Disclaimer: I don't own Life With Derek sadly enough, but then again if I did, Derek/Casey would be canon!

Summary: Derek and Casey have been together for sometime. They've been able to keep it a secret for sometime too. So it's only natural the soon, someone's bound to find out. But how will George and Nora take it, along with the knowledge of Derek cutting himself?

A/N: So this is came out of my Life With Derek obsession that lasted a few months... I don't really watch the show all that often anymore, though. (I aught to really catch up...) THIS IS AN EDITED REPOST

An Unbreakable Bond

The house is quiet. Lizzy and Ed are out at the school dance and Marti is staying the night at her friend's house. It's only Mom, George, Derek, and myself home tonight.

I start to bite my lip, a bad habit of mine, while my hand grips my pen. I've been in the mood to write for weeks now, but writer's block has taken control. I hate it when this happens! I sigh in frustration and throw the pen down on my desk. After flopping down on my bed, I roll over to reach for the phone. Maybe Emily's home, we could go out to the mall and shop until we're too tired to stand, I smile at the idea.

I'm just about to dial out her number when I hear George yelling from the kitchen. So much for the peace and quiet, I think to myself. I drop the phone onto my bed and walk to my door. It was open a crack and that's why I could hear so well. I nudge it open with my foot so I can catch everything.

"I don't get it, Derek. Why are you doing this?" It's just Derek being Derek again, nothing different from every other day, I sigh and roll my eyes. But when I hear his response, I stand rooted to the ground.

"I'm sorry Dad." Is that Derek crying? Why is his crying? I've only ever heard or seen him cry once in my whole two years living under this roof. It had been when... my heart stops.

I run down the stairs and into the kitchen where Derek and our parents are standing. He's at the sink and Mom hovers over him, trying to stop the bleeding from his arm. George just paces back and forth shaking his head.

"Mom, let me do it." I say, making my presence known. I move over to the sink and hold Derek's arm in my hand. When our eyes met, I could see the look of pure sorrow in his eyes.

I don't say anything, can't I am in too much shock. I make sure to keep our eyes locked while I wash his arm, however. I want him to know just how I felt. I turn off the faucet and dry his arms, never letting his eyes leave mine. He grimaces when the rough paper towel makes contact with his cut. I give him what I hope is a reassuring smile. I apply some cream directly to the cut and then bandage it, this time having to break eye contact with him to make sure the bandages are tight enough. When I'm done I looked up at him again.

"You promised." Is all I can say. I can't seem to find any other words.

"I'm sorry." And I know that he too is at a loss for words. With those words, Derek collapses against me and I fight to hold him up. Wet tears fall on my shoulder as I hear his sobs.

"Sh, don't cry. It's okay." I say trying to sooth him. The world falls away, neither of us remembers that our parents are in the room. All that's there is us.

"I'm so sorry Case. I'm so sorry." I can hear his muffled sobs as he buries his face in my hair.

"It'll be okay, I promise." I say I'm willing to say just about anything to make him stop crying. I hate it when Derek cries. He's so strong and just knowing that he's too strong to let his emotions get to him is my constant. Watching him cry tears my whole world apart.

Faintly I hear a voice coming from somewhere behind me. It sounds like George.

"Nora, what's going on?" Is what I think he's saying, but again, I can't really focus on anything, but Derek right now. He's all that matters.

"I don't know." I can here my mother's response, just as faint as George's voice. I can hear the confusion in their voices. If only they knew.

"Derek, we have to tell them." I say, not registering that the 'they' that I speak of are the faint voices that I had just been hearing. Without really registering it, I lead Derek and myself into the living room. I sit and pull him down with me. We sit entangled in each other's limbs in an awkward, yet comfortable position.

"We can't Case. We just can't. They'll be mad." Derek pulls away from me so fast that we're booth put off balance and we almost collide into each other. I can see the fear in his eyes, he looks something like a deer caught in headlights. Funny that that's how I feel right now.

"We don't know that until we try." I say trying to calm myself as well as Derek.

"I don't want to tell them, but I do! I can't keep a secret from them like this, but I'm afraid of what they'll say." Derek says trying to get my to understand. What he doesn't know is that he doesn't need to explain all of this to me, I know just how he feels.

"I'm scared, too. That's why we need to do this together." I say and pull Derek closer into me.

"I'm not scared." I hear him say and see the scowl on his face. Despite the current situation, I bite back the urge to laugh. With a small smile, I turn his head to be at level with mine.

"Good, then we should tell them now." I say and see and hear him gulp. "It's okay, I'm here, too. You wont need to do this alone."

Just then I hear a throat being cleared from the archway leading into the kitchen. We both jump. Suddenly the outside world is coming back into focus. I remember just where we are and what we're about to do. With a big sigh I turn to face my mother, who has a pointed look, and George who looks utterly confused.

"Mom, George, we want to talk to you." I say mustering up the courage that I need to get us through this. Without a word, Mom sits down next to me on the couch, and George sits in 'Derek's' armchair, next to Derek.

"So, what is it you want to tell us." I can see it in my mother's eyes that she already knows.

The silence in the room is thick. I think knowing that my Mom knows is worse than having to tell her and having it be new knowledge.

"How long have you known?" I choke out. Derek looks surprised and afraid, George looks even more confused.

"For about fifteen minutes now." My Mom says. She has a hint of a smile on her face. I can't quiet tell if it's sad or not. Without warning, she pulls me into a hug. "Why didn't you tell us? Did you you think we would get mad?" I don't know the answer and before I can think of one, I start to cry. At first I have no idea where the tears are coming from, but then I realize just how much weight has been lifted off my chest.

"We were afraid that you would think we were disgusting and throw us out, or force us to never be together again. We were afraid-" But the rest of my words and thoughts were drowned out by my tears. I hear George gasp in realization.

"Is that why you've been-" I don't need to turn around to know that George is gesturing to Derek's arm. I also don't need to turn around to know that he nodded yes.

And then it's as if time has stopped. I realize what we've, or rather I've done by telling them. Derek and I will never be able to be left alone again. No more quiet nights of innocently cuddling on the couch and watching movies. Equally, no more not so innocent nights of candle lit passion in one of our bedrooms. It all starts to dawn on me. And just knowing all of this makes me cry harder.

"Sh, Casey, it's okay. I think I know why you're crying, and it's okay. George and I wont force you to stay apart. You're both going to college in three months, so we both know that you're old enough to make you're own decisions, that and in a few months you'll both be going to stay on campus together." Mom says and soothes away my fears.

"Just no more sex." George says, quite bluntly. The oddity and directness of the statement strikes me as funny and then next thing I know, I'm laughing so hard that I'm not making a sound and the tears pouring from my eyes are from joy.

"George," I say through my laughter, "I'm a virgin."

"What?" I hear my step-father ask in bewilderment. I can almost see the questioning look that he is giving his son. I could almost hear him questioning, "My son? His girlfriend lives with him and he's been alone with her, but she's still a virgin?"

"Yeah, we are. We were waiting until after school and all. I know that if we did do anything we would be careful, but still, I know that if we did do anything, Case and I would be so worried anyways that it would affect other aspects of our lives." Derek said in an effort to get my point across while I'm still trying to get control of my laughter.

"It's true." I say, finally. "We don't want to deal with the responsibility, if something were to happen, so we're going to wait." I took the chance to pull Derek into a tight hug. His next words caught me by surprise (in a good way) and was obviously meant to be more intimate and directly for me and me alone.

"Casey, I love you so much, I will always be here for you and I don't want anything to happen to you, I'll wait forever, if it will keep you happy and safe." And with that, he leaned in and we kissed. Just once simple kiss that still managed to hold passion and love.

When we break apart, I know that we've gotten our point across to our parents, (well, George, my Mom catches on pretty quickly) and even though we didn't need to prove to them that we're going to be okay, the two of us, I'm sure if we had needed to, we could have.

"Case, I know that you two will be just fine as I'm sure you two have been. I know George and I both support you and you both can come to us, you never need to be afraid." I move myself out of Derek's arms to give my mom a bone crushing hug.

"Thanks Mom." I really do have the world's greatest Mom.

"So then, are you okay, Derek?" George says, looking at his son's wrist.

"Yeah, I think I am." I hear him whisper. I can hear in his voice however, that it will take time to heal. And with that I'm okay, because now, it won't be just me helping me. We have a great family that we now know will help us get through everything.

"Come on." I say, standing suddenly, holding out my hand to Derek. "Let's go for a walk." We share a small smile and turn to face our parents again.

"Thanks Mom."

"Thanks Dad."

We say in unison as we pull our own respective parent into a hug. We then awkwardly thank each other's biological parent. With smiles and warmth in our hearts, Derek and leave the house through the front door, holding hands, for the first time.

The summer's warm wind wraps itself around us. We haven't spoke since we left, just holding hands and enjoying the silence. It's been a while since we've felt so comfortable about ourselves, about us.

"Thank you, Case." I hear his voice, it's just above a whisper. The wind is what pulls the sound to my ears. I stop us from walking, turning to him.

"You don't need to thank me. You've supported me for so long, I want to be there for you just as much." I smile up at him and pull him into a hug. I feel his body stiff when I bump his wrist. "Sorry." I say, kissing him lightly on the cheek.

"Don't be." We stand like that for what seems like hours. We're in a less populated part of town, under a street light. Since when did we become such a cliché couple?

I must be close to midnight. We were out for ages, just holding each other, letting the grief we've held inside of us go. Fresh tears splatter my cheek and I know that, even though he will deny it, Derek's been crying, too.

It's like a chapter of our life has ended, and a new one has just begun. He walks me to the door of my room.

"Goodnight, Case." He whispers in my ear. I look up into his eyes and we kiss, a soft and loving kiss. Don't get me wrong, I still love him more than I can say, but right now, I don't need him like that. Right now, the light kisses are enough to heal my open wounds.

"Night Derek." I whisper back. I don't remember the last time we just stood in the hallway like this, so relaxed, not afraid of being caught.

With one more kiss, I turn into my room, shutting the door soundly. This time, I'm not afraid that by shutting the door, I'm symbolically shutting the door to the possibility of our relationship. I really do think too in depth.

The sun is shining down on me from my window. It's the start of a new day and the beginning of our new lives. I turn to my right and find a card on my pillow. My smile brightens, I would recognize that hand writing anywhere.

Dear Casey,

I'm sure you're asleep by now, it's about 3 a.m., don't even ask me why I'm up. I can't sleep, I'm too happy to just close my eyes and shut down. I can't believe we came out to our parents, I never could have done it without you. You can be sure to hear a song, just for you, in the near future. Well I might as well try to sleep. I love you, I hope you know that, after all the times I've said it, though, I'd be scared if you didn't. Thank you, Case, I really owe so much to you.

Until the morning,

Derek

My smile widens, I don't think things in my life could get any better. After everything we've been through, we're still together. We still love each other. It's our unbreakable bond.

TBC

A/N: So yeah, I don't know if you can see the shift in writing, I wrote this a while ago, to see if I could wrote LWD. I stopped writing it multiple times due to writer's block, so it took me forever to finish. So what do you all think? Can I write LWD or should I just stop while I'm ahead? One more chapter to go, I just need to write the song! Well at any rate, review please! Shaelyn