Cas didn’t know when he’d fallen asleep, but he knew he must have at some point after he’d eaten lunch, because the next thing he was aware of was waking up, sprawled haphazardly on his bed with his phone resting in his limp, outstretched hand. He stretched languidly and yawned, rolling onto his back and raising the device over his head to check the time. It was already after four in the afternoon. He blinked as he stared at the numbers displayed on the screen and rubbed his eyes. The medication he was on was definitely making him much drowsier than usual because it had been a long time since he’d last slept for over three hours in one nap.

Blearily, he peeled himself off the mattress and paced a bit in an attempt to clear his head. He only had about three more hours left before Jay and Miles were supposed to come back to his place, so he needed to wake up all the way. There were still a few things left that he needed to do before they headed to the hospital. At the thought, he swallowed apprehensively and checked the time again. He’d never been a dishonest person, but what he was about to do was going to require quite a bit of lying. To offset the preemptive guilt, he reminded himself that his friends were counting on him—that [i]Iris[/i] was counting on him—and headed out the door.

He made his way downstairs and strode toward the hallway that would take him to Jacob’s office, mentally rehearsing the lines he was going to feed the guard when he got there. However, before he reached the door, he raised his brows in surprise as it opened from the inside, and Jacob stepped into the corridor. The other man closed it behind him and turned toward the prince, seeming just as surprised to see him as well. “Prince Caspian,” he bobbed his head in a curt bow, studying the royal bemusedly. “Do you need something from me?”

Cas began to shift his weight and then stopped abruptly, focusing hard on not giving himself away by acting agitated. [color=#b97703]“Um, yeah,”[/color] he started slowly. [color=#b97703]“I was going to ask if you could run a quick errand for me… Are you going somewhere?”[/color]

Jacob nodded, “I need to take a look at that faulty wiring in the garage and get an estimate for the repair cost to give to His Majesty. It’s been put on the backburner for far too long.” He paused and then frowned. “Why were you looking for me to run an errand for you? I’m sure there are plenty of servants who would be more than happy to make the trip. That’s their job.”

[color=#b97703]“I just needed something else from the pharmacy,”[/color] he lied, feeling warmth creep into his cheeks as he touched on the excuse he’d come up with to get the guard out of his office. [color=#b97703]“If you’re busy, don’t worry about it though.”[/color]

“What was it?” Jacob asked, seeming even more confused by his discomfort.

Cas groaned inwardly. Even though the reason he’d come up with was fake, it was still incredibly awkward to discuss. He’d thought up an embarrassing “affliction” to make sure that Jacob would run the errand personally, since it would be reasonable to believe that he wouldn’t want to get anyone else involved. [color=#b97703][i]If I’d known he was already going to be leaving when I got here, I wouldn’t have said anything,[/i][/color] he thought dryly. Already in too deep to back out now, he replied, [color=#b97703]“I, uh, I was going to ask if you could pick up some suppositories… The medicine I’m on has been messing with my digestion.”[/color] The initial pink blush on his cheeks raged darker as he voiced the humiliating, made-up excuse.

“Oh,” Jacob cleared his throat. “I’m sure the servants would be discreet, but if you don’t want to tell any of them, I can make the trip after I’m done with the garage door.”

[color=#b97703]“No, that’s okay,”[/color] Cas held up his hands, still wishing he would have kept his mouth shut about the fake errand before he’d asked where the guard was going. [color=#b97703]“I’ll find someone else to do it.”[/color]

“Are you sure?”

[color=#b97703]“Completely,”[/color] the prince nodded quickly.

“Okay then,” Jacob started walking down the hall. As he grew nearer to the prince, he wavered briefly and patted him on the shoulder with one hand. “Good luck with that.”

[color=#b97703]“Thanks…”[/color] Cas grimaced, blushing furiously. He pretended to walk toward the other end of the hallway for a few seconds and then peered back over his shoulder, making sure the guard had passed out of sight before he doubled back for the abandoned office and slipped inside. As soon as he’d closed the door behind him, he leaned back against the wooden panel and pressed a hand over his face, taking a moment to wallow in the awkwardness of the exchange, and then shook his head. He still had a job to do, so he couldn’t waste too much time.

Quietly, he stepped away from the door and looked around the office. Jacob kept the room immaculately clean—no surprise there—so it didn’t take long before he spotted what he’d come there to find. On the right wall, there was a large, metal panel. Cas approached it and keyed the pin, hoping the guard used the same four-digit code for everything. Apparently he did, because as soon as the prince pressed the last number, there was a click and a whirr behind the plate, and it popped opened.

He smiled to himself and pulled the plate aside, looking over the contents he’d revealed. On the wall, there was a grid of hooks, each spaced a few centimeters apart and supporting an electronic key. It was the collection of master keys that the royal security team kept to have access to every major public building in the capital, one of which was going to be his pass into the back doors at the hospital. He quickly skimmed the labels that marked each key, only to find that even those were organized alphabetically. [color=#b97703][i]It really works to my advantage that Jacob is such a Type A personality,[/i][/color] he thought amusedly as he located the master key for the hospital with ease and slipped it off its hook.

Carefully closing the panel and making sure it locked again, Cas stuffed the stolen key into his pocket and headed back out of the room. Now that he’d gotten what he’d come for, he just needed to get ready to meet up with Jay and Miles after dinner. Everything was going according to plan so far.