A/N: I know some of you who got this on alert may be wondering why I've started something new when I already have so many things to work on. I don't want to bore everyone with an explanation here so check my profile.

Anyway, I'm sick for the second time in a month, I'm a student teacher and most of my kids are awful, and basically everything sucks right now so I needed a really good escape and I'm hoping this will be it.

Disclaimer: I don't own Life With Derek, but there's plenty of time give it to me before my birthday.

Summary: "Mom, I have a confession. I've been lying to you for six years." Dasey.

The Confession

Prologue

Casey sat in a coffee shop ten minutes from the place that she currently called home. That meant that it was about an hour drive for her mom and rather inconvenient, but she couldn't worry about that. She had to do this. It was a long time coming.

Nora arrived five minutes after noon and immediately hugged her rarely seen eldest daughter as she made many exclamations over her changed appearance. It wasn't like she went out and completely changed her entire wardrobe and style- that actually hadn't changed much at all. But Casey was her daughter and at twenty-six she looked so different than the little girl she always pictured in her mind.

Nora had continued to fret over her and how great she looked and how traffic wasn't that bad and whether or not she had eaten at this place before when Casey couldn't take it anymore. She interrupted bursting out the whole reason she so desperately needed to see her mother, "Mom, I have a confession. I've been lying to you for six years."

Nora reached across the table and held her daughter's hand as she searched her eyes for a some sign that this was a joke or a sign that this was just Casey being overly dramatic. Some sign that she wasn't possibly in for the shock of her life. "You can tell me anything," she assured.

"Well," Casey stalled swallowing hard, "I should probably begin with the fact that I'm pregnant. Two months."

Nora was a bit startled. It wasn't that she thought Casey was a nun, but she knew that it would be something her Type-A daughter definitely wouldn't plan on at the moment. She recovered quickly and responded, "Oh, that's wonderful! I'm going to be a grandma. Did you tell Brian yet?"

Casey shook her head and bit her lip. She glanced down at the table and unconsciously started squeezing her mother's hand. "It's not his," she began, "I called off the engagement six months ago. We're not together anymore."

Nora's mind flooded with questions, but she tried to focus on what Casey needed from her now. She asked, "Do you know who the father is then?"

Casey nodded slowly, still avoiding Nora's eyes. She had to do this though. She didn't want to hide from her family for the rest of her life. She took a deep breath and forced herself to look up and meet her mother's eyes as she announced, "The father is the man I've been in love with for the last six years."

"And he's what you've been lying about for the last six years?" Nora checked.

"Yes," Casey confirmed. She knew her mom must be confused and her list of questions would only continue to grow, but she needed to do this in her own way, how she had it planned in her head, or she worried that it wouldn't have the possibility of going even slightly well. She squeezed her mom's hand again and asked, "Mom, I know you're confused and I promise I'll answer all and any questions you may have, but first, can I just tell you how…everything I haven't for the last six years?"

She could handle this. She could handle this. Nora repeated in her head. "Of course honey," she said nodding. She took a deep breath that she hoped went unnoticed and tried to prepare the fact that what she could be about to hear might very well give her a heart attack. Thank God she ate healthy- with George's eating habits she was worried every time any of the kids said they had an announcement.

"Do you remember that night-and day-we all spent in the hospital in Toronto at the start of my third year of college?" Casey questioned.

"Yeah," Nora answered, "Derek's knee injury-again. First game of the season."

Casey nodded, "I guess it started then- me lying to you- because I hated that you left me alone with him in Toronto and never came back to help take care of him."

"Casey we didn't ask you to take care of him. He had friends and he could find help if he needed it. We expected you to offer help, but…you moving in with him, that was your decision," Nora explained, not understanding how she was resented for a decision she didn't make.

"I know," Casey admitted, "I know it was stupid. But I was the only other one in Toronto. He didn't have a girlfriend at the time. Sam and Ralph and Em were all scattered across Canada. And you guys went back to London. I just felt like no one was trying to help him- when he clearly needed it- so I felt like I had to be there, like it wasn't even my choice, like I was forced into caring."

Nora nodded. She had seen Casey blow things out of proportion and be overly empathetic before so she supposed she could understand how her daughter had come to those conclusions.

"But," Casey continued, "I ended up caring all on my own. I ended up caring a lot."

-o-o-o-

Six years earlier…

Casey hesitated in front of the now familiar hospital room door. She had been in the room before many times in the day and a half, but what was different now was that she was all alone. The family had left town about twenty minutes earlier and now it would just be her who was there for Derek.

She didn't really know what to do- how to deal with Derek. Their first year at University of Toronto he injured his left knee during hockey practice. His second year he injured it again during a game. They hadn't been that serious of injuries; he was only off the ice for a few weeks for each one. But this time, this time he was injured so seriously that they rushed him into surgery. When he woke up with his leg in a cast the doctors told him that they didn't know if he'd ever be able to play hockey again. He'd definitely be out for at least half the season and then they'd see how he was recovering.

Derek had seemed okay while the family was there, but Casey knew he couldn't be okay. His life long dream was possibly just forever crushed and she didn't know what to do or say to make that any better.

She sighed, made a decision, and marched into Derek's hospital room. "I need the key to your apartment. I'm going to be taking you back there tomorrow morning and if I'm going to be coming by there occasionally to make sure you're okay then I need to go…sanitize it," Casey said as she approached his bed. She held out her hand and waited.

Derek hadn't even glanced at her, his eyes remaining focused on Jerry Springer on the TV. "No," he responded simply.

Casey was about to retort when she realized, "Wait, I don't know why I'm asking. You don't have your keys. They're way over here with your belongings." She approached the closet and dug around in his stuff until she found his keys in his hockey gear bag. She held them up triumphantly and added on her way back out the door, "I'll be back in a couple hours. If you need something…tell the nurse."

By the time Casey came back the next morning she had a full-fledged plan. She would pick Derek up, drop him off at his apartment, go to her first class, stop back by his place, go back to campus for another class, check in on him before going home, and repeat this basic pattern until either more of his friends or teammates popped up or he was functioning well with and seemed adjusted to life with a knee cast and injury.

Things were going exactly as she had planned so far. She picked Derek up from the hospital. They had gotten him crutches and a wheelchair for when he was worn out. It took a little cajoling, but Casey got him to get in the rickety old elevator (on crutches-she lost the wheelchair battle) instead of hobbling up the stairs to his third floor apartment. She got him settled in, something to drink and eat within reaching distance of his chosen spot on the couch and she had cleared all potential obstacles from the floors and the rooms of his apartment in general the previous day. She went to her class. But things were too good to be true, so of course when she came back to the apartment to check in on Derek her plan went to hell.

"You haven't moved since I left two hours ago," Casey said incredulously upon re-entering Derek's apartment.

"So?" Derek retorted, flipping through the TV channels and coming to a stop on Reno 911!.

Casey had a lecture on the tip of her tongue, but she reminded herself of the situation, took a deep breath, and tried, "Look I know it sucks that you can't play hockey right now and that you don't know how you'll recover yet. But you can't just sit here and do nothing and be depressed."

"Who's depressed?" Derek interjected. "I'm watching TV. How many times have you seen me hog a television for a few hours?"

That was a good point, but Casey wasn't going to admit that to him. So, she replied, "That's different. You have stuff you should be doing now like going to your classes."

"And how many times have you seen me blow off classes?" Derek retorted.

That was another good point, but Casey wasn't having it. "Well Derek," she began, "school has always been a fall back for you, but right now it may end up being the only thing you've got. Hockey may not be in your future but you still have a shot at a degree and you're not messing that up while I'm around so get in your wheel chair, I'm taking you to your classes and then I'm taking you to your professors to explain why you've been gone and then we're getting you three copies of notes from every lecture you've missed."

"Three?" Derek questioned with a raised eyebrow.

"A second one to cover the stuff the first one misses and a third to double check the accuracy of both," Casey answered easily. "Now get in the chair," Casey said wheeling it over to him.

Derek pretended to ponder it for a second. Then he pretended to begin to get up. But then he settled back into his seat, met Casey's eyes defiantly, and responded, "No."

Casey crossed her arms and sat down in the chair next to the couch in a huff as she declared, "Well, I'm not leaving without you. So if you want to be here then you're going to have to be here with me."

"I can stand it longer than you can Princess," Derek replied with a confident smirk as he turned up the volume on the TV.

Casey glanced at her watch. She only had another hour until her next class started and God she hoped she got to leave him by then. She didn't know that it'd be a long time before she left. She didn't know that eventually her desire to leave would fade. She didn't know that nine months from now her desire to leave would come back worse than it was this moment. And in nine months she would run.

A/N: I hope you enjoyed the prologue.

Please review!

And have a great week:)