Summer tilted her drink back, taking the rest of the drink like it was a shot. It would definitely hit her later, as she swallowed the bitter liquid with a grimace on her lips. She was prepared to blow this guy off, to give him the answer she had crafted after denying so many business proposals.

But her mouth remained opened in a shocked gap as he spoke because she knew that voice.

He didn't look like him but... he sounded like him. How could that be?

"... Casey...?"

Summer's mind began to reel. Could he be back? But she thought he had died. If he really was dead, then this would make no sense. No one could come back from the dead. She knew that more than anyone.

But what if one of her father's lackeys had escaped and knew her weakness? Figured out something from her past and tried to devise a way to get back at Summer? Stab her, break her down at her weakest, in revenge for Merrick Prescott.

"I must be losing my mind. This can't be happening. Fuck, is this some weird twisted dream?" she muttered to herself, looking at the glass and the place around her.

She wasn't convinced, and a clear sense of panic began to grow on her face.

"I have... I have to be drunk or... Knox must have given me something..."

Casey Fincher

☉

Summer listened as he spoke, still unsure of what to believe until it clicked in her mind. At least, she thought it did.

His face was the same. His hair, his eyes... his tattoo. There were just a few differences, but she could see his face was still there. The Casey that she had met in the berry fields in Oldale. Who she ran into at the Soiree, saw his deepest desires of her.

The night they shared together at one of her homes.

His hand reached forward, to take hers and comfort her. But Summer dismissed it. Instead, as he moved closer, like she was a timid animal to control, she lunged forward. Her arms wrapped around his shoulders, pulling her body out of her stool as she stood on the tips of her heels to reach him.

Casey had always been stupidly tall...

"I thought you were dead," Summer spoke into the crook of his neck, her voice muffled but full of emotion.

"One day you were gone, and I... I thought..."

Oh, fuck knox prescott and samuel carter. She leaned back, her hands touching his face, pushing back some of his hair from his eyes. Staring at him with tears in her eyes.

"Why didn't you call?"

Casey Fincher

☉

Hearing the small pieces he recounted of his story made guilt crawl into Summer's stomach. He had been left alone, almost died in the rock slide. Arceus knew how much he probably thought he wasn't going to make it.

And it was a miracle that he was here, alive. Speaking to her now.

And what did she do?

Try to forget him. Forget the past and move on. She spent countless nights trying to fight her grief, drinking bottle upon bottle of alcohol and letting strangers touch her. Savor her body, ravage her... she was selfish. She never tried to reach out to him.

Who the fuck was she?

Even as he brushed away the tears falling down her face, Summer dropped her head in shame. Because he deserved so much better than her. Who the hell was she to accuse him of not calling her? And crying over him suddenly appearing?

"Casey, I'm not the same as I was. You said you'd always love who I was, Rocket and I, but could you really even knowing I'm worse than I was before? That I've done terrible things to become who I am right now?"

Summer looked back up, desperate.

"You said you wanted to join Rocket all those months ago. But it's because of me. I'm a horrible woman, Casey. You just don't know what I've done while you were gone... even several days ago."

Casey Fincher

☉

Summer felt his hand take hers, move it away from his body, in attempt to grab her attention. She pulled her head away, looking at him with a curious yet tear-filled gaze before letting her gaze descend to her hand, where something round and metallic was placed.

A ring. Heavy and black, rested in her palm. On Casey's fingers, a multitude matched. For a moment, her heart clenched in her chest, and she bit her lip as she looked at it.

What did he mean by this?

She didn't reject the gift, instead slipping it onto her thumb since that was the only finger it'd fit on without falling off. Then she looked back up at him as he spoke.

He kissed her forehead, bringing her to the present. He was always good at that. A fresh wave of emotions threatened to drown Summer, but she managed to keep them at bay as she nodded.

"Let's leave this place. I want to go somewhere private. Away from all these morons. I can explain there."

---

In Surtur's blue glow, which was certainly new to Casey since he last saw the EMBOAR, Summer led him by the hand to her penthouse not that far away. A five minute walk, a trip up an elevator, and a punch code away. Surtur would guard the door, as he always did.

"Help yourself to anything. There's probably some food, but I don't typically keep it fully stocked here because I don't cook..."

Casey Fincher

☉

Summer could feel his hand, trying to move in hers. Whether or not he was uncomfortable, she wasn't quite sure, and she was close to dropping it because he was squirming his fingers around so much. But then it clicked.

"He's trying to hold it. His fingers are still..."

She allowed him the time he needed, though she hid a blush that appeared on her cheeks when he was successful in holding her hand. Just like old times.

In the penthouse, Casey took a seat and waited for her. Summer rummaged through a cabinet or two because she couldn't remember where her staff placed her alcohol. When she found it, she grabbed a bottle, or two, and came back with a couple of glasses that clinked with ice. She set them on the coffee table, fancy coasters with the letter "P" enscripted on them underneath them.

"I wasn't loyal to you, Casey. I'm sorry," she prefaced, her hand twitching a bit as she poured into the glasses.

"I thought you left me or died. So I tried to forget. I didn't reach out like I should have. I thought maybe you had used me, like a lot of men had done in my life. Honestly, it's something I was used to... but it hurt all the same. So I did what I could to try to forget. Drinking. Clubs. Luring any wanting individual into my arms..."

Summer sighed as she slouched back into the cushions covering her mouth with her hand.

"You don't deserve to have someone like me. You deserve much better, you know? I'm nothing but a selfish rich girl. You've been so selfless, and I used that for my own benefit."

Summer felt like she was going to cry, breakdown. But she didn't have any right to.

"I'm a murderer, Casey. I killed my father, a week ago. I lured an innocent man, my brother's own ex-lover, and led him to the slaughter. It was my fault. And I shot my own father. I'm filthy. I can't let you come in and let you live your life like this."

Casey Fincher

☉

To say Summer was shocked would be the understatement of the century. When she revealed what she had been doing for the past six months, she almost expected Casey to stand up and leave. Tell her that she was nothing but a useless whore.

Be put into a position that her brother was put in long ago, with Ollie.

But he agreed. Summer's face didn't hide her reaction. It was amplified to the nth degree.

"You don't think I'm a slut or something?"

The words seemed to blurt out of her mouth before she could stop herself. Another blush, this time from embarrassment, colored her cheeks before she cleared her throat.

"Of course I want you. I never stopped loving you. But I want you to understand, I need to have some time. Not away, just time. It's all so sudden and new again... I still don't know if this is real. And everything's been changing. It's overwhelming."

Her hands reached out, to touch his face, his chin, trail down his neck. The feeling of his skin sent a trail of tingles down her body.

"I don't mean to be distant. I'm just in shock. I thought my life was over for the longest time. But you're here, and now I just don't know what to do with myself."

Self-control was not in Summer Prescott's nature.

"I don't think Knox knows. I haven't said anything to him, and Sam's the only one who's alive that knows. Even he holds a vendetta against Ollie now, since I showed him their old phone receipts. It's not that I feel bad for leading him to his death. He was an asshole. But Knox took it worse than I imagined he would."

Casey Fincher

☉