"Going somewhere?" A voice asked from the shadows.

Derek turned slowly. "Do you have any idea how close you came to sporting a bullet in that ugly mutt of yours, boss?"

Spike stepped from the shadows, his hands in his pockets against the coolness of the air, even below ground level.

"I have the deepest faith in your abilities, Derek. I wouldn't have crept up on you if I thought you couldn't recognise my voice. You aren't reckless."
"You have a greater faith in me than I do in myself." Derek muttered. Spike looked sympathetic as he correctly interpreted Derek's annoyance at himself.

"Come on Derek, this is Casey we're talking about. She'd have worked her way into this mess one way or another…once you made the decision to contact her."

Derek looked away. "I made that decision though, like I said…" but he didn't finish.

"Is she safe?" Spike asked to fill an awkward silence.

"For now. She's in a safe place."

Spike looked uneasy. "A safe house? Derek, the department is compromised. I'm not sure the safe houses are safe anymore."
Derek turned back to his boss. "Then it's a very good thing that I didn't put her in one of the safe houses you know about, isn't it?"
Spike looked stunned. "You have more?"

Derek gave him a pointed look. Spike nodded.

"No. You are right. I don't need to know. Let's keep it that way. I'm impressed that you managed to do that without it appearing on my radar, though."

His sub-ordinate smirked. "Not the all-seeing bastard you thought you were, are you?"

"Fuck off." Spike said with good-humour. Then he glanced around. "We're a bit exposed here and we need to talk."

Derek jerked his head towards Casey's car. "Your chariot awaits." He said, pressing the door release which had rearmed itself in the time since he closed the trunk. He held open the rear door. Spike pulled his heavy dark coat tight to his body and paused as he climbed in.

"Relegating me to the back seat, Derek? I don't have the equipment."

Derek snorted. "Believe me, lard ass. You don't do it for me. However, if we are spotted in this car together it could put Casey in danger. You get the back seat in my cab." He slammed the door shut after his mentor and opened the driver's door.

"A little slow for you, D." Spike commented, glancing around at the interior of Casey's "safe mobile". Derek shrugged as he pulled out of the garage.

"If I had my way, we'd be leaving this heap of shit here. However, Casey insisted I reclaimed it and…"
"…and she's already got you wrapped around her finger."

"Yeah well, not seeing a single family member for seven years kind of makes you appreciate them, even if it is Casey."

"Even if?" Spike asked wryly. "Or especially when…?"

Derek said nothing. Spike softened his tone.

"Nothing's changed then? Even after seven years?"

Derek jerked his head round to look at his boss.

"Meaning?"

"Derek, she was all you talked about then too. You talked about George and Nora and the other kids, but with Casey…you were so worried about who was going to look after her if you went into witness protection. You kept mumbling stuff about handsy football players and smarmy Psychology majors."

Derek grunted and Spike chuckled.

"It comes to us all…I remember when I met Mrs Spike…"
"You're married?" Derek gasped. Seven years of knowing this guy and he had had no idea.

"Yeah. Twenty years come April."

"Wow! So how come this isn't common knowledge?"
"Jesus! Derek! The woman's gorgeous and a saint and you lot are largely blue-balling morons. Do you think I'm stupid?"

"Not all of us are blue-balling morons. Rich is married. He has a daughter."
Rich was Spike's second-in-command.

Spike laughed. "So you count yourself amongst the blue-balling majority?"
Derek snorted. "Don't be ridiculous!"

"When was the last time, Derek?"

"Seriously? You risked all our lives meeting me to ask when I last got laid?"

"No. But I'm curious. I assume it wasn't Casey since even you don't work that fast."
"No it wasn't Casey. And no it wasn't recent." Derek sighed. "It's been a while. Even the ones who are willing to share without strings always have strings attached. And they don't understand when I won't tell them anything about me."

"And the fact that you are interested in someone else doesn't help."

Derek didn't answer.

He drove them silently to a vacant lot on the outskirts of town and parked up. Then he turned in his seat.

"Let's get on to the important things." Derek said. "What's going on?"

"I was kind of hoping you could tell me that."
"Jazz hasn't said anything?"

"No. Jazz is being kept out of it by the doctors."

"Yeah. Casey said that was the plan." Derek replied absentmindedly.

"Casey?"
"She read his notes and told me the possible treatment and prognosis."
"Shit! I forgot she was a doctor. How the hell did you get her in there without the protection detail knowing?"
Derek grinned. "Casey's resourceful." He said and his voice held a note of pride.

"So you know the extent of his injuries."
"Yeah. But all things considered he came off lightly."
"I guess. Anyway, until he comes round we don't know much more than what he told you…which was?"

Derek shrugged. "He said he made the connection on the girl in the café. He said he knew who she was and it was big. Then he asked me to pick him up at the club so that he could tell me all. He said what he had found out would blow the department apart. Then he broke off. I got over there as soon as I heard the shot. Jazz was lying in the alley not moving. He came round briefly and told me to look in his pocket. I found a piece of paper on him that I never got to look at. Jazz told me there was definitely a leak in the department and then passed out again. Before I could move I got kicked in the ribs."

Spike whistled and Derek went on.

"While I was down, my piece was stolen and so was the paper Jazz gave me. I heard the ambulance arriving and decided in view of what Jazz has said, it was safer for me to go see Casey for help than to go to hospital. Casey patched me up and looked after me till I was back on my feet."
"Are you okay now?"
"Still a little sore in places but…yeah."

"And then you left her again?"

"I had to. I didn't even have a gun to protect us. Unfortunately, Casey followed me. She interrupted them trying to whisk me off to see Mr Ego and managed to knock BBG out."

"BB who?"
"BBG. This big black dude who was trying to persuade me to go with him. Casey hit him over the head with a large frying pan."

"Fucking A, Derek. And you're in love with the woman?"

"Less of the four-letter words, asshole."
"What, "fuck"?"

"No… "love"."

Spike laughed. "So what's the plan?"
Derek rubbed at his eyes. "I don't know. To be honest the last few hours have been all adrenaline and no down time. I need some sleep."
Spike nodded.

"One thing I am sure of though." Derek continued. "It wasn't a coincidence that Jazz was in that alley. That club has something to do with all this."

Spike murmured his agreement. "I looked into it but it's a front. The premises are rented by a holding company which is in turn run by another holding company. The liquor licence is in the name of one "R Porter" but he checks out as a model citizen."
Derek snorted. "They wouldn't have anyone dodgy!"

"I'm letting you lead this. What's your next move?"
"My next move is to go home to bed. It's 5.30am. I've been up for twenty hours straight. The club is closed today and tonight, but tomorrow, when I've had a decent amount of sleep I'm going to go and check it out."
"During the day? It'll be locked up tighter than a nun's panty drawer." Spike pointed out.

"No. Actually I'm going to go back at night…as a paying customer."

"Good idea. You can lose yourself in the crowds – see if you recognise anyone. And a night on the tiles would do you some good. Maybe you could cure your blue balls at the same time."

"Like Casey would let me get away with that."

Spike smiled but said nothing. Derek scowled at him anyway.

It was starting to get light by the time Derek dropped Spike off. They picked somewhere unconnected to either of them and parted with Spike promising to email Derek if he found anything, and Derek promising he wouldn't get suddenly trigger happy if he did find the guy that had killed Grubby and injured Jazz. Spike also made Derek promise to keep an eye on Casey.

Derek drove away from his boss, watching the road ahead and the big guy in his mirror. "Seriously, chief. You think I need you to tell me that?" He muttered as his foot hit the gas.

"You look like you're holing up for a while." Frank greeted Derek when he arrived back home. As well as Casey's bags which he was somehow managing to balance on one side, Derek was carrying two large bags of groceries in handled carriers. Thank god for all night grocers.

Derek grinned.

"Can you blame me?" He asked, turning his eyes towards the ceiling meaningfully.

"No. Does she have a sister?" Frank asked.

"Nah. Only child. She gets lonely." Derek lied smoothly. "Frank can you do me a favour and add her licence plate to the approved list. I've put her car in my second space."

"Sure." Derek recited the plate and jerked his head towards the elevator.

"Any problems?" he asked. Frank shook his head.

"Nah. It's quiet this morning. She's probably gone to bed."

"Maybe. We've been up most of the night." Derek agreed and then smirked. "I guess I'll go join her."

As he rode in the elevator with the bags at his feet he realised that his last statement probably hadn't been a lie. Sleeping next to Casey was becoming the norm.

Arriving outside his apartment, Derek had to put down the bags to find his key, but eventually, he managed to get all the bags inside the apartment. He closed and locked the door behind him with relief. For now at least, he was safe.

The apartment was quiet and smelled unusually fresh - that made him frown. He wondered where Casey was and what she had been doing in his absence. Knowing Casey, it probably had something to do with cleaning or sticking her nose into his business. He smiled and set off in search of her, taking the groceries with him.

The open plan living room-cum-kitchen was empty, so he quickly placed the perishable food items in the fridge and headed for the bedroom. As that involved once again passing the front door, he collected Casey's bags and trying not to make too much noise, he pushed his way into his bedroom.

Casey was curled up on the bed, quietly sleeping. She was still dressed in her pyjamas from earlier in the night, the light was on, and the small gun he had left her was lying on the bedside table. Derek put her bags down and crossed the room to the bed. He stood and watched her for a few moments.

She looked innocent and she looked young. Derek reminded himself that, the last few days aside, he wasn't used to seeing Casey asleep even seven years ago when they last lived under the same roof. It was evidently when she was at her most innocent, at her most youthful. It was also when she was at her most beautiful, because her face held none of the irritation it usually did when facing Derek.

It wasn't that she was permanently angry with him when she was awake, but there were always signs of tension when she looked at him.

There were no lines of anger creasing her forehead now and her lips were soft and curved in a smile. Clearly she was dreaming of something pleasant and Derek felt a wave of curiosity as to what it was.

He leaned forward and pulled the comforter from under her so that he could cover up her sleeping form. He tried to do it gently and without waking Casey but she opened her eyes and looked groggily at him. "Derek?"
He nodded and was about to comment on her sleepiness when she threw her arms around his neck and suddenly kissed him on the mouth. It was the same chaste, hard kiss that she had greeted him with those few short days ago when they had seen each other for the first time in seven years.

And it made Derek frown as he caught her by her waist.

Casey, jerked into awareness by his movements, opened her eyes in time to notice the scowl. She pulled away but Derek only let her get so far before his hands restrained her hips.

"You surprised me." He explained. She relaxed slightly. "Erm, Casey? Just so I know. Is this kissing me every time I walk through the door thing going to be the norm around here?" he asked quietly.

"I'm sorry." She murmured, looking anywhere but at him. "I just…"

Derek placed a finger under her chin to lift her face to his. "Don't be, Princess." He said softly. "I'm not complaining." And he pressed his lips to hers softly, but every bit as chastely as her kiss.

Stunned, Casey didn't move, which made Derek chuckle. He combed his fingers into her long hair as he released her mouth and they stared at each other.

"Where were you?" Casey asked after a lost moment, her fingers grasping the sides of his t-shirt absent-mindedly. "You were gone so long."
"Spike was waiting for me in the hotel garage." He explained. "He wanted to swap notes."
Casey frowned, and Derek reached out to smooth the crease on her forehead without thinking.

"How did he know you'd be there?" She asked as his fingers stroked from her temple down to her jaw.

"He's been casually monitoring the family's whereabouts since I died - for your safety. When you decided to come to Ottawa on vacation he started paying more attention. Then I disappeared after the attack on Jazz…he put two and two together." Derek wasn't about to tell her that their Facebook and email communications had been monitored. Some of the things they had shared had been too personal for Casey to know that his boss had read them. Things like the conversation they had had at the party that night – or the fact she was falling for his alter ego.

Casey looked panicked but Derek kissed her forehead.

"It's okay. Spike plays everything close to his chest. The only people who know about you are him and me."
"How can you be sure?"
Derek dropped his hands. "Casey, if he wasn't trustworthy after seven years of keeping my secrets, I'd never be able to trust anyone…" He lowered his glance to her. "…including you."

"I'm sorry. You wanted so badly to keep me out of this." Casey let her fingers play with his shirt again. Her voice was sad and Derek frowned and pulled away. "Reality has hit home then, I guess." He sounded a little sad that she regretted her actions. Sure he wanted her safe, but he would be lying if he said a part of him wasn't grateful for her tenacity at remaining in his life. If she wanted out now…

"Reality yes…I get what you were saying. But I'm not going anywhere, Derek. I owe it to the family to make sure that you stay alive this time. And I owe it to our relationship."

"Our what?" His jaw dropped. Casey chuckled.

"I mean I didn't desert you when you were being bullied. I'm not deserting you now."

"There's a big difference between those two, honey."

"Really? Not from where I'm standing."
"This could get you killed."
"So could crossing the street." Casey stood up and walked over to her suitcase. She opened it, saw that her purse was inside and noted the vanity case and medical bag. "Great! You got everything."

"You're insane!"

She paused in the act of walking to the en-suite with the vanity case. "Sometimes you sound like a stuck record, Venturi. Tell me, if the roles were reversed, where would you be right now?"
"Sunning myself on a beach somewhere vowing never to vacation in Ottawa." He lied. If the roles were reversed he'd be wherever Casey was…and she wouldn't have died in the first place.

Casey snorted. "Yeah right." She retorted and flounced into the bathroom, closing the door behind her.

Derek flung himself backwards onto his newly-made bed. Then he stared up at the ceiling and said a four-letter word…

And it wasn't "fuck".

It was dark. Only the streetlights below and the moonlight lit the living room. There was nothing on the balcony, so nothing could cast a shadow, and the same was true inside the apartment. Casey stood watching the light beams bounce against Fawn-coloured walls; the monochrome tones of night leeching the coloured tones of day from the décor. She couldn't see the thermostat but she didn't need it to know that the heating wasn't on. It was early in the year. The cold outside was piercing, biting. There hadn't been ice storms like previous years yet it was deathly cold all the same.

But it was nothing to the atmosphere inside. The temperature gauge would say something like 10 degrees Celsius in the apartment. But the reality was an unearthly coolness; one that Casey had only ever encountered in a morgue before, where the atmosphere was a more successful coolant than the air con.

She moved through Derek's apartment searching for something, though she couldn't remember what. That she didn't find it was obvious. How can you find something in an apartment that is empty? But still she looked. She left the living room and the empty balcony beyond, instead passing the kitchen and searching the enclosed rooms: a den, two bedrooms, two bathrooms; a corridor with many doors that she struggled to identify but she tried them just the same.

From the corner of her eye she saw a flickering movement and she spun to look at it. Immediately, it appeared at the other side of the room, wavered and then flickered out - and her frustration grew. The doors were locked; the rooms were empty. And the illusive something was gone.

Why was he doing this? Why must it always be a game with Derek? Why couldn't he just stand still? Because evidently it was him she was searching for. Why did he have to toy with her? Cold and angry one minute and then warm and tender the next. Why was it that every time he came through the door marked 'In', his eyes were on the door marked 'Out'. Why couldn't he just stay?

She found herself in the hallway of the apartment, the front door to her right, the pegs for hanging coats and bags empty like everything else. How could he live in this place? What kind of soul-less life was this? Devoid of heat, devoid of light, devoid of colour…devoid of life.

Casey looked up and frowned as she saw the bedroom door suddenly in front of her. This time it was ajar because he was playing games again. Casey pushed against the door and held her breath as it swung open revealing Derek lying on his bed, grinning as he held back the bed covers.

He was naked.

"Come on. Get in. You want to. We both know you want to. You want this. You want me. You always have. You always will and I'm not fussy. You know I'll sleep with anyone…even Kendra. She was pretty good if you kept calling her stupid pet names. And Amy? She was a screamer. With Sally it was dirty talk…and Emily…She almost broke my dick…"

Casey squealed and raised her hands to her ears but the voice kept on in her mind. Derek listing all the women he had slept with and all the kinks each one had enjoyed.

"So what will you be, Casey? A screamer? Or maybe dirty talk? Or maybe you'll be the one who likes it up the…"

"STOP!" Casey shouted closing her ears and her eyes.

When she opened them, Derek had frozen. His mouth was open as if to continue his speech but there was no movement, not even the rise and fall of his chest.

And then she watched in horror as his colour bled out through a wound in his head, and his skin began to pale like someone had waved a magic wand across it or the way a television reacts to a strong magnet passed across its screen.

The colour drain didn't stop at the normal stony colour of post mortem. His skin paled to that of grey quarry chalk and then, like a cliff collapsing against the eroding tide of a stormy sea, the features that made up Derek's face began to crumble in on themselves. She watched transfixed as his eyes sunk and disintegrated and holes began to appear in his cheeks. Casey screamed…

…and sat up in her bed.

For a moment she was relieved, glad that a nightmare was over. She smiled to herself at the familiar pictures on the wall, the dresser in the corner with her pictures of her family, and pulled the purple comforter that had been a present from Marti close. She was safe in her bed.

In her apartment. She paused…horror gripping her again.

Now it was Casey who froze.

Her apartment…in London. Not Derek's empty apartment in Ottawa. She was at home in bed in her own apartment. She glanced at her bedside clock and the digital figures seemed to loom large as they proclaimed not only the time, but also the date.

The day before Derek's anniversary.

Casey felt her own body shutdown the way that Derek's had in her dream. She wondered if she was the sickening colour of grey-white that he had been before the crumbling started. And she wondered when her turn to disintegrate would come.

It was a dream: Mikey, Derek, Ottawa...even Derek's kisses had been a dream. She lay back down in her bed, curled herself into a ball and wept.

The weeping became wailing, deep body-wracking cries and the grief hit her like a sledgehammer. It shook her really hard and she felt pressure all around her as though the world was crushing her body.

Casey cried out in a voice distorted by sobs and the fact that lying on her side meant half of her mouth was pressed into the pillow.

"Why are you doing this to me? Is this the punishment I get for thinking about Derek that way?"

"I don't know." A voice replied. "You tell me how you were thinking about Derek, and I'll tell you if the punishment fits."

This voice was coloured with warm amusement. It was located in the vicinity of her left shoulder and she wondered if she had sprouted a little devil-Casey to whisper nefarious plans in her ear; or maybe a little devil-Derek.

The pressure on her increased and she felt suddenly warmer from the crushing force at her chest down to the weight on her legs. A warm breeze brought more whispered suggestions to her left ear.

"Who are the tears for? Tell me and I'll kill the bastard."

Casey dipped her head and wiped soaked cheeks against the cheap poly-cotton of the comforter. It was thin and didn't smell as nice as the quality cotton she always bought, but that was because it hadn't been washed in the softener that Casey used. She would have to…

Casey stopped. She didn't own any cheap poly-cotton. And the tight pressure at her chest wasn't the weight of her grief. It was a strong, quite muscular arm, wrapped tightly around her.

The increased warmth she had felt was a body pressed down the length of her back and legs, and the restraining force which held her hand was another, larger hand, its fingers linked in her own as they splayed across her stomach.

Half afraid that it would all disappear, Casey turned her head to look behind her and opened her eyes.

"Bad dream?" Derek asked his eyes warm and sparkling from the half-light in his bedroom as his face loomed over her own. It was daylight outside and evidently despite the season the sun was shining today. It cast beams of light through the wooden blinds at the windows. The sunbeams danced on the comforter, and the single conjoined lump that their bodies made.

Casey didn't speak. There were wet tear tracks leading from both her eyes again, and Derek could feel her body shaking in his arms. Still wordlessly, Casey raised her spare hand and pinched him hard on the arm.

"Ow! What was that for?" He asked.

"I had a dream within a dream. I'm making sure you're real." Casey replied.

Derek leaned back and let go of her to rub at the sore spot she had created.

"Great! Believe it now? Or should I return the favour?" Derek sounded peeved, but she could tell he was still in a good mood.

"You don't need to pinch me back. I was just making sure you weren't going to crumble in front of me."
"I'd never crumble in front of you, princess."
"You did in my dream. You turned to dust."
"What like in Harry Potter?"

Comprehension dawned on Casey. "So that's where I got it from. I watched the first film with Marti shortly before I came on vacation. It must have been my subconscious."

"And what else has your subconscious been feeding you?" Derek asked.

Casey told him about the dream within a dream. It took a few moments, but afterwards he just stared at her.

"Let me get this straight…you dreamt about me naked?"

Casey coughed. "Technically…"

Derek rolled away from her and laughed a deep belly laugh.

"Was it an accurate dream?" Derek asked. "I mean you have seen the goods up close when you were "checking for injuries" and…technically…"

"Der-ek!" She failed to hide her own grin as she nodded.

Casey, whilst appreciating the humour of the situation, didn't appreciate the sudden absence of warmth as his body moved away from hers. At least his body was wearing pyjamas in this reality! Derek noticed the crease deepen on her brow.

"I was holding you because you suddenly started screaming and crying in your sleep. I was trying to calm you down before you gave me a black eye.

You need to laugh at the nightmare because that's all it was. It's complete fiction and you've tested it out. I'm alive. Although I'm sure the pinching theory is that you are supposed to pinch yourself and see if you feel the pain."
He moved closer to her and she turned on her side to face him.

"Quite apart from anything else, I have absolutely no idea whether Kendra requires sweet talk to climax, if Amy is a screamer or if Emily has ever nearly busted someone's balls. I never slept with them."

"And Sally?" Casey didn't want to ask, but she needed to know.

"…was a very special lady who a small part of me will love until I die." He said cryptically.

"Oh." Casey understood. She really did understand because it had sort of been obvious. She knew there was a difference between the way Derek was with Sally than the other girls he had dated.

"She's the past." Derek said. "She's part of my old life."

"So am I."

"Only as much as you are part of my present…and knowing you, you'll fill more of my future, whether I like it or not!"
Casey reached out to touch his hand. He pulled it back.

"No more pinching." He cautioned.

"I wasn't…"

"Yes…you were. You have this little 'tell'."

"Sorry."
Derek grinned and moved closer. "You want me to prove that you aren't dreaming?" He asked.

Casey nodded.

"If I do this, you have to promise that you'll never ever call me your brother again. Deal?"
Casey gave an amused frown. "Deal."

Smirking, Derek leaned closer again, and pressed his lips to hers. His kiss was soft, gentle, but it didn't stay that way. After a second, he deepened it and his hands wrapped around her body again. He closed his mouth as he pulled away and then stole her lips again: small, open kisses; chaste by the standards of some, but not something Casey ever though she would exchange with Derek.

"I'm real. And I'm here." Derek whispered. "Get used to it."