Chapter 10

Disclaimer: I do not own DP

AN: Okay! I'm seriously sorry for the long break, but I got my fingers slammed in a car door so writing right now is tough. Plus I'm trying to balance school, work, and social life.

Previously….

We stood there for what felt like forever. When my legs started to grow tired I headed back to my tent, Derek needed his own space to cope with the loss of his siblings. Me hanging around him asking if he was okay every two seconds was not going to help if he needed me he knew where to find me. I just hoped with every part of my being that they would show up, safe and sound.

Week 17

"One-hundred-and-nineteen.," I whispered as I dug the sharpened rock into the worn out tree. Has it really been that long? I looked up to observe the markings, each one different, some were messy and sloppy while others barely seemed to go past the surface. It was easy to see which one Derek had done, they were deep and angry, I don't know if he took out his frustrations on the tree or if it was just because of his strength. Probably both.

I looked out past the tree and observed as Derek waddled knee-deep into the ocean, holding his handmade spear stick with intense concentration. I noticed the way his head would move slightly as the waves receded, and if I were closer I could probably see his eyes following the fish he was trying to catch.

I sat there and watched him push his overgrown hair away from his face for the millionth time. He was skinnier than when we first got here, but he somehow still looked…healthy. His skin had a deep olive hue that really brought out his eyes, a part of me was envious of how easily his body took in the heat while I just burned. If my math was right, then it had to be July now and the weather was just going to keep on getting hotter. What if we were here during the winter? Does it snow here? Probably not, but the nights were already cold enough, who knows how it'll be by then…

"How long?" Derek's grumbled, I snapped out of my brief panic and squinted up at him. You would think with his height he would have the decency to stand in front of me so he was blocking the sun, but no. After a couple of awkward seconds of my mind trying o figure out what he was referring to, Derek did me a solid and pointed to the tree with his infamous impatient look.

I wish I could say that things have improved between us, but they haven't. We've just learned to live on our own and kind of avoid each other. If there's a fight, Derek goes up by the cliff for a couple of days and only comes down to fish.

"Oh, uh… one-hundred-and-nineteen …. so sixteen weeks," I whispered looking down at the sand. He always found a way to make me feel stupid.

"Seventeen." He grunted as he sat down beside me, which caught me by surprise, he typically avoided me at all costs, especially if his fishing adventures were unsuccessful.

"What?"

"One hundred and nineteen days ….makes seventeen weeks," he said as he looked out into the ocean.

"Is that not what I said?"
"Nope, you said sixteen." He rushed. You see what I mean? I misspoke and he had to correct me, and sure it wouldn't have been such a big deal if he didn't do it with everything! If I started a fire differently than he does, he had to stop me and show me the right way. Or if I went off the path to find more berries he'd say I was being stupid and reckless, and insist on having me go back on the path.

Sometimes just being near him pissed me off, it felt as if he was judging how I sat or how many breaths I took. Maybe, I'm just paranoid, but can you really blame me? Derek made me second guess everything I did, he made me feel helpless.

I abruptly stood up, dusting the sand off of my butt and turned towards the woods.

"Where are you going?" he asked without turning towards me. I blew out a rush of hot air and clenched my jaw.

"Just going to," I waved my hand towards the path that leads to the waterfall. "I'm going swimming."

"There's an ocean right in front of you, why are you going to the waterfall?" I softly let out a string of curse words and automatically clamped my mouth shut. I couldn't help it, and I tried my best to muffle it, but -pants —who surprisingly has the worlds best hearing—clearly heard it.

"What?"

"Nothing," I mumbled, but he thought it was something. I watched in annoyance as he quickly over towered me and raised an eyebrow.

"Chloe, we might not like each other, but I think the mature thing to do would be to at least try and be friends—"

"That is classic! Especially coming from you!"
"I'm not following," his dark brows knitted together as he looked down at me in utter confusion. Of course, he wouldn't think what he was doing was out of the ordinary, he's clueless!

"Derek, you're the one who has been avoiding me ever since Tori and Simon left! I had nothing to do with their disappearance and quite frankly I thought it would have been smarter too, I don't know, become closer I guess. To learn to stick together, but instead, you hid in your little campsite up the mountain and left me to take care of everything else!"

"Chloe, I think you're old enough—" I let out a frustrated scream and took off into the woods. That may have just proven his point that maybe I'm not mature enough to act my age… Of course, I knew how to take care of myself, but not everyone took the how-to-survive-on-an-island course in school!

I quickly stopped when I came to the fork in the paths, I could go to the lake, but then it'd be easier for him to find me… if he even wanted to look. Of course, this island isn't that big so it really wouldn't be hard for him to find me eventually. So instead I walked passed the lake and past the path to the cliff.

I walked as far as my legs could physically take me which wasn't as far as I would have liked. After my fiftieth trip over a branch I had to take a break, I was surprised at how winded I had become at that last fall. Yeah, let's blame the fall and ignore the fact that I am very out of shape.

Once my breathing came back to normal I realized how hungry I was, I don't even remember the last time I actually ate something. I skipped out on dinner and let Derek have the small fish he caught, it felt wrong taking something I wouldn't have liked. Plus, Derek needed it more than I did, he was bigger and I could easily survive off of the berries. But as of right now, I was starving and it would be foolish to crawl back to the campsite right now.

Okay, Chloe, you can find some food on your own, you don't need Derek for everything!

Of course, I don't, but I've never been this far away from the campsite and I have no idea if any of these berries are edible. I slowly headed toward the bush that looked similar to the ones that the dark berries grow on, they looked about the same. They were a little fuzzier, but that could have just been from not enough sunlight. I stared at it as if willing it to tell me if it was poisonous or not, but no answers from above came. All I got was another loud grumble from my stomach. I squeezed my eyes shut and chewed fast, there was no turning back now.

Look on the bright side, if it was poisonous then I just got an expressway off this island and Derek won't have to worry about me!

Well, that was dark. I shuddered and opened my eyes, the berry tasted the same as the ones near the lake so I'm just going to assume that they're safe. I pulled the bottom of my shirt out and made a small pouch for the berries and plucked as many as I dared.

Once I was satisfied with the size of the pouch, I stood up and headed towards the river… or where I hoped the river was. The landmarks didn't look familiar at all, but I surpassingly wasn't worried, I was completely content with just eating my berries and walking in the woods.

It was like my body knew what I needed before my brain told me on how to do it because I somehow reached the lake safe and sound. I plopped myself down on a rock and dipped my feet in, which had become sore from all that walking.

I don't know how long I sat there staring at the waterfall, it was not long ago that all four of us were here having fun. Sure, I wasn't too happy about being thrown in but I would give anything to see Simon and Tori safe. "Damn it!" I hissed as the last of my berries fell into the water, I giggled as I watched them sink to the bottom. I felt warm all over, kinda like the sun was giving me a big, warm hug.

"Are you going to just sit here all night?" Derek boomed, I looked at me and frowned.

"How…" I looked around in confusion, how did he find me? I could have sworn I was hidden from him!

"Chloe?"

"Yeah?" I looked over at him and smiled if he wasn't so mean looking all the time he could be cute.

"Where did you go?"

"I've been here this whole time, Derek!" He frowned and stepped forward, looking between me and the water.

"Come back to the campsite so we can talk, please?" H asked quietly, I had to strain to hear it. I frowned and stood upon the rock which made me about the same height as him.

"Under one condition!"

"What?"

"You have to stop being a douche!" I declared into the forest and giggled after—my voice sounded hilarious. Derek frowned and then nodded, I took what I could get and followed him back to the camp. every five seconds or so I would catch him looking back at me, I don't know why. Anyone could hear me stomping my way through the woods if they tried to.

"I'm…" I stopped walking and put my hands up on my hips, I wanted to tell him that I wasn't going anywhere, but for some reason, it just wasn't coming out correctly. This seemed to have worried Derek, he was looking down at me with great confusion. "I'm not, uh, I'm not gonna be going anywhere… without you." I raised a brow and hoped he understood. But maybe that sounded too weird? He just stared at me for a long time, his face not showing an ounce of emotion. Was I speaking English?

"Chloe, did you eat anything out there?" I followed the direction of his long arm as it pointed towards the woods.

"That is where I went, yes!"

"No, Chloe, that's not what I asked!"

"You're very grumpy!"

"You're acting weird! Did you eat anything out there?" I tried to look back into the woods but I felt his hand on my chin pulling my face back to his. His eyes searched mine and they began to fill with worry, his hand traveled from my chin to the tiny nook of my neck and jaw.

"What are you doing?"

"Your heart is racing, what did you do?"

"I'm fine!" I blushed and pushed his hand away, I knew he was thinking that it was racing because of my odd behavior. In reality, it was most likely from Derek touching me —not that I like him in that way— it's been weeks since I've been touched at all.

"What did you do when you were in the woods?"

"I walked, and then I fell so I sat there, I think I hurt my leg again," I looked down at my bruised leg and noticed the purple stains on my shirt. "Oh! I ate berries too!" I held out my shirt to him showing off the stains.

"Where did you get them?"

"I'm not stupid, Derek! They were the same kind of berries we eat daily, god you treat me like a kid!"

"That's because you act like one!"

"I do not…" I whimpered and looked down the sand, okay maybe I do, but I never really had a chance to act like one, I had to grow up fast.

"Chloe, do you feel alright?"

"I feel happy! You should try it sometime!"

"Jesus," Derek let out a long sigh and turned towards the water placing his hands behind his head.

"You should just go with the flow, stop worrying about everything so much, you know?" I tried to elegantly sit down but my body moved faster than I anticipated and I ended up plopping awkwardly onto the sand.

"Chloe," he turned back to me and gave me a cold stare. "If I went with the flow we would be dead a long time ago!"

"Oh quit being overdramatic!" I snapped. He was probably right though, he was the -[rr[one who taught all of us how to survive. If he wasn't so uptight and on a tight schedule we'd all would have starved or froze to death. Okay, maybe not froze but without the shelters, it would have been a hundred time more miserable.

We fell silent for awhile, each of us just staring at the water. Wouldn't he be happier if he didn't have to worry about poor Chloe getting lost in the woods or falling off the cliff on accident? He'd be happier if I was poisoned, he could focus on finding his siblings by himself with no extra baggage.

"Chloe, what berries did you eat? These are not the same as the ones we eat every morning. You don't act like this!"

"Why do you care? I perfectly fin—" I felt myself sway and a tight knot forming in the pit of my stomach. Great.

"Tell me where you found the berries! This could be serious!" He grabbed my shoulders forcing me to look at him. His eyebrows were furrowed and his green eyes looked wild… but so pretty.

"I'm fine! I just… got dizzy," I finally said quickly breaking the prolonged eye contact. The warm buzz was no longer there and fatigue quickly took its place, maybe something was wrong with me. It made no sense though I ate the berries we always eat! I felt my eyelids begin to grow heavy and it felt like my head just got five hundred pounds heavier.

"Chloe?" I felt strong hands shake my shoulder gently trying to pull me out of my daydream haze. But it was no use, my brain felt as if I was treading through a word of cotton. It was too painful to keep my eyes open, the sun was just too bright for me. I could feel myself falling asleep and no matter how hard I tried to fight it I ended up losing.

I knew before I even opened my eyes that I wasn't in the same place where I fell asleep. I was warm, and I could no longer hear the ocean or feel the shelter sway from the wind. I could hear a faint beeping coming from above me and if I tried really hard I could hear people bickering in the distance. Where the hell was I?

I pried my eyes open to just be blinded by even more light and no matter how many times I blinked it wasn't getting any better. Why on earth was it so bright? When I tried to bring my hands up to my eyes they wouldn't move past my elbow.

There was movement to my right causing me to stop moving, I tried to hear what was going on but my heart racing seemed to deafen me. All I could hear was a slight squeak and footsteps, whatever it was it was getting closer.

"Ms. Saunders? Can you hear me?" I jumped at the sound of the female voice right by my ear.

"Y-yeah, w-where am I?" I looked towards the voice and tried to open my eyes again but it was no use. I was still blinded.

"Just relax, you're safe and sound," a loud wail came from near the voice, it almost sounded like a baby crying. The voice hushed along with the crying and began humming Daydream Believer. Soon enough it stopped as did the humming.

"W-what was that?"

"It's okay, just sit back and relax," I did as she said and I felt my hand being guided towards something to my right. It was placed on top of something soft and moving, I tried to pull it away but the it was as if it was stuck in place. Someone else was here, I could feel it.

"Chloe?" I recognized the voice, I grew up around it…. but I couldn't put my finger on who it was. "Chloe, you should have know better than to get yourself in this mess!" The thing under my hand started to squirm even more, it was making sounds that sounded awfully close to what a baby would sound like. What mess was it talking about?

The person squeezed my arm so tight that it caused the wailing to start up again, I tried to pull my arm back but its grasp was too strong. I could feel its hot breath against my face as if it was leaning in closer.

"It's a bad idea, just forget it ever happened and move on!" It clicked and I spun towards the voice.

"Aunt Lauren?"

I startled awake, shaking my head at the invisible intruder. I brought my hands up to my face and slowly made my way to my eyes. They were still there and so was my vision. I was fine. It was just a terrible nightmare!

Once my eyes adjusted to the dark I was able to see that I was no alone in the tent. In the opening Derek sat with his back to me, but I could tell that his chin was rested on the top of his knees. He probably fell asleep like that and who knows how long I've been asleep for. Why was he sitting there though? He could have easily sat by the fire or even in his own tent.

"Are you hungry?" He grumbled, I jumped and placed my hand on my chest. How the hell did he know I was awake? "You talk in your sleep, so I figured once you stopped talking you were up." He turned back towards me and raised a brow. Alright, that was freaky…

"Yeah, kinda…" I stood up and stretched out the knots in my back, it was completely dark now, the sun was almost past noon on the sundial —that Derek had made— when I passed out. When I sat down on a log Derek handed me a bowl of assorted fruit and some kind of almond.

I could feel him watching me as if he expected I was going to pass out again at any moment. We sat there silently eating our own food, this was unusual for him. He never ate any meal with me since Tori and Simon left. He was never this close to me for this long.

"Okay, spill it!" I said putting my bowl on the ground.

"Spill what?"

"You clearly have something to say so just spill it already!" I knew he just be fuming with my stupidity, he had hours to thoroughly thing his lecture/rant through. It was only time before he snapped.

"Chloe," he sighed. When he looked at me I felt my chest tighten and my heart start to race, the look in his eyes will haunt me forever. "I was terrified not pissed. I know I've pushed you aside and became a complete asshole towards you. But the longer we are out here the more likely we won't be found… we have to learn to coexist."

"Fine."

"Alright." He nodded and went back to eating his food silently, after awhile I couldn't stand it anymore.

"What was it like begin adopted? When I say that I mean, was it hard to feel like you belonged in that family when you weren't… uh born into it." I asked. I was surprised when he gave me a small smile, it was so tiny that I almost missed it.

"Tori was pretty tough to get through to, but Simon and I were good friends from day one and that quickly formed into a tight bond. Which I think pissed Tori off even more than me just being there. I don't remember much of the adoption process, but I never felt like an outside of my family."

"What was it like growing up with siblings?"

"Hectic, there was a lot of arguing and feuds that I needed up in the middle of somehow. I remember this one time Tori thought it would be a good idea to try to eliminate me from the family." He chuckled and shook his head.

"What?"

"She pushed me off the roof when we were younger, it was over something about Simon wanting to be my partner instead of hers." He waved his hand aside as if his sister trying to kill him was a normal occurrence.

"That's messed up!"

"Tori is sick, her brain doesn't function like ours. She has multiple personality disorder, off her meds she is a loose cannon… she'd do something and then the next day completely forget about it." I thought back to that time in the woods when she kept saying Derek and I were going to get together…. was that one of her episodes?

"She probably did try to kill you when she gave you those berries, but what did you expect Simon and I to do? She was off her meds, we looked after her more closely after that." We fell into an awkward silence, I felt horrible for feeling anger towards Tori even though she was missing, but I mean, she tried to kill me!

"So why did you want to become a doctor? I mean, I was told that you put school before family."

"I'm guess Tori told you that?"

"My sources are classified."

"I never planned on graduating early, I was just too far ahead to be challenged mentally in high school. So I started college courses and when I turned sixteen I enrolled into NYU, got in, and graduated from that at eighteen. I would be done my asters degree by now if we weren't stuck here." He sighed and pushed his hair out of his face, he avoided looking at me and stared intensely into the fire.

"Why did you rush it though? Isn't college suppose to be where you find your life long friends and find who you really are?"

"Sure, if you're into all that cheesy crap. I got in some trouble my sophomore year in high school and after that I just tried to make my dads life easier by just sticking to school. I never realized I was pushing them away until I brought Sam home…" He shuddered. I'm not sure if it was because he was going to marry Sam or the reaction his family had of her. i wasn't going to be the one to ask.

"What would you do with your degree?"

"I wanted to work in a lab, do experiments—it's kinda like school but you get paid to do shit." I watched the corner of his lips twist up in a half smile, his canine teeth catching the light from the fire. "I could become a professor but I'm not much of a people person."

"Clearly."

"Thanks," he grumbled as he stood up and stretched, his worn out shirt riding up showing his happy trail. I stood up and headed towards my tent, even though I had just woken up from my long ass nap, I still felt exhausted.

"Night." I mumbled and quickly ducked in. Hopefully the rest of the night will give me uneventful dreams.

"Cheer up, sleepy Jean," I mumbled as I weaved in another white flower into the branch braid I had just made, it would be a nice decoration for my tent. As much as I hate to admit it, Derek was right. We've been here for almost four months and we haven't seen one sign of someone looking for us, they probably stopped the search party two weeks after the crash. There was nothing to do that we already haven't done.

There was not much to do on the island as it is, Ive already gone swimming twice and went hiking up to the cliff. It got boring real fast, what I would do to just have a journal with me. Do you know how many stories I could have written by now? A lot.

"Damn it!" I jumped and looked out into the ocean, Derek was wadding out of the water dripping wet. I couldn't help but laugh, once again a fish got the best of him.

"What happened?" I tried to stifle a laugh, but was unsuccessful.

"I slipped after I caught the damn fish and accidentally let it go!" He plopped down on one of the logs beside me and peeled off his shirt. I looked away and poured my attention onto the braid, I'm not sure why, I've seen Derek shirtless before.

"What are we going to do for dinner then?" I asked as I tied another flower onto a branch.

"Well, hopefully we have some squirrels in one of the traps or it's gonna be a fruit night." He wrung out the excess water of his shirt and then hung it up on a branch above the fire. "I'll be back," he left and I watched until he disappeared into the woods.

He wasn't gone long before he came back with three dead squirrels, and a bowl full of fruit. As much as I hated killing innocent animals, I was tired of eating berries and plants, I needed some sort of meat and this was the closest thing I was going to get right now.

As Derek skinned the meat I went for a walk on the beach, it was nice during the sunset plus, I hated the skinning part. In the distance I spotted a tiny black creature making its way to the water, I instantly froze when I realized what it was. The baby turtles! I couldn't help it but I let out a girly squeal and ran towards the nest, has it really been that long?

"Chloe?" Derek boomed from around the rocks, his face looked panic stricken, but I was too excited about the eggs hatching.

"The babies! They're here!" I pointed to the hole in the ground and smiled, his response was to just roll his eyes and turn back around. "Derek! C'mon, it's once in a lifetime experience!" I ran back to him to try and catch up.

"Then how come you're seeing it again?"

"I don't know, maybe because I almost died twice? Come watch it with me, please!"

"I have to get the food prepared, unless you just—"

"The dead squirrels will be there when it's done, please watch with me? Simon would have if he was still here, I don't want to do it alone!" I met his eyes and tried my best at the whole puppy dog eye shindig, I'm not sure if it worked or not, his face was emotionless.

"Fine." He grunted after a while, I smiled and took his arm and lead him towards the hole in the ground. We were just in time to see the rest of the turtles coming out of their shells and making it to the sandy surface. I walked along the path with the turtles and followed them until the all reached the water, Derek stood and observed.

I slowly made my way back to the shore, it wasn't the same as last time, I stopped next to Derek and looked back at the disappearing turtles. A part of me felt saddened by what was happening, Simon should have been here with us. He loved it last time. I missed both of them so much and I never thought I would ever feel that way to someone outside my family.

"I'm pretty sure they're fine," Derek whispered.

"The turtles? Yeah, they're born to do this stuff." I looked up at the darkening sky and tried to force the tears back.

"No, I meant Tori and Simon, they're safe."

"You're horrible at lying."

"Well it's a good thing I never went to law school." I chuckled and followed him back to the fire. In a way I guess that was my goodbye to Simon, as much as I hate to think about it that way. I want to believe that they're safe and sound and looking for us, but it was impractical. They had no idea where the island was and there's also a chance of them not surviving that long on that tiny raft.