Yes, it's true, I am still alive. I apologize like crazy for not updating in a zillion years. All sorts of stuff has been happening, like my hard drive crashing when i was almost done with this chapter, so I lost it and all my notes for the story. Not cool. However, I rewrote it, and ended up going in a different direction than I originally intended, so I think it worked out for the best. But I still am super sorry, and I love you all, and thank you thank you thank you for all the reviews, and for liking this story enough to bug me to keep it going! The guilt trip works every time, so keep it up if I'm slacking off!

Also, a little background info: Up until now, I had been undecided as to what the deal was with Sam and Casey in my story. But I decided that we'll say they dated, and it was a cutesy little whatever relationship, but they eventually broke up after a couple months, as high school relationships are wont to do. But it was an amicable break-up, they just didn't really have any kind of spark, so they eventually went their separate ways. They are friendly at school, but things are still a little weird and awkward, understandably. And it was kind of a high-profile relationship at school, because everyone was like "Oh my God, Sam's going out with that geeky girl? Isn't she Derek's stepsister? That's so weird!" You know, that kind of stuff.

Just thought this little background would help give you a better perspective for some stuff that happens in this chapter. Anywho, sorry this is so long, I'll shut up now and let you read. I hope you all enjoy it, and review to let me know you still love me!

Derek was out of control. That was the only explanation he could come up with. He didn't know what was going on in his head, what had made him do that.

Oh God.

What was wrong with him? First the dream, then- God- had he kissed her? Not to mention the fact that he hadn't been able to stop thinking about her for the past several weeks. And these were not just any thoughts, either. They were bad bad dirty thoughts! And about his stepsister! And it's not like this was any old stepsister, either. This was Casey. Casey, who had been making his life absolutely miserable ever since their parents had gotten married. Before she arrived, he had the world in the palm of his hand. His dad let him get away with anything. Edwin followed him around like a groupie. He was the star of the hockey team, and to that end, had teachers cutting him breaks in school. Not to mention, he really had his pick of any girl in the school.

But ever since Casey had shown up, it seemed like everything got so much harder. No one seemed to want to put up with his shit anymore. Now he had to answer to both his dad and Nora. Edwin had found a partner in crime in Lizzie. He didn't even know if his body would be recovered enough in time for hockey season. His teachers now seemed to expect the same work from him as they did from everyone else. And girls? Well they were still okay. But he had even grown tired of dealing with them.

And Casey! Freakin Casey. What was he supposed to do about this? Because whatever this was- whatever had just happened- could never happen again. What was happening to him? Why couldn't he have just stopped those ridiculous thoughts and urges before they got to this point?

He realized he was pacing the room, mumbling to himself, so he stopped and ran his hands through his hair in frustration. It was only then that he realized that his hands were trembling. He glanced at them for a moment. That's never happened before. He shook them, as if to shake out the trembling, and stuffed them deep in his pockets, where they had no choice but to be still.

He walked back over to the stairs and sat down on the bottom step, his head in his hands. This had to stop now. He would do whatever he had to to get his head straight. But what was making him act like this? He was probably horny, but that was just a fact of life. But why Casey?

The accident. That was it. They were in the accident together, and it was stuck in his mind. It was a traumatic event after all, and her image had somehow gotten stuck in his brain. And apparently some not-so-hateful feelings for her had been shaken loose. But he was just overreacting. If he could get things to go back to the way they were before the accident, everything would be fine. He sat back and smiled slightly. He needed to start a fight.

Casey brushed her hair back into a tight ponytail, almost too tight. She hadn't slept well the night before, and the tension in her scalp helped to keep her awake.

She didn't know what to make of this Derek situation. It had to be all in her head. There was no way he would have been….flirting…with her. They are related, after all! He's not that stupid. But she couldn't explain her reaction to his behavior. Because she had definitely felt things that you are not supposed to feel for family.

It has to be because of the accident.

She must still feel over-emotional from the accident. She had been worried about Derek and his well-being, and apparently those caring feelings had gotten a little out of whack. Or maybe a lot out of whack. But either way, all she needed to do was to ignore this, and it would undoubtedly blow over. Just focus on what an asshole Derek could be, and she would be back to normal in no time.

She ran down the stairs for breakfast. She walked into the kitchen, and was never more relieved to see her mother and Lizzie. They told her all about the Nutcracker the night before as Casey poured herself a bowl of cereal. It felt good, felt like the old days, when it was just the girls.

And then Derek and Edwin came crashing into the room; Edwin in a headlock receiving what was probably the umpteenth noogie of the poor boy's life.

"Derek, let your brother go so he can eat his breakfast." Nora said, not even glancing up from rifling through her briefcase on the counter. "Alright guys, behave, I'm off to work. Have a good day."

Derek watched as the girls and Edwin waved goodbye to Nora, and as soon as the door clicked into place behind her, he tackled Edwin into a headlock once again. Unfortunately, Edwin happened to be pouring milk on his cereal at the time. The carton flew out of his hand, crashed on the table, and a wave of milk spread across the table and into Casey's lap.

"Aaargh! Derek, what the hell?" The first words she had spoken to him since the night before. And yet the bastard had the nerve to stand there for a moment, his head tilted to the side and an obnoxious smirk on his face, before going back to attacking his poor little brother, as milk continued to pour from the jug all over the table, the floor, and Casey.

"You are such an asshole." She huffed in frustration as she pushed back from the table and made her way back upstairs to change, leaving milky footprints in her wake.

Apparently hating Derek is going to be a lot easier than I anticipated.

Derek watched her storm out of the room, and as soon as she was out of sight, he released Edwin. His little brother sprang back to a sitting position, rubbing his sore head.

"What is your deal, Derek?" Edwin asked, attempting to fix his horrendously tousled hair.

"No deal here, little bro, just thought it was time for things to get back to normal around here." Derek grabbed the carton of orange juice from the table and drank directly from it.

Tormenting Casey is going to be much easier than I anticipated. Then why did he have this nagging feeling in the pit of his stomach?

He placed the carton back on the table, wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, and grabbed his backpack from the corner. "Ed, clean this up." He commanded, motioning to the milky mess, and walked out of the room as Edwin and Lizzie exchanged a tortured glance.

Casey was NOT having a good day. All due to her nasty, evil stepbrother. First, it was the milk. She could let that slide. Well, no, she couldn't, but if that had been the only thing he had done to her today, it wouldn't be that bad. But no, apparently Derek had decided to make it his mission today to torment her.

Walking through the hallway after third period, he purposely knocked into her, dumping the armful of books she was carrying. And announced loudly to everyone in the hallway, "Aww, look, she's still Klutzilla. I guess some things never change." He then purposely stepped all over her calculus homework, leaving it torn, wrinkled, and covered with dirty footprints. She could hear the snickering and saw the pointing fingers as she gathered all her things and headed to class.

Then, at lunch, she had gone up to the hockey table, because she had to ask Sam a question about a class they had together. She asked him the question, and Derek happened to notice her just as Sam started to answer her. "Hey! Casey, I don't remember you being asked to sit at this table."

She sighed in exasperation; "I'm just asking Sam a question, if that's quite alright with you. Trust me, I have no desire to sit here-"

"Oh that's right, "he continued loudly, "you weren't."

"Derek, shut up, you don't own this table." She said tersely, trying again to talk to Sam.

"Excuse me, excuse me!" Derek shouted, standing and waving his arms to get the attention of the lunchroom monitor.

Casey gave him a look, as if to say, "I cannot believe you're doing this."

"Excuse me, sir," Derek shouted across the room, drawing the attention of most of students in the busy cafeteria, " this young lady here is bothering my friend."

She could feel the blush prickling at the back of her neck, as it began to travel up to her face. She knew everyone in the room was looking at her.

"Casey, Sam does not want to have sex with you right here in the middle of the cafeteria!" Derek exclaimed with mock incredulity. The room burst into laughter as Casey's face burned with embarrassment.

"Derek…" Sam started, pulling on his friend's sleeve to get him to stop.

"Don't worry about it, Sam." Casey said softly. She turned to Derek's smug face and, struggling to keep her voice from breaking, said, "Why do you have to be such an asshole?" She grabbed her bag and walked past the tables of her whispering peers and out the cafeteria doors. As soon as she reached the hallway, she burst into tears and ran to the girls' bathroom. She chose a stall, closed the door behind her, and crumbled to the floor.

"Derek, man, that was not cool." Sam chided his friend.

"Whatever man, she had it coming." Derek mumbled. He watched Casey struggle to control her emotions as she made her escape.

He was really being hard on her today, he knew that. But yelling at Casey was what came naturally. At least when they were arguing, he didn't have to worry about any other problems between them. And, although he would never admit it, he loved arguing with Casey. She was the only person he knew who didn't shy away from yelling right back at him. They could argue for hours, and although it was incredibly frustrating, it was like some kind of sick game. Each of them wanted to have the last word.

Why, then, when she had looked at him with watery, questioning eyes just moments ago, had that feeling kicked him in the gut again? Tormenting Casey wasn't as fun when he got this kind of reaction.

The rest of the day passed agonizingly slowly. Casey wanted nothing more than to just go home and hide in her room, but she instead had to tough it out through all the looks, laughter, and snide comments she was receiving in all of her classes. And she was not looking forward to riding home with Derek. The ride to school that morning had been tense enough, after the milk incident, but she didn't know if she could stand to be in a small confined space with him for any amount of time without wringing his neck.

After school, she went to her locker, grabbed all the books she needed for the weekend, as well as her hat, coat, and gloves. She tried her hardest to ignore the obnoxious comments she heard as she passed by. She reached the doors and walked out towards the parking lot, putting on her gloves. And just as she looked up to walk over to Derek's car (actually, the ugly Volvo the dealership had loaned them until they replaced their totaled SUV.), she saw the car fly past her, Derek waving and revving the engine as he pulled away.

That asshole.

Casey quickly pulled out her phone to try and catch Emily, "Em, where are you right now? Derek just ditched me in the parking lot."

"Oh no, I'm sorry, I've got a doctor's appointment." Emily said sympathetically, "Did he really just leave you? If you want to hang out there until my appointment's done, I can come pick you up then, but I think the secretary said they were running behind and it's really busy here and-"

"Don't worry about it Em, I'll figure something out."

"Okay, well, the offer's still open. Give me a call if you want me to come get you when I'm done."

"Thanks, Em."

Casey only had one other option, but she really didn't want to ask Sam after the episode in the cafeteria earlier. She looked over and saw him walking with a crowd of people towards his car. She mustered up her courage, took a deep breath, and walked over to him.

"Sam?"

The whole group turned towards her, most of them raising their eyebrows and exchanging meaningful glances when she saw Casey approaching Sam. Sam's gaze flickered to them for a moment before looking back to her. "Hey Case, what's up?"

"Could you, um, give me a ride home?" She heard snickers from the surrounding group, but she decided not to give them the satisfaction of drawing her attention.

Sam hesitated. "Oh. Well, I was going to go to Alyssa's house," he gestured towards one of the girls in the crowd, who smiled smugly at Casey, "but I could drop you off on the way."

Yeah, right. I'd rather walk home over hot coals. "Um, no, don't worry about it, I'll just call Emily." Casey lied "Thanks anyway." She turned and started to walk away from them.

"Casey?"

She turned back towards Sam.

"I'm sorry about earlier- about Derek." Sam fidgeted with the sleeve of his jacket as he spoke.

Casey forced a smile, "Thanks, but don't apologize for him." She turned to walk back towards the school.

Casey waited inside the doorway, watching Sam and Alyssa get into his car and drive away. Once the rest of his cronies had left as well, Casey stepped outside, pulled her hat further over her ears, and started the walk home.

She could call her mother or George at work, but they would just worry, and she didn't want them to have to leave work just to pick her up. She also didn't want to have to endure another "family meeting" that would undoubtedly arise if they found out about Derek's behavior. She could handle this on her own.

Her house wasn't that away from the school, and she had walked it once before when she had to. But that was not in the snow, and with a wind chill that probably brought the temperature down into the teens. Her coat kept her warm enough, but her hat, scarf, and gloves that really should be keeping her extremities warm were really more for fashion than for function. Plus, her sneakers were not keeping her feet warm in the snow. She huddled into the jacket and braced herself against the wind, heading towards home.

But the further she walked, the angrier she became. This was the last straw. She didn't know the reason for Derek's sudden nasty behavior, but she had had it. Arguing and teasing was one thing, and she could handle that, but today he had just been downright evil. He had humiliated her in front of everyone for no good reason. Her reputation was already only dangling by a tenuous thread: the fact that she was his stepsister. But now he had taken care of that. She was back to being the annoying, dorky geek. But whatever, she could deal with that.

But first she would need to deal with Derek.

She finally reached home, after walking thirty minutes in freezing temperatures. She was freezing; she couldn't feel her fingers, and her shoes and jeans were soaking wet up to mid-calf. She walked into the house, slamming the door behind her. She slammed it with such force that she knocked a framed picture off the wall, shattering the glass. She glanced at this for only a moment, before turning to Lizzie who was sitting on the couch in the living room, looking warily at her older sister.

"Where is Derek?" Casey asked pointedly.

"He's…uh….upstairs. Is everything okay?"

Casey threw her bag, as well as her hat, scarf, and gloves, in a pile on the floor. She hung her coat on the rack, and removed her snow-caked sneakers before peeling off her soaking-wet socks and massaging her freezing cold toes. "It will be in a minute."

She stomped up the stairs, and threw open Derek's bedroom door without knocking. She found Derek and Edwin sitting on Derek's bed, a selection of video game magazines between them.

"Edwin. Out." Casey commanded, pointing towards the door.

Edwin shook his head. "No way. I'm tired of getting everyone's crap today. I can stay in here if I want-"

Casey tried her hardest not to drag him out by his ear. "Edwin, TRUST me, it would be in your best interest to leave. And close the door behind you."

Edwin took one look at the anger in her eyes, and high-tailed it out of there, shutting the door behind him.

Derek stood up, bracing himself for a good old-fashioned Casey/Derek argument. He had been waiting for this all day. He had hoped she would retaliate earlier in the cafeteria, but instead she had acted all sad. But now, as she stood in front of him, with her red, wind burned cheeks and her tousled hair, the spark was back in her eyes, and he knew that everything was about to get back to normal. "Hello Casey, it's so lovely of you to drop in-"

He was interrupted when Casey grabbed his shoulders and shoved him against his closet door. He was struck speechless for a moment at the fact that Casey actually had enough strength in her to shove him as hard as she just had. But the pain shooting through his side from his still-healing ribs took his breath away for a moment. He crumbled a little bit from the pain before straightening up again. "Jesus Christ, Case-"

The sound of a smack hung in the air, and Derek's head was knocked to the side from the force of Casey's hand against his cheek. He tenderly touched his fingers to his cheek, burning from the slap, as he looked at Casey in disbelief.

She stood no more than a foot away from him, her finger pointing mere inches away from his nose. "No. You do NOT get to pretend that I'm the bad guy. You do not get to act all innocent in this situation. What the hell is wrong with you today? Dumping milk all over me at breakfast? Humiliating me in front of everyone in school? And thanks for bringing Sam into it, that was really classy of you. What the hell did I do to you to deserve this? Why can't you just be a normal human being for once! You are just such a fucking asshole. You think you can just get away with anything and everyone will just bow down to you. Well you know what? I will NEVER be one of those people, because I am a hell of a lot smarter that you. So you can keep playing your sick little games, but if you think you can break me by embarrassing me, or if you think you can get into my head by playing your flirtatious little games like you did last night, then you are SO wrong. Because frankly, I don't care what you think. I don't care what the hell you, or your stupid little friends, or anyone in this godforsaken little town thinks of me. Because I'm the one that will be laughing when you're pumping my gas ten years down the road. So if you think-"

Her screaming was cut off when Derek slammed his mouth against hers. She was on a roll, and kept mumbling against his mouth, before her brain seemed to shut down and she forgot every word in the English language. His hands grasped at her hair, pulling her head against his lips, as his tongue begged for entrance. As much as her head was screaming in protest, she opened her lips and let his tongue begin exploring her mouth.

She didn't even realize she was crying until she tasted the salt in their kiss. Her adrenaline was still running on high, and she responded to Derek's actions with equal ferocity. She ran her hand over his chest, grasping fistfuls of the front of his shirt. When that didn't have its desired affect, she tightened her grip on him and shoved him back against the door.

Derek groaned into her mouth as the pain shot through his side once again. But Casey's hands continued to roam over his body, until they found their way under the back of his shirt. The pleasure of her cold hands against his warm skin, combined with the pain of his ribs, was almost too much for him to handle. He grabbed her by the waist and led her backwards towards his bed. Her legs hitting the bed knocked her off balance and she fell onto her back. Derek climbed over her, and continued to ravage her mouth after those few moments of desperate separation.

His mouth moved from her lips, trailing wet kisses down her neck. She let out a whine as his lips began to suck at the base of her throat. His hands were roaming up and down the sides of her waist and over the stomach. She grabbed his head and directed him to continue his work. His trail of kisses continued, trailing down the neckline of her shirt.

"Derek, is everything okay in there?"

At the sound of Edwin's voice, Derek mumbled, "Fuck!" against Casey's chest, and pushed himself off of her, at the same time she was shoving him away from herself. He took a second to collect himself, catching his breath and getting his head on straight. "Yeah Ed, I'm….fine."

"Okay, well Lizzie and I are right downstairs if you need anything. As scary as it is to hear Casey yelling, it's even scarier when she gets quiet!"

They lay still there on the bed as the listened to Edwin walk back downstairs. Derek rubbed his eyes, trying to gather his thoughts. Casey lay frozen, staring at the ceiling, attempting to do the same. The silence of the room was filled with the sounds of their still labored breathing.

After a moment, Casey jumped off of the bed, and backed towards the door in horror. She looked at Derek on the bed, but he seemed to be in a daze. "What did we do?"

Derek turned to look at her, but found he had no answers. He could only stare at her: her panicked eyes, her red, swollen lips (Oh God, he had done that!), her tear-stained cheeks, her chest still heaving from her labored breaths. She ran an unsteady hand through her hair, and turned to leave without another word.

As the door clicked into place behind her, Derek sat up and stared down at his shaking hands.

So much for getting things back to normal.