Chapter Four

I sighed as I walked with my brother and Stiles through the corridors to our last class. They were talking about who the alpha could be and I was listening with vague interest; I didn't think it was going to be someone that we knew personally, so their theories weren't really piquing my intrigue.

'Come on, it could totally be Coach!' Stiles argued as we took our seats for the last class of the day.

'Stiles, you're an idiot,' I shook my head with a laugh.

'Agreed.' Scott said.

Stiles looked moderately offended but otherwise remained silent as the teacher came around, passing the marked pop quizzes from the previous week. I was sat in the chair next to Stiles, next to the window, while my twin was in front of our best friend. I smiled at the A+ on my test and looked over when I heard my brother groan.

'Woah. You should study more,' Stiles joked.

'It's one test, Scotty you'll make it up,' I assured him, reaching over to squeeze his arm comfortingly.

'Do you need help studying?' Stiles asked, placing his graded A paper into his notebook.

'Nah, Allison and I are studying together after school,' Scott said offhandedly.

Stiles and I said different things at the same time.

'That's my boy!'

'Too much information!'

Scott looked between us with a confused expression on his face.

'We're just studying,' Scott frowned, wondering why Stiles and I were both laughing at him.

'No you're not. Just studying is code for making out,' I told my innocent twin brother.

'Or more.' Stiles agreed, giving Scott a look, 'and if I have to live vicariously through you, you better not be just studying. I swear to god if you waste this opportunity, I will have you de-balled.'

I laughed at Stiles' outburst, trying to pull my laugher off as a cough to lessen the glare the teacher was aiming our way.

'Alright, alright. Just no more questions or speculation about the alpha.' Scott's looked over his shoulder, giving Stiles a pleading look that made me shake my head fondly.

We lapsed back into silence as the teacher droned on. As he did I alternated between doodling on a blank page and staring out of the window- I had already covered the topic he was covering and I didn't need to make duplicate notes. When the bell wrung we made our way outside.

'See you later, Scotty. Love you,' I hugged my brother goodbye as I followed Stiles over to his Jeep. Scott was meeting Allison straight after school, so Stiles was giving me a ride home. I had a rare night off from the clinic. I caught the keys that he threw at me randomly with my supernatural reflexes, giving Stiles a look.

'Gotta keep you and your supernatural reflexes on their toes.' He smirked, climbing into the passenger seat of his own car.

'So what are you doing tonight?' I asked him as I pulled on my seatbelt and started the engine of his Jeep.

'Probably studying. You can come over if you want, I concentrate better when you're there.' He said, scrolling through his phone.

'Because I make sure you study and I confiscate your phone,' I rolled my eyes as I pulled out of the parking space, 'you have the attention span of a goldfish Stiles.'

'Hey, I resent that!' Stiles waved his hands around frantically, making me laugh as I looked over to him.

I bought my eyes back to the parking lot and gasped, slamming on the brakes. Derek was standing right in front of the truck, looking incredibly weak.

'What the hell! This guy is everywhere,' Stiles groaned. I ignored him, putting the truck in park and jumping out to get to Derek's side. He was clutching his left arm with a look of pain in his face; I placed my hand on his thigh, the other on his shoulder.

'What's wrong with you?' Scott asked before I could, though he sounded annoyed for some reason.

'I got shot.' Derek said plainly.

'Why aren't you healing?' I asked, helping him to stand with a gentle but firm hand on his uninjured arm. I placed my arm around his waist as a form of support, which with how heavily he was leaning on me, he needed.

'It was a different kind of bullet,' Derek breathed.

'A silver bullet?' Stiles sounded excited and I had to suppress a snort.

'No, you idiot!' Derek yelled, getting annoyed. I found myself subconsciously rubbing my thumb back and forth where it was supporting him on his waist in an attempt to calm him down. Surprisingly, I felt a little tension leave him and he leaned on me a little more heavily.

I looked up to Derek when he stumbled, nearly bringing us both down. I could hear car horns beeping in the background, but I was more concerned with the fact that Derek's eyes were glowing.

'Derek, your eyes,' I whispered frantically, bringing my free hand up to cover his eyes.

'Why are you doing that?' Scott murmured, suspiciously glancing around to make sure no one was watching.

Derek gently removed my hand from in front of his eyes before answering, 'that's what I'm trying to tell you! I can't!'

'Okay, we need to get you out of here, I think we've attracted enough attention.' I said, noticing that people were starting to get out of their cars.

I gestured to Stiles, silently asking him to open the door, which he did with exaggerated hand movements. I managed to get Derek into the passenger seat before I held open the drivers side door for Stiles, he gave me a disbelieving look before complying and climbing into the back. I jumped into the drivers seat and looked over to my brother who was talking to Derek out of the wound down passenger side window.

'You have to get me the bullet.' Derek urged.

'What, why me?' Scott sounded flustered.

'Because she's,' he gestured to Allison who was starting to make her way over to us, 'an Argent and she's with them.'

'Why should I help you?' Scott scoffed.

'Scott,' I all but growled, I was pretty sure that my eyes were glowing gold and for a split second my twin actually looked scared of me.

'Fine. I'll help you. Get him out of here.' Scott said frantically.

'You'd better, because if you don't get the bullet, I will,' I promised before I drove away, cursing my brother under my breath, while Stiles asked Derek question after question about his arm, none of which Derek answered.

I was annoyed with my brother for one huge reason. He had the power to help someone and yet he didn't want to, for what? Because he didn't like Derek? Because of his infatuation with Allison? Someone needed his help and he couldn't be bothered to offer his assistance and yet if he had the one who had been shot, whom would he have gone to begging for help? I was going to have a serious talk with him later on and make sure he started treating people with a bit more respect. I mean hey, he spoke to Mr Argent a lot more politely because he was his girlfriend's father, despite the fact he had tried to kill us.

'Where are we going?' Stiles asked, looking out the front window.

'The animal clinic.' I said, turning down to the street the clinic was on, 'Deaton should be gone by now. He's only open until two on a Monday.'

'Are you serious?' Stiles said, jolting forward in his seat and shoving my shoulder, causing me to jerk in the road and send him a glare.

'Sorry,' he said unconvincingly.

'You're an idiot,' Derek muttered, pulling off his jacket and rolling up his sleeve, revealing a bullet wound dripping with blood, the veins surrounding it were turning black.

'What is that?' Stiles winced, sounding like he was going to throw up.

'Stiles if you throw up, I will leave you on the side of the road,' I warned him, pulling into the clinic and putting the truck in park, 'we'll get inside and I'll see if I can do anything to help while we wait for Scott.'

Derek gave me a funny look that ignored as I barrelled around the car and helped him out of the Jeep, I told Stiles to grab the key from behind the dumpster and he held the door open for me to help Derek through. We got into the examining room and Derek released me to lean heavily against the table and take off his shirt. I stood the opposite side of him, my hands gently touching his arm. I could feel Derek's gaze on me but I paid him no mind as I took in his wound. It was bleeding, and by the looks of it his body was rejecting whatever had been in that bullet, but then again we already knew that. I had seen doctors treat plenty of bullet wounds over the summer, and the procedure was running through my mind.

'You need to lift your arm up, it'll slow the blood flow and stop the infection from spreading through your body so fast.' I told him softly, lifting his arm up so it was above his heart.

'What are you doing?' Stiles asked as I rummaged through the doors. I could have cheered when I found saline, bandages and rubber gloves.

'I'm trying to slow down the infection. It won't work completely, but it should buy us some time while we wait for Scott.' I told him as I put on the gloves and gestured to Stiles to come over.

'I'm going to clean it and flush it out and it's going to hurt like a bitch,' I gave Derek a sympathetic look, gesturing to Stiles with my chin, 'Stiles is going to need to hold you down.'

Derek nodded and Stiles placed his hands on either side of the bullet wound, holding him down to the operating table, after I gave him a threatening look. I twisted off the top of the saline, squirted it onto some loose bandages, gave Derek an apologetic look and started to clean the hole on his arm. He winced, his arm involuntarily trying to jerk away, but Stiles managed to hold him down. I worked quickly and efficiently and it wasn't long before I had cleaned the entrance wound and the exit wound and had them both bandaged up.

'Okay, you can hold your arm back up now.' I told him softly, throwing the used equipment into the appropriate bins.

'How do you know what to do?' Derek asked, I didn't have to turn around to know his eyes were on me; his stare was penetrating.

'I volunteer at the hospital on weekends as well as over the summer.' I shrugged turning to face him, frowning in concern when I noticed his paling complexion and the sweat on his brow.

'Does monkswood mean anything to you?' Stiles said, reading from his phone.

'It's a rare form of wolfsbane.' Derek replied, his voice barely audible, 'he needs to bring me the bullet.'

'Why?' I asked, ignoring the tingling feeling shooting up my arm when I placed it around his waist to support him.

'Because I'll die without it.' He said simply, his answer making my blood run cold; Stiles looked shocked before he snapped out of it and started frantically typing on his phone.

'What are we going to do? If he doesn't get here in time?' Stiles said, his arms waving around frantically as he paced back and forth at the opposite end of the operating table.

'I have another option. A last resort.' Derek said, stepping out of my hold and frantically searching through the draws until he found a bone saw and held it up, 'if he doesn't get here on time, one of you are cutting off my arm.'

'What?' Stiles looked horrified and I'm sure I did as well, though probably not for the same reasons as my best friend.

'How long do you think you have?' I said, taking the saw from him and the tourniquet. I laid the saw on the table and tied the tourniquet above the bandage on his arm as tight as I could.

'Not long. When the infection reaches my heart, it'll kill me.' Derek murmured, watching me as I worked.

'Positive isn't in your vocabulary is it?' Stiles muttered, running his hand over his face as he alternated between looking and not looking.

Derek was about to retort, but he gently shoved me to the side as he vomited on the floor. When I saw the black blood I knew we were running out of time. Fast.

'Oh my god. What is that?' Stiles sounded disgusted and horrified while I just shot him a look and placed Derek's arm on the operating table and grabbed the saw.

'It's my body trying to heal itself.' Derek explained, sounding weaker by the minute.

'Well it's not doing a very good job of it.' Stiles quipped and when he noticed what I was doing he made a noise of disbelief, 'what the hell are you doing?'

'What does it look like?' I said, resisting the urge to roll my eyes.

'It has to be now.' Derek told him, giving me a nod of assent, but before I could continue, Stiles piped up again.

'What if you bleed to death?' He protested.

'It'll heal if it works.' Derek said, not sounding very confident.

'If it works? You mean we're doing this with the possibility that you're still going to die afterward?' I cocked my brow in disbelief and he returned my stare, not at all intimidated.

'Doing this gives me a chance of survival. Not doing it guarantees death.' He said simply and with a deep sigh, I agreed.

I turned on the saw, ignoring Stiles' scream of horror at what he was about to witness. I was just about to put it to his skin when-

'What the hell are you doing?' Scott yelled.

'Took you long enough!' I yelled back, still a little pissed off with him.

'Thank god, you just prevented a lifetime of nightmares.' Stiles breathed, relieved.

'Did you get it?' Derek looked over to Scott, taking the bullet from him with a grateful look.

'Now what? What are you going to do?' Stiles sounded curious as he stared at Derek and waited for him to heal himself.

'I'm gonna, I'm gonna…' he passed out, the bullet falling out of his hand and rolling down the drain. I ran to his side, placing his head on my lap while Scott went to retrieve the bullet.

'Derek!' I yelled, lightly slapping the side of his face, but he was unresponsive, I placed my middle and index finger to his neck and almost cried when I found a pulse. It was faint, but it was still there.

'What are we going to do?' Stiles sounded frantic.

'I don't know!' Scott yelled back.

'Stiles, punch him in the face.' I said once my twin announced that he had pulled the bullet out of the drain.

'What?' He sounded like he might have misheard me.

'Do it!' I said, having no time for dawdling. He sighed but came to his knees and punched Derek in the jaw. He sat up and immediately reached for the bullet. Stiles and I helped him stand and he went over to the operating table, pulling the bullet apart and spilling the contents onto the shiny surface. He then pulled out a lighter; the sparks the herbs emitted made everyone but Derek take a step back in surprise. Once the flames died down, he gathered the herbs into the palm of his hand, and after taking a preparing breath, pressed them into the bullet hole, his finger jamming them directly into the wound. He cried out in pain and fell to the floor. The wound glowed blue, emitting smoke the same colour, as all of the black veins surrounding the infected area drew back to the entrance before healing altogether as if it had never happened. Once the wound was healed, Derek's cries of pain stopped as well.

'That was awesome!' Stiles shouted, pumping his fist in the air, 'Yes!'

I laughed lightly and shook my head fondly as I offered Derek a hand to help him up off the floor, which he took. Once he was standing, I found myself realizing for the first time he wasn't wearing a shirt and suddenly I didn't know where to look. Awkward.

'Are you okay?' My twin asked.

'You mean aside from the agonizing pain?' Derek muttered sarcastically.

'I'm guessing the ability to use sarcasm is a good sign of health?' Stiles quipped, earning himself a glare from Derek that made my lips twitch in amusement.

'Well, we saved your life which means you're going to leave us alone!' Scott yelled out of nowhere, 'and if you don't, I'm going to go to the Argents and tell them everything I know.'

I shared a look of annoyance with Stiles before I stepped forward and clipped Scott pretty hard on the back of the head.

'Are you stupid?' I asked him, 'you want to go to hunters and tell them about Derek when you yourself are a werewolf?'

Scott had the decency to look a little sheepish before he returned his glare to Derek.

'You know something Scott I-,' I started to tear into him but Stiles put his hand to my mouth to shut me up.

'No, let her finish what she was going to say,' Scott said, his arms crossing over his chest as he looked over to me.

'You two can fight later.' Stiles rolled his eyes, and after he was sure I was going to behave he removed his hand from my mouth.

'So what were we talking about? Oh, yes my incredibly smart twin brother was just saying he was going to rat out Derek to the Argents, please do continue on your brilliantly thought out spiel, little brother.' I said, my tone angry and sarcastic and that meant I was royally pissed off, which never ended well for anyone.

'You would trust them?' Derek asked, glaring at Scott with his arms crossed over his chest and I couldn't help but admire his biceps for a moment. Had they always been so large? So defined?

'Why not? They're a hell of a lot nicer than you are!' Scott yelled.

'Of course they're nice,' I said with a sickly sweet smile, 'they don't know you're the very thing that they go out at night to hunt.'

'Your sister gets it, why don't you?' Derek asked, going on before Scott could answer, 'I can show you exactly how nice they are.'

I frowned over at Derek, wondering what on earth he was thinking, but he just pulled his shirt back on- which made me a mixture of disappointed and relieved- and walked over to Stiles' truck, giving him a look that said he was driving. He directed us to Beacon Hills hospital and I became even more confused.

'Wait here.' Derek told Stiles before jumping out and holding the door open for Scott and me, I closed it when my feet hit the pavement, following after the determined Derek Hale.

We were in the long-stay unit and I had a bad feeling about the whole situation. He led us in a room were a man was sat, catatonic in a chair by the window. I felt my blood turn cold with realization as I took in his appearance.

'Who is he?' Scott asked, clearly not recognizing who the man was, and why would he? He hadn't been close to the Hale family like I had been.

I felt Derek's eyes on me and looked up into his questioning gaze and I gave him a slight nod answering his silent query. I knew who this was.

'My uncle.' Derek said, his eyes shifting over to Scott, while mine went to Peter.

'Is he like you? Is he a werewolf?' Scott glanced at Derek.

'He was. Now he's barely even human.' Derek said, the emotion barely noticeable behind his words. I reached out and squeezed his hand comfortingly, without giving it much thought. I felt him stiffen in surprise and I was about to pull away but he laced his fingers through mine and held onto me tightly.

'What makes you so sure it was them?' Scott wondered, his eyes still on Peter.

'Because they were the only ones that know about us,' Derek sounded angry, I squeezed his hand slightly and he seemed to calm down a little.

'Then they had a reason.' Scott stated and this time it was Derek who squeezed my hand to stop me from smacking my brother again.

'You tell me what justifies this,' Derek hissed, using his free hand to spin his uncle around, revealing the burned and scarred half of his face, making me wince, 'they say they'll only kill an adult and only with absolute proof, but there were people in my family who were perfectly ordinary in that fire. You can't trust them, Scott.'

'How did you get in here?' We all turned around to see a red headed nurse in the doorway, looking a little pissed off, 'visiting hours are over.'

'We were just leaving.' Derek said, squeezing my hand once before releasing me, and leading Scott and I out of the door.

I huffed in irritation when I saw that Stiles was passed out in the Jeep, his face squashed against the steering wheel. How he had found that comfortable enough position to sleep in I would never understand. With a devilish grin I walked to the drivers side and quietly opened the door, before leaning forward so my lips where about a hands width away from his ear.

'Stiles!' I shouted. He jolted immediately and screamed, sitting to attention. When he realized there was no danger he glared at me, but I was having too much trouble breathing I was laughing that hard. I'm pretty sure I saw Derek grin for a brief moment, but I couldn't be sure because my eyes were watering.

'Okay it wasn't that funny,' Stiles complained, but I could see that he was trying to fight breaking into a smile himself.

'Dude it kind of was,' Scott's dimples flashed as he smiled.

'We should get out of here.' Stiles ushered us into the Jeep, a smile still lingering on his lips. Scott and I sat in the back and Derek sat at the front, seeing as he was the one who would have to get out first. The ride to the Hale property was spent in silence for the most part, aside from the sound of the radio playing softly in the background and me singing to the songs I knew subconsciously under my breath. When Stiles put the car in park, Derek turned to look at the two of us in the back.

'I'm going to teach you how to control this.' He promised, and then he was gone.