Burning Slowly

Chapter 28

*a/n: I'm sorry this has taken forever to upload I just wanted to make sure these last chapter were the best.*

Derek ran, he ran and he got tired and he kept on running. He started to think his heart was pumping battery acid through his veins, but he still needed to go faster. He dodged around people on the boardwalk as he ran through the shopping strip. He jumped hedges, and he looked for shortcuts back to the house. Stiles's trail would start there.

It didn't take nearly as long to get back to the beach house as it had taken to get to the bus station, but he never wanted to be anywhere so badly before in his life. Allison was sitting on the swinging bench on the porch and saw him coming. She stood up and waved to him as he came running up.

"Where..." he gasped out, "where is he?"

Allison's smile was radiant when he asked and in that moment, Derek knew why Scott loved her; he knew why he gambled his life on her despite her family. He wanted to smile, but he didn't have it in him. He needed to conserve his energy. Derek imagined he was probably frowning, Stiles was right, they probably weren't all scowls.

"I'd tell you to smile because someone might be falling in love with you right now, but I think he likes your face in general." Allison's voice was musical and full of laughter as she said it. Derek smiled at her. The girl's eyes widened and she clapped her hands.

"You know where he is?"

"I know what direction he went," she told him seriously, then she smiled the way that Stiles smiled, full of mischief and mirth. "But forget what I said, he's definitely going to want that smile after all. You should use those more often." With that she pointed down the beach vaguely east.

Derek nodded his thanks to her, and took off around the house; the sky was starting to incrementally darken. The sun hadn't set. He still had time. He jumped down the side of the hill because there wasn't time to go to the back of the porch and down the ramp through the garden. He hit the beach at a run and kept going. He sniffed at the air, and found what he was looking for, traces of Stiles as well as the other members of the pack. They were east.

Derek ran. His legs were starting to burn, and he wished he had never left. He jumped over a couple he had only noticed at the last moment, spraying them with sand from his shoes. They squawked out in disapproval, but he didn't have time. He sniffed at the air again. He knew who he was going to run into before the person became visible.

Jackson stood on the beach looking out over the sea; he had a wistful look on his face, watching the sun sinking. The young blonde turned and looked at Derek, must have heard his heartbeat long before Derek had been visible.

"Where is he?"

Jackson looked at him, and maybe for the first time in a long time Derek didn't see any fear in his face. Jackson regarded him with an even gaze, searched him for something. Derek imagined after having had his arm nearly torn off, a panting Derek wasn't much of an intimidating presence.

"We're a family," Jackson told him, "maybe that's not how it started but that's how it is now."

"I know. I'm sorry," Derek said as he nodded solemnly.

"I didn't know what that really meant before we came here."

Derek didn't say anything. He looked at the sky and then at Jackson imploringly. Jackson watched him, sniffed the air and tilted his head as though he was trying to figure something out. Derek wasn't sure what it was. He tried to look at Jackson and communicate to him how much he needed to find Stiles, how desperately he needed to make things right.