"Do you know what I hate?" Marti asked Lizzie reaching down for the string for the banner.
"Broccoli?" Lizzie teased her step-sister and Marti pulled a face. The latter had long since ceased to be the baby of the family and would graduate high school in just over a year's time, but sometimes when she spoke the older girl would hear only six-year old Marti voicing her opinion and would tease her accordingly. It both amused and frustrated the younger girl.
"You think you're funny." Marti said narrowing eyes whose lids were coated with an unusual yellow and pink shade of eye-shadow. "You're not!"
Lizzie caught Marti's stern look with one of her own and they both laughed and resumed the banner hanging.
"You know I started eating broccoli the moment Derek left home, don't you?" Marti told the other girl.
"Of course. We all knew you feigned your disgust for green vegetables out of solidarity with Derek. Although I have it on good authority even he eats "green trees" these days." Lizzie handed Marti the main section of the banner on which the words "Welcome Home!" shouted in a loud purple colour.
Marti scoffed. "I bet he just tells Casey that so she stops nagging him to eat better."
"Maybe. Clearly he would eat the stuff when they were living together so perhaps he got the taste for it and continued to eat it after Casey moved out."
"I suppose." Marti sounded sceptical. "Anyway, this is beside the point. "What I really hate is that we always have to wait for at least two days after they get home from assignment before we're allowed to visit them. I mean, it's like gaining an audience with the Pope or something. Are they too important to see us?"
"It's not that." Lizzie replied. "It's just when they get back off assignment they have to go through the report-writing stage. You know they prefer to hole up in their office and just get straight to it."
The innuendo escaped neither of them and both girls giggled.
"Yeah like that's going to happen." Lizzie gasped, taking a deep breath after a while.
Marti shrugged.
She held a different opinion but on this occasion, at least, she kept it to herself.
"At least this assignment is finally over." Lizzie continued. "They've been away in Beirut so long."
"Nine months." Marti reminded her, reaching down for a "Happy Birthday" banner to string alongside the "Welcome Home" banner. "You could have dropped a sprog in the time they've been gone."
"Marti!" Lizzie complained. "You have a very bad opinion of me."
Marti chuckled. "Actually any of us could, including Casey. Hey! Maybe that's why they went to the Amazon. Maybe Casey was pregnant and needed to go have their love child away from prying eyes."
Lizzie choked a cough at the mere thought. "Is this you and your theory again?"
Marti feigned innocence. "Theory? What theory?"
"Don't you come the innocent with me, Martha Venturi. We both know your suspicions about my sister and your brother."
"Oh come on Liz, you have to agree, they make a cute couple." She said not meeting Lizzie eyes.
Lizzie sniggered. "Do you really have such a short memory that you've forgotten what they were like when we were younger? Marti, they hated each other!"
"They don't hate each other now." Marti protested.
"Actually, we don't know that. They still fight all the time."
Marti shook her head. "No. They bicker all the time. There's a difference."
"Sounds like fighting to me."
"They bicker. It's like a game to them. It's how Derek and Casey communicate. It's called passion."
"So that argument they had at Christmas, the one where Casey ended up with eggnog dripping from her earlobes and Derek had tinsel wrapped around his neck in a strangle hold – that was them expressing their undying love for each other?"
Marti frowned. "No. That was Casey expressing the fact that she didn't like Derek's Christmas present for her and Derek retaliating."
"He didn't have to give her a signed photograph of himself. I mean that was guaranteed to wind her up."
"Which was exactly why he did it!" Marti exclaimed. "Derek knows Casey better than any of us."
"Better than her sister? Or her mother?"
"He knows how to ring her bell."
"So you'd have us believe." Lizzie noted the innuendo present again. She jumped down from the table where she was standing. "Incidentally, what happened to that picture? I sort of expected to find it ground into a thousand pieces."
"If I know Casey, she took it home with her." Marti smiled triumphantly. "Didn't Derek say something about Casey missing him now that she wasn't living under his roof when they are in Canada? That was probably the real reason behind the photograph."
"Well, I for one think he only had himself to blame. Even Robbie knows not to wind Casey up like that, especially around Christmas. It's her special time. I mean, that's the reason why they are coming home now, isn't it? Rather than wait the full year. It's so that Casey can get the whole Thanksgiving/Christmas experience."
"There's nearly three whole months till Christmas."
"Yes but Thanksgiving is just two weeks away."
Marti pondered this. "I suppose Casey does need time to handwrite the invitations, buy the food and do the seating plan."
"For what?"
"Thanksgiving. This is Casey's first year in her own pad. She'll want us to go to her place so that she can show off her cooking skills."
"Uh oh. I remember the last time Casey organised a big dinner party – when Dad came over." Lizzie shuddered. "Although that was partly Derek's fault."
"It always is." Marti confirmed with a smirk.
.
"It looks good girls." Nora exclaimed coming into the living room then. "They'll love it. Who's doing the balloons?"
"Robbie." Marti replied. "He's upstairs in his room with the balloon pump."
Nora pulled a face. "Go help him Marti. It will be Christmas before he manages on his own."
Marti grinned and jogging over to the stairs, bounded up them like a playful puppy.
Nora watched her go.
"That girl has far too much energy."
"Of course, she has, she's Venturi. We should be used to it by now."
Nora nodded. "How much more have you got to do?" she asked glancing around the room. "It looks pretty much done."
"Well the food's all sorted. Ralph's bringing it over later from his cousin's place and George is sorting out the drinks. The decorations are up and the presents are on the table." She pointed to the dining table which was pushed to one side.
"I can't believe he's twenty six." Nora commented. "It seems only yesterday that we were celebrating his sixteenth."
"Another six months and it will be Casey too."
"I know. Don't. I'm trying to forget that. I'm not old enough to have a twenty six year old daughter."
Lizzie grinned. "You're old enough to be a grandmother, Mom." She pointed out. Nora's eyes widened in horror.
"Are you trying to tell me something?" She gasped. Lizzie frowned.
"What? No! Marti was talking about Derek and Casey." She half-explained and then when she saw the look on her mother's face, realised she had probably made things worse.
"What about Derek and Casey?" Nora asked in a strangled voice.
"Derek and Casey what?" George echoed cheerfully as he entered the room.
Lizzie sighed and rested a reassuring hand on Nora's arm. "Nothing. Marti was joking that in the nine months they've been away one of us could have had a baby."
Nora looked cautious. "But, it was a joke?" She asked carefully. "She was just joking?"
"Yes Mom! Marti was joking that maybe that was why Casey was away for so long…because she was pregnant."
Nora's eyes widened. "Is she?"
A shocked George dropped the large plastic bottle of Coke he was carrying and Lizzie made a mental note not to be the person who opened it first.
"No of course not!" Lizzie reassured her mother. "At least not as far as I know. It was just Marti with her usual speculations about their relationship."
"Oh." George said with relief as he picked up the bottle gingerly. "I wish she'd stop doing that. It makes me see things that aren't there. They are just friends."
"And even that's tenuous." Lizzie agreed.
Nora sighed. "They are friends – and business partners. Actually I'm very proud of the way they've matured their relationship to be something positive after all those years of arguing."
"They still argue Mom."
"Yes, but it's more constructive. And they have supported each other through some tough times over the years. I wouldn't be at all happy if Casey had been in Beirut on her own but as Derek was there too somehow it just doesn't concern me as much. I worry about him less, too."
"Well, I'm just pleased they made it back in one piece in time for the party." George said rubbing his hands. "It's been a while since we last had a full-scale Derek party." He added with a mischievous grin.
.
"How about some more of those purple ones, Robbie." Marti suggested as she stretched the mouth of the balloon over the end of the pump. "Casey likes purple."
"But it's for Derek's party." Robbie pointed out with a typical seven year old's confidence – and hero worship. It came across as slightly rude but he hadn't meant it to be.
"Sort of," his older sister replied. "But it's Casey's "welcome home" party too, remember? We haven't seen them since you were six!"
Nine months absence is a long time in a little boy's life. Casey had found it quite a wrench to leave her little brother and had insisted on Marti setting him up a (supervised) email address so that they could communicate on a regular basis.
"Nine months is nearly a year. That's a long time!" Robbie exclaimed.
"Exactly!" Marti agreed. "Have you missed them?"
"Sure." Robbie replied. "Derek's promised to get me a skateboard for my birthday present so I hope he brings it with him today seeing as it's been months since my birthday and he wasn't here. And Casey told me that she was going to bring me some really special books."
Marti chuckled. "Nice!" She exclaimed. "But you should miss your brother and sister for more than just the presents they are going to buy you."
"I do. I even sort of miss their arguing, although I wish they weren't so noisy about it. They give me a headache. Mom says they've always been like that. Ever since they met." He paused. "Mrs Ryan doesn't understand them."
"Mrs Ryan?"
"My teacher. I've told her all about Derek and Casey but she doesn't understand. She doesn't understand how they are my brother and sister but not each other's brother and sister. Silly woman. Has she never heard of the difference between half-siblings and step-siblings?"
Marti coughed slightly at that and decided she should probably tone down her views on step-siblings – or at least refraining from expressing them in front of Robbie. He had clearly been paying attention and was now starting to quote her!
.
"Well it will be good to see them today, won't it? You'll be able to tell them all about school and your friends. You can show them your wobbly tooth."
"Fab!" Robbie exclaimed and immediately used his tongue to push the loosely attached tooth upwards like a flap. It was a gruesome sight but as he did it several times daily, Marti was used to it.
"I wouldn't do that around Casey." Marti told Robbie. "And if you do it around Derek don't accept any offer he makes to help you remove that tooth."
"Why not?" Robbie's big eyes widened.
"Our brother has a sadistic streak, Rob. That means his definition of "help" will probably involve pain."
.
"You're late!" the female voice called sharply as Sam jumped from the driver's seat of the van.
"Traffic. Sorry." He apologised and leaned forward to give the speaker a kiss on the lips. The pretty girl accepted the kiss but Sam knew he wasn't totally forgiven.
"Please Sammy, you know how important today is for me. George and Nora have so many business contacts that could be helpful to me." She put a hand up to forestall the inevitable teasing. "…and I don't mean that I need new curtains or a lawyer. You know George has promised to speak to his friend about me tendering for the lunch service at the court house and Nora deals all day with business women who are not only too busy to decorate their own houses but also too busy to cook more than an egg."
"I know, I know. I'm sorry Carrie. At least I'm here now. Right, shall we get loading? Is Ralph here? I thought I'd go with him to George and Nora's. I can help him unload and get changed there."
Carrie sighed and lead the way back in to the small building. "Yeah. You know I'm not sure it's going to work." She said pushing open the door.
Sam looked slightly panicked. "What's not going to work?" he exclaimed. Carrie smiled to herself at his reaction as she handed Sam a paper hair net and a clean white coat. Carrie loved the fact that her boyfriend was as devoted to her as she was to him. The thought of him leaving her panicked her in the same way as the reverse affected him.
"Silly, I meant Ralph working for me. I mean I know he's my cousin and everything but," she shook her head. "He's just so…"
"Clueless?" Sam suggested.
"He's one of your best friends. You can't say that! I was going to say "woolly"." Carrie protested.
"He's one of my best friends and your cousin. Of course I can say that." Sam reassured her. "You and I know him best of all. Besides, Ralph often says that about himself."
"Even so…" Carrie sighed. "It's been a long day already. I don't want more hassle."
"What went wrong this morning?" Sam asked. "He didn't do that cooked/raw thing again did he?" Sam was referring to a rather costly mistake Ralph had made when storing food. It led to a donation of cooked sausage to the nearest animal shelter big enough to feed nearly a hundred animals.
Carrie shook her head. "No no. He's just being incredibly enthusiastic. I'm being unfair to him. It's not that I don't want him working for me. I'm sure it's just that I haven't found the right position for him."
Sam grinned. "And which position do you want me in?" he asked suggestively and reached for her waist. The movement knocked them against a cart where some fresh French baguettes were waiting to be filled. One rolled off the cart and was on a downward course until Carrie caught it sharply. She turned around and brandished the bread stick at him threateningly.
"You, wise-guy, are going to keep your hands to yourself until this food is safely delivered to the Venturi household. You are going to supervise my beloved cousin in his loading and unloading, and make sure all the sandwiches stay stacked, all the potato chips stay crisp and the pickles remain pert. Oh! And the doughnuts arrive in one piece, with every single one of their sprinkles intact. Do I make myself clear?"
"Yes ma'am." Sam replied in mock seriousness - a grin tugging at the corners of his mouth.
Cassie still looked stern.
"Should you fail in this duty, you will be on a drought for the next two weeks. Comprendez?"
Sam's eyes widened. "I hear you." He told his girlfriend. "Behave or no sex. You have my full attention to my duty."
"Good. Now. Start by loading those chicken nibbles into the van."
.
As Sam and Ralph transferred the prepared food into the van the smells were mouth-watering. Carrie was a very talented cook – as Sam could attest.
"You know it's a good thing it's me driving this to the Venturis." He commented. "If you were relying on Derek it would never reach its destination."
"Derek likes his food." Ralph agreed.
"Ha! I know what you two are like as well." Carrie smiled. "I made extras. From what you told me about Derek he's going to have a large appetite when he arrives."
"I can't believe you two still haven't met," Ralph said lifting a tray of pastry products onto the metal shelf in the back of the van. "It feels like you've always been around." He told Carrie.
Sam laughed. "She has, you dumbass, she's your elder cousin!"
Ralph looked confused for a moment, and then the confusion cleared. "But she hasn't always been your girlfriend." He pointed out, still frowning. Sam supposed the guy had a point.
"It's only been ten months." Carrie noted. "It was still too early for Sam to introduce me to his friends when Derek left." She put an affectionate hand on Sam's white-coated sleeve. "It's different now."
.
Sam made a non-committal noise. There was a very good reason why he hadn't introduced Carrie to Derek before the latter left for Beirut. Carrie was a very attractive girl and Sam was besotted. Despite the closeness of his friendship with Derek Venturi, Sam knew that introducing your girlfriend to him was something you handled with care: Too early and you might never see her again – except on Derek's arm.
Not that he blamed Derek. Derek had never set out to poach his friend's girlfriends. He just had a natural charisma which drew them to him. The whole thought of that worried Sam. He was pretty convinced that Carrie was it for him. He was seriously contemplating asking her to move in with him and then, maybe a few months down the line, popping the all important question.
Derek Venturi permitting.
Which all meant that actually, now was no different to the situation when Derek had left nine months ago. Yes, Sam wanted to see his friend, but he was going to be keeping a firm hand on his girlfriend as he did so.
.
Derek woke the morning of his birthday/welcome home party with a girl lying next to him in his bed. She was still asleep and he could hear her soft regular breathing in the still of the bedroom. Her arm lay on top of the comforter, the shoulder just peeking out from one of his t-shirts.
Waking with a sleeping companion wasn't a particularly common occurrence, at least not here in his Toronto home. Hotel rooms were different: he always woke with a girl beside him when he was in a hotel…
.
…as it so happened…it was always this girl.
.
The night before the party Derek went to bed early. He needed to. Derek and Casey had landed two days previously and for the first thirty six hours, as expected by the rest of the McDonald-Venturis, the pair had holed up at their office, aka Derek's apartment, to work on the final article to cover their time in Beirut.
What with jetlag and overwork, Derek was exhausted.
Over the past three years since their first trip to the Middle East with Derek's former professor, Derek and Casey had visited the region on a regular basis; it wasn't the only place they had written about, but frequent assignments meant it was high on their list of expertise.
Their career – singular because it was impossible to separate their achievements- had blossomed since Israel. They had spent most of those years in hotel rooms away from home covering the issues of other nations, regimen and communities. They had written about political struggles, warfare and humanitarian strife. The articles they wrote (words and pictures) were well researched, carefully laid out but mainly they were successful because they were such avid studies of human nature. Both perceptive characters, their skills over the years had only needed fine tuning and they complemented each other well. Where Casey was over-sensitive, Derek's insensitivity reined her in. Where Derek missed a point you could guarantee that Casey would impale him on it!
Their audience, for there was a considerable one, appreciated the freshness they brought to issues which had been around for decades, centuries even. Derek and Casey produced written articles, photographic works, on-line blogs and occasionally they stood up in front of people just a little younger than themselves, in some of the top universities in the Western world. There they described what it was like to watch a child soldier die of his injuries in a makeshift clinic, to see death and unnecessary conflict, and to see pain inflicted by one section of the world's humanity on another.
But in their new, and refreshing take on such things they always tried to portray an element of the situation which gave hope; the way out; the light at the end of the tunnel.
They could justifiably claim to be making a difference.
Their work received wide-spread recognition but most of the time Derek and Casey were too busy on the next assignment to even acknowledge it.
.
In fact they were too busy to deal with much of anything except the actual assignments. To try and make sense of their commitments and handle the practicalities, Derek and Casey had appointed Barbara's own agent to handle their business dealings. But it wasn't really working. Their needs were different to Channing's and the agent's approach did not suit the young couple.
This trip home was the first extended one for a while and Derek knew they needed to sort out alternative business arrangements during this down time. When he got five minutes with his partner, he was determined they were going to sit and discuss it.
Despite their increased cooperation over the years and the general improvement with their relationship, it still wasn't as easy for Derek and Casey to communicate with each other when they were at home as when they were away.
Away from home, as they had from the start, they shared living quarters and usually the same bed. A large part of this was still down to the warnings given three years ago by Barbara Channing; warnings about Casey's safety. But part of their vocational co-habitation was that lying next to each other at night was often the only time they got to talk – and talking to each other had become very important to them.
Back in Canada, of course, their situation was different. As soon as the financial pressures had eased, Casey had moved out of the apartment she had shared with Derek. It was a mutual decision based on the fact that their job made having any kind of personal life bad enough as it was. If you share an apartment with your business partner, dating went from bad to impossible. Casey's dates didn't really get the connection she had with Derek. His "acquaintances" never made it through the front door. Living apart, they sort of managed to have separate social lives but nothing hugely successful.
Tomorrow Derek would celebrate his belated twenty sixth birthday with his friends and family. Tonight he was rather keenly aware that by his age his father was already married for the first time, with a growing family.
.
Tonight, the night of the eve of his birthday party, just as Derek was dropping off to sleep, the doorbell rang. He started awake and cursed colourfully.
"Next time I'm going to take the battery out of the doorbell." He told himself on the way to answer it. Derek resolved to tear a strip off the person the other side of the door for visiting late into the evening. So what if it was only eight pm in Toronto! He was on Central Europe time. It was two am!
When the door opened he was quiet though. It was Casey, and she was in tears.
.
Derek handed his partner a glass of wine and flopped next to her on the couch. He was still only wearing a pair of boxers which weren't doing a fantastic job of covering him up, but neither of them commented on it.
Apparently they were both past the point where it would have bothered them.
.
"Okay." Derek began. "What did the ass-hole do?"
"Ass-hole?" Casey asked, her eyes red-rimmed and her cheeks wet.
"That moron you were hanging around with before we went away. Clive, was it? I assume you went to see him." Derek sipped his own wine. "Even though I told you not to."
Casey pulled a face. "You didn't tell me not to. You told me there was no point. You said he was a – quote "first class jerk who was going to either break my heart or waste my time" and that you "couldn't decide which but the guy is bad news"."
Derek shrugged. "Sounds like a "don't do it" to me." He commented with a slight smirk. Casey rolled her eyes. The truth was she was already feeling better since she got here. Disturbing Derek's peace and unloading her emotional baggage on him was part of every break-up Casey went through these days. Despite his words, Derek never seemed to mind – or if he did he never sent her away.
"It's wrong of you to assume that it's about my love life, Derek. I might have locked myself out of my apartment or had an accident or something."
Derek raised an eyebrow expectantly. Casey frowned and continued. "As it happens, however, you're right. I am crying because of Clive."
Derek relaxed slightly. He didn't like seeing Casey cry but this sort of tears he could cope with.
"Like I said, what did the asshole do?" Derek repeated.
Casey relaxed into the couch (it was, ironically, one that she had chosen). "Well I was sitting at home in my apartment this afternoon. I'd caught up on all my laundry, I'd cleaned the place, picked up the groceries, and of course our assignment was done. I was at a bit of a loss."
"'A bit of a loss'" Derek quoted. "What the hell does that mean?"
"Alright!" Casey admitted. "I was bored!"
Derek chuckled. "Go on." He prompted.
"I was bored, and a little…lonely." For a while she had seriously considered paying Derek a visit – but she wasn't about to tell him that.
"You mean you missed me." Derek's smile broadened.
She glared at him but continued.
"I was sitting there thinking about how devastated Clive had been when I told him we were off on assignment for nine months. Remember how he insisted that it wasn't over, that he would wait for me until I came back."
"Yeah, and even though you went all gushy when you told me about it, you were sensible and broke up with him anyway. We agreed that it wouldn't last trying to do the long distance thing."
"Yes." Casey said and took a big gulp of wine.
Derek sighed. "You went to see him today, didn't you?"
Casey nodded. "He'd just seemed so…genuine." She explained. "Not like guys usually do. He seemed special."
"And when you got there? To his apartment…let me guess, he said doesn't feel the same way about you anymore?"
Casey shook her head. "I didn't get to speak to him." She told Derek. "But his wife asked me not-so kindly not to call again."
Derek's eyes widened.
"His wife?" Okay, even Derek hadn't seen that coming.
Casey nodded. "Apparently they've been married about two months." She told Derek.
"Oh." Was all he could say!
Casey went on. "It was a bit of a shotgun job." She said quietly. "The baby is due any day." She caught Derek's eye. "From the looks of things it's going to be a big baby too. Either that or it's massively overdue."
Derek's ability to count months was pretty good. Of course Clive might have met his new wife immediately after Casey dumped him, and equally he might have got her pregnant straight away, but Derek was a student of human nature. Like Casey, this time he wasn't fooled. He closed his eyes at the implication and took a deep breath. When he opened his eyes Casey's glass was empty.
"You should get tes…" he started to say. If he'd been unfaithful to Casey with one woman who knew how many women he had actually been sleeping with?
"I've made an appointment to see my doctor in the morning." Casey anticipated his words. "I've always been scrupulously careful about…that side of things – took precautions and so on, but I'll get tested anyway." She blew out a breath. "Why do I always pick the unfaithful ones?"
"Not all of your exes were unfaithful." Derek pointed out. He caught her eye and grinned. "Some of them were just ordinary losers." He quipped, trying to lighten the mood and reaching for the wine bottle to refill her glass.
"Remind me why I put up with you." Casey requested holding out the vessel concerned.
"Because it's a job, the money is good." Derek said. "And I'm reliable."
She scoffed at that. "Reliable?"
Derek beamed. "Hey, I've never been unfaithful to you." He pointed out. "I only ever fight with you."
.
They ordered take out, finished the bottle of wine and bickered companionably for a while. It was still quite early, however, when Derek yawned and gently pulled a lock of Casey's hair where it was lying against the couch.
"Hey." He said softly. "You sleeping here tonight?"
"Can I?" She asked.
He nodded. "You want your old room or you sleeping with me?"
"Can I sleep with you?" Casey asked slightly timidly. Her request shocked both of them, admitting that it was comforting to lie beside him on occasion was new.
Derek smiled. "You snore and I'll kick you out." He warned her. He stood and held out a hand to help her up from the couch.
"I'll get you a t-shirt." He called over his shoulder as he walked towards his bedroom. "And there's a spare toothbrush in the bathroom."
"Thanks. Derek? You might want to change those shorts." Casey shouted after him. "Those don't hide a lot."
.
AN: I've split this chapter because there's more to cover. That should mean it won't be long before you get the next update.