Chapter 31: Sometimes There's Just No Good Chapter Name for These

"So, you think, maybe, it could help, someone else, someone like her? I mean, someone sick - like her?"

Deaton took another measured step forward.

"Like who?"

"Like - like me." That last word was more of a puffed out breath of a whisper than anything, but Deaton heard it nonetheless.

"Stiles," Deaton paused, staring down at the young man with what he hoped was a well-practiced look of patience, but unable to keep the worry from edging around his eyes. "Is there something -?" He let the question hang there for a moment.

"The bestiary says that that woman, my ancestor, went crazy and burned that entire town. I mean, maybe it was grief or anger or whatever. But, but what if, what if she actually went crazy? I mean, they wouldn't've known what to call it back then. You want to know what they call it now? Dementia. My mother - she had it. Frontotemporal degeneration. Maybe that's what this witch had too? Maybe she passed down more than her magic? My grandfather has Alzheimer's, and so did my great-grandfather. I mean, having Alzheimer's in your family only slightly increases the chance of people in later generations getting the disease, but a third of all cases of frontotemporal dementia are inherited. Mix that family history together my my current cocktail of raging ADHD and anxiety, and well, you do the math. Or don't, because, technically and scientifically neither of those things are actually risk factors for dementia, but I'm guessing they're also not helpful ."

"Damon - he - he was right, about me. I was too weak to fight back against Argent. I'm just a human. All I've ever had is my brain. Not claws or fangs. Just this," he tapped the side of his head. "And it could just be taken away from me by some stupid disease. And now, on top of that, I have to worry about what happens with my magic. Not that I can even do much with it anyway. Not like it's been much help, but, what if, you know? That woman burnt down a town! I could go from useless to insane menace ."

"Insane menace, huh?"

Stiles took a breath, glancing over the veterinarian's shoulder to watch yet another intruder cross his threshold.

"What, is there, like a sign on the front door? 'Anyone welcome!'"

"Look, doc," Jeremy patted the man on the shoulder, "I know you probably have something very wise and inspiring you could say to all of - that. But I have a better idea."

"Didn't your sister just return from being missing? Shouldn't you be with her? Or getting as far away from here as possible?"

"She is with Damon," Jeremy let himself in the room and sat on the side of the bed closest to Stiles, "which means, I want to be as far away from them as possible tonight. Besides, we're not leaving."

"But -"

"Yes, Damon would love nothing more than to drag Elena back to Mystic Falls, but she isn't leaving. None of us are. I mean, most of us wanted to stay and help before we found out anyway."

"Found out what?" Deaton turned to the boy.

"Elena wasn't the only one of us that the Alphas took."


"She's definitely gone," Caroline rounded the far corner of the hospital parking lot, squinting into the distance against the sun. "I think I can maybe track her -"

"I've got her scent, but she's good. She's hiding it." Derek took off toward his car.

"And you're going to - what - stick your head out the window while you drive?"

Derek didn't respond as he ripped the driver's side door open and ducked inside, slamming it behind him. He hadn't even slid the keys into the ignition when Caroline was already in the passenger seat. Neither spoke as the Alpha cranked the key and peeled out onto the road, Derek side-eyeing the vampire as the cracked the window and lifted his nose just the slightest bit.

The pair weaved back and forth down the streets, heading toward Derek's loft and then the Hale property. If the stranger had been asking for the Alpha, maybe she knew where he lived.

"I'm sorry."

Derek cranked an eyebrow up in the vampire's direction without taking his glare off the road ahead of them.

"I know that must've sucked. I'm so happy Elena's okay, but still. We'll find Erica and Boyd, Derek. We will. After a whole summer of nothing - all of a sudden this happens?"

"Feels like we're no closer than yesterday."

"Yes, except yesterday we didn't have Elena back. Maybe we can get her memories back somehow. Yesterday we didn't have this new possible ally that saved her -"

"Yesterday we didn't know your boyfriend was there, too."

Caroline went stiff, staring out the side window.

"It's Tyler, right? The one you told me about? The hybrid." Derek didn't take his eyes off the road as he spoke.

"Yes."

"Look, I appreciate you trying to - whatever it is you think you're doing to make me feel better - but it's just a way for you not to have to think about him being there, isn't it? You don't have to protect me."

"You think I'm protecting you ?" Caroline whirled around on him. "Ha. Um. No. You're right. I am trying to avoid it all. I'm protecting me. From the truck of emotions that just ran me over. All this time, I'm sitting here thinking Tyler abandoned us, abandoned me, that he didn't care that we were in trouble. And here he was, the whole time, in trouble. How could I have thought that he would do that? I mean, yes, he did leave me before, but he'd never leave- leave me. Not if I needed him."

"You didn't know." Derek sighed, voice and eyes softening.

"But I should have." Caroline went back to hiding her face from him. "I mean, isn't that, like a thing? People who love each other, they can tell, they canfeel, when the other person is in danger or in pain or something? Or they at least trust that the other person wouldn't completely abandon them -"

"It's okay to be mad at him."

Caroline's head whipped around to face the werewolf.

"What? I'm not - he's been kidnapped - why would I -"

"He still left you. Before. Even if he's been taken now, he still left you before and it hurt and you were upset. I could see it back on the roof of my building when we first talked about him. You were sad. But you were also angry. It's okay if you're still mad at him."

"Ugh," Caroline threw her head back against the seat. "This is so typical of him! Interrupting me hating him by being in some life or death situation!" Taking a deep breath, Caroline closed her eyes for a moment, before reopening them. "Okay, let's just focus on the task at hand. Find mystery girl. Save our friends. And then I can go back to hating Tyler."