Hey all those reading this! So here's the next chapter! It's kinda on the short side; I'm sorry. I thought you would rather have shortish update than no update at all! Anyways, please please please let me know what you are thinking! I hope you guys are liking it; I'm writing it for you! Anyways, Read, Review, and Enjoy! Hope everyone has a great upcoming week!

DISCLAIMER: I had this whole plan on how I could get the rights to LWD...but it didn't quite go as planned.

FORTY-FIVE MINUTES LATER

After slamming her fist against the door in front of her, Casey began to pinch at the skin of her left hand between her thumb and index finger. She began tapping her foot quickly against the pavement. A few moments later, she slammed her fist against the door again. She knew she was acting ridiculous and impatient but she didn't care. She had to get inside. Sighing loudly she went to bang on the door again; before she could make contact, the door swung open revealing the person she had come to see.

"What on earth is your prob-" Derek began to shout angrily, until he saw who was at the door.

"Casey?" Derek began to smile but noticed that she looked angry, very angry. Leaning against the doorway and donning a casually disinterested manner he addressed her again.

"What are you doing here, Case?"

Casey shoved Derek into the apartment and pushed her way in after him. Kicking the door closed, she continued shoving him into the main room of the apartment.

"Don't call me Case, Derek. Only people I care for are allowed to call me that." Casey told him automatically.

Derek rolled his eyes and caught her hands as she attempted to shove him again. Circling her wrists with his hands, he looked down into her face and quickly modified his previous question.

"Fine, Cassandra. What the hell are you doing here? What gives you the right to come into my home and shove me around?"

Casey yanked her hands out of his grasp and slapped him with all the strength she could gather. Derek's head turned sharply and his hand went up to touch his now red and stinging cheek. He looked at her incredulously and took a few steps back.

"What gives me the right? What gives you the right, Derek? Why were you the only one allowed to make such a monumental decision?" Casey yelled as tears began to form in her eyes.

Derek looked at her in confusion; he was unsure of what she was talking about and he voiced this uncertainty to Casey.

Casey narrowed her eyes, convinced that he was acting.

"Fine, Derek. If you want to act all innocent, I'll play along. I just broke up with my boyfriend, Max. You remember Max Miller don't you?" Seeing realization slowly dawn upon him as he sat down on the couch, she continued.

"Judging from your reaction, I gather you are catching on to what I am talking about. Anyways, as I was breaking up with Max, he revealed a lovely piece of information that was new to me. He knew, Derek. He knew about us."

Casey shook her head and sank onto the other end of the couch. Her breath caught as she began to tell him what else she had discovered.

"Not only did he know about the two of us, he was the reason we broke up…wasn't he?"

Derek could only look down at the floor and nod in shame.

At Derek's silent confession, the tears Casey had managed to keep in her eyes fell onto her cheeks. Derek raised his head as he heard a sob escape her mouth. He moved to pull her into his arms and she pulled away quickly.

"I had hoped he was lying." Casey cried.

Derek closed his eyes tightly, willing the tears that wanted to form to stay away; he hated hearing her sound so broken.

"Why, Derek? Why wouldn't you consult me on such a decision? Why couldn't you tell me what was going on? Didn't you trust me enough? Or were you just looking for a good reason to get rid of me?"

At this, Derek opened his eyes in shock. He pulled her to him, despite her protests, and forced her to look into his eyes.

"Don't you ever think that, Casey. I did what I had to do to protect you. It killed me to hurt you so much. I couldn't stand it when you cried; all I wanted to do was hold you until you felt better. When you went to university, I wrote you so many letters and emails that I never sent. I dialed your number at least five times a night, willing myself to press 'send.' But I never did. I knew it would hurt you too much. Don't ever think that I willing let you go. I loved you; I still love you."

Casey glared at him. "It wasn't your job to protect me, Derek. You could have talked to me about it. You could've told me. We would have figured something out."

At Casey's ever-growing anger and her lack of acknowledgement of his feelings, Derek let her go. He stood from the couch and began to pace around the room.

"What would we have done, Casey? What? We couldn't have called the police without having to tell dad and Nora."

Casey stood up from the couch. "That's why? You didn't want to spill your dirty little secret?" Casey yelled.

Derek was livid. "You know that is not true. I was the one who originally brought up telling everyone. And if you remember, you were against it. The only reason I did what I did was to protect you and my family. Don't try to make me the bad one here. Max is the bad one, not me!"

Casey took a deep breath and wiped her eyes.

"You're right, Derek. Max is the bad one. But you do have one mistake…you're just as bad. You let him influence you. Instead of talking to me about it, you decided to break me. I don't think you know how much you hurt me. We could have thought of something. You didn't have enough faith is us and our relationship. Or me." Casey nodded to herself and began to walk towards the front door.

"Casey, wait!" Derek called out. Casey stopped and slowly turned around. "Do you really think that?"

Casey looked at him blankly. "What I think is that I should thank you, Derek."

"Huh?" Derek asked her in confusion.

"Thank you. Because as much as you hurt me when you broke up with me; it would have hurt so much worse if I had the chance to fall for you any more. You didn't trust me, which means I couldn't have trusted you. You would have hurt me; I'm certain of that now. So thank you for giving me a just bearable amount of pain. I don't even want to think about how I would have felt if we continued." Casey answered, choking on the end of her statement. She turned and walked out the front door.

When the door slammed shut, the tears Derek had held back sprang to his eyes. He sank down in his recliner and buried his head in his hands. Casey managed to make it to the inside of her car before completely breaking down.