"And this," the blond guy with three ear piercings said to the guy in the Armani suit. "…is Derek Venturi. Casey's manager."

The introduction still made Derek smile, his new 'position' still resting uneasily on his shoulders.

It had been two months since Milo had been arrested on suspicion of fraud. A team of investigators was still ploughing through Casey's finances. The good news was they reckoned they could recover most of the money. The bad news, it would take a while.

Derek had had his confrontation with Milo, but he had been necessarily controlled. There was no point in giving Milo's defence team something to hold over Casey in court. Besides, when he confronted Milo, he was flanked by two IRS investigators and an audit partner from one of the big four accountancy firms. Behind them were two uniformed cops. The six of them entered Milo's LA office without knocking.

"Venturi. You may well think you can get away with murder because of who your sister is, but that does not allow you to barge into my office without knocking.

Derek smirked and nodded to one of the LAPD officers. The cop stepped forward and handed Casey's manager a piece of paper; an arrest warrant.

"No. But this little piece of paper does." Derek said, wishing Casey could see this moment.

The officer began to read Milo the Miranda warning as he was cuffed. He twisted to look at Derek.

"You had better be sure of your evidence." He warned. "And your sister."

"Oh I am on both counts. That's step-sister, by the way."

In the meantime, Casey had decided she didn't trust anyone else and persuaded Derek to become her manager. Of course, with the level she had reached, it took a whole team of people to 'manage' her, but Derek was the front man.

And the reality as everyone around her knew was he had been managing Casey since the day he walked back into her life.

The ones really in 'the know' knew he had been managing Casey for far longer than that.

Derek shook hands with the Armani suit who turned out to be the Events Director for the O2 arena in London. It was the first time Casey had played England and she was incredibly nervous about it. In fact, when the prospect of playing London had been raised, Casey had thought they were talking about London, Ontario and questioned the wisdom of planning ten gigs because she didn't think there were enough people to attend. The look her step-brother gave her as he listened to her little speech was incredulous. "London, England, Case."

And now they were here. Derek was also nervous, he hadn't been on tour with her yet and he was still new to the whole hospitality side of things. He had picked the one person from the old management team who he trusted, Jake, and two members of staff from Rachel's company and they were trailing around with him. Derek introduced them to the Armani suit.

"So. How's your sister doing?" Kevin Hall, ED O2 asked after all the introductions were made and they had sat down in the cocktail bar of the plush London hotel which they were staying in.

Derek chuckled. "I'll let you know when I've peeled her down off the ceiling. She's very excited about all of this. And keen to get back on stage."

"Is she fully recovered?" Kevin tried to hide his own nervousness. Venues hate no-shows.

"Yeah. And full of energy. She tells me there is a surprise in store for me and another one for all her fans, but she won't tell me what it is." He sounded uneasy as he said it.

Derek had spent hours trying to get Casey to spill. He argued that she couldn't keep secrets from him, but she had laughed and winked. He found it incredibly frustrating and had pranked her everyday since, which had caused Casey to laugh in a way that made him want to prank her everyday for the rest of their lives.

Since he had succeeded in putting together a team of people around her that he trusted, Derek found he could step back a little from the day-to-day managing of Casey's professional life and concentrate more on future planning. He still made hundreds of decisions a day, but people came to him with the conclusions of meetings for approval rather than expecting him to sit in on them. It gave him time to breathe. More importantly, it gave him the opportunity to spend time with Casey to make sure his step-sister was eating, and taking things easy. She had put on a little weight since the hospital stay, and it really suited her.

They ran through the procedural aspects of the coming concerts and arranged for Derek to look over the venue later that day with Casey who was going to do a basic sound check with her band. Normally, she would just arrive and perform but as this concert was her return to performing, she had time to visit the stage beforehand.

Ninety minutes later, the meeting finished, Derek took the penthouse lift back up to Casey's hotel suite.

Jaz was at the piano and they were rehearsing when he entered quietly behind her. She was wearing jeans and a close-fitting long-sleeved T-shirt. The familiar ache hit Derek, and he pushed it away with practiced ease. He'd been pushing it away since they were fifteen.

"Just watch the tuning at the end of that last bar." Jaz said playing the melody with one hand and then resting on the note she was missing.

"I know. Sorry Jaz. The trouble is I think about it so much in the leading bars I end up screwing them up too."
"You'll be fine. You always are. You get up there on stage and all the nerves will be gone. You'll see." He looked past her to Derek. "Have we got a time for the sound check?"

Derek nodded. "3pm. The car's coming at 2pm to give us time to get there." His cell started to ring and he walked out onto the balcony to take the call.

"Cool." Jaz said turning to Casey. "Have you thought about how we are going to practice that song?"

Casey smiled. "Yup." She leaned closer to her friend and told him in a low whisper.

Derek came back into the room from the balcony to find Jaz had gone and Casey leaning against the piano. She frowned.

"You know, I think you're the one that needs the vacation." She said, noticing the tired eyes. He crossed the room, leaned on the piano and rubbed at his eyes. "I'll be fine once tonight's over. As soon as I've seen that we can pull this off with the new team."

"There wouldn't be a concert at all if it wasn't for you." She said.

"Like I'm the one who's going to stand up there and screech my guts out." He laughed.

"I don't screech." She protested, but she was smiling.

"Ready for this?" He asked.

"As I'll ever be. I want to get out there and do it.

"Atta girl."

They straightened up and he went to move away, but Casey caught his hand.

"Uh Uh. No you don't."

He frowned. "What?"

"One of the things you learn about rock stars is we can turn into divas the night of a performance. We make strange demands."

"You've always been a diva, Spacey."

She stuck her tongue out at him.

"I have a demand."

He took out the little notebook he had started carrying around with him.

"Fire away." He said, without enthusiasm.

"I want a hug." He rolled his eyes at her. She continued. "A proper hug. None of your usual half-assed one arm squeezes."

"I've hugged you with two arms before."

"Yes. But I want 'a proper hug from Derek' added to my tour rider."

Derek sighed, a wry smile on his lips, He glanced over Casey's shoulder and then stepped towards her and pulled her into his arms. She let her own arms slide around his waist.

"I can't believe you did that." She complained as his arms tightened.

"Did what?"

"Checked to see if anyone was looking."

"I didn't."

"Yes Derek you did. I can't believe you are still worried about your reputation getting damage if you are seen with me."

"Sorry. Habit." He grinned at her. "Is the hug up to your required standards?"

"You need more practice." She said. "Thanks D."

"For what?"

"For giving our friendship another chance. For not giving up and walking away."

The moment should have been awkward because Derek hated it when she got sappy. Instead he put a hand to the side of her face.

"Where the hell would I go?" he asked seriously.