A/N: Updates will be regular now I promise! Sorry again that this has taken so long! 'there is no apology in the world that encompasses all the reasons that' I haven't gotten around to this! xx

Derek POV

I slowly relaxed in the worn leather chair that Kate had been perched on just the previous night, propping my bare feet on the wooden table scattered with gossip magazines and kicking a few aside, all belonging to Laura, so obsessed with the shiny world outside of this town.

My sister sat across from me, the new found light in her eyes apparent whilst she rambled excitably about the possibilities her new friend could bring.
The places they could go together, I got the sense that although Laura already had a bunch of friends, and Kate was definitely more like her, a friend she had chosen herself.

Kate seemed more and more like a shiny new toy in a store or in this case a small backwater town obsessed with tradition.

Although normally Laura's ramblings would usually receive my up most attention, the hairs on the back of my neck were still slightly raised when I thought back to the strange encounter I'd had at the gas station earlier.

Laura interrupted my cautious reverie with a question, 'you seem to like her, Kate I mean? She's cool right?' She was staring intently at me, a slight grin on her face.
It hit me then that Laura had mistaken my interest in the new girl to mean something else entirely.

Laura thought I was interested in her romantically.

I asked questions purely to gain information; she was a newcomer, a potential threat to their way of life. I was merely determining whether Laura was safe to hang out with her, or at least that was the story I was sticking to for the time-being.

'She's interesting. Different to your usual herd of gigglers' I teased, knowing that Laura wouldn't be able to resist biting back when I poked fun at her friends. They were harmless for the most part, more shallow and vexing than Laura, but that was High School.

I looked up from my feet to watch Laura form a response, hoping she wouldn't question me further about me liking her new friend.
I hoped wholeheartedly that Kate was harmless, Laura grew attached to people easily, and I could already see the signs of Laura growing attached to the interesting girl.

'You seem anxious, Derek. Something's happened hasn't it? Did mom call?' the statement shocked me, momentarily I'd forgotten that after growing up so close, Laura was almost an expert at reading my most hidden facial expressions.
I didn't miss the hopeful look on her face when she asked about our mother, I silently fumed at her again, for leaving us in the dark like this, with only Peter for guidance.

'I'm not anxious, I'm fine. She hasn't called today, maybe she'll check in tonight? Don't worry about her Laura. Something a little strange happened on my way home from school, I'm sure it was nothing' I tried to be diplomatic with my wording so I wouldn't unnecessarily freak her out.

'What happened?' She enquired, her entire body angled toward me, intently waiting for me to tell her.

'I was filling up my car on the way home, keeping my head down; you know the normal routine. When I made eye contact with a man across the lot, I realized then that he'd been staring, stood frozen for quite a while, and he's definitely not from around here, so I hurried and got the hell out of there.'

'Do you think he's one of them?' Laura was straight to the point as always, asking the one question I'd been dreading answering, a stranger in town with an almost speculative interest in me? There was a definite possibility he could be a hunter.

I'd fortunately only met one hunter in my life, but I'd recognise that calculating look anywhere. He was sizing me up that much is obvious, what wasn't obvious however was what he had found.

I'd worked Laura hard all her life about fitting in, staying under the radar. She hadn't understood for a long time why she couldn't run track, or show her friends the things she deemed cool, like her extra strength.

We'd lived inconspicuously in Beacon Hills for many years; nobody in the small town seemed to suspect a thing was out of the ordinary. Laura playing the part of the normal preppy high school girl well. I played the part of her aloof charming older brother equally as well.

'I'm not going to sit here and lie to you L, there is a chance that he could be, like I said he definitely wasn't from around here and a town as small as this doesn't exactly get many tourists'

Laura offered me a small smile in response but I could tell that behind her calm exterior she was running through all of the sickening possibilities and consequences of being found. I'd be willing to bet that almost of all of them ended in certain death.

I cursed my mother internally again for the hundredth time this week. Laura needed her support now more than ever, support that as hard as I might try, I couldn't provide for her.

Kate entered my head again for the 20th time that day, as I silently crossed my fingers that she'd become the real friend that my sister needed.

'We just have to be more careful' my sister, ever the optimist. She sighed and rose from the couch
'I'm going to call Kate, and ask her about our history project, you know I like to get things finished ahead of schedule'

I waved her off and laughed quietly as she left the room, I conceded to myself that I had raised her well, with our parents absent for the most part.
Laura had learned from an early age to put her 'talents' into outlets that she could excel at without causing suspicious, her school work for example was always top notch.
Something that I'd never cared about. When I graduated I would not be using calculus to survive.

The survival skills I needed could never be taught in the class room, and as much as I distrusted my uncle, if I survived without detection in the long term it would largely be down to him and his training to control my strengthened impulses.

Surviving, once high school was over, that would be the main goal. More realistically, that had always been our family's main goal. I was vaguely aware that this was not a normal worry. Most teenagers don't have to worry about whether or not they're going to make it through high school without being hunted, and survive until graduation.

I relaxed slightly, reclining further into the worn leather and pictured the stranger from the gas station more clearly in my mind, focusing and committing his greying hair, cold inquisitive eyes and tall wiry physique to memory in case I encountered him again.

As I pictured him more clearly this time without a tinge of panic, his face brought one niggling thought to the forefront of my mind.

I felt my pulse decisively quicken. I was almost certain that the stranger bore a strong resemblance to the new, quiet, intelligent friend that Laura had made.

The stranger from the gas station almost certainly bore the same eyes as Kate Argent.