A/N No beta. Written for Dydia Week on TUMBLR! Stuck together is a theme I love and even won an award for. Speaking of, thanks to everyone who voted for Stuck Here With You in the fan works awards. And to the person who nominated me, you are awesome.
Lydia Martin was charging through the forest as if she was running from a bear, her long, rouge hair flying through the breeze as she ran for what she felt like was her life.
Naturally a curious person, Lydia was never one to leave questions unanswered. When her parents split, she sat them down and asked why, when Jackson left her she questioned it everyday. But there was a question she never answered, and one that's been haunting her for the past year.
One minute she was at a dance and the next she was in the hospital. She knew what happened, Peter Hale bit her, that much she knew. What she also knew was that Peter was also an Alpha werewolf at the time. With Stiles and Alison's help Lydia was able to put together all of the weird werewolf mythology that she could, plus whatever she was able to gather from all those monster movies.
One thing Lydia knew for sure was that when an Alpha bit a human they either died or they turned. 12 full moons later, and Lydia is still a human. She asked Stiles and Alison plenty of times if they knew why, but there was only so much a human, and a girl from a hunting family knew. She knew she had to take this to someone higher up on the ladder and after Scott made a couple of his signature confused faces at her, she knew there was only one person left to go to.
That's how she found herself running through the woods and straight toward The Hale house during her morning jog. She had no idea what gravitated her toward it, or why she even thought Derek Hale would be there instead of his own shiny new apartment, but something inside of her told her where Derek would be. Almost like an intuition.
When she got there, Derek's black Camaro was parked in the driveway, if you could even call it that. The "driveway" was a little dirt road next to the house. Lydia always lived close to the Hales and that dirt road had always been there, even before the fire.
As she walked up the steps that were hanging on there last leg, she recalled when the house was beautiful. She remembered the distinct way it looked so big to a small little red headed girl, walking with her Girl Scout troop to sell cookies. She remembered a young Derek Hale, not yet wounded by the world opening the door, a smile on his face, his green eyes glistened in the sun, as he called for his sister Laura or his uncle Pete so they'd buy some cookies. He'd always tell her that mom and dad never let him eat sugar, but uncle Pete and Laura would never tell.
She felt a hint of déjà vu as she knocked on the door, but this time there were no cookies or sparkling sunlight. She was no longer small or came with the carefree notion to sell cookies. She wanted answers, she needed to put her questions to rest and then she could go on living her life and moving on. When the door opened, it felt like she was a little girl again. Derek opened the door and for a moment she was a little girl again, but it was a quick fleeting moment. Derek's smile was now replaced with a scowl, his once bright green eyes no longer had the glimmer of sun light on them, but were instead doused with sadness. Derek was no longer a hopeful kid he was a broken man. Sometimes when they were in close proximity together she could smell the burning brick on him from the fire, even though years had passed and Derek smelled of after-shave and cologne. She learned that scent is the strongest memory, but she was always concerned that she could smell things that weren't there.
Derek looked her up and down for a beat before he finally opened his mouth to speak. "What are you doing here?" he looked down at her, and she noticed he had a duffle bag with him. She looked into his eyes and was left astonished. No matter how sad he was his eyes were always beautiful. She caught and composed herself to answer him.
"I'm here to ask you a question." She stated dryly.
He looked at her for a second and then turned his head abruptly; "PETER!" he yelled to the top of the stairs. And for what felt like the one-hundredth time today, Lydia was a girl scout again asking Derek Hale to buy cookies. "Actually. If you don't mind, I'd like to speak with you. I don't really want to speak to your uncle…like EVER." She said, lifting her head ever so slightly to match up with Derek.
"Well, if you need to speak with me, you're going to have to wait. Alpha business. You understand" he walked out of the house knocking her aside with his duffle. Lydia began to huff a little bit at how rudely Derek treated her. He was once so polite. "Excuse me!" she turned around chasing after him. "I'm not letting you go anywhere until you talk to me! I ran here! Okay! RAN! Just to see you." She exclaimed.
Lydia couldn't tell if he was listening to her, because his trunk was covering his face, but she said it loudly enough, and with her squeaky voice she was hard to ignore. After he shut his trunk Derek turned to Lydia and let out a small laugh. She kept trying hard not to objectify him as he took his jacket off and threw it in the back seat. Those damn biceps, she thought to herself.
He let out a small smirk and said something that enraged her to a point that she had no idea why she did what she did next, but she couldn't help it, it all happened so fast.
"Baby, close your mouth next time you drool all over me." He said with a wink opening the driver seat door.
Darkness took over Lydia and she couldn't contain it. She kept a small pocket knife on her keys just incase certain people in town decided to attack her again, but she never intended to use it for what she was about to use it for.
It all happened so fast but the only thing she saw was that black Camaro, nothing more and nothing less. She popped open the blade and sprinted toward the tires. She slashed one and heard Derek screaming in the background, the rubber was hard to cut through but she did it with ease out of sheer anger.
Before she could make it to the next one she felt big hands on her waist pulling her away as she let out a warrior scream that would make Xena proud. "Let go of me!" she screamed, struggling with Derek. Even if she could cut that tire with ease it was hard for her to fight Derek's alpha strength.
"Stop!" he said to her in a panic. "That's my baby!" he kept holding her while she fidgeted trying to break free.
Lydia finally stopped fighting and started screaming "uncle!"
Derek hesitantly let her go, keeping one hand near her just in case she made another attempt for the car.
"What is wrong with you? Are you out of your mind!" Derek exclaimed as he walked toward his car, kneeling down next to the tire fingering the gash that Lydia left in it.
She rolled her eyes at the site of big bad Derek Hale whimpering at the site of his slashed tire.
"Men and their toys. I swear." She pouted.
"Really? So would it be okay if I ripped one of your handbags? This is so painful." He shook his head.
"More painful than being electrocuted by a crazy ex?" she asked him, smiling wickedly.
"I'd rather be electrocuted one thousand times a day for five years than have to deal with you, Princess." He walked up to her, standing only inches away from her face.
She wasn't sure if she was reading it right because she was angry, but if she looked closely at Derek's face she could actually see something gentle in him. Something kind, even though he was being a Grade A dick to her right now.
She stood on her tippy-toes so she could look Derek directly in the face, when she said the next thing she had to say.
"Well, Big Bad Wolf, you can have a ride to wherever you're going if you play nice."
He scoffed at her, "Go anywhere with you? No. I'll just put the donut on or force Stiles to give me the Jeep. No thanks."
He picked up his phones to make a call but before he could Lydia interrupted him. "Stiles, Scott and Isaac are fishing this weekend. Male bonding. You also don't have a donut in this car because I remember you telling Jackson that one time. I have really good memory, Hale. " She smiled at him, "so you can stay home or let me drive you and then you can answer my questions. Fair exchange!" the mention of Jackson's name made her insides shiver with how much she missed him.
Derek eyed the petite red head for a second, and let out a sigh of conceit.
"Fine. Just don't be annoying, if that's even possible. Also, you owe me a new tire." He walked over to his car grabbing his duffle out of the trunk, glaring at her the whole time.
Lydia just looked him blankly. She couldn't be mad at Derek for who he became but she couldn't find a way to excuse his manners. He was such a polite boy growing up; the Hales were a respected family she remembered her mother telling her how close knit they all seemed to be. But now Derek was a shell of himself. He and Peter were the only Hales left in town and everyone hated them.
Lydia was broken out of her trance when Derek grabbed her arm. "Let's get on with this." He rolled his eyes.
She led him over to her house, she needed to grab her keys.
"Stay!" She told him, grabbing his shoulder. "I don't want my mom seeing you. I know you're a werewolf, but I can't imagine you'd be able to handle THAT cougar." She sighed thinking about her mother constantly talking about how she wants to offer poor Derek a job as the pool boy.
Derek just looked at her, pointing to an invisible watch on his hand, and tapping his wrist.
Lydia grabbed her bag and her keys; she caught sight of Derek standing there gazing at nothing and everything at all once. She didn't want to make him wait any longer because she didn't want to wait any longer. She also hated that she didn't have time to change, she hated how tight her jogging pants were, she preferred skirts and dress's since she was a little girl.
As she made her way toward Derek she patted his head "good boy!" she spoke to him the same way she spoke to her dog Prada and Derek simply ignored her.
"Where are the keys? Let me drive." He proclaimed.
She didn't want to make this situation worse than it already was; she was already paying for a new tire for Derek's precious "baby" and she didn't want to feel worse than she already did for slashing them. A girls gotta' do what a girls gotta' do! Lydia thought to herself as she handed Derek the keys and got into the passenger seat of her car.
Derek started the engine but before they pulled out he looked over at Lydia really fast and said "No radio." That was the last thing he said to her in hours.
Lydia kept looking over at the big man next to her; his eyes were definitely on some sort of prize. The dinging sound woke her from her Derek Hale induced stupor. She checked her dash and saw the red, blinking gas sign as Derek let out a shout of frustration while pulling over to the side of the road.
"This stupid car!" he screamed out. "I can't believe this right now. I need to be there by tonight or it's too late!"
"Lydia tried to reach over to grab his shoulder, to let him know that it's okay, she could just walk over to the nearest gas station." When she finally saw what Derek saw, the car was steaming from inside the hood.
"We just need gas?" she asked quietly, hoping he wouldn't yell at her.
"No, Lydia its more than that. Your car is over heating and I have to fix it without any parts or tools because WHY would you have tools in your car?" he was shouting at her, the vein in his neck was popping out in that way her fathers did on road trips when mom pissed him off.
"You never asked if I had tools." She said quietly, "but it's dark anyway and we should take a rest. We haven't stopped yet." The calmness in her tone caused Derek to growl, he was upset but she knew he'd see reason…or something like that.
"Fine." He said deflated. But we need to be in Arizona within the next two days or it's all lost.
"Arizona?" Lydia said, raising an eyebrow. "We are going to ARIZONA?" She raised her voice.
"What in Gods green earth is in ARIZONA?" she kept raising her voice at the word Arizona, to which Derek moved back an inch, afraid she'll cut him instead of the tire.
"I haven't showered. I haven't gone to the bathroom. I have no change of clothes and you want me to go to ARIZONA?" once again the word Arizona, was enunciated so loudly that Derek flinched at it.
"You said you needed me to answer some question and you demanded to come with me. So…I wasn't exactly sure I had to actually tell you where I was going since you didn't ask. Hey, what's the question anyway?" he asked ignoring her question.
Instead of answering, Lydia lunged at him, switching between smacking and punching him in the arm.
"YOU. LITTLE. JERK." She would say in between thwacks.
Derek grabbed her hands and held them together, even though she wanted to keep on going.
"Relax!" he said, fully exasperated at the abuse he was taking along with the abuse his car took earlier in the day.
She continued to try to pounce on him for a few moments until she finally gave up. She glared up at him from her seat and she was still full of rage. She just wanted to talk to him; ten to fifteen minutes' tops and he just had to make it complicated for her.
Typical. Lydia whispered to herself.
Lydia opened the passenger seat and let herself out.
"I am going to the bathroom. Look and I will kill you." She scowled at him, waving her finger in his face.
"Just don't run around naked in the woods again, okay?" he called back after her.
She glowered at him, with a death glare only reserved for head cheerleaders and annoying teachers.
She walked into the woods looking for a safe spot. She'd done this before since she was a girl scout, camping was never a big deal; only difference is that Derek Hale wasn't sitting twenty feet away. Or was he? He was a little weird when we were young… the thought was fleeting as she quickly dismissed and laughed to herself for even thinking Derek was pervert.
What was she doing running around in the woods that day? That was the question that triggered it all. Why was she immune? She thought Derek could answer it all, that's why she was in this mess and she was going to get her answer. She didn't care.
She walked back to the car, where Derek was outside rummaging through her trunk. Lydia rarely ever had to talk to Derek so she never really paid attention to how tall and big he was. He was throwing everything around, clearly looking for something.
He triumphantly lifted a blanket out and wrapped it around himself, kissing it.
"Excuse me? But what are you doing?" Lydia asked, startling him.
"Cold." He said. One-word answers were pretty common for Derek Hale.
"Me. Lydia. Me. Cold. Too." Lydia pronounced every word; she imagined she was Jane talking to Tarzan, except Derek wasn't wearing a loincloth, although she kind of wished he were.
"We'll have to share. I can't seem to get this started tonight. We'll need gas and all of this other stuff. While I could get it, I may or may not feel bad about not telling you we'd be gone for a few days." He implemented the trademark Derek Hale puppy dog eyes she heard girls from school talk so much about.
"Fine." She looked down at her feet. Thinking about how she'd have to share a blanket and a tiny car with Derek Hale. Tall, beautiful, green eyed, Derek Hale that used to buy Girl Scout cookies from her.
They climbed into the backseat together, although it wasn't said they'd imagine they would have to spend the night back there. Just as everything was going well, out of habit Lydia jerked the blanket away from Derek and made herself comfortable.
She could hear Derek's grunting next to her. "Um… when I said we could share, Lydia, I meant we could share the blanket too. Not just the seat."
He looked like he was expecting a snarky response but he never got it. Lydia simply blushed at the comment and looked down at the blanket, pushing it toward the big man next to her.
She glanced up at him and saw his face soften as he grabbed it and threw it over the two of them.
"You're going to have to come closer." He said huskily, searching her eyes for hesitance.
Lydia simply nodded her head. It was either that or stay cold. She was shocked at how nice Derek was being. This whole trip he made it his mission to be surly and quiet, but he for some reason at this point he was being kind of sweet.
Lydia scooted closer to Derek, who already looked uncomfortable in the back seat of the tiny car. He wrapped his arms around her gently "don't worry." He whispered
"I'm not worried! I can handle myself!" she exclaimed louder than she intended to.
"Oh I know you can. My poor car faced your wrath today. I believe you." He nodded his head. "But what I was going to say is that you shouldn't worry. I don't know why you're immune Lydia, but it can't be a bad thing. You're stronger than the other humans, if…" he hesitated. "…You are human."
She gazed at him quizzically, "how did you—" she started
"I figured we'd have to have this conversation at some point. I was just hoping it wouldn't have to be me since I don't know any of the answers." He answered.
Lydia was mad there were no solutions; she was upset that no one knew if one of the oldest werewolf families in existence didn't know why she was immune to an alpha bite than who else would? She was upset, and really under whelmed by it all. She came all this way for nothing, and worst of all Derek knew, he could have told her he didn't know but he had to piss her off, he just had to.
"What's wrong with you?" he asked. It wasn't sarcastic or rude; Derek's tone of was of genuine concern.
Lydia could feel the tears on her cheeks. She quickly wiped them off with her sleeve before turning around. She felt like a freak, a monster and the worst part was she didn't even know what she was. "...If you are human." She heard Derek's voice inside of her head. If she wasn't human, what was she?
She decided it would be best to avoid his question and ask him about Arizona. He explained to her it was the last place the Alpha Pack was before they showed up at Beacon Hills and he wanted to see if he could get some info out of their betas.
After Derek was done, there was a still in the car, Lydia couldn't help but think of how romantic this would have been as a date with someone she liked. Even if it was kind of creepy being out on the side of the road alone, serial killers bait. But they weren't; Derek would maul the jerk before he even got to them with his knife. She knew Derek would protect her, she had no reason to believe otherwise, despite the fact he hates her.
Lydia's thoughts kept her up most of the night and it was quiet until a light snore came out of Derek's mouth. He looked so calm, so peaceful sleeping there. She wondered if he dreamt of his parents, Peter and Laura hanging out with him before the fire.
Slumber began to call her name and she nuzzled next to Derek, wrapping herself in his arms. He was so warm, but not the same way Jackson was warm. It was different, she couldn't quite understand why but it felt better.
The next morning Lydia awoke first. Derek managed to rest his head on her legs during the night. She moved it slowly, careful not to wake him. She imagined Derek never slept and if he did it wasn't enough.
She managed to flag down the nearest patrol car and told them she and her boyfriend were stuck in the middle of the road, she flinched a bit when she uttered the word boyfriend about Derek, but just like her intuition earlier, calling Derek hers felt right.
The trooper offered to get them some gas so they can get moving and Lydia was thankful. If there was one thing she knew how to do, it was get people to do things for her.
After the trooper got back and the car was filled she managed to get the hood open, another thing she knew about; mechanics. She read a book about how cars worked when she was younger because she was bored. Luckily, the fix was easy and they needed a jump, the trooper was once again happy to oblige, or as he had said "help a pretty young lady in need."
She was so focused on getting the car to work that she missed Derek waking up.
He got out of the car, his hair a mess and groggily said "what?" Looking as surprised as ever.
"What is that your girlfriend is a keeper! She fixed the car all by herself. And she's so pretty too!" he said gleefully.
"Thank you officer!" Lydia smirked at Derek.
"You folks should be all set now, enjoy the romantic get away." And with that the trooper drove off.
Lydia waved after him.
She turned her attention to Derek who looked at her confused.
"Ready to go?" she asked. Smirking at him.
They both got in the car and drove off.
Derek was quiet until he finally spoke.
"How did you get that trooper to do everything you wanted?"
She just looked at him, and waved her hands around herself.
"Look at me Derek."
He looked at her, and for the first time Lydia thought that Derek saw something he'd never seen before.
"You have a point." He smiled.
"Also, "Romantic get-away"?" he asked.
"Just drive wolf man! Oh and if you talk about my naked forest fiasco again I will slash all of those tires." she answered back.
Derek smirked at the tiny red head next to him. "Yes dear." He replied, smiling to himself the entire time they drove toward Arizona.