Hey all! Ok, so I've had this idea floating around, and this is also in semi-answer to Capricious' challenge for an adult POV. This will not be entirely in Paul's POV though, there will be Derek and Casey POV, and this will not be all about Casey and Paul either :) Let me know what you think, I've got a pretty decent idea of the direction I'm taking for the next few chapters.

Chapter 1 (Every Day is Exactly the Same)

Paul watched Casey McDonald pace back and forth in front of his desk, her arms flying around wildly. He sighed and sat back with a small smile as he absorbed Casey's latest rant about her stepbrother Derek. Finally she slumped down exhausted and frustrated in the chair across from him.

"Well?" Casey asked helplessly. Paul had been silent the whole time she'd been letting loose about Derek, allowing her to vent her feelings. In truth, Paul spent much of the silence of their sessions in a torturous back-and-forth with his conscience as he watched her slender young form move excitedly.

Where were the girls like her when I was in school? There weren't any.

But you're not in school now, far from it, and you have a wife.

"Casey, don't you think you're being a little unfair? Derek was upset when you wanted to date his best friend, right? But you went for it anyway. Emily's a big girl, she can make her own decisions."

"But Sam and I didn't even end up going out that long, so it doesn't count!" she stopped, sticking her bottom lip out and crossing her arms across her chest. The posture accentuated her breasts and Paul fought to hold his eyes to Casey's face. She now looked nervous. "Right?" she asked.

"I think you just need to let Derek and Emily sort this out for themselves. If it shouldn't work out, it probably won't," Paul explained calmly.

Casey jumped in the second he had ceased to speak. "Probably? I can't deal with 'probably' Paul! He's going to hurt Emily, I know he is, and what kind of friend would I be if I let that happen?"

The sound of the bell echoed from the hallway into the office, signaling the end of her free period. Casey sighed and picked up her bag from the floor where she'd flung it angrily upon her entrance. Paul looked at her with a soft, reassuring smile. "Relax, Casey. Try talking to Derek calmly one more time, but if that doesn't work, it's just not something you can control."

Paul stared as Casey's soft pink mouth hardened into a tight line of determination. "We'll see," she said firmly, flying out the door.

Leaning back in his chair, Paul wrapped his hands around a mug of coffee, letting the warm sensation soothe him as he fell into his thoughts. He shook his head, amused at Casey's display of youthful persistence. He checked the clock – his next appointment wasn't for 45 minutes, although someone could come in with a problem at any time. He had come to dread the empty spaces in his schedule, not wanting to be left alone with his own worries for too long.

His marriage had been rocky for the past few months. After their second child had been born, his wife Adele had grown more tired and irritable. He knew it was difficult for her to take care of both children all day, living only on his teacher/counselor's salary and whatever Adele could make as a waitress one day a week. He understood why she was feeling that way, but still found himself growing more distant. She never seemed to want to talk calmly anymore, just yelling about why he couldn't do more when he came home, and what did he have to be tired about, and when was he coming up for that raise…

Paul tried to get them to go out once a week by themselves, but it was often hard to find a babysitter. Casey had offered once when he told her the baby was born, but Paul didn't feel quite right about it. He'd told Casey they'd let her know, when the baby was a bit older maybe. Really, he just didn't think watch Casey rocking his child, cooing at him happily, and then walking out the door with the wife he was struggling to reconnect with.

Casey. She was the fire he was missing. His own thirtysomething life was getting more routine and more empty, yet he felt like everything was closing in on him further by the minute. Watching her beautiful face light up into several different emotions, her frantic gestures of impatience, her wild pacing and overactive mind, he couldn't help but smile. He longed to recapture that feeling, to have it as a part of his life.

That's what you have children for. Remember your children? Just get this out of your mind, remember who you are, what you have, and what you'd be giving up.

Giving up? He surprised himself when he thought of it. He'd found himself growing more attracted to Casey each time he saw her, and the worse his marriage got. Her beautiful skin, her body – more adult curves than he remembered of the girls of his high school days, her perfectly pursed mouth, the way her eyes twinkled with an idea or an achievement. Of course, he didn't enumerate these things to himself consciously, but he waited for her anxiously each day, enjoying the intelligent conversation, the chance to feel like this was what the world was and was meant to be – two people relating on the same level, appreciating each other's insights and company, understanding and being understood.

Casey often noticed when he was having a rougher day than usual and asked him about it. Of course, he didn't tell her his reasons, but it comforted him that someone had seen what he felt. His wife and he had found less and less time for their friends as they grow older and more ingrained in their family life, and while part of him felt pathetic that Casey was the highlight in many of his days, another part of him couldn't shake the effect she had been having on him.

But giving up his marriage? For a student? This was something he hadn't dared allow to cross his mind in any solid way. He shook his head, wondering why he felt a sharp stab of anxiety, and why a flash of envy had shot through the back of his thoughts that he was far past the days of being someone like Derek Venturi.

Derek Venturi. It wasn't terribly odd for the name to enter his mind, as he was all Casey talked about. He often thought that Casey was attracted to him, but she'd brushed him off the one time he'd asked about it. "Are you kidding? Derek? Please!" she'd puffed out, averting her eyes in annoyance. A small rush of emotion had gone through his chest that she hadn't fully denied it, but he'd let her response and his reaction to it go, not wanting to test the subject further.

That Derek is a lucky kid, he thought with a tinge of sadness. A knock on the door – his next appointment – brought him out of his reverie, and he was grateful for it.