WHEN YOU'RE GONE

Casey's cell phone ringing woke her up the next morning. It was Robert.

"Are you almost ready?" he asked. "It's after eight."

Casey sat up in the bed and looked at the clock.

"Oh my god," she said. "I'm sorry Bob, I didn't set my alarm last night. I can be ready in fifteen minutes."

"Take your time," said Robert. "I'll be downstairs in the dining room having breakfast. Just come find me when you're ready."

"OK, Thanks Bob," Casey replied hanging up the phone.

She then noticed she had a voicemail and instantly knew who it was from. She entered her password and the voicemail began to play.

"Hi sweetheart, it's me," said Cappie in a sad voice. "You must be in bed already. Just wanted to call and let you know that I miss you and I'm thinking about you. It's going to be pretty lonely tonight. Anyway, I can't wait to see you when you come home. Call me when you get the chance. I love you."

"I love you too," Casey said softly out loud as she hung up the phone.

Casey felt horrible for not calling Cappie last night, even after she told him she would. Things last night just got too complicated and too crazy. She wished she had answered the phone though. Hearing his voice probably would have made her feel better. But at the same time, he didn't need to hear her crying on the phone and she wasn't able to control her emotions at all last night.

Casey shook her head out of her thoughts and got dressed. She packed up her bag and headed down to the dining room to meet Robert.

"Good morning," said Robert as Casey approached his table in the dining room.

"Morning," she replied sitting down.

"I ordered you an orange juice, I hope that's OK," he said.

"Thanks," Casey replied avoiding eye contact with him.

"So how did you sleep last night?" Robert asked as the waiter brought them some pancakes.

Casey couldn't believe it. Here Robert was just trying to go on like nothing happened last night. But on the same token she didn't want to talk about it. As far as she was concerned it was a onetime thing and will never happen again.

"I slept fine," she lied. "And how about you?"

"Good," was all Robert replied.

The two of them ate breakfast mostly in silence. Soon after, they headed back to the corporate office to begin more work on the server. The office had a completely different atmosphere this morning compared to last night. There were people rushing all over the place, phones ringing off the hook and copy machine's buzzing. Casey was thankful that this prevented any further alone time with Robert.

After working for a few hours the two of them decided to break away for lunch with a friend of Robert's.

"Yeah, who knew Ted and I would end up working for the same company one day," said Robert as they entered the restaurant. "We went from college roommates to co-workers."

"But let's not forget you got promoted to the big job in Chicago while I'm still stuck here in Cleveland though," Ted replied as they took their seats.

"I guess they just knew who the better man was," said Robert half jokingly.

"So Casey," said Ted turning to her. "How long have you worked with the company?"

"Oh just a few weeks," Casey replied. "Still trying to learn my way around everything."

"Well you have a good teacher," said Ted looking at Robert. "He's taught me a lot through the years."

The three of them ordered their food and drinks and continued the conversation.

"Ted and I still keep up by e-mail," said Robert. "He's always whining to me about his girlfriend."

"Hey, at least I have one," said Ted. "I can't remember the last time you had one."

"Just keeping my options open," Robert replied.

"Come on dude, it's been like three years since you've had a serious girlfriend. It's about time you put yourself back on the market," said Ted.

Casey was confused by Ted's last remark. Robert had told her Sandy had passed away just over a year ago. But she shrugged it off. Ted was talking about girlfriends; Sandy was his wife, so he must not have put her in the same category.

"I see a nice ring on your finger Casey," continued Ted. "Who's your lucky guy?"

"His name is Cappie," said Casey with a smile. "And the father of my little bundle of joy on the way."

"That's great," Ted replied. "Good luck with that."

Casey could get a sense that Ted knew a little bit more about her personal life then he was leading on.

"I'm going to go to the ladies' room," said Casey excusing herself from the table.

Ted turned to Robert as soon as she was out of sight.

"She is pretty smoking hot dude," he said to Robert. "Especially being pregnant and all."

"I know," Robert replied. "I just wish she didn't have that deadbeat fiancé. The guy does nothing but sit at home all day."

"You already told me this," said Ted. "The 'jobless douche bag' is what I believe you called him in your last e-mail."

"Haha," Robert replied. "Yeah, that's him."

"So have you made a move yet?" Ted asked.

"Last night," Robert replied. "I kissed her outside of her hotel room."

"And how did that go?"

"As good as could be expected," Robert replied. "I think it flustered her quite a bit. I had to wake her up this morning as she forgot to set her alarm before bed."

"Nice," was all Ted replied as he noticed Casey was making her way back to the table.

Their food came soon after and eventually the three headed back to the office to finish up the work. Casey entered data for hours. Pretty soon five o'clock rolled around and she realized they weren't going to be making the six o'clock plane home.

"How much longer?" she asked Robert.

"Probably another hour," he replied.

"Should I go ahead and book us on the nine o'clock flight then?" Casey asked.

"Yeah, sounds good," he replied.

Almost an hour later on the dot Robert finally finished his work. He ran a few tests to see if everything was working OK before they left. He approached Casey as she was shutting down the computer she was working on.

"I just want to thank you Casey," he said putting his hands on her shoulders from behind her. "You have been such a big help on this trip. I don't know what I would have done without you."

Casey tensed up as he began to rub her shoulders.

"Thanks," she said standing up so he would have to let go of her shoulders. "Just doing my job."

She was glad when Robert went back to his computer to see if the tests had worked.

"Alright," he said. "I'm satisfied. Let's head off to the airport."

The two of them drove to the airport and dropped off the rental car.

"I told you I don't fly coach," said Robert noticing their seats weren't first class when they checked in.

"Sorry," said Casey. "But all of the first class was booked. I just figured you would want to get home."

"Correction," he said. "You want to get home. I don't have anything to get home to."

"Fine then," she replied angrily. "I wanted to get home then."

Robert was frustrated he had to sit in coach but there was nothing he could do about it at this point. The two of them eventually boarded the plane and sat together in their coach seats towards the back of the plane.

"You see there is no room in coach," said Robert as he touched Casey's leg with his own.

Casey tried to move her leg away but he just kept moving his closer to hers. She quickly got out her IPod trying to ignore Robert as the plane took off. She was lost in a song by Chris Daughtry when suddenly she felt his hand on her leg.

"You have the softest legs," he mumbled to her as he rubbed the inside of her knee.

Casey pretended she didn't hear him the best she could and turned to look out the window. Eventually he removed his hand from her leg and the rest of the plane ride was rather uneventful until she had to take her IPod off for the landing. She put her IPod away and faced forward in her seat, again avoiding all eye contact with Robert.

"I hope you're not scared of landings," Robert softly whispered into Casey's ear as he put his arm around her and began kissing her neck.

"Bob what are you doing?" Casey asked as she tried to lean towards the window to get away from him. But she couldn't get far enough away.

"I'm just showing you how you deserve to be treated," he replied this time moving his kisses to her cheek.

"Seriously, stop," she said using her arm to push him off. "I have a fiancé who treats me just well thank you very much."

"Oh please, that deadbeat is probably half the lover I could be to you," said Robert as he leaned back over to Casey and began to nibble on her ear.

"I said stop already," Casey said trying not to raise her voice and make a scene. "Or I'll-"

"Or you'll what?" interrupted Robert as he backed away from her. "Tell Mr. Rockford? Report me to human resources?"

Casey didn't respond.

"You can do whatever you want," he said leaning back over to her. "But I've got twenty times more power in that company than you do. Who do you think they'll believe?"

Casey still didn't respond. She was clenching her fists and shutting her eyes tight trying to think of better thoughts than Robert currently kissing her neck.

"To answer the question," Robert continued softly. "They are going to believe me. Not you. And then you'll lose your job. And with your job goes your health insurance and continues with a miserable life for you, Crappie and the baby. Think about that before you go tattling on me."

Tears started to form in Casey's eyes. She squeezed her eyes shut even more to prevent them from coming. She sat there as stiff as a statue just taking the kisses Robert was giving her and trying not to notice his hands roaming her body. Finally, after what seemed like hours the plane landed and Robert backed away to get his bags out of the overhead compartment. The two of them walked off of the plane and towards the door.

"Well I'll see you at work tomorrow Bob," said Casey.

"Aren't you going to ride back with me?" Robert asked pointing to the car waiting for them.

"Oh no, I didn't tell you," Casey lied. "Cappie is going to pick me up. We are going to grab a late dinner."

She had to come up with some kind of excuse. There was no way she was going to be alone in the car with him. Things were getting way out of hand.

"Alright," he said walking up to her. "I'll see you tomorrow."

He leaned in and gave her a quick kiss on the lips, which she did not return, and a pat on her butt. He gave her his patent evil smile as he walked away and got into the car. Casey found a bench near the luggage return and sat down. She was fighting back tears in her eyes. She couldn't believe that Robert had just threatened her back in the plane. Who did he think she was? Some sort of weak girl who didn't stand up for herself? But Casey quickly sank her shoulders down realizing that was exactly who she was. Evan was right, putting the baby's needs before hers was making her absolutely miserable. She was slowly losing the person she had become. She, Casey Cartwright, who has always been in control, was now out of her league. She felt helpless. She thought about telling Cappie everything. There was no doubt in her mind that he would stand up for her. Honestly he probably would run down to the office and beat the shit out of Robert if he ever did find out. But that wasn't going to solve anything. He would probably be upset with her also which would probably end their relationship and probably cause her to go into a deep depression. Casey sighed as the baby kicked inside of her. Finally she opened her cell phone to call Cappie.

"Hi honey," she said as happily as she could. "I'm home, here at the airport. Do you think you could come get me?"

A/N: Oops, another cliffhanger........Is Casey going to tell Cappie?

Sorry no C/C scenes in these two chapters.....I think these are like the only two in the whole story there is none so have no fear.

Also wanted to let you guys know that even though they graduated Ashleigh, Rebecca, Evan and Beaver all make appearances in later chapters :0)

Hope you guys liked these two chapters!

Sneak peek at tomorrow's two chapters......Rusty to the rescue!