Oh, wow, it's been a while, hasn't it? About 6 months? Holy! Sorry for the delay, everyone! I've just been really busy with school. Grade 11 is really kicking my butt! But school is my top priority for the time being because I really want to get out of my small town...so don't expect me to update real quick after this update. I will work on Puppy Love whenever I have time, though! In the mean time, here's chapter 7! Hope you enjoy!

I OWN NOTHING EXCEPT KODA!

I was looking out of my window blearily, too tired to do much of anything else but watch the moon begin to rise as the sun crested over the horizon.

A large sign passed by, catching my attention for just a split second. It was one of those big signs that you see on the outskirts of towns with pictures of smiling townspeople welcoming us into their town. This one was welcoming us to Newport. I guess we made it to our new—and temporary—home.

I yawned, my mouth opening wide and cracking with the effort. It had been a long day of driving and I was dying to get to the house that we were going to be staying at for the next few months, pick a random room, crash on top of a bed, and fall asleep for the next twelve hours.

Looking away from the window, I saw Simon and Tori sleeping soundly in the seats in front of me. Tori was sleeping with her face pressed against the car window, snoring loudly with her iPod blaring some stupid song called Call Me Maybe that kept repeating itself over and over again—I think she put it on a loop just to annoy me. Simon was sleeping with his head on her shoulder, his mouth gaping open as he snored, though not as loud as Tori. His sketchbook was sitting in his lap, an unfinished comic sketch opened and forgotten when he'd dozed off.

I snorted when I saw a little bit of drool pooling down the side of Simon's mouth and making a beeline for Tori's shoulder.

I felt something tap the back of my head, so I turned around and saw a floating notepad and pencil in front of my face.

What's so funny? Liz wrote.

I nodded towards Simon and Tori's sleeping figures, muttering lowly, "Simon's drooling on Tori."

The notepad flew over the seats to investigate before coming back in front of my face, Liz's LOL written out in big letters.

I cracked a small smile and the notepad flew to the back of the car. While we were travelling on the road, Liz usually stayed in the back of the car with Koda to keep him company since he couldn't sit with Chloe anymore because he was too big to fit in her lap. When Liz first stayed back there with him, he was kind of freaked out about the floating notepad and he would hide behind the luggage with his tail between his legs. He eventually got used to it and now he would sometimes swat at the notepad. Even though Koda couldn't see Liz, he knew that she was there somehow.

I looked back and saw Koda on his back, sleeping soundly. The notepad was on the floor but I could see movement on Koda's exposed stomach. Liz was giving him a belly rub.

A soft sigh brought my attention away from Koda and Liz.

Chloe, who had been sleeping with her head pillowed in my lap for the past three hours, stirred and flipped over on to her back restlessly. She had been switching from side to side for the past hour, and, judging by the twitching that was going on underneath her eyelids, the furrow that formed between her eyebrows, and the down turn of her mouth, I was guessing that she wasn't having the best of dreams.

I didn't dare wake her, though. This was the first time in a while that I'd seen her sleep for more than a half hour. Despite it being a restless sleep, it was still sleep that she desperately needed. So, instead of waking her up, I just brought the blanket that was around her up to her chin.

Thinking deeply, I lightly traced the dark circles that were now constantly under her eyes from her lack of sleep. Over the past few months on the run, Chloe had been plagued with bad dreams—nightmares to be more exact, and really bad ones that would keep her awake all through the night.

One night a couple of weeks after escaping the Edison Group—we were renting an old farmhouse in a small town in Pennsylvania at the time—I was awake and going to get a midnight snack from the kitchen…

I had passed by Chloe's room, finding that her light was still on through the crack in the door. Being the ever-curious person that I am, I peeked through the crack and saw her sitting cross-legged on her bed with a pencil in her hand, writing furiously on a pad of paper that was in her lap.

"What are you still doing up, Chloe?" I had asked her groggily, causing her to jump about two feet off the bed and drop her pencil.

"G-Geez, D-Derek," she had stuttered out, clutching her pendant tightly. "You s-s-scared me."

Then she looked down at my chest and saw that I was only in my boxers. Her blush was almost instantaneous and it seemed to spread from the roots of her now completely-blonde-again hair to her neck.

"Sorry," I mumbled, going over to sit at the foot of her bed as I tried not to smirk at her reaction to my semi-nakedness.

"What are you doing up?" I asked again, fully awake then.

"W-What are you doing up?" she countered nervously, avoiding my question and my eyes.

"Touché," I grunted, "but I asked you first."

Seeing that she wasn't going to win this battle, she sighed shakily and looked down at her fingers which were anxiously playing with her blue bed spread. She looked back up and opened her mouth as if she was going to say something but she decided against it with a firm shake of her head and dropped her gaze down to her fingers again.

"Chloe," I sighed, gently grabbing her chin and lifting it so that she would meet my eyes. "What's up?"

"You'll think it's silly," she muttered.

"Try me." I let go of her chin and settled back on the bed with a grunt.

She looked down at me with her big blue eyes, silent.

I raised my eyebrows up at her challengingly, telling her silently that I wasn't going anywhere until she told me her explanation.

Sighing, she grabbed my large hand in both of her small ones and began to play with my fingers. For some odd reason, she had this weird fascination with my hands ever since we started going out. Not that I minded, though. I actually liked it when she played with my fingers; it felt nice.

"I can't sleep," she finally murmured after a second, her eyes trained on my hand.

"Well, that much is obvious," I said sarcastically, which earned a glare in my direction and a pinch to my hand. "Ok, ok, I deserved that." I wrapped my fingers around her wrist and pulled her down so that she was lying on her side next to me and I wrapped my arm around her waist.

Propping my head up with my hand, I looked at her and said, "Why can't you sleep?"

"W-Well," she started, grabbing my hand from her side and playing with my fingers again. "I-I-I've b-been h-h-having—" She stopped and took a deep breath to calm her stuttering.

"You've been what?" I began to fidget impatiently.

Taking one last deep breath, she said in one big whoosh of air, "I've been having dreams about that night at the lab."

"Oh." I felt a wave of understanding flow through me. That night—the night that we had escaped the Edison Group. Also the night that Chloe had used Tori's mom's body to kill Dr. Davidoff.

"I k-k-keep having d-dreams about that n-n-night almost every night since then." It was as if a dam had broken inside of her. It was all coming out in one big rush. There was no stopping it once it had started. "I keep t-thinking up ways of h-h-how that night could've gone d-differently—how I could've a-avoided k-k-k-killing Davidoff." She was starting to hyperventilate by now, gripping my hand like it was her only life-line. "My mind keeps r-replaying it o-over and over and—"

I gently tugged my hand from her grip and placed it over her mouth before she could say anymore. "Calm down."

She gave me a really frustrated look at that and I noticed, not for the first time, the dark circles that had formed underneath her eyes ever since our great escape. In that moment, I realized just how tired she must have been over the past few weeks. How much sleep had she been losing because of her worrying? Probably a lot, judging by the dark circles.

"Derek," she murmured, taking my hand away from her mouth.

"Chloe, you shouldn't beat yourself up over that," I told her seriously, tucking a stray piece of hair behind her ear.

"But, Derek, I killed someone." She shot up from the bed and began to pace with me following closely behind her. "I literally k-kill—" She broke off abruptly, not able to finish her sentence as she began to hyperventilate again.

I placed my hand over her mouth again. "Breathe, Chloe."

She still continued to hyperventilate.

I admit that I was new to the whole boyfriend-comforting-his-girlfriend thing. I also admit that on the inside at that moment, I was freaking out and going around in circles in my head to try to figure out how to get Chloe to calm down. Simon was usually the person to comfort people—especially the opposite sex. Not me. Me and comforting equals a big no-no. But Simon wasn't there at the moment. I was on my own and completely out of my element. There was a little part of me that wanted to bolt from the room and drag Simon out of bed because I didn't know what to do…but I was pretty sure that idea wouldn't go over very well with the still-freaking-out Chloe.

With my mind still going in overdrive, I took my hand away from Chloe's mouth and tilted her chin up so that I could look into her tired eyes. "Chloe, you've got to calm down before you make yourself pass out." I wrapped my arms around her waist and brought her close. "Just breathe, ok?" I took in a deep breath to show her. "In and out. Easy as that."

As she continued to hyperventilate, I continued to take deep breaths. Eventually, she wrapped her small arms around my waist, rested her forehead on my naked chest, and took in a few deep, shaky breaths of her own, breathing deeply with me. After a few minutes of deep breathing, I finally felt her relax against me.

"Better?" I asked, rubbing her back slightly.

"Mmmhmm," she murmured tiredly, eyes closing for a moment as she relaxed further into my embrace.

We stayed that way for a while; just me holding onto Chloe and Chloe holding onto me. It was as simple as anything could be. I had to admit that I was getting good at this whole comforting-your-girlfriend thing. I didn't have to drag Simon out of bed which meant that I was making some progress. Progress was a good thing because now I knew what to do if Chloe began to freak out about the night at the lab again.

When Chloe's eyelids began to droop, I pulled back and picked her up bridal style, making her squeal in surprise and wrap her arms around my neck like a tourniquet. Turning around, I made my way to her bed. Pulling back the covers, I set her down underneath the sheets and, once she was situated, brought the covers up to her chin.

I was about to leave when she grabbed my wrist.

"Don't go." She looked away, blushing. But she still tugged me back. "I won't be able to sleep. I'll end up having nightmares again."

I crouched down on the floor so that I was level with her head and gave her a serious look. "Chloe, you shouldn't feel guilty about what happened at the lab. Davidoff was pointing a gun at your aunt's head. And he wasn't about to let you or Tori go." I leaned forward and touched my forehead to hers, looking deeply into her eyes. "I know that you feel like crap about it now but you shouldn't feel that way because you did what you had to do. There was no other way."

"But I still killed someone, Derek." She looked back into my eyes fiercely. "And I probably k-killed a few m-more people since I-I-I'm the one responsible for the c-collapse of the building because I r-released the demi-demon."

"Did you ever think that some of those people might've deserved it, Chloe?"

"No one deserves to die, Derek."

I sighed and ran a hand through my hair. "Well, I don't know what else to say to you, Chloe."

"Well, then, don't say anything at all." She patted the spot on the bed next to her, her eyes big and pleading. "Just stay here for a bit. At least until I fall asleep." She grimaced slightly. "Though I don't think I'm going to be sleeping all that much tonight."

So, in the end, I had stayed with her for the rest of the night. We talked about random things to pass the time and, yes, we might've done a little bit of kissing here and there. A guy's gotta live a little.

Eventually, Chloe fell into a fitful sleep with half of her body on top of mine. Not wanting to wake her up by jostling her around, I just stayed where I was and watched her sleep. Not in a stalker-ish sort of way; more like a boyfriend-concerned-about-his-girlfriend sort of way.

After a little while of watching her, I found myself struggling to keep my eyes open. I was just too warm…too comfortable. The lull of sleep eventually overtook me and I was conked out in the next second.

The next thing I remembered from that night was Chloe shaking me awake and urging me to get back to my room before anyone woke up and saw us sleeping together. I had grumbled a bit but I did as she said, not wanting her aunt to find us like that and accuse me of trying to deflower her niece. I seriously didn't want her aunt to have any more reasons to not approve of me dating Chloe. So I trudged back to my room and fell onto my bed with a loud smack. I was asleep again before my head hit the pillow.

The car slowing down brought me out of my reverie.

I brought my eyes away from the still-sleeping Chloe and looked out the window in time to see the car stop in front of a quaint little yellow house with a wraparound porch and large windows poking out through the surrounding woods. I looked out the other window and saw that the property had a nice-sized lawn with small flower beds here and there. A large oak tree sat at the edge of the property with a small bench resting at its base and a tire swing hanging from one of its branches.

I had to hand it to Dad and Lauren; they sure did pick a good one this time. It was a really nice spot for us to live at for the next few months.

The side door of the van opened up and Dad poked his head in.

"Wakie, wakie," he said as he shook Simon awake.

He didn't dare wake Tori up, though. When he tried to do that the first time we went on the road, Tori, being a very cranky person while she was half-asleep—more crankier than me when I was half-asleep—had hit him with a knockback spell that sent him flying. Ever since that happened, we would just leave her in the car with the windows rolled down a crack and let her sleep. It saved us a lot of trouble.

Simon groaned as Dad continued to shake him. "Five more minutes, Dad!"

He waved Dad's hands away from him and burrowed closer into Tori's shoulder, falling asleep again in the next second.

I chuckled slightly. Simon was lucky that he was asleep because if he consciously knew what he was doing, he wouldn't be able to live it down. I wish I had a camera with me at the moment.

Dad looked back at me with one eyebrow raised and a small smile playing on his lips.

"Should we just leave them in here until they wake up?" A very tired looking Lauren asked as she peeked behind her seat.

Dad shrugged. "They're not going to be waking up anytime soon, so we might as well. Just roll the windows down a bit for them." With that, he made his way to the back of the van, opened the trunk up and picked up his suitcase, waking a very grumpy Koda up in the process.

"We might as well just leave everything until the morning, Kit," Lauren said, hopping out of the van and stretching. "It's late and we're all tired, so there's no point in unpacking right now."

"Yeah, Dad," I agreed, carefully picking a sleeping Chloe up in my arms and getting out of the van. "We're all beat." I tried to suppress a yawn but failed miserably.

Dad nodded, slamming the trunk closed—jolting Tori and Simon into a state of half-wakefulness—before leading our tired group into the house.

I was too tired to even process what the house looked like. But from what I could tell, it was neat and tidy and fully furnished. Very homey feeling.

Dad yawned, pointing to a set of stairs that led to the second floor. "Just pick any room, you guys."

He didn't have to tell any of us twice. We all trudged up the steps, each of us wanting nothing more than to fall asleep on a nice, comfortable bed instead of a lumpy, springy motel bed.

I quickly found Chloe a nicely sized room with a view of the backyard and deposited her under the covers of her bed, careful not to wake her up with all the jostling that I was doing to her. Koda, who had been following close behind me, jumped onto the bed with her and settled himself down at his favorite sleeping spot right by her feet. He let out a huge yawn before setting his head down on his paws and closing his eyes, falling straight to sleep.

I gave him a quick pat on the head to which he woke up briefly, opening one eye and grunting before falling back to sleep, too tired to take a bite at me.

Snorting slightly, I turned my attention back to Chloe's sleeping form and got her situated in the bed, fixing her pillow and pulling the covers up to her chin.

"See you in the morning," I whispered softly, bending down and giving her a small kiss on the forehead before leaving her room and going across the hall to mine where I robotically stripped down to my boxers, flopped onto the bed, and fell straight to sleep.

It seemed as though I had just closed my eyes when I heard a high pitched whining close to my ear and a sharp scratching noise.

Lifting myself onto my elbows, I opened my eyes blearily and saw Koda sitting on his haunches beside my bed, his blue eyes wide and one of his paws lifted to scratch the side of the mattress again.

"Go away, Koda," I groaned sleepily, swatting my hand in his direction before falling back onto the bed and rolling over to the other side. "It's bedtime."

But he just jumped onto the bed and began pawing at me, still whining.

"Koda," I growled, pushing him off the bed and pulling the covers up and over my head. "Go back to sleep."

He barked at me once and took a swipe at me with his paw before I heard him padding away.

"Finally," I muttered, pulling my pillow over my head as the lull of sleep made my eyelids droop closed and forced a large yawn out of me.

I was almost asleep again—almost to that part of sleep where you can feel the beginnings of dream fogginess—when a low growl and a blast of cold air brought me back from unconsciousness. A guy can never catch any much needed sleep around here when he wants to, can he?

Annoyed and tired, I jolted upright into a sitting position and glared down at Koda who had my covers caught in his mouth as he tugged them off of the bed even more.

"Jesus Christ, Koda!" I growled, yanking the covers back towards me. "What the hell do you want?"

He snarled lowly, ears pinned back to his head as he tugged the covers from my grasp, dropped them to the floor, and proceeded to sit on them.

I pinched the bridge of my nose and fell back onto the bed, making the springs protest under my weight. "Koda, I'm not in the mood for any of your games tonight." I looked over at him. "Go back to Chloe's room and go to sleep."

At the sound of her name, he barked and jumped up from his position on the covers, his ears twitching madly as he listened to the sounds around him. After a second of listening, a low whine escaped from him, making his ears lower and his tail curl in between his legs.

"What is up with you tonight, Koda?" I asked, pushing my head under my pillow in the hopes that he would go away if I ignored him long enough.

Koda barked again and, as if by his command, my pillow lifted off of my head for a second before smacking me in the back three times. Sitting up, I saw my pillow floating a few feet above the bed before it hit me square in the face with a loud smack.

"What the fuck are you doing, Liz?" I asked when the pillow dropped from my face.

Liz's notepad floated close to me. The pen scratched across the paper quickly and in the dark I could clearly see Liz's messily handwritten Listen!

My eyebrows scrunched together in confusion which made me get another smack to the face by my pillow.

"Ok, ok." I waved her off, pricking my ears to listen to what Koda had heard.

That's when I heard it—a muffled scream. It was coming from across the hall.

"Chloe!" I gasped, jumping out of bed and rushing across the hall.

I momentarily saw Liz's scribbled Finally followed by Koda grumbling from behind me as if to say, "Well, it's about time!"

"Shut up!" I called back to them as I pretty much ripped Chloe's door off of its hinges in my haste to get into her room.

She was in her bed, sweating profusely, hyperventilating, tossing from side to side, and muttering incomprehensibly in her sleep. As she tossed to the side again, her blanket fell to the floor, making a blast of cold air hit her sweaty skin. She shivered and curled herself into a tiny, trembling ball.

I rushed over to her. This close to her, I could hear her heart racing and I could almost make out what she was mumbling in her sleep. I caught little snippets like, "No…No…Release…Didn't mean to…Accident…"

Reaching out to her, I gently grabbed onto her shoulder and shook it slightly to try and wake her up. As soon as I touched her, she bolted upright into a sitting position and screamed, her arms and legs flailing wildly. One of her flailing fists connected with my cheek, making me grunt and curse. Ever since she started with her self-defense lessons, she had gotten a pretty good right hook.

"Chloe—" Another fist connected. "Chloe, it's me—" Another hit. "Chloe, stop!" I grabbed onto her fist just as it was about to hit me in the shoulder.

"D-Derek?" Her voice came out as a small whisper.

I looked down at her, meeting her wide and panicked gaze.

"Hey." I let go of her and sat down on the edge of her bed, sighing in relief. "You awake now?"

"Y-Yeah." She nodded. Taking in a shaky breath, she sat up and rubbed her hands over her face tiredly, trying to dispel the dream.

I reached for her hand and began to rub small circles onto the back of it with my thumb. "You ok?"

She pulled herself closer to me so that she was pressed against my side, her head resting against my shoulder and her hand still clutching onto mine. "I'll live."

I pressed my lips against the top of her head and muttered into her hair, "Do you want to talk about it?"

I felt her head shake slowly from side to side. "Not really, no." Her grip on my hand tightened slightly. "Could we just stay like this for a bit?"

I smiled into her hair and gave her temple a small kiss. "Kay."

A small whine from beside us caught our attention. Koda looked up at Chloe with concerned eyes, his ears still lowered and his tail still curled in between his legs like before.

"Hey, boy," Chloe whispered to him, holding her hand out to him. "I'm ok now."

That gave Koda enough incentive to jump up onto the bed with us and give Chloe a quick lick on the cheek before lying down with his head in her lap.

"Good dog," I said, patting him on the head—only to get bitten at.

Chloe laughed and scratched Koda behind the ears. "Same old Koda."

OH! I almost forgot to mention that Puppy Love is now a year old as of March 18! HAPPY BIRTHDAY, PUPPY LOVE!