"You've definitely fractured your patella in your knee. But I have no idea how bad it is without doing X-rays." Melissa informs as she stands up in front of Derek on the couch.
"How bad can fractured knees be?" The Sheriff asks from the seat next to him.
"Worst case scenario he needs surgery. Best case scenario is he will just have to wear this knee brace for a few months." Melissa says grabbing a black knee brace made of some sort of soft material. "I came prepared." She adds and Derek nods.
"Do you think he'll need surgery?" Stiles questions and Derek glances over at him almost forgetting the kid was there since he's been so quiet.
"No hospital. I will be fine." Derek replies and Stiles just sighs nodding.
"There's not much I can do for you if you don't come into the hospital. But before I left work I grabbed this brace and some pain killers because what the Sheriff was telling me on the phone you might want them." Melissa says handing Derek a couple packets of pain killers from her bag. "Just wear this knee brace for a few months until you feel that your knee is fine on its own, that's all I can do for you honey." Melissa says handing him the brace.
"That is more than enough Ms McCall, thank you." Derek replies with a nod and she smiles as the Sheriff walks her out. He waits for them to leave the room before putting the knee brace on. It was tight around his knee and uncomfortable as hell but he knew it could be a lot worse.
"I don't mean to be annoying but can you put your pants back on." Stiles asks and Derek raises his eyebrows turning to him noticing the slight blush on the boys cheeks.
"Don't like what you see?" Derek questions with a sheepish grin and Stiles covers his face with his hands causing Derek to laugh.
"Yes. Wait no. No, that's not what I meant. I do like what I see, very much. But I meant put your pants on because your knee looks awful, no offence." Stiles quickly says and Derek rolls his eyes.
"Relax; I knew what you meant." Derek replies and Stiles gives him a dump look.
"Yet you decided to try embarrass me." Stiles says throwing his hands up in the air over dramatically. Derek just laughs smiling at the man next to him as he leans back into the couch.
"How about a couple games of Crash Bandicoot before I leave?" Derek asks and Stiles eyes light up.
"Alright, loser has to clean the old Massey Ferguson tomorrow deal?" Stiles asks already off the couch grabbing the controller and Derek nods.
-
*next day*
"Hey man." Boyd's voice calls and Derek turns around to find the younger man walking towards him with Parrish.
"Morning fellas." Derek calls out walking towards them. His limp is pretty bad but his knee doesn't hurt as much now that he has the brace on under his jeans.
"How's the knee? Stiles informed us on what happened, that's a fair limp." Parrish says.
"Better now that I have a brace on it." Derek responds and Parrish nods. "How was the bar?"
"Great! Erica had the night off so she hung out with us and Lydia came out for a few hours just to hang with Parrish." Boyd says with a wink nudging Parrish's side.
"Yeah yeah whatever. Just because you and Erica are together don't rub it in that Lydia and I aren't." Parrish comments and Derek rolls his eyes.
"You know she is crazy into you right? If you ask her out she will say yes." Derek adds honestly.
"Really?" Parrish asks with an unreadable expression.
"Dude! Stilinski and I have been telling you this for weeks!" Boyd shouts turning to his friend.
"Yeah but you and Stiles are always messing with me. Whereas with Derek, I know he'll tell me the truth." Parrish answers and Boyd rolls his eyes.
"Whatever man, just ask her out before you regret it." Boyd replies before turning back to Derek. "Anyway we better get back to work since Scott stayed the night at Allison's we have to do his jobs today."
"He stayed the night with her? So her father is alright with them being together then?" Derek asks and both men shrugged.
"I think he is, but I did hear him say they have to sleep in separate rooms." Boyd answers and Parrish scoffs.
"Yeah, like that would've lasted. One of them would have snuck into the others room the minute Chris goes to bed." Parrish comments and Derek nods remembering the times he had snuck out of home to meet up with Kate back when he thought she loved him.
"Yeah well that's true. Anyway see you at lunch Derek." Boyd says bringing Derek's attention back to them before the two of them walk off down the driveway.
Derek shakes his head walking back towards the half washed tractor trying to get the memories of Kate out his head. He climbs onto the back right tyre of the tractor so he could reach the roof of the cab with his cloth. In hindsight he could have gotten a ladder to reach the top but the tyre is a lot easier.
He finishes cleaning the roof and climbs down off the tyre, carefully with his injured knee before giving the rest of the tractor a quick last rinse with the hose. His long sleeve flannel now stuck to his skin from a mixture of sweat and water. But he knew within an hour his clothes will be dry from the heat. He puts the hose away and climbs in the tractor brining the old Massey to life before reversing it back into the shed.
He spends the rest of the day cleaning out gutters on the farm sheds and barns. He has lunch with the farm hands and Stiles, eating burgers Scott bought back from Beacon Hills this morning. He got informed on anything and everything about Allison. She seems to be the only thing on Scott's mind at the moment now that they are officially together. It bothers Derek more than it should when Scott goes all sappy talking about his girlfriend. He knew he should be happy for the boy but it irritates him. Scott's only 18, he doesn't understand love and how dangerous it is. By the time Derek was 18 he'd gotten the girl he loved killed and got manipulated by a woman he thought loved and cared about him. Who turned out to be just using him for fun and to get to his family. The worst part of all of it was that Scott's girlfriend reminded him of Kate a lot. Allison was without a doubt way nicer than Kate ever was, that part is clear but there's just something about her that screams Kate Argent at him. But he doesn't say anything to Scott, he just listens as the boy talks about her but doesn't join the conversation.
After lunch he goes back to shed he was working on earlier and continues cleaning the gutters, moving from one shed to the next. He just finishes hammering knee nails into the wooden roof of the old barn when he hears the clunking noise of Stiles' Jeep. Derek puts the hammer on top of the roof and climbs down the ladder to see what the boy is up to.
"You know you shouldn't be climbing a ladder in your condition." Stiles shouts getting out the Jeep and walking over to him.
"And you shouldn't have gotten straight back to work after the snake bite, so you can't talk." Derek responds with a grin and Stiles shrugs his shoulders.
"Valid point." The younger man comments as they both stand under the shade from the barn.
"I've been meaning to ask. I noticed the trees on the edge of the forest don't seem as healthy as the rest and this old barn at the back looks like it's been half burnt. Did you guys have a bushfire through here a while ago?" Derek asks pointing the side of the barn which was clearly black and Stiles nods.
"Do you want the long story or short story? Because I can talk for a long time." Stiles says with a laugh.
"Long story, I don't feel like going back to work just yet." Derek responds causing a smile to light up on Stiles' face.
"Well don't say I didn't give you an option." Stiles says leaning against the wall of the barn. "It would have been two years ago I think... yeah two years ago because it occurred during school holidays. Scott and I were home and Boyd had already finished school and was working here. Anyway, Dad wasn't home at the time but he got notified that there was a bushfire out our side of the town. He called me but I didn't answer because you know there was a bushfire next to the property. Dad couldn't leave the town by the time he found out about it, they had the road blocked off so nobody could get caught up in the fire while driving. So it was just Scott, Boyd, Parrish and I here at the time. We managed to keep the fire from reaching the front of the farm. But the wind changed and the flames began heading to where we are now in this direction. We kept the flames from reaching major parts of the properly but there was just too much land for the four of us to cover. The fire fighters and other local farmers were all off fighting the other end of the fire so we just had the two utes with fire fighters on the back to fight the flames. Parrish and I were both driving because we know the farm better than Scott and Boyd while they stood on the back of the utes with the hoses trying to stop the fire." Stiles explains and Derek nods as the boy continues. "The back ends of the property suffered the most. A few old barns like this one and old chicken coops that haven't been used for years were perished but they weren't valuable. It was the pasture paddocks and one herd of cattle at the back end of the farm that was valuable. The fire took out over half our cattle at the time but luckily we had two separate herds in different paddocks, otherwise we would have lost the lot. But it still hurt especially when majority of our pasture paddocks for the livestock to feed on got burnt to the ground. It's not that the farm is struggling financially, we aren't filthy rich, but we have enough money to get by but it didn't make the destruction of the bushfire any less painful. We've been slowly rebuilding since. It took us a year to put up new fences since all the wooden posts got destroyed and as you can see we haven't even started rebuilding some of the old barns we lost ."
"That would have been pretty intimidating fighting the fire with just the four of you. I'm guessing you and Scott would have only been like 16?" Derek asks and Stiles nods. "I'm impressed you managed to keep the fire away from major parts of the farm, I know how quickly fire can spread so it wouldn't have been easy."
"It definitely wasn't easy, but hey that's life." Stiles replies and Derek nods in agreement. "Anyway, you up for some PlayStation tonight? Scott bought the new Grand Theft Auto that came out last week and it's amazing."
"I have no idea what that is but if it's a chance to finally beat you at a video game then I'm in." Derek replies and laughs as Stiles fist punches the air in excitement.