It had been two days of silence. Two days of holding herself together for Stiles and breaking down when she felt it was safe to do so. Crying in the shower, in the car, in the elevator at work when she was alone. Melissa missed her son. She was terrified for what could have happened to him. And that Stiles, his partner in crime, legitimately didn't know what was going on either just terrified her all the more.
On the third day, she finally heard from him. A text message from a phone number she didn't recognize that she couldn't get a response from. It was nothing, and the police couldn't trace it because it was from a disposable phone that had already been deactivated, but it was hope. Hope was what Melissa McCall needed more than anything.
All the message had said was that he hoped to come home soon, written in that bizarre texting language only teenagers knew. She would find herself pulling her phone out at random times and reading it. The words never changed, no matter how much she wished they would, but they were comforting.
She knew that she was probably scaring Stiles. Everyday, she would hug him and tell him she loved him. He would nod nervously, stammer a reply, and then run out the door to school, or to visit his dad at the hospital, or go to bed. Only sometimes would he trip.
TW
It was the third day on the run, and Danny was sick of it. They were lost somewhere in Washington with two dollars and half a tank of gas. Scott had managed to steal a prepaid cellphone and had Danny hack it at a computer store while Allison swapped the fourth set of licence plates. Scott had managed to send his mom a text telling him they were okay before Allison caught them and destroyed the phone.
"It's hot," Scott complained from the passenger seat as he stuck his head out the window like a dog.
"We're still technically in the Pacific Rim. It's gonna be hot. Volcanoes and all that," Allison lectured from the driver's seat as she grabbed Scott's shirt and pulled him back in the car. "Listen, I think I'm going to call my dad today. See if he's willing to listen to reason."
"Finally!" Danny cried from the back seat where he was supposed to be sleeping. He'd been the primary driver most of the trip. "It's been way too long since I've had a shower."
"At least you don't have heightened werewolf senses," Scott teased as he wrinkled his nose.
Danny snorted and sat up. During the three days they'd been on the run, there hadn't been much to do but listen to the radio, and hearing the same three songs on every station got old fast so the trio had talked. They'd talked about a lot.
The first day, they talked strategy. Hiding, Scott ducking every time a familiar vehicle or cop car drove by, what to do if Allison's dad or his people caught up to them. The second day, everyone was sick of going over the same plans, so they talked about things three people would only talk about if they had nothing else to talk about.
"There's a gas station up ahead." Allison pointed at a sign on the side of the road. "You two go freshen up in the bathroom while I see if they'll let me use the phone. If not, let's hope they have a payphone."
"Do we have enough money for you to use a payphone?" Danny worried as he opened his wallet and watched a metaphorical moth fly out of it. "Because we're kind of broke."
"We'll be fine. Trust me," Allison smiled as she relaxed into the seat. "I grew up moving a lot. You get me a hose, I can get you gasoline."
"Kinky," Scott snorted. Allison reached over and playfully slapped him.
"Did you two really think thirty dollars was going to get us here with gas prices?" Allison asked seriously. "I cut some hose from an air station and I've syphoning gas every time I stopped to change plates. The hose is in the trunk with some gasoline filled water bottles. I'm shocked you didn't smell it, Scott."
"I wasn't looking for it, I guess," he shrugged.
"What do we say to our parents?" Danny asked Allison as she pulled into the gas station. "I can't exactly tell them everything, and I doubt Scott wants to tell his mom about your dad."
"No offence, but my mom would wreck your dad. Army training is no match for an angry Latin mother," Scott laughed as he unbuckled his seat belt. "Call your dad and let us know if we can finally go home and get a shower."
It was nice for Danny to finally stretch his legs. The car was cramped on short trips, and the occasional break to buy food was not enough for a guy used to running daily.
He and Scott walked into the gas station, well aware of the scruff on their faces and the odour from their bodies. A few of the customers looked at them, but nobody said anything when they headed to the bathroom. The first thing Danny did was splash water in his face to make sure he really was awake.
"How do hippies do this?" Scott asked as he scrubbed his armpits with wet paper towels. He then slung them into the trashcan with a disgusted face.
TW
"Hey, Daddy," Allison said as her father answered his cell phone on the third ring.
"Where are you?" He yelled into the phone. It was loud enough that the clerk stared at her and stepped as far away as the cord would allow.
"You calm down and listen to me," Allison demanded. Her dad snarled into the phone but didn't say anything. She took that as an agreement. "Dad, I'm not telling you where I am until you promise me that you're aren't going to kill anyone.
"I'm being metaphorical," she called to the clerk who was clearly eavesdropping on her conversation.
"Allison, honey, you know the rules."
"I also know that mom died months ago by suicide, Dad. You told me you were there. Is that a lie?"
"No, Allison, your mom did kill herself," Chris Argent sighed into the phone. "Your friend Lydia told me all about what Scott's been doing. We can't let that keep happening."
"Dad, Lydia is kind of crazy. Remember?"
"Then why didn't the young man with her, the same one you ran off with, disagree with her? What was his name? Andy?"
Allison wanted to punch somebody, but she just dug her fingernails into her palms. Three days of minimal sleep had reduced her patience to almost nothing.
"Danny, Dad, his name is Danny and he was coming to tell me that my dad is a psychopath. God, you just won't listen to reason, will you?" she whispered into the phone hatefully as she glared at the sales clerk who kept watching her out of the corner of his eye. "If you don't promise me that..."
"Sir, we've got it," a voice said on the other end of the phone. Allison recognized it as one of her dad's men. One of the hunters.
"Shit!" she yelled as she slammed the phone onto the hook and ran to the Men's restroom. She threw open the door and yelled at Danny and Scott. "We need to move. He traced the call."
TW
Stiles sat in science class, staring more empty seat than he should be. Lydia had gone missing the same night as Danny, Scott, and Allison, but the hospital security footage he and Scott's mom watched showed she wasn't with them. All he saw was Allison attack her own father and the three teenagers haul ass out of the hospital.
Nobody could contact Allison's dad, either. The only ones still in the school from the werewolf club were himself and Isaac. Stiles had asked Isaac if he knew anything that was going on, but all he knew was that the last time anyone had seen Lydia was it was at the Hale House. They were interrogating Danny about the whole zombie thing when the Argents showed up and scared the wolves off. Derek was apparently still worried about not having a full pack.
School was supposed to take his mind off of his catatonic father and his missing best friend, but since Stiles never paid attention to what the teachers were saying on a good day he had found the last few to be rather difficult. Everyone treated him differently, too.
"Mr. Stilinski?"
Looking up from the daze her had been in, Stiles saw the school guidance counsellor standing at the doorway to the classroom. He wiped the drool from his mouth before answering. "Yo, what's up?"
"I asked if you would please come with me," she said, motioning him with her hands.
His teacher nodded his approval and Stiles stood up, knocking all of his stuff off his desk and onto the floor. Everyone kind of silently watched as he gathered his stuff. Isaac handed him a pencil that had rolled in direction but said nothing.
When his things were gathered, Stiles kind of walked past Ms. Morell and she shut the door behind them. They walked down the hall towards her office, the only sounds were her shoes clacking on the floor and his shuffling.
"Stiles, that's what you like to be called, right?" she asked as touched his arm kindly. She offered a warm smile as she opened the door to her office and ushered him inside.
"Yeah," he answered as he collapsed into the chair in front of her desk. "Stiles is fine."
She closed the door and sat behind her desk. She smiled again at Stiles. It was reassuring and made him feel slightly less terrible. "I want you to know that this is a safe space. You can talk about anything here. Your dad, your runaway friends, anything."
As much as he appreciated the sentiment, Stiles doubted that if he told her half the things he wanted to she'd believe him, and the other half would have her committing him in the padded cell just down from his father.
"I really don't know what to say," Stiles told her as he fidgeted with his pant leg. "I mean, thanks for getting me out of class, I guess."
"You could always tell me about how you're doing. Not what is happening, but what you're thinking. What you're feeling."
"I guess I'm feeling like I want to go home."
"You know I can't do that," she chuckled.
"It was worth a try," he shrugged.
TW
"Do you have any idea where we're going?" Scott asked Allison as she blew through yet another stop sign.
"South," was all she would specify. "If we go South, we might throw them off our location. It's slim, but it's a chance. I was so stupid! I shouldn't have used a land line."
They'd been on the road for six hours. They'd crossed the bridge and were already well into Oregon.
"We're going back to Beacon Hills, aren't we?" Danny asked Allison from the passenger seat. You want to hide in plain sight."
"At least one of you figured it out," Allison laughed as she reached over and stroked Danny's face. "I don't want to, but I think we need to contact Derek Hale and have him hide you out, Scott."
"He kind of hates us," Scott countered. "I mean, I kind of betrayed the whole wolf pack hierarchy and you're the daughter of the man trying to kill him. He might like Danny, though."
"He doesn't seem like the type to like anybody," Danny offered. "I mean, I've met him all of once and he kind of strangled me."
"He does that to everyone," Scott joked with half a smile. The smile fell when he saw that Danny didn't find it funny. "Listen, guys, thanks for this. I'm sorry."
"It's my dad trying to kill you," Allison pointed out. "And Danny is the one who made Beacon Hills zombie central. If anything, we should be apologizing to you."
Scott had no response to that, so he just sat back in silence and thought of what to do. Why would Allison's father be so trigger happy based solely on Lydia's word? Allison's mom had committed suicide. They all knew it. And surely Mr. Argent, of all people, would understand why Scott did what he did. Even if it were just emotions, surely three days later things would have calmed down and he'd be reasonable. It made no sense no matter how he looked at it, unless...
"He's not trying to kill us." Scott leaned into the space in the front of the car between Danny and Allison and repeated himself. "You dad isn't trying to kill me, Allison. He's trying to figure out what is going on. He wants to know how I could kill your mom when she's already dead."
"You're being annoyingly optimistic, Scott," Allison groused. "If he didn't want to kill you, why did he quote The Code at me?"
"Okay, maybe he wanted to kill me the first night, but after that he was more worried about finding you than me."
"And this came from where?" Danny asked as he fidgeted with his seat belt. "It's weak, Scott."
"It's better than running forever," Scott argued as he resumed his place in the back of the car. "Let's just go home and get it over with. No Derek Hale, just me, your dad, and the truth."
"That's really not a good idea, Scott," Allison warned.
"Do you have a better one? Because I sure as hell don't," Scott said. Allison's silence was taken as evidence that she didn't.
TW
The car pulled into the driveway and Melissa McCall was certain that it was Scott coming home to her. She was certain it was every time a car drove by, but when she looked out the window and saw three tired teenagers climbing out into the darkness, she had no doubts.
"Scott?" she yelled as she threw open the door and ran into the yard in her pyjamas and robe. One of the teens looked at her and was clearly terrified, but she didn't care. It was definitely him. "Scott!"
Within seconds, Melissa had crossed her yard and was holding her son. Scott protested, but she ignored him. Then she pushed him into the car and slapped him.
"What the hell is wrong with you? Why would you run off like that? And all I get is one text message? After two days? I'm going to be some sense into you if you don't tell me right now what the hell you were thinking."
"It was all me, Ms. McCall," Allison pleased as she stepped forward. "I told Scott we should go to Seattle for a few days. You know, just to hang out."
"Get your asses in my house. All of you," Melissa ordered when she saw the neighbours standing in their doorways and at their windows. "I swear, you two had better be glad you aren't mine, because I'm tempted to knock your heads together."
When they were all in the house, Melissa saw Stiles hiding at the top of the stairs trying to covertly get information from Scott.
"Get down here, Stiles," she sighed as she threw up her hands. "If we're going to have this conversation, you might as well be there instead of eavesdropping.
TW
Danny really wasn't sure what to expect. He knew that Scott's mom knew about the werewolf thing, and the Kanima stuff. But talking about it with someone old enough to buy alcohol was new to him.
So he sat and listened. He listened to Scott's mom alternate between adoring her son and threatening him; Allison doing her best to cover her tracks; Stiles asking stupid questions; and Scott just trying to tell a modified version of the truth. Scott told his mom about everything but Allison's dad.
"I need to go home," Danny interrupted as he stood up. His head couldn't take it. He wasn't ready. It was too much. When the adrenaline was pumping he could handle it. When he was running from something he could handle it. When it was a secret and nobody could know he could handle it.
"Was it something I said?" Stiles asked as Danny bolted out the door.
Danny heard Scott's mom yelling as he ran into the front yard of the McCall family home. Someone grabbed his arm and stopped him. That it was Scott was no surprise at all.
"Are you okay?" Scott asked as he looked up at Danny. It was funny how, up until this point, Danny never noticed he was so much taller than Scott. "Dude, I know it's freaky, but it's going to be fine."
"You can't know that," Danny said as he shrugged Scott's arm off.
"I do know that!" Scott shouted after Danny.
Turning around, Danny marched up to Scott and looked him right in the eye. "It's impossible to know it."
"I do."
Danny kissed Scott. He leaned down and held him and moaned words against his lips that even he couldn't understand. Then he opened his eyes and saw Scott staring up at him with a smile. Then he saw Scott's mom standing in the doorway looking shocked. Stiles was giving them the thumbs up. And Allison was walking back into the house.
When he thought about Allison, Danny broke away from Scott and ran to his car. Nobody called after him this time. Nobody stopped him.
He was three blocks away when he heard the voice. "Drive."
TW
The moonlight danced in Lydia's hair as she made a crown of leaves. The car pulled up, just as Peter promised it would, and she smiled. She smiled as Peter opened the car door and threw Danny at her feet. She placed the newly constructed crown on his head and touched lifted his head with her hand.
"What did you bring me?" Lydia asked Peter as she touched her nose to Danny's. "Why, I do believe it's broken."
"Not broken, Love," Peter told her as he lifted Danny to his feet and brushed the dirt from his clothes. "He's merely a little rattled. He'll be a good as new in no time."
"Not before we're done with him, I hope." Lydia walked around Danny, feeling every inch of him. "It really is a waste. He could've been something."
"But he will, my love. He'll be something special." Peter nibbled on Danny's ear. "We're going to be a very happy family."
"Goodie," Lydia clapped as she spun around, kicking up little clouds of dirt. "How do we start?"
"The way any family starts. By sharing blood." Peter grew his fangs out and bit his wrist. Blood trailed down his arm as he raised Danny's. He licked his forearm before sinking his fangs in and drawing blood. Peter held his wrist to Danny's arm as he nuzzled his neck. Then he looked at Lydia invitingly.
"I think I'm going to love my family," Lydia whispered to the trees as she cut her palm open with a jagged rock. "In fact, I already do."
She kissed Peter deeply as she pressed her own wound to Danny and Peter's. She then kissed Danny, as he stared off into space.
"He doesn't like it," Lydia pouted before biting Danny's lip. She drew blood. It tasted of copper and salt. "He doesn't like me."
"My dear, he's just getting to know you: the real you," Peter assured her as he licked the blood trickling from Danny's wounded lip. "Soon, he'll it all."
TW
After everyone left or went to bed, Stiles sat on Scott's bed waiting for Scott to get out of the shower. He had so many questions that he couldn't have asked in front of Scott's mom. Scott walked into his room with wet hair and damp pyjamas. He looked better, Stiles mused. Smelled better, too.
"What?" Scott asked as walked to his window and looked outside.
"Danny was already out there with a boombox declaring his love for you, but you were still in the shower and I threw rocks at him," Stiles joked.
"What's a boombox?"
"We need to have you watch more 80s movies, my friend," Stiles said with a shake of his head. He patted the comforter and motioned with his neck for Scott to join him. "Sit down. I promise I won't get mad if you try to make out with me."
"You're an idiot," Scott laughed as he sat beside his best friend. "I didn't see Allison leave."
"She slipped out the back while you were slipping Danny the tongue," Stiles informed Scott. "I missed you."
"It was a pretty impromptu trip," Scott admitted. "I'm shocked I was only grounded for five years."
"So, why did you really leave? I noticed you didn't mention the whole killing the undead thing to your mom," Stiles whispered in Scott's ear even though his mom was out of hearing range.
"Allison's dad kind of had a freakout. I guess Lydia told him everything."
"Everything?"
"Oh, you don't know. I forgot. Your mom wasn't the only one to come back," Scott confessed in a low voice. He hung his head and leaned against Stiles. "See, where Lydia killed your mom, I killed Allison's mom. Ages ago. And Lydia told Mr. Argent like it was no big deal. I guess. Danny was there when she did it."
"Why was your boyfriend there?" Stiles twiddled his thumbs. In theory he was fine with Scott liking boys, but there was something weird about his best friend being into a guy that didn't really like him. "You left a lot of details out, and you're lucky your mom was too pissed off to notice."
"Danny said Lydia was hanging out with Derek's pack. At the Hale House. Isaac brought him out because Derek wanted to know about the stone. All kinds of weirdness. I don't know."
"Lydia is missing, too, you know. Some folks thought she'd run off with you guys. Clearly, that wasn't the case. I mean, she could be anywhere. She's been back in crazy town ever since my mom died."
Stiles didn't get an answer. Instead, he got Scott's head collapsing in his lap as he snoozed.
"Totally wasted on me," Stiles sighed as he flopped back onto Scott's bed.