I think i'm far happier with this chapter, and my own writing style, in this one. I hope you enjoy it too!
Derek is asleep an hour later, curled close but not around her, and she takes the rare opportunity of weakness and sleep-riddled vulnerability to outline a rune against his chest, and another against the door of the room they are currently in. He looks more peaceful like this than Stiles has seen him in so long, and it's painful to know that what she is about to do will probably destroy everything they have built together. It has to be done though, there is no way she can keep going with this thing growing inside of her, whether that means turning – or dying- then so be it. Anything will be better than a constant, unavoidable reminder that those men ever existed, that they ever laid hands on her.
Stiles packs a bag quietly, both thankful and resentful that Deaton ever taught her the runes and magic she knows now. As useful as it is that Derek won't wake up until she is well out of his territory, she guesses there is also a little part of her that wishes he was strong enough to break past it and stop her. It's that part, that probably most logical part, of her that makes her rush, pushing whatever clothes she has at the house into a bag and shutting the door ever so quietly behind her. There is no last risky glance behind her at Derek, snoring peacefully, because she knows her resolve might just crumble. Instead, she continues along the hall, pausing the etch the same runes over each of the packs doors as she passes them. Hopefully, they are all in the rooms upstairs, because she doesn't have the energy to perform any on the spot, high powered magic to take a werewolf down for a while if she crosses them downstairs.
Which is, of course, exactly what happens. Yet, before she has a chance to summon something up on the spot; Isaac approaches from the shadows of the porch, Erica's car keys in hand, and gives her a knowing look.
"Let me help you." Isaac whispers to her, coming forward slowly until he can reach out and wrap a hand around her wrist lightly. "Let me come with you."
"How do i know you won't just tell Derek where we are once he wakes up?" She whispers back to him, trembling with fear and cold. Being outside without Derek hasn't happened in so long, it's hitting her hard how much this vulnerability is what caused this situation in the first place. Isaac takes another step forward, slides her backpack off her arm and up onto his own shoulder, and then takes her face so carefully between both his hands.
"I can't watch you fade away. I won't watch you die, because you will, if we let this happen. This way, at least you have a chance. Please, Stiles. Let me come with you." There is a moment of tense, painful silence between them before she nods jerkily and Isaac sighs his relief against her hairline. Reluctantly, he pulls away and turns, leading her towards Erica's red mini at the edge of the tree line.
Stiles is shaking, almost wrecked with the memories she encounters as they make their way out of town. As they drive past her house and she recalls both the way her father pulled her into a hug before he went to work, and then how those men had turned up not ten minutes later and took their payment against the side of the house, in her mother's old flower beds. The park, where it was against the jungle gym, arms tied around the bars behind her. Against the school. In the back alley of that pharmacy.
Isaac reaches out, hand on her knee, and she yelps and tries to curl herself into the corner of the car. It hurts, pulling against the injuries littering her body, but she whimpers and clenches her eyes closed against the assault she thinks is coming.
"Stiles. Stiles! Look at me, it's Isaac. Come on." The pain dissipates a little and she can think more clearly, a glance up showing Isaac's face screwed in concentration as the black lines of her pain make their way through his veins.
"Isaac." She manages to breath out in relief, pulled away from an almost flashback. He nods, giving her a sideways smile before turning his attention back to the road.
"Just hold on for me, okay. We're almost out of town." Stiles sighs in relief and fear, settling more comfortably in her seat and closing her eyes.
Maybe, if she could sleep, this would all go away.
The minute he wakes up, there is a sense of wrongness. It takes him a moment to blink away the sleep still in his eyes, clear his head of a fogginess that seems to have descended, but it becomes glaring obvious when he remembers that he fell asleep with Stiles beside him last night, and she isn't here now. A few months ago, during pack puppy piles and such, that wouldn't have been worrisome, but Stiles hasn't left a room without him since they brought her back. It has Derek catapulting out of bed, hurtling towards the doors, before he realises the faint blue glowing symbol on his chest, and the one over the door.
"No." He growls to himself, throwing the door open. A glance along the hall shows each door with a similar symbol carved over it, the glow fading out slowly, and the sound of pack members waking up with groggy heads and no idea what is going on. He growls at them to get out of bed, making his way along the hall as he followed Stiles' faint scent until it reaches the doorway. A quick heartbeat count tells him there are only five other heartbeats in the house, scent tells him what he already knows.
Isaac and Stiles are gone.
The others a crowding behind him, all looking like human hangover victims, as he clenches at the doorframe and trying to control the shift.
"S'goin on?" Erica mumbles sleepily, leaning into Boyd's chest. He would tell her she looked a bit weak, but there are the obvious black lines flowing through her veins from where her hand is touching Lydia's arm; and the same is happening from where Jackson has a hand on Danny's bicep. If he wasn't such an angry mess he would comment on how much they were coming together as a pack, how good it was that the wolves felt this protective and proactive regarding the human members of their pack. However, two members of his pack is currently missing, and he doesn't have time for this pleasant bullshit.
"Stiles and Isaac are gone." He growls out, letting go of the doorframe before it splinters. The pack looks confused, glancing around them.
"Like, gone to the store gone? Or left without a trace, gone?" Danny asks after he throws Erica a grateful smile and offering her a kiss on the cheek.
"As in, Stiles worked a rune, packed up some things looking by the state of her room, and left town with Isaac."
"Well, she can't have gotten far right? Not in her...state. Can we track her?" Jackson had reached out a pulled Lydia to him, holding her against his chest like a lifeline. Derek nodded jerkily.
"Check her house, Deaton, the school. Anywhere. I couldn't see your car out there, Erica, so it looks like they took that. Danny, Lydia. Do you think you can track her? Phone, car GPS, fucking magic tracking?" Erica swore under her breath, taking a cursory glance around for her keys even though she knew they wouldn't be there.
"I can try their cells, and if they turn on Erica's satnav then we can trace that too."Derek nods and Danny takes that for the dismissal it is, heading up the stairs with the other beta's to change, leaving Derek and Lydia stood in the doorway.
"I can't use the magic Stiles can. There isn't any way i can trace with crystals the way she has been taught." Lydia admits, flicking her hair over her shoulder. "But, i can head to Deaton's with Jackson and ask him?" Derek nods again, as he had with Danny, and Lydia turns to find clothes. She is halfway up the stairs before he calls out a thank you.
They aren't in town. Their scent drops off into exhaust fumes at the tree line, and Derek follows the scent of car out to his territory line before he has to turn back. The periodic messages he gets from the pack tells him that their scent is no where new, that all of the places they could think of are Stiles and Isaac free. Even Danny can't find them, which means that they probably know they are looking. It leaves only Lydia and Deaton, who have somehow gained a Sheriff Stilinski, at the vets office.
"Anything?" Derek demands, pushing open the door into the back room. All of the pack have gathered here, surrounding Stiles' father for comfort, even if he doesn't feel it as keenly as someone directly pack would. As keenly as Stiles used to.
"We're waiting for the blood to warm up before we can do anything, it will be another few minutes." Deaton tells him, causing Derek to growl.
"Blood?" Lydia glances up at him from the map of America in front of her.
"We need it for things like these, or to figure out blood types in case anyone is hurt. Deaton has a vial of each of our blood." Derek just tilts his head in understanding and then looks over at the Sheriff. The man looks like he has aged ten years, trembling slightly, the scent of whiskey still lingering on him over the top of anger, sadness and disgust.
"What is my daughter doing, Derek?" John whispers to him, voice hoarse and dry. His eyes are rimmed red, tears still gathering in the corner no matter how many times he tries to blink them away.
"I don't know." He answers honestly, before turning to the pack. "Does she know any other magic working medical professionals?" Derek is pretty sure he knows that answer, but he almost hopes it is this, because the alternative is possibly worse.
"No." Lydia's voice replies to him behind the wall of male pack members and Erica. He can faintly see the shake of Deaton's head.
"There aren't many around, and i'm sure she hasn't met one other than me." Derek feels his wolf rising at the implication of what this means, before he turns back to the Sheriff.
"She's looking for someone to turn her."
"Into a wolf?" He asks, face ashen. He looks faint, and Danny leads him over to a chair in the corner. Derek follows, crouching down before the man.
"Yes. She's looking for another alpha to turn her, because i refused. If she turns, then they abortion is magic risk free, but she has to take to the bite in the first place, and in her state? I'm not entirely sure she will."
"What if she does, what then?" The Sheriff demands, tears falling as he tries to breath in and out. Derek looks away, down to his hands, before standing up straight.
"If she does, then she can get rid of the baby. But she either becomes an omega and has to fight her way back to us. Or she belongs to another alpha." The Sheriff is watching him with weary, terrified eyes.
"And that means we've lost her forever, anyway." He looks away as Stiles' father buries his face in his hands and sobs, comforted by Danny and, now, Erica. Slowly, gathering his resolve around him, he makes his way to stand beside Lydia. The crystal is working a slow circle, held up on a thin chain by Deaton who is chanting lowly under his breath. Gradually, the spinning increases, but the circumference decreases with each spin until it lands heavily onto the spot.
"Is that San Luis Obispo County?" Jackson snorts. "I'm sorry to say, but i think you got that wrong. It's like four hours away, we weren't asleep long enough for her to get that far." Lydia elbows him with a frown.
"She runed us, Jackson. We were asleep for three hours at the least, and we've spent the past hour searching for her. If they didn't stop along the way, they made it there by now." Another dirty look is shot Jackson's way, like Lydia is seriously considering why she has such a dumbass for a boyfriend in comparison to her undenied genius, before she turns to Derek.
"So, do we know any Alpha's over there?"
"Yes." Derek growls out, curling his hands into fists, trying to breath past the mixture of fear and anger welling like a stone in his stomach.
"And?" Lydia prompts, hands on hips in irritation.
"If she convinces him to turn her before we get there, then it's a done deal." Boyd tells them, stood off to the side. He spares a Derek a worried glance and clears his throat.
"The last time he was here, he offered Stiles the bite of an alpha mate."
Isaac had been twitching since Stiles had told him where they were going. Sneaking glances at her, vibrating with nervous energy. Once they're about a mile out of San Luis Obispo County, he finally cracks, turning to Stiles with wide, frightened eyes. It's a stark reminder that, while Isaac is a powerful werewolf, he is also an abused boy. The baby of the pack. The protected, not usually the protector.
"Are you sure? Verne's pack is.. Stiles it's volatile. If things go wrong, if he gets assertive or violent, i'm not going to be much help without the rest of our pack." She reaches out, placing a hand lightly on Isaac's arm as the tension in his muscles increases.
"He wanted me when he visited, after the Argent treaty was signed. He said the offer was there if i wanted it. If you're worried, drop me off at the territory border and i'll do it myself. I don't want to put you in danger." Isaac shakes his head, dislodging some tears.
"I won't let you go in there alone. I can't, but i'm scared for you Stiles. I'm scared." It breaks her heart when his voice breaks, as he takes one hand off the wheel to grasp at her fingers tightly and bring them up to his mouth. The gentle press of lips makes her want to cry, to tell him to turn around and take her back. Anything, if it means Isaac is never scared again, but she can't. This is her only chance, and he'd been right when he said either way this could be the end of her. She had to see this through. He keeps hold of her hand, pressed against his face now, as they come up the area marker for San Luis Obispo County.
"I'm sorry." Stiles whispers to him as they make their way towards the alpha home of Verne's pack. Isaac sobs, tears breaking through, and turns into the opening in the trees. He's still sobbing as they pull up to the house, bigger than Derek's in the woods of Beacon Hills. There are already wolves gathered around the door, Verne himself in the middle, grinning widely at them.
"We'll be okay." Stiles tells Isaac, squeezing his hand a little, even though she knows it's a lie. Her entire body aches with the tension, her hands are shaking in fear of the unknown. Flashbacks of walking towards people who terrified her with a proposition, with a need, and the abuse that had been doled out afterwards threaten to overtake her.
"No we won't." Isaac replies, almost too quiet for her to hear.
They get out of the car anyway.