A/N: A lot of Vanessa and Casey in here. You need to read this. Derek isn't the douche...he's the hero. Please, enjoy.
Present Day
The months trickled by and the snow trickled away. Mia had completed her five month well baby check up with flying colors. On a damp April afternoon with her mom and dad curled up on the couch Mia's squawk sounded as she was woken by a knock on the door.
"I'll get it." Casey offered. She gently handed her daughter to her husband and went to the door. She opened it to find Vanessa holding the hand of her son and a bottle of wine.
"Uh, hi. Casey. Am I too early?" Vanessa's voice as very small. Casey took in the appearance of the woman. A hoodie, sneakers, and a pair of jeans Casey immediately wanted.
"Um, for what?"
"Well, Derek invited me over for dinner. And I brought Jackson...which I hope was okay...but seeing your face right now...we should probably go."
"No, no. My loving husband probably just forgot to tell me the correct time." Casey said tersely. "Come in. Hi, Jackson. Nice to meet you."
"Hi, Mrs. Venturi." Jackson said, happily unaware of the tension between the woman. He skipped away from his mother and to Derek, who had come up behind Casey.
"Oh, sweetie. Forgot to tell you. Jackson and Vanessa are coming over for dinner." Derek kissed Casey's cheek and smiled warmly at Vanessa.
"Oh, no! Jackson Andrew! Get down!" Vanessa scurried over to her young son who was trying to reach a ball on top of the entertainment center.
"What the hell, Venturi?" Casey hissed.
"I am tired of you bashing on Vanessa. She is a wonderful person and you need to act like a grown up. Stop being catty. You ladies have a lot in common. So get over yourself and go play nice." He kissed her on her frowning mouth. "I love you. Mia needs a change." He disappeared to the nursery.
"Wine?" Casey asked Vanessa who had settled Jackson on the couch with a storybook from her purse.
"Wine." Vanessa sighed in agreement.
Three Weeks Earlier
Vanessa and Derek's coffee "dates" had become a Tuesday thing, while Casey was teaching tap. Casey knew, but was less than thrilled, as she expressed to him one night at the store in the bread aisle.
"Look, Derek," she sighed as she grabbed a loaf of whole wheat. "I don't get why you have to keep going out with your old high school flame."
"I'm not going out with her. She was never my flame. And actually I think you girls would really get along if you just talked." Derek held his ground and tossed a box of cupcakes in the cart.
"I have nothing in common with her and I really don't think she and I could ever...talk." Casey snapped and put his cupcakes back on a random shelf.
"Case...c'mon. You're acting like a little jealous high school girl." Derek sighed, exhausted by his wife's willingness to share his attention. Suddenly his pocket chimed, he pulled it out and saw Vanessa's name….and a sneaky yet brilliant plan sprung to his head. Carefully executed, he might only have to sleep on the couch for a week or so.
"Who's that?" Casey demanded.
"Nora, asking me to call her. Something about Mia's food. I'm gonna go call her." Derek said smoothly, with a very large stab of guilt to his gut. Derek left his wife looking at cereals to call Vanessa.
"Hey, man. What's up?" Vanessa answered the phone but sounded distracted.
"Do you want to have dinner with us? Like...in a few weeks?" Derek said quickly.
"Wait. You actually got Casey to want to meet me? Seriously? Like, she's on board?" Vanessa's voice was rapid and nervous.
"Well, um, yeah." Derek hesitated. Lying to two women in one night was worse than breaking a mirror under a ladder in front of a black cat.
"I work all nights for awhile...let me look at my fridge."
"Your fridge holds your scheduling issues?"
"My calendar taped to my fridge, you moron." She laughed. "The sixth. I'm free the sixth."
"Great. Five pm. Let's do the sixth at five. Bring Jackson."
"I'm so excited, Derek. The girls at the shop aren't...my crowd...they want to go out to the male strip clubs and dance bars. I, however, am three episodes behind on Grey's Anatomy but am one hundred percent caught up on Thomas the Tank Engine."
"Yeah, sure. Tell Casey that dumb stuff." Derek laughed. "I'll see you then."
"Awesome! Thanks, so much D."
"Yeah, whatever. Don't mention it." Derek clicked off and found Casey several aisles over holding a box of cupcakes.
"I'm sorry, sweetheart. I know I'm being irrational. You're a good man. Have a cupcake." Casey kissed him on the nose and that pang of guilt stabbed him again. This all has to work out. "How is Mia?"
"Just fine." Derek mumbled. "It all worked out."
Present Day
Casey and Vanessa sat on opposite ends of the couch sipping their wine in very very thick and uncomfortable silence. Vanessa looked around the tiny apartment and her heart hurt, this was all she wanted with Jackie's dad. This was it. A home that smelled like lilacs, a tidy kitchen with kids magnets on the dishwasher, a basket of laundry with footie pajamas and boxers and socks tucked in the hallway, and family pictures both posed and candid hanging on the walls under cliche wall stickers that read Live Laugh Love. Casey had everything Vanessa ever wanted.
"You have a beautiful home, Casey." Vanessa said quietly.
"Thanks. It was a hole when we moved in. A womans touch and some wall decals make a world of difference." Casey said easily, the wine was already hitting her head. Fourteen months without drinking had made her a lightweight, not that she could ever hold steady with her drink really.
"I totally get that." Vanessa said. Then another obese silence fell. Derek came into the room loudly. Mia was wearing her tiny jeans and jacket and Derek had put on shoes.
"Good god, Casey. I just realized we don't have any ice cream! How could you let this happen?"
"Ice cream?" Jackson asked from his position in the comfy chair. He was watching a cartoon and flipping through a book. "Mama, I want ice cream."
"Vanessa, can I take him? Casey, I have to go get ice cream. Like, right now. Mia won't stop crying. She needs cookie dough brownie ice cream."
"She seems fine to me." Casey said with the very tiny hint of a smile.
"Oh, well you didn't hear her a minute ago. She threatened to blow the roof off this place! We can't let that happen, can we Jackson?"
"No way, Jose!" Jackson jumped off the couch and went to his mother. "Can I go, please? Please please please please!"
"Yes, sure sure. Derek can you get his booster seat from my car and put it in yours. My keys are on the counter." Vanessa was smiling a little bit more than Casey.
"Okay, no problem. Love you, Case! Play nice, ladies." Derek took the hand of the toddler, grabbed the keys, and disappeared from the home.
"I think this was a set up." Casey laughed.
"I think we're on a playdate!" Vanessa was doubled over laughing which made Casey laugh even harder. When the women calmed down Casey muted the television and took a big breath.
"This is the first time I've had a drink since Mia's been born so I am already buzzed...and I just have to know." she took a deep shaky breath. "Have you ever had the hots for my...Derek?"
"The hots, Casey?" Vanessa giggled and poured herself and Casey another glass from the bottle on the coffee table. "1999 called, they want their slang back."
"No, but, for serious. Did you ever get it on with Derek?"
"Oh, god no. He was a narcissistic jock jerk asshole who turned into my best friend when you went on that dance tour."
"What?"
"Are you ready for a story? It's kind of long and drawn out." Vanessa sighed and Casey nodded eagerly. "When you went to New York, Derek was a wreck. Seriously. A torn up whiny piece of shit. He came to dance practice for weeks after you left but he stopped going to class. His roommate told me that he would just kind of stay on his computer and do nothing but game until you video messaged. It was really fucked up. And pathetic. I don't know what kind of spell you had over him but he became totally disenchanted when you abandoned him. And his roommate, Robin I think, had gotten a new girlfriend so he wasn't around much to help him. Robin's girlfriend was my roommate. Quinn told me about the hot mess Venturi and I recognized him from his creeping around dance practice.
One Friday, I brought him a six pack and a bag of funyuns to his dorm. We played Grand Theft Auto and Halo all night. For all weekend. Then we went to the bar and played darts. Then monday came and we went to class. He never came on to me, I was engaged. But my fiance was five hundred miles away at a different university. My fiance back then is actually my ex husband and Jack's daddy. Anyways, Derek didn't treat me like a hot girl. He treated me like a buddy. And I didn't see him as a hot guy. I saw him as my brother. I was lonely and so was he. So we drank, we played bloody games, we video called our beloveds, and we were best buds. Until you came back and I transferred out. Then we lost touch. Until that night in my disgusting place of work. I have a masters in history, Casey!" she took a big gulp of wine.
"What about that night in his dorm? The drunk night...didn't you hook up?"
"Oh, Casey! God no! Is that why you hate me?" Vanessa, now totally tipsy, reached out and put a hand on Casey's knee.
"Well that and you were a better dancer than me! You totally deserved captain!"
"Good god, no! You are awesome!" Vanessa took another drink of wine, her second large glass nearly empty. "Anyways. That night my fiance, Tyler, surprised me at Queens. I was at a party with Derek. Derek and I were playing beer pong and apparently standing a little too close. Tyler yanked me out of the room and gave me a pretty good lashing. He left me in some guy's bedroom bleeding with a swollen eye and really drunk. I had been having a rough night, Derek was designated sober. Derek found me mostly unconscious on that guys floor and couldn't find Tyler. So Derek took me back to his room where I threw up in your shoes...because I couldn't find a trash can...it was the only funny part of that night because Derek hated those shoes. Too many sequins, he said. Derek stopped my bleeding and gave me pain killers and let me sleep in his bed and he took the floor. You came back a month later and Tyler convinced me to transfer to his school. So, that's it."
"Oh...Vanessa...I had no idea. I'm such a...such a….bitch!" Casey exclaimed and poured herself another tall glass.
"No one had any idea. I'm not the pity kind of gal. I can figure most of my life out. Just not my job right now." Vanessa laughed slightly and poured herself the last of the wine.
"Oh my god, Vanessa! I can help! My dance studio needs a teachers aid! I need a teachers aid! I can totally get you an interview! Can you still dance?"
"Well...yeah. You're really loud!"
"I know!" the girls both lost their senses and began to laugh until they cried and lost breathed. They didn't talk for about ten minutes.
"I'm really sorry, Vanessa. For all the stuff I've said about you over the years." Casey had sobered slightly.
"It's okay. Freshman year I was a catty bitch." Vanessa shrugged. "Do you like Grey's Anatomy?"
"Who doesn't?"
A/N: I think the next several chapters will be flashbacks, which judging from your reviews, you don't mind. ;) p.s. I've had this in mind for Vanessa and Casey since chapter one. I don't believe in ladies hating on each other. We've got to stick together! Read, and review! Much love, Little Crickett