I know, not a very long chapter for how long it took me to write it, but blame it on all the couples that got randy in October and November; seriously, the amount of birthdays there are in July is ridiculous!
Disclaimer: Alas, Life With Derek will never truly be mine *sighs melodramatically and stares longingly at screen shots*
Casey's next date was to a petting zoo. Seriously. They needn't have bothered pushing back Marti's bed time; though, Derek thought with a bitter smirk, maybe it would be fitting to send Marti along with them. It was more suited to her age group after all.
Against his better judgement, and perhaps out of some sick masochistic need to torture himself, he did look at the text when it came through and then spent a good fifteen minutes in his room playing loud, angry music before he'd calmed down enough to report to Lizzie. In fact, she did poke her head around the door a few times to see if he was ready to talk, but he pretended he didn't notice her and she left.
When he finally turned the volume down and tore his eyes away from the violent computer game he was playing, she was ready and waiting, taking a suspiciously short amount of time to barge into his room and demand to see the text. He handed it over to her while he rubbed his eyes and leaned back in his chair, trying his utmost not to get wound up again with thoughts of Truman and Casey sipping fruit-juice cartons and laughing at cute, fluffy lambs.
"A petting zoo?" Lizzie asked incredulously.
Derek just grunted in agreement, both with what she'd said and with the disbelief in her voice.
"Well, at least we'll have a full day to scheme." Lizzie said, her voice dripping with disdain. She hated petting zoos, and zoos in general, as they perpetuated the captivity and consumerism of animals.
"I was thinking..." Derek started, then paused, glaring at the worried look on Lizzie's face when he said those three words. "I was thinking that maybe we should get Casey to take Marti with her."
Lizzie's face cleared and a wicked grin crept to her lips, still in the early stages but he could work with that.
"Just think about it, what would make the day better than having darling Truman get to know a member of the family? A very young, very loud, very stubborn member of the family that Casey loves very much." He paused again, his own wicked grin beginning to show. "I'm sure Casey would love to see how great Truman probably is with cock-blocking, screaming children."
And just like that Lizzie's wicked grin was up to full strength. "Of course, it would mean Marti wouldn't be there for the meeting..." She said slowly.
Derek shrugged. "We could catch her up. Besides, she'd be doing more good out there than with us, and we could send a phone with her just in case."
Lizzie nodded. "Okay, I'll go let Marti know so she can psych herself up for begging Casey."
"Could you also let the rest of the team know about everything?" Derek asked/ordered as she reached the door.
She sighed. "Fine. But you are actually going to have to pull your weight at some point."
Derek had already turned back to his computer game.
.
"But Casey, there are ducks." Marti pleaded. "Ducks."
"I know, Marti, but you'll just have to get George and Nora to take you some time." Casey was attempting to pick out an outfit for her date the next day, Marti hindering her at every step, getting under her feet, sitting on the pile of clothes on the bed and playing with Casey's jewellery and make-up. "Besides, you see ducks at the park all the time."
"S'not the same." Marti whined, pouting her heart out and completely focussed. "Please, Casey, pleeeaaassseee!"
Casey sighed and looked down at her step-sister's wide eyes and earnest expression. This wasn't a fight she could win.
"I'll be good." Marti added for good measure.
Casey closed her eyes and set her shoulders. "I'll have to call Truman about it first."
Marti instantly jumped up, throwing herself at Casey. "Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you!" She chanted, not staying still for a moment, already halfway out of the room, singing loudly and disjointedly about her and Casey going to the petting zoo.
Casey fell onto her bed with a groan. Truman was not going to like this.
The next day, after a long phone conversation where she had to beg, bribe and threaten Truman into agreeing to letting Marti come with them, Casey was already beginning to regret the decision. As if taking your little step-sister on a date with you wasn't bad enough, said step-sister being dressed in a fluffy, yellow chick costume the whole time had to be the low point of her dating career.
"Please, Marti. You could wear your purple cat T-shirt." Casey tried, keeping the desperation from her tone as much as possible, which wasn't much.
"But there aren't any cats at the petting zoo," Marti replied as if Casey were a small child who'd just said something incredibly stupid. "There are chicks."
"I know, Marti, but-"
"Caseeeey!" Marti sulked. "I wanna wear this! So I can talk to the chicks!"
"You can talk to the chicks anyway, you might even get to hold some." Casey negotiated.
Lizzie snorted disgustedly in the background; she'd already made it quite clear what her feelings were on overexcited children handling small, helpless animals, and they weren't good.
Marti looked thoroughly unimpressed with both of them.
"Case, just let her wear the damn chick costume. You're not going to talk her out of it." Derek said tiredly, hiding his inner glee at his baby sister's performance. "Unless you want to be so late for your date that Truman's forgotten your name when you get there, I'd suggest you get moving."
Casey shot him a glare and muttered 'language' as viciously as she could, but pressed her lips together and grabbed Marti's hand, leading her to the door.
Marti wriggled her hand out of Casey's grip and ran to hug Derek and Lizzie goodbye. "Bye Smerek! Bye Lizzie! Bye everyone!" She shouted loudly, giving Derek a thumbs up sign that Casey couldn't see, before running off out the door, Casey trailing wearily behind her.