Chosen Family

Later that night, after I had finished at work, I found myself at the old Hale house for the second time that day. I sat in the car for a few minutes before giving up and walking up to the door.
"What are you doing here?" Derek asked as he leaned on the door frame.
I looked up with a shrug, "Thinking." I heard him move around behind me as I sat on the steps.
"You and Stiles still fighting?"
"Kinda..." It was quiet until I dropped my head into my hands. "How the hell didn't we know? Seriously we are a pack of seven wolves and we didn't catch on. What the fuck?" I growled in frustration. I got up and started pacing.
"What happened?" Derek asked casually as his eyes followed my form.
"My mother is what happened!" I threw my hands in the air and I stopped to jab my finger in his direction. "Why didn't you tell me!?" That wasn't fair, I knew but I was mad and stressed and needed to take it out on someone. He merely stared at me as I huffed out breath after breath. I let out a yell and stalked back to where I began; sitting down roughly. I bent over, hugging myself as I whispered, "Kaleen OD'd on a cocktail of drugs... she wasn't breathing... she had no heartbeat. For ten minutes I gave her CPR until the paramedics came and then everything happened so fast I had no time to think. Then there was waiting... it felt like forever by the time they told me she was okay... how the fuck didn't I know? She lives in my room, my house... I go to school where I can point out all of the smokers and druggies and dealers and yet I couldn't even see the signs in my own house, how could I be so blind? How didn't we know?"
Derek came to sit beside me, "Sometimes we don't see what we don't want to."
There was a thick silence between us as I thought over everything the pack had seen all the way up to this recent event. "I'm usually very good at seeing through things, being the bitch of situations."
"She's also your mother, even if she does make you mad."
"She's the least likely person for me to turn a blind eye to."
"You have also just gotten to the point where you can talk to her without wanting to rip her throat out, is it really that surprising that you didn't catch her problem?"
I didn't answer right away, "I... I don't know."
"To be fair, she was drug free when we first met her. It might be a more recent thing where we wouldn't have caught it."
"That doesn't really make me feel better..."
"Truth doesn't always make things better."
"Don't I know... I told her that if I catch her doing or having drugs she'd regret it; I'm giving her one more chance."
Derek nodded, "Why don't you tell Stiles? This secret has created a gap between you two."
"He loves her, sees her as almost infallible... I can't ruin that for him if there's a chance she'll turn around. We're such a small family, he needs her."
"And you?"
"She's screwed me over too many times, I can't do this anymore. I can't keep waiting for her to come for me, I know that day will never come. I'm not like Stiles, I don't Need her anymore... I have all the family I need right here and if she wants to be apart of it then she'll have to prove it."
"You're pretty tough on her."
"I am and Stiles gets so annoyed by it. We've gotten into fights over it a lot lately... But I have to be or I'll fall apart. I've reached my limit with her and I'm not afraid to admit it."
"Not many people can admit that."
I looked over at my friends and nudged him with my shoulder, "How are you doing?"
"Frustrated."
"Because of Gerard?"
"Partly and because of you and Stiles. The pack is uneasy whenever you two start."
I rubbed my neck, "Sorry 'bout that, we'll get over this and no matter how mad we get at each other we'll have each other's backs in times of trouble. He's one of a few people I'd trust blindly in a situation." I got up and started stretching, "Hell, I'd trust anyone in this rag tag pack in a pinch." I grinned at Derek.
"Good to know, I don't know if everyone feels like that." I could hear the slight doubt in his voice.
"After everything we've been through, I think we're a pretty tight pack. We fight... a lot, but when it comes down to it, we're pretty good at listening to each other." Derek nodded and we remained silent for a little while; me finally sitting back down.
"Talk." Derek said, not looking down at me.
"Huh?" I asked confused. For one who rarely talks of his feelings, he sure demands we talk about ours.
He rolled his eyes, finally looking down at me. "Somethings bothering you besides your mother. Talk."
"Stupid werewolf super sense." I muttered then sighed, "It's just everything. I'm swamped with school work and projects, I'm worrying about where to go next year, I have to deal with Kaleen, there's Gerard, and now Nix is getting big and I don't know when dad will catch on he isn't a normal exotic bird. I'm just stressing."
"You could tell the sheriff that Nix is a phoenix."
I whipped my head at him and scowled, "While I'm at it I can tell him that my friends are all wolves too." I let out a breath and shook my head, "Sorry, that wasn't called for. However, I can't just be like 'hey dad guess what Nix is actually a mythical bird called a phoenix and may or may not light stuff on fire.' He'd ask what kind of drugs I was on. You could always let him chill here." I grinned.
"No."
I laughed as I looked down at my cell that vibrated. "You can fool everyone but me Mr. Hale, I know you secretly adore the little song bird." I swung myself up and smiled down at Derek. "Thanks for putting up with me and listening, but I gotta go before dad sends out a search party." I picked up my things and turned to leave.
"Things are going to be okay, Zak."
I looked at him and gave a small smile. "I know. Later." I waved and walked to my car; I was going to be late for curfew... oh well.