About Last Night...
Chuck saw Casey stumble against the bar and knew that something was wrong. Had it been anyone else, he would have thought they'd just had too much to drink. However, this was John Casey they were talking about, not to mention that they were in the middle of an assignment.
Across the bar, watching, was a skinny, blonde man. Chuck had seen him with their target outside the club earlier. Maybe it was a coincidence but he'd learned not to believe in those. He really didn't like the look of this.
It had been pretty simple: follow the target to the club and let Chuck try to get a flash from the intersect off of him. That was all. It was just reconnaissance and they'd thought that their target hadn't realised he was being observed. Obviously not.
Breaking cover and therefore revealing his previously unknown presence to the guy at the end of the bar, Chuck went to Casey and caught him before he stumbled again.
"Hey, Chucky!"
Chuck frowned, getting a good look at Casey. His gaze was unfocussed, his pupils huge and dilated.
"Casey, how much did you drink?"
Casey blinked at him a few times. "Hmm? 'Only had a bit." He smiled widely and hugged Chuck. "Hey, Chuck."
"Haven't we already done this? Never mind. I think what you did have was spiked," Chuck informed him. He hadn't lived with a doctor for so many years without picking a few things up.
He manhandled Casey out of the bar, joking with the bouncer that his friend was a bit drunk when they eyed him curiously. He saw the guy from the bar following at a distance and he realised that the intention had been to catch Casey outside whilst he was unable to defend himself too well. Seeing him with Casey, and then making themselves known to the bouncers seemed to have made him rethink that plan. Time to get out of here before they came up with plan B. The car wasn't far away, just out of sight in a nearby alley. Unfortunately, Casey had the keys and no intention of giving them up.
"I'm driving," he protested, swaying slightly.
Chuck continued to search his pockets until he found the keys and opened the passenger side door.
"No, you aren't. I would like to get home in one piece," Chuck told him, shoving him into the passenger seat and buckling a seatbelt over him. "You can't even stand upright without someone to lean on- no way am I letting you drive."
He drove them back to his apartment, rather liking this version of Casey. He was actually being nice; no sarcasm, no snippy little put-downs. It might be easier if he could keep the man's hands off him long enough to open the door but still. Ellie saw them come in and came over to help him, looking a little surprised as Casey hugged her before Chuck managed to get him to sit down on the couch.
"Is he drunk?" she wanted to know. Looking over their attire, she smiled. "And what are you wearing?"
Both he and Casey had dressed to fit in tonight- and that meant that the skin-tight leather trousers, boots and tight-fitting black sleeveless t-shirt was not what his sister was used to seeing him in. He saw her eyes flick over the fake tattoo on his upper right arm and she looked up at him curiously before turning back to Casey.
"I think someone slipped something into his beer," Chuck told her. "We were out, you know, having a few drinks at a club that Casey knew. He didn't actually have much but he's completely out of it."
"Did you see anyone messing with his drink?" she asked.
"No, but we weren't together the whole time. He went off to talk to some people at one point."
It was almost the truth; they had stayed separate so as not to draw attention whilst they watched the target. Casey and Sarah had always told him that it was better to stick to the truth as much as possible when lying. It was easier to omit certain facts than it was to remember what lies you'd told. Especially for him, since the first thing that popped into his head when he had to lie was usually something ridiculous.
Ellie nodded, looking down at Casey again. "I think it's GHB, but we really should get him to the hospital, just to be on the safe side."
"He doesn't like hospitals," Chuck told her, knowing that Casey wouldn't want this going on his medical records.
"Well I'm still supposed to report incidents like this," she said. "Which club were you at?"
"I don't…"
Casey unfortunately chose that moment to focus again and crook his finger at Ellie, making her lean closer to hear him.
"Can't tell you."
"Why?"
"We were on a secret mission," he said, grinning happily, holding a finger to his lips and saying, "Sshhhh! It's a secret."
Chuck sighed. Oh, yeah, he was wasted. In other circumstances, the sight of Casey lying on the couch, giggling to himself would have been funny, if he wasn't afraid of what Casey would come out with next.
"Your ass looks cute in those."
Like that.
Ellie looked down at the man on the couch, ready to tell him off for that comment when she realised that it wasn't her ass that Casey was staring at but her brother's. Interesting.
"If he won't go in, he'll need to be observed for the next twelve hours or so," Ellie told Chuck.
"I'll take him back to his place and stay with him."
Ellie nodded. "Most people just snap out of it after a few hours but keep checking on him. It'll seem like he's drunk or high, like he is now, but if there is any shortness of breath or feeling ill, anything like that, call me. OK?"
She helped him get Casey home and left Chuck with him. "Come on," he told Casey. "I think we should get you to bed to sleep this off."
Getting Casey upright wasn't difficult, it was getting him to concentrate that was the problem. No sooner was the man on his feet than he grinned widely and dragged Chuck toward him.
"You've got pretty eyes," he said before leaning in to press a kiss to Chuck's lips.
"Casey, what are you doing?" He had to admit that he'd thought about this on more than one occasion but it usually didn't involved Casey being drugged. Tempting as it was, he knew that Casey would probably shoot him tomorrow when he had sobered up and remembered this.
He persuaded Casey to undress and get into bed but as he tried to leave, a hand clamped around his wrist.
"Want you to stay."
x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x
Casey awoke to a dark room and a pounding headache. What the hell had he been doing? He couldn't even remember coming to bed, but here he was in just his boxer shorts so he must have got here somehow. Someone else shifted in the bed and he froze, sifting through hazy memories to try and fill in the blanks but he came up with nothing.
"Feeling any better this morning?"
He turned over sharply, regretting it as his headache renewed itself with a vengeance. Chuck's innocent face looked back at him, his dark hair mussed from sleeping on it and concern in his eyes. It didn't slip past Casey's notice that Chuck appeared to be wearing as little as he was.
"What happened last night?"
Chuck smiled. "You mean the part where you got dosed with GHB at the club? Or maybe when you told Ellie that you were on a secret mission?" he asked. "And not forgetting the part where you told me that I had pretty eyes, right before you kissed me."
"Shit." Casey stuck his head back under his pillow, counted to ten, and then re-emerged.
"You can relax, by the way," Chuck continued. "I told Ellie that you'd been gaming with me and Morgan yesterday. Apparently, GHB makes you confuse fiction with reality so she thinks that you were mixed up. I also got a couple of flashes before we had to leave last night and I wrote them down for you."
At least that was something that had gone right, Casey thought. Bits and pieces were coming back to him from last night, though not enough to figure out his next question. Still, he had to know.
"Why are you in my bed?"
"Well, after you seduced me and we had wild monkey sex all night, where else was I going to sleep?" Chuck asked. Seeing Casey's eyes widen in shock, Chuck laughed. "I'm joking. You wouldn't let me go when I tried to leave you and so I slept here. I wouldn't have taken advantage when you were in that state."
"You mean you would have taken advantage if I'd been lucid?" he teased.
Casey saw the guarded look on Chuck's face as he looked away, not answering. He hooked a finger under Chuck's chin and forced him to meet his eyes. This was a really bad idea, he told himself, right before he kissed Chuck. For a moment, the other man froze, making him think he'd misread this whole thing, but then Chuck began to kiss him back.
"You're not going to regret this later and decide it was my fault and hurt me, are you?" Chuck asked warily, drawing away from him a moment later.
Casey shook his head, seeing Chuck's relief, a smile brightening his face. That smile was almost enough to make him forget the fact that his head was still pounding.
"We've got a few hours before our shifts start at the Buy More," Chuck told him, frowning at him, concerned. "Maybe you should get some more sleep; you don't look too well."
Casey agreed. "But don't think we're done with this conversation," he said. "I have plans for you." When I'm not feeling so lousy.
He settled under the covers and let his eyes close. His last thought before he fell asleep was how good it felt to finally have Chuck in his bed, curled up against him.
End.
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Note added- This continues in the sequel, 'What a difference a day makes'.