+On Chloe's Blog there is a series of short stories that describe some events that led up to Derek and Simon finding out that their dad is gone. (Its AWESOME! I strongly suggest you go read it) In one story it says that Derek can't remember much from the time he was being held by the Edison Group when he was young. He was about seven years old when Kit Souza took him in and Derek thinks that Kit was trying to keep him from remembering much of his time there by using magic. This is one of the things that I think Derek forgot. Enjoy!+
++++I am not Kelley Armstrong so I own nothing! Sad, I know.++++
Derek was sitting at a table far away from the other subjects, trying to figure out a math problem. He was barley six years old, but he was quite good at math and it was already his favorite subject. The three other boys taunted him and said he was a freak for actually wanting to do work that the nice lady brought them every day. They struggled and tried to get out of it as often as they could, but Derek wanted to learn.
He also wanted to be left alone.
So while the three others played in a sandbox over by the far wall he quietly came over to this table, as far from them as possible. Suddenly, Derek's head shot up and tilted while he listened to something that had caught his attention. A soft sound. Crying.
He stood up and strode to the door, his work forgotten. Derek grabbed the doornob and quickly let himself into the opposite room. There were three rooms that made up his entire world. The bedroom, where they all slept. The playroom, where he had just left. And the snack room, where he had just entered.
On the wall parallel to him there was a door that was always locked, except when the people in white coats wanted to 'study' him and the others or when the nice lady was bringing them food. It was now cracked open just a bit.
The room was bright with a small table in the middle and four chairs around it. In one of the chairs with her head buried in her hands, was a little girl. She was maybe two years younger than Derek and had pretty blond hair. He came closer to the little girl, then stopped when he was a few feet away.
"Why are you crying?" Derek asked. It wasn't everyday he got to see someone near his own age crying. The others would never cry, even when they got hurt or hurt each other.
The girl lifted up her head and Derek saw she had brilliant blue eyes brimming over with tears. He had a strange urge to go over and wipe the tears away; to tell her everything was okay and to stop crying.
Derek stayed where he was.
Obviously, things weren't okay and he probably couldn't help her even if he knew what was wrong. The girl sniffed and wiped her eyes, meeting his gaze.
"I can't f-find m-my Aunt L-Lauren." She replied in a quavering voice.
So she was lost. Well, he couldn't help her with that. He figured there were more rooms behind the usually locked door, but since the door was locked he never got to test his theory. For all Derek knew there was a black hole behind the door and that wasn't much help.
He couldn't help her find that Lauren person, but he could do something else.
"Wait right here." He said, hurrying toward the door he just came out of. Derek entered the play room and grabbed one of the board games stacked in a corner, paying no attention to the three others who were now wrestling and yelping curses. Theyat least learned something from the mean lady that sometimes came with the nice lady. Hag was his preferred reference to her.
Running back he saw that the girl had completely stopped crying now. He walked up to the table and started laying out the game pieces.
"Do you wanna play?" Derek asked the now dry eyed girl. She nodded.
They spent the next twenty minutes playing, again and again. Derek scowling when he lost and the girl giggling at him. They were both laughing when the door to the play room opened. Derek spun around and shot up out of his seat. The three other boys entered the room.
"Hey, what're you doing in-" One of them was saying, but cut off when he saw the girl. He turned to glare at Derek. "You aren't suppose to be playing with outsiders. She's not one of us!"
"So? I can do what I want." Derek retorted, positioning himself between the girl and the other boys. His eyes dared them to move.
The three others stared at Derek for a second, processing his challenge. They never backed down from a fight and this time wasn't an exception. Two sprang at him. He was bigger but it was still hard to fend off their attempts to wrestle him to the ground.
"Ow!" Derek heard a voice cry. He threw an elbow into his opponet's face and quickly looked around to see that the other boy had pushed the girl. She was on the ground now and her eyes started to tear up.
Derek went ballistic. Grabbing a chair he slammed one boy in the face and the other in the stomach. Then, he managed to spring at the third boy and wrestle him to the ground while the others where struggling to get to their feet. When they did gain their balance things would go very bad for Derek. He had to do something--
"What the-!?" They all stopped for a second to stare at a man in a white coat looking at them from the door that was usually locked. He then spun on his heel and ran out of the room shouting something that sounded like 'security!'. This was bad. Derek let the other boy go, shoving him away.
"You'll pay for this!" The boy snarled, turning toward the playroom. The other two gave Derek death glares and followed him. The door banged shut. Derek looked at it for a second, then walked toward the girl and helped her up.
"Thank y-you." She said looking up at him with those wide eyes.
"No problem." He said, "You should probably go." He added, gesturing to the door the man had just left. The girl nodded and then did the last thing he expected.
She stepped closer and kissed him on the cheek.
"Okay." The girl turned to go, but he reached out and touched her arm.
"What's your name?" He asked. It was the first thing that popped into his head. Derek didn't want her to go. For the first time he didn't want to be alone.
"Chloe. W-what's yours?" She turned toward him again and he was treated to those blue eyes again, a blue that matched the sky in his picture-books.
Derek never really noticed stuff like that, but he never felt a huge protective urge tug at his gut, either. First time for everything, he supposed. He opened his mouth to answer when a yell startled them both. Derek quickly looked up and saw a woman rushing in from the door that was usually locked.
"Chloe! Are you okay? Did he hurt you?" She cried, grabbing the girl and glaring at Derek.
"N-no, Aunt L-Lauren he-" The girl tried to say, but was cut off by the woman who continued glaring at Derek.
"I always told Dr. Davidoff we should never had bothered with your kind." She spat. Then she turned, hurrying toward the door and taking the girl with her. The girl raised her hand in a good-bye wave, while looking over the woman's shoulder. Derek waved back. When the door banged shut he stood there for a minute remembering the girl's eyes.
"Chloe." Derek whispered.
+Woo! I hope you enjoyed it! Now push the lovely little button and make me happy people! Come on! You can do it! Unless you don't have arms, but i guess you could get in touch with your inner monkey and use your feet!!!+
