Author's note: All my reviewers are amazing. I love each and every one of you. Honestly, you guys make me so happy. This is an odd chapter, at least I think it is. Its also the longest chapter so far, and it should explain how Derek and Casey got into the relationships they're in now, and what they've been doing since they broke up. The big dinner is going to take up the next two chapters. Ok. Enjoy.

Disclaimer: Still not mine.


"Casey swept an angry hand across her face to stop the tears that where rolling down her cheeks. It was the lowest moment in her entire life, and it had cost her more than she'd ever admit to herself, even now, years later."


Her cell phone rang, and Casey took a long breath to calm her tears before answering.

"Hello?" she said shaking her head to clear it.

"Hey Casey," Marti said. Casey smiled.

"Hi Marti, what's up?" She asked.

"Derek said he invited you to that dinner thing on Saturday?" Marti asked.

"Um, yeah he did," Casey said looking down at the post-it note in her hand.

"Ok good. It's at five, at their place. Are you going to be able to make it?" She asked.

"Yes- I, Yes" Casey said, annoyed with herself for stuttering.

"Good. I'll tell him," Marti said then sighed, "Don't tell Lizzie and Edwin I'm doing this for you guys, they'd kill me."

"What?" Casey asked laughing.

"Something about you being adults now, and needing to work things out, and them not playing mediators anymore," Marti said, "But someone has to help the two of you. You're hopeless on your own."

"Thanks Marti," Casey said sarcastically, "I am not hopeless." She muttered, more to herself than to Marti.

"You're not going to bring that Lucas guy are you?" Marti asked changing the subject. Casey paused, it honestly hadn't occurred to her.

"Um, no. Probably not." she said truthfully.

"Good. I don't like him." Marti said bluntly.

"I've noticed," Casey said laughing, "Why not? He's a nice guy."

"I'm sure he is, but you aren't good together. He's so-" Marti paused, searching for the right word, "ordinary, polite, plain and boring,"

"He's not boring." Casey defended.

"Yeah, he is. It's almost like-" she began but stopped herself.

"Almost like what?" Casey asked.

"Never mind." Marti said quickly.

"No, tell me." Casey said.

"Fine," Marti sighed, "It's almost like you went out and found yourself an anti-Derek. Like you conducted interviews until you settled on the guy who had the least in common with Derek." she said.

"I don't, that's not-" Casey sputtered, "I don't even know what to say to that."

"Yeah, I know you don't. Forget I said anything Casey. I've gotta go." Marti said sounding weary.

"Ok," Casey said, still reeling from Marti's comment.

"I'll see you on Saturday. Five O'clock." Marti said.

"Bye Marti," Casey said.

"Bye." Marti said.

Casey's head was spinning as she hung up the phone. The post it, the flood pf memories, Saturday's dinner, Marti's accusation, it was all a bit overwhelming. Casey wondered, and not for the first time, exactly how much Marti knew about her and Derek. Marti had never asked what had gone on, and Casey never asked her what she knew, but she had to have at least have some idea. The trouble with Marti was that she always said things like that, little comments that were annoyingly true.

Not the conducting interviews part obviously, but the Lucas having nothing in common with Derek part, Casey had to admit Marti was right about that. She also knew that it wasn't entirely accidental.

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The first thing Casey did, weeks later, when she was able to pull herself out of bed, was find another apartment. She knew she couldn't live in the same building with Derek now that they weren't together. She called around until she found a place on the opposite end of campus looking for a sub-leaser. The last thing she packed were her boxes of post-its. She saved them till the very last car trip across campus, and when she got to her new apartment, she put them far away, in the back of a dirty closet, behind unused fans and chair cushions.

She threw herself into her studies, partially to make up for all the time she'd missed, and partially to keep her from thinking about the past. She took summer classes and was able to graduate early. Exactly one year and one week after her mother's death, she found her first real job as an assistant at a downtown law firm. She worked 60 hour weeks and took night classes towards a master's degree. She wasn't home very often, and she made no attempts at dating or even new friendships. In the little spare time she did have, she wrote freelance articles for local political newspapers and magazines.

When she finished her master's degree, journalism with an emphasis on politics, she was headhunted to a monthly Toronto area publication. Within a year her opinion piece on local issues was one of the most popular features in the magazine. Her work gave her the first real sense of peace and happiness she'd had since her mother died, and she relaxed a little. She started going out for after work drinks with some of the magazine staff and even to the occasional party with them on the weekends. It was at on of these parties, the launch of a new book by someone who'd once written for the magazine, that she met Lucas. He was an accountant who'd been childhood friends with the author. She'd been approached by many men in the years since her break-up with Derek, but she'd rejected them all: too cocky, too confident, too smooth, too damn much like Derek. When she met Lucas, she was relieved that he didn't say a single thing in the first hour of conversation that reminded her of Derek.

He was shy and serious; he loved his work and said he liked her column. He was polite, he held doors open for her, and he liked to see serious movies, and discuss art and literature. He hated sports, action movies and cheap restaurants. He liked expensive wine, and when he disagreed with her, he'd wait till she was finished talking, the politely and eloquently explain his point of view, never bashing hers. He liked to take long walks, and wanted to move to the suburbs some day, to raise one of those shockingly normal families. His parents were still married and he had a brother who was still in school, but who thought he wanted to be an engineer.

So Casey agreed to meet him for coffee the next day, and movie the week after that, and dinner the weekend after that, until they'd fallen into a relationship. It was easy really, simple and straightforward. She never put much thought into it. They'd been dating for a year when she brought him to George's wedding. He'd been the ideal date, smiling at her family, asking polite questions, and never once bothering her about why she kept shooting glances at the empty seats across from them, the ones marked "Derek Venturi and Guest." He'd laughed at all the right places when Edwin and Lizzie told stories from when they'd all lived in the same house, and hadn't even raised an eyebrow at Marti, whose hair had been bright purple for the occasion.

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Casey shook her head again. She felt like all she had done for the past few days was live in her memories. She had even fallen behind in her work. This was ridiculous. She and Derek had been over years ago, the mere mention of his name should not cause her this much stress. Suddenly she was struck by a hopeful thought. Maybe when she saw him, she'd feeling nothing. They would be friendly and polite to each other, but that would be it, and then she could back to her normal life, to her job and her boyfriend. Then she laughed at herself. Who was she kidding? She couldn't even handle thinking about him, seeing him was going to turn her world upside down. Dinner was going to be a nightmare.

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Derek was driving home from work when his cell phone rang. Looking down at the caller ID, he smiled to see his little sister's name on the screen.

"Hi Marti." He said.

"Hi Derek." She said.

"What's up kid?" he asked affectionately.

"Well I just talked to her." Marti said.

"Casey?" he asked, hating the way his pulse sped up.

"Of course," Marti said, "I told her it's at five, and she said she'd be there."

"You're the best Smarti." He said sincerely, using his old nickname for her.

"I know it." She said cheerfully, "Oh! And she's not bringing that boyfriend of hers."

"You really don't like him do you?" Derek asked, smiling at his little sister's loyalty.

"Nope," she said, "I keep forgetting you didn't meet him. If you had come to dad's wedding like you were supposed to you would know what I mean." She said.

"Don't guilt me about that again, you know I feel terrible," he said groaning.

"Yeah, Yeah, there was snow storm, you couldn't back into Canada, airports out of Aspen shut-down, blah, blah, blah." she said mockingly.

"I was a victim of the weather." he said.

"Yeah and rich people who drag you off for ski weekends right before your father's wedding." Marti muttered.

"We've had this conversation a million times, I-" he began.

"Yeah I know, it was planned before Dad's spur-of-the-moment wedding, and those primo hotel rooms are hard to get. I know Derek, I know. I just wish you had been there. You don't even like skiing" she said sounding grumpy.

"It's their tradition." he said apologetically, "and it's not their fault it snowed that hard."

"Yeah, I know." She said sighing, "Hey Derek? Can I ask you a question?" she said.

"Of course," he said.

"Do you love her?" she asked.

"Vanessa?" he asked, then felt stupid for asking.

"Yes." she said.

"I'm marrying her." he said simply.

"That's not what I asked you." Marti said.

"She makes me happy, we get along really well, and we'll have a nice life" He said.

"Still not what I asked," she said.

"Yes. I do." he said, "I love her."

"Really?" Marti asked.

"Yes really, why would you even ask me that Smarti?" he asked, puzzled by this line of questions.

"Because, you say you're happy, and you say she's good for you, but you're not like you were, Smerek, and you don't talk about her they way you talked about-"

"All relationships are different." he said cutting her off before she finished the sentence. Marti sighed.

"Yeah, I guess so." she said.

"I am happy." he said, "Really I am."

"Ok. I've got play practice. I'll see you on Saturday." she said.

"Bye Marti." he said.

"Talk to you later Smerek." she said.

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Derek shook his head. Marti and her dammed questions. He didn't have to defend his relationship with Vanessa to her. So maybe it didn't have the passion of his relationship with Casey, but things with him and Casey had ended so badly, that he thought it had to be better this way. Besides, Casey had broken up with him; she'd shattered him, not the other way around.

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He stood at his window and watched her the day she moved out of the building. It had crushed him. Just destroyed him. He'd burned all the post-its he'd written her but hadn't yet had the courage to send. He'd been waiting, really hoping, until that moment, that she'd come back. Every time there was a knock on his door, every time his phone rang, he was convinced it was her-but it never was.

So he went out and got drunk. He put his old playboy Derek moves to use flirting with girls and using that old charm he'd had no need for in years. He was vicious on the hockey rink, getting penalized right and left for taking his anger out on the opposing teams. He studied hard then partied hard, trying to make it so his thoughts were always on school or nothing at all. Work hard, play hard that was the new Derek Venturi life plan.

When he graduated, he put his charm to use again, and was hired quickly at McMillian and Associates, a top Toronto area advertising firm. Advertising was filled with guys like him, and he soon had a band of buddies to spend his weekends with. He dated the same kind of girls he dated before Casey, vapid blondes who found him irresistible. Girls with cute names and cute giggles who wouldn't think of disagreeing with a word he said.

He'd met Vanessa at a Trent Alumni event being held after a hockey match. He'd gone to cheer on his old team, and she'd been there, still an undergrad at the time, president of student council and alumni relations. She was smart and self-possessed, she had a quiet confidence, and while she seemed charmed by him, she hadn't fallen into bed with him instantly, which he'd respected. They began to date, he'd moved up quickly in his firm, and she'd graduated and moved on to graduate school, studying psychology. He stopped going out and partying, because he didn't need to. He had Vanessa, and she was enough.

The moved in together a year after they started dating, and their life was quiet with very few complications. She was an only child, who found his stories of childhood amusing. Of course, he'd left out large chunks, but she didn't need to know that. She had adored Marti the time they'd met, and she always said she looked forward to meeting the rest of his family. She should have met them all at the wedding, but they'd been stuck in Aspen when a blizzard hit, and had been unable to get home. He had asked her to marry him because it made sense. She'd said yes and they'd gone out to romantic dinner. Simple.

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Simple was nice, he liked it this way. He knew Marti meant well by her questions, but he thought he'd told her too much of what had gone between him and Casey. She knew too much, and she used it against him. She had once even accused him of missing the wedding to avoid Casey, and he'd been furious and told her the snow was not his fault, and he had in fact been looking forward to seeing Casey. That may have been a bit of an exaggeration, he wasn't exactly looking forward to seeing her, but he wasn't avoiding her either. He'd come to terms with their break-up. In some way, he understood why she'd acted the way she had, he didn't like it, but he understood. Maybe if they got a moment alone on Saturday, and if he was feeling confident, he'd tell her that. Maybe.


End chapter. I hope you guys liked it. Oh, for those wondering, yes. They are in serious denial about their current relationships and how happy they really are. Poor things. Maybe seeing each other will knock some sense into them:-P