"You brother…look like shit." Derek announced when Edwin opened his front door. A bleary-eyed Edwin peered at him.
"So do you. My wife screwed the gardener, what's your excuse?"
Derek shrugged. "My wife isn't my wife."
"Crap Derek! That's old news! Why do you still look like shit? You fall out with Casey again?"
He stepped to one side and let Derek in; a Derek who was carrying a crate of Coke and bottle of JD. He handed the latter to Edwin, ignoring the crack about Casey.
"That's for you. Promise me when you've downed it, vomited it back up and thrown the bottle away you won't buy a new one."
"How about I skip the first two stages and just throw the bottle away? I'll make do with a couple of cans of the hard stuff." He said pointing to the crate of Coke.
His brother smirked. "Now you see I knew you wouldn't let a girl get to you and ruin your pledge troth."
"For the last time, I didn't sign the pledge. I just can't drink alcohol. It brings me out in hives."
They had reached the living room, which was remarkably clean.
"Dude…what happened in here? I was under the impression from the Step-mom that you were wallowing in filth to waist-level."
Edwin looked uneasy. "I…erm…was."
Derek raised an eyebrow sensing he was on to something juicy. "And?"
"And what?"
"What made the mess disappear?"
"I had a visitor."
"A visitor?"
"Hi Derek!" A familiar voice sounded from the kitchen. "Are you hungry? I've just made lasagne.
And there standing in the doorway as though she belonged there was his step-sister…the other one.
"Hi Liz! Fancy seeing you here."
She smiled. "I just popped in to…erm…drop some food off."
Derek turned to look at Edwin. Oh this was good!
"Let me get this straight. Lizzie pops in to cook for you?"
"And clean." Edwin mumbled under his breath.
Derek snorted. "I bet she does."
"Derek brought Jack D." Edwin called to Lizzie.
"Cool! Pour me a glass I'll be through with dinner in a second."
Lizzie didn't stay after dinner. But the way his two siblings behaved around each other, Derek was sure that at least one of them kinda wished that she had…and when he looked at Edwin after Lizzie left he wasn't so sure that the figure hadn't just risen to two.
"So…Lizzie?" Derek asked sipping his virgin coke, and congratulating himself on another sober night.
Edwin shrugged. "So…Casey?"
Derek snorted. "Nothing's changed Ed. She and I are the same as we've always been."
"Like fuck you are."
"Okay. We've grown apart."
Edwin snorted coke across his lap, the sofa and the floor as he choked. "Shit!" He exclaimed when he recovered. "Derek don't make jokes like that I'm drinking. You'll kill me." He glanced at the new mess on the floor. "Lizzie's going to kill me too."
"I wasn't cracking a joke. Casey told me she never wants to see me again."
"Yeah…right. When was this?"
"About a month or so ago."
"When you started flushing your career down the toilet." Edwin stated. "I was right! It had nothing to do with Chloe and everything to do with Casey."
"She was my best friend for a very long time, Ed." Said Derek, failing to deny it.
"And your lover."
Derek stared at him. "What?"
"Oh come on D. The whole family knows you were sleeping together."
"I…you what?"
"We kept sort of expecting you both to make some announcement. You know sort of 'um by the way…we're dating.' But you never did."
"I don't know, Edwin. Maybe that's because we weren't dating." Derek sighed.
Edwin coughed in disbelief and then when he realised Derek was serious his eyes widened.
"So you're telling me that in the past fifteen years…"
"…thirteen-ish. We were living at home for three years, remember?"
"…thirteen-ish, you and Casey never…"
Derek coughed with embarrassment. "Not exactly never." He answered. Edwin looked triumphant.
"Ah-ha!" He exclaimed.
"Once, Ed. Once. And then she walked away."
"Was this a month ago?"
"No. Three years ago."
Edwin frowned and then he looked enlightened. "I get it. Chloe was a re-bound, right?"
"Re-bound is an ugly term." Derek said, giving in. "But yeah…I guess."
"I like it. Derek Venturi is as big a screw up when it comes to women as I am."
"I can handle women…"
Edwin snorted.
"…It's just Casey." Derek finished.
It appeared that both men were slowly recovering. Edwin was recovering because Lizzie had propelled herself into his existence, taking over and generally not letting him think. He even went so far as to admit to Derek that "I can sort of handle the loss of Ruth…she's never been easy to deal with…it's the loss of the money from our savings account that I'm sore about. She did it because the pre-nup means she gets very little in the divorce."
"Can you get the money back?"
"No. Fortunately, I knew she was a shopaholic when I married her, so she only had access to a small part of our money. It could have been worse."
"And Lizzie's back…"
"Yeah. Lizzie's back. It seemed she needed someone else to take care of rather than lament over her own broken heart."
"Or maybe she was just glad Ruth was out of the picture."
"Are you trying to super-impose your relationship with Casey over mine and Lizzie's?"
Derek smirked and said nothing.
"That's just…" Edwin spluttered.
"Common sense?" Derek asked.
"Fuck off." Edwin muttered under his breath.
Derek's own recovery was less about getting over it than a renewed hope that it wasn't over.
When Edwin decided to go to bed, he offered Derek one of his spare rooms. This penthouse was only one of Edwin's homes. He had a more rural property nearer London, but the penthouse was still sizable and had four bedrooms. Derek took his brother up on the offer, but before he retired however, he had a question.
"Ed. Do you have a PC I can use? I ought to email a couple of people and I don't want to use my blackberry."
"Sure. The laptop's in the study. There's no password on it."
Edwin wandered off to bed and Derek went into the study.
It was an old-fashioned room, all leather and dark wood. Derek liked it, but since he did most of his business on the ice he couldn't really see the point in having a similar room himself. The laptop in question was open on the large desk, and he could tell from the flashing blue light at the front that despite the black screen it was already on.
He pulled up the oversized office chair, noting the rich leather smell it gave off when he sat down and leaned forward. He ran his finger lightly over the mouse pad and sure enough the screen sprang to life.
A tiny icon sat in the middle of a blue-green screen with the tiny word "Sysadm". Derek clicked on the icon, and the screen changed to the standard windows environment…and the mail programme was already at someone's inbox. He moved to the Log Out option automatically, his eyes glancing at the screen and then he froze.
The account currently logged in was Lizzie's, and sitting in her inbox was a Read email from someone called spacecase. The subject line was Reality TV shows suck. He read the email address and wrote it down, and then he clicked on the email to open it up.
"Our security policy requires you to re-enter your password after being logged in for a long time. Please do so to continue the required action."
And with that, the inbox screen disappeared and along with it, Casey's email. Derek cursed.
But at least he had the email address written down.
Casey knew when Chloe arrived. In fact she was fairly sure half of Canada knew when Chloe arrived. A large limo pulled up at the front of the building, a burly security guard opening the door to revealing an almost bald lapdog…and Chloe. The clamour from the press at the door was deafening.
Trevor who was standing beside her in the foyer groaned.
"I see Madame has arrived." He announced.
"Either that or the Queen of Sheba came to play." Casey smiled.
"What on earth did your brother see in her?" He asked. Casey shrugged.
"You have to know Derek. There will have been a reason, probably something to do with bra size. I'm not really comfortable with the term "brother". We've never seen each other as siblings."
"Oh?" Trevor arched an eyebrow. "I thought you spent a lot of time together. Erm…according to the internet." Casey rolled her eyes at the idea of her history with Derek being on the internet; Or at least, some of her history.
"More like mortal enemies, sometime best friends…" Casey elaborated. Her new dance teacher grinned.
"More than just friends?"
Casey blushed and looked around in case anyone had over heard.
"Don't worry I checked no one was near before I spoke." Trevor reassured her. "Hey I can't blame you duckie. I'd distance myself from the "brother/sister" label too. Of course, anyone with half an eye on the press can tell you he isn't gay. So I guess the rivalry with Queen bitch is more than just a protective sister thing?"
Casey shrugged. "I don't let her impinge on my thoughts more than is necessary. Derek made his choice. We aren't in each other's lives anymore. This whole TV show thing was apparently her idea. I've no idea why she wants me here."
"I'd have thought that was obvious."
"What?"
"She wants to show you up in the media. She's pulled Derek's "author" sister out and held her up for people to compare you. She knows she's gorgeous and she thinks that makes her better at things. She wants people to say "Derek should be with Chloe, not Casey.""
"That's ridiculous. Firstly, we aren't together. Secondly, I'd never claim to be more attractive than a supermodel. Thirdly, I'm not the reason Derek dumped Chloe…the fact she lied to him is. Fourthly, the only person that would ever compare us is Chloe."
"Or Derek…until now. Now the press will. And you should compare yourself to her. Hers is a false beauty. It may not have come from the surgeon's knife but it all looks over-blown. You're prettier in many ways."
"What have I let myself in for?" Casey asked with a groan. Trevor grinned.
"I would say it's going to be an interesting few weeks." He paused. "but believe me when I tell you that you won't be on your own. Harriet and I, we like what we've got: a raw and genuine talent. We'll make sure you win because if she wins, there's no justice."
Before Casey replied, the entourage swept into the foyer with Chloe in its midst. Casey watched her former sister-in-law move across the space on her high heels. Anyone else would be teetering but she walked with the grace of a model and as if she was wearing flats rather than five inch heels. Casey made a bet with herself that Chloe had never fallen down the stairs in high school and almost been sued for "blunt force trauma". But, then Derek had never pranked Chloe.
In the blonde woman's arms, the small bald creature stirred and raised its head towards Casey. It was ugly and Casey briefly entertained the idea that the dog was Chloe's Dorian Gray picture, getting uglier as the woman grew beautiful. The thought put a smile on Casey's lips where there shouldn't be one, and though she didn't notice it, the enigmatic smile was picked up by the cameras which were attending Chloe, and the producers would include it when the summary of the week went live on Friday.
She did notice the cameras, however, and the way that they swung round as soon as they realised who the girl standing on the sidelines was. There was a surge of reporters forward which very briefly left Chloe lagging behind…until Derek's former "wife" realised she was losing attention.
"Casey! Darling!" She managed to look sincere and Casey knew that when the video was replayed, the impression given would be that Casey was Chloe's best friend. Casey hated the idea, but she wasn't going to be the one who came over as a bitch on camera…at least not until Chloe started it.
She took a deep breath, forced a broad smile onto her face.
"Hello Chloe! It's been a while!"
AN: "The Arrival of the Queen of Sheba" is a piece of music by Handel...you'll most likely recognise it - it gets used often for weddings and other processions.