Author's Note: OMG! I can't believe people actually read the first chapter. Your comments and excitement over the story mean a lot to me. I'm really glad you guys like it so far. I sort of have the whole story thought out, or at least I have the beginning and I know how I want it to end but the middle is kinda touch and go. This is my first fanfic so it really was scary to post it for people to read. I was actually more scared that NO ONE AT ALL would ever read it. This chapter is kinda long but hopefully it's worth it. I tried to throw in a gratuitous Dasey moment or two.

Diclaimer: I don't own Life With Derek or Dear Myself

Chapter Two: Grin and Bare It

"God dammit! What the hell, Casey? Stop yelling!" Derek looked at her like she was crazy.

"Stop yelling?" she parroted. "I think I have a right to yell, you pervert."

"What the hell are you talking about?" he demanded. "What do you mean, 'pervert?'"

"Uhhh…naked? In my room? In my bed!?! That equals 'pervert!'" She screeched back at him, clutching the sheets tightly around her now.

"Case, baby, have you lost your damned mind?" She let out a snort at his accusation that she'd gone crazy.

"Have I lost my mind?" She repeated as she crawled up onto her knees to face him. "Have I lost my mind? Look at you, you're naked!"

He quirked an eyebrow at her. "And we're back to that."

"We never left that."

"Of course we didn't."

"You're patronizing me. Oh my God, you're patronizing me," Casey seethed.

"No I'm not," Derek replied, calmly; deliberately allowing her to misinterpret. He had to fight hard to hold back his smirk.

"Yes, you are."

"If. You. Say. So."

"You're insufferable." She looked around until she found a pillow and hurled it at him. "Get OUT!"

He caught the pillow easily and tossed it aside. To Casey's horror, he started crawling onto the bed, towards her. Casey instinctively started to back away.

"What the – what the hell are you doing?" Casey stumbled, causing her to end up flat on her back.

"Enough," Derek told her, no longer hiding his infamous smirk. He took advantage of Casey's current position to maneuver himself on top of her, leaving them face to face. "Not that the whole Miss Prissy thing wasn't an interesting choice. Different. Still sexy. But the game's gotten old, Case."

Oh God, oh God, oh God, oh God. Casey's mind was going a mile a minute. Her brain was processing thousands of thoughts on her current position, none of which seemed the least bit helpful given the circumstances. Her heart was pounding. Her head was spinning. And Derek's voice in her ear was sending chills down her spine. What the hell was going on? None of this was making any sense to her.

And Derek was smirking down at her. He was messing with her. Of course he was messing with her. Casey was not going to take this lying down. Well, she thought to herself, remembering that she was in fact lying down, not if I can help it.

"Der-ek!" She tried pushing and shoving at his chest but he wasn't budging. "Get the hell off me."

She moved a hand to slap him but he caught it and instead raised it over her head and out of hitting range. Panicking, Casey tried to get a hit in with her other hand but Derek's hockey reflexes proved too quick and he easily caught it and moved it up to join her other hand.

"Der-ek! I'm warning you." It was an empty threat given her helpless position under him but she refused to back down. "Get the hell off of me."

"I will…later," Derek replied easily, smiling salaciously. Casey's eyes widened. Oh God, what is he going to do?

"I must be a sick, sick man." Derek held his smirk and shook his head at his own observation. Casey had an equally acidic response but didn't trust her own voice to deliver it. "Because, I love arguing with you first thing in the morning."

Casey desperately hoped this nightmare would stop. And soon. And where the hell was her mother or Lizzie? Surely they heard the yelling and screaming.

And then it happened. Without warning, without reason, and without a second thought…Derek kissed her.

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Derek pulled back and looked down at Casey.

"Why aren't you kissing me back?" Derek asked, puzzled. "Something wrong?"

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

Now it was Derek's turn to look bug-eyed. "Casey, what the hell?"

"AHHHHHHHH! MOOOOOOOOOMMMMM!" Derek was taken aback enough to release his grip on Casey's hands. She took the opportunity to shove him off of her.

"Get the hell off. Oh God! Eww!" She pushed him hard then wiped her lips with the back of her hand. "God! Have you gone mental? Now I have to go chug mouth wash."

Derek let her shove him off of her. "You're not playing around are you?"

Casey glared at him.

"Case? Calm down. Look at me."

Casey imitated his earlier eyebrow quirk. "I think I've seen enough of you to last a lifetime. My shrink will bill you later."

"Casey, does your head hurt?" Had Derek been a lesser man, her gaze would have destroyed him. Casey struggled to sit up to meet him eye to eye.

"Get. Out."

"I can't."

"Why not?" She bit out. Casey marveled at the nerve of him as he actually smiled at her.

"Because…this is my room." He thought Casey might have growled at him but he wasn't sure. She awkwardly climbed off the bed, still clutching the sheets around her, being sure to bump her shoulder against him as she stood.

"Derek, enough is enough. Get the hell out. I don't have anymore time to waste with you."

"Casey –"

"Derek! Look, I'll forget this whole thing happened. Which, between you and me, I can't believe they didn't hear anything or come running to my rescue but whatever. But, anyway, I won't tell my mom or George or the rest of the school about this little break down of yours if you get out now."

"Casey –" Derek tried again.

"Derek, this is not up for negotiation. And this offer expires in exactly 30 seconds."

"Case –"

"Derek."

"Casey, will you just shut up and listen to me."

"Derek, I'm done playing your stupid little games. And," she paused dramatically, as if she was actually calculating his remaining time, "you have about fifteen seconds left."

"God, you're so frustrating," he groaned as he stood up. "You're acting like you're seventeen again."

"Well geez, I wonder why. Could it be because I am seventeen?" This gave Derek pause.

"Casey, you're twenty." Casey looked at him a moment.

"Yeah, okay. I have no idea what you're after but I have to go take a shower." She turned her back on him to retrieve her towel.

"Casey, I have no idea what's going on but clearly you're confused and suffering from some kind of amnesia…again."

"Uh-huh. Yeah. Sure," Casey muttered in response as she continued to search for her towel.

"Umm...I don't know how to tell you this but you were in a car accident three years ago. It was raining and one of those big delivery trucks lost control and hit you. You were in a coma for three months and we didn't know if you were going to make it but you did. Only, you lost your memory. Well, part of it anyway like family and friends and things like that. The doctor wasn't sure if you were going to get it back but it seems you did only you seem to have lost all the new memories. So I think we should get cleaned up and then go see the doctor." Derek was amazed he managed to explain it all in one breath. "Whew…that was easier than I thought."

"Sure. Whatever. Darn it, where's my towel?" Casey complained.

"Casey, I'm trying to talk to you."

"I'm not interested in anything you have to say unless it's where my towel is."

"It's on the hook behind the closet door where you always hang it." She went to the closet and opened the door. Sure enough the towel was there. In fact, there were two towels. She picked up the pink one.

"Thanks." Then she thought better of it. She turned towards him. "How'd you know where it was?"

"Because unfortunately the amnesia was unable to completely banish all the anal retentiveness."

Casey narrowed her eyes. "What are you up to?"

"Did you hear a word I said?"

"Car accident. Three years. Amnesia. Coma. Did I miss anything?"

"And?"

Casey rolled her eyes. "And what?"

"You don't believe me?" Derek threw his hands up in irritation.

"Of course I don't believe you. You're Derek." Derek was quickly losing patience.

"Casey, look around you. This isn't your room."

Casey scoffed.

"Derek, of course this is my – Oh my God!" Casey dropped the towel as she looked around the room, really seeing it for the first time. "This isn't my room."

"No, baby, it's not."

Casey walked around, shell shocked. Her hands trailed along the foreign computer desks and drawers. She let her eyes travel over the pictures covering the walls and most of the visible surfaces without really looking at them, not ready for more shocks than the ones she'd already received.

"Why do you keep doing that?" she asked in whisper.

"Doing what?" he asked gently.

"You keep calling me 'baby.' It's disturbing. And making me a little nauseous." Derek studied her carefully. She looked like a lost little girl but he could tell she was fighting it. She wasn't fully accepting what he was saying but he supposed that was fine. It would be better if she had her breakdown at the hospital. Unfortunately, he would have to get her to believe him enough to allow him to drive her there. And he figured the part he was about to reveal would be better coming from him.

"Case, you might want to sit down."

She eyed him warily but sat down anyway. She didn't believe him. But something was definitely going on. Clearly she would have to face at least one more shock. Waking up beside a naked Derek (which still freaked her out beyond belief, but she'd deal with that later), the room (which wasn't just decorated differently, it was a completely different room), the lack of Nora and George and the kids running in at the sound of her screaming. It all added up to something, she just wasn't sure what.

And then there was Derek himself. Looking at him now, she almost did a double take. Derek was different. She was of course judging completely based on facial features and hair since she refused to move her eyes south of his shoulders. He was Derek, of that she was sure. But there were definitely differences. His hair was shorter for one thing. It was still haphazardly, casually aloof. Although it probably took almost an hour to look that way. And his face was more mature. And his eyes were looking at her in a way that made her uncomfortable yet excited. He'd never looked at her that way before. Ever.

She didn't like it.

"Okay, so I'm sitting."

"Case, ummm…so, things were different after the accident and your coma."

"Well, obviously."

"Right." Derek hesitated. "You're seventeen right? Or at least the last you remember you were right?"

"At least I was when I went to sleep last night."

"And you don't remember the accident so it probably hasn't happened for you yet."

"Derek. Point. Now." Derek knelt down in front of her and took hold of her hand. She didn't know why, but she let him.

"Casey, we're dating. We have been for a little over two years." Casey said nothing for almost five minutes. She just sat there staring him. Derek waited.

When the silence that had enveloped them was finally broken, it was by the sound of Casey's uncontrollable laughter.

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"Casey?" Derek gripped her hand a little tighter to try and get her attention.

"Derek, I'm sorry. It's just…" she broke off, unable to stop laughing. She took a few calming breaths. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry, I'm sorry. It's…for a second there, I swear you said we were dating."

"But…I mean…that's ridiculous, right?" she continued. Casey let out a couple more chuckles before she sobered enough to look up into Derek's face. He looked strange to her and Casey felt all the laughter drain out of her. He looked like she'd just hurt his feelings and then killed his puppy in front of him. And for some reason, looking at him looking at her like that made her heart constrict.

"Oh my God, you're not kidding." Her voice was barely above a whisper but he heard her and Derek's face brightened.

"Do you remember?" His voice was hopeful and for a split second, she almost wished she did.

"No. But, I'm willing to hear you out."

"Good enough." He leaned away from her and stood back up, releasing her hand in the process.

He just stood there, obviously waiting for her next move. Casey's eyes wandered over to the forgotten pink towel lying on the floor. She stood and picked it up.

"But before anything, I'm going to go take a long, relaxing shower. Which way is it?" she asked as she walked to the door.

"Down the hall, to the left. Second door."

"Right. I'll go do that now. Oh, and Derek?"

"Yeah?" She carefully kept her eyes averted as she answered him.

"Future conversations might be spared the extra awkwardness if…I don't know…you were dressed."

Derek pulled the discarded comforter up off the ground and covered himself and leered at her as he gave his parting shot. "You know, the new you usually can't wait to get me naked."

Casey felt the immediate heat fill her cheeks. She tightened her grip on the towel then realized something she'd forgotten. Not too far from where she'd dropped the towel lay the forgotten bed sheets. She quickly wrapped the towel around herself before wrenching open the door and marching out muttering, "Clearly I suffered severe brain damage from that car accident."