So, I decided on a month later. I'll try to sum up the important stuff that happened during the month within this chapter. Also, this chapter and the next are kinda big. Sort of. Well, the next chapter more so than this one.

Disclaimer: I do not own The Darkest Powers

Chloe's POV:

I slipped into my new pants, courtesy of Simon and his willingness to take me shopping every time I start ripping the seams of something. After his initial visit, he started coming to stay a few days every week. I tried as hard as I could to set him up with someone, but it never took. So, I ended up turning him over to Emily to match him up. He never complained, which I was fortunate about. And he never called me on the fact that I had found a loophole to our deal.

Simon had just taken me shopping yesterday, so I was still working on sorting out what didn't fit and replacing it with what did. Simon offered to hold on to the clothes that didn't fit until after the baby was born, but I politely declined. Mom had already offered to let me use my old bedroom at her place as a storage room for anything I didn't need at the moment. I took her offer mostly because I hadn't seen her in a while and I really wanted to.

I was still amazed that Derek hadn't realized I was pregnant yet. I had known for a month now, but still hadn't found the right words to say it. I'd start to bring it up and then get completely tongue tied. I was really starting to show, but he never said a word to suggest he knew. He did make comments on me fitting through the door and eating like a hippo, but he always said it while laughing good-heartedly and the words baby and pregnant never came up.

I finished dressing and looked in the mirror. Baggy shirts would only last so long. The people at the bakery were starting to get suspicious. Well, except for Emily. Emily knew mostly because she would have beaten it out of me if I didn't tell her. And by beat, I mean make her huge, football playing brother sit on me until I told her everything I knew. She was completely thrilled when I told her. She wasn't, however, thrilled when I told her that she couldn't start shopping yet. Clothes were easy enough to hide, but a bunch of baby stuff was not.

Walking out of the bedroom, I knocked once on the guest room to wake Simon up. When he didn't answer immediately, I opened the door slightly and let in Charlie. That woke him up. Going into the kitchen, I pulled out the cereal and milk and set them on the counter for Simon. I had my first appointment with my OB GYN today and was already cutting it a little close on time. Slipping on my coat, I was about to leave when I realized that I had forgotten my cell phone. Walking back into the bedroom, I checked the nightstand, but it wasn't sitting on top. Pulling the drawer open, I smiled when I saw it sitting on top of my pile of random crap. As I closed the drawer, something caught my eye. I pulled out the Christmas present from Derek that I hadn't needed to use. I considered my growing size and shoved it in my coat pocket. As I got bigger, it would be harder for me to move around and get away if anything happened. I closed the drawer and headed back for the door. As I pulled it closed behind me, I called back a goodbye to Simon.

The weather was surprisingly nice for February. A lot of people had ditched the hats and gloves, and even the coats, for the low forty degree weather. They were even friendlier than normal. Many people said hello to me as they passed. I didn't bother calling a taxi to get me to the doctor's. It was such a nice day out and it wasn't far.

It only took me twenty minutes to walk to the doctor's office. When I went inside, I went to the front desk and checked in. After I filled out their questionnaire, the receptionist directed me to a group of chairs for me to wait in. I thanked her and sat down. The woman next to me looked like she was about to give birth any day now.

"How far along?" I asked.

"Seven months," she said.

"Really?" I said.

She laughed. "I get that a lot. I'm carrying twins."

"You must be so excited," I said.

"Yes," she said. "My husband and I tried for years and we finally got pregnant. We were pleasantly surprised when we found out we were having two."

"Congratulations," I said. "I don't know if I'd be able to handle two."

"Well, that's what my husband's for," she said, smiling.

"Ms. Saunders?"

I looked toward the door and saw a woman holding a clipboard.

"Well, I guess that's me," I said.

"First timer?" she asked.

"How can you tell?" I asked.

"Well, just remember to breathe," she said.

"Thanks," I said before following the woman with the clipboard into a room.

The woman introduced herself as Dr. Gill. She instructed me to lie down on the table and I lifted my shirt to give her access.

"Alright," she said. "This is going to be a little cold."

She squirted the gel onto my bare skin and spread it around with probe.

"It'll just take a minute," she said. "There we go. There's your ba-"

She stopped. "Ms. Saunders? Your eyes need to be open to see the baby."

I kept my eyes firmly closed. "I don't want to see. I just want to know if it's developing as it's supposed to."

"Are you sure?" she asked.

I nodded.

"Well, yes. It looks completely healthy," she said. "Are you sure you don't want to see?"

"Completely," I said. "How far along would you say I am?"

"About eight weeks," she said. "So just about two months. It looks like you're due around the beginning of October."

I nodded.

"Would you like a copy of this in case you decide you want to see it later?" she asked.

I thought about for a second. "Yes. I would like one. Thank you."

"Let me just turn this around so you can open your eyes," she said. "Okay."

I opened them and looked at her.

"I have to say," she said. "I've never had that reaction with a mother before."

"I have a question," I said. "Is it normal to have outbursts?"

"Emotional outbursts?" she asked. "Yes. That is completely normal. Those are your hormones going into overdrive. Unfortunately, they'll be that way throughout the pregnancy."

"Thank you," I said. "That's all the questions I have for now."

"I'm going to give you my personal phone number just in case you need anything," she said, writing it on a piece of paper and handing it to me. "First time pregnancies can be a little frightening and I want you to have as comfortable a pregnancy as you can."

I thanked her again and left the room. When I got back to the waiting room, I saw that the nice woman I was sitting by had already left. I was a little disappointed. I never got her name. I pulled my coat back on and headed out the door. I know I was being ridiculous about not looking at the baby, but I didn't want to see it until Derek did, if he wanted to see it at all. As long as it was healthy, I was happy.

I stopped by a little diner on my way home. I hadn't eaten breakfast, so now my stomach was eating itself. Not that I was surprised. Now that I was eating for two, I was always hungry. I tried to limit myself, but when Derek wasn't around, I tended to go a little nuts. A diner was a nice solution because they didn't have a fridge I could easily raid.

I sat down at one of the booths and looked through the menu. It was still a little early for lunch, so I decided on pancakes with a side of bacon. When the waitress came to take my order, I told her so and then sat back to wait. My phone started going off and I pulled it out of my pocket I smiled when I saw it was Derek.

"Hey, stranger," I said.

"Hey yourself," he said. "I just called to tell you that I'll be getting off earlier than I planned today."

"That's great," I said. "How's your project going?"

"It's getting there," he said, "We have to meet with the committee today to discuss safety codes."

"That sounds long and boring," I said.

"That's why I work in construction and you make cakes all day," he said. "Which, by the way, is another reason I called."

"About my cakes?"

"Yeah," he said. "Megan's birthday is coming up and Dad's planning on throwing a little surprise party for her."

"Simon never mentioned that," I said.

"He doesn't know," Derek said. "It's sort of a surprise for Simon as well."

"So he needs me to make a cake?" I asked.

"His exact words were a diabetic cake that didn't taste like cardboard," he said. "He has a lot of faith in you."

"My cakes never taste like cardboard," I said.

"Which is why he's hoping you can make it," he said. "Should I tell him yes?"

"Yeah, go ahead," I said. "Any specific flavor?"

"I don't have the exact details yet, but I'll find out," he said.

"Alright," I said. "My food is coming, so I'll have to call you back before work."

"Talk to you later," he said.

"Bye," I said, hanging up.

The waitress set down the food and I dug in. My stomach instantly thanked me and surprisingly didn't send the food back up. When I finished, I paid the bill and left. It was only eleven thirty and I didn't have to be to work until two. I didn't want to go back to the apartment. Instead, I headed off toward the park. A walk could do me good. Especially since there wasn't going to be much walking soon.

The park was busy today because of the nice weather. I spent two hours just walking and sitting on the benches. This really would have been a nice day to take Noah and Charlie for a walk, but with Derek at work and Simon not willing to sacrifice himself for the dogs, I didn't want to risk dropping a leash and losing them.

I left the park and headed off towards work. I wasn't as excited for work as I used to be. It didn't quite feel like home anymore. For one thing, half of my friends had been fired and their replacements weren't exactly comforting. The woman, Amber, now has my icing tips horded away in her drawer. I've been reduced to using my old bent ones and it takes me twice as long to ice something. I tried every day for two weeks to get her to stop taking them, but she was ever vigilant. So, I gave up on that endeavor and worked with that I had. And the man, Royce, that was hired to replace Tori was as bad as Malloy in making me lose my lunch. The only difference was that he was there every day. I always had to see him when I went into the kitchen and he always leered at me in that same, predatory way.

Today, when I walked into the bakery, there was something new about the way Royce leered at me. There was more confidence in it. I grew instantly uneasy about him and gave him a wide berth as I entered the kitchen. I hung my coat on the hook and replaced it with my apron. I didn't have many orders waiting for me, so I had my fingers crossed that I would be able to get out of here on time.

I worked for two hours and managed to get half of my orders done. I was about to start on my next one when my name was called from the door. I set down the order and headed over, where Royce was waiting with a man. The man was built a lot like Derek: big and muscular. If he didn't have a smiling face, he would look completely out of place in a bakery.

"What can I do for you?" I asked.

"I kind of have a specific cake I was hoping could be done by tonight," he said. "It's my girlfriend's birthday and I was hoping to surprise her."

"Sure," I said. "Just follow me and I'll see what I can do."

I led him over to my station and had him describe the cake he wanted while I did a rough sketch. He wanted a cake in the shape of a butterfly. Apparently there was a back story to the shape that had to do with how they met, but I didn't ask. He described the color of the icing and the type of cake and gave me an address to bring it to. When he left, I set to work. My other orders could be put on hold for now.

The cake had just finished cooling when one of the guys came in and called for everybody's attention.

"Hey, guys," he said. "It looks like it started snowing and it's coming down really hard. The weather man says it could accumulate really fast, so if you live far, you might want to split before the roads get too bad."

Emily walked over to me. "You want to split?"

"I've got to finish this," I said. "It's okay. You go on home. I'm almost done anyway."

"You sure?" she asked.

"Yeah," I said.

"Alright," she said. "But I'm calling your place in an hour and if you're not home by then, I'm coming back here to drag you there."

"Fine," I said, smiling. "Go on. I'm fine here."

"Bye," she said.

She, and everybody else, cleaned up whatever they were working on and left before the storm got worse. I turned back to my cake and started decorating. I was done in half an hour. I carefully packed it up and cleaned up. I pulled on my coat and flipped the light switch. Before I walked out, I saw that Hailey had left out the strawberries. From behind me, I heard the door open.

Without turning around, I said, "It's only been half an hour, Em. Just let me put these away and I'm leaving."

I walked into the cooler and reached up to put the strawberries back in their place. As I lowered myself back down on the balls of my feet, somebody came up from behind and shoved me up against the shelves. Gasping, I tried to turn around, but they used their body to hold me down. Based on the size of their body and their little friend grinding into my ass, I'd say it was man. I struggled to get free, but they held me down firmly. They held both my hands tightly in one of theirs and I felt the other reach for the top of my pants. The full reality of the situation came at me and I screamed. They knocked me over the head and continued trying to get my pants off. I managed to get one of my hands free and reached into my coat pocket. Gripping the knife firmly in my hand, I pulled it out and with all the force I could muster, jammed it into the man's leg. He howled in pain and let me go. I didn't think twice. I bolted from the cooler and ran out of the kitchen. As I ran into the front space, another man grabbed my arm. I pulled out my mace and got him square in the eyes. He hissed and fell back. I ran out of the building and didn't look back.

I wasn't sure how far I had gotten. I didn't want to stop and check if they were following. As I ran, my foot a patch of ice and I slid. I managed to catch myself before I fell and stood for a second to make sure I wasn't going to slip again. I lifted my foot to take a step when blinding lights came out of nowhere from my right. One second I was staring at the lights, the next, I was nowhere near them.

When I opened my eyes, I wasn't sure what was going on. I heard people yelling that they needed an ambulance. Was someone hurt? I tried to look around, but my body wouldn't move. What's going on? Why can't I move? And why is the snow red? I-is that blood? Oh no. Someone was hurt. Somebody help them! Why is nobody listening to me?

"Just hold on ma'am," a man said next to me. "You're going to be okay. The ambulance is on its way."

Who is he calling ma'am? Is he talking to me? Am I hurt? A sharp pain erupted from my side and I let out a whimper. I am hurt. What happened?

"Just stay with me," the man said. "Keep your eyes open and stay with me."

Why is it so dark? Where did the light go?

"Just stay with me," the man kept repeating.

I'm trying! Please, don't leave! No, stop…don't go! Why is it so dark? Why can't I breathe? Why can't I breathe? Why can't I….

I actually had so much fun writing that last part. I should probably see someone about that. Anyway, I was considering combining the next chapter with this one, but I'm too sadistic for that. I have a mission for you guys. I want you guys' best baby names. Ready, set, go.