First off, thank you for all the reviews! I wouldn't keep writing if you guys hated it. And the fact that you loves don't think I'm terrible made me crank out this chapter faster than I normally would have. So this is dedicated to the reviewers and anyone else who has read chapter 1. Ok enough of me, GO READ!
A smile crossed his soft lips and the glaze in his eyes dissolved as he read Braeden's note.
" Derek
Duty called and I didn't want to wake you since I kept you up all night. New assignment in the Virgin Islands and that's all I can say. You know the drill. The burner phone is at my apartment on the dresser next to the keys you tried to leave in my jacket. Nice try, Hale. I'll be back in two weeks. Try not to miss me too much.
- Brae"
Slowly folding the note over until it was a tiny square, Derek's grin widened as he remembered how he slipped out of bed while Braeden was sleeping last night and deposited the key in her jacket pocket. He thought he was being sneaky.
Running a hand over his chest, he laid there for a while still clutching the note. As he started to drift asleep, he laughed to himself and rolled over to dream about her. Again.
Later that day, Derek let himself into Braeden's apartment and just as she said the phone and keys were on her dresser. A stand alone piece of furniture, an armoire pristine in an otherwise cluttered space. The muted black veneer of the surface and shiny silver of the handles somehow seemed to compete with the countless assortments of colored duffel bags littering the floors in her bedroom.
Her apartment resembled his in many ways with the subdued colors and huge windows. Braeden's place was all clean lines and shiny surfaces that she could never be too bothered to make sure were spotless. A gun kit on a table here, stack of takeout menus there. This place was uniquely hers and exactly the way she liked it. Derek,just hoped that one day she could like his place as theirs.
Wading through the mass on the floor, he didn't have to wonder what was in each duffel. He already knew that some held magazine clips of ammo, others close combat specialties like daggers, and the small,tattered purple one underneath her bay window had all her personal effects inside like her favorite book, This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Derek also knew that if he opened it, he would find the transcription "I know myself but that is all" in her mother's handwriting on the inside cover.
Derek picked up the phone and put it in his pocket. He knew he'd have to wait for her to call him. He hated waiting but for her he would. Then he grabbed the keys and rolled them around in his hand, staring at them longingly before stuffing them in his jeans. Sighing, he turned to leave.
A part of him was hoping that she had taken the keys with her, taken some part of him with her. And Derek couldn't help but feel a little disappointed that she didn't think enough of his offer to keep his keys close.
Slightly defeated and lonely, he carried on the rest of his week normally all the while waiting for her to call. To tell him she was safe. To tell him she missed him like he missed her. To tell him she was coming home.
When he didn't hear from her for ten days, Derek called the gang over to his loft to discuss plans to find her. Stiles suggested they give her another couple of days to resurface and Scott, Kira and Malia agreed. Lydia reluctantly commented on not wanting to find anymore bodies let alone Braeden's. Derek just scrunched his eyes,pinched the bridge of his nose and complied to 48 hours.
"If she's not back after that, I'm going to find her. And you either help me or stay out of my way." He warned all of them as they left that night.
Two more days passed and Breaden still had not contacted Derek. To say that he was worried was a gross understatement and he couldn't shake the feeling that wherever she was, she was in danger as he lay in bed trying with all his effort to close his eyes and sleep that night.
The question eating away at him seemed to remain- is she ever coming back?
Or even worse, did she leave because of me?
Swallowing down his insecurities, Derek turned over for another night of restless dreaming in his bed that was so obviously without a certain brown eyed girl.
The next morning Derek, Peter, Sheriff Stillinski and Deputy Parrish met at the station to work out plans to find Braeden.
"Ok so what do we know about where Braeden is right now?" The Sheriff inquired from his perch behind his desk.
"She's somewhere in the Virgin Islands. That's all I know." Derek replied. He was standing by an armchair currently being used by his moody uncle.
"Did she tell you anything else?"
"Nothing, except that she'd be back in two weeks."
"Well excuse me for pointing out the obvious but.." Peter interrupted " Derek, aren't there seven days in a week?" he snarked, his fingers slowly forming a steeple. "She's only been gone for what,slightly over one and a half of those? How do you know she's not just taking a long vacation?" he questioned sarcastically.
Peter craned his neck to find Derek glowering down at him.
"Is that something she would do?" Deputy Parrish chimed in cautiously. He was writing down details about the case on a clipboard he had. Sitting in a chair in the corner, he asked. " I mean, I don't know anything about her but we have to rule out the possibility that this might not be a missing person's case."
"Exactly what I'm saying." Peter nodded smugly in agreement.
Derek rolled his eyes. "Shut up."
"As someone who knows Braeden, Derek, I'm asking you,is this something she would do? Does she have any reason to just pick up and disappear?" Sheriff Stillinski asked as he got up and rounded the corner of his desk.
Derek couldn't answer for sure.
"I don't know." he murmured in a small voice.
He looked down at the tiles on the floor and his eyes darted back and forth as he tried to come up with reasons she would have for leaving. Derek slowly reached for the arm of Peter's chair and his heart rate picked up as he remembered their last conversation. He asked her to move in. She said give her time. Time.
Time. He blinked hard.
Time! Is this what she meant?
His blinking picked up a rhythmic pace.
Did this mean she was gone forever?
Derek's breathing increased and sweat peppered his brow. When he began to growl under his breath, Sheriff Stillinski took a tentative step back. Deputy Parrish reached for the gun in his holster, just in case the situation escalated. Derek was trying to corral the urge to keep his claws in but to no avail. He dug them deeply into the arm of Peter's chair, straining the leather under his grip.
"Derek" Peter warned, rising out of the chair. "You need to calm down."
"I am calm." Derek spit through closed teeth.
"Yeah well I can't say the same for the Italian leather chair you just ruined by your little outburst." he said slowly turning to face Derek.
"You want an outburst. I'll give you one."
In no time they were eye-to-eye. Two werewolves in the company of two human beings, staring each other down. Derek was struggling to resist ripping Peter's throat out while Peter was standing at ease, smirking at his nephew.
Deputy Parrish unclipped his gun. "Sir, I'm going to need you to ca-"
Peter slowly raised his hand "I got this." he insisted halting Parrish's movement and took exactly one swaggered step toward Derek.
Leaning into Derek's ear, Peter whispered. "This is not helping you find her any faster. If you want her home safely then I suggest we act like the civilized werewolves we are , sit down and listen to how we can make that happen."
Derek didn't respond only continued to stare with eyes the color of a deadly promise but after a while his heart slowed to its normal beating pattern. Peter heard the difference and watched his shoulders relax, claws retract and scowl fade.
"Thank you." he said, turning to grab his jacket so Derek could sit down.
Derek took a seat. "What do we now?" he asked Stillinski directly.
Parrish discreetly concealed his gun as Peter shook his head in amusement.
"We do everything we can to try and find her"
For the next hour, the four of them strategized plans to garner a search party for Braeden without jeopardizing her cover. Even Peter offered some helpful advice by reminding The Sheriff and his Deputy that if they were to include supernaturals in their search, it would go smoother and quicker.
Leaving the station,Derek should have felt better about the plans to bring Braeden back to him but descending the granite steps outside the office, there was an increasing amount of something he couldn't place building in his chest. Something was wrong he could feel it, he just didn't know what it was.
Pulling out his cell he called Dr. Deaton to see if he could stop by. They had not been friends long but he trusted Deaton enough to give him another perspective on his current situation. He always had this way of making you realize that despite the circumstances,you already had the answers you needed. And Derek didn't know if he wanted answers about how to find her or why she left, but for Braeden he was willing to ask on the behalf of both.
"I know this might not be what you want to hear but she told you she needs time. There is no way to know what she meant by that other than believing in the relationship you share with her. Now the fact that she said this right before receiving her assignment might be purely coincidental. Then again, if you have a feeling that something is awry then I urge you to trust it. Instinctual evolution has proved to be quite the advantage for your species. Trust your instincts, Derek." Deaton advised during the visit.
This was the most helpful thing anyone could have said to him as it spurred a sense of action into Derek that wasn't there before.
If anyone was going to bring her home, it was going to be him. In danger or not it was his responsibility to make sure she was okay. He made up his mind then and there to see her with his own eyes by the next full moon. Having less than four days until his appointed deadline, Derek got to work calling in every favor and connection he could think of. If she was in danger, he wanted to make sure they would both make it out alive.
Derek went out of his way to take every precaution, even drawing up legal documents to be signed over to Scott & Cora in case something dire happened. He didn't exactly want to consider the possibility that he might die but it was better to be safe than sorry and he had to be ready for anything.
Leafing through the stack of papers took him quite some time as he sat shirtless at his kitchen table, pen in his left hand. By the time he was finished Derek could barely see straight enough to recognize that the sky was turning a mixture of the softest pink and palest orange. Dawn was approaching and he had worked all through the night without even realizing.
Pushing the chair back Derek blew out an exhausted breath and headed toward the bathroom, dragging his feet and slumping his shoulders. He needed to shower and sleep, in that order because in less than a couple of hours Scott, Stiles, Lydia, Parrish, Stillinski, Peter, Kira, Malia and even Argent would be at his loft offering their help in finding Braeden.
Derek grabbed a towel from the rack behind the door, turned on the shower head and waited patiently for the water to heat up. Slouching on the edge of the bathtub Derek let his thoughts drift to Braeden and what he was going to say to her when she came back. Was it ever going to be ok to ask where she went? Did she run because she felt trapped by his proposal? How did she view their relationship now? Was she happier when she was gone?
The mist accumulating in the air, fogging the mirror, broke his concentration and he began to strip himself of his clothes. Stepping out of the jeans they pooled at his feet and he climbed pulling the shower curtain closed. Derek let the scalding hot water slide down his muscular frame thinking maybe it could melt away the overwhelming sense of dread in his bones. His black locks soaked and his green eyes hazy, he stood there until it did just that.
He didn't hear the vibration of the phone ringing in his jeans.
He didn't hear the ping the voicemail notification made next.
He didn't see the envelope icon on the screen in time to answer.
He didn't see it at all.
Turning off the shower, Derek carefully stepped out onto the bath rug. He wrapped a towel around his waist and shook the excess water from his hair. He felt a little lighter and a little better, this shower was just what he needed, he thought to himself. Bending down to grab his boxers and jeans, he picked them up in one swipe. As he walked toward the door, he stopped abruptly remembering he hadn't brushed his teeth. Carting his clothes under his arm he walked to the sink, opened the medicine cabinet to get toothpaste and wiped the condensation off the mirror before draping his pants over the edge of the sink. As he reached for the toothbrush, he noticed his belt was lying in the bowl of the sink and adjusted it slightly making his pants slide completely off the ledge. They hit the floor with an unusual sound. He huffed and glanced down.
Annoyed, Derek leaned over and picked them up. Something heavy fell out. He scrapped his toothbrush to get a closer look and bent down.
The burner phone had slipped out of his pocket, the screen had accumulated moisture. Taking the corner of the towel on his waist, Derek dried the surface and was surprised when it illuminated. Two images- a telephone and an envelope staring back at him.
He had missed her call.
"No!" He berated as he pressed the call button to listen to her message. Sucking in a breath of too heavy air, he waited anxiously to hear her voice. To hear her say something,anything at all. Nothing happened. On the other end of the line someone was trying desperately to catch their breath, harshly blowing into the receiver. He didn't have a good feeling about this message the more he listened to the person on the phone, struggling. He hoped with blind faith Braeden wasn't hurt, he knew without contest that she was.
Finally a tiny broken squeak emitted from the background."D- Der-rick"
She sounded so different that at first it was hard for him to believe it was her. He swallowed thickly and listened closely.
"I- I'm ok-ay " she coughed. "don-don't come look" her coughs became more violent and Derek stifled the urge to demand her location.
"Don't. come. looking. f-for. me." Braden hiccuped in between breaths. She exhaled and whimpered. "They'll kill me if you do."
Derek stood on knees he couldn't feel, holding the phone with hands that couldn't hold her. He had no way of helping her right now and knowing that he couldn't was breaking every inch of him into a million pieces.
"Derek." she forced out in a strain. "They want something only you can get for me."
Braeden took a deep breath and sounded more like herself when she spoke again in a less broken whisper "You know where to find it."
Derek clutched the phone tighter to his face and racked his brain as the line went dead. She needed him to do something. She needed him. He needed to find out was it was but all he could think about was how he didn't act fast enough to save her. He knew something was wrong, he just couldn't explain it. He doubted himself and because of it Braeden was suffering. She was hurt. His Braeden was possibly fighting for her life right this very moment and he couldn't help but feel guilty that she was. Letting the tiny phone slide down his face, he pressed the save button. His pants and toothbrush forgotten he left the bathroom in a trance.
"Find it? Find it? Find it." He kept repeating in hushed confusion as he neared his bed. He dropped the phone on the mattress. As it bounced the screen illuminated again. There was an unread message notification. A bright white envelope icon was staring at him from behind the knew he should read it but the sick feeling in the pit of his stomach was telling him the text might be worse than her voice message.
"Suck it up Hale." he advised himself, trying to gain the courage to read it. "Just read it."
Derek held his breath as he opened the icon. What he saw unsettled him even further than the voicemail because it only added to his confusion. He had absolutely no idea what this meant or how it was supposed to help Braeden.
"F.S.F." He recited the letters on the screen.
Great, he thought, now he can add three letters to his list of things about this day that don't make sense. How in the world was he going to help Braeden get back to Beacon Hills if he couldn't even decipher a simple text? Collapsing on the mattress, the heaviness from earlier that his shower ebbed away had returned with a vengeance. He could feel his bones shifting in protest against the amount of stress he was about to put on his shoulders. He couldn't relax and he knew that as long as she was out there, he would not sleep again.
Derek peered down at the text one more time.
"F.S.F." He restated giving the screen another once over. He grabbed a pillow and stuffed it under his neck never breaking eye contact with the three letters.
"Help me out Brae, what does this mean?" He pleaded softly as he sunk into the mattress ,settling in for a long night of staring at the key to saving his girlfriend.
Uh-oh! Poor Derek! What the hell does F.S.F mean and how will it help Braeden? How many of you believe he will find her before anything bad happens..all of us..ok..we will have to see. Stay tuned loves! More is on the way. What do you guys think it means, I bet if you reread it you can figure it out. As always review, review,review.