Posted October 4, 2021

A/N: Two down. Who's next?

There's a stalker out there, but davida6 is safe. I didn't write a chapter in which he became the fixation of a disturbed woman, so he could do a great job as beta again.

Two days later
Casey's Apartment
(Where Casey lets Grimes live, not killing the man who was having an adult relationship with his daughter)

Alex was barely holding it together. She was a McHugh, but she was also part Casey. That meant she need to be tough. She had to keep it together and put up a brave face. There were limits, though, which is why she was sitting in her dad's and Morgan's apartment asking her dad for help. Morgan wasn't any help.

"What did this bearded idiot do?" Alex's dad asked.

"He didn't do anything," Alex reflectively responded. Actually, that was the problem. Morgan didn't do anything about this situation. He seemed to be enjoying it. She had to be careful about assigning blame, though. Even if it was partially Morgan's fault for not doing anything, she didn't really want her dad to take it out on her boyfriend by doing something like shooting him.

"I doubt that." The gruff Marine focused on Morgan. "What did you do to make my little girl so upset?"

"You heard her. I didn't do anything. I can't help it if some woman finds me attractive."

Her dad grunted. Alex was getting to where she understood most of his grunts. That one was disbelief. She really needed to start learning how to speak the language instead of simply understanding it. He said, "Tell me how you met this woman."

"She was at the Buy More to seduce Chuck with a broken cell phone. A cell phone. Sarah was there to stop another Lou fiasco. I escorted the woman out of the store. She told me that she met Chuck through Devon. And…well…she prefers me over them."

Putting up a brave face was pointless. Morgan's last comment pushed her over the edge. There's no point in hiding it anymore. Her dad knew she was upset. Morgan clearly didn't get it, but he should. Tears started forming.

"What's wrong, Honey Bun?" Morgan asked

Before the younger Alex could figure out how to explain it, there was a long, steady growl.

Morgan caught that signal. "I'm sorry. Rule number 4. What's wrong, Alex?"

Rule number 4 was "no nicknames." When Alex and Morgan started dating and telling her dad about it, they set up rules so her boyfriend and dad could co-exist. The rules were for Morgan. Her dad came up with many of them. Morgan sorted them to correspond to some rules that Ellie created for him for over fifteen years. It was a little disturbing that he already had a list of what not to do around a woman, but he said it would be easier if the numbers lined up, since he had that list memorized for years. Morgan provided the entire old list, and it included some good suggestions. It has some creepy ones, too. Morgan assured Alex that they hadn't been an issue since before Ellie and Devon got married a couple years ago. Alex said that some of the rules only applied in front of her dad. She didn't mind the nicknames. She had a few for her 'Fuzzy Bear'. She couldn't say hers for Morgan in front of her dad, either.

Alex answered Morgan, "You like having another woman interested in you. It's like I'm not enough."

"Of course, you're enough. Don't you get it? That woman chose me over both Awesome and Chuck, but I'm choosing you over her. That means you win!"

Morgan wasn't getting it. She didn't want to be in a contest. She just wanted Morgan, and she wanted Morgan to not care about whether or not anyone was interested in him. She couldn't get the concept through to her boyfriend, so she looked at her dad to see if another guy understood.

Instead of giving her reassurance, he asked, "Is this Jennifer—"

Alex was shocked. She demanded, "How do you know her name?"

Her dad answered, "I heard about her from Ellie a few days ago. Ellie was really worked up. She said she got Sarah to take care of it. I assume her fiancé got involved, so the issue wasn't really resolved. It's a good thing I pushed through the restraining order paperwork."

Alex wasn't following. "What do you mean?"

"When I heard someone might be stalking someone who knows our covers, I filed paperwork for restraining orders against her for Devon, Chuck, Morgan, and me. We don't want an unstable element around any of us. The restraining orders have already been approved."

Restraining orders? Alex had thought her dad might be able to help get one of those, if he could convince Morgan to go along and not continue relishing the fact that he had some strange women interested in him. Turns out, her father had already done it. He knew how to get things done quickly.

This was the best possible outcome. That strange woman wasn't allowed to be anywhere close to Morgan. She met him at the Buy More. With a restraining order, she wasn't allowed there anymore. She leaped up to give her dad a thank you hug. He said, "Don't worry, Sweetheart. I'll take care of it." Alex hugged harder.

When she let go, part of her wanted to do the same to Morgan. He was so clueless sometimes. He hadn't done anything wrong, but by being the sweet guy he is, he allowed this to happen. Then, he was not discouraging as strongly as she wished. With her dad taking care of things, there would be nothing for Morgan to do. This Jennifer would simply go away.

While Alex wanted to hug Morgan, she couldn't in his apartment. That was one of the rules that filled in one of the places that didn't make sense from Ellie's list. "No hugging or kissing in front of the Colonel." She also wasn't allowed to sleep over in Morgan's room. Morgan never wanted to stay at Alex's because his apartment mate—her dad—would know where he was overnight. The Buy More was out because of memories of Morgan's ex. That meant they always had to be creative.

With the no-hugging rule, Alex had to drag Morgan outside. They couldn't stop in the courtyard, because her dad had the entire apartment complex under surveillance. The closest option was to go down the street, where they could properly make up. With that plan, Alex led Morgan a block away where her protective father couldn't see.

A few minutes later, Alex walked back to the apartments to her car, holding hands with her boyfriend. He did a great job of making her feel like she won (as much as they could in public). Suddenly, the hairs on the back of Alex's neck went up. Spy-sense must be partly hereditary. Or she was learning from being around spies so much.

She looked around and saw a green station wagon with wood side-panels, about a half-block back. The woman behind the wheel was staring intensely at Alex and Morgan. It was creepy. Alex took a stronger hand-hold on her man, and they ran together back to her car. The old car started to follow them when they drove away, but fortunately Alex had become friends with Sarah and had learned how to lose a tail.

It was now up to her hero-father to take care of things.

A/N: Casey's on it.

Ellie's 24 "Ellie's Golden Rules of Tolerating Morgan" are listed in chapter 2 of ne71's hilarious "Ellie vs the Hair Gel." Swap Ellie with Alex, and a lot of it applies for things Morgan shouldn't do to where Casey knows about it, even if Alex is ok with it. During the Valentine's Day episode, "Chuck vs Seduction Impossible," Alex seemed to have an open mind about bear skin rugs and whatever that was that she and Morgan were doing, but that doesn't mean it's good for Casey to be aware of any more of that.

Song: "Stuck Like Glue" by Sugarland. (What else? The station wagon in this chapter is in the video.)