EPILOGUE:

Casey's POV

When I woke up, I could tell that it was nowhere near morning. Darkness poured into the room from the unobstructed window. I sighed as I heard Derek snoring beside me. I smiled as I slowly freed myself from his embrace and stepped off of the bed. I walked across his room, careful not to step on any of the dirty laundry, comic books or other random things carelessly scattered on Derek's floor. Finally, I made my way to the window and opened it. The night air that greeted me was refreshing. Even in my light pyjama shorts and tank top, the summer heat was bothering me. It was a clear night, one of those rare times when it seems as though you can see forever. My eyes settled on a particularly bright star and I let my mind wander into the world of my future: a look into my forever and all that I wanted it to be.

Since Sam's party, Derek and I had been spending every single moment of every day practically, together in perfect bliss. When I got together with Sam, Max and even Truman, we had spent our first few dates getting to know one another. With Derek, it was like we got to skip that stage entirely. After living together for so long, Derek and I seemed to know each other inside and out. Ever since our first kiss, I have felt closer to Derek than anyone else in the entire world. Together, we just…fit. I feel like I can tell him anything and he will understand. Lately we've also been helping each other prepare for college in the fall. At first, the thought of moving away from home and starting over completely stressed me out. But now, with Derek by my side, September can't come quickly enough. I can just see us walking down the halls, hand in hand, smiling together and having the time of our lives. It's not just that I'll have someone there to pick me up when I fall, but I am truly looking forward to watching our relationship grow in a place away from the critical eyes of those who have known us in a sort of sibling relationship. I like to think that by the time we get back home for break, we'll be strong enough to either be accepted by our friends and family or move on together. Because the truth is, much more than any other guy that I have ever been with, when I look into my future, I can clearly see Derek standing beside me and I just know that that is the way that he sees it too. Just then, I saw a shooting star light up the sky. Out of habit, I quickly shut my eyes as tightly as possible and held my breath.

"Make a wish?" Derek asked softly, coming up behind me and wrapping his arms around my waist. I smiled as he kissed my cheek and replied simply:

"Nah, I've got everything that I could possibly wish for right here."

"That' sweet," Derek started, "Now why don't you come back to bed?"

"Sorry," I laughed, "It's just such a beautiful night." Derek rested his head on my shoulder and looked past me out the window:

"Yeah, it's almost like you can see forever."

I could hardly contain a squeal when I heard his words. It was like I could feel myself growing closer and closer to Derek every day. Instead of jumping up and down for joy and making a fool of myself, which I knew that even Derek my soul mate would not be able to stop himself from mocking, I turned around in his arms and rested my hands in his hair. The next few moments seemed to pass in slow motion as our lips slowly connected. Kissing Derek always felt so familiar and yet each new embrace was always fresh and exciting.

"Your lips are warm," I breathed in his ear. He grinned as he traced my cheekbone with his thumb:

"So are yours Case."

It still astounded me how Derek was able to take my breath away. It was like my legs melted beneath me in his arms and I couldn't help but allow myself to be carried off by my boyfriend away from the window and fall backwards into his bed. I giggled as he fell down beside me. I looked at him, at his smile, and I couldn't help but whisper:

"This is it. This is my happily ever after moment!"

"That is just so… so typically Casey," Derek laughed.

"Derek!" I rolled my eyes.

"You're right, I'm sorry. The truth is, and I really, really can't believe that I'm about to say this, that this is sort of how I imagined my happily ever after too," he said with only the slightest air of sarcasm and hugging me closer to him.

"Is Derek Venturi being both sappy and romantic?" I teased him.

"Yeah well, it's all your influence babe," he smirked. And with that, we fell back asleep in the safety of each other's arms.

The next thing I knew, I was awakened once again. I heard a car pull up in the driveway followed by the sound of a key turning in the front door's lock. I immediately sat straight up in bed and shook Derek awake.

"Casey, I love you but if this is going to work, I'm actually going to need to get some sleep," he mumbled, rubbing his eyes.

"Derek wake up! Our family is home!" I whispered as loud as I could.

"What? Why are they home so early?" He whispered back, sitting straight up beside me.

"Look, does it matter? We have about thirty seconds to decide what we're going to do about it?" I said, standing up and moving towards the door. For lack of a better plan, Derek followed me out into the hall and closed the door behind him. Had we waited about five more seconds, my mom and George would have seen us coming out of the same room as they carried the luggage upstairs.

"Hey guys, sorry to wake you up," George said.

"What are you guys doing home so early?" Derek asked.

"It's late, or early depending on how you look at it, why don't you go back to bed and we'll discuss it all in the morning?" Mom suggested.

Then, she and George went back down stairs to get more bags. This was followed by Edwin, Lizzie and Marti running up the stairs, mumbling good night and going into their own rooms. Without even having a chance to say goodnight to each other, Derek and I were forced to retire to ours as well.

It was strange, but in my own bed which hadn't been recently slept in, I felt misplaced. I felt lonely and uncomfortable and no amount of tossing and turning seemed to help me fall asleep. I wondered if Derek was having this much trouble or he was already fast asleep? Just then, I became aware of my cell phone vibrating. I fished it out of my purse and smiled as I read the following text message:

"Sweet dreams Casey, can't wait to hear about them in the morning. Love D"

Suddenly, I seemed to slip into a sort of ease. My eyes began to feel heavy and it became a battle to keep them open. Before Derek, I probably would have stayed up all night worrying about what had happened to force my family to rush home and what we were going to tell them, if anything, about our summer together. But now, I just felt content to let myself be swept away by my dreams to see just where they would take me. And in the morning, I knew that no matter what happens, I would have Derek and we would live happily ever after together.

Hey everyone! I know, I know. This final update has taken forever. The thing is that originally, I was planning on ending with chapter 18. However, out of the blue I started getting a bunch of new subscription alerts so I recently started rereading the whole story and I felt like adding this epilogue gave the whole thing a better sense of closure. I am actually pretty happy with this epilogue and I hope you all like it too. Also, and I know that I've said this a bunch of times, but while writing this chapter I have been getting ideas for where the story could go with a sequel. With summer coming up I'll probably be able to go back to updating every few days or so (after exams that is). If anyone's interested, leave a review with your thoughts and any ideas you might have for me. I might go ahead with a sequel anyways, just for fun, but it'd be nice to know that my story would have an audience. Anyways, thanks again to everyone who has read, reviewed and followed this story. You all rock!

- midnight trills

PS check out the trailer I made for this fic: .com/watch?v=Ku2bJQNL24w

It's not the best video (let's just say I'm better at putting words together than I am putting clips and music together) but it was fun to make and I think it captures the idea of my story. Also, if you could leave comments (about the story that is) on youtube that would be awesome.