For notes and disclaimer, please see part one.

Here's a couple things you might need to know or maybe you just forgot: Ellie and Casey play a round of Twenty Questions, including most embarrassing moments, while waiting on their laundry. Downy sleeps contentedly between them.

Secrets

Downy sat in Casey's lap, perfectly still, while Ellie watched curiously.

"What's your secret?" she asked suddenly, out of the blue.

Casey looked up at her, alarmed. Secrets? He had plenty of them, but he couldn't tell her any. "Come again?" he asked over the sound of the washing machines as they all hit the spin cycle simultaneously.

"How do you do that?" Ellie asked.

"Do what?"

"Get her to sit still like that? Anytime I pick her up, she's ready to go somewhere, anywhere, else."

Casey shrugged slightly before lifting Downy easily with one hand. He offered her to Ellie.

"See? Watch," Ellie said, placing the cat in her lap.

The moment Downy was left unattended, the cat got up, stretched, and bounded back to Casey.

"You didn't lace your pockets with catnip before you came, did you?" she asked, her eyes accusatory.

He arched an eyebrow. "Definitely not."

"Then, what are you, the Cat Whisperer?"

Casey snickered, almost more of a snort, as he again picked up the cat. Except, this time, instead of offering it to Ellie, he stood, moving to sit in the chair right next to his neighbor and laundry companion.

The sudden nearness of him changed the room dynamics. No longer casual or effortless, Ellie felt like the room was now supercharged. Her arm had been draped across the back of the chair between them and, when he sat, she'd felt his shoulders brush against her skin. Heat radiated off him. She couldn't immediately remove her hand or arm from his chair, because she didn't want him to think that he was making her uncomfortable.

Because, it wasn't uncomfortableness. It was something else. Something different. Something she couldn't quite put her finger on.

He sensed the change in her breathing first. It became a little erratic, faster at times, shallower at others. He didn't comment on it. He didn't want to draw attention to it. "I think," he said slowly, "that she'll come around."

Ellie wondered, briefly, which she he was referring to. She figured, really, it had to be Downy. Reluctantly, she pulled her arm away from him, resting both hands in her lap, watching as the kitten wandered from Casey's right leg to his left. "She's been with us almost two months now."

"She knows who loves her," he said, chancing a glance over at Ellie.

Her expression was cautious, bordering on disbelief. Her watchful eyes were on the kitten as it searched for a place to sit. "Yeah. Apparently just you," she said softly as caution and disbelief darkened, giving way to dejection.

He didn't like seeing that look on her face. He'd give anything to make it go away, to banish it forever. It was like sadness personified and it killed him, to see that coming from her.

Downy rubbed against Casey's chest, and even tried to ease her head under his hand so that he'd have to pet her. When Casey didn't respond the way she wanted to, she tried again, even three times. Downy sniffed at his fingers before finally biting his thumb.

Casey, ever cool under pressure, didn't jerk his hand back. He didn't react at all.

Downy, however, turned and reached one hesitant paw out to Ellie's leg followed by the other. The front ones were soon joined the back two.

Ellie glanced up at Casey, a beautiful grin dawning on her face.

"See?"

Downy pawed at Ellie's leg.

Ellie only winced only a little when the clawing became a little too rough, but when the kitten finally relaxed, so did she. "I really do wish I knew how you did that."

He smiled knowingly. "Do what?"

She looked up at him, at the playful twinkle in his blue eyes. It was subtle and its duration, brief. As soon as it flickered and vanished, she missed it. She idly let her fingers drift through Downy's multicolored fur while the cat purred contentedly. "So little gets to you. So little bothers you. I saw her just try to bite you and, for a sweet, innocent little gal, Downy has really sharp teeth."

He shrugged.

"And the fact that you would step in and take a beating meant for my brother," she said, remembering back a few weeks ago. "And, seeing what the guys did to you... I mean, they'd have to be really big guys, really insanely strong men to hurt you."

He shook his head slowly.

"I've seen those muscles," she said, nodding towards his arm, "in action. I've seen you lift things, move things... The only person I can imagine doing any kind of damage to you whatsoever would have to be a big, big guy. A bigger guy. Like, one of those scary muscle-bound bodybuilders who could crush things with their knees..."

"I'm no Superman, Ellie."

"I know you've got secrets, though, John. And being Kal-El really would explain so much at this point."

He reached up, brushing her hair back gently, his fingertips light on her ear for a fraction of a moment. "His alias was Clark Kent, star reporter for the Daily Planet. Not lowly appliance pusher at a Buy More."

"With the advent of cellular phones, phone booths themselves are all but gone... So, why not 'into a nearby refrigerator'?" she asked putting on her best cartoon announcer voice.

Casey smiled. "Can't be a Clark without a Lois. A no-nonsense partner with a nose for the truth..."

Ellie let that sink in for a moment, but her response wasn't what Casey was expecting. "So, you're admitting to living some double-life? To having an identity that's greater than John Casey, Buy More grunt?"

His smile turned into a smirk, and that playfulness she missed returned. "I can neither confirm nor deny."

Stay tuned...