I would like to personally thank Emo Taco for being the first person to review my story, you are very brave my friend and I appreciate it. Also general thanks to Wolf Girl, Leah, Ghost, Eternity, Not-so, Kajakoo and the Moon Princess. You guys are why I write! I hope you enjoy this, I love writing from Chloe's perspective because she's tiny and I'm six feet tall so it's a bit of a switch for me. Also she is a firecracker and a sweetheart at the same time and I think that is rockin. Anyway, enjoy!

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Chapter 2

I felt a little silly; I was kneeling on the floor of my bedroom, just barely peering over the edge of my windowsill. Usually when he shifted Derek walked along the edge of the lawn and into the forest. The first time he had done it while we were at the safe house I had followed him and gotten lost. By the time I found him he was mid-change, whimpering with his head down. He was so distracted by what was going on with his body that he hadn't heard me until I was right next to him. He had instinctively reacted, trying to scramble away from the person who had found him in such a vulnerable position with his hands up to ward them off. Unfortunately his hands weren't exactly hands at that point and I was closer than he thought, he'd accidentally scratched my thigh.

It took me forever to calm him down after that, he was so angry with himself for losing control again but he couldn't move very far because his joints and bones were shifting and realigning so he'd curled up with his back to me and let me touch his shoulders as he battled through the end of the shifting.

I must've dozed off because I woke up in my room, still wearing the same clothes from the night before with Derek's shirt in strips and tied around my leg. The scratches were shallow but long and I'd had to bandage the whole thigh and wear sweatpants to hide the bindings.

Derek didn't look me in the face for almost a month and a half after that. But I still noticed when he started to get feverish and twitchy, he'd made himself scarce though so I didn't know what night exactly the change would be and he snuck out on the opposite side of the house from my room. The next morning I ran into him as he staggered back on the porch. It was barely dawn but I'd had a bad night's sleep and was going outside for fresh air. His eyes were wild and he still looked intensely fevered, like he hadn't worked off all of the change. I helped him back to his room and then camped out outside his door after everyone went to bed. Sure enough Derek emerged in a hoodie and sweatpants, intent on going out again.

He hadn't even questioned my sitting in the hall across from his room but pulled me to my feet and held the door open for me as we went outside. This time it was much quicker, like he had gotten halfway through the night before and just had to finish. He hadn't even thrown up and let me hold onto his shoulders and back the whole time without trying to pull away.

When he finally collapsed to the ground he held onto my hand like it was a lifeline. "So… scared…" Was all he managed to say before passing out. I don't think he even remembers that he said it, and I definitely know he didn't mean to tell me that.

So here I was, crouching in the shadows of my room, waiting for Derek to try to sneak across the lawn and feeling a little like the parent of a delinquent seventeen year old. I was so intent on the window that I didn't hear my door open and close. A hand the size of Miami landed on my shoulder and I yelped, falling backwards on my butt with a thump.

Derek raised a black eyebrow and nodded at the window. "Looking for something?"

"I… I wasn't sure if you'd try to sneak past me again." I felt my cheeks flush, like a kid caught looking for Christmas presents.

He sighed and rolled his shoulders. "Not worth it."

"Well… good. You shouldn't try to do that crap alone, it's dangerous and… stuff." I felt that my lecture fell short of stellar and thought that I got even shorter as Derek looked down at me with one eyebrow still raised. Suddenly I got angry, like really angry, maybe irrationally angry. I punched him in the chest, which had about the same effect as hitting a wall and hurt my hand only a little less. "How could you be so… so… selfish?! I was worried sick and you just thought 'Hey, I'm going to do this by myself because I'm a big werewolf' and you didn't tell me you were shifting and then I found out you did it alone and when I found you you looked so-" A finger on my lips cut off my pissed off but whispered tirade. I hadn't even realized that it still bothered me that he snuck out before, it had been buried deeper than I thought and exploded as soon as I was reminded about it.

Without a word he opened my window and ducked out onto the narrow ledge, pulling me through after him and jumping, waving for me to follow. I grabbed my backpack off the floor and tossed it down to him, then closed the window behind me and turned back around. Did I mention that my bedroom was on the third floor? I think I neglected that fact.

Derek had jumped off as easily as if it was three feet instead of three stories. When I hesitated he gestured impatiently and I shot him the finger. I hadn't meant to but I was still mad and he was asking me to jump to my death so my patience with him was wearing a little thin.

I pulled my bandanna out of my hair and folded it, then bit down on it so I wouldn't scream and jumped off. I still screamed, it was just muffled. I think I was still screaming as Derek caught me like we did this every day.

He pulled the bandanna out of my mouth and when I finally opened my eyes I saw that he looked amused. I snatched it back and wiggled until he put me down and set off determinedly towards the forest. About half a mile into the woods was a clearing. I knew that, I just had no idea where it was so I graciously let Derek lead and earned myself another amused look.

How the boy could look amused when he was running a temperature of a hundred million degrees and his body was turning inside out was beyond me.

We had just reached the clearing when Derek froze and raised his face to the air. The wind that had been blowing towards us and towards the house had changed to the opposite direction.

"What's-?" I started to ask but then heard a twig snap behind us and leaves rustling on the ground.

Derek growled this time, a real out-loud growl and stalked back into the woods, returning with a disgruntled Simon in a headlock.

"What the hell are you doing?!" He asked, the rapid drop in octaves making me bounce with nervous energy.

"Oh am I interrupting your romantic get away?" Simon growled back, but his sorcerer growl was just not as impressive as a werewolf growl.

"We… What?" I asked, dumbfounded. "This is your idea of romantic?" I took the time after asking to glance around. The clearing was kept clear because ivy and thorns had grown, keeping the trees out of the space but they still grew overhead so the moonlight slanted down in beams on the frosty leaf-strewn ground.

I could see how it could be romantic if your date's skin wasn't splitting in half.

"Simon…" Derek's voice was pitched even lower.

"We don't have time, go strip." I waved to the thicket behind me, knowing that Derek usually liked to have a modicum of privacy when he took off his clothes.

He surprised me by shooting Simon a defiant look and stripping off his top layers in one motion.

"I-hey! I don't want to see you two… I mean… not in front of me! Christ!" Simon raised his hands defensively and took a step back. "I just wish that you know… you'd told me sooner, it would have been nice to know."

I gave him an incredulous look and whacked him upside the head with an open palm; the effect of which was kind of lost because I had to reach so darn high to do it.

"Your brother is about to have his skin ripped apart by a change that his body can't physically handle right now. It's going to twist his internal organs around and break and realign his bones. I really really REALLY don't think he wants you to see that."

"… Say what?" Simon looked up as Derek finished folding his clothes and stood in his boxers—which was always a blush-worthy affair for me—an effect that was increased by the cold sweat of the fever and the unearthly glow of his eyes. "… Oh… But why are you here Chloe?"

I looked at Derek, standing straight with the lines of his body strong and could see the slight tremble in his posture. It was taking an enormous amount of effort for him to stay standing in front of Simon. I could tell Simon that Derek was scared of being alone, that I understood because I had a question mark by my name too, that I didn't know what my body was going to do next just like Derek. But seeing him spending all the effort just to stay straight, to look like nothing too out of the ordinary was going on was enough for me to know he didn't want Simon to know he was scared. Probably some guy code thing.

"It's pretty messy, and while it's going on Derek can't really watch his back. I've seen it before so it doesn't really bother me and I can keep an eye out."

"I can watch his back." Simon said softly.

"Go Simon." Derek took a shaking step back into deeper shadows. "Chloe already thinks I'm a monster, but you shouldn't see this." When Simon opened his mouth again to argue Derek said softly. "Please."

Simon snapped his mouth shut and with an enormous effort nodded once and turned around.

As soon as I couldn't hear his footsteps anymore I rushed over just in time to catch Derek as his knees gave out. Which didn't really work since I weigh a hundred nothing and Derek weighs at least twice that. I did manage to slow him down though so his knees and hands could catch himself safely. When he was steady I eased from under his arm, getting out of firing range in the nick of time as he twisted around a tree and vomited. He hadn't eaten anything so it was just a round of stomach acid followed by dry heaves. He dragged himself back fully into the clearing with as much help from me as I could give and went back to kneeling as his spine twisted and pulled like it was trying to escape from his body.

He alternated between dry heaves and coughing, both sounded painful like his lungs were joining the mutinous effort started by his back. His coughing drowned out the gasp I heard from the woods and I looked up to see Simon, who was looking at his brother horrified. He didn't back away though, he started to take a step forward but winced as Derek's body jack-knifed up with the crunching of bones grinding together. I could see that Simon's biggest problem wasn't his brother changing into something else—which was Derek's fear—but watching the boy he'd grown up with in this much pain.

I shook my head as he started to take a step. He looked at my face and something he saw there stopped him, he blinked a few times like he was waking up from a dream. Then he mouthed "thank you" and nodded at Derek, I felt my face soften and I dipped my head in acknowledgement as he turned and walked quietly away.

I went to my back pack and pulled out my Derek-related-emergency kit. First was a big bottle of water, a small first-aid kit and a wool blanket. I folded the blanket in half next to him and sat on it before pouring some of the water onto my bandanna and gently wiping the sweat off his face and his hair out of his eyes. His eyes shot open in surprise as the damp cloth touched him, locking onto mine. I blushed but didn't look away.

"I'm sorry, the water's cold."

He shook his head and bit back a groan as his fingers drew back and curled over into pads, black claws pushing out from under his fingernails. If someone paid me ten million dollars I still couldn't get an effect nearly as eerie on film. With a sickening crunch the bones on his face started to lengthen and change, fur pushing out as he broke eye contact and ducked his head. I realized that my breath was short and I was afraid, which was why Derek had looked away. Chloe, the last person who could look him in the face and not see the monster had failed him.

I put my hands on his neck and tucked his head under my chin. With him kneeling on all fours and me standing on my knees it was the only way his head could be under mine.

"You're not a monster." I whispered. "I get scared for you. I don't like seeing you hurt like this." I knew it was true as I said it. I couldn't be afraid of Derek, he had saved me too many times to hurt me now.

When he looked up and saw that there was no fear of him in my face, only fear for him, his eyes shifted, becoming truly wolf. I ran my hands over his neck as he put his head back down on my shoulder. Fur split across his entire body and I murmured nonsensical things as the skin under my hands grew soft.

It ended abruptly, the fur sucking back and the bones sliding into their original places, leaving him collapsed and gasping for breath. I wiped down his face again and found something extremely surprising, something I'd missed before because it was too dark or we were in danger. As the wind blew the tree branches apart and shafts of light fell across his body I saw that Derek's hair was as soft as his undercoat of fur had been and his skin was as clear as a toddler's.

I understood then. I understood Derek in that instant. His body was literally rejecting his human half and had been since he hit puberty. I felt for him since getting my period was what triggered my powers. I was also sure that when Derek completed his change and gave the wolf free reign for a little while he could find a balance between his two natures instead of constantly fighting both.

Oh Derek I thought and sighed, brushing his hair back as he rested on the cold ground. You and me are all kinds of messed up inside.