Chapter 3

"First, I think it's important for you to know that I'm 100% fine. Second, it's all in the past and after I tell you everything we aren't going to discuss it. Got it?"

Paige watched Derek work his jaw before he gave her a small nod.

"You remember my roommate Phoebe, she use to throw a lot of wild parties out of our dorm room, the RN always said she'd do something but she never did. One night this guy Mitchell, he'd been at a few of our parties before, and I even had English Lit with him. He was out of his head, he'd apparently stopped taking his meds and we started bumping into him more. He was getting a little too attached but I knew that he didn't have any family down here and I know what that's like, so I let him hang around, invited him back to the room a couple times.

.

Paige had just stumbled home from her night job at one of the many coffee shops around campus, her feet were tired and she was just looking forward to crashing. It wasn't until she'd gotten a couple feet away from her door that Paige realized there was someone sitting in front of it.

"Mitchell it's so late what are you doing here?"

"I need to talk to you."

Mitchell was shaking and his body was sweating profusely, his complexion was pale and from the dark circles under his eyes Paige guessed he wasn't getting much sleep.

"Everything okay?" Paige tried to multi task.

Pulling out her key to unlock the door, Mitchell's hand clamped down hard on her wrist; his grip only tightened when she tried to pull away.

"I said I needed to talk!"

"And I asked you if everything was okay."

Paige hoped if she stayed calm she could get Mitchell to calm down too, but his grip on her loosened. Only to be replaced when his hand slid up to her neck, his grip forcing her backward. Paige felt the doorknob bruise her at the shear speed she had been knocked back.

"You don't want to do this."

"I've been watching you-in class, You always ruffle your hair around leaving your shoulders exposed. I always wanted to know what your skin would smell like, Phoebe's skin smells like sour apples."

A scary thought over came Paige, "You didn't hurt her did you?"

He frowned at her, "You always told me how annoying she was that she always through parties while you were trying to study or finish a paper."

"Oh my god." Paige thought she was going to be sick. "Where is she?"

"My mother use to tuck me in at night, when she would she'd sing this song about bears in the woods. I listen to it all the time but no one can ever sing it the way she could."

Paige knew from experience that his mother had been killed in a drunk driving accident when Mitchell was only a couple years old, he'd been in the car and survived.

Thinking about his mother only seemed to make him angrier, his hand constricting the air Paige was trying to suck into her lungs.

"You look a lot like her, except your hair is longer. We can fix that though."

Reaching behind him Mitchell pulled out a pocket knife, his hand slipped from her neck and Paige tried to get out from between him and the wall but she didn't get a chance. His forearm came down on her collar bone knocking her head hard against the wall; Paige's sight blurred.

She tried to yell for help then but her voice cracked and wasn't as loud as she would have liked, not loud enough for anyone to hear her.

"Stay still I don't want to cut you."

Paige's struggling stopped immediately, her eyes following the moments of the knife. Using one hand to pull down her hand and the other to slice, Mitchell began cutting a couple inches off the end of her hair.

"Get away from her!" Nancy from down the hall yelled, she'd come out to use the bathroom and instead found a scene from some cheese horror movie.

Pulling away Mitchell pocketed the knife, moving swiftly down the hallway, Leaving Paige to stand on her own. Nancy tried to catch her in time but the lack of oxygen to her airway cause Paige to pass out, the back of her head cracking the doorknob on the way down.

.

"Nancy pushed the blue help button at the end of the hallway, the paramedics came and took me to the ICU ward, Mom and dad showed up the next day. I was out for a while and when I finally came too their faces were the first I saw. After another 24 hours on over watch I was allowed to go back to my dorm and I somehow convinced mom and dad that camping out on my floor wasn't an option. Thankfully Phoebe was okay, she helped me out until I felt 100%, turns out Mitchell had just borrowed some of her hand cream once, that's how he knew what It smelt like."

Derek shook his head, he'd bit his tongue though the whole story knowing that if he interrupted that she'd get annoyed and not finish.

"Did you have to go to the hearing?"

Paige leaned back confused, "What hearing?"

"You pressed charges right?"

She sighed, "No Derek I didn't."

He stood off her bed, pacing in front of her. "So he's just roaming the halls waiting to get his paws on any innocent-In three weeks I'm supposed to send you back to there, to him."

"Stop, he isn't some crazy psycho stalker killer. Mitchell went off his meds and yeah that was a mistake but I'm not sending him to jail for it."

"He assaulted you."

"I was the result of a bad judgment call. He's back on new medication and he's seeing his doctors, he's doing well."

Derek pulled at his hair, she was completely nuts.

"And you know that because you went to see him."

She nodded, "That, and he calls me every couple of days to apologies over and over again."

"That's barely a slap on the wrist." He growled.

"Where is your compassion?"

"It went out the window about the time I heard that some asshole knocked you around and put you in a coma!"

"Shh you are going to wake my parents; I never said I was in a coma, I said I was knocked out."

"But you easily could have been; getting your head knocked around like that could have resulted in some serious brain injury."

Paige remembered when she got back to her dorm, there was a head sized hole in the drywall where her head had been.

"If my condition had been that serious then you would have gotten a phone call."

Derek laughed, "You really think your parents would have called me?"

"No but Phoebe would have, or the on call nurse. Your name is in my emergency calls file, it's just under specific instructions to not call unless I'm dying."

He didn't seem to find that clearly as funny as she did by the sour look on his face.

"Turn around."

Not bothering to ask questions Paige stood from the bed and turned to face her closet. She felt Derek's fingers softly in her hair moving it aside; she realized that he was trying to get a look where her head had been hit.

There was still a small discoloration on her scalp that Derek could easily see in the dim light, he dropped her hair and stepped away when he was done.

"I bruise easy." Paige winked, "You know that."

Derek had always found pleasure in seeing his hidden hickeys on her inner thighs, the wolf in him liked that he had some mark on her; even if she complained about it.

Paige used the silence to change the direction of the conversation, "What did Scott and Malia want?"

"They wanted to tell me that there was another wolf in town."

"I thought most wolves avoided Beacon Hills because they knew your family resided here."

"They use too, now people are curious. With the apha pack recently here and the other weird things that go on, it's like it's drawing everyone and everything toward Beacon Hills."

"I wonder if that's where the name came from."

"Yes, because that's not weird or crazy."

Paige shrugged his comment off, "You never know. Do you know how the wolf is?"

"Theo James, Scott said he and Stiles went to school with him.

"Yeah he was, I remember when his sister died. His whole family was ripped apart by the town gossip, they eventually moved."

"Why don't I remember this?"

Paige thought back, "It was before we got together, And if you remember you were quite the self centered jerk back then."

"I don't know, I wasn't totally focused on myself."

"That's right, when you weren't too busy practicing basketball in the hallways and disturbing peoples music practice time, you were-"

"Trying to get into your pants?"

"I was going to say failing at math but..."

"I hate math." He grumbled, remembering the nights he'd stay up praying he didn't fail his exams.

"You know I always thought you liked me for my whit and sass."

Derek's lips were at the shell of her ear. "I like you in spite of those things."

Paige laughed pushing him away from her, but his hands remained on her hips keeping them connected.

"I wonder why after all this time he's decided to come back?"

"Not my problem, Scott's going to do some recon for us during the break."

"You trust him." Paige smiled; Derek had always had trust problems.

He rolled his eyes trying to hide a smile of his own. "It's hard not to, they won't leave me alone."

"They look up to you, it's like you have your own, wolf, coyote, banshee, Stiles fan base."

"I could do without that last one."

Paige scoffed, "You can pretend all you want, I know you and Stiles have some kind of bromance going. Who knows, if everything goes right in a couple years he could be your brother in law."

"What?"

"Please if Cora hadn't gotten sick and went back out west, her and Stiles totally would have hooked up." Derek didn't seem to agree. "You can deny it all you want but that boy is going to be family, even if he is just a cousin in law."

Derek rolled his eyes, "I'm leaving, you're giving me a headache."

Paige grabbed his shirt pulling him to her lips, when she was satisfied she let him go the way he came; watching him climb out her window gave her flash backs to when they first started dating.

.

"Please never leave again." Stiles ran to Paige, his hands wrapping around her waist. "He's such a sour wolf when you're gone."

"He's always a sour wolf." Paige joked back.

Derek just stood back arms crossed and watched this exchange take place.

"Yes but he's less grumpy with you around."

"Not by much." Scott mumbled loud enough for all to hear.

Derek shot him a look but other than that he knew to keep his mouth shut, he was less grumpy now that Paige was here.

"If you are referring to yesterday it's be resolved."

Hearing what his friend said Stiles perked up. "Yesterday? You went to see her yesterday, dude you promised you'd wait for me."

"Malia looked away guilty.

"You too." Her groaned, "This is grounds for divorce."

"Alright enough, tell me what you've got on Theo?"

You can always count on Derek to suck out the fun and get everyone to work. Paige gave Stiles one more hug before they joined the rest of the group on the bleachers.

The school's football field had become one of the many meeting places this pack seemed to have.

"Lydia's not here yet." Malia reminded them. I text her this morning but she never replied."

"Did you actually remember to press send?"

Malia growled at Stiles making him sink back in his seat.

"I saw her yesterday but haven't heard from her since." Scoot commented.

Derek's head tilted to the side, "She's in the library."

Volunteering herself to retrieve the strawberry blonde, Paige jumped down from the bleachers.

No matter how far away she traveled Paige would always remember her time at BHHS, both the good and the heart wrenchingly bad. Her memories led her down the hall to where she'd seen Derek and his friends dribbling a basket ball, into the old music room.

Not a lot had changed a new coat of paint here and a couple new instruments there. In the corner sat her old cello, well not hers, but the one she use to practice with while at school. Taking the instrument out of its case, Paige sat in the gray chair facing the middle of the room, her hands started moving along the strings making soft music.

"What are you staring at?" She's snipped at him, pretending to be bad.

Derek had heard her playing while in class and left to find her, dropping his bag at the door.

"I'm listening, why am I distracting you?"

Paige went back to playing. "No, I have laser like focus."

Paige could still feel Derek's warm breath on her ear, his soft lips that made her mess up the song she was desperately trying to play.

It had also been the first time she had said she loved him.

"Reliving your glory days?"

Paige put the instrument back, "Hi Lydia, actually I came to find you but I got distracted."

"I use to know how to play that piece on the piano."

"I didn't know you could?"

Lydia smiled, "There are a lot of things people don't know about me."

"I don't know, Stiles seems to know a little too much sometimes." Paige joked.

"We've been going to the same school since forever and he's weirdly attentive to everything."

Both girls could agree on that. "He is all about those string web maps."

.

When the girls made it to the field Paige noticed Derek looked even more unhappy them when she left.

"I printed off those news reports like you wanted." Lydia handed a pile of papers to Stilies.

Paige leaned over his shoulder to get a better look. "I remember some of these from when the accident fire happened."

"Accident... yeah right."

"Stiles, seriously?" Scott sighed.

Paige suddenly felt like she was missing something. "What?"

"Stiles thinks that Theo had something to do with his sister's Death." Derek told her.

She turned on Stiles for answers "Why would you think that? He was only a kid when it happened."

"Actually we were like 10, kids can be psycho murders too, don't be such an ageist." Paige rolled her eyes at that.

"Scott what do you think?"

"I think Stiles needed something new to obsess over."

Derek stepped in, "Let him obsess, if it leads me to why Theo's back in town then I don't care how he does it."

Stiles shoot the rest of us a "HA!" look before starting to organize the papers in his hand. For now all they had to do was wait and see if Theo would make a move.

"I heard you playing." Derek muttered in Paige's eat.

Scott's eyes flickered to them before quickly looking away.

"My old cello was still there."

"You're probably the only one who ever played it." He teased.

"Well the triangle is among one of the more popular instruments."

That Scott had to break his silence for, "You took band?" Which in turn got everyone else's attention.

"Bro you were a band geek." Stiles couldn't believe it.

Out of the two of them Paige was the one to respond. "No Derek was too cool for us band nerds."

He tried to defend himself, "I never called you a nerd."

"Your face said it all." She turned back to the group. "He was more of the Jackson type."

"That kid was a dick." Derek said not catching her comparison.

"I think that was her point." Lydia hid behind her smirk.

"What ever happened to him anyway?" Paige was more behind on most of the pack gossip.

"He took off for London."

She blinked at Scott."Seriously, werewolf in London..."