It felt shockingly good when Allison's fist connected with Scott's throat. She'd had more pent up anger than she had guessed. Then she slammed her shin into his chin, knocking him onto his back.
"After you've stunned your opponent, you want to disarm him with a stomp to the wrist and kicking it away like this," Allison explained as she crushed Scott's wrist with the heel of her boot. "Then you two run. Any questions?"
"Why do you guys keep telling us to run? I get why Scott can fight, but I'm stronger than you are," Danny asked nervously as he made an obvious attempt to avoid looking at both instructors.
As an answer, Allison threw Scott over her shoulder and held her foot down on his neck. "I've had years of self-defence classes and weapons training because my dad wanted me to be able to take care of myself."
"I have mace," Lydia replied as she held up her key ring. "Look, I'm glad you two talked and we're doing this as a group, but it's all so Buffy. All we're missing is the cranky British librarian."
"Can I get up now?" Scott grunted as he patted Allison's leg. After squeaking out an apology, she grabbed his arm and helped him to his feet.
"Okay, now that you've all seen how to do it, who wants to practice?" Allison asked as she looked at the time on her cell phone. "My dad isn't home until eight tonight, so we have an hour."
"I did not agree to this," Scott weekly protested. Allison didn't listen.
TW
Scott didn't need the ice, and Allison knew he didn't, but he held it to his face anyway. "We've been kind of distant lately."
"We?" Allison raised an eyebrow as she poured herself a glass of milk. "Scott, every time we make plans you cancel them. And the one time I cancel them you don't even acknowledge me. It's getting really old."
"I'm sorry. Danny learned about the whole werewolf thing and I've been busy dealing with that," Scott lied. He didn't want to lie to his girlfriend, but he knew telling her the truth was a horrible idea. "Every time I cancelled a date, it was so I could make sure he didn't blow our cover."
"Why didn't you tell me?" Allison was angry. She slammed the door to her fridge so hard it popped back open. "I thought we were over secrets and lies after what happened with my grandfather."
"I'm sorry. My first instinct was to protect you. I wanted to tell you, but not until I was sure what things were like."
Allison reached into another cabinet and retrieved a package of cookies. She slapped Scott's hand when he reached for one. "No. This is your punishment for lying to me. I can take care of myself, Scott. You should know this by now. I'm tired of you and my dad trying to redefine me into someone that needs to be protected from everything."
"I'll try to keep you in the loop from now on. I promise." Scott had no intention of keeping this promise. He mentally kicked himself before having an idea. "Hey, Allison, do you still have your grandfather's stuff here? Like, his books?"
She looked at him quizzically but nodded in affirmation. "What is it, Scott? Is there another were-creature running around?"
"No, I just want some answers on an old mystery. We never did find out how Peter Hale came back from the dead beyond Lydia's involvement. Can you see if your grandfather had anything about resurrection in his books and notes?"
"I guess. It would be easier if I had your help."
"I would, but I'm busy tonight. Thanks!" Scott gave Allison a quick kiss before grabbing his jacket and bolting out the door.
With an exasperated groan, Allison threw the cookie she was eating into the garbage can and took her glass of milk upstairs.
TW
Stiles stared at his dad who was staring at his mom. He hadn't eaten in hours and he'd already pissed himself once. That was something that TV and movies conveniently left out when they had people tied up for days.
Why hadn't Scott or somebody from the station stopped by? The woman who looked just like his dead mother had cooked all through the night and dumped the food into the garbage as soon as she had finished it. The radio loudly played old rock music and the woman sang along with it.
There was a knock on the door that gave Stiles hope. His mother's lookalike happily walked to the door humming a nursery rhyme. "Hello. Welcome to the Stilinski home. Who are you?"
"Hi, my name is Lydia Martin. I'm here to see Stiles. Are you the cleaning lady?"
His heart sank and he started slamming his head against the wall to try to signal to Lydia that it wasn't safe.
"No, of course not. I'm Mrs. Stilinski. I just got home last night from an extended vacation. Would you like to come in?"
"I just need to see Stiles. Is he home?" Lydia answered.
Stiles had stopped pounding his head when his vision started blurring and had gone back into struggling against his bonds. He didn't understand why his father seemed to be almost catatonic.
"Stiles isn't feeling well right now, dear. Can I take a message?"
"Yeah," Lydia answered. Stiles heard the jingle of keys. "Remind him that the crazy bitch knows a zombie when she sees one."
His mother let out an unearthly scream and there was the sound of glass breaking. Stiles saw Lydia run into the living room, his mother stumbling after her and vigorously wiping her eyes. There was the sound of a struggle and wood cracking. Scott heard Lydia scream and more glass breaking.
He saw the woman posing as his mother flying through the doorway and land on her back. Lydia ran into the kitchen wielding a table leg. She cracked Stiles' mom across the chin with it before seeing Stiles tied up in the corner.
"I am so glad I was right, because this would be really awkward otherwise." Lydia smacked the table leg into Stiles' mom's face one more time before throwing it out of the room and grabbing a knife from the counter.
Lydia pulled Stiles' gag out of his mouth and set to hacking away at his bindings.
"Who the hell is that? You mom is dead, right?" Lydia asked as she moved from Stiles' wrists to his feet. "I mean, I'm pretty sure you said she's dead."
"She is. Or that's what my dad told me," Stiles answered weakly. He was too tired to move. Beyond the initial blackout, he hadn't slept. "She looks so much like her, though. Well, like her pictures."
After finishing with Stiles, Lydia checked to make sure the woman was still unconscious before moving onto his dad. She'd seen too many movies where someone thought they'd knocked the killer unconscious just to die two minutes later.
"Sheriff Stilinski, are you okay? Can you talk?" Lydia asked as she pulled out the dirty rag stuffed into his mouth.
He didn't say a word. He just slowly blinked and kept his eyes fixated on the doppelganger of his dead wife.
"Stiles, I think he's in shock," Lydia said as she pulled out her phone and began to dial her phone. She handed the knife to Stiles and stood over the woman. When the person on the other end of the call answered, her voice went into a whisper. "Danny, you need to get your ass over to the Stilinski house right now."
TW
Scott waited at the Hale House. He could feel the Necrostone in his jacket pocket. He wasn't sure if it was his subconscious or what, but he could've sworn it was warm. The stone was cool to the touch when he reached in and felt it.
There was an eerie silence that hung over the burnt out old homestead. Every other time Scott had been there, something really bad was going down and it was loud and noisy. The feeling that something big was happening stayed at the back of his mind. Whether Peter showed up or not, Scott was already spooked.
It was eleven o'clock before Scott finally saw another soul, but it wasn't Peter. Derek calmly walked into his old familial home and held his arms out. "What do you want, Scott? Why are you here?"
"I'm supposed to be meeting your uncle, Derek," Scott replied firmly. "Why are you here? Where is Peter?"
"That's the thing. After our little run-in last night he disappeared. I can't track him. It's like he vanished off the face of the Earth and I think you know why. You've been weirder than usual. What is going on?"
"Derek, do you know anything about the undead?"
"You mean, like, zombies and vampires and stuff? Yeah, I know that Hollywood is obsessed with them."
Scott laughed. It was needed. "I was thinking more along the lines of your less-than-dead uncle. You're the werewolf expert that doesn't want to shoot things in the head immediately. How did he come back?"
"I don't know, Scott. You think I haven't asked him? He won't spill."
"But you're the Alpha," Scott reasoned. He'd played his cards too early when he spilled that he knew about Lydia's connection Peter, and he'd spooked the one person who had answers.
"Yeah, and that apparently means nothing. It's not like you didn't have your own secret agenda when you were in my pack, Scott," Derek pointed out. When Scott had no rebuttal, Derek shrugged and started to leave. He stopped in the doorway. "Oh, and Scott, I need you and your friends to stop coming here. You can do what you want anywhere else, but this is still my family's home and I need you to respect that."
TW
Allison had pored through every book and journal in her grandfather's collection and the only thing she could find about raising the dead involved voodoo. That seemed unlikely to be the case with Peter Hale, since he clearly retained his own faculties and wasn't under someone's thrall. Nonetheless, Allison noted them and set them off to the side.
She sent Scott a text letting him know what she had found, but she didn't expect a response. It seemed less like they were dating and more like they were business partners. Scott McCall might as well be a silent partner.
When she heard the sound of the front door, Allison grabbed the books she needed and quietly slipped out of the room. She used her stealth training to silently walk to her own room and set the books under her desk.
"Daddy, is that you?" She called out.
"Who else would it be?" He stood at the bottom of the stairs. There was a large smile on his face. It was the first time Allison had seen him smile since her mom died.
Her feet hit the stairs and and she practically jumped into her dad's arms again like a little girl when she reached the bottom. He caught her and gave her a bear hug, laughing in her ear.
"What brought this on?" He asked with a laugh in his voice. "You haven't done that since you were seven."
Allison didn't say anything. She was just so happy to see her father happy. He sat her down on her feet and leaned against the wall. He let out a whistle and waved a hand.
"Hey, Ally!" a woman called out as she walked into the house. She was as tall as Chris Argent, with short red hair that might've been frizzy if it were allowed to grow. "How is my favourite cousin?"
"I didn't know you were coming, Rory!" Allison gushed as she hugged the 20something. "How are Uncle Andrew and Aunt Cecily?"
"You know, getting stoned and planting pineapples. They have some weird communes in Arizona."
"Can pineapples grow in the desert?" Chris Argent asked asked he ruffled his niece's hair.
"I don't think so, but you explain that to a bunch of wacked out hippies," Rory giggled. "I would've come out for the funeral, but I had finals to deal with. Are you guys doing okay?"
With that, Allison watched as her father's smile fell away. Thankfully, her cousin hadn't noticed. "Thanks, Rory. We're doing okay. The flowers you sent were nice. We weren't expecting you, so the guest room is kind of a mess. Dad, do you mind keeping Rory company while I clean up?"
"I can crash on the couch, Ally," Rory assured her cousin. "Trust me, a broke college student learns to sleep on anything. Besides, I thought your grandfather was staying in the guest room. Aunt Victoria mentioned that he was here the last time I talked to her."
A quiet fell over the house. Allison was sure Rory would think it was because she'd mentioned her mother's name, but in truth the Argents and the other hunters had done their best to cover up her grandfather's disappearance. Nobody knew where his body had gone to after the Hales had killed him, if he was even dead.
"He left on an urgent matter," Allison's dad explained. "He left a lot of his stuff here. Someone is supposed to come for it soon, so we just left it alone. Allison is right, though. We need to get that cleaned up. How about I take care of it and you two girls catch up? You can go to a movie or something."
"Dad, it's late. The theatre is closed and you have work in the morning." Allison reasoned. She didn't want to run the risk of him noticing anything was missing. "Go to bed. I've got this. Rory, there's a frozen pizza you can put in the oven."
"Was she always this bossy?" Rory asked her uncle as Allison pushed her father to the stairs.
"Pizza. Now!" Allison ordered. Her dad just shrugged and complied.
TW
"You need to tell me what the hell is going on!" Lydia shouted as she pointed at the bound and gagged woman lying unconscious on the kitchen floor. Stiles was upstairs with his not-quite-aware father. "Danny, what the hell have you started? I stop by to see why Stiles wasn't at werewolf boot camp and I find this crazy woman holding those two hostage."
"What part of 'I don't know' is so hard to understand?" Danny yelled back in her face. "You know everything I know. She looks just like those pictures of Stiles' mother we he showed us back in elementary school."
Lydia stomped her foot and punched the wall. "Your damn rock did this. Scott had better be getting some answers from Peter Hale or I'm gonna start killing people. I think I'm going to start with you, Danny Mahealani."
"I'm going to call Scott, see if he has anything," Danny told her. It was more to get away from Lydia than actual concern, but he reasoned that Scott probably needed to know that his best friend's dead mother was back. Unlike Allison's mother, though, they wouldn't be able to keep this one under wraps.
Danny walked into the backyard called Scott's phone but it went straight to voice mail. He just left a message that Scott needed to stop by Stiles' house as soon as he could.
"So, weird night," Stiles said as he slapped Danny on the back. Danny was surprised he hadn't heard him coming.
"You aren't as weirded out as I thought you'd be when Lydia called," Danny confessed. "I mean, that could be your mom in there."
Stiles stared at his fingers. "That's the thing about your mother dying during childbirth: there's no real relationship. I mean, yeah, I had the pictures and dreams of what she might be, but at the end of the day there's no real person. So as long as I remind myself that isn't really my mom in there that tried to kill me I'm okay. The thing that I most want to know right now is why Lydia called you."
"Huh?" Danny played dumb as he scratched the back of neck.
"You know, she could've called Scott or something, but instead she called the new guy. It's weird."
"Scott is busy playing with the Hales or something," Danny half-lied. "He mentioned it at werewolf boot camp."
"What?" Stiles sat in a lawn chair and stared at Danny. "What in the world is werewolf boot camp?"
"Allison and Scott are teaching us how to throw down with the big baddies out there. You didn't show today, which is why Lydia came over. She didn't tell you?"
"I was kind of busy being tied up by a crazy woman," Stiles offered as he pointed to the bruises on his face. "Besides, I'm still mad at you."
It was Danny's turn to be confused. "Why are you mad at me?"
Stiles smirked as he leaned forward in his chair. "Because of all the straight guys in Beacon Hills, you made out with Scott instead of me."
"He told you?" Danny asked as his eyes widened.
"Whoa. What? That actually happened? I was kidding!" Stiles exclaimed before looking thoughtful. "I knew he was gay. He should've just been honest with me."
Danny slapped his forehead with the palm of his hand and grabbed the seat next to Stiles. "Look, dude, don't tell anyone. Scott's not gay. He's just confused. And you can't tell Allison. Nothing happened."
Snapping his fingers, Stiles started shaking his finger in Danny's face. "It all makes so much sense now: the late nights, the whispering in study hall, the longing looks. You turned Scott gay. I'm not judging. If anyone made me gay I'd want it to be you, but hey."
"You need to stop," Danny commanded. "Listen, I know you're trying to not pay attention to what you just went through, but you seriously can't tell Scott you know this. Let me tell him. And try not to be so YOU about it."
"Yes, Sir!" Stiles saluted.
As much as he wanted to, Danny couldn't write off Stiles bizarre behaviour to PTSD. There had to be a reason that he would even joke about Scott. At least he wasn't questioning how the woman who looked just like his mother came to be in his house. Though, it was weird that he wasn't doing that.
That was Stiles' mother lying on the floor being guarded by Lydia. Danny was sure of it. The question was what they were going to do about her. Even if they got lucky and the Sheriff blocked it all out, there was still the matter of Stiles who probably wouldn't let them kill her. Again. It was a mess and Danny had no idea how to fix it. He was so sure they'd put down all those revived when he used the stone, and that it only applied to unnatural deaths. How was dying from giving birth unnatural?
"You two should get in here," Lydia called from the back door. "She's starting to wake up."
The two boys stood up and walked in together. Danny locked the door behind him.
Lydia double checked the bindings to make sure she couldn't get free before ordering Stiles out of the room.
"Why me? I'm the one whose mother she's impersonating," Stiles complained.
"Someone needs to make sure your dad doesn't come down here, and I don't want you to be here if it gets ugly. Now go!" Lydia said as she pushed him out of the kitchen. Stiles grumbled a few unintelligible complaints but left. Lydia grabbed a knife from the block on the counter and held it to the woman's throat as she ripped the gag from her mouth. "Who the hell are you and what are you doing in this house. And don't even try to tell me that you live here because I know better."
Danny was legitimately scared. The Lydia he knew was always a little cold and hard, but this wasn't the girl he knew at all. Ever since she went crazy, and especially after Jackson died, she'd become distant. The ruthlessness he saw on display in the kitchen was unlike anything he'd ever seen.
"You two aren't that different," Stiles' mother answered in a hollow voice at her eyes darted between Danny and Lydia. "You both brought the dead back to life. The only difference is that she made sure to bring the right one back."
After winking at Danny, Stiles' mom jerked against Lydia and impaled her throat on the knife. Lydia screamed as a geyser of blood hit her in the face. Danny pulled her out of the line of fire and watched as the blood sprayed against the wall and counters. He yelled for Stiles while pulling his phone out of his pocket and called Scott again. All he got was the voice mail.
Every time he thought he was adjusting to his new way of life, something would slap Danny in the face and remind him that he had no idea what he was doing and neither did anybody else.
"What did you guys do?" Stiles yelled when he saw the carnage and a blood-soaked Lydia crying into Danny's shirt. "What the hell did you do?"