AUTHOR'S POV
Reina watched through the glass as she sees Sebastian lose it, listening while her brother fight his own battles. Folding her hands across her chest, she sees another story unravel beneath the surface. The office never gets better day after day. Her mother and Damon were meeting again. This time it ended differently. They were all smiles. The whispers sounded like victory of some achievement. After taking a phone call out of earshot, Damon suddenly leaves.
Reina opened her phone, typed a brief message and sent it to one person she trusted. She followed Damon out up until the parking lot. Damon drove out of the office, as Reina tail him. Keeping an unnoticeable distance, she followed his turns, and even beat the red light catching up on his speed. One swerve led to another until they reached a familiar high road. He was driving home.
Damon parked his car by the driveway. Whistling, he headed out of his car, and sauntered towards Reina. He knocked on her heavily tinted window. She opened them with her other hand still on the steering wheel. "Do you think I wouldn't notice you following me?", he lifted his brows, wearing a playful grin.
"This is my home too".
"You bet", he said. With his hands on the back of his head, Damon whistled a tune on his way into the mansion leaving Reina to herself.
Reina grunted heavily as she turn off the ignition. Admittedly, she sucks at stalking under cover. She blows it every time. Well, maybe if only her vintage car doesn't stand out in the road, she wouldn't be easily noticed. Honestly, she actually thought she'd be following Damon into somewhere interesting. The rumble of her car lowered until it's gone. She then stepped out of the car, heading home too.. However, she noticed Damon going into the other side. Particularly, to the lakeside. Once again, Reina fixed her private eyes on her brother. She followed him in quick strides. And just as what she expected, he's in the dock readying the boat.
"You again?", Reina could hear the displeasure in his tone. "Don't you have any other important things to do, Reina?", Damon pulls the boat towards the dock.
"Didn't you hear what I said? This is my home too".
"Yea, but this is the lake", he argued, consistently.
"So? I wanted to row", she answered back, drawing close to the dock.
Damon straightened up and turned to Reina with his furrowed brows. "Since when did you rowed?"
"I like to challenge myself from time to time", Reina noticed how Damon's muscle tone have become firmer. He must have rowed immoderately for quite a while now.
Damon thought Reina sounded ridiculous, just like how she is acting right now. "Come on, you can't row, Rei.", he doubted it with a subtle smirk. "You hate your own sweat", he went back pulling the rope of the rowboat.
"I was told that nature keeps you at peace. I needed some air after... you know, everything this God-forsaken family had been", she said it with much sense of convincing Damon.
"Sure...", Damon finally reached the boat, set it in place, and hopped in. "Well, I'm gonna row so, go find some other nature to breathe fresh air in".
"Can we just go together? And where are the other boats?", Reina wondered, realizing there's just one rowboat left by the dock.
"How should I know?", Damon shrugs his shoulder off, pushing the dock with his hand. He drifted through the lake, holding onto the oars.
"Why do you always row? Am I missing something?", she shouted, arms crossed, as her brother drift away from her.
"I just realized, it suit me best. Bye Rei, see ya!", Damon rowed away from Reina, with his smile fading at every pull of the oar.
That night, Damon didn't return from rowing. No boat docked back. Reina stayed on watch, waiting for him to come back. The long wait made her nod off to sleep. And when she woke up in the first light of the morning, she saw Damon have already returned, only he was about to leave for the rowboat again.
Meanwhile, Back in the DW Medical Hospital
"OH. MY. G."
The news have spread all over the 'gram that Scott is dating a blonde. And Kate is so furious when it exploded on her face the first time she opens her phone. "So, there's a new girlfriend, huh?", Kate pouted, as she glower at her visitors. After seeing those paparazzi shots of Scott with another woman in the internet, she contacted Lucas to clear things out about it in person. "I completely get it now why he doesn't give a damn to look for her. All along, I thought Scott is different. Ugh!", Kate furiously rolled her eyes, tossing her phone on the bed.
In less than a minute, she was back at it again doom scrolling on their pictures. This time, she zoomed in on every picture. His arm around her waist. The woman's hand rested possessively on his chest. Them sharing drinks. Walking out of a movie theater, with fingers intertwined. Every photo served a fresh slap on the face. Suddenly, her visions blurred. Her nose became all stuffy. She felt awful for Diana. "She looked like a scarecrow.. in pink!!", she purred like a feral cat.
"It's not exactly a new girlfriend", Cory spoke for Scott, as he stood at the foot of the bed eating Kate's jello. "It's just.. it's just that they go out together.. Eat together.. Drive around together.. It's not like they kiss or hug, you know", he tried to keep all the cringe in.
Quietly behind Cory, Lucas nodded with a bunch of flowers in his hands. None of them knew how Kate ended up in the hospital in the first place. After Scott warning him not to mess with the Luna's best friend, he intentionally warded off from her ever since. They only visited because they were summoned by the angry Luna BFF. He was hesitant at first, but Kate's growls over the phone were too scary to turn down. As she look at Kate, he's surprised how she can sit with all the large purple bruises on her face, neck, and arms. He couldn't imagine what she's keeping under her red hearts pyjamas. Not to mention the bandage on her head.
"Just.. that? ", Kate squinted her eyes stitching all those words out. Then, her eyes cheeks went crimson, and her brows slowly knitted together. "You mean they kissed?! WTH Scott!! Your friend is totally out of my presents list!", she yelled, throwing a book at Cory, spilling all the jello on his shirt. Lucas walked to the side then hid again behind Cory, totally unsure if he'd put the bunch of flowers down, or use it as a shield in case Kate decides to throw something again.
"I just got this shirt", Cory smiled a thin line, wiping the purple stain on his Astroboy shirt.
"While Diana was out there running for her life, Scott is busy sucking mouths and holding hands with some dumb blonde?! Argh!!", Kate tosses a pillow at Lucas in her extreme madness.
Lucas caught the pillow with one hand. "You're blonde too..", Lucas muffled, keeping his head low like a scolded child.
"That's not the point!!", she growled. "My wounds still ache, and it's fucked up when all I can do is be all over my phone looking for Diana! I couldn't even file a missing person report because Dr. Blackwell said it isn't safe for her. While your great Alpha Scott fucks a new girl? If only I had known, Diana and I didn't have to risk our lives in that stupid forest full of werewolves and shit to find his cure!", Kate gasped at the sudden pricking pain on her abdomen. She took a moment as she shut her eyes taking one deep breath with her hand on her abdomen. "I.. just.. can't imagine what could she be going through right now after what we had in that place", Kate voice cracked as she breathe heavily. Cory and Lucas stared at each other hearing Kate's sentiments.
"Wait.. You went to where??", Lucas squinted his eyes, as he finally put down the flowers on the overbed table. "Diana was with you all these times?", he shared glances with Cory with absolute disbelief.
"You don't know? Ugh!", Kate took a sharp sigh, leaning back slowly. "Somehow Diana found her way back to Scott with a help of some elfy magic. Then, she left him to find her dad. We managed to go to this place... A place she thought she saw him. We were chased by wolves in there, crawled into some filthy cave... Then, we were up against some werewolf named, Randall...", she as abruptly halted by the memory of Randall's cruel intentions towards them. "Fuck it. Just look at me and see how it was like with us against him", her eyes twitched, and her heavy tears began to cascade on her cheeks. Cory handed a box of tissue, as Kate immediately snatch them from his hands taking one piece after the other. She carefully wiped the tears on her face. "...we found Dr. Daniel there so I guess it was worth risking our lives. But as for the cure for Scott, I hope we didn't went all through that shit for him."
Once more, Lucas stared at every bruise on Kate's face and arm. His jaw hardened at the wounds and scratches that have ruined her skin. Especially the finger marks on her neck. He stared a little bit longer on the ones that seemed would leave a deep scar. He didn't realized his hand was already on hers, squeezing tight.
"He kept saying she left on her own", Cory figured, taking another jello.
"Diana wanted to go alone. She wants to show Scott that she can do something for him.", Kate snapped back. "And, voila! She almost died getting that damned cure. I hope Scott live a long fucked up life", she swatted Lucas' hand from her.
"Why were you with her?", Lucas asked, wondering why would the Luna venture on a dangerous journey with a feeble human when she have Scott, and a pack of strong, awesome wolves like them.
"You think I'd leave her alone?", Kate glared.
It wasn't the answer he was looking for. He was hoping they'd turn to them, because none of these near death experiences would happen if they weren't too brave, too reckless and completely insane. "And so would Scott. Diana should've said something, you know", Lucas said, quietly. "Scott thinks she left him".
The anger in Kate faltered. Not completely, but a little. "It doesn't mean Scott had the right to find someone new", she frowned. "He should've waited. Or at least, looked for her harder. He should've used his brain".
"I know..", Lucas rubbed his face with a sigh. Thinking about it, Scott's strange behavior, his isolation, and silence. The way he became a completely different person. All the loose screws as what they thought. It was all because of the Luna.
"Yea", Cory nodded immediately, putting down the empty container of the jello. "He misplaced his brain for weeks now".
For the first time, Kate laughed. A watery, pained, miserable laugh. Then she grabbed Lucas' sleeve. The humor vanished. "Diana hasn't come back since I got admitted here. I can't contact her either. I know you guys were friends with Diana at some point. If only I'm not stuck here on this damned bed, I would find her. But please..", with her nose starting to turn red again. "Find her. Please, help me find her", she pleaded.
Lucas looked at her, melting under the touch of her roughed hand. "We'll find her", he promised.
"When I can walk again", Kate lets go of Lucas. "I'll deal with Scott".
Lucas and Cory left the room as soon as the doctors and nurses checks in. Neither of them spoke immediately. Finally, they have connected the dots and fit the pieces together. Somewhere between the Alpha and the Luna sits a mountain of misunderstandings that neither of them knew. However, something in Lucas unsettles. As if something doesn't quite fit in. He asked himself, is the misunderstanding enough to destroy a bond? Can Scott completely give up on his Luna just because she walked away?