For notes and disclaimer, please see part one.

Best wishes to all of you for a happy, wonderful, awesome 2011! ~K

Here's a few things you might need to know or maybe you just forgot: Casey and Ellie reflect independently on their 2010 in the waning days of the year.

Old Lang Syne

There wasn't a lot of fuss that night. There usually never was for him. Under normal circumstances, his New Year's Eve would be spent finishing up the year-end reports for Beckman. And he rarely stayed up to midnight. He had things to do. Terrorists to catch. A nation to protect.

He normally spent the night at home, alone.

While he was in the apartment complex, he wasn't at his place. He sat on the end of Ellie's couch, his socked feet propped upon the coffee table. She was curled up beside him, leaning against him. Downy sat on his lap, purring contentedly.

Earlier in the day, after he'd finished all his reports and shipped them off to D.C., they'd celebrated the end of 2010 with dinner. Chuck, Sarah, Morgan and Alex had been there. Once the leftovers had been stored and the dishes washed and put away, the younger couples headed out to some party, to ring in the new year with a boogie or two. Casey had offered to take Ellie, too, but she'd had a better idea, one that began and ended on the couch.

They watched the ball drop in New York before finding a Bogart movie marathon. They'd come in at the end of Casablanca, their favorite movie, before moving into the Big Sleep.

And the big sleep was exactly what Casey wound up doing. He dozed off, in the warm, comfortable company of Ellie and Downy. He was content, maybe for the first time in his adult life. He had a job he loved, a woman he cherished and a family who, in their own peculiar way, understood him. Off and on, he'd been blessed to have one or two of those at a time, but he'd never had all three at the same time. Not until the best year ever.

Even his best year hadn't been without its pitfalls, however. Ellie's life had been turned upside down more than once. And he'd been the cause of it, somewhat. The loss of Stephen hadn't been something he could've prevented, but the situation with Devon had been partially his doing. But all of that didn't matter. It was all water under the bridge. It was in the past, because Ellie was his future.

Ellie listened as his breathing evened out, as he drifted off to dreamland. This time last year, she never would've imagined she'd be doing this now, laying against him. This time last year, she couldn't have even fathomed the way her life could and would change over the course of a mere twelve months.

As painful as some of the moments were, as different as things had become, she wouldn't have traded it for the world. Her life, while a wild ride, wasn't awful. It wasn't perfect, but it was nice.

It was hard not to compare what her New Year's might've been like had her life not changed. She might've been drug out with Chuck and the others at Devon's insistence. Or, worse, at some fraternity alumni event where she felt out of place. She was a homebody, first and foremost. The occasional night out was grand, but she liked the cave-like feel of recharging her batteries away from other people, something she'd never been able to get across to her now ex-husband. She was around hundreds of people a day at the hospital, each who needed her. There was something so nice about going home at the end of the day, settling in with a delicious dinner and really relaxing.

She'd always wanted someone she could rely on, someone who could take care of her and who she would take care of in return. She wanted an equal partnership. She wanted someone who listened to her, someone who cared about her.

She never would've thought she'd have found all of that, everything she was looking for, in him. In John Casey of all people. She'd always liked him. He'd always been respectful to her, unlike anyone else Chuck befriended. In fact, he'd been so unlike any of Chuck's friends that she should've known long ago that he wasn't just some electronics salesman.

Maybe she hadn't looked closely because she'd been too afraid of what might happen. That she might get attached to him, that she might be attracted to him, that it was possible for her to even fall for him.

She closed her eyes as she snuggled closer against him. Maybe it was fate all along, and she'd ignored it. But she wouldn't, not now, not again, not ever.

Downy glanced up at her purring owners. Casey's chin rested against Ellie's soft hair. Ellie's limbs seemed tangled with his. As the calico slowly got up and stretched, she ambled off of Casey's lap, climbing onto the arm of the couch. Her padded paws traveled across the remote control. As the flat-screen TV showed the crisp white The End credit, she hit the power button, bathing the room in relative darkness. Only the pure-white twinkling lights from the Christmas tree remained the new year finally arrived California.

Stay tuned...