Second Wind

Chapter 03: Reach Out

Chapter 03: Reach Out

Peter guided Jacalyn away from the kitchen and up the stairs to the bed he'd been sleeping in and the one that he'd put her things at. Jacalyn looked at Peter, wondering why hadn't he told her that he'd found him. Peter had known about Isaac from the day that he'd met him in the locker room. He'd seen his little sister in him, something that Derek hadn't seen.

"Who is she?" Erica questioned, watching as Derek moved to touch Isaac only to have his hand roughly pushed away.

"Jacalyn is my aunt, my mothers youngest sibling...a year younger than Peter," Derek said, pausing for a second before he continued. "She's human,"

"Human? But you and Peter are wolves?" Boyd raised his eyebrow, he knew that Isaac and Erica were thinking the same thing.

"She's rare, she's special," Derek said, as it was the only way that he could think of to explain who she was to them.

"How did she know my name?" Isaac asked, folding his arms as he looked at his alpha and then glanced towards the stairs. "You didn't have a chance to say it,"

"I think that's something you're best off asking her," Derek answered, watching as Isaac listened to his heartbeat, he'd tried to keep it steady but something told him that he hadn't done a good job as Isaac stormed off. "Isaac, just ask her," Derek called after him, causing Jacalyn to race down the stairs. "Jackie?"

"I'll be back, I'm just going to talk to him," Jacalyn said as she stepped outside the loft's main door and looked down around before her eyes landed on Isaac sitting on the top step.

Jacalyn walked cautiously towards the young werewolf, she had a feeling that his friends had moved to the door ready to intervene if they needed to. Isaac didn't look up as he heard her approaching him, instead he kept his head down looking at his feet. Jacalyn stopped short of Isaac before she spoke while pulling a picture from her purse. The picture was of an nineteen year old Jacalyn with a small one week old baby Isaac.

"Mind if I sit down?" Jacalyn asked, Isaac shook his head he didn't really care if she did or not he was just confused.

"Derek never said my name...how did you know it?" Isaac questioned as Jacalyn sat down beside him and held the photo out to him. "What's this?"

"Just have a look at it," Jacalyn answered, as Isaac took the photo from her and looked at it before he was flipping it over. "You're keeping something from Derek aren't you?"

"Isaac...one week old..." Isaac read the inscription scribbled on the back of photo before he noticed the date. "Why do you have this?"

"Isaac, what did your father tell you?" Jacalyn asked, she was curious as Derek had told her in one of his many messages that Isaac wasn't talking and if he did he avoided the subject. "It's okay to tell me you know,"

"He said...'I wish we hadn't said yes,'...Do you know what he meant? Does this photo have something to do with it?" Isaac wanted answers, he wanted to know why the older woman before him had his eyes.

"That photo was taken when you were a week old...Isaac, you tell me what you think," Jacalyn said, she didn't know how to put into words that she was his mother without completely freaking the sixteen year old out.

Isaac looked at Jacalyn, thinking before he said anything. "Well mom always said that she loved me no matter what. Dad looked at me like I didn't exist after she died," Isaac paused taking a breath before he continued. "I think...I don't know what I think,"

Jacalyn sighed running a hand over her face as she looked at Isaac and the photo that he was still holding. Isaac looked down at the photo and at Jacalyn when he realised that she was the girl in the photo holding him. What Isaac didn't know was that Jacalyn kept that picture with her all the time.

"You...you smell like something that I haven't smelled in a long time," Isaac mumbled, running a hand over his face as he handed her the photo back.

"I have everything from the day you were born..." Jacalyn told him quietly, she knew that Erica and Boyd would be listening and that Derek would be doing his best to try and pry them away from the door.

"You left me. You didn't want me..." Isaac said trying to contain the small amount of anger that was building up inside him as he realised that she was his mother.

"That's not true. I did want you, I didn't want you growing up like I had..." Jacalyn said taking a deep breath as she watched tears starting to roll down Isaac's face. "I'm sorry, I am. I would have kept you if I had known what was going to happen,"

"But you didn't! You left me!" Isaac exclaimed before getting up and racing down the stairs until he was out of the building and bolting in the direction of the preserve.

As Isaac ran tears streamed down his face, he didn't know what to feel, he was confused and scared. Isaac had been listening to Jacalyn's heartbeat as she was speaking to him so he'd known nothing she had said was a lie, but she'd grown up in a family of werewolves so he didn't know if it was true. Isaac ran until he couldn't run anymore and found himself sitting on rocks at the edge of the cliff in the preserve. He didn't know what to do, he wanted to run further but couldn't bring himself to go anywhere but where he was. Had everything been a lie?

Jacalyn walked back into Derek's loft and was met by glares from both Erica and Boyd, though Boyd's quickly turned from a glare to an apologetic half smile. Derek nodded to his aunt before watching as she headed back up the stairs to where Peter was waiting for her. They'd all been listening to her and Isaac talking, and for Boyd and Erica it had just let them with questions.

"How old was she?" Erica questioned, spinning around to face Derek as she rested her head on Boyd's shoulder.

"She was eighteen, he's the only child she ever had," Derek said, he had no other cousins that he knew of. "Before you ask, I didn't know that Isaac was hers,"

"How could you not know?" Boyd questioned, as he and Erica made their way slowly towards Derek and the three of them sat down.

"My mother, Jacalyn's the only one that knew...Peter I think he had an idea," Derek answered, running a hand over his face not sure of exactly what to say.

"Did she really ever plan on coming back for him?" Erica asked, she was going to ask all the questions that Isaac was too scared to ask whether Derek wanted to answer them or not.

"She did," this time it was Peter who spoke as he walked down the stairs leaving Jacalyn on the bed. "She babysat him every Friday and Saturday night for at least the first year and a bit of his life," Peter said thinking back to the times that he'd run to Jacalyn when she thought someone was watching them.

When Isaac had been gone for a few hours, Derek decided to ask Scott to look for him not telling him why he couldn't do it. Erica and Boyd had offered but had been rebuffed as Derek figured that Scott was the better choice to look for Isaac. Scott tried the cemetery first, he didn't know why he thought that Isaac would go there but he checked anyway. Next Scott checked the old Lahey residence, again he didn't know why he was checking places that Isaac wouldn't return to. 

NOTE: Derek still calls her 18 even though she was 19 when Isaac was born, he remembers her being pregnant for most of the time that he was 8 years old.