A/N: I know it's been a while, and it was such a cliffhanger I left you on last time, so I'm sorry. I really like this chapter. But I don't know whether to make it the end or not. I could probably write another chapter, but this one might be sufficient enough to end with. I don't know. What do you think? Let me know!

R&R, please!

-Jaclyn :)

Chapter Thirteen: I'm All Alone

Casey felt as if her heart had stopped beating. It couldn't be true. It just couldn't. Derek was dead. Derek was dead. Derek was DEAD! It was all her fault. Her alternate reality self had become a three-timer, and because of that, the two boys she had cheated on killed Derek. She held him in her arms, watching the cowards run away. Tears were running down her face, but as she watched Alan and Sean, she felt hatred like nothing she had ever felt before. All she wanted to do was to kill them, in revenge for killing Derek, but she could not let go of his body. Her boyfriend's dead body.

What would happen when things went back to normal now? He was dead in this alternate reality. How did that affect him in real life? Would he still be dead, just by a different cause? Or would he be alive? Would he remember everything that happened in this alternate reality? She heard sirens in the background, and saw Edwin and Lizzie looking in horror at Derek's dead body. Lizzie was close to tears, because she had such a compassionate heart, and cared for everyone, and she had had such a large crush on Derek; but Edwin had barely known this Derek, so he was not as sad as he would have been if he had known this was his older brother.

The ambulance appeared first, and out popped two men with a stretcher. Casey wouldn't let go of his body. She couldn't. But the men were finally able to pry her hands off of him and get him onto the stretcher. She turned to Edwin and Lizzie, shaky, and her eyes not focused.

"Go back home, wait for Mom and George. Tell them what happened and where I am." She spoke like a robot, no emotions whatsoever. She then turned around and went into the ambulance with Derek, holding his lifeless hand. It was clear to the men around her that he was dead, and that they had arrived too late, but that didn't stop them from bandaging his wound.

"Where is his family?"

"I'm the only person he's got here. No family."

"He was an orphan?"

"In this world he was." She whispered, looking down into his lifeless face, crying; she did not see the workers give her odd looks.

"The police are going to have to ask you some questions where we reach the hospital. Are you alright with that? Did you see the accident?"

Casey nodded slowly, "I was there, and they were holding me back. I could've stopped him, I could've saved—" she could say nothing else, for her tears once again overwhelmed her.

"Was it a suicide?" they asked gently.

She glared up at them, "NO! Derek would NEVER do something like that! He was MURDERED!"

The men were obviously taken back by her outburst, but she didn't care. Her Derek was dead, and she was left all alone in this weird alternate reality. He had been the only one who had known it wasn't real. The only one with whom she could talk to about things going back to normal. The only one who could hold her in his arms and make her feel completely safe. And now he was gone, just like that.

The trip to the hospital was short. They tried to take Derek away from her but she screamed at them. She was not parting from him. She needed him to answer the police's questions. She couldn't do it without him. She couldn't live in this reality without him. Two policemen came up to her slowly, after talking with the men who had been in the ambulance with her.

"So, we're told this was a murder. Is that correct?"

Casey's eyes never left Derek's face as she nodded.

"We were also told you were a witness, is that correct?"

Tears flowed from her eyes continuously as she nodded again.

"Could you give us the name of the person who did it?"

"Sean killed him, but Alan helped make him weak!"

"Sean and Alan. Can I have last names?"

"I don't know them. Sean had black hair and was tall. Alan had dirty blonde hair and he was short and broad. They both go to J.S. Thompson High School." She explained, wanting the questions to be done. Wanting Sean and Alan punished.

"Thank you for your time. We're sorry about your loss."

"Will the people that did this be punished?" She finally looked away from Derek, and looked up at the policemen.

One of them stepped closer to her and put a hand on her shoulder, "We will try and make them receive the punishment they deserve."

"Thank you." And her vision returned to Derek's face. She gently caressed his cheek and was surprised at how quickly it had gotten cold. Her tears were no longer flowing, but she felt empty inside. Losing Derek after thinking he didn't exist and then realizing he did, and then falling in love with him, it was just all too much. She felt nothing but emptiness. No more sadness, no more anger, no more happiness. In fact, she didn't even feel the air around her. It was as if she was no longer in this world. She took a deep breath and looked around. No longer in this world; was she going back?

All of a sudden she felt a sharp pain in her chest. She doubled over from the pain and put her hand on it to put pressure on the pain to make it go away. But then she felt more pain all over her body, she tried to scream, but her open mouth gave no sound. She was now completely on the ground, out of breath, and she wondered why no one saw her, why no one saw how much pain she was in. She figured they all thought she was grieving over Derek. She tried screaming again. But to no avail. She was still silent.

And then, as quickly as the pain had come, it was gone. Completely gone, she could breathe normally again, and she could hear herself breathe. She looked around, wide-eyed, trying to figure out what had happened. She tried standing back up, but all her efforts were for naught. She couldn't move. It was as if she were stuck in her position on the ground, her legs bent beneath her, her arms clutching her chest.

The next thing she knew she was laying on her back on the cold tile floor. Derek's stretcher loomed over her, and she was terrified of what was happening to her. She couldn't move any part of her body, and she was growing more and more afraid by the second.

She felt pressure on her chest now, as if two heavy objects were sitting on top either side of her chest. Her breathing grew heavy and she longed to stand up, to run away from this weirdness. But she couldn't move a muscle.

Suddenly shocks ran through her body, making her whole body jump a few inches into the air. She longed to cry out, to scream, to cry, but she could do nothing.

The shocks ran throughout her again and once again she was flung into the air. She collided back onto the floor painfully, and just as she wished she could cry out, she heard someone else cry out her name.

"CASEY!"

It couldn't be. Derek was lying just above her on the stretcher, dead. He couldn't be calling her name. But it sounded far off, as if he were miles away. She longed to be closer to his voice, and as more shocks ran through her, she tried as hard as she could to call back to him.

"DEREK!" She was amazed at how far away her own voice sounded. Maybe she was dying. Maybe she was hearing the cries of the people on earth as she floated away into heaven.

"CASEY?" his voice was closer now, and it was as if he had heard her.

She tried hard to call back to him, it took all the energy in her almost energy-less body.

"DEREK!"

There were two other people calling her name now. She could hardly recognize them. All she heard was Derek.

"Casey! Casey wake up! Casey come back!" he sounded desperate, and for the first time she'd ever heard, near tears. He sounded a lot closer now, and she felt as if he was just a couple feet away, but she didn't see him, all she saw was the stretcher above her, and she knew that the Derek on that stretcher wasn't the one calling to her. She had no more energy to call back to him, and she felt her life slipping away, but it felt odd, as if two different lives were leaving her body.

She was dying, and she had no idea why. She was dying in both realities, and there was nothing no one could do to stop it. Now she knew why she heard Derek; it was the real reality Derek. He was trying to stop her from dying, but there was nothing he could do but call to her. She wanted to reach out and touch him, but she still couldn't see him. And even now her vision of the hospital around her was fading away from her. It was such an odd feeling to die in one reality, and then because of that die in another. It was confusing.

She tried moving any part of her body to show whoever was around her that she wasn't dead, she was still alive, some part of her was still alive. But nothing could move. She was stuck in her dying position. She wanted to scream, and she opened her mouth, but just as the loud noise was about to come out, more shocks came through her, and her mouth snapped shut again.

"Casey, don't leave me! I can't live in this reality without you!"

It was a whisper, and she could feel his breath on her ear. It sent shivers down her spine, and the shivers gave her the energy once again to move her body. She moved her arm and reached up to the space around her ear. Her eyes were open, but she could no longer see anything. It was pitch black. It was as if her eyes were closed when they weren't. She felt around the air near her ear, longing to feel Derek one more time. She knew he was right there, close enough to touch. But as her hand grabbed nothing, she realized that he was close enough to touch, but still a reality away.

She let out a scream, and she knew everyone around her, whether in the alternate reality or in the real reality, heard her. It was a scream that held pain, fear, and sadness all in one. There was someone else screaming with her. And she knew, without knowing how she knew, that it was her real reality self. The screams joined together, and became one solitary scream. Casey now knew that if she could see around her, she would be in the real reality.

She tried to lift her hand back by her ear to search for Derek, and she found him. She touched his cheek, and her hand made its way into his hair, and she felt his breath quicken, and she heard noises all around her, but she couldn't hear them, all she knew at that moment was that she was finally touching Derek; a Derek that was living and breathing. She felt his hand grasp hers, and he brought it to his mouth and he began kissing it again and again. His grasp was tight, and she knew that he was afraid that if he let go again he would lose her again.

Her eyes were closed now, but she could not open them. There was no more pressure on her chest and there were no more shocks. She was no longer in pain, but she could still feel her life slipping away. But this time it was just one life. She was no longer in two different realities. She was in the real reality with Derek at her side. At least that would be the last thing she would remember, Derek's touch, and the way it felt to have his lips against her hand. She tried to take a breath, but she couldn't. It was as if her lungs had stopped working. She opened and closed her mouth several times, trying to get the air flow to open up again.

She could sense Derek's fear and worry. His breath had quickened, and it sounded shaky. He leaned in close, and she felt the warmth of his breath on her neck.

"Don't leave me Casey." He whispered again, "I can't live in any reality without you."

Her heart had stopped. She heard a loud beeping in her ear; but there was one thing wrong, when your heart stopped, shouldn't you already be dead?

She heard Derek let out a shaky sob, and he kept her hand in his, no longer kissing it, but it was still right beside his mouth. She didn't want to leave him. She couldn't. He needed her. She knew what it felt to think that the one you loved was dead; she couldn't do that to him. It was heart ache, and she did want to put him through that. The loud beeping was still in her ear, and she wondered how she was still alive, even though she wasn't breathing, and her heart had stopped.

She opened her mouth and took in a deep breath, forcing it down into her lungs. Her chest moved up and down as her breathing began again. The beeping was no longer there because her heart was pumping again. Derek's grasp was almost to the point of making her lose circulation. She moved her hand to touch his lips that were just beside her fingers. She smiled as she felt them, and felt a relieved smile grow on his own lips. Her eyes still wouldn't open, but she was alright, she knew that she was alive, and was staying that way for a while. Opening her eyes would come later. She was content with just breathing again and feeling Derek right beside her.

"I couldn't have lived with out you here, Casey." He whispered, and her smile grew.

"Why do you think I'm still alive?"

She felt him sigh, and felt his smile grow as well. He kissed her hand once more, and laid his head beside hers, thankful that she was alive.

"I love you."

"I love you, too. In this reality, and in any others, I love you."

He smiled and kissed her temple, "No matter what happens…"

"Everything will be just fine, as long as you're here beside me."

He kissed her again, agreeing with her.