Phuket, Thailand
October 21st
Navy SEAL Commander James Curran sat at the beach bar of the Bayanga Hotel in Thailandwatching the surf crash onto the shore.Picking up his glass he nodded to
the bartender to refill his drink.
As he sipped the bourbon he looked around him,everywhere he looked couples sat holding hands ,sharing cocktails and laughing. He cursed Hawkins once again for offering him this vacation in 'paradise'. Curran looked away from the couples in barely concealed disgust, and resumed his watch on the
ocean.
It was then that he saw her.
In a sea of couples, the lone woman stood staring just as he was out at the ocean.
She was sitting about 35 feet away, a glass of what appeared to be bourbon held loosely in her hand as it rested on the arm of the deck lounge she
was on. He once again summoned the bartender.
"That lady over there...what's she drinking?"
"Bourbon sir, she's been sitting on that one drink for almost an hour now."
The bartender said with a frown.
"Was she with anyone?"
Curran asked watching her adjust her drink and take a small sip.
The bartender shook his head.
"She's been here for 2 days now, but I haven't seen anyone with her"
"There wasn't a guy in a three piece suit with her?" Curran asked puzzled.
"In this weather sir?"
The bartender said with a grin.
"He's cold-blooded, heat doesn't bother him" Curran said softly, he motioned towards where she sat, "Wait a few minutes and then bring a bottle of bourbon,a bucket of ice and 2 cold glasses over OK?"
The bartender looked at him and shrugged.
"Sure thing Sir, but I don't think she wants company."
Curran smiled lazily.
"She is Company"
The bartender merely gave him a confused look and pulled a bottle of bourbon out of the storage cupboard.
Curran walked down the beach towards the figure on the deckchair.
Casey McDaniels watched yet another small wave end it's journey in a small act of violence as it hit the pristine sand of the beach. She had made a
mistake coming to Thailand,there were too many memories here, memories of her and Clay & of her work.
That was one thing about working for the company, the world seemed a whole lot smaller now, there was no place she could go that didn't have some
kind of memory attached to it.
"Y'know, someone once told me that bourbon should never be allowed to get warm."
The voice startled her,she turned her head slightly to look as a pair of well muscled khaki clad legs moved past her face to sit on the side of the
lounger.
"Curran, long time no see."
Casey said softly,looking at him briefly before returning her gaze to the ocean.
"Geez Case, don't bowl me over with your enthusiasm I don't think I could handle it." Curran said with a wry grin.
Casey didn't even smile.
"Sorry Curran."
"Where's Webb? I don't see him anywhere?"
"In Washington."
Curran looked at Casey. "You're here on ops without him?" He asked, surprised.
"Nope" Casey said with a fragile looking smile. "I'm no longer company property."
Curran almost dropped his bourbon.
"What do you mean no longer company property? Since when? What the hell happened?"
Casey got to her feet and smoothed her sarong.
"I quit." She said simply as she walked away from Curran and down the beach towards the setting sun.
Curran ran back to the bar.
"I'll take that bottle of bourbon to go...charge it to my room" He yelled over his shoulder as he grabbed the bottle and ran after Casey.
"Hey McDaniels wait up" Curran yelled as he ran down the beach after her.
Casey slowed to let him catch up to her.
Holding the bottle of bourbon up he slung an arm around her shoulders.
"Y'know what I think we should do?"
Casey looked a him with eyes that showed more pain than he thought possible.
"What?"
"We should go back to my room,get blissfully tanked and you can tell me all about it."
He held the bottle out to her.Casey hesitated for a moment, wondering what Clay would think about that...but Clay was stuck at the bottom of a bottle
of single malt scotch and likely couldn't give a damn.
She took the bottle from Curran and smiled weakly.
"Curran, you sure you want to hear this?"
Curran nodded, steering her down the torch lit path to the bungalow he was staying in.
5 Hours Later
Curran's Bungalow
Bayanga Beach Resort
Phuket, Thailand.
Curran sat by the small pool, looking out along the torch lit beach at the ocean.
He had listened to Casey's story, heard her tell about Clay's affair with Georgina Metcalfe, and finding out about Webb's son Cody.
She told him about the trouble with Thorpe in Sydney and Georgina's subsequent murder.
From all he could see, Casey had stood by Webb, supported him in his decision to bring Cody back to Washington with him, had accepted a role in Cody's life and had done it all without question.
Only to have the man she loved turn on her when things went wrong.
Curran looked into the bungalow, Casey was fast asleep on his bed.
From the way she looked, he doubted she had slept much in the last six weeks, two dark circles ringed blue eyes that had been deadened by a pain
held too long to herself.
She had broken down as she told him about Cody's murder, the horror of it so visible on her face.
Sitting on his bed, hands clasped in her lap, she had described Webb holding Cody's bloodstained jacket and he knew that for those few seconds at least, she was back in the moment, reliving that horror all over again.
She had flinched when he put his arms around her.
She had not expected him to, that much was obvious.
He had let her cry, saying nothing as the tears fell, soaking the shoulder of the cheap Maui shirt he wore. He had held her until the tears stopped, her breathing slowed and she fell asleep.
Several thoughts had crossed his mind, taking a notepad he had written most of them down, facts that Casey had given him, mostly regarding Thorpe.
Curran reached down beside the deck chair and picked up his cell phone, dialing a number he had not used in a long time.
"Chegwidden"
"AJ, it's Curran."
"Curran, to what do I owe the pleasure?"
"It's about Casey, Sir." Curran said softly.
"Please tell me you know where she is? We've been going mad trying to find her, she just disappeared without even letting..."
"Sir, she's here with me, in Thailand. And she left with good reason, as far as I can tell."
"How is it Commander that my daughter is in Thailand with you? And does Agent Webb know about this?"
"We met by accident Sir, and no as far as I'm aware Agent Webb neither knows, nor from what I can tell cares where Casey is...in fact, I believe
he's the primary reason she's here."
"What has that asshole done now?"
"Sir, that's something I think Casey should tell you herself, but right now she's sleeping, something I get the impression she hasn't done a whole lot of in the last few weeks."
"Not since Cody's..." The words stuck in Aj's throat and he coughed to regain his composure. "How is she?"
"If you don't me saying Sir, she a goddamn mess, she's lost weight, she looks like she hasn't slept in months and leaving the Agency has taken a bigger toll than she imagined. Right now she's more than a little lost."
Curran said looking across the room at her as she slept.
"What do you mean leaving the Agency, Tim told me she was on special leave."
"Not according to Casey, she says she handed in her resignation to Fawkes the day she walked out."
AJ made a quick guess that Tim had done the same thing he himself had done on occasion with staff asking for terminal leave, Casey's papers where
probably safely filed in Tim's desk drawer.
"Listen Curran, I want you to stay close to Casey for a while, as a special favor to me. I'll speak to Tim in the morning and see if I can find out what the hell is going on. You still on active ops for the teams?"
"No,we're on leave, in fact I've been thinking it's time to get out, give the younger guys a chance y'know?"
"Feeling your age Curran?" AJ laughed.
"Something like that." Curran smiled."Actually I was thinking of applying at Spook Central and seeing if there was anything going there?"
"You? As a spook? Hell, make me feel better knowing you were out there rather than Webb. Is this something you are serious about?"
"Yeah, I'm still too restless to settle down and the Teams aren't cutting it any more for me."
AJ's brain went into overdrive, Casey could use someone like Curran, reliable, stable, used to crisis.
"Let me speak to Tim Fawkes in the morning and I'll call you back, see if we can't get something arranged that's mutually beneficial."
"If you could, I'd appreciate it" Curran said with a smile. "And just as a personal favor, you wouldn't want to put a bullet in Webb next time you
see him would you?"
"Be my pleasure, I can assure you." AJ growled. " I knew he was bad news the minute I laid eyes on him."
"One other thing I want to ask, is there any way you can get Fawkes to release some of the information on Thorpe to Casey? It's killing her not knowing anything and I don't know how much longer she can keep this up."
AJ sighed and ran a hand over his bald pate.
"I can try, but he's just as damn stubborn as my daughter. Is she still trying to get information on Thorpe?"
"Every waking moment, and I don't know how far she's prepared to go to get it!"
Casey stirred under the mosquito net on the bed, and Curran lowered his voice.
"She'd do anything to get Thorpe, she loved that little boy, we all did." AJ paused thinking about the sparkling hazel eyes of the child that had,
if only once, called him Poppy AJ. "She'd go to hell and back to track him down...you know what she's like when she's on a mission."
"All too well Sir, it took me four weeks and five bottles on bourbon for my nerves to recover from the Israel debacle." Curran said with a grin,
remembering his last mission involving Casey.
"Well for the meantime, help her as much as you can. Try and keep her mind off Cody and more importantly Thorpe, do whatever it takes, just keep her
safe until I can get Fawkes to agree to something."
"Sure thing AJ, just thought I'd let you know she was OK."
"You did the right thing Curran, thank you."
"Anytime Sir."
"And get my daughter to call me as soon as she wakes up, I want to speak to her about a few things."
"Yes Sir."
Curran walked back into the bungalow, stretching out beside Casey on the king size bed, he watched her as she slept.
Hours later Curran shifted in his sleep, shaking Casey awake.
After the initial shock of waking up in the arms of a semi-naked man that wasn't Clayton Webb, she lay back to admire the man sleeping next to her.
James Curran was the kind of man most women dreamt about, even asleep he radiated a powerful, almost protective, masculine energy.
She had always thought Curran was attractive, in a cocky sort of way, but asleep in the moonlit room, with a lock of wheat blond hair falling in his eyes, he was positively gorgeous.
"Enjoying yourself McDaniels?"
He drawled without a hint of sleepiness in his voice.
"Just looking." She replied honestly." I don't think I truly realized how good looking you are until just now."
Curran tightened the arm around her waist and held her close to him.
"I was wondering when you were going to notice that!" He said grinning.
"You conceited jerk" She laughed, grabbing a pillow to hit him with.
Curran fended off the pillow with ease and dropped a light kiss on her forehead, not mistaking the ever so slight tensing of her body as he did.
"Shut up and go back to sleep, you look like hell McDaniels, and you have to call your father in the morning and let him know that you're alright."
"You called him?" She lifted her head to look at him, her eyes narrowed with annoyance.
"Thought it might be a good idea, seeing as how you forgot. He's been worried sick about you, hell he's almost killed Webb twice just to get
information from what I hear."
"Good." She said softly, resting her head back on his chest.
"You don't mean that Case."
"You're right, I don't. I want to be the one to kill him, why should Dad have all the fun!"
She said chuckling softly.
Realizing that she was joking Curran laughed.
"Listen tomorrow, we'll go to the markets and you can expand on this Thorpe idea more while we shop, okay?"
"Are you saying you're going to help me Curran?" Casey asked, not daring to hope that Curran would offer.
"Yeah, this guy needs to be taken care of and frankly you're going to need government contacts to do it. I can help you get into areas that your CIA
friends can't. Besides, someone has to make sure that you sleep more than 30minutes a night."
"I can't pay you." She said softly.
"I'm doing it for the same reason you are Case, my payment will be seeing Thorpe taken down."
Casey looked at Curran, her eyes suddenly misty with tears of gratitude.
"Thank you James, you have no idea how much I appreciate this."