Liv wakes up the next morning and looks around the unfamiliar surroundings nervously, feeling the sheets clinging to her completely naked body.
"Oh damn, artist brain." Liv curses silently and gets up while holding the cover to her body.
"Take some clothes from the bin to your left." She hears Scott say before she even enters his view.
"Thanks." She says, after putting on a long shirt and she rushes to the bathroom, slipping on her panties and grabbing her bra before going back into the room and puts on a pair of shorts from the boy.
"I would offer you breakfast, but I don't have brains." Scott says, sipping on a coffee while sitting on the couch.
"I can still eat and drink, it tastes like nothing if there aren't at least half a million Scoville in the food though." Liv tells him, sitting down next to him nervously.
"I'm really sorry about yesterday. I wasn't me, at least not completely." Liv apologizes.
"It's fine. If anyone can relate, it's me." Scott tells her.
"The full moon affects me too, not much anymore but when I was younger it was like dr. Jackel and Mr. Hide." Scott tells her.
"So that's actually true?" Liv asks curiously.
"Yeah, to some degree at least." Scott answers.
"So what can you do?" Liv asks him curiously.
"Enhanced senses, healing and this." Scott says showing her his fangs and claws when he's transformed.
"Oh, sharp." Liv says, pricking herself when she pokes his fang.
"Yeah, careful though. An alpha's bite turns people. Not sure what would happen to your Zombie body and it's better we never find out." Scott tells her.
"Such deep eyes. Oh how I want to paint them." Liv says, staring into his red glowing eyes.
"Thanks?" Scott replies awkwardly.
"The painter's still in here." Liv explains, knocking on her head.
"Yeah I figured." Scott chuckles.
"Here. Let's get you home." Scott says, handing her his helmet and helps her in a jacket.
"Thanks." She says, zipping up the jacket and puts on the helmet, before following Scott to his bike.
About 20 minutes later Liv leads him up to her apartment.
"Are you sure it's wise for me to come up to your apartment? Peyton was pretty clear with wanting me to keep my distance." Scott says.
"It's my apartment too." Liv says, unlocking the door.
"I guess. But still, I'm not someone who breaks his word easily." Scott says.
"Then just stay in my room. You're out of sight then." Liv tells him.
"Fine. I'd have preferred to wait downstairs though." Scott says.
"Nonsense." Liv says, shoving him into the apartment ahead of herself, Scott tumbling into the house right in front of Peyton.
"Hi." He says awkwardly.
"Hi." She replies, playing cool and looks at Liv for an explanation.
"Scott's giving me a ride to work. I left my car behind yesterday." Liv answers the unasked question.
"I see. Well have a nice day you two." Peyton says, grabbing her purse and leaving the apartment.
"She's really scared of me huh?" Scott asks saddened.
"Right. She knows about you... how did that happen in the first place?" Liv asks, pushing him to the couch and sitting down with him, Peyton having heard him from outside the door, before leaving for work.
"You heard about that time Peyton was attacked right?" Scott asks.
"Of course. I still find splinters under the couch." Liv replies.
"Well, it didn't happen like Peyton said. I was the one to pull her bodyguard out of her room before he could do anything to her. After that we jumped out of the window in her room and hid in the shed. Those four guys found us and shot me. I recovered just in time before they could find her and well you saw the bodies." Scott informs the white-haired girl.
"Why is she so distant from you then?" Liv asks, putting her hand over his supportively.
"She didn't take the existence of the supernatural as well as you or Ravi." Scott replies.
"I see." Liv says solemnly.
"Maybe she will react differently with you. You're her best friend. I'm just a stranger who killed people to her."
Scott says.
"Did you ever...?" He asks.
"No. Never. I came close when a suspect shot me but I stopped myself just in time." Liv answers.
"Speaking of work. You should get ready for it shouldn't you?" Scott asks.
"Yes. You're right. And in the spirit of transparency, the painter in my wants to ask you to join me in the shower, but I'm not gonna do that." Liv says, going to her room.
"Good. You're getting better." Scott replies chuckling.
Scott then drops a freshly dressed Liv off at the police station before driving to work himself.
Days he gets a call from Liv, asking him to come to the morgue and he's quick to accept the invitation.
"So, what's the urgent situation?" Scott asks, walking into the morgue office where Ravi and Liv are sitting on the couch watching a werewolf movie, the vet assistant raising an eyebrow at this.
"Little warning. She's on psychopath hitman brain." Ravi says, Liv having eaten the brain of their latest case, an older man who got run over.
"Sounds... practical?" Scott replies with a shrug.
"Let's go." Ravi says, shutting off the tv and the three leave the morgue.
"Where are we going?" Scott asks, not having been filled in.
"The thing is, we are trying to monitor the Zombie situation. We know that there's one other Zombie out there. Bad dude, drug pusher and well nowadays graverobber. Anyways, there has been a post by some kid seeing a Zombie not even a mile away from the boat party lake and we're going to check if there's any zombies roaming around this fair city." Ravi tells him.
"So you're not the only one afterall." Scott says.
"Oh, she wishes. The other guy is the one who scratched her at the party." Ravi says.
"So, no love lost there I'm guessing." Scott says.
"No." Liv answers stoically.
"And why did you want my help when going looking for the possible 3rd zombie?" Scott asks.
"Because, Liv said your 'skillset' could come in handy. Whatever she means with skillset." Ravi says, opening his car for them while Liv flicks her ears twice to signal Scott what she meant.
"I see. Fair enough. I can see how I can be helpful." Scott says, getting in the backseat while Liv takes the passenger seat.
"So, are you sure you don't want to tell me what you are? I mean it's basically only a matter of time before Liv grabs a blabbermouth's brain and will tell me anyways." Ravi asks Scott as he's driving them to the abandoned factory ruins next to the lake.
"Nah. The less people know the better. My boss is already not a fan that Peyton and Liv know and that you have a general idea at least." Scott says.
"Why, is he also whatever you are?" Ravi asks curiously.
"No. He's normal. Just very experienced with anything related to well the unusual." Scott answers.
After a car ride with some small talk the three arrive at their destination.
"So, what are we looking for here?" Scott asks, getting out of the car with them.
"Something underground most likely. The photograph was taken at a downward angle." Ravi says.
"I think I know what you're looking for." Scott says, leading them through the ruins to the covered opening of a tank in the floor.
"I believe this is it." Scott says, pushing off some of the debris on top with Ravi until they have exposed half of the opening.
"Good job." Liv compliments him while the three lean forwards, being met with groaning and the sight of a wrinkling undead you'd expect when you hear the word Zombie.
"Jackpot." Ravi says.
"That's Marcie. She worked at the hospital with me. I recognize the necklace." Liv says coldly and tosses a few pebbles at the woman, getting her attention and causing her to groan while reaching up at them.
"Hey, stop that. This is such a good opportunity to see if a Zombie can come back after not being able to feed for so long." Ravi says, getting out a cooler from his backpack and drops down a brain and liver for the woman to eat.
"You mean if I ever turn out like her." Liv says, helping the two men put covers onto the pipe again.
"You weren't kidding with psycho brain." Scott says looking at the unfazed Liv in bewilderment.
"No, I wasn't." Ravi replies, looking at Liv concerned as well.
"So was that it? Or is there something else?" Scott asks.
"That's it." Liv says dismissively, getting in the car.
"Are you sure you're alright Liv? I mean I didn't know you before the whole zombie thing but this seems rather... unusual behavior for a woman who wanted to be a doctor." Scott asks her while Ravi drives them back to the police station.
"I'm fine. This brain will wear off soon." Liv replies stoically.
"Alright." Scott says shrugging.
"So what do you think are the chances of that zombie girl ending up as more girl than zombie?" Scott asks Ravi.
"We're talking about the highly theoretically testing of unseen effects on a mutation." Ravi tells him.
"So... slim?" Scott says.
"That would be my guess, yes." Ravi agrees.
The rest of the ride is spent mostly in silence, only enhanced by Liv spewing out explicitly detailed information about anything they come across.
"Alright. I'm not gonna say this felt like a waste of time. But, you know. Next time tell me where to meet you guys." Scott says, getting out of the car and gets onto his bike.
"That's a perfectly good point." Ravi agrees while Liv only nods and heads into the building.
"God I hope that's temporary." Scott chuckles.
"Do you want to come see the results when we go back there?" Ravi asks.
"Sure. Give me a call." Scott replies, starting his bike and takes off headed to work.
That late afternoon Peyton comes home annoyed that Liv's cop partner threw her case off track, which would have given her a good standing with her boss the district attorney.
"You're home early." Liv comments, focused on a laptop, scrolling through cars.
"Thank your detective buddy for that. They released Williams." Peyton complains.
"Williams is innocent." Liv states.
"You don't know that. I have a lot of evidence that says otherwise." Peyton replies defensively.
"Someone else had the murder weapon and the gambling connection was never investigated." Liv replies.
"You read my file, didn't you? My confidential file." Peyton accuses Liv.
"You want me to feel bad? You would have sent an innocent man to jail." Liv tells Peyton void of compassion.
"You know, you've been a slug for months and this, this is the thing that gets you off your ass? Not your family, not your fiancée. Proving me wrong." Peyton says pissed off.
"It has nothing to do with you." Liv replies coldly.
"No,no,no. It does. I get that you did what you think was right. But you could at least feel bad about it. You just massively derailed my career and you don't even give a shit do you?" Peyton says, hoping for any sign of sympathy or regret, but is only met with two cold eyes from her best friend. After a couple seconds of Liv just staring at her disappointed face Peyton leaves the apartment and goes to a bar where she stays for a couple of hours, not even drinking that much, but more just thinking about the behavior of her supposed best friend over the last 6 months.
"I swear I'm not stalking you." Scott says, sitting down across from Peyton in her booth.
"Really? It's 6 o'clock. Why would you be at a bar this early?" Peyton asks, checking her watch.
"Weird day I guess. You?" Scott asks, setting down his beer on the table.
"Have you heard about the case I'm working on?" Peyton asks.
"Yeah. Right I saw you on the news. You... yes, I heard." He says, stammering when he almost slipped up.
"I what?" She asks, wanting to hear the end of the sentence.
"You were pretty impressive." He says, taking a sip of his beer afterwards.
"Yes, well thanks to Liv invading my privacy and being convinced that I have the wrong guy I'm now gonna be a laughingstock and it'll take years before I can prove myself to the d.a." Peyton says angrily.
"That's rough. Any way to you know, get back ahead? Beat her at her own game?" Scott asks.
"How? I'm not a detective. I look at the evidence they give me and see if we have a solid case." Peyton says.
"What's preventing you from finding the evidence first though?" Scott asks.
"The skillset and the authority to even register whatever evidence there could be." Peyton tells him.
"Alright. Let me make a proposition here." Scott says.
"How about you get one of your friends on the police force and the three of us solve this case before Liv and her partner does?" Scott offers.
"You want to help me? And on what basis do you think you can be of use?" Peyton asks.
"You really didn't look into anything of my past besides the arrests huh?" Scott chuckles, taking another swig of his beer.
"How about this? You bring your file with you and meet me at my place. I'm having dinner with Deaton tonight and we trade information. You give me a look at your file and Deaton can answer any questions you have, about me or about the supernatural." Scott suggests.
"You do know the last time we spoke you promised to stay away from me, right?" She asks with a teasing smirk playing on her lips.
"Yeah, and I was standing over there 3 minutes before deciding to come over and see what's gotten you down." Scott tells her, pointing to the bar.
"You were huh?" She asks.
"I swear and I will go right back over there if that's what you want." Scott tells her.
"Fine, let's go to your place. I don't want to be home now anyways and it's probably safer there than in a hotel. As you know I haven't had much luck in terms of safety in the recent months." Peyton says.
"No shit." Scott replies chuckling.
"Are you here on foot?" Scott asks Peyton as they leave the bar.
"Yeah." She replies.
"So, where are we going? Is that file in your office or..." Scott asks.
"It's all in here. Just drive." She tells him, wiggling her purse in front of him.
"Alright." Scott says, holding out the helmet for her.
"Don't you need it?" Peyton asks.
"Seriously? You saw me with half my torso blown off, but you think a helmet is my number 1 priority? Plus I'd much rather keep your beautiful face safe than mine." Scott tells her, gently putting the helmet on her head and closes the visor.
Scott then gets on the bike in front of her and she wraps her arms around him from behind, making him smile until he feels his ear being pulled.
"Don't get any weird ideas." She tells him in an amused voice.
"No ma'am." Scott answers and drives them to his apartment.
"Deaton will come in about half an hour, so just make yourself comfortable." Scott says.
"Maybe fill me in on the general information." Scott adds, while he starts to work on making a meal for three.
After a nice, relaxed dinner with Deaton and Peyton Scott is sitting on the couch, spreading the casefile out on the small couch table.
"I regret not bringing Stiles board." Scott sighs while he's stacking papers on top of each other and struggles with finding a fitting order.
Meanwhile Peyton and Deaton are sitting around the kitchen table, Peyton smirking while watching Scott get frustrated on the couch.
"So, what so you want to know Ms. Charles?" Deaton asks.
"Please, it's just Peyton. And I guess I'm most curious why he thinks he can help me with my case. I mean look at him." Peyton asks, fighting back a laugh.
"I can hear you even without my werewolf hearing." Scott remarks, not budging from the task at hand.
"Well, that requires a bit of an explanation about Beacon Hills. Like you heard it's a beacon for the supernatural. What you don't know however is that good supernatural creatures, like Scott, are not the norm. Most supernatural beings just bring chaos, death and suffering." Deaton tells her, getting her full attention.
"I knew Scott even before he got bitten and he was always one of the kindest people you could ever meet. If it was anyone else who got bitten, then I probably wouldn't even be alive anymore." Deaton tells her.
"Anyways, the first thing Scott had to deal with is..." Deaton then explains most of what Scott and his pack managed to do and had to endure to survive and become the people they are over the next hour.
"It's getting late. I think I should head home." Deaton says after finishing explaining Scott's history to her and how lonely he's been for over a year, after Malia as the last of his pack left to explore the world.
"Good night Deaton. And thanks for filling in Peyton. I promise I don't take you for granted and I know you have your own stuff to deal with too. In fact, why don't you take a couple days off next week and go on that date with that woman you keep avoiding talking about." Scott says, showing his boss out of the house.
"I'll get back to you on that." Deaton says, giving him a hug before he heads home.
"You are close." Peyton comments smiling, going over to the couch and sitting down next to where Scott has been sitting the last hour.
"Yeah well, he's all I have now. And he's like a father to me." Scott says smiling and sits down next to her.
"Alright. So this is what I've come up with so far. The homeless guy, he took the killers clothing according to Liv, right?" Scott asks.
"Yes." Peyton replies, nodding.
"Any idea how to find him?" Scott asks, looking over to her.
"Sure. But why?" Peyton asks.
"Well, he has no direct connection to the victim, so the obvious solution is he's a hitman, which is pretty much proven by Clive finding his gun in his 'tool box'" Scott says, putting air quotes on tool box.
"Yes. Seems to be that way." Peyton agrees.
"Well, then someone had to have ordered the hit. And that's who we and Liv and Clive are looking for. Now the obvious one would be his booky, but I mean that would've come up on the first questioning of the bar owner and dead people can't pay loans." Scott says.
"So the question remaining is, who benefits from the programmer's death. And that comes down to only a handful of people. The angel investor. The wife and the son." Scott says, pushing the three photos in the middle of the table.
"Now, we don't know if the hit and run on the hitman was accidental, so we can already take all of this off the table." Scott says, putting a couple papers on the floor.
"The wife and son don't have much of a reason to kill him. Even if they were in debt he was going to get his hands on a buttload of money soon. More than the in comparison small payout from life insurance." Peyton tells him, taking the two photos and the family's records off the table.
"Alright. So we have a lead suspect. We have a murder weapon, and the dead killer. All that's left is to prove that they knew each other." Scott says.
"All." She says looking at him as if he's crazy.
"Well as I see it, there are two possible angles. Assume that karma isn't a bitch and the investor killed the hitman himself to tie up loose ends.
Or find the means through which the two had contact." Scott says.
"But even if we can prove that he ran over the hitman it's not prove that he is behind the first murder. It only makes him guilty of vehicular manslaughter." Peyton says.
"So, it all comes down to finding the connection?" Scott says, pulling the files on the angel investor towards them.
The two wordlessly spread out the papers together and take another look.
"Look, here. He was called by a burner phone." Peyton says, showing Scott three entries of the phone number which isn't reachable or trackable.
"Hmmm. The phone was pinged in these areas." Scott says, putting a glass on top of three areas in the city where the hitman called from, according to the corresponding cell tower overlaps.
"So what? He probably dumped his phone after the last time." Peyton says.
"Which means, this is the area we're interested in." Scott says, tapping one glass while pushing the other two aside.
"Now what? That's all a good recap, but we have no proof." Peyton says.
"Not yet. But this is a park. Where would you dump your burner phone here?" Scott asks.
"Toss it in the woods?" Peyton guesses.
"Let's hope so." Scott says nodding and he grabs the glass to look around for the most likely position, touching Peyton's hand accidentally.
"Sorry." He apologizes, pushing aside the glass and gets up, going into his bedroom and comes back with a laptop.
"Let's see what we have in that area." Scott says, looking at the google maps registered stores and streets.
"What are you trying to prove Scott?" Peyton asks him.
"Prove?" Scott asks confused.
"You helping me like this. There must be a reason." Peyton says.
"You are upset and I know what having a best friend feels like. I don't want you to grow distant from yours like it happened to me." Scott tells her.
"Thank you." Peyton says softly and gives him a kiss on his cheek, rubbing his forearm slowly.
"Ahem, I'll get the bed ready for you." Scott says, getting up and cleaning up his bedroom.
"I need to head out for an hour or so. It has to do with your case, but I can't tell you what I'm doing." Scott says.
"Why?" She asks.
"It wouldn't be admissible in court and is kind of borderline illegal?" Scott says sheepishly.
"Don't worry. It's nothing anyone will know about." Scott says and takes his keys, leaving the house.
"He really left me alone in his house." Peyton says surprised and shakes her head before pouring herself another glass of wine at the kitchen table.
She then collects her file and puts it in her purse again before leaving the bag hanging on a hook next to the entry door. For another 20 to 30 minutes she looks around his apartment before deciding to get some sleep.
She takes off her shoes, setting them down on a kitchen chair. She collects a shirt from his fresh clothes and takes off her blouse and pants, draping both over the same chair, before putting on the shirt, which does nothing to hide her long legs unlike for the smaller Liv.
She's in his bathroom looking at herself in the mirror and washimg her face when she hears the door open.
"You're back already?" She asks, stepping into the room.
"Yeah. I only needed something of the killer's to get his smell." Scott says, showing her a shoe that has seen better days.
"Lucky for me I didn't even need to sneak in, the wife was throwing this away." Scott says.
"Good for you." Peyton replies with amusement and bewilderment.
"Good night Peyton." Scott then says, locking the door, Peyton watching him actively try to avoid ogling her in her under dressed state.
"Good night." She replies, smiling to herself as she enters the bedroom and closes the door behind her, slipping into his covers and soon falls asleep.