Chapter 14: Night School pt. 3/The Art of Understanding
~Derek's POV~
My eyesight was becoming blurrier the further I drove, causing me to pull over on the side of the road. Realizing I was going to have to walk, I grumbled under my breath before reaching over and opening the car door.
Keeping my left arm wrapped tightly around my waist, I pulled myself up and out of the vehicle with a grunt, slamming the door shut behind me. Leaning against the Camaro, I took a moment to clear my vision before I started off towards the woods.
I needed to get to my house. I needed to heal or I was going to die.
I didn't particularly want to die.
Struggling and stumbling forward, I almost fell a few times but managed to right myself. Continuing on my path, I made it to a street-side corner before realizing the flaw in my plan.
I couldn't protect myself.
Just like I told Stiles when I'd been shot, it would be idiotic for me to go to the house when I couldn't protect myself.
Sighing, I leaned up against a tree as I tried to think of what I could do. Where I could go.
Looking across the street, I noticed a slightly familiar person walking out of the store, carrying a bag. Although the figure was blurry, I soon realized it was Rae.
God, she's almost as bad as Stilinski.
My head dropped in befuddlement as I tried to figure out what to do.
On one hand, I didn't even know if the girl knew what was going on. And she was infuriating to be around.
On the other, I needed help and I needed somewhere to go.
Mulling over my options for a moment, I decided that after the night she'd had, she most likely knew something at least, and that not dying was worth having to deal with her.
Stumbling across the road, I narrowly avoided being hit by a car as I made my way towards her. Trying to hurry so she didn't leave before I could get there, I struggled to the passenger side of her car and threw myself in before she could back up.
Closing my eyes in exhaustion, I let out a breath I didn't know I'd been holding as I let my head fall back.
"Holy shit, Derek you're alive!" At the exclamation, I raised a brow but stayed otherwise still.
"I'm aware. Can we move now?" Trying to shift myself into a more comfortable position, I groaned as searing pain tore through my abdomen.
"Oh my god. Okay." I was mildly aware of the body that had reached over mine, carefully clicking my seatbelt into place before the car started moving backward. "Why didn't you go to Scott?"
"Well, I was planning on going to my house, but realized that wasn't a good idea. You just happened to be across the street." I told her, keeping my eyes shut as I tried to not get sick from the movement.
"Why can't you go to your house?" She questioned, making me grumble at how alike her and the Stilinski boy were.
And just like then, I gave her the same answer. "Because I can't protect myself."
"Protect yourself? Against who? The Alpha?" I guess she did know something. I found myself growing slightly less annoyed by her presence at hearing the innocence in her voice.
She sounded like Paige.
"Partially. But also from the hunters." I told her, figuring that she didn't know about her friend's family's nightly activities.
"Hunters? What, like werewolf hunters?" She questioned, her voice raising a couple of octaves at the end.
"Yeah. Technically, they hunt all kinds of creatures, but they call themselves werewolf hunters. We're their main target." I probably shouldn't have told her there's more than werewolves, but I was in a lot of pain. "The Argents are one of the most prominent hunter families."
"Wait. The Argents? As in Allison's family?" The car braked abruptly and she apologized profusely when I moaned in pain.
"Yes, Allison's family. I don't know if she knows though. Her dad shot Scott with a crossbow the first time he turned."
"Holy shit, they don't know he's a werewolf, do they? Would they kill him?" Rae questioned, driving a bit faster afterward.
"No, they don't. They just know of him. And no, they have a code. They won't kill any of us unless we've shed human blood." Saying the words, I felt a deep pang in my heart as I thought of my family and the hunter that certainly didn't go by the code. I wouldn't tell anyone that though.
"Oh god, okay. That's good, I guess. Unless Scott hurts someone. Oh my god, what if he kills someone? We'll have to-"
"Please, shut up." I interrupted, the rambling driving me crazy.
"Sorry, sorry. This is all just so new. I didn't even know for sure what was going on until tonight. I don't know any specifics." At her words, I opened my eyes and looked over at her as she glanced at me. Her eyes were wide and I could practically see the gears turning in her head.
"I can tell you if you want." Her head whipped around to look at me before looking back at the road. "If you let me stay with you until I heal."
She seemed to think for a second before answering. "Yeah, you can stay with me. I may not like you much, but I don't want you to die."
I smiled lightly at her words, amused by them. "Why not?"
Rae turned to look at me once again with furrowed brows before facing forward. "No one deserves to die. And you might be annoying and grumpy and mean, but from what I can tell you've been trying to help Scott. That means under the surface, you're a good person. He's a total stranger. You didn't have to help him, but you did."
My eyes widened at what she had deducted on her own. Most people only viewed me as an asshole, they didn't actually realize who I was beyond the facade I showed to keep people away.
"I know I don't know you and I don't know your life, but I do know what happened to your family. I get why you would want people to think that the brash, scowling, infamous Derek Hale is who you are. You don't want people to get close to you. I'd do the same thing." Taking a moment to ponder over the girl's words, I turned my gaze to face out the windshield.
"How do you know so much?" I questioned, facing her once again.
Glancing over, she answered quickly, not even needing to think over her words. "I'm usually pretty good at reading people. And I surround myself with people who wear masks. My own sister pretends she's this ditsy blonde when she literally has like a 5.0 GPA. She's super talented too. She could've been a professional figure skater, she can bowl strikes every time, and she's an artist. Scott is ever the optimist and is always trying to help everyone, even when they don't care about him, but deep down I know he questions himself and whether anything he's doing matters. Stiles is always sarcastic and goofing around but that's mainly a defense mechanism so that he doesn't get hurt or stuck in awkward situations. Jackson is an asshole and I hate him most of the time, but he's just covering up the fact that he's always felt like he doesn't fit in. He's an angry and deeply sad person. He just wants to feel like his parents are proud of him, even though he's never met them. Everyone's got a mask of some sort, some are just more ingrained than others."
I was completely baffled as she finished her rant, not noticing most of what she had. Not even with Scott and Stiles. Maybe it was just because I hadn't been here long enough, or maybe I just didn't notice the tiny details. This time, however, I did notice a flaw in her statement. "So what about you?"
The girl tensed beside me as she looked over for only a second, her hands tightening on the wheel. "I guess I'm a mixture of my friends, ironically. I use sarcasm as a defense mechanism, I have the same insecurities that Scott does about trying to help everyone, I get insecure about whether I truly fit in with the people around me and if they want me around, and most people don't know that I can do a lot of the things Lydia can because I don't talk about it. I try to be a happy person, but in reality, I'm an angry person. I push all of my problems away until I crack and it's usually not pretty."
After she spoke, an invisible weight seemed to lift off her shoulders as I mulled over her words. "I do that too." At my words, she looked at me with curiosity before I continued speaking, pushing the words to come out of my mouth. "I push all my problems to the side. I'm an angry person, but I want to help people. I put up a mask of indifference and push everyone away because I don't want any more people I care about to get hurt." Tensing up, I ignored the look she gave me as I built a brick wall around my heart. I didn't realize that this was how this conversation was going to go.
"I get that. You don't have to do that with me, but I understand if you still do. You don't want to form connections with people and get hurt if they leave. I have to keep myself from doing the same thing every day." As she finished her sentence, the car pulled up into an empty spot of a driveway. Looking up, I noticed that the Martin's had a very nice house. Almost as nice as mine used to be. "There's a gate on the right side, go around and wait by the back door. I have to make sure that no one will see me bring you inside."
With that, she parked the car and pulled the keys from the ignition before unbuckling both of our seatbelts. Jumping out of the vehicle, she rushed toward the front door with her plastic bag as I pulled myself out of the car with a grunt. Steadying myself, I locked her doors for her before shutting the passenger side.
Carefully making my way to the right side of the house, I found the gate and opened it. Tripping, I walked around the premises before I found a door leading into the kitchen. Waiting, I decided to listen inside the house so I wouldn't focus on the shredding and grating feeling inside of my system.
The first thing I heard was the sound of deep breathing; someone must be asleep.
The second thing I heard was a woman's voice that must have been Rae's mother. "Oh my god. Raeanne Martin, where have you been? Your sister got home ages ago, I was worried sick."
My gut twisted as I remembered my mother saying something similar to me one day when I almost exposed myself at school. I walked home.
Also, I thought Rae was her full name. I guess not.
"I'm sorry, mom. I had to go to the store 'cause I'm out of pain meds. After all the running tonight, my back is killing me." I'd forgotten that she'd been hurt by the Alpha. She seemed to be handling it decently.
"Oh dear, why did you even leave the house? You were supposed to be resting."
"I just needed to get out of the house. I'd been here for days and needed to stop thinking about what happened."
"Well, next time, at least tell me you're leaving. I didn't know where you were until I got a call from John about what happened at the school. I can't believe that Derek Hale has been behind all of these murders." Wait, what? No, I wasn't. How did they even manage to come to that conclusion? I'd been exonerated.
"I know, mom. I can't either. Next time I'll let you know, I just didn't want you to stop me."
"I understand, Rae. Take a bath and get some sleep, okay? I'm gonna go lie down now, I have work in the morning." I was still confused about how I'm apparently killing people.
"Alright, mom. Sleep well."
"I will. I love you."
"I love you too, mom." Another pang hit my chest as I heard the simple words being exchanged between the mother and daughter that meant so much. It'd been seven years since I'd been able to do the same.
After that, all was quiet in the house as I waited for Rae to come let me in. I'd waited a full minute before she opened the door, ushering me inside. She didn't say a word as she pulled me upstairs, opening her door and guiding me to the bathroom.
"Okay, sit down and take off your shirt." Raising my eyebrows at her blunt words, I did as she asked while she closed both of the doors. I watched her as she dug through the sink cupboards, pulling out a first aid kit and hydrogen peroxide. Next, she pulled out a rag and wet it in the sink before dropping down in front of me. "I need to clean your wounds and then I'm going to patch you up, okay?"
Nodding, I clenched my teeth as she began lightly cleaning off the different types of blood covering my torso. When she finished, she had me lean a little further forward so she could do the same on my back.
"This is going to hurt," Rae told me as she popped off the cap of the peroxide. I simply nodded and waited for her to do it with a tight jaw. She didn't bother with the rag, knowing it needed to be applied directly. Squirting it all over my stomach, she made sure to get it clean as a strangled hiss escaped my lips. "Sorry." After she finished, she wiped my front down with the rag and rinsed it out.
Leaning forward once again, I endured the pain of her repeating the process on my back until she was satisfied. Wordlessly, she grabbed a roll of gauze and began wrapping it tightly around my torso. When she was done, she cut it off with some surgical scissors and tucked it carefully at my side. She then grabbed a roll of something else, making my brows furrow.
"It's Coban wrap. It's self-adherent. It sticks to itself. It'll keep the gauze from unraveling or moving." I nodded as the girl looked at me in question. She quickly began her work, wrapping it over the gauze before cutting it and sticking the end to the piece underneath.
Looking over her work, I noticed it didn't hurt as bad and the bandaging was nice and neat. "How do you know how to do that?" Looking up at her, I noticed she'd sat down on the edge of her tub.
Shrugging, she looked down and began fiddling with her fingers. "My grandma is an orthopedic nurse. I used to go to work with her sometimes before my parents divorced. She taught me how to bandage wounds and stuff. Everything in this first aid kit is leftover from what she gave me a few years ago."
Noticing the subject upset her, I decided to ask her about it. "Do you not get to see her anymore?"
Looking up from her hands for a moment, she returned her gaze downward. "No, not really." She let out a small laugh before continuing. "She always liked my mom more than her own son, but he's kept her from seeing us since they split up. We've only gotten to see her twice since then."
"Why did your parents even split up?" I asked her. I knew that couples broke up all the time, but growing up around my own parents, I could never really fathom why anyone would get divorced. More so, I couldn't understand why someone got married if they just ended up getting divorced. My parents always loved each other. They got married straight out of high school because they knew they wanted to spend their lives together. They had Laura right after my mom finished college and they had me right after my dad got his dream job. Looking back, my family was weirdly perfect, if you took out the werewolf gene, until their untimely demise.
"If I tell you, you can't tell my sister." At her response, my brows furrowed in complete confusion.
"Why on Earth would I ever speak to Lydia Martin?" Just the thought made my brain hurt. If only I knew that one day she would be one of the most important people in my life. That I would risk my own life by turning around and facing evil incarnate to make sure she was safe.
"I don't know. Just promise me you won't tell her. She doesn't know the full reason why they broke up." For some reason, looking into her pleading eyes, I nodded my head. Maybe because in that moment she reminded me of Cora when she was little, begging me not to tell mom she accidentally ripped up one of her favorite pillows after she turned. "Dad started taking business trips all the time. At first, we thought it was just because he got a promotion or he was busier than normal. After that, my parents started fighting more. Lydia was usually gone on those nights, over at Jackson's house. One night, I heard my mom scream at my dad to leave. He wasn't listening so I left my room to see what was going on. My mom was crying and my dad looked angry and had a tight grip on her arm. I didn't know what was going on, but I yelled at him to get out. He looked so mad when he looked at me, but he left. After that, I had to console my mother while she cried. It took about an hour, but she finally told me what had been happening. For a year, my father had been having an affair with some other woman. They almost had a kid, but he made her get an abortion. She was only like twenty-seven. That might be the only kid she ever has, and my dad took that away from her when it wasn't even his to give. She didn't even know he was married. My dad tried to fix it by saying he'd leave her, but he was lying. After that, my mom gave him the divorce papers. At first, they went through this whole custody battle until Lydia and I told him that we'd never go with him and that we were staying with mom. Lydia didn't know everything, but she knew that dad did something wrong and she'd seen mom cry enough times to know what side she was choosing. The woman caught wind of the divorce and broke things off with my dad when she found out he'd been a married man. And just like that, he lost his wife, his mistress, and his children, and he acts like he did nothing wrong. It's like he doesn't care. It's bullshit."
I was surprised that she'd shared that much information with me of all people, but I was more surprised to see the anger shining through her eyes that she tried to hide and that her hands had balled into fists. I took a moment to process all the words that she'd told me, storing them in the part of my brain correctly labeled 'Rae.'
"It's okay to be angry." The girl looked over at me abruptly, surprise coating her features as her fist slightly unclenched. "I would've beat my father if he'd ever done that to my mother. It's okay to be angry."
She simply stared at me for a moment, as if trying to understand what I had said. When she was done, she just nodded a little and like that, an understanding was formed between us. We may not necessarily like each other, but we understood each other on a deeper level than most people did. Hell, she understood me more in a single hour than Scott had in weeks.
"Well, now that you're all fixed up, why don't you fill me in on everything that I've missed." Standing up, she grabbed her bag off of the counter where she'd put it and took two of the small pills before handing me some of my own. The small measure of kindness made a small smile form on my lips. (I'm not sure if pain meds would work. If someone remembers that they don't please comment and I will fix this (: )
Following her into the bedroom, she handed me a pair of sweats, telling me they were Scott's and they should fit me. When I came back into the room, I noticed she'd made me a little bed on the floor with a fluffy comforter, blanket, and pillow. She was now locking her door and sitting down on the bed.
For the rest of the night, I told her everything, from the beginning, and we shared some more stories of our lives. I also found out that Scott outed me as the killer. About halfway through, she went downstairs, telling me to text Scott and tell him I was alive.
I decided not to.
I liked having the element of surprise. Plus, he'd just made me the most wanted fugitive in the state, he could worry for a few days.
A few minutes passed before she brought some hot cocoa back upstairs which made me look at her with surprise. She was simply a good person. There was no reason for her to even make the drink, but she also brought me a cup instead of just making one for herself.
It was a stupid thing to be glad about, but it was so rare to find people like her and Scott in today's world. And there was the fact that she was very smart...unlike Scott.
Maybe, somehow, I would do more than survive in this town. Maybe at some point, I'd find the will to live in it.
That was the last thought that crossed my mind as I fell asleep that night, comfortably snuggled into my bed on the Martin's floor.
OH MY GOD.
I've wanted to write this episode for so long and it was HORRIBLE.
Seriously, it's taken me like two weeks to finish this when I finished 'The Healing Touch of a Friend' to 'Tunnel Vision' and all the little projects in between in about the same time. I finally understand what other authors mean when they say they hate writing this episode.
I had to take a break and make the trailer for this book because I couldn't keep writing the episode. You have to write like almost the whole thing plus add original scenes and lines and perspectives IT'S SUCH A BITCH.
Anyways, despite the fact that these chapters kind of sucked, I hope you liked them.
Until next time,
au-revoir.
~SiriusCatBennett