"Do you think it'll work?" Casey asked Kenzie as Kenzie was staring at herself in the mirror of Derek and Casey's bathroom. Casey was leaning up against the door already ready to go. Hey, when Derek's your ride to school, and he threatens to leave you he means it. Casey learned that the hard way a couple times.

"Do I think what will work?" Kenzie asked without looking at her.

Casey glared at her, and at the silence, Kenzie finally turned around. Kenzie let out a short laugh, "Oh, you mean Derek's plan?"

"I knew you were eavesdropping."

Kenzie shrugged, applying a little more mascara, "Of course we were eavesdropping, but it's not like these are conversations Steven and I haven't had before. Yes, I think it'll work."

"You and Steven had this conversation before?"

Kenzie spun on her heel, which, even by Casey's last job's standards were way too high. "How to tell the parents? Is that a legit question?"

Casey sheepishly shrugged, looking away from her.

Kenzie walked up to Casey and put her hands on Casey's shoulders, "Casey, trust him. I'm willing to bet he's had plenty experience fooling the parents before, right? And that's not exactly a skill you lose…unfortunately for his future kids…"

Casey snorted, "Please! Derek doesn't want kids!"

Kenzie quirked an eyebrow, "Have you asked him that?"

Casey shook her head, "No, but he was pretty adamant."

"When? When he was like fifteen? What fifteen-year-old-guy does want kids? They're still trying to figure out girls."

Casey stared at her, and Kenzie sighed, "Casey, I'm going to say this one last time, just trust him, okay? I think he knows what he's doing, he thinks he knows what he's doing, and…that's really all that matters."

Casey snorted again, crossing her arms over her chest, and rolling her eyes, "I distinctly remember one of the last times Derek thought he knew what he was doing, we were trying to sneak out of the house to a party and almost got busted."

"Right, almost. Wait, he convinced you to try to sneak out even back then?!"

Casey shook her head, "No, more like I blackmailed him with the good old, 'if you don't take me I'm ratting you out,' and we were seniors at the time."

Kenzie laughed, "Way to go, Casey! I didn't know you had that in you."

Casey smiled, "Neither did I until I did it, but needless to say, since it was such a close call, we didn't do anything like that again."

"But Derek still went?"

Casey stared at her, "How'd you know?"

Kenzie shrugged, "Seems like something Derek would do." Then, she slammed whatever other cosmetic she had been applying at the time and turned to look at Casey again. "Ready?"

Casey nodded, "Although I'm not too sure about this skirt. I'm going to freeze to death."

Kenzie snorted as she walked out the door, "Please, Casey. Derek wouldn't let that happen."

Casey rolled her eyes and let the door slam behind her.

"Why do women always taking forever to get ready?"

Derek stared at him from the chair across from Steven's in the lobby.

Steven snorted, "C'mon, dude, it wasn't an insult. You grew up with how many of 'em?"

Derek held four fingers up.

"Exactly! So, why does it take them so long?"

Derek shrugged, "I don't think we'll ever know, man…"

And, like some cliché movie scene, that is precisely when he and Steven heard heels clicking on the floor from the direction of the elevators and, though the lobby was pretty well packed, they just knew it was Casey and Kenzie.

"Holy shit." The two said in unison as they stood up.

Both girls were dressed in heels, miniskirts, blouses, black leather jackets, and hoop earrings. Kenzie chose a red blouse, silver/gray coloured scarf, black skirt, and red heels to match; while Casey's blouse was a dark green, and her shoes were black at the top, but the entire wedge was green.

Steven nudged Derek, "Well, look at it this way, man, you definitely won't lose Casey. Those shoes are like a highlighter."

Derek, speechless for once in his life, could only nod.

Steven smiled as Kenzie walked up to him and embraced her, "Hey, babe, you look… breathtaking."

Kenzie beamed. "Thanks, not so bad yourself."

Meanwhile, as Casey walked up to Derek, he smirked at her, "You're going to freeze, Case."

Casey rolled her eyes, "Thank you! That's what I tried to tell her," and she threw a hand in Kenzie's direction, "but she wouldn't listen to me."

Then, Kenzie's eyes settled on Steven and Derek – or, more specifically, what they were wearing.

Steven had on a red dress shirt, silver tie, black slacks, and a black leather jacket. And Derek was dressed the same, only his shirt was, of course, green.

Casey stared at the three of them, but then her gaze landed on Kenzie, "I thought you picked out my outfit randomly. When did you three have time to plan this?"

Kenzie shrugged, pointing a thumb toward Steven, "He texted me while we were getting ready and told me where we were going.

Casey shoved Derek lightly in the shoulder, "And you didn't tell me where we were going because?"

Derek laughed, "You weren't on the need-to-know list."

Casey quirked an eyebrow, "What is this? Three versus one?"

The three of them shook their heads, and Casey threw her hands up in defeat, beginning to walk away.

"Hey, Case! Casey!" Derek said, walking after her, "Where are you going?"

"Back up to my room. I'm not really in a celebrating mood anymore."

Derek sighed, and leaned in quickly so that Casey wouldn't have time to react, "Come on, Space-Case, this is a surprise for you."

"Really?"

Derek nodded, and their faces were only inches apart from each other.

"Please don't kiss…here." Steven groaned, and then yelled, "Ow!" after Casey and Derek heard a smacking sound.

Casey and Derek chuckled as they intertwined hands and walked back toward the other couple.

"So, where are we going?" Casey asked.

"You'll see when we get there."

When they got outside, the girls hugged themselves closely, and Derek and Steven each wrapped one of their arms around the girls – both to keep them warm, and to keep them close.

"Wow…this is a lot of people."

Derek smirked, "Well, yeah, Casey, it's New York City on a Saturday night…after a hockey game."

"That they lost." Steven said, and they were close enough that he and Derek high-fived.

Kenzie and Casey rolled their eyes, smiles playing on their lips.

"Everyone's either out trying to forget, trying to have fun, avoid someone else, or all of the above." Derek said then.

"People do that?"

Derek looked at her now, "Yeah, Case, when they're not busting their ass for assholes people do."

"But it doesn't make sense. Why not just go home and go to sleep or something?"

Derek chuckled, leaning into Casey so his mouth was by her ear, "Once a keener, always a keener, huh?"

Casey shoved him, but was instantly cold; so she ended up pulling him right back.

"That's the first time you've ever done that."

"I have a feeling I'm going to be full of surprises tonight."

Derek stared at her, mouth slightly agape.

"Anyway, why aren't we taking a taxi? It's freezing."

Derek shook his head quickly, and responded, "Case, there are way too many fucking people out here to take a taxi. It'll take us longer to flag one down than it would to get there walking. Plus, once we actually caught one, people don't give a damn in this city. They'll walk in front of buses, taxis, you name it. So either they don't give a damn, or they're just batshit crazy."

"I'm going with both." Steven said.

Derek laughed and nodded.

Finally, after about half-an-hour, and a lot of elbows flying, feet crushing, and waist squeezing, they stopped in front of a restaurant.

Casey gasped, "We are not going here! This place is like crazy expensive!"

Kenzie sighed, "Casey, Casey, Casey…you've got to stop thinking with your bank account and start thinking with Derek's…"

"Kenzie…" Derek warned.

Kenzie shot him an innocent look, "What? I'm just telling her how it is."

"No, you're teaching her how to bleed my bank account dry like you do to this poor sucker over here." And, Derek hooked a thumb toward Steven's direction.

Steven only chuckled.

Kenzie shrugged, "It's what girlfriends are for."

Derek snorted, "I can think of a lot better things that girlfriends are for."

"Can you try not being disgusting?" Casey asked him, narrowing her eyes.

Derek smirked, crossing his arms over his chest, "I don't know what you're talking about, Case, I was thinking cooking."

Casey and Kenzie rolled their eyes as Steven snickered.

"Sure you were, D."

Derek's jaw dropped and Kenzie and Steven burst out laughing.

Casey escaped any further comments from Derek by ducking into the restaurant.

"Hello," the greeter started as the other three were walking in behind her, "welcome to Keens Steakhouse. Do you have a reservation?"

Steven nodded, "Under McCarthy."

"For four?" the hostess then asked, as she looked up from the computer in front of her.

Steven nodded, and she grabbed some menus, leading them to a booth in the back next to a window.

"Wow," Casey said, as she sat down. One thing I've always loved about this city was it's nightlife."

Derek snorted next to her, "Why, Casey? We just proved you've never actually enjoyed it."

She shoved him slightly as he smirked at her, "Because lamebrain, I still got to look at it. My apartment did have a nice view."

Derek took a sip of the complimentary water to keep himself from saying what he was thinking as they waited for their waiter to appear.

I apologize in advance if I offended any New Yorkers! I've only been to the city once, and it was around Christmas time so it was crazy busy! And people were walking all over the place without any regard for cars, buses, trucks anything! It was insane! So, that is where the basis came from what they were talking about.

Plus, they are Canadian, so that explains why they were "talking down" on them. The Leafs and the Sabres have a rivalry so…

But I suppose anyone can enjoy New York's nightlife, right? When in Rome…

As usual, thank you for reading! I am so sorry I'm all over the place with these updates but I honestly can't help it. A part of me wants to fast forward this story, but the other part of me really wants to keep it going. It's an internal battle that I have to figure out what I ultimately want to do. So thank you for sticking with me!

Favourites, Follows, PM's, and of course Reviews are ALWAYS read & appreciated!

Until next chapter…

FreeFallin15