***Hahahahah I'm sorry for taking so long***
***I do not own Teen Wolf***
Charlotte wasn't sure how she ended up in this current situation that she was in.
She knew that the police and the Hunter's were after Derek, sure.
What she wasn't expecting though was Derek asking for her, Stiles and Scott's help in trying to shake both of them off his tail.
So now here she was- driver's seat of Derek's car, Scott in the passenger seat, Stiles in the back, going as fast as she could, with Kate Argent behind them.
Her hands were gripping the steering wheel tight enough that her knuckles were turning white. She kept glancing at the rear-view mirror to see Kate was still hard on their tail.
"Charlotte," Stiles started. "I don't think you're grasping the concept of the car chase here." He said as he looked at the car behind them that was currently keeping up with them.
Getting nervous about this whole thing, "Stiles, if I go any faster I'm gonna kill us."
"Well, if you don't go faster, they're going to kill us!"
Glancing over to her younger brother, she took in a deep breath as she slammed harder on the gas pedal, trying her best to keep control of Derek's very fast car as they went around the curve of the road. "Good thing all of the police are chasing Derek right now." She huffed out as she straightened the car back on the road, lucky that there'd be no way they would get a speeding ticket tonight.
Scott looked behind them and didn't see any headlights behind them. "They're gone." He pointed out, feeling Charlotte let off the gas. "Stiles, check the radar."
Stiles nodded and turned the talkie he had "Borrowed" from his father and turned it up. "All units," The sheriff's voice could be heard. "Suspect is on foot heading into the Iron Works."
Letting out a sigh and shaking her head, Charlotte looked over to her brother then glancing back at Stiles.
"Hey guys, want to go pick up a lost dog?" She joked as she made her way to Derek's current location, ignoring Stiles protests to her awful joke.
Puling into the Iron Works, Charlotte followed the white explosions of light and skidded to a halt once she saw Derek kneeled down.
Scott pushed his door opened and climbed into the back seat so Derek could get in the car, Charlotte speeding off before he could even get his door closed, letting out little yelps when she heard the bullets from Allison's fathers hit the car.
Scott leaned between the two front seats, "What part of laying low don't you understand?" He was supposed to be looking for the Alpha, not getting chased by every police in the county.
Getting frustrated with the night, he slammed his hand on the dashboard. "Damn it! I had him!"
"The Alpha?" Charlotte asked, trying to keep her eyes on the road as she tried to get away from the Police and hunters.
"Yes! He was right in front of me, and the friggin' police showed up!" He huffed out, if it weren't for the cops, he would have had the Alpha.
It was Stiles who pushed between the two seats, "Whoa, hey, they're just doing their jobs."
Derek glared at the two boys in the back seat. "Yeah, thanks to someone who decided to make me the most wanted fugitive in the entire state!" His glare stayed on Scott, who shrunk down in his seat.
"Can we seriously get past that? I made a dumbass mistake, I get it." He defended himself, though he knew Derek wasn't going to let off of the fact that it was his fault for Derek being trouble like this.
"Alright! Calm down!" Charlotte said, then looked over at Derek. "How'd you find him anyway? He's told me nothing."
Derek looked back at the two boys in the back seat and let out a sigh, he didn't know how trusting Scott and Stiles could be, seeing is how Scott once threatened to tell Allison's family about him just a few weeks ago.
Scott rolled his eyes. "Can you try to trust us for at least half a second?" Scott knew he trusted Charlotte, but to not want to trust him and Stiles, who were helping him?
"Yeah! Both of us!" Stiles interjected but slinked back when Derek glared at him. "Or just those two, I'll be back here."
"Derek?" Charlotte's voice was soft, and Derek looked over at her and saw the softness in her eyes, despite the fact that she was still speeding down the road. "They're dumbasses, but we're all after the same thing here: The Alpha."
Giving in, he let out an irate sigh. "The last time I talked to my sister, she was close to figuring something out." He began, "She found two things. The first thing was a guy named Harris."
Stiles shot himself back between the two seats. "Our chemistry teacher?!"
Charlotte's eyes were wide as she continued to drive. "Why him?" What could Harris have anything to do with this?
"I don't know yet."
"And the second?" Scott asked, leaning forward as he saw Derek pull out a piece of paper from his pocket.
"Some kind of symbol." He unfolded the paper and heard Scott groan. "What? You know what this is?"
Scott couldn't believe the image he was seeing. He's seen it before alright. "I've seen it on a necklace… Allison's necklace."
Charlotte let out a loud sigh. "Of course… It always comes back to them, doesn't it?" These damned Argent's were causing a huge part of her stress.
The next day, while the boys were at School, Charlotte paced her room as she continued to piece the puzzle together. The Alpha was obviously connected to the Argent's, but how?
Was the Alpha connected to Derek's family? To the fire? Every time he spoke to her, it was at the Hale house.
The more Charlotte thought about it, the more frustrated with everything she became. The more she thought about it, the more… Fuzzy, and familiar things felt.
Fuzzy and familiar, like when she first saw-
Her phone began to ring, taking her out of her thought process. She picked the device up and saw her brother's name on the screen. If she didn't answer it, she could go back to figuring out how the Alpha was connected to everything. But she knew Scott needed her, and she couldn't ignore him.
"Scott?" She answered the phone, instantly feeling Scott's panic.
"I'm screwed!" Scott ran a hand through his hair. "I'm so freaking screwed!"
"That's nothing new at this point." She sighed out, hating that that was in fact, a true statement. There never was a moment where Scott wasn't screwed about something. "What is it this time?"
"Jackson knows!" Charlotte's heart banged against her chest as she felt the color drain from her face.
"I'm sorry… Did you just say Jackson knows?!" She stood from her desk. "How!?" She started to pace again but stopped when she thought back to that night at the school. He was calm, the howl affected him as it did her, the way he acted when he thought no one was looking at him. "That son of a bitch…" She muttered. Putting her phone back up to her ear, she tried to keep from seething. "I think he's always had an idea about what you are."
"Really?" Scott couldn't believe that. There was no way Jackson had any idea what was going on… Then again, the way he was acting towards Scott on that double date. Maybe Charlotte was right. "I'm so screwed." He repeated after a moment.
"He's the least of our worries right now…" Charlotte ran a hand through her hair. The Argents, the Alpha, and Jackson: all of them were involved in this now. "What did he say?"
"That if I don't give him what he wants that he's going to tell Allison." Scott just wanted all of this to be over, to not be a werewolf, to be with Allison. He didn't want anything to do with Jackson and him now wanting to be a werewolf, he had no idea what that would entail for him. The constant fear that Scott has lived in, from the Alpha and the Argent's. Jackson had no idea what he was in for if he somehow managed to get the bite.
Charlotte's brows furrowed, "The dumbass wants to be a werewolf?" gnawing on her lower lip as she thought back to that night at the school. Those marks on the back of his neck. The howl affecting him. "Well, we obviously can't let that happen for a couple of reasons." She let out a sigh. "For one, that would require talking to that murderous fleabag-Alpha. Secondly, Jackson? As a werewolf? Scott, you can barely control yourself on the full moon and you're one of the most gentle teens that I know."
"I know… Trust me, that's the last thing that I want." Scott sighed.
It was after school hours when Charlotte got a text from Stiles asking her to come over because Derek was making him uncomfortable. Sending back a text making fun of him for being scared of Derek, she set off on her way.
When she entered Stiles' room, Derek was sitting in a chair off to the side while Stiles was at his desk, jumping up when he saw Charlotte. "Oh thank god… The horribly uncomfortable silence was killing me." He sighed in relief.
Charlotte glanced over to Derek who was reading through one of the random books Stiles had. "So, now we're dragging Danny into our werewolf business?" She crossed her arms over her chest, obviously showing her dislike for Stiles' plan.
Stiles' face dropped. Anytime Charlotte gave him that look, it felt like a mother scolding her infant child. "He's our best bet at finding out who sent Allison that text." He tried to defend.
"Sure, let's bring more innocent people into this hell." Charlotte sighed and plopped herself onto the bed. Glancing between the two boys, comparing their aura's. Stiles' was in a frenzy obviously showing how nervous he was. Looking over to Derek, his was a little dark surrounding him- he was angry, irritated.
Wanting to see something, Charlotte gently nudged the book Derek had with her foot, getting his attention. Raising an eyebrow at her, wanting to know what she wanted.
Charlotte tried to hide the smirk she had as she spoke. "You still owe me an apology."
She saw the shift in the aura around him, it lightened in just the slightest. And Charlotte could see Derek's mouth twitch, despite him trying to keep the hard expression on his face. Seeing what she wanted to, and satisfied with herself, she pulled her phone out of her pocket. She was getting used to her powers more and more.
A little later, Danny showed up expecting to just get some studying done. He stopped in the doorway of Stiles' room when he saw Charlotte and Derek. "What are they doing here?"
Stiles looked at Danny, then at the two adults, then back at Danny. "Who, them? They uh…" He looked back at Charlotte when he couldn't come up with an excuse.
Charlotte just rolled her eyes before smiling at Danny. "The Sheriff just wants me to keep an eye on Stiles after what happened at the school."
"So you're basically babysitting him?" Danny asked, which caused Charlotte to smile wider and nod. "Aren't you Scott's sister?"
"Indeed I am." She saw the annoyed look on Stiles' face when she said that she was babysitting him. Charlotte could hear the quiet snickers from Derek beside her. "He's really sorry about the other day."
A few moments passed later, and Stiles was currently trying to get Danny to trace the text, but Danny dropped him saying that they were just going to do lab work. Stiles sighed in defeat as Danny sat down and started to read over the book, but got distracted when he looked back at Derek, who was still silently reading the book he had. "Who's he again?"
Stiles looked back at Derek, "Um, my cousin… Miguel." looking oddly proud with himself at the name.
Derek and Charlotte both looked up at Stiles at the ridiculous name, a snicker leaving Charlotte's lips, who then had a hard time keeping it in when Derek started to glare at her.
"Is that blood on his shirt?" Danny couldn't help but notice all the red stains on Derek's shirt.
Stiles whipped around to look at Derek and saw the bloodstains. "Yeah. Yes. Well, he gets these horrible nosebleeds." He tried to explain, "Hey, Miguel." Derek looked up at Stiles in a glare. "I thought I told you you could borrow one of my shirts?"
Derek hardened his glare as he threw the book on the bed by Charlotte's feet. Looking up from her phone, she couldn't help but look with wide eyes as she watched Derek take his shirt off and toss it off to the side. It wasn't the first time she'd seen Derek shirtless, but this time he wasn't dying from a wolfsbane bullet or hiding from Kate Argent.
It was the tattoo that she always noticed first. The Celtic knot that he had at the top of his back always caught her attention. What it meant, when he got it- she always wondered.
She honestly tried not to stare too long. It was weird to stare at your friends when they were just changing their shirt. But god damn it, Derek was a pretty dude.
He was tall, had toned muscles, that jawline could cut diamonds. And those eyes, damn those eyes. Charlotte always got lost in them. The way they shifted color in the light, in the sunlight they were like two diamonds in the ocean. In darker lighting, like in the moonlight, the green hue they took on were like evergreen trees on a summer day.
Shaking herself out of her thoughts, she scolded herself silently. They were friends- just friends. You don't fawn over your friends like that… "Ah, crap." Charlotte thought, "How obvious is it that I'm obviously staring at him?." Shaking herself out of her thoughts and feeling like a creep. Sure, thinking your friend was attractive wasn't wrong, but to blatantly stare at them while they're shirtless? She just hoped no one noticed to save at least somewhat of her remaining dignity.
She was brought back to reality when she heard Derek speak. "Stiles." He held up a shirt in his hands. "This? No fit."
Stifling the giggle, Charlotte looked over at Stiles and noticed that she wasn't the only one who had been staring at Derek once she saw the look on Danny's face. Her laugh threatening even more to surface. The kid was practically drooling.
"Then try something else on." Stiles was really trying to stay on track with Danny, but when he saw how he was looking at Derek, he quickly thought up an idea. Turning back to Derek as he was putting on a blue and orange shirt. "Hey, that one looks pretty good, huh?" Looking at Danny who was obviously uncomfortable, and was also trying not to stare, "what do you think, Danny?"
Looking at Derek before back at Stiles, "Huh?" Danny let out, not really paying attention to what Stiles was saying.
"The shirt." Stiles nodded towards Derek, who looked like he was ready to rip Stile's head off with both his teeth and claws.
Danny let out a sigh, really not wanting to be in this situation, but didn't want to pass up seeing Derek- or, Miguel, take his shirt off. Damn those muscles. "It's, not really his color."
Derek couldn't keep the glare off his face, even when looking towards Charlotte for help. Her face was flushed, and it was obvious she was getting a kick out of this too. When he saw the smirk on her face when they made eye contact, he knew she was not going to be any help.
"I agree with Danny." She crossed her arms over her chest, tilting her head to the side like she was thinking. "Doesn't go with your eyes." her smile never left her face, even with the "if looks could kill you'd be six feet under" look Derek was giving her.
He gave her a pointed look as he removed the shirt with a huff, going back to dig through Stiles' drawer. It was no use though- Stiles was small in comparison to Derek.
Charlotte could hear Stiles say something about swinging for a different team to Danny, but she honestly was more interested in seeing Derek frustratingly look through the dresser for a shirt. Seeing him finally give up and throw the shirt down in defeat.
"Stiles! None of these fit!" He huffed out, standing completely shirtless in front of the three people in the room.
Something in Danny finally gave in to the brooding shirtless hunk and turned towards Stiles. "I'll need the ISP, the phone number, and the exact time of the text."
Stiles did a small victory dance, finally getting somewhere in his plan.
Seeing that Stiles was satisfied, Charlotte stood from her spot on the bed and patted Derek on the shoulder as she walked by him. "I'll go see if the Sheriff has something you could borrow." She left the room and headed towards Mr. Stilinksi's room. Once she was actually in his room, she looked over at his dresser and felt her heart hurt when she saw the photos he had on top of it.
There was a photo of his wife, just after Stiles was born. She was holding him in her arms and his face was scrunched up crying, but she was just looking down at him with a smile on her face. Next to her and the newborn Stiles was the Sheriff, looking tired but proud of his little family.
The next one was Stiles on his second birthday. The small cake in front of him with the single "2" candle, his excited face showing he wanted to hurry up and blow the candle out. Mrs. Stilinski was looking down at Stiles, her smile was wide, but you could tell from her eyes something wasn't quite right. Maybe she was already sick at that point, but thought it was nothing at the time?
Shaking herself out of her thoughts, she reached into the drawer to grab just a simple black shirt for Derek to wear. The Sheriff wouldn't notice it missing.
Pulling the shirt out, she accidentally knocked the first photo over. Reaching over to put it back up, she gasped out loud when her fingers made contact with the frame. She could feel it. The pride, the love, and the happiness that the Sheriff had in the photo. Gently setting the photo down with a shaking hand, her eyes went over to Stiles' birthday photo. Fingers still shaking, she reached for it. Her fingers finally made contact with it, and she was hit with the joy and pure innocence from the little Stiles in the photo.
Yanking her hand back, she stepped away from the dresser. "Holy shit." She whispered to herself. That was a new trick.
Shaking herself from her shock, she made her way back to Stiles' room. Tossing Derek the shirt without saying a word and sat back down on the bed, a far off look on her face, and her skin paler than before.
Derek could hear her heartbeat loud and fast against her chest. What had happened in the short moment she was gone to get him a shirt?
Concerned, he walked over to her after putting the shirt on. She looked on edge, so he gently laid his hand on her shoulder to get her attention. She blinked a few times before looking up at him. "Are you okay?"
Seeing Stiles look back at that question, just now seeing how on edge she looked and looked at her with his own concern. She simply just nodded her head, not wanting to say anything about what happened in front of Danny. "I'm fine." She said in what she hoped was a convincing tone. Looking between the two boys who neither of them looked like they believed her. "I'll explain later."
Derek nodded, assuming it had to do with her Empath stuff and let it be until she was able to explain what happened. He's never seen her look so confused before, and he was curious about what she saw, felt, or whatever. She had only been gone for a few minutes.
Everything that just happened was swimming through Charlotte's mind. It was the second she had touched those photos on the Sheriff's dresser, it was like she was smacked with all the emotions the Sheriff or Stiles had felt in them... She couldn't feel Stiles' mom though, which was one of the things that she couldn't get out of her mind. She was in both photos, but she only felt the Sheriff and Stiles. Could it have been because Charlotte never met her before she died? She supposed it made sense. Maybe once she got better with her abilities she could? She didn't even know how she did it. All she did was touch the frame. Her head was buzzing and she didn't even comprehend what Danny was saying to Stiles until she actually heard him speak.
"No, no, no, no. That can't be right." Stiles sounded in denial, and when she finally came back to reality and saw everyone gathered around the computer. Standing from her spot, she stood next to Derek to look down at the screen. Reading who the "Sender" of the text was, she let out a gasp and felt her stomach drop.
Melissa McCall
That indeed cannot be right.
Taking a deep breath through her nose trying to keep calm, Charlotte took a step back from the screen, Derek's eyes following her as she moved. She was thinking, more pieces, more to the puzzle. Yet there was something, something nagging in the back of her head. A name at the tip of her tongue but it wouldn't come out. Her head was getting fuzzy and everything around her was starting to blur out.
"Danny." Charlotte's voice was airy and distracted. "Shouldn't you be getting ready for the game tonight?"
****I wonder when I'm actually just going to keep writing this instead of leaving it for months at a time?****
***Hope you guys like it! Don't forget to R&R!***