- WOODS -
Lydia hugs herself in the cold while Allison comes back to her with the charred target in hand.
"Well, that was fun. Any other lethal weapons you want to try out?"
But Allison stops. Cocking her head, she listens to the woods around them. A moment later, they both hear it. Movement through the brush and leaves.
"What was that?" Lydia asks, looking around.
"Quiet." Allison hushes her. But now there's nothing. Not a sound. "Here, hold this."
She hands the bow to Lydia.
"What? Why?"
"I thought i heard something."
"So what if you heard something?"
"So i want to go find out what that something is. Don't worry, it's probably nothing."
"What if nothing is something and that something is something dangerous?" Lydia rambles.
"Shoot it." Allison says nodding to the bow.
Without another word, Allison takes off, leaving Lydia to look utterly ridiculous while grasping at the weapon with her mittens.
"Allison?" Lydia calls out pathetically.
Venturing off the trail, Allison moves quickly but quietly.
Something slips through the brush just near her. She stops at the sound. Then retreats a step, pulling back against a tree. Breath held, she slowly steps away and spins back with the taser X26 in her hands.
She fires it, twin prongs soaring through the air and landing on Scott.
He jerks back and falls to the ground with the strangled cry of someone being pummeled with 50 thousand volts of electricity.
"Scott?"
Rushing over, she attempts to pull out the prongs, but he's still convulsing with spasms.
"Finger-- trigger-- finger." Scott says in agony.
Allison notices she still has her finger on the trigger, still sending an electric charge into his shuddering body.
"Oh!" She opens her hand, dropping the weapon to the ground. Finally, Scott breathes, his body relaxing into the leaves. "I'm so, so, so sorry."
"My fault, totally my fault." Scott breathes out.
"Are you okay?"
"Yeah, f-f-f-fine."
He shudders from the remaining charge still snapping at his muscles.
"I didn't know it was you. If i knew it was you..."
"You still would've pulled the trigger?"
"No, of course not. Seriously, i'm sorry." Allison says with a smile.
He plucks the prongs out of his shirt and skin, wincing in pain. Then, helping gather up the wires and the taser, he's about to hand it back to her when his body has another uncontrollable convulsion.
The taser launches right out of his grasp. Allison manages to catch it, glancing back to him with an unsure smile.
"You're sure you're okay?"
"I think so." Scott smiles.
"What were you doing anyway? Were you following us?"
"No. Not at all. Your dad told me you run this trail sometimes. I was kind of just hoping to catch you, alone."
"By following me?" Allison raises her brows.
"Well, yeah." Scott scratches the back of his neck.
"What for?"
Scott reaches into his jacket pocket and delicately pulls out her necklace.
"I found this at school."
With a relieved breath, Allison takes the necklace.
"Oh, thank god. I was starting to think it had been stolen."
"No, nope, just lost. Definitely not stolen. By anyone."
He watches her slip the pendant around her neck and pull her hair through the chain. When she looks up at him again, he remembers to breath.
"Thank you for finding this. And for bringing it." Allison gives him a smile.
"You don't think i'm a total stalker, do you?"
"No, you're just weird. Like you always are."
She slips her arms around him to hug him. He holds her back, holding just a little too long.
Allison finally breaks away. Trying not to look back, she hurries off, leaving Scott in the woods. Alone again.
Back on the trail, Lydia glances up in relief. She's been trying to load and nock an arrow, but clearly has no idea what she's doing.
"What was it?"
"Nothing."
"Good. Let's go, my fingers are completely numb from the cold and look at you-- your eyes are tearing up all over the place."
With a hand wiping the tears at her eyes, Allison grabs the bag and bow, following Lydia back down the trail.
- MCCALL HOUSE | KITCHEN -
Alycia drops a bag of croissants on the table, sitting down on one of the chairs. She opens the bag and takes out one of the croissants, taking a big bite.
"Am i bothering?"
Alycia chokes on her croissant, spitting it out and jumping up from the chair. She puts her hands forward, ready to blast the intruder if needed.
Derek.
"Don't do that again, i lost a piece of my croissant because of you." The girl sighs looking at the ground where the spitted out croissant lays. "Why are you here?"
"What? Not happy that i'm here? You want me to leave?" Derek asks, moving towards the door.
"No, no! Of course not, just asking." Alycia says, holding his arm, stopping him from moving further.
"I'm here to talk."
"About?" Alycia asks, raising her eyebrows.
"You and Scott have to be more carefull now that Argent knows there's a teenage werewolf." Derek says, taking a seat at the table. "He's not the one you should be afraid of tho. If Kate finds out your brother is the werewolf she's hunting, she won't stop until he's dead. But if she finds out you're a Gaia... it's over for all of us."
Alycia looks at him.
"Is that all?... Nothing else you want to talk about?" She asks, also taking a seat next to him.
Derek stands up shaking his head.
"It's late, you should go to sleep and i have work to do."
"Hey! You can't just kiss me and act like it never happened." Alycia says, standing up and following him. She grabs his wrist and turns him around.
"It shouldn't have happened. At all." He gives the girl a look.
"What?"
"It was one kiss, it doesn't mean anything." Derek says, before pulling himself out of her hold.
He jumps out of the window and dissapears into the night.
"It meant something to me... that was my first kiss..." Alycia whispers, looking down.
She walks towards the couch before laying down. She's angry.
Angry because of Derek, but also angry at herself for letting him kiss her. How could he act like that when he's the one who kissed her? How? Was it really just 'a meaningless kiss'?
Alycia sighs.
- STILINSKI HOUSEHOLD | KITCHEN -
Sheriff Stilinski pours over a stack of case files on the kitchen table.
Stiles tears past, yanks something out of the fridge and dissapears back out of the kitchen so quickly you can barely see him.
A moment later, he slowly wanders back over.
"Whatcha' doing?" He asks.
"Work."
"Anything i can help with?"
"Pouring me an ounce of whiskey would be nice."
Setting a bottle and a glass on the table, Stiles tries to get a glance at the files.
"Any leads?"
"You know i can't discuss that with you." Stiles tilts the bottle of whiskey to pour. "Not too much."
Pausing, Stiles glances from his father to the case files. Then to the bottle in his own hand. A devious plan forming...
"There ya go, Dad."
Eyes still on the files, Stilinski lifts up the glass to sip, not noticing that it's almost completely full.
When he sets it back down it's empty, paperwork now spread haphazardly all over the table.
"You know, Derek Hale would be a whole Hale of a lot... Hale of a lot?" Stilinski says, starting to slur.
"Hell of a lot?"
"Hell. Yesssss. He'd be a whole hell of a lot easier to catch if we had an actual picture of him."
"How do you not have a picture of him?"
He lays down photos in front of Stiles.
"It's the weirdest thing. Every time we tried to do his mugshot it was like two laser beams were pointing at the camera."
The photos show attemps at taking Derek's mugshot thwarted by large white glow spots with suspicious blue flares around them. Derek obviously flashed his glowing eyes every time they snapped a shot.
"Nice." Stiles mutters.
"Good god, that ounce hit me really hard. And i've told you way too much. You repeat any of this..."
"You know i won't say anything, dad." He picks the bottle up again. "You want another? Just a little?"
"Absolutely not. Not a drop. Maybe a drop. Just a little."
Stiles sets the bottle back and tries not to look at the gigantic glass of whiskey he just poured. But Stilinski is talking again.
"See, the thing is they're connected. All of them. The school bus driver who died? He was an insurance investigator assigned to the Hale fire."
Stiles reads from the file.
"Terminated under suspicion of fraud."
"Exactly."
"Who else?" Stiles asks.
"That video store clerk who got his throat slashed? Convicted felon. History of arson."
"What about the other two? The guys who were killed in the woods."
"Priors all over their records. Including..."
"Arson?" Stiles continues. Stilinski nods. "So maybe they all had something to do with the fire?"
He picks up the bottle again.
"No. No more."
"You work hard, you deserve it."
"I'm going to have a hangover."
"You're going to have a good night's sleep." Stiles says, pouring the glass full, again. "And i'm going to have an eternity in the lowest circle of hell." He mutters to himself.
- MCCALL HOME | SCOTT'S ROOM -
Scott hurries in, dropping his school bag on his bed and locking the door behind him. He puts his phone to his ear, pacing the room while listening to voicemails.
"Scott, it's Dr. Deaton. Getting a little concerned about how much work you and your sister have been missing. Please give a call when you--"
"Dammit."
He clicks to the next message.
"Scott, this is Mr. Thorn from school. I noticed your paper wasn't among those handed in today. If you need an extension, the best i can do is another 48 hours--"
"Son of a..."
He clicks to the next message as a knock comes at the door.
"Not now, Mom!"
But the knock hits again. Scott clicks off his phone and yanks the door.
"I said not now!"
But it's not his mother at the bedroom door. It's Allison.
"Sorry. Your mom let me in." He stares at her on the threshold of his room, no idea what to say. "Can we talk?"
--------------------------------------------------------------
END OF ACT THREE