Warrior || Teen Wolf

33. Battlefield

Kimber trudged into the depot and she sat down on the stairs, lowering her head as she was looking down at the floor. "Kimber?" Derek asked and she was looking up at her brother, before she was pulling her knees up to her chest silently.

"Melissa is terrified of me." Kimber admitted quietly and Derek sighed, sitting down next to her and his arms opened. Kimber snuggled into them and Derek sighed, holding her close to him. "I looked into her eyes and I saw nothing but terror and betrayal, Derek." She mumbled quietly and he looked over at her. "You were right." Kimber admitted and Derek sighed, shaking his head at the words.

"I didn't want to be right about that, Kimber." Derek pointed out quietly as she was nodding, before she hugged him tightly and he rested his chin on top of her head as she started to shake with tears.

Kimber was soundly asleep in the train car after crying for hours, while Derek and Jimmy were sitting quietly in the loft upstairs and Jimmy sighed. "She will be okay, Derek." Jimmy said and the alpha nodded, absentmindedly bringing his claws out and watching them shrink again quickly. "Hey." He caught onto Derek's wrist and Derek glanced up at him.

"We know how to hide, Der. You know that. No one is going to find us unless we show up or unless we want them to know where we are, Derek. We know how to hide." Jimmy reminded him patiently and Derek sighed, before he was nodding. "I can cast illusions and stuff, they wouldn't know where we were, even if we were in the same room." Jimmy murmured and he was looking at Derek, who blinked.

"I think that Erica and Boyd are thinking about leaving." Derek admitted and Jimmy sighed at the words, before he was nodding. "I'm going to lose half of my pack in one go." Derek admitted and Jimmy sighed, before he shook his head.

"Victoria is coming back from New York, since Kit has disappeared again. You will have her as another beta, an incredibly fast and strong beta who is fiercely loyal to the family that she has left." Jimmy reminded him and Derek sighed. "And naturally, I am going to be anywhere else but, here." Jimmy joked, hoping to get a good laugh out of Derek and instead, the werewolf stayed silent. "I was joking, you know." Jimmy murmured.

"You should go." Derek sounded completely serious and then, Jimmy stared at him. "I don't want you in the line of fire, Jimmy. You should get out of town while you still can." Derek said as he watched the wound from the pistol become a cut and then eventually, a scar above Jimmy's eyebrow as he felt his healing being drained.

"Derek?" Jimmy asked and Derek lifted his eyebrows at him. "Just do me a favor and stop trying to get rid of me." Derek opened his mouth and Jimmy shook his head. "I don't know what I have to do, to drive it through your head. But I am not leaving you or your pack behind, no matter what happens." Jimmy said and he reached out, grabbing Derek's hand. "I'm not leaving you behind to face the Argents and Jackson alone." Jimmy knew that Derek was listening to his heartbeat, he could tell by the way that the werewolf was looking at him.

"Okay." Derek murmured and instead of arguing with him about it and making everything worse for everybody this time around, Derek just seemed too tired for it.

It was a couple of days later when Victoria had rejoined them after scaring the crap out of Jimmy, who was absolutely convinced that he was going to have a heart attack one day from being scared by a supernatural creature. Now, they were at the Hale House again and Kimber was silently reading in the corner of what had once been their living room.

Jimmy was trying to sketch out what he had been seeing but whatever it was, it was proving harder than he thought to articulate and he kept ripping pages off and balling them up quickly at the annoyance. "Jimmy, take your time." Kimber stated with amusement in her voice as the druid turned his head to stare at her. "You taught me that."