Day 70.

It was one of Casey's last visits at home before getting started with her third round of chemo. She was sitting in the passenger seat as Derek was driving all the way back to London.

"Der…" she began, nestling her face in the seat cushion, feeling drowsy once more.

"Yeah, babe?" he briefly turned his head to glance at her, then quickly moved it back to look at the cars ahead of him, his hands pressed tightly onto the steering wheel. "C'mon, guys, we ain't got all day here!" he frustratingly sighed out as he saw the traffic jam his car got stuck into.

"Honey… I thought all of this had taught you not to worry that much about time anymore…" she gently said, her hand reaching out to graze his jawline.

Derek's features tightened, as he understood where she meant.

"I don't know about you, but… just sitting here in the car, having the chance to look out of the window and see all these fields around the highway… and I got to sit next to you, and you look tremendously sexy when you're driving. I don't know, but I guess this just really makes my day pretty much already. Hey, see? One moment can make one day if you live through it in the right way." She genuinely smiled, her gaze wandering over Derek's manly face.

He turned around to glance at her once more. Her bright blue eyes were piercing his and all he could think about was how much he felt loved at that exact same moment.

"Is this the part where you start giving people life lessons about what you've learned back at the hospital?" He chuckled nervously, but she could easily see right through him anyway, and so she just knew that he simply wasn't ready for this yet. Typical Derek, never keeping serious for too long whenever the subject would make him feel uncomfortable.

Casey kept smiling, not wanting to ruin the moment. She leaned over to give him a quick peck on the cheek.

"Case, don't get too close, you could get some inf…"

"Infinite love? I guess I'm willing to take that risk…"

He finally smiled back at her last comment, as the traffic jam began to dissolve.

Twenty minutes later they finally got to the Venturi household. As they rang the doorbell and Edwin ushered them in, Derek was immediately surprised to see how all the lights in the living room were off.

"Oh no, Ed" he complained, immediately taking a grip of Casey's hand "don't tell me Dad forgot to pay for the bill again…"

"Surprise!" The lights suddenly went on, as Derek could finally see what they had been up to. The whole family had gathered in the living room, where a 'happy birthday' banner was hanging from the ceiling. There sat a few food trays along with some drinks on the dining table, although Derek's gaze immediately rushed over the huge chocolate frosted cake on the middle of it.

"Happy 22nd birthday Smerek!" cheered Marti as she ran up towards him, waiting for the young man to scoop her up in his arms. Unfortunately, Derek was too tired to lift up his now almost 10 year old sister off the ground, and simply leaned down to pull her into a tight hug.

"Guys" he was still looking around himself in awe, his nose buried into the crook of the little girl's neck "Why did you do all of this! Even I had forgot about my own birthday!"

"Don't look at us" smiled Lizzie. "It was Casey's idea."

He promptly turned around to where she was still standing in the foyer, her eyes watering as she saw how happy he looked. "You're getting old, you sexy man."

He gently freed himself from Marti's grip and walked up to her. His gorgeous stepsister had never looked more beautiful to him. She still had a few bald patches in the stubble that was slowly beginning to grow back on her head, and her legs were scarily thin as she was wearing her old black leggings. Casey could feel his eyes on her and she tried to adjust her hoodie in an attempt to hide the chemo IV port that was showing beneath it a bit lower than her collarbone. Nonetheless, he simply leaned down on her to to get her into a full, passionate kiss.

"There you go with the infinite love. Come back soon for more, beautiful". He whispered into her ear as he escorted her to the living room, joining the others and letting the party begin.

Half an hour late most of the food was already gone and Casey also got to have a taste of the cake, whereas her boyfriend almost finished all of it by himself, since he hadn't been eating properly in the last couple of months. They were all on the couch, while Derek was sitting back in his old recliner with Casey on his lap. He tried to pretend not to notice how light she felt on his legs, and decided to just enjoy himself as he started opening his presents. Edwin and Lizzie got him a comic book, whereas Marti had used all her savings to give him the most beautiful birthday card he had ever seen, with tons of "I love my big brother" 's written all over it, along with a couple of fake plane tickets to France she had drawn herself. "So that when Casey won't be sick anymore you can take her there." She had added. Nora and George got him a new tablet computer, figuring it would've come in handy for the time he would've been spending at the hospital.

When everyone was done giving him their presents, Casey motioned Lizzie to go fetch her something from the kitchen.

"You know Derek, I really wanted to give you something meaningful, but the only gift shop me and Lizzie could find in the hospital was a toy store for the pediatric patients. So I hoped you would've liked this anyways" Casey simply said as Lizzie came back from the kitchen, handing a small light blue gift box to him.

He expectantly opened it, a wide smile spreading across his face as he finally saw what was inside. A small Spirit stuffed horse toy.

Day 81.

Casey's very short hair slowly began to fall out again as she went on with her third cycle of treatment. She hadn't been vomiting as much as she had been during her previous two rounds of chemo, but this time her body was already extremely weak from the very start, and although the pain had definitely decreased, she couldn't get out of bed anymore, feeling as if she was running on empty if she ever did so.

Despite her resistance to that, Derek had decided to give up their apartment in Kingston and resigned from college, at least for the time being, since he was wide aware of the fact that Nora and George couldn't afford both his college expenses and her hospital bills anymore.

That day he was sitting by her bed in her room at the hospital when he caught Casey sadly smiling at him for apparently no reason.

"What is it, Case?

"I just don't wanna fall asleep again, Derek. I'm kind of tired of all this drowsiness."

"It won't last long. You'll be done with the chemo shots in two weeks."

She kept smiling to herself, closing her eyes as she felt his fingers gently grazing her cheeks.

"I wish I could make love to you again. Just one more time, you know."

Derek frowned, a pained expression appearing on his face. "There'll be plenty of time for that when you get outta here. And anyways, my buddy down there misses you too." He let out a small, nervous laugh, visibly shaking.

She opened her eyes back to stare at him. "You just can't be serious when it comes to this, can you?"

His fake smile dissolved from his face as he turned his head to look out of the window, as sunlight was beaming through it. "Case, I just don't see the point in discussing it when you're slowly getting better anyway. You heard what Doctor Welsh said yesterday."

"Yeah I know, Derek. But you don't have to wait for things to necessarily take a turn for the worst to start thinking about how the world can still keep turning even without you in it. It's gonna happen to everybody sooner or later, you know."

"But… Case, look: everything's getting just all green and beautiful out there" he sighed as he motioned her to follow his gaze out of the window too.

"Well, Derek, it's called spring."

"You know what I mean. The world does keep turning no matter what, but it does in a certain way so that somehow it's always constantly ever so beautiful. I… just how could the sky and everything just keep being so… without you, I… oh gosh, please, don't make me sound cheesy. All I know is… you're not leaving yet. I don't care if you have cancer, heck, that pot over there has been empty for months and now look at how many daisies there are in it! Oh boy, I sound like an overemotional chick flick…" Derek buried his head into his hands in shame, not knowing what else to say exactly. "Case, you can't be leaving right now, ok? You still have so much to give to the world… it needs you, Case. Just as much as I do. And trust me, that's a whole lot."

"Derek…"

"Sometimes I just think you should've just said yes to me that night."

They finally collapsed onto the bed, their exhausted body sticky with sweat as they were lying there naked, her head resting upon his chest.

"Case…"

She looked up at him. "Yeah, Der. You definitely outdid yourself this time…" she grinned as she began to kiss his earlobe.

He chuckled lightly. "No, I wasn't thinking about that, actually. Well, something that has to do with it, though. You know, uhm, I don't know how to say this, but… just, what if we stopped?"

"Stopped WHAT, exactly?"

He let out a laugh at how worried she'd sounded. "I meant, what if we stopped using condoms."

"Oh, no, Derek, I'm not going to start being on the pill. I don't want my hormones to be messed up by…"

"No, Case…" he quickly cut her off with a swift kiss. "I Know it might sound crazy, 'cause we're still young and all, but I've been coming up with this strange idea lately… ever since my teacher offered me that job as a hockey coach. I mean, we could finally settle down for real." He rolled over so that he was supporting himself on his elbows, as he deeply stared into her eyes. "Case, what if I told you I wanted to start a family on our own right away?"

"I'd think you'd lost your mind."

A.N. Happy new year everyone!

Thanks for still reviewing and following this fic! I REALLY appreciate your support and couldn't even begin to express how grateful I am for it. ^_^

To theonceanonymous14: Aw, Thank you I live in the south, in a small town near Bari (Apulia). You know, no offense, but I've always thought it was funny how everybody thinks living in Italy is so cool whereas except for the big famous historical cities such as Rome, Milan, Florence and so on, there's really NOTHING to do when you're stuck in a small town. :( Everybody my age (18) just wants to get the hell outta here as soon as they get to be off to university… :c

Well, anyways, guys, keep following this story for the next chapter will be updated soon.

Voglio a tutti voi un mondo di bene, non smettete di commentare! ^_^ (=love all of you so much, keep reviewing)

Daniela. 3