Chapter seven: Magic bullets and Alpha hunts(ish)

"Pick up your goddamn phone McCall!" I yelled at my phone as it went to voicemail. We were at the animal clinic (we being Deaton, Derek, dad, and Stiles -he insisted-) and Derek had maybe an hour left to live. Let's pretend that I was acting well under pressure, shall we? Anyway, Scott was at Allison's, he was supposed to get in, find an opportunity to take the bullet, and go. But he was taking hours and Derek's condition was getting worse.

"Easy, Lora." dad called over his shoulder. He and Deaton were trying to disinfect the bullet wound the best they could, which took two people since Derek was pretty damn strong and tended to pull away his arm when someone hurt him.

"Someone is dying here and Scott's probably making out with Allison or something, I will not take it easy." I hissed, dialing Scott again, ignoring the odd glances Stiles was giving me. I was waiting for it to go back to voicemail when Scott picked up.

"I've got the bullet. The box said something French, it translated to nordic blue monkshood, is that good enough?"

I let out a sigh of relief, assured him it was enough and that he didn't have to take the bullet, and after yelling the type of wolfsbane (monkshood and wolfsbane are the same thing).

I then told him to leave the room exactly as he'd entered it before hanging up, watching Deaton apply the right antidote to the wound. Derek hissed in pain, but it was way better than what he'd planned to do: take to content of the bullet and rub it in the wound. It would work, yes, but the pain would be agonising.

"So, you're okay?" Stiles asked, pointing at his arm and looking around at everyone, searching for confirmation. "He's okay?"

"Yeah, nearly died and there's a family of crazy hunters on my ass, I'm great." Derek said through gritted teeth as he pushed himself off Deaton's workbench.

"Well, sarcasm is a good sign, means you're not dead." I said, putting my phone back in my pocket. "But you're right about the Argents. What are we going to do about them?" I asked, looking at dad, who let out a sigh.

"I'll handle the Argents." he said, waving it off. "But if the alpha attacked Kate, they have all the rights to hunt it down. And you know how they'll do that." he said, giving both me and Derek a meaningful look. I let out an irritated groan. Oh it just had to become even more complicated, didn't it?

"They're going to use Scott. Or Derek." I said, looking at Stiles to make sure he understood what was going on. "The alpha bit him, he's part of his pack. They've got a connection, with the right practice, Scott can find him. Also Derek is just a good werewolf in general, he could find him eventually." Stiles nodded, so I gathered that he understood. We sat in silence for a while, thinking about the situation. What I thought? Well it was mostly a chain of "ugh fuck"'s and the casual "shit" in between, but below all that my brain was scanning all the options available.

"I'll teach him." Derek said eventually. "I'm the only one here who's a werewolf, I'm his best option." I nodded, he had a fair point. But dad wasn't just giving it to him like that.

"Few conditions:" dad said, "Don't hurt him, and focus only on the alpha. We'll teach him the rest." I knew that by "we" he meant "me", but anyway. Derek nodded, though a bit reluctantly, and my dad clapped his hands together. "Then were done for now."

~o~

One week later

I sat down at our usual table, on my usual spot. Usual being the spot Lydia had insisted on me taking, which was right next to her and opposite of Jackson. Oddly enough, the past week Lydia had grown a bit on me. Whenever the two of us were alone (which wasn't often) she acted like a genuine person. (I think our little call from a while ago triggered that) And she was surprisingly smart, funny in her own way, and (in a manipulative, could be considered scary, way) caring and kind. Next to me sat Stiles, opposite of him sat Danny, next to him sat Allison and opposite of her was Scott. Anyway, back to the point: Lydia.

It had gotten to the point where I even met up with her after school. It was so she could help me with physics, but I found myself involuntarily sticking around even after when we were done. Whatever friendship Lydia and I once had, it was forcing it's way back. Even though I tried my best to push it down.

"What are you all daydreamy about?" the girl in question asked as she sat down next to me. I shrugged.

"Not much. Those two, on the other hand," I said, pointing at Scott and Allison giggling at each other as they made their way over, "I can tell what they're thinking about."

"Ugh, Lorraine, please, I'd like to not puke all over my lunch thanks." Lydia said, making me laugh. I just shook my head when Allison and Scott sat down, looking at me with a frown on their faces. What we were talking about?

"Oh nothing." I said, smiling innocently at them. "Oh, Scott, can we do out study session on thursday instead of friday? Dad promised to take me to his job." Scott nodded, and I smiled. Three weeks left to go, and he was improving greatly. Each Tuesday and Friday we'd train and each Wednesday he went over to Derek's place. Adding to that were his lacrosse trainings and keeping up his grades. That last one wasn't really working out for him. But I had to give it to him, he was a very fast learner.

"Hey." Stiles said as he set down his plate rather violently on the table, effectively pulling me from my thoughts, and then proceeded to sit down. Again, rather violently.

"What's wrong?" I asked, taking a bit out of my apple.

"Still no leads on dad's case." he said, prodding his food with a fork. His 'dad's case' as he had dubbed it, meant the Alpha. Though his dad was also looking into the killings, he didn't know what he was dealing with. Stiles did, and practically spent all his free time trying to figure out who it could be, but apparently to no avail. I had tried to help him, but most of the time it just ended up in me lying on his bed, translating, whilst he printed out and read dozens of police reports.

"I'm sure he'll solve it." I said, patting him on the back before facing Lydia, who was talking about her plans for the weekend. Wait, scratch that, apparently they were "our" plans. A small smile grew in my face as I watched her fight with Jackson about lacrosse or what not.

~o~

Three days later

I looked down at the paper in my hand one more time, making sure I was at the right place. I'd looked up where Isaac lived, as it was his birthday today. He didn't want to celebrate, or at least that's what he'd said. But I wasn't going to let a frien- crap.

I am really bad at this, aren't I? Yeah, of course Lorraine, no friends. Especially since you're going to die anyway. My entire life, and I've had around ten friends total. Now I move to this stupid town and I've got myself three, four if you include Scott, in only a few weeks!

Anyway, the address was correct, so I rang the doorbell. After a while, a man with rather harsh eyes opened the door. I presumed he was Isaac's father.

"What do you want?" he asked, something about his voice making me feel uncomfortable. Something in me was telling me that the man in front of me might be the reason why Isaac was so jumpy and shy.

"I'm a friend of Isaac's, wanted to pay him a visit." I said, smiling innocently at him. "Since it's his birthday and all."

"Well he's busy." the man said, about to close the door when I held my hand against it, stopping him.

"Doing what, sir?" I asked, tilting my head at him and keeping the smile on my face. "I just want to see him. Five minutes?"

"No." he said. "Now get off my property before I call the cops." and with that, he slammed the door shut in my face. My smile fell, and it got replaced by a glare. Walking around the house, I saw an open window on the second floor, next to the rainpipe. I let out a sigh and started climbing. Let's hope that the room wasn't his father's.

~o~

Luckily, the room was Isaac's, not his father's. Not so luckily, he got scared so badly when he saw me jump into his room that he fell off his chair, effectively drawing his father's attention. I put a finger to my lips and walked over to his closet, just managing to crawl in before his dad stormed into his room. Between the old shirts and socks (and an overwhelming smell of deodorant), I tried my best to keep still.

"What was that noise?" he asked.

"I… fell. Off my chair." Isaac mumbled.

"And why… did you fall off your chair?" his father's voice was low, threatening. For once, I hoped that I was wrong.

"I-I- I was watching a video on youtube and there was a jumpscare." Isaac stammered. Footsteps sounded through the room, followed by a lot of things falling to the floor, and then the unmistakable sound of someone getting punched. I winced. I had been right after all. Every fibre of me wanted to jump out and defend Isaac, but instead I held my breath until he opened the closet. His father had left. He had also left Isaac with a bleeding nose.

"I'm going to kill him." I whispered, getting out of the closet and checking out his nose. "I don't think that it's broken." I said, tilting his head up a bit. "Keep it like that, it'll hold back the bleeding." I searched the room for tissues, pitting a few under his nose and using one to clean the blood off his face.

"Thanks." Isaac mumbled, breathing heavily.

"You need to go to the cops." I said, but Isaac shook his head, mumbling "no" a few times. "Isaac, it can't go on like this. Isaac, if you don't tell the sheriff's department, I will." His head moved down, and two terrified eyes met mine.

"No, no, please don't." he begged.

"There is no way I'm goi-"

"I already lost my mother. I don't want to also lose my father." he said, and it struck a chord. I let out a sigh and stepped back.

"If this gets any worse, you let me know." I said, hearing footsteps come up the stairs. I reached into my pocket, taking out ten dollars. "Happy birthday, Isaac. Let's celebrate it properly later, okay?" With that, I ran towards the window and climbed down the rainpipe. I just managed to catch a few words as his father came into his room before I got into my car, making sure to wait a while before leaving so things didn't get suspicious.

I know that I promised Isaac not to tell anyone, but I would damn well make sure that he'd spend as much time as possible away from his father.

~o~

Two days later

Okay, so, let's put everything together: There was a powerful Alpha on the loose, a new beta that couldn't yet fully control himself and was in love with an Argent, the most feared hunter family in America, who also just happened to be in town. Then there was Kate Argent, who didn't care about the code and just went around shooting magic bullets. Adding to that was my problem with keeping Isaac's secret, and me being stupid enough when I was going to move away or die sooner than I was staying here.

Okay, so that wasn't very clear. At all. But you get me, I've been telling you what's going on. What I thought was most important anyway. Sure, Scott is having troubles with Allison, I think Lydia and Jackson were having some… difficulties as well, but I don't have much time, and I can't tell you everything that might or might not be happening.

Anyway, so there's a lot of shit going on. I mean, what could possibly be added to that list to top it all off?

Oh I don't know, what about Jackson the jerk figuring out that Scott is a werewolf? Oh no, I've got an even better one: Jackson finding out he's a werewolf and wanting to be one too! Wasn't this all just great? So that left me having to go to Jackson and talk to him. Well that just wasn't going to end well was it?

"Are you an idiot?" I asked, startling Jackson as he closed his locker only to find me behind it.

"What do you want?" he said, his tone harsh as usual.

"For starters, explain why the hell you would want to be a werewolf!" I hissed.

"Oh, I don't know. Maybe the strength, speed, hearing, healing" he said, glaring at me.

"Yeah, you can't exactly play superhero when your ass is getting hunted down!" he opened his mouth to protest, but I wasn't done. "And no, they will notice you, you wont be able to control yourself, they will find you and kill you no matter what you want to achieve with you 'powers'."

"I don't care. And you're going to get me the bite. Or I tell Allison."

"Like she'd believe you. You have no proof." That threw him off a little. He wasn't bluffing about telling Allison, but he hadn't expected me to challenge him to do it.

"I'll get it." he said, recomposing himself.

"While you're at it, try to rethink this. It won't be all rainbows and superpowers, you're well aware of that, right?" I asked. He couldn't hide his surprise for my sudden concern. I figured it was best to not tell him that that concern was more for Lydia and his parents than for him.

"Yeah." he said, rolling his eyes. "Right." He walked away after that. I let out a sigh and just hoped that he took my warning seriously. But there was just no way to get through that thick skull of his, was there?

~o~

Two days later

"Get off my spot, Stillinski." I said, glaring at the person in question. We were having a game night with the three of us: Scott, Stiles, and I. Now usually I wasn't too picky on where I sat, but when gaming… I needed a good spot, opposite of the screen. I'd just gone to get us some popcorn, and when I came back, he was sitting on my spot.

"Nu-uh." he said, shaking his head.

"You know I could kill you on the spot, right?" I said, but he just grinned at me, knowing I wouldn't actually kill him. "Fine." I huffed, making him smirk in victory. He thought that he'd won. Good. I walked over to the couch, seemingly about to sit down next to him. Instead, I just took my controller and sat down on his lap. I could feel him tense, and I think his breath choked up a bit. But as I felt him tense, so did I. As he tried to normalise his breathing, I was doing the same thing. Only with more success. I didn't know if he got the same warm tingly feeling in his stomach, but part of me hoped he did.

Scott burst out in laughter, and I wished I could see what Stiles' face looked like. I could've turned around, I suppose, but I was too focused on not freaking out.

Sure, Stiles was… nice. And funny, kind, smart, ca- no, no, no, no, no. This is not happening. This is just my brain doing one desperate attempt at fucking itself up with hormones. And even if that wasn't true, Stiles has a crush on Lydia. He's had it for years now. He was just way too awkward with girls, that's why he reacted this way.

"Are you going to move now, or can we start playing?" I asked, a smirk forming on my face.

"N-no, moving, I mean yes moving... moving. Moving sounds… good?" he said. I stood up and let him scoot over to the side before letting myself fall back on the couch. From the corner of my eye, I could see red on Stiles' cheeks. A small, content smile formed on my face. Once I became aware of it, I wiped it off. Gaming, Lorraine, focus on the gaming.

~o~

"You're a dead man, Scott!" I shouted, trying to stab him with my knife. We were, playing some kind of first person shooter game, and Scott was winning (much to both my and Stiles' surprise and annoyance). I let out a frustrated groan when Stiles managed to shoot me in the head.

"Actually, I think you're the dead one here." he said, being the stupid smartass he was. Stupid, kind of cure, smartass. Oh my God, pull yourself together. Sit on his lap one time and suddenly you're completely besmitten? Okay, so I might have been hanging out with him more than necessary in the last few weeks. And maybe I somehow seemed to smile a bit more if I was around him. But that's what friends do, right? Make you happy?

"Very funny." I said, prodding my elbow into his side. "I'm gonna go to the bathroom." I said, taking my bag and walking out of his room, through the hall, into the bathroom. Once there, I let myself wince in pain.

Almost frantically, I searched my bag for the bottle of painkillers I got from Deaton. Got meaning that I got them after practically begging for them and for him not to tell anyone about it. Yeah, not my proudest moment. But I didn't want dad worrying any more, I didn't want him to see me suffer. I was going to die anyway, I wanted to decide myself how I was going down.

The painkillers worked almost instantly, and were the only things that could keep me going at times. Deaton had also done a few tests on me, and the results were… not very good, but I can't say that I was complaining

I had around six months to live.

A/N: So, this chapter was all over the place and I'm sorry for it, but I couldn't think of any other way to collect all these small scenes into a proper chapter without it being a total mess. I hope you enjoyed reading it nonetheless.

Due to timezones, I don't even know if this chapter will be up on Saturday where you're living, but I'm just sticking to my own time.

As always, thanks for reading and until the next chapter, which will cover the episode "The Tell."

~Lilly