Til The Dawn [Midnights #1] ✓

chapter 42

Peter leaned against the doorframe to Derek's bedroom, decked out in his usual plaid pajama pants while he struggled to suppress a yawn, his age and general lack of sleep catching up to him.

"Well, Isaac is asleep on the couch," Peter announced, "and just like when you were that age, there is no waking him up now."

Derek nodded from where he sat on the edge of his bed, gripping the mattress tightly in an effort to remain calm and level-headed. But there was no ignoring the tension radiating from him, no matter how much Peter wanted to do just that.

Derek sighed loudly as he stared down at his bare feet. "Which means you want to talk about changing him, I guess."

Peter chuckled and let his arms drop to his sides from where they'd been crossed over his chest, then stepped further into the room.

"Of course," he joked. "Listen, I know things got heated earlier, but now it's just us, all right? Let's talk this through."

"What's there to talk through, Peter?" Derek countered. "He's just a kid. That didn't change since dinner. He's barely ready to deal with choosing what college he goes to next year. Much less making a life-altering decision like this one."

"Tell me about it," Peter muttered, remembering Derek from that time in his life. "Still. He knows our secret. We can't remove him entirely from the equation now either. And despite the fact that you think he's a kid, I'm fairly certain he's deduced that none of us would be willing to actually kill him to keep him quiet. You might not be ready to admit it, but that's a problem, Derek."

Derek nodded along, seemingly unable to deny the truth of the matter in the quiet sanctuary of his own bedroom. "Do you really think he'd tell, though? You heard him tonight. He thinks he's going to wait me out. He's not going to give up the only card he has to play. Even if we would change him after he told, that would put him in more danger. Not less."

"Teenager, remember, Derek?" Peter insisted, wrapping an arm around Derek's broad shoulders. "I'm not sure he's going to think that far ahead. He might be fine waiting now, but eventually, when he doesn't get what he wants, he'll get petulant about it."

Derek looked back to his uncle slowly, exasperation coating his next words fully. "Are you really suggesting we change him because he might throw a temper tantrum?"

Peter guffawed at the totally incorrect conclusion Derek had come to, almost willfully misinterpreting his intentions now. "No, that's not what I meant at all. I just wanted to make sure we're considering this from all angles. Unlike him."

"Okay, fine, you want to consider all angles? How about this one? His father is abusing him, Peter," Derek emphasized, turning his whole body to face his uncle now. "And the fact that he hasn't turned him in, despite all the evidence you and I saw on him tonight, means he has no inclination to do so. And that probably also means he sees this as a way to be able to stand up to him."

Derek shook his head, trying to dislodge an unpleasant thought that Peter wasn't allowed to know. "If we change him, and his Dad pushes him too far, he might kill him. And then he'd have to live with that forever. He has no idea what he's doing, Peter. He thinks this sounds fun and badass and like the answer to all his problems. But you and I, and even Scott now, know it's not that easy. And it's not true."

Peter nodded along with Derek's argument, though he'd detached from the excuses his nephew was crafting to bolster his side of the argument long ago. Because that's all they were at this point. A way to maintain his firmly held beliefs on trust, and ultimately to prove to himself that it did him no good to let anyone in that wasn't family.