The doors to the ER opened with a swish and Derek almost ploughed down an orderly in his hurry to get to Casey. He had drawn himself to his full height which, whilst not lofty, was impressive all the same. He looked intimidating though Jazz, following on behind him with his crutch, couldn't blame him. The firearm poking out from under his jacket didn't help.

"Where is she?" Derek asked the receptionist.

"I'm sorry?" the girl asked not recognising him, clearly new and not used to Derek's almost constant presence at the hospital.

"Dr McDonald. Where is she?" Derek repeated stepping forward in a slightly (if unintentionally) menacing manner.

"Sir, I must ask you to calm down and step away from the desk before I'm forced to call security." The girl was young and inexperienced – and also a little trigger happy for the panic button to her right.

Jazz groaned and stepped up to the desk beside Derek. He flashed his ID at the young girl.

"That won't necessary. This is Dr McDonald's…partner." Might as well speak what we all know is the truth. "She's called him in some distress and he's concerned. Could you point us in whichever direction she is currently in, please?"
The girl, in a degree of shock at the sight of men with guns and ID badges, pointed lamely to a side room rather than hit the button. Jazz flashed her a smile and grabbing Derek's arm pulled him away.

"What was that about?" Derek asked his friend, confused.

"The last thing Casey needs is you getting arrested." Jazz pointed out.

The door to the room they were approaching opened and Rosita stuck her head out.

"Oh good. It's you. About time, she's in a right state."
"What happened?" Derek asked. Like Jazz before him, he hadn't been able to get any information out of Casey on the phone.

Rosita grimaced. "They've suspended her. The hospital board have, I mean."
"What?" Derek gasped. "Why?"
"Sexual impropriety." Rosita informed him.

"Sexual what?" Derek's jaw dropped. Sex in context with Casey was something he was only just beginning to discover. The idea that Casey could be improper about sex was just…wrong.

For Jazz, however, the penny dropped.

"Oh my god! Last night! Let me guess that ass-hole made a complaint." He said to Rosita who nodded.

"What ass-hole? What complaint?" Derek's voice was rising, so Rosita pulled them both into the room and shut the door behind them. The girl on reception breathed a sigh of relief and turned to the next enquiry.

The room Rosita had drawn them into was empty.

"Where's Casey?" Derek asked.

"The "Little Girl's" room. She's a mess."
"What the fuck's going on, Rosita?" He demanded.

But it was Jazz that answered.

"That dick of a doctor came on to Casey last night. She gave him short shrift and I guess now, in order to save his own behind he's made a complaint to the hospital that she tried it on with him. Am I right?" He looked to Rosita for confirmation. She nodded.

"He complained to the board first thing. They held an emergency meeting and when Casey arrived for her shift they called her in for censure – they are couching the whole process in ideas of investigation and due process, but from what Casey has told me, their minds are made up. After all, Casey is the junior here. Who are they going to believe?"

"You knew about this?" Derek asked turning to Jazz. "You knew about this and you didn't tell me?" His anger was growing and he was desperate to find an outlet.

"Last night when I was following her…" Rosita's eyebrows rose but neither of the guys enlightened her. "…I didn't like Casey's body language as I watched her through the window of the coffee shop. I was just on my way inside to see what I could do to help when she came storming out."
"You saw what happened?"
"Not exactly. I pieced it together when she got into my car. I didn't tell you because I knew how you would react. I told Casey not to tell you because we both thought she'd already handled it and you two sorting your shit out was more important." Jazz gave Derek a pointed look. "Then this morning when it was obvious that you were at least talking to each other again, I thought maybe I should tell you – somewhere that I could ensure I wouldn't be involved in a departmental homicide. I tried to tell you but we got interrupted, remember?" Jazz frowned. "So Casey didn't tell you this morning?"

Derek shook his head. This morning, like last night, had involved very little in the way of speech – and what talking they had done had been about them and their future, not some egotistical jerk of a doctor who couldn't keep it in his pants. Derek closed his eyes for a moment remembering the feel of her skin on his when he had woken, Casey's body woven into his own, and the soft rise and fall of her breast against his own chest. He wanted to be back in that moment.

He opened his eyes again as a small door off to the side moved and Casey, still openly weeping and looking like a sad caricature of her earlier self, came back into the room.

"I didn't tell you because it wasn't important to me at the time." She said quietly confirming that she had overheard their conversation. "I just wanted to get our argument resolved and…I never thought he'd be so cruel."
"He's a fucking jerk, Casey." Derek said clenching his fists in an effort to control his anger as he crossed the room to her.
"I know. You warned me and I didn't listen. I'm sorry." Casey looked up at him and his ire disappeared as soon as he saw the pain in her eyes. She needed him more than she needed his anger.

"He's ruined my career." She stated. Her confidence in the face of Marie Anton was gone. "No one will ever hire me again."

Derek shook his head. "Don't say that. It won't happen like that. Not if I have anything to say about it."

He pulled her into his arms; the need to comfort his lover overriding his need to punch the crap out of her boss – for now. Casey let his arms wrap around her and rested her face in his shoulder. He smelled reassuring and familiar; clean with the faintest trace of his own personal musk that had filled her senses the previous night. Her new position soothed and calmed her, the sobs beginning to die away as Derek rubbed her back, murmuring softly in her ear. His eyes met Jazz's over her head and despite the soft words, Jazz could see the steel resolve in Derek's eyes.

"Where is he?" Jazz asked turning to Casey's colleague, suddenly worried about the renewed potential for a homicide.

Rosita sighed. "Rumour has it he's taken a week's annual leave for "personal reasons". I tried to go give him a piece of my mind but the bastard has packed a bag and gone for a vacation somewhere because he's so "traumatised"."
"Traumatised? Even if the fucking story was true, what sane, straight guy in his right mind would be traumatised by Casey coming onto him? That shit don't fly with me and it shouldn't fly with any one else with a brain."

Rosita hid a smile as Jazz ranted.

"However," he went on. "His absence is a good thing seeing as Derek here is about ready to reach down the jerk's throat and pull his dick up out through his mouth. I know I am."

"That's quite some rhetoric you've got there." Rosita commented, impressed. "But it's not just Robin that's at fault here. The administration was too quick to judge."

"The administration?"
Rosita corrected herself. "Well…actually by that I mean that the board were clearly railroaded into a premature decision by Robin and his Marie Antoinette."
"Marie who?"
"Marie Anton. The mega ice-bitch who controls the hospital board. Rumour has it – again- that she and Robin had a thing once upon a time and it was never over as far as she was concerned. She'll hate Casey for two reasons: one because she has the potential to ruin Robin and two because clearly Robin showed an interest in Casey and she rebuffed it. She'll be jealous and protective in one go."
"Is she around?"
"No. But Casey's already given her a pretty decent earful apparently."
Derek pulled back slightly to look at Casey's face. She blushed.

"She called into question the validity of my qualifications. She accused me of sleeping my way into my position and said that my "charmed" life couldn't continue in her hospital. All I did was defend myself."
Rosita coughed. "You also told her you'd set your lawyers on the administration."

"I don't have a lawyer, Roz. My stepfather normally handles all my legal stuff and I can't go to him with this." Casey turned to Derek. "I honestly didn't try it on with Robin." She said urging him to believe her.

On a normal day, Derek would have laughed at her earnest expression but she looked so distraught.

"I know." He said kissing her temple, because he did. If Casey had meant the few private words they had exchanged in the last twenty four hours, this relationship was as important to her as it was to Derek. The time they were arguing was very painful for both of them and one thing was very clear - Casey wouldn't have been capable of trying to seduce her superior last night because her mind was too full of Derek. Just like his mind was full of her.

Even now, when part of him wanted so badly to retaliate against the evil duo which was threatening Casey's vocation, a greater part of him wanted to whisk her away and protect her.

"Come on." He said softly, kissing her forehead again. "We can't achieve anything in this place now. Let's get out of here and get some advice."

"I told her to expect my lawyer." Casey said. "I don't have one."

"Neither do I." said Derek. "But we'll find one."

Jazz had started towards the door, but he paused. "Hmmm…actually, Robin and the dragon lady aren't the only ones with exes. Maybe it's time I introduced you to one of mine."

The bar was badly lit, nicotine-stained and rough around the edges. It was dark squared-off wood and hard surfaces; no curves, no soft furnishings, and totally without a woman's touch.

Whilst clearly not the lowest dive in town, there was little glamour about it.

The old pictures on the walls were of large men with very little clothing and cauliflower ears; boxers. Many of them were shaking hands with smart-looking men in tailored suits waving fat cigars between index and middle fingers. In some pictures, clearly old posters, wording could be seen – sometimes in a Gaelic font, sometimes the language was Italian. This was a bar with a definite identity even if its nationality was uncertain.

Despite the bye-law prohibiting smoking in a public place, and the fact that Casey could see no evidence of anyone actually lighting up, there was a faint taint to the air and a mist which softened the hardened edges of the scene before her. She guessed that the residual smoke was like the thin layer of tar and nicotine on the walls - ingrained in the atmosphere, a legacy of decades of drinkers who smoked as they downed their beer. The current clientele also probably brought the scent in with them on their skin: a miasma that surrounds a heavy smoker even when the cigarette is absent from their fingers.

Casey wasn't one to stereotype but she could tell the type of people this place attracted: male, blue-collar workers, often boxing fans, often Irish or Italian. She guessed it was the sort of place that generations of men had enjoyed their first beer in, taken there by their fathers and grandfathers for their coming of age; a place of sanctuary from work and home life.

Right now the place was neither empty nor busy; just a few patrons drinking beer and shooting pool. They may not be smoking right now, but in all other respects they fitted the profile.

Casey stuck out like a sore thumb and unconsciously she moved closer to Derek.

"What'll you have?" Jazz asked her as they made for the bar area.

"Mineral water." Casey said.

The two guys she knew swivelled abruptly to stare at her. Casey rolled her eyes.

"Okay. I'll have a beer." She amended. "The lowest strength they have."

"Can't you even try to blend in?" Derek hissed with a wry smile.

Casey chuckled. "Derek, sweetheart, in order to blend in here I'd need to grow a pair and learn to scratch them. The only kind of girl that looks right in here is…"
"…IS…?" A very feminine voice said behind them.

They turned quickly at the unexpected sound.

She was short, with long black-hair and skinny. She was also incredibly beautiful. Her minute figure was poured into the tightest black jeans Casey had ever seen and a wide studded belt hanging low on her hips. A rather ample bust was stuffed into an Iron Maiden t-shirt that looked like it had shrunk in the wash and her wrists had studded leather cuffs on them. Casey was pretty sure that somewhere on the girl's body there would be art.

Realising that anything she had been about to say would probably have insulted the girl in front of her, Casey blushed. "Erm…"

But the girl had lost interest.

"Mine's a straight Jack." She announced pointedly in the direction of Jazz.

"Buy it yourself." Derek's friend retorted.

"You owe me, asshole." The girl said.

"Like fuck I do." He replied. "I apologised. I apologise every time I see you. It does not give you the right to demand payment."
The girl smiled. "Maybe not." She said. "But clearly the very fact you're here means you want something. So equally clearly it is in your best interests to keep me sweet."
"Why does everything have to be about you? Why can't we just be here because I fancied a beer?"
"The beer in here tastes like piss." The girl said, raising her eyes to the barman. "No offence Paddy."

"None taken, B. If I served the decent stuff in here the guys would never leave. At least eventually even this lot reach a limit."

"B" grinned, making her look even more attractive. Casey who was watching Jazz's face saw something pass across his eyes, like a shot of pain. As quick as it came it went. He sighed.

"Give her a shot, Paddy." He said, tossing some notes onto the bar. "She'll wear me down eventually anyway and I can't be doing with it tonight. And give us three beers – the bottled stuff that you keep for your friends not that bilge water you pass off as alcohol."

Paddy busied himself flicking off the caps of three beer bottles, thumping them on the counter and then turned to optics to dispense the Jack Daniels into a glass.

They waited until all the drinks were ready.

"So Jason…" B began. "What mess do you need me to bail you out of now?"

"Why does it have to be me?"
"B" laughed. "Because you have an ego the size of Canada and it's never about anything else?"
Casey raised an eyebrow at Derek at the familiarity of the comment. He gave her a WTF look in return and then they both grinned.

"B" jerked her head in the direction of a vacant table and the group followed her bringing their drinks. She scooted into the corner of the small enclosure, tucking her legs up onto the bench seat. Derek dived into the equivalent space on the other side of the table and pulled Casey in behind him. Reluctantly, Jazz was left with the small stool at the end of the table.

"So do I get to be introduced to your charming companions or do we all spend the rest of the evening smiling politely but awkwardly at each other?" "B" asked.

Jazz rolled his eyes.

"Casey, Derek, meet "B"…that's "B.E.A" by the way. Short for "Beatrice" although she'll cut off my balls for mentioning it."

Casey smiled warmly and offered her hand. "Nice to meet you, Bea." She said, intrigued by the woman before her – and the apparent "relationship" she had with Derek's friend.

"And you, Casey. I assume from the possessive way "Derek" here is grabbing hold of you that you are with him and not the moron currently perched at the end of the table."

Casey grinned. "You assume correctly. Derek is my…"

"…destiny." Derek quipped from behind her, planting a noisy kiss on her neck.
"…cross. You know, as in the one we all have to bear?" Casey said, rolling her eyes. "Are we to assume that you and Jazz are also "acquainted"?"

Bea glanced towards Derek's co-worker and snorted. "You didn't tell them about me?"

Jazz raised an eyebrow and glugged his beer. "What's to tell?" He asked.

Casey saw the same flash of hurt from earlier but this time it passed Bea's eyes. She began to have suspicions.

"Nice." Bea said in a tone that clearly stated the opposite, and then, in answer to Casey. "Yes we know each other. Although, clearly Jason wishes it was otherwise."
"Jason?" Casey queried. She knew that was Jazz's name, she had seen that at the hospital when she had sort out his status to reassure Derek– and when she and Derek had subsequently visited him. It was strange, however, that this person who seemed to know him so well did not call him by the nickname that everyone else used – even Derek's boss.

"Jason." Bea stated. "I don't like the "Jazz" moniker. It fits his ego, "All that Jazz" crap etc but…" she looked at Jazz with a certain pain. "I prefer Jason."

And Casey got the impression that Bea wasn't just talking about the name.

"How do you know each other?" Casey pushed.

"We went to school together." Jazz cut across whatever answer Bea had been going to give. She glared at him and he met the look without emotion, but she didn't correct him.

"Casey, honey, I'm sure you're a lovely person and everything, but here's the deal. Jason and I hate each other, so for him to seek me out means it must be something important that he needs help with. I don't know what that is, but I can tell you now that it is a lot more important than our back history. So why don't we cut to the chase scene and get on with it?"

Casey closed her mouth. She felt reprimanded like an errant school girl, but any retort she might have given evaporated when she saw the look in Bea's eyes. She wasn't being rude because she didn't like Casey. She was being rude because talking about Jazz was painful to her. Casey could sympathise.

Unfortunately, she couldn't explain why Bea would be able to help because as of yet, Jazz had not explained why they were here. As she thought this, Jazz downed the last of his beer and banged it onto the table, calling for another one from Paddy before enlightening Bea.

"Casey's boss made a pass at her last night and when she rebuffed him he reported her for sexual harassment. Her career is in jeopardy."

Bea nodded. "Okay…I'll talk to…"

"No! I want you to handle it."

"Jason, I don't…"

"Call it a favour." Jazz said. "And I'll do you one. I promise I'll stay away in future."

"You promised last time."

"This time I mean it." Jazz said.

For a second, Casey thought Bea was going to reject the deal. In her shoes Casey would have done. Jazz was asking Bea to let him walk away from her and even though she had only met the girl fifteen minutes ago, Casey could tell that Jazz walking away from Bea would break the girl's heart.

It surprised her then when Bea nodded.

"Fine. I'll deal with it." Bea said.

Derek frowned and leaned forward.

"Deal with it how?" He was confused. He too could see all the secret glances between his friend and this strange, rather frightening woman. He was also rather put off by the dive they were drinking in, and the whole circumstances of this meeting.

It was Jazz who spoke.

"Bea's an attorney." He said. Casey's shock didn't prevent her from hearing the very slight note of pride in Jazz's voice. "She specialises in employment law."

"So what do you think their history is?" Casey called from the bed later that night. Derek was brushing his teeth in the bathroom. His head appeared around the door.

"History?"
Casey shrugged. "Jazz described Bea as "an ex", and they clearly hate each other. Has he mentioned her before?"

Derek spat into the sink, wiped his mouth, and exited the small room, turning off the pull-light as he did so. He had sleep pants on but no t-shirt, a sort of compromise between the total nakedness he desired and the need to respect Casey and not assume that just because they had had sex a couple of times in the past twenty four hours meant that they would have sex again tonight.

"I've never heard of Bea before today." Derek said, pulling back the covers and slipping into bed beside his girlfriend. "I've never really thought about Jazz and serious relationships. He's always been a bit too…"
"I know." Casey cut across him, part of her reluctant to hear details.

"He doesn't date. Or at least he hasn't really dated since I've known him. Sure there have been girls that he's spent more than one night with but he's just not ever looked like the settling down type."
Casey snorted. "You got on well then?"

Derek sighed. "I'm not rising to that. You and I have only just started talking again and I'd like to enjoy our new-found relationship a bit longer before one of us throws it down the tubes. I'm not a man-whore Casey. I haven't had serious relationship for a very serious reason. Jazz is different. I don't know why he is the way he is."

"Do you think she'll be able to help me?" Casey asked the uncertainty back in her voice.

He picked up her hand from the comforter and kissed it.

"I guess you'll find out tomorrow when you go to Bea's office." He replied.

"She's not the first thing I'd picture if I wanted an attorney."

"Jazz says she's good at her job. We need to trust his judgement." Derek noted.

Casey nodded. "I do…when it comes to the serious stuff anyway. I just…how can I prove that I didn't proposition Robin?"
"I thought the idea was that they had to prove that you did."

Casey snorted. "Oh yeah. Me standing there saying "so prove it" will make me sound all innocent." There was sarcasm in her voice. "I need this to go away permanently, D. I can't have it hanging over me." Her voice trailed away at the end.
"I know." He whispered, his fingers playing with her hair. Casey inched closer, wanting Derek to take her mind off what had been an appalling afternoon – even if the events of the morning prevented her from calling it a bad day. She wanted to go back to the tangle of limbs and emotions she had woken to.

As soon as possible.

"Jazz and Bea still care about each other." Casey said. "Despite all the vitriol."

Derek nodded. "Do you think that's what we sound like to other people?" his fingers stroked the back of her neck.
Casey smiled. "What we used to sound like." She said, moving closer to him. "Fortunately we have a different outlet for our…passion now."

And suddenly Derek was very interested in the topic at hand. And the tiny night dress she was currently wearing under the covers.

"Oh?" He smirked. "Care to enlighten me?"
Casey also smirked. "I'm going to do more than enlighten you." She promised and leaned over to turn down the light.