SYMMETRY ➽ D. HALE [1]

33 ; promises

33 ➽ PROMISES

"What all did your mother tell you?" Deaton asked, leaning against the front counter of the veterinary office. While Scott and Stiles were out celebrating the group's victory, Elise had walked to Deaton's office to search for something that could tell her more about her past. She knew about her father's life in Beacon Hills, but there was so much that must have had happened before that. Elise only hoped that she could find enough to grapple control over her abilities before something happened that she wouldn't be able to recover from.

"She didn't know much. My birth father's name was Perry Kidwell. She said that he died of a heart attack when I was a baby, just a few months after we moved here. He didn't have any living relatives. They all died in some crazy accident," Elise explained from where she stood, hip leaning against the wall.

"Kidwell?" Deaton asked, prompting a nod from the brunette. His brows furrowed in confusion.

"What is it?"

"The Kidwell's weren't killed in an accident, Elise. They were murdered," Deaton explained.

"Wait, did you know them?" Elise asked, her attention peaking.

He shook his head. "Not personally. They were a family of witches. Powerful ones. It would have taken a lot to kill them all."

"Do you mean hunters?" Elise asked. Part of her was glad that she had been too young to remember her birth family, as it likely saved her a lot of grief. On the other hand, it meant that she didn't have anyone to guide her abilities. She didn't have a mentor, a teacher.

"No. Something much more powerful."

"Like what?"

Deaton shook his head, clearly just as perplexed as the younger girl. "Is there anything else that you can remember? Perhaps something in the files you went through?"

"Nothing," Elise confessed, rubbing the bridge of her nose in frustration.It seemed as if this visit was only leaving her with more questions than she'd had when she arrived. At least I know what I am, she thought. Partially, at least.

"Perhaps if we knew anything about your birth mother, we could-"

"Wait!" Elise exclaimed, cutting Deaton off mid-sentence. "I had a vision yesterday. Well, I don't really know if I'd count it as a 'vision' because I didn't see anything, but I did hear something." Deaton looked at her attentively, prompting her to continue. "There were these two women talking- well, more like yelling, really- about something. One woman, the other lady called her 'Everett', was screaming that she wanted to see her baby. The second woman was pretty set on making sure that didn't happen."

"Everett, you said?" Deaton inquired, the corners of his lips twitching into an unreadable expression.

Elise nodded. "You look like you've heard that name before."

"Maybe. I knew a clairvoyant by that name a long time ago. It's not the rarest name, though." Deaton sighed, "But if your vision was about who I think it was, things might start to make more sense."

"Why?" she asked, standing up straighter. "Do you think Everett might be my birth mother?"

"Possibly," Deaton said, his response quickly cut and blunt. Elise could tell that there was something he was holding back.

"What aren't you telling me?"

Deaton sighed, turning to face the girl fully. "Elise, when two people with supernatural abilities that differ from the other have a child, he or she is nearly always born without abilities, if at all."