Disclaimer: Still don't own Life with Derek.

Author's Note: Although I'm not anti-Lizwin, it's not going to happen in this story. Lizzie and Edwin have a pretty strong sibling bond at this point, and if that were to change, I think it would take more than a few lines to explain it.

Chapter #8--This is Life with . . . Emily, Sam, George & Nora, Paul, Lizzie, Edwin, Marti, and some other guy.

Emily Davis was royally pissed. Although she was pretty much over Derek, she frankly couldn't stand what had been going on between him and Casey for the last few months.

She was fed up with the glances, the touching, the whispers in each other's ears, the blushes, and the occasional tender moments between then. She wished that they would just jump each other already.

This was not jealousy—well, mostly it wasn't. She had known for a long time that she was not the girl for Derek and had come to accept that.

Earlier in their senior year, they had dated for about a month. She and Derek were friends. She knew that he genuinely liked and respected her. The entire time that the two of them had dated, she knew that he had tried his damnedest to love her as more than a friend. At the time, she didn't really understand why he was seeing her at all, but she was grateful for another chance to try to win his heart. She had realized that he would never love her, but at least that question had finally been answered and she had no regrets.

She had broken up with him as soon as she understood that he couldn't return her feelings. In a way, his struggle to do so had seemed almost pathetic. It had a very desperate quality to it, which she couldn't quite figure out . . . As his friend above all else, she couldn't just let him continue with it.

Looking back, maybe this thing with Casey had been the reason. Maybe even then, he'd been trying to deny his feelings for her. He sure as hell was now.

Emily hoped with all her heart that her two friends would be happy, and it pissed her off to sit back and watch the constant song and dance between them.

If you found someone that you could love and who actually seemed to love you back, why wouldn't you just be with them?

Sam, on the other hand, was happy. As much as she tried to hide it, it was pretty obvious by now that Casey had feelings for Derek. He was glad to realize that she wasn't going to hurt his best friend.

In retrospect, he realized, he probably should have known that she liked him. After all, the whole time that they were dating, Casey seemed downright obsessed with Derek . . .

Looking back, Sam found that he had to laugh.

Unlike Emily, he was confident that things would eventually work out no matter how long it took.

George had brought home a bunch of cardboard boxes, and one night when Nora came down to their bedroom, she saw him starting to pack them with their things.

"I think that Derek will be moving to the basement soon," he had said.

He didn't need to say anything more.

They were both quite aware of what was going on between their two oldest children, and while they were slightly concerned about it, they had a tacit agreement with each other not to interfere or to explicitly discuss it.

Nora understood and agreed that if anything happened, it would be unacceptable for Derek to remain in the bedroom next to Casey.

Granted, they were both going to the University of Toronto next year and would be free to do whatever they wanted there, but under their roof, George and Nora were determined that things would remain PG-13.

After all, Casey and Derek were only 18.

Paul was a bit concerned.

Although Casey had not spoken to him about the matter, he, like pretty much everyone else in the school, was aware of what was going on.

Frankly, he had suspected it was coming since the very first time she walked into his office and had started to rant about her stepbrother. He had even planned out the agenda for a family meeting that they could all have to help them adjust.

He suspected that Casey hadn't been coming to see him because she wasn't exactly eager to address all of the questions she knew he would ask her.

So one day he approached her in the hallway. He told her that if she ever needed to, she and Derek could bring in their parents and their younger siblings to discuss "any issues that might come up" under his guidance.

Casey had seemed genuinely grateful for the suggestion, which made Paul feel a bit better about the whole situation.

Lizzie hoped her sister knew what she was doing and that things would work out for the best. Derek was like an older brother to her, so this thing between him and Casey seemed a little bit weird for her.

She hoped that whatever was going on wouldn't change her own relationships with her sibs. Was it still okay for her to think of Derek, Edwin, and Marti as her family? And if Derek liked Casey as more than a sister, could she be certain that Edwin didn't think of her in a romantic way? She sure hoped that he didn't and was sort of avoiding talking to him about it. She really liked having Edwin as a brother and didn't want their relationship to change.

Lizzie knew that no matter how things turned out, she and her family would eventually adjust. Nonetheless, she couldn't help feeling mildly disturbed and probably could have used that family discussion that Paul suggested.

Personally, Edwin was glad that this whole thing had started. Derek was paying so much attention to Casey that he no longer spent as much time bossing him around.

Unlike Lizzie, Edwin didn't find the situation upsetting. Frankly, he wasn't really that surprised by it. The whole thing had seemed almost inevitable to him; it had just needed something to set it motion.

While he had come to see Casey as a sister, he knew that Derek never quite had. Although in many ways he still looked up to his brother, he was coming to realize that they were very different people and wanted to step out of Derek's shadow. He wasn't about to let Derek's relationships with people define his interactions with them. Whatever Derek felt about his stepsisters had absolutely no bearing on what he, Edwin, thought or felt about them.

He just hoped that both of his younger sisters were also okay with what was happening. Although he and Lizzie talked about almost everything, she seemed a little bit uncomfortable discussing it and he thought that it might be upsetting her. As for Marti, who knew what was going on inside her head . . .

Marti, who had not changed much since she was six, hoped that Derek would marry Casey and have lot of kids. Or rabbits. It would also be cool if Casey had baby rabbits. But this was another discussion in McDonald-Venturi household that was probably long overdue . . .

Roger White was one the few people at Sir John Sparrow who strongly disapproved of whatever was going on between Derek Venturi and his stepsister. He didn't like the whole "what Derek wants Derek gets" mentality that the rest of the school seemed to be organized around and hoped that this wouldn't include Casey McDonald . . . .