safe // derek hale [1]

feeling

The rest of the night was filled with many more nightmares. Almost every couple of hours Rosie woke up from the same nightmare. She watched Derek die in her sleep. It repeated over and over again until the last time she went back to sleep, Rosie woke up so distressed that she ended up shifting.

Derek didn't know what to do. Every time she woke up, he was awakened. He didn't mind it so much. If he could help her in any way, he would. But the last time she woke, Derek noticed something different. She was curled in a ball, on her side groaning. Her arms were hugging her knees and her eyes were shut tight. Derek immediately sprang into action. He tried shaking her awake, but that only increased her whimpering and groaning. Then that's when he heard it, a sound like bone cracking and shifting.

He rushed to the wall and flipped on the light. His eyes landed on Rosie, who was still curled into a ball in the same position, except there was two things different about her. She had pinkish-grey cat ears coming out of the top of her head and a tail peeking out of the pajama shirt she wore.

He felt like a fish out of water gaping at her tail that slowly swayed across the mattress. Back and forth, back and forth it swayed. Derek must have been staring for a while because the next thing he knew, a low purr was coming from Rosie's throat. He snapped out of it and watch as she shifted around and felt around the bed with her arm.

"Derek?" Her hoarse voice asked, slightly worried.

"I'm here." He said and rushed to her side.

Rosie's brown eyes blinked open. "What's wrong?" She asked after her eyes swept over him. "You look a little pale. Are you sick?" She reached up and placed her hand on his forehead.

Derek cleared his throat. Grabbing her hand, he placed it back on her lap. He gave it a slight squeeze before pulling it away. "No. Um, you kind of have cat ears and a tail." He said breathlessly.

Her mouth dropped open slightly, and she sat up, bringing her hands up to her ears. "They're back." After having her fill on touching her ears, Rosie felt around for her tail. She lightly petted it. "How?"

"I- I don't know. I just heard you groaning, I thought it was another nightmare. So I tried to wake you up, but then I heard this cracking sound, and next think I know, you have ears on top of your head and a tail." He explained, still astonished over what he had witnessed.

Biting her lip, Rosie gaze up at him. "We need to find out what I am."

"We do." Derek agreed, crossing his arms over his chest. "You said you weren't born like this, but do you remember anything at all? Anything that can help with finding out what exactly you are?"

"When I had first been captured, I woke up in a cage like this." She paused, and gestured towards her ears and tail. "The first couple of week were hard. I had a lot of nightmares and all of them were of the same thing. I would look down and I was strapped to a metal table. An IV was connected to me with a dark liquid going into me. I dreamt that so often, it felt real. And now, I- I think it is real. Derek, I think that really happened to me."