Author's Note: Gaah! Jetlag sucks! I'm up and everyone else in my house is asleep. Because there is absolutely nothing on TV at 3 o'clock am, I decided to write and update.

All of your reviews make me feel wonderful. They also set the bar higher for the chapters that I write. I rewrote this chapter like 7 times and it still doesn't seem right 

Before I continue on with Chapter 7, I want to thank everyone who has reviewed throughout this story…

Candypir, lilacsecrets, Lanakila91, ishaana, sballLuvr5, Ghostwriter, Green-Jelly, ilovederekventuri91, muslim2594, jileyfan, kg1219, queenfrizzy8, funnechick, Summers Rage, Sailor Serenity5, DrkMiko, MayMarie, coolbeanie, witchymuggle81009, JateSkateFate815, Chibi Mistress, Nemo1306, Svgg7thKxy, Eva Angel, iluvhmfanfics, Moonlit-Jeannie, Crimson and Chrome 42, MrsxDougiexpoynter, Alone234, bellaroryrocks, fairiekween13, derekandcasey4ever, HRInuyashafan16, carmabell713, bloodLUSTsakura, BlueJay26, Holy Cross Baby, bzwitme23, xoxoBlackOwl, lovewithFanFic123, ihartspied, Mrs. Williamthebloody, EmOgUrL4eVa, Zuzzeroo, IwasNeverReallyMe, lwdlvr4ever, GreaserFreak13

And to my anon reviewers,

Reader with no account. :D, girl in disguise, Tiffany, Cozmo, LolaxLogan4ever, Amanda, Misery, Ali

You guys all rock! (sorry if I missed anyone)

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Casey was now stuck in a world that only consisted of sound. What was happening to her? Before this, she was seeing wonderful dreams that made her feel peaceful. Now, everything was black and the sounds of her dreams morphed into beeping…like one of a heart monitor.

For some reason, Casey could hear everything that was going on around her but no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't respond to any of it. She was struggling to move her limbs and pull her eyelids apart. It was no use; it was like her body was frozen entirely.

Casey then heard a bang that sounded like a door closing followed by Derek's voice and another voice she didn't recognize. Trying to move her mouth, she tried to call out to them but it was impossible to part her lips.

Because Casey's head was throbbing, the voices in the distance weren't clear. Trying to focus on what they were saying, she listened carefully. Unfortunately, she could only make out a few words in their sentences.

"…Mr.Venturi…no longer life threatening…very lucky…"

Casey continued to listen. As Derek began to speak, what they were saying started to become clearer.

"…Thank you doctor…when will she start to wake up?"

"She should be up very soon."

"Can you please…" Casey heard Derek say, "…not say anything to my family outside. I think it would be better if I explained everything."

When Derek finished his sentence, a flood of memories came flowing back into Casey's mind filling the darkness in her head. She saw the incident at the mall, the doctor's appointments, the crying, the water fight and the prescriptions. The last memory to flash before her eyes was the one of what she had done last night. After she remembered falling asleep on her bedroom floor, Casey's eyes suddenly shot open to an atmosphere that was mostly white. Blinking a few times, her eyes adjusted to the brightness of the room and her vision became clear. Casey realized she was in the hospital.

She spotted the morphine in her hand and moved her eyes to focus on the window that was on the wall in front of her bed. What surprised her was that her whole family was leaning on the glass watching her blink and wake up.

Casey heard Derek and the doctor stop talking and her stomach churned as they exited the room. They obviously weren't aware that she was awake. As they left, Casey watched her mom, George, Lizzie, Edwin and Marti turn their attention towards Derek. Casey wanted to turn away knowing what he was going to tell her family, but couldn't.

Derek stood outside as the family came closer to him in the hallway. His eyes were focused on the ground and his hands were stuffed in his pockets. Casey saw her mom grab Derek's shoulders and shake him back and forth trying to get him to talk. George then pulled Nora beside him and Derek's lips began to move.

Even though Casey was watching all of this through a window without sound, it was the hardest thing she ever had to see.

As Derek continued to move his lips, Nora collapsed and George caught her before she reached the ground. Edwin put his hand around Lizzie and pulled her into a hug as they both started to cry. Marti was standing in the middle of them looking up at Derek trying to figure out what was going on. Casey didn't see anymore because her own tears were blurring her vision.

Casey brought her weak hands up and wiped the warm teardrops off her face. She couldn't watch anymore of this. She desperately wanted to get to sleep and go back to the dream she was seeing before she woke up to this mess. Maybe this would help her forget about reality.

The dimly lit gymnasium was crowded with people Casey didn't recognize. People were dancing and the weird thing was, she couldn't really see their faces clearly. Sitting at a flimsy round decorated table, Casey sat slouched over with her fist holding her head up while Emily blabbed on about something.

"Casey, I mean is there anything wrong with me? Why hasn't any guy asked me to dance yet? I'm not ugly, at least, I don't think I am. So what's the problem?"

Casey rolled her eyes and before she could say something to make her friend feel better, Sheldon appeared at the table.

"Hey Casey…Emily" Putting his hands on the edge of the table he leaned closer to Emily.

"Em…I was thinking, you wanna maybe…dance?"

Emily squealed making Casey smile and got up from her seat. The two then disappeared into the crowd.

"This is the worst night ever!" Casey grunted as she dug her face into her arms that were folded on the table. Casey didn't even want to come tonight. Emily forced her and she was having a horrible time.

"If you keep doing that your gonna smudge your makeup you know." A deep voice said.

Casey looked up.

"Derek?"

"Surprised to see me princess?"

"Yeah, actually I am. Shouldn't you be making out with some blonde?"

Derek's expression changed making Casey feel bad. Before she could take back what she said, he spoke again.

"That's what I would usually be doing but, I had someone else on my mind."

Casey's stomach dropped. What did he mean by someone else?

"Well anyway," Derek continued as he scratched his head "I saw you here alone and wanted to ask…um, if you wanted to dance."

Casey just gave him a confused stare.

"You know, with me?" Derek said nervously.

Before Casey said anything, Derek grabbed her hand and dragged her through hundreds of people to the middle of the gym. When he stopped, he looked directly into her eyes.

That was all Casey had seen in the hospital. She wondered what would have happened next if she didn't wake up.

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Derek entered the room and sat down in the chair beside her bed. He noticed Casey had more colour in her face now, her lips and fingertips were no longer blue. Reaching out, he put his fingers on her hair and moved strands away from her face.

Casey opened her eyes.

"Hey" Derek said softly.

Casey didn't say anything; she just began to cry again.

Derek moved his hand from her hair to her cheek. "Don't do this…"

"I…" Casey started.

"You don't have to explain anything."

"For a second, I thought I couldn't handle this anymore… and then…the pills…Derek…I'm so scared…"

Derek rubbed his hand gently up and down her cheek, "Don't be, I'll always be here, right by your side. Just promise me you won't do something like this again."

Casey looked into Derek's dark brown eyes. "I promise."

Silence surrounded the two for a few minutes until Derek spoke again.

"Case, I know you told me not to say anything to the family, but when-"

"Derek, I know…I saw you tell them. It's about time they found out."

Derek was shocked. "You were awake then?"

Casey nodded. There was silence again.

"Case, I was going to wait until later but, I think I'll tell you now. I have some good news for you…"

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The next day, George came to pick Casey up at the hospital. When he showed up he was acting totally different and this was driving Casey insane. He wouldn't start a conversation, make eye contact or even touch her. Although all of this was bothering Casey, she didn't say anything. She just went along with it because she knew he cared a lot about her and this was the cause of his sudden change in actions.

When they got to the house, Casey prayed that everything would be normal, but the same thing was going on with the rest of the family. At dinner there was no talking at all. Lizzie and Edwin wouldn't come near Casey or even sit next to her on the couch thinking they would hurt her if they did. Her own mother wouldn't even come out and say 'hi' like she usually would. She just kept herself busy, always cleaning a corner of the house. Nora didn't say anything since that night at the hospital and it wasn't hard to see that she was in complete denial. If anyone spoke of Casey and her doctor's appointments, Nora would pretend not to hear. Occasionally she would speak but to only say "There is nothing wrong with my daughter."

As if being sick wasn't bad enough, watching all of this made Casey's heart ache. She would give anything just to have her mother say "Good morning" when she came down the stairs or give her a kiss and look at her without tears in her eyes.

Weeks went by since that night at the hospital and school was the only place Casey could escape to. George, Derek, Lizzie and Edwin tried convincing Casey not to go but she wouldn't listen. Nobody there knew anything about what was going on, and Derek would act like his normal self in front of everyone so nobody would suspect anything was different. Casey needed the normalcy that found in the halls of Sir John Sparrow Thompson High to keep herself from going completely crazy.

Unfortunately, Friday was Casey's last day because Saturday was her scheduled surgery. Ever since she left the hospital, Casey went back every day to take more complicated and detailed MRI scans for Dr. Hestrin. She met with the doctor himself and he was confident about the surgery but Casey wasn't. She was completely terrified.

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Days passed by quicker then anyone thought they would. Each and every single day that lead Casey closer to the day of the surgery added more pain into the pit of her stomach. Before she knew it, it was Friday, one day before the operation.

Ever since breakfast that morning, Casey spent the day in her room. Derek tried to get her out so they could do something together but couldn't. Now it was after dinner and she was nowhere to be found. Looking for her, Derek ran down the stairs to the family who was sitting in silence in the living room. Nobody felt like talking.

"Has anyone seen Casey?"

None of them answered.

"You know, it's a shame you all are sitting here when you could be spending time with Casey. By acting like this, you're making her feel worse then she's already feeling."

Nora looked up from the forks she was polishing and George put down his newspaper. All the kids now had their attention on their big brother.

"Now, I am going to find Casey and spend every last minute I have with her."

Derek left the room, leaving them with their thoughts.

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Casey was outside in the pouring rain. She spun around with her eyes closed and head tilted upward as she felt the raindrops tap on her tanned skin. At the moment, she was thinking about the dream she had when she was in the hospital

Derek opened the front door startling Casey and making her turn to look at him.

"Casey? What are you doing out here? Come inside!"

Casey smiled because she had an idea, "I'm not coming in, your coming out here."

Derek looked confused. "What?"

"Come on Derek!" she said waving her hands in the air.

Derek ran onto the grass and stopped right in front of her.

"What are you doing out here? Okay, better question…why do you want me out here?"

"You'll see" she answered. Casey took out keys that belonged to Nora's car from her front pocket. Opening the driver's door, Casey went in, turned on the radio and made sure it was loud enough to be heard in the yard. When she was done, she ran back to Derek.

"Derek," she started as she reached out her hand, "may I have this dance."

As soon as she said that "What A Wonderful World" by Louis Armstrong started on the radio.

Derek looked at her like she was crazy.

"What?" she asked, "I know about your 'no hugging policy', do you have a 'no dancing policy too?"

Derek watched the rain slide off of her hair and down her face. How could he say no to someone who might be living the last night of her life…especially when she was absolutely beautiful.

Derek chuckled, "I do. But, I'll break the policy just this once."

Now it was just like her dream. Derek slowly put his hands on her waist making Casey's stomach tighten and she wrapped her arms around his neck. Both of them began to sway to the music.

I see trees of green, red roses too

I see them bloom for me and you

And I think to myself, what a wonderful world


"What were you doing outside anyway?" Derek whispered into Casey's ear as she rested her head on his shoulder.

"I was taking in the smell of the rain and feeling raindrops fall onto my skin. When I was small, I used to always play in the rain with my dad. I just wanted to be out here one last time."

Derek closed his eyes trying desperately to hold his tears back. What if this was the last night of her life?

I see skies of blue

and clouds of white

The bright blessed day,

the dark sacred night

And I think to myself,

what a wonderful world

Noticing that Casey was crying too, Derek brought her closer to him and moved his warm hands up and down her waist slowly.

This gave Casey goosebumps and her skin was tingling underneath Derek's hands. She closed her eyes and tightened the grip on his neck. The rain was really coming down now and both of them were completely soaked.

A million thoughts were going through Derek's head as they moved slowly to the music. He had to tell her how he felt or else he might regret it forever. He had say it now.

The colours of the rainbow,

so pretty in the sky

Are also on the faces of people going by

I see friends shakin' hands, sayin' "How do you do?"


They're really saying "I love you"


"Case?" Derek said softly.

Casey lifted her head from Derek's wet shoulder and looked up at him though her blurred vision. His cheeks and nose was completely red from the cold. A combination of teardrops and raindrops dripped off his chin as he spoke.

"There's something I need to tell you. Actually it's something that I've wanted to say for a while now. I-"

I hear babies cryin', I watch them grow


They'll learn much more than I'll ever know


And I think to myself, what a wonderful world


Before he could finish, Casey pressed her soft lips onto his.

Yes, I think to myself, what a wonderful world