"Ok," she said.

I nodded and walked back to the table, I tapped on Jeremy's shoulder and gestured over to Emma. He looked over and saw she was awake.

"Should I go talk to her?" He asked Tess.

Tess nodded, "Remember what I said though, it's her turn to talk. Your turn to listen."

Jeremy nodded and stood from his chair. I handed him a bottle of water to take with him. He took it and walked over to her. Jeremy was walking kind of stiffly, I bet falling onto the floor didn't feel great on his healing back.

"Come on you two," Tess said to Derek and me as she stood. "We don't need to be eavesdropping."

"Tess," Elijah said worriedly. "We should stay together."

"We'll be fine Elijah, we're just going for a quick walk," Tess gave Elijah a kiss.

"Call me immediately if something happens," he begged.

Tess nodded and gestured for us to follow her. Derek and I got up and followed her out the front door. The grass was chilly against my bare feet. I noticed that Derek positioned himself so I was in between him and Tess. I wondered if Tess noticed him acting this way again.

Jeremy's POV

As I walked up, I repeated Tess' words in my head. Let her do the talking. Don't argue. Keep your mouth shut.

"Chloe wanted you to have this," I said as I sat at the foot of the bed, holding out the bottle. "You're probably dehydrated after everything you went through."

"Thanks," she took it, voice flat.

"So," I said. "I was a jerk. I think I let my anger get the best of me. You should've been able to say your side. If its ok, I'd like to hear it."

Emma eyed me suspiciously, "You're just going to yell at me more before I can say anything."

I shook my head, "I promise not to say a word."

"Well you did jump to conclusions," she said. "You don't know anything about my friendship with him."

I opened my mouth to say 'well then tell me about it' but shut it before I said it. Seeing my restraint, Emma continued.

"I never agreed to anything. I mean come on Jeremy I was a freaking child. My parents and Billy's parents were friends so we became friends growing up. People, especially Billy's parents, insisted we were destined to be mates since we got along so well. But I never agreed because again I was a little child. He was my best friend nothing more. I wasn't destined to be with him because of our genders and friendship. That's stupid."

I nodded, wow I really had overreacted. I guess I'd neglected the fact she was so young the last time she was home. Emma didn't say anything for a minute.

"You really hurt me," she said finally. "Not so much what you said, but how you acted. You hate my parents for their aggressive behavior and then you turn around and scream at me. I was bawling my eyes out and not a care was given by you. You can blame it on your werewolf anger all you want but I won't believe you. That anger is who you are to your core. You are just like my parents."

That stung. I didn't think I was like her parents. They were always mean nasty people, I had one episode. I wanted to apologize, to defend myself, to say something. It sucked sitting here saying nothing.

"I've done everything for you Jeremy. I've never hurt you once. I protected you against vampires, stood up for you against your friends, saved your life, helped you cope with being werewolf, and oh you know transforming into a wolf. I've done nothing but love and support and help you and this is what I get in return? That's crap Jeremy."

My heart sank even deeper, I felt awful.

"Is there anything I can do to make it up to you?" I asked. "Anything at all."

"Yeah. You can get out of my face and leave me alone. I need time to decide if this relationship is worth my time."

Immediately I knew I shouldn't have opened my mouth. I felt like I'd been shot in the heart. She needed time to figure out if she still loved me…

I nodded slowly, stood and walked back to my bed where I laid down and buried my face in my pillow. My thoughts plagued with all the mean things I'd done. Fighting with Derek, being mean to Chloe, hell to everyone.

Chloe's POV

People jogged my us as we wandered about, they seemed to all be heading the same way.

"What's going on?" I asked Tess quietly.

She shrugged, "I don't know but we should stay out of it. You kids need to heal up."

I rolled my eyes, "Tess you know by now telling us to stay out of something makes us want to get more involved."

She chuckled, "I do."

"So we can check it out then," I smiled.

Derek looked nervous, "Are you sure you should be around so many people? We don't know if you're werewolf."

I waved it off, "I'm not sitting around waiting to find out. I'm living life."

Tess smiled and rolled her eyes at me. "We'll ask EJ to check it out, how about that?"

Derek nodded, that sounded like a good compromise to him. We made our way back to the hospital. When we walked in, I saw Emma and Jeremy were in their own beds not talking, that wasn't a good sign. Elijah was sitting at the table still, he looked up from a book as we walked in.

"Hey," Tess walked up to him. "Would you do us a favor and figure out what's going on out there? Our curiosity is peaked."

Elijah set the book down and nodded, "Sure thing." He stood and looked at me. "Come on."

"What?" I blinked.

"I said come on," he said. "Let's get you new shoes too."

Derek gave my shoulder a squeeze, "Be careful."

I nodded and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek. Then followed Elijah back outside.

"My shoes are fine," I said. "They're just gross I need to clean them up."

We started walking in the direction we saw people heading earlier. Elijah shook his head, "I can get you them if you want but I just thought you'd want a breather, a minute away from everyone. Derek seems pretty glued to you."

"And you've been glued to Tess," I pointed out teasingly.

"Different circumstances," he said. "How long did it take the first time you were infected?"

I shrugged, "All I know is I felt sick for a few weeks I don't know when it really took effect."

A woman saw us and came over, interrupting whatever Elijah was going to say. She was very pretty. Her long ginger hair was pulled back in a messy French braid, she wore a gray tank top and blue jeans that were covered in dirt.

"Elijah," she smiled. "I heard you were back in town. Who's this?"

Elijah smiled back politely, "Only for a bit Grace. This is my daughter Chloe."

"Oh," she frowned.

Elijah asked, "Do you know what's going on? I haven't seen Ashe."

"You didn't hear?" She gasped. "Oh that other pack attacked some human poor kids that were out exploring. Everyone wants to send out search parties for the kids, no one knows what happened to them, they've disappeared. Ashe won't let us though. You outrank her Elijah you have to tell her we can look for the kids."

My heart nearly stopped as I listened to Grace. Somehow word of our visit got out and the story got twisted up. Elijah set a hand on my shoulder.

"Where is she at?" Elijah asked her.

Grace pointed to a tall building. "You have to talk sense into her. We can't let those savages hurt humans."

"Let me handle it Grace," he said. "Thank you for the help."