Lydia sat at the table in the library of Beacon Hills high, in front of her was her homework and two books of self-defense. If there was anything to claim from being a woman, other than her glamorous looks, it was the ability to Multi-task. She wrote down part of her essay on chemical thermodynamics, and every now and again would read a page of a book and turn it, taking in every detail.

The best part about being the smartest person in school was that the teachers tended to ask her for work that nobody else was doing, within the same subject border. It gave her a sense of freedom and kept her more interested, but she still found the work easily boring at times.

She flipped another page and just as she turned to write out the conclusion to her paper Stiles slipped in to a chair on the opposite side, disrupting her entirely and knocking a book onto the floor.

"Stiles be more careful." Lydia scolded him.

"Sorry, hey what-cha reading?" He picked it up and turned the book around "self-defense?"

Lydia pulled the book back over to her side "that is none of your business. What are you doing here anyway? Where's Scott? Aren't you like, joined at the hip or something?" She turned back to her paper as he replied.

"I'm perfectly capable of finding other things to do." Stiles sounded mildly offended.

"He ditched you for Kira, didn't he?" She said rather deadpanned.

"No! Not uh, ditched. More like they were having some personal time. I'm being respectful."

"Again, why are you here?" It was like talking to a squirrel.

"I thought I'd come see if you heard the news that's all."

"What news?" Now she was curious.

"Malia Tate is signing up for school, she's going to be a student here."

Now that was interesting news, she certainly hadn't seen her, so maybe it was taking a while to get her sorted. It would make sense; after all she had been out of school for a good 9 years as a Coyote. The first thing Lydia wanted to do was talk to Allison, it still was taking a while to sink in that she was gone for good.

"I wonder which year she'll be in." Stiles mused almost to himself.

"Who knows, who cares." Lydia felt awfully alone again. "Thanks for the bit of gossip but I have work to do."

Stiles continued to sit there even after Lydia had dismissed him verbally; he really had nowhere better to be. The boy looked around him for something to do and unconsciously began to bang his fingers on the table, playing an unrecognizable beat. Which continued to get louder as he bobbed his head up and down, enjoying the rhythm, Stiles then looked over the table back to Lydia to find her green eyes glaring at him. He stopped.

"Don't you have anywhere better to be?"

Before Stiles could answer her Isaac came over looking excited. "Guys you won't believe it, but-" He didn't have a chance to finish as Stiles finished for him.

"Malia is here enrolling, we know. You just missed the conversation." Stiles grinned as Isaac deflated, his shoulders sagging.

"Oh, well never mind then." He loped over to the other side of Lydia and sat down. "What-cha doin'?" He asked, looking at her books. Lydia gave a giant sigh of resignation and gave up the ghost. She reached for her things and began to pack them up.

"Lydia you don't have to leave!" Stiles said, looking concerned.

"If you boys hadn't noticed, this is a library and I was trying to get my work done. So you'll have to excuse me if I don't want to sit here and listen to school gossip and Stiles' pathetic attempts at being a drummer." She put the last of her work in her bag and walked out of the library, leaving the others looking confused.

"What got up her nose?"

She marched her way down the hall as if she owned it, which she pretty much did. Even if Lydia wasn't as queen-bee as she used to be back before becoming a Banshee, everyone knew to move out of her way. Lydia could still give a mean shove and snappy insult if she wanted to.

As she made it to her locker and opened it up, someone slipped in beside her. It was Kira.

"Hey can we talk?" "You seem to be doing fine."

"Huh? Oh, no I mean… about Scott. He's acting weirder than usual. One minute we were having a nice time and making out and then he got all weird and uncomfortable and I kind of don't know what I'm supposed to do about it-"

"Kira, look I'm not exactly the best person to ask about Scott. That was…" she stopped herself from saying her name "I'm just not the expert on okay?"

Kira looked uncomfortable for a moment and then got a determined look on her face, as if to say 'screw it'. "I know but I don't have anyone else to talk to."

That stopped her, and she looked at the other girl properly. Sure they were complete opposites in personality and well, everything ever. I mean look at those clothes, what was that? But Lydia saw that she had that same loneliness inside of her, and she felt a dash of sympathy and a desire to reach out. "Okay but we're not besties or anything like that so don't get any funny ideas. And if I think you're boring, I will completely not listen, got it?"

"Got it." Kira smiled, "so about Scott."

Lydia groaned. She closed her locker as Kira continued saying she wasn't sure how much time she should give her boyfriend to mourn, and as she turned a familiar face coming down the stairs caught her eye. It was Malia.

She answered Kira with as best response she could give not really caring anymore about the topic at hand, they'd work it out. Malia's presence however was a lot more interesting, and she smiled at her as she and Coach walked past talking about something or other.

"Who was that, do you know her?" Kira asked.

"Yeah. I do." The bell rang for class and the two of them made their way, not wanting to be late.


After classes finished for the day Lydia, Scott, Kira and Stiles were all standing around outside. Lydia was getting ready for her usual training lesson but she was procrastinating quite nicely by talking with the rest of them, the boys had Lacrosse practice that afternoon and Kira was waiting for her mother to come and pick her up, since her dad had to stay and grade papers.

"Are you sure you can't come watch us practice, it's the start of the game season and we need lots of support from the ladies to keep us going." Stiles was busy trying to convince Lydia and Kira, both of them unavailable.

"I already told you I have plans."

"Yeah, but you didn't say what those plans were. You can't keep avoiding us."

"I'm not avoiding everyone Stiles, just you."

"That hurts Lydia, really."

She rolled her eyes at him dramatically. To be honest even if she didn't have practice herself she wasn't feeling up to his loud and excessive humor, or to watch Kira and Scott look at each other across the field when they think the other isn't watching.

"I have better things to do with my time, I'm sure you'll get all the moral support you need from Scott."

"Sure, because he's a true friend." He stared pointedly at her. She knew he was kidding around but sometimes she wanted to throttle him. Luckily the universe had other plans for the boys continued existence as they were interrupted by a rather brash and confident 'excuse me.'

They group turned to find Malia standing before them, her hand on her hip and her bag slung over her left shoulder. "Malia! Hey, good to see you! You're coming to practice, right?" Stiles was hopeful for anyone to come it seemed. "What? No. I wanted to talk to Scott actually, about… another kind of practice?" She gave him a look that said this didn't need to be discussed in the open. Kira squirmed uncomfortable next to him and looked over, he seemed rather confused.

"Oh? …oh! The other kind. Um, you do mean the werewolf kind, right?"

Malia pressed her lips tighter and raised her eyebrows at him "Yes that, what did you think I meant? Are we supposed to talk so openly?"

"Well nobody seems to pay any attention, we've been doing it for years." Stiles smiled.

"Right." She stood there quietly for a moment and then continued "So…?"

"Uhh well how's Sunday?" He asked. "You can come to mine, Stiles will be there, right buddy?"

"Yeah no problem! Sounds like fun." He grinned.

"Doesn't it just." Lydia said; they had a very odd sense of 'fun'. She'd rather sit and read Quantum Physics backwards. "I'll leave you all to it, enjoy." She waved as they all bid her farewell.


"Good Lydia, you're getting the hang of the most basic techniques to defend yourself. I think soon we can start on the offense."

"When?" She asked.

"Soon." He gave an enigmatic smile, which he knew would annoy her.

Peter was sure he'd lose patience with her soon enough but she was so fast at picking things up, she already had more skill today than she did yesterday. Lydia was smart but he had no idea just how good she was at applying the theory to the practice and it impressed him deeply. She truly was a force, and it made him feel something akin to pride.

They'd covered most of the basics that he felt were important, Lydia now knew how to attack with her foot and do a toe stomp, and she could get out of a wrist hold with very little problem. He'd also taught her how to properly hurt someone in the shin and knee, but Lydia had pretty much read two books from cover to cover and had no issues in applying his directory, so Peter had decided they needed to get a little more complicated.

"I'm going to teach you how to get out of a choke hold and a bear hug along with being pinned to the floor. These will be very important, as they're the most likely to occur if someone wants to take you by surprise and over-power you."

"Alright…" Peter moved to get into position but Lydia stopped him "you better not leave any bruises, Mr- I have no intention of walking around looking like a victim of abuse."

He noticed her heart leap at that even with all the usual snap to her words, to anyone without super hearing that would have seemed like the most off-hand comment, but Peter could sense the reality behind it. Had she suffered from abuse before? Or maybe she was referring to what he'd done to her that time… he hadn't a clue and had no intention of delving deep into her insecurities. "I'll be as gentle as a lamb."

Lydia huffed "is that what you tell all of your victims?"

"My dear I have no intentions of hurting you, no matter how insufferable you are." Peter smirked as he sensed her growing ire. "Do you want to learn or not? We can stop if you like."

"No. Fine." She wanted to smack that smug expression off his face, and she made a silent promise to herself that once she'd learned all he could teach she would do just that.

He got into position behind her and reached an arm around front, and as he bought it up to her neck her heart beat increased with only the tiniest hint of fear. He kept it slow and steady and pressed his hand into her side to position her, and spoke slowly "If someone intends to grab you like this and use their force to choke you from behind, you're going to want to put your head forward and block them off" he tilted her head forward, his hands warm and as gentle as he could manage.

Lydia did as he guided and soon enough the fact that they were directing purposeful movements and she felt no real danger eased off the fear and she began to relax into the teaching. Soon as she was used to blocking off his arm with her chin and holding his arm with her hand, he talked her through moving. She would have to side step to the right, bring her arm down like so and then when the attacker bent over in pain, use the elbow technique to the face.

"Good job, make sure to put as much force in as you can. It might not hurt a werewolf but it will surprise him enough to open him for an attack."

"Wouldn't they more likely try to slash me open?" Lydia asked, turning her head to look up at him as he was still behind her, and Peter looked downward into her eyes with a grin.

"Depends, what if I mainly want to hold on to you but not kill you? It also means I can use you as a shield, so no one can help you or hurt me. This is why we're going over this, you wanted to not be helpless." He tilted his head to the side to study her and she flushed slightly. The scent of her blood flushing her already natural aroma was very pleasant to his senses.

"Is that what you would have done?" She asked. "Use me as a meat shield?" Her words were a question but also an accusation, and she tried to pull away but he locked her in from behind. "Let go!"

"No, make me." He whispered, then held her a little tighter and guided her through it, making it into another lesson. "Hold my arms at the wrists, drop your weight and stomp my foot. Not at the same time-" he said as she began "then move forward", and she did as he told her putting as much of herself into it, as much annoyance and anger she could muster, then moved out of his hold. Peter rubbed at his foot; even with the both of them not wearing any shoes it stung which was impressive to him.

Lydia walked as far from him as she felt necessary and then turned, her arms crossed, her face flushed and her chest rising with her breath as she attempted to control her anger.

"Lydia are you going to continue to stay mad at me? I'm trying to help you!"

"Of course I am, I'm mad as hell at you for what you did to me!" She cried out. Lydia had tried to keep this inside as much as possible but it didn't help that her body reacted whenever he got close, from fear and something else, something that scared her more than the other and it didn't make sense. She hated anything that didn't make sense to her.

"What do you want me to say?" He stood up fully now, running a hand over his mouth and then through his hair in frustration. "I've tried to make amends, I saved your life!"

"You honestly think that makes up for anything? It doesn't. You can't just save my life and help me here and there and think I'm going to turn into some meek female and forget everything. I may be here and ask for your assistance but you're far from making it up to me." She sucked in a breath, and realized that she felt better for saying that.

Peter regarded her closely for a minute before speaking "feel better?" He could see she did, but he wanted to work through this. If he wanted to find his daughter he needed Lydia, and she needed him!

"Maybe…"

"Would it make you feel better if I let you punch me?" He asked.

Her eyes locked with his as she debated the question. "I don't know."

Just as Peter was going to offer his chin the door to the loft slammed open and they both looked over in surprise. There, standing in the doorway, looking as if she'd just ran there, stood Cora Hale.


Aaaah look its Cora! Next chapter is a Stora chapter, just a heads up!