Operation rescue Jeremy! 1

Jeremy was buried in his thoughts and missed the couple of times Casey called his name and his long silence started to alarm Casey.

"Jay, are you still there?", raising his voice finally snapping him back to reality,

"Sorry Casey, where were we?", he said upon realizing that he even forgot what they were talking about, his voice carried a hint of apology, instantly calming Casey down

He sighed, "You were just parading the idea of destroying the Kings...", 

"Uh, yes, the Kings....destroy the Kings", he said reluctantly and Casey picked up on his hesitation, "Jay, are you having second thoughts? Have you fallen for her?", his voice suddenly displayed a hint of concern and confusion, they have already come too far with the plan, the last thing he expected was doubts from his friend. On the other hand, not only did Casey's question catch Jeremy off-guard, but it also left him in a daze, he didn't understand why he was hearing it for the second time. He can admit the attraction, how can he not be drawn to her, she was a beautiful woman, especially when she smiled, and the last time he checked, he loved women with beautiful smiles, 'Saying it's love, is just stretching it', he thought as he sighed at the concern from Casey, "This has nothing to do with her. To be honest Casey, I feel like something else is at play here, the more I spend time with these people, the more my facts become unclear. We need to go back to the drawing board, no mistakes, we are not going to punish innocent people...not again",

Lucas chuckled, not even hiding the distrust he had over what his friend just said, he knew very well that gorgeous women were Jeremy's weakness, and based on the pictures he'd seen of Linda, she fit the criteria, in fact, she was way above it, but since his friend won't admit it, he let it go, for the time being "Okay Jay. So should I stop looking into her father as well?", he said changing the subject to the focus of the phone call,

"For now....pause that", Jeremy iterated and Casey agreed reluctantly, then pointed to the next challenge, "What about John?"

Jeremy let out a soft laugh, "I don't think we need to worry about him, by the looks of things, Linda has him where he should be. We just need to sit back and enjoy the fireworks. I will continue being his lapdog, acting innocent and oblivious... "

Hearing Jeremy explain his strategy, Casey instantly thought back to how the operation started.

He was just a former undercover agent for an intelligent organization and he had been just released from the field after an injury that left him in a wheelchair. Therefore, in pursuit of the quiet and peaceful life he promised himself while on the job, he opened a small animal clinic indeed making his life peaceful, that was until Jeremy began drinking uncontrollably leading to him getting calls from bar managers requesting him to pick him up. Every time it happened, he would travel with his driver to pick him up and take him home, while some nights his driver would travel alone. As his only friend of 10 years, he had to bear all of this weight, 'For a single guy he sure lived a sad life', he once thought while seeing him sleeping on the bar counter. One would expect a girl to be the reason for him drinking himself to sleep every night, but no, his father was. On one of the evenings he decided to sit down next to a drunk Jeremy who was still conscience and mumbling to himself,

"How can he abandon me like this? It was not my fault the company went down, why am I being punished...", he said as he struggled to keep his head steady,

"After what he did to my mother, I would expect him to at least feel bad for abandoning me years ago, but no, not a single ounce of remorse."

Casey sat and listened as his drunk friend finally let out everything that was dragging him to this path of alcohol. Although that is not how he wanted to find out, but he will take what he could get, as long as he finally knew the cause of the darkness that was slowly engulfing his once vibrant friend.

"I want them to pay, the Tangs! They need to pay. My mother couldn't even live a day to hold me, her health deteriorated to a point where I became the only reason she held on,

I abandoned the only family that ever cared for me, if I were Aunt Jin, I would hate me as well. I need to make them pay for my mother, they will p-pay...pa-", Jeremy finally landed his head on the bar counter table, and a tear drop rolled down his cheek breaking Casey's heart. In his many years of experience, he has never seen a man shed a tear because of a living person, and seeing the agony Jeremy lived in, Casey broke his own rules, Jeremy was going to be his last mission. He knew Jeremy was not a bad person, in fact because of his good nature, he was going to continue with his insufferable life, and he refused to let him live like that. The next morning Jeremy woke up in Casey's guest room, which was oddly different because he usually took him to his own apartment. He found his friend wheeling himself in the kitchen, thanks to technology in the 21st century, he made his kitchen accessible and easy to use. Jeremy admired Casey's will to live, even after losing his mobility, he kept moving forward, got himself a vet degree, opened an animal clinic, and led a different life. He even had a girlfriend, while he, on the other hand, lacked anything physically, but somehow he was drowning, he couldn't even remember the last time he genuinely smiled.

"Oh you are here...coffee is ready.." Casey said pointing at the coffee maker in front of him,

"Casey. What is going on?", a hung-over Jeremy asked while pouring a cup of that strong coffee, hoping it would quiet down his throbbing head,

"Operation rescue Jeremy", he threw a brown envelope in front him...and joked, "I will be your prince charming

Jeremy looked at his friend in confusion and finally, recalled a memory from the bar, he opened the file and smile, pleasing Casey.