Chapter 12: Here We Go

"Isaac, Boyd?" Derek straightened and then grimaced. "What are you doing here?"

"Two of the Alphas just showed up at the hospital."

"What?" Derek was up and standing, despite the pain that nearly had him tipping over sideways if Meredith hadn't been ready to steady him.

"Scott was there." Isaac leaned against the wall, hugging his chest. "He and Jackson were on their way into swap shifts when he heard the fight in the parking lot."

"He saved us," Boyd nodded. "I mean, they both did. Jackson took a beating, though. We would'a been dead without Scott. We split off so the Alphas would have to split up too."

"You left Stiles alone?"

"What the hell is a Stiles?" Damon squinted.

"They weren't interested in him," Isaac shook his head. "But we still ran off just in case to draw them away from him, and the other people at the hospital."

"We texted and said we'd take different ways," Boyd continued, "trying to lose them through the Preserve and town, but we all were gonna meet here. We knew you were coming here."

"So they're coming here?" Derek eyed the windows and door.

"We didn't know where else to go," Isaac shrugged and then stumbled.

Elena was closest and caught the kid on instinct, Erica hurrying to help.

"He's hurt," Erica lowered her friend to the floor, lifting his shirt, "bad."

Elena reached up, pulling the last clean towel off the counter and pressing it to the stranger's wounds. He grimaced and the vampire offered him a tight, apologetic, smile.

"Why isn't he healing?" Boyd joined them.

"It's from an Alpha," Derek crossed the room with the doctor's help. "It'll heal. It'll just take time. Why aren't you hurt?" He scanned his other Beta closely.

"It was like they weren't trying to hurt us," Boyd shook his head, "not really. I took a few claws to my arm, but I'm okay. They had something - like a needle. Got Jackson with it. I think it was wolfsbane."

"So Scott's out there being chased by an Alpha, carrying a wounded Jackson, alone," Derek bowed his head.

"Not anymore."

The teenager slid to a stop just past the threshold, dragging the limp form of Jackson behind him.

"How did you outrun it?" Boyd helped lift Jackson and bring him to the sofa.

"Are you kidding?" Scott bent to catch his breath. "Stiles and I have been running around these woods since we could walk. I knew a shortcut. A shortcut that Stiles just might have set up with werewolf booby traps."

"He set up werewolf booby traps, without telling us?" Derek was practically snarling.

"They're not activated," Scott lifted his hands. "All I had to do was flip the switches as I ran by. Laid up in the hospital, and he's still outsmarting the bad guys. That's my best friend."

"Why are his eyes like that?" Elena looked from Jackson to Damon. "What kind of werewolves are you?"

"The good kind," Scott assured the stranger, who apparently knew about werewolves, but not their eyes and who didn't smell quite human - and...this was all very confusing.

"What other kinds are there?" Erica glanced at her Alpha.

"What's wrong with him?" Meredith leaned over Jackson. "His physical injuries shouldn't be causing this kind of reaction."

"It's the wolfsbane," Derek moved to inspect his Beta's wounds. "You said he was injected with it? There's no wound to burn it out of. They probably meant to use it to knock him out and have something to cure him once they've taken him."

"Taken?" Scott glanced at the Alpha.

"I think that's what they've been trying to do. Think about it. If they wanted you dead, any of you, they could've done it already. You said it was like they weren't trying to hurt you, not really. I think they've been trying to take you."

"Why?" Erica stood and checked through the blinds.

"I don't know," Derek ground out through clenched teeth, staring down at Jackson's writhing form.

"Will he heal too?" Erica followed her Alpha's line of sight.

Derek bowed his head and the silence was a deafening answer.

"If we had time," the Alpha ran a hand over his face, "or if we could get him to Deaton. But the Alphas are going to be here any second -"

"And that is our cue," Damon glared at his girlfriend and reached for Meredith, "to leave."

Meredith yanked her arm back before the vampire could whoosh her away.

"I can't leave them like this. I'm a doctor. I can help."

"You can't fight werewolves," Damon advanced on her.

"But we can help," Elena instructed Boyd to keep pressure on the cloth she had been holding and gave Isaac one last smile before standing and moving closer to the shaking kid on the sofa. "I can give him my blood. Both of them."

"Your what?" Scott and Erica echoed each other.

"Come again, Elena?" Damon stepped toward her. "You want to give your blood, to a werewolf. Tyler's one thing. I can barely stand the mutt and I put up with him because you've known him your whole life. You don't know these people."

"Look at him, Damon. He could be Tyler. He can't be any older than Jeremy. After what you did to one of them," she gestured at Derek. "After all the damage that I've done, that we've done, we should do this. I am doing this."

Elena didn't wait for her boyfriend to respond as she grabbed a knife out of Alaric's bag and slid the blade across her wrist.

"Hold his mouth open," Elena motioned toward Derek.

"Do it," Meredith nodded. "Trust her. If it's his only shot, what have you got to lose?"

Derek closed his eyes. She was right. They didn't have time to argue or move him. With a silent plea and a soft snarl, the Alpha cupped his Beta's chin. He watched with suspicion and curiosity as the girl lifted her arm above Jackson's head, letting her blood flow freely from the open wound, and directly into the boy's mouth. Jackson coughed and sputtered, but eventually, swallowed. Shortly after, his breathing evened and his body relaxed.

"Okay, good deed done. Now we're out of here." Meredith again fought Damon's hold. "If you die, because I let you get in the middle of some mutt turf war, Ric is going to crawl out of his grave, just to kill me."

The room crashed into silence as the sound of Meredith's palm against Damon's face echoed.

"That is the second time you've used Ric's death against me today. One more time and he won't have to come back to kill you. I'll do it myself. I lost him too, you know. He may have been your drinking buddy, but he was my - my -" and Meredith couldn't find the words just then what Alaric had meant to her. Boyfriend sounded so juvenile. Her partner? Her soulmate? Her rock that had been smashed to pieces and sent her drowning?

"They're here." Derek announced, standing. "Boyd, Erica, get Isaac and Jackson into the bedroom. Take the doctor with you. If it it's you they want, we're not giving them a chance."

"I haven't given him my blood yet," Elena stepped toward Isaac, lifting her wrist over the werewolves mouth. "Drink," she encouraged him and he obeyed.

Isaac's body began to heal and he moved to help Boyd carry Jackson, casting a thankful, yet confused, glance back toward the vampire.

"You stay in that room and you don't let anything in, understand?"

The Betas obeyed without hesitation.

"Looks like your option of running just was taken off the table," Derek flexed his fists.

"I'm pretty fast." Damon eyed the window.

"Not fast enough. They're in the building."

"And we're not leaving Meredith," Elena stepped forward by Derek, nodding at him.

"Still got that bag?"

Elena picked it up off the coffee table and pulled out weapons, tossing them to Damon

and the others.

"The grenades can hurt you, too," she warned.

"I think I got that message," Derek stretched his back.

"Easier to just rip their hearts out," Damon shrugged.

"What?" Scott whirled around. "Who are you people? We're not killing anyone!"

"Sure, kid," Damon tossed a wolfsbane grenade in the air and caught it.

"They're in the hall," Derek interrupted.

"I don't hear anyone else out there, do you?" Elena swallowed, to which Derek shook his head.

Damon and Elena sped to the doorway in unison, each tossing a grenade out in opposite directions.

"Here we go."