Chapter Eleven
Had it been solely for keeping in touch, Derek would've welcomed the thought that he's been frequenting the Hale family's former druid's clinic. Today, just like the previous weeks that he'd paid Dr. Deaton a visit, was for the purpose of having a lot of his questions (and worries) addressed.
"Derek." Dr. Deaton acknowledged his presence as he peeked out of his examination room. The Hale family druid motioned that he get to the examination room where they could talk.
Dr. Deaton was pretty straightforward. "I presume this is about Cal."
He nodded, then took out a photo from his jacket. "This is one of Cal's baby photos. I'd been examining this for several times now since I first saw it." He handed the photo to the doctor.
Dr. Deaton looked at the photo intently, immediately recognizing what it was that Derek is so worried about. "Would you know how old Cal is in this photo?"
"Less than a month old, according to Celine." Derek was surveying the doctor's face, awaiting any and every reaction. "I'm no expert in photographs, but I don't think it's caused by lighting, or any photography glitch."
The doctor deeply sighed. "I'm afraid I'd have to agree to with you, Derek. Calvin's eyes in this photograph—the glow's distinctly that of a werewolf. I'm almost certain that Calvin is indeed one of your kind."
The photograph he'd shown Dr. Deaton was taken out of the baby album that Celine gave him on his birthday. He'd looked at the photos over and over—and one photograph certainly caught his attention. It was one of Cal's first baby photos, his son lying on a bed, seemingly fresh out of sleep. Calvin was still barely able to fully open his eyes then, but that didn't keep Derek from noticing that his son's eyes were glowing. Calvin bore the same shade of his normal eyes—green—but in that photo, they were yellow. Not as bright as an adult, fully developed werewolf's glowing yellow eyes, but nevertheless, a pair of werewolf eyes.
"Calvin—his case seems different. In werewolves, once abilities manifest during infancy—the eyes, claws, senses—they don't disappear. And if they don't appear in young, newborn wolves, they may surface later in life. I've just never heard a case like Calvin's that a werewolf characteristic appeared early in life, then just disappeared—bearing no sign at all. I couldn't sense my son being a werewolf. Neither can Scott, Cora, and any other werewolf we know of in Beacon Hills."
A long pause. Then, Dr. Deaton revealed: "There had been stories before—legends, if you may—that some born werewolves have the ability to repress, well, their werewolf abilities. It's as if the werewolf blood becomes dormant, only to appear later in life as they will it. But that happens after they have learned control."
"Learning control has to be later in life—at about 7, like when my sisters and I started, or at teenage years, like how it is in most cases. Never as young as Calvin!" Derek had always thought that having a werewolf child is not a bad thing. Celine didn't mind either when he first brought the prospect that she may give birth to children with werewolf blood, given that he's the father. With danger looming though, as Cal may just be that 'candidate' the still unknown creature is after, he couldn't help but loathe the idea that his son is actually a werewolf.
"The sooner you learn and practice control, the more powerful you are. That's how it has always been for your kind, Derek." Dr. Deaton didn't need to spell it out to him; he could very well read between the lines. Bottomline is, if Cal's indeed a werewolf (which has become a huge possibility lately), he's a powerful one—powerful enough that he indeed may be the one carrying over Talia Hale's legendary alpha werewolf abilities.
"The Nemeton, can it draw Calvin's abilities out?" asked Derek. "That's probably the reason why Cal's abductor brought him to the Nemeton's site."
"Possibly. The Nemeton's power over the supernatural is so strong that it can possibly be beyond what we know of—of what we would like to think of." Then, the druid-doctor's face got more serious than it already is. "One more thing, Derek. Remember Celine's medical records that I requested to take a look at? I've gone over the details and documents that Celine had on hand."
Derek frowned.
"Her state of health after the accident—it was in every way impossible for the baby to have survived. Celine's medical records say she'd lost too much blood, and suffered several physical injuries. The doctors themselves consider it a miracle that she had lived, moreover, continued to carry Calvin in her womb to almost his full term."
The frown on Derek's forehead only deepened. Dr. Deaton further explained, "It would seem that Calvin's powers had been at work from the time that his and his mother's lives were placed in danger. That's just one guess. Whatever it is that's happened though—how your wife and son survived—it sure does look like Talia's powers were at work in one way or another."