A/N: Thanks so much for all the reviews. I am still floored by how many I have. I really don't think it deserves more than 200, but I am glad that all of you like it. Seriously, although I'm not a review whore, the words of encouragement mean a lot to me. Thanks!

As for this chapter, I don't really know how I feel about it, but I hope you all like it. I just think it serves its purpose to close some doors.

Enjoy and review

Disclaimer: I own nothing

Chapter 18: Congratulations

The underlying pent up feelings of years of love boiled over and were finally released that morning. They both felt strangely drawn to the other since the moment they woke up. Hungry in a need of lips, skin, body warmth, anything they could get. And from Casey's bed to the outside of their history class they got it. Years of desire and need were released and by the time their class was over, the immediate requirement for the other was gone, but they knew the fire would always burn without the slightest bit of cooling.

After their history class, Derek and Casey were done with classes for the afternoon. Heading home, our home, Derek was amazed. He couldn't believe that less than 48 hours ago they had shared their first kiss, that less than 24 hours ago he threw caution to the wind and showed Casey how he felt. And to Derek's complete surprise, he now held her heart in his hands, as her own hands contained his.

Smiling the entire drive back to their apartment, he relived these past two days over and over again in his head. From the feel of her lips to the warmth of her body from sleeping next to him the night before, he knew he could never get enough. His heart was filled with love for her, and he planned on spending the rest of his life showering her in his love.

Exiting his jeep and going around to her side, he helped her out and found himself once again lost in her eyes. It was all there, everything she said the night before and that morning. Everything and more. Everything she felt for him was being said through her eyes and he couldn't help but feel like he was drowning in emotion. But it was that exact emotion that kept him afloat. He would never grow tired of her eyes. God, I love her.

Seeing everything that Derek just thought in his eyes, knowing she thought the same exact things, Casey simply smiled. She now knew that she would always know what he wanted to say from one look him his eyes, the eyes she wanted to see for the rest of her life. Leaning up a bit, she lightly kissed his lips. Pulling back just enough to let the air from her mouth brush against his, "Me too."

After throwing their books in their respective rooms, Derek and Casey made their way to the living room and sat on the couch. Silently thanking the landlord for such a small and cozy couch, Casey leaned against Derek while he wrapped an arm around her waist. They were small gestures but held so much meaning. It was happiness, contentment, affection, love. It was perfect, it was them.

Thinking back, words were never needed between them. Over the past few years, they had always felt some sort of connection. They knew when something was wrong or when they were truly happy without a word being muttered. They never let on to knowing though. They just let the other take their time in explaining. Now, it felt like their minds were screaming, and they knew deep down that the other heard it all.

Reaching over to the phone that was sitting on the table, Derek hit the speaker button and dialed the number to the Venturi/MacDonald household. Listening to the ringing, Casey sighed heavily while laying her head against Derek's chest. She knew that no matter what nothing would be able to stand in the way of her heart now, but she still needed to know that she had support and acceptance. It was implied but never verbalized and she needed the words more than anything. A slight tightening of Derek's arm told her that he needed it as well, but that his arm as well as his heart would be there no matter what.

After the third ring, both recognized the sing-song voice of the youngest inhabitant of the house. "Venturi/MacDonald residence."

A smile graced Derek's face. He missed his little sister this weekend, only seeing her in her famous purple princess dress for a few moments at the party, he wished he would have been able to spend more time with her. "Hey Smarti."

"Smerek!" came shrieking through the small holes on the phone. Looking up, Casey saw the smile on Derek. Marti had found her way into his heart which always made Casey a little envious, but she appreciated it at the same time. She made him who he was and she was grateful for the little girl.

After a few seconds of silence, Marti continued in a softer, almost whispered voice. "Did everything work out ok?"

Looking down to find Casey looking back up at him, his eyes twinkled a bit before he placed a kiss on her forehead. "It sure did Smarti."

Small squeals came from the phone before Casey and Derek heard Marti scream for the rest of the family. Hearing footsteps and an eventual 'who is it?' they heard Marti say Derek's name, almost seeing the ear to ear smile on her face.

After a little rustle, they heard the click of the receiver on the other end, letting them know they were now on speaker for the rest of the family to hear. Nora's voice was the first that they heard. "Is Casey there with you Derek?"

"Yeah mom, I'm here." Not knowing what to say next, both Casey and Derek sat in silence waiting for whatever their family threw at them. They were sure there would be questions and inquiries. There had to be at least a few comments, especially from their siblings. But they sat patiently waiting for everything that would come their way.

It was again Nora who was the representative of the family, asking a question that both Derek and Casey found to be too short and simple. "Well?"

"Well . . ." Casey began. She knew what the question was supposed to mean but she couldn't bring herself to answer. It is a sticky situation that they were in and she wasn't about to get herself stuck.

Hearing a small intake of breath from the other side of the line, Casey and Derek braced themselves for the worst. "Well . . . it's about time." This was definitely not what they were expecting to hear. And then after a few seconds of shock, they began to hear the rest of the family exclaiming their congratulations for the two of them.

Feeling confused, Derek finally gained his voice, asking "So that's it?"

"What did you think we were going to do?" George paused, seeming to wait for a response that never came. "This isn't an interrogation son. We just want you to be happy and we saw all along that you would be happy with each other. There really is nothing we can say or do about it."

It was Casey that was utterly confused this time. "Really? No questions or comments or anything?"

"Well, we do have a few things to say."

Great, they knew what was going to come next. 'No display of emotions around the rest of the family so it doesn't freak us out' and 'no letting your grades slip, we aren't paying for an apartment for college for alone time.' There would most likely be a 'we won't say we told you so when this doesn't work out.'

Seeing the same expression of concern on Derek's face, Casey stared at the phone sitting on the table. Intertwining her fingers with his, she squeezed slightly letting him know that they would be alright. "Yeah mom, what is it?"

"First, we don't care what you do at your own place, but when you are staying here you will be sleeping in separate rooms." Ok, that's reasonable, but that was just the first. "Second, George and I do not want to see grandchildren at least until you graduate, so use protection."

A few 'ewws' were heard from Edwin and Lizzie, while Marti asked what 'protection' was, causing Casey to blush a bit. Not noticing the small pink tint growing in Derek's own cheeks, Casey waiting for the thirds and fourths that she was expecting. After nothing, Casey tried to entice the rest of the conversation out of her mom. "And . . ."

"And . . ." there was a small pause in Nora's voice while she looked to the rest of her family. There faces told her that they didn't care about anything else. Stopping on George's face, he only gave her a shrug, indicating that he didn't have anything else to say to their eldest children. " . . . we love you and just want you to finally be happy."

What? That's it. Nothing else? "Thanks Nora." Smiling down at Casey he began again, "I'm sure we will be."

Goodbyes were said, along with a promise to call and stop by again soon. At last a very heartfelt 'thank you' came from both Derek and Casey, both of which meant it more than anything. It was all they could ever want, the acceptance from their family, and they thanked them wholeheartedly for it.

When the phone was finally hung up, Casey sat up straight and looked over at Derek. His expression matched her own, one filled with absolute awe at how easy that conversation was.

"Well, that went a lot better than expected."

"Besides the whole 'use protection' thing, I think it went really well." With that, Derek's lips lifted a little at the corners as he looked from Casey's eyes to her lips. A mischievous grin spread and Casey couldn't help but laugh, finding the way his eyes flickered when he thought she couldn't see what he really wanted.

Making his way over to Casey, she jumped out of the way just as he tried to kiss her. She rolled her eyes teasingly as he pouted up at her. Not being able to resist his angelic face, she leant down to quickly brush her lips against his, knowing if she stayed any longer it would be hours before she would get off the couch.

Turning towards the phone, she hit the speaker button and dialed a familiar number. Seeing the questioning look on Derek's face, she explained "I need to let Emily know what's going on. She apparently already knew how I felt about you and I told her I would let her know what happened."

Derek nodded, explaining that Sam seemed to know of his own feelings, saying that as soon as she was done with Emily he would give Sam a call.

Sitting next to Derek, she felt his arm once again wrap around her waist. Relishing in the thoughts of perfection that crossed her mind, she heard a familiar voice say "Hello."

"Hey Em, its Casey." She felt the strong arm wrap a little tighter around her waist, before she was pulled into Derek's lap. Trying to stifle the giggle that was tickling the back of her throat, she turned to see a forced innocent look on Derek's face.

"Don't 'Hey Em' me. I want details." Oh, Emily. You have not changed one bit.

Derek moved the hair off of Casey's shoulder and found the same attraction that was there from that morning. He tried to not move, tried to not taste her sweet skin, but he failed. Lightly kissing her shoulder sent shivers down her body, making him smile that he could still cause so much from such a small amount of attention.

Casey completely forgot that she was still on the phone with Emily. She was enjoying the feeling she was getting from his slight touch. Turning so she could face him, she brought her lips to his. She barely began to place the smallest amount of pressure against him before she heard a voice coming from the phone.

"Well?" That pesky question.

"Well what?" she said ask she turned away from Derek's face, glaring at the phone.

"Did he feel the same?"

Casey felt Derek turn her face, placing small kisses all over before stopping on her lips. "Yeah Emily, I feel the same."

"Derek?" There was a small pause where Casey couldn't help herself from smiling. Emily spread the most gossip in high school, so she knew it wouldn't take long before most of their graduating class would know about them. Another thought crept into her head that made her smile falter. What about his reputation? What people thought of him was so important to him in high school. Does he want them to know?

Derek saw the look in her eyes. He noticed her smile fade as her eyes spoke to him. He saw the questions and doubt fill her. Lifting her chin a little, he place a very chaste but passionate kiss on her lips. Looking into his eyes, Casey saw them tell her one thing. 'I don't care anymore.'

"I guess it's about time the two of you got together."

Pulling Casey closer, he whispered "I really like the people we surround ourselves with." Casey nodded and let herself fall completely against him, loving the feel of his muscles under her body. "And I really love you."

Blushing slightly, Casey bit her bottom lip as she backed away from him to look at his face. Shaking his head, he leaned in and ran his tongue across Casey's bottom lip and the teeth biting into it. Mmm, my all time favorite snack. After she released her lip he whispered, "Don't do that, I don't want them to get hurt. They . . . you are too precious to get hurt."

Before Casey could respond, they both heard Emily speak again. "Are you guys still there?"

Rolling her eyes, causing a laugh from Derek, Casey turned to the phone to reply. "Yeah we're still here Em."

"So . . . how was it?"

Furrowing her eyebrows she turned to see Derek's own questioning face. Shrugging, Derek said "How was what?"

Listening intently, they heard Emily take a deep breath. They knew that for Emily to hold back it must have been something important. "How was the sex?"

Derek noticed that his cheeks became really hot again and that Casey became many shades darker than she normally was. If it wasn't a weird conversation, Derek would have told her how cute she was when she blushed. He found it endearing that his perfect little Casey was able to get flustered over things. Catching her when she was off her guard and making her face contort into the funniest of faces always made him was to kiss her right then and there. This would have been the first opportunity to kiss her while she was at a loss, but he knew it was inappropriate.

Casey couldn't believe she was just asked that. What is it with everyone talking about my sex life. She couldn't turn and look at Derek, knowing that he would be able to see the embarrassment in her eyes. He was able to see her profile though, so she already knew that he could see her blushing. It wasn't like they weren't going to eventually have that conversation, it was just that it hadn't even been a day yet since they got together.

She was a virgin, and she knew that Derek was one as well. They had a conversation about it a few years ago and they had the same thoughts on the subject matter at hand.

No one else was home, seeing as their parents decided it would be nice to take the younger children to the new theme park that opened up in the next town. Casey wasn't feeling well and said she was going to stay home. At this time, Derek and Casey stopped fighting and were slowly becoming good friends, so he offered to stay home and make sure she would be ok.

After making some soup for Casey, Derek suggested they watch a movie. Settling for something neither of them had seen before that was playing on tv, they sat in the living room.

Finishing her bowl of soup, she placed it on the table in front of her and settled into a better position on the couch, not watching what was on the tv for a few minutes. Unaware of the fact that Derek was staring at her and not paying attention to the movie either, she looked up and noticed that there was a very explicit sex scene on.

Clearing her throat, Derek snapped out of his trance and noticed the same thing she noticed. It wasn't that he was uncomfortable with something like this. He was a guy after all and he had seen his fair share of pornos, which were a lot more graphic than what was in the movie. But something about watching it in front of Casey made him nervous.

Looking over to Derek to try and gauge his reaction to the sudden turn in the movie's events, she saw that his cheeks turned a shade or two pinker than they normally were.

"Derek Venturi, are you blushing at a sex scene?"

"I . . . um . . . well . . ." Derek couldn't seem to say anything. His reputation at his school said that he was a male whore and although he didn't want Casey to think that, he didn't want the school to find out that he wasn't as hardcore as people made him seem to be.

"Is it true? Has Derek Venturi never had sex before?" Casey was praying that he hadn't. She wanted to think that he wasn't the playboy people thought he was, he hadn't even had a girl to the house in over a year. And she had already gotten to see the other side of Derek, the side that he shut out to their fellow students. And she knew it was sincere, she could always tell when he lied to her, which he rarely did. She always saw it in his eyes.

Derek tried to look away from her gaze, but her eyes always pulled him in. And whenever he found himself stuck in her gaze he couldn't stop himself from telling her the truth. "No, I haven't," he said sheepishly before finally looking away from her and towards the floor.

Casey laughed. It wasn't that she thought it was funny or anything. She was just glad that he opened up to her about something so personal. She also mentally placed another check on the list in her head. So far, it was about a million on the good side of loving him, while the bad side was still empty.

Derek grew angry. The one person he ever told the truth to was laughing in his face. And it wasn't like she was just anyone. "Is it really that funny that I decided to wait for true love? It's not like I plan on waiting until I'm married. I just want to wait until I find the right person." And here she is laughing in my face.

That sobered Casey up quick. She had felt the same way. She wanted to wait until she fell in love. She wanted to wait until she felt completely comfortable with someone. She wanted to wait for Derek. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean it to make fun of you. I, uh, I guess I just thought it was funny that we both want to same thing."

Derek's mouth dropped open at this. He was pretty sure that she and Sam had sex before. Although Derek never allowed the conversation to go beyond anything more than 'So me and Casey', he thought that they definitely had done it. And to be honest, it killed him a little inside.

As if reading his mind, Casey continued "and no, I did not have sex with Sam. It didn't feel right with him. I never got past kissing him."

"We, uh, I . . . um . . ." Casey was flabbergasted. It was such a personal question. What the hell does Emily think of me, it hasn't even been 2 days since I saw her at the party? Casey also didn't know what to say. She was waiting for Derek this whole time, she was always waiting for him. But it had only been a few hours since they admitted their feelings for the other.

Sensing Casey stiffen against him, Derek decided to help Casey out. She was speechless and he knew that with every passing second she became more and more distressed. "Casey and I haven't had sex yet Em." Feeling Casey relax he continued, "I know I waited for someone special, and now that I found her, I don't mind how long it takes."

Casey finally found the inner strength to face Derek. Finding his eyes with her own, all she saw was sincerity. Nodding slowly, he silently told her that he meant what he said. There would be absolutely no pressure.

"Aww. That's the sweetest thing I have ever heard." Smiling, Casey nodded her head to show Derek that she agreed with Emily. "Derek, you should really have a conversation with Trevor sometime. Maybe we can visit you guys and the four of us can all hang out."

Not taking his eyes off of Casey's, he agreed and told Emily that they will call her up the next weekend and plan something. After a few short goodbyes, Derek and Casey heard the dial tone coming from the speaker on the phone. Reaching past Casey, but still keeping her eyes locked with his own, he hit the button to turn off the phone. Leaning back on the couch, he kept Casey close to him.

"I meant everything I said. As long I have you near me I will be happy for the rest of my life. I have no problem waiting forever."

Blinking, the unshed tears that developed in her eyes began to fall down her cheeks. She felt Derek's hand come up and gently brush them away. She knew everything he was saying was true. She also knew all of it without him having to say any of it. The had gotten so close over the past few years that Casey knew he would never push her to do anything that she was not ready for, he would never do anything to intentionally hurt her.

"I know. And if it's possible, I think I love you even more."

"As long as you know that I love you more."

She rolled her eyes at him but the smile on her lips never left, "Are we actually having this conversation Derek?"

"Yup, and you do realize that you are continuing it."

Noticing his eyes dart from her eyes to her lips for about the hundredth time that day, she said "Don't get any ideas Derek. You still have to call Sam."

Reaching into his pocket he grabbed his cell phone and quickly began to hit the keys. After about a minute of rapid tapping, he closed his phone and tossed it on the table.

"What did you do?"

"Sent Sam a text message. I told him thanks and that we are together." Licking his lips, Casey knew what was coming.

Although she foresaw their lips colliding, she still couldn't believe the effect his kisses had on her, which was the same with him. They fell into peaceful bliss, every thought left their minds. They were only focused on the other and they wished they could stay like that for the rest of their lives . . . Together on the couch without a care in the world.

Neither heard Derek's phone make a small sound, receiving a simple message from Sam saying "Congratulations."