It wasn't a cardiac monitor, but it was the best they had. Shocks of electricity made the body laying on the Vet's examination table nearly jump off.

"Again."

The jumper cables and car battery were the only useful things in the vet's office at the moment. He had an idea - an idea that Isaac told him, when he told him about what happened to him during the four months that they were looking for Erica and Boyd.

And now the same thing was being done to Derek.

Scott had promised his boss to buy him a new battery.

It was the least he could do.

Derek's body jerked and lifted off the table.

And then the door to the vet opened and soon enough, Melissa McCall had stepped into the back room with a bunch of medical supplies in a big box.

"I wasn't sure what we would need."

"It's okay." Scott reassured her, peering down at Derek. "His heart is beating faintly, but he's still not breathing."

Melissa brought out one of those portable heart monitors that she borrowed from the hospital. She hooked Derek up to it before Deaton shocked him with the jumper cables again. Derek jerked one last time before nearly flying off the table.

Scott, Deaton and Melissa had to hold him down to stop from moving.

"Derek! Relax!"

After a few moments, after his brain caught up with him, Derek settled down. "What-what happened?"

"Deucalion nearly killed you."

Heavy-lidded eyes stared up at him. "What abo-what about Claire?"

"She's with Isaac, she's safe."

Derek, seemingly relieved by the very thought, proceeded to pass out from exhaustion. Scott couldn't blame him, though. After everything they'd been through, let alone the past day and a half, he couldn't blame the Alpha for being exhausted.

Then again, Scott himself was exhausted.

"Is he going to be okay?"

Deaton looked up from working on cleaning Derek's chest wound, his gaze wandering from Scott, to Derek, then at Scott again.. "He'll be weak for a few days, this alpha that attacked him is strong."

Scott nodded before sitting down on the chair in the corner, the heel of his hands rubbing his eyes. Melissa bent down to eye level with her son. "Why don't you let me take you home and sleep? Deaton will call if anything happens."

Scott looked up at his mother.

"She's right Scott, nothing can get in." Deaton said from his place at the table.

"No, I'm fine." He waved his hand. Somewhere, deep down, Scott knew he owed it to Derek to stay and watch over him. He couldn't protect himself should something find it's way into the vet. Deep down, Scott owed Derek a lot, after the older Alpha helped him control his werewolf side.

It was then, Scott realized.

No matter how many times he denied it, Scott was part of Derek's pack.

Scott listened to the heart monitor that was hooked up to Derek's chest. Beep...beep...beep...beep...beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee eeeeeeeep.

Scott looked up alarmed.

Melissa ran to Derek, while Deaton shocked Derek again with the jumper cables. They both tried their best to stabilize Derek. Scott tried to rack his brain as to why Derek's heartbeat dropped. Deucalion only stabbed him, as much as Scott saw. So why did Derek flat-line?

Something didn't add up.

Scott couldn't be bothered by that now as he watched Deaton shock Derek again.

This time, Derek's heartbeat came back.

"What happened?"

"...I don't know." Deaton confessed.

Scott's mind was too tired for this shit.

You could lose the ones you loved and trusted in the blink of an eye—and he was willing to bet, when it happened, you weren't thinking about all the reasons that could have kept you apart. You thought of all the reasons that kept you together. And, no doubt, how you wished you'd had more time. Even if you'd had centuries… When you were young, you thought time was a burden, something to be discharged as fast as possible so you could be grown-up. But it was such a bait-n-switch—when you were an adult, you came to realize that minutes and hours were the single most precious thing you had. No one got forever. And it was a fucking crime to waste what you were given.

Derek's breathing evened out and everyone in the room slowly let out a breath.

There are some pains that run too deep for anything to absolve them. The best we can do is pick up the pieces and hope for the strength we need to keep going. The hardest part of living is making peace with your past. Most of all, it's making peace with yourself. Derek had yet to make peace with himself.

Scott turned around when he heard the slap of skin against metal and saw Derek attempting to stand. "Derek? Woah - take it easy." He reached for the Alpha and put his arm around his neck.

"I-I have to see Claire."

Sometimes fate is like a small sandstorm that keeps changing directions. You change direction but the sandstorm chases you. You turn again, but the storm adjusts. Over and over you play this out, like some ominous dance with death just before dawn. Why? Because this storm isn't something that blew in from far away, something that has nothing to do with you.

This storm is you. Something inside of you. So all you can do is give in to it, step right inside the storm, closing your eyes and plugging up your ears so the sand doesn't get in, and walk through it, step by step. There's no sun there, no moon, no direction, no sense of time. Just fine white sand swirling up into the sky like pulverized bones. That's the kind of sandstorm you need to imagine.

And you really will have to make it through that violent, metaphysical, symbolic storm. No matter how metaphysical or symbolic it might be, make no mistake about it: it will cut through flesh like a thousand razor blades. People will bleed there, and you will bleed too. Hot, red blood. You'll catch that blood in your hands, your own blood and the blood of others.

And once the storm is over you won't remember how you made it through, how you managed to survive. You won't even be sure, in fact, whether the storm is really over. But one thing is certain. When you come out of the storm you won't be the same person who walked in. That's what this storm's all about.

Derek was a survivor.

And nothing was going to change that.

Author's Note: It seems as though nothing can take down Derek Hale... ;) Reviews are lovely!