Eli and Reagan managed to catch up to Derek at the Hale House. He waits for them at the entrance, and they stop a few feet away. He stands there stiff and tense, with his arms crossed against his chest.
"What are you?" Derek asks.
Reagan and Eli share a quick glance of surprise before looking back at him. Eli quirks an eyebrow and says, "Right to the point. I see."
Derek doesn't bother to reply, tilting his head forward with expectations of an answer. Reagan scoffs at the reaction, and looks to Eli, waiting for her response.
The latter smiles nervously, wiping the palms of her hands against her side. She squints her eyes for a second, trying to figure out how to explain her situation that made sense.
"Umm, well, you see. That's the number one question isn't it," She hesitantly laughs, darting her eyes, quickly between her best friend and Derek.
"Yeah, that's why I asked it," Derek growls impatiently.
"God, you both are insufferable," Reagan sighs, pinching the bridge of her nose.
Eli sags her shoulders and explains, "Fine, I don't know. Okay? I just know that I can control people's emotions and actions. Or ease the truth out of them, as I did to you yesterday." Eli growls in frustration, "Trust me, I've tried to figure out what I am, but my father was very adamant about keeping his mouth shut. The bastard kept the secret to his grave."
Reagan grabs her arm and gives it a light squeeze in an act of comfort. "Her brothers are not allowed to know, even though they are hunters."
Derek's eyes widen and then immediately harden. "Not the boys you were just with?"
Eli shook her head. "No, those are our friends. Scott is the one that was bitten, yesterday, by the alpha. Stiles is completely human. Neither of them knows, though. I was getting around to telling them."
Derek relaxes for a second before questioning again, "What's your last name?"
Eli looks at him confused, unsure of why that mattered.
The werewolf sighs in annoyance and explains, "Most hunters are known by their last names, like the Argents. Your brothers are also hunters, just like your dad, so if they're talked about, they would most likely be referred to by their last names."
"Ohh, right. Winchester. My last name is Winchester."
"You're John Winchester's daughter?" Derek growls.
Reagan steps in front of Eli, meeting his glare with one of her own. "Put the claws away buddy. We didn't come here to kick your ass."
Eli scoffs at her best friend's overprotectiveness, seeing as she was a trained hunter, and not her. "It's fine. Sometimes I forget how much of an impression my dad leaves."
"That's an understatement," Derek snips. "He didn't even have a code to live by. And I hear your brothers aren't much different, either."
Eli's shoulder's tense at the implication, knowing that his words weren't completely uncalled for. Dean was the ultimate soldier with Dad over his shoulders, and even more ruthless with Sammy's life on the line. With their dad gone, he's calm down a fraction, but he still has a reputation. Sammy was the more compassionate one and not that well know until recently; after the death of Jessica. They went searching for Yellow Eyes and they haven't told her much about their journey, only that they finally killed him.
She knew they were keeping something from her, but she had problems to deal with now. She'll pry it out of them when she can get the chance.
"You don't need to worry about them." Eli waves off dismissively, "They are on some case that they won't bother telling me about. They won't come creeping around here unless they are tipped off that something is going down."
"What about Maize?" Reagan questions.
"Who's Maize?"
Eli clenches her jaw," She's my guardian." She looked to Reagan and glares. " A hunter friend that raised me while my Dad dealt with my brothers. He didn't want them to find out about my powers. She's also a part-time bounty hunter. She has a job out in Europe. She shouldn't be back for another month, at least."
"Are you sure?" Derek questions. She was starting to get fed up with the interrogation. Eli has revealed more to him in the last twenty minutes than she has to Scott or Stiles in their entire friendship.
"I'm sure. She gets a job and she finishes it. Nine times out of ten she gets sidetrack by a supernatural case and leaves for months at a time. This one shouldn't be any different."
She notices how he slowly unclenches his jaw and looks down at the floor for a moment. He looks back up to them and says, "My sister came here, and found out something. I don't know what. Whatever it was must have been important enough to get her killed."
Reagan nods and answers, "We'll help you. So far the hardest part is convincing them werewolves are real."
Eli thinks about it for a moment before shaking her head in disagreement. "Not Stiles. He would believe it. Scott might be a little harder to persuade. He has had heighten sense all day and doesn't find it unusual at all."
"Well, you better do it quickly. The full moon is tomorrow," Derek says before walking back into his old house, and effectively ending the conversation.
"Well, that was rude," Reagan scoffs before she drags Eli away, and they walk back to the entrance of the preserve.
------
Did you tell him?
ELI DID YOU TELL HIM?
YOU ARE IGNORING ME, AREN'T YOU?
OH UR SO LUCKY I HAVE TO STAY THE NIGHT TO BABYSIT
You better tell him before I see you again, or I will.
Eli puts her phone down, leaving her messages on read, so she doesn't have to reply to Valeries' insistent text messages. She was laying on her bed, looking up at the ceiling. She had already dropped Reagan back at her house, before coming home; needing time alone to process the events of the last 24 hours. She was about to put her phone on mute when she gets a phone call from her brother.
"Hey, Dean," Eli answers, her stomach tightening into knots.
"Well look who decided to answer their phone," Dean snarks on the other end of the line.
She sighs before replying, "Don't start with me, Dean. I have had a really stressful day."
"What? School finally becoming challenging for you? Just do what I did," Dean teases.
"Yeah, no. I am not flirting with my teachers. That's really creepy."
"Well, it worked for me. And it wasn't flirting per se," Dean pauses for a moment. "At least not every time. Sometimes a little charm can go a long way. Being a smartass all the time isn't gonna get you what you want."
"Yeah, coming from the guy, who flirted with the bouncer to help get away from the fact that you were caught hustling at the pool table."
"And? The distraction allowed you and Sam to sneak off with the money before I sucker-punched my way out of there." Dean scoffs, "From what I can hear, is that I am right and you are too stubborn to admit it, squirt."
"Whatever, think what you think," Eli says.
"I just wanted to call and say sorry for missing Christmas with you. We got caught-"
"In a case. Sam told me what happened," Eli cuts him off. "Who knew Santa could be so vicious."
"Well it wasn't our finiest hour."
"I know. It's fine," Eli sighs. She picks the end of the fabric on her blanket. "I spent the weekend with the McCalls and the Stilinki clan."
She sits up on her bed, catches herself laughing, trying to continue, "Mister Stilinski took us out on the cruiser for a spin. It was pretty awesome."
"He sounds like good people."
That brought a smile to her face.
Mr. Stilinski is the best kind of people. If it wasn't for him, she wouldn't know what a semblance of a father's love was supposed to feel like.
"Yeah, he is. I think Stiles would gank anybody who put slander on his name," She giggles, "Wouldn't blame him though. I'd be right beside him, helping."
"Well, it's good to know you had a hot meal and some company. Again, sorry for bailing last minute," He pauses for what felt like eternity. Dean clears his throat, saying, "Really wanted to be with you on this one."
"It's no big deal," She dismisses. She had no idea what was going on with her brother. He never really sounded so serious on their calls. He was always so light-hearted. This mask of tension felt like she was about to break out into hives."You'll get me on the next one. It's not like this hasn't happened before. You got stuck on a case. I understand."
"Yeah... on the next one," Dean pauses once again. All she wanted to do was scream at him. Ask him what was wrong. But she couldn't, because he's tense and would make a quick goodbye before hanging up. She was selfish to say she's missed her older brother's voice too much to end the call so short. "I was just wondering when is your next break, you know. Maybe you can meet us somewhere, or we can go down there. Haven't seen yuh in a while."
"Nah, I'll meet you guys somewhere," She quickly answers. She winces at her urgency and reminds herself to reel it in. Dean can always tell when something's up. So far she's gotten away with keeping her brothers out of Beacon Hills; minimizing the time she's spent with them, with the help of her father. But John Winchester wasn't here anymore, so she had to take care of this on her own.
She takes a second to herself, slowly answering this time, "No need to drive all the way down here."
"Hey, how come you never want us to come out there? You embarrassed or something?"
"Nah, it's not like that Dean," She reassures.
"It's just...I don't gotta think about certain stuff when I am with you guys, and I don't gotta think about certain stuff when I am over here. My friends don't know about any of this. I just get to live my life in peace for a moment. Then when I am with you guys, I can be the hunter dad wanted me to be. Save people's lives. Kinda like a superhero."
"Superhero?" Dean laughs, "That's a new one. Never heard anyone call this life anything glamerous like that."
"Well the alternative isn't so pretty," Eli admits.
"Yeah, you're right. Well Sammy is gonna be here soon with food. Gotta get going."
"See you, Dean. Tell Sam I said hi," She bids her goodbyes.
"I will. We'll talk and I'll text you time and place to hang out. Bye little sis."
Next second later the phone cuts off and all Eli felt like doing was throwing up.