Chapter 2

Chapter 2

A.N: Thanks to those who reviewed for the first chapter. It's appreciated :D Hope you like this chapter. I'm still trying to completely work out where I want this story to go, but I think I've got it now.

Disclaimer: Don't own anything.

Casey awoke to the sound of shuffling near her head the next morning. She immediately thought Derek before realizing that he thumped around, not shuffled. The footsteps were too light to be Lizzie's too. Blinking away the light, she smiled as she saw Marti's tousled head. Lately they had formed an even stronger bond because Marti seemed to have decided that she liked Casey as much as she liked her Smerek.

"Casey? Can I get in bed with you?" the little girl asked already trying to push down Casey's blanket and slide in next to her.

"Sure Marti. But why are you up this early? Its only…" she twisted so she could see the clock. Somehow Emily's hand was draped over it but she could just make out the number 7. "7am? Really Marti? I thought you were trying to be like your brother and sleep in late?" she spoke as the little girl mumbled in an already drowsy voice.

"But he's gone already and I wanted to snuggle with someone." As easy as that, Marti was fast asleep and curled up next to Casey. Casey was about to fall asleep again as well until Marti's words actually registered in her brain. Derek awake? At 7 in the morning on a Sunday? That was completely unheard of in the Venturi-McDonald household. What was he doing this early anyway?

Derek grunted as he whizzed past teammates and checked whomever he felt like checking into the boards.

"Yo Derek! What's with you this morning? Did you have some Red Bull or something?" his best friend Sam asked as she swooshed to a stop in front of where Derek leaned casually against the plexi-glass, scanning the ice. Though Derek loved hockey at all times, he especially loved the Sunday morning games that he, Sam and some guys from school played every weekend. His eyes glinted as he spotted his target slowly skating around the ice warming up. "Hey, are you listening to me? We need to talk strategy before the game starts." Sam spoke trying to figure out where Derek's focus went. Sam, always the wiser one, sighed when he spotted Derek's target and tried to figure out if it was worth it. Sure, Derek always seemed to have some sort of vendetta for Max that wasn't exactly logical, but once Derek got that look in his eye, there was no talking to him.

"Let's get the game moving. I'm ready to crush these athlete wannabes" Derek spoke with a smirk. With a decisive click of his helmet on his head, he sped away to speak to the rest of their team. Sam could only nod as he watched members of the football team, including Max, lace up their skates. It's just a game Sam repeated in his head over and over again as he glided over to his team.

"Okay guys, I really, really want to beat these guys. We are the varsity hockey team, are we going to let football players beat us? This is Canada for Christ's sake! We own this game!" Derek shouted trying to get his team pumped. Somehow seeing Max on the ice made Derek really want to check him into the boards. Maybe if he hit him hard enough he would knock some sense into Max's head. Really, who thought that they could be a football player and play hockey? Plus, he was dating Casey. That was reason enough to want to pummel him for being so stupid. No one in their right mind dates Casey if they don't want to get stuck with some uptight, pissy, overbearing, know it all…

"Derek? Man you sort of stopped talking and went into your own world dude. You okay?" Ralph said as he shook Derek's shoulder trying to snap him out of his daydream. Derek shook his head as he tried to shake images of Casey being Casey out of his head. He snorted in disgust as he thought of her crying over Max again.

"Dude, he's doing it again. Do you think he has brain damage from too much hockey?" Ralph asked his team with genuine curiosity. Just as he was about to poke Derek's face, Derek roughly shoved Ralph's hand away and barked at his team to get ready to take the ice.

"What got into him?" Ralph whispered conspiratorially to Sam. Sam rolled his eyes as he left Ralph without an answer. It's the same thing that always makes him mad: Casey and Max. Sam thought as he joined the rest of his team on the ice. With the drop of a puck on the ice, the game began.

"Dude that was the best game ever! Did you see the looks on their faces as we scored a goal in the last second?" Derek was ecstatic. Beating the football team had been the cherry to his sundae, hell it was the cherry on top of his entire week. There was another round of cheering as the guys on his team celebrated their small victory. Derek decided that for the rest of the day, he was doing nothing but watching TV and forgetting the fact that he had homework. He was in such a good mood that maybe he'd be generous and ignore Casey for the day and take Marti out for ice cream. After taking a long, hot shower Derek was the only member of his team still left in the locker room. He thought that he was completely alone when he overheard two voices talking. Never one to not eavesdrop, Derek edged closer to the general area where he had heard voices talking.

"Dude it was so lame. I had finally gotten on top of her when she completely went frozen and just didn't respond at all. I think she even wanted to talk instead." Voice number two laughed hysterically in response to the first voice's story. Come to think of it, that voice sounded a whole lot like Max. Is Max cheating on Casey? Derek thought with a quick spark of anger.

"Stop laughing Mike. It's not funny that Angela gives you action all of the time and I have to practically force myself on Casey to get anything at all from her." So they were talking about Casey and it was Max. Without realizing it, Derek's fists clenched and he imagined them colliding with Max's perfect nose. However, it being Derek, the humor in the situation was not lost on him. It was pretty funny that Max wasn't getting any from Casey because she was too stuck up and prude-ish to just make out with the poor guy. That must have been why Emily had come over last night all in a huff to talk to Casey. Even poor Sheldon gets some from Emily so she must have come over to help Casey do damage control or something. Laughing to himself, he listened as Max and his friend left the locker room. He quickly finished getting dressed and suddenly was even more excited to get home. He couldn't wait to make Casey squirm over this little tid-bit.

"Emily, so help me god, if you don't remove those diagrams from my face, I will actually consider getting violent. I don't think that Sheldon will appreciate it if I tear up his drawings." Casey almost added an "AHA!" when she saw how Emily squirmed at her accusation. She knew that only Sheldon could have been creepy enough to draw that stuff. But then again, he was Emily's boyfriend so she could never actually voice these thoughts to Emily.

"Casey, you really do need to chillax about this whole thing." Casey only stared at her blankly. "I promise when you see Max tonight, you'll kiss him and it will all be okay. Maybe yesterday was a fluke."

"I know, I know. I just have to try to feel relaxed and maybe you know, even sexy tonight." God, something was wrong with her. She even felt weird about looking sexy for Max. What was wrong with her if she didn't want to look attractive for her boyfriend?

"Uagguughh. Em, something is seriously wrong with me. I'm either a lesbian or asexual. What girl doesn't want to look really hot for her quarterback boyfriend?" Groaning in frustration again, she fell backward with a plop onto her bed.

With a sigh, Emily stared at her best friend and wondered how someone so incredibly bright could be so incredibly stupid when it came to figuring out her own life. Casey could handle just about everything under the stars except for her own personal life and it was times like these that Emily just wanted to shake some sense into her. But it was much better to let Casey figure it out for herself. Didn't she realize that this probably meant she just wasn't as attracted to Max as she convinced herself she was? Screw it, she had to say something to her. "Casey, did it ever occur to you that you are perfectly normal? I think the real problem here is that Max just isn't someone you want to make out with period. Plus from this, you seemed to have developed a weird fear of intimacy."

"What? Max is my boyfriend, why wouldn't I want to make out with him?" Casey looked genuinely confused so Emily figured she should go for the direct approach.

"Casey! I am going to say this one more time, you aren't make out deficient, you just don't like Max. Ergo, YOU DON'T WANT TO MAKE OUT WITH HIM." Okay so maybe she didn't have to yell, but sometimes Casey really needed someone to be painfully honest with her. Maybe that's why Derek made Casey upset so much and so often. If there is one thing that Derek was good for, it was for giving Casey much needed reality checks. Moments later, Casey still wasn't responding to Emily's outburst and she looked like she was actually thinking really, really hard about what she had said. Maybe this will help us make some progress Emily thought.

Suddenly both of their heads lifted as they heard a soft chuckle in the doorway. Derek stood watching them both and for some reason looked very amused. What worried Emily is that his amused expression was focused solely on Casey which most definitely meant that whatever funny thing he was thinking had something to do with her. Emily really didn't want to be around to hear another one of their epic fights.

"So… Casey. How have things been going with Max lately?" At the mention of Max's name, Casey visually paled and looked a little bit queasy. Emily knew that she should stick around to support her friend but she also knew that Casey would want to analyze whatever argument they were sure to have for hours later that night. It really was amazing that Casey got that heated up over Derek of all people. She really should be focusing all of that passion elsewhere. Elsewhere like her boyfriend's lips.

"Hey Casey? It looks like you and Derek need to talk so I'll just bail. You can call me later, okay?" With that, she left the room and moments later was safely inside her own home, away from the drama of the Venturi-McDonald household.

"What do you want Derek?" Casey spat contemptuously. She knew what he was angling at and she knew that boys talked. She was just angry that somehow it got back to Derek. Derek lived to torture her and was sure to hold this information over her head forever. "Whatever you have to say to me, I can tell you right now that I don't even want to hear it. You have no right to bug me like you do when you go around and sleep with anything that has blonde hair and boobs."

Derek bristled at her comment. Was she a mind reader now? And she always got so defensive before she even knew what he was going to say exactly. Never mind that she was actually right. He still had a point to make. "How do you know what I'm going to say? Jeez Case, you always jump to conclusions with me." He said the last part in a whimper. He could always make her feel guilty when he used this voice.

"Fine. Go ahead and speak." She said looking him in the eye to see if he was lying. He appeared to be sincere until he opened his mouth and actually spoke.

"Word on the street is that you won't let poor Max have some." Smooth Derek, smooth. He thought as he immediately realized that this was the wrong thing to say especially since her jaw dropped and she paled. It was never a good sign when Casey paled. He always felt guilty when she got like that. His stomach clenched a little at the idea that Casey could make him feel that way.

"Uggh. Why do I even give you chances to speak to me? You are absolutely the most uncaring and revolting individual I have ever had the displeasure of knowing." Casey had almost never been this angry at Derek. It never ceased to amaze her how uncaring he could be towards her feelings. Couldn't he be nice to her instead of throwing the whole situation back in her face in such a casual manner? "It's like you like to see me upset and feeling stupid. Though that wouldn't surprise me."

Derek's stomach clenched even more at Casey's words. Sure he liked to make her mad, but he always felt really uncomfortable and generally bad whenever Casey was really upset. That had to mean that he cared somehow, didn't it? "Hey, I'm not trying to make you upset, I'm simply stating what I heard. So stop blaming me and being more dramatic than usual." Again, that was a bad choice of words and Derek knew it. That odd clenching feeling in his stomach, that only Casey could make him feel, happened again.

When Derek didn't say anything else, Casey deflated. Everyone really did think that there was something wrong with her. It even got out enough for Derek to overhear (though she really didn't want to know exactly how it got out) which was ten times worse because he would hold it over her head forever. "So you think I'm defective too. I told Emily that I knew that this was a sign that I am going to become a cat lady." Her head was down and Derek saw that she was actually sad about this, not mad. He could deal with an angry Casey but not a sad Casey. When she raised her head to look him in the eyes, he saw the tears.

"Listen Case, I'm sorry. I didn't think that you would get this upset about the whole thing." He was stammering, he was sure of it but at this point, he just wanted her to be normal again so he could tease her.

"You know what, no. This is like a sign or something. I can't be with Max if I feel pressured like this. So I suck at being intimate with someone. I'd rather be alone than feel lesser." She looked up completely to look him in the eyes and added "I'm tired of feeling bad."

For one of the few times in his entire life, Derek had nothing to say. Normally he would have a smart-ass remark or some sort of awkward, pseudo comforting remark to give her, but this time he had nothing. He couldn't believe that Casey McDonald, super keener extraordinaire, had self esteem issues that were this bad. Bad enough to make her dislike intimacy, with the quarterback of their high school no less.

In that moment, it was like Derek wasn't Derek anymore. In that moment, all he wanted to do was make her feel better so they could go back to being normal and well, fighting again. In that moment, Derek made the rashest decision of his life.

"I'll help you."

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