Here again is yet another Tuesday update. Mondays are proving FAR too busy to manage to update on them. So, I'm officially giving up on that. It will be updates every TUESDAY from now on.

Still unpacking boxes in our new place. Less boxes in the house every day, but still far too many to go through.

*Looks to see if there's feedback in any of the remaining ones*

~ Chapter 8 ~

Moving Forward

Later, Simon found me in the media room. I'd grabbed the computer and was trying to calm myself down by fighting World War II. The tactics involved in the game helped to keep my mind occupied while the satisfaction of blowing things up helped to relieve some of the stress of the last few days. It wasn't as good as actually doing something physical to burn off the frustration but it was the next best thing.

My brother didn't say anything, just dropped onto the recliner and started playing on his Nintendo DS.

He was still upset with me then.

Still, his anger didn't alter the fact that I was all he had left too. It was better to be together than alone, even when we were fighting.

It was funny, there were times when I would have done anything to get Simon to shut up for ten minutes but when he did I missed the chatter. The silence stretched and I wanted to turn around and apologize. Anything to get him to talk to me again.

I didn't.

The longer he was mad at me the more likely it was that he'd accept that I was at fault for what had happened the night before. Or at least to stop actively blaming Chloe.

After a while, I heard her in the hallway, heard her pause in the doorway. Simon shifted in his seat as if he was going to get up. He'd had plenty of time to cool down and if my reading of Chloe's character was any good at all she wasn't the type to stay mad any more than he was.

He would know that I'd have heard him shifting to the edge of his seat. Would expect me to comment at least.

"If you're going for a snack, grab me a Coke," I said. I didn't turn around or in any way acknowledge that I knew Chloe was there. By making it sound as if I thought he was going for a snack I might fool him into believing that I'd been absorbed enough in my game to miss her arrival. "You know where they're hidden," I added.

Simon slouched back into his chair. Damn. He didn't buy it.

"You want a Coke, get it yourself," he muttered, sounding annoyed.

"I didn't ask you to get me one," I answered back. "I said if you were going."

"I'm not."

"Then say so already," I snapped. "What's with you tonight?"

I tried to block them both out and concentrate on my game. It was the best thing I could do for any of us at that point.

In another moment, Chloe continued down the hall.

~ 0 ~ 0 ~ 0 ~

Our room was empty when I returned from my shower that evening. Hoping for the best, I tried working on my homework until Simon finally showed a half an hour later.

He sat down on his bed without speaking.

There were only two reasons for that reticence. Either he was still extremely angry at me or he didn't know what to say. Simon never stayed really angry for long so that left option two. The best reason for that was if he were trying to pick his words in a way to avoid another fight. It didn't take much deduction to figure out where he'd been and what he'd been doing.

"Have a nice talk with Chloe?" I asked, not turning around. I heard him stiffen.

"I wasn't..." he started.

I did turn around then and gave him a look. "I'm not stupid, you've been dying to talk to her again all afternoon."

He frowned at me but shrugged his defeat. "Yeah, okay. I talked to her."

"And..."

"Why do you care?" There was only the faintest hint of his earlier anger at me.

I rolled my eyes. "I'm not mad," I told him. "So, just spill."

"Whatever," he muttered. "She listened. I showed her some stuff, spells. Well, one spell but still — magic. I convinced her that I wasn't playing around or trying to trick her or anything."

I'd have been thanking God, if I believed in Him.

"Good," I said and was annoyed at the surprised look he gave me. "Yeah, I was pissed this afternoon and said some stuff. You know me. I've got a temper. Doesn't mean I don't think she needs help pulling her head out of the sand."

"Give her some time, bro," he objected. "This isn't easy for her. I can't imagine what it must be like to suddenly find that everything you knew about the world was wrong. I mean, how would we react if someone tried to tell us that there really were little green guys in flying saucers all over the place? We grew up with this stuff, she didn't."

Actually, he did have a point. Unfortunately, I wasn't in the mood to admit it right at that moment. "So, do you think she believes you now?"

Simon made a face at my impatience. "Give her some time. Let her think about it a bit."

I bit back a growl. "She's had days to..."

Simon cut me off. "No, she hasn't. She's had days of you dogging her while she tries to decide if she believes in ghosts or not. Now she knows that I can do magic, she's seen it. She doesn't have to take it all on faith, you know?"

"Whatever," I muttered. I turned back to my homework. He might be right. Showing her a spell or two might have been exactly what this needed. A show of good faith. Besides, the fact that Simon was stepping up and taking responsibility for helping Chloe... That was better than I could have hoped for at this point.

My plan wasn't just back on track, it had taken a giant leap forward.

~ 0 ~ 0 ~ 0 ~

Tori was gleeful the next morning, telling everyone how she'd caught Chloe talking herself up in the attic the night before. Apparently, she'd woken up in the night and heard a voice upstairs. Following the sound, she'd found Chloe apparently having a conversation with thin air.

Chloe herself wasn't in class but had been called into a special meeting with Gill. Simon and I exchanged more than one look.

My brother was seriously worried. I, on the other hand, was just trying not to show how thrilled I was at this development. This was beyond perfect. Chloe was taking her talk with Simon last night seriously and she'd shown herself to be the type to go looking for answers before. So, it made sense that she'd try to find someplace private to test his conclusions about her abilities. That she was doing so so soon and without prodding meant that Simon had been more convincing the night before then I could have hoped for.

It was only Chloe's bad luck – and my good luck – that our Queen Victoria had caught her at it. Anyone else would have kept what had happened to themselves, or at least wouldn't have told the nurses. Tori, on the other hand, clearly had been unable to wait to say so.

They wouldn't transfer Chloe, not for something so minor and a first offense at that. What this would do, however, was to put the fear of a transfer into both her and Simon. I'd make damn sure of it.

To make things even better, Dr. Davidoff, the head of Lyle house turned up to join Gill in Chloe's special session. I could have cheered. If they were calling in Davidoff for this then they viewed it as a potentially serious setback. I'd worried a little over how I could ratchet up Simon and Chloe's fear for her. The threat of a transfer was exactly what I'd needed and this gave it to me. Then again, it had probably only been a matter of time. Trying to hide necromancy was like trying to hide a grand piano by throwing a blanket over it. Like with what I was, the shape of it still showed through from underneath.

"They won't transfer her. Yet," I said to Simon when we had our mid-morning break, plastering on a slightly concerned expression for Simon's benefit.

"Yeah but..." Simon trailed off.

"We'll talk to her," I told Simon. "Find out what happened and see about damage control, okay?"

The fact that I was even talking about damage control was enough to convince Simon that I was worried too. Which, of course, served to worry him even more.

He just nodded, frowning. I tried not to smile.

~ 0 ~ 0 ~ 0 ~

I found Chloe a little later when I ducked into the dining room looking to snag some food to keep me going until lunch. She had her back to me as she set the table.

Best to try going to back to playing nice, I decided.

"I'm behind you," I said, trying not to startle her.

It didn't work. She still jumped and spun.

"I can't win," I muttered, exasperated. "You're as skittish as a kitten."

"So if you sneak up and announce yourself, that's going to startle me less than if you tap me on the shoulder?" she demanded.

"I didn't sneak –" I started, then gave up.

At least she was back to snapping at me instead of shying away and I smelled nothing in the air but her usual Eau de Anxiety. Perhaps a bit more than usual, which wasn't surprising after the morning she'd had, but no actual fear. I grabbed a couple of rolls from the basket, rearranging to others so the nurses wouldn't notice. "I just wanted to say that if you and Simon want to talk, you don't need to do it behind my back. Unless you want to."

"We were just –"

I didn't let her finish the excuse. "I know what you were doing. Simon already told me. You want answers. I've been trying to give them to you all along," I couldn't help but add. "You just have to ask."

"But you said –"

"Tonight," I continued. We didn't have time for her to hold on to what had been said when we'd fought the day before. "Eight. Our room. Tell Mrs. Talbot you'll be with me for math tutoring."

"Your side is off-limits," Chloe objected. "Is she going to let me go up there, alone, with a boy?"

I could have cheered. I'd been half worried that she'd continue refusing to have anything to do with me, which would definitely put a crimp on the situation. It seemed this morning's special sessions had done the trick though. She knew she was in trouble now and was finally willing to take the help I'd been offering from the beginning. "Just tell her it's for math. She won't question it."

Chloe didn't look convinced. "Will that be... okay? You and I aren't supposed to –"

"Tell her Simon will be there. And talk to Talbot, not Van Dop." Van Dop was a suspicious bitch, it was almost impossible to get anything past the woman. Besides, she hated me. Well no, maybe that wasn't fair, but she sure as hell didn't trust me out of her sight. Not that I could blame her really. It was just that she seemed to take my diagnosis very seriously while Talbot liked to think the best of everyone. Besides, Talbot was also slightly in awe of my intellect.

To be honest, though, people always did seem to react strangely to the fact that I was smart. I was big and ugly and strong; in most people's minds that meant I had to be a dumb brute who'd have to take his shoes off to count higher than ten. When they found out I was doing college level math at sixteen they just couldn't seem to wrap their heads around the idea.

I turned and left, not giving Chloe time to raise any more objections. All I could do was hope she'd show. Simon would be there, though, so she probably would. Girls didn't generally miss the opportunity to be around Simon, sometimes even when it meant being around me as well.

"You told her to talk to Talbot, right?" was Simon's only comment when I relayed the plan to him.

"Of course," I said testily. He just nodded and went back to brooding over a social studies assignment he'd been pretending to focus on for the last hour, too worried to be actually getting anywhere with it.

~ 0 ~ 0 ~ 0 ~

"— Real problem is how well she's settling in," Gill was saying.

I stopped as I was about to step out of the bathroom, listening. Gill probably hadn't noticed my heading into the bathroom. Normally, it wouldn't have mattered since you couldn't hear what was being said in her office from the bathroom. The locks in this place might be crap but the sound proofing, particularly around Gill's office, was actually pretty good. However, this time she'd left the door open. Normally, that it wouldn't matter, no one with regular hearing would be able to make out what was being said from this distance. With my hearing, however, and both the bathroom and office doors open, I could hear without any trouble.

I stayed put. If I stepped out into the hall she might hear that someone was in the hall and shut the door.

"Or rather, not settling in," Gill continued.

"It's too bad that whole problem with Elizabeth happened her first night here," Davidoff answered. "That certainly can't have made the transition any easier."

Dr. Davidoff was the head of the board that ran Lyle House. He generally only came once every two weeks when he would have a short session with each of us. Sometimes Gill sat in on those sessions, sometimes she didn't. While he may be a good psychiatrist — I really had zero knowledge on that score — his ability to get on with teenagers was pretty much nil. He was one of those middle aged guys with no kids of his own who tried way too hard to be friendly while not having the slightest idea how patronizing he was being. The fact that he didn't seem to mean anything bad by it didn't make it any less annoying. Still, I had nothing exactly against the man. I couldn't talk to him as I could Gill and I hated how condescending he could be to Simon at times. Still, Gill insisted he was an accomplished doctor and that she got a great deal out of his feedback after the bi-weekly session I had with him. So, I did my best in them if only because she asked.

"That was unfortunate," Gill agreed. "To be honest, I'm worried that it may have negatively impacted how she views Lyle House. Especially as I got the impression she and Liz had been getting along quite well. And the more negative her view of the facility is the harder it's going to be for her to thrive here."

"Has she made any particular friends since then?" Davidoff asked.

"She and Rae seem to be getting on. Rae even asked to move from the room she shared with Tori to share with Chloe instead. Although, how much of that has to do with how well they get on rather than how much Rae wanted out of that room, I don't know." There was a sort of wry amusement in Gill's voice and I couldn't help a grin. Rachelle and Victoria hated one another with a passion. Having been stuck sharing a room had not been fun for either of them. Still, when had Rachelle moved into Chloe's room? I'd missed that.

"While I can't say I'm unhappy that she's making a friend," Davidoff said. "I could wish it had been someone other than Rachelle."

"I know," Gill agreed. "I feel the same. As much as she says she wants to get better, in all honesty I don't think Rae has ever really taken her diagnosis all that seriously."

"She talks the talk," Davidoff replied. "I can't fault anything she says. However, I agree. I don't think she honestly believes that she even has a problem."

Personally, I thought Rachelle's skepticism regarding her diagnosis was well founded.

"Exactly," Gill agreed. "And if that attitude has begun to rub off on Chloe we may be in for more trouble in the future."

Gill's phone rang at that point and Davidoff took his leave, shutting Gill's office door behind him as he headed for the front door.

As soon as he left I finally headed back to the dining room and my waiting math homework. I still needed to get a good deal done before I was kicked out in a little while so dinner preparations could begin.

Mulling over what I'd heard, however, I began thinking of how I could turn what it to my advantage. They hadn't actually said they didn't think Chloe belonged here and hadn't said anything about transferring her. Then again, I didn't have to tell Chloe or Simon exactly what had or hadn't been said. Yes, I could definitely twist this to my advantage without actually lying to either of them.

~ 0 ~ 0 ~ 0 ~

I was back in the kitchen again early that evening, looking for some food that wouldn't be immediately missed. I could hear Chloe and Rachelle down in the basement trying to get the locked closet door open. Why, I had no idea. What was it with Chloe and that door?

They were making a racket, though. While I knew that a normal person wouldn't be able to hear what they were saying, I was pretty sure they'd have heard them rattling the door like that.

"It's not perfect," Rae was saying as she struggled with it. "But it'll –" She stopped, more sounds of door rattling. "Or maybe it –" a tearing sound "– won't," she finished. "Well, shit."

"There's a piece caught," Chloe said. "Here, let me."

Another tearing sound. They'd probably been trying the old card trick. Slip a credit card, heavy business card or something like that into the crack between the door and the doorjamb and use it to force the bolt down. It worked great on a less securely locked door and I was willing to bet that was how they'd got into Gill's office. It was how I'd got into it as well. I knew from experience, though, that that closet was locked with a kind of dead bolt that couldn't be forced that way. I wasn't sure why they were so worried about someone getting into the crawlspace but it was probably an insurance thing.

"Get the feeling someone doesn't want us going in there?" Rachelle muttered. "We're going to need the key. It might be on the ring with the one for the shed in the kitchen."

"I'll get it," Chloe offered.

I had my back to the stairs as Chloe came up them and I heard her pause when she entered. Then she started moving forward again, trying to be quite. Was she trying to sneak up on me? I listened. Yes, she was. She actually was. Why…?

Good grief, she was trying to take the opportunity to pay me back for always startling her.

I couldn't help a welling up of relief. She really wasn't afraid of me anymore. Instead of leaving when she saw me already in the room, she decided instead to get a bit of her own back instead. Too bad she made so much noise. Still, credit where it was due for trying.

"The key you want isn't on that ring," I told her, not turning around.

Chloe froze, her breath catching in shock. I grabbed an apple before getting the key ring that was stuck to the back of the fridge with a magnet.

"Try these," I told her, handing her the keys on my way out of the room. "I have no idea what you guys are doing down there but next time you want to secretly open a locked door, don't whale on it hard enough to bring down the house."

Chloe just took the keys and headed back to the basement without a word.

This time I didn't bother repressing a grin since there was no one there to see it. She had a hell of a lot of backbone, I had to give her that. For once, I could almost see why Simon had taken a liking to a girl.