I do not own Teen Wolf.
O0o.o0O
Scott heard Braeden's transport van drive up the side road to the house. He was a bit gratified by how quickly they had found Peter. They had even beat Deaton and Isaac back. Scott figured it would have taken Derek the better part of a week to find his uncle.
The man was a tricky bastard. When Peter didn't want to be found… well, it took a ridiculously long time to find his ass. Which led Scott to believe: Peter wasn't involved with the freaky, reality jumping predicament. Or, he was purposefully making himself easy to find so that they wouldn't suspect his involvement. Scott was going to let Lydia and Stiles handle the conspiracy theories; they were better at it.
There was a ruckus as the wolves hopped out of the van. Apparently, Peter wasn't coming quietly. He was likely playing some long-term mind games. God, Scott was getting to be as paranoid as Stiles. Although, to be fair, it wasn't like life had given him any reason not to be.
Scott and the uninvited guests stiffened when Peter's scent assaulted their nostrils. Whoa, wasn't that unexpected. "This really is a different universe," Laura wondered in awe. Scott wouldn't have described the situation with awe, more like horror. He had to admit that it was some pretty disturbing proof.
The three humans and one kitsune were awfully confused by Laura's comment. They had heard the van pull up, but their noses missed the subtle clues the werewolves had gotten. Stiles questioned, "Scott, what in the Sam-heck is she babbling-"
Derek, back to his typical emotionally-constipated face, led the hunting party in. Next came Boyd, dragging a complacent Peter, followed closely by Cora. She was glaring daggers at her uncle. More than likely, she was promising divine retribution if he so much as moved.
"Look at what we found!" Erica crowed in triumph. She manhandled a still struggling Kate into the room by the hair. Or would that be werewolf-handing? Woman-handling? Scott took a minute to consider how ruthless girls could be, in general. Braeden entered last closing the door behind her.
Stiles was sputtering again. Kira lent over to ask in a whisper, that every werewolf heard, "Who's that?" Melissa shrugged; she didn't know. The Sheriff, like his son, looked as if his mind was having problems processing what his eyes were seeing. Who knew stunned expressions could be genetic. Scott glanced at Genim to see if he was sporting the face too. Unfortunately, what greeted his curiosity was pure, righteous fury.
"Interesting." drawled Peter. The older werewolf must have been doing some investigative sniffing of his own. Derek growled. Peter was very lucky that Scott was currently the alpha and not his nephew.
"You're screwing Kate fucking Argent!" Genim yelled, royally pissed.
"I don't see how my personal life is any business of yours," Peter glanced between the two could-be-twins, "Stiles." Genim was pacing at the edge of the ash line like a caged animal, despite the circle already being broken.
"Pst, Stiles." Scott called, trying to get his best friend's attention. Stiles turned around. Scott made eye contact, then gave the jar Stiles was still holding a significant look.
"Right." Stiles rushed over to give Kate and Peter each their own circle of mountain ash. As he did that, Scott pulled out his phone and dialed Allison.
"Hey. Everything alright?" Allison answered on the second ring.
"Yeah, about that." Scott fumbled with what to tell her, figuring Allison would need to see it to believe it. "Something's come up."
"We'll be there in 15 minutes." Scott could hear Malia rounding up Lydia and Danny in the background. This wasn't good because A: Allison would come in guns, or arrows, blazing, and B: her dad's apartment was at least 20 minutes away.
"No, take your time." Scott tried calming her down. He face-palmed at his own lack of being able to think before speaking. "We aren't talking life or death, here. Well, maybe we are. But no one is in danger of dying right this minute."
"Ohh-Kay..." Allison drew out the vowels, clearly not following Scott's assurance.
"Bring the books with you, we can study them here." Scott continued, remembering Chris, "And you might want to call your dad. It's not urgent, just- you know, important. And he'll probably want to be here."
"Sure, Scott." Allison agreed before she hung up, "In that case, give us half an hour." Scott sighed. He was still learning how to be in charge and he fumbled a lot. Not only that, he'd always had problems speaking around his ex.
Back to the business at hand, Scott noticed that the lines around Peter and Kate where much more circular than the other pack's. The circles were also much smaller, forcing their occupants to stand. "Now," began Peter pompously, as if he was running this show, "I would like to know why I have been so unceremoniously drug from my apartment. Literally." Scott rolled his eyes. He realized the man must have refused to walk on his own just so he could use that line. Jackass.
Derek barked, "My apartment."
"Well I've been paying the bills." came Peter's snooty rejoinder.
"You were in my bed. With her!" Derek gritted out, coming right to the barrier's edge as he pointed at Kate.
"It's not like she hasn't been in your bed before." Peter taunted. That was it. Derek snapped. His anger overwhelmed his common sense. He slammed into the invisible force field and harmlessly bounced off. Peter seemed to be immensely proud at his talent to tick Derek off. Scott shook his head at their ability to bicker like toddlers.
"What did I miss?" Stiles sat next to Scott and offered him a big bucket of popcorn. Scott hadn't even realized he had left room. Scott stared at his friend. "What? This is better than my telenovelas." There was no way he was going to touch that information.
"Stop, this conversation is not productive." Scott told the two elder werewolves. He was kind of amazed he had become the voice of reason. When the hell had that happened? At least he got the chance to use one of the vocabulary words he learned that year.
The wolves immediately stopped their glaring match to face their alpha. Scott gave himself a second to embrace the small bit of glee he felt as the two men obeyed him. That was so freakin' cool. "Peter, I sent Derek to bring you in to see if you could… share what you knew about other dimensions."
"Not a lot, I'll admit; but some." Peter conceded. Then he asked Scott, "Couldn't you have just called me?" Scott raised an eyebrow, silently telling him to stop bullshitting. "Ah, you thought I had something to do with them," Peter gestured to the other pack, "and you didn't trust me not to run."
"Dude, you don't really inspire trust." Stiles pointed out, alluding to Peter's secret relationship with Kate.
"Why didn't you tell us Kate was back?" Scott asked seriously, "How long has she even been around?"
"Wait, Kate? As in Derek's homicidal ex-girlfriend? The one that burnt down the Hale House with everyone in it?" Kira clarified. A mourning howl tore from Derek, Cora, and Laura's throats. It was a heart wrenching sound and Kira looked sheepishly at them.
"I don't know how long Kate's been back." Scott snorted. Like he would believe that for a second. Peter had his fingers in so many pies and had way too many birdies not to have a very good guess. "I didn't tell you she was around because I didn't think it was important."
"A serial, werewolf hunter being around a bunch of young wolves," Genim called out, "Not important at all."
"Why are you even with her?" Laura asked with perverse curiosity.
"I don't expect you to understand," Peter addressed the room, "but we have found we have a few things in common."
"What, trying to kill your family? Or being insane sociopaths?" Erica was on a sarcastic roll, "No, it must have been both of you being undead."
"How?" Boyd broke his normal silence.
"How what?" asked Cora, "How can Peter be with the murdering bitch who put him in a coma? Or how did she come back from the dead?"
Kate spit, implying she wasn't going to tell them anything. So everyone turned to Peter, "I felt it was water under the bridge. What's a little bit of murder among friends? We all've done it at one point or another." Peter chose to the answer the first question. Scott felt a little disturbed that he couldn't really argue with that observation. The others' thoughts must have mirrored his because no one else commented.
Scott could hear Jackson's Porsche so it was time to pause the Q&A session for the night. "Derek, take Peter to his room. Put Kate in a spare. Stiles, can you use your mojo to make sure they stay there? Maybe confine Kate to a bed so she doesn't like start another fire with the electrical wires." Scott knew he wasn't going to be able to sleep that night with the chilling reminder of what the hunter could do and had done before.
O0o.o0O
Jackson was plugging his nose as he and Isaac led Deaton into the house. "What is that smell?!" Even Isaac was cringing at the scent.
"It's Peter's new girlfriend." Erica replied helpfully. The boys coughed a little. Scott couldn't help thinking that Erica had a particularly sick sense of humor. She definitely took pleasure in other's discomfort.
Deaton eyed the mountain ash circles questioningly but he didn't comment. He went directly to the three previously caged wolves and waited for Scott's permission to start treating them. Scott waved him on. It was interesting to find what was considered taboo when on pack land. Apparently Scott could keep a healer from helping an injured patient if he wanted to.
Isaac incredulously pointed out, "She smells like a dead cat."
"Yeah, can you believe he's banging her?" Cora channeled Erica's sadism. The sound of gagging filled the room as the teenagers got the visual picture accompanied by the still lingering musk. Genim had resorted to hitting his head against the couch's wooden armrest. Melissa and Sheriff Stilinski shared amused looks at the teenagers' reaction.
Deaton of course, ignored the drama. He was already drawing Lexie's blood. Hopefully he'll find out what had hit the werewolf so hard, and have a quick fix.
Scott's phone buzzed. He didn't waste any time answering, "Yes?"
"Scott?" It was Ethan, "We didn't find anything about the interdimensional travel."
"What's up?" Scott briefly wondered what was wrong. The twin didn't sound panicked.
"Dude, we heard something equally strange, though." Aiden said a little farther from the phone, "Some hunter bitch is back from the dead."
"We know." Scott relaxed.
"Yeah, and apparently- wait, you already know?" Ethan's voice became less enthusiastic.
"Derek and his group brought them back." Scott informed the twins.
"Then, as in-" Aiden trailed off.
"Yup," Scott confirmed. "and Kate doesn't smell human."
"Huh." Aiden and Ethan seemed a little put out, realizing that they hadn't found anything new.
Scott felt bad about making them look for clues. They weren't likely to find anything that late. Believe it or not, supernatural creatures had to sleep too. "Why don't you guys head on back. Get some sleep and you can start again in the morning."
"Roger," Ethan said, signing off.
Scott looked back at Deaton who was cutting silver bullets from Lexie's back. Apparently, the stupid hunter who shot her didn't realize the myth had nothing to do with the metal. The bullets hadn't even been laced with Aconite. If they had, Lexie's veins would have turned black. At least then Scott would have known what to do to help. Unfortunately, it looked like she was already a bit banged up and her body had healed over the wounds. She was probably stuck fighting an infection that the heavy metal in her system was causing.
Scott gave himself a mental A at the diagnosis. He was really coming along on his medical studies. He was going to go to a veterinarian college in the area. Deaton had recommended him for a few scholarships and he had received enough to pay his tuition in full. That hadn't stopped Scott from learning as much as he could before he got there.
Scott noticed Lexie's shivering form and stepped over the broken barrier without hesitation. He sat next to the incapacitated girl and took her hand. Genim and Laura didn't look too happy about how close he was to their injured pack mate but they didn't challenge him.
Scott soothed Lexie's pain and was astonished by the looks of surprise both Genim and Laura shot at him. Lexie stilled and began to breathe far easier than she had previously. Scott didn't understand why the two wolves hadn't learned that particular trick. Any werewolf could do it and it was pretty darn useful. He could maybe understand why Genim didn't know, but had Talia never taught her daughter?
Scott's mind was drifting due to the time of night. He was having problems concentrating and wondered if it was like how Stiles felt. For that matter, Genim didn't seem as hyper as his counterpart. Could Lycanthropy cure ADHD like it had cured Scott's asthma? If the curse didn't have such a huge chance of killing a person, they could market the Bite as a cure-all.
Focus. Scott spoke to Isaac, "Isaac, can you call Liam? Tell he and Brett that they should get back here or go home for the night. It's getting pretty late and they don't need to be out looking everywhere for Morell." If Scott was having a hard time concentrating, the two younger wolves probably were too.
Scott could hear Isaac talking to the pups. It appeared that they refused to miss a sleepover at the den. That was a new name for the Hale House. Scott liked it, it felt right and it fit with the whole wolf metaphor thing.
As soon as the pups and the twins got back, the whole pack would be there. Scott thought, listening to Allison park her car. Jackson and Isaac went to greet their girlfriends (ex, in Jackson's case) and help carry in books.
Scott desperately tried to figure out the logistics of where to put everyone with his sleep addled mind. The house had just been finished and no one was supposed to move in for at least another week. The rooms were filled with boxes. Necessities like beds hadn't been moved at all. Plus, there were now a large number of people who didn't even live there. For example; Kate and the dimension travelers.
Allison could sleep in Isaac's room and give hers to her dad. Scott knew Chris was most likely on his way at that moment. Stiles could sleep in Malia's and give his room to the sheriff; he figured he could do the same for Melissa and have her stay in Kira's room. Scott was also sure the parents weren't going to like this arrangement. They could probably put their three other guests in another guest room. Braeden would probably sleep in Derek's room again. Brett and Liam had their own rooms, of course, but they weren't going to graduate for another two years so the rooms were empty. Scott wondered if Deaton was going to stay over too. There were three other couples that could share rooms, but it still didn't solve the problem of beds. It was too much.
Malia dropped her box of books in the entryway to cover her nose with both hands. Yay distraction. "I've smelled rotting roadkill that smelt better than this." Malia commented.
"Why would you know what rotting roadkill smells like?" Genim asked, grossed out at the comparison.
"I'm a were-coyote. Coyote's aren't really choosy about where a meal comes from." Malia told the alternate version of her boyfriend.
"You ate roadkill?" Laura was turning green.
Malia started to take offense. "I was stuck as a coyote for 8 years."
"So there are other were-creatures." Genim wondered.
Jackson spoke up, "Dude, I was a Kanima. And you already implied that you killed the other version of me because of that."
"I thought it was a freak accident. You know, really rare." Genim confirmed, "But it makes me think that maybe Kate is different too."
"She doesn't smell like another wolf." Cora agreed, "At least Malia smells like one of us."
"Who's Kate?" Allison asked as she walked in carrying her own stack of books.
Lydia had a monitor, "Is she another pod person?"
Everyone who knew who Kate actually was froze. "Umm, Allison, You might want to sit down." Scott said slowly.
Down came the books. Isaac valiantly tried to save them, despite his box. "She's alive?" No one could ever accuse Allison of being slow on the up take.
"No really, who's Kate?" Danny asked, not understanding what was going on. He had already started hooking the computer tower to a wall.
Lydia was the one to inform him, "She's Allison's dead aunt."
"Does anyone around here stay dead?" Danny asked with exasperation, "It's almost as bad as a soap opera." The joking aside, Scott hoped so. They had too many enemies. It would not be a good thing if they had to face everyone all over again. Zombies would be even worse. He subtly knocked on wood.
"Where is she?" Allison asked Scott.
"I think it might be a good idea if we wait 'till morning." Scott said, feeling the need to sleep. He noticed Allison's mutinous glare. "Or, at least until your dad gets here."
"Fine." Allison said, sighing out her frustration. "Does anyone know why she isn't currently dead?"
"I might have an idea," Deaton confessed, dropping another bullet into a bowl. Deaton was having trouble with Lexie because she was healing almost as fast as he was cutting into the infections. "It is said that an Alpha can turn a person into a werewolf in a number of ways. One of which is with his claws, if he cuts deep enough."
Scott remembered that Peter had ripped out Kate's throat with his claws. But that had been two years ago; where had she been for all that time?
"The dreams." Allison mumbled. The werewolves, who had all heard her, looked at her questioningly. "After the thing with the Darach; Scott , Stiles and I were having weird dreams. Mine were always about Kate."
"That's right," said Lydia, "I forgot all about that because of the Nogitsune."
"So you knew she was alive?" asked Laura.
Allison shook her head, "No, I just thought they were dreams. We kind of did a dark spell to find our parents before they were sacrificed and it made us all see things."
Genim got all emo again and Scott understood. He had lost Melissa to the Darach, and if the universes matched, up he most likely lost his dad and Chris Argent, too. Laura asked, "You did a dark spell, just like that? They always have consequences."
"Laura stop. I would have done it too. It would have been worth it." Genim hushed her. Everyone notice the haunted look in his eyes.
Everybody also heard the twins' motor cycles, Brett's car, and Chris' suburban. This brought Scott back to more immediate problems. "What should we do about beds?"
"What?" asked Erica, voicing the room's confusion at the sudden change in conversation.
Scott elaborated, "Sleeping arrangements. I've been thinking about it and we don't really have enough beds, even if half of us share."
"Puppy pile!" Stiles exclaimed, coming back into the room.
"That's not a half bad idea." Stated Isaac, earnestly.
Lydia happily agreed, "It would be just like elementary school."
"Woohoo, sleep over!" Erica was getting into it. She probably hadn't had a lot of invites over the years, due to her epilepsy.
Cora confided with a little melancholy, "My family would sleep out here in the living room all the time."
"It was usually movie night." Laura confirmed, remembering. Then she became surprised, "Wait how did you know about that?"
Cora replied with hurt, "Cause I lived here too. Some sister you turned out to be."
"Cora?" Laura gasped and ran to give her a hug. "We thought you died. How did you survive the fire?"
"How'd you survive the fire?" Cora returned her question, not giving anything away. She let Laura hug her though.
Derek ordered Cora, "Just tell her." He had come back from dealing with Peter. "I want to know too."
Cora blushed, but told them anyway, "Mom said I could go over to a friend's house. When the fire happened, one of mom's acquaintances came to get me."
"Which acquaintance?" Laura asked, her voice full of gratitude and a little suspicion.
Cora glared at the lack of trust, "Ito Satomi, the lady who gave mom all of that tea."
"Why didn't she send you back to us?" Laura asked, bewildered.
"Ito said that mom had been betrayed and that I couldn't trust anyone. I kind of took that to heart. I bounced around a lot of packs and I eventually settled down in South America."
"You were an omega?" Laura was horrified. Man, her emotions must have been all over the place.
Genim chimed in with, "La Loba. She must have been the she-wolf the Calaveras were asking about."
"Who were the Calavera's asking for?" Chris asked from the door way. As a fellow hunter, he knew the Mexican family well.
"Araya, the creepy old lady, had us captured and tortured. She kept asking about 'La Loba.'" Genim told Chris frostily.
"Same here." Scott said to the older hunter. "We thought it was Cora too."
"Did you do anything to piss the Calaveras off?" Chris asked Cora.
Cora deigned, "The only people I've pissed off recently are the alphas and my family."
"She can be a real pain in the ass." agreed Aiden. The twins had come in and sat down next to their boyfriend and girlfriend. Liam and Bret, who had come in right after them, were clinking away in the kitchen, looking for left overs. Teenage werewolves were even more of a black hole than normal teenage boys.
"Is this what you wanted to talk to me about, Scott?" Chris asked him.
"Dad," Allison answered before Scott could, "Kate is alive."
"We aren't entirely certain about that." Stiles disagreed, "We think she's more undead than alive. Like Peter."
"She does smell like a dead cat." Malia put her two cents in and some of the pack nodded.
Chris blinked, dumb struck. Maybe being told your dead sister wasn't just dead but undead by a bunch of supernatural high-schoolers was a little too surreal for the man. "How?"
"We don't know; she won't talk." Derek growled at the hunter.
"Oh, and she's doing Peter." There went Erica's crudeness again.
"But he killed her." Chris, like the rest of them, hadn't seen that coming. Also, what a point to focus on. Evil, dead hunter back from the grave and Chris can't believe she's sleeping with the man who killed her. God, they all had some F'ed up priorities.
"Apparently, it gives them something in common." Scott said, remembering the earlier conversation.
"What? Having died, or them trying to kill one another?" Chris asked and a few of the wolves started busting up laughing.
