Notes: Follows "Please Teach Me Gently How To Breathe" in the currents series.

Okay, I'm not even sure how one quicky Scisaac ficlet turned into a series-someone stop me! This is by no means me being a Jennifer Blake hater or a Jenerek basher. I don't hate her, but I am suspicious of, which I think is fair considering we have no real clue who she is or what she's after (besides Derek's good, good lovin.) And I ship Sterek, but that doesn't mean I'm against Stiles or Derek having other love interests on the show. I am an equal opportunity shipper.

With that being said, Derek is pretty damn harsh in this, but there is a method to the madness. And without giving too much away, everything Derek says/does is for Jennifer's own good. And for this series to continue (and my muse says it must) this had to happen.

I'm only about 75% happy with how this turned out, but I couldn't allow myself to keep agonizing over it, so this is it. I hope you like it and let's please keep it classy when sending me hate comments.

Apologizing in advance that this is dialogue heavy.

It took Jennifer three days before she worked up the courage to return to Derek's loft. After everything she had seen she wasn't really sure what she expected, but it wasn't Derek standing at the window with his back to her and his shoulders stiff. "Why are you here?" he asked.

"I wanted to see if you were all right."

"I am nowhere near all right. You need to leave."

"Derek?" She moved further into the room but got no response from him. "Will you at least look at me?"

With a sigh, Derek turned to face her, arms crossed over his chest in a defensive pose. He felt bad for what he was about to do, but it had to be done. He couldn't have anything with Jennifer for so many reasons; the number one being her safety. And then there was Stiles. He was foolish to think that he could use her as a replacement for Stiles. "You should go."

"Derek please stop saying that to me. I know it's so early but—"

"I'm trying to keep you safe."

"But I am safe with you. And I can help you."

"How?" he asked moving forward, making his stance as intimidating as possible. He had to make it believable or she would never leave him alone. "How are you going to help? They kidnapped you and used you against me. So you tell me how you're going to help?"

She flinched and took a step back from the hardness in his tone. "Well then the others shouldn't be involved in whatever this is either; they're just kids Derek."

"I know, but they're also werewolves. They're involved because they have to be and because they have a chance of surviving." He said angrily, bothered that she was comparing herself to people that had proven themselves trust worthy.

"And the ones that aren't werewolves?"

"They've got a stake in this too. They've all been involved for months, they know what they're doing—how to survive! You have no part in this; you can walk away without getting hurt—"

"Without getting hurt?! What about the other night?" Her voice took on a shrilly tone.

"I warned you the other night that people around me get hurt."

She flinched as if he has struck her. "So it meant nothing to you?"

Derek steeled himself to do the right thing. He liked Jen, he really did. He didn't feel for her what he felt for Stiles, but given time the feelings might have developed. But now, he had Stiles and even if he didn't, he couldn't allow another innocent person to be hurt because of him. "It shouldn't have happened. I—"

"Let me guess, it's not me, it's you?"

"No, it's someone else." Derek said quietly and it got the reaction he hoped for. Jennifer looked stricken and he knew in another few moments the tears would come. "It's always been someone else. You were just…"

"A distraction?" Her voice broke.

"Yes, you were a distraction." Derek agreed. He was being cruel, he knew, but it was necessary. He had to make her hate him in order to keep her safe. It hadn't been fair to toy with her heart, but it also wouldn't fair for her to get physically injured because of him. She could come back from a broken heart; and so far only Jesus Christ and Peter Hale had been able to come back from the dead. "The truth is I wasn't looking for you that day at the school, you just happened to be there. I'll forever be grateful for your help; you probably saved my life. Everything else…"

And there were the tears, "You're honestly going to look me in the eye and tell me you felt nothing?"

"We've known each other for what? A week? Did you think we were gonna live out some epic love story? Look you seem sweet, you're very beautiful, and you helped me when you didn't have to. But I don't know you and you don't know a thing about me. I got caught up at a vulnerable moment and I made a mistake. Jennifer, I'm in love with someone else, someone that I thought I couldn't have; someone who's already deeply involved in my messed up life."

"The werewolf girl who helped save you the other night?" she asked bitterly.

Derek bristled at the jealousy coming off her in waves. What gave her the right to be jealous? He had never promised her anything! He didn't even know if he could trust her. Her keeping quiet about the existence of werewolves said nothing about her trustworthiness. "You're talking about my sister and proving my argument that you know nothing about me. You don't belong in my world. Why can't you just accept that and go?"

"And if I want to decide for myself whether or not you're worth the risk?"

"Oh, you've clearly misinterpreted my motives. I'm not doing this for you; I'm doing it for me." His voice was cold and he dropped his arms from his chest. "I don't want to have to live with the guilt of your death on my conscience." He growled slamming his fist onto the table. "Did you ever stop to think about how we would feel if you got hurt helping us? No? Well I'm already well passed my limit of guilt and I have no room for you. Just go home, call a friend and make disparaging remarks about my manhood over a quart of chocolate ice cream. And then Just. Stay. Away."

Jennifer stood there, hands clasped before her, unsure of what to do. She should be screaming and throwing things at him after what he had just said, but for some reason she couldn't find it within herself to be mad at him. "Derek I—"

"Yo Derek, a little help." Stiles called as he stumbled in with several bags of take-out. Derek moved quickly to catch the bag tumbling from his grasp. "Hey, those wolfy reflexes really come in han…dy. Ms. Blake? What are you doing here?"

She cleared her throat and quickly flicked away the tears that were welling in her eyes. "I, uh, just came by to see how Derek was doing after…everything."

"And now she's leaving. Why are you doing this by yourself?" Derek asked as he turned his back on Jennifer and helped Stiles empty the bags of food on the table.

"Scott and Isaac were still at the clinic; they're gonna come as soon as they are done closing up. Cora and Uncle McCreeper are..."

Realizing that she had been summarily dismissed, Jennifer left. On the way to her car she planned to go home, open a bottle of wine and cry to herself.

After she was gone, "So is that something that's going to be on the agenda when we have our big talk?" Stiles asked.

Derek almost couldn't look him in the eye. But he had been the one foolish to try using her to get past his feelings for Stiles, and he could suffer the consequences. So Derek pulled up his big-boy pants, looked Stiles in the eye and, "Yes, it's definitely going to be a topic of discussion."

"Should I be worried? Is there something there?"

"Maybe there could have been if we had the time to explore it." Stiles nodded, lowering his eyes, not wanting Derek to see the jealousy there. "And if I wasn't already crazy about you." He said pulling Stiles' hand away from the bag and bringing it to his lips. He placed a tender a kiss on his wrist and smiled at him, hoping the love shone through.

And that was all it took to make Stiles smile. "I say we eat all the General Tso's as punishment for them being late." he grinned.

"I'll get the plates."

Title borrowed from The XX song Teardrops.