chapter thirty eight
"trust"

"IS THIS SEAT TAKEN?"

LYNN continued looking out the window of the moving bus with a dazed glance — her eyes weren't their usual bright blue, but glossed over, and there wasn't her usual sarcastic attitude nor a little amused smirk covering her lips. Her skin had faded from that sun kissed tan, more pale, and if you looked directly at her, the purple bags under her eyes were more prominate than usual.

She was numb.

"Evelynn?"

Lynn finally snapped out of her distracted gaze with a sudden sniff of air, switching from staring out the window of the quick moving scenery toward the voice, her face softened in the slightest bit when her eyes landed on Isaac — but she didn't show it.

"Go ahead," Lynn replied, her eyes wavering from staring into Isaac's own to the somewhat broken leather bus seat beside her, scooting over more towards the window.

The boy dropped his backpack beside his feet, sitting down beside the girl — where their hands drifted ever so slightly over each others, but unlike before, Lynn didn't feel anything.

"How are you, um, dealing with it all?" Isaac spoke up through the tension seemingly growing, and his voice sounded awkward when it echoed through the silence.

Lynn didn't jerk her vision from the outside scenery, because she feared if she merely glanced at Isaac while talking about it, she would burst into tears right then and there. And she was tired — tired of the crying and tired of the emotions, she just wanted to lock it up in the back of her mind and never think about it again.

"Fine," Lynn answered after a second of hesitation, her dry lips hardly even separating as she mumbled.

"It's alright to not be fine, Lynn, you don't have to—"

"—I said I'm fine, didn't I?" Snapped Lynn as she interrupted the boy, a violent, angry expression covering her face was she made eye contact with Isaac, who quickly dropped his gaze in embarrassment.

If Lynn wasn't going through a roller coaster of emotions, she surely would've apologized for her sudden harsh outburst, but she didn't have the energy to even muster a weak apology.

The two werewolves were quiet for a few minutes then, where Isaac began to fiddle with his fingertips nervously and Lynn just kept a blank expression on her face while her eyes trailed the road outside.

"Scott wanted me to tell you that you can't do anything, Lynn," Isaac then explained, and there was no longer shakiness in his voice, where he sounded more determined. "I know Derek—"

"—I'm not talking about him," Lynn interrupted, and Isaac looked at her with a pleading glance, asking the girl to just listen to him for once, but she already knew what he was going to say, so it didn't matter. "I get it, no losing control and killing someone, duly noted."

"You're going to have to talk about him at some point, Evelynn," Isaac responded, and there was almost a sour tone in his voice, like he was running out of patience.

"Not anytime soon," Lynn fake smiled in the boy's direction, before pulling out her tangled earbuds and stuffing the two ends into both her ears. Perhaps if she turned the music all the way up, she wouldn't have to listen to him any longer, and maybe even, she would be able to tune out her thoughts.

Her thoughts about how Derek Hale was killed right before her eyes.

      "Derek, hey, can you just listen to me?"

      Lynn dramatically huffed out as she glared harshly in Derek's direction, who was now walking several feet away with his back towards her. She skipped a few steps and wrapped her fingers around Derek's right bicep, and if it wasn't terribly timing, she would've commented on how his perfectly sculpted body always seemed to send butterflies soaring in her stomach.

"Can't you listen to me?" Lynn scoffed with annoyance, locking her eyes with Derek's emerald green ones, and there was a desperate plea written in hers. "This is a trap, Deucalion wants us to know where he is — that's exactly why he met Scott in that elevator. They want you to do this."

Lynn had yet to tell Derek about the fact that Deucalion came to her with the proposal of joining the alpha pack — with only one con, she would have to kill Derek Hale to steal his powers. She wasn't sure if Deucalion had told him that she had an offer herself, and Lynn wasn't even sure how she could bring it up.

He wasn't acting nervous or awkward, but Derek was never either one of those, so she didn't know if he had just gotten extremely good at hiding his emotions — or he genuinely didn't know.

Lynn slightly tilted her head as she saw the expression on Derek's face, that he wasn't surprised by the fact Lynn's stating the attack on Deucalion was actually a trap, and she scoffed with a disappointed face.

"You already know it's a trap," Lynn commented, finally releasing her hand from Derek's arm, and she shook her head with distaste. "You just don't care."

Derek's eyes hovered as he planted a palm on his desk, using the other one to run it aimlessly through his scruffy hair. "It's not like that, Evelynn."

The two were residing in Derek's loft, the second time she had been here, where the first was that bright and tired morning that he started their training. Due to the fact she had hardly gotten any sleep, Lynn really hadn't paid attention that first time, but she had finally noticed how the details when she arrived for a second time. She liked it, the beautiful brick wall and wide open space — she always imagined she would have an apartment like this when she was older.

"Derek, just listen to me," Lynn pleaded, where her eyes were soft, and Derek's already seemed to be melting. "I have this feeling, okay? Like something is...something's going to go terribly wrong."

"We're doing this to get them before they make the first move," Derek explained, trying to keep his voice firm and strong, like he wasn't crumbling at Lynn's mere touch.

"And how do we make the second move if we're all dead?" Lynn retorted sarcastically, but even though she was using an amusing tone, there was a bit of seriousness covering her face.

"Evelynn, do you trust me?"

Lynn froze in her movements — thinking of the words that Derek had just said, and her nose ever so slightly twitched. And her mind fluttered back to that night ever so long ago...

~

"What? Don't trust me?"

      "If Scott doesn't trust you, then I don't trust you," Lynn countered, flashing a quite fake sympathetic smile before returning to her distrustful stare.

      Derek let a little amused grin cross his lips, and then he took a small step towards Lynn, and instantaneously, she snaked a step backwards. Her back bumped into that same rusted pole she originally used for support, and her eyes flickered upwards to look at Derek since he was quite a few inches taller than her. Once again, he seemed to only be a few inches away from her face, and she could almost feel his breath bouncing off her cheeks.

      "I guess you weren't listening in, so, would you believe if I said Scott had agreed to join my pack?" Derek questioned, and Lynn's once tough girl act faded when shock crossed her face, but then a part of her quickly understood.

      "To take down Jackson together, I'm assuming?" Lynn countered, perking an sly eyebrow up towards Derek, trying her best to take control of her heart rate. The last thing she wanted to let the man know is he had some sort of effect on her. "So he momentarily trusts you."

      "So, that means you momentarily trust me?" Derek questioned with an almost interested expression.

To be honest, all Lynn saw in his eyes was trust.

      "Fine, then I momentarily trust you."

~

"I trust you with everything in me, Derek."

Lynn's heartbeat was soaring through the roof, but she didn't dare break the eye contact she was holding so tightly with Derek. He almost seemed surprised by her remark, but quickly covered it up, instead tilting his head off to the right.

      "Then trust me when I say I'm not going to let anything happen you to," Derek responded, raising his hand softly and carefully, placing his fingertips gently on Lynn's cheeks — who immediately melted into his palm, her eyes fluttering closed as she just enjoyed his touch.

      "And what about you?" Lynn murmured, peeling open her blue eyes to match Derek's green ones, and he flashed her a faint smile.

      The man then snaked his arms around Lynn's waist to pull the girl into a warm hug, not that she was complaining, but she was wondering if he was just deflecting on the question. She snuggled up her cheek into Derek's strong chest, wrapping her arms under his arms just as tightly, and she just focused on his heartbeat in her ear.

      "I promise I'm going to be okay."

———

      Lynn jerked awake from her sudden nightmare as her drowsy eyes flickered open only to close for another second, she hadn't even noticed her body drift off to sleep. Her eyes scored the bus, and she had just noticed the way they were no longer moving.

      Using a spare hand to rub the awkward tension growing in her right shoulder, the only she had uncomfortably rested against the window as she slept, she tugged herself up from the bus seat. Her eyes confusingly fell to a jacket that had fallen off her body and onto the broken leather of the seat, and she tilted her head at it — knowing that it wasn't hers, and her face ever so slightly softened when the familiar smell of Isaac swarmed her nose.

      Slowly, Lynn peeled her sore body off the sticky leather and pushed through the many seats and students bags that littered the ground, spotting another kid or two casually sleeping near the front of the bus. The kind woman was sitting in the bus drivers seat flashed her a smile as she swung open the door of the bus, and Lynn replied with a faint, extremely noticeably, fake smile.

      Lynn had to adjust to the fact the sun was practically blinding her, so she covered her face with her forearm as a shield, scanning the area, that was until her eyes landed on Stiles and Lydia standing several feet away by a huge tree trunk.

      Not having the slightest idea as to why the bus had suddenly stopped, nor why both the humans had an awfully nervous stench echoing from their bodies, Lynn wandered her way over to the two.

     "Sleeping Beauty is finally awake!" Stiles exclaimed happily while suddenly embracing Lynn into a hug, with two arms around her shoulders while Lynn merely had a scattered expression and wide eyes over towards Lydia. "We missed you."

      Lynn suspiciously narrowed her eyes as the two released from the hug, and then she flickered over towards Lydia, "Aren't you supposed to be back in Beacon Hills?"

     "Long story," Lydia puckered out her red stained lips, and Lynn only simply shrugged, not really wanting to question what that long story was. "But we need your help."

     "I just woke up, can't this wait?" Lynn grumbled a bit under her breath, raising both of her hands to rub her eyes drowsily, not really minding the fact she knew she was wearing mascara.

     "It's Scott," Stiles explained, and Lynn's teasing smirk started to fade and was instead replaced with concern. "He isn't healing from those alpha wounds, and we figure out it's psychosomatic—"

      "—Somatoformic," Lydia interrupted, and Stiles switched over his shoulder, his right eye beginning to quiver, and Lynn recognized that was a longtime twitch of his where he was quickly losing his patience. "But, um, please continue."

      "Allison is patching him up right now, but we're going to need more time because Coach is already starting to call people back," Stiles rabbled quickly, and it was almost too swift for Lynn's slowly waking up brain. "We need a distraction."

      Lynn's eyes, while deep in thought about what this potential distraction of theirs could be, fluttered upwards to only glance at Stiles, but her entire expression fell as she drifted past Stiles — instead landing on Ethan.

      He's part of the reason Derek's dead.

      Lynn bit down on her bottom lip in an attempt at keeping herself calm, but she could quite literally feel the way the anger was echoing throughout her body — growing ten times worse as he just stood there, with a wide, toothy grin, and a laugh escaped his lungs. She tried to guide her thoughts elsewhere than to watching herself beat the boy to a blooded pulp, suddenly okay with just wolfing out right here and now to rip out his throat.

      But no matter where her mind floated, she somehow always landed on Derek — and she couldn't focus any longer. She didn't know how to keep calm without Derek, she couldn't control her anger without thinking of Derek's soft and gentle voice guiding her through it all, she couldn't think of his kind emerald green eyes, she couldn't do anything because no matter what she did it was always...

      Derek.

      "I think I have an idea for a distraction."

a/n: motel california here we comeeee