Alone • Liam Dunbar

Five

We park sloppily when we arrive at the clinic. Scott, Stiles, and I all race inside the building through the back door, bumping into each other slightly as we all wanted to make sure everyone was okay. 

Lydia and Deaton stand over the observation table, the banshee wrapping the vet's bloody forearm with gauze. 

"What happened?" Stiles asks with wide eyes. 

"He ran away. Completely flipped out on us." Lydia replies while continuing to give aid to Deaton's injury. The vet monitors her movements to be sure she does it right, but he doesn't have to worry much. Like with everything else Lydia did, it was perfect. 

"I don't think he's just younger in his body. I think he's younger in his mind too." Deaton informs us as Lydia tapes his bandage. 

They both turn to us after, tense from whatever interaction they had with Derek when he finally woke up. 

"He didn't recognize either of us and he looked scared out of his mind." Lydia says. 

Stiles rubs at his face tiredly. "So, if you're a teenage werewolf and you're scared, where do you go?" 

"A wolf goes back to its den, but Derek lives in a loft." Scott replies. 

"Not when he was a teenager." Stiles points out.

Lydia's eyes widen by a fraction. "The Hale House?" She suggests. 

"It's already been demolished at this point." I say, recalling a conversation with Derek where he mentioned the county reclaiming the property in passing.

Deaton takes a step forward, making us all look at him. 

"He wouldn't know that. It wouldn't have happened yet." He says, making us remember Derek's current mental timeline was different than ours. 

"We need to go, maybe we can intercept him before he gets there." Stiles begins to back away, heading toward the door of the clinic again. 

If Derek was out there, we all knew it was our top priority to find him before anyone else did. 

"You guys go to the Hale House, I'll go to the loft just in case. It'll take some time but I don't want us to miss anything. Plus, maybe Peter saw him." I suggest to Scott and Stiles. 

The idea of having to ask Peter for help made me cringe, but he was Derek's uncle after all. There was a possibility Derek would try and track him if he could remember the scent of his family. 

Scott and Stiles nod in agreement to our last-minute plan, and the three of us move to leave. 

"Hold on," Lydia calls out to stop us. "Say you do manage to catch up to him? What are you going to say to him? That his whole family is dead?"

"I guess I'm going to have to." Scott replies, though that answer only earns a scoff from Lydia. 

"Oh, good luck with that." She says in her sweetly condescending voice. 

Stiles sighs at her sarcasm, getting a taste of his own medicine. "She's probably right. Maybe you shouldn't. You know, at least until we figure out how to get him back to normal."

"I can't lie to him." Scott frowns.

Stiles shrugs nonchalantly in return. "Okay, I'll do it." 

"He'll hear your heartbeat, genius." I give him a pointed look through exasperated eyes. 

"You know how to lie to werewolves." He bites back at me, as if that's any type of defense for him. 

"I trained to do that. You can't even lie on a normal basis." I retort.