Chapter Four: The Pieces Where They Land

The lacrosse game had been a success, and Scott took his time in the showers after, lingering in the steam-filled room until he heard the footsteps enter the locker room. Turning his back to the entrance, he placed both hands on the tiled walls and waited. There was the sound of a locker opening and closing, and then the steps began again, this time heading in his direction. A smile crossed his lips and he half-turned his head as the beta entered the room.

Liam quickly moved across the small distance between them and tossed his towel to the side, then wrapped his arms around Scott's waist and nuzzled into his back.

"Good game tonight," Scott said, twisting around and looked down. "You were really impressive out there."

"I fumbled and didn't score a single point," Liam responded, absent-mindedly running his fingertips up and down Scott's abdomen.

"That's not what I meant." Scott leaned over and kissed the beta. "I meant that you were in total control tonight, and the full moon is only a couple days away. I could tell you felt it, and were able to remain yourself."

"Well," Liam mumbled, giving Scott a quick kiss on the neck, "I've had the best teacher."

Scott grinned and pulled away so Liam could begin washing himself off. These were the times, he reminded himself, as he often did now that Allison was gone, that he had to cherish. He wanted to remember this moment in its entirety, exactly how it happened. The way Liam's face scrunched up as he scrubbed at his back, the way the water cascaded down his body, everything and more. The lights had mostly shut down by this time, and he loved the way the moonlight fell over the beta's skin. Liam noticed his alpha's intense gaze, and reveled in it. For him, this was just another night, and he still held the idea that things could continue on this way forever.

Not wanting to ruin this moment, Scott made a mental note to have a talk with Liam at some time in the future. Nothing in Beacon Hills really lasted all that long, and the peace and calm since he rescued Liam on the top of the hospital was sure not to last. Lydia had made sure he was well aware that something was approaching, but not even she could really say from what direction – or in what form.

But for now, Scott had a happy beta, looking like the world's sweetest puppy, for him to occupy his time. Liam sauntered up to him with a goofy smirk on his face.

The two of them had kind of fallen into this pattern. There weren't exactly in a relationship, as Scott still didn't feel like he had properly mourned the passing of Allison, but they enjoyed each other's company, and contact.

Liam picked up his towel, which had only gotten slightly damp from the shower, and used it to wrap both Scott and himself up. With their bodies pressed together, Scott found it painfully obvious that Liam was expecting them to take that next step together, but he couldn't find it within him to go there. Not yet, and not here.

"Liam, it's way past the time the game ended," Scott said, pulling away. "You're way past your curfew, it's time to get you home."

Liam gave him an adorable frown before assenting and moving back into the main locker room to get his clothes. Scott started after him before he heard something.

He could tell Liam heard it too, as he froze a few feet away from his locker.

The scream bubbled up through the darkness of the school grounds, racing to their ears. By now Scott was familiar with Lydia's banshee wail, but this sounded different. There was true pain in it, with an undercurrent of sheer anxiety. He knew Liam probably couldn't tell all this, as he was still new to his super senses, but Scott had put in his practice time.

"Clothes – quickly!"

They raced to put on their clothing and bolted from the room, heading towards the sound. It originate from the lacrosse field, so they ran out into the moonlight, eyes frantically scanning the grass for the disturbance.

Someone was crouched by the far end of the bleachers, huddled over another form sprawled out on the ground. They were halfway there when Scott recognized Malia's brown hair. Speeding up, he skidded to a stop and saw Brett laying unconscious beneath her.

"Malia!" he cried, and when she looked up he saw how terrified she was. "What's going on?"

"I was just out here, and ran into Brett," she stammered. "Then it – it just came out of nowhere. It was so big!"

Liam looked between the two of them, at a loss for what to do. Brett had been horrible to him in their shared past, but seeing him like this put him at a loss for what to do.

Kneeling down, Scott placed a hand on her shoulder to steady her. "Malia, try to calm down. What happened?" While he said this, he examined Brett's body more. A dark pool was creeping out from his back and there were bruises on his face and neck. Something had put the hurt on him in a major way, but his chest was rising and falling, and his heart was beating, albeit slowly.

"It swooped down on him. It knocked me out of the way and went after Brett. I've never seen anything that huge before!"

Scott lifted Brett slightly off the ground to inspect the wound. In the soft moonlight, he found that it had already healed up.

"Malia… how long ago did this happen? How did he have time to heal before you screamed?"

She drew up within herself. Scott could only see her eyes through the hair falling around her face, but it was enough to unnerve him. Malia had the potential for many things, but this level of fear was more than ample to shake him.

"My body just locked up." One of her hands moved up to the side of her neckline. "I just froze… I couldn't do anything."

Scott let Brett gently back down to the ground. "Wait a minute," he said, and pushed Malia's hair off her shoulder. Right where her hand had been was a small, almost surgical incision. He recoiled as though he had been struck. "You said this thing swooped?"

"Yeah," Malia answered, then pointed towards the field box, "and then it flew off over there."

Scott jumped to his feet. "Malia, Liam, stay here. Watch after Brett, make sure he wakes up."

"Where are you going?" Liam asked shakily.

"I need to get to Derek." His phone was already in his hand. "And I'm going to try to get to Argent. Hopefully he's not too far away."

"It's starting," Parrish said, walking towards Jackson. "It's getting bolder, making different, bolder moves."

Jackson wanted to ask, but knew far better than to speak out of turn. When Parrish got into this rambles, the best course of action was to just let him go until he either ran out of steam or got bored. He hadn't had anything to eat in almost two days, and his body was weak. Combined with the maddening silence of his almost- solitude, his mind was just as fragile. There was no way he was going to escape, and then his encounter with that creature left him emotionally wasted.

"This is what I saw coming, almost to the letter," Parrish was saying. "This, of course, is why I need you."

He stirred at that last sentence, some part of his mind fighting for focus when all he wanted to curl up and let the time pass. Parrish stared at him evenly now, the wheels behind his eyes turning in a frenzy.

Parrish walked over and crouched down. "Jackson, you are crucial to everything I came to Beacon Hills to accomplish. I saw this coming, true, but the timeline seems to have been accelerated. You have to think that I'm doing this to torture you, to drive you insane, but that's not true. I need you to revert back to something more… primal."

Jackson opened his mouth to speak before refraining. All he really wanted was to drift off to sleep, hopefully see Lydia there again, and maybe this time he would actually reach her.

"But I've also realized, after observing the town this past year, that your friends could also be of some use to me. So it's time to break you completely, but I still have to keep enough of the old you inside to reach out to them when it's time. I have something for you upstairs," he said, standing up and heading towards the stairs.

A few minutes later he heard some shuffling coming back down the stairs. A woman emerged at the bottom, flung to the floor, her mouth gagged and her hands tied behind her back. She wasn't someone Jackson recognized, and he wondered what the hell Parrish was planning on doing with her.

Parrish re-entered his view with a smug expression on his face.

"Who is she?" Jackson was too surprised over their unexpected visitor to remember the rules. "What the fuck is this?"

Parrish took the time to stride over and deliver to back-hand slaps to Jackson's face, sending his jerking against his chains. "Speak when you're spoken too," he hissed.

He went back to the lady moaning and struggling against her bonds on the floor. Pulling her roughly to her feet, he led her over to where Jackson sat against the wall. "This is someone I think you'll really want to meet," he said with a diabolical edge to his voice.

Sweat-matted hair fell across her face. When she took in Jackson, she made strange choking sounds behind her gag.

"Jackson," Parrish said in a voice just above a whisper, leaning in close, his face framed by the two of them, "allow me to introduce you to your birth mother."

The creature found itself in the woods outside the high school. It landed in the canopy, then snaked down one of the trees, its scales gleaming in the night air. Leaves and twigs crunched underfoot as it settled in among the shadows.

It convulsed, shuddering in the darkness. Its wings melted away, dissolving back into its back. The talons retracted. The eyes faded from a glowing yellow to a normal brown.

A few minutes later, a naked form stood beneath the branches.

He shook his head, confused. It had been so long since he'd been turned, and this was the first time he managed to regain enough control to shift back to his human form.

"What… is going… on?" He asked the night.

He felt powerful, and vengeful, although he couldn't say against what. Everything in his brain was confused, the past year a murky blur.

There were a few things he knew, however. First, was that he needed to get clothing. Something told him that he should not return home to accomplish this task, because that would arouse so many questions. Secondly, was he had to figure out what happened to him. This was beyond anything he ever expected, or wanted, and he had to figure it out.

That was how Matt Daehler found himself in the woods, planning on raiding the high school locker room for something to wear.