cunningwolf | And the walls come tumbling down...

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with } cora

And the walls come tumbling down...

"Talia!"

Many men will tell you that you knew the heart of a hero when it came to fire. Normal men would run away from it. Heroes would run into it.

But no one would ever call Peter Hale a hero. Yet into the fire he dove, recoiling back from flames as he tried to make his way through the house to find his sister. The screams from the tunnels threatened to deafen him, but he still kept his focus, trying to find her.

Talia had always taken care of her brother, even at his worst points. He refused to not give up on her now. We are all going to burn for this he had warned her, but as always, the stubbornness of the Hales kept her from seeing the reality of the situation until their world was ablaze.

One of the walls cracks and came at him, and he was barely able to duck out of the way in time. "Talia!" he screams, then coughed as his lungs started to remind him that they can only heal if he has actual oxygen going to them. He knew he had to leave, but he couldn't abandon his family.

"Help me!"

Peter's head snapped around as he heard the voice of his eleven year old niece. He pushed away from the wall, heading for the stairs and climbing up them as fast as he could, and then when her bedroom door wouldn't open, he smashed it in. And there was Cora, crouched into a corner and crying. He made his way over, kneeling down in front of her. "Cora, honey, focus on me. We need to get you out of here."

"I want mommy."

"I know. We'll find her outside." The floor under them shifted and Cora screamed. Peter stood up and looked at the window. If he opened it, the fire was be sucked into the room from the rush of oxygen. "Come on, we have to go."

He pulled the tiny werewolf into his arms and started back downstairs, using his own body to shield her from the fire. As they got to the bottom, one of the stairs broke and his foot went through it, sending him crashing to the ground and he felt his knee pop as he twisted to land on his back to keep Cora from being crushed.

"Cora, the front door is open. You need to run outside and hide. Hide from the hunters like I taught you, okay?"

Cora bit her lip, scared. "I'm scared."

"I know, but you go, and I'll find you. I always find you, don't I?" He could feel the fire starting to burn along his leg, trying to keep the pain off his face. "Ready? You hide, and I'll seek."

Nodding, Cora did as she was told and took off running for the woods. Peter focused his hearing to make sure she wasn't stopped by any of the Argents that may be lingering in the woods, and then he howled in pain as the rest of the staircase came down on top of him.

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Melissa will stay out of the room for most of the shift, and when the hospital finally starts to wind down, Cora sneaks out of her hiding space and makes her way over to her uncle's room, making sure to stay unseen and out of sight.

When she gets there she heads right to his bed, hopping up and curling into his side. As he gets better she gets less gentle about it, but here's still that same element of care to show she does realize he's not completely healed.

"Hi."

He had been lightly dozing at that point, but he woke up at her presence in the room and smiled down at her. "Hey. You have an exciting day?"

She wrinkles her nose as she shakes her head. Days in the hospital when she's hiding out are pretty boring. She doesn't really do much unless she's about to get caught, and she doesn't want Peter worrying about that.

"Not much." There's a beat. "There was chocolate pudding in the cafeteria." Which she totally stole.

He smiled a bit at that. "I will trade you my jello tonight if you go back and get me some."

She considers that for a moment, before nodding in agreement. "Deal." Hospital Jell-O wasn't really as bad as everyone made it out to be. At least, the hospital Jell-O here, anyway.

Peter knew that he should be concerned about his own priorities if chocolate pudding was something high on his list of pleasures at the moment, but at least it was something different and he did enjoy it.

He chuckled though, then looked over at the bear and he remembered what he needed to ask her to do. "Before you go though, I need you to do me a favor. That arrived today. Can you bring it over here to me?"

She frowns for a moment, before pushing up from the bed and sliding back down to the floor. "Just the bear?" Not that she knows where the bear came from, or the balloons. She certainly didn't send them.

"Both. I just want to make sure there are no hidden surprises in them. There was no card indicating who brought them, and there's no one who would send such a thing for my benefit."

He's not onto you, Melissa. He thinks the Argents have sent something akin to a wolfsbane bomb.

Cora nods, before going and fetching the gifts from the table. She couldn't smell anything out of the ordinary on them, but she brings them over and hands them off to Peter without a word. She hopes it's not something bad, but given what just happened to their family, it's hard to say.

Having only one good hand to work with, Peter pulls the balloons down to him first and smells them, but they both smell just of nylon and helium. Which leaves the bear, that he focuses on squeezing until he feels the tiny bit of electronics in the head where the doll's eyes were.

"And what do we have here..." he lay the bear face down on his lap and focused to have his claws come out to slice into the back of the bear so he could see what was inside.

Edited 2014-09-08 20:01 (UTC)

Cora mostly waits off to the side, watching as he feels his way through the bear, before frowning in concern when he found something. "What is it?"

He pulls out the tiny camera and glares at it a moment. "We need to go. Now." He crushed it between two fingers. "Find me a pair of scrubs."

Cora sucks in a breath, nodding her agreement before turning to make her way back to the door. The scrubs were a few hallways over, so it would take a little time, but before she could even get to the door, it was flying open and Melissa was on the other side. Cora stops dead in her tracks, unsure of what to do, before glancing back to Peter for help.

Melissa just holds up her hands as she comes in and closes the door behind her. "Stand down - I come in piece."

Peter's eyes narrow as he's already started to pull himself up into a full sitting position, pushing the pain aside in his mind for the most part as the adrenaline kicked in.

"You're working for them, aren't you?" he asked, a soft snarl in his voice as the normally charming patient suddenly looked very deadly.

"Them? Them who?" Melissa looks confused for a moment, before shaking her head. "No, that's mine. I knew there was something hinky going on, and I wasn't sure what it was so I wanted to have a look without bringing it to the rest of the hospital's attention."

And she's glad she didn't because she has an idea of what would happen to the girl in front of her if she didn't.

"I didn't mean any harm."

Peter watched her a moment, his ears taking in Melissa's heartbeat and he knew she wasn't lying. He relaxed - just a bit - and the deadly look shifted to just a cautious one.

"Cora, it's okay. Come here." He motioned for his niece to come closer so he could comfort the scared child. "This is my niece, one of the missing three."

Cora does as she's told, moving back to her uncle's side and curling in close. She had worked so hard at not getting caught, she doesn't want to be taken away now and left on her own.

Melissa just nods in acknowledgement. "I figured. I have a son, about her age. They had classes together." She pauses, before addressing Cora directly. "Scott McCall?"

She perks up just slightly at that, before nodding to Peter. "Scott was in my English class."

Peter wrapped his arm around her, keeping her close to him. He looked down at her, hearing the confirmation of Cora knowing Melissa's son, and then sighed.

"I can't lose her into the system. We've already lost the rest of our family."

"I get that. I do. But she can't just live in the hospital, Peter." She glances over to the little girl and gives a sigh. "She's just a kid. She needs a home. She needs ... structure. Go to school, get a good night's sleep, regular meals. How have you been feeding her?"

Cora looks down sheepishly. "I've been stealing food from the cafeteria."

Melissa glances up to him and raises an eyebrow. "Is this how you really want her living?"

"If it keeps her safe and with me, we do what we need to." Things like school weren't important when it came to keeping the pack together and safe, but he knew Melissa wouldn't understand that instinct.

Melissa sighs softly, hands on her hips. She can't say she blames him for the instinct. After what he and his family has been through, keeping her close is probably all that he can do at the moment. But she knows that Cora can't stay here, not like this.

"Eventually, she's going to get caught. My someone who's not me and who'll be way less sympathetic about the whole thing. What are you going to do then? You need to have a plan B."

"Plan B is to leave. You legally can't keep me here." It would put his recovery at risk, but he would do that if it kept Cora out of harm's way. He would just heal in a hotel room or some other place. Find Deaton and get the emissary to get him medical supplies.

"Legally, no. But physically? You're healing well, but that leg isn't strong enough to put weight on it yet, and you know it." She gives him a rather pointed look for that. "Whatever you're trying to outrun, it'll probably catch you, sooner rather than later."

"I'm trying to outrun psychopaths who would burn an entire family, including children, alive." The hate in his voice was painful. "You talk about her having structure but she should have is her mother. But she doesn't because of them - she has me."

He shifts and stands up, and lo and behold, that leg is holding him up just fine. Even if his lips twitch to betray the pain from the burns making the pain in him spike. "I can do what I have to."

Melissa sighs softly, before moving back towards him and gesturing him back to the bed. "Peter, get back in bed." Because she can tell he's in pain, and she's not going to get into how he's managing to stand, but she's not going to let him be in pain. "If you really are outrunning psychopaths, then you need to think smart, not emotionally. Which is what you're doing right now."

Which she would probably find funny if she knew him.

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