Witchy Woman

four

Stella arrived at the building looking up, silently telling herself how bad of an idea this was. She got out of her vehicle, pushing her worry to the back of her mind, walking into the building and making her way to the loft looking at the door. Why wasn't she knocking? Maybe it was because her heart was beating so fast. In the loft Derek could hear her heartbeat, he walked over to the door opening it, "Were you planning on knocking? Or were you just gonna stand there?" He asks her.
"I was debating wether or not this was a good idea." She states.
Derek lets her in, she walks past him looking at the space he was living in, a bed in the corner, a leather couch and a desk. "I can smell your magic." Derek tells her.
"I haven't really gotten the concealing spell down." She stopped walking when she heard footsteps walking down the spiral staircase. Stella watched him as he descended, when his face was finally visible she realized who it was, "Peter?" She asked him.
"Huh, you know you're the first person who's greeted me without sounding disappointed." He told her.
Stella looked at him confused, Derek stepped forward and informed her of his colorful past. "What are you doing here?" Derek finally asks her.
"Scott said you guys were going to discuss the plan at 5, but I wanted to talk to you before that." She answers, looking at Peter she continued, "Alone."
"Oh some alone time?" Peter said amused, "Well if it isn't high school all over again. I'll just leave you two." Peter walked out of the loft.
Derek looked at her expressionless, "What did you want to talk about?"
She sighed, "I'm sorry," she told him, "I'm sorry about Paige and for making you hate me for leaving, but I had to leave, would you at least let me explain to you why?" She asked. Derek nodded, she told him everything that happened with the coven, and how her father just used her. "I wanted to come back, I did, but he wouldn't let me, so I stayed until I had my magic under control, that's the only way I could have left."
Derek watched her as she waited for him to say something, "I've changed since high school, I'm not the same person you knew back then." He tells her.
"Then let me know you again, I want to help you." She informs him taking a step closer to him.
He takes a step back, "I don't know you either, we haven't seen each other since we were 16. But one thing I do know." He tells her, "I don't hate you, I never did. And I know you want to help, and I trust you enough to accept that."
She looks at the ground and then back to him, studying his face and noticing how much his features have changed. She gave him a small smile, looking at his emerald eyes, remembering when they first told each other their secrets.

Flashback
Beacon Hills Preserve, it was quiet and secluded, and the place they always went to when they wanted to be alone. They had been dating for a while and they both wanted to finally tell each other their secrets. Stella sat on a rock while Derek sat in front of it so she could wrap her arms around him. "I'm gonna tell you something okay? But you can't freak out." She whispered in his ear.
He turned and looked at her, "Well what I'm gonna tell you might actually freak you out."
They looked at each other wondering the same thing. How will the other react? "Okay um, how about this?" Stella suggested, "At the same time?" It was dumb but she was hoping it would make it easier.
"Okay, at the same time." Derek agreed, "On three. One, two, three. I'm a werewolf."
"I'm a witch." They looked at each other, their expressions changed quickly, first it was scared, and then it was confused, and finally it was relief. In a way they both knew how each other felt. Stella stood up wrapping her arms around his neck, her hand playing with his hair, while he wrapped his arms around her waist, placing one hand on the small of her back and the other on her hip. "God I was so scared to tell you that" she finally said causing them both to chuckle. They leaned close to one another, looking each other in the eyes, closing the space between them and kissing. But this kiss was different, it was deeper, it wasn't fast paced and needy, it was slow and gentle, like they were kissing for the first time again.

"Do you remember when we told each other? On the preserve?" Stella asked him, coming out of her trance.
Derek nodded telling her, "Yeah, I remember."
"You know that was the moment I knew I could trust you with anything." She said taking another step forward. "I still trust you Derek, even if you've changed." Stella insisted.
"He stayed where he was, looking up at the door watching it open, it was 5:00, it was time to discuss the plan.
They all gathered around a desk while Peter sat on the spiral staircase. Stiles pulled out building plans, blueprints, and articles that him and Scott found. "See this?" He said pointing at a spot on the plans, "This is how they got in. It's a rooftop air conditioning vent. It leads down inside into the wall of the vault, which is here." He uses his red sharpie to circle where the vault was in the plans. "One of the robbers was lowered into this shaft." Pointing at it he continues, "Now, that space is so small, it took him about 12 hours to drill into that wall, which is stone by the way. Then throughout the rest of the night, they siphoned the cash up to the guys back in the roof through that one little shaft in the wall."
"Can we fit in there?" Scott asked looking at Stiles.
"Yes, we can, but very, very barely." He informed. "And they also patched the wall, obviously, so we're gonna need a drill of some kind. I'm thinking maybe a diamond bit-"
He's cut off by Derek telling him, "Look forget the drill."
"Sorry?" Stiles says.
"If I go in first, how much space do I have?" He asks him.
"What are you gonna do Derek?" Stella speaks up, "You're gonna punch through the wall?" She asks him, saying exactly what Stiles was thinking.
"Yes, I'm gonna punch through the wall." He answers them.
Stiles turns to him, "Okay big guy, let's see it, let's see that fist. Big, old fist. Make it, come on." He urges Derek. "Get it out there, don't be scared." Derek lifts his fist clearly annoyed. Stiles continues his comments, "Big, bad wolf. Yeah, look at that. Okay, see this?" He asks, grabbing Derek's fist and putting his own hand in front of it, "That's maybe 3 inches of room to gather enough force to punch through solid co-" Derek punches Stiles's hand causing him to stumble backwards holding his hand, "Ah, he could do it." Stiles confirms clearly in pain.
"I'll get through the wall." Derek says. Stella's stifles her giggles as Stiles continues holding his hand. "Who's following me down?" Derek asks looking the remaining three.
"Don't look at me." Peter tells him, "I'm not up to fighting speed yet, and honestly, with Isaac out of commission, you're not looking at very good odds for yourself."
"So I'm just supposed to let them die?" Derek asks angrily.
"One of them is already dead." He reminds him.
"We don't know that." Derek says leaning against the desk.
"Do I have to remind you what we're up against here? A pack of Alphas. All of them, killers. And if that's not enough to scare your testicles back into your stomach, try to remember that two of them combine bodies to form one giant Alpha. I'm sure Erica and Boyd were sweet kids, they're gonna be missed." He says looking away from the group.
"Could someone kill him again, please?" Stiles asks sarcastically.
Peter looking up glaring at Stiles says, "Derek? Seriously? Not worth the risk." He crosses his arms.
"And what about you?" Derek asks Stella.
"Yeah if you want me to come-" Stiles answers.
"Not you." Derek says annoyed.
"Maybe I should stay here and help Stiles and Peter. You're still wary about me. You shouldn't be worrying about that while you're in there. I'll stay." Stella says looking at him.
"And you?" He asks Scott
"I don't know about Erica, but if Boyd's still alive, we have to do something. We have to try." Scott says pausing.
"But?" Derek says sensing another part of his sentence.
"Who's the other girl? The one locked in there with Boyd?" Scott asks.
Scott and Derek left to the bank while Stiles, Peter, and Stella stayed in the loft looking at the plans. Stiles walked towards the window biting his nails and watching the raindrops pour off the windows. "I can't take waiting around like this, you know? It's nerve-racking. My nerves are racked, they're severely racked!"
"I could beat you unconscious and wake you when it's over." Peter suggests calmly sitting on the black leather couch.
"Wow, someone really does need to kill you again." Stella says aloud standing at the desk still.
Peter looks at her glaring, "You know I used to be your favorite person to come to about Derek, and after one night of getting to know me again you've already decided I'm a psychotic nut job?"
"I'm not wrong am I?" Stella counters smiling at him.
Stiles turns to the them, "You think Erica's really dead?" He looks up from the ground nervously, Stella looks at him and gives him a comforting smile.
"You think I really care?" Peter answers.
Stiles starts pacing thinking out loud, "I just-I don't understand the bank, though, okay? Like why wouldn't they chain them up in some underground lair or something? They're an Alpha pack right? So shouldn't they have a lair?"
"They're werewolves, not fictional villains Stiles" Stella says.
"Wait a sec, wait a sec." Stiles continues his spew, walking around the loft examining it, "Maybe they're living there. You know? Like, maybe the bank vault reminds them of their little wolf dens."
"Wolf dens?" Stella asks amused.
"Yeah, wolf dens." Stiles remarks completely serious. "Where do you live?" He asks Peter.
"In an underground network of caves hidden deep in the woods." Peter answers sarcastically lifting his head to look at Stiles.
"Woah, really?" He asks completely amazed.
"No, you idiot, I have an apartment downtown." Peter says laying his head back down.
"Okay, fine, but still, that just proves that there's something up with the bank." Stiles says walking towards them, "And why wait around for the full moon, huh? Why not just kill them whenever they wanted to?"
"Maybe they think it's poetic." Peter proposes.
"Wait Stiles, what are the walls made of." Stella asks looking down at the plans and then to Peter who looked at her knowingly.
"Uh, I don't know, like, wood and brick, or-" Stiles pointed at the lofts ceiling.
"No, the vault." Peter says walking over to the plans, "The vault, the walls, what are they made out of?" Peter and Stella started looking the the plans.
"It doesn't say, Stiles where would it say materials, like the type of stone." Stella asked looking at him as he reached into his backpack.
"Hang on, here." He says pulling a 3 inch thick packet out.
Looking through the papers they finally found it. "There that's it. Hecatolite. Is that awful? That sounds awful." Stiles asks them
"Get them on the phone. Call them. Now!" Peter shouts.
Stella pulls her phone out to call Scott, Stiles asking, "Okay, why?"
"Because Boyd and that girl aren't gonna kill each other, they're gonna kill Derek and Scott." Peter tells them.
Stella calls Scott, quickly he answers, "Stella, nows not the best time."
"Scott! No, listen to me, you have to get out of there, the walls of the vault are made of hecatolite, it's a mineral that scatters the moonlight." She tells him.
"What does that mean?" He asks her.
"It keeps the moonlight out, they haven't felt the full moon in months." She says.
"Think of it like the gladiators in the Roman Colosseum," Peter chimes in, "they used to starve the lions for three days making them more vicious, more out of control. Deucalion has kept them from shifting for three full moons, diminishing they're tolerance to it."
"Scott they're gonna be stronger!" Stiles yells.
"More savage, more bloodthirsty," Peter adds "Scott, they're the lions, they're the starved lions and you and Derek just stepped into the colosseum."
"Scott? Scott!" Stella yells, they hear growls over the phone and the line disconnects. She looks up at Peter and Stiles worried out of her mind.