I am back again in the land of Fandom, with another chapter. As usual, I will be starting out with my thanks speech. Comicfan: Thanks again, I hope you find this chapter just as satisfactory –though it's not nearly as exciting- xMissxSpunkyx: I hope you don't mind the Stiles interjection so much and thanks! Guest: You're very welcome for daddysherif, and don't fear there will be more of him. Rosejoanna: Kate is dead in season two, but since this fic takes place in season one she's still kicking. Which means lots of trouble for our guys.

Chapter Seven: Killing Time

After considering multiple hideouts, I decided to check into a hotel. I know it's not the most secretive thing ever, but I'd decided to use it as a base. I'd already spent a long boring morning in Derek's car thinking so by then I was starting to get a little stir crazy.

I paced back and forth in the hotel room, and in intervals, plopped down on the bed. There was nothing to do! I thought about going to the hospital to check on Derek. He was in my body now after all. G-d, I hoped he hadn't screwed anything up yet. Knowing him he had probably busted out, hot-wired a car, and was now gunning for me.

I wondered how much a broken bone really hurt. Probably enough.

Restlessly, I got to my feet again and made the circle from the bathroom, to the closet to the door, and finally back to the bed again. I pulled out Derek's phone and texted Scott, 'any news on me?'

His answer was quick, 'No, I called your phone but it just kept ringing.'

I pictured a hospital wastebasket vibrating and playing my ringtone. 'Going out of my mind with boredom,' I wrote Scott.

'At least you're not in economics.'

I flopped backwards onto the bed, and bounced along with the aftershock. The remote landed by my hand. I turned on the TV and flipped through some channels. Ugh! I turned it off and went back to pacing. There had to be something I could do. I was supposed to stay away from the woods and anywhere the Argents might be… I thought about the Hale place.

Ever since I first ran into Derek I hadn't trusted him. He was just too secretive, and now that I had a chance to learn about him, why not? I started by emptying all his pockets. There wasn't much, just the key ring, the wallet and a toothpick. I guess Derek likes to travel light.

There were four keys. One was the car key, and another looked like a house key. I couldn't see the point in locking the door of a burnt out shell. Maybe he carried it for sentimental reasons. The third was a skeleton key, which had potential. The last one was small and funny shaped, like it was for roller-skates or a diary. I smirked at the thought of Derek having a diary. It would be handy if he did put all his thoughts and reasoning on paper though.

I had already been through his wallet, but I scanned it again. There was the credit card, his driver's license, and a couple of bills. I pulled everything out and checked for a secret compartment. Nothing.

The toothpick seemed to be a standard one too.

I wondered what I would find at the Hale place. Would it as bare as his pockets, or would there be some telltale signs of werewolfness lying around? More importantly, would I be able to finally figure out if Derek was a good guy or not?

Since the only way I could get an answer was to go, that's what I did.

The Hale house looked the same as it always did, deserted and burnt. I scanned the area before I got out of the car, just to be on the safe side. There was no sign of the Alpha, or the Argents. You don't see much of either during the daylight hours.

As I walked up the porch steps, I couldn't help casting glances at where me and Scott had dug up Laura Hale's body. It sent shivers up my spine being back here.

I pushed the charred door open. Dust motes drifted in and out of the huge patches of sunlight from the windows and missing sections of wall. Everything was still and quiet. I stepped inside, my footfalls muted by the carpet of ash.

I took myself on a tour of the house. "Yap," I announced just to hear something, "it looks like there's been a fire in here." Two main rooms were intact downstairs. Both were empty except for the odd drape covered chair, but that was all it. I walked along the perimeter of the rooms, letting my hand trail along the wall. Along one I found deed claw marks going from the ceiling to the floorboards. I followed the impressions. "Derek's scratching post,"

It still struck me as odd that Derek chose to live out here. Scott had told me how the Argents had supposedly burnt it down to kill the Hales. Maybe he staid here as an act of defiance, living in the same house they'd tried to exterminate him in. That made sense.

I walked up the stairs to the second floor cautiously, because the boards looked like they'd snap if you stood on them wrong. Luckily, they held. The upstairs was worse off than the down. The back walls were missing from most of the rooms. It was like standing in a pyromaniac's dollhouse.

Whenever I inhaled, the burnt wood smell almost made me gag. When I touched a charred wall, it left a hand print. I couldn't see anything to show that anyone was living here. Then I came to the last room, and found Derek's camp.

There was a sleeping bag rolled out against the remaining wall, there was also about twenty two liter water bottles and a wooden chest. That was all. I tried to open the chest, and found it was locked. The skeleton key from Derek's key ring fit the lock though, so I opened it.

A stack of brown plastic covered squares lay inside. I picked one up to study it. 'Meal ready to eat' was printed along its side. "MREs?" I exclaimed, "This guy's been living on MREs?" I noticed the flavor, "meatloaf with gravy. Oy, my condolences Derek,"

I checked the rest of the crate. But there wasn't anything in it but the rations.

"I guess that's it," I mused sinking down onto the sleeping bag, "No photo albums, no journals, and no keepsakes. Just the barebones it takes to get by." I shouldn't have really expected any of those things, after all it was Derek.

I pulled out the phone and texted Scott, 'At the Hale place, nothing to see here.'

It took Scott along time to write back, I was watching trees sway in the wind through the gaping hole in the wall when the phone vibrated in my hands. '….' Scott had written, 'dude, your dad just called me. It's not good.'

I started typing when the next message came. 'Going to the hospital, meet me there."

Damn it! G-d, what had Derek done? I leaped to my feet and rushed down the stairs. I could feel the wood straining under my weight but just kept right on going. I was almost outside when the phone vibrated again.

'Hope you have a high threshold for pain' the text read. I recognized the number it was sent from, because it was my own. Great.