"Hey G. Got a minute?"

Derek leapt from the stairs, taking the dreaded opportunity to talk his father about Casey. After all, he did promise.

George was sitting at the dinner table going through his papers for a current case he was working on.

"Ummm," George said while shuffling papers in a confused manner before giving up all together. "Sure. What's on your mind?"

Now that George was staring at him, Derek found himself frozen in place. He cleared his throat, trying to buy time to determine how he was going to 'break' the news as delicately as possible. Derek wasn't exactly known for being the delicate type.

"I wanted to talk to you about Casey?"

George sighed before once again going back to the pile in front of him, mindlessly looking without reading.

"She isn't freaking out about New York is she? The last thing we need is a spastic Casey on both of our hands when it's your last months at home," George laughed at his own words.

"Um, no." Derek scratched the back of his head.

"She isn't dating another Scott or Truman, is she?"

Derek paused, "Noooottttt exactly. But you're getting warmer."

George folded his arms on top of the table and gazed up at Derek, his full attention finally rooted upon his oldest son. His brow furrowed in confusion, but with interest. "Derek, what's this about? What's wrong with Casey?"

Derek took a nervous breath. "Do you remember the conversation we had before you thoughtlessly married Nora?"

George seemed to be wracking his brain in order to re jog his memory, ignoring his son's comment about 'thoughtlessly marrying Nora.' "Help me out. What conversation was this?"

"The one we had before the girls came over for the first time…about Casey."

Recognition dawned on George's face, followed by a deep frown.

"Not my finest moment, but yes. I do remember the conversation about Casey."

Derek took a seat beside his dad in the chair that was usually occupied by Nora during dinner. "So you do remember what you said to me?"

"You had just turned 15, Derek. I had to say what I had to say in that moment. You were a walking hormone. Little did I know, the two of you would actually hate one another."

George sobered at the memory of his harsh words to Derek so long ago. It was strange not witnesses George Venturi's carefree laugh and give-a-damn attitude.

"I told you not to even think about it. So why are we dredging this conversation up again? Get to the point."

"Casey and I…we'll you see…I guess we never actually hated each other as much as we let on." Derek decided that the best way to do it would be to rip off the band aide and get it over with. "Casey and I have sort of being seeing each other – maybe a little bit."

George's face changed emotion so fast that Derek couldn't be certain of what he was looking at. His dad went back to his endless shuffling, gathering all of his papers and mindlessly shoving them into his briefcase. It wasn't until the entire table was cleaned off that he finally looked at Derek, his face beet red.

"Define 'a little bit,'" he finally spoke.

"Ummmm, we haven't had our first date yet," Derek said in a high pitched voice. He cleared it in hopes of lowering the volume.

"Define 'seeing each other,'" George continued, clearly wanting to get to the bottom of this by dissecting each one of Derek's words.

"Dad, Casey just thought that you should know before it went any further."

"Casey did? So you were planning on keeping this from Nora and myself?"

"For a little longer, yeah," Derek confessed.

"Have the two of you only talked about dating and would like our input beforehand? Is this why we're having a conversation?"

Derek's mouth gaped open and closed it once more. Casey wasn't exactly his girlfriend yet, but she was far past 'step-sister' territory. They professed their love to one another, spent countless hours making love, and were now going to the same University. At this rate, Derek Venturi might as well admit that he was on the road to matrimony if his feisty little sis had anything to say about it.

"No," Derek said with a steely eyed gaze that meant he was serious. "I was just letting you know."

George took a deep breath, running fingers through his long blonde hair. He looked torn on what to say, how to say it, and if he should say anything at all.

"And what am I supposed to tell Nora?"

"It's okay. I'll let her know," Derek went to stand, but was quickly told to sit back down. He did as he was told, but only to appease his father considering the older man hadn't turned physically violent at this point.

"I will tell Nora. I wouldn't be surprised if she divorced me over this."

Derek knew that keeping his mouth shut in that moment was for the best. He couldn't exactly say how divorcing Nora would fix all of their problems, could he?

"But it hasn't gone any farther than talking about dating, right? If it has, so help me God, Derek. I'll never be able to explain that one to Nora."

George, at this point, looked comical in his admissions. He placed his hands on his hips, waiting with bated breath for Derek to deny that anything had actually occurred physically between him and his step sister. Derek shrugged in a guilty manner, not exactly sure what he should say in that moment. If caught in a lie, it could come back to bite him hard.

However, it didn't take words to be voiced before George began hyperventilating as the realization dawned on him.

"Ohhhhh, Sweet Jesus. Okay…okay…I need water."

"Got it," Derek leapt from the chair and went to the kitchen, quickly making his dad a glass of water as he watched the older Venturi nearly pass out from the realization.

George guzzled the water quickly, slamming the glass down hard against the wood.

"You're blood pressure is through the roof, G."

"Gee, Derek. I wonder why!"

Derek backed away from George with his hands in the air in surrender, giving him some room to breathe. After several deep breaths, George began to go through positive steps; talking to himself. "They're technically adults, college bound, we're a happy family, this isn't going to break us. We've got this."

George slammed his hand against the table, once again gazing at a panicked looking Derek.

Derek wasn't sure if he was more scared of the fact that he 'admitted' to sleeping with Casey or that if George was almost dying from the realizing that he 'admitted' to sleeping with Casey.

"How long has this been going on exactly?"

The calming voice encouraged Derek to continue for the first time.

"Since we left the lodge…maybe the night before, technically."

"So, only a week?"

Derek nodded his head vigorously, glad to admit that it hadn't been long since this whole thing began. Sure, they had always been attracted to each other, but it wasn't until this moment that they decided to act upon it.

"The five days you were gone? Alone?"

Derek nodded his head vigorously once more.

"Fucking rain."

Derek snickered at his father cussing.

"Protection?"

"Dad! I already told you want happened. I'm not going to go into detail about it."

"You get her pregnant, and I swear it will be the last thing you do."

Derek nodded his head sheepishly, wincing at George's words. He had to make a mental note of being more careful with her, or his father was liable to break his legs; ending his hockey career for good.

"So are we good?" Derek said as he slowly began walking backwards towards the stairs. He had all he could take of George's accusing glances and never ending questions.

"After dinner…you, me, Casey, and Nora are going to have a nice little chat. Got it."

"I thought you were going to talk to Nora for us?"

"Changed my mind. You want to act like grownups, it's time to man up. I'm chickening out. I won't face the beast by myself."