Wicked Bitch - [Derek Hale]

Chapter 6: Frayed

italics - flashbacks

It sounds a little cliché... but to Tessa Saunders, hospitals were even worse than hell itself. She always had a temper, that much was true, but she never claimed to have such strong negative feelings towards something or someone else. Her cunning and patient side always tried to see the layers hidden behind a person's façade, the different shades of grey that made up a character. As a result, she never claimed to truly hate something or someone... at least until her life took a turn for the weird. Ever since her mother's death, Tessa's relationship with hospitals had worsened. From Veronica's passing, to her diagnosis, to chemo and surgery, she had decided to navigate all her anger towards the hospital itself. Those bright white walls made her sick to her stomach, the buzzing of the machines made her want to rip her ears out, and if it wasn't for Melissa McCall, she wouldn't have let another nurse touch her. So, one could probably imagine her utter disappointment when she found herself back in the land of the conscious on a hospital bed.

It was the beeping sound of the heart monitor she had become a little too familiar with that woke her up that forsaken morning. Tessa's eyes fluttered open and she immediately reached to cover them, in an effort to get used to the fluorescent lighting in the hospital room. Turning her head around to better inspect her surroundings, the young girl figured out that she was indeed all alone. Tessa whipped her head to the right, groaning and cursing under her breath as the movement was a little too much for her. She clutched her head with her hands in an effort to distract herself from the pain, but it didn't do much. To her dismay, though the blinds on the window were closed, she could still see the light shining through them. She had spent the entire night unconscious and she was not at all pleased. Tessa scanned the room another time and thankfully found out that her father's jacket laid on the chair next to her bed. It was a little tradition of theirs that had developed under quite unfortunate circumstances. Any time her father could not be at her bedside – meaning he was kicked out of the room by his daughter forcing him to shower and eat – he would leave his jacket by her side so that Tessa would know he was always with her. Sighing, she ran a hand through her hair and focused on the hospital ceiling. He mind was racing. The previous night was supposed to be a quite one for her, but it ended up being more destructive than she ever thought it could be...

Her trail of thinking was abruptly interrupted by the door of the hospital room opening. To Tessa's surprise, it was not her father, but a rather unexpected visitor.

"Hey Tessa... I brought you some water, thought you'd be thirsty once you woke up." The young brunette said, motioning to the cup she was holding.

"Thank you, Ally. I could actually use some..." admitted Tessa as she reached for her cup. She gulped the entire thing, sighing as she felt her sore throat getting better.

"So..." mumbled a nervous Allison as she carefully approached the hospital bed and sat on the chair beside it. "How are you feeling?" she asked.