"I missed you," Derek said

"I missed you," Derek said.

"Yeah," Casey said, licking her lips with delight. "I could, um, tell."

"Do you want to come in?"

"Sure."

Derek led Casey into the house, taking her backpack for her and tossing it on the couch. "So what are you doing here at… 10 am?" Derek asked, checking the time on his watch.

"Mr. Hackman was giving me a rough time, so I decided to ditch."

"Wow," Derek said, slightly surprised. "I've obviously had a bad influence on you."

"Yes, you have," Casey agreed jokingly. "So how's Lucas doing?"

"He's adapted to this place better than I expected."

"How's that?"

"I'll show you," Derek said, leading Casey to his room and over to Lucas's basinet. "See?"

Casey peeked into the basinet and found Lucas sound asleep. "How long has he been sleeping?"

"Three hours," Derek said happily. "Three beautiful, continuous hours."

"I guess it's because it's quieter here," Casey said. "No kids running around screaming."

"It's too quiet, if you ask me. I almost miss the screaming and the yelling and the fighting…"

"I think we covered most of the fighting," Casey said to Derek as they left the room and headed into the front hall.

"In that case…" Derek said with a devious grin, "that shirt makes you look fat."

"What are you doing?" Casey asked.

"Roll with me here," Derek instructed.

"Okay," Casey said awkwardly, not sure what they were doing. "Um… what do you mean this shirt makes me look fat?"

"Well, maybe it doesn't make you look that fat, but you've got to admit it's pretty ugly."

"Hey, I happen to really like this shirt!" Casey shouted in protest.

"Where'd you get it? The dump?"

"No," Casey argued, "I got it at the mall. It was thirty dollars."

"Ouch," Derek mocked. "You should get your money back."

"Now I remember why I hate you," Casey said as she grabbed her backpack off the couch. "It's because you're such an insulting, pig-headed dirt bag!"

Suddenly, before Casey even realized what she was doing, she slammed her backpack into Derek's shoulder and an instant explosion of flour burst out of her bag.

"Oh, no!" Casey cried as she opened her backpack to examine the condition of her school assignment. "Please be all right."

"What's in there?" Derek asked as he dusted the flour off of himself.

"My flour baby," Casey said as she took the bag of flour out of her backpack. "Which is apparently now a package that used to contain flour."

"I'm sorry?" Derek said, hoping the words would make the situation better.

"I'm going to fail now. You know that, right?" Casey asked Derek miserably. "All because you said my shirt was ugly."

"I really am sorry, Case. I just wanted to have one of our classic fights, you know? Remind me of the good times."

"Oh, grow up, Derek," Casey ordered as she took the remains of her flour baby and dumped it in the trash.

"Is there anything I can do to make this up to you?" Derek asked. "Anything?"

"Got any flour?"

After Casey replaced her flour baby with a bag of Abby's flour, she sat down on the couch with Derek. "Well, I've got to admit: although you did cause this whole problem, you did manage to fix it."

"I say the universe was looking out for you. How else can you explain that my mom buys the same brand of flour as Mr. Hackman did for the assignment?"

"Luck, Derek," Casey answered. "Pure luck."

"So do you forgive me for insulting your shirt?" Derek asked.

"If you forgive me for hitting you with a backpack full of flour," Casey bargained.

"Done."

"Well, I'm glad that's over," Casey said, relieved. "I like it a lot better when we're civil as opposed to us fighting."

"Same here," Derek agreed. "Although fighting with you is kind of hot."

"Seriously?"

"Absolutely! Fighting with you is like playing the topless level of Babe Raider."

"Gross analogy," Casey said, "but flattering comment. I think."

"You wanna hear my next comment?"

"Sure."

Derek pressed his lips up against Casey's in a passionate kiss.

"You have the…" Casey began to compliment.

"Best kiss in the world?"

"I was going to say you have the most interesting wordless comments ever," Casey corrected. "But the kiss one's pretty good too."

That afternoon, when Abby came home from work, she found Derek and Casey watching an animated children's movie with Lucas.

"Hey, Mom," Derek called to Abby as he heard her enter. "How was work?"

"As miserable as work can be expected," Abby replied as she came over to the couch. "So who's your friend here?"

"This is Casey," Derek introduced.

"I'm his girlfriend," Casey added.

"Is she—" Abby tried to ask.

"No," Derek quickly responded.

"No what?" Casey asked as she lightly bounced Lucas on her knee.

"No nothing, Case."

"I was just going to ask—"

"Mom," Derek interrupted.

"If that baby was yours," Abby finished, ignoring Derek's interruption.

"Oh, no," Casey said with a laugh. "This baby's neither of ours. He just showed up on the doorstep a few days ago."

"Really?"

"Yeah, why? Did you think this was really Derek's baby?"

"Casey, have you ever heard the term blabbermouth?"

"Wait," Casey said. "You didn't tell her yet?"

"Not exactly," Derek replied.

"Um… double oops?" Casey said sheepishly.

"Derek, why are you—"

"Look, Mom, I already explained this all to Dad, so I might as well tell you," Derek began. "You see, when I was eight years old…"

"I'll just be leaving," Casey said as she handed Derek Lucas and went out the door.

"Did you know about this?" Abby shouted into the receiver, nearly deafening George on the other end. "Did you know that our son knew about his adoption and that now he's taken on raising someone else's kid?"

"Short answer, yes," George replied.

"And you just let him do this?"

"No," George said, "I threw him out of the house."

"So, what, he could come crawling to my doorstep with someone else's kid?"

"I really didn't know he'd go to you," George answered honestly. "I thought he'd give the kid up before he'd go over to your place."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Abby asked, sounding offended.

"Nothing, I just didn't think he'd go to you—"

"God, I am so glad I divorced you."

"Why's that?"

"Because you are constantly talking with your foot in your mouth."

"Yeah, Nora tells me that one a lot," George said.

"Oh, that's brilliant, George," Abby said sarcastically. "Please, do tell me, your ex-wife, more about your current wife."

"Right. Foot in mouth."

"And you know what else happened today?"

"What?"

"Derek had a girl over while I was at work."

"That doesn't really surprise me."

"She was the one who actually told me about the kid not being Derek's. That the kid just showed up on your porch," Abby explained.

"What girl was it then?" George asked, wondering what girl was willing to go out with Derek now that he had a kid, not to mention knew how the baby arrived.

"What do you mean 'what girl'?" Abby asked rhetorically. "His girlfriend. And don't worry, I asked. Not the mom."

"What was her name?" George pressed.

"Something that ended in an E sound. Like Lacey or Macy…"

"Casey?"

"Yeah, that was it," Abby answered. "Why?"

"Doesn't matter," George said, not wanting to have to explain to Abby that Casey was his stepdaughter. "Look, I should go. I've still got four kids left over here to take care of."

"Talk to you later then. … Unfortunately."

"You too," George said before he hung up the phone.

"I'm home!" Casey announced as she came through the front door.

"Casey," George said as he left the kitchen and entered the front hall. "Could we talk?"

"About what?" Casey asked innocently.

"About… boys."

"Don't worry, George," Casey said, "Mom's already had this talk with me."

"I don't think she has."

"Why? What's in your version?"

"It involves you and Derek."

"What about me and Derek?"

"Are you two dating?"

Suddenly, Casey's backpack strap slipped from her hand and her backpack fell to the floor as a foul four-letter word escaped her lips.