Just once, Izzie wants to have a full day where nothing crazy happens. Just when it seemed like she was finally going to get that, Derek has to show up at her school and ruin it.
As soon as the last bell rang, Izzie went looking for Stiles. She smiled when she found him walking out the school doors.
"Hey, Stiles, buddy," Izzie started, causing Stiles to stop in his tracks.
"What do you want?" Stiles asked slowly.
"Think you could give me a ride home?" She asked batting her eyelashes.
"Only if you stop with the eyes. It's weird."
"Thanks, Stiles," Izzie smiled. She knew Stiles would have given her a ride regardless, but she thought she might have a little fun with how she went about asking.
When Stiles pulled out of his parking space and pulled forward to drive away, he stopped just in time before he could hit Derek, who jumped in front of the jeep out of nowhere.
"Stiles," Izzie screeched as he hit his foot on the break, causing the tires to squeal. She jumped out of the jeep as Derek fell to the ground.
"Derek?" Izzie said, bending down next to him.
"What are you doing here?" Scott asked when he ran over.
"I was shot," Derek breathed out.
"He doesn't look so good," Stiles said from behind Izzie.
"Why aren't you healing?" Izzie asked.
"I can't. This wasn't a regular bullet."
"That's what she meant when she said you had 48 hours," Scott said.
"What?" Izzie and Derek said at the same time.
"Who?" asked Derek.
"The one who shot you," Scott said like it should have been obvious.
Derek started groaning as his eyes flickered back and forth between his regular green and his werewolf blue. In any other situation, Izzie would have taken the time to think about how pretty the shade of blue was.
"Stop that!" Scott tried to yell without bringing too much attention their way.
"I can't," Derek growled.
"Help me get him in the car," Scott said to Stiles.
Izzie quickly went to the jeep and hopped into the back. She knew she wouldn't be much help in moving him.
"I need you to find out what kind of bullet it was," she heard Derek say.
"Why should I help you?" Scott asked once Derek was in the jeep.
"Scott," Izzie said exasperated.
"Because you need me," Derek said.
"Fine," Scott said when he looked back at Izzie and saw her pleading eyes, "just get him out of here," he said to Stiles.
"I hate you," Stiles replied before speeding out of the parking lot.
After driving for a little while, Izzie texted Scott to see if he found anything, and it turned out that he was really no help.
"Could you try not to bleed out on my seats?" Stiles asked angrily, "We're almost there."
"Almost where?"
"Your house?" Stile said, which turned into more of a question than a statement.
"Are you crazy?" Izzie yelled from the back, "with the hunters knowing they shot him, that's the first place they'll go to look for him."
"So I can't take him to his own house?" Stiles asked incredulously.
"Not when I can't protect myself," Derek replied. He was happy that Izzie was smart enough to know better.
"What happens if Scott doesn't find your bullet?" Stiles asked pulling over, "are you dying?"
"Not yet," Izzie's eyes widened at Derek's response, "I have a last resort."
"What last resort?" Izzie and Stiles yelled out at the same time.
Derek moved up his shirt sleeve to reveal the bullet wound. It was the grossest thing that Izzie had ever seen in her life, and when she saw it, she moved from the middle of her seat to sitting behind Stiles. She wanted to get as far away from that thing as she could.
"What is that? Is that contagious? You should just get out," Stiles said quickly.
"Stiles, don't be an idiot," Izzie hissed from behind him.
"When did you get there?" Stiles asked while turning around in his seat, not realizing that Izzie had moved.
"Start the car," Derek growled out, "now."
Izzie put her face in her hands when Stiles said something about kicking Derek's little werewolf ass, but she couldn't help but hold back a laugh at Derek's response.
"Start the car, or I'm going to rip your throat out. With my teeth," Derek threatened, to which Stiles complied, because he realized that even though he may be dying, Derek is still kind of scary.
Stiles didn't know where to go, so he was stuck just driving around in circles. When it got dark, Stiles got fed up and pulled off to the side of the road again, and called Scott.
"What am I supposed to do with him?" Stiles asked as soon as Scott answered, "and by the way, he's starting to smell. Like death."
Izzie glared and hit Stiles on the back of the head. Derek would have done worse if he wasn't feeling so bad.
Stiles handed the phone to Derek, and he went off on some thing about calling the alpha and Scott killing or getting killed.
"If you want to stay alive, you need me. Find the bullet," Derek said hanging up.
"So where are we going?" Izzie asked.
"The animal clinic," Stiles replied.
"That's fitting," Izzie said sarcastically, "how has it taken this long for him to find the damn thing?"
"I'm sure there's a lot of bullets he's having to go through," Stiles said pulling out into the road.
"Yeah, I'm sure," Izzie said not believing it.
When they got to the clinic, Stiles helped Derek out of the car, and Izzie climbed out. She got the key, opened the door and followed the two inside.
"Does Nordic blue monkshood mean anything to you?" Stiles asked after reading a text from Scott.
"It's wolfsbane," Izzie replied quickly.
"It's a rare form. Scott needs to bring me the bullet," Derek rasped out.
"Why?" Stiles asked.
"Because I'm going to die without it."
"Okay, this sucks," Izzie said, not liking how this day turned out.
The three walked to the back of the clinic, where Derek really was starting to look like death. She got a good look at his arm, and was trying her best not to freak out with all the blood and the grossness. She walked over and stood by the wall that was behind Derek, in order to avoid seeing the bullet wound.
"When the infection reaches my heart, I'll die," Derek breathed out, starting to go through the cabinets, "If Scott doesn't get here in time, I have a last resort."
"Which is?" Stiles asked.
"You're going to cut my arm off," Derek said, handing him a small saw like device.
"You can't be serious," Izzie said laughing nervously.
"What if you bleed to death?" Stiles asked, pretty sure that Derek wouldn't be kidding at a time like this.
"It'll heal if it works," Derek replied.
"If it works?" Izzie said moving out from her corner.
"I don't know if I can do this," Stiles said, ignoring that Izzie was there.
"Why?" Derek asked with no patience.
"Well there's going to be cutting through flesh, and bone, and don't forget about all the damn blood."
"You faint at the sight of blood?" Derek asked apprehensively.
"No, but that one does," Stiles said gesturing to Izzie with the saw.
"Oh so you do know I'm here," Izzie said when their heads turned towards her, "With all my questions that have been ignored I though you guys forgot," she laughed nervously again and began tangling her fingers.
Derek was about to say something, but didn't get the chance to, due to the fact that he was now throwing up black blood.
"Oh my god," Izzie whined, putting her hands over her mouth.
"What the hell is that?" Stiles asked, whining almost as much as Izzie.
"My body, it's trying to heal itself. You have to do it now," Derek said still bent over.
"I need to get some air," Izzie said hopping over the blood puddle and running out of the room.
She jumped when she ran into Scott, and he could tell by the look on her face that things weren't good.
"You should get in there," Izzie said weakly.
"Stiles?" Scott yelled out trying to figure out where exactly he and Derek were.
Izzie stayed standing where she was. She bent down, putting her hands on her knees and took a few deep breaths. When she stood straight up again, she blinked a few times to try to get the room to stop spinning. She gasped when she could hear Derek screaming, and started heading back to the room they were in.
"Aside from the agonizing pain?" Izzie heard Derek say sarcastically.
"Is it safe to come back in?" She yelled out before she walked to the doorway.
"Yeah you're good," Stiles replied to her.
She didn't walk in to the room, instead she just leaned up against the doorway.
"Okay, we helped you, which means you're going to leave us alone," Scott started.
"Scott, no-"
"Stay out of this Izzie," Scott snapped at her, earning him a deathly glare from his sister. He just ignored it and went back to talking to Derek. "If you don't, I'll go back to Allison's dad and I'll tell him everything."
"You're really going to trust them?"
"Might as well. They're a whole lot freaking nicer than you are."
"I can show you how nice they really are."
"What do you mean?"
"Take her home," Derek said to Stiles, referring to Izzie, "Scott let's go."
"What, no. I want to go," Izzie said crossing her arms.
"No," Derek said shortly.
"Why not? That's not fair," Izzie said, feeling childish about what she was saying.
"Remember when I said you would need to stay out of the way sometimes, this is one of them. Go home."
"Fine," Izzie huffed before walking away.
"Now if only she listened to me like that," she could hear Scott say, which resulted in her turning around and flipping him off.
Outside, Izzie got into Stiles' jeep and slammed the door after she climbed inside.
"Don't take your anger out on my baby," Stiles said desperately.
"Sorry," Izzie replied in a tone that indicated she wasn't sorry at all.
"How does Derek not scare you?" Stiles asked after a few seconds of silence that Izzie knew wouldn't last.
"He just doesn't," Izzie said looking out the window.
"Why do you always defend him against us?"
"I just do," Izzie answered shortly.
"You figured it out," Stiles said
"Huh?"
"When we first saw him, you said he seemed familiar. You obviously figured it out, so how do you know him?" Izzie sighed at Stiles' question.
"He took me home from school one time, back when we were kids. It was a long time ago, and it has nothing to do with anything that's been going on now."
"I think you're lying."
"Well I'm not. I know you and Scott want to see the worst in him, but he really isn't the bad guy you want to make him out to be."
"How do you know that?" Stile's asked curiously.
"Because he explains things to me when I have questions. I knew a lot more about this werewolf stuff before Scott even did. Derek wouldn't have told me if he wanted everything to be a big huge secret."
"I don't know Izzie," Stiles said pulling up to Izzie's house.
"I'm not saying that you guys have to like him, but he and Scott are after the same thing, and it won't do any good if all they can do is argue with each other. I'll see you around," she said getting out of the jeep.
When Scott got home, she desperately wanted to know where Derek took him.
"He doesn't want you to know," Scott said before she could even ask him anything.
"Why should I believe that?" Izzie asked.
"Because it makes sense now. Why he's always been so open to having you around, and why he wants you to be on his side."
"You aren't making any sense," Izzie said, highly confused from what Scott was saying.
"I asked him why he wouldn't leave you alone, and he finally told me why. It's late," he said cutting off Izzie's response, "and you look a little pale."
"From seeing all the blood," Izzie cut in, "sleep does sound kind of nice right now."
Izzie tried to go to sleep, but all she really did was toss and turn. She didn't think it was fair that Derek wouldn't tell her what he told Scott. Wasn't part of their deal that he would tell her what's going on?
AN: I'm not happy with how this chapter turned out. I've spent two days trying to write it (when I wasn't working on my last project that's due), and after starting completely over twice, this was the best I could do. I hope you guys like it a whole lot more than I do.
Review? :)