𝐂𝐎𝐌𝐄 𝐃𝐎𝐖𝐍 𝐒𝐎𝐎𝐍, derek hale ✓

𝐍𝐈𝐍𝐄𝐓𝐄𝐄𝐍

┏━━━━⋆°.☾⋆.ೃ࿔*:⋆━━━━┓

TOTAL UPGRADE

EMERSON HATED THAT DINGY LITTLE SUBWAY STATION THAT WAS ONCE DEREK HALE'S PERSONAL HQ.

From the whopping two times she had been summoned there (and really, she was forced there during that first time), she was anything but a fan. The staleness that lingered through the air clung to her clothes, and she swore she saw a family of rats by the entrance on her way out once.

All of this meant that she was more than happy that he moved all of his shit into a loft downtown, in the middle of the warehouse district. Signed a proper contract and everything, Isaac had told her, and it was definitely better than loitering in the abandoned station.

It was a week after the alpha pack left their mark on the Hale and Prescott homes when she first visited the illustrious new loft. She'd spent the better half of that week with Hannah, installing cameras around the home and alerting the police of the mysterious break in that occurred.

The police would never find the culprit they were searching for, but even Hannah had to admit that the insurance payout for the damaged items was extremely nice.

Isaac was the first to open the door, pulling her into a hug before yanking her into the open space. And shit, was it not the kind of loft she was expecting.

It was more warehouse than loft apartment, she thought, with concrete floors and concrete beams for walls. There was a random spiral staircase that led up to somewhere, and a sliding door to her left that also led to somewhere.

"Is he for real?" she asked the blond in a whisper, eyes darting around until they settled on a lone desk near the wall of windows, and then to the bed in the far corner of the room. "The abandoned station had more decor than this place."

"I heard that."

Emerson grimaced while Isaac snickered at her side. "Busted."

Derek came into view in a navy blue muscle tee that seemed to tighten when he crossed his arms over his chest. "My statement still stands," she responded with her chin raised. "Seriously, would it kill you to get some plants in here?"

"Well aren't you just full of manners," he retorted smugly, using her very words against her. "Hello, Emerson."

She rolled her eyes, ignoring the way he enunciated her name like he was testing it out on his tongue. "Yeah yeah, hello Derek," she emphasized back, hiking her bag further onto her shoulder. "Are we gonna do this or not?"

He nodded, gesturing to the lonely desk that already had an ensemble of papers littering it. The reason for her visit wasn't just to get a tour, although she would ask Isaac for one seeing as he was taking up a temporary residence there, but it was to start their research process.

Despite being hunted for almost two decades, Emerson didn't know everything about Deucalion. She didn't know where he came from, didn't know the names of his cronies, and above all, she didn't know why he hadn't given up already. Eighteen years was a long time to be chasing after one person, was it not?

She only knew the details confined to her grandmother's stories and little things she picked up while on the run, and Derek seemed to have done some research of his own in the last week.

Derek clapped his hands together once, pulling Emerson's gaze away from the papers on the desk.

"Where should we start?" he asked, given that he agreed to do things her way.

Emerson smiled, dumping the contents of her bag onto the desk. It was filled with scrap paper and different coloured markers, an idea already on her mind. "We need to make a mind map."

"... a what?"

ೃ࿔*:⋆

They ended up taping the little pieces of paper together to form one massive sheet, and in the dead centre of it all were the words ALPHA PACK in Emerson's writing.

From there, lines were drawn away from the words in order to write down what they knew so far in blue marker. The red markers were reserved for questions they had that needed further research, and anyone could've guessed that half the damn mind map was covered in red ink.

The sun had gone down an hour ago, Isaac retreating to the spare room to sleep after Emerson all but ordered him to. It didn't look like he'd been sleeping all too well, and besides: the less he was involved, the better in her eyes.

She stepped back from the desk and admired their handy work, revelling in the way that Derek seemed to come around to the usefulness of what they'd been doing. Seeing it on paper, however, made the situation even more real.

"Have you ever thought about joining him?"

Emerson's head snapped towards his with a small, albeit sharp intake of breath. "What?"

"Have you ever thought about it?" He must've seen the apprehension in her demeanour, because he added a low, "you can be honest with me."

"Yeah, I've thought about it," she exhaled, looking away from Derek to the writing in front of them. "I wouldn't have to run... a lot of people would be alive if I did."

"But?"

"But then I'd just be one of them— one of the bad guys," she told him, her forehead pinched, "and my mom sure as shit didn't die just so I could turn out like that."

It was quiet, a little too quiet, and maybe she shouldn't have said anything. A dismissal was lodged in her throat because she wanted to take it all back, and because she knew Derek Hale wasn't one for feelings. Hell, she wasn't either, but something just—

"You think about her a lot?" the man asked, and his voice was calm, steady in a way that made her shoulders sag. He wasn't prying.

He wanted to know more, and maybe she'd revealed too much; but the words kept coming out the longer he looked at her. Like he was looking into her.

"I think about the idea of her," she admitted. "All I have are stories, of what she was like, so... it's not much, but—"

"I think about my mom a lot too."

Emerson averted her gaze back toward him, and the pair simply stared at one another. She never thought she'd see the day where Derek opened up about his own family. A part of her thought that maybe it was just an eye for an eye, a confession for a confession, but that wasn't the case.

No, it wasn't. An emotion flickered through his blue eyes, the same one that was undoubtably flickering through her own.

Understanding.

⋆°.☾⋆.ೃ࿔*:⋆

[ wyn's note ]

:(((((((

in my feels and so are they!! derek hale can be a gentle giant when he wants to be!! and in classic bronwyn style, he's a mama's boy 1000%.

thanks for 6k tehehe glad yall are enjoying this! xo