Who: Kate Danvers and Derek Hale What: Taking care of business Where: Derek's house When: Wednesday afternoon Warnings: Kate? Status: complete narrative
Kate was very, very glad that the whole ‘telling the truth’ thing seemed to be over. It had been a very long and emotionally exhausting few days while that was all going on and things still weren’t one hundred percent back to normal between her and Nick, but they were working on it. The unexpected bonding with Mercy was a pleasant surprise and Kate realized that she had been unfairly harsh on her and her father for their relationship. If Clay and Elena weren’t going to be together here, Mercy was a good match for her dad.
With that settled, she was able to turn her focus on her mother’s new beau. It was definitely weird that her mom was dating Derek though it also kind of made sense. He was a lot like her father in a lot of ways which was probably why she had gotten along with previous versions of him in town so well. She missed that friendship, but at the same time, she was a little tired of starting over from the beginning with people so many times. Still, previous friendship or not, she couldn’t let him date her mother without saying something, especially in light of how hard she was on Mercy.
So when Derek got home from work, Kate was sitting on the front steps of his porch waiting for him. He caught her scent as soon as he got out of the car and recognized it mostly because of the similarity to Elena’s. Clay had warned him that their daughter might have something to say about Derek dating Elena so he wasn’t completely surprised to find her waiting. He wasn’t sure if Elena had mentioned their plans for the weekend and he wasn’t about to overshare, but he was confident he could handle a conversation with a teenage girl.
“Kate,” he said, giving her a brief nod as he approached. “It’s nice to officially meet you.” For all the time he spent at the Pack house visiting with Jeremy or Elena or attending parties, they hadn’t actually spoken before now.
She smirked a little. Most people underestimated her because she was a cute, tiny blonde. Derek should know better, but she also wasn’t really looking to scare him. “Yeah, well, we’ve met before,” she said. “You were actually one of my closest friends the last couple of times you were in town. But when you showed up yet again and didn’t remember being here, I decided I was tired of starting over.”
It surprised Derek a little to hear that. What was it with him collecting teenagers? He really needed to make some friends his own age. “Sorry,” he apologized, even though it wasn’t his fault that the dome apparently made him come and go multiple times. “Are you looking for Lydia or Erin?” He was pretty sure she wasn’t, but it seemed only fair to ask.
“Nope,” she said. “I wanted to talk to you.”
“Do you want to come in?”
“Nah, I can say what I need to say out here.” Kate gave him a smile that, from a distance, would appear friendly and sweet, but up close bared her teeth and was clearly meant to intimidate. “I had a lot of issues with my mom and dad not being together here, but I’m mostly over them. That doesn’t mean that you can date my mom without understanding something though.”
Derek raised his eyebrows slightly, a little surprised that she readily admitted having issues. He got the vibe that she wasn’t exactly the type to be in touch with her emotions, like most werewolves, really. “What do I need to understand?” he asked.
“If you do anything that hurts my mother, you’ll have to answer to me,” she said. Her tone was casual, almost breezy, but the implicit threat was obvious. “And you would be smart not to underestimate just how miserable I can make your life if you cross me.” One of the benefits to being in town as long as Kate had been was that you had a lot of allies and knew the woods very well.
“Believe me,” Derek said. “The last thing I want to do is hurt your mom.”
Kate smiled again, genuinely friendly this time. “Good. That’s all I need to say,” she said, standing up and walking away from the house. Derek was really surprised to see her get in a bright pink Volkswagen bug. That was not the kind of car he would expect a girl like Kate to be driving. She obviously wasn’t kidding when she told him not to underestimate her.