Chapter eight: The tell

"I cannot believe that you dragged me into this." I said, looking at the "Video 2C" store we were parked in front of. How the hell did Lydia manage to drag me into a movie night with her and Jackson?

"Yeah, and I am not watching the notebook again." Jackson said, glaring at Lydia, who just smirked at him. "Can we please watch the movie I picked? It's the greatest sports film ever made."

"No." Lydia said, still smirking.

"Lydia, I swear you're gonna like it, it has-"

"No." Lydia repeated, looking at Jackson with a knowing smirk on her face. With a groan and a roll of his eyes, he got out of the car and went into the shop.

"I have to say, I'm impressed." I said, watching Jackson looking for the notebook through the window. "You've got to teach me that one."

"Only if you watch the notebook with us till the end without falling asleep." Lydia said, smiling because she knew I'd never manage to sit through the movie. Instead of trying to convince her (which, looking at Jackson, wouldn't work), I let myself lie down on the back seat of the car, pulling out my phone. Lydia seemed to be too busy with taking pictures of herself to have a conversation, so why the hell not?

All of a sudden, the light in the car dimmed. I pushed myself off the seat, frowning when I saw that the lights in the store had gone out.

"Has Jackson come out yet?" I asked, tapping on Lydia's shoulder.

"What?" she asked, turning down the radio.

"Has Jackson come out yet?" I repeated.

"No, why?"

"The lights've gone out." I said, opening the door and getting out of the car. In the back of the store, the lights were flickering, but I couldn't see Jackson anywhere. "I'm gonna go in." I said to Lydia before walking towards the store.

"Hey, Jackson?" I called out as I opened the door. "Everything alright in there?" Instead of Jackson, a deep growl came as a response.

"Get out of there!" Jackson shouted, and my head shot towards one of the dvd racks. He'd given away his location. But apparently I was more interesting, as two red eyes raced towards me, the flickering lights sometimes allowing me to see the body they belonged to.

It was the Alpha.

Without thinking much about it, I took out my gun I kept in my boot, fired one shot towards the ceiling, and made a run for it. The shot had startled it for a second but it by the time I was around the corner, the Alpha jumped out of the window just ahead of me, and ran away. Lydia let out a scream as it passed the car.

Exhausted, I let myself slide down against the wall, breathing heavily as I sat down on the ground.

~o~

The police came soon enough after Jackson called 911, accompanied by an ambulance. Lydia was in shock, sitting in the ambulance, with her legs hanging out of it as Jackson held her hand. Even though they did give me a blanket (for the shock, apparently) the police was more interested in why I had a gun.

"I've got a permit." I said, acting desperate and scared. People tended to let me get away with more when I did that. "W-we moved in and there were these attacks and I got scared so my dad took me to a shop and we went through the full programme and I promise it's just for self defence, I didn't even shoot at it, I ju-" I talked at a rapid speed, so I was glad that the officer I was talking to interrupted me before I ran out of breath.

"That's alright miss, I'm just going to have to see the permit." she said, and I nodded.

"Y-yeah, it's in my bag, somewhere. It's in Lydia's car." I said, shaking my head and holding onto my blanket tightly. The officer nodded and walked towards the car, saying I could get back to my friends.

When I got back to the ambulance, Jackson was practically shouting at sheriff Stillinski.

"I just want to go home!" he yelled, throwing his hands up in the air.

"I understand-" the sheriff said, his voice calm.

"No, you don't understand!" Jackson said, stepping closer to the sheriff. "Which I find pretty surprising, since it should be a pretty basic concept to grasp for a minimum-wage rent-a-cop like you!"

"Jackson!" I snapped, smacking the back of his head. "They're trying to help and you're being a giant dickhead about it. Just shut your mouth and let them do their jobs so you don't die lying in your own puke tonight!"

Jackson clenched his jaw, but walked away nonetheless.

"Oh, wow, is that a dead body?" a slightly too excited voice called out from behind me. I frowned and looked around the sheriff to see none other than Stiles Stillinski standing next to a cop car, with the door open, and pointing at a stretcher that was being carried towards the ambulance. When he realised I was there, he looked worried, so I smiled and nodded, showing I was alright. He let out a sigh of relief and smiled back.

That smile faded when he saw his dad glaring at him, so he reluctantly got back into the car.

"Alright, back up." the sheriff said, waving the crowd that was gathering around the site away. When three other officers ran up to take it over from him, he walked back to the three of us.

"I'm going to need a more detailed description of what happened, think you're up to it right now?" he asked, glancing at Lydia, who was now visibly shaking. "Maybe later." he said, but I was not ready to spend the night with a traumatised Lydia, especially now that Jackson seemed to have calmed down. He was probably going to spend the night with her and this was my only chance to escape.

"I can do it now." I said, taking off my blanket and throwing it into the ambulance. The sheriff raised his eyebrows at me, but nodded. "But… can it be somewhere else?" I asked, looking around uncomfortably. The sheriff nodded.

"Sure, I'll drive you to the station and we can talk there." he said, putting an arm on my shoulder and walking me to his car, suddenly stopping when he realised: "You… Stiles is in there, he'll probably be very nosy. You don't mind?" he asked, pointing to another cop car. "I could ask someone else to-"

"It's fine." I said, giving him a faint smile. The sheriff nodded and we walked all the way to the car, to which he opened the door. Muttering out a quick thanks, I got into the car. The sheriff stood next to the door for a moment, holding it open. He then leaned towards me so I could hear what he was saying above all the noise.

"I'm going to do one last round here, make sure everything is done properly, you stay put." he said, pulling back for a moment before leaning in again, "and Stiles, behave." he said, giving his son a stern look.

"As if I'd eve-" Stiles didn't get to finish his sentence, as the sheriff slammed the door shut before he could. Stiles didn't waste a second then, but immediately asked me what had happened.

So I told him as best as I could. Which was pretty darn good because it happened not even an hour ago. After my short description he started nodding, which was soon followed by a frown and the tapping of his feet. After a minute of it, I was near insanity.

"So, have you come up with a plan to overthrow the government yet, or you want to hear mine?" I asked. He stopped and nodded once more, looking a bit guilty.

"I think that I'm just going with the mountain lion. From the three of us, I'm obviously the one who's in the best mental state at the moment, so they'll believe me. I will have to add that his eyes looked red, though, Jackson would've noticed that. And act a bit more, you know…"

"Traumatised?" Stiles said, leaning forward and looking at Lydia through the window. "How's she doing?" he asked, his voice filled with worry.

"She'll survive. She's remarkably strong." I said, looking through the window as well.

Jackson had sat down besides Lydia and was putting one arm over her, she was already shaking less visibly. Next to me, Stiles let himself fall back into his seat, letting out a grumble.

"Jealous?" I asked, a small smirk on my face. "How long exactly have you had a crush on this girl?"

"Since third grade." he mumbled.

"Did you tell me? I would've totally tried to hook you two up."

"No, no, it was months after you left." he said, followed by a few mumbled words.

"What's that?" I asked, raising an eyebrow at him. He opened his mouth, but wasn't able to say anything as his dad entered the car, taking place behind the steering wheel.

"Sorry that took so long." he said, starting up the car.

"It's fine." I said, staring out of the window as we drove towards the Sheriff's station.

~o~

"So, the lights stopped working, you went inside to look for Jackson, then the mountain lion headed for you instead of him. You shot a bullet into the ceiling to startle it, then ran outside. Then the lion did… what?" the sheriff repeated, gesturing at me to fill in the last part.

"He jumped out of the window and headed for the woods."

"That's it?" he asked, one hand underneath the file so he was ready to close it. I bit my lip and looked around nervously. "Lorraine, if there's anything else, you need to tell me." he said seriously.

"I-it's eyes th- god you're going to think I'm crazy." I said, shaking my head and looking down to my feet. "They were red." I said, my voice soft.

"Red?" the sheriff repeated, not believing it.

"But, I mean, it must've been the red emergency lights that were reflected in its eyes, right?" I asked. I did the best I could to sound desperate. Acting was part of the package when it comes to training to become a protector, so I think that I succeeded.

"It was probably that, and your mind playing tricks on you. You were in a very dangerous situation, and your brain was working hard on finding a way out. You did well, Lorraine." he said, closing the file before getting up from his chair. "I think that we're done here." he said, patting my shoulder as he walked past me and towards the door, which he opened. My dad immediately walked in, headed straight for me.

"You okay?" he asked, his eyes scanning me for anything that would answer that question with a no. I just nodded and gave him a faint smile.

"I just want to go home."

~o~

Once I got home, I told dad the most detailed description of events I could give him, after which he demanded to check for any medical issues himself. Believe me when I say I tried to tell him that it wasn't necessary, but he wouldn't listen.

"Your pulse is… a bit on the low side." he said. He frowned and looked up at me. "You sure you-"

"Yes!"

"Alright then, jacket off, I want to make sure you haven't got any glass stuck in your arms." he said. I took my jacket off and he started searching. It was quiet for a while, until…

"Oh, that's…" he said, putting a finger on one of my shoulderblades. "Can I take a look at that?" he asked.

"At what?" I asked, taking off my shirt.

"The scarring where the Raven… anyway, it's like it has thickened. I think there's bodily fluids stuck in it…" From the corner of my eye, I could see him reaching for something. That was soon followed by a sharp pain in my back.

"I'm just taking out the fluid." he said, pulling back the syringe. "Oh."

"What?" I asked, turning around. "Oh." In dad's hand was a syringe filled with a dark black liquid. "That can't be good."

He didn't really appreciate me saying that.

~o~

We were at Deaton's, and waiting for the results of the test he ran on me. Well, dad was waiting, I was dreading them. Or rather, my reaction when dad found out I had half a year left to live. So when Deaton came in, I'd expected him to tell dad, who would do god knows, and me awkwardly sitting there, pretending to be shocked.

One month.

I didn't have to pretend to be shocked now.

"One month?" I exclaimed. It was like someone dropped three elephants' worth of weight on me.

"Maybe less. I'm sorry." was all that Deaton could say. I bit the inside of my lip, watching dad from the corner of my eyes. He had his head in his hands. I let out a deep sigh.

"What will happen to me? Will it just… be over one day?" I asked.

"Afraid not. From the few sources I have on this, the last week or so is when the symptoms really start to kick in. I nodded, waiting for him to continue. "You'll have migraines, vivid dreaming, sometimes paired with blackouts. Also, an almost constant pain where the Raven set it's claws in you." Well shit.

"What do you want to do?" dad asked, looking at me for the first time since Deaton told us. "It's your last month, you should decide what you want to do." My last month. I let out a deep sigh.

"I want to finish the job." I said, nodding at my own words, making sure it was the right decision. "I want to have finished my own first job, made sure that this town is safe."

"You don't have to go to school." dad said, probably in attempt to make my last month more enjoyable. I couldn't help but laugh a little at that, though it came out weak.

"Yeah, I'd like that." I said, looking back at Deaton. "Can we go now?" He nodded and started putting away his equipment. We said goodbye and dad walked ahead of me to lead me out of the clinic.

"There is one condition, though." he said just before we got into the car. "If it gets too dangerous, I'm taking the job back."

It wasn't that I agreed with him or was happy with it, but more that I knew that arguing would be useless, so I nodded and got into the car.

~o~

Dad had kept his promise, I didn't have to go to school the day after. Only I hadn't thought to inform Scott or Stiles on this (I had called Lydia to make sure she was alright, but she sounded like she was high, so she wasn't at school either.) which inevitably led to Stiles calling me right after first period.

"Hey, you weren't in class, you sure everything's okay?" Stiles asked once I answered the phone.

"Yeah, yeah." I said. Should I tell him? I mean, it's not really ideal if I just drop dead the next month and he didn't see it coming. But should I let him suffer in the fact that one of his friends was going to die? Crap. I'm really his friend now, aren't I? Well, I say crap, but I couldn't help but smile at the thought of us being friends.

"You want me to come over after school?" he asked.

"No, no it's fine. Listen… I'm not really going to school anymore."

Silence.

"Why not? I mean, lucky you, but why not?"

"It's not the best time to tell you everything now. Tell you what, I'm heading over to Lydia's place in a few hours, check if she's alright. How about you come pick me up and then we'll talk."

"Okay, yeah, sure. Lydia's place, right. I'll see you… at Lydia's place." I let out a chuckle at that.

"See you, Stiles." I said, waiting for him to respond before hanging up. I was sitting at the table in the kitchen, with dad opposite of me. He raised an eyebrow at me.

"You're going to tell him?" he asked skeptically. I bit the inside of my lip and nodded.

"He deserves to know." I said, more to convince myself than dad, who let out a sigh.

"It's not my decision to make." he said, standing up and walking towards the stove. "You want some scrambled eggs?"

"Yeah." I said, watching him take a pan out of the cupboard and make the eggs. "Any chance you could give me a ride to Lydia's place later?"

Dad turned around for a moment and looked at me. He then nodded and went back to the eggs.

"Of course, sweetheart."

~o~

Dad had dropped me off at Lydia's place around thirty minutes before Stiles would arrive, which gave me some time to talk about what had happened with her. Or so I'd thought, but I hadn't expected Lydia to be under a ton of medicine. And when I say a ton, I mean a shitload of it.

"She took them to calm her nerves." her mother explained as I picked up the bottle that stood on her nightstand. Lydia wasn't asleep, but it was like she was daydreaming, staring off into the distance. She was basically drunk.

"How many did she take?" I asked, looking at the bottle in worry. "You could take down a horse with these things." Her mother just let out a sigh and left the room, leaving me alone with Lydia. Speaking of which, she seemed to slowly gather back consciousness.

"Hey." she said, a goofy grin on her face as she prodded a finger into my leg. "It's you. I didn't think you would come." I turned around to face her and sat down on the floor next to her bed.

"I wanted to check how you were doing after the attack." I said. She was prodding her finger into my shoulder now, so I just took her hand in mine. "Did you see what it was?" I asked, my head tilted to the side.

"A mountain lion." she said, sounding dazed.

"Alright…" I said, taking a plush giraffe off the floor. "And what's this?"

"A mountain lion." she said, as if it were obvious.

"Lydia, as soon as you stop being high, I'm going to explain things to you." I said, squeezing her hand. "The Alpha… it lost interest in me and Jackson pretty quickly." -Lydia giggled when I mentioned Jackson- "But when you screamed… I didn't tell anyone yet, but it stopped. It stopped, looked back at the car. I could swear to God it was smirking at you." I looked over at her, she was just smiling goofily at me, not taking in anything of what I was saying. "You're being pulled into this, and if it goes any further you need to know what is happening for you really go crazy."

"'M not crazy." she said, her words slurred. I let out a laugh.

"You sound like you're drunk."

"No, you're drunk."

"Just go to sleep, Lydia." I said, letting go of her hand and standing up. I pushed her further onto her bed and put a blanket over her. She was having none of it, constantly throwing off the blanket and rolling back to the edge of the bed. After a minute or two, I gave up and went back to sitting by her side, listening to her ramble utter nonsense. I was still doing that when the door opened. Stiles and Lydia's mother stepped in.

"Honey, there's a Stiles here to see you." she said.

"What the hell is a Stiles?" Lydia asked, not even looking up. I let out a laugh at Stiles' confused expression.

"She took some meds." I called out, smiling at the two standing by the door. "It's alright, come in." I said. Stiles smiled and Lydia's mom got out of the room, closing the door behind her.

"How is she?" Stiles asked, looking at Lydia, who rolled to lay on her side, one arm on her hip and one supporting her head.

"What are you doing here?" she asked. Man, she managed to sound like she was the one ruling the entire planet, even when on drugs. Stiles glanced at me, fiddling with his hands.

"I- I was just making sure that you were okay." he said, gesturing at Lydia, who just let out a "hmm." before turning around, using her arms for support.

"Why?" she asked, patting on the bed.

"Um.." Stiles said. He let out a scoff and moved over to sit on the bed. "Because I was worried about you, today." Lydia ran her hand through her hair before placing it on his upper arm. "How- How are you feeling?" he said. I put a hand over my mouth to keep in my laughter as his breath got stuck in his throat for a second.

"I feel..." Lydia said, pushing herself up and leaning into Stiles. "Fantastic."

Stiles let out an uncomfortable laugh, looking at me for help. I rolled my eyes and handed him the medicine.

"Woah." he said, reading the label on the side. "I bet you can't say: 'I saw Suzy sitting in the shoeshine shop' ten times fast." he said. Lydia raised an eyebrow at him. She was one step away from saying: "Oh, really?" But, instead of that, she tried saying it.

"I saw Shu-" she giggled at her own mistake. "I shaw…" she said, leaning closer to Stiles, who grinned. She let out a huff and stared at the wall before letting herself fall back down on the bed. "I saw…" she said, staring at nothing.

"A mountain lion?" Stiles asked. Lydia nodded.

"A mountain lion." she repeated. Stiles looked at me. He knew it wasn't a mountain lion. I rolled my eyes and picked up the plush giraffe from the floor. Once again Lydia said that it was a mountain lion.

"Wow you're drunk." Stiles said as I put the giraffe on her nightstand. Lydia let out a groan and let her head fall on Stiles' lap. He tensed.

"Lorraine, could you…" I let out a chuckle and moved to sit on my knees. I gently took Lydia's head and moved her away from Stiles. "Thanks." he whispered, getting off the bed and tossing the blanket over Lydia, who was now fast asleep.

"I thought you'd like Lydia lying in your arms. Or legs." I said, waggling my eyebrows at him. Stiles threw one of Lydia's pillows right in my face as a response. "Rude." I said, putting the pillow back on the bed. "Let's get out of here." I said, my stomach dropping as I realised what I was going to tell him.

~o~

"So, what was this thing you were going to tell me?" Stiles asked, taking a sip from his milkshake. Before I got a chance to tell him, he'd offered to go grab some food first, which we were now eating in his car.

"I... " I let out a sigh. I had not clue where to start. "When we were heading for Beacon Hills, we passed a small group of men trying to shoot a bird out of a tree. Said bird was a Raven." I looked at him, making sure he knew what kind of Raven I was talking about. I had mentioned it when we were playing a game. "I'm not going to tell you the whole thing, but in the end, we saved the Raven, and it killed the group of men. Now, this bird was pissed, and it was heading for me. Dad yelled at me to get to the car." I let out a scoff. "Stupid. If there's one thing you must know about a Raven is that it will always get you. And got me it did."

"What happened?" Stiles asked. I could see in his face that he knew where this was heading.

"It got me. Put its claws right into my back, between my shoulderblades. I survived, but barely. I was dying. Dad brought me to Deaton, he told us that it's rare, but sometimes a person survives the Raven's claw."

"That's, that's good right?" Stiles asked, a glint of hope in his eyes.

"Deaton also said that those people died shortly after. Some lasted a year, maybe two. Dad and I went back to him yesterday, to run a couple of tests." I looked down at my hands. "He said I have a month. Or less."

Silence.

Slowly, I moved my eyes to see Stiles, not looking up. His hands were shaking and tears were streaming down his cheeks.

I had no clue what to do. Did I say sorry? Like that was going to help. Do nothing? Way to go. Try to comfort him? Should I? God here we go.

I unfastened my seatbelt and got out of the car. I ran around it and opened the driver's door. Stiles seemed to have reached a state of shock, he wasn't really responsive to anything, so I unfastened his seatbelt as well and pulled him out of the jeep, hugging him. Which was for two reasons: the comfort bit, and that I was pretty sure that he'd fall if I let him go.

He slowly wrapped his arms around me, but once he did, he didn't let go. Perhaps he was afraid that if he let go, he'd never see me again. But he didn't, and neither did I.

We'd been standing there for almost a minute now, and slowly but surely tears started forming in my eyes. Fuck. I didn't want to cry. But standing there, in an empty parking lot, hugging a still silently crying Stiles, I did.

~o~

Once we both had calmed down it was a bit awkward to say the least. We got back into the car and finished our food in silence. When we were finished with that, we had no clue what to do.

"So…" Stiles said, his voice thick. "Do you want to go home or…"

"No." I said, before even realising it. I just didn't want to risk getting home and letting dad see that I've been crying. That must be why. "Can we… go to your place? Go study or something?" Stiles nodded.

"Yeah." he said, eyeing me worriedly. "Yeah, sure."

~o~

We were sitting in Stiles' room in silence, studying. Stiles was sitting at his desk working on his chemistry homework, I was translating pages of our family's bestiary. Which was thousands of pages long and written in old english. It was originally written in Latin, then translated into medieval English in the middle ages, and then continuously translated throughout the years. Now there were around one hundred pages of old english, around the 6th century, a thousand in medieval english, and another two thousand or so in "modern" english. (with some weird words like "zwodder" or 'groking")

The Protector community did have translators, but updates were always welcome. This way I could at least be of use in my last few weeks.

I was almost finished with a page on Wendigos when Stiles dad knocked on the door and opened it.

"Please tell me I'm gonna hear good news at this parent teacher thing tonight." he said, though he didn't look too hopeful.

"Depends what you define as good news." Stiles said, fiddling with his hands as he looked up at his father.

"I define it as you getting straight A's and having no behavioural issues." he said.

"Might wanna change that definition, sheriff." I said, smirking at the man.

"In that case, I know more than enough." he said, leaving the room again. Stiles grimaced, making me laugh.

"You've got anything below a C?" I asked, trying to hide my smirk.

"Economics." he mumbled, standing up and walking to his printer. After five full minutes of printing, he was done.

"You've finished already?" I asked, laying down my pen and standing up. I walked over to the printer and let out a sigh. He'd printed out the fire department's report on the Hale fire.

"Stiles…" I said, taking the paper from the printer. "Why can't you let it- arson?" I asked, looking at the words with a frown. "The Hale fire might've been arson?"

"Apparently, possible arson." Stiles said, taking the papers back from me. "Nine deaths, one survivor." he read.

"Who was the survivor?" I asked, tilting my head so I could read the paper. "Peter Hale." I read.

"Right here, it says that he's at a recovery institute." Stiles said, his finger indicating the name of the institute. "Hey, you've got any plans Saturday?"

"Should we, though?" I asked. I mean, the man was in recovery, he was probably traumatised. Last thing on his mind would be two teenagers asking him questions.

"The Hale's were werewolves. What if… what if this Peter is the Alpha?" Stiles exclaimed, his hands making wild gestures through the air as he started pacing. I shook my head. It couldn't be. The man probably couldn't even leave the institute, not even to speak of transforming into the thing I'd seen yesterday. So that's what I told Stiles, but he insisted. And I gave in.

There went my plans for the weekend. Said plans being nothing. Because now I had a Saturday sneaking into a recovery institute and Sunday, which was going to be Scott's second full moon. Oh joy.

A/N: (Insert gasp here) Lorraine has one month left? This story wont end pretty, that's all I'm saying. Even though this was saddening to write, we did get some bonding between Stiles and Lorraine here. You might notice some small changes here and there throughout the story ;)

Because next week will be very busy for me, the next chapter might be uploaded a day or two later than usual, sorry in advance for that.

As always, I hoped you liked this chapter, until the next one, which will cover the episode Night School. (Which is one of my favourite episodes from season one, so I hope that I'll do it justice!)

~Lilly