"She's dying, isn't she?" Isaac asked.
"I don't know," Derek said, his eyes turning to look at Julie who was doing another routine check up on Cora.
"It's hard to say, I think we need to put her on a vent. I have a manual one, but the issue with vents is that people don't always come off them," she admitted, "but at the same time, I need someone who actually knows what they're doing with the supernatural."
"So what are you gonna do?" Isaac asked, as he looked over Derek again. Julie glanced over at the alpha werewolf. It was not the time nor the place but she missed him so dearly. She missed his smile and his hug and his warmth. She missed his humour and the way they knew they were going to be together.
She didn't know what they were thinking.
But sat right there, even at his lowest, he was still so damn hot.
"I don't know."
"Want to figure something out? Because while Scott and Stiles were out there, trying to help people from being killed, you were in here, rolling around the sheets with the actual killer!" Julie did not correct him, she didn't want to get involved when it wasn't her place to. "Do you get how many people she's killed? Erica and Boyd are dead. Cora is dying. And you are doing nothing! Why'd you do this to us, Derek? Was it all about the power? Were you bored? Were you lonely?"
It took Derek a second before he sighed, "maybe. I told Cora I wouldn't leave. I'll help the others when I figure out how to help her-"
"There's no time!" Isaac interrupted, "the full moon's coming. The Sheriff and Melissa are gonna be dead, so I'm gonna try and help them. You can sit here and perfect the art of doing nothing."
Isaac stormed out, and Julie contemplated saying something. She didn't want to overstep, she knew nothing of werewolf politics or family situations. She imagined it was a pack issues.
It was only when Derek looked at Julie did she know that he wanted her to speak. To say anything, just something that could provide some comfort.
"If I were you..." she began, "I would be doing the exact same thing."
"I wouldn't take it personally," a new voice called, and irritation fell upon both Julie's and Derek's faces as Peter walked down the stairs, "anger is just a tool. He's using it to excuse shifting allegiance from one Alpha to another-- from you to Scott."
"Scott's not an Alpha yet."
"But he's on his way, isn't he?"
Julie glanced down at Cora again before she looked to Derek, "I think I need to vent her. I've brought a manual one with, it'll be a lot of work for us but it'll help her breath and if we keep her air ways open then hopefully... well she'll have more time to heal."
Derek glanced at Julie, before nodding, "I trust you."
______
Julie had put the vent in, and was sat beside Cora pressing the pump very careful with perfectly timed intervals. Derek was sat on the other side, his hand clutching tightly onto his sisters as black veins slowly travelled up his arm.
"Careful," Peter mused.
"Don't worry. I know going too far could kill me," Derek assured, and Julie glanced between them both cautiously. That seemed like important information that had been so lovingly left out.
"That's not exactly what I mean..."
Peter paused for dramatic effect and Julie huffed, "well are you going to tell us or what?"
Peter rolled his eyes at Julie for ruining his dramatic effect, "I've heard it's something only Alpha's can do, and with good reason..."
"Which is?" Derek pressed.
"You know, normal wolves never abandon an injured member of the pack. They care for it. They bring it food from a kill and then regurgitate it into the mouth of the injured wolf. They even give it physical and emotional comfort by intensely grooming it. In a way, they can do more than just ease pain-- they can be instrumental in healing their own-"
"If you're trying to tell me I can saver her, just tell me," Derek urged, Peter's vague comments making him irritable.
"I'm tell you... I heard it's possible."
"Well how? Why've you only just mentioned this?" Julie asked, more confused over irritated.
"It's that spark of power that makes you an Alpha. When you take her pain, she draws on the power that provides you with those special gifts: the power that heightens your senses, your strength; the power that transforms your body. As an Alpha, you have that bit of extra-- that spark intensifies the color of your eyes from a bright yellow into a searing red."
"If I can save her-"
""If." If. I didn't say it works every time. It could just as easily kill you."
"How do I do it? By taking her pain?"
"And then some... Because there's a cost."
Spotting a shadow move, Julie's head whipped to the window trying to find something. It was just a car driving past. Eyeing the outside carefully, she turned her attention back to Cora.
"I can understand you not seeing a downside to this, since you haven't exactly been Alpha of the Year, but think about what else you'd be losing."
"I don't care about power. Not anymore." Julie glanced at Derek carefully, she doubted anyone could just give up the urge to be powerful so easily. Not before the loss.
"What about the power to fight back? Correct me if I'm wrong, but Kali's ultimatum still stands-- the full moon is tomorrow night. And, if you couldn't beat her as an Alpha, how do you think you're gonna fare as a Beta?"
"I don't care."
"What if this was exactly what Jennifer was hoping for? She would know the only way for you to save Cora would be giving up your power. Maybe that's what she was gonna have you do at the hospital."
"Why?"
"So that you wouldn't be able to face the Alphas without her! She wants you to come to her. It's all part of her little seduction, and she is still seducing you! She needs you on her side!"
Julie bit down on her lip refraining from speaking. She supposed she should tell the truth, tell them her bargain she struck but she found herself unable to. What good would it do? It would cause tension and anger and most likely Peter would sit there laughing at the situation.
Hearing the sound of a knock, all of them were left distracted as Peter went to the door.
He opened it and all they could hear was a faint back and forth, "you."
"Me," Peter said, his voice filled with a hint of guilt. Julie looked to the ex-alpha in shock at the tone, although she was focused on pressing the vent for Cora. Her hand was beginning to get a cramp.
"You."
"Me," Peter sighed, as he opened the door further to reveal Lydia, "Derek, we have a visitor."
"We need to know where the Nemeton is."
Julie glanced over at Lydia confused, "none of us know where it is. Do we still have no clue as to where it is?" She asked, glancing between all of them concerned, "time's ticking-"
"Peter should know where it is."
"I don't know where it is," Peter said.
"You don't know where it is? But Stiles said you'd been there..."
"We have," Peter said, "but, after a few memorable experiences there, Talia-- Derek's mother, and my older sister-- decided that she didn't ever want us going back. She knew how dangerous it was and took the memory of its location from us."
"But then, how are we supposed to find it?" Lydia asked.
Looking back at her patient, Julie sighed, "if you're going to do something you're going to have to do it now. She's losing strength with every second and I don't think she's going to last much longer," she admitted.
"I don't have a choice," Derek said as he looked over to Peter.
"You always have a choice... It's whether or not you can live with the consequences-- facing Kali as a Beta."
"But it's not just a full moon coming, it's a lunar eclipse. We'll all be powerless."
Derek clutched tighter onto Cora's hand, and Julie sighed, "I'm going to remove the vent and back away. Whatever you're going to do, start it afterwards," she said and Derek nodded.
She pulled the tube out before stepping away.
Derek began to remove some of Cora's pain, however, it became too much for himself and he sat growling in pain.
Even for the human in the room, she could tell there was a great power at work. One which she doubted she'd ever see again.
As he finished, he collapsed himself. The exertion knocking him out.
______
Pacing back and forth, Julie listened to Peter telling her the tale. "Again," she urged.
"I went to the highschool-"
"Leave the details, I want the most simplified form."
"But then you'd miss the important-"
"I'd miss you placing blame on everyone besides yourself," she interrupted. Cora, who was weak but awake was sat in the bed watching the pair. She'd interrupted at the beginning claiming that she thought it was unnecessary but Julie had a thought, and now that she had a thought she was determined to see it through. "So tell me again, Ennis bit Paige."
"Ennis bit Paige, Paige didn't take to the bite. Derek helped her get out of the hospital before they went to the nemeton. They hid underground where Derek mercifully killed Paige to put her out of her suffering. His eyes changed."
"Underground," Julie muttered.
"What?"
"That's new, you didn't say that before," Julie said, "so it's underground. It can't be just a burrow or a cave for the opening to be big enough for two teenagers one whose basically immobile...hidden, so deep in the woods."
"Even if you figure out what it is you're never going to find it."
"I have eight hours, and so far no one else has got any leads. I'm going to take what I can get," Julie reminded, "the sacrifices... they've got to be related to the nemeton? Perhaps position wise. Have you got any maps?"
"Yes, because I frequently carry maps with me-"
"You know, I'm really starting to hate your attitude. You really do not need to carry sass with you every time you find yourself to be useless," Julie snapped at Peter, crossing her arms as she did so.
"Someone's upset their boyfriend got knocked out-"
"He's not my boyfriend."
"I thought you two were together?" Cora asked, and Julie hesitated as she looked over at her.
"Oh, we broke up..."
"Derek didn't tell us that, he seemed very much infatuated just the other day," Cora admitted, "waiting for you to call."
Julie's heart broke at the mention of it. He had been waiting for her to call? After she'd checked her phone religiously for just a text. They were both as bad as each other.
"Right well, I've got to go. I'm going to figure out this map and go out and hopefully find them..."
______
Sitting down at her computer, she immediately began typing away. Marking every single sacrificial site along with the site that the bodies were found. She tried to find anything that could link any of them. All she needed was something. An area where she could narrow her search down to.
The forest was an hour walk and she had, now seven hours, if she couldn't find them in such a small forest then how was she ever going to do anything in life. They had to be in the forest, everything happened in the forest. The Hale pack had owned the forest, they had to have done so for a reason.
Everything was for a reason.
Everything had to be a reason. There had to be a reason that Stiles had befriended the next Werewolf true alpha or whatever the hell Deaton had come up with. There had to be a reason that she became a doctor, a reason why she was so smart. She had to be useful. There had to be a reason that she fell in love with a werewolf who was so much of a jackass she didn't even want to be around him.
There had to be.
She stopped at the thought of it.
She really did miss Derek.
She missed Derek, and she'd ruined it all and she just wanted her mom but she couldn't have her mom so instead she wanted her dad but in this moment she couldn't have him either. And it really sucked, like sucked more than she could have ever thought. She couldn't even have her brother at this moment. She was just all alone.
He was just so beautiful though. He always had been. From that first day in the woods, she'd heard about him when she was young as well, that was the worst part. Everyone knew of the pretty Derek Hale who had teen girls swooning at his feet. The arrogant basketball player that all but destroyed Devonford Prep's team over and over again.
She'd even watched one of the games, and by god she had fallen at his feet as well because he was a pretty boy but he was with someone at the time. He'd gone to the bench and he'd kissed a girl with the smallest little button nose she'd ever seen. Julie never saw him again, she was too concerned with becoming the next Dr. Harvey Cushing. She was going to be great. She didn't have time for boys or basketball.
Like now she wasn't supposed to have time for hunting down her father who was going to be sacrificed. But that's what she was going to be doing.
Spotting a few words being thrown around, she stared at the screen that was so brightly staring back at her.
All the sacrificial points sat on the telluric currents in Beacon Hills. Grabbing onto her map again, she continued to google all the blue prints until finally she'd found something.
"Oh my god... I've got it!" She cheered throwing her arms up in the air over it. She had five hours left. Five hours to find her father and everyone else's parents. Bolting up, she grabbed onto her coat and phone.
No one answered.
Leaving the message that she'd found an area and was going to go search it, she quickly headed out of the door.