Well kids, it's Thursday and I've not only re-read every glorious CC fic we house here at but I'm also longingly waiting to see the new episode this Monday.
And you guys know how boredom goes when you're obsessed with Greek :)
Disclaimer: I so obviously don't own them, because they would be on a beach in Maui getting married if I did!
A little one-shot to hopefully tide us over until Monday's episode ( I don't think the new ep will be particularly CC friendly, but I can dream can't I?) Pretty much an Alternate Ending to 1.7 ep "Multiple Choice" (Please be kind if you see typos and let me know, it's like 2 AM and I had to finish it and post ASAP so I didn't forget!)
Title: In Vino Veritas (In wine, there is truth)
Summary: Casey leaves Cappie's room in "Multiple Choice" after the infamous "10 Years" talk, she heads back to Dobler's for a drink and ends up gaining a little perspective from a wine-inebriated Travis. CappieCasey CC pairing. Travis proves himself useful for once!
A petite blond woman hurriedly opened the door to the most popular bar Cyprus Rhodes had to offer, and began the arduous task of weaving between patrons, in an effort to arrive at her ultimate goal. The bar.
Dodging between an intimately conversing couple (who glared as she darted past) she plopped herself down in the only open stool before nervously fidgeting with a coaster as she impatiently waited for the bartender to notice her presence.
A few minutes later, as the bartender moved on to another patron, she was seen swiftly draining what looked to be lemonade. A handful of seconds after that, and with a tiny gasp of breath she swiped at her mouth with the back of her hand while heavily setting the near-empty glass down on the bar top.
Her hands continued to move nervously, adjusting her turquoise lace cami and brushing a stray hair away from her face, before curling around the shot glass in front of her. One hand gripped so tightly around it that her knuckles were white with pressure while the other nervously picked at the coaster it sat on.
She was going to need more alcohol she thought as Cappie's last words to her reverberated through her head "I wanna be with you," she closed her eyes tightly to stop the burning of tears.
A lot more.
She nodded to herself in approval of a well thought out plan and swigged back the minuscule amount remaining, finishing it off in mere seconds and slamming the now-empty glass back onto the coaster. She huffed sadly before looking down at the bone-dry glassware.
She was going to need a bigger glass.
A half hour later, the same woman could be seen sitting in the same place, though her posture was considerably less rigid and her movements much less hurried. Her right elbow was propped on the less then sanitary bar top, the hand of which was cradling her chin as she sat hunkered down in her bar stool.
She was staring into the bright yellow liquid that remained in her glass, before bringing it up to her lips for a slow, drawn out sip. Three similar glasses to the one she held sat neatly in a line in to her left, though empty of the sunny liquor she had been trying so hard to discern life's secrets in.
She never even got to finish drink number four.
A hand roughly clapped her on the left shoulder, and the sombre blond was jostled enough for the glass to slip from her fingers and over the bar, the remaining liquid sloshing against the ground as the glass thumped dully on the rubber no-slip mat found there.
She gripped the bar top for a second to regain her balance and not send herself careening to the floor, before her eyes traveled up the arm of the hand still resting on her shoulder and to the clearly drunk man sitting on her left.
"Don't look so down Stacy! It can't be that bad!" a long haired man cheerfully assured her, half-smiling drunkenly before raising his glass of Pinot Noir in a 'salute' and draining it of its contents.
He fumbled to set it down in front of him with his left hand, as his right reflexively tightened and loosened on her shoulder while he tried to use her for balance in his precarious bar stool position.
Hazel eyes rolled toward the ceiling in annoyance before glaring at the oblivious blond man that was still touching her and snarling "The name is CASEY, Travis! KAAAY-SEEEE!" she sounded her name out loudly and slowly, as though it would help his grape fermented brain to understand better.
His brow lowered in confusion, and upon seeing this she huffed before continuing "I'm the best friend of the girl you're going to order to marry you some day; the least you can do is remember my damn name!" deeming the conversation over and her already unpleasant mood, worsened; the agitated girls' eyes flashed angrily before she wrenched her shoulder out from under his palm, signalling the bartender for another Lemon Drop.
Travis wobbled a bit on his stool before giving up the fight and slumping forward to prop his head in folded arms which rested on the bar top; one hand toyed with his empty wine glass as he peered at her through the wall of empty glassware that she had lined up throughout the course of her binge.
The tiny blond was slumped forward now, both elbows firmly planted on the surface while her hands wrapped securely around the new drink, the anger from a minute ago was absent and she now sported the same look she had been wearing when she initially entered the bar: an unhealthy combination of confusion and despair.
"Ashleigh would love being married to me! I wouldn't order her to!" he suddenly spoke up, his hands abandoning the wine glass to fiddle with the barrier between them. "She'd love all the parties a high end lawyers' wife gets to host!...and..uh...we're used to being apart so she wouldn't mind the trips I'd to take to represent the rich and famous...and she may not like caviar now but i know she'll grow to like it!" he seemed satisfied with his response, a smug smile aligning itself on his face.
"She'd go jogging and work out early every morning to maintain her figure," he continued dreamily "-and she'd love staying at home all day, managing the household staff, and monitoring the children's nannies! She'd wait eagerly by the door every night when I came home from work, so she'd be there waiting for me with my wine and slippers so I could relax from a hard day representing corporate enterprises!" he nodded joyously to himself, his eyes glazed over from a mixture of the alcohol and his own fantasy, not noticing the contrite and slightly disgusting look that marred Casey's normally cheerful visage. 'How could anyone want that?' she thought disbelievingly before she acquiesced to a conversation with the idiot.
"What if she doesn't want all that high society stuff? What if she wants a job? A career? Don't you think Ashleigh has higher aspirations in life then to wait around for you to come home so she can wag her tail and get a pat on the head?" the blond girl bitterly questioned him, raising the still untouched glass to her lips as her mind repeated how wrong it was of him to think that Ashleigh could possibly want that in her future.
Seriously, did he think she had no dreams of her own? What a pig! Planning Ashleigh's entire future out and not even taking into account her feelings! "manage the help and the children's nannies?" What kind of pompous, arrogant, presumptuous idiot was this guy? His 'perfect future' sounded completely ridiculous and entirely boring.
Casey's eyes widened from their former half lidded state as her alcohol inbibed brain caught up with her train of thought and brought it to a screeching emergency stop.
The future that Travis had so gleefully went on about sounded exactly like what Evan had proposed to her earlier that same day. She set her glass down and peered suspiciously at the tall man, wondering if he was pulling one over on her. The suspicion was short lived as he gleefully continued on down his fantasy road without pause, he was way too excited and drunk about this for him to be lying about any of it...people actually wanted that kind of life?
"And the cook will make us a healthy breakfast of egg whites and grapefruit every morning, we'll go to tennis matches and play polo on weekends..." Travis's perfect voice kept droning on in the background as he continued listing off all the "wonderful" things he and Ashleigh would do in their life together, each one sounding more snobby and boring then the last.
Was that how Evan saw their life together? It really seemed so with the way he spoke of his childhood and his parents. Plus it was pretty disconcerting at how effortlessly he and the babbling waif next to her got along. Almost too well. She shuddered minutely before swallowing dryly at the thought. A cookie cutter life with servants and egg whites? Polo games and waiting around the house all day for him to come back home?
Evan's mother did a lot of volunteer work, as they were obviously very rich...would Casey be expected to forgo her own ambitions and forced to play the role of another Stepford wife in the Chambers' clan? She hated PBS. Watching it last time had almost bored her to tears, and Casey Cartwright was no crier; well, not over television anyway...or at least not when it didn't involve Angel leaving Buffy so she could "live her life in the sunlight" what a putz.
Wait a minute, she was getting off track! She had been thinking of something important. She furrowed her brow in thought, the alcohol clouding her mind as Travis's voice droned in the background about charity functions and formal dinners. Oh, right! Travis! Boring and Pompous future...Evan! Evan wanted to Lavaliere her tonight, a promise for engagement...the lavaliere now seemed like a noose in her mind, dooming her to a loveless and boring-Wait, no! Not loveless...she loved Evan didn't she?...Didn't she? She thought she did. But if she loved Evan then why did she kiss Cappie only an hour ago?
The befuddled Zeta Beta lowered her head, worrying her lower lip between her teeth. She had thought she loved Evan...but she knew she loved Cappie. Her eyes sobered instantly from their previous alcoholic glaze. She loved Cappie. The young girl felt her mouth quirk upwards as she thought of him. The pressure that had been pushing down on her shoulders the past few days over her apparent betrayal of her boyfriend lifted.
She had been so distraught over accepting Evan's overwhelming offer, and the truth had been there the entire time; staring her right in the face. She closed her eyes and let her mind relax, exhaling deeply for the first time in days. Love, she thought, Who do I love? Cappie. His face was all she could see. There was only one thing to do. She stood up quickly from her bar stool, ignoring the "Ivy League" Grade-A moron that was still prattling on about sailboats and ski trips and all but ran out the door.
There was still time to fix this.
Cappie and his KTG Brothers were walking down the darkened streets of Greek Row later that evening, joking around with each other and still munching on left over snacks from the "bodacious" Keanu Reeves movie they had just seen.
As they came upon the Zeta Beta Zeta House the wandering mass of frat boys could see a lone figure sitting atop a blanket in the front yard. There were some candles spread out on the ground around her, but even with the dim light they couldn't make out her features as her face was tilted upwards to better see the stars. One man of the group immediately left the ranks of his brothers when he spotted a familiar flash of blond hair reflected in the candlelight, he knew who it was immediately.
The shaggy haired slacker stuffed a hand in his pocket, while the other tightened on the soda it held as he slurped a large gulp to help moisten his suddenly dry throat. God he was pathetic, Cappie thought to himself as he crossed the street, half watching his Fraternity brothers as they continued walking back to their house. Why was he going over to her? She was only going to shoo him away and proclaim that she was waiting for "Master Chamber-pot" and he knew it. Yet, here he was, helplessly drawn to her like a little kids hand to a hot plate.
He approached her still form slowly and absently toed one corner of the red fleece blanket with the sole of his chucks before deciding to speak. "So, waiting for Prince Charming?" he questioned with a bitter smile. The diminutive blond stargazer pulled her attention away from the heavens quickly, shifting her attention fully to Cappie and gracing him with a large, sweet smile before patting the blanket next to her and responding "As a matter of fact, I am. You're right on time."
His expression-frozen from shock, caused a slight giggle to escape her lips as she reached a hand up and curling her fingers into the front pocket of his jeans, and tugging him gently to sit. He plopped down next to her soundly, before allowing his widened eyes process the full scope of the situation.
Casey Cartwright was sitting next to him, in front of the ZBZ house, on a blanket that was surrounded with candles; her golden hair fell in loose waves across her shoulders, brushing against the spaghetti straps of the short blue sundress that accentuated her full bosom and tiny waist. His gaze followed along the lines of the legs he loved so much to find her feet bare, the only adornment being a very familiar anklet that he hadn't seen in years. An anklet that he had weaved for her himself and was made from various shells, beads and multicolored strands of hemp. The anklet he had given her for their one month anniversary. The bewildered blue-eyed boy blinked once and then again while wondering how such an amazing dream wasn't disappearing when he closed his eyes each time. Eventually resorting to pinching himself hard on the leg.
The object of his confused and hopeful stares only grinned at him as he once again tried to rouse himself from what had to be a dream. After his third pinching attempt on his own leg, she had finally had enough and deterred his hand away; by claiming it with her own. Now, he wasn't known for his silence, in fact he was pretty much known for his knack of being a smooth talker. But no words escaped his lips as he tightened his hand around her much smaller one and looked at her inquisitively.
"I refused Evan's lavaliere today," she boldly stated, shifting her body to face him directly and folding her legs beneath her as she did. His face immediately brightened as a huge smile spread across it "Did you now? That was a good choice, a great choice in fact...am I to hope that this means you've broken up with the douche?" he raised an eyebrow teasingly, new found hope and his normal cockiness twinkling through the sky blue orbs.
She smiled cutely at him, playing with the fingers of the hand she had captured and answering in a mocking tone "You mean you're not Evan? Darn, I thought I was meeting Evan here tonight. That's why I called our "little bro" to find out where he was and made this romantic setting for the exact time the movie would be ending. I know how much Evan loves Keanu Reeves after all..." she released his hand and grasped the handles of a large brown paper bag sitting beside her.
"I even made a special trip earlier, and got this to ply him with." she swung the bag in front of his smiling face teasingly "But it's one of those things I can only share with the man I hope to spend the rest of my life with...if you're not him then you better speak up!" she laughed and tried to dive away from him as he lunged, his arms trapping her against him as he used his superior height and strength to pluck the unmarked bag from her hands.
"Miss Cartwright, I'm surprised at you!" he tutted a finger at her "To have gone to all this trouble to find little old me...when you know damn well you could have just called me and I would have come running...so what's in the bag doll face?" his eyebrows quirked up and down suggestively as he finished the sentence with a Groucho Marks flair. He earned a giggle for his trouble and he smiled again, though his eyes darted from her face to the yet unopened package, pondering it's contents for a moment before his curiosity got the better of him and he dropped a hand inside to pull out the surprise.
He grinned as he broke the tape on the light pink pie box, lifting the lid and investigating for a second before turning his happy gaze to the equally happy girl sitting next to him "Case...a Coconut Custard Pie...from Buttercup's?" he wound his free arm around her shoulder and drew her to his side, his voice shook as he spoke "We've only ever had this pie once Case..this was our first...uh...this is pretty serious in pie talk, what are you trying to tell me?" he closed the pie box gently and set it aside before giving her his undivided attention, lips quirking upwards as he tried to quell his smile and appear more serious.
Casey grinned, cupping his face between her small hands "What I'm mean is...well, this is my barely clever, hardly subtle way of saying that I don't want to wake up in ten years and be boring, pretentious...and pie-less. I don't want to turn into a fake, subservient shell of myself...I want to become the person I was meant to be...and I realize...that the only way I can do that is with you. When I close my eyes and think of ten years from now, all I see is you Cappie; all I want is you." her eyes shone with love in the candlelight; he couldn't look away.
He swallowed hard, mind working furiously as he glanced away from her gorgeous face for a second and looked up at the white outline of her Sorority house in the distance. It's shadow enveloping them on the grass. "I wanna be with you Case, you know I do. You're all I've wanted since I laid eyes on you. But what about your goals? I know I'm not the straight, upstanding, go to class, mansion having...business suit wearing type...and I know that a big part of you wants that. But...I don't want to get in the way of your happiness Case, no matter how much it'll kill me to let you go," he hated serious conversations, but after the snafu earlier he knew it was the only way to reach her, to make her understand that if there was one thing in the world that Cappie was capable of being serious about..that it was her.
He looked so lost, she thought as she lightly stroked her thumb against his cheekbone. "Cap, I'm not in love with "the straight, upstanding, go-to-class, business suit wearing type" I'm in love with you. I always have been..and quite frankly; I thought a lot about how a life with Evan would be...everything was expensive, perfect, and entirely too loveless; The whole lavaliere mess-and a way too drunk Travis-made me realize that whenever I let my mind wander, and let my heart guide me. The answer was always you. I don't need business suits and mansions-I just needed you to grow up a little Cap, and the fact that we're having this conversation really shows me that you have." she released his face, and leaned up onto her knees, a joyful an innocent expression covering her face like he hadn't seen in years.
"I want to wake up on lazy Sunday mornings to the smell of burnt pancakes, because we both know you've never been able to make a perfect one," she smiled ruefully. "Right now, I want to hang out with you and the guys on Friday nights, playing poker for cheesaritos and chugging beer; I'm just sorry it took me so long to realize it...and in 10 years...I wanna be with you too."
The shaggy haired young man did the only thing a respectable and fully in love Kappa Tau Gamma brother would do; he tackled her into the blanket and pulled her into a long kiss. She was giggling as he jostled her and then left small kissed across her nose and cheeks; shrieking when he nibbled her ear and moaning when he licked one of her secret spots. Both revelling in the unadulterated happiness of their togetherness.
It was going to be a hell of a great ten years, they'd best get started.
THE END
SO yeah, I know this was a completely useless piece of fluff...but I like fluff, I write fluff...it's my way.
Reviews are always well loved!