For notes and disclaimer, please see part one. Big thanks to Raevon and GoddessofBirth, for the extra betas. :D

Here's a couple things you might need to know or maybe you just forgot: Ellie is heartbroken after the death of her father. Casey, from the charred remains of Castle, watches her in agony as she takes their adopted cat into her apartment.

Not Soon Enough

She'd gone for a long weekend with Devon up to wine country. Some bed and breakfast. Somewhere with a slower pace than L.A. Something to get her life back on track.

And so he was still at Echo Park, doing laundry by himself, looking at Downy who was batting around a new catnip toy.

"She say anything to you before they left?" he asked.

Downy glanced up when she heard his voice.

"Guess not."

Casey sighed, getting to his feet. This was the third Sunday they'd been apart. He never would've imagined that would turn out to be difficult to accept, but it was oddly painful.

She still wasn't herself, not since her father's death. And he understood that, but that didn't mean he didn't want to see her. He'd seen her in passing a few times in the courtyard, since it had happened, but he hadn't had the opportunity to say anything much to her. She was always bustling off with something to do.

She seemed a caricature of her former self, her real self. Normal Ellie was bubbly and slightly neurotic, so New Ellie was effervescent and over-the-top. There were still dinners and gatherings and family togetherness, but there was something off about her.

He knew she was hiding her pain.

He knew something of compartmentalization. He'd been a spy a long time, a Marine even longer. He'd been trained, taught by the very best, how to take feelings and put them in boxes, locking them up tightly before shoving them into corners of his soul for later review.

He had so many locked boxes hiding within that he wasn't sure what they held anymore, not until he'd been faced with the realities of those memories.

Of Kathleen, of Alex.

The weirdest thing he'd come to learn was that he didn't miss Kathleen. While he had loved her once upon a time, he didn't love her now. He cared for her well being and was concerned for her safety, but that was as far as his feelings went.

Alex was another story. Alex was his daughter, his flesh and blood. She was a part of him in a way that Kathleen hadn't been and would never be.

The more startling revelation, however, was the fact that, since Stephen had died, since Ellie had become lost somehow, he missed her terribly. He wanted to see her more than just in passing. He wanted to talk to her more than just exchange pleasantries.

With her out of town, it was troubling to him how much he discovered that his heart hurt at her absence. He knew he had no right to feel that way about her. She was married to a man that was trying to do right by her, to help her to heal.

He just wasn't sure a weekend in Sonoma was the way to go about it.

She knew she should be thrilled. She'd long pestered Devon for a trip up north, to the mountains, surrounded by vineyards. Quaint shops and stores, cozy restaurants, a friendly atmosphere where the pace was practically foreign to that of L.A.

The scenery was breathtaking.

But, when he'd taken her on a sightseeing jaunt, she'd spent most of her time staring into space, completely oblivious to the fact that there were amazing things just in front of her eyes. She'd told him, however, that she'd never seen anything a more majestic vista.

The food was delectable.

But all she could do was go through the motions of eating it. She didn't really taste anything. She'd told him, however, that everything was divine.

The accommodations were pleasant.

She couldn't feel the softness in the cotton sheets or the feather-light quality of the duvet. She'd told him, however, that it was like sleeping on a perfect, puffy cloud.

All she could do was think about the time she'd lost.

Her father had spent most of her adult life gone. Even when he'd been there when she was a child, he was often scatter-brained or lost in his work. He'd missed out on so much of her life, she'd been shocked when he'd shown up days before her wedding.

When he'd vanished again, she hadn't thought, for one second, it was due to anything other than his absent-minded professor routine. She kicked herself for thinking that he was doing it out of selfish reasons as opposed to the truly selfless reasons he'd done it.

She'd missed the opportunity to thank him, to tell him that she understood that there were reasons greater than any of them, why things were done the way they were done, why things seemed so odd or out of place but truly had a meaning, a purpose behind them.

She felt like time had passed her by. She felt like it was all too little too late, that nothing had been done anywhere near soon enough. Much like the trip she and Devon now endured.

She should be thrilled. It was a trip that didn't include death-defying stunts, some kind of sporting event, or any of Devon's old fraternity brothers. It had been a trip designed just for her. But, even as she watched him pack up their belongings for the trip home the next day, all she could think about was how much she wished she were home already. How she wanted to be in the laundry room, watching Downy do something cute, sitting in silence with Casey. Because, Casey would understand her need for quiet reflection.

She wondered when that changed, when she started to think that maybe someone else knew her better, or at least would let her be herself better, than her own husband.

Stay tuned...