Meltdown [Derek Hale]

CHAPTER TWENTY THREE

Ghosts.

She'd always wondered if they were real, as a woman of science she was always inclined to believe they didn't however her new introduction to werewolves and other's had made her realise perhaps it wasn't so unlikely. Everyone was moving so fast, gliding like the ghouls that sped past you in the halls.

It was only her breath, the breath that she should have been so thankful to have. That he didn't have. Her eyes were the crumbling cement, not holding any brick together or in place. She was falling out of place.

Feeling a foreign warmth on her arm, she glanced down at it before she looked over to the owner. It was Joe.

"Hey, you alright? We're meant to be going to the skills lab..." he'd said, but she hadn't heard that. She hadn't heard much of anything.

"What?" She asked, the words an echo that she didn't know the source of.

"Jules? What's happened?"

"Dead."

"What? Did you lose a patient... what's-"

"No, m-my boyfriend." Joe froze not knowing what to say, "Derek, he's....he's dead."

______

2 days earlier...

"I am a doctor it is my job-"

"It's your job to keep yourself safe, first. You're going to be a terrible surgeon if your dead," Stiles countered, as he walked to fast food joint with his sister. She glanced at him annoyed.

"You're on his side?!" She scoffed, placing her hands on her hips as she stared at him in frustration.

"Hey, I'm not on Derek's side... but I'm also not on your side," he said slowly, seeing that she was banking the words presumably to use against Derek if they got into another argument, "look, I'm on the side that keeps you alive."

"And I'm on the side that keeps innocent people alive, Stiles."

"You're an innocent person."

"Yes, but I am also aware of everything-"

"I just don't want my favourite sister dying."

"I'm your only sister."

"Exactly, so there's no competition," he mused, and she rolled her eyes but couldn't help the small smile that slowly crept onto her face. "Look, I've been thinking."

"Well that can't be good," Julie noted, as they went into the building. Julie went to collect the food, handing over the cash to pay for it. They'd phoned ahead to order and were now just collecting it.

"Should I tell dad?"

"About?"

"Everything." She looked at him confused, she hadn't even thought about telling their father, she didn't want to put anyone else at risk. "It's just... he seems so confused all the time, so lost. It's like he knows that something is missing but he can't work out what it is."

"Well," she thought on it, or tried to anyway, "I don't know, come on. Dinner's going to get cold."

______

1 day earlier...

She'd woken up to a few missed calls and texts from Derek, but she ignored them. She was annoyed at him, and he couldn't always get his way. She'd done everything in her power to understand his view point, to see why his thoughts as someone who was born and raised a werewolf might differ from her own. She hated that he couldn't do the same.