Again, so so sorry for the wait. I was all prepared to write another chapter—possibly two, if you can imagine—but I watched the new Kendra episode (way back when) and it kind of killed my inspiration. And then I went away. And then, lo and behold, I was inspired on the wrong part of the story. I should really just stop promising new chapters; it's likely you'll get them faster if I don't have a deadline. But regardless, my inspiration is resuscitating, and I've written you some more. Hopefully it's not too AU now (I can always play off their breakup as a temporary thing, right?). Enjoy.

Disclaimer: What's in ownership? A TV show, if owned by any other company, still isn't mine.

Derek awoke feeling an irritating mixture of disconcertion and befuddlement. In the month and a half since he'd started having those dreams, not once had the memory disregarded Kendra. It was Jenny's fault, he decided with a grumble as he pulled himself out of bed, smacked off his alarm, and trudged toward the closet. He was doing just fine before she had shown up, but she had to go play catalyst and dredge up Casey. Sure their conversation had centered around Kendra, but she had pressed the right buttons when it came to his stepsister, and he was sure she knew it.

Grabbing a set of clothes and moving toward the bathroom, Derek attempted to gather his thoughts. Concentrating on shaving usually distracted him fairly well, and if that failed there was always the comfort of a hot shower, but despite managing to push his thoughts to the back of his mind, Derek had the unwanted suspicion that they could still pop up at any moment.

Buttoning his shirt and roughly tousling his wet hair, Derek gave a decisive nod and flicked off the bathroom light. He was greeted by the expected silence as he moved through the house and finally entered the kitchen. The woman sitting on the stool, however, threw him for a moment.

"Coffee?" Jenny asked, raising her own steaming mug along with a questioning eyebrow. "I made extra."

Shaking his frown at the fact that she had rummaged through his kitchen unwarranted, he glanced at her, then at the clock. Fully dressed and typing away at her laptop at 8 am.

"Why are you up?" he asked, furrowing his brow.

"Because it's morning," she replied easily, laughing at the look on his face. Apparently deciding to humor him, she expounded. "Why waste the day away? There are more important things to be doing than sleeping. Like drinking coffee. And getting the latest juice," she said, gesturing to her laptop, which he saw was opened to her email. "So I ran to the car for my laptop and the good coffee. I figured it was only fair, after all your hospitality." He couldn't decide whether or not she was being facetious, so he chose to ignore her statement and pour himself a mug of coffee, grumbling to himself about morning people. And if she had the energy to run out to the car, why hadn't she left yet?

"And anyways," she continued with a grin. "I can officially make you coffee now. We bonded," she finished in a stage whisper, winking at him. Snorting, Derek raised a skeptical brow.

"Is that what you want to call it?" he wondered sarcastically, but he somehow managed to leave it at that. She wasn't quite as bad now that she had gotten her answers; at least she wasn't pestering him anymore. Still crazy, though.

"Well, whatever you want to call it, it qualifies me to caffeinate you in the morning." Derek didn't really see how that matched up, but he was used to such leaps in logic; he wasn't Marti's brother for nothing. Speaking of . . . .

"Didn't you say something about picking Marti up?" he asked, glancing at her as he started downing his coffee. He always ran late in the mornings, so he generally finished his coffee in a few sips. Checking the clock, he saw that today was no different.

"Lunch at 8 am? Not quite," she replied with a laugh as she set down her mug with finality. "But I can see where I'm not wanted-" somehow, he doubted that; she had been unwanted for weeks "-so I'll just get out of here." Snapping her laptop shut she slid it into her oversized purse, which she proceeded to sling over her shoulder as she stood. "But I'm sure you're not rid of me yet," she added teasingly as she dropped the mug in the sink and moved toward the door. "The women in your life like me too much." At that, she pulled open the door and slipped outside.

Derek grumbled at her last words, agreeing with her far too much, but his irritation was minor. She had left painlessly and didn't pester him in his rush before work. Maybe he could learn to deal with her. With a glance at his watch, he finished his last sip of coffee, dropping the mug beside Jenny's as he reached for a clean thermos. Dumping the rest of the pot into it, he screwed on the cap as he walked back to his office for his bag and jogged back to the front door. Fumbling with the key in the lock, he looked briefly to his watch again. Damn it, he was late.

If Derek were to say that Kendra dropping by mid-morning was rather unexpected, if not wholly unwelcome, his lunch break was a shock. He should have expected it, really, with the week that he'd been having, but he had figured he had gotten most of the stress out of the way for a bit. Not so. Between the two groups of women in his life, he was sure he'd be driven insane before too much longer passed. The first, much more manageable, arrived just after twelve thirty with as much fanfare as an office permitted.

"Who do you love?" Derek heard from around the corner just before he saw his little sister appear, a bag of food preceding her outstretched hand.

"Marti," he replied with a pleased grin as he shoved his cold pasta into the garbage.

"And her chauffeur," Jenny added as she too rounded the corner, quirking a grin as she noted the slightly souring look on Derek's face.

Right. Meeting Marti for lunch, he remembered with a sigh.

"Oh, come on," Jenny wheedled playfully as Marti handed him the bag. "We've shared deep, heartfelt conversation and I'm bringing you food. There's no way we can't be friends now."

Derek raised an eyebrow, suppressing a sarcastic response, but allowed a hint of a grin. He supposed he could at least give her a chance, given that she came bearing food. A small chance at that, he amended stubbornly as he focused steadily on the meal rather than the thoughts he had been repressing all morning.

"The date for the play's set," Marti announced, purposely ignoring the obvious undertones her brother's expression. He looked up at her, fully taking in her appearance for the first time that morning. Ballet flats, straight skirt, nice sweater and a simple ribbon to pull back her hair. He hadn't expected her to give up her quest, but the sight still made him smile at his sister's quirks.

"I'm marking your calendar," she announced unnecessarily as she pulled a marker from her noticeably daintier purse and moved across to where the rarely used item hung.

"Like I'm going to miss it," he smirked, rolling his eyes.

"I know I have you wrapped," Marti told him plainly, turning to grin at him over her shoulder, "But it's always fun to remind you."

Derek shook his head to avoid admitting the truth of her words and Marti laughed as she finished writing and capped her pen. Walking softly toward him, she bent to press a sloppy kiss to his cheek, leaning against his shoulder long enough to cheekily intone, "I love my Smerek."

"Yeah, yeah," he muttered, rolling his eyes, but he was smiling.

"Aw," Jenny broke in jokingly. "I love you guys, too."

Glancing at her with mild irritation, Derek forced down his dislike of people commenting on his soft spot for Marti. It was bad enough that people saw it regularly.

"Well," Marti announced, sensing the unspoken discomfort. "We just wanted to drop that by. But I'm crashing at your place sometime soon, okay?" She didn't even wait for Derek's affirmation before waving Jenny out the door, calling, "Don't let Kendra drive you crazy," over her shoulder. Derek watched as Marti turned toward into the hall, and was almost as surprised as she when she suddenly hit a solid object. The second of his two problems, or at least the cause of it. His stepmother, Nora. Followed closely by Casey.

"Marti," Nora managed, sounded almost as surprised as Derek felt, though without the uncertain twist he barely managed to control. "What are you doing here?" Gathering her thoughts, she asked sternly, "Are you skipping school?"

"Skipping school? Me?" Marti asked, managing to sound completely innocent despite the sarcastic words. "No, Nora; it's my lunch break. And now I'm headed back. Bye, Nora, Casey," she called, heading to the left where Derek could barely see Jenny still hovering.

"Hey, Derek," Nora smiled as she moved into the room. Casey followed her easily, but there was an unmistakable sense of formality to her air. "We were just out to lunch down the street and I thought it would be nice if we brought you something. Casey wasn't too keen on the idea," she added with a laugh, obviously finding it rather amusing. "If you two weren't so nice to each other, I'd swear you still don't get along," she joked, to which Casey crossed her arms firmly and Derek managed a faint smile. "But I guess Marti beat us to it."

"Sorry," Derek shrugged. "You could always try Dad. He's not quite as popular," he added with an easy smirk.

"Oh, no," Nora dismissed easily, moving to set the box on his desk. "It's just a sandwich; it'll keep. Save it for tomorrow, maybe."

"Sure," Derek accepted, pushing the box further back on the table. With any luck they were just dropping that off.

Apparently they were, because Casey gave him a polite, "Have a good afternoon," and moved toward the door.

"Ooh, what are you working on?" Nora asked, moving toward his computer and stopping Casey's trajectory. She didn't stop by often, and her disconnection with his business life made her curious.

"Nothing much," he told her, hoping that would deter her. When he noted the failure of his plan, he moved aside to let her look at the screen. Casey fell back into the doorway, moving only so close as decorum required.

"Are you still liking work?" she asked, causing him to glance away from her mother and back again.

"It's alright," he answered, letting his gaze rest on Casey once more. "Some days are great, others . . . not so much." He shrugged, eyes moving to watch Nora examining his screen, as she nodded. "What about you?" he asked without turning.

"Oh, you know. It's not as interesting as what you do, but I like it." He nodded, studying her form from the corner of his eye. "It's important," she added with the hint of a smile, and he caught the unexpected challenge. More important. He checked his grin; once, the addition would have been voiced, but now even the sentiment was unusual. Things like that, even implied, were far too often missing from their conversations. Her guard was down, at least somewhat.

"Of course," he replied, adding just enough for her to catch the 'yeah right,' in his words. Casey faintly raised an eyebrow, obviously contemplating whether to continue the unspoken exchange or to let it drop as she usually did. Derek would have sworn her mouth was about to open again when Nora straightened and glanced back at them. Anything Casey might have said died in her still-closed mouth, and Derek firmly checked himself again.

"Well, this is great, Derek," his stepmother told him with the air of someone who wanted to be helpful but hadn't the faintest clue what they had been looking at. "And I'm glad we got to stop by. We don't see you enough," she continued with a smile. Derek smiled back at her; Nora really did try, and he couldn't say he didn't appreciate it sometimes. When she wasn't interrupting unspoken conversations. Though despite his disappointment, Nora's interruption was probably for the better. "But I don't want to keep you, and I'm sure Casey has to get back to work. But I'm going to give Kendra a call," she warned lightly. "You two need to come home for dinner so we can catch up. You're too busy with the wedding to see us as much as Casey does, so we'll have to make you." She grinned. "Goodbye, Derek."

He raised a hand in farewell as Casey murmured a quick, "Bye," and slipped out after her mother. Derek sat for a good two minutes before a scuffling in the hallway and a faint murmur brought him out of the self-piteous daze. Shaking his head, he attempted to return to his meal, already knowing that there was no hope of quiet thoughts that evening.

SSSSSSssssssSSSSSS

Okay, I'm going to stop it there because it seems like a good place to stop. And then I can work out how I want the next bit to fall out (I know, I should have that by now, right?). And since I'm away at school now, I really don't expect the next one to take so long. I feel horrible for abandoning this for the summer. But if anyone out there's still with me, let me know what you think, please!