Isaac/Scott

Author's Note: So this chapter takes places right after the end of episode 3 of season 3. The show doesn't make the timeline very clear as to when episode 3 ends and episode 4 begins or even what days of the week this stuff takes place. So I'll assume episode 4 takes place at least one full day later. Which gives me some room to maneuver with my writing.

As always, hope you enjoy.


Isaac sat down heavily, tired from chasing Cora and Boyd all night and not looking forward to going back to school in a few short hours. He was impressed that Derek had survived without killing his sister or Boyd, but he didn't expect Boyd to stick around. He'd run off with Erica before and now that there wasn't anyone to keep him around, Isaac expected him to leave as soon as he woke up.

He leaned forward, elbows on his knees, and stared at his hands as he let out a sigh. Now that he had a few minutes to actually think, he found that he didn't want to. Erica kept popping up in his head. It was terrible that she was dead, but beyond feeling a little sorry for her he didn't feel much. When Derek had given her the bite, he'd thought that maybe he'd have a kindred spirit in the pack, someone who knew what it was like to suffer and wanted to escape that. Maybe they'd talk and be friends instead of just pack members, it wasn't like he'd had a lot of friends before.

But she'd left as soon as things got rough. Boyd had joined the pack and she was all over him. At first he didn't mind it, he figured that he shouldn't get upset over someone else's happiness. But then when things went from bad to worse and there was no sign of it getting any better, she just ran off. Things got bad so she ran instead of staying to deal with the problem. He came back, even when he hadn't really had anybody to come back for. He hadn't been going out with Scott at the time and Derek hadn't done so well against Gerard.

Not so much of a kindred spirit then. Erica hadn't looked back after leaving. He had. Even if it had almost killed him. But he knew he would've hated himself for running away and leaving everyone to their fate when he had the power to help. Wasn't it part of why Derek had gone recruiting? To form a pack, to help people?

He sighed again and tried to let that train of thought go. His mood didn't improve, however, because he didn't expect that life with Derek was going to get any better with Cora around. He'd tried asking about her, get a little information about where she'd been, why Derek had never mentioned her. That sort of thing. But Derek had just looked at him in a way that meant he should just keep his mouth shut. It wasn't like he was interested in her, he was just curious. But apparently long lost little sister plus werewolf meant a very strong overprotective streak.

He wasn't sure when Scott came back down the stairs after dropping Cora in his room, there weren't that many and he didn't really care since he wasn't going to get much sleep soon anyway, but when he looked up he saw Scott standing in front of him with a slightly concerned expression on his face, "What? Is something wrong?"

Scott shook his head, "No, just … are you alright? I thought Dr. Deaton didn't want you helping out until after the full moon."

Isaac leaned back in his chair and would've grinned, in the hope of reassuring Scott, but he yawned first then grinned a little and said, "Just tired. Its been a long night."

Scott let out a sigh and glanced at his phone, "Well, I think its about to get a little longer. Stiles wants to talk to me about the kid that got murdered. You should get some sleep before school starts."

Despite how tired he felt from staying up all night and chasing after Cora and Boyd, he shook his head, "No, I've spent more than enough time resting. I'm coming with you. And school starts in a couple hours, how much rest am I really going to get?"

Scott grinned and shook his head, but offered his hand for Isaac to take and helped pull him out of the chair, "You won't make it easy for me to take care of you at all, will you?"

Isaac grinned lopsidedly and gave him a quick kiss, "I let you take care of me after the ice bath. Instead of helping you out in the bank vault I was back here keeping warm and getting some sleep. So this time I'll be following you and we'll both find out what Stiles wants to tell you."

Scott's brown eyes stared into his blue ones for a long moment before he nodded, "Alright, let's go."

They headed outside to wait for Stiles to show up with his jeep since Derek wasn't about to help them with that. As they did, Isaac knew that Scott wasn't happy that he was pushing himself when he was tired, but he hated just sitting around doing nothing when he could be helping. All his life he hadn't been able to do anything because of his dad. He'd been too afraid, too hurt, too alone, too hopeless. Now that he was capable of helping, the idea of not helping was one that really bothered him.

When Stiles showed up he didn't say anything about Isaac accompanying him and Scott, which Isaac was grateful for. He didn't think that Stiles had a problem with him going out with Scott, it felt more like Stiles wasn't entirely sure as to how much he could trust Isaac. At first there was a bit of an awkward silence in the jeep, until it was inevitably broken by Stiles, naturally. He could never keep his mouth shut for very long.

"How come you don't have any scars?"

That was directed at Isaac because he could see Stiles looking at him through the rear-view mirror. It was really abrupt and he wasn't sure how to respond to the question. His thoughts were further blocked by what Stiles had left unspoken. His dad, the beatings, the freezer chest, and so on. He wasn't sure if it was kinder of Stiles to have avoided actually saying it out loud or not.

Scott was sitting in the passenger seat next to Stiles and immediately hissed, "Stiles!" Then he turned to look at Isaac apologetically, "You don't have to answer that."

Isaac was thankful for Scott jumping to his defense, but apparently Stiles didn't want to drop the subject until he had an answer, "Why not? I'm not asking him to tell us all about what a horrible person his dad was, I just thought that, you know, he would've had a few scars from it all. But at Deaton's he took his shirt off and there wasn't a mark on him."

Isaac pushed the memories away, all those things his dad had done to him that he wished he could just forget, albeit with some difficulty. Stiles wasn't asking about that, about what he'd been through. Just why his body didn't look like it had been through that and he couldn't blame Stiles for that. He'd been rather surprised to see that himself, so he understood the confusion. He also knew that Scott was curious about seeing smooth unmarred skin instead of scars, but was too polite to ask.

So he took a deep breath to calm himself, both because he was really tired now that the adrenaline of hunting Boyd and Cora was no longer keeping him going and because he didn't want to get stuck thinking about his dad, and slowly said, "Its alright. I, uh, I used to have some scars. But they disappeared right after I became a werewolf."

Despite having gotten his answer, Stiles still wasn't satisfied, "That's it? Your scars disappeared because you became a werewolf? Nothing more?"

He shrugged uneasily, "Its not like I asked Derek about it. I was just kind of glad they disappeared. I don't need any more reminders of my past."

That seemed to satisfy Stiles, which Isaac was grateful for because there was a limit as to how much he would talk about concerning his life prior to becoming a werewolf. He hated even thinking about it. But Scott changed the subject as soon as they got closer to their destination, which apparently was the hospital.

Scott turned toward him and spoke cautiously, as if he were afraid that he would upset him, "Isaac, could you stay here while Stiles shows me whatever it is he called about? Please? I'm not sure if you going back into the hospital is going to cause trouble or not, but I'd really like to avoid anything happening if I can."

He knew what Scott meant without needing him to spell it out. He'd come into that hospital less than a week ago, half dead, and anyone who had seen his wounds would find it very strange to see him walking about without a scratch on him. He didn't think any of the doctors or nurses would cause any problems, but then again Scott was right. They'd dealt with enough already over the past few days and putting another problem on their plates by waltzing into a hospital he'd been carried into so recently could make him, and Scott and Stiles by extension, the center of some very unwanted attention.

So he nodded and said, "Just tell me about it later. I guess I'll get some sleep before school starts."

Scott let out a relieved sigh, clearly he'd been expecting more resistance from Isaac but he was really tired by this point and the only reason he didn't show it was because he didn't want Scott worrying over him too much, "Thanks. We'll be right back."

By the time Scott and Stiles had reached the door to the hospital, Isaac was already fast asleep.