Chapter 12: Operation: Kill Scott McCall

I think the shock I experienced must have wiped any and all expression from my face, for Stiles scrunched his eyebrows in concern. He gently touched my shoulder, but quickly rescinded his hand when I flinched harshly underneath his touch.

"June?" He asked, and I gaped up at him. I looked over to Scott and Kira, who were sizing me up, gaging how I would react to the fact that my parents, who weren't even in Beacon Hills at the current moment, were somehow on the dead pool. I let it settle for a minute that I would have to reach out to my parents despite never wanting to speak to them again, and everything came crashing down on me all at once. Every repercussion this would have, every terrible and grueling scenario playing out in my head, all starting with word getting out to the other covens about me as punishment.

"Yeah," I started almost silently, and I saw Stiles lean in slightly to hear me better, "Yeah this is something that shouldn't have been kept a secret. Like at all."

"June, I-" Stiles tried to grab my hand and I wrenched it out of his grasp and pinched the bridge of my nose.

"I - I have to go," I explained, frustration and hurt overtaking me all at once, "I need to deal with this," I waved the piece of paper that was still clutched in my hand in front of his face.

"Would you let me explain-?" He stopped when he saw the tears gathering in my eyes.

"I guess I was right," I relented, even though I really wished I wasn't right at all, "The secrets you keep from me never end well."

Stiles' eyes widened and he stepped closer to me, "June, please-"

"Please leave me alone," I whispered, and I saw sadness shine in my very new boyfriend's eyes, "Please, just please." I retreated to the entrance of the vault and slowly turned around to see all of them staring guiltily at me.

I straightened my posture and looked Scott dead in the eye. It looked like it took all the courage he had not to break my stare, and he kept level with me.

"You all need to trust us a little more," I rebuked, "And keep us in the loop of everything. I mean it, we're still with you, but not for very much longer if you keep shit like this up." Scott nodded quickly, followed by Kira, and an upset-looking Stiles.

"June-" Scott tried but I held my hand up and he faltered.

"I know your guys' dads are looking for you. You should go find them." I sniffled a tad and walked away from them. Once I was at the top of the stairs I heard Scott mumble something that I didn't bother to try and decode.

I walked slowly out of the school, dodging all the police officers, Lydia and her mom, the CDC who were still cleaning up and made my way to the parking lot where Malia, true to her word, was sitting in the passenger's seat of my car. I slowly slid into the car and let the slam of the car door echo around us to fill the silence. I sighed deeply and rubbed my hands harshly over my face before grunting in frustration and colliding my hands with the steering wheel. I did that a few times before I remembered Malia was in the car with me. I snapped my gaze over to her to see she didn't even flinch, she was still just staring straight ahead.

"Malia?" I called out softly, putting my hand gently on her shoulder. I could feel her muscles tense but they were quick to relax when she realized I was on her side. She didn't take her eyes off of the high school we still faced. It was almost unnerving until she blinked and looked over at me.

"I'm sorry, I don't really like getting that angry, especially in front of people," I apologized and she shrugged her shoulders lightly.

"I thought about doing the same thing but it would've really damaged your car," A breath of laughter escaped my lips at her remark before we were one again enveloped in silence.

"I'm really adopted?" She prompted and I looked at her face. She swallowed thickly and was blinking rapidly to avoid crying.

"It looks that way," I answered and she shut her eyes in defeat. "But you know some of the best people are adoptees."

"Like who?"

"Pssh, Clark Kent, A.K.A. Superman; Princess Leia, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Harry Potter, I mean the list just goes on," Malia's lips twitched as I listed all the names, but her face hardened once more.

"Those are all just fictional characters, June, they're not real," She commented, moving her gaze back to the school.

I pursed my lips when a lightbulb went off in my head, "Well I'll give you one who's real then."

"Who?"

"Me," I stated and I heard a hitch in her breathing. She slowly turned her head back towards me and I could see a few tears fall. I leaned over the console and wrapped my arms around her. Her breathing was shaky for several minutes, and I could feel the tears on my blouse, but I never heard her sob. It broke my heart a little at how strong she was, and I was never sure if she knew it.

When she pulled away, she wiped her eyes quickly and looked at me in earnest. "Was it any better knowing?" She asked me, hopeful for a good answer that I wasn't sure I could give.

"No, not really," I told her and she sighed. I saw most of the students with their concerned parents start to file out of the school, so I took that as my cue to start my car. I connected my stereo system to my Spotify, and immediately shuffled a playlist that I hadn't really needed until recently.

Malia scrunched her nose when she heard the song, "Is this Elvis?"

I gave a small smile, "Yeah. It - it just calms me down." And as cliche as it sounds, when we pulled out of the school parking lot, I swear I saw Stiles staring after me in my rearview mirror.

My hair had stopped dripping from the long shower I took and was pulled back in two Dutch braids. Ginny had been rearranging furniture when I walked in the room, stating that keeping idle at the school would have made her collapse into an anxiety attack of some sort, so she kept busy at home. I was just honestly surprised that she hadn't cooked into oblivion.

After my shower I called Ginny into the kitchen and we stood on opposite ends of the counter as I showed her the list. I let her read over it, and saw her eyes widen as she looked over the names on the list. Thinking back to how she nearly packed up the house upon finding out that my name was on the list, I dreaded to think of what she would say about finding out my parents.

"Shit," Was all that came out of her mouth after about five minutes, and I quirked an eyebrow up at her.

"Is that all you're gonna say?" I pestered, "You're not going to clue me in on what you're thinking we should do?"

"Well what I'm thinking is that it's lucky that Derek Hale has a secret vault so we can take refuge there after the hell that will rain down on us for this," Her tone was very casual, but the statement made my eyes widen.

"Ginny, we can't hide from this."

"Ugh, not even a little?" My mouth dropped open at the ludicrousness that was my Guardian.

"No," I opened my arms out in a condescending manner. She rolled her eyes.

"Well then, what do you propose we do? I mean - we'll have to take the blame for this even though it's not anywhere close to being our fault. We'll still be under scrutiny-"

"I know that, Gin, but what choice do we have?" I tried to reason. "If they die, we're in even more trouble. And as much as I might hate myself for admitting it, I can't lose my parents. Not like this."

Whatever resolve was in Ginny's mindset I could see dissolve at my last statement. She sighed and looked me in the eye. I shrugged and sighed.

"As much as I don't want to, and believe me, I really don't want to, we have to tell them."

"But how, I thought you threw away that phone number?"

I shook my head, "You thought wrong. I'll talk to them, I'll make sure they're aware and that they don't bring anyone else into this matter," Ginny looked skeptical and I grabbed the list from the counter, "Ginny, it's going to be fine." I slowly walked back up to my room and shut the door softly.

I plopped down on my bed and grabbed my cellphone off of the nightstand it was currently charging on. I dug around the drawer in my nightstand and pulled out the card my mother slipped me before she left containing their phone number. I put the card and the phone next to each other and dug my face into the fuzzy blanket that sat atop my comforter.

My head snapped up when I felt my phone vibrate, and I saw Stiles' name flash across the screen. If I were an anime character in that moment, a thundercloud would have appeared over me and started raining all over my attitude. I gloomily watched my phone send him to voicemail, and I noticed that it was his fifteenth call.

I watched the clock tick by on my phone for about twenty more minutes, and in that period, Stiles called about four more times. Ginny quietly knocked on my door and walked in and plopped onto my bed next to me. I turned my head see her already facing me.

"Did you call them?"

"Not yet, but Stiles has called me-" I checked my phone, "-nineteen times." My phone buzzed again and we looked back at it. "Make that twenty."

"Why are you not talking to him again?"

"Partly because no one bothered to tell Malia she was adopted, but mostly because he didn't tell me about how Evelyn and Robert were on the list."

"Did you ask him why?"

I scrunched my eyebrows together, "I was focused on the fact that I had to deal with my parents again and my boyfriend didn't tell me about it," I argued.

My phone buzzed again and we both glanced at it again. Once again, I watched it go to voicemail and I flinched.

Ginny inhaled as she was about to say something but I quickly held up my pointer finger and shushed her. "Ah, ah, ah, let me be mad today."

She rolled her eyes, "Fine," She relented, "But you need to call your parents now or I will." She climbed off of my bed and treaded across the floor to the hallway, where she promptly closed the door to my room. I huffed and swiped at my phone as it started vibrating again. I sent the call from Stiles to voicemail myself and dialed the number my mother gave me. It rang out three times exactly before my mother's crisp voice was on the other end.

"Evelyn Astor speaking."

"Are you with anyone else from the coven right now?" I heard a slight gasp of surprise and the clacking of her high heels on the expensive hardwood. My mother was never very subtle over the phone no matter how hard she tried, so I could hear her urgently ushering my father over to where she was standing.

"Hello?" I drawled.

"Still here, and no, the coven left about twenty minutes ago. June?"

I sighed, "Yes, it's me."

"Have you reconsidered our offer, are you wanting to come back to New York?" It frustrated me how that was the only thing on her mind after hearing her estranged daughter willingly call her.

"No, Evelyn, I haven't."

A slight pause for her to recover from her disappointment, "Oh. Then why are you calling us?"

"Well I know Robert is there with you so you might as well put me on speaker phone, you both need to hear this."

"June, that's absurd, your father wouldn't eavesdrop on us like that," My mother tried to deny and I gave a giant eye roll that I hoped was conveyed all the way to New York.

"Mother just put him on speaker, this is important," I said and she huffed slightly in annoyance.

"Alright," All formalities were out the window now that she wasn't going to get what she wanted, "What was it you were calling for?"

I sighed deeply and started picking fuzz out of my blanket, "There's no easy way to say this-"

"Are you pregnant?" I blinked in surprise.

"What? No, Jesus, why would you even think that?"

"Usually when a conversation with your child starts with 'There's no easy way to put this' it's one of two things: drugs or pregnancy. I was hoping for the latter, that's a much less scandalous and expensive happenstance."

"No, Evelyn, I'm not pregnant," There was an awkward beat of silence, "Nor am I on drugs."

"Well then what is it?"

"Evelyn-"

"I mean I can't imagine you're in need of money, we taught you well in that area."

"Evelyn-"

"It couldn't be boy troubles, that boy is just too in love with you to think you've done anything wrong in the world ever-"

"Mother!" I snapped and she gasped in surprise.

"Well what is it then, June?"

"I think you guys are in danger. Real, life-threatening danger."

My mother had the audacity to scoff, "Well what on earth makes you think that?"

"When you two were in Beacon Hills, the Hale family was robbed of one hundred and seventeen million dollars-"

"Oh, what an inconvenience."

I flinched in irritation before continuing, "Anyways, he was robbed of all that money, and a few days later, supernatural creatures were being murdered in cold blood."

"I'm failing to grasp the point here, June."

"If you let me finish... Alright, so we discovered that someone in Beacon Hills made a list of every supernatural creature living here, and is using the Hales' stolen money to finance them all."

There was a dramatic silence followed by my father, "Are you telling us this because you're on the list? How much are you worth?"

"I'm calling to tell you that because you two were in the wrong place at the wrong time, you guys ended up on the list as well."

I heard my mother inhale sharply, "Oh my god. How much are we worth?"

I rubbed my forehead, "Three million dollars a piece."

I almost laughed when I heard Robert scoff, "Three million? I could buy myself out of the list multiple times over."

"Look, I just needed to give you two the heads up to be on the lookout. Four assassins have come after us already."

"I'm sure you took care of them already," Evelyn sounded like she was trying to reassure herself more than anything.

"We barely escaped with our lives on the last one. He chemically altered canine distemper to infect werewolves through an ink pad we needed to use on our PSAT's. These guys are smart, and I've never seen anything like this before."

"Well that's all happening in Beacon Hills, surely they won't come to New York-"

"Mom," I said gently, and she stopped talking, "Most people don't have three million dollars to throw around. Someone could already be on their way to you. Just - just be careful. I may not forgive you guys or think that in any means you're okay in my book, but I don't want you to die. I've never wanted that. So please, just please be careful. Promise me you'll be careful."

The longest silence ensued before I heard them both say, "We promise, June."

I sighed and shut my eyes in relief, "I need to go, I have to check in on a friend."

"Well thank you for letting us know, June."

"You're welcome."

"We love you, June," I froze, it was something I hadn't heard in a long time, and mixing that in with my already unstable emotions wasn't doing me any favors. I blinked the tears out of my eyes and cleared my throat.

"I have to go - um - bye," I was quick to hang up my phone and throw it back on my bed. I slammed my head into my pillows and groan frustratedly when I saw Stiles' name flash on my screen again. Seeing his face on my screen mixed in with the conversation I just had with my parents sent me into an emotional downward spiral. Ginny walked into my room five minutes later to see me practically in a puddle of my own tears.

I was squeezing into my skinny jeans when I heard the doorbell ring one afternoon. The reason I wasn't dressed earlier was because Ginny and I had pulled a late night finishing up our day-long marathon of Tom Cruise's entire career. Following that was a saddening dream of sleeping with Stiles in his bed. We were just trying to find a comfortable way to sleep, and I ended up spooning him. It was so strangely realistic that when I woke up in my own bed I was disoriented and ultimately disappointed.

I zipped up my pants and hurried down the stairs when the doorbell rang again. To my surprise, it was Malia, looking like she hadn't slept that much these past few days either. I cocked my head in suspicion when she had a curious look on her face. Well, curious for Malia.

"Hi," She hesitantly started.

"Hi," I replied, drawing the word out slightly in confusion. "What are you doing here?"

"Oh, um - I just thought I should let someone know before I go, I'm going back to the Hale vault."

"Okay, why?"

"I mean Peter kept his bonds or whatever in that vault so who's to say that I won't find something on me?"

"Are you sure you want to go down that road?" I cautioned and I saw her body tense up defensively. "You might run into Peter along the way."

"He's my father," She snapped harshly, and I didn't even have the heart to flinch.

"I know, and you're entirely justified in wanting to find out more about who your parents are, but it's also Peter Hale."

"Okay, what's your point?" Malia contended and I sighed, leaning against the doorframe.

"From everything I've heard about him and my own experiences, he always seems to get what he wants. He's manipulative, not to mention an actual murderer. I mean, Sheriff Stilinski told me what he did to the Mute, and that's not even the worst of it."

"I know, but I just want answers I guess."

I rubbed my hand over my face tiredly, "Malia, I'm not going to stop you, but you should also know that knowing who your parents are doesn't complete you. You do."

"I know, I was just letting you know where I was going," She turned to leave and I grabbed her arm.

"Malia, I'm serious. If you think Peter is doing you any kind of favor, you're wrong. He may be your father, but he never raised you, he doesn't know the self-sacrifice of a parent. He's always thinking about himself first and foremost. Let me know what you find." She nodded and walked down my front path. I shut the door and walked into the kitchen where Ginny was still cleaning up the dishes from this morning's late breakfast.

"Who was at the door?"

"Malia," I answered, walking over to the Keurig on the counter and selecting a coffee roast. I pulled a mug down from the cupboard and turned on the machine. "She was just letting me know where she was going today."

"Does she normally tell someone?" Ginny asked and I looked over my shoulder.

"No, but this was concerning Saturday and Peter," Ginny nodded and went back to scrubbing. I placed the now full mug of coffee on the counter. Letting it cool down, I went to the downstairs bathroom and re-braided the dutch braids on my head. I walked out and was about to take a sip of coffee when the doorbell rang again. Rolling my eyes, I grabbed my mug and walked over to the front door. Much to my surprise, it wasn't Malia.

"Scott? What are you doing here?"

"I know you're mad at me, well, at all of us, so I was wondering if you'd maybe wanna help kill me?" My eyebrows shot up in surprise.

"I'm sorry did you just say-"

"Kill me? Yes I did," Scott interrupted, smiling somewhat triumphantly.

I paused, shifting on my feet, "So I suppose I won't get any more information unless I go and help you."

He started rocking back and forth on the balls of his feet, and he had a childish glint in his eye, "That's correct. And I'm also going to need you to bring your laptop."

I sighed and rolled my eyes, simultaneously waving him inside, "Give me a minute." I walked back into the kitchen and started chugging my coffee at an alarming rate. I was down to the last couple of gulps when some of it spilled on my blue tee shirt.

"Ow, fuck, son of a bitch," I exclaimed and Ginny turned around to see my cursing at the hot coffee that was now on my clothes. She rolled her eyes and took the mug from my hands, pouring the remnants down the drain.

Frowning, I pouted until Ginny waved me off, "Go on, I know you have stuff to do."

Sighing, I turned around, "I'll fill you in when I know more." Running down the hallway past Scott, I raced up the stairs. At the same time, I tore off my shirt and threw it in the laundry basket when I entered my room. I found a white blouse in my closet that Lydia bought me and threw it on as well as some riding boots. Grabbing my phone off the charger, I tucked it in my jean pocket and took my computer, leaving my room.

Heading back into the kitchen, I saw Scott standing there awkwardly as Ginny stared him down shamelessly. Smiling to myself, I fished my car keys out of a bowl on the counter and turned to face the two of them.

"Ready then?" I asked, and Scott looked almost relieved to see me.

"Yes."

"Not quite," Ginny droned, staring even more intently at Scott if that was possible. I grinned in a teasing manner as Scott squirmed under her gaze. Grabbing his arm, I pulled him out of the kitchen and into the foyer.

"Where to, McCall?"

"My house, I have to go pick up Liam."

"Okay," I assented, heading to my car.

"Stiles is gonna be there," He called out to me.

"I expected nothing less," I breezed past his statement, trying not to think of how I was heading straight into a world of hurt.

"And you're okay with that?" I froze and turned around to face him.

"I'm not one to make assumptions, but I'm guessing whatever we're doing has to do with the benefactor, right?"

Scott nodded, "Yeah."

"Then who am I to let my feelings get the better of me? If your life's on the line, I'm perfectly fine with putting this argument aside so we can protect you."

"Are you sure? I mean the last time you were this angry with Stiles you didn't speak to us for two weeks."

I flinched and unlocked my door, "Yeah, and the last time that happened Boyd died. I could've done something and I didn't. I won't make that mistake again," Scott looked like he wanted to say something but I beat him to it, "I'll see you at your house." He nodded and I hopped in my car. I watched him speed off before I pulled out of the driveway myself, making my way to his house.

When I pulled up to his residence, the only car parked was Stiles' blue jeep. I shakily grabbed onto the steering wheel and sighed. I wasn't ready to face him and what he had to say, so I opted to wait in the car until Scott or Kira or Lydia arrived. It was cowardly, but in my emotional state, I wasn't above it.

Scott pulled up about five minutes later with Liam on the back of his bike. I immediately got out of the car and walked up to the two of them. Scott quirked an eyebrow at me sitting alone in his driveway, but decided against asking me. Together, the three of us walked inside. We gathered in the kitchen slash dining room area. I saw Stiles' figure fidgeting in my peripheral when I turned to face him.

He looked a little worse for wear, hair all over the place like he ran his hands through it a few times. His eyes had a purplish tint underneath them, like he hadn't gotten more than a few hours of sleep in the past few nights. I glanced down at his intertwined hands to see the skin around his fingernails was rough, and patches of it were a little bloody. I didn't take him for a nail biter, but I guess I didn't take him for a secret keeper either. He opened his mouth to say something to me when a knock sounded at Scott's door.

I ran to answer it and saw Kira on the other side. She looked slightly surprised to see me, but smartly kept her mouth shut. She walked in and we all gathered around Scott's kitchen table. Staring at each other, Scott nodded.

"Okay, so will someone please explain why the hell we're killing Scott?" I asked.