A/N: Greetings all! So, at long last, here is the beginning of a multi-fic collaborative effort with my cousin, on here as Briee (she rocks the James and Lily stuff, for those who are interested). We'll each be writing five of the projected ten chapters, and I pulled the honor of the first. We'll be updating once a week, so keep your eyes peeled!

Now, just a quick note on the setting: This is set about a year after The Reckoning, and our fave four (plus adults) have spent the last year hunting down the other supernaturals on their list, informing them of the Edison Group's nefarious deeds, and so on. A few weeks before this story begins, Chloe finally called her dad and ended up deciding to go home. Kit and the boys have bought a house not too far away, and Tori is staying with Aunt Lauren for the moment. Oh, and how could I forget? The remaining Edison Group employees ended up being executed by the Cabal, who know where the teens are, but "have bigger fish to fry" for the moment. Besides, I personally think they're hoping to get some little necromancing werewolves to study if they hang back for a while... Well, that and they're interested in seeing what'll happen with the enhanced powers before they make any more decisions, so they're more or less safe for the moment. Annnnnnnnyways, any other details should be made clear throughout the story (I hope!). Reviews would be most welcome, and I'll forward the reviews that pertain to my cousin's chapters to her. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: We are cousins who have too much free time on our hands and a borderline obsessive love for good supernatural fiction. We do this for fun, we don't make any money off of this and we are mostly definitely NOT Kelley Armstrong, though we do thank her profusely for creating such lovely characters for us to toy with. :)

My first day back at A.R. Gurney started off badly.

I have never been an early riser, but for the last year I've found it tolerable. I have gotten used to waking up slowly, snuggled up to my very own personal space heater, then lingeringly kissed and tucked back in for a bit more sleep as my space heater heads off to make it look like he'd actually spent the night in his own bed.

Not anymore.

For the first time in over a year I woke up in my luxurious, down-filled queen-sized bed and immediately regretted ever coming back. My room had been tastefully re-decorated by my dad's usual interior designer, Carol, in my absence. She had gone for urban teen chic, lots of shades of gray with some vaguely menacing patterned wallpaper and a black satin bedspread. I hated it, but I'd never tell him that. He had been so excited when I had finally come home.

I would have rather woken up in yet another motel room, squished into a rock-hard double bed with Derek, kissing silently in the watery dawn light with Tori snoring in the bed nearby. But no, I'd begged Aunt Lauren to help me call my dad. With my usual impeccable timing, I had managed to call on one of the few days he was home and actually picked up. The sheer joy in his voice when I said hello and the subsequent sobs absolutely broke my heart into a million pieces, and I knew I had to go home.

"Chloe!" Annette pounded on my bedroom door again, and I flashed instantly back to the last time she'd done that. My last normal day. "You're going to be late!"

Frankly, I'd rather never see that school again, but they had kindly held my spot for the past year, and accepted Simon as a mid-year transfer. It wouldn't be that bad. Right?

Somehow I managed to whip through my morning routine in only fifteen minutes, marvelling the whole time at how ordinary it seemed. It was like all the insanity I've been through was a dream. Even just thinking that made my stomach hurt. Derek, Simon, Tori and their dad (even though Tori still doesn't know) are my family now. Rae felt like family, too, family who was still MIA; we still hadn't been able to track her down. Jacinda had really gone to ground with her daughter.

Liz is family, too, finally resting in peace on the other side. She'd helped us find all the others, helped us escape from the Cabal when they otherwise would have caught us and kept my spirits up with her usual good humour when all I wanted to do was cry. I miss her so much, but she needed to cross over. She deserved a peaceful afterlife.

Annette was grumbling about not being paid to cook, but she had a piece of toast and a bottle of orange juice waiting on the counter as I flew by, yanking my hair back into a ponytail, my backpack clinging bravely to the very edge of my shoulder.

"Mario's waiting by the curb," she informed me, her rear in the air as she plugged in the vacuum cleaner. "Have a good first day back."

The toast was finished by the time I slid into the car, still trying to shake that creepy feeling that nothing had changed, that I was still fifteen year old Chloe on the morning that I got my period for the first time.

"Chloe! How are you?" Mario was as cheerful as always. We chatted about movies on the drive in, and I wondered how my dad had explained my disappearance to them. I bit my lip. Did everyone think I'd been in a mental institution all this time? That I was crazy for a while? My lip let out a throb of protest and I realized that I had drawn blood.

"Ouch, you're bleeding." Handing over a Kleenex, Mario looked concerned. "You worried about your first day back?"

I nodded, pressing the tissue to my lip, staring out the window, half expecting to see that little boy again, darting out into traffic. But luck was with me this morning, and we made it to the school without any ghost sightings.

Luck was still with me as I got out of the car, slinging my backpack over my shoulder as I slammed the door. Mario waved and darted back out into traffic. I was still standing there with my hand raised when something whacked me in the back.

Instincts kicked in and I spun around, reaching into my pocket for the switchblade I no longer carried.

Simon backed away, both hands in the air. "Whoa, easy there, killer." His grin was familiar and instantly made me feel better.

Straightening from my defensive crouch I scowled, aware that I was starting to act more and more like Derek. "Serves you right, sneaking up on me like that." My relief combined with the sharp tingle of adrenaline made me sound angrier than I was. In truth, I was really glad to see Simon, glad to see that my weird feeling of the past few months being a dream was just my imagination. Overcome, I bounded forward and threw my arms around him. "I'm so glad to see you!"

He squeezed me back and then eased away, looking a little confused by my abrupt mood swing. "I'm glad to see you, too. Derek's been impossible since we dropped you off on Friday."

I hoped to hear his low voice behind me, arguing, "Have not," but it seemed like Simon was the only brother at A.R. Gurney this morning.

Simon pulled a schedule from his bag. "Alright, so where's this classroom?"

With a decent start to my day, I'd honestly thought the rest of it would be fine. I was wrong. My old friends stared and whispered, and the teachers who had been there when I freaked out, screaming about melted custodians eyed me like they were expecting a repeat. I had spent the last year reasoning that no one knew what had happened to me, that my brief stay at Lyle House would remain private.

Well, no one knew the name of the place, but everyone had heard about my freak out, had seen me carried out, sedated, into the waiting ambulance and had figured my dad had paid for the best and most private mental hospital money could buy.

So now, instead of blending in like I had before, I was the crazy girl, the mental case, the schizo who claimed to see dead people. Although I wasn't sure if people knew that it was dead people. Not that it made any difference. Thank God for Simon. He was in almost all of my classes and I'm pretty sure it was only his persistent presence that kept the morbidly curious away.

I was exhausted when I finally staggered out the front door, Simon chattering beside me, but I perked up when he lifted an arm, waving at a grey sedan parked in the lot.

"Derek?" I asked without too much hope. For all I knew Kit was picking him up.

"Yeah," he answered and my temple-pounding headache eased immediately. If Derek was here, everything would be alright.

When we were nearly at the car, a group passed us and I heard someone make a comment about me. Derek was out of the driver's seat before I could blink and he only stopped when he was wrapping me up in his arms protectively, glaring bloody murder at the girl in question.

Apparently she didn't interpret it as such, because from behind Derek's bicep I saw her eyes run over him appraisingly, clearly liking what she saw. Too bad for you, I thought. He's mine.

And he was. After kissing me soundly, to the tune of Simon's fake gags, we piled into the car and I felt my muscles finally start to relax.

"Do I want to know how your day was?" Derek asked, reversing out of the spot. I didn't miss the way he looked into the review mirror for a second too long and I turned around fast enough to catch the tail end of a headshake from Simon.

"Traitor," I muttered, crossing my arms, then raised my voice to a normal level. "It was fine. Can we talk about something else? How was orientation?"

Derek had finished up his high school credits through homeschooling while we'd been bouncing from motel to motel, even taking the federal exams, so he had decided to start his college degree at a local community college until Simon and I graduated. I'd tried to talk him into taking one of the scholarships he'd been offered, but he'd refused, saying something about not being able to leave his Pack, which I still didn't totally understand.

He filled us in as we drove to the house that Kit had bought on the outskirts of town, where the houses were further apart and Derek had easier access to quiet parks and wooded areas. Pulling into the driveway, he waited for Simon to hop out before lifting a hand in farewell and heading back onto the street to take me home.

Home. Home, where my dad wasn't and where Annette would have finished for the day and left supper in the fridge. As much as that used to be home for me, it was different now. The motels felt more like home because that's where my family was. It was a relief to know I wouldn't be eating alone tonight.

When we were finally in the condo, I dumped my bag by the door and wandered into the kitchen, sure that Derek was starving as usual. He dogged my heels, obviously intrigued by my bee-line to the fridge. I hadn't been back for long, so he was still getting used to the condo, amazed and slightly disgusted that my father had received me home with open arms and left on a trip to Bangkok the next morning, trusting Aunt Lauren to make sure I was settled and had anything I needed for school.

Speaking of Aunt Lauren…I made a quick phone call while Derek ducked into the bathroom, reassuring her that my first day had gone well (a lie) and that I had food in the fridge for supper (not a lie) and that I wasn't lonely and in need of company (definitely not a lie). She was still a little protective, but she'd definitely relaxed when she saw how well Derek looked out for me. Besides, I had an uber-powerful witch for a best friend and two sorcerers a phone call away.

"I'll be fine," I assured her yet again, smiling apologetically at Derek as he came back into the kitchen. Wrapping up took another minute, so I started handing him sandwich fixings from the cold-cut drawer while he rummaged one-handed for bread and mayo to start making us some sandwiches. Finally I ended the call and tossed my cell on the counter with a sigh.

"I've been thinking," he said and I shot him a wide-eyed look.

"Well, that's not good."

"Quiet, you," he growled, pausing to drop a quick kiss on my nose. "I've been thinking that we should go out."

My knife still in the mayo jar, I paused and looked up at him in confusion. "What do you mean?"

"It'll be our anniversary soon."

Wow. After all the jokes I'd heard about men and their terrible memories for things like that, I was impressed. Frankly, I hadn't really given it much thought.

"Mmhmm."

"And we've still never been on a real date."

"A date?" I laid the bread down and turned to him, abandoning the sandwich for the moment. "You want to go out on a date?"

His shoulders hunched a little. "You deserve a nice night out, like a normal couple."

Ah. That word again. Funny he should bring that up.

"I see." Normal seemed like a foreign concept.

He stopped his sandwich building to turn and face me, his face curiously blank.

"So do you want to go?"

I studied him for a moment. "Of course. That's a really sweet idea, Derek. Thank you."

Relaxing, he met my eyes and I slipped my arms around his waist, stepping closer until I was pressed against him. "Did you think I would say no?"

A shrug. "I didn't know if you'd want to go out in public with me. I'm still not totally in control of the Changes."

I looked up into his face, resting my chin against his chest. "You never will be, Derek. You can't control everything."

It was an old argument, and one that I was completely willing to let slide for the moment as he bent to deliver another kiss to my nose that shifted down to my lips and lingered for a few minutes. Sandwiches be damned, I thought, but then his stomach rumbled and I laughed, pulling away.

"Let's get you fed so I can ravish you later," I teased, handing him a plate.

"Sounds good," he replied, already biting into a half even as he walked to the table. "So we're on for a date?"

"Yup."

When he'd finished his pre-supper snack, I intercepted him on the way to the sink to rinse the dishes and dragged him into the living room.

"What are you doing?" he asked, following in confusion.

"We're really, truly alone for the first time in months. Do the math."

A brow quirked as a slow smile formed. "Ah. Alone time."

I grinned, my hands sinking into his hair as his gathered me onto his lap. "Finally."