Disclaimer: I don't own it but after 20 chapters, you should know that by now.
Chapter 21: Safe
Casey slid her geometry textbook into its place in her locker. It was so different being back at school. So… strange. But she needed to graduate.
Her locker door was slammed shut by someone standing behind her. She turned quickly and looked up to meet the eyes of Sam. There was something inside of her that made her not afraid of him anymore. "What do you want?" she asked harshly.
He moved closer to her, his arms going past her head and resting against the locker. "I want to see my daughter," he growled.
She scoffed and shook her head. "You are unbelievable," she hissed. "You think that after all you've done, I'd allow you to see her? Not a chance."
Sam pushed closer to her, pressing her against the locker. "I have rights to see her."
"Hey, Sam!" an angry and confident voice called to him. "Back off!"
Sam clenched his teeth and grumbled, "This isn't your business, Sheldon…"
He had expected that to shoo him away. But he was completely floored as the voice replied, "It's not Sheldon."
Sam turned slowly and stepped backwards, nearly backing into Casey. "Derek," he replied stiffly.
Derek eyes glinted as his mouth formed a thin, sly grin. "Good to see you too, Old Friend." The glint and grin both faded from his face as he added, "Get lost."
Sam just shook his head. "I'm not going anywhere. You think just because you're here for five minutes one day that I'm going to back down? You're not the top dog anymore."
Derek left out a snort before bursting into uncontrollable laughter. "You," he gasped through his glee, "you think I'm here for a visit?" The statement made him burst into laughter once again before sighing and saying, "That's hilarious."
Sam tried to hide his confusion and fear but failed. He tried to act tough, standing there, his arms crossed over his chest. But failed again. "What do you mean?"
The glint returned to Derek's eyes as he said, "We have this nice sty-at-home mom living next door to us and she offered to watch Andrea so I could finish school. I'm back, buddy. And it's time that you started getting scared."
"And why's that?" Sam growled.
"Because we have this," Derek snapped, reaching past him. Casey handed him a large manila envelope that Derek held in front of Sam's face. "You see, Sam, I've been talking to my dad, AKA my lawyer, and he is willing to represent us in a lawsuit against you."
The former friend narrowed his eyes. "A lawsuit? For what?"
Derek yanked the envelope away and took two giant steps toward him. "Raping Casey," he hissed.
Sam gave him a forceful shove backward. "Even if you did sue me, you have no leg to stand on. You have no proof that it was even me."
"Yeah we do," Casey chimed in, coming closer. "Her name is Andrea Melanie MacDonald."
Sam's face became stiff and frightened. He knew that he was stuck and he stayed silent.
"But there is a way out of this," Derek informed him. "A way for your record to go unmarked." He smiled.
"How?" Sam asked anxiously. "I'll do anything." He was exactly where they wanted him.
"You leave Casey, Andrea, and me alone," Derek replied harshly. "You do that and we can just rip these papers up." His eyes glistened in contentment. "We got a deal?"
Sam's entire body had tensed. He was trapped and he had no other option. "Fine," he grumbled through gritted teeth. "Deal."
Derek smiled and patted Sam on the back. "Wonderful!" he replied giddily, taking another stack of papers from Casey. "Now, of course, we need this to be a written agreement so I had my dad draw up these papers for us to sign." He held the papers against the lockers and pulled a pen from his pocket, handing it to Sam. "Now I need you to sign here, here, and here," he said formally as he pointed to several different spots. "And I need to sign," he added, taking the pen from Sam when he was finished and signing. "All right," Derek said, sorting the papers and handing one to Sam, "this is your copy. I get one and one will go to my dad." He gave his former friend a cheesy smile. "Now get lost."
Sam's hands tightened around the papers, crinkling them as he turned to face Casey. "I still love you, Case," he said.
There was not one shred of sympathy on her face at this statement. "And you broke my heart," she replied plainly before gesturing in the opposite direction. "You can go now."
He let his head hang down in shame as he walked away. He had lost.
Derek's eyes met Casey's and a happy grin came across his lips. "He's gone, Case," he said softly.
She bit her bottom lip in a nervous and happy smile, fighting to hold back tears. "He is…" Tears started to fall from her eyes as she ran into her savior's arms. "He's really gone."
He pulled her head from his shoulders so he could look into her eyes once again. "I love you, Casey," he nearly whispered.
"And I love you too, Derek," she replied happily.
He lowered his lips to hers and gave her a kiss that was so full of passion, she would never forget it.
THE END!
AN: OMG! It's really over! I have to admit, I didn't want to write this chapter. I wanted this fic to go on forever. It's the best one I've ever written. So I postponed writing it as long as I could. And I would like to thank all of you who have read it and review it and pestered me for the past few months to complete it. I would name you all personally but there are over 400 reviews, so… yeah. Well, thanks for reading for the past two years. So…
Peace out,
MonsterChild