Chapter Two: A Summer Gone
A/N: Hey all, so I know I said this was an alternate season 4 timeline, and it is, it's just going to take a couple chapters to get there. I'm also a little confused on the actual timeline of seasons 2 and 3a, so please forgive any discrepancies. The events of season 3 will unfold in basically canon format, but I will diverge from there. This chapter is way fluffier than the last one, but I promise to get back to Jackson's suffering in the next installment. Also, Jackson was my favorite character on the show. Just thought I needed to throw that in there.
Lydia Martin stood in the police station. Again. She felt like she was harassing the local police department, but she also knew she wasn't sorry about it at all. It had been two months since Jackson disappeared, and no one could even seem to tell her what country he was in. While Deputy Parrish had been super patient with her, she could tell it was beginning to wear thin.
"So you're telling me that you still have nothing?"
"Lydia, nothing's changed in over a month. We know nothing more, really, than we learned in that first week. Jackson checked in for his flight, but the two theories that we are still working on remained the same. He either never boarded the plane, although we have reports about someone close to his description boarding, or he evaded his parents when the plane touched down in London, either by his choice or not. We just don't know." He had given her this same speech at least twice a week since he went missing.
"This is unacceptable!"
"Lydia, in a couple more months Jackson will be turning eighteen. Once that happens, the case will have to be dropped. Adults are allowed to leave their families and friends without an explanation. We are doing everything we can think of, but we don't have the budget for a global search."
She was about to speak up again when he waved her off. "I'm sorry, but this is where we stand. If you don't mind, I have other work that needs to be done." He grabbed his keys, walked around the counter, and exited the building without so much as a goodbye.
Frustrated, she left the station. Her phone went to her pocket to call Allison, but she decided against it. Raging to her best friend wasn't helping Jackson. She thought about calling Danny, because she knew he didn't stay the last night before his flight at his house, but again, that would lead to a dead end. She'd already exhausted Danny's supply of information. He was still reeling from losing his best friend.
Getting in her car, she thought maybe a walk would be good to clear her head. School would be starting soon, and that would provide her with enough distraction as it was. Something about the way Jackson vanished, and the timing of it, worried her.
This was Beacon Hills, after all. So something supernatural wasn't entirely out of the question. But that was Scott and Derek's area of expertise, and as far as she knew, they hadn't been able to come up with anything either. And she had to admit that it was looking, more and more each day, that Jackson had simply run off.
The problem with that theory was that running away wasn't Jackson's style. If he had an issue with something, history told her that he faced it head on, while taking as many people down with him as possible. No matter what he was doing, he did it like a bull in a china shop.
She pulled to a stop in the parking lot of a park with several wooded trails. Sunlight filtered through the branches as she began walking.
It took her a few minutes before she realized that she'd never been to this park before. Something had led her here, like before. The last thing she needed today was another dead body popping up.
She wanted to return to her car, and get the hell out of here. But she knew, deep down, that if she got in the car, she'd just end up circling back here, so she might as well just let this play out. Pushing the thoughts to the back of her mind, she continued meandering through the woods, trying to think of another explanation for Jackson. He was part of Scott's pack, after all, and she knew it killed Scott that he couldn't do anything about it.
About half an hour later, with no dead body to show for her walk, she went back to her car. That peculiar feeling of needing to seek something out had abated, and that almost disturbed her as much as if she had found a dead body, as this had never happened to her before.
Maybe she would call Allison, after all. She needed to take a step back, maybe what she needed was a nice back to school shopping spree. On second thought, that sounded more like a task for Danny. These days, Allison was more into her training instead of discussing couture. So yes, Danny all the way.
As she settled back into her car, she rested her head on the steering wheel for a bit before clawing her cell phone out of her pocket.
Derek Hale was restless. He had been waiting all day, and now he was only moments away from a wild night.
The full moon was still a few days away but he could already feel its pull, and that made him more antsy than usual. He had received the text only a few minutes ago, but it had been enough to get him rock hard. He didn't know where this sexual side of him had come from, but he had been embracing it fully.
Yes, there was always something else to concern himself with. Jackson being gone was just another reason to brood, but for some reason he just couldn't be his typical downer self on nights like these. The air around him almost seemed electrified in a way.
Of course, he heard the footsteps long before they arrived at his door. This was one of his favorite parts. When the knock came at the door, he crept silently over to it. His gentleman caller was always a little out of breath when he stood on the other side of the door, and Derek always took a minute to just lean his ear against the metal and stood there, listening to his heartbeat and breathing.
He rubbed his stomach under his wife beater, playing along the elastic of his boxer briefs. Letting out a small sigh, he flung the door open and grinned. "Hello, Deputy."
Parrish crossed the threshold and greeted his host by way of a kiss.
"What took you so long?" Derek asked.
"Sorry babe, I had to stop by the cabin real quick. But I'm here now," he replied with a twinkle in his eye.
Derek never thought he would have fallen so hard or so fast for the newest deputy to join the BHPD. Parrish definitely wasn't his type, but something about him was just too adorable, like he wasn't real. Since he was a recent addition to the town, Derek had to sniff around a little bit, but he hadn't been able to find anything supernatural about him, except for his ability to charm anyone who crossed his path.
"When am I going to get some time at the cabin?"
"I told you, my uncle really let the place go to hell the last few years of his life. And with my new position, I don't have too much time to work on it. Once it gets up to snuff, however, can take a week and just do whatever comes to mind." Parrish started towards the couch, Derek trailing right behind him.
Off in the distance, he heard a howl. The alpha pack was on the move, but Derek didn't care. He was entranced with this man, and whatever the alphas were planning, they sure were taking their time. This night was his. And besides, Scott was his alpha now. Let him deal with them.
"What did you want to get into tonight?" Derek asked, laying his head on Parrish's shoulder. "I could make some dinner, or we could put on a movie."
"That would just be distracting, now wouldn't it?" Parrish said, and leaned in for another kiss. He turned and pushed Derek down onto the sofa. "Besides, it can be dangerous to cook naked." His eyes were making Derek weak.
Parrish was usually such a sweet, gentle man, but whenever it came time to do the deed he turned into a savage beast. He ripped the shirt from Derek's back, sending tatters to the floor. Derek tried to start unbuttoning Parrish's shirt, but his hand was knocked away. It was strange that in every other aspect of his life, Derek was the one in charge. There was something about losing himself in the abandonment of giving himself over to the deputy, giving him full control, that turned him on immensely.
Suddenly they were both naked. Sometimes, around Parrish, Derek tended to lose small tracks of time. He chalked it up to being in the moment, feeling that ecstasy, but even once in a while it scared him. Like this sense of being totally vulnerable at a moment's notice. But all in all it was a small flicker in the back of his mind.
Parrish slipped inside him, making Derek moan.
They thrashed together on the sofa, two becoming one. Derek had a brief lapse in time again, and when he came to it was over. Depressing that he couldn't remember the climax, but he could still sense Parrish inside him.
He rolled over and fell off the couch, wondering where his lover had gone. Their clothes were still crumpled in the pile they had been thrown in, a make-shift pillow of sorts for Derek. He twisted his head and breathed in the full scent of Parrish. The smell alone was enough to bring him half-erect.
The light was on in the bathroom, answering his question. Of course the deputy wouldn't just go running naked from his apartment, especially before saying goodbye.
He curled the shirt over his head, and caught a slightly different aroma than he was used to getting from the man. It was different, earthier, and really familiar. Try as he may he couldn't place it.
Parrish came out of the bathroom, a goofy grin on his mouth.
Derek pulled the shirt away from his face and looked up at the other man. His face must have betrayed his confusion because Parrish asked him if something was wrong.
"No, it's nothing," Derek replied, pulling himself off the floor. "Did you want to grab something to eat now?"
Parrish crossed the room and pulled Derek against him. "How about a shower?"
Lydia knew Danny was still very upset about Jackson, more so than even she was. He was honestly bringing her mood down, but still, the company was welcome. They could share this pain, it brought them closer together. On top of losing Jackson, she knew he had had feelings for Matt as well, and he was gone too. Except at least they all knew that Matt had drowned, while Jackson's fate remained murky.
Danny hadn't said much during the time they spent wandering aimlessly around the mall. With everything that was going on, Lydia wasn't even that into shopping. Maybe she should have called Allison and had an impromptu self defense lesson.
"… and I mean, if he just ran away, he would have at least texted me, right?" Danny was talking and Lydia hadn't noticed. She was starting to get that feeling again, that call which almost always led to a dead body. She wondered again why she didn't find a body that afternoon when she was walking around that foreign park.
Danny stared at her. She realized she had been asked a question, but couldn't remember hearing it. "Danny, I am so sorry, what?"
"Do you think Jackson's dead?" His eyes were teary, his face sullen.
"Honestly? I don't think so."
"How can you be so sure?"
Lydia knew he had been introduced into the world of the supernatural, but he was also dealing with so much else right now that she didn't want to burden him with everything that was happening with her. "Let's just say that I get feelings about these sort of things, and I really don't think he's gone."
Danny was visibly relieved. "I don't really understand what you're talking about, but thank you."
They meandered out a side door, exiting the mall. Lydia was leading them somewhere, but she had yet to figure out where. That feeling was overwhelming her again.
"Where are we going?" Danny asked as they passed Lydia's car and into a small wooded area on the opposite side of the parking lot. Night was in full bloom, but the light from the mostly full moon was more than enough to illuminate their path, although neither knew where it ended.
"I don't know," Lydia said. "I just feel… pulled here." She grabbed her keys out of her clutch and offered them to her friend. "You can wait in the car if you'd like."
"No, that's alright." Even though his words were sincere and bold, he moved a little closer to her.
They walked a little further and Lydia could hear the babbling of a creek or small river. She wasn't as familiar with the topography of the area as her wolf friends, but she thought she remembered being a large creek that cut through Beacon Hills around this point, and come to think of it, this was downstream from the park she had visited earlier. Was anything in her life coincidence?
"Oh my god," Danny gasped.
At first Lydia didn't see what he saw. She followed his gaze and just saw darkness and shadows, and a lot of underbrush. Then, in a random moonbeam, she saw a hand curled into a fist, poking out from around a tree.
