Miracles All Around.

"And your behavior doesn't even strike you as wrong?" Emily asked calmly, her tone implying a calmness that she wasn't even close to feeling.

"She was crying Emily. Over a fight with Truman. What could I do?" Derek asked as he wearily raised a hand and ran it through his hair.

"I am not saying don't comfort her Derek. I'm just saying that maybe running out on our anniversary dinner was the wrong time to do it."

Emily wasn't even angry any more. She was tired. Just so tired of these charades. These games that they were playing. What's more they were long past the age of playing.

She sat down suddenly. Yeah, she was long past the age of pretending everything was okay. Maybe it was time to let go. Derek sat down next to her and tried to put an arm around her but she got up and moved away.

He looked a little hurt but Emily knew it wasn't that bad.

"Not now Derek. I…I need time to think things over." She smiled at him wanly and walked out of the house, picking up her coat on the way.

The weather outside was freezing but Emily was not even bothered by the wind nipping at her cheeks. Instead she pulled her coat around her tighter and walked faster, the cogs in her brain turning furiously. She needed to think things out.

She reached the park and sat down on of the benches, unmindful of the wet patch that would be created on the seat of her coat.

There had been a time when she had thought she'd been in love with Derek and she'd thought that he'd been in love with her too. But that was a long time ago. And in retrospect, marriage had been a shaky proposition. But she'd ignored the feeling at the back of her head and gone ahead with it, convinced with the optimism of youth that everything would eventually be okay.

But in reality, marriage had created more problems than it solved. She had always known that there had been something between Derek and Casey. It wasn't something concrete. But it was still something. Derek and Casey took great pains to hide it, whatever was there but sometimes there was only so much they could do. And Emily even sympathized. Not living the life you had envisioned with the one you loved was indeed painful. But then it all boiled down to the choices you made. Had Derek and Casey wanted, they could have chosen to acknowledge whatever was there between them. And it would have been all the better for everyone involved as of now. But they hadn't made that choice. Instead Derek had chosen to get married to her, and Casey had chosen to get married to Truman. But even after they made their choices, they were completely unable to let go of what there was.

It was almost as if they were star-crossed lovers. But it wasn't because of circumstances. It was by choice. Whatever happened to fighting for the person you loved?

But then Emily mused, that maybe it wasn't all that easy when you were step brother and step sister.

She finally decided that maybe it was time she did all of them a favor and pulled the plug on whatever she and Derek had.

Sure it would hurt and sure there would be pain but ultimately, they would be free to do as they wished. Emily was not going to lie to herself. Everything that she had now was kind of a sham. But the years had also brought maturity along with them and she didn't hate Derek and Casey for being who they were. Okay, if she were being completely honest she did hate them a little because they didn't seem to recognize how they were hurting everyone else around them. But she also loved them enough to realize that maybe all they needed was a push in the right direction. And preferably from someone who wasn't being judgmental. And while she owed them a chance at happiness, she also owed herself a chance at happiness. Getting away from Derek and Casey would do exactly at that.

Emily got up and smiled wryly. It was just such a pity that it took her so long. And that too that the realization should happen on Christmas Eve of all days.

So many years and gone by and so many were wasted.

Such a pity.

//

Emily got up with a start which ended with her falling off the couch and groggily rubbing her eyes. Wow, no more late night TV or Christmas eve eggnog. That had been one super weird dream.

She was just about to go to the bathroom and head off to bed when she saw a figure standing a distance away from her. She blinked and rubbed her eyes and focused on the figure.

Wait? Was there a random stranger inside her house?

Shit. What the hell was happening? She blindly groped around and picked up something solid and advanced towards the figure. God, she hoped it was not a crazy axe-murderer. She didn't want to die just before Christmas. Not when she knew for a fact that she was getting the new iPod Touch for Christmas. Also she was too young and she hadn't even gotten fully drunk as yet. Oh goodness, there was so much she wanted to do and accomplish in her life, the least of it being that she wanted to die her hair a crazy colour. Just for kicks.

"Look here. I don't know who you are but you had better get out of my house right now before I go ape-shit on you," she looked at her weapon and finished lamely, "with my magazine rack."

"Oh Emily. Don't you recognize me?" the figure said and now that Emily was closer, she could make that the figure was a young woman in her mid thirties. She looked well-dressed and not really like a murderer but nowadays you couldn't tell who was and who wasn't a psychopath on the run from the authorities.

And also, what the fuck was happening and how did the would-be axe-murderer know her name? Dang, this was a pickle of epic proportions and she wished she hadn't begged off Midnight Mass with a bad tummy. But she had.

"Look here Miss. I don't know who the hell you are but seriously, you had better get going. I'mma call 911 otherwise and have you committed." Emily's voice quavered a bit but on the whole she managed to sound pretty bad-ass. Or at least he convinced herself that she did.

The woman instead started giggling.

"Oh Emily. It's me. I mean, YOU. From the future."

Now this was too much. In Emily's opinion people like this needed to be put in a straight jacket and locked up in a padded cell. Really, time travel was sort of an impossibility. One couldn't time travel without making serious distortions in the fabric of the time space continuum and then also, in order to time travel you needed to move at speed faster than the speed of light. Or sound. She wasn't sure. But she was sure that time travel was some improbable serious business.

And the world in which she existed didn't have time travel. Only in movies it did. But maybe, if she humored the woman masquerading as future her, she might just go away and Emily could forget about this horrendous night leading up to Christmas cheer and then sadly drink no more eggnog ever.

"Look, erm, future me. Aren't you NOT supposed to be seeing me because if future me and past me see each other than there will be some sort of colossal ramifications in the fabric of time which might lead me to think I'm losing my mind and ergo killing you?" Thank the lord above she was a Harry Potter fan. Otherwise how in the heck would she have spoken about time travel to a crazy axe-murderer god alone would have known.

Now it seemed the woman masquerading as her was all serious business.

"Look Emily," she giggled a bit and Emily could sort of empathize because it felt weird as hell to be addressing your supposedly past or future self, " I know you like Harry Potter but it's not the Gospel Truth. And I know you think I am psycho axe-murderer on the run but I am really not. Ask me any question and I can answer."

The truthfulness in her voice rang out and before Emily could process anything, she found her mouth magically opening and voicing a question. And with regards to the magical opening of the mouth, she figured it would be a little too far-fetched to want to believe that she was getting her acceptance letter, albeit horrendously late, to Hogwarts.

But one could dream right?

"Have I been proposed to in the marital sense of the term yet?" Hah. No one knew that. Except for her and Sheldon. And Sheldon was in Newfoundland. And had promised not to tell.

"By Sheldon Schlepper on the night of prom right before he left for Newfoundland."

Emily's jaw went slack. Did this woman torture the information out of Sheldon or something? Oh dear god, poor Sheldon. He had never even harmed a fly and he just might be dead.

"Look crazy lady, there's no way you could have known that unless you strong-armed it out of Sheldon and even then he wouldn't give it up cause Sheldon isn't that kind of guy. And if you have done anything to hurt him, you had better prepare yourself for the ass-whooping of a life time cause NO ONE HURTS SHELDON SCHELEPPER." She may have gone a little maniacal there herself but this was serious. Sheldon was a dear and a good friend and gah! Why was she still talking to this crazy woman?

"I may be from the future but this doesn't mean my love for Sheldon has diminished. Look, I tell you something that only you know. You want to have the word 'breathe' inscribed on your back in memory of your grandmother. Right? And look, you did get it done." And this time the lady turned around and showed Emily her back and the tattoo was there, just in the place Emily wanted it to be, right next to her birthmark shaped like a tree.

Emily sucked in a breath.

Wow. This was heavy. She needed to sit down.

"I believe you," she managed to say shakily before sitting down on the couch with a plop.

"Thank goodness," Future Her said before coming to sit down next to her. "I was beginning to get a little tired. By the way, I'm still the same, not so credulous and all but geez, ease up a bit okay?"

"You are from the future. I was brought up to believe that Time Travel happens only in movies and magical books about ordinary guys trying to do the world they live in a solid by killing off the villain. Excuse me for thinking differently." Emily said pointedly as she glared at her Future Self.

"Fine, fine," her Future Self grumbled. "Anyways, let me get to the point. I don't have much time. That dream you saw, well that wasn't a dream but more like a vision about your future."

"My future has me getting married to Derek and ignoring the obvious sexual subtext between Derek and Casey? Boy am I stupid in the future." Emily said frowning as she replayed her dream. That had been one crazy ass dream and if that was her future then it was going to be a seriously unhappy one.

"Look, Derek can be rather persuasive okay? And it doesn't help that he's such a charmer and you had the hots for him." Her Future Self said irritably. Emily blushed. She couldn't help it. Derek's voice did things to you. But she was working on that. And so far, she was doing pretty well. Apparently, in the near future she must have relapsed. Well that was most definitely tragic.

"Anyways, back to the point. The point is you have to get Derek and Casey together. Otherwise, everyone is going to be doomed and no one is going to be happy, especially you. And I think you saw that in the dream, waste of years and all that." Her Future Self said, all serious now. Emily goggled at her Future Self in disbelief. Getting Derek and Casey together was kind of a tall order wasn't it? If four years and an absurd amount of decidedly sexual tension hadn't told them anything and it hadn't by the way, what could she, a mere mortal accomplish?

"Look, Me, I get that we'll all be sad if I don't get them together but how in the hell do I get them together. I mean, it's like trying to mix Chalk and Cheese. So horrible it gives me headaches just listening to them annoy each other." Emily said with a groan. Was this how Luke Spacewalker or something felt when he found out that Dark Viper or whoever was his father? Like the entire weight of the world had just settled on his shoulders. And now it was resting on her shoulders.

"Annoying each other is their way of er, letting off sexual steam," Future Her said with a wry grimace. Emily gasped in horror.

"Oh my eyes! I thought it was only in the looks and the obvious antagonization of each other. Never did it occur to me that with their snarky banter, they were getting their verbal freak on." Emily moaned into her hands.

"To save the world from that, you at least gotta get them together. If not for their idiotic sakes, at least for the sakes our sanity and psychological wellbeing." Future Her said, having found Present Her's weak spot and clearly hitting her stride.

"Dammit, the world owes me big. I had better be rich in the future." Emily said grumpily as she pinky swore on vowing to get together Derek and Casey.

"You are. Now I gotta jet. I am already risking much by being here in the first place. And by the way, you got to get them together by tomorrow because Truman comes the day after that and it all goes down hill from there. Best of luck. Ta." And with that cheerful clause, Future Her was gone.

Poof. Simply vanished into thin air.

Emily's mouth formed and 'o'. By tomorrow? She felt like wailing. How would she accomplish things by tomorrow? She was no superhero. Seriously, she should have been expecting a great big 'catch' to this whole thing. It was the same thing in the movies too.

She fell back on the couch and muffled her face in the cushions and screamed.

That did make her feel better but it didn't solve anything. She still had no solution. And then a light bulb went off in her head.

Sam!

Yeah, Sam could help. And even if he couldn't, two heads were better than one.

Grinning Emily picked up the phone and dialed Sam's number, not even bothering about the fact that it was one o'clock at night. The fate of the world, well her and Derek and Casey's AND Truman's futures hung in the balance. Truman could go hang but not at the expense of her and Derek and Casey's futures.

On the sixth ring Sam picked up. And let loose a list of unsavory words that Emily wouldn't ever repeat in her entire lifetime.

"Sam, cut the nonsense. It's me Emily. I gotta talk to you."

"Emily? For fuck's sake, it's one in the night. Cant this wait until tomorrow?"

"If it did would I be calling you up, you ass?"

" Seriously. You're gonna pay for this Davis. Quick, tell me?"

"I need to talk to you in person." Here Emily held the phone way away from her ear and winced as Sam waxed eloquent how about crazy she was and cursed everyone and everything.

"I will get my pound of flesh Davis. I will. Just you wait. Be there in ten." Sam grumpily said before he hung up the phone. Emily winced once more. Damn Derek and Casey and their UST. Couldn't they just get their act together like a decent couple and spare everyone else- cough, her the pain of having to orchestrate the most kickass matchmaking plan of the century? Well, she didn't know what the plan was just as yet but she was going to make sure it was kickass. That and it would need a healthy dose of Christmas miracles in order to happen.

Sighing heavily, she got up to go and make some cocoa and warm up some of the cold pizza that was sitting in the fridge.

The most ordinary were often martyred.

//

Sam turned up ten minutes later, all heavily wrapped up. Emily figured that since he had wrapped himself, he was at least awake. Until she look down and saw that he had pulled on two different shoes and jammed on his sister's skull cap which was adorned with, wait for it, hearts.

She desperately wanted to giggle but that would be so rude.

"Not a word about my clothes." Sam said, doing a mumble growl sort of thing and Emily bit back the retort that was just dying to come piping out.

Instead she said, "Here have some hot chocolate." Sam gravitated immediately towards the hot chocolate as if his nose was leading him there and it was the Holy Grail and only after he took a few sips did he deign to speak.

"So we've have already established that you owe me your soul. Now why don't you tell me why I am at your place at this time of the night?"

And Emily told him.

She told him all about the dream, the visit from the Future Her and the Very Important Mission at hand which needed to be completed if everyone wanted a happily ever after. And Emily was pretty sure she did. Want a happily ever after that is.

Sam was patient and didn't open his mouth until the end of her story but that may also have something to do with the fact that his mouth was full of re-heated pizza.

"Look I know it seems rather farfetched but –"Sam interrupted before Emily could finish.

"It's fine Em. I believe you."

"Huh, what?"

'I said, I believe you," Sam said enunciating his words clearly.

"I know. That's why I'm surprised." Emily said rather bemused. Hell, she had a long speech prepared as to why Sam should believe her but she didn't expect it to be so…easy. And she had been really looking forward to saying it.

"Look, I know you're not gonna call me out in the middle of the night unless it were something drastic. And I know you are quite sane. Besides it's Christmas. Anything can happen." Sam said easily before taking another huge bite of the pizza slice. Emily stared at him incredulously. Suddenly it seemed that Fate was on her side. And how.

"I could kiss you for that," she said suddenly and then suddenly clapped her mouth shut. Sam choked on his pizza slice and Emily raced to get him water.

"Y'know metaphorically and stuff. Not that I was gonna mack on you or anything. I was just saying. Never mind that. We need a plan." Emily babbled on nervously but thankfully Sam didn't say anything though his face remained a fire engine shade of red for a really long time after that.

So Emily got out pen and paper and titled her sheet, 'Emily and Sam's Fantastical Christmas Plan For Getting Together Derek and Casey." It was rather long but it had a nice ring to it. Beside Sam didn't complain, not even when she drew a little reindeer at the top so Emily was good.

They talked at length and throe various options at each other before hastily scribbling something down. Sometimes, they went a little overboard coming up really crazy plans and Emily blamed the eggnog previously consumed, the cold and the hot chocolate for that.

It was only when Emily heard her front door opening did she realize with some amount of horror that her father wouldn't really understand the whole situation about having a boy over at this time of the night. He would assume that this was some sort of booty call- ew, really ew – and then she would be grounded until she died of old age and loneliness.

"Sam, you have got to run. The 'rents are home and they will slaughter you." Sam didn't need to be told twice. He rose from the table, grabbed one last slice of pizza and high tailed it out of the backdoor. But before he did go, he had one thing to say.

"You made me leave my warm bed and now you are turning me into the less popular version of Derek. Remember, you owe me your soul Davis." And with that threatening message, he fled. Except his exit was kind of ruined by the fact that his muffler was flying haphazardly behind him and he had one hand on his head to prevent his sister's skull cap from coming off.

"Emily honey?"

"Yes Daddy?"

"What are you doing up? I thought you were not well." Her father asked suspiciously surveying the sheets on the kitchen table and the pizza on the plates.

"Oh. I was. But then I had a bad dream so I woke up and decided to make a note of it because we're doing psychology this semester and Freudian interpretations can be quite interesting." She had never been able to lie which such promptness before Emily reflected as the frown on her father's face receded and he smiled at her. Phew. That was one obstacle down. On the other hand, she should have mentioned someone other than Freud. Freud reasoned that nearly everything came down to sex.

Emily blushed. Something she had done a lot of over the course of the night. She gathered up her sheet, bid her parents and Dimi good night and took herself off to bed. Tomorrow was going to be a long and difficult day if her and Sam's plan was any kind of indicator. Emily sighed and drew her coverlet over herself.

Maybe this time, her sleep would be hopefully dreamless and free of visits from the Future.

//

Next morning dawned bright and early and Emily was woken by Dimi's loud and boisterous shouts of 'presents! PRESENTS!'. She blearily got up and went through her morning routine and then stepped into the shower. Presents would have to wait until she was fully functional.

Only when she was bright and awake and a little bit more functional than groggy zombie did she go down and check out her haul. Score! She had gotten the iTouch and a few other knick knacks. Her family was also pleased with the presents they got and for the next few hours, time was spent in eating cookies and sipping on milk/mulled wine.

After a lunch that made Emily feel like she may have eaten her weight in food, she set off towards the McDonald-Venturi residence, armed with her presents for them and most importantly, The Plan.

Sam was to meet her outside of the house. When she went there, she already found Sam waiting and trying to rub life back into his cold cheeks.

"Had anymore visits from the future?" he deadpanned and Emily silenced him a sweetly threatening rejoinder.

"Worn your sister's underwear by accident?" Sam blushed and Emily smiled smugly.

At that very moment Casey threw open the door and engulfed them both in hugs while Derek stared lazily at them.

"So watcha got for me?" he said, as soon as Casey was done being effusive. It earned him a whap on the arm from Casey and stifled giggles on Emily and Sam's part.

"At least I am not being so girly. They probably appreciate my refreshing candor when compared to your cloying affection." Derek said with a superior smug.

"Using big words is not going to change the fact that you are an ass. I guess we should probably be grateful that you DO know a few words though."

They continued on in the same vein, their progressive insults making no sense and Emily and Sam wandered right in where they wished the rest of the family and exchanged gifts. After that was done, they huddled in a corner and gazed at their plan.

"So, we need to get them to kiss. Cause getting your verbal freak on isn't just enough." Emily said as she fished about in her capacious bag and brought out a rather sorry looking piece of mistletoe.

"You know, all this time I never realized they were y'know, engaging in verbal sex. And now when I think of it, I want to hurl." Sam said with a rather sickly looking face. He was remembering yesterday's conversation and today watching them, er, go at it rather enthusiastically had made the poor boy a little squeamish.

"Combine that with the eye sex, I'm still not wondering why we're not yet in therapy for life," Emily said grimly as she shoved the plan back in and moved out of the shadows.

"So you want to plant it or should I?" Emily said cheerfully. Okay, this was sort of exciting. Matchmaking was fun when you were not the subject of it.

"Maybe you should do it. I need a little liquid courage in the form of Diet Coke." Sam said weakly. Emily nodded and patted him kindly before marching on with the mistletoe in her hand.

Thank god for Holly wreaths which were hanging from the ceiling. She surreptitiously looked around before quickly attaching the mistletoe to one of them. Then she walked away casually and signaled to Sam to send the targets towards the intended area.

Casey and Derek were still arguing so it was a little difficult to get their attention but she managed and when she pointed out the mistletoe. Both of them blushed and then blanched.

" Er, do we have too?" Casey asked weakly while Derek seemed to be strangely suppressing himself.

"Of course. Mistletoe is an important tradition. Besides, it's just a kiss right?" Emily said airily. Derek visibly gulped and then pasted on a 'I'm too cool for this kind of stuff' expression and then turned towards Casey.

"You wouldn't be chickening now would you Spacey?"

"I am not. But you look a little worried Derek."

And it continued. Again. Emily privately marveled about the fact that there existed who individuals who could be SO oblivious that it was not even funny. Okay, it was sort of funny.

"Guys!" she interrupted the sparring, "the kiss. Do it before we ALL grow old."

And then Emily had to turn sort of like she didn't care but in reality, she was looking at them out of the corner of her eye and watched them tentatively edge towards each other for the kiss with their eyes closed. Interesting, it never even occurred to them they could simply get it done with a kiss on the cheek. But maybe, she then theorized, they had been subconsciously wanting to kiss each other for a really long time.

Minutes passed and now Emily was growing uncomfortable. Sam came back and whispered in her ear. "Dude, they are practically fused at the mouth."

"I know!" Emily moaned."But how do I break it up?!?!"

And then appeared Emily's savior.

Marti.

"Smerek!" Her high pitched voice called out and immediately Derek and Casey jumped apart as if burnt.

Emily heaved a sigh and Sam was now looking a healthy shade of pink as opposed to the earlier grey green.

They shared a celebratory fist bump.

First obstacle had been surmounted.

Now they needed to get them to be civil enough to admit their feelings.

God grant them strength. And luck. And if he was feeling a little generous, could the Big Man above also throw a few Christmas miracles their way. Emily and Sam would be very veryappreciative of that.

"See, in order to weaken them, we have got to divide and separate. Because without each other, they are obviously vulnerable and will let their guard down, paving the way for our attack. And then we need to be super ninja like and stealthily segue in this whole feelings aspect of it. After that, we of course nudge them in each other's directions and if necessary, we'll force them to confess under duress and then our job is done. After which we can high tail it out of here and finally partake in the all the awesomeness that Christmas has to offer with a clear conscience." Emily took a deep breath after she was done. Sam was looking at her with a mixture of amazement and suspicion.

"And you are sure you don't have a double life masquerading as a bad-ass secret agent well versed in the arts of strategy and torture?"

"Take a wild guess, Sammy." Emily said smiling mysteriously. This only caused Sam to look at her with more suspicion.

"Well are you?" he probed, now convinced that his far-fetched theory wasn't really far-fetched at all.

"Ask no questions and you'll be told no lies," Emily said winking at him and tapping his cheek before leaving the room. Man, that was a good exit if she said so herself. Being all mysterious made her feel very, sexy and accomplished. Though she had no idea why she had gone all mysterious on Sam, Emily frowned and turned to the matter at hand.

To corner Casey and drag the confession out of her, kicking and screaming if necessary.

//

Sam stared after Emily as she wandered off in search of Casey. Okay, he was not going to lie. That had been without doubt the hottest thing he had seen any girl do. Focus. He had to focus and find Derek.

Still that had been so hot.

//

Emily found Casey in her bedroom, re-wrapping presents. Well not presents, but present. In the singular as in Derek's present.

"You know, it was perfect the way it looked before." Casey jumped a foot in the air at the sound of Emily's voice.

"I was just…I mean I was…you know…" Casey floundered for a bit and Emily watched in amusement and then jumped in to fill the blanks.

"Yes, I know Casey," Emily said gently in a voice that made Casey sit up straighter and look at her with some amount of trepidation.

"Yeah, I do. Everyone does. But maybe, y'know, you should acknowledge it too. It would make things a lot easier on you." Emily said sitting down next to Casey and gazing at her thoughtfully. Casey colored under Emily's frank gaze.

"I know. I try to tell myself that every time. But I'm so scared Em. What if it all goes wrong? What if it does something to the family? I don't know…I know, I can't live with the guilt that we broke it apart." Casey said smiling sadly. Emily too her hands in her own and clasped them comfortingly.

"It could go horribly wrong. But you won't know until you've tried. These words sound cliché but you know, it's the truth. And as to your family, I think George and Nora will understand. And I think they even may have expected it. Throwing together two teens and not expecting them feel something other than animosity kind of does them injustice as intelligent AND good parents."

And without explanation, suddenly Casey launched herself at Emily and began crying profusely. Emily had knd of been prepared for this though and she held Casey, stroking her back as Casey wept what could be buckets and buckets of tears.

"You're right. It does." Casey said blubbering through her tears. Emily thoughtfully pulled out some tissues from the mouth of a pink hippopotamus and handed them to Casey who blinked weepy thanks. She then wiped her face and tried to blow her nose discreetly but didn't succeed. Emily politely looked the other way and when Casey finally was okay, she spoke again.

"You know, why don't we re-do your face?" Casey nodded and they spent the next forty five minutes discussing the most mundane of things, like make up, clothes, school getting over, and college starting. Everything that they normally talked over during the course of sleepovers.

By the time Emily was done, Casey looked fresh and pretty and the smile on her face indicated that she felt much better. Casey stood up and surveyed herself in the mirror and smiled at her reflection as Emily watched

"Thanks Emily. For being the best friend ever." Casey said turning around suddenly engulfing Emily in a tight hug.

Emily hugged her back tightly grateful for everything that had happened so far. And she had a pretty fair idea of what was going to happen so far. And frankly speaking, she didn't even need a grand plan to set things in motion. It turned out that she just needed to be a friend. Nothing less, nothing more.

"Come on, we've got to go downstairs and dazzle someone with your beauty," Emily said, grinning as she pulled along a blushing Casey.

//

"Is this about whatever thing you have going on with Emily? Because then I think you kind of need Casey's approval for that. Not mine." Derek said smugly as Sam plunked himself down on the couch next to Derek who was flipping through TV channels.

"Don't turn the subject on me. You know why I'm here." Sam said easily, though blushing a bit at that Emily part. Derek was a little too perceptive of other for his own good at times. But when it came to him, he was as blind as a bat.

"Because you like Emily?" Derek asked grinning.

"No, because you like Casey." Sam retorted sharply.

"Yes, and I also like to dance," Derek said derisively. Sam sucked in a breath. Oh that's how he wanted to play, did he? Well Sam would play his game.

"No, you like watching Casey dance," Sam rejoined gently. But the sting was still sharp. Derek colored.

"There's no harm in watching a person dance," Derek said self consciously, now tugging on his collar.

"Of course there isn't. And even when you watch them eat, watch them sleep, watch them even class, there's no harm at all." Hah! How would he respond now?

Derek suddenly sighed. "How long have you known dude?"

"D, the question is who doesn't know? Practically everyone does. It's been a long time coming man." Sam finished gently, glad that he was finally making progress. Emily would be so proud. And she would smile so prettily. Ahem, focus!

"She probably hates me and it's probably wrong." Sam groaned inwardly before responding. Really, Derek was so dense?

"Dude, are we even on the same page. If she hated you, she would have probably begged Nora to send her to boarding school by now. I mean, I can't think of any other reason as to why any sane person would put up with so much nonsense if they didn't like the person. And Casey's a little, ah, crazy but even she's not a saint."

Derek didn't respond but he began to look extremely hopeful. Sam grinned.

"Look dude, you're gonna leave soon. Don't leave things like this. Do something about it. And she's probably been waiting for you to make the first move because you know Casey, she legit believes you hate her some shit like that."

"Yeah, I hate her just like I hate Marti."

"Dumbass, I'm not the one who needs to hear that. She needs to."

"Right."

At that very moment Casey came down and Sam very unsubtly nudged Derek towards Casey. And for the first time in many years, he thought he saw Derek Venturi blush.

Emily came and stood next to him. "Why don't we go outside and give the lovebirds their privacy and all?" Sam nodded and stood up. Derek and Casey were standing in front of each other looking shy.

Sam shook his head. Those two were a pair if there ever was one.

"By the way, this is just for future blackmail references, Derek did blush right?" Emily asked as soon as they were out. Sam grinned and nodded and Emily smiled deviously.

"You know, it turns out, I didn't need the plan at all," Emily said thoughtfully as she turned towards Sam.

"I know. I didn't even have to strangle Derek and get it out of him by force." Sam said, his voice shaking slightly with laughter and his eyes twinkling. Emily blushed.

"But it was the most awesome plan that was never put into action."

"What can I say?" I got a gift." Emily said smugly popping her collar.

"Hey, would you like to take a peek?"

Emily's eyes softened dreamily at the thought and she nodded eagerly. They both ran to the nearest window and pressed their faces to the slightly frosted glass. Derek and Casey were still standing in front of each other. But Derek was holding Casey's hands in his own and Casey was looking up at him with a brilliant smile.

"Aside from the tension, aren't they just adorable?" Emily asked sighing contentedly at the sight before her. It was just like a scene out of a chick flick movie. And chick flick movies made her feel all warm and gooey on the inside.

"I'm a guy. I'm not supposed to say stuff like that. But yeah, they are." Sam said smiling. Maybe the mush was a little too much for him but hey, seeing one's own friends happy was a gift in itself.

"I bet your future self is pretty pleased with you right now," Sam said as they turned away from the window and went and sat on the porch.

"She had better be. For the short notice she gave us, we did a pretty damn good job of pushing things in the right direction." Emily said cheerfully as she tucked her arm through the crook of Sam's arm and leaned her cheek against it.

"Em, do you still like Derek?" Sam's voice came out all hesitant and soft.

"Not so much. You see, he was the ideal in school. But outside of school, I have realized that Derek is just an ordinary guy you know. The extraordinary ones are the one who come running in the middle of the night with two different shoes on."

Sam chuckled. That was nice to hear.

"Mistletoe!" A voice sang out behind them and Sam and Emily turned around to find Marti grinning at them and holding out a sprig of mistletoe in her hands.

Sam looked at Emily. "Well Davis, you sort of owe me your soul."

"Most fortunately, I do," Emily said as her eyes twinkled and she leaned forward and pressed her cold lips' against Sam's surprisingly warmer ones.

It seemed like miracles were happening all around.

//

From a distance away, a woman looked at the pair of teenagers sitting beside each other with shining eyes and wide smiles and she smiled herself.

In the future, things had ended. But in the present, things were just beginning.

There, that was my epically long and sort of weird Christmas fic. I know some parts are hard to believe but hopefully it wasn't too bad. And yeah, this probably full of errors. But I am too tired to sort it out now and tomorrow morning I shall clean it all up.

And this line, 'The most ordinary were often martyred.' is adapted from the Princess Diaries 2 - Take Two. I do not own LwD. Or Star Wars which I have badly mangled. Or Harry Potter. Only the plot of this fic.

Merry Christmas dudes. Hope you all are having a wonderful time. :)