out_there | WIP: homophobic missing scenes

Couldn't find the class, and came back to the computer lab to type up my fic notes. I'm posting this publicly mainly because private posts on these computers don't always show when I get home (and also because it means that

linabean can read the missing sections, since I feel a bit lousy about sending her a fic draft to read through with a couple of the scenes just pencilled in).

So, basically, I'm posting it so I can access it later.

This now brings my slash count up to subtexty goodness, and my word count up to 9000. (And, I've got another 700 words in my notebook, and still nothing definite. I may end up reaching Shelley's longfic wordcount on a fic with no plot. Huh. That's a scary thought.)

...[mentions of Casey not able to sleep - getting up and watching the show]

He rewound the tape and watched it from the beginning. Watched Dan's serious expression as he reported the latest infamous legal case, watched Dan's bright, and somewhat forced, smile as he reported the soccer highlights.

At a quarter to one, Casey decided to call Dan and see if the invitation for tonight was still open. Dan's phone went straight to the machine, meaning he was either on the phone, or the game had already started adn his didn't want to be disturbed. Shrugging, Casey jumped in the shower, then threw on some clothes and headed over to Dan's place.

He arived with a six-pack of beer and buzzed Dan to let him in.

"Yeah?" Dan asked distractedly, his voice crackling over the intercom.

"Could you let me up?"

"Casey?" Dan didn't sound too enthused, but Casey had hardly been teh life of the party lately. "Yeah, sure. Come on up."

He took the elevator up, and knocked on Dan's door with a little trepidation. Dan wouldn't have mentioned it to him if he wasn't invited. He was almost sure of that.

Dan answered it, blinking at the bright corridor light. Casey just blinked at Dan's outfit. It was an unusual sight. Bare feet, long bare legs, bright red boxers and a thin t-shirt that was far too old and far too tight.

"Are you going to come in?" Dan asked, stepping away from the doorway and rubbing his eyes tiredly.

Casey he took a good look at Dan's scruffy hair, flat on one side and sticking up on the other. "You were asleep?"

"Yeah."

"I thought you were having people 'round?" Casey asked uncertainly, shifting on his feet.

"They decided to watch it at the station. I figured I'd get an early night, and watch the tape with you tomorrow."

"Oh," Casey said as Dan hid a yawn behind his hand. "I thought... I'll go."

"Nah," Dan replied with a wave of his hand. "You're here now. Come in and watch the game."

"Sure?" Casey asked, even as he followed Dan into the dimly lit room. He grinned when he realisd the TV was already on.

"And you can share those beers," Dan added with a sleepy grin.

Casey snickered and sat down on the couch, but Dan disappeared into the bedroom. "You will be watching this, right?"

"As much as I appreaciate free beer," Dan called out from the other room, "I'm not getting dressed for it." He walked back in with a comforter messily thrown over one shoulder.

Casey watched Dan settle onto the couch, comforter tucked up to his chest, beer sitting beside him and remote in hand. "All set there, Dan?"

Dan nodded happily. "All set. Hey, kick your shoes off. Get comfy." Casey did as he was told, and then reached over and yanked the comforter until it covered him, too.

"Hey!"

"Share and share alike, Dan. I brought the beer, you share the comforter."

Dan snorted. "I'm sharing my TV and my couch. Isn't that enough?"

"No."

Dan rolled his eyes bt didn't try to pull the comforter back. Instead, he just shifted on the couch, huddling beside Casey. "Fine."

Then the commercial break was over and they both turned their attention to the screen. It wasn't until the next commercial break, about ten minutes later, that Casey noticed how quiet Dan was being. This &game& might not be his first love, but Dan was normally pretty vocal about all sports, even the ones he detested. When Casey looked over at Dan, he saw Dan was fast asleep; eyes shut, mouth slightly open, and breathing the deep, steady breaths that would eventually become loud snores.

Everyone looked younger when asleep, and Danny was no exception. The soft line of Dan's jaw always made him look young, but fast asleep, he looked like a college kid sleeping off a big exam. It wasn't that Dan looked older when he was awake, so much that... Dan looked *on*. Dan smiled and charmed whenever he was in public; there was always that faint tension around his eyes, that slight stiffness to his shoulders. All that extra energy coiled and waiting to be released on air.

It was just part of Dan. It always had been. When they'd first met, Dan had seemed to be constantly rushing from one thing to another. He helped out with the drama production, went on politcal rallies, worked on the student newspaper and held down a part-time job at the local station; he also went to parties, and dated a string of gorgeous girls, all while getting ridiculously good marks. He was constantly doing one thing, planning another thing and discussing something else entirely.

Although these days, Dan wasn't quite as energetic. Casey wondered it if was just age creeping up on Dan. He was rapidly approaching thirty, and had a demanding job. He wasn't a college student with energy to burn anymore.

Another part of Casey suspected it had more to do with Abby. Dan had been far more settled since seeing her, far less mercurial in a lot of ways. It was oddly unsettling to think that these things he'd taken for granted about Dan really weren't Dan at all. Or at least weren't healthy for Dan.

A sudden cheer from the television distracted Casey and with asheepish grin, he realised he'd been sitting and staring at Dan. At least Dan wasn't awake to tease him about it. Thinking of that, Casey figured he ought to go and let Dan sleep. He shifted the cover back, and Dan responded by muttering in his sleep and leaning sideways, wrapping a loose arm around Casey's shoulder. Dan pressed his head against Casey's shoulder and mumblined something in his sleep. Casey rolled his eyes. Even asleep, Dan didn't like his guests to leave.

Casey leaned forward, trying to pull Dan's arm down without disturbing him, but Dan just dropped it to Casey's waist and held on tighter.

Casey sighed, loathe to wake Dan up twice in one night. It wasn't as if casey was going to fall asleep; he'd just end up watching the rest of the game on his couch, anyway. It seemed uneccessary to wake Dan up just so he could go home. It was a far better idea to sit here and wait for Dan to turn over in his sleep. Then, Casey could escape quietly, without waking Dan up. Strangely content with this plan of action, Casey settled back against the couch and made himself comfortable, wrapping an arm around Dan.

***

His first thought the next morning was surprise - surprise at the wieght lying on his chest, surprise at the sound of snoring against his sternum. Blinking himself awake, he looked down to see Dan snoring contentedly. Somehow, they'd both ended up spending the night half-lying and half-sitting on the couch. The television was still on, but Casey was pretty sure he hadn't even seen the end.

"Dan?" Dan didn't respond, so Casey nudged him gently. "Dan?"

Dan muttered incohenrently against Casey's chest and tried to bury his head against Casey's sweater. Some people aren't awake until they've had a shower or a cup of coffee. Dan wasn't awake until he'd had a shower, a strong coffee *and* a decent breakfast. "Dan? You have to wake up."

It was still pretty dark, so they'd probably only napped for an hour or two, but Dan would be far more comfortable in bed. "Dan, wake up."

"Wha' time 'sit?" Dan asked blearily, raising is head to glare at Casey. The glare was somewhat mollified by the way that Dan's t-shirt was rucked around his underarms. It's hard to be intimidating when you're yawning and half-dressed.

"Don't know," Casey said while Dan pushed himself into a sitting position and pulled down his t-shirt. "Judging by the darkness in here, it's pretty early."

Dan's glare stepped up a notch on the cranky scale. "I have good curtains, Casey. Lack of light means nothing."

Casey stretched and then looked at his watch. "It's... That can't be right." But his watch had never been wrong before. It was an expensive watch. Lisa had given it to him for his thirtieth birthday.

"What time is it?" Dan asked sharply.

Casey grimaced. "Twenty past twelve?"

"Shit!" Dan surged up, dashing for the phone. Apparently, adrenaline was a great replacement for caffeine. "Dana's going to kill us."

Casey graoned. "Yeah, she will."

Dan urgently pounded the phone's keys, and then held up a hand for Casey to be quiet. "Yeah, Dana... No. Casey's here too... yeah, we're fine." Dan grimaced and Casey could just imagine Dana's worried anger. "I'm sorry, Dana... Yes, I'm sorry... We just overslept... Yeah,casey's... You want t...? Sure," Dan said, gesturing at Casey to come over there. "He's just coming, Dana."

Dan handed him the phone and Casey took a deep breath as he lifted it to his ear. "Morning, Dana."

"You overslept?" She sounded incredulous.

"We overslept."

"You overslept? Casey, seriously, how do you two just sleep through the midday rundown?"

"We didn't sleep through," he objected half-heartedly. "We weren't sitting in the conference room sleeping through it."

"You just sat at Dan's place and slept through it."

"Yeah. Sorry," he tried hopefully. Dan shot him an understanding look.

"You overslept. Isn't Dan's alarm working?"

Casey cringed and shot a look at Dan's bedroom, where Dan's alarm had probably trilled for an hour or so, completely impotent against the noise of the TV and the silencing effect of a closed door. "I think it's working."

"But it didn't wake Dan up?"

"We watched the games last night and fell asleep on the couch. We didn't hear it."

Dana snorted and Casey had the distinct impression that she was trying not to laugh. "Put Dan back on."

He shrugged at Dan's raised eyebrows and passed him the phone. "Yeah, we fell asleep in front of the TV...Hmmm..." Dan paused for a moment, staring at casey. "He looks better. Tired instead of dead on his feet," Dan announced with a grin. "If we leave now, we could be there by one..."

Casey looked at his watch, but didn't point out to Dan that midday traffic made that ETA highly unlikely.

"Really? Tahnks, Dana. You're the best... Really, thanks." The Dan laughed at something adn said, "I will. See you at three."

He hung up the ohone and Casey watched him curiously. "Three?"

"As it's a tuesday, Dana gave us a repreive until three." Dan grinned and then slapped him over the head.

"Ow!" He scowled at Dan, rubbing his forehead. "What was that for?"

"That was for not using the annoying alarm on you watch." Shrugging, Dan added, "I promised Dana I'd do that."

"In the grand scheme of things," Casey said with a cautious grin. "It's worth a little pain to be able to have a shower."

"And clean clothes."

Casey nodded and then frowned. "I have to go back to my place for those."

"I keep saying you need to leave a spare set of clothes here," Dan said, stretching his arms above his head and forcing his t-shirt to ride up a couple inches. Casey heard Dan's back crack as he leaned back slightly.

"I'll try to remember next time," Casey replied with a smile, knowing that he would never remember to bring them. Dan grinned back at him, and he guessed that Dan knew that too.

"Give me twenty mintues to shower and dress, and then we'll go to your place. And we'll probably still have time for breakfast," Dan said cheerfully.

***

And now, time to go home!