117
Rain poured down heavily on Beacon Hills, a vast difference from the weather in Mexico, the ride home had been long, tiring, and cramped with six teenagers and a regressed Derek Hale under a single roof, a Jeep that struggled to fit four people, let alone seven of them. Everyone had made their fair share of complaints during the ride home, it filled the silence of them questioning what had happened to Derek, how something like this was even possible, the topic of the young wolf had managed to take the attention off Kate Argent for a while, but neither of the topics were the ideal conversation for Kinsey, who ended up being affected no matter what.
Lydia had made a point of repeating the suggestion she had made before they left for Mexico, for them to take another car to avoid situations just like this one, only now could Stiles see why she said it. The regressed, unconscious teenage Derek had had to lie across the laps of Lydia, the girl who complained the most about it, and a very confused Malia and Kira who were too shocked to ask any questions this time around. This time, they knew that the other four didn't have the kind of answers they did when it came to Kate, this was just as new for them. The other teenagers all cramped into the front of the Jeep, Stiles had allowed Scott to take over on the driving, both for him to get a break from such a long weekend of driving, but so that Kinsey was able to sit on the lap of the boy she was dating rather than her werewolf best friend. Simply because she'd refused to let anyone put her unconscious cousin in the trunk of the car, he looked like he'd already been through a rough time these past few weeks. And if their driving situation wasn't already illegal, it would be if they were pulled over and found with an unconscious teenage boy in their trunk.
They had taken Malia and Kira home before heading to the animal clinic, they'd called Deaton as soon as they passed the border, possibly the only person who would know how to deal with this kind of situation. Kinsey had given him a run-down of what had happened while they were in the small Mexican town, but even then, nothing had prepared the man for when they rushed into his clinic on this rainy night. Deaton cleared off the table as Scott lay him down on it, Derek lay there wrapped in Kinsey's jacket, the best thing anyone had been able to provide the regressed wolf, it wasn't exactly how they expected to find Derek, they didn't realize a blanket would be required.
Deaton looked mortified as he stared down at the young wolf on his table, a face that matched a pair of girls standing on the opposite side of the table. Kinsey's face had looked mortified since it was revealed that her mother was alive, only worsening when she saw what happened to Derek, because of her mother nonetheless.
"Wow," Deaton muttered in shock.
"Wow? Wow as in, "I've seen this before and I know exactly what to do," kind of wow?" Stiles had frantically asked the man. "'Cause that's the kind of wow we're hoping for."
"I think you might be overestimating my abilities," Deaton admitted.
Kinsey took hold of her cousin's hand, for comfort, but instead, all she received was a cold touch that was more concerning than comforting. She told Deaton how cold he was, he too felt Derek's cold skin, she was right, but he wasn't sure he knew what to do about that. Scott asked the man a question he had thought about a lot on the drive home, whether this was permanent. Would it ever return back to how they all knew it, a twenty-three-year-old Derek who looked over them, a presumably sixteen-year-old Derek didn't offer that to them.
Deaton checked over the wolf, shining a light in his eyes, he didn't think that a medical diagnosis was even adequate for a situation like this, it was well beyond his experience. Kinsey asked what to do with him, but until he woke up, Deaton couldn't see what much there was to do, though he suggested that they leave him here at the clinic. He would be safe here.
"You mean from Kate?" Stiles deadpanned, the short brunette beside him raising her head.
Deaton looked at the girl with a sigh. "If your mother is alive and she is what you say she is, then she won't be able to walk past that gate."
"Why would she want to do this to him?" Lydia asked the man.
"Knowing Kate, it's probably for a reason that won't be good for anyone but her." He answered.
Kinsey scoffed, that sounded right to her, and it would probably be bad for the rest of them, just like it was when her mother decided that burning down a house and killing an entire family was a good idea, knowing that there would be repercussions, knowing that the people inside of that house were her daughter's family. Deaton grew the same guilty look as everyone else when they looked at the girl, even if she did seem to be taking it well, there was only a matter of time before she snapped. She always did. Last time, it hadn't been so bad, she had turned to sadness, but it was different now, she was closer to becoming a werewolf, that thing inside of her necklace was slowly losing its effect. They couldn't be sure that this time she wouldn't turn to anger, she was a Hale after all, she had to have some of their infamous anger.
Deaton suggested that the four teenagers should go home and rest, Derek didn't seem to be in any kind of danger, and it looked as though they could all use a good night's sleep before a long day at school in the morning. He told them that they all needed to start taking care of their own lives again, something the group often neglected. Despite his warning, Scott suggested that someone should stay with Deaton tonight, Kinsey being the first to offer her presence, Derek was her cousin, he was family, her responsibility. Stiles immediately disagreed. Kinsey was the worst person to be here, if Kate did come back for Derek, the worst person to face her was her Kinsey, if they knew anything about the girl, she would freeze when she saw her mother, too shocked that it was real for her to do anything, let alone fight off the woman.
That was an argument everyone but Kinsey seemed to agree with, she didn't believe that seeing a woman she had thought to be dead for months would affect her, she believed that she would be able to fight off her mother if she did come back. But her arguments got her nowhere, and the boy beside her continued to disagree, shaking his head, worried that someone would give into a puppy-eyed look if she gave them one. Repeating that he wasn't okay with the idea.
Luckily for Stiles, Scott and Lydia agreed with him. Lydia offered to stay instead, her grades were fine, she could miss a day of school without being affected, she wasn't so sure that was the case for the rest of the group. Kinsey argued once again, telling her that she didn't care about what it did to her grades, she wanted to stay with Derek.
With a sigh, the redhead turned to her best friend. "Kinsey, in the space of a day you have found out that your dead mother isn't so dead after all, that for the past seventeen years of your life a necklace has been the only thing stopping you from becoming a werewolf, and your cousin has somehow aged backwards." Lydia listed off. "Go home, with Stiles. And sleep."
Kinsey opened her mouth to argue again, but Lydia interrupted her. "Go."
"No." The brunette insisted.
Lydia turned to Scott with a tilt of her head, hinting for some help with the stubborn couple who would stay here and argue all night just so the two of them could stay. If one of them stayed, the other would too, lately, they had been inseparable, annoyingly inseparable for a pair who swore that they were just dating, testing the waters, that it wasn't serious yet. Scott nodded at her hint as he asked her or Deaton to text them if anything happened with Derek.
Stiles shook his head, he wasn't okay with this idea, possibly more so than Kinsey. He didn't like the idea of Lydia being left here if there really was a chance of Kate coming back, the woman was far from moral, she wouldn't hesitate to kill her daughter's best friend if she got in the way of the thing she wanted, in this case, Derek. Scott didn't give either of them much chance to finish their arguments, pulling them back before either of them managed to come up with a good reason for them to stay. Frankly, he and Lydia were surprised that they weren't running out of the clinic to spend a night alone with one another, they usually would, hell, the two snuck into each other's houses all the time just so they could be together for a night. Scott had known that for a while, it seemed Lydia had only found out about that this weekend.
Even as Scott dragged the two of them out of the clinic, more so Stiles, the two continued their complaining, Stiles strongly disagreeing with Scott's use of Alpha strength against them. Kinsey slowly started giving up on the idea of staying, she knew that Lydia would nag her until the idea of staying the entire night with her in the clinic was repulsive.
·❥·
Only a few hours after leaving the clinic with as little as a few hours of rest behind them did Scott and Stiles approach the school, lacking a particular brunette Argent who had chosen to meet up with Malia and Kira instead, giving the two of them a perfect chance to talk about her, because it seemed there were a lot more things to discuss about their beloved Kinsey since last week. Such as the revival of her mother who'd somehow taken Derek back in age by a few years, or how she wore a necklace that stopped her from becoming a werewolf. Out of all of those things, it wasn't any of them that Stiles had ready to discuss with his best friend, instead, it was about last night.
After taking the wolf home last night he had taken Kinsey back to the Martin house, giving her a chance to explain to Natalie where Lydia was tonight, helping out Deaton at the clinic, as she'd told the woman, Scott didn't see what was wrong with that. Until Stiles continued. It was about two in the morning when he had rolled over in bed to find that the brunette girl was curled up in bed with him, she'd snuck in, and he hadn't even known it. Scott was beginning to see where the problem was, but overall, he thought Stiles wouldn't be so bothered about waking up to a girl in his bed, he was sure that Stiles had told him about many dreams that began like that. So as he'd done all of those times before, Scott asked what happened next.
"Well, do you remember how we were asking ourselves just how long Kinsey had until the stuff in the necklace stopped working? Like, how long until she started becoming more..."
"Like a wolf?" Scott finished his sentence. He knew something that Stiles didn't, he remembered what Araya had told the girl, how it wasn't age or time that would turn Kinsey, but death. To turn into that wolf that the necklace had been suppressing, she would die.
"Right." Stiles nodded. "Well, I think that it's gonna be sooner than later." He told the wolf.
"What makes you think that?" Scott questioned with a furrowed brow.
Stiles raised his white shirt, showing his best friend his back. Scott's eyes widened at the scratch marks across Stiles's back, claw marks even. He didn't need to ask how he'd gotten them, he felt as though he didn't need that much detail about it. Though slightly proud of the marks that Kins had left all over him, Stiles was still concerned about what it meant for her. Despite that, his little story didn't end there. After he had gained all of the scratches on his back, the two of them were spooning, another thing Scott failed to see the problem with at first, and then Stiles emphasized he was the little spoon, he was always the little spoon.
"So this means that you two are together, right? Like, you're really dating?" Scott questioned. He wasn't sure where his two best friends stood in terms of their relationship. He knew that it was a long time coming, but nobody actually seemed to know how to define their relationship. Kinsey had only been broken up with Isaac a little over a month, they didn't know if it was too soon for her to think about making things official with Stiles.
Stiles shrugged, he didn't know how to define it either. He felt like they acted like a couple, they slept together most nights, they had sex, they did everything that couples do, just without being an official couple. "I don't know, sometimes the way she looks at me, I think she knows I'm not telling her something."
"You mean Malia?" Scott asked again.
Stiles nodded. "We've got to tell her Scott." It had been a long time coming for that too. They had been prepared to tell her any day now, they discussed it just before Mexico, talking about how it seemed that she was doing well lately, that she might be ready for some big news like that. Then Mexico happened. And she'd had enough big news for a lifetime. Now they were back to being in the same place they were when they found out about Malia, wondering whether something such as finding out she had a sister would send her over the edge.
Scott agreed, she needed to know, he just didn't know how to tell her.
The two boys walked into history class to find the three girls already sitting in their seats, talking and laughing away without a care in the world, a strange occurrence for the likes of Kinsey. Stiles looked at his best friend, nodding towards Kinsey, she seemed in a good mood, perhaps now the wolf could tell her and Malia that they were actually sisters who shared a psychotic, satanic dad. Scott shook his head rapidly, he didn't have the balls to do it now, he needed at least a day or so to figure out how he even put those things into a sentence.
As they sat down around Kinsey, Mr. Yukumura began his teaching on some of the great historic leaders who had failed spectacularly before they succeeded. He laid out the details of one of those leaders, how they had failed at business, had a nervous breakdown and was defeated for both of the houses of congress, even lost as a candidate for Vice President, before he was finally elected as one of the greatest presidents that the country had ever seen. He asked the class if they knew who he was describing, a few hands rising, those who managed to do last night's reading or the people who just had good political knowledge. Stiles was one of the people who raised his hand in the air, turning his head to look at Kinsey beside him with a wink.
Out of all the people who had raised their hands, Mr. Yukimura picked out Malia, her head was in her book, distracted as she tried to figure out what they were talking about, highlighters all over her desk, and inside of her textbook from her study sessions with Kinsey. All heads turned to her as Malia raised her head, her yellow highlighter in her mouth, a vision of a dog with a bone while she colored in the entire history textbook in her red highlighter. He asked if she knew the great leader he had been describing, the girl looked shell-shocked as she turned her page, she looked to the brunette who sat just ahead of her. Kinsey tried mouthing the answer, but she didn't catch on, still looking befuddled.
Scott's phone began ringing on the desk, distracting Mr. Yukimura for a moment as he yelled at the wolf to turn it off while Kinsey was still trying to give Malia the answer. Mr. Yukimura have her another clue, Gettysburg Address, though that only confused the coyote more as she looked for the answer in an obscenely large textbook. Beside the girl, Kira furiously waved her hands at her father, she had the answer, she could give it to him in a second, she had done last night's reading unlike Malia who didn't have either of her personal tutors to remind her.
Stiles's phone began ringing on his desk. Yukimura stared at the boy who'd quickly scrambled to turn it off, just as Scott has. Before questioning Malia again, he admonished the entire class to turn off their phones. Most people listened, apart from the two girls who were still trying to give an answer for Mr. Yukimura, Kinsey had even whispered it, but somehow, Malia mistook Lincoln for chicken. Maybe the coyote didn't know much about history but she knew she hadn't heard of a president chicken so far in her study sessions.
Mr. Yukimura asked again, now, he was purposely ignoring his daughter waving. Another phone rang, this time, Kinsey turned around in her seat to the phone vibrating on her desk. Lydia. She'd immediately looked at the man teaching, her look alone had questioned the man whether there was a chance she could excuse herself to answer it. But the man shook his head, her warning not to actually ask the question. He reminded her once more to turn her phone off before he'd make a point of confiscating it for the rest of the day. One last time, a cellphone rang in the class, now, the man was furious as he yelled it again, only this time, Kira told her father that it was his phone that was ringing. Embarrassed, the man turned back to his desk, reading the text on his phone.
He looked at the Argent sitting in the middle of the class. Kinsey, call Lydia. His text read.
As soon as class had ended Kinsey, Scott and Stiles found themselves at the animal clinic, they'd walked into Lydia helping Deaton bandage a wound, their eyes widening at the sight. Part of the three teenagers wanted to ask what happened, the other part was too scared, they'd noticed the missing werewolf in the room. But still, they had to know. Before they asked Kinsey had made a point of telling them that this was the reason they should have let her stay.
"I don't think he's just younger in body. I think he's younger in mind, too." Deaton told her.
"He didn't recognize either of us, and I don't think he would recognize any of you either." The girl bandaging Deaton's arm added. "And he looked like he was scared out of his mind."
"So if you're a teenage wolf and you're scared, where do you go?" Stiles asked, all heads turned towards Scott. The teenage werewolf who had been scared more times than he'd had hot baths.
He told them that a wolf retreats back to it's den, but Derek lives in a loft. Kinsey corrected him, sixteen-year-old Derek didn't live in a loft, he probably didn't even know it existed. At that age it was only the Hale house that he knew as home. Deaton nodded in agreement, telling them that Derek probably didn't even remember the fire, it wouldn't have happened yet. But surprisingly, it wasn't Derek's lack of memory that would be a problem to them, but the fact that Kinsey knew that his childhood home wasn't there anymore. It had been knocked down ready for new homes to replace it in just a few months.
Despite that, Kinsey and the two boys had agreed that they were going to go and look for him at the old Hale house, hoping that he would still be there by the time they reached it. They had all turned to head back out of the clinic, prepared to waste no time until Lydia stopped them, she'd asked what any of them planned on saying to Derek. If they were going to tell him that his whole family was dead, that his only living family was Kinsey, a girl he didn't even know at sixteen. She would be a complete stranger to him.
Kinsey shrugged, she would have to tell him, she didn't see another way. Lydia scoffed, wishing her luck with that as she nodded at Deaton's bleeding wound, she doubted that would go down well with Derek. Stiles turned to the girl, telling her that Lydia was right, that maybe for now she should keep it from him, they all should. At least until they'd figured out how to get him back to his normal brooding self. Stiles and Lydia's words weren't just for Kinsey, but for Scott too, he'd want to tell Derek the truth just as much as Kinsey, but he admitted that he couldn't lie to Derek.
Heads immediately turned back to the best liar in the room. Kinsey. She shrugged, agreeing she would be the one to lie to Derek. But that wasn't what Scott meant, Derek was a werewolf, they could hear heartbeats, he would hear hers skip a beat when she lied to him. They had to tell him the truth.
"How much of the truth do we tell him exactly?" Kinsey asked, confusing them all. "If Derek's as angry as he was when he left here how is he going to react when he finds out the daughter of the woman who murdered his entire family is in front of him? I mean, Hale's are notorious for their vengeance, he's going to jump at the chance to get revenge on Kate. He will kill me if he finds out that I'm related to Kate, that I'm a hunter." She explained, creating another problem. "Maybe we don't have to lie to him about the fire, but we're going to have to lie about me."
"Kinsey, that's a lot of lies to try and get past him. Maybe it's best if you stay away from him." The redhead suggested carefully.
"I can do it." Kinsey reassured them all, she could lie to him, she was sure of it, but they weren't so sure of it. She was a fantastic liar, that they knew, but they weren't sure if this was the kind of lie that she could pass off. "Are we all forgetting who my parents are? Peter Hale and Kate Argent are the textbook definition of liars. If we got out a picture dictionary I bet there's a picture of the two of them in there. Trust me, if there's anyone who can lie to Derek about this, it's me."
After a call about trespassing, Parrish and another deputy, Haigh, found themselves at the Hale house, now, a construction site. The two had much different approaches to the boy kneeling in the ruins. Parrish gently warned him that he couldn't be here, that it was trespassing. But Derek muttered that it was his house, confused as he looked at the piles of wood around him, nothing remaining of his childhood home, the only home he'd ever known. Haigh took his approach, the rude approach as he called the young teenager a dumbass, telling him to get the hell out of here.
Parrish snapped at him, suggesting a gentler approach. He turned to the boy himself, offering his help. Derek asked him what had happened to his house, to his family his mother as he stood up, a clear fear in his eyes as he asked his questions, unable to understand what had happened. The house was all of a sudden gone, without a trace of who lived here, including himself. As he stood up, Haigh grabbed him, but Derek's reflexes were fast, faster than anything they'd ever seen. The wolf squeezed the man's arm hard enough for him to back off. Parrish tried to calm Derek down, but as he did a tazer was raised from Haigh's pocket, jabbing into Derek's side and chest.
With the wolf weakened, Haigh handcuffed him, insisting that they needed to take him down to the station with them, to run his prints and decide on the punishment they would give him when it was clear if this was a first-time offense or not. Derek was left waiting a while, handcuffed to a bench, eventually, Parrish had grown guilty seeing him sit with a bowed head across the station. He asked Haigh if they thought they should uncuff him, but frankly, Haigh thought that he was an idiot for even asking, which made it clear that it was the right thing to do. Anything Haigh did was the wrong thing, so Parrish always made sure to do the opposite.
He offered to free the boy of the handcuffs, questioning him if he would be okay if he did, that he would remain calm this time, and not try to attack any of them. Derek agreed with a nod, calling Haigh the idiot between the two of them, a comment Parrish couldn't disagree with.
Haigh called Parrish back over, telling him he'd run the fingerprints of the teenager but all that it came up with was a criminal record for Derek Hale, an adult with quite the extensive record. The Derek Hale that Parrish knew certainly wasn't the teenager sitting across the station. He knew of a man, a large man at that, to be Derek Hale, not a baby-faced boy.
Sheriff Stilinski was walking through the station when he heard the name the two of his deputies were discussing, he stepped into the conversation, looking at the computer at the record pulled up on the screen, questioning what was going on. Parrish explained that there must have been a malfunction of sorts, telling him that the kid across the room's fingerprints were bringing up the records of Derek Hale. Noah looked at him, staring at him intently, for a long time, Derek's brows knitted as he stared back at the man. The Sheriff looked back and forth between the mugshot on the computer to the youngster sitting inside of his station.
His eyes widened, turning back to Parrish. "Get me Kinsey, now."
Just as the girl's name was mentioned she, Scott and Stiles ran through the door. "Don't bother, Parrish, I'm already here." She said with a smile. Parrish, confused as ever, nodded as he walked back to his desk. Kinsey and the boys turned back to Stilisnki, smiling innocently. "Hey, Sheriff."
The man didn't answer the girl as he gestured furiously for all of them to get inside his office, the three teenagers rushing to get inside, hoping to get the explanation, and the punishment sure to follow it, over with as quickly as possible. For a while, Sheriff Stilinski sat on the edge of his desk, lost for words as the three teenagers stood awkwardly with their hands behind their backs, none daring to speak before he did. Kinsey kept looking behind her, through the blinded windows at a young Derek Hale who'd stare back at her, furrowing his brows at her, as if there was a familiarity in her, her face, her eyes, he didn't know what it was, but something about the girl was familiar.
Eventually, Noah found his words as he released a large sigh, the three teenagers turning back to him, ready for hell to be unleashed along with the millions of questions he was bound to have.
"I want you to be honest with me. Absolutely, and completely honest." He begun. Kinsey and the werewolf nodded in agreement, they could do that. His son weary as he agreed, unsure just how honest he was willing to be dependent on what he asked. "Have you been time traveling?" Noah asked, leaving them all befuddled, stammering for a reply. "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."
"We found him like that," Scott told the man.
"Where?" Noah asked, standing up. "Swimming in the fountain of youth?"
Stiles shook his head, disagreeing, that would have been enough, but he continued, the boy told his father that they found him buried in a tomb of wolfsbane in some old Aztec temple in Mexico underneath a church in the middle of a town that was destroyed by an Earthquake. The brunette mumbled a prayer for them while Scott sighed, Stiles's explanation was significantly worse than the whole fountain of youth scenario that his father conjured up. It was probably more plausible than the truth. Now they wished they'd rolled with it and saved themselves a lecture.
They could already see the fury behind Noah's eyes as he looked at them, he was yet to hear the rest of the story, how Derek had come to be the way he was. He was yet to find out about Kate, a woman that he had declared dead, that he attended the funeral of too. If the idea of his son and the other two sneaking off to Mexico wasn't enough to send the man spiraling, Kate Argent rising from the ashes was bound to. Kinsey and Scott had thought they were going to keep details to a minimum, more so for Noah's sake than their own, but it seemed it was already too late for that, more than enough had been revealed to the man.
Luckily for them, Stilinski had been caught up on a single detail of his son's explanation- Mexico. He could vividly remember standing in the doorway of his son's bedroom, watching Kinsey help his son pack for their so-called camping trip. He'd asked them what their plans was, they'd told him it was to go camping with the rest of the group, he'd remembered being surprised that they weren't going alone, that his son wasn't going to take this opportunity to solidify things with a girl he hadn't stopped talking about since she walked into town. For now Noah put that thought aside, he'd ask his son about that when he was calm, sane, probably over the dinner table where all of their conversations about Kinsey took place. But for now, he was livid.
With frustration clear in his voice, Noah shouted at his son, reminding him of the lie that he said before he left, how he had told him they were going camping. Stiles argued back, telling him the six of them were camping, in Mexico. That hadn't eased his father's anger in the slightest, Noah pointed a finger at him, prepared to kill his own son.
Before he could, Kinsey intervened, telling the man that Derek had aged backwards, so now, the wolf couldn't remember a thing, including the fire at the Hale house. Scott added that right now, them fixing it depended on them being able to talk to him. Sheriff Stilinski sighed as he sat back on his desk, telling them that Derek wasn't talking to any of them, he doubted that Derek would talk to any of them either.
Scott and Stiles believed otherwise, both turned to look at Kinsey, she was looking through the window once again, Derek staring back at her. He would talk to her. They were sure of it.
Hesitantly, Noah brought Derek into the office, he left the three teenagers to their own devices, allowing Kinsey to work her magic and find a way to bring the Derek Hale they knew loved, and occasionally despised back. Though he couldn't leave them completely alone, he stood outside of the office, watching them through the blinds, trying to read Kinsey's lips.
"Why would I go anywhere with you?" Derek asked the girl kneeling in front of him. The two who stood behind her kept sharing nervous looks with one another, questioning if she could actually get Derek to trust her.
"There was an accident." She told the boy. "You lost some memory but I, we, can help you get it back." Kinsey continued, nodding at the two boys behind her, Scott nodding in agreement.
"How much memory?"
Kinsey paused for a moment, telling him that it was a lot, trying to speak as gently as she could. The brunette turned to Scott, he knew exactly what he needed to do. He knelt down beside her, bowing his head for a moment, when he raised it, his eyes were a glowing red, Derek sat back in his seat, his jaw dropped slightly. He knew immediately that Scott was an Alpha. Kinsey looked behind them at Stiles, he was unusually quiet, he hadn't even tried to throw in one of his little sarcastic comments yet. The boy was sitting on his father's desk, staring at a bunch of letters on the desk. Only when Derek asked who they were did Stiles look up, remembering to provide the regressed wolf with one of those comments of his, telling him that they were the only ones who were keeping him out of jail. Kinsey kept her stare on the letters on the desk, wondering what it could be that made Stiles's face contort with worry like that.
For now, she digressed, turning back to Derek, urging him to let them help. But he refused as he sat back in his seat with folded arms, providing her with the typical Hale strop, maybe she didn't have the Hale name, but she had that Hale strop. Stiles reminded him that he almost tore apart two cops, that he needed to listen to them, and that started with no fangs, no claws, and no wolf man. Little Derek told them that was fine, as long as it wasn't a full moon. Scott's eyes grew wide as he asked whether he still had trouble with the full moon, but Derek reassured them he would be fine. Scott looked at Stiles with a little more worry than before, wondering if they would have to be the ones to teach him control, they could remember the last time they had to try that.
"You want me to trust you?" Derek asked the brunette kneeling in front of him, she nodded. "But you won't even tell me your name. How can I trust you if I don't even know who you are."
"I'm... Kinsey." She muttered hesitantly. The young wolf narrowed his eyes at her, waiting for her to elaborate on it, a last name would be preferable. Stiles leaned forward in anticipating, waiting to see what lie she was going to give him. "White." Kinsey added, using her grandmother's name.
Derek nodded, accepting the answer, allowing a slight relief. And then he asked where his family were. Kinsey turned to Scott, a pleading look as she asked him to take over, she didn't think that she could lie to him after all. They were her family too, perhaps not the way they had been to the wolf in front of them, but they were a part of her that still meant something to her. Scott nodded as Kinsey retreated back to the desk waiting for Scott to give his explanation, as he did, she took the chance to look at what Stiles was looking at before, he seemed distracted, waiting for Scott's excuse on what happened to Derek's family and house. Kinsey noticed one of the letters with big red, bold letters reading second notice, she looked at the address on the same envelope, Eichen House. Guilt washed over the girl as she turned back to Stiles, maybe he was watching Scott and Derek, but he was still biting his fingernails, still thinking about those bills and what it would do to him and his father.
Kinsey's head sharply turned back to Scott as he told Derek the biggest lie of all. He'd started to tell the truth, telling him that there was a fire, but as soon as he saw a tear grow in Derek's eyes, he knew that he couldn't do it. He told them that his family were fine, they just had to move out, that they would take him to them, as soon as they figured out how to get his memories back.
Derek nodded with tears in his eyes, agreeing that he would go with them, on one condition. The two boys cringed as they prepared to listen to what condition that would be, unsure whether the three of them would be able to provide him with what he wanted. But Derek's condition was just that if he went, he was staying with Kinsey. He trusted her more than he did them, and he had no problem telling them that to their faces.
Scott and Stiles watched from afar, Kinsey was waiting with Derek as Haigh signed the papers to officially release him from custody. Scott couldn't help but feel guilty as he watched the two that he had done nothing but lie to, especially today, he'd lied his ass off. It almost come naturally to him now, and he didn't like it. His best friend reassured him that his ass would be fine, those lies had saved them both from a ton of unnecessary pain, they'd figure this all out in a day or two so that Derek was back to himself, everyone would be happy, except for Derek who they'd never seen happy, and then, they could start thinking about how to tell Kinsey again.
"Look, Scott, in there we have to Hales. Two very fragile Hales. Hale's are like bombs, you have to be very very careful on how you disarm them, otherwise, it will explode in your face. If we tell either of them the truth right now, we're all gonna get burnt."
Scott nodded. "Okay." He mumbled, a plan in mind. "Just take them to my house and don't let either of them out of your sight."
"And where are you going?" Stiles asked with a raised brow.
"I'm going to go talk to the guy we should have gone to before."
"Uh..." Stiles tried to stop his best friend who was already walking out of the door, Scott raised his arms as he shrugged, it was one of their last hopes. "I hate that guy."
"You're the one sleeping with his daughter." Scott reminded him.
Stiles sighed, turning back to lean on the front desk. He hated Peter, he couldn't be trusted, they knew that. But still, what he hated more than Peter was when his best friend was right. He would be dead if Peter found out about him and Kinsey, he wasn't sure that the girl had told her father, but he could remember how Peter reacted with Isaac, how he loathed him, threatened to kill the wolf. A wolf. He was nothing more than a mere human with a habit of causing trouble. He looked back at the girl he was lying to, she'd turned to look at him with a bright smile across her face, he gave a faint smile back, but he couldn't help but wonder if she would hate him for lying to her. It was only a matter of time until she found out that he knew, and he didn't think he would get out of it as well as he did when she found out that one day she would become a werewolf.
He took the two back to Scott's house, giving Derek strict orders as they walked in, they were all going to wait here and sit quietly, they weren't going to call or talk to anyone. Derek asked about him and Kinsey, whether he was allowed to talk to them, that was also forbidden tonight. Kinsey rolled her eyes at the boy as he gave his orders, he knew he wouldn't be able to resist talking, he would be the first to talk between the three of them, but she allowed him to have his moment.
Kinsey, who had been walking ahead, stopped in her tracks at the sight of the man in the kitchen as he looked at her with a furrowed brow. Derek pointed at the man, asking Stiles who was going to talk to him. Stiles turned to look at who he was talking about, startled by Rafael McCall as the boy jumped out of his skin, asking the man if he had gotten taller. Naturally, he ignored Stiles's comment and usual awkwardness, asking what they were doing here instead.
Derek had answered him, telling him they were waiting for Scott, already breaking Stiles's rule of no speaking to anyone. Kinsey knew that would happen sooner or later, though she expected his talking to be to her, not Scott's father who told them that he was waiting for Scott too, they were supposed to have dinner together. He held up his takeout bag, telling them he'd brought extra if the three of them were hungry.
The man received three different answers to his question, though Stiles and Kinsey's were just a variation of the same decline, Derek on the other hand had jumped at the offer. Stiles jabbed his side with his elbow, insisting that none of them were hungry, Derek disagreeing, he was starving. Kinsey stood silently with her head in her hands, trying to work out how Stiles managed to have the same bickering with Derek's teenage self as he did with the adult version of the wolf. Both of them just couldn't help their spats.
"Okay..." Rafael mumbled, once again, ignoring Stiles's awkwardness. "Well, if you're not hungry your friend can still eat with us. What's your name?" He asked, nodding at the boy he hadn't saw before. Kinsey quickly jumped in with an answer. Miguel. Stiles's cousin Miguel, from Mexico. He looked at the girl with furrowed brows, unsure why she would lie about his name but Derek had assumed it was for good reason, nodding along with it.
McCall began speaking fluent Spanish, Kinsey and Stiles's face dropping, Stiles mumbled to the girl, asking if she happened to be as fluent in Spanish as she was French, unfortunately not. But Derek was, much to their surprise he spoke back as fluently as the man, having a conversation that neither Kinsey nor Stiles were able to understand until McCall offered Derek an egg roll, in English this time. As Derek practically skipped to the table to join the man Kinsey turned to the boy beside her, shrugging, telling him to go along with it, and she was pretty hungry.
·❥·
Scott walked into the loft alongside Malia, he'd found her waiting outside the loft with her arms folded, not only had she spoken to Lydia but she'd spoken to Kinsey too, both girls had told her that while Kinsey and Stiles were handling Derek, Scott was going to talk to Peter, both girls had told her how stupid of an idea it was. Lydia even referred to the man as Satan in a v-neck, Malia knew that she couldn't just sit around and wait for updates, so here she was, assisting Scott, he could handle Peter alone, that she knew, but he could handle him better with her around. Scott was on edge as the two of them walked into the building, Peter hadn't met Malia before, though he knew her name, Kinsey made great strides to keep any new people away from her father, the man lacked boundaries, he constantly overstepped hers, that was why she kept Malia away, but everyone else kept her away for reasons Kinsey didn't know about. They didn't want to imagine the kind of plans Peter had formed knowing that he had a werecoyote for a daughter ready to be paired with his Angel, soon to be werewolf daughter. He was a menace without them, with them at his side, he was capable of things larger than any of them could handle.
Malia had noticed as they walked into the loft that Scott's heart was pounding, she could hear it over everything else, she asked him what was wrong with him, his heart wouldn't beat so fast if there was nothing wrong, but he insisted it was nothing. She asked him if he was nervous, she'd heard many things about Peter Hale, she wouldn't be surprised if Scott was nervous.
A voice came from the left, the two teenagers turning their heads. Malia immediately knew that it was Kinsey's father, he was wearing a v-neck, and there were slight similarities between Kinsey and the man, though Malia knew from meeting Allison that Kinsey resembled her mother's side more than she did that of her fathers. The man was reading a book, he didn't even bother to turn their way as he insisted that Scott was just bad at introductions, explaining his nervousness.
"Peter." Scott mumbled, turning to the brunette girl beside him. He was struggling to spit it out as he looked at her, knowing he might regret saying it. But he did. "This is Malia."
The man's face dropped slightly as he looked at the girl, closing his book. He stood up, hoping to get a better look at the girl, his daughter, according to a particular Banshee. He was fascinated, a clear look of astonishment across his face as Scott took a step back. Malia didn't move, allowing the man to stare at her as she furrowed a brow at him. He analyzed her, seeing a resemblance to Kinsey, most particularly, her eyes. They both had dark brown eyes. Beautiful eyes. He told her.
Scott felt as though he was getting a case of deja vu as he watched the exchange, remembering a similar conversation between Peter and Kinsey in sophomore year, he had complimented Kinsey on her dark eyes then, how the blue formal dress he had picked out for her would compliment it well along with her skin color. Neither of the girls got their eyes from him. His were blue. Kinsey's were from her grandmother, much like Allison's were too, neither of their parents had dark eyes like them. Malia on the other hand, she told him that she had her mother's eyes, though the wolf didn't know if that was true, he didn't know who Malia's mother was. It couldn't have been Kate, that relieved him. But he had no idea who had birthed the coyote.
"Anyway," Peter digressed from analyzing his eldest child. "I'm sure you've heard a lot about me. "I'd like to think my daughter speaks highly of me when I'm not around."
"The killing spree came up." Malia deadpanned, shredding his dream of Kinsey making him look like a changed man, he didn't kill half as much since finding out that she was his child, unless he deemed it necessary or a danger to her, the same way he intended to be with Malia.
"Well, we're all works in progress." He shrugged.
Malia wasn't interested in excuses, she advised him that next time he went on a killing spree, the man try to make sure that all of the people he killed stayed dead. Peter was confused as to what she meant, looking straight at Scott for some elaboration. Scott asked him if knew much about people being turned by a scratch, Peter was shocked as he asked if the young boy had scratched someone, Scott didn't answer, he only looked at him, he'd thought would've known better than to think he would do such a thing. Peter didn't seem to take the hint as he told him not to worry, that the claws had to go pretty deep for someone to be turned by a scratch.
"But it's possible." Scott reiterated. "Like if you clawed out someone's throat?"
Peter told them that it was possible as he shrugged, unsure why they were still asking about it, a wolf turned by scratch was extremely rare, he told them. He started another sentence, telling the pair of teenagers in the loft that it was beyond rare, actually, about to give an example as to just how rare it was. And then the pin dropped. His face too. His blood beginning to boil. His example of such a rarity had been the thing that done it for him. Peter was about to compare it to Kinsey, how rare her kind was as an Angel, and soon to be a werewolf too. It was as he thought of the girl that he thought of her mother. Her pain in the ass, supposed to be dead mother. He knew.
Soon, the man was on a rampage as he paced around the loft, the two teenagers watching, both slightly amused by his anger. "I hate that family. Hate. Hate. Hate. Especially her." Peter shouted, Malia reminding him that Kinsey was still an Argent, and her was Kinsey's mother. "Well, Kinsey can be a royal pain in my ass too, she gets that from her demonic mother. I mean, can nobody in this town just stay dead?"
"I think they were hoping you would." Malia deadpanned.
Though amused by Malia's comment, Scott didn't dwell on it, but he would be sure to mention it to Kinsey, she would have liked it. "Do you have any idea why Kate would turn Derek back into a teenager again?" He asked the man, hoping that considering he had been with the woman, that he would know more about her than the rest of them.
Peter spent a moment thinking about the malevolent mind belonging to Kate before asking the color of Derek's eyes. Blue, as Scott him, that meant it was after Paige. Peter wondered whether that meant it was around the time Derek first met Kate. Scott was more confused than ever, the shock was clear in his tone as he reiterated that the two of them knew one another, but that was an understatement. Derek didn't just know Kate, he knew her biblically, as Peter described it. A confused Scott shook his head, still not understanding.
Peter chuckled, asking Scott if he thought that he and Isaac were the first teenage wolves to get into a hunter's bed because they weren't, he and Derek had been. With the same Argent hunter of all people. Kate had kept it in the family. She'd come back here a few weeks before the fire, it was around mid-December, as Peter recalled it, Malia pointing out that Kinsey's birthday was in the middle of December. Scott suggested that might have been the reason Kate was here, to tell Peter about his daughter after ten years of her being born. Peter wasn't sure of why she returned to Beacon Hills, all he knew was that before she left, she had seduced his nephew who was just a sixteen-year-old heartbroken wolf.
Malia held a hand up to her mouth, audibly gagging at the thought. Scott felt the same. Kate and Derek was an ungodly thought. He asked whether Kinsey knew about the disgusting relationship between her mother and her cousin, but Peter shook his head, asking if Scott would tell her that her mother liked to keep it in the family, that comment only making Malia gag more.
Meanwhile, at Scott's house, things had taken a turn for the worst. For a while, it was going well, the three of them had sat down for dinner with Rafael, a situation that neither Kinsey nor Stiles had ever imagined themselves to be in, but even that too was going well. McCall kept asking the young wolf questions, curious to know more about Scott's new friend, Kinsey managed to lie or deflect each one, making it all run as smoothly as possible. Until Derek noticed the FBI badge on the table with Rafael's name on it. He began asking questions about the man's role, Stiles tried to distract him, insisting that the man barely had a voice in his job, suggesting that instead of the conversation about work, they talk about Scott, asking where he could be.
As Stiles pulled out his phone to call Scott, Derek asked whether the man ever dealt with fires, if they were a federal crime, then yes. Kinsey knew at that moment, it was over. Derek asked what the man knew about the Hale fire, and Rafael told him everything. How an entire family died the night of the fire, how now the house was being turned into sets of new homes. Anything that the other two had avoided telling him all afternoon, he knew. Derek remained surprisingly calm, he made it through the rest of the meal without flipping the table. Once Kinsey was helping McCall help clean things up, Derek asked to speak to Stiles upstairs, Stiles had seen no harm in it.
And then Derek slammed him against a door. Vividly recalling a time an adult Derek had done it to him in his own bedroom, the same day that he had come up with the nickname of Miguel too.
Now, the wolf was furious. Slamming Stiles's head against the door repeatedly, asking him why he had lied. He didn't think Kinsey had lied, Stiles could tell that by the way Derek spoke, how it was just his and Scott's name mentioned. He trusted the girl so much, that he didn't think she'd be capable of lying to him about anything. With his head pushed against the door Stiles told him that he hadn't lied about it, he had simply omitted certain truths, vital truths perhaps.
Derek slammed his head against the door once more before stepping back, insisting that rather than talk to Stiles, he wanted to talk to the Alpha, to Scott. And then he changed his mind. Derek wanted Kinsey. Stiles nodded vigorously, insisting that he was going to go and get her, Scott too. He would get both of them. Immediately. Before he left, Stiles urged him to stay where exactly in that same spot, to not move an inch. He rushed down the hall, even turning back, just to ensure that Derek still hadn't moved from where he was stood, and he hadn't.
Stiles came rushing down the stairs, shouting the girl's name repeatedly as she furrowed a brow, and then, they heard a thud. Kinsey looked at McCall, flashing him an innocent smile, a nervous chuckle before she dropped what she was doing and ran to find Stiles. She found him sprawled at the bottom of the stairs, he'd ripped over the carpet, too breathless to get back up.
"Where's Derek?" She asked in a whisper. The boy remained breathless, trying to tell her that he wanted to talk to her, but nothing but pants came out of him as he waved a finger around, trying to tell her that he was still upstairs. "You left him alone?" Kinsey asked in a shout, slapping Stiles around the head for being an idiot. "You distract Scott's dad, I'll handle Derek."
Stiles nodded. "I'll do that." He nodded, laying his head on the cold floor. "In a minute..."
Back in the loft Peter and the two teenagers were still trying to figure out what Kate would want with a sixteen-year-old boy, it was shocking considering that when Kinsey was a sixteen-year-old the woman wanted nothing to do with her, she was nowhere to be seen until the last few weeks before her death. Peter had asked for a full run-through of everything that had happened today, what Derek had been doing. Scott told him about Derek being arrested at the site of the old Hale house, how Derek had no recollection of the fire. Peter proposed that if Derek had no idea about the fire, he would have no memory of Kate setting it either.
Malia asked what that meant for them. As Peter told them, it meant Kate didn't just want him to be a teenager, she wanted to take him back to the age where he still knew her, when Derek still trusted her. Peter looked straight at Scott, asking where Derek was now. With Kinsey and Stiles, he told the older wolf, who insisted that he get one of them on the phone immediately.
Stiles was downstairs, about to head upstairs, his phone pressed to his ear as he talked to Scott, he'd just explained the situation between Kate and Derek, how she might be coming after him. Stiles reassured him the young wolf was fine, that he was upstairs with Kinsey, the two of them in his room. He had no idea that Kate Argent was about to jump out of the window after Derek, a teenager she practically just kidnapped, that Kinsey was there to watch it happen.
Kinsey felt like her heart had stopped. That time had stopped as she looked at her mother again. She was supposed to be dead. She'd known for a day that Kate was supposed to be back, that it was all a lie, that her tears had been shed for nothing, that she'd mourned but not lost. But she'd struggled to believe it until now when she was seeing her mother in the flesh. She wasn't bloody like she was the last time she saw her, whether it be in her nightmares of when she watched Kate drop to the floor, lifeless in the old Hale home.
The woman smiled at her shell shocked daughter before disappearing into the night, taking the regressed wolf with her, not even looking back at the child she had left behind. That was Kate, a mother without a maternal bone in her body.
Stiles reached the end of the hallway, looking straight down it, the brunette girl was standing in Scott's doorway, her hands shaking while the rest of her body was still, frozen. Stiles forgot that he was on the phone with Scott, about anything, in fact, all he saw was that Kinsey needed him, he forgot all else in that moment that he rushed up to the girl.
"Kins. Kinsey, what happened." Stiles asked her frantically. "You look like you've seen a ghost."
"I think I did." She mumbled under her breath, pointing at Scott's empty room. Stiles looked to see no Derek standing where he had specifically told the boy to wait. Then, he remembered his call with Scott, pulling his phone back to his ear where Scott shouted his name, asking whether he was still there. Stiles told him that he was right, that Kate had come back for Derek. He didn't elaborate on the fact Kate had just kidnapped him, he put the phone down, turning to the girl in need. Her eyes filled with tears. "She's back, Stiles."
After hearing that Kate had Derek, Malia and Peter had already begun running towards the exit of the loft, prepared to go and hunt them down, all they needed was a scent on one of them, it seemed like an easy enough idea, especially with Peter at their disposal now too. But Scott had second thoughts about it as he stopped the two of them, it could take hours to figure out where either of them were, if they wanted to get ahead of Kate they needed to know her next move. It all sounded good in theory but Peter pointed out that between the three of them they lacked a genius. Scott held up his phone, suggesting that they call one.
Lydia was at the gas station, she had pulled up there to get fuel, fuel that she didn't need at all, a detail Kira noticed when the redhead had already stepped out of the car. When she'd gotten out to find Lydia, she found her standing at the gas station's restroom, now, a crime scene. Lydia told the wolf that she had called Stilinski, they were on the way. There was blood and guts over every surface in the restroom, it stunk of rotting flesh, flies were everywhere, it was easily Lydia's worst discovery of a dead body and she wasn't running short on options to choose from.
She told them that even with her 4.0 GPA in AP Biology there were parts of the human anatomy scattered over these walls that she didn't even know existed. Still, Scott asked if she could send a picture, to give them all a better idea. Hesitantly, Lydia agreed, treading carefully over the guts to get a clear picture, both her and Kira swallowing down some of their vomit. When the image came through, Peter looked, telling them that it looked like Kate couldn't help it, that this death happened in a frenzy, she couldn't control her shift, and then he knew why Kate wanted Derek. It was the triskelion, she wanted it, and Derek could get her it.
Peter threw around orders once again, this time, it was for someone to get his daughter down to the school with her weapons immediately, if they had any chance of beating Kate, they'd need a hunter, and perhaps the one person who Kate had pissed off enough for something to finally be done about it. With any luck, Kinsey would be out for vengeance tonight.
"Your dating a freaking huntress and the best you could do was a baseball bat?" Lydia asked the boy who she had been running beside, both desperate to catch up with Kinsey, but she was long gone, her and her track skills had been put to good use as she ran at the sound of Scott's roar, a set of daggers in her hand her uncle's gun in her waist, Peter had said bring weapons, so she did.
"Would you trust me with any of her weapons?" Stiles asked.
"...Good point."
Kinsey ran through the school, her head whipping left and right as she tried to find Scott, Malia, anyone. She could hear the roars of Scott amongst the growling of an unfamiliar creature, but in a schoolyard so large and empty the noises echoed, making it impossible to tell where they had come from. Still, the brunette kept running, desperate to find them, to find them and in turn her mother, she wanted to put an end to this, to Kate, to what she had done with Derek, all of it. She was indeed out for vengeance. As the girl continued running through the school an arm grabbed her, almost pulling her over it had grabbed her so hard. Without looking, Kinsey raised her knife to slash who or whatever had grabbed her, only when they yelled her name did she drop it back to her side. Derek. He asked where Scott was, telling her he'd heard Scott too, but much like the young wolf, she didn't know where he was either.
Scott, Kira and Malia had all tried to put up a fight against the large Berserkers, each of them had been taken down, each slashed with the boned claws of the beasts, Malia had been cut again, it was deeper than last time, more painful, she had immediately dropped to the floor, scrambling to get away from them as Scott threw his final few hits. But he too ended up on the ground with little hope of beating the beasts. Even when Kira had come, there was hope for a moment, she'd put up her own good fight, but she made the mistake of putting her guard down for the slightest second, and she had been defeated, hit across the face until she joined her friends on the floor.
The Berserkers moved closed, prepared to kill the three of them. And then bullets through over their heads. Two shadows emerged from the distance. Kinsey and Derek. The brunette huntress was minuscule compared to the beasts, but her talents were not, her bullets shot at the beasts before she swapped to her daggers, slashing the little skin that the Berserkers showed. Derek was fighting beside her, his claws swinging to and fro as Scott, Malia and Kira watched in awe.
It was hard to tell who was winning the fight, Kinsey and Derek had both been thrown against a set of lockers a few times, but neither of them ever stayed down. They always got up, they kept fighting until there would be no fight left inside either of them. Kinsey was knocked down again with a slash to her stomach, Malia had been right about them cutting deep. Derek went down a second after her, but as he knelt to stand up, a loud screech sounded through the air, both of the Berserkers ran away into the night, retreating without looking back.
A hand reached out for Kinsey's. With a groan, the brunette looked up from her bleeding wound to the hand in front of her. Her brow furrowed as she looked up from the hand, how it had grown in size, she looked to the boy's face, but it was no longer a teenage Derek looking back at her. It was the Derek she knew best. Her brooding older cousin. He pulled the girl up, pulling her into a tight hug, but as if that wasn't shocking enough. When she finally pulled away. His eyes were not their usual color of a steel blue, the eyes of a killer. They were a radiant golden yellow.
After rushing back to find Stiles and Lydia, Kinsey finally found them down in the Hale vault with her father, he was knelt to the ground before a safe, all three had turned to her at the sound of a pair of boots rushing down the stairs, wondering if it was Kate coming back for more. Stiles and Lydia both gave the girl an uneasy look as her father turned back to the empty safe.
"Where is she?" Kinsey asked. Looking around the vault. "Where the hell is Kate?"
"She's gone," Peter mumbled to his daughter. "And so are the bonds."
"The bonds?" She repeated. Her father had told her about the bonds that were kept down here in the vault, that she was entitled to her share just as Derek was, as he and Cora were, everyone with the Hale gene. He'd even told her the amount. He didn't have to worry about her coming to steal it, she couldn't get in the vault, she didn't have the claws to open it. "How much of it?"
"117," Stiles answered her. "117 million."