Chapter 23 - Pack

Chapter 23 - Detention

McCALLS' HOUSE

Seated on the sofa in his friends' living room in a house he hadn't had a comfortable stay in many weeks now. Mickey found his gaze roaming the roam, taking in the old picture from kindergarten when Stiles, Scott and himself had first formed their friendship. They'd been inseparable as they ran around causing trouble for their parents, spending every day together as their parents had to drive around town to pick them up. It was before Mickeys' father disappeared when life had been so casual and easy.

After his dad had disappeared Mickey had distanced himself from his best friends, hiding in his room for several weeks. It wasn't until several missed calls that his two best friends had had enough of him ignoring them, both of them had burst into his room shouting for him that they were gonna have a sleepover. Since then Mickey started hanging out at either Scotts' or Stiles home, sleepover becoming a regular thing. Soon he barely went home, spending his evenings at Scotts' house. They'd been like brothers, or like a cousin who'd come to live at their house. He sure missed those days, he missed Scott.

''Tired?'' Allison asked as she slid down beside him on the couch, laying down half draped over him as she rested her head on his chest.

He wrapped his arms around her as he shifted so that he was laid more comfortably, his dull green eyes staring up at the ceiling, ''Yea, haven't slept much these past few days.''

''You can sleep now, I and Stiles will keep watch,'' she said sounding just as tired as he felt, her calm heartbeats like counting sheep were making it hard to stay awake. Yet he couldn't fall asleep, the awaiting threat outside wouldn't allow it.

He gave her a tired smile and she took it as his answer as she gave him a light kiss on the lips before she got back up on her feet, slowly letting their hands part as she headed back over to the front door where Stiles was keeping watch. He tried his best to stay awake but soon found it impossible as his eyes weighted down and in the end, he let them fall shut.

...

A menacing aura caused him to frown in his sleep, his ears alert as he listened to the rapidly approaching footsteps from the wrong end of the house. He could hear the quickened heartbeats, the nervousness, and fright that filled the room. So he blinked his eyes open, sitting up as he peered over the couch towards the front door where he could see Stiles and Allison. Behind them was Isaac quickly approaching, his expression like that of a predator stalking its prey.

''Allison!'' Mickey called as he leaped over the couch, quickly making his way over towards his best friend and girlfriend.

He managed to get there just as Isaac reached for Allison, Mickey using all of his weight to push the werewolf to the floor. Isaac looked furious as his eyes glowed gold but Mickey didn't pay him any mind as he pushed Allison towards the stairs, he heard Stiles call out but wasn't quick enough to react before he was suddenly thrown into the wall. Groaning he watched as Stiles tried to help only to get thrown to the ground, Allison looked horrified but Mickey just gestured for her to head upstairs to Lydia.

''Watch out!'' he heard Stiles scream but his focus had been on Allison as he'd heard someone break through a door on the upper floor. Mickey barely had the time to turn around before Isaac got a hold of his hoodie, throwing him across the room. He tried to shield his face as he realized that he would be hitting the table with the big flower pot, hissing as the glass broke and ripped at the skin on his elbow.

''Shit!'' he cursed as he clutched at his arm, spitting out some of the dirt as his whole head was filled with it.

The fighting escalated but this time Mickey knew that it wasn't Stiles and he let himself slump back knowing that Scott was there to save them all, easily beating the fresher turned beta. The fight was over in no time and he watched as Scott with eace threw both Isaac and Erica out the front door, unconscious by the looks of it.

''Mickey!'' he heard Allison gasp as she ran over to him, it was first then he realized that he was still sprawled out on the floor.

''I'm fine,'' he reassured her as he pushed himself to a seated position, he groaned as he realized that his hoodie had been ripped.

Another pair of footsteps approached as Stiles appeared by his side, the buzz-cut haired teen crouching down as he touched the ripped part of the hoodie, ''Did you get cut?''

''No, it's all good,'' Mickey said as he stood, ignoring their worried looks as his eyes fell on Scott who was watching him with his worried look. Smirking, Mickey walked over so that he could put his hand on the werewolf's' shoulder, ''Thanks.''

Even though he didn't say anything it was obvious that it had meant a lot to Scott, the dark-haired teens' gentle eyes speaking more than words. But more pressing matters were at hand and Mickey followed Scott out the door, Derek stood to wait for them with a humored smile on his lips.

''I think I'm finally getting why you keep refusing me, Scott. You're not an omega, you're already an Alpha of your pack,'' Derek said as he gazed over the group of teenagers stood on the porch, his expression turning hard, ''But you know you can't beat me.''

''I can hold you off until the cops get here,'' Scott stated as a fact, Mickey sighed as he could hear the approaching cop cars.

Suddenly the sound of claws clicking against the house made them move away from the porch, Mickey gripped Allisons' hand as they all watched the kanima crawl over the roof. It stopped to scream at them before it jumped off on the opposite side.

it was obvious that they all were thinking the same, that Lydia was the kanima but the strawberry blonde soon appeared in the doorway, ''Would someone please tell me what the hell is going on?''

JAGGERS' HOUSE

The woman's laughter resounded throughout the livingroom only silenced by the whiskey that she swept down, as it was swallowed down the laughter resumed just as strongly. Mickey merely rolled his eyes as he waited for her to finish, luckily her laughter wasn't something he had to endure regularly. But sure he could understand why she would find the situation so amusing, her son had just gotten a restraining order filed against him after having participated in locking up a classmate in a stolen police van. Yeah, they had after much effort managed to catch up to Jackson and it had been Stiles brilliant idéa to lock him in the van. Unfortunately, his text to reassure Jacksons' parents had included something that had alarmed his dad and so the police had been called.

The rest was history and now he was seated on the sofa waiting for his dear mother to stop laughing at his misfortune, at least she was yelling. her hand brought up to wipe away the tears, ''So what was the plan, lock him up and request ransom?''

Her laughter once again filled the room, Mickey sighed as he let himself fall back into the couch so that he was staring up at the ceiling, ''Very funny, mom.''

''So, this boy Jackson,'' his mother said as her laughter finally seemed to have done, an amusing smile on her lips as she sipped on her whiskey, ''He's the kanima.''

''Speaking of, what do you know of the kanima?'' Mickey asked as he glanced at the woman who was sat on the armchair across the table, one leg draped over the other like the gracious businesswoman she was.

''Better one, what do you know of the kanima?'' she countered with a smirk making him groan, his mother could be an absolute pain in the royal ass.

Waving his hand to dismiss the topic altogether, Mickey let his eyes fall shut as he found comfort in the soft mattress of the sofa, ''Ain't you gonna yell at me?''

''What for?'' his mother asked as she put her glass down on the glass surface of the table, her heels clicking against the wooden floor as she moved over to the hallway to retrieve her phone.

As she seemed to find no interest in scolding him, Mickey let the whole thing slide as he listened to his mother tap in a number on the phone before she waiting for the call to get accepted. A smile fell on his lips as he heard her place an order for pizza, a blanket absently being draped over him. Their talk was over and he didn't mind the least, letting himself being lulled to sleep by the thoughts of the pizza to come.

BEACON HILLS HIGH SCHOOL

Seated in the library with his head resting on his arms as his eyes stayed close, Mickey could barely remember the reason why he'd gotten detention. He'd been tired all day barely keeping up with any of his classes and had Stiles had dragged him around the corridors, they'd been down by the locker room when they had happened upon Scott and Jackson having a scuffle. Sadly so had Harris and Mickey an innocent passerby had been included to sit out detention and so he was seated in the library waiting for the time to pass, his dull green eyes glancing towards Allison who was seated at another table with Jackson and Matt.

She met his gaze and attempted a reassuring smile but it was obvious that she was very uncomfortable, he wished he could do something about it but Harris wouldn't let him leave his table because of that restraining order.

''I'm gonna kill him,'' he heard Scott say, it surprised Mickey as he'd never taken Scott for the aggressive type of guy but then he didn't even know what the whole fight had been about.

Shifting beside him, Stiles's shoulder bumped against Mickey as he leaned forward to make sure he wasn't heard, ''No, you're not. You're going to find out who's controlling him and then you're gonna help save him.''

''No. You were right, let's kill him,'' Scott argued making Mickey raise his brow at the guy, Scott glared at Jackson who was looking as casually bored as he ever could.

leaning back in his chair, Stiles sighed, ''Oh - No.''

Feeling his eyes grow heavy, Mickey tried to glare up at the lamps but with no effect. His whole body was feeling sluggish for a few days back, only getting worse each passing day. It was unusual as he never got sick so he passed it up as him not having had enough sleep, he needed to stop being out all night long on school nights.

''Hey. What if it's Matt? I mean, this whole thing comes back to the video, right?'' Stiles suddenly speculated making Mickey glance towards the table where Matt was seated next to Allison, he seemed like nothing special.

''Danny said that Matt was the one who found the two hours of footage missing,'' Scott added, keeping his eyes towards Stiles as to draw suspicion towards them.

''Exactly!'' Stiles said and for once keeping it quiet, ''He's trying to throw suspicion off himself.''

All three of them glanced towards the male in question before Scott turned back to look at Stiles, ''So he makes Jackson kill Isaac's dad, one of Argent's hunters, and the mechanic working on your jeep?''

''Yes,'' Stiles confirmed.

''Why?'' Scott questioned, Mickey felt ready to give up on the conversation altogether. His eyes one Allison as she was smiling in his direction.

''Because,'' Stiles said before pausing as he tried to come up with a good reason, ''He's evil.''

It was impossible to muffle the snort that escaped Mickey as Scott scratched at his chin, ''ou just don't like him.''

''The guy - Bugs me. I don't know what it is,'' Stiles explained as he leaned back against the chair, eyes looking at Matt, ''Just look at his face.''

Looking over at Matt as he was silently offering Jackson some chips from his bag, Mickey could only see Allison who looked just as uncomfortable as before, ''Yeah, definitely the face of a murderer.''

''See, Mickey gets it,'' Stiles said as he gestured towards Mickey, Scott rolled his eyes.

''Any other theories?'' he asked and both Stiles and Mickey shrugged, they had no leads to go after.

...

A while later Harris had gone home and they had been assigned to re-shelve all the books that had been returned, Mickey stood beside Allison as he stared down at a book while Stiles and Scott caught Allison up on their findings surrounding Jackson's birth. The guys' parents had died in a car accident and he'd been born by c-section, taken out of his mother's dead body. It was about what he had managed to take in, yawning as he tried to make out the name of the book and where it belonged. His brain felt too mushy to think, trying to find its place among the many authors felt like too much of a pain.

He hadn't realized that he was spacing out until a loud crash caused him to look up at the ceiling, lamps were being smashed as Jackson jumped between the bookshelves. He could hear Scott call out to Erica and flinched as someone grabbed his arm, he looked towards the person and relaxed as he saw Allison. The lamp above the smashed and he moved his arm to cover Allison from the glass, grunting as books fell from the shelve. He watched as Scott got pushed into a bookrack, their eyes met and the werewolf moved so that he was stood between his friends and Jackson.

Stay out of my way or I'll kill all of you.

Written on the board by Jackson but Mickey was unsure it was his words or if they belonged to the one controlling him, the whole thing about kanimas confused him. Soon after the words were written, they all watched as Jackson jumped through a window and disappeared.

As Erica had a seizure they were forced to split up, Scott and Stiles would bring Erica to Derek while Mickey stayed behind with Allison to take care of Matt who'd been exposed to the kanimas venom.

''What do we say to the teachers?'' Allison asked as things had finally calmed down and both of them were waiting for the ambulance to arrive and the teacher to come running, Mickey shrugged from where he was stood leaned against the bookshelf as he watched the door.

''Dunno, this kind of mess is a bit hard to explain,'' he said as he glanced around the room, the whole place had been wrecked with glass from several lamps and books scattered everywhere.

He could feel her hand touching his own and he opened his hold to take her in his own, squeezing to reassure her that they would be fine.