Author's Note: Hi, I'm the Dreamer. You can call me Dreamer, or Alana, or Serenity. I use all of those nicknames on occasion. This is my first "Chuck" fanfiction, featuring one of my favourite characters—John Casey. Please understand that I've only finished the first season, that I'm just seven episodes into the second season. I saw a spoiler online about Clara, which is the only reason I know about her. While waxing my car earlier, I thought it would be funny to see how Casey acts around a little girl. Then I thought about the amiable way Ellie acts towards Casey and wondered what might happen if she asked him to babysit for a day. This is what came of it. Seven was the minimum age I could go with, so I apologise for any inaccuracy; like I said, all I know is that Devon and Ellie have a daughter named Clara. Nothing else. This is rated PG solely for Casey's silent use inside his head of the word 'hell' once or twice. The rest of it is a fluffy sort of 'Casey versus a little kid' type of thing. Enjoy, and review for any other "Chuck" stories you might like to see me write—bonus points if it has Casey as a main character! *grins* Dreamer, signing off.
/~*~\\
Casey buttoned his black shirt, watching his reflection in the mirror to make sure none of them ended up crooked. He briefly regarded himself in the glass, then turned around and exited, locking the door behind him.
Ellie and Devon had called him and asked him if he could do them a favour, without actually telling him what it was. Naturally, he felt suspicious; but he wasn't doing anything else that day and figured he could afford to do something for the Woodcombs. They were, after all, fairly nice people, and continuously invited him over and stopped by to chat. He begrudgingly accepted that he owed them an act of kindness in return.
He walked across the courtyard and rapped on the door three times, crossing his arms across his chest afterwards.
Footsteps sounded inside, and Devon's voice called from inside, "Just a minute!"
A moment later, the door swung open. Devon stood there, a huge grin on his face—which tended to be the norm. "Hey, glad you could come."
Casey nodded once. "Mm." He stood silently, waiting for someone to say something.
"Come on in." Devon stepped back. "Ellie'll be here in a minute."
Casey entered, stepping past Devon and leaning against the wall, taking everything in. Devon was dressed more formally than usual, in a button-down shirt and a clean pair of jeans. Was he going out somewhere?
Ellie's appearance made that musing quite clear. She wore a simple but pretty blue dress. Casey raised his eyebrows slightly, but said nothing, waiting for one of them to speak.
"Hi, John!" Ellie said, smiling and walking over to him. "I want to thank you so much for this, it really means a lot."
"No problem." Casey glanced around. "What is it you need me to do? House-watch?" That was bearable. He could crash on the sofa and watch TV until they came back. Depending on when that was, he might be able to catch American Idol. Of course, he'd have to be careful not to let anyone catch him. How embarrassing that would be.
The Woodcombs exchanged a glance. Casey frowned slightly and looked between the two, waiting for an answer.
"Sort of," Devon said, giving a little half-shrug.
"We need you to watch Clara for us, John," Ellie explained, an apologetic little smile on her face. Clara was her seven-year-old daughter.
"Hm?" Casey's eyebrows shot up again, and he looked at Ellie in disbelief.
"Chuck and Sarah are on a day-long date, and me and Devon had plans to go on a short trip sailing to the middle of the lake today. We didn't know Chuck and Sarah were going until recently; we assumed that Chuck would be available to watch Clara for us, but… he's not." Ellie gave him another small smile. "We'd get back at about seven o'clock. If you can't, that's okay, Devon and I can plan to go to the beach on a different day."
Casey clenched his jaw slightly, noticing the hopeful but slightly sheepish look on Ellie's face, and Devon's patient 'take your time answering, bro' expression.
"Hmmm…" Casey kept thinking for a second before biting back a sigh. "Sure. What do I need to know?"
Devon shrugged. "You've seen Clara before, bro. She's well-behaved and she'll listen to any orders you give. She might chatter away at you, but just ask her to go play with her stuffed animals or something and she'll probably leave you be."
"Dinner's at five o'clock most of the time. I have leftovers in the fridge, so all you have to do is heat it up. Keep an eye on her; she's smart and well-behaved, but I don't want to risk something happening to her on accident."
"Got it." Casey made his best attempts not to sound reluctant and begrudging. He glanced at his wristwatch. 1:25 PM. "You'll be back at seven?"
"Yup." Devon clapped him on the shoulder, leaving his hand there for a few seconds longer. Casey made a very quiet sound in the back of his throat on instinct—the 'do not touch me' sound he made whenever Chuck or Morgan tried to grab his arm or give him a slap on the back.
Fortunately, Devon and Ellie didn't seem to hear. They grabbed their bags from the floor. Ellie spoke again. "Thank you so much, John. I really appreciate it."
Casey shrugged slightly. "Mm. No problem."
"Clara, honey," Ellie called. "Mr. Casey's here."
Running footsteps were heard. Casey scowled. She really was an okay kid, and he didn't mind her presence—at least, he didn't mind it too much. However, the idea of babysitting did irritate him—he was an NSA agent. He didn't have time to do something like babysitting. (At least, that's what he told himself. In reality, he had nothing at all to do that day.)
The little girl rounded the corner, her light brown hair loose from its usual braid. "Hi, Mr. Casey!" she said, grinning. He gave her a nod and she turned to her mother. "Mommy, are you leaving now?"
"Yes, we are. We'll be back tonight before you go to bed, okay?" Ellie said. Clara nodded, and received a hug and a kiss from both parents. "Stay out of trouble, sweetheart."
"I will." Clara waved until her parents had left, shutting the front door behind them.
Casey turned around and slumped onto the sofa, prepared for a very long evening. He felt eyes on him and glanced sideways. Clara was watching him curiously.
There was a moment of silence as the two of them stared at each other. Finally, Casey said gruffly, "Hi."
"Hi!" Clara didn't move, just watched him with an excited grin. Sometimes Casey felt that she liked him a little too much. Chuck had said before that she always lit up when Casey visited and that she looked up to him. Casey had told him he was completely crazy and promptly shut the door in Chuck's face.
After several more moments of silence, Casey asked, "What do you want to do?" He knew he sounded gruff, and, without a smile, looked it too. Clara didn't seem to mind though.
"Can I watch a movie, Mr. Casey?"
"Sure," Casey grunted. She ran out of the room, and he muttered, "That should keep you busy and make you leave me alone."
She came back with some animated film called Tangled. Casey left her to it and picked up his phone, scrolling through his list of contacts to pass the time. There were bound to be people he could delete. He never talked to half the people listed.
An hour later, he had read an entire newspaper and taken a walk around the courtyard. The film was unbearably annoying; he had no patience for sentimental fluff like princess cartoons. Plus the Flynn Rider fellow's voice reminded him of Chuck, which just irritated him further—blasted moron had run off with Sarah without saying anything. It was his fault Casey was stuck watching Disney films.
Finally, it was over. Clara wandered around the house singing songs from the movie and playing with a stuffed grizzly bear. Casey kept glancing at his wristwatch. 3:20 PM. He gave a grumbling sigh, falling backwards against the back of the sofa and letting his head fall over the edge.
He couldn't take much more of this. He had to do something.
Before he could figure out what that 'something' was, footsteps pattered towards him and a pair of blue eyes looked into his own. "Mr. Casey, wanna play something?"
"N—" He stopped himself. He didn't want to risk upsetting the kid. "Fine." He sat up. "What do you want to play?" He tried his best not to let his voice sound flat.
"You can decide." She rocked back and forth on her heels, watching him expectantly.
Casey automatically thought of saying that they could play hide-and-seek, and then leaving her hiding while he went home. But he realised that he would never do something like that; that was just the response he'd give to Chuck. Tough guys didn't play with kids…
A thought occurred to him; maybe there was one game that wouldn't be completely boring. "Sarah mentioned you like to play 'Spy' with Chuck."
Her face lit up. "Yes, we do! I like that game. He's not very good at it though." She giggled.
Casey made an amused grunting sound. "Heh." He could imagine just how good at the game Chuck was. "Well, maybe we can play that." He looked down at Clara. "Go get your equipment ready, kid. A spy always needs to be prepared before they embark on a mission."
Some of the larger words seemed to confuse Clara, but she nodded and ran out of sight.
Casey watched her go. This wasn't his idea of a relaxing evening, but the point of babysitting was to make sure the children were happy. And safe, of course. But mainly happy. It kept them from whining.
Clara came running back a few minutes later dressed in a black long-sleeved shirt and black pants. Casey started to make a sarcastic remark about how spies wearing all black was stereotypical, but then remembered two things—Chuck was the one who taught her about spy things, for one. For another, Casey himself was wearing black jeans and a black shirt. She probably thinks I'm some spy expert. She'd be right.
"Right. What do you have?" he asked, crossing his arms and looking down at her. If he was going to keep from being bored, he would have to treat this as much like a real mission as possible—minus all the danger and fighting, of course. At least, he hoped so.
She showed him the black belt around her waist, from which a flashlight, a few skeleton keys, and a pair of cheap handcuffs hung.
"Very good." Casey glanced around. "You're forgetting something very important though."
She stared up at him. "Like what?"
"Well, a good spy always has some sort of weapon to protect themselves." Casey raised an eyebrow, regarding her. "What do we have?"
"Uncle Chuck got me some toy guns for our spy games," Clara exclaimed, poised to run out of the room again.
Casey's brow wrinkled as he tried to hide his disgust at possibly using a plastic gun. Of course, he couldn't allow her to use a real gun, so he'd have to—
He paused. "Hold on a second, kid. Does your dad still have those airsoft guns?"
"The ones that shoot little plastic pebbles? Yeah. He keeps them in the closet. He let me try shooting one the other day." She sounded happy.
"Let's use those. We're not really going to be shooting anyone, after all. This is just a game," Casey said, heading towards the closet. At least, as far as you're concerned, it's just a game.
A few minutes later, he had an airsoft gun in his hand, and Clara had the other hidden in a large pocket on the inside of the black coat she now wore. Casey knew deep down that he probably should not be letting a little girl carry an airsoft gun with her on what he planned on becoming a walk around the neighbourhood—but he ignored that.
"Good job, kid. There's just a few more things we need before we can start our mission." He gauged her reaction; she was watching him, completely enraptured. He continued. "We need code names."
"Code names?" Clara echoed.
Casey nodded; he found himself so engrossed in directing Clara, he didn't realise that his annoyance had completely faded away. "We can't let the bad guys know our real names."
"What should my code name be?" Clara asked, wide-eyed with curiosity.
"That's your choice. A code name can be something like…" He paused, trying to come up with something a little less terrifying than Red Blade, which was what first leapt to mind. "Well, something simple, like Blue Sky. Or it can be a real name that isn't your own, like… I don't know, Elizabeth Jackson."
He braced himself for something extraordinarily sissy-like, such as Pink Kitten or whatever else young girls liked.
Her response surprised him. "Can my code name be Cierra Rose?"
"Mm." Realising that he had to respond with actual words, he said, "That's a good code name—Agent Rose." It was a fairly normal name; it reminded him of an acquaintance he had met in Seattle: Jonathan Rose.
"What's your code name? You can't let the bad guys know your name is Casey!" Clara exclaimed.
He couldn't keep back a low, short chuckle; his real name wasn't John Casey at all, though of course she didn't know that—and he hoped to keep it that way. "Hmm. James Wolfe."
"Awesome—Agent Wolfe." Clara giggled. Casey found himself slightly and unexpectedly amused that she had picked up her father, Captain Awesome's, catchphrase.
"All right. We just need to stop by my apartment. I need a coat, and we both need communication devices." He headed for the door, Clara running after him.
"I don't have a cell phone though," she said.
"You don't need one. Don't worry; I have something. Follow me." He opened the front door and led her across the courtyard to his own apartment, unlocking the front door.
He walked inside and pulled a black jacket off of a coatrack. Clara stood by the door, rocking back and forth on her heels as she tended to do.
Casey opened a drawer and pulled out two walkie-talkies. He had picked them up at the Buy More. They had been on sale and were fairly good quality—nothing like government technology, though. But they worked.
"Now, Agent Rose." He crouched down on the floor so that he was eye-level with Clara. "In case we get separated, you'll need to keep this with you." He handed her a walkie-talkie. "Now, we're going to stay together, but if something happens, you need this."
"How do I use it?" She peered at it curiously.
Casey took his own walkie-talkie and held it. "You turn it on like this. When you want to talk to me, press this button here down, and don't let go. When you're done talking to me, let it go so you can hear my response. Got that?"
She nodded. "What's our mission?"
Casey stood up, clipping the walkie-talkie to his belt. He grabbed at the first random idea that came to his head. "There's a bad guy somewhere in the neighbourhood. He is a…" Great, what do I say that the kid can understand and won't get nightmares from? "He is a… man who is trying to steal money from a senator." Her confused look prompted him to rephrase. "Uh, he's trying to steal money from a really rich guy. We don't know what the thief looks like yet, but we managed to get surveillance of him from behind; he has dark hair, and was wearing a dark green t-shirt."
He thought that that story and scenario sounded incredibly stupid. But Clara apparently didn't, judging by how she reacted. Her eyes were bright and she nodded. "What do we do?"
"We have to find this man and follow him to see where his hideout is," Casey said in a hushed whisper, overplaying the intensity of the imaginary situation. He gave her a serious look, one eyebrow raised.
She gave him a nod. "Got it."
Casey opened the front door again. "Let's go; we'll find this guy. And his hideout."
With a grin, she came after him, a small figure beside his towering 6'4'' height.
/~*~\\
After about twenty minutes, Casey realised that the neighbourhood was very quiet, and very boring. He came up with a different plan and turned to Clara. "Agent Rose, intel has informed us that the man we're looking for is in town."
The word 'intel' caused a puzzled expression to appear on Clara's round face. Casey cleared his throat, realising that he was taking the game a bit too seriously. "Our bosses found out where the bad guy is now."
"Oh." She nodded. "So how do we get to town, Agent Wolfe?"
Casey, so used to being called 'Mr. Casey' by the young girl, thought hearing the word 'Agent' attached to a false surname sounded odd. But he didn't mind it much. "I'll drive us. C'mon."
He led her back to where his car was parked; his beloved Crown Vic. He opened the passenger door and motioned for her to get in. She hesitated, and then clambered inside.
"Are you sure Mommy and Daddy won't mind you driving me to town?" Clara asked curiously, breaking out of her spy persona for a moment and fumbling with her seatbelt.
Casey hesitated, then reached over and buckled the seatbelt for her. "I'm a safe driver, and you don't need one of this car seats for little kids. I don't think your dad'll mind." Ellie might, but hey. Nothing'll happen, he thought, confident that he was right.
He started the car and cruised down the street. It didn't take long to get to town. Casey parked in the Buy More parking lot, then got out of the Crown Vic and looked around for a moment. Certain that no one he knew was in sight, he went to open the door for Clara. The last thing he needed was one of those Buy More morons such as Jeff or Lester seeing him.
"Now," Casey said in a hushed voice, leaning down so that she could hear him. "The man we're looking for is somewhere around here. Our mission is to follow him and find out where his hideout is."
Clara gave him a nod. He nodded back and then straightened up again. He started walking in the direction of the Orange Orange, Clara at his side.
He hadn't expected to actually see anyone they could follow; he had figured they would just walk around the shops and restaurants until it was time to go home. But suddenly, Clara tugged on his arm.
"Agent Wolfe! Look!" Her voice was urgent, but quiet.
He turned sharply, ready to fight off anyone who might try to hurt Clara. Instead, he saw that she was pointing at an average-looking young man with dark hair. He wore a dark green t-shirt with a dragon on it.
Well. She remembered the description I gave for our 'bad guy', and managed to spot him. Not bad for a seven-year-old kid. Casey watched the man, whispering to Clara without looking at her. "Nice work, Agent Rose. We need to follow him; but always remember to stay at least ten feet behind him. That way, if he turns around, he won't think we're tailing hi—" He caught himself using yet another term she might not understand, and corrected himself. "He won't guess we're following him."
"I don't know how far ten feet is," Clara said quietly, frowning.
"Don't worry about it. Just stick close to me." Casey waited a moment longer until the unsuspecting man was far enough ahead, and then started following him. Clara hurried along at his side, taking three steps just to match one of Casey's long strides. He tried to take shorter steps to allow her to catch up more easily.
They followed the man a block before he walked into a Starbucks. Clara turned to Casey. "We should go in after him."
Casey shook his head. "Nah. I doubt his hideout is at the Starbucks. He's probably just getting a coffee." He didn't mention that the main reason for not wanting to follow the man was that this was just a game and he didn't want to risk getting in trouble for creeping the guy out.
The man exited a short while later, carrying a mocha. Clara and Casey resumed following him.
After two more blocks, the man walked up some steps and into an apartment building. Casey checked his watch just as Clara started to follow the darkhaired man. Casey pulled her back. "Just hang on a second there. Our mission was to find the hideout, and we did it. Good work, Agent Rose." And it's also about a half-hour away from your dinnertime.
He gave her a salute. She grinned at him. "We did it!" she repeated.
Casey realised that he had actually enjoyed the little 'Spy' game. But he vowed never to admit it to anyone but himself, and nodded at Clara, giving her an agreement. "Now, come on. We have to get back to the car and get you back home so you can eat dinner." He started walking again.
It didn't take him long to see that Clara's steps were a little unsteady and her eyes kept fluttering. They had walked several blocks; of course the kid had to be exhausted.
Casey looked around the street at the few people heading from store to store, and the cars that would pass every few minutes. He fought an inner battle with himself before sighing inwardly. Oh, what the hell.
He stopped and crouched down, taking Clara's arm and pulling her to a stop. "Hey. You did a good job. But it's been a long day, and you're tired. Let—" He hesitated for a few seconds, still feeling as though he was destroying his tough guy image, but finally finished, "Let me carry you back to the car. It'll be faster, and you'll be able to rest your legs."
She didn't argue, and he picked her up. It was quickly decided that that was not going to work, as it was slightly awkward to walk when holding her, and she also kept squirming and trying to look around.
Casey silently argued with himself again for a few seconds before stopping again. "Get on my shoulders. That way you can keep an eye out for any suspicious activity. Okay?"
She nodded and carefully clambered up onto his shoulders. She held on as gently as she could, clearly worried about hurting him. Casey made an amused sound in the back of his throat; hardly anyone could severely hurt him, and if someone could, it would definitely not be a young girl. But her cautiousness was sweet. He immediately stifled that thought, of course.
The walk back to the car was uneventful. On the drive back home, Casey stopped by an ice cream shop. "A celebration for finding the bad guy's hideout," he told her. "Don't order too much. You don't want to spoil dinner."
Clara ended up getting a small scoop of vanilla. He tried to leave, but she insisted that he get some ice cream too. Feeling quite awkward, he ordered some chocolate ice cream and was on the road yet again.
They got home not too long afterwards. Her coat was hung up, and her 'spy equipment' put back in her room. The airsoft guns were set back in the closet where they came from, and the ice cream cups thrown away.
Casey opened the refrigerator to get the leftovers Ellie had spoken of. All he saw was a conspicuously empty space in the center of the middle shelf. He stared at it for a second, frowning, and shut the door. He turned around, and a stick-it note on the counter caught his eye. He peeled it off the counter and read it.
Hi, Ellie. I loved the meatloaf last night, so I came back to pick up some leftovers. No one was home and the door was locked, so I used the Morgan Door. Thanks, El!
~ Morgan
Casey growled under his breath, crumpled the stick-it note in his hand, and threw it in the wastebasket. Blasted freeloader.
He glanced over his shoulder at Clara, who was flipping through a book on the sofa. The spy game seemed to make her happy so Casey decided to keep going along with it. "Agent Rose?"
She didn't respond at first, probably forgetting her code name for a moment. Then she realised and turned around, resting her chin on the back of the sofa. "Yeah?"
"I don't know my way around here as well as you do. Do you mind helping me find the things I need to make dinner?" He didn't mention that he actually knew where everything was from years of spying on Chuck; it was best she didn't know that. Almost sheepishly, he added, "I have to warn you though, it won't be anything fancy. I can't cook too well."
"It can't be worse than the time Uncle Morgan tried to make me lunch one time." Clara giggled, and then jumped off the sofa and walked in. "Here's something easy." She pulled a package of noodles out of a cupboard. "I've seen Daddy make them before. He just puts them in hot water for a certain amount of time until they're ready to eat."
Casey silently admitted that noodles did sound pretty easy, and got to work, with Clara following him every step of the way and 'helping'; which mostly consisted of her giving him tips and handing him things, but she enjoyed feeling useful, so he thanked her every time.
A while later, dinner was ready. The two sat at the table and ate silently. Well, Casey ate silently—Clara chattered away about various dinners she had had with her parents, and how much fun she had had that day. Casey would grunt in reply whenever she paused for a breath, but for the most part, didn't have to say anything.
After they finished, Clara went back to reading her book while Casey cleaned up. She disappeared into her room when he entered the living room, so he turned the television on and randomly skimmed channels.
She came back and sat at the table a while later, so he shut the television off again. The current program he had playing was rather violent and he didn't think Ellie would approve of letting Clara see that.
It had been a better day than Casey had thought, and he was relaxed—as well as slightly tired from staying up til 3:00 AM the night before and then going on a 'mission' with Clara that day. At some point around 6:24 PM, he dozed off, with Clara playing quietly in the kitchen.
/~*~\\
"How crazy is it that we'd both get here at the same time?" Chuck remarked. He and Sarah had entered the courtyard just as Devon and Ellie had.
"I know, right?" Devon agreed.
As Ellie got her key out of her purse, something occurred to Chuck. "Hey, sis? Who'd you get to babysit Clara? I usually do, but I obviously wasn't around."
"Oh, John did," Ellie responded.
Chuck stared at his sister for a long moment and then glanced at Sarah with the same bewildered, shocked expression on his face. Turning back, he said, "Uh, John? Our John? John Casey? He's probably not the best babysitter, you know, he doesn't like anybody. He's most likely really grumpy right now. Best case scenario, he sat on the sofa and glared at the wall while Clara played in her room all day."
Ellie laughed. "Oh, stop it, Chuck. I'm sure everything went fine." She unlocked the door, stepping inside with Devon right behind her.
"Relax, Chuck," Sarah said quietly. "You know Casey wouldn't hurt her."
"No, no, I know he wouldn't. It's just that he isn't exactly a softie, ya know," Chuck reminded her. "What if Clara got into trouble because he was sitting there sulkin—" He crashed into Devon, who had stopped in the entryway. Ellie murmured something that sounded like 'how sweet'.
"Shhh," Devon said. "They're both out like a light."
Chuck and Sarah entered the room and stopped short when they saw what had prompted such responses from the Woodcombs.
Casey was asleep on the sofa, slumped slightly to the right, breathing steadily. His head rested on his right arm. Clara was curled up to his left, his arm around her shoulder. It was clear that she had climbed up onto the sofa after he had already fallen asleep.
"I told you it would be all right," Ellie whispered.
"And I told you she really took a shining to the big guy," Devon added. "She treats him as much like an uncle as she does Morgan." He walked into the kitchen, glancing down. "The fact that he clearly bought her ice cream probably didn't help her fondness for him either."
Chuck and Sarah could only stare, while Ellie set her bags down. "Well, as much as I hate to wake them up, Clara needs to get ready for bed. She's not going to sleep in that all-black spy outfit of hers." She walked over to the sofa and shook Clara. "Hey, sweetie, wake up."
Clara mumbled something and yawned. Ellie gently shook her shoulder again. Clara, startled into wakefulness finally, jumped and lost her balance, falling against Casey.
"Hm?" Casey's eyes snapped wide open and he looked around, quickly surveying the room, ready to fight off any attackers. He glanced over at Clara and silently put the pieces together. His face reddened slightly, until he saw Sarah and Chuck, who had moved out of the 'shocked' stage and into the 'let's tease Casey' stage. He mouthed the word 'you big softie' at Casey. In response, Casey put on a scowl, making the familiar 'I'm going to kill you if you don't shut up' noise in the back of his throat.
Ellie helped her daughter to her feet. "Did you have fun today, Clara?"
"Yeah!" Clara grinned widely and excitedly started relaying everything that had happened that day, and how Casey had played 'Spy' with her.
/~*~\\
Finally, stories of what had happened during that day ended. Casey had listened silently, only making verbal interjections whenever someone asked him to.
He decided it was time to leave and go back to his own apartment. He walked to the front door, and the other adults followed. Clara disappeared from the room, saying she had to go get something.
"Thank you so, so much, John," Ellie said, shaking his hand. "I really appreciate what you did today, and Clara had so much fun."
"Mm." Casey shrugged. "No problem." He shot a glare at Chuck, who had a dopey smile on his face.
Clara came running back into the room, holding a walkie-talkie. "Here, you forgot to take the, the…" She paused, and then lit up when she finally remembered what Casey had called it. "The communication device back."
Casey paused. Normally, he would take it back. With Chuck and Sarah in the room, he figured that's what he should do.
Instead, he turned his gaze from Chuck and Sarah and looked at Clara instead. He reached out one hand and carefully wrapped Clara's small fingers around the walkie-talkie. "Nah. You keep it, all right? Never know when you might need it." He gave her a conspiratorial wink, reminding her of their 'mission'.
The brightest grin he had possibly ever seen appeared on her face, and suddenly she had thrown her arms around him and was hugging him. "Thank you, Mr. Casey!"
He stood there for a second, his arms held out awkwardly to either side. The amused eyes of everyone else in the room were on him. He paused, thinking on that. Finally, he told himself, Best way to show them I'm a tough guy is to keep from being embarrassed and act like I don't care about Chuck's taunting.
Decisively, he returned Clara's hug, gently wrapping his arms around her for a few moments before stepping back. "You're welcome. And hey. Just call me Casey. 'Mister' sounds too formal." He didn't show too much emotion in his voice, but everyone else in the room saw the corners of his mouth twitch upwards into a small smile.
She nodded." Goodnight, Casey! Thank you for today!"
"No problem." He looked up at the other adults again, and bid them all goodnight. Then he opened the door and left the house.
He stood at the center of the courtyard for a while, hands in his pockets as he recalled the day. It hadn't been as bad as he had thought it would be. In fact, though he didn't want to admit it, he had felt better that day than he had in a long while. There was something about feeling like you were a part of a family that made a person content, or at least gave them a sense of worth that not even a successful mission could quite give.
Casey turned and started to walk towards his apartment. The walkie-talkie clipped to his belt made a staticky sound. He glanced down and picked it up, peering at it for a second.
Suddenly, a familiar girl's voice came through the speaker on it. "Goodnight, Agent Wolfe."
Casey paused, staring across the courtyard at his own front door. A smile flickered across his face that he didn't try to keep back. Then he turned around, eyebrows raised. A pair of blue eyes quickly pulled away from the blinds of the window across the courtyard.
Raising the walkie-talkie to his mouth, Casey pressed the button down and said, "Goodnight—Agent Rose." He flicked his gaze up towards the window where a face could just be seen peeking through the curtains. He gave the girl a wink, saluted, then smiled again. He could just catch sight of her grinning at him before disappearing behind the curtains again.
Still smiling, Casey clipped the walkie-talkie to his belt again before walking into his apartment and shutting the door behind him.
/~*~\\
Author's Note: And that's it! I hope you enjoyed it. If you did, leave a review. I also had the idea while writing this to expand it and, instead of a short story, make it a bit longer—a version where Clara is kidnapped while playing the Spy Game in town, and Casey has to save her. If anybody wants to see that sort of story put up, let me know, and I'll finish it! Dreamer, signing off.