**During my birthday vacay I found some time to write. granted it was on my phone and I had to edit a lot of it when I got back but I was able to pull out two more chapters. Hope you enjoy! **

Chapter 5

Isaac:

"Mr. Argent, can I ask you a favor?" I asked while I continued to work beside him. I was working with Argent today while Allison, Lydia, Malia and Theo were at their rescheduled spa day. Allison was feeling much better, she still had moments and she still had dreams, but she didn't seem as weighed down as before.

"Sure. What do you need?"

"I saved up a bit of money and someone came into the clinic the other day looking to sell their car. I have no clue what to look for in a car to make sure it's a good deal. My dad wasn't big on life lessons like that." I shrugged. "I was wondering if you would mind going with me to check it out."

"I'd be happy too. Just let me know when."

"Thanks. I really appreciate it."

"You're welcome. So no bike for you?"

"Nah. I mean, Scott's bike is nice to ride every once in a while but I kind of like having doors and seatbelts and things like that."

He chuckled.

"Can you keep it a secret? I want to surprise Allison for our next date. I think it will be a great change from her having to drive all the time."

"Of course. She would like that I think. Do you have a plan for that date?"

"Yeah, actually. If everything checks out with the car and barring no repairs or anything needed. All summer they have movies in the park, the one on the edge of town. We went right before everything went down in Mexico but we went with everyone. In a couple of weeks they are playing Roman Holiday and A Princess Bride as a double feature."

"Ah, two of her favorites."

'Yeah, I thought a picnic and the movie would be a good date. I'm hoping that it will help her relax more, maybe help get her back to herself."

"She's getting there. But I think she will enjoy that. You know if you really want to make it special, you should have her favorite meal."

"Yeah I thought about that. But I'm pretty sure anything other than eggs and bacon is out of my expertise as far as cooking goes. Melissa has been teaching me and Scott some things. She says that next year we'll be on our own and we shouldn't try to survive on ramen noodles and hotdogs. But I don't think I am equipped enough to handle a French cuisine on my own."

He laughed as he started putting away the guns we had been doing maintenance on. They were the ones used in Mexico, but he had been hesitant to touch them. Today seemed like the perfect day for it and I volunteered to help. He's been great at teaching me about what he does.

"I know what you mean. But I happen to know of a really good restaurant that serves exactly what you need. I'll give you the number and you can call when you are ready to place an order."

"That would be great. Thanks. I really want this date to be perfect for her."

"You know she would be happy just being there with you, no matter what you bring or do."

"Yeah, I know. I just… she's been through so much lately and I really just want to make her happy again."

"You do. She's getting better, Isaac. I know it's hard to see but she really is."

"I see it, and I am so relieved."

"Me too." he said. "I know you have been focusing mainly on Allison these last few weeks, but how are you doing with what happened?"

"Honestly, I'm struggling."

"Hmmm."

"This is going to sound bad since its Kate, but…"

"It's okay. I understand."

"I keep thinking that it should have been me. I should have taken the chance when I had it, to end it. But I didn't. I hesitated and now Allison is having to deal with this."

He nodded but said nothing.

"She would have killed me, I know that. But even knowing that I couldn't bring myself to do it. I couldn't take her away from Allison. Even after Allison told me it was okay I still couldn't do it. Maybe if I had…"

"Focusing on the 'what ifs', does no one any good. I understand why you hesitated, and so does Allison. You have a good heart Isaac and you tried your best to spare her any pain. What happened was no more your fault then it was hers. It was just the circumstances in which it happened. Neither of you should have been put in that position. To be honest, Kate was never going to leave there alive, regardless of who was the one to do it. I hate that it was Allison but if she hadn't I would have."

"Really? But I thought you had somewhere you could take her to get help."

"I did have a place in mind to hold her. But as far as helping… that would have only worked if she wanted to accept help. By the time Liam was kidnapped she was beyond help." He explained.

"What do you mean?"

"Allison doesn't know about this. I've been keeping it from her, not wanting her to see her aunt as more of a monster." Taking out his phone, he fiddled with it for a few minutes before passing it to me, showing a message from an unknown number along with an attachment icon. The time stamp on it was from March.

UNKNOWN: THOUGHT YOU WOULD LIKE TO SEE WHAT YOU SISTER HAS BEEN UP TOO.

He reached over and clicked on the icon. The first picture that pulled up was of a woman, man, a tall younger guy and two little girls on a deck in the back of a nice sized log cabin. Everyone was laughing.

"That is Marcia and Anthony Schall, and those are their kids, Tony, age 19, and the twins Becca and Brenna, age 11."

"What do they have to do with Kate?" I asked looking over at him seeing the strain and sadness on his face.

"Kate met Tony, the younger one, at NYU. He was a freshman, and she was posing as a grad student." He started. I could already see where this was going, and I could see why he wouldn't want to tell Allison about it.

"From what I was told, she met him one day in the library while 'studying' and they hit it off. Over the next few months, they spent time together and grew closer."

"She seduced him, didn't she? To get information on him and his family."

"Yes and no. See we already knew of that family. But it was a long time ago. The code that we are to follow states that we do not harm those if they haven't harmed another, a human. When we first ran across them it was just Anthony, Marcia and Tony. Just a typical family living their lives. All with golden eyes, born wolves not made. They were completely innocent of any crimes, supernatural or not."

"Okay…"

"Gerard didn't like it. He wasn't at the kill all shifters stage he went to last year, but he wanted to stay on top of them, pretty much have them live in constant fear for the rest of their lives that they would be hunted. At the time Tony was only 6. I didn't think they deserved to be watched for eternity, so I helped them relocate and get off of our radar. No one knew about them, not even my wife."

"So how did Kate find them?"

"That is a question for the ages. Besides a text message from a burner phone that I had set up for them… and a few others, I never kept in contact. I didn't want them to have any interference from hunters. But it seems that Gerard and Kate did find them unfortunately. And yes, she did seduce Tony to gain information. That picture was from just this past summer, when Tony was home for vacation, it was before he met Kate. This," he said swiping on the phone to show a fire set to a house. "Was from Christmas just 6 months ago."

"Another fire." I whispered staring at the picture.

"From what I am told, she went home with him for Christmas to meet the rest of the family. I don't know if it was for confirmation first or if she already had this planned. But she set this fire as well. This time there were no survivors. And to make it even worse Marcia was 6 months pregnant at the time."

"So, she just makes it a habit of seducing younger guys and killing them. How many times has she done this? Was the Hale Family even the first?" I asked.

"I really don't know. I want to say yes, I hope it was. Not that it should have happened at all. But at the time she was 21. I would like to think she hadn't done anything like this before then, but I can't be sure. What I am saying is that Kate made her bed long before we got to this point. But as always she doesn't go down without dragging a bunch of innocent people with her."

"I'm sorry it had to come to this either way. From the stories Allison told me about Kate, she sounds like she was an amazing person before whatever happened to change her."

"She was. She was impulsive but fun and adventurous."

"Yeah, that's what Derek said."

"Derek?"

"Uhm… yeah. I took Allison to see him after we got back in town from the lake house. He went through something similar when he was a teen. Scott thought it would be good to gain some perspective on what happened." I admitted.

"Paige." He nodded.

"You know about Paige?"

"Yes, it was why Gerard, Kate and I came here 7 years ago because we heard about her death. I met with Talia at the time, and she explained what happened and why Paige died. She also explained that the alpha responsible had fled not long after that. But he's dead now."

"Right, Ennis. I remember him. Derek mentioned him in his story."

"What else did he say?"

"Uh, you might want to ask Allison about it."

"Understood." He nodded again.

"I don't know if it will help but maybe Allison should know about this? I mean part of her struggle is that she was still thinking that Kate could be rehabilitated. But it she had started making a habit of doing things like this then that wasn't a possibility any longer. Maybe Allison should know what she was capable of. It could help her come to terms with it. I don't know." I shrugged. "I mean I don't want her to have any more bad memories of Kate either but I think she might also need the full story as well. There have been a lot of secrets with everything going on. Maybe this shouldn't be? Just a thought." I told him. He nodded slowly, lost in thought.

"You could be right. I know how much keeping secrets can hurt people in the long run. I'll think about how and when to tell her. Thanks for the opinion." He said smiling, and I relaxed. Glad I had not overstepped. "Well, now that we finished with the cleaning. Let me show you some new weapons I got in. Then I am sure that Allison will be done at the spa."

"Okay, sounds good. And I'm sure that the hard part is coming up for them. Theo was really excited to go to the spa. He may not want to leave." I snickered and he laughed.

"How is he doing, being a full-blown shifter now?"

"He is so freaking chill it's insane. He never gets angry, never gets frustrated. He just stays calm regardless of what's going on around him. Well unless it has to do with Liam or Corey. He's loving the fact that it's Liam training him. But that might have more to do with the incentive program they came up with."

"Incentive program?"

"Yeah, for every lesson learned or perfected they schedule a make out for later. I'm pretty sure that's Theo's idea. Liam still goes red every time he brings it up." I cracked up.

"I can see that. They balance each other well I think."

"Yeah, Theo keeps Liam calm and Liam keeps him focused."

My phone buzzed cutting into our conversation and I picked it up to see the same number, again. I denied the call and shoved it back in my pocket.

"Who was that?"

"No one important." I shrugged. "So, what's next?"

JATJATJAT

Melissa was already turning off the kettle when I walked in the back door. Allison was in much better spirits after her spa day with the girls… and Theo. And I was right, they had to drag Theo out of there. Allison said that it was only the promise of seeing Liam that made him finally relent.

"Just in time. Tea?" she asked.

"Yes, please. Thanks."

"You seem tired. Everything okay?"

"Yeah, just haven't been sleeping well lately."

"something on your mind you want to talk about?" she asked setting a cup of tea in front of me before sitting across from me with her own. I took a sip of my tea, formulating my thoughts.

"Well, Allison is doing better, so I am happy about that. She's slowly getting back to herself."

"That's good. I'm sorry she had to go through that. But it's good that she is working through it."

"Yeah, that lifts a lot of weight off my shoulders. I hated seeing her so depressed and anxious. I think part of the issue was that she was so sure that everyone would judge her or see her differently after what happened. I knew that wouldn't happen but she was worried."

"It's understandable. It's different when we see it on TV or see it happen to others. But when it's closer to home it hits hard. But I'm sure the talk she had with her father helped her a lot."

"Yeah that and the talk she had with Liam."

"Liam… Ah, because of what happened with Theo. I can see that being helpful. But I think a lot of her getting better is due to you." She said and I shook my head.

"Don't deny it. You have been a constant support for her through all of this. I know it's hard to think that something like that helps but it does. Having someone just be there for you, to listen, to let you cry and vent. You have no idea how valuable that is. Not everyone has that."

"I know. Everyone keeps telling me that. But I just feel like I should be doing more or better, I just don't know what."

"What is the first thing you do when she's upset, be it this or something else?"

"I… hold her and try to comfort her."

"Okay and when she's angry?"

"I let her vent without offering an explanation or anything. I just let her talk it out." I answered confused on what she was getting at.

"And when you do those things for her, how does she respond? Is she still upset afterwards, still angry?"

"She… I can feel her relax more and she's less stressed, more balanced when she's done."

"And that's because of you, Isaac. She may be your anchor but you have to realize you are also hers. You help balance her out just by being there, just by loving and supporting her. That is what she needs, that is all she needs." She said. I nodded and offered a small smile. I understood what she was saying but until she was completely back to herself I would always feel as if I should be doing more.

"Okay, now what else is going on? I know it's not just Allison that has you stressed."

"Yeah, no it's something else also." I pulled out my phone and pulled up my call log, sliding it across to her. She picked it up and scrolled confused. There were at least 30 missed calls, all from the same number.

"My mother has been trying to reach me." I told her. Her eyes snapped up to look at me, brows raised in surprise.

"She has?"

I nodded, clutching my mug tighter.

"And how do you feel about that?"

I huffed a laugh, rolling my eyes.

"Pissed, mostly." I answered, hearing a slight growl in my voice. "I mean, she left. She abandoned me and left me with him. She knew how he was, especially after Camden died but apparently she didn't care. Apparently I wasn't worth taking with her." I could feel the sting in my eyes and I hated that this still affected me like this.

"What right does she have to contact me after all this time? Where was she when I was being locked in a freezer, or when he almost blinded me with a piece of glass? Where was she when he died and I technically became a ward of the state? Why now? What does she want?"

"Have you actually talked to her?" she asked. I was shaking my head before she finished.

"No. and I really don't want to. I know I probably need too. Allison said I should just to get some closure. But… honestly, having her call has been… triggering flashbacks." I admitted.

"Oh, honey. I'm sorry. Why haven't you said anything?"

"There's been so much going on and then this thing with Allison and we still have Gerard and Simon out there. I just didn't want to add to that, you know."

"Isaac, listen to me. There is a lot going on. Just thinking about it gives me heartburn. But what you are dealing with is just as important as the other things. Don't ever think that it's not."

"Shouldn't I be over this by now? I thought I was past triggers and flashbacks."

"There is no time limit on traumas. Unfortunately it could be years later and you may still come across something that brings it back to the forefront of your mind. It's not the triggers or flashback that matter, it's how you handle it. Don't try to handle it on your own. You have people to talk to or come to for help."

"I just wish she hadn't even bothered. I was doing great. Why now?"

"The only way to find that out is to talk to her, when you are ready. I know you don't want to, but you deserve answers. Even if you won't like them."

"I know and I will. Just not yet. As badly as I want answers I don't think I am ready to talk to her." I said just as my phone buzzed again. "But it seems like she will be insistent until I pick up."

"Well regardless of how many times she calls, you take your time. Don't do anything until you are ready."

"I won't. But off of me and my issues. What's been happening with our favorite soap opera? Has Bea asked out the new doc yet?" I asked, moving away from the topic of me and onto the reason we have weekly tea time, gossip. She laughed and launched into the latest drama at the hospital involving the staff.