Chapter 9-
The three of them pile into Derek's Camaro, ready to lead the Argent's away from the man while he tries to corner the Alpha. They're currently being tailed by a green Kia, so clearly the plan is working.
"Faster?" Scott asks.
Penelope, who is looking out the back windshield nervously, then calls out in annoyance, "Scotty, yes."
Derek's Camaro bullets down the road with Kate still in pursuit, keeping right on top of them. "I don't think you're grasping the concept of a car chase," Stiles says unhelpfully.
"If I go faster I'll kill us," Scott replies.
"If you don't go faster, they're going to kill us!"
So Scott floors it, sending them careening toward a turn. But Penelope looks through the rear windshield, confused, "They're gone." Stiles glances at the Police scanner in his lap and raises the volume. They hear that Derek is headed into the iron works.
As they drive, Stiles climbs over the divide into the back seat so that Derek can jump straight in. They spin to a stop in front of him where he's crouched behind a forklift. "Get in!" Scott shouts. He makes a run for the car before Mr. Argent begins shooting at them, making Penelope think about why the Argent's were doing this. She didn't know about Derek, but Scott hadn't hurt anybody, so there was nothing to protect anybody from since he wasn't dangerous. But she knew her logic wasn't shared by the horrible family.
"What part of laying low don't you understand?" Scott shouts, slamming his hands on the steering wheel as they speed off.
"I had him," Derek growls in annoyance.
"Who? The Alpha?" Stiles leans forward from the backseat, earning a glare from the older man in the front.
He nodded though and explained, "He was right in front of me. And then the idiot police show up."
"Hey, hey, hey, they're just doing their jobs," Stiles couldn't help but say from beside her, and she reached out and pinched the back of his arm lightly, getting his attention, then sending him a glare when he turned to look at her.
"Thanks to someone who decided to make me the most wanted fugitive in the state," Derek gritted out.
"Can we seriously get past that? Yes, I made a dumbass mistake. I get it," Scott pipes up from the driver's seat.
"How'd you find him?" Stiles asks, but Derek falls silent. "Can you try to trust us for half a second?" Scott continues.
"Yeah, all of us," Stiles adds. Then, at Derek's hard look, "Or just him, but you guys should include Nelly more, she was bitten, too." Penelope smiles at him, rubbing his hand appreciatively at the gesture.
Derek decides to trust them apparently, "The last time I talked to my sister, she was close to figuring something out. She found two things. The first was a guy named Harris."
"Our Chemistry teacher?" The buzzed-cut boy says from beside her.
"Why him?" Penelope asks.
"I don't know," is all Derek responds.
"What's the second?" Penelope leans forward now, she was sitting behind Scott so she tried to stay away from Derek, to stay out of his personal space.
"Some kind of symbol," he pulls out a folded-up piece of paper and opens it to show them a simple photocopy. Scott takes one look and lets out a sigh, Penelope recognizes it instantly, having seen Allison wear it several times now. "What? You know what this is?"
"I've seen it. On a necklace," slowing the Camaro, Scott gazes at a drawing of the symbol for the Beast of Gévaudan. "Allison's necklace."
"This is going to be impossible, you know?" Scott tells them as they walk into the school.
"No, it'll be fine. You may have screwed things up, wolf boy, but Nelly is still our in. Just ask her to borrow it," Stiles tells her, wrapping an arm loosely around her shoulders.
"How on Earth am I supposed to do that?" she gawks at him, and he grins in response.
"Simple. You ask, 'Hey Allison, can I borrow your necklace to see if there's something on it or in it that will lead me to an Alpha werewolf I need to kill in order to save people's lives'," he quotes, and she shakes her head, shoving him.
"I thought you might actually be serious for once."
"You're the girl, you figure it out," he says unhelpfully, Scott had been uncharacteristically quiet the entire time.
"Will you help?" She asks him, and he nods, "What do you need me to do?"
She smirks, telling them about her plan to distract the girl in the swimming pool while Scott checks her bag while walking to class.
Stiles and Scott burst through the double doors out of one corridor and into the next, the boys each dragging Penelope by one of her arms. Their talk is frantic and fast. "How the hell did he find out?" Stiles asks.
"I have no idea," Scott shouts, the two of them finally releasing her now.
"Did he say it out loud? The word," their partner tries to ask.
Scott doesn't understand, "What word?" Stiles leans in, trying to whisper, "Werewolf. Did he say I know you're a werewolf?"
"No. But he implied it pretty freaking clearly," Scott is shaking now, and Penelope discreetly takes his hand in hers, watching him steady his breathing before releasing it.
"You good now? Okay, maybe it's not as bad as it seems. He has no proof, right? And if he wanted to tell someone who's going to believe him anyway?" Stiles interjects.
"How about Allison's father?" To which Stiles replies, "Okay, it's bad. Very bad. Four alarms fire bad. DefCon 1 bad-"
"I need a cure. Right now," Scott says out of the blue, and Stiles ignores it, but she's shocked, eyes locked on him as they continue down the hall.
"He doesn't know about Allison's father, does he?"
"He probably just threatened him with her because he thinks they're still together- not together- whatever," she says, before blushing.
"Where's Derek?" Stiles asks, grinning at her.
"Hiding. Like we told him. Why?"
"I have another idea. It might take a little time and finesse, though," the short-haired boy replies.
"Remember we have the game tonight. Quarterfinals. And your first game," Scott reminds him.
"You can't miss it, Stiles, I can't wait to watch you," she smiles, wanting so badly to hold his hand, hug him, kiss him, anything.
"I know, I know, I'll be there," he assures them, a red blush spreading across his cheeks. "You have a plan for Allison?"
"Scott and I are going to try to get it in the pool if I can't get it earlier, she's in my class after this one," she tells him, catching him up on what she and Scott had decided.
"Okay, get the necklace," he nods at them, and they nod back.
"Get the necklace," Scott repeats, and Nelly nods.
Nelly walked into History class as quickly as she could, trying to get there early enough to get a seat beside Allison. Lucky for her, she was there before the girl, and when she got there, the brunette made a beeline straight for her. "Hey, Penny," she greets the blonde as she sets her things down.
"Hey, Allison, what's up?" Penelope asks her, getting out her binder and pencil, trying to nonchalantly peek and see if Allison was wearing the necklace.
"Nothing much, just, ugh, actually things have been kind of weird lately. My family has been weird, and to be honest I really just want that girls night you talked about," she grinned at her, her brown ringlets framing her rosy cheeks.
"Totally! Tonight's the lacrosse game, but what about tomorrow?"
"What's tomorrow?" Lydia asks, sitting down at the desk in front of Penelope, quirking her head at the two girls.
"Girls Night," the two say in unison, then Nelly adds, "you in, Lyds?"
"Hmm, I think I can shift my schedule to make it fit," she jokes. "Of course I'm in. We're going shopping! We should start thinking about formal dresses soon, too."
During class, she can see the glint of her necklace, but there's no way she's going to be able to get it when she's wearing it, so she just pays attention to the teacher instead and hopes that her and Scott's plan goes a little better.
Penelope meets the boys at lunch with a sigh, tossing her lunch bag on the table before slumping in her seat across from them, "She doesn't take it off."
"Okay. I came up with a Plan B in case something like this happened," Stiles tells them, causing her to perk up in her seat. "What's Plan B?" Scott asks excitedly.
"Just steal the stupid thing," Stiles says mockingly, and Penelope rolls her eyes.
Scott shakes his head, "Couldn't we try getting to Harris?"
"My Dad gave him a 24-hour protective detail. All we've got is the necklace. Steal it," Stiles emphasizes.
Scott stares into the distance suddenly, alarming her, "Guys. He's watching us." Stiles and Penelope follow Scott's gaze to find Jackson through the crowd, eating with Allison and Lydia at a table across the way, watching their panic with obvious amusement.
"Act normal," he tells them, and that seems very hard all of a sudden, especially for Stiles. Scott stops for a few seconds, going still and silent, then goes panicky, looking back and forth between her and Stiles. "What's wrong?" she asks him, concerned.
"Jackson's talking to me. He knows I can hear him. Look at me," he locks eyes with her, and Stiles just watches, she doesn't know what to do next though, do they talk so it looks like they're having a conversation? Or is the cat out of the proverbial bag at this point?
"Talk to me. Pretend like nothing's happening," Scott instructs her.
"Um, uh, okay, uh, oh my god, I-I how about the weather?" she stutters, looking at him blankly.
"The weather is nice, babe, anything else?" he says sarcastically.
Stiles leans forward, "FYI, he's not sitting with them anymore." Scott eases his gaze toward Lydia and Allison, noticing the seat where Jackson was is now empty. "Where the hell is he?"
He looks around, before facing forward, tensing. Penelope watches him closely, but he's staring down at the table. His right hand grips his water bottle as his left-hand grips his tray. Scott's jaw ticks, a clear sign of his aggravation. "Yes," he says, but neither of them had said anything. He takes a shaky sip of his water, sparing a pained glance at Penelope now.
"Scotty, whatever he's saying, it's bullshit, don't let him get inside your head," she reaches out now, not caring who sees, and places her hand over his. But it's like for once he can't hear her, whatever Jackson is saying is too loud. His grip on the tray tightens, making it clatter against the table noisily, and she retracts her hand at that. A few seconds later, his arm jerks, bringing the tray with it, effectively snapping it in half. All eyes seem to be on them in the cafeteria, and Penelope can only wonder what the hell Jackson was saying to him.
Jackson had crashed their pool plan, but either way, it would still work. Penelope, Jackson, and Allison were currently swimming laps in the school's swimming pool while Scott was hopefully searching Allison's bag above them. Jackson reached the end first, Penelope right behind him and Allison trailing a few seconds behind them. She pushes her blonde hair out of her face as she surfaces, looking over at the other two, Allison gesturing for her to swim under the rope and over to them. She swims up to the ledge, resting her arms beside Jackson's, Allison on the other side of him.
Allison laughs, "You beat us again."
"I have an unfair advantage. See these cheekbones? Aerodynamically suited for speed in the water," Jackson responds charmingly, and even Penelope can't help the small smile that plays at her lips, which Jackson notices.
Allison laughs, "They are pretty impressive cheekbones."
Jackson smirks at the two girls, "So you guys are coming to the game tonight, right?"
"I was sort of thinking no," Allison sighs.
Jackson gapes, "But you have to. We win tonight and we're in the semi-finals. It's not because of Scott, right?"
"I was thinking it might be a little weird," she nods, and Nelly looks over to her, "You shouldn't feel weird about it, Ally, you should come if you want."
"Yeah. He's a good guy. You can't hate him too much. I mean it's obvious he's not mature enough yet to date someone like you," Jackson tells Allison, then looks at Penelope, suddenly a lot closer than she thought. "Stiles talks about you a lot in the locker room. Now that boy is the definition of immature. But then, you can't blame them for trying."
Allison laughs at this, while he splashes water at them, and Penelope tries to reciprocate, pretending to have a good time. But Jackson is a douche, and she hates him, she's finally decided once and for all, and she has to force herself not to grimace when he wraps a towel around the two girls for them when they all get out of the pool.
Stiles hurries into his room, her trailing behind, so when she sees Derek standing behind the door she lets out a small scream of shock before he reaches out, grabbing her quickly by the arm, spinning her around until his hand covers her mouth.
"Hey, Stiles!" his dad shouts from downstairs.
"Yo, Derek…." Stiles trails off as he turns around, seeing Derek, who had begun to release Penelope, motioning for the both of them to be quiet. Stiles snaps his mouth shut as Derek rolls his eyes. He jumps up, running to the door. "What did you say?" Penelope zones out then, trying to focus more on being not awkward around Derek. She looks up at him and he glances at her, making weird eye contact. They look away, and she twiddles her thumbs, making another decision: Derek would probably never be someone she could have a conversation with.
The door opens again, and Derek immediately has Stiles pinned to it. "If you say one word," he growls out.
"Hey," Penelope steps forward, pulling Derek off of the boy with incredible strength, "Don't touch him."
"Shit, yeah, that's right, don't touch me," Stiles righted himself, trying to look tough now. "At least when she's around."
"Scott didn't get the necklace?" he asks them, and they look at each other uneasily.
Stiles answers him, sitting at his desk as Penelope sits on his bed, "No, and Nelly tried, too, he's still working on it. But there's something else we can try. When we were trapped in the school that night Scott sent a text to Allison telling her to meet him there."
"So?" Derek shrugs.
"So it wasn't Scott that sent it because his phone was broken," Penelope explained.
"Can you find out who sent the text?" Derek asks.
"No. But I know someone who can."
When Danny shows up, he isn't as receptive as Stiles had imagined he'd be. He's standing in Stiles' room with his bag still on, defensively questioning the other boy's motives, "You want me to do what?"
"Trace a text," Stiles repeats, after his earlier and very bad explanation.
Danny sighs, rolling his eyes, "I came here to do lab work. That's what lab partners do."
"And we will. After you trace the text."
"What makes you think I know how?" Danny asks now.
"I saw your arrest report."
"Stiles!" Penelope gasps, wanting to reprimand the boy at divulging and weaponizing that information. Danny stutters, "I... that was... I was only thirteen. The charges were dropped. No. We're doing lab work."
Danny sits down next to him at the desk. Behind them, Derek sits in a chair by the bed trying to look inconspicuous while reading a magazine. Penelope sits at the head of the bed beside him, a binder propped open on her lap so that she can pretend to be doing something. Danny whispers to Stiles, "I get why Penelope is here, but who is he again?"
"My cousin... um... Miguel," Stiles thinks up. Derek glares over the magazine's edge in disbelief, and Nelly has to choke back a laugh at his expression. Even Stiles cringes at his own stupidity.
"Is that blood on his shirt?" Derek's T-shirt hangs torn and blackened by dried blood.
"He gets horrible nosebleeds. Miguel, I thought I told you to just borrow one of my shirts?" Stiles sends the older man a pointed look. Glaring with even more fury, Derek slowly puts the magazine down and gets up to open Stiles's closet. "So, we both know you've got the skills to trace that text-" Derek interrupts him, and Stiles glances back at Derek holding a shirt.
"Stiles. This... no fit."
"Try something else."
He turns back, but notices Danny gazing past him, eyes fixated on Derek's bare, muscular torso as he grabs another shirt. A smile creeps over Stiles's face, until he notices Penelope's eyes also glancing at the man's torso. She notices and sends him a nervous smile, a blush covering her face.
Stiles nods to Derek, "That looks good. What do you think, Danny?"
Danny looks dazed, "Huh?" Penelope reminds him, "The shirt?"
"I think-I think it's a nice shirt."
"Think he should try something else?" Stiles goads.
Danny, who is having difficulty speaking now, says, "It's... It's not exactly his color." Annoyed, Derek pulls off the T-shirt, exposing his perfect abs once again. As Danny's jaw drops open, Stiles leans in to whisper in his ear, "Swing for a different team, but you still play ball, don't you, Danny boy?"
"You're a terrible person."
"I know, it keeps me awake at night. Anyway, about that text…"
"Stiles! None of these fit," As Derek pulls his shirt off again, Danny hurriedly turns back to Stiles, "I'll need the ISP, the phone number and the exact time of the text."
After a few minutes of typing on Stiles' laptop, Danny seems to have found something. Derek and her come to stand behind the two boys, looking at the screen. "There. The text was sent from a computer. This one." He points to the screen as they all gather around.
"Registered to that account name?" Derek assures.
"No, no. That can't be right," Penelope shakes her head. The computer and network name listed on the screen: BEACON HILLS HOSPITAL - MELISSA MCCALL.
Penelope sits in the backseat of the Jeep, Stiles almost made Derek ride in the back but she had relented and sat in the back before the older man threatened to rip his throat out with his teeth again. Scott's name flashed on Stiles' cell, which she saw as she leaned over the seat. Stiles looked back at her before answering it.
"Did you get the picture?" She hears Scott ask.
"Yeah I did and it looks just like the drawing," Stiles replies.
Derek grabs Stiles' hand, bringing the phone close to his face, "Hey, is there something on the back of it? There's gotta be something. An inscription. An opening. Something." Stiles winces, and Penelope grabs the phone from between their hands as Scott replies, glaring at Derek as Stiles gives her a relieved look.
"No, the thing's flat. And no it doesn't open. There's nothing in it, on it, around it, nothing. And where are you? You're supposed to be here. You're First Line." Stiles glances to the radio clock with a pained sigh. Scott softens his tone, "Man, you're not gonna play if you're not here to start. Is Nelly with you?"
"I know. And yes, she is. If you see my Dad, tell him... tell him I'll be there. Just a little bit late," He hangs up without waiting for an answer, or letting Penelope say goodbye.
"You're not going to make it," Derek says. "We could," Penelope tries hopefully.
"We won't," Stiles sighs. Derek continues, "And you didn't tell him about his mother."
"Not until we find out the truth." They all turn their attention to the building now visible through the windshield, Beacon Hills Hospital Long Term Care.
"By the way, one more thing," Derek says. "Yeah?" he replies. And Penelope can feel the haze in her mind as Derek's hand raises, and her own raises to grab his wrist. Both of the men's heads w hip back to look at her, their eyes wide, and after a moment she releases him.
"Were you going to hit him?" She questions, still feeling an edge to her tone, a danger she hasn't normally experienced.
"Not anymore," is all he says.
"Dude, you're so fucking cool," Stiles whispers excitedly to her, before exiting the Jeep, pulling his seat forward so she can get out.
As the two of them near the building, she feels an uneasiness around her. Like something is telling her not to go in, that something bad is going to happen. She stays close to Stiles, "Why isn't he going in again, by the way?"
"People still think he's dead, I guess?" he sounds unsure, and takes out his phone when they find no one in the building, "What the hell, I'm gonna call him."
"We can't find her," he says, then repeats, "yeah, I said we can't find her." They walk over to an open room, and he says, "Yeah well, he's not here either. He's not here, he's gone, Derek."
Penelope feels someone beside her, and she turns, seeing the burned figure of Peter Hale. She gasps, and feels Stiles grab her arm, pulling her back against him. "I'm already familiar with this one. And you must be Stiles," he says to them. Stiles takes her hand and they turn to run, only to meet Peter's nurse.
"What are you doing here? Visiting hours are over." Penelope looks from her to Peter. Both of them are approaching. "You... and him... you're the one who... and he's the... Oh, my God. We're going to die, I'm sorry," Stiles rambles, looking at her at the end. Then Derek comes out of nowhere, elbowing the woman in the face, knocking her out cold.
"That wasn't nice. She's my nurse," Peter says sarcastically.
"She's a psychotic bitch helping you kill people," Derek says, then turns to the two of them, "Get out of the way.".
"Oh, damn," Penelope and Stiles drop to the floor, crawling out of the way as the two men argue, then they scurry around the fighting, eventually coming almost face to face with the unconscious- or was she dead, Penelope wondered- nurse. Stiles pulls her away from the woman, and to her feet, towards the doors to the building. They make it to the partition of the nurse's section, ducking behind the wall. Derek is thrown through the glass before Peter drags him down the hall.