Summary: Chloe's life is ripped apart by a surprise attack from the newly reformed Edison Group, still searching for them and still out to kill Derek or at least use him and capture the others. - Set five years in the future. Rated T for now.

I really shouldn't be starting another story but I just got this idea and I really really wanted to show it to you guys…on the plus side it won't be too much longer until Comfort From A Nightmare is complete and hopefully Their Choices too. Definitely Comfort though. Oh and, incase anyone cares, I'm deleting my crossover.

Unless it is absolutely necessary for me to tell something from someone else's point of view, the story is going to be told completely by Chloe.

Anyways, hope you like it.

Disclaimer: DP is Kelley Armstrong's idea. I'm just playing with some characters.

When Wishes Don't Come True

Chloe POV

"Derek? Tori? Simon?" I called walking down the upstairs hallway of our new temporary home. "Guys? Where are you?"

I knew that Kit and my aunt had left about half an hour ago. We needed groceries and they figured we were capable of staying here on our own. But in the last five years we had proved there were many things we were capable of doing on our own. And we had learned more than enough to keep ourselves safe if need be.

But, I had no idea where those three were. I padded down the stairs and headed for the kitchen, mainly looking for Derek in there. I let out a frustrated sigh when I didn't find anyone.

"Where are you guys?" I mumbled staring out the kitchen window into the back yard.

"Behind you." Derek's voice rumbled.

I jumped and spun to face him.

"You didn't check in the basement." he said stepping closer to me.

"That's because I don't like it down there. You know that."

He nodded. "I know."

"So, why were you guys down there?"

"Oh, no reason in particular."

I crossed my arms over my chest. "I don't believe you."

He shrugged. "You don't have to believe me. I'm not telling you what we were doing."

"Oh. Gee, thanks."

"Sorry."

I turned back to the window, ignoring him.

He came forward and wrapped his arms around my waist. "What do you want to do for your birthday?"

"Nothing."

"Nothing. Hmm." I felt his breath on my neck. "That's good." He kissed my neck and stepped back.

"That's good? Explain?"

"No."

I sighed and looked over my shoulder. Derek was already gone; making a silent and hasty retreat.

The front door banged open and Kit and Aunt Lauren stumbled into the house both carrying an arm full of groceries. They set them on the kitchen table then Kit disappeared into the basement too.

"Chloe, can you put these away?" Aunt Lauren asked.

"Sure? Are you going to help?" I asked pulling a few boxes of macaroni out of one of the bags.

"Sorry, no." Then she darted down the basement stairs too.

"It's great to know that no one is going to let Chloe in on this little secret." I grumbled.

I would have gone downstairs to figure it out for myself but I hate it down there. I'm not sure why. It's not like I hate the place because there a corpse or a ghost down there or in this house in general, but the basement scares me. I have no idea how Simon can sleep down there.

When I finished putting the groceries away an idea struck me. They are all keeping a secret from me and my birthday is tomorrow…

Oh not again.

The last time they threw a surprise party we broke the dining room table and then got icing and soda all over our couch. I don't even know how all that happened. Apparently they forgot about that though, if they truly were planning a party for me. Whether they were planning a party or not, I wasn't really that excited to turn twenty tomorrow.

I finished putting the groceries away and headed into the living room to grab a book. I sat on the floor staring at the bookshelf, trying to find a book and just thinking.

We'd stayed in run of the mill hotels for a little while until Kit and Aunt Lauren had decided we could start renting small homes, without leaving a paper trail of course. But every time someone came closer to finding out where we were, we had to leave again. That was the reason we were only renting.

One day I was hoping to actually settle down and live my life with my friends and with Derek, but I couldn't say when that would be. It seemed whenever we got comfortable in a new place we had to uproot ourselves and move. That sucked and made finding a new part-time job hell.

We'd been in so many cities in New York that I had lost count of them all and, sadly, forgotten the names of a few. A couple of times we had even found places in Pennsylvania and Connecticut but we hadn't gone very far from the New York border. Tori suggested we go to California once or Washington. Just somewhere on the west coast. Her idea was shot down and we were told to follow Kit and my aunt no matter where they went.

I was getting tired of that. Derek and Simon too. But we still weren't up to questioning why we were still staying around New York.

This time we found a house to rent in the outskirts of the city of Elmira. The house was a bit larger than we were used to, as were the rest of the houses surrounding us, but I guess hiding in plain sight could be a good thing.

At times.

At the moment I wish Liz was with us. She came and went. I think she was just checking on things with her family. Of course if she was here, she would probably be listening to them plan their little secret instead of talking to me.

Sighing, I grabbed one of my favorite books, Sherrilyn Kenyon's Dream Chaser, and headed out to the deck to read and watch the sun go down.

Around eight, Derek cracked the back door open. "There you are." he said slipping through the doorway and joining me on the deck.

"Hey, Mr. Secretive is here. Hello Mr. Secretive, what would you like?"

"Funny." he said, a lopsided grin on his face. "I was just trying to find you."

"Why? You haven't wanted to be around me all day. What could possibly give you the motivation to spend time with me now?"

"What do you mean?"

"You've spent practically the whole day in the basement, that's what I mean." I said gesturing to the house.

"Oh. That."

I scoffed. "Yeah. That." I marked my place in my book and closed it.

"Well-" Derek offered me his hand. "Let me make it up to you."

I sighed and placed my hand in his, wondering how he was going to 'make it up to me'. He took my book from me once we were back inside and set it on the kitchen counter.

"How are you going to make it up to me?" I asked when Derek led me out of the kitchen to the staircase.

He turned and gently kissed my lips. "You'll see."

"Yeah. Sure I will."

He smiled and led me upstairs to our room. Everyone had agreed that we should have the master bedroom because we needed more space. Neither Derek nor I complained about that.

He closed and locked the door so no one would disturb us.

The next morning I awoke around nine with a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach. Whoever was talking in the hall outside the room caused me to wake up, not that I minded. I needed to get up anyway. Derek was gone and I began to wonder where he went when I realized that one of the people outside of our room was him. The others were Simon and Tori.

"Just keep her occupied until we can get everything set up. That's not hard to do Derek." Tori said sounding slightly irritated.

"And if she doesn't want to stay in there?" Derek asked.

"What part of make her don't you get?"

Obviously they had been talking before I woke up.

"Tori, chill. Just keep her upstairs okay. We'll come get you guys when we are done." Simon said.

"Fine." Derek grumbled. He sounded as though keeping me upstairs was going to be harder than operating on someone's brain or harder than putting a man on the moon was at the time.

I rolled over, making it so my back was to the door. Maybe Derek would think I was still asleep when he came back in.

The door opened and even though I couldn't hear Derek walking I knew he had come back into the room. The bed dipped from Derek's weight as he sat next to me. He laid down and draped one arm over my waist.

"I know you're awake."

I sighed and opened my eyes. "How?"

"You're breathing is different." He pressed his hand against my bare stomach and pulled me against his chest. "You should think about getting up and showering."

"Why? I don't want to face the day. So, it's my birthday. It's really just another year we have survived being on the run. At least it feels that way to me."

He kissed my shoulder. "I'm sorry you feel that way. But today could be fun if you let it."

I didn't say anything to him, just slipped out of the bed and out of his grasp so I could bathe and brush my teeth. Twenty minutes later I was standing at the foot of our bed, wrapped up in a towel. I couldn't decide what to wear.

There was a knock on the door then, without waiting to find out if it was okay to enter, Tori opened the door and poked her head in.

"Tori!"

"Chill out Chloe. Derek, bring her down." She glanced at me. "You know, when she's dressed and all. Incase you didn't catch the hint Chloe, hurry up." She pulled her head back and closed the door.

"Derek, can you grab me a pair of jeans?" I asked while pushing aside tee shirts in my dresser. It was silent for a moment then I heard the clicking of hangers.

Derek appeared by my side with a pair of plain dark jeans just as I pulled a black and gray striped sweater from the drawer I was looking in. I pulled the sweater on before addressing Derek.

"Go tell them I'll be down in a few minutes."

He nodded but didn't move.

"Derek, I'll be down soon okay?"

"Are you alright? You don't seem very happy. In fact you seem rather emotionless."

I sighed. "I don't know what's wrong with me. I'm just not in a good mood I guess. And this bad feeling I have isn't helping."

"Bad feeling?"

I shivered and rubbed my arms. "I-I just feel like something horrible is going to happen today. Oh, and I know you guys have a party planned for me. I figured that out."

"Oops." He smiled sheepishly and rubbed his neck. Then he turned serious. "This bad feeling doesn't have anything to do with this party does it?"

I shook my head. "I can't explain it. I…I just-" I groaned and reached up so I could hold his face in my hands. I felt like this was the last time I was going to see him again but I couldn't tell him that. I wouldn't want to worry him with something so trivial as a random bad feeling. It's not like I haven't had them before and the majority of the previous feelings were wrong.

I only hoped this one was too.

"You just what?"

I stood on my tip toes and kissed him. What would I do without Derek in my life? How could I go on without being able to see him everyday and night?

His arms snaked around my waist, pressing me closer to his chest and almost lifting me off my feet.

I pulled back, my hands still on his face and his arms still wrapped around my waist. I traced a line over his eyebrow, down his cheek and over his bottom lip.

"I don't know, Derek. Maybe we can think about this after my party." I dropped my hands from his face. He unwrapped his arms from my waist and stepped back.

"Are you sure?"

I nodded. "Don't worry about it until then."

"Well, if you're sure-"

"I am." I said pulling my jeans on.

"Then let's go downstairs. At least act surprised."

"Can do." I said putting on a fake smile.

When we got downstairs all the curtains were drawn and the lights were off. The room was, surprisingly, dark enough so that I couldn't really see anything. I knew Derek could see where everyone was which gave him an advantage over me. Even though I was expecting them to jump out and yell surprise, I knew I was going to jump like the skittish kitten I have been accused of being multiple times before.

Then the lights flipped on and everyone yelled surprise, of course, I jumped.

"You're still so skittish." Derek murmured.

I playfully smack his chest the smiled at my 'family'. "You guys didn't have to do this. I would have been happy with a normal, everyday type of birthday."

"Too bad Chloe." Simon said coming forward to give me a hug. "Happy birthday."

"Oh, happy birthday hon." Aunt Lauren said hugging me after Simon stepped away. She glanced up at Derek and offered him a smile. It had taken her almost a year to fully accept that he was my boyfriend, that we loved each other and that Derek would never intentionally hurt me but now that she had accepted him, she treated him like one of her own. Like family.

I smiled inwardly as my throat tightened and I fought back tears. We're a family. Strange though we may be, we are a tight knit family.

"You okay Chloe?" Simon asked.

I nodded. "I was just thinking."

"Well, you should be thinking about this cake." Kit said pushing it across the table to me and lighting the two and the zero candles. "And thank your aunt for making it."

I looked at my aunt Lauren and smiled. "Thanks."

"You're very welcome." she said returning my smile. "Now make a wish and blow out the candles."

"So I take it we're going to have cake for breakfast?" I asked closing my eyes and thinking of a wish.

"Unless you want something else?"

I shook my head.

"Make it a good wish Chloe." Tori said. I still had my eyes closed so I couldn't see her face, but I had a distinct feeling that she was smiling.

I hope I never lose any of my family. I thought before blowing out my two candles.

I felt Derek's hand on my hip and I opened my eyes.

"What did you wish for?" he asked.

I smiled. "You know I can't tell you that."

He shrugged and kissed my cheek. I glanced up and saw Kit was watching us with smile on his face. He actually looked proud.

Aunt Lauren started to cut the cake. She cut the biggest piece first and offered it to Derek. Of course he didn't turn it down. The next slice she had started to hand to Simon but Tori snatched it a walked away.

"Hey!" Simon exclaimed.

"Get over it and be nice to your sister."

"Be nice to your brother." Simon mocked. He turned back to my aunt. "That piece was a little big for me anyway."

She offered him a sheepish smile. "Right. Sorry."

When Tori and Simon found out that they were related, their reactions we pretty much polar opposites.

Aunt Lauren had been asking Kit if he was ever going to tell them when they had come barging into the room arguing with each other. He'd decided that that moment was as good as any.

Simon took it pretty well, saying that that had to be the reason they fought so much. Tori, on the other hand, couldn't decide whether she should be pissed for not finding out from her mother or disgusted because she used to like Simon.

Her reaction was a little bit of both. Eventually she calmed down and started teasing him all the time. Saying things like she had just said. 'Be nice to you sister' etc. Now they were pretty close. And surprisingly enough, Tori and Derek were pretty close too.

I felt like I was a little girl again. I was surrounded by my family, eating a homemade birthday cake. It was almost surreal considering the circumstances of our life.

I helped my aunt clean up the plates when we were done while Tori, Simon, Kit and Derek waited for us in the living room. When we were done cleaning up my aunt ushered me into the living room to join everyone else.

It was time for presents. We only gave each other small things for our birthdays. We couldn't take very much with us when we moved around so smaller things were always better.

"Mine first!" Tori said sounding oddly like a small child. She got up and handed me a box then leaned down to whisper in my ear. "Don't let Kit or Lauren see that. They don't know what I got you."

"Oh. Maybe I should open it later then."

She shrugged. "Open it sometime tonight though."

I nodded. "Okay."

Kit handed me a small box and said that the present was from him and Simon both.

I unfolded the top and found at least five novels I had forgotten the last time we moved.

"We remembered how upset you were when you found out you forgot them." Kit said.

Simon smiled. "Yeah. So we bought you new ones to replace them."

"Oh, thank you guys so much!" I said smiling.

Aunt Lauren pulled something from her pocket and handed it to me. "Sorry it's not in a cute little package or something. I didn't have time to get it wrapped."

I took the chain from her hand. "That's okay."

"It's so you can replace that ratty ribbon your pendant is hanging on right now."

I glanced down at the ribbon. It was frayed and would probably rip apart sometime soon.

"Thanks Aunt Lauren. Anyone have any scissors so I can replace it now?" Tori jumped up to grab me a pair from the kitchen.

While I waited for her to bring the scissors back I looked at Derek. "So, what do you have for me?"

"Just wait for Tori to come back."

"Okay?" I said, slightly confused.

Tori brought the scissors to me and I cut the ribbon. Derek caught my necklace as it fell off my neck and then pulled the ribbon out. He held out his hand for the chain, replaced it and clipped it around my neck.

"Thanks." I said flipping my hair back over my shoulder.

Derek glanced up at his dad and Kit gave a subtle nod.

I wondered why until Derek slid from the couch cushion next to me, to the floor where he was sitting on one knee. My heart started hammering in my chest. I thought I would pass out at any second if it didn't slow down a bit.

He pulled a ring out of his pocket and took my left hand. "Chloe, will you marry me?"

My throat was tight and tears started streaming down my face. "Yes! Of course!" I almost yelled when I found my voice again. Derek slipped the ring onto my finger and I threw myself at him.

"Congratulations!" Everyone exclaimed simultaneously.

Something exploded outside. It was close enough to shake the windows in the living room.

"Shit." Kit said, jumping up off the couch. "Hell's about to break loose in this house. And we have no chance of getting out of here without a fight."

"What?" Tori exclaimed. "Couldn't it be something less dangerous, like a stupid kid or something?"

From the living room, we heard the front door bust open.

"Unfortunately, no."

We ran into the kitchen just as the back door burst open too. Along with two of the windows, sending glass flying everywhere. I ducked and covered my head so none of it would it my face.

Derek pulled me up once the glass had all hit the floor and he kissed me soundly.

"Just incase." He whispered right before a group of men entered the kitchen.

Sparks shot from Tori's fingers right before she shot a bolt of electricity at one of the men. He charged her and they were locked in a fight. Kit was right. We weren't going to get out of here without fighting.

Two of the men rushed at Derek and Aunt Lauren, Kit, Simon and I each were left to each fight one of the remaining men.

Whoever I was fighting was strong. Not werewolf strong but stronger than I was none the less. Out of the corner of my eye I noticed one of the men Derek was fighting was down for the count. Derek didn't have enough time to bend and check the man's pulse though.

The only person he had ever killed was Liam and that was entirely by accident. Anytime he had to fight someone now, if he knocked them out he would always check for a pulse. No matter how bad these people were he couldn't kill them because he wasn't a monster.

That momentary pause in my fight cost me a lot. The next thing I knew I was being slammed into a doorframe, my head being rammed into the molding so hard I was seeing stars in seconds. Of course, the fact that the man was holding his hand around my throat wasn't helping.

I kicked and punched all in an effort to get him to let go of me but it was useless, especially because I was trying to pry his fingers from my throat at the same time.

Any movement at all was becoming increasingly difficult due to the fact that I was having trouble breathing. The edges of my vision were going dark and I thought I was going to pass out at any moment.

Then I was dropped to the floor, rubbing my neck and gasping for air. I looked up to see a blurry image of Derek fighting with the man who had almost killed me. I crawled over to the two men Derek had been fighting before to check for a pulse. Derek would want to know if he had killed them or not so I had to check for him.

He hadn't killed either one. Bruised them, yes. But he didn't kill them.

My vision returned to normal the same time Simon was thrown into the wall next to me.

"Are you alright?" I asked him, my voice rough from having my throat squeezed so tightly.

He rubbed his head. "I'll be nursing a serious headache later but yeah, I'm fine. I really should be asking you the same question."

"I'm fine too."

I looked up to see the man Simon had been fighting pull something out of his pocket. He pulled a small rubber cap off the end and dropped it on the floor. Then I realized he was holding a syringe.

Aunt Lauren dropped to the floor with a thud. I looked back to the syringe and swallowed. Whatever was in there would knock us out cold.

He went after me first. He lunged and I rolled away. Simon jumped up and kicked the man's back. He stumbled forwards then turned and grabbed Simon's arm, completely ready to jam the needle in and knock him out. But as he turned I lashed out, my leg made contact with the back of his leg and he toppled forward. The syringe skidded away and Simon scrambled after it. He grabbed it and stabbed it in the arm of our attacker. Then he looked at me and smiled. But he smile only lasted a second.

"Chloe, behind you."

I turned and tried to move out of the way of the man who had been behind me. Unfortunately he grabbed my arm and injected me before I could skitter too far away. I stumbled back against the wall. Everything seemed to slow down as my vision got blurrier. The last thing I saw was a bright flash of light, one of Tori's spells. It took out two of our attackers. Only three left.

The last thing I fully heard and understood was Derek yelling my name. Then Simon shouted something and that sound got mixed in with a growl from Derek and my thud as I hit the floor.

Then everything went black.

When I awoke I had no idea where I was.

"Oh. I think she's waking up." A familiar voice said.

I groaned and rubbed my temples. My head was pounding and the rest of my body seemed to be painfully throbbing.

"Chloe? How are you feeling?" Another familiar voice, a bit older sounding than the last one.

"Chloe?" This time the familiar voice was female. I still couldn't place names with the voices yet. My head was too foggy. Nothing seemed to make sense at the moment.

When I finally did open my eyes I realized we were in a hotel room. The walls were an eggshell white and the carpeting an interesting emerald shade of green, while the curtains, couch, bedspreads and even the crown molding were green and gold. There was a television and a desk pushed in a corner to make room for a cot.

"What happened?" I mumbled rubbing my eyes while they readjusted to the light.

"We were attacked." I realized that the older voice had been Kit. The other two were Simon and Tori.

"We need to tell her now." Tori said, nudging Kit's arm.

"Tell me what?" I looked around the room. "Where is my aunt and where is Derek?"

They all exchanged a nervous glance. "Chloe…um." Tori started.

"I'm not really sure how to say this but-" Kit swallowed. He seemed to be unable to finish his sentence, his pained expression making it look like he was about to burst into tears at any moment. I'd never seen him cry before so this must have been serious.

"Chloe, they're gone." Simon finished for them.

Took a little while to get to that ending huh? Sorry 'bout that if you didn't like it. But it's a nice little cliff hanger isn't it. Gone can mean SO many things.

This is the longest chapter for anything I have EVER written. It's kind of exciting.

But anyways, I hope everyone liked how my new story is going so far. I'll have plenty of time to work on all my stories from the 13th to the 21st. I'm going to be at the fair again! (Luff that place.) And I have lots of time to work but, sadly, no internet to update with so all updates will take place on the 21st…really, really late on the 21st…

Review please. Don't make me beg for them. Please!

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