Wait like, I really like this chapter.

Also an upload? On a Friday? Woah….

Chapter Ten - A Small Reprieve

Nora and Stiles sped towards the school. She wasn't going to bother commenting on Stiles' disregard for the rules of the road. The streets were empty, and if they died in a gruesome car accident, that would suck, but at least they wouldn't have any problems.

She doubted they would beat them to the school, considering what Nora thought werewolves might be able to make of even the briefest of head starts.

There was so sign of either of them or the stolen car as they pulled into the school parking lot. But it was chaos, cheerful chaos, but chaos nonetheless. They had won the game.

Nora spared a glance at Stiles as they muscled their way through the crowd, fighting the tide of people leaving the school so that they could get in.

To most people a lacrosse game probably wouldn't be that much to give up, but Nora knew what it was to him.

They burst into the boy's locker room, Nora caring less and less each time she went in there what she might see. But she just saw Scott, sat on a bench, hunched over himself, still dripping wet from the shower.

"We have a huge problem." Stiles said breathlessly.

But Nora's one look at Scott had told her that he already knew.

"Trust me, I know." He said.

Nora tried to ignore the slight tremor in his hands, the blood dripping down his back from a wound that had since healed.

She leaned back against a locker, grateful for the grounding feeling of the lock pressing into her back as Scott explained. Peter was killing the people responsible for the Hale fire, killing the people responsible for killing his family. She shut her eyes, letting it wash over her, listening to Scott and Stiles talk, about what to do, how to stop him. Nora sighed and felt their eyes fall to her. She didn't need to look at them to see their expressions, expectant, hopeful maybe. She would have an idea, or at least a reassurance.

She did not.

"Why should we stop him?" Nora asked, her voice was barely a whisper.

Stiles gaped at her. Scott was frowning.

"He wants me to-"

Nora waved her hand, cutting him off.

"No, I got that part, and that we do need to stop. But the rest of it? Is it bad that I'm not really seeing how it's our problem? No one innocent has died yet."

Except Laura Hale.

The words were on her tongue but she didn't say them.

"The janitor." Scott said.

Nora hated to admit that she had forgotten about him.

"Fair." She said.

Stiles was just shaking his head.

"So we're all in agreement?" He asked. "We have no idea what the hell we're gonna do?"

They were in agreement about that. They had no idea what to do about Derek and Peter.

Derek and Peter.

Nora couldn't even begin to understand how that had happened.

Maybe Derek had weighed the deaths of the rest of his family against the death of his sister. But could someone really do that? Pick which of the people they loved deserved to be honoured with avenging them? It was a twisted version of the needs of the many outweighing the need of the few, and Nora didn't want to think about it.

But it was stuck in her head now.

That and a million other things.

So she didn't argue when they ended their problem solving session for the night, Scott still wearing a towel and her elbow still throbbing. Nora climbed into the jeep without a word, Stiles meeting her silence with nervous energy. He pulled up in front of her driveway, having gone the full twenty minutes without saying anything, without so much as glancing in her direction. Nora knew it was hard for him, to leave things be. How were they supposed to deal with their problems if they didn't talk about them?

Nora resisted the urge to laugh at all the things she and Stiles were decidedly not talking about. But maybe the time would come, or it wouldn't. She didn't know.

Nora moved to climb out of the jeep and froze, feeling him watching her. She was furious at everything and everyone.

But Nora was also tired to the bone.

"If it's any consolation, I think you would have played well tonight." She said.

Nora closed the door before she could hear Stiles' response, or even see it on his face. She had to train herself to stop looking.

That night Nora slept like the dead, right through her alarm. Sofia had to wake her up, chastising her for making them late as she tripped over herself getting dressed. Of course, Sofia still made sure she ate a decent breakfast, and because of that, she was actually almost late.

Nora raced to her locker with only a few minutes to spare before the bell. Maybe not late to some people, but late to her. To her surprise, Mei and Halle were still milling around, wearing twin shit-eating grins. Nora wondered if she was supposed to know what that was about and had forgotten. She hoped not.

"You know formal tickets went on sale yesterday." Halle said brightly. "Did you get one yet?"

Nora scoffed, tossing her books into her backpack. She wouldn't even be planning on going to the stupid dance of she hadn't already fallen in love with a dress.

"I'll get one at lunch." She said absentmindedly.

Nora knew for a fact that she'd left her wallet on her bedside table, so she'd probably be buying a ticket tomorrow. But what did it matter to them? She'd get a ticket.

"Maybe wait?" Mei suggested.

Nora froze and turned to her friends. They exchanged a conspiratorial look. She slammed her locker shut.

"Okay, who's asking me?" Nora asked sharply.

Mei and Halle shrugged. But clearly, they fucking knew.

"It's just friendly, okay?" Mei insisted. "At least one of us should have a date."

Nora thought of Jess, she had taken to sitting with Neil's friends at lunch and keeping her things in his locker. They would one hundred percent be going to formal together. It seemed she and Neil were trying hard to remain a couple this time, Nora wondered how long it would last. But she wondered more when Jess had stopped being part of "us". She felt terrible that she'd been so preoccupied with Scott and Stiles and hadn't noticed that happening. Their quartet was turning into a trio and if Nora didn't get her shit together, it would probably end up with Mei and Halle as a duo.

She looked at them, at their smiles that said they knew something that she didn't. But more importantly, they looked happy, not just at their attempts at matchmaker, but for her. Or at least, they wanted Nora to be happy so that they could be happy for her.

She couldn't exactly deny them that could she?

She didn't want to.

"Who is it?" Nora asked again, more for show than interest.

"You don't hate him." Halle said.

The list of people Nora did not hate was actually quite long. But the bell rang, reminding them they had places to be.

Mei swore and sprinted for the stairs.

Hell hath no fury like a woman late for math class.

Halle just laughed at Mei's retreating back and swung an arm around Nora's shoulder.

"Don't you trust us?" She asked.

Nora trusted them just fine; it was whether or not she trusted herself on a date that was the problem.

When Nora strode back to her locker to get her lunch, the mystery of who was asking her to formal was solved. Ben, the soccer player who always sat three pews behind her in church, was leaning against the bank of lockers, toying with the two tickets in his hand.

She watched him bring his hand up to his mouth as if to bite his fingernails and think better of it, raking his fingers through his mop of black hair instead.

Ben's eyes scanned the hallway, hazel and intent, looking for and finding her. He smiled. Nora wouldn't have known he was nervous if she hadn't been watching him.

Her smile back came easily. Why wouldn't it? He was a good guy with whom she had barely any history.

Well, they were in the same history class, but Nora didn't think that counted.

She strode towards him and opened her locker.

"What? No grand gesture?" She asked him, dumping her books onto the shelves.

Ben let out a short laugh.

"I don't think mutual public humiliation would be a great bonding experience." He said lightly, turning to her, still leaning on the lockers.

Nora wondered if it was an effort to seem shorter, if it was it didn't work. Ben was wiry and tall, and Nora knew the rest of his family, they all were. He was still smiling at her, from the slight chip on one of his incisors to the small crinkles around his eyes.

Halle had been right, she did not hate Ben.

"Besides, we're just friends." He added, his gaze soft.

Ben's circle of friends had a lot of overlap with hers. Everyone knew about her breakup with Stiles, but he would have been one of the people with a better idea of just how much it had hurt.

He also would have seen her crying in church the Sunday after it had happened.

Pushing that memory away, Nora plucked one of the tickets from his hand.

"And how do I pay you back for this?" She asked for no reason other than wanting to know what he would say. Nora didn't have the energy for an innuendo.

"By telling me what colour your dress is so that my tie doesn't clash." He said. "I don't wanna look stupid."

Not a bad answer.

Nora smiled down at the ticket in her hand.

"Are you going to a pre?" She asked him.

Ben shook his head, "You?"

"No." Nora said.

"So I should pick you up at your house?" He asked, still grinning. "How's around seven?"

Nora looked up at him, this boy who had been on the peripherals of her life for years. She wondered if he'd been waiting to ask her out, and if so, for how long?

Did it matter?

It wasn't like he was coming right out with the "I'm in love with you."

Nora shuddered at the memory.

"Seven is good." She said. "Do you remember where it is?"

He'd been at her birthday party last May; Nora remembered that much from the night. Ben nodded.

"Cool." He said, shoving his hands into the pockets of his jeans. "Text me about the dress."

Nora wondered if it would be weird to tell him that she already knew what it would look like.

"If you just wear a black tie it should be fine." She said instead.

"So a white suit with gold tassels à la Elvis is a no?" He asked her, brows furrowed.

Nora let herself laugh at that.

"Absolutely not."

Ben smiled again, though throughout their whole conversation, he hadn't really stopped.

Had she?

Ben turned to walk away and stopped.

"Is anyone in your family allergic to flowers?" He asked.

Nora shook her head no, half hoping he was asking out of a bizarre interest, or a strange fetish, and not because he was actually going to bring her flowers.

She watched Ben walk away, falling into step with one of his friends as he did, waving away his friends' wheedling arm around his shoulder. Nora caught herself smiling in her mirror. She resisted the urge to stop herself. It felt ridiculous to maybe be excited about a stupid dance, with everything else going on. But was it? Didn't she deserve some kind of reprieve?

Nora pressed her head against her locker. Pretending not to hear Mei and Halle as they came up behind her. Mei was practically jumping.

"What did you say? What did you say?" She asked, prodding her sides.

Nora rolled her eyes.

"I said yes." She told them.

Mei started pumping her small fist, but Halle put a hand on her shoulder and levelled her eyes with Nora's. She did nothing but quirk a brow. Nora just gave her a small smile and they both turned back to Mei, who was still dancing. A laugh bubbled up out of her throat as she watched her, but her eyes were burning.

"You know I love you guys, right?"

Mei went still and then pulled her into a bone crushing hug. Halle did the same, wrapping her long arms around the both of them.

"Don't get all sappy on us now, Nora." Mei said.

But Nora's breath hitched, caught in the tightness of her throat.

"Too late."

It seemed like everyone was making it a personal mission to appear at Nora's locker. When she went to put her things away and get ready to either go home or go to the gym, Allison was there with Lydia. Lydia looked confused, Allison looked determined.

That look on her face alone intrigued Nora.

When Allison asked if she would run an errand with them, with no details, even better.

When they started driving towards the preserve, that was when Nora finally got nervous.

"Allison, when you said you needed to stop for an errand before we went shopping, a hike in the woods, was not what I was expecting." Lydia remarked, getting winded as they continued to trek farther and farther from the road.

Allison was striding ahead of them, holding a bag that clearly held a bow. Nora had opted to stay silent until she knew what the fuck was going on. There was no reason to aggravate the girl with murderers for parents who was carrying a deadly weapon.

Nora scanned the ground for a big stick she could pick up, as if that would be any good against a bow and a well notched arrow.

"Before I forget, I wanted to ask if you're okay with something." Allison said, glancing back at them.

If she was going to ask if they were okay with being target practice, Nora was going to have to say no.

"Jackson asked me to the winter formal." Allison continued.

Lydia was silent for a moment, and Nora couldn't tell much from her expression considering she was looking at the back of her head.

"Did he?" Lydia asked, forcing the lightness in her voice.

"Just as friends." Allison said. "But I just wanted to make sure you were okay with it first."

The words said friendship.

The tone said something else.

As did the impromptu trip into the woods.

"Sure." Lydia chirped. "As long as it's just friends."

"Well yeah, I mean, it's not like I would take him into coach's office during lacrosse practice to make out with him or anything." Allison said.

Nora stifled a laugh with a cough. Lydia whipped around and looked at her, a question in her wide eyes. Nora just shrugged and look a few hurried steps to walk beside her.

"I saw you, anyone else could have" She hissed.

"About that…" Lydia began but trailed off.

Nora doubted there was much to be said.

"So did you take us out here to kill her?" Nora called up ahead to Allison.

Allison turned around; she was the picture of confusion. Nora looked pointedly down at the bow.

"Oh," Allison said, evidently just realizing how this looked, "no, I want to test something."

Nora sighed and watched as Allison set the bag down on the ground, laying out her bow and a set of arrows.

This couldn't be good.

Allison picked up an arrow head and began screwing it onto a shaft. She and Lydia stepped closer, peering down at her. The head wasn't a shining piece of metal sharpened to a point, it was bulky and dark. Nora had no idea what is could be.

She wasn't sure she wanted to find out, either.

"What does that do?" Lydia asked.

"We're about to find out." Allison said, sounding almost eager.

She notched the arrow and took aim with the kind of confidence that only came from experience. Allison wasn't a hunter yet, but the skills were all there. Nora's stomach churned with rage for this girl she was quickly considering a friend. She was seventeen, and being groomed for murder.

The arrow flew into a tree and exploded in a flash of light. Nora winced, shying away from the burn.

If it hurt her eyes, she couldn't imagine the pain for someone with eyes far more sensitive than hers, someone like Scott.

"What the hell was that?" Lydia asked, her voice was quiet.

"I don't know." Allison told her.

That didn't matter; the feeling of unease crawling up Nora's spine told her that Allison would know soon enough. The real question, the only important one, was what she would do when she found out?

If Derek was any kind of example, she'd side with her family no matter what kind of heinous bullshit they did.

Lydia clapped her hands together, jarring Nora from her thoughts.

"Well, that was fun." She said. "Any more lethal weapons you want to try out?"

Allison's head snapped away from Lydia, towards the crack of a branch. Lydia's face fell as Allison handed her the bow.

"Hold this." She said.

Lydia asked her why but Nora could guess. Allison was going to investigate the source of a snapped branch. Nora pinched her brow as Allison told Lydia the noise was probably nothing.

"What if that nothing is something and that something is dangerous?" Lydia asked.

"Shoot it." Allison told her.

Lydia looked blankly down at the bow. Nora took it from her hands and picked up one of the remaining arrows. Allison quirked a brow.

"Summer camp." Nora said and waved Allison away.

Once.

She wasn't all that worried about what Allison might find, not in broad daylight. Nora tested the strength of the bowstring, the feel of it in her hand. She could see why Allison liked it, liked the strength she felt it gave her.

Nora relaxed her arms, letting the weapon dangle in her hands.

She'd rather have her strength in her own two hands, not a weapon someone could easily wrench out of them.

But the bow was a decent substitute.

Her eyes flicked to Lydia, who showed no sign of still being angry at her about the day before. Maybe it was forgotten, and Nora was happy to forget it. Lydia clucked her tongue.

"I don't suppose you'd let me find you a date to the formal?" Lydia asked, her voice back to its usual lilt.

"I have one." She said, suppressing a smirk.

Lydia's expression was something between disappointment and nausea. Nora wondered if it was because she was expecting her not to have one, to be alone like she was. Or if she didn't realize Nora was capable of finding a boy with some interest in her all on her own.

Not that that was exactly what happened, but still.

"It's Ben Walsh." Nora added.

"Who?" Lydia asked, her mask back on.

Nora supposed a lanky soccer player who needed a haircut was not on Lydia Martin's radar, but her superiority stung a bit. Did she think she was doing, had done, so much better with Jackson because he was popular?

Nora wondered vaguely what it was that made people care about that sort of thing, but she knew, it was insecurity. She opened her mouth to say something, probably about how Jackson sucked, but Allison reappeared form the woods, her smile wide and a necklace dangling from her hand.

Maybe Scott still stood a chance.

Nora handed her back her bow.

Maybe Allison did to.

Usually, Nora was the only one taking advantage of the school gym in the evening. But the obnoxious music emanating from the boy's locker room told her that tonight, she wasn't alone. She got dressed furiously; exercise not doing what it usually did to help her mood, not with whatever the fuck was blasting from some asshole's speaker.

The Porsche Nora had seen on her way in told her just who exactly the asshole was.

If she wanted to, she might actually be able to get away with murdering Jackson.

Though Nora doubted getting away with murder was as easy as it looked on TV, and she wasn't sure she actually wanted Jackson dead. But having him out of the way would be nice.

The music stopped.

She heard voices, both male. Jackson and someone else.

The music started again, quieter this time, and a different song, something more tolerable, not exactly Jackson's style.

Nora crossed the girl's locker room and pressed her ear to their shared wall.

"I'm not afraid of you." She heard Jackson say.

God fucking damnit.

Not one day.

Not one day could go by without this shit.

Nora pulled on her jacket and seized the field hockey stick that was propped up in the corner. It was more of a tradition than anything else, stemmed from one incident, but the stick stayed and if it was moved, it was replaced.

Nora strode out into the hallway as they did, Derek glancing at her as she did. He would have known someone was in the other locker room, maybe he had even known it was her. It didn't matter, because her helplessness from the night before had been quelled by rage.

Someone had to be angry for Laura Hale.

Why not her?

Nora's eyes fell on Jackson and for a moment they all stared at each other, waiting for the first word, the first move.

She made it.

"Derek, if I could have a word with my peer." She said.

Jackson scowled at her.

"We're not friends." He snapped.

"Did I say friends?" Nora asked him.

"What the hell to do you want?" Jackson asked.

Nora was sure she'd had said what she wanted, but she looked from Jackson to Derek. He looked at her like how one might look at some sort of pest.

Good.

"I think the better question is, do you really think this bastard is going to make you a werewolf?"

She tightened her grip on the stick.

Jackson glanced between them, looking at little sick. He might have claimed not to be afraid of Derek, but he was afraid of something.

"What do you know?" Jackson scoffed, punctuating it with a quirk of an eyebrow.

"I know that Scott's life has been hell." Nora said, her voice cutting through the hall, loudly, clear and strong. "I know that this leather clad jackass sided with the man who murdered his sister, and I think that speaks volumes about the kind of person he is." Nora looked at Derek, searching his face for any flicker of anything.

There was nothing.

"The kind of person that will throw you to the wolves without a second thought, without any guilt." Nora finished.

Pun fucking intended.

There was something in Derek's expression now, rage.

Maybe she was getting to him; maybe she was just getting on his nerves. It didn't matter. Unfortunately, what mattered was Jackson.

"This isn't going to go how you think it will." Nora said. "Nothing does. Either he and his uncle kill you, or the Argents will. That's where Scott is, and that's where you'll be."

Derek scoffed, and Jackson looked at him.

"That's because Scott is an idiot." Derek said, turning to meet Jackson's eyes. "Are you going to listen to her, or me?"

Nora found Jackson's eyes through the dark of the hallway. It wasn't her job to stop him, she knew that. But if she didn't who would? Scott would try. Scott, who was in this mess he didn't ask for because he just wanted to make the right choices, to do the right thing.

So could she.

Derek turned away and Jackson followed him.

"Why would you dig Laura a grave if you were just going to shit on it later?" She called after them.

It was low. Nora knew that. Guilt pricked its way up her spine, burrowing under her ribs.

But doing the right thing didn't mean having to be nice about it.

Derek reeled around, backing her into the wall before she could blink. On instinct she swung at him, but Derek caught the stick and wrenched it out of her hand, sending it clattering across the floor.

The space between them was small and filled with a threat.

Nora didn't dare move.

She didn't dare tear eyes away from Derek's either.

"Stay out of the way." Derek said.

His voice was so quiet Nora wasn't sure if Jackson could hear him, but she did. Every cell in her body was screaming for her to listen, to look away, to walk away, and to let Jackson go.

Derek turned and walked away without another glance back. Jackson followed him, fear written in the set of his shoulders.

Nora collapsed against the wall, wrestling her phone out of her pocket with shaking fingers. She blinked back tears as she dialed Scott.

He didn't answer.

Nora tried him again.

To no avail.

She tried Stiles.

Not even he picked up.

She knew that something was wrong. If Derek was at the school, God only knew where Peter was.

Nora took a shuddering breath, and then another.

She didn't believe they were going to turn Jackson, even if they were going to, Jackson shouldn't be bitten.

Nora thought of him following Derek out of the school and an idea, a bad one, took shape in her head.

She charged into the boy's locker room and rifled through Jackson's things. When her hand closed around his car keys she froze for a moment.

She had nothing. No weapon, no training, no backup. Not even a driver's liscense.

She should go home and let things unfold as they were meant to.

But if this was how things were supposed to be, why did Nora feel so wrong?

Jackson Whittemore shouldn't die at sixteen, when he was the worst possible version of himself.

She didn't have to save him.

But Nora didn't think she'd be able to live with herself unless she tried.

Nora parked just close enough to the Hale House for her to be able to see it. The drive had gone better than expected, the empty nighttime streets and the small size of the Porsche making it easier. She hadn't crashed or gotten pulled over. Driving wasn't as hard as Sofia made it out to be, that much was certain.

Nora closed the door to the Porsche as quietly as she could, though not able to hear much over the hammering of her heart. Every step closer she took to the house a voice, her own, rang in her head.

"Turn back."

Nora kept walking.

"You're going to get yourself killed."

She crouched down at the edge of the tree line.

"You can't help him."

Two silhouettes stood on the porch; it was too dark to tell the difference between Derek and Jackson.

Nora wished she had a plan other than appealing to Jackson's better nature, or Derek's, or Peter's whenever he decided to show.

But neither Scott nor Stiles were answering their phones.

Nora tried desperately not to think about why that might be.

The two figures disappeared into the decrepit house. It loomed over her, a greater monster than anything inside of it.

Something moved in the dark on the other side of the lot.

Nora's hands curled into the ground, as if she could pull a weapon out of it, or maybe just some good sense.

She mumbled the Hail Mary.

A flash cut through the dark and shadows poured out of the trees.

The Argents.

They began to fire, bullets flew without discrimination into the Hale House, splintering wood and breaking bone if they hit home.

A figure flew out of the side of the house, Jackson, his hands thrown over his head.

He wasn't crouching.

He was a massive target.

Nora sprinted for him, and collided with him, sending them both to the ground in a painful fury of limbs. Jackson grabbed at her, clawing at her neck. It was a pathetic show of self-defense from a boy who had never felt the need to actually learn any. Nora grabbed his wrist and twisted, forcing him off of her.

"It's me dumbass." She hissed into his ear.

Despite how close they were, Nora wondered if he could hear her over the din of gunfire.

Jackson stared at her, recognition falling over his panicked expression. There was a lull in the shooting.

"What the hell are you doing?"

Jackson had the audacity to sound pissed. Nora seized him by the collar of his jacket as bullets began to fly again.

If she got shot because of Jackson Whittemore, Nora was going to have words with God.

"Saving your stupid life." She said to him as they hurdled past the tree line and kept going, leaving the wolves and their hunters to their business.

"Wait," Jackson said, stopping, his breath was heavy, "Scott was there."

It took a moment for Nora to understand what he had said, gunfire ringing through the woods and inside her head.

It wasn't a sound she ever wanted to hear in real life.

But there it was.

"What?" She asked him.

"Scott was there."

Her heart fell into her stomach. Nora could have thrown up. She might.

"He was trying to stop Derek." Jackson told her.

Of course he was.

Without thinking Nora pulled Jackson's keys out of her pocket and tossed them to him. He caught them out of reflex. For a moment they stared at each other and Nora pointed in the direction of his car. She looked back towards the house, the shooting had stopped, she could only hear voices.

Maybe if she got on her knees and begged Chris Argent to let Scott go, he would.

It was worth a shot.

But before Nora could take a step Jackson had lifted her over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes.

"What the hell are you doing?" She snapped.

"Returning the favour." Jackson said.

Jackson didn't put her down until he was standing next to the passenger side door and forcing her through it. Nora didn't protest. It was too late anyway; the hunters were piling into their trucks and driving away.

"Keep the headlights off and follow them." Nora said.

Jackson scoffed.

Nora leaned back into the seat; they both stank of gunpowder and dirt. She knew there were leaves in her hair but it didn't matter, not if Scott was taken, or worse.

Her heart broke at the thought.

So Nora didn't let herself think it.

She just watched the trees go by, the woods slowly turning into empty fields, then to homes.

"Why did you come?" Jackson asked, breaking the silence Nora would have preferred.

"Because I knew it's what Scott would have done." Nora said. "And turns out it was."

"But why?" Jackson pressed.

Nora took a moment to look at him. He seemed more human in the dim light of his car, having just almost died. Maybe this was the Jackson Allison saw. Maybe it was what Lydia had seen.

Nora still didn't think it was much.

"I don't know how to explain to you that you should care about other people." She said.

"Even if it means getting yourself killed?" Jackson said, incredulous.

"I'm not dead yet." Nora said.

Her voice was still.

They lapsed into silence again.

"How did you know Derek was going to try and kill me?" Jackson asked.

It was Nora's turn to scoff.

"Lucky fucking guess." She said.

Why couldn't he just say thank you?

Nora thought of him forcing her back into the Porsche when she would have rather done something dangerous and stupid.

Maybe in his own way, Jackson had thanked her.

"You're an asshole for how you broke up with Lydia, by the way." Nora added numbly. "Sorry, not an asshole, heartless."

Someone needed to say it, and it didn't seem like Lydia had any friends who would. Allison was going to the fucking formal with him.

Jackson didn't say anything, but his grip tightened on the wheel. Nora waited for him to say something, to defend himself, to be the way that he was.

But Jackson said nothing.

Nora pulled her phone out of her pocket and considered calling Stiles, telling him what had happened. But maybe by some stroke of luck, Stiles had found his way to a good night's sleep. Maybe he'd made it through the day being able to pretend his life was normal, werewolf free.

Nora put her phone back into her pocket.

She could let him have one day. God knew she wanted one.

"Hey, where the hell do you live?" Jackson asked her.

"Two streets down from you, dumbass." Nora said.

They fell into silence again, and finally, Jackson let it stick.

Per usual feedback is always appreciated :)

Unrelated, but the Monsters of Verity duology by Victoria Schwab is lit and everyone should read it.