You gotta love the moon. It provides us with light, brings together all the satanic nutjobs, provides us with tides, and once a month it turns a few people into homicidal hairballs of death. One of those said hairballs being Scott McCall.
Now, I'm familiar with experiencing homicidal tendencies each month, but Scott was a real dickhead. It wouldn't take long for anyone to figure that one out, and it certainly didn't take long for me. You see, Stiles had texted me to ask if I could pick him and Scott up, as they were getting drunk.
Why, you ask? Allison dumped Scott. Even though he hadn't technically been lying to her last night at school, she "didn't know if she could trust him." Any other occasion, I'd be glad. Hunter and werewolf couples generally didn't end well. But now… not a good timing. Since Allison was Scott's anchor, and she was gone… well there wasn't much preventing him from "wolfing out."
Anyway, text from Stiles:
Heeeyu Lora, could u pick us uop now? Thankss Xx
I couldn't help but smile at my screen as I read the message. He was so drunk. I got in my car and drove it all the way to the woods, using Stiles' directions. (Which he'd sent before he got drunk, thankfully) Once there, I saw a small fire burning and walked towards it, since Stiles said they'd be there.
"Hey Lora!" Stiles yelled as I walked out into the field. "We were just talking about you! You know, you ar-" Scott slapped his hand in front of Stiles' mouth before he could finish the sentence.
"Let's go." he said, first getting off the ground himself before pulling Stiles off. Which was a good thing, I don't think that he could stand on his own feet for too long.
"You don't seem to drunk, Scott." I said. Oh I knew full and well that werewolves couldn't get drunk, not like humans, but I wanted to test him, see how he was doing.
"I'm not." he said. "A little help here?" he asked, pointing at Stiles. I moved over and put one of Stiles' arms over my shoulder whilst Scott took the other. It didn't take us too long to get Stiles to my car, thanks to Scott's strength.
"Oh, we goin' home now? Cool." Stiles said as we practically threw him into the back of the car.
"I don't know why I let you two go out." I said, shaking my head as I closed the door. "I'm the one who's gonna have to deal with a drunk Stiles now." I said as I got into the car.
"You don't have to lock me up again." Scott, who was already in the seat next to me, said. "You said so yourself, I had full control last full moon." I let out a scoff at that.
"Yeah, sure. That was after the Alpha let you out of its control. Who knows what he might make you do, Scott. You could kill someone." I saw him opening his mouth to protest. "You could kill Allison." I said before he could. "The Alpha probably doesn't like the Argents. Getting you to kill them for him is an option he will likely go for." Well that shut him up. He still looked grumpy as hell, but it shut him up. So, with Stiles' drunk ass in the back and a moody werewolf sitting next to me, I started the car, put on some music, and drove us to my place.
~o~
"No, but this full moon is different, you don't need to tie me up." Scott said. We were standing next to the shift room, and he was refusing to go in.
"Yeah it's different indeed. You just lost your anchor and are about to go rabid, so…" I pointed at the open door. "In." Scott glared at me, his eyes slowly starting to glow.
"I. said. That. I'm. fine." he said, a low growl in his voice. He set one step forward, so I set one back. "You really think that I'm just letting you lock me up? Like a dog?"
"Well no." I said, walking backwards as he walked towards me. "Quite honestly, I was kind of expect-" He ran forward and grabbed me by the shoulders, lifting me up in the air and throwing me towards the wall. The air in my lungs was pushed out and my vision blurred for a moment. With coughs and gasps, I managed to catch my breath.
"Nice mat placement." I said, standing up and looking at Stiles, who'd just finished the line of mountain ash halfway the room to keep Scott in. He looked at the place where I'd hit the wall, which was about two feet from where he'd put up a mat against it.
"Oh…" he said, wincing. "S-"
An ear piercing growl interrupted him. I rolled my eyes and looked over to Scott.
"Really? That's what you're going for?" I asked, walking towards the line of ash and inspecting it. "Perfect… ish. A bit skewed." Thought that was to be expected, as Stiles was still struggling to walk in a straight line. I walked towards the wall. In case of these kind of scenarios, we installed a screen to divide the room in two. It also blocked some of the noise Scott would be making. Once I got that all set up, I turned to Stiles.
"Scale of one to ten, how drunk are you?" I asked, eyeing him. He let out a chuckle.
"Am I drunk?" he asked. He let out a laugh when I tried to hide the smile on my face. "I am drunk!" he cheered, throwing his hands up in the air, which caused him to lose balance and fall over. I shook my head at him. I had a long night ahead of me.
~o~
You know what's even easier than taking candy from a baby? Winning from a half-drunk Stiles. Of course, I'd been forcing him to sober up, and Scott's occasional death threats helped with that, but he was just plain bad at poker.
"So what's the price for this round?" I asked, dividing the chips between us. "I've already got two free meals and a week's worth of you driving me to school. I doubt you've got anything else to offer me." I said, smirking at him.
"Tell you what." he said, taking his chips and counting them. "If I win this round, you're going to the formal." I opened my mouth to protest, but he wasn't done yet. "With me. So you…" he said, reaching out and tapping my nose with his finger, "can have at least one fun school party, and I can tell the jocks in the lacrosse team to suck it because you'll be going with me."
I rolled my eyes at him and hoped that he wasn't sober enough yet to notice me blushing. At least it felt like I was blushing. "And what if I win?" I asked, taking the deck of cards and shuffling it.
"Then you... " he said, tapping on his legs with his fingers. "Get… fifty bucks." I narrowed my eyes at him.
"Eighty."
"Deal."
I was lucky to have good poker face, because the round we both decided to go all in I got a pair of kings. That was the second-best starting hand for poker. I took the deck and laid down the last two cards, one of them a king.. Three of a kind. Not bad indeed. With a small smirk on my face, I turned my two cards around.
"Three kings." I said, letting out a laugh as I saw Stiles' pokerface drop to a look of disappointment. "Pay up." I said, holding out my hand to him. Instead of money, he put his two cards in my hand.
"Royal flush." he said, turning them around. "Better go buy that dress." My mouth fell open, I'd completely overlooked that option. With a huff, I let the cards fall to the floor. Stiles let out a victorious laugh.
"Shut up." I said, but soon I was laughing as well. He was so proud that he'd tricked me, and I had no doubt he would rub it in my face later.
"Can you let me out now?" Scott yelled, rather angrily, from behind the divider. I let out a groan as the cheery (and partially drunk) mood of the room suddenly disappeared. A long night indeed.
~o~
By the end of the night, Stiles was all sobered up, Scott had finally shut up, and I was exhausted. Once the sun rose, we let him go home (he still wasn't really happy with us), and Stiles and I went to sleep for a few hours (which turned into twelve) before we went to see Derek's uncle.
~o~
Despite Stiles' protests, I'd called Derek on our ride over. It was his uncle after all, and he had the right to know what we were about to do. That's why, when we arrived, the werewolf in question was waiting for us outside.
"Is there any way it could be him?" he asked as soon as we got out of the car. I just shrugged, I didn't know what he was capable of.
"You'd think that if he has finished healing, he'll do more than just come out and kill people at night only to sit here all day." I said, eyeing the hospital. Derek nodded at that, and then proceeded to guide us to the hospital, to his uncle's room. It was a standard hospital room, with a man in a wheelchair in the corner. If you'd walked by, it would've looked like he was just staring out of the window. But if you walked in, around him, and looked at his face…
"Oh that's…" Stiles said, his nose scrunching up at the sight of it. Half of the man's face, Peter, was covered in burn scars.
"How long has he been like this?" I asked, staring into his eyes. That's weird. For half a second, I could've sworn I saw them…
"Six years." Derek said. He was standing near the door and it didn't look like he was coming any closer.
"Can he hear us?" I asked, tilting my head. Something about him looked familiar. Then again, so did a lot in this town. I'd probably met him when I was last here, that's all.
"We don't know. He's never responded." Derek said, growing impatient. I crouched down, studying the man for any changes.
"Do you mind if I try something?" I asked, looking over Peter's shoulder at Derek, who nodded. I then placed my index finger under Peter's fingers. "Okay, this is already weird. Listen, if you can hear me, move your fingers. Or one, just a bit. I'll notice." We waited for a while, but nothing happened. Just when I was about to give up and leave, his finger moved down.
"Okay… good." I said, my eyes wide. "Was there anyone else at the fire who survived? Move down your finger for a yes, move it up for a no."
All of a sudden, his head snapped towards me, making me jump up. I wanted to jump away from him too, but he had his hand gripped tightly around my wrist.
"Get him out of here!" I yelled at Derek, who grabbed Stiles by his arm and literally threw him out of the room. "Not like that you dic-" Something sharp pierced through my neck, and I could hear Derek yelling out "No" before everything went black.
The black became smoke, and under the smoke there was fire. From that fire came a heat so hot I could've sworn I felt it melting a part of my face. In front of me were people, in the fire, screaming. But there was no way I could reach them, I would die.
Then my view shifted. It was as if I was looking around in confusion. Then I started running. My feet were burning, and I nearly got crushed by a piece of ceiling falling down one me, but I kept running. And then I stopped. Above all the screaming, was one voice, weaker than the rest. Close to it, someone, a child, crying.
The view shifted again as I ran towards the sound. Under a long piece of wooden ceiling lay a woman I instantly recognised as my mother. Next to it, a small girl with blonde hair sat, crying. Said girl being me.
"It's going to be okay, sweetie." my mother whispered. She then looked up at me. By now I'd figured out it was actually Peter, and I was in his memories. "Get her out." she said. I- Peter, actually, ran towards them and pulled me away from my mother, taking me outside. He ran for a while until we were away from the house, there he set me down.
"Shh, shh." he said, putting a finger on my mouth in attempt to stop me from crying. Then his head snapped up, scanning our surroundings. There, in the distance, he could see three people running away from the house, carrying gasoline tanks in their hands.
I "woke up" gasping for air on the hospital floor. Peter stood next to me, with a very pissed off Derek glaring at him. I opened my mouth to ask so many questions, but I couldn't. Apparently, Peter figured that out.
"Your father took you to another pack, their Alpha erased your memory. He didn't want you to remember it, wanted you to believe your mother died fast and peaceful. And he was right to." he said, crouching down so he could get on eye level with me. "But I needed you to know this for you to understand what I'm about to tell you. Both of you."
Well, whatever he wanted to tell me, he didn't get a chance to do it, as Derek took him by the collar and threw him out of the window, Derek running after him to beat him up some more. Around the same time, Stiles walked into the room, blood dripping from a cut in his cheek.
"Are you okay?" we asked at the same time. We smiled and both nodded.
"His nurse, she was helping him." he said closing the door behind him. "I, ehh, knocked her out. She's in a janitor's closet, all locked up." he said, showing me the keys.
"I'm impressed." I said, standing up. Pain shot through my neck and I instinctively reached for it, covering my hand with blood. "That's lovely." I said, wiping it off on the bed sheets. I looked over to Stiles, who was looking at me with wide eyes.
"Oh crap, yeah I didn't tell you that." I said, realising. "Basically, alpha's, or powerful betas, can share memories by putting their claws into a person's neck. He showed me the fire." I said, turning around to look out of the window, where Derek and his uncle were beating each other up. Since I knew they weren't going to kill each other (Derek would try and fail though), I let them be for the moment.
"And?" Stiles asked, walking over to me. "What did you see?"
"My mother." I said, my voice cracking. "She- we. We were in the fire. She died, Peter pulled me out. Dad took me to an alpha who took my memories from that day. I think they got it wrong a bit, erased other parts too." I said, wiping tears from my eyes. "Sorry. I jus-"
"It's okay." he said, placing a hand on my shoulder rather awkwardly. "It's okay."
We stood there, watching the fight until the Hale's calmed down a bit. Well, Peter was now screaming, but it was safe for us to come out and join them.
"Do you have any idea what it was like for me, those six years?" Peter yelled. "Slowly healing, cell by cell. And all that time knowing-" he stopped and turned towards me. "You saw them, right? In my memory, you saw the people in the woods?" I just nodded. "They weren't family. They set the house on fire."
"But the reports said that it was an electrical failure." Stiles said, frowning. The two of us were standing behind Derek, should Peter try and attack us.
"I only killed those who were responsible." Peter simply said, and something in me clicked.
"The bus driver?" I asked.
"He got assigned the fire, worked at an insurance company." Derek explained. "He covered up the evidence of arson."
"The store clerk…" Stiles said.
"Arrested for arson." Peter said.
"Those two people who went missing last night?" I asked, earning a look from Stiles. "Hey, you were too drunk to poker in the beginning, I had to do something." I said, shrugging.
"They were the ones who set the house on fire." Derek said.
"Alright then, but there must be someone left." I said. "You aren't done yet." Peter nodded at that.
"There is… one person. The brains behind the entire plan." he said. "Kate Argent. Just her, no one else."
I let out a scoff as I realised what he was doing.
"You want our help." I said, staring at him with wide eyes. Next to me, Stiles' mouth fell open.
"Wh- wait what? Are you insane?" he said, looking at me. I took a deep breath, but he wasn't having any of it. "No." he said, shaking his head. "Na-ah, no way."
"She killed dozens of innocent people." I said. "Who knows what she'll do next. I've heard about her, Stiles, she has no code, no morals." he still wasn't convinced. "She killed my mother. I will at least need to talk to my dad." That calmed him down enough. I turned back towards Peter. "We're leaving. Right now." I said, taking Stiles' hand and walking towards his car.
"Was that really the smartest thing to do?" he whispered.
"No clue." I said, letting go of his hand and getting in the car. Stiles sighed, walked around the car and took his place behind the steering wheel.
"I know you're scared." he said, turning his keys and starting up the car. "You've always been scared. You're just better at hiding it now." I rolled my eyes.
"I'm not scared." I said.
"Listen, Lorraine, I know you, alright? And I know that you're scared, you're scared of Kate, you're scared of Peter, you're scared that you're going to die and you are terrified of what'll happen after you're gone. Because you and I both know that death wont happen to you, but the people around you." he said, his voice growing louder. "Now can you please drop the act, start showing the emotions I know you have, and I jus-" he stopped, letting out a sigh and calming himself down. "I want to have my friend back. You were so open, and we told each other everything and now I look at you, and I know it's you but you've shut your emotions off from the world and it's like you're not even you."
After he stopped speaking, we were silent. He was constantly casting glances at me, but I kept my eyes on the road.
"Aren't you going to say anything?" he asked.
"Stop the car." I said, unfastening my seatbelt.
"Wh- no!" he said, his head moving from me to the road, a panicked expression on his face.
"Stop it."
"Lorraine, you aren't seriously going to- don't!" he yelled as I opened my door. He slammed on the break, giving me the opportunity to jump out of the car. Not looking back, I started walking home. I didn't get far when Stiles caught up on me, placing a hand on my shoulder and turning me around.
"Look, I'm sorry." he said, but I didn't care. If he wanted emotion, he was going to get it.
"You asshole!" I spat, pushing him back. "Don't you think that I know what I'm doing? Did you really think it was necessary to go all 'shrink' on me? I have four weeks left, Stiles. What do you think is easier to get over? The death of someone who helped you protect his werewolf friend, but was kind of rude and emotionless, or one of your closest friends? Which one would be more difficult? Yes, I'm scared, it's called instinct. Yes, I'm worried, that way I can come up with backup plans and not get cocky." Tears were pouring down my cheeks by now, and I was probably giving half the neighbourhood a heart attack, but I didn't care. "Yes I've been acting like a bitch at times, and yes I'm doing it on purpose, and I did it because I didn't want to hurt anyone!"
My breathing was rapid, my sight was blurry because of the tears, and I felt like my head was about to explode. Taking a deep breath, I turned around and walked away again. I thought that I'd scared Stiles off with my rant, but apparently not, as again I felt a pair of hands pulling me back.
"I won't let you walk home alone." he said, one hand lowering to my wrist. "Just let me drop you off at home, please."
"Let me go!" I yelled, pulling my wrist out of his hand. He'd thought I would do that, as he used his other hand to grab my other wrist. I let out a gasp as an image flashed in front of my eyes.
"Lydia!" Stiles yelled, running over the lacrosse field at school. I turned around and saw Lydia standing in the middle of the field, staring at Stiles. Behind her, Peter was running towards her, his teeth bare.
I didn't know that I'd closed my eyes, but when I opened them again I was heading towards Stiles' car.
"Put me down." I said, but my voice was weak, so it came out like a whisper.
"Nope." he said, though it sounded strained. Probably because he was carrying me. Talk about humiliating. I could walk just fine, thanks. I told him that, but it took so long for my brain to send signals to my mouth that by the time the words left my lips, he'd put me in the front seat.
"I'm sure you can." he said, closing the door and walking around the car before getting in. He started the car and waited for me to put on my seatbelt, which took forever.
Even though he'd acted calm when I was yelling at him, judging by the tapping of his fingers against the steering wheel, the speed at which he was driving, and the hurt (though concerned) expression on his face, he was pretty shaken.
~o~
"She was standing in the field, Peter was running towards her from behind, and I think he was about to bite her." I recalled my… my… whatever it was, again to dad. Stiles had insisted on staying until I was alright again (even though I had insisted that I was) and we'd explained what we now knew. And more so, what I now knew. I was a little mad at dad, but I understood his actions.
"We can't help him." dad said, shaking his head. "If we help Peter kill Kate, a war will burst out between hunters and protectors."
"Then what can we do?" I asked. "We can't just let Kate get away with this." "And we can't let Peter get away with killing those people connected to the fire either. He's always been… odd, but that fire really messed him up."
"Wonder how that can be." I mumbled, earning a glare from dad. I instantly looked down at my hands, remembering just why he'd let my memories be erased.
"So what's going to happen now?" Stiles asked. Dad stared at his hands, thinking for a while before letting out a sigh.
"We do what we're supposed to do." he said, looking at the both of us. "Protect those who can't protect themselves. And not just Lydia." The meaningful look he gave me was enough. Rage boiled up inside me.
"You want to protect Kate?" I said in disbelief. "Are you insane?"
"Forgiving is an important part of being a protector." dad said, staying calm. "And it's what your mother would've wanted. Always choose the peaceful way, and if there isn't any then you make one." a faint smile appeared on his face. "That's what she used to say all the time."
"But what's the plan, then? Tell the Argents?" I said.
"I'm sorry Lora, but I'm going to take this one from you. It's getting too dangerous." I let out a huff and slumped back into my chair, knowing that protest would be useless. "Just… you have a few more weeks. I want you to enjoy them, not spend them on conflicts." He stood up from his chair, showing that we were done here. He looked at Stiles. "You're gonna get home alright?" Stiles just nodded, standing up as well.
"So…" he turned towards me. "I'll guess I'll just…"
"See you tomorrow, Stillinski." I said, nodding towards the door.
"Right." he said, mumbling a quick goodbye before leaving. Once he did, dad looked at me with one raised eyebrow.
"What?" I asked, cocking my head to the side.
"He's a nice kid." he said.
"Yeah…" I said, narrowing my eyes at him. Was he…
"Do you think he's handsome too?" he asked, a glint of childlike humour in his eyes. I let out a groan and rolled my eyes.
"Dad!"
"It's just that I haven't seen you get so close with a guy before, that's all." he said in a teasing tone.
"We've been friends before dad." I said, walking towards the door. I just hoped that dad wouldn't see me blush.
"Yeah… friends."
Before things could get worse, I walked out of the room, yelled out a "bye!" and slammed the door shut behind me.
A/N: I hoped you liked that chapter! Thank you for reading it as always :) I don't have much time now, so that's all for the author's note this chapter.
See you in the next one!
~Lilly