┏━━━━⋆°.☾⋆.ೃ࿔*:⋆━━━━┓

THE WINNER TAKES IT ALL

DESPITE FEELING BETTER BY A SMALL MARGIN, THE TASK IN FRONT OF HER SEEMED IMPOSSIBLE.

The ladder that Scott had brought to their rescue was staring her down, each step looking more daunting than the last.

Isaac was right behind her, hands outstretched in case she were to fall, and that was a very real concern due to the fact that she was already wobbling in place. She and Isaac were the lasts to go up, Emerson not wanting to cause them any more delay than already necessary, and just the thought of scaling it seemed crazy to her.

She was still feeling weak, swallowing the pain that begged to crawl up her throat as she tried hauling herself up it. A hand latched onto her back, the pain subsiding only until she swatted it away. "If you try taking my pain one more time Lahey," she began, snapping jaws and all, "I swear on all that is holy that I will p–personally cut your hand off."

Despite not seeing his facial reaction, the audible gulp she heard was enough. "Yeah sure; noted."

With the strength she was trying to muster up, she heaved herself up the ladder. If it took a little longer than she hoped, no be it, but she was ever so grateful to have the sheriff waiting at the top with his hand outstretched.

Once she was finally above ground, the first thing Emerson felt as she breathed out a sigh was immediate arms around her.

Her knees almost buckled at the sheer force of someone all but tackling her, though the small inhale she took made her senses flood with one thing: citrus, in the way most cleaning products were.

Yeah, she knew that scent.

"Happy to see me?" she joked, voice rasped around the edges as she couldn't help but hug the large figure back. She didn't care how it looked, knowing damn well she practically melted into the man's touch, because with the way he was gripping her form?

"Very," came Derek's heaved reply, tight grip still unrelenting as his chin rested on top of her head. "How do you always manage to get into the worst situations?"

She stepped back to look at him, hands reaching for the stubble of his jaw. His thumb was mindlessly rubbing against the apple of her cheek, while his other hand remained rooted near her waist. "Some bad luck, I suppose," she shrugged, and he looked unimpressed at the joke she was trying to make. Rather than upset him more, she asked, "did you hold down the fort?"

"She's dead," he responded without missing a beat, and a wave of comfort rushed through the blonde at the fact that Jennifer Blake could no longer hurt them. "Deucalion's gone." 

"What?" she asked, blinking up at the man. The pit in her stomach opened up again, wide as ever. "What do you mean he's gone, Derek? If he dead, o–or did he escape, or—"

Derek's other hand reached for her face, shaking his head. "Woah, let me explain, Em," he consoled, and she could only look at him. "Scott and I let him go."

Emerson didn't know why she was suddenly feeling so angry. "Are you actually insane?" she all but seethed. "He's dangerous, Derek! A fucking killer that you two just let—"

"My mom knew he was a man of vision," he interjected, "and I'd like to think he could find that vision again... but he also knows that if he fucks it up, we're coming for him."

Emerson's head was shaking back and forth on its own accord. "B–but," she tried, frustrated that the words weren't coming out as fast as she would've liked. "He can't. He can't walk away without— he can't leave! This isn't how it was supposed to go."

"How what was supposed to go?" he questioned, tone light as he steered them away from the others who were still nearby.

"I was supposed to be the last face he saw in this town," she grit out. "Me. I had a plan, Derek. I need to see him."

There was no way he was already gone, not when the apartment he and his pack of maniacs was filled with his belongings. He'd be packing it all up before then the overly generous olive branch that the two werewolves had only just given him.

Killing him was redundant now, not like before when it had been a crucial aspect of her grand post-grad plan she laid out for herself. It was different now, because even though they were letting him go, a part of her so desperately needed to have the last laugh.

"I don't like the thought of you seeing him," Derek sighed out. His lips pursed for a beat. "You'd understand if you— if you even felt half the way I do about you..."

He let the sentence hang, waiting.

"I don't," came her reply.

His eyebrows furrowed, confused. "You don't?"

Emerson shrugged, pretending to pick at a cuticle on her thumb. "I feel it ten times more, I think," she admitted in a mumble, just loud enough for him to hear.

The man blinked twice before a grin of relief slowly morphed into his face. "Since when?"

"A little while," she shrugged, careful to note reveal too many details just yet. She didn't want to inflate his ego, the one that was already quite large on its own. "Promised myself I wouldn't say anything till we were in the all-clear— until this was all over."

"And now it is," he remarked, and it made Emerson release a breath of laughter.

"Now it is," she agreed, looking around to see the others exchanging embraces, too busy in their own worlds to worry about theirs, "so I guess this is me telling you that I find you mildly alright. Maybe more than mildly if you let me see him."

He leaned toward her, pressing his lips to her forehead. Her eyes closed as he did so, revelling in just the simplest touch, before he stood to full height again. "Mildly alright," he parroted back, a chuckle leaving his lips. It was such an Emerson thing to say, but that made her confession all the more worth it. "After you say your last goodbye to that asshole, we'll be having a conversation about this."

Her smile was starting to hurt her cheeks, but she would gladly bear that kind of pain. "Deal."

ೃ࿔*:⋆

The last time she had been to the apartment was when it had been against her will.

Okay, maybe that was a stretch since she willingly joined him for a whopping couple of days, but still: she had never enjoyed being there. Not even now, as she sluggishly moved toward the ajar door that led to the massive unit.

She felt at ease with the way Derek was waiting just in the lobby, and not to mention the Argents just a floor below, but he couldn't hurt her. The bad man would be gone from her life completely after this impending exchange, and she was thrilled.

She did good in ignoring the bitter pain pooling in her stomach. Anxiousness, perhaps. Or maybe, it was fear. The deepest part of her mind, the part that wanted a father who actually gave a shit about her, told her it was a mix of both. She didn't want to listen.

Entering the space, everything was left untouched. It was truly like no one had even been there before, if you ignored the rustling coming from deeper within the unit.

Emerson followed the sound until she came across the office Deucalion had used once or twice while she'd been there, lingering in the doorway as she watched him fill a small cardboard box.

"You really are a piece of shit."

His eyes met hers, and Emerson bit her tongue at the fact that he was looking at her. He was really looking at her, the glaze to his eyes completely gone. The book in his hand dropped onto the wooden desk as he stared, a deep inhale soon to follow.

"You truly look just like her," he whispered out, rounding the desk to stand in front of it. Emerson remained in place, leaning against the doorframe ever so slightly. "I always imagined you would, but to see it... it's remarkable." 

She sucked in a breath. "Before you showed up, I had a plan," she explained, not wanting to dwell on what he was insinuating. "I was going to find you, and I was going to kill you for what you've done to me."

Deucalion sighed, leaning against the desk with his arms. "So, I suppose that's why you've come here," he began. "To finish the job that the others failed to do."

She shook her head. "You have a lot of enemies, Deucalion. Death would be a little too easy."

He offered her a smirk. "Touché," he agreed, before he cleared his throat. "I guess this is where we part ways, then."

"I've never known peace because of you," she said bitterly, watching the way his eyes averted to the floor in between them. "I never want to see you again. I sure as hell never want to even think about you again, either. I've done enough of that to last me a lifetime... so yes, this is it."

He nodded. "That's understandable," he said, and Emerson pushed herself away from the doorframe in an effort to leave. Only, his voice rang out in her ears. "I wish it never came to this."

Her head turned towards him again. "What?"

"I only ever wanted to know my daughter," he confessed, and suddenly everything that Jennifer Blake said in that basement came rushing to the forefront of her mind. He cares enough. "My methods were unfavourable, sure, but you're the last piece I had of Margaret. I needed you in my pack."

He hunted her because he needed her, and while it wouldn't repair the damage that had been done, it was comforting to know that he wanted to know her. He had needed her for more than a decade, and now there he was, seeing her for the very first and last time.

Emerson nodded, and she didn't know if the resurfacing pain in her body was making her eyesight blurry or if it was something else.

"Goodbye Dad."

Deucalion gave her a sad sort of smile, one that reeked of loss and acknowledgement and bittersweetness. "Goodbye, Emerson," he responded. "I hope to never see you again."

She let out a shaky breath, swallowing around nothing. That was her wish, after all.

"I hope so, too."

She left the apartment with an ache in her gut and a soreness around her heart.

⋆°.☾⋆.ೃ࿔*:⋆

[ wyn's note ]

lovey dovey lovers until chapter 44 (im truly so sorry). last chap and the epilogue will be published at the same time, so it'll be a few days until then– just wanted yall to have them both to really get the full bronwyn hates happiness experience

bittersweet that it took this long for duke to own his shit tho... they'll never have the father-daughter relationship that the both of them idealized :( #daddyissues asf tho LOL

all my love x