"Scott?"
Scott jolts out of his reverie and shoves the photobooth picture into his desk drawer before grabbing his jacket and backpack.
"Coming!" he calls, taking the stairs down two at a time. His mother stands at the bottom of the stairs with that concerned look on her face, a permanent fixture in their lives since...since...
"Are you sure you're okay?" she asks, putting her hand on his shoulder.
He's not. He knows he's not, but he can't tell her that. He can't tell her that after everything, after Kate and Peter, some part of him just wants to run away and leave Beacon Hills behind like Derek did. He can't tell her how helpless he feels when he sees Stiles come to school with dark circles under his eyes, haunted by nightmares of the crimes the nogitsune had perpetrated. He can't tell her how much he misses Kira, even though some part of him was glad she'd left before he had a chance to screw everything up with her. He can't tell her that after Allison, he's felt like he's been walking around these past two months with a hole in his chest, worse than any pain he's ever felt before. Most of all, he can't tell her how sick he is of the supernatural crap that's ruined all of their lives. For a while...for a while there he thought he'd be okay with being a werewolf. Being an alpha. But he knows now that it's never going to stop. It's always going to be like this.
"Yeah, I'm fine," Scott says and smiles, kissing his mother on the cheek. "I've got to go now, otherwise I'll be late."
His mother doesn't look convinced (she never does), but they've had this conversation so many times that she doesn't argue.
"Wait," she calls when he grabs his helmet off its hook. "I thought your dad was going to drive you this morning."
Scott's mouth twists in a scowl. That's another thing that's been happening lately. His dad is trying to make amends. Worse, his mother actually appears to be on his side. Scott doesn't know why she would would forgive him for ditching them for years, over possibly the stupidest reason he's ever heard in his life, and he doesn't particularly care. He has no patience for this right now, not after everything that has happened. Besides, his dad doesn't even know who he is and Scott has no intention of him finding out he's a werewolf. He'd probably just freak out and leave again, he thinks derisively.
"I don't have time for him right now," Scott says coolly, putting on his helmet. "I'll talk to him later."
And before his mother can protest, Scott is out the door and zooming off on his bike.
Six weeks ago, during one of Stiles's panic attacks, he'd told Scott he thought Beacon Hills was cursed. Scott had protested, of course, privately thinking that it was an overdramatic statement brought on by Stiles's guilt in the aftermath of his possession. But that had been before Kate, Peter, and more hunters had tried to kill them and each other, ending in the the shooting up of the Beacon Hills Library, Derek's loft, and Lydia's house, sending shock waves through the already traumatized Beacon Hills community. The Yukimuras moved back to New York and Derek, shaken by Kate's return and the second betrayal of Peter, finally decided he had enough and returned to Cora. Scott doesn't blame him. Furthermore, Lydia's mother ended up finding out her daughter was a banshee. She did not take it well, and Scott, Stiles, and Malia haven't been able to see her outside of school for weeks. Lydia told them she just barely convinced her mother not to send her away like Jackson over winter break.
And now, just when the dust was starting to settle after what was no doubt the worst year of Scott's life...
Now there's another werewolf in Beacon Hills.
Scott parks his bike in his usual spot and goes to meet Lydia, Stiles, and Malia at their usual place on the benches outside. They're already there waiting for him, looking over a manila folder that Stiles most likely took from the Sheriff's Station.
"You got it?" Scott says, looking over Stiles closely. He looks very pale.
"Yeah," Stiles says with a jerky nod of his head. "My dad gave me most of it."
Scott frowns and sits down next to Malia, eyeing the documents inside the file entitled "Isaac Lahey" in small black font on the tab on the side.
"He wouldn't give me all of it," Stiles complains airily, but Scott can tell he's really annoyed. "He said...look, just listen, okay. Here's the gist of it. Isaac Lahey, age 17, which you probably guessed, considering, you know, he's a junior like us, but I figured it was important information tha-"
"Stiles, get to the point," Lydia says testily, tapping her varnished nails on the plastic top of the bench.
Stiles swallows, looking thrown out of his element for a second. "Right," he says after a second. "Isaac Lahey. He actually lived in Beacon Hills until 2007, after which he was removed from his home by social services."
Scott raises his eyebrows. "Really? Why?"
Stiles scowls. "That's the part my dad wouldn't let me see. Just said it was a pretty nasty child abuse case and that I didn't need the details. I told him the details are important-remember Matt? But he wouldn't listen."
"So he just moved back here?"
"Yeah, he was sent to live with his grandmother in LA, but she died like six months after he moved in, so he was put in the foster care system. Anyway, this is where it gets really weird. Remember this?" Stiles flips to a picture of the Beacon Hills 2006 swim team.
"What do they have to do with it?" Lydia asks, giving an absent-minded wave at a passing girl who says hi as she walks by their table. She doesn't look up from the file though. Scott remembers when Lydia used to be the most popular girl in their class. Now he's pretty sure she doesn't have any friends outside of the people at this table.
"This," Stiles says, pointing at the swim coach, "is Isaac Lahey's father. He was in prison up until last year, when he was murdered under, shall we say, mysterious circumstances."
"Matt," Scott breathes, remembering how angry Matt had been when he spoke about the swim coach who had threatened him not to tell what had happened at the pool. "He killed him, too."
"Who's Matt?" Malia asks, but Stiles just waves her away.
"This," he continues, pointing to another boy in the photograph, "is Camden Lahey, Isaac's older brother. He joined the army after school and died in combat in February 2007."
"What was Lahey in prison for?" Lydia asks, pursing her lips. "Child abuse?"
"Dunno, probably," Stiles says hurriedly. "So mom's dead a few years back, brother's dead, and father dies in prison-"
"-leaving Isaac with the house," Scott finishes, something in his chest loosening at the realization. "So that's why he's here."
"Part of emancipation is proving you can support yourself," Stiles says triumphantly and Scott can't help but smile at the life in Stiles's eyes as he solves a case. "He probably got access to his dad's bank accounts after he died too."
"So you're saying he's not just here because of the Nemeton," Lydia says impatiently. "Or to do something, you know, evil?"
Stiles's expression falls at that and Scott resists the urge to glare at Lydia for ruining his good mood. "I didn't say that," he says, running his hands through his hair distractedly. "I mean, just look at him. He does kind of look evil."
He gestures at the parking lot, and they all turn to see Isaac crossing the school yard, hood up, expression closed, shoulders hunched.
"He does look like he's about to rob a bank," Lydia says in amusement and Malia snorts with laughter. Scott disagrees. He looks like someone who just wants to be left alone.
But her amusement is cut short when Isaac glances over at them, startling when he realizes they're all staring at him.
"Shit," Scott says, turning back around in his seat. "He totally saw us, didn't he?"
"Yup," Malia says, wincing, before turning to him eagerly. "So, what are we going to do about him?"
Sadly, of the four of them, Malia seems to be coping the best with the supernatural disaster that is their lives. While Lydia, Scott, and Stiles are still suffering from grief over Allison's death and the other consequences of the nogitsune's attack on Beacon Hills, Malia was more than eager to jump into the fray against the hunters, Peter, and Kate. For a while both Scott and Lydia became slightly resentful over her general enthusiasm for life and death situations like the one that resulted in Allison's death, until Stiles had told them that she was desperate for any high adrenaline situation that let her forget about her role in the deaths of her mother and sister and the current strained relationship with her (non-biological) father, who is still unaware of her true nature. Lately, Malia has been his ally in watching out for Stiles, making sure he's taking his medication, and talking him down from some of his panicked diatribes. Scott isn't really sure if what's between them is romantic. At the beginning he even briefly wondered if Stiles's interactions with her were some ploy to make Lydia jealous. They aren't, but even if they if were, it's clearly not worked at all. Lydia has been distant ever since Allison's death and Scott worries about her too, but she, like Scott himself, is too busy pretending to be okay for Stiles's sake to let anyone try and take care of her.
Scott blinks. "What do you mean?"
"You know," Malia says, looking at Scott like he's asked her how to spell his own name. "We have to confront him."
"We do?"
Stiles, Lydia, and Malia all look at him with varying levels of incredulity on their faces.
"I mean, it sounds like he's just here to, you know, finish up high school," Scott explains, rather taken aback at their expressions. "His dad died in February, right? So he must have been working on getting emancipated since then. He doesn't look like he's here to cause trouble."
"Scott," Stiles says, looking confused. "He's a werewolf. What if he has a pack?"
"That just all followed him from LA to some tiny town in northern California?" Lydia says disdainfully, looking at something on her phone.
"Hey, the Alpha pack came here from wherever, so-"
"He doesn't have a pack," Scott cuts in.
Malia frowns. "How do you know?" she asks suspiciously.
Scott shrugs uncomfortably. "I can just...kinda tell? Like, he's definitely an omega. I know that much."
There is a pause as his three friends digest this. Scott checks his phone. Two minutes until the bell rings.
"That means he's not that strong, right?" Malia asks and then brightens at Stiles's nod.
Stiles sighs and looks at Scott sympathetically. "Look, man, I dunno. I get that you don't want this to turn into another, you know..." he trails off before swallowing. "But this is our town. We've got to make sure..."
"Yeah, I know," Scott sighs, rubbing his temples. This is how it starts, he can already tell. "Just lemme talk to Deaton first."
"What about Argent?" Malia asks, pulling her jacket tighter around her shoulders, shivering even though she's bundled up like there's snow on the ground. "He's a hunter, right? He could, you know, warn him off if you didn't want to do it."
Scott goes very still, and so do Stiles and Lydia, but thankfully the bell rings before he is forced to come up with an explanation for why he quite possibly never wants to bother Chris with supernatural problems again.
They all stand, Stiles shaking his head at Malia silently and make their way to their lockers to grab their books. First period is history with Kira's father's replacement. And Isaac Lahey. Scott, Stiles, and Lydia, get good seats in the back so they can keep an eye on him, to the annoyance of their classmates, and Scott is careful not to look at Isaac until he sits down, his back to Scott.
So far Scott is inclined to be sympathetic towards him. He sounds like he's had a pretty tough life and seems to keep to himself. As far as Scott can tell, he's made none of the overdramatic villain overtures that Peter, Deucalion, and even Derek had engaged in. He's not even sure that Isaac is aware that Scott exists, much less that he's a werewolf too, though the former might change considering the way they'd all been blatantly staring at him this morning. Scott will talk to Deaton tonight at work about the specifics, but he already knows what he has to do. Stiles is right. Isaac is a werewolf and the full moon is coming up in a week and a half. Scott cannot afford not to take precautions and he cannot ask Chris, who's entire world has been torn asunder over the past two months with the death of his only daughter and his homicidal sister's reign of terror before her (second) death, to do his job for him. To be honest, Scott is surprised he hasn't left Beacon Hills yet. It's not like he has anything left here.
So many people have died in the past year, and if Scott can prevent more, then he has to act. He can't let anyone else die.
He'll talk to Deaton tonight and then tomorrow he'll confront Isaac.
A/N: And so it begins! Obviously this was written before any of the spoilers about season four came out, and will not be compliant with the upcoming season. This fic operates under the premise that the problems with Kate and the hunters introduced in 3b were resolved at the end of 2011 and now it's January 2012. Thus, they will not be part of this fic, along with Peter, Derek, and Kira and her family. Enjoy and please don't hesitate to leave a review!
