Derek paced about the small room, stepping only with the sounds of the heart monitor. His step-sister laid on the bed, her blue eyes closed and hidden beneath the veils better known as eyelids, and a ventilator hooked up to her nose letting her breath and and IV tube stuck to her arm.
Derek's hands were shaking like hell, which could only compare the slightest to how he felt. He lost his best friend just yesterday, it still felt, and here he was, back in the wretched white building, so close to losing another sister. The tears brimmed his eyes once more. He turned away from Casey's form, closing his eyes tight.
"Derek..."
The 15-year-old turned back to the cot and almost burst into tears.
Casey's blue eyes slowly arose and looked around in confusion. She raised her hand and looked at the IV in her arm.
"Casey..." Derek scrambled around for that stupid, pathetic white - like everything else in the building - plastic chair and sat it beside the cot. "What..."
Casey turned back, giving a small smile to her older step-brother. No, brother..."I saw Marti."
Derek gave a surprised, questioned look.
"She said, "Turn around, big sis. And fight him back."
Derek bit his lips. "Case..." Derek grasped onto his sister, who wrapped her arms around him.
And finally, for the first time in fifteen years, Derek Venturi allowed himself to sob.