This Chapter was inspired by: Bang, Bang - K'naan ft. Adam Levine (Maroon 5)
It was the night of Scott's double date, and Carly was staying over at Anna's house this time. She was recounting the events of her magical encounter with Isaac the other night in a hushed voice to make sure it couldn't be heard by prying eyes when the beep of her cell interrupted her.
"One moment." she said to Carly as she read the text. Then her face fell. She read the text twice but the words did not go away, instead they bore into her eyes like angry wasps.
"What is it?" Carly asked, concerned as Anna's face drained of color. She peered over her friend's shoulder and read the words.
Bad news, Myers dead. Succumbed 2 injuries. Tell u more later.
Stiles.
Carly put a hand to her mouth. "That poor man," she said, saddened by the news. "Are you okay, Anna?"
"Yeah," Anna said, snapping out of the trance she'd been in for a moment. She hadn't even realized she'd been trembling until she looked at the phone vibrating in her hands and not because she had a text. Anna placed it back on her desk and turned it off, wanting to erase the news from her memory.
"So…" Carly continued, her tone not as elated as before, "Isaac. Do you like him?"
She could feel herself blush. "Maybe."
Carly threw her head back and groaned. "Don't say maybe, I hate it when people say maybe."
Anna grinned. "Yes."
"Was it hot?" Carly beamed, "the kiss?"
"Oh my god, yes!" she cried, taking Carly's hand in her's, "I asked him to do it again and he did and-"
Carly looked shocked. "And?"
"…and, he asked me out-" Carly jumped to her feet wrenching Anna up with her and hollering like some kind of wild animal. There was a knock at her bedroom door. "Girls? Are you okay?" her mom asked. Anna's face turned red and she slapped Carly on the arm before answering.
"We're fine, mom." Anna confirmed.
"Okay," she said after a second's hesitation, "Call me if you need anything."
"Will do," Anna replied, and then, in a whisper she told Carly, "Will you keep your voice down!"
Carly stared at her, as if unable to contemplate. "You haven't told her yet, have you?"
"No," Anna replied, sinking down onto the bed, "And I don't plan to."
"Why not?"
Anna blushed and her voice dropped to a whisper, "Because who would believe someone would actually want to date me."
Carly scowled and came to lie beside her on the bed. For a moment, she didn't say anything and just frowned at her. "You may not see it, Anna but you look like you belong on the f'ing catwalk!"
Anna blushed but the smile stayed on her lips. "Erm, no!"
"Erm, yes! You're beautiful and never let anyone tell you otherwise, Anna-banana." Anna frowned at her and sent a cushion sailing, it hot her directly in the chest but she just let it bounce to the floor.
"Nice reflexes you go yourself, there." Anna pointed out as Carly pulled on her pajamas; they were fluorescent purple with a pair of vampire bunny slippers. Carly didn't respond to her previous comment only bedded down on the other side of her double bed.
"I think it's about time we went to sleep." She yawned as Anna got up to shut the window. She gave the outside a suspicious sweep over but saw nothing that could explain the other night. Eventually she dead bolted the window and climbed into bed. Anna checked the clock on her night stand as she removed the tiger pendant. It read 1:15 in bold red letters.
"Jeez," She said, and crawled under the covers, "I think you're right."
School both dragged and flew by that day. Similar to the days after her father and aunts' deaths which filled her with a sense of swelling grief she hadn't felt for a long time. The next track practice wasn't until tomorrow so she had nothing to really do with her time now except sit at home. Maybe she would ask her mom if the Chambers had left anything behind except for the bunch of stuff in both the archives and displays of the founders' museum.
Anna got a ride off Stiles, and clambered into the passenger seat in an unladylike fashion. Mumbling, she sat down as Stiles pulled out of the school parking lot.
He had gotten less than a couple of meters out of his parking space before some stumbled into the road in front of his jeep. "Stiles, look out!" Anna called but he was already slamming on the brakes.
"Oh my god!" he muttered and pressed his hand into the horn, "You gotta be kidding me this guy's everywhere." He said, though more, she thought, as him speaking his thoughts than talking to her.
A traffic pile up was beginning to become evident and people had stopped to stare at the sickly looking man in the middle of the road. It was lucky they were far away, so they couldn't equate that she and her friends were helping Derek Hale, who was clearly frail, out of the road.
"What the hell?" Scott asked Stiles as both him and Anna dived from the jeep and raced to where he was lying in the tarmac.
"What are you doing here?" Scott hissed.
Derek took a serious of pained breaths before saying, "I- I was. Shot."
"He's not looking so good, guys." Stiles told them.
Anna bit her lip. "Maybe we should take him to the hospital-?"
"No," he said sternly, "No hospitals. No hospitals. They wouldn't be able to help me."
Scott exchanged a look with each of them before his eyes finally rested back on Derek. "Why aren't you healing?" he asked, slightly gentler this time but still with some venom in his voice.
"I can't," Derek stammered, "It was a different type of bullet."
"A silver bullet?" Stiles seemed to ask, a little more excited than he should have been.
Derek looked up at him and growled, "No, you idiot."
"Wait, that's what she meant when she said you, had 48 hours." Scott pondered, his face telling us he was finding it difficult to sustain the memory. The beat-up jeep sat in silent witness as people began to stare more, some pointing, others speaking in hushed whispers. Other drivers smashed their fists into their car horns and had begun to climb out to see what the commotion was.
"What?" Derek asked, pained, "Who? Who said I had 48 hours?"
"The woman who shot you." Scott said finally.
Derek's head reeled back as if someone had just punched him in the face. Then he began taking in ragged breaths that seemed to jar his entire body with each rise and fall of his chest. He blinked once, then again and his eyes shone ocean blue – fading and then coming back with extreme force with beacons. "Stop that!" Scott barked, as people began to approach.
"That's what I've been trying to tell you, I can't!" He looked stricken but also angry at the unfair treatment. Like he has any right to be treated fairly, a part of her snapped back aggressively and even though she hated hurting people, she couldn't help but agree with it.
"Derek," Scott said in a low, even voice, "Get. Up."
Car horns were still blaring and it was getting frankly annoying. Scott wrapped an arm around Derek and placed him into the front seat of the jeep. Great. Now she was going to have to sit in the back next to a psycho werewolf. She sighed but went and climbed in before Stiles took the driver's side.
"Get him out of here." Scott told Stiles forcefully.
"I hate you for this so much." Stiles spat through gritted teeth but nevertheless he changed the engine setting from neutral and drove a little too fast out of the car park.
"Guess I will have something to do with my time after all, then." She muttered to herself.
"Hey, try not to bleed out all over my seats, would you?" Stiles said rather insensitively. Anna was unsure of what to do. For all of the drive so far she had sat as silent witness, unwilling to speak. Just what exactly did one talk about with a werewolf? "We're almost there."
"Almost where?" Derek asked, eyes downcast.
"You're house." Anna supplied.
"What?" he said, his head shooting up to stare at the two of them, "No, you can't take me there."
Stiles spazzed out. "I can't take you to your own house?"
Derek growled. "Not when I can't protect myself."
Obviously angry, Stiles pulled over on the freeway. "Stiles, what are you doing?" Anna asked cautiously but he just ignored her.
"What if Scott doesn't find your little magic bullet?" Stiles asked forcefully, "Are you dying?"
"Not. Yet." He breathed, groaning and shifting in his seat with the pain. Anna saw his eyes flash blue again. "I have a last resort."
"What do you mean?" Anna said softly from the back. They both turned, as if they'd forgotten she was there at all. "What last resort?"
Derek lifted up his shirt sleeve to reveal a pulsing, violent looking wound. Anna placed a hand over her mouth, stomach churning. It looked infected. Stiles turned his head away completely. "Oh. My. God. What the hell is that?" he said, close to vomiting, "Is that contagious? God! Maybe you should just get out!"
"Start the car!" Derek snarled. "Start it now!"
"Hey, I don't think you should be barking orders," Stiles said, his face turning a little red with anger. He seemed oblivious to Anna's death glare. "With the way you look, okay. In fact, if I wanted to I could probably drag your little werewolf ass out into the middle of the road and leave you for dead."
"Start the car or I'm going to rip your throat out with my teeth and get her to drive for me." Derek said, in a low, angry rumbling voice, his jaw set. Stiles glanced back at Anna in the back seat for support.
"Hey," she said, putting her hands up in a surrender gesture. "I'm Switzerland."
Stiles stared at Derek for a long moment but started the car, still obviously angry.
Anna and Stiles helped Derek limp from the car and towards the shape of Scott's workplace, the animal shelter, although, it was mainly Anna helping him hobble along, Stiles looked disgusted at even the thought of touching him.
"Thank you." He said, as she took his arm off from around her shoulder. Anna didn't say a word, only came to stand beside Stiles.
"Any word from Scott?" she asked but as soon as she had a text appeared on Stiles phone.
"Does Nordic blue monkshood mean anything to you?" Stiles as him as Derek collapsed onto a sack of gerbil bedding and hamster food.
"It's a rare form of wolfsbane," Derek panted, "He has to bring me the bullet."
"Why?" Stiles shot back.
"Because I'm going to die without it."
Stiles and Anna exchanged a look. Anna had never actually wanted Derek to just die, but, at the same time, that's exactly what Anna wanted. Ever since he'd threatened her family but seeing him, so fragile like a piece of glass balancing on a cliff edge it just felt wrong. Inhuman. And all her morals flooded back to her, and she knew she couldn't just let him die. Not if you could do something to prevent it.
Stiles actually helped Derek into the main surgery area of the animal clinic. Derek pulled his shirt off, and placed his arm on the vet's table. "When the infection reaches my heart, it'll kill me." He moaned, and moved to search some of Dr. Deaton's drawers and cupboards. Anna hopped he didn't come back tonight to pick anything up because how in hell would they explain this?
"Positivity just isn't in your vocabulary, is it?" Stiles asked half-heartedly, trying to mask his distress at the situation with humor.
"If he doesn't get here with the bullet in time," he said, riffling through more cabinets and generally leaving bloodied fingerprints everywhere. "Last resort."
"Which is?" Stiles asked, as Anna's fingers moved rapidly over the keyboard. Telling Scott to hurry his ass up.
"You're gunna cut off my arm." Derek replied swiftly, holding a dangerous looking saw in the air. Anna froze. Stiles stared at him in disbelief.
Derek slid the saw along the table to Stiles. "Wait," Anna said, astonished, "You can't actually be considering this. What if you bleed to death?"
Derek began wrapping a tourniquet around his upper arm, like one of those tight bands they put around you when you go for a blood test. Except this would be much more gruesome than simply taking a little blood.
"I don't think I can do this," Stiles said, a little overwhelmed. Anna tried to text Scott again but he wasn't answering so she gave up.
"Why not?" Derek growled.
"Well, the saw through the flesh, hacking off the bone and especially all the blood." Stiles looked slightly green.
"What, you faint at the sight of blood?" Derek said incredulously.
"No, but I might at the sight of a chopped of arm!" Stiles replied loudly. Derek looked at Anna and offered her the saw. She sprung away from it as if it would come alive at any moment. "No way," she breathed, "No way am I doing it, I'm just an innocent bystander here, no way am I preforming any sort of amputation tonight!"
Derek stared back Stiles. "Okay, how about this. You're going to cut off my arm or I'm going to cut off your head."
"I am so not buying your threats any-" but Stiles was cut off swiftly by Derek tugging him towards him in a threatening manner. Anna was suddenly very aware of the situation.
"Hey, we're all friends here?" she said evenly, "Right, guys?"
Derek didn't even spare her a glance. "Okay," Stiles said finally, "Okay, I'll do it."
Then, the werewolf leaned over the side of the table. Anna stared at him for a moment then leaped backwards cursing as he spewed black bile all over the floor. "Oh my god, what the hell is that?" Stiles said, exasperated.
Derek stayed hunched over the table for a moment. "My body," he murmured, "It's trying to heal itself."
"It's not doing a very good job of it." Stiles replied, looking like he was about to vomit as well. Anna just placed herself in the furthest corner of the clinic.
"Now," he said, "You gotta do it now."
"Look, honestly, I don't think I can." Stiles said seriously.
"Just do it!" he yelled.
With a swift 'oh my god' Stiles placed the blade on the clammy flesh of Derek's forearm. "Right, here we go!" Stiles said as Anna yelped and shut her eyes.
"Stiles! Anna!" a familiar voice yelled and both teens breathed a sigh of relief. Scott entered the room, skin slick with sweat from a long bike ride across town and looked at the scene pursuing in front of him in horror. "What the hell are you doing?"
"Aw, man!" Stiles said, clearly relieved, "You just prevented a life time of nightmares."
"Did you get it?" Derek breathed as Anna came over to join Scott. He gave her a once over, checking she was okay, before handing Derek the bullet.
Derek held the bullet up so he could see it more clearly in the shallow light. It glowed with golden menace, Anna even shivered slightly at its imposing shadow. "What are you going to do with it?" Stiles asked.
"I'm going to- I'm going to….." but he never forgot to finish his sentence because he suddenly swayed and lost his balance, fainting to the ground, the bullet rolling beneath a grate. "No!" Anna cried as he flew and Stiles rushed to his side.
"Derek," Stiles whispered, taking his face in both hands, "Derek, hey Derek, wake up!"
"Derek!" Anna repeated, trying to remain detached even though panic rose in her voice, "Can you hear us Derek?"
"Guys! What the hell are we going to do?" Stiles echoed, alarm filling his own voice.
"I don't know!" Scott yelled, desperately searching for the only thing that could help Derek. Anna's mind swam. What would they tell the police if he died? They couldn't blurt the truth, no one would believe them. They'd look like murderers.
"He's not waking up!" Stiles yelled, unable to contain his fear now. It crawled through Anna as well, eating away at her until she felt like she may scream herself. "I think he's dying! I think he'd dead!" he couldn't die. Derek had to live, had to help Scott protect himself from this Alpha that wanted him as part of its pack.
"Hold on!" Scott shouted but Anna was already vibrating with terror. Calm down, she told herself, it'll be fine. It will all be okay. "I got it!" Scott screamed, "I got it."
"Please don't kill me for this." Stiles said, his hand rising into the air. Anna gasped as he brought it down with a swift cracking sound and shook it as if he'd just punched a wall.
Derek took the bullet from Scott's hand and the trio helped him stumble to his feet. Fear feigned and hope erupted inside Anna. He was going to be. Everything was going to be okay. Carefully, he bit the metal with a twang and Anna cringed as he poured out the powder and set it alight. The ashes gave off a smoky purple residue which he swept into his hand and then forced onto the wound.
She leaped out of the way as he struggled on the floor with the pain, screaming and howling like a long caged wolf, full of fury and agony. He roared for a long time but finally the inky black veins pulled back and there wasn't even a scar left to show where he had been shot.
"That. Was. Awesome!" Stiles yelled but no one else seemed to share his enthusiasm. Least of all Derek. "Yes!"
"Are you okay?" Scott asked.
Derek glared at him. "Well, except for the agonizing pain." He shot back sarcastically.
"Well, sarcasm is definitely a good sign of health." Stiles replied, to which Anna stamped on his foot. Hard. He cursed but subsided as Derek glared at him.
"Okay, we saved your life," Scott told him firmly, "Which means you're going to leave us alone. You got that? I'm going to go back to Alison's dad, I'm going to tell him everything-"
"You trust them?" Derek said suddenly, "You think they can help you."
"Why not? They're a lot frickin' nicer than you are."
"I can show you exactly how nice they are." Derek replied, not even a hint of any emotion in his voice.
"You can?" Scott asked.
Stiles dropped Anna off at home once Derek and Scott left for the hospital. The lawn was bathed in the warm glow of the artificial lights and the house seemed quiet, everyone would be winding down. "Are you sure you're okay?" Anna asked Stiles again. He hadn't been the same since he'd almost cut off Derek's arm. "Do you want to come inside?"
"I'm fine," he said, though he didn't look it. He looked sick and exhausted. "I better get home, anyway, my dad will kill me if he knows I'm out past curfew."
Yikes, Anna thought suddenly, Mom's gunna kill me, too.
"Okay," Anna said finally, "No detours or any wild goose chases after dead bodies or strange men stumbling in front of your car. Straight home."
Stiles gave a lazy salute. "Yes ma'am."
And then he was gone.