Chapter 2
The following morning, Casey woke up at eight as usual and she went to check on Marti. Her fever had gone down but Casey wanted her to stay in bed. As the little one was still asleep, Casey went downstairs to have some cereal. She found Derek downstairs already. He was having some of his own cereal and he barely acknowledged her.
"No good morning?" she asked, "I thought we had reached a sort of truce yesterday."
"Derek Venturi doesn't do truces," he replied with a smirk on his face.
She huffed and poured some milk into her cereal. As she was eating, she felt his eyes on her and immediately looked up to check whether she was feeling right and she indeed was.
"No Case, you were right. We can't fight. At least not this weekend." With that, he stood up and went to his usual spot – the TV area.
Casey smiled secretly to herself and then she landed a fist on the breakfast counter. This couldn't happen. She could not allow her stupid feelings to control her brain. She just could not allow herself to believe that she had indeed fallen for the great jerk of a step-brother she had. She couldn't have – he was stubborn, jerkish, a prankster, and he was Derek. So what if he was cute and had the-cutest-brown-eyes-ever? He was still Derek. Casey was startled by the sound of Marti running down the stairs.
"I want to watch TV with Smerek," she said. She went to the living room and sat on top of her older brother whom Casey still found annoying despite the way her heart started beating louder lately whenever he was near – lately denoting since the previous day. Nine a.m. was when the doorbell rang. Casey went to open the door and was shocked by what she saw outside. It was a police officer.
"Derek, could you please come out?" she asked.
"What do you want? Is it Sam?"
"No, it's not Sam. Just come out." Derek grunted and placed Marti on the couch as he walked out of the door. The colour drained from his face when he spotted the police officer who happened to have a very grim expression on his face.
"Is this the Venturi-McDonald household?" he asked.
"Yes, it is," Derek replied.
"Sir…ma'am…I'm sorry to inform you, but…"
Five minutes later, Casey was crying and Derek was holding her to stop the tears but he couldn't even control his own emotions. He didn't do tears; he didn't cry, but not this time. This time he couldn't hold back.
"Mum and Lizzie and George…dead," she told him between sobs.
"I know…" he replied.
He led Casey inside and Marti looked at them. They were both crying. How would they tell a six-year-old that her dad, her stepmother and her stepsister were dead, and that her brother was in hospital in a coma? They were both sixteen and they couldn't even handle it, let alone a six-year-old. This could scar her for life.
Derek let go of Casey and she ran up to her room. It had felt awkward being in has arms – they had never been that physically close before. It felt odd and unsiblingish. Casey didn't care. It was the least of her worries now. She had lost her mother and her sister and she had lost her stepfather too whom she had grown to love. And Edwin was in a coma.
That evening, the Venturis and McDonalds made the news. It was depressing for both Casey and Derek but they made sure that Marti was in her room during the news. They couldn't tell her right now.
Casey cried all throughout the news. She couldn't hold her tears back. She would never get over it. NEVER. Derek was upset. His eyes looked blank. There was no chance that they would light up now. He had lost most of his family. What could he do now? They were gone. How could this happen to him? He had never even had the chance to say goodbye or to tell them that he real did love them all, even if they sometimes got on his nerves. Casey didn't know how lucky she was – they all had known how much Casey loved them, but not how much Derek did.
Emily sent Casey a text message to tell her how sorry she was and that if Casey needed anything she must call her. Sam and Ralph sent similar texts to Derek. Derek and Casey decided that they had to go to the hospital to see Edwin so Casey asked Emily to go over and watch Marti while making sure to let Emily know that Marti must not get to know about anything.
The sight of Edwin attached to a million machines set Casey crying again and Derek followed suit. He was depressed now. He was in such a state. They had to save Edwin in some way or another. He couldn't let his brother die – the brother he loved so much. He knew how bad Casey felt now. He was depressed, but Casey must have been much more depressed as she had lost both her mother and the sister she had loved and would love forever.
They left the hospital at about midnight. The drive home was extremely quiet. Derek covered Casey's hand with his.
"We'll get through this Case. I know it's hard. It's hard for me too. I've lost the people I love too, but we have to work hard to save what we have left."
Casey looked at Derek. Her blue eyes were filled with sadness.
"Case, I promise you, I won't let anything bad happen to you – ever," he told her, "I promise."
"We'll never get through this Derek," she said timidly, "because they'll never come back."
A tear rolled down her cheek.
"Case," he said.
She didn't even ask him what he wanted. She just looked out of the window at the trees. They arrived to their empty home soon. Casey called Dennis the following morning to tell him about her mother and Lizzie and Derek called Abby to tell her about George and Edwin. Casey couldn't bear to make funeral arrangements and neither could Derek. Even the image of the car wreck underneath that truck which they had seen on the news was haunting them. Dennis and Abby were going to handle all the funeral arrangements. Dennis had gone crazy on hearing the news of his ex-wife and his younger daughter's death and Abby had had no different reaction when she heard of her ex-husband's death and her middle son's comatose condition. They would both be arriving in London, Canada the following morning. Derek and Casey had agreed that they didn't want to go live with their parents (Casey with Dennis and Derek and Marti with Abby). They had become each other's family and now they didn't want to leave each other.
Although Casey and Derek had never got along well, they didn't want to part. They had become a huge part of each other's life and they both knew that they needed each other during this rough patch. They just couldn't let each other down. Derek decided that they had to tell Marti. Casey constructed a simple explanation which wouldn't be as hurtful to Marti as being straightforward with her. So Casey and Derek made their way to Marti's room to reveal to her the horrible truth of her lost family.
The three of them ended up crying in each other's arms. That was when Derek promised another special girl that he would never let anything happen to her. But this time he said it in a brotherly manner.