Nordic Blue Monkshood- Chapter 15

~A Teen Wolf fan-fiction collaboration between Miss E Charlotte and Sage Londyn~

"Hey Mr. Dukate, is Avery home?" Teagan asked as Avery's dad let her into their house.

"Teagan it's great to see you, Avery's around here somewhere." He said looking around the large entry way.

"Thanks." Teagan said with a small frown as she also looked around.

Avery and her dad lived in a very large house, with a very updated/modern style.

The house might have been nice, but it felt cold and uninviting.

Teagan and her dad also lived in a large house, but they had family pictures on the walls and their close relationship made their house always feel warm and inviting; the total opposite of the environment that Avery lived in.

Teagan turned to start down the hallway in search of her friend when Avery's dad Richard said, "Teagan, Avery's okay right?"

Teagan's brown eyes widened and she slowly turned and looked at him.

"She's okay." Teagan said nodding.

"She mentioned something about Derek earlier and then she left the room crying." He explained.

"They broke up… he kind of said some things and really hurt her." Teagan told him.

"He was a little old for her." Richard said nodding.

"My dad probably would have killed me if I brought him home." Teagan said with a small laugh.

Richard nodded, "I think Avery's mature enough to make adult decisions like who she wants to date."

Teagan smiled and nodded, but she really wanted to yell at him and say that he needed to step up and be a father.

"He seemed like a good enough though guy, right?" Richard asked, wondering what happened with him and Avery.

"I think he kind of had everyone fooled into thinking that… I think sometimes Avery just feels vulnerable and the wrong kind of people can pick up on it." Teagan said, choosing her words carefully.

He shook his head, "Avery is a lot of things but vulnerable isn't one of them. That girl is strong."

Teagan stared at him with a slightly blank expression, she had no idea how on earth he couldn't see how much pain Avery carried around with her.

"She is pretty strong." Teagan finally said.

"Is there a reason she didn't tell me what happened between her and Derek?" Richard continued to ask her.

"I can't really answer that, I'm not sure of the whole story myself." Teagan lied, wishing he'd talk to Avery instead of quizzing her.

"She doesn't really talk to me at all." Richard admitted as he looked down to the marble floor of the entryway.

"Avery knows you're busy with work, she just doesn't want to bother you when you've already go so much on your mind." Teagan offered.

"Well, Teagan… I'm glad she's got a friend like you. It's good to see you're just as close before you moved away." He said, as his phone rang from his pocket.

"If you'll excuse me, this could be important." He said as he answered the phone.

Teagan nodded as she turned and walked farther into the house.

Richard frowned when he saw the same expression come over Teagan's face that Avery got every time his phone rang.

"Hey A." Teagan said as she found Avery sitting in the back living room of the house with her laptop on her lap.

"T…" Avery greeted, not sure what her friend was doing there.

"You doing okay?" She asked, as she sat down on the couch beside her.

"Not really." Avery admitted.

"We could go shopping, or take Aspen for another run… a mini road trip for the rest of the day. Whatever you want to do." Teagan offered, wanting to cheer her friend up.

"I don't really feel like doing anything. I'd really just like to be alone, it's a little easier to wallow in my own self-pity when I don't have an audience." Avery said bluntly.

"I'm just worried about you." Teagan said as she scooted back on the couch and laid her head on Avery's shoulder.

"Where's Jackson?" Avery questioned.

"At home I think, I told him I couldn't hang out today… I needed to come check on my best friend." Teagan explained.

"I appreciate it, T. But I really just want… at least the rest of the day to deal with this on my own." Avery said as she closed her computer and laid it down on the coffee table with a heavy sigh.

Teagan didn't want to leave her best friend alone when she was hurting, but she knew Avery did like to deal with emotional pain on her own. She hated for anyone to see her cry, even her best friend.

"I'm just a phone call away… maybe we can get lunch after school tomorrow or something." Teagan offered as she reached over and hugged her friend.

"Yeah, I think I'll feel better tomorrow." Avery said hugging her back.

Teagan lingered in the door way for a few seconds longer before leaving her friend.

She wanted to tell Avery about what happened with Derek at school earlier that day, but she didn't want to bring him up and upset her anymore.

~()~

It was over an hour later when Avery was sitting in their 2nd living room flipping through the channels on the large screen TV hoping to find something to distract her.

"Are you hungry?" Richard asked as he walked in the room with her.

"I'll probably eat a salad later or something, I ate my weight in ice cream and peanut butter last night." She admitted not taking her eyes off the TV.

"Here." Richard said as he walked in and laid three cellphones down on the coffee table.

She looked at him confused.

"How about we go get dinner? No phones." He said.

"Are you serious?" She asked a smile spreading over her lips.

"Go get your coat." He said.

Avery jumped up from the couch and headed up the stairs to get her leather jacket.

"Ready?" Richard asked as he met her at the bottom of the stairs.

"Yeah…" She started to say but her phone went off in her pocket.

"If I'm leaving my phones here, so are you." He said to her.

Nodding she walked into the 2nd living room and decided she'd take a quick peek at the text message.

It was a message from Stiles saying that she needed to get to the animal clinic as soon as she could, Derek had been hurt.

"Avery, we need to get going." Richard said as he came to see what was taking her so long.

"I… I have to go. I'm sorry, I can't do dinner tonight." She said as she tucked her phone in her pocket and headed towards the door.

"Avery, I had all my calls and messages forwarded to the manager at the bank. I cleared my schedule, what do you have to do that could possible by more important than a family dinner?" He asked, irritated.

"I'm really sorry, dad." She apologized again before running out the front door and getting into her car.

She drove to the animal clinic in silence, her mind was racing wondering what could have happened if he was going to be okay.

Then she wondered why out of all people Stiles was the one to message her about it.

She pulled into the parking lot to see it was empty, she drove around back where Stiles had texted her to go.

"Is this a freaking joke?" She mumbled to herself as she shut her car off and started to text him when he pulled up next to the building.

Getting out of her car she slowly walked up to his jeep, watching while he got out of the car and pulled up a sliding door to the building.

She stopped when she saw the passenger door to the jeep open and Derek stumbled out and slowly walked behind Stiles into the building.

As she quietly walked up to the open doorway she saw he was sickly pale and seemed extremely weak.

Her heart started to race as she continued to stare at him.

Hearing the sound of her heart, he raised his head and looked at her.

"Oh my god…" She breathed out as she saw the skin around his eyes was red, and his face was covered in sweat.

Stiles watched as she walked over to him and sat down next to him on the stacked bags of cat litter against the wall.

"What happened?" She asked.

"I was shot…" He said, surprised she was there.

"Then why aren't you healing? That's something you guys do right, super-fast healing?" she asked as a tear slid down her cheek.

Derek swallowed hard and leaned his head back against the wall.

"Why isn't he healing?" She yelled panicked as she looked back to where Stiles was watching them.

"It was some kind of special bullet, for some reason his body isn't healing." Stiles explained.

"No… this isn't happening." She breathed out.

"It's happening." Stiles breathed out quietly.

She felt like the walls of the room were closing in on her and she couldn't catch her breath.

Derek moved his head and shot Stiles an angry look. He didn't know that he'd texted Avery about this.

She looked to the arm he was holding onto.

"Let me see it." She demanded looking at him.

"Trust me you don't want to…" Stiles said.

"Derek, let me see it." She said again as she gently started to pull the sleeve of his long sleeve shirt up to see the wound.

"Looking at it isn't going to help anything." He said as he caught both of her hands in his other hand.

Sliding out of his grip she raised his sleeve and looked at the infected, gaping wound from where he had cut the bullet out.

Derek heard her stop breathing as she continued to stare at the inflamed wound.

More tears fell down her cheeks and Stiles watched as she pulled his sleeve back down and scooted over beside him as she gently held onto his injured arm and intertwined her fingers with his.

"It's… it doesn't look all that bad." She announced after a few deep breathes.

Derek turned his head and looked at her as he let out a small laugh, "You know I can hear your heartbeat."

"What can we do to fix this?" She asked, looking between them.

"Scott's trying to find out what kind of bullet they used." Stiles spoke up and answered.

She nodded as her chin continued to quiver.

"Avery…" Derek said as he looked over at her.

"Yeah?" She asked as she her eyes met his.

Stiles walked outside of the open door and leaned against the building to give them some privacy, but he could still hear their conversation.

"You need to know that last night, I didn't make you leave because I didn't want you there. When you showed up, I was tracking the alpha." He admitted.

"It was back in the woods?" She asked.

"I should have told you what was going on, my biggest concern was you getting out of the woods and to safety and then I needed to keep tracking the alpha. I was so close until I got shot." He said.

"So you made me leave because you were trying to protect me?" She asked softly.

Stiles took a deep breath and leaned his head back against the cold metal siding on the back of the building.

She looked down to their connected hands and then her eyes met his.

"I'm sorry." He said, his tone sincere as he spoke.

"It's okay." She said shaking her head.

"No, I…" He started to say something but she cut him off with a kiss.

Stiles walked back in the room just in time to see them break their kiss, he looked down to the floor as a pained expression spread over his face.

"You're burning up…" Avery breathed out as she felt his forehead and cheeks.

"It's the infection." He said quietly.

"I'll be right back."' She said as she walked farther into the building.

Once she was gone Derek looked at Stiles.

"What the hell was that? You said you were texting Scott." Derek said angrily.

"I was texting Scott when you asked me who I was texting." Stiles defended.

"Why didn't you want her to know anyways?" Stiles asked.

"If Scott can't find out what was in those bullets and my last resort fails…" His voice trailed off.

"It would be easier on her if she was mad at you." Stiles realized.

"Yeah, it would have been." Derek said his gaze dark as he looked at Stiles.

"I was just trying to help her, I thought she should know what was going on." He said.

"Stand up job." Derek shot back at him.

"I didn't even think you really liked her." Stiles continued.

Derek scoffed and shook his head at his statement.

"You didn't think I liked her?" He asked.

"I didn't think you were even capable of caring about someone." Stiles said as he looked at his phone and hoped Scott called soon.

"Just shut up." Derek said as he nodded to the door.

A few moments later Avery walked through the door with some cold, wet paper towels as she put one over the back of his neck and folded another up to hold against his forehead.

After a little while Derek said, "You know the paper towels aren't helping."

"When I was younger and sick with a fever I'd wet washcloths with cold water to help bring it down." She said as she continued to hold the paper towel to his forehead.

"You had to take care of yourself when you were sick as kid?" Stiles asked her surprised.

"But I'm not sick with a fever, it's the infection spreading." Derek said as he grabbed her wrist and moved it away from his face.

"I don't care, doing this makes me feel like I'm doing something instead of sitting here completely helpless. This makes me feel better, so let me do it." She said, her light brown eyes met his as she spoke.

He could feel her hands shaking while he still held onto her wrist.

He nodded and let go of her.

Finally Scott called and they determined that the bullet Derek had been shot with was laced with Nordic Blue Monkshood, a rare form of wolfs bane.

Derek explained that the only way to heal the wound was if Scott could bring them a bullet of the same type, or he would die.

Stiles passed the news onto his best friend and watched as Avery continued to wipe the sweat off of Derek's face.

"Scott, you have to bring us that bullet." Stiles said as he felt his heart break at seeing how much Avery did care about Derek.

They sat in silence for almost 30 minutes before Derek stood up.

"Where are you going?" Avery asked him.

"Stiles." Derek said as he nodded for him to follow.

She started to follow them.

"Stay here." Derek told her.

"No way." She said shaking her head back and forth.

"Avery…" Derek started to argue with her.

But she put a hand on the side of his sweat peppered, pale cheek and said, "I'm not leaving your side, you can't make me."

Derek shot Stiles another angry look before he grabbed the back of his shirt with his good arm and pushed him down the hallway and into one of the exam rooms.

Once inside the room Derek pulled his shirt off and rested his injured arm on the metal exam table and they all looked at the wound.

His veins were a dark purple color from where the infection was spreading even more.

"You know it really doesn't look like anything a goodnights sleep and some Echinacea couldn't take care of." Stiles said as he started to feel sick to his stomach.

"When the infection reaches my heart it will kill me." Derek said, not looking over to Avery he didn't want to see the look on her face.

"Positivity just isn't in your vocabulary is it?" Stiles asked as Derek started to open up drawers in the room.

Avery wiped a few tears from her cheeks as she watched Derek.

"What are you looking for?" She finally asked her voice hoarse.

"If he doesn't get here with the bullet in time, I have a last resort." Derek explained to them.

"Okay, good. We have a backup plan." Avery said, trying to calm her nerves some.

"What's the last resort?" Stiles asked.

Pulling a saw from one of the drawers Derek looked at Stiles and said, "You're going to cut off my arm."

"I don't like our backup plan." Avery said looking at Derek with her eyebrows pushed together in frustration.

Derek tied a tourniquet on his upper arm above where his veins were discolored.

"What if you bleed to death?" Stiles asked as he stared at the bone saw in horror.

"I'll heal if it works." Derek said.

"Look… I don't know if I can do this." Stiles said, as he choked back vomit in his throat.

"Why not?" Derek asked, his voice in a pained growl.

"Well because of cutting through the flesh, the sawing of the bone and especially the blood." Stiles said leaning over the table and taking a few deep breaths.

"You faint at the sight of blood?" Derek asked him.

"No, but I might at the sight of a chopped off arm." Stiles said.

"Stiles…" Avery said as she walked up next to him.

"Yeah?" he asked looking at her.

"If Scott doesn't get here with the bullet, I need you to cut his arm off." She said, not believing the words that came out of her mouth.

"You… you actually want me to cut his arm off?" Stiles asked her in disbelief.

"I'd rather him be one arm down than dead. I need you to do this, okay?" she asked him.

Stiles took a deep breath and thought about what she'd said; she said she needed him.

"Okay." Stiles said as an even sicker feeling rose in his stomach.

Derek made a gagging sound and they looked at him as he puked up a black substance on the floor.

"Holy god, what the hell is that?" Stiles yelled disgusted.

"It's my body trying to heal itself." Derek breathed out.

"Oh god…" Avery said with a pained expression on her face.

"You have to do it now!" Derek yelled as he laid his injured arm across the table.

"I honestly don't think I can." Stiles said.

"Do it!" Derek yelled as he could feel the infection making him weaker by the second.

"Oh my god…" Stiles breathed out as he turned the saw on then shut it back off.

"If you don't do this, he will die." Avery said, her entire body was shaking.

"Alright… here we go." Stiles yelled as he laid the saw against Derek's skin and was about to turn it on when Scott ran into the room.

"What the hell are you doing?" Scott yelled wide eyed as he saw what Stiles was about to do.

"You just prevented a life time of nightmares, my friend." Stiles said.

"Please tell me you got the bullet." Avery said her eyes were red from crying as she looked at Scott.

He pulled the bullet from his pocket and handed it to Derek.

"What are you going to do with it?" Scott asked.

Derek picked the bullet up and looked at it as he said "I'm gonna… I'm gonna…" He never got to finish his sentence as he passed out.

"Derek!" Avery yelled as she dropped to the floor beside him.

The bullet rolled across the floor and fell into a drain on the floor.

"What do we do now?" Stile asked, panic in his voice.

"I don't know!" Scott yelled as he strained to get his fingers through the grate to retrieve the bullet.

"He's not waking up!" Stiles yelled.

"Just hold on!" Scott yelled.

Stiles looked at Avery and the horrified look on her face as she looked back at him.

"I think he's dying." Stiles said, his eyes wide.

"Do something…" Avery pleaded her voice hoarse as she looked at him.

"Please don't kill me for this…" Stiles said to Derek before he raised his fist and punched him as hard as he could.

Derek's eyes popped open and he looked around.

"Here." Scott said as he handed him the bullet and he and Stiles pulled Derek to his feet.

Derek used his teeth to break into the shell of the bullet, before he poured out the Monkshood and lit the powder on fire.

Avery stood beside Scott and held her breath as she watched Derek as he took a deep breath and pushed the powder deep into his wound.

He yelled in pain as he dropped to the floor and thrashed around.

His eyes glowed blue and his teeth showed as he screamed out in pain again, followed by a deep growl.

The wound healed and disappeared before their eyes.

"Thank god…" Avery breathed out relieved.

"Thank you." She said as she hugged Scott.

Stiles watched and mumbled, "No, you don't need to thank me or anything…"

Once she let go of Scott she went to Derek who was back on his feet, she leaned down and inspected his arm closely.

"It's fine… I'm healed." He said still breathing heavily from the agonizing pain he'd been in.

Stepping forward she wrapped her arms around him.

Scott looked at Stiles and gave him an empathic look, he knew how much Stiles liked Avery and it hurt him to see her with Derek.

Avery walked outside with Derek, and Stiles caught up with them. Scott was cleaning up the room so his boss wouldn't know anyone had been in there afterhours.

"Wait… here." Stiles said as he pulled his book bag out of his jeep.

He took Derek's shirt from his bag that Avery had asked him to return.

Derek took the shirt and looked at it confused, "Why does he have this?" He asked looking to Avery.

"It's a long story." She said as she watched Derek pull his shirt on.

"Thank you." She told Stiles.

"Yeah, no problem." Stiles said, his tone was a little flat from disappointment.

Avery walked with Derek over to her car as she asked, "You're going to be okay now, right?"

"I'll be fine." He assured her nodding.

"Good… because I can't lose you." She said, as she faced him next to her car.

His eyes searched her face in the streetlight illuminated parking lot.

Leaning up she kissed him before she wrapped her arms around him and laid her head against his chest and closed her eyes that were still burning from crying earlier in the night.

After a few moments he raised his arms and held her tightly against him.

He was aware that Kate Argent was back in town and was the hunter who had shot him, he started to wonder what might happen if Kate found out about Avery.

She had no problem killing humans before, and he wouldn't put it past her to kill someone just to make him miserable.

He was also starting to worry what would happen if Avery found out the hunters who had set the fire that her mom died in, was because of Derek falling for Kate, and she used him to take out more werewolves.

As she slowly opened her eyes she saw Stiles watching them from the across the parking lot.

"Let's go." Derek said as he let go of her.

"I'll be right back." She said.

"Where are you going?" He asked as she started walking towards Stiles where he was leaned up against the side of his jeep.

"I just need a few minutes." She said quietly knowing he could hear her from where he was.

He got in the passenger seat of her Mustang and watched them through the windshield as she talked to Stiles.

"Did you forget something?" He asked her glancing back towards the building.

"Almost." She said.

"Stiles… I know that you like me." She said bluntly.

"Uh…" He said as he shifted uncomfortably and looked down to the ground.

"But you care a lot more about me than I thought. I know it couldn't have been easy to text me about this, and you put my feelings above yours. I honestly think that's the nicest and the most selfless thing that anyone has ever done for me." She continued.

He stayed quiet, not sure how to respond to her.

Stepping forward she hugged him.

He smiled to himself at the way it felt when he wrapped his arms around her.

Stepping back she smiled and said "Thank you."

"Yeah." He said nodding as he still smiled.

Leaning forward she kissed him on the cheek before she turned around, heading back to her car where Derek was waiting on her.

A/N- New episode of Teen Wolf tonight! ^_^ Who else is watching?

I hope you all liked the update; we're still having a lot of fun working on this story together. It's quickly became one of our favorites to write. ^_^

We both make sets to go along with this story on our polyvore accounts, the links are posted on our profiles.

While you're one Miss E Charlotte's profile check out her other stories, they're so good and you won't regret it. ^_~

If you're still reading the story, please take a few moments to leave a review and let us know. We appreciate the support more thank you know and it means a lot to us to know there is still interest in the story.