Derek opened a sleepy eye and looked at his wife.

"Are you going to sit there all night, chewing your fingernails? Only it's interfering with my sleep."

She reached out and calmly put her pillow over his head. He sat up suddenly, dislodging the pillow.

"I thought we'd got past the urge to smother Derek with a pillow."

She looked at him. "Just whose bright idea was it to let them share a room?"

"Hey. It was James' suggestion. I just went with it."

She glared at him. "I credited you with more sense than George. I mean, god. He let us sleep in adjacent rooms for years."

"Yeah but that was when we couldn't stand the sight of each other."
Casey pulled back the covers, exposing both their bodies. At the sight of her with nothing on, Derek's body had an automatic reaction.

"Now tell me that didn't happen when we were fifteen and fighting."

He chuckled and ran a finger along her stomach.

"I never acted on it though."

"Well, not with me anyway."

"Oh no, Casey Venturi! You are not going there okay? We've talked about my behaviour in high school. We agreed it wasn't going to be dragged out at every opportunity. I apologised. Although since we weren't dating at the time, I'm not entirely sure why I apologised."

Casey turned to him and raised her eyebrows.

"Okay…maybe that wasn't the brightest thing I've ever said. Look I'll have a chat to Stig and tell him to behave himself, okay."

"You can't do that. You'll put ideas in his head."

Derek pulled the covers back over them and rested his elbows on his knees.

"You do realise that even if they did have separate rooms, in a hotel situation, they could still bed hop. We did it."

"Yes but maybe Lucy's conscience would get her in the corridor."

Derek smirked. "Yours didn't."

"I was a lost cause." She caught the smirk from the corner of her eye and when his arm slid around her, she sank into him. "I was a lost cause the first time I saw you. I was so screwed."

"Do you realise how long it took me to look up whether it was legal to sleep with your step-sister?"

"About thirty seconds?"

"Less."

They laughed and then kissed for a while.

"Casey. They are adults. They will make their own mistakes. We have to let them."

"And what about the fall-out?"

"Then we act prepared. Because we will be prepared. You always are, honey. And look on the bright side. At least they aren't related."

"It's a shame really." Casey said, losing the fight against his kiss. "Everyone should have a step-brother like mine."

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"You're in a bad mood."

"Mom and Dad have agreed to us sharing the journey to Queens with Stig." Lucy said.

"Oh."

"You haven't heard the worst. I've got to share a room with him."
"That could be…"

"…noisy. Yeah I know."

Lilly smiled to herself. She wondered what kind of 'noisy'.

"So what are you going to do?"

"What can I do? I shall charge my iPod, take a good book and get an early night. And if the worst comes to the worst, I'll lock him in the bathroom."

Lilly wished the Venturis had a bigger car. This trip sounded like fun.

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"So Teddy. How was the barbecue?" Lizzie asked her son as she sorted the washing. It wasn't that Edwin kept her chained to the kitchen sink, she just didn't trust anyone else in the house to do the washing in the most environmentally friendly way.

"Pretty cool actually. Lilly is on my wavelength."

"Oh? Potential girlfriend?"

Teddy laughed. "Mom. Why do you do that?"

"What?"

"Start with the Aunt Casey impression." He said it to distract her. Teddy knew that the thought she was behaving like her elder sister irritated Lizzie. She loved her to pieces but Lizzie liked to think they had forged different lives. Teddy often used it to get out of an awkward question. It worked again. Lizzie was deflected from the topic of Lilly.

He tuned his mom out and started to think about his new partner in crime. That Observations file thing was impressive. He was looking forward to comparing his own notes with her. There had been many instances in recent months where Teddy had noticed the way Stig talked about Lucy, and just recently, it was a daily occurrence; almost as if he couldn't go a day without talking about her.

Which was insane, because that would mean…

Teddy grinned. Yes. He definitely needed to compare notes with Lilly.