OMG! Okay, so before everyone starts yelling at me, I know! I feel terrible for not being able to continue with these for, what was it? 6 months? :O Im so so so sorry! I got my computer and stuff taken away cause I was being stupid (Im pretty good at that XD) and I just now got it back…sooo, if anyone is still looking and watching for my stories heres a new chapter!

This is the requested chapter, or one of them, by mayalewis16...Its Chapter 27 and a half of The Awakening in Dereks Point of view…

Again, im really sorry! I hope you guys enjoy…

For a few hours, I could hear Chloe and Simon drawings and writing at the front of the bus as Tori and I stared out opposite windows from one another, only speaking if she felt like trying to make conversation. When I hear a small yawn from who could only be Chloe, I turn from my oppionted window and look towards the her seat as Simon tells her, "Take a nap. We still have five hours to go. We'll have lots of time to work on this after we get to Andrews."

"Will we be staying with him?" She asks tiredly, and I turn back towards the world outside, noticing that things looked eerily familiar I had forgotten that we would need to travel through here...

I'm already walking through the isle between the rows of bus seats before my conscious mind is fully aware of it, and am standing over Chloe and Simon, who is about to ask her something, within seconds. But he must have seen my shadow cast on her face, because without even looking in my derection, he says, "Yes, Derek?"

I lean closer to them so my voice doesn't project, and grab the back of their seats as the bus bounces and sways beneath me, and say, "We're coming up to Syracuse soon."

"Okay," Is all he says.

"I need somthin' to eat. I'm Starving." Which isn't an outright lie. I am starving, but that isn't the only reason why I had to remind him about this place.

"Sure. I figured we'd jump off and grab dinner." Is he really forgetting why we had never lived here as kids? Why dad had never stopped when we passed through?

"I cant. Not here." He looks at me then, confusion clear on his face, then understanding registers in his eyes, but then Chloe looks up at me as well. "Syracuse?"

"I don't think there going to be hanging around at the bus station," He says, sarcasm laced in his tone.

"Its something wrong?" Little Chloe asks from beside him, still very confused as to what we were talking about.

"Nah," Simon says as he continues to look at me. "I'll grab some food, okay?"

I hesitate at the look in his eyes and at the thought of him getting off the bus smelling as he did now, with them anywhere within the proximity of the place.

But instead of protesting, I just nod and walk back to my seat beside Tori, feeling small blue eyes on me the entire way.

I sit, staring off into oblivion for even I'm not sure how long, that I didn't notice that we had stopped in Syracuse until someone said, "Everything okay?" I turn sharply, almost dazing myself with the speed, and look at Chloe, standing in the isle holding the food that my stomach was craving. I nod an take the food while mumbling a thank you.

I hear more than feel the seat dip ever-so-slightly as she slides in beside me, and asks, "Did you used to live here?"

My head is moving as I look towards the window again, looking at her petit reflection, and in it, seeing puzzlement, so I decide to elaborate. "We lived just about every place else in the state except here. We cant. There are…others here."

"Others?"

I lower my voice so that only she can hear me, even though the nearest person to us is about four seats ahead, as I say, "Werewolfs."

"In Syracuse?" She sounds surprised.

"Near it. A Pack."

"Oh." She thinks for a moment before continuing. "And that's a problem? If they smelled you?"

"Yeah." And since I knew she had little knowledge on anything supernatural, especially werewolf related, I add, "We're territorial."

"Oh."

"Yeah." Now I'm not looking at her reflection, but past it and the trees that cover the view from my window, remembering a time when I had lived in a territory, and was very unwanted. "When I was a kid-When I lived in the place where you were locked up, the others were like that. Territorial."

She slides back into the seat, staring into my reflection, as she asks, "So the other werewo- subjects?" She quickly changes the wording as an old lady approaches.

"Yeah." I turn to see her reaction face-to-face. "They had this pack., I guess you'd call it, and they'd claim stuff, like the sandbox, as their territory, and if I-" I could hear Simon at the front of the bus wondering outloud where Chloe had gone, and I have to say, I was a little mad about the the idea of her leaving, even though I wasn't entirely sure why, but I knew she would prefer to sit with him opposed to me. "Simons coming. He's looking for you. Better go."

"You go," She said sweetly. "Sit with him the rest of the way." Was she willing to sit back here with Tori so I could sit with him, or was she just tired of him? I decided against even the idea of letting her sit back here, still not trusting Tori completely.

"Nah, I;m good."

"Really. I-"

"Chloe?" I turn to look at her, meeting her soft blue eyes, speaking softer then I though possible for me. "Go. Okay?"

She nods, somewhat reluctantly, and walks back to the front.

I was still in the back, Tori was half asleep and already snoring, when I felt the first spasm quake up my back.

No, I thought, not now. And to answer me, one shot through my left arm. Crap.

The bus was supposed to stop in about five minutes, and then I should be able to jump off and Change in the woods. But what about the others? Toir wouldn't care, but I had to tell Chloe and Simon that I was Changing. So when the bus stops, I jump up, almost literally, and walk quickly to the front, just then realizing that the two were both fast asleep.

But instead of waking Simon and leaving Chloe to sleep, I gently shake her shoulder until she stirs and looks up at me sleepily.

She opens her mouth to say something, but stops, her blue eyes widening slightly. She then shoots up, like I had a minute ago, now wide awake.

"You're-"

"Yeah." I whisper, not wanting to wake Simon as well. "Were outside Albany. Truck stop. I gotta get off." She reaches for for Simon, to wake him as well I guess, but before she can I say, "I just wanted to tell you, in case I don't get back on. I'll be fine. I'll meet you at Andrews. " My hand was still on her shoulder, so I jumped when she scooped up her stuff, even though I was still looking at her.

"I'm coming with you."

My stomach did a small, but noticeable, flop, and my face started to heat up, so I turn my face to the front and nod, mumbling, "Yeah. Okay."

"You go ahead," She says quietly. "I'll talk to-" She looks at Simon, and then hurries to the back of the bus to tell Tori, knowing what I was thinking before me vocalizing it, that if Simon woke up, he would insist on coming with us. I get off the bus and stand by the by the front, and wait until the petite ex-blond girl to come bounding off.

When we got to the woods beside the truck stop, I tell her, "I need to get in as deep as I can. Follow my path. It's muddy."

As we walk, Chloe doesn't say anything, and when a dog barks and I pause, she just pauses and walks behind me.

I need to make sure that she understands what she needs to do if I do make it through the transformation. I have never seen a real werewolf in wolf form but heard from dad that they can get aggressive.

"If I finish this," I start. "If I seem even close to finishing, you need to take off." I waited for a minute for her response, and when there wasn't one, "Chloe?"

"You arnt going to turn into some bloodthirsty monster, Derek. It'll still be you, just as a wolf."

"And you know that based on how much experience with werewolfs?" I ask her, making sure my voice is thoroughly laced with sarcasm.

"Okay, but-."

"You could be right. Dad said it would be like that-still me in wolf form-but after what those guys did? Playing with our genes? I have no idea what will happen, So you're getting out of here when the time comes or you arent sticking around at all."

"Okay."

I look back at her. "I mean it, Chloe."

"So do I. You're right. We don't know what will happen, and we cant take chances. As soon as you sprout fangs and a tail, I'll run screaming for the truck stop." I sigh internally.

"You can skip the screaming part."

"We'll see."

We continue walking until the lights form the truck stop could barely penetrate the forest through the thick trees. Chloe slowed slightly, and I snuck a look back, seeing her face turned upward toward the cloud covered moon.

Scratching my right bicep through the shirt. I slow and tell Chloe, "There's a log here if you want to sit and wait. I'll get a little deeper in-im sure its not the prettiest sight." I didn't want her to go through the retching and crys again.

"I've seen it before."

"If it goes further, it'll be worse."

"I'm fine." She is a determined 'lil necro, I'll give her that.

As we enter a small clearing from the trees, I pull my sweatshirt off as my back spasms again.

"Om second thought, maybe I cant watch. Unless you brought a change of clothes. You really should get undressed this time." Why did her saying that cause another flush to cross my cheeks?

"Right. Hold on." And I push though the bush and pull everything but my boxers off, and reappear in the clearing with Chloe's back to me. I suppress a laugh.

"I'm decent. Got my shorts on. Nothing you havent seen." She doesn't turn to look at me right away, and when she does, im already on my hands and knees, feeling the muscle spasms coming faster.

I hear a rustle of leaves as she turns and breaths deeply a few times. "Sit there," I tell her as I point to my sweatshirt layed out on the ground a few yards from where I kneel.

"Thanks," She says sweetly as she sits.

"If it gets bad, go. I'll understand."

"I wont." She promised.

Feeling the spasms start at my lower back, I turn my face back to the ground, breathing in and out deeply, and wincing when the spasm reaches my shoulders, then stretch, breathing even deeper, trying to suppress the next.

"That's a good idea. Stretch and work it out-"She stops. "Okay. I'll shut up now. You don't need a couch."

I laughed at that. "Go ahead. Talk."

"If theres anything I can do-I know there probably isn't but…"

"Just be here," I tell her honestly. Just her presence here seems to lessen the pain.

"That much I can manage. And we might not even have to worry about it. It seems to be passing. False start maybe. We should give it a few more minutes, then-" But I cut off her soft words with a strangled cry as my back arches. I manage two short breaths before the next one hits. My arms and legs go stiff, my back arches higher, head drops, skin ripples, and my back goes even higher. A whimper releases itself from my throat.

I fling my head up with the next rush, and my eyes briefly meet Chloes wide blue ones.

Fingers digging into the marshy earth, the tendons in my hands start to shift, my wrists thickening as I let out another cry, biting the end off the keep from attracting attention. Then I feel it. The small, soft, hand pressing into mine. My muscles continue to shift and bulge. Hair starts to grow, pressing against the hand holding mine, then retracting back. The hand rubs the top of my slightly deformed one, and the body it belongs to moves nearer, while the sooting voice whispers to me that I was doing fine.

My back arches, but I gasp for a breath instead of crying out because I can hear footsteps following the path we had taken from the bus here.

"Are you kids in there?" The bus driver calls. "Someone saw you kids head in here. You've got one minute to come out or the bus leaves."

"Go," I tell her, though im not sure she could understand me very well due to my gruntled voice.

"No."

"You should-" She meets my eyes.

"Im not going. Now, Shhhh."

"Ten seconds!" The driver yells to the trees. "I'm not holding up the bus so you kids can screw around in the forest!" Always seems like we are when we sneak off somewhere dark and dirty.

"If he comes closer, you can go in there," Chloe tells me. "I'll stop him."

"He wont," I assure her, and after a few seconds we heard him turn and tromp back through the forest towards the parking lot, grumbling about "God-damned kids today…". Then the bus pull away a few minutes later.

"That's okay. I have money. We'll catch-" She started, but my muscles are back to rippling and contracting, even my stomach was transforming, causing me to, yet again, spew the food Chloe had brought me earlier into the bushes ahead of me. As my insides continue to contract, my stomach was left completely empty, and left the air smelling putrid.

Even so, my stomach would not let up on the retching as the hair on my body grew and retracted, leaving only dry heaves to come and cause my throat to burn.

Then I hear movement beside me, and almost jump when I felt that small hand that had been pressed against mine, start to rub the slick skin between my shoulder blades, while Chloe repeated her comforting wprds.

As she continued to talk and rub my back, the hair had started to grow longer instead of retract beneath my skin, and my stomach finally began to settle back down, leaving me only to shiver from the sheer amount of energy the semi-transformation had sucked from me.

Head lowered until it was almost to the ground, I hear Chloe as she rubs my shoulders soothingly. "Its okay. Your doin' great. Your almost there."

"No," I try to say, but it comes out as more of a animalistic sound then a word, but she must have understood if she responded.

"That's fine. You will or you wont. You cant rush it." I just nod, because I drought I can talk now, and keep my head down and face away from her, not wanting her to see me in this half-human, half-wolf state, sure it would send her screaming back to the truck stop as she had said earlier, and I needed her here. Her presence comforted me, and her voice helped even more.

Chloe continued to rub my shoulders reassuringly as she repeated her soft words, then stopped abruptly. "Do you want me to stop? Move away and give you more room?" But I just shake my head as a try to catch my breath, and she continues her rubbing.

When I caught my breath a bit better I notice that my skin had stopped moving with the muscles as they had stopped twitching and rippling.

Chloe seemed to find my hair interesting because she was now running her small hands through it, and if I could have made a sound, it would have been something like a pur and sigh.

"It seems to have stopped again," She says quietly. I only nod. "That's probably it then. For now this is as far as-"But again her words were halted as my muscles moved, getting ready for the transformation back.

My back shoots back into the air as my bones crack and pop. Then, as another round of spasms hit me, I left my head and cry out, only this out as a strange howl.

I whip my head from side to side, finally letting her get a glimps of my face, and when I catch her eye I cant see any trace of terror or fear in them, only concern, as she keeps rubbing my back. You're lucky to have her. The wolf tells me. It had been a while since he had made an appearance, bit I couldn't agree with him more. Even if she was just my friend and nothing more, I was still the luckiest guy ever to have even that.

After what seemed like hours but couldn't have been more than a few minutes my muscles stopped and I could feel that I was almost finished. I was so close I could already feel the wet ground beneath my paws. Then my back shot up once more, and I knew that I wouldn't finish it this time. The fur that had grown all over my body began to retract, and once beneath my skin, stayed there. My stomach flipped and convulsed, causing whatever had stayed in my stomach up and left to dangle from my mouth. I shook it off and turned my face to the trees again.

As I coughed my arms and leggs became to week to hold me up anymore, and slid out from under me, leaving me on my stomach trying to catch my breath, almost back to my human self.

I let out one long sigh, shuddering as my muscles began to loosen, and rolled onto my side, closer to Chloe with my hand covering my face as it finished the Change back. I could hear her teeth chattering evern thought she tried to stop, and grabbed her ankle lightly where her sock had slid down. "Your freezing," I say sadly.

"A little." She says simply.

I place a hand on her knee and pull her closer, hoping th keep the chill from spreading through her. After a minute she had stopped shivering and I wrapped my hand back around her ankle. "How're you doing?" I ask her, knowing she'll understand me because my voice was changing, still raspy, but, hopefully, understandable.

She laughed slightly before, "I should be asking you that. Are you okay?"

"Yeah. That must be what'll happen the first few times. A partial change, then back to normal."

"Practice runs." "I guess so," I say as I move my hand so I can see her face. "You didn't answer my question. Are you alright?"

"I didn't do anything."

"Yeah. You did." I tell her softly. "You did a lot." And as our eyes met the olf gave a low whistle in the back of my head, and my heart did a small flip, but then she turned away and the moment was gone.

"Yeah. We gotta go." I say, starting to get to my feet.

"Not yet. Lie down. Rest." She tells me calmly.

"I'm-" I start, but as I sit up, my vision goes blurry and I feel myself sway slightly. "-Not fine. Okay, just give me a sec."

As I lay back down I'm struck with the exhaustion, and have to fight to keep my eyes open.

"Close your eyes," Chloe tells me.

"Just for a minute."

"Mmm-hmmm."

But before she can say anything else, my world turns to black as my body gives into the exhastion, and I am cast into a dream. A dream that inclused a forest, a small blond girl, and a hummed song that I cant place.

Okay….sooo I know im a bit rusty at this, but please tell me that I didn't do as bad as I think I did…

But anyways, I wanted to appologize again for the HUGE delay in my posts…and as always, please review and leave me info as to what you would like me to write. More ideas are always welcome!

~WindStorm96~