Derek's Favorite Form of Torture3

Summary: Casey and Derek always have something to fight about, but what happens when Derek finds his favorite form of torture?

Rating: M (this is for a reason, so don't say I didn't warn you!!)

Disclaimer: I don't own LWD, sadly… and I probably never will… tears and I don't own anything else. But I did watch Ocean's Thirteen before I started working on this. LOL.

Chapter 3:

Casey was in the kitchen making spaghetti and garlic bread for her and Derek for dinner that night when the phone rang. Glancing at the clock, she decided that it probably wasn't their parents yet, considering it was only six o'clock. She knew that between her mom, George, and the kids, they would be delayed by getting lost, bathroom breaks and food stops, until at least 8:00pm that night.

The phone suddenly stopped ringing, and Casey figure that Derek had answered it. A few minutes later, while Casey was finishing the salad, he came down saying, "When's dinner?"

Casey looked up at him before grabbing two plates from the cabinet, "Now", she said setting the plates down with a clink. "Who was on the phone?"

"Just Sam", Derek replied. "He wanted to know if we were still playing video games tomorrow." Sunday afternoons had been devoted to "boy time" during the summer, for at least the past few years. Casey usually spent that day shopping with Emily, but tomorrow Emily's family was going to visit her grandmother for the day, because they hadn't been able to last Saturday like they had planned.

Casey nodded. "And you told him, 'duh, of course'?" Casey said with a laugh.

"Casey", Derek started, "When have you ever heard me say 'duh', besides just now?"

She rolled her eyes, "Probably never", she conceded. "But there's a first time for everything. Go put this on the table", she said, handing him the salad bowl. She took the plates and silverware, and set them on the table before going back to get the bread basket that she had put the sliced garlic bread in. She left the pot of spaghetti to Derek, seeing as she still had enough klutzy moments to cause a disaster.

After grabbing their drinks, they sat down to enjoy an unusually quiet dinner. Surprisingly to Casey, the only semi-incidental thing that happened was Derek, for some reason or other, threatening to throw a meatball at her head. This elicited a shriek from Casey, and he popped it into his mouth.

They had settled in for the night and we somewhere in the beginning of Ocean's Thirteen when the phone rang. Casey groaned as she reached behind her to grab the phone and hit talk.

"Hello?" she said, assuming it was her mother.

"Hi, honey", Nora said. "We're at Aunt Madge's now. We are all exhausted and about to go to bed, but we wanted to check in. How's everything going so far?"

"Mom, chill", Casey said, "you've only been gone like eight hours. We're just watching a movie."

"That's good. Let me talk to Derek, okay?" Nora said.

"Just a minute", she replied. Casey took the phone away from her ear. "Derek", she hissed, "My mom wants to talk to you."

Derek took the phone, "Hey, Nora", he said, "You guys get lost again?"

Casey stifled a laugh as Derek winced comically, most likely getting a speech from her mother stating the fact that they do not get lost every time they leave town, even though that's not true.

"Uh-huh", he said, not really paying attention to Nora's rambling, "Don't worry, Nora. I'll make sure Casey gets to bed on time", he said, giving a wink to Casey who was staring at him incredulously, causing her open mouth shut with a snap.

"Ok, sure", he said. "Later, Nora", and he hung up. Looking at Casey, he said, "She said goodnight."

"Figured", Casey said, once again leaning against the arm rest of the couch, her hair covering her face. They sat in silence for a few minutes before either of them spoke again.

"Case?" Derek started.

"Hmmm?" she mumbled, feeling sleepy.

"What was Nora going on about?" he asked her cautiously.

At this, Casey sat up a little straighter as she gave him a strange look. "You were supposed to be listening, how should I know?"

"She was going on and on about dancers in tutu's. And something about a video", he added as an afterthought.

Casey groaned. Still looking at the television, she said slowly, "My summer dance recital. It's in two weeks. They're all going to be gone, so I told my mom we could just buy the tape, not that we don't anyway."

Derek looked at her incredulously, "And you didn't have a Casey freak-out?"

She gave him a grimace, "Derek, I'm a little too old to be throwing tantrums, don't cha think?-"

"That's never stopped you before", he said with a smirk.

"Besides", she continued, ignoring him, "Emily is coming, so it's fine."

"If you say so", he said, turning back to the movie, clearly not believing it. Then he looked at her seriously, "And don't expect me to be helpful by making me deal with you freaking out."

She gave him a smirk, saying, "Oh, don't worry. I never expect you to be helpful."

"Good", he said.

"Except…" she started carefully.

"What, Casey?" he groaned.

"Can I have the car that night? Emily's parents won't let her drive their car after the incident", Casey said.

Derek looked at her suspiciously, "What incident?"

Casey sighed, "We snuck out to go to a party at Toronto University last month, for an end of school bash. You know, the weekend that her parents and Dimi went out of town. My friend Tracy goes there and she told me about it. I stupidly mentioned it to Emily, and then suddenly found myself getting dragged to this party. Her parents found out and now she can't use their car anymore. She has to wait until she can buy her own."

"You let Emily talk you into sneaking out of the house to go to a college party all the way in Toronto? How come I didn't know about this and why the hell wasn't I invited?" he asked in a shocked voice.

"So can I have the car that night?" Casey asked, ignoring his outburst.

"I guess so", he said in, his tone suggesting that he was doing her a huge favor. "But", he added, "If you hurt my car, I will kill you."

She rolled her eyes, "Of course", she said, patronizingly. "Thank you", she finished. "I think I'm gonna go to bed, now. Night Derek", she said, getting up and heading to the stairs.

"Night, Casey", he replied, still watching the movie.

Four Days Later:

Thursday evening, Casey came home from her dance class, once again, completely exhausted. She had cooked a pot roast that morning for Derek to heat up for dinner while she was gone, and now she was starving.

She trudged through the front door, holding her bag loosely in her hand. Dropping the bag on the floor to pick up later, Casey passed Derek who was sitting in his recliner watching hockey reruns. "Hey, Derek", she said tiredly. He gave a grunt in reply as she went into the kitchen for a late dinner.

Coming back into the family room about fifteen minutes later, plate in hand, Casey collapsed against the softness of the couch cushions with a groan as she stared at the plate of food blankly.

A few minutes later she found enough energy to begin eating, only to have the calming effect of the TV be interrupted by Derek now that there were only commercials to watch. "Hey Case. Long day?"

She turned to him with bleary eyes, "Yes", she stated in a whiny voice.

"You look like crap", he stated bluntly.

She gave him a half glare out of the corner of her eyes, before saying sarcastically, "Really? Because I feel fantastic."

"Really?" he asked, playing along.

"No", she moaned. "If I could get a decent night's sleep then maybe I wouldn't feel like complete shit, but that's not likely."

He raised an eyebrow, but didn't pursue it, so they sat in a semi-silence for the next few hours.

Around eleven o'clock, as usual, Casey got up, heading to her room to make an attempt at finding the sleep that had been so elusive lately. However, this time instead of walking to the stairs, she made a detour to the kitchen.

At this change in routine, Derek eyed her curiously. He saw he rifling through the medicine cabinet and he stood up, leisurely making his way into the kitchen to see what Casey was up to. "Whatcha doing, Case?" he said from his position against the door jam, causing her to jump slightly.

"God, Derek! Don't sneak up on me like that", she said in an annoyed tone.

"Sorry", he said, sheepishly. "So, what are you doing?"

She sighed, "I'm trying to find some of my mom's muscle relaxers, anything so I can get some sleep, but we only have aspirin." She walked past him back into the family room and leaned against the back of the couch.

Derek eyed her carefully before asking incredulously, "You're trying to knock yourself out with muscle relaxers? How do you think that's going to help you sleep?"

She gave him a look, before relenting, "I can't fall asleep because my back is full of knots from being stressed out and my feet hurt from dancing so much. I can't get rid of them. They've been there for like two weeks, and Lizzie didn't have strong enough hands to get them out."

He raised an eyebrow at her before walking over to her and taking a seat in the middle of the couch with a sigh. Casey, figuring this was the end of the discussion, stood up the rest of the way, and was about to go upstairs, when Derek's voice interrupted her, "Case, get over here."

She turned around surprised, "What?" she asked cautiously.

He turned his head to look at her, "Do you want to get some sleep tonight or not?"

She sighed as she walked over only to stand in front of him, "Yes."

He motioned for her to sit on the cushion to the right of him, and she complied silently. She sat there looking at him curiously until he rolled his eyes and motioned for her to turn around. She was wondering what was up with the silence when she felt him move behind her and his strong hand gripped her shoulders.

Her muscles tightened involuntarily at the contact. "Derek?" she questioned, still not completely up to speed at the sudden turn of events.

He gave her muscles between her neck and shoulders a gentle squeeze, "Ow", she said, wincing.

"Sorry, but you have to try to chill, ok? Otherwise this won't help that much and it'll just hurt", he said, gently probing the muscles in her back, gauging the knots, "Jesus, Casey", he said as he found the largest one.

"What?" she asked still shocked at the contact.

"How long have you had these? No wonder you can't sleep", he said.

"Almost three weeks", she said in a soft tone, shivering as she felt the contact of skin as his hands slid cautiously up her back under her shirt.

Derek was focusing his concentration on not thinking about the fact that his hands were touching Casey's bare skin and she was making no protest. She had taken a shower shortly after her late dinner, and the ends of her damp hair was brushing his hands, sending shockwaves throughout his body.

With her being dressed in only a blue Ramones t-shirt and black shorts, he had to fight off his wandering thoughts; which worked until a few minutes later when he heard himself saying, "Hey, Case?"

"Hmmm?" she murmured, her face buried against the cushion she had propped against the arm of the couch.

"Let's go upstairs, okay? Then if you fall asleep, you won't have so far to go." Did I seriously just say that? He thought to himself. Not good.

"Mmmm, ok", she said, standing up on tired legs.

He walked behind her up the stairs, prepared to catch her in she fell, but they made it to the top without incident thankfully.

She was about to walk into her bedroom, when Derek grabbed her upper arm gently redirecting her to his room instead. "What's wrong with my room?" she asked impetuously.

"I like my bed better", he said, not really having a real reason other than the fact that he wanted her in his bed.

"Fine", she said with a humph of annoyance.

"Lay down", he said, smirking as he watched her attempting to straighten the mess of sheets and blankets on his bed before grabbing both pillows and stacking them before warily situating herself in the middle of the bed resting her head on the pillows, her hair to one side as she turned to look at him.

"Well", she said, "Now what?"

He watched her for a minute before grabbing a remote and turning on his stereo, turning it down just low enough that they could hear the low tones of his Crossfade cd that he knew they both liked, considering Casey often stole it from him for days at a time, and making his way over to her to kneel on her left side on the bed in the space she had left for him.

The calm beat of the music helped take away the tenseness in the air. This provided Derek with enough of a distraction to be able to slide his hands under Casey's shirt and begin kneading the tight muscles.

Casey let out a deep sigh as she finally allowed herself to completely relax and sank farther into the mattress. Letting go of the troubling thoughts that she had been harboring in her mind for the past few week, she relished in the feel of Derek's hands working the knots and kinks out of her tortured muscles. This, however, brought on a new set of thoughts that had her completely distracted for the next few minutes.

She was brought out of her reverie by Derek's voice, saying somewhat amusedly, "Hey, uh, Case? I think your gonna have to lose the shirt", he finished, apparently fighting off laughter.

Casey whipped around quickly, before bolting upright and getting in his face to say incredulously, "What the hell?! You have got to be kidding!"

Grinning at her suggestively, he barely managed to hold back his laughter at the look on her face, and say seriously, "C'mon, Casey, it's in the way."

"Sure it is", she said, rolling her eyes before she settled back into her former position on her stomach, pointedly ignoring him.

Maybe his judgment had been clouded by this strange new contact and the thought of Casey in his bed without a shirt on, but whatever the reason, his next actions would change the current formations of their lives forever.

Derek had been sitting motionless for several minutes before realizing that Casey was eyeing him suspiciously. So, he did the first thing that popped into his head. He grabbed her around the waist, pulling her into his lap, and began tickling her mercilessly.

Casey was trying to give him a proper glare, but couldn't seem to manage it while she was biting her bottom lip in an attempt to hold back her impending laughter.

Finally, not being able to hold it in any longer, Casey let out a shriek of laughter as she tried to get him to stop his assault on her ticklish sides. "Der…Der-ek! Stop!" she squealed out, batting at his hands, barely able to catch her breath.

"Nope, sorry, Case", he said, his voice tinged with laughter as she squirmed under him, trying to get away. "Doctor Derek doesn't usually make house calls, and he really doesn't like it when his patients question his authority."

Derek had stopped tickling her, his hands now resting at her sides. She was still catching her breath as he made his last statement and she managed a groan, "That was so corny", she said. Casey looked up to find him watching her intently, and she flushed, finally realizing that she had managed to squirm down far enough that her head and shoulders were only being held up by his knees.

She thought momentarily about scrambling up and running to her bedroom to lock the door and pretend none of this had happened, only to find that the intensity of the stare that Derek was giving her had made her immobile.

Derek watched as Casey's internal panic came to an abrupt stop, having to stifle the smirk that wanted to cross his face at the knowledge that it was him doing this to her.

Watching her face for any protest, Derek cautiously ran his hands from her sides to her flat stomach; ending at the bottom of her t-shirt, he slowly pushed it upwards, exploring the new expanse of skin.

He felt her stomach muscles tighten under his hands, and he let them rest there a moment. When he had found his voice again, it was low and husky, "C'mon, Casey, trust me."

Looking straight into her eyes, he asked, "Do you trust me?"

Trust, she thought. Still paralyzed by his touch, and now his voice, she wondered. Do I trust him? After a moment, she came to a conclusion…

A/N: Hahaha. Ok so maybe I'm trying to torture you guys a little bit. But you shouldn't mind much considering that past few updates have been fairly quick. The next chapter should be up by Wednesday at the latest. And I haven't forgotten about the rest of the family, they will be in the next chapter, which I have already started. Hope you've enjoyed it so far. Reviews are always good. They're like M&Ms… you can never have too many!!