Burn Amongst Humanity [D. Hale ]

|LXVIII|

"Muted"
__________

"You okay?" Derek asked and he looked over at Casey, who trudged into the loft.

"A triple homicide, just happened last night. The Walcott family. Mr and Mrs. Walcott, then their older son. The youngest managed to escape it." She signed.

"You are still working as a sheriff's deputy, even after your vocal cords have been permanently damaged now?" Derek asked and Casey nodded a little. "All right, fair enough." Derek said quickly, holding up his hands, at the look that she was giving him now.

Casey looked up as Braeden walked into the room and she looked at Casey with a nod. "Do you recognize him now?" Casey signed as Braeden was nodding. "Good. I'm too tired for more introductions." Casey signed and her friend laughed a little and Derek was chuckling quietly.

Peter sat on the couch and Braeden put her boots up on the table and he glared at her. "That table is Italian."

"So are these boots." Braeden retorted and Casey snickered a little bit as Derek looked down at the words and he was smiling a little, all the same. "Are we going to talk interior design and fashion or are we going to talk numbers?" Braeden spoke up and she looked at Casey.

"I'm here to make sure that these two don't kill you. Well, Peter, to be specific about it." Casey explained and Peter leaned around Derek quickly, to stare directly at her.

"Go to hell." Peter replied as Casey looked distinctly unimpressed, with the words.

"Nice try, Peter. But I am already fucking in hell, dealing with you!" He snarled and Derek glared at him and Peter stopped reluctantly.

"You two done?" Derek asked and Casey had already returned back to looking at the table, doing nothing to show that she heard, but that usually meant that she absolutely did. Casey watched as Derek tore up the paper that Peter and Braeden had been going back and forth with, as he was nodding. "We'll pay it."

"I'll help." Casey offered.

"You're currently homeless!" Peter exclaimed and Casey stood up and she flipped him off with both hands, as he looked at her. Braeden left and Peter slammed the door shut, behind her. "Are you two insane?" He shouted.

"We didn't have a choice. We spent a week looking for her and we came up with absolutely nothing." Derek reminded him as Casey was pacing the room, thinking as she often did.

"If we don't find out, who told Kate about the vault, we don't get those bonds back!" Casey looked over at Peter, who was angered and Casey's eyes flashed, as she knocked on the wall and they both turned to look at her, after Derek had shown Peter, his now golden-yellow wolf eyes.

"I have access to Tye's money from before the fire, his inheritance money from Talia and your family. Because, once I became Tye's legal guardian, I was able to sign them in my name. If you want it back, you can have it." She signed quietly and Derek looked over at Peter, whose eyes were wide open at the words. "It's your guys' money, it is your family's money. Not mine." She pointed out.

Casey had gotten the money transferred out of the locked account under Tye's name and she had given it to Derek, who was glancing over at her as she sketched something. "You didn't have to give me the money you know, you could have just kept it for yourself." He said as Casey looked up at him and she shook her head.

"I definitely have enough money of my own from my parents and my job, right now, without taking his." She said and he nodded a little. "It belongs to someone with the Hale name." She softly finished as she put her book to the side.

Derek walked over and quietly, he was sitting down next to her. "Then why do you stay here?" He asked and she pointed at him, as he raised his eyebrows. "You stay for me?"

"Someone in this world, has to keep you anchored to your humanity. You can't keep using anger, Derek, surely you know that by now." Casey explained and he nodded a little.

"What happened between you and Peter, that was so bad that you hated him?" Derek asked and Casey looked at him, before she looked at the table in a solemn silence. "Case?" He asked and she swiftly pulled out her phone, as he did the same.

"I don't think, that I actually ever actually really hated him. Except for maybe, after I found out that he had killed Laura."

"What do you mean, you don't think that you ever actually hated him?" It was a valid question and Casey was typing quickly, as she was focused on the screen in front of her.

"Peter threw me out of the house fire before I burned to death. I had saved him before, back even... Even before I met you and Laura. I let him, out of a trap that my father had built for a werewolf to fall into, ideally on the full moon. I was 12 and he was fully shifted, a monster and it freaked me out. But I knew that, your guys' wolf eyes didn't lie."

"His eyes were still golden."

"I let him out of the trap and I got a beating and a half for it. But the next time Dad tried it, Peter... He nearly beat him to death. I guess that he thought that he owed me or something like that, for letting him out before my dad killed him."

"Peter saved you?" Derek asked and Casey, she nodded a little. "How does all of this factor into my question?"

"I never hated him, not really, not really even when I told myself that I did. I just wanted an excuse to not admit to myself, that I really just hated the idea of owing Peter."

"You never hated him, not really. Is that why you kept on showing up to help us? Why you helped Braeden help all of us, why you helped me to regain control on the full moon of the championships? You just didn't want to owe him?" Derek asked and Casey's nod, it answered for her. "Jesus Christ, Casey." He said and silently she looked down at the table in front of them.

"I never hated him and I'm finally, I guess, finally ready to admit it." She signed as she swiftly tucked her cell phone into her pocket and swiftly, she looked at him. "But, Derek, I still don't trust him."

"Me neither." Derek murmured and she rested her head on his shoulder as he moved his arm around her. "Love you." He said and she smiled a little.

"Love you too." Casey replied.