"Who will fix me now?
Dive in when I'm down?
Save me from myself, don't let me drown."
Drown - Bring Me The Horizon
•• ━━━━━ ••●•• ━━━━━ ••
Allison, Scott, Stiles and Isabel stand in the back corner of Mr. Yukimura's classroom, huddled around Stiles' tablet. A map on the tablet shows a pinned location.
"Here's where we found the den. It's right in the middle of the hiking trails." Stiles points to the location.
"Well, that could narrow it down. Coyotes travel in fixed trails. But, I think you're right about her not going back to the den. Coyotes don't like wolves," Allison says, shooting a pointed look at Scott. "and they're really smart - if they don't want to be heard, they actually walk on their toes." Allison tells the three, disbelief covering their faces.
"Coyotes tip-toe?" Stiles asks the huntress incredulously.
"They tip-toe." Allison confirms with a sigh.
Stiles looks down at Isabel, cringing at the thought. Isabel stifles a laugh that threatened to escape. The bell rings, signalling the start of next period.
"I gotta go, but send me the pinned location." Allison tells Stiles, pulling the red-head girl beside him in for a hug before she leaves.
"Okay." Stiles nods, moving over with Isabel to their seats.
"All right, everyone, let's get started! We were just talking about internment camps and prisoners of war. There's a passage in our reading that I'd like to go over in more detail. Who would like to come up and read aloud for us?" Mr Yukimura addresses the class. "Mr. Stilinski? How about you?" He asks.
Stiles raises his head at the teachers words, pausing for a moment before stumbling over his words anxiously, "Oh, maybe someone else could...?"
Isabel watches the interaction before raising her hand and interrupting. "I can do it, Mr Yukimura." She offers, Stiles turns at her voice and gives the girl a grateful look.
"Thank you, Miss Martin, but everyone participates in my class." Mr. Yukimura remarks. Stiles' face drops at his words. "Mr. Stilinski." Mr Yukimura instructs again.
"Okay..." Stiles sighs.
He unwillingly gets up from his desk and makes his way to the front of the room. He stands at the podium and looks down at the book with a heavy breath. He gulps as the words become blurred, squeezing his eyes shut and gripping at the podium tightly in a desperate attempt to keep calm.
Isabel takes a deep breath as her eyes meet Scott's across the room, swallowing hard as she feels his panic building inside her body, anxiety bubbling in her veins.
Stiles re-opens his eyes, the words no longer blurred - instead they begin to fall off the page completely. He slowly raises his head as the panic fully sets in, his vision becoming blurred as the familiar feeling of a panic attack builds. His hands tremble against the wooden podium, clammy hands gripping the sides to keep himself from crumbling to the ground.
Isabel catches his fearful eyes, rising from her seat without hesitation. "Stiles? You okay?"
On the other side of the room Scott does the same, both teens watching the boy wearily. Stiles' arms finally give in as he begins to collapse against the podium. Scott and Isabel rush forward to the boy and stand either side supporting his body. Isabel wraps her hand around the panicking boy's waist as Scott turns to a concerned Mr. Yukimura.
"We should take him to the nurse's office." Scott tells Mr Yukimura, who silently nods in agreement as he watches the young man before him in worry.
Scott takes Stiles' other arm and the two quickly escort the panting boy out of the classroom. Scott guides them to the boy's restroom, Stiles pushing his way out of their grasp and stumbling against the cold tile wall.
"Stiles?" Isabel worriedly calls out.
"Stiles. Look at me, man. Is this a panic attack?" Scott asks.
Stiles stumbles over to one of the sinks in the restroom, clutching the porcelain tightly as he looks at himself in the mirror. "It's a dream, it's a dream, it's just a dream..." He rambles.
"No, it's not-" Scott begins, stumbling over his own words as his own body fills with panic.
"This is real, Stiles. You're here. You're here with me and Scott." Isabel takes over, pushing past the panic she can feel building from both teens in her body and shutting off the switch. She sighs in relief as her body calms.
Stiles hyperventilates as he meets the girl's eyes in the mirror. His mind flashes back to the previous time this happened, how Lydia managed to calm him using the red-headed witch standing in the same room - yet he still couldn't seem to calm himself.
He was dreaming, she couldn't possibly be here with him
Isabel watches the boy as he internally fights with himself. "Okay, what do you do to tell if you're awake or dreaming?" She asks calmly.
At the sound of her voice, he manages to find the energy to speak. "Your fingers - you count your fingers. You have extra fingers in dreams." Stiles breathes out heavily. Isabel looks over to a worried Scott standing beside her and nods to the Alpha.
Scott gives a small nod back before raising his fists behind the boy. "How many do I have?" Scott asks, but Stiles' head stays down. "Hey! Look at me. Come on, Stiles. Look at my hands and count with me." Scott begs.
Stiles lifts his head slowly and turns his body to the Alpha, panting heavily - every breath feeling like he had run a marathon. He tries to ignore the room spinning and focus on the boy's hands.
Scott lifts a finger, "One." He begins to count. As Scott raises another finger, he nods to Stiles in encouragement.
"Two." Stiles wheezes, his head dropping down as he tries to control his breathing - his body feeling like it was on fire.
"Keep going." Isabel encourages the boy, his head raising back up at her voice.
His eyes flicker over to the girl, taking in the concerned look on her face. He gulps as he closes his eyes for a second. "Three...four..." Stiles painfully continues, pushing past the burning sensation threatening to take over his body.
When Stiles doesn't continue, Scott does so for him, "Five..."
"Six... seven..." Stiles gulps.
"Eight..." Scott nods to the teen.
"Nine... ten..." Stiles finishes, looking back over the Alpha's hands to make sure there weren't anymore.
"Ten." Scott repeats, reassuringly.
The three stand in silence for a moment, Isabel noticing Stiles falling back against the wall and quickly reaching out to help the sweaty boy to the ground. Scott and Isabel kneel beside Stiles as he catches his breath.
"What the hell is happening to me?" He weakly asks the pair.
"We'll figure it out. You're going to be okay." Scott reassures.
"Am I?" Stiles says with a humourless laugh. "Are you?" Stiles skeptically asks the wolf before turning his head to Isabel. "Are any of us?" Stiles questions, face covered in a grimace. "Scott, you can't transform... Allison's being haunted by her dead aunt... And Isabel and I are collectively losing our minds." Stiles shakily speaks, Isabel's head dropping at the statement. "We can't do this. We can't- we can't help Malia. We can't help anyone."
The three sit in silence before Scott finally breaks it, Isabel fiddling with her hands as Stiles' words echo around her mind.
"We can try. We can always try." Scott quietly says to the deflated pair.
•• ━━━━━ ••●•• ━━━━━ ••
Stiles' hand grasps Isabel's tightly as they walk alongside his father, fellow policemen and animal control walking swiftly through the halls. After class had ended, the coyote - that Scott and Stiles had deemed as Malia - had entered the school and tried to attack Kira.
"A couple of students said they saw it running across the field and back into the woods. Thank God nobody got hurt." Noah tells the pair.
"What happens if she does hurt someone?" Stiles questions.
"Most likely, they'll have to put it down." Noah sighs.
"Put her down." Isabel corrects the Sheriff, who meets her stare with a sigh.
"Dad, try not to forget there's a girl in there, one that you'll be killing!" Stiles adds, but Noah continues to walk silently. Stiles glances at the red-head girl with a defeated look. "Come on, you aren't back to not believing, are you?"
"I believe there are a lot of things I don't understand yet." Noah answers, stopping in place and turning to the two teens. "But that doesn't mean that everything and anything imaginable is suddenly possible!" Noah whispers. "Now, are you one hundred percent sure that this is a girl and not an animal?"
"Yes. Because Scott's sure." Stiles tells his dad determinedly.
Noah's eyes glance over to Isabel, who nods in agreement. Feeling a set of eyes on them, Isabel turns to see Scott standing at the end of the hallway. Stiles and Noah follow her eyes to see the boy stood watching.
Stiles turns away from him, "Scott, you been listening?" He asks quietly.
Noah sighs, "All right. Let's get this figured out. Come on."
•• ━━━━━ ••●•• ━━━━━ ••
Stiles leads Isabel into the locker room, where Scott sits on the bench. "Scott, I think I know what she was looking for." He tells the boy quietly.
Scott raises to his feet, as Stiles digs into his backpack. He pulls a doll from the bag, Isabel frowning in confusion.
"Why do you have a creepy doll in your bag?" She questions quietly.
"You took the doll from the car?" Scott cuts in exasperatedly.
"Yeah, I thought you could use it! You know, for, like, her scent..." Stiles trails off.
"Where did you get that?" An angry voice fills the room, causing the three to turn and face the man that Scott and Stiles recognised as Mr. Tate.
He rushes forward and snatches the doll out of Stiles' hands, the boy positioning himself in front of Isabel subconsciously. Isabel reaches out and holds onto Stiles' hand, the boy tightly holding hers back.
"Where did you find this?!" He bellows before looking down at the doll. "It belonged to my daughter." He says, his voice now soft.
Noah rushes in, motioning for the kids to move back, "Sorry." He whispers to the three teenagers before facing the man in front of them. "Mr. Tate, I don't know how you heard about this - if you have your own police scanner or what...but you can't be here." Noah explains to the man, using his hands to usher the man out of the room.
Noah freezes in place, his face snapping up to Mr. Tate's as he feels the outline of a gun underneath his jacket. Mr. Tate slowly meets the Sheriff's eyes as Noah reaches forward and pulls his jacket back, revealing a concealed gun. Stiles' hand squeezes Isabel's tightly as the three teens watch the scene unfold before them in shock.
"...I have a permit." Mr. Tate hesitantly tells the man.
"California schools are gun-free zones, permit or no permit. You need to leave, Mr. Tate. Now." Noah sternly says.
Henry Tate stutters for a moment as he slowly backs out of the room. Noah follows the man closely, raising his hands to escort him out but the man shakes him off frustratedly and stops in place.
"You find that animal! You find that thing!" He angrily exclaims before leaving.
Scott gulps as he looks over at the two shocked teens standing beside him.
•• ━━━━━ ••●•• ━━━━━ ••
Scott, Isaac, Stiles and Isabel stand in the veterinary clinic as they wait for Deaton. The man enters the room carrying three vials.
"Xylazine. It's a tranquilizer for horses. For a Werecoyote, expect it to work within seconds." He places the vials on the steel table in-front of the teens. "I only have three. So, whoever's shooting needs to be a damn good shot." Deaton warns.
"Allison's a perfect shot." Scott tells Deaton.
"...She used to be." Isaac corrects, his eyes meeting Isabel's as she awkwardly nods in agreement with the Beta.
"She can do it." Scott confidently says.
"If we manage to find the thing." Isaac interjects again, crossing his arms.
"Isaac." Isabel sighs, shooting the wolf a look. Isaac simply shrugs back at the witch.
"Okay, what is the point of him?" Stiles irritably asks, "Seriously, I mean, what is his purpose? Aside from the persistent negativity and the scarf? What's up with the scarf, anyway? It's sixty-five degrees out!" Stiles huffs.
"Look, maybe I'm asking a question no one here wants to ask - how do we turn a coyote back into a girl when she hasn't been a girl in eight years?" Isaac questions.
The group turn to look at Scott, waiting for his response. "I can do it." Scott softly speaks.
"You can?" Isabel asks, unsure. Stiles and Isaac turn to Scott expectantly at the girls question.
"You remember the night that Peter trapped us in the school?" Scott asks Isabel and Stiles. "In the gym, he was able to make me turn using just his voice. Deucalion did the same thing to both of us in the distillery." Scott reminds the witch.
"This is a Werecoyote, Scott. Who knows if it'll even work? If you can find someone who can teach you?" Deaton interrupts.
"That's why you called Derek first." Stiles realises.
Scott sighs, "Yeah, I could try it on my own... But, right now, I'm too scared to even change into just a Werewolf."
"We need a real Alpha." Stiles sighs, causing Scott to look at him in disbelief. "You know what I mean!" Stiles exasperatedly continues. "An Alpha who can do Alpha things. You know, an Alpha who can get it going! You know, get it-" Stiles trails off.
"...Up?" Isaac finishes. Isabel places her head in her hands and sighs at the conversation taking place.
"Great. I'm an Alpha with... performance issues..." Scott huffs.
"Is there anyone else besides Derek who could help?" Deaton questions.
"I don't trust Peter..." Isabel shakes her head.
"Maybe the twins?" Stiles offers.
"They're not Alphas anymore. After what Jennifer did, almost killing them? It broke that part of them." Deaton tells the four.
"Yeah, but what if they know how to do it?" Stiles asks.
"Nobody's seen them for weeks." Scott reminds the boy.
"Well..." Stiles trails off, looking over to Isabel. The rest of the group follow his eyes and land on the red-headed girl.
"Yeah...Actually, that's not totally true." Isabel finishes with a sheepish smile.