Appetite for Destruction

The Worm Moon

Brief snippets of conversation reached my ears as I struggled to return to consciousness.

"...I remember her being very polite..."

"Scott... shot... brought them both here... didn't know what to make of her..."

"She went with him..."

"...thanked me for my hospitality... with him... I was surprised when..."

I struggled against the darkness even though it was painful to be awake. My thoughts were sluggish and slow, like I was trying to swim through mud as I drifted in and out of sleep, half-dreams and confused memories. The crawl to consciousness was difficult and the exhaustion in my veins threatened to pull me back under even as I fought to focus on forming even a basic sense of location.

Ultimately, it was the pain that collected my scattered thoughts. It took a few moments before my eyes actually decided to start working and when the world came into focus I realized I had been right: there was an angry Derek glaring down at me.

"Were you trying to die?" Despite the edge to his words his tone was more weary than anything.

"I was gonna get the bullets out, but everything went to shit and..." I shrugged. My head was pounding but the sharp ache that had been pulsing from my shoulder and leg the entire night had dulled. "Scott was more important."

Derek didn't say anything and I took the opportunity to look around. I was lying on the front counter in the waiting room, the table in the back occupied by Scott. Thank God the sign on the door was set to closed; I doubted Deaton would get much business if people saw the unconscious teenager lying on his front desk. "I didn't know you'd worked with Peter." Derek said quietly, and I frowned, trying to make sense of that comment. "I assumed when you showed up you'd heard my howl."

Oh. That was what this was about. I pushed myself upright and swung my legs over the edge of the counter. "I ended up here with Scott after the ambush at the house. Peter showed up, demanded Deaton hand us over. I went willingly."

Derek was still frowning and still not looking at me. "You refused him before. What changed?"

"You." Derek finally met my eyes. "He was the best chance I had at finding you; he was already gunning for the Argents and they were the ones who had you, so he was the best option."

Derek's jaw clenched. "He was using you."

"And I was using him," I tilted my head back to stare at the ceiling. "I didn't approve of his methods, especially after he almost killed Lydia, but he was all I had."

Derek didn't say anything and I gathered that was the end of that conversation. I lay back down on the countertop and waited for my headache to disappear, staring up at the ceiling and counting the tiles to keep myself awake.

Derek split his time between checking on Scott, then checking on me, then returning to Scott. It was exhausting watching him pace between the two rooms and after half an hour I started yawning.

"You need to sleep." Derek said as he finished his tenth rotation.

"I'll sleep when we get back." I promised. He sighed but didn't protest, leaning against the wall and closing his eyes his eyes. Maybe he wanted me to sleep because he really needed some rest as well, so I pushed myself into a sitting position.

"Go back to the depot." He said, cracking one eye open to see my expression. "I'll stay with Scott, you go and check on the others."

I wanted to argue. I'd rather not let Derek out of my sight right now, or Scott for that matter. I'd never had anything against Scott - I actually liked him most of the time - but right now he was on my 'be nice to forever' list because, while he'd only joined the pack because we had a common goal, he'd called out to us for help. He knew we'd come to him, and that spoke volumes to me.