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The Potential to Turn a Life Around

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Casy had been in his own apartment for a little over six months, but he'd only been divorced for two weeks. Part of him was surprised that it had taken two weeks for him get to this place in his head.

Danny had been his best friend forever. And it wasn't like he didn't ever briefly entertain the idea of shoving him in a closet and kissing him senseless. He'd had the thought a few dozen times since meeting the man, but generally on the heels of that thought was 'You're married you idiot, don't do something stupid. She would kill you.' Funny how he never worried that Danny would knock him on his ass if he did it. He was way more afraid of Lisa's reaction.

He'd been barking at everyone who looked at him twice and Danny had caught the brunt of it. Once it actually got to a point where he was about to lose his job over it, and he had almost decided to quit… that was when Danny had finally snapped. He'd been sarcastic at first, but then he'd told Casey exactly how and why Casey's plan was stupid in oh-so-many ways.

And then, as he stood there barking in Casey's face about how he'd held his peace for a decade about how Lisa was never good for him; about how Casey had people at CSC who loved him, despite his best attempt to alienate them; about how he was going to throw away the best thing that had ever happened to him – to them – Kim had walked in to make them go watch a man who was considered well past his prime break a world record.

And despite the fact that the last thing Dan had said to him before Kim cut in was to tell him that he was pissed at Casey and sick of the attitude, Dan had grabbed his shoulder, squeezing as they followed Kim into the conference room.

Casey's brain went in twelve directions at once. What was happening on the monitor was important. Important enough that he was willing to risk Lisa's wrath to make sure Charlie saw it. But part of his brain stuck on the fact that Dan had reached out to him. Physically. Despite their argument. Lisa never did that. She screamed at him from across the room and no matter what Casey did to try to pacify her, she would literally push him away.

Danny got in his face, told him the bold, unvarnished truth… and then took it upon himself to soothe the nerves he'd just deliberately gotten on.

That urge to find a closet reared up again. And this time it there was no reason to shove it back down. The worst that would happen would be that Danny would say, "That's a hell of a compliment, but no thanks." It might get weird for all of a minute. But it was Danny and Casey wasn't all that worried about that.

He needed to apologize to Dana – and most of the rest of the Sports Night crew – but then he needed to find a way to get Danny alone for a minute or two.

He sat behind the desk, a huge grin across his face – and god, it felt good to smile again. He told Danny he'd take the tease and then asked him to go out and do something with him after the show. It had been a crappy day, but this was going to be an outstanding night.