The plane ride had been painless. But then, they hadn't yet run out of the easy banter that was readily available to two people that hadn't seen each other in years.
It was the hour and half long drive to Burgess after they landed in Texas that was tense. Cappie drove the rented four-door, blue sedan with one hand on the wheel while the other dangled uselessly from an arm that was resting along the window. He cast the occasional, furtive glance towards the passenger seat, but remained silent.
Casey did much the same, except that she sat primly in her seat, safely buckled in behind her seat belt. Cappie had dismissed that particular safety feature the moment he got in the car. He wasn't one for being tied down, not even by something that might save his life. His reasoning went along the lines of – he was safe enough. He wasn't planning on hitting anything. Casey did her own share of occasional glancing as she tried desperately to think of something to say.
Every time she tried, all she could think about was the fact than in a little over twenty-four hours, she would be under the same roof as her parents and Richard. The sense of dread and impending doom increased with every passing second. There was no possible way this weekend would end well. No way, whatsoever.
"You okay?" Cappie asked, finally, unable to take the quiet any longer. Casey had known he'd be the first to break.
"Ask me again on Monday," she muttered.
He reached out and took her hand, deftly switching hands on the wheel as he did. Then he gave it a squeeze, followed by one of his old, easy, reassuring smiles. "It's going to be okay. You'll get through it. You just have to keep reminding yourself that it's for Adam and it's only for a few days. It'll be over before you know it."
She gave him a long sidewise look. "What happens then? Have you thought about what you'll do after Thanksgiving?"
He eased his hand out of hers and spent a few minutes studying the scenery around them. "I was thinking that I might take you up on your offer, providing it still stands."
She did her best to beat down the smile that was suddenly tugging at her lips. She hadn't realized how much having him close meant to her until then. "Of course it still stands. Stay as long as you like."
"It won't be for long, just until I find a place of my own. I don't want to put you out," he assured her.
She took his hand and squeezed it this time. Her voice was hesitant as she summoned up the courage to say what she needed to say. There was a time when it was easy for her to tell people how she really felt, but that was in a different lifetime. "I want you to stay. I've really missed you." She told him shakily.
"I don't want to show up and upend your life, Case. That was never my intention," he replied.
She sighed and smiled sadly. "You aren't upending anything. It's not like I had that much of a life to disrupt."
"I know you work a lot. But I know you well enough to know that there is a social life going on, too. You have friends, causes, things you do outside of work. I don't want to get in the way of any of that. You go about doing exactly what you were doing before I showed up."
She shifted as she thought about what he was saying. Sadly she couldn't remember the last time she'd left her house that wasn't business or Adam related. She never went anywhere. She never did anything. And friends? She had her assistant, but their relationship, while more personal than most, was more or less, a business one. Ashleigh was in New York and had a busy life of her own. She hadn't talked to any other ZBZ in years. When Richard was there, his friends were the ones they went places with. His friends were the ones that came over for dinner. Nearly everyone she knew in Washington, she knew through Richard in one way or another. "Like I said, you won't be in the way," she answered, a touch nervously and decided it was time to change the subject. Whining about her life was not something she indulged in and it wasn't time to start now.
She took her phone from her purse and started to push in several numbers.
"He's fine," Cappie assured her. "You worry too much."
She glanced down at her phone, considering his words before letting the call go through. "Is everything alright?" she asked the moment Rusty answered.
"Everything is fine. We are currently enjoying some peanut butter sandwiches and when we're done here, we're going to the park," he said.
She closed her eyes and tried to push down the spike of worry in her chest. "Just be careful. I know he seems normal, but he's not. Watch him, don't let him do anything dangerous."
"I know all about it and I'll watch him like a hawk. We'll be fine, Case. Don't worry," her brother replied.
"Call me if anything happens," she demanded.
"I will. Now go away so we can have fun." Then he hung up on her.
"See I told you so," Cappie sing-songed at her a moment later.
"I'm not just being overprotective. The park is a dangerous place for a little boy like Adam," she said, defensively.
Cappie shrugged and looked over at her cautiously. "I don't want it to sound like I'm telling you how to raise your son, or interfering," he began.
Casey through up her hands in frustration. She'd had enough of this and she couldn't take anymore. "Okay," She turned in her seat to better face him. "Can we stop this now? It's getting ridiculous."
"Stop what?" Cappie asked, quickly.
"All this niceness. It's silly. This is me and you, here. We know each other. I know you aren't trying to butt into my life. I know you aren't here with some ulterior motive to screw up my life. I would never do anything to hurt you purposefully and I trust you wouldn't do anything to me, either. Have we really gotten so far away from each other that we have to keep reminding each other of that?"
He seemed a little taken aback by her outburst at first, then he slowly smiled. "I suppose you're right. I guess we both have our reasons for our trust issues, but if there is anyone in the world we can trust, it's always been each other."
"Exactly, so just say what you want to say. I'm not going to see it as you taking over, or trying to interfere."
"I think you should relax a little where Adam is concerned," he blurted out without hesitating another second.
She began shaking her head immediately. "You don't understand,"
"I know," Cappie assured her. "He's got asthma. I had asthma when I was his age. I did fine."
She sat up a little straighter, not because she was angry but because what she had to say was important and she needed him to listen. "Adam doesn't just have asthma. He's got Hemophilia."
He grew silent for a moment. "I see. My father had Hemophilia. I get it. I'd be worried all the time, too."
Casey couldn't get her tongue to work. His words had somehow disconnected everything from her brain. Nothing was working as it should. Her heart was beating all over the place. Her lungs couldn't seem to draw in enough air. Even her vision appeared cloudy around the edges.
She hadn't known. He'd never mentioned anything about his father having the disease before. But suddenly pieces were clicking into place in her mind like a jigsaw puzzle coming together. Questions that had had no answers before now were perfectly obvious. All this time, she'd simply written everything off as unexplainable. It had never occurred to her.
Questions like, why did Adam have asthma? Neither she nor Richard had ever suffered from the disease. But they'd written it off, explained it because Rusty had been prone to it when he was younger. So it was there in her genes.
Or, blue eyes? Richard's were brown, hers were green. Again, easily explained, it happened all the time. No big deal, just another question that rested in the back of her mind, left unanswered until right then.
The certain proof was the medical evidence. Adam had been diagnosed with Hemophilia when he was young. The doctor's couldn't explain the normally inherited disease in a child where neither side of the family had any sort of blood disorders. But it hadn't been important at the time. The doctor's assured them, it was a rare thing for it pop up like that, but it could happen.
All the times she'd looked at Adam and been assaulted with images from her days at CRU. He had always reminded her so much of Cappie. Everything about him was a tiny imitation of the man sitting beside her and she had never put that piece together before that moment.
A sudden knot formed in her stomach as she looked over at Cappie. Should she tell him what she was thinking? How would he react? Here they were, driving through the middle of nowhere, searching for his child. He'd told her how much he regretted the part of her life he'd already missed. How would he feel when she told him that he had another child that had grown up without him? Would he believe her after everything Rebecca put him through? Would he think she'd been keeping the information from him on purpose?
Cappie's eyes grew alarmed at whatever he saw on her face. "Are you okay, Case? Do I need to pull over?"
"Yes," she choked out quickly around the lump in her throat. She needed air. She needed move around. Mostly, she needed to get away from him for a moment. She'd never really been able to think when he was close to her and that had never changed. Something about Cappie's nearness overloaded her brain, making it impossible to make logical decisions.
As soon as the car was out of gear, she had the door opened. She gritted her teeth when she heard his door close as well.
"Casey?" he called, when she took off quickly down the dirt shoulder of the road they'd been driving down.
"Just give me a second. I'll be back. I'm just a little carsick," she lied, calling the words out over her shoulder without stopping or looking back at him.
She heaved a sigh of relief when she heard his car door open and shut once again.