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'don't let the behaviour of others destroy your inner peace.' -dalai lama
"Will you get me out of here before I drown?" Derek grumbled. Charlotte and Stiles had been keeping Derek afloat for nearly an hour already, and saying that she was getting sufficiently bored, and tired, was an understatement.
Being stuck with her paralysed ex in a pool while a snake creature tried to murder them was not her idea of fun.
"You're worried about drowning? Did you notice the think out there with multiple rows of razor-sharp teeth?" Stiles snapped at him, Charlotte rolling her eyes and grunting.
"Did you notice that I'm paralysed from the neck down in eight feet of water?!" Derek yelled back him.
"First of all, its only seven feet, drama queen. Second of all, I can't see it anywhere," Charlotte grunted, trying to joke to lighten the mood, "and I really need to pee."
Stiles rolled his eyes as they both began swimming towards the edge of the pool, but Derek yelled, "wait, stop, stop!" They all watched as the creature hissed at them, circling the pool slowly, its yellow slit eyes set on them.
"What's it waiting for?" Charlotte muttered, her eyes and the boys watching it move cautiously.
"Okay, okay, I don't think I can do this much longer," Stiles said breathlessly, his eyes on his phone. She instantly knew what he was going to do.
"Stiles, don't you dare!" Charlotte yelled, thrashing in the water.
"No, no, no, no! Don't even think about it!" Derek yelled, also piecing together that he was going to attempt to get the phone.
"Could you just trust me this once?" Stiles asked.
"No!" Derek protested, and Stiles huffed, "we're the ones keeping you alive, okay! Have you noticed that?"
"Yeah? And when the paralysis wears off, who's gonna be able to fight that thing, you or me?" Derek asked rhetorically.
"That's why we've been holding you up for the past two hours?" Stiles panted.
"Yup. You don't trust me. I don't trust you-" Derek said, struggling I keep his head above the water.
"And right now I don't trust either of you! But Stiles, I can't keep him above water if you let him go," Charlotte stated, and Stiles looked between Derek, Charlotte, and his phone, before pushing Derek's arm off his shoulder, letting him sink.
Charlotte gasped a breathe of air before she dove down to the bottom, grasping Derek shoulders and kicking off the the bottom of the pool. But his weight held him down, and she grunted under the water as she swam up quickly, checking Stiles hadn't been mauled to death before she took a deep breath, diving down to the bottom again. Derek's eyes followed her as he watched her struggle relentlessly to pull him up.
