How do you measure the life of a woman or a man
In truth that she learns
Or in times that he cried
In bridges he burned
Or the way that she dies
Chapter 32: Phases
Araya Calaveras was suspicious when Sherry and Theo finally returned and neither of them were dead. With some help from a first aid kit Sherry'd brought, Theo's wound was mostly disinfected and healed by now, but Sherry's arm was still, sadly, broken.
She'd considered going to the nearest hospital, but the fear of Kate suddenly unfreezing in the trunk scared her enough to keep her looking toward the small town the Calaveras inhabited.
"Did you give up?" Araya sneered when they entered the building.
Despite her recent encounter with crazy Kate, the sight of Araya still sparked the primal fear instinct inside Sherry, so she stuck by Theo's side and let him do all the talking.
"Actually, no," he grinned, smug as ever. He had bruises on his face and blood staining his teeth, but they faded by the minute. "Kate's in my trunk. At least for now."
The woman didn't seem to believe them. "Recall the cost of trying to trick us."
"I want my payment."
Curtly, Araya assembled a small squadron of henchmen to flank her as they went back out to the car. Briefly, Sherry wondered what Araya would do if it turned out Kate had escaped — unlikely as that may be. Still, she felt her skin prickling.
The frozen statue of Kate was still there when Theo unlocked the trunk. Sherry breathed a sigh of relief — so her plan had worked. Kate seemed to be thawing, though, little bits of violet skin glistening with condensation.
"Severo," Araya ordered, a pleased curl to her lips, "Bring them what they asked for."
The man closest to Araya, with a scraggly goatee and beady eyes, nodded and left. He returned a few minutes later, after the other men had moved Kate from the trunk into what seemed like a portable metal refrigerator. The parcel was encased in a manila envelope, secured with a threatening stamp.
Theo took it from Severo's rough hands, unfastening the brad and pulling out a stack of forms and papers. His eyes flicked over it appraisingly and finally nodded. "And you'll be making calls to the court?"
"Disguised, of course," said Araya, sounding as if she hadn't actually expected to do this. Which, terrifying as she was, made Sherry feel a little bit proud — she'd outsmarted even the Calaveras. On the ride here, though, Theo had been lecturing her — it was foolish to jump on the Berserker; look what it had done for her arm; and sneaking away in the middle of battle was dangerous; she could have gotten hurt — and in the end she'd just felt awful, like she'd single-handedly botched the mission. He'd meant well, of course, to teach her so she'd improve, but she couldn't help but feel terrible.
Now, she and Theo clambered back into the faithful car, having lost their cargo but gained the key to her mother's freedom. They drove into the desert, sand and flies whipping the windows, and made their way steadily back to the border.
Just over three days after they'd first left Beacon Hills, the two of them arrived wearily in San Francisco, where Sherry nearly sprinted around a whole block, desperate to get her legs into motion again. Theo was oddly comfortable, probably because his werewolf traits kept him from feeling too cramped or antsy. Or maybe it was just him.
She rummaged for her wallet in the car, pulling out a few bills from her rapidly dwindling stash. She wanted to see her mother immediately, yes, but her grumbling stomach disagreed. She bought three burgers from a corner lunch spot that was growing busier before lunch hour, biting into one herself and handing the other two to Theo. She slurped down a jumbo-sized iced tea and leaned on the dusty car (she'd long ago given up on staying clean), watching the boy for instructions.
He'd already sent copies of the papers to Braeden, who didn't trust him one bit but had a soft spot for Sherry, and made constant calls throughout the road trip to government officials, lawyers, and Scott's dad — who'd apparently just been promoted within the FBI.
Generally, handling affairs with the government would take months — years, even. But with their connections, and a few supernatural cheats, Sherry's mother was minutes away from release. It was all just too easy.
"We'll just have to sign in at the front," Theo said. "And present the evidence, make sure it's all valid. And then your mother is free."
She nodded. Her stomach roiled with nerves. She wasn't ready. But then, when was she ever?
Sherry threw her wrappers into a trash bin and wiped her hands. "I should change."
"Stop hiding behind excuses," he chided. "Let's go. Don't worry about messing up again; I'll do all the talking."
He nudged her forward, hovering his hand behind her shoulders like a guide.
The inside was cooler than she expected, air-conditioned wind like cool blades on her skin. People in crisp suits sent her looks, clearly disturbed by the dirtiness of her appearance. She knew they should have taken the roundabout to Beacon Hills for showers and clean clothes.
Theo signed his name on a clipboard and Sherry did the same. A stern woman with razor-sharp kohl around her eyes led them into a back office, where she inspected the envelope full of evidence.
"In the same condition as when we sent it," said Theo.
"Agent McCall sent in a good word," she replied, nodding. "I'll get this to my boss and we'll discharge Mrs. Ming as soon as possible."
"Thank you so much."
"It's my job." She led them back out to reception and motioned for them to take a seat on a hard wooden bench. "I'll be back in a minute."
And she was, in precisely that time. (Sherry had been staring at the clock on the far wall.) The woman nodded. "Everything is checked and ready to go. If you can make your way to 7th Street, Mrs. Ming will be discharged at any moment."
So Sherry clambered back into Theo's dad's car, which, as she now thought about parents and cars, seemed like a very dad-like car, except that dads didn't usually lend their cars to their kids for days on end. And, come to think of it, she'd never even met Theo's dad, or his mother, in fact, and actually, Theo had never even mentioned the existence of parents until this car. But she didn't care, because that was only a minor problem and she had bigger things to worry about now. Like her own mother.
County Jail #2 was as oppressively gray as she remembered it, but at least this time she didn't have to go through security and actually enter the facilities. She introduced herself to the receptionist and was told gruffly to sit and wait. Except there were two chairs in the entire lobby, and both were taken, so she found a spot near a potted plant to stand. Theo joined her shortly and said, "Did you talk to the person behind the desk?"
"Yeah," she said.
"You sure you handled it properly without me? I know you've been a little off lately, so hopefully you did okay."
Off? She'd been scared a lot, yes, and justly nervous, but she didn't think she'd been out of character. And she couldn't understand why he made that one act out to be bigger than she'd thought it was — but he was generally right, so her worry grew. She'd thought she'd handled it properly before, but now she wasn't sure.
Finally, a door opened and a guard stepped out. Sherry almost let out a breath, disappointed, but then a woman with blonde hair, dressed in the same clothes she'd had on when she'd been admitted, appeared after him.
"Mom," Sherry gasped, and ran to her. She slowed down as she got closer, composing herself. Her family wasn't one for hugs. But this case was different. Linda pulled her daughter in, trapping Sherry's broken arm in between them. She nearly cursed.
Her mother pulled back sharply. "What?"
"I broke my arm," Sherry said, wanting to cry — not from the physical pain, but from the sudden truckload of emotion. "I broke my arm in Mexico getting you out of here; that's why I'm so dirty; I didn't have time to change; I'm so sorry!"
"I don't know why you're apologizing for that," Linda said, eyes crinkling. She nodded at the guard, dismissing him, and walked with Sherry out the door. "But... why were you in Mexico?"
"My friend Theo had the idea to make a deal with Araya Calaveras," she said. "It's a long story."
The horror on her mother's face almost made her smile. Old, peppy Sherry would never have done anything like this. In the space of half a year, she'd changed.
The rest of the day was rushed. She felt like she'd been shuttled a thousand places in only a few hours. She'd brought her mother home (by which she meant Parrish's house), got her temporarily settled, and took a long-awaited shower. Then, as her mother made phone calls and began getting her life back together, Sherry met Theo outside and let him take her to the hospital.
"Getting a cast can wait," Sherry said, unfastening her seatbelt. "At least until after I do what needs to be done."
"You can't do much with a broken bone, Sherry," he retorted. "You don't heal like I do. And I can't have you blundering about, getting hurt again. You have to take responsibility for your own actions."
He sounded like a preacher. Or a parent. But his words stung. It had been her fault she'd gotten hurt, and she had made mistakes in Mexico. She shut the car door and it slammed, mostly because of the slope of the pavement. But Theo reprimanded her anyway, and she thought, even if just for a moment, that she couldn't seem to do anything right.
He checked her into the emergency room — she didn't want to accidentally leak something about the supernatural, and he was trained with these things — and she waited in a doctor's office, alone, to get checked on. She'd only broken a bone once before, when she was nine and reckless, and she couldn't remember much from last time, except that it took ages and she'd had to have surgery.
Theo had left already, leaving her bike chained up outside for when she finished.
Hours later, with a fresh pink cast on her arm, Sherry pedaled to Scott's house and knocked on the door.
He answered, at first surprised to see her, and then grinned and hugged her. "I haven't seen you in days."
"I freed my mother," she reported happily. "And I took down Kate Argent!"
He ruffled her hair. "I'm proud of you. Come in!"
His kitchen was packed, no pun intended. Stiles, Malia, Mason, that kid Corey, Lydia, Parrish, Liam, and Hayden were all there. Theo had yet to arrive. They looked like they had all been there awhile, like she'd just wandered in at the end of a meeting.
Upon seeing her, most of them uttered relieved greetings. Liam was the first to notice her cast. He rose from his seat next to Hayden to inspect it, holding the plaster gingerly, as if pushing a little too hard would break her again. All eyes were on them as he turned her forearm slowly. She held a breath, glad there was an inch of barrier between his fingers and her skin.
Then she noticed Hayden's expression. Her eyebrows were furrowed, her eyes bright like the gears turning in her head were sparking. Sherry tugged away her arm, cradling it to her chest. She was more socially blind than most people, but she could tell that something had happened between them. Something that everyone else seemed to know, because they all had looks about them that said they were worried, or pitying, or uncomfortable. She averted her eyes.
"So what did I miss?"
"Three deaths in the past three days," Scott said, still staring at her strangely. Lydia patted the seat next to her and took Sherry's arm when she sat. As Scott continued on, she rummaged for a pen in her purse and took her time to sign the rough pink material of the cast. "And the super moon is tomorrow. The moon will be closer to the earth and whatever effects the full moon usually has will be even worse."
Across the room, Liam glanced at Hayden and shifted, the tension evident in the set of his jaw. Malia pressed her lips together, determination shining through her pores. Parrish just seemed confused.
There was some discourse about the Dread Doctors and the chimeras, mostly centered around Hayden and Corey, but nothing much else that was interesting to Sherry. Something was off, though, and it took her several minutes to realize that it was Kira — or rather, not Kira. There was a hole in the pack where the kitsune once was, but no one seemed to be bothered except her.
Sherry wanted to curl in on herself, but that was a habit she had to break. So she mustered up her courage and leaned her head on Lydia's shoulder. The girl seemed surprised, but not put off. Sherry relaxed. "How do you do it?"
"Hm?"
"Always be so calm and collected, even when everything around you is shifting."
"I don't," Lydia responded, softly. "But I try my best, because otherwise I'd be dead."
A/N: So much changes in this chapter and I just wanna protect Sherry bc it only goes downhill from here. Petition to keep her in a room with a teddy bear and ice cream for the rest of the season? (lol jk I'm the writer and if your emotional state depends on the wellbeing of her character you will actually Die.)
AND I CANT BELIEVE THEY KICKED OFF KIRA/ARDEN UGH. WHY DO THEY HATE ME AND MY ASIAN BRETHREN. Kira/Arden was my faveeee :(((((((((
Anyway! What were your thoughts on this chapter? What do you notice is different between her relationships with the other member of the pack (specifically Theo vs. Scott)? And what do you think about Arden not being on the show next season?
Remember to review, favorite, and follow! xx
