Author's Note As I said, next update is posted tonight! Let me know what you think! (Yeah, George was a total jerk last chapter. And Nora had just said how understanding both of them could be. Maybe there is an underlying reason why he was a jerk! HAH! I've made you ponder. :D) Casey does her own spywork. She puts off a few things. They'll be gotten to. Soon the story will take another dark turn. I'm going to write a couple of chapters after this so I can post a couple in a row so look out for that.

Disclaimer BOOOO.

Casey opened Derek's bedroom but she didn't see him there. She let out a sigh, and went to her room. After shutting her door she walked to her bed and sat down. They know now. What comes next?

"Casey, can we talk to you?" Flinging her arms in the air screaming she turned to see Derek sitting on the floor by her closet. His voice was very soft and feminine.

"We?" He nodded and looked at her.

"I'm Brooke. I'm the one that helps Derek with his problems, and I've been playing with Marti and Daphne." Casey got shivers.

"You don't see Daphne do you?" She sat at the edge of her bed, looking at Derek like he was a mad-man.

"No, but I can talk to her because she's in here." Derek pointed to his head. I'm talking to, basically, a girl in Derek's body. "Daphne's the brains and the creativity. She always talks to Marti at night, but she is so self conscious she dresses up like a girl. Casey giggled and Derek smiled at her in a girly way. "Derek's crazy about you, you know."

"Is that what you wanted to talk about?" Casey asked, crossing her legs and looking in another direction.

"Yes and no." She looked back at him. "I wanted you to know his name." Her eyebrows twitched, and she looked at Derek, or rather Brooke, with intensity.

"His name. Whose na-"

"You know who…" Derek looked deeply at her. "His name is Damien." Casey bitterly laughed at the name.

"How terribly fitting." They sat in silence. She looked at him, wondering how many Damien's were locked inside of him; how many Brooke's…

"I told him not to." He said, looking out the window.

"How? Do you talk to him inside of your head?" Casey asked, bewildered.

"Sometimes." Derek stood and sat on the bed next to Casey. There was a respectful distance between them. "Sometimes we all write in a notebook. Derek doesn't though. Just us. It can get foggy and noisy in this brain." He said jovially, looking out the window.

"Is that why Derek rarely uses his brain? Because he can't?" Casey said jokingly. Derek let out a boisterous laugh and nodded his head. Casey went into a fit of giggling and caught eyes with him. I'm not laughing with Derek, I'm laughing with a girl. She had to keep reminding herself. The relationship that she had with Derek was complex before, but even more so now.

"There's more than just Damien, Daphne and I. To warn you, most of them don't like you or your family. They haven't appeared often as their jobs are rarely needed." He explained.

"Jobs? What do you mean by that?" Derek smiled at Casey.

"See, this is why I like you. I can't speak for anyone elses reasons, but it is why I like you. You always ask the right questions and you are one sharp cookie."

"Cookies are sharp?" Derek smiled and nudged her.

"No." He said, shaking his head. "The jobs are what cause one of us to come out. Damien's job is acting on sexual desire. Daphne's job is to learn and teach. Marti is the only who has had contact with her because of her young age. My job is compassion and deep conversation. Fredrick, the one who got in the fight with Noel and George, he's Derek offense. And there are lots of others that haven't come out yet…I won't mention their jobs…but…" Derek twiddled his thumbs. Casey was trying desperately to soak in all the information. His brain had an order, it wasn't random. So it kind of was my fault. Derek thought I was trying to…seduce him. Casey shuddered. "But they exist. Do you want to read our conversations?"

"Yes. Do you have them or something?"

"Every single notebook." Derek said, looking at her.

"Sure. But maybe just recent ones." He nodded his head and left the room.

A few minutes later he re-entered her bedroom and shut the door behind him with two notebooks in his hand. Seating himself beside her again, he handed them both to her.

"The first page of the top notebook was about a month ago." Derek took the top notebook and flipped it open. He pointed to the first passage. The handwriting was curvy and curly. "This is me." He pointed to the next paragraph which was deep and angry looking. "This is Fredrick." The next handwriting was light and airy. "Daphne." He skipped over the next style of handwriting and turned over the page. There were tons of different handwriting styles, no similarities to behold. They all came from Derek and his hand. "This one," Derek pointed to a swift and bolt looking handwriting. "That's Damien." He closed the notebook and set it back in her lap. "All other handwritings are from people you don't know. They come out randomly and for small moments because of where his thoughts were lead. Usually when he was in the solitude of his room."

Derek stood and Casey grabbed onto his arm. He turned and looked down at her.

"Is Derek mad at me. He looked mad." He smiled.

"He thinks he is." Casey let go and looked down. Derek stood still for a moment, then left the room.

Casey spread herself across her bed. She was tired from the day. It was past dinner time and she knew that the kids were hungry. No dinner had been made because of the dilemma they were in. The poor kids didn't even know what was going on.

They couldn't know. They shouldn't know. And what if they find out? Surely Lizzie and Edwin will try to decipher all the happenings. I know Lizzie will come to me with questions at some point. What if I went to them first? Would they feel more comfortable, knowing that they were being told exactly what they needed to know, under the confidence of someone?

Casey brushed her hand atop the notebooks. Indeed, she was curious, but her mind kept telling her to look at it later. She took the notebooks and tucked them between her mattress and box-spring.

She rolled off of her bed and snuck out of the room. Quietly lurching to the attic stairs, she breathed in, walked to the door and opened it. There was a tiny window to the left and Edwin's bed laid right in front of it. Edwin, Lizzie and Marti were by the right wall as Casey entered the room, shutting the door, and turned to face the window.

Marti jumped up and ran to her.

"Casey!" She jumped up into Casey's arms and Casey held her there in a strange sort of comfort. Marti was the one who had the most interaction with the other Derek's and it was like she was holding a plethora of hidden knowledge in just holding her baby step-sister.

"Casey? Do you need something? Are you okay?" Lizzie asked. Realizing she had never been in Edwin's room she looked around, not answering her questions. Marti climbed down. His room was neat, the floor was wooden and waxed, a light hung swinging from the cieling. She looked down and saw that his bed sheets were blue. Casey didn't know why but it felt significant. Actually everything felt significant.

"Casey?" Edwin asked. She was snapped back to the reason for her coming into his room.

"Edwin, can I talk to you?" He looked at Lizzie with a hidden message. She smiled at him and took Marti out of the room and down the stairs. After they made their exit he motioned her to a chair to sit in. Casey sat and he sat across from her at the edge of his bed.

"What do you need?" Casey bit her lip. What did she need?

"A piece of paper and a pen." He cocked an eyebrow. She rolled her eyes. "For your word to keep what I say silent and to not sneak around." Edwin grabbed what she asked for and handed them to her. Casey placed the paper on her leg and wrote:

"Edwin Venturi swears to tell no one of the conversation with Casey McDonald pertaining to Derek Venturi and the fight they had the other day, and Casey McDonald swears to tell no one of the reasons that Edwin Venturi and Derek Venturi fought yesterday. The details of why Casey McDonald will not say more about Derek Venturi's anger will be kept to a minimum and Edwin Venturi swears to not participate, condone, or antagonize any possible spying, rumors, or accidental telling of a secret."

She made two lines; one for Casey to sign and another for him to sign. Casey signed hers and handed it to him. The spontaneity of the situation shocked her, like her body no longer had a clue what the mind was up to. He read it and looked at her.

"What about Derek?" She shook her head no, not saying a word, and looked at the paper. Reluctantly, he signed it and handed the paper back to her. She folded it and stuck it carefully in her pocket. "Okay. Now, what about Derek?"

"Derek's…sick. You got into a fight with him the other day. What was said?" Edwin crossed his arms.

"What do you know?" Casey sighed at him.

"Derek didn't know about the girl you were talking about. You got mad because he didn't know. That's all I know." Edwin uncrossed his arms and looked contemplatively at her. His spy-works were turning, she knew they were.

"And that's all Derek knows, isn't it." She didn't answer, and in this he got his answer. "I was asking for advice because he was in a similar situation with a girl and all of a sudden when I was telling him about something that happened he didn't know who or what the hell I was talking about. Frustrated, I was tearing up and he flipped out saying 'Tears are worse than hugs'. Needless to say I lost it." He looked down trying to suppress his fury towards Derek. "All I could think of was about how many times he said he would be there for me." He looked back at Casey. "You of all people should know that means he'll be there for you when it's a good time for him." Casey didn't respond to this statement.

"Who was the girl you were talking about?" Edwin didn't look like he had any intention of saying who the girl was. Casey pulled out the contract and re-read it, and then read aloud.

"'Casey McDonald swears to tell no one of the reasons that Edwin Venturi and Derek Venturi fought yesterday.'" She folded it back up and stuffed it in her pocket. "So there. Whoever the girl is…I can't say. I wouldn't anyway. Who would I tell?" Edwin breathed deeply and looked at Casey.

"But if I say who the girl is, you'll know what situation it could relate to, and who it would relate to." Casey furrowed her eyebrows, but smiled.

"Trust me, at this point, nothing could really surprise or shock me about Derek unless he murdered someone." Edwin crossed his arms and after a few seconds muttered a name. "Sorry, what was that?" His eyes pierced hers.

"Lizzie." Casey leaned back slightly, not daring to look away from Edwin. This simple name led her to believe that Edwin already knew about Derek's affection for Casey. And since Derek didn't know about the girl, he obviously wasn't the one who told Edwin about how he felt about me. So one of his personalities did. Maybe Brooke since she is the compassionate conversationalist. After all, she did tell me that-"Casey?" Her eyes focused again, retracting out of her drifting thoughts.

"Sorry." She said soft, feeling guilty she fell into her thoughts.

"Are you…mad?" Casey smiled, and took a deep breath. He was such a child, and she knew that any affection he had for Lizzie was a child's affection.

"No." Casey paused for a moment. "Do you know how she feels?"

"I didn't then, but I do now." Edwin remained silent.

"Well? How does she feel?" He smiled at her.

"That's for her to tell you, because that's not in our contract." Casey squinted at him, but knew that he was right. She just felt a little let down that he couldn't trust her not to say a word. In her mind, she thought Lizzie wouldn't, but Edwin's confidence told her that she did like Edwin. I wonder what kind of relationship they would have? Certainly not one to be taken seriously. Casey held out her hand and Edwin took it in a handshake.

"To-shay, Edwin. Thank you for talking with me. Would you like a copy of the agreement?" He shook his head no.

"All I need to know is to not tell anyone about a single word that was said." Casey gave a half smile.

"Thank you." She stood, ready to leave, and he stood as well.

"Could you just tell me though, before you leave, what's Derek sick with?" Edwin's eyes pleaded for the truth. Casey could tell him about the black-outs, but she decided to go with a truthful euphemism.

"Honestly, I don't know." He sat back down, slightly defeated, slightly reassured, both looking quite uncomfortable for him. Casey turned and left the room.