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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Peter doesn't come for her. No one does. The Hale house burns to he ground and all she can do is watch. She feels the loss of her alpha when her mother dies, almost like the world dropping out from under her and she wants to howl, to call out to the rest of the pack, if there's anyone left to come find her, but there are too many hunters, too many people, too much that she doesn't. She just hides and watches and waits and hopes that she isn't completely alone.

She watches as the paramedics take Peter away to the hospital. She doesn't know what else to do, so as discreetly as she can, she makes her way through the city and to the back door of Beacon Hills Memorial.

It's not easy to get to him while he's in the burn unit being treated, so she just bides her time until she can. She steals food from the kitchen and clothes from the pediatric wing, and finds an empty room to hide in until the hospital shuts down for the night. Once the lights come down and the footsteps through the halls lessen, she pokes her head out again, glancing both ways for any sign of life, before making her way back to Peter's room.

He's so still. It's the first thing she notices because Peter is steady, solid, but he's never still, not like this. Most of the burns are on one side of his body and he's not moving much beyond the steady rise and fall of his chest, aided by the tube in his throat. The tears start involuntarily, slipping down her cheeks before she can stop them and the backs of her hands come up to brush them away before starting to make her way a little bit closer. She doesn't know what to do, and this is normally the part where she would wait for him to tell her, but he couldn't tell her anything.

The burns on one side of his body are worse than the other, so she stays on his good side, stopping at the edge of the bed and glancing back over her shoulder to make sure that there was no one coming. Then one tiny hand finds his.

"Uncle Peter?"

She doesn't expect him to verbally answer her, but maybe he can let her know if he's still in there somehow.

It hurt to breath. To move. To think. The hospital, bless them, were trying to make him comfortable but in their ignorance of the non-human races that lived in their city, they didn't know that the morphine drip barely took the edge off for him.

Not that the burns were the worst pain. He had felt his sister's death too, seconds before the staircase had hit him, and it ached inside of him. Cousins, family... all gone, but the death of Talia stabbed him so deep inside that he wasn't sure he wanted to recover.

Maybe it would be better to just die here in the hospital. Not that he could protect himself from any of the Argents that were sure to follow and finish the job. Damnit, Derek! I tried to warn you this would happen. Did you even make it, or did she kill you before she even came for us?

And his thoughts were stopped by the feel of a tiny hand in his, and he struggled to open his one good eye, trying to see through the haze at what he couldn't smell since there were tubes shoved in places he'd rather not think about.

His hand twitched though, carefully closing to try and hold the smaller one there.

Her breath catches when his hand starts to curl around his, and she starts to cry harder, even if she has no idea why. But he's there and he's alive and he'll heal, it's just going to take a little time. She has to believe in that, otherwise she doesn't have anything else.

"I know you said I was supposed to wait until you found me but I saw the policemen putting you in the back of the ambulance so I decided to find you instead. Everyone's gone. I don't know what to do."

Not that she expect him to tell her. But right now just telling someone, telling the person who's supposed to guide her is enough.

She got the barest of nods, a small tear finding it's way to slip away from his eye and down his unmarred cheek as his hand gripped hers a moment, and then he let it go to turn her hand palm up, and then he gently traced the triskele on her hand.

They had fallen, but they would find their way back up. Together. It was the message he was trying to send.

She watches as his finger trails against the inside of her palm, making out the shape and knowing what it means. They'd find a way. He just has to get better first, and while she's not strong enough to take his pain the way her mother would have, she knows that proximity can help heal just as much as the ability to take pain can.

She hesitates for a moment, before taking another step closer to the bed. "I don't want to ... " The words trail off as she tries to figure out the right way to phrase it. "Can I ... ?" Her free hand comes to rest against the edge of the bed near him, hesitating as she tries to find the right words.

"I don't want to make it worse."

But she needs her uncle, probably just as much as he needs her.

There is another small nod. He didn't care what the hospital said - she was all he had left, and he wasn't letting her leave the room if he could help it. He moved his arm on his left side, giving her a small space to crawl up into against him.

She takes the invitation eagerly but moves slowly, using some of her natural grace as a wolf to move so that she doesn't jostle him too much. Once there, she burrows in close, nose pressed into his side so that she can get past the smell of hospital and burnt flesh and get to Peter resting underneath it.

Once she settles, her eyes close and she drifts off to sleep, ears still open just in case one of the nurses found her, but she's so exhausted that that probably won't help. She passes out hard, tucked into her uncle's slide and will probably stay that way for a few hours at least.

Peter wraps his arm around her protectively, and woe be the one who tried to get her to leave now that she was tucked in safely at his side. And he could feel the tiny trendels of healing coming from the comfort she was giving him, and so he just closed his eyes and soaked it in, letting it work on healing him to hopefully a point where he wouldn't need the ventilator anymore at least.

His throat itched.

She sleeps hard for a few hours, her body doing some healing of it's own. Smoke inhalation isn't something that's easy to shrug off. The trauma of the event hasn't worn off, however, and she twitches awake at the nearest sound of someone coming, someone who could be a hunter, someone coming to pick off her uncle when he's vulnerable and she won't let that happen, even if logically there wouldn't be much she could do.

She learns quickly, however, the difference between the heavy boots of the security guards (they won't poke in the room if they don't have to, and are generally just patrolling in case there's a difficult patient or family member), the soft sneakers of the nurses (will come in every few hours to check on her uncle which results in Cora slipping into the adjacent bathroom and waiting for them to leave) or the creased dress shoes of the doctors. The doctors don't come in as often as the nurses, usually once at the start of every shift, but by the time she hears the doctors starting to reappear, she knows she needs to go.

As much as she'd like to, she's smart enough to know that she can't hide in her uncle's bathroom all day without getting caught. She'd be found out soon enough, and more important than that, she needs to eat.

As the sun starts to come up she pushes up into a sitting position, before dropping her voice low and whispering. "I have to go. If they find me, they won't let me stay." It'll involve the police and children's services and if they put her in the system, there's no guarantee that she'll be back to see her uncle again. He needs her now and she can't take that risk. She slowly shifts away from him, looking to ease herself back down onto the floor. "I'll be back later, okay?"

He woke up every time Cora shifted off the bed, which meant that the nurses always saw him in some stage of being awake when they came in. They tried to ask him questions and reassure him that he was in good hands and to let them know if he was in any pain.

But as the sun came up, he knew what she meant and was in agreeance with her. Cora was in just as much danger here in the hospital as he was, but he wasn't a "threat" right now to the hunters. The tiny wolf girl was.

He wished the tube was gone so he could talk. To tell her to be safe and that he loved her. Just in case. Instead the one blue eyes just blinked, and his fingers lifted just a bit to run along her face now that she was on the ground and he could reach it. A tiny face that looked so much like her mother - his sister. He knew she would understand what the touch meant.

She leans into his touch, just for a moment, before pulling away and waiting just outside the doorway to see if the coast was clear. Once it was, she disappears out the door for the day.

She heads to the cafeteria and manages to snag a bagel and some fruit when the attendants aren't looking, then returns to a storage room to lay low in, waiting for visiting hours to end and the hospital to shut down for the evening.

Peter spent the rest of his day mostly asleep. When the doctor came to check on him, Peter managed to scratch at the ventilator that the doctor was willing to take it out, warning Peter that if he struggled for air, it was going right back in.

Amazingly enough, he was breathing a lot better without it. It also let the nurse have an easier job getting him to respond to questions as she took time cleaning all of his burns one by one before changing the bandages. In an effort to help, they agreed to shave his head from his longer hair so it was easier to deal with right now, and the right side of his face had extra padding so the pressure of the oxygen mask straps didn't aggravate the facial burns.

It was a bit better of a picture for Cora to come back to that evening, even if Peter was knocked out from exhaustion and drugs at that point.

It is a better picture, and when she sneaks back into the hospital room it alleviates a little bit of the anxiety she's been feeling about leaving him alone. She quietly leaves the door slightly open so that the nurses don't notice anything off, before making her way back to the bed.

She doesn't bother him, or try to get his attention this time. She simply climbs up onto the bed and slots into that spot she found earlier, closing her eyes and getting ready to drift off.

Instinct has his arm unconsciously wrapping around her as she settles, but he doesn't move otherwise. She would hear his breathing ease up just a bit though, relaxing a bit more. Just the proximity of his niece was helping in ways only a werewolf would expect.

She smiles slightly at that, resisting the urge to burrow in closer at the risk of hurting his burns, but just grateful to be able to do something, even if it doesn't seem like it. She in turn relaxes being near him, and it's not long before she's asleep, taking in the safety of family, even if they weren't completely safe.

It wasn't until he heard the sneakers of the nurse approaching that Peter pushed himself out of the fog of sleep, looking down at the tiny body pressed up against his side. "Cora," he said, barely above a whisper and his voice cracking between syllables. "Hide."

Her head picks up at the sound of his voice, then to the squeak of sneakers against the floor. After that she moves quickly, darting down under the bed as the door starts to open, before softly slipping into the bathroom and pinning herself up against the wall, hoping she wasn't seen.

It's hard to flirt with the nurses when only a quart of your face is exposed and half of that has an oxygen mask over it. But Peter gives the dark haired nurse a small smile as she checks on him, drinking from the straw as directed to get some water down his throat to ease the scratchy voice, and answer her questions obediently.

"So Peter, if you're up for it, a deputy has been waiting to talk to you about what happened for their reports. Do you think you're ready? He's outside if you are."

His eyes looked at the bathroom a moment, but he nodded. "No point in waiting. Longer... delays justice."

The nurse squeezed his good hand. "I can be in here if you want. I mean, after all, part of my job is taking care of you."

"Like... that."

Nodding, she walked out. Peter closed his eyes a moment. "Just stay quiet and don't listen, Cora," he said softly, knowing this was going to hurt her too.

Cora's chest tightens a little at that, the idea of talking about the fire, and she sinks down slowly against the wall, hands coming up to cover her ears, even though she knows it won't do that much good. Werewolf hearing is not deterred in the face of skin and muscle and bone, as much as she may like it to be.

But she can try, if nothing else.

The nurse walked back in with a deputy in tow, and they closed the door behind him. "Mr. Hale? I'm John Stilinski. Melissa says that you're up to answering a few questions so we can work on trying to find the persons responsible. But first, let me just say that I'm sorry for your loss. Have you been informed about what happened yet?"

Peter shook his head, and Melissa lifted the oxygen mask up a bit. "No, beyond what I already know."

John lowered his head a moment, taking a deep breath. "There are multiple signs of arson, so we know this was a delibrate act against your home. You were the only survivor we pulled out of the wreckage." he went on to list the names of the bodies identified. "Is anyone from your family missing in that list?"

"Yes. My nephew, Derek. Two nieces - Laura and Cora." He stopped to cough a moment and Melissa helped him get a drink. "All were children of my sister, Talia."

"I'll put up missing persons reports on them, see if we can track them down." John waited a moment, and then he had to ask, "Is there anyone you remember being around the house that night, or someone who may have intent to hurt your family like that?"

Peter's jaw settled. So many choices, but to talk would put Cora in danger. He didn't care about himself - let the Argents try and hurt him here and they could see what a hurt wolf was capable of - but Cora was at risk.

Still, there were ways... "My nephew was dating... a girl. Her father was not... right in the head. Disapproved of him."

John looked at Melissa a moment, then Peter. "Do you think he would go this far to stop his daughter from dating your nephew?"

"The man is unstable. I wouldn't put it past him."

"What's his name?"

"Argent. Gerard Argent. The daughter is Kate."

Her breath catches softly at the mention of Derek and Laura, something probably only Peter could hear. If Laura was still alive then that meant they still had an alpha. It means that maybe they could be a pack again after Peter was better.

She tries to block out the rest, however. The fact that Derek was dating an Argent didn't make any sense, and she didn't know about it, but she can't see how that would be possible. Derek wouldn't be in love with someone who would hurt their family.

Especially if she was an Argent. Mom always told them to be careful about the Argents.

"Is there anyone else you can think of?"

Peter shook his head. "No. We tend to stay out of most people's way. We have been here a very long time."

Melissa looked at John at that as the other man nodded. "The Hales are one of the founding families of Beacon Hills. Most of the land the city was built on belonged to them."

"You know your history well," Peter commented.

"You try to research the people you're trying to help," John replied with a smile. "Though technically, it was my son who looked you up for me. He's better at that computer thing than I am."

"I thought Stiles was supposed to be not trying to be involved in your cases," Melissa chided John gently.

"I've found it's easier to just give him something non confidential to work on so he stays out of the confidential things and feels like he's helping."

Melissa laughed. "That's very Claudia of you."

"I did try and pay attention to some things she did."

Cora's managed to tune it out at this point. She knows Stiles from school, sort of, they run in different circles. It seems to have shifted to small talk. Her brain is still turning over the information from earlier, however, and she just tips her head forward so that her forehead is resting against her knees, waiting for them to leave.

John tapped his notebook a moment. "I'll take this back to the station and get to work on seeing what we can do. I may have more questions later. If you remember anything else, Melissa knows how to reach me."

"Thank you."

Nodding, John went to walk out, but stopped to wait for Melissa after she put the oxygen mask back in place, and gave Peter a small hand squeeze as comfort. "You get some rest. I'll be back before my shift ends."

They walked out, talking in the hallway and the door closed. Only then did Peter close his eye, letting the tears falls since no one was looking at him.

Cora waits. She waits for the talking to lessen and the sounds outside the room to quiet, just in case the deputy thinks he needs to come back for something. She also waits to give Peter a moment, because this feels like something that needs one.

She has so many questions she wants to ask but can't, because Derek isn't there to answer them (but he's somewhere, which is more hope than she's had since the fire). So she'll just wait for Peter to tell her it's safe to come out.

And the walls come tumbling down...

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