MAKE ME FEEL

CHAPTER 1

As Allison slowly approached the metal door of Derek's loft, her heart started beating faster with every step she took, her breathing uneven coming out in short breaths. She came to a halt in front of the door pondering whether to knock or turn around and go home.

"I shouldn't be here, I'm not the one who should be apologizing." she thought as her pride got the best of her. Just as she was about to turn around and leave the door swung open to reveal a very shirtless, very sweaty Derek. Startled, she jumped back a bit.

"How..." she began before smiling knowingly, "Right, you heard me."

"Scott isn't here if you're looking for him." he pointed out.

"No, actually... um... can I come in?" she said nervously knowing that it was to late to turn around.

He eyed her curiously for a second knowing that that was not the Allison he was used to seeing. The Allison he knew was unafraid and confident and as much as he hated her for doing the things she had done he liked those qualities about her. Instead of answering her, he just moved to the side and gestured for her to come in.

She nodded and awkwardly walked past him into the loft desperately trying to find the right words to say. She turned around to face him only to find him casually leaning against the wall. The whole apologizing thing was turned out to be harder than she initially thought it would be, especially with him being shirtless and all, which for some strange reason proved to be very distracting.

The silence had been getting more uncomfortable by the second so she decided to man-up and get it over with as fast as she could.

"I'm sorry." she blurted out with her eyes closed.

"What?" he asked, suddenly even more confused than he had been before.

"I'm sorry" she repeated, "for being so mad at you for what happened to my mom and I'm sorry for shooting you and your pack. Now that I know the whole story I realize that it wasn't the right thing to do."

Derek was dumbfounded, out of all the things he thought she was going to say, that had not been one of them. He slowly walked over to her all the while listening to her heartbeat to see whether she was lying.

"Why are you telling me this?" he asked cautiously.

"Because I don't want to become like Gerard or Kate and because I want to help with the Alpha pack problem. I can't just let them terrorize my friends while I sit back and do nothing and in order to do that I feel like we should put our differences aside." she admitted with her head held high.

Derek let his guard down considerably as he heard the sincerity in her voice. After the series of events that had occurred as of late he had been feeling quite emotional himself so he decided that an apology of his own would be in order.

"I want you to know that I wish none of this ever happened, none of this was what I wanted, and your mother, I wish that never happened either." he tried to explain. Derek had never been good with apologies and that was no exception.

All of a sudden Allison felt overwhelmed with emotions, talking about the death of her mother was never easy but Derek's quasi-apology for some reason hit her like a ton of bricks. She hadn't been aware of the tears welling up in her eyes until hot tears started streaming down her cheeks. When her mother died she hadn't even take the time to grieve, she had instantly gone into vengeful-hunter mode. That felt like the first time she was really grieving for her mother, no anger just hurt and sadness. The tears started falling faster and Allison started sobbing as she tried to catch her breath. She had done a great job of putting up a facade that she was alright, but not that night, that night she let go completely and landed right into Derek's arms.

"Out of all the people..." she thought as she laughed through sobs. Derek put his arms around her and for the life of her she couldn't understand why he would comfort her. She felt strangely safe in his arms, with Scott it had been different, she had always felt loved but never safe like at that moment. She wrapped her arms around his neck and held on tightly. She put her head in the crook of his neck and breathed in his hypnotizing scent which was a mixture of leather, sweat and musk.

One moment she had been crying in the middle of his loft and in the next she found herself on the couch curled up next to him sobbing quietly while he was gently stroking her hair. That had not been something that she was expecting to happen when she got there. She expected him to either end up yelling at her or saying nothing at all, not stoking her hair and comforting her while she cried. She had never in her life felt more comfortable and safe than she did at that very moment. She smiled weakly as she felt herself drifting off.

-o-o-

"This is not what I had planned for the evening, not even close." Derek thought as he watched Allison sleep. Soon after she had fallen asleep Derek had gotten up to cover her with a blanket and than sat on a chair facing the couch. He sat there watching her for what felt like hours, hell maybe it had been hours, watching, noticing, memorizing every detail of her beautiful face. He had never before taken the time to really look at her. She was not only strong, fearless and smart, she was also incredibly beautiful. Her gorgeous big brown eyes, hair that framed her face perfectly and smile that could light up the whole room were all things he was remembering. Derek caught himself smiling when he remembered how she used to smile at Scott. "Should I call Scott and tell him she's here?" he thought, but as soon as that thought crossed his mind, a wave of anger shot through him for some unknown reason.

"She shouldn't be here, I should wake her up and tell her to leave. She shot more than 30 arrows at me and my pack she has no business sleeping on my couch and I have no business thinking how beautiful she looks and how good it felt to hold her in my arms." As much as Derek wanted her to leave or thought that he wanted her to leave, he just couldn't bring himself to wake her up. After what had happened earlier in the night he started seeing her in a different light, he was thinking about all the things he liked about her, all the things he admired about the young Argent. He liked how she was never intimidated by werewolves, how she could hold her own in a fight and how so very different she was from Kate. She also wasn't one to run from a fight, he liked that too. He knew it was wrong and completely uncalled for to think about her in that way but he couldn't help himself. Just as Derek was about to go to bed he saw her starting to move. She slowly opened her eyes and groaned.

"Did I fall asleep?" she asked shyly.

Derek couldn't help but smile at her confused and slightly flushed face, "Yeah you did, on me I might add."

"Oh," was all she said as she remembered how she was crying on his very naked chest while he held her. She felt even more flustered at that thought before she added, "I should, um, I should probably go."

"That's probably a good idea." he agreed immediately. Derek, still confused by his earlier thoughts, thought it would be best if she were to leave before things got even more awkward.