Closer Than Before -Chapter 57

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

"Hey." Avery said as Stiles opened the door to his house.

"Hey." He responded as he leaned in and kissed her.

When she stepped out of the way and they started down the driveway he stopped and looked at the car she'd drove there.

"What is that?" He asked.

"A 2011 ford F-250." She responded smiling.

"Where's your car?" He asked.

"It's freezing tonight and the battery's great in my dad's truck so we can keep the heat on and have the radio." She said, shrugging it off.

"You told me I could drive your car tonight." He reminded her a slight look of disappointment on his face.

"I know… here." She said pushing the keys into his hand.

"You've let everyone drive your car except for me." He said, still upset.

"So you don't want to drive my dad's truck?" She asked him.

"I didn't say that." He argued.

Sighing she said, "Look… my dad just got this truck about a week ago. Derek doesn't know it."

"You think he's following you?" Stiles asked her as he looked around his dark, quiet street.

"I don't think so… I don't know honestly. But he came to see me and I just don't want to lead him back to Jackson." She admitted.

"He came to see you?" Stiles asked, trying not to seem worried.

"We need to go, Scott's supposed to leave in like 30 minutes to pick his mom up from work." She said as she opened the passenger door and climbed up into the passenger seat.

As Stiles got into the truck and started it he looked at the dashboard. "It doesn't even have 100 miles on it."

"I told you he just got it." She reminded him, hoping he wouldn't bring up Derek again.

As he drove them towards the woods he said, "Did your dad trade in that silver car he had?"

"The Cadillac Coup? No, he's still got it." She explained.

"He just got another car for the hell of it?" Stiles asked, looking over at her.

"Well, he says his Cadillac is his business car and this truck is for weekend trips and stuff." She relayed what her dad had told her.

"Oh." Stiles said nodding as he looked around the spotless interior.

"Funny thing is, he never takes weekend trips or goes anywhere really. When he takes a vacation he flies and rents a car." She said shaking her head.

"Well, it's a really nice truck." Stiles said.

"Yeah, but three cars for one person? It's a little excessive." She said.

"Three? I thought he only had the Cadillac and this truck." Stiles said glancing over at her as he turned the hi-beams on and drove towards the spot they'd hidden the prisoner van with Jackson.

"He has a '51 Coupe DeVille. It's up at my uncles right now, he's doing a little work on it." She explained.

Once they reached the spot in the woods, Scott told them that Jackson still wouldn't listen to anyone about his being the Kanima and told them nothing out of the ordinary had happened while he'd been watching them.

Avery checked her phone while Stiles flipped through the radio stations until he found one with some good music.

The more Stiles thought about Derek going to see Avery, the more he started to worry about the entire situation because she wasn't talking about it.

"Is there a reason you're not really saying anything about Derek coming to see you?" Stiles asked her.

She shrugged, pulling off her jacket she showed him her scratched up arms.

"My dad let him in and he came into my room when I was holding Annabel Lee, scared the crap out of her." Avery said.

"Is there another reason?" He asked.

She looked over at him in the dim lighting.

"I thought he came over to interrogate me on what we'd done with Jackson, but he was really there to check on me." She admitted as she balled her jacket up and laid it up on the dashboard.

"Because of hurting you?" He questioned looking down to the set of deeper scratches that Derek had accidently caused.

"He didn't mean to hurt me…" she started to say but Stiles cut her off.

"He did hurt you." He angrily said.

"He came to check on me because Isaac told him I tasered him. Derek thinks…" Her voice trailed off.

Stiles waited patiently for her to go on but when she didn't he pushed, "Derek thinks what?"

"That I'm carrying a taser and stuff because I haven't dealt with what happened to me… with what Kate did to me." She finally admitted.

He looked over at her, she'd never brought it up to him before.

"Do you think I've dealt with it?" She asked him.

"I think you're one of the strongest people I know." He quickly answered.

"Doesn't answer my question." She said as took her hair out of the ponytail and rubbed her scalp.

"Honestly… I think you're still dealing with it." He admitted.

She nodded knowing how carefully he was choosing his words, trying not to upset her.

"Honestly, I kind of feel stuck." She finally said.

"What do you mean?" He asked.

"It's this scar…" She said as she turned her left arm over and showed the raised scar from where Kate had slit her wrist.

"I don't understand…" He admitted as he turned in the seat and looked at her.

"It's like; I'll be having a pretty good day or having a great time with you and I start to feel like myself again. But then I'll catch a glimpse of this scar and it's just this ugly reminder of what happened and it just sets me back." She admitted to him what she'd been holding in for a while.

"I've thought about having my tattoo fixed, but it doesn't feel right to just have the same thing put back over it." She said with a shrug.

"Tattoo it… over the scar?" He asked wide eyed.

She nodded and laughed.

"What?" he asked.

"Remember the first day of school? I so had you convinced I'd tattooed myself!" She reminded him of the first time they'd really ever talked.

"I was really starting to debate your sanity." He admitted, laughing.

She smiled to herself about how far they'd come since that day.

Raising her head she faced him and he smiled back at her. Still in disbelief of how close they were now when a year ago she didn't even know his name.

"So I can drive your car tomorrow right?" He asked.

"Allison and Scott are going to watch Jackson tomorrow." She reminded him.

"I'm really starting to think you don't want me to drive your car." He said looking at her.

"I never said that." She argued as she tucked some hair behind her ear.

"Teagan and even Derek I can understand. But Scott and Allison?" Stiles continued.

"Those were emergencies. As much as I love my car, my friends are more important." Avery said as she glanced down to the radio at the time.

"Speaking of Scott… what was it you were saying at his house?" She asked, leaning in some as she spoke.

"I said lots of things…" He said, his voice trailing off as he caught the faint scent of her perfume.

"I seem to remember one thing in particular… you called yourself my boyfriend." Avery said smirking as she watched him squirm.

"I quickly took it back." He reminded her, a little worried he might have messed things up with her.

"So you don't want me to be your girlfriend then?" She asked, squinting her eyes slightly as she spoke to him.

"No, of course I do… I just thought you might think it was too soon to be labeling what we have between us." Stiles stumbled over his words, his breathing a little labored as she leaned in even closer.

"What do you think we have between us?" She asked him, her voice low as she trailed her hand from his knee up his leg to his thigh.

With a gasp he jumped and grabbed onto the steering wheel with both hands, as his breath caught in his throat.

She smiled and let out a small laugh.

"Breathe Stiles… you're going to pass out." She said still smiling.

He looked down to where her hand was still rested on his thigh.

"I… I can't, not when you're doing that." He said, finally letting out the breath he'd been holding.

"Doing this?" She purred softly as lightly danced her fingers over his jeans down to his knee, then back up to his thigh.

Again he jumped and held his breath.

Laughing she shook her head and moved her hand, "What about you? What do you think?" He asked, his voice a little airy.

"About us?" She asked.

He nodded as he finally let go of the steering wheel and shifted in his seat as his jeans had grown too tight.

"Well it's been going on like 2 months since we've started hanging out more. I've seen you every single day, and even though we've only been on one actual date… this just feels like more than casual dating to me." She explained her thoughts to him as she watched him from the corners of her eyes.

He let out a sigh of relief at her words, "Good. Me to."

When he looked back over he'd seen she scooted more towards the middle of the bench seat.

His eyes moved from her eyes down to her lips, she smiled as he leaned in and hungrily pressed his lips to hers.

Soon his fingers were tangled in her hair and both of their breathing had grown uneven.

For years he'd imagined what it would be like to kiss her, but the reality of it was better than he'd ever dreamed.

Every single thing about her drove him crazy, he didn't think he could ever get enough of her.

Avery breathed out a small moan as she tilted her head back and to the side, allowing him easier access to the spot on her neck where he'd started to focus his attention.

She was a little surprised how much his touch set her senses on fire. It was more than just the physical sensations of the moment.

Even though she'd tried to deny it before when she was with Derek, she'd felt a strong connection with Stiles for a while now, it only intensified all the psychical feelings.

With their mouths joined again she grabbed onto the back of his head and neck pulling his face closer to hers; the growing heat and heavy breathing from inside the cab of the truck had fogged up the windows.

Breaking the kiss she fought for her breath and their eyes locked for a few moments.

Kissing her again he ran his hands down her sides, his movements were unsure as he applied a little pressure trying to get her to lay back.

She playfully raised her eyebrows at him, a little surprised that he was taking control of the situation.

Adjusting some she lay back on the cool leather seat and raised her head looking at him.

He started to move some but then stopped, he was a virgin and he knew that she had a lot of experience. Doubts and some fears started to creep into his mind, what if he wasn't good at it? What if it wasn't like what she was expecting or used to?

Leaning up some she grabbed his t-shirt and pulled him down on top of her, within moments their mouths were rejoined, both of them getting lost in the moment again.

Her breathing was shaky and her body arched up from the seat as he kissed her neck again.

The friction of her clothed body against his, made his pants grow even tighter and he groaned against the side of her neck. Her fingers lightly dug into his arms at the masculine noise so close to her ear.

Soon his shirt was in the floorboard and the widows were so fogged up it was blocking out all of the moonlight.

He slowly started to run his hand up her outer thigh, under her black dress as his mouth moved hungrily with hers.

She clutched onto his back and returned the hungriness of the kiss, loving the feeling of his flesh on hers.

He couldn't believe how soft the firm skin of her leg felt to him.

Breaking their kiss she said, "Wait."

He quickly raised up and tried to catch his breath as he said, "Sorry."

A look of confusion spread over her face as she brushed some sweat dampened hair from her face.

"Sorry? Sorry for what?" She asked.

"I don't know." He admitted.

She let out a soft laugh.

"I said stop because I thought I heard something." She explained.

"Oh… I thought I heard something a little while ago." He admitted as he moved and sat back on the driver's side of the truck.

Picking his shirt up she handed it to him and pulled on her jacket.

"Do you think someone found us?" She whispered as she exited the car.

"I don't know." He said looking around wondering if the cops had somehow managed to track the stolen prisoner van.

"No way…" Avery breathed out as she saw the back of the van open and empty.

"He… escaped." Stiles muttered rubbing a hand over his hair.

They called Scott who came and did a quick search of the woods, but wasn't able to find Jackson.

The boys agreed they needed to tell Stiles' dad about what happened and they left in Scott's mom's car.

Stiles told Avery to go home he didn't want her to have to face any of the legal problems from what happened.

She took a scenic route home while she tried to figure out how she was going to break the news to Teagan that Jackson had escaped.

~()~

After arriving at home, Teagan sat down for dinner with her dad and picked at her food. She was too nervous to eat anything but didn't want her dad to get suspicious.

She had got a call for Avery earlier, telling her that Jackson had escaped and Scott had plan to finally come clean to the sheriff about what he is and to tell Mr. Argent about Jackson so Jackson could be caught before he killed someone else, but that was the last update she got until it was time to put up her cell phone to eat dinner. She and her dad had a rule, the cell phones were turned off during family dinner time.

She had just pushed her plate back, telling her dad she was finished, when she heard the door bell ring. She quickly excused herself then jumped up to go run to the front door to let Allison in.

"Hey kiddo, a little late for company isn't it?" Paul asked, as he walked up to the two girl.

"I'm sorry, Dad. Allison just needed help with something but it won't take long." Teagan explained, then added, "You remember my friend Allison, right?"

"Of course. Nice to see you again, Allison." Paul said to her.

"You too Mr. Young." Allison said back with a friendly smile.

"Well hurry up and help her then get to bed. You have school tomorrow." Paul said to his daughter. She nodded her head, telling him 'ok', then he added, "I'll be in my office if you need anything."

"Thanks, dad." Teagan said.

She waited until her dad begin to walk toward the back of the house where his office was located, then she and Allison ran up the stairs to walk into her bedroom.

As soon as she shut her bedroom door, she turned to Allison, waiting for her to update her on the Jackson situation but she wasn't saying anything fast enough in Teagan's opinion.

"So… have you heard from Scott? What happened? Did they find Jackson? Is he ok? Did he hurt anyone?" Teagan asked, firing out one question right after another before Allison could say a word.

"Calm down Teagan." Allison said. She waited till the other girl took a deep breath, then she continued, "I just talked to Scott. When they went to the police station to talk to Sheriff Stilinski, Jackson was already there."

"Well that's good right? That means he went straight there and didn't kill anyone." Teagan pointed out, not understanding why Allison still looked worried.

"Jackson got a restraining order against Scott and Stiles and as you can guess the sheriff and Ms. McCall are not happy with them." Allison explained.

"What about us?" Teagan asked, meaning herself, Avery and Allison. They were all involved too.

"Jackson didn't mention us. He just said Scott and Stiles." Allison answered.

"This is not good." Teagan mumbled, as she sat down on her bed beside Aspen, who was lying across it sleeping. "How is Scott going to watch out for Jackson if he can't be near him?"

As Allison shrugged her shoulders, Teagan sighed then asked, "Did you bring those pages? We need to find something fast to help Jackson."

Allison pulled the tablet from her bag that had the bestiary pages on it then handed it to Teagan. She scrolled through the text, making comments here and there after she read through the different paragraphs.

She saw a part where it mentioned the kanima only went after murders, which Stiles had read about online before. Although that still didn't seem right to them, since the kanima had went after most of them, sometimes more than once until they realized maybe the kanima never did try to hurt any of them.

They made a note to discuss that with the others later and get their opinion on it.

As Teagan continued to read over it, Allison glanced around her bedroom. She saw the picture frame by the bed of Teagan and who she guessed was her mom. She carefully picked the picture up then asked, "Is this your mom?"

Teagan glanced up for a minute to look at the picture then said quietly, "Yeah, that's her."

"She was beautiful." Allison said honestly, as she looked at the picture again, then added, "You look a lot like her."

"Thanks." Teagan said with a friendly smile on her face.

"I can't even imagine how it would feel to lose a parent. I don't see how you, Avery or Stiles does it." Allison said. It hurt enough to lose her aunt, she couldn't imagine how any of them handled losing a mother.

"You just keep going. That's all you can do." Teagan said quietly, then added ,"I know that's what she would want. She would want me to keep living and to be happy so that's what I try to do."

Allison nodded her head then smiled when she saw a snapshot of a smiling Teagan and Isaac hanging on her mirror. "Well you definitely look happy there." She said, as she nodded toward the picture.

Teagan looked over at the picture of her and Isaac and felt tears fill her eyes. She really should have taken that picture down but never had a chance to since the night before.

She felt her heart break as she looked at Isaac's happy face as he smiled at her in the picture. She remembered the night they took the picture. It was the night of the lacrosse game when she went to him and they officially became a couple.

Since he had to be in hiding, he joked that they should take a picture together so she wouldn't forget him, which she told him was impossible. She could never forget him.

"Are you ok?" Allison asked, when she saw the look on Teagan's face.

"Yeah." Teagan mumbled, as she looked back down at the tablet.

"Teagan? What's wrong?" Allison asked, as she sat down on the bed across from her.

"We um.. Isaac broke up with me." Teagan tearfully admitted.

"I'm so sorry Teagan, I didn't know." Allison said, feeling bad for bringing it up.

"It's ok. No one knew." Teagan answered, then added, "It just happened last night."

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

"I don't know, I guess with everything going on with Jackson, I'm just trying to keep myself busy and not think about it." Teagan answered, then added softly, "Plus a part of me hopes he'll take it back. That's pretty stupid, right?"

"No, it's not stupid. It's what I would do too." Allison said, as she reached forward to squeeze her shoulder hoping to comfort her.

"But you don't need to keep it all bottled up. If you need to talk I'm here for you." Allison added.

"Thanks." Teagan said sincerely, then added, "but for now I just want to concentrate on helping Jackson. I just... I can't think about it right now or I know I'll break down."

Allison nodded her head in understanding then watched as Teagan looked back down to read through the pages. She read a couple more pages, and then come to the one that Ms. Morrell had translated recently.

"Like the wolf, its power is greatest at the moon's peak." Teagan read out loud, then continued, "Like the wolf, the kanima is a social creature but where the wolf seeks a pack the kanima seeks a master."

"Wait... what? Master?" Allison asked surprised, then added,"Ms. Morrell said 'friend… 'the kanima seeks a friend'."

Teagan shook her head then said, "No, that word means master, not friend."

"So wait that mean someone's not protecting Jackson ... "

"Someone is controlling him." Teagan finished for her, as the two looked at each other with a worried expression on their faces.

A/N- Thanks so much for reading. ^_^