Disclaimer: I do not own Life with Derek, or the two songs featured here. They are: Lovesong – The Cure and Amazed – Lonestar. I guess I do own the one character, Tammy, but peh. I don't make money off of her. She's a slacker.
Alright, so this isn't my normal shpiel of Harry Potter fanfiction. I thought I'd try something else for a change. To those of you who happen to have me on your author alert lists and don't like Life with Derek (specifically Dasey pairings) I apologize. I don't know how much longer the Dasey plot bunnies will be gnawing at my fingers, but I decided to run with it.
This is a one-shot. I don't normally do one-shots, but I tried. Let me know what y'all think about it! Also, I've fixed the indiscretion concerning Casey's last name. Thanks for letting me know.
Yours,
Allison Elder
Love Song
"I really screwed up." Sam looked up in surprise at the voice, staring at Casey McDonald as she stood in front of the couch where he and his wife, Emily, were sitting. He knew Derek was hurt, but he'd been sure that Casey had told Derek that Emily had needed her...even though he still wasn't sure why Em had needed Casey there so badly, himself.
"Case...you've missed his games before. It's not a problem!" Emily soothed, apparently thinking along the same lines as her husband. Casey glanced at Sam, who looked briefly guilty. He hadn't told her, then. "Derek will fume about it for a while, and then he'll come crawling to you and tell you that you'd better not come to another game because he's gotten used to playing without you, and you'll go just to piss him off, and everything will be normal again before you know it.'
"Emily..." Casey said, hesitantly. She'd left fifteen minutes into the second period because of a sobbing call from the woman in front of her, begging Casey to hold her hand while she waited for a pregnancy test to tell her that she and Sam were going to be parents. Casey was about to go on when she remembered her best friend's stricken face five months before when she'd had a miscarriage and the doctor's admonishment of no stress that morning. "You're right. You always are. It's just...Derek!"
Emily laughed, and Casey noticed Sam's strange look, even though he played along with his wife. Of course he played along. He doted on Emily. "Of course it is, Casey. It's been Derek since you were a sophomore."
"Just like it's been Sam since you were a junior?" Casey pointed out, gratified to note their blushes. Of course it had taken Derek and her a total of three days to wonder what the hell was up when their best friends had suddenly started feuding every bit as fiercely as the step siblings. It hadn't been until their junior Prom when Emily and Sam had abandoned their dates - Derek and Casey, respectively - to disappear until the monday after that everyone had drawn the obvious conclusion.
Of course, with Sam and Emily dating, all eyes had turned in amazement to a shocked Derek and Casey, who had ignored each other for weeks until their entire family was praying for a fight, just to see some sort of interraction between the two.
"Casey?" She hadn't realized that she had spaced out and was smiling nostalgically until Sam's voice broke through her thoughts. Turning, she looked at him. "What are you going to do? Derek's been playing worse than I've ever seen him play this week. Coach is going to bench him and he'll lose his place as captain if he plays like that at all tomorrow night."
Casey smiled, though it was strained. "Can I borrow your key to the locker rooms?"
--
"Mom, I know it's short notice, but I need the family to come to Derek's game tonight." Nora McDonald-Venturi looked up from her groceries to stare at her eldest daughter.
"Casey, I'm sorry, but we just can't quite afford it right now. Playoff games are extremely expensive...and we've still got two children in college and one who wants a car for her eighteenth birthday on top of the expenses for both her graduation and Lizzie's graduation. George and I are well off, but not--" She was cut off when her eldest daughter held out a paper-clipped stack of pristine tickets.
"I said I need you there, Mom. I'm not going to make you pay for my screwup." Casey said, irritated.
"Casey, I'm sure that Derek would forgive you for running out. It's not like Emily calls you with an emergency every time she knows that you're watching one of his games..." Something must have shown on Casey's face, because Nora took a long pause before saying, quietly. "Casey...you did tell him why you ran out, didn't you?"
"..."
"Casey?" Nora prodded gently, and Casey winced. Her mom had always been able to get answers out of her. So did Derek, but Derek did it by irritating her until she burst out with whatever she was feeling. Nora guilted her into it.
"Emily didn't want Sam to know." Casey whispered. "Sam still doesn't know what the emergency was, only that there was one. But Derek wouldn't accept that. He knows how used to Emily's dramatics I am. Sam's still got that newly wed mind-set. Her overdramatics are her overdramatics, and..."
"Casey, slow down. Breathe." Nora interjected. When her daughter obeyed, Nora nodded for her to continue.
"Derek would have pressed until he got the answers out of me. And then, not knowing why Emily wanted to save the surprise, he would have called Sam and congratulated him." Casey said, miserably.
"What surprise is this?" Nora asked.
"Emily's expecting." Casey whispered.
"That's so great!"
"But...I can't tell Derek."
"Honey, Derek might not understand why you're keeping the secret, but that boy would give you the moon if you asked it of him." Nora said gently. "One secret that makes you happy would not be any hardship on his part."
"I guess...I still need you to come to the game, though."
"Alright, but you get to help me fill out graduation invitations for Marti and Lizzie both." Nora said, wryly. Casey smiled at the mention of her sisters. It had been luck that had allowed the eighteen and twenty-four year olds to graduate at the same time - Marti from High School and Lizzie with two bachelors and a masters in college.
"Deal."
--
Derek Venturi glanced into the crowd sitting safely beyond the boards, searching for the one face he knew wouldn't be there. Of course she wouldn't. Not after he'd screamed at her. He couldn't help it, though. It had been one of the worst games of his life. The only thing that he had been looking forward to in those last ten minutes of agony as his team had tried desperately to catch back up and not make it look like they'd been caught with their skates off was knowing that one way or another, he would have her answer. He hadn't been able to look at her all game past the first scan of the crowd when he'd winked at her and she'd blown him a kiss in return.
She hadn't missed a single full game since he'd gone pro, and she's always tried to fore-warn him when she had to leave early or arrive late. She hadn't managed all of the time, but the one time that he'd wanted - no, needed her to be there she had disappeared.
On the one time that he'd decided to be a big romantic sap about anything, Casey had disappeared. He'd had it so carefully planned. As the players returned to the rink between the second and third periods, he'd looked up at the big board where the words 'Casey McDonald' had been flashing, and then spun to stare at the stands where he knew she was as he counted down the seconds before the words changed (meaning he had ten seconds to get down on one knee and open the small, velvet-covered square box)...only to stare at her empty seat.
After that, the words 'Will you do me,' 'the Honor,' and 'of Becoming...' and finally 'Mrs. Derek Venturi' had been nothing but a mockery, and all he'd wanted to do was curl up into a ball and disappear right in the middle of the rink. But of course, he'd had twenty more minutes of game play...during which he'd been tossed into the penalty box five times and had inadvertently injured three players while still managing to miss every goal opportunity, lose the puck to absolutely everyone else on the ice, and pick a fight with the defense of the other team.
And to top it off, when he'd asked the only thing Casey had said was 'Sorry. I'd forgotten something that I needed to get done.'
His. Ass.
By the time he'd gotten done screaming at her she had only nodded solemnly, packed a small back of the essentials, and walked out of their shared apartment. He hadn't even been able to properly grill her about what she'd 'forgotten' or tell her why he was so upset...though come to think of it he might have mentioned something about it in the middle of his rant. He thought a bit harder.
'Casey, you don't even seem to care that I was a sap for once! That I honestly tried to be romantic for you! I proposed to you tonight, and you weren't even there to see it because you forgot something! And you can't even tell me what it is you forgot, Case!'
...Yep.
Derek sighed and moved to the center of the ice, where the ref was about to drop the puck.
--
Sam hung back as the rest of the team piled ahead to the lockers. Casey stepped out of a closet just beside the door and met his gaze for a long moment. She managed a small smile and he grinned at her. She hadn't told him the whole of what she was going to do, but he had a feeling that it would blow his best friend away. Casey had managed to do that all along, though.
"Good Luck." He said softly as she stepped out onto the ice in her trim white skates and began aimlessly doing tricks, entertaining the crowd with the figure skaters that she'd bribed into providing entertainment during the second break between periods. Casey had always amazed him on the ice - as unwilling as she had been to learn to skate in school, she had been a natural - and he was almost certain that playing figure skater would calm her nerves until Derek arrived back out on the ice and it was showtime for her.
For her own part, Casey fell into the moves that she had practiced often with her friend Tammy with ease and let her mind drift to when she and Derek had each finally realized why the other hadn't wanted to date much in senior year. It had been Prom night, actually. Nora and George had been enforcing a once a week 'Casey and Derek get to know each other' movie night since their junior year when it had been proven that the teens weren't going to do it any other way...tensions had risen with each session. They each got to pick a movie every other week...Casey picking romances and Derek generally picking horror movies...and their disagreements had been growing more and more heated...at least on the surface. They had begun talking quietly throughout their movies though, even though half of the time Casey grabbed Derek's arm with her 'claws' and the other half of the time Derek acted disgusted without fail for every ounce of romance on the screen. They still had real fights, though...particularly when it came to who each other dated. It had all erupted on the night before their senior prom.
--
"I LIKE him, Derek! Why don't you stay out of my life?" Eighteen-year-old Casey shoved Derek angrily.
"Because my dad and Nora won't let me!" He shouted back, grabbing her wrists and holding her away from him so that she couldn't shove him again. "He's no good for you, Casey! He gave four girls STDs in the past month!"
"Oh, like you're any better Derek! How many girls have you made out with in the past week? Because I gotta tell you, it's a LOT more than four!"
"I've already talked to Nora about this, Casey! She agreed with me! You're not going to prom with him! He's just using you to score!"
"Derek, prom is tomorrow night! I can't find another date before then and I will not go dateless!"
"Then don't go!"
Slap.
"MOM! Tell Derek I'm going to prom tomorrow night with Stephen!"
"I'm sorry, Casey." Nora said. "I'm just not comfortable with you going to prom with someone who's been passing around an STD recently."
"Mom! Don't you trust me?" Nora's heart broke at the tears in her daughter's eyes.
"Sweetheart, of course I trust you! I don't trust him!"
"Liar! I can't go to prom without a date, Mom!"
"I told you." Derek's voice came from the stairs, where he'd followed her down. "Don't go."
"I have a better idea." George intervened, just as Casey spun to glare at his son. "You can go with Derek."
Two voices shrieked in unison. "WHAT?!"
"Dad, I was going to go stag!"
"George, please tell me you're kidding!"
"Not at all." George said, mildly. "Derek, since you're the one that objected so vehemently to Stephen it's the least you can do for Casey. And this way, Casey saves face and doesn't show up alone while at the same time escaping the date that doesn't care about her."
"I don't care about her!" Derek protested automatically.
"You will do this, Derek, or you can wave that graduation present you want so much goodbye."
"George, don't you think that's a little harsh?" Nora.
"Nora, Casey's right. She is trustworthy. And since Derek is the one who objects and refuses to let her go with her date - the date that she's had lined up for almost three weeks now - Derek can take her to the dance." He paused and looked at his son. "And dance with her."
Casey's jaw hung open for a long moment as she looked between George, Nora, and Derek before she gave a muttered "Fine" and ran upstairs.
The next night, the normal scream of "De-rek!" came squealing through the house...but strangely enough, it held no annoyance. When Lizzie and Edwin stepped into the living room, it was to see Casey throw herself into Derek's arms, almost making him stab her with the pin for the flowers that he'd bought her.
"Case...you can let go now..." He had wheezed a few moments later. When she drew back, beaming, he pinned the corsage to her breast, careful not to prick her, and seemingly unaware of Nora standing nearby snapping pictures at a rapid-fire pace. The two had posed for a few pictures before George had confiscated Nora's camera and waved them out the door with a warning of their curfew.
They hadn't danced at first, but when she'd caught sight of Stephen with another girl Derek had all but dragged her out onto the dance floor to keep her from bolting. Unfortunately, he hadn't paid enough attention to the song.
Every time our eyes meet
This feeling inside me
Is almost more than I can take
Derek's eyes widened and it was Casey's turn to stop him from bolting, grabbing him and holding him steady until he took a breath and drew her into his arms, guiding her as he swayed with the music. Their eyes locked and Casey looked down after a few moments of an intense staring contest, blushing.
Baby when you touch me
I can feel how much you love me
And it just blows me away
Derek smiled, whispering the next line in her ear, making her look up at him. His brown eyes were unreadable as he stared down at her, but his arms - strong, so strong, from hockey - tightened around her slightly.
I've never been this close to anyone or anything
I can hear your thoughts
I can see your dreams
Casey's face relaxed into a smile as her body slowly relaxed against his. She barely noticed how well their bodies melded together. At least...that was what she told herself.
I don't know how you do what you do
I'm so in love with you, it just keeps getting better
I wanna spend the rest of my life with you by my side
They ignored the stares of those around them - some shocked and others knowingly triumphant - as they moved with each other. As far as Casey McDonald and Derek Venturi were concerned, nobody else existed at that moment.
Forever and ever
Every little thing that you do
Baby I'm amazed by you
"I am, you know." Derek murmured into her tight bun and the few ringlets of hair that fell to frame her face.
"What?" Casey asked.
"Amazed by you."
"What?" Surprised, she lifted her head from the spot it had gravitated to on his shoulder and stared at him.
The smell of your skin
The taste of your kiss
The way you whisper in the dark
Derek gave a rare, real smile as he watched her, mouthing the lyrics without words.
Your hair all around me, baby you surround me
You touch every place in my heart
Oh, it feels like the first time every time
I wanna spend the whole night in your eyes
"Derek..." Casey whispered.
I don't know how you do what you do
I'm so in love with you, it just keeps getting better
I wanna spend the rest of my life with you by my side
Forever and ever
"Case."
Every little thing that you do
Baby I'm amazed by you
"I couldn't stand to see you come here with him. I lied about the STDs. I'm sorry, Case." Derek whispered in a rare show of open honesty. He was never openly honest.
"Derek, why are you telling me this now?" Casey's eyes were full of confusion.
He hesitated. "Because..."
Every little thing that you do
I'm so in love with you
It just keeps getting better
I wanna spend the rest of my life with you by my side
Forever and ever
"...I love you." As soon as the words were out of his mouth, Casey lunged upwards.
Every little thing that you do
Oh, every little thing that you do
Baby I'm amazed by you
The dance had ended with their lips plastered together, her hands tightened to fists in his hair and his hands gripping her waist almost brutally as they shared what was to be the first of many, many kisses. Despite their (read: Casey's) nervousness, George and Nora had been accepting...at least to the teens. They'd had their misgivings, they had later admitted when Derek and Casey had both graduated college still a couple...but those misgivings had been misplaced, it seemed.
--
Casey was brought back to herself by Tammy's hand on her arm. She looked up and saw the hockey teams filing back out from the locker rooms, pausing to stare at the women gathered. Casey merged quietly into the middle of the figure skaters, hiding from Derek, as the women got ready to skate in the formation that they'd been working on since Casey had asked them if they would be willing to assist her with her problem should she need it. Tammy - always the romantic - had agreed readily.
The officials running the game had taken a bit more persuasion, though not much. Once both coaches and teams had agreed to it, that was. Casey thanked everything she was worth that she had friends on both teams to sway them in her direction of thinking. She watched as Derek turned dismissively away from the figure skaters and winced. Even though she proclaimed him a heathen, Derek loved to watch the intricacies of figure skating. He had since Casey had figure skated briefly in college. Casey managed a smile. It was amazing what ten years had done to the both of them - and their relationship. She didn't understand why Emily didn't realize that it was a major thing when Casey said 'I really screwed up' considering how strong Casey and Derek's relationship had become.
She stood in formation waiting for the music that would begin when the cameras were ready and that the actual dance could start. Sure, they bickered and bantered and picked at each other...but she and Derek hadn't actually had a major blowout fight since he'd forgotten to swing by and pay their rent one month, causing them to nearly be kicked out of their apartment in their senior year of college...and even then, it had only been because they were in the middle of finals and both so stressed out that they'd needed to blow some steam. That had been when they were twenty-one. Seven years before. Casey liked to think that their constant banter kept enough of their irritation with each other let out that they didn't need to fight.
It hadn't occured to her until just then that this might not work...that Derek might not accept it as an apology. That he had changed his mind about wanting to marry her. She felt her panic and anxiety well up for the first time since she'd started putting this impromptu project together. It wasn't until Tammy touched her shoulder a second time that Casey realized that the crowd had stilled and the first bar of music was playing. Too late to back out now.
--
To add the ultimate insult to injury, it appeared that the skating routine was going to be set to the time of their song. His and Casey's. The first song they'd heard on the first long drive away from home to college. He hated the routine immediately. Turning, he tried to push his way into the box, but his entire team seemed to be against this. They blocked him so that he was the only player still on the ice. Glaring at them all, especially Sam who should know exactly how Derek was feeling, the team's captain turned reluctantly to watch the figure skaters. He didn't know how in the hell an intermission entertainment like this was agreed upon without telling him first, but he didn't like it.
Whenever I'm alone with you
You make me feel like I am home again
Whenever I'm alone with you
You make me feel like I am whole again
Derek ignored the skaters, concentrating on not breaking down in despair at the familiar and - prior to this moment - beloved lyrics to the song.
Whenever I'm alone with you
You make me feel like I am young again
Whenever I'm alone with you
You make me feel like I am fun again
Sam's hand on his shoulder brought him back to himself and Derek started to turn to tell his best friend off when he froze, his eyes glued to one of the skaters on the ice. She had been hidden before...and the dress she was wearing was both scandalous and made his blood boil. It was a tight, form-fitting red figure skating dress...and it looked like it had been sewn onto Casey. Of course it was Casey. Only she could stick out quite so well as the one red drop in the midst of the deep black skating dresses of the other women as they skated and did their tricks around her.
However far away I will always love you
However long I stay I will always love you
She skated towards Derek, her skates striking the ice purposefully with each word of the song, taking her to him at what seemed like a leisurely pace, her hands tucked behind her back and her head down. His eyes trailed over her form and his adam's apple bobbed as he swallowed hard.
Whatever words I say I will always love you
I will always love you
She looked him straight in the eyes for a moment...and then her solo began. She jumped and spun, her arms tucked tightly against her body, only coming out when she wanted to slow herself and come out of the spin, landing the jump easily and skating a few yards before tucking into a spin with one leg tucked up under her and her other skate pivoting her on the ice. This time, when her arms came out to slow her momentum, she lowered into a tight, kneeling spin with her head tucked carefully between her arms.
Straightening, she skated towards him, just to break into a spin less than three feet from him. He never noticed the other three skaters helping her create a four-leaf-clover pattern.
Whenever I'm alone with you
You make me feel like I am free again
Whenever I'm alone with you
You make me feel like I am clean again
Casey was moving slowly towards him again as the other women melted back into what seemed to be a consistent skating pattern.
However far away I will always love you
However long I stay I will always love you
Her skates touched the ice with the beats of the song, slow and steady as she moved towards him.
Whatever words I say I will always love you
I will always love you
Casey stopped about ten feet from him, her blue eyes meeting his for a lont moment as she stood there before she looked up at the big board. He hesitated before following her gaze. It took him a moment to realize what he was looking at...there was still music playing softly in the background as the figure skaters moved in time with it...but all of the black bodies against the white ice skated slowly in the set pattern of one word, spelled out in cursef.
Yes.
Spinning, he skated to Casey so quickly that if it had actually been in-game, he'd have been called for charging. His hands closed on her hips and, catching what he meant to do, Casey hopped right as he would have barrelled over her. She wrapped her legs around his waist as her hands tightened around the back of his neck, her lips tilting upwards as his crashed down almost brutally onto hers. He didn't slow down...he didn't have the brainpower to slow down. There was only enough in him left to spin, reversing their positions so that his back was the one that slammed into the boards, not hers.
They dimly registered the screams and shouts of the crowd and the fact that the team and the figure skaters were swarming towards them. All that they could feel was the softness where their lips met and the rigid pads that kept their bodies - which had always fit so well against each other- from actually touching. His arms tightened impossibly around her, and he could tell that it was too tight for her, but he couldn't bring himself to loosen his grip. Just like, he suspected, she knew that her skates were digging into his ass and lower back but she didn't loosen the grip of her legs.
He didn't notice when she flung his helmet to the ground, but did notice when her hands balled his hair into her fists and made an attempt to pull him even closer to her. She didn't notice when his gloves disappeared, but she did notice when his warm hands began kneading her back, making the same attempt as her own hands in his hair.
Only when air became absolutely necessary did they let themselves lose that contact, only to press their foreheads together and stare into each other's eyes. And only then did they hear the roar of the crowd - the roar that had started the moment he'd flung himself at her and wouldn't end, they suspected, until they parted. They hadn't touched in a week. Hadn't kissed or held each other since she'd packed her overnight bag and gone to Sam and Emily's while waiting for him to cool down. They hadn't talked since his last sentence to her.
She didn't realize she was sobbing with relief that he still loved her...that she hadn't lost him...until his gentle thumbs wiped away her tears and he kissed her again, softly this time. Until his lips moved over her eyelids and her cheeks and his arms - still so impossibly tight around her - tightened until they could have rivalled a corset. She leaned forward and kissed him desperately before drawing back. Her eyes moved to the team surrounding him and she leaned in to whisper in his ear.
"Emily called me. She's pregnant, and she didn't want Sam to know yet." Her voice was so soft he almost had to strain to hear her above the crowd, and he definitely had to concentrate with her warm breath in his ear, her soft lips brushing his skin as they moved. "I didn't want you to have to keep a secret from Sam...and I know you don't understand some of the romantic things that Emily and I discuss, so I didn't want..."
"I don't care." And he didn't. Not now. She had answered his question, and it was all he'd hoped for. The tension of waiting, of praying that she would say yes. The uncertainty, not knowing for sure what her answer was. It was all gone. He wasn't even sure he'd been angry to begin with...just scared.
"I love you, Derek Venturi." She whispered.
"And I love you, Casey McDonald-soon-to-be-Venturi." He smiled at her, and then he looked past her to the officials, who were looking indulgent, but who were clearly beginning to become annoyed. Setting her down, he reached down to grab his helmet and gloves before taking her hand. The two of them skated to the box, where the team had already dissipated to, hand-in-hand. As they reached the box, she turned to kiss him one last time before giving him a gentle nudge inside.
"Wipe the floor with them." She murmured in his ear, skating towards the locker room entrance. He had a feeling that she would watch the rest of the game from right there, no matter what emergency came up.
And he was right.