A/N: Sorry about not writing for a while. My ex broke up with me a few days before Valentine's but I have a new bf. I just haven't been very motivated to write lately. Thanks for sticking with me, those of you who don't hate me.

Something Like That

Chapter Ten

Chloe stared unflinchingly back at her dark-haired friend, ignoring Tori's obvious reluctance to talk about the refusal to talk Derek. "He's your brother. How can you pretend he doesn't exist? I've known you since, what, high school?" she demanded, clenching her fists to stay calm, the prick of her nails against her palm keeping her level-headed.

Tori's dark-rimmed eyes narrowed. "Because, Chloe, he hates us. He's not our actual brother. My dad adopted him when he was five, and he wasn't the most pleasant kid. He was a dick even then and he still is, but now..." Her normally loud voice trailed as she sighed and rubbed her face, smudging her eyeliner. "He can still be a dick but I'm worried about him."

"Tori, that doesn't explain—" Chloe tried to say, her voice high-pitched around the lump in her throat, but Tori shot her a dark glare and she quieted.

"Like I said, he was a pretty anti-social kid, since my dad adopted him and probably even before that. It didn't get too bad until the puberty smackdown and then high school; he didn't have any friends and everyone absolutely hated him. He was two years ahead of us, so we didn't see him that much, and he was working at some construction sight with his bio dad."

"Zachary?" Chloe asked.

Tori nodded, crossed her legs, uncrossed them, and then sat back. "Yeah, he keeps in contact with Zachary all the time. Even when he was real little, they talked every day. Kit didn't want Derek to think his dad abandoned him, even though he basically did. Sounds like Diane, right?" It wasn't a secret that Tori's mom had bailed after she gave birth and skipped town; it also wasn't a secret that Tori was resentful over it either. She plowed on.

"Anyway, he went underground after he graduated and no one could get a hold of him. It was hell; my dad was pissed about it. We quit talking about him after that because it just made my dad think he was a shitty parent. Plus, why bother trying to reach out if Derek wants to be a hermit and won't even read anyone's texts? But, after he got deployed the first time and came back, he started calling every day and my dad blew up at first. He went absolutely ballistic! I've never seen my dad go so red-faced; I thought he'd have a stroke."

Chloe shifted in her seat, ignoring the way her thighs stung when she peeled them away from the hot cushion, sweat slithering down her spine, dampening her blouse. "So Derek went solo and disappeared? Why would he do that?"

"I don't know," Tori replied sheepishly. "He gave no signs, nothing, and then poof! He was up and gone in the wind like some sort of James Bond. But, enough about that. Where was I? Oh, yeah. He got deployed maybe half a year after he started calling and came back...different. Didn't talk as much and you've seen him. Isn't much of a talker to begin with, am I right? He called even more but didn't really talk; it was kind of like trying to have a conversation with a brick wall."

Chloe readjusted herself again, this time getting up from her chair to cross the room and adjust the ac.

"I'd catch him staring off into the distance like he's zonked out, you know? I didn't think too much about it until he came back from this deployment. The last two were okay, I guess, but this one..." Tori twisted the edge of her skirt, smoothed out the wrinkles, and looked out the window, tendrils of hair curtaining her face.

"He came back like a shell. Didn't talk to anyone except my dad. Even Simon doesn't know why he came back all zombie-fied, and he's Derek's only friend. I'm scared he'll—you know," she murmured, her voice weak and tiny in comparison to her normally raspy, easily-heard-above-a-room one, and then her head turned, a slant of sunlight cutting across her almond eyes, and Chloe saw how glossy her eyes were, smudging her eyeliner.

"I'm scared, Chloe, that he's suffering, we can't help him, and he's going to kill himself. We wouldn't know what to do if that happened," she whispered brokenly.

Chloe pushed the box of Kleenex towards her. "Have you tried asking him?"

"You think I haven't? He refuses to talk about it! He just glares and walks away like I'm not worth his fucking time!" Tori yelled suddenly, jarring Chloe with the abrupt mood change.

"I'm sure he'll talk about it when he's ready," the shorter woman said lightly.

"When the fuck would that be?" the dark-haired woman hissed, her voice low and venomous. How Tori could go from crying to seething in seconds always surprised Chloe.

"I can't say when. Everyone's different. Even then, I can't tell you; I'd be breaking doctor-patient confidentiality, and his fragile trust," Chloe explained soothingly, setting the box on her knees and plucking a tissue to hand to her friend.

"I'm sorry, Chloe. I'm just so angry he won't open up to you," Tori groaned, scrubbing her face hard enough to give herself raccoon eyes with smudged eyeshadow and eyeliner.

"He needs time to heal. To cope. To accept what ever happened to him. I know it took me years to stop thinking everyone was the R-word," the blonde replied, hoping to establish a personal link between her and Tori by shedding a bit of perspective on the subject.

The receptionist scrunched up the tissue, wet it a bit with the dusty glass of water Chloe had forgotten to dump, and rubbed the smudged makeup from around her eyes. "I know, but I want to know he won't be another PTSD soldier that kills himself. That would devastate everyone, even Zach," she muttered defeatedly.

"We have to wait and see how thing unfold, Tori. If we push him, he'll clam up." She glanced at the time. "How about I take you out? Just you and me, some girl time?"

Tori looked up, one eye clear of her ruined makeup, and pursed her lips. "Will you pay?"

Chloe stood up, ignoring the several layers of skin that undoubtedly tore off when she did, and reached for her purse. "Of course. I'm taking you to a neat little place I found in sophomore year. My treat."

"Lemme fix my other eye and then we can go." There was a slight spark in Tori's eyes and Chloe let out a relieved breath.

She hope, for everyone's sake, that she would be able to get Derek to open up about what happened to him to make him clam up so much.