Scenes of Love, Angst, and Hope

I know you guys are waiting for the next chapter of Get In, but I wanted to give everyone a small holiday gift. Here are scenes hinted at or implied from all the stories I've posted including one of Derek and his private war with his unnamed opponent. I hope you enjoy this and look forward to your thoughts, as always please be honest but polite with your reviews, and happy holidays.

How He Got Her to Stay

"Derek it's…" Casey could only stare at the gift.

"It's nothing." Derek cut her off. Sitting up, he wrapped his arms around his girlfriend and grinned inward. It was just a plain cheap present, but what it meant was anything but.

Glancing at the alarm clock on her side of the bed, Casey suddenly stiffened. Trying to rise, she found her lover, and possible something more, refusing to let her go. After the third try she let at an annoyed, "DER-EK! I'm late. I should have been home hours ago."

Tightening his hold, he just pulled his high school enemy and, if he had any say in it, future wife closer to him, whispered into her ear, "You are home Case," and kissed her gently on her shoulder. Picking up her cell phone from her nightstand, he held it in front of her, "If your cheating hubby really cared, he would have called by now."

Casey took the phone from him and saw that no one had called since Derek with his excuse of why she needed to come over on Christmas Eve. "We need to get our stories straight. Don't want the family figuring out something's off on Derekus." After working a double at the hospital, she had been too tired to argue or even shout his name. Maybe that was the reason why it wasn't until after Derek had greeted her with her favorite wine and was half way through the meal he had prepared, that she realized that they could have just done it over the phone. But glancing at the clock again, that was over four hours ago, when a goodbye kiss had somehow led them up stairs to his bedroom. After which she had slept until Derek had woken her with an early Christmas present. Maybe he was right, maybe she was home. Putting the phone and her gift on the nightstand, she leaned back into her boyfriend and sighed, "Fine, but I'll have to get up early tomorrow so I can get everyone's presents from the house."

"Works for me," Derek replied as he eased both of them back down onto their bed and back to sleep. And again he smiled at the gift he had gotten her; a set of keys to his house. Their home.

The Boy She Loves, The Man She Hates

Conan watched Ran decorate the tree with Yoshida and Haibara, and smiled at the cheap ring she had made him buy. Then he turned and continued to argue with Kogoro about telling his daughter the truth. "She doesn't want Shinichi and I'm not going to lose her after finally getting her in my life."

"She deserves the truth."

"Ran deserves a man who loves her, not a foolish boy that didn't know what he had until he lost it. Shinichi died that day in the park; I will not let his ghost ruin Ran happiness."

But even as he said these words, Conan looked from Ran to the vial that contained the 'cure' for the deaging poison in his system. Finally reaching an answer, he returned the vial to his pocket and gave Kogoro a defeated look, "After the holidays. I'll tell her after the holidays are over."

Miss Step

Derek watched the couple dance across the floor. He could tell that they didn't like each other, or at least she didn't like him. To anyone else watching the pair, they seemed to enjoy each other's company. But Derek knew this dancer; he had danced with this dancer. He knew every graceful step she could take and how to hold her so that others could see it too. Her partner did not. He seemed to want the attention only on him. There was too much space between their bodies and the dancer kept her face away him, like he had a bad odor. Her steps were seemed quicker, almost too fast for the routine, like she just wanted to get it over with.

Before Derek could continue his train of thought, there was a knock on his dorm room door. Pausing the recording Nora had sent him, he answered the door to a beautiful girl wearing next to nothing, "Can I help you?" With the door open, he could hear the Christmas party from down the hall.

The girl giggled and fell forward, forcing Derek to catch her and he groaned in annoyance. He lowered her to fall outside his dorm room and went back inside, locking the door behind him. This happened every time there was party. A girl would act tipsy and try to get into his room and into his pants. For over a year now, he hadn't as much as looked at another woman and spent most of his time studying. Not something you expect from an arrogant athlete and famed flirt. So anyone even passingly feminine had tried to get him to show interest. It hadn't worked. All it done had left a trail of scorned women and rumors about what happened before he moved into the dorm.

Derek just ignored them. He had already lived his greatest fear. Laughing at the love of his life and pretending that the small round object in her hand wasn't what it looked like. Watching the hurt come across her eyes and hear her say that if it had been serious than her answer would have been yes.

Rewinding the recording to watch for the twentieth time, Derek sat himself back down and focused on the text book in front of him. He could deal with enraging half the campus and rumors of a bad romance; he just didn't know how long he could go without his dancer.

"Taking center stage is Famed Greco Maxwell and his new partner Cassandra McDonald."

Get In

Derek worked on the lock and again sighed to himself about having to do this on Christmas Eve. He wanted to spend at least one day not fighting with Casey, but his opponent didn't want that. If they just sat and talked, she might realize the situation and may even become the threat his opponent saw her as. Finally the lock clicked causing Derek to grin. Casey had gotten a better one since last time and she had done it without him knowing. Picking up the small cage, he eased the door open and slowly walked in.

For a second he couldn't breathe, she was beautiful even as she slept. He felt like he could watch her all day, but the sudden pain in his stomach at the thought reminded him of the problems with that. Yes he could, but not with the way their relationship was now. It felt wrong. Plus it made him feel like a character from a book Lizzie was reading, Dusk or something like that. Refocusing on why he was, Derek walked over to her dresser and carefully went through her clothes.

It took him about an hour to find it. Gently dropping it into the jar inside the cage, Derek picked up the white mouse with a red ribbon around her neck and placed her into the dresser. Hopefully he would only have to do this once so that Casey will be on the lookout for small animals. Picking up the cage, Derek left the room, only stopping to see if anything else was off and to again to look at Casey and hope that she wouldn't be too mad tomorrow morning.

After ditching the cage in his room, but keeping the jar, he walked outside; taking out his cellphone and dialed the number he had gotten from his opponent's man. He could call the other number, but then he might have had to explain why he called them so late. They picked up on the first ring, "Yes."

Holding the jar up to the light, Derek stared at the spider, "Brown recluses aren't native to Canada; how would you have explained it being there?"

The voice purred on the other end, "Oh I've been waiting for you to call. Frank's healing just fine. Won't be able to hold a glass again, but he'll live."

Derek felt a ping of guilt over how he asked for the number and any other information the man was willing to give; but it went away when he reminded himself who the man was working for. "This was risky, even for you. There was no way you would have gotten away with it."

The voice laughed, "Who said I wanted to get away with it? I'm still ahead on points.
Casey will be mad at you and turn to me to vent. Can't you love the irony? With every prank you pull, you lose her a little more and one day soon she'll hate the very thought of you."

Gritting his teeth, he thought once again about just killing the person on the other end. But how would he explain it to Casey? How could he make her understand that her world was surrounded with death and deceit? "This isn't a game. If anything happens to her, I will be the last thing you see."

Enthusiasm entered his opponent's voice, "That's it, get angry. Let the real you surface. I love it when you get rough. Go on tell me how you would do it. A gun? A knife? Or with your own bare hands, letting me stare into your soulless eyes as the life leaves my body? It would be the happiest moment of my existence. Face it Derek, that tramp next door will never know you like I do."

Derek could feel the hopelessness creep over him, but he ignored it. He had played these mind games before with his deranged foe and he knew how to fight back. Letting out a fake sigh, he said, "Maybe you're right." Hearing the sharp intake of breathe on the other end, he finished the sentence making sure he put every ounce of hope into it, "maybe she will know me better. Share my name. My bed. Have my child."

Derek was ready to continue, but the voice angrily cut him off, "Don't be foolish, Casey won't still love you if she saw the animal you truly are."

He chuckled at the words his opponent said, the hopelessness easing for the time being with the reaffirming of the truth. The fact he felt that everyone but Casey knew and acted as his flickering light at the end of the tunnel. "Thanks for reminding me what I was fighting for."

He hung up before the voice could respond and let the spider out of its jar. Derek had planned to just step on it, pound it into the ground and pretend that it was his opponent's face. But now watching the arachnid scurry off, he decided to take a chance. Brown recluses were called that because they kept to themselves and only struck out when threaten, just like him. And like Derek, the chances of the spider living peacefully were slim, but there was a chance. As he headed back into the house, Derek thought about the things that he had to hope for. His opponent only had until the end of next summer before they had to be in New York explaining to the other families about the loss of men and resources while Derek and Casey would be at whatever college she chose and he just happened to get into. They wouldn't be under the same roof anymore, but Casey would be safe. And maybe, just maybe, far from the danger and the constraints of family, they could finally happen.