𝐂𝐎𝐌𝐄 𝐃𝐎𝐖𝐍 𝐒𝐎𝐎𝐍, derek hale ✓

𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐑𝐓𝐄𝐄𝐍

┏━━━━⋆°.☾⋆.ೃ࿔*:⋆━━━━┓

OUT OF THE WOODS

SHE REALLY HAD TO STOP WAKING UP LIKE THIS.

This time around though, a dull ache radiated from her shoulder, and everything she could last remember came rushing to the surface.

Right. Allison Argent stabbed her with a wolfsbane blade. A strong kind of wolfsbane, too, apparently.

Emerson groggily peeled her eyes open, trying to blink away the fatigue that coursed through her bones. She glanced around her rather unfamiliar surroundings, pushing herself to sit upright on the steel table she was laying on.

Wait— was she in a fucking veterinarian's office?

There were anatomy posters on the walls, X-rays of feline bones plastered on a nearby screen, and obvious medical equipment scattered around. The only thing that was out of place was her, and she had no idea how she even got there with a bandage dressing covering her wound.

In her peripheral, she saw the door open. Once she craned her head to see who it was, she was somewhat relieved that it wasn't a stranger; no, it was Derek.

"How are you feeling?" he asked, coming to stand right in front of her. Even sitting on the elevated surface, she grumbled at the fact that he was still taller than her. What a prick.

"Feels like I got stabbed in the shoulder, thanks for asking," she snarked in response, and all it did was earn an eye roll from the man. "Where are we, anyways?"

"Deaton's office. He's Scott's boss," he answered simply, but based on the slight tick of his jaw, he was withholding more details from her. "Gerard's dead. Scott outplayed him... he and Isaac left a few hours ago once Deaton got the wolfsbane out of your system."

She nodded, unsure as to why a vet had the means of helping her. A part of her didn't even want to know. "And Whittemore? What happened to him?"

"The power of love brought him back," he responded with a huff, "or at least that's how Peter phrased it."

Emerson couldn't help the bubble of laughter that emerged from her, because Peter Hale sure as shit didn't seem like the number one advocate for love being the solution.

"Why'd you stick around?" she asked, trying to descend from the table but wincing when she strained her arm to stabilize herself. "Shouldn't you be having a "yay, the Argents are finally gone" party?"

His arm came to her waist, helping her remain steady as she clamoured onto her two feet. It was gentle, gentler than she ever thought he was capable of being.

"I promised Isaac I'd make sure you woke up," he carefully dismissed, and Emerson bit her cheek to prevent herself from smiling. "The type of wolfsbane on Allison's blade was strong. You'll feel weak for the next couple of days, at least."

Emerson's eyes widened like saucers. "Days?" she exclaimed, a new edge to her tone. "I have a soccer game tomorrow!"

"Should've thought about that before you decided to cover for me," he shrugged, and the mere notion made Emerson want to take it all back. Her eye physically twitched at his nonchalance.

She sneered in his direction. "Noted. Next time, I'll let Allison gut you like a fish."

Derek looked pleased with himself. "So, you're saying there's a next time?" he questioned, and Emerson wouldn't fall for his faux innocent tone. "Thought you said this was the last time you'd help me out."

"It was," she snapped in response. "It's a figure of speech, asswipe"

Emerson shoved past him, bumping her shoulder against his body only to let out a small yelp of pain, because yeah, she'd done so with her injured shoulder. She heard him chuckle from behind her as she went, pushing through the door he came out of.

Only, he followed. "Why'd you do it?"

Her head whipped back around, eyes narrowed. "Why'd I do what?"

"You could've let Allison maim me with those knives, but you tried to stop her," he recounted, and somehow the way he was so intently looking at her made the blonde shrink in place. "You hate me."

She was good at deflecting. "Fact."

He crossed his arms over his chest. "Emerson."

"I don't know, okay?" she confessed, throwing her hands in the air and grimacing as she did so. She wanted to say that she acted on instinct, or that perhaps she knew he might've done the same thing for her; but she didn't know which was a lie and which was the truth. "Goodnight, Derek."

And then she was out the door, preparing for her walk home because like hell would she accept a ride from his ungrateful ass.

Only, Derek wasn't that ungrateful, as he waited until she was out of view down the road.

"Goodnight, Emerson."

His way of saying thank you.

ೃ࿔*:⋆

With the Argents and the kanima out of the way, Emerson felt like she could truly breathe once again.

Sure, did it suck that more people knew about her secret double life? Yeah, absolutely, but there was one thing that was keeping her going.

In a few weeks, she'd be gone from Beacon Hills. And then, perhaps in a few months, no one would even remember having heard of the name Emerson Avery. That was the way it always went when she left a place for good, because she'd be a fool to return to the same place twice.

Graduation was on her mind, just as it was on the minds of her fellow seniors, including the Miller girl. The fact that they would be going their separate ways, with Elizabeth going to UMass and Emerson taking her year off, made her friend clingier than normal.

She showed up to all of her soccer games now, despite her lack of knowledge for the sport, and even brought extra Gatorade to the game following her wolfsbane poisoning. Obviously Emerson played it off as the stomach flu, her performance not as noteworthy as it normally was, and Elizabeth could only fret over the girl when she was subbed off in the second half.

One shitty game wouldn't affect them, because the Beacon Hills girls varsity team was steadily on their way to the state championship once again. So, not only did she have graduation to anticipate, but also her final game of the year.

A little voice in her head kept reminding her that this would be her very final game, and she couldn't help but listen. Vengeful souls rarely had time for hobbies, and she would need to come to terms with this.

Alas, her last few weeks of freedom were going to rain down on her, and she was more than happy to soak it all up.

Perhaps this would be the last time she felt like this— felt content behind the facade she'd crafted the minute she landed into Hannah Prescott's arms. So yeah, she would happily revel in pretending to be normal, if only for a few fleeting weeks.

And if anyone who knew happened to look twice at her now, she simply wouldn't bother.

⋆°.☾⋆.ೃ࿔*:⋆

[ wyn's note ]

graduation season is upon us, but the bright side is we got the summertime ahead of us ;) and u know what they say; a lot change change in just one summer ;)

me winking is intentional ;) LOLOL

thanks for 3k my gorgeous gorgeous pals!!!