there's trouble on the river, and whispers in the trees. i can feel it all around.
joy williams - until the levee
Previously on Teen Wolf
Derek furrows his eyebrows at the darkness, trying to adjust his vision, but soon looks down to see a sight they had all been looking to see for months.
Laying on the floor before him was a pale, bloodied figure. Red and black blood mixed together to coat her skin, she was almost unrecognisable but Derek knew it was her. The brunette hair matted together, dried tear marks cutting through the dirt and blood on her cheeks, lips an unusual blue colour and the only sign of life being the faint heartbeat in her chest.
He lowered himself to his knees, whispering words of comfort to Mia as he gently but swiftly picked her up bridal style. His original plan was to hopefully find her stable then find Boyd and Cora with Scott, but he had to make a pitstop first.
However, the only problem running through his mind was where did he take her?
The hospital, or to Deaton?
Now
YELLS of relief and shock could be heard from inside the Martin residence, and likely from blocks away as they heard the news. Mia was found. Lydia held her mother as she cried, stunned into silence while the Sheriff explained everything he knew; which wasn't much at all to be frank.
He knew that she was taken to the hospital and stuck with a long, long list of injuries and concerns from the medical professionals. It was Derek Hale who had found her, of all people, but he said to everyone that he had just found her on the side of the road a little ways out of town. It seemed impossible to him since they had checked almost every perimeter known to them but he didn't want to dwell on it too much, too happy that the girl was found alive.
What he didn't know however, was that while Derek carried an unconscious Mia to his car he went through an impossible debate inside his head. After placing her gently in the backseat, he sat in the drivers seat for a minute just staring at his hands now coated in blood. Hospital or Deaton?
Derek wasn't an idiot, he knew there was something supernatural going on with Mia. Wolfsbane affects her as much as it would affect any of the other wolf population, the black blood, recovering from a fatal bullet wound within weeks? Even the healthiest human in the world wouldn't have been able to survive the shot she did. There had to be something up with her, and that must be why the alpha pack took her too.
There was no imagining what she even went through, she was completely isolated from the others. Did they know she was even still alive? Did they try and find her?
Why would they even take her? Did they think she was a part of his pack too?
The questions being thrown around his mind at a pace he couldn't even comprehend anymore, he looked across the hall, focusing on the voices coming from the other side of the doors as he heard the commands being sent left and right from medical professionals. He made sure to contact Deaton before arriving, telling him to make it to the hospital as soon as he could so they had another perspective on the situation. Deaton, although having been woken up, agreed quickly.
"Derek."
He looked away from the doors, finding the face of a concerned Melissa McCall."She's barely reacting to anything I'm giving her in there, I- I don't know what to do but Deaton... he said she's, uh, she's fine?" Melissa laughed in disbelief. "She came in broken to hell but now... she's okay. Other than some malnutrition and dehydration she's surprisingly okay. And I don't know why, but that scares me more."
Derek let in a sharp breath at that. He had his suspicions about Mia ever since he found her with Scott and Allison's insane mom. But they'd all been far too busy to ever dwell on the possibility she was another addition to the supernatural population in Beacon Hills.
"Her mom and Lydia are with her now, Stiles is waiting outside her room," Melissa continued. "He said something about seeing Peter hanging around outside, and that you'd probably want to see him before he steals candy from a baby." She chuckled.
Derek nodded, ignoring the jibe sent from Stiles. "Is Scott still-,"
"He's with Argent, I think. Last I heard anyway."
He nodded again, standing up and silently stalking out of the hospital. Melissa watched him leave, confused to see the man they all thought to be so heartless showing so much care to someone they didn't think he was close with at all.
Maybe Mia did have a point, Melissa chuckled. Maybe they were buddies.
-----
Deaton sat on his own in Mia's room, her family had reluctantly left not too long ago to go grab her a change of clothes and themselves some food from the orders of Melissa, who also dragged Stiles away.
Leaving him alone with his thoughts as he watched the girl lay silent besides him. She had been mumbling in her unconscious state, almost completely healed now, just relying on some IV's to give her the nutrients she had been missing for so long.
The door opened slowly, making him snap his head towards it. Surprised to see Peter Hale of all people walking inside with an expression of pure indifference plastered on his face.
"What are you doing here?"
Peter stopped at the foot of Mia's bed, but turned to look at Deaton. "Got bored on crazy-werewolf watch. Thought I'd check out crazy-hospital chick instead. Well, I guess this is crazy-werewolf watch too, isn't it?"
"She wasn't bitten, Peter." Deaton told him, with the true meaning behind his words lingering in the air.
Peter hummed. "And I get more curious."
Mia suddenly groaned, making both men jump slightly. She started talking incoherently, piquing Peter's interest even more, all the while making Deaton more nervous.
"Chatty one, is she?" Peter smirked.
"She's just-,"
"Talia? Corin-" The girl mumbled, cutting herself off with a wince before going silent once more, breaking Deaton's careful approach with Peter as he quickly jumped up and in front of the man who very quickly had the look of a mad man.
"She's not in her right mind, she's been through a lot. Don't do anything-,"
Peter quickly shut Deaton up, swiftly picking Deaton up and throwing him to the other side of the room, making him slam into the wall.
"Don't do anything... What? Impulsive? Rash? Reckless?" Peter's lip quirked in amusement. "You know who else used to say that to me?"
Deaton watched in horror as Peter flicked his wrist, claws quickly forming as he wastes no time in pushing Mia to her side, giving no mind to the countless wires and IV's. He dove his claws into the back of her head without a second thought, diving straight into a memory that wasn't even hers.
-----
He saw Talia, rushing towards Deaton as he exited his car, already making a beeline towards her. "How is-,"
"She's taken care of." Deaton cut her off in a hushed tone. "How's she doing?"
Talia sighed, looking down at the baby in her arms. "She's... Perfect. Almost don't want to do this." She smiled sadly, holding the child close.
Deaton couldn't help but smile at the small bundle in her arms who was born in very unfortunate circumstances. "She'll be fine, I think I know the perfect place for her. You'll just have to give me a hand in getting her there."
She nodded, ready to do whatever she needed. "Peter can't remember this, Alan." Talia muttered. "He can't-,"
Peter hears a shout of his name from outside Mia's head, he found a low growl leaving his throat in determination to try and stay there for as long as he can to hear some more. But before he can delve any deeper, a scalpel gets lodged into his side, throwing him back into reality with a yell of pain.
He ripped his hand out of Mia's head without a second thought, with nothing the careful aid of Deaton who was now standing beside her bedside to make sure she was okay.
"What the hell are you doing?!"
Derek grabbed Peter by his shirt, throwing him against the wall and holding him up by the lapels of his jacket. Peter held a shocked expression on his face as he couldn't help but stare at the unconscious girl on the bed. Was she really his-
"Hey!" Derek slammed him against the wall again, much more harshly this time. "What the hell were you doing to her?!"
Peter gulped, turning his gaze towards Derek making the latter frown and loosen his grip. There's not been many times he's seen his uncle look shaken before, if ever. "She- I think, you've got a new cousin." He couldn't help but try and joke.
Deaton stayed silent, inspecting Mia's neck, which was already healing over before looking back towards Derek who's face held possibly the only look of confusion he had ever seen on the young Hale's face before.
"Mia? But she's-,"
Peter pushed the hands that held him to the wall off of himself. Dusting off his jacket and sending a glare to Deaton who didn't even falter in his gaze.
"Curiosity got the best of me so I thought I'd check in on our accident prone resident of Beacon Hills. Imagine my surprise when she's mumbling the name Talia." Peter chose not to mention the other name, no one else needs to know about her. "The witch doctor here, knows all about what I saw, don't you Doc?"
"We did what we thought was best-"
"What you thought?!" Peter growled out, his eyes flashing their unnatural blue. "Seeing as I didn't even know about this, what else don't I know? What else did she take from me?"
Deaton sighed, putting his hands in the air. "Nothing, Talia just thought she would be safer living a human life. No one could have predicted all of this." He wasn't being entirely truthful, he knew that. Peter didn't have to know it though.
Derek watched the exchange with a growing feeling of dread in his stomach, his eyes flickered over to Mia who's breathing had picked up ever so slightly.
"Can someone please explain what's going on?"
Peter paused, "Your lovely mother had a lot of secrets, Derek. Seems like Mia's one of them. Think it's too early to ask for however many years worth of fathers day gifts?"
"Shit." Derek breathed, realising how the situation got even more messed up. "How the hell has she been human so long?"
"Your mother," Deaton spoke up, "Talia. She was well versed in many things, she had the help of an Emissary to find something to suppress the change for as long as humanly possible. It's a wonder she made it this long."
Peter was silent at that before taking a deep breath and leaving the room, leaving Deaton to finally be able to relax his posture and Derek to walk back over to Mia's bedside, not-so-subtly kicking the bloodied scalpel under the bed.
The two stood in a tense silence, Deaton checking up on Mia's vitals while Derek made the move to grab Mia's hand to see if she was in any pain. No other reason, he reminded himself.
He gripped her small hand in his, bracing himself for the inevitable pain to come with it. But surprisingly, all he got was a small grip back, breaking his concentration.
"Deaton." Derek barked, "She just gripped my hand."
Deaton's eyes widened, he quickly grabbed his phone to call Melissa back to the room. He knew she was off with Stiles discussing the recent murders to try and distract him from something other than feeling guilty over the past few months. They needed to be here.
Mia started whimpering from where she lay, gasping for breath slightly as she did so. Derek grabbed a hold of her face while Deaton took to holding her legs down, keeping her still as she started to writhe in place.
"What's happening to her?" Derek asked, sending a slightly panicked look to Deaton.
Deaton shook his head, "This could be her first time waking up since transforming, if she's even done that yet."
Sighing angrily at the situation, Derek looked back down to Mia. She was calming down slightly so he took this as his time to try and get through to her.
"Mia, hey. You with us?"
Her eyes opened ever so slightly, glowing a vibrant gold before dimming to her usual brown. They were open, but vacant. He snapped his fingers in-front of her eyes, Deaton watching with bated breath as he did so. He couldn't think of anything worse for the town than another off-the-rails werewolf. They'd had enough of those this evening.
They both jumped as Mia grabbed ahold of Derek's hand with both of hers, eyes suddenly showing nothing but pure fear as they filled with tears.
Derek won't admit it, but his heart broke at the sight. The past couple days he's found a sister who he thought was dead, and a cousin who was pushed into the shadows as a baby. Both of whom, had been through hell. "You with me?"
She was silent for a moment, nodding her head ever so slightly before breaking down in tears. Derek wasted no time in pulling her up, and into his arms and offering hushed reassurance in her ear as she found the strength to grip onto his jacket.
Peter watched silently from the window outside the room, this changes everything.