The noise level was the first familiar thing to him. As soon as everyone was back inside the house, they began running around, shouting in excitement, dragging Casey and Derek back and forth showing them things. Craig, the driver, and Joel, the security guy were shown to the little two bed-room apartment over the garage which had been built to house Casey's team when she came to stay.
There had been a few changes to the furnishing, such as a new sofa when the old one collapsed under Aunt Maud's backside one Christmas, but Derek was reassured by the décor. It was as though they had transferred their old living room into their new one. It was bigger, but it was largely the same shape and he felt at home. Casey grabbed his hand and took him upstairs to show him his room.
The same process of transportation had taken place upstairs. He saw the same pictures in similar places on the walls. One big change was the presence of Nora and George's bedroom on the third floor next to Robbie's room. Everyone else had a room on the second floor.
Casey opened the door to Derek's room with a flourish and he was transported back three years. They must have taken photographs of his room so that they could put the posters back in exactly the right places. He laughed.
"You do realise I'm going to spend the whole week rearranging everything, don't you?"
Casey grinned. "Yes. But that was your job, not ours."
There was one addition to his room; an extra door. He walked across and opened it.
"An en-suite?! No way!" he said, laughing. "Ha! Does this mean we have to stop fighting over the bathroom?"
Casey shrugged. Derek spotted a second door at the other side of the bathroom.
"Where does that go?"
She smiled and he got suspicious.
"This is a Jack and Jill bathroom." She said and chuckled at his puzzled looked. "It means that two bedrooms share it. That door leads to the other bedroom."
"Who has the other bedroom?" he asked.
"Who had the bedroom next to yours in the old house?" she asked innocently.
His eyes widened. "You?! You have the opportunity to have a room anywhere in the house, and you pick not only the one next to mine, but the one that means we have to share a bathroom….AGAIN!"
Casey grinned broadly. "Yup!"
"You're asking to be pranked, you do realise don't you?"
"Yes."
It was manipulative of her, making sure of the continuity of the two houses. But somehow he couldn't be cross. He looked at the pale, worn out Casey in front of him; a Casey who, given the option to stop their crazy arguments had passed on it. He didn't want to get angry, he wanted to pull her into his arms and tell her how much he had missed her. Actually he wanted to say far more than that, but he stopped at the small, brotherly kiss he placed on her forehead as he held her.
"You don't mind?" she asked.
"No. But, by the end of the week, you'll probably want to swap with Marti." He grinned. She chuckled and they stood for a while enjoying a hug which they both told themselves was finally the brotherly hug they had been waiting for since they were fifteen.
The fact that it took every ounce of Derek's will power not to kiss Casey on the mouth or that Casey toyed with the idea of pulling Derek into her bedroom and locking the door was each unknown to the other.
Derek and Casey had grown closer at college in that brief year and if it hadn't been for the talent show which had launched her career, they both suspected they would eventually have reached the point where the next step was dating. As it was, Casey's decision to enter the competition had not been approved of by Derek. They had argued about it; one of those rare arguments where they were very angry and hot words were spoken. But it hadn't been until Casey won and then announced that she was dropping out of college to pursue her dream that Derek really got angry. The frightening thing was his anger didn't make him shout, it made him quiet.
He ignored her for a month.
By the time they spoke again, his anger had built up to the point that all he was capable of doing was shouting. And all he had shouted was "Screw you Casey! If I never see you again it won't be long enough!"
So she had gone. And when he realised what he had done, he followed her.
He didn't follow her because he wanted to talk her out of it.
He didn't follow her to let her know he was wrong.
He followed her because if she was going to follow her dream, he was going to be nearby in case it all blew up. Because ever since he was fifteen and his father married her mother, someone somewhere had decided, Derek was the one to bail her out.
He wasn't sure she was going to fail. He just wanted to know, if she needed him, she didn't have to cross the continental USA to find him.
Casey looked up at him, bringing him back into the present. "Does it feel like home?" she asked, meaning the house and his room.
"Yes." He said, meaning her embrace.