They ended up postponing the questioning after all. First they decided to retire someplace more comfortable. Deaton and Danny elected to stay behind to clean up the Nemeton and got Scott to promise to wait until they caught up before asking anything.
As they were walking back to the Hale house, Scott and Chris were arguing where they were going to go. The Hale house was unliveable—unless you were Derek—and it felt like trespassing to use Derek's loft, and they didn't want to include Peter if they had to, who might be hanging out there. They haven't seen him since Derek and Cora left but no sense in making it easy for him to stick his nose in. Deaton's clinic was uncomfortable and Chris was hesitant to bring them to his place. Not for anything but Sam was obviously not as at-ease (or resigned if he was to be honest) with them as the other two were and Chris was reluctant to put him near so many weapons. Sam beat Allison and Allison is arguably their best hand-to-hand combatant, able to stand toe-to-toe with most of the wolves despite their supernaturally enhanced physical abilities. Even with their physical advantages she wins most of their sparring matches.
By the time they reached the Hale house they finally decided to go to the McCall residence. They all piled into Chris' SUV—Isaac had carried Allison to the hospital—and Scott texted Danny where they were heading. He then called Isaac to update him, his mom, Allison (who was going to be okay, she just needed to wrap her chest), and Lydia. He also sent a text to the Sheriff letting him know that things have settled down.
They stopped to pick up the Andersons' SUV and Cooper drove it, following them back to Scott's house. They settled in the living room waiting for Deaton and Danny. Isaac showed up first, Allison sent him ahead "just in case" and promised to follow with the other two girls; Melissa still needing to finish her shift.
By the time Deaton and Danny showed up, both Cooper and Blaine were fast asleep. Cooper was on the recliner and Blaine was curled up on Sam's side. Sam was wide awake though, one arm protectively holding Blaine close and not-quite glaring at the others.
They decided that everyone needed to sleep and they could postpone the meeting for a few more hours.
Scott walks everyone to their cars, Danny texts Lydia that the girls should just go home and to come back in the morning. Isaac stays inside to keep an eye on Sam.
"Well? What do you think?" Scott starts, looking back at the house over his shoulder.
"I think there's a lot more going on than even they know," Deaton says.
"What do you mean?" Chris asks.
"The journal for one," Deaton says. "For something that's been around for two hundred years, the notebook itself is relatively new, it isn't as thick as it's supposed to be and it's written in English—modern-day English—by the same person."
"You think they lied?"
"Not necessarily," Deaton says. "If they are right and Blaine's mother inherited this, Pamela could have written a copy and only copied relevant parts down, discarding the rest. There are huge jumps in dates and the fact that there doesn't seem to be any missing pages supports this theory."
"But that means the stuff in the journal can be suspect," Chris points out.
"True," Deaton agrees, "but if you think about it, all information in journals and grimoires are similarly suspect for the same reason."
"What else?" Scott asks.
"I'm concerned about the ritual they want to perform," Deaton brings up.
"Why?"
"Well it's supposed to "cure" Blaine, right?" Deaton asks and the other two nod. "Well, Blaine has pointed out that the aswangs are a race. Aswangs are born, not made. There are rituals that could have changed you back, Scott, since you are a made wolf, but there isn't a ritual in the world that can make someone like Derek not a werewolf. I can't make Chris not human, for example, it is what he is."
"So the ritual won't work?"
"Or it isn't going to cure him the way they think it will."
"Or cure him in the way we think they think it will," Chris says, adding, "We're assuming that the cure they mean is to turn him human, they haven't exactly said what the result of the ritual will be."
"Only that it will help Blaine and hope it will make the hunters leave them alone," Scott says. "I missed that."
Chris shuffles his feet. "I'm sorry Scott," he says apologetically to Scott's surprise.
"For what?"
"I made a bad call," Chris continues. "We engaged them and I almost got Allison killed. Cooper's right, you know, we did come out guns blazing...as much as I want to break Sam for nearly killing my daughter, I can't help but think if our roles were reversed I would have done the same thing. I can imagine Allison is probably beating herself about it as well."
"No need to apologize," Scott quickly points out. "You made a call with the information you had. Rituals involving the Nemeton are hardly ever good ones and if I were in your shoes, I probably would have made the same call." Scott grinned, "A leader makes decisions with the information he has at that moment, and you judge the quality of that decision without bias regardless of any additional intelligence you acquire later."
Chris smiles back at Scott. "Throwing my own lessons back at me?"
"You're old," Scott says, his grin growing wider, "you tend to forget stuff."
"Watch it," Chris growls menacingly but Scott knows with the certainty of wolf-enhanced hearing that he doesn't mean it.
Deaton smiles at the banter, but can't stop the yawn that breaks out.
"Let's break up this pow-wow and reconvene tomorrow," Scott says. "You old-timers need your rest."
"I, for one, will not argue with you," Deaton says before Chris can say anything. "But I'll probably pull an all-nighter. I want to read as much of this," he holds up the journal, "as I can."
"Tomorrow morning at eight?" Chris asks.
"Sounds good," Scott agrees. "I'll ask mom to stay with the Sheriff tonight."
When he sees Chris' raised eyebrow, Scott clarifies his point. "It's not that I don't trust them but I don't want to reveal too much like the Sheriff being one of us and that we have someone in the hospital." Scott shrugs. "I just like to be cautious."
"And it means we can have a morning meeting without having to worry about waking your mom after she pulled in a late shift," Chris points out.
"That too," Scott says grinning unrepentantly.
"I'm glad now that we had the twins go on that quest for atonement," Deaton says thoughtfully. When he sees the others' expressions he answers their unspoken question. "Blood magic is particularly good at manipulating relationships. If the twins were still here with issues unresolved between all of you, any half-trained blood witch could use that against you. Their quest would close that option for them to exploit. A true bond between alpha and his pack is one of the strongest bonds."
"It also would help to have your sister and another acolyte since we'll be dealing with all this hocus-pocus," Chris adds.
"Marin is also a lot more knowledgeable about magic than I am," Deaton agrees.
"Enough for now," Scott says. "We'll continue this tomorrow. Thanks guys."
As they get into their cars and leave, Scott waves goodbye. He sends a quick message to his mom as he walks back to the house, asking her to stay at the Stilinskis tonight. It isn't the first time he's asked this, to the point that his mom actually has a key to their house. He refuses to think what other reason she may have had for that key (which she already possessed even before Scott asked her to stay there). He and Stiles have spent countless hours not thinking about what it meant.
As Scott walks in his house he hears voices. In the living room, everyone is pretty much where he left them except someone has thrown a blanket over both Cooper and Blaine but Blaine is still burrowed into Sam's side.
It also sounds like Sam and Isaac are talking about...superheroes?
"I used to think the same way but seriously, dude, except for a handful of guys the power levels of the Avengers just don't compare to the Justice League," Sam was saying.
"Even if that were true, and it isn't, power isn't everything!" Isaac exclaims. "Yeah the Justice League is powerful but because of that they aren't used to being the underdog...they don't know what it's like to fight against impossible odds all the time and win!"
"Batman," Sam says smugly.
"Dude," Isaac says rolling his eyes, "you can't use Batman to end each argument in your favour!"
"When it applies I can."
"Which, so far, is every argument we've had!"
"I can't help it if I'm right," Sam points out, "besides, dude, by saying that you just agreed with me."
"Isaac," Scott butts in, "I'm not even sure what you're arguing about but I'm with Sam on this one. Batman kinda wins pretty much every argument."
"I know," Isaac says deflating. "I agree with you, too. Dammit."
Isaac is sitting on the other easy chair and Scott doesn't want to bring in a chair from the dining room and he definitely doesn't want to join Sam and Blaine on the couch, not wanting to put Sam on the defensive. So he sits on the arm of Isaac's chair.
"Sam," Scott knows that if he can get Sam to relax, all of this will go much easier. "I just want you to know there are no hard feelings and I hope that you don't still feel any towards Chris for, you know..."
"Shooting me in the back?" Sam says with a smirk. He quickly waves his hand. "No worries there Scott. It was a fight, and in fights sometimes you win and sometimes you lose. He won, simple as that." Sam shrugs. "I'm pissed that I forgot about him and turned my back on him but I'm pissed at myself, not at Chris."
"That's good to know," Scott says. "Um, will Blaine be pissed at Chris for shooting you?"
Now Sam smiles evilly at Scott. "Blaine freaked you out?" Before Scott can refute the question, Sam just shrugs again. "Nah, Blaine isn't like that. Everyone's healed up and I'm okay, he'll let it go, Cooper too. They both can think of the long-term and they know sometimes you have to give things up to get better things." He looks down at Blaine and begins to gently card through Blaine's curls. "Me, I'm simple. I watch over Blaine and that extends to Cooper because he's helping Blaine but Blaine is my priority. If Chris had hurt Blaine, though...well let's just say that we'll be having a whole other conversation."
Scott begins to feel uneasy. He meant to calm Sam and try to smooth things over but he can sense that he just somehow ruffled Sam's feathers. Sam looks pretty harmless right now, smiling softly at Blaine and stroking his hair but Scott could feel the leashed violence in him, thrumming at the thought that Blaine could be hurt.
Sam suddenly meets his eyes and Scott sees no humanity in them.
"I'm insane Scott," Sam says. "Functional, true, but in many ways, I'm more of a monster than Blaine, even at his worst. Even as the Beast, someone he cares for, like Cooper, can still reach him and argue with him because there's still something human inside him. Not me. There isn't anything like that inside me. Chris is right; I'm not entirely human anymore."
And with that he closes his eyes and Scott is convinced that Sam is asleep. Just like that, like someone threw a switch.
He exchanges looks with Isaac and he can see that Isaac is as freaked out as he is. They both slowly get up and walk upstairs to their room.
"Was he serious?" Isaac whispers to him.
"Dead serious," Scott whispers back.
"Um, do you mind if I bunk in your room tonight?" Isaac asks. "You know, to watch over you. You're my alpha after all and we have possible hostiles downstairs."
Scott is about to tease Isaac but instead he just nods. With barely hidden relief Isaac goes into his room presumably to change and grab his blanket—Isaac is a blanket hog and Scott had told him that if he sleeps with him again he needs to bring his own blanket. Scott can admit that he feels safer knowing Isaac is there with him.
Sam Evans freaks the shit out of him.
