Chapter Thirty Seven – Solving a Puzzle
"So let me get this straight... someone set him on fire and he just walked away unharmed?" Isaac questioned his girlfriend, as they stepped out of the car and began to walk toward Derek's building.
"Yeah, one of his co-workers set a police car on fire with him in it, but somehow he lived." Teagan explained, replying the message about Parrish when Avery caller her earlier.
"What the hell is this guy?" Isaac wondered out loud.
"I don't know, that is why we are here." Teagan answered, as the couple stepped into the elevator that would take them to Derek's floor.
"What can survive fire?" Isaac asked. "I mean, I know Peter did once.. well kinda twice, but the rest of the Hales didn't."
"Yeah, but that's cause Peter made it out of the house somehow and was able to heal. Then the second time he did die from fire, but used Lydia to bring him back." Teagan explained. "But with Parrish someone actually set him on fire, I mean, by all accounts he should be dead, but he walked through the fire and right into the station like nothing happened."
"Okay, well, I'll go back to my previous question, what can survive fire?" Isaac asked again.
Teagan shrugged, as she said,"There are a few different species that can survive fire or get their strength from fire. Maybe some kind of dragon or something. Or, I mean, a phoenix literally rises from the ashes, but as far as what he is, it could be a few different things." When she noticed he was looking at her, she turned her head, as she said,"What?"
"How do you know this?" Isaac asked, shocked and impressed.
"Me, Avery and Allison didn't just train with weapons and learn to fight, we did a lot of research too. Trying to learn as much as we could about anything supernatural. You never want to be unprepared." Teagan explained.
Isaac blew out a breath, as he looked over at her with a smile and said,"Just when I think you can't get any hotter."
Teagan shook her head and chuckled at his comment until she felt a chill again, causing her to wrapped her arms around herself, but nothing she did worked. Seeing her shiver from the corner of his eye, Isaac shrugged off his jacket and wrapped it around her shoulders as the elevator came to a stop.
He reached out to grab her hand as the two walked over to Derek's loft. He reached out with his free hand to slide the door open, getting everyone's attention, as they were circled around Parrish checked him out.
Derek lowered his eyebrows for a moment, he had never heard Teagan and Isaac arrive until they opened the door. Losing his super senses was something he would never get use to. He took a step back from Parrish, feeling Avery grab his hand and gave it a squeeze. She had seen the look on his face earlier and wanted to comfort him.
As Teagan and Isaac walked further into the room, Teagan nodded her head at everyone, telling them hey, then turned her attention to Parrish, as she asked him how he was doing.
"I was set on fire." Parrish stated, still in shock that any of this was happening.
"Well at least you're not dead." Isaac pointed out, as he stood beside Teagan, wrapping an arm around her waist.
"But I should be." Parrish argued.
"Not if you're like us." Scott said.
"Like you?" Parrish questioned him, feeling confused.
"I don't think he's like us." Derek said back.
"Then what is he?" Lydia questioned.
"Sorry, but I have no idea." Derek answered.
"But you knew about Kira." Scott pointed out.
"And Jackson." Teagan added, as she looked over at him, wondering if he was being completely honest with them. "Your family has been a part of this town for years, you always seem to know more than us about anything, so you mean to tell me you have no idea what he is?"
"Teagan..." Avery began to say, pleading with her to be nice. The brunette scoffed, but kept her mouth shut out of respect for her blonde friend. She felt Isaac pulling her closer to him, trying to calm her down. She didn't even mean to snap at Derek, she was just stressed about everything going on. Too much was hitting them all at once.
"This is a little out of my experience." Derek stated, as he looked over at Teagan, answering her earlier question.
"Before you all showed up, I searched in my mother's journals, but so far I haven't seen anything about this." Avery said. She squeezed Derek's hand, as she added,"If the Hales did know anything about it, my mother would know and she would have written it down."
"What about the bestiary? Could it be in there?" Isaac questioned.
"It's possible." Teagan answered. She glanced over at her boyfriend, as she added,"Earlier when I said we use to research as well as train, the bestiary was something we use to study."
Avery nodded her head along with Teagan, as she added,"But we never made it all the way through the book."
"Who has the book now?" Scott asked.
"Argent." Avery answered.
"Has anyone called him?" Derek questioned.
"I tried him earlier on the drive over here." Teagan answered.
"I'll try him again later." Avery offered, as her best friend nodded in agreement.
"Okay, hold on." Parrish spoke up, getting their attention. "What's a bestiary? Actually, that's not even my first question. Just... Just tell me one thing. Are all of you like Avery and Lydia? Are you all psychic?"
"Psychic?" Derek asked with an amused expression, wondering what made him think that.
"You think I'm psychic?" Avery asked Parrish.
"I think you're something." Parrish said back, as he looked at the blonde. Remembering all the times he had seen in the middle of a weird situation. Most recently catching her and Lydia in the Walcott house. The two girls were able to find something the police never could.
"When you came to the station to show me the list, I noticed I wasn't the only one on it. You were too." Parrish said to her. He glanced around at the group, as he added,"Actually a lot of you were." His gaze fell on Teagan, as he continued,"Except for you. You weren't on the list."
"That's cause I'm human." Teagan explained.
"Then what are the rest of you?" Parrish asked.
Derek looked over at Scott, raising his eyebrows to tell him to show Parrish. The alpha turned to the deputy and took a deep breath as he forced his eyes to glow red, showing Parrish exactly what he was.
Parrish blew out a breath, surprised at seeing the younger boy's eyes. He glanced around at the others as he asked if all of their eyes did that. Isaac announced that his glow yellow, causing the deputy to ask what that meant.
For the next several minutes, everyone spread out in the room as they all explained to him about the difference between an alpha, beta and omega. The difference in the eye colors, then went around telling him what each of them were as well as what some of their other friends were, trying to quickly catch him up before they talked more about the dead-pool.
"What's a kanima?" Parrish asked.
"We'll get back to that." Scott said. "Right now, the most important thing is stopping the dead-pool."
Avery nodded her head in agreement, as she glanced over at Parrish, before saying,"Like you said, you've seen the list, you've seen us all on it. Everyone with some kind of supernatural ability is on it."
"But I don't even know what I am." Parrish pointed out, as his eyes locked with the blonde.
"I'm pretty sure they don't care." Derek said back, as he wrapped an arm around Avery's waist.
"How many professional assassins are we talking about?" Parrish asked, as he glanced away from the couple and turned his attention to the others.
"We're starting to lose count." Lydia breathed out, as she paced a little back and forth.
"But is it still just professionals?" Scott wondered out loud.
"I don't think Haigh's ever tried anything like this. I think he was taking a chance." Parrish said.
"That means anyone with the dead pool could take a chance." Derek stated.
"But if Haigh had it, then who else does? How easy is it to get this thing now?" Parrish questioned.
"That's what we're trying to figure out." Avery said.
"And why we're trying to stop it." Teagan softly added, as she leaned against Isaac's side, remembering her dreams.
"Is there anyone who you can ask, who can help you figure it out?" Parrish asked, as he looked at the group.
"There was." Lydia softly said, thinking of Meredith.
"Wait, is that why you two needed to see Meredith? Is she involved with this somehow?" Parrish asked.
"She knew something." Teagan said, remembering when she and Isaac went to her about the dreams. She knew Meredith knew something, but wouldn't tell her.
"She definitely knew more than she was saying." Avery added, as she nodded her head in agreement with her best friend.
"But she was also out of her mind." Isaac pointed out. "How do we know we can trust the things she did tell us before?"
"Cause she has helped us before." Teagan said, reminding him of the time she helped them find Lydia.
"She also helped us with a code." Avery added.
"And she knew of my grandmother." Lydia stated, getting everyone's attention. "All of that can not coincidence."
"Wait, Meredith and Lorraine knew each other?" Avery asked, as she looked over at Lydia.
"She was only at grandmother's lake house once. But I think once was enough." Lydia answered.
"How did your grandmother know her?" Derek asked.
"She didn't." Lydia answered.
"But you said-"
"I said Meredith knew of my grandmother." Lydia said, interrupting Isaac. "My grandmother found Meredith. Because of another woman named Maddy."
"Wait... Maddy?" Teagan asked with wide eyes. She remembered the first dream she had, she heard the name Maddy.
Lydia nodded her head, as she said,"The woman grandmother loved. I never met her, but I saw her name everywhere."
"I've heard the name." Teagan said, getting everyone's attention. "She's dead, isn't she?"
As Lydia nodded her head, Parrish spoke up and asked,"How did she die?"
"How's not the story. It's what happened right before." Lydia said. She glanced over at Teagan, she could tell from her friend's face, that somehow she already knew how Maddy died. She softly said Teagan's name, wanting her to tell the story, to tell what she knew.
"Your grandmother heard the rain. Loud, pouring rain. The start of a major storm, but when she looked outside, all she saw was clear, blue skies. But the rain kept getting louder and louder, just pounding in her head until she had to scream." Teagan felt Isaac pulling her closer to him, trying to comfort her, as she continued,"She called Maddy, but.."
"All Maddy saw was clear skies too." Lydia finished for her, as she stared at her brunette friend. "So grandmother didn't say anything, she thought maybe she just imagined the whole thing, and Maddy took one of the boats out on the lake."
"There was an accident?" Parrish questioned, getting Lydia's attention.
Lydia nodded her head, then looked back over at Teagan, as she asked,"How did you know?"
"I dreamed it." Teagan answered. She glanced at the others, as she added,"I've been having dreams. Memories from someone."
The others, aside from Isaac and Avery were a little shocked. Teagan never told the others much about the dreams, only cause she knew they had so much other stuff on their minds, which was also why she only told Avery about the first dream. Isaac was the only one she really talked about the dreams with.
Teagan glanced at Isaac for a moment, before looking at the others and continuing,"We're been trying to figure out who was sending me these dreams, these clues, and now I know exactly who it is." She looked over at Lydia, as she said,"It's Lorraine."
"What were the other dreams?" Scott asked.
"I saw the record player." Teagan said. She looked back at Lydia again, as she added,"The one in your grandmother's room. The one the first code came from."
"Grandmother took Meredith to that room." Lydia said. She explained about how after losing Maddy her grandmother spent decades trying to figure out how she knew about Maddy's death before it happened. She explained that she started with parapsychologists. Then she built the study in the lake house according to every pseudoscientific theory they could find. None of it worked. She then started going to more extreme occult. Things like mediums and psychics, all of them were failures. Until she found Meredith.
"My grandmother drove her insane, I drove her to suicide. And all she ever wanted to do was help." Lydia said. Teagan and Avery opened their mouths to argue, to tell Lydia she wasn't to blame for Meredith, but before they could say a word, Lydia pulled out a sheet of paper, the one she already shown Teagan earlier that day.
"My grandmother created the code for the dead pool. Maybe she's the banshee who put the names out in the first place." Lydia said. She held out the piece of paper, as she added,"She left me this message in the same code."
"But she didn't leave a cipher key, did she?" Scott questioned.
Lydia shook her head, then looked over at Teagan as she asked,"I don't suppose she gave you the key in any of the dreams?"
"No. None of the dreams make sense. It's just like, different clues, different pieces." Teagan answered. She thought about the last dream, then added,"But she says I know the answer. I just need to put the pieces together."
"So what do we do now?" Parrish questioned.
"I guess I have a puzzle to put together." Teagan said, hoping she could interpret her dreams before it was too late.
~()~
After Lydia had left to take Parrish back to his house, she was supposed to meet up with Stiles' who had left the hospital a little while ago after his dad had fell asleep. The two teens were going to try and work on cracking the last and final code to the new list that Lydia had found.
Teagan sat on the couch with her head lowered into her hands as Isaac rubbed a loving and comforting hand over her back to try and calm her down.
"This is so much worse now… regular, everyday people getting their hands on the lists and taking chances, like Haigh did." She breathed, her voice muffled against her hands as she rubbed her tired face.
"How can that be worse than professional assassins?" Isaac questioned.
Rolling her eyes Avery explained, "Because Isaac! That means literally anyone who manages to get their hands on that last can take a shot at any one of us… it could people we go to school with, anyone at all and we'd never see it coming."
He lowered his head in defeat knowing the best friend's were right.
Scott stood by the long table that often doubled as a desk in the center of the sparsely furnished loft, his eyes fell to one of many handguns laying out. Carefully the picked it up and looked the weapon over until Derek entered the room and warned him, "Careful with that…"
"For someone who hates guns… you've got a lot of them here." Scott observed as he handed Derek the gun who stared down to it for a moment before he laid it back down on the table.
"Yeah." Isaac agreed, glancing up to Teagan as she stood up before he added in, "And why are they all just laying out?"
Avery bit down on her bottom lip and hung her head as she crossed her arms over her chest avoiding Teagan's gaze as her best friend stepped up and surveyed the table holding not only several guns but also daggers and various other combat weapons.
"A…"
"You guys it's getting kind of late and…" The blonde quickly tried to say but Teagan cut her off as she said, "This is the exact same set up Allison used when she first started training us on weapons…"
Scott looked between Avery and Derek as the couple exchanged looks before looking back to their friends.
"Maybe she's training Derek." Isaac joked with a laugh as he crossed the room and curled an arm his girlfriend, but his smile quickly fell as he realized he was the only one laughing.
"What's going on?" Teagan demanded to know, her gaze heavy on her best friend who shifted uncomfortably and looked at Derek.
When no one said anything Scott questioned, "Does this have something to do with your eyes?"
Not making eye contact Derek admitted to them, "My eyes, my strength… my healing, all of it."
A look of shock fell over Scott's face as he stared at him and Isaac asked, "Wait… you mean all of that, the healing and your strength… even your senses, that's all gone?"
"Whatever Kate did to me, it's still happening." He admitted as he looked between everyone's shocked expressions.
Clearing her throat Avery admitted, "That's why I couldn't kill Kate at the hospital…" Her eyes drifted over to Derek as she continued to explain to her friends, "We've been researching every single day… I've read every family journal and related book that I could get my hands on and I don't know what she did to him or how to reverse it."
Blowing out a heavy breath Scott admitted, "I knew something was wrong since we got the third key figured out."
"What are you talking about?" Teagan and Derek asked at the same time before they shot each other slightly angry looks, both seemingly entirely annoyed by the other one's presence.
Avery walked over to Derek and reached down as she grabbed onto his hand as she laced their fingers together and shot him an apologetic look as she quietly said, "I'm sorry…"
"You didn't tell him?" Scott asked, surprise on his face as he looked at his emissary.
"I don't think she told anyone." Isaac announced as he motioned between himself, his girlfriend and Derek as he continued, "Cause it doesn't seem like I'm the only confused one."
Avery gave him an unamused expression before she stared at Scott as Derek asked her, "Avery, what is going on?"
"Yeah, that's what I want to know too." Teagan agreed.
But when Scott saw the look on her face he felt bad for her and said, "Derek…"
Once everyone's eyes were the on the alpha he continued, "If the dead-pool really was made a banshee, then there's something else you should know…" He shook his head trying to figure out the best way to break the news before finally sighing, "Your name broke the third list… it was the cypher key."
Avery looked down relieved to see he hadn't pulled his hand away from hers in anger of her keeping that from him.
Teagan leaned against Isaac's side, her gaze lingering on the blonde who was staring down towards the floor.
"And the other two keys were Allison and Aiden…" Derek quietly realized, understanding why Avery had volunteered the information to him.
"They're both dead though." Isaac announced.
"Isaac!" Teagan hissed as she roughly nudged his side and shook her head when she saw Avery pulled in a deep, shaky breath like she was trying to hold it all together.
"What?" He whispered then clarified, "I'm just saying maybe it's some kind of mix up or something…"
"Or it's not." Teagan whispered back to him, hoping Avery couldn't hear her.
"I don't want to make you nervous but it feels like there might be a pattern there; Allison, Aiden… you." Scott continued.
"Names picked by a banshee." Derek nodded.
Teagan looked around the loft, her breathing growing a little shallow as she realized that this meant. Whatever Kate had done to Derek was going to end with him dying, her dark brown eyes went to her best friend and she knew if that happened Avery wouldn't be okay. Another chill set in and she swallowed hard, still feeling like she was running out of time.
"You just might be in danger." Scott said, his voice barely over a whisper.
"Scott…" Derek sighed, as he stared at the teenager and pointed out, "Banshee's don't predict danger… they predict death."
A little while later the teens were leaving the loft and Avery offered to walk them out, but when the elevator opened on the first floor Teagan nodded for Isaac to go on that she'd catch up and told Scott bye.
Once they were gone she turned to her best friend and asked, "A, why didn't you tell me?"
Tears burnt her eyes as she stared at back at the brunette and questioned, "Tell you what, T? That since Derek's name is the third key he's probably dying?"
Teagan opened her mouth to say something but Avery cut her off, "He told me months ago that he was noticing changes with his powers and I watched everything slowly fade from him until he wasn't even healing fast anymore."
Teagan's chin quivered as she saw a tear roll down her best friend's cheek.
"You should have told me… I would have tried to help." Teagan said, her voice a little hoarse as she spoke.
"Like you told me about all of the dreams you've been having?" Avery countered.
Nodding Teagan blew out a breath, "I knew you were dealing with a lot… I just didn't know you were dealing with all of this. I'm sorry."
Shrugging and still fighting back tears Avery admitted, "I don't know, I guess I felt like if everyone didn't know then it wasn't as real… it was just easier not to think about it and I couldn't do that if everyone was going to be looking at me with some sympathetic expression."
Teagan nodded as she stepped forward wrapping her in a hug and as she whispered, "We'll figure this out, we have too. There has to be a solution… to this and the dead-pool we're just not looking in the right places or something. But we'll figure this out because after everything we've been something's got to give… something has to work out."
"I love him, T." Avery hoarsely whispered back, "God, I love him so much… and I can't lose him."
Pulling back from the hug she reminded her, "It's like Allison told us… there is always a way out. We just have to keep looking. There has to be a way to save Derek."
~(The next day)~
The next day, despite everything else going on, Teagan and Isaac pulled themselves out of bed and went to school. He spent the whole night going over every clue, every piece she was giving by Lorraine, trying to find a pattern, trying to solve the puzzle.
Teagan caught a few naps in the middle of it all, for once hoping to have another dream, to have more clues, but Lorraine never visited her. The only clues she had were the ones from before, but nothing made sense to her.
Isaac suggested they just skip school, but Teagan thought, or rather hoped, by returning to normal activities maybe something would come to her. She sat in her first few classes, doodling in her notebook, only half paying attention to her teachers. All she needed was for one thing make sense, just one piece to fit, then she felt like the rest would fall into place.
When the bell rang to end class, she grabbed her stuff and made her way to her locker, knowing Isaac would meet up with her there before they went to lunch together. She tossed her books into the locker and slammed the door shut, hearing the noise echoing in her ear.
All other noises around her died down, until only one noise was coming through, the noise of waves crashing, just like in her last dream. She heard all the splashing like before and glanced up, the fluorescent light from above shining in her eyes like the sun would.
She closed her eyes, hoping Lorraine would speak to her, hoping she would tell her something, but instead all she heard was a ringing noise. It took her a few seconds to realize it was her cell phone.
When she opened her eyes, the crashing noise was gone and instead all she heard was the other students laughing and talking as they headed for the lunch room. Hearing her cell phone ringing again, she reached into her purse, pulling it out and seeing that it was Lydia.
She answered the call and placed the phone against her ear, but before she could say anything, she heard Lydia call out her name, followed by Stiles saying,"Please tell me you've got good news for us."
Realizing she was on speaker, she said out to the both of them,"Isn't that what I should be saying to you two?"
"If we have cracked the code it would be good news." Lydia pointed out.
"Tell me you've had another dream, T." Stiles said. "Or at the least you've been able to piece together the other dreams and know what the code is now."
Teagan blew out a breath, as she ran a hand through her hair, before saying,"I wish I could." When she heard Stiles let out a disappointed sigh, followed by a curse word, she added,"I'm trying, okay? But none of the clues make sense!"
"We know. Stiles is just being... Stiles." Lydia pointed out.
"Yeah, it's not your fault, T." Stiles added. "I just.. It shouldn't be this hard. Why is it so hard?"
He paused for a moment, thinking hard, then snapped his fingers, as he said,"Try Maddy. It's got to be Maddy."
"Doesn't Maddy feel a little obvious as a cipher key?" Lydia pointed out.
"It's not going to be Maddy, Stiles." Teagan added.
"I guarantee it's Maddy." Stiles argued.
Lydia rolled her eyes as she typed the name out and just like she expected an error popped up. Telling her the name was wrong. Stiles groaned out in frustration, as he paced back and forth behind Lydia, trying to think of something else to try.
"Okay, your name. She left the code for you, right? So it's got to be your name." Stiles suggested, but just like before, when Lydia typed it in, an error popped up. "Your mom's name?" He questioned, which was also wrong once she typed it in.
"Do you have any beloved family pets?" He asked.
"It's not going to be anything like that." Teagan pointed out. "The answer is in the dreams if I can just figure out what the message is."
"What was your last dream?" Stiles asked.
"I was at the beach." Teagan answered.
Stiles looked over at Lydia as he asked,"Does the beach mean anything to you? Did you two go to the beach?" As Lydia shook her head, he asked,"What did you two do?"
"We read." Lydia answered.
"Oh, my God, the book." Teagan breathed out, remember the dream she had about a book. She knew the book felt familiar to her, it was the book Lorraine would read with her, Avery and Lydia all the time. "And the mermaids... She was right. She was right! I did know the answer, I knew it all along."
"What are you talking about?" Stiles asked the brunette confused on what she was rambling on about.
Teagan ignored his questioned as she called out to the red head,"Lydia, the book. The book we would always read with Lorraine."
"The Little Mermaid." Lydia said, realizing what Teagan was trying to say.
"You all read that movie?" Stiles asked confused.
"It was a book first. Hans Christian Andersen." Lydia pointed out. She tried to type in 'little mermaid', then tried 'mermaid, but none of the words were right.
"We use to pretend we were the mermaids." Teagan added. "Avery was Andrina..."
"Teagan was Attina..." Lydia continued.
"And Lydia was..." Teagan began to say, until her eyes widen, realizing what the code was. She called out,'Ariel' at the same time Lydia began to type the word in. The red head blew out a breath, when the word was accepted and a list of names began to pop up.
"What names are on the list?" Teagan asked, wondering who all was on this list.
"The only name I know is my grandmother." Lydia answered.
Teagan opened her mouth to say something else, until she saw Liam sitting on a step down the hall looking upset about something. Speaking into the phone she said,"Look, I need to go, but keep me updated on this list, okay?"
After Lydia and Stiles promised to call her later with an update, she ended the call then walked over to Liam. She sat down on the step beside him, as she asked him what was wrong.
"Last night my printer went off by itself. I couldn't turn it off. I hit the cancel button. But it just kept printing."
"Printing what?" Teagan asked confused.
Liam turned his head to look at her, looking even more upset than before she sat down beside him. He handed her a sheet of paper, which she began to unfold, but before she could look at it, they heard coach yelling out, causing them to jump up and run over toward his office.
Teagan's eyes widen as she saw his printer spitting out papers, one right after another one. She reached down to pick up one of the many pieces of paper laying on the floor, then looked over at Liam as her heart began to race.
She and Liam stepped off to the side, as she looked down at the pieces of paper again, the one Liam handed her and the one from coach's office floor, both were an updated version of the dead-pool.
"This can't be happening." Teagan whispered, as she felt tears fill her eyes.
"You see the difference?" Liam questioned.
"Derek's not on the list anymore." Teagan said, with a pained look on her face. Derek might not be her favorite person, but she would never wish death on him. She knew what that would do to Avery. Just knowing he wasn't on the list anymore should have brought piece of mind, but she knew that wasn't the reason he was off of it now.
"And I'm not worth three million. It's 18 now. $18 million." Liam stated, as he listed off the other difference. "You see the other thing, right? The new name?" He questioned.
Teagan raised her head to look at him, a tear falling down her face, as she nodded her head, but didn't say a word. She didn't want to say the name out loud, if she did, it made it all too real. But that didn't stop Liam from saying,"It's you, Teagan. You're on the list now."
"I, uh... I.." Teagan began to say, as she took a few deep breaths, trying to stay in control of her emotions. She couldn't fall apart, not in front of Liam. She had to be strong for the freshman; who looked scared out of his mind. She blew out a nervous breath, as she plastered a smile on her face. She patted his shoulder, as she said,"It's going to be okay."
"How?" Liam questioned. "I'm worth more now and you're worth 200 thousand. How is that okay?"
"I don't know, but we'll-we'll figure it out." Teagan breathed out, as she looked over his shoulders and saw Isaac down the hall. She looked back at Liam, as she said,"Nothing is going to happen to you, okay? We're going to protect you."
"Who's going to protect you?" Liam asked.
Teagan ignored his question, as she flashed him another smile, before telling him to go grab some lunch and she'll talk to him later. He gave her a short nod, then walked past her to make his way down the hallway.
She glanced back over to Isaac, wanting to run to him, but too scared to move. He lowered his eyebrows in concern, as he made his way over to her. He opened his mouth to ask her what was wrong, but before he could, she threw herself into his arms and held him tight.
"Hey, babe, look at me.." He began to say, as he tried to pull back to look at her, but she just held on to him even tighter. When he felt her shaking in his arms, he really became concern.
"Hey, Teagan, hey, you got to let go, babe. You got to let me look at you." Isaac said, as he tried to pull back to look at her. He couldn't fix what was wrong if he can't see it. When she finally pulled back to look at him and he saw the tears in her eyes, he asked,"What's wrong?"
"Come on." Teagan mumbled, as she grabbed his arm and led him over to a men's restroom.
After they walked inside, Isaac locked the door to give them privacy as Teagan made sure they were the only ones in the room. She turned to look at Isaac, handing him the pieces of paper in her hand. He looked down at them, at first confused on what the problem was until he saw it; until he saw her name and felt his heart drop.
He raised his head to look at her, finally understanding why she looked so terrified. Seeing her name on the dead-pool caused the same reaction for him. As much as he hated seeing his own name when the list first appeared, he could handle that, but seeing her name with a price beside it, that he couldn't handle.
"It's not going to happen." Isaac said, as he shook his head. He crumbled up the list in his hand, then reached out with his free hand to lay it on the side of her neck. "You hear me, it's not going to happen. I'm not going to let anything happen to you. I'm getting you off this list."
"Isaac, we don't even know how to stop it. There's no way to get a name off." Teagan pointed out.
"I don't care!" Isaac yelled out. "You're not staying on this list. No one.. No one is taking you from me. It's not happening... It-"
"Shh, I know." Teagan interrupted, as she wrapped her arms around his neck and rested her forehead against his.
"I'm not losing you, Teagan." Isaac whispered, before pressing his lips against her. "It's you and me, always, remember?" He mumbled out before kissing her again.
Teagan gripped his shoulders as she moved her lips against his, desperate to hold on to him. She wanted to believe his words, but all she could hear was when Lorraine told her time was running out. She felt a chill, causing her to hold on to Isaac tighter, as she mumbled out,"Always."
~()~
Avery laid snuggled against Derek's side in his bed, with her head resting on his chest as she kept her eyes closed listening to the sound of his heartbeat, and for the moment that was the greatest sound in the world to her. It was proof that he was still alive, that he was still there with her which meant there was still hope.
She'd woke up late for school that day and had gotten dressed planning to make it to at least her after lunch classes, that was until she got a call from Teagan letting her know that she herself was on the list now. But that wasn't the only change; Derek wasn't on the dead-pool anymore and now Liam was worth a lot more than he had been.
After that devastating news she'd crawled back into the bed with Derek, who had still been sleeping at the time. But now hours later, they were both awake just lying in silence as he kept an arm around her and every so often would smooth her hair down, just small comforting gestures.
Finally she opened her eyes and asked, "Why aren't you mad at me?"
Raising his head from the pillow he looked down to where she still laying against him as he guessed, "For not telling me my name was the third cypher key?"
Silently she nodded.
Laying his head back down he shrugged, "I'm just not."
"But why, you have every right to be… if the situation were reversed, I'd probably be pissed." She quietly admitted.
"I'm not mad… I guess because I know you did for the same reasons I wouldn't have told you if the situation were reversed." He admitted, causing her to raise her head and look at him.
Softly she reasoned out loud, "You knew didn't you… not about the cypher key, but you knew that whatever Kate did –that it wasn't ending with you turning human, that things were going to get worse…"
"I had my suspicions." He admitted, "This place on my side has barely started to heal and I'm tired all of the time…"
Sliding out of his arm she sat up and said, "So that's why you've been doing all of this stuff then, right?"
Sitting up he faced her with his forehead lined in confusion as he asked, "What are you talking about?"
In a hopeless tone she said, "All of this really sweet, normal couple stuff… that's why you're so determined to make up for everything you did wrong because you think you're dying and you want to make amends?"
"No." He asserted, scooting closer as he grabbed onto her hand and assured her, "I'm doing all of that because I love you and because this is what I want-" He started to say but she cut him off.
"What are you saying?" She demanded to know, as she looked at him with furrowed eyebrows.
Leaning in he kissed her before he pulled back and admitted, "I'm saying that this…" He motioned between them, "Is what I want. I want a life with you."
Tears stung her eyes as she looked at him and agreed, "You're all I want… you're all I've ever wanted."
With smile of disbelief he leaned in and kissed her again before he said, "For that long, huh?"
Managing a small, weak laugh she looked down to their hands and said, "It's true. I told you I had the biggest crush on you while I was growing up."
Laughing he nodded, "Yeah, but-"
"But nothing!" She exclaimed laughing louder, "It's true, it's so true… you don't even understand."
He couldn't help but smile at the sound of her laugh, as he said, "Then tell me."
"When Teagan and I were in grade school, my parents took this trip to France and I was staying with Teagan's family."
He nodded and waited for her to go on.
"Her mom would substitute as a school nurse sometimes at the high school and she'd picked us up after school and took us with her back to work because there some sort of sports thing going on where they needed a few nurses to make it go faster, I think it had something do to with processing paper work and making sure the athletes were up to date on their shots. I don't remember… but what I do remember is Teagan was so jealous that my parents bought my this brand new gel pen set before they left and her parent's couldn't really afford to get her one…" Laughing Avery added, "She kept trying to get me to give her some, saying that I had more gel pens than any one person needed and several of them were identical."
Derek continued to smile as he watched her ramble on, but asked, "What does that have to do with me?"
"Because while Teagan was going on and on about the pens, I too busy staring at the high school basketball players" She admitted, looking down to here he was rubbing his thumb over the back over hand.
"What?" He asked with a laughed.
Nodding Avery said, "You were showing off with a few of the other players just down the hallway from us, pushing each other and trying to get the ball… which you always managed to get and dribble it away from them." Avery looked down seeing the memory in her head, "And I just thought you were the most amazing thing I'd ever seen… I didn't even pay attention to what Teagan was saying, I just nodded every time she asked me something and I ended up agreeing to let her have an entire half of the pen set."
Derek laughed then he looked at her as he said, "Wait…" He had a thoughtful loon on his face as he started to remember back too, "I think I remember this…"
"No you don't!" Avery loudly exclaimed laughing.
"No, I do… kind of, at least…" He thought back and asked, "Didn't Teagan steal the basketball?"
"Oh my god, you do remember!" Avery yelled as she let go of his hand and covered her face, in a muffled voice she said, "That's so embarrassing!"
"It is not." He laughed, before asking, "How'd she even end up getting it?"
"You and your friends got called into the nurse's office and left the ball on the bench across the hallway from us and I grabbed it. I was going to wait until you came out and give it to you, just because I was always looking for some reason to be around you." She admitted laughing, "But once Teagan saw what I did she flipped out, she got so shy and nervous that she stuffed the ball into her book bag, but it was too big and she took her coat off and tried to tuck it around the ball so no one could see. But oh my god, it was the most obvious thing ever."
"I remember that part!" He said, shaking his head, "I remember I came back out of the office but the ball was gone and I saw it in her book bag, but she looked terrified." He laughed, "I remember thinking that if some little girl wanted a basketball bad enough she was willing to steal it then I was just going to let her keep it."
"Well she didn't keep it… but I did."
"You what?" Derek asked her with raised eyebrows.
Avery nodded, "That basketball sat on top of my dresser for at least a year, it was my most prized possession." She laughed, "In fact, I'm pretty sure it's still in a box in the garage or basement… not sure which one, but even after the fire and thinking I'd lost my mom and you moving away… I couldn't bring myself to get rid of it."
He watched her closely as she shrugged and softly said, "I don't know, there was just always something about you… I was so drawn to you."
Gently holding onto her chin, Derek pulled her face to his as he pressed a passionate kiss to her lips before pulling back and resting his forehead against hers as the former lighthearted tone of their conversation was now passed and all that was left was the stress of their current situation.
"It's not fair… in what universe is it remotely fair that something finally goes right in my life –I've got you… and then now I might lose you." Her tone was unsure and shaky as she fought back tears, "I can't lose you… I just can't."
He nodded softly, his forehead still against hers as he saw a tear roll down her cheek he said, "It's not over yet, I'm not giving up… I'm fighting."
"We have to find out what Kate did to you… we have to find out and reverse it." Avery said, hoping there was a way to reverse it.
"I know, but she's not going to come out of hiding while her name is still on that dead-pool." He reminded her.
Pulling back Avery looked at him with wide eyes, "You're right… but if we stop the dead-pool, find out who the benefactor is and stop them, she'll show her face again."
Nodding Derek agreed, "The only problem is, we still have no idea who it is."
"And in the meantime we need to keep everyone on the dead-pool safe…" Her voice trailed off and she turned pale.
"What's wrong?" He asked immediately worried.
"If Deputy Haigh knew about the dead-pool, if he was smart enough to put it together then who's to say he's the only one on the police for that did?" She questioned.
Standing up from the bed she looked at him as she pointed out, "Isaac asked what's scarier than professional assassins, the answer is cops-turned-assassins. Think about it… Jordan
told me that he only makes forty thousand a year and money can make people do crazy things."
Understanding what she was saying he stood up and went to grab his jacket out of the closet as he questioned, "So we need to talk to Deputy Haigh?"
"Yeah… we have to." Avery agreed as she pulled on her own jacket and felt her pocket for her keys.
~ A Teen Wolf fanfiction collaboration between Miss E Charlotte and Sage Londyn.~
A/N- Thanks so much to xxXWolfsLullabyXxx, xxxRena and Exuberance of Youth for reviewing the last chapter!