AUTHOR'S NOTE/DISCLAIMER

Life With Derek belongs to Canadian Television. Flashpoint belongs Mark Ellis, Ava Mar, Pink Sky, and Media Bell. I only own the plot.

Casey trudged into her room and flopped onto her bed. She had gotten a letter from Sam this morning in class and instead of reading it at school, she had opted to wait until she was home. She had a feeling that she was going to need it. She hadn't told the older man yet but her parents fights had gotten worse in the last couple of weeks. In fact, it seemed like they were fighting even more now. Dad was spending more time at the office and Mom was tired of him throwing himself into his work. Granted, Casey was in complete agreement with her mother, but it didn't mean that she wanted to hear them shouting at each other. Especially when Lizzie was in the house. She was much too young to have to worry about this kind of stuff. But what could she do? It wasn't like she could make them stop fighting or anything. The girl let out a sigh and then opened the letter as she made herself comfortable on her bed.

Hey Casey. Man, I'm sorry you and your sister are having a rough time. It sucks when parents fight. I'm sure everything will work out, so just hang in there. Matt and I are doing okay, just as busy as ever. And yes, we're staying as safe as we can. We wouldn't want our Stage Girl to worry. Oh, Matt wanted me to tell you about the prank we played on one of our fellow officers. He claims that this will improve your mood. Anyways, the guy was bragging about he could withstand any kind of food no matter how hot it was, so Matt decided to test it out. He got something that's like the Afghanistan version of hot sauce and put it on the guy's ration. Dude nearly jumped out of his seat after the first bite. After that, he didn't brag about his food tolerance. So other than your parents fighting, how have you been? Anything new and exciting going on? How's your dancing going? Have you had any new recitals? Man, I'm so out of touch! It's almost enough to make me want to leave the Army. Almost, but not quite. For one thing, my dad would probably kill me. He's an Army man through and through. Remind me to tell you some of the things we did growing up sometime. I'm sure you'd get a kick out of those stories. Things are going as well as you can expect them to go. Let me tell you, if you ever want life experience, just join the Army. You'll get all the life experience you'll ever want or need. Listen to me, I make it sound like I hate what I'm doing when that couldn't be any further from the truth. I love it. I'm making a difference, you know? I'm just glad that I'm doing this with a group of guys who have become my best friends. I've heard horror stories about squads that can barely tolerate each other and I can't even imagine being in a group like that. I'll write you soon. And again, just hang in there.

Casey smiled as she finished reading the letter. This was why she had started waiting until the end of the day to read Sam's letters. She was always in a good mood until her parents started fighting and they were always fighting these days. Well, at least she had someone she could talk to when everything got to be too much. And that meant more to her than he would ever know…