Saturday 07:00 EDT
"...and no work for 3 weeks at least, not even paperwork understand?"
Dr Janice Markham looked at Casey sitting in the wheelchair as she signed the release forms.
"I get it...I get it...no work for 2 weeks."
Casey said smiling deviously.
"That's 3 weeks Cassandra." Clay said with a frown. "And if I have to tie you to the bed to make sure you stay there...I will!"
Janice and Casey exchanged grins, and looked at Clay with eyebrows raised.
"That's NOT what I meant...you two...that's..."
He stammered as both Casey and the Doctor burst into peals of laughter.
"Clay,lets just go!" Casey said still laughing.
Webb Residence
Great Falls VA
08.10am
"Clay, what are we doing here?"
Casey asked as they pulled up outside Porter Webb's house.
"Well we all took a vote and decided that, under the circumstances it would be easier and safer if you stayed here until you got stronger.
Now before you go off the richter at me for organising your life....I just wanted to make sure you were safe, and that you had all the help you're going to need to get back on your feet."
Casey grinned at Clay.
"That was some speech Agent Webb, how long have you been practicing that?"
"3 Days"
He said grinning at her.
"Are you planning on mothering me to death?" She asked him suspiciously.
"Most likely....do you mind?"
"As long as you don't cook for me , we'll get along fine!!" Casey laughed.
Webb Residence
Great Falls VA
Saturday 20.15EDT
Clay set down his pen and stared out the study window at the driving rain outside, another roll of thunder rumbled it's way through the night, rattling the windows in their frames.
He looked again at the letter sitting on his desk, he had spent the better part of 2 hours writing this letter to Casey. It had not been an easy task, the crumpled pieces of paper on the desk around him were testament to that fact.
He had poured his entire soul into this letter, everything he felt, everything he believed, was in these few lines...he only hoped it was enough for her.
"Clay?"
A small blonde head poked around the corner of the study door.
"Hey what are you doing up?"
He asked Anya as she padded her way barefoot across the oriental rug to stand beside his chair.
"I 'm scared."
Anya said softly as she crawled into his lap.
"Of the storm?"
Clay asked, remembering vividly a small boy climbing onto his fathers lap in this very room many years ago and declaring the same thing.
Clay smiled as Anya settled her head beneath his chin and relaxed against him.
"How about a story?"
He asked leaning back in the antique leather chair , Anya nodded and yawned.
"OK, Once Upon a Time, in land far, far away there lived a beautiful Princess named Anya...."
20 minutes later, after making up a fairytale that the brothers Grimm would have been proud to call their own Clay ended the story.
"..and they lived happily ever after."
A soft snore was the only feedback he got from Anya, as she lay fast asleep against his shoulder.
He looked down at the tiny blonde child, wearing Casey's t-shirt that reached to her knees.
In a few days time Anya would be sent to Fort Lauderdale to live with her mother's cousin, a woman she barely knew.
Clay couldn't explain the sense of loss he felt already at the thought of Anya leaving, she had awakened something in him , a sense of protectiveness a paternal urge he had never felt before.
He had spent his whole life being detached , creating an aloof facade for the world to see, sheltering himself from hurt and pain. But then this tiny person, with barely four years of existence to her name came crashing through all those barriers and saw right through him.
She placed her trust in him and it scared the hell out of him.
Tonight he had told her a story that ended with everyone living happily ever after...something he knew rarely happened in the real world.
Anya had already suffered unimaginable pain for one so young, the fact that she could still put her trust in him left him humbled.
With a sigh he put his letter to Casey in it's envelope and picked Anya up and carried her up the stairs to her room.
Webb Residence
Sunday Morning
06.00am EDT
"Wake up, wake up, wake up"
Anya chanted as she lifted Clay's eyelid trying to wake him up.
Clay pretended to still sleep, (although how anyone could sleep through the racket Anya was making was beyond him) even as he planned his attack.
He gave a heavy snore and then when Anya heaved a frustrated sigh and turned away, he grabbed her and tickled her.
Porter Webb stood at the doorway grinning at the sigh of her son tickling Anya who was now shrieking with laughter.
It had been her idea to get Anya to wake Clay today, she knew that her son would be upset when the little girl left in a few days.
Casey heard the laughter and came to stand next to Porter in the doorway, smiling as she watched Anya belt Clay with a pillow trying to get him to stop tickling her.
Clay looked up and saw them standing in the doorway and grinned.
"Morning,you're not supposed to be out of bed!"
He said to Casey, just as Anya belted him in the face with the pillow.
Casey laughed at the expression on his face, the action hurting her stomach a little.
"I can't stay in bed Clay, I'm going stir crazy."
"You were already crazy, what's the difference?"
He said with a good natured grin.
"Oh you'll regret that once I'm better Agent Webb."
She said with a mock serious glare.
"He's right though Case, you should get some more rest, at least until 10am."
Porter said softly, not wanting to upset Casey.
Casey grinned.
"I'll go to bed on one condition...Clay has to cook breakfast!"
Porter looked at Casey a grin on her face.
"You just got out of hospital dear..."
Clay threw a pillow at his mother and pulled a face at Casey.
"You're gonna pay for that BOTH of you...c'mon Anya, lets go cook breakfast shall we?"
Anya jumped up and own on the bed
"I can't cook."
'That makes two of us"
Clay said in a theatrical whisper as he made his way past his mother and partner on his way to the kitchen.
Casey made her way back into her room, closing the door behind her.
It was then that she noticed the letter laying about 2 feet from the door, she picked the cream coloured envelope up and turned it over.
It was addressed to her, in her partner's familiar handwriting.
Climbing back into bed and pulling the covers around her she opened the envelope and began to read:
Dear Case,
I've been sitting here for almost an hour now trying to think what to write, how to explain this,but somehow it still seems to escape me.
Everything I write seems clumsy or comes out wrong and doesn't make sense.
Funny,I'm usually so good with words.
We've been partners for 5 years now, shared things most people wouldn't understand, leaned on each other when times got tough and celebrated on those rare occasions when things went right.
But never in those 5 years, have I ever been as scared as I was 6 days ago.
When you jumped out of that car the other night, I thought I knew what fear was...thought I'd experienced it all before, but I was wrong.
Coming back to the cabin later and finding you there on the floor...my heart stopped.
For 30 horrifying seconds I thought I'd lost my partner and my best friend, then you opened your eyes and begged me not to leave you and I made you a promise,I told you I wouldn't.
The 45 minutes to the hospital seemed like hours, I felt so damn helpless sitting there beside you.
Then at the hospital sitting beside you in that chair holding your hand, I would have given anything to take your place if I could have.
But this isn't what I wanted to tell you Casey...these are things you already know.
That morning when you woke up, was I think the happiest day of my life so far.
I had begged to be given another chance and then there you were smiling at me.
Then later that morning, when we were talking and I kissed you...I just want you to know that it meant something to me.
I know that you most likely don't feel the same way, and we haven't talked about the kiss I know. Something deep inside, a part of me I'd always tried to ignore tells me that maybe you feel the same way I do and are too afraid to say anything lest we lose what we have already.
I don't know how it happened, can't even really pinpoint when...but it happened, somewhere along the line I fell in love with you.
I wanted to tell you when we were up at 'Orion's Reach' that night with Harm and Mac.
We were sitting on the porch, neither of us able to sleep, watching the moon and talking about what we missed about each other when you were away.
But somehow we ended up joking about it and the opportunity slipped away.
I wanted to tell you that I missed everything about you that night, everything from the way your laughter kind of bubbles up from inside you, to the way you handle the Director, to the way you bite your lip when you concentrate on something.
That morning when I burst into your room to tell you I couldn't find Anya, and found her curled up with you fast asleep blew me away.
For a few seconds I saw everything I never knew I wanted laid out before me.
I can't remember a time when I had a dream that wasn't part of the Company plan, part of my duty as an Agent for our government....not until now anyway.
I know by giving you this letter I've risked ruining our partnership, but the last week has taught me that life is too short for 'what if 's...I need to know how you feel, I can't go on pretending anymore.
Clay.
Casey sat propped up against the pillows, grateful for their support as the tears flowed down her face.
He loved her.
Clay loved her and he thought she didn't love him.
She opened her bedside drawer and pulled out her diary, the small leather bound journal held all her secrets, but most of all it held the one truth that Clay needed to hear.
Sneaking down the carpeted stairs she slipped into the study and placed the journal in an envelope writing Clay's name on the front.
Leaving it on the hallstand she slipped back upstairs to her bed.
Casey had barely put the letter back in it's envelope and placed it on the nightstand and tucked the sheets back around her when Clay and Anya came in bearing a breakfast tray.
Casey watched as Clay instinctively looked for the note on the floor and then spied it on the nightstand.
"We come bearing breakfast for the invalid."
Clay said with a grin.
Casey pretended to be outraged at the term.
"Invalid huh?This invalid will kick your butt when she's better!"
Anya scooted around Clay and jumped onto the bed next to Casey.
"I made the toast." She said proudly.
"All by yourself?" Casey asked as Clay sat the tray down on her lap.
She looked at the black squares that had at one stage been pieces of bread.
Picking one up she took a small bite.
"Mmm...I have to say this is the best toast I've ever had...here Clay...you have some too."
She held out a piece of cremated bread to Clay who tried not to laugh as he took a bite of the 'toast'.
"Mm...delicious, I tell you what, why don't we go make some toast for Porter I bet she'd love some."
Clay said with an evil looking grin.
Casey laughed and watched him pick up Anya and walk downstairs again closing the door softly behind him.
As he came down the stairs, Clay noticed the envelope sitting on the hall table.
Quickly putting Anya down he ushered her into the kitchen to Harrison to make some more 'toast'.
He picked up the envelope and made his way to the study, opening the package to find a journal inside he sat down in his fathers leather chair at the desk and looked inside the front cover.
A note fluttered to the floor.
Dear Clay,
Almost everything you ever need to know, you'll find here.
Read.
Casey.
He opened the journal to the last page that was written on, it was dated the night Casey was shot.
Dear Diary,
I watched him today with Anya, and not for the first time in the last few days have found myself thinking what a great father Clay would make.
He has a gentleness and a kindness that makes him shine around Anya, sometimes he'll let down that infamous barrier he's put up between himself and the rest of the world and just relaxand today I watched him do it all day.
It's been one of the best days I've had in a long time.
Last night we were standing in the kitchen and we were talking about him teasing AJ, he made a comment about AJ being worried that we were more than partners.
And then he looked at me and I'm not quite sure what I saw in his eyes then...was it a question? Was it hope?
Maybe it was nothing...maybe it was just the wishful thinking of a woman in love with her partner?
Clay flipped back to the first page:
Dear Diary,
I love Las Vegas!!!
Last night the hotel stuffed up our reservations,they left us with only one bed between the two of us.
After arguing with Clay for almost 20 minutes about who wasn't going to sleep on the sofa ( the man has chivalry down to a fine art!), we decided to be very adult about it all and just share the damn bed.
I woke up this morning at about 3am with his arms wrapped around me,and my head lying on his chest.
I would have moved if it hadn't felt so right to be there.
Clay smiled remembering that night, he had woken just after she went back to sleep.
He hadn't wanted the moment to end, he wanted to hold her there all night and not let go, but instead he had kissed her softly as she slept and let her go.
He turned another page further into the journal.
Dear Diary,
I want to strangle that man...or kiss him...or both!
Prague and I'm sitting in a hospital room next to him while he sleeps.
I've never been so scared in all my life as I was tonight, our op went south and Clay was involved in a bad car accident.
I was following him out of the city to our meeting point when a bomb went off. I saw his car spin out of control and slam into a wall, God it was like it was all happening in slow motion and I couldn't stop it.
I pulled him out of the car and waited until the medics got there, our op here is over but Clay's not out of the woods yet, he has a nasty concussion and 4 broken ribs and the doc doesn't know if there's anything else wrong yet.
He was lying so still behind the wheel and I thought, for a moment that I had lost him.
The he opened his eyes and it was all I could do not to kiss him!
That was until we were in the ambulance and he said to me:
"See...it all worked out in the end"
Impossible man...if I didn't love him, I'd strangle him myself!
Clay laughed as he turned to another page, remembering the moment he had said that.
The next page stunned him:
Dear Diary,
I don't think I've ever had someone make me feel so safe as Clay did tonight.
Tonight, even with Palmer roaming the countryside I still feel safe.
I came so close to telling him tonight...it was right on the tip of my tongue, but then somehow the mood changed and the moment was lost.
He knows about Wilkes,and he's still talking to me, I guess I should have known better than to think that Clay wouldn't understand what happened.
I forget sometimes that he's been there himself.
We sat on the porch tonight, looking out at the moon and the mountains and talking about what we missed about each other while I was away.
I wanted to tell him that I missed the way he runs his fingers through his hair when he's frustrated.
And the way he hums the same part of the Man from Uncle theme when he's doing something devious, the way he calls to check up on me when I'm at home to make sure I'm OK and the way he makes me feel special without even trying.
Most of all I missed seeing the man I love every day.
But I can't tell him that, because there's now way a man like him would want a girl like me.
I have nothing to offer him but me....and I don't think that's enough.
Clay slapped the book shut and leaned back in his chair.
He had been given a chance, he was going to take it.
AJ sat in the living room with Porter Webb while Anya entertained them with stories of how she made toast for everyone this morning, when a huge crash and the sound of breaking china came from Casey's bedroom.
The three of them raced up the stairs and opened the door to find Clay and Casey kissing on the huge four poster bed, the breakfast tray and it's delicate china setting lying in pieces on the floor.
"Webb!"
AJ hollered from the doorway, fighting to keep a straight face as Webb's face snapped towards his.
"What?"
Webb asked a smile on his face.
"Have you told my daughter you love her yet?"
"What are you the relationship police?" Webb asked still smiling. "And I was just about to tell her when you barged in."
He turned to Casey who was struggling not to laugh.
"I love you." He said smiling down at her. "Even if he is your father."
"I love you too."
"Can we make some more toast?"
Anya asked popping her head in between the two people on the bed, getting away with it as only a 4 year old can.
Clay grabbed Anya and began tickling her again until she begged him to stop.
From the doorway Porter and AJ watched the three people on the bed, laughing. AJ turned to Porter, a smile on his face.
"Y'know I think this may actually work!"