Chapter Text
Isaac was at home, he lived with his foster parents, the Cartwright's were okay people, they had a lot of foster kids, made big dinners and set them out, never really talked to Isaac and he supposed that was good, they didn't ask where he was all the time and he didn't have a good answer. He couldn't really tell them he was going to go hang out with an exonerated murder suspect, he could tell them he was going to see Scott, but really they didn't seem to care so he just didn't say anything. They probably just did it for the money, but none of them ever raised a hand to him or any of the other kids, so as far as Isaac was concerned they were better parents than than - he had been.
Derek told him not to go by today, he was probably going to read it finally. Isaac had read his the day it came, he didn't think he was that close to Stiles, he knew that Stiles probably felt like he was butting in on his time with Scott, but at least he never figured out why. Isaac had told Erica, she just laughed until she saw his face and then she hugged him and told him it wasn't his fault, but that he should really stop hanging around him if he wanted to ever feel better. She didn't understand, Isaac knew that Scott didn't like him like that, they were just friends, Scott was in love with Allison and he never liked guys in the first place...
Scott was just really nice, all the time and he's smart, people call him stupid, but he's not. He just doesn't pay attention to some things unless they seem important to him and the things that are important to him get a lot of attention. Most of that attention has just been on Allison. Isaac doesn't get how she can keep hurting him, Scott has never been anything, but patient and understanding with her and she keeps pushing him away. Isaac likes to think that in another world he could show Scott what it's like to have someone who doesn't want to push him away, but he's not going to give up. He sticks around, Scott hasn't ever smelt like interest around any guys, but he hasn't around any girls either, only around Allison, so maybe he could-
A roar broke his thoughts. Its a howl according to the last time he asked Scott, werewolf howls sound like roars, but Isaac was sure this was an actual roar, it sounded angry. It came from the direction he was staring at anyways, he had been staring out the window, towards the preserve. He liked this room because it faced that way specifically. Derek. He must have really not liked what the letter said. Isaac ran to the front of the house and grabbed his shoes, Mrs. Cartwright was watching TV in the living room,
"Don't forget to lock the door when you come back in."
"Yes, ma'am." He said as he shoved his last shoe on, he was out the door before it even closed. She doesn't like when he doesn't lock it when he leaves, but she probably won't say anything. He was probably running a little fast for a human, but he needed to get to the tree line so he could wolf out and run for real, Stiles told him he needed to be there for Derek, he didn't have to, Isaac already knew Derek was messed up. If he wasn't fucked up from losing his whole family there was probably something more, people don't get along with Isaac unless they can relate and really Isaac isn't too keen to know how people can relate to what his-to what happened to him.
When he got to the preserve he almost didn't know where to go, he hadn't heard anything after that first roar, but he didn't have to go far before he found the trail Derek must have taken. The splintered trees were a good giveaway that something a lot stronger than a person had come through here. They were pretty thick trees, Isaac knew a werewolf was strong, especially an Alpha, but he would have had to deliberately ram into these to make them break the way they did. This probably wasn't good, if the Argent's men reported that Derek was going crazy Chris might take it as a chance to finally put him down.
Isaac crept along the path of tree shards and eventually Derek's blood until he could hear some ragged breathing in the distance. The breathing turned into growling pretty fast and Isaac wasn't sure if Derek was going to attack him. When he got close enough to see Derek he wouldn't have known it was him if it weren't for the scent of Derek's blood and the wrinkled, muddy pages he had fisted in one hand.
Erica had said that Derek's Alpha form was a black wolf with red eyes. She said he was the size of a small horse and he looked cool when he was ripping out the throats of the Alpha's that had tortured her and Boyd. This was no wolf, a wolf-man maybe, this must be what Scott said Peter looked like as an Alpha. Derek was still shaped like a man, with arms and legs, but his legs were like a dog's and his head was some kind of wolf/human mix. He looked wild and insane, his eyes like two red embers burning in his skull. He was bloody, with spears of wood poking out of him in places and he had mud on his claws and feet. He was still growling at Isaac and the growls had only gotten louder as Isaac had approached him.
"Derek?"
The roar he answered with felt like it was going to tear Isaac's ear drums out of his head, it filled him with panic to have his Alpha roar at him so angrily, he was on the ground trying to make himself seem small before he even knew he was doing it. What was supposed to be Derek was just staring at him and then he roared out again, this time with a voice that sounded like a monster, human words forced out through teeth that were too long and a mouth without the right lips,
"LEAVE!"
Isaac was running away. He had to run when he was ordered like that, he needed to get Scott, he might know what to do, Derek was going insane.
***
"Scott, he's not here, we should leave, we should go check the preserve."
"Isaac, hold on, we need to know what set him off."
"You know what set him off, Scott, it was that letter, look," Isaac said, pointing at what was probably once a table, "He was probably standing there because that's where all the clothes bits are and then he smashed through that wall and ran into the woods, it's not hard to see."
"I know that, but why? Are you sure someone didn't come in and hit him with some kind of weird wolfsbane?"
"Why, did you find hunters? I don't smell anything off."
"No, but what could Stiles say that would make him loose control like this?"
"Scott, I know you don't like Derek-"
"He's fine! I don't hate him, I don't, but he..."
"He what? Scott, he really cared about Stiles, you know he did."
"I don't believe that, I don't-He never even gave Stiles a chance, Stiles loved that loser and I don't know why and I don't have to like it."
"Scott, you can't blame Derek for not making a move, Stiles didn't either."
"He never believed me when I told him, I told him that Derek was into him, but just laughed it off every time and I didn't want to keep telling him because Stiles deserves better than him."
"Scott, nobody bla-" Isaac was cut off by his phone vibrating.
"It's Erica, she might have found him, but Scott, please you-"
"Just answer it, Isaac."
"Fine...Erica?"
"Isaac, we found him, bring some clothes, Boyd had a jacket for him, but that's it, we're at the cemetery."
"Okay"
"I'll go grab his clothes, go start the car?" said Scott as he tossed Isaac his keys.
"Yeah, okay, hurry!"
They didn't talk the whole way there, it had taken until well after sunset to find him, the forest incident had been in the afternoon and the days were getting shorter and the night's colder. Isaac ran from where he saw Derek all the way to Scott's house because he had forgotten his phone, when he got there Melissa told him Scott was with Allison. He used the house phone to call Scott and tell him what had happened. Scott picked Isaac up and they had rolled the windows down to sniff for Derek the whole way to the loft because Scott said Derek might have gone back. When they go to the cemetery Derek was human again, covered in mud and dried blood, but he was human. Erica met them at the gate and Boyd had his hand on Derek's shoulder. Derek was kneeling in front of Stiles' headstone.
"Hey," Isaac started in a quiet voice aimed at Derek's kneeling form, “you should-"
"FUCKER!" Scott shouted, cutting Isaac off as he punched Derek in the face,
"YOU LOVED HIM BACK AND YOU NEVER SAID!"
"Scott! What the hell?!"
"Shut up, Erica this is between me and him!"
"Scott, don't do this man, he doesn't need this right now."
"You don't know what he needs, Boyd, he needs a new head because he's insane! I should have Chris kill him! Look at him he won't even say anything! FUCKING COWARD! WHY?! Was he not good enough for you?! Did you think you could just string him along or something?! He deserved better than you!"
"I didn't know." Derek had barely whispered, but they all heard it. Boyd had already moved between Derek and Scott and Isaac was trying to hold Scott back by the arm.
"What?"
"I didn't know!" A yell this time, Derek finally got up, Boyd moved out of the way.
"I didn't fucking know, Scott! Are you happy! He's dead and I didn't fucking know until now!"
"He told me to join you; I don't want any fucking thing to do with you! You still don't deserve him! How could you not know?! Everybody knew!"
Derek roared as he charged and pinned Scott to a tree.
"NOBODY TOLD ME!"
"THEY SHOULDN'T HAVE TOO!"
"Nobody told me..." Derek trailed off in a quiet, shaky breath as he let Scott slip from his grasp down onto his feet again; he was just staring at the ground to the right of Scott.
"Well fuck you" Scott spat as he walked off in the direction of his car.
"Boyd, can you help him get these on? Erica did you bring your mom's car?" Isaac asked as he watched Scott's retreating form march off among the headstones.
"Yeah, here hold this, I'll pull it around" Erica pushed a muddy crinkle of paper at him. It was dirty, but not torn, moist from something, but not wet enough to be ruined. Isaac unfurled it for the most part, it was the letter Stiles had written for Derek, he must have had it still when Erica and Boyd found him.
Derek had on more than a jacket now as he reached towards Isaac and took back his letter, he didn't even look at it as he folded it and put it in his jean's pocket and headed towards Erica's mom's car. Boyd kept one hand on Derek the whole way to the car, Isaac wasn't sure if he should touch him. Derek sat in the back with Boyd and Isaac sat passenger while Erica drove. She didn't technically have a license, but she took her mom's car all the time now that she doesn't seem to seize unless she's half dead. Her mom must be too worried that the stress of yelling at her could set her back to being frail and sick, Erica's mom has been treating her like glass since she made a miraculous change to a healthier girl, she must be scared anything could make her regress.
Lydia and Allison had agreed to rush over and clean Derek's place when Isaac had gotten the call from Erica, they did a pretty good job considering the short time frame. They were already gone when Erica pulled up outside the loft, Isaac guessed that Scott must have called Allison and Lydia must have followed. Derek still hasn't said a word since the cemetery and they walked him back up silently. They laid Derek down in the center of his bed and crawled in around him, Isaac on his right, Erica on his left, Boyd behind Erica and they just lay there, holding each other like they did after a nasty fight. Derek didn't cry, but Erica did, she kept whispering to Derek that it wasn't his fault, he should let himself cry, it was okay. He never did, just closed his eyes and laid there. Isaac doesn't think any of them slept except for Erica, she tired herself out, but Isaac could hear Boyd's concern from where he was, and there was only one heartbeat in the room slow enough for sleep.
Boyd was good at reading Derek, Isaac thought it was because they were both silent types, barely talking except for some of the driest humor known to man, voices only known to be dripping with sarcasm or seriousness. Boyd must know how bad it is that Derek doesn't seem to be handling this well. They stayed awake the whole night, at dawn Boyd went to the kitchen to make breakfast.
They made Derek eat, just to be safe, but they have to go to school so they told Derek they'd be back after to check up on him, made sure to let him know that they knew Stiles meant a lot to him and that it was normal for it to take some time to grieve. Derek didn't even make eye contact, just kept looking off into the distance with a blank face. Isaac knew they needed to find a way to snap him out of this, but he couldn't figure out how.