Scott was really wishing his mother or Allison would get up here soon. Derek was beginning to stir and groan, and he had no idea how to comfort him. He was puzzled at the fact that, though both he and Isaac tried to take away Derek's obvious pain, they were somehow unable to. This left them feeling helpless. Stiles sighed as Melissa came into the room with a large bowl of ice water, while Allison followed closely behind with a few hand towels. Melissa set the bowl of cold water down on the night stand.

"Give me a towel, Allison." Melissa instructed. She dipped the small towel in the water and wrung it out before placing it on Derek's sweaty forehead. Derek exhaled in relief at the comfort the cool cloth on his head brought. He felt as though he was on fire. And his whole torso hurt as though it been slashed into pieces with a katana.

As Melissa examined Derek's injury, she noticed something was off. It not only seemed inflamed, but full of something, like a liquid. His abdomen was starting to swell around the area, and she was beginning to feel worried.

"Scott, call Dr. Deaton. I need to talk to him,"

"Ok," Scott answered. He dialed his boss's number. When it picked up, he handed the phone over to his mother.

"Hello Dr. Deaton, I think we've got a problem." Melissa then began to describe the state if the wound to the veterinarian over the phone.

"Hmm. Do you have a bottle of peroxide?" Deaton asked.

"Yeah, of course I do." Ms. McCall replied.

"What about some mountain ash? Do you have any left over from the security measures?"

"Uh, yeah, I do."

"Good. Mix about a tablespoon of mountain ash into the bottle of peroxide. Then pour it on the wound. It should find its way in on its own. I'll be over in a few minutes. But you have to do it now." Deaton instructed.

"Ok."

Melissa replied and hung up. She left the room only to return with the bottle of peroxide mixed with the mountain ash.

"Scott, Isaac, hold him still. I've gotta put this on his wound so it doesn't get infected." Melissa ordered as she held up a bottle of peroxide.

"This stuff'll burn, but it'll help him in the long run." She explained as she gestured towards the bottle of peroxide.

"What do you want me to do?" Stiles asked, suddenly feeling useless standing off the the side.

"Help Scott and Isaac hold him down." Ms. McCall instructed.

"Okey dokey," Stiles replied as he moved to help Scott hold down Derek's arms, while Isaac held down his legs.

"Ready?" Ms. McCall asked.

"Yeah," Scott replied.

As it turned out, his mother wasn't lying. When she poured the liquid onto the now closed wound, it started to fizz. Derek's breathing picked up, and he began to struggle against the boys' holds. He picked his head up and banged it on the bed repeatedly and hollered through his gritted teeth as the medicinal liquid cleansed the wound. "I can't hold him much longer!" Stiles yelled.

"Uhh, Mom? Is that normal?" Scott questioned as a dark brown ooze began to seep from the wound. Ms. McCall's eyes widened at the sight.
"I don't know what's normal for supernatural wounds!" Melissa replied.

It was then she heard a knock on the door.

"Allison, go get the door! It's Probably Dr. Deaton." Melissa instructed.

Allison ran down the stairs and opened the door.

"Hurry! We need your help upstairs." Allison nearly shouted.

As if to prove her claim, they both could hear Derek's wild cries of pain. They both hurried up the stairs. Deaton entered the room quickly. He almost froze at the sight; Derek was writhing in pure agony on the bed while Scott, Isaac, and Stiles were trying their best to keep him still. He rushed over to Derek's side, quickly sizing up the injury.

"You've gotta try and hold him still. This stuff has to come out. It's poisonous sap from the Nemeton." Deaton ordered. All four of the kids looked at each other worriedly. Poisonous sap from the Nemeton didn't sound good at all. Isaac looked on in horror as Deaton removed several tools and bottles from his bag.

"If we're lucky, he'll go unconscious from the pain. If we're not...he's really gonna feel this." Deaton hoped as he pulled a wicked looking scalpel from his bag.

"Now, you have to hold him still. Otherwise, I could end up cutting into something I didn't mean to interfere with. Ready?" Deaton asked as he looked from Scott, to Stiles, to Isaac. All three nodded.

"Here it goes," Deaton murmured as he placed the scalpel to the wound. He pressed down hard to draw blood, then began to slide it all the way down. As soon as the metal touched his skin, Derek tried to pull away. But he was unable to do so, for there were several sets of hands restraining him. He let out a barely restrained shout as it pierced his skin and made its way down inside his wound. He could feel that something wasn't right. His whole body began shaking as he tried to hold himself still. He let out one last wild shout of pain when the scalpel went deeper into his injury, and he sank into the beckoning darkness.

"He's out." Scott said as Derek's head lolled to the side in unconsciousness.

"Good, that's good. Let's just hope he stays that way."

As Deaton finished making his incision, the brown sap began to seep out of the wound at a much faster pace. They sat around, waiting and watching until it was nearly 2 in the morning. As Deaton stitched the wound back up, he beckoned Melissa closer.

"Ms. McCall, I need you to call me if it starts swelling again. Ok?"

"Ok." Melissa replied.

"There, that should be it for tonight." Deaton sighed as he stretched and straightened. He grabbed his tools and placed them in his bag.

"Just do your best to make him comfortable, and try not to let him move around too much." Deaton instructed as he grabbed his bag and headed for the door.

"I'll let myself out," He assured Melissa and he stopped her ascent from Derek's bedside.

"See you later Doc," Scott called in a quiet voice.

"Whew, am I the only one that thought that was kinda weird? Maybe a little unsettling?" Stiles questioned as he sat next to Scott

"Well, I've never seen anything like that before." Scott replied.

"Well, I don't know about you guys, but I'm starving. I'm gonna go downstairs and make some supper. That ok with you guys?" Ms. McCall asked as she stood to go.

"Definitely," Stiles replied emphatically. When Ms. McCall left the room, the teens turned towards one another.

"So...what now?" Allison questioned.

"I guess we just wait and see. And like Deaton said, make him as comfortable as possible." Scott answered.

Allison moved over to Derek's head as he began to shift.

"He's waking up again?" Stiles questioned.

"No. At least I don't think so. He's just moving around some. But we shouldn't let him move too much. Remember what Deaton said." Scott responded.

Allison took the now dry cloth from Derek's forehead and dunked it in the water. She wrung it out, then replaced the wet cloth on his head. She then took a larger hand towel and placed it in the water.

"What're you doing?" Stiles asked inquisitively.

"My dad says that, when you have an inflamed wound like this, you should try and cool it down. I'm gonna put a wet towel on it. Kinda like the one on his head." Allison explained as she wrung out the towel and began to place in on the angry looking injury.

Stiles jumped as Derek groaned and moved. Allison moved closer and tried to sooth him. "Shh, shhh. It's ok, it's ok. You're gonna be fine."

Derek relaxed and went back to sleep.

"We still haven't seen his eyes yet." Scott ventured.

"Yeah? So?" Stiles replied.

"So….we still don't know if he's still an alpha or not. I don't think he is, but Isaac is his beta, and he would know if Derek wasn't an alpha anymore." Scott responded.

"Wow this is confusing."

"We'll just have to wait and see I guess." Scott said.

"Yeah."

After feeding on sandwiches at somewhere around 4 in the morning, Ms. McCall suggested that they all try and get at least a little sleep. Ms. McCall went to her room with instructions to wake her if anything happened. Allison went to the couch in the living room, while Isaac went to his room, leaving the door unnecessarily cracked in case Derek woke. Scott asked his reasoning for cracking the door when he could probably hear just fine, but Isaac just replied that he was a heavy sleeper.

Scott went to his room with Stiles tagging along.

"So...what do we do now? I can't exactly go to sleep, my head is buzzing. I gotta feeling like something's off, but I'm not sure what." Scott said, looking over at Stiles.

"Well, that makes two of us. I can't sleep either. Maybe we should look up druids." Stiles suggested.

"Maybe. I wonder what Deaton's found. He said he felt something was off too, said he was going to look into it." Scott replied.

As if on cue, Scott's phone rang. The screen said Dr. Deaton. Scott hurriedly answered and put it on speaker so that Stiles could hear.

"Hey Doc, what's up?" Scott questioned.

"I may have found something. I'll be around in the morning to check for sure. In the meantime, I need you to check Derek's eyes. What color are they?"

"Uhhh, we'll go check." Scott assured as both he and Stiles headed to the guest room.

"Ok, who's gonna check his eyes?" Stiles asked.

"Who cares?" Scott responded.

"Well, I just don't feel like getting grabbed and possibly strangled by an unconscious werewolf!" Stiles retorted strongly.

"Fine. I'LL do it. Feel better now?" Scott asked sarcastically as he touched Derek's forehead. They both jumped as Derek grabbed Scott's wrist in an iron grip.

"Gah!" Scott gasped as he quickly tried to pull his arm free. They both backed quickly away from the bed as Derek went limp.

"I TOLD you!" Stiles quipped in a whisper as he looked over at Scott.

"Yeah, yeah. Let's try that again." Scott replied cautiously.

They both looked at each other and inched closer to Derek's bed.

Stiles inhaled sharply and held his breath as Scott lifted his eyelid. As soon as Scott saw Derek's eyes, he dropped all measures of precaution and leaned in to take a closer look.

"Stiles, look at this." Scott exclaimed. Stiles leaned over and looked closely at Derek's iris.

"It's red!" Stiles exclaimed. "Dark red."