Author's Note No matter what happens at the end of this story, accept it, and accept that life doesn't always end how you would like it to. (And no this isn't the last chapter. NO. That's not for at least 5-10 maybe more chapters.)

Disclaimer MeThe-not-owning-ness.

When dinner came to a close, Casey scurried out of the dining room. She had no reason to stay behind and from the glances that Derek kept sending her direction, she knew that she had to make a decision.

Instead of doing her homework she sat at the edge of her bed. Her mind twirled and twisted, but could not come to a satisfying result. No matter how she looked at it, the outcome was unpredictable and that could be a bad thing and a good thing.

I mean, I predict that he will try to put me down and do more things to me, and if the situation is unpredictable then he would do something opposite, but if I could expect that then it wouldn't be truly unexpected. So maybe it is predictable? Then why am I so confused?

Casey held back tears. She was tired of crying, and hiding from him. If she didn't come down that could prove her fear. If she did go down it could prove her weakness.

She flung herself backwards onto the bed and stared lifelessly at the ceiling. The position her body was in made her legs spread open slightly over the edge of the bed. Her feminine insides didn't seem close anymore. They felt far apart and constantly spread open, like there was a flush of air running through no matter how she positioned her legs. She had ignored the feeling the past couple of days, but couldn't disregard it in this moment.

Casey crossed her legs and looked out the window. The moon looked slightly orange. Out of curiosity she lifted herself up and walked to the window. Her heart felt heavy and for a moment the man in the moon became Derek and his devilish grin. Blinking, she stepped back, breathing heavy.

Why am I freaking out? It's just a lunar eclipse. Quit freaking, Casey, it's okay. It's going to be okay. The man in the moon isn't Derek. He's not frightening enough to smirk across the vastness of this planet.

In her last thought, she freed a larger part of herself. He didn't have any power. Going down to him wouldn't give her any more or less power than she had in this moment. It wouldn't give him any power or take any power away.

In this thought, she realized that she given him more power than he had asked for.

Casey sat down on her bed calmly, still gazing out the window at the orange moon, which was now turning red.

"I'll go down. He's been acting funny…Maybe he actually…has something worth saying to me." Casey closed her eyes. "Something worth hearing."

She couldn't believe her tongue, her vocal chords, her mouth; Her decision was made.

As the clock ticked time away, Casey worked on homework. She worked slowly, wanting to stretch out the amount of time it took to do the work hoping it would make talking to Derek come even later.

But time being the only sure thing left to her, eleven came around, right when it was supposed to.

Her feet tottered slowly down the stairs. She wanted no one to know anything, the last thing she needed was someone to overhear. Especially when people eavesdrop and hear the worst part of the story and fill in the blanks with the wrong information.

As Casey reached the backdoor she heard a faint muttering.

"No, she won't take it the right way if I say it like that…" She heard Derek from the other side of the door. Casey gave a weak smile, feeling a little heart warmed by the fact Derek was trying to be gentle. This couldn't possibly make up for what he had done, but she had relished the small moment.

She turned the doorknob and opened the door. Derek was standing by the step, looking at her mildly surprised. After turning and shutting the door, she set herself down on the step and looked down at her knees.

Derek stood still for a moment, then sat in the grass across from her. She didn't dare catch his eyes.

"Casey, I-" Derek started but Casey interrupted.

"This better not be anything to reel me in to another one of your 'games'. I'm not a liar and you better not be either." He didn't respond for a moment.

"At this point in time, I have no reason to lie to you." He muttered into his lap. Casey looked at the top of his head.

"Then tell me the truth, do you know what you did to me?" Derek looked up.

"No. I only have what I assume I did to you. I asked you to come down so you could tell me what happened. I swear I don't-"

"You raped me Derek. You kept coming to me and telling me that I wanted you like you wanted me and told me I could make it easier on myself if I just gave in. Instead of me giving in, you dragged me upstairs, knocked me out and raped me." Casey shook with rage as she said this. Derek's eyes didn't look from her. He was horrified that his body had done these things to her. Never in his whole life had his mind felt so trapped. "Heh. At least I couldn't see your face as you put all of yourself into me." She looked down. "You didn't wear any protection. I know that. When I went to go clean myself off after I woke up, it ran down from inside of me." Derek caught her eyes as she faced him. "It's quite possible I am pregnant."

"Casey I-"

"Not like you will take any responsibility for any of it. I wanted it didn't I?" Derek's eyes were wide and he shook his head.

"You obviously didn't." Casey looked at him, her lips pursed.

"Who are you today? Who are you tonight? Are you Derek? Or are you some monster?" Derek looked to the left of him. Who was he? And who was he now to say who he is?

"I'm Derek. I don't know what's happening to me. I…I've been blacking out. I've been coming back to these random moments, like there are huge chunks of my life just…gone." Casey crossed her arms from the chilled night air. The moon had long since reached it's red point and turned white again.

"So you completely missed the part where you-"

"Yes." She uncrossed her arms and grabbed her knees. Why am I believing this bullshit?

"Derek. If you could give any explanation, any guess…as to why you would…or some other part of you…would do this to me…could you please tell me." Derek thought for a moment. He wasn't sure exactly what she wanted to hear. Though, knowing Casey, if there was a reason for something, even if it was a bad reason, it made the world less pointless.

"Any guess I could give for what another inhuman part of me has done to you…would be…that I really have feelings for you, though I would never want to hurt you, I have thought about...the sex, and what kissing you could be like." He looked at her, hoping that he hadn't said the wrong thing. Casey recoiled, afraid that he was going to start verbally attacking her. "Please don't look at me like that. I can't deal with that right now." Derek took a handful of grass and ripped it from the ground. Casey rubbed her eyes and calmed her nerves down.

"If I said I believed you…what would you say to me?"

"Can I have your help? I don't want to hurt anyone anymore…" He pulled on his hair, "What if I hurt Marti…?" Derek choked back and Casey furrowed her eyebrows.

"Derek? Are you-"

"Don't say it." He whimpered. Casey reached out a hand and set it on his shoulder.

"Are you crying?" Both of his fists flung to his eyes to keep them closed. He held his breath and did not answer Casey. Her mouth dropped, knowing that he was broken down. "You…are…" She dropped her hand off of his shoulder and stared at him. Derek is…crying…Derek is crying…Derek is crying…Casey repeated over and over to make the situation real to her.

"Don't tell anyone please." Derek finally said after he took his fists off of his eyes.

"About you crying?" He rolled his eyes and nodded yes. Casey smirked. "You are either telling the truth…or are a far better actor than I should take you for."

"My feelings for you…and my fear for Marti are real Casey. And one of my hidden talents doesn't include tearing up at will." Casey burst into laughter. Derek looked rather frustrated, but rolled it off of his shoulders. Seeing Casey happy around him was his Godsend. "But Casey. In all seriousness…I do need your help. I need to know what's going on."

"I'm going to have to tell someone then. About everything. About your blackouts and what you did to me." Derek looked reluctant but nodded his head. Casey bit her lip. "Is there any other significant instance where you blacked out and someone was talking about something you had no idea as to what the subject was?" He shook his head.

"Marti calls me Brooke all the time…and Edwin yelled at me the other day because I didn't know about a girl he was talking about." Casey took a deep breath.

"Well then you know what step one is." She stood. Derek stood also, a confused expression on his face.

"No. I don't." Casey rolled her eyes exaggeratedly.

"Derek. It's obvious. We need to get the full stories from Marti and Edwin instead of hiding your blackouts."

"Then what?"

"We talk to Paul." Casey smiled and turned away, ready to go to sleep. Derek grabbed her hand and she turned back around. Her heart was racing, remembering his forcefulness, but there was something much more gentle than before.

He pulled her to him and hugged her.