I'm back to writing again, due to some free time from uni! This story just kinda blossomed in my head one night after watching old fan videos of Casey and Sasha and the rest of the storyline just followed. I know A LOT has change in terms of the relationships and time periods I have set my story, and many peoples ships have changed but this story is very different in terms of atmosphere and maturity of the characters and honestly it's just a chance to get it all out of my system haha, anyway enough of me rambling I hope you enjoy.
I have completed quite a lot of the story and I will see where it takes me but no promises on upload times they may be sporadic depending on demand and inspiration.
Kaia :-)

CHAPTER ONE

Sasha Bezmel

Together with our families, we request the pleasure of your company and invite you in the celebration of marriage between

April Scott
to
Dexter Walker

Saturday, June 10
at 4 p.m.
The Farm House
Summer Bay

Reception to follow

Five years.
Sixty months.
Two hundred and sixty one weeks.
One thousand eight hundred and twenty six days.
Any way you put it Sasha Bezmel hadn't gone home to Summer Bay in a long time. She slid her fingers along the silver invitation she received in the mail weeks ago, noting how cold it all sounded, like she was just an old school friend that you invite out of courtesy. The invitation made her feel as though she was no longer a part of a family, no longer a sister, no longer a best friend. Sasha snapped herself out of it as she heard the door to her apartment unlock with a key and she quickly hid the silver piece of paper in her jacket pocket.

"Hey babe, sorry I'm home late but I finished the sketch for the MacArthur project just on deadline. Stroke of luck that was I can tell you that much." He laughed more to himself about his architecture adventure as he came across and kissed Sasha's forehead.
"What's up? You look like you've seen a ghost" Sasha smiled inwardly.
"I guess you could say that" She sat down on the counter stool watching Archer begin to make dinner. "My brothers getting married in a week"
"Awesome, I love weddings!" he said excitedly, cutting the carrots with vigor.
There was a time in Sasha's life where she never kept anything hidden; she was once loudmouthed, feisty, rebellious and happy. Not that Archer didn't make her happy he just had no clue where she came from or more importantly who she left behind. Sasha couldn't take Archer with her that would be showing a whole other side of her that she had buried for five years. If Archer came Sasha would be met with even more questioning eyes. There was nothing wrong with her boyfriend; there was something wrong with her- why couldn't she just let go?
"I don't think I get to bring a plus one"
"Why not? It's your brother surely you could pull a few strings?"
"I haven't seen any of my family in five years" Sasha said sipping on a glass of water her ever doting boyfriend gave her.
"I wanna know where my girlfriend came from, I want to impress your family, make friends with your friends, and show you off in front of your ex-boyfriends." Sasha nearly choked on her water at the last one; there was no way in hell she could bring Archer with her now.
"I'm sorry babe, but I've already booked a flight for myself. I have to face them and the bay alone. I'll get there three days before the wedding and I'll call you and even Skype you daily if you miss me that much."
Sasha walked round to Archer and put her head on his chest and wrapped her arms around his waist.
"Sometimes I wish you weren't so mysterious Sasha" Archer said jokingly as he kissed her head and rubbed her back. "I expect calls and Skype's and just look after yourself" he paused then said quietly "you know how much I love you right?"
Sasha didn't look up to his eyes, her chest constricted and her palms went sweaty whenever he said it and for the worst reason that made her hate herself with a passion. "I know babe" she replied. "I love you too."
Sasha Bezmel had only ever said 'I love you' to one boy and meant it.
That boy wasn't Archer.

***
A lot of things change after long periods of time. Hair grows longer or is cut shorter. Styles change constantly. Houses get painted. Fences are built. Babies are born and sadly people die. Sasha was thinking that as she looked out the airport window with her luggage behind her, waiting for the taxi she had called to pick her up. She wondered how different she would look to her family when she arrived. Remembering back to when they last saw her, her eighteen year old spirited self, purple streaks throughout her hair, vintage everything regarding her fashion choices and her ever faithful Doc Martins. Now they would be reintroduced to a different Sasha Bezmel. Now twenty three years old. Creative director of the advertising sector for one of Australia's biggest makeup brands. Hair now simply pitch black, long, wavy and professional looking. Beige pencil dress matched with a black blazer and high black heels made her look more like she was heading to her city office. Not to her family home.
As her taxi came and she sat in the back while the driver was dealing to her luggage, fear began to set in. Sasha began molding her hands as if they were clay then rubbing them back and forth on her knees. Doing anything to stop going back to when she was happy, or the night when her happiness broke down and fell all around her.

"Wake up Sash" Said the cheeky voice in her ear as she pulled more blankets over her body and buried her head deeper in the pillow.
"Too early" She heard herself mumble incoherently.
"It's one in the afternoon Sasha Regina Bezmel and if you don't get your lazy butt out of bed I will refuse to make you breakfast"
"Not my fault you wore me out last night." Sasha smirked to herself as she rolled over trying to get comfy. She heard a warm chuckle and the bed move as she felt a body hover over her and two hands on either side of her head resting on the mattress of the bed.
"I'm pretty sure you're not the only who's worn out from last night now come on get up and say hello to this thing called the daytime".
Sasha opened her eyes finally and felt the warm sun shine through the curtains onto the bed, looked up and smiled.
"Casey Braxton, you're lucky I'm stupidly, hopelessly, ridiculously in love with you for some unknown reason or I would throttle you for waking me up." Said Sasha her voice still gravelly from waking up.
"I'll pretend to ignore the last part of that sentence, but I am stupidly, hopelessly, ridiculously in love with you for some unknown reason too."
"Yeah, yeah do you want to show me how much you love me by making your special French toast?"
Casey pecked her lips with a kiss for an answer then rolled off the bed giving her his hand to pull her out from under the covers. Sasha feeling the cold folded her arms and followed him into the kitchen and watched him as he cooked for her. If it was possible watching the concentration in his eyes as he cracked an egg made her love him even more.
"Stop watching me you creep" Casey said teasingly.
"Can't help it, you have pretty eyes." Sasha smiled sweetly at him and he laughed. Casey put down the whisk and put his arms around her waist lifting her up of the ground, as she wound her legs around his back and her arms around his neck she kissed him. Her hand against the pulse in his neck feeling it beat against her skin and her other hand in his hair as he moved the two of them closer to the wall until Sasha's back was against it. Casey kissed down her neck then back up as they got more desperate and needy. It wasn't until the sound of the smoke alarm from the burning French toast went off that they separated as Casey put his forehead against Sasha's.
"You're gonna be the death of me Bezmel" Sasha kissed his lips once more then watched as he stopped the smoke alarm from beeping and went back to the toast. Sasha watched him once again, she wasn't sure he even knew the hold he had on her, she had always considered herself independent in every sense of the word and yet her was Casey nearly a year together and he was breaking her down, he took her feisty side, he understood her rebellious side, he laughed at her hot-headedness giving him a run for his money when it came to being short tempered. When the two weren't fighting they were all over each other and best of all he loved her, Sasha knew she wasn't an easy person to love but Casey managed to love her.

As the taxi pulled up to the farm house, Sasha tried to wipe her mind of a topic she had made out-of-bounds in her head. By now it was night time with only the front porch light illuminating the yard. The mumble of the TV was loud enough to hear from the bottom step as she heard the mumble of a family winding down for the night. Sasha took a deep breath, knocked on the door and tried to forget what happened the night that changed everything.

As the door opened it revealed a man in his early fifties with slightly greying hair. Sid Walker hadn't really changed one bit.
"Hey Dad" Sasha half smiled politely. Sid stood in shock for a brief moment before pulling his youngest daughter into one of his famous bear hugs.
"Sash, aren't you just quite the young woman now?" Sid smiled and released Sasha from his death grip.
"Had to happen sooner or later I guess." Sasha said with a chuckle, her dad quickly grabbed her suitcase and dragged it in excitedly.
"Your rooms exactly how you left it, wait till Dex and April see you, they weren't sure if you were going to come but they'll be over the moon."
"Of course I would come, Dex and April are getting married, finally! I wouldn't miss it for the world." Sid left Sasha's suitcase in front of the closed door to her old room at the end of the hallway. She then stood awkwardly in the front doorway waiting for her Dad's prompt to lead her into the lounge.
He gestured for her to follow him sensing her nervousness. She then stood in the doorway to the living room and saw April and Dex curled up on the couch looking at her. April was the first to jump up and give her a hug "Oh my gosh, Sasha! Look at you, you look amazing" April gushed over her soon-to-be sister in law. "We have so much to catch up on, it's been so long."
Sasha smiled and nodded overwhelmed by everyone's kindness. Everyone seemed to have forgotten or was choosing not to bring up anything Sasha thought they would.
"Ah little sister, back to torture me" Dex joked and gave Sasha a hug which she returned not realizing how much she had missed her older brother and his sense of humor.
"So what have you been doing with yourself Sash?" Her Dad asked pouring Sasha and himself a cup of coffee. He still knew how she liked it.
"Well currently I'm a Creative Director for a makeup company in Melbourne, I live in an apartment in the city with my boyfriend Archer whose and architect and yeah, it's been pretty non-stop, but the company has just started their latest promotion so I get a bit of a break before they start on their next line."
"Never a dull moment then" Sid smiled proudly at his daughter.
"Nope, how have things been around here?"
"Well the news of the town is our impending wedding" Dex began saying taking some popcorn from the bowl in front of him and putting his arm around April while Sasha took a seat on the chair next to her Dad's.
"I bet you guys are excited" Sasha said and the coupe both smiled at each other which made Sasha smile. "So how has everyone been? Bianca and Heath, Roo and Harvey, Rosie, Maddie and Spence?"
"Bianca and Heath are great! Darcy's year eleven now and couldn't be happier" April gushed about her niece while Dex got her back on track. "Roo, Harvey and Maddie and Spence are all going well, both of those couples are still together. And Rosie is now Mrs. Kyle Braxton as of a year ago." That surprised her on many levels, one Rosie used to get on Kyle's nerves so much when Sasha would bring her round to the Braxton household and two Sasha wouldn't be lying if she was kind of hurt she didn't get invited to her wedding. Sasha realized she deserved that treatment though, after all didn't she up and leave everyone?
"Wow, that's crazy, everything seems to have changed but stayed the same." Sasha put her coffee cup down on the ground and crossed her legs and folded her arms preparing herself for the answers to the next questions she was going to ask. "Where's Indi?"
April looked away from Sasha and suddenly took great interest in the floorboards. Dex coughed quietly while dad looked away but spoke up. "She's got a little two bedroom house closer to the beach." That was all her dad said before he took another swig of his coffee.
Sasha nodded then began to ask her next question, the one she really cared about.
"How's Casey?" She said quietly, just above a whisper.
"He co-owns the gym and does furniture making on the side from his construction course. He's got his own place." Pangs of all sorts of emotions went through Sasha, jealousy at the fact he owned a gym with Indi, pride that he finished his construction course and hurt, but that was what she always felt when she thought of him nowadays.
"That's nice" Was all Sasha managed to say about that topic before standing up and straightening her dress.
"Well I'm going to go to bed; I'm so tired it's not funny." As she stalked off to her room after everyone wished her a good sleep she reached the door, grabbed the handle of her suitcase and took a step inside her past.