SPORTS NIGHT: Bending the Rules

[find_rightbrain]

Title: Bending the Rules
Feedback: Will make me love you muchly.
Characters/Pairing: Dana/Casey, Natalie
Word Count: 1175
Rating: G
Summary: Dana and Casey decide to go to a show together (but it's not a date).
Notes: Written for speed_rent challenge #125.
Disclaimer: I do not own Rent, and I'm extremely unlikely ever to. Shiny?

Casey paused outside the door of Dana's office, one hand against the door frame, and watched her through the tiny window in the door. She sat stiffly in her chair at the desk, her back to him, and he could see her twisting a phone cord uncertainly around her finger. That uncertainty meant she had to be talking to her parents—were it a work-related call, she'd be confident and self-assured, but instead she had that look of uneasiness Casey had only ever seen from Dana when it came to her personal life.

Of course she was on the phone with her parents. After hearing about her brother last night, about the steroids… Casey glanced over to Natalie, who leaned against the wall watching him expectantly. "Go talk to her," she whispered.

"She's on the phone!" Casey shot her an exasperated look, though he knew from experience that it would have no effect whatsoever on Natalie. As he had expected, she simply folded her arms over her chest and looked at him, absolutely no pity in her sweet face.

"So?"

"She's talking to her parents!"

"How do you know that?"

"I just do. I can tell."

"You can tell? What, you have some kind of sixth sense?"

Casey gave her a confident smirk. "I've known Dana for a long time now, Natalie. I think I've developed a sense for these things."

Natalie simply stared at him for a moment, and then shook her head and motioned to the door. "Go talk to her."

"Why?"

"Because she needs to talk to someone."

"She is talking to someone. She's talking to her parents."

"Someone here, Casey." Natalie had that air of significance she got when trying to convince someone she was right and there was no other way to see things. And once she got that tone, she usually wouldn't give up.

"You're here. Why can't you talk to her?"

"Because I'm not you."

"No, I think I would have noticed if you were me."

"Casey—"

"Because then I wouldn't be me."

"Go talk to her."

Casey hesitated, glanced back to the door and to Dana inside, and sighed. "Fine, but for the record? I think this is a bad idea."

Natalie grinned brightly, clearly ignoring (or simply not caring about) his last comment. "Duly noted. Go."

Casey rolled his eyes and pushed the door open, stepping from the hallway into Dana's office without knocking—it seemed unnecessary. Dana swiveled her chair around to face him immediately, frowning a little before turning her attention back to the phone. "Okay, Mom—Mom. I have to go now. Yes, I'll call you back. I love you too. Bye." She hung up the phone and looked up at Casey again. "What do you want?"

He pushed the door closed behind him—knowing that if he didn't, Natalie would stand there and eavesdrop—and sat in one of the armchairs in the office, answering calmly, "Nothing. Just thought I'd stop by, see how you were doing."

Dana laughed, that high, soft laugh that wasn't really a laugh at all, just a half-hearted attempt at one, and sounded more nervous and stressed than amused. She stood up and started to shift around several piles of paper on her desk, more likely to at least look productive than for any real purpose. "How I'm doing? Well, Casey, my parents are freaking out, we can't get a hold of my brother, who is one of the subjects of a national news story this network has to report, and oh yeah, I have a television show to produce, so how do you think I'm doing?"

"Well, I have to say, Dana, probably not that great."

"Your insight is astounding." She dropped several thick binders onto her desk, making Casey jump a little, though Dana didn't seem to notice. "Don't you have work to do?"

"Not really."

"Well, I do. So could you please—"

"Do you want to go somewhere tonight?"

Dana stopped and looked up at him, obviously startled. "What? I… I can't, Casey. You know I'm busy…"

"I have tickets to a show."

That made Dana pause, and after a few seconds, she asked, "What show?"

"Rent. It starts in a couple hours."

She eyed him somewhat suspiciously. "Is there a hoedown involved?"

Casey grinned. "There's no hoedown, I promise. Danny saw it last year when he was having his New York renaissance and said he liked it very much."

"He would."

"I'll tell him you said so, but he'll just demand to know what that means."

Dana watched him for a moment longer, then shook her head and looked down. "I don't know, Casey. I'd love to go, but I have to work, and there's the show, and I want to be here if Kyle ever returns my call…"

Casey pushed himself out of the chair and walked to Dana's desk, placing his palms flat on one of the few bare areas on it and leaning forward toward her. Dana continued to look down, avoiding meeting his eyes. "The work can wait, Natalie can take the rundown, and we'll be back in time for the show. You need a break. You need to take your mind off things."

Again, Dana shook her head as she shoved a stack of papers into a drawer and all but slammed it closed. "No, I really can't. Anyway, you know the rules." At last, she did look up at him, meeting his eyes briefly.

"Right. The rules… The ones about how I can't date you until I date other women."

"Exactly. So while I would love to go with you, Casey, I just… can't. I'm sorry."

Casey decided not to protest that she had made up the rules in the first place—they'd been over that many times, and it never seemed to have any effect on Dana's position on the whole insane matter. "What if it's not a date?" he asked at last.

"What?"

"Not a date. Just us, going to a show together. As friends."

Dana hesitated, chewing on her lower lip. "That's it? Nothing more? And it doesn't count as a date?"

Casey smiled and spread his hands. "That's all I'm asking."

After a momentary pause, Dana nodded slightly. "Okay then. Just let me tell Isaac and make sure it's okay with him, and—"

"Dana? I already cleared it with Isaac. You're fine."

"And Natalie knows I'm going to be gone? You're sure she can handle the rundown while we're gone?"

Casey smiled faintly again, unable to keep back his amusement. "Yes, Natalie knows. I'm sure." He leaned across the desk and lightly cupped her face with one hand, kissing her cheek very briefly, just the slightest brush of lips over her face before he released her, leaned back once more and quirked an eyebrow at her. "That wasn't breaking the rules, was it?"

Dana watched him for a moment before shaking her head. "No. That was fine."

Casey saw a bit of a smile beginning to creep over her face.