Hello everyone! Happy April! I hope everyone has had some spring-like days (or maybe just some warm days?) Here is the next bit!
I really love every review. They are amazing motivation and always great insight! Plus they make me happy so there. :)
2,500 points to bonniereads and to KaRaEa! Thank you for guessing! I love "listening" to the reactions to my writing; I get to where I can't stop smiling. :)
Disclaimer: Nope. I have too much to pay for and only got a lint roller for Easter.
Casey was exhausted. She had never read more in a single day in her entire life. Probably. Her eyes hurt and she was really hoping that she'd remembered to grab her glasses off of the desk before she left; it'd been on her list, but it was the end of a rough day and sometimes not everything got checked off.
She pulled her car into her garage and sat for a moment. Her house looked quiet and mostly dark. The porch lights were on and the lights on the second floor. It was late. She yawned and grabbed for her bag, happy for the weight of her laptop; at least she'd remembered something.
The kitchen was dark but the counter tops were clean. She hung her purse on the hook and dropped her keys on the table. She meant to hang them up in their proper place, but today was a day that was never meant to have happened. She could hear her family upstairs, slightly muffled by the ceiling. She was so glad to be home.
She wandered around her kitchen, checking the dishwasher and moving the melt-able plastic toddler forks to the upper rack. He never checked the chart she made on proper dish loading and would probably complain if melted plastic broke another appliance. She looked to make sure nothing was left in the sink or the microwave and that he'd remembered to put the leftovers in the Tupperware she'd set out for him.
He had. The note he'd left in the fridge blatantly read "knock it off nerd-o." He was so eloquent and kind.
She took the stairs up to the second floor and saw the washroom light on without any occupants. There were little puddles everywhere and towels were strewn over the floor and countertops. He must have attempted to bathe them both at once. Which didn't fully explain the helmet full of water resting in the empty tub, but did account for the amount of water around the room. She kicked a mostly dry towel around the floor as she rearranged the counter top and gathered everything that was sopping wet. She had to back track to the washing machine, but when the load of laundry hummed as it started to agitate, she was happy to have one more thing done.
Derek was sitting against the wall in between the doors to their children's rooms. He had his knees bent and his arms draped over them. His head was down and he could have been asleep, except that his face jerked up as he heard her approach. He gave Casey a real grin as she reached him and turned to sit next to him. He had a great smile; it made her feel fluttery, even now.
"Hey," he kept his voice soft, just in case their son decided that he wasn't tired because everyone else was so much more exciting. Derek took her hand and held it in his lap as she relaxed against his side.
"Hey," she whispered back. "How were they?"
"Loud. And slippery." Casey held in a snort.
"That's why we don't usually bathe them together. Especially when one gets loose."
"Yeah, that Anna's a speedy runner." They locked eyes and had to look away quickly before they laughed and broke the quite spell that had fallen over their house.
"She's pretty sneaky," Casey agreed, "she must be related to you."
"Well, obviously," he muttered into her hair, "You couldn't be sneaky to save your life."
"Yeah, well, you'll be sad that she's not like that when she's a teenager and dating."
"Oh, no," Derek shook his head, "no boy is getting anywhere near enough to date her."
"So as to encourage the sneakiness?" she asked, eyebrows raised.
"Oh, dammit." He clearly hadn't thought that through.
"You could fend boys off with a hockey stick. Or a real stick," she smirked. Ed had joked that Derek had been "blessed" with Anna because of his high school and college reputations involving the female populations. And he was going to pay karma back for every "penny."
"Or I could just train Conor to beat them up."
"Yes, that's it, Der. Teach our son to be violent, because that's the answer to your daddy-daughter issues."
"Well, if Conor handles it, they won't be daddy-daughter issues, now will they?" She rolled her eyes at his obvious pride in this brilliant epiphany.
"So, did you have any problems with putting them down together?" she asked, changing the subject back to what she really wanted to know. He shook his head.
"Not really. She picked a story, he picked the next. Anna fell asleep halfway through his story and so I just put him down after that."
"Wow. You got luck with that one."
"I think it was because Nanu picked that counting animal book again," Derek explained, using his favorite nickname for his son. Casey was only slightly concerned that her son wouldn't understand that "Nanu" came from his own inability to say his name and was not a second name he had in addition to "Conor."
"Yeah, she usually drops off at about the eight salamanders with that story anyway." Derek nodded and brushed his thumb over her knuckles.
"Yep. And Conor only got up once because Spot had gone missing." Their son had a talent for leaving his stuffed zebra 'Spot' in places he couldn't remember later. The sad call of 'Bot, are you?' got to her every time and she routinely forgot to scold him for getting out of bed when the zee-ba was involved.
"In our room?" she guessed.
"In our room," he confirmed. Ninety percent of the time it had been lost in their room and she sent him off to bed with no comment. Maybe it was her worry that her son wouldn't know that 'Spot' was actually stripped and not spotted. It would be Marti's quacking cow all over again.
They sat in comfortable silence, Casey breathing in the moment. She rested her head on his upper arm, comfortable. It made up for the rest of the day, right here. It made everything all better.
"So, how did it go with Sam?" Derek finally asked. She made a face but sat upright again.
"Fine," she stretched, suppressing a yawn. "It was mostly research." He raised his eyebrows at her, asking for more information, but she ignored him as she tried to stretch her shoulders.
"What kind of research? Did you guys find anything?"
"Of course," she responded, moving to get up. It wasn't an easy task in her pencil skirt, but she was a professional woman, so she managed without looking completely graceless. "I'm an excellent reader, dear," she reminded him, kissing his cheek before offering her hand out to help him up.
"I know that, dear," he narrowed his eyes at her as he stood. "What did Sam say?"
"Basic law stuff," she shrugged. She laced their fingers together as she lightly pulled him toward their room. She liked him. A lot. His look of annoyance at her refusal to give him the information he wanted made her want to giggle. He was adorable and completely hers.
"Caseeeeey," he whined, stomping his feet in perfect mimicry of his daughter.
"Der-rek," Casey whined back, shutting the hall light off as she entered the bedroom. She let go of his hand and shut the door behind him as he flopped across their pristinely arranged bedding. She kicked her heels off in the direction of her closet and watched as Derek watched her get ready for bed. "Stop oogling me, Venturi" she scolded him.
"Stop withholding information," he hesitated for a slit-second, "Venturi." He made a face as if the name tasted sour. "That whole last name thing was a lot more affective when it didn't sound like I was interrogating myself." Casey smiled in agreement as she pulled off her blouse and disappeared into the bathroom. She sniggered as she heard him collapse back onto their comforter with a louder than necessary "oh, come on!" as an indication that he was disappointed in her choice of place to undress.
When she'd finished washing her face and brushing her teeth and changing, she emerged and pushed him off of the bed they were supposed to be sharing.
"You are so mean to me," he pouted. She kissed him as she arranged herself under the blankets.
"Sam's pretty sure that we can get it thrown out," she finally told him, her face more serious. The pout immediately dropped of Derek's face.
"Really? That's awesome! Right?"
"Yeah, it is. It means that this won't really go to trial."
"Well, that's good, then." He changed his clothes with an absent minded look on his face. Casey bit her bottom lip slightly transfixed. "Stop oogling me," he reprimanded, smirking. She gave him an innocent look as he glared at her. "So, what makes Sam think that we can get it chucked out?" he changed the subject as he slipped in next to her.
"Well," she started, "first, George doesn't have an established relationship with our children, so that's a big part of it. And then there's the fact that my mother has only ever seen them twice."
"And, you know, the fact that we're not actually mentally crazy."
"Yeah, that, too."
"So, how did we get to the point where George was able to get that subpeanut, or whatever?"
"Sam thinks that he got a subpoena because he knows people. He's a well established lawyer and people probably owe him favors, but that won't mean they'll grant him a trial or a verdict. Favors only go so far."
"Okay, that's good. Sam told me that Anna just cried through hers anyway, so that can't be helpful, right?"
"I have no idea. They could spin it that she was terrified to say anything, but she's two, and they had one of those child psychologists in there to make sure nothing weird went on."
"Nothing weird?"
"Like overly aggressive questioning or something to try to confuse them."
"Okay, I thought you meant like touchy-feely weird."
"Oh, gross, Der."
"It happens, Case, and I'm not letting it happen to them. Especially when you abandon the three of us to go hang out with Sam and Emily."
"Yeah, it's complete abandonment when I'm building a case against your father."
"You said we didn't need one!"
"We shouldn't need one. The burden of proof is on George. All he has is when you were arrested in New York for that one fight with your entire team, nice going, by the way. And that, you know, we're technically related through him and Nora."
"Well, great. Way to make me feel really confident, Princess."
"Shut up. We're going to be fine. Don't be an ass."
"Casey," he said, very seriously. "Don't use that word." She hit him with her pillow a few times and glared at him.
"We're going to be fine," she emphasized, smacking him a last time. "Jerk."
"Good. Because George is not touching my kid. Either of them." He took her hand and kissed her wrist. Casey watched him as he processed this information.
"Hey," she bumped his shoulder lightly with her own. He looked up at her. "You're a good dad," she told him, softly. He searched her face, she assumed he was unsure if she was joking or not. She smiled and kissed him. "You know, for someone who thinks a subpoena is called a subpeanut." He narrowed his brows at her. "Because it's so close to the real word," she struggled to keep a straight face. She knew she was pushing it. He growled at her and nearly pounced, attaching his mouth to hers. She laughed as he kissed her, making every effort to kiss him back.
She loved him. He probably had no idea how much, but she loved him. He was weird; probably more than was strictly necessary, but it was completely him. And it probably always had been. He'd been there to pull her off her high horse and integrate her in social situations. He'd taken care of her and kept her grounded.
Granted, she'd picked up after him as well. She'd deflated his ego when he needed it, she'd introduced him to the idea that he was smart, and she had been there to hold his hand when he needed the support. They were complements of each other; completions.
It didn't need to make sense to anyone else. It made sense to them. They had built a beautiful family, regardless of how anyone else saw them.
And she'd been accepted as a normal person to an old friend. The unfortunate situations where people from her past would hide or run or usher people away from her had made her scarred of anyone who knew about her. But Emily had made her feel so normal. She had said that she'd seen it coming. Casey wasn't sure how that happened, because they hadn't seen it coming. But it didn't matter. It didn't matter that she knew. Because she knew and she had stayed. They'd even made plans together for later in the week. She was relieved to feel so… normal.
Because she and Derek weren't. Normal. In any sense of the word. And that was just fine. It was so them and completely perfect.
She lay awake, listening to him breathe. It was a soothing familiar sound. She knew him; how he breathed, how his heart sounded, how warm his skin was when he slept.
And she knew he understood her more than she understood herself. He didn't care that she organized their closet or their toiletries; he didn't mind that she alphabetized the spices and the pantry, he didn't care that the fridge was categorized and properly labeled. And she didn't care that he had no intention in helping her in any of those endeavors.
They weren't planned out. They weren't as organized as she had originally hoped. But it was how they were. A complete mess making attempts to be organized.
"Derek," she whispered to the dark room. He might have been sleeping, he was harder to hear when she was sitting up. "Der?" He grunted at her; he was awake. "I love you." Silence. Casey nudged him. "Der."
"What?" he grogged, turning over in a huff.
"I love you."
"Yeah, okay," he mumbled flipping back over.
"Der-rek!" she whined, nudging him again. "That's not what you are supposed to say." He didn't move. "Der-rek!"
"Yeah, okay, fine, Case, love you, too. Now shut up and cuddle me."
She snuggled close to his back, failing to suppress a giant grin. He loved her. And nothing else really mattered.
And we're almost done! I think I'll do one more (because I am doing one more)
Here are the points as of now:
LoveMeant2BE at 8,510
KaRaEa at 6,510
Sunshine-Midnight123 at 5,000
bonniereads at 4,000
garnetandgold47 at 3,510
thecanadian13 at 2,500
stars4redvines at 1,500
Silkylove13 at 10
Wow. Was I stingy on points or what? Okay, 5,000 points to who can tell me what comes next!
The box down here would like you to tell me your thoughts. I mean I would like it too, but it's mostly the box...
Let me know what you think and how you want to spend your points! :) [if I did my math wrong or if I skipped you, please let me know!]
P.S. Did anyone notice that they keep changing formats? What is this? Facebook? :) [I also don't own facebook]