I know it's been an eternity since I last uploaded but academics must come first no matter how boring that may seem, when you are a full scholarship kid there is no extra time for fun and entertainment such as this story. Either way, here is the next chapter! The song is "I Found a Way" by The Alkaline Trio and without further ado...

Chapter 18: "I Found a Way"

"I found away

Over the fear and through the flames, I'm diving in

Don't follow me, stay right here I'll be back for you someday

I found away, it'd be best if you just stayed

It's not safe don't follow me

I found away, I found away"

Sitting on the freezing bathroom floor was where Allison found Isaac hours later when she woke up in the middle of the night to his half of the bed being not only empty and cold but never slept in. "Isaac?" She had called and had paused waiting for him to respond. Hearing nothing, she had gotten out of bed, wrapped her throw blanket around her shoulders like a cape and headed towards the bathroom where she could hear his light snores. "Isaac?" At the sound of his name, the boy woke up suddenly with a yelp of surprise and looked at her bewildered and surprised. "Where am I?" Within moments he was shivering and she looked at him with sadness in her eyes; this problem with Scott was really weighing on him. "My bathroom floor, let's get you to bed and we'll deal with it in the morning." Nodding obediently and following behind her like a lost puppy, Allison led the boy to the bed and helped him out of his jacket and boots before he crawled into bed at her command. Walking around to her side of the bed, she climbed in next to him and looked at the broken, confused boy sadly. One action had a million consequences, especially when that one action caused painful memories to resurface. Isaac's eyes had closed almost instantly but he still appeared worried and was absolutely shaking.

Now she was the one who could not sleep, and she lay there restless just watching her boyfriend as he was demoted to a quivering boy again as he doubted not just Scott but himself. Even though she wanted to fix him, she knew she couldn't; it was impossible to repair the layers upon layers of abuse, lacking self esteem, and inability to trust that had been a side effect of the torture from his jackass father. Trust was hard for him, Allison knew that better than anyone, and it took a brave person, far braver than she, to forgive like he forgave. Despite everything, Isaac remembered the best of the man who would beat him to within an inch of his life, he forgave her for almost killing him and loved her anyway, and he had forgiven her father for hunting him and now looked up to Argent like a mentor. Even for someone as fantastic as him, there was a line and once it was crossed, it shook him up considerably. He wouldn't let himself go in front of Scott, never would actually, but in front of her he put his walls down and let her in to see the brokenness. Everyone had their times when they fell apart, but his hurt her more than anyone else's to watch. Knowing that everyone had to fall before they got back up again, like she had with the burning incident only a week before, she finally was able to relax enough to go to sleep. Facing him she wrapped her much smaller arms around his body and curled up with her head resting on his chest and finally fell into a short dreamless sleep.

When the alarm went off, what felt like, seconds later, Isaac bolted up only to find himself in the same clothes he had worn last night and Allison looking up at him from where she lay still on the bed. "Okay?" She asked him and he thought about it for a moment. He was certainly better than he had been when she found him on the tiled floor last night but was he actually okay? "We'll find out." Was all he managed as he leaned down to peck her cheek in silent thanks for last night before standing up, stretching, and heading to the drawer where a good portion of his clothes had ended up over the past few months. Pulling out a clean flannel button down and dark gray jeans, Isaac turned around and his breath caught, as it always did, upon seeing Allison in the process of changing. No matter how many times he saw his girlfriend, he would never cease to be amazed by the sight of her. In his eyes, she was perfect and not in the plastic surgery fake porn star or starved model kind of way. She was real, she was scarred and soft and hard and pale and thin but, despite this, she was beautiful. "What?" The girl asked without turning around as she felt his gaze on her. Shrugging nonchalantly like this casual admiration was actually easy for him to express, Isaac stepped forward with a grin and kissed her mouth lightly. "You're damn beautiful." Before she could point out her flaws, as she was ought to do when he said such things this early in the morning, he kissed her slowly and deeply which more than served as a means by which to quiet her.

Stepping away with a ghost of a smile still on his features, the tall boy slipped into the bathroom to shower and allow her time to get herself ready so that they weren't late. Watching him leave, she touched her lips lightly and worried to herself. She didn't want to lose the innocent teen that she had come to love and she was frightened that any confrontation with the Alpha over the freshman could cause him to change. It had taken him so long to trust anyone, her especially, and she did not want him to lose that. Tugging on her own day's clothing of a flowery skirt, thick denim top, and a sweater, she pinned the frizziest pieces of hair in place. Knowing full well that Lydia would force her to fix it later, she glared at her reflection before even attempting to deal with the make-up portion of the getting ready process. When he came out of the bathroom, clean and dressed she was in the process of fighting with the coffee maker in the kitchen. "Need a hand?" He asked with a smirk and earned himself a glare as she spun around causing coffee grounds to spill everywhere from the spoon in her hand. "I've got this; I will not be bested by a new piece of technology." To be honest, it was pretty complex especially after having had a push-button Keurig for so long but it was by no means difficult unless one had yet to have their daily dose of caffeine. Therefore, as she continued to glare at it, Isaac stepped around her carefully and poked his head into the pantry looking for his own less complicated breakfast.

In the end, Allison got her coffee after enough curse words and having to finally cave in and check the directions while Isaac enjoyed his toasted everything bagel with cream cheese and a side of entertainment. The drive to school was quiet and quite uneventful as Isaac munched on the remnants of his bagel and Allison sullenly drank her coffee. When they arrived however, she watched him visibly tighten up and she grabbed his hand with a comforting smile and gave it a squeeze before letting go and stepping out of the car and into the crisp January air. "It'll be fine." She assured him with a smile as he forced a smirk and a nod before slamming his door and heading towards the school. Nearly trotting to keep up with his longer legs, Allison followed him in and was unsurprised that the first person that greeted them was none other than Liam with a fellow freshman boy following close behind him and chattering away about lacrosse. "Looking better Liam, glad the leg turned out okay." The boy frowned at her comment and gestured down at it, glancing down the couple realized that it was still tied up. "Not exactly, I guess it was just adrenaline." Isaac knew better but nodded along anyways as the boy forced a smile before spotting Scott walking in the doorway and walking off quickly with his chatty friend following. Scott frowned as he watched the boy wander off and turned to look at his two friends. "Why was he talking to you?" Keeping his anger in check with an effort, the Beta opened his mouth to speak but was surprised when Allison butted in before he could, "Probably because he didn't bite him."

Scott looked at her aghast and Isaac glanced over at her in surprise as well. "It's true though, isn't it?" She pressed and Scott gulped in shame before gathering his courage and managing to get a few words in. "It was an accident but I can't change it and I don't want to, the bite is a gift." Isaac snorted at that, when he was younger he agreed with that and had chosen this curse but Liam hadn't and neither had Scott, the Alpha knew better than that. "It's a curse and you know it." The Beta pointed out and Scott's frown deepened as he glared at them both for arguing with him. "I created him so I will handle him, you don't know what you're doing." When angry, Scott was not likely to be quite as moral as he normally was and Isaac about lost it at that. What Scott was implying was that as creator and Alpha, he was like a father to the boy and that meant that he knew best but fathers didn't always know better; his father certainly didn't. "I am just as controlled as you are!" He practically yelled and stepped back to take a breath before adding, "Give him space. Give us all space." Pivoting on his heel, he marched down the hall with Allison following him and leaving Scott there looking perplexed at this new development.

"Did I do something wrong?" Allison asked after this prolonged silence as the pair headed into their first class and Isaac shook his head as he dropped his English textbook down with a sigh and dropped into his seat. "No, of course not. Just don't know what to think." Glaring at his desk top in annoyance with himself he added, "That didn't fix it and I don't know what will." Sitting down beside him, Allison frowned as she tried to come up with the words and remained silent for a moment before the teacher came in and started lecturing ending any hope she had of comforting her boyfriend and explaining that there was nothing wrong with his reaction whatsoever. As the new guy talked about The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the novel that they had just completed, Allison smiled despite herself as the words finally came to her and she grinned as she wrote quickly. When she looked at the result it was smudged, shaky, and had an abnormal lean to it but it was exactly what needed to be said so she grinned before passing it to Isaac.

Looking over at her in confusion, he picked up the piece of paper and read over it carefully once before reading over it again whilst mouthing the words. "You're like Huck Finn, same abusive father and same silly friend with Tom being Scott and Stiles rolled into one. Despite having such a terrible family life, you escaped and helped others even if you took a few detours along the way. Now you are at the point, at the end of the book, when Huck says enough is enough and forces Tom to see things in a new light. Maybe you just need to shed some new light on the subject." Isaac looked over at her with a light smile before scrawling in his neat, slow left-slanted practiced print. Reading it with a light smile at his perfectionist handwriting, she mouthed the words to herself, "New light, huh? If that's the case, how many supernaturals does it take to screw in a light bulb?" Trying not to chuckle at his sarcastic question she traced the number that he had written afterwards with a silly girlish smile on her face. Only he could make light of such seriousness and still manage to be romantic in his awkward, original way, she decided as she folded up the piece of paper and re-wrote the same number two at the top before slipping it into her notebook; who knew when she would need a silly pick-me-up one day?

Her attention was gone for the rest of class; whatever the teacher Mr. Byrnes said went in one ear and out the other as she fed off of Isaac's worry as it became her own. This was not to say that she did not have her own worries to begin with, Kate was still pressing heavily on her thoughts but the Liam situation was at the forefront. By the time the bell finally rang, Allison was so unfocused she was entirely uncertain of how she could possibly make it throughout the rest of her classes. "Al?" Isaac began, looking at her as she packed up her things off in her own little world, "Allison?" He tried again, a little louder this time, and placed a hand gently on her shoulder. She grabbed his hand and spun around jerking him forward and causing him to yelp in response. "Sorry!" She exclaimed as she let go of his hand and he laughed it off lightly even as his eyes didn't quite light up as much as they normally did due to his worry. "It's alright; we're all a little uptight right now."

Walking out the door after her, the two stopped in the middle of the hallway at the sounds of a commotion. Looking at each other in surprise, they soon were running through the halls towards the raised voices coming from the weight room. "You might want to wait outside." Isaac started only to earn a snort from a not amused Allison. "Nevermind." He amended as he threw open the door and they rushed inside in sync to catch sight of a very pissed off Liam glaring at Scott as the Alpha gave "The bite is a gift line" that Derek once had used on him. "Isaac!" Liam exclaimed recognizing the angry teen and his equally peeved girlfriend as they burst into the room. "Isaac, I ordered you to stay out of this!" Scott growls as Allison ignores the Alpha and she steps forward and grabs Liam's hand to pull him up and towards the door. "Scott, you can't fix this by forcing him into the pack." The Alpha stepped back and opened his mouth to yell back at him when Isaac shook his head and stepped forward in a threatening manner. "Don't you dare, we will discuss this later like adults." Turning to Allison and Liam, with the latter looking more than a little confused, he nodded towards the door. "You can barely control yourselves!" Scott yelled after them, "How can you help him?" Without even turning around, Isaac continued to follow Allison out the door and threw his answer back over his shoulder with a smirk, "Then we will take him to someone who can."

Hope that you enjoyed that chapter! The next one will be up sometime this week simply because I have some time before winter break ends. After that, I make no promises. Hope that everyone enjoys the premiere of Season 5B tonight, I'll certainly be watching even if it has gone slightly downhill since Isaac and Allison left... Either way, read, enjoy, and review! Until next time ^-^