Nine Christmas Derek and Casey spent together
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2015 - Prologue
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Simon enters the kitchen and Nora twitches nervously as her younger son settles in front of his plate. She dreads the days before the holidays, especially the ones when the two oldest of the brood are scheduled to return home, because the boy is just –
"When is she arriving?" Simon asks.
- plain insupportable about it. Her eyelid makes that strange movement (she feels it) as she watches him wolfing down the spaghetti in big mouthfuls. Sometimes it's glaringly obvious that he's a Venturi boy, tusled hair included - one day she will manage to tame it down. After, though, he wipes his mouth thoroughly with his napkin, then folds it back neatly, and she has to smile at the reminder that Casey and Lizzie are indeed his big sisters.
"Oh, for the love of whatever's holy, Simon, are you gonna ask us every minute?" Marti groans as she enters the kitchen, letting herself fall into her chair. "'Cause I swear I'm gonna kill you, dismember you and bury the bits in the backyard if that's what you're gonna do."
She's late for lunch, as usual, but Nora can't reproach her for it, because working in a menagerie does have some inconvenients; the necessity of taking a shower after each shift being one. And she's happy enough with the fact that the teenager ignored Derek's advice about getting a part-time job and heeded Casey's.
"Mama!" Simon whines. "She's threatening me!"
He's fond of big words. Casey's influence.
"Shut up, you big baby!" Marti says, stabbing into her plate.
Nora sighs and rubs her temples tiredly. She was about to reprimend Marti for her terrible language, and the fact that really, she shouldn't talk like that to her seven-year old brother. The problem is that right now, she can only think about how she should be getting paid for that. One would think that after handling Casey and Derek during four years, she would have done her bit of patriotic duty and should be left in peace.
"Marti, leave your brother alone," George interjects. "And Simon, Casey won't be here before eight. You've been asking for a week, and we've been answering you each time. Asking again won't make her arrive any faster. Though I wish it would," he adds under his breath.
Nora turns a grateful glance to him, to which he responds by blow-kissing her and Marti and Simon find the time to make disgusted noises at the demonstration of affection in between the grimaces they're addressing each other.
She always wants to laugh when she watches the youngest of the fam, because (as much as Marti would protest), they're just so alike. Especially with the whole older-sibling-crush thing.
"Nora, I know what you're thinking right now," the teenager says menacingly.
"I'm not thinking anything, Marti," Nora answers with her best it-wasn't-me face. This face is entirely hers, no borrowing a Venturi's skill; she had created it back in her teenagehood, and perfected it over the years.
"Like hell you aren't!" the youngest girl snorts, slouching in her chair. "You had that look on your face that'd betray you even in the deepest dark. But let me tell you something, Nor: my old-sib-crush was never nowhere as bad as Simon's is."
Of course she's right. In fact, Nora still thinks her son is a little too obsessive (in a fun, cute, stalkerish way) about Casey, but it's just so amusing to provoke the teen.
"You say that as if you've gotten over it," she smiles.
"I have! It's been years since I have!" the girl protests.
"And yet you still call him Smerek."
"I do not!"
Nora lifts her eyebrows and Marti sputters in choked outrage.
"You listened to my phone calls!"
The teenager is growing as red with embarrassment as the freshly dyed streaks in her hair.
"We did not listen so much as we were forced to hear them," George says, looking frankly amused by all this. "You do have a tendency to get pretty loud in your complaining about your teachers. And to have quite a fool mouth, too," he adds, frowning.
"I still wonder how your dear Smerek would react if he knew you make regulars calls to Casey - of all people – to complain about boys," Nora smirks (something she swears she never did before meeting the Venturis).
"You won't tell him, right?" Marti asks, horrified.
"I'm still wondering what kind of color he would turn if we so much as hinted to the fact that you're having boys within a five-miles-radius of you," George says, and he may look cool with it, but he had two stepdaughters to train him. Besides, Nora still gets fits of laughter when she remembers his reaction the first time Marti ever went on a date. She's pretty sure he didn't hear any difference between 'I have a date' and 'I am pregnant'.
Marti looks slightly nauseous, so Nora decides to cut her some slack.
"Well, I suppose if he didn't learn about it during the years they shared a flat at Queen's, it's not now he will discover it," she says peacefully, and the teenager looks so relieved Nora almost starts laughing.
She contains herself. Teenagers are susceptible little things, and prompt to anger. And Marti's been known to bite.
Edwin and Lizzie are scheduled to arrive at two, and they're actually ten minutes early. Nora is grateful the two of them go to the same university, because she wouldn't have been reassured with the idea of Edwin driving from Toronto in his actual state of mind. The break-up with Danielle has been particularly ugly, and she can't blame him for taking it so bad.
Hell, she had even thought they might marry one day. And she still thinks she was entitled to, because three years of relationship tend to nurse a mother's hopes. (And yes, she knows Edwin isn't her son. Son, stepson. Same difference.) (Or not, but it's all semantics anyway.)
He kisses them all but excuses himself and disappears in his bedroom. Lizzie looks apologetic, and Nora can't say if it's because of his abrupt departure or because she can't do anything about her best friend's broken heart. Either way, it's not like Lizzie was responsible, so Nora smiles and shrugs it away.
"How is he taking it?" George asks, sitting besides his stepdaughter.
"Just as bad as you could expect," Liz answers. "I mean, I would be pretty mad if I discovered Eric had taken to sleeping again with the skank – I mean, Karin" she amends quickly when Nora frowns, "for the past year."
George sighs.
"I tried to get him to talk to me but… he just won't."
"Well, I guess Casey can talk to him," Marti says.
They all grimace at the remembrance of the whole Duncan fiasco – may he die in long and horrible sufferings.
Simon demands to start a game soon after, so they gather round the table. As the hour of the dreaded arrival approaches, Nora tenses more and more and her ability to concentrate on the game quickly depletes.
If you ask her why she fears so much the return of the older siblings, Nora will answer that's not it – it's Christmas break. Out of eight Christmas holidays since they departed to uni, Derek and Casey managed to almost give her an heart attack seven times – and she has some doubts about what happened on the eighth. So she wonders what they have in store for her this year.
When the sound of a car pulling into the alley finally makes itself be heard, she's strung enough that she feels she might snap at any moment. And Simon's jumping up and down besides her at the excitement of finally seeing his adored Casey is not helping matters.
So she takes a deep breath and when George pats her back soothingly (he knows what she's stressed about – he's stressing about it too, except he's more discreet), she forces herself to relax.
And then Derek and Casey walk into the house, and Simon runs toward them, ignoring his brother outstretched arms - Nora really can't understand why Derek keeps bothering, but she thinks it has something to do with being better than Casey at all cost, and she smiles at the familiarity of that stupid, cute, old rivalry. Simon jumps at Casey's neck before she's had any time to put her luggage down. She drops it, topples backwards, and almost falls, except that Derek catches her swiftly and another incident of Simon-exuberant-enthusiasm-at-reuniting-with-Casey is averted (and when exactly did that become a routine?).
And Nora smiles because it's just so normal and her family is complete for Christmas and what more could she ask for?
So they all head towards the living room as Simon tells Casey in great details about his week at school, even though she probably already knows everything about it since he called her two days ago, but it doesn't matter: she laughs in the right places and asks the good questions. It's so easy to see how great a mother she would be; the thought frightens Nora because she never wanted her little girl to grow up so fast.
Lizzie and Marti are discussing mistreatments of animals, one subject on which they have but one mind. Because Lizzie is still excessively pro-environment, and Marti just plain loves anything with fur, feathers or scales. Derek and George are discussing, and Nora just caught sight of Edwin descending the stairs and even if he stays aloof, it doesn't matter, because they're all here.
One hour later, Edwin and Casey have disappeared upstairs and the rest of them have all sat down for poker (with chocolates for stakes). Simon is sulking because he's playing with Casey's husband, who's his least favorite person in the world since – well, the marriage; even though he insisted he understood all the rules. Probably better than the ape he's been paired up with (his words, not hers).
"So, Derek," Nora asks casually, throwing three chocolates in the middle of the table. "I hope there's no surprise for us this year."
(She shouldn't try to fake casual. She never knew how to fake casual. Fake casual isn't something women from her family ever managed to achieve.)
"Why of course there is, Nora," Derek smirks, willfully misunderstanding her. "It's Christmas, what's Christmas without a good surprise?" He adds with mock-shock.
"You know what I meant," she retorts severely. "Casey and you have a tendency of bringing a whole new meaning to the word 'surprise'."
"I don't know what you would imply by that," Derek answers, swatting Simon's hand away from the chocolates.
She scoffs.
"You mean you don't remember about The Famous Announcement of your relationship with Casey at Christmas 2010? That time you blurted it out in front of the whole extended family, in the middle of the dinner?" she says.
Derek beams at her, because of course he remembers, and Nora feels mingled irritation and affection that she still falls for this. This sensation is one she has become very accustomed to in the past ten years of life with Derek.
"Sweeeeet, you titled it! The Famous Announcement, it does have a ring to it."
"There was the whole Yale Med School business in 2009 too," Marti mentions.
"Hey, I had no hand in that one!" Derek shoots back, raising his hands in defense.
"You were still hiding your relationship from us!" the teenager says with a grimace (because really, what she means is that he was still hiding it from her).
"Or we could go back to 2007 and to The Great Moving. That was the less shocking, but not the less nerve-wracking," George says.
"There's also The Big Pregnancy Scare of 2012," Lizzie adds.
"Or The Crisis Almost Not Averted the year before," Marti says. "And you were the only one responsible for this one."
Derek opens his mouth to protest, but he's cut off by George:
"The Christmas You Wouldn't Have Spent Together, if you hadn't found a way to hurt yourself badly enough to end up in the ER that night? 2014."
"2013. The Biggest Error in Her Life," Simon completes darkly.
There is a small silence.
"Jealous, squirt?" Derek smirks.
Simon bits his brother's arm and Derek yelps in outraged pain.
"In fact, the only Christmas we didn't hear about you two was the 2008 one," Marti says thoughtfully.
Derek stops halfway through his trying to grab Simon from his refuge under the table and looks suddenly very embarrassed.
"Yeah… You really don't want to hear about that one," he smiles nervously. "And I don't think Case would want me to tell you, either."
"Why not?" Lizzie asks, surprised.
They all turn to stare at him openly, Simon even making a prudent venture to Nora's knees.
"Hm… She always had that thing about featuring pornography in front of the fam', especially the kind where the both of us star," Derek explains with a smirk.
It's so obvious it's forced. Derek might be the Lord of Lies, but he never quite managed to overcome real panic. His eyes spell out "deer-caught-in-headlights".
"Ew, Derek, gross!" Marti exclaims with a grimace.
And there, Nora has to agree with her. It's one thing to know your stepson and your daughter are in love with each other, as the Famous Announcement of 2010 left little doubt about (and she's had a hard enough time processing this). It was another to learn about their engagement two years ago; another to go through the marriage itself seven months later; but depicting them having sexual relations is where she draws the line.
"Well, I think we all got our point across," she says. "What I want to be assured of is whether or not there will be another titled experience this year."
"Well, unless Casey has decided to divorce me and failed to inform me – no, squirt, that's not true, quit dreaming – no, I don't think so. She didn't tell me about anything that might surprise you, and as I don't have anything of that kind either, I guess it will be a surprise-free Christmas this year," Derek smiles.
The rest of the family draws a collective sigh of relief, but Nora feels her anxiety has only been slightly alleviated. She remembers quite well that in 2009, the only one not surprised had been the announcer.
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First LWD story ever, hope you liked it. This is obviously a multi-chapter, since I'll treat every christmas since the year they moved to Queen's. It's gonna be ten chapters long; one chapter for each Christmas from 2007 to 2014, and the prologue and the epilogue which both relate the 2015's one. The length of the chapters will probably greatly vary.
Updated 01/2014: so, long absence for fanfiction and LWD but I just fell in again recently so decided to give it another go. It means that you're getting a new chapter. It might mean that you'll get more, but then again, it might not. As the chapters can be read on their own, I don't think it will be too much of a problem.
Some feedback perhaps? You know the review button is just begging you to hit it! (Yeah, the review button is a masochist, and he likes it.)