21; True North

The next day, Henley had one goal in mind- find Meredith, but the other girl was nowhere to be found. When she wasn't searching, she kept to herself. During group therapy she was silent, thankful that her mother didn't push her to talk again, and she even ate lunch by herself.

There wasn't much time left until the second group session started, but she figured she had a few minutes left until it started, giving her time to look for Meredith again. She glanced around outside, then made her way inside to look for her.

She had just cut down a hallway, when she bumped into someone. She groaned when she saw it was the girl from the day before.

Trying to keep the peace, she opened her mouth to apologize, but before she could, the girl shot her a look and said,"Watch where you're going, Mama's girl."

Henley rolled her eyes and blew out a breath as she walked past the girl. She shouldn't have been surprised when Tessa began to walk along beside her and continued,"You know, I never heard why you're here. What did little miss perfect do, huh?"

As Henley ignored her, she added,"Let me guess, you didn't win homecoming queen or make it as head cheerleader, so you threatened to off yourself. Mommy and Daddy got so worried they sent their little princess here to save her. Am I right?"

Henley came to a stop and turned to face her. "You don't know me or what I'm going through."

"Oh, but I do. I've seen your kind come through here all the time."

"My kind?"

"Yeah, your kind. The perfect, popular kind." Tessa said. "There's nothing ever wrong with your kind, you just want attention."

"Trust me, I'm not here for attention." Henley argued. "That is the last thing I want."

Before either girl could say something else, they heard someone call out her name, causing them to turn their heads and see Jude walking over toward her.

Tessa scoffed as she sarcastically said,"Yeah, you get no attention at all."

Tessa walked past Henley, mumbling out 'attention whore' and bumping her shoulder on the way. She folded her arms across her chest and bit her tongue to keep from saying something snarky to the other girl in return.

"I see you two are getting along great." Jude said sarcastically.

"Oh, yeah, we are the best of friends now." She said back, her tone the same as his.

He let out a chuckled, then nodded his head to the side as he said,"Wanna walk to therapy together?"

"Sure." Henley said as the two began to walk together. When a thought hit her, she lowered her eyebrows in confusion, then said,"Wait, you're not in my therapy group."

"I know, but I heard about your outburst, I don't want to miss it if that happens again, so I switched." He explained.

She let out a small chuckle, feeling embarrassed for the things she blurted out the day before in therapy. She shook her head and said,"There will be no more outburst. I'm keeping my mouth shut and do what I'm suppose to do until my parents get me out of here." She ran her hands up and down her arms nervously, sometimes she felt a weird vibe around the place. Usually anytime she was near the door she found the day before.

As they passed the hallway the door was located, she glanced down the hall for a moment, not realizing she had come to a stop. She looked back at Jude, noticing he was watching her intensely.

"Everything okay?" He questioned.

"Yeah." She breathed out. She cleared her throat, then asked,"Have you uh, have you heard anything about what is behind that door?"

"Which door?" He asked. "Wait, the one down there?" He added as he gestured toward the hall they were standing in front of.

"Yeah, that one." She said as the two began to walk again.

"I dunno. All I know is hardly no one is allowed back there, only certain employees." Jude said. "Rumor has it they do wicked experiments in there."

"Do you think that's true?"

He shrugged, then said,"I have also heard that is where they keep the really weird ones."

"Weird how?" She asked as she came to a stop again.

"Weird like- spooky weird. Like the kind of things that are not supposed to exist, but does." He added.

"What, like, uh- werewolves?" She asked, hoping she appeared nonchalant.

"That's what I heard." He said with a shrug.

"Do you, you know, believe in that?" She questioned as she twirled a lock of hair around her finger. A habit she had if she was lying or nervous.

He shot her a smirk and took a step closer to her. "I believe there's something going on here."

He saw her eyes widen for a moment as she got the double meaning behind his comment. He reached out to push the lock of hair she was messing with behind her ear, before he leaned closer to her and quietly asked,"Don't you feel it?"

When his fingertips lightly grazed her cheek, she felt a small shock of electricity. She had felt that before with Derek and Scott, making her pretty certain he was a werewolf.

She took a quick step back and cleared her throat. "We should uh, we should get to therapy."

He nodded his head, but didn't say anything back. When she walked past him, he kept his eyes on her. He felt the shock before, he had also felt a small electric charge any other time he was around her. He had heard about this before, but he had always thought it was just a myth. He smiled, he now knew exactly what she was.

•••

Close to an hour later, as her mother ended the therapy session, Henley stood up from the chair and stretched with a tired groan. She never thought she would admit it, but she would rather sit in class, even her most hated class, which happened to be Chemistry, but still she would rather sit in that, than in therapy. At least the desk were more comfortable than these chairs.

"So what are you going to do with the rest of your day?" Jude questioned as he appeared beside her.

"I don't know." Henley said with a shrug.

"Want to hang out?" He asked.

"Sure." She said back. She turned her head to the side, seeing her mother quietly speaking to a patient. With her eyes still on her, she added,"Just give me a few minutes. I'll meet up with you later."

"Cool." Jude said with a nod as he began to walk toward the door.

Henley walked over toward her mom as the other patient began to walk away. She came to a stop in front of her mom and asked,"Hey, Mom, where's Meredith? I was looking for her earlier, but I haven't seen her anywhere today."

"Why?" Veronica questioned nervously.

"I wanted to talk to her." Henley stated simply.

"Honey, why would you want to talk to her? She attacked you." She added, hoping to keep the two apart.

"She didn't attack me." Henley argued. "It was just a misunderstanding, which is why I wanted to talk to her. To apologize." She lied.

"After what happened yesterday, we had to move her to the closed unit." Veronica said.

"For how long?"

"She'll be there for a day or so, until she has calmed down." She was hoping to keep her there until her daughter left.

"Is there any way you can get me in there to see her?" Henley asked.

"I'm sorry, honey, I can't do that." Veronica said. "If you want to write out an apology, I can give it to her, that is the best I can do."

"I would rather talk to her in person." Henley said back. "Will you let me know when she is out?"

Veronica nodded her head, agreeing that she would, even though she had no intentions of telling her. She hated lying to her daughter or keeping things from her, but she couldn't risk Meredith saying anything. She knew how curious her daughter was, she knew that she wanted answers and was getting closer to them, but she couldn't allow that to happen.

After speaking to her mom, Henley walked out of the room and groaned when she saw Tessa waiting for her. She tried to walk past her, but she stepped in front of her to block her from leaving.

"What did you say about me?" Tessa asked as she folded her arms across her chest.

"What?" Henley asked confused.

"Just now. What did you say about me to your mom?"

"I didn't say anything about you." Henley answered with a scoff. She was starting to realize not only did she has rage issues, but apparently she was paranoid as well.

"You are not going to turn her again me." Tessa stated as she took a step closer to her. "I'm not going to let you turn anyone else against me."

"I haven't turned anyone against you."

"You already took Jude, you can not have Dr. Mercer too."

"Tessa, are you hearing yourself right now?" Henley questioned. "This is crazy, I don't have Jude or anyone, I didn't take anyone from you."

"I'm not crazy!" Tessa cried out.

"I didn't say you was!" Henley yelled back.

"I'm not crazy!" Tessa repeated as she let out a loud scream before pouncing forward and knocking Henley to the ground.

Henley cried out in pain when her body slammed to the floor. She felt a pain in her ribs, as well as, her head when it collided against the hard floor. She threw up her hands to block the blows as Tessa began to swing her arms to hit her.

She heard her mother ran out of the room and call out for help, before a couple of orderlies ran over to them, pulling Tessa off of her. They scolded her for her actions and gave her a shot hoping to calm her down, before carrying her away kicking and screaming.

"Honey, are you okay?" Veronica questioned as she helped her daughter to sit up.

"Yeah." She mumbled as she wrapped one arm around herself, laying her hand against her sore ribs, then placed her other hand on her head where it had hit the floor.

"Come on, I'll help you up." Veronica said, wrapping an arm around her, being careful of her injuries as she helped her up from the floor. "Let's get you to your room. We're going to keep you in there for the rest of the day."

"I didn't start it." Henley stated as soon as she was on her feet.

"I know. I am aware of Tessa's condition." Veronica said. "This isn't the first time she has fought with a fellow patient."

"Oh." She breathed out.

"You seem surprised that I believe you." Her mother pointed out.

"Well, you don't seem to believe me much with other things, so I just assumed-"

"Henley..." Veronica said, interrupting her with a sigh.

"If you believe me, if you know I didn't start this, why are you locking me up in my room? Why am I being punished?" She questioned.

"You're not." Veronica said. "Tessa is being punished for this, but after being knocked to the floor and the fact that you are still healing, I think it's best you rest for the night."

"Okay." Henley said with a nod. She was in a bit of pain and the thought of laying down sounded like a great idea to her.

"I'll help you to your room." Veronica said, taking her daughter's hand.

"It's okay. I know the way." Henley said as she jerked her hand away and wrapped her arms around herself before turning to walk down the hallway.

She made her way over to the stairs, preparing to walk up them to get to her room, when she heard Jude speaking up from behind her. She turned around to face him when he asked her what happened.

"I heard Tessa attacked you." He added.

"Yeah, apparently someone had a big old bowl of bitch flakes this morning." She said sarcastically.

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I just hit my head and it hurt my already sore ribs."

"What happened to your ribs?" He questioned with a curious look on his face.

"I had a wreck recently." She answered. "Ended up with a couple of cracked ribs."

"Is that why you are here?" He asked. "Were you drinking and driving or something?"

"No, nothing like that."

"Then what-"

"I should get to my room." She interrupted. She didn't know him or trust him enough to confide in. "I just kind of want to rest now."

"I'm sure you'll heal soon." He said with a knowing smile. He knew her kind heals sooner than humans do.

"I hope so." She said, rubbing the side of her head. "I need to take a rain check on hanging out though. Maybe tomorrow?"

"Sounds good." Jude said with a nod, before he turned and walked away. After her comment to what he said, he was starting to realize that she didn't know what she was. That was something he might could use to his advantage later.

She turned to walk up the stairs again until she heard her mother call out her name, causing her to sigh before she turned around to face her. She had really hoped they were finished talking for the day. Her ribs were hurting, her head was throbbing and she just wanted to lay down.

"You have a visitor." Her mother said.

"What? Who?" She questioned confused. No one was supposed to know she was there, so who would be there to see her.

"Follow me." Veronica said with a smile as she turned to walk away, leading her daughter toward her office. Along the way she explained that visiting hours were over, but she would give her a few minutes with this visitor and they could talk in her office.

"I'll be back to get you shortly." Veronica said as she pushed the office door open to reveal Isaac on the other side.

"Isaac." Henley breathed out as she walked into the room. Her eyes were so fixed on him, she never heard her mother shut the door, leaving the two alone. "Why are you- how did you- what?"

"I'm guessing somewhere between those words you were asking why am I here and how did I know you were here?" He guessed. When she nodded her head, he took a step toward her as he said,"Those are fair questions, but I think the bigger question is, why didn't you tell me?"

"Isaac-"

"You should have told me, Henley, you should have told me you were being sent here." He interrupted as he took another step toward her.

"I didn't want you to know." She said. "And it's nothing personal, Isaac, I swear. It wasn't just you, I didn't want anyone to know."

"You still should have told me." He argued. "I felt like an idiot coming to your house to check on you and no one was there. You have no idea the thoughts that went through my head."

"I'm sorry." She mouthed.

"What was this about?" Isaac questioned as he reached into his pocket and pulled out the compass she had left on Camden's grave. "Were you trying to tell me something or-"

"Isaac, I..." Henley began to say. She took a deep breath, trying to control her emotions, before continuing,"We were wrong."

"About what?" He asked confused.

"About being friends again." She softly said, tears filling her eyes. "We can't be friends, Isaac."

As he shook his head at her words, she continued,"Things are just so complicated right now, and I-"

"We're not doing this again." He argued as he stepped forward and came to a stop in front of her. He grabbed her chin, forcing her to look at him as he added,"We're not going to repeat the same mistakes from before. I've been there. Meddy, I pushed you away before because I thought it was best.

"At the time, I thought it made sense, I thought it would hurt less, but not having you in my life for the last two years hurt worse. I'm not losing you again for another two years. You are not going to push me away, and I'm not going to walk away from you."

"Isaac-"

"I'm here, Meddy. Whatever is going on, I don't care. I don't care why you are here, I don't care how hard or complicated it is, I'm not leaving." He interrupted, knowing she was going to try to argue with him.

He ran his thumb across her bottom lip, parting her lips as he leaned forward her. His eyes flickered between her lips and her eyes, all he could think about was kissing her, showing her what she meant to him and how serious he was. Whatever was going on, he wanted to comfort her and needed that comfort back in return.

"I'm here." He whispered, his lips inches from hers.

Without another word, he closed the gap between them and pressed his lips against hers for a gentle kiss. He pulled back to look at her, curious what her reaction would be. Even though they have kissed a few times before, he wasn't sure what was going on between them. For a moment he was worried he had made a mistake when she stared at him in silence. He couldn't read her expression and had no idea what she was thinking.

He opened his mouth to say something, but before he could, she wrapped an arm around his neck and captured his lips, putting everything she was feeling into the kiss; all the pain, all the confusion, all the fear she felt. The more she kissed him, the more all of that melted away and she began to feel a sense of peace.

The two didn't break apart until they heard a small tap at the door. She rested her forehead against his with her hands resting on the back of his neck as they tried to catch their breath. She still didn't really know what was going on between them- that confusion was still there, but she couldn't deny how she felt when she was with him and how right it felt to kiss him.

"That's my mom." She whispered, referring to the knock at the door. She blew out a breath, knowing he had to leave and wished he didn't. Having him there, being close to him, made her feel less alone in all of this. "You have to go."

"Okay." He said back with a nod. He pulled back to look at her, before reaching back to grab one of her hands from his neck. He laid the compass in her hand, before softly saying,"Keep this, okay? So you won't get lost."

"I'm already lost, Isaac." She whispered.

"You've been lost before, Meddy." He said, referring to all the times she literally got lost when they were kids. He laid his hands on either side of her face, cradling her face in his hands as he added,"And I would always find you. I never stopped looking until I found you."

"You're my true north, Isaac." She said, a smile appearing on her face. He had always felt like home to her, always guided her along the right path. He was her clarity, her safe place, her anchor.

He smiled at her words and caressed her cheek. "I'll always find you, Meddy. You're never lost with me."

She laid her hands on his side, gripping his shirt with her free hand as she leaned forward to rest her forehead against his again, needing that closeness and comfort from him.

She wanted him in her life, she didn't want to lose him, but was still conflicted on what to do. She didn't want to drag him in the middle of anything, she didn't want him involved with anything werewolf. She didn't want to risk him getting hurt or worse. If something ever happened to him she would never forgive herself.

Then there was her- she didn't know what was going on with her and she knew he would do whatever to help her, but like she told Camden when she visited his grave; she felt too messed up and too broken. She felt too lost and she hated that. She didn't want to be lost, but wasn't sure if she could be found, and she was starting to think she wasn't even worth the effort. He deserved better, but could she actually let him go?

•••

A/N; I know this chapter is on the shorter side, but I didn't want to drag it out. It's a bit of a filler chapter, but hopefully the cute Henley x Isaac part made up for that ;) Next chapter will have a reveal in it tho, so there is that to look forward to.

Thank you to everyone reading and/or adding the story. Also big thanks to sarah0406, RHatch89, lilnightmare17, Guest, xxxRena, TheHungryRainbow, Cory, Mrs. IsaacLahey14, Guest and Squidaloodaloo for reviewing.

Happy holidays and happy reading!
xx

PS; Just realized it was a year ago today that I posted this story. So happy mad season day! haha!