They were there since the first sunbeam. Casey was almost suspecting she was trying to kill him, again.
"What's eating you, Walker?", he looked her up and down, "Fighting like a pit bull, huh?"
"Has it changed anything... finding out you had a kid?"
"What?", he barely managed to ask because she had come for him.
"They say priorities change", and there she paused, taking a breath and waiting for an answer, but still ready for any sign of movement from him.
"Priorities are the same: God, country, duty, Corps", and she come for him again. That seemed to have woken him.
"All right. Yeah, sometimes I think about calling... but... Alex has her own life. I still don't know what my role is. We're done now? What's with the interrogation?"
"Chuck let something slip last night about the future", she punched him, and kicked him, discouting all her frustration on him. But Casey is tough, and can take it.
"Oh, yeah? What? Kids? With you?", his irony was visible, he was really having fun, "Huh. Bartowski is the king of cool, huh?", that was his turn to attack, even if she had defended all.
"I'm a spy. I can't even process the idea of having kids right now. I need to say something to him before he runs away with the idea"
"Probably already measuring for drapes", it was like waking the beast asleep, Walker went to over him with redoubled force.
"Have you ever fallen in love with someone, Casey? Without being Alex's mother...", he was about to say something when she added: " or the country?"
He looked at her intensely, eye to eye, as if considering what would be the right thing to say. Then he rolled his eyes and said:
"Right. Twice, damn you"
"And...? Casey, it's not like I didn't want to know the story. What happened next?"
"Nothing"
"You can be the most dangerous Colonel in the world, but when it comes to that you just cannot talk about it. You have God, country, duty, Corps, and Alex, but how can you-"
"Walker! Shut it! Just because you used to date every man who appeared in front of you doesn't mean that I have to do the same!"
Sarah was silent.
"Yeah, yeah, I used to be a normal man a long time ago. I used to think about family, children, home, all that. But war changed me. Then I realized that I couldn't have the life I dreamed of if I was going to be a soldier. Did I ever fall in love? Sure. First Kathleen; and you knew Ilsa, I really liked her but it didn't last. And there was a woman who tried to kill me, and somehow we had sex. But the most important was the one that was once against me but became my partner. I lost her too", silence fell upon them and Casey felt his mouth dry; he turned and faced the wall, "Happy now? I guess love is not for me anyway"
"What was her name?", she asked in a tiny voice, "What was her name, Casey?"
"Doesn't matter", his tone made it clear the conversation was over. Sarah had already gone too far.