AN: Sorry for the delay! I was grounded from the internet and also my granddad had a heart attack so I went up to see him. Crazy life I have. Hope you enjoy. I had a lot of time to write this and I am just glad that I can finally upload it.
PS I have a "website" I guess one could say. Itswww.luvs2smile4love. . If you have a deviantart account and you added me let me know so I can let the world know!
Also I've started another fanfiction. And this one won't be going on for much longer. I've already finished the next few chapters so send your reviews in and I'll get it up.
Ten and the next one comes!
Neuf:
The sound of beeping woke Casey up. For a second she could have sworn that she was at home, Edwin testing his latest experiment on her. What else is new…
Except the fact that she was nowhere near home.
Like a bolt of lightening radiating from the sky, Casey shot up. She woke Derek, who was uncomfortably laying his head on her bed. He also sat up with a jolt, drool leaving his mouth and hitting the nearest machine.
"Where the heck am I?" Casey yelled, causing a flight of nurses to enter the room. When they saw that she was just waking up they paged one of the doctors that was working on her case. Derek grabbed her hand and for a split second Casey felt everything was going to be okay, until Derek opened his stupid big mouth.
"You are at the hospital. Case, do you remember what happened?"
Casey opened her mouth and her anger bubbled out in the form of words.
"NO! I CAN'T REMEMBER ANYTHING! ISN'T THAT THE PROBLEM?" Derek tried to comfort her but it seemed to make things worse.
"Casey, I came with you. I can tell you what is wrong."
"You left school?! How long ago was that?" Casey screamed. The nurses that had entered the room just looked with mystified faces. Was this the Casey McDonald that had always been so kind and walked in every Saturday after the soup kitchen to talk to all the patients without family? Well, seeing as the new Casey didn't remember the old Casey, they could only hope that she would slowly realize her mistakes.
"It was about three days ago." Derek said sheepishly.
"Three days?" It seemed that the new Casey only came with a decibal volume of four billion.
"Yeah." Derek was shifting his hands in a way that showed that he only really knew how to hold on to a hockey stick.
"That is three days that you need to make up. Do you know how hard that is going to be? I don't know what you've done in the past but what you've got to realize is that its going to take eons to get that work made up."
"I'll just copy Sam." Derek was trying to give her the most logical reason that he could think of. Only problem is that Derek couldn't think much.
"No go home." Casey said, in a nonchalant manner.
"I'm not leaving you."
"I'm making you." Casey looked into his deep brown eyes that were on the verge of tears.
"I don't want to leave you."
"Its not your choice." Casey's voice rang with anger. Derek sat there stunned at the new and aggressive Casey.
"Just leave Derek."
Derek looked at her and asked if that is what she wanted.
"Just leave me alone."
The doctor came in at the same moment that Derek left.
"Casey McDonald?" he said, as if he was unsure of the new girl he saw now. A headstrong girl that didn't want her stepbrother around her.
Because it was scary enough as it was to worry about herself, let alone another person.
The strong smell of the evergreens outside Casey's window was the only thing that was left in the room.
"That's what it says on this nifty tag you've wrapped around my wrist." Casey said, sitting back in her bed. The fight knocked all the energy out of her. "I have yet to figure out the truth."
"We have an understanding that you fell." The doctor said. "Do you remember what happened?"
Casey sighed loudly. "Why does everyone ask me if I remember? Isn't that the problem I'm having to begin with?"
The doctor sat down right next to Casey. "We don't think that the accident caused your amnesia. We think its something more serious." He must have noticed the sudden withdraw of all color from Casey's cheeks. "Don't be scared. We've been known for our advancement in this area. I just want you to know that we have all the technology that is needed for us to operate properly."
"Operate on what exactly?" Casey asked, somewhat aggravated at this doctor. Did he expect for her to automatically know what was going on?
"We believe that you have a brain tumor."
O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O
Everyone in Derek's life has told him that it was unsafe to drive while angry. And intoxicated. At one time he agreed with them, but now its different.
He wished that he was both, instead of the first.
He sighed angrily as he weaved in between cars that were moving below seventy miles an hour. He clutched the steering wheel like his life depended on it.
How reliable had this steering wheel been in the last year? His father used this car and avoided several accidents. If only Casey could have been driving in this car instead.
But if she had been driving in this car then she would have never lost Max. Or her memory. She wouldn't have needed Derek to rescue her.
She wouldn't have told Derek that she loved him.
Derek stopped at a stoplight and tapped the steering wheel in anticipation for a green light. Was this really worth all the hassle? Would she ever remember how much she loved him?
Would he ever be able to return the saying?
It was one more street before their own. As he turned onto the street he saw that his dad was home early from work. Lately he had been working extra hours to make up for all the hospital bills and time he spent out of work because of Casey.
His Casey.
He shook his head to rid her from his thoughts. She didn't want him around.
The only girl on the entire planet that wished him to not be around her.
How strange.
He clicked the button to lock the doors to his car and ran up the stairs into the house.
He loved that no lights were on. The kitchen door was closed and he could have sworn that he heard whispering in the room. Typical Derek could not avoid listening in.
"What are we going to do?" It was Nora's worried voice. He heard the sniffle and new that she was also crying.
"We can't do anything but believe what the doctor says is right. Have we got another choice?"
"She's already been through so much. This could be her last straw. And what if…" Nora's voice cut off with one of her wails. Derek could hear his father scoot his chair closer to Nora.
"Shhh. It will all work out. She's tough and headstrong." George let out an awkward laugh. "Now more than ever."
Derek couldn't help himself. He had to open the doors and interject. Too bad that it started Nora and George out of their wits.
"What is going on with Casey?" Derek asked, aggravated that once again she was the topic of discussion.
Nora looked at George who mumbled something until she nudged him.
"The doctor called while you were gone. It is believed that Casey has a…tumor growing…in her brain."
Right then Marti pranced down the stairs as a ballerina. "Yuck! Like the stuff that Edwin was looking at in the cafeteria at school?"
Derek scooped up his sister. "No, that's the mystery meat lunch. And what were you doing in the Cafeteria at his school."
"So whats a tumor?" Marti asked, and Derek thought.
"Its like a giant bulge of mess growing in her brain." He kept it G for General just for Marti.
"Does it mean that she is going to die?" Marti asked.
This time Derek didn't have an answer for her.
"Guys." Derek said, as he set Marti back down onto the ground. "I am going to leave for a little bit. I'll be back by curfew."
Nora and George nodded. What else were they going to do?
O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O
Derek sped down the same road he was just on, only about twenty miles per hour faster. A cop saw him and went to pull him over but Derek was no match for this particular Fuzz. It seemed that all the cop's donut eating had interfered with is ability to drive a car.
Derek pulled into the hospital parking lot and parked in a handicapped parking lot. Wasn't everyone in the hospital handicapped in some way or another?
He also didn't have the patience for the elevator either. He jogged up fifteen flights of stairs until he reached Casey's floor.
And when he entered the room, he was met by a startling sight.
Casey had her tumor-filled head laying on her knees. Her chest was rising and falling normally, except the occasional hiccup every now and then.
After a few moments, Derek spoke. "Case?" He said, quietly to mind the neighbors.
She sat up and surprised Derek again. Tears soaked every place he could see, and her face was redder than the geraniums in the vase next to her. He raced over her and handed her a tissue from the Kleenex box next to the bed.
"Casey, I heard." Derek said, and stretched an arm around her frail body.
"Its no surprise. You hear a lot."
"I don't hear your yelling." She shot him a look. "Not like I want you to or anything."
A struggling smile appeared on her face.
"What am I going to do?" she said, closing her eyes and burying her face in her hands.
"First," Derek said, after a long pause. "You are going to lean over here so I can give you a hug. Then you are going to let me worry about this. You just need to focus about getting better."
Casey took her head out of her hands and placed it on Derek's shoulder. He wrapped his arms fully around her. He could feel her heart beating rapidly. He could only assume his was doing the same thing.
"You've made my life better Derek. I just only wish I could remember all the good times we've had before this." Casey said finally, eyes on the verge of closing.
"The times now are the ones that I want to remember most though." Derek said, eyes closing themselves. He leaned back onto her pillow and she snuggled closer.
"Was it ever better than this?" She said, feeling his warm scent fill the air around her and engulf her in a hug unlike any other.
"Never." He took a whiff of her hair, smelling like hospital generic shampoo. He's never smelt anything more wonderful.
He murmured to himself as the fell asleep. "Yet every time with you has been nothing short of perfect."