"A dress?" Derek asked in disbelief as Casey got into his car. She was wearing a long knitted sweater dress which came down to her knees: a dark navy blue with a V-neck and a wide black buckle belt at the waist. She had teamed it with thick stockings and knee-high boots. It clung to her in an almost indecent manner and Derek had done a double-take when he saw her, mentally considering whether they had time to go back into the apartment and take care of …something.
"I thought you were all jeans for work these days?" He went on, ditching the pre-lunch sex idea because he was fairly sure she wouldn't go for it…again.
Casey mumbled something about not being able to wear jeans right now and then blushed a vivid red.
"Sorry…I missed that." Derek commented raising an eyebrow.
"I said. I can't. I'm too tender." She explained as she buckled up. "The seams would…chafe."
Derek stared at her not sure if he was horrified or amused. "I bruised you?" He asked.
Casey shook her head. "I'm just a little…sore. I'm not used to all the…attention in certain areas and…"
He started to chuckle. Casey smacked at him. "Der-ek!"
Derek pulled away from the kerb. "So comfortable panties for you right now then?" He asked.
Casey rolled her eyes. "You think now that we're lovers you get to ask about my underwear?"
"Duh! Yeah." He smirked. "Boyfriend prerogative. Just wait till I start buying them for you. Of course granny panties are off the agenda now. When I'm having my fantasies about you I don't want to be picturing something that Great-aunt Cecil would wear."
"That isn't a problem today." Casey said airily. "I'm not wearing them."
Derek braked hard, causing the guy in the car behind to swerve around him, blasting his horn.
"You what?" Derek stared at her. "Did you just say you weren't wearing any panties?"
Casey turned her head to the window to hide her laugh as Derek restarted the stalled car.
"No. I said I wasn't wearing granny panties…my normal ones are comfortable enough."
"Oh." Derek sounded deflated and Casey began to laugh.
"You have a one-track mind, Derek."
"Like you were complaining earlier…" he muttered. They looked at each other then and Derek caught her grin. They smirked at each other.
For a moment there was a companionable silence between them as they both silently remembered some of the highlights of last night.
Then Casey frowned. "Isn't Cecil a guy's name?"
Derek nodded. "We don't talk about him/her very often…family secret." He turned and winked.
"Der-ek!"
A short while later, Derek pulled up at the roll doors for his office building. The guard in the hut outside nodded as Derek swiped his ID card, and threw Casey a grin. Although Casey had never been to the upper levels of the building which contained Derek's department, she was well known in some of the more public areas of the building: the gym and the firing range particularly.
Today at the small sign-in desk in Reception, the ID pass she was given was plainer than the usual ones she used. Instead of stating "Visitor" and a number, it was a plain white card with a chip in it – and to be issued with it, Casey had to give her fingerprints. It was a different set of guards too. Casey wasn't normally here on a weekday.
"Morning Derek." One of the guards greeted him. The other one stared at them the whole time the card was being issued.
Casey raised an eyebrow but Derek waited until they were alone in the elevator.
"Word's gradually getting around about my name. We decided there was no point in hiding it anymore. Sal knows I'm here."
"Oh. Why was that guard staring?"
Derek shrugged. "They aren't used to seeing me with anyone."
"You avoid your co-workers?"
"Anyone outside of the department, or female. I guess they suddenly realised I'm human and not some demi-god."
Casey choked on that. "Your ego knows no bounds does it?"
Derek laughed.
Security on the levels used by Derek's department was space-age. Derek led the way, letting them in, explaining how Casey's own card worked. She was allowed on the lower of the two Department 15 levels. The upper one, containing records and the tactical ops rooms required higher clearance.
They had left the elevator holding hands, Derek absent-mindedly stroking the back of her hand with his thumb. As they passed down a short corridor, a tall blonde girl in a tight top with equally tight pants stopped and stared at them for a moment, before rearranging her face into one of disgust.
Casey looked quizzically at Derek. He shrugged.
"She's from Admin. And before you ask, no, I didn't."
"Good. I recognise her from my time in the Sexual Health clinic as a student doctor."
Derek looked shocked. "Really?"
"Not her, exactly, but her type." Casey said, letting go of Derek's hand as he pushed open the door to the office. "Chlamydia, crabs…"
He wasn't surprised about that. "Hmmm…you might want to warn Jazz." He commented.
"Warn Jazz about what?" The man himself asked as they passed his desk.
"Rabies in Admin." Derek said with a grin. "Scratch an itch in there and you'll be scratching itches for a month – or at least until the antibiotics run out."
"What do you think I am, D? A dog? I'm a picky guy." Jazz objected, winking at Casey.
"Yeah." Derek glared at him. "You pick the wrong ones." He pointed out.
Jazz ignored him. "But you're right. Maybe I should take a look at a more discerning lady." He inclined his head towards Casey. "I did enjoy our time together last night, Sweetheart. Did you sleep well?"
Casey could see what Jazz was up to, and whilst it was amusing and reassuring to see Derek turn possessive, she wasn't about to annoy her boyfriend.
"I slept really well, thank you. I had a nice soak in the bath and an early night with a good book. The world seems a better place this morning."
Jazz looked confused and raised an eyebrow at Derek who met his curiosity with a blank stare. Derek knew what Jazz was puzzled over. Jazz had decided that Derek and Casey were going to resolve their "tension" last night – Jazz had even offered to cover Derek's early shift so that they could – but here was Casey talking about sleeping well and reading books.
Before Jazz could ask about the situation, Spike's door opened and the three of them were called inside the office.
"Hi Casey. Thanks for coming in." Spike said, motioning for Casey to sit down on one of the three seats in front of his desk. Jazz took the seat to her left but Derek crossed to a filing cabinet near the door on which was a large coffee pot. He began to make four cups of coffee.
"My pleasure." Casey said, meaning it. "I've been itching to see what Derek's office looked like."
"Well it makes sense for us to meet here and discuss your safety. I gather you're still intent on staying in Ottawa?"
Casey looked up at Derek who nodded.
"She is."
Spike was surprised. "You seem…resigned to that decision. Last time we spoke you were vehemently opposed to the idea." He asked Casey's boyfriend.
Derek stepped to the desk and placed Spike's coffee in front of him.
"I'm okay with it." He said. Spike opened his mouth to say something, but Derek interrupted. "I'm okay with it, so long as I get my way on certain points."
He handed Jazz and Casey their coffees and then took his own to his favourite perch against a low bookcase. It meant he could look at Casey which he did over the edge of his coffee cup.
This time it was Casey who spoke.
"Which are?" She asked cautiously.
Derek sipped at his drink. "Number one: You park the granny mobile in the basement here for the foreseeable future and drive the car I pick for you. Your car drives like a tank – a septic one and I'm embarrassed to be anywhere near you when you're in it. Number two: You have a permanent tail on you 24/7 and we switch your GPS locator back on. You are aware of the tail at all times, if they disappear for any reason you stop immediately and you call in, okay?"
Jazz snorted. "Hey Casey! He just told you not to shake your tail!"
Casey grinned and Derek (and Spike) scowled.
"Number three:" Derek insisted. "I reserve the right to send you back to London at a moment's notice if your life becomes imminently in danger and I'm unable to get the situation under control."
"Derek…"
"Casey, I won't invoke that lightly I promise. I made an agreement with you and I'll stick to it – for as long as possible."
"Okay…" She said cautiously. "And number four?"
"Number four, I want you to undergo the department's basic training. I want you to learn how to take evasive manoeuvres in the car, to know how to shoot straight and I want you to learn self defence."
"I know self-defence. You made me take the course at college, remember?"
"This is different."
"How so?"
Jazz spoke then, his voice calm and uncharacteristically sober. "Because honey, they teach you how to kill."
Casey stared at him, then at Derek and then at Spike. She blew out a breath.
"Okay." She agreed. "I can do all of that."
"Good." Derek said.
"…but I have a condition too." Casey sat up straighter in her chair.
"Oh?" Spike leaned forward.
"Yes. I want to see Sal's file. I want to see everything you have on Derek's case."
The problem with a good idea…is sometimes it is too good an idea. Take Casey's idea about the Derek Venturi file for example. When she made the request she expected maybe some resistance and then for them to cave under her pressure and hand her some nice, casually-bound file, maybe about an inch-thick which she could knock off in her break time at the hospital.
What she didn't expect was a password encrypted data stick containing documents and scanned images running to more than five thousand pages. She also didn't expect the amused grin from Jazz and his annoying quip of "happy reading" before he wandered off for a bathroom break – or as he called it "exercising the lizard".
Taking the small piece of technology from Derek's hand, she glanced up at Derek who was leaning against his desk beside her.
"You're okay with this?" She asked, slipping it into her purse.
Derek shrugged.
"I'm not happy about it – and neither will you be. It goes into graphic detail about some of the worst years of my life, but I also get that it's important you know this stuff. I'd rather you read it for yourself than relied on me for the information."
"You might not remember it all."
Derek snorted. "Sweetheart, I remember every single letter, piece of punctuation and question mark. It's my old life and my new life and everything in between." He straightened and edged closer to her. "Somewhere in that piece of plastic is the key to getting my old life and my new life reconnected. I've spent more hours reading the damn thing that I care to remember."
Casey nodded. "Then I really need to read it." She said. "I won't have this information stand between us."
Derek smiled and stroked her cheek. "There's nothing that stands between us, Princess. There never will be."
Stunned that it was Derek saying those words to her, Casey met his gaze. "I love you." She mouthed silently.
"I love you more." He whispered back with a smirk.
Casey rolled her eyes at his blatant competitive comment even in the midst of telling her how much he cared - and Derek laughed.
Jazz came back into the room.
Jazz was confused. He could tell that Casey and Derek had apparently gotten over their disagreement of the past few days, but he had been convinced that "getting over it" would be all about them finally doing the dirty deed. So far he had seen nothing between them to suggest that their relationship had changed any. Of course, he had been out of the room when they had exchanged the declarations of love, and because he wouldn't dream of discussing the matter with any of their co-workers even if they had been close enough to hear the exchange, Jazz was none the wiser.
When Casey herself visited the little girls' room, he pounced on Derek.
"What the hell is wrong with you?" He asked his friend.
Derek frowned. Sometimes Jazz was as dramatic as Casey with the leaps of thought process. Experience with one did not help with understanding the other.
"Are we talking something specific or in general?" Derek asked.
"We're talking about Casey." Jazz said.
Derek glanced up with him.
"What about Casey?"
"I thought you were going to fix things between you. You know…bridge the gap?" He wiggled his eyebrows.
"You do realise you look a complete moron doing that don't you?" Derek pointed out.
"Stop changing the subject."
"What do you want to know?"
"What happened last night?"
"I went for a drive."
"Yeah, wise guy. I know. I meant when you got home."
"Casey and I talked." Eventually.
"And?"
"And I agreed she could stay in Ottawa. You heard that."
"And what about your relationship?"
"What about our relationship?" Derek looked blankly at Jazz. He wasn't coughing to anything. It wasn't that he particularly wanted to hide the fact that he was with Casey. Derek just didn't want it to become a joke.
"When are you going to tap that?"
Derek sighed. "Now you see, that's exactly why you are restricted to the rabid dog pound known as the Admin department. I have never "tapped" anyone's ass, and certainly not Casey's. You're lucky as hell she didn't hear you say that. The girl's a Trauma doctor. She knows exactly the right amount of pressure to put on your balls to inflict maximum pain yet minimum damage."
"Are you speaking from personal experience?"
"What? No! Unlike you, I know how to behave myself around women. Besides she has other more psychological ways of messing with me."
"Seriously? Derek, are you insane? The girl's in love with you."
Derek leafed through the file he was pretending to read.
"What's that got to do with anything?"
He wasn't as calm inside. It still blew him away that Casey felt the same way about him as he did about her.
Across the office, the door opened and Derek watched his girlfriend as she re-entered the room. She smiled at him, but conscious of Jazz standing nearby he didn't respond.
Jazz narrowed his eyes at his friend but he couldn't see any sign that Derek was hiding something.
"Oh forget it!" he said, leaving in a huff as Casey returned to Derek's desk.
"Forget what?" She asked as she sat down.
Derek angled his body towards hers unconsciously.
"Jazz was trying to persuade me that I should make a move on you." He said his voice at normal volume. "Apparently, you want a piece of me and I should capitalise on that fact." He glanced up at her to gauge her reaction.
"Is he always such a jerk?"
Derek chuckled. "Only about you. He's not normally so…forthright in his dating advice. It's just I've been single for seven years. He's enjoying the novelty of there being a girl on the scene for me."
"Uh huh." Casey muttered, and then quietly, "Are you going to tell him?"
Her boyfriend shook his head and spoke in a whisper. "Not right now. His opinion on the subject will be loud, coarse and annoying. I'd rather just enjoy what we have for a while before opening ourselves up to his "I told you sos"."
Casey nodded. "Okay." She checked her watch. "I need to go."
Derek stood up. "I'll get my jacket."
"I'm quite capable of getting a cab, Derek." Casey objected.
"You wanna renegotiate our agreement?" He asked pointedly, referring to his conditions for her staying in Ottawa. "You're not going anywhere without a member of this department nearby. My workload can wait for half an hour while I take you to work. That'll give me chance to sort out the protection detail and make your car arrangements."
Casey opened her mouth to object and then realised that in the spirit of understanding of her new boyfriend's need to protect her, she would just give in.
"Okay." She sighed.
"Wow! I think that was the quickest you've ever caved in!" Derek said with a grin as he put an arm around her and led her to the door.
Casey waited until they were in the corridor before responding. "Sometimes it's not worth the argument with you." She said. "I'm trying to think like a partner should."
"Thanks."
"Besides," Casey went on as they entered the elevator. "I'd rather say goodbye to you away from Jazz. I'm not in the mood for a simple peck on the cheek."
She grinned at Derek who suddenly felt light-headed.
By the time they reached the hospital parking lot, anticipation had got the better of both of them, and Derek found himself parking in a space as far off the beaten track as he could. Neither was the type to climb in the backseat in broad daylight, but he didn't think it would look good for Casey if she was caught making out with him at her workplace.
"You never did tell me how your date went last night." Derek pointed out as he switched off the engine.
Casey sighed. "Derek. Do you really want to talk about Robin right now?" She asked her eyes lighting with a fire he was only just realising she was capable of.
"No." He said, crossing the distance between their faces quickly. He pressed a soft quick kiss to her lips. "Definitely not."
It had been several hours now since they had last kissed, but it might as well have been several months for the enthusiasm they both put into the current endeavour. The kisses were deep and desperate, and it was all too easy for Casey to grab hold of Derek's clothes and pull him closer, and for Derek's fingers to finally brush curves he had been eyeing up ever since they left the apartment.
Eventually, it calmed to a more reasonable pace and they could both breathe again.
"Did you kiss like that in High School?" Derek asked against her lips.
Casey, rather dazed, frowned. "I've always kissed the same way, Derek."
He smirked. "That explains why Sam, Max and Truman all shared that stupid smug grin whenever they left you."
"You mean like the one you're sporting now?"
"Yeah." He beamed. "Exactly like that."
"What time do you finish tonight?" Casey asked after another long kiss.
"Late again. Probably around 12. What about you?"
"The same."
"I'll sort out a car for you before then and I'll get Jazz to drop it off. Call me before you leave here, okay. I want you checking in every time you move site."
"You sound possessive." Casey noted. Derek started to object but she put a finger on his lips. "It's nice. I like it."
Derek sighed. "I just want to hole up somewhere with you. Somewhere with a roaring fire, a kitchen full of food and time to make love to you repeatedly without a phone ringing."
Casey kissed his hand. "There's our next vacation sorted then." She said rubbing her thumb against his skin. "We've wasted so much time." She said regretfully.
"We're not going to waste anymore." Derek said, kissing her again and then looking at his watch, wryly, "Sadly, work calls."
"I know."
"I'll be home when I can. Keep the bed warm."
"Funny. I was just going to say the same to you. Shifts, eh?"
"Just another reason why you're my perfect partner." Derek admitted. He pecked her on the lips. "Now get out the car before I drive you somewhere more secluded and have us christen the back seat."
"Promises, promises." Casey giggled.
"I thought you were sore?"
Casey got out of the car and shut the door. Derek wound down the window and she leaned in.
"I said I was too sore for jeans…not for you." She said, with a smirk. "Love you!" She trilled and turned to walk quickly away.
Derek watched her go with a smirk on his own face.
"Casey McDonald, just when I think I know you…" He chuckled.
"I love you too." He whispered into the empty space she had just vacated.