Woahhh it was not supposed to take so long for me to update again. Sorry. For some reason I just had to like drag this out of me tooth and nail. But it is two pages longer than a normal chapter! And the ball is really starting to roll. AND I sat down and figured out exactly what is happening with the rest of the story so I know where I'm going, which is good. And I've also started sketching out my next LWD story, which is way premature but the idea came to me one night and I was just like OMG. I'm not gonna tell you what it is and I'm definitely not going to start posting it until I finish with this one, but I'm super excited about it. I dont know how good it's going to be since it's going to be way different than anything I've done before, but we'll see. ANYWAY, here's the next installment of Fallout. And though we wont see him for awhile, don't worry, we haven't seen the last of Paul yet.

OH AND LAST THING I just want to gloat about how I TOTALLY CALLED the last meeting of Casey and Paul. Obviously mine was a little more...well, more. But I so called the 'Paul gets up and goes for a handshake and Casey goes for the hug.' Nothing too amazing or noteworthy but it makes me feel good nonetheless. Makes me feel like maybe I at least have some kind of a clue as to who these characters are.

Okay, let's get to it. Not mine, of course.

As was so often the case, Derek soon regretted opening his mouth. Perhaps it is the taste of food, or maybe just the relaxed, neutral atmosphere of the diner. For whatever reason, Casey suddenly began gushing with things to say, nearly all of them about Paul. She prattled on for over an hour, alternating spasmodically between sorrow and happy nostalgia, anger and—hardest for Derek—adoration and what thinks (fears) might possibly be love.

Normally, he would have put a stop to her babbling a long time ago, but this hadn't exactly been a normal weekend. At any rate, he could sort of tell that this was all sort of therapeutic for her; a necessary release.

Damn those psych classes he took.

Eventually Casey wound down, and the conversation took a more normal turn. They talked about classes, discussed the gossip about their mutual acquaintances, traded news from home and most of all, of course, bickered. It was thankfully a light, playful kind of bickering; not the vicious, war-like battled they used to wage back in high school.

They had now been there almost two and a half hours, and the waitresses were giving them dirty looks, so Derek paid the bill and they left.

The conversation was oddly silent on the drive back to their apartment; it was as if they had run out of neutral things to say to each other. At a red light, Derek chanced a glance over at her. Casey was staring straight ahead out the windshield, a sad faraway look in her eyes. In that moment, Derek decided to keep trying to cheer her up until he either succeeded, or she killed him out of annoyance. If anyone ever asked him, he would never admit it, but the truth was Derek hated seeing her upset.

"Green," she said suddenly, breaking into his thoughts. It took him a moment to get himself together and figure out what she was talking about, and then he stomped on the accelerator, taking them through the intersection and down the street their apartment building was on.

Casey immediately retreated to her room, while Derek sat on the couch, mulling over what his next move would be.

He had been zoned out for nearly an hour when the ring of his cell phone cut through the quiet, jarring him out of his thoughts. Staring at the tiny black device, he realized it had barely rang all weekend, a most unusual occurrence. Finally, almost too late, he returned to life and sprang up to grab it off the coffee table, fumbling to press the 'send' button to pick up the call.

"Hullo?" he said awkwardly, not having checked the caller id first. He hated going into a conversation blind.

"Yo D! Where you been all weekend? You never called me like you said you would," said the voice of his friend Zander. Derek chuckled at the long-standing joke between them, a reference to all the phone calls from miffed ladies who had been unceremoniously dumped by the two playboys over the years. Derek had met Zander during freshman orientation, and the two had been scarily alike. At first they were a little wary of one another, but they ended up in the same group for an English assignment and soon became fast friends. Zander filled the void in Derek's life that had opened up since Sam was off at school in Nova Scotia. Derek's friendship with Zander was strikingly different than his friendship with Sam, however. Sam had been a nice balance to Derek's personality; the cool, sensitive rationality to Derek's brash, I-don't-give-a-fuck sensibilities. Zander, on the other hand, was exactly like Derek. It made for some interesting adventures.

"I've uh, I've been around. I had to deal with some family stuff," Derek told his friend, not entirely sure of how to explain that he had been spending his time with his step-sister, trying to cheer her up.

"Step-sister having a meltdown?" Zander asked with a chuckle. He knew way too much about the McDonald-Venturi family dynamic than he should. Following Derek and Casey's 'You Stay Out of My Life and I'll Stay Out of Yours' policy, Casey and Zander didn't know each other very well, outside of what they each heard from Derek. And what Zander knew of Casey from Derek was that she was a spazzy keener who definitely would not be interested in someone like Zander. Unfortunately.

"Yeah," Derek replied with an awkward laugh. "So what's up, anything going on tonight?" he asked his friend, trying to change the subject. Normally he would love the opportunity to complain, but for some reason he didn't feel like telling his friend about what was going on with Casey.

Luckily Zander took the bait. "Yeah man, we're gonna have a poker night over at Mike's," he said excitedly.

"Awesome," answered Derek enthusiastically. "Count me in." There was nothing like a good poker game to get Derek's mind off of things and cheer him up. That thought tickled something in his mind as he stared down the hallway at Casey's closed door. "Hey, do you think it would be okay if I bring someone?" Derek asked suddenly. As soon as the words were out of his mouth he wondered what exactly he was doing, but it was too late to take them back now. And after all, Casey needed to get her mind off of things. He might as well keep up the good brother routine until she was fixed or whatever.

"Uh, probably, who would you bring?" Zander asked uncertainly.

"Casey," was all Derek said.

Zander burst out laughing. "Hah! Good one D. Seriously, who. Because I think Mike already invited all the guys."

Derek was annoyed, even though it was perfectly logical for Zander to assume he was joking. He and Casey almost never hung out, and hanging out with Derek's friends was unheard of. "I am serious. I want to bring Casey," he said, only barely keeping the irritation out of his voice.

"Uh, I don't know D, it's just supposed to be the guys, no one is bringing any girls," said his friend uncertainly, confused by Derek's behavior.

"Casey isn't a girl, she's my step-sister," Derek said matter-of-factly.

"Fair point," Zander responded with an uncomfortable laugh. "Yeah, alright, go ahead and bring her I guess," he said, clearly just wanting to end this conversation already.

"Cool. See you then," said Derek, and ended the call.

Looking at the clock, Derek saw they still had a lot of time before they would have to leave for Mike's. Stifling a yawn, he got off the couch and wandered down to his room, and collapsed onto his bed for a nice nap.

Several hours later, Derek was again roused by the smell of food. Thankfully this time it wasn't burning.

Wandering into the kitchen, Derek was greeted by Casey stirring a pot of spaghetti. The clock on the microwave read 5:30.

Casey turned around. "Eating at such an awkward time earlier kind of made the rest of the eating schedule awkward, so I decided now would be a good time to eat again," she explained, before turning back around to attend to the sauce that was simmering away on the stove next to the pasta.

Absently scratching his head, Derek grunted in agreement. "Yeah, we have plans tonight anyway so it's probably just as well," he told her. Casey's head whipped back around so fast, he momentarily felt like he was watching The Exorcist.

"We? What do you mean, we," she demanded, eyes flashing suspicion.

"Woah, calm down Medusa," he said, putting his hands up in front of him in a weak defense. "I just figured you needed to get out of the house, so I made some plans for us," he told her, trying to calm her down. He wasn't sure why he wasn't explaining what exactly the plans were, but he was worried Casey might not agree to go if she knew exactly where they were going. And girls like surprises anyway, right?

Casey scowled for a minute, knowing he had a good point but not wanting to admit it. "Well, what if I already have plans for tonight?" she challenged. Derek simply raised an eyebrow.

"Do you?" he asked. Step-sister and step-brother stared each other down for a minute until Casey crumpled.

"No," she admitted, defeated.

"Then there you go," replied Derek smugly. "If anything, you should be thanking me."

Casey just rolled her eyes and went to drain the pasta. Taking two bowls out of the cabinet, she spooned out a helping of pasta and sauce into the top one, and handed the empty one to Derek before walking out of the kitchen and over to the table.

They ate in silence, and once they had finished, Derek carried all the dished into the sink and left them in a big pile for Casey to clean, before flopping onto the couch and flicking on the sports channel. Not having the energy to argue with him, Casey just sighed heavily before getting to work on the stack of dishes.

By the time all that was finished, they had about forty-five minutes until they had to leave. Casey headed towards her room to get changed but paused halfway.

"Where are we going?" she asked Derek, a little surprised that she hadn't thought to ask a long time ago.

"It's a surprise," Derek deadpanned.

"Der-ek." No response. Sighing, she rolled her eyes. "Can you at least give me some kind of idea as to what I should wear?"

"Uh, just jeans and like a shirt, or whatever," Derek answered with a shrug. How helpful.

Forty minutes later, and Casey still hadn't emerged from her room.

"Case!" Derek yelled, annoyed. "We have to go!"

She yelled some sort of muffled reply that Derek didn't catch, and five minutes later she finally appeared.

Derek would never admit it, but his breath caught in his throat a little as he took in the vision that was his step-sister. Casey had apparently decided she could wear her clothes again, and she was wearing them good. She had on flattering, dark-rinse jeans, a pretty red top that was loose and yet somehow managed to still accentuate her every curve, and shiny black pumps. Her make-up was flawless, and her hair fell in soft waves around her shoulders.

She was not doing a very good job of being "his step-sister, not a girl."

He had half a mind to tell her to go change into something less….hot, but they were already going to be late.

"Alright let's go," he said in a rush, leaping off the couch and grabbing his keys. Casey barely managed to grab her purse and jacket as he ushered her out the door.

Casey looked around suspiciously as they pulled up in front of Mike's house. Derek could see from the cars on the street that most if not all of the guys were already here. He hoped they hadn't started without him.

"This better not be a party Derek I really am not in the mood—" Casey began, but Derek cut her off abruptly.

"Casey, does it look like a party?" Aside from the cars on the street, there was nothing that even hinted at a party anywhere. She didn't answer.

Derek parked the car, and led Casey up to the front door. He let himself in the front door and made his way to the living room, where the table was all set up for the poker game. The guys were milling between the kitchen and the living room, with a few of them already seated and ready to play. Most of them didn't even look up as they greeted Derek, but as Casey stepped over the threshold into the room, every single head snapped up to attention. Irritation flashed across Derek's face; what, had they never seen a girl before?

"Guys, you know my step-sister," he said, as a way of dismissal. But in fact, most of them didn't know Casey. They knew she existed, but they had never before encountered her. From Derek's descriptions and stories, they had created a mental image of some sort of uber-nerd. But now they were seeing that Casey was nothing like the greasy dorkette they had pictured, and the contrast was startling.

Derek wished she'd come in sweats or something instead.

Casey looked like a deer in the headlights, staring wide-eyed at the guys staring at her. She was clearly uncomfortable with all the male attention, but as she realized the meaning of the round table, decks of cards, and stacks of chips she quickly transitioned into outrage.

"A poker game?!" she cried, incensed. She whirled towards Derek, hair bouncing around her and eyes flashing. "You brought me to a poker game?" she asked, the old fiery anger building back up inside of her.

Derek ran a hand nervously through his hair. She had a point; what the hell had he been thinking? He didn't even think Casey knew how to play poker. It startled him, really, how out of touch he was with Casey. He remembered when he knew every last thing about her and her personality. But even though they still lived together, things were so different now that it seemed like their closeness was waning and he was losing his grip on his stepsister.

His reverie of thought was soon interrupted by the realization that he had to deal with a Very Angry Casey and he had to deal with her fast.

"Case, have you ever even played poker? You might like it. And besides it's something to do and it's getting you out of the house and getting your mind off of…you know," he breathed out in a rush, trying to make her see he actually had put a little thought into this, despite how it might look. He finished up his statement with a sheepish grin and a hapless little shrug, knowing full well just how hard it was for girls to stay mad at him when he pulled that. Granted, Casey wasn't really a 'girl,' at least not in his world, but he hoped that she had enough of those extra-x-chromosome, Derek-loving girly cells floating around in her body for it to at least have some effect.

It must have worked, because Casey's angry expression softened into something kinder and more understanding—though still tinged with annoyance. This was Casey we were talking about after all.

"Fine," she said with a sigh, settling herself into a chair at the table. "Get me a beer and teach me how to play." Derek grinned and ran off to grab her beer—light of course, he still knew her well enough to know that—and didn't even complain about being bossed around.

Don't get used to chapters this long, by the way. It was just awkward for breaking it up; the first good breaking point would have left us with waaayy too short of a chapter.

Hopefully the next one wont be so long in coming, but feel free to kick me if it is. If anyone is still reading this, that is. Thanks guys!