Chapter 26: The Lunatic

"Not to be that guy, but I don't think you should have taken two."

Scott glared at the road in front of him, like it was the road's fault they still hadn't reached the ice rink. He glanced over at Joe in the passenger seat where she pinched her eyes closed.

Joe tried to breathe with her nose, stomach content churning at the car's movement. "Shut up."

"Are you feeling any better?"

"No."

They had swapped places when Joe got too dizzy to keep the car in the right lane. Her vision swam and shifted and Scott's face grew grotesque before her brain managed to focus and he was back to normal.

"I should take you home," Scott insisted yet again, and Joe shook her head yet again.

"Saving this guy's important." Joe burped a bit and had to take a pause before continuing. "I can handle throwing up in my car if we save him."

"Okay, but listen, you have to stay in the car! Hey! Hey, Joe, are you with me?"

She heard his voice, but it was like he yelled through water. Her head fell limply to the side when the car stopped moving and she stared out the window at a large rectangular building with a neon sign. Ice skating rink. Werewolves on ice, the new Disney-production.

Scott turned around to face her. "Joe, stay in the car."

"Sure," Joe said and unbuckled. The door proved bothersome, but she managed to get her jelly fingers to work. The fresh air was a welcome change from the stuffy interior of her Ford and she rested against the side of the car to catch her breath.

"Joe! Did you not hear me?" Scott's head popped up on the other side. "You have to stay in the- what are you doing?"

"It's really hot in here," Joe insisted and wrenched off her sweatshirt. It was a literal sweatshirt, damp with her sweat, and she wrinkled her nose at it before stuffing it through the open car door.

"We're outside."

Joe wore a camisole underneath and she stretched the fabric away from her slick skin. "Still hot."

"It's like 40 degrees out!"

"So hot!" Joe tried to take off her camisole as well, but found her hands stuck as Scott dove over the car hood to stop her. "Hey!"

His worried frown filled her vision and she squinted to focus on him. He had a pimple growing on his chin and for some reason did not look happier when she pointed that out to him. "You really shouldn't have taken two of those pills."

"You shouldn't have taken two," Joe countered and sauntered in the direction of the front doors of the building. No other cars in the parking lot, it was apparently closed or something. She span around to Scott while still walking, a move that threw her a bit off balance. "You coming or what, cuz?"

He caught up with her and held her hands still so she wouldn't undress anymore. The front doors were unlocked and the temperature inside was colder than outside, a fact Joe welcomed as she was practically melting here! Joe tuned out Scott's yapping about staying back, dangerous, keep hidden, go back to the car — he was just like Derek!

"Go home, stay home, get in, get out," Joe tried to mimick how Derek would say it, complete with a growling noise.

"Uah!"

Apparently, ice was slippery, a fact proven when her boot gave away from under her at the first step. Scott caught her, spun her around and tried to place her in one of the spectator seats. She got up immediately and slapped his hands away at his next attempt.

"Howdy, Zamboni!" Joe called out at the sight of the ice resurfacing machine doting over the apparently slippery ice. Scott muttered something, but followed her where she half-slid, half-stumbled over the ice to the machine. An African American boy, really big for a teenager actually, was dressed in a camouflage hoodie and scowled as they approached.

"Who's she?" he demanded to know, which Joe found kind of rude. She raised her eyebrows and was about to give him a piece of her mind, telling him exactly who she was, but Scott rushed in front of her.

"No one," he said hastily and Joe let out an insulted gasp.

"You know what, Scott?" she started, but he had the audacity to shove her gently to the side and her boots slid over the ice.

"Can we talk? Boyd, please!" Scott adressed the Boyd-fella, who looked skeptical. Joe crossed her arms, focusing on Scott's serious frown and his pleading tone. "Did Derek tell you everything? And I blah blah blah, blah blah blah, blah blah blah blah-"

Derek. UGH!

She realized both boys had stopped talking to give her a concerned look. She might have gagged theatrically at the thought of Derek, exaggerating the gesture and sticking her tongue out. Holding her hands up in surrender, she mumbled: "I'm fine. It's cool."

Less dizzy, but a bit woozy still. So hot! God, the ice looked inviting, maybe she should just lay down a bit, cool down, get frost bite, like the cool kids — that's why they were cool, right? Get it?

"If you're looking for friends, you can do a lot better than Derek!" Scott practically yelled and Joe's attention snapped back to him. She made a displeased face. That was the understatement of the year!

Her features did not exactly clear when a familiar and tantalizing voice rang out: "That really hurts, Scott."

God! Just his voice! It made her go mad!

"That really hurts, Scott," she repeated in a sour tone not quite under her breath.

A trio approached over the ice, Derek in front, with a blond girl and a blond boy close on his heels. Joe's eyebrows rose at the vision. The leather jackets, the serious push-up bra the girl was sporting, the suave smirks — although Derek's did look a little more hesitant when he spotted her. He gave her a weird look, like a cross between concern and anger and Joe did not even care. She twisted her lip and put up her middle finger in response.

Derek closed his eyes briefly, even though she saw that tell-tale flash of red — she'd pissed him off. Ignoring her, he focused on Scott. "I mean, if you're going to review me, at least take a consensus." Derek looked over at the girl. "Erica, how's life been for you since we met?"

That was a serious bra! Joe was not really that excited about boobs, not even her own, but Erica's cleavage was almost as mesmerizing as Derek's pecs. It made her feel like a creep too, because the girl was like, barely old enough to buy energy drinks at the store without parental supervision. Joe missed whatever cliche the girl rattled of before she snarled and Joe blew air out of her mouth, already bored with this whole banter-exchange.

"Dude, really?" she asked the Zamboni-guy and used her Bronx-hand to indicate the idiot-trio across the ice. Bronx-hand meant she imagined she had long fake nails on, to increase her gesturing powers. "I mean, you already look ten times cooler than that stage production of Grease over there."

"Joe, you really should have stayed in the car," Scott muttered while keeping his eyes locked on the idiots across the ice. "I don't think you got the right pills."

Derek asked Isaac too how his life had been lately and this kid, this freakishly tall man-child with curly hair, actually said: "Well, I'm a little bummed about being a fugitive, but other than that, I'm great."

What?

"Didn't your dad just die?" Joe burst out, not caring about tact.

Isaac raised a cocky eyebrow. "Like I'm supposed to care?"

"Oh my GOD!" Joe yelled out and it echoed in the large hall. "Are you listening to yourself? You need therapy, papi, not a makeover."

She realized a lot of the listeners had blank expressions and it was Erica who piped up uncertainly. "Uh, she's saying you need therapy and not a makeover."

Joe turned to Scott with her arms out in confusion.

"You're speaking Spanish," he said.

"¿Que?" Joe shook her head and switched to English, getting more and more of her old accent back. "So? We're in California! Learn Spanish, pendejos." She pointed her finger at Scott, because he had looked equally confused as Isaac and Boyd. "You are a disgrace to the Latin community." She pointed at the girl. "You, however, get top marks! Also, eyeliner on point, good job!"

"You're adorable, you're an asshole," she pointed at Isaac and Derek in turn, then at Boyd, "You I don't know yet, but you seem chill and's probably my favorite so far." She threw her hands up. "Okay, are we done? Can we leave? I'm burnin' up here and-"

"No, no, no!" Scott dove forwards to grab her hands that had began to lift up the drenched camisole. His dark eyes filled with worry as he hissed: "Clothes on, Joe! No!" He slapped her hand lightly and she stuck her tongue out.

"Why? He goes around shirtless all the time! No one says nothin'!" Joe insisted and did another Bronx-gesture at Derek who had a definite look of someone who did not know what the hell was going on. "That's sexism, bro. Not cool."

"What," Derek began with his eyebrows somewhere high up on his forehead, "is wrong with her?"

"I took a pill, what's wrong with you?" Joe felt herself do a sassy head roll. Somewhere, in the back of her mind, she started to worry those pills were affecting her judgement. "Short version, fifty words or less, go!"

"Joeee!" Scott hissed and stepped in front of her as she tried to stroll up to challenge the increasingly pissed off Hale. He sounded equally embarassed as worried. "Relax!"

"What if I don't wanna relax?" Joe began, but noticed Derek had turned to his two teenage lackeys to say something too low for them to hear. For her to hear, anyway, her werewolf cousin probably caught it. The girl looked disappointed, but it cleared up in a predatorial grin.

"Okay, hold on!" Scott said and pushed Joe further back. "This isn't exactly a fair fight!"

Joe wished she had hoops on so she could take them off. She'd kick those scrawny high schooler's ass any day, super strength or no super strength. She was a woman, come hear her roar for a change.

"Then go home, Scott." Derek did not sound too worried.

"Jesus Christ, mijo," Joe yelped when Scott responded by slamming his fist into the ice, leaving a large cracked hole. "Come on, man, Boyd's been busting his ass fixing this ice and you just gotta destroy it for theatrical effect?" Joe paused as Scott's face morphed into something almost unrecognizable. "I gotta ask though, what's with the sideburns? The fangs I get, but the rest? Eh."

"I meant fair for them," Scott ignored her and growled in the direction of the two approaching T-Birds with murderous intent in their eyes.

"Now everybody's talkin' in cliches, huh?" Joe said to Boyd and gestured to her cousin in embarassment. "This is what you want, man? Seriously?"

Boyd remained silent, but winced at the first punch that landed between Scott and the two other werewolves. All of them were wolfed out fully, although the girl looked less bumpy and that just proved that patriarchy was everywhere. At least she landed a pretty hard kick in Scott's chest, throwing a literal punch for girl power, but she was fighting her cousin so Joe should not be cheering for her apparently fellow Latina who now looked at her with rage in golden yellow eyes. Erica snarled at her.

"What, you wanna have a go?" Joe challenged and was about to step up, before Scott jumped in front to tackle Erica to the ice. The hall filled with snarls, punches and growls as Scott fought. "I could have taken' her."

Too agitated to stand still, she exploited Scott's lapse of attention — he slammed Isaac into the ice — to saunter up to the only other werewolf not fighting. The reason she took these damned pills in the first place! He stood with both hands behind his back and gave her a seriously superior look as she approached. Well, he had a surprise coming-

"Whoa!"

Feet slipped under her and the ice came rushing towards her face. It stopped and Joe's balance nerves got thrown out of order as she suddenly was face to face with the scowling, but sexy, features of Derek Hale. He held her up by both arms, obviously not trusting her to stand on her own.

"Get off me," Joe muttered and slapped his hands away. Because she was a strong independent woman who did not need any man, not because his grip sent fireworks through her exposed skin and straight to her core. She stumbled a bit on the ice, but managed to remain upright. "Listen, dude, we gotta have a serious talk about boundaries. But first!" She gestured towards the fighting behind her. "What the hell?"

Derek twisted his head when looking at her, obviously trying to get eye contact, which only made her try to avoid it with a curl in her lip. "What pills did you take?"

"Happy pills, you should try 'em, hundred percent satisfaction guarantee," Joe said and shot him a pair of finger guns while clicking her tongue. She was close enough to seriously smell him and had to anchor through that anger to not just jump him right there and then. With an annoyed frown, she let him know: "You smell really nice! But come on, what's with the teenage disaster waiting to happen? Can't you put an ad on craigslist like a normal person? 'Looking for young and fit humans over eighteen to join in animalistic based cult, now accepting applications'?"

Derek let out a snarl. "What pills, Joe?"

"Don't snarl at me!" Joe tilted her head so far to the side as she managed in disgust. "I took a little somethin' somethin' so that when Scott kicks your ass, I don't gotta face the consequences."

He let out a disbelieving laugh, the first she had ever heard from him. "You thought I would lose a fight against Scott?"

"Yeah," Joe said as if it was really obvious, which it was. She rubbed her forehead in annoyance. "Can't you like, turn it off or something? Use deodorant? Whatever?"

"Why?" Derek asked and took a step forward so there really was not an appropriate distance between them. He looked down at her with an unusual darkness in otherwise bright eyes, pupiles dilated. "You don't like it?"

Joe had to tilt her head to look up at him and she shrugged. "Eh."

Derek used this chance to look her in the eyes and reached a conclusion, sounding completely over it already. "You're high."

"Ding ding ding!" Joe let out and tapped her fingers against his chest in rhythm. "Correctomundo, papi. By the way, good job with the diversity. You're gonna look like a college pamphlet." She gestured towards Boyd who watched Isaac and Erica getting their asses handed to them by Scott. "Tell me the truth, did you only pick him because he's black?" This only earned her an eye roll. "'Cause then you're an asshole."

"So you've told me," Derek said with a small sigh. He watched with no apparent surprise or disappointment when Scott finally took down his newfound comrades. Two blond werewolves sailed across the ice to land at their feet, out cold. No pun intended. Derek looked at Joe. "Stay back."

She automatically scoffed. He should have learned what she thought of his two-word orders by now. Putting up two middle fingers instead, she said: "No. Whatcha gonna do?"

"Fight Scott," Derek said with a flash of red eyes.

Scott was shouting something about power and gift and guard dogs, but she barely heard it as she focused on Derek. All that muscle, all that strength. All of a sudden Joe's unwavering faith that Scott would win just because he was technically the good guy here disappeared.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," she said and jumped in front of Derek to stop his stride towards Scott. Her hand landed on his chest — rock hard, by the way — and it seemed to be enough to at least make him pause. "Hang on. I have to tell you something first." She met his bright green eyes that creased a bit in puzzlement as she reached back to bring out the canister. "Surprise, futhermocker!"

Her finger squeezed down and a thin mist of something purple-ish shot out. It hit Derek straight in his eyes and he dropped down with a crouch and a painful roar. Joe, on the other hand, felt fine. Scott didn't know what he was talking about. It had definitely been the right pills.

Derek, snarling and coughing, tried to rub the spray out of his eyes. It was like mace. Rubbing did not make it better.

"And the lesson is, girls and boys, don't mess with a bitch from the Bronx!" Joe did a little victory dance, channeling her homegirl J-Lo.

Her breath caught in her throat as Derek looked up. He did not look like normal Derek anymore. Eyes red and fangs bared. She thought Scott called out something behind her, but it was lost in the ear-deafening roar that Derek let out directed at her. His hands were out with claws extended. Her treacherous leg took an automatic step back.

"Knew I should've brought the shotgun," Joe said to herself. The stupid mace was supposed to subdue the guy, not make him angrier! Her breaths came hard, but not compared to him. The fabric of his shirt looked ready to burst at his straining chest, his red eyes roaming her intently, his scent rolling off of him in waves and waves that made her dizzy all over again. "Uh, Scotty-boy?"

"Get away from her!"

He must have already been runnning as he hit Derek full-speed from the side. They crashed to the ice with enough force to make the ground shake. Derek did some kind of ninja-flip that gave him the upper edge and slammed Scott into his knee. Scott was fast, but Derek was faster. Both fully wolfed out, not paying her any attention. Claws out, fangs out. Face down, ass up. Joe pondered upon that last one. She might be a teeny tiny little bit intoxicated.

They moved so fast she could hardly follow. Derek headbutted Scott, who stumbled back in obvious disorientation. She let out an involuntary cry as Derek slashed his claws through Scott's stomach. Scott bent over double in pain, but Derek just used the opportunity to send an upper cut straight to the jaw.

"AH!" Joe squawked when Scott landed a hit with his elbow in Derek's chin. He might as well have hit her and goddamn when did her cousin start fighting dirty like that? Not even the pills could numb that pain and she hissed. "Motherf-"

A prickle in her neck made her look up — she had wolf-Derek's full attention from her outburst. She rubbed her jaw with wide eyes as she tried to scoot backwards. He let out a roar that shook the ceiling.

He was not in control. Stupid asshole was not in control!

His claws flexed, his jaw snapped; he came towards her. Pills or no pills, instinct made her crawl backwards on the ice. Derek was out for blood and he had her scent.

"Argh!" Scott yelled and threw himself at Derek again.

Derek responded by twisting around as he grabbed hold of Scott's shirt and throwing him down onto the ice. Last thing Joe saw was Scott's flailing arm as it hit her smack in the face. The back of her head crashed into the ground and her vision blurred, even as she heard the grunt of pain from Derek.

Light replaced darkness as Derek threw Scott away from her. He grabbed her by her arms and hoisted her up. Red eyes. Red glowing eyes.

His growl made her inner nerves twist and tighten before she lost consciousness.

Joe never had any animals growing up. Her dad worked odd hours and Joe spent too much time out of the house to care for anything more complex than a house plant. Her grandmother had cats, however, and one cat especially was notorious for sneaking into bedrooms if you did not fully close the door. No one knew why, but the cat in question wanted nothing more in the world than to lay on your chest as you slept. If it tried to warm you or if it liked the seesawing motion of your breathing was anyone's guess, but the effect was waking up to a heavy lump of fur crushing your windpipe.

The cat died almost ten years ago, but the sensation was so vivid in Joe's memory that she instinctively tried to dislodge the bulky mass that was draped over her chest. It did not budge. She struggled to sit up to make the heavy weight fall off, blinking her eyes open and regretting it instantly. An intense headache threatened to split her brain in half.

Her eyes reluctantly open, she saw that it was not her grandmother's cat, nor any other cat, but a man's arm that had somehow positioned itself over her. Luckily — or unluckily? — the arm was still attached to the man, not a given considering their location.

She and Derek Hale laid tightly entwined on the forest floor in what could only be the Beacon Hills Preserve. Birds twittered in the radiant March sun, but apart from that she could only hear Derek's soft snores from beside her. His heat and scent encapsuled her in a comfortable cocoon, despite the fact that they were outdoors in the middle of nowhere.

"What the hell?" she croaked and winced at her voice. She sounded like a veteran alcoholic. In addition to his arm, Derek had draped his jacket over her, but otherwise they were only wearing their regular clothes — she was just in damn camisole — and should have died of frostbite during the night. It was only a small comfort that they were in fact wearing clothes at all.

This was nice though. This was really, really nice and if it hadn't been for how completely impossible it was, she would have appreciated it more. He was warm, first of all, and smelled heavenly. This close to him, she had no way of tuning it out, nothing to distract or keep her from recognizing his scent. It lulled her in a deep sense of calm, that this was okay, just to stay here, a little while, feeling his comfortable mass and breathing.

With each soft exhale, his breath shifted one of her curly locks. Was this a werewolf-thing? Sleeping in the woods? How did she get here? Joe blinked more against the bright sky. Little by little, the events from the ice rink pieced together and she at least could conclude what day it was and-

"Oh no! Oh no, no, no!" Joe yelled and scrambled to get out from Derek's limbs. His snoring turned into confused grunts, ones she did not acknowledge as she frantically patted her pockets. "Phone, phone, where's my phone?! Shit!"

The previously twittering birds flapped away. Her phone must have been left behind in the car. Shit! Derek turned his head towards her, a leaf stuck in his messy hair. He squinted. "Joe?"

"What time is it?" Joe demanded and began searching him instead. Hands roaming both his chest and legs, not worried about being appropriate. Apparently not fully awake yet, he let her pat him down until she located his phone in the pocket of his jeans. 09:22. "Shit! I have to be at Berkeley in thirty minutes! What- how- where are we?"

Her voice echoed into the empty woods. The forest stretched on endlessly in all directions. Apparently she and Derek had slept in a pile of leaves and if he looked scruffy, she could only imagine herself. They could be miles away from civilization.

Derek squinted his eyes as he surveyed their surroundings. "We're in the Preserve." He swallowed and looked down at himself and the still warm spot Joe had laid. "Did we...?"

"Don't know, don't care!" Joe snapped and kicked her feet to dislodge herself completely from him and get up. "I have a meeting with my new professor at ten sharp and you basically kidnapped me into the middle of absolutely nowhere!"

"What...happened?" Derek looked as hungover as she felt, but it earned him no sympathy from her.

"You, Mister Lifetime-of-practice, lost control, that's what happened!" Joe shouted as she stood above Derek.

Something seemed to click in Derek's mind as he rubbed his eyes. "Because you maced me!" He pushed himself to a stand. "With wolfsbane! Are you absolutely insane?"

"It was mace or a shotgun shell!" More memories flooded in and she sucked in a harsh gasp. "You hurt Scott!" She blinked several times. "Oh my God, you tried to kill Scott!"

Derek flinched from her sharp slaps on his arm, slaps she felt sting her own skin. "I wasn't- he's- damn it, Joe!" He grabbed both her wrists to keep her from slapping him. "Calm down!"

Out of hands, Joe kicked him in the shin. Well placed, unfortunately, and they both dropped with a groan. Joe croaked: "Worth it."

"I wasn't trying to kill Scott, he's probably already healed!" Derek bit out as he straightened back up. He glared into the forest, putting on his listening-face.

"What, your Alpha-powers comes with GPS?"

He sighed in a way that indicated he was nearing the end of his tether. "Do you want to get to Berkeley before ten?"

"Yes."

"Then shut up."

Joe stuck out her tongue at him as he returned to his focused listening. What was he gonna do, piggy-back her all the way to the university? She tried to twist out of his grip when he grabbed her shoulder to point in a direction that looked identical as all the others.

"There's a road that way, maybe two hundred yards," Derek said and held her in place despite her best efforts. "I'll meet you there."

"Wait, what? Where are you-" Leaves flew in his wake as he sprinted off. Joe's jaw dropped at the sheer speed and also the audacity to just leave her out here alone! Now already missing his warmth, she picked up his jacket from the forest floor and shrugged it on. By this rate, she could start a collection.

True enough, there was a road maybe two hundred yards in the direction he'd indicated. Leaves scattered all over it, she did not get the impression it was a particularly popular one. No sign of him either.

She still had his phone, so she called Scott, needing to hear his voice. He picked up on first ring.

"Where the hell is Joe?"

"Scott!" Joe exclaimed as a heavy weight lifted off her shoulders. Although angry, he sounded very much alive.

Rustling and shifting. "Joe? Where ar- u?"

"Hang on, Scott, I think the reception's bad." Joe swore when she saw the one bar indicating the service. She tried to hold it higher, hoping the wavelengths or whatever would reach it better. "Scott? Are you there?"

"-u're br- king up o-"

"Shit!" Joe walked backwards with the phone up high. "Scott?"

His voice sounded robotic and twisted. Joe tried to stand on her toes, but the signal cut instead of improving. Defeated, she put Derek's phone back in her pocket after checking the time. 09:41. No way she was getting to Berkeley on time. "Great. Just great."

She paced the old dirt road, angrily picking leaves and pines out of her hair. Stupid werewolf kidnapper guy.

A noise she had considered part of the background on Scott's end grew in volume. She turned towards it and squinted at a dark blob that kept getting bigger. Derek's black sportscar skidded the last few feet before the passenger door ended up right in front of her.

Derek leaned over to open the door. "Get in."

Joe did not need to be told twice for once. She jumped inside and immediately slammed against the wall as Derek did a sharp as hell U-turn on the road. Yup, she would definitely need to buckle up for this trip. Joe held in a scream when Derek shot out onto the main road, only sheer luck preventing them from getting totaled by an on-coming semi.

Almost afraid to look at the speedometer, she realized the Camaro had a lot more juice than her Ford ever could dream of. They were trying to make a thirty minute drive in fifteen — and she was starting to think it might be possible.

When the road straightened enough, she put down the sun visor to see her reflection. Still some wayward leaves stuck in her curls and she hurriedly picked them out. Dark circles under her eyes, sallow skin and lips so pale they blended into the rest of her face. Undoubtedly a side-effect of whatever pills she'd popped last night and she scoured Derek's glove compartment.

"With all that make up that Erica-chick was wearing, you'd think there'd be something left in the car," Joe grumbled and shifted through several stacks of CDs, but coming up empty of anything that would make her look remotely alive. "Not even a lip balm? Come on!"

Derek's eyes never left the road, but he cleared his throat. "We're not together."

"What?" Joe tried to search under the seat as well. Typical place for an eyeliner to roll.

"Me and Erica. We're not...together."

"Well, I should hope not," Joe said when she emerged back up, no eyeliner to be found. "She's sixteen years old!" Receipts, some metal screws, a pen — nothing in the side door either. Resorting to juvie-makeup, she asked: "You got a sharpie at least? Anything?"

"You look fine," Derek said with a tight jaw.

"No, I look like I spent the night in the woods!" Joe rolled her eyes and tried the old trick of rubbing her cheeks to get some color in them. Only red she could see was her bloodshot eyes. "Smoking pot. Jesus Christ, what a nightmare."

"What were you on last night?"

"I don't know! It could've been horse tranquilizers for all I care. Probably not the right pills."

"Probably," Derek growled. "What pills were you trying to take?"

Frustrated with her appearance and the clock that ticked ever closer to her meeting, Joe let out a groan. "I don't really know that either. When Kate was playing electroshock-therapy with you, Doctor Deaton gave me some sort of injection so I'd stop feeling it, at least long enough to track you down."

"Deaton?" Derek spat and took his eyes off the road to look at her longer than she felt comfortable with considering the speed they were going. "Are you absolutely out of your mind?"

"The answer to that is getting closer to yes every day now!" Joe threw her hands up in defeat from trying to get her hair to play nice. "Can you just drive as if my academic career depends on it, because it does!"

By some miracle, they reached the impressive structure that housed the Sociology-institute at 09:58. Joe was out of the car before it was fully stopped. Halfway up the steps, she turned to shout at Derek who had the window open. "Stay! I need a ride back to Beacon! One hour."

Praying he would be there when she was done, Joe sprinted down the hallway and almost missed Professor Walker's office when muscle memory tried to take her to Professor Kane instead. Although futile, she made an effort to compose herself and exude confidence from within as her appearance would not be pitching in today.

"Ah, Miss Delgado. Glad you could finally make it," Professor Walker said when she entered and Joe glanced at the clock. 10:01.

A short light-hearted chapter with a lot of Derek :) Okay, maybe not that short, but still. Joe did not OD on the pills, but the results was not as expected either. I love the ice rink-scene from season 2 because it's so incredibly cringy and Derek is acting oh-so-tough that my heart just want to explode. I just had to inject Joe in there to throw him off his game.

Also, Bronx-hand is not an official term and is not meant as offensive to anyone from the Bronx. It's basically channeling how AOC gestures if she had long fake nails on, if that makes sense. (And I love AOC!)

Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed. Looking forward to hearing what you think, so please leave a comment!

Also also, to the guest called "GG", I think you should be fine relying on Joe's knowledge of what's happening regarding the timeline, but you might miss out one some "easter eggs" that I reference where Joe notices stuff, but doesn't really understand or directly misunderstands. I try not to reiterate too much stuff from the show unless it's relevant, but you are welcome to ask in the comments/PM if you are confused where we are in the timeline :)