We've been driving around with nowhere to go for way too long now, and Derek's getting worse, making annoying sounds when pain shoots through him. This is ridiculous.
"He hasn't got much time left. Stiles, if we keep driving around aimlessly like this, he will die in here," I say.
"Oh hell no. I'm calling Scott."
He takes his phone and after about thirty seconds of waiting, Scott answers.
"What are we supposed to do with him?" Stiles asks.
"And, by the way, he's starting to smell," Stiles continues after a silence.
Oh god, how didn't I notice that before?
"Like death," Stiles says.
Then Scott clearly says something that surprises Stiles.
"What about your boss?" he asks. The animal clinic?
Stiles pauses and then looks at Derek.
"You're not gonna believe where he's telling me to take you."
Derek grabs Stiles' phone out of his hands and starts talking to Scott.
"Did you find it?"
There's a moment of silence as Scott answers, and then Derek speaks again.
"Look, if you don't find it, then I'm dead, alright?"
Whatever Scott says then, it's not appreciated by Derek.
"Then think about this. The Alpha called you out against your will. He's gonna do it again. Next time you either kill with him or you get killed. So if you wanna stay alive, then you need me. Find the bullet."
He ends the call without waiting for a reaction.
***
We enter the animal clinic after finding the key, turning the light on. Derek stumbles forward and collapses on a bag of animal food, when I hear Stiles' phone buzz. He takes it and frowns at the bright screen.
"Does Northern blue monkshood mean anything to you?" he asks to the both of us.
"Ah, yes. Of course. The usual," I say.
"It's a rare form of wolfbane. He has to bring me the bullet," Derek continues.
"Why?" Stiles asks.
"Because I'm gonna die without it." Derek pulls up his sleeve once again and the wound has gotten horribly worse, dripping dark blood and the veins around it a sickly black colour.
"Okay. You know, that really doesn't look like anything some echinacea and a good night of sleep couldn't take care of," Stiles says, making me look at him.
"Look, if we want to keep him alive, we don't have time for joking around, " I say.
"When the infection reaches my heart, it'll kill me," Derek adds, standing up to search through some drawers.
"Positivity just isn't in your vocabulary, is it?" Stiles says.
"If he doesn't get here with the bullet in time - last resort," Derek says.
"Which is?"
Derek turns around with a mechanical saw in his hand.
"You're gonna cut off my arm."
The blood drains out of Stiles' face and his eyes widen, standing there in silence.
"Woah, okay, why don't you let me do it so we don't end up with two dead people here?" I say.
"Again. I don't trust you."
"Okay, that's fine, but listen here. If I kill you, my buddy Stiles over here will be a witness, and I can promise you he won't be able to lie to his dad when they find your cold, pale body on the floor, okay?"
"Fine," he says, and it surprises me how he can still be so grumpy even when he's on the brink of death.
"What if you bleed to death?" Stiles asks Derek.
"I'll heal if it works," he just says.
Stiles sighs and takes me to the other side of the room.
"Grace, I don't know if we should do this... He's nearly dead, he doesn't know what he's saying-"
"I can hear you," Derek says, turning towards us.
"Either one of you cuts off my arm, or I cut off your heads."
"Okay. Alright, bought, sold. Totally. She'll do it," he glances at me, when Derek suddenly retches and throws up a pool of thick, black liquid.
"What are you doing? Oh my god, what the hell is that?" Stiles panics.
"It's my body- trying to heal itself," Derek says.
"Well it's not doing a good job of it," Stiles says.
"Now. You gotta do it now," Derek looks at me.
"O-okay. Give me the saw." I say, trying to remind myself that I've seen so many wounds and this is not worse.
I take the saw and place it on his arm, grabbing the handle tightly, gathering courage. I look at Stiles, who has a worried frown on his face.
"You don't have to look, Stiles," I say.
"No, it's fine. Go ahead," he says, swallowing.
"Okay. Fuck it, let's do this," I turn on the saw and move it closer to Derek's skin.
"Grace!" I hear Scott's voice, making me turn off the saw and look behind me.
"Scott," Stiles says weakly.
"What the hell are you doing?!" Scott yells at me.
"Oh, you just prevented a lifetime of nightmares," Stiles sighs.
"Did you get it?" Derek asks, and Scott fumbles around and gets the bullet out of his pocket, giving it to him.
"What are you gonna do with it?" Stiles asks.
"I'm gonna- I- I'm gonna," Derek can't finish his sentence and collapses, dropping the wolfsbane bullet in the process. It rolls on the floor further and further away, towards a drain.
"Scott, get the bullet!" I shout, nearing Derek with Stiles. We sit next to his body and have no clue what to do. Stiles grabs Derek's face.
"Derek! Derek, wake up, come on," he taps Derek's jaw and I know it's not working at all.
"Okay, what the hell are we gonna do?" I ask.
"I don't know! I can't reach it!" Scott yells.
"You have to!" I say.
"He's not waking up. I think he's dying- I think he's dead!" Stiles yells. I hold my two fingers against Derek's neck.
"Calm down! He has a pulse," I say.
"Oh! I got it, I got it!" We hear Scott yell.
"Please don't kill me for this," Stiles mutters, punching Derek in the face. He wakes up and cries out in pain.
"That actually worked!" I yell.
"Give me..." Derek mutters, and Scott hands him the bullet. Me and Scott help Derek up. He bites the bullet and empties it on the table, throwing the metal shell away. Then he uses his lighter to make the wolfsbane powder on the table burn and emit bright colours. When the blue smoke disappears, there's still a powder on the table, which Derek grabs and puts on his bullet wound, pressing down on it with his thumb. He yells out and collapses again, and I wonder if he just killed himself. But soon the black veins in his arm start to disappear and his wound is visibly healing.
"That was... awesome! Yes!" Stiles exclaims, making me chuckle.
"Are you okay?" Scott asks Derek.
"Well, except for the agonising pain," he retorts.
"I'm guessing the ability to use sarcasm is a good sign of health," Stiles says. Derek glares at him and I take a step closer to Stiles. If Derek dares to do anything now, he won't stay healthy for long.
Scott ignores the glaring and speaks up.
"Okay, we saved your life, which means you're gonna leave us alone, you got that? And if you don't, I'm gonna go back to Allison's dad, and I'm gonna tell him everything-"
"Really?" I turn to look at Scott with a smile on my face. He nods. He seems to realise that our family is not so bad as he used to think and that's great! It's nice to know they support me for once.
"You're gonna trust them? You think they can help you?" Derek asks. Okay, I might have to convince my family to actually help Scott, but I'm sure they would if they saw that he doesn't want to hurt anyone.
"Well, why not? They're a lot freaking nicer than you are," Scott says, causing me to grin.
Derek looks at me for a second, then back to Scott.
"I can show you exactly how nice they are."
The smile disappears from my face and I stare into the distance.
"What are you talking about," I mutter, my gaze hard.
"You know what I mean," he says.
"Ah, so I help save your life and this is what I get? You denigrating my family?" I look at him intently.
"Grace, what's going on?" Scott asks, and I look at him and Stiles, confused.
"You haven't told him?" I ask Stiles.
"No, I mean, that's not something you just share with everyone-"
"Wait, what? What is going on with you two? What is everyone talking about?" Scott asks.
Stiles and I look at each other uncertainly.
"I'll show you. Everyone is gonna follow me," Derek just says after a long silence.
"I refuse to let you slander my family like this-"
"Everyone. Is coming with me. Especially you."
***
We enter the nursing home, Derek leading the way, none of us saying a word. He opens the door to a room and we follow, but when I observe the area, I freeze. In a wheelchair in the middle of the room sits a man, motionless, his burned head leaning to the side.
"Who is he?" Scott asks.
"My uncle. Peter Hale," Derek answers solemnly.
I think of where Peter Hale got his scars from and the blood drains from my face.
"Is he... like you, a werewolf?" Scott asks.
"He was. Now he's barely even human. Six years ago, my sister and I were at school when our house caught fire. Eleven people were trapped inside. He was the only survivor."
I look at him incredulously.
"There weren't eleven people. There were thirteen, or at least twelve if you exclude my mother," I tell him.
"What the," I hear Scott say.
"Well, I wouldn't call it trapped when they deliberately got into the house to light the fire-"
"I wish you were there to watch it happen," I say, my blood boiling, heartbeat speeding up when I see Derek's eyes glow a bright blue. Stiles lightly touches my arm but I shake him off, not breaking eye contact with Derek.
"You don't even have proof. You just want someone to blame," I say.
"You were the only ones that knew about us," he retorts, taking a step forward.
"How would you know? You think other people aren't as good at keeping secrets as you? There could have been so many people who knew without you realising."
"The entire world could have known for all it matters, it was your family who did it! You tell me what justifies this. You say you'll only kill an adult, and only with absolute proof, but there were people in my family that were perfectly ordinary in that fire."
I move forward, I don't know what for, but Derek stops me by grabbing my arm. His grip is so tight I think he'll break it, but I don't care right now.
"You blame my family for something you did to yourself. I will have you killed. I will have you burn just like your-"
"This is what they do!" Derek shouts at Scott and Stiles, who instinctively take a step back.
"This is what she does," Derek continues. I look at Stiles and catch his conflicted gaze for an instant until he looks away, at Derek.
"And it's what Allison will do."
I'm about to snap completely, lose all sense of control or restraint and attack Derek, when my phone rings. A heavy silence fills the air as I take it out of my pocket and check the caller ID. It's Kate.
"Hello?" I answer the call.
"We've got a new plan. We think Derek might still be alive."
Derek hears this and his eyes widen a little, looking intently at me.
"Oh yeah? Maybe his pack helped him," I say.
"Probably. If he is still alive and well, he can lead us to the alpha," Kate says, and I smirk.
"Uhuh. I can see that working. Take the pack leader, and take the pack," I stare Derek right in the eyes.
"Exactly. Chris said something about doing it according to the code, but ah... him and his code," she chuckles.
"Well... sometimes it's much more fun to play by the rules," I say.
"And other times... I'll see you later, Grace," she finishes off.
"Bye, Kate."
A nurse walks into the room and and frowns.
"What are you doing? How did you get in here?"
"We were just leaving," Derek grumbles.
"Yes. I believe we were finished," I say.