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Running
Also at AO3.
Written for the Teen Wolf fanfic contest, publishing now that the contest is over. Laura-centric, Laura and Derek. Rated G.
Laura Hale was born to be an alpha. The first time she opened her eyes, they were glowing red. She had her own pack within the pack from the moment Derek was old enough to walk and talk, and it was clear that he was going to follow Laura’s lead in everything. The two of them spent hours wandering through the woods together, playing in the creek, climbing trees. The Hale family tradition was to home-school their kids until they were old enough to be trusted to keep their human form in all situations that might come up, so the outdoors became Derek and Laura’s classroom. In the summer, their parents taught them about the cycles of life, demonstrated by the ferns uncoiling their leaves in the gully, by the tadpoles growing into frogs in the pond. In the winter, they stayed indoors and learned reading, writing, arithmetic.
Nobody ever had to teach them about pack.
The Hale house was large -- it had to be with that many people living in it. When Laura was born, there were five adults living there: her mother and father, her father’s parents, and her father’s younger sister Linda. By the time Derek was five, her father’s brother Peter and his wife had come to stay, chased out of their home in Washington by hunters who had decimated their pack. Laura was only seven, but she smelled the fear and anger on them when they arrived late at night with only the clothes on their backs. Her cousin Richard was born in one of the upstairs bedrooms only three months later. In the next ten years, Laura’s family gained an uncle by marriage and three more cousins, and lost a grandfather to old age. Laura entered Beacon Hills High School, and Derek joined her two years later.
Laura’s grandmother took her aside sometimes during the full moon, once Laura was able to control herself, but while her brother and cousins still had to be locked in the basement to keep from hurting anyone. She told Laura about what it was like to be an alpha, about using her power responsibly, about who could be trusted to help and who should be looked at with suspicion. She told her that a good alpha takes care of the pack, and protects them. Sometimes, she taught Laura how to use the chains and restraints they kept it a chest in the basement, in case she ever needed them. Sometimes, she talked about how the day would come when Laura wouldn’t be able to stay with them anymore, when the need to have her own pack would be too strong. “It’s coming,” she said on the full moon after Laura’s 16th birthday. “Not much longer now. It’s best if you can wait until you turn 18, so the humans will accept you on your own.”
On the full moon after Laura’s 18th birthday, her family was burned alive and she became the alpha of her own pack. That night was also the first time that she shifted and found herself with a muzzle, four legs, and a tail.
It took two weeks to get everything settled in Beacon Hills, two weeks in which all of Laura’s instincts told her to run as fast and as far as she could, two weeks in which Derek followed her like a silent shadow, any trace of the smiling boy he’d been wiped out. He sat beside her, cold and closed-off, while she made arrangements with the lawyers to be declared Derek’s legal guardian, while she signed life insurance paperwork, while she worked with an accountant to set up a fund to pay for her uncle Peter’s long-term care. Still, at the funeral Derek gathered her into his arms, holding her tightly and letting her breathe in the scent of pack while she cried. Even though he didn’t shed any tears himself, Laura could sense the grief settling over him like a heavy blanket.
They stayed out in the open for those two weeks, relying on crowds of innocent people to shelter them from the hunters. At night, they slept in a crowded hotel, taking a room in the middle of a hall with people on either side. At least, Laura slept -- she was fairly certain that Derek wasn’t sleeping much, if at all. He wasn’t talking to her, or anyone else, but she wasn’t going to push him. As soon as the paperwork was done, they packed up the car and headed out of Beacon Hills.
In Reno, Laura got her GED, and she enrolled Derek in an online high school program. They stayed about two months, holed up in an extended stay motel while Laura waited tables and Derek washed cars when he wasn’t studying, until a full moon when Laura smelled another alpha in the shadows and knew it was time to move on.
Salt Lake City only lasted three weeks before hunters started prowling around their doorstep. Derek started to open up again in Cheyenne, running wild through the Rocky Mountains during the full moon. They stayed for a year there, letting nature help them heal, until the itch under Laura’s skin told her to keep moving. Omaha was another pit stop, crawling with hunters; they barely stayed three days. They kept running, through Des Moines, skirting around Chicago (too many alphas, too dangerous, Laura told Derek, although they did ride the train in for a day to see some of the sights).
In the Poconos, Derek came clean to Laura and told her everything about Kate. She yelled at first, then cried, then held onto Derek like a lifeline and promised that she’d take care of him and never let anyone take advantage of him again. That night Derek was finally able to cry for the family he’d lost, forgiven for his part in the tragedy.
They stayed in the Poconos for a year. The town was small and isolated: no hunters to worry about, and no other packs for a hundred miles. Anyone dangerous who came into town was on vacation, and didn’t stay more than a week. Laura worked the front desk of a resort, and Derek led hiking trips in the summer and cross-country ski trips in the winter. He turned 18, finished high school, and got a diploma in the mail. Maybe he wasn’t the same as he’d been back in Beacon Hills, but he was smiling again, sometimes, and starting to talk about the future. When Laura dropped a pile of brochures for colleges on their dining table, Derek looked a little surprised, but hopeful. That fall they packed up and headed for New York.
Their mother had been born and raised in Brooklyn, and Derek and Laura still had family there. Laura had worked through all the possibilities in her mind already, trying to find a way that they’d be able to stay in one place long enough to finish school, and calling on family for help was the only answer. Laura spent long hours on the phone with her aunts and uncles and cousins, arranging a way to keep her own pack of two without infringing on anyone’s territory and still rely on a larger pack’s protection. Eventually they agreed that Laura and Derek could rely on their help and stay together on their own, provided that they didn’t add to their pack and that they were always there as backup against hunters when needed.
It worked well, for the most part. Full moons got a little out of hand sometimes, but Laura was satisfied, and Derek thrived -- as much as Derek was able to thrive, at least. She got an associate’s degree in website design and started doing contract work, while Derek studied environmental science and sometimes talked about wanting to be a park ranger. He put most of the insurance money he’d received on his 18th birthday into his education, but Laura humored his desire to use the rest to trade up their old car for something fancier.
When Derek got his degree, Laura knew it was time to stop running and to stop relying on others for help; it was time to step up as an alpha and take care of her pack. There was really just one thing that nagged at her like an itch between her shoulderblades that she couldn’t quite scratch: knowing that Kate Argent was out there, free, not being punished for what she’d done to the Hale family. Laura had been doing some research online, gathering information about Kate, tracking her movements. When she got a photo of a dead deer with a spiral carved into its side in an envelope with a Beacon Hills postmark, she knew exactly who had sent it.
Laura showed the photo to Derek the next day, and told him, “We’re going back to Beacon Hills. I’m not going to run or hide anymore. I’ll tie up the loose ends, and we’ll go back and build a pack again.”
All Derek said was, “When do we leave?”
Laura ended up flying out the next day, telling Derek to pack up the car and drive back to California. She didn’t want to have to lie to him about what she was going to do, and she needed to protect him by keeping him away until she could gather enough evidence to have Kate Argent thrown in jail for life. Driving solo across the country would take Derek a week, especially with a full moon in the middle to interrupt him, and by then Laura was certain she could connect enough dots to get the Sheriff’s attention. After all, she wasn’t the only one looking for justice.
Laura spent her first few days in town asking questions. She talked to the high school chemistry teacher and got him to draw Kate’s necklace. She found people who had seen Kate and Derek together, and who were prepared to testify to seeing Kate heading into the woods around the Hale house the day of the fire.
On the night of the full moon, she found Peter in the woods. He couldn’t speak, but she dug her claws into the back of his neck and entered his mind, digging through his memories for more information, finding out what sort of hell he had been living in for the past six years, understanding how badly he wanted revenge. In the end, Peter was a part of her pack too, and her responsibility. A good alpha takes care of the pack, and protects them. There was only one way to help Peter heal, to tie up loose ends, and to make sure that Kate Argent paid for what she had done.
Before she died, Laura whispered in Peter’s ear, “Take care of Derek for me.”
Written for the Teen Wolf fanfic contest, publishing now that the contest is over. Laura-centric, Laura and Derek. Rated G.
Laura Hale was born to be an alpha. The first time she opened her eyes, they were glowing red. She had her own pack within the pack from the moment Derek was old enough to walk and talk, and it was clear that he was going to follow Laura’s lead in everything. The two of them spent hours wandering through the woods together, playing in the creek, climbing trees. The Hale family tradition was to home-school their kids until they were old enough to be trusted to keep their human form in all situations that might come up, so the outdoors became Derek and Laura’s classroom. In the summer, their parents taught them about the cycles of life, demonstrated by the ferns uncoiling their leaves in the gully, by the tadpoles growing into frogs in the pond. In the winter, they stayed indoors and learned reading, writing, arithmetic.
Nobody ever had to teach them about pack.
The Hale house was large -- it had to be with that many people living in it. When Laura was born, there were five adults living there: her mother and father, her father’s parents, and her father’s younger sister Linda. By the time Derek was five, her father’s brother Peter and his wife had come to stay, chased out of their home in Washington by hunters who had decimated their pack. Laura was only seven, but she smelled the fear and anger on them when they arrived late at night with only the clothes on their backs. Her cousin Richard was born in one of the upstairs bedrooms only three months later. In the next ten years, Laura’s family gained an uncle by marriage and three more cousins, and lost a grandfather to old age. Laura entered Beacon Hills High School, and Derek joined her two years later.
Laura’s grandmother took her aside sometimes during the full moon, once Laura was able to control herself, but while her brother and cousins still had to be locked in the basement to keep from hurting anyone. She told Laura about what it was like to be an alpha, about using her power responsibly, about who could be trusted to help and who should be looked at with suspicion. She told her that a good alpha takes care of the pack, and protects them. Sometimes, she taught Laura how to use the chains and restraints they kept it a chest in the basement, in case she ever needed them. Sometimes, she talked about how the day would come when Laura wouldn’t be able to stay with them anymore, when the need to have her own pack would be too strong. “It’s coming,” she said on the full moon after Laura’s 16th birthday. “Not much longer now. It’s best if you can wait until you turn 18, so the humans will accept you on your own.”
On the full moon after Laura’s 18th birthday, her family was burned alive and she became the alpha of her own pack. That night was also the first time that she shifted and found herself with a muzzle, four legs, and a tail.
It took two weeks to get everything settled in Beacon Hills, two weeks in which all of Laura’s instincts told her to run as fast and as far as she could, two weeks in which Derek followed her like a silent shadow, any trace of the smiling boy he’d been wiped out. He sat beside her, cold and closed-off, while she made arrangements with the lawyers to be declared Derek’s legal guardian, while she signed life insurance paperwork, while she worked with an accountant to set up a fund to pay for her uncle Peter’s long-term care. Still, at the funeral Derek gathered her into his arms, holding her tightly and letting her breathe in the scent of pack while she cried. Even though he didn’t shed any tears himself, Laura could sense the grief settling over him like a heavy blanket.
They stayed out in the open for those two weeks, relying on crowds of innocent people to shelter them from the hunters. At night, they slept in a crowded hotel, taking a room in the middle of a hall with people on either side. At least, Laura slept -- she was fairly certain that Derek wasn’t sleeping much, if at all. He wasn’t talking to her, or anyone else, but she wasn’t going to push him. As soon as the paperwork was done, they packed up the car and headed out of Beacon Hills.
In Reno, Laura got her GED, and she enrolled Derek in an online high school program. They stayed about two months, holed up in an extended stay motel while Laura waited tables and Derek washed cars when he wasn’t studying, until a full moon when Laura smelled another alpha in the shadows and knew it was time to move on.
Salt Lake City only lasted three weeks before hunters started prowling around their doorstep. Derek started to open up again in Cheyenne, running wild through the Rocky Mountains during the full moon. They stayed for a year there, letting nature help them heal, until the itch under Laura’s skin told her to keep moving. Omaha was another pit stop, crawling with hunters; they barely stayed three days. They kept running, through Des Moines, skirting around Chicago (too many alphas, too dangerous, Laura told Derek, although they did ride the train in for a day to see some of the sights).
In the Poconos, Derek came clean to Laura and told her everything about Kate. She yelled at first, then cried, then held onto Derek like a lifeline and promised that she’d take care of him and never let anyone take advantage of him again. That night Derek was finally able to cry for the family he’d lost, forgiven for his part in the tragedy.
They stayed in the Poconos for a year. The town was small and isolated: no hunters to worry about, and no other packs for a hundred miles. Anyone dangerous who came into town was on vacation, and didn’t stay more than a week. Laura worked the front desk of a resort, and Derek led hiking trips in the summer and cross-country ski trips in the winter. He turned 18, finished high school, and got a diploma in the mail. Maybe he wasn’t the same as he’d been back in Beacon Hills, but he was smiling again, sometimes, and starting to talk about the future. When Laura dropped a pile of brochures for colleges on their dining table, Derek looked a little surprised, but hopeful. That fall they packed up and headed for New York.
Their mother had been born and raised in Brooklyn, and Derek and Laura still had family there. Laura had worked through all the possibilities in her mind already, trying to find a way that they’d be able to stay in one place long enough to finish school, and calling on family for help was the only answer. Laura spent long hours on the phone with her aunts and uncles and cousins, arranging a way to keep her own pack of two without infringing on anyone’s territory and still rely on a larger pack’s protection. Eventually they agreed that Laura and Derek could rely on their help and stay together on their own, provided that they didn’t add to their pack and that they were always there as backup against hunters when needed.
It worked well, for the most part. Full moons got a little out of hand sometimes, but Laura was satisfied, and Derek thrived -- as much as Derek was able to thrive, at least. She got an associate’s degree in website design and started doing contract work, while Derek studied environmental science and sometimes talked about wanting to be a park ranger. He put most of the insurance money he’d received on his 18th birthday into his education, but Laura humored his desire to use the rest to trade up their old car for something fancier.
When Derek got his degree, Laura knew it was time to stop running and to stop relying on others for help; it was time to step up as an alpha and take care of her pack. There was really just one thing that nagged at her like an itch between her shoulderblades that she couldn’t quite scratch: knowing that Kate Argent was out there, free, not being punished for what she’d done to the Hale family. Laura had been doing some research online, gathering information about Kate, tracking her movements. When she got a photo of a dead deer with a spiral carved into its side in an envelope with a Beacon Hills postmark, she knew exactly who had sent it.
Laura showed the photo to Derek the next day, and told him, “We’re going back to Beacon Hills. I’m not going to run or hide anymore. I’ll tie up the loose ends, and we’ll go back and build a pack again.”
All Derek said was, “When do we leave?”
Laura ended up flying out the next day, telling Derek to pack up the car and drive back to California. She didn’t want to have to lie to him about what she was going to do, and she needed to protect him by keeping him away until she could gather enough evidence to have Kate Argent thrown in jail for life. Driving solo across the country would take Derek a week, especially with a full moon in the middle to interrupt him, and by then Laura was certain she could connect enough dots to get the Sheriff’s attention. After all, she wasn’t the only one looking for justice.
Laura spent her first few days in town asking questions. She talked to the high school chemistry teacher and got him to draw Kate’s necklace. She found people who had seen Kate and Derek together, and who were prepared to testify to seeing Kate heading into the woods around the Hale house the day of the fire.
On the night of the full moon, she found Peter in the woods. He couldn’t speak, but she dug her claws into the back of his neck and entered his mind, digging through his memories for more information, finding out what sort of hell he had been living in for the past six years, understanding how badly he wanted revenge. In the end, Peter was a part of her pack too, and her responsibility. A good alpha takes care of the pack, and protects them. There was only one way to help Peter heal, to tie up loose ends, and to make sure that Kate Argent paid for what she had done.
Before she died, Laura whispered in Peter’s ear, “Take care of Derek for me.”