A wet cacophony fell from the sky, every raindrop hitting Stiles' windshield like a hammer. If we were to stand out there, we would be wet from head to toe in instant.

Almost there, I reminded myself as I listened to the torrential downpour outside, almost there.

Scott had already called Deaton, and he was awaiting our arrival.

We had taken two separate cars on the drive back. Stiles, Scott, a resting Derek and I in the jeep, Braeden, Lydia, Kira, and Malia in Braeden's van. She promised to drive them just before the border, for the sake of Derek, and Lydia, who had efficiently parked her car just before the border, would take over. She was going to drive Malia and Kira home, and she insisted that should would meet us at the vet's, refusing to go home.

I watched young Derek jolt in his sleep as his head lay on my lap. He was completely delirious when we first found him. He had no idea what was going on. We kept trying to ask him questions, but he had no idea who we were. Eventually he just freaked out, crumbling into a puddle of tears. We took him to the jeep and he fell asleep not long after, his head on my lap. I didn't move him. Normally I would've shied away unless it was Stiles, but this version of Derek was just a kid. He was scared. Frankly, I didn't want to him wake up either. I was tired. We all were. Stiles would need a good day to rest after all the driving. He and Scott only switched driving once during the trek, so Stiles could power nap.

During the drive back, Scott explained the details of Kate. He said she was some kind of Were-jaguar now, after being turned by Peter's claws. Knowing she was a new were-creature, who couldn't control the shift, we'd have to be careful of her now, keep an eye out.

He stirred once again in my lap, his lip quivering.

I hesitated, breathing in a large breath and holding it until he rested again. I froze in position, and when he finally went still, I relaxed, placing my hands on top of him again, sighing as I did so

The rest of the drive was quiet, due to half-asleep Stiles and a worried pack-member Scott.

When the jeep jolted to a halt, Scott and Stiles exited the vehicle accordingly, and Scott went around to the back of the jeep, opening up the trunk, pulling down the seats, and taking Derek from my arms. He lifted him over his shoulder and Stiles closed the trunk after him.

I breathed a sigh of relief, knowing he wasn't my responsibility anymore. Well he was, I just meant that during the drive, he was kind of my responsibility. If he woke up, I wouldn't have known what to say to him.

I leapt out of the jeep and joined the boys as they entered the building. As expected, I got drenched on the way.

Lydia was waiting there already. She must have speeded to drop Kira and Malia home in time.

Scott hauled Derek into the back room, dumping him on the examination table. We all fixedly observed Deaton as he studied the boy.

"Wow." He was bug-eyed, his eyeballs practically bulging out of his head.

"'Wow?' as in 'Wow I've seen this before and know exactly what to do kind of wow?' because that's the kind of wow we're hoping for..." Stiles scratched his chin, hopeful of Deaton's knowledge.

"I think you might be over-estimating my abilities."

I watched as Lydia slipped her hand into Derek's. Her eyes flickered into a look of panic. "He's cold. Really cold." She peered up at Deaton.

"I'll go get blanket's from the jeep." I walked out of the building, without waiting for replies. I quickly grabbed two woolen blankets. They were dirty, and slightly damp, but they would do. They were warm.

I ran back into the room, my sneakers squeaking on the floor.

"So what do we do?" Stiles asked, his eyes flickering to me as I walked in.

I hugged the blankets around Derek, tucking them around his body as tightly as I could.

"Until he wakes up? Probably not much," Deaton shrugged. "It might be best to leave him with me. He'll be safe here."

"You mean from Kate?" Stiles asked.

"If she is alive, and she is what you say she is, she won't be able to walk past that gate." I had forgotten about Deaton's infamous mountain-ash gate at the front of his clinic.

"Why would she want to do this to him?" I asked, wrapping another blanket I found on a nearby chair around Derek's shoulders.

"Knowing Kate, it's probably for a reason that won't be good for anyone but her."

"It'll be bad for everyone else." Stiles deduced.

I smiled.

Instead of responding to Stiles, he ignored him. Stiles cranked his neck, stretching it out.

"You guy's should probably just go home." Deaton rubbed his cuffs. "He doesn't look to be in a any danger. So maybe the rest of you should get some sleep… it's a school night."

Shit, I had forgotten it was Sunday.

I blinked my eyes a few times, trying to keep them open as I leaned against the cold, steel, examination table.

"You all need to start taking care of your own lives, again." Deaton lectured.

"Someone should stay with him," Scott suggested.

I expected Scott to volunteer, you know pack mentality, wanting to be close to a wounded member and all, but to my surprise, Lydia raised her small hand, the other in Derek's. "I'll stay." She shrugged, "My grades are fine, despite missing a few classes."

"I am so not okay with this," Stiles exclaimed.

"Stiles…" Lydia moved her head up to him. "Go."

"Noooo." He smiled.

"Text us if anything happens," Scott said to Lydia.

"Still not okay with it," Stiles said. At first I thought it was for Lydia's safety he was saying that, but now I sensed he was worried about Derek. That he, himself, might actually prefer to stay there.

I wrapped my hand around Stiles' wrist, dragging him out of the building.

"Still not okay with it." He tried to plant his feet on the ground, but my strength overpowered his. Finally, he gave in, following my footsteps out the building. We sprinted to the jeep, our jackets slung over our heads for protection. I climbed into the backseat and watched as Stiles started the jeep, which thankfully still worked.

He drove to the McCall house, and waited for us to climb out of his idling jeep.

After Scott jumped out, I pushed the seat forward, ready to exit adequately.

Scott gave us some privacy and ran into the house, but not before saying goodbye and thanking his friend for driving.

I jumped into the front seat, and faced Stiles, grinning awkwardly.

He grinned back nodding to himself.

We were left with a few awkward moments of silence, not knowing what to say. I could cut the tension in the jeep with a knife.

"Well, I'll see you later— I guess." I smiled, moving my hair to one side.

"Oh, yeah! Yeah. See you tomorrow." He nodded again, his head bobbing up and down a little too excessively. I watched his thumbs drum against the steering wheel at the same thump of his rapid heartbeat. Despite his confident profile, I could tell from his heartbeat he was nervous in front of me. It was adorable.

"Well, um…" I reached an arm over to him, attempting to hug the fragile boy. He wrapped an arm around me and we awkwardly patted each other.

I grinned as I left his embrace.

He chuckled, ill at ease.

"See you tomorrow," I waved before shutting the jeep door.

He waved back, his jeep still idling in the driveway.

I walked up to the front door, placed my hand on the doorknob, ready to unlock, but glanced back at Stiles. His face was glued to his hand, and his head shook from side to side. I watched as he face-palmed himself and couldn't help but listen in. "God, Stiles, could you be more awkward?"

I sighed sullenly at his disappointment in himself. I should've done something, make the departure less awkward. My brain was fried and I just wanted to sleep, though.

I opened the door, slamming it close behind me. The house shook in response, and I jumped reveled by my own strength. There was a dripping noise to my left,and I saw a pan on the floor, collecting raindrops from a leak in the cieling. My lips pursed into a tight line. This place as falling apart.

It took me only two seconds to take my drenched clothes off and change into pajama bottoms and a tank top.

When my head hit the pillow, insomnia took over. I couldn't fall asleep, despite my fried brain and the lack of sleep this past weekend. I just felt like something wasn't right, like I wasn't ready to sleep yet.

I groaned, rolling over to try to seep into a more comfortable position.

This continued for the next ten minutes.

I felt so tired. My own body was mystified. I was worn-out, but couldn't sleep. That made no sense.

I glanced at my phone. It was 2:15am and I still couldn't sleep.

I felt the need to call Stiles. I wanted to hear his voice. But that was too selfish of me, to wake him up. He had been driving for so long.

An idea popped into my head, but I tried to push it back into the depths of my mind. It kept resurfacing, and finally after an eternity of debating, I settled on going for it. I grabbed my purse, packed with essentials like make up, pencils and stuff for school tomorrow, a textbook for history, some leggings, and a hairbrush.

I tossed the purse over my shoulder, but some sneakers on, and crept out my window, hopefully being unseen by Scott or Melissa. It was Scott I worried about most of all. But after the events that had occurred today, I assumed he was asleep, owed to exhaustion.

After closing the window, I faced the darkness. It was pitch black and still pouring rain. I groaned in frustration, but if I ran fast enough I could avoid most of it if I took the path through the forest.

I braced myself for the cold rain, and sprinted as fast as I could across the street, through the forest, out on to the main road and j-walked to Stiles' house.

I slowed to a walk when I reached the side of the house, beside the big maple tree. His light in his room was predictably off.

I felt bad waking him up, now. I don't know what I had expected. Maybe for his light to be on, me to climb up to his window, explain my reason for coming over so late, and then we'd fall asleep or something. I don't know.

I was already here, though, so I grabbed a few pebbles from the asphalt path beside me and starting throwing them at his window. It was hard to control this strength. I had to use the tiniest, modest amount of arm strength as possible, but not too little.

When his dim bedside light flickered on, I almost felt my frozen heart stutter. I felt like fleeing right there and then. Too late now. I dropped the remainder of the pebbles and waited.

I saw him unlock the latch and slide the window up. He peeked his head out, fisting his eyes due to exhaustion.

"Anna?" His voice croaked, still rubbing his eyes.

"Can I come up?" I asked, tapping my feet.

"U-Up here?" He dropped his hands, "L-Like in my room?"

I rolled my eyes with a smile, but then I realized it was too dark for him to see me. "Yes, Stiles."

"Sure, then." He shoved the rest of the window up, making room for me to jump in. I threw my purse up first, which he thankfully caught, and then I climbed the tree. The branches were so thin I was afraid it would snap with my weight on it.

I got as far as I could on the sturdiest branch, and then took a giant dive into his room, somersaulting onto the floor as discretely as possible.

He shut the window and set my purse down. He was dressed only in a tight black shirt and pajama pants.

"How come you're here?" He yawned, "I mean, not that I'm not happy to see you, I'm just so tired I can't even understand what's going on."

"I know, I'm sorry I just can't sleep." I smiled at his wild hair. It was all over his head, like some crazy tornado had targeted just him.

"Ah." He nodded. His feet wobbled and I watched his body sway. He looked so tired, but I had seen worse during his nogitsune-possesion. His eyes were heavy, lids almost closing as he stood in front of me.

"I'm sorry," I scratched my head, "I shouldn't have come."

"No!" He took a step towards me, "No, it's okay." Surprisingly, he wrapped his two muscular arms around me. "Damn, I'm tired." He mumbled into my shoulder.

I giggled. I could feel his warm breathing on my neck. If I wasn't holding up with my strength, he'd probably collapse right in front of me. "Come on, let's get you to bed."

He stirred in my arms, planting his feet firmly on the ground "I'm too tired."

I chuckled again, towing his heavy body to his bed in the corner of his room.

He sat on it, reluctantly, and just stared up at me with his bloodshot eyes.

"I'm gonna go, I'm sorry for waking you," I smiled, brushing his disastrous hair back.

He shook his head a little too excessively, like a dog. "Uh-uh. Just stay here." He fell back on the bed, positioning himself so his head was on the pillow.

"Stiles I—"

"Lie down." He ordered with his eyes already closed. He patted the bed.

"Yes sir," I smiled, moving to the side of the bed. I planted my butt on it, lying down. I stared at the ceiling above me, making intricate patterns with my mind with the textures of the wall.

In my peripheral, I saw his chest rise and fall. I was almost certain he was asleep, until his body rotated away from me.

Restlessness got the best of him and a few seconds later, he rotated back.

I turned to look at his face, and his eyes were no longer closed. He just stared at my side. I twirled my hair in my fingers, waiting for him to say something.

"I'm sorry," He apologized, "I can't sleep unless I'm in the middle of the bed."

"Oh." I blinked, "I can move on the floor."

"No," he sat himself up, "Maybe you could just—" He placed his hands on my shoulders, moving me a little closer to the edge of the bed, "And then I'll—" He scooted himself closer to me. I just beamed at him as he tried to figure out our sleeping arrangements. He was so mesmerizing. I could watch him for hours.

He did a double take when he saw my smile, and a small one rose to his lips as he tucked the blanket closer to him.

A nostalgic feeling had indulged itself upon me. I rested my head on the pillow, facing Stiles. Our faces were so close, our noses almost touching.

His hand lifted to caress my cheek, with that quirky smile of his. He lifted my chin, up, just a tad, and removed the gap between us, pressing our lips together. It was just like the first time we kissed, and the second time. This feeling of nostalgia never faded.

An explosion of total peace and serenity overwhelmed us both as his top lip clung to my bottom. At first, he kissed me so gently, like he was afraid to hurt me, but then the kisses quickened, along with the beating of his heart. Dizzy with excitement, I decided to try something different. I quickly (using my speed) placed myself on top of Stiles, straddling him.

Our kisses were heated, passionate, one after another. From the pressure of his hands on my back, I could tell he was just as nervous as I was. He flipped me over gently, and started to kiss the corner of my lips. His lips trailed to my jaw, leaving traces of kisses from my ear to my collar bone.

My breathing was deep, shallow, due to lack of breath. The dimness of light in the room emphasized the features in his back muscles.

His lips were so warm against my skin, they scorched it.

I tried to catch my breath, but it seemed near impossible. The aggressive side of me took over, and I tossed him back over, me on top again. He was startled by my action, but enjoyed it. I started to kiss his jaw line, now, leaving small imprints of my lips behind. I could feel the blood pumping through his thin skin, the thumping of it echoed through my ears.

Knowingly going too far, I kissed his neck. The lust was too much, I couldn't help it. He was too tempting.

I lifted my head up, panting, when I felt my eyes flare red.

"It's okay," He reassured, pushing my head back, "It's okay…"

He didn't have to say it again. I felt my teeth extend out of my mouth, and I gently bit into the first layer of skin. I wasn't even that hungry, it was just the lure of him, the appeal. It felt so right.

Instead of wincing at the pinch, he groaned, and not in pain, more like arousal.

Every now and again, my lips would trail down his neck, kissing him more.

The only sound was his blood pumping and our heavy breaths.

He grabbed a fistful of my hair with one of his free hands, the other trapped underneath me. He sucked in a deep breath, and flipped us around once again. A pile of sheets off the bed fell to the floor.

I wiped my face with my sleeve and raised my arms above my head, exposing my armpits. He pinned them down with his muscular hands and crushed his lips against mine again.

He grew eager with every kiss, and so did I. My hands dug into his back, so deeply that I heard the tear of fabric. I could feel the immediate smile on his lips. Instead of letting me apologize, he kissed me over and over again. The lustful desire of every touch was an amorous sensation. I gripped his now sweat-ridden back.

I latched to his bottom lip, so tightly that I felt him wince when the lip split in my mouth.

"I'm sorry!" a hand flew to my mouth. "I'm so sorry; I didn't mean to do that."

"It's alright," He chuckled, moving his lips back to the corner of my lips.

Something aggressive took over me, my animal instinct. I felt like I couldn't control myself anymore. I pushed him off of me and onto the bed beside me. I ripped the remainder of his shirt off and started kissing his chest, his waist, his back, his shoulder. Not only kissing, but biting, scratching, gripping. He was covered in his own blood and sweat, but he didn't mind.

We moved so quickly, no human could see us. I hadn't thought about how dizzy he must have been from this experience, tossing and turning, and flipping. I finally resumed to normal pace, just kissing his lips now, as I pressed one had in the middle of his bare, bloody, chest. I could feel the triumphant smile underneath his lips.

I started grinning as well. I felt my face go back to normal as I lay my head back on the pillow, both of us chuckling as we stared at the ceiling.

We were silent, just smiling like idiots for a little while.

"Shit, its 3:23am."

My eyes widened at the alarm clock beside Stiles. "Woah."

"School in four and a half hours."

"Mhm," I nodded.

I heard him yawn beside me, and reposition himself so he was more in the middle of the bed. His butt backed into my side, and I moved a little, so he could feel comfortable in his own bed.

I felt the exhaustion–from both lack of sleep and what had just occurred— and I shut my eyes.

Weariness overwhelmed my body, and I felt my consciousness ebb away.

I groaned at the blaring bleeping of Stiles' alarm clock.

He sighed, his arm reaching over to the table. He slammed his hand down and the clock, and breathed a weary breath out.

I had almost forgotten I was with Stiles, if it weren't for the breathing body next to me. He smiled at me rubbing sleep from his eyes.

I smiled back, and used my agile speed to fly to my purse, grab my belongings, run to the washroom before the Sherriff woke up, and get dressed.

"Shit," I cursed, I had forgotten a shirt. I only brought pants and sneakers. I groaned, walking back at a normal pace back to Stiles.

"No shirt?" he asked, using his hands to gel up his hair in the small mirror on his desk.

I shook my head, my hair falling in neat curls.

"Here," he moved past me and grabbed a red sweater. He tossed it, and I caught it. It was his lacrosse sweater. The one that had his last name on it with the number 24.

"Thanks," I smiled, pulling it on over my pajama tank top.

He smiled, and went back to neatly pushing back his hair.

I watched as his back muscles moved with every arm movement. I glanced at the bite marks and scratches over him. It didn't seem that heated last night, but now looking at him, it appeared as if he got attacked. There was a bite mark on his neck, which a hoodie could likely cover it. There was one on his back shoulder, one on his right side, a bruise or two, and there was another blood-crusted bite on his left side, closer to his hip.

"Boy, I got you good," I grimaced, rushing over to him and grazing the bite mark on his upper shoulder with the pads of my fingers.

He shrugged, grinning like an idiot as he turned around.

I beamed up at him as we finished getting ready. After cleaning up some of his bite marks with a clean cloth and hot water, we headed out. I got to Stiles' jeep without the Sherriff noticing and waited for Stiles as he said a quick goodbye to his father.

We drove to school, mostly in silence except to talk about music that was playing. When we got there, he parked his jeep in the back and we climbed out.

I noticed Scott walking by, and he wiggled his eyebrows at us, nodding at Stiles.

I rolled my eyes and giggled, "Go," I smiled, "I'm gonna wait for Malia."

He nodded, grinning. He patted my shoulder and said, "I'll meet you after school."

I smiled at him, as if to say sure.

He gripped my shoulder tightly before walking off, beaming at his best friend.

They walked up the stairs to the south entrance of the school. Of course Scott would ask questions, and of course I had to listen in to see what Stiles would say.

I heard there footsteps on the stairs, and watched as Stiles reached the final step of the first flight, turning back to his best friend who followed closely behind.

"Alright, so it's like two in the morning, and I wake up and she's just outside, standing there in the rain. So of course, I just let her sneak in."

"And then what happened?"

"This," He probably thought I couldn't see, for they made the top step of the seconds stairs, but I could still just see them in view. Stiles scanned around him quickly, making sure no one saw, and then lifted the back of his sweatshirt up, revealing a few of the bite marks.

I couldn't see my cousin's face, but I had a pretty good idea of what it looked like. Wide eyes, mouth agape, maybe a little eyebrow wiggle.

"Holy…" I heard Scott breath.

"Yeah. Right on, right? After that we spent the rest of the night—"

My phone ringing interrupted my eavesdropping. At first, I thought It was Stiles' or Scott, but when I didn't see them react, I looked at mine.

It was an unknown number.

I leaned my backside against the jeep and pressed the bright green button.

"Hello?"

"Hell, this is officer Gilmore. May I speak to Anna Miller?"

"Speaking," I replied in a questioning tone.

"We have some news for you; you may want to sit down for this."

"W-What is it?" I had never heard of officer Gilmore, so they definetly weren't from around here.

"I'm from the Washington Policed Department. We received a call from a Darrell Young last night about a car accident."

Oh God. That was my mom's boyfriend.

I could feel my knees tremble beneath me and I looked back up the flights of stairs, to see if Stiles and Scott were there. They were. I assumed Scott heard me on the phone and paused, waiting to see what it said while still in ears-reach.

Their looks were discerning and confused.

"I'm sorry to tell you this—"

"No…" I breathed, my eyes brimming with tears.

Scott and Stiles were sprinting back down the stairs towards me now.

"Your mother was in a car accident last night. A drunk driver hit her head on. She was transferred via helicopter straight to the hospital but succumbed to her wombs. I'm very sorr—"

The phone fell out of my weak hands.

For once, since I became a vampire, I felt weak.

I felt like I couldn't hold my own body weight up.

My knees gave out, and I collapsed onto the cold, cement floor. I felt Stiles' arms hook underneath my armpits, but I didn't react.

"NO." I sobbed. "NO NO No no…!"

The tears sprung from my eyes like a loose faucet. I just kept crying and crying.

"Please no…" I moaned, wailing to whoever could hear me. Stiles managed to pick up my lifeless body and encompass himself around me. Instead of saying anything, he just held me so closely to his body that I felt crushed. I couldn't find a place to put my arms so they just lay lifeless around Stiles' neck, my hands clenching and unclenching.

All of the stressful tears I seemed to hold in the last few weeks erupted into one giant emotion, which was grief and loss.

I cried in Stiles' arms for what seemed like an eternity. My cousin yelled comforting words at me, but it was like I couldn't hear him. Like my hearing didn't work. I was momentarily deaf. I ignored the looks from classmates and buried my face into Stiles' chest.

The only thoughts that ran through my head at the moment were: Why her? Did she know I loved her still? I hadn't called her in a week or two, what were my last words to her? I will never see my mother again.

I will never see my mother again.

The tears never stopped coming. The rest of the day was a blur of fears and tears. I couldn't really comprehend what happened, I just recalled Scott driving Stiles jeep, was stiles cradled me in the backseat as we drove home to meet my uncle.

I remember this one memory of my mom and I when I was little. We went to the beach, and it was probably the best memory I had of her. It was the last day of summer and she bought me a birthday cake flavored scoop of ice cream, in a cone of course. We spent dawn until dusk at the beach, that day. We played in the water, made sandcastles, and giggled like there was no tomorrow.

I would never see her again.

I actually felt physical pain inside of me. Like someone repeatedly stabbed me over and over, but even that would be less painful then what I was enduring in right now.

I just wanted to see my mom one last time.

A/N: Hope you enjoyed the chapter! Thanks for the reviews and reading! Let me know your thoughts :) Sorry about the short length of this chapter.