Author's Note: Okay, I've upped the rating to 'M' only due to future themes. Thanks for all the feedback, please keep it up, it totally motivates me to write more! And also if you go on to youtube, you can watch Season 2, Episode 12 - Middle Man-ic of Life With Derek, the episode that has been un-aired in the USA thus far... it's SUCH a good episode! -grins- Okay, enjoy this chapter and please review!

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Life was quieter at the MacDonald-Venturi Home without Casey. At dinnertime, the missing place setting at the table seemed to affect the extended family more than a little. George and Nora both tried to keep the conversation going to cover up the fact that Casey wasn't there. Marti even seemed to be a little bummed that her older stepsister wasn't there.

Derek was silent as he pushed the food around his plate. George and Nora pretended not to take note of that.

Lizzie engaged in a light conversation, but it was clear that Lizzie was not all there. Something was distracting her, and Edwin had tried to get it out of her earlier. She had simply told him that it was nothing; she was just missing her big sister.

Lizzie's blue eyes met Derek's once while passing the mashed potatoes and Lizzie quickly looked away, as if Derek could discover her inner secrets merely through eye contact. Derek knew that it was about Casey. He would have to confront her later.

Lizzie wouldn't be that hard to break.

"You wanna play Monopoly or Scrabble?" Edwin asked after dinner as the kids retired to the family room for their nightly ritual of board games.

"Actually, I think I'm gonna get to bed early," Lizzie said, looking apologetically at her stepbrothers and sister before retreating upstairs.

"What's up with her?" Edwin asked nobody in particular, his eyes lingering on the stairs where Lizzie had run.

"I don't know," Derek said absently, his mind racing. He glanced down at Edwin and Marti before jogging up the stairs, following his younger stepsister's footsteps.

He rapped on her door hurriedly, and he heard her respond with, "Yeah?"

Taking that as clearance, Derek opened the door and burst inside, finding Lizzie sitting on her bed, a closed book on her lap.

"I wanna know what's going on," Derek demanded of the ten year-old.

Lizzie's expression remained blank. "Nothing," she said, looking down at her book but still not opening it.

"Something is," Derek refuted, shutting the door behind him and walking towards the young girl. "And I want to know what it is."

"Why do you care?" Lizzie asked, her blue eyes finally looking up at him. They were filled with hurt and pain that no ten year-old girl should ever have to feel. It made Derek swallow roughly.

"Because I care about her," he responded honestly, his voice low with his admittance.

Lizzie studied him silently for a moment. "I promised I would never tell," she said then, in a tone barely above a whisper.

"Lizzie—" Derek began, coming closer still.

"No!" Lizzie suddenly yelled, causing Derek to stop in his tracks. From the look on her face, he could tell that she wasn't about to tell him anything. She looked more shut down than ever. And… scared. The poor thing looked terrified.

Yet Derek knew that the best thing for him to do was just to let her be. He was overstepping boundaries that Lizzie wasn't ready for him to cross.

It took all Derek had to turn away and open the door. As he stepped out of the room, he heard Lizzie brokenly say, "I hate him."

Derek turned to look at Lizzie. She was now clutching a stuffed animal to her chest and tears were welling in her eyes, threatening to fall. She looked innocent and fragile but mature and wise all at the same time.

He took a step back inside her room again, closing the door. "Who?" he pushed gently.

"My dad," she whispered, still not able to look up at her older stepbrother.

"Why?" Derek had to know, striding across the room to sit at the edge of her small twin bed. When she didn't respond, he gently pushed again. "Why, Lizzie? Why do you hate him?"

"I heard him sometimes," Lizzie said softly, her eyes far away as if remembering. "When we all lived together. In the middle of the night…" her lower lip began to tremble. "He…he would go into Casey's room. It was right across from mine so I saw him. I-I was afraid of the dark so I kept my door open." She hugged her teddy bear closer to her in comfort. "I could hear them. Casey would cry and beg and my dad would laugh and call her names."

Derek felt his heart pumping in his ears as his blood pressure rose quickly. "What…what about Nora?"

"She didn't hear," Lizzie shrugged dismally. "She never heard. She never knew."

"Casey…" Derek could barely choke her name out. He swallowed to moisten his suddenly dry throat.

"She told me that he hurt her," Lizzie explained softly. "But she made me promise I would never tell anyone." Her tears began moving down her cheeks in a steady stream now. "She's going to hate me now that I told."

But Derek could barely hear her now. He felt an anger rise up in him that he had never felt before. Not even when he was on the ice and somebody body-checked him face-first into the boards did he feel this rage.

"I don't want him to hurt her again," Lizzie broke down into sobs. But Derek couldn't comfort her. He was way past any of that. He was pissed off with a capital P.

"That son-of-a-bitch better not lay one hand on her," Derek growled as he stood up, his eyes flashing with anger. Lizzie looked up at him rather fearfully.

"Wh—what are you going to do?" Lizzie asked, wiping her eyes furiously so she could focus on Derek. She hadn't expected him to react this way. Of course, she hadn't really expected anything. But the crazed look in his eyes scared her. "D-Derek?"

But Derek was already out the door. Charging down the hall. He burst into Casey's bedroom and grabbed the card on her nightstand. The wedding invitation. With the address on it.

Like a whirlwind, he rushed downstairs and burst into the living room, grabbing his jacket and the keys to his father's car.

"Derek? Where are you going?" Nora asked from the couch where she was sharing a bowl of popcorn with George and Marti. So worry-free and content, cuddling with her new husband and little stepdaughter.

How could she not have known? She had to have known.

And Derek wanted to slap the blissful look off her face.

"Protecting Casey," he sneered as he pulled on his jacket. Looking straight at Nora, he continued in a scathing voice, "Something you never did."

And with that, he was out the door.