As they drove down Greek row, Cappie couldn't help but look out the window one last time at the place that would now be the Kappa Tau House. As he watched pledge Spidey place the letters on the white victorian that was down the street from ZBZ, he felt a rush of emotions. The house he had known was gone, and now he was leaving too. CRU was in the past (literally as they drove by the campus) and now had come the time to stop being Peter Pan and head into the adult world.
It all seemed so crushing, until he looked to the seat beside him. There in the driver's seat sat the love of his life, Casey Cartwright. Her slim wrists held to the steering wheel, her eyes straight ahead. He reached over and brushed her blonde hair away from her face, and as he did he saw the tears that had slowly begun to fall down her cheek.
"Case, you really shouldn't be driving while you're crying. Why don't you pull over and let me take the wheel for a while?"
But she kept driving, pushing on the accelerator harder and harder. It wasn't until they finally reached the city limits of Cyprus, Ohio that she finally pulled the car over. Turning abruptly, she grabbed Cappie from the passenger seat and hugged him tightly, sobbing into his shoulder. He held her close and stroked her blonde hair, taking in the scent of her coconut shampoo still fragrant in her hair.
"You know, I'm the one who just lost my house, graduated, and am suddenly picking up and leaving the only home I've ever had, and you're the one that's crying? Well, that could also be because I'm experiencing the first stage of grief- denial. I learned that when I was a psych major."
Casey laughed lightly at the joke and slowly removed herself from Cappie's arms.
"I don't know why I can't stop crying. I've been preparing for this since we decided we were going to leave! I even ate a box of frozen toquitos and, like, seven of those hundred calorie cookie packs to ease the sadness!"
"Doesn't that add up to 700 calories? What's the point in eating seven of those when you could've just had a really big piece of pie?" Cappie asked.
"It's cathartic and not the point! I guess, it was just saying goodbye to everyone. All of our friends, our homes, the future that I've tried to plan for the past four years. Even saying goodbye to Dale was sad, although I definitely wished I had used your line of telling him no tongue."
"Yeah... that was unexpected," Cappie said, a look of jealousy quickly passing through his eyes. Casey let out a small laugh at the thought of Cappie being jealous of Dale but still appreciating the sentiment of Cappie's protectiveness.
"It's just, when you said that you'll go wherever I'm going, it made me realize that this is it. Our future, the one that I've been begging you to look at for the past four years, it's finally here. And we don't have our friends or a fraternity house to lean back on. This really is it."
Cappie looked at her, and for the first time he noticed the fear in her eyes. He'd seen many looks from Casey before, looks she had tried to hide. The shock when he told her that he wanted to be with her in ten years. The disbelief when he told her he was dating Rebecca. The hurt when he told her that no other girl in the world compared to her and he needed to move on. The embarrassment when she kicked him in the head when he had gone to the trouble to give her Cappie-land, and the happiness she felt when she and Ashleigh made up and Ashleigh gave their relationship her stamp of approval. These were all looks that he was used to, and some he expected, but fear was something that he was not prepared for when it came to Casey Cartwright.
"Casey, I know this is scary. Believe me, of the two of us I should be the one freaking out right now. I feel just like Felicity when she left for New York to go find the guy that she'd only talked to once but was suddenly in love with. The difference is, I've already got the love of my life by my side. And like I told you before, we'll figure it out. Together."
He barely got the last word out before Casey's lips crashed on to his. He could've sat like that in the car for the rest of his life, with Casey in his arms and their stuff in the trunk, but he knew that they needed to get going. With both of them this nervous they could easily turn around and go back to Cyprus, but moving on was the plan and if he needed to be the one to push then he would. Slowly he broke their kiss and stared into her hazel eyes.
"Now, how about we do a little role reversal and you let me take the wheel?"
"You want to be the one to push our relationship forward?" Casey asked, a little skeptical at this new side of Cappie.
"You once told me that we wouldn't work because I would resent you for pushing me and you were going to resent me for having to push. Well now it's my turn to push you, and if you do resent me then tough, because I do not have the kind of money Lasker Parkes does and while he is going to have to put Spidey through years of family therapy I just can't afford that right now."
Casey laughed at the joke, a true Casey smile spreading across her face. As Cappie smiled back at her he felt truly happy at the idea of his future since the destruction of the Kappa Tau house. When she stopped laughing Casey met his gaze, her hand softly coming to rest on his cheek.
"Okay then, lets see where you push us to."