A/N: This has a lot of flashbacks and currents. The first chapter is more or less setting it up. Flashbacks are about college and them trying to establish their relationship and the current is them having their daughter. Some chapters will be all college and others will be all current. Read. Review. Enjoy.
It was 3 am somewhere in Vancouver. A lazy snow drifted to the ground. Inside a hospital room a new mother cuddled her infant daughter to her chest. Only 16 hours old Amelia Isabel Venturi was nuzzling at her mother's breast. Amelia had a thatch of thick dark hair, complete with her father's wispy curls. Casey McDonald-Venturi studied her new daughter with the intensity usually reserved for final exams. Amelia had her mother's nose, small and round. Her grandma Nora's cheekbones. And her father Derek's mouth. With a light chuckle Casey briefly hoped that one day those pouty lips wouldn't say half the things Derek said before noon.
Beside the bed rested the husband and new father in a stiff hospital chair. He had his legs propped up on his wife's bed. His arms were crossed around his chest and his head slung back. He was wearing faded jeans and an ancient t-shirt from his high school hockey days. Soft, warm, comforting. Casey had worn that shirt countless times in the decade they had been together.
It was graduation day in the McDonald-Venturi household and the air was sparking with excitement. George was stalking the family with a video camera trying to get memorable interviews and Nora was snuffling into tissues. Lizzie and Edwin were lying low in the family room, trying to focus on day four of their life-or-death Monopoly game. Marti was bouncing around the house in a beautiful floral dress bought especially for the special day. Surely a waste of $25 because by noon it would have at least two mystery stains on it.
In the bathroom Casey was wrapping her long brunette hair around a curling iron and mumbling to herself. "You will not trip across the stage. You will remember your speech. You will not vomit . You will not vomit."
"Geeze, klutzilla. You're being spazzier than usual." Derek commented from the doorway. He was leaning casually in the frame and taking in Casey's appearance. Her dress fell just above the knee with green and brown flowers printed on a pure white background. She had slipped into solid white lace leggings and five inch brown wedges. Even Derek had to admit she was stunning. "You don't look like your usual crap so calm down and move over. I need the bathroom too."
"For what?" Casey snapped as she released her hair from the iron and it fell in a perfect spiral.
"I have to shave." He ran a hand across his stubble. Casey scoffed and rolled her eyes.
"Oh yeah. All three hairs on that pubescent beard are getting out of control." But reluctantly she did move over. Derek edged in and lathered his face with shaving cream. In doing so he bumped Casey's arm while she was winding another strand of hair. "Derek! I could have burned myself! Then all of my beautiful graduation pictures would have been ruined with an ugly curling iron burn because of your idiotic carelessness!"
"Breathe, princess." Derek sighed condescendingly and plopped shaving cream on her nose just to see her scowl and rub it off angrily. "I didn't even touch you and your precious graduation pictures will be fine."
"You just don't understand. I'm valedictorian! Everything has to be-
"Perfect. I know, you spazz. I know. You haven't shut up about it for weeks. EVERYONE in the tri-state area knows that Casey Jane McDonald is valedictorian. All your brown-nosing and keening paid off."
"At least I didn't spend four years wasting my life on dumb bimbos and parties!"
"Clearly! Your social calendar is just as bland as ever. Your idea of a graduation after party is going out to dinner with Nora and dad and safely retiring to your bed by nine thirty so you can wake up and pack for college which doesn't even start for twelve weeks. And while you act like a sixty year old widow, guess where I'm going to be."
"At Victoria or Jamie or Amber or Holly's house doing god knows what except ruining that poor girl's view on men." Casey spat.
At that moment George came into the bathroom doorway with his video camera and a weepy Nora in tow. "There are our two graduates! Casey is a valedictorian and Derek has lettered in hockey every single year! Do you have anything you wanna say?"
"We are so proud!" Nora half sobbed.
"Dad, come on! I'm shaving!" Derek groaned.
"George, mom, I' m not ready! Please, wait until later!" both teens pushed George and Nora from the bathroom and finished prepping for a giant day in their lives.
Days passed from the birth and they had settled into a rhythm. Casey was still dozing in the couple's bed one morning and Derek was swaying his new daughter in his arms in front of their back porch glass door. Snow had piled up and everything was glittery and white. Inside the two bedroom apartment, every surface had been vomited on by Father Christmas.
"You're over doing it, Casey." Derek had told his nine month pregnant wife only three weeks ago, as she hung garland around the tree. "She will be an infant. She'll have no clue what Christmas is. Why does it matter?"
"It's her first Christmas, Derek. I want it to be special." Casey's enormous belly was stretching out his old hockey shirt. He smiled and reached over her to hang garland where she couldn't reach.
"Won't being born be special enough?" Derek asked as Casey went to another box and brought out a seemingly endless assortment of tacky tree ornaments.
"No! I'm nesting. I want to do this for my nest. Help me hang ornaments."
"So my daughter is a…bird?" he picked up a plastic Santa and haphazardly hung it on a plastic green branch.
"No, Derek. Nesting is something pregnant women do when they are prepping for their baby. It wouldn't kill you to at least read one or two of those parenting books that I bought you. I mean at least act like you care. This is important to me and I was hoping it would be to you too!" She was going a million miles an hour and words were pouring from her mouth. She was getting worked up and on the verge of tears when Derek pulled his frantic wife into his arms.
"Calm down, Space Case. You'll send yourself into early labor."
"Der-ek." Casey moaned into his shirt. A smile stretched on Derek's face.
That morning it was three days after Christmas and Casey was just starting to wake up. Immediately a long laundry list of things to do swarmed her head. Laundry. Kitchen. Pump breast milk. Clean the house. The family will be over at 4…Casey crawled from bed and dawned yoga pants and a sweatshirt, her go-to post-partum wear…half because it was comfy and half because it was all left that fit her…
From the living room Casey overheard Derek's voice and the happy coos of their daughter. Casey crept down the short hall and watched as Derek swayed by the glass door and talked to Amelia.
"You're my Christmas baby. Yes, you are. You're daddy's Christmas angel. My Amelia Isabel. You're going to grow up smart and beautiful like your mommy. And strong and athletic like your daddy."
"You forgot stubborn and hot headed." Casey playfully chimed in.
"And a clumsy grade grubber." He teased in return. Casey walked over to the two loves of her life.
"Oh, shut it Venturi. And go take a shower. We have a busy day, the family will be over this afternoon. Also, please support her head more." Casey scooped Amelia from Derek's arms and kissed her fluffy brunette head. Derek planted a kiss on Casey's head and muttered something about knowing how to hold his own damn baby as he trudged to the shower. "Your daddy means well." Casey told Amelia.
They were only 27 and it had taken too many years to get from spitting venom to playful banter. At fifteen they might have stabbed each other for an offer less than vending machine change…but that all changed their first year of college when they realized they were all each other had.
"Do you have everything you need?" Nora asked her daughter for the umpteenth time. Casey was carefully organizing her books on the shelf above her desk. The dorm was…quaint…but nice. Casey hadn't met her roommate yet but assumed she would be around, judging by the mess on the other half of the room.
"Yeah, mom. I do." Casey said cheerfully.
"Alright then. If you need me, I'm only a few hours away…and Derek is just across campus."
"No, mom. He's not. Because as far as I'm concerned he is on another planet. Just because we happened to get into the same school doesn't mean I need to associate with him. Holidays will be enough. English majors doubling in Economics don't associate with undecided jocks here on a hockey scholarship."
"And three horns don't play with long necks." Nora mocked her daughter's haughty tone with a quote from her favorite childhood film.
"Mom, I'm being serious."
"So am I. College can be a very lonely time…and he is family."
"He isn't family." Casey said with less spite than usual. "He may be your step-son, but he was just my unwelcome housemate for four years."
"Oh, alright, sweetheart." Nora reached out and stroked her nearly adult daughter's cheek. Casey was clutching Mr. Snuggles, her childhood teddy bear to her chest. "I love you so much. I'm so proud of you."
"I love you too mom." The two women embraced and let loose a few sobs. A knock on the door frame split the mother daughter hug.
"Nora, Casey?" It was George, back from setting up Derek's dorm. Little known to Casey or Nora, George had just had a very similar conversation with his oldest son. "You ready to switch?" Nora nodded and kissed her daughter on the cheeks one last time before leaving to say goodbye to her step-son.
George awkwardly sauntered into his step-daughter's room. He sat on the bed and looked at her books on the shelf, posters on the wall, and blankets on the bed.
"It looks so...you. Already." George laughed lightly.
"I work fast." Casey shrugged. The two looked at each other for a few moments. After the divorce Casey and Lizzie's father had a mid-life crisis of sorts. Moved to California, married a twenty five year old yoga instructor, and had a baby. He all but forgot his two daughters in Canada. After a few visits it tapered down to just long cumbersome phone calls. Then it was just holiday and birthday cards. Now it was just birthday cards with no more than "Love Daddy" scribbled on it with "Love Daddy, Trisha, and Baby Opal" added later. George had been the man that Casey ran to with boy issues and prom issues and the man whose cheesy jokes she rolled her eyes at. Lizzie would go to George for soccer practice in the yard and her school science projects. George was the father that Casey and Lizzie didn't get on the first-go-around.
"I'm so proud of you, Case." George said. "You are the best daughter a man could ask for." His voice was breaking but he cleared his throat to cover it up. "Lizzie is so athletic. Marti is so creative. And you are so passionate. I am one lucky man to have three wonderful daughters." Casey sat on the bed beside him and rested her head on his shoulder.
"Thanks, George. I like hearing that." Casey murmured.
"I told Derek to look after you." George said after kissing his step-daughters head.
"He won't."
`"You'd be surprised." George said cryptically.
Hours later the apartment was filled to the brim with the McDonald-Venturi clan. Lizzie and Edwin were twenty three and Marti was nineteen now. Lizzie had done extensive training and was now the co-owner of her own Taekwondo dojo. Edwin was a very young but very successful accountant and had a beautiful fiancé he met at university. Marti was attending an art school and had put blue streaks in her hair and a piercing in her nose. George and Nora loved the empty nest and had a time share in Florida where they went for three weeks every winter. Everyone was fawning and doting over Amelia Isabel , whose eyes were growing more and more blue every day, just like Casey's.
Casey was stirring a boiling pot on the stove and humming to a song on the radio. Derek came up behind her and rested his chin on her head. It was so domestic and peaceful it was almost frightening.
"Hey, it actually smells good." Derek remarked.
"Wow, thanks." Casey scoffed. "Spaghetti is hard to mess up."
"Oh…but our first week of marriage begs to differ." Derek laughed.
"I didn't mean to burn it!" Casey laughed.
"You burned everything. The sauce. The pasta. The bread." Derek shook his head at the memory.
"Well….you still ate it."
"I was afraid you would divorce me if I didn't!" Derek defended.
"Der-ek!" Casey swatted him with the hot plastic spoon. She turned down the stove burner and looked out into the living room at her -their- family. George, now with silver hair and Nora, now sporting happy creases in her face, were cuddling and cooing their first grandbaby. Lizzie and Edwin debated something heatedly but without anger. Marti was sketching actively in her artist's book, looking up at her niece and parents every so often.
"We've come so far." Casey sighed happily. Derek came up behind his wife and wrapped his arms around her tight.
"Sure have, princess." He sniffed the air. "Hey, babe?"
"Hmmm?" she said dreamily.
"You're pasta is burning."
"Oh, shit!" she broke his grasp and ran to the stove.
"Same old space-case." He chuckled and went into the living room to check on his daughter.
A/N: Questions, Comments Concerns? Need nutrition information? Well…no nutrition as this was mainly fluff. I enjoyed writing the tender father/daughter scene between George and Casey. If you liked it, let me know.