Oh, My My My
"George, come here," Nora Venturi whispers forcefully, although she and her husband are the only people in the kitchen and no one else can hear her.
Nora is standing at the kitchen sink, washing the dishes from dinner, watching as her two eldest children argue in the backyard over how to set up the new hammock Nora bought for the summer.
Casey throws her arms up in exasperation. Nora can't hear her, but she knows by the way her daughter's nose wrinkles that she yells, "Der-ek!" in that squeaky voice she does when she's annoyed.
Derek rolls his eyes and says something Nora doesn't hear, but she gathers whatever he said irritated Casey more by the way she crosses her arms over her chest and huffs.
Derek and Casey are sixteen and fifteen respectively, and this first year or so of living as a blended family has been rough— and most of that is due to Derek and Casey's constant fighting.
"They're going to kill each other one of these days," George laughs, joining his wife in watching their children.
Nora laughs in return, but her stomach does a backflip.
"I'm not sure if I'd rather that or the alternative," Nora responds, exhaling heavily, eyeing her step-son through the window again.
Derek is now hanging the actual hammock part on the stand that the teenagers have finally managed to put together.
"The alternative?" George asks, his eyebrow arching high.
Nora knows that as tough and steely as Derek can be, that he actually has the biggest heart and cares more than he'd ever let on. And because he doesn't know anyone is watching, he actually does something nice for Casey.
He leans his hands on the hammock, balancing it with his body weight and nods for Casey to lie down. She does, and because Derek is steadying her, she doesn't almost flip over like one tends to do when getting onto a hammock.
Casey smiles up at him, and for a brief second, he smiles back before retracting his hands and sitting down on the ground beside the hammock, gently rocking it back and forth with his hand.
Derek flips his hair out of his eyes and continues rocking the hammock, and Nora certainly doesn't miss the playful smile tugging at his lips. She also doesn't miss the look in Casey's eyes as she smiles back at him.
"The alternative," Nora clarifies, gesturing to their children.
George's eyes widen.
"Oh," George says when he understands. "Oh, my."
Casey races down the stairs, her eyes scanning the room for her mother.
"Mom!" she yells, fidgeting with the hem of her dress.
Nora steps into the living room, smiling when she sees how beautiful her daughter is. Casey is getting ready for a date. She's seventeen now and for the first time all summer, Casey is going out on a date.
"Is the dress too much?" Casey asks, adjusting one of the spaghetti straps on her shoulder.
Nora shakes her head.
Casey is wearing a yellow sundress with white flowers and a pair of heeled sandals, and she has a white cardigan draped over her forearm for in case she gets cold. Her hair is curled loosely at the ends and she's wearing a dainty, gold chain necklace.
"You look so beautiful," Nora smiles, stepping toward her daughter and placing her hands on her shoulders. "The dress is perfect."
Casey smiles in return.
Casey looks up when she hears another set of footsteps entering the room. Well, footsteps and the sound of a whipped cream container spraying.
Nora turns around to follow the sound and she shakes her head when she sees her step-son entering the room, tipping the whipped cream directly into his mouth.
Nora rolls her eyes, at this point, not even surprised.
"What do you think, Derek?" Casey asks, apprehensively, smoothing down the skirt of her dress with her hands.
Derek shrugs, swallowing down the mound of whipped cream in his mouth.
"It's fine, I guess."
Nora can't help but notice the way Casey's face falls slightly.
She perks back up a bit when she hears a car pull up in front of the house. She hugs her mom, saying a quick goodbye before running out the door to meet her date.
Nora turns her attention back to her step-son.
"Would it have killed you to say she looked nice?" Nora asks, crossing her arms over her chest.
Derek shrugs again.
"Probably."
Nora can feel the anger radiating off of her two eldest as soon as they step through the front door. Derek and Casey are home visiting from university for Christmas and Nora can only assume the pair had had some kind of fight on the way here.
Casey barely even acknowledges her family before storming up the stairs to her room with her suitcase in hand— something Nora deems as extremely uncharacteristic of her daughter.
Nora frowns and looks to her step-son, hoping to gain some insight from him, but Derek shrugs and makes his own way up the stairs.
It's not until dinnertime that Nora sees her oldest children again.
Casey sits in her chair and crosses her arms over her chest, her eyes narrowing into slits as she glares across the table.
"You can't stay mad at me forever, y'know," Nora hears Derek state as he takes a sip from his water glass.
Casey scoffs.
"Don't be ridiculous," Casey muses, smirking. "Of course I can."
Derek rolls his eyes as Nora takes her seat at the head of the table— the last family member to join the table.
"Especially when you're being so boneheaded," Casey hisses.
Nora meets her husband's eye across the table and exhales heavily. Nora missed her children while they were away at school, of course, but she certainly didn't miss their fighting.
"Boneheaded?!" Derek exclaims, running his tongue across his teeth— a classic Derek Venturi sign of frustration.
"Yes, boneheaded," Casey replies, leaning back in her chair.
Derek rolls his eyes again before standing from the table, circling around to stand beside Casey, grabbing onto her bicep— firmly, but gently— and dragging her up from her seat.
Casey balls her hand into a fist at her side, although she knows she won't have to use it.
"Guys, please, wait until after dinner to kill each other," George sighs, rubbing his temples, silently wishing the McDonald-Venturis could get through just one dinner without a maiming.
The pair don't seem to acknowledge George's words, though, as they're too busy staring daggers at one another.
"I'm doing this, with or without you," Derek grits, looming over his step-sister.
Casey stands firm, her body language showing no signs of intimidation.
"Oh, that's the spirit," she responds, her words laced with sarcasm.
Derek breathes in heavily, his gaze flickering to his family at the table beside him before returning to Casey.
"Damnit, Casey," Derek sighs, his face softening as he drops his hand from her arm.
Casey closes her eyes and exhales heavily before looking to her mother briefly.
"Okay," Casey concedes, a small smile breaking out on her lips.
Derek smiles in return, coiling his arms tightly around Casey's waist, sweeping her off of her feet and hugging her tightly.
Casey squeals with delight and wraps her arms around her step-brother's neck.
Nora and George exchange another look— one of confusion. They know the relationship between their oldest children is complicated, but this situation is strange, even for Derek and Casey.
Derek sets Casey back on her feet, but leaves his arms around her waist.
Casey smiles up at Derek, her blue eyes staring deep into his brown ones.
Without taking his eyes off of her, Derek smiles and addresses his parents, "Dad, Nora… We have something to tell you guys."
Nora beams brightly, tears welling up in her eyes.
"Cassandra McDonald," the professor speaks into the microphone, gesturing to Nora's brunette daughter as she walks across the stage.
Casey shakes her professor's hand and smiles wide, pausing to switch the tassel on her cap from one side to the other.
George is in charge of the camera, and he's snapping pictures quickly, as Nora notices the proud grin placed firmly on her husband's face.
Nora feels Lizzie's hand grip onto her own, and she smiles down at her daughter, who will herself be walking across a graduation stage next week.
The professor continues through the student roster until he gets to the Vs.
"Derek Venturi," the professor states, and Nora watches as her step-son takes the same course as her daughter had.
Once the professor has gotten through the entire student roster, he congratulates the graduating class, and the students toss their caps into the air, signaling the end of the Queens University graduation ceremony.
Nora, George and the younger three kids meet up with their older two in the grass somewhere to the left of the graduation stage.
George still has the camera poised for photos, and he directs Casey and Derek to take a few together.
Nora watches as Derek slings his arm over Casey's shoulder and tucks her close to him. Casey's hand rises and rests on Derek's chest and she smiles, not at the camera, but at him.
Nora was surprised nearly four years ago when her two eldest children came home from Queens and dropped the bombshell that they'd begun a romantic relationship together. Well, perhaps 'surprised' isn't the correct word. Nora had always known that it was a possibility— a probability, even— but she supposed she hadn't expected it to happen so quickly after the pair had started university.
That night had ended in a very deep, very intensive conversation between Nora, George and their two oldest, outlining expectations, boundaries, and how the foursome would explain this new relationship to the younger children. Lizzie had been the one who took the longest to come around— she didn't trust Derek with her sister.
But to Nora's surprise, Derek spent the rest of Christmas break trying to prove to Lizzie that he was serious about Casey. Nora had noticed Derek and Lizzie up late in the kitchen talking on more than one occasion.
Eventually, the relationship just became commonplace around their house, to the point of Nora and George changing their vocabulary a bit when introducing the couple to friends or co-workers. It just became another part of their already unorthodox family— and Nora was perfectly content with that.
All that mattered was that her children were happy— and by the look on Casey's face, she is. That's all Nora would ever want for her children.
When George tells Casey to step away from Derek so he could 'get individual photos, too', Casey obliges. Nora knows that that's not the reason George did that.
Nora watches, trying to keep her facial expressions neutral as Casey poses for the camera, oblivious to Derek dropping to one knee behind her, fishing into the pocket of his slacks for a little velvet box.
George continues snapping pictures, and Nora can see that he's framing the photos to be able to see Derek in the back behind Casey. Casey will love having this memory caught on film.
George lowers the camera, hinting to Casey that her photos are done, and she immediately whirls around, presumably looking for Derek. Her hands fly up to cover her mouth when she sees him, and she stumbles slightly as if her legs grew too weak to hold her up.
Derek smiles up at Casey as he opens the velvet box, revealing the beautiful ring he'd bought close to a month ago now.
"Princess," Derek starts, using the nickname that's taken on a very different connotation in the last four years. "I have loved you for as long as I can remember— since before Queens even. I know that our relationship is unconventional, but it's real. It's so real. I'm so in love with you that it physically hurts sometimes. I want to spend the rest of my life with you, and while that was inevitable anyway, I want to spend it with you as my wife. I love you. Marry me, Princess. Please, will you marry me?"
"T-minus eighteen hours," Casey states on her last night as a McDonald, looking up into the eyes of the man who, come tomorrow, will be her husband. "You thinking of running yet?"
Nora watches as her step-son-turned-soon-to-be-son-in-law coils his arm around her daughter's waist, placing a kiss to the top of her head.
"Not a chance. You?" Derek responds, smiling broadly down at her, the pair almost oblivious to the rest of their family gathered in the living room around them.
"I guess you'll find out tomorrow if I meet you at the end of the aisle," Casey smirks, standing up on her toes and pressing her lips to Derek's.
Nora smiles, watching, almost disbelievingly. How on Earth did they get here? When Nora married George Venturi, the last thing she expected was that by doing so, she was also introducing her daughter to her future husband.
Fifteen year-old Derek Venturi would probably be the last person in the entire universe Nora would've wanted for her daughter. And in Derek's defense, he agrees.
Twenty-four year-old Derek Venturi, though? Nora couldn't have chosen a better husband for her daughter if she'd tried. To anyone who meets the couple, it's blatantly obvious how disgustingly happy they are together.
"Alright, Princess," Nora hears Derek start to say, his hand lifting to cup Casey's cheek. "Since you're so superstitious, I'm staying at Sam's tonight, but I will see you tomorrow at the church."
Casey's smile widens, stretching from ear to ear as she throws her arms around Derek again, kissing him hard one last time before she's his wife.
"I'll be the one in the white."
"She's beautiful," Nora whispers, her words escaping her as she looks down at her granddaughter.
Casey is sitting beside Nora on the family home's front porch with her seven week-old daughter resting on her knees. She's the spitting image of her father– the hair that she does have is dark brown, and her eyes are dark brown to match.
"She's perfect," Casey responds, her voice cracking as tears threaten to well up in her eyes. Her daughter is perfect. She's the product of her incredible love for her husband, and of his love for her in return.
"You're perfect," a voice sounds from behind Nora and her daughter– Derek– before he takes a seat beside his wife. "She's a very close second."
Nora shakes her head, but her heart swells.
"You know, George and I used to talk about you two growing up and falling in love when you were teenagers," Nora laughs, reminiscing, as her granddaughter reaches for her hand.
Nora sticks out one finger, and a tiny little fist encircles it.
Casey chuckles lightly and rests her head on her husband's shoulder, looking up at him with adoration.
"I suppose that's not surprising," Casey smiles, brushing her thumb against her daughter's pudgy little cheek.
Nora laughs.
"Not surprising is an understatement. I knew within the first year that George and I were married that this," Nora gestures to the married couple and their child. "was just meant to happen eventually."
Casey smiles again, shifting her focus down to her daughter.
"Hear that, Destiny?" Casey says, pressing a kiss to her daughter's forehead. "You live up to your name."
"She certainly does, doesn't she?"
Oof. SO. Y'all remember about nine months ago when I said I was writing a Dasey that was longer than my normal ones and would be done soon? Yeeeeah. Well. I guess better late than never.
ALSO. Fun little Easter egg for some of you. I had a multi-chapter fic that I wrote several years ago called Another Vice, which I never finished. I don't intend to finish it, I'm sorry. BUT one of the last chapters was about Derek and Casey talking about baby names. I specifically kept the name a secret because I was going to reveal it in a chapter after the baby was born, but never got around to it.
SO, that said, if you were an Another Vice reader and wanted to know what the baby's name was going to be, (I got MORE THAN ONE review asking, sorry it's taken so long for me to respond, lol) it was always going to be Destiny. Destiny Lynne, to be specific.
I have no clue when I'll be able to upload something new after this, but I promise to try. I have a few ideas (for LWD and other fandoms) but as I've learned time and time again, I'm an inspiration writer. I will sincerely try, I promise.
As always, thanks for reading. I appreciate you more than you know.
Oh! And this fic was inspired by "Mary's Song (Oh, my, my, my) by Taylor Swift.
Once again, thank you.