Isaac had hoped that Professor Hale would just drive off, leaving this mess behind, but he brought the car to a halt not that far off from whatever was going on behind them. No cars were chasing them so that was a plus.
Danny called Lydia who was understandably worried when she heard that they had gotten rear-ended but Danny did a pretty good job, convincing her that everything was fine, they just had to sort this out first.
"They are going to start setting up the camp once they get there," Danny told them when he ended the call. Then he slumped back in his seat and stared into nothingness for a long moment. Isaac could relate to that. To keep his mind from spiraling out of control, he picked up the backpack and put it in the seat next to him. For good measure, he secured it with the seat belt. It was a bit late for that, his hip bone could testify to that, but better late than never. Then he dared to have a closer look at the telescope. In the footroom, it didn't have much wiggle room and it looked as if it had survived.
"What the fuck was that all about?" Danny finally asked.
Professor Hale took off his glasses and pinched the bridge of his nose.
"I don't know what Isaac told you …" He put the glasses back on and took a shaky breath. "But as far as we are concerned, we're on a field trip and we have no idea who those guys are or why they tried to stop us."
"Which is actually the truth," Isaac piped up. He was still shaking and he felt like throwing up, though. They could have died, he couldn't wrap his head around that quite yet.
"So we leave out your uncle?" Danny asked with a hard look but that melted away when he noticed Hale's expression.
Peter and Professor Stilinski were back there, the only family Professor Hale had left, and they were right in the middle of whatever was going on. Isaac just knew that Hale was tempted to go back and he probably would if it weren't for them. When it came down to it, they were his students, he was responsible for them.
"Why can you drive like that?" Isaac asked to change the topic. Besides, he wanted to know. That had been right out of Hollywood.
"I do drive a sports car," Hale said defensively. He was drumming his fingers on the steering wheel and he kept glancing at the mirror. Isaac couldn't blame him, he was doing the same with craning his neck to keep an eye on what was going on behind them. They were too far away to see more than just an empty road that disappeared behind a corner but so far no cars were coming their way which Isaac counted as a win.
"That's not an explanation," Danny pointed out before Isaac could.
Now Hale did shift uncomfortably in his seat.
"I might had a rebellious, self-destructive phase when I was your age," he said, not looking at either of them. This was nothing he was proud of. Even if it did save their life just now. Somehow.
"So what?" Danny asked. "You drove illegal street races?" It was meant as a joke but Hale was not laughing.
"Something like that." Hale adjusted his glasses. He did not want to go into details even if Isaac and most likely Danny as well were dying to know the details.
"Self-destructive or not, it saved our life today." Danny tried to see the bright side but it ended in awkward silence.
It came as a relief when the police arrived.
It took almost an hour but in the end, they were free to go and didn't even have to come to the station to give a statement. Looked as if the police were under the impression that they had gotten caught in the crossfire of a gang fight or something like that. They were still trying to sort this out but there were warrants out for multiple people and the police just wanted the bystanders out of the way. Meaning Professor Hale and his students and for some reason Professor Stilinski and Peter as well. They were left standing awkwardly at the side of the road.
Once they were alone, Professor Hale caught his husband in a tight hug and didn't let go for a whole minute. Stilinski was hugging him back just as fiercely.
Isaac didn't know where to look, this felt private, and he tried to not listen in to the quiet reassurances they were whispering to each other. Danny was busy, inspecting the damage at his car, at least he did his best to pretend that that was what he was doing.
The only one who seemed to genuinely enjoy himself was Peter. He had an annoying smile playing on his lips and the way he was looking at Isaac was unnerving.
"Where's Braeden?" Isaac wondered just to get that expression off Peter's face. "That was her earlier, wasn't it?"
"She took off when the police arrived." Peter shrugged.
"I wonder why," Isaac muttered. "But it's over now?" Nobody was telling him anything but he got that the police had caught a big fish today. The one Peter had pissed off which had started this whole mess.
"Deucalion won't be a problem any longer." Back was that annoying smile.
"You're a huge drama queen, you know that?" Stilinski said. Hale had finally let go of his husband who used his now free hand to slap Peter on the shoulder.
"What?" Peter played innocent. "It's not as if the blind man could see what I was holding. And the rest of you were too far away to tell the difference."
"Would you stop speaking in riddles?" Danny gave up on pretending to inspect his car. "What did you do?"
"He held one of New York's biggest mobsters at knife-point with a blunt souvenir dagger he got at one of those cheap tourist traps," Stilinski finally explained. "He even went as far as cutting his throat." He made the air quotes.
"His face was priceless." Peter's grin widened at that memory.
"He thought that he was dying," Stilinski scolded him but he wasn't fooling anyone, his grin was almost wider than Peter's. For good measure, he grasped his own throat and mimicked the struggle of a man who thought that he was bleeding out.
"You two deserve each other," Isaac muttered. He'd never understood what a man like Professor Stilinski saw in a guy like Peter but that answered that question. What was even more sickening was the loving way Hale was looking at his husband.
Peter was an asshole, there was no doubt about that, but he seemed to be sorry that they all had been caught in the crossfire of his mess. He didn't say it with words, that was probably a conversation he wanted to have with his nephew in private, but he did offer to switch cars.
"I'll bring it in and get it fixed, it's the least I can do," Peter told Danny when he offered him the keys to his own car.
"You would do that?" Danny was not convinced.
"Heard the other half of your group is waiting for you." Peter held out the keys to his car. "You should catch up with them. Watch some stars, enjoy the weekend, I'll take care of your car."
"If you use it to transport a dead body …," Danny threatened but did hand over his keys and took Peter's.
"I deserved that," Peter didn't even try to defend himself. "You'll get it back as good as new. No traces of blood, I promise."
"That is not comforting." Danny threw up his hands but did not try to get his keys back.
They arrived at the campsite two hours late which had the advantage that the tents were already set up and the campfire was ready to go. The sleeping bags and most of the food were in Danny's car but it didn't take long for that to unpack. Lydia had everything organized and within minutes they were all set.
Erica handed out mugs of coffee and they sat down around the campfire. Later they would want to have it as dark as possible but it was still daytime, no stars to watch yet even if the sky had cleared up, promising a cloudless night. Somebody brought out the marshmallows and then they were sitting there, nursing their coffee and roasting marshmallows, while Danny and Isaac told them how they had gotten caught in the middle of a gang fight and how Professor Hale had turned into Dom Toretto to get them out.
"I guess, we're his family now," Danny joked and raised his coffee mug in a salute.
Hale had kept quiet most of the time, he seemed more embarrassed about his actions than anything else, but now Isaac caught him glancing over at him. Maybe the family comment was not that far off.
They had dinner at the campfire but when it got dark, they put out the fire.
With what had happened earlier it was probably a good thing that they did not intend to sleep much that night. The peak of the event would be tomorrow night but since they were here, they wanted to make the most of the weekend.
"You good?" Danny sat down next to him. It was past midnight and Isaac was sitting a bit at the side on one of the blankets. With his hands behind him, he was looking up to the stars. The others were busy with the telescopes, Professor Hale was pointing and explaining, and Allison was switching between taking pictures and cuddling with Lydia.
"I'm fine," Isaac replied and let out a breath. The events of the day still lingered in the back of his mind and he just knew that the next few nights would be short but at the same time, he was happy. It would take a few days to shake off the stress from the past weeks and when he would stop looking over his shoulder he didn't even want to know but when Peter had told him that it was over, that the Big Bad had more serious problems than them, he'd believed him.
They returned tired but happy to New York on Sunday. Isaac needed a shower and after two nights in sleeping bags with Danny snoring next to him he was looking forward to sleeping in his own bed again. They had stopped at Professor Hale's place to pick up Isaac's stuff, he had no reason to stay there any longer, and Isaac had never been so happy to return to his dorm room.
Scott wasn't there and Isaac didn't expect him back anytime soon. After a weekend apart, Scott wanted to spend some time with his girlfriends, Isaac got that. Not that he minded to have the room to himself.
Isaac dropped his bags by the door, kicked off his shoes, and stretched out on the bed.
"I just hope that I stop running into Peter now as well," Isaac muttered to himself. He doubted it but he was oddly okay with that.
Professor Hale had mentioned that he wanted to talk to Peter and to Isaac it had sounded as if he expected his uncle to stick around.
"As long as they don't have sex in public restrooms again." Isaac groaned at that memory but compared to everything that had happened after that, it was almost funny.
Isaac eventually got up to take that shower and he even managed to go over his notes for a project that was due next week before he turned in for the night. Tomorrow was Monday and he had classes to attend. And he should make that call about the internship.