Disclaimer: I do not own Life With Derek… but I have a secret meeting with producer #1… It might go well- no, it WILL go well! Mwah ha ha!

Can I Help?

Crashing

His head was pounding. No, worse; it felt like his skull was going to crack open and an evil little man was going to pop out from it. Not only that, but he felt nauseous to the nth degree. Whatever he had had to drink, it was never happening again. Although, it had accomplished what he had wanted to accomplish. He had forgotten all about Casey. In fact, he had forgotten …everything. He had no idea what had happened last night after he'd taken that drink. All he knew was that when he had woken up, he was on an unfamiliar bedroom floor surrounded by trash, beer, and girls. Oh god help him.

He didn't know whether he should thank Jeff for helping him forget, or beat his brains out for giving him that drink, and god knows what else.

Derek didn't know what time it was when he dragged himself home, but he was sure that he had either missed school completely, or almost had. As soon as he opened the door, before he could even step inside, his hangover felt ten times worse.

"I hope you're happy Derek Venturi!" Casey cried from the top of the stairs, her tears and sobs making it hard for her to speak. "You're right, once again! You can do your little victory dance now; you win!"

Derek felt like he had been hit by a truck, but maybe that was the hangover. Either way, he was shocked and, frankly, scared shitless seeing her like this again. He could tell she was on the edge of just a normal sobbing and something much worse, and he could see her teetering.

"Case…" he said in as comforting and soft a voice he could, walking cautiously toward her. "Case, tell me what happened."

"Don't you come near me!" the sobbing girl shrieked, stepping back. "When I needed you, where were you? Huh? Huh?"

She looked like she was going to fall down, like her legs were going to break under her emotional weight.

"I'm here now, Case," he pleaded with her, taking the stairs slowly.

"Well that's not good enough! You're too late! It's too late!"

She looked like she had wanted to run into her room and lock the door, but her knees gave out and she couldn't. Derek was at her side catching her, before she even hit the ground. He held her close and she didn't fight because, deep down, she didn't really want to fight.

"It's never too late, Casey," he murmured into her hair. He picked her up in his arms and carried her to his room, gently placing her in his bed and kneeling on the floor next to it. "Now," he said, pushing her hair back from her face, seeing that she had calmed down enough, "What happened?"

She bit her lip and took a deep, shaky breath. "Sam asked me out."

Derek had to bite back the anger he felt rising up inside him. When he trusted himself to speak he said, "I know that's not all… What upsets you so much about him… asking you out?"

What she told him, in a quivering voice, always close to tears, made him want to run over to his best friend's house and break his fucking nose.

Casey had been dating Sam for going on three months when Sam had decided he was ready to take the next, and biggest, step in their relationship. Casey hadn't been so sure. She was a planner, always thinking and calculating consequences. All the things that could happen or go wrong… and she didn't know if Sam was really the right one.

But if there was one thing Sam was good at, it was persuading Casey. He would use his own unfailing logic and his subtle guilting… and before long, she had let him convince her that she was ready and that it was the right thing to do. The truth of her feelings came crashing down on her afterward, lying in bed naked. She had forced herself to ignore this truth, to make it go way. After all, she still had Sam, right?

The next day, Sam gave her a long speech, including an apology, about how they weren't right for each other and it was over. She had told him she was okay. She had told herself she was okay. Then a few days later, she had her first episode after Derek, speaking only about getting her angry, had said she was too easy.

"He did that to you and now he expects you to just forgive, forget, and go out with him again? I'll break his neck!" Derek half yelled, half growled. Casey was crying again.

"No! Derek, you don't understand… It's not his fault. It's not like he raped me- I didn't object, I let it happen. I even said I wanted to! See, it's my fault, not his!" she tried explaining, desperately.

"Casey…" he took her hand in both of his own. "Casey, this isn't your fault. He knew that you weren't ready. You made it known that you weren't, but he wouldn't accept that. He wasn't happy until he had talked you into doing something you didn't want to do. That's close enough to rape if you ask me."

"Derek… what if…what if he wants to do it more? I don't want to… but…" she couldn't finish. He knew what she was saying.

"Don't say yes," Derek said simply, as if it was the easiest solution in the world. The look on her face prompted him to ask, praying the answer was no, "You didn't already say you'd go out with him, did you?"

She looked away from him, sitting up now from when she had told her tale. "I had to, Derek…"

He dropped her hand as if it was riddled with a deadly virus and stood up, turning around, a hand in his hair. She agreed to go out with somebody who had practically raped her, but she wouldn't even think about giving the time of day to somebody who took care of her day and night if she needed him?

Suddenly his hangover was back full force and he was running to the bathroom, puking up everything he had eaten in the past day and wishing he could puke up this feeling inside of him. He threw up until he was too weak to even sit up on his own and he slouched against the bathtub right next to him. He groaned from the ache in his entire body, from his bones to his… heart.

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a/n: And here is the next chapter! Updates might not be quite as frequent soon, but I'm not giving up on this story! I enjoy writing it way too much. It's just that I have essays every day and all that jazz… well, anyway, I hope you liked the chapter… don't be a stranger- review :-)

Oh, and thank you to all my readers! Free cellphones with cool software to you all! Just don't let them involuntarily code your speech. :-P (Just watched Strange Days, sorry haha)

Ta!