Hello beauties! The drama of this story I pull from personal experiences and hopefully that means the right kind of light will be brought to it down the road when it comes to it. This story is rated T for now (I later on curse more than I planned and I'm hoping to reel it in) but that may change. The build of Dasey will be slower but definitely is coming, never fear!
Thanks so much for reading and don't be shy about leaving your thoughts, positive or negative I'm open to all :)
I do not own Life with Derek.
Derek entered the house, unwinding the bulky strap of his hockey bag off his shoulder and dropping it at the bottom of the stairs. He shook his arms out of his leather jacket, throwing it in a graceful arc on to the coat rack.
Thinking any type of food would be good after such a tiring hockey practice, he made his way to the kitchen. He was surprised to see the doors closed until he heard voices inside.
"Casey, I don't think that's such a good idea." Nora was saying, concern saturating her voice.
"Mom, I haven't seen Dad in over a year. He promised he would start making more of an effort. It's hard for him to find time to move away from work and visit me and Liz here. It'll only be for a week or two." Casey whined.
"Casey, you know that it's not just work keeping him away." Nora replied, a stern warning in her voice. What could she mean? "I know things might look up right now but you're not living with him, we don't know all that's changed-"
"Mom, I'm a big girl. I can handle myself with my father. And I need him. George is amazing Mom, don't get me wrong, but I still need my real father in my life, just like the kids and Derek still need Abby even though you're here."
Derek was glad she didn't chock him in with the kids. And he agreed with her. As great a step-mom Nora was, she wasn't his mother. He still needed his mom sometimes, although he'd deny it if anyone ever tried to force it out of him.
But it was the conversation about things changing that got Derek's real attention. Did she suspect Dennis might have a trail of girlfriends? He did make himself out to be a player in the old days last time he visited but now that he was single it didn't seem strange that he'd go back to his old ways. It worked the first time after all.
Derek understood that Nora might not think Casey was ready for that. After all, Casey was the most emotional, control-freak, perfectionist person he had ever met. If she wasn't aware of everything going on in her father's life, he was surprised she hadn't burst yet. She was such a drama queen. But he still didn't get the firmness behind the warning. It seemed a little excessive.
"Casey, New York is a big city. I don't feel comfortable with you going alone. Wait, what if Derek went with you?" Nora asked brightly.
Derek waited with a smirk for Casey's sarcastic answer.
He was surprised to hear a solemn voice reply. "I don't know, Mom. Dad loves Derek so I'm sure everything would be fine…." What was with the emphasis on everything? "…but Derek would never want to go with me. In case you haven't noticed, we don't exactly get along." she added, her tone teasing now.
Nora sighed at the memories. "Derek would take care of you though. Things would be less likely to get out of hand with him there. I know you guys fight like cat and dog, but you do look out for each other when the times right."
"But Mom, I want to go alone." she said. Derek detected the lie in her voice, even though her own mother didn't. Derek knew Casey better than anyone and she him. They just didn't pick up on that fact. Along with another important fairly obvious fact.
"Casey, I will speak with Derek. If he has any hopes of keeping that wretched car, he is going with you or you are not going. And that's final." Nora said sternly, before the sound of the basement door closing signalled the true end of the conversation. Derek heard Casey sigh.
He took this opportunity to finally enter the kitchen. He pretended to be surprised to see her there. It was half-true; he didn't expect the melancholy look on her face. Was she that upset to spend extra time with him, really?
"Sup Spacey, enjoying your time in la-la-land before dinner?" he asked snottily, whipping open the door of the fridge and cracking open a soda. He offered her one silently but she shook her head.
She didn't retaliate. That's when he knew there was something wrong. She always had something to react with.
"Case, seriously, what's going on?" Derek asked gentler, sitting across from her at the island. She shifted her eyes to the countertop.
"Nothing, I'm just tired. I think I'll go read…" she said distantly and left out of the kitchen.
Wow, she was acting weirder than normal. And this was Casey. Maybe he should ask Lizzie…?
No, because if Lizzie found out Casey was trying to visit their dad without her she'd probably be offended and start a whole girly-crying-jag. Girls and their hormones and their tears were just not what Derek dealt with. Unless the girls were on their own; no hormone or tear tagalongs allowed.
After engulfing a sandwich like a Venus fly trap, Derek headed upstairs instead of catching the usual rerun of hockey games. Edwin, Marti and Lizzie were now watching TV anyways and although normally he would have no trouble kicking them out, Casey's random behaviour was bugging him.
He was about to barge into her room unannounced, because knocking would seem suspicious, when he heard her sniffling. She was actually crying? What the hell?
Derek opened her door, not caring if she wanted to be alone. He needed to know what the hell was going on. She looked up, startled.
He stood in the doorway, not sure what to say. He couldn't really say anything without making it obvious he was concerned about what was going on with her. Because really he wasn't. He just needed to make her mad. She hadn't responded to his teasing earlier, so he was searching for a bigger retaliation. He didn't care if she was crying. Or hiding something. He just wanted to come into her room to bug her! Yeah!
The problem was he probably should have thought of something to say before he entered. Now she was staring at him, looking like she was contemplating insanity.
Luckily he was faster at thinking and changed his face to register the shock of discovering her crying, as if it caused all insults to disappear from his mind.
"Uh…why are you crying?" was all he came up with.
She rolled her eyes, turning her face away as she hugged her pillow on her lap and wiped her tears with the back of her hand.
"What do you want, Derek? I'm not listening to 'chick music', I'm not hogging the TV, I haven't eaten anything since lunch, and the bathroom has been free for hours. I can't be doing anything right now to irritate you." she said dully, seeming bored.
Was she getting bored of fighting with him? What?! They only just finished high school and what, now she wanted to MATURE or something?!
"Well you're crying, and that…you know I don't do tears." he argued. He wasn't giving in. She would fight with him again!
She sighed irritably. "Derek, I'm really not in the mood. Can you just leave if you have nothing to say?"
Derek felt himself growing in anger. Not in the mood? Since when did that matter?!
"No princess, I'll stay as long as I like." he retorted, and moved to sit in her desk chair.
That set her off.
"Derek, get out of my room!" she shouted, pushing on his shoulders to try to shove him out of the room. Sadly, she was fighting with a very toned hockey player.
He stood there, being pushed, and waited for when she started screeching his name.
"Der-ek, leave!" Ah, there it was.
Satisfied, Derek smirked and moved towards the door.
Then he paused. He hadn't really gotten what he came for. He closed the door quietly and turned back to face her. The tears on her face were more luminous now.
"Please Derek." she pleaded, but it sounded more desperate than before. He knew then that she didn't really want him to leave. So he did what he hadn't ever done in their four years of living together: strode across the room and wrapped his arms around her in a hug. Casey pressed her face into his neck, letting her last few tears fall. She really needed that right then.
"C'mere." Derek grunted, pulling her over to her bed. They sat beside each other, him still holding her close. She rested her head on his shoulder. "What's the matter, Case?"
She didn't respond at first. She seemed to be deciding on words. "Things are just…catching up to me now. I've been running for so long and now everything feels so out in the open. I feel naked in a sea of people."
Derek tried very hard not visualize the last part.
"Like what?" he asked, already knowing the answer.
She sighed. "Lots. I mean, not only am I the worst person ever at relationships, but I don't even have a good relationship with my father and then there's Edwin and you-"
"Oh come on, you can't honestly believe Edwin doesn't like you? Finally someone teaches him how to stand up to me. He admires you. And you're not…bad…at relationships, all the guys you dated are just douches." he concluded awkwardly.
"So you're best friends with a douche?" she teased.
Derek smirked, glad she was back a little. "Sam just wasn't right for you. As for your relationship with your dad, he's a great guy, and he adores you and Lizzie." he said. He was surprised as her eyes saddened when he added the last part.
"Yeah…I miss him." she stated simply.
"Well call him up and tell him to visit. It can't be that hard." Derek told her, keeping up his charade of being oblivious to her and Nora's conversation earlier.
"Actually…I was planning on visiting him myself. I emailed him and he said I should come up for a week or two. So I'm going." she admitted quietly.
Derek feigned mild surprise. He was the Lord of the Lies after all. "Well there you go. You can build your relationship up to whatever your over-keener status wants it to be."
Casey rolled her eyes. "It's not that easy." she told him, trying to sound annoyed, but he heard the slight sadness in her voice. What the hell!
"Well it should be. He invited you to see him, you go, stop missing him, hang out and become closer than ever, and you live your happily ever after that you always dream about. Sound like a plan?" he teased.
She didn't reply, just ignored him, teasing his t-shirt sleeve with her finger absent-mindedly. They were still clustered in one another's arms.
"I for one am jealous that you get to explore New York. I've always wanted to go there. So much film has been done there. Any down time you have when your dad is at work please get pictures of the classics for me. Knowing you you'd spend your time doing something girly like shopping at Bloomingdale's or something keener like a historic city tour. Which probably wouldn't be that bad." he added thoughtfully as he imagined all the potential film spots not discovered yet.
Casey looked up at him, intrigued by the fascination on his features. He really wanted to go there. "Der, you can come if you want. I mean, you're right, they'll be downtime when my Dad's at work so it would be kind of nice to be able to explore the city with someone. And then I wouldn't have to worry about…" she stopped, trailing off as her thoughts overtook her.
Derek sensed a deeper meaning. "Worry about what?"
She looked back at him, coming out of her trance. "Oh, riding the plane alone. I've never done that." she told him with a smile.
He could see through it. She was completely lying to him. Although she probably hadn't ridden a plane alone before. But he knew that wasn't what she was going to say!
"So you in?" Casey asked brightly. She really did look enthusiastic about the idea of him coming now, unlike earlier.
He smirked. "Of course. Your dad promised me a Rangers game. And New York is swimming with models." he added before getting off her bed to start planning the trip.
She simply rolled her eyes. But contrary to before he entered her room, she was genuinely smiling.