A/N: Shorter chapter than usual, I know. But this is very important for the development of the story. Please enjoy and PLEASE review. How about 13 reviews and I post the girl who knew too much? That is going to be a KILLER chapter. Ya'll will love it :D Please review! Love you all! The last little part of this chapter originally wasn't going to be in there-Katherine's little drive over to a certain place. But i decided to finally do it. And I kinda liked the way it turned out :D You see both their vulnerable parts! Enjoy!

Chapter Fifty-One

Visionary

Chapter Song: Give Me Love by Ed Sheeran / Tonight by Lykke Li

Beacon Hills had gotten quiet after Boyd's death. The Alpha's had stopped terrorizing—for now—and the Darach put a pause to its sacrifices. But only a pause, it was soon to resume, I was positive. The loft was back to normal; furniture in place, bloodstains vanished, and water drained. I stood myself up from sitting on Derek's bed, watching the rain pelt against the window on yet another dreary, depressing cold night. I'd been staying in the loft for a sense a comfort and safety. Every night I'd sleep in his bed, the same place he had sex with Jennifer Blake—ugh gag. Without Derek around, I was worried. He'd gone missing. Purposely. He went into hiding after Boyd's death. It took a hard hit on him and he couldn't handle the reality of it. So he disappeared. In his absence, I'd been staying here against Cora's, who still refused to lighten up to me, will. Peter didn't exactly care but the female Hale desperately wanted me out and to get a life. She didn't get it. There was to much going on in my life right now, I wanted to be in a place I felt comfortable…a safe spot. Knowing that I had more people as my enemies then allies was taking a toll. There were all five Alphas, the Darach (whoever the hell he is), and then there was Ms. Blake. She was possibly the worst of all of them. My life was made into a living hell because of her—whether it be because she was trying to ruin my school life or because she slept with Derek. I swore I wouldn't let her get to me, but, it happened. I was mentally slapping myself for it. To get my mind off things, Stiles came over and kept me company while Scott was out somewhere with Allison. Soon after he came, Stiles made the mistake of asking Cora, trying to pass by without being noticed, the question if Derek had ever gone into hiding like this before because he needed to get his ass back to Beacon Hills.

But, maybe it wasn't so much of a mistake after all.

"They were there for two days. Waiting, hiding…that's what we're taught to do when the hunters find us. Hide and heal." Cora explained after telling us the story of the time fifteen-year-old Derek Hale was running from the Argents. Peter had saved his ass and they hid underground.

"Okay so is two days standard then or are we thinking Derek's on some extended getaway?" Stiles asked.

"I highly doubt he's on vacation, Stiles." I replied, monotone.

"Why do you care?" Cora spat at Stiles. "Why do either of you care?"

"Why do I care? Let's see because after the past few weeks my two best friends tried to kill themselves, Scott's boss nearly got ritually sacrificed, a girl that I've known since I was three was ritually sacrificed, Boyd was killed by Alphas, Katherine was kidnapped by Alpha twins, you want me to keep going? Because I can. Alright? For like an hour!"

"You think Derek can do anything about that?" Cora asked, walking towards Stiles.

"Well since he's the one everyone seems to be after it's more like he should do something about it. Yeah." Cora sighed.

"I don't know, there's something different about him now." She mused. "He wasn't like this when I knew him." That caught my interest.

"Derek was different?" I walked towards her.

"Surprisingly."

"What was he like?" I wondered. There was a different side to Derek?

"A lot like Scott." Peter came walked down the spiral staircase, his combat boots clanking on the metal.

"Please don't make me gag. I'm not—I wasn't dating a Scott."

"He was a lot like most teenagers—unbearably romantic, profoundly narcissistic, tolerable really only to other teenagers." Peter reached the table we were all standing around.

"So what happened, what changed him?" Stiles asked.

"The fire." I supposed.

"Actually, no. The same thing that changes a lot of young men—a girl." My heart skipped a beat. A girl changed Derek?

"You're telling me some girl broke his little heart? That's why Derek is the way he is?" Stiles wondered.

"Stiles." I glared, mentally telling him to shut up.

"Do you remember Derek before he was an Alpha and had blue eyes?" Peter asked.

"When I first met him, yeah." I answered.

"Do you know why some wolves have blue eyes?"

"Genetics." I shrugged. But then I realized…"Jackson had blue eyes after he turned." Peter started smiling, knowing I was getting the idea of the picture. Jackson and Derek didn't have much in common but their blue eyes and that they were wolves. Jackson had killed a lot of people as the Kanima while Derek….didn't kill anyone. Not that I knew of. He always threatened to, but he never did the deed.

"If you want to know what changed Derek, you need to know what changed the color of his eyes."

"It'd be easier if you just got to the point." I argued. Peter sat himself on the black velvet couch.

"Her name was Paige. A sophomore, just like Derek, at Beacon Hills High School, obsessed with music and the cello. Strange for Derek to have an eye on being he was on the basketball team and thrown into his love for the game. But Paige, she was much like you," Peter glared to me, "the long brown hair, brown eyes, flawless skin." He chuckled. "But the personalities were completely different. But why, why doesn't it look like you know all of this already?" Peter cocked his head.

"Because I don't." My eyes looked down to the floor. "He's never told me anything about Paige. We don't exactly talk about the past." For some reason, Peter looked satisfied.

"Okay so Derek was a sophomore back then, how old was he?" Stiles asked. "How old were you? How old are you now?" Stiles furrowed his eyebrows.

"Old." I commented.

"Not as young as we could have been but not as old as you may think."

"Spot on answer." I rolled my eyes.

"Okay that was frustratingly vague. How old are you?" Stiles asked Cora.

"I'm seventeen." She answered.

"That's an answer. That's how we answer people." Stiles cried.

"Well, seventeen how you would measure in years." Cora corrected with a grin.

"This is to confused." I groaned.

"How old is Derek?" Stiles asked me.

"He's…I actually don't know. I always figured early twenties. I never asked him though."

"You don't know how old your own boyfriend is?" Cora scoffed. If Derek was fifteen in sophomore year…and that was one year before the fire as of my guess…he had to be twenty-two right? Our age difference wasn't that bad. But what if he wasn't twenty-two? No, he had to be. That was my guess.

"Okay, what happened to Derek and cello girl?" Stiles moved on.

"They're teenagers. One minute it's I hate you don't talk to me. The next, it's frantic groping in any dark corner they can manage to find themselves alone in for five minutes. Sound like your relationship, doesn't it?" Peter chuckled. I glared him down. "Their favorite dark corner was an abandoned distillery outside of Beacon Hills.

"How romantic." I sarcastically commented. "Wait…how exactly do you know this?" My brows furrowed.

"Yeah, you just said they were alone."

"Back then I wasn't just Derek's uncle. I was his best friend. His closest confidant, that's how I know."

"So you were stalking them and watched your 'best friend' make out with his girlfriend for the thrill. Sounds like you."

"I followed them. And I'm glad I did. Because they got away right before another pack showed up."

"Another pack?"

"Deucalion, Ennis, Kali, and all of their packs that they killed. Not to mention Derek's mother—Talia." I could see the pained expression on Cora's face. Peter got up from the couch and walked over to the window.

"They were all here in Beacon Hills seven years ago?"

"Yes. All of them. One of Ennis' pack died—killed by the Argents for killing a hunter. Careless beta's, they never know what they're doing. Ennis was angry and searching for revenge. And we all know how an Alpha can be when it's searching for revenge." Peter glared at me with a sarcastic smile. "He clawed the sign into the distillery."

"The spiral." I realized. Peter was drawing it in the condensation on Derek's window. "Our mark for vendetta." He reminded.

"I've seen it plenty of times, thank you." I growled. Peter smiled.

"Man you guys really take that revenge thing to like a whole new level, don't 'cha?" Stiles realized, mentally making a note to never mess with an Alpha.

"It's not just revenge. Losing a member of your pack isn't like losing family; it's like you lose a limb." That's what Derek was going through.

"They wouldn't even let him see the body." Peter said. "Nonetheless he was a bit angry."

"Okay, not to interrupt story time or anything, but what does this have to do with Derek?" I asked. I wasn't here to find out about the Alpha packs past, I was here to find out about Derek.

"Everything." Peter turned around and started walking towards the table we sat at. "It's never just a single moment; it's a confluence of events. Personally, I looked at Ennis' circumstances. I saw profound loss. Derek, saw something different. He saw opportunity."

"To do what exactly?" I asked.

"To always be with her." To be with Paige? Peter looked down with sadness. "The thing was, he had this constant fear. He was obsessing over it, thinking about it all night, all day, always on his mind. He feared that Paige would find out that he was a werewolf. So, he believed that his only choice to be with her forever was to turn her.

"Okay, no. Derek wouldn't do that." I disagreed. He was lying. Peter sighed dramatically.

"I kept telling him not to do it! Everyday the more he thought about it, the more convinced her became. You know teenagers. I'll be he even blames me! He probably convinced himself the whole thing was my idea." Peter turned and looked at me.

"I'm sure it was." We glared at each other with hate.

"Another sub plot to the story—Druids."

"Like Deaton." I realized.

"And emissaries." Peter looked at Cora.

"Druids are like advisors. And emissaries…they keep us connected to humanity. But they're a secret in the pack. Sometimes only the Alpha knows who the emissary is. Derek and I had no idea about Deaton."

"Or his sister Morell." Peter added.

"Morell? The guidance counselor? She's an emissary too?"

"For the Alpha pack."

"Our guidance counselor? Why the hell don't you people tell me any of this stuff! Huh? I shared some really intimate details with her." Um…ew.

"And did she give you good advice?" Cora asked.

"Actually, yeah." Stiles thought about it.

"That's what they do. That's what Deaton used to do for Talia."

"Can we get back to Deaton and Paige?" I urged.

"He asked an Alpha to turn her." He admitted.

"Let me guess…" Stiles began.

"Ennis." I finished. There was no way this was true. I knew Derek, and he wasn't like this.

"Why would he choose him?" Cora wondered.

"Why not? Ennis needed a new member for his pack. Paige was young, strong. Doing a favor for Derek meant Ennis would be in good with Talia. Back then, everybody wanted to be in good with her.

"He doesn't remember it was Ennis, does he?" Stiles wondered.

"If he does, he keeps it to himself."

"So he turned her." I figured.

"Almost." Almost? "He came at Ennis. A fifteen year old against a giant. There was no reason for him to fight. She'd already been bitten."

"She didn't turn though?" I questioned.

"Most of the time the bite takes. Most of the time." If the bite doesn't take then she turned out how I was supposed to be…dead.

"When you offered it to me, you said 'if it doesn't kill you'." Wait he offered Stiles the bite?

"If." Peter quietly emphasized. He walked over to go sit down on the stairs. Stiles, Cora, and I stood up and walked over to hover near him.

"Her body rejected the bite just like mine and Jackson's did." I realized sadly.

"But the difference was, miraculously you two survived." Peter pause. "I found him in the same spot we hid for those two days. He asked me what was happening to her, but he already knew the answer. It didn't matter she was young and strong, some people just aren't made for this. She fought; she struggled desperately, trying to survive. "She knew everything. She knew Derek's secret and she did know she was going to die. She asked Derek to end the pain. And he did." Peter revealed. Derek had killed Paige to take her pain away. Now that seemed believable. "I remember taking her body from his arms, to the woods, to a place where I knew she would be found. Another in a long line of Beacon Hills' animal attacks."

"What about Derek?" Cora asked.

"Taking an innocent life takes something from you as well. A bit of your soul; darkening, dimming the once brilliant golden yellow, to a cold, steel blue. Like mine." Peter's eyes turned blue. With a sigh, he got up from the stairs and walked upstairs to his room. Cora and Stiles look at me as I walked over and sat on Derek's bed. Silent. I didn't want to talk or be talked to. All of this information was a lot to take in. I didn't know much, actually I didn't know anything about Derek's past, and I had just learned one horrible whole year of it in a few minutes. I never knew about his past girlfriend, besides Kate who didn't exactly count, and he didn't know any of mine. We didn't talk about the past; I knew he didn't want to. He had a hard time with the fire. I wouldn't bring up something that'd hurt him. I didn't believe Peter. Parts of the stories I did, but parts I didn't. There were loopholes in what he said, and I was very aware of them. I wanted the full truth. Paige may have died at the hands of Derek, but Derek was definitely not the one who told Ennis to bite her. He wouldn't do that. There was silent's for a few minutes as Stiles and Cora sat down with each other on the front stairs.

"What?" Cora looked at Stiles. "What's this look on your face?"

"What look?" Stiles stuttered.

"The kind of look that makes me want to punch you." Cora retorted.

"My God, you are so Derek's sister. I forgot."

"What's with the look?" She asked again.

"I just don't believe him. In Ms. Blake's class we're reading heart of darkness. It's the first person, narrated by Marlow. The thing is, is he's an unreliable narrator. You know the details have been changed just because of his perspective."

"Then we heard the story from Peter's perspective."

"Obviously." I muttered

"Yeah, I don't think we got the whole story."

"So what? Are you just gonna ask Derek about the girl he fell in love with, then killed?"

"No," I stood up, "I am."

"You have the guts to do that?" Cora wondered.

"I want to find out the truth. There were loopholes in Peter's story, and I'm going to figure out what really happened. I believe that he did kill Paige for her own sake, but I don't believe Peter about Ennis."

"Neither do I." Stiles sighed.

"I need to find Derek." I sighed.


Later that night, Stiles had left and Cora had disappeared somewhere in the loft. She clearly didn't want to be around me. Getting myself off the front stairs I walked over to the metal, winding staircase and climbed up to the second floor. I found Peter in the guest room looking out the window, staring at the rain once again.

"Can I help you?" He asked, seeing my reflection in the window.

"Yeah, I'd like the truth."

"About?"

"Paige."

"You heard it."

"No, I didn't. I want to know why Ennis bit her. The real reason. Because I don't think Derek would attack him for doing what he asked, now would he? Let's get one thing straight; I don't trust you. I never have and never will. Derek may have killed Paige, but it was a mercy kill. And I don't even want to think what he was going through his mind after I rejected your bite."

"We can find out again." Peter manically smirked.

"Go to hell." I turned on my heel and walked away, but before exiting his room I turned back. "I'm going to find out what happened one way or another. And if it means asking Derek himself, then so be it."

"Good luck finding him." Peter gloated.

"Already did." I retorted, typing in 'Beacon County Distillery" into Google's search engine. I walked out of the room and downstairs. There it was, in the first search I laid my eyes on. The article made me know it was the right place, it was just as Peter described—closed down and right outside of Beacon Hills around the county border. That's where Derek was; I could almost guarantee it. I swapped my keys for the Camaro and walked out of the loft.


It didn't take me long after I typed in the address into the Camaro's GPS to get going. I sped through the empty streets of Beacon Hills with a racing heart. What if Derek really wasn't there? It was my last place to find him. He'd abandoned his phone and if he wasn't planning on coming back any time soon in the state he was in. He needed guidance. And I needed guidance on whether or not what Peter said was true. Hell, what was I saying? I knew it wasn't all true, I needed the background he failed to keep in. I pulled the car into an empty gravel lot that belonged to a dilapidated looking warehouse. I quietly got out of the car and looked at the building in front of me. There was a sliding metal door halfway open. A large spiral was jaggedly carved into it—as if it had been made with a pair of claws. The air around me was silent as I walked into the abandoned building. It was dark, I was almost working blind besides the half moon beams shining through the broken windows in the warehouse. One of the moonbeams was shining right on my prize—Derek. There he was…sitting on the floor with his arms wrapped around his legs. His face was pressed against his legs, as if he was hiding himself. I'd never seen him so vulnerable and broken. It was as if he had lost a limb, Cora was right. I took another step, my heels crunching down on a rock, and Derek's head snapped up. He looked more than broken. He looked like a sad child…like Stiles had after he lost his mom. He looked at me, scared and afraid and hid his face once more. I slowly walked over to him, listening to his uneven breathing and squatted down. I unclasped one of his hands from around his legs and took it in mine.

"Derek." I quietly and calmly said. "Derek, look at me." I pleaded. His head lifted and our eyes connected. I could almost feel his pain. It was radiating off of him. I knew exactly what was going through his head. "This isn't your fault. None of it is. Boyd wasn't your fault."

"He was." Derek whispered with a nod. He closed his eyes again. God, here comes sensitive side of me.

"Hey," I squeezed his hand, "look at me." He did.

"He was…he is my fault."

"You didn't kill him. The Alpha's did. The Alpha's aren't your fault."

"Yes I did. I killed someone." Derek was angry, sad, and devastated. He looked like he was slowly dying. I didn't know what to do, but I did the first thing that came to my mind. I hugged him. I wrapped my arms around his body tightly and pressed mine to his in the most innocent way. I could feel him breathing harshly against me. I'd never seen Derek so broken and it made every bit of respect I had for him ten times more intense. I loved it in a sick sort of way.

"I love you." I whispered. And suddenly, I felt just as vulnerable and weak as Derek did. The words had spilled out of my mouth in a comforting whisper. I had thought to myself the first second why did I say something so absurd? But I'd realized a long time ago I had loved Derek Hale. I'd just been pushing it away because I hadn't wanted to feel that rejection from someone so special in my life. I wasn't to sure of when exactly I had fallen in love with him, but honestly how could I not? After all we'd been through together it was bound to happen. It'd been like less than a second and Derek still hasn't answered. I'm sure he could hear my erratically beating heart though. I was about to have a heart attack. "I'm-I'm sorry. I have. I do. I lov—"

"I love you too." What? Did my ears just hear that right? Derek Hale loved me? I buried my head into Derek's shoulder and could feel his shirt becoming stained with my salty tears. I did try to stop myself from silently crying, but I couldn't help it. I felt loved and heartbroken at the same time, and I didn't know why. I loved Derek Hale.

And he loved me.


We stayed in the same position for a while. We were holding onto each other sitting in silence. I had stopped crying, I had forced myself. But Derek on the other hand…was breaking down. Was Derek Hale crying? The Derek Hale? The same Derek Hale that had no emotion or care in the world? It was hard to believe…but maybe after all we'd been through, he'd finally cracked. Maybe I didn't know the whole story. But I was going to.

"Derek." I pulled away from him. His only answer was an innocent glare to me. "I need you to do something for me."

"What?" He quietly asked.

"You need to promise me you'll do it," Derek hesitantly nodded, "When Peter was an Alpha he shared memories. He shared the fire with Scott and I. And you could do that too now…" I paused and took a deep breath. Please don't hate me for this Derek. "I need you to show me all your memories of Paige." Paige. The mention of her name was like a slap in Derek's face—a slap of agonizing pain and confusion. How'd I know about Paige and how long had I known? There were so many questions going through his head. Paige was the first love of his life…how did I know?

"I can't." I weakly said.

"You can. I know it'll hurt, but I need to know the truth. I believe you, but there are people I don't. Please. For me." And somehow, he reluctantly agreed. I took Derek's hand and squeezed it, assuring him it would all be okay. I promised. Even if I couldn't exactly see where anyone's future was heading. Derek took one of my hands in his and reached up with his other and had his fingers ghosting the back of my neck. Then, like a bus hit me full force, I could feel his claws pierce into my skin. Just like that my vision of reality had faded to white and I could feel my senses disappear as I fell to the side. Derek caught me in his arms and cradled me, as the past, the truth I had wanted to know, had appeared right before my eyes.


Katherine's Outfits:

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