Becoming The Shadows (Shadow Series #4)

10 - Gas Station

"I don't think he's just younger in body. I think he's younger in his mind, too."  Deaton shares with Scott and Stiles, while his injured arm lays on the lab table.

Lydia continues to bandage the cuts up with some gauze and wrap. "He didn't recognize either of us." Lydia pauses for a brief second to shoot a weak smile in my direction. She quickly turns back to the guys, not wanting to give them any ideas. "And he looked like he was scared out of his mind."

"So, if you're a teenage werewolf and you're scared, where do you go?" Stiles loudly asks for all of us to ponder the question.

I watch as Deaton moves away from the table  with his arm completely wrapped now. I sigh and run a hand through my disheveled, but normal looking hair. "A wolf goes back to its den."

Scott shakes his head at my response, "But, Derek lives in a loft."

"Not when he was a teenager." Stiles points out.

I sharply jab my elbow into Lydia's side, mouthing two words. Her eyes widen and she blurts them out to everyone else, quickly, "The Hale House."

Deaton presses one hand down on his injured arm. "He wouldn't remember the fire. It wouldn't have happened yet."

Without another word, Scott and Stiles both turn for the exit of the clinic. I reach forward, fingers barely brushing over Stiles' hand in the process. He spins around first, eyes wide and confused from when our hands touched. 

I withdraw my hand away as fast as I can. I awkwardly clear my throat when the two of them peer at me, wondering why I stopped them from leaving. "Wait, just- Say you do manage to catch up to him, what are you going to say to him? That his whole family is dead?"

Realization sets in on Scott's face. "I guess I'm going to have to."

"Oh...Good luck with that." Lydia says with a huge amount of sass.

"She's probably right. Maybe you shouldn't. You know, at least until we figure out how to get him back to normal."

I shake my head at Stiles, "He can't lie to him."

"Okay, I'll do it." Stiles shrugs his shoulders, like lying to a werewolf is no big deal.

"No, I mean," I take a small step closer to them. "Derek's a werewolf. None of us could lie to him. He can hear a heartbeat rising." I look up at Scott, already agreeing with his silent thoughts. "When we find him, we tell him the truth."

Deaton sighs, shooting all of us worried looks. "If he gets to the house first, you won't have to."

"- and we're supposed to meet Stiles at Scott's house." Kira says from the front seat  of Lydia's car. 

I blink my eyes, withdrawing myself from the scene that had happened earlier today. I take a deep breath and try to focus on the conversation that Lydia and Kira seemed to be having while I was off in la la land. 

Lydia pulls up beside gas pumps at a gas station that is abandoned with no other cars in sight. "That sounds like a horrible plan, but we've had worse. Like yesterday in Mexico?" She reminds the dark haired girl.

A look of guilt overcomes Kira's face as she glances down at her lap for a second. "About that." She readjusts herself to be able to see the both of us, straining a bit to see me in the backseat. "Remember how we were in the club and you two and Scott were tied up to electrified cables?"