AN: I was sitting at my desk at work when the idea for this randomly came to me. Needless to say, I didn't get any work done. The tone and style is quite different from anything I've written, even the other LwD fics I've worked on. You'll notice somewhere towards the middle I change the storytelling format for that part (it's a transition section) and in the part after it, the story kind of shifts from Casey's POV to Derek's. The change isn't as smooth as I would have liked but it was the only way I could get it to work. You'll notice I do it a little at the end too so please bear with me. I really like this story so I hope you do too.
Disclaimer: I do not own Life With Derek although I'm sure no one would really believe I did.
Tea For Two
It was an odd quasi-friendship they eventually formed. And the basis for it was oddest of all. It all started with a book. Casey had taken up reading Jane Austen for fun. Sure, she had read them all before, but this time around she was reading for the pleasure of it rather than the academic pursuit. She was taking time to notice things and she noticed that she was rather intrigued by the notion of teatime. It denoted, in her opinion, a certain quality of class and culture and she'd be damned if she wasn't associated with class and culture. So, in true Casey fashion, she decided to install a traditional teatime.
Teatime didn't go over very well. Here she was on a bright, sunny Sunday. It was past breakfast but not quite time for lunch and the term "brunch" didn't really seem to apply. Nora and George left to run errands and squeeze in a little "date" time for the two of them. Lizzie had a soccer game. Marti was spending the day with her mom. Edwin said he'd rather be anywhere else doing anything else than have sissy teatime and Casey supposed he was out doing something else, somewhere else.
When Casey turned to her friends for teatime support, Emily blushingly confided that she and Sheldon had a standing Sunday brunch date. Casey could understand that and she realized she could turn teatime into a standing Sunday date with Max. Unfortunately, Max had standing football practice. Sam good naturedly and politely declined. And she would have asked Noel but she didn't want him getting the wrong idea.
Now Casey could handle rejection. What she couldn't handle was rejection coupled with defeat and so rather than throwing in the towel, she resigned herself to enjoying teatime as a solitary event. And that's exactly what she was doing, enjoying the delicate, porcelain tea set she had gotten, the piping hot Earl Grey tea, the assortment of fresh scones, muffins, biscuits, cookies and mini teacakes, and the mini jams and butter in the small matching dishes all spread out on the lacey tablecloth she'd purchased just for the event. It could never be said that Casey did anything halfway. She was pouring herself her second cup of tea when she heard the front door open and slam shut and saw Derek start a beeline for the kitchen.
Casey put down the teapot and shut her eyes, readying herself for an encounter with Derek. Derek had just breezed into the kitchen without so much as a glance in her direction and Casey knew she had about five seconds before a delayed light bulb would go off and he'd come charging back to the dining area demanding food.
"5…4…3…2…1," Casey counted down quietly. As she said one, the door leading to the kitchen slammed open.
"And there he is," she muttered with a sigh.
"Casey!" Derek announced as he swaggered towards the table, his eyes glued to the food before her.
"Casey, Casey, Casey," he said dramatically as he took the seat across from her and grabbed a chocolate chip scone. He took a giant bite before finishing his thoughts. "What happened? You get dumped?"
Casey let her disgust show as he talked around the food in his mouth before she answered him. "Excuse me?"
Derek took another giant bite, effectively finishing off the scone. "Did you get dumped? You throwing yourself a pity party?"
"No, I did not get dumped," Casey snapped. "Why would you even say that?"
"No?" He quirked an eyebrow at her and picked up a blueberry muffin. "Then what's all this?"
"For your information, I was enjoying teatime. It's a long standing European tradition full of history, culture, and class." She made sure to punctuate each with a pointed look at Derek.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah," he said before shoving the muffin whole into his mouth. "Buh why aww you doing it ah-lone?"
He grabbed one the fancy bottles of water Casey had all lined up in a row and took a swig to wash the muffin down. Casey's mouth visibly twisted as he swiped at his mouth with the back of his hand.
"You know, I don't recall inviting you to sit and join me so feel free to leave."
"Yeah, well, last I checked I lived here too and if I want to sit at the dining table, I can sit at the dining table," he replied with a smirk as he eyed the tray of teacakes.
"So Spacey, back to my question. Why are you having teatime alone?" He picked up a teacake and shoved it into his mouth.
Casey rolled her eyes and took a dainty sip of her tea before answering him. "Because clearly my friends and family do not place adding culture and class high on their list of priorities."
"Couldn't even rope the ole boyfriend into it, eh?" He picked up a teacup and poured himself some tea.
"FYI, Max had football practice."
"Whatever," he snorted.
"He did," she insisted and Derek just shrugged.
"Okay, what about the best friend?"
"Emily had a date with Sheldon," she supplied, suddenly feeling defensive.
"So she'd rather suck face with Schlepper than down tea with you. Understandable." Casey shot him a look.
They fell into a surprisingly not uncomfortable silence as Derek continued picking at the various pastries and cakes and Casey drank her third cup of tea.
"So," Derek said after a few minutes, "what are those for?"
He gestured towards the small dishes filled with jams and butter.
"It's jam and butter," Casey answered snootily.
"What are they supposed to go on? There's no toast."
"It's for the scones, muffins and biscuits. But you don't have to if you don't like it."
His face turned thoughtful as he picked up another muffin and scooped some butter onto it. "Hmm, not bad."
"Glad somebody's enjoying teatime," she replied dejectedly.
Derek paused and eyed her. "What was the big deal about teatime anyway?"
"You wouldn't understand."
"Try me."
She let out a snort of disbelief. "What? So you can just make fun of me?"
"I make fun of you anyways. These scones are really good by the way," he replied as he picked up a third scone and slathered it with strawberry jam.
"Gee, thanks." She let out a labored sigh. "Fine. I just thought it would be nice to get together and just relax. We can sit around and just talk. You know, like once a week and just reconnect. Everyone's so busy lately that sometimes we don't get to spend as much time together as we should. And we're graduating next year and not everyone is going to the same college so I thought….I dunno, I just thought it'd be nice."
Derek raised an eyebrow. "Sit around and talk? That's what you wanted? A designated time to sit around and talk? With pastries and tea? No wonder it didn't go over well."
"Argh! See I knew you wouldn't understand. That is just so typ –"
"Geez, alright! If it's that big a deal, talk already," he interrupted.
Casey was momentarily stunned. "Huh?"
"Talk," Derek repeated. "You've got thirty minutes before I've got to get ready for a date. You can blab about whatever girly stuff you feel you need to get off your chest and I'll pretend to listen while I eat."
"You're going to have teatime with me?" Casey asked slowly, not believing what she'd just heard.
"That's what I said. Unless you'd rather I load up a plate and let you go back to 'teatime for loners?'" He waited expectantly for her answer and Casey eyed him skeptically.
When Casey realized he was being genuine, her attitude softened. Teatime had already been a failure, long before Derek arrived, so she figured there was no point taking out her disappointment on him.
"You're really going to have teatime with me?"
"That's what I said," he repeated before downing his tea. "But remember, I'm not joining in your girly conversation. I'm merely here so you can pretend you were talking to someone and not ready to join the loony bin by talking to yourself."
Casey laughed and refilled his teacup. "Fine, what would you like to talk about?"
"Don't care, only pretending," he sing-songed.
"Sorry, I forgot." Casey smiled as she snagged a scone for herself.
Casey talked and contrary to what he said, Derek ended up joining the conversation. Casey was surprised at how they'd actually managed to not fight and when the thirty minutes were over, it was actually Casey who reminded Derek about his date.
"Well, uh, thanks for the food. I gotta get going," Derek said standing.
"Yeah, and I should probably start getting this cleaned up before everyone gets back."
Derek started heading towards the stairs when Casey stopped him.
"Yeah?"
"Ummm…" Casey started nervously.
"What is it?" Derek pressed when she kept "Umm-ing."
"Sorry, umm, I was just wondering if you'd want to have teatime again next Sunday?" she asked hopefully.
"Uh, maybe if I have nothing better to do but I'll probably have plans," was what he said but when Sunday rolled around again, he was at the table before Casey even brought out the teapot.
And that's how it started; their quasi-friendship. At first it was a casual thing. When it happened that neither had plans for Sunday at that time, they had tea. But eventually, they started scheduling around teatime. It became a permanent fixture in their week. Unless large obligations came up and there were no ways around it, there was teatime. As time progressed, teatime evolved. They started trying out different teas and sometimes they went out, having teas at Starbucks and other cafes. But the constant was the tea and the conversations.
It started out with little mundane things. They talked about school and friends. They talked about the funny things Marti did or the latest scheme Edwin tried to pull. Eventually, as they became more comfortable, they started talking about plans after high school, after college, fears, dreams, and relationships.
Casey cried about her eventual break up with Max over oolong tea. Derek thought it was long overdue.
Derek vented his anger about a major hockey loss over green tea. Casey let him brood.
They discussed the stress of their senior year over Chai. Both thought it was overrated.
During their sophomore year of college, Casey confided the recent loss of her virginity while they tried tea English style, with milk. They both decided they didn't like.
Most of junior year at college was spent exploring the various fruit infused teas. Mango came up as the favorite.
They celebrated graduating from college over white tea. Derek still maintains they should have spiced it up with alcohol.
When Derek signed on with a major advertising firm, they had black tea and when Casey finished law school, she decided she wanted English breakfast tea. Both thought it was time they went back to the more traditional.
They had peppermint tea when Derek broke up with Jane, the first girl he'd ever said "I love you" to and honestly, truly meant it. Casey didn't know what to say. She felt bad for him but she'd always thought Jane wasn't good enough for Derek anyway.
Casey brewed peach tea when she told Derek about Shawn. Her eyes lit up and the silly grin never left her lips. Derek felt his stomach drop and wondered if maybe he didn't like peach tea.
They were giving English style tea another chance when Casey announced she was moving in with Shawn. Casey decided it had grown on her. Derek still didn't like it.
They were at Derek's apartment trying Ceylon tea when Casey told him she'd gotten engaged. Casey liked the hints of spice and orange but Derek thought it left a strange taste in his mouth.
Casey sat across from Derek and looked at him nervously. He'd been acting odd lately and she'd practically had to drag them to their traditional teatime. She wondered if maybe he was mad at her. That had to be it. Casey scrunched her brow as she racked her brain trying to figure out what she had done wrong. Finding nothing that came to mind she let out a disgruntled sigh and finally decided to just ask him.
"Derek, are you mad at me?"
He was looking out the window of the café they'd been to at least a hundred times and didn't respond.
"Derek," she called again. When he failed to respond the third time she called his name, she gave him a swift kick to the shin.
"Ow, what the hell, Casey?" he grumbled as he bent down to rub his shin.
"You're ignoring me. I must have said your name a dozen times."
"Drama Queen, you said it three times," he corrected.
"So you were ignoring me?" she accused.
"I wasn't ignoring you, I was thinking." He picked a blueberry out of her muffin and popped it into his mouth. She let out a shocked gasp and smacked his hand away.
"Oh yeah? What were you thinking about?"
"We've been doing this tea thing for a while now," he said slowly.
"Yup. We've been having teatime for ten years now," she announced, smiling brightly. "Oh, after me and Shawn get married, maybe he could start coming to teatime too?"
"Yeah," Derek said softly. "That's kind of what I was thinking about."
"Yeah?" she pressed.
"I don't know. I just think, maybe, it's time we stopped." He purposely avoided her gaze.
Casey felt a lump form in her throat and struggled to swallow it.
"Why?" She flinched at how dry her voice sounded.
Derek shrugged, still not meeting her gaze. "You're getting married next week. Then you'll be leaving for your honeymoon –"
"Yeah but then I'll be back and we can do teatime again." Casey sounded so hopeful and Derek hated how it felt as though his heart was starting to clench. He didn't even know why he was saying all this but he couldn't stop. He'd never intended to stop teatime with Casey. Over the years she'd become his best friend. She was there when he suffered his greatest hockey loss ever. She was there when he almost flunked chemistry in college. She was there when Sam got married and transferred to a school California before senior year. She was there when Ralph was killed by a drunk driver five years ago and just three days before he turned twenty-one. She was there when Jane broke his heart. She was just there.
She was his best friend and he was hurting her. And he didn't know why.
"But your moving when you get back," he told her.
"Derek, only like an hour away. I'll even drive here every Sunday to do teatime." She was getting desperate. He heard the stress in her voice.
"I just don't think it's necessary anymore. You should do teatime with Shawn."
"Why are you doing this?"
"Doing what?" he asked blandly.
"Trying to pick a fight?" she returned.
"I'm not picking a fight. I'm being practical. We're not kids anymore. I don't need stupid teatime with you." He finally looked into her eyes and saw them sparkling with hurt and unshed tears. Great, now he was making her cry.
The room suddenly felt stuffy and he needed to get out of there. He got up and threw down enough bills to cover their tab and a generous tip.
"I'm going to go," he announced and headed for the exit without waiting for her response.
"Derek, wait. Don't leave it like this," she called as she chased after him.
He walked briskly. He heard her pitter-pattering after him with her heels. Derek didn't slow down but nor did he head for his car either. Instead he crossed the street and headed to the park. Casey followed after him, constantly calling out to him. She was openly crying by that point and Derek felt like an ass but couldn't stop. He didn't understand what was happening to him. Why was he acting like this?
He came to a stop underneath a tall oak tree and waited for Casey to catch up. When she finally did, she didn't waste any time.
"Derek, what the hell?" His back was to her and she walked around until they were face to face.
"Casey, don't. I don't want to get into it." He turned slightly so he wouldn't have to face her crying eyes. She grabbed hold of him and forced him to face her again.
"Derek, don't you dare. Why are you acting like this? Out of nowhere. I'm getting married next week and you're my best friend and I don't want to be fighting with you."
Derek turned his face upwards. She was right. He was acting irrationally. Casey had become an important, if not the most important, part of his life and he should be happy for her and there for her like she had been there for him. Why wasn't he happy for? She was beautiful and smart and charming. And she deserved to be happy. Shawn was a good guy. He was successful and honest. He was truly in love with Casey. And Derek had spent enough time with him to know he'd never treat her bad or cheat on her. He was a lucky man. And that's when it hit Derek.
He was jealous.
Insanely jealous, in fact.
And he realized that he was jealous because he wanted Casey for himself. Maybe he'd always wanted Casey.
Oh God, he groaned silently to himself, what am I supposed to do now?
"Derek? Talk to me," Casey pleaded. He pushed away from her.
"I can't do this, Case. I'm sorry." She followed him and grabbed hold of his arm.
"Can't do what?" She demanded.
"I can't be your friend," he answered, pulling his arm out of her grasp. Her eyes widened and she flinched as if he'd struck her.
"Derek, why? Can you at least tell me that? Why are you being like this all of a sudden?" Tears were still falling from her eyes but she was also getting angry.
"Maybe it's not so sudden," he murmured, answering a completely different question, before pulling her against him and landing his lips on hers. She was too stunned to struggle.
The kiss only lasted a minute but it was long enough for Derek to know they couldn't go back to the way it was. The touch of her lips against his sent a shockwave through his system. No, he could never go back to the way it was before.
He pulled back and watched her face for clues to what she was thinking. She hadn't said a word and not knowing was killing him. She had to have felt that.
"Case?"
She raised a hand towards her mouth and felt her lips with her fingertips. "You kissed me?"
"Yes, I did." Derek was amazed he'd found his voice.
"Why did you kiss me?" she whispered.
"Why?" he echoed.
"Why would you kiss me? I mean, we're friends and –"
"Friends?" he yelled at her incredulously.
"Yes, Derek, we're friends." He noticed her voiced had risen as well.
"Casey, we're not friends. I don't want to be your friend."
"Derek?"
"You felt something too. I know you did."
"Derek, stop."
"No." He grabbed her by the shoulders and pulled her close, resting his forehead on hers. "Casey, don't marry Shawn."
His heart was racing and the pounding was so loud he heard it thundering in his ears. He looked deep into her eyes, pleading with her silently. She was still crying, although he suspected that now it was for a different reason.
"Derek, I love him," she said slowly, as though the words pained her to say.
But they couldn't possibly hurt her as much it sliced through him. He bent down and kissed her on the forehead. He removed his hands from her shoulders and started to walk away.
He heard her call him but this time she knew better than to follow him. He forced himself not to turn around and kept right on walking.
She'd called him that night. Again the next morning and then again later that evening. She called five times a day everyday up to the wedding. He never answered and he didn't attend the wedding though he'd been told it was beautiful. The calls resumed when she returned from her honeymoon. The even came on the day he knew she was scheduled to move. They kept coming for weeks after that when they started to come fewer.
They started to come once a day at random times, as though she was trying to catch him of guard. Then they started to come once a week, then once a month, then only every other month. This continued for two years and then one day, it stopped. And the moment it stopped he knew something that happened.
She stood standing over the slab of granite that now marked where her husband would be sleeping in his wooden casket, beneath the dirt and the grass for the rest of eternity. It had happened all so suddenly. One day, he left for work and just never came home. He collapsed at work one day never got up. The doctors say it was an aneurism, one of those things that just happen and there was no way of knowing. The priest had told her that it was just his time. But Casey couldn't understand and for some reason, she couldn't cry. It was as though she had gone numb inside.
And that's how Derek found her, standing over the grave, wondering why she couldn't seem to mourn her dead husband. She felt his approach long before she heard his footsteps on the damp grass. He paused a few feet behind her, unsure if he should continue.
"So you don't answer phone calls, you don't attend my wedding and you don't come to the funeral but you'll come after. Now that everyone else is gone."
To say Derek was ashamed was putting it mildly. "Casey –"
"Now is not really a good time, Derek," Casey said emotionlessly.
"Case, I'm sorry." Derek swallowed hard.
"I needed you. It was supposed to be the happiest time of my life but it wasn't because I had lost my best friend."
"I know. But I'm here now." Casey swirled around to face him.
"You hurt me. Deeply."
"I'm sorry."
They stood staring at each other, trying to find the right words to convey what they were feeling at that moment. Finally, Derek wordlessly opened his arms and Casey stepped right into them. They said nothing for a long while until the floodgates finally opened and Casey unleashed the tears she had been storing up since the day she found out her husband had died.
She started babbling incoherently into his chest and Derek just held her, soothing her with his words. He gently rubbed her back as he held her head against him. When she could finally cry no more, she pulled back and wiped the wetness from her eyes.
"Thanks, I needed that," she told him honestly. He smiled reassuringly at her as he shrugged out of his jacket and slipped it over her shoulders.
"Come on, Case. I'll pour you some tea," he told her as wrapped an arm around her and guided her towards his waiting car.
They had Earl Grey the day they buried her husband. While he was genuinely sorry about what had happened to Shawn because he was after all a great guy who'd been good to Casey, Derek silently added that it was also the start of a new beginning. He'd gotten a second chance to do it right. And as he looked at Casey and drank his tea, he noted that he always did like Earl Grey the best.
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So that's "Tea For Two." Did you like it? Did you hate it? As always, reviews are greatly appreciated. I'm working on chapter six of "Dear Casey" so that update should be up some time next week.