Try (Book Four, Teen Wolf)

Ch. 2: 117

Scott, Stiles, Lydia and I arrived back in Beacon Hills, in the parking lot of Deaton's clinic in the middle of the night in the pouring rain.

We hurried to my teenage brother inside the Camaro, wrapped in a blanket. I got the door open, Scott carrying him over his shoulder, both of us following Stiles and Lydia inside.

Deaton cleared a table so we could set Derek on top. "Wow."

"Wow?" Stiles repeated. "Wow, as in, 'I've seen this before and I know exactly what to do' kind of wow? 'Cause that's the kind of wow we were hoping for."

"I think you might be overestimating my abilities," Deaton told him.

Lydia held Derek's hand. "He's cold. Really cold."

"Do you think this is permanent?" I asked, Deaton shining a flashlight over Derek's unconscious features.

Turning off the light, Deaton looked at me. "I'm not sure a medical diagnosis is even adequate. This is well beyond my experience."

"So what do we do with him?" Stiles asked.

"Until he wakes up?" Deaton asked. "Probably not much. It might be best to leave him with me. He'll be safe here."

"You mean from Kate?" I asked, gazing off.

Deaton looked at me. "If she's alive and she is what you say she is, she won't be able to walk past the gate."

"Why would she want to do this to him?" Lydia asked.

"Knowing Kate, it's probably for a reason that won't be any good for anyone but her," I told them, a little bit bitter and angry that the woman who tried to have my entire family burned alive, with me in the fire.

Stiles scoffed. "And bad for everyone else."

"You guys should probably go home," Deaton told us. "He doesn't look to be in any danger. So maybe the rest of you should get some sleep? It is a school night. And you all need to start taking care of your own lives again."

"Somebody should stay with you," Scott said.

"I'll do it," I told him. "I don't even go to school."

Scott shook his head. I raised my eyebrows at him as if to ask oh, really? "Well, what I mean is, you need to finish healing. You and Derek have tons of stuff for healing at the loft. All I'm saying is it'd be a good idea to use it."

"He's not wrong, Tara," Deaton told me.

I exhaled, looking at Derek on the table.

Lydia was still holding his hand. "I'll stay. My grades are fine. Despite missing a few classes."

Stiles shook his head. "I'm so not okay with this."

Lydia looked at him. "Guys, go."

"No," Stiles told her.

Lydia looked at me and Scott on the other side of her.

"Text us if anything happens," Scott told her, both of us starting to walk around her.

"Nope, still not okay with it," Stiles said. I pushed him toward the door. "All right, just 'cause you're stronger . . ."

*

As promised, I had stayed at home, healing, sleeping it off.

The dream I was dreaming was actually a memory.

It was when Scott had brought me here last night, me driving the Camaro but with him in the passenger seat.

"You didn't have to escort me home," I told him as I stopped the car. "Yes, I know going after the Calaveras was stupid. But so was your plan to save me. It nearly got everyone killed. That's why I didn't ask for your help in the beginning. You can be mad about it all you want, but I was only trying to save Derek while protecting you."