And so, after long last, chapter two. I'm sorry, sorry sorry sorry sorry for the long wait. I put up the first chapter right before finals, which was stupid, because I have been ridiculously busy since then, with studying and finals and coming home and unpacking and working and taking care of my mom and blah blah blah. And my laptop is still not hooked up, which is what i do all my work on, so I had to change it over to my crappy computer at home, but whatever. To make a long story short, I have wanted to do nothing but write this story for the past, like, month, and haven't been able to. But I promise it won't happen again.

So here is chapter two, I hope you enjoy it. It's a bit of a change of pace from chapter one, and it's not the kind of action-packed excitement you would expect from a month-long wait, but it's stuff i needed to write to get to better stuff. Oh, the better stuff. Hold on for the better stuff. : )

So enjoy, let me know what you think, and also let me know what the socially acceptable time is between posting chapters on here. I know a month is no good, but, like, a day is a bit drastic. So, I don't know, let me know.

Also, if anyone's sensitive about language, there's some, uh, language at the end of the chapter. It's not that bad to me, but considering I am writing about a show on Disney, it probably calls for a heads up. So, there you go.

Ok, I'll stop now, at the risk of this being the longest author's note in the history of the world. OH! How could I forget? thank you thank you thank you thank you THANK YOU for all the reviews on chapter uno. Seriously, it was like the most exciting thing to check my email during finals week, and instead of having boring student mailing lists, I had story reviews! Yay! It would make me endlessly happy if you would review this chapter too: )

Enjoy!

Casey knew without even opening her eyes that something wasn't right. Shouldn't her alarm have woken her up? But that wasn't it. She opened her eyes, and realized it was because she was not at home in her bed, but rather lying in an uncomfortable hospital bed. She was all alone and didn't know why she was there. Panic sat like a heavy stone in the pit of her stomach. What was going on?

"Shh…Marti, you need to be quiet, Casey is still resting."

Casey heard her mother approaching before she saw her. The stone dissipated slightly.

"Casey!" Nora brightened as soon as she saw her daughter was awake. She bustled into the room, followed by Lizzie, Edwin, and Marti, who was struggling to open a bag of M&Ms. "How are you feeling, honey?" Nora asked, morphing into concerned mother mode.

"I feel fine." Casey answered cautiously, but she had more pressing concerns, "What am I doing here? What happened?"

There was a pause before Nora answered, "You don't remember." It was a question, but sounded more like a statement. It seemed like a rhetorical question anyway. But her tone worried Casey.

"Oh God, what happened? Was it serious? Is everyone okay?" Nora opened her mouth to answer, but before she could do so, Marti's bag of M&Ms finally burst, and the candy went flying everywhere. Everyone just stared for a second, before Lizzie took it upon herself to clean up the mess, as Nora continued.

"Don't worry honey, everyone's fine. You and Derek were in an accident this morning on the way to school. You were very lucky you weren't injured more seriously. The doctors did think you might have been in shock, maybe that's why you don't remember anything. Do you remember being in the ambulance at all?

"No, I don't remember anything." She had the oddest sense of deja-vous, though, like she was so close to remembering, but it was just beyond her reach. And that was more frustrating than anything. "Am I okay? I feel fine, is it anything internal?" she asked, wondering if she should be able to feel internal bleeding. She only felt a little sore, like after a hard workout.

"No, thankfully, you only have some cuts and bruises. I guess your legs got pretty banged up by the dashboard." Nora carefully pulled the blanket aside, and Casey almost wished she hadn't. She had cuts criss-crossing her legs, made all the more gruesome by the black stitches holding some of them together. All of this was over a disgusting rainbow backdrop of bruising, like she had never seen before. She didn't know how it was possible for her to have not noticed something this serious on her own body.

"They gave you some mild anesthesia while they were doing the stitches, but you've been sleeping for the last couple of hours." Nora added as an afterthought.

None of this made sense to Casey. It still didn't seem real that she was in a hospital bed recovering from a car accident when she should be in math class. "I want to go home."

"I know, honey," Nora said soothingly, patting her hand, "but the doctor needs to see you again before you can be discharged, and we're still waiting for Derek to wake up."

Derek. How could she have forgotten about Derek? Was she really that bad of a stepsister? Before she could even ask about him, Nora answered for her. "He's alright, just some broken ribs, but he'll be hurting for awhile. They doped him up pretty good and he's still out like a light." There was a flash of a smile in Nora's eyes as she continued. "You know, he aggravated his injury more because he carried you to safety. He was really quite the hero."

Casey ignored her mother's smile, knowing she was desperate for any sign that her two children might not actually hate each other. "He carried me? Who did he think he was, Bruce Willis? How did he know my neck wasn't broken? He could've killed me!"

Nora's smile was gone as soon as it appeared.

Derek woke up to an annoying beeping sound. He opened his eyes and grimaced at the bright lights above him. He turned to see where the incessant beeping was coming from, and felt another shooting pain in his left side. He grunted and fell back onto his pillow.

"Derek!" he turned to see his dad sitting in a chair beside him. As he took in his surroundings, he saw he was in a hospital bed, with an I.V. in the crook of his right arm and electrodes on his chest. He had a splitting headache, and his neck and body ached, especially his chest.

"Wha- I was in an accident, wasn't I?" The memories came back to him quickly. The impact, sliding across the road, landing in the ditch, and rescuing himself and Casey. Casey. "Where's Casey? Is she okay?"

"She's fine." George answered, with an irritating smile. "The important question is, how are you feeling?"

"Like crap." Derek answered, trying to sit up. But the pain in his torso stopped him, and he settled back down onto his pillow. "What happened? Why don't I remember coming to the hospital?"

"You passed out." George answered. "Paramedics said you put up quite a fight when they were taking Casey, yelling and screaming, and then you just passed out. They think it was because of the pain."

"What's the damage?"

"You have three broken ribs, and some pretty severe bruising, most likely from the steering column hitting you in the chest. They think the damage was aggravated when you carried Casey up the hill. You know, you're not supposed to do that, she could've had a neck injury or something. You should've waited for the paramedics to get there."

"Yeah, well, I didn't really consider that at the time." Derek answered crossly.

"Well. I should probably let the others know you're okay, I'm sure they'll want to see you. Marti's been asking for Smerek for hours." George said with a smile. "Glad you're okay, buddy."

George left the room, and Derek closed his eyes again, still trying to process what had happened.

"Derek, good to see you're awake!" Derek opened his eyes to see a balding black man wearing blue scrubs enter the room, staring at a clipboard. He flipped a couple pages, ignoring Derek for a second, before snapping his head up and smiling. "How are we feeling?"

"Fine.", Derek said, trying to sit up again, this time a little more successful.

The doctor chuckled, "Fine, huh? That's pretty impressive, considering you have three broken ribs. But I hear you put on quite an impressive show of assaulting my paramedics at the accident site. But don't worry, your sister is doing just fine." He said with a patronizing smile. "Better than you, actually. Just a few cuts and scrapes. Good thing, too. Your 'act of heroism' could've caused some serious damage. Next time wait for the paramedics to get there."

"SMEREK!" Marti came running into the room, followed by Nora, Lizzie, and Edwin.

"Careful Marti, Derek's got a boo boo so you need to be careful." Nora turned to Derek and her face softened, "How are you feeling?"

"I'm fine." Derek said, already getting sick of answering the question.

"Smerek, I made a friend while you were sleeping! Her name in Nancy and she has three cats and her husband has a hernia, whatever that is, and I read a magazine, and then I found some gum under a chair and it was grape and grape is my favorite and-"

"Ooookay, Marti, that's enough." Nora said, cringing, "You can tell Derek the rest of your story later." She turned to the doctor, "When will we be able to take him home?"

"Well, we have to run a few more tests to make sure he's alright, but he should be out of here in a couple of hours."

Casey was sitting on her bed, conjugating verbs for her French test on Monday. Her mom had brought her a change of clothes and some of her books. But most of her school stuff was in her bag, which was in the car when it crashed. And as many times as she asked her mother, they still didn't know when and if she'd be getting them back. She had changed into the pink long-sleeved shirt and grey sweatpants Nora had brought. Thankfully, Nora had chosen the sweatpants instead of jeans, because they were still new enough to be soft on the inside, and didn't bother the cuts on her legs.

She was waiting for the doctor to come back to check her out. She had been in this hospital long enough already; she just wanted to get home.

She looked up from her studying to see George walk in. "Hey Case, how you feeling?"

"I feel fine," she said, smiling, "but I'm ready to go home."

"I saw the doctor down the hall; he said he'd be down in a minute to check you out."

As if on cue, the doctor stepped through the door. "Casey, Casey, Casey." He said in his loud, booming voice, "How are the legs?" He gently rolled up the sweatpants, examining her wounds. "Yup, yup, yup, looks good. How do you feel?"

"I feel fine, I just want to go home."

"Understandable. You've had a long day." He said, patting her knee sympathetically, "just take it easy the next couple of days, you don't want to aggravate the wounds. They might feel fine now, because they're elevated, but they'll really start to bother you if you're standing for long periods of time, because all the blood will rush right to your legs. Any pain you feel should be taken care of by a couple aspirin, and we'll see you back here in a week to remove those stitches. Alright?"

Casey and George nodded, and the doctor got up to leave. "Alright kiddo, you're all set to go!" As George thanked the doctor, Casey cringed. She hated being called "kiddo".

George helped her gather her things, and lead her out of the room. She saw the exit at one end of the hallway, but George led her in the opposite direction. "Where are we going?" she asked.

"To Derek's room, it's just down the hall." George said matter-of-factly. Derek. Again, she had forgotten entirely about Derek. This meant she would have to stay at the hospital until Derek was released. Wonderful. And maybe if Derek hadn't made them late this morning, none of this would've happened at all.

But her thoughts were stopped as she reached the doorway to Derek's room. He was laying in the hospital bed, an I.V. in the crook of his arm. He was wearing a hospital gown of some kind, but he was covered up to the waist by a thin blanket. He was smiling at Marti as she rambled on about her day, but he looked….different, somehow. He looked weak, she decided. The almighty Derek Venturi, always the tough guy, the cool guy, getting the best of everyone else. Here he was, lying in a hospital bed, looking much worse off than she was. But most of all, he looked tired. She felt almost guilty, like she was seeing him in a private moment of weakness. Granted, she lived with the guy, so she'd seen him sleeping, or sick, or in compromising positions before, but he always had his sense of humor or vicious tongue to make him still seem better than everyone else. But here, the curtains were drawn, and he was alone with his family, recovering from what seemed to be some pretty serious injuries.

"Well now, we've got the whole family back together in one room." George broke into her thoughts, announcing their presence to the rest of the room.

Derek whipped his head around, and his eyes locked on her. There was a look on his face that she couldn't quite place. Usually when he looked at her, his eyes were swimming with the anticipation of some snappy remark that hadn't yet made it to his tongue. His eyes were usually very easy to read, but this look, this look was completely different. His eyes seemed to be saying a million different things, none of which she had ever seen out of him before.

It seemed like all eyes were on her, yet she had nothing to say. What could she say? Wow Derek, you look a hell of a lot worse than me? And then she remembered something Nora had said earlier, "You know, he aggravated his injury more because he carried you to safety". Was he in this condition because of her? Had her selfish, obnoxious, stepbrother actually put his own precious hockey star body in danger to save her? And now he was lying there, looking at her with those eyes that spoke volumes, yet waited for her to say something.

"You shouldn't have carried me."

It was not really what she had intended to say. She hadn't really intended to say anything, and yet those words had found their way to her lips and fallen out, swimming in the silence of the rest of the room.

Her eyes never left his as she spoke, and so she saw the immediate reaction to her words. His face hardened, and his eyes darkened. He looked at her for one more second, almost in disbelief.

"You know we-" Nora started, but was cut off by her stepson.

"ALRIGHT, I GET THE FUCKING POINT! I SCREWED UP AGAIN AND NEARLY KILLED CASEY. NEXT TIME WE'RE IN A CAR CRASH, I'LL LEAVE YOU IN THE WRECKAGE AND GET MYSELF OUT!" Derek shouted, getting red in the face.

The room was suddenly filled with crackling electricity, as George yelled "Derek!", just as Marti stage whispered cautiously to Edwin, "Smerek said a very very bad word!"

Any sympathy Casey had felt for Derek was gone. This was the Derek she knew. The anger flashing in his eyes was a look she was all too familiar with.

"WELL MAYBE IF YOU DIDN'T HAVE TO DRIVE LIKE A MANIAC BECAUSE YOU MADE US LATE, NONE OF THIS WOULD HAVE HAPPENED!"

"Casey!" Nora shouted at her daughter.

"WELL MAYBE IF YOU WEREN'T SUCH A MISERABLE BITCH ALL THE TIME, I WOULDN'T BE IN SUCH A HURRY TO GET AWAY FROM YOU!"

"DEREK!" Both George and Nora shouted.

Casey and Derek continued to shoot daggers at each other, until Nora herded her and the kids out of the room to bring them home. As Casey left the room, she turned to see Derek punch the bed in frustration as George reprimanded him for his behavior.

P.S. Sorry about any grammar mistakes or typos or ridiculous errors, but it's 4 a.m. Shit happens.