It's bright outside when Erica comes to, and it takes her a moment to remember what happened, remember the pain of it. But there's no pain now. In fact she's pretty sure she's never felt this good before in her life.
"You're up." Derek says behind her, and she wonders if she should have heard him, if she should have felt he was there. "Feeling better?"
"Yes." She nods, and she realizes she's still only wearing the hospital gown. It's soaked with sweat and torn at places and it's crawled up to the top of her thighs, but Derek's doesn't seem to notice. "Actually I feel amazing."
"Good." He smiles and throws her a black sports bag, which she catches with out a problem - she actually caught it. "Then get dressed, we're going out."
"Where are we going?"
"You'll see." He's still smiling and somehow it's infectious, because she starts smiling too, and god she forgot how good it feels to smile.
There's a set of clothes in the bag, and she recognize them by the smell before she's gotten them out of the bag - they belong to her sister. Her sister has always been able to wear clothes like this, and Erica has always been jealous of her, even if their mother calls the clothes inappropriate and trashy.
When she's dressed she finds Derek on the porch, sitting in the sun with his legs dangling over the side and when he sees her he gives her an approving nod.
"You look amazing." He says, and for the first time ever Erica actually believes that she does.
"Good enough to take advantage of?" She jokes, and she's not sure where she finds the courage, except it's just there. Suddenly she's just not afraid of what people will think of her.
Derek huffs out a short, breathy laugh. "Why don't we go ask people?"
And he gets to his feet in one quick, fluid motion, and Erica can't help but wonder if she looks like that when she moves, she really hopes that she does.
It's not until Derek pulls up in front of the school that she starts getting nervous. "Here?"
"Well, yes. It is a school day. And I would be very irresponsible if I didn't get you to school." Derek says amused and reaches a hand over to cup her cheek. "There is nothing about you that's not amazing, Erica. And you need to show them that."
She feels herself blushing, mostly because she can hear the steady beat of Derek's heart, knows he's not lying. Yes, okay, so maybe it's time to face the nightmares and show her tormentors just what she's become: a shining beacon of beauty and power, that will never let them break her apart again.
She returns Derek's smile and slips out of the car.
It's intoxication. The way they look up from their little lunches and ogle her, the way she makes their heads turn as she walks by, and okay, maybe she's not quite yet as graceful as Derek, but she's got a hell of a lot more swagger than anyone else in the school does, and if she gets a little high on the attention it's not really her fault, is it?
As she walks back out all eyes are fixed on her and she can hear and feel their disbelief follow her all the way back to Derek's car, and when she sees that Scott has followed her out she really can't help but send him her brightest smile, because that idiot clearly doesn't realize what he's been missing out on.
She gets into the car and as Derek drives away, she can't help but feel his mood is different. "So how did it go?"
"I made all the boys come in their pants." She says with out a second though.
"That's my girl." Derek laughs.
"Is that why I'm here. For your amusement? For your benefit?" And she'd be okay with that, hell, she'd do everything and anything Derek Hale asked her to, but Derek just exhales a small, amused breath of air.
"No you're here for Isaac. You'll meet him later."
"Oh." And yeah, she's a little disappointed, but then she finally manages to pick up on the mood in the car and she rewinds to find the source of the change. There had been two boys following her out of the school, not just Scott McCall, even if he was the only one she noticed in there, because his wolf pulled her in. But the other boy…
"Is it because you're already taken?" She whispers, because she's not sure this is something you'd ask your Alpha, but Derek just turns his head and looks at her, at her face and her eyes and her hair, and it's not like the boys in the school looked at her. And it's not the kind of look where he's trying to look into her eyes and not look at the rest of her.
"Yes." Derek says, and the smile is almost gone, replaced by something else entirely. "It's because I'm already taken."