Burn Amongst Humanity [D. Hale ]

|XXXVII|

"I felt alone for a long, long time Derek, even when most of my family wasn't dead or rotting in a prison for murder and arson." She said and he looked over at her.

"But, I didn't ever feel that way when it was you or Laura, or it was the both of you around, it was like I had another family. A family that wasn't way too prone to just jumping straight to a beating to get a point across about something." She murmured and she looked at him. "I thought and so did Tye, that you and Laura were dead for the longest time and when Laura came to my door... I just wish that you could have seen her laughter, when, I practically tackled her." Casey said as Derek was smiling at the words. "I probably would have tackled you too, if, I didn't have a gun in my hands at the time." She said and he shrugged.

"You had a dull energy. Laura told me... after she had come to see you at my suggestion, that you were already a lot less cold. Laura told me, that it was like half of the weight, half of it all had just- gone." Derek said and she shrugged. "Did you honestly just think that we were both dead?" He asked.

"Yeah." Casey murmured and she sighed. "I had no idea that you two had survived, I thought that whoever had set the fire, along with my father, that they would have killed you guys long, long before you ever could leave Beacon Hills." She murmured and he moved over to sit next to her. "Tye and I, we would just... Just wait by the phone, for the first few months. Tye constantly checked the news, looked your names up on the internet. I mean, we were looking for you two for-for well over a year." Casey said and he looked down.

"Then eventually, you two just stopped looking." Derek murmured and she nodded. "Tye stopped looking on the internet, you stopped waiting by the phone and you just stopped."

"When I saw Laura on my doorstep again, it lit up whatever the hell was remaining of the hunter from before, that broke the rules, both spoken and not, over, over and over again to help you guys. I never thought that I could be that person again, then I saw her standing there and it all came back."

"And now we're here." Derek murmured and Casey nodded at the words.

"And now we're here. But she isn't and, I can't even tell you how badly that hurts because, you are always going to be feeling it worse, than I am." Casey murmured and he was silent. "You know the first thing that I asked her?" Casey asked and he was looking at her.

"What did you ask her?" Derek asked quietly.

"First thing I asked her, was if you were here." Casey murmured and he looked at her. "See if I'm lying." She said and Derek shook his head.

"You're not." Derek said and she nodded. "You were more concerned with me than with Laura?" He asked.

"I didn't share a kid who had never met her parents, with Laura." Casey pointed out and Derek nodded a little and she sighed. "Just one phone call from you, Derek, it was all that we needed." Casey said and he looked over at her.

"We visited you in the hospital after the Fire. You were in a induced coma, we wanted to stay until you woke up."

"Then why didn't you?" Casey asked and she looked at him, as Derek shook his head. "You two ran." She said and he nodded.

"We eventually settled in New York and we tried and failed for the most part, to build a life for ourselves. We couldn't find another pack, so it was just us for a long time." Derek said and he looked down as Casey reached over and she grabbed his hand. "You remember when I asked you, why the hell you weren't scared of me?" He asked and she nodded. "Why were you not scared of me?" Derek asked and she blinked.

"Because I still care. I never cared about the werewolf that reared its' head when the moon rose, I didn't care that my dad would kill me if he found out that you were the actual father. I didn't care about any of that, I just didn't. I just cared about you, no matter the shit that undoubtedly was going to follow you." Casey said as she was shrugging.

"After all these years, you still care about the werewolf that got you a free beating and a kid?" Derek asked and she shrugged. "You are still so weird."

"I love you too." Casey said and he looked at her. "I'm jealous and now you know the reason." She said and he smirked at the words. "Aw, damn it." Casey muttered and Derek smiled at her. "Only a Hale." She said under her breath, but she was just smiling as well, despite her annoyance.

"Only a Hale, meaning what?" Derek questioned and she stared at him and she shook her head.

"You know what I mean. Only a Hale, could get me to admit something like that. Which you should already know." Casey explained as Derek nodded.

"Yup, I did. But, much more importantly, you finally admitted that you were jealous." Derek said as she was now, kicking herself internally for speaking up about it, as he could tell from her heartbeat. "Okay, I'm done." Derek said.

"Are you?" Casey asked with suspicious eyes as Derek got up and she raised her eyebrows at him. "Are you done?" Casey asked as she walked past him to the closet and tossed her dirty, food-stained hoodie, right into the dirty laundry basket.

"Not really." Derek said and when Casey turned around, he was directly in front of her and Casey jumped a bit at him moving fast. "Do you sleep with it on?" Derek asked as she was looking down, soon spotting what had caught his eye.

The triskelion necklace that she still wore and she looked at it. "Only when I'm too tired and then, just forget to take it off." Casey said and when she looked back up, she was surprised by Derek leaning down and there was inches of space between them now as Casey looked up at him. "What?" She asked quietly at the hesitation and he closed the distance between them.

Casey felt his arms around her and she could taste the food that she had accidentally hit him with, as she felt safe. For the first time in a long time, she did.