This is my first Life With Derek fic, so sorry if I didnt get the characters right Hope u Enjoy! ( I don't own LwD)

Sleepless Nights

12:01

It has been two hours since she had come up to bed, yet she couldn't get to sleep. She had tired everything from studying to even counting sheep, even though she knew it was a childish thing to do.

12:04

Ugh, she had wasted three minutes thinking about why she couldn't go to sleep, instead of trying to find a way to sleep! 'I mean,' she thought, 'what could possibly be keeping me from sleeping.' Idly, she was grateful it wasn't a school night and she could sleep in. That is, if she could get any sleep at all.

12:08

'That's it!' she thought, 'Maybe if I go get something to drink I'll be able to get to bed.' As quietly as she could, Casey got up from her bed and made her way downstairs.

'Odd,' she thought as she got to the bottom of the stairs, 'why is the kitchen light on?' She knew that everyone was asleep, because she had checked on them, but she could have been wrong. Though, it may just be Mom or George getting a late night snack.

But, she thought, what if it wasn't? For all she knew it could be some burglar coming to rob her kitchen, though why a kitchen of places to rob, but that was beside the point right now. Slightly panicked she reached for some sort of defense weapon, which happen to be Derek's' hockey stick.

Cautiously, she made her way to the kitchen door.

Brave face o she pulled the door open and braced herself for the worst. When she didn't feel anything she opened her eyes (when had she closed them?) to see the poorly lighted kitchen, with no robber.

"Is anyone here?" she whispered. When only silenced answered her, she forced herself to relax. 'See, Casey, there's nothing wrong.' After taking a second to compose herself she made her way to the refrigerator. Though, as soon as she took her first step into the kitchen she felt a hand come and grab her by her wrist. The hockey stick that had been previously forgotten, feel to the tile floor noisily. Just as she was about to scream another hand reached up and covered her mouth.

'Oh my god,' she panicked, 'he's going to kill me!' Franticly, she struggled when she felt the hand on her wrist, move to cultch her waist.

"Casey, Casey, relax its only me." A voice whispered in her ear.

'Derek' she thought to herself, and was powerless to stop the feeling of relief over coming her.

"I'm going to take my hand off your mouth, so try not to scream at me, princess." He calmly stated. She ignored the side of sacarsm purposely (one because she did not need a fight with Derek in the middle of the night and two she was still in shock about nearly being killed) When her mouth was finally released, she started to talk.

"Derek, what are you doing down here--" she glanced toward the clock, "at 12:30 at night. You nearly gave me a heart attack."

"That would be a shame now wouldn't it, princess." He said sarcastically. "I couldn't sleep." When she looked at he with a confused expression he answered, "The answer to your question, Spacey."

"Oh" was all she could say.

"Now, you tell me what your doing down here," he stole a glance toward the floor, "and why do you have my hockey stick as your nightly companion."

Oh, right. She had almost forgotten about that.

"I, um, well" she hesitated, 'I kinda thought you were a burglar."

"Casey, what kind of robber would be sitting in the kitchen in nothing but his underwear, eating a bowl of cereal, and have a spoon as an attack weapon?"

It was only then that she noticed the open bottle of milk sitting innocently on the counter, with a cereal box next to it. Oh and lets not forget about the all too dangerous attack weapon clutched in Derek's hand. She also noticed that he was in nothing but some form fitting sweats and wasn't wearing a shirt, and his hand was still wrapped around her waist.

Her thought where interrupted by a low chuckle.

"You really crack me up sometimes, Spacey." He released her and walked back over to his seat on the counter.

"So—uh," This certainly wasn't the most awkward moment at all.

"So why are you down here?" Leave it to Derek to be so blunt.

"Same as you couldn't sleep."

"Ah."

A comfortable silence fell over them, except with the occasional night time sounds. Finally after some time Derek spoke up.

"If you're just going to stand there, like an idiot, at least sit down. It's creepy enough with you standing there, knowing your watching me while I eat."

Not wanting to start a war she went over to sit next to him. "Milk?" He asked when she finally got settled. "No thanks" Was all she said.

She couldn't help it, she had to ask. "Derek, why are you being so nice to me all of a sudden?"

"Well don't get used to it princess, cause it's a one time thing. Besides it's not like there's anyone here that I can humiliate you in front of." Was his reply, as if that was supposed to explain everything. Strangely enough she was quite surprised that it did.

"So, you wanna tell me the really reason you couldn't sleep?"

"Huh?" She was so busy wrapped up in her own thoughts; she hadn't even noticed he had asked the question.

"Casey, as long as I've known you, you've always had some bizarre reason to everything that you did."

Ignoring the part of her brain that was shocked that he knew her that well, she answered, "Really, I don't know, I guess I was just thinking." As soon as she said that though, she swore she heard him mumble something like 'when aren't you thinking?'

Out loud he said "Still upset over Max?"

Ah yes, Max. She had broken up with just little over a month ago, and she had surprisingly taken it better then she would have thought. It had been a night like any other, actually. They went out to dinner and chatted for a bit. Everything was going great until she excused herself to the restroom. When she had gotten back, Max had disappeared.

After calling his cell phone five times, she decided to for search for him. What she found however, was not a pleasing sight. Max was in an alley way, with the waitress that had just served them, doing things that he shouldn't have been, seeing as he had a girlfriend. Well, ex girlfriend. She was so shook up but the ordeal that she ran into the alley, threw something at him, called him a few names, and ran.

She didn't really remember what happen next, but the next thing she knew, Derek was there helping her pick up the broken pieces of her heart. Later she found that she had been the one who called him, sobbing her heart out, and he had left in the middle of hockey practice to come get her.

After the whole incident, Derek and Casey had become a lot closer, for various reasons. Sure they still fought, but now it was more of a playful tone then a vicious one.

"No, I'm not upset over." She stated after coming out her memories.

"Good, cause he was a jerk if he couldn't see that he had a perfect woman."

Casey felt a blush rise to her face and was thankful for the dim lighting in the kitchen.

"Thanks, Derek. That really means a lot."

After they were finished talking about Max, the rest of the night seemed to go by all too quickly for Caseys taste. They laughed, joked and sometimes just had random conversations about nothing. By the time either one of them looked towards the clock it was almost three in the morning.

"Derek, did you know we spent almost two hours sitting here talking?"

"Well you know what they say, time flies when your having fun." Was his sarcastic reply to her.

Casey yawned. "Well I guess we better get to bed." She said, though she didn't understand why she felt a tinge of disappointment. "Yeah I guess we should.

Casey was the first one to make a move to leave. "Good night Derek, thanks for this." She made a gesture to now empty cereal box.

"Don't you mean good morning Case, and anytime. So anytime you need someone to insult you, know where to find me Case." With that he made his way upstairs, leavening Casey to clean up the mess.

As Casey stood there, in the middle of the kitchen, she couldn't help but smile. 'Leave it to Derek to cheer me up in the weirdest way.'

Later as she entered her room, after cleaning the mess in the kitchen, she felt exhaustion come over her. Before she made her way to the bed she thought 'Emily was right, Derek is much cuter then Max." And with that her head hit the pillow.

She fell asleep instantly.

FIN

Thank to all those who read it.. Please review

Sry if Derek seemed OOC too.