Before my brain even registered that the shout came from Derek, my feet flew across the grass towards the dark tree line. My arms pumping at my sides, all pain in my leg shot up with adrenaline to the point I felt nothing.
I paused just before entering the forest, clinging to a tree trunk as I scanned for Derek's shape. A loud, echoing thwack of wood cracked somewhere off to my right, and I pushed off the tree hard.
I leaped clumsily over a fallen log, sticks breaking noisily underfoot, stealth wasn't on my side, and I didn't care. Whoever it was, was gonna know I was comin' from a mile away.
Derek's dark form finally came into sight a few meters later. I stopped, bracing myself against a large tree, when I saw he was alone.
Scattered around him were broken tree bits and bent branches. A chunk was beaten out of the middle of a stump, with the now busted branches strewn about.
He was sitting on the ground, hugging his knees to his chest, sobbing.
I'd never seen Derek do that before.
He actually lost it, and all it took was his brother, whom, by the way, he didn't know he had till 4 months ago, to "die".
Heck, he didn't really even seem to like Tyler, let alone love him enough to break down. I guess people just show their love in different ways, and this was his.
It hurt me to see him this way, wrecked.
Someone actually wrecked Derek.
That same someone whom he loathed for the first two months of him being here.
Derek had his forehead pressed into the tops of his knees as he shook. The horrible noises I'd heard were his grief.
His knuckles bloody from what looks like a fight with the forest.
I cautiously stepped towards him, not wanting to startle him.
I would normally have said, 'oh, who am I kidding, it's Derek.' but he wasn't Derek right now. He was vulnerable, for the first time ever. Seeing him like this brought a knot to my throat.
I sniffled and sat down next to him, to which he didn't even look up. I put my arm around him tenderly, leaning in and planting a kiss in his piney hair.
"Derek." I whispered, rubbing his shoulder, "Derek." I said again.
Yet he still shook, muffled cries coming from him.
"Derek, look at me." I urged.
A moment passed before I saw his pale blotchy face, simmering green eyes rimmed red. His brow looked more furrowed than usual, almost permanent.
I pulled my sleeve down over the heel of my hand and carefully wiped his tears away. His glassy eyes, bursting with emotion, seemed to see right inside me.
For the first time, I saw the little boy inside, the one that had been beaten out of him so long ago. The one that was forced to be hardened into a man far too soon. Into a killer.
"He's okay," I whispered, choking back my own happy tears. "Tyler's okay." Hey, only one of us can cry at a time here; I won't be apart of a Tear-Fest for the Internally Wounded.
Derek sniffled once more before he shot up and out of sight, leaving me sitting empty armed in the damp forest.
Like I said, we all show it in different ways.
* * *
Reaching the crash site, Charlie was leaning against the hood of the wrecked Hummer with the three little kids sitting cross-legged on the hood around him.
I jogged up, the pain returning in my leg, the annoying glass itching to be yanked out.
At least I thought so.
Charlie opened his arms to me, to which I accepted gratefully. I leaned into Charlie's warm body as he wrapped his cut-up arms around me. We gazed down at Tyler and Derek on the ground having the first real interaction I've seen out of the two.
"Don't ever do that again," Derek said with a smile and tears in his eyes as he grabbed the back of Tyler's neck. "cause I'll kill you." He warned the humor just an excuse to laugh so hard that he could cry, and no one could tell the difference.
Derek hugged Tyler to him roughly, not looking as though he would let him go any time soon.
The only thing that could have made it better was Max. I'd imagined him glaring at us from across the field, as to not get 'all the love slobbered on him'.
Somehow it made me feel better. God knows there's only so much we can take.
We found Derek's breaking point.
Who was gonna be next?
