Cass balanced herself as best she could, boots slipping on the toilet seat and hands slipping from where she used them to support herself on the stall walls. She listened to the soft, methodical footsteps crossing the tile.

"Cass?"

She stayed quiet. She really needed a better lookout. The janitor just always pocketed her money and nodded and she was pretty sure he walked away once she had disappeared into the bathroom. Maybe she could borrow one of Benny's lackeys.

"I know it's you, Cass, I can smell the smoke."

Be perfectly still, she kept telling herself. Don't even breathe, cowgirl.

"The toilet was flushing when I came in and no one's emerged from a stall, and there are no shoes on the ground."

Cass sighed and exited her hiding spot. "Give it a rest, Sherlock."

Harkness scowled at her as she casually walked to the sink and started washing her hands. "This is the third time this month I've caught you smoking in here," he said sternly.

"Smoking? Me?"

"Fake innocence is really not a good look on you."

Cass rolled her eyes. "You got no evidence I was smoking, pal."

"I can smell the smoke. Also you were hiding in a stall."

"Maybe you're just smelling yourself malfunctioning, bolt bucket. Also maybe I was hiding because a creepy pervert stomped into the girls' bathroom. You're the hall monitor, not toilet monitor."

Harkness exhaled sharply through his nose and said through clenched teeth, "For the last time, I am not a robot."

Cass shrugged lightly, turning off the water and reaching for a paper towel. "Hey, I only know what Benny said, and he had very convincing evidence that you're a tin can straight outta Serling."

Harkness groaned in exasperation. "Just what the heck was this 'evidence', anyway?"

"Five bucks. And the fact that you've got no genitals."

"I do so have genitals!"

Cass held a fist to her mouth to muffle her snorting laugh.

"It wasn't funny, Rose! When Benny added the lovely little spin that I was spying for the communists, Professor Noonan threw his shoe at me! He called my house threatening to 'turn me in' for America!"

Cass stopped laughing and turned to face him, crossing her arms and looking him dead in the eye. "Don't call me Rose."

Harkness narrowed his eyes and Cass could see the smirk in them. "What if I wanna?" he said, walking closer to her. "Rosie?"

He was not expecting the solid right hook, if his face was anything to go by. Cass sauntered out of the bathroom, bootheels clicking on tile, knuckles stinging. She stopped by the door to say, "Only one man got to call me that, Rusty, and he's gone. So watch yourself."

The bell rang out as she hit the hall, students spilling out of classrooms. She went to the chemistry lab and ducked in as the stragglers filed out and tapped Professor Noonan on the shoulder. "Hey, Doc?" she said, putting on her very best innocent face and batting her eyelashes hugely. "I was talking to Harkness and he started using big words. I don't know about all that boy stuff, but I was wondering: what's a proletariat?"

Not a good look for me, my ass, she thought with a smug smile as Noonan clambered out the door to save America.