"Hey Sis!" Lizzie greeted Casey as she left Marti and Robbie splashing in the inflatable pool in the Venturi yard. Marti was watching Robbie with an eagle eye to make sure he was safe, so Casey felt reassured enough to leave. Lizzie was sitting under the shade of the two apple trees at the end of the garden, the sun too strong for her to stay out for very long in direct sunlight, sparking as it would another bad headache. Casey joined her on the blanket which she had spread out.

"Marti's grown so much." Casey said. "Do you remember that day when she mixed all the bottles in the bathroom up to make "potions?""

Lizzie grinned in recognition. "Or the time when she mixed up all her animal sounds and Mom and George thought they were neglecting her."

"Then there was the vomiting at Fiona's wedding."

"Oh god! And in the back of the car on that horrible roadtrip. That was in my lap!"

Casey grinned. "I missed that one."

Lizzie curved and eyebrow. "Yes. As I recall, you were at home…with Derek."

Casey blushed and Lizzie decided to tease her.

"I reckon you two were faking it." She announced. "I think you were fooling around from the moment we moved here. Every time you two had an "argument" it was because you nearly got caught."

"Derek and I weren't the ones hiding in the games cupboard." Casey said, with a smirk worthy of Derek. Lizzie blushed a vivid pink.

"We never…I…erm…it's not like that!"

"Sure Liz." Her sister said and Lizzie was left thinking that her brother-in-law had too much influence over his wife.

"Who would have thought?" Lizzie said, watching Marti and Robbie playing. "Who would have thought Derek Venturi would be the love of your life?"

Casey leaned back against the tree.

"It works the other way too. Who'd have thought I would be the one to tame him?"
They grinned.

"Why did you marry him? Before all the love stuff, why did you marry him?"

Her sister looked thoughtful. "You won't believe me." She said, eventually.

"Try me."

"It was a bad time in all our lives and it was difficult to know who to trust and what was real anymore. But I knew that I could trust Derek. I knew all his idiosyncrasies, all his foibles. For all the arguing when we were teenagers, all the pranking, I knew that in a serious situation, he always had my back. He might grouch about it, or tease me, but the route he planned was always the shorter, sweeter journey."

"Even when it mean marrying him?"
"Especially."

Lizzie closed her eyes as she leaned back against the tree too. She smiled.

"Some of the stuff in hospital I remember, even though I wasn't awake, especially in the last few days. I remember you telling me you thought you were falling for him. I guess that's one of the two reasons why this wasn't such a shock."

"And the other reason?"
"I know you both. Remember when I was learning to swim and Dad had to push me into the pool. Once I was there, I loved it. Derek was always the one to shove you."


"Go on, Robbie. She's hot. She won't be cross. Honestly, trust me lil' bro."

Casey was dozing in the shade of the tree. The warm air under the branches was soporific and after her conversation with Lizzie had petered out, she had lain down for a little snooze. Now her mind was playing tricks on her because she could hear Derek's voice.

"Yeah. Round that way. Aim for her chest. Cool! I think there's an ice cream in it for you if you hit her square on the breast bone."
Something niggled at Casey, but sleep was a comforting thing so she smiled softly and snuggled down again…

…until the stream of cold water hit her between the breasts with the force of a pair of defib paddles.

She sat bolt upright.

Robbie was standing in front of her. The large 'supersoaker' water rifle in his baby hands, looking as though he didn't understand how he got there.

But Casey knew.

"Der-ek!" She shouted and to everyone present in the yard it was like a flashback to their teenage years.

Derek was standing, "innocently" across the other side of the garden, talking to his father.

"What's up, angel?" He asked, raising an eyebrow in mock concern.

Casey stood up and stomped across the grass. "You little…" Her voice trailed away as she realised they had an audience.

"What?" Derek frowned, and looked her up and down dramatically. "Casey? Did you realise you can see right the way through your top?"

He didn't get to say much else. There was a flash of movement as Casey launched herself at him, they collided and the momentum carried him the short distance to the paddling pool. Derek landed in the centre of the plastic structure with a loud, very wet, splash!

Casey, who had somehow managed to stay upright, stood at the side and grinned.

"Do you realise you can see right through that t-shirt?" She said, smirking as her words echoed his, and her arms folded across her wet chest. Derek screwed up his face into an evil grin and reaching for her arm, pulled her into the pool with him.

"Payback's a bitch, babe!" He hissed quietly, twisting his body so that she landed in the pool and he was hanging, dripping over her. Their faces were very close and their bodies closer. If they had been on their own, there was no doubt in either of their minds they would be shedding clothes right now. However, angry sex did not seem appropriate in their parents' backyard. Derek huffed as he realised he wasn't even allowed to kiss her.

"No PDA." Casey said regretfully, as if reading his mind.

"I know. I haven't forgotten." Derek said. They gazed at each other for a long moment and then Casey broke the spell.

"Hi Sam!" She exclaimed to someone over her husband's shoulder, and Derek realised that Sam must be standing behind him. He pulled back from his wife, offering her his hand to help her up.

"Nice top." He murmured under his breath. "But I'd rather not share that look with Sam. Any chance you can borrow something from Liz?"

The girl concerned appeared at Derek's elbow with a towel which Casey took gratefully, wrapping herself in it before she turned to face Sam.

Her ex grinned. "Some things never changed." He said nodding towards Derek. Casey returned the smile.

"I know. I pity his poor wife." She glanced at her left hand. "Whoops! That would be me!"

Sam laughed. "Congratulations!"

"Thanks…I think." She looked curiously at Sam. "You don't look freaked out about it." She observed.

"To be honest when he first told me, I didn't believe him."
Derek interrupted. "Yeah. He choked on his soda and told me to stop being an asshole."

"And when he insisted it was true, I got mad at him and also a bit freaked out. I mean, what if it was true? He invited me to your yard party and I wasn't sure what I was going to find, but seeing you two fighting like that again brought it all back to me. The only difference between then and now is that the worst bit doesn't happen anymore."
"The worst bit?"
Sam shrugged. "You used to fight, and then there would come a balancing point where it would look as though you were both going to laugh and hug each other, the break in the sexual tension. That never happened. Before, when it got to that point, one or other of you would do or say something really nasty and the other would walk away. Now the fun bit of the fights are there, and the nasty bits don't happen."

Casey smiled at Derek. "I'd never thought of it like that."

Robbie toddled over. "Casey? Are you mad with me?"

His big sister shook her head. "No sweetie. I know it was just Derek being Derek."

Robbie's face brightened. "Good. Coz that was FUN!"

Casey groaned. "Oh no! It's genetic!"

Sam laughed. "What's the matter, Case? You look like you've seen a ghost."

Her husband chuckled. "No. She's just considering sterilisation."


Nora watched the exchange in the garden from her vantage point at an upstairs window. The window was open and she could hear the laughter floating up from below. It was as though the years had turned back to when she first came to this house with her daughters, to the early days of Casey and Derek's relationship. The little fight over the water was nothing new. In fact it looked just like a dozen or so they had "enjoyed" over the years. The two of them laughing about it together afterwards was new though. She privately agreed with Sam. It was as though someone had re-written the endings to all the disagreements between her two eldest children. She watched Liz lead Derek and Casey back into the house to change their wet clothes, and when he thought no one was looking, she saw her step-son put an arm around Casey's shoulder and whisper something. She smiled up at him and he kissed her softly.

Nora looked quickly away from the intensely private moment, aware that the feeling the kiss left her with was not one of distaste.

When she made her way back outside, Sam was standing beside George and the grill with a beer in his hand.

"Mrs V!" He greeted her. "Looking good as usual."
Nora laughed. "You've spent too much time with my step-son."

Sam grinned. "Step-son or son-in-law?" He teased. He knew that George and Nora hadn't taken the marriage very well, because Derek had told him about all of that on the way over. He also thought George and Nora were some of the coolest parents around, and that whatever issues they had with their children's marriage, it wasn't terminal. Sam figured he could get away with a joke or too, and it might even help Derek if it made the parents lighten up.

George groaned. "Sam, please. I get nervous when anyone mentions Derek and the Law in the same sentence."

Nora and Sam chuckled. "He certainly has a way of making a name for himself doesn't he?" Sam had often been around for Derek's pranks, and directly involved in many. Somehow he always managed to stay out of the aftermath. His parents believed it was because he was more sensible. Sam knew it was because Derek did everything in his power to leave Sam out of it when the post mortems began. Derek was loyal to Sam, and Sam would return the favour.

George nodded. "I should have known his marriage would be equally dramatic. It's Casey's involvement in it that is slightly surprising."

Sam shook his head. "You think? Casey's always had a hand in Derek's biggest pranks. Even if it was blowing them out of the water."

Nora tilted her head to one side as she regarded Sam. "But of all the guys she could have chosen, she chose someone so irresponsible and reckless." She turned her head to her husband. "No offence, Georgie."

"None taken." George said in a resigned tone.

"I mean, apart from Truman, I liked all her ex-boyfriends."

Sam smiled. "Ah but none of us had the strength of character to survive Casey. Don't get me wrong, I loved her, still do in a platonic way, but her lofty ideals and flights of fancy making being her partner a difficult task. She's like a weather balloon. She flies high and achieves great things while she's up there, but it needs a big anchor and a strong cable to keep her from flying off on the next wind to blow through here. Only Derek has ever managed to do that job. And Derek has absolutely no choice around Casey. He always ends up doing the right thing. They are good for each other, even though it takes a bit of digging to realise that. I guess they are inevitable."

There was a moment's silence while everyone processed the unusually long speech from Sam.

"Does Abby know?" Sam asked, sipping his beer.

George chuckled humourlessly. "Yeah."

"What was her reaction?"

Derek's father ran his hand through his hair. "She laughed loudly down the phone and said, - and I quote – 'She shoots, she scores! Never let it be said I used the phrase, but I told you so."

Sam looked taken aback. "Meaning?"

"Remember that time Abby paid a visit because Derek was about to fail Spanish?" Sam nodded. George continued. "Abby took me to one side afterwards and told me to keep an eye on Casey, because Derek would either "kill her, or get her pregnant". Then she grinned and told me I was on my own with that one."

Sam had been Derek's friend when George was married to Abby, and he could totally see her saying that. He liked both Derek's moms. They both had a sense of humour and that was essential with dealing with Derek Venturi.

A short while later, the weather really heating up, Sam volunteered to go get George a beer from the fridge. He jogged to the rear steps and was just about to climb the steps to the kitchen door when something made him stop; the sound of voices talking quietly in the kitchen. Sam wasn't an eavesdropper by nature, but he'd been around Derek too long.

"Are you happy?" He heard Derek ask gently. There was a rustle of movement before Casey's whispered reply.

"Pretty. Things could be a lot worse than they are now. We're here and apart from some awkward silences every now and then they seem really pleased to see us."

"I'm sorry." Derek apologised and his voice sounded muffled as if he was resting his forehead against Casey's and talking down towards her feet.

"Why?" she sounded concerned.
"You missed out on the big wedding and the triumphant home-coming."

"You talk a lot of crap Venturi." She replied, but her voice held too much love to be spiteful. "This all happened because I wanted it to. You asked the questions but it was me that gave the answers."

"I don't deserve you."
"No you don't." She retorted, but there was a laugh there. "I don't deserve you either. We're lucky."

"Yes. We are." Derek said, his voice sounding muffled again. The rustling noise happened again. "I love you."

Major rustling now.

"I love you too." Casey said and then the talking stopped and the rustling noise began again.

Sam, suddenly extra curious, stepped quietly into the laundry room and peeked through the open side to the kitchen. Derek and Casey were standing by the fridge, completely oblivious to their surroundings. Their arms and bodies were tightly entwined and both of them had their eyes closed as they kissed.

Sam smiled, and turning, went back outside to wait for their moment to pass.


AN: Approximately four chapters left…

Sorry. I had visitors again this weekend, and last week was the WhitSun break ("half term") which meant the children were off school. Normal update service from tomorrow…hopefully.