𝐂𝐎𝐌𝐄 𝐃𝐎𝐖𝐍 𝐒𝐎𝐎𝐍, derek hale ✓

𝐅𝐈𝐅𝐓𝐄𝐄𝐍

┏━━━━⋆°.☾⋆.ೃ࿔*:⋆━━━━┓

THE VERY LAST NIGHT

EMERSON WAS GRADUATING.

Not that she thought she wouldn't, but seeing her completed transcript of flourishing grades made it so much more real.

No— what made it real was standing in her bedroom, sitting on her bed as she looked at the two dress options she had hanging off her ajar closet door the night before.

Emerson never really wore dresses, because in the event of an emergency, she'd need something she could run in. But this was her graduation, for crying out loud, and the fact that Hannah had gotten her two dresses was more than a treat. It made her head thrum with excitement for the following morning, and the following morning alone.

One last day of freedom before she had a job to complete, hence why it was taking her so long to decide on the perfect dress.

The first one was white, went up to her mid thigh, and had a square neckline that was paired with spaghetti straps. The other was strapless, a little longer than the first, and had gem embellishments near the white belt it had come with.

Emerson never knew such a decision could be so hard, and yet here she was.

She'd been so deep in thought that she hadn't recognized her window sliding open until the figure who entered through it caught her eye. Emerson pushed herself upright, leaning against the wall as the man took in the state of her room, from the dresses to the half-full duffle bag on the floor.

"Haven't you ever heard of a door?" she asked the man plainly, an eyebrow quirked as a means of chastising him. "You're such a Neanderthal."

Derek stood in place, her belittling words not really having too much of an effect on him anyways, it seemed. "Isaac said you're graduating tomorrow," he recounted, hands going into his pockets as he looked at her. "He also said you've been dodging his calls for the past couple of days."

"So you're his messenger?" Emerson swallowed around nothing, her gaze averting back to the dresses to avoid his piercing eye contact. "I've been busy."

His eyes narrowed; he didn't believe her. "He talks about you a lot, y'know," he began, and Emerson felt guilt crawl up her throat when he approached the opened duffle bag. "Strange that he never mentioned the obvious trip you're going on. He doesn't know, does he?"

The two blonds had gotten closer as of late, with their weekly tutoring sessions and the amount of times he'd been over at her house. If Emerson was granted more time, she knew they'd be well on their way to becoming the best of friends— like how she and Elizabeth were.

And oh, how she didn't even want to think about her calls that she'd been dodging too. 

"It's a graduation trip," she lied, knowing from experience that the best way to leave was to do so without a sound. "Won't be gone for long."

"The uptick of your heartbeat just then tells me otherwise."

Her eyes closed on their own for a beat. "You love to pry into business that isn't yours, don't you?"

"You love deflecting, don't you?" he quipped in return, making Emerson level a glare in his direction. "Yeah, I've noticed."

"Well un-notice!" she snapped, standing up to close her bedroom door. The last thing she needed was to wake Hannah up, but in doing so, she found herself standing less than a foot away from Derek. "I'm going on a trip, yes. As for Isaac, tell him I—"

"Where are you going?" he prodded further.

"Another interrogation?" she tried, but he only blinked in her direction, wholly unamused. She bit the inside of her cheek, letting out an agitated huff.

"I'm leaving, Derek. Is that what you want to hear?"

Now, the man only looked confused, maybe due to the fact that he half expected her heart to uptick again. But it didn't: she was telling the truth.

"What do you mean you're leaving?"

"It means just that," she sighed, returning to her place perched on her bed. He followed, though remained standing near the side of it while she pulled herself near the headboard. Distance. "I was never going to stay. I've never stayed in a place longer than I have here, and that's not a good thing."

There was a pause, silence washing over them before Derek rephrased the very words she'd heard him say before. Words she didn't like to hear out loud, even though they were full of nothing but the truth.

"You're not hiding from something," he started, and internally he knew he was correct when her lip curled back, "you're hiding from someone."

He can't get involved. No more people can get involved. The voice in her head was nagging, like a car alarm. He was trying to break in.

"It doesn't matter," she rushed out, trying to dismiss the fact. "It doesn't matter because it ends. Tomorrow."

Derek's eyebrows furrowed. "You sound pretty sure about that."

"I've been planning this for years. Everything I've done will be for nothing if I don't go," she explained as best as she could. "I know loss like it's my friend, and I know that you know it just as well."

His collected demeanour faltered for a split second, so quickly that she would've missed it had she not been looking so intently at him. She couldn't identity the emotion that flickered like a candle, blown out before one could get a second look at the flame.

"I could help you."

Emerson scoffed. "No," she outright denied, already shaking her head. "It's bad enough I got caught up in your shit, but I won't have you interfering wi—"

He crowded into her space. "How long have you been running, huh?"

The blonde never really knew when it started, just that running from place to place at any sign of the bad man was all she ever did. She tried to joke about it. "Since I learned how to walk."

He swore under his breath, and it almost had her flinching away. "I know you think you have to do everything by yourself, but you don't."

"I do, though," she stressed, and she couldn't help but grip his forearm with a kind of desperation he hadn't seen from her. "This is my fight. I won't have you take this from me."

It dawned on Derek that perhaps Emerson wasn't just denying his aid because she felt self-righteous, because she was too good for his help. Perhaps she had been denying his help because she wanted the satisfaction herself, because she didn't want anyone to steal the victory she had longed for since she could walk.

"If you had a shot at revenge, wouldn't you take it?"

Derek thought about it, thought about her words the entire walk home once it was clear she was set in her ways. He would report his findings back to Isaac, and knew what crestfallen chemosignals would soon be wading around as a result.

From the short time he'd gotten to know her, he knew that Emerson Avery was not easily swayed. She would do whatever she wanted, and if her plans didn't include you, there was nothing that could be done.

She'd be gone by the next nightfall, he was sure of it.

⋆°.☾⋆.ೃ࿔*:⋆

[ wyn's note ]

derek "i don't use doors" hale, everybody.

i think the reason why derek wants to help emerson so badly is because she's helped him quite a lot (like an eye for an eye situation).

but em's a tough (albeit self destructive) cookie LMAO they're more alike than they think tbh... or mayhaps derek is starting to think so too