For notes and disclaimer, please see part one.

Special thanks to Baschashe for the extra assistance with this arc. ;) You're the best, my friend!

Here's a couple things you might need to know or maybe you just forgot: Ellie takes Casey out to celebrate the Fourth of July and there are plenty of fireworks. Downy manages to break into Casey's in their absence.

Twenty Questions, Part 4

It had taken her a good three days to fully recover from the would've-been kiss. As such, she'd fully expected it to be awkward and weird after the Fourth of July at Long Beach. To her unending surprise, it wasn't. There was an innate ease to their conversations, as it had been since Downy entered their lives and this week was no different.

She should've known better, she realized, as she pondered her next question. It had probably just been the heat. Momentary insanity. And, since he wasn't bringing it up, neither was she. "Best concert experience?"

Casey made a face.

"You don't like music?"

"I like music. It's the intentionally-spending-time-in-big-crowds-of-complete-and-total-strangers I take issue with."

She let that process for a beat. The week before had definitely been momentary insanity, then. "So, no concert experiences ever?"

"Not necessarily. Just none that were any good." Tyler Martin's had been okay. After all, there had been terrorists and chases and fighting. His kind of party.

"Mm. Okay."

Casey watched as Downy moved, from his clothing-filled hamper to the cool metal of the now-empty washing machine. "Best day ever?"

"Oh, wow. That's hard!"

"Really? I thought it would've been easy?"

"Well... I always forget, you weren't at the wedding. Seems like you were..." She shrugged. "It was pretty disastrous to start. It ended well, but it was... not the best ever."

He had been there for the first one. He'd been exhausted by the time the second one rolled around. "What about meeting Woodcomb?"

"It was good and bad, too. It was... sort of embarrassing." She winced at the memory of being found in a very compromising position by the Westside janitorial staff. She took a slow breath. "I guess... I guess the day Chuck was born."

He looked up at her.

"It was the first time my family was complete. It was probably the last time we were all happy, too."

"That's a long time ago... to have your best day ever."

She smiled a little shyly. She'd never admitted that to anyone else before. "Yeah... what about you?"

He had to think. There were plenty of good days in protecting the country since he'd moved to Burbank. Plenty of bad ones, too. But, his best, very best day had to have been... "When I became a Marine."

She looked at him curiously.

"I, uh..." He held up his right hand, showing the gold and garnet ring. "I served." It was odd, making it past-tense when it was his present.

"Y'know, I'd noticed the ring, but I never asked. I didn't realize what it meant."

He shrugged but stiffened as she took his hand to examine the ring more closely. Her touch was cool, soft. He wondered if her hands were ever warm. He did his best to resist the temptation to rub them between his own hands, to try to remedy that for her.

When she finally released him, she looked at him differently. He hadn't just been some retail drone his whole life. He'd been something greater. He'd been a Marine, one of the toughest of soldiers.

It made some sense, how he carried himself, how he sometimes seemed more like a guard than a guy. Why he'd been so proud the week before... She'd heard a few of the veterans a the hospital for various treatments talk about how they were never any "former" Marines. Once one, always one.

He wasn't sure he liked the way she was looking at him. It made him uncomfortable and nervous. And nothing ever made him nervous. There was a new light in her eyes. If he had to put a name to the expression, he'd call it awestruck. "It's not all that great," he told her.

"No wonder you knew how to kick in the door."

He offered her a wincing smile. "Yeah."

"John, I had no clue."

He shrugged.

"Still. It meant something to you. It must still, for that to have been your best day, for you to still wear the ring."

It was his whole identity. He didn't know any other way to be.

"It's your turn by the way."

He cleared his throat, pondering. "Favorite ice cream flavor?"

"Fudge ripple, sunken!" she said eagerly.

He looked at her, puzzled. "How do you get 'sunken' ice cream?"

"Well, first, you put a generous amount of fudge ripple in one of those old-fashioned sundae glasses..."

"Okay," Casey said slowly.

"And then you add whipped cream. The real stuff, not the kind you buy in a can or a tub."

"Still not sure how this makes it 'sunken.'"

"Two maraschino cherries go on top, the kind with the stems."

"That's important?"

"Very," she said, nodding emphatically. "Sometimes, if you're feeling decadent, you add toasted almonds or walnuts. But, the part that makes it sunken?"

He waited with baited breath for this.

"A generous pour of Kahlua liquor."

"So, it's a sloshed ice cream?"

"No, no. It's a sunken drundae!" she announced happily.

Casey couldn't help but groan.

"Oh, c'mon now, Marine. How do you take your ice cream?"

"Well, I'm thinking I need to try one sunken sometime."

She grinned broadly.

Stay tuned...