Merry Christmas! MUAH!

... ...

… … …

"Oh Cat, guess what."

Cat turned as Lydia sidled up beside her, linking their arms together. "hey Lydia, what's up."

"Well, first off, you and I need to chat more, I mean seriously. Also, I met someone."

Cat looked at her in surprise. "Really? That's great, is he going to be at your birthday?"

The redhead smiled. "Yes, he'll be there, eventually."

"Lydia, that's great, I'm so happy to see you moving on."

"Thanks. I was afraid to do it, but I'm glad I did it. Mainly I'm glad because I'm not afraid anymore. Not afraid at all, not afraid of anything."

Cat peered at her out of the corner of her eye, noticing that her friend seemed odd, a little different.

"In fact, I'm taking on a new project. I mean, I take on a lot of projects. But this is probably the biggest thing I've ever done and I think I need your help."

"I- um- well- I can try and help."

"Good. I'll talk to you later." She was gone as fast as she arrived, leaving behind an amused Cat who watched her leave before shaking her head. She had to find Allison.

"You ready to go?" Erica asked, waiting down the hall for her.

"I need to find Allison." She told the blonde.

"Ugh, why?"

"Because I do."

"Can't you just call her?" Erica asked with a small pout. "Derek is sending us out to do something."

"What?" Cat suspiciously asked.

"You'll see."

The petite teen rolled her eyes. "Fine, I'll call her but you have to give me some room and no eavesdropping."

"You're no fun."" She replied with a groan. "I'll be waiting outside."

When she left, she quickly called Allison and explained what Deaton had told her.

"I know," The brunette replied. "He left me a lot of messages. Alicia is going ballistic, which means that I can't be the one to help her anymore but I don't want to pawn that job off on you either."

Cat kept silent, unsure of what to say. Sure she wanted to help Allison but she had a feeling it was time for her to tell the guys, let them help deal.

"You're still in this with me, aren't you Cat? Please don't bail on me now. I can't believe what a mess I've made of this whole thing." Allison cried.

Cat sighed. "Yes, Allison but maybe…."

"It's time to tell the guys?" Allison finished for her. "That's what I've been thinking. I'm not sure the secret is keeping her safe anymore. Maybe the secret is part of the problem now. We need their help, we need all the help we can get."

"I know."

"Can you bring Scott and meet me tonight, in the wild life preserve? I don't think he's talking to me right now but I need to tell him."

Cat let out another sigh. "I'll text him. I'm not staying there anymore. Circumstances have changed but I'll text him and I'll see you tonight at nine."

"Is everything okay?" Allison asked.

"Yes." Cat shortly replied. "I'll see you tonight.

She hung up the phone before her friend could ask any more questions and sent Scott a quick text, calling for a "team" meeting in the usual spot. After he texted back okay, she went outside to meet up with Erica.

… … …

"New clothes?" Stiles asked as she walked up to the others in the preserve.

She shrugged, neither answering yes or no. She did in fact have new clothes, Derek actually had told Erica to take her out to buy some more clothes now that she had so little. Then after, he had decided that she would learn to defend herself on the off chance that one of them wasn't with her. She was not looking forward to the pain she knew would be there tomorrow. Countless push-ups, sit-ups, squats, and the run he took her on was enough to make her want to cry. Then he taught her how to properly throw a punch and to kick someone. All very nifty for her but she was still not looking forward to the pain, especially because she knew he would have her doing this all again tomorrow.

"Are you okay?" Scott asked. "You're moving funny."

"I'm fine." Came her short reply as Allison walked up to them.

"So what's going on" Scott asked.

Allison ignored his question, instead walking up to him and throwing herself in his arms, kissing him soundly on the lips. Cat's fists clenched in anger as she looked away, ignoring Stiles look of pity that he shot her.

"I'm sorry." Allison whispered. "I thought I should tell you that first."

"So can we get on with it please?" Cat asked, interrupting their love fest. Scott shot her an apologetic look but she ignored it, instead staring at Allison.

The taller girl flushed as she pulled away from Scott. "It's about the video, I know who was in there."

"How do you know?" Stiles asked.

"Because it was me. It was always me. I found an injured Omega wolf, tracked her to the school and I helped her. She's at Deaton's now while she finishes healing."

There was silence until Stiles spoke up again. "What the fuck Allison?"

"I'm sorry." She replied, looking completely miserable.

Scott was looking at Cat, realization dawning on him. "You don't seem at all surprised Cat."

She shrugged. "I found out recently too, like the day after the Jackson thing when I knew too much."

"Why didn't you say anything?" He asked.

"Because she asked me not to and I didn't see anything happening at the time so I let it go for the time being."

"I had to drag Cat into it a few days ago. I had to beg her to keep the secret, so if you want to be mad at anyone, be mad at me." Allison told them.

"Why couldn't you have trusted us enough to tell us the truth in the first place?" Scott asked, trying his hardest to rein his anger in.

"I do trust you, you know that. It's not about trust." The taller girl cried.

"Then what?"

"You would've insisted on helping, you would've had to meet her."

"So?"

"She was scared! She didn't want more people around. And she wanted to be able to get away from here without anyone knowing."

"So why now?" Stiles asked. "Why are you telling us now?"

"Because we need your help." She softly replied.

"Okay, seriously?" Stiles questioned in disbelief.

"She's getting better, but now she wants to kill me. Me and my entire family." The brunette exclaimed.

"Great. So basically you let us run around for weeks while you protected a werewolf who now wants to kill you for no reason. Anything else we should know?" He held up a hand before Allison could answer. "No, wait, I don't want to hear it. I don't want to hear anymore right now."

He started walking away, Stiles behind him, leaving a very pissed off looking Cat and a devastated looking Allison. Cat looked around, picking up the nearest rock she could find and throwing it at Scott as hard as she could. Her muscles complained but she didn't care since her aim was dead on and it pegged him in the back of the head and when he turned around, he looked ready to hurt someone.

"Who did that?" He snarled.

"Me." She replied with a huge smirk. "Now, pull your head out of your ass, get yourselves back here and help us before your girlfriend becomes dog food."

They faced off, glaring at one another.

"Scott, she's right, we need to help." Stiles quietly told him. "And besides, if anyone is going to kill Allison, it should be me."

"Please don't be upset." Allison begged them. "In my defense? I didn't think we were spinning our wheels, I thought we were looking for our missing Principal. He just turned out to not be as "missing" as we thought."

"Fair enough." Stiles replied. "So why do you need our help? Where is she?"

"Deaton has her trapped in the clinic with mountain ash. He has really helped this girl a lot, and she's doing a lot better physically but she's completely on the warpath against my family. It's just like it happened with Peter Hale, healing slowed by grief, grief that turned into burning, violent hatred."

"Ah, mountain ash." Cat muttered. "Everyone's friend.

"If referencing Peter Hale is supposed to make this less freaky, it's not working." Stiles stated.

"I just want you guys to get a picture of how much she really hates me now. Deaton says I shouldn't come back anymore."

"I just don't get why she would hate you. After everything you did to help her, she has no reason to want to kill you." Stiles pointed out.

"She has a reason." Allison told them.

"What?' Scott asked.

"I shot her with a wolfsbane tipped arrow." She sheepishly replied.

"You did what with a what now?" Scott asked in disbelief.

"Seriously?" Stiles asked.

"I shot her with my crossbow. I just wanted to slow her down so I could talk to her. I had no idea my arrows had been poisoned." Allison exclaimed.

"Cat, did you know about this?"

All eyes turned to her and she looked between them with wide eyes. "I knew about the wolfsbane, not that it came from Allison."

"I thought she would've healed by now." The other girl exclaimed.

"Except for the whole wolfsbane thing." Scott sarcastically reminded her.

"Which I did not know about. Gerard must've done it behind my back. I totally get why she hates me. But I still have to do everything I can to help her." Allison pleaded with them. "Please guys."

Both guys sighed before nodding that they would help.

"Thank you, Cat, are you in?"

She raised an eyebrow. "Do I have a choice?"

Allison gave her a grateful smile. "Thank you guys."

Scott sighed. "I'm going to go meet her. I'll let you guys know how it goes."

They dispersed, Cat not waiting around to talk to anyone as she hurried away from them before they could call her back. When she reached the edge of the forest, she slowed down as Isaac met up with her.

"You okay?" He asked.

"No." She groaned. "Piggyback me, I hurt everywhere."

He laughed, crouching down so she could jump onto his back, groaning again as he hoisted her up. "So what did the A team want?"

"To talk." She replied.

"And none of them followed you out?"

She shrugged. "Not that I know of."

Isaac sighed as she leaned her head on his shoulder. "You're too loyal Cat. They don't even have the slightest clue what's going on with you right now or where you've been staying and you're still so loyal to them."

"What has been going on with me, Isaac? So I moved out, big flipping deal. It's nothing compared to the bigger issues at hand."

"Right because your dad skipping town means nothing. Him torching your room and killing your cat means nothing. McCall totally breaking your heart means nothing. Should I stop now?"

"Enough." She cried. "I get it. But everyone else has bigger issues at hand to deal with. When it calms down, I'm sure everyone will deal with their issues."

"How is it that McCall didn't even notice our scent all over you?"

"Okay, creepy. But he had other issues to deal with, like Allison making with the smoochies."

Isaac shook his head in disgust as he lifted her higher. "You can do so much better than him."

"I thought you knew Scott and I were faking it."

"So I thought but you guys sure weren't faking it when it was just you two. Plus Erica might have told me when I mentioned that I asked you out."

"Of course." She replied with a sigh, turning her face into his back "I'm an idiot." She mumbled.

"No argument here." He replied with a grin to show he was joking.

When they reached their home, Cat slid off of him moaning in pain as she dragged herself over to her bed, falling onto it. She hurt so much that she would be happy if she never moved again.

"So what happened?" Erica asked, jumping on her bed and curling up beside her.

"She won't tell you." Isaac called from across the room. "Loyalty. Too much that girl."

Cat stuck her tongue out at both of them before mumbling at them to leave her alone so she could sleep. The last thing she remembered was Erica running her hand through her hair as she drifted off.

… … …

Scott showed up at her locker the next day with a small frown as he leaned against the locker next to her. "You took off before we could talk yesterday."

Cat shrugged. "I had to go."

"You smell like Pack."

"Stop smelling me." She snapped. "Of course I do. I hang out with Erica how much now?"

"Cat-"

"Did you meet Alicia?" She asked, cutting him off.

"I want to hear this too." Allison replied as she walked by them to her locker.

"She really hates your guts." Scott told her, all the while staring at Cat.

Allison sighed. "I guess I don't blame her."

"You didn't mean to hurt her."

"No." Allison agreed. "But my grandfather totally meant it when he chopped her boyfriend in half."

"Oh my god that was her boyfriend?" Scott asked in disbelief.

"Wait, you know about that?" Allison asked.

"I saw it happen."

"You saw it happen and didn't tell me?" She asked, incredulous.

"He's your grandpa!" Scott hissed "Besides, let's not start comparing notes on secret keeping."

"Point taken." She sighed, looking at Cat who was still looking in her locker. "Did you know Cat?"

"Yes." She replied. She didn't notice the look the two exchanged behind her back at her odd behavior.

"Are we all caught up now? Any more secrets anyone else wants to put on the table?" Stiles asked, joining the conversation. "Seriously, now is the time. Cat? Still sleeping with a teddy bear? Anything else you need to get off your chest?"

She slammed her locker door shut, turning to glare at him but refusing to say anything.

"Wake up on the wrong side of the bed?"

Her eyes narrowed and he held up his hands in defense, realizing she was not to be trifled with at the moment.

"I got something." Scott said.

"Mother of God," Stiles cried.

"No." Scott assured him. "It's a way out of this mess. Doc came up with it but I don't think Allison is going to like it."

"What? I'll take anything." Allison said.

"He thinks we should give the Omega what she came to town for. Let her join the Alpha."

"Anything but that." Allison replied.

"Cat, do you think we should take Alicia to Derek?"

She glanced at Allison, then Scott before looking down at the floor. "Yes, maybe he can control her."

"And Cat's been right about pretty much everything so far."

"It's not a bad plan Allison." Stiles said.

She swept her dark curls to the side as she shook her head. "It's a very bad plan! I can't do that. It's one thing to help her go free, it's another to create an enemy for my family."

"She's already an enemy to your family. It's not your fault, it's just how things are." Scott told her. "So we're agreed? Take her to Derek? If we let her go, she'll either kill someone, hunters will catch her before dawn, or both."

Cat fidgeted as Scott looked at her. She just wanted to be done with this conversation and leave.

"As the person she's most likely to come after, it's a risk I'm willing to take." Allison told him.

"If we let her join Derek's pack, he'll rein her in like he has with the others." Stiles argued.

Allison looked between the three of them before slamming her locker shut and stomping away from them.

Scott sighed as he watched her leave. "I'll go back and try to get her to leave town but if she refuses, we'll need Derek's help. Cat? Can you text Erica, say we need to talk to Derek."

Cat shrugged. "He's available after school, try him then."

Before they could question her on how she knew of Derek's availability, she left, going the opposite direction of Allison.

"I'm starting to get the weirdest feeling that something is really wrong with Cat." Stiles observed.

Scott shrugged. "I think she's still pissed off about our fight. She'll get over it and we'll talk it out when she is."

"Right." Stiles replied with a snort. "If only it were that easy."

… … …