It had been four months. Four months and it had been filled with either preparations for the baby or it was Isaac, Peter, and Derek all looking for Erica and Boyd. None of them knew where they'd been and they had suspicions that they'd been caught by the alpha pack. Both Derek and Hayley had come to a mutual understanding which had come from the lack of tension and they'd yet to have another argument. Everything felt semi-normal. Or as normal as it could be. Although, the issue now was that they'd moved from a sauna to a freezer. A freezer with a lot of stairs to get to.
Grabbing onto the edge of the chair, she tried desperately to reach her foot and get the fluffy sock on. She already had one on. Hayley was the only one in the loft and she was trying to protect her feet from dropping off. She'd already covered herself in a couple of blankets trying to protect herself from the attack of the cold. His werewolf self was find and a walking radiator, whereas she was just struggling.
Hearing the phone go off, she sighed dropping her foot back down to the floor and pulling the device from her pocket. Pressing it to her ear she hummed to tell them that she was listening. "Hey," it was definitely her mother, "Isaac and some girl just got rushed into the hospital. I don't know what to do - he's going to be put into surgery."
"Okay, I'll call Derek," she trailed off, "bye mom."
"Bye."
Scrolling through the contacts she quickly found the right one, pressing onto it and putting it to her ear. It was several seconds later when it went straight to answer phone, "Isaacs in the hospital. You should probably do your job and do something about it," she mused before hanging up.
Sighing, she grabbed onto the back of the sofa and it took a couple of minutes before she was able to push herself up. "God dammit, Derek Hale," she muttered before shuffling towards her shoes. They were all slip-ons so she wouldn't have to get them on awkwardly. "I'm gonna kill you. Kill you a thousand ways."
It took a long while to get to the hospital and after finding out which room Isaac was in, she snagged onto the elevator. If they thought she was going to go up the stairs then they could forget it.
Reaching Isaac, she glanced at him concerned, "what happened?" She asked, "why are you all cut up?"
"You shouldn't be here. It's dangerous," Isaac rushed out, and she rolled her eyes. She was in the hospital. It couldn't be that dangerous.
"Well some arrogant man isn't picking up his phone, so I'm the next best thing," she admitted, just as Melissa walked in panic filling her face.
"Okay, okay," she muttered grabbing onto Isaac's dressing and pealing it away to see the injury there, "Yeah... Yeah, that's healing. Visibly. They can't see this. Nobody can see this."
"All right, cover it up..." Isaac muttered as Melissa put the dressing back down.
"I don't think that's gonna matter-- I mean, you're scheduled for surgery, which is obviously gonna be very confusing for a lot of people," she explained and Hayley nodded.
"Yeah, I think we need to get you out of here."
"Can you do something?" Isaac asked, looking up to Melissa.
"Me do something? I'm relatively new to all of this, and there's a Sheriff's deputy that's stationed right outside the door," she explained and Hayley glanced at the window. Could they toss him out the window? Were they low enough?
"Have you tried calling Derek?"
"Like, five times."
"He's not answering me, either," Hayley added on as she crossed her arms.
"Do you have any other emergency Werewolf contacts?" Melissa asked, and Isaac nodded.
"Yeah... call Scott."
"I'm gonna try Derek again," Hayley added on as she stepped out the room, grabbing onto her phone again. He wasn't picking up again. There had to be something that would catch his attention, but she couldn't think of anything. Or she supposed there was that, but then she thought she didn't want him to panic too much. She just needed him to get to the hospital quickly.
She was too focused on her own task, that she didn't even notice Isaac being wheeled away by Kali behind her. Pressing the phone to her ear again, she sighed as it went to voicemail, "if you ignore me one more time Derek Hale, then we are going to have issues," she growled out.
Putting her phone back into her pocket, she peered into the room only to see no Isaac, "or we can have issues now," she muttered turning away from the room and looking around. It was most reasonable that they'd end up being in the elevator which meant that...she was going to have to take the stairs. No. Absolutely not.
As she reached the elevator, she pressed onto the button taking a step back just in case there was going to be a crowd of people walking out of it. A shoulder brushed against her own, and she jumped turning to look behind her to see Derek. "What the bloody hell are you doing?!" She snapped.
"Scott's in trouble," he said, and she frowned before looking at the elevator.
"So what are you doing here?"
"Don't you realize what you're dealing with? I'm an Alpha," Ennis' voice echoed through the elevator doors just as they dinged and opened and Derek stepped in with his claws digging them into the man. Hayley's eyes widened as she looked down at Scott who was slouched on the floor with his werewolf face on.
"So am I!" He grit out, before throwing Ennis out of the elevator and into the hall. Hayley quickly took the opportunity to step into the elevator. "Aren't you supposed to be in school?"
"I'd help you up, but I can't even get myself up," Hayley mused as she looked down at Scott who grabbed onto the wall behind him pushing himself up. Derek then looked over to Hayley.
"What are you doing here?"
"Well someone, meaning you just in case you're confused, wasn't picking up their phone. So someone, meaning me, had to try and figure out this Isaac problem," she explained as she gestured to the unconscious boy in front of them.
"You should be resting," he countered, and she began to glare at him about to speak when the elevator opened again.
After sneaking Isaac out of the hospital, they took him to the Hale house (a factor which only Derek understood out of the conscious people) and Derek was carrying him inside. Scott had hesitated outside as Stiles had called him and Hayley had shuffled in grabbing onto a chair and taking a seat on it.
"Hey, can you tell me about it later?" Scott's voice asked, "Okay. Then, meet me at Derek's. Just meet us here, okay?" He asked before he looked around. Derek was rooting through a collection of over-grown plants. "You don't still live here, do you?"
"He stopped living here last year, remember," Hayley reminded. Scott had seemed to have just forgotten about the bus station.
"No... The county took it over." And they now lived at the loft, "but, there's something here that I need. It'll help heal a wound from an Alpha," Derek explained and that brought the confusion from both Hayley and Scott. She'd seen the wound heal with Melissa.
"Yeah, but it did heal..."
"Not on the inside." Derek countered.
"Hey, are you gonna tell me who that was back there? That Alpha?" Scott asked.
"I want to know as well," Hayley added on throwing up her arm to direct the attention to herself.
"A rival pack. It's my problem," upon seeing Scott's look he sighed, "I know you wanna help, and you did-- I owe you one. Now, go home. Go back to being a teenager."
"Uh, hey, Derek? If you wanna repay back that favor now... There is something you can do for me."
Since they needed to wait for Stiles, they went back to their own business for sometime with Derek trying to heal Isaac. Once he was done, he walked back into the room Hayley was sat in playing on her phone. His eyes glanced at her stomach listening out for the heartbeats before he spotted her feet.
"Why are you only wearing one sock?"
She frowned, looking up at him confused before she strained her neck trying to find her feet but no matter what she did she couldn't see it. Sighing, she let herself fall back glaring over at Derek. "This is your fault."
He rolled his eyes, about to speak when she flinched bringing her hand to her stomach, "what is it?" He asked and a smile soon formed on her face.
"Come here," she beckoned and he did slightly. Grabbing onto his hand, she guided it around to where her own hand was pressing it against her stomach. It was a couple of seconds before he could feel the slight nudge against his hand. "Do you feel it?" She asked, and he nodded slightly before a smile broke out on his own face.
"Yeah, I do."
"She's always restless. Always moving. Always has to keep busy, just like you," she mused as she glanced over to Derek meeting his eyes. He looked back the smile still on his face and the breath caught in her throat and a gentle flutter coming from her stomach, except this time it didn't come from the baby.
The door opened pulling the pairs focus apart and Stiles was stood in the door way frozen, "erm... am I interrupting something?" He asked, looking between the pair and Derek rolled his eyes for a second time as he pushed himself to his feet about to walk away when Hayley grabbed onto his sleeve.
"Help me up," she ordered and he sighed but did none-the-less. It wasn't like he had a choice in the matter. He then walked away whilst she grabbed onto her phone trying to see if she had any messages before she followed after him.
Making it into the back room, her eyes fell upon Scott who was sat shirtless on a chair and Derek was sat in front of him whilst Stiles was stood beside them. They were talking about the tattoo which had healed over on his arm. "yeah, I see it. It's two bands, right? What does it mean?" Scott asked.
"I don't know... It's just something I trace with my fingers," he admitted tracing the pattern into the dust as Hayley managed to get close enough. She hoped to god their mother wasn't going to blame her for Scott getting a tattoo.
"Why is this so important to you?"
"Do you know what the word "tattoo" means?"
"To mark something," Stiles interrupted as he stepped back with a proud smirk on his face. Hayley rolled her eyes out of amusement as she watched them.
"Well, that's in Tahitian. In Samoan, it means "open wound." I knew I wanted to get a tattoo when I turned eighteen. I always wanted one. I just decided to get it now, it makes it kind of a reward," she already knew what words were going to fall from his lips next.
"For what?" Derek asked.
"For not calling or texting Allison all summer. Even when I really wanted to, even when it was so hard not to sometimes... I was trying to give her the space she wants. Going on four months later... It still hurts. It still feels like a, uh..." she knew it. She knew full well that it was going to be related to Allison. All he ever thought about was Allison - it was both endearing and concerning.
"Like an open wound," Stiles finalised.
"Yeah."
"The pain's gonna be worse than anything you've ever felt," Derek said, and Hayley frowned as she tried to figure out what they were going to do to.
"Ah, that's great," Stiles muttered.
"Do it," Scott urged.
Derek reached down pulling up a blow torch and he lit it up causing both Stiles and Hayley's eyes to grow wide. "Oh my god..." she muttered.
"Oh, wow. That's a-That's a lot for me. So, I'm gonna take that as my cue, I'm just gonna wait outside-" Stiles began but Derek reached out grabbing onto his shirt and pushing him back.
"Nope. You can help hold him down."
"Why can't she do it?"
"Absolutely not." Hayley snapped.
"She's not doing it." Derek finalised and Stiles grimaced as he grabbed onto Scott. The torch got closer to Scott's arm, and he began roaring as the flame hit him and thrashing about. Stiles did his best to hold him down but it wasn't going too well. "Hold him!" He shouted.
Scott continued to roar out in pain before finally he stopped falling unconscious. Once he'd fallen unconscious it was a lot easier to finish and Hayley grimaced at the smell of burnt flesh. It was both disgustingly strong and concerning and if she didn't know where it was coming from she'd be running around panicked.
Moving back into the room where Isaac was, she pulled her lips in hopes of escaping the pain in her back. The pregnancy business wasn't getting tired and after eight months she just wanted the future gremlin to be out of her. Derek and Stiles soon joined her, although there was very little to be said.
"Can I be uncle?" Stiles asked, and Hayley looked to him confused, "I really wanna be the fun uncle."
"You can be the fun uncle," she dragged out resting her hand on his shoulder and he threw his hands up in celebration. It hadn't even been a question in her mind as she'd always seen Stiles as her brother. Ever since him and Scott became absolutely inseparable.
"It worked!" Scott called out, and Stiles rushed back over to his friend.
"Well, it looks pretty damn permanent now," Stiles agreed, it was so obvious that he hated the tattoo. Hayley smiled out of amusement as she leant against the door frame.
"Yeah... I kind of needed something permanent. Everything that's happening to us... everything just changes so fast. Everything's so, uh... ephemeral."
"Studying for the PSATs?" Stiles asked, and Scott nodded.
"Yep."
"Nice!" He called out, and Scott was about to leave when he noticed the strangeness and the brightness of the red door.
"You painted the door," he said, and Derek looked up immediately his attention had been caught by the beta. "Why'd you paint the door?"
"Go home, Scott," Derek urged. Hayley knew exactly why he'd painted the door, but that didn't mean she was going to say anything.
"And why only one side?"
"Scott..." Derek shouted, turning to walk closer as Scott pulled out his claws and began to scratch at the door to get the paint off.
"Hey, no..." Hayley muttered throwing her hand out in gesture to the door. It was more evidence that werewolves had a lack of respect for anyone's properties, "not the door..." she added on as Scott finally stepped back to see the alpha pack mark on the door.
"The birds at the school, and the deer last night... Just like the night I got trampled by the deer when I got bit by the Alpha," Scott muttered before he turned to look at Derek, "how many are there?" He asked and Derek sighed knowing he wasn't going to be able to get out of it now.
"A pack of 'em. An Alpha Pack."
"All of them? How does that even work?"
"I hear there's some kind of a leader... He's called Deucalion," Derek admitted, and Hayley crossed her arms ignoring the accusatory look that Scott and Stiles were throwing at her. They'd spent a long time not telling her anything so it was sort of like she didn't particularly care. "We know they have Boyd and Erica. Peter, Isaac and I have been looking for them for the last four months."
"Let's say you find them-- how do you deal with an Alpha Pack?" Scott asked again.
"With all the help I can get."
"Where is she?" Isaac's groggy voice sounded out, "where's the girl?"
"What girl?" Derek asked, looking back to the beta.