Coming Home
Title: Coming Home
Category: Teen Wolf
Characters: Derek Hale
Rating: PG
Pairings: none
Warnings: none
Summary: Tag to 1x01. That night from Derek's POV.
Disclaimer: Not mine, I'm just playing with other people's toys.
Coming Home
People in the preserve. Dogs. Flashlights. Loud. Noisy. Easy to avoid.
Just have to stay ahead of them. Find her first. Laura.
I'm telling myself it isn't Laura. That it isn't her body they've found out here. Half of her body.
Laura is missing, she isn't dead. Not until I've seen her face, not until I've smelled her scent. It isn't Laura.
They've found her on our property. Torn apart. Hunters. Hunters do that. Deep down I know it's Laura. I shake my head, I don't want it to be her.
Should have come with her. Why did I let her go alone? She's the only family I have left. I did let her go alone and now … now ...
I dash through the woods, smelling the air, searching for the scent of blood and death. Searching for Laura's scent.
There. The faint tang of blood. I follow the blood.
I'm not alone. The search group is behind me, far enough to be ignored. But there is something else. Someone else.
I pause, inhaling deeply. Deer. Panicked. Animals in panic, primeval fear. A stampede because of … a predator. Alpha. I can smell it.
I stop. Everything stops. I hear my own blood rushing in my ears, my heart beating quicker at the scent of the alpha.
He isn't here anymore, I can tell. But he has been, only minutes ago. I shudder. Slowly I move forward. The smell of blood is close now. It's here. She's here.
But there's something else. Human. Young. Something medical? I pick up the inhaler and study it for a moment. It doesn't fit in the picture. I can still smell the boy who had it in his hands only a moment ago. He has been scared just like the deer. Hunted?
Then I see her and everything else if forgotten.
It is Laura.
I drop to my knees next to her. For a moment I can only stare. Her cold dead eyes stare back. Accusing.
"Laura." I whisper. She doesn't answer. She's dead. Her lower half is missing but I pretend it's just hidden under wet leaves.
I reach for her, touch her bare shoulder. It's cold. She's cold. Dead.
I throw my head back and howl at the moon.
I don't know how long I kneel there. Nobody sees my tears.
The search group is closing in and there might still be hunters out here. And the alpha. He's gone now but he could come back.
"Laura." I say but this time I don't expect an answer. I shrug off my jacket and cover her with it. I can cover all of her with it. It's wrong.
I lift her up. She's so light. Barely weighting anything. I don't want to think about half of her body missing.
I carry her home.
"I brought you home." I say to the bundle in my arms.
This place has seen so much death but it's still my home. Our home.
I bury her at the side where she used to play in the grass when we were kids. Before the fire.
Now the grass isn't green anymore and I have to ruin what's left of it for her grave.
It's long past midnight when I lay her to rest.
I don't know what to say. I don't say anything.
I fill the grave. It becomes easier after the first layer of soil has covered her.
My body is aching and there are tears streaming down my face. I wipe them off and go back to the house to get some rope and wolfsbane.
There is no headstone for Laura. Nothing is marking her grave except for a single plant of wolfsbane. The spiral is hidden in the ground but it's there. I know it and she knows it.
It's a promise.
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