Chapter 8: Wolfsbane of My Existence

The week went by at a sluggish pace with hardly any news about the mountain lion attack, save for the bus driver dying. That put a damper on a few days of school but things went back to normal after the days passed. The curfew enforced by the police department was enforced then more than ever, to the teens' chagrin but they dealt with it and moved on with their lives as best as they could. Melanie, however, couldn't move on.

Between looking for more wolf facts and werewolf information she had an increase in intensity with lacrosse practice to deal with, Erica still being upset over Stiles's infatuation with Lydia, a new puppy to potty train, parents that seemed on constant edge with one another, that stupid picture that was still going in circulation and the fact that Isaac was hiding something from her. She hadn't expected him to tell her outright what was going on even while she had suspicions but she felt they were on their way to being friends so that had to count for something, right?

She waved at him in the halls and stopped to chat whenever she had a second. Half of their French classes were spent working on their project and the other half was spent talking about lacrosse or the goings on around school or a bit about their families. Hell, he even started waiting for her to leave the locker room so they could walk to the field together. So why didn't he trust her? Not that she was only into their tentative friendship for the trust to get information out of him but it was beginning to get frustrating.

Added atop of that frustration was that Scott and Stiles were still acting funny. They were having more whispered conversations in the middle of the school than normal. They lurked around corners and appeared jumpy. Scott even had a few outbursts in classes that he never had before, almost as if his patience was being tested or that something was bothering him. Melanie was sure, she was sure she knew why but the more she thought about it the more she knew she didn't have anyone to talk to about her suspicions that wouldn't think she was crazy. Erica already didn't want to hear about it and if she tried her parents? They would probably send her to get her head examined. No that she blamed them.

It did sound crazy. Werewolves running around beneath people's noses, attacking people in the middle of the night, causing mass hysteria and a curfew to come into effect and pt stress on everyone's heads. That was ridiculous. But then the idea of a werewolf being on the lacrosse team and helping them kick off their newest season. That was even more ridiculous but to Melanie there was no other logical explanation. And that was it, in a nutshell. None of this was logical. But maybe sometimes logic just couldn't be used in some instances in life and maybe this was one of them.

But that didn't mean that reason couldn't come into play. Just like there had to be a reason that the leather jacket wearing boy that Melanie had seen a few times before was slowly making his way through the hall. She had to blink rapidly to be sure that she wasn't seeing things but with each blink he didn't disappear. What in the world was he doing at school? In the middle of the day? Looking like death?

She ducked behind a wall nearby and watched as he slowly approached Jackson. His pale, gaunt skin looked worse beneath the fluorescent lights of the school. Not that did any favors for the rest of them but he looked worse.

She squinted, trying to read their lips but it was hard, especially with Jackson's natural body movements as he spoke. She could only imagine he was making fun of the leather-bound boy. He said something for him to walk away but Jackson grabbed onto him, only for the boy to slam him up against his locker. At first Melanie felt a swell of pride for someone was finally able to put him in his place but that was quickly replaced with sympathy for him. Even someone as evil as Jackson didn't deserve that shit.

Melanie's eyes widened briefly and she ducked behind the wall when he turned around. She held her breath, doing her best to stay silent as her mind raced, wondering how in the world someone could just easily walk into the school like that. Didn't they have security or something around the school to prevent that? She made a mental note to check up on it later because it obviously wasn't working now. So what was she supposed to do? Go running to the principal about how there was someone in the school who she was sure had malicious intent without proof? Fat chance. Even she wasn't stupid enough to go after him without proof.

So she waited. She went through her day as best as she could, trying to act as normal as she could although she waited and expected for something to happen or for the guy to barge right into her class and…well, she hadn't gotten that far with the thought. He could do anything since he was in school already and, apparently, looking for Scott. She went through her classes, she studied with Erica, she worked on her project with Isaac, she ate lunch with Scott and Stiles (Erica was now avoiding anything Stiles related, which included eating in the lunchroom), and she even spent some time talking with Allison about their mutual love of Arcade Fire and running.

It wasn't until the last bell ring of the day that jump started everything. She had almost forgotten all about the strange guy in the halls by the time the day was over. Since they didn't have lacrosse that day she was ready to go straight home and play with her new puppy. Erica was going to come over later, she had a consultation to see if there was any way she could combat the weight gain due to her medicine.

"So Scott's studying with Allison today?" Melanie asked as she walked with Stiles through the hall of the school towards the exit. They had managed to park next to each other that morning so they decided to walk out to their cars together.

"If he's going to do anything interesting in his life that I can live through, he won't be studying with her," Stiles replied.

"Why? What else would he be doing?" she asked.

He stopped walking and she almost ran into him. "Are you kidding me?"

"Nooooo…?" she stretched out.

"What do you do when you're studying?"

Her eyes swiveled in their sockets as she thought. "Er…I study," she replied. "Well, I try. It doesn't usually work out."

"That's–no! That's not what's going to be happening today!" Stiles replied, holding up his finger. "Something is going to happen! Something is going to happen! I need a good story to live off of."

Melanie snorted. "I think you need a cold shower, that's what you need," she said, pushing open the door with her back. "Like, a lifetime of it."

"I probably do, not gonna lie. It'd be a better one if someone joined me."

"Oh my god, you need to stop!"

The two laughed as they went their separate ways, Stiles to his blue jeep and Melanie to her red truck. She got in and buckled herself in and waited for Stiles to back out of his space so she could fall in behind him. They had barely moved forward in the line when Stiles slammed on his brakes causing a backup. Melanie's hand hovered over her own horn when her peering through her windshield and then through his made her pause.

It was him! It was the guy! He had stepped out in front of Stiles's jeep, causing the backup. Was he trying to get Stiles in an accident? Her mind raced with possibilities as to why he was there while the rest of her body moved on autopilot. And apparently autopilot was throwing her car in park, grabbing her lacrosse stick, and rushing towards the guy who was now surrounded by Scott and Stiles Which, she thought once her brain finally caught up with her, wasn't too smart if he had a gun on him.

"Help me put him in your car," Scott was saying when Melanie rushed over.

"Stiles, did you hit him?" Melanie asked, clutching her lacrosse stick in his hands.

Stiles whirled around; his mouth gaped like a fish. His eyes bounced around as he tried to think of something to say. "No! He just ate some…bad sushi. Real bad food poisoning," he replied.

"Cut the crap," Melanie ordered. She used her stick to point at the guy on the ground. "He's been following you around for ages, hasn't he? He was– he was at Lydia's party! He was at a lacrosse practice one time! He was even at our last game! What is he, some sort of pedophile?"

The sick boy managed to glare at her at her question and she visibly flinched as Scott dragged him over to the passenger side of Stiles's car.

"No, Mel, he's not, we know him," Stiles replied, running a hand over his hair while backing away from her. Her hands tightened on the shaft of her crosse. She hated it when they did that. She was just so tired of it. "It's just complicated, okay? But we got it under control—"

Melanie stepped towards him. "You think you can control a werewolf?" she blurted out, making Stiles stop in his tracks amidst the honking of the horns. Now he really looked like a fish gasping for air.

"Wh-what are you—?" his question was cut off when she pressed the handle of her lacrosse stick against his neck and shoved him against the door to his car.

"Don't try to smooth talk your way out of this, Stilinski. You may be as slick as butter when you need to be but not about this." Dropping her voice she said, "I think I know what's going on. And if I'm right…I can help you."

"Mel, you don't want to get involved."

She held his gaze and then motioned to her stick. "I kind of already am, aren't I?" More honks shot out around them.

"This isn't like you thinking Mr. Harris is a vampire."

"I know." Despite her heart hammering in her chest she managed to crack a smile. "This is real." She released him and dropped her stick to her side.

"…Fine! Just…get in your car and follow me. And don't! Say! Anything!"

"Aye aye, captain!" Melanie saluted him and backed away so Stiles could get into his jeep. She jogged over to her truck, threw her lacrosse stick into the back, and then got into the driver's seat, managing to get buckled up at light speed to follow Stiles out of the congested parking lot. Her hands shook against the steering wheel and she had to take a few deep breaths to calm down her nerves. She had gotten herself into shit before but this one had to take the cake.

She followed Stiles closely as they drove down the road. The silence in her car had gotten to her and she needed something to drown out her heavy beating heart. She tried tapping her thumbs against the steering wheel but that didn't help. She tried the radio but after a long string of commercials she switched to a CD. But then that didn't work, she couldn't get lost in the music as she usually did, so silence became her companion. But it made her even more restless. She couldn't stand silence. It made her antsy; she had to fill it somehow.

Her silent torture was given a reprieve when Stiles pulled over to the side of the road. She pulled in behind him and squinted, waiting to see if something was wrong. Stiles seemed to be waving his arms around and she slumped in her seat. They were having an argument. Great. She began to count cars as she waited for them to get going again, reaching twenty-seven that had passed as she sat there. Whatever argument Stiles and the guy seemed to be having finally ended when the lights appeared on the back of his car and they rolled forward. Melanie pressed her foot against the brakes to take the car out of park and followed close behind them once more.

After a while they pulled over again and Melanie left her car to figure out what was going on. Stiles reported that he didn't have a place to take Derek so they were stuck for a while. Hearing that, Melanie made sure her car was locked, her personal belongings were secure, grabbed her lacrosse stick—"just incase!" she said when Stiles gave her a peculiar look—and jumped into the backseat.

Minutes turned to an hour. The sun had begun to set as they waited for any word from Scott. Stiles texted him a few times and got no answer, which only seemed to frustrate him more than he already was.

"Is he still studying with Allison?" Melanie asked, leaning between the seats.

"Put finger quotes around the word studying, but yes," Stiles replied, rubbing his forehead. "He's going to try and find whatever kind of bullet it was that he was shot with." He jerked his thumb over to the guy—who she finally learned was called Derek Hale—who was resting with his head against the window.

"Oh. Well, that's gonna take a while," she stated.

"No shit."

"Why…is she here?" Derek breathed.

"Because she has an overly large nose," Stiles replied.

Melanie stuck her tongue out at him. "For the record it's cute as a button," she told him. She then turned to Derek. "Also because Thing 1 and Thing 2 have a horrible time at whispering and they were being freakishly weird for weeks. They can't cover tracks so I just put two and two together to figure out what was going on. It also helps that I'm a walking talking Supernatural encyclopedia."

"Wait, how did you find out but Jackson is still in last place over this whole thing?" Stiles asked, turning around.

"Because it's Jackson." Melanie rolled her eyes. "That should tell you something. Have you ever seen him in the library? He's not dumb but he's not entirely logical." She paused. "Y'know, that explains why he is super obsessed with Scott. Like, Harry Potter, Draco Malfoy level of creepy. Circa Half-Blood Prince."

Stiles didn't acknowledge her comment. Instead he picked up his phone and dialed Scott's number. She noticed he jabbed his thumbs against the screen. He was clearly agitated. Melanie pressed her lips together and rested her arms on the backs of their seats as she waited for Scott to answer.

"What am I supposed to do with him?" Stiles demanded once Scott picked up the phone. "And by the way he's starting to smell." There was a pause in the conversation and Derek slowly shifted his head to glare at Stiles. Leaning forward, Melanie stuck her nose by his armpit and sniffed, nodding her head in confirmation. She shrunk when Derek glared at her as well. "Like death!" Scott's muffled voice was heard on the line, prompting Stiles to ask about his boss which clicked in Melanie's mind that they were going to the animal shelter. She had to bury her face in her arms to keep from laughing out loud. A werewolf in an animal shelter. Things were just writing themselves!

"Alpha?" Melanie repeated, sitting higher up in her seat. "Like…alpha, beta, gamma, delta?"

"Yeah. Only the alpha is a raging werewolf that bit Scott so now he's part of his pack," Stiles sighed, rubbing his eyes.

"Gimme that," Melanie said, snatching the phone out of Derek's hand. "Scott! You're part of someone's pack?"

"Wha—Mel? What are you doing there?"

"We don't have time for this, McCall. Stiles will fill you in later. What's this I hear about an Alpha wanting you to kill people?" She paused and then gasped. "So that's what you two were talking about with the rabbit in Chemistry!"

Derek pulled the phone out of her hand and growled, "Find that bullet!" before hanging up the phone.

"Didn't have to be so rude," Melanie grumbled. Derek rolled his eyes. "Okay, you two get going. I'll get my car and follow you."

"Why don't we just take you?" Stiles asked.

"I don't want to leave my car sitting on the side of the road."

"It's a hunk of junk! People are going to think it broke down…rightfully so." She smacked him on the back of the head. It may be a hunk of junk but it was her hunk of junk and she was proud of it. But he did have a point so she sat back and got comfortable as he started up the car again.

# # #

Stiles found the key where Scott had told him it was left and he unlocked and opened the door as Melanie tried to help Derek inside but it was hard due to him not wanting to be touched and her being so short compared to him he couldn't rest his weight on her. But she tried so it was a win in her books. Stiles turned on the light and Derek collapsed against a pile of dog food bags. Barking dogs could be heard in the distance. A ding sounded and Stiles reached into his pocket to check his phone.

"Does Nordic blue monkshood mean anything to you?" Stiles asked.

"It's a rare form of wolfsbane," Derek and Melanie replied in unison, although Melanie spoke with massive amounts of 'duh!' dripping off her words.

"He has to bring me the bullet," Derek continued.

"Why?" Stiles asked.

"Because I'm going to die without it."

"Who would have a wolfsbane bullet?" Melanie asked, shoving her hands into her pockets.

"A hunter," Stiles replied. Melanie made a face. "A werewolf hunt—"

"That's not what I meant," she interrupted him. "I mean…you can't handle wolfsbane without proper precautionary measures. The toxins can soak through the skin. Don't even think about ingesting it. Which means it had to be handled by someone who knew what they were doing but…" her words slowly trailed off and her face morphed into an expression of absolute horror.

"What? What is it?" Stiles demanded.

"Flowerworks," Melanie whispered.

"What? Your flower shop?"

"Yeah. " She licked her lips and gulped. "Last Sunday…a woman came in…asking if we carried any wolsbane, which is stupid because of how poisonous it is. I mean, why would you make a bouquet just to kill someone with it? I mean, I guess if you had a grudge— "

Stiles grabbed her shoulders. "Mels! Focus!"

"Right, sorry! Anyway, a lady came in asking if we had it. And I told her no and I told her why—it being poisonous and all—and I mentioned the toxins and side-effects and stuff." She slowly shook her head. "I didn't…I never thought…"

"What, so…so someone made a bullet out of wolfsbane?" Stiles demanded.

Melanie slowly nodded. "Or…or soaked one in its toxins, yeah." They turned their heads to look at Derek who was staring hard back at them. "That's…that's not food poisoning," she muttered. Stiles let go of her and hurriedly sent a text on his phone as Melanie approached Derek. His heavy eyebrows were lowered as he watched her getting closer. She knelt by his side and lightly touched his arm. He jerked it away, of course. "I'm sorry, I didn't know. I thought it was just a random question."

Derek didn't reply. Not that she thought he would. He was getting worse by the minute. All color seemed to have drained from his face. She knew for humans wolfsbane could kill fast but he seemed to be more resilient. The werewolf powers had to come into play. As concerned as she was she couldn't help but be extremely fascinated with him.

"Let's get him inside," she said as she stood. "It wouldn't help us if we all got arrested while he's dying."

"Yeah, alright," Stiles replied. They both grabbed one of Derek's arms and pulled him to his feet. Shuffling beneath his weight, they entered the animal clinic through a back and took him into an operating room. Stiles turned on a light once they entered the room. Derek pulled away from them and tugged off his shirt.

"Whoa," Melanie uttered, staring at his bare upper body. It was impressive, even if he did have weird black lines running up his arm and his skin was as pale as paper. She couldn't help but stare.

"Mel," Stiles admonished, slapping her on the arm.

"Sorry," she said, turning her eyes away, biting down on her lip to keep from smiling. She didn't need Stiles making fun of her and it was in bad taste to stare at the physique of someone dying.

"If the infection reaches my heart it'll kill me," Derek relayed before moving around the room to find something.

"Positivity just isn't in your vocabulary, is it?" Stiles asked. Now it was Melanie who slapped his arm. If her ogling wasn't going to help matters his sarcasm wasn't either.

"If he doesn't get here with the bullet in time…last resort," Derek replied.

"Which is?" Stiles asked.

Derek didn't reply right away. He opened a cabinet door and then knelt to picks something up. Melanie's head tilted at the large tattoo in the center of his back, three connected spirals. But then her eyes widened when he whirled around with a blade.

"You're gonna cut off my arm," he replied.

Melanie made a face. "That's…kinda…drastic," she pointed out. Derek ignored her as he grabbed a piece of blue stretchy plastic and held it in his mouth.

"What if you bleed to death?" Stiles demanded.

"It'll heal if it works," Derek said as he tied the blue plastic around his arm.

"I don't know if I can do this."

"Why not?"

"Well, because of the cutting through the flesh, the sawing of the bone, and especially the blood."

Derek dropped his arm and glared at Stiles.

"He's a bit squeamish with that sort of thing," Melanie explained.

"You faint at the sight of blood?" Derek asked incredulously.

"No, but I might at the sight of a chopped off arm!" Stiles replied.

Derek, clearly frustrated at the point, threatened for Stiles to cut off his arm unless he wanted his head chopped off. He grabbed Stiles by the collar of his jacket which made him change his mind real fast. Despite the tense situation Melanie giggled at his changing tune but stopped when Derek puked…black blood?

"Sick!" she cried out, watching it splatter against the ground.

Derek relayed that it was his body trying to heal. Melanie's guess was that his organs were starting to shut down, either way they didn't have much time left so Derek ordered Stiles to saw off his arm. Melanie covered her eyes. She didn't want to watch the blood bath. Her muscles tensed when she heard Stiles pick up the handsaw and the blade start to whirl. Any second she would hear it ripping through flesh and—

"Stiles?" Scott's voice called out. The whirring of the blade stopped and Melanie removed her hands from her eyes.

"Scott?" Stiles repeated.

Scott burst into the room and, rightfully so, freaked out at the sight of Stiles holding the saw against Derek's arm. Stiles let go of the saw and laughed in relief. Scott then dug into his pocket and pulled out the wolfsbane bullet, handing it over to Derek. But before he could do whatever it was he was going to do with it, he fell over, dropping the bullet. It rolled and fell down a small grate on the floor. Scott rushed for it while Stiles and Melanie began shaking Derek to get him to wake up.

"Come on, get up," Melanie muttered, shaking Derek's head from side to side but nothing happened.

"Please don't kill me for this," Stiles muttered and then punched Derek's cheek. It got him to wake up but Stiles recoiled as he held his aching hand.

"I could have told you that wouldn't work," Melanie said as they helped Derek to his feet.

"Why didn't you stop me then?" Stiles demanded.

Melanie shrugged. "People have to learn from their mistakes, right? Even the stupid ones."

Derek got to his feet and moved over to the table. He bit the top off the bullet in an amazing show of strength and dumped the gunpowder on the table. He lit it with a lighter and, once it burned off, dumped the powder onto his wound. But that wasn't the end of it. He then proceeded to stick his finger in the wound. His scream caused Melanie to start screaming, more out of shock at what she was seeing rather than sympathy pain.

Derek fell to the floor, writhing in pain as he continued to scream, a wolf-like growl rumbled in his chest at one point. They watched in awe as blue smoke lifted from the wound and his skin reverted back to normal before their eyes. The bullet and the bullet wound disappeared.

"That was…awesome!" Stiles cried out. Melanie nodded her head. She couldn't have said it better herself.

"Okay, we saved your life. Now you can leave us alone," Scott said firmly. "And if you don't I'm going back to Allison's dad and tell him everything—"

"Allison's dad?" Melanie repeated.

"He's a hunter, long story," Stiles said with a wave of her hand.

"Aww, what a shame. Her dad's kinda hot but…" she stopped talking at the incredulous look on Stiles's face.

"You're gonna trust them?" Derek demanded. "You think they can help you?"

"Why not?" Scott asked.

"Probably because they want to kill you," Melanie cut in. When they all turned to look at her she held up her hands and mimed locked her lips together.

"C'mon, Mel, I'll drive you back to your car," Stiles said. She nodded and followed him out, glancing over her shoulder to look at Scott. Sighing, she turned back around and walked out of the room. "Well…welcome to the wonderful world of werewolves," he joked as he threw an arm around her shoulders.

She managed a laughed. "Try saying that five times fast."

# # #

It was late by the time Melanie got home that night. Her mind still hadn't caught up to what exactly she had just witnessed and it didn't have time to process it either for as soon as she stepped through the front door of her home her ears were assaulted with the noise of her parents yelling at one another. Again.

"This isn't my fault, Bell!" Laurence yelled.

"You're the one who gave her that truck in the first place! I should have never let you do it!" Arabella yelled back.

"I had it all checked out before I gave it to her. If it weren't drivable I wouldn't have given it to her!"

"Well that's easy to say but she's still missing!"

"No, I'm not, I'm right here," Melanie replied, entering the kitchen. She had barely set her backpack down when Arabella ran forward and hugged her but she wasn't too happy with her parents at the moment to hug them back. She was supposedly missing and the only thing they do is fight with one another instead of look for her? "My car ran out of gas and I walked to find a place nearby. Went back, called a tow truck, went back to the station got gas, and came here." As soon as the lie came out of her mouth she noticed the holes in her story but she hoped her parents didn't catch them.

"How come you didn't call anyone?" Laurence demanded.

"I have no phone!" Melanie replied. She grabbed her backpack. "Now, if you'll excuse me I want to take a bath and get some sleep. It's been a long day."

"Erica came by but then she left. She wants you to call her," Arabella relayed.

"Okay, I will once I get upstairs."

"No, now." Melanie turned, about to ask what her mother's impatience was for and then she saw the brand new cell phone sitting in her hand. "We were going to surprise you with it today but…" her voice trailed off and a wavering smile appeared on her face. "Anyway, we hope you like it. Your contacts and everything has been backed up."

"Great, thanks!" Melanie took the phone, bent over to scoop up Nova who had been biting at her shoelace and ran upstairs. She fired off a quick text to Erica—Got a new phone! Sorry I wasn't around, had car trouble. See you tomorrow?—dropped her things off in her room and went to the bathroom to soak as many of her troubles away as she possibly could. Though the trouble of her parents arguing seemed to be one that was going to stay for good.


a/n - And we have made it to the good part! Now Melanie is in on all the werewolf secrets going around. Or is she? Thanks so much for the reviews and favs and alerts everything. I'm happy to see that you all are enjoying this story. I made a new cover image for the story, please let me know what you think. From here on out the events in the show will be displayed but also new events will be added in. Am I the only one who was surprised they didn't take advantage of a Valentine's Day ep if the first season was set in Feburary? Well, I'm gonna fix that in this fic! There will also be some deviations coming up as well, mainly stretching time between event sequences. You'll see later on. Also, there's more Melisaac goodness in the future as well as her interacting more with Allison, Lydia, Jackson, and even Danny. Please leave a review! Enjoy!