Author's note: I am so sorry about the long wait for this chapter. But hopefully, given everything that happens, you guys'll think it was worth the wait.

Part Fourteen: Derek

"Derek, what's going on?"

Derek takes a half-beat before pasting a who-cares smirk on his face. The fact that he has to take that half-second is a pretty good indication that his head's still a little screwed up, especially when it comes to--

"Derek," Casey says firmly, stopping him mid-stride with a hand at his shoulder. "What is going on?"

"Other than the fact that I've got you following me around?" Derek shoots back. "Not much."

Casey looks exasperated. "Very funny. Look, what's the deal with your teammates?"

"Huh?" Derek asks, genuinely confused. He thought this was another Casey-ambush where she tried to get him to open up and talk about his feelings or some ridiculous crap like that.

"Your teammates, you know, the guys you play hockey with?" Casey says impatiently. "Look, earlier at lunch, they sat down with me and Emily and started praising you like you were some kind of celebrity or god--"

"I am," Derek says. "You just can't see it."

"And then they start talking about how often you talk about me--"

"Wait, like how you annoy the crap out of me? Yeah, I might have mentioned that once or twice."

Casey just smirks. "Actually, you apparently think the world of me. You think I'm smart and funny and pretty and so much fun to be around--"

"I what?"

Casey scoffs. "Yeah, I knew you'd never say that, but that doesn't explain why they were saying that you did."

Derek waves a hand in confusion. "Okay, back up. Who was telling you this again?"

"Alex, Jordan, and Tommy," Casey says. "So, what was that about anyway? Was it part of some kind of prank you were trying to pull or something?"

"Or something," Derek says distractedly, trying to figure out what's going on.

Casey looks confused, but nods, and then says slowly, "You know…this is the longest conversation we've had in a while."

Derek glances at her, but says nothing.

Casey looks a little nervous and says at last, "I mean--ever since you and Sally broke up, you've been--well, you've been avoiding me, and I just wondered if--"

"Yeah, okay, we're done talking," Derek says hastily, and walks quickly away before she can say anything more.

Derek takes one look back, and finds Casey still standing in the middle of the hallway, watching him. He's too far away by this point to be sure, but her shoulders look a little slumped.

Derek quickly looks away, and refuses to think about it anymore.

*

It sticks with him though, is the thing. There's just no reason for the guys to even be talking to Casey--they've never shown any interest in her before, so why would they start now? Admittedly that's partially because Derek had make it clear that he would not be happy to see any of his teammates showing an interest in Casey, but that doesn't change the fact that the guys have no reason to talk to Casey, much less spin her lies about how he's been talking about her. Derek doesn't talk about Casey to anyone, especially now; it's how he keeps from going crazy.

But--now that Derek's thinking about it, now that he's focusing on something other than the desperate need not to focus on Sally and Casey and the mess he's landed in, he's remembering details from the last week or so. Like how all the guys have been really--cautious around him lately. How Ralph keeps giving him these weird looks, how any conversation he has with Sam lately is all stilted, like there are all these things that he and Sam are tiptoeing around.

And now the guys are talking to Casey--talking to Casey about how much Derek talks about Casey, how often he supposedly compliments her when her back's turned--but why? Because they want--

The only reason for that would be if they wanted Casey to see Derek in a new light, a better light. As if they want Casey to think that Derek's--that he--

Derek reviews everything once more, and then again just to be sure, and then he groans to himself and goes to find Emily.

*

"Who did you tell?" Derek demands.

"No one!" Emily insists. "Derek, I didn't tell anyone, I swear--"

"Yeah, and that's why the guys on my team are trying to get Casey to think that I--" Derek stops, and then starts again, more grimly this time. "Emily, who did you tell?"

"I didn't tell anyone anything, Derek!" Emily insists once again, and he has to admit that she sounds completely sincere here. "I don't--I don't have any idea why the guys were doing that earlier," she adds, and here's when her eyes flicker away from his face.

Derek looks at her for a long moment, and then says slowly, "You didn't tell them--but they still know, don't they?"

Emily just looks at him, stricken and doesn't say a word.

Derek's stomach has dropped somewhere in the vicinity of his shoes, and he can't breathe for a moment. "Oh my God," he croaks out.

"Derek, it's not what you think--they already knew, and we all just wanted to help, I promise--"

"Oh my God," Derek repeats again, more loudly this time as the magnitude of this disaster starts to sink in. "They already--who else knows?"

Emily's eyes have grown to the size of dinner plates. "Um," she says articulately.

If Derek was the type of wimp who fainted or passed out or any of that crap, he'd be doing it right now. Jesus.

Part Fifteen: Ralph.

Okay, so there might have been a small flaw or two in Ralph's big plan. See, the plan was for Derek to find out after he'd gotten the happily-ever-after with Casey, so that when Ralph finally came clean about his plotting and stuff, Derek wouldn't care, because hey--the plot had worked.

Except the plot hasn't worked just yet, and Derek isn't with Casey yet, and he found out anyway and right now, Derek is really, really not happy about any of it.

"I can't believe you guys!" Derek yells for what has to be the fifth time, and the entire team, Ralph included, cringes. "You guys have been sneaking around behind my back, messing with my brain--getting me to see a shrink, talking to Casey--"

Ralph chances a quick look at Sam to see if he's got any ideas, but Sam's got his face buried in his hands, so there's not much hope there. And right now the rest of the team is scared stiff, so it's up to Ralph to try and fix all this. "Look, D," he begins as calmly as he can, "--we were just trying to help--"

"Maybe I don't want your help, did you ever think of that?" Derek snaps right back, still furious. "Maybe I don't want you guys interfering in my life!"

"So what, you'd rather just be miserable?" Ralph has to ask, ignoring the urgent elbow nudges from Sam. "You'd rather be miserable than ask for help from your best friends this one time--"

Derek still looks mad--in fact, he looks madder than ever, but under that, there's something in his face--it's this sadness, like Derek can't even hear what Ralph's trying to tell him. "Look, there is just no way that I'm getting what I want. The faster I accept that, the better, and all I need is for you to stay out of it."

Ralph honestly can't believe what he's just heard, and there's no way he's going to let it stand.

He gets up off the bench and says, still unable to believe he actually has to say this part out loud, "Dude. You're Derek Venturi. Since when do you give up when there's something out there that you really want? This isn't some ordinary thing either, this is Casey, the girl you've been crazy about since who knows how long, and you're just going to give up without even trying to fight for it?" Ralph shakes his head. "If that's really all you're going to do, then--I'm sorry, Derek, but maybe you deserve to be miserable."

The silence after Ralph finishes is maybe the loudest thing Ralph's ever heard.

Derek just stares at him for what feels like forever, and then walks out of the locker room without saying a word.

Jordan's the first to break the silence. "Okay, was that part of the plan and I just didn't know about it?" he asks.

Ralph blinks twice, and says, half to himself, "Okay, so maybe the plan wasn't as awesome as I thought."

Then he runs after Derek, calling out his name, Sam right behind him.

Part Sixteen: Emily

Casey's standing by the Prince, looking irritated and checking her watch. When she sees Emily walking towards her, she calls out, "Em, have you seen Derek?"

"Uh," Emily begins, but Casey goes on talking without hearing her.

"Ugh, this is so like him. He's supposed to drop me off at home before his hockey practice today, and I need to get home and get started on the mounds of homework I've got, and he's got the keys so it's not like I can go and leave him here stranded, like he deserves, and he's not even picking up his phone, the jerk--"

"Casey!" Emily bursts out at last, unable to take it anymore. Casey stops mid-rant, and looks at her, a little bewildered.

"What--Emily, is everything all right?"

"No," Emily says, because it isn't, because Derek's face when he figured out the truth was just awful to see, because this plan was insane and she doesn't know how she got sucked into it, because in the end, all she's done is probably make things worse. "Look, it's about Derek."

Casey's eyes grow wide with growing panic. "Is he all right? Is he hurt? Where is he?"

"No, no--Case, it's nothing like that, it's just--" Emily stops to take a breath. "Look, I know what's going on with him. I've known for a while now, and I never told you because I promised I wouldn't say anything, because I thought things would just get worse if I did, but--" She looks up at her best friend, and finishes, "But I honestly can't picture things getting any worse than this, and everything else I've tried has already gone wrong, so--so I'm just going to say it, and hope it's the right thing to do."

Casey's staring at her now, eyes still wide, still looking alarmed. "Em," she says, her voice serious, "--what is going on?"

Emily opens her mouth to finally just say it, to say this big thing she's been hiding for so long, but then Casey's eyes shift away from her face and she's looking behind her, and Emily turns to see what she's looking at, and that's when her mouth falls open.

Because it's Derek, making his way through the parking lot, striding towards them like he's on some kind of mission, and now Ralph and Sam are coming out of the school, and what is going on, Emily has no clue.

Derek's walking right towards them, his face determined, and as he starts to get closer, Emily nervously begins, "Derek, I am so sorry--"

Derek doesn't acknowledge her, he doesn't even look at her--his eyes are fixed on Casey, and he keeps moving forward, and about a half-second before it happens is when Emily realizes what he's going to do.

"Oh my God," Emily says faintly.

Casey, poor Casey who doesn't have any clue what's going on, asks, bewildered, 'Derek, what is--"

She stops talking abruptly, and the reason for that is because Derek's taken her face in his hands and is kissing her. On the mouth. It's this incredibly romantic, incredibly passionate kiss, the kind you see in the movies, and it's happening right in front of Emily and she can't even move, she's so stunned, and just what exactly happened in that locker room?

Finally--finally!--Derek and Casey pull apart, Derek still cradling Casey's face in his hands. He says in a tone that indicates he's just as stunned as Emily feels, which is pretty stunned, "I wasn't planning on doing that."

Casey just nods faintly. Derek lets go of her and takes one step back, and then another.

"I have to go to practice now," Derek says, still talking in that dazed voice.

Casey nods again, and says in a faint, faint voice, "I'll get a ride with Emily."

"Okay," Derek says, and walks off.

Casey slumps against the car, looking like she could be knocked off her feet with a feather, and Emily feels about the same.

As Derek's walking past Ralph and Sam, Emily could swear she hears Derek snap out at them, "Not a word about this."

And that's when a second revelation comes crashing down on Emily's head, and she starts to wonder if maybe she should sit down, because all this excitement can't possibly be good for her.

What with all the shock of seeing Derek and Casey kiss, of seeing Derek declare his feelings for Casey in such a manner right in front of her--Emily somehow managed to miss the most important part.

Casey had kissed Derek back.