This is for the challenge for FashionDiva7. It's going to be an AU season finale thing. Which is why I waited, to see what happened and write appropriately. By the way, What a Season Finale, right?

Disclaimer: I don't own Teen Wolf.

A Series of Questions

Where Are You?

Melissa McCall went through the motions of her. Her body was on auto-pilot going from room to room checking supplies, patients, and nurses, while her mind struggled with questions about her son. Like tonight; he was supposed to be home from the formal by now. But she had called the home phone and his cell, receiving no answer from either. And bothered her, more than motherly instincts allowed. More than she would like to admit to herself. And all that worrying just opened a floodgate to all of the other burning questions that have been plaguing the single mother for quite some time.

Questions like why her son was out at odd hours during the night. Where was he going and what was he doing when he should have been studying. She prayed that it wasn't about Allison. If it was, Mrs. McCall would have to pull the mom play out and ground her kid. Not something she really wanted to do, one- because she didn't want to have to forbid Scott from see this girl who had completely held his attention. And two- because she didn't think that it would hold Scott for very long. The boy was clever, though most people didn't notice that. Melissa smiled to herself as she headed back to the front desk to check the paper and computer work. Scott would figure a way out of being grounded. It's not like he listened to the police curfew. She would to check on her son when so got back home after work, just to make sure everything was okay.

But this one question brings up a whole slew of more. Where these new aggression problems come from? Scott had become touchier, had a shorter fuse for little things. For example, the other night the older McCall had asked her son where something was. She honestly doesn't even remember what she had asked for. She does remember her son blowing up about; it wasn't his responsibility to keep track of everything. Melissa had just stared at her son; never had he raised his voice like that to her, ever. And as soon as he had control of his breathing, Scott had profusely apologized and ran up to his room. And he had managed to get away without being questioned about the outburst, mostly because Momma McCall was too preoccupied as to why her son's eyes turned gold with is outburst.

At this point, Melissa just starts to tick off all of the oddities with her son. Scott's eyes changing color, constantly hiding his hands, holes being torn into his clothing, the far off looks, hear her phone conversation from downstairs. The list goes on and on. Melissa lets out a sigh and stares at the clock; only three more hours and she can go home. And maybe question her son.

An alarm goes off in room 215. That kid just won't leave the oxygen in! Melissa McCall hurries down the hallway, momentarily forgetting about the strangeness with Scott.

~TW~TW~TW~TW~TW~TW~TW~TW~

"Go faster!" Scott yelled, barely sitting on the edge of his seat in Stiles's jeep. Scott had just managed to get to his best friend before Peter Hale, the Alpha, had done any damage. Not that Scott did any damage to Peter, but still they had managed to knock the older werewolf out. Getting hit by a Jeep head on will do that to you.

Scott and Stiles were currently breaking several speed limits trying to get to the burned Hale House. After the horrible incident with the Argents, Scott ran to the only place he knew of that offered guaranteed safety to a werewolf. The Vet's office. It was there that the youngest werewolf in Beacon Hills learned how he could find Derek. If only he had remembered sooner what Stiles had said in the beginning of this nightmare.

Wolves howl to signal their location to the rest of the pack. That was what he had said. Derek was pack of his pack. And so howl Scott had done. As loudly and as fiercely as he could. Then he waited for a response, any response, from Derek or even Peter. Derek had miraculously heard him. And had answered with his location; the Argents had Derek under his own house. With that information, Scott searched Stiles out. No way was he going to be able to rescue Derek without some help.

And here they are now, two friends heading toward a burned house to rescue another werewolf. Much to Stiles's dislike.

"Do we even know where we are going to take him once we get Derek out?" Stiles questioned as they got closer. The teen could just make out the silhouette of the building just up ahead.

Scott shook his head, "No."

"Do we know if any of the Argents are there, at least?" Stiles asked a little more desperately.

Again shook his head and said "No."

Stiles shot him a look of disbelief. "Is there any plan here besides 'get Derek out'?" Stiles had just pulled his Jeep up to the old Hale house and parked.

"That's about the whole plan," Scott explained as he got out. "Listen Stiles, we don't know what has been happening down there; we don't know what condition Derek is in. His response back to me was a little incoherent. Let's just go." Scott turned and started sniffing the air, looking for a specific mix of wolf, ash, and wood that would lead the two teens to the underground entrance.

It wasn't a hard scent to find, this was Derek's home. His smell was everywhere but Scott found the trail that led to a grated opening a few yards from the front of the house. The werewolf beckoned Stiles over and the two slowly and cautiously entered and continued down the damp dark hallway. Both boys had their senses on high alert, one more successful than the other but still both boys were tense. Scott was the first the sense something. He stopped and stuck his arm out to stop Stiles. Scott turned his head, allowing his ears to hear all of the sounds in the maze. Thump. Thump. There it was, that odd steady sound.

Stiles watched as his friend did his werewolf thing. After a minute of watching Scott listening, the human teen spoke. "What do you hear? Is it one of the Argents?"

"I don't know what it is," Scott answered as he started moving forward again. "It sounds like something… it's a 'thump' sound. Like something is being hit…" Scott located the door that the sounds were coming from. But new sounds accompanied the 'thump.' Grunts, rattling, laughing, quiet pained moans. "It's coming from that door there. I think it's Derek," Scott looked at Stiles, panic flooding the werewolf's eyes with gold.

Stiles looked at the door, now hearing what his friend's heightened hearing had picked up. He set his face, it was game time now. No turning back. He turned to Scott and laid the plan out. It was simple. Stiles would open the door and Scott would rush in and take whoever was in there by surprise. It only sounded like one guy; besides Derek, who had stopped making noise altogether outside of an occasional grunt. And Stiles would wait outside of the door for Scott to give the all clear that it was safe to move in and help. Simple, right? But with these werewolves, it's never easy, Stiles thought to himself as he got ready to pull open the door. He turned to look at Scott, who had completely wolfed out now. Scott nodded he was ready, bouncing back and forth on the balls of his feet. Stiles nodded, pulling the sliding metal door open as quickly as possible.

As soon as the door was open enough for Scott to fit he was through the door and in the room. Stiles waited and listened as Scott growled and hissed at the man inside. There was a crack of fist hitting face, some smacks of a foot finding its target, the clattering of a wooden bat hitting the concrete floor and the thud of a body following the bat. Stiles wait for Scott's all clear. The moment it was given, Stiles pulled the door open further and hurriedly walked in.

The sight before him was not pleasant at all. Not that the human teenager expect the Argents to give a captive werewolf a five star hotel room suite, but still this was just messed up. Derek was shackled to what looked like a metal fence of gate, head down and just about oblivious to the world. The room was dark, the only light in the room was the spot light directed to the shackled werewolf. Scott was currently trying to get the shackles off of the older wolf. Stiles eyes drifted down from Scott to the black patch taped to Derek's side. Slowly Stiles followed the connecting wires to the voltage reader and car battery. The clanging on one shackle coming open snapped Stiles back to the first major obstacle of getting Derek out.

"Help hold him up while I get the other one off," Scott called back as Stiles rushed forward. Stiles grabbed the now free arm and placed his other hand on Derek's shoulder. He could feel a slighting from the werewolf that terrified him. The boy finally brought himself to look at the damage done to the werewolf.

"Scott, why isn't he healing? He's not healing like normal." Stiles asked, his usual wit and quick one liners gone for the moment. Scott worked furiously to get the other shackle off of Derek. It gave him something to focus on instead of the blood coming from Derek. The older beta's chest was covered in bruises every color from newly formed black to healing yellow. It looked like a rib was broken and in the process of healing. Sweat covered his face, brow and chest and light shivers rolled through his body. The most unsettling was the half arrow shaft that stuck out of his left shoulder. Finally the shackle gave its clanging protest of being torn open, and Derek slumped on to both of the teenagers who shared a look of extreme concern.

"I don't know, Stiles! He should be healing! What's wrong?" Scott was flying into a panic again. It was a good thing that Stiles was driving; Scott wouldn't be able to keep it together.

"I think that the healing thing of being a werewolf is being over taxed." Stiles nodded at the arrow shaft in Derek's shoulder. "That's probably what is keeping him from healing. Remember what the Doc' said? Werewolves won't heal until the arrow is out," Stiles explained to the best of his ability. All those trips to the library were paying off. Scott was moving to remove the arrow from Derek when Stiles stopped him. "Leave it for now. If we pull it out now and he wakes up in the Jeep, he could freak out," Stiles suggest a little forcefully. He really did feel horrible about what he had said earlier about letting the Argents kill the older beta. No one deserved this. "He's not in major life threatening danger…"

"That we know of," Scott interrupted in a panicked rush. Stiles nodded and continued.

"It's safer for us right now to leave it in and get him someplace where we can take care of it," Stiles started moving towards the door, dragging the half of Derek that was on his shoulders.

"You mean someplace like the Vet's office?" Scott offered questioningly, following his friend's lead.

"Yeah. That'll work. Is your boss still there? Cause he would be very helpful right about now."

"Yeah, I think he is. I call him once we head that way," Scott said as he shifted to take all of Derek's weight on to his shoulders. "Grab his stuff over there. I don't want to come back here." Scott started jogging out the way the two had come just minutes before as Stiles grabbed everything that was on the table and ran after Scott. A very long night just got much longer.

~TW~TW~TW~TW~TW~TW~TW~TW~

So that's the first chapter. I know there is little Melissa but there is a reason. Her parts are going to get longer, I promise. So yeah, tell me what you think. I don't have a beta for this one, so mistakes are mine. If you see anything, let me know. Yeah, maybe a lot of Derek. He is my favorite. It should be fairly short, but there is no telling when a story takes on a life of its own. It's not slash. I think that is everything…. Hope you liked it and will want more. Leave me a howl on what you thought. Thanks.

SF