For notes and disclaimer, please see part one.

Here's a couple things you might need to know or maybe you just forgot: Casey falls to the dark side, joining Ellie, Sarah, and Alex in Black Friday shopping.

Big Sister Dilemma

She'd been thinking about it for a while. Worried to death was more like it. It hadn't been all that long, but the troubling thoughts she kept having she knew wouldn't stay beneath the surface for long. In fact, when she saw him in the courtyard, she realized it was the moment.

She wasn't sure she'd get another opportunity, not between now and Christmas.

She dashed out into the courtyard of the apartment, a cat underfoot. "Morgan?"

The bearded one turned. "Hey, El. What's up?"

"I..." She hesitated.

Instantly, he went on high-alert.

"Do you have a minute?"

"For you, you bet'cha. Talk to ole Dr. Morgan, huh?"

She smiled tightly. "Well, I've been thinking about Christmas coming up..."

"Yeah..."

While it wasn't exactly what she was thinking about, she decided to start with an easier question. "About what to get John."

"I'm not sure I can help you there," Morgan said, shaking his head. "Even Alex isn't sure what to get him. If the two women closest to him can't figure out what to buy the big lug, then how am I supposed to know? Short of a subscription to Guns & Ammo which, I'm pretty sure, he already has... Maybe you could renew it for him?"

"That's a really good thought," Ellie said before quickly moving into other territory, hoping to pounce before Morgan knew what hit him. "How is Chuck dealing with everything?"

"Oh, you know," he began, "he..." He drifted off.

It was almost like Ellie could see the brick wall Morgan had clearly run into.

Downy seemed to know that Morgan was at a loss, as she moved forward, rubbing against his shin.

"Why are we talking about Chuck? What are we talking about, necessarily, with Chuck? Y'know, 'cause I'm still thinking a-about Casey," he said stumblingly. "And you and Casey, that's... that's something, right? The way you two came together, the way... the way eeeeverything is different now..."

Ellie narrowed her eyes slightly-not angrily by any means but curiously. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Well, just, y'know, that was... that was fast. You and Casey. Because you and Devon..."

Ellie took a moment to process what he was saying as Morgan busied himself with scratching Downy behind the ears. "Chuck's not handling this well either, is he?"

Morgan swallowed hard. "Y'know, Ellie, I'm not really... I'm not really sure that I'm the one you want to be having this conversation with."

"Chuck's been avoiding me since Thanksgiving," she pointed out.

Morgan nodded slowly.

"And that's... that's on purpose, isn't it?"

He let out a squeaking noise as he tried to shrug innocently.

"Morgan..."

"Look, Ellie, he loves you dearly. We all do. But, none of us saw this turn of events coming, y'know? Everybody thought you and Awesome were, well, awesome. And then when you weren't, and then when Casey was suddenly really, insanely prevalent in your life... That's... That's something that's different, y'know? That's something that the rest of us are having a hard time adjusting to..."

"Just who do you mean exactly when you say 'us'?" Ellie questioned.

Truthfully, Morgan didn't really care. He'd finally moved past his obsession with his best friend's sister. And Alex seemed to like them as a couple. In fact, she'd really taken a shine to Ellie. She thought that the doctor was really good for her father. And Sarah... Sarah's spy lips were tightly sealed, but he saw vestiges, hints of smiles whenever Ellie and Casey were around and together. He assumed that she was okay with it, too. Really, "us" was a bit of a misnomer. "Us" really just meant Chuck.

And the pause was very telling. For being surrounded by spies, for not knowing for the longest about what was really going on under her nose, Ellie was observant. She knew enough about her extended family to put two and two together and come up with four.

"I see," she said quietly, lowering herself to sit on the edge of the fountain.

"Look, Ellie, it's... it'll be fine."

"Fine?" she asked with a tiny, pained laugh. "It's... it's like all of the first spy years again," she said quietly. "With Chuck keeping things from me. There's that... that disconnect that's not supposed to be there."

"He wants you to be happy. That's all Chuck's ever wanted for you. And his weirdness about the whole situation with you and Casey won't make you happy and he knows that. That's why there's the 'disconnect.' He's not talking to you because he loves you."

She slowly looked up at him. "And that doesn't strike you as odd? As wrong?"

He looked absolutely uncomfortable. "I really don't think this is my place to be having this conversation with you, y'know? I really think that this is something that's... that's not for me to be getting in the middle of. You're you and he's him and I'm... I gotta make my peace somehow, right, 'cause I gotta live with him, unless you wanna put me up in your guest room. But, then again, Casey might not exactly approve of that one," he said, thinking aloud.

"Morgan..."

"Or, maybe, we could play musical apartments, right? You and Casey can move in together, I can take the empty apartment... Everybody wins! Maybe Alex would come and... Well, that's getting ahead of myself a little."

"Morgan."

He snapped out of his monologue. "Yeah?"

"Thanks."

He looked at her, really looked at her. He was a long-time observer of the beautiful Eleanor Fay. He knew that she was hurting, that it was painful, what he'd revealed. Most of all, he hated that he'd been the cause of it, that he'd wound up kind of betraying Chuck's trust in the process. "Ellie, you can't... You can't tell Chuck I said anything, okay?"

"More spying?"

"More like... more like doctor-patient privilege. Y'know. Dr. Ellie, Dr. Morgan..."

Ellie sounded absolutely defeated as she said: "Fine."

Morgan watched as Downy jumped into Ellie's lap, as she let her fingers get lost in the cat's soft fur. Reluctantly, he turned on his heel and headed toward his car. After all, he had a Buy More to run. And that was where he'd been going in the first place, when she'd stopped him. He closed his eyes tightly as he wandered out of the courtyard.

Stay tuned...