Author's Note: Because I got so many reviews, I decided to update as fast as I could! So here's the new chapter thanks to you all for being so kind as to give me feedback! I really appreciate it. As a random sidenote, I don't know Marti's full name (does anyone even know it?), so I always use 'Marguerite.' Anywho, hope you enjoy this chapter!
Casey cried as she sat in the waiting room area of the hospital with Emily, Edwin, and Lizzie. George and Nora were on their way, and both Derek and Marti had been rushed into the emergency room for immediate oxygen. That's all they knew about their conditions.
Lizzie and Edwin both looked solemn, sitting in the uncomfortable hospital chairs silently. They hadn't let go of each other's hands since they had left the burning MacDonald-Venturi house less than an hour ago.
Emily, who had quickly sobered, kept cooing to Casey that everything would be alright, just as a best friend should. But Casey couldn't even hear her as she cried into her open palms, wondering just what the hell had happened in the past couple of hours. First she had been minding her own business, playing a dumb card game with her little sister and stepsiblings, then she had been thrust into a party, then she was making out with her stepbrother, then she was fighting with him, then there was a fire, and soon she was being rushed to the hospital. With said stepbrother and six-year-old stepsister. Both completely unconscious.
Everything had happened so quickly that Casey's head was still spinning. Now, all she could do was cry and pray that Marti and Derek were okay.
The four impatient kids leapt up when they caught view of George and Nora, who both looked very tense as they hurried into the waiting area.
"Mom!" Casey cried, feeling like a little girl again as her mother took her into her arms.
"Casey!" Nora hugged her eldest to her tightly and reached out to hug Lizzie as well.
Even Edwin allowed his father to take him into a fierce hug.
"What the hell happened?" George then demanded, looking at Casey since she was the oldest.
Casey wiped away her tears and tried to calm herself down enough to explain. "Derek threw a party… we were outside when we heard someone yell 'Fire!' and we ran inside to get the kids." Casey swallowed down the lump in her throat. "Lizzie and Edwin came downstairs but Marti didn't."
"Her door was stuck," Lizzie interjected quietly. "I tried to get her out."
Casey nodded slowly and continued. "So, Derek… h-he went upstairs to get her." Her blue eyes filled up with tears again that threatened to fall. "And when the firefighters got here they…they got them out," Casey's lower lip trembled and the tears slid down her cheeks. She let them. "They weren't conscious."
Lizzie hugged her older sister as she broke down again, and George and Nora both moved quickly to the front desk to see if there had been an update about Marti and Derek. Nora looked visibly upset, while George just looked super-tense, obviously trying to hold himself together for the rest of the family's sake.
Edwin stared at the cold hospital floor, wondering just what would happen if he became an only child just like that. He couldn't imagine not having Derek boss him around and Marti annoy him everyday. They were the two Venturis that kept the MacDonald-Venturi Household on their toes. What would it be like without them?
Casey cried into Lizzie's tangled brown hair, thinking about the last thing she had said to Derek. She had called him an asshole. She hadn't even meant it, she was just angry with him.
And Marti… she always got so upset with Marti because of her antics and the way she seemed to get in to everything. But Marti couldn't help it… she was just a kid. Just a mischievous little six year-old with a bubbly personality and a wild imagination.
Casey loved both of them. Marti was like another little sister to her, just like Lizzie. And Derek… well, what she felt for Derek was a complicated love. It was a 'I should love you like a brother but it's not really a brotherly love I feel for you' kind of love. She had fun with him, even when he frustrated her beyond belief. She enjoyed fighting with him. Ever since she had moved into the Venturi household, she had become alive because Derek always kept her on her toes. No matter how much she complained about it, she thrived on the way they bickered like cats and dogs. Because it had always been fuelled by something else.
An attraction. An undeniable chemistry. A longing for something forbidden.
Casey promised herself that if Derek made it through this, she would tell him. Tell him how she was his. How she always had been from Day One.
A thin-rimmed glasses-wearing man with balding hair and a wrinkled forehead walked in then, a stethoscope around his neck and a chart in his hands.
"Venturi?" he asked, squinting up at the MacDonald-Venturi clan-plus-Emily.
"That's us," George and Nora said automatically together, rushing towards the doctor.
"I'm Doctor Watson, I'm treating Derek and Marguerite," he said formally.
George shook his hand. "How are my kids, Doctor?"
"Little Marguerite inhaled a lot of smoke. She'll need to wear the oxygen mask for a few more hours at least," Doctor Watson explained. "But she should be just fine."
George and Nora looked relieved. "And Derek?" Nora asked apprehensively, clutching George's arm.
"Derek had a hard fall inside the house before they got him out. He hit his head fairly severely," Doctor Watson paused. "He's still unconscious and in Intensive Care right now."
Casey couldn't take it. She burst into tears again and Emily gathered her into her arms again, holding back her own tears. Lizzie pulled a shocked Edwin into an embrace.
"Will he be alright?" George looked even more upset, and Nora bit back her own tears as she slid an arm around his waist comfortingly.
Doctor Watson looked grave. "At this point, it's hard to tell. We're running tests to see if theirs been any brain damage, but his vitals seem to be steady."
"Can we see him?" Nora asked hopefully but quietly.
Doctor Watson shook his head. "I'm sorry, but not yet. You may see Marguerite, however. She's fully conscious. An energetic little thing, isn't she?"
George gave a tight smile, his voice slightly proud as he agreed with the doctor about his youngest.
The group of them were directed to Marti's room. She was lying on the bed with an oxygen mask on, watching some kids channel on the television. George and Nora both hugged her tightly, as the little firecracker began animatedly talking, despite the oxygen mask that muffled her voice and made it hard to understand her.
Not that it stopped her.
Casey was glad that Marti was alright, but she couldn't help but not be able to smile as she watched the very conscious little girl. She was too upset about Derek. Blinking back tears again, she told the rest of her family that she was going to the bathroom to wash up, (not that they were paying attention) and left the room.
But instead of taking a right to the restrooms sign, she took a left to the Intensive Care sign. Slowly she walked up to the front desk and asked what room Derek Venturi was in.
"3164," the secretary said emotionlessly to Casey. "But he's not allowed any visitors at this time."
Casey just nodded and walked off. She waited until the woman was busy with something else, however, before slipping down the Intensive Care hall. She tried to look casual as she walked down the hall in case anybody walked by her. A few nurses did, but they didn't pay any attention to her. Luckily.
As she reached room 3164, Casey's heart began to speed up. She bit her lip as she looked left and right, making sure nobody was watching her, and turned the doorknob, letting herself into Derek's room.
