Conner still seem to be alone together the most."

"Couldn't find anything better for your gossip column this week?" Kira asked, desperately trying to get out of having to tell Cassidy that she was interested in Conner.

"You're the second person to ask me that in two days. Why do you all think I'm working on a gossip column?"

Kira nearly choked on her sip of water. "You asked Mercer who he's interested in?"

"Not exactly. I was just wondering about him and Principal Randall and decided to ask."

"What'd he say?"

Cassidy laughed. "Why? Interested in Dr. Mercer, are you?" She couldn't resist after the Yellow Ranger had tried to get her to admit her own attraction towards the slightly older man.

"I just want to know if he actually answered you or if he changed the subject," she replied with a laugh of her own.

"He didn't," she sighed.

"What do you think? Are they or aren't they?"

She shrugged. "I don't know."

"Do you want to know?" Kira asked with a grin.

"Don't we all?" she asked in reply.

"I guess," Kira told her, her smile still not fading as she began to realize that Cassidy was different when she talked about Anton. She still couldn't quite believe she could be attracted to him, but few other things made sense. Maybe she had an interest in Trent and thought getting close to his father would help her get him.

"So what do you have planned for tonight?" Cassidy asked.

"Conner said -"

"Mmhmmm," Cassidy said with a giggle.

"It's not like that!" Kira cried with a laugh, though she could feel the heat rising on her cheeks. She did like him, but she still wanted to refuse admitting it. "He just invited all of us out to a club tonight. Since Dr. O never said clubs were off limits, we're going to be heading over there in about a half an hour, I guess."

"We who?"

"Conner, Trent, Devin and me. Not sure about Ethan. Dr. O's obviously staying here. You're invited, too if you want to go."

Cassidy shook her head. She wasn't in the mood for a club. At least not when she knew she would have to endure so many men, older and younger alike trying to dance and who knows what else with her when she knew the only man she wanted that physically close to her was Anton.

"I can't believe we're really here," Kira stated as he, Devin, Ethan, Trent and Conner neared the front of the line outside of The Serpent Siren.

"I invited, you accepted, why the disbelief?" Conner asked her.

"Let me put it another way. I can't believe Dr. O's really letting us get away with this. It's awesome," she replied.

"Did Dr. O really say we could do this? Or did he just not say we couldn't?" Ethan asked, beginning to worry what their teacher would do to them when he found out.

"Relax, dude. Dr. O's not here and he didn't say we couldn't go to the clubs. Besides, we're over eighteen and it's not like we're gonna be drinking."

"I've still got a really bad feeling about this," Ethan stated as he glanced around, somehow feeling their teacher's eyes on them.

"Why?" Devin asked him. "I think we'll have a blast."

"Let's just hope Dr. Oliver and my dad are both too distracted to find out where we are," Trent replied.

Lying awake in bed later that night, Cassidy still felt the want to be with Anton again. She had the covers tucked in under her slim body, trying to mimic the feel of being back in his arms, but it was useless.

The clock by her bed read 1:18. He would be asleep by now, she knew. But still she knew she wouldn't be able to sleep. Not like this.

With that in mind she quickly dressed in a pair of well fitting jeans and a long sleeved blue crop sweater. She soon made her way down to the lobby, deciding she needed some fresh air. If nothing else at least the cold would take her mind off of Anton for a while.

Or at least it might have had she not heard his voice just minutes after she had stepped outside.

Great, now I'm going crazy, she thought to herself with a roll of her blue eyes.

"Are you alright, Cassidy?" he asked. He had asked her a moment ago what she was doing outside at this time of night, but she hadn't answered.

That time she knew he was there and turned to face him. "I'm fine, Dr. Mercer. What are you doing out here?"

"I came down to see if they had something in the gift shop to help me sleep. What about you?" It was freezing outside, below freezing actually and he had hoped he could talk her into going back inside.

"I just needed some air. I couldn't sleep either."

"Why don't we go back inside before we both get sick?" he asked, moving back towards the lodge.

Taking another deep breath of the crisp mountain air, Cassidy soon began to follow him. The cold wasn't affecting her and while she know that should have been enough to worry her, her focus was more on the slightly older man she had been thinking of all night.

"I take it Kira's already asleep?" he asked as he led her back inside.

Cassidy shook her head. "No, she's out. They all went out."

"Then would it be safe to assume I'm not the only one who partially misses the cabin?" he asked softly, noticing the longing in her eyes as she looked to him.

"I know it was cold and there wasn't anything there, but there was just something about being there, like that, with you," she replied.

The lobby was nearly empty and no one seemed to be looking their way. He had managed to resist the night before, but he knew he couldn't tonight. Within a moment he was moving closer to her and claiming her lips in a soft kiss of caution.

Though caution wasn't entirely what Cassidy had in mind as any question in Anton's mind of her wanting this quickly faded as she intensified their kiss and laced her arms around his solid frame.

For once Anton didn't care if they had an audience or just whom it might be made up of. He had been waiting longer than simply a night for this and he knew he couldn't deny it now even if he wanted to. Though while he hated the thought of it, he broke their heated exchange a moment later, saying, "Perhaps we should continue this elsewhere."

She smiled, silently agreeing with a nod.