Beautiful

It's funny, I should feel comfortable here, we'd been at the safe house for a week now, but I still couldn't shut my eyes for more than an hour without being plagued by nightmares. In the uncontrollable world behind my eyelids I would see zombies and spirits everywhere I turned, then my dreams would change. Tori, Simon, Derek, and I would be strapped to tables in a lab with members of the Edison Group preparing to cut us open and inject us with things. Sometimes in my dreams they would just kill us. The dreams were so real that when I woke up, I could still hear the drills. A knock at the door startled me out of my nightmares.

"Hey," Simon beamed at me, "what's up?"

I gave him the best smile I could. "Nothing much, I was just spacing out."

Simon walked in the room and sat down on the bed next to me. "I was wondering if you wanted to check out what's on TV. It's Saturday, there should be a bunch of old movies on today."

As much as I loved older movies, I was smart enough to know that if I didn't talk to someone about everything that was bouncing around I was going to explode. I looked at Simon. I knew that he had feelings for me, and he was an amazing person, but for some reason I couldn't open up and talk to him.

"No thanks," I replied "I was actually thinking about looking for Derek." I knew I shouldn't have mentioned Derek's name but I hadn't lied to Simon so far, I wasn't going to start now.

Simon's smile faded a bit, "I think he's in his room."

I stood up "Thanks."

Although the house was still a bit unfamiliar to me Derek's room was just three door down. I took a deep breath and knocked on the door.

"Yeah," he said.

Hesitantly I twisted the door knob and peaked in the room. Derek was laying on the bed with his arm thrown over his eyes.

"Are you okay," I ran over to him without a second thought. "Are you sick, are you changing, do we need to get you outside." I put my hands on his head. I knew that if her was changing I had to stay calm, he needed me to be strong for him whenever he was changing. It was the one thing I knew that I did right for him.

"Chloe, calm down," he sat up and took my hands from his arms. I'm not sure if he realized that he kept his hands on mine, but my heart seemed to notice even before my head did. "I'm fine just a bit of a head ace is all; I could hear Simon snoring through the wall. I didn't get much sleep."

I calmed down a bit knowing that we wouldn't have a repeat of his last change, but the mention on sleep reminded me of why I was in here. I don't know if it was the fact that Derek's hands were still on mine, if I was relieved that he wasn't about to change, or maybe I was just real tired but I started to cry. The tears started to fall and I couldn't stop them. I knew that Tori was right and sometimes I was a real baby, but right now I didn't care. I needed a hug.

I threw my arms around Derek. He was so shocked all he could do was grunt at my sudden impact and sit there. "Um… Chloe?"

"I can't take it anymore, but I don't know what to do," I said between sobs.

"Hey," he seemed to have recovered because his arms were gently and slowly coming to cradle me. "What's wrong? What can't you take anymore?"

I squeezed him harder, if that was even possible, "Every time I close my eyes I see them, I see ghosts and zombies and the people from the Edison group, and I don't even know which is worse. What if they find us, what if…"

"Hey, I've told you before and I'll tell you again," He pulled away from me so he could look me in the eyes "I won't let anyone hurt you. I will help you as best as I can with these ghost, and will not let the people at Edison hurt you."

My brain was screaming 'bad romance movie', but it was screaming louder, 'please kiss me.' I'm not sure when I had started wanting this moment to take place between Derek and me, it's a bit hard to think about anything other than living when you're running for your life.

He leaned towards me and seemed to hesitate. "Chloe…" He looked torn, like he wanted to kiss me, but couldn't. I wish I was savvy enough to just kiss him, but I'm not that gutsy, so I just looked at him. "I'm sorry. It must be the head ace getting to me." My heart dropped. "Besides, I can tell that you and my Simon…"

"Wait, what?" That snapped me out of my heart ache. "What do you mean?"

"I see the way he looks at you Chloe. He's head over heels for you."

Despite my rather calm nature, he was really starting to get on my nerves.

"Oh so what, since Simon decided that he likes me I'm obligated to like him back?" I stood up, I was so mad I had to do something.

"No, but-"

"But what, I don't have any say in who I may want to spend my time with?"

"No, but-"

"Well then explain it to me Derek because I'm just a little confused about your statement."

Derek stood up, he put his hands on both sides of my face, and before I could continue to yell at him, his lips met mine. I didn't have much to compare this kiss to but it was much gentler than I expected. One of his hands slid from my face to the small of my back while the other tangled its self in my hair. I wound my hands around his neck, pulling myself closer to him. I felt his tong slide across my lips and I parted them gently waiting for his to enter. Our kiss deepened, I felt like I was going to explode. A moan slid from my lips as we parted. I refused to move my hands so he rested his head against mine and we stood in the

"This isn't how this is supposed to happen you know," he told me.

"What do you mean?"

"Simon always gets the girl not me." I couldn't help but laugh a little. "I'm serious; I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do with you?"

"I'm sure it shocks you just as much as me but, I like you just the way you are Derek, You're quiet, grouchy, over protective, over calculating, and you don't appreciate a good movie."

"Gee thanks."

I was bold for the first time in my life and leaned up and pressed a kill to his lips.

"I like the fact that you're quiet it means you're a good listener, your grouchiness amuses me, the fact that you're over protective is probably going to irritate me but that combined with your constant brain work has saved my life numerous times, and I'm willing to be the bigger man and accept the fact that you have no taste in movies."

Derek smiled the first true smile I had ever seen on his face and in that moment, I didn't care what anyone said. He was the most beautiful man I had ever seen.