Half of My Heart - Chapter 23

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

Avery sat on her bed, she was in a pair of black silk sleeping shorts and a black silk and lace top that matched them.

She had been trying for a few hours to read the book they had been assigned in class but she couldn't focus.

Derek should have been back hours ago and he wasn't returning her calls or texts.

She had even called Scott who said he hadn't seen Derek since earlier that afternoon.

A little while later her window opened and he came into her room.

"Finally, oh my god… I was so scared something had happened to you." Avery said as she dropped the book to the floor and rushed over to him.

Her smile fell to a frown when he didn't return her hug.

"What's wrong?" She asked stepping back and looking at him.

"How do you know Kate Argent?" He asked her, his voice gruff.

"She's a friend… why?" Avery asked confused at his reaction.

"She's not your friend." Derek accidently snapped.

"Yes, she is." Avery argued.

"Why didn't you tell me you were talking to her? Because she told you not to mention her?" He accused.

"No, she never told me not tell you anything. What the hell is going on?" Avery asked.

"I wasn't aware that I had to tell you when I made a new friend." Avery said, as she took a few steps back and looked at him.

"You can't just go around trusting anyone who pays attention to you." He said, without even thinking.

Her jaw dropped as she looked at him.

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath trying to control his anger.

"I didn't mean that the way it sounded." He said as he exhaled.

"I don't think it really could have been taken more than one way." She said, hurt apparent in her voice.

"You can't trust her." Derek said taking a few steps towards her.

"Why?" Avery asked, not liking the way he was talking to her.

"She's a hunter…" Derek answered vaguely.

He couldn't bring himself to tell her that Kate played a part in her family's death and the only reason she even found out about his family was because of him.

"You're going to have to give me more than that." Avery said.

"That should be enough!" Derek said, his voice loud.

"I'm not a werewolf… I'm not going to automatically hate someone because they're a hunter. They have this code they live by." She said.

Derek shook his head and his jaw tensed in rage, Kate never lived by the code.

He thought back to how she had used him to kill his family, and his rage started to take over.

Avery gasped as she saw his eyes start to glow blue.

She took a step back from him as she saw his hands ball into fists at his sides.

"Derek…" She said, her voice quiet, but had a hint of nervousness in her tone.

"I need you to trust me on this." He said as he released his clenched hands and his eyes went back to normal.

"I'm trying to trust you." She admitted, her eyes locking with his.

"You can't talk to her, at all. You have to stay away from her." Derek said.

Avery was quiet for a few seconds as she looked down to the dark blue carpet in her room.

"Avery." Derek said, but his tone was gruff.

"You aren't going to tell me who I can talk to or be friends with." She said looking up to him, her own jaw tense in anger.

"I am trying to protect you." He said, his voice almost in a yell.

"Protect me, or control me?" She asked as she crossed her arms over her chest.

"That's what I mean, she is putting thoughts in your head." Derek said, knowing it must have been Kate who told her he'd try to be controlling.

"She has done nothing but listen to me and be a friend, Derek." Avery defended her.

"You have to stay away from her, it's dangerous." Derek said as he took a few steps towards her.

He knew Kate might not only use Avery to find him, but she could use Avery's life and wellbeing as a threat to him.

"No." Avery argued.

"Why the hell can't you just trust me on this?" Derek yelled.

"Because you don't trust me." She answered her voice soft.

"I trust you." He tried to tell her.

"More than anyone else, maybe… but you don't trust me completely. I know you're hiding something from me." She told him.

He sighed and tried to keep his anger and emotions in check, he hadn't meant to be yelling at her.

"Is there something about Kate you know, that you're not telling me? Because if you can give me a good enough reason I'll never talk to her again." Avery said.

She watched as his hands balled into fists again and his eyes glowed blue.

He could hear her heart start to beat a little faster and he knew he was scaring her.

Without another word to her, he turned and jumped out of her open window.

She ran across her room and looked down but he was already gone.

~()~

After school Teagan went straight home. Between all the werewolf stuff and all the confusing thoughts from that morning she just needed a few moments alone before Jackson came over.

She took Aspen for a jog then took a long hot shower until Jackson showed up.

For the next few hours she went through the motions with him as many thoughts raced through her mind.

The more she thought about his comment that morning about Isaac, the more she thought about it, she just couldn't believe it.

Sure Isaac had showed up a lot in her life, but he had always went above and beyond to help her.

He had always been nothing but nice to her and she had never felt scared for her life when she was around him and after some of the close calls she had had recently, she knew exactly what it felt like to be scared for your life.

With Isaac she had felt calm and safe, which she also felt with Jackson but there was just something different about Isaac.

Something she couldn't explain. Plus there was the fact that he was easy to talk to and she honestly felt like she could tell him anything.

Then there was that feeling she was getting this morning, although she didn't want to think about that. That meant nothing, it had to mean nothing.

The bottom line was Isaac was her friend and Jackson was her boyfriend and there was nothing wrong with having both boys in her life.

With that thought in mind, she walked Jackson to the door at the end of the night and gave him a kiss then leaned back against the door and glanced around the empty house.

Her dad would be arriving home any moment then they would have a nice dinner and talk about their day like usual.

Some nights they would even watch some TV together before going their separate ways, but her dad always wanted them to eat dinner together as much as possible, which is something they used to do together every night as a family and he wanted to keep that tradition alive for Lisa.

With her mom on her mind, she walked into the living room, looking at every picture around the room.

Some were of her, different snap shots of her growing up. Sometimes she was alone, sometimes she was with one parent or both.

There were also a few pictures of her parents together scattered around the room.

She walked over to the fireplace and picked up a solo picture of her mom. It was always her favorite picture of her mom and what made it even more special was it was a picture she had taken of her mom when she was a young teen.

One year for Christmas all she wanted was a camera. Lydia had received one months before on her birthday and after rubbing it in hers and Avery's face for months, the two girls wanted nothing more than to have a camera of their own.

She already knew Avery was getting a camera since her dad always put her presents under the tree unwrapped since he was always too busy to wrap them.

Since her family didn't have a lot of money at the moment her mom had told her repeatedly that they couldn't afford the camera she wanted that year, but maybe the following year she could get it.

When Christmas morning arrived she quickly opened her presents, thanking her parents for everything but had secretly hoped there would have been a camera under the tree.

Once all the presents were gone, her dad announced there was one more thing to open. He left the room for a few minutes then came back with one more wrapped present.

She felt her heart racing with excitement as she opened it, a wide smile on her face when she saw the camera she wanted. She spent the rest of the day snapping pictures of anything and everything outside before making her way inside once it had begun to get dark.

She heard music coming from the kitchen and made her way towards it. She peeked inside the room and smiled when she saw her parents dancing across the kitchen floor, staring lovingly into each other's eyes.

She watched as her dad spun her mom around before dipping her towards the floor. After he pulled her back up he gave her a sweet kiss, then spun her again, this time toward the stove so she could check on dinner.

Then as she turned her head to look at her husband with a content smile on her face, Teagan raised her camera and snapped a picture. That was the way she had always seen her mom, as a happily in love wife and mother who always had a smile on her face.

Teagan sat the frame back down and wiped at the tears in her eyes as she remembered that day. She had always loved watching her parents when they thought they were alone.

They had always had so much love for each other and she had always prayed she too would have that one day.

As much as she missed her mom, she knew it had to be worse for her dad, losing his soul mate. He had always told her he only had one true love in his life and that was her mom, Lisa.

Just like anytime she thought about her mom, she felt a sense of anger, it wasn't fair. Her mom was an amazing person who never did wrong and never had an enemy but someone killed her.

'Or was it an animal like the police said? Or was part animal/part human?' She thought to herself.

Needing to know exactly what happened, she left the living room and made her way into her dad's office. She knew he kept a file on her mom's murder, although he never allowed her to look at it. He said it would be too painful for her to read.

She walked over to his filing cabinet and pulled the top drawer open as she began to leaf through each file, looking for the one on her mom. After looking in every drawer and not finding it, she moved over to his desk, looking through the two side drawers.

At last she pulled open the top drawer but before she could look inside something on top of his desk caught her eye. She shut the drawer then began to look through the pieces of paper on his desk. There were papers about the Hale house fire as well as notes about Derek.

She knew she had asked her dad weeks ago to look into Derek, back when Avery first started to see him and before she knew he was a werewolf, but she figured he never got around to looking up anything since he never mentioned it to her.

She moved a few of the papers aside then saw the file she was looking for earlier, her mom's file. She lowered her eyebrows in confusion, wondering why he had her mom's file out while looking up stuff about Derek. Was he starting to figure out about werewolves? Was he starting to wonder like her if a werewolf had killed her mom?

Before she could think any further about it, she heard the front door open followed by Aspen barking happily at her dad, who just walked in the door.

She could hear him faintly talking to Aspen, then she heard his cellphone ringing.

As he chatted on the phone, she heard him getting closer and realized he was heading for his office.

Not wanting to get caught snooping she dropped down to the floor and crawled under his desk right as he walked into the room. She peeked out from under the desk and saw him pacing in front of her as he continued to talk on the phone.

"I'm good this evening, sir. How are you?" She heard him say to whoever was on the other end.

"Yes sir I looked over the file you sent me and I have a few theories."

"Mm-hm yeah, that could be one of them but I was thinking something else. Although I hope I am wrong because if I'm right I have a feeling the murders will not stop. The perpetrator will keep killing until all involved parties are dead."

"Yes, I would rather talk about all of this in person, does now work for you?"

"Ok I'll be there in a few minutes Sherriff."

Teagan felt her mouth drop open in shock when she realized her dad had been talking to Sheriff Stilinski. She couldn't help but wonder who her dad thought the murderer was, did he think it was Derek or someone else?

She heard her dad end the call then walk over towards the desk, causing her to freeze, thinking she had been caught but instead she heard him gathering up all the papers she was looking through earlier before he walked out of the room.

Once alone in the room, she stood up from the floor and looked down at the desk, noticing all the papers as well as the file on her mom were gone. She continued to look down, deep in thought until she heard her dad call out her name.

She jumped with a small gasp, wondering how she was going to leave the room without him seeing her.

Luckily she heard him walk to the other side of the house, giving her time to tip toe out of the room and make her way upstairs, she was half-way up the stairs when she heard him heading back toward her.

She turned around and called out to him, pretending like she was just coming down stairs.

"Hey, everything ok?" Teagan asked him, as he stood in front of her.

"Where were you? I've been calling you for a while." Paul asked.

"Sorry, I was in my room listening to music." Teagan lied and felt a little bad for doing so until her dad told a lie of his own.

"I got to head back to the office for a little while. A last minute client needed my advice on a case." Paul said.

"What's the case about?" Teagan asked.

"Nothing big, just a simple divorce case." Paul lied.

"Oh." Teagan said, disappointed that they were both lying to each other, something they had never done before.

"I won't be back to late so why don't I stop and grab some Chinese from that place that you love?" Paul suggested.

"Sounds great Dad." She said back.

Paul stepped forward and kissed the side of her head before saying,"see you soon, Sweet Tea."

"Bye Dad, love you." She said back, as she watched him walk out the front door.

She stood still for a moment, dying to know what her father knew. If he did suspect Derek she was worried that Avery could get caught in the crossfire.

She wished she could follow him but it was too late now, but she did know someone who might know what was going on.

With that thought in mind, she ran up to her room, throwing on a pair of shoes and grabbing her car keys. She was so lost in thought she didn't even realize Aspen had followed her until he jumped into the car when she opened the driver side door.

For a moment she thought about making him stay until she realized with werewolves running around he would be safer with her, then she slide behind the wheel and drove away.

~()~

Avery was meeting up with Kate for dinner; she hadn't spoken to Derek since he lost control of his anger and fled.

"How are things going with Derek?" Kate asked her.

"Great." Avery lied with a smile.

She wasn't sure who she could trust at the moment, Kate had been nothing but nice to her. But she did trust Derek, so she was really trying to figure out what was going on.

"You know Avery, I'm glad things aren't awkward between us." Kate said with a friendly smile.

"Why would they be awkward?" Avery asked confused.

"Because of Derek and I dating years ago." Kate said, sounding innocent.

"what?" Avery gasped.

"He didn't tell you?" Kate asked, acting shocked.

"No…" she admitted, a feeling of betrayal rising in her stomach.

"Oh my god, sweetie. I'm so sorry, I just assumed since you were so close he would have told you about us." She said, looking down as she smiled to herself.

"I'm glad you told me." Avery said as her eyes burnt with tears.

"Are you okay?" Kate asked as she reached a hand across the table and lightly squeezed Avery's arm.

"I'm actually feeling a little sick… I'm sorry but I have to go." She said as she scrambled up from the table.

~()~

Teagan parked her car in front of the Stilinski's house and turned the car off. She told Aspen to stay as she exited the car and made her way towards the front door as fast as could.

If she would have paused for even a moment, she knew she would have just turned around and got back into her car.

She normally didn't get in the middle of things and she definitely didn't randomly show up at people's doors without calling first.

She knew she and Stiles were not that close, but she knew he was getting closer to Avery and with her worry for Avery taking over she knew she had to do something and that something was get Stiles to do something.

Once in front of the door she reached out to ring the doorbell, then when there was no answer, she reached out to ring it again while beating on the door.

Which was something else she never did but desperate times call for desperate measures.

"You need to call Avery." Teagan said, as soon as Stiles answered the door.

"Teagan?" Stiles asked surprised to see her at his house. He glanced behind her automatically looking for Avery until he remembered what she said, he looked back at her then joked, "You know usually when someone shows up at someone's house they say things like 'hey' and 'how are you?' not bark out orders."

"Hey Stiles. How are you?" Teagan asked sarcastically, as she walked inside his house, then said again. "You need to call Avery."
"They also usually wait to be invited in or at least ask if they can come in." Stiles pointed out with a laugh.

"Stiles! This is serious." Teagan called out, as she folded her arms across her chest.

"Yeah right, I'm sorry." Stiles said sincerely, as he shut the front door. He turned to face her then asked, "so why do we need to call Avery?"

"We are not calling her, you are." Teagan pointed out.

"Ok, but why am I calling?" Stiles asked, as he pulled his cell phone out of his front pants pocket.

"Are you kidding? You don't know what is taking place right now?" Teagan asked surprised. After he shot her a confused look she continued, "Our dads are in a super-secret meeting about Derek and what if your dad goes after him or something? Avery could get caught in the middle. We need to warn her."

"Actually I think it's more about the Hale fire and it's connection to all the murders lately." Stiles said without thinking.

Teagan's eyes widened as she asked, "So you do know about it? What do you know?"

"Not a lot. Just that dad gave your dad a file and asked his opinion about things. Then dad called tonight wanting to know what he thought then your dad said he would rather talk about it in person and asked if he could meet up now." Stiles explained.

"Your dad told you all of that?" Teagan asked surprised, then added, "Dad didn't tell me anything. Matter of fact he lied to me about where he was going."

"Um well actually, dad didn't tell me. I sort of overheard things when I was accidentally listening in on the phone." Stiles carefully admitted, as he ran a hand over his hair.

"How do you accidentally listen in to a conversation?" Teagan asked with a small laugh.
Stiles stuttered a few times as he tried to think of a good explanation but when he realized there wasn't one, he sighed as he rested his hands on his hips and admitted, "Ok you got me. I didn't accidentally hear it. I've been listening in to dad's calls for years. How do you think I always know everything?"

"I always thought it was because you were smart but now I see it's because you're an eavesdropper." Teagan joked.

"I like to see it as honing my listening skills." Stiles joked back.

Teagan chuckled at his comment as she sat down on the edge of the couch with a sigh. She ran a hand through her hair as a bubble of laughter erupted from her mouth.

Stiles raised his eyebrows as he looked over at her confused as she continued to giggle. He knew he wasn't that funny so he couldn't help but wonder why the girl was cracking up right in front of him.

"Are you ok?" Stiles asked cautiously, as he sat down beside her.

Teagan shook her head as she glanced over at him and began to ramble, "No. No I'm not ok. Things have been so crazy lately. There are werewolves running around killing people like this is some low budget horror movie. Me and Avery were almost killed and now I haven't even talked to her since then because she is dating one of the crazy werewolves running around. I was almost hit by a car the other night. Your dad actually was hit by one. How is he by the way?"

Before he could answer she jumped up and said, "God! I've been so self-absorbed with myself lately I never even thought to ask."

Stiles remained quiet for a few more minutes as he watched her pace across his floor. When he realized she was done, he cleared his throat and stood up as he said, "He's ok. He was sore some the next day, but he'll live."

"Good. That's good Stiles, I'm glad." Teagan said sincerely.

"And don't feel bad for not asking before." Stiles said, then added, "I've been so caught up in the werewolf stuff that I never asked how you were."

She looked down at her scratched up arms, most of the cuts and scrapes were healed by now, then said, "I'm good, thanks."

"How um, how's Avery?" Teagan asked cautiously.

"I'm guessing she's doing about as good as you are. None of this is easy for her either and she really misses you." Stiles said softly.

"She told you that?" Teagan asked.

"She didn't have to. I can see it." Stiles answered.

"How did we all end up here Stiles?" Teagan asked, as she sat back down, then added, "Your best friend is a werewolf. Mine is dating a werewolf. All the deaths and close calls. How do we get past that?"

"We just do." Stiles said, as he sat down beside her.

The two stayed silent for a moment until Stiles looked over at her and said, "You need to forgive her."

Teagan felt tears fill her eyes as she thought about her best friend. She wiped at her eyes then looked at Stiles as she said, "But that's just it, I never blamed her for it, not really. I know deep down she would never put me in danger and she was just as terrified as me but I just... every time I see her with Derek I..." she trailed off.

"Get sick to your stomach?" Stiles guessed. When she shook her head, he added quietly, "so that's not just me then."

She softly smiled at his comment then asked, "You really like her don't you?"

Stiles looked at her surprised, not knowing she had heard him. He nodded his head then said, "But it doesn't matter. It's not like I ever really had a shot and I definitely didn't have one once she saw Derek."

"She'll see you one day, Stiles." Teagan said softly, as she flashed him a smile.

Stiles smiled back, wishing that was true but knew it was better not to get his hopes up.

Feeling a little uncomfortable being so open with her, he cleared his throat then jokingly asked, "Since we talked about my relationship problems does that mean we talk about yours now?"

Teagan chuckled at his comment then stood up as she said, "Trust me, you don't want to hear about my problems."

"Is it about Jackson? Please tell me something embarrassing about him. Like he shaves his legs or hums when he pees?" Stiles asked.

Teagan threw her head back and laughed then said, "I'm not telling you anything like that cause that's not true."

"Just tell me something I can hold over him." Stiles begged her.

Teagan took a few steps toward the front door as she thought of something, then finally said with a shrug, "he watches porn sometimes."

"That's not embarrassing. I do that all the time, sometimes multiple times a day." Stiles said.

"Ew! That is more than I needed to know about you Stiles." Teagan said, as she wrinkled up her nose.

"Sorry." Stiles said, then quickly added, "wait, please don't ever tell Avery that."

"Why? She likes porn too." Teagan said back, as she opened the door to walk out.

Stiles' mouth dropped in surprise at the comment. He didn't think it was possible for porn to be hotter than it was, but just knowing Avery watched it too was enough to drive him over the edge.

Teagan walked out onto the porch then looked back at the silent boy and chuckled at his expression. She didn't think she had ever seen him this quiet before.

"Are you ok there Stiles?" Teagan asked with a laugh.

"Yeah...yeah I-I'm good." Stiles stuttered, as he ran her comment over and over in his head.

"You're fantasizing about Avery watching porn aren't you?" Teagan asked, as she laughed again.

"No of course not." Stiles lied.

"You're a terrible liar." She said, as she shot him a look, letting him know she didn't believe him.

"Well you can't tell a guy something like that and not expect him to get turned on about it." Stiles pointed out.

Teagan laughed at his comment until she heard Aspen barking from the car. She quickly turned around wondering what was upsetting him and fearing the worst until she saw it was just a car driving down the road.

Stiles looked at her, seeing the scared look on her face and felt bad for her. He knew how stressful the whole werewolf thing could be, but at least he had Scott and even Avery to talk to about it, but with her not talking to her best friend she had no one to confide in.

"Well I should get him home, but thanks Stiles." Teagan said to him with a grateful smile.

"If you ever need to talk to anyone about all the werewolf stuff I'm here." Stiles offered, then added with a laugh, "Or if you need someone to bash Jackson with I'm good at that too. I've been president of the 'we hate Jackson' club for years."

Teagan smiled as she nodded her head in thanks before turning around and walking toward her car.

She still didn't know much more about what her dad knew, but she was still glad she talked to Stiles.

In a weird way it was the closest she had felt to Avery in a while, which made her miss her best friend even more.

A/N- Sorry it's been a while since my last update, I've been busy and feeling under the weather. But anyways, I thought it was about time to post an update. ^_^ I hope you all liked the chapter.

New episode tonight! ^_^ Can't wait to learn more about Derek's past.

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