Author's Note: Some definite Sterek in this part. This one got long so it's gonna be two parts, this one and the aftermath which was kinda glossed over by the show. I love it. I own nothing.

The Pool

Stiles swore shaking her hand out as Erica snarled, her cheek already going from red back to its perfect porcelain hue. Stiles mock growled back at the she-wolf as she rubbed her split knuckle. A hand reached out and easily held Erica back. She snarled and a set of red eyes glowed in the darkness of the pool a short growl from Derek was all it took for Erica to back down.

"Stiles don't antagonize my Betas." Stiles flipped both of them off, managing to flick blood at them as she did.

"Yeah well tell your Betas to leave my car alone, from now on Stiles' jeep is off limits. If it wasn't for you I wouldn't have had to witness a murder or have my car impounded as a murder weapon!" Stiles was still rubbing her bleeding knuckle. Derek sighed and reached out gently taking her hand. Black veins appeared on his arm and the pain faded and the bleeding slowed.

"I didn't want this to be a confrontation. I'm sorry you had to see that and I don't want to have to bring it back but I need to know what you saw, I wont know what it is until either I see it or you tell me what you saw." Erica huffed wandering off to the side of the pool. Stiles took a shaking breath and sighed before speaking. She described the creature she'd seen and shuddered. She almost wanted Derek to reach out to her, for someone who knew the truth to comfort her at least a little. Scott was a great friend but he was kind of useless when it came to feelings that dealt with anything but Allison. But he didn't instead he looked up at the stairs above Stiles' head. She really didn't want to turn around but the terribly familiar hissing breath made her turn around. There it was, perched on the edge of the railing. Derek yanked Stiles behind him as the thing lunged from the railing. It swatted Erica into the wall and Stiles flinched as she heard a crunch. She would bet that at the very least the she-wolf's nose was broken.

"Run!" Derek shoved her away, which was lucky because the thing lunged at where Stiles had been standing moments before. It swiped a hand up and raced away. Derek whirled trying to find it again and that was when Stiles saw it. A thin slice on the back of his neck.

"Derek, your neck!" Derek reached up and felt the cut and his eyes went wide as his knees buckled. If the look on his face was any indication he was expecting to crumple to his knees, but Stiles didn't let that happen. Instead she caught him by ducking under one of his arms as he flailed for the last time before Stiles felt the muscles in his arm seize. He groaned slightly as Stiles dragged him towards the exit pulling out her phone with her free hand. Then the creepy lizard man decided it was a good idea to show back up, directly in front of Stiles. She slipped in a puddle in her surprise and her arms began to windmill letting both things she was holding go flying. Her phone flew towards the lizard man in a seemingly halfhearted attempt at defense and Derek slid directly into the pool with a cry of her name. It took Stiles two seconds to pick which item she was going after. The fact that the phone was closer to the monster was only part of the reason Stiles picked what she did.

So instead of lunging towards the thing that had killed a man in front of her she dove gracefully into the pool after Derek. It took a minute to pull him to the surface, she'd thought he was heavy on land but that was nothing to having to tread water holding him up. He spluttered and coughed out some water as Stiles began to try and swim them away from the lizard man. But then it reached out to the water and Stiles' heart skipped a few beats in fear. She was never going to be able to outswim that thing. She'd never been that strong of a swimmer much less while carrying someone at least twice her size. But as it touched the water it hissed and pulled itself back.

"It can't swim?" Derek growled slightly but it wasn't directed at Stiles, it was directed at the lizard man. Erica was still out cold on the floor but luckily it didn't seem to have any interest in her. Instead it circled the pool a few times seemingly trying to find a dry path to them. But when none revealed itself it hissed in anger and sat at the side of the pool. And thus began the longest two and a half hours of Stiles' life.

Over an hour and a half in Stiles was getting very, very tired. Her phone pinged across the pool from her. She glanced at it and Derek grunted.

"Stiles don't even think about it. You won't be able to swim both of us away in time." Stiles frowned. She wasn't a fast swimmer, but she was fast enough, when she wasn't holding up two hundred pounds of werewolf. She pointed this out to said large muscular wolf and he growled at her his eyes flashing red.

"No!" Stiles did her best to face him while keeping them both floating for the first time in their torturous forced closeness not thinking about said closeness.

"Listen here buster! You don't get to flash your red eyes and get me to kowtow to your every whim. I am not one of your Betas! I said no to the big bad bite!" Derek's eyes went wide in confusion and flashed almost immediately back to their natural green.

"When did you have the chance to get bitten? I never offered it to you." He didn't tell her the reason he hadn't offered it to her even though his wolf wanted her in his pack, more than it even wanted Scott. She remined him of Paige, the first person he'd seen the bite kill. His first love. The pale skin and brown hair and large expressive eyes had reminded him of Paige from the moment he saw her standing next to the new made beta in the forest near the Hale property. But she was much more abrasive than Paige had ever been, sarcasm flowed through this girls veins like blood and though they hadn't interacted in a few weeks since Peter had died she no longer had that tinge of fear she'd had in the police car, or at the vet's office. She rolled her eyes at him.

"Didn't really have time to tell anyone what happened when Peter kidnapped me from the Winter Formal." Derek let out an involuntary growl at the thought of Stiles in the hands of his psychotic uncle. But then something she said caught up to him.

"Wait, Peter asked you if you wanted the bite?" Stiles nodded glancing back at the lizard man as he shifted slightly as if he too was growing impatient.

"Yes. And I said no. Didn't feel the sideburns would suit me." She was lying. He could tell she was lying but he couldn't tell why. She was telling the truth that he'd offered, an unheard-of event with Peter, and that she'd turned him down. But the bite of confusion under the lie in her last statement had Derek wondering if she herself didn't know why she had turned him down. She glanced between the lizard man and her phone again and spoke directly into Derek's ear. His wolf hummed at the feel and it took him a minute to realize what she was saying.

"How long can you hold your breath?" He tried to move his head to glare at her but he still couldn't even twitch his finger.

"No Stiles! You need me to fight that thing. I can't do that dead!" Stiles was glaring at him, he could feel it on the back of his neck.

"Do you really think that's why I've been holding you up for the last," She checked her watch which must have been waterproof, "two hours! God you're an idiot! Is it just a thing with werewolves that every braincell that controls common sense and trust gets shut off? Is that just where the brain mechanics for the shift go?" Derek growled at her again but it had absolutely no effect this time, she didn't even acknowledge it. Instead she continued.

"Listen to me for five fucking minutes. That thing isn't going anywhere, what if it gets brave enough to try swimming? What if it starts throwing things at us, things like that unconscious Beta over there! I can't hold up two people especially when I'm convinced you are entirely made of the densest muscle on the planet, which hey good for you but god, maybe skip leg day once in a while! I don't think it'll kill you." Derek made a noise somewhere between a confused grunt and a laugh and Stiles caught herself before she could babble more.

"Point is we need help. You're a fucking werewolf, take a deep breath and trust me." Derek was about to protest that he could never trust anyone again, not since Kate, not since he'd found out that it had been his own uncle that had killed his sister but the wolf snarled at him. That was something it hadn't done since that horrible night he'd come home to find a burned out ruin instead of a happy home. So he tried to nod, found himself unable, growled then made a grunt of acceptance and took a deep breath squeezing his eyes shut.

The second Stiles heard him take the deep breath she dropped him and flailed through the water as fast as she could. The thing realized that its quarry was finally moving and lunged in the direction of Stiles' dropped phone. Stiles had no clue how she did it but she slapped her hand onto her phone and yanked her arm back into the water moments before the lizard thing screeched at her in impotent rage. She hit Scott's speed dial and waited. One minute, two minutes.

"Fuck it!" She threw the phone at the lizard creature and dove under the water kicking her tired legs forcefully to reach Derek before the alpha ran out of air. Had she remained above water she would have been highly satisfied to see her phone strike the creature in the eye before dropping to the ground. Pulling Derek to the surface took significantly more effort this time and they both had to spit water this time. That was not a good sign. The lizard thing howled again and began to circle the pool once more. It looked like they weren't getting out of this any time soon.