Casey was wide-awake lying in bed next to Sam at two in the morning. Sam was out cold and had his arm snaked around her waist tightly. She heard steady deep breathing and knew Sam was asleep. 'Okay…good, he's asleep. Now how do I get out of here?' she thought as Sam inched closer to her in his sleep. Casey frantically looked around the room for anything that could help her escape. She moved around and noticed a body pillow on the floor. 'This might help' she thought as she tried to inch her way over to grab it. 'Ahh' she mentally screamed. Her body was so sore that it hurt to move. 'Just a little…farther' she thought reaching farther and farther down until: 'Got it.' She pulled the pillow up to her chest. 'Okay…now if I could just move his arm' she gently lifted his arm and quietly slid off the bed. Sam mumbled something incoherent and Casey feared that he had woken up. She relaxed a little as his breathing started to even out. She quickly placed the pillow under his arm and moved to the other side of the room to find her shoes. The room was dark and she didn't see the lamppost behind her. She accidentally bumped it. On her way to the living room she heard a CRASH 'Oh NO!!' she thought as she heard Sam groan.

"What was that?" he asked semi groggily. "Case?" he asked as he lifted his head. Casey was half way to the door when Sam noticed she was gone. He got out of bed quickly and walked to the living room. "Where are you going?" he asked disappointedly. Before she had time to respond he said, "Are… are you trying to leave me?" he asked pathetically.

"Uh…" Casey was torn; either tell him the truth and get beat or lie and hopefully he wont notice.

"I'll…I'll get help, I'm sorry I did that to you but don't leave me." He pleaded pathetically.

"I… I…" Casey stuttered. She took a deep breath and said, "I have to go." When she turned to face the door again Sam grabbed her by both wrists.

"You're still gonna leave me?" he asked in disbelief. "After I apologized! You're still gonna leave?" he shouted while dragging her into the kitchen.

"Let…ME…GO" she yelled as Sam stopped in front of a drawer.

"You know what Case?" he asked as he sifted thru the drawer intently looking for something. "I love you to death" he said as he found what he was looking for.

Casey's had the 'deer in the headlights' look on her face when he said that. 'Oh… this cant be good…what am I gonna do?' She thought in a panic

Sam now had both her arms trapped behind her back with his left hand. And in his right- Casey saw out of the corner of her eye- was a steak knife. "Do you still want to leave?" he asked as he pressed the blade to her throat.

Casey whimpered. She was trapped and she knew it. "No." she whispered.

"What was that? I didn't hear you!" Sam said threateningly as he pressed the blade harder against her throat.

"I'll stay with you," she said then he pressed the knife harder and she yelled "I'LL STAY WITH YOU, I'LL STAY WITH YOU, just please stop!"

He dropped the knife and hugged her. He turned her around and asked quietly "Why do you make me do these things Case?" he looked at her with mock concern. Not waiting for her to answer he led her to his bedroom again.

Ten minutes latter Casey found herself looking at the alarm clock on the side of the bed. It was only 2:20 AM. Sam was a hard sleeper and had been holding her very tightly since they got into the bed. She sighed 'He's trying to make sure I don't leave, now how am I supposed to get out of here?' she thought. Just then Sam shifted in her sleep and released her. 'Oh my God I'm free' she thought as she slipped out of bed and put the pillow next to him again.

This time she didn't need her shoes because she was still wearing them. She tiptoed to the front door as quietly as she could. She slowly opened the door and it creaked a little. Thanking God that it hadn't woken him up, she silently closed the door and ran down the four flights of stairs to the lobby. As soon as she hit the night air she started to run to her apartment. It was 2:30 she didn't think the busses still ran this late and she was so scared she didn't even think about calling anyone for a ride.

She ran the twelve miles to her apartment. She didn't take the elevator because it was too slow and all she wanted to do was get upstairs and cry herself to sleep. She didn't want to think about Sam and she really didn't want to see any men at the moment. Finally she reached her apartment and went into the living room. As soon as she got there she noticed the lights in the kitchen were still on 'Derek must have left the lights on when he left.' She thought.

Meanwhile in the bahroom

Derek had decided to stay and explain to Casey that he hadn't meant to kiss her. He had it all planned out 'you see Case, when you were moving in to kiss me on the cheek, I heard a knock at the door and turned my head… into your mouth' Derek thought the conversation over and even the truth sounded dumb. But what was he going to tell her? That he had loved her for the past three years, ever since the day she knocked him out with that flower vase and he has secretly been trying to break her and Sam up for the past three years because he did not believe that Sam was the right man for her. That Sam had turned into a real jerk these past few years; telling all the guys in the locker room about what he and Casey do in the privacy of their own apartments.

He had fallen asleep earlier, and when he woke up Casey still wasn't home. "Two fifty-seven" he said as he looked at the clock. 'She must have slept over' he thought as he made his way to the bathroom. 'Oh well, now I've got more time to think about what I'll tell her.'

He had known Sam was an ass after that first college hockey practice when he told the entire team that he had slept with Casey. But he couldn't tell Casey that because he did love her and he knew it would hurt her too much and he didn't want her to cry. 'Okay lets try this again…' he thought. "Case-"

Just then Casey entered her living room. Derek could hear her sobs from the bathroom. He decided to go out and check on her. Her date with Sam couldn't have been that bad-but if the jerk had hurt her he was going to kill him-. What he saw almost hade his heart stop. "Case what happened!?" her right eye was slowly turning black and her shirt was torn, she had black and blue bruises down her arms and on her legs, her right leg was scrapped badly and still trickling blood. Her upper lip was busted and bleeding and so was her nose. As Derek looked closer he could see a red handprint on her cheek. "who did this to you?" he whispered

"Derek? What are you still doing here?" she sobbed. 'Damn, I didn't want him to see me like this. I thought he went home! What am I gonna tell him?'

"WHO DID THIS TO YOU?" Derek shouted. "Was it Sam?" He called after her as she made her way to the kitchen.

"N-no" she stuttered. She couldn't look at him, if she did he would have known she was lying.

"Then who did it?" he asked more forcefully. She was going to tell him who did it and he was going to kill that person. How could they do this to her? How could anyone do this to her?

"It w-was a g-g-guy at th-the restaurant" she said between sobs. Casey knew she was a terrible liar, but she didn't want to know what Derek would do to Sam if he knew.

"WHAT!" he shouted. "Where was Sam?"

"He… he wa-was there" she stuttered. Derek had a hard time believing this as much of a jerk that Sam was he knew that Sam wouldn't sit around while someone beats up his girlfriend. He knew she was lying.

"A guy at the restaurant?" he asked in disbelief. "A guy at the restaurant" he said again. "A guy at the restaurant just came up to you –in front of Sam- and just started beating the crap outta you! You do know how ridiculous that sounds right?" he asked her. She refused to look at him. "Now Casey you are going to tell me who did this to you and you're gonna tell me RIGHT NOW" he looked her straight in the eye and asked her softly "Who did it Case?"

The tears were cascading down her face when she inaudibly said "Sam" and slumped to the floor.

"WHAT!!!" Derek shouted.

"Sam did it," she admitted through ragged breaths "b-but it was- wasn't his f- fault." She said for his defense. "He had been dr-drinking a-and our waiter was fl-flirting with me," She looked down suddenly finding the tile on the kitchen floor more interesting than an angry Derek. "He was just so… angry. He kept asking I-if I wanted to b-be with someone el-else," she gulped. "And I kept saying no b-but he was-wasn't listening to me." She tore her eyes from the floor and turned to look at Derek. "H-he was really drunk and told me that if I didn't get into the car with him I could w- walk." She gulped remembering the look on his face. She started to cry again.

Derek put both his arms around her and made shushing noises. She turned into his shoulder and started to cry. "So what happened next?"

"We were in the car and he wa-was going full sp- speed. And I… I thought, that it would be better if I jumped." She was shaking heavily when she heard Derek gasp.

"You JUMPED out of a moving car?" he asked in disbelief. 'Wow, that must have been scary' he thought. He was about to ask something else when he felt her recoil in his grasp. He decided to keep quiet.

"I…I blacked out when I hit the ground. And when I woke up I…I..."

Derek didn't think it was possible but she cried harder. "He took me to his house" she stopped to catch her breath. "and he… he…he slapped me and called me a 'worthless slut' then he started to hit me."

"When did you leave?" he whispered.

"I tr-tried one t-time when he was asleep. But he woke up, and that's when he hit me in the eye." She reached her hand up to rub the throbbing eye.

"How did you get out?" he asked. He was getting angrier and angrier as she told him what happened but his voice betrayed his emotions.

"Once I was sure he was asleep, I snuck out and ran." She started to shake violently again and Derek held her tighter. "I ran all the way here."

He stood up and was on his way to leave when he heard "where are you going?" he looked down and she was on the floor rocking herself, dried blood on her face and angry bruises all over her body. Sam was gonna pay for this.

"Me? I'm not going anywhere important, I'm going to go kill him" he said casually.

"Please don't leave," she said quietly "stay with me".

He walked over to her, picked her up and carried her bridal style to the bathroom. He picked up a washcloth, rinsed it, and then started to wipe away the dried blood gently so he wouldn't hurt her. When he was done he picked her up again and laid her down in her bed. He moved to leave again but she grabbed his arm "what do you want me to do?" he asked.

"Just… be here" she said. He bent over and placed a kiss on the top of her head, he climbed into bed with her, pulled the covers over both of them and wrapped his arms around her. She curled into him and laid there quietly crying while he held her. After a while she fell asleep.

Derek had waited until he was sure that Casey was asleep before he too fell asleep. He would deal with Sam in the morning, but right now he had to be here for Casey.

A/N Okay guys thanks for reading. I really appreciate it. This will be the last chapter for a while. I'm going to summer school for a month and my mom won't let me bring my laptop so I'm stuck.