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Chapter 4 - The end

"Welcome back to Certified Disasters!"

"I'm Derek."

"And I'm Casey! And on today's episode, we're getting nostalgic and sharing our best university stories."

"What I wouldn't give to relive those four years. I really had a blast in uni, so I'm all for this walk down memory lane. But why don't you start us off, Case? I know you have a million stories to pick from," Derek teases.

"I hate you," she sings into the microphone. "Some back story for those of you who missed an episode, we went to high school together and we went to Queens together."

"Not on purpose," Derek adds.

"Not at all. But our stories overlap a bit. In high school I was, well no, I still am a certified keener. But I did party a bit during my time at Queens. But every time I went out... Derek showed up, ruining all of my fun."

"You say ruining…. I say amplifying!"

"Right," Casey bites back. "So, let's start off with freshman year. I was at this frat party. There was a cute guy from my psych class there. I had been trying to talk to him for weeks! So I finally worked up the nerve to talk to him and…."

"And then I show up," Derek laughs interrupting. "I would like to preface this by saying I hadn't spoken to Casey since moving into the dorms. I hadn't even seen her. We were in a weird stage of our lives where we pretended the other didn't exist."

"It was… a time," Casey adds sadly.

"Exactly. Anyway, there I am, minding my own business when I see my favorite keener at the party!"

"You make it sound like you were excited to see me," Casey counters dryly.

"I was," Derek promises. "Any way of course I make my way over, sling an arm over her shoulder and give her hell. It's what I do," he defends himself.

"And of course the cute guy just disappears on me," Casey groans. "I couldn't even blame him."

"So yeah...Casey was mad."

"Very!"

"But don't you worry, she got me back."

"Of course I did, Der Bear!" Casey coos mischievously.

"I am so excited about today's episode because we have our first guest!" Casey explains.

"Not only is he our first guest, but he's my best friend. He's our podcast editor. And the reason we have a podcast in the first place. Sammy, say hi to the listeners."

"Uhhh, hi?" Sam replies shyly.

"So Sam, the listeners want to know how this happened. And we think you should be the one to tell them!" Casey offers.

"Yeah, for sure. So, uh, I've known Derek my whole life. But I didn't meet Casey till high school, like Derek."

"Yeah, and then you dated her."

"Oh get over it!" Casey scoffs.

"It's a sore subject," Sam explains calmly. "Anyway, I've known these two for quite some time. We were out to lunch one afternoon, pre-pandemic, obviously. I was just telling Derek and Casey about a breakup I was going through. And right away Casey jumped in with advice. And Derek, being Derek, went against everything she said. And I just laughed and said 'you two need a podcast.' They laughed it off. But when we went into the first lockdown and they were together all the time... this happened. And then they made me their editor."

"We didn't make you!" Derek defends.

"We asked nicely because Sam's really good at this kind of stuff from his time dabbling in music."

"Links in the description," Derek whispers into the mic like a pro.

"Thanks, guys," Sam chuckles warmly.

"So Sam... How hard is it to edit us?" Casey laughs.

"Well…" Sam trails off. "There's definitely a blooper reel. I'll tell you that!"

"Welcome back to Fancy Fangirls. I'm Casey."

"And I'm Derek."

"And this is the highly requested Taylor Swift episode!"

Derek groans into his mic.

"Shut it, Venturi!"

"What exactly are we talking about, Case? Cause you could probably do this episode alone," Derek explains.

"No, you have to stay. It's more fun with you!"

"Fine," he sighs.

"So, quarantine has been hard. Obviously. But then Taylor dropped an album…. And then she casually dropped another one, as if I were over the first!"

"Maybe you weren't over the first one, but I sure was ready for new material."

"Whatever! On today's episode I'm going to rank both albums. But first thing I wanted to talk about was some of her best lyrics that deserve attention. Because her music, the lyrics… poetry!"

"Ok, well, I don't have a favorite…" Derek explains awkwardly. "You sure you don't want to do this with one of our sisters instead?"

"Nope. I have enough favorites for both of them. Plus, the listeners sent in their favorites too."

"Oh. Ok, cool. Let's hear it. I can be the judge."

"Ok, the first one is 'I once was poison ivy, but now I'm you're daisy.'"

"…Seriously?"

"What?"

"They're trolling you, Case. I'd bet money that came from a Dasey fan."

"Ok fine! We can edit that one out then! How about… 'But I knew you'd linger like a tattoo kiss. I knew you'd haunt all of my what-ifs. The smell of smoke would hang around this long.'Cause I knew everything when I was young .' Ugh. Do you not feel those lines in your heart, Der? The yearning, the potential! She has me routing for people who don't even exist. Im aching for a heartbreak I didn't even live." Casey explains passionately.

"I…. I mean, yeah. I get it. She's a storyteller."

"Come on Der. I know you're a secret Swiftie. Don't be shy. Tell the people what you've been singing along to all week," she teases.

"In my defense, you've been blasting Taylor Swift all quarantine. I can't get away from it if I tried. What's the one where the boy fucked up? What's it called?"

"I need a little more detail, Der."

"The one where it's like 'blah blah blahhhhhh. Go fuck myself.'"

"Betty!"

"That's the one."

"Yeah, you do like that one. I've caught him singing it while doing dishes. It's really cute!"

"I like when she's curses," he adds.

"There are quite a few of those now!" Casey explains. "Basically, Dereks a swiftie and we're going to a concert when the world opens up again!"

"Wait, what?"

"Roll the ad read!"

"Hey guys. This is just a reminder that we won't be posting for the next few weeks. Not sure how long, but consider this the official end of season one."

"We'll come back in a month or two. Maybe after the holidays?" Casey asks.

"Maybe. Just don't freak out, ok? We're just working some stuff out on the back end. Till then, wash your hands and stay safe."

"I'm Casey."

"And I'm Derek."

"Goodbye!"

After two months, Derek and Casey surprise the listeners by uploading a video…

"Surprise!" Casey beams at the camera in front of her with jazz hands. She's sat on a navy blue couch next to Derek. They are both sporting headphones and are sat in front of two microphones. It all looks super professional, even though they are clearly set up in their living room, not a studio. There are touches of red and green decorations around them. They had decorated for the holiday are both wearing cheesy Christmas sweaters to match.

"We're backkk," Derek adds with a smile matching Casey's enthusiasm.

"Coming to you, not so live, from our couch. Now in video."

"Do the intro," Derek reminds her, his knee nudging hers.

"Welcome back to Chasing Daisies, our official podcast name moving forward. I'm Casey."

"And I'm Derek."

"And things have changed! Obviously. The podcast is now in video and the first full episode is coming out in two weeks. We're very excited about it," Casey explains looking at Derek with hearts in her eyes.

"We took a short break to work some stuff out. We leveled up our production," Derek points to the camera and the mics. "And most importantly we finally got to see our family. It was amazing."

"Yeah, we needed that," Casey adds softly, giving Derek a private smile.

"And while we were home, we filmed an episode with my little sister, Marti which was just… pure gold ."

"It's so good. She really is the talent of the family. You guys are going to love her!"

"Aside from podcast updates, we've got some personal updates," Derek grins over at Casey like they have a secret.

"Yeah," she sighs dreamily in return, almost forgetting that they're on camera.

Derek shakes his head, refocusing, pulling his eyes away from her and looking towards the listeners on the other end of the camera. "We won't get into the nitty-gritty of it all. At least not anytime soon. But we just want to be transparent with you guys. Our….dynamic has changed."

Casey's lips tip up into a smirk. "Except it hasn't," she offers with a shrug. "Business as usual."

"Right. But we won't be openly speaking about it in detail, and we want to make that perfectly clear from the beginning."

"Exactly. But we may make vague statements like this one…" Casey giggles.

"And you can take that for what you will," Derek shrugs nonchalantly. "But we're going to keep most of the details private."

"For now at least. It's still new."

"Yeah," Derek breaths out, looking at Casey like she was the brightest star in the sky. He bites his bottom lip like the sight of her caused him to lose his train of thought.

Casey blushes, looking away from him. "Well, that's all we have for now. We wish you all a very happy holiday. And we'll see you in two weeks for season two of Chasing Daisies. I'm Casey."

"And I'm Derek. Her boyfriend," he adds with a wink before the video cuts to black.

AN:
I was looking at Tswift lyrics for the Tswift episode, almost used this one, so I wanted to all it out:

"And you know that I'd swing with you for the fences
Sit with you in the trenches
Give you my wild, give you a child
Give you the silence that only comes when two people understand each other
Family that I chose, now that I see your brother as my brother
Is it enough?"

Anyway, hope you enjoyed this.

I would love the write a companion piece (that's already has a title in my mind) Between The Lines about the behind-the-scenes of the podcast and how they ended up together. But let be honest... I have too many WIPS to count. Just know, they live on.

Thanks for reading and follow me on A03 (Archive of our own) for quicker updates.