An Uneasy Accord

Chapter 24 - Engagement

"You think Scott did it?"

Brooklyn peered across the tiny table in her hotel room. Derek was stone faced but solemnly nodded his head.

"Possibly."

"Does Scott think he hurt Myles?"

"I don't know," Derek shrugged his shoulders. "He shows up at my house, hollering he needs my help and I told him exactly what he needed, not what he wanted."

"Which was…."

"To go back to the bus and let his senses help him remember."

"Yeah I can see where he wouldn't want to hear that," Brooklyn laughed.

"How's your back?"

"Doesn't hurt as much," the hunter shrugged. "I mean the shallower ones have healed over but the deeper one's still a bit tender."

Her eyes were ringed with deep purplish black circles as Brooklyn had not been able to sleep very well for the last few nights. She chalked it up to the discomfort of her wounds as Brooklyn was a back sleeper and not a stomach or side sleeper. Derek had been awakened and watched as she groaned and stirred on the narrow queen bed.

"But I need to get out at some point," she stretched and yawned. "We need to see what the Beacon Hills' finest has on the attack."

Derek caught the tiny sparkle returning to her eyes as the sneaky smiled curled up on the corners of her lips. He knew what that look meant.

"Feel like a little recon again?"

The backdoor was unlocked as Brooklyn and Derek crept in the back hallway. She didn't ask Stiles for his help this time as she wanted to do this alone….Well semi-alone. Derek listened to the voices and movement beyond the heavy fire door while Brooklyn shifted the bag for the eighth time since breaking in. The heavy strap was chaffing against her shirt which was rubbing into her stitches. The hunter knew her companion could smell the blood that threaded between the tightly sealed stitches. Without saying a word Derek lifted the burdensome weight off her body and onto his.

"Thanks," she smiled and took a breath of relief. He felt compelled to reach out and squeeze her hand.

"Okay if there are any photos or other evidence they'll either be in the sheriff's office or evidence locker. So which door which you like to go through first?"

"Evidence room's safer bet," Derek gestured at the door.

"Evidence it is," she slipped on her gloves and tried the door knob finding it locked. "No problem," she giggled and quickly picked the cheap brass lock.

Together they slipped inside, locking the door behind them. Brooklyn could see the sheriff was a man of order as all of the evidence from cases past, which weren't very many, had been stored based on year, month, then date.

"Here," Derek called out. Brooklyn slipped the box out labeled Animal Attacks and placed it on the steel table in the center. Each incident was housed in its own manila folder neatly labeled with the date of each attack. Derek watched with a careful eye as she started with the first case, the one that brought her here to begin with.

"Can you pull out that map of Beacon County?" Derek looked and found the crisply creased map in the side pocket and sprawled it out for Brooklyn.

"Okay we have attack number one," she drew a dot in the area marked Preserve. The folder yielded nothing new so she turned to the next one. "Okay here's attack number two."

The second one was in the preserve as well. The next one, the one on Garrison Myers, was at the high school. Brooklyn drummed her fingers as a concentrated look focused on the map. Her fingers traced the preserve, brushing over Derek's hand. She looked over as he traded a tiny smile with her.