I am so extremely sorry for this long update. I have to be honest, I completely lost motivation for this story. I didn't go back and re-read it before I wrote this chapter, which I probably should have, but I just wanted to find some way to end it. You all at least deserved an ending.

They finally arrived at Derek's dorm, which was actually more like an apartment. It was peaceful…and clean. Casey wasn't expecting that.

"Wow…you've certainly changed since high school…" She said looking around.

"Yeah, well, I couldn't always stay that immature."

Casey glared at him, and he laughed. She sat down at his table, and started filling out the papers.

Not long after, she started crying.

"Hey, hey." He walked over and hugged her. "It's going to be okay."

"Derek…I…I don't know if I want to go through with this. Look." She pointed at the paper, "It says I'm going to have to repeat my story over, and over…and over again. I can't do that. I don't want to do that. I just want to get over it." She stood up and was pacing the room.

"Hey, okay, okay…"

"Okay? You're not mad?"

"Mad? No." He shook his head, "Casey, you do whatever you want to do, and I will support you."

"Okay, seriously. Who are you, and what did you do with the Derek from high school?" Casey looked up at him, and stood up.

Derek gulped, she had that look in her eyes.

Just as he thought, she grabbed the front of his shirt and kissed him.

It didn't take him long to reply…by resting his hands on her waist, and their tongues started to battle.

Suddenly, they were moving, and not long afterwards, Casey felt her back hit a wall. She half moaned, half groaned. It hurt, but that wasn't really where her mind was at the moment.

He started tugging at the hem of her shirt, and she quickly pushed him off of her. She was having flashbacks.

"No! Derek! Stop! Please!"

Derek set her down and backed away. "Casey, I'm sorry…"

She was crying, "No, I am, D. You don't want me. How could you? I'm such a broken mess, and not to mention a keener…"

He shut her up with a kiss.

Did she really just say that?

"That…could…not…be farther…from…the…truth." He mumbled in between her kisses. He had started at her mouth, but was quickly kissing the tears from her cheeks.

"What?" she managed to choke out.

Derek took a deep and long breath. "Casey, I…I love you. I have since you first moved in."

Casey's mouth dropped, but she smiled…and then laughed.

"What's so funny?" he asked.

"First your apartment is clean, then you're supportive of me, and now you're telling me you love me? I must be dreaming."

He smiled, "And this would be what, for me then? My nightmare?"

She nodded her head, still smiling.

"Oh, I guess you're right." He said, throwing his head back as if he had just realized something.

Casey's mouth dropped, but before she could say anything, he continued.

"…Because if this were my dream, you would've told me you love me by now."

Casey's mouth stayed open, but she closed it and gulped.

"You…you want me to tell you that I love you?"

"Well, you would kind of have to mean it too, princess."

"She smiled, I do love you too, Derek."

Then a realization hit her, and her facial expression quickly changed.

"I'll…I'll be right back." She tore out of Derek's apartment.

She had to find that girl.

She did, eventually, in the library.

"Hey…hey, it's me. Casey." She said, from behind her, and the girl turned around and smiled.

"What's up?"

"Derek and I…we…uh…"

"Let me guess, you just confessed your love for each other?"

Casey nodded, "But how did you know?"

The girl smiled wider now, "You'll find out soon enough."

And she vanished.

Casey shot up from her bed her heart pounding, she was sweating and breathing heavily.

That….that was all just a…dream? But there's no way…

That's when the logical part of her brain reared up.

It must have been a hallucination.

Her suspicions were confirmed when she looked beside her and saw Jordan.

Suddenly, her face hurt, and she looked to the other side of the room, in Jordan's mirror. She was black and blue, almost everywhere.

She started to cry; but they were tears of mixed joy and sadness. It seemed as though Jordan had only passed out drunk after hitting her a few times. Maybe all the energy he was exerting to beat her up had done him in.

Good she smirked.

Derek hadn't really saved her, though. It was only a long, and detailed hallucination of her conscience playing tricks on her.

But maybe, just maybe that girl wasn't just my conscience. What if Derek truly does love me?

She was determined to find out.

With a newfound confidence, thanks to the hallucination, she peeled Jordan's arm off of her, and slowly got out of bed, relieved, but confused, to see that she was still wearing her clothes. It was around 7:30 in the morning, and the sun wasn't all the way up yet; but she had enough light to see where her shoes were. She then walked into the bathroom, where she ran one of Jordan's combs through her hair.

Then her memory came flooding back to her.

"He hit you, again, didn't he?" Derek had asked her.

"Why does it matter to you?" Casey shot back.

"Because a man should never hit a woman." Derek retorted.

"Yeah, well, maybe I like it that way." She lied.

Derek's mouth dropped, and she wondered if maybe, just maybe he could see through her lie.

She quickly got her answer though, when he shook his head, smirked and said, "The nerds usually are the freaks in bed."

"You would know." She snapped, and walked out.

It wasn't much, but her memory was recalling the look on his face as he said the first sentence. It was fully of caring…

Or maybe Casey was just letting her feelings get to her again.

She quickly shook that thought from her head, and used her spare make-up Jordan kept in his bathroom.

She almost gagged, thinking about why on earth she ever agreed to a relationship like this.

Because you want Derek, but you can't have him and Jordan is the next best thing.

She was going crazy, because that voice sounded identical to that strange girl from her hallucination.

She shook that thought out of her head too, and figured she looked presentable enough to go out. She looked at her watch, 8:00 on the dot.

I guess it doesn't take long when you're just throwing clothes on from the previous night… She shook the tears out of her eyes and opened Jordan's door.

The hallway was bright. She couldn't remember anything about the previous night's events. Where she had been, what she had eaten or drank, etc. She quickly got her answer to the second one, when her stomach rumbled at the word eaten.

Jordan must've spiked my drink. There was no other explanation for it. She couldn't even remember the beating, but it might have been something close to what had happened in the hallucination.

She would hopefully never know for sure.

She had realized by this time that she was now out of the dorm, and outside. It was chillier than she had initially thought, and she grabbed both arms with her hands shivering. She kept walking though.

She was going to the cafeteria, hoping that Derek would be there. Usually, when he paid for food, he ate it, but being on his hockey scholarship and all, she couldn't be sure.

The walk to the cafeteria seemed to be taking longer than she remembered also, and her feet were killing her. Finally, taking a good look down at her outfit, and somewhat remembering Jordan's, she realized that they must have been at some party. She had a dark blue dress on, and black wedges. Her dress was torn slightly. He must've been fighting to get it off of her.

She smirked again. This dress was more of a keeper than he was.

Once she had finally made it into the cafeteria, she looked around.

Derek was sitting at a table alone.

He had bags under his eyes, and she figured that he must've been at the party she was at too.

She started walking over there.

As soon as his eyes met hers, he stood up and quickly made his way to her. When he reached her, he hugged her.

He backed up, and Casey could see his eyes taking in every ounce of skin that was black and blue.

"Oh my…" he buried his head in the crook of her neck, and if Casey didn't know any better, she would say that the last glimpse of his eyes she had there were tears brimming them.

Once he finally pulled back again, but still holding her, he started, "Casey…what…what did he do to you?"

She was right, there were tears brimming his eyes.

"Derek, I…I don't remember much, but there's no pain where you probably think there is; so…I don't think we did anything…"

He turned his head and let out a sigh of relief she didn't realize he had been holding.

"Derek…why do you…" before she could finish the sentence he buried his head in her neck again, and put his index finger over her mouth.

"Don't…don't ask me why I care, Casey, because I'll tell you. I love you, Casey. I have ever since I first saw you. Making fun of you; and all those things I did to you were my way of trying to show it. I can see now how stupid I was. I should've told you. As we got older, it only got harder. God…you…you even dated my best friend at the time. Every time you were over at his house, I couldn't focus on anything. Edwin and Lizzie noticed. I had to threaten them not to say anything…"

Casey's mind was trying to process what he was saying. He said he loved her. He said the actual three words, followed by her name. Now he's apologizing for all the crap he did to her. Then he talked about her dating Sam…he couldn't stand it? What? Why didn't he say something….wait. Lizzie and Edwin figured it out?

No wonder Lizzie teased me about Derek all the time. She knew. She knew and didn't tell me.

I wonder what he threatened her with?

"…And then I saw you leave that party with Jordan, and I…I tried to go after you, Casey, I did, but they must've put something in my drink because next thing I knew, I woke up next to a dumpster…"

He was still holding her, but his hold was getting death-grip tight.

Belatedly, she looked around and realized that there was hardly anybody else in the cafeteria.

Good. At least they had a little privacy while he was making this confession…but he didn't seem to care who was around.

And that death-grip…"Derek…Derek, please, can you loosen your grip. It's too tight…"

He did, muttering an, "I'm sorry," against her collarbone. "Please…Casey, please tell me you didn't do anything with him."

"Derek…I…I can't say for sure; but like I said, that area doesn't hurt. I don't think we did. I think he passed out after probably drinking one of the drinks he spiked. What a moron."

Derek laughed and she felt the vibrations across her chest. Her insides were burning.

"I think he spiked my drinks too, I don't remember anything about last night, at all. In fact, the last thing I do remember was waking up in the morning..."

"Casey." The word sounded strained, and her mind quickly kicked back to the part where he had said he loved her.

She smiled, "Oh, right. I love you too, Derek."

And, standing in the cafeteria, he pulled her in for a kiss.

He then pulled back, and looked at his watch, "Oh, by the way, you have a test in about two hours."

Her mouth dropped, "DE-REK!"

I understand this may not make sense. I'm hoping it does. I might take this story down, fix it, and re-post it. I'm still debating. Like I said in the first author's note, I lost motivation for this story, but felt that you guys still deserved an ending. I'm hoping it does come around, and I know I put point of views in the previous chapters that wouldn't help this make sense but to me, it was a twist that nobody could have anticipated.

I hope you enjoyed this story, and I'm currently working on a different Life with Derek that has a storyline that's easier to write on and follow.