Here's something I've been planning for sometime. Shifting views from varies stories, both tie-ins and stand-alone, about the bickering pair.

I'll Keep You Warm

Derek awake to a feeling of being trapped, was he still under the snow? Was she?

Pushing himself up as far as the weight on top of him would allow he tried to pierce through the darkness surrounding him. The area around was bigger than his car. Was it a room? He could see hints of light coming from two sides of the area, maybe a door and a window? Listening into the void, Derek heard the sound of chatter, the beep of a few machines, and was that someone else breathing? This had to be a hospital. Okay Derek, what now?

The weight shifted and Derek heard, "You're crazy, get back in here," words he had heard just before running for help.

The words sent him back to the events that had led to them. "Again? At your wedding? Real charming there Truman. And you, you're her cousin, Viki. How self-involved are you to be screwing Casey's groom just before they get married?" He had gone looking for Casey and had accidentally walked in on Viki and Truman. He had been struck with a scene of Deja vu despite the fact Casey had been the one who had done that last time and this time the cheating pair was further along.

Ten minutes later, after a brief fight and revealing to the wedding party what was going on, he had gotten into his rental to get some fresh air only for a panicked Casey, still in all her wedding glory to hop in after him. "Yea Nora, she's here. She jumped into my car without her phone, or a coat. We're going to drive around a little, then head back. That should give Charming and Cousin of the Year enough time to clear out. Nora? Nora? Dammit, I forgot to charge this thing."

Casey rubbed her exposed arms, trying to keep warm and asked, "Could this night get any worse?"

Cranking the heat up and directing it to her side, Derek answered, "You could've married the cheating bastard, Princess. You're not still marrying him after this, are you?" He cast a side glance as he asked this, taking in the sight of his step-sister. Her hair was held in a bun by silver pins done to look like scalpels. Her gown was doctor coat white with heart shaped lace that hugged her neck and the other curves of her upper body; the lower half being puffy and stopping just above her ankles. Luckily for her, she had been wearing fuzzy pink bunny slippers when the drama had begun; otherwise he suspected that the run down the salted stairs might have ruined her stockings.

Giving him a confused look, she answered, "Of course not."

Relieved to hear that he just replied, "Good."

"Good? Derek you almost seem glad that this happened." Casey shot back, hitting a little too close to the truth. He hadn't wanted this, but if something was to occur he was happy that it had been before the wedding and not after. This way was easier to clean up.

"He was never right for you, that just what I'm saying. You should've listened to me when I told you to say no." Derek decided to stick to the facts, if not the whole truth, and throw in the last real conversation they had in the past year to keep her distracted.

Casey demanded, "Who put you in charge of my love life?"

"Someone has to be, Case." was his reply.

"And that someone is you?" was hers.

"Yes." He deadpanned.

"Why is that?" Of course she would use her beautiful keener mind to try and find out why he had beaten her ex-fiancé worse than some of his hockey rivals.

Derek turned to Casey and forced out the well-rehearsed reason. "I have an invested interest; I'm... your step-brother." Stick to the facts Venturi, don't tell her that you hate that this wasn't your wedding day.

It was because he was looking at her that he saw her eyes widen in horror at something ahead of them. "DEREK THE ROAD!"

A patch of ice covered the ground, from one side to the other, a sign warning to turn back. "SHIT!" was his only response as he tried to regain control of the car as they sped through the barricade and over the frictionless surface. This proved useless as the car continued off the road and through the awaiting snow bank.

Derek switched the car into reverse and gunned the motor. Besides the tires whining, nothing happened. "Great we're stuck; I'll get out and push." This proved easier said than done as the door refused to move. "Uh, Case the door wouldn't budge."

"What! Let me try." Casey reached over and tried the door, Derek quickly throw his arms up and gave her all the space he could, hoping that she would not notice the stiffness of his expression. Getting the same result, she tried her own, then the ones in the back seat. "Dammit. This is supposed to be the happiest day of my life and I'm trapped in the middle of nowhere. With you."

Catching her eye in the rear-view mirror, Derek answered, "Nuh-uh McDonald, you're not putting this on me. I'm not the one who decided to get married in the mountains in the middle of winter."

Casey gave an informative, "its romantic, Derek," seeming to find the idea that it was crazy, crazy.

"Well Truman and Viki would agree with you on that." was his reply. The words coming out before he had time to consider them.

Casey shot him a hurt look, "Nice, Venturi, pour some more salt in the wound." She had been climbing into the front, but after that last comment she decided to stay in the back.

"Why not? If it wasn't this jerk it would be another. Your taste in men leaves something to be desired." Talking to Case through the mirror proved to make the words come easier. He had planned on having this discussion at the hotel, but the drama had changed the setting.

"Like your taste in women is any better? By the way, your date Rebecca was hitting on one of the waitresses when we left." was her response.

This caused Derek to chuckle, "Good for her."

"Good for her?" Casey asked in confusion.

"Yeah, Rebecca needs a rebound pound after getting dumped." he explained.

"You dumped your date at a wedding where she doesn't know anyone, real classy Derek. Maybe you and Truman can join a club for assholes." Casey responded, a hint of disgust in her voice. She gave a short shiver and began rubbing her arms again, the backseat being colder than the front.

Seeing her shaking, Derek switched the vents around and started directing the heat into the back. After a minute, when she seemed to be getting warmer, he answered. "I'm not that much of a bastard, Casey. Rebecca's a friend who needed to get away from her life and I wasn't going to your wedding alone."

"Alone? How can a CHL All Star not get a date?" his comment confusing her.

Turning around to stare Casey in the eye, he carefully explained, "By not looking."

Becoming more confused, Casey asked, "Not looking? Derek I've seen the people you hang out with, Rock stars, movie stars, pop icons. There is no way that you're ignoring all of them." Derek could tell from her face that she knew he was telling the truth, her Derek Bullshit Meter having been honed from their years of rivalry.

"Yes there is." Derek replied amending in his mind I never got over you. He shifted away from her and stared at the snow covered windshield, not wanting her to see the look of regret on his face. But he moved too quickly and he hit his knuckles on the passenger seat headrest, shooting a quick pain across his hand and causing him to curse in anger, "Dammit!"

"What?" Casey asked, leaning into the front to see what had caused the outburst.

Derek shaking the bruised hand, explained, "My knuckles still hurt from hitting Prince Charming."

Casey reached out to examine the bruise, "Let me look at it," only for him to keep moving it out of her grasp, "DER-EK, stop being a baby and let me look at it. How can you take hits from guys twice your size and yet treat me touching you like a vasectomy? I am a doctor, remember?" Derek didn't answer, not wanting explain it wasn't a pain but a pleasant joy for him.

Casey took the brief pause to grab his wrist and began looking the injury over, "What did he say anyway?"

"What?" Derek had looked away, not wanting to see the aqua blue of Casey's eyes focusing on a puzzle, something he had discovered as very alluring to him.

Casey tightened her grasp on him as she slipped down into the backseat floor trying to reach something under his seat, "What did my cheating beau say that made you crash him through a door?"

Derek cocked an eyebrow at what she was doing, "He made a comment about you being bad in bed."

Popping up with a first aid kit, she placed it on the spot beside her and started picking through it with her free hand, "You hit him over that?"

Derek rolled his eyes, of course she would know there was a kit under there, he thought before responding, "No, I suggested that maybe he was the one poor in the sack and he asked if I was speaking from experience."

Casey raised an eyebrow as she grabbed some peroxide, cottons, and a wrap, "He thought we slept together?"

"Yep." was his only answer, not liking the way the conversation was heading.

"What gave him that idea?" she asked, unknowingly going further down the forbidden path. Completely oblivious to where the conversation was heading, she dropped the wrap onto the front passenger seat, spin the peroxide lid off with a flick of her thumb, flipped it around and dabbed the few cottons that she holding in the palm of her hand.

"Well, we were roommates in college," he answered, trying to not let her know that he was impressed by her dexterity. So much for the klutz.

"So? It was only for a few months." Casey pressed on, setting the peroxide on the passenger seat and started treating the bruise.

Derek let out a sigh, fine if she wants to go down this road, "People talked Casey, that why I moved out. I wasn't going to have rumors ruin Kingston for you."

"You could've said something," was her only response, seeming more focused on working on his hand than people talking about step-siblings trading bodily fluids.

Giving her a confused look, he explained, "I was trying to avoid those famous McDonald Freak-outs of yours." Like the one you should be having right now at hearing people think we were screwing, he continued in his mind, baffled at how calm she was.

Finished cleaning his knuckles, Casey dropped the cottons, picked up the wrap, and started winding it around Derek's hand. She matter factly stated, "I don't freak out, I have rational reactions. So that is when you hit him?"

"No," he replied, getting tired of the conversation bouncing between his two least favorite subjects.

"No?" she asked, ripping off the tape, smoothing the end, and began cleaning up the used medical supplies.

Derek turned and focused on Casey as he explained what happened, "He suggested that I was going to use him cheating as a way to get you in bed again and I was welcome to you as no one wants to be with a whining bitch who fucks their brother. That's when I hit him." She wanted to know, fine, I told her. Could we change the subject now? "Where are they? You would think the phone going dead would have caused Nora to call half the emergency units in the Provence."

"Derek," Casey began.

He cut her off, feeling it was better to get his point across before the Freakout happened, "Look, I know that you hate the chivalrous shit and yeah, you and me are not going to happen, we would kill each other before the end of a month, but he doesn't get to say those things about you while he's fucking your cousin." There, I said it. I've thought about us being together but know we never will.

"Derek," Casey started again, making sure she had his attention, "that's surprisingly noble coming from you, but I think the car just died."

"What?!" he turned the key and heard the click click click of the car refusing to start, "NO! NO! NO! Dammit," he cursed as he slammed his palms against steering wheel. A thought occurred to him and he flipped a couple of buttons on the door panel, after nothing happening, he stated the oblivious, "And these are power windows, great."

Casey leaned forward, done with putting the kit away, "What are you trying to do?"

Derek shifted, pulled himself out of the driver seat, and climbed over to the passenger side, "Getting help, what else? Get down."

Leaning out of his way, Casey finally started acting nervous, "What? Why?"

Leveraging himself against the passenger side door and aiming his feet at the driver side window, Derek explained, "Because I'm about to break the window. It's below zero already and we can't wait for them to spot a white car buried in the snow." Gesturing at her wedding dress, he continued, "You can't go out there wearing that, so I have to." After a thought he sat up, slipped off his leather jacket, then his tuxedo jacket and passed them to Casey, "Take these."

"Aren't you going to need them?" she asked as she put the leather jacket on and zipped it up. Then she lay down on the floor, and held the tuxedo over her head.

Flashing a smirk, Derek got back into position, lifted himself up by his arms, and swung back and forth to pick up momentum, "Princess, I make my money skating on ice, this is nothing. Try to stay warm." Crash went the glass. The snow and the colder temperature starting to pour in. Derek ignored them and broke more of the window away making room to pull him out.

Running over frozen ground for a few miles in negative temperatures wearing most of a tux turned out to be a little more than nothing, but Derek had made it to where the search party was forming and led them to the car before the exposure got to him. The last thing he remembered was Rebecca saying something to Casey.

Then everything went black and he was here in the hospital. The weight on his chest shifted again and said, "He really does love me." Great, Rebecca must have told. Yeah I said somethings, but I could've taken them back. I've done it before with our moments of honesty. You think an agent would be able to keep their mouth shut. But no.

Feeling around for the switch for the light, Derek hit the call button by mistake. After a minute, a nurse and doctor came in, turning the light on as they moved inside. Derek looked down at the weight and was not surprised to see that it was Casey. Finally rousing at the brightness, she moved away from him and allowed the other medical professionals to look him over.

The doctor, named Carr of all things, poked at parts of Derek's body and said, "You're very lucky Mr. Venturi, and in more ways than one." He cast a glance at Casey. She properly impressed him with her shop talk. "You nicked your leg getting out of the car. Honestly I'm surprised you were able to run for as long as you did. If it wasn't for your girlfriend," again he looked at her, this time with a hint of a tease, "who I might add should be in the waiting with the rest of your family, you might have lost the leg. Now you'll just have a scar and a story to go with it."

"She's not my girl-." Derek started only to be stopped.

Casey had crossed over to him and placed her hand over his mouth, "Don't mind him; he's still confused by all the craziness surrounding the wreck."

"Uh-uh. I'll let you two have a moment." Carr could tell that something was going on, but decided to leave it be.

When they were alone, Derek shot Casey a questioning glance, "Case, why did he think you were my girlfriend?"

She sat on the side of the bed, being sure to avoid the wires, "I might have introduced myself as such." At this distance, Derek noticed that she had changed out of her dress and into an oversized t-shirt and comfortable jeans. He did a double take when he realized the t-shirt was his, one that he had been missing since his second college move.

Derek asked, "Why?" Referring to both the girlfriend comment and the t-shirt.

Casey leaned closer and started toying with his bangs, "Because maybe there could've been something to the rumors at Kingston. Maybe I heard from several reliable sources that you are in love with me and was going to try to talk me out of marrying Truman before walking in on him and Viki. And maybe, just maybe, I feel the same about you."

Derek touched her wrist and asked, "Maybe?"

Casey slipped her hand free and poked him in the chest, "Maybe. Now you'll be released tomorrow, I hope you don't have any plans for the next week because I have a honeymoon paid for in Vermont and need someone to keep me warm. You just might do." Casey then kissed Derek softly on the lips and strutted to the door, a smirk on her face and a stunned one on his.

Snapping out of the trance, Derek called after her, "Case, your wedding got ruined and you're going to spend your honeymoon with your jerkous step-brother, why are you so calm?"

Casey leaned against the door entrance, "I'm the one who invited Viki, Truman's never been good at being faithfulness or sneaky. After exposing them, I was going to marry my college roommate, but someone had to get us trapped in the snow then bled on my dress. I'm calm Venturi, because I've finally pulled a prank you can't top." After dropping that bombshell she did a dramatic kiss goodbye and slipped out the door.