"Case," Derek whispered, kneeling by her bedside. "Case," he tried again when she didn't wake. "Case-y," he softly hollered, nudging her.

The former dancer woke with a start, heart racing from being woken up so abruptly. "Derek?" she let out confusingly, rubbing at her eyes, trying to stay awake.

"Oh, good, you're awake," Derek said, as if he hadn't just woke her up himself. "I need your help," he then said flippantly, grinning sweetly at her.

Casey groaned. "What could you possibly need at…" she paused to view the time, "2 o'clock in the morning?"

"Have I ever told you how beautiful your bed-nested hair is?" Derek said, reaching out to run a strand through his fingers.

"Yeah," she said pointedly, swatting his hand away. "You told me the last time you woke me up in the middle of the night to fix something you did. So, Derek, what did you do this time?"

Derek's sweet grin faltered. "Well, I was about to put the kids' presents out, like you asked me to," he started. "But then I couldn't find them…" he told her hesitantly, wincing.

Casey's eyes thinned and her jaw locked. "You can't find the presents?" she asked eerily calm, but Derek knew she was livid. "Derek!" she hollered, getting up from the bed. "How could you have misplaced the presents?!"

Derek scratched the back of his head. "I was trying to find a sport Mikey wouldn't find them, because he's always trying to get his hands on them…"

Casey snorted. "I wonder where he gets that from?" she interrupted sardonically, putting on a robe.

Rolling his eyes at his wife, he continued, "So, I must have placed them some place that even I wouldn't' have looked…"

Casey let out an exasperated sigh. 'This is the last time you are hiding the presents," Casey told him, walking out of the bedroom. "Now where have you looked?" she asked.

"Everywhere!" Derek exasperated.

"If you searched everywhere, you would have found them," Casey pointed out. Derek shrugged, reluctantly agreeing. "Would you have put it in Mikey or Ashley's room?" she questioned, trying to think of odd places her husband might of put the children's gifts.

Derek shook his head. "No, no," he insisted, "Mikey would have found them in no time."

Holding a hand to her stressed mind, Casey sighed. "Well, I say we looking in everything, and I mean everything," she stressed. "I don't care if it's a piece of luggage or a potato chip bag, look in it," Casey instructed.

Derek nodded and they did exactly that. They searched in and around every nook in cranny in their house. It wasn't until they got to the basement and went through half of their boxes when Casey finally let out a cry of relief. "I found them!"

Derek rushed over to wife, happily. "Oh yeah…" he said, immediately remembering the box labeled 'Casey's School Books' and putting the gifts in it a month prior. "Now I remember. I thought it would be the last place he looked considering he hates both school and books."

"He sure is your son," Casey noted, rolling her eyes. "Let's just get these presents under the tree before they wake up," she insisted, noticing through the small window nearby that the sun was beginning to rise. "Then hopefully we can get an hour or two of sleep."

The couple took the presents up, laying them down under the tree. However, they were too exhausted and spent to make the journey back up the stairs, so they fell back on the couch close by.

"Still mad at me?" Derek asked through a yawn, his eyes growing heavy as he leaned back on their comfortable couch.

Casey didn't answer, but instead rested her head gingerly on his shoulder. Her eyes already closed as she cuddled up to his side.

The duo quickly fell asleep, only to be woken minutes later by the rumbling of their two kids, barreling down the stairs excitably. "Mommy! Daddy! It's Christmas! Get up!"

Reluctantly opening their eyes and groaning from their lack of sleep, Derek turned to his wife. "I'm mad at myself," Derek told her, answering his question from earlier for her; she merely nodded, agreeing.

A/N: Hey, guys. Sorry I didn't post yesterday, but I was just really really busy. I've been writing these the day of now, so I just couldn't get around to it. Hopefully it won't happen again. Regardless, did no one like the last chapter? Only one person reviewed...I hate to sound like a pain, but the reviews really help with the motivation, you guys. So if you're reading and liking it, please review.

REVIEW REPLY:

Thanks for reviewing geetika! And to answer your question, the reason why I updated my other story and not this one is simply because that one-shot had already been written, whereas the dasey one hadn't yet. =/