Exposed

Chapter Twenty

"Ma'am, if you just have a seat we will arrange it so you can see her," Parrish says desperately to the irate brunette and smirking red head who just barged into the Beacon County Sheriff's Department. None of the deputies in the county were prepared to deal with the rage from the two women who have been the mothers to the woman in the jail cell. Standing there, dealing with the yelling and the smirking women, it's no surprise that Amelia is the way she is.

Stephanie Alderson isn't having it. She swells up to her full height and blows out an impressive stream of profanity that puts even the toughest cop to shame. Finally, the red head to her right places a hand on her girlfriend's shoulder and steps in.

"I'm Karen Janowski and this is Stephanie Alderson. We're Amelia's parents."

At the news, Parrish finds himself staring between the women as he tries to figure out which one has the biological tie with the woman two rooms away. There are no physical resemblance between any of them. Well, except for the smirk Karen's been wearing from the moment she stepped through the door. There's no doubts or questions about where or who Amelia got that particular gem from.

"We adopted her when she was sixteen," Karen says to clarify for the confused deputy. His sea-green eyes clear and he nods his dirty blonde head frantically as the information sinks in. "Look, we just want to see her. Make sure she's okay. Her last experience with being arrested by police in California resulted in us insisting she take self defense classes and learn how to shoot a gun. Ever since then we've been a little bit more over protective. Especially Steph here."

Parrish stands there without a clue as to what to do to appease these women. He can't just allow them to the back to see the girl they're so clearly desperate to check on. Not without permission from Stilinski who is currently in his office with his son, Scott, Derek, and Argent discussing how to stop the girl from printing her story. Not that anyone has any ideas on how to do it. Stiles mentioned locking her away for forever but no one was quite ready to go with that idea.

"Let them through," Derek says from behind Parrish. The deputy turns his wide, surprised eyes on the wolf with the questions ready to pour off but Derek simply ignores him. He walks by and holds a hand out, carefully avoiding any contact with the two women. They huddle past and Parrish latches onto Derek's arm.

"What are you doing?"

"Accommodating the jail bird in the hopes she won't ruin our lives," he whispers back before pulling his arm away and following after the women.

Amelia is already standing by the cell bars with her hands wrapped around the cool metal. The smile on her face is genuine, wide, and halting for the two men following behind. Whereas the women propel themselves forward, they are stopped in their steps and staring at the sight before them. Derek caught a glimpse of this smile just hours before but it quickly faded the moment her eyes caught sight of him. Now it's full blown and stunning and refreshing to see.

"You crazy girl," Stephanie says as she hugs the girl through the bars. "What have you gotten yourself into this time?"

At the question, Amelia opens her eyes and looks at the two men standing in the doorway. Derek can almost hear the sigh falling from her lips. "I don't even know."

Stephanie pulls away to observe that the young woman is unharmed. She shakes her head. "You said you would never step a foot inside California again."

"You know what they say about saying never," the youngest woman replies with a shrug and they laugh.

"We're going to get you out of here," Karen says and squeezes Amelia's hand. "Just leave everything to me."

And she was true to her word. Less than an hour later and Amelia was signing the paperwork for her release from lock up. Once her untidy scrawl is signed on the solid line she glances up at the six men staring back at her from the next room. Each one is just as apprehensive as the other about letting her go out into the world with the information she has. Her eyes meet Derek's and he gives her a single curt nod before grabbing the attention of his companions.