Butterflies -Chapter 36
~A Teen Wolf fan-fiction collaboration between Miss E Charlotte and Sage Londyn~
The room was silent for a few moments, Derek didn't know what to say to her. He felt like it was entirely his fault.
"You know… I really hope she does find Peter. And I hope he tears her limb for limb." Avery said not looking up to Derek, she didn't want to see the look on his face.
"You need to keep pressure on that." Derek instructed.
"How? I can't even use my left hand to untie my right one; she broke 2 of my fingers." Avery said dryly as she finally looked up at him.
"Raise your arm above your head, and hold into your wrist with your other hand. It will slow the bleeding." He instructed.
"I don't really see the point." Avery admitted.
Every time she moved her arm it caused agonizing pain.
"Just do it! It will slow the bleeding." Derek yelled as he pulled against the handcuffs trying to break free.
She groaned in pain as his movement shook the bars she was also tied to.
Biting down on her bottom lip and whining in pain she did as he told her.
Her nose curled in disgust as the blood now ran down her arms and onto her instead of just onto the floor beside her.
"I'm sorry." Derek started to say but a loud howl cut him off.
Avery looked up at Derek, "Was that Scott?" She asked, shocked.
Derek took a deep breath and answered the howl, signaling his location.
Avery closed her eyes, the loud noise hurt her ears as it echoed through the underground cellar.
"You don't have anything to be sorry for, Derek." She said, responding to his earlier statement.
"I put you in danger." He argued.
She shook her head back and forth, "It's not your fault… my dying isn't on you."
He turned his head and looked down to where she was sitting.
"You're not dying." He said, it sounded more like a threat than a reassuring comment .
She nodded but didn't believe his words.
After a small pause she said, "I really do love you." Her voice was soft and slightly strained from pain as she rested her head back against the bars and tried to ignore the throbbing pain in her arm.
Derek stared at her a few seconds, "I love you." He said, his voice quiet too as the room was silent.
She gave him a weak half smile, "I know." She said.
Derek looked around the room hoping Scott would get there soon, he didn't know how much time she had left.
"The death of a beautiful woman is unquestionably the most poetical topic in the world." Avery said as she closed her eyes and rested her head back against the metal pole.
"What?" Derek asked, thrown off by her words.
"It's a quote, by Edgar Allen Poe." Avery explained.
"I don't care who said it, you're not dying." Derek argued.
"I love all of his poems and short stories… so macabre and beautiful." She continued.
"Avery listen to me. Scott is on his way, you're not going to die. Not like this." Derek said, determined to get her out of there.
"It's why I got my tattoo…" she said her voice trailing off as she thought of the word 'Nevermore' tattooed across her left wrist with a crow perched on the letter "N".
At that thought her eyes popped open and she looked up at him, "My tattoo… she ruined my tattoo!"
Before Derek could say anything she said, "That bitch… she cut my wrist with the tattoo!"
"Calm down." Derek told her as she started to panic.
Avery knew the thoughts running through her head were irrational and they had much bigger problems at hand, but the only thing she could think of was that her tattoo had been ruined.
She looked up at him, as sweat beaded across her forehead, "I have 2 wrists, she could have cut the other one."
"Avery! You have to calm down, panicking is only going to make to you bleed out faster!" Derek yelled.
She felt like she couldn't breathe and she let go of her injured arm; she was so panicked she didn't even feel the pain when it landed on her lap.
"I have wanted that tattoo since I was 10 years old!" Avery continued to panic.
"Shut up! I don't care about the tattoo, I care about you!" Derek yelled feeling more panicked than before.
They were interrupted when Scott opened the door.
"Oh my god!" He gasped as he saw Avery covered in blood, and her face bruised.
"What are you doing? Get her out of here." Derek instructed him, when Scott didn't move.
Scott darted across the room and used his claws to cut the ropes on her arm and legs as he helped her to her feet.
She finally was able to take a deep breath, but it made her feel lightheaded from the loss of blood and she swayed some.
Scott steadied her.
"Go!" Derek said nodding at Scott.
"Unchain him." She demanded looking at Scott.
"Just get her out of here." Derek yelled over her voice; his only concern at that point was her life.
"You look really, really bad." Scott said, agreeing with Derek.
"And I'm going to look a lot worse if you don't help him, because I'm not leaving without him." She said, her voice was stronger than she felt.
Without another word, Scott helped break the handcuffs and chains that had kept Derek bound.
Derek quickly grabbed one of Kate's zip-up sweatshirts she'd left on the table, and ripped the sleeve off and tied it tightly around her bleeding wrist, causing her to cry out in pain.
"I told you you're not dying." Derek said to her as he pulled on his own shirt and jacket.
The 3 made their way out of the cellar as Scott explained to Derek that Peter had used the deer with the spiral on its side to lure Laura to town so he could kill her.
Avery sat leaned up against a tree, her breathing ragged as she stared down to her wrist where Derek had tied the cloth around it to slow the bleeding.
She had seen Peter drag Kate inside of the house, and Allison ran in after them.
Whimpering in pain she rested her head back against the trunk of the tree, as she fought to keep her eyes open; but she was feeling weaker by the moment.
Hearing some leaves rustle, followed by a pained groan. She looked up to see Derek sit up from where he'd fallen after Allison shot him with arrows and Kate had shot him with a gun.
She watched him as he pulled the arrow from his shoulder and leg.
"Peter took Kate in the house… Allison ran in after them." She whispered.
Derek quickly turned his head and looked at her, in a moment he was at her side.
He looked her over, she was looking even worse than before.
Hearing a noise they both looked over to see Scott race into the house after Allison.
"Go ahead." She said, knowing there was no way Scott could take the alpha down by himself.
"Keep your eyes open, just stay awake." He said as he held onto the side of her face.
She nodded and he leaned down pressing a kiss to her lips, pulling back he brushed some of her sweat soaked hair from her face and repeated, "Stay awake."
She opened her mouth to respond, but stopped when he took her injured arm in his hands.
Pausing to look at her face for a few moments, he tightened the cloth around it, causing her to scream out in pain before he took some of her pain.
"I'm sorry." He breathed out as he pressed another kiss to her lips before running into the house.
Her eyelids grew heavier and her breathing even more labored as she started to think about how she was just outside of the house her mom had died in.
Ironic, she thought that she was probably going to die on the same property her mother did all because of the same woman, and only because they were friends with werewolves.
Then her mind flashed to the day of her moms funeral, and how upset her dad was. Her heart broke as she thought of him having to bury her too and he wouldn't understand what happened.
Suddenly, more memories filled her head. Memories of growing up in Beacon Hills with Teagan, and all the memories the best friends had made over the years.
Tears burnt her eyes as she wondered what Teagan would do without her. And then there was Derek, who finally opened up and let someone in… only to have them ripped out of his life just like his family was.
Strangely enough, she was thinking of Stiles too. She remembered what he'd told her at the school when they were trapped, he told her he wouldn't know what to do if he lost her. She regretted not being nicer to him, she knew how much he liked her and for a while she just enjoyed the attention and toyed with him.
But now that they were friends, she really cared about him; maybe even a little more than she'd like to admit.
Her eyes started to close and she was so tired of fighting to stay awake.
She gasped and was jolted awake by the sound of glass shattering, she looked over and saw Peter in his wolf form standing over Scott who was trying to get up off the ground.
After Scott got up, he kicked the alpha and sent him stumbling backwards.
As he stood up the scene was illuminated by a pair of headlights and a car horn sounded through the woods.
Looking up she saw Stiles throw a bottle with the ingredients to make a self-igniting Molotov cocktail at the alpha, but he caught it.
Avery closed her eyes and shook her head.
"Avery!" She heard Teagan scream.
Opening her eyes she saw her best friend racing towards her.
"A, oh my god..." Teagan said, tears poured down her cheeks as she dropped to her knees on the cold, hard ground beside her.
"Hey…" was all Avery managed to say to her.
"Where's the blood coming from? Where are you hurt?" Teagan demanded to know.
"My wrist… she cut my wrist." Avery admitted, her voice was strained and hoarse.
Teagan looked down, her hands shaking as she saw the amount of blood that her friend was covered in.
"Teagan, listen to me… I know how this is going to look, but you have to tell my dad it's not suicide. Say my car got broken into and I got into a fight and they cut me to make it look like I killed myself. Tell him anything, I don't care. But he has to know I didn't do this to myself." Avery said as her eyes started to close again.
Grabbing her injured arm Teagan squeezed Avery's wrist with both hands trying to slow the bleeding more.
Avery's body arched forward from the tree and she screamed out in pain as she tried to pull her arm away.
"I'm sorry." Teagan sobbed, as she kept her hold tight.
"I'm not telling your dad anything. We'll tell him together at the hospital after they stitch you up. That's all we need, a few stitches." Teagan cried as she sat down beside her friend and wrapped an arm around her.
She kept pressure on Avery's wrist with her other hand.
Teagan looked up to see that the alpha was on fire, she'd been so worried about her friend she was oblivious to the scene playing out behind her.
She watched as Jackson threw the Molotov cocktail he had, and it exploded on impact, making the flames entirely consume the alpha's body.
Stiles stared at the two girls, unable to make his feet move.
From where he was he couldn't see that Avery was covered in blood, but he could hear Teagan's loud sobs from where he was, and he knew with the way she was cradling Avery in her arms, it wasn't good.
Jackson started towards them, but stopped when the alpha stumbled backwards and fell to the ground.
Avery breathed a small sigh of relief as she saw Derek emerge from the house.
"Teagan, please stop crying." Avery said, her voice weak as she spoke.
Teagan's mind was racing back to when she'd first found out that her mom had been killed, she thought about the conversation she and her dad had –had about her mom wanting to be cremated and have the ashes buried with a private service.
She gasped for air when she looked back down and saw the blood that was now on them both. She couldn't bury her best friend.
"Hey… you remember that play we both got cast in –in like 3rd grade?" Avery asked with a small smile.
"The one where we played the butterflies?" Teagan asked, finally able to take a breath.
"Yeah… I'm pretty sure it was 4th grade though." Teagan corrected, wondering why Avery was bringing up grade school.
"Yeah, and our moms got together and sewed our costumes?" Avery continued.
Teagan's confused expression grew, "Yeah, why?"
"Then I got in trouble right before our scene, because that girl made fun of your terrible haircut and I slapped her. And our teacher wouldn't let me preform." Avery continued.
Teagan let out a small surprised laugh as she remembered the night of the play.
"You tried to tell me that you couldn't go on stage by yourself, that you weren't brave enough to go on without me?" Avery reminded her.
"And you told me that I didn't know how strong I was, and that even if you weren't right by my side that you were still with me and I'd be fine." Teagan said nodding as she looked up to see Derek standing over his uncle as he lay dying on the ground.
"What does this have to do with anything?" Teagan asked, when Avery didn't say anything.
"Because Teagan, you're stronger than you know. And even if I'm not right beside you… you're going to be fine." She said, her voice barely over a whisper.
"I'm going to be fine, because you are going to be by my side. For prom and graduation and college, we've got a whole lifetime of memories to make so you're not checking out on me early." Teagan said, her voice strong as her tears slowed.
She knew she needed to be strong for Avery.
Jackson started over to them, and the girls watched as Scott begged for Derek to help him kill Peter, so he could be cured and live a human life with Allison.
But Derek had other plans, he hadn't intended on killing Peter to become the alpha. But after what he saw that day, he knew the only way to keep both him and Avery alive and safe was to be the strongest he could be; which meant becoming the alpha.
Jackson knelt down beside Teagan and held onto her shoulders as she continued to cradle Avery.
His eyes widened when he saw all the blood, he wasn't sure how anyone could lose that much blood and still be alive.
Avery and Teagan heard Peter say something, but they weren't close enough to make out his words.
"No!" Scott yelled as Derek raised his hand in the air and his claws came out.
Everyone watched as he slit his uncle's throat.
Avery's eyes started to close but she fought to keep them open as Derek stood up and turned around facing everyone.
"What did you do?" Scott yelled, feeling panicked.
He'd been counting on getting a cure so he could turn himself back to human.
"I'm the alpha now." Derek said, his voice had a growl to it as his eyes glowed red.
"Oh my god…" Avery breathed out as she started to drift in and out of unconsciousness.
"Jackson, Jackson! We have to get her out of here, she's lost so much blood!" Teagan begged as her watery eyes met his.
He nodded and picked Avery's limp body up, the movement jarred her back awake and she whined in pain.
Stiles opened the door and laid the passenger seat down so they could get Avery into the backseat of the Porsche.
Jackson slowed and came to a stop as he started to walk past Derek, he wasn't sure what Derek was going to do.
With his eyes still glowing red he growled, "Go!"
It caught Jackson off guard and he stumbled a little, before he quickly ran to the car where Teagan got into the backseat first and helped him guide Avery into the seat beside her.
With the 4 teens in the car, they sped towards the hospital.
On the way there Avery came to a few times and mumbled something about Derek, but none of them could understand what she was trying to say. But by the time they reached the hospital she was out cold again.
The staff got her onto a gurney and started to rush her into a room to start working on her, Teagan jogged beside the gurney staring down at her best friends unnaturally pale face.
"Miss, you can't come in here." One of the nurses said to Teagan.
"You don't understand, she's my best friend!" Teagan yelled back at her.
"I'm sorry, you'll have to wait out here." She said, as they blocked her from going in the room.
"No! I can't leave her!" Teagan yelled, but Jackson wrapped his arms around her and held her still while the last of the nurses and doctors moved into the room and shut the door behind them.
Teagan cried as she looked down to her blood stained hands and clutched onto Jackson's white dress shirt.
She felt like as long as she stayed by her friends side, she could somehow keep her alive. But now they'd taken Avery into a room away from Teagan; she felt helpless.
"It's okay. It's going to be okay." Jackson said, his voice calm as he tried to soothe her.
But he stared at the metal door wondering if anything was every really going to be okay again.
"I can't lose her…" Teagan continued to cry as Jackson held her close and started to lead her back to the waiting room.
She looked up and saw Stiles standing in the middle of the waiting room, his face was almost as pale as his white button up shirt as he stared at them.
"What did they say? She's going to be okay, right?" Stiles asked, his words jumbled together as his eyes stung with tears.
Teagan couldn't say anything as she continued to clutch onto Jackson with her bloody hands.
"They uh, they haven't told us anything." Jackson said.
Stiles took in a deep ragged breath and rubbed his hand over his hair.
~()~
Teagan was sitting in a waiting room chair next to Jackson who was still holding her.
Stiles sat in a chair across from them, they sat in silence. The only sound was Teagan's sniffles as she tried to breath after all the crying.
"Well?" Stiles asked as a doctor walked up to the group.
"Are any of you Miss Dukate's family?" He asked looking around the group.
"Yes. I'm her sister." Teagan immediately said.
"I know this is a difficult time, but we need to know what happened." The doctor said.
"Is she going to be okay?" Teagan demanded to know.
"We're doing everything we can. She's lost a lot of blood." The doctor said, his voice low.
"But she'll make it, right?" Teagan continued to ask.
"We really need to know what happened." The doctor repeated.
"Look, she's not talking to you right now. Just get in there and do your damn job!" Jackson snapped at seeing how much more upset the doctors presence was making Teagan.
"No, it's okay. I need to tell them what really happened, they need to know she didn't do this to herself." Teagan said, her voice stronger than she felt as she began to tell the doctor that Avery's car had been broken into and she'd gotten into a fight with the group who did it.
Teagan explained that someone in the group had to have cut her wrist to make it look like a suicide.
After they had stitched Avery up and examined her; they ruled that the wound wasn't self-inflicted and with her other injuries it was obvious someone had done it to her.
Now the only thing the three teens could do was wait and see if Avery was strong enough to pull through it and survive.
A/N- Thank you for reading! I really hope you all liked the chapter.
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