Disclaimer: Waking up sucks… in this world, I don't own Life with Derek.

Can I Help? Part II

Day and Nightmares

When she saw him, she was pretty sure her heart stopped. Sure, she knew that he wasn't going to disappear forever. In fact, there was no reason for him to disappear at all. She just hadn't thought about it. She had stood up to him and he had left. Ideally that would take him out of the story, out of her life for good.

But he wasn't.

He was right in front of her. Fine, breathing, walking… walking toward her.

Ohgod, he was walking toward her.

Casey panicked and turned, knocking somebody's books from their arms. She didn't look back. She didn't help the student pick up his books. She just ran.

School wasn't over yet, but she burst through the doors like there was a murderer chasing her. She couldn't stay in school a second longer knowing that he was there. She just wasn't ready to handle that yet- especially without Derek by her side to give her strength. Yeah, Casey knew that she could deal with the usual stress and bothers alone, but Sam? Could she deal with a run-in with Sam without support? Merely seeing the boy who had helped cause her to breakdown countless times almost sent her reeling into a very unwelcome frenzy. No, she couldn't talk to him, or let him talk to her. Not yet.

And so she just kept running until she was free from school property, as if that cleared her of him. Knowing she couldn't go home, Casey plopped down onto the bus stop bench weakly. Thoughts were coming at her like bullets from a machine gun, piercing her brain and paralyzing her.

Then she heard a motor, the squeaking of brakes, and the swish opening doors. She looked up to see the bus, the driver looking at her expectantly. Without thinking, she climbed aboard. It's not like she had anything else to do, with a few hours left of school and nowhere to go.

"Shouldn't you be in school?" an older woman next to her asked. She expected to see the face scolding and disapproving, but when she turned she found that her eyes were laughing. Casey wrapped her arms around herself self-consciously, but said nothing. She wasn't sure that she could if she wanted to.

"Ah, I remember the old days when I did things like that… I would skip school to go to a film… it was always cheaper in the daytime," the woman continued, reminiscing. She turned and looked at Casey, and somehow Casey felt that the woman could see right down to the deepest of her emotions. "Boy trouble?" she inquired after what could have been minutes, but was probably seconds, after looking into her soul.

Casey continued studying the ground, but this time she replied. "It's a little more complicated than that," she muttered.

That was all the woman said, and subsequently, all that Casey said as well.

Casey looked up at the squeaking of the brakes and boarding of new passengers. Her breath caught in her throat when a teenage boy climbed the stairs. His shaggy blonde hair, that stupid, ugly hat… She squeezed her eyes shut, willing the image away, knowing it wasn't real, it couldn't be real. When she looked back she found that she was right, it wasn't him. Sam wasn't following her; she was being ridiculous.

"You can't run away forever," older woman next to her said strongly. Casey whipped her head toward her in surprise. How did she…?

The shadowing of the woman gave Casey the chills, but she couldn't tear her eyes from the woman, couldn't shake the feeling that she was missing something.

"But that's what she always does. Run, Casey, run, run!" It was Lizzie, standing next to her in the aisle. Casey was about to open her mouth, say something, find out what Lizzie was doing on a bus in the middle of the school day, when Lizzie's voice wasn't Lizzie's anymore, but her mother's.

"Run, Casey, run, run!" Nora cried to her, and then Casey wasn't on the bus anymore. She was five again and Nora was pregnant. Casey's dad had come home drunk and furious about something. He hit Nora. Casey watched terrified as her mom fell to the ground. She watched as her father kicked her in the stomach. She watched as her mother cried and screamed for Casey to run.

"Run, Casey! Run!"

Then her dad turned and stared her straight in the eyes. But it was Sam.

"There's nowhere to run to Casey! You can't run away from me!" he snarled at her, with smug confidence.

She was sixteen again, and now in the Venturi house but Sam's menacing stare was still on her. She turned to run, run up the stairs to her room, but then Derek was on the stairs. He was leaning heavily on the rail, looking whiter than snow with dark circles around his eyes. His breathing was ragged.

"Save me, Case. I'm dying."

Casey tried to scream but no sound could escape her lips. Tears flowed down her cheeks and she clasped her hands to her mouth. She didn't know what to do; she took a step back, down a step, then another.

Derek was right in front of her then, in her face. "You never were strong enough," he sneered at her. "You're too weak to help yourself. How did you expect to help me?" He looked as if he was going to embrace her in his strong arms, but instead he shoved her, throwing her down the stairs.

When she looked up, he had a needle in his arm and he was walking away. Sam was stalking toward her. They both laughed coldly, manically. Then Sam put his hands on her.

Casey woke, a hand on her shoulder. She screamed and smacked the hand away, jumping back and falling on her butt in the dirty aisle. She was shaking, terrified, but when she looked up she didn't see Sam. She was still in the bus. It was the old woman who had been sitting next to her.

"You fell asleep, honey," the woman told her. "You were having a bad dream."

Casey touched her face. It was soaked with tears.

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a/n: And so concludes another chapter… I admit, I KIND OF like this one. I can only hope that you, my beloved readers, do too. This (if you liked it, that is) is my apology for such a crappy chapter last time. But thank you to all of you who reviewed and were so kind… it kept up my morale! xP