Author's note: Hello, everyone! As always, thank you so much to all of you who reviewed the last chapter! I hope you all like this one :-)

Chapter 13

By around five o'clock in the morning, Derek's transformation had run its course. Both he and Amy had stayed up all night, though he hadn't been a wolf for the entirety of the time; when the moon was concealed, he reverted back to his human form. However, these moments did not last long, making the night one of the most stressful Amy had ever experienced. However, other than their initial contact, Derek really didn't pay her much notice.

And, luckily, none of the Argents had showed up. She didn't know what she would have done if Kate appeared at Derek's doorstep and she answered; there would have been absolutely no plausible way to explain why she was there.

"Aren't you tired," Amy asked sleepily as he changed back to normal for a final time and looked out to the rising sun. "You were running and jumping and throwing things all night. You even punched a few holes in the wall."

"I'm used to it," he answered dismissively.

"I'm starving," she complained.

"I'm kind of hungry too," he agreed begrudgingly.

"Can we go somewhere to get something to eat?"

"You're forgetting that I can't show my face in public."

"Oh, yeah. Right. Well, I could go pick something up," she suggested.

"It's five in the morning."

"Later, I mean. I want to at least get a couple of hours of sleep…"

"And where do you plan on doing that?" he asked, raising one of his thick eyebrows.

"Can I sleep somewhere?" she pleaded.

"Are you serious?"

"Yeah, please? I stayed up all night for you." She winced internally at how the last part had come off. It sounded almost... romantic.

"Fine," he agreed finally. "You can take my bed."

He led her upstairs. Sunlight streamed through splintered wood and Amy came to the conclusion that the Hale house was significantly less creepy in the morning. In the daylight, it was more sad than eerie. She didn't know how many people had perished in the fire, but, by the way Derek spoke of it, she surmised that it was more than just his immediate family. She couldn't even fathom enduring a pain so great – and to think, he blamed himself for it. It certainly legitimized his bad attitude, to say the least.

He opened the door to his room and showed her inside.

"Thanks," she said.

"Yeah. I'm gonna go for a walk. I'll be back in a couple of hours."

"Are you sure that's a good idea?"

"Yeah, it'll be fine. If I'm not back by ten, then you can start to worry. Here, I'll leave my car keys with you just in case." He dug them out of his pocket and placed them in her open palm. Amy felt a bizarre sort of electric spark shoot through her when his hands brushed hers.

"Thanks," she repeated

He was about to leave, but she stopped him. "Derek?"

"Can you – can you always remember everything that happens when you transform?"

"Usually. Although I admit, there are sometimes moments that are hazy if something really... intense... happens… Like a fight or something. But normally, yeah. I didn't do anything… bad, did I?" He seemed vaguely worried, which surprised her.

"No, no, I was just wondering," she said hastily.

He made a move to leave, but again she stopped him. "Wait, one more thing."

"Yeah?"

"Be careful."

He shot her a puzzled look, before disappearing into the hallway. As he walked down the creaky staircase, he couldn't help but contemplate what had just transpired. She'd sounded – she'd sounded like she actually cared. It was strange; he hadn't heard that emotion in someone's voice in a while – in years, even. True enough, both Scott and Stiles had urged him to be careful in the past; but they never sounded like they actually meant it. They never sounded as genuine as Amy had. They put up with him because they needed information out of him; they needed his help. But Amy was there (more or less) on her own accord; she really didn't benefit at all from being around him, and yet she was still there.

However, he quickly shook these thoughts from his head. Mentally, she was still a child. She was naïve, and she didn't know what she was getting herself into. She would run at the first sign of trouble. She didn't run last night, contradicted a nagging voice in the back of his head. He ignored it; she would have plenty more opportunities to let him (and Scott and Stiles) down, and she would cave in eventually. That, he was sure of.

Upstairs, Amy nuzzled into his pillow and breathed in the distinctive smell. Derek was being a bit more mild-mannered than usual this morning, but she attributed this to his being tired from the preceding events. Too bad, she thought, I was almost starting to like him. Amy did indeed feel very sorry for Derek, but had made it glaringly obvious that he didn't want anyone's sympathy. So, she would treat him just as she had before she'd known the details of the tragedy.

Four hours later, she awoke with a start to a knocking on the door frame. She scrambled into a sitting position and turned her head to see Derek.

"Did you have a nice walk?" she mumbled, bleary-eyed.

"Yeah. I hope you didn't drool," he commented menacingly.

"I didn't," she said with a sniff as she tried to compose herself. She crawled off of the bed and followed him outside without another word. When they reached the car, she gave him back his keys.

"Alright, let's go get food," he said bluntly, sliding into the driver's seat.

"Is it cool for you to drive your car around? Will people recognize it?"

"This town's not that small. And as long as we don't pass any cop cars, we should be fine."

It dawned on her then that over the past few weeks her life had been filled with others telling her that everything would be "fine." Usually when people said that it was reason enough to believe that it really wouldn't be.

But, for some strange reason, she trusted Derek. Plus, he wouldn't do something to get himself into trouble, and if they were caught, she could always claim to be a hostage…

He parked in a deserted area of a drive-thru coffee shop and Amy stepped out of the car.

"What do you want?" she asked.

"I don't care," he replied brusquely.

She resisted the urge to roll her eyes; typical.

Once inside, she ordered an ice coffee with milk and sugar and a plain bagel for herself. For Derek, she bought a bacon, egg, and cheese breakfast sandwich and a black coffee; he seemed like the type who would drink his coffee black.

When she got back in the car, she tossed him the logo-ed brown paper bag and put their coffees in the cup holders. He peered inside; "Interesting."

"It's what my brother always orders," she explained, "I didn't know what else to get."

"Whatever, I'm not picky," he said before taking a large bite. As she took out her bagel, he instructed, "Try not to drop any crumbs."

"I got you a coffee, too," she stated meekly, "Black."

He made a grunt of acknowledgement and took a swig from the Styrofoam cup. Amy took a sip of her own beverage and texted Stiles: how did it go? She sent the same message to Lydia.

"So, do you think you can drive me back to my car?" she asked when they were finished eating.

"Yeah," he agreed.

On their way back, Stiles replied, started out kinda rough but by the end she seemed to be having a pretty good time.. she even kissed me

she kissed you? Amy texted back, her fingers moving furiously.

A few moments later: well on the cheek. but still.

"Stiles' date went well," she announced cheerily.

"Wow, because I care so much…" he replied dryly.

"Hey, be nice…"

Her phone vibrated again; this time, it was Lydia. Eh. was her only response. Amy replied with a question mark.

He's sweet. I guess, the redhead answered, Majorly dorky just like I thought though.

are you going to go on another date?

We'll see… I covered for you btw. Your mom called. Where were you really last night?

Derek sent Amy a sidelong glance as her fingers glided speedily over the screen of her phone. He smirked slightly at how enthralled she looked, but stopped as soon as he realized what he was doing.

Soon, they had reached her car.

She stood at the open door, struggling to find the words to say. "So, I – uh – I guess I'll see you later, then…"

"Yeah, I guess."

"Derek," she continued clumsily, "I just think it's important that you know something… I think it's important that you know that I'm only doing this because I want to. I honestly don't have any ulterior motives."

"Okay…" he started impatiently, "You done?"

"Y-yeah," she mumbled, frustrated at her inability to get through to him. "See you later," she repeated, slamming the door.

Befriending Derek Hale was not a task for the faint of heart.

When Amy returned home, she tried desperately to shirk her mother's notice and head straight to her bedroom. But she was not so lucky.

"Amelia Marie Bell," her mother yelled from the kitchen, "Get in here right this instant!"

Amy winced and delicately tiptoed into the adjoining room.

"Yes?" she said as calmly as possible.

"Do you have any idea how worried your father and I were last night? You never do that, Amy. You never just disappear like that… What's going on with you? Ever since school started, you've been really distant lately."

"Sorry, I've just been busy," she explained, mentally searching to find a way out of the conversation. "Speaking of which… I have a paper that I should really go work on…"

"No, no, no, that doesn't cut it. Something's up with you; what is it? Do you have a boyfriend or something? Is that what you're trying to hide?"

"Who said anything about 'hiding'?"

"You seem like you're hiding something… I know your father and brother can be obnoxious, but that's no reason to keep a boyfriend a secret from us. Sure, your dad might not like the idea, but he could get used to it…"

"I don't have a boyfriend, Mom," she said in irritation.

"Then what is it?"

"Nothing, honest! I don't know why you're making such a big deal out of this!"

"I know about the party, Amy."

Amy's eyes widened to saucers. "What?"

"Victoria Argent mentioned it to me. I didn't tell your father, because we both know that he wouldn't take it well. I'm not going to punish you because you obviously left once you saw that there was alcohol there, right?"

"Uh huh, yeah, of course!" she stammered almost comically, "Obviously; that's why the police didn't take down my name…"

"Okay. And I understand that it can be hard to make friends, so you just went because all of your friends were there, right?"

"Yup!"

"All that aside, though, you still lied."

"Well, technically, I was still at Lydia's…"

"Yes, but you certainly weren't having a movie night!"

There was a heavy beat of silence.

"I'm sorry, Mom… It's just, I knew this was how you were going to react; you wouldn't have let me go, otherwise."

"Honey, you need to understand that your father and I set rules that are for your own protection. We don't do it to torture you or to make you miserable or anything like that; think if you had been caught at that party – it would have gone on your record, and what would colleges say if they saw that, hm?"

"Okay, I see your point."

"I just don't want there to be any secrets between us."

Amy bit her lip nervously. "There aren't. Everything's fine. I'm fine. I'm not hiding anything, promise."

"Well… Okay," her mother replied; she didn't quite look convinced. "I guess you can go… But this is never going to happen again, understood?"

"Yeah, got it."

As Amy walked away to get up to her bedroom, Ian popped out of his room to greet her.

"Darn, I was really expecting something much worse," he said in his most annoying tone.

"Shut up."

"Where were you really?" he questioned.

"I was at Lydia's!" she insisted.

"Tell me, where does Lydia live?"

"I don't know, not too far from here… Why?"

"Oh, I don't know… Did you, say, have to walk through the woods to get to her house? And is her house falling apart?"

"What?" she hissed.

"You have mud in your shoes, you smell like a Christmas tree, and you have a piece of burnt wood in your hair."

Amy was dumbfounded, to say the least. She knew her brother was smart, but she hadn't known that he possessed Sherlock Holmes-like deduction skills; it was quite the unnerving discovery.

"Like I said," he continued, "where were you really?"

"Lydia's!" she reiterated forcefully. She didn't stick around to hear his response, and instead angrily stormed into her room.

Author's note: I know you were probably hoping for more action during Derek's transformation, but if the Argents had showed up, shit would have really hit the fan (lol excuse the expression) and I feel like it's too early for that sort of chaos... Don't worry though, you will have plenty of drama in the future. And we'll also hear more about Stiles and Lydia's date in the next chapter. Pretty please review! Also, what do you all think of Ian?