DEREK
[4×02]
ONCE THEY HAD GOTTEN BACK TO BEACON HILLS, SCOTT, AYLA, LYDIA AND STILES TOOK DEREK TO THE ANIMAL CLINIC. Deaton quickly cleared off the table as Scott carried the unconscious werewolf over. Ayla helped him lay Derek down on the table, before both moved out of the way to let Deaton look at him.
"Wow," the vet muttered as he looked at Derek.
"Wow? Wow as in a, 'I've seen this before and I know exactly what to do,' kind of wow?" Stiles asked. "'Cause that's the kind of wow we were hoping for."
"I think you might be overestimating my abilities," Deaton told him.
"Can you just figure out what the hell they did to him?" Ayla wondered.
"He's cold," Lydia noticed, feeling Derek's arm. "Really cold." Ayla frowned, taking her uncle's hand.
"Do you think this is permanent?" Scott asked the vet.
Deaton shook his head, unsure of how to answer. He grabbed a flashlight, checking Derek's eyes. "I'm not sure a medical diagnosis is even adequate. This is well beyond my experience," he told them.
"Okay, but I still need a legal guardian for a few more months and for that he actually has to be legal," Ayla snapped.
"What are we supposed to do?" Scott asked. He placed a reluctant hand on the she-wolf's arm to try to calm her down.
"Until he wakes up? Probably not much. It might be best to leave him with me. He'll be safe here," Deaton told them.
"You mean from Kate?" Stiles guessed.
"If she's alive and she is what you say she is, she won't be able to walk past that gate," Deaton assured.
"Why would she want to do this to him?" Lydia wondered.
"Knowing Kate, it's probably for a reason that won't be any good for anyone but her," Deaton said.
"And bad for everyone else," Stiles muttered.
Deaton nodded. "You guys should probably go home. He doesn't look to be in any danger. So maybe the rest of you should get some sleep. It is a school night, and you all need to start taking care of your own lives again," he told them.
"I'm staying here," Ayla said in a voice that made it clear it wasn't up for debate.
Scott frowned at the Hale. A part of him wanted to remind her that she had more absences than any of them, but he knew it was pointless. "I'll stay with her," Lydia volunteered, sensing the alpha's concern. "My grades are fine, and I can make this one study." She gave her best friend a smile.
"Great," Ayla muttered.
"I'm not okay with this," Stiles told them.
"Guys, go," Lydia said.
"Text us if anything happens," Scott told them.
"Nope, still not okay with it. Not going anywhere," Stiles argued, but Scott just grabbed his arm and began dragging him towards the door. "All right, just 'cause you're stronger..." Scott dragged him out the door.
Ayla rolled her eyes at the two boys, before turning back to Derek. She sighed as she began to wait for him to wake back up.
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Both Lydia and Ayla somehow managed to fall asleep in the animal clinic's rather uncomfortable chairs. The two girls began to stir once morning came along and the sun was shining in the windows. Ayla looked towards her uncle, seeing that Deaton was checking on him.
"How's he doing?" Lydia wondered.
"His heart rate is alarmingly high," the vet told them.
Both girls frowned and walked over to the vet. Ayla took Derek's hand again. "He's warmer now at least," she noticed.
"I'm going to try something. I want you to keep holding his hand if that's okay," Deaton told the she-wolf. She nodded in agreement, and watched as he picked up a scalpel. Deaton cut down the side of Derek's arm, but his skin healed just as fast as the vet cut.
"That looks like it healed really fast," Lydia noticed.
"I don't even heal that fast when I change," Ayla told her best friend, turning to Deaton in concern.
"What does it mean?" the banshee wondered.
"I'm not sure. Let's try something else. Grab me a five milliliter syringe. Top drawer," Deaton told them. Both girls walked over to the counter with him to help the vet get whatever he needed.
Ayla opened the drawer and began looking, only to hear movement behind her. The three of them glanced at each other, before turning around to see Derek sitting up. Only the werewolf seemed far from calm. His eyes were blue and his nails had grown into claws.
"Der?" Ayla asked as he stood there, practically seething. She kept her voice calm as she took a careful step towards him. "Derek? It's me. You're okay," she told him. He looked up at her, but she couldn't really tell if he was recognizing her. He grabbed his head as if he was in pain. "Are you okay? Derek?"
She reached towards him and he shoved her back with enough force to make her hit the wall. "Ayla!" Deaton yelled, quickly moving towards the werewolf.
She waved him off as she sat up. "I'm fine," she assured him as he helped her up. She looked towards the doors, which Derek had just ran out of. "But Derek's definitely not."
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Of course, they ended up calling the boys. The five of them stood around the animal clinic together.
"I don't think he's just younger in body. I think he's younger in his mind too," Deaton told them.
"He didn't recognize any of us," Ayla added.
"And he looked like he was scared out of his mind," Lydia put in.
"Well, yeah. He woke up in a random place with no one he knew," Ayla told her.
"But he does know you," Scott reminded.
"Yeah. But he has to be what? Sixteen if I'm remembering right. When Derek was sixteen, I was nine and playing with dolls," Ayla told him. "He doesn't realize who I am."
"No, but he's more likely to trust someone familiar than strangers," Deaton told her. She shrugged, not sure how exactly she was supposed to explain this to Derek.
"So if you're a teenage werewolf and you're scared, where do you go?" Stiles wondered.
"A wolf goes back to its den, but Derek lives in his loft," Scott told them.
"Not when he was a teenager," Stiles put in.
Ayla frowned. "Derek's only ever had one real home, and I doubt he remembers that it was torn down last month," she told them.
"Hale House," Scott realized.
"To him, the fire hasn't happened yet," Deaton said.
"I need to go get him," Ayla decided, moving to leave.
"Hold on," Lydia called, making her stop. "Say you do manage to catch up to him? What are you going to say to him? Are you really gonna just dump the truth on him?"
Ayla frowned. "We can't lie to him," Scott told her.
She sent him a look. "Scott, I don't want to lie to him, but I don't think we can tell him the truth. If he really is back to teenage Derek, then you don't want to deal with the blow up that follows," she warned.
"Then what are we supposed to tell him?" Scott wondered. "He can hear a heartbeat rising."
Ayla sighed as she remembered the weeks following the fire. None of them had handled it well, but Derek had blamed himself. She hadn't understood it back then. Now, though, she unfortunately understood what it was like to blame yourself for the death of someone you loved. "I can't tell him," she mumbled.
All of them looked at the she-wolf, knowing this situation couldn't be easy for her. But Scott just nodded. "Just get him to trust us and I'll tell him," he told her.
Ayla didn't respond, she just looked at the floor as she dreaded that conversation.
"If he gets to the house first, you won't have to," Deaton reminded.
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They didn't find him before he got to Hale House. Even worse, the cops found him first. The two werewolves and Stiles rushed to the police station. The three teenagers ran inside, all stopping as they saw the Sheriff standing next to Derek. The man looked at the three teenagers, sighing. "I'll handle this," he told his deputies, before waving them back to his office.
Derek's eyes fell on Ayla as the she-wolf walked past him. She could tell he was trying to figure out why she looked so familiar, but she just walked past him into the Sheriff's office.
"I want you to be honest with me. Absolutely and completely honest," the Sheriff told them once they had shut the door. They all shrugged, not seeing the point in lying now. "Have you been time traveling?" he asked.
Ayla couldn't hold back her scoff. "Hold on, what?" Stiles asked his dad.
"Because if time traveling is real, you know what? I'm done. I'm out. You're going to be driving me to Eichen House," the man ranted.
"We found him like that," Scott told him.
"Where? Swimming in the fountain of youth?" Stilinski questioned.
"No. We found him buried in a tomb of wolfsbane in an Aztec Temple in Mexico underneath a church in the middle of a town that was destroyed by an earthquake," Stiles explained.
"And guarded by these weirdly strong creatures who we think are most likely working with his formally thought to be dead, sociopathic bitch of an ex," Ayla added.
Scott shook his head at his best friend and ex as the Sheriff stared at them for just a moment. "You told me you were camping!" he suddenly yelled at his son.
"Yeah, we were... in Mexico," Stiles told him.
Seeing that the man was about to blow up again, Scott decided to speak quickly. "Derek's been aged backwards. He can't remember anything," he said.
"We just need to talk to him," Stiles told his father.
"Yeah, well, so far he's not talking to anybody," the Sheriff told them, sitting down on his desk.
"He'll talk to us," Ayla assured him.
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They brought Derek in and he sat down on the sofa in the office while the three teenagers stood across from him.
"Why would I go anywhere with any of you?" Derek asked them.
Ayla sighed as she tried to choose her words carefully. "Something happened, Der. Something you don't remember. A lot that you don't remember," she told him.
He frowned at her. "Why do you act like I know you?" he asked.
She shrugged. "Don't you?" she wondered. Derek just looked at her in confusion. "It's not gonna make sense. But I'm Ayla. We literally grew up together. You can trust me," she told him.
"We can help you get your memories back. Once you have, this will make a little more sense," Scott told him.
"Not much," Ayla added, earning a look from her ex.
Derek shook his head. "How am I supposed to trust you? The last time I saw you, you were about ten years younger and I don't even know you," he told the two werewolves.
They glanced at each other, before both turned back to him with gold and red eyes. Derek looked at both in surprise, but it was mainly focused on Scott. "You're an alpha," he realized. He then turned to his niece. "And you're not." She shook her head. "Does... does that mean Mom and Laura are okay? Our family?" he asked her.
Scott watched as the she-wolf tried not to let her expression give anything away. Ayla managed to put a sad smile on her face, nodding. "We're okay now," she said, and all three werewolves listened to her steady heartbeat as she did. Scott frowned, not sure how she had managed that one. The thing was that it hadn't been a lie. The two Hales were each other's family at this point, and they were both okay.
"I still don't know you. Like who is he?" Derek asked, gesturing to Stiles.
The human boy had been leaning against his father's desk, staying out of the conversation. He looked up now though. "Oh, we're the guys keeping you out of jail," he told him.
"Let us help you," Scott told him.
"No," Derek said, shaking his head.
"Okay, dude, you almost tore apart two cops back there. You need to listen to us. And that starts with no fangs, no claws, no wolf man. You got that?" Stiles asked him.
"I'm fine as long as it's not a full moon," Derek told him.
Ayla gave a humorless laugh, drawing her uncle's glare. "Sorry. Just I'm pretty sure it's more than the full moon," she told him.
"How would you know?" Derek asked her.
Ayla smiled. "You were basically my older brother growing up. I snooped like every other little sister," she admitted.
Derek frowned at her and she sighed, kneeling down so she was his level. "Look, it's okay if you don't totally trust us. But if you come with me, you'll be with your family, okay? I'll tell you where all of them are, but we need to get your memories back," she promised.
Derek didn't meet her eyes, but she could see the tears in his. "Okay," he agreed.
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The three of them stood together as they waited on Derek to finish filling out paperwork for the police. "How'd you keep your heart so steady?" Scott asked his ex, once he could tell Derek was talking to someone.
Ayla shrugged. "I didn't lie," she told him.
"But your family..." Stiles trailed off.
"Besides my dad, it's all in this town, and my family's okay," she told him. Both boys frowned, but nodded. She sighed and turned to Scott. "Are we doing the wrong thing here?" she wondered.
The alpha shrugged. "Like you said, you haven't lied to him yet," he reminded.
"No, I've just hidden everything from him," she told him.
"You saved him a ton of unnecessary pain. We'll figure this out in a day or two, he goes back to being old Derek, everyone's happy. Except for Derek, who's never happy," Stiles told her.
Ayla sent him a look. "Oh, I hate this," she muttered.
"All right. Take him to my house and don't let him out of your sight," Scott told them.
"And where are you going?" Stiles wondered.
"I'm going to go talk to the guy we should've gone to before," Scott told them.
Both frowned as they realized who that was. "Yeah, I hate that guy," Stiles reminded.
"Not as much as I do," Ayla muttered as Scott left the station.
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They took Derek back to the alpha's house like he had asked. Stiles opened the door, leading the two Hales inside. "We're going to wait here for Scott. We're going to sit quietly. We're not going to call or talk to anyone," Stiles was telling Derek.
"Oh, my God, Stiles. He's not a child," Ayla snapped. She glanced at Derek. "Well, sort of."
He sent her a look to which she just smiled.
"No talking," Stiles proclaimed. The she-wolf turned to give him a glare, and he shrank back a little. "Okay, she can talk. That's it."
"So she's going to talk to him?" Derek asked, gesturing forward. Both followed his gaze, finding Agent McCall watching the teenagers.
"Ah! Are you getting taller?" Stiles exclaimed in surprise.
The man just looked at all of them in confusion. "What are you guys doing here?" he wondered. He looked at the girl among the group, having noticed how she had been missing the past few weeks. Not that his son would give him any real details as to why. "I thought you and Scott broke up."
Ayla frowned and felt Derek's eyes shift to her. "Uh, we did. We just have some things going on, so Scott asked us to meet him here," she explained.
"We were waiting for him," Derek added.
"Yeah, so am I. We're supposed to have dinner. I brought extra. You guys hungry?" the man asked.
"Yeah," Derek said.
At the same time, both Ayla and Stiles said, "No."
"No, we're not hungry," Stiles said.
"No, I'm starving," Derek told him.
"Neither of us are hungry. Thanks, though," Stiles told the man.
"Okay, well, if you're not hungry, Stiles, your friend can still eat with us," Agent McCall told him, before turning to Derek. "What's your name?"
Derek opened his mouth to answer, but Stiles blurted out, "Miguel." Both Hales turned to give him a look. "My cousin Miguel. From Mexico. So..."
Ayla rolled her eyes, shaking her head at the boy's lie. But Mr. McCall just went with it, and began speaking Spanish. "Oh, my God," Stiles muttered, clearly afraid his lie was about to fall apart. But Derek simply thought for a moment, before replying in Spanish.
Agent McCall smiled. "Fantastic. Egg roll?" he offered.
"Hell, yeah," Derek agreed and walked over to the table.
Stiles just stared in disbelief. "Miguel? Mexico?" Ayla asked, glaring at the Stilinski.
"Yeah, I know," he muttered has the two walked over to the table.
"Shrimp fried rice or pork fried rice?" Mr. McCall wondered.
"Shrimp," both Hales proclaimed. Derek glanced at his niece, who just smiled and began to help get the food out.
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The three teenagers sat around the table with Agent McCall, all four eating. While Derek seemed to have calmed down, Ayla could feel the anxiety radiating off Stiles from across the table.
"So, uh, Miguel. What did you say your last name was again?" Mr. McCall wondered.
"Oh, it's Juarez. Cinqua... Tiago," Stiles spoke up. Ayla glared at him from across the table. She was dying to call out the fact that neither her nor Derek were actually Hispanic, but she couldn't exactly say it at the moment. She also really wanted to call out how crappy of a liar he was.
"That's a mouthful," was all Mr. McCall said. "How do you spell that?"
Stiles turned to both the Hales, who just looked at him expectantly. "Yeah, Stiles, how do you spell that?" Ayla asked.
He shrugged. "Phonetically," he said.
The man nodded, though Ayla sensed he was already onto them. He then turned to her. "You know, if I'm being totally honest I was kinda glad to not be seeing you around as much," the man admitted to her.
Stiles looked at the she-wolf in concern as she turned to look at the man. But Ayla just forced a smile. "I'm not surprised," she admitted.
"It's just with the family history, and whole breaking into my office, I kind of felt like you were a bad influence on him," the man explained.
Derek frowned in confusion, having caught the first part of that sentence. Ayla didn't glance at him, though. She tried not to glare at the man sitting next to her. "You were probably right," she told him.
"I think Scott misses you, though," he told her.
Ayla just frowned down at her food, suddenly not hungry. Everyone else watched her for a moment, but she didn't say anything. She had missed the other werewolf over the past few months. She had spent the last four months wondering if breaking up was a mistake.
But at the same time that little voice in her head that said everyone around her got hurt was still there. Losing him was terrifying enough when they weren't together. She couldn't imagine what it would do to her if they were.
Not really getting what was going on, beyond the fact that his niece had apparently dated who he assumed was a rival alpha, Derek broke the silence. "Mr. McCall, you're an FBI Agent?" he asked, seeing the badge on the table.
"He's low level. Very low level. He doesn't even have a voice," Stiles quickly spoke.
"So do you investigate murders?" Derek wondered.
"Sometimes. When it's a Federal crime," McCall told him.
"What about fires?" Derek asked.
"Oh, my God. I wonder where Scott is. Shouldn't Scott be here by now? We should call Scott," Stiles said. Ayla nodded in agreement.
"What kind of fires are you talking about?" McCall inquired, ignoring him.
"Do you know anything about the Hale family?" Derek questioned.
McCall frowned. "Shouldn't you be asking her?" he wondered, pointing to Ayla. "Afterall, that case was open for seven years till she came back to town."
Ayla refused to meet her uncle's gaze as he turned to her.
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The three teenagers all walked back to Scott's room to talk away from the FBI agent. Ayla shut the door behind them. The moment she did, Derek slammed her against it.
"Whoa!" Stiles exclaimed, standing to the side. For a split second, he hoped Scott would hurry up and get here to help them. But he should've remembered that Ayla was perfectly capable of handling a teenage werewolf herself.
The girl twisted out of Derek's hold and shoved him away from her with enough force that he ended up on the floor. "I didn't lie to you," she told her uncle.
He glared up at her as he started pushing himself to his feet. "How was it not a lie?" he wondered, standing up.
"You asked me to take you to our family, and I did. Because you are my family, okay? You are all I have left," she snapped at him.
The two looked at each other for a moment as Derek tried to take in this information, and Ayla just tried to calm down. Both Hales had tears in their eyes at this point. "Der, I know how pissed off you are right now, because I've been dealing with that anger for the past nine years. Even worse these past two. But I need you to trust me," she told him.
"I don't know how to do that right now," he admitted.
Stiles watched the interaction. "I'm gonna call Scott," he decided. He carefully took Ayla's wrist, a little afraid that she would lash out if anyone touched her. She didn't, so he pulled her towards the door. "Come on," he said, knowing she needed a minute. He turned to Derek. "My phone's downstairs. You stay here, just don't move, okay? Don't move," he told him as he led Ayla out of the room with him.
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The she-wolf sat on the couch downstairs, taking in a deep breath. She wiped tears from her eyes as she tried to calm herself down. Fate really had to have a twisted sense of humor if it thought it was fair to put her through all of this again. She just wanted to get Derek back to normal and then things would be fine. Or at least that was what she had been telling herself for the past four months. That once he was okay then they would be fine. She would be fine.
"Ayla!" She looked up in surprise as Stiles ran back into the living room with his phone in his hands. "He's gone."
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Ayla quickly tried to track her uncle, following him to the high school. She arrived there only a little bit behind Scott, Malia and Peter. "Hey!" Ayla yelled, drawing their attention. She met the three of them on the steps. She frowned as a new scent hit her nose. "Malia, am I the only one who recognizes that smell?" she asked.
The werecoyote frowned. "It's the same as Mexico," she realized. Ayla nodded, glancing around in concern.
"What are they talking about?" Peter wondered.
"One of them came after us in the church ruins," Scott told him.
"And one on the road. They couldn't have followed us here," Malia said.
"But they could've been brought by Kate," Scott told her.
All of them heard growling nearby. "Oh, I've heard that sound before. Did it have an animal skull? A human wearing a skull over its face?" Peter asked them.
"I think so," Malia told him.
Ayla's eyes widened as she remembered a page of one of the books they had had back at Hale House. It had always creeped her out.
"What are they?" Scott asked.
The growling creature finally revealed himself, slowly walking towards them. "Berserkers," Peter informed them.
"Basically all animal, and very, very strong," Ayla said, backing up a few steps.
Malia started to charge forward, but Peter grabbed her arm. "Are you crazy?" he asked.
"It's just one of them," Malia reminded.
"And that means we have a chance," Peter told her.
"To beat him?" she wondered.
"To survive," Peter replied, before taking off running.
Ayla rolled her eyes. "Of course," she muttered, shaking her head at the way he straight up left them. She then turned to her friends. "Run."
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The three shape-shifters ran, at least till Ayla came to a sudden stop. She put her arms out, stopping both her friends. Only about twenty feet ahead of her was another berserker. The first one had chased them into the other. The three backed up, managing to move past the first so that they had both berserkers in front of them.
"Scott, it's both of them. They're both here," Malia realizes as they moved up the steps and away from the approaching berserkers.
"Where the hell is Peter?" Scott wondered.
"I don't know. He just took off," Malia told him.
"He's saving his own ass as always," Ayla snapped. She sighed. "Come on." She took off running up the steps, both following behind her. But at some point the second berserker had climbed up and blocked their path. They were now trapped between the two of them.
The three stood there for a moment, realizing that they no longer had any option other than to fight. Scott was the first to move, jumping around the first berserker and slashing his claws out at it. Ayla and Malia turned to the second. Ayla slashed her claws out a few times, but they did nothing against its armour.
She glanced back, seeing that the other one had slammed Scott into the wall. She kicked it in the stomach, but all that really seemed to do was annoy the creature. It back handed the she-wolf with enough force to knock her over, before tossing Scott to the side. All three teenagers scooted back to try to get away from them, as the berserkers moved towards them.
Fortunately, at this point everyone else had arrived after being called by Stiles. Kira ran over, slashing her sword out. And for a moment, she was actually doing well against the berserkers. At least till she glanced back to check on her friends and one of the berserkers took the opportunity to throw her to the ground with the other three.
But before the berserkers could attack again, Derek joined the fight. Unlike the teenagers, he seemed to be handling the berserkers just fine. The thing that caught their attention, though, was the fact that he seemed to be changing back to normal.
After a moment, the berserkers ran. All of the teenagers stood up, watching Derek who had his back to them. "Derek?" Ayla asked. He turned around to face them, and for a moment they all thought they had the old Derek back. But then his eyes began to glow the golden beta color instead of their usual blue.
It was an emotional chapter for poor Ayla. I swear the next one will be a little bit more positive.
But on a whole other note, how long do you guys think I can actually keep Scayla split up?
Please vote and comment!