Ignite

Pizza

“Pizza’s here.” Stiles stood by the door, smiling shyly as he held the two pizza boxes and a paper bag of garlic rolls up. “It’s just cheese, I hope that’s okay.”

“It’s great, thanks.” Derek took the boxes from Stiles, offering him a small smile in return. He heard Cora moving around behind him, and glanced over his shoulder to see her craning her neck with a hungry look on her face.

“Pizza,” she whispered, licking her lips.

Stiles smiled at her and waved. “I’ll drop off breakfast in the morning. Any requests?”

“Pizza,” Cora repeated.

“Whatever you can get is fine,” Derek said, ignoring Cora’s demand. “Thanks for doing this. You really don’t have to.”

Stiles shrugged. “I don’t mind, really. I’m happy to do it.” He rubbed his hands together, taking a few steps back. “I’ll leave you to it, then. Don’t be afraid to shoot me a text if you need something, though.”

“I won’t be,” Derek promised, and closed the door.

They all sat on Cora’s bed, eating pizza and trying to pretend that everything was alright. Derek could see how hard Laura was trying to keep it together for their sakes, forcing smiles at them every couple of seconds and maintaining constant contact with Cora so she could siphon away some of her pain. Cora seemed to be alright, though every once in a while she’d stare off into the air like she was seeing it all again. Peter just laid there, completely still, and it was like he wasn’t even there in his coma. Maybe the burn was too deep for him to fix, or he didn’t have the strength, but he didn’t seem to be getting better.

“You’re healing really nicely, Cora,” Laura said gently, examining her sister with motherly concern. It was true, Cora seemed to be healing; her burns, while still bad, looked better than they had the day before, and her neck wound had started to scab over. “The nurse says they might be able to release you by the end of the week.”

Cora’s lips twitched from a smile to a frown and back again uncertainly. “Where are we going to go?” she asked, her eyes darting between Laura and Derek. “The h-house is gone. We have nowhere to go.”

“Uncle Peter has an apartment,” Laura told her gently. “A loft. We’re going to stay there for a bit until we have a better plan.” She forced another smile at Cora and tousled her sister’s hair. “It’s all going to be okay. We’re going to make it through this together.”

Cora nodded, her head sinking back onto her pillow. She mumbled a few incoherent sentences before drifting back to sleep, still holding a pizza crust in one hand. Laura took it from her gently and tossed it into the trash with the two empty boxes, and the bag that had held the garlic rolls.

Derek looked at Laura cautiously. “You think we can really do this?” he asked. “Cora’s too little to be dragged into this with us.”

Laura’s gaze was hard, determined even. “She got dragged into this when the Hunters took a match to our house,” she insisted, looking down at Cora with a frown. “We can try to give her as normal of a life as we can… set her up at the apartment and work things out on our own. I don’t know what else to do, Derek.” Her last words came out an unbidden rush of air, like she hadn’t meant to say them aloud. She looked up at Derek, and he took her hand gently.

“I know.” He had caused this. It was all his fault. “We’ll get through this as a team.”

Laura squeezed his hand. “As a pack.”