A/N: I wanted to thank, again, every one who has reviewed and thank you guys that have continued to read this story from chapter one. Even through the chapters where not much happened in terms of moving the plot along, due to lack of time and school work. Also through the late updates and two long breaks due also to lack of time/school and computer problems. I hope you all like this chapter.

Flashback italicized and separated by -----

Bold is the other Derek talking.

Disclaimer: I do not own Life with Derek

Casey had been waiting anxiously at Smelly Nelly's for about thirty minutes now. Since she arrived she had been staring at the menu in front of her as she continued to wait for the now ten minute late, Derek, finally seeing someone approach her table from the top of her vision, raising her head, "Derek" she said looking into the eyes of the person standing before her.

"Hey Casey" he replied meeting her eyes.

"Derek…what are you doing here?" Casey asked shocked at the fact she was currently looking into the eyes of her step-brother.

"I'm here to meet with my best friend from the past." Derek said calmly as he pulled out the chair across from Casey and sat down.

The only thing Casey could manage to say was. "What?"

"I said, I'm here to meet with my best friend from the past." He repeated still calm but amused at Casey's confusion.

"You're not…but…I…was…wrong. I don't, I…get…why…what?" Casey stuttered still not able to get a hold of her self.

Derek still amused by her confusion, smirked. "Jeez, for someone who has been stubbornly trying to prove I'm you're best friend from the past, you sure deny it when I finally tell you that you were right."

After a couple more minutes it seemed Casey still had yet to grasp the situation with her confusion still etched on her face and her mind running at a thousand thoughts per minute.

"You gonna be alright there, Case?" Derek asked leaning forward with his elbows on the table. "Uh, yeah…why are you here?" Casey finally managed to speak.

"Derek, called me a little while ago." He explained.

-----

"Hello?" Derek answered the phone.

"Hey D, it's me." The person calling responded.

"Oh, hey Derek, what's up?" Derek responded back.

"I'm not going Wednesday" he simply stated.

"Really?" Derek asked, with hope in his voice that Casey wouldn't find out about him.

"Try not to sound too excited because I'm not going…you are." He replied trying not to laugh at the image in his head of the expression on Derek's face this very moment in time.

"Uh, no, what makes you think that?" Derek said trying to sound cool and not like he was freaking out, which was what he really was doing.

"Look, I understand why you've avoided telling her but I'm gonna tell her Wednesday. So you should just go and do it yourself." He explained.

Derek just sighed and spoke, "And I thought you were my friend."

Amused, he laughed a little at Derek's comment, "Just go, I gotta go bye." He replied before hanging up the phone.

"Yeah, bye" Derek softly spoke moving the phone away from his ear and slowly bringing it down to his side then squeezing the phone slightly before putting it back down on his desk.

-----

"So it took this to finally convince you to confess." Casey spoke after letting Derek's retelling of the phone call sink in, seeming to have regained her composer.

"Yep, you were going to find out today anyway, whether I told you or not. So I figured I might as well tell you myself" Derek explained shifting through the sugar packets on the table.

"What if Derek was bluffing?" Casey questioned taking the packs out his hand so he couldn't distract himself with them anymore. "Maybe, most likely," Derek confessed looking back up at her.

"Then why…?" Casey asked curious about what made Derek come even though he thought that the chances of the other Derek bluffing were high.

Sighing, he answered "I don't know." Leaning back in his chair, "I just needed an excuse." He answered truthfully. "The part of me that always wanted to tell you used this as my excuse to."

Casey even more curious because of his response asked "What was stopping you?"

"My dad. Even though I caused his life to fall apart, he continues to support me and do all that he can for me." He explained, embarrassed that he was honestly saying this.

Casey began to laugh. Causing Derek to look back up at her, his embarrassment rising as she continued to laugh, "What?" he asked

"It's just so, weird, listening to you talk like that." She answered, clearing her throat, when she stopped laughing.

"Yeah, well…don't get used to it." Derek replied defensively. "Anyway, he needs this family, I can't mess it up." He finished telling her, his reason

"And how would telling me that you're my best friend going to mess the family up?" Casey asked not being able to follow or understand his reasoning.

Shifting in his chair uneasily, "Jeez, Case, you're still oblivious." He scoffed.

Annoyed with him Casey replied, "Again, with this, oblivious stuff."

"Case" shaking his head, "it's the same reason Sam broke up with you, why you've tried so hard to find me, why I wanted to tell you and the same reason I didn't." he explained.

After, a few minutes of thinking about what Derek had just told her but not able to comprehend what Derek was telling her, she asked "What? What does that mean? I don't…"

"I'm not going to spell it out for you. You want to know why?" in response to this Casey nodded her head yes. "Even though I told you I'm your old best friend, the reasons I didn't haven't changed." He explained.

Looking at Casey, he continued when she showed no signs of having something to say. "After today, nothing's going to change, now that you know that you've found me, we're going to forget about it and we're going to go back to being bickering step siblings when we get home. Understand?"

Looking hurt Casey said "Okay?"

"Now, I believe you wanted to know why I stopped writing. Let's see, it was a year after the whole Abby thing." He began, changing the subject. "We were all trying to adjust. I was beginning to act out a little at the same time starting to become popular in school. I changed and writing letters to you fell under the category of 'un-cool'. I'm a jackass, remember." Derek finished, joking at the end.

"I see" Casey responded not fully convinced or happy with Derek's explanation but at the moment she didn't really feel like pressing the matter after his little speech earlier.

"So is that it?" Derek asked, hoping she would say yes and they could go home and begin their agreement as soon as possible.

However, "No…" Casey responded.

Thanks for reading.

In case the beginning author's note may have given you the impression that this story is over, as you can tell, it's not. I was just going through and rereading the story so I can fix it, I realized I had forgotten about some of those things mentioned.