"Arghhhhh," Casey let out frustratingly, letting the sheet pan drop from her hand to the counter with a loud clatter.

Cautiously, Derek entered the kitchen to see his wife in a state of distress. "You burn another batch?" he guessed, though he already knew the answer as he noticed the burnt cookies on the counter.

"Yes…" Casey mumbled miserably, pouting. "It has to be that stupid oven!" she surmised, tears beginning to fall down her face. "It cooks faster than it's supposed to."

Derek cringed at the sight of her tears, but walked up to her anyway, letting her dissolve herself in his arms as he rubbed his hands over her back comfortingly. "It's gonna be okay, Case."

He'd usually say she was being dramatic, but this had been the 5th batch of cookies she had burnt that morning. The others had at least been somewhat edible, but by looking at the new rejects, they might as well have been his hockey pucks since they were pitch black. It also didn't help that she was 7 months pregnant and her hormones were running very high.

She leaned back in his embrace, her eyes swollen and red from crying. "There's not enough time to make any more," she pointed out, sniffing.

"We can just go to the store first and buy some there," Derek suggested.

"But they'll know it's store-bought."

"We're only going to our parents', not the Prime Minister's," Derek reasoned. "And all Venturi's care about is food. We don't care where it came from or who made it."

Casey's gloomy resolve fractured enough to let out a miniscule giggle. Knowing how insatiable the Venturi's appetite was knew no bounds.

"I guess," she softly agreed.

…

"Caseyyyyy," Derek whined. "Just pick one!" he exclaimed. His annoyance level had hit his maximum. They had been standing in the bakery section of the store for almost 20 minutes while Casey debated over all the options.

Casey turned to her husband, hands on hips. "But which one?" she wondered aloud. "There are so many to choose from. They have sugar, oatmeal, snickerdoodle, and chocolate chip. Then they have ones that are sprinkled or frosted."

Derek picked up a box of chocolate chip cookies. "What about these?"

Casey looked at them for a moment to only shake her head at them. "They don't look festive enough."

"Festive?" Derek deadpanned. "They're not going to be festive at all when we eat them."

The former McDonald rolled her eyes at her husband. "It's Christmas, Der-ek. We should get something that looks like Christmas."

Mumbling extremities under his breath, Derek picked up another box of cookies. "What about this?" he asked, holding up a box of sugar cookies that were cut out in the shape of Santa and sprinkled with both red and green. "This festive enough for you?"

"Now you're just being rude," she pointed out. "You aren't helping!" she stressed.

Derek threw his hands up. "Because they're cookies! It doesn't matter what cookies we get. No one is going to care. They'll get eaten!"

Casey snorted. "You obviously don't know our family," she insisted. "Ed doesn't like frosting on his cookies, but Marti loves it. Simon likes a lot of chocolate chips whereas George only likes his to have a little. And Lizzie, Lizzie only eats organic sweets."

The former hockey player rolled his eyes. "I say we pick up whatever and who ever likes it, eats it. If they don't, too bad," Derek said, picking up a random box and beginning to walk away.

"Der-ek!" Casey hollered, gaining the attention of some of the immediate store goers. "You can't be so ignorant!"

"Cas-ey!" he copied. "You're acting like we're the only people bringing dessert. Everyone is bringing something. It'll be okay if one or two people don't eat it."

"Maybe we shouldn't get cookies," Casey thought out loud, ignoring what Derek just said. "Maybe we should get brownies or, oh, maybe we should get a cake!" she suggested excitedly, already moving their cart over to that part of the bakery. "But chocolate or vanilla cake? Or marble? And what about icing?" she stopped her inane ramblings to turn back to Derek who hadn't moved a budge. "Der, are you coming or what? I need your input."

…

"Merry Christmas!" their whole family chanted as they greeted the couple at the door.

Derek and Casey both ushered in to get out of the Canadian cold and let various members of their family give them warm hugs.

"What took you guys so long?" Nora then asked Derek after giving him a hug. "Casey texted me an hour ago that you were leaving, and you only live 10 minutes away."

Derek gave Casey a side-long glance, but plastered a fake grin on his face. "Traffic," he fibbed a tad forcefully, moving to get pass the herd. However as he walked by Nora, he paused and whispered in her ear. "But for the love of God, never ask your daughter to bring anything to dinner ever again."

AN: Hope you all enjoyed this chapter! Let me know in the reviews! :)

REVIEW REPLY:

Thanks for reviewing Balyndaba, geetika, Tomboy22 and tvd1992!

jperks: I really do think the way Derek treats Marti is a big factor to why Casey knows Derek isn't a bad guy, especially when they first moved in together. Without her, dasey might have fought even worse! :O