Scenes of Love, Angst, and Hope

Season Two

Hey look an upload. Sorry that it's been so long but I've been busy. Now it's that time again for gifts and this year, I'm giving you a previews of later Dasey stories that I'm writing as well as tiny prequals to two stories I've already uploaded.. I hope you enjoy and happy holidays.

Just as Planned

Marti searched around the Christmas tree until she found the gifts she was looking for, Derek and Casey's presents to each other. Carefully opening them, she saw what she expected. For Casey was a poster with a picture of her under a no symbol and the words: Hockey Jinx Keep Away on the bottom. Derek had a similar gift. The most unflattering photo of him that Casey could find with the words: Unwanted Cad for Sale plastered over the top. These were the gifts that they would tell everyone about, the gifts that were meant to show how they supposedly felt for each other.

But Marti wasn't fooled. She saw the custom-made flash drives, looking like books and ballerina slippers, that Casey had on her bag. A gift she said she got from a Secret Santa trade at college. She didn't know who had bought it for her or so she said. When she had spoken about the Secret Santa, a very Derek-like smirk had appeared on her face and her eyes had rested on him. Marti had found the purchase on his laptop when she visited the duo last month. It was also during that time that she had seen, or as she suspected, allowed to see the gag gift that he had made Casey so that Marti could tip her off.

Derek's gift was no different, an Ipad. He said he got it from his girlfriend Kendra, a different Kendra. Only that was a last minute poorly thought out lie. When he was asked where he got it, he was halfway through the word keener before he realized what he was saying and changed it to Kendra. Who, he was quick to add, the family would never meet because she had dumped him right afterwards and no he didn't want to talk about it. The last part had him shoot Casey a glare, implying that she had something to do with it. Of course, Marti knew what Casey had done and that was getting him the high-tech gift. She had spied her stepsister coming out of the Radio Shack after the older girl had sent her away on a clever errand during a shopping trip together.

As always, the family had tried to convince the little girl that she was imagining things when she had reported this now development to them, but soon their demeanor would be different. Later when Derek unwrapped his rewrapped gift and cuts Casey's rejoicing off with giving her her own gift the two would argue in a manner more like barely veiled flittering than quarreling rivals. They would openly display their enjoyment of trading barbs with each other and when it came time for dinner, Nora and George's attempt to get them to sit on separate sides of the table would confuse the duo.

Derek telling an obvious lie, Casey being deceitful without a hint of trouble; those actions, in addition to all the other things they had done for and to each other over the years, would convince not just the family but also their friends to help Marti help the crazy pair realize they loved each other. And it only had taken a year longer than the little Venturi had calculated.

Hitting a Nerve

Pulling out the photos, Derek held them in front of the sleeping Casey, flipping through them for her to see their daughter's second visit to Santa. She was a sleep, not in a deep coma, despite what the doctors said. They had survived so much together, his amnesia, her boyfriends, his girlfriends, each other, that there was no way that a little brain injury was going to stop the pair of them now.

"Marti enjoyed herself with Santa this year, it wasn't like last time when she cried and peed over the guy." Derek gave a small chuckle at this, then glanced to see if this got a reaction from his wife, before continuing. "She kept jumping up and down and calling out to him." His voice cracked for a second as he spoke on, "Marti misses you, Nora and Dad miss you, the Lizzard and Edwin miss you, hell I even miss you." Again, he waited for a sign of retort, but received nothing again.

"You're not going to have the finally word, telling me, 'Get on the plane, Jerk.' You are going to be yelling my name while I drift away and leave you to sort things out and be the keener I love to torment. You still have to stop me from embarrassing Marti in front of her dates, to tell me to be a better influence to our grandchildren. To raise our daughter together." These last words came out choked with barely held back tears. Grabbing a tissue from the nightstand beside the bed, Derek blew his nose and gave Casey an annoyed look, "You've turned me into a sap, you could at least be awake to enjoy it."

Giving a sigh, he picked up the book he had bought. He had bought a lot of books in the last few years and read every one of them aloud in this hospital room. A few hours or a whole day, however much time Derek could spare from work and with their daughter he would spend it with Casey reading. Austin, Dickens, Doyle, Tolkien, Lewis, and many others, their words had come through his lips and hopefully into Casey's ears. This time it was Dickens again, A Christmas Carol. Obvious, right? He had held off buying the book for the holiday because it was such a cliché pick. The first year he had read The Polar Bear King and last year he had hunted down The Greatest Gift, the short story that It's A Wonderful Life was based on, next year he would read The Nutcracker and that one he was going to give commentary on. Maybe that would a reaction out of her.

He still had a lot to do before he got what passed for sleep for him. He had to visit Smarti's grave before going back to his and Casey's house, make sure all the gift were wrapped for Christmas tomorrow, and finally prepare for the trip he was taking into the latest news hot zone. But now, he was going to read about Scrooge and his ghosts. Squeezing his wife's hand, he began, "Marley was dead: to begin with….."

To Watch Over You

The rookie agent stared at the family through the scope of her sniper rifle. In her ear, her mentor and spotter fed her information about her target. While she had trained for the Paragon on and off since she was ten, this would be her first mission for them. If she failed, all the work she had done in the last six months would have been for nothing. Paragon would eject her from the organization and she would have to find another way to protect the people in that house.

The agent fought a small smile off her face as she saw the youngest daughter of the family dance around the living room throwing tinsel on everything and everyone and tried to lighten the mood that dampened the family. Her older sister seemed to appreciate the idea, but still picked up any spare streamer that fell to the floor and gave it to the younger of the two brothers in the room, making him put down the financial journal he was reading. The teenage boy smiled at her and helped his sister keep their younger sibling from coating the house in tinsel. The agent knew that people at times mistook the pair's action as something intimate but the duo were and probably always just be close friends.

Before she could continue with this line of thought though, her eyes rested on the older son of the family who was having a heated argument with a picture on the mantle, waving a bottle in his hand as he debated. From the way the man swayed as he spoke and his family's reaction to him informed the agent that this was far from the jerk's first drink and was in fact the normal for him since the death of the woman pictured. A ping of guilt hit the agent for just moment, as she knew that she were the cause of the former hockey player's pain. Or at least partly.

Her eyes narrowed again as they saw the drunken man's father take the bottle from him and sent him upstairs to sober up. It wasn't the scene between the pair that caught her attention but the movement of the shadowy figure who moved towards them from outside the house. Slowly releasing her breathe, the sniper pulled the trigger downing the Gorgon agent with a single headshot. A second figure moved out of the doorway to confirm the kill. Over the radio, her mentor congratulated her on completing the mission and broke communication as the cleaners appeared and began to quietly remove the assassin's remains and secure the area.

The mentor disappeared, this time for the good, as the family's mother entered the home. This would be Hera's last assignment, the agent was now completely on her own with Paragon. Theseus, the agent's new commanding officer's voice cracked on the line requesting her new call sign. Staring at an upper window where she the drunken man as he collapse onto his bed, she said only one word, "Venture."

Be a Man, Act Like a Lady

McDonald paced his apartment, fighting the hiccups as he awaited the arrival of his mother and his girlfriend's father. Venturi for her part was completely at ease laid on the couch playfully sucking on a candy cane and fully enjoying the panic attack her boyfriend was having.

She had already told him that she was planning on still dating him whether or not her father and stepmother approved of the relationship. They had been together since college after all. Besides she had a trump card that should help smooth things over.

Speaking of which, Derek had wound himself tight enough, it was time to have some fun and maybe get him to relax or maybe it would make him freak out some more. Walking over to the middle of the room, she waited for him to come back towards her. As Derek passed by, Casey pointed to the mistletoe above them, gave him a gentle kiss on the lips, whispered something into his ear, and slipped the trump card into his hand. Then she sat down on the edge of the coffee table, something that she knew drove Derek crazy, and waited.

Derek just stood there stunned, his hiccups gone, but it had been replaced with a cold sweat. George was going to kill him. The trump card was a note from the doctor informing Casey Venturi that she was indeed pregnant, something she had just told him with the words, "Merry Christmas, Pappy."

From outside their apartment their neighbors heard the well-practiced, "CA-SAN-DRA!"

Will to Love

Emily watched the family and tried not to feel the jealousy that she felt for the woman. They were completely happy even if they didn't realize it. Casey smiled brightly as she helped Derek put together the train set for his daughter, an equally bright smile on his face. As the couple worked on the construction of the tiny village the young conductor played with the toy stethoscope giving her stuff animals a good checkup, she was going to be a doctor like her aunt if she didn't become a teacher like her father. Yes, Emily shouldn't be envious, she was just the mother and wife, and one day soon she was going to either put an end to the masquerade or make that family very happy. She doesn't know which, but something had to give.