I'm BAAAAAAAAACK! Ok, it's only been 5 months. Bad CaitieCat. Really sorry about that…
Anyway, it seems as if people want me to continue with this story (even though it is kind of winding down…) so, for now at least, I shall! Sorry if this chapter is not overly fantabulous, I felt guilty it had been so long and just kind of threw it together. I'll probably go back and edit/re-update later, but for anyone who cannot possibly wait another day for the next chapter, well…here it is!
It took me a moment to remember where I was when I woke up on the bus. Despite my precautions not to get too attached, I couldn't help but find it unnerving not to wake up in my own bed again.
Peeking across the aisle, I saw May was also awake, staring out the window at the gradually brightening sky. I cleared my throat, softly so as not to wake Tori snoring quietly beside me. May turned, her blonde hair bobbing. Seeing I was awake, she patted the empty seat beside her.
I hopped to the other seat, mind struggling to prioritize the hundreds of questions crowding my head. There was so much I wanted to know…
She didn't give me a chance to ask, though. "I didn't want him to be taken away, you know."
The way she said it, so blunt and matter-of-factly, unnerved me, catching me off guard so all the questions I had been prepared to ask fled from my mind. "When he was little?"
"Yeah," she studied her intertwined fingers resting on her lap. "I never really trusted the Edison Group. I didn't want a part of their experiment," she twisted the last word, practically sneering it. Sensing she wasn't quite done, I waited for her to continue. "They came anyway, though. Of course, they didn't outright take him. No, they sent in Social Services first, using that as their pretense for taking him away. Because of the drugs."
Her voice was so accusatory that I couldn't help but interject, "But then why did you do them? The drugs, I mean."
She looked at me then, really looked at me, almost as if for the first time. "What makes you think I did?"
I reached into my coat pocket where the article Derek had stolen was still tucked away. I handed it to her wordlessly, watching her eyes flicker back and forth across the page. I could tell the precise moment she finished reading, for she sighed and slumped back against the bus seat, one hand creeping up to rub at her temples as if she had a migraine. "This looks bad, doesn't it?"
"It looks bad. But I don't think it really is. Am I right?" I was following a hunch, hoping she would prove it correct. After all, this woman gave birth to Derek. She had to have at least some common sense.
That earned me another sigh. "You're right. I'm not a drug user. But I can't deny selling them."
I opened my mouth but she cut me off. "Before you start judging, I need you to imagine what it was like for a single woman to raise a child in New York City. I didn't go to college, how could I have? How could I ever have explained turning into a wolf to my roommate? Not to mention the money, which we didn't have. Now my mother, my mother was a real drug addict. Where do you think I learned the business? You've got to understand, that's all it is to me- a business. A way to get a little bit more money when I wasn't working my butt off pulling double shifts waitressing. But I couldn't explain that to Social Services. They took my little Derek; he was barely even three years old." She tore her gaze away from where it had wandered back to her hands to glare out the window. "I tried to stop them but…Anyway, I just had to hope that they were treating those little guys well enough, there were other little werewolves too, you know."
"I do know," I said. "Derek said they were…different…"
"Different? Derek was probably the different one. He was always so mature for his age, so…human…" she seemed to give herself a little shake, dragging herself back to the story. "Then Kit got his hands on him…I had always liked Kit, you know. I'd met him a couple of times; he seemed like a decent guy. That's what I thought, at least, until he refused to return him to me. Sure, he kept us in touch, but it wasn't the same. I must admit," here her expression turned sheepish, "we did get into quite a few arguments, Kit and I. That's probably why he told his son I've 'got a screw-loose'" she quoted Simon.
Instinctively I glanced over at him, still sleeping, sprawled across two bus seats. "He didn't mean that," I defended.
"Oh, I know. Poor kid's probably going through a rough time if what you say about Kit is true…"
"Can I ask you something?" I said after several moments of silence.
A bemused smile quirked up the corners of her lips. "I think you've already heard most of my life story, but go ahead."
"Who's Derek's father?" From the way she tensed I feared I had crossed some line, my question prying too deep.
At last, though, she said, "His name was Mick Rhead."
"Was?" I picked up on her use of past tense, chest tightening.
She barked a laugh. "He's not dead," she clearly guessed what conclusions I was jumping to. "For all I know, he's living in a mansion somewhere. No, he just left. Didn't stick around for Derek to be born."
"I'm sorry." I tried to picture this man but couldn't conjure an image to fit other than a bigger Derek, and I definitely didn't want to think of the man who abandoned his family like that.
"Nothing for you to apologize for," said May. "Now, why don't you tell me more about you guys."
"What do you want to know?"
"How you got involved in this whole mess."
I needed no further prompting. I had certainly thought back on the past couple of weeks often enough that it came naturally to tell it out loud. I started at the very beginning, when I had first seen the ghost janitor at my school, leaving out only the most trivial details (and a lot of my kisses with Derek- there were some things his mom probably didn't need to know…). By the time I was catching up to the present, Tori and Simon were beginning to wake up.
When I had finished our tale, some forty minutes after starting, May fell into thoughtful silence. She had been a good listener, interrupting rarely and then only to clarify an event. I studied her, struggling to gauge her reaction. Her expression was smooth, a perfect poker face, impossible to read.
At last she spoke, though that was only to tell us that we were getting off at the next stop. I returned to my original seat, shrugging my backpack over my shoulders in preparation. I wished May would comment on our story, offer praise or criticism or something. I didn't know exactly what I was expecting from her after she just told me her life story and I told her mine in turn, but definitely more than what we got.
The bust stop we got off at seemed to be in the middle of nowhere, and at first I wasn't sure what we were doing there. Several yards away was a gas station. That was it for civilization.
"Um…is this where the Edison Group has their lab?" Simon asked skeptically.
"A couple miles that way," May pointed off into the distance.
"So…we're walking?" his brow furrowed.
"Great," groaned Tori.
"Yup." May began walking in the distance she had just pointed to. We struggled to keep up with the brisk pace she set, maintaining the same sauntering gait as the night before.
Despite my persisting fatigue, it was hard not to break into a sprint. Derek was there, locked up, maybe hurt…I wanted nothing more than to just go rescue him already. Time simultaneously flew and dragged, warped by my combined desperation and fear for what we would find.
At last, a white, steel-sided building rose up out of the grass in front of us, punctured by several tinted windows, surrounded by chain-link. Very lab-y.
"This it?" Simon asked, somewhat rhetorically.
As answer, May tugged us behind a tree. "You three stay here, alright?"
"What?"
"No!"
"Why would-"
"No," she cut off our protests. "It's too dangerous. You are children. Granted, very, very brave children, but still just teenagers. I'm not going to put you at risk."
"We're going to help!" I fought to keep the anger out of my voice. Who was she to tell us we couldn't join in the rescue? Ok, so she was his mom. Honestly, we knew Derek better. We'd spent more time with him recently. If anyone had rights to save him, we did.
"Chloe, I need you to listen to me-"
"We're not just going to wait out here!" Simon argued, making me wince as I realized how much he sounded like a whiny child. I had probably sounded the same.
"You are. Think how much easier it'll be for me to sneak in if it's just me. Remember, I'm a werewolf too, I have enhanced senses…"
"And we have powers, which could come in handy."
"It'll be much faster and less dramatic if I go alone."
"You can't just-"
"Stay here." Without another word she took off, sprinting for the gates. None of us moved, watching as she vaulted over the top of the fence and disappeared behind a truck parked in front.
"She makes it look so easy," Tori sighed. "Anyway, has it been long enough? Are we going now?"
"Giver her another minute head start…" Simon said. We did, me pacing circles around the tree, counting down in my head.
"Alright, let's go."
True to Tori's prediction, it was much more difficult for us three to climb over the fence. I did okay, thanks to all my climbing experience in the forest when I 'ran away', but the others really struggled. Eventually, though, scraped and panting, we flopped onto the enemy's territory, instantly ducking behind the same truck May had hid behind several minutes before.
So far, so good. We had yet to see any other people patrolling. I should have been more suspicious, Derek certainly would have been, but then all I felt was relief that our break-in would be that much easier.
Simon led the way as we crept around the back of the building, sticking close to the side so as to avoid being seen from the windows. There was a metal door situated every couple of yards. We skipped the first couple, eventually pausing to try the handle of one. It was unlocked, swinging open readily. It brought us into a hallway, all white and sterile. And deserted.
We jogged down it, peering into the little glass windows on the doors we passed, most of them looking into conference rooms. No sign of Derek.
Ahead the hall split, heading off into two directions. Simon started following the right when a click came from behind us. I whirled to see Tori, frozen, caught in front of a gun. Not thinking, just reacting, I dove, shoving Tori down just as the shots erupted. A sharp pain shattered my left shoulder, but I didn't- couldn't- let it bother me. A curse sounded behind us, metallic thumping as the man pounded the gun, struggling to get whatever had blocked it from shooting a second time dislodged. "Run!" I screamed, tearing off with Tori down the nearest branch of the hallway, the left, conscious that Simon was already going the other way.
Splitting up was definitely a mistake, but there was no way to go back and right it now. Clutching my arm to try and slow the blood flow, I ran.
Aha, didn't you miss my uber-mean cliffys? Sorry! Will try and update ASAP…at the very least within 5 months :P