"The Cracks in Our Foundation"

By: singyourmelody

Disclaimer: Don't own the characters or the show or the song, "Foundation" by Kate Nash—amazing song and the definite inspiration for this fic. Title of story and section titles are taken from her incredible lyrics.

So, a couple of notes: I realized that I have no idea how old Marti is. She looks 8-9 maybe, but often acts like she's 5. So I averaged it out and went with 7. If this is incorrect, sorry!

I've had this part complete for a few days but technical problems, involving me wanting to throw my computer, have resulted in this not going up until now. Thanks for your patience.

This is the last part of this story. Thank you all so much for reading—it means so much to me!

XIII. You'll Go Along With It, Then Drop It

Emily was eagerly waiting by Noel's locker, when he came around the corner.

"Emily," he said, acknowledging her presence. He opened his locker, as they stood there in silence, until she held up a piece of paper.

"A, Noel! We got an A," she said excitedly, waving the paper in front of him.

He took the evaluation and read over Mr. Frank's comments: "Well prepared discussion. I could tell that both of you have carefully thought about the viewpoints of Catherine, Heathcliff, and even Edgar, who often gets overlooked in commentary about Wuthering Heights. The debate at the end of your presentation could have been a little more structured, but it was impromptu and revealed your individual thoughts on the subject of Edgar's role in Catherine's life, in Catherine and Heathcliff's relationship, and in the story overall. A."

He turned and smiled at Emily, a smile that didn't quite reach his eyes. "Good work, Davis."

She half-smiled back at him. "Same to you, Noel." She turned and started to walk away before stopping herself.

"Listen, Noel. I wanted to, I mean, I just," she sighed, "I'm sorry about what happened with you and Casey. I know I was a bit too involved, I guess you could say, but I was just trying to look out for my friends."

"Friends?" Noel questioned.

"Yes. My friends. Casey and . . . you," she said, finally.

He smiled at her again, this one a bit bigger than before. "Whatever you say, Emily." He started walking away, before turning back to her. "C'mon, pal, I'll walk you to Chemistry and you can tell me all about the latest school gossip."

"Ooh, really?" Emily squealed. "Okay, well Charlene and Todd broke up, did you know that? But before they did, Todd saw Charlene with Randall, you know the AV guy. . ."

Noel sighed and wondered what he got himself into as they walked slowly to class.

XIV. Well, I'll Leave You There Till the Mornin'

Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Casey groaned as she reached over to shut off her alarm. Looking at the clock, she figured she got about three hours of sleep, no where near what she needed for a school day. Especially this day, with such strong memories of the night before still lingering in her mind.

"What else do you want, Casey?" Derek had asked. Casey thought she knew, but now she wasn't so sure.

As she threw back the covers, her eye caught on something on the corner of her desk. A small piece of paper folded in half. She scrambled from the bed and grabbed the paper. "Casey" was all it said on the front.

She opened it and stared at the singular sentence before reading it aloud.

"'The most powerful weapon on earth is the human soul on fire.'

Ferdinand Foch"

Casey turned the paper over, as if looking for a signature or some sign of whom the note was from, but she didn't really need to. She already knew.

On the back was written one simple question, "Wanna fight?"

XV. My Fingertips are Holding Onto the Cracks in Our Foundations and I Know That I Should Let Go, but I Can't

"But, Nora, pleaaaaaaaaaaase?" Marti whined.

Nora sighed. She was not going to win this one. "Marti, I'm sorry, but I can't take you today. I've got to make all of these bake goods for the sale at Lizzie and Edwin's school. Can't we go to the park tomorrow?" Nora asked hopefully, praying the seven-year-old would show her some mercy.

"No! You said we could go today. Pleaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaase?" Marti asked again, this time hopping up and down as she said it.

Derek came down the stairs and heard Marti begging Nora for the fifth time to go to the park.

"Oh, Derek. Thank God! Could you please take Marti to the playground for a few hours?" Nora requested.

"Oh yeah! Smerek can take me, can't you, Smerek?" Marti ran and gave Derek a quick hug. "Can't you? Can't you?"

"Uh, well yeah. I guess I can take you, Smarti. In fact," he said, giving Marti a mischievous look, he leaned down and whispered, "I'll race you for it. No bunny hopping aloud. And the loser has to buy the winner an ice cream. What do you say?"

"Ice cream? Oh, yay! This is even better than when Nora takes me," Marti said as she ran to the front door and opened it, right as Casey walked in from her dance rehearsal.

"Oh hey, Marti," Casey said. "Slow down there!" Seeing Derek pulling his jacket on, Casey quickly asked, "Where are you two going?"

"The park! The park!" Marti chanted, hopping up and down again.

"Marti," Derek warned. "No bunny hopping, remember?"

"Oh right," Marti said to herself, as she tried very hard to stand still.

"Can I come with you?" Casey asked.

"Really?" Derek responded, right as Nora peeked her head out from the kitchen with a very surprised "Really?" of her own.

"Um, yeah," Casey said, with a small laugh. She set her gym bag down as the three of them closed the front door behind them.

Marti bounded along ahead of Casey and Derek and for the first time since their fight and the kiss, they were alone together.

"So, um. . ." Derek said.

"Um, yeah." Casey said with a small smile.

The walked two more blocks in silence before Casey finally said, "What is the matter with us? Usually we can't stop words from flying out of our mouths. I mean, they're usually not the nicest words, but still. . ."

"Speak for yourself, Casey. I know exactly how to control my speech, unlike people who suffer from, what was the term I once heard used, 'word vomit?'" Derek retaliated.

"Ha. Ha," Casey said sarcastically. A few more moments of silence. "I got your note," Casey said, so quietly, she wasn't sure if Derek heard her or not.

"Um, yeah, well, I just wanted. . ." Derek started.

"The swings!" Marti yelled. They had arrived at the playground and already Marti was on her favorite "ride," the swings. She plopped down on one and sat there expectantly, waiting for Derek and Casey to catch up so that someone could push her.

Derek finally took his rightful place behind Marti and began to push.

"Smerek, you lost the race. That means you have to buy me and Casey an ice cream cone," she said, as she flew back and forth through the air.

"Oh does it?" Casey said, interested.

"Nope, no deal. I said I would buy Marti an ice cream cone if she beat me here. There was no 'Casey Clause' saying that the offer was extended to her," Derek protested.

"Be nice, Smerek," Marti said.

"Yes, be nice Derek," Casey said, careful not to use his nickname that only Marti called him.

He rolled his eyes and said, "We'll see."

Six minutes later, as if right on schedule, Marti got bored with the swings and headed off to the main playground. Casey chased her through the tunnels, over the bridges, and down the slides for a while, but eventually made her way back to the swings where Derek sat observing.

"How does she have so much energy?" Casey wondered aloud.

"She's seven. And you sound like a grandma," Derek responded.

"Oh, I'm sorry, did I forget to mention that I went to school all day and then danced for two hours straight this afternoon, all on like three hours of sleep?" Casey replied, dryly.

"So you didn't sleep well?" Derek asked, his eyes straight ahead, watching Marti.

"No, not really."

"Me either."

"Oh."

"Why?"

"Why what?"

"Why didn't you sleep well?"

Casey shrugged. "Too much on my mind, I guess."

Marti bounded up next to them. "Time for ice cream?" she asked eagerly.

"Sure," Derek responded, as they headed to the closest ice cream stand. Derek paid for all three cones and the trio headed back to home.

As soon as she was sure Marti was out of earshot, Casey turned to Derek.

"Okay."

"What?" he asked, confused.

"Okay. That's my answer."

"Oh," Derek responded.

"Oh?" Casey questioned.

"Oh!" Derek tried again, clapping his hands together in mock happiness.

Casey shoved him. "Typical Derek," she said. "I just told you the answer to probably the most important question you will ever ask me and you respond with 'Oh.'" She looked up at him and smiled.

"Well, I just asked you probably the most important question I will ever ask you and all you responded with was 'Okay.' Not much better, Case. . ." Derek grinned back.

"So we suck at creating full sentences. At least it's both of us."

They continued walking for a few minutes in silence. Eventually, Derek reached out and took Casey's hand, interlocking their fingers as if it was the most natural thing in the world.

"You know this changes things, right?" Casey whispered, holding up their clasped hands.

"Yeah, I know." Derek replied. "I had an entire night to think about it. Less than an hour of sleep."

"And you're okay with all of it. . ." Casey trailed off not entirely sure where she was going with that sentence.

"Yeah, Case. I figure this way, I can fight with you whenever I want," he replied casually.

She smiled and leaned into him. "Bring it on."

He smiled back as hand in hand, they ate their ice cream and walked home.

Well, that is the end. Please let me know what you think. I feel like it came together okay at the end, simple and understated, much like Dasey can be, but I would love to know anyone else's thoughts. Also, I just saw the "March Break" episode. Holy smokes—Derek and Casey left home alone while the rest of the fam goes on a road trip! I was practically writing the fanfic in my head, while watching the episode. It had lots of fun Dasey moments for anyone who hasn't seen it yet, I highly recommend. One more time, I just feel like I need to thank all of you. So many of you have read this story and reviewed and it just makes me so happy to know that somewhere, someone is reading this! So thanks again, you all are the best and I take each of your reviews to heart. Until the next story. . .