Open Case File [COMPLETED]

One of Those Nights

😏 Getting a little wild with this one. Are you ready? Ha! No you ain't.

***********************************

Music filled the air around Carter, pulsing in her veins, beating in time to her heart. Rolling her shoulders, she swung, slamming her fist into the punching bag. As it came swinging back, she spun, kicking it.

With each blow, she fought the thoughts that lay around her. She pummeled the bag, not letting herself think about what it would mean if Captain didn't come home that night. Nor about the fact that she hadn't heard from him in two days.

As she landed a fast 1-2 punch, the sound of an off-key voice singing rose over her music. Carter tugged on the bit of distraction, wondering what neighbor was drunk. The voice got louder and Carter frowned in thought, trying to put together who in the surrounding houses would know the song for the United States Marines.

As she went to kick the bag again, she froze. The voice was too loud to be anywhere else but her door.

Echoing this thought was the hard knock against the wood. Ripping off her gloves, Carter tossed them to her bed and left her room. The singer was still bellowing the words and killing a tune that was the theme for an elite military force.

The knocking came again as Carter reached the door. What lay on the other side shocked her. James had both hands clamped on Donovan's shoulders, forcing him to remain by his side. Donovan was swaying and twisting trying to break free as he continued to sing.

"Hey, Carter," James said, smiling at her like their presence there was the most natural thing in the world.

At her name, Donovan stopped singing and focused on her. The smile that broke across his face was so free and unstrained it should have belonged to someone else completely.

"Hi, girlfriend," he said, cheerily.

The tone contradicted everything Carter knew about Donovan. In that moment she was willing to believe that a happy ghost had decided to inhabit his body for the night.

Stunned, she barely realized that James was guiding Donovan into the apartment. By the time she was in control of her senses, Donovan was leaning against a bookshelf and James was back at the door.

"James!" she said, halting him. "What is this? What are you doing here? What is Donovan doing here?"

James glanced back at his brother then at Carter.

"This is Donovan, the biggest light weight in the history of the world. And when I say light weight, I mean one glass of whiskey light weight. And I'm here to drop him off."

James reached for the door but Carter stepped toward him.

"You're not serious about leaving him here like this," she said, waving her hand to Donovan.

As they both looked over, they saw Donovan wandering from the bookcase to the wall.

"You're fine. He's as harmless as a puppy. Link could take him down."

Carter glowered. "That's not what I meant, why are you leaving him here with me like this?"

"I have an emergency and someone needs to make sure he doesn't do anything stupid."

"Why is he even drunk?"

"Honestly we were hanging out at my place and I sometimes have a drink and he wanted one. He's legal after all, so I gave him one.  We barely even put a dent in the bottle and that was all it took. I would have left him alone but I didn't want to him to hurt himself. Like walking into a wall or something. Again something came up, I trusted you would look after him," James said, slipping out the door. "Thanks. Have fun taking care of your boyfriend!"