DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN TEEN WOLF. I feel like this should go without saying but just in case, I do use dialogue from the show, when a scene I'm writing calls for it. I try to make sure Charlie has her own original voice to contribute and doesn't steal anyone else's lines (I did give her Stiles'
"they call him the abomination" line). Anyways I'm sure you all already knew this but there you go. This is one of my favorite chapters, I hope you all love it too!
CHAPTER NINE
"I'm not sure what Scott's told you, Charlie, but I don't condone violence."
"I know that's why I came to you," I told him leaning against the counter.
He raised his eyebrows at me.
"Look Derek is cooking something up besides acne-faced werewolves. We're trying to get that Bestiary thing, but we're pretty sure Derek's going to be getting in the way. Scott's gonna be on the field trying NOT to wolf out in front of Gerard. Stiles is gonna try and sneak into his office to hunt it down. So that leaves me on werewolf-sitting duty and I don't know if you know this, but I can't exactly grow groovy sideburns and fangs!"
"So what is it you're looking for?" He asked arms crossed.
I thought for a second.
"I don't know, you don't have any werewolf strength pepper-spray lying around do you?" I asked sarcastically.
Deaton smiled.
"Not exactly no, but I think I can make you something similar if you don't mind waiting. "
"Could you give me a ride back to the school?" Deaton smiled.
I took that as a yes and ran out to Matt's car.
"Hey sorry, uh Ca-Crookshanks isn't doing so well. Dr. Deaton's letting me stay with hi- with her a little while longer and he's going to bring me back to school. I'm sorry I held you up but thanks again for the ride."
Matt looked disappointed.
"Are you sure, I don't mind waiting-" he said.
"No, go ahead, I don't want to make you late."
"It's just gym"
"I'll be alright Matt, Dr. Deaton is an old friend."
Well, he was old and Scott's friend, right? Matt sighed.
"Okay, I hope Crookshanks gets better." He told me, before driving off.
I ran back inside to Deaton's operating room.
"Why didn't you ask your friend Allison? I'm sure she would have had something similar to what you were wanting." Deaton asked as he searched through several vials of herbs before he found the one he wanted.
"Nothing against Allison, I just- I don't want anything associated with Hunters." I said sitting on the stool.
Deaton was grinding the herb to a pulp and measuring the dust.
"I'm glad to hear it. You're not meant to be a fighter, human or otherwise."
I started to argue with him. Just because I didn't want to severely maim anybody didn't mean I couldn't scrap when I had to, just ask Stiles. Deaton chuckled at my expression.
"That was supposed to be a compliment, Charlie." He said adding the measured dust into a bottle and a filling it with water.
"So what am I meant to be? Some sort of Mage like you? A side-kick?" I asked as he shook the bottle up.
"You're meant to be Charlie." He said, I looked down and noticed what he handed me, a spray-bottle, perfect.
"What's in there?" I asked.
"A slight dose of diluted wolfsbane. Don't worry it's not going to do anything but create a bad enough irritant to slow them down, which means when you use it you had better have an escape plan ready." He said walking to the car and holding the door open for me.
I climbed in.
"So it's the werewolf equivalent of pepper-spray."
"Basically." The drive to the school was a short one I went to reach for the door handle, but Deaton stopped me.
"The four of you need to be on your guard tonight, Gerard is cunning-"
Tell me about it the psycho managed to get away with poisoning me!
"And Derek might be cocky but it doesn't mean he's gotten careless, you can't underestimate him."
He looked so serious, I had to fight the urge to gulp, what had we gotten ourselves into? I nodded.
"Stilinski so glad you finally decided to grace us with your presence!" Coach Finstock said sarcastically as I walked into the gym. "Would you like to explain to me why your thirty minutes late to class or would you prefer I ask your Dad?"
The rest of the class was doing the rope climbing.
"Sorry Coach, female problems" I said sheepishly, Finstock looked disgusted.
"Just take a seat."
"Sure thing." I walked over to where Lydia was sitting her hands still gloved.
"You okay?" I asked.
She looked startled.
"Why wouldn't I be?" She asked annoyed.
I could probably list about 30 reasons why Lydia wasn't okay starting with the fact that she was wearing pink gloves in Gym class, but I just shrugged it off. If there was one thing, I had learned the past week about Lydia Martin it was that while she loved to be the center of attention, she couldn't stand pity.
"Okay." I said, leaving her to her thoughts.
Stiles and Scott ran over to me and pulled me to the side of the bleachers.
"Where the hell did you go?" Stiles asked.
"To check on my cat." I said sarcastically.
Scott looked at me funny.
"You don't have a cat."
"Must be why I couldn't find it." I said rolling my eyes. "I did, however, get some Vet approved help for your bad dog situation Scott"
The boys broke out into a grin.
"Operation "Game On" is a go" Stiles said, Scott and I stared at him.
"Really?"
"I thought it was catchy."
"You thought wrong" Scott said which had me cracking up because- well let's face it, Scott didn't come up with comebacks that often.
xxx
I was on the field before the team was. I had managed to steal one of Stiles hoodies from the jeep because I forgot to grab a jacket that morning. And now I was moving from the bottom of the bleachers to the top debating where would be the best place to scan for werewolves. I had a purse with me for a change too with my wolfsbane spray-bottle carefully concealed. This had to work.
The team came on about thirty minutes after I had been sitting there (middle row this time) for warm ups. Coach took one look at me and rolled his eyes.
"Don't tell me Stilinski, you've become a member of the yearbook now."
"No sir, I just wanted to support the team." I said as innocently as I could.
"You know I'm starting to think you've become some kind of Lacrosse groupie."
"They already have groupies, sir, they're called boosters"
Coach narrowed his eyes.
"You are not to interfere during warm-ups got it?"
"Scout's honor."
"Yeah like I believe that." Coach laughed walking back to the field.
I went back to werewolf watching. I noticed Jackson seemed to have some sort of freak out and attack when Danny came up with Matt (maybe Lydia and I were both wrong and he wasn't even batting for the same team). I ignored it, Jackass Jackson had been acting odd a lot lately.
The crowd slowly started to arrive. First came the fans of the visiting team who had undoubtedly followed the bus over and now had about an hour and a half to kill while they waited for the game to start. Then came the true Lacrosse groupies the boosters- the girls hopelessly in love with various first-stringers, pot-bellied middle-aged men and women reliving their glory days and less extreme versions of the Whittemore family. I scanned the crowd as each new set came through and still no werewolf in sight. Gerard came up to me as he and Allison entered, I clutched my bag tighter (not that the werewolf-pepper spray would probably work on him) but he seemed to be in doting grandfather mode.
"Alright there Charlie? I didn't realize you were a sports fan?" It seemed friendly enough, but I knew he was digging for a motive.
"I'm not, my cousin Stiles is on the team... sort of" I was afraid if I mentioned Scott some kind of Werewolf alarm would go off in his head.
"Allison and I were just headed to find a seat, would you care to join us?"
"NO! I-uh- I mean, I'm meeting Lydia when she gets here, she's trying to set me up with one of the players." God, I wish I could just shut up. "Well uh it was nice seeing you guys, hey Allison I'll call you later about that history project okay?"
"Y-yeah. See you later Charlie."
I walked as far away as I could from them. I scanned the crowd and my heart sank. Erica and Boyd were up in the stands, but their ring leader was nowhere in sight which meant that either he was already up to shenanigans or he had let the two run wild. I guessed the former, Derek didn't strike me as a complete idiot. Then again whether he had hoped it would kill Jackson or not, he still gave him the bite and the potential to be a bigger, worse, more dangerous Jackass than before.
I guess I really was werewolf sitting.
I looked around for Lydia but the game was close to starting and I couldn't see the ginger anywhere. I sighed and walked down near the players' bench.
"Two of the four accounted for." I told Stiles nodding to the bleachers.
Stiles shook his head annoyed. "I'm seriously beginning to question that man's judgment." I stared at him.
"Beginning to?"
"Good point."
"STILINSKI" We both turned our heads.
"The one not on the Lacrosse team."
"Yeah coach?"
"Get back to the bleachers!"
"Sure thing. Watch out Stiles" I whispered the last part.
I didn't go to the bleachers. I paced the grass trying to keep my eyes on Erica and Boyd, Gerard, the game, and scan for the missing Alpha.
Number 42 on the other team had knocked- more like bulldozed one of our players. The Coach was on his feet.
"COME ON! Is that thing even a teenager? I want to see a birth certificate." He walked back to the bench and took a seat beside Stiles. "Who or What is that genetic experiment gone wrong?"
"Eddie Abomowitz Coach." Stiles supplied.
"They call him the Abomination" I added the two stared at me. "I heard the visiting fans talking about it."
"Oh, that's cute" Coach said rolling his eyes then looked at me as if he was noticing me for the first time. "Stilinski didn't I tell you to get to the bleachers?"
"On my way coach" I saluted.
I started scouting
Jackass was yelling at Scott about something on the field, I wonder what that was all about. The werewolves were still watching the game. Finally something was going right; maybe Erica had decided she liked Boyd better. I mean don't get me wrong I wouldn't trade anything about Isaac. But I had to admit, Boyd had some very nice muscle definition, good for her maybe now I wouldn't have to use the spray bottle. Derek was still missing, but maybe he and Isaac were having some sort of Werewolf guy night. I know that's extremely unlikely considering Derek wouldn't know fun if it slapped him in the face, but I could dream right?. I saw Gerard hand off the coat to Allison and walked back to Stiles.
"Thunder-cats go"
"Seriously?" He rolled his eyes at my code name.
Coach was too busy yelling at the refs about the "Abomination" who was practically murdering the Cyclones to notice me. Stiles got up and made his great escape and I focused my attention back between watching the game and the wonder twins. Josiah Matthews was being carried off the field on a stretcher. Greenburg looked petrified and Matt had come back with his camera, I guess he liked using the carnage as the subject for his photography, I rolled my eyes. Erica and Boyd were in their seats. I still hadn't seen Lydia, which was odd considering she had been talking about nothing but the game since the beginning of the week. Then again I hadn't been friends with her or Allison but for almost a week, maybe this was normal- No, that didn't seem like normal behavior for anybody. I made a mental note to text her when this was all over with.
Danny was sitting on the bench holding an ice-pack to his head, he'd taken a pretty hard hit. Coach bent down and held up two fingers.
"How many fingers am I holding up?"
Danny looked confused. "Four"
Coach huffed annoyed. "Say two."
"Two?"
"Perfect, now go, get out there have a stick!" He said throwing one of the sticks to Danny.
I sincerely worried about how Coach Finstock prioritized life. I'd have to get dad to give him the "lacrosse isn't everything" talk again.
"Your still short one player coach" The ref reminded him. Why the hell did he have to go and do something like that?
"Where's Stilinski?" Oh, Shit! "Where's STILINSKI!"
"Right here, coach, I have to warn you I've got a broken wrist and horrible hand-eye coordination. But if you're willing to try I'm ready to-"
"STILINSKI shut up and get back to the bleachers!" Coach hollered and then began scanning the stands.
"YOU!" He was pointing to Boyd. Shit could this not get any worse.
"Coach, you still have Greenburg-" I tried to remind him.
"Screw Greenburg, he'll just get knocked-out 3 seconds in or piss himself!" Coach said before turning back to Boyd.
"You. Can you play Lacrosse?"
"No, he has an inner ear-"
"Shut it STILINKSI!" Coach yelled. Boyd started to get up and Erica slapped him on the shoulder. I couldn't hear what she said, but it was clear she was trying to prevent Boyd from playing too. She might have turned into a psychotic evil bitch, but at least she was a smart psychotic evil bitch.
Boyd took off his (seriously I told the boy it wasn't his material!) leather jacket and came down to the field. Apparently Boyd had lost brain cells since the transformation.
"YEAH, that's what I'm talking about!" Coach said before beginning to laugh like a mad man.
He threw his fist up and looked at me triumphantly.
"WE GOT OURSELVES A PLAYER!"
I made a point of wiping the spit off my face. Well, Boyd was Scott's responsibility now. That just left me with... Mother Fucker!
Erica was missing and I was pretty sure I knew where she had gone. I walked as casually as I could until I was out of view of the bleachers (and Gerard) and then booked it to the school. I saw Lydia in her car and it looked like she was crying, she hadn't noticed me so I kept running. I knew it was horrible, but Erica was probably already wherever Stiles was and honestly I just didn't know how to handle the whole crying girl thing. I mean usually I was the only crying girl, I'd never been on the other end before.
When I got to the principal's office, the keys were in the door still but Stiles wasn't there. Could nothing go according to plan tonight? I started running aimlessly trying to think of where they might've taken Stiles. Probably somewhere out of eyesight and earshot of people heading to the parking lot, and then there was the fact that the two kidnappers were two of the most over-dramatic people I knew. It only took me three wrong turns before I found them at the pool.
Derek had completely decimated a basketball (like I said dramatic, and what did that poor ball ever do to him?).
"Holy God" Stiles said.
"Let's try that again."
"Dude, you should really learn to use some manners." I said running up behind Stiles. Derek glared at me.
"You're really getting to be a pain in my ass Stilinski." He said.
"Yeah well you're really not gonna like me in a second, I brought a friend." I pulled the spray-bottle out. Erica laughed outright. Derek smirked at me.
"Are you seriously threatening me with a spray bottle? Go ahead, try it, let's see what your mighty dog training skills can-"
I squirted it and Derek roared in pain, they both had wolfed out on me. Okay, so obviously wolfsbane spray was only a good idea if you were capable of out-running the werewolf. Derek and Erica advanced on us, I cowered behind Stiles like a- well a coward.
"Alright, the thing was pretty slick looking" Stiles started giving Derek the answers he wanted. Slowly I saw him and Erica begin to morph back into themselves. Derek threw my Spray bottle and it bust against the far wall.
"That was your first and only warning Stilinksi! Next time you try that-"
"Let me guess, you're gonna rip my throat out... with your teeth?"
Derek glared. He seriously needed some new material.
"No, she will"
Erica smirked at me. Dammit! I should've hit her with werewolf-spray! "Continue," He said to Stiles.
Stiles stared at me incredulously before going on
"Skin was dark, kind of patterned, uh- I think I actually saw scales. Is that enough?" Stiles asked annoyed. "Okay? Because I have someone I really need to talk to."
I rolled my eyes. Of Course, Lydia.
Derek just looked at him.
Stiles groaned. "Alright fine, uh- eyes, eyes are uh- yellowish, and slitted, um- has a lot teeth oh and it's got a tale too. Are we good?" The other two looked horrified.
Stiles and I looked at one another.
"What have you seen it?" I asked.
"Cause the looks on your faces, like you know exactly what I'm talking about."
We heard a- what was that? A hiss? A roar? And looked up to see the reptilian monster. Holy shit we were gonna die. The werewolves started to wolf out but Erica got knocked out before she had a chance. Derek shoved Stiles and me.
"RUN!"
The thing hit Derek. He started spinning.
"Derek your neck" Stiles said.
Derek went to feel the back of his neck but seemed to lose control of himself, if it hadn't been for Stiles he would have hit the floor. The evil teenage mutant turtle was watching us. I felt frozen even though I hadn't been hit.
"Come on" Stiles said wrapping Derek's arm around his shoulder. "CHARLIE"
I snapped out of it and ran over to him. Taking his other side and trying to go as fast as I could. Derek and Stiles were having their own private conversation, I couldn't pay attention Derek was dead weight and it was all I could do to keep going. The first thing I heard was "Call Scott" from Derek.
Stiles tried to get his phone out but it fell to the floor and Derek and I went tumbling too, Derek hit the pool and I hit the concrete which hurt like a mother but luckily it wasn't my broken wrist and I was pretty sure it did nothing but bruise anyways.
Stiles eyes flitted between the phone and Derek who was slowly sinking to the bottom.
"Go! I'll get the phone!" I told him Stiles nodded and dove in and retrieved the paralyzed alpha.
I tried to grab the phone but the lizard man was coming towards me, I backed up into the pool just managing to keep my cast in the air and out of the water. Stiles and Derek had resurfaced.
"Well that went well" Stiles muttered sarcastically
"Shut up!"
We watched the lizard-thing crawl around, a few times I was worried he was gonna get Erica but apparently he'd only meant to knock her out, he circled us, but he never would come into the pool. We were trapped but it looked like we were safe for the time being. Too bad our big-bad-wolf was paralyzed.
"Can you get me out of here before I drown" Derek said.
Really?
"You're worried about DROWNING? Did you miss the thing waiting outside with claws and multiple rows of razor sharp teeth?" Stiles asked incredulously.
"Did you miss the fact that I'm paralyzed from the neck down in 8 feet of water!"
"You know Charlie you could help" He added.
"I can't let my cast get wet."
Stiles huffed.
"Of course because keeping your cast dry is more important than staying alive!" Stiles muttered to himself.
I rolled my eyes.
"Fine then you're going to be the one to tell both of our dad's you shoved me in the pool when we wind up in the E.R again."
"As long as we make it out of here alive, I don't care!" Stiles said.
I swam over to him and reached for Derek's other arm, I could already feel the plaster coming apart, this was going to be lovely!
Derek's mouth bobbed under the water while I tried to get adjusted to his weight, I tried only using my good arm to help hold him up but it was no good. I used my left wrist. And screamed.
"You okay?" Stiles asked me concerned. I bit my lip.
"Just Peachy!" I told him sarcastically and tried again.
It still hurt but I had found a way to manage the pain and keep my side of Derek up. We hadn't heard anything for a while.
"Hey... Listen" Stiles breathed out, we looked at one another and started to swim towards the edge.
"Hey, whoa, whoa, whoa, stop, stop, stop" Derek said.
The lizard man had come back and was stalking the pool.
"What's it waiting for?" Stiles asked.
The thing edged close to the water, and leaned over but when it reached a hand in it acted like it had been burned.
"What? Did you see that?" Stiles asked the two of us. "I don't think it can swim."
Normally I would have come up with some sort of sarcastic remark but my wrist was hurting too badly, we needed to get out of there fast!
xxx
Not-so-Aqua-Man was still stalking around the pool.
"Okay", Stiles started I couldn't understand the rest of what he was saying.
My wrist was hurting worse than when it had actually been broke. Apparently Derek understood what he had said.
"No, no, no, don't even think about it!" Derek yelled.
"Can't you just trust me this once?" Stiles pleaded.
"NO!" Stiles looked hurt? Annoyed?
"I'm the one keeping you alive okay?" He argued. "Have you noticed that?"
"Yeah. And when the paralysis wears off, who's gonna be able to fight that thing you or me?"
"Well I could have if somebody hadn't busted my-" My wrist throbbed.
The two ignored me and carried on their lovers quarrel.
"You think that's the reason I've been holding you up the past two hours?"
Two hours had it only been two hours?
"Yeah"
"You don't trust me, I don't trust you. You need me to survive which is why you're NOT letting me go."
Oh god, Stiles couldn't do that, there was no way I could hold wolf-boy up on my own.
"Stiles" Stiles didn't hear me he was too busy having a stare down with Derek. God! They should just make-out already and be done with, nobody fought that much without trying to cover up SOMETHING.
Stiles let go of his arm.
"Stiles" was all Derek managed to get out before he started sinking.
I tried to heave him up. I managed it for half a second before we both started sinking. I wrapped my arms underneath his arm pits this time and locked my wrists. My broken one was screaming but I couldn't let him drown, even if he was annoying, he was Cousin Miguel right?
I couldn't seem to break the surface with him though. I came up for air. Stiles dropped his phone and dove back in, pulling Derek to the surface finally.
Derek was saying something but I couldn't hear it, my wrist was hurting so bad I was seeing dots in front of my eyes. I couldn't help Stiles with Derek anymore I was having a hard enough time keeping myself afloat.
I blinked a few times, I couldn't tell if I was crying or if it was the water from the pool.
"I can't stay up any longer, I need something to hold onto." Stiles' and Derek's voices kept coming in and out of focus.
I nodded and followed Stiles toward the diving board. I couldn't talk, I had to just focus on getting to the diving board. Stiles and Derek started to slip below the surface and I began to panic, I didn't know what to do I couldn't even lift one of them much less both. I dived down trying to grab a hold of both of them anyway but I felt myself begin to lose consciousness.
The next thing I knew I was on the floor coughing up water between Stiles and Derek. Scott had managed to scare the creature away.
Scott told us what he and Allison had discovered and we plugged in the flash-drive only to see what looked like a bunch of scribble marks to me.
"Is that even a language?" Stiles asked.
"How're we supposed to figure out what this thing is?" Scott asked annoyed.
I looked down at my cast which looked more like a very bad kindergarten art project. My wrist was swollen- not that I was surprised.
"It's called a Kanima" Derek said walking up with Erica, how did she manage to look like she stepped out of cosmopolitan magazine after getting her ass kicked and I looked like the wet dog?
Stiles was pissed. "You knew the whole time."
"No. Only when it was confused by it's own reflection." Derek explained.
"It doesn't know what it is" Scott said.
"Or who." Derek added.
"What else do you know?" Stiles asked sarcastically.
"Just stories. Rumors."
"But it's like us?" Scott asked.
"A shape-shifter yes but, it's- it's not right. It's like a-"
"Abomination" Stiles finished.
Derek nodded. Erica looked scared, and I was trying to be patient considering this was a life-or-death kind of conversation but I seriously needed some medical attention!
Derek and Erica made to leave, thank god! But then Scott had to call them back.
"We need to work together on this."
Good idea Scott.
"Maybe even tell the Argents."
And then he had to keep talking.
"You trust them?" Derek accused.
I was with sourwolf on this one, I liked Allison, and I trusted her but the rest of the Argents well, to be fair I didn't know her parents but her aunt had been the psycho that had murdered innocent people to kill werewolves, and her grandfather had poisoned me so yeah, trust was an issue for me when it came to them.
"Nobody trusts ANYONE! That's the problem!" Scott had a point. "While we're here arguing about who's on what side, there's something scarier, stronger, and faster than any of us and its killing people! And we don't even know anything about it"
"I know one thing, when I find it" He turned to walk away "I'm gonna kill it."
So much for caring that it doesn't even know who or what it is!
"Um guys... Hate to be the poor pathetic human but I might have re-broken my wrist and I can't exactly heal myself so..."
"I'll take you, Charlie, I've gotta pick mom up anyways." Scott said.
xxx
"Want me to go in?" Scott asked as he pulled up to the pavilion.
"No thanks, they know me here" I joked before walking into the entrance.
Melissa was on her way out and took one look at me in dripping wet clothes and my destroyed cast.
"What happened?"
"It's kind of a long story." I told her sheepishly. I looked back to see if Scott was still waiting in the car but I saw him hugging Gerard Argent which was- well, in a word, disturbing.
