"Why bring him to my house!?" Dawson complained, running irritated fingers through his hair.
Scott was laid out on his bed. A patch of thin gause was the only thing keeping the blood from Scott's wounded neck from leaking onto his pillows.
"Because Dawson," Stiles said with a sigh, having gone through this twice already. "His mom's a nurse. She checked him out at the hospital, and this isn't a normal bite. It doesn't even have the properties of a bite, and she's convinced he was seeing things."
"I wasn't seeing things," Scott managed to grunt, still breathing heavily and sweating a lot. "Something's happening to me. I feel like the heat is coursing through me."
"Lie quiet," Stiles chided him in the gentlest of tones, turning back to Dawson. "Something happened out there is all I can tell you. Okay? We told his mom we'd bring him here, since your house is closest, and he's barely able to walk now. She didn't think you'd mind."
Dawson pouted a little and sighed.
"My parents won't mind," he muttered. "I just don't like all that bleeding on my pillows."
"They clotted the wound as best as they could," Stiles pointed out. "I'll buy you new pillows."
Before Dawson could speak, a clambering sound turned their attention to his open bedroom window.
Joey lept into the room expertly, as well as a top athlete could have.
"What's going on?" she asked, taking in the scene and Scott's present state.
"Stiles thinks something bit Scott," Dawson recited quickly. "No one really saw it. Not sure its a bite. My dad let him stay here..."
"Great," Joey deadpanned, and gave Stiles her most sarcastic smile. "Guess I'm going home then."
Dawson reached for her retreating shoulder.
"No Joey!" he whined, giving her his best puppy look. "Stay the night..."
"I told you I'm too old for this Dawson," Joey replied shortly. "Unless you want to rehash that very interesting conversation in front of Stiles..."
Dawson shook his head and sighed.
"Go," he said quietly. "Good night."
Joey looked at him, and her expression became conflicted and guilty.
"I'm sorry," she whispered. "Good night Dawson. Stiles..."
With that she swung through the window onto the roof, and climbed down the latter she always came up by.
Her house was a short ways up the creek from Dawson's, and so she used a canoe to travel back and forth. It was a short few minutes of paddling.
The dock was a short little pier directly across the road from Dawson's house.
She carefully sat in the canoe and untethered it from the dock post, beginning a slow paddle. There was no particular rush.
Out in the middle of the creek, she gave Dawson's illuminated bedroom window one last glance. Stiles had his back turned, obviously still talking with Dawson.
Joey looked down when a car pulled into the drive, and her eyes widened in shock at the scene she saw play out.
Mrs. Leery, Dawson's mother, got out of the passenger seat. She walked over to the driver's side. The window roled down.
The man driving was Mrs. Leery's co-anchor at the news station: Bob. Joey watched them share a kiss- a kiss that was absolutely cheating on Dawson's father, Mr. Leery...
Joey was aware her mouth had fallen open, and for a few minutes after Dawson's mother had gone in, she still felt numb. She became aware that she was just sitting in her canoe, doing nothing.
That was when she gave a resigned sigh and began a faster paddle home. She couldn't tell Dawson what she'd seen his mother doing. It would break his heart...
0ooo0ooo0
Right after Joey had swung through the window to leave, Stiles had turned to banter with Dawson some more.
"What was that about?" he asked, raising his eyebrow.
"Ask me no questions," Dawson replied smoothly. "I'll tell you no lies..."
Scott was now snoring softly, and Dawson gave Stiles another look of slight annoyance.
"Guess there's nothing else to talk about- is there Stiles?"
Stiles was still looking at Scott with a worried expression, eyes cloudy and distant. They'd been best friends since first grade...
"Is there Stiles?" Dawson repeated with emphasis.
"Alright Dawson!" Stiles snapped, now slightly annoyed himself. "I get it. You don't like me. I'll go..."
With that, Stiles decided to try Joey's trick, but he wasn't nearly as skilled. He hopped onto the roof and stumbled clumsily, flailing his arms in a circle.
"Whoa Nelly!"
Dawson clapped his hand to his forehead in disbelief. Between Stiles and Pacey, he wanted to shoot himself sometimes...
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
Joey's sister Bessie and her boyfriend Bodie were on the couch, making out, and just beginning to really feel one another up when loud knocking at the door intruded on their fun.
Bessie stomped to the door and unlocked it. An annoyed Joey marched past her, headed straight for her bedroom. The clock said 12:15 am.
"Aren't you staying at Dawson's?" Bessie asked.
"We grew out of it," Joey said shortly.
Bessie looked confused and Joey sighed.
"Puberty has set in if you must know Bessie. Just...don't talk to me..."
With that Joey stomped off and Bessie started after her in a fury. Bodie jumped up to intercept, grabbing her arm.
"Relax babe," he said. "You're pregnant."
"I'm gonna knock her silly," Bessie sighed, shaking her head. "One day I swear..."
"Relax," Bodie repeated. "She's obviously upset. Teenagers do these things..."
0o0o0o0o0
Morning dawned in Cape Hill. The sun was just coming out over the lake. Pacey and Stiles were on their way to Dawson's in the Jeep to get Scott for school, assuming he was better today...
They pulled into the Leery driveway bright and early, and Stiles parked it. Pacey stepped out of the passenger side and looked across Dawson's lawn to the little house next door- the Ryan residence...
"Have a good day Jennifer," Mrs. Ryan said from the porch, turning a stern glance on Pacey for staring.
However, Pacey's eyes shifted from the old woman to something else.
There was the new girl: Jennifer Lindley. She was walking up the Ryan drive. Who knew she was Mrs. Ryan's grand-daughter!?
The morning light seemed to illuminate her swaying hips and body, radiating off her blonde hair like some goddess.
"Well how 'bout that?" Pacey muttered, still admiring the view. "My mouth drops..."
"Pacey," Stiles called to him from the Leery porch. "Come on!"
Pacey chuckled bitterly under his breath, and forced himself to look away from the blonde beauty. She was probably out of his league anyway...
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
Turns out- Scott was feeling better...
Dawson reluctantly allowed them to make toast in his kitchen, seeing as Stiles was agreeing to take him in the Jeep as well.
Stiles told them all how he'd been up until roughly 2 am that morning.
The person who reported the body to the police had quickly fled the scene, claiming they felt the killer was watching them.
Turns out, the police had very little to go on, and when Stiles showed his dad the place Pacey had indicated- no body...
"Scott didn't make it up Stiles," Pacey insisted with dead honesty. "He didn't imagine it. I saw a body there. Ripped clean in two..."
"I'm not doubting you or Scott," Stiles assured them. "I just didn't find a body where you said to look. Someone must have moved it..."
They all shot troubling glances at one another, and even Dawson didn't like the way this sounded.
Stiles then helped himself to coffee without permission. No one in the Leery household had drank any yet. Dawson was not amused...
As if his morning couldn't suck worse, a very annoying knock pounded the front door right then.
His parents were still sleeping in all liklihood, so he'd have to answer it.
Who should it be except his least favorite person at school: Lydia Martin?
She pursed her lips and marched right past him without being asked in.
"Why does the universe hate me?" Dawson muttered dramatically to himself.
Lydia walked into the kitchen and placed her hands on her hips, scowling at them all like she loathed them.
"How come I had to hear this from the morning news?" she demanded to know, shooting Stiles a dirty look. "Why didn't you tell me?"
"Did you really need to know Lydia?" Stiles asked with a hint of sarcasm.
"Of course I did Stiles Stilinski! I have a reputation. Its bad enough Abby Morgan..."
"Save us," Pacey cut across her. "We don't want to hear about you and Abby's competition for Bitch Queen."
Lydia's eyes lit up with malice at that, and she swelled up as though preparing to tell them all off.
"Lydia please," Dawson pleaded, and she deflated slightly. "Can't we just go to school?"
Scott suddenly got a confused look on his face, and his eyes narrowed as though listening for something very carefully.
He heard the ringing of an alarm clock, but it wasn't coming from anywhere in the house. Somewhere he knew where it was coming from...
He was hearing an alarm in the house next door. The Ryan house...
However, as soon as this extremely keen hearing had activated, it stopped and so did the alarm.
"Scott?" Stiles asked with a concerned look.
"Nothing," Scott lied immediately. "Let's go to school..."
It was another weird thing, and Stiles noticed it with deepening suspicion in his eyes. The bite had almost completely gone in the course of time that had passed since last night. The neck flesh had healed!
Stiles decided not to say anything about it though. After all, it could be one of those freak things of nature...
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
However, by second period that morning, Stiles had a lot more to be suspicious about.
They were in the hall together between classes- he and Scott and Pacey.
When the bell for next period rang, Scott threw his hands over his ears like the sound was hurting deafening him.
Stiles looked away and the worry on his face deepened.
"You guys go ahead," he told them. "Gotta take care of something..."
"Don't fall in!" Scott called, using his own joke on him.
Stiles however, kept walking, and not to the bathroom. He needed to confirm something in the library...
His brain worked fast like it often did. He had ADHD, and when his brain rushed, sometimes things and events seemed to click into place.
He reviewed the facts of recent events.
Scott had been biten by their howling wolf, more than likely. It had been a full moon. The bite had healed almost entirely overnight, and now Scott had super keen hearing...
Stiles made his way across the library, seeking to confirm his suspicions. His face was white with supicious fear, yet resolved.
He pulled an encyclopedia from the shelf, and opened to the letter 'L'.
Scrolling down the page, he found the entry he was looking for.
"Lycanthropy," he read aloud to himself under his breath. "The legendary condition that causes one to turn into a werewolf on the full moon. Symptoms were believed in legends to include superhuman healing abilities, sensitivity to loud noises..."
He continued reading down the page, feeling sure this was it- though he didn't know how.
"...all of this escalating around the time of the full moon," he finished reading, and his mouth fell open.
If he was right, this was what the animal that had bitten Scott was. This was what his best friend had now become, if by some terrible fate, he was right.
Scott was a werewolf, and admitting that to himself- Stiles was absolutely horrified...