Yay!! Another chapter! Lol. Anyways, enjoy!

Derek watched his dad join him in the living room. That tension was still there between them. The same tension that was there when Derek started using. And he was hoping it wasn't going to be there but it was.

"What did you need to talk about?" George asked like nothing was wrong.

"About everything," he said. "I wanna know why you didn't take the time to see me."

"You were in New York."

"Not that and you know it." Derek said to him. "You ignored the fact that I was breaking and you did nothing."

His dad said nothing.

"Why?" Derek asked, "Why did you just sit there and do nothing?"

"You were out of control, how was I supposed to do something when you wouldn't let anyone in?"

"You didn't even try to ask."

"Yes I did and you know it." George said to him.

"Yeah, once. Why didn't you try every day after that?" Derek asked.

He and his father were yelling back and forth by now. Tears were threatening to spill from Derek's eyes even though he still hated when he let his emotions out.

"You should have picked and picked at it until I couldn't stand you anymore."

"Well it's kindof hard to pick at something when they don't want you around." His dad snapped back.

"Didn't want you around?" Derek repeated, "Of course I wanted you around, I needed you around, and I wanted you to ask what was wrong and I wanted you to be my dad and you weren't." Derek's voice shook, "Do you know how I felt the day you and Nora got divorced?"

"You never talked to me about it so how would I know?" George asked bitterly.

"Again, you should have asked." Derek snapped back. "I felt my entire world was crashing down around me. First you drop Nora and her girls on me and then, right when I get used to them, you take them away."

"Derek,"

"You didn't ask how I felt when you married her and you didn't ask when you divorced her and that's your problem dad; you're selfish. You don't see anything outside yourself."

"I didn't think it would be a problem because you and Casey were always arguing and the two of you seemed to hate each other and-"

"God are you blind?" Derek asked. "I didn't hate her I hated you."

"What?"

"I hated you dad." Derek finally admitted. "I hated you because you brought this amazing girl into my life and I couldn't touch her."

Derek shook his head.

"And then when you and Nora split you just took her away from me."

Derek covered his face with his hands and he cried.

"You let me break and you didn't even bother to try to fix me." He muttered in his hands. "I needed you there for me dad."

George never knew his son felt that way. Never did he ever think that Derek could ever break because he was actually a very strong individual. So seeing his son in tears, he knew that Derek was speaking the truth.

To be completely honest, it killed him to see his son in such a state. It killed him ever more so when it all sunk in and he realized that he was in fact selfish and that he didn't see anything outside himself. And Derek was right. He never asked any of his children about how they felt when he married Nora so suddenly or how they felt when he divorced her. He just thought that they were okay with it. But just because your kids don't say how they feel doesn't mean that they're okay with whatever it is that's going on.

"Derek, if I had known…"

"What would you have done dad?" Derek asked when he looked at him. "You don't know what you would have done because it's already done."

"No, not that," George said. "About Casey."

Derek shook his head in a way of saying he doesn't understand what his dad was talking about.

"She was a great girl when she lived here." George said to him. "And you're right. I should have asked you."

"I'm sorry dad, for everything." Derek said to him.

"No, I'm sorry son." George said with his head hung, "I thought I lost you for a minute."

And George pulled him into a tight embrace that neither of them had had in ages. After a minute or two, Derek wiped his eyes and regained his composure.

"So, how was New York?" His dad asked.

"It was pretty good." Derek chuckled out. "Me and Case, we're gonna try this whole long distance thing."

"You're dating Casey?" George asked.

"Yeah, well I'm gonna try to." He said. "She was the one who got me clean in the first place."

"That's good. But you didn't want to get clean for yourself?"

"Well, yeah, but she helped me."

And then it hit him.

"Shit." He said loudly.

"What?" His dad asked.

"Man, I can't believe I forgot."

"Derek, what?"

"I wrote this song for Casey and I said I would play it before I came home and I totally forgot."

"What was it about?"

"Just what she was to me this summer."

XxX

The next day things seemed to be getting better between father and son in the Venturi household. While George was at work, Marti on a play date, and Edwin out with his friends, Derek was all alone in his house with nothing to do. He had spoken to Casey but she had to cut it short because she had to go to work.

Work.

That's what Derek needed. He needed a job. He needed one to keep busy, but later.

The doorbell rang and he answered it. Sam was standing there with a grin n his face.

"Ger dressed." Was all Sam said to him.

--

"So why can't you just tell me what you wanna show me?" Derek asked as they walked into Sam's basement.

And there was no need for him to answer because what Derek saw looked like a recoding studio.

"You have a recording studio?" Derek asked.

"More like a mixer studio." Derek looked at him, "Ralph and I have been remixing tracks, it's pretty awesome."

And after an hour or listening to the remixed tracks of all their favorite songs, Derek noticed Sam still had that acoustic guitar that they had bought together. Derek walked over to it and picked it up.

"Hasn't been played since we stopped being friend." Sam told him.

Derek brought back to where he was sitting and strummed it once.

"Give me open D." Derek said.

Sam looked to his computer and opened up the guitar tuner. After getting it to the right tuning, he let Derek get the guitar tuned. He was surprised that Derek still had that ability to hold the tune in his head while he tuned it. And then, just like that, he started playing the song he wrote for Casey. After four minutes, he stopped and sighed.

"What was that?" Sam asked.

"Huh?" Derek asked, completely forgetting he was with his friend. "Oh, something I wrote for Casey."

"That was pretty good."

Derek simply nodded.

"And I forgot to play it for her before I left."

"That's what I'm here for pal." Derek looked at him, "We can record it and you can send it to her."

Derek smirked.

Yeah, things were getting better.

Just then the door to Sam's basement opened and Ralph came in with Carmen, aka Ralph's ex, aka the girl Derek was hooking up with behind Ralph's back.

"Sammy, sorry I'm late I-" His voice cut off when he saw Derek sitting there. "What is he doing here?"

"I thought we could all hang out and get past the past." Sam said to him. "You weren't supposed to bring Carmen."

Carmen looked around and felt really unwelcome.

"Well you weren't supposed to bring Derek." Ralph snapped back.

Derek looked at Ralph and set the guitar down.

"Hey, you want me to leave all you had to do was ask."

"I don't want you to leave I want you to run yourself off a cliff."

Derek let out a breath, relaxing before he said something he would regret.

"Look, I'm sorry. How many times do I have to apologize?" Derek asked.

"Oh, I don't know, maybe until you mean it." Ralph said bitterly.

"I do mean it."

"Yeah right," Ralph spat. "How would you feel if I slept with your girlfriend?"

"Then you'll need a plane ticket."

Now, Ralph was already confused with everything in the first place but this really threw him off. He thought that Derek would have said something snarky to him about Sally or something.

"What are you talking about?" He asked.

"Casey is in New York. You'll need a plane ticked if you're even considering going that far." Derek shook his head. "Ralph, I really am sorry. If I wasn't using at the time, I would have never done what I did to you. You don't know how much I wanna forget all that and move on to the now." Derek looked at Sam. "Sam I think this was a bad idea, I'm gonna go."

Derek walked past Carmen and didn't even spare her a second glance.

XxX

Derek didn't see or speak to Ralph. It had been a week since he apologized and still nothing. And one can only say sorry so much.

He and Edwin were getting along like before. Like nothing had ever happened with the two of them.

Things were back to normal, or as normal as they could get with Marti. She was his Smarti and he was her Smerek again.

With his dad, he still needed to talk to him about school but things were pretty much back to normal

And that's how he wanted- no, needed it to be.

XxX

And while Derek was getting his life in order, Casey's seemed to be falling apart. Her mother kept telling her about how her life would be if she just let Derek go and forget about dating him at the moment. Every time Casey would tell her mom she didn't want to talk about it, it never worked because it would start all over the next day. And work was pretty slow. She was actually considering quitting to actually work. And as for school, it was pretty hectic. It seemed like she always had a ten page paper due on something she vaguely remembered going over in class. She was just stressing out, and worried about Derek.

After a long day of class and empty work, she came home and plopped down on the couch. And right as she did, the phone rang and she whined. She walked over to the phone and answered it.

"Hello?" She answered tiredly.

"Hey baby."

"Hey Derek," She said.

"You sound terrible."

"I am so tired you have no idea." She said as she plopped down on the couch, "How are you?"

"I'm good." He said. "You?"

"I'm okay."

There was a pause.

"Something's wrong." Derek stated.

"Not really."

"Yes really." He said, "Tell me."

Casey sighed.

"My mom thinks that we shouldn't be tied down to a long distance relationship."

"Really,"

"Yeah,"

There was another pause before Derek spoke.

"What do you think?" He asked.

"I don't think, I know." She said, "And I know I wanna be with you and that my mother is just trying to control my life."

She heard Derek let out a sigh of relief.

"So we're still gonna try this?" He asked.

"Of course we are."

XxX

George was sitting at the kitchen table working on something. Derek could only assume it was for work.

"Dad, can I ask you something?"

George looked up and for the first time ever, he put his work aside.

"Of course,"

Derek walked over to the kitchen table and sat across from his dad.

"I was thinking and I kindof wanted to go back to school."

"You wanna go back to school?"

"Yeah,"

"Well that's great Derek."

"Yeah but I have no idea how to get started."

George looked at his son.

"Tell you what, I'll help you get started and I'll pay for your education if you get a job."

"That's all? I just need to get a job?" Derek asked.

"That's all." His dad confirmed. "And I want it to be in a department store too, I don't want you working at a fast food joint."

Derek nodded and smiled a little.

"Now, get outta here, I need to finish this."

Derek smirked and went about his business.

I thought I would end this chapter on a lighter note whether than a cliff. Hope you like it.