Derek's POV

I woke up feeling that something was wrong. I thought I'd heard the door closing earlier but there was no one else arou – Stella!

I checked all the rooms only conclude that Stella had indeed left the apartment. I am going to kill her when I get my hands on her.

I quickly put on a t-shirt, careful of my wound – it had healed, a dull ache was still present when moving too quickly.

I was out of the apartment in moments, using all my senses to locate her.

She wasn't in the building. Where could she go? Her bags were still in the guest room.

I had no way of knowing how long she'd been gone either. Stiles is going to be furious if he finds out. Give them the chance and humans are capable of a lot.

I have to find her before that.

[…]

She can't have gone too far.

I'd been driving through the streets for the past 20 minutes. There was still no sign of Stella. If she was on foot, she really couldn't have gotten too far. But the possibilities of all the directions she could've gone in made this nearly impossible. And what if she'd managed to get a car? A taxi? Anything with wheels and she could be back at Beacon Hills for all I know.

She wouldn't risk going there though would she? I would most definitely be underestimating her if I believed that she wouldn't.

A total of 30 minutes had passed now and I was reaching the edge of the city. Should I call Stiles and ask?

No, I would find her before Stiles would ever have to know. I had to find her before that.

I tried calling her phone with no luck. It was going straight to voicemail. She left her bags and wasn't picking up her phone … where could she be? What bothered me the most was that I hadn't heard her leave – how could I have not heard her?

I turned another corner to go back into the city, maybe she was back at the apartment. That would be wishing and really hard but I was running out of ideas.

As I drove past a park, I thought I saw someone walking. It was just after three in the morning, who would be walking in a park right now? I put the passenger side window down to get a better look and it was then that I could smell it; the soft smell of honey … with hints of blood. It had to be Stella!

"Stella?" I called out. She continued walking as if she hadn't heard me. I could hear her heart beating faintly; she hadn't been running nor did it seem like she was scared.

Quickly parking the car and cutting the engine, I ran in the direction I had seen her go. She was still walking, quietly and slowly, as if she had nowhere to be.

I called out to her again with no response.

I ran to where she was walking, she didn't seem to notice me. The smell of blood was a lot stronger when I was near her. She didn't look hurt and if she was hurt, she wasn't showing it. Why could I smell blood then?

I stepped in front of her to stop her. Her eyes were open but it was like she didn't see me at all. She was trying to walk through me!

"Stella?" I held her there and lightly shook her.

"Stella," I said a little more loudly as I shook her a little harder - that seemed to do the trick. She snapped out of her daze and looked at me confused. Before she said anything however, she looked around her to see where she was.

"How did I get here?" she asked. You could hear the panic in her voice. She took a couple steps backwards as if not believing that she was really standing in the park in the middle of the night in her pajamas. But as she did, her face twisted in shock and she fell.

When I walked closer to her, I could see that she was holding her right leg and there was deep gash on the inside of her calf. The blood around it was still slightly wet.

She wouldn't know how she got it so there was no point in asking her that.

"Can you walk?" I asked her instead.

She looked at me, eyes full of fear.

"I can try," she whispered.

I helped her up and she tried standing with equal pressure on both feet and nearly fell down again. I caught her before she could.

It was obvious that she wouldn't be able to walk on her own so I supported her right side and we made our way to the car. I helped her into the front seat, grimacing at the thought of blood in the car but quickly dismissing it.

We were back at the apartment within five minutes and I helped her into her room and onto the bed.

"Stay put," I told her.

"As if I'd go anywhere with this leg," she snapped at me. It seemed as if her fear was replaced with anger.

I looked at her for another second before heading to the bathroom to get the first aid kit. I had never seen the need for it seeing that we healed ourselves but Laura had kept a kit. 'Just in case' she'd said when I tried arguing with her.

Stella was sitting as I had left her, except for the blanket which was now wrapped around her.

The blood around the wound was nearly dry now. Her heartbeat was slightly erratic. The wound was deep and it was unclear as to what could've caused it.

"Have you sleepwalked before?" I asked as I cleaned the wound.

"No." She didn't even flinch as the alcohol soaked wipe made contact to the wound.

She didn't say anything else and I didn't ask anything more. I peaked a glance at her as I continued cleaning the wound and then bandaged it. She seemed tired. She seemed to have been sleeping fine all these days but there were dark circles under her eyes regardless. She was chewing on the inside of her lip, looking right past me.

I had never seen her look so dishevelled, so nervous. Judging by how she'd initially taken the situation, I didn't expect this from her.

"Will you be okay?"

At first she didn't hear me but I asked again. This time she looked at me and slightly nodded.

"Try to get some rest then," I said as I got off the bed.

Looking back, I made sure that she was comfortable in bed before I turned the lights off on my way out.

I went to the living room. I wouldn't be able to sleep, not after that scare. And I had to make sure that this didn't happen again. Keeping a close ear on the Stella's heartbeat, which has slowed down significantly, I turned on the TV to keep me company.

A/N: Sorry for the insane delay. I've just been crazy busy with things. If you enjoyed the chapter, please leave a review and let me know! It may very well motivate me to sit down and finish the next chapter sooner.

xo,
Neena