"And one, two, three, four…Pick it up, two, three, four…turn, two, three, four…clap, two three four." Trevor ordered, leaning back on the upright piano because there wasn't a lot of room in the small studio. "Good…and rest."

Casey slumped to the floor, panting. "You know…" she said when there was air in her lungs once again. "I used to think I was fit."

"You are babe. I'm just working you extra hard." Trevor grinned. Casey scowled at him. "I'm doing it, because you are the best, you deserve to be the best and if you aren't crowned the best it won't be because I failed in my job."

"You do realise this is just a television show, don't you?" Casey asked from her ball of self-pity on the floor. "It's not like I'm trying out for Broadway."

Trevor straightened and walked over to the sound system, flicking the off-switch when he arrived.

"Casey, this is about something far more important than Broadway. This is about screwing over that hooker of an ex-sister-in-law of yours."
"Are we talking about that cold-hearted bitch with the designer pooch?" A voice called from the door. Casey looked round to see Harriet coming in, lugging a large briefcase full of music scores. Trevor scuttled over to help her in.

"Yeah. Why?" He asked following her to the piano.

"You realise she's the reason we're in this room rather than our proper rehearsal room, don't you?"

Casey frowned. "Our room got flooded from a burst pipe. That's not something that Chloe could arrange…is it?" As she spoke the sentence, she realised that it was exactly what Chloe could arrange. But Harriet shook her head.

"Oh no. The leak and flooding were genuine. Except the person who was really allocated that rehearsal room was Chloe, not Casey."

Trevor gasped dramatically, placing four delicately manicured fingers to his lips in horror. "She never pulled the ol' switch-aroony on us?"

Harriet nodded. "I overheard her discussing it on the back stairs with one of her cronies. We need to watch her. She's going to play dirty."

Casey sighed and buried her head in her lap. "Why? Why did I say yes to this madness?"

Harriet sat down at the piano. "Because you have a good heart. And you deserve to be here. Now stop fretting about it, and let's talk music."

"Music?" Casey queried. Trevor nodded.

"We need to work out what your repertoire is going to be. We have the list of categories now. It's time to plan out what we are going to perform."

Derek returned to his own apartment the morning after his impromptu dinner with his brother and his step-sister. By the time he arrived mid-morning, his housekeeper had pulled out all the stops and the house was back to normal. She had even placed flowers in Casey's vase, and Derek decided maybe it was time to give her a raise. Not everyone would have put up with his crap over the past few weeks and not only come back to work but cleaned up so well. He announced her new pay just as she was leaving for the day. She had smiled warmly at him.

"Is she coming back?" Rita had asked when he accepted her thanks.

"No." Derek said calmly. "No. She's gone for good."

The housekeeper looked sad. "Well now that is a shame. I liked her. Sure she got under my feet at times but she always had your best interests at heart."

Derek frowned. Chloe had been his wife, and he guessed at some point he must have been…fond?...of her. But, even he wouldn't have described her as having his best interests at heart. Derek knew for a fact the only person whose interests Chloe had at heart was her own.

"Hmmm…" He said non-committedly thinking that his housekeeper was pushing the gratitude for her pay rise a little too much.

Rita continued. "I mean, I know she was the devil for pointing out the places that the agency girl kept missing when she was dusting, and I know I used to grouch a bit about her popping up all the time cooking in the kitchen and filling up your freezer but…"

"Oh! You mean Casey!" Derek said, pleased that he was enlightened and that his housekeeper wasn't kow-towing to him.

She frowned. "Who did you think I meant? Not that waste of space wife of yours! Of course I meant Miss McDonald! Did you know she often asked me to join her for lunch in the kitchen. Her Chicken Casserole is just…"

"Yes. It is." He agreed.

"So she isn't coming back?" Rita asked.

Derek sighed. "I don't know. She's…annoyed with me right now."

"You'll regret it if you don't patch things up with her. You were a fool to let her get away. You should have married her while you had the chance."

"You do realise this is my step-sister we're talking about?"

"Yes."

" People don't normally marry their step-sisters."

Rita shrugged. "Didn't do my parents any harm."

"Christina Aguilera?" Casey said deadpan.

"Yup."

"That's the first theme?"

Harriet nodded. "Themed rounds worked for Pop Idol so they are doing it with this. The first one is Christina. Some rounds will be more general. For example, next week is Musicals."

Trevor was reading the back of the CD case. "Do you know much of her work?"

Casey shook her head. "The odd track."

"Do you?" Harriet glanced over at Trevor. He nodded.

"Oo. I love me a bit of Xtina." He grinned and then frowned. "Although trying to keep things understated is going to be difficult. She has a certain style about her. Shy retiring violet she isn't."

"Do we want shy retiring violet?" Casey asked.

"Oh yes duckie! We're going to sneak you into this competition by the back door. I'm aiming to make you look virginal up against Miss Media Whore." He looked at Harriet. "You know Chloe's going to go in there all guns blazing, don't you?"

She nodded. "I'll try and find out which track she's going to use. Meanwhile, you need to come up with music for a dance routine and I need to come up with a song. Something on the quiet side, but good technically. After all, Casey has to shine enough that they can't evict her, but we don't want her to overshadow Chloe…this week at least. Hmm…How about 'Beautiful'?"

"Please that's overdone!" Trevor announced with disgust. "I need to think about this. Why don't you take over here…do some warm up exercises or something?"

"Do some what?" Harriet looked disgusted. "You do realise I at least plan our sessions don't you?"

"Of course darling, but I'm sure your plans include warm ups!" Trevor grinned. Harriet sighed.

"Go! Have inspiration! Just come back and wow us with your music choice. And if you get chance, find out what Queen B is using. I'm not putting Casey up against that gobshite singing the same song."

"'Gobshite?' Harriet…darling! Cheltenham ladies do not use words like that." Trevor teased as he made for the door, winking at Casey. "You look scared to death, ducks. Relax! We've got you covered."

Casey went to bed that night thoroughly exhausted. Both Trevor and Harriet had worked her into the ground, but strangely it wasn't that which wore her out. Instead, it was the constant looking over her shoulder for the next offensive from Chloe. She sighed as she cleaned her teeth, gazing into the bathroom mirror at the woman she had become. She was pleased that she looked pretty much as she had in her early twenties, but she could see the beginnings of lines encircling her eyes. It was a reminder about her rapid progress through life – and just how much of her life had passed, most of it beside Derek.

She wondered for a moment where Derek was and if he was okay. She realised that in the dubious excitement of moving in, she had yet to talk to Nora and see if there was further news. She dried her mouth and moved into the bedroom switching off the bathroom light. Her laptop lay on the bed blinking and she decided to draft an email to her mother. Casey climbed onto the bed. Her nightshirt was warm enough to keep off the chill, so she sat above the covers and wiped a finger over the keypad. She refreshed the screen and noted a new email from Liz.

"Hi Casey,

Thanks for the update, and sorry I've been so awful about keeping in touch, it's been a bad few months, but I finally think I'm coming out the other side of it.

I saw the link to the article – how funny! I'm going to show it to Ed next time I see him.

He's doing okay, although obviously not brilliant. The desire to weep openly appears to have receded (which can only be a good thing). He seems to be concentrating on revenge and the more practical aspects of what he has lost – such as the money. Derek came to see him a couple of nights ago to shake Edwin out of the funk he's in – and himself. By the time I left they both seemed to be back on track to being normal. Derek certainly didn't look like the mess Mom described to me.

It was strange seeing Derek without you and I'm not entirely sure why. After all, you went without seeing each other for two years, but I guess I was AWOL for most of that. Besides, those two years were a blip compared to the fifteen years that you and Derek have been in each other's lives.

Case, I think you should contact him. I'm not going to give my reasons for that, but…I just think you will both lose something precious if you don't suck it up and accept his apology. Please?

Anyway, I passed the message on to mom. She says she'll try to check her email more…oh and to tell you to "talk to Derek".

And yes, before you ask, we are all ganging up on you.

Good luck with the competition. Keep me up-to-date on the gossip. I can't imagine it's particularly nice having a camera in your face all the time. Just keep thinking about the end goal and all the good that money will do.

And Casey? PHONE DEREK!"

"Stuck record, much!" Casey complained, closing out of the email. In the Inbox was another email from Lizzie which must have arrived while she was reading the previous one.

"As for suggestions for music, do you and Chloe have to do a duet? Only you could sing that one from the musical 'Chess' – you know… "I know him so well". *grins evilly*"

Casey snapped her laptop shut in disgust. Yes, she remembered the duet. It was about two women fighting over the same man.

It was Thursday and it was Derek's turn to stare at a laptop screen. He also had an email program open and he had gone so far as to start typing the content of a new email.

Dear Casey,

Hi…how are you?

He deleted that one. It was too "brotherly".

Hey Spacecase,

Quit being pissed and call me.

He deleted that one. It was too "insincere".

Casey,

You got the wrong idea. I didn't mean what I said. Or rather I did it's just that…

He sighed. He had possessed Casey's email address for almost a week now and every day, about three times a day he sat down to try and compose his email to her. He knew he had to get it right because this might be the last time that he had chance to contact her. If he got this wrong, she would delete this account the way that she had deleted the others.

He gave it one last try before deleting that message too and taking himself off to bed.

Derek wondered how Casey was doing stuck in that house with his ex-wife. Was it the complete disaster that it promised to be? Did Chloe cause trouble for Casey, make life miserable for her – or did they get on well and spend all their evenings sitting together swapping Derek Venturi horror stories on camera?

For Casey's sake, he sort of hoped it was the latter. Casey didn't deserve to be played with like a kitten playing with a ball of wool. Casey had nothing to do with the break up of his marriage to Chloe that was all Chloe's doing.

But as he thought it, Derek realised, that he was lying to himself. Casey had everything to do with the fact that he had split up with Chloe. If it hadn't been for Casey, Derek wouldn't have even married Chloe.

His step-sister had so much to answer for!

AN: Just in case you don't know the song, it's about a mistress and a wife - although I think Chloe would be better as the mistress.

"I know him so well" - You Tube [slash] watch?v=z2IkLGFiKx0 (Chloe would be the blonde!)