"Scott's coming over tonight," Lydia questioned one of her best friends as the three girls ascended the stairs to the next level of the school. The girl in question had just been informing her friends that her not-boyfriend was going to be coming over to her house and she needed advice for how to handle it. The advice question had originally gone to Aubrey, but Lydia had so kindly butted in; claiming that she knew more about this topic since she had actually gone that far. Aubrey decided not to fight against it and let her fiery friend have her way.
Allison, on the other hand, was fighting against the heat on her cheeks as she defended, "We're just studying together."
Aubrey snorted a little, "Study dates never involve studying my dear Allison."
"She's right. It's like being in a hot tub, someone eventually cops a feel."
Aubrey blinked rapidly at that strange sentence before jumping in to make that statement less subtle for their innocent friend. "Or in a less weird metaphor. Make sure he uses protection if you guys go that far." She tried to word it so it wouldn't sound as inappropriate, but by the way Allison reacted it was easy to see the taller girl was uncomfortable with the topic at any capacity.
"After one date," she asked gobsmacked.
"Well you never know," Aubrey shrugged as the girls stopped at the top of the stairs, near the railing so they were sort of out of the way of passing students.
"Just give him a taste if you're so nervous," Lydia cut in once more, using her title of 'being an expert in this area.'
Both girls continued the conversation as Aubrey's attention drifted away from them and to her phone which had buzzed due to a text from Stiles. It was rushed, just saying that he had new information and could give her a ride so they could talk about it. She responded back with a variation on 'that should work' as she tuned back into what her friends were saying. Unsurprisingly she was taken aback when Lydia said something regarding phenylethylamine, a hormone that increases focused behavior. She smiled proudly at the girl; proud that she kind of broke through her public persona and let out her inner genius, even if it was only for a second.
"When's he coming over," Aubrey jumped back into the conversation.
"Right after school."
With that the bell rang to signal the end school, Aubrey bid her friends goodbye and was out of the school quicker than she had been since the beginning of school. She caught sight of Stiles sitting in his jeep waiting for her and when she got in, he reversed it out of his spot. But they barely moved ten feet before someone walked in front of the car with their hand raised in the air.
"Holy shit," Aubrey whispered as she grabbed onto the door while Stiles braked roughly to avoid hitting the person. But upon further inspection, she realized the person in question was a very ill looking Derek Hale. "You're kidding."
"This guy's everywhere," Stiles added before getting out of his car, being joined by Scott soon after. The three boys bickered back and forth while Derek was collapsed on the ground. Aubrey made to move out of the vehicle to help as well, but that's when Derek's eyes began to flash a fantastic blue color. That seemed to motivate her two friend's to help the older man up and get him to the car. Aubrey huffed and scrambled to the back seat as the passenger door opened and her hastily vacated seat was filled by Derek.
Stiles re-entered the car and rolled down the window so Derek could talk with Scott, "Find out what bullet they used. She's an Argent."
Anger seemed to bubble on Scott's surface as he asked, "Why should I?"
"Because you need me."
Aubrey's brows furrowed as she tried to remember when Derek had been helpful and not a complete stalker or potential killer. Hell, she didn't understand why they were helping him right now in the first place instead of just leaving him here. But she bit back any comment about it, putting her trust in Scott's decision – at least for now.
Scott held his gaze before he caved into the request and the honking of cars became more persistent, "Fine, I'll try. Get him out of here." Scott turned his attention to Stiles, who was sending his best friend daggers through his glare.
"I hate you so much for this," Stiles responded before driving out of the parking lot. Once they were out of view from the high school, Aubrey leaned forward in her seat so she was in between the two.
"So what happened to the big bad wolf?"
"I was shot," Derek breathed out curtly. She noticed he began to sweat even more and, now that she was closer to him, he was a lot paler than he had been last time they interacted.
"And you're not healing? I thought that was one of the perks to being a werewolf: you heal."
"They must have used a special kind of bullet that stops my body from healing. Wait how the hell do you even know about that?"
"Well, your flashing eyes are one. The fact that you kind of confirmed it with the whole 'it stops my healing' thing. I'm sure I could name more if I tried, but that is not the major concern here, now is it?"
His eyes flashed again as he stared at her and it made her skin gain goosebumps when she heard the small growl accompanied by it. However, she didn't break eye contact with him and noticed him wince right after which caused Aubrey to conclude the growl was likely from pain. She wouldn't count on it one hundred percent though.
Derek held the glare for a few more seconds before conceding and turning around. She fell back against the seat with a quiet sigh of relief as the car fell into silence. Stiles not wanting to talk about what he needed to share with her with Derek in the car, Aubrey having nothing more to say as she was thinking about things that could harm a werewolf, and Derek being, well, Derek. It was an uncomfortable quiet as the car flew down the road and onto a main street. Stiles chose to speak up shortly after that.
"Try not to bleed out on my seats, okay? We're almost there."
Derek perked up, "Almost where?"
"Your house?"
"What? You can't take me there."
Aubrey rose her right eyebrow, "He can't take you to your own home? Would you rather a hospital?"
Derek made a motion like he was going to turn around, but he thought better of it to save his energy. "Not if I can't protect myself. And if I were you I would stop making stupid suggestions."
Stiles jerked the car to a parking spot on the side of the road. "And if Scott can't find your little magic bullet, huh? What are we supposed to do then?"
"You'll make us watch you die," Aubrey added on morbidly.
Derek's face changed from its neutral scowl to an ever deepening frown as he kept his eyes on Stiles. Aubrey felt an odd sensation flow through her as she watched the interaction; she passed it off, however, as her not liking the way Derek spoke down to them as though they couldn't handle anything right. "I have a plan for it. A last resort and it'll end with me not dying."
"A last resort. Great. And what would that be," Aubrey leaned forward as Derek moved his working arm to the non-working one. He pulled up the sleeve of his leather jacket and showed both teenagers the grotesque bullet wound. It seemed to be steaming as it pulsed with purple, blue, and red colors. Stiles turned away from the wound almost immediately. Aubrey guessed it was because he has a weak stomach when it came to these things.
"Oh my god," he complained, trying to hold back puke. "What is that? You know what, you should probably just get out."
"That looks infected. I mean look at it. And the veins look poisoned. They're all black and purple. What causes werewolves blood to turn black?" Aubrey was still looking at the wound, fighting the urge to throw up herself as all the veins in his arm moved around.
"Stop talking," Derek bit out, "And you, start the car. Now."
Stiles gave the older man an exasperated look, "I don't think you should be barking orders with the way you look. In fact, I could probably drag your little werewolf ass out into the middle of the road and leave you for dead."
Derek glared right back at him, "Start the car or I'm going to rip her throat out, with my teeth."
Stiles' mouth moved in frustration as he held onto Derek's gaze before he dropped it to start the car. However, as he turned the key Aubrey's phone started to ring loudly from her bag. Lydia had forced her to wear a skirt today which thus left Aubrey with no choice but to carry her phone either in her hand or in her bag. She opted for the bag since she had a thing about talking with her hands which would lead to her flinging things by accident.
She fumbled a little with the zipper as she tried to reach the phone before it stopped ringing and on the last ring she was able to answer.
"Hello?"
"Hey sweetie," the voice answered rather loudly. Aubrey pulled the phone away from her ear and read the caller id: Aunt Gen.
"Hey Gen," she corrected herself, still confused. Typically Gen never called her unless it was an important.
"Look – where are you?"
"Just hanging out with, uh, Stiles. Why? Did you need something?"
"Yes, actually. We need you come home. We were just invited to dinner tonight and you need to join us."
"Dinner," Aubrey was perplexed because she didn't know of anyone that would invite her family to a random dinner. "Who invited us to dinner?"
"Funny enough, the Argent's invited us over."
She caught both boys turn around to face her as she spoke. She knew Derek could hear everything being said, with his super hearing and all. Stiles, however, looked lost – only hearing half of the conversation.
"Apparently Kate, Allison's aunt," Gen continued, "remembered me and wanted us to stop by for dinner. So get your butt home."
"Okay, okay. I'll have Stiles drive me home right now. Bye."
She hung up the phone before her aunt could say anymore. Derek turned around, already informed on the situation. Stiles just stared at her with curious eyes. "That was Gen, she said that the Argent's want us to come over for dinner because Allison's Aunt Kate knew her back in the day. So can you drive me home?"
Stiles frowned a little, but turned around to start driving anyway which caused Derek to speak up. "The one who shot me was an Argent, like I told Scott, so while you're over there look for a bullet. I doubt Scott has found it."
Aubrey rolled her eyes, secretly agreeing with the big bad wolf, but told him she would try and find this magic bullet of his so she didn't have to worry about him dying on Stiles' watch. Derek did not look amused by the comment, but didn't bother to humor her with a response which left the rest of the ride to her house silent like before.
That was okay, though, because it gave her time to reflect over Derek's part in this little universe. She could feel a piece of the puzzle missing, which led her to once again question why Scott all of a sudden trusted this wolf man, well trusted enough to help him. Last time she was with him, he was adamantly against having anything to do with Derek and whatever he was doing here. It also didn't help that he was likely the reason Scott was now a werewolf – well according to Stiles' theory when they spoke about it. So if that was the case than what the hell were they doing helping the one that started all of this, aside from the fact they didn't want to watch someone die? She couldn't wrap her head around it, but Aubrey just added the confusing twist to the growing pile of mysteries she didn't understand.
When Aubrey had arrived at the house an hour ago, Gen had fussed at her to go clean herself up and put on a different dress that was family appropriate and would make a good impression. The women seemed extremely stressed out, yet she was trying to pass it off to her niece as it being she hadn't seen the Argent's since college. Aubrey knew better though. She knew that it was because this was one of the most prominent hunter families that, from what Aubrey gathered, Gen had given up on by not pursuing the profession. This led the girl to assume that the Argent's would make her aunt feel inferior once they stepped foot into their house, like it was a mistake not choosing the path that they did whilst also trying to push Aubrey to not make the same mistake. They would probably go about the second part secretly, though, due to the fact that Aubrey was supposed to be ignorant to the supernatural.
She shook away all of these thoughts as the door to the Argent household opened and the small family of three was greeted by Mrs. Argent. The women had on a fake smile as she invited the trio in. As soon as Aubrey crossed the threshold the air seemed to grow tense and heavy, like the family had welcomed something they did not want into their home.
Finn, Gen, and Aubrey stood in the foyer causally as Mrs. Argent closed the front door and stepped closer. "I hope you don't mind, but we have an unexpected guess joining us for dinner. If you would follow me."
The women led the way into the dining room and the question on whom the unexpected guest was, was answered. Scott was sitting awkwardly at the table, next to Allison, who looked surprised to see one of her friend's entering the room. Her eyes filled with questions, but Aubrey's attention shifted to the older blonde carrying plates to the table. It was an easy guess as to who she was: Kate Argent, the one who invited them.
Kate set down two plates in front of Scott and Allison, before turning her attention to the new group. "Well, I almost didn't think you would show." A smile was on her face as she waltzed over to Gen with open arms. She gave Gen a tight hug, still keeping a smile as she pulled away, "And this must be your husband, Finn, and your niece, Aubrey. I've heard a bit about you from Allison, but not as much as I would like. Come sit down."
Kate gestured to the table, set for eight, as Mr. Argent came into the room with two more plates in hand. He didn't say anything, though, before he disappeared into the kitchen once more.
When all of the plates were set out, Aubrey felt like she could take a short breath as she sat on Allison's left, across from Kate. The air was still very tense and being in such close proximity to Kate gave her an uneasy feeling in her gut. Something in her was just screaming at her not to trust her as the large group dined in silence. Her mind was giving her warning signs that were so loud she almost missed what the Argent in question asked her.
"So how are you liking Beacon Hills Aubrey?"
"It's a very interesting town," she responded uncertain of what to say. "Definitely a little different from what I was used to in Oregon."
"Yes, it's not like any old town on the map," Kate confirmed.
Aubrey noticed her own aunt shoot a look towards Kate before she cleared her throat. "Yep and we should know. We lived down here in between our college days. It's where I met Finn." Gen grabbed her husband's hand under the table in a warm manner.
The blonde only nodded her head along with what Gen was saying, trying to keep the conversation neutral. That opened the door for Chris Argent, however. He let out a small portion his steaming rage with Scott, for what Aubrey was unsure. "Would you like something else to drink besides water, Scott?"
"Oh, no I'm good. Thanks," Scott blurted out shyly as he picked at his food.
"We can get you some beer. A shot of tequila?"
"Dad, really," Allison cut in. Her eye twitched a little in irritation and Aubrey could see her friend was trying to keep her cool. It wasn't working.
"You don't drink Scott," Mrs. Argent asked.
"I'm not old enough too," was his response.
"Good answer," Finn joined in on the awkward conversation, "Total lie, but nice play."
It was a little bit of his Deputy humor, which would likely go unnoticed by the Argent's and Scott since Aubrey was fairly sure none of them knew that much about the Hayes family or their professions. Aside from the whole hunter ordeal. Although they might look deeper into her family after this interaction, who knows.
Kate smirked towards her uncle, "He's right. You might yet survive the night."
"You smoke pot?"
Aubrey choked on her sip of water by the abrupt question from Mr. Argent. She coughed as Kate changed the conversation to Scott's newest talent: lacrosse. That was like watching a slow train wreck as Scott tried to explain what the game was like, while having Argent interrupt him with questions and glares in his direction. Whatever had happened before this dinner must have been bad for Scott to warrant this kind of behavior; that or Allison's father was very overprotective.
"Sounds violent," Kate's head swayed as a sick smile was plastered on her face, "I like it."
"Scott's amazing too," Allison praised. "Dad and Aubrey were there for the first game. Wasn't he good?"
"He was okay," Argent replied curtly, cutting in before Aubrey could say any form of praise to get the man to stop haggling on Scott.
She slipped into the conversation anyway after the interruption, "He scored the winning shot. And before that he had made some killer shots that brought the team ahead in the first place so they could pull out a victory."
Aubrey shot Scott a kind smile and the boy seemed to slouch a little before he tensed again as Argent spoke up once more with an undermining statement. "True. But he didn't score until the last few minutes."
"His shot ripped a hole through the goalies net," Allison tried, her eye twitching ever so slightly. "It was incredible."
"I think the goalie was playing with a defected stick, so-"
Allison slammed her glass of water onto the table which caused the whole table to jump to attention. It made her dad stop talking though which Aubrey knew was the goal. If she was in the same position she would have done something along those lines as well because no one warranted that kind of undermining behavior.
"You know on second thought," Scott spoke up in the thick silence, "I think I will have that shot of tequila."
Aubrey breathed out a small laugh which was soon joined by a chorus of laughs from the group. Although her aunt and uncle's looked a tad bit forced.
The rest of the main course was finished with light small talk – mostly done by Gen and Kate as they were acting like they were close. The facade was easy to spot if you knew what to look for though. The conversation was only disturbed when Scott excused himself to make a phone call. Aubrey strained to see the caller id, but to no avail.
"So Aubrey, I don't know if your aunt ever told you," Kate brought the girl's attention to her as Mrs. Argent began to clear the table. "But your father and I were pretty close before. He and my brother went hunting quite often and I tagged along for the ride, so I could tell you some stories."
"Oh really, he never mention anything about you two before," Aubrey commented innocently.
"Mm, probably because this was a while ago. I could share some stories with you anyway, though. Do you shoot or do anything of that sort?"
"I shoot. My dad and I would go out to the range often. He also had me take self-defense classes where I learned how to use a bo staff and things like that."
"Interesting," Kate seemed to contemplate something in her head before she looked next to her, remembering Aubrey's guardians were there. She played it off, "Scott has been gone a while. I'll go check on him."
With that she removed herself from the table and walked out of the room. Aubrey looked next to her at Allison. Sweet Allison had a look of confusion on her face or was it suspicion. Well, whatever emotion her brunette friend was portraying it brought up an important idea that Aubrey had thought about briefly since she found out about werewolves: she should see if Allison knew anything or if the girl needed to be informed about everything.
"Hey All-"
"He was just looking for the restroom," Kate announced as she glided back into the dining room. "Wanna tell us more about this boy Allison?"
That got her friend talking. She told her aunt and everyone else about how great he was at lacrosse, he was super sweet, and even where he worked. You could tell by the small smile on her face and the way she spoke so highly of him, she was smitten and Aubrey would almost use the phrase 'in love.' She was happy for her friend, although it was kind of awkward because she wasn't used to being near couples who had just fallen for each other. Finn and Gen's relationship was more laid back and less in the honeymoon phase, which was the opposite for Allison and Scott. It was cute and secretly Aubrey hoped for something similar in the future.
Allison had just finished telling them a bit of information on Scott's work when the boy walked back in. He gave Aubrey a quick glance, trying to tell her something, before he tried to excuse himself from a dinner he didn't want to attend anyway. However, Kate was very interested in him and lightly pushed him to stay for the dessert.
"Allison was just telling us you worked for a veterinarian," she commented.
Aubrey was beginning to feel like her family was a bit out of place and the Argent's were more interested in Allison's boyfriend. It wasn't terrible because she didn't have to talk in the conversation, but it was just bad etiquette on their part. It just drove her attention away from what was being said and to a 'what if' scenario if she was literally anywhere else. Her mind drifted to Stiles and Derek and wondered how the big bad wolf was holding up.
That seemed to jump start her mind: she had to look for that bullet. She took note of her uncle joining in on the conversation about the mountain lion theory going around the town before leaning forward to grab Kate's attention. "Where did you say the restroom was," she whispered.
"I let Scott use the guest bedroom, but I believe the restroom is down that hall," Kate whispered back, pointing in a direction that was away from her guest room. Aubrey smiled in thanks before standing and walking that direction. The noise from the conversation died down the further she was, and the space away allowed her to inspect the rooms they had in the other side of the house. She quietly opened maybe two doors and peaked in, noticing nothing. The other rooms she surveyed were open, which gave her more time to hastily look for anything that would be suspicious; pertaining to werewolves suspicious. Nothing presented itself though and after a little over five minutes, maybe ten, she wandered back into the dining room – trying to make it look like she had just gotten lost.
Nobody paid any mind to her as the table cleared of dessert and Finn and Gen were thanking the Argents for the meal. Aubrey made her way over to them, but she was stopped by Kate.
"We didn't really get to talk that much. I just wanted to offer you the chance to get back into any activities you did with your dad. Like shooting, or you said bo staff. I don't know much about bo staffs, but I have one thing your dad used to love that might be along the same lines. Only if you're interested." Kate made her voice gentle and the women's bright eyes made the offer very appealing.
"That's really nice of you Kate," Aubrey started, "I just don't know if I'm ready to start doing that stuff a lot right now."
"Hey, it's no push to start doing it daily or anything. I just wanted to place the chance out there, so while I'm here I could give you pointers or share stories of your dad. He was an amazing guy, him and your mom, they were very talented people."
Her parents, this women could tell her more about her parents. That addition made her brain and her heart go against each other. Every day, it seemed like she was forgetting small things about them, only remembering their deaths and those depressing emotions. This new information, that her dad was a hunter, only made her want to learn more about them and change her current thoughts of them to something happier. Kate's offer would also give her the opportunity to see them at a different angle, before they had her. She wasn't sure if that was a good thing yet which might have been the reason she said: "Okay, if these training sessions would include stories of them. When would you want to start?"
"We could start in the next week," Kate suggested, "It'll give me the chance to make sure I have everything we need."
"Alright. Thank you for the offer and the invitation to dinner."
"Of course," the blonde smiled, "If you'll excuse me for a moment."
Aubrey nodded, turning back to her aunt and uncle who were still conversing with Mrs. Argent as Kate sauntered out of the room. When she was next to her guardians they were making small talk with Allison's mother while also thanking her for the meal again.
All of their attention was dragged away from the conversation, though, when Kate accused Scott of taking something from her bag. Oh shit, he must have found the bullet or something. Aubrey started to anxiously gnaw on the inside of her cheek as Scott was being hounded by accusations from Kate and Mr. Argent.
They quickly stopped when Allison pulled out a condom, saying that Scott didn't take anything. That took Mrs. Argent's breath and Aubrey could see the women's face almost turn the shade of red as her hair due to anger. Her guardians were at a loss for words and they dragged their niece out of the house shortly after Scott's departure.
"That had to be the most painfully awkward dinner I have ever gone too," Aubrey commented on the car ride home.
"I'll take the fall for agreeing to go," Gen responded with a light chuckle, "Chris is just as strict and by the books as I remember him and Kate is just as, hm, interesting."
"So did you know them well back in the day?"
"Your father was closer to them. Kate and I tried to connect, but it just didn't work out. Same thing with your mom; she just didn't like what the Argent's did."
"Hunting right," Aubrey speculated as she watched the trees wiz by.
"Yes. I think she was like me and just didn't like the whole idea, but I'm not a hundred percent sure. She never really talked about it, although I remember one conversation when she said that she wanted Wyatt to stop because it was wrong."
"I could see her saying that. She was always the gentler of the two," Aubrey smiled at the memory she had of her mother. She was a sweet women and everyone that met her was immediately drawn to her. Aubrey distinctly remembered when her mother would sing to her in public that people would stop to listen; any time she sang calmed her down too. She was even encouraged to start singing herself, but it never truly had the same effect. One of the downfalls of singing now, was that it reminded her too much of her mother which is why she hasn't sung since her death.
"What did Kate talk to you about before we left," Finn asked as he made a turn in the road.
"Oh, um, she just offered to let me practice shooting or the bo staff in the future."
"And what did you tell her," her aunt's voice told Aubrey that she was looking for an answer of no, so she took that route.
"I told her I would think about it, but I probably won't go through with it." Liar, her conscious screeched at her, but she couldn't bring herself to feel as guilty because after all they were withholding information themselves. This might be the turning point that would make the game even.