Mountain Lion - Chapter 21

~A Teen Wolf fan-fiction collaboration between Miss E Charlotte and Sage Londyn~

Avery walked in her front door from having an afterschool lunch with Allison's Aunt Kate.

"Avery, I thought you'd be home an hour ago." Richard said to his daughter as he met her in the entry way.

"I had lunch with a friend." Avery replied as she started to walk past him up the stairs.

"I got a week off work a little later this month." He said.

"Okay?" Avery said waiting for him to continue as she turned around and faced him.

"I thought maybe we could take a small vacation." He said.

"You want to take me on vacation with you?" She asked shocked.

"Why do you seem so surprised?" He asked.

"You never ask me to go on vacation with you. You always take your vacations by yourself and I spend a month away over the summer on vacation." She said her eyebrows raised.

"I thought maybe we could sit down later and look over a few places to go." He continued.

"I'm sorry, but I can't right now… I have school and it's not a good time for me to leave town." She said, she didn't feel right leaving for a week when the alpha was still on the loose killing people.

"What you mean you can't leave town?" He asked, a little frustrated she didn't agree to go.

"There's some stuff going on right now, and I can't leave Beacon Hills. I'm sorry, any other time I would have loved to go." She said apologetically.

"You know Avery, I just don't understand it. You get pissed when I work all the time, but every single time I've tried to reach out to you, you shoot me down." He said, angry.

"Are you really mad at me about this?" She asked, her jaw tense with anger as she looked at him.

"I feel like I'm just wasting my time and energy here trying to spend time with you, you always have something more important to do." He said, a little louder than he'd meant to.

She stared down at the marble floor in their entry way for a few seconds before she looked back up at him, her eyes dark as she snapped "Yeah? Well, try being shot down every time you try to reach out to someone for 6 years."

"Avery…" He started to say but she started up the stairs.

"I'm scheduling this vacation and I'll go by myself!" He yelled after her.

"Good, schedule it far, far away." She called back as she went into her room.

It looked a lot better than it had the past week after she had a melt down and broke several things.

She had gotten all the glass cleaned up and her broken belongings replaced, the last 2 things she needed was a new bathroom mirror and a new window.

Her broken window was still covered in the card board and duct tape that she and Derek had put over it.

As she walked past her bathroom door she stopped and looked at it, her eyes stopping on a new mirror on the wall over her dark blue porcelain sink.

Hearing a noise behind her she turned and saw Derek standing in front of the window she always left unlatched so he could get in.

"Hey." She said smiling at him.

"Where were you?" He asked, he'd been waiting in her room on her, but she didn't come straight home after school.

"Oh, I had lunch with a friend." She answered, still smiling.

"Is Teagan talking to you again?" He asked as he turned around then pulled the window shut.

"No, with a new friend." She answered as she kicked her shoes off.

"Who?" He asked, she had been out with someone for lunch a few times lately, but hadn't told him who it was.

Ignoring his question she said, "I saw the mirror, you replaced it for me."

He looked past her to the bathroom and nodded.

"Thank you." She said as she walked up to him and kissed him.

Once they broke the kiss he said, "It's been over a week since it was broken."

"Still, it was sweet you did that for me." She said, leaning in and kissing him again.

"It's a not a big deal, just a mirror." He said, shrugging her words off.

"Why is it that every time you do something nice for me, you try to act like it's not a big deal?" She asked as she reached up and held onto his shoulders.

Her heart skipped a few beats as their eyes locked and he rubbed his hands firmly down her sides until they landed on her hips and he pulled her closer to him.

"It's just a mirror." He said, his voice low as he spoke, with their faces only inches apart.

"It might just be a mirror, but it's still something nice that you did for me." She said, her voice barely over a whisper as she watched his eyes travel from her eyes to her lips.

Leaning her body into his she held onto the back of his head and neck as she said, "I love the mirror, thank you."

"I grabbed the first one I saw." He said, as he slid his hands up her sides, under the edge of her shirt.

"That's a lie! It looks almost identical to my old one." She said with a small laugh.

He held onto her bare sides and smiled at how smoother her flesh felt under his hands.

Leaning down he kissed her, she lightly dug her nails into his scalp pulling his face even closer to hers.

Breaking their kiss she said, "It doesn't make you any less of a bad-ass because you like to do nice things for me."

With a small sigh he said, "It was just a mirror." But the corner of his mouth twitched into a smile.

"Just shut up." Avery said smiling as she pulled his face back down to hers.

~()~

A few hours later, Teagan and Jackson were sitting outside the school, enjoying the cool night air with a few other random students standing around while his adopted parents and her dad were inside the school meeting with their teachers.

He honestly didn't care what his teachers said about him, if it wasn't for Teagan he wouldn't even be here, but she was a nervous wreck, worrying what her teachers were telling her dad about her.

As she looked down at the ground, running different scenarios through in her head of how the meeting could be going, Jackson wrapped an arm around her shoulder and pulled her toward him, hoping to give her some comfort.

He lowered his head to give her a quick kiss on the side of her head then he raised his head and smirked when he saw Isaac off to the side watching them.

Jackson kept one eye on Isaac as he lightly grabbed Teagan's chin and lifted her head before leaning down and capturing her lips for a deep kiss, wanting to show Isaac exactly who she belonged to. He continued to kiss her until Isaac finally looked away, only then did Jackson end the kiss and looked down at her with a smile on his face.

She raised up on her toes, planning to give him another kiss until they heard a door open and saw several parents walk out. She glanced around for her dad until she saw him walking toward them with an unreadable expression on his face.

She glanced up at Jackson with a worried look before looking back at her dad.

Paul walked up to his daughter then said with a sigh, "Let's go home."

Teagan's mouth dropped open in shock as she tried to read into his words or expression to find out how much trouble she was in, but her dad didn't say anything else as he turned around and went to walk towards the car.

"Dad, wait, please." Teagan called out as she ran behind him and asked, "What happened?"

"What do you mean 'what happened'?" Paul asked confused as he turned around to face her and Jackson, who was standing behind her for support.

"What happened with my teachers? What did they say?" Teagan asked, her stomach in knots.

"Oh that... they all said you are doing great. You have all A's, you participate and cause no problems. They are all really happy with you." Paul said with a proud smile.

Teagan breathed a sigh of relief as she laid a hand on her heart and felt Jackson lay a hand on her shoulder, giving it a small squeeze. She glanced behind her to look at him, then with a soft chuckle turned back to look at her dad and asked, "Then what was with that whole 'let's go home' thing?"

"You looked too serious when I walked up so I thought I would have a little fun." Paul answered with a shrug.

"That was not funny." Teagan said with a chuckle as she rushed forward to hug her dad.

Paul laughed as he kissed the top of her head then said quietly for her to hear, "I'm really proud of you kiddo and your mom would be too."

"Thanks, Dad." She said back with tears in her eyes, as she hugged him tight.

"Now what do you say I take you two out and we celebrate my genius daughter." Paul suggested, as he looked at her and Jackson.

Teagan looked down and blushed at the compliment as Jackson placed his hands on her shoulders, showing her, he too was proud of her, "I think that's a great idea."

Paul opened his mouth to suggest it was time to leave until they heard arguing coming from nearby. Teagan glanced over toward the voices and saw Allison and Scott being yelling at by Allison's parents as well as Scott's mother.

She watched for a few moments, feeling bad for her new friend and Scott until her dad announced he would be right back. The lawyer in him couldn't help but walk over toward the small group and offer to help settle the dispute.

As they waited, Teagan leaned against Jackson and rested her head against his chest as she glanced around the parking lot.

She frowned when she saw Isaac and his dad across the parking lot, his dad was in his face speaking in a hushed tone but even she could tell from where she was standing that his dad wasn't happy with him.

She thought about getting her dad, seeing if he could help them somehow next, but before she could even think about doing anything, she froze when she saw something big and dark run across the parking lot from the corner of her eye.

She gasped and pulled away from Jackson, causing him to look at her with a concerned expression as he asked her what was wrong.

"I-I saw something." She stuttered, having flashbacks to the night at the movie store.

Jackson glanced around but didn't see anything, which is what he told her.

"No, I saw something I swear." Teagan said, as she took a few steps away from him and turned around slowly, looking at everywhere possible.

"Teagan, there's nothing..." Jackson begin to say until they heard someone scream out in terror, suddenly causing everyone in the parking lot began to panic and yell as they made a mad dash to their cars.

Teagan stood froze as she watched everything happen around her, she turned back around to look at Jackson with wide eyes as he reached out to grab her arm, pulling her behind him.

She heard her dad calling out for her but was to terrified to yell back, instead she latched onto Jackson, wrapping her arms tightly around his waist and burying her head in his back, not wanting to see the monster again.

Jackson, curious about what was skulking around the parking lot, removed her arms from around him and told her to stay put. She cried out and reached for him, begging him not to leave her.

"I'll be alright, I promise. Stay here." Jackson said, as he gave her a quick kiss and ran across the parking lot towards the chaos.

He knew it was probably stupid to head towards the danger, but after failing her so many times lately, he wanted to finally be the hero and go after the animal that had attacked her nights ago.

Teagan tried to keep her eyes on Jackson, terrified that whatever was out there would hurt him or worse.

When she lost sight of him, she took a few steps forward, not realizing she was standing so close to several parked cars.

Jackson saw the animal circle back around and turned around to look for him but instead a car heading for Teagan caught his eye. He called out her name and tried to run towards her until a car backed up, blocking him and forcing him to watch as the car got closer to her.

Teagan turned her head and gasped in surprise when she saw the fast moving car, she threw up her hands with a scream as she waited for impact, but instead she felt someone's arm wrapped around her waist before they began to fall towards the ground with a hard thud. She opened her eyes and looked behind her, surprised to see it was Isaac who risked his life to save her.

She softly smiled at him and opened her mouth to thank him but before she could say a word, she felt someone grab her arm, causing her to hiss out in pain as she was pulled up from the ground.

"Hey, look at me, are you ok?" Jackson asked, as he grabbed her face, turning her away from Isaac to look at him.

"Yeah, but my arm hurts." Teagan said, as she glanced down and saw a huge scratch on her forearm to her elbow.

"It's not broke or anything is it?" Isaac asked, as he stood up with a worried expression, afraid that he had hurt her.

As Isaac reached out to look at her arm, Jackson pushed him back before calling out, "back off Lahey or I swear I'll..."

"Jackson, stop!" Teagan cried out, as she stood in between the two boys.

"I was just checking on her." Isaac argued.

"You've done enough." Jackson snapped back.

Teagan opened her mouth to yell at him to stop again, but before she could say a word, her dad rushed over towards her and pulled her into his arms as he asked her if she was ok.

He looked over at Isaac, thanking him for saving her before he pushed her back a little to check her over.

Other than a few scratches on her arm and a tiny scratch on her forehead she seemed to be ok for which he was grateful.

Teagan jumped in her father's arms when she heard a gunshot fire then asked, "What was that?"

Jackson glanced off to the side then said, "They got it."

Teagan didn't even realize tears were falling down her face until she felt her dad wiping them away as he said, "Shh, it's ok Sweet Tea, it's dead. The mountain lion that attacked you is dead."

Teagan felt more tears fill her eyes, wishing so badly that that statement was true, but she knew it wasn't a mountain lion that had attacked her and Avery, it was something way, way worse.

A/N- Thank you so much for reading! I hope you guys all liked the update... sorry it took a little while to get posted, had a pretty busy week.

On Miss E Charlotte's profile are links to her polyvore account where she's planning to start posting sneak peaks for up coming chapters. While you're there don't forget to check out her other stories too! ^_^

Also, up on my profile is the link to my polyvore account and I have another Teen Wolf story too.

Oh man, I just heard that Cory Monteith from Glee was found dead in his hotel room. I'm just devastated by the news, *big hugs* to all my fellow Gleeks, R.I.P Cory Monteith.

I'd really appreciate it if you could take a few moments to leave a review and let us know if you're still reading and liking the story. We're still having a blast writing this and your kind words and support mean so much.