"I'll miss you."

Brian had already been halfway down the first set of stairs, but those words stopped him in his tracks. "…what?"

As he turned around, he saw that Casey's gaze was toward the ground, but her eyes flashed over in his direction for just a moment with a look of sadness. "…nothing," she said as she turned away again.

For a fleeting moment he thought about simply taking her response at face value and continuing to leave like he had intended to, but he couldn't bring himself to do it. "No you just said something to me," he said as he stepped beside her. "You said you'd miss me."

Casey turned to look at him again, her expression seemingly a mix of fear, embarrassment and confusion all rolled up together. The confident resolve that had emboldened her to barge into the men's room minutes before looking for him had completely evaporated. There was only a moment of silence between them but the awkwardness in the air made it seem like much longer than that.

"Well… I will," she sighed as she raised her hands in an exasperated manner. "I mean, who… who am I going to hang out with? Or order Chinese food with, or rent a cheesy movie when I don't have a date on Saturday night with?" All of her thoughts were just spilling out rapidly now.

Casey looked at Brian's face for any sign of a reaction, but all she could see was a blank stare. "…forget it," she said in a resigned manner, as she headed for the stairs before anything else might spill out.

"…okay you can go."

It was barely audible and mumbled like his mouth was full, but somehow Casey heard every word. She was back up the stairs in a flash. "Wh-what did you say?"

"…nothing." Now it was Brian who had a strange expression on his face as he looked away quickly.

"N-no, you said I could go!" Casey pressed. She felt a sense of spontaneous glee welling up inside her.

"…how did you hear that?" Brian sputtered. "What are you, a bat?"

"Brian… did you mean it?"

The awkwardness felt torturous to him. His natural instinct was to retreat to his usual defense of dropping some kind of sarcastic response, but the pleading look on Casey's face stopped him. "…we leave on Friday," he finally said with a sigh.

"Oh thank you so much!" Casey burst out, undeniable happiness in her voice now. "You will never regret it!"

"…I already regret it," Brian replied with exasperation.

"Of course you do," Casey said in a mocking but cheerful tone. "But no backsies!" she called out happily as she ran back downstairs to share the news with whoever she could find.

As he watched her go, Brian couldn't stop a small smile from curling up on the side of his mouth. "No backsies, I guess," he sighed.

"Brian, wake up!"

"No backsies!" Brian blurted out as his head shot up off the desk. As his vision slowly came into focus, his gaze was met by that of a perplexed-looking Casey standing beside his seat in the office, her hand on his shoulder.

Right, the office. He had retreated there immediately after returning from a tiring set of morning flights and must have fallen asleep. The irony of having a dream about partly how he ended up in this situation to begin with was not lost on him.

"…no backsies on what?" Casey asked, confused.

"…nothing," Brian answered hurriedly. "What do you want?"

"You've been in here since you came back from your Boston flight and you didn't come out for lunch," she replied, motioning towards a plate placed on the side of the desk. "I thought you were working on something, but it turns out you were just sleeping," she added with a disapproving look.

"I'm lazy, sue me," Brian said flatly. He glanced at his watch. "Damn it, only have about 20 minutes before the next flight and I haven't even done the pre-check yet." He pushed himself off the chair, stifling a yawn as he did so.

"You should eat something first!" Casey said as she grabbed the plate she had brought in and thrust it towards him. "Egg salad sandwich," she added as she waved the plate up and down slowly as if trying to add to its allure. "I'm trying this for the first time today!"

Brian wrinkled his nose a bit. The truth was that he was actually quite hungry, having been late to the airport this morning and only having a cup of coffee before his first flight. Another (less convenient) truth was that Casey's cooking generally still left quite a bit to be desired. While she had improved dramatically since the initial days of taking over Helen's lunch counter, there was simply no substitute for years of practical experience. Casey was someone who barely had to enter a kitchen while living in the lap of luxury, much less run and maintain a business centered around one.

But she was trying. Damn it, she was. And the sincerity of her gesture counted for something too.

"Appreciate it," Brian said as he accepted the plate and willed his face into something hopefully resembling an encouraging smile. Casey nodded but didn't leave; she simply fluttered around him, awaiting a verdict on her culinary creation.

As he chowed down on the sandwich, Casey was happy that Brian was eating it without any sign of an adverse reaction, which had happened before. "How is it how is it?" she asked, pressing for a response.

"…it's pretty good," Brian mumbled in response with his mouth full. It wasn't a lie. Maybe everything tastes better when you're hungry, or maybe she was actually getting better at making sandwiches.

Somehow Casey understood every word. A smile broke out on her face. "Really? You really think so?" she bubbled excitedly.

Brian swallowed down the chunk of sandwich he was chewing on. "What are you, a bat?"

Casey punched his shoulder in response. "If it's good then eat faster, don't be late for your flight," she said with a lightly scolding tone.

"Yes, mother hen," Brian deadpanned through another mouthful.

Casey rolled her eyes. "I'm leaving now," she said as she turned to leave. "See you later."

"Wait!" Brian called out as she got to the office door. "Are we still on for tonight?"

The question caught Casey off guard. She blanked out as she tried to remember what was supposed to be happening. "Err, tonight?" she asked sheepishly after a moment.

"That movie premiere you were interested in, remember?" Ah, that was it. A film she had been excited about for a while was opening tonight, but they would have to fly to Boston to see it because the theater on the island wasn't showing it. "My late afternoon flight should be back here by 5:30. If you can be ready to go by then, we can head off for Boston right after I get back?"

Casey's excitement swelled and she opened her mouth to reply, but stopped. She remembered how she had just found him, facedown in a stack of papers, asleep, before noon. The truth was that as much as Brian tried to play it off, he had been working himself into the ground and was probably running on fumes more often than not. With Joe away, Sandpiper was now back to being a one-pilot operation and Brian had been flying a LOT, on top of managing the office work as well. An extra round trip to Boston tonight after a full day's load certainly wouldn't have helped.

For a moment, Casey thought about telling Brian to stay home and she would find some other way to go watch it, whether it was by herself or with someone else. But when she finally said something, what came out was "let's just stay in tonight."

Brian was dumbfounded. "What are you talking about, you've been waiting for this movie for weeks now. Ask me how I know. Oh right, it's because you won't shut up about it!"

"We can see it some other time!" she pushed back. "Look, I know you've been working really long hours lately, and I think you know it too. You were faceplanted on your desk snoring when I came in just now."

"…that was just a quick powernap in between flights. I'm fine," Brian said in defense.

"Even if it was, you should take whatever rest you can get. I don't want you to have to fly to Boston again tonight just for this," Casey continued.

"Casey, seriously, I'm fin-"

"Don't argue with me on this one, okay?!" she yelled with closed eyes and clenched fists in the air. Don't… make me worry, she thought to herself. She didn't realize that she had said that last part out loud, even if only quietly.

"…what?" Brian was taken aback by her sudden outburst.

"Nothing! Just… we're staying in tonight and that's final!" Casey declared emphatically, straightening her posture and composing herself. "I'll even make dinner, okay?"

Brian arched an eyebrow. "And this is supposed to make your idea more appealing…?"

Casey had no more patience for his wisecracks by now. "I can't stand you sometimes!" she said, glaring daggers at him before turning back around, opening the door to leave.

"Casey!"

She stopped, but did not turn around. "What?" she asked, annoyed.

"…thanks. For bringing lunch, and, you know…"

Try as she might, Casey couldn't stop a small smile from coming out that she hoped he wouldn't notice. "That sandwich is going on your tab you know, and there will be an extra fee for delivery," she said nonchalantly as she walked back into the terminal.

Delivery fee?! She walked all of 10 steps to get here! Brian thought as the door closed behind her. He sat back down in his chair; the office quiet once again. "And thanks… for worrying," he said into the silence as he stared up at the ceiling.

A/N: I'm a 90s kid who loves 90s sitcoms. Recently I was stuck at home for a week because of illness and binged all of Wings, which I had never watched before but got hooked on quickly and thoroughly enjoyed. I'm a huge fan of the Joe/Helen pairing (despite some of the clumsy bits in the middle seasons) and the elevator proposal scene is one of those signature moments that I'll always remember about the show. I also enjoyed the 2 seasons of post-marriage Joe/Helen that we got as well as their happy ending, which I would say tried to defy the trope of romance arcs only being interesting during the chase and not after their resolution.

So with all that being said, why am I writing a story about Brian and Casey?

There's a lot I can write about that, but in the interest of not having this note balloon to an unreasonable length I'll just say that the dynamic between the two became the most interesting to me by the end of the show. They have run through almost the entire spectrum of 'relationship statuses' from outright enemies, frenemies, toxic lovers, toxic friends and eventually settling in as great (or maybe even best) friends. While the show purposely avoided putting them together on-screen, there's a lot of potential meat on that bone, in a manner of speaking. The pairing label on this story tips my hand as to how I would have wanted things to go.

As for setup, the finale puts everything in place already. Their ship does not sink (and is in fact lightly teased!) and they end up continuing on in the same location around the same people, but under a new status quo with Joe and Helen gone. Where that leads exactly, we'll have to see.

Initially I was intending to make one-offs, but eventually decided to try weaving them together into a cohesive story. This part I wrote weeks ago shortly after I finished watching, and truth be told I like it less and less every time I re-read and edit it. But by now I have several more parts done, and I'd rather put time towards moving the story forward instead of trying to rewrite a better introduction, so I've decided to go ahead with posting it now. More parts will come as I edit them to hopefully tie together properly.

I thank you for reading and hope you enjoy.