Burn Amongst Humanity [D. Hale ]

|VII|

"The Tell"

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"Are you still going to be there for me, even after this?"

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Derek was trying to gauge her reaction to what he had just told her, Casey could tell. They had been talking for most of the night and Casey was trying to understand, trying to force her brain to get it, but it was refusing to connect and she was staring at the table.

"Casey." Derek said and Casey was continuing to stare at the table. "Casey, just look at me please." Derek pleaded and Casey looked up at him, as tears had begun to slip down her cheeks and Derek blinked and he nodded a little.

"Kate killed my sister." Casey whispered and Derek's eyes widened. "After my mother decided that she wanted to leave the hunting business, Kate beat my mother until my sister was gone, I had to watch as the doctors..." Casey's words were strangled as she stared back at the table.

"Casey, I am so sorry." Derek said and she looked up at him, and now the tears were running freely down both of their faces at the moment. "Casey, what the hell can I do?" Derek asked and Casey was shaking her head, as she was wiping fiercely at her eyes.

"Sorry won't bring either of our families back." Derek felt the words like a bullet from a gun as carefully, Casey put her coffee cup in the sink and she shook her head a little bit. "Did you care about her?" Casey asked and Derek looked at her, as he stood up from the table.

"What?" Derek asked.

"Kate. Did you care about her?" Casey asked quietly and she turned to look around at Derek as she was waiting for his answer. "I'm wondering if I should even ask my next question, since your silence is telling me a whole lot, right now." She murmured.

"What is your other question?" Derek asked quietly.

"If you cared about Kate that much, then why did you show up at my house?" Casey asked and Derek looked at her, wincing at the words. "Was I a distraction? Kate was out of town, so you said "Hey, let's sleep around" or something? Because if I was, then how come I have this?" Casey had the triskelion amulet in her hand.

"You weren't a distraction, Case, you were the one that I was supposed to stay away from. I didn't know how long it would take me to heal, so I thought with something that wasn't my brain. Then I left and after summer..." Derek didn't have to finish and Casey nodded.

"Am I the only one that knows?" Casey asked quietly and Derek nodded. "I need to think." She murmured and she felt a rolling pit of emotions tearing through her. Pain, grief, anger, sadness, betrayal, they flooded through her like a tidal wave. Casey walked up the stairs silently and she was sitting down on the edge of her bed, thinking as she was subconsciously tracing the tattoo on her forearm. The words in French, the code that the hunters chose centuries ago after La Bête du Gevaudan was defeated by Marie-Jeanne Valet

"Nous chassons ceux qui nous chassent."

The words had been inked onto the inside of her right arm when she was barely 12 years old which was when she had gotten lucky, with a shot that had killed an older werewolf that had been attacking her mother.

"We hunt those, who hunt us." She murmured quietly to herself and she was shaking her head, as she put her gun on the bedside table and she put her badge down next to it. "I don't live by it anymore." She murmured, not sure who she was talking to really.

Casey raised her eyebrows at the shadow on the window. "What do you want?" Casey asked.

"I, uh, can't get out of your house unless you open the door or a window and now Tye is out front." Derek said as he stood in the doorway to her room.

Casey unlocked her window and slid it open, only partially surprised to see that Tye had already clambered up onto the roof. "Hi." Tye said and Casey glared at him.

"Get to bed, now." Her voice left no room for argument and Tye sighed at the words, and he walked past Derek to his room at the end of the hallway as she was shaking her head. "If your return to town causes him to fail and retake senior year..."

"Why did you take care of him when he showed up on your doorstep?" She looked at Derek, who was looking at her for the answer.

"I'm absolutely never, ever... going to be able to make up the fact, that your mother tossed me out of the fire to save me. I figured that it was the least that I could do, to help her remaining kid." Casey mumbled.

"You're doing all of this, just to try, and pay back my family?" Derek was asking and Casey could hear the clear surprise, as she shut the window once again. "Casey, we never did anything that we didn't want to do. You don't owe any of us anything." He said and she looked at him. "I can tell, that you definitely don't believe me on this one." Derek said with a small smile.

"Yeah." Casey murmured and she looked down at her hands and Derek sat down next to her. "Are you still here just because I closed the window on you?" She asked quietly.

"No. I'm here, because I just told you something that is eating you alive and I just threw you headfirst into it." He said as Derek moved his arms around her. "I'm sorry that I didn't tell you sooner." He murmured.

"No more secrets?" Casey asked quietly and Derek looked at her with a small smile, before he nodded at the words.

"No more secrets." Derek agreed quietly and she leaned her head to rest against his chest, as she closed her eyes and she went quiet, as she listened to his steady and familiar heartbeat. "I smell blood." Derek said and Casey looked at him, as he looked at her. "Can you open the window?"

Casey forced the window open and Derek hopped out of it at once. Casey ducked out of it and quickly, she shut the window behind her. Casey was climbing down the side of the house, and Derek was waiting for at the bottom and he had just jumped off of the roof.

"Not all of us have perfect balance." Casey said as she dropped and landed, as she followed him over to his car. "So, where are we going?" She asked.

"Following the sirens." Derek answered and they both got into the Camaro and Derek drove off quickly.