Casey woke up the next afternoon feeling strange. She was still sore and swollen but she felt like something was missing. When she reached over to touch Derek, he wasn't there. She stretched her hand out further and still felt nothing. 'I wonder were he went' she thought as she noticed the side where Derek had been sleeping was still a little warm. She sat up in her bed wincing as she rose. She turned her head to face her door and noticed it was ajar. She heard a faint sizzle and wondered where it came from. She slowly made her way to the door, and when she did she started to smell something sweet. She walked over to the kitchen and there was Derek, over the stove flipping something in a pan.

"Hey" he said as she sat down on a stool. "I didn't mean to wake you. Thought you might want breakfast." He said as he poured more batter on the pan. Noticing her wincing every time she moved he said: "How do you feel?"

Casey thought about it as she watched Derek put ten pieces of bacon in another frying pan. How did she feel? She was confused for one. She still loved Sam but how could she love someone who treated her like that? Maybe he just needed to get help. That was it; he has a drinking problem, all she had to do was convince him to get help.

"Case? How do you feel?" Derek asked again noticing she had spaced out.

"Huh? Oh, I'm a little sore but I'll live. You know I'm not really hungry. I think I'll go and watch TV." She said while getting up and moving towards the living room. Derek watched her go calling out a "you sure?" as she left. "Positive."

As she sat on the couch watching Lifetime Derek placed a plate of food in front of her. "This is for if you get hungry while I'm out."

"Where are you going?" she asked as he grabbed her coat.

"I have to go to work." He said while putting the coat on. 'And after I go to work I'll pay Sam a little visit. I'm gonna make that ass hole pay for what he did to her. And why is this coat so tight?!?!"

"Not like that you're not." Casey demanded. Derek gave her a look that said he was completely clueless as to what she was saying.

"What are you talking about?" he asked.

"You're wearing my coat!!!" she shouted.

&$#$&$#&

Casey sat up in her bed thinking about what she was going to do about her and Sam. "I'm sure if I go down there and tell him that he needs help he'd understand. He has a drinking problem and doesn't know it. I'll just go down to his apartment right now and talk to him." After she had made up her mind she took a shower, got dressed and left for Sam's apartment.

The drive to Sam's apartment took twenty minutes. And the closer Casey got, the more apprehensive she became. 'Why am I doing this?' she thought. 'Why don't I just break up with Sam for good and maybe get with Derek. I know Derek cares about me. But Sam's always been there for me… no he hasn't, Derek has always been there for me. And Derek's never hurt me. Sam's never hurt me either…well except for the few times when he was drunk. But that's why I need to talk to him. It will save our relationship if he just gets help for his drinking problem.

By the time she made it to the door of Sam's apartment she had made up her mind. There was noting wrong with her and Sam. All that was needed to save their relationship was to get Sam help. And after he saw how much he had hurt her of course he would agree. 'Here it goes' she thought as she knocked on the door. She knocked five times before he came to the door.

"CASEY!! WHAT happened to you?" he practically shouted once he saw her. She pushed by him into his apartment.

"You!" she stated. "You're what happened to me." She looked at Sam who stood flabbergasted.

"Casey…I'd never hurt you." He said softly. His eyes searched hers to see if she believed him.

"When you're sober." She said, while placing her arms on her hips.

"What?"

"You'd never hurt me when you're sober." She said slowly. "But you were drunk last night. You didn't know what you were doing…"

"What did I do to you?" he asked softly. Casey thought about it, she really did not want to relive what happened last night.

"Look Sam, I don't want to talk to you about this now. But you need help. I think we should take a break for a while…" Casey looked Sam in the eye and noticed he was starting to turn red. "I think you should get help. See a shrink, go to rehab, I don't know… do anything. But I…I can't be with you if you don't get help." She did it. She told Sam, she felt better but a second look at Sam told her she made a mistake.

The look on Sam's face reminded her of the night before. "You're not leaving me!!!" he shouted as he raised his fist and hit her.

Casey was dazed as she hit the floor. She didn't understand why Sam was so upset. It must be something she's doing wrong. She started to cry.

"Oh my God Case… I'm sorry. I…I dint mean to." He stuttered as he saw her on the floor. "What have I done?" he whispered as he watched her crawl up from the floor.

As soon as she was standing he wrapped his arms around her and started apologizing. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry. I'll get help, I'll do anything just don't leave me." He pleaded. Casey gave in, she could forgive Sam for hitting her again, 'But there's not going to be a third time' she swore to herself. "So…so we're okay? As long as I get help we're okay." Sam said excitedly.

"Yeah, we're okay." Casey replied. Even though she said it, and as hard as she tried to, she didn't believe it. Some part of her, deep down said that things were not right. Casey couldn't explain it, but the part of her that said things weren't okay, sounded a lot like… Derek.