A/N: I know it's been forever, a LOT of stuff has come up... but fear not, I plan on working really hard for this story (and the other requested fic as well). Hope you enjoy the chapter and hopefully it isn't nearly as long until the next update!

*Wednesday Morning*

Scott automatically groaned when his phone alarm went off, automatically reached over to turn it off, and automatically sat up to rub his eyes. He did it all without pain, without realizing he should be in pain. It wasn't until he stretched his arms up over his head that his brain woke up and he remembered the night before. Scott's eyes shot open and he threw the covers back, looking down at the patches on his sides. His hands trembled as he touched the small red spot; there wasn't as much blood as he would've thought. Cautiously he threw on a shirt and hurried to the bathroom, not wanting his mom to see him. There was no pain, at all… shouldn't there be pain? Scott stared at himself in the mirror for awhile, too scared to check his wounds… It wasn't until his mom knocked on the door, startling him, that he realized that he needed to just look. Otherwise he'd be late. The fact that there was no pain scared him, should he tell his mom?

"I can at least look at it first," he murmured to himself. If it looked infected or anything, he'd tell her. But first he had to look. So he carefully pulled one bandage away, eyes narrowing as he noticed that the claw wound was gone. Completely. "What the hell?!" He quickly ripped off the other bandages, on both sides. Not one claw mark. Scott knew that he hadn't imagined the pain, and there was dried blood on the gauze- that had to've come from somewhere! But his skin was smooth. He gently poked at his sides, sighing in relief when he could feel the sensation. The lack of pain was from a lack of wounds, not from a lack of feeling, his sides hadn't gone numb.

"Scott, I haven't heard the shower start, are you alright? I know you don't want to be late," Melissa called out. She was dead tired from a long shift but she couldn't go to sleep until she knew he was off to school safely. It wasn't like him to be so slow in the mornings…

"Oh, sorry, Stiles said he'd pick me up so I guess I'm just slacking off because I know I've got a few minutes."

"Oh, well I'm putting some bread in the toaster for you, don't take too long or it'll get cold."

Scott turned on the water, then he carefully peeled back the bandage on his arm while he waited for the shower to warm up. The bite mark was gone as well. "This isn't normal…" he mumbled to himself. How could he be healed… last night had definitely happened, he'd been in pain. Right? Jackson! Jackson was attacked too! Scott rushed into the shower, ignoring the still-too-cold water, now he was really in a hurry.

"Oh hey, you're actually out here waiting, what's the-" Stiles started to call out as he pulled up to the curb.

"I uh, slept well last night so it didn't take me as long to get out of bed," Scott lied, the words tumbling out of his mouth, surprising him.

"Even though you only got a few hours of sleep and you got chased by some kind of animal? That's surprising." Stiles looked at his friend, wondering if he was really okay. Scott was always hard to wake up in the morning, almost as bad as himself.

"I guess the adrenaline spike really helped?" Scott shrugged. "Maybe it totally wiped me out and then I wasn't up even later worried about tryouts and stuff. Speaking of, let's go!"

Stiles laughed and rolled his eyes, of course wanted to get to school early, even though tryouts didn't start until after classes were over! "Buckle your seatbelt and we can go."

*School*

Scott jumped out of the jeep as soon as Stiles parked and scanned the lot for Jackson's Porsche. Jackson usually wasn't late but Scott had to make sure that he had come to school. His injuries had been pretty serious; Scott really should've pushed for the hospital. But his car was in the parking lot, in the same spot it always was.

"Back again," Stiles sighed, heaving his backpack onto his shoulders. When he turned to pout at his best friend, he realized that he was alone. "Scott? Where-" he huffed, looking around. He spotted him speed-walking through the parking lot, already 4 rows over. "How the hell did you get over there so fast…?"

Scott rushed between the cars, barely reining himself in from flat out running. Jackson would have something to say about it too! He hurried into the school and towards the stairs. Jackson's locker was on the second floor and Scott had to get there before he left for class. He continued to push past people, snaking his way through the other students until he got to the right hallway. And thankfully Jackson was still leaning against his locker, talking with Danny. He walked up, suddenly nervous about how to broach the topic…

"So you're sure that no one is going to talk?" Jackson whispered. He'd been up most of the night, texting everyone that had been at the party. Most of the guys had gotten back to him and they had promised that their dates wouldn't talk either. Thankfully none of them really wanted to talk about being scared out of their wits! And as soon as they realized that he was fine they calmed down.

"Yea, I'm sure, only Matt texted me, asking if you were really okay and…" Danny trailed off, noticing Scott as he walked up to them.

"And what?"

Danny didn't reply, instead he tilted his chin in Scott's direction, unsure what to say. Surely he knew that Jackson didn't want to talk about last night so why was he walking up to them? Maybe he just wanted to make sure Jackson was alright, Scott was a good guy like that. But Jackson was going to be irritated instead of thankful…

Jackson turned around and immediately scowled when he saw Scott. "McCall, what do you want?"

There was a tone in his voice warning Scott not to say anything, but Scott needed to know. "I just had a quick question… um… about tryouts…" Scott mumbled, opening his eyes wide and looking at Jackson's shoulder pointedly. Really, if Scott was anything like the captain, he'd be attempting to blackmail him into being nice… But he'd never stoop to that level and everyone knew it. And that was probably why Jackson wasn't even attempting to be nice after Scott helped patch him up! Stiles wouldn't have batted an eye, he'd take the opportunity. But this wasn't even about lacrosse, Scott just wanted some answers!

"Like I want to give you any hints, get lost."

"Jackson, it's important!"

He leaned in close to Scott, voice barely above a whisper, "I'm fine, now get lost!" When Jackson pulled away from Scott, he was glaring. He wanted everyone to know that he didn't want McCall near him, because nothing had happened last night, not a single thing. As he turned to leave he even slung his backpack over his left shoulder, the one McCall had been looking at. Honestly, he was fine!

Scott stood there, dumbfounded. Jackson really didn't want to talk about it at all. But surely he was just as confused as to the lack of wounds. Scott knew that Jackson had healed just as miraculously, otherwise he wouldn't have been able to wear his bag on that side. At least Jackson had communicated that much to him. But that probably meant that Jackson was going to blow it all off- there was no evidence of an attack now so Jackson could play dumb. Wasn't he scared of what that meant?! Didn't he have questions?!

"Dude, Scott?" Stiles panted, "What the hell was that?" He noticed Jackson hurrying away and narrowed his eyes. "Where you in that big of a hurry to talk to Jackson? Seriously?"

"I just had a question…"

Stiles sighed and wrapped an arm around Scott's shoulder, "He said he didn't want to talk about last night."

"I know…"

"Wait, I thought you said nothing happened?"

Scott nodded, "Yea, nothing happened…"

"So why do you need to check on him? Like, I know you Scotty, you were trying to check on him, even though he's an absolute ass!"

Scott shrugged one shoulder and looked away. "I need to stop by my locker, c'mon."

Stiles gaped at him as he walked away, seriously? Scott was acting weird, it wasn't like him to care about Jackson. Last night had been scary but if they'd gotten away unscathed then, why was he worrying? Besides, he might hate physical exercise more than Scott but even Scott should've been breathing hard. He had been rushing through the parking lot and made it up to the second floor so quickly. And he wasn't breathing hard at all. He followed Scott to his locker and looked him over, studying him for any signs of… anything. His hands weren't shaking, his pupils weren't too dilated or contracted… his heart wasn't visibly racing… Scott wasn't fidgeting either. That cut out a lot of drugs; there were no signs of pain… The only weird thing was that he seemed to be avoiding Stiles's questions. They shared everything together…

"Why are you staring at me?"

"Something is wrong. What is it?"

Scott's eyes widened, "Wh-why do you think something is wrong?"

"Your reaction just now for one. But two, I know you Scotty, we've been friends since we knew how to talk in coherent sentences. What happened last night?"

"I told you, nothing." Scott lowered his voice, "We were scared out of our minds and thought something was coming after us, but nothing happened."

Stiles started at him, not believing him at all. "When you answered the phone last night, you sounded like you were in pain. I didn't say anything because I was just so relieved that you were alive. But I know what I heard."

Scott turned away and hurried to class, calling over his shoulder, "Stiles, do I look like I'm hurt?" He didn't really realize it was almost an exact repeat of what Jackson had done moments earlier.

"No… in fact you seem to be in much better shape than you've ever been in," he mumbled to himself. But he let it go, if Scott wanted to try and hide something, well, Stiles would find out the truth anyways. It wasn't like he had proof right now so there was no point arguing with him about it just yet. Not many people knew it but he was capable of being patient when he needed to be.

As they sat in class, with Mr. Westover droning on and on about whatever happened back when Columbus had sailed the ocean, Stiles doodled on his notebook. History usually bored him, he couldn't help it. Besides, he had other things to think about, like how he was going to get Scott to admit the truth. It wasn't until he glanced to his left that he noticed that Scott wasn't paying attention either. How were they supposed to study when neither of them were taking notes?! "Dude, Scott!" he hissed, trying to get his attention.

Scott was busy staring out the window though. He'd gotten distracted when he heard a phone ring and was surprised when it seemed like he could hear the girl outside talking on the phone. Not that that was possible… but it sure seemed like it. Scott didn't notice how the sounds from the classroom had dimmed so he could only hear the girl- she was talking to her mom… it was her first day. Then he was surprised when he heard another voice, the vice principal was introducing himself, he was sorry for being so late. Scott smiled as she introduced herself, Allison, a pretty name. When they wandered into the building he lost track of them, unable to hear them anymore… but he tried, focusing on her voice for as long as he could.

Stiles was beyond irritated now, was Scott ignoring him?! He'd whispered his name a few times and had got no response. So he glanced at the front of the classroom to make sure Mr. Westover wasn't watching, and then he quickly slapped Scott's arm. The reaction was immediate.

Scott spun around in his chair, eyes opened wide but not in fear… and his hands were balled into fists. He quickly took in his surroundings and noticed the startled look on Stiles's face… oh, Stiles had been the one to hit him. Not a threat. Threat? Why would there be a threat… Scott mentally shook himself. He was just so focused that he hadn't been expecting the tap, that was all, he had been startled. Thankfully only a few other students seemed to notice, just a chuckle here and there but nothing to draw the teacher's attention. "What?"

"Why aren't you taking notes?! I thought you wanted to be on the lacrosse team?" Stiles whispered, scowl on his face.

"I was… distracted…"

A moment passed as Stiles waited for Mr. Westover to turn back around and face the board. "By what?!"

"This girl, Allison, she-"

"Who?"

Scott bit his lip, right, how could he explain… "Um, she's new, today is her first day. I saw her outside. She can't find a pencil... but then the vice principal came out. I'm not-"

"Mr. McCall, is everything alright?" Mr. Westover asked, head tilted.

Thankfully he was spared having to answer when the door opened and Mr. Selk walked in with Allison. Scott couldn't help but grin as she waited to be introduced. Now that he had a better view of her, he saw that she was even more beautiful than he'd first realized.

"Sorry to interrupt Mr. Westover, I only just finished up with a new student and escorted her to class to make sure there was no issue on her tardiness," Mr. Selk explained, waving to the girl beside him.

"No issue at all, You only missed a few minutes of notes, we're on Chapter 5 by the way. Go ahead and find a seat, Miss?"

"Um, Allison," she paused, "Argent."

"Well Miss Argent, welcome to Beacon Hills High, we're glad to have you," Mr. Westover smiled. Then he turned back to the board, earlier question to Scott forgotten.

Stiles watched as the new girl- Allison, hurried to the empty seat behind Scott. Was he psychic or something? How the frick had he known a girl named Allison was going to be joining their class?! Not only that, Stiles watched as she dug through her purse for a pencil but he recognized the hopeless look on her face. She wasn't expecting to find one. And of course Scott immediately turned around and handed her his spare. Stiles had to hold in a groan as he noticed how brightly she smiled at him and the goofy look on Scott's face. He liked her. What the hell was going on…? He couldn't ask now of course, Scott wouldn't want to talk about it with Allison right behind him. So he cleared his throat and attempted to take his own notes, there was no telling if Scott would be paying enough attention.

*Lunch*

"Scott, are you even listening to me?!" Stiles cried out, throwing a French fry at him.

Scott blinked and turned around, looking at his friend, "What?"

"Is it sad that I can't tell who you're making googly eyes at, Allison or Jackson…?"

"Why would I be making googly eyes at him?!"

Stiles shrugged, "Because you want to be on the lacrosse team? Or because you're concerned about him for some reason… Like how you rushed to his locker first thing this morning to talk to him. What was that about again?"

"I wanted to ask him a question about lacrosse, I told you that." Scott fiddled with his spork, not liking how closely Stiles was studying him.

"This morning, when I asked if you were checking up on him, you just shrugged but you didn't deny it. You didn't mention anything about lacrosse. Seriously Scott… I thought we didn't keep secrets." He gave Scott his best sad face, like the one Scott would always give him.

Scott immediately looked away, feeling awful. He knew Stiles would figure it out, that he was lying. He couldn't help it though… "Jackson said we were supposed to say anything…"

"Yea, I know, I'm pissed about that, he's just trying to save his own ass. But Scott, I was there too! It's not like I don't know about the party already. I took Lydia home!" he whispered.

"Yea, and Jackson was terrified, I was so scared too! But we all made it home didn't we?"

Stiles shook his head, "You were in pain… did you get bit or scratched?! Please tell me you showed your mom! I know we talked about the rabies thing but you should get tested."

"I didn't get bit, or scratched," Scott denied. Stiles didn't believe him though because he reached over and started grabbing at the hem of his shirt. Scott slapped his hands and scooted away, "Dude!"

"I don't believe you, you've been hiding something. As a vet assistant, you should know how dangerous it is to ignore bites and scratches from wild animals!"

Scott nodded his head, "Yea, I do know that, so why do you think I did something stupid?"

"Because Jackson made you promise not to say anything." When Scott didn't reply, Stiles knew that he was right. He was hiding it because the captain had ordered him to keep quiet and Scott, for some idiotic reason, wanted to be on the team so badly… "Did Jackson at least promise you a spot on the team if you kept quiet?"

"What, no…"

"Seriously, you didn't even make him promise something in return? Scotty, have I taught you nothing?"

Scott was about to argue about being better than Jackson but then he saw Jackson suddenly stand up from his table and walk away in a hurry. He looked like he was sick, one hand coming up to cover his face. Scott watched as he waved Danny away and shrugged off Lydia's arm. He made a split second decision to follow him. When Stiles started to follow, he nodded in Lydia's direction, hating himself for using Stiles's crush against his friend like that.

Of course Stiles looked and when he saw the hurt look on Lydia's face he paused. Scott was trying to sidetrack him, probably hoping to talk to Jackson alone. This was his chance to find out what happened. But when Lydia hurried out of the cafeteria with tears in her eyes, Stiles followed her instead.

*Hallway*

L-Lydia?" Stiles called out. It was strange that none of her friends had followed her, Lydia loved to have them flock around her.

She didn't even pause, just kept walking; she didn't want to be around anyone! But as she turned a corner and noticed that he was still following her, she spun around and frowned at him, "Go away!"

"You don't have to hide from me, we don't have to pretend that last night didn't happen," he said softly as he stepped closer to her.

Lydia backed away, looking around with wide eyes. "Nothing happened- don't say it like that!"

"What?" Stiles asked, squinting his eyes. Oh… "No, that's not, you know I didn't mean that… no one is around to hear us anyway."

"I don't want to talk about it." She covered her arms and looked away.

"What about back there, why'd you suddenly walk away, can we talk about that?"

She shrugged, "Jackson was being a jerk! It upset me."

"You two never fight… what happened?"

"Nothing!" Lydia started to walk away again but Stiles stayed a few steps behind her. Thankfully he didn't push her anymore, didn't ask any other questions. She went to her locker and fiddled with the latch for a moment. "Something's wrong with Jackson…" she finally admitted.

-Meanwhile-

"Hey, wait up!" Scott called out, hurrying after Jackson.

Jackson's shoulders slumped, "God… seriously?" he mumbled to himself. "McCall, can't you just leave me alone?"

"No, not when it's something important. Aren't you scared?!"

"Scared of what?" he asked, turning to face Scott.

Scott sighed forcefully, "All of your injuries healed overnight didn't they?" he asked. Now that he'd said it aloud… it scared him. Before now he'd just been in shock, disbelieving the whole thing; now it was real.

"What injuries are you talking about?" Jackson bluffed.

"Don't pretend with me Jackson, there's no one else here in the hallway. Don't pretend it didn't happen- I helped patch you up!"

"Keep your voice down!" Jackson looked around the hallway anyways, just to make sure. "Okay, fine, it's true, all the injuries from last night are gone, so what?"

"So what? Jackson, that isn't normal. What if-"

Jackson shrugged, "The wounds probably weren't as bad as we thought, that's all."

"Those scratches were deep Jackson, I didn't imagine that. Let's not forget about the bite marks! Those teeth were sharp and went deep. No chance it just goes away!"

"I'm not going to argue with you about it- we got attacked and the marks are gone, it is what it is. Now leave me alone!"

Scott reached out and grabbed his wrist, "Has anything else weird happened to you?"

Jackson paused just a second before shaking his head. Scott was just being stupid, his headache and nausea had nothing to do with anything. The cafeteria just smelled really bad today and it had given him a headache, upset his stomach a little- that was it! "Nothing is happening, we were freaked out last night, the wounds weren't as bad as we first thought. See, isn't it a good thing we didn't go to the hospital? We would've gotten in trouble for nothing." Jackson yanked his arm free and tried to walk away again.

"Jackson, seriously, something isn't right. I…" he trailed off. Did he want to mention the fact that he heard a conversation that took place outside? Something was off with Jackson, Scott could tell by the way he hurried out of the cafeteria.

"You what, Scott?"

"Something weird happened to me earlier and I'm willing to bet that something weird was going on with you just now. We have to talk about it." For a brief moment Jackson looked like he was considering it, but then he dashed Scott's hopes.

"I told you, there's nothing to talk about. Now will you please leave me alone?" He stormed off, needing to get outside. Even though he wasn't in the cafeteria anymore, he could still smell everything and it was overwhelming. He needed fresh air! He didn't care about whatever weird thing Scott was talking about, Jackson was fine!

-Meanwhile-

"Something's wrong, like what?" Stiles asked. Did this have something to do with what Scott was hiding? Did she have any idea about what really happened last night?! If something was wrong with Jackson then was Scott in the same trouble too?

"I was just asking Jackson if he was okay… after you dropped me off, I was freaked out, all night. I got a text from Jackson saying he was alive but we didn't talk. Then this morning he blows me off to talk to Danny… so this was the first time we really got to talk- I just asked if he was alright because…"

"Because?"

"Something was off with him. He's been angry all day and in the cafeteria he was complaining about it smelling so bad! But no one else at the table thought it smelled different than usual. I asked if maybe it had to do with last night."

"What do you mean? Last night you sa-"

"I know what I said!" Lydia snapped harshly. "When we were… after…" she stammered, voice dropping. "Jackson was in front of me one second and then he was gone. Like something pulled him away from me. It all happened so fast, the creature was huge! It was over top of him and he was screaming in pain… Last night I was just happy he was alive, like I said we didn't really get to talk. So today I asked if he needed to go to the hospital because of a delayed reaction or something. I know that he didn't go last night, I'm worried! But he just yelled at me! He said that he was fine and to drop it. But I didn't want to and that was when he told me that I was good for nothing and that I don't really care so I should just leave him alone. He's mad that I just ran away- I was so scared, what else was I supposed to do?!"

Stiles stepped forward, arm reaching out for her, but he paused. They were at school… she probably wouldn't appreciate him touching her. "He can't expect you to have done anything different. It's not like you had a weapon, you aren't a fighter. If you tried to save him you would've gotten hurt too. Jackson has no right to say something like that, he should be glad that you're safe!" Stiles stepped so he was in front of her, "You obviously do care, that's why you're concerned about him today, instead of just pretending that it never happened," he persisted.

"But Scott went to go help him- all I did was cling to you and drag you back to the road. I didn't try to call for help or anything."

"If the rest of the team hadn't run away like terrified kittens, you probably could've asked them for help. But they were gone by the time we found you. Scott went to help because he's a selfless person, he couldn't live with himself if he walked away. You saw the crazed animal with your own two eyes, of course you ran! Don't beat yourself up over that, it's called fight or flight response for a reason. You are not a fighter, and I guaran-damn-tee that if the situation had been reversed, Jackson would have left you behind too." Stiles couldn't help himself, he was just so irritated with the captain at that point. Scott wasn't raising a big fuss about Stiles leaving him behind- hell, he told Stiles to save Lydia. She was allowed to be terrified, why couldn't Jackson understand that? Stiles could imagine that he'd be hurt if Scott were to abandon him had he been in Jackson's shoes, but he'd also fight to make sure that Scott got away… he'd try his damnedest to keep the animal away from his best friend, even if it meant he died. That's what it meant to care about someone else! "Don't cry over him Lydia."

"What do you know?!" Lydia yelled, spinning away from him. Thankfully she wasn't followed this time.

Stiles stared after her, more confused than before. Apparently Jackson had been attacked, she confirmed that. But he didn't seem to have any obvious wounds. He also ended up snapping at Lydia, that had never happened before. Stiles wasn't sure if he could attribute that to the 'something weird' category or if it was just Jackson being stressed because of what had happened. It was something to consider though, Stiles wasn't completely ready to discount it as something abnormal. And there was the 'smelly cafeteria' thing that she had mentioned. There was definitely Scott's 'episode' in first period too. He'd known about Allison before she'd even come into the room- that was definitely weird! He should've followed Scott and Jackson through the other door but, he couldn't stand to see Lydia upset. Stiles rushed back into the cafeteria, hoping that he might still catch the tail-end of Scott's conversation with Jackson… but he spied Scotty sitting back at their table, and he looked rejected. Apparently his conversation hadn't gone over well either. Stiles tried not to curse himself, he'd missed his chance… instead he just sighed to himself, maybe Scott would be willing to tell him something later.