Author's Note: Wow. My very first fanfiction! Please review, so I can know what I'm doing right and what I'm doing wrong. I really do love constructive criticism, guys. :)
Disclaimer: I don't own LwD or anything else, except for a few OCs. :)
1. I Saw Her, I Saw Him
Derek couldn't believe his eyes as he opened the door and saw her bending over the seat in a cab. His wife that he hadn't seen in almost ten years. He was sure that she was bending over their daughter. His mind briefly wandered back upstairs, in his apartment. His best friend, Sam, was taking care of his other daughter, who was taking a sick day, as he went to work. He felt his breath catch. He didn't even notice his coffee mug crash to the ground.
Casey's head snapped up when she heard a crash on the ground and saw his face, frozen solid, staring at her. It all came back to her, the mystery she had been living for the past ten years. She had no idea that just seeing his face would bring it all back to her.
They told her she had amnesia. She thought she had adopted her own daughter. Derek wasn't in the room at the time she woke up. She didn't know why because whenever she was in the hospital, he seemed to be the first one there. The very first thing she remembered was breaking up with Truman and having an argument with Derek afterward. Everything after that went blank.
Casey was wearing a baby blue, long jacket that matched her eyes. She had a purple shirt and a black skirt underneath, wearing a scarf that matched her shirt. She turned around to her daughter and kissed her cheek a second time, "I'll see you when you get home, Sweetheart. Have a wonderful day at school."
Before her daughter could respond, Casey slammed the door shut and turned back to where Derek was standing only a second ago, only to find he had been long gone. His coffee mug was shattered on the ground. Casey sighed and climbed up the steps to her new apartment. She finally earned enough savings to move out of her mother's house with George, Marti, and Missy, her half-sister. After years of working her tail off at Smelly Nellie's, finishing college and raising her daughter, she'd finally earned a living. A small one, granted, but it was one she wanted. For the moment, anyway.
Derek pressed the elevator button for his floor, the fifteenth, agitatedly. He'd just call one of his team members to lead practice for him. He pulled out his cell phone and did just that. "Simmons? This is Coach Venturi. I can't make practice today because my little girl is sick. I know, I know and I'm really sorry, too. You know that I'd be there any other time but I just can't. I'll explain next week. Bye."
Finally, the elevator door began to close, just as Casey walked in the front door of the lobby. She saw him in the elevator and waved, a sweet smile plastered on her face. He, dumbly, waved back. He had no idea what he was doing.
His past had finally caught up to him. He was devastated when he learned his wife had amnesia and even more so when she claimed she never wanted to see him again. His father and step-mother asked that he respected his step-sister's wishes.
They had a fight that day, before he went to his classes. She had took of her wedding ring in anger at him and then returned cleaning the kitchen floor. The way they went to Queen's was quite simple; their parents rented them an apartment so they could raise their twins together. One went to class one day and the other went to class the next. It was how they requested their schedules be set up. On the weekends, they could spend time together as a family and sometimes went home to see their parents and baby sister.
That day, though, she slipped and bumped her head. She woke up in a hospital room with no memory of the previous year.
Derek slammed his apartment door behind him, causing Sam and Jory, his daughter, to jump in shock as he fed her chicken noodle soup. The soup, needless to say, splashed to the ground, ignored.
"Dude, what's wrong? You look like you've seen a ghost." Sam arched a brow. He was on "vacation" for his job. His wife, Kendra, was pleased with that and would be arriving later on to help take care of Marjory, Jory for short.
"No, but close." Derek darkly responded and sat down at his chair that was next to the couch.
"What's wrong, Daddy?" Jory inquired, lifting her head to look at him. Question was evident in her eyes that looked so much like her mother's.
Derek stared right into them, "I saw her."
Casey McDonald-supposedly-Venturi was pacing her apartment, screaming at the phone. Her mother was on the other line, taking everything her daughter had to dish-out on her. "Mother, how could you not tell me that I was married to Derek and had his twins? Do you know how I feel about this? I absolutely hate him and am in love with him at the same time! Can you explain that to me, Mother? When I saw him gaping at me today, I had the urge to both punch him and kiss him. Not only that, I remember everything that happened between us! Why didn't you tell me?" Casey finaly collapsed in her armchair and began breathing heavily.
"Casey, Sweetheart, I know you're upset but the doctor told us that it's best for you to remember your past on your own. If we told you everything, confusion would absorb your mind and it just wouldn't be good for you."
"Yeah, like confusion isn't absorbing me now, Mother." Casey hissed and hung up the phone, letting her memories consume her.
"You saw who?" Jory asked for the third time that minute.
Derek's mind snapped out of his thoughts, "Your mom. I saw her with your sister today."
Sam patted his friend's shoulder, "Do you think Jory is old enough to hear the story?"
"Which one?" Derek asked his long-time friend. Sam gave him a look that said that it all and Derek groaned, "I don't know. She's mature like her mother, that's for sure..."
"Someone just tell me the story, please." Jory begged, about ready to jump off the couch.
Derek chuckled deeply and got up to kiss her daughter's cheek, "She's impatient like her mother, too. I'm talking about how you and your sister were..." Derek coughed uncomfortably as he said it, "How you and your sister were conceived, how your mother and I married and everything that happened that summer before college."
"Tell me, tell me!" Jory giggled, "It'd be like the greatest story never told."
Derek smiled, remembering his little sister saying almost exactly the same thing about the story when he and his wife met. "It all started when Casey, your mother, broke up with her boyfriend for the second time for cheating on her. Again..."
Casey slammed the door shut behind her, trying not to let the tears fall. Derek was sitting in his usual position in front of the television but had glanced up to see her contorted expression. He stood up, "Case, are you okay?"
To some, especially to Casey, Derek had a heart of stone. A very cold stone, at that. Whenever he acted sympathetic to her, it shocked everyone. Casey choked out a sob as he spoke, "Derek, I'm crying because my boyfriend cheated on me. Again."
"I'll kill him." Derek exclaimed, causing Casey to glare at him.
"This is all your fault anyway, Derek!" Casey screeched at him, "You're the one that was selfish enough to want to go out with Emily at prom and practically forced me into his arms!"
"Chill out, Princess!" Derek barked back at her, now exactly in front of her. "You're the poor cry-baby that couldn't handle being single for prom. You're the one that, as soon as Truman could get you cornered, gave into him and kissed him. You've always been weak at the game of love."
Casey wiped her tears away and stood straight up so she could look at him straight in the eyes. Once again in their lifetime, blue eyes clashed with brown. "I'm not the only one who can't stand to be single, you fake-ass hypocrite."
Derek backed down as she finished her sentence and allowed her to run past him up to her bedroom. He stood in the same position dumbly for the next twenty minutes until the rest of the family came out of the kitchen. "Derek?" Marti inquired, causing him to snap out of his trance.
"What is it, Smarti?" Derek responded, turning around to face her.
"We're all going to get pictures of the baby in Nora's stomach. Do you want to come with us?"
Derek shook his head, "Nah. I think I should keep an eye on Princess in case she decides to commit suicide."
Nora's eyes widened at this, "Truman broke up with her?"
"No. Truscum cheated on her. Again." Derek answered, sitting back down in his chair.
Nora gave her husband a worried look, "Maybe I should go check on her. I can reschedule the check-up."
George shook his head, "Derek can take care of his sister. Right, Derek?"
"Step-sister," Derek corrected, even though Casey had claimed it to be the same thing. He didn't believe it for a second and had responded sarcastically to her. She couldn't tell the difference at the time though. Everything had to be perfect and to just hear him say those words, not paying attention to the connotation to it at all, made her world a little bit better.
"Right," George grinned at his wife at this, giving her a sly wink. "We'll see you later, D."
Casey picked up her daughter early that day, giving a family emergency as an excuse. This caused Nikki to genuinely worry. Once in the cab, Casey informed her daughter that everything was okay... She had just gotten her memory back.
"Can you tell me what you remember, Mommy?" Nikki asked, ecstatically.
"Of course," Casey agreed. Her daughter was a lot more mature than her husband, which she was thankful for. "It all started after I broke up with Truman for cheating on me for the second time. Derek was there and basically told me off. I dished it right back to him and ran up to my room..."
Casey was sobbing in her room, the music turned up way too loud. She was waiting for her mother to come in to check on her or Lizzie or somebody. The very last person she expected was Derek. She arched a brow at him as he sat at the foot of her bed. He had even closed the door behind him.
"What do you want?"
"To ap---" Derek made a face, "To apologize."
Casey didn't try to hide her utter surprise in this, "Really? You want to apologize to me? Derek Venturi is apologizing to Casey McDonald? Casey McDonald is being apologized to by Derek Venturi? I'm being---"
"No matter how many different ways you say it, Princess, it's still the same thing." Derek retorted, scornfully. Casey closed her mouth and kept it locked up tight. "As I was trying to say, I'm sorry, Case... I truly am. I just... I don't like seeing you hurt."
"Unless it's by you?"
"No." Derek shook his head, "Even if it's by me, I hate seeing you in pain. Casey, you may not realize this but... You're my best friend."
Casey's jaw dropped, "W-what?"
Author's Note: I had to stop sometime. :/ Please review!