Cora entered the loft expecting to see Derek laying on the couch reading. Instead, he was nowhere to be found. On the counter he left a note: There's food in the fridge, I'll be back later tonight. Cora let out a sigh, she made a mental note to herself to ask him to drop her off tomorrow at Lydia's for movie night.
Crap. Movie-night. She didn't feel like going. It wasn't that she didn't like the pack. Actually, she had grown to think they were all nice people. Stiles were funny and animated. Alison was actually pretty level headed, despite the pitiful looks she shot Cora every now and then, which still irritated Cora. She thought that Lydia was a playfully snarky genius. Isaac was usually pretty relaxed. It seemed like he was just trying to get by. And Scott…smelled really good. And liked dogs.
Cora still couldn't figure out her opinion on Scott. He had obviously gone from having huge reservations about her, to inviting her to his house three times that week for tutoring. He greeted her at school, ate dinner with her. He was obviously a nice guy. But there wasn't one sentence, or moment that she felt that she could use to define his personality yet, and it was frustrating. She dropped the issue and figured it was nothing to stress about.
Cora went up to her room and dropped her books on the floor as she entered. But rather than falling onto her bed, she observed the four walls of her room. They were bland. Boring. Nothing like her room before the fire, or her room in Colombia. Her room at the Hale house was never girly, but she had accent pillows, light shades of blue, pictures and string lights. Her room felt homey. Her room in Colombia was vibrant. It had taken her a while, but after about a year there, she decorated it surely, but slowly. Instead of the light blues and pastels she had as a little girl, she decorated with vibrant reds and oranges. Bright colors. She hung fabric she got at the local market from corner to corner. Her walls were a bright white, so everything seemed to be so striking against it. But now in Beacon Hills, her room seemed so dull. She had a few pictures of the places she and Derek traveled to framed on her nightstand. But other than that, there was nothing.
She and Derek were trying to make this home again, so she decided to start with her room. She sat on her bed and grabbed her laptop from her desk and got to work through online shopping.
The next day seemed to go at a snail's pace. She could hardly find a way to pay attention in any of her classes. It seemed like each of her teachers dragged the class on, and the time had stopped on all of the clocks. Today, school was dismissing an hour and a half early too, for some teacher meeting. Cora had hoped it would mean class would fly by, but instead, it was like everyone set the clocks back. Finally, when the last bell rang, Cora made a bee-line to her locker. She just wanted to grab her books, hop in the Camaro, and do more online shopping for her room. When Derek came home last night he happily gave her his credit card, saying "As long as you don't do anything illegal, get what you want." That pleased Cora.
As she grabbed the books she needed for her weekend homework, she felt someone approach her from behind. She turned around to meet the wide and toothy grin of Scott.
"I aced it! I know I did! I knew how to do every problem. I know I have at least a B now on my progress report!" He exclaimed.
"That's great, Scott. I'm happy for you," Cora said with a grin. And she was happy. She knew Scott wanted to do well, and he worked really hard during their tutoring sessions. She knew he would have been crushed if he didn't pass, and honestly, she would have been too. They both worked really hard.
"Thanks again for everything Cora. Are you going to Lydia's tonight?"
Crap. Movie night. She still didn't feel like going. But she already told Lydia she would. She still needed to ask Derek for a ride.
"Uh, yeah. You?"
"Yeah. Do you need a ride?" He asked her. His grin still a mile wide.
She contemplated his request. She figured she might as well go with him if he's offering and she hadn't asked Derek yet. She would just have her brother bring her home.
"Yeah that would be great actually. I'll have Derek bring me home then."
"Alright! I'll be at your house around 5:45? That should give us time to be at Lydia's by six."
"Sounds good. I'll see you then. Thanks Scott," she responded.
They gave each other their goodbyes and headed in opposite directions. Cora made her way to the parking lot where she knew Derek would be with the Camaro. Instead, she got an unpleasant surprise.
Derek was in the Toyota. He bought it right before their cross country trip, saying something about better gas mileage. But the passenger seat wasn't empty. Instead, Uncle Creeper was there. Cora huffed out a deep breath and made her way to the truck. She slid into the passenger seat and shut the door with probably more force than necessary. Derek's eyes darted up toward the rear view mirror and looked at Cora pointedly.
"Why are you here?"
"Hello to you too, Sunshine," Peter said. His tone wasn't as condescending as it usually was. It was almost playful.
"We're going to the station," Derek said from the front seat.
"For what?" Cora didn't understand. Sure she had some illegal documents, but she didn't think any of them would be traceable to a point where she needed to turn herself in.
"You'll see."
And with that, Derek sped off in the direction of Beacon Hill's Sheriff Station.
Cora sat between her brother and uncle in one of the wooden seats of Sheriff Stilinski's office. She hadn't asked Derek anymore questions since she first got into the car. She was still confused as to why they were there. Neither her brother nor her uncle had a particular scent to them to possible give off their emotions, but then again, they were all trained to control their chemo-sensors. After a few minutes of waiting, Sheriff Stilinski walked in, with a heavy file of paperwork.
"Hello Derek, Cora… and um Peter," the Sheriff said. Derek and Cora's names were spoken with a slight fondness, while when the Sheriff said 'Peter', he was much more apprehensive.
"Hello Sheriff, you said you wanted to see us after I called a few weeks ago about the fire," Derek said.
Called about the fire? Why would Derek do that? All opening up a discussion about the fire would do is lead to stirring up sadness and grief. She thought they were trying to put the fire behind them.
"Yes, and actually I mainly wanted to speak to Cora. If you don't mind Cora, can I take an official statement from you about what happened the night of the fire? How you escaped the house? Where you went?"
"What do you need a statement for? I haven't done anything wrong. It's my family that got burned to death, remember?"
Cora was irritated. What did they want from her? She could hear her brother growl next to her, dissatisfied with her snarky response. Cora let out a sigh.
"Everyone was downstairs in the basement when my mom sent me upstairs to grab something. I was looking all over the place and it wasn't until I got back downstairs that I noticed the fire. The house didn't have smoke detectors and I was on the top floor so I didn't smell it yet. I tried to open the door to the basement but I couldn't and it was hard for me to see anything, I couldn't even find the door to get out. I went up the stairs and I jumped out of the window of my mom's room."
The Sheriff looked at her eagerly to finish. She knew what happened after that, but almost didn't want to say it. She felt that the part that came next made her look weak. She thought it made her seem cowardly.
"I was about to start running to the highway for someone to help me, but someone shocked me, with probably a stun gun or something. She was blonde, tall, but maybe that's just 'cause I was short. Anyways, she told me to leave Beacon Hills. She told me Derek and Laura were already dead. She shoved a Ziploc bag at me, with what I assumed were their ashes. She told me to leave and to not come back if I wanted to stay alive. So I ran. I went to a little diner and when they opened up the next day I asked the manager if I could make a phone call. I guess he just figured I was some rowdy kid who left home in the middle of the night or something. So, I called Maria, one of mom's friends. She called one of her friends in Colombia. I was there within two days."
Cora could feel her throat suddenly dry up. She hated that night. Within moments, her childhood was snatched from her. Her family was snatched from her. She had to be uprooted from everything just to go and hide. She wasn't taught to hide, she was supposed to be brave and fight.
The Sheriff let out a deep sigh and put hung his head in his hands. He was obviously quite stressed out from the lines that marked his forehead.
"Cora, that manager from the diner reported you missing. Once the town got news of the fire, they showed your school picture on the news in case there were any survivors besides Peter. He notified the police that you had been at the diner."
Cora was dumbstruck. So the authorities had known she was alive the whole time? No one looked for her? She could have been with Derek and Laura years ago? Obviously Derek and Peter felt the same way. She could feel their body temperatures rise to heats that probably weren't safe for normal humans. Peter spoke up first.
"Then how on earth was the fire named a closed case? The authorities knew my niece was still alive," he growled out.
"Because, the diner manager did report you missing, but forensics experts claimed that they were able to identify your remains. How? Well, I'm not sure. When the manager was told this, he retracted his statement. He was an old man who had been showing signs of dementia. To be honest, his claims probably wouldn't have been the most looked into. His daughters were also waitresses at the diner who claimed that they didn't see you. They thought it was their father's illness making him tell stories."
"So that's it? Even if it wasn't Cora who that old man saw, that still could have been a missing kid. No one investigated that possibility?" Derek questioned.
Another heavy sigh escaped the Sheriff. Cora could see another explanation on its way.
"FBI ended up also becoming involved with the case when it was revealed that all three of Talia Hale's children were to inherit all of her belongings, and were the beneficiaries to her life insurance policy, which was an incredibly substantial amount. Because of the magnitude of the amount, FBI wanted to make sure that there was no foul play involved. But, when Beacon Hills handed all of their work and information about the case over to the Bureau, the statements from the diner manager went missing. The Bureau never knew about it and Beacon Hills authorities figured the Bureau was going to investigate it. It was almost as if on paper, there was no possibility that you were alive."
"So what? Some idiot couldn't file papers right?" Cora asked.
"No, Cora, the files were tampered with. Kate Argent took them. The statements the manager made were taken by her. I'm making the assumption that she was the blonde woman you saw in the woods. She must have known about the manager reporting you missing. Somehow, she got the files."
Cora could feel her brother tense up at the huntress's name. He had come clean to her about how the fire had happened. How he endangered their family, unknowingly. But she had long forgiven him for that. She was just happy they were together.
"Let's just go through this again then," Peter interjected. "Cora was reported missing. The FBI said she was dead. The manager retracts his statement. The FBI gets the case. They never hear about a girl going missing. And this was because Kate Argent took the files," Peter said astonished.
"Correct," the Sheriff said with another heavy sigh. He seemed as worn out as they were from the recent discoveries.
Cora felt numb. She didn't know how to feel about the new information. She was angry, but she wasn't sure at whom. The authorities had no idea. It was the doings of Kate Argent. She wanted to be mad at her. To get back at Argent. But she was already dead. And she and Derek were trying to move on. She was trying to let go of what happened, but it was like she was being sucked back in. All this conversation was doing was making her think of the life she could have had.
"Cora, even though the authorities had no idea that the files went missing, the city is taking full responsibility for the case being tampered with. Therefore, our lawyers have advised us to try and settle this with you outside of court."
"Settle what? I still don't get it."
"You could have been with me and Laura, Cora. But, because of everything that happened with Kate tampering with the files, you weren't. Which is technically still the authorities fault because they are supposed to make sure stuff like this doesn't happen. They want to settle so that we don't sue," Derek revealed.
Money. That's what this was about. But Cora didn't want anyone's money. Especially not the city's. They had no idea. She wanted her family back, but she couldn't get that.
"So what happens now?" Peter asked.
"I will be reporting Cora's statement and it will then be reviewed by my bosses and the board of lawyers the city has. They, along with a bunch of other people, will come up with a figure that they think is reasonable compensation for everything Cora has been through. The tampering, the six years away, emotional damage, etcetera. If you accept, Cora gets the money when she turns eighteen and the case won't ever have to go to court."
Cora couldn't react. She didn't need the money. In Colombia she didn't have much because she didn't need much. But to be honest, Cora wasn't going to reject the offer. She was seventeen and had no idea what she wanted to do with her life. Even though she knew Derek would always take care of her if she needed him to, a little money of her own wasn't going to hurt her.
All four inhabitants of the room seemed thoroughly distressed. The Sheriff still looked like he was trying to process all of what had happened. Peter seemed irritated at the mishandling of the information. Derek looked incredibly angry, probably because Cora could have been safe with him and Laura a long time ago.
"I know this is a lot to process. The city should call back in about a few weeks after a thorough assessment. When your brother called a few weeks ago, I reopened the case unofficially, since I wasn't sure how much the supernatural was involved. Now that I have all the pieces together the formal re-investigation can begin. Although, everything is pretty much figured out."
"Thank you Sheriff, we really appreciate everything," Derek said sincerely.
"Wait. How do we know that it was Kate who took the files? Isn't that just speculation?" Cora asked.
"Kate Argent left all of her belongings to Allison, her niece. Allison went to the house a few weeks ago and underneath the floorboards below Kate's bed, Allison found the missing files. She gave them to me."
AN:Plot twist much? That's what I was going for!I feel like so much of Cora's story wasn't explained, so basically, I like to give lots of background, if you haven't noticed yet, lol.
I know most of you were probably expecting this chapter to be about movie night, but trust me it is in the next chapter. And as a hint, lets just say that movies aren't the main focus of the nights festivities ;) But don't worry, I don't believe in getting too saucy.
I am so incredibly sorry it has been so long since I posted a chapter. School has started back up and needless to say I have been super swamped, but trust me when I say I am dedicated to this story. I started this story with the intention of not only finishing it, but with making it incredibly dynamic, so for those of you still reading and not minding the lack of romance, I appreciate you. As usual, I appreciate your reviews and feedback, so please know that your opinions are always welcome if you have constructive criticism or compliments. Your feedback helps me to shape not only my direction of the plot, but also my abilities as a writer.
Love you all,
lolo289