"So…"

"So…" Brian repeated.

"…How are you doing?"

Brian didn't reply, but sighed audibly into the phone. He didn't think things would have gotten awkward so quickly.

"Brian, you know long distance calls aren't cheap…"

"Okay okay!" Brian snapped out of his momentary stupor. "Geez Joey, all that extra cash and you're still thinking about long distance fees? With your own brother!"

Joe snickered. "Old habits die hard, all right?"

"…it's good to hear from you, Joe," Brian said as the earlier tension seemed to melt away. It's not that he didn't appreciate hearing from his brother, far from it. But they usually scheduled calls to accommodate their 6-hour time difference, and tonight Joe had just called out of the blue, at an hour that was certainly past his usual bedtime.

"Are you sure? If I didn't know better, I'd say you've been trying to avoid me, Brian," Joe replied.

"Where'd you come up with a crazy idea like that?" Brian deflected. "But I'm sorry for not calling, Joey. I've just been… busy," was the word he finally settled on.

"It's all right, I know you have," Joe said. "But now, you want me to tell me what's going on?" he asked after a pause.

Brian put his free hand on his forehead. "Cutting right to the chase, are you?"

"I just want to know if you're all right," Joe said with a more serious tone. "We haven't talked in a couple of weeks now, and all the emails you send me are just reports on Sandpiper. Even if you're busy and don't have time to talk, you know you can write about stuff other than work."

Brian scoffed. It's true that while he did send Joe a fair number of emails (how did businesses ever function before this was a thing?), they were almost all work-related, conveniently neglecting mention of anything on the personal front. He figured that Joe would have gotten suspicious eventually, just not so soon. "Just want to make sure you know I'm not running your business into the ground," he answered.

"OUR business, Brian…" Joe said with audible exasperation. "I can't believe I'm saying this, but I don't care about Sandpiper right now. I know you'll run it just fine and I have complete faith in you to do so."

Brian couldn't help but crack a smile. They were older and grown up now, but Joe was and would always be his older brother, the person he looked up to more than anyone in the world. As much as Brian would deny it to anyone, genuine approval and validation from Joe still meant a lot to him. "You really mean that, Joey?"

"Of course I do, and you know that," Joe replied, letting the moment sink in. But he broke the silence shortly after. "Now, tell me. what. is. going. on."

"Okay okay geez, calm down," Brian said defensively. Joe clearly wasn't going to let it go, but the problem was he didn't even know where to begin. "It's just… it's weird not having you and Helen around here anymore." He slouched down on the couch as he spoke. Their couch. Joe and Helen's couch.

After he had made the last-minute decision to call off his planned island excursion and stay on Nantucket, Brian didn't have anywhere to stay as he had already moved out of his old rental house. He had stayed in a hotel for a few days, but after Joe and Helen had gotten settled in Vienna, they decided to let him house-sit while they were away to kill two birds with one stone.

"I mean yeah, I guess it's the first time in years we've been this far apart so I can see how it would be a bit of a change," Joe replied, scratching the back of his head. "But Casey's still there, isn't she?"

Ah yes, Casey. Make that three birds with one stone.

Truth be told, it's not like there had been any kind of adjustment needed. Casey had been living in the same house as him in some form for the last couple of years now. But this was different, even compared to their most recent arrangement of sharing a house without their siblings. For one thing, Joe and Helen had always acted as a stabilizing force even when the four of them weren't all living under the same roof. Even if Brian and Casey most often turned to each other for company, their siblings were usually where they went for help or guidance. That was now no longer an option, or at least it had become much more inconvenient.

But wasn't this how things were going to end up anyway? Although he hadn't really given it much thought at the time he agreed to let her accompany him, Brian had come around to the idea that he and Casey would have been living together while on their island vacation. But that would have been different; they would have been there for fun and relaxation, compared to how their lives now seemed to just revolve around work and the stresses that came along with it.

Work and stress? It wasn't that simple, was it? No, it couldn't be. In fact, sometimes life with Joe and Helen had been much more stressful than anything Brian had to deal with now. All the escapades and misadventures that they and their friends had been on over the years provided plenty evidence of that.

So then what was it? Why did he feel so unsettled now? Like there was something… missing that he couldn't find but had to have.

"Yeah, she's around," Brian answered with a sigh.

"Are you two not getting along or something?"

"Yes… I mean no, I mean we're getting along fine!" Brian said as he threw his head back against the sofa hard enough for Joe to hear a thump on the other end of the line.

"Then what's the matter?" Joe asked. By now he was a bit perturbed that he was having to pry information out from his brother like this, but he could tell that something was really bothering Brian. He did his best to try and stay patient.

"I don't know! Everything just feels different!" Brian shouted. "…look, Joe, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to snap at you like that," he said, trying to calm himself down.

Joe didn't answer. He could tell that Brian still had more to say.

"…Casey thinks that I've been working too hard lately," Brian continued.

That would have been an unbelievable statement coming from the Brian Hackett of the past, but Joe got the feeling that he wasn't joking around here. "And what do you think? Have you?"

"No harder than you did when you were running Sandpiper by yourself." Brian tried to dodge giving a direct answer.

"And do you remember what happened to me eventually?"

"You mean losing your flying license because of high blood pressure or cracking like an egg and running away to Mustique?" Brian stopped immediately, regretting his words as soon as he said them.

Another pause. "…both."

"…sorry Joe, I didn't mean it like that."

"I know you didn't." Despite the unpleasant memories, at least enough time had passed where Joe could look back on those incidents without being truly upset by them. "But Brian, if there's anyone who knows what kind of pressure you're under right now, it's me."

"I know," Brian replied. "I know that."

"Then why didn't you talk to me sooner about this?" Joe asked, dead serious now.

"Because…" Brian paused, unsure of how to finish. "…because I didn't want you to worry."

Silence.

"…and what makes you think I don't already?" Joe asked, cutting through the quiet.

"…what?"

"Brian, you're my baby brother," Joe continued. "And I'll be halfway across the world away from you for the better part of a year, while you're carrying the burden of running the business that we've shared for eight years now all by yourself. How could I not worry?"

Brian had always hated the term 'baby brother' even from childhood, but hearing it this time made him feel a bit better, reminding him of the safe and comfortable feeling from his childhood when Joe took care of him. "I've been feeling more and more tired lately," he started. "Never on flights; there's like an adrenaline kick when I'm on the plane but afterwards I just… I feel like I got nothing left," he trailed off.

"Are you getting enough sleep at night?" Joe asked.

"I'm trying," Brian sighed. "But you know how it is though, between the office duties and work on the plane, I've usually got my hands full. Can't believe we still haven't gotten a full-time mechanic here since Budd left."

"How's the search for another pilot coming along?"

"…no leads yet," Brian lied.

The statement itself was not untrue, but it was certainly a lie by omission. While Brian had put up an ad soon after Joe had left, he hadn't returned any of the calls that came in nor did he really make an effort to see if there was a suitable pilot he could hire. Something about the idea of sharing Sandpiper flights with someone who wasn't his brother just didn't feel comfortable to him; it was the only working arrangement Brian had ever known. As long as he could handle running things by himself comfortably (and he was quite comfortable now, thank you very much… wasn't he?), Brian figured it would be best to just keep the business in-house, so to speak.

"Pool of prospects is even thinner than before," he added. "You know how the pilot market is like these days."

"Hmm," Joe seemed to be contemplating something. "Do we have another brother somewhere that we might have forgotten about?" he deadpanned.

Brian laughed. "Good one Joey, even if we did I think the odds of this mystery brother of ours willing to work for what we pay would be even lower."

That drew a chuckle out of Joe as well. "Listen Brian, it's getting late here so I really should be getting to sleep soon. But can I just ask you one more thing?"

Brian glanced over at the clock and winced slightly. Even though it had been Joe who called him, he had forgotten about the time difference once their conversation had gotten going. "Ah sorry about that Joe, I didn't mean to keep you up. But shoot."

Joe knew what he wanted to ask, but he had to choose his words carefully. "When you said earlier that things felt different… did you mean that they're different just because Helen and I aren't there, or that things feel different with Casey?"

Despite the detour their conversation had taken, it seemed that Joe could tell that Brian hadn't been entirely forthcoming earlier. However, just as he had tried to sidestep the topic earlier, Brian wasn't ready nor had any interest in trying to unpackage any thoughts about Casey right now. "I… don't know how to answer that, Joe."

Joe tried for a different approach. "Let me ask you this then. Why did you agree to let Casey go with you?"

"Go with me where?" A feeble attempt at a deflection, but the best Brian could muster in the moment.

"Brian…"

"Okay okay! It's just…" Damn you, Joe. Brian cursed in his head. There wasn't really any way around it now. "…remember that argument you and I had when we were talking about what to do with the money?"

"Vividly." Joe's reply was a bit terse. It hadn't been quite long enough for THAT unpleasant memory to be entirely forgotten yet.

"That stuff I said about… you know, good-bye money and wanting to leave, I really meant it," Brian continued cautiously. "I really wanted to just… leave everything in Nantucket behind and turn the page completely."

"Everything except Casey?"

"No, her too," Brian said, running his free hand through his hair. "…she asked me a couple of times to let her come. I shot her down."

"So what changed?"

"…the last time I told her no, she said she would miss me."

No response came. Brian assumed that revelation wasn't something Joe had been expecting. "Listen, Joey. I don't mean to cut the conversation short but uh, Casey just came home. Can we… um, continue this some other time?"

"Uh, yeah. No problem," Joe answered, sounding slightly flustered. "I should be getting to bed anyway. Tell her I said hello."

"Will do. Tell Helen I said hi too."

"Okay. Take care of yourself, all right? Don't push yourself too hard."

"I'll try. I'll manage." Not exactly a convincing answer.

"And Brian… you know that you can talk to me about anything, at any time, right?"

"Yeah Joe, I know. But about, you know… what I was just…"

Joe understood. "I know, Brian. I won't say anything to Helen, I promise."

Not that he was expecting otherwise, but Brian still breathed a small sigh of relief. "Thanks Joe. Talk to you next time we're free."

Brian hung up the phone and sunk back into the sofa, alone with his thoughts again in the quiet of the house. He already felt bad about lying to Joe earlier during the call; doing it again just now made him feel even worse.

The truth was that Casey had not come home, but Brian thought it was the easiest excuse to get out of the conversation before he might have opened up a bit too much. He didn't know when she would be back; she was out with some of her old coworkers from Henley's tonight and had told him she would probably be out late. He briefly considered staying up and waiting for her to come home, but that could have been for hours yet, he had morning flights tomorrow, and it might have seemed just a bit weird. Going to bed earlier was the more sensible option any way he looked at it.

Brian turned off all the lights and was halfway up the stairs when a thought crossed his mind. "Damn it Joe," he muttered to himself as he turned the lights back on, went back down to the home office and tore a sheet off the writing pad. Grabbing a nearby pen, he scribbled down a quick note.

TALKED TO JOE, HE SAYS HELLO

-B

As nonsensical as it seemed, at least he wouldn't go to bed with three lies to his brother on his conscience, only two. He tossed the note and pen on the coffee table, flipped the lights off again and headed for the stairs, before stopping once more.

What if she just goes straight upstairs and doesn't see the note?

He headed back to the coffee table and turned the nearby lamp back on. That should draw her attention.

As he looked back at the paper, he frowned. Did that one random line sound strange? Should he clarify it in some way? He picked up the pen and wrote again.

HAVE EARLY MORNING, DO YOU NEED RIDE TOMORROW?

-B

There, now it might not sound so weird.

THERE'S DESSERT IN THE FRIDGE

-B

Not weird at all. Aside from maybe the fact that three lines of text was signed three times. By the only other person in the house.

"What is wrong with me?!" Brian said as he rubbed his eyes and put his face in his palms. He picked up the paper, crumpled it in his hand and prepared to throw it into the trash can, but he couldn't bring himself to do it.

Brian sighed as he unfolded the wrinkled sheet and looked at it again. Picking up the pen one more time, he scribbled one more line near the bottom of the paper before leaving it under the light of the lamp.

GOOD NIGHT

-B

A/N: While this story is and will always be centered around Brian and Casey, it's important to remember that their family and friends are still around and kicking even if everyone is operating under a new status quo. The relationship and bond that the Hackett brothers built throughout the series means that even if Joe is not physically around anymore, he will still find ways to be an influential figure within the world of this story.

As a bit of a housekeeping note, please keep in mind that if time 'in-world' follows approximately the original air dates of the show, the post-finale year should be taking place somewhere between 1997-1998. As such, a lot of modern conveniences still don't exist yet, or are at least not developed to the level they are now. For example, not everyone has a cell phone or always-available internet access, text/instant messaging isn't a thing, people used paper maps still, etc. You get the drift. I bring this up because I am writing with these 'restrictions' in mind and explaining/handwaving things accordingly, like why Joe and Brian HAVE to speak over the phone on a scheduled call instead of just texting each other every day like we would probably do now.

UPDATE: The small after-stories that were collected in the chapter previously titled "Interludes" have been placed with their corresponding chapters for easier reading; see chapter 2.5 below.

"Ah damn it, he turned all the lights off!" Casey cursed as she stumbled towards the front door. The entryway was completely dark, and the only light she had to guide her came from the nearby streetlamp far behind her. Visibility wasn't the only issue either; the accumulation of alcohol she had consumed tonight was making the walk up more challenging than usual, and she was in heels to boot.

It had been a good night out; Casey joined her old coworkers from the department store for one of their occasional get-togethers. It was actually the first time she had gathered with them since she had quit in spectacular fashion when she thought she was leaving Nantucket previously, an event that her friends found great joy in recounting throughout the night. They had so much fun that by the time her taxi got her home it was well past her usual bedtime, to say the least.

Casey slowly and carefully made her way to the door, leaning against it as she opened her purse and felt inside for her house key. Even though she didn't have much else in her handbag, it was a bit tricky to fish out a small item in the dark, plus she was still holding onto a bag with a gift from her friends in her other hand. "Got it!" she said, pulling out the key, only to immediately drop it on the ground as she lifted it out. "You've got to be kidding me!" she cried, bending down and trying to feel around where she had heard it clink on the ground.

She located the key after a few seconds and tried to stand up, but her head spun for a moment and she fell sideways, fortunately back against the door instead of onto the ground. With key in hand, she felt around for the door lock clumsily and managed to unlock it after a slight struggle. As she pushed open the door and tried to step inside however, the heel of her shoe slipped across the door frame and she tumbled to the ground with a scream.

"Ouch…" Casey moaned as she slowly rolled over and sat up. …oh no, the gift! she thought as she searched for the gift bag frantically, finding it nearby. "Good, not broken," she said with relief after checking inside. As she pulled off her shoes and tossed them aside, she felt pain in her right leg and noticed she was bleeding from a cut near her knee.

"Just my luck," she grumbled as she got to her feet slowly and hobbled to the light switch, turning on the lights in the living room. She wanted nothing more than to just roll into bed and take a much-needed rest, but she needed to take care of her wound first. She pulled herself into the bathroom and opened the cabinet inside, hoping that Joe and Helen kept a first aid kit there. Fortunately there was one, and with a bit of effort she was able to clean the cut and put a bandage on it.

Heading back into the living room, Casey flopped onto the sofa, not wanting to exert the effort needed to go upstairs. She was tired enough that she felt like she could probably fall asleep right there, but she would probably have body aches for the whole day tomorrow if she did. It was already late enough that she wasn't going to get a full night of rest anyway, and only now did she remember that supplies for the lunch counter were being delivered first thing in the morning. The exhilaration from her night of fun was quickly evaporating.

"I have to get to bed," Casey groaned, pulling herself off the couch. As she went to turn off the lamp beside the coffee table (…had that always been on?), she noticed a wrinkled piece of paper conspicuously left under the light with an uncapped pen discarded beside it. "This definitely wasn't here before," she said as she picked up the paper and read it.

"Talked to Joe, he says hello, signed B." He didn't mention that they had scheduled a call, did something happen? I'll have to remember to ask him later.

"Have early morning… do you need ride tomorrow, signed B." Oh that would be a huge help! If he's going early, I can hitch a ride and save time so I can sleep a bit more…

On previous delivery days, she had asked Brian to drive her in, and he never said no. But lately she felt bad about making him get up earlier than he had to after a usually-full day prior, so whenever possible she just wouldn't tell him and get up (very) early to take the bus. But since he had to go in early anyway this time, she would graciously accept his offer.

"There's dessert in the fridge… signed B." Why is he initialing after each line? And come to think of it, why does this paper look like it was pulled out of the garbage?

She had two guesses as to what had happened. The first was that he had been drinking when he wrote this, but that seemed unlikely. The writing was far too neat and coherent for someone who had taken leave of their senses. The second theory was that he started writing and had to keep coming back to it for whatever reason, to the point where he almost tossed it out completely, but ultimately decided to keep it out for her. There wasn't any more writing in the middle of the page, but as Casey scanned the page carefully her eye caught a small note scribbled near the bottom.

"Good night… B."

Despite her weariness, Casey felt her heart beating faster for a few moments. She couldn't help a goofy grin from coming out as she read it, despite how random and seemingly devoid of context Brian's note was as a whole. She picked up the pen and wrote in big words diagonally across his lines.

YES PLEASE, DELIVERY DAY TOMORROW

-C

DON'T LEAVE WITHOUT ME

-C

PLEASE WAKE ME IF I'M NOT UP

-C

She left the paper back on the table, giggling to herself with a sense of satisfaction even if she didn't know exactly why. Remembering that she really did have to get to bed now, she turned off all the lights downstairs and quietly made her way up the stairs. As she tiptoed her way across the hall, she paused and stopped in front of Brian's bedroom. She opened the door ever so slightly and peered inside. The room was completely dark, of course, but the faint sound of Brian breathing as he slept contentedly could be heard from inside.

"…good night, B," Casey whispered with a smile as she closed the door.