┏━━━━⋆°.☾⋆.ೃ࿔*:⋆━━━━┓

ELECTRIFIED

THE SURFACE BENEATH EMERSON'S BODY WAS SOFTER THAN THE COUCH WAS, AND THAT WAS THE FIRST THING SHE NOTICED WHEN SHE ROSE.

"You snore when you sleep."

She all but flinched at the sound of Derek's voice coming from her left, easily spotting the man sitting in a chair as he flipped through some pages of a book. He looked healthy, better now that his body was beginning to heal, and Emerson  didn't miss the way the chair was subtly pointed in her direction.

Had he been keeping watch?

"Good morning to you too," she scoffed, throwing the blanket that had been draped across her form to the side.

"It's one in the afternoon," he corrected her, sparing the girl a side glance before returning to the pages that he really didn't even seem to be reading now.

Emerson's mouth was agape. "What?" she asked as she scrambled upright, her feet padding across the loft to look at the clock that was hanging in the kitchen nearby. It showed that it was 1:03. "Why the hell would you let me sleep in for so long?! I was meant to check on Hannah, I needed to see if—"

She hadn't noticed him start to approach as she kept looking at the hands on the clock, ticking away so incessantly in her ear, until he was right behind her. "Hey," he tried, cutting off her rambling and making her turn around frustratedly. "Relax. You took too much of my pain last night; you needed rest."

"I don't need rest," she argued blandly. "What I need is to check on Hannah. Deucalion's probably realized I've flaked on him by now, I mean I was supposed to be back by sunrise, and he's probably sending fucking Kali to kill her and—"

"Emerson," he stressed, his hands instinctually going to her shoulder blades. Either he wasn't aware that his finger was gently thumbing over her collarbone, or there was a good chance it was all in her head. "Peter's watching her."

She blinked up at him. "What do you mean Peter's watching her?"

He rolled his eyes. "I sent him to keep an eye on Hannah," he reassured her, "so if anyone steps foot into her room, we'll know about it. Plus, he's prepared to make a scene."

Emerson's shoulders sank in relief, thought she could feel the shock of surprise that was circulating within her body. Derek had sent his uncle to watch the Prescott woman on her behalf, and that type of consideration alone made her chest swell with foreign warmth.

Trying to dispel it, she couldn't help but laugh. "When isn't your uncle prepared to make a scene?"

"Fair enough," Derek chuckled in return, and the blonde found herself hyper focused on the grin on his face before he continued on. "You smell better today."

Was that meant to be an insult, or a weird Hale-kind of compliment? "I was taking your smelly pain, so yeah, no shit," she said with her nose shrivelled. "You really know how to make a girl swoon, huh Dere?"

It was too late to take back the nickname, and judging from the smirk on the man's face, he knew it too.

"It's my specialty," he shrugged rather cockily. "Now, you hungry?"

Emerson nodded, internally mourning at the loss of his hands when he pulled away in pursuit of the fridge. "Are you gonna make something?"

"I have other talents besides turning teenagers in werewolves, Em."

Trying to keep a sudden, albeit giddy smile at bay, Emerson took a seat near the small island and hummed.

"I'll believe it when I see it."

ೃ࿔*:⋆

The last person she expected to see at the loft was Isaac Lahey.

It had been two days since the fiasco at the mall, and Emerson was spending majority of her time holed up in the loft. Though, she'd just gone out to leave a scattered scent trail around the town, hoping to at least throw the alpha pack off of her trail, before headed back.

Based on the situation at the mall, and given that he showed up alongside Scott and not Derek, Emerson naturally assumed that Isaac had switched his priorities around. Either that, or the way they'd been standing very close to one another that day was telling to something else entirely.

Grimacing, she looked to the three other wolves across the room, one of which was holding a hose that a copious amount of water had been actively spewing from.

"Any reason why you're flooding the loft, Boyd?" she asked, shutting the main door behind her before walking in their direction.

"What is she doing here?"

The words that came from Isaac's mouth made Emerson stop in her tracks in the middle of the space, unfamiliar with the distaste in his tone.

She'd let Isaac hate her because even when she tried to protect him, she somehow managed to fail. She wouldn't blame him, not one bit.

Emerson would've brushed it off, brushed off the dull ache that shot into the centre of her chest, but Derek was the one to intervene. "She's on our side," he barked out, an unimpressed look directed right at the Lahey boy. "If your dad threatened the people you loved, wouldn't you cozy up with him to protect them?"

Isaac's eyes averted to the floor, and suddenly, the blonde girl knew that everyone knew. They must've in a town like this, with friends like this who knew everything and everyone.

Emerson released a punched out laugh. "Love is a stretch," she denied quickly, looking at the beta wielding the hose as she continued her approach. "So Boyd, care to share with the class?"

Boyd seemed to release a breath he'd been holding in, most likely due to the awkward tension between Isaac and Emerson, and nodded to himself. "In a pool of electrified water, it can take up to fifty milliamps to kill a normal human— less than the power it takes to turn on a light bulb," he explained, dropping the hose onto the ground.

Derek watched on from his spot against the wall, arms crossed as he looked at the growing puddle. "That's comforting," he responded bleakly before Emerson came to a stop beside him. He shifted on his foot, appearing closer to her than he had been.

"If we disable the circuit interrupter in the building's electrical room, the current will keep coming," Boyd rambled further, a small grin popping onto his face, "and anyone who steps foot in here, they'll get a pretty shocking surprise."

Emerson's eyes widened. "That's some smart shit Boyd," she appraised, a smile of her own filtering onto her face. Electrocuting intruders was a good shot at disabling an attack from the alphas in town, the same ones that Emerson had all but abandoned.

"Thanks," Boyd responded happily, before turning to Derek, "where's the electrical room?"

Derek gestured with his head to follow, heading for the door with Boyd in pursuit, and it dawned on Emerson that it was just the two of them going to disable the circuit.

Skeptically, she looked to the Lahey boy and wondered if he was going to follow the others or even leave the loft entirely. In her mind, she was preparing for the worst outcome, for some cussing to be thrown her way or outrage at the fact that yeah, she did abandon him.

She didn't expect him to open with a goddamn joke, though.

"Shitty dads, am I right?" he said with a tentative look on his face, like he was testing the waters of what he should or should not say to her.

She shrugged. "I think yours was shittier... no offence."

Isaac rolled his eyes. "Would you rather be put in a freezer anytime you misbehaved, or be hunted and chased across the country by a serial werewolf killer?"

"... I'd take the freezer."

"Exactly." Emerson shook her head with a scoff of laughter, watching the way Isaac's body language seemed less tense. "I'm sorry; I was being a dick earlier."

"You don't have to apologize," she told him, all humour gone from the atmosphere. "You have every right to be pissed. I just thought— I thought you'd be safer without me."

Isaac shrugged. "You were the first person who actually gave a shit about me, y'know, that day at school," he noted, and boy did Emerson remember that very day. "Ever since, even all the times I tried to be like Derek, I always thought I'd be safest with you, to be honest."

Emerson took a sharp breath at the revelation, watching as he fiddled with the hem of his sleeve. Throwing all her caution to the wind, she approached him and wrapped her arms around his lanky figure. She could practically smell the surprise wafting off of Isaac at the motion before he eventually gripped her back, almost like he didn't want to let go.

"We'll make it out of this, I promise you that much," came her response after a beat of silence. "I'll do whatever it takes, Lahey."

Neither of them noticed Boyd and Derek's quick return, nor did the two spectators have any desire to interrupt the moment they were sharing.

From a distance, Boyd would've said they looked like a pair of real siblings who'd just been reunited.

And if Derek squinted, he would've had no choice but to agree.

⋆°.☾⋆.ೃ࿔*:⋆

[ wyn's note ]

isaac and emmy are officially back !!!! i just had to have them have their soft lil moment together bc all she does is to protect him :((

sorry for the long ass wait btw, schools been kicking my booty LOL — thanks for 75k!! all my love xo