Chapter Eight: My family is yours
[Derek's Pov]
As I got to the clearing I saw Sarah looking up to the sky, smiling. "Sarah." I said, she looked over to me. "Wondering where you were. Come on, I found the exit." She said and grabbed my hand and pulled me gently to the end. We went back inside and I made a joke to make her laugh and smile. "Ah! There you two are!" My father said and pulled us along to the dinning room. When we sat down my family treated Sarah like she has always lived here, thank God. "So Sarah. What did your family do?" My brother asked, I held my breath. Sarah watched him for a second before nodding, "I see that Mr Winters has also told you about them passing." She mumbled, "Ran a cafe not far from Seattle." She said and my mother took a sip of wine, thinking about a subject change, you can tell by her face. "So Sarah. How do you like working with Derek? I was once Xavier's personal assistant, that changed rather quickly though, suppose it happens around these men." She said and I looked at her with my "why would you bring that up" face. "Yes, I like working for him... although..." There was a loud thud coming from outside that drew our attention. We looked and there was a few branches hitting the house. The conversation withered away as we finished our dinner and Sarah and I had to leave. "Both of you come back for this weekend, right?" My mother said, not as a question but as a demand. "Sure mom." I said and kissed her cheek. "See you soon Sarah." Mom said as she hugged Sarah.
Once we got into the car Sarah smiled brightly. "So that was the Winters family." She said with a huge smile. "Did you like them?" I asked, hoping she would, please dear God, please say you liked my family. "Yeah, not what I expected. I loved every second of it." "What did you expect?" "Them to not like me, look their nose down at me, you name it." She said and smiled over to me before her smile dwindled as she looked deep into my eyes. "What?" I asked, nearly laughing at how cute she looked. "There was one thing... that I really couldn't wrap my head around..." She said and kept looking intently into my eyes, "Which is?" "Why did your niece insinuate that you and I were dating? And why did you mother make that comment about things changing quickly around "you men"? It seemed like they treated me like family... is there something going on that your not telling me?" She's definitely smarter than she leads to be. "I could tell you the truth but you would never believe it." I said and she raised her eyebrow. "I once used that line... my mother said it was because I wasn't ready to say. So take all the time you need. You'll eventually trust me." She said and I took her hand. "Yeah, I know I will." I said and kept holding it until she cleared her throat for me to let go.
Once we got home we went our separate ways and as she closed her door she smiled over to me.
Sarah was trapped in the woods. "Sarah!" I called but it came as a bear call! She looked behind herself for a split second and tripped. She tried to crawl away but her ankle seemed to be swollen. "Sarah." It came out as a growl. She sobbed, "Derek..."
I woke up yelling for me to stop. There was frantic knocking at my door. I rolled over hearing Sarah, "Derek, Derek, wake up, it's only a dream!" She yelled as she frantically kept knocking on the door. I opened up and saw her, her hair braided, a small blanket wrapped around her shoulders, and she had on different pyjamas, it was a kind of slip but not the sexy red and black one I dreamed up for her. "Are you alright?" She asked and I nodded as I welcomed her in. "Yeah, sorry, just a nightmare..." I said and sat her down on the couch. "Do you want to tell me?" She asked and touched my hand. "Sure... you won't be upset will you?" I asked and she shook her head. "I was a bear and you were running away from me in some woods. You began to cry once you fell and that's when I woke up." I said and she nodded, "interesting symbolism..." she said and I wanted to tell her exactly what I was, I wanted to scream it from the rooftops. "What do you think it means?" I asked getting up to get a drink. "Well... maybe because your a bear you think that your scaring me, or hurting me. Maybe hurting or scaring yourself in the process." Hm. Not bad. "I should come to you for all my dreams." I said and she giggled, "I hope you have a good night." She said and got up. "Wait." I said and held her wrist. "Thank you." I kissed her cheek and she nodded.
I woke up and got packed, I walked out and saw Sarah already standing there with a to-go coffee cup. "Did you go out and get that?" I asked and she nodded. "Yes, I hope you don't mind a coffee with sugar and cream." She said and I smiled, "just the way I take it." I winked and took a sip. "How early did you get up exactly?" She shrugged, "come on, I know you, you know the time all the time." I said and she smiled just a bit. "Maybe around five-ish? Yeah, five-ish sounds nice." She said and I smiled, "five-ish does sound nice." I said and saw that she had a small bag. "Shouldn't you bring more?" I asked and she shook her head, "did you pack some jeans and things?" She blushed and nodded, "yeah, I did." She said and I nodded, "good, I wouldn't want you to be uncomfortable." I said and she nodded, "yeah, that would suck." She said, I looked down and saw that she was in a pair of straight jeans, a tank top and a sweater. I smiled as she looked me up and down, seeing that I wasn't wearing a suit but jeans and a dark blue tee shirt.
When we got home... sorry... when we got to my house I showed her to her room that was next to mine. And my mother went to talk to her. "Sarah!" She sang and hugged her. Sarah smiled and hugged back. "Hello again Lydia." Sarah said with a bright smile. "Your going to love it here! I already know! There's gardens, a library, and I want to show you all the photos of the kids, I never get to show anyone." There's a reason for that. Because there are always embarrassing stories behind them. Mom pulled Sarah out of her room and I followed them to the living room. "This was Derek when he graduated high school, and later years from university." My mom said, "his senior prank was getting a car into one of his teacher's classroom on the second floor, it was really funny, he just started to reassemble the car when he found out that he didn't know how to reassemble a car!" Sarah laughed, it was beautiful. "Did you have a senior prank?" I asked and Sarah nodded, "yes, there was this teacher I disliked. I placed a glue bucket above his door and in the bathroom was a bucket of feathers. He came back into the classroom looking like big bird." She said and my mother laughed, "what did you look like when you were younger?" My mother said, looking for another photo of me. "Pretty much the same really. Well, I had to wear glasses all the time also braces." I pictured a teenage girl with thick ribbed glasses and braces. "Oh! And this is one of Derek when he started his fundraiser." My mother said and pointed to me, giving a speech. "This is one of Derek camping, he was probably about nine." My mom was about to turn the page when Sarah stopped her, "hold on a second..." Sarah pulled out a pair of reading glasses from her pocket and put them on. She looked like a sexy librarian... "what's that? There in the background?" She asked, I looked and saw a bear cub, Ellison. "That seems to be a bear cub." My mom said, now looking at me with surprised eyes. "Yeah... but why is this bear cub being held by a person?" She asked and looked closely. "Maybe it's not a bear cub." I said and took a look, "yeah, I don't think it's a bear cub, and my vision is twenty/twenty." Sarah nodded but she didn't seem convinced. "Mom! It's breakfast time!" Barrett said walking into the room.
Sarah and I sat together as we ate. We didn't speak and really, we didn't need to. "Derek, after breakfast, you should show Sarah the gardens." My dad said and we both nodded. When we were done I picked up Sarah's plate and placed it down in the sink. We went out to the front to see the garden. "These are beautiful." She said and smelt a rose, it was your traditional red rose. "Yeah, you are." I said impulsively before I wanted to take it back. Oh shit.
