Just as a reminder to all of those who are reading: When the text is written in bold and italicized lettering "like this," that is the part of the conversation had in sign language.

Disclaimer: I do not own Teen Wolf. I also have no claim on any pop culture references that I may use throughout my writings. I only own my OCs. Enjoy the read.

(o.o)

Chapter 2.07

It had been a couple of weeks since the massive failure of a dinner with my mother. Even though we managed to turn the dinner around without her, I still hadn't been able to forgive her for what she'd done. Still, Stiles and I had seemed to be closer than ever. I had been on a video call with Stiles for hours. We'd spend the lazy Sunday apart from each other but still texting throughout the day. After I ate an early dinner, I received the video call and answered enthusiastically.

Stiles had been talking about the fact that tomorrow was Mischief Day all day, and seeing his excitement through the video call was much different than reading it over a text message. I was under the impression that this kid was bouncing off the walls on any regular day. In reality, it could be so much worse. I had a hard time keeping up with his conversation, but I couldn't stop his excitement. I'd get the gist for now, and he'd explain it to me again tomorrow at school, in person.

Finally, he settled down in a chair and centered himself on the camera. "Are you dressed?"

I looked at him, raising a brow. "Yes. Should I not be?" I asked with a smirk. I watched as the blush quickly rose to his face.

Stiles shrugged. "I just mean that it's Sunday. That means that you should be sitting in front of the couch with a bowl of popcorn, watching Iron Man in your pajamas."

"You know, it should be creepy that you know so much about me, but I'm gonna let it slide because I like that you're picking up on my habits."

"I would have asked to join you if you hadn't made tonight off-limits," Stiles said pointedly.

"Only because we've been spending every day together for the past few weeks. We have to have some sort of boundaries."

"Fair enough."

I chuckled to myself, pushing my hair back out of my face. "Uh, but yes. I am dressed. My plans had to change a little bit. I finally got a call from Derek this morning. He is home. So I was gonna go drop in and see him in about half an hour." I said, squinting towards the time showing on my phone. "I'll make sure that he's alive and all in one piece and then rip him to shreds for not checking in with me for three weeks."

"You're not helping us at the school tonight? With the coach thing?"

I furrowed my brow. "I kind of thought that might be a you and Scott thing."

Stiles shrugged. "I mean, it has been, but I want you there. It technically won't be Sunday when we're working on it, so I'm not breaking up your personal day. And, you know, Scott, he doesn't mind."

"Okay." I smiled, "I'll go see Derek and then meet you at the school?" I questioned. Even though I was hesitant to butt in on the boys' prank, it sounded fun.

"Sounds great. Midnight?"

I rolled my eyes. "Cool. Neither of us will be getting sleep tonight."

Stiles nodded, avoiding looking towards his phone.

"You're still not sleeping." I tilted my head to the side. He hadn't been calling me in the middle of the night as much, even though I begged him to, but I could tell. The fact that he avoided the thought of not sleeping confirmed my suspicions.

"I am," He insisted. "Just not a lot. I'm okay."

I nodded. "Alright. Look, we'll talk about that later. I've gotta get going. I have a quick stop to make before I head to Derek's."

"Hey, do you have any wrapping paper? I can't find any in the house."

I gave Stiles a weird look. "Wrapping paper?"

"Can't give Coach a birthday present without wrapping paper."

"Alright, I'll grab wrapping paper."

"Thanks. See you later."

I waved at Stiles before ending the call. I sighed, heaving myself off of my bed and making my way towards the attic for Stiles' wrapping paper. I had one stop to make before heading over to Derek's loft. I don't think I'd ever felt calmer as I walked up the long walkway to the house I used to play in as a child. I kept my head held high as I knocked on the door, waiting for someone to answer. I smiled when I saw Lydia, but she wasn't who I was there to see.

Lydia furrowed her brow at the sight of me being at her doorstep so late. "Everything okay?"

I nodded at her. "Can you go get my mom? I wanna talk to her."

Lydia nodded back, waving me in. "You wanna come in and wait?"

"No," I said, shaking my head. "I've got somewhere I have to be, but I wanted to tell her something really quick."

Lydia hesitated. She knew my relationship with my mother had become worse since Carter's death. I was also sure that she managed to overhear my mother talking with Natalie about how terrible the dinner had gone. Although, I did doubt my mother told the true story. Still, Lydia followed my request, leaving the door open and disappearing out of sight.

I stayed there with my hands in my coat pockets, waiting for my mother to appear.

When she did, Christina stepped forward with a giant smile on her face. She waved and tried to move for a hug.

I stepped back, keeping on the porch but out of her reach. I shook my head at her. "I just wanted to say something. I know you're not gonna like it, and it's going to be a real reality shock for you, but it has to be said." I cleared my throat, trying to read her face aside from its confusion. "I will not be doing weekly visits with you. I will not be sleeping over at your apartment every weekend. I will not see you at all."

Christina shook her head, angry. "You have no choice in the matter."

"Actually, I do. California law says that I have to be fourteen to make my own decisions about who I want to be with." I said, matter-of-factly. Stiles helped me with the research when I'd asked him to. "And I'm with Dad. 100% I won't even try your visits because of how royally you screwed up what was supposed to be a nice, relaxing dinner."

"The sheriff was bringing up all the lies that you've been telling him - that's what ruined the dinner."

"That's the thing: They aren't lies. He knows that. You know that." I groaned, shaking my head. "Whatever. I'm done fighting with you on it." I took a deep breath and looked at her straight. "You've lost me. And I was so sure that after losing Carter against your will, you would do everything in your power, to not do the same with me. But I guess that being completely childless is something you have to deal with now." I thought for a moment about telling her what I'd learned from Derek. What would my mother think if she knew that I was supposed to die that night? After studying her face, full of shock and hurt, I decided against it. Even though she might have deserved it with everything she'd put me through in the past two months, I didn't share that secret.

I turned to leave, taking a couple of steps before turning back and taking a deep breath. "Carter would be disappointed in you, and he saw the good in everybody. What did he see in you?" Not wanting to know the answer, I walked back to my car and drove in the direction of Derek's loft.

(o.o)

The elevator ride up to Derek's home was the most agonizing thing in the world. I needed to make sure that he was in one piece after not hearing from him for three weeks. I pushed the sliding door open with all my might and finally saw him across the room. As soon as I laid eyes on him, I sighed, feeling a considerable weight lifting off of my shoulders.

Derek smiled, probably one of the biggest I've seen in a while.

I took hurried steps over to him and jumped into his arms with mine wrapped around his neck. I squeezed him hard for a minute before I lightened my grip so he could put me down. After taking a good look at him and realizing he was alright, I landed a light punch to the center of his chest.

Derek looked down at where my fist had hit and shook his head with a laugh. "What was that?"

"My attempt at killing you for not reaching out to me for three weeks!"

"We were a little busy."

I furrowed my brow. "'We'?" I thought you left Cora that first week?"

Derek turned his head, looking to the spiral staircase.

One of my worst nightmares made his way down the stairs. "Stringbean?" I said with a grimace.

Peter made his way over to us. "Hey, there, Little Runt." He said, reaching a hand to ruffle my hair, but I was always quicker and had backed away from him.

"You really haven't changed, have you? You're still kind of a douche."

Peter raised a brow. "Such language."

"Oh, please," I said quickly, turning my attention back to Derek. "So? Care to explain yourself?"

"I told you, we were busy."

"What my nephew is failing to mention is that we were definitely kidnapped and held against our will," Peter said, rolling his eyes.

I furrowed my brow at the older man's words. "What?"

Peter stood still, centering himself in front of me. "Kid. Napped."

"Kidnapped?!" My eyes widened while Peter nodded, and I looked back at Derek. "You were kidnapped?!"

Derek shrugged. "CJ, it's fine!" He said, trying to calm me, but I wasn't having it.

"No, it's not! I lost a finger!" Peter insisted, holding up his hand where he was missing a finger.

I hadn't noticed as he was holding a cloth over it. He'd been wrapping it in ice. "You were tortured. "I clarified," knowing the difference. "Electrified."

"You saw it?" Derek asked with a furrowed brow.

"No, but when I came here the other day, I touched your jacket to see if I could find you. I got a static shock from it. Didn't know what it meant then, but now…." I trailed off, gesturing to Peter with a sigh.

"Yeah, well. It wasn't exactly a pleasant experience that I wanted to relive."

"Still, you should have told me. I would have been here sooner."

"I'm sorry," Derek said, circling his fist on his chest.

I nodded at him, taking his apology. "You're the only brother I have left. So, I'd appreciate it if you didn't keep things from me like Carter did."

Peter moved to the couch, tossing a bag of ice onto the coffee table. "So sentimental."

I eyed the bag, spotting something other than ice inside of the plastic. "Please tell me that's not what I think it is."

"I can't do that."

"Oh, gross."

"We were just about to sew it back on, so if you wouldn't mind leaving," Peter said with narrowed eyes and a smirk plastered on his face.

"Right," I said, rolling my eyes. "I've gotta go anyway. I'm meeting Stiles at the school." I walked back over to Derek. "I'll see you later?"

"Do I even want to know what you're doing at the high school at midnight?"

"Honestly, I don't even know what we're doing," I said with a laugh. "But I'm pretty sure it's going to be fun."

Derek tilted his head to the side. "You really like Stiles, don't you?"

It took everything in me not to turn around to check the apparent disgusted face Peter was probably giving. But as Derek asked about it, he seemed genuine. Sometimes I forgot that Derek had known Stiles most of the time he'd been back in Beacon Hills. I wondered what he really thought of him. I blushed and nodded my head. "I do."

Derek gave a small smile from the corner of his mouth. "Good." He leaned down, placing a kiss on my forehead. "Be careful, alright?"

"Will do." I took my leave, riding the elevator back down and getting back in my car. On the way to the school, I stopped by the taco shop to grab the three of us some tacos and a few bottled sodas. I walked towards the field house with the wrapping paper roll Stiles had asked for under my arm and the food in bags in either of my hands.

Stiles' eyes widened when he saw me through the vague darkness. He dropped the duffle bag he had on the ground and headed in my direction. As Stiles approached, he smiled at me. "Did you grab tacos?"

I grinned wildly, tilting my head to the side in pride. "I did."

Stiles groaned, "You're perfect." He grabbed the bag of food and dug in for a taco, unwrapping it quickly and taking a bite. The face of pleasure that he made forced a small giggle out of me.

"Where's Scott?" I asked, looking around.

"He's supposed to be on his way." Stiles handed the bag of food back to me and pulled his cellphone from his pocket. He scared the last of his pocket and presumably called Scott.

I looked down at the bags in my hands and shrugged before following after Stiles quickly.

Stiles picked up his duffle back on the way into the field house towards Coach's office.

I was still convinced that what we were doing was super illegal, but I was just happy to be invited along, to be honest. I followed Stiles as he made his way through the newly repaired locker room, waving his flashlight around. He arrived at his locker and started digging through it. I furrowed my brow when I saw him pull out a drill. "Are you allowed to have power tools on campus?"

Stiles turned his head towards me for a moment, like he'd forgotten I was there. "And CJ brought tacos, so why wouldn't you do this with us?" He turned back to his locker, leaving me out of the conversation again.

I smiled to myself, shaking my head. A moment passed, and I felt the hairs stand up on the back of my neck. I turned around to find Scott, making his way towards Stiles from behind. I smiled at him and pushed my lips together with my teeth.

Stiles turned around, finding Scott, and fell over onto the floor.

Scott flashed his eyes red. "One."

Stiles lifted his head off of the floor to look up at Scott. "I hate you."

Scott grinned and looked at me. "Hey, CJ." He said with a slight wave.

"Hey," I held the bag of food out to him. "Taco?"

Scott took the bag from me, finally lightening my carrying load again. "Thanks."

"Is no one going to help me up?" Stiles asked from the floor.

I moved the wrapping paper roll from under my arm to my free hand. "Well, I have no open hands," I said, turning to Scott.

"And I'm eating a taco," Scott munched, his mouth half-full.

Stiles shook his head. "Ungrateful."

I chuckled, "C'mon, Klutz. We gotta try for some sleep tonight."

(o.o)

The three of us ended up back at Stiles' house for the night, sleeping in the living room. Hanging out with Scott and Stiles was fun. It was nice to see their friendship in action as it wasn't something I'd experienced much since Stiles and I started dating.

Scott had managed to beat us to the school on his bike, but we weren't far behind in Stiles' Jeep. I got out of the jeep, straightening my plaid shirt over my Beacon Hills Basketball shirt that I wore.

Stiles grabbed my hand, stopping me from fixing myself, and pulled me forward.

"Okay," I said, going along with him anyway. It was something I'd gotten used to. Something I had come to enjoy. It felt strange to admit it, but I would probably let Stiles pull me anywhere he wanted to.

Stiles took up next to Scott, who had been standing with the twins, Ethan and Aiden. Since the night Aiden practically broke Scott's face at Derek's loft, we hadn't seen either of them. Neither this time nor that one was pleasurable encounters.

I looked up at Stiles' face to try and catch what he was saying to the two of them.

"Oh, that's kind of a change of pace for you guys. Usually, you're just hurting, maiming, and killing."

They ignored Stiles, though, and looked at Scott. "You need a pack," one of them said, "We need an alpha.

Stiles shook his head, "Yeah, absolutely not! That's hilarious, though."

I studied the twin that was speaking. It was Aiden. I knew how different the twins' personalities were, thanks to Lydia.

"You came to us for help. We helped."

"Hey, quick question! Weren't you just beating his face in a couple of weeks ago?" I asked, gaining his attention. "We came to you for help with Scott's control, and you decided to take your anger out on him instead. "I gestured to Scott, also trying to remind him of Aiden's true colors.

Scott looked from me to Aiden. "Why would I say yes?"

"We'd add strength." The former alpha explained. "We'd make you more powerful. There's no reason to say no."

I rolled my eyes before spotting Isaac heading our way.

"I can think of one… Like the two of you holding Derek's claws while Kali impaled Boyd."

Stiles turned his head quickly towards me with a questioning look on his face.

I shook my head at him. "I knew that."

Stiles nodded his head, just making sure.

"In fact, I don't know why we're not impaling them right now."

Aiden bared his teeth. "You want to try?"

"That's not happening," I said, taking a step forward. I didn't care that I was putting myself between two werewolves. To stop him, I put my hand out towards Aiden. When his chest touched my hand, I became weak at my knees. I jerked my hand away and took a step back quickly.

Stiles' arm went to my shoulder, sensing my discomfort. "You okay?" He sighed with one hand, looking down at me.

I nodded my head. "We skipped breakfast, remember?" I brought my backpack around to my front and grabbed a granola bar from the front pocket.

Stiles nodded. "C'mon," he said, leading me towards the school. As we entered the building, there was a toilet paper roll heading towards our faces. Stiles quickly blocked it but pulled his arm from my shoulders to do so. "Alright, watch it! That's my girlfriend's face!"

I grinned at the statement, but my face heated up quickly.

Stiles looked at his friend. He patted Scott on the chest. "Hey, dude, good decision, buddy."

"I hope so…" Scott said, still unsure.

"Well, I know so." I insisted. "Those two are wild cards. It's one of those 'what are they gonna do next' situations, you know?" I told Scott. The three of us stopped at Stiles' locker, Scott and I on either side of him.

Scott's eyes caught something behind me, and I turned to follow his line of sight. There was Kira again, stumbling with her locker.

I smiled and turned back to look at Scott. "I can talk to her for you if you want."

"What?"

Stiles looked over at me. "What are you talking about?"

I turned my head quickly to show Stiles that Kira was down the hallway from us.

Stiles found Kira and turned back to Scott. "You're talking about her?"

"Her?" Scott questioned. "Who her?"

"Her her," Stiles responded, placing the carton of eggs from his bag into his locker.

"Kira. You like her?" I asked.

"No, I mean - " Scott stuttered but noticed me raise a brow and tilt my head, searching for his honest answer. "Yeah, yeah. She's okay. She's new."

"So was CJ. And I never saw you look at her that way." Stiles reminded his friend.

"Well, he did, but it was for a different reason," I said, noticing the curious glances that I got from both boys. "Well, don't look at me. It was Scott that did it!" I shook my head, turning my attention back to Scott. "You should ask her out."

"Now?" Scott questioned.

"No, tomorrow."

"Yes, now." Stiles finished for me.

"Right now?"

Stiles sighed, "Right now, Scott!" He closed his locker to punctuate his words. "I don't think you get it yet." Stiles gestured for us to continue down the hall. "You're an alpha. You're the apex predator! Everyone wants you! You're the hot girl that every guy wants."

I chuckled at the comparison but nodded my head when Scott glanced at me.

"I'm the hot girl?" Scott asked.

"You're the hottest girl," Stiles smirked. He grabbed my hand and led us further towards our first class.