A/N: To all my readers who have been making me blush with your lovely compliments, I give you Chapter Three a day earlier than planned. And yes, things are actually going to start happening soon. But mostly I'm going to fixate on Derek some more.

Disclaimer: Nothing here belongs to me, except maybe Jeff and Carol. But I'll trade them for Derek--a two for one special.

Chapter Three: Never Not Fine

That he would ever think about hurting—no. Never. Almost any other person? Maybe. But never Simon. His brother, his best friend. Hell, the only real friend he's had until Chloe. And Chloe…he apparently needed to stay far, far away from Chloe.

Chloe was nervous. Worse yet, Derek was making her nervous, which she thought wasn't possible anymore. Watch a guy sprout fur and fangs, and you should pretty much be immune to his weirdness; however, she hadn't counted on walking in on…whatever that just was.

She sat down at the table and looked over to where he was clearly ignoring her. His eyes were on his bowl, but she had a feeling he saw something very different. He was perfectly still save for deep, deliberate-looking breaths. Were this anyone other than Derek Souza she would have said he was afraid. Which left only one possible reason for his odd behavior—the Change. He did seem a little pale, that being unusual enough in itself to concern her. He wasn't scratching, though, and as for the muscle spasms…She noticed for the first time just how thin his shirt was. The contours of his shoulders and biceps were clearly defined, for once not buried under a baggy sweatshirt. It was, quite frankly, distracting.

"What?"

Mortified that he caught her checking him out, Chloe wrenched her eyes back to his face. Judging by his glare, he wasn't happy to be stared at, so she desperately to think up an acceptable reason. "Oh, I just—" Please don't let my face be red, please. "The Change," she blurted out. "I mean, are you having symptoms again?"

Derek automatically looked down to where his arm rested on the table, but the muscles were still. Tense, but motionless. His glare immediately smoothed out into the habitual blank look as he got to his feet and carried his bowl to the sink. "No, it's probably too soon after the last time. Anyway, I'm fine." He left without another look her way.

Chloe watched him go, mostly concerned but—being honest with herself—also a little hurt by his dismissal. She'd learned early on not to take Derek's attitude personally. She had hoped, though, that they'd moved beyond that. After everything they've gone through so far…and after the dream she'd had last night… Right. My subconscious is not his problem. She mentally slapped herself for being too sensitive. Besides, it wasn't like he wasn't rude to Simon all the time.

Andrew came into the kitchen just then with a cheerful "good morning" although his smile looked a little forced.

"Morning, Andrew." Chloe got stuck after the greeting. Now that they weren't in immediate danger of being captured by the Edison Group, she felt nothing but awkwardness with someone who was essentially a stranger to her. What does someone say post-kidnapping? Nice to see you not being held at gunpoint? Thankfully, Andrew was apparently better versed at these kinds of situations and had no problem with small talk.

"Simon is getting dressed, and obviously Derek is up and about, but I think Tori is still sleeping."

"She said last night that she had no intention of getting up until noon. That's why she chose the room at the other end from us. And also because it's the biggest," she added with a shrug.

"Definitely Diane's offspring, then," Andrew muttered.

"You know Tori's mom?" Chloe asked. Then she remembered Andrew had been involved with the Edison Group once upon a time. "Oh, well, of course you do. Sorry. Stupid question."

Andrew laughed. "That's alright. Believe me, I try hard to forget it, myself."

"What about Tori's dad? Did you know him, too?" Chloe couldn't help but fish for information, though she greatly doubted he would come right out and say something revealing. If he even knew, that is. Sure enough, Andrew made some generic comment about never meeting Diane's husband before making his break from the group. Then Simon walked in and the subject changed to pancakes versus scrambled eggs. Content with her own breakfast, Chloe was about to leave when an older woman joined them.

Her name was Carol Brannenburg, and she was a witch like Tori. Or, rather…bad comparison, Chloe thought. Carol was as different from Tori as a hamster was from a Tasmanian devil. She was pudgy and wrinkled, looked to be in her sixties. She had a face like anyone's grandmother, though she kept her hair long and dyed an unrealistic shade of yellow. She was nice enough, though, and the caretaker of the safe house, so Chloe felt it would be rude to leave just then.

Andrew started a pot of coffee while he and Carol struck up that kind of inane conversation adults do when they're trying to be friendly with people they don't know. So have you lived in the area long? Oh, yes, my family relocated after the war. It's a beautiful house. The traffic in town these days is just too much. I think it's going to warm up next week. Oh, just tea for me, thanks. You should really see the gardens. And with that the two of them went out back as if this were a vacation at a B & B instead of an emergency refuge from some seriously twisted scientists. Chloe wasn't sure what to think about that.

"You sure you don't want any eggs?" Simon came over with a loaded plate in one hand. Cradled in his other arm were a jar of strawberry jam, a precariously full glass of orange juice, some paper napkins, and a fistful of silverware. He sat across the table from her and carefully unloaded his breakfast. "There's still some in the pan."

"I'm fine, thanks. I had cereal already."

"Seen Derek? He wasn't in his room."

"He was here earlier. Went upstairs a few minutes ago."

"That must be who's in the shower, then. Thought maybe Tori."

"No, Tori's still asleep." For some reason, talking with Simon about Derek in the shower made her uncomfortable. She still partially blamed him for the whole almost-naked-Derek-as-the-Terminator-complete-with-bulging-muscles fiasco. Not that she'd ever tell Simon that. In fact, a small voice of reason told her she was better off just not talking about anything relating to Derek without clothes. "What about the other guy, the other supernatural that's here?"

"Jeff? Haven't seen him. I think he has that other room down by Tori."

When they had arrived yesterday, Chloe had been too worn out to pay much attention to introductions. She remembered that Jeff McSomething was a half-demon of one kind or another. Also that he was a short man, fairly plain-looking, which was something she could sympathize with, especially since she kept thinking a half-demon was supposed to look, well, demonic.

Simon picked up his butter knife and started to reach for the strawberry jam. Without thinking, Chloe took it before he could and pulled it away. Simon looked up at her in surprise, and she blushed a little when she realized what she'd just done. "I, um, don't think you're supposed to have that."

"Aw c'mon, Chloe. You're obviously spending too much time around my brother. It's not like a little jam is going to put me in a coma."

Chloe wavered, feeling foolish, especially when Simon gave her one of his charming smiles and held out his hand for the jar. She was about to pass it back when another, much larger hand plucked it out her grip. A few weeks ago, she might have jumped at the sudden presence, but now she just looked up at Derek. Simon scowled as his brother began to walk away with the jar. A few steps past Derek stopped, came back, took three of Simon's four slices of toast plus the butter knife, and continued on.

"Hey, I'm starving here," Simon called over his shoulder. Derek just grunted in response and rummaged around the cabinets. He came back over to the table, taking his former seat with a cup of coffee and the toast, generously slathered with jam. He set a grapefruit next to Simon's plate. "You suck," Simon said.

Chloe, for her part, was trying to not be obvious as she looked Derek over. He didn't look at her, which wasn't that unusual. And he acted like nothing had happened earlier, which was expected. His hair was still wet from his shower, but he was wearing the same shirt as earlier. She wasn't used to seeing him in short sleeves and had a hard time not eying the muscles of his arms and shoulders. She tried telling herself she was just looking for telltale spasms, but his face showed no signs of fever, and she knew he was right about not changing in the immediate future.

"—all the more reason, then. What do you think, Chloe?"

"I—What?"

"If the Edison people aren't expecting us to go on the offensive, we need to hit them now," Simon explained. "They won't be ready for it."

"And neither will we," Derek cut in with a frown. "They're going to expect us to run and hide, so we have time to come up with a plan. A real plan," he emphasized when Simon looked to interrupt. "And we ought to use that time to prepare ourselves. Practice our abilities. And Chloe, Simon can show you some self-defense like we talked about."

That idea was enough to quiet Simon's protests. Chloe herself was all too happy to put off storming a well-secured, secret facility with a handful of teenagers. However, the reminder that Derek himself didn't want to teach her how to fight irritated her. She felt…unwanted. Like when Brent Matthews had started avoiding her at school because he thought she had a crush on him.

"What did you have in mind," she finally asked.

"Andrew's called in the other supernaturals he told us about. They're going to meet up with us here. In the meantime, Simon, Andrew can help you with the location spell to find Dad. Maybe even teach you some new ones. We could probably ask Carol to work with Tori on her magic, too."

"What about us?" Chloe asked him. "You said werewolves and necromancers are rare, right? So is anyone going to help us with our powers?"

Derek looked uncertain for a moment but hid it quickly behind his usual, impatient glower. "We'll ask Andrew about that. He may know another necro you could talk to."

"And you?"

"Don't worry about me. The Change will come along on its own. No training needed, there." He shared a look with her, for once revealing enough for her to catch of note of bitterness. And fear.

"It's the Pack, isn't it?" she asked.

Derek's expression tightened, especially when Simon perked up, sensing things not being said.

"I don't know what you're talking about," he said. And clearly didn't want to.

Well, too flipping bad, she thought, inexplicably annoyed with him.

"The Syracuse Pack? What about them?" Simon looked from one to the other, confused.

Chloe turned to Simon. "Derek's going to forgo getting help with the Change because they might hurt him for being on their territory."

"Would they really? I thought that was just hype."

"I don't need help with the Change," Derek glared at them both before focusing back on her. "It happens involuntarily, so it's not like I could do it wrong. You've seen that for yourself. Besides, I thought you wanted me to stay away from the Pack."

"And I thought you didn't believe what Liam said about them," she shot back.

"Wait, who's Liam?" Simon injected, but both Chloe and Derek seemed to have forgotten he was there.

"Just because no one's going to break out the chainsaws doesn't mean they'll be happy to see me. And all this is pointless because, again, I don't need help."

"You know, the tough-guy act gets old. You can't tell me you're not worried about the Changes. You're right about one thing—I've seen it myself."

"Look, Chloe, I think I've got a better idea than you about what's going on with my own body—"

"Which might be true if the whole lot of us weren't walking science experiments!"

Derek paused in whatever he was about to say, his expression softening a little. "Chloe—"

"We have no idea what they did," she said, hearing the tremor in her voice. "So it's just plain stupid for you to pull this stoic crap—" She was a little regretful when all gentler emotions were wiped away from his face, most likely due to the insult to his intelligence.

"Okay, time out," Simon stood, looking disgruntled. "As interesting as this is to watch, you two need to answer a few questions. Starting with, what the hell are you talking about? Who's Liam? And why does he have a chainsaw?"

"Not him, the Pack," Derek supplied.

"Oh, that helps. Start talking."

Neither of them answered, locked in an exchange of glares. Chloe felt her heartbeat race, surprised to have butted heads with Derek like that, but more surprised that he'd argued it out with her instead of brushing her off like usual. Maybe they'd been around Tori and Simon too long.

"Talking is probably a good idea," Andrew said from the doorway, startling her and Simon. Derek, astonishingly, also jumped a little. "We also need to start planning where to go from here. Is Tori awake yet?"

"And we should fetch Jeffrey, too," Carol added from behind him.

"I'll go check on Tori." Chloe hurried out, eager to end the staring match with Derek. Her hands were shaking and she wasn't sure where all that had come from. She'd meant what she said. Or, rather, shouted. Derek's superior attitude really got on her nerves, sometimes; however, she didn't trust that the Pack wouldn't hurt him. So why had she given him a hard time about it?

Because he keeps pushing you away, she thought suddenly. And you want to get closer.

Did she really, Chloe wondered. Did she want more from Derek than what he was giving?

The answer was starting to feel like a resounding yes.