Summary: *ATF/AU* Casey starts thinking about all the times that JD takes off on missions and she always waiting for him to come back and all the things she give up for him.

Disclaimer:I do not own "The Magnificent Seven" story line, characters, settings, or anything else to do with it. I also have no ownership of the song 'Right Here Waiting' but I would like to thanks Richard Marx for performing it. I am in no way getting paid for this story unless you count the fun I had writing it.

Author's Notes: I thought of this after hearing the song "Right Here Waiting" by Richard Marx on the radio and I couldn't help picturing Casey waiting for JD. So after not being able to get the song or the story out of my head for a few days I decided to write it. Also this is kind of a spin off of the ATF AU where the boys work for the government and it's really just a short dabble but I hope you like it and please feel free to review.

Rating:T

Waiting for You

By: Ruby Sparrow

Casey Wells sat by the phone, hoping, praying that today would be the day. She'd giving up going to the movies with her friends to come home and wait. Of 'course she'd been doing other things like homework or dishes, but she made sure to keep the phone by her at all times.

It'd been a whole week since JD was dragged off by Buck and Ezra in the middle of a date for some mission with the team. They said they would be gone a few days but Casey never thought a few days would turn into a whole week.

She just finished folding the laundry when her aunt came though the door. "Casey, I didn't think to see ya home so early. Thought you were going to the movies with some friends." Casey watched her aunt set the groceries down and started putting them away.

"I'm waiting for a call." Casey gave a sly smile as she started helping put things away. She noticed her aunt watching her out of the corner of her eye. Aunt Nettie always seems to worry about her whenever she talks about the phone. He said he would call me when he got back, she thought, he gave his word and JD Dunne always keeps his word. She couldn't stop the smile slipping across her face.

"You've been waiting this last week, that boy would want ya out having fun." Casey just nodded putting the last item up in the cupboard. Grabbing a soda out of the refrigerator as she left the kitchen and headed for her room, after picking the phone up from where she left it.

It had become a thing that they did whenever JD went on a mission. Whether he was gone for a few days or a few weeks, he would always call when the team got back. So most of the time Casey ended up going to school, her cell phone sitting on her desk on vibrate and then going straight home to see if there were any messages. She took a sip from the soda and sat it on her computer desk. Come on JD, I didn't think you were gonna be this long, she thought lying down on her bed.

Her eyes scanned the room trying to find something to get her mind off of him. They landed on the calendar that hung on the wall, today date was circle with red ink. Inside the circle was the title and start time of the movie she was suppose to go see with her friends after school. JD wanted to see that movie, Casey sighed shaking her head. "Yer doing it again," she told herself but it was true. She remembered JD going on non-stop about this movie, how he couldn't wait for it to come out, stop it Casey. It was bad enough that he was always going off on some mission but even when he was home she hardly got to see him and just him. Most of the time there was one or more of the other six members of JD's team hanging around or some of her friends and she wasn't be able to talk to him.

There came a soft knock on the door. "Casey, I'm getting ready to make supper, anything ya feel like having?" Nettie called through the closed door.

Casey rolled over on her bed staring at the door. "No thanks Aunt Nettie, whatever you make will be fine." She felt bad, normally Nettie plans her meals a few days ahead but since Casey wasn't supposed to be home tonight she hadn't planned anything.

Nettie was worried about her and her friends were worried, even her professors were worried. Casey knew that they noticed the changes in her when JD was gone. Aunt Nettie thought it was bad for her to just sit around, but I don't just sit around. She was still doing her chores, as well as her assignments and going to school. Her friends…well her friends, half of them thought that it was so romantic that she waited for him to come home. One even said that it was like an old war movie, of 'course none of them know what JD really does for work, only that he was constantly leaving town. If only they knew how much like an old war movie it really was, she give a sad smile gazing at her same old books and movies. The other half of her friends thought she was crazy for waiting, that he was never around long enough for them to do anything together. They're just upset 'cause I'm not hanging out with them, Casey thought staring at a picture of her, JD, Buck, Nathan, and Vin, who didn't look too happy about being in it.

Next to the picture was a ticket stub for a movie that she had tried to see. The star football player at her school had asked her to the movies, she turned him down thinking of JD but her girlfriends had convinced her to go. 'Why wait for a guy that always leaves the moment he gets back when you have the star player asking you out?' Casey had giving into the date but half way through when he took her to see a movie that JD had took her to see a few weeks before. After that she had quite a few guys asking her out but she turned each one down, saying she had plans. This only made friends think she was really crazy.

"Maybe I am crazy." Rolling back over onto her stomach her eyes landed on the teddy bear that JD had gotten her last year. "I was crazy back then," Casey whispered picking it up and holding it close. It had been last February and they, well she was planning to have a big date on Valentine's Day. A week from the big day when she tried to tell JD her plans, he just couldn't believe her. 'We're just friends Casey, why should we do something for Valentines?' She had gotten so mad she almost knocked him down the stairs, luckily Vin walked by at the time. Casey hadn't talked to him that whole week. Then on Valentine's Day he showed up out of the blue with the teddy bear, a dozen red roses, and a poem that he wrote for her. I still think Vin helped him come up with it. She smile at the thought of the silent sharpshooter being such a great poet. Whoever wrote the poem had done their job well, it did the trick, Casey was talking to JD again and they started going to the movies. Of 'course they were never alone, much to her disappointment.

Casey had started to think that maybe JD didn't want anything more then her friendship but her Aunt Nettie and Buck keep telling her just to be patience. Patience, she thought, how much longer do I have to be patience? Patience was one thing Casey Wells was running thin on. Most of all when she's planning dates and then having them called off, she wasn't sure how many more times she could take. Reaching under her bed she pulled out a little notebook, on the front she had drawn two small hearts. One of them with an arrow piercing it and the other was ripping in half. She flipped it open to the third page where it had a line running down the middle, one side had a happy face at the top, the other had a sad face. Casey had actually started counting how many good dates and bad dates she and JD had and it was kind of sad. There was fifteen marks under the happy face but there was22 under the sad side. "I am crazy," she told herself, "who counts dates with happy and sad faces?" She started to put it away but stopped thinking for a minute, she flipped it back open, grabbed a pen from the bedside table and put another mark under the sad. She had forgotten to count the last date, the one right before JD and the team left. They had went to see a movie and by themselves finally, JD had wanted to see it the day it came out. He had even gotten Chris to give him the day off from the office, so they could spend the whole day together. She had a bad feeling though that something was going to happen so she asked JD to keep his cell phone turned off. It didn't help, during their dinner before going the movie. Ezra and Buck had showed up, yelling at him for not keeping his phone on and that Chris was furious at him.

There was nothing she could have done, they just dragged him away. He barely had time to say he would call when he got back. Ezra, after arguing with Buck, paid for the interrupted meal and offered to get her a taxi home, she turned him down saying she would walk. She had been so mad that she forgot to mark it in her book when she got home.

"Casey, dinner's ready!" Nettie yelled.

Casey putted the book away and climbed off her bed and grabbed her soda, heading for the door. Stopping at the doorway she turned searching for the phone, where did I put it? She looked around the room trying to find it. "I just had it." Not finding it, she pulled herself away from the room. "JD wouldn't called right now." A smile flashed across her lips but quickly vanished as another thought came to mind. What if one of the others call and not JD, she thought.

Memories flooded her from the past, two missions ago, she'd been waiting for JD's call but instead it was Josiah that called. JD had been badly hurt, and taken straight to the hospital. She got there as fast as she could but only to sit in the waiting room with Josiah and Buck, both of whom refused to be seen to until they knew that all of the others were okay. Nathan finally came out saying that JD had lost a lot of blood and they didn't know if he would make it. Casey waited six days sitting by his bed side, with Aunt Nettie saying that there was family business whenever someone asked about her. The others stopped by whenever they could to see him and Ezra who was also stuck there but not as bad off as JD. Whatever the mission had been though there were quite a few follow up meetings and they couldn't stay for long. He pulled through it and made a full recover but Chris still told him to take the next few days off. That wasn't the first time JD came back wounded but that was one of the worst times.

Maybe someday he won't come back, she thought. After the first time that happened, she always feared that one of these missions he wouldn't come home to call her. A sad smile slipped across her lip, knowing JD he would most likely be saving someone else's life when whatever happens happens. Although he's had lots of injures and she always worried about him, she has lots of fun taking care of him, with the help of Nathan and Buck. JD would always complain that he was fine, that he didn't need looking after.

Casey looked once more for the phone, found it under her bed and headed for the living room. She sat down at the table with her soda and the phone as Nettie started setting out the food. "Ya know the more you carry that 'round the more he won't call ya," Nettie said with a smile.

What is she hiding? Casey thought, her aunt was acting like she always did when she had something to keep from her niece. "What are you up to?"

"Nothing, I was just wondering how much longer I can stand you lugging the phone 'round with ya." Nettie put some rolls on the table as she sat down herself, "How long were they 'posed to be gone?"

Casey just gave a sigh as she started eating. "I didn't think this long, JD just said a few days."

"Well I'm sure they'll be back soon," Nettie responded.

"I hope so, even when their home I don't see him a lot," Casey agreed taking a bite out of a roll.

Nettie gave another smile as she shook her head at her niece, "Now Casey, ya know them boys have a very important job to do and they all have to give up some of their time. So do we if we wish to be part of their lives."

Casey just bowed her head continuing eating. They ate mainly in silence, talking about Casey's day at school or Nettie's day visiting her friend. When they finished Casey helped put everything away as Nettie did the dishes. After that Casey grabbed another soda and started for her room when the phone started bipping from the living room. She jumped running to get it. "I got it!" She yelled.

"Casey that's not the ring, it's…" Nettie began but was cut off by the cry of frustration from the living room.

Casey stormed into the kitchen almost slamming the phone onto the cradle. "The battery died," she said and left before receiving an answer from her aunt.

"Well maybe he'll try yer cell phone!" She yelled after her niece.

"No, he knows I don't keep it on when I'm at home. Beside I…" There came a knock at the front door cutting her off. Who could that be?

"Casey, would ya mind getting that?" She heard Nettie yelling from the kitchen. Casey just shook her head, turning back toward the door as the knocking became louder and did not stop.

"Yes, yes I'm coming, hold yer horses." Casey yelled at the door. "Ya know normally a person waits a few seconds before kn…"

She couldn't believe her eyes, there standing on the other side of the door was JD Dunne, his arm up in mid knock. Casey just looked at him, he looks like hell, she thought. He was wearing blue jeans and a buttoned up shirt but she could still see newly wrap bandage and a few uncared for wounds. His hair was damp and sticking to his face like he just got out of the shower and his eyes showed lack of sleep for a couple of days.

"JD?" It was all she could say.

"Hi Casey," he answered, a grin on his face.

"What…what are you doing here? Ya was 'pose to call when you got back."

"Well, I tried to but all the pay phones at the hospital were busy. So I came on over to see ya."

"Hospital, what…what happened? No one got hurt did they?" A worried look on her face.

JD just smile. "No, it was just a routine after mission check-up that Nat insist we do."

Casey eyed one of his wounds that wasn't bandaged. "So how did you get away from the 'Mother Hen'?" She asked.

"Buck and Vin," was all he said as if he didn't need to explain.

"But shouldn't you be letting Nathan look at ya?"

"No, he kind of had his hands full with Chris, Josiah, and Ezra. Hum… I was wondering if you would like to go see a movie? We could still make it to the seven o'clock showing of 'Attack of the Zombies Cowboys'."

Casey just smiled, it was the movie they were going to see the night he left. She always wondered about the things that JD was into and that she tried to get into it for his shakes. She was still upset at him for not calling but him showing up at the door was even better, she could never stay mad at him for long, no matter how hard she tried. There was many times she thought about leaving him, telling him to find someone else but then he did something like this and she knew she couldn't do that to him.

"Aunt Nettie, I'm going out to see a movie!" Casey yelled.

"Alright, you two have fun," Nettie was standing in the kitchen's doorway smiling at the two of them.

She knew they were back, Casey thought getting her jacket from the closet by the door.

"We don't have to go, I mean if ya already saw it." JD was mumbling.

Casey look about the living room, her eyes landing on the phone they kept by the TV. A smile spread across her lips turning back to JD, she walked through the door linking her arm with his.

"No I haven't seen it yet," she said smiling at him, "I was waiting for you."