Afterward

by KitTales95

Post TR. When Derek and Chloe are forced into completing their mate bond, Chloe's life takes a life threatening turn. Together they must try to navigate the chaotic reality of existing in a world that wants them dead. Lucky for them, they don't have to go it alone. Canon divergent. Use of OCs. Currently on hiatus - more details on that inside.

12. The Pack Part 2

/AN: Hi guys, I sincerely apologize for the agonizingly (probably? Maybe not...) long wait. This update is long over due and I hope this chapter makes up for it. Without further ado, The Pack Part 2.

Tori's Pov

9pm: November 14th

She was tired of this. She was tired of running for her life. She was tired of never being safe. She was tired of everything. Nonetheless, she ran until it didn't feel like running anymore.

Tori glanced behind her and stopped short. "Wait!" She whispered. Kit and Scott slowed to a stop and looked at her. "We lost them. All the running and the swerving and the hills - they're gone." she gasped for breath. Her sides and feet, the muscles in her lower back were all screaming at her. She couldn't remember the last time she had had this much physical activity.

"Ugh, I am so out of shape…" She was going to start taking training with Simon more seriously, not that she would ever admit that to anyone. That was if she ever saw Simon alive again. The thought stopped her thoughts in their tracks.

Scott let out what sounded like a laugh. "I know what you mean. I haven't had a run like that since college."

Tori raised a brow. He ran like this in college? Who in their right mind would do something like that? She was truly baffled, but decided to keep her mouth shut on the matter.

Kit smiled in the darkness. "If you're gonna stay with us, you're gonna get used to it real quick. I think the longest we've stayed in one place was six months."

"Chloe must hate that. She used to hate moving." Scott said.

"Actually, Chloe's doesn't mind that much. I'm the one who complains." Tori admitted, softly. Chloe was usually okay with doing whatever as long as she was with Derek.

That's when the creaking began. The group looked around searching for the source of the noise. They could cut the tension in the air with a butter knife, and then the ground gave way beneath Tori's feet. Try as she might, she couldn't hold in her scream as she tumbled down a flight of steps; the abrupt halt at the bottom squelched any other sound she could have made.

For a brief moment, she wondered if any of their pursuers had heard her scream, and then the pain of her fall set in and she felt herself groan. A tiny part of her wished that they had shot and killed her during the ambush.

"Tori? Are you okay?" She heard Kit ask, quickly followed by two sets of footsteps.

"No." Tori sat up, disoriented. She would have felt as if she was floating except for the fact that her entire body was now screaming at her.

Kit leaned over her leg to get a better look at it. He pulled out what looked like a metal rectangle and flipped it open, a flame appearing where the lid once was. "It's no use. I'm gonna need a better light source."

"Where are we?" Scott asked. He held a small flashlight in his hands.

"I think we're in one of the fallout shelters on the property. Marlee told me about them. Apparently, this one had a rotted entrance and couldn't support Tori's weight." Kit replied. He looked at the flashlight that Scott had. "May I?" Scott passed him the torch.

Tori watched as Kit went around lighting candles that had been placed around the room. After all the candles were aflame, he came over and helped her onto one foot. She sat on a large bed that was in the middle of the room. Kit went back to examining my ankle.

She took that moment to look around the room, hoping to distract herself from the pain in her body and the rampant horror movie scenarios running through her mind.. Other than the candles and the bed, there was a cabinet on the wall covered in peeling paint and about ten musty looking gallons of water on the floor. The air around us had an acrid smell about it, and the dirt packed floor didn't help. The walls were made of a cold, rusting metal that looked about as old as Disney. However, the iron support beams that ran along the ceiling looked fairly new. At the very least, it was warmer down here than it was outside.

Kit's voice brought her back to reality. "It's definitely broken. It's already starting to bruise, but there's no bone being exposed. All we can do is keep it elevated for now. Scott can you find out what's in that cabinet for me, please?"

Scott strode over to the cabinet. "There's a couple bottles of whiskey and a bunch of towels."

"Can you pass me some towels and one of those gallons of water?" Kit asked, reaching for the supplies.

Tori watched him curiously as he worked. She didn't understand how he could be so calm around her. After what she had said to him that night in the hospital, she was surprised he even still bothered trying. Tori would have disowned her. She shook the thought from her head and focused her gaze on a stain on the sheets of the bed. She tried to ignore the fact that it looked suspiciously like old blood.

Kit took a water soaked towel and wrapped it gingerly around Tori's injured limb. He lifted her leg and placed the rest of the towels under it so her ankle was resting above her heart. After, her looked at her. "Try to keep your leg as still as you can and get some sleep. I'll wake you when we're ready to move again."

"Okay." He turned to leave. "Kit? Thank you," Tori said quickly.

Kit smiled a bit. "You're welcome."

Tori laid down and tried to sleep.

Kit's Pov

Scott sat next to him on the dirt floor. "So… uh… this happen often?" he asked slowly.

"More often than you'd think," Kit replied. "The running takes it's toll on the kids, but they'd rather run than face whatever the cabal have planned for them."

"How…" he paused and tried again. "How has Chloe been through all of this? I mean, Lauren didn't tell me a whole lot. Just that she was pregnant and in danger."

"Lauren…" Kit sighed and ran a hand down his face. A small, humorless laugh escaped his lips before he could stop it. Slowly, he met Scott's gaze.

"Lauren was an adjustment. Ultimately, she didn't fit in with our group and she left. Chloe opted to stay with us. She's adjusted very well to the way our group works and she's learned to use her abilities responsibly. There are still a few precautions that she will need to take the rest of her life due to the nature of her mutations and she'll always need to be extremely careful when she uses her necromancy, but Chloe has been a joy to have in the group.".

Kit paused for a moment before continuing, "Simon says she's a quick learner. He taught her most of the self defense she knows. She tried working out with Derek, but… they clashed. Badly. He didn't want to hurt her and she demanded him to treat her like any other opponent. I very clearly remember the fight they had about it." He caught Scott's concerned look before quickly adding, "It didn't last long, none of their fights never do, but when they do butt heads, it might as well be World War Three."

"Yeah, that sounds like Chloe alright. She's always been stubborn and headstrong. She got that from her mother."

"I'm not so sure," Kit started, "I never had the pleasure of meeting her mother, and Chloe doesn't talk about her often, but it seems to me that you and Chloe are much more alike than you think."

Scott didn't reply to that. He seemed to be thinking the idea over. Then he said, "tell me more about Chloe?"

"Well, she's bonded with Lucy over their necromancy. I think they've been good for each other. They really needed someone to grow with and bounce ideas off of, and really, necromancers are so rare… I'm not sure what they would have done if they hadn't found each other. It's highly possible that neither of them would be as far in their racial training as they are."

After a few minutes, Kit went on, "Everything with Chloe tends to all come crashing back to Derek. I don't think she'd have made it this far without him. Sometimes, I don't think he would've gotten very far without her either. They're good for each other. They've made each other better people, and they've made themselves and this group, a better team, both together and apart."

"Good. That's good. So Derek's a good kid then?"

"I would trust Derek with my life and I have before. You should have seen him when Chloe was in a coma. We all thought she wasn't going to make it… Derek was a wreck. He wouldn't eat, speak, or do much of anything.

This group of kids has become like my own. As a father, it's a terrifying thought, having one of them be on the brink of death. Seeing Derek like that somehow made things worse. It felt like instead of losing one kid, I was losing two. If given half the chance, he probably would have traded places with her.

In short, you don't have to worry about Derek ever leaving her or being a bad partner or father. You should get to know him better. It might take a while. After Lauren, he's going to be beyond cautious with you. He's probably going to be blunt with all of his answers and unrelentingly cold, at least until he figures out that you're not out to pull Chloe away from him. But it'll be worth it, I assure you… it also wouldn't hurt to try getting to know her again, a little at a time."

"I'll be sure to do that, if we ever get out of this mess." Scott said.

"Meh, I'm not too worried. By tomorrow those goons will have gone back to their base and we'll be free to get out of here. My concern is for whoever else got injured and how badly."

"You must've been on the run for a long time if you know how long they're gonna be out there." Scott replied.

"I personally wasn't. Not as a child anyway. I grew up in a normal supernatural home. Simon's mother wanted him put in the Edison Group experiment because I was working there as a lawyer and we got a discount for the procedure. I had only been working there for about six months at the time, and after arguing for a month or so, I reluctantly agreed. She ended up dying in childbirth.

I stayed with the company solely for income to help raise Simon. Five years into it, the group of werewolf pups they had in the institution attacked a doctor. They were unstable to begin with… that's when they made the decision to put down the werewolf pups and I decided to leave the company. Davidoff was even intending on terminating Derek even though he had nothing to do with the attack.

I wasn't going to let them kill and innocent child… so I sneaked in and asked him if he wanted to live with Simon and I. He wasn't necessarily hesitant, it was more like he seemed to be thinking over his options. Even at five years old he was still so smart, so careful.

Derek agreed and he's been with us ever since. We've been on the run since then and it hasn't always been easy. We got separated for about seven months and Derek and Simon ended up at Lyle House. When we were finally reunited, Lauren, Chloe and Tori came with them. After that, we decided to form the resistance and we've been doing all we can for the last two years." Kit explained.

"That's rough. From what I know of the Edison Group, they need to be stopped," Scott replied.

"I agree. For the time being at least, I don't know how much can be done. Chloe's current predicament exempts her from raids of course. With Derek being the father, I'm not sure if he'd accompany us on a raid right now or if he'd rather wait until the twins are born. Having a fully capable Necro on the team made the raids so much easier, and Derek's always good for the muscle…" Kit trailed off.

"So do you think it would be safer to wait to do another raid?"

"Well, I'm not saying it's not doable, I'm just stating that there would probably be less casualties if we waited. Of course, even then, Chloe and Derek may decide they want to break off from the group to raise their family. It's all really just up in the air right now."

Scott was silent for a long while. "Maybe if I had been around for Chloe more often this could have been prevented."

Kit peered at Scott for a minute. "What? The Edison Group attack or the pregnancy?"

Scott looked at him again. "The pregnancy. I'm not an idiot, I know the attack was going to happen regardless."

He gave a heavy sigh. "I have a feeling it would've happened anyway. There's nothing you could've done to stop it. Chloe and Derek are young, but I think they'll be good parents."

Scott nodded.

"In any case, we'll set out to find the others tomorrow morning. With any luck, no one is seriously injured and we can set out for Syracuse as soon as possible."

"I wonder if the Pack will give us any trouble…" Scott mumbled to himself.

Kit looked at him. "We'll cross that bridge when we come to it," he replied.

They talked a bit more after that before exhaustion took over and we passed out next to each other on the floor.

Tori's POV

She faced the wall pretending to be asleep while Kit and Scott talked. She focused on keeping still and regulating her breathing. When Tori was sure both of them were asleep, she flopped onto her back to stare at the ceiling.

A thousand thoughts ran through her head about everything that had happened. She kept trying to remember what happened. Who was where, what they were doing, what they were saying; it all happened so fast...

What was the last thing she had said to Simon? To Chloe and Lucy? She didn't even know if they were okay. She would never forgive herself if something had happened to one of them and the last thing she had said was something about daisy dukes being sexy.

She felt tears begin to well up in her eyes. The palms of her hands rushed up to meet her eye lids. No. She was not going to cry. She took a deep breath to find her center again, half expecting Kit to wake up and ask her what was wrong.

Tori replayed that night's events over again in her head, opting for slow motion.

Her, Marlee, Mason and Kit were playing basketball. Lucy, Simon, and Chloe had come outside and Marlee called a timeout. She and Mason were talking, bickering over something trivial. Tori struggled to remember what the argument was about. Was it game strategy or was it something completely random?

She remembered turning away from Mason to get a drink of water from one of the the water bottles that they had tossed into the grassy area to the side and then all of a sudden a gun was fired. She turned back to see what had happened and saw Mason holding his side.

Someone had shouted and grabbed her arm, pulling her into the opposite direction and then they were running, oh God, the running. By the time they had made it to the fallout shelter, her legs were numb from running so hard, so far, so fast.

Tori didn't remember seeing Chloe or Simon or even Lucy and she had no way of knowing if they were okay or not.

Finally, she couldn't stop it. The dam broke and the tears started to come whether she wanted them to or not. She wasn't sure what was worse; the fact that she didn't have any pain medicine for her ankle or the fact that it didn't really matter because the emotional tidal wave was beginning to numb the physical pain anyway.

Tori buried her face into the stale pillow and willed herself to sleep.

Lucy's POV

9pm: November 14th

Run, swerve, jump, run. Run, swerve, jump, run. Run, swerve, jump, run.

Run! Run! Run!

Lucy stopped and sniffed the air, all senses on high alert. Instinct consumed her mind and all she could think of was how to run and that she needed some place to hide.

Was that a tree house?

Don't think! Climb!

She obeyed, finding footholds where she could and finally pulling herself up onto the railed platform. She looked over the rail and watched as two men stopped underneath the tree she was in.

"Where did she go? She was right here!" One whispered.

"It was the Clarke girl. Bitch probably shifted. Start looking for a white wolf." The other said as they continued on.

Lucy sat on the floor and leaned against the trunk of the tree, breathing out a sigh of relief. Then something moved in her peripheral vision causing her to jump a foot in the air.

She backed away from the tree. "I know you're there. You can't hide from me." Her hand fingered the knife in her pocket that Mason always made her carry around. For once, she was glad that she had it.

Something moved behind the tree, and suddenly, a little girl who looked about seven appeared. Her lips moved to form words, but all Lucy could do was guess at what she was saying. Her heart sank in frustration.

"You can go ahead and forget it. I can't hear you." Lucy told her. The girl stopped trying to speak. Instead of trying again like Lucy expected her to, she just sat in front of her and pouted. She sat with her legs against her chest, her arms crossed on top of her knees and her head resting on her arms, staring at her.

"I know you enjoy being all ghostly like, but if you could stop staring at me, that'd be awesome because you're kinda creeping me out."

The girl rolled her eyes and went back to staring at her.

Lucy sighed and curled up on her side, trying to ignore her. Before she knew it, she was asleep.

'Hey! Wake up!' Someone was shaking Lucy's shoulder and shouting in her ear. She really wished they would go away. All she wanted to do was sleep. Sleep was nice. 'Seriously? I may have the rest of eternity, but you only have a few hours! WAKE. UP.'

She opened her eyes and sat up, trying to reorient herself. She looked at the girl sitting in front of her. 'You're the ghost from the tree house…' Lucy looked around at their surroundings. They were still in the tree house, only the leaves were green, the sun was shining, and the paint covering the wood looked fresh.

Her gaze went back to the little girl in front of her. She had shoulder length blonde hair and wore a white dress with black leggings, without shoes.

'My name is Emily, and yes, I'm the spirit you found in the tree house. That was my play area, a long time ago. But I'm not here because I want to relive my life.' The girl said.

'Then why are you interrupting my sleep?' Lucy asked her.

'Because you can't hear me, and I needed to talk to you. Forcing my way into your dreams was the only way I could communicate with you.' Emily replied.

'I'm listening.'

Emily lifted her arm and pointed in the opposite direction that Lucy had run from. 'Start walking in that direction, and you'll find three of your companions.' She turned in another direction. 'Were you to travel in that direction, you would find the rest of your family. You need to locate them.'

'What do you expect me to do? I can't go out there right now, with those goons on my tail! I have no idea how many are hanging around.'

'Did I say go now? I told you: listen! Start tomorrow. The people in the woods will be gone by midday.' Emily started to fade.

'Where will you be?' Lucy asked before she could stop it from escaping her lips.

'I'll be here watching.' She replied. She had a sad look about her, and Luce wondered how long she had been here. 'Any other questions?'

'Can I go back to my dreams now?' She asked.

With a wave of her hand, the tree house disappeared, Emily was gone and Lucy delved back into unconsciousness.

Chloe's POV

12am: November 15th

Chloe didn't know how long they'd been running, but judging by the lightheaded feeling in her head, she could tell it had been a while.

Finally, Marlee had them stop running. "Does anybody have a damn flashlight?" she whispered.

Simon wordlessly handed her the small pocket flashlight he always carried with him. Marlee began shining the it around on the ground. Apparently, finding what she had been looking for, she knelt to the forest floor. "What are you-"

Marlee interrupted. "Sh!" She lifted what appeared to be a square piece of wood that was covered with leaves. "Follow the steps down. What are you waiting for? Go!" she hissed.

Chloe glanced around blinding at her surrounding before closely following Simon down the dark steps. Marlee followed soon after, closing the trapdoor behind her.

Next, Marlee went around lighting a couple of candles. Chloe looked at the room before them. It was small, but rather spacious. There were a couple gallons of clean looking drinking water and about fifty clean looking towels along with a huge king sized bed in the middle of the room. "Marlee, where are we?"

"A safe house. There are tons of them hidden all around the estate. Some are larger, some are smaller, but they're all built similarly." Marlee responded quickly.

Simon was sitting on the floor, leaning against the dirt wall, breathing heavily. He pulled his hand away from his shoulder to look at the damage. His hand was covered in blood and he struggled to move his arm. "Ain't that a bitch?" he mumbled.

Chloe knelt next to Simon. "Are you okay?" she asked him.

Simon managed a small smile. "I'll be okay."

Marlee finished with the candles and gathered a gallon of water and an armful of towels. "Chloe you need to sit down."

She rolled her eyes stubbornly. "I'm fine."

"Chloe, I mean it. I don't care where, just sit." Marlee said, walking over to Simon.

Slightly annoyed, she sat down beside them.

"I'm going to need to remove your shirt to get a better look at the wound." Simon nodded. He moved to remove it, but stopped mid movement. His eyes snapped shut and he locked his jaw.

"Holy fuck…"

"Plan B…" Simon looked up. "Do you have any emotional attachment to this shirt?" Marlee asked.

"No, not really," Simon replied.

"Good." Marlee pulled a scalpel from her back pocket.

"Do you carry one of those with you everywhere you go or something?" Chloe asked in shock.

"And if I do?"

She held her hands up in defense as Marlee began cutting away at Simon's t-shirt. She removed the strips of material to expose Simon's bloodied chest. Chloe looked away as a wave of nausea rolled over her

Marlee caught her expression and shoved a gallon of water in front of her. "Drink."

"You're bossy when you're stressed," Simon said. Chloe choked back a laugh. Marlee glared but didn't retaliate.

"You're dehydrated. Drink or I will shove an IV in your arm so fast it'll look like a stab wound."

"You can't threaten her and expect her to listen to you. She's more like Derek than she thinks." Simon commented. It was Chloe's turn to glare. Simon turned slightly to face her. "Chloe, please drink something so you don't get dehydrated further and die and make the Edison Group suck worse."

"How many times do I have to tell you: I'm. Fine." Chloe responded.

"Dude!"

Chloe rolled her eyes and grabbed the gallon of water. Uncapping the jug, she spent the next minute chugging water. Marlee and Simon stared in shock. "There. Happy? Now I'm gonna puke my guts out."

"Very happy," Simon replied. "Well, I'd be happier if I had full mobilization of my arm.

"I'm working on it." Marlee began wiping away blood with a damp towel, finding the entrance to the wound in the process. "Lean forward." Simon obliged as best he could. Marlee looked at the back of his shoulder. "No exit wound."

"Which means you've gotta extract it. Which means digging. Awesome."

"Do you want the good news or the bad news first?" Marlee asked.

"Good news." He looked at their faces. "I'm an optimist."

"The good news is-"

"You have drugs?" Simon interrupted.

Marlee paused. "The good news is, it's not deep. Extraction should be easy."

Marlee looked at her. "Chloe, I need you to rip this towel into strips please." She handed me one of the bath towels that she had brought over.

She scoffed. "Yeah, right. I'd have better luck climbing a rock wall."

Marlee glared. "Trust me. Rip the damn towel."

Insanely annoyed, Chloe snatched the towel from Marlee's hands. She looked from Marlee to the towel and pulled on the fabric. It ripped as easily as a piece of paper. She looked at Marlee in shock and handed the strips to her in silence.

"Chloe, there's a bottle of whiskey in the cabinet over there. Go get it for me." Simon glared. "Please."

"Way to go! Marlee learned manners!" Chloe said in mock glee. She went to the cabinet and handed Marlee the bottle of whiskey.

"You're gonna wanna bite down on one of those towel strips." Marlee said. Simon did as he was told, before Marlee began pouring whiskey over his shoulder.

"And here I thought that people on did that on TV." Chloe mumbled.

"This is about sixty percent alcohol. Whiskey this strong does more than give you a wicked hangover." Marlee replied. She stuck her scalpel in the bottle for about ten seconds before retracting it. She looked at Simon.

"Are you ready for this?" Marlee asked.

Simon looked at Marlee and hesitated. He took a deep breath and nodded. He looked at Chloe before grabbing her hand. It was the first time she'd ever seen Simon look this terrified.

Without warning, Marlee stuck the scalpel and her index finger into the wound. Simon bit back a scream and chomped down on the towel. "Got it!"

In Marlee's hand was a small, bloodied bullet. She carelessly threw it to the ground and refocused her attention on Simon's shredded shoulder. "How are you holding up, Simon?"

His hand was shaking, but he lifted it from Chloe's and managed to give Marlee a thumbs up. He sit out the towel. "Are we done?" His voice didn't raise above a shaky whisper.

Marlee was examining his wound. "Almost." She looked at them with a pleased look on her face. "The good news is that while the bullet messed up a lot of muscle, the bone is intact, which is lucky. The bad news is you still need stitches and I still don't have drugs."

"I've had stitched without drugs. Not nearly as bad as a bullet extraction without drugs. Trust me, I've been there." He looked at Chloe and smiled.

"You're cracking jokes! This would've been a major procedure in a normal hospital and you're cracking jokes!" Chloe let out a small, relieved laugh, feeling a big weight being lifted off of her shoulders.

Again, Marlee took the bottle of whiskey and poured a bit over the wound. "Chloe in the cabinet, there's a suture kit. Can you get it for me?" Marlee asked.

She nodded and handed her the kit.

They sat in silence for a bit as Simon had his wound dressed and tended to. "Okay. I'm going to want to check that tomorrow, so be prepared. And those stitches aren't the dissolving type, so I'll need to remove those in a couple weeks." Marlee explained.

The shaman turned her attention to Chloe now. "Drink some more water and tell me how you're doing."

Chloe rolled her eyes and chugged some more water to get Marlee off her back. "If I drink anymore water, I will puke my insides up. I'm fine. My stomach is cramping a bit and I'm kind of exhausted, but other than that I'm fine." Marlee had a deer-caught-in-headlights expression on her face. "What is that bad?"

"Abdominal cramping during the first trimester of pregnancy can mean a mountain of things anywhere from dehydration to stress to an early symptom of miscarriage." Marlee must've caught Chloe's panicked expression because she quickly began to explain better. "The important thing to remember here is generally if you were experiencing a miscarriage there'd be plenty of blood and you clearly aren't experiencing that."

Marlee nodded to Chloe's extremely short daisy dukes that she had pulled on that morning simply because Tori had forced her to. "I can still do a brief exam, if you'd like me to, to make sure there aren't any other indicators of a miscarriage."

Chloe had her head in her hands. That huge weight in her chest had returned and she couldn't seem to focus on much else. "Please?"

She felt Simon shift suddenly next to her. "Oh, hell no-"

"Quit being a pansy," Marlee snapped at Simon.

"I'm not being a pansy. I just kinda value my manhood and I'm more than slightly terrified of what Derek would do to me if I was in the presence of a half naked Chloe." Simon responded.

"Look, if Derek has anything to say about it, I'll handle it. I trust you and I need you right now, because I'm scared, Simon…" she told him.

She could see him hesitate before he finally softly replied, "Alright."

The trio moved over to the bed and Chloe shimmied out of her pants. SImon faced the back wall and shut his eyes. "Tell me when it's over." He said.

"Thanks for the support," Chloe's voice sounded watery and sarcastic, but when she noticed Simon's hand outstretched toward her, she took it gratefully.

"You're welcome," he responded.

A few minutes into the exam, Marlee finished. "Okay, I'm not seeing any of the other indicators of a miscarriage which is excellent. Chloe you can put your pants back on, and Simon you can unglue your face from the wall." she said.

Chloe gladly pulled her shorts back on and Simon turned to face the rest of the room. She hated those exams. The only other person she felt truly comfortable with looking, touching, or otherwise down there was Derek. She trusted Marlee, and she put up with the exams for the twins' sake, but she would be so relieved when she didn't have to deal with them every other freaking day.

"Are you positive I'm not miscarrying?" Chloe asked her.

"I'm about eighty percent sure. Without proper equipment, it's hard to tell anything further. Like I said, there are no further indicators, and the werewolf venom is protecting your womb rather aggressively, so I'm not too worried. Factoring in the fact that you've been running for at least an hour and the last few weeks have been extremely stressful, I'm almost completely sure it's just stress." Marlee paused. "Just to be on the safe side, you'll need to lay on your left side the rest of the night, and I'm ordering you to bed rest until I can figure out our next move. In the meantime, Simon, I'd like you to make sure she continues to drink water regularly and try and keep her calm. I'm going to go search for some food."

Chloe laid on the bed like Marlee told her to. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, trying to shove back the tears that threatened to fall.

"Simon, I'd like to talk to you."

She heard their footsteps ascend up the steps and then the trapdoor close. She had about two to five minutes to break down in peace before falling asleep.

Simon's POV

"What did you want to talk to me about?" he asked.

"Make sure Chloe doesn't move from that bed until I get back. As I said before, keep her calm, on her left side and make sure she drinks plenty of water. If I'm not back in two hours, take Chloe and head for the Pack. With any luck, you'll find Derek. If all goes well, I'll be back in two hours with food and a plan." Marlee said.

Simon nodded. "Alright."

Marlee gestured to his injured limb. "I've bound your arm pretty good. Just take it easy until I get back."

He nodded again and shivered. It was freezing out there. Marlee shrugged off one of her flannel shirts and handed it to him. "I want that back."

Simon thanked her and watched her retreating back. As the woman walked away into the night, he headed back down the steps.

For the record, as distraught as Chloe was, he didn't expect her to be crying. Then again, he hadn't been around many pregnant women either.

"Chloe? Are you okay?" She jumped.

"Huh, what? Y-yeah, I'm fine." Chloe hastily wiped at her face and tried to make sure her voice sounded normal.

Simon walked over and sat on the edge of the bed. "You know, I can tell when you're lying. You still stutter when you lie. And you've been saying 'fine' so much it doesn't sound like a word anymore. What's wrong?"

"Nothing, I told you-"

"Yeah, you're fine. I'll believe that when pigs fly. We can do this the easy way and you can just tell me, especially since we're gonna be here a while; or the hard way and I'll just tell Derek." he replied.

"Derek's four hundred miles away." Chloe said.

"How do you know we don't have twin telepathy?" he asked, fishing for a smile.

"You're not twins." she said bluntly.

"And you don't have brown hair," Simon said, taking a chunk of her dyed hair and dangling it in her face.

Chloe batted his hand away. "Quit messing with my hair. Just do whatever the hell Marlee told you do to and leave me be."

"Funny, because Marlee told me to keep you calm. I can't do that if I don't know what's wrong and quite frankly, Marlee terrifies me, so do a guy a solid and tell me what's up."

Chloe wiped her eyes and looked at him. "It was a close call tonight and it just fucked my head up, okay? I'm just hormonal and freaking out about stupid shit."

"It's not stupid if it upsets you this much. Maybe instead of thinking about the bad stuff, you should focus on the good things. I mean, on the bright side, you didn't get shot today. I almost died! A couple inches southwest and I'd be six feet under right about now." Simon replied

Chloe's eyes widened. "That doesn't help, Simon!"

'Way to go, dumb ass.' he thought.

"Our group is split apart, you almost died, Derek is in fucking New York, and I'm gonna lose the twins and there's nothing I can do about any of it!" Tears cascaded hot and heavy down Chloe's cheeks.

Simon edged further onto the bed and brought her into his arms as best he could with his bum limb. "Hey, listen to me," he said gently, "Are you listening?" He felt Chloe nod against his good shoulder. "I was joking about almost dying today. I thought it would make you laugh and cheer you up. My arm will be out of commission for a bit, but I am nowhere near close to dying. I've had wounds way worse than this before. You should ask Derek sometime.

As for the twins, Marlee said they're okay. The best way you can protect them right now is by drinking shit tons of water and keeping your cool.

I will find a way to get a hold of Derek. It won't be by twin telepathy, even though that would be super freaking cool, but I'll find a way to talk to him.

For now, I want you to drink some more water, lay on your left side like Marlee told you and to rest. Hopefully Marlee will be back in a couple hours and we can eat and get out of here."

"And if she's not?" Chloe mumbled into his shoulder.

"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it. We're gonna be okay. I promise." Simon really hoped so.

Chloe pulled away and wiped at her cheeks. "I wasn't kidding before. If I drink anymore water right now, I will puke."

Simon looked at the gallon of water that was sitting on the floor by the bed. She had drank a little more than a fourth of it already. "Alright. I think what you've drank should be sufficient for now. Marlee can kick my ass later if she wants to." he gave Chloe a smile.

She managed a small one in return before laying down again.

Simon looked at the bottle of whiskey that Marlee had left on the floor and back to Chloe. Desperate, he tried for one last attempt at making Chloe laugh. "I wonder what whiskey tastes like?"

Chloe opened her eyes. "Um… I wouldn't know and in my current condition, I don't think it's a good idea to try it. Derek would probably kill me."

Simon let out a small laugh. "Most likely, but I don't have anything stopping me." he replied.

He thought back to when he and Derek were eleven, they had sneaked into Andrew's liquor cabinet and stole a bottle of whiskey. He had never been more grossed out in his life. He wasn't looking forward to having that taste in his mouth again.

Nonetheless, he snatched the bottle from the floor. "Well, bottom's up." He turned away from Chloe and took a gulp of the drink before promptly spitting the contents across the room. It was the same reaction that he had had last time, only this time, he didn't spit take in Derek's face.

Chloe burst out laughing. Mission accomplished. Simon grabbed the gallon of water and chugged about a third of it. "Don't ever drink whiskey." he told her. "That shit's vile." She continued to laugh, and he laughed with her.

Simon's POV

3:15am: November 15th

Over the years, he had learned to sleep just about anywhere. Most of the time, it was just him, Derek, and dad. So maybe he couldn't sleep because he had more people to worry about. Maybe he couldn't sleep because Marlee was supposed to be back forty five minutes ago and hasn't shown up yet. Or maybe it was because his shoulder was screaming at him and he was worried that his arm was going to turn green and fall off. Either way, the adrenaline he was feeling should have worn of by now. He should be sleeping.

Simon sighed and sat up in the bed. Chloe was faced away from him, snoring softly. He pulled his phone out from his pocket and checked the cell reception. He'd have to go outside; to the top of the steps at least.

He moved off the bed as quietly as he could and ascended the steps, dialing in Derek's number as he course, it went straight to voicemail. Briefly, Simon wondered if Derek and Dylan had arrived yet, before retreating back inside.

"Simon? What's going on?" Chloe sat up on the bed.

"Nothing, I was just trying to get a hold of Derek; see if they had gotten inside the pack in one piece. How are you?" Simon asked, sitting on the bed again.

"Better. The cramping stopped. What time is it?"

"Three eighteen."

"Marlee's not back yet… is she?"

Simon shook his head.

"What are we going to do?" Chloe asked.

He sighed. "Sleep. It's dark out. My tiny flashlight won't provide enough light to get us back to the house - or even to the nearest highway. Best thing to do is to sleep until morning. We'll try to find the others and find the way back to the house."

"Are we safe here?"

"Do you think we would've found this place if Marlee hadn't pointed it out?" She shook her head. "I think we're safe. Just try to sleep."

Chloe didn't argue.

Lucy's POV

7am: November 15th

After sleeping on cold hard wood all night, the last thing Lucy wanted to do was wake up to the sun shining in her face. Nighttime was much better. She groaned and sat up.

Emily was sitting in front of her. Lucy jumped back screaming. Could she be any more creepy? "You're gonna give me a heart attack if you keep doing that," she said, knowing that Emily could still hear her, even though Lucy couldn't hear Emily.

Emily started laughing. Lucy rolled her eyes and pressed her back against the tree, crossing her legs and sitting up straight.

Thoughts of the night before tried to forced it's way into her mind, as it had been doing all night, but Lucy wasn't going to let that type of negativity get to her. She shook those thoughts from her head and took a deep breath, delving head first into her meditation routine.

'Clear your mind.' Lucy imagined in her mind's eye everything that had been on her mind. The ambush, where Simon and Chloe were, if Mason was okay, how far away the other members of their group might be, if any of them had been hurt… she pushed all of it out of her mind. She imagined shoving all of those images out through her ears so that there was nothing left in her mind but a white space, warm, pure and innocent.

'Deep breath in, deep breath out.' She practiced rhythmic breathing, breathing in for six seconds, holding breath for four seconds and slowly breathing out for six seconds. In, six seconds, hold four seconds, out six seconds. Lucy continued her patterned breathing for about five minutes until she felt completely calm and relaxed.

'If you have any negativity, leave it behind. Ground it out.' she didn't want any negative thoughts interrupting her meditation. Lucy imagined roots going from her feet deep into the ground, through the tree roots, deep through the crust of the earth and into Earth's fiery core. She brought in good, golden energies from Mother Earth from one root, and expelled bad, black energies out from the other root. Breathe in, gather good, breathe out, expel bad. She kept on grounded until she felt all good and fuzzy inside and when she was done, she pulled in her roots and cleared her mind again.

'Let the first color that comes to mind fill your body, mind, and soul.' It was a hot pink color this time. 'How odd,' she thought.

The color began at the center of Lucy's chest and moved about four feet away from her body. It worked and wove its way around her until the world was nothing but a pink haze. Inside was cozy and warm and she felt safe inside her cocoon of pretty colors.

She had been doing this for a while, so she didn't really need the extra instruction that she gave herself, however, repeating the steps in her head gave her clarity and peace of mind. She wanted to get back to some sense of normalcy, even though at the moment there was little to be found. She went on with the meditation.

Lucy allowed her bubble of happy and pretty take her up through the treetops and into the sky above the clouds, out of the atmosphere. It took her up into oblivion until she landed in the net plane of existence. Reluctantly, she left her cozy, pink, ball of awesome and stepped out into the spirit realm.

"And it appears that I've ended up in the woods. Again," she deadpanned. "Alright, what am I supposed to learn from the woods?" Lucy tilted her head up towards the sky. "You've been sending me here for months. The only thing I've learned is that I'm being stalked by some were-bitch named Mei."

"Ooh! You said a bad word!"

Lucy swiveled around to see Emily standing behind her. "Oh, it's just you." the little girl punched her in the hip causing her hands to race to her screaming side. Generally, she liked small kids. This one, however, was getting on her last nerve.

"Mind your manners. We're equals here." Emily replied.

"Little bitch," Lucy mumbled under her breath. The kid lifted her hand and threw a fingertip sized pebble at her head.

"Get smart or go home,"

"You're spunky. How old are you?"

"Officially? Old. When I died, I was eight."

"How?" Lucy continued. Her curiosity got the better of her.

"Does it matter? I never age. I never grow taller, or become more mature. I just am and no matter what I do, I can't move on. I am bound to the woods I died in." Emily said turning away.

As much as the little girl annoyed her, Lucy felt bad for her. How is it that she hadn't moved on yet? "Do you remember how you died? Because if not, it may be what's preventing you from moving on," she said.

"Who are you? The ghost police? I don't need your help." Emily glared at her and folded her arms in defiance.

"Then why are you here? I came here to do my morning routine. Start my day out right. No one invited you." Lucy replied, walking off in the other direction.

"I'm lonely."

She stopped mid stride.

"When I died, I was eight. I fell from the treehouse and broke my spine." Emily's image flickered and reverted back to what it looked like at the time of her death. Her body was crooked and her face was caught in mid scream. She flicked back to normal. "I died instantly. My sister was with me. She watched me fall and was the one who ran to get my parents.

After my death, she would visit me in the woods every day until our mother found. Mother moved the family out immediately. She didn't want my figurative ghost disrupting her family any longer. She wanted to move on with her life and no one could do that if Amelia came home telling stories of how she played with her dead sister at the dinner table that night."

Lucy listened to the girl's story in silence.

"A few years later, when Sarah was sixteen, she was killed. I'm unsure of what happened. She returned her briefly, but she wouldn't tell me how she died. We spoke and said our goodbyes and she passed on. I've been alone ever since. You are the first person that I've run into that can see me. I wanted someone to talk to." Emily explained.

"You haven't run into Chloe? She's a lot stronger than I am."

"I know who she is. The dead talk, and if you're one of us, it's pretty common to hear about Chloe the Necro." Emily paused, looking as if she wanted to say something else, but instead she continued with, "I don't want her here. My death isn't pretty. It plays on a constant loop for certain people." She twiddled with the hem of her dress. "Chloe would be one of those people."

Lucy shrugged, letting the matter go. The less drama, she figured, the better. "Alright. Next order of business is to get you to move on. Chloe and I figured out a way to shove spirits into the Otherworld; we figured out a way to help them move on - without shoving them into Limbo."

"How do you know it works?"

"Our ghost friend, Liz helped. I don't know where she is. I think she's keeping her distance." she replied.

Emily's eyes lit up. "How does it work?"

"I use my necromancer abilities to shove you into the Other. Your job is to imagine yourself moving on. Constantly. You can't stop until you've done it. It works… nine times out of ten." Lucy explained to her.

"I'll take that chance."

"Okay. I can't do it here though. Give me a few minutes to get back to the Earth plane." Emily nodded and Lucy walked back over to her neon cocoon.

She reversed the process and enjoyed her ride back to Earth. A tingle went down her spine and she opened her eyes. She'd been in meditation a least a few hours or more. The sun had risen a little more, although it didn't bare much heat.

Lucy sighed and got down to business. Emily sat in front of her; her posture was attentive and it looked like she awaited instruction.

"You should know that this is my first time doing this alone, but it should work the same way."

Emily nodded eagerly.

"So, um, first thing is that you need to breathe deeply. In and out." Emily looked like she was following orders. "Next imagine yourself crossing over, imagine yourself living for the rest of eternity side by side with your family in the afterlife. Keep that picture in your mind. Don't let your mind wander until you can't feel me pushing you anymore."

Emily nodded again.

"Alright, I'm gonna start." Lucy watched the little girl close her eyes.

She closed her eyes as well, and imagined shoving Emily through the realm, chanting the Latin incantation she and Chloe and made up for the crossover process. Once, twice, three times. Lucy imagined pushing her through to the other dimension over and over again until she couldn't feel Emily's presence anymore. She opened her eyes.

"Lucy is that you?"

Simon's POV

10am: November 15th

"Chloe, time to wake up." Simon leaned over Chloe's sleeping form. Her eyes fluttered open.

"What's going on?" Chloe asked groggily. She propped herself up on her elbows.

"It's morning. We have to move." Simon replied, backing off of the bed. She moved to sit up. "How are you feeling?"

"Tired. Like I could sleep for the next century."

"Well, you slept eight hours. We get back to the group and you can sleep on the way to the Pack, but for now we need to start back." Simon said. Chloe stood and stretched. She grabbed the bottle of water and took a few gulps of it. He stared at her.

"What? Marlee will freak on me if she finds out I went eight hours without drinking anything."

"True. If we ever find Marlee again." Simon looked at Chloe's sullen face and instantly regretted that last comment. Time for a subject change. "Just take the jug with us." she nodded and he followed her up the steps.

"Do you remember which way we came from?" She asked him.

He looked around and pointed in a direction. "That way. I'm about ninety percent sure. I'm not sure how far, but if we start walking and keep walking, we'll reach the manor."

"You said I slept eight hours. What about you?" Chloe glanced at Simon out of the corner of her eye.

"I slept for about four of those hours. I ended up waking up and couldn't get back to sleep. I tried calling Derek again but he still didn't answer." He explained.

"I hope they aren't carving him up with chainsaws…" Chloe mumbled. Simon gave her a crazy look. Apparently, she had been watching too many horror movies with Lucy and Tori. He'd have to talk to Derek about that when they met up again. She caught his confused expression and explained, "that was the big rumor spread by the Pack. That they kidnapped intruders and carved them up with chainsaws."

Simon shook his head. "That sounds ridiculous. Like some stupid B movie. I'm sure both Derek and Dylan are fine."

Chloe nodded. "So, I'll be back in a few minutes."

"Where the hell do you think you're going?" Seriously, first they had lost Marlee, now Chloe wanted to go off on her own. Was it possible that she had hit her head at some point during the ambush? Or maybe the pregnancy hormones were changing her common sense into idiocy… not that Simon would ever tell her these theories. He wanted to stay on Chloe's good side.

"Well you know, if you want to watch me take a piss, suit yourself, but I'm sure Derek will have an issue or two with it." Chloe replied.

He felt his cheeks flame. "Oh. Uh… just don't go too far," he replied turning away. That was something he hadn't thought of.

"Yeah, yeah."

Chloe stalked off in the opposite direction and returned a few minutes later. They began their trek back to the manor.

They walked in for a while in silence. It was a fairly cheerful day for being the middle of November. The air was chilly but the sun was high in the sky and the birds were signing. The squirrels were jumping here and there as well.

A fair amount of time had passed when Chloe spoke again. "What do you think happened to Marlee? Do you think she's okay?"

Simon stayed silent for a few more paces. A few more paces turned into fifteen minutes. "Simon?"

He swallowed. This wasn't something he wanted to discuss, but if she was going to insist… "They had guns, Chloe. She might be okay, but she might not. The good news is, Marlee's one hell of a fighter so the chances that we'll find her alive are significantly great." Simon glanced at Chloe who was looking at him with a grim expression. "Our best option is to find the others."

He hated saying things like that, but she wasn't stupid and he wouldn't sugarcoat things for her. Not anymore. She'd just kick his ass for not giving it to her straight anyway.

When Simon couldn't hear Chloe's tell tale footsteps trampling the underbrush beside him, he turned and looked for her. She stood behind him about fifteen feet. "Chloe?"

"Sh!"

He waited a few minutes. Chloe had a concentrating look on her face and her head was bowed low. "Chloe what's going on?"

"Someone's talking… about half a football field away…" she looked at him.

He frowned… "No one's talking Chlo."

She ignored him and sped ahead, Simon had to sprint to keep up. "I found Lucy!" A smile dashed across her face.

They ran about fifty two yards ahead and finally, Simon could hear what Chloe had heard. "Where is it coming from?" he looked at Chloe, her face upturned toward the sky. He lifted his eyes to see an old treehouse. At the edge was a girl sitting against the rail. I would know that hair color anywhere.

"Lucy? Is that you?"

Chloe's POV

She stopped dead in her tracks, but Simon continued toward the treehouse. After all the time that she had spent with Liz, after all the time that she had spent training with Lucy, spirits still terrified Chloe.

She thought back to a conversation she had had with Tori once.

/Flashback/

"A child could spend their entire childhood dreaming of having superpowers, and when you finally get them… you begin to wish it had never happened. That you were just normal." Chloe looked at Tori. Her gaze was cast on the floor. "They say be careful what you wish for…"

Tori brought her eyes up. "I never dreamed of superpowers," she said suddenly.

The look on Chloe's face was that of shock. "Not even once?"

She shook her head. "I just wanted my mom to love me the way she loved my oh so perfect sister and a dad that wasn't oblivious to everything."

Chloe felt sorry for her. Weeks ago, she never thought that she and Tori would even be on the same team and now they were swapping childhood stories like old friends.

"Be thankful that you had the type of childhood where wishing for superpowers was an option." Tori replied softly.

/End Flashback/

If Chloe had thought that her abilities were annoying back then, they were nothing compared to the headache they were now.

Beside Lucy stood two little girls laughing together. Then suddenly, out of nowhere, the smaller one lost her balance and fell from the tree house. Her happy face broke into an expression of terror and she emitted a silent scream from her lips before finally hitting the ground at a grotesque angle.

Chloe's hand flew up to her mouth to stifle her gasp. She turned away from the sight and leaned against a nearby tree, greedily sucking in gulps of air. She felt bile rise in her throat.

"Chloe, you okay?" Simon asked, lifting his attention from his amorous hug with Lucy to her.

She waved him away. "Go. I'm uh -" She swallowed and squeezed her eyes shut, taking a deep breath in. "I'm gonna go over here." While Simon and Lucy caught up with each other, Chloe refocused on keeping the contents of her stomach, or lack thereof, down. She flinched when someone put their hand on her shoulder. Lucy was standing next to her.

"Are you okay?" she asked.

Chloe nodded. "I think so." she finally got a good look at her friend. Lucy looked fairly unscathed from the ambush. "Luce. You're bouncing."

"I wanna hug you. Can I hug you?" the words came exploding out of her mouth and Chloe felt a small spread across her face. She nodded again.

Lucy slammed her form into Chloe's and held on for dear life. "I'm so glad you're okay, Chloe!"

Chloe hugged her back just as fiercely. "I missed you too, Lucy."

"If we're done catching up, we need to get moving." Simon said softly, from a few feet away.

They gathered up their stuff again and began walking. And awkward silence fell over their trio. Chloe could feel Lucy fidget beside her. "Lucy, you okay?" she asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine… it's just…" Lucy sighed and started again. "Did anyone see what happened to Mason?"

It was Chloe's turn to fidget. "In all the chaos, I didn't see anything. I froze until Simon pushed me forward. That's when we started to run."

Simon spoke up. "He was in front of us. I think he got hit because I thought I saw blood splatter behind him… but that may have been from my own wound." Lucy's eyes widened with worry, but let him continue. "My instincts kicked in after that and we started running in the opposite direction. I didn't see anything after that."

Lucy didn't say anything for a moment but then she said, "So he might be dead then."

Simon gave her the smallest of nods. "But he might also be with Marlee."

"Where's Marlee?" Lucy asked.

"We don't know. She went out to go get food last night and never came back." Chloe said. "We're thinking someone sneaked up on her and caught her off guard."

Lucy paused and turned to Chloe. "Emily, the girl you saw fall from the treehouse, she told me the rest of our group was in that direction." She pointed to the left.

"I thought you couldn't hear ghosts." Simon glanced at Lucy as he maneuvered around a rotten log.

"My physical body can't hear spirits. When I meditate or dream, I'm not using my physical body. I'm using my spirit. Emily found me on the spiritual plane and told me a lot of things, not all of them about our group. In fact, the only thing she told me was that three members of our group was in that direction and that the Edison Group should be gone by now. The rest of the stuff we talked about was her and her death and helping her move on." Lucy explained.

"Okay, so I guess we'll switch directions then." Simon looked quickly at both of the girls. "We're stopping for a minute. I need to try Derek's cell again."

"You have your cell phone on you?" Lucy gave Simon a bewildered look.

"Yes…"

"And it still has a full battery?"

"It's got a half battery. Why?"

"You've had it with you all night?"

"Yeah. It was off at the time of the ambush because I didn't think I would need it. Now I'm just glad I saved the battery. I've been trying to get a hold of Derek all night." Simon replied.

"I think mine is still on my bed at the manor." Chloe said.

"I… uh… don't know where mine is. I think it's on my floor. Somewhere…"

An easy laugh erupted around their circle. Lucy rolled her eyes, but she laughed right along with them.

Simon's POV

He quickly dialed in Derek's number. His brother's persisting silence was beginning to worry him. Simon sighed and turned the phone off, shoving it back in his pocket. Chloe caught his gaze.

"Nothing?" Chloe was beginning to have a hard time holding it together. She was putting on a brave face, but he had known her long enough to know her breaking point.

"I'm sure he's fine. He's probably just busy with Pack stuff. Making arrangements for our arrival and whatnot…" Simon gave her a reassuring smile.

"How many times have you called him?" Lucy asked.

Simon looked between the two girls and weighed his options. He could lie and lower the number to ease their minds or he could tell them the real number and have possible hysteria. He decided he wasn't a liar. "I've called Derek about five times."

When Chloe walked past him, he grabbed her arm gently. "Are you okay?" She turned to face him.

"The only way we're gonna find Derek is if we find Tori, Kit, and my dad. So let's go." Chloe wrenched her arm out of Simon's grasp and kept walking. He shot a worried look to Lucy.

Lucy shrugged a response and began walking in the same direction Chloe had. Simon followed without saying another word.

Derek's POV

10:00am: November 15th

Derek and Dylan sat waiting in the infirmary, side by side like they had known each other our whole lives. Derek's phone was charging and he kept waiting for someone, anyone, from the group to call. He didn't want to risk calling and accidentally giving away someone's position. They'd call him when they were safe.

"You really love her, don't you?" Dylan asked.

"What was your first clue?"

"Dude, if you're gonna be a dick I'm not even going to try to level with you."

"Sorry… I tend to lash out when I'm stressed." Derek admitted, reluctantly. The last thing he needed to do was cause irreparable damage between him and his mate's brother.

"Oh, right, because I'm just as happy as a bump on a log." Dylan replied.

That, however, set Derek over the edge. "Why the fuck would you even care? You've only known us for a few hours!"

"Since we're being oh so honest, I'll let you in on a secret: I could care less about what happens to everyone else, but Chloe is my sister! She's the only family that I have. That's why I care."

Derek rolled his eyes in irritation. "Bull shit. You can't grow to care about someone that much that quickly. It's not possible." he responded.

Dylan pinched the bridge of his nose and groaned. "You are one dense motherfucker. I have had six years to learn to care about what happens to Chloe-"

"You've barely had five minutes!"

"When you first met her, how long did it take you to start caring about what happened to her? I know you're emotionally challenged, but she's been with you this long and she's carrying your babies so obviously you feel something for her. So how long did it take for you?"

Derek paused, taken aback. He hadn't expected Dylan to ask him that and to be honest he hadn't really thought about it. No… that was a lie. He had thought about it a lot during the few days that Chloe was in a coma. Every aspect of their time together, every single detail, each conversation he could remember ever having with her must have gone through his head at least a hundred times during that time. He remembered the first thing that he had ever said to her and the last few words that he had told her before he left for Syracuse.

In truth, he didn't think much of Chloe in the first few days that he had known her. She seemed fairly dim witted and frankly, annoying. She was a tool to him, but at some point along the way, he had begun to think of her as something more. Maybe not what they were currently, but definitely something more and for Derek to think that of anyone was a lot.

So when had he begun developing feelings for her? Romantically? He couldn't pinpoint an exact moment or conversation. It had really just happened. One minute, it seemed, that they were just friends and the next he had wanted to take her in his arms and just hold her.

However, he could remember the moment he quit thinking of her as a way of means. That one had never been more easy. It was when she sat next to him during his first shift. He could easily see that she had been scared, but her actions showed that she had been scared for him, and not of him. She had treated him like Derek instead of the monster that he thought that he had been becoming and he had never been more thankful for that. It was in that moment that Chloe had become a person to him. It had been about five days since they had met.

For argument's sake however, Derek would never tell that to Dylan. "It was different with Chloe and I," he finally said quietly. "But you'll never understand th-"

"Why? Why won't I understand? Because quite frankly-"

Someone hit them both over the head with something hard and heavy.

"Ow! What the fuck?" Derek exclaimed.

They turned to see Marigold holding a large, hardback dictionary. "It doesn't matter how long you've known him. What matters is that your teammate has fallen and you're arguing like an old married couple. For the love of all that is good: Shut. Up."

Both of them gladly obliged. "Mason has a nasty blood infection, caused by an infected bullet wound. I couldn't find any bullet fragments. I've given him some heavy pain medication and an aggressive dose of antibiotics, but with a wound like he has, I can't stitch it up until the infection is cleared up. Providing the infection doesn't spread further, he should be fine. He's awake, but he's groggy from the meds. I'm assuming you'd like to go and find out what happened, so you're allowed to go in but only for a few minutes."

"Thank you," Derek said, walking past her and into the room Mason was lodged in. Dylan filed in after him.

Mason still looked like hell, but he didn't look like he was necessarily fighting for his life anymore. His dark matted hair was damp and stuck to his forehead and he was still sweating quite a big. His shirt had been removed as well. His eyes were closed and other than the sweat, you would think he was asleep.

"Mason?" Derek inched closer to the bed.

Mason's eyes flicked open. "Derek?" He shot up bold right before falling back on the bed again.

"Hey take it easy. Marigold said you're gonna be fine, but you won't be if you over do it. Sit back, take a breath, and tell me what happened." Derek told him.

"There's no time - we've wasted enough already! Everyone's in danger! You have to find them -" The heart monitor that Mason was hooked up to went off causing Marigold to come rushing in.

She placed her hand on his chest and whispered a few words that they couldn't hear. The monitor steaded again and Mason calmed down. "Your family and friends have each other. Freaking out will do nothing, and rushing in like a bunch of half cocked idjits will more than likely get you all killed. If you can't keep calm, I'll put you into a medicated sleep and nothing will get done." Marigold told us, sternly, "that cannot happen again."

"As much as I hate to admit it, she's right. We go in there acting like we own the place, we're just gonna end up six feet under. We need a plan." Derek replied. He looked up at Mason again. "What happened last night?"

Mason took a deep shuddering breath. "Everything was fine… Kit, Marlee, Tori, and I were playing basketball. Chloe's dad was refereeing. I think Lucy was in her room and Simon was listening to Chloe rant about you being gone like she had been all day."

"How pissed is she?" he asked, almost afraid to hear the answer.

"On a scale of one to ten?" Mason cracked a smile. "Dude, you're screwed."

Derek leaned back in the chair he was sitting in. "Awesome," he said, sarcastically.

"Anyway, Lucy, Chloe and Simon came outside to ask Marlee something and all of a suddenly gunshots were fired. I think Simon got hit before I did, but I saw him, Chloe, and Marlee run off in one direction so I think he's okay. I made it over to the barn and started driving. I didn't stop until I reached the Pack.

I wasn't even sure if I had the right place and that dick at the front gates wasn't doing shit."

"When did all of this happen?" Dylan asked.

"A few hours after sunset, I think." Mason replied.

"We were still driving." Derek mumbled. "We didn't get here until about three in the morning."

"Have you been able to get a hold of anyone?" Mason asked.

He shook his head. "I didn't want to call in case they were hiding. I figured someone would call me when they're safe."

"Safe to assume." Marigold replied.

"So what happens when they call?" Dylan asked again.

"Assess the situation they're in and hopefully get them all here safely." Derek replied. Which was simple in theory, but he knew it would be difficult. He was keeping calm on the outside, but on the inside the uncertainty was driving him mad with worry.

A small snore came from Mason's general direction. Derek watched Dylan's eyes get wide. "Is-Is he asleep?"

He shrugged it off. "He's all hopped up on meds and needs to rest anyway." He stood and led the way out of the room and continued discussing strategy elsewhere.

Tori's POV

10:30am: November 15th

The sticky threads of Tori's dream disintegrated as someone began to shake her awake. "Simon, damn it, go away." she mumbled, rolling over. Her ankle protested at the movement and she sat up. "Ouch! What the fu-" Kit was sitting on the bed beside her. Memories of the night before came crashing back and the harshness of her reality sank in. "Oh… sorry."

"We were going to start planning our escape and we wanted you to be in the loop."

Feeling more awake, Tori began to take in her surroundings. The wind was harsh and unforgiving on her face. She could smell the frost that hung in the morning air. Scott was sitting in a discarded chair off to the side. There was bright sunlight streaking into the hole in the ceiling from when she fell through the previous night. There wasn't much else that was different.

She sat up further and glanced at her swollen ankle. She looked back at Kit. "I can't walk on this ankle." The sentence was bitter on her tongue and deepened the frown that had settled on her lips.

"It's an hour walk back to the manor. I'm sure Scott and I can tag team carrying you." Tori looked from Kit to Scott, who gave a confirmation nod.

"Do either of you know what we're going to be coming back to?" Scott asked, looking to Kit.

"Well, usually, the bulk of the group clears out by noon. Of course, that depends on if they've got hostages." Kit replied.

"And if they've got hostages?" Tori questioned.

"Then they're probably going to request reinforcements to capture the rest of us." A grim look passed over Kit's face and an unsettling silence fell over the group.

"On that happy note, shall we?" Kit offered his arm to help me up. She gratefully took it, leaning on him just enough to make sure she kept balanced.

Scott came over to the other side of her. He wrapped one arm under shoulder and around her back and the other under her bad leg. Kit mirrored Scott's actions. With slight struggle, they managed to carry her up the steps to begin the trek back to base.

Tori sighed. "This is going to be a long day."

Simon's POV

12:00pm: November 15th

The three of them stood looking at the hole in the rotted wood. "Do you think they were here?" Simon asked, mostly to himself. There was no evidence of Kit, Scott, or Tori, but he remained hopeful.

Chloe carefully lowered herself to the ground. Simon's eyebrows rose in confusion. He studied her posture for a minute before he caught on. Derek made that same pose when he was trying to catch the trail of someone. Was she…?

"Tori was here, and so was Kit and my dad." Chloe's abrupt voice brought Simon out of his thoughts.

"Did you just-"

"Shut up." Chloe shot him a deadly glare. He lifted his hands in defense. Chloe refocused her attention on Lucy was was also crouching low to the forest floor. "Luce, did you find anything?"

"I was waiting for the two of you to shush so I could concentrate." Lucy replied, looking between the both of them.

Simon sighed and dramatically pantomimed zipping his mouth shut and throwing away the key. Satisfied, Lucy closed her eyes and placed her entire palm on the old slab of wood.

He shivered silently. Being relatively human in a trio of werewolves kinda sucked.

Lucy began speaking. "They were running and then they stopped. Tori fell through the wood; the rot couldn't support her."

Simon let a small laugh escape his lips. "She has gained a bit of weight," he thought outloud. Chloe punched his arm, causing him to recoil. He swallowed the yelp that formed in his throat, and cleared it. When did she start hitting so hard?

"I'm sure it's mostly muscle." Lucy narrowed her eyes at him and made a grunting noise. "Sorry," he whispered, truly feeling apologetic. He wasn't usually this aggressively snarky. It must've been the stress.

She went back to concentrating. "They stayed the night here… and then left about an hour ago." Lucy stood.

"That's good! That means that most of our group is okay! There are only four people we don't know the whereabouts of."

"Three."

"Huh?" They looked at Chloe.

"There are only three people that we don't know the whereabouts of." Chloe faced Simon. "Dylan is not part of our group."

"Chloe, he's your brother." Lucy told her softly.

"No, he's not. Simon is my brother. Mason is my brother. Dylan is just some guy that happens to share my DNA." Lucy and Simon exchanged glances. He'd never seen Chloe so hostile over something before. She usually tried to see the best in everyone. It drove Derek, and sometimes Simon, crazy.

Chloe turned away from their triangle of people and began to walk towards the house. "Where are you going?" he asked.

"I'm following their trail. We're not that far behind them." Chloe responded.

Simon began walking after Chloe and motioned for Lucy to follow, keeping about twenty yards behind the expectant teen.

They walked along in silence for a bit. Simon looked at the watch that he kept on him. They had been walking for about an hour or so. "So are you gonna tell me what's up with Chloe?" Lucy whispered beside him.

He glanced between the girl beside him and the one ahead of them. In the few weeks that Chloe had began the transition into a werewolf, her muscles had strengthened, and her sense of smell heightened which meant that her sense of hearing was probably sensitive too.

He looked back at Lucy and signed for her to slow her pace a little. She did as she was told. "We thought…" he paused. "We thought Chloe was going to have a miscarriage last night."

Lucy's face formed a silent gasp.

"It was an emotional night," he whispered.

"She didn't actually-"

"No, she's fine now. It was just all the stress and running and stuff caused some abdominal cramps. Plus she's upset that we can't get a hold of-"

"Both of you shut up."

Chloe had stopped in her tracks up ahead of us. Simon felt like a deer caught in headlight and by the looks of it, Lucy didn't look much better.

"What's-"

"Climb the trees. Now. Someone's coming." Chloe kept her voice low.

Lucy and Simon followed her lead and began climbing the trees. He had some difficulty, but with Lucy's help, he managed to climb about twelve feet up. Lucy climbed a bit further before stopping.

For a minute there was nothing, There was the wind, the bitter cold, and the rustle of leaves, but nothing out of the ordinary. Simon sighed and glanced at Lucy who now had her eyes fixed in the direction Chloe was looking towards. Slowly, the sounds they were hearing became relevant to his ears as well.

Footsteps were trudging through the fallen leaves. Simon pressed himself against the tree and willed himself to be as still as possible. The footsteps stopped directly below them.

"Where did you say you saw them?"

"I didn't. It was just a feeling."

Simon opened his eyes. He knew those voices. "Dad? Tori?" He jumped down from his spot in the tree. He landed on all fours and then rolled painfully onto his back. "Ouch." After a while without pain meds, along with the frigid his shoulder had gone numb to the pain from the recent bullet wound. He had forgotten it until just then and now he regretted being so careless.

He heard Lucy and Chloe jump down after him.

"What the fuck were you doing in the trees?" Tori asked.

Simon rearranged his position so he could see Tori's face. "Hello to you too. I'm fine. No, I'm not hurt too badly. I mean, I did get shot and I could've died but I'm okay. Thanks for asking."

Kit rolled his eyes and helped him to his feet. "You were shot?"

"I could have lost my arm. I could have died!" Simon slid the collar of his shirt down to reveal the stitch job Marlee had done the night before. It was still violently red and it hurt like hell now after jumping from the tree, but the cold air felt amazing on the wound.

"You're such a wimp. Marlee did an awesome job on your bullet removal. You were never in any danger of dying or losing your arm." Chloe said, with a small smile on her face.

"Says the girl who had drugs with her bullet removal." Simon replied.

Kit took Simon in his arms. "I'm glad you guys are okay."

"I thought you said Marlee was with you," Scott inquired.

Chloe and Simon exchanged looks. "She was," Chloe started, "she went out in search of food last night and never came back."

"Tori, how bad is your ankle?" Lucy asked.

"Broken." Tori rolled her eyes. They were all used to Lucy's way of just knowing things. "Scott and Kit carried me for a while but after that I grabbed a couple of sticks and started using them as makeshift crutches," she explained. There was a short paused before she looked at Lucy. "Has anyone seen Mason?"

No one said anything.

"What about Derek or Dylan? Has anyone heard anything from them?" Kit asked.

"I've been trying to get a hold of Derek since last night. He hasn't answered and he hasn't called."

Kit sneaked a glance at Chloe who was currently involved in a group hug between her, Tori, and Lucy. Really made a dude feel the love. Simon's dad turned his attention back to him.

"How's she holding up?" he mouthed.

Simon gave him a shaking hand gesture signifying her instability.

"Well, the sooner we get back to the manor, the better right?" Scott said.

Kit nodded, "Stay together everyone, and more importantly, stay quiet. We don't know what's waiting for us back at camp."

12:15pm: November 15th

It was a surprisingly short walk to the edge of the woods. Across the backyard, they could see the back of the house but the driveway was out of view.

The six of them formed a circle just inside the cover of the woods. "None of you have any weapons on you, do you?" Kit asked. A couple of them checked their pockets but came up with nothing. "Chloe is Liz around?"

Chloe stood still for a minute, staring off into space. Finally she looked back to Kit and said, "I can't find her."

He ran a hand down his face and sighed. "Anybody have any ideas?"

Lucy raised her hand like a school student and jumped up and down in place. She waited patiently until Kit confirmed that she could speak. "I can astral project and go over to the other side of the house and check things out. You guys would have to keep an eye on my body though."

"Astral project?" Scott look confused.

"It's when a necromancer, or more commonly, a shaman, can allow their spirit to leave their body temporarily. It's form of meditation." Chloe explained.

Kit thought for a moment. "I don't like the idea. If we knew what type of supernaturals were hunting us, I'd be more comfortable with it. But as it is, we don't know if they have a necro or a shaman with them at all."

Lucy nodded in understanding then her eyes lit up again. "I can climb up the back of the house and crawl across the roof to see what's happening on the other side."

"She's an amazing climber," Simon put in.

"I can go with her," Chloe said. All eyes turned to her. "What?"

"Don't you think you should take it a little easy, Chloe?" Scott asked from across the circle.

The tension in the air could be cut with a knife. Chloe looked livid. Simon panicked. It was time to do some damage control. "Uh, what he means is, you'll be of more use to us here. Someone needs to keep Tori out of trouble. And you'll be able to hear someone coming from a mile away," he said.

"I'm not a moron, Simon. He means I'm pregnant so I'm automatically incapable of doing anything actually useful." Scott opened his mouth to protest but Chloe cut him off. "Whatever. It's fine. I'll make sure Tori doesn't run off on her busted ankle."

Simon shot an SOS look to his dad. "Lost cause," he mouthed back.

Kit turned to Lucy. "Luce, this is important. Are you sure you're up for it?" Lucy nodded. "Alright. Scale up the side of the house and across the roof. Scout out how many hired guns are still here, if any. If there are still some remaining, keep a note of their position and the type of arms they have. Report back here when you've completed the recon."

"Got it."

Lucy's POV

12:30 November 15th

The rest of the group was hidden within the tree line. The manor was dark looking from the outside. Lucy didn't have any idea if there was anyone waiting inside, but inside wasn't her goal.

In the gardens, there was a criss crossing stainless steel fence, along the backside of the house. It looked like it used to be used for creeping type plants.

Curious, Lucy tested her weight on the fence. It held and she began climbing. Past the first story, and the second story, and finally she pulled herself up onto the roof. She laid there for a minute and began crawling.

The muscles in her theighs, calves and shoulders ached from strenuous use. She'd have to remember to work out more in this form when they got out of this.

Shuffling across the last few feet of roof, Lucy was finally able to peer over the edge of the house. On the front lawn there were two large black vans, both with their back hatches open. By her count, there were eight Edison Group employees covering the grounds, all carrying some form of high tech weapon. From her viewpoint, Lucy couldn't tell if they had Marlee or not. She sighed and began to scuttle back to the other end of the roof.

When she finally made it back to the others, she relayed the information. Chloe and Tori were sulking next to each other. Kit sighed and looked at Lucy, "With Chloe and Tori out of commission, we only have four bodies for offence." He fell silent thinking to himself.

"I can fight if you'd let me. I don't have to get close!" Chloe insisted.

"Chloe, you're a capable young woman, and I wouldn't have a problem with you helping out in some way if it wasn't for the fact that Derek-"

"-Would skin us alive if he found out that we risked yours and the babies' lives." Simon cut Kit off.

"Who says he would ever have to find out?" Lucy looked between the three of them, and then to Scott off to the side, and then back to Chloe. Tori sat at Chloe's feet with her head leaning against the trunk of the tree with her head leaning against the trunk of the tree with her eyes closed. It looked as if Tori was happy to just sit back and kick it for a while, and really I didn't blame her.

Simon's face paled. "Chloe, we've known each other for almost three years now. You should know that I can't lie and Derek would know immediately if I tried. I don't want to deal with those consequences."

Chloe sighed and sat down. "Continue with your planning." She looked so defeated that Lucy almost wished she could take her place. Chloe seemed to have come to terms with her role in the group; Lucy, who desperately wanted to be normal, would have been more than happy to sit back and take the role of the pregnant teen mom… even if she wasn't ready for that challenge.

"Alright, Chloe and Tori, I want the both of you to stay within the line of the trees and out of sight. Simon take Scott and move through the trees around the yard until you reach the front drive. Wait for my signal. Lucy, you're going to follow me. We're going to pick the lock at the back door and move through the house. Hopefully we can find Marlee and there won't be any major injuries so we can start our trip to the Pack as soon as possible." Kit explained. "Are we ready?"

Simon frowned. "I need to try to call Derek again. Just in case." Kit nodded. Simon pulled out his cell phone and dialed.

Derek's POV

2:00pm November 15th

It was so quiet in the small hospital building that you could have heard a pen drop. It was becoming maddening. Between the rhythmic beep, beep, beep, of the heart monitor that Mason was hooked up to, Dylan staring at the wall, and Marigold scribbling something on a piece of paper in the next room, Derek felt like he was gonna lose it.

Derek's phone was charging from the front desk down the hall, the only available outlet that could be spared, or so Marigold had said. Waiting around for the call from someone was grating on his ability to stay all. He didn't know how much longer he could just sit there doing nothing. He leaned his head against the wall and suppressed a pained groan.

That's when he heard it: the annoying chirping of his phone. Dylan looked at Derek. He'd heard it too. There was a challenge in Dylan's eyes. Which one of them would reach it first? They jumped from their seats at the same time, but Dylan was closer to the door.

They ran, the slap of their shoes on the squeaky tile floor seemed agonizingly slow. He swore this hallway hadn't seems so long before.

CHIRP, CHIRP! CHIRP, CHIRP!

How long would his phone keep ringing? Derek was on Dylan's heels but he reached the phone first.

"Hello?"

"Derek?"

"Dylan-"

"Give me that," Derek snatched the phone from Dylan's grasp, careful not to touch the screen. "Simon?"

"Derek! It's about time! I've been trying to get a hold of you all night. What the hell, man? What happened? Where've you been?" Simon's voice was a mix of hyperactivity and adrenaline.

"Sorry, my phone died on the way here. I didn't realize it until this morning. We didn't get here until three in the morning. We found Mason at the gates this morning. He told us what happened, or what he could." Derek paused for half a second before letting the questions he had been keeping at bay bubble up and tumble from his mouth. "Where's Chloe? Is she okay?"

"Yeah, she's right here. Hold on." There was some shuffling heard on the other end.

"Derek?"

"Chloe…" Hearing her voice was the greatest relief. "Are you okay?"

Chloe's voice shook a little when she spoke. "I'm okay. Are you okay?"

Derek smiled a little. "I'm okay. Are you safe? Do I need to come get you?"

"We're safe."

"Ish." I heard Simon's voice in the background.

"Chloe what does he mean by 'safe-ish'?" There was some more shuffling on the other end of the line.

"Derek, it's Dad. Simon is referring to the remaining Edison Group members half a football field away. They're what's standing between us and escaping to Syracuse. We have too much equipment to even think about leaving it all behind. Tori broke her ankle during the ambush and with Chloe being pregnant, we wanted her to stay out of the attack."

"Good. I don't want her fighting." Derek responded.

"I can take care of myself, damn it." Derek heard Chloe say. He felt himself smile. Still stubborn as ever.

"Dad can you put Chloe back on the phone."

"Hold on," His dad replied. More shuffling.

"Derek." Uh, oh. She had her I'm-not-listening voice in use.

"Chloe." We both stayed silent for a few seconds.

Chloe's voice softened. "I want to help, Derek. I'm the only necromancer we've got."

Derek held his ground. "The others will get along just fine without you for now. You're too important to risk."

"Thanks bro, love you too." Simon mumbled in the background.

Derek rolled his eyes.

"I wasn't aware that you're pregnant, Simon. When were you planning on telling us?" Ah, there's Tori.

Derek took a deep breath and pretended that there wasn't a horde of other people listening in. "Chloe, I know you can take care of yourself. You've proved that, but you've got the twins to look out for now too. Please for the sake of my sanity, promise me you'll stay out of the attack." he told her.

There was a moment of silence and then, "Okay, I promise."

"Thank you. I'll see you in a few hours."

"I love you…" Chloe's voice cracked and it sounded like she was having a hard time keeping it together. What had happened while he was gone? It had to be something big. They'd been attacked before and she'd never been this shaken up.

Derek closed his eyes and stifled a sigh. He missed her more than anything. "I love you too. Be safe."

There was a shuffling noise. "Hey bro, I'm back." Simon again.

"Do me a favor?"

"Watcha need?"

"Bring Chloe back to me in one piece." he said, softly.

"Can do."

"Thanks bro. Tell Tori if she lets my mate out of her sight, I'll kill her."

Simon laughed. "I'll tell her."

"Alright, I'll talk to you later."

"Kay, I'll call you when we're safe to let you know we're on our way."

"Be careful."

"Can do." Simon said again.

There was nothing else to say, so Derek held up the phone. He turned around to look at Dylan. "Did you need to make a phone call?" He was sure he had a smug look on her face.

Marigold strode up to Derek and smacked his cheek. He glared. It didn't hurt, but damn it, that old woman was getting on nerves. "Be nice, or I'll hit you with something that will actually cause you physical harm. What's the news from the rest of your pack?"

"They're not my pack…"

"There's an entire group of you, and they are your family. They are your pack be they werewolf or human. How are they?" Marigold insisted.

Derek sighed again. He had been doing that a lot lately. "They're no worse for wear. Chloe seemed a little more upset than usual by the ambush. They've got a few things to do and then they'll be on their way," he explained.

"She didn't want to talk to me?" Dylan asked.

"She didn't even ask." Okay, he probably could've said that a little nicer.

Marigold cleared her throat. Derek glanced at her and then moved his gaze to Dylan's hurt expression. He rolled his eyes. "Give her time. She's still trying to get to know you. You said it yourself. You've had plenty of time to get used to the idea of having a sister. Chloe has only had a couple days."

Dylan nodded and they returned to Mason's room.

Chloe's POV

3:00pm November 15th

Chloe leaned against the tree next to Tori, after the others left to do their separate things. "Would you relax? You act like it's the worst thing ever to be left behind. I'm glad that I don't have to do shit for once." Tori said.

She could feel Tori shivering. Was it really that cold out? She absently ran a hand through her hair trying to comb out the tangles from the previous night.

"It wouldn't be so bad, if they didn't automatically think that I - we were useless." Chloe replied, pulling at the grass. She gave up on trying to fix her hair for now. The only thing fixing it was a good conditioning rinse and a hair brush.

Tori turned to her. "They don't think we're useless. I mean, I kind of am with this busted ankle, they just want us to be safe," she reasoned. She pulled a twig from her messy pony tail and flicked it into the grass.

Chloe sighed. "Well, I don't know about you, but I'm not gonna just sit here."

Tori's eyes got wide. Chloe looked at her muddy face. "What are you talking about? Didn't you promise Derek you weren't going to fight?"

She stood brushing dirt and twigs off of the back of her thighs. "I'm going to follow Simon and my dad and help them out in anyway I can, other than fighting." Chloe looked at Tori and grinned a little. "I promised Derek I wouldn't fight. I never said anything about giving some assistance."

Tori stared at her dumbfounded. With some difficulty, they managed to get her to her feet. "You are insane," she said, when they finally got her steady.

"So I've been told." Chloe stretched. "Are you gonna sit here or are you gonna come with me?"

Tori huffed. "I can't exactly leave you on your own, can I?" She looked at her bum ankle. "But you'll have to help me out."

Chloe agreed and they started the journey towards Simon and her dad. They walked along for a bit before Tori spoke up.

"I thought you guys were dead," she said quietly. "I mean, I know you were probably freaking out about Derek or whatever-"

"I wasn't. Not until this morning when he didn't answer the phone. I was worried about you guys too." Chloe replied maneuvering around an uprooted tree root.

"It all worked out through, right? No one's died yet." Tori said.

She smiled a little. She wasn't wrong… that we knew of.

"So what exactly is the plan anyway?"

Chloe thought for a moment. "I have no idea. Derek wants me to stay out of whatever combat happens. I promised him I would and I won't break that promise. Your best option is high up long range attacks, since you can't exactly walk. I'm sure I'll find something to do."

"Maybe you could raise a rabid squirrel." Tori replied softly. She made a sideways glance toward Chloe.

She glanced sideways back. The glares made them dissolve into a fit of giggles. She tried to quiet the sound of their laughter, but that just made them laugh harder.

When the laughing died down, Chloe turned to Tori and hugged her. She returned the hug, trying to keep her balance. "I'm glad you're okay," she said.

"I'm glad you didn't have to raise me too," Tori said.

They laughed some more and continued walking.

Lucy's POV

2:30pm November 15th

Lucy watched as Kit broke the lock on the back door to the house. He placed a single finger over his lips to signal silence. They continued into the house. The first room they came to was the kitchen. The drawers had been ripped open and th contents, or lack thereof for the most part, was strewn across the floor.

They inched toward the edge of the kitchen, staying along the wall. Kit peered around the wall to look into the front hall. Without looking back at her, he waved them forward, rushing over to a window near the front door. Lucy felt suspiciously like a spy and bit down a giggle. It would've been appropriate if there wasn't a good chance we would get killed.

"So what now?" she asked.

Kit moved the curtain slightly to look out. After checking to make sure the door was locked, he turned to her. "Follow me." He sped off toward the basement. The door was locked as it usually was since the whole Lauren incident. It took a couple minutes, but Kit was finally successful in breaking the lock on the door.

Lucy tried the light switch. On, off, on, off. Nothing. The basement remained dark. "Slowly. I don't need you getting hurt too." Kit said.

"I'm the one with the night vision. It's you that needs to be careful," she whispered back.

Kit let out a soft chuckle. "I suppose that's true."

They made it down the steps without any serious injuries. "What are we doing down here?"

Simon's dad began the process of opening a safe. "What did you think we were going to fight back with?" The door to the safe swung open. Laid out before them was an entire arsenal. Lucy gazed up at the man, with wide eyes.

Kit ignored the look and handled a handgun. He pulled out the mag to check the amount of ammunition before handing it to her. "Make sure to take the safety off before you shoot." She nodded. He put a similar handgun in his back pocket. Next he grabbed a rifle and checked the scope. "Scope's accurate," he said, passing her the gun.

Lucy continued staring. "You're trusting me with that?"

"I've seen you shoot. You're not that bad of a shot, Lucy. Just have to watch out for the kick back."

She hesitated, but finally nodded and took the rifle from his hands. He pulled one for himself as well as a couple mags.

Kit put something she couldn't see into his pocket, then just like that they were back up the steps again. They moved as quietly as they could through the house. No lights were flipped on. They didn't want to draw any attention to the house until it was necessary.

When the Kit and Lucy finally made it to the top floor, Kit ducked into one of the rooms. Lucy followed closely behind and waited for instruction. A thousand questions were bubbling just on the tip of her tongue, but she held them back. Now wasn't the time.

"Lucy, I want you to stand in between those two windows with your back facing the wall. I'm going to signal Simon and get the ground attack started. When I tell you to, open the window and make those bastards wish they'd stayed home. Be careful to not hit the vans. We don't need an explosion and we could use some of the equipment." Kit said at last.

Lucy nodded. "Not to mention we still don't know where Marlee is." She moved to her position on the wall.

A pained expression clouded the small smile that played on Kit's lips. "Yeah…" With a shake of his head, he crouched by a window and lifted the blinds a fraction of an inch.

From his pocket, he grabbed a small mirror and held it to the pane of glass in front of him.

Oh… she realized slowly. That must be the signal he was talking about. "Smart," she mumbled mostly to herself.

That's when the biscuits started burning. Kit told Lucy to take her position and suddenly the yard below sprang to life.

Simon's POV

3:15pm: November 15th

"What exactly is the signal we're supposed to be looking for?" Scott asked as he and Simon scanned the house for any sign of his dad and Lucy.

"Not exactly sure. It's usually something subtle but obvious." Simon replied. Scott looked at him like he had grown two heads, and he sighed. "Look, I trust him, okay? He's never let me down before."

Scott nodded and Simon absently kicked at some fallen bark.

"Simon would this sign possibly look something like that?"

Simon looked up to see Scott pointing to an upstairs window. Someone was flashing something shiny underneath the blinds. He had no way of telling if it was his dad or girlfriend, but there was no time to contemplate it.

"That's definitely it! Are you ready for this?" Simon asked, preparing a spell.

Scott nodded. "Just like we planned."

The lightning bolt that shot from his fingertips knocked one of the uniformed bastards on their ass and Scott charged forward toward one of the vans. Simon watched for a moment as Chloe's dad ducked into the driver's seat and wrenched the engine to life before refocusing on the guy that he had knocked down. He quickly dubbed that guy, Barbeque. For a brief moment he thought about going with Static Shock, but Simon figured that no Edison Group dick was worth the namesake.

Barbeque and about two other men began advancing in his direction. Simon began preparing another spell but two of them already had their guns raised, and he realized that he'd have to run or-

Suddenly, a massive, antlered creature sprang from the forest behind him. Simon had just managed to scramble out of it's path as it lowered its head and rammed all three gunmen over at once.

The damage wasn't pretty. One part of its antlers tore through the middle man's throat, spattering him and the surrounding area with deep red blood. Barbeque was gasping for air, unable to do anything more than function like a fish on land. The guy on the left, had somehow managed to miss the creature's attack. He raised his gun, but the mammal in front of them reared up and brought itself down on the poor bastard's head before a shot could be fired.

Simon stood rigid as the sounds of gunfire around him was slowly drowned out by the humming in his ears. None of it registered. His mouth was agape and his cognitive thought he once carried had been removed by the sight of this gigantic beast of an animal raging to his rescue.

"...What the hell just happened?" What felt like a whisper to him, came out more like a strangled yell.

Antlers turned his face to Simon and suddenly everything clicked. The left side of the buck's face was seemingly healthy and covered in mousy brown fur… the left side, however, was mostly eaten away, exposing twisty blackening flesh. What wasn't exposed wriggled with living creatures that he didn't wish to see.

As Simon struggled to keep his insides on the inside, he felt Chloe come up beside him. Finally, his mouth caught up with his brain. The buck lazed around, while he turned on Chloe. "Just what the hell do you think you're doing?"

"Saving your blond ass." Tori appeared beside Chloe.

"Did it ever occur to you that I didn't need saving?" he asked. Was she crazy? "We told you two to stay put for a reason!"

"If we hadn't come, you'd be toast!" Chloe said, inching forward.

Tori's hands started flapping about. "Guys, we've got company!"

Another group, one they hadn't anticipated, was coming toward them, weapons at the ready. Simon counted six maybe seven individuals. They were screwed, he knew that, but he began to prepare a spell anyway.

And then he was being shoved into the earth. His shoulder exploded with agony in protest and he had to bite down on his tongue to keep from crying out.

The buck that had helped them before, was jumping back to their rescue again. A few had escaped its wrath and Simon, Chloe, and Tori were scrambling up.

Simon grabbed Tori and Lucy by the sleeve and ran for the yard. Tori slowed them down a great deal… he had forgotten about her ankle. The few Edison Group guys that were left sped after the trio, followed closely by the large, undead buck.

"Out of the way!" Scott exclaimed.

Simon swirled around to see him speeding toward them in the enemy van. He had his head stuck out of the window but he was baring down on them quickly.

Chloe and Tori and Simon dove out of his way as Scott clipped two of the uniformed men, bringing them down.

Chloe's hands flew to her mouth in shock. Apparently, she hadn't expected her dad to do something like that. In all honestly, Simon hadn't either. Scott didn't seem like a cold blooded killer. Tori kept her expression concentrated as she seemed to focus on what was going on.

Scott backed up over the roadkill bodies and started after the last man, who was running for his life. The engine on Scott's runaway vehicle was starting to sputter from the damage it had taken though, and couldn't pursue as well as it had been.

"Simon!" his dad's voice called down from the now open window. "Get Scott to slow to a stop!"

Simon nodded and went to do just that but, our undead animal friend had done Scott's job for him.

The buck had one hoof placed firmly on the goon's chest, it's rotted face inches from his. Chloe laughed light heartedly as the man screamed at the top of his lungs.

Simon felt someone place a hand on his shoulder. He stiffened for a moment before he saw that it was just his dad. He pulled Simon into his arms and hugged him tightly. He returned the hug as best he could.

When Simon pulled back, he was able to see that he sported a busted lip and the beginnings of a bruise under his left eye.

"Bastard managed to get inside and plant a few blows," he said calmly.

Scott made his way over to where their small group was. "Everyone okay?" he asked.

"Where's Lucy?" Tori asked, looking around the manor grounds.

"She's gathering everyone's basic belongings and putting them into our backpacks. We need to be out of here as soon as possible." his dad replied.

In the relative silence, other than the whimpering of the EG dick, Simon heard a soft banging. Looking around their group, it appeared that the others did too.

Kit strode over to the other black van and wrenched open the back hatch. The banging stopped. Marlee laid in the floor of the van, her hands and feet were tied and her mouth was gagged. Once he had pulled her into a sitting position, he removed the gag.

"It is about damn time. Do you know how long I've been in the back of that damn vehicle? I can't feel my appendages. Any of them!"

Kit was too busy checking her over for injuries and untying her to pay much attention to her rant.

"Christopher Bae are you listening to me?" Dad pulled Marlee against his chest and held her there, cutting off her entire spiel.

"I am listening…" he said softly. He finally released her and helped her out of the back of the van. She winced as if moving pained her.

Marlee looked to Chloe next. "How you holding up kid?"

Simon grinned and hugged Chloe to his side. "I made sure she stayed hydrated."

Marlee smiled a little. "Good. And the twins?"

They all turned to Chloe, and her face burned red. It was obvious that she didn't like all the attention. "No cramps since last night," she replied.

"Excellent. Now sit your butt down before I force Simon to sit you down for me." Marlee said, with a small but no nonsense smile.

Chloe rolled her eyes and sat down in the grass.

Suddenly, Lucy came out with multiple bags. "Everything is packed; clothes, important belongings, weapons, important toiletries… only thing I couldn't grab was the medical equipment."

Even after all they had been through the last few hours, she still looked absolutely gorgeous. Lucy dropped the bags and Simon pulled her close, kissing her deeply, not caring how many people were watching.

He felt her gasp and melt against his chest.

Someone coughed loudly behind them. Simon broke the kiss but didn't pull back. Lucy blushed and giggled. "I love you too," she told him.

"Oh, get a room!" Tori gagged.

An easy laugh erupted from around their circle and finally, Simon and Lucy pulled apart. Dad turned to Chloe. "I'm guessing the undead deer is your doing."

Chloe frowned and nodded. Simon couldn't tell if his dad was about to thank her or chew her out. His arms were folded across his chest… finally, he sighed and just said, "I'll let Derek be the one to read you the right act. Maybe you'll listen to him. It's obvious that you won't listen to anyone else."

Ouch. He'd been on the receiving end of dad's disappointment before and he knew from experience that it stung.

Chloe didn't say a thing as Kit walked over to the deer and the whimpering man under him. "Chloe, this thing isn't going to attack me is it?"

"Not unless I tell it to," Chloe responded, picking at her shoelaces. Her expression was unreadable.

Dad nodded and kneeled down toward their hostage.

"Call it off, man! Call it off! I don't want to die!" Tears streamed down the man's face, shamelessly.

"What's your name?" Dad asked simply, keeping his voice level.

The man looked confused. "My… my name?"

"Yes, your name." This time, the anger in his face was evident.

The deer leaned forward and made some sort of growling chuff noise. "James Matthews!" he exclaimed fearfully.

"Well, James Matthews, who doesn't want to die…" Dad started, "I'd like you to meet my kids. Lucy, my fifteen year old, and Tori, and Chloe, and Simon, my seventeen year olds."

Dad pointed to each one of them as he said their names.

"Their lives are just starting. None of them want to die either, but you know what happened last night? Their lives were targeted. My son was shot in the shoulder. My other son, who thankfully made it to safety, almost died because your men decided to shoot him! He is fifteen! Fifteen! So you'll have to excuse me while I try to find any good reason on God's green earth to let you live."

The man under the buck was sobbing again.

"Please! I have a family!"

"Yeah? So do I! How would they feel if they knew their husband and father, their son was a cold blooded murderer?"

Lucy and Simon exchanged glances. Simon knew his dad only killed someone if he had to… but he had to no idea where he was going with this.

"It's just a job!"

This time dad last it. "Murdering innocent children is just a job? That's how you choose to put food on the table?"

Dad nodded and took a calming breath before before turning back to James Matthews. "I want to know why my family was targeted."

"Do you know what they'll do to me if I told you that?"

"Do you know what I'll do to you if you don't?" Dad spat back.

"Kit, do you want to take this into the basement maybe? Away from prying eyes?" Marlee glanced back toward the four of them.

Simon finally realized that Scott had situated himself in the functional van. He held a small radio in his hands and was holding it up to his ear. His focus shifted back to dad and Marlee.

"Yeah," Kit said in reply to Marlee's previous question. "I'll have Scott help me take him into the basement."

"We might need to get out of here ASAP…" Scott said from the back of the van.

"What's going on?" Marlee asked, hobbling over to where Scott sat.

"Green Four, do you copy? You've been silent for an hour. We need a status update. Over." A staticky voice radioed over the device in Scott's hand.

"If we don't hear word in ten minutes, we'll send in another unit. They'll be there within two hours. Over."

"Perfect," Marlee said, her voice dripping with sarcasm.

"Scott, you and I can set up our friend in the basement. Marlee will interrogate him will you and I gather the medical equipment from the house and the Edison Group vans."

"What about us? What are we supposed to do?" Chloe asked, once again eager for the chance to help.

"Chloe, you, Tori, Simon, and Lucy are going to take your belongings and our van and head for the Pack immediately. Scott, MArlee and I will follow in a few hours once we've finished with things here."

Simon laughed a little. "You're going to trust us driving all the way to New York? By ourselves?"

"Nope."

He felt his heart sink a little. "Then…?"

"You're going to call Derek and let him know you're on your way. Maybe they'll send someone to meet you halfway."

"I was going to call Derek anyway, so…" Simon shrugged and trailed off. Well, it was better than a chaperone.

Dad nodded.

The deer slowly stepped off of James Matthews and once Scott and Kit had him in a vice grip, they began leading him into the house.

"Alright kiddos, grab your crap and put it in the van so you can get going. Chloe do you think you can wait until we get settled in Pack territory for me to do an exam?" Marlee asked.

"God, yes," Chloe replied, bending down to grab her and Derek's bags.

Simon pulled his phone out and dialed Derek's number. He answered on the third ring.

"It's Derek."

"Hey bro, all clear. W-" Marlee snatched the phone from his hand. "Hey!"

"Derek, it's Marlee. We have a hostage that Kit, Scott, and I need to take care of. The kids are going to go on ahead in our van with their stuff." Marlee explained.

"Understood…"

Simon pouted for a minute. That was his phone, damn it.

"I need to talk to the Alpha or whomever is in charge."

"I need to talk to Chloe first," Simon heard Derek say. Before Marlee could protest, he continued, "Don't even argue. Chloe's first."

Marlee huffed and handed the phone to the girl in question.

"Hello?" Chloe held the phone with shaking hands.

"Chloe… thank God you're okay." The phone volume wasn't very loud, but Simon heard every word that was said, though he tried hard not to. Seeing the two of them naked was more than enough. Emotionally vulnerable was not a level of intimacy he wanted to witness between them.

"I'll see you soon, okay? I love you." Chloe said.

Simon didn't clearly catch the response, but it sounded like, "I love you too." Chloe handed the phone back to Marlee and she walked off with it, while they continued loading the van. Deady the Deer decided he was going to go graze.

When they had finished, Lucy came over to Simon and he pulled her close again, rubbing her arms. "You okay?"

She nodded and wrapped her arms around him. She was warm and smelled like pine and forest, and sweat and home. He was in love with it and he never wanted to let her go. But then Marlee came back and handed him his phone.

"Chloe, time to release the animal," Marlee said, gesturing to their undead mammal.

"Aw, but Bucky is our friend! Can't we keep him?" Tori exclaimed.

"So we can have him rotting all over the van? No! Have you lost your mind? He needs to rest in peace too, Tori," the shaman replied.

"Fine. He smells anyway."

"I'm sure you don't smell the greatest right now either, Victoria." Simon told her, sitting just inside the hatch to the van while Chloe got to work on releasing Bucky.

"If I could walk over there right now, I'd break that pretty Asian nose of yours." Tori snapped.

Before Simon could make any sort of comeback, his dad and Scott came out to meet them before they left. He was wrapped in another dad hug and then he said, "You call me when you get there, and I'll call you when we leave. Deal?"

Simon nodded. "Yeah, dad. Deal."

Kit released him and sighed. "I love you kiddo."

"Yeah, you too."

Chloe and Scott seemed to be having their own awkward goodbye. Tori was already in the passenger seat of the van, with the help of Marlee. Simon sighed. Great. He'd be sitting next to Tori the entire ride to New York. Hopefully she'd switch with Chloe or Lucy halfway through.

"As much as I hate to break up the love fest, we need to get up and outta here like yesterday." Marlee said.

With that, the four of them piled into the van and started the long drive to the only refuge they had left: the Pack.

/AN: So that's it, for now. Again, I am so sorry for taking so long. I struggled a lot with this chapter. I actually had 3/4 of it written a few weeks after I had chapter 11 uploaded... but then life issues got in the way... and I didn't necessarily lose my muse so much as I was unsatisfied with what was written. And I don't know about you guys, but I truly felt that The Pack Part 1 was not my best work. I know I can do better than that, and I wanted this chapter to be everything that the previous one wasn't.

So once I got life issues settled, I (quickly, and albeit, sloppily) finished the first version of this chapter... and then took a few weeks to write out a second version. I added more details, reworded some things, and changed the point of view to third person. I think I'm going to begin working in third person for the remainder of this fanfic. (I know it's been a while, but I have so many things planned and I have not given up on it.)

Anyway, I did my best to make sure that my return with this chapter was the best it could possibly be. So I hope you guys take the time to leave me a review and let me know what you think, and if there are things I could work on.

Til next time,

Kit

PS. This chapter was supposed to be a smidgen longer... it was supposed to include Derek and Chloe's long awaited reunion, but this chapter ended up being like chapter 5 and ending at 19,956 words, which was a heck of a lot more than originally planned. So I figured the Chlerek reunion could wait until the next chapter. ;)