Chapter Text
Sarah was pretty sure that Jackson was asleep.
She moved as silently as a cat, sitting up and checking the clock in the corner. Midnight on Halloween night, time for all the scary creatures moving about. Sarah supposed that it was fitting then that she was up and moving.
She emptied her school backpack of all its items, and instead put a couple of outfits in the bag, along with the stuffed cat that Jackson had given her on the first night she had been here. Then she crept down the stairs and into the kitchen.
She grabbed a few granola bars, some water bottles, and various stuff from the pantry, but then she spied her bag of Halloween candy. She was loathe to leave it, and in the end, she added the bag of candy to the backpack. She had to really struggle to get the backpack zipped once it was full, but she figured it worth it if she got to keep her candy.
Sarah debated leaving a note for Jackson, but in the end, she was worried that she would be late if she took the time to try and write a note. Her handwriting was still bad, and she couldn’t spell very well yet.
She slung her backpack onto her back and tiptoed over to the back door, silently slipping out and into the backyard.
From there, it was simple enough to hop the back fence and scurry to the main road, she followed it for almost a mile before she reached the intersection, and then she finally felt she was far enough away from Jackson to risk it.
“Rosa? Are you out there?” she hollered, not too loudly, as it was so late at night.
No answer.
Of course not.
Sarah tipped her head back and smelled the air, finally getting a lock on Rosa. She was down the street a bit, behind what seemed to be a mostly abandoned row of stores.
“Rosa?” Sarah called, and her older sister’s head snapped up. She must have been dozing.
“SARAH!” Rosa was up and dragged Sarah into a tight embrace. Sarah clung to her sister so tightly that she was worried she might hurt her. It had been so long, and Sarah had been convinced that Rosa was dead.
She tucked her face into her sister and felt herself begin sobbing. She hadn’t realized how much she was holding in until that moment. She found that now that she had started, she couldn’t stop, the sobs just kept coming, uncontrollable. Rose just held her and rocked her.
By the time Sarah started to finally control her crying, she realized that her older sister had sat down with Sarah cradled in her lap. Rosa’s stomach gave a loud rumble, and Sarah’s tears turned suddenly to laughter.
“Here,” she said through her tears and her giggles. She squirmed until she got her backpack off, opened it up, and thrusted the contents at her sister.
Rosa grinned gleefully, pushed Sarah out of her lap, and leaned against the wall, with the backpack between them. Rosa started in on the Halloween candy, stuffing an entire mini milky way in her mouth.
“So,” Sarah said after a few minutes of them decimating her haul, “what happened to Mom and Dad? To Carlos?” But she knew for sure, by her older sister’s sudden stillness, that they must be dead.
It took Rosa a few minutes to work up to telling the story and Sarah had never heard her sister’s voice sound so soft and sad. “When the hunters came, Mom sent you off while Dad had them distracted. They shot dad pretty much right away, and he died. It was quick.” Rosa looked down at Sarah, and frowned before continuing, “Mom died attempting to save Carlos, and that was... less quick.”
Rosa took a breath. “Carlos didn’t make it either. They caught me, but once they realized that I wasn’t a shifter, they said they had no use for me. They tried to make me tell them where you would have gone, but I really didn’t know. It took me this long to track you down myself. I just can’t believe I found you,” Rosa finished as she hugged Sarah tightly.
“It’ll be okay now, right? Cause we’re together again?” Sarah’s voice seemed small even to her.
“We’ll go on the road. I look older than I am. Surely I can find away to make some money, and we can camp, like we used to with Mom and Dad.” Rosa wrapped an arm around her.
“Cause that worked out so well,” Sarah mumbled to herself. She really wasn’t sure if this was the best plan, but she needed to stay with her sister. Her parents always told her she had to be careful and protect Rosa because Rosa was human and Sarah was a shifter.
“Well, well, well, ain’t you two sweet,” came a voice from the shadows. Then a man stepped around a dumpster that was a little ways down from them. The scent of something rotting in the dumpster had kept Sarah from smelling him.
Before either girl could get up, he leveled a gun at both of them.
“NO! You said you’d leave me alone! That you don’t kill human girls!” Rosa screamed as she pushed Sarah behind her.
“I don’t. And you’re perfectly safe little girl, assuming you step out of the way when I go to shoot the monster behind you.” Sarah saw him wave the gun a little bit from where she peeked around her sister.
“No. I can’t. You already killed the rest of them. She’s just a little girl. Please, let her be.” Rosa was crying, Sarah could tell from the way her voice got all weedy.
“Either you move, or you both die,” the man said the a chuckle. He must be a hunter, one of the ones who attacked Sarah’s family.
Suddenly, a familiar voice joined the fray: “I’ve got a better idea.”
Sarah whirled, her back to her sister, to look at the new threat. Only instead of a threat, Jackson stood on the other side of them, and he had a gun too!
“Why don’t you put the gun down before I shoot you where you stand,” said Jackson, “The police are already on their way.”
“What? You called the police?” The man’s voice rose in confusion.
“Sure. You’re out here, threatening these two little girls with a gun. Of course I called the police. I only showed myself because I was afraid you’d shoot them before the police got here. But I can already hear the sirens.” Jackson tilted his head to one side, just a touch, but it must have been enough for the hunter.
“You’re a shifter too. Why would you call the police? This isn’t their business. Why don’t we settle this between ourselves?” the hunter cajoled.
“No. You threaten little girls, you kill their families, you go to jail. That is the way it should be,” Jackson replied.
Now Sarah could hear the sirens too. It would be all over in a matter of seconds.
“Now, put the gun down, and get on the ground, so the cops don’t shoot you when they show up,” Jackson told the hunter.
“Maybe I’ll just tell them that you were attacking all of us,” he sneered back.
Jackson laughed, he kept his gun trained on the man, but he totally laughed at the hunter. “You can try it. It won’t work, but you can try.”
The hunter looked around desperately, his gun wavering as he did so. Time seemed to still as his indecision hung in the air, but finally the man lowered his gun. Sarah realized belatedly that he must have finally been able to hear the sirens. Maybe the hunter had thought Jackson was bluffing.
Still, Sarah couldn’t help but smile a little as Derek Hale stepped from the police car. Sarah knew that he was Stiles’ mate, Laura’s other dad. He must have gone to work after they finished Trick or Treating. Unlike Stiles, she knew that Derek was a werewolf, same as Jackson. He could totally handled the hunter now that the hunter didn’t have a gun.
Derek and his partner quickly took care of the hunter, approaching him fast, getting him to drop his weapon and putting the man in cuffs. Once he was secure, Jackson finally lowered his own gun, rushing towards Sarah’s side.
She found herself wrapped up into her second Jackson hug of the night, his arms tight around her, his scent comforting in a way not even her sister’s had been.
He smelled of home.
She found herself clinging to him in response, burying her nose in his neck. When he finally set her down again, she found herself suddenly shy.
“Thank you, Jackson. I’m sorry I ran away,” Sarah said to her feet.
“It’s okay little rabbit. Just don’t do it again. Who is your friend?” Jackson put a comforting hand on her shoulder as he spoke, kneeling in front of her.
“This is my sister. She survived. Nobody else did though,” Sarah said, still looking at her feet.
Jackson looked over her shoulder to her sister.
“I’m Rosa Sanchez. This is my sister Sarah. Our family was killed by that man and his friends in the woods about two months ago. I’ve been looking for Sarah ever since,” her sister told him solemnly.
“Hi Rosa. I’m Jackson. I’m Sarah’s foster dad. How old are you?” he questioned.
“I’m almost thirteen,” she replied defensively.
“Thirteen and you want to take care of your sister? That seems like a lot of work. Tell you what, I was hoping to watch over your sister too. Maybe you could come home with us and we could combine our forces? I’m told I order a tasty pizza.” Sarah could see Jackson’s smile.
“That sounds like the best idea I’ve heard in weeks,” Rosa said.
Jackson stood and opened his arms, pulling Sarah, and then her sister into a hug.
Maybe things were going to be okay after all.