Disclaimer: I do not own Life with Derek, back right to square one… Ohwell, I will never give up my dreams. :-)

Can I Help?

Epiphany

"Derek?" Casey murmured in the doorway of the bathroom. Her expression held this certain helplessness which made him want to sweep her into his arms and fight off everything bad in the world. Instead, he just looked up at her, his eyes half closed with nausea and exhaustion.

"What is it, Case?" he asked her quietly. Something in his voice sounded defeated, crushed, but about what she didn't know.

"Please… please don't hate me, Derek," she whispered, unable to look at him.

He was so goddamn frustrated! He had a strong urge to turn and yell 'FUCK YOU!' at her. He felt like he had a string tied to him and she held the other end. She did things and said things which made everything he had tried to do feel pointless and stupid, but no matter what he couldn't just do what part of him kept screaming at him to do. He couldn't yell at her and tell her how she kept making his job so difficult by making stupid decisions like this. He couldn't just walk away right now and never look back.

He couldn't because… despite his best efforts to run away and forget, like he had tried so many times before, he realized something. He loved her. It wasn't some silly teenager 'Ooh, you're hot, let's date.' It was something so much more, so much deeper than that. And that was why no matter how hard things got, he couldn't just do the flakey, Derek thing and run away. No matter how much she hurt him or how stupid he thought she was being… he would stick by her. And help her. That was what he had promised to do that night and, no matter what, that was what he was going to do.

"Casey…" he waved her over. "Come here, Case."

She shuffled over to him, her movements shy and reserved, waiting to see what was going to happen. She looked so lost… How could she let this happen to her?

Derek couldn't bear to see her like this. He had never been able to. So despite the uneasiness in his stomach, he pulled her into his arms and caressed her hair. She didn't pull away; she melted into his arms as if he was her support and her other half, as if she would cease to exist without him.

"We'll fix this, Case. Don't worry. You need to tell him that you made a mistake and it's over."

He raised his hand, overruling the objection on its way to Casey's lips.

"I'll be there," he told her. "You won't have to do it alone." He rested his forehead against hers. "You need to do this… think about yourself, Case. Look at what he's helped turn you into- you're practically a puddle of mess in your stepbrother's arms on your bathroom floor; you're having breakdowns which result in broken mirrors and busted hands. Just imagine how much worse this could get if you don't break up with him and figure yourself out."

Casey pulled back, wiped at her teary eyes, and nodded. Then her eyes widened and she jumped out of the way when Derek groaned and dove for the toilet. His insides were twisting and turning, each organ working its way up his throat and through his mouth. At least, that was how it felt to him. He had always hated throwing up. As a kid, he used to cry whenever he started to and his mom would have to rub his back to get him to calm down.

Now tears invaded his eyes and he cursed himself for last night. What the hell did he have to drink? Then… he felt a gentle hand, comforting, rubbing small circles on his back. It seemed like it calmed his insides and his eyes dried a bit, until one last heave and there was absolutely nothing left in his stomach.

Casey was watching him with concern, her hand resting on his back, when, to her surprise, he started to laugh. She was about to question him, thinking that maybe he had finally broken under all the stress she had put him under, when, still in hysterics, he pointed into the nauseating sea of vomit.

"Oh my god," was all she could say before covering her mouth with her hand and surrendering herself to laughter as well.

On top of the solid/liquid mass, floating, was a dead goldfish.

-

Derek had just handed Casey her sandwich and sat down next to her on the couch when the phone rang. Wanting her to deal with nothing at the moment, he ignored his still slightly bothersome hangover and sprung up from the couch, yelling, "I got it!" despite how Casey and he were still the only ones home.

"Yello," Derek picked up the receiver in the kitchen.

"Oh Derek. Hey man," Sam's casual voice greeted him on the other line. "Could I speak with Casey for a sec?"

Derek had to grit his teeth and attempt a deep, cleansing breath (he'd heard that from something he'd caught Casey listening to a while ago) before he could trust himself to answer. By the second 'Hello?' from Sam, he knew that he was going to have to say something but he was unsure as to whether he could do so without verbally abusing his friend.

He glanced through the doorway over to Casey. She was laughing at something on TV. God, if he let Sam stay with her, when would be the next time he'd get to see her laugh like that? Derek almost lost his miniscule amount of control, when Casey looked over at him and smiled. Her smile was filled with such trust, such thanks… He had to do something, but it couldn't just be a bashing. He had to fix this.

"No, man," Derek finally answered, turning back into the kitchen. "I don't think so."

"Is she uh… not home?" Sam guessed, slightly confused.

"No. I just don't think she'd want to speak with you."

"Maybe she didn't tell you, but we got back together. It's okay, dude," Sam said, sounding as if he finally understood why Derek was being so weird.

"No, Sam… it's not okay," Derek sighed, "I think we need to talk…"

A few minutes later, Casey looked up at Derek with a grin left over from a funny part of the show.

"Who was it?" she inquired curiously.

"Nobody important, just somebody trying to sell something."

At least part of that was true, Derek figured, so I'm not really lying. Sam was trying to sell something all right. Yeah, that load of bullshit that kept pouring from his mouth.

Casey gave him a look. "Must've been one rude telemarketer," she joked, gently poking at his frowning face. Derek couldn't stop the sloppy grin from taking the frown's place. There was just something about her, something about seeing her so content like this… It just constantly made him want to smile and protect her and keep anything from taking her smile away.

With that thought, he slung his arm around her, claiming her and warning anything else that if it wanted to mess with her, it would have to kill him first.

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a/n: Okay, first off- I'm so sorry for the wait, but I've been sorta swamped with things. And second- I've finally figured out what I'm doing with the story. I've decided that I'm splitting it into two parts. It's not going to be like one story and a sequel… it's more like Kill Bill vol. 1&2… the continuation of the story. Yeah, so the next chapter will be the last chapter of Part I… then there'll probably be a small time gap (in posting) before Part II comes out, but it won't be long, so don't wander away to never come back! I just want to get a few chapters written/read-over/etc before I start posting. Uh…yeah.

So enough rambling, hope you enjoyed the chapter… don't forget to review- it makes me happy :-)
Speaking of- thank you to all of you out there who read and review! Fresh brownies for everybody, and two for all those regular reviewers out there! 3
Ta:-D