Here's my newest story. I've still got to work out some of the smaller details, but I can do that when I get to them. It's definitely a different pace than what I've already written, so I hope it doesn't entirely suck. Anyway, I'd appreciate reviews. :) oh, and by the way, Derek and Casey aren't together in this chapter, but as the story progresses, I promise there will be Dasey. :) I wouldn't forgive myself if there wasn't.

Disclaimer: I do not own Life With Derek, Britney Spears, or anything else mentioned. Also, I guess I should state that violence is never the answer to anything :) Anyway, read on.

Chapter One: Terror

It was a typical Thursday morning of university, for Derek, anyways. He'd slept through his Film class by accident, but wasn't really worried about it. He had top marks in that class, surprisingly. He had gone to his Art class to discover that he'd left his sketchbook home, though that was nothing new, and he had only now realized that he'd left his money for lunch at home on top of his sketchbook. So when lunchtime rolled around, he wandered outside, scanning the grounds for the one person he could always count on to pick up his slack. When he spotted her, he grinned, sticking his hands in his pockets and walking casually towards her.

Casey, very in character on a day like today, was sitting underneath a tree, her back propped up against the trunk as she flipped through the pages of her Literature book. He smirked, coming up beside her, and sliding down into place. He grinned as she continued to ignore him, pretending like he wasn't there.

"Hey Spacey." he said, trying to remain friendly, so that he could talk her into buying his lunch. "Watcha' reading?"

Her gaze remained unmoved as she shrugged, her eyes fixated on the book in front of her.

"Looking for a piece to write my paper on." she explained, sighing. " said we could pick any piece in the book, as long as we're prepared to write a five page paper on it's literal devices, imagery, and theme."

"Ouch." Derek said, mock wincing. "Five pages. That's like... more words than I write in a week."

"That's more words than you know." she reminded him, rolling her eyes. He considered retaliating, but chose not to. She was probably right, anyway. He decided to just jump straight to the point, and shifted, trying to get comfortable.

"Touche. So what do you say we go out to lunch?" he asked her, crossing one leg over the other, and squinting in the sunlight. She sighed, flipping another page, and ignoring him. "C'mon, it'll be fun. We could go to one of those little outdoor places you like so much. Me, you, the nice fresh air-"

"-my money paying for it all..." she finished for him, a knowing tone in her voice. "That's where you're going with this, right?"

Derek didn't even consider lying. He knew that she could always see right through him. He shrugged shamelessly, giving her a half smile.

"Yeah, pretty much." he said, the smile wiping off his face as he realized that the truth was out, and he didn't need to fake being plesant anymore. "So what do you think? Care to buy your lovely stepbrother some lunch? Fulfill my needs?"

"Not really, no." she said, her tone emotionless.

"I'll be your best frienddd." he said in a sing-song voice, giving her a playful shoulder shove. She rolled her eyes, a tiny smile making it's way onto her lips despite herself.

"You already are my best friend." she reminded him, closing her book, and tilting her head to look at him. He frowned, embarassment flooding over him. She knew how much he hated admitting to the fact that they were getting along, now. They had gotten their act together during senior year, when their parents had started fighting alot more. Things had gotten so bad, that there had almost been a divorce on their hands, and Casey and Derek had realized then how much they didn't want to have the other gone from their lives. They had both been going through a similar situation, trying to deal with the fighting, while at the same time comforting their younger siblings, and through this process, they had become something of friends. Eventually, George and Nora had patched things up again, though it had taken time, but Casey and Derek had remained as close as they'd grown during their little crisis. Derek still loved to annoy her, and hell knows he still pissed her off to no end, but it was different now. Now, they both knew that they cared, despite it all.

But Derek was in one of his moods today, and he wasn't going to admit it.

"We aren't best friends." he argued, shaking his head defiantly. She raised an eyebrow, and he blushed, rolling his eyes. "Okay, so maybe we are, but that's why you have to buy me my lunch. Friends do these sorts of things for each other."

She sighed, tossing her book to the side, and she gave him an annoyed look.

"If I take you out to lunch, will you shut up?" she asked, a tiny smile on her lips. He nodded happily, and she slumped her shoulders in defeat, before standing up and extending a hand to him to help him up off of the ground.

"C'mon, superstar." she sighed, grinning as she pulled him to his feet, and bent over to retrieve her belongings off the ground. "I'm picking the restauraunt, and I'm thinking vegetarian."

"Caseyyyyy!"

- - - -

"That was disgusting."

"No, that was healthy."

"There was no meat!"

"Maybe because it was vegetarian, you goofball."

"Well then it wasn't a real meal!" Derek decided, pouting. "That's the last time I let you take me out for lunch."

She grinned, flipping her hair back over her shoulder and giving him a victorious look.

"Then my work here is done." she shrugged, and he gaped after her as she walked on ahead of him, clearly proud of her accomplishments. He shook his head at her, once again amazed by her scheming.

"You planned that, McDonald." he said, walking a little faster to catch up with her as they bustled along the busy downtown Toronto streets. "I know you planned that. There's a manipulative little mind in there somewhere, I just know there is."

She merely shrugged, and Derek sighed, unzipping the larger compartment of his bag and taking out his video camera, smirking at her figure ahead of him. Zipping up the bag again, he turned the device on, and pointed it towards his stepsister.

"Casey McDonald, age twenty-one." he said, following along behind her. "Currently studying Literature, residing with Derek Venturi in downtown Toronto."

She glanced back, noticing what he was doing and rolling her eyes. He was momentarily stunned by her presence; with the sunlight shining behind her, and her hair blowing in the wind, she looked absolutely breathtaking. He shook his head to dismiss these thoughts from his mind, and focused instead on the tiny screen of the camera. She turned her head away from the him, clearly annoyed by his actions, but she proceeded in adding in a comment of her own.

"-very unhappily, I might add." she put in, knowing that it wasn't true. "Trust me, if I could afford to be out on my own, I would be. I don't exactly enjoy picking up after you."

Derek shook his head, his eyes focused on the little screen as she glanced over her shoulder every few moments, as though checking to see if he'd changed his mind and turned it off yet. Everytime she saw that he hadn't, she'd give an annoyed sigh and turn away, blushing. He couldn't help but smile- she was adorable when she was angry or annoyed with him.

"Why are you always filming me on that thing?" she asked, hiding her face again. "Everytime I turn around, I've got a camera in my face. I feel like Britney Spears."

"As long as you don't shave your head or try to run me down with your car, I'm good. I swear I'm just an innocent man, trying to do my job." he said, then paused. "Aside from that, you're a pretty good subject to follow around, you know."

"Great." she laughed, slowing down a little as they entered a large open courtyard, where dozens of people were milling around on benches and picnic tables. Cars were still going by on the street in front of the yard, and people were still bustling in and out of the little box stores lined along the sidewalk, but things were much more peaceful in the open area.

"So does this make me potential stalker bait?" she asked, raising an eyebrow. "Because you I can handle, but I don't want some creepy fifty-year old man following me around with a camera."

Derek chuckled, shaking his head and zooming in a little.

"Don't worry about it." he shrugged, his eyes never leaving the screen as he focused on her face more clearly. "It's just nice to have extra footage around, for when I'm low on ideas for one of my assignments."

Casey rolled her eyes, turning away again, and he zoomed out once more, adjusting the knob into place. He'd never tell her that he had about ten hours of footage that involved just her, or the two of them. Half the time, he'd pretend to be looking at the footage he already had, or would claim it was off, and sometimes he'd just leave it on the counter. He sort of enjoyed the times when he'd manage to get a little wrestling match or something on video. She might've known that he had all of this footage, since he was sure she'd snuck onto his laptop once or twice, but he'd recently changed his password to something she'd never figure out.

"We've got to go back for class soon." she reminded him, her hands finding their way into her front pockets. Derek opened his mouth to protest, but she shook her head without even looking at him. It was clear that she knew him all too well.

"Don't even suggest we skip off." she warned him, and his face fell again. "You talked me into it last week, but I value my education. And you can't afford to miss anymore classes. You were off for a week last month with laryngitis. You're still not completely caught up on your work. And personally, I don't understand that. I brought it all home for you."

Derek smirked, darting ahead of her and turning backwards, so that he could capture the image of her face as she spoke. She rolled her eyes at his persistancy, but did not fight it this time.

"You honestly think I would've done homework when I was off school... sick?" he asked, covering his mouth with his free hand in mock-surprise. "Poor, innocent me, who couldn't even get up out of bed-"

"-you know, except to eat, watch TV, play video games..." Casey trailed off, ticking them off on her fingers, and he appeared to be unmoved by this.

"Those things are all necessities of life, my friend." he said, a tiny grin on his face. "Studying, however is not on my list of priorities."

Casey sighed, knowing that this was one battle she was not going to win with him. She was always on his back about schoolwork, and he never listened. She knew today would be no different. He was a pretty good student, despite his lack of studying, and she figured that maybe she shouldn't be as worried as she was.

"Fine." she said, defeated. "Don't study. But if you wind up unemployed and unsatisfied in ten years, don't sook about it to me."

Derek didn't respond, and Casey shifted a little, adjusting her shoulder bag as Derek zoomed out again.

"Come on, superstar. Let's get back to school." she said, taking a step forwards.

Derek didn't fully understand what happened next. One second, Casey had been stepping towards him, and the next, he nearly fell over in shock. People around him had started panicking, and it took him a second to register that his ears were ringing from a rather large bang in the background. He glanced around, confused, but he could not find the source of the noise. People were running past him and nearly knocking each other over to get away from whatever it was, and all of a sudden, he felt Casey's hand clamp down on his wrist.

"Over there!" she exclaimed, pointing towards the other side of the road, which wasn't too far from them. He saw a rather tall man standing there, a gun in his hand. His hood was up, but that was about as far as he had gone to conceal his identity. It wasn't like it mattered; people were running too fast to bother to look at his face. Derek squinted, and saw that there had been some sort of a cloth over his face, but it had fallen. Casey squeezed his wrist tighter, pulling him as hard as she could.

"Derek, come on!" she cried, sounding frightened. "We've got to get out of here, now!"

Whether it was the meaning of her words, or how scared she sounded when she said them, he didn't know, but whatever it was made him come to his senses, and he quickly nodded, shoving his camera back into his bag, fumbling to do up the zipper. He felt Casey's hand slip into his own, and she held on tight as she started off towards the opposite direction than the gunman. Shots were still being fired somewhere behind them, and Derek glanced quickly over his shoulder, trying to catch a final glimpse of what was happening. There was absolute peril in the streets. Cars were stopping, and attempting to back up in the other direction. Some people had left their cars, and tried to run in the opposite direction, terrified. People were scattering wherever they could find a sheild from the dangers of the bullets. And then he glanced one more time at the gunman, who had managed to get the black material up over half of his face again, leaving just enough room to breathe.

People were crushing in on him from every angle, and he hadn't realized that he'd basically come to a stop during his observation. Casey pulled hard on his wrist, signalling for him to move.

"Derek, please!" she begged, sounding terrified now. "We've got to keep moving. If we don't, it's going to be us that-"

Derek needed no more persuasion. He turned on the spot, only to be met with an elbow to the face as someone tried to shove past him. He was instantly propelled backwards and he groaned in pain, doubling over as he clutched his nose. He looked down at his hand to see blood on it, and he knew by the tingling and numbness shooting through his nose. But he knew by the sounds of the consistant gunfire that he was one of the lucky ones, and he forced himself up, realizing now that he no longer had Casey's hand. His eyed darted around for her, and he began to panick when he couldn't find her. He had to find her.

"Derek!" he heard a feminine voice call out, and he swivelled to see Casey standing about ten feet away from him, looking relieved that he had risen up again. She motioned for him to come towards her, but as another shot fired somewhere behind him, he ducked down on instinct. He saw the look of panic on Casey's face, since she couldn't exactly realize whether he'd fallen, or merely ducked down, so he quickly rose back up to rest her mind. But in that one moment it had taken him to duck, a fresh crowd of panicking people pushed had past him, and when he looked towards where Casey had been standing a moment before, he saw that she was gone. He felt his stomach drop, and he immediately paled.

"Oh God, no..." he muttered, shaking his head and feeling his legs shaking with fear. "Not Casey... Casey!"

Derek reacted immediately, finding some sense of control over his legs. People were still panicking and running, and he was almost certain that there were still shots being fired, for there was a distinct banging some distance behind the crowd, but Derek was immune to it all. All he cared about was getting Casey, and getting out of there. Those shots seemed like they were getting closer, and he didn't want to chance getting in the way of whoever was behind this.

He could hear sirens in the distance, and he pushed his way through the crowd, his heart beating madly. Relief flooded through him when he saw Casey sitting on the ground, perfectly alert, though she appeared to be in pain. He crouched down next to her, half afraid that someone would step on one of them, but needing to make sure she was alright. She was grabbing onto her ankle, wincing slightly, and he instantly responded.

"Case, are you alright?" he asked, his voice shaking, like the rest of his body. "What happened?"

"I'm fine." she dismissed as he used his sleeve to wipe the blood from beneath his nose. "I just twisted my ankle when I fell. Some big guy shoved past me; I think he needs to lay off the donuts for awhile."

Derek attempted to smile at her feeble attempt at humor, but could not find it in him. He scanned her with concern, frowning slightly at her ankle, which looked as though it was already beginning to swell.

"Can you walk?" he asked, placing a hand underneath one of her arms to help her up. He pulled himself up as she nodded her head, and reached down to lift her onto her feet again.

"Yeah," she said, her face white. "I think I- ow!"

"What?" Derek asked, instantly freezing. "What did I do?"

She shook her head, her eyes shut tightly in pain.

"N-Nothing." she stammered, struggling to stay up. "But my ankle really hurts..."

"I'm taking you to the hospital." he said immediately, his eyebrows furrowed together. "That looks really painful."

She shook her head, and he knew that she didn't want to be fussed over, or cause any trouble.

"Really, I'll just put some ice on it, and I'll be good to... ow!" she said, cringing. She sighed and bit her lip, nodding reluctantly. "Hospital it is. But I don't think I can walk..."

Derek bit his lip, unsure of what to do, but the moment he heard the gunfire start up again, his body reacted of it's own accord, and he shifted, lifting her up into her arms. She wrapped her own arms around his neck, shaking, and he tightened his hold on her, not wanting to drop her.

"Hold on really tight." he told her quietly, before beginning to push his way through the crowds again. He didn't stop once. He didn't stop when he heard the police and ambulances arrive on the street behind him, not when someone tried to ask him what was going on... he kept going, until he had gotten Casey safely in the car, and had gotten in on his own side. His only intentions were getting as far away from the madness as he could.

So he started up the car, tossing his camera bag into the backseat, before tearing down the road as fast as he could go.