Charlie likes to say that not much surprises her. She does live in the supernatural world where many creatures go bump in the night. And when it does come to the supernatural, she is hardly ever surprised. No, it's always personal situations that catch her off guard so it's only fitting that the sight of Isaac sitting on her front porch, soaked from the evenings rain left her at a loss.
His blue eyes raise to meet hers when he hears her approaching and she swears his saddened, lost look pierced right through her heart. Without so much as a word, she scoops the gentle giant into her embrace and walks him inside. Once she's deposited him onto her couch, she fetches his small bag of things and sets it just inside her door.
When she joins him again, there's a new emotion in his eyes. A spark of anger and his lips quiver with it. Charlie rests a hand on his shoulder and gives him a gentle squeeze. The movement is enough to capture his attention. His eyes find hers and his jaw tightens.
"Derek kicked me out."
Yet another surprise. "What? Why?"
"He said that his hands are full with Cora there. Told me to get out and three a glass at my head."
Charlie furrows her eyebrows. What Isaac says doesn't sound like the Derek that she's come to know. It's not that she doesn't believe the teenager sitting beside her because she does. Isaac is many things but a liar is not one of them. He also wouldn't be sitting beside her if he weren't telling the truth.
She takes his hand in hers and pulls him up from the couch. When he acts like he might resist, she tugs harder. "Come on. Let's get your room set up."
"Are you sure?" He asks hesitantly. He motions to a plaque on her wall. The one that says she's an employee at Beacon High School. "A female faculty member housing a male student could reflect poorly on you."
"Isaac, you're not just a student at the school I work at. You're my friend. You're family. I don't care about the repercussions that this might impose on me. I care that you have a place to stay."
"Scott has a spare room," Isaac says. He grips tightly onto Charlie's hand. "The fact that you would risk everything to take me in means more to me than anything anyone has ever done for me. It's more than what anyone has ever done for me but I can't let you take that risk. It won't look bad on you if I stay with Scott."
Despite the horrible situation that Isaac has found himself in, Charlie finds herself smiling at him. She nods her agreement. "If it doesn't work out at Scott's, there's always a room here for you."
Isaac manages a small smile before leaning over to pull her into a hug. Even bent over, she has to raise up onto the tips of her toes to wrap her arms around his shoulders. After their brief hug, she walks him to her door where he hesitates before walking out.
"Charlie, you should know something," he says, clearly not happy with whatever he's about to tell her. His mouth opens and closes several times before he exhales sharply. "My bag wasn't the only one packed when I got to Derek's earlier. He had one with your stuff."
With that said, Isaac left Charlie standing there with a million thoughts coursing through her mind. She turns away from her door, fishing through her coat pockets for her phone. There are four missed calls, seven texts, and none of them are from Derek.
She types Stiles' phone number into the phone. There are too many problems going on around them for to fully digest what Isaac said and right now she needs to prioritize. Human killing darach trumps relationship.
"Charlie, where have you been? I've been trying to contact you for the past few hours," Stiles complains into the phone.
She sighs. It's true but she's been purposely ignoring him due to being with Argent. The two spent the past few hours attempting to find the two missing teachers from Beacon High. When nothing came up, they called it a night with plans that Charlie would return to school tomorrow with their plans to work together kept on a need-to-know basis with outsiders. Unfortunately, those outsiders included Stiles.
"Have you talked to Scott?" She asks and hears a low groan on the other side of the line.
"Yeah, and he's coming around to the idea. He knows there's something else out there."
"It's progress," Charlie murmurs quietly.
"Things are gonna get bad, aren't they?"
Charlie reaches into the waist band of her jeans and pulls out the heavy, metal object that she had secured there earlier. She recognizes the gun as the same on she used to shoot the kanima. Argent gave it to her for keeps and she had every intention on using it on the darach if necessary.
"Not if I can help it," she says. The phone in her hand beeps and she pulls it away to see Scott's name flashing on the screen. "Our mutual furry friend is calling me. We'll talk more about this later."
"Okay," Stiles replies and ends the call.
"What can I do for you Scott?"
A desperate voice reaches her ears. "I think Derek is intending to try and kill the alphas and I need your help to stop him."
"What can I do?"
"Derek listens to you. Talk to him."
Charlie frowns as Isaac's words race through her mind. It's enough to make her doubt Scott's words. "Derek is stubborn, Scott. If he's planning to take out Deucalian's pack, I'm not sure there's much I can say to stop him."
"Please try. There's already been too much bloodshed." And with that, the line clicks off.
Charlie sighs before shoving her phone back into her coat pocket. Looks like she's speaking with Derek after all.
...
The loft is dark and cold and there's a bitter, metallic scent in the air. One that smells a lot like blood. Charlie takes several small steps until she stands in the middle of the loft.
At first glance, the place appears to be empty but Charlie knows better. She knows that he's here, watching and waiting to see what she does. Her eyes fall on a duffle bag and she forces herself to approach it with calm, casual steps. She unzips it to find her things packed neatly inside.
"Are you planning to come out and explain or are you just going to hide in the shadows until I leave?" She calls out to the darkness. When he does nothing, she let's out a humorless laugh and pulls the strap of the duffel bag over her shoulder.
"I know what you're doing, Derek. My senses may not be as sharp as a werewolf's but I do know the scent of blood when I smell it. Something happened here today. Something that scared you. Just be careful of how you push people away. They may not come running when you decide you need them."
And with that, Charlie turned on her heel and marched out of the loft. She barely makes it to her car before she allows herself to feel the warm, loving tenderness in her heart begins to slip away and be replaced with the fierce determination of the girl she once was.
A/N: *sigh* Poor Charlie. Poor Derek. Now the two must figure out how to get along now that he's kicked her out of his loft and heart (sort of.) I love that you guys love Charlie and Derek together but I kind of need them to be broken up for a bit. So, do I need to hide behind something?
