Three days later:

"You are insane!"

Marti was staring at her brother. It was a 21 year old Marti but she still wielded the same power with Derek.

"About what?"

"I can't believe Casey is still just my sister."

He frowned at her. They were on their way to the mall, Nora having forgotten something important for the big 21st party for Marti. Derek and Marti had volunteered to go – to avoid the hassle of the party he had thought – but now he was getting hassle of a different sort.

"What do you mean…'just your sister'? There's no 'just' about it."

"Der-ek!"

"Okay. Now you are freaking me out coz that was just like Casey."

"Derek. If you don't get your ass in gear she's going to get tired of waiting."

"Who is?"

"Casey."

"Now you sound like Sam. It isn't like that, Smarti."

"Yeah. Right. And my last boyfriend didn't have a tattoo on his…"

"Martha… That is an image I really didn't need."

Marti grinned. "I'm serious though."

"About the tattoo?"

"Der-ek!"

"You spend too much time with Casey."

An hour later:

"Okay. Now I think we finally have TOO MANY balloons." Derek announced as he walked into the kitchen. Nora and Casey laughed.

"It's a 21st party, Derek. You can't have too many balloons." His stepmother replied.

"Whatever. Now can I go and finish my birthday present?"

"Sure."

Casey looked up. "Want a hand?"

"What is this? We have a couple of award-winning documentaries together and you think I can't make a Marti tribute on my own?" He paused and grinned. "Sure. Some help would be good."

Casey grinned and pecked her mom on the cheek. "Call me down if you need me."

Nora watched her daughter and step-son leave. Marti walked in.

"Remember when they used to argue?" Marti asked.

"They still do. They just sound even more like a married couple these days."

"Do you think they are happy?"

"Not entirely. But I think they could be."

Derek's room had changed very little. It was slightly tidier, but otherwise it was exactly how Casey remembered it.

"This place brings back memories."

"Oh yeah. If I had a dollar for every time you hit me in this room…"

"You deserved it."

He smiled and fired up the ancient PC on his desk. He also switched on the modern laptop he'd brought with him.

"So what do you need to do?"

"I want some of the early Smarti pictures I took. They're still on here." He motioned to the old PC.

"Derek!" George's voice rang up the stairs. "Can you give me a hand to move this table?"

"Sure. Coming!"

Derek left the room.

When the PC finished booting, Casey started flicking through the Marti pictures. There were a lot.

Idly, she went back to the main folder and saw there were subfolders for each member of their family – including her.

She smiled and then frowned as she noticed the folder size.

It was bigger than Marti's.

Casey opened up the "Casey" folder and gasped at the number of photos Derek had taken of her during their teenage years. There were hundreds. She started opening them, expecting the pictures to be of the pranks he had carried out. But they weren't. Every photo was…flattering.

"You were photogenic." His voice came from the doorway.

They watched each other for a moment and then he moved back to sit beside her. He started manipulating the pictures of Marti on the screen.

"You were my muse." He said, not looking at her. "You still are."

"…I'd like to say that Smarti has grown up over the years, but sadly not. Anyone has only to look at her clothes to realise the eight year old we all remember fondly is still among us." [laughter] and who can forget the animal noises fiasco. God I taught her well… Anyway. I'd just like to raise a toast to my favourite sister who's now legally entitled to…" "DER-EK!" [much laughter].

The party started to mingle again and Derek made his way over to Casey.

"Hey Princess."

"Did you really have to make that crack about Marti's underwear. Talk about lowering the tone!"

"Marti started it. She told me this afternoon her ex has a tattoo."

Casey raised an eyebrow. "Chris?" Derek nodded.

"Where?"

His smirk grew.

Casey's jaw dropped. "You are kidding me…."

He shook his head.

"Well that's destroyed my innocence." She grinned. "How the hell does she know anyway?"

Derek frowned. "I'm trying not to think about that."

Casey laughed. "You're going to make a great father, Derek."

"You wanna volunteer?" He blurted.

Shit! Did he really just say that out loud? Talk about open mouth, insert foot.

Casey looked surprised. She turned on her tail and walked away.

He found her in the kitchen. She was leaning against the sink.

"Sorry." He muttered in her ear.

"Are you?" She turned and looked at him. It was an intense gaze as though she really wanted to know the truth.

He closed his eyes and spoke. "No. I'm not sorry. The baby thing? I'd only do that with you."

Silence. Stunned silence. Neither of them could believe he had just said that.

George entered the kitchen. "Derek. Would you mind going into the garage and getting the rest of the beer out, we're running low?"

"Sure dad." It must be an automatic response because he had no idea how his mouth formed words right then.

He walked into the garage and away from her.

Casey was left in the kitchen. By the time she had realised what he had said, he'd disappeared again to help George. Her mind was all over the place. Derek wanted to have children with her? Did he really just confess to caring about her in a totally non-sibling way?