"Hey!" Sam happily exclaimed as she dropped her book bag to the floor and rushed forward, throwing herself in Derek's arm as she leaned up and kissed him.

"Hey yourself." He mumbled against her lips with a smile of his own.

Her stomach was immediately in flutters at his touch.

"I'm happy for you guys... really, but do you have to do this right in front of me?" Isaac complained as he picked an iPod up from Sam's computer desk and started to look through the songs.

Sam stepped back, her cheeks darkening, she looked across her room to where Isaac was sitting.

"Uh, sorry... I didn't know you were here. I'm just excited." She announced with a smile.

Smirking, Isaac didn't take his eyes off the iPod as he teased, "Excited... aroused... something like that."

Her eyes widened and her mouth hung open in shock, she glanced to Derek who looked at her, obviously trying to hold back a laugh or at least a smile.

"That's not what I meant, Isaac!" She said, rolling her eyes and hoping her cheeks would lose their new found red hue. "School's out for summer, which you might know if you'd made it to the last half of your classes."

"Nah." He responded nonchalantly, dropping the electronic device to the desk with a small thud.

Then she looked between them and finally asked, "Wait? What are you doing here?"

"There is something you both need to see." Derek finally said, his eyes lingering on Sam as he turned and headed for the door.

Once the trio walked outside of the house, Sam looked up to see Derek's new car, parked on the side of the street, with Peter Hale leaning against it, eyeing the house.

"What is he doing here?" She asked, she knew Derek had been talking to his uncle lately and it worried her.

It wasn't just the stories she'd heard from Derek about Peter; it was a feeling she got the first time she laid eyes on him.

He wasn't someone who could be trusted;she could feel it in her bones.

"Nice to see you too, little wolf." Peter greeted with a smug smirk.

Ignoring him, she looked to Derek who instructed everyone to get in the car.

Just as she started to get into the middle seat beside Isaac her mom pulled up in the driveway.

"Hey mom." Sam greeted, hopeful.

Shutting the car door Amanda looked over, her eyes only briefly looking over the three male werewolves her daughter was leaving with.

"Hello Samantha."

Frowning at her mother's emotionless tone, Sam looked down to the ground for a few seconds.

"Uh, Jake is staying at a friends tonight, I dropped him off after school."

Her mother seemed to be looking at everything but her own daughter as she protested, "It's a school night."

"Today was the last day." She reminded her.

Amanda sighed at herself, not sure how she could have forgotten that. She opened her mouth to ask Sam where she was going, but then stopped.

"There is left over lasagna in the fridge... in case you're hungry later." She called after her mother, watching as she nodded briefly before going inside the house without another glance at her.

As Derek pulled away from the house, Isaac looked over and asked, "She's still not really talking to you, huh?"

Shrugging Sam glanced up to see Derek watching her in the rearview mirror.

Looking out of the car window, she thought to herself of how that was probably the most her mom had said to her since finding out she was a werewolf.

Not that they had ever had a super close relationship, but now it felt more like they were barely acquaintances who passed one another in the hallway at random times without talking.

Of course it wasn't like Sam had really made an effort to talk things out, she'd been busy trying to finish the last few weeks of school and spending everyday with Derek helping Jackson with controlling his werewolf side.

A few days prior, Jackson's dad had moved him to London.
There were just too many questions and talk in the small town about how the teenager could even be alive.

It wasn't until she heard car doors opening that she realized they'd came to a stop, outside of the burnt remains of the Hale house.

"What are we doing here?" Isaac practically stole the words from Sam's mouth as he looked at the house.

"When there's a new alpha, people take notice." Peter spoke.

"People like who?" Isaac questioned, but Sam's eyes had already landed on the unfamiliar symbol painted on the old, charred door.

"You haven't told them everything?" Peter asked his nephew, who was watching Sam as she headed up onto the porch to get a better look at it.

Isaac started to ask what was going on, but Peter started talking again, "Why do you think Derek was in such a hurry to build his pack; so eager to strengthen his power and the numbers?"

His voice was grating on her nerves.
Sam turned and said, "We might know if you gave someone else the chance to speak."

Peter let out a small laugh under his breath as he held his hands up in surrender and leaned against a tree.

Taking a deep breath, Derek crossed his arms over his chest as he nodded to the door beside Sam and said, "It's their symbol... it means they're coming."

"Another pack?" Isaac guessed as he joined Samantha on the porch.

"Not just any pack... a pack of alphas." He clarified.

"Oh my god." She breathed out in shock, not even sure how the pack dynamic would work.

"An alpha pack." Peter nodded, "And they're not just coming, they're already here."

"You're sure?" Isaac questioned.

"They've got Boyd and Erica." Derek finally admitted.

A gentle wind blew through the trees and birds chirped from above. Samantha jumped off the porch, landing perfectly on the parched summer grass as she questioned, "They took them? You're sure?"

Derek nodded.

"What do we do then?" Isaac quietly asked, worried about his pack mates.

"Cut our losses."

Everyone shot Peter a disapproving look and he asked, "What? Seems like the best option to me."

"Why would they even take them?" She questioned, keeping her eyes on Derek and determined to not humor Peter.
It was obvious he liked being the center of attention.

Derek gave a slight shrug as he answered, "To draw me out... show how easily they can get to my pack, I'm not sure."

He paused to look around then said, "What I am sure of is that we need to find them as soon as possible. And that if anyone wants out, I need to know now."

"You're saying they might take us too?" Isaac guessed.

"I'm saying that going up against a pack of alphas, isn't going to be easy. There's a chance that they might just kill whoever stands in their way. It's a risk we all need to be willing to take." Derek instructed them.

Peter wandered off back towards the car.

"I'm in." Isaac said.

"You already know my answer." Sam agreed with a nod.

Derek nodded in approval at what was left of his pack, once he started back for the car, Isaac questioned, "What about Scott?"

Pausing and glancing over his shoulder, Derek said, "Scott's trying to get back to a... semi-normal life at least. We're not telling him."

~(A week later)~

"Samantha." Amanda said as her daughter walked in the back door of the kitchen.

"Hey mom."

"It's, uh, it's going on 2am." She said as she took a drink of her coffee and sat it down on the island.

"It's not like I have school tomorrow... and when have you ever cared how late I was out?" A look of confusion spread over her face.

For her to be sitting up in the middle of the night drinking coffee, she'd clearly been keeping herself awake for this.

"I think it's time to talk... about you, about everything." Amanda said, as she let out the breath she'd been holding in her lungs.

A small relieved smile spread over her lips as she walked to the other side of the island to face her. Finally, maybe now things could go back to normal at home for her.

Scott's mom had a hard time in the beginning but she'd been able to work past it and be there for her son. If Melissa could deal with her only child being a werewolf, then maybe just maybe her own mom could deal with one of her children being one.

Plus, Aunt Alice seemed to be handling everything fairly well.

"You're a... uh, you're... not –human."

"You can say werewolf." Sam assured her, shifting her stance on the tile floor.
It wasn't like the proper term was a dirty word.

"I don't even know you anymore." Amanda whispered, clutching onto the glass mug.

"I'm still me." Sam frowned.

"Standing here and looking at you, -you look like my daughter, but every time I close my eyes all I can see is your eyes... and this face that shouldn't belong to you, a face that's not human..."

Sam looked down to the counter top as she slowly nodded.

"But it's not just you haunting me. I see Derek... his face and those red eyes. And then I can't understand how you can even look at him, knowing what he is... and the more I think about him, the more I can't even look at you."

Her eyes widened slightly, it felt like the air had been knocked out of her.

Reaching across the counter and shakily taking her daughter's hand, she pleaded with teary eyes, "So Sam, please. Tell me that he tricked you or forced you into becoming this –monster. Because the daughter I knew, would have never wanted any part of this."

Her eyes locked with her mom's as she didn't know she was crying until she felt a few tears slide her down cheeks, "You haven't known me for a really long time. How could you really? You spend 90% of your time locked in your room. I go to school and I have a job... my god mom, I cook and clean and if I didn't get the mail and remind you what bills needed to be paid, we wouldn't have electricity right now. When Jacob needs something, I'm the one he comes to. Not you!"

"That is not fair, Samantha Rae. You have no idea what I've been through." She said, her voice louder than she'd intended for it be.
Her eyes quickly went cold.

Sam cringed at the use of her middle name. Her mom had chosen the more feminine spelling of Ray, which was her dad's name.

She hated it, hated feeling like she always had a part of him attached to her.

"You weren't the only one who went through it, Jake and I did too. I'm sorry for everything that has happened to you, mom. I truly am. But you know what? You let dad win, for every single day that you spend in your room, disconnected from your life and from us... you let him win. Stop using what happened to you as an excuse." She blurted out, immediately wishing she could take most of it back.

"You have no idea-" She tried to go back to her original argument.
The same one she'd whipped out on Sam over the years to shut a conversation down and get her way.

"I sort of do." Sam cut her off, "You were there at the police station when Matt shot me. And I didn't tell you but not long after that, something else really, really bad happened to me and I almost died."

Sam's eyes lingered on the scar on her mom's neck and she thought of how she didn't bear a physical mark for when the same thing happened to her; but she did have the emotional scars from it.

"Being what I am let me heal fast enough that I survived." She blinked rapidly, her tears burning her eyes like a lit match, "But Mom, I almost died."

Her head tilted to the side, eyes searching and pleading for understanding.

The night Gerard had slit her throat, after she'd washed what she could of the blood off and came home, all she wanted to do was tell her mom what happened.

She couldn't remember a single time in her entire life when she'd yearned for just a simple hug from her mom.
How badly she'd wanted to go crawl into bed with her and just let it all out; just cry and have her mom hold her and tell her how everything would be okay.

Even now, Sam would have settled to just hear her mom say that she was glad she'd survived.

But didn't.
Instead Amanda watched her with tears flowing down her own face, silently begging for Sam to follow the narrative she'd laid out.
To lie and say that becoming a werewolf had been forced upon her instead of something she chose to become, to make it an easier pill for her mom to swallow.

To comfort her instead.
The very thing Sam had been doing long before the night her dad tried to kill her mom.

For as far back as she could remember, she did everything she could to be there for her mom.
To show up for her in ways a child shouldn't have too.

When she'd gotten big enough to try and do something about her dad's abuse, she'd get between them and try to protect her mom.

Ray had only managed to lay his hands on Jacob a couple of times because Sam was always right there to take the beatings for him.

"You are not my daughter." Amanda choked out, "And I'm not so sure there's a place here for you."

A memory resurrected from deep within her mind, long since buried among the trauma she'd grown up enduring.

A night not too long before he'd snapped and tried to kill her mom, when her dad had stumbled home from the bar drunk and ready for a fight.

Sam had heard him come in the house and she'd gotten Jacob out of bed, put him in his closet with a portable CD player containing her favorite CD at the time, a Britney Spears one, and told him to keep the headphones up as loud as they'd go and not to come out until she came back for him.

Something felt different that night, she'd known it the minute her dad walked into the house.

It was a level of terror she hadn't felt before.
Her dad's alcohol fueled ramblings were of things that made no sense, the only thing she could piece together was him saying he was going to kill her mom.

She'd heard him rifling through drawers in the kitchen; she assumed at the time, looking for a knife.

Sam had tried to be as quiet as possible and sneak into the living room to grab the portable phone to call 911, truly believing he meant everything he'd said and was going to kill her mom.

Only, in her panic, she'd knocked the charging base of the phone off the table and his focus turned to her.

She'd grabbed the phone and ran as quick as her little socked feet would carry her back up the stairs, screaming for her mom as she ran.

When she reached the closed door of her parent's room, she realized it was locked.

She could hear her mom crying inside of the room and Sam beat her fists on the door screaming out for her, but she was left to fend for herself that night.

The rest of it was mostly a blur.
Her dad jerking the portable phone from her hand and hitting her with it so hard in the head that her entire body spun around the impact.

She'd lost the vision in her right eye for nearly an entire week after that.
She could remember being terrified she'd go blind.

Most of all, what had stuck with her was the feeling hit her of knowing that her mom was right on the other-side of a door and did nothing to intervene.

"Not your daughter?" Sam repeated her words back to her, "Is that what you told yourself when you heard dad beating the shit out of me and you didn't do anything about it?

Amanda averted her eyes, trying to focus on anything else in the room rather than have to look her daughter in the eyes.

Oh, how strong denial can be.
If you don't have to look something in the face then you don't have to admit it's real.

Sam knew it would be easier for her mom to kick her out and pretend she didn't know what Sam was than to live with her.
Apparently, just having her in the house was too much for her to handle.

Sam shook her head, "I'm still me, just a stronger version of me. A version that fought and survived and wants to live, but I am still me."

"I can't live under the same roof as a werewolf." She said as she started to stand up.

Sam looked around the kitchen and angrily shook her head.
All of this time.

All of these years that she had done absolutely everything she could to keep them going; and how easily she could be dismissed.

Taking a breath she continued, "You want me to move out, fine... I'm gone. But that isn't going to solve anything."

Her mom stared at her in silence as Samantha headed up the stairs to her room.

Gathering mainly her clothes, she packed them into a few duffel bags, before stopping by her brother's room and waking him up. She told Jake that she was going to stay with friends for a while, but he should call her if he needed anything.

When she got back downstairs, her mom was still in the kitchen.

"You need to talk to Aunt Alice, let her know that you'll need Jake to stay with her for a while." Sam spoke in a hushed tone.

"Why would I do that?" Amanda looked genuinely confused.

"Because I won't be here and he needs someone to look after him."

"I can take care of him." She argued with her teenager.

"No, you can't." Sam crossed her arms over her chest, "That's the problem, Mom. You can't even take care of yourself and I'm not going to let him pay the price for you kicking me out."

"Your brother is fine."

Sam stared at her, shocked at how much her mom actually seemed to believe that.

"Call Aunt Alice-" Sam started to repeat, but her mom cut her off, "I said no, Samantha!"

Closing her eyes, Sam took a deep breath.
When she opened them, they were glowing yellow.

Her mom gasped and gripped onto the countertop, her fingers blanched white from the pressure.

"Yes, you will." Sam growled at her.

The fear was palpable. She could feel it in the air, taste it on her tongue.
She'd terrified her; and for her brother's sake, Sam had to pretend that it didn't bother her.

If her mom wanted to look at her like a monster, then Sam would let her believe that she was one, capable of anything if it meant Jacob would be in a better environment than alone in that house with mother.

Without another word to her, Sam grabbed her bags and left out the same door she'd entered the house though.

By the time she'd made it back to her car, tears were pouring down her face again.
Her chest ached. Physically hurt.

She pressed a balled up hand against the center of her chest with her hand and tried to force a deep breath.

It was well over an hour later that she pulled to a stop near the entrance to Derek's hideout.

She'd taken an extremely scenic route to try and clear her head, to catch her breath and at the very least get her tears under control before seeing Derek and Isaac.

Gathering the bags from her car, she took another breath and tried to find a center before heading down the stairs.

Derek looked up at her, "Sam?"
He was surprised to see her.

His eyes went to the bags in her hands. When she got closer he could see how red her eyes were and the blotchy discoloration on her cheeks.

"Hey." She said, her voice barely over a whisper.

"What happened?"

She glanced down to the bags in her hand before sighing and quietly saying, "Ask me that in the morning."

"It's okay." Derek's voice was soft as he crossed the space between and them pulled her into his arms.

Sam dropped the bags and grasped onto him, her hands balling up the dark fabric of his jacket.

She took another breath and this time it felt like it fully reached her lungs. For the first time all night it was like the oxygen actually reached her cells.

The calmness she felt in his arms was something she wouldn't ever take for granted.

That feeling of being entirely on her own had sunk deep into being that night when she was just a kid at the mercy of her father's anger and mother's neglect.
It was something she'd carried with her every single day of her life -until she met Derek.

He was her person.
The calm in the storm.
Her bit of peace in all the chaos.

~(A week later)~

Sam tucked her phone back in her jacket pocket once she finished texting her brother to check on him.

"So, what are we doing here? Another lead on the alpha pack?" Sam questioned as she stepped out of the car and looked up to the large, dark, imposing building.

"No." Derek paused watching her as she stared at the building. "This actually doesn't have anything to do with the alpha pack."

"Oh?"

"Come on." Derek said as he grabbed her hand and pulled her towards a side entrance.

She bit down on the side of her bottom lip as she looked at their connected hands, still amazed how even the slightest touch from him set her senses on fire.

"What is this place..." She breathed out as he held the door open and she walked into a hallway with high ceilings and rust speckled support beams strategically placed throughout the area.

Hearing a clank she looked over to see him open the doors to an old freight elevator, normally she'd never get on an elevator like that. But she followed him anyways, growing more curious as to where they were and why he'd only brought her instead of Isaac too.

When the doors opened he stepped out and she followed him as he opened a door and walked in, glancing at him before she realized they were inside of a loft.

Her wide eyes immediately went to the main focal point of the room, a large window with an industrial view of the city.

There was a desk in front of the window, a spiral staircase off to the side near a blue couch with a worn coffee table in front of it.

"What is this place...?" She asked, eyes wide with wonder.

Derek couldn't hold back a smile at seeing her reaction as she immediately rushed over to the window to see the view with a smile on her face.

He lived for this.
These moments within the disarray when he got to see smile; see her happy.

"I just thought, with you and Isaac both there the underground station is getting too cramped... we need a bigger space." He admitted walking closer to her, "A more permanent space."

"It's perfect!" She exclaimed turning to face him with a smile.

Her eyes traveled to a large, full length antique mirror propped against a far wall.
The furniture was all sparse, and what was there didn't match at all.

You could tell he'd done the decorating all by himself, from the lack of decoration.
The place reminded her of him, and because of that it already felt like home.

"Why didn't you say you were working on getting a bigger space for all of us?" She asked.

"There were something's I needed to work out first." He vaguely answered.

"Uh..." He said looking around before nodding to a hallway off to the side, "Bathroom and closet space."

Nodding in the other direction to an open doorway he continued, "Kitchen."

Her eyes were still on the closet area by the bathroom as she playfully gasped, "You mean I can actually hang my clothes up instead of keeping them in a duffel bag?"

He laughed, "You might need to check for spiders before you start hanging anything up."

With wide eyes she responded, "Maybe I'll just keep them in the bag..."

He smiled at her and she couldn't help but smile back.

Even with all the bad she'd been facing lately, her pack mates missing and her mom kicking her out of the house she'd still had plenty of small things to be thankful for, most of all that she'd been spending so much time with Derek.

The looming threat of the alphas didn't seem near as dire to her as everything with Gerard had felt, and because of that she could finally take some time to breathe.

And even though she wouldn't admit it, a small part of her felt lighter after leaving home.
She didn't feel as weighed down knowing she didn't have to go back to that house every night.

Her eyes traveled over to where there was a bed tucked away in the corner, and she opened her mouth.

Then her cheeks darkened slightly and she changed her mind.

He looked back at her when she started to say something but then stopped.
"What is it?"

Her eyes drifted from the bed, back to where he was standing, and she managed to get her nerves under control as she questioned, "So, where am I supposed to sleep?"

He watched her closely, trying to determine what answer she wanted him to give her.
Every time they'd kissed and things started to go too far, she'd stopped it.

Deciding to answer her with the safe choice he glanced up to the ceiling, and explained, "There's more space upstairs... another bathroom and a few rooms that could be used as bedrooms."

Looking down to the floor for a few moments, she quickly snapped her gaze back up to his face and before she lost the nerve said, "We could both sleep here... you know, together."

She closed her eyes and was thankful the lighting was bad in the loft, because she could only imagine how dark her face was.

"Sam?" Derek questioned, still watching her intently.

She peered at him from under her dark lashes, knowing exactly what she wanted and who she wanted it to be with.

Stepping forward she kissed him, allowing her brain to take a break from all they worrying as she got lost in the moment with him.

When his strong, muscular arms wrapped around her she smiled into the kiss, knowing that it didn't matter if they were living out of an abandoned stop from the old subway, or this sparsely furnished loft, she didn't care as long as she was with him.

And if she could go back and get over her insecurities so much faster and get past their useless disagreements to get to this stage, she'd turn time back in a heartbeat.
But that was impossible; all she could do was appreciate every moment she got to share with him now.

She was still very aware of the danger they lived in every single day.

Placing her palm flat against his chest she could feel the steady, but hastened beat beneath his skin, and that feeling was everything to her; proof not only that he was alive and well, but also that she had the same effect on him as he did on her.

Pulling back from the kiss, his eyes searched her face, knowing exactly what she wanted he questioned, "Are you sure?"

Leaning up and pressing her lips to his again she held onto his arms that were still wrapped around her as she quietly responded, "Yeah... I am."

Their eyes locked for a few intense moments before his mouth reclaimed hers and she arched against him with the feeling of his hands firmly rubbing down her sides.

This time it was her turn to break the kiss as she started to explain, "When Gerard had us in that warehouse... with that knife to my neck-"

"You want to talk about Gerard, right now?" He questioned with a confused half-smile.

Her head fell back with a laugh, "It's just... I knew the chances of both of us making it out of there alive were slim to none. And you know how so many people say before you die you have this replay of everything you've went through in life?"

His arms tightened around her, he remembered that night perfectly clear. The sound of the knife tearing through her flesh, the thud of her limp body falling to the floor, it was a night he'd never be able to forget; no matter how desperately he wanted too.

"I had some of that, flashes of my past and all. But mainly, I was thinking of all the things I'd never get to do in life, all the experiences I was going to miss out on. I know we're in danger, probably will be for the rest of our lives. I don't know if I'm going to live another sixteen years or another day. I want to experience... everything." She said with a small laugh, as she smoothed her hair from her flushed cheeks.

She wanted to live.

With a small smile, he questioned, "So I'm just a means to an end, huh?"

She leaned in, grinning against his lips as she whispered, "I think we both know you're so much more than that to me."

It wasn't long before his fingers were tangled in her hair, their mouths moved hungrily together.
Heat pooled in her stomach and she swallowed hard; it felt like the entire room was heating up by the second.

Sam's hands moved down his upper body until they reached the end of his dark gray t-shirt.

Their lips were only separated long enough for her to pull shit shirt off and briefly take in the sight of his bare muscled frame; a sight which immediately made her mouth dry and palms sweaty.

His mouth trailed from her lips down the side of her neck she desperately clutched onto his upper arms, a small moan escaping her lips at the feeling of his scorching breath against her sensitive skin.

Her heart was racing, every breath sounded like a gasp for air.

Feeling the muscles under his skin move beneath her trembling fingers, with his every movement, she thought her heart was going to stop when she felt him start to unzip the back of her simple floral and lace summer dress.

He felt her freeze up, her body tensed.
Derek looked at her. Now would normally be about the time she'd twist out of his arms, rambling off one excuse or another.

But instead of an excuse he was met with a small nod from her, letting him know it was okay.

Her dress joined the steadily growing pile of clothes on the slightly dusty floor as she moved over to the bed and sat down, scooting back some. Not taking her eyes off of him as he joined her, and the passion of the moment only intensified between them.

Sam had known how she felt about Derek long before Erica had ever asked about it the night her pack broke apart.
They hadn't said it out loud, but Sam knew he loved her back.

She could see it in his eyes when looked at her; feel in the care he took when touching her.

~(A little over a week later)~

Derek pulled his car to a stop outside of the local pizza place and looked over to Sam as she checked her phone and seemed to keep fidgeting.

"Why do you keep checking your phone like that?" He questioned but was met by the car door shutting instead of an answer when she bolted from the car.

"Just waiting for my brother to text me." She answered, checking the screen again before dropping the device into her purse and internally promising she'd wait a while before checking it again.

As they got closer to the door, she looked over and saw Stiles sitting on one of the tables outside.
Her eyes widened when he also caught sight of her and shot her a confused look.

"Uh, I'll meet you back out here." Sam quietly said as she raised up and gave Derek a quick kiss before he waked inside, he gave her another disbelieving look as the door shut between them.

"What are you doing here, where's your mom and brother?" Stiles questioned as he walked over to her.

"They're fine, at home." She quickly answered.
She looked around them, feeling antsy.

"Yeah, with a police detail... which is where you should be." His honey-brown eyes were wide.

Nodding back towards the semi-crowded pizza place, she said, "I'm with Derek, so I think I'm probably the safest I can be right now."

"Yeah, you and Derek... I uh, I saw that." Stiles said with an awkward laugh.

"Yeah." Sam said with a small laugh of her own.

"So, how's that working out..." He questioned when he couldn't think of anything else to say.
Truth was, Derek still scared him.

"I don't know, kind of weird... I guess." Sam said with a shrug.

"Because of the whole creepy, silent, intense stare thing?" He asked, causing her to laugh.

"No, I mean, it's strange being in public with him." She tried to explain.

Since her pack had moved into the loft, she'd been spending even more time with Derek, which she certainly wasn't complaining about.
But when they were out in public, she always felt like people were staring at them.

Now that Gerard was gone, Derek was able to come and go as he pleased without having to stay in hiding.

"Oh, because of his threatening appearance?" Stiles guessed, causing her to laugh again, even though he was being serious.

"No, it's like, I can feel people watching us, you know? And I just know what they're thinking." She let out a breath and continued, "They're all wondering how a girl like me, got a guy like him."

She glanced down, she'd never been comfortable being the center of attention.

And even though she had greatly improved her self-confidence it still wasn't near the level of where Erica would have told her it should be.

it was still a work in progress.

"A girl like you?"
He looked puzzled.

She blinked at him.
"Yeah, you know, I'm just plain old me and Derek is...so not plain."

Stiles shook his head, "Believe me Sam, they're not thinking the two of you are on different levels."

Caught off guard by the compliment she smiled in thanks.

"Everyone is probably staring because they recognize him from the news and wanted posters last year, and they think you're dating a serial killer." He nonchalantly said.

"Well, I don't like people thinking that either." She stated. Her lips pressed into a thin, straight line.

Stiles had a point though, even though Derek had been fully exonerated, he'd still been mostly out of sight since then with trying to avoid the hunters.

"Serial killer?" Sheriff Stilinski asked, as he caught the end of their conversation.

Both teens looked at him surprised and caught off guard.

"Where's the food?" Stiles asked his dad.

"It's right here, Stiles." He responded waving the pizza box in front of his son's face.

"No, where are the salads?"

"I don't want another salad." His dad said with a hard stare.

Stiles waved to Sam as he headed inside mumbling under his breath about how his dad was supposed to be eating healthy.

"I'm surprised to see you here." The sheriff said, turning his attention to Sam as she nervously sent another text to her brother.

She nodded and avoided his eyes.

"I know you're probably thinking the same thing the department is thinking, that he should be headed anywhere else in the country, maybe even out of it... why come back here when everyone knows his face?"

"Yeah..."
Sam breathed.

"But that doesn't change the fact that he really might return to Beacon Hills. Now since budget cuts we do good to get patrol done with the number of officers I've got. But I specifically assigned a car outside of your house. That's where you need to be."

She swallowed hard and said, "It's kind of a messed up situation at home right now, between my mom and I. But I'm with friends and I'm safe."

"Still, I'd feel better if you were at home. And I'm sure whatever is going on with you and your mom, she'd feel better having you there too." He reasoned, then sighed as he saw Stiles walking out with a plastic bag he assumed held two pre-made salads.

Setting the pizza box down on the hood of his car he took a card from his pocket and said, "I'm going to give you my card, and I'm writing my personal cellphone number on the back here. If you need anything, or hear anything from your father... you call me. Day or night, it doesn't matter."

"Thank you." She answered sincerely as she took the card and tucked it into her purse, before waving bye to Stiles and his dad.

Looking up she saw Derek standing by the door with their carry out pizza in his hands.

She could tell by the look on his face that he'd heard at least part of their conversation.

He silently walked up to her and pushed the box into her hands, then opened her door so she could get in and hold onto the pizza for the drive back to the loft.

Once he was in the car, he saw her breathe a sigh of relief at getting a text from her brother.

"What was he saying about your dad?" Derek asked, when she didn't offer the information up.

"There was a mix up at the prison he was in... apparently he was able to switch spots with someone in one of the lower security unites or something, I'm not even sure what happened. But... he managed to escape."

Derek had began to start the car but stopped and looked over to her.

Looking back at him her eyes were a little red as she waited for his response.

"I know we've been putting so much effort and time into trying to find Boyd and Erica right now, but if you want to stay with your mom..." He started to say, but she quickly cut him off.

"No, I already talked to her. I tried to tell her that because of what I am now, I could protect her and my brother. That I should be there. But she made it perfectly clear that's not happening."

Derek's formerly angry expression softened as he watched her chin tremble..

"But it's okay, really. I mean... Jake is texting me hourly and keeping me updated."

The end of her sentence was cut off as he turned her face towards him and leaned over to kiss her, the gesture almost immediately calmed her nerves.

As he started the car, he glanced back over at her and said, "Like the sheriff said, Beacon Hills is probably the last place he'd be headed."

A/N - Hey guys, thanks so much for reading! I hope you guys all liked the chapter! Just one more to go, then I'll get the sequel posted.