Advance warning: something major will be revealed about Derek.
We hopped on a bus and rode through the rest of the night. All four of us took the time to catch up on our sleep. When we were all awake we decided to use the time to plan.
"So what's the next step going to be?" Tori asked, leaning forward to rest chin on the V between Derek and Simon's seats.
"We have to find our dad." Simon said determinedly. I internally grimaced, knowing I would have to tell them soon. Tori's face also scrunched up as if she was contemplating something immensely unpleasant.
"But if we can't-" She started, but Simon cut her off.
"We will. He'll help us."
"Well," her voice for once wasn't malicious but surprisingly gentle, "we haven't really made much progress towards finding him, so maybe we should start looking into other options…"
"No." Simon crossed his arms, his bottom lip jutting out. He looked like an angry child. Although, that's what he is in this case, I reminded myself. He was just a kid who needed his dad. I needed my dad too, but I knew he wouldn't be any help. Simon believed his dad would fix things; it must be hard to give up on that belief.
"Chloe? What do you think?" Tori turned to me for help.
"I…" what could I say that wouldn't be betraying Simon and Derek? "I think we should keep looking for him while at the same time looking for other options. I mean, I don't want to give up on finding him anymore than you do," lies "but if we haven't found anything about him yet…" I trailed off, not being the one to say the truth: we should move on.
Tori sighed. "Of course, a diplomatic answer. Derek?"
He didn't answer right away, green eyes glazed and distant. At last he sighed. "I think Chloe's right."
Simon shot a sharp look at him which he pretended not to notice. "But we are still going to look for him right?" he said after a moment.
"Of course." Derek said.
"Fine," sighed Tori.
Simon turned to me, waiting for my agreement. I swallowed noisily. I should just tell them I thought to myself. Now would be the perfect time. Instead I said "Ok."
We sat in silence for a few minutes, mulling over the next step (or in my case- listening to the logical voice in the back of my mind yell at me for being a wimp). Finally, Derek asked the million dollar question. "Where should we look for him?"
"We could just keep trying all his aliases," Simon suggested.
"I thought we've tried them all," Derek frowned.
"Well I'm sure there's some we haven't thought to try…" That was a joke. Derek forgetting something so crucial to finding their dad? Never.
"Yeah, maybe," Derek looked doubtful.
"What else could you use to find him?" I prompted.
"What about your tracker spell, Simon?" Tori turned to him. "Has that been working?"
"I don't know," he chewed on his lower lip. "I've been trying it but nothing's happened…although if he isn't nearby I don't think anything really should happen so it might be working and he's just far away."
"Why don't you show it to me and I'll try?" Tori suggested. I saw the hurt flash through Simon's eyes and felt a stab of sympathy for both of them. For Tori because she was just trying to be nice and hadn't realized the effect her words would have on him. For Simon for having to deal with the fact that he was normal, meaning- less powerful.
"Ok," he shrugged, turning to stare out at the countryside blurring past through the window. Tori slumped dejectedly back into her seat, letting her breath out in a short and heavy "Huff."
"So what's our plan for the immediate future?" I asked, wanting to veer away from the subject of Kit.
"Survive?" Simon suggested helpfully, still staring out the window.
"We can't keep this up forever," Tori reminded us all.
"Keep up what?" Simon turned back to her, brown eyes guarded.
"This," she waved her hand through the air gesturing at our general surroundings. "Living on the streets, endless walking, wearing the same clothes for weeks at a time. I mean, do you realize how unhygienic that is? I would literally kill for a shower right now…preferably one that could last twelve hours."
"I could second that," Derek put in. Simon and I nodded our agreements.
"Look, all I'm saying is we need a plan." She rested her chin in her hand and her elbow on her knee. "Some goal we can work towards. And, sorry guys, but finding your dad just isn't it."
"Then what should we do?" Simon sighed.
"First things first, I think we should withdraw some more from an ATM." I said firmly. The three of them looked at me like I'd said we should run down the street naked doing the chicken dance. "Look, I know it'll be risky, but I've been watching our money and it's not going to last us much longer. We either need to get somewhere we can get help or get more money. Besides, if we're going to do it we might as well withdraw while we still have the tracking bullet. It won't really be telling them anything they don't already know."
I paused to let that sink in. At last Derek nodded thoughtfully. "You're right. We can't keep living like this without getting more money. It'll tell them right where we are, though…"
"But we've already decided they already know that."
"Is there any other safe places your dad told you guys to go to? Preferably not someone who will not betray us?" Simon winced at Tori's harsh reference to Andrew but he didn't protest.
"No…I mean, I don't think so…" he chewed on his lip some more.
"May." Derek said, so softly I thought I imagined it.
Simon glanced at his brother swiftly, concern on his face. "Derek…"
"She would help. I think." Derek was staring hard at his hands, fingers intertwined.
"May would be…?" Tori prompted when neither of the boys offered any explanation. I was relieved she had so I wouldn't have to be the one to ask.
"My mom." Derek breathed, even softer than before.
I thought I heard wrong. "Who is she?"
"My mom." he said, louder, though he didn't look up from his hands.
"You're…mom?" Somehow I had never thought of Derek as having a family other than Kit and Simon. Certainly he had never mentioned it… I found it hard to imagine Derek as a baby, being rocked to sleep in some smiling woman's arms.
He nodded. Simon put a hand on his shoulder, a gesture of brotherly affection and support. "You remember her address?" he asked gently.
"Yeah. She's still in the city."
"And you think she'll help?" Simon was asking all the questions, Tori and I were both still paralyzed with shock.
Derek nodded again. "She'll do what she can, I'm sure."
Tori snapped out of her reverie. "I'm sorry, but since when does Mr. Werewolf have a mom?"
Simon shot her an exasperated look. "Look, you must've had "the talk" before. You know…you need a mom and a dad to-"
"Ok!" she cut him off with a disgusted shake of her head. "Way too much information. What I meant to say, since when does Mr. Werewolf have a mom that will help him."
"She's his mom- of course she'll help him." Simon defended.
"Let's hope." Derek sighed.
"I just mean…ugh! How to put this? Chloe?" She turned to me for help.
"I think you're trying to ask how long has he been in touch with his mom and what's the relationship between them?" I guessed.
"Yeah. Pretty much. So, Derek? Any explanations?"
He looked up, green eyes stormy like a tropical ocean. "Dad wanted me to keep in touch with her." Dad being Kit, of course. "He kept saying she cares about me and if I'm ever in trouble it would be good to have her as a contact. I guess he was right."
"You're dad told you to contact her in times of trouble?" I was instantly skeptical.
He didn't seem to notice, carrying on in that detached tone. "Yeah. I'm not sure what good it'll do us, but we can try. Probably get a hot meal at least."
"So you've kept in contact with her all these years?" I asked, intrigued.
He barked a harsh laugh. "Yeah, I guess you could call it that. Just a five minute telephone call once or twice a year and occasionally sending letters to each other."
"But why…" I stopped myself, realizing my question might bring up answers he wouldn't want to indulge.
He guessed where I was headed. "Did I grow up with Simon and his dad? My mom wasn't- isn't -completely mentally stable. That's largely due to her drug overdoses…"
"Oh. I'm sorry to hear that…" I couldn't imagine my Aunt Lauren being a drug addict.
Derek shrugged. "It's no big deal. Not like I live with her."
"Still…" I didn't know what else to say.
After a while of silence Simon asked if any of us knew where the bus was stopping next. "Somewhere near Binghamton." Derek answered automatically.
"And, since I suck at geography, how close is that to NYC?" Tori asked. "'cause that's where we're going, right? Isn't that where you said your mom lives, Derek?"
"That's where she used to live. I have no idea if she's still living there now. And I'm wondering if that was a good idea. Now that I think about it, the city's pretty close to Andrew's house…"
"And we don't want to go back there, do we?" Simon said briskly.
"Not if we can help it." his brother agreed.
"Why don't you call May first?" I suggested. "Do you still remember her number?"
Derek hesitated then nodded. "Yeah. I think so. I never bothered to put it on my cell phone so I had to memorize it."
"So we'll call her, just to see if she's still there and willing to help us, and then we'll go." Everyone nodded their agreement.
That decided, we pulled from our backpacks energy bars and peanut butter sandwiches that we had made the night before. A feast fit for kings.
We settled back into our seats for the rest of the ride: Simon doodling, Derek studying the bus map, Tori obsessively fiddling with her hair, and me thinking about our lives as a movie. This was a subject I could understand. I thought up a cast of celebrities to play each of us, imagined what special effects we would need, and even came up with some of the stage directions and dialogues I would have included had I been the director.
After my butt had long since gone numb from sitting still for so long, we dismounted from the bus. The sky was just fading to purple as we walked up to an ATM situated on the outskirts of a park. We had agreed by mutual consensus that we wouldn't really be risking anything by withdrawing since they already knew our location. This would probably- hopefully- be our last time using it, though, so I withdrew the limit. Several hundred dollars had never felt so good in my hand before.
"This'll hold us for a while." Derek nodded with satisfaction then distributed the money between the four of us (the whole 'don't put all your eggs in one basket' approach). We had yet to find a pay phone for Derek to call his mom. That whole sentence still felt weird in my mind…Derek's "mom".
"Are we going to play doctor now?" Tori asked, looking at me. I hope they didn't notice my fearful shiver.
"When it gets a little darker." Derek looked up at the sky. "But we might as well gather supplies for it now."
"Supplies?" My voice came out as a squeak. What did he want- massive scalpels? Needles? Saws? (although I'm pretty sure doctors only use saws in horror movies).
"A better knife, for starters." he pulled the knife I had bought from his sweatshirt pocket.
"What's wrong with that one?" I demanded.
"Too flimsy." in one clean motion he grabbed the blunt end and snapped the blade off.
"Well of course you can break it with your freaky super powers." Tori snorted.
"Where do you propose we get another one?" I asked through gritted teeth. I wouldn't put it past Derek to have pulled this just to have an excuse not to do the surgery.
He shrugged. "We'll look around."
Of course, 'we'll look around' meant picking up a rusted blade that he found in the corner of an ally. "No." I shook my head at it. "No way."
"Why? He used a corner of his sweatshirt to wipe away some of the dirt on it. I realized it wasn't really rusty, just covered in grit.
"That can notbe sanitary." Tori scowled.
"It's a good knife." he defended. "Nice and sturdy." he bent it a little to show that it wouldn't break.
"It's probably from some homeless guy!"
"Well we don't have a better one-"
"You don't just pick up knives off the street! Especially one that you plan to use in surgery!" I argued. "He could have mugged someone with it- or killed someone!"
He brought the knife up to his nose and sniffed. "No blood. I don't think it's ever even been used."
"Then what's it doing here? In an ally?"
He shrugged. "It's the only decent knife we have. We're going to have to just sterilize it…unless you don't want to risk this surgery at all?"
"No. We're doing it. Even if it means we have to use some rusted knife."
"It's not ru-"
"Let's just get this over with, ok?"
Wearily he nodded. "We should try and find some antiseptic first, though."
"Fine." I sighed. In a local pharmacy we found a bottle of rubbing alcohol and some real bandages.
Then Derek said it was dark enough.
He led us deep into the park to a small bathroom nestled among the trees. We went in and flicked on the light, locking the door behind us. Then it was time. Whatever happened to me, the bullet would soon be gone.
Ok, admittedly I'm not crazy about this chapter as nothing really happens and it's kind of boring (although Derek having a mom…I was surprised when I thought of it). I promise the next one will be better!
(And the knife really isn't that bad…Chloe's just kind of paranoid in this chapter. Derek wouldn't do anything risky).
Oh, and FYI- this might be your last chance to take the Simon poll! I was planning on bringing the answer into the next chapter…