A/N - I started writing this while I was sick with a stomach flu yesterday so if it sounds a bit off I'm sorry, I have tried editing it but otherwise enjoy reading.
Derek stood at the door to Ivy and Ana's apartment, it had taken a while and a fair few phone calls but he'd figured out that Karen was with the two actresses in the end. He knocked loudly on the door and waited for someone to answer. When Ivy came to the door, she had a look of annoyance and tiredness on her face "Derek, what do you want?" she asked.
"Where's Karen? I need to speak to her," he said rather brusquely as he tried to look over the blonde's shoulder.
"Derek, she's asleep," Ivy said equalling his offhand tone.
"I need to see her," he pleaded desperately.
"And I think you should leave, it's midnight Derek, even if she was awake the idea of you guys working things out now would be a bad idea, can I be honest with you?"
"When aren't you?"
"Good point, you guys, you… you come across as the ideal couple but you never really fight and then when you do fight you don't really work anything out because something tragic or disastrous always happens, after the car accident in January, Karen called me because she was worried that she'd lost you forever she told me that you guys had fought because she'd called your therapist because she was concerned about you and then she was blaming herself for the car accident because she drove so far out in your mum's old car that it broke down and she had to get Sarah to pick her up. Then when you eventually saw her again it was a case of telling her that she was right and do you know what that makes me think?" Ivy asked before Derek shook his head "It makes me think that you're so scared of losing her that you'll just say everything that you think she wants to hear but she's starting to find it difficult to deal with she wants you to have an opinion, she wants to know what you think you should paint the nursery, whether you want to find out the gender of the baby before it's born, what you think of the name she likes the sound of. God! If I'd had a husband to tell me what they thought of when I was pregnant with Natalie it would have made things so much easier, just… just go home and think about what you want for the baby and come back tomorrow, it'll be better for both of your sakes," Ivy finished before shutting the door in Derek's face.
"Well that was a waste of time," Derek said to himself as he left the building.
Karen stood in the bar near the theatre in Boston where the after party was being held, by this point she'd had several drinks and her Marilyn wig - which she wore after being urged by Bobby and Sue that it was traditional - was slightly askew, her lilac dress slightly shorter than she remembered it being, all in an attempt to forget about Dev's infidelities. Derek, surprisingly, had left the bar an hour after the party began. She felt a hand on her shoulder and turned around to see Jessica "Are you okay?" she asked
"Yeah, fine," Karen replied quietly.
"Really? You've been awfully down for someone who just starred as Marilyn Monroe in her first preview," the dirty blonde replied.
"Dev and I broke up that's all," the brunette said regretfully ending her sentence just as her phone began to ring the sound of Adele's Rumour Has It ringing loud and clear over the buzz of the bar. "Karen Cartwright speaking," she said her speech slightly slurred from the several Cosmopolitans she'd drunken.
"Miss Cartwright, I'm Dr Hastings from Massachusetts General Hospital," a strange male voice said from one end of the line
"Yes,"
"I'm calling about Derek Wills, I'm afraid he was involved in a car accident,"
"I-is he okay?' Karen asked suddenly scared.
"I'm afraid not, he died," the doctor said bluntly, clearly not one to focus on bedside manner.
"No, no it can't be, it can't be," Karen yelled as she fell to the floor in a state of total shock.
"No, no it can't be" Karen yelled in her sleep as both Ana and Ivy rushed to her side.
"Karen wake up it's just a dream," Ana said as she shook her friend awake.
"It was so real," Karen said groggily as she eventually came to.
"What was it about? You've never yelled in your sleep like that since you were with Jimmy," Ana asked kindly.
"It's the hormones, they cause these hideously graphic dreams. I… I dreamt that I was at the afterparty after my first preview as Marilyn and I got a call from one of the hospital and… and they said that D-Derek was dead," she said before bursting into tears at the fact that the nightmare might one day become a reality.
"Oh sweetie," Ivy said as she wrapped Karen in a hug "He came here while you were asleep, he looked like he was about to cry to be honest but I told him you were sleeping and that he should come back this morning I'm not sure if he left or not,"
"Can you call him? Please," she pleaded, desperate to see her husband and make sure that her dream wasn't a premonition for something that could happen.
"Okay," Ivy said, completely unable to turn down her friend's plea.
A half hour later, Derek arrived at Ivy and Ana's apartment. When he entered, he was greeted by a hug from Karen that seemed to make the world stop as she sobbed while her chin rested on his shoulder "I… I tried to see you last night," he said quietly.
"I know b-but c-can we just st-stay like this, I want to m-make sure this is r-real," she replied through her tears, desperate to make sure that the touch of his skin on hers, the smell of his aftershave, the feel of the stubbly beard that had grown overnight, everything that she had her arms around was part of the reality and not some warped and overly long dream. She needed to know, for a fact, that the nightmare she'd woken up from a half hour before was just that: a nightmare.
After a reasonable amount of time, Derek felt inclined to ask "Are you okay now?"
"Yeah," she said with a weak smile.
"What was it about? Was it another nightmare?" he asked, remembering Karen's reactions to the other nightmare's being similar. Karen nodded, unable to answer properly or fully "Do you want to tell me what it was about?" and so Karen felt obligated to explain the entirety of the dream.
"Oh love, I'm not going anywhere I promise," Derek said after Karen had finished retelling the dream "And I'm sorry for not giving you my opinion on things," he continued as they finally set themselves down on Ivy and Ana's couch, Karen's slightly swollen abdomen only just able to be seen as she rested her head on Derek's chest "By the way, I think maybe it'll be a good idea to find out the gender of the baby before it's born so we know whether to paint the nursery blue or pink," was his final statement as Ivy handed them each a cup of coffee, the idea that she may have fixed something in her friend's relationship leaving her completely satisfied.
