BECK SAT ON the couch, her fingers tugging on the sleeves of her sweater. She listened as Cora told Stiles about the time Uncle Peter and Derek were being chased by hunters when they were younger.
"They were there for two days," Cora finished as thunder sounded in the distance. Rain pattered against the window, beginning to wash away that disgusting symbol the alphas painted there. "Waiting, hiding."
"That's what we're taught to do when the hunters find us," Beck added softly, not looking up towards Stiles and Cora as she pulled her knees close to her chest, still pulling at her sleeves.
It had only been a couple of days since Boyd's death. Derek had vanished, mourning the loss of his beta. Beck had been staying in the loft with Cora, both sisters mourning together.
They had to dump Boyd's body in the woods, making it look like a wild animal attacked him. The cover-up was weak, a five-year-old could see that an animal couldn't have killed Boyd. But they didn't have any choice. They wouldn't know how to explain the claw marks.
It felt wrong to Beck, just leaving Boyd's body in the middle of the woods for anyone to find.
The only good thing to have come out of that day was that Scott had found and saved Deaton, with help from Stilinski. But, like the Darach had it lined up, another doctor was found dead.
Cora nodded her head before finishing. "Hide and heal."
"Okay, so is two days standard then?" Stiles asked as he glanced from Cora to Beck. "Or... are we thinking Derek's on like some extended getaway?"
"Why do you care?" Cora snapped turning to look at Stiles.
"Cora," Beck muttered softly, rubbing her sleeve-covered hand in her eye.
"'Why do I care?'" Stiles repeated as he began to pace. "Let's see, because, over the last few weeks, my best friend tried to kill himself. His boss nearly got ritually sacrificed. A girl that I've known since I was three was ritually sacrificed. Beck is being recruited by a coven that wants to kill her. Boyd was killed by alphas. I... you want me to keep going? Cause I can, all right? For like an hour!"
"And he will if you give him the chance," Beck grumbled as she looked up at Cora.
Cora walked towards the desk, ignoring Beck as she leaned against it. "You think Derek can do anything about that?"
"Well, since he's the one everyone seems to be after, it's more like he should do something about it. Yeah."
"I don't know," Cora muttered. "There's something different about him now. He wasn't like this when I knew him."
"Well, Core, you did miss a lot," Beck said as Stiles and Cora turned to the small blonde for an explanation. "And a lot can change a person."
"Well, what was he like?"
Footsteps sounded as someone descended the stairs. Everyone turned to watch as Uncle Peter entered. "A lot like Scott, actually," he said as he continued to descend the stairs. "A lot like most teenagers. Unbearably romantic, profoundly narcissistic. Tolerable only to other teenagers."
Beck watched from her position on the couch as Uncle Peter and Stiles walked towards the desk that Cora stood at.
"Okay, so what happened?" Stiles asked curiously. "What changed him?"
Uncle Peter looked at Stiles, sighing. "Well, the same thing that changes a lot of young men. A girl."
"You're telling me some girl broke his little heart?" Stiles asked, borderline groaning. "That's why Derek is the way he is?"
"Do you remember Derek before he was an alpha, had blue eyes?" Uncle Peter asked Cora and Stiles. "Do you know why some wolves have blue eyes?"
"I always thought it was, like, a genetic thing," Stiles muttered with a shake of his head.
"If you want to know what changed Derek, you need to know what changed the color of his eyes," Uncle Peter explained before beginning the story of a young Derek and a girl named Paige.
Beck smiled to herself. She remembered Paige. Beck was only six when they met, when the events of this story happened.
"Derek," Laura called as she entered the high school gymnasium, Beck's hand held tightly in hers. The sound of sneakers scuffing against the hardwood floor echoed around the large room as a group of teenage boys ran drills. "Derek!"
Stopping, Derek turned as he scowled at his older sister who interrupted his practice. Turning to his coach, Derek raised a finger before jogging to his sisters.
"What?"
"I need you to watch Becca," Laura explained as she tilted her head towards their little sister. Beck smiled as her older brother looked down at her, waving her hand.
"No way," Derek scuffed as he looked back at Laura. "I'm busy at the moment. And besides, Mom said that you had to watch her."
"Yeah, well something came up," Laura snapped, moving Beck to sit on the bleachers. "So now you have to watch her."
"Laura, seriously?" Derek whined.
"Deal with it, Derek." His older sister snapped before turning on her heels to leave the gym.
Huffing, Derek looked down at his baby sister. Derek smiled at her as he crouched down so that he was at eye level with her. "Becca, I want you to stay here and wait for me to finish practice, okay? Then after, we can go into town and get ice cream."
"But Bubba, Momma doesn't like it when we eat ice cream before dinner," Beck argued with a tilt of her head, making her blonde ponytail sway.
"That's why if she asked, you know what we're gonna say?" Derek asked with an evil smirk. Beck shook her head, prompting Derek to continue. "We're gonna blame it all on Laura."
An evil grin found its way to Beck's face, one that matched Derek's.
"Hale! Let's go." Derek's coach shouted.
"I gotta go," Derek said as he stood, running back to the court before pointing a finger at Beck. "You stay right there."
And that's what Beck did, for about ten minutes before she got bored. Swinging her feet, the six-year-old glanced around the gymnasium as the basketball team practiced. This was so boring.
Turning towards the door to the rest of the high school, an idea formed in Beck's head as she glanced at Derek. He was distracted with practice, not paying any attention to her.
Smiling evilly, Beck hopped off the bleachers before running to the door, giggling as she went.
"Okay," Stiles called, stopping Uncle Peter's storytelling and Beck's reminiscing. "So, if Derek was a sophomore back then, how old was he? How old were you?" Eyes narrowing, Stiles glared at Peter. "How old are you now?"
"Not as young as we could have been, but not as old as you might think," Uncle Peter answered cryptically.
"Okay, that was frustratingly vague," Stiles murmured before turning to Cora. "How old are you?"
"I'm seventeen."
Gesturing to Cora, Stiles glared at Uncle Peter. "See, that's an answer. That's how we answer people."
"Well, seventeen how you'd measure in years," Cora corrected, earning a groan from Stiles.
"Beck?"
"Cora's seventeen, I'm fourteen, Derek's twenty-three, and Uncle Peter's old," Beck answered as she leaned her head back against the couch.
"Thank you," Stiles sighed before waving a hand toward Uncle Peter. "What happened to Derek and the cello girl?"
"What do you think happened?" Uncle Peter scuffed, returning to his story. "They're teenagers. One minute it's 'I hate you, don't talk to me.' The next it's frantic groping in any dark corner they could manage to find themselves alone in for five minutes. And don't make a face, little niece." Uncle Peter called, turning to Beck who was making a face. "You're a teenager now, you're gonna start doing that."
"Can we not talk about me and go back to the story," Beck grumbled.
"Anyway, their favorite dark corner was an abandoned distillery outside of Beacon Hills."
"All right, hold on," Stiles called, making Uncle Peter stop again. "How do you know all this? You just said that they were alone."
"Back then, I wasn't just Derek's uncle," Peter explained. "I was his best friend. His closest confidante, that's how I know."
"That's a lie," Beck muttered, side-eying Uncle Peter who side-eyed her back.
Rolling his eyes, Uncle Peter continued, telling how Derek and Paige would make out in an abandoned building until one time, they were interrupted by a gathering of werewolf packs. The alphas and their packs before the alphas killed them.
Beck sat back, returning to her memories.
Beck skipped as she wandered the hallways. No one else was there. She was all alone. Now she just needed to find a place to hide.
Suddenly Beck heard music, making the little girl stop. Turning, Beck followed the sound till she reached a set of double doors. Pushing with all her might, Beck entered the room with a giggle.
In the center of the room sat a girl playing with a giant guitar. She was surrounded by chairs. The girl rubbed a stick against her guitar, making the music Beck heard as soft ticking came from a weird device next to her.
Curious, Beck walked towards the girl before sitting in the chair next to her. Beck watched the girl play her instrument till she finally noticed the little kid, stopping.
"Um, hello?"
"Hi," Beck said with a smile and a wave.
"Where'd you come from?" The girl asked curiously as she glanced towards the door.
Ignoring her question, Beck pointed at her giant guitar. "What's that?"
"This?" The girl asked, gesturing to the instrument in her hands. Beck nodded as she looked up at the dark-haired girl. Smiling, the girl explained. "This is a cello."
"It looks like a guitar."
"Well, it's not, it's a cello. It's in the string family with the guitar, that's why they look similar." The girl explained as she moved her stick against the strings. "But they're played differently. You see, to play the cello, you have to rub the bow against the strings to create a hum, making music." The girl showed for Beck, playing a couple of notes.
"Pretty," Beck smiled as she watched the girl.
"Thank you," the girl smiled before looking toward Beck. "My name's Paige, what's yours?"
"Rebecca."
"Well, Rebecca, what are you doing here?" Paige asked as she played a couple more notes on her cello.
"Hiding from Bubba," Beck giggled with an evil smile.
"And does Bubba know that you're hiding?" Paige asked, earning a head shake and another giggle. Sighing, Paige placed her cello to the side before standing, sticking her hand out for Beck. "C'mon, let's get you back before Bubba starts to worry."
Beck pouted but grabbed Paige's hand nonetheless, following her out of the music room.
Uncle Peter stood by the window, tracing his finger through the condensation. "Our mark for vendetta," he explained after drawing a spiral into the glass.
"Man," Stiles sighed. "You guys take that revenge thing to like a whole new level, don't you?"
"It's not just revenge."
"Losing a member of your pack isn't like losing family," Beck explained, leaning forward as she wrapped her arms around her legs. "It's like you lose a limb. You lose a part of yourself. It's devastating to an alpha."
"They wouldn't even let him see the body," Uncle Peter added slowly.
"I don't get it," Cora muttered, looking up at Uncle Peter. "What does this have to do with Derek?"
"Well, if you two would shut up, maybe he would get to the point," Beck grumbled.
"Wait a minute, have you already heard this story?" Stiles asked, narrowing his eyes at Beck. The small blonde nodded her head as she looked at Stiles. "Of course you already know about this," Stiles scuffed with a shake of his head.
"Anyway, to answer your question Cora, this has everything to do with Derek," Uncle Peter said, returning his attention to Cora. "It's never just a single moment. It's a confluence of events. Personally, I looked at Ennis's circumstances, I saw a profound loss. Derek saw something different. He saw an opportunity."
"Opportunity? To do what?" Stiles asked as Beck knitted her eyebrows together.
"To always be with her," Uncle Peter explained. "The thing was, he had this constant fear. He was obsessing over it. Thinking about it, all night, all day. Always on his mind. He wanted to turn her. I kept telling him not to do it. Every day the more he thought about it, the more convinced he became. You know teenagers."
Beck began to shake her head as she sat up. That fat-faced little liar. It wasn't Derek's idea to turn Paige, it was his. Uncle Peter was the one who got Paige bit.
"I bet he even blames me," Uncle Peter said, trying to gain sympathy from Cora and Stiles. But one look at their faces and Beck knew, they weren't convinced. "He's probably convinced himself the whole thing was my idea."
Paige led Beck down the hallways of the high school, not knowing where they were going but knowing eventually they would run into someone who was looking for the little girl.
And that happened just as they turned a corner near the gym.
"Becca," Derek called as he jogged down the hall, opening every classroom door in search of his little sister. He had only realized she was missing after practice had ended and he had left the locker room. Now he was searching the halls desperately to find her. He tried to catch her scent, but it was faint. "Becca, this isn't funny. Where are you? Rebecca!"
The two girls stopped at the end of the hall, watching as Derek moved to the next classroom to search.
"Derek," Paige called, making the dark-haired boy's head snap up to look at her. Tilting her head, Paige glanced down at Beck. "Lose something?"
"Hi Bubba," Beck smiled as she waved at her big brother.
Sighing, Derek walked toward the two girls. "Becca," Derek growled playfully before grabbing the giggling girl and lifting her into his arms. "I told you to stay in the gym."
"I got bored," Beck giggled as she wrapped her arms around Derek's neck.
Sighing again, Derek shook his head before turning to Paige. "Thank you," Derek smiled. "My mom would've killed me if I had lost her."
"No problem," Paige smiled at Beck before turning to Derek. "I didn't know you had a sister."
"I have three," Derek corrected before glancing toward Beck. "But just between us, Becca's my favorite."
"That's not a secret," Beck giggled with a shake of her head. Derek smirked at Beck before turning back to Paige.
"I can see why, she's a sweetheart."
"Yeah, that's not the reason," Derek chuckled, returning Beck to her own feet. Looking at Paige, they both smiled. "I... I should get her home before my parents freak."
"I thought we were getting ice cream and blaming Laura?" Beck whined, looking up at Derek.
"We were, till you decided to run off and hide on me," Derek explained, watching as Beck began to pout. Cracking under the upset look of his sister, Derek added. "Maybe we can find something else to blame Laura for."
Paige giggled at the siblings. "Now I see why she's your favorite." Looking down at Beck, Paige began to wave. "It was nice to meet you, Becca. I hope to see you again."
"Bye Paige," Beck cheered as she waved back to the cello player.
Looking back up at Derek, Paige gave him another smile. "See you later Derek."
"Yeah, see you later," Derek said back as he began to lead Beck towards the exit.
"They keep us connected to humanity," Cora explained the concept of emissaries to Stiles. How Druids were like advisors to alphas and the pack's connection to humans. "But they're a secret even in the pack. Sometimes only the alpha knows who the emissary is. We had no idea about Deaton."
"Or his sister, Morrell," Uncle Peter added with a mumble.
"She's an emissary too?" Stiles groaned.
"For the alpha pack," Beck nodded.
"Our guidance counselor?!" Stiles snapped, turning from Cora to Uncle Peter to Beck. "Why the hell don't you people tell me any of this stuff, huh? I shared some intimate details with her."
"And did she give you good advice?"
"Actually, yeah," Stiles nodded with realization.
"That's what they do," Beck explained. "That's what Deaton used to do for Mom."
Uncle Peter then continued his story, telling how Ennis was the one to give Paige the bite.
"Ennis?" Cora gasped at Uncle Peter. "Why would you choose him?"
"Why not?" Uncle Peter scuffed. "Ennis needed a new member for his pack. Paige was young and strong. Doing a favor for Derek meant Ennis would be in good with Talia. Back then, everybody wanted to be in good with her."
"He doesn't remember it was Ennis, does he?"
"If he does, he keeps it to himself."
"So, then what happened?" Stiles asked. "Did he turn her?"
"Almost," Uncle Peter hummed. "Derek was at the school when it happened, heard Paige's cries for help. He came at Ennis. A fifteen-year-old boy, against a giant. There was no reason for him to fight. She'd already been bitten."
"So, did she turn?"
"She should have," Uncle Peter answered softly. "Most of the time, the bite takes. Most of the time."
"When you offered it to me," Stiles said as he looked up at Uncle Peter. "You said, 'If it doesn't kill you.'" Stiles then looked to Beck, realization written on his face. "And Beck, back when Jackson wanted Scott to get him the bite, you told us how there was a chance the bite wouldn't take. Why Derek never let you get the bite. If the bite didn't accept you..."
Beck nodded her head, watching the gears turn in Stiles's mind as he thought back and connected the dots.
"If," Uncle Peter repeated before continuing, telling how Paige wasn't getting better, wasn't healing. Wasn't turning. "He knew the answer, though. It didn't matter that she was young and strong. Some people just aren't made for this. She fought. She struggled desperately. Trying to survive."
Uncle Peter then went on to tell how Derek would try to take her pain. But it was no use. Not wanting to watch her suffer, Derek did the only thing he could do. He killed her and changed his eyes forever.
Beck remembered when she first saw Derek with his new electric blue eyes. The eyes of a werewolf that had taken the life of an innocent person.
Beck giggled as she ran through the hallway of the high school. It had become common for the little girl to slip away from the gym during her older brother's basketball practice to wander the halls till she found the music room.
Derek didn't mind, it gave him an excuse to see Paige.
But that day was different.
As Beck neared the music room, she didn't hear the familiar hum of Paige's cello. And when she entered the room, it was dark and empty.
Confused, the seven-year-old looked around, thinking that Paige was playing a game. But after a moment of searching, Beck found that she was the only one in the room.
Till Derek entered after her.
Turning to her brother, Beck cocked her head to the side. "Where's Paige?"
"She's not here," Derek muttered softly.
"Where'd she go?"
"She's gone," Derek answered flatly.
"When can I see her again?" Beck asked.
"You can't."
"Bubba, I'm confused," Beck whined, looking around the empty music room. "What happened to Paige?"
"She's gone."
"But where is she?"
"She died, okay?" Derek snapped, flashing his eyes at Beck. But instead of golden yellow eyes, electric blue stared down at Beck. "Paige is dead."
"Derek, your eyes," Beck gasped, looking up at her brother in shock. "They're blue." Derek lowered his head as he returned his eyes to normal. "What happened?"
Derek only shook his head as he wiped at his nose. Moving to Beck, Derek lifted his little sister into his arms before carrying her out of the music room.
Understanding that Derek didn't wanna talking about it, Beck wrapped her arms around her brother's neck and rested her head on his shoulder.
"It's okay Bubba," Beck said with a smile. "I still love you."
"I remember taking her body from his arms," Uncle Peter explained. "To the woods, to a place where I knew that it would be found. Another in a long line of Beacon Hills animal attacks."
"And what about Derek?" Cora asked, tears building in her eyes as her voice cracked with emotion.
"Taking an innocent life takes something from you as well," Uncle Peter answered as he studied his hands in front of him. "Bit of your soul. Darkening it. Dimming the once brilliant, golden yellow to a cold, steel blue. Like mine." Uncle Peter then flashed them his own electric blue eyes.
BECK WAS PULLING at the sleeves of her sweater again when her phone chimed from the coffee table.
Drew.
Beck felt bad. Since Boyd's death, Beck had been ignoring him. She just wasn't in the mood to talk to him at the moment.
"What?" Cora asked, watching Stiles as he thought. The brown-haired boy looked up at Cora, prompting her to continue. "What's this look... what's this look on your face?"
"What look?"
"The kind of look that makes me wanna punch you," Cora growled, earning a snort from Beck.
"Oh my God," Stiles groaned. "You are so Derek's sister. Forgot."
"Hey, what about me?" Beck snapped from the couch, glancing over her shoulder to glare at Stiles.
"Yours comes and goes," Stiles said.
"What is with the look?" Cora insisted, returning Stiles to the topic.
"I just don't believe him," Stiles sighed.
"A wise choice," Beck grumbled.
"In Ms. Blake's class, we're reading Heart of Darkness." Stiles began to explain as he turned to Cora. "And it's in first person, right? Narrated by Marlow. The thing is-is that he's an unreliable narrator. You know the details of it have changed, you know, just because of his perspective."
"Well, then we heard the story from Peter's perspective," Cora muttered.
"Right, and I don't think we got the whole story."
"So, what?" Cora asked with a shake of her head. "Are-are you just gonna ask Derek about the girl he fell in love with... and then killed?"
Stiles looked down before raising his head slowly. "Beck!"
"Took you long enough," Beck mumbled.
Jumping up, Stiles rushed to Beck before sitting on the couch next to her. Cora followed slowly after, studying them.
"You said earlier that you already heard the story, right?" Stiles asked, earning a nod from Beck. "Did Peter tell us everything?"
"No," Beck admitted. "It was Uncle Peter's idea to turn Paige. He was the one to go to Ennis to bite her. And Uncle Peter was never Derek's friend."
"Yeah, I figured that part out," Stiles nodded his head as he glanced up at Cora. "Only a complete moron would believe Derek would do that. What I wanna know is did Peter tell us everything?"
"Oh, I don't know," Beck said with a shake of her head. "What Uncle Peter told you was mainly what Derek told me. But I do agree, there is more that they aren't saying."