cunningwolf | 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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He looked between the two of them, then nodded. "That would be a good plan. Thank you, Melissa."

Cora glances between them as well, before turning back to Melissa again. "So I can stay?"

The nurse nods. "Yes, you can stay. I'll just have to work up some paperwork so that it looks like you're a patient." There's a beat. "And I may have to loop in the sheriff."

"As long as it keeps her safe and with me, I don't mind the sheriff knowing." His hand runs along Cora's hair gently.

"Okay, then. I'll get him on the phone." Melissa takes a step back towards the door. "For right now, just try and keep her in the room, if you can. I'll handle this wing for the rest of the night, so you shouldn't have to worry."

Peter looked at Melissa and nodded, his one eye showing her just how much this meant to him. "Thank you."

And he wasn't going to let Cora go, because if this worked, it would just make it easier for her to stay.

Melissa nods again, before taking her phone and making her way to the breakroom. Thankfully no one is around when she makes her way inside and she can collapse down onto the couch and call the sheriff, making a phone call that probably no one else should hear.

Stilinski answers quickly, since he knew Melissa only called him when it was important, or Stiles had broken something.

"Hey Melissa. Something wrong?"

"Figuratively speaking, though this would probably count as wrong in a good way." She pauses again to make sure no one was coming in, before continuing. "I found Cora Hale."

"The youngest of the missing Hales?" There was relief in his voice. "Where is she?"

"Here at the hospital," Melissa replies. "Apparently she's been here the whole time, just hiding from the staff. She was worried about being put into the foster system and so was Peter."

Stilinski just pinched the bridge of his nose. "Not that I blame the man but you would think he would have at least told us she was there so we could have seen to her needs."

"And if he had, what would you have done?" Melissa asks it like she's asking a question she already knows the answer to, and it's not going to be the right one.

John just sighed and rubbed his eyes, because no, he would have done the official thing. "You know, you're supposed to support me when I'm doing my job. That's why you helped elect me."

"Why do you think I'm calling you now?" She exhales as she leans back in the bed. "I have an idea that will keep them together, but I figured looping you in might help it be more ... successful."

"And what's this idea?"

"Admit her. As a Jane Doe." She taps her fingers against her arm gently. "The closer she is to her uncle the better we can keep an eye on her and the less difficult my patient will be."

"Well, if she is admitted and under care, DHS won't try and place her into a home until she's released. And technically I wouldn't have to report an unsupervised minor until you release her if Mr. Hale is still needing treatment." He chuckled. "You're too smart for your own good, Melissa."

"It's why they pay me the big bucks," she says dryly. "So I can take this to my boss and you'll back me up?"

"Yeah, yeah I'll back you up. And I'll come out there later and check on this Jane Doe and see how her memory is faring."

"I'll let them know." She takes a deep breath before hanging up. "Thank you, John."

"No problem."

Peter, of course, had been trying to strain his hearing to listen to the phone conversation, and he took a deep breath and relaxed. "She convinced him," he told Cora softly.

Cora's smile brightens a bit at that, and she curls into her uncle more as a result. No more sneaking around, no more having to worry about being caught and getting taken away. There's still the loss of everything else to deal with, but at least she doesn't have to be alone. "That means we'll be okay, right?"

"Yeah. We'll be okay, Cora." He rubbed her back, taking a deep breath even if it hurt his lungs just a bit.

They will be okay. They have to be.

And the walls come tumbling down...

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