Chapter Twenty Five
March 12th, 2011

When they got back to the house, Booth and Noah pulled the Argents into Noah's office.

Noah sighed. "We need to give you an update on the case. We interviewed Victoria and Scott this morning. Scott claimed he was alone and had an asthma attack. When we tried to let him know that witnesses heard her saying she was trying to kill him, he said they were lying."

Allison frowned, and demanded, "Why would he lie?"

Noah shook his head. "He thinks he's protecting you. When we asked if he wanted Victoria to get away with trying to kill him, he said she wouldn't do that because you wouldn't stand for it."

Allison's jaw dropped, and she asked incredulously, "So…? He thinks I want my mother to get away with trying to kill us? Fuck no."

Chris asked, "Is his testimony required for her to be convicted? What will happen if her lawyer calls him into court?"

Booth grinned. "It won't matter. The hotel handed over the security footage for the room. They have security cameras in all the conference rooms, and they were active that night due to the students in the ballroom. So we have footage of the entire attack, including her knocking him out and dragging him into the room."

Allison put her face in her hands. "How… I… What…?" She took a deep breath to try and steady her thoughts, and asked, "Does Scott know about the footage?"

Noah shook his head. "No, we are going to call both him and Melissa in tomorrow to show them. We'll see if it changes his statement. I'm not holding my breath, he's a stubborn little shit, and once he is fixated on an idea, nothing will shift it."

Allison agreed. "Like when he said that Derek attacked the janitor at the school, even though he wasn't even in the school at the time."

Noah snapped his fingers at her, and he said, "Exactly that. Oh, he might mention you can become a human again if you kill the alpha who bit you."

Chris laughed. "He believes that? Wow, Honey, I thought you had taste."

Allison snapped. "Dad! He's not that bad."

Chris nodded. "He really is. The only wolves that accept that myth as truth are betas who aren't accepting their wolf at all. Which to be honest, from what I have heard, fits McCall to a tee. If he kills the alpha that bit him, if any of these betas do, it will just turn them into an even more unstable alpha. That is if they aren't killed in the attempt."

Noah smirked. "If he tries, it'll definitely get him killed. He can't even kill spiders, Melissa has to kill them."

Allison sighed dramatically. "School is going to suck on Monday. Scott is going to be all happy about saving my mother from prison, and Lydia will be bitter about the dance. She was so sure Jackson was her date."

Noah stood. "Well, I'll leave all the drama to you kids. I need to contact Melissa."

Chris smiled. "Thanks for the heads up, Noah. We should head home. I want to go through Victoria's office while she's in holding and before Gerard arrives."

Allison growled. "I'm helping. If there is evidence she knew or helped, I am divorcing her as my parent."

Noah offered, "I am sure Peter will be happy to help with that, or Ralph, if Peter replaces David Whittemore as the new District Attorney."

Chris offered his hand, and the men both shook it. "Thanks, Noah, Agent Booth. We'll be back here tomorrow so Allison can spend more time with the pack."

-x-

Their search of Victoria's office proved fruitless. They found a pile of paper in the shredder, but nothing at all on paper in the office. They found several portable hard drives hidden around the room and had gathered them up with Victoria's laptop, to see if the two technology-minded members of the pack would have more luck.

Deucalion returned while they were searching. Peter pulled him into a hug and asked, "How did it go?"

The alpha smiled. "It went pretty well. The pack was sad to see me leaving, but they understood. I did the formal handover to Ennis, and I promised to stay in touch."

Peter asked, "Do they know I'm your mate?"

The older alpha nodded. "Ennis definitely did. Who do you think had to listen to me vent about your alpha?"

"Oh boy," Peter sympathized. "I should send him chocolate in apology. Does he still enjoy Godiva Chocolates?"

Deucalion chuckled. "Maybe if you send him some truffles. If you really want to get on his good side, you should include the white chocolate gift box. Kali is a big fan."

When the Argents returned, Danny and Derek got to work on the laptop and hard drives in the server room. The rest of the teens spent Sunday making a game plan for school. Allison wasn't comfortable staying in a relationship with Scott, especially knowing he was happy for her mother to get away with trying to kill them both. She definitely wanted to talk to Scott, to see if he remembered her trying to rescue him from her mother.

Later in the afternoon, Derek took Allison through lessons in how to control her shift; the same lessons he and Peter had been teaching others in the pack. Allison also apologized to Derek for giving in to peer pressure and lying about what she had seen, or not seen, at the school that night. She admitted that the warning from the sheriff about lying in a police statement was the wake-up call she needed.

Derek said quietly, "You're not your aunt. You're nothing like her. Trust me, I'd know. She'd never come up with an elaborate plan to rescue me, while keeping those she loved safe. I don't even know if she's capable of love."

Allison glanced out the door of the training room and said, "I don't think she is. She's more of a monster than any of us."

Derek nodded. "More than anyone will ever know. She knows how to lie to werewolves, so I don't think we'll ever know why she did what she did."

Late in the afternoon Chris' phone rang, and he ducked away from the others to answer when he realized it was his father.

"What do you want, Gerard?" He snapped out when he answered.

The shifters all shamelessly listened in when they realized who was calling, and they all heard through the phone as Gerard said, "What the hell are you doing, Christopher? Both your sister and your wife have been arrested on clearly trumped-up charges, and you have done nothing to get them released."

Chris chuckled darkly. "Why should I? They were both caught in the act of attempting to kill people. They were both denied bail due to being active flight risks."

Gerard snarled, "Your job is to keep them free to hunt. How is this keeping them free?"

"MY JOB!" Chris roared. "Is to run Argent Arms. I have told you time and time again I want nothing to do with your crusade of murdering innocents. I warned you that one day your little empire would come to a sticky end."

Gerard drawled, "Well, clearly I can't trust you to do what's best for the family. I'll be there by the end of the week."

Chris snorted. "You can find somewhere else to stay. You're not welcome to stay with myself and Allison. None of you are. I'm in the process of filing for divorce, so please, do let Victoria know when you see her."

Gerard chuckled. "On what grounds. You have an ironclad prenup."

Chris smirked, knowing he had his father against a barrel. "Yes, a prenup that promised no harm to myself or my children, or she got everything. However, she attempted to kill Allison. That gives me grounds to divorce her, and she gets nothing."

Gerard ignored his earlier statement, and said, "I'll be with you by Friday. Have my room ready, Christopher. No excuses."

Chris shook his head. "Clearly you're not listening, so I will say it again. You're not welcome to stay with us. Goodbye, Gerard."

He hung up and sagged. "He's going to turn up on Friday. Fuck!"

Peter asked, "Do you own the house you're in?"

Chris shook his head. "No. Victoria rented it while we looked for something bigger."

Peter offered, "So move. Put your things in storage and use the guest rooms down here."

Stiles nodded. "We have an armory you can use for storing your weapons, and we can all help you move fast."

Chris shook his head. "He'll have someone watching the house. It's not worth the attention it will bring on the pack."

Chris gasped as the room suddenly became darker, and all he could see in the cloying darkness were pinpricks of light; eyes glowing green, blue, gold, and red around him. "What?"

Stiles let the shadows dissipate, and he said, "I'm a shadow dragon, Chris. If you move overnight, I can pull the shadows in, so anyone watching won't see a thing."

Derek asked, "Can you target your shadows? Like instead of wasting energy affecting an entire area you could just target the house they are watching from so they think it's like a fog or something."

Stiles nodded. "If I knew which house to target, I could."

Derek grinned. "So we ask the sheriff, sorry Noah, to visit with Deputy Graeme. She's the one that's aware of the supernatural, right? So, send them in to make it look like it's an official visit. The hunters watching the house are bound to contact Gerard to report the visit. The rest of us can hang out outside and listen for the hunters calling for orders. When we figure out what house they're in, you surround it in the shadows while the rest of us clear out the house."

Danny grinned. "We could sneak in via the backdoor and help pack. With all of us helping, we should be able to get everything moved to where it is easier to get to the truck."

Peter nodded. "Sounds like a plan. We should be able to rent a truck pretty quickly. Chris, you and Allison will be able to point out anything that's Victoria's."

Chris laughed. "There's nothing. When I said she gets nothing, I meant she literally gets nothing in the event she harms Allison. She signed an ironclad prenup. It also included no that there was to be no training for any child we had until they were eighteen."

Allison asked, "Is that why she let Kate take me to the tunnels, rather than taking me herself? To try and use a loophole?"

Chris nodded. "But that was also against the rules. 'No leaving you with any member of my family unsupervised.' Either way, she's screwed, I just need to find a lawyer to take the case."

Peter grinned, and purred, "Oh, I'll do it. I won't even charge you for the privilege. Can you get me a copy of the full contract?"

Chris nodded, and he pulled out his phone. "I'll email the copy I have saved on my cloud drive. My copy of the original is in my safe deposit box in town. I think you'll be the only person my father wouldn't be able to bribe into dropping the case."

Peter agreed. "It's sad, but that's probably true. I'll get the papers started tonight so you can visit her in the cells to get them signed."

Allison asked quietly, "Can you also draw up papers for her to relinquish her parental rights? She tried to kill me and she was trying to kill my boyfriend. That's not how a parent acts."

Stiles pulled her in for a hug and whispered, "You can borrow my dad, I think he's an awesome parent."

Peter squeezed her shoulder, and he said, "I can try for you, sweetheart. That one will depend on the judge, but you have an excellent case for it. Especially if Noah agrees to be a backup guardian for you, which I am sure he will."

Allison nodded. "Thanks. I guess we should go to the house and start packing. The more we can get packed, the faster moving out will be. I'm just glad we never throw out the boxes since we move so much."

Stiles offered, "We have a house that is vacant since we use the garage to receive deliveries for the Batcave. We can store your things there while you look for somewhere to move to permanently."

Chris nodded. "That would be safer, I think. Thanks, Stiles."

The pair left to start packing as they had a feeling they needed to be gone sooner rather than later. Gerard might have said he would be there by Friday, but they were fairly certain he would arrive earlier to try and catch them off guard.

-x-

Stiles sighed as most of the pack walked into school as a group. Allison said she wanted to deal with Scott on her own, but they wanted to be there for her when the discussion turned into the inevitable shit show.

Noah had come home after the meeting with Scott and Melissa, shaking his head in disbelief. Scott had claimed the video footage was edited, and he was still determined to state on the record that it's not what happened. Stiles had wanted to give Allison a heads-up, but they decided in the end that her reaction would be better if it was natural.

Jackson said privately, 'She's going to be pissed with him. He's going to be all happy that he's saved her mom from jail.'

Stiles agreed. 'She's going to go off on him. I do wonder if Scott realizes that Allison nearly died rescuing him.'

'I doubt it,' Jackson commented. 'He was out cold when we went in.'

Cora nudged them both, and murmured, "Stop being rude."

Stiles grinned. "Just planning for the clusterfuck ahead."

Cora asked, "You think it will be that bad?"

Everyone nodded, and Danny said quietly, "McCall is going to be so happy that he's saved her mom from murder charges, and honestly, she is going to be pissed that he's lying to let her mother get away with murder."

Cora facepalmed. "Let's just get through chemistry first."

The teens all trooped into the school and headed for hell, aka chemistry, with Mr. Harris. They were pretty sure he was going to get pulled in for an interrogation with the FBI, especially since he provided the formula for the accelerant Kate used in several of the fires. They were dreading that day, as they were sure Mr. Harris would get even worse in his bullying of the various pack members.

Halfway through the lesson, when Mr. Harris kept sniping at Jackson, Stiles commented silently, 'You know, I think I prefer the sniping, to the pedo level bad touch he used to do with you. The way he would lean in to check your work, with that possessive hand on your shoulder? So creepy.'

Jackson hid his snickering, and replied, 'I have to agree. You couldn't see me cringing on the inside. He's good friends with David. I'm willing to bet he's sniping because David and Maria left town, and he sees it as my fault that they left.'

Stiles grinned at him from behind his book and said, 'Shame on you for having a super gay boyfriend.'

When Jackson snorted, Mr. Harris called out, "Mr. Stilinski, Mr. Whittemore I'll see you after school for detention."

Jackson drawled, "It's Mr. Hale. I know you got the name change notification that was sent to all my teachers."

Stiles piped up, "What reason do you have for giving us detention?"

Mr. Harris stood. He was going red with rage. "Disrupting the class."

Jackson tilted his head like Mr. Harris was an interesting specimen, and said, "The only disruption is you yelling across the classroom."

"GET OUT," Mr. Harris bellowed. "Go to the principal's office. He can deal with you both."

The four in the back row stood, and Danny said, "We'll be going with them, as witnesses."

They all left the room, and as they walked to the principal's office, Stiles and Jackson called their fathers to get them to the school. They'd had enough of Harris' behavior, he was a bully in teacher's clothing, and they wanted him dealt with once and for all.

Noah had picked Peter up on his way to the school, and they arrived just as the foursome got to the principal's office.

Noah asked, "What's going on, boys?"

Stiles rolled his eyes. "More of Harris' bullying. The dick tried to give us detention because Jackson snorted in class. He said it was disruptive. He also refuses to use Jackson's new legal last name."

Jackson muttered, "At least he's stopped with the bad touches."

Peter growled, "Bad touches?"

Jackson nodded. "Stiles pointed it out. He used to lean in to check my work with his hand possessively on my back. It gave me the creeps."

Danny gasped. "He did! He totally did. OMG. He did it until you started dating Stiles, then it stopped."

Peter asked, "Danny, do you still have the video you showed me last week? The one from the cafeteria?"

Danny nodded. "I sent it to your email. Are you going to bring that up with the principal?"

Peter nodded. "It's clear Harris is homophobic as well as a bully. He should not be teaching without supervision. Is there another chemistry teacher in the school?"

Stiles shook his head. "No, he's the only one who can sign off on our chemistry requirement. We need it to be able to graduate."

Peter sighed. "Right. Leave it with us and head to your next class. Text the group chat if he tries to cause you more issues."

The pair approached the secretary and said they were ready to see the principal. She squeaked and escorted them through.

Peter and Noah were quite happy to express their displeasure that their sons were being bullied so publicly by a teacher. They made it clear that neither of them would tolerate it, and that they were disgusted that the school had done nothing to stop the obvious harassment and bullying by Mr. Harris.

The principal promised to look into the claims of bullying and harassment, and requested a copy of the video from the cafeteria, so he could discuss the actions seen in the video with Mr. Harris himself. He said the boys wouldn't be required to attend any detention with Harris, and he asked if they could report anything to him directly in the future.

Lunchtime finally arrived, and the pack took their usual seats in the cafeteria. They had arrived before Allison, Lydia, and Scott, who all had classes on the other side of the school.