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Derek Hale is the worst alpha (theworstalpha) wrote in paradisolog,
@ 2016-04-23 20:40:00

Entry tags:

~derek hale (theworstalpha), ~malia tate (wantsherfurcoat)

WHO: Derek Hale & Malia Tate
WHERE: Isaac/Malia's shelter
WHEN: Saturday evening, during the bonfire.
WHAT: Cousin bonding
WARNINGS: TBD
STATUS: Complete

No, this is not your legacy. This is not your destiny. Yesterday does not define you.

Derek had seen enough. Malia was taking up whatever spare energy Isaac had and it wasn’t because she was trying to, but because she wasn’t trying not to and Isaac wasn’t willing to give credence to his own limitations. The two of them were going to run him ragged and adding that to the work he was doing around the camp and the way that everyone just seemed to make some kind of conspiratorial effort to pile as much stress onto the poor guy as possible at any given time, Derek worried for his beta; that kid was not going to make it through Malia’s pregnancy if someone didn’t step in. Because he had a valid excuse, right then, it seemed like that person should be Derek.

Malia was from a point in time before Derek was; she didn’t know her story, who Derek was, and where she really came from. The fact of the matter was that it wasn’t entirely pleasant. Malia didn’t come from a loving family. She was born of a nightmare and an enigma. Derek knew nothing about her mother because his mother had, for whatever reason, thought it best to keep the woman’s identity — and Malia’s existence — a secret from the rest of the pack, right up to and including Peter. Malia deserved to know who she was, at least what of that he could tell her; she shouldn’t embark into motherhood, he thought, without knowing who she really was.

After a long day’s work in the main camp on the medical facility in progress, Derek took a bath in the lake, dressed himself, and headed to Isaac’s shelter which he had gathered Isaac was at least temporarily sharing with Derek’s cousin. Before entering, he knocked on the outside wall of it. “Malia? It’s Derek,” he announced. “Can I come in?”

*****

Malia had been resting most of the day. It was what she did most of the time now, and she had a sinking feeling that it was only going to get worse as her pregnancy continued. She already knew that she loved this baby, but she didn’t look forward to what undoubtedly came along with carrying it. She didn’t remember ever feeling this physically terrible in all of her life.

She was glad, though, that Derek had put his foot down and told Isaac to take some time for himself. He needed it. She needed it. It was for the best if he wasn’t constantly attending to her every whim for the next three months - he’d end the whole thing hating her. And it was easy enough to tell that he didn’t know his own limits - she had a feeling he’d work himself half to death looking after her if someone didn’t step in.

And anyway, Derek apparently had something to tell her. He’d said when she’d first arrived that they were related, but she didn’t remember him from the few family reunions she’d been to before the accident. That didn’t mean anything, though. She’d just been a little kid then and likely wouldn’t remember half of the adults she met at those things. Still, something felt a little weird about it, and Derek’s words had...yeah, been a little bit ominous.

When she heard him outside, she said for him to come in. She was up and dressed, sitting on her king sized bed with her legs folded underneath her. The pregnancy was becoming more and more obvious, even with her clothed, although she looked a little pale and exhausted along with it.

“Hey,” she said. “Thanks for doing this.”

*****

With her greeting, Derek let himself inside to find her sitting on the bed and he could see that she was swelling in the middle with child. Even from the doorway, barely audible but still, he could hear that heartbeat. Quiet and rapid, but steady and healthy. Derek smiled a little and moved further inside. “Don’t mention it, that’s what family’s for,” he told her with amiable dismissiveness.

Derek sat down on the end of the bed, his eyes shifting down to Malia’s midsection. “She sounds healthy,” he said. “Tiny, but healthy. How are you feeling today?” He’d get to the story time when she was ready for it, but he didn’t want to just dive right in if there were more pressing matters. “Are you sore or anything?”

*****

“Isaac needs it. He’s going to drive himself crazy with worry,” she said. Her face was downcast, and she worried her bottom lip as she said it. The last thing she’d ever wanted was to break Isaac even more, although she’d done just that.

Absentmindedly, she ran a hand over her belly and sighed.

“I’m feeling...okay, I guess. I mean, it’s been a few hours since I threw up, so better than usual, anyway.” She shrugged. It was what it was, and sometimes she thought Isaac worried more about her health than she did.

*****

Derek took in a deep breath and huffed it out as he nodded. “Yeah, he probably is. That’s what Isaac does,” he replied. At least, from what experience he had with the beta, that was the conclusion Derek had come to. The fact that Malia was willing to let Derek take over tonight, though, was a step in the right direction for both of them. For Malia, it meant letting someone new help her. That would build trust. She would learn that Isaac wasn’t the only person on the island that she could turn to if she needed it. For Isaac, it meant a much-deserved sanity break before he drove himself into the ground with his anxiety over the things he couldn’t control.

Malia said that she hadn’t thrown up in a few hours and part of Derek thought that was a good sign while the other part was fairly certain that meant it was only a matter of time before he was holding her hair back for her. That was fine. Derek had seen and experienced worse than a pregnant girl throwing up.

“Well, if you start to feel nauseated again, let me know. I’ll make you some tea or something,” he said. He should probably get to the point, he thought, in addition. “So…” he started and exhaled a soft sigh, giving her a small smile. “Fair warning: I don’t know everything about your past. My mother took a lot of our memories; I only learned about you pretty recently. So...I’ll do my best to fill in the blanks and answer questions, but...I don’t know a lot,” he warned. “To start, though...I think the biggest thing is...the Tates aren’t your biological family. You were adopted,” he said. Better to rip it off quick like a Band-Aid, he thought, than to drag her through dramatic pauses and awkward uncertainties surrounding the way he decided to present the information to her. Malia seemed more like the type that would take it better bluntly than softly with a sugarcoating.

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wantsherfurcoat
2016-04-24 12:49 am UTC (link)

"I wish he'd stop," she said, a bit of anger behind her words. She didn't want to be the one responsible for wrecking Isaac's sanity. Everyone adored Isaac, and that would be a really damn quick way to get everyone to hate her, too. "I mean, I love that he takes care of me, that's why I chose him. But I don't want him to destroy himself in the process."

She was glad when Derek changed the subject, and he definitely approached it the right way. She stared for a moment, then slowly blinked.

"Okay. So I was adopted."

That wasn't a horrible thing. Her parents were still her parents, they were still the ones who raised her. Biology wasn't everything.

"So my parents are like me, then?"

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theworstalpha
2016-04-24 01:05 am UTC (link)

Rather than respond to her comment and drag on the conversation when the bitterness had seeped into her voice in a way that suggested to Derek that she would prefer they didn't, he chose to move on. Malia accepted the fact that she was adopted with little fanfare and moved forward with the conversation rather quickly. Good, that was about how he expected it to go.

"So here's the tricky part," he admitted. "I don't know who your mother is. I know they call her Desert Wolf," he said. "But your father...he's my uncle Peter. My mom's brother," he clarified. "He's a werewolf. So for you to be a coyote, I would assume that your mother is a werecoyote, too, but I can't confirm it," he said.

	theworstalpha 2016-04-24 02:56 am UTC (link)
	With a facial shrug, Derek shook his head. "I don't think you'd be alone anyway," he said, "with or without me, but I'll be here." He sighed a little. "I'm not very good with people. I'm getting better. I fake it pretty well," he said, "but...you'll have to bear with me on that. I'm still kind of a work in progress." (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)