Calculatingly Wise

43

Scott caught his cousin's smell and found her at their house in the midst of a major freakout.

"Tessa?" Scott called. "Are you okay?"

"Sp -- spiders!" Tessa stammered.

"What about them?"

"C-children of A-Athena..."

He nodded, instantly understanding. He'd remembered what she had told him. "I'll squash any spider that comes close."

"T-thanks."

They entered the house so Scott could pack.

Scott tried to close his packed suitcase and Liam frowned. "Whatever happened to those wolves was definitely supernatural."

Scott let out a sigh. "Well, I wouldn't say definitely. It could've been a parasitic infection. I mean, we get dogs that come into the clinic that have bot flies coming out of their skin."

"Can that happen to people?"

"Yeah. Yeah, they crawl under the skin, lay some eggs, and eventually they... burst." They sat on Scott's bed and he sighed. "So, you wanna talk about it?"

Liam frowned. "I thought we were talking about it."

Tessa frowned. "Not what he was asking."

He scoffed. "Oh. That. Me."

Scott nodded. "Yeah. You. Your fangs, your eyes, the growl."

"Sounds like we're gonna talk about this."

"You just gotta remember your mantra. What three things cannot long be hidden?"

"I haven't had to use that in..."

Tessa cut him off. "Liam, your mantra."

He met her eyes and said his mantra. "What three things cannot long be hidden? The sun, the moon, the truth."

"Say it again."

He breathed in and out. "The sun, the moon, the truth."

"Better," Scott said.

Liam looked at his alpha. "You don't got a suitcase, do you?"

Tessa picked up a silver roll from the floor. "No, but we've got the fix-all for everything. Duct tape. Stiles used it pretty much all the time."

Scott and Tessa made their way to the hospital and he gave his mom one of Argent's stun batons.

Melissa frowned. "Eight hundred thousand volts sounds pretty dangerous."

Scott shrugged. "Just use it on me. I'll be okay. I promise."

He braced himself for the electricity shocking his body and lunged towards Melissa, but nothing happened.

"Mmm," Melissa hummed.

Scott opened his eyes. "You have to hold the button down."

Melissa pressed the button down. "It's going to be fine, Scott. And if something happens, I will call Liam."

Scott's eyes widened. "What... What if he's not around?"

"You think that this thing is gonna protect me? I'm a nurse. A stun baton isn't my thing."

Tessa looked at her aunt, surprised. "You have a thing?"

Melissa turned to her and shrugged. "Sort of. If something does happen and people get hurt, I've got it covered." She opened one of the morgue drawers to reveal herbs and other healing properties.

Scott looked around the room and asked, "Where did you get all this from?"

Melissa didn't answer her son's question but instead said, "Scott, you have orientation tomorrow. Classes to schedule. Cats and dogs to save at UC Davis. Tessa, you need to pack for camp. Worry about that, you two."