A/N: Okay guys so this one is pretty long because it's got some tie-up information in it! I know I keep saying there's only going to be this many more chapters, but I mean it when I say there will be one more chapter after this (that I am working on now) and then an epilogue chapter after that. I hope you like this guys!
There is a warning that a gay slur will be used in this chapter, only once and not from anyone that will make you cry to hear it.
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Isaac walked back into the hospital waiting room, slumping down into one of the chairs with a vacant expression on his face.
It couldn't all be over, not like this.
They'd had fights before but this one felt different.
Erica came and sat down beside him, giving him a look.
"You okay?" she asked.
He thought about nodding, about saying that he was fine, but even without her werewolf senses she would have known it to be a lie.
"No," he said softly.
She put a hand on his knee and gave him a weak smile.
"I don't know what happened in there, but you can always talk to me about it," she said.
Isaac sighed. "I know, it's just the two people I would talk to in this situation are Scott and Stiles."
"One who won't talk to you and another who can't?" she asked and he looked up at her. "Scott didn't really seem like he wanted to talk to anyone, but the way you two looked at another..."
"That bad huh?" he said.
"Not what you wanted to hear, was it?"
"Not really."
She sighed a little.
"It feels kind of selfish, wanting to talk to Stiles about our own crap while he's up there in a hospital bed," she said.
"What's worse is he'd probably still listen to it all the minute he woke up," he said.
"Is it weird that even I need to talk to him about something?" Jackson said, listening in unintentionally.
"What do you have to talk to who about?" Lydia asked, looking up at him from her spot on his shoulder.
He looked down at her a moment, wondering how the hell he was supposed to tell her what she was. Cassie had only said it in front of him and Stiles, and he needed to know how to even breach the subject.
"Stiles, it's just that some stuff happened in there," he said.
"I doubt Derek will be going anywhere tonight," Erica said. "I think Boyd said he's waiting for Ethan and Aiden to come and see Daisy."
"They're on their way?" Jackson asked.
"I left a message," Erica said. "Aiden didn't pick up."
"Better hope they're screening them," Lydia said.
"They better be," Erica said.
"We should get you home," Lydia said, her hand on Jackson's knee.
He sighed but nodded. "Yeah okay."
"We'll come back down in the morning to see how Stiles and Allison are," she said and Jackson gave her a look.
"Wait, what day is it?" Jackson asked and Lydia gave him a warm smile.
"Saturday," she said.
"I think I had a chemistry report due yesterday," he said.
"I'm sure they'll give you an extension," she said.
Isaac watched as they made their way out and he sighed. He didn't know if he could face going back to Derek's place alone, but he didn't have anywhere else to go.
"You going to stay here?" Erica asked.
"I don't know," he said. "I just... I don't..."
"You could come and stay at my house," she said. "There's not a lot of room but my mom won't even notice."
He looked up and gave her a weak smile. She leant her head against his and he sighed.
"Thanks," he said.
"I know we're not exactly best friends, but you're still my pack, and I care about you," she said.
"Thanks Erica," he said.
"Come on, if we can't catch Lydia and Jackson then we'll have to walk to my place."
She stood up and held out her hand to help him up. He followed her out but didn't say anything more, he didn't feel like talking. He didn't feel like anything much at all.
Melissa had tried to talk to Scott when they got home but he was silent and tight-lipped, trudging off to his room as soon as they got in the door. She saw the look on Isaac's face as they left, she just wanted to know that they were both okay.
She wished she could stay with him, she even knew that her boss would probably give her the night off if she asked, but she knew her son and if he didn't want to talk she couldn't force him to do it. He'd talk to her when he felt ready.
So she let him have his space, heading off to the hospital.
When she got there most of the teenagers had cleared out. Boyd was still in the room with Daisy and Melissa said she'd let him stay past the close of visiting hours, she should at least have someone with her.
She made her way to Stiles' room to check in and saw the sheriff sitting in the chair by his side. As she walked in the door she noticed Derek asleep in the chair on the other side and she smiled.
The sheriff looked up at her, bags under his eyes and a tired expression on his face.
"Hey, how you doing?" she asked, walking in to put a hand on his shoulder.
"As long as he's getting better... then I'm great," he said.
"He's still here huh?" she said.
He nodded, hand brushing over Stiles' arm. "I don't think I could get him to leave even if I wanted him to."
"At least he's getting some sleep," she said. "You know you should probably do that too."
"I've got some paperwork to―"
"You, have got a son in recovery and two criminals in custody," she said. "You did your job now take care of yourself. You can go back to it tomorrow but tonight you should get a good night's sleep."
"I don't want to leave him here, I know I'm already here later than I'm supposed to be," he sighed.
"I'll sort something out, we have bedrooms spare for parents with kids in overnight. You need to rest."
"What about Derek?"
"Let him sleep, I'll keep an eye on them all. I'm sure the rest of them will be back in the morning, Allison should be in recovery by then."
"She's doing alright?"
"She's going to need a little bit of physiotherapy but nothing too serious," she said.
He sighed. "Maybe I should take you up on that offer for some sleep. I'll need to go down to the station tomorrow, they're going to be getting statements from the two of them and I should be there."
"At least this is one case solved," she said.
"You never want it to be kids as young as them," he said. "I mean I know they're impressionable but I can't imagine why anyone would go around killing and kidnapping people, especially their friends."
She squeezed his shoulder a little harder. "I know. I'll go and see if we can get you somewhere to sleep."
"Thanks," he said.
He looked back over at his son, despite the tubes and bruising he looked like he was just sleeping, and he was probably catching up on the many hours of it he had missed.
One of the other nurses had come in the see Boyd when Melissa was seeing another patient and told him that he couldn't stay in the room. He was incredibly insistent but found himself sitting in the waiting room anyway.
"Honey you should go home, come back early," Melissa said when she saw him. "I'll keep an eye on her, I'm pretty sure they're about to kick Derek out of Stiles' room too."
"I'm okay here," he said. "She shouldn't be alone."
She put a hand on his shoulder. "Let me know if you need anything, alright?"
He just smiled and she headed off to other things.
It wasn't long after that Derek came down from the patient rooms looking frustrated and sat by Boyd's side. He asked him about Allison and Daisy and the two of them may have gotten a few hours of sleep as the night turned slowly into morning.
The sheriff headed out early after Derek promised to call if there was any change in Stiles' condition. With two apprehended criminals down in holding at the station, he had work to do. Besides, if he went back to Stiles without at least some information to give him he'd never hear the end of it.
Boyd and Derek were still in the waiting room when visiting hours started again and the two of them were straight up to the patient floor. They both went into Stiles' room first. He was looking better.
He had a little more colour in his cheeks but he was still sleeping. With any luck he would be awake later in the day.
Boyd went to check on Daisy after, there wasn't much change in her either. Chris came by early after being in with Allison. She was recovering well, a little sore, but all she seemed to want was to know how her friends were doing.
Most of the others didn't come down until later.
Jackson and Scott both slept for longer than they meant to, apparently they'd lost more sleep than they had realised. Lydia came in early to see Allison.
Isaac woke up after a bad night's sleep on Erica's couch, and it wasn't the quality of the cushions that had him restless. She had offered him her bed but he knew it wouldn't matter; he was going to be tossing and turning the whole time.
He wondered if Scott had been the same, wondered how much he thought of him because he was sure that not a minute had gone by where he hadn't had Scott on his mind.
Erica walked in when she woke up, squeezing herself into the space on the couch by Isaac's feet.
"You look like shit," she said affectionately and he actually managed a smile.
"You don't exactly look like a supermodel yourself," he croaked.
"That's a lie and you know it," she smiled, pulling her pyjama-clad legs up onto the seat with her. "You heard anything from Scott?"
He just sighed, turning his head to the side and trying not to let himself look as wounded as he felt.
"I keep thinking that this is going to be one of our normal fights, that he's going to call me and things will go back to the way they were before. It's different this time..." he said softly. "I did something and I don't know if he's going to be able to get past it."
"Was what you did so unforgivable?" she asked.
"I said to him once that I was scared of people around me dying or leaving," he said. "He promised he wouldn't leave. He said he wouldn't leave unless it was to save my life..."
"You offered to leave with Cassie didn't you?"
Isaac sat up to look at her and she gave him a warm look. "How did you―"
"When I found out it was her I knew there was only one person who would have a shot at talking her down," she said. "I didn't spend a lot of time with her but we had a long car ride back from Denver, she barely asked about anything else but you."
He looked down at his hands as he fidgeted with them, not saying much at all.
"You know when I think about it, she was probably the one who spiked the punch, trying to figure out which ones would fall for it," she said.
"She seemed so surprised though..." he said quietly. "When we woke up, tied with the chains... she just lost it. She couldn't have known until then."
"Maybe she just refused to believe it," Erica said. "It's easy to be blind to the things we don't want to see. We were blind too, why would we ever have looked at her to be behind this?"
"What would she have spiked it with? Wolfsbane? She said she didn't remember anything and then... maybe it was a bluff..." he muttered to himself as things started to come back to him from the time in their capture.
Most of it had become a fast blur in his mind.
"What do you mean?"
He looked up at her and sighed. "Just something..."
"You know, when you asked me to trade cars with you in Denver I was going to say no, no way. I didn't want to spend eight hours or whatever in a car with a girl I probably had nothing in common with. But you asked and you looked so damn desperate and I just thought... I knew something had to have happened between the two of you. I mean I woke up with you in the bed that morning, something had to be up. So... maybe you want to tell me what that was?"
"I don't know," he said. "I've lost an hour in my timeline and it's just never come back."
She exhaled heavily and tapped him on the thigh.
"Well, that sucks."
"That was helpful."
"Well what do you want me to do? Reach into your head and pull out your memories?" she asked sarcastically.
Before he bit back at her with some kind of snarky comment his mind wrapped itself around those words and an idea came to him.
He said he would never do it, that the day he needed his help would never come, but it was the only way.
"I have to do something," he said suddenly and Erica gave him a strange look as he jumped off the couch.
"What? Where are you going?" she asked.
"There is one person I know who can do that," he said. "Peter."
"No, no you can't go to him," Erica said. "We don't even know where he went after yesterday. I think he's got something to hide and I don't trust him."
"What choice do I have? I need to know what happened."
"Scott will forgive you even if you never remember it," she said. "You know him."
"You didn't see his face."
"I did, and it was completely devastated, but he cares about you and you really think he's going to let this be the end?"
"Maybe, but it's not just about him. I need to do this for myself."
She sighed. "Fine, call Peter, but he's not going to want to do you any favours for free."
"I'll think of something," he said.
"Did you want me to come with you?" she offered. "Moral support and an extra barrier between you and the friendly sociopath?"
"I can do it alone, you should go to the hospital, tell me how they're all doing."
She grumbled a little, folding her arms over her chest. "I swear to god if you sell your soul to him for a few minutes of information you're a bigger idiot than I thought."
"You say that like he's Satan," he said with a raise of his eyebrow.
"Satan in a V-neck," she said.
He managed a small chuckle and reached for his phone. There were no missed calls or messages, which hurt, so he looked up Peter's number and hit dial.
Derek sat in the chair beside Stiles, staring down at him. The doctors had come in earlier and taken out his tubes and double checked his stats. They assured him that he would be awake some time that afternoon.
Derek had called the sheriff to let him know and he said he would be down in a few hours. They were still in the process of interrogating Cassie and Cal down at the station.
He stroked his hair gently, watching the way his chest rose and fell slowly with each breath. He heard Scott before he saw him.
He hovered in the doorway a moment before taking a few slow steps in to walk around to the other side of the bed.
"How is he?" he asked.
"Should be up and back to his sarcastic self in a few hours," he said, looking up at him. "Did you sleep alright?"
Scott looked up at him like he might have something to say that was more than Derek asked for in the question.
"Not really, I thought being a werewolf meant waking up without the aches and pains the next day," he said with a weak smile.
"Usually it does... when the wounds are physical," he said as he looked back down at Stiles.
Scott's mouth dropped open a little before he was snapping it shut with haste. He turned his head away with a furrowed brow.
"I don't seem interested in everyone's business but it doesn't mean I don't hear or see what goes on," he said and Scott just sighed. "I don't care about it, but I notice it."
"How's Stiles?" he asked, completely dodging his line of conversation.
If he was honest, Derek was glad for it, even if he had to repeat himself.
"I already told you," he said, looking up and making Scott's cheeks flush.
"Right," he said.
"I'm not going to ask you any questions about it, so don't get awkward," he said. "I might ask you about what happened when you were in there but not about anything else."
Scott sighed and sat down in one of the chairs against the wall. "Thanks."
"So you want to tell me what happened when you got in there?"
"I tried to talk to them, after they called me―"
"That was kind of stupid."
Scott gave him an exasperated look. "I tried at least, how was I supposed to know whether they would or wouldn't kill anyone if I told the rest of you about it?"
"Just keep going."
"Anyway, it got... interrupted by Isaac, and then they managed to grab us somehow. All I remember after that was waking up in chains and in a circle of ash and Cassie was there, playing some kind of emotional mind games on..." he sighed and shrugged. "I guess not a lot happened after that."
"I'll ask Jackson later," he said. "Clearly you don't want to talk about it."
"Can you just for once try to be understanding?" he snapped and Derek raised an eyebrow.
He stared at him for a moment before turning back to Stiles, running his hands down his arm to take his hand.
"Sorry," Scott mumbled.
"Don't apologise to me, just sort yourself out before you say or do something you'll regret," he said. "Believe me."
"I know, I know," he said. "I just don't know how to do it."
Derek sighed. "Take some time and figure it out."
"That doesn't―"
"Take the time you need and figure out what it is that you want, or what you're willing to forgive or forget. Figure out what you want, you can't do that if people are telling you what to do."
"How do I know when I've figured it out?" Scott asked. "What if I never figure it out?"
"You will, but if you take too long you might have to work something else out. People won't wait forever," he said, eyes turning back to Stiles.
If he had of stayed away any longer last year then maybe he wouldn't still have Stiles. His body ached with the thought of it and he knew that the same ache was probably lodged inside Scott. The only difference was that Derek had almost full certainty about his future with Stiles, Scott was trying to fight with how he felt and his future with Isaac was suddenly unclear.
Derek's ears picked up the sound of two pairs of feet and his nose twitched with the familiar scent, wolves.
He turned his head to the door and Scott did the same, the two of them getting up and striding quickly to the hall. The moment they stepped out Ethan and Aiden came into view and they saw Boyd step out of Daisy's room and into the hall to block the doorway.
Aiden caught Derek's eye and walked up to him.
"Where is she?" he demanded.
His eyes didn't look threatening, they didn't look like a man ready to pick a fight, but a man wrought with worry, scared for his friend. Ethan wasn't far behind him, an almost identical look in his eye.
"We don't want to give you any trouble we just was to see her," Ethan said. "She's our pack, not yours."
Derek looked up and Boyd and then back to them. "She's in there, lucky they decided to keep her alive."
"They're in the jail right? We could go in there and rip their throats out, see how they like it," Aiden growled.
"They got what they deserved," Derek said. "Believe me."
"She's in here," Boyd said from across the hall and they walked away from Derek to follow him in.
They strode in through the doors and Boyd stood aside to let them walk over to the bed and see her.
She was paler than usual, her hair a ratty mess but her face had been cleaned up a little since she had been admitted. The twins' eyes immediately dropped to the scars on her neck and arms, looking up at Boyd with suspicion.
"What the hell?" Ethan asked, more out of confusion than accusation.
"We found her with them, I don't know what they did to her in there but they don't look like they're fading," he said.
"We can't get scars..." Aiden said softly.
"Those people, the ones who did this, they're going away forever right?" Ethan asked, looking up at Boyd who just sighed.
"They better be, they killed a lot of people," he said. "When we find out I can let you know."
"Thanks," Aiden said.
"I can't believe she's alive," Ethan said, a small smile breaching his lips before his face turned hard. "I swear if they don't wind up rotting in a filthy prison cell I'll get in there and make sure they regret what they've done."
"I'm sure they're going to get what's coming," Boyd said, sincerely hoping it was true.
The sheriff was down at the station, eyes and body tired but there was work to be done. They were interrogating Cassie first, her face heavily bandaged and her spirit thoroughly broken.
She sat on the other side of the desk, eyes unfocussed and hands in chains on top of the table. One of the deputies was already sat before her when the sheriff walked in, reports in his hands and a stern look on his face.
"So," he said as he sat down. "Where do you want to start?"
She looked up slowly, one side of her face puffed up and her watery eyes finally focussing on the sheriff.
"He wasn't supposed to be there," she said in barely a murmur. "It wasn't him..."
"Wasn't who?" he asked.
"Stiles..." she said, looking down at her hands.
The deputy looked over at the sheriff who was trying to keep his cool.
"So why don't we start with Stiles," he said through his teeth. "You took him?"
"We changed the coding on the cameras," she said. "It's on the laptop."
"What cameras?" he asked.
"Here, we took him..."
The two officers looked at one another and the deputy spoke up. "You disabled our cameras?"
"It was all part of the plan, we were making it better..." her voice shook and her gaze was dropping in and out of focus. "It was all to make it better..."
"How about we start on a bigger scale," the deputy said. "How many people have you killed?"
She looked up at him with watery eyes.
"He gave me one," she said. "But he was right... I couldn't... I should have..."
"Who? Your partner? He gave you someone to kill?"
"They were monsters, all of them," she whispered. "That's what he said, why would he lie?"
The sheriff looked over at his deputy again and he knew they weren't going to get much out of her.
"I think we need to get the psych down here," he said quietly.
"They were monsters!" she yelled suddenly, slamming her hands and the chains down into the desk.
The two of them watched her as she stared at one and then the other with a frantic panic in her eyes.
"I always knew they were real but no one believed me!" she screamed and the deputy got up to call for the psychologist. "He was the only one... and then he was one of them!"
She winced in pain and hung her head, crying out a little and reaching up to her face. The sheriff saw a spot of blood begin to seed through the fabric of her bandage and he put up a hand to stop her from moving.
"Calm down," he said quietly, standing up from his seat.
"Just get away from me!" she yelled, thrashing in her chair and pulling at the chains, a trickle of blood coming from the bottom of the bandage.
The sheriff ran around to grab her, trying to keep her still but she was wailing loudly and writhing against him.
"Can I get a medic in here!" he yelled.
They finally came running in, one helping the sheriff to hold her down while the other took out a sedative shot and injected it into her arm. It didn't take long before she was slowing in their arms and her screaming had become nothing but a quiet sobbing.
Her head lolled and the tears fell, her numbing lips whispering softly. "I'm sorry... tell him I'm sorry..."
Her eyelids fluttered closed and the sheriff backed off to let the medics check her over. Her stitches had burst and after a quick consult with the psychologist they decided to keep her sedated until it had healed more and that they would work to build a statement with her during sessions of therapy.
The sheriff agreed so long as there was a deputy present. Then it was time for them to move on to Cal.
He was quite a different story.
He sat in the chair opposite the sheriff and his deputy, both hands and feet bound by chains. Not that either of the two officers in the room knew just how much strength those chains could withstand. Deaton had seen to that.
He was raking his nails over the metal desk with a quiet squeak, not a blemish on his skin beyond a few smears of dried blood and dirt. The deputy watched his fingers move with unease, his skin crawling with each sound and Cal just sneered up at him.
"Alright, I think it's time we get to the real reason you're here," the sheriff said. "We know you kidnapped those kids, you shot at them, you shot at us, you gave one of my deputies some pretty severe bruising to his chest – thank god for bulletproof vests – and we have you on suspicion of at least five other killings in Beacon Hills alone. So, where do you want to start?"
He started to grin, his handsome face marred by a wicked darkness that engulfed his features and sent a chill down the sheriff's spine. Cal's grin got wider and soon became a laugh, eyes wide and lips suddenly drawing into a snarl.
"You think you're incredibly clever don't you?" the sheriff said slowly, testing the waters.
Cal's laughing stopped but the taunting look on his face remained.
"I don't think it, I know it," he said.
"Well if you're so clever then how did you get yourself caught?" the deputy asked as Cal leaned back in his chair.
"I did everything right, my only mistake was thinking she could keep up," he said arrogantly. "I could have done it alone, but there were so many of them, I needed an extra set of hands. Girls like her are easy, you make them feel wanted for five minutes and the next they're practically on their knees."
The sheriff turned his lip up at him, disgust and anger building inside him but he knew he had to keep his cool. The deputy gave him a wary look and then turned back to Cal.
"This is Cassie you're talking about?" he said.
"Yeah, her. Impressionable enough but not quite prepared to do what it takes to win," he said.
"You're saying you convinced her to join you―"
"On the hunt?" he asked with a slight curl in his lip. "Convinced is a strong word, she knew exactly what she was doing. I'm just saying it wasn't hard to get her on board. We had a great teacher... before he was murdered."
"You realise that you are a murderer," the deputy said. "If we go by what we think we know."
"Stancliff was a visionary, he wanted us to be safe from creatures like them," he spat. "What I did, you should be thanking me."
"If you think we're going to thank you for kidnap, assault and suspected murder then you've got a lot to learn about law enforcement," the sheriff said coldly.
"Oh you don't have to just suspect it," Cal said. "You want to know what happened I can tell you, every little detail."
There was an excited gleam in his eye that made the two officers sick, they stared over at this man who had obviously taken so much pleasure in killing people and knew that after they took his statement they would need to call in the federal officers.
"Well go ahead," the deputy said, knowing all of it was recording.
"Where do you want me to start?" he shrugged and sat back like he was enjoying it, bragging about who he'd killed and how.
They started with Dalia, Karissa's mother, because she was the first suspected victim. He told them how he'd sent Cassie in to lure her in, he roughed her up a little 'for authenticity' as he'd put it and the sheriff tried to look less repulsed.
So Cassie went out to the small cabin that they'd tracked her to, face bruised and clothes torn claiming to be running from a man who tried to assault her. Dalia's nature meant that they knew she would take her in to shelter her, and once inside Cassie managed to take out a rare poison and knock her out. From there it was all Cal.
He performed the blood-letting, the torture, the overall killing, Cassie just drove the vehicle and performed minor tasks that he ordered of her. Next came Freya, and this time it was Cal's turn to lure her in.
He'd made himself an antidote, much like the ones Deaton had made for the pack the year before, to make her powers almost completely inefficient towards him. He knew she was looking for a hunt and even though it had been Cassie's idea to lure her in that way he took almost all of the credit.
He said he approached her in a bar, acted like she was too beautiful not to give it a try and when she thought she had him under her spell he turned on her, this time it was quicker than the first. The sheriff suspected that he was drunk on the power and the thrill and just had to do it quickly.
He described the killing of Katherine's ring-ins, Rico and Havier, as a classic hunt. While the sheriff and the deputy couldn't quite comprehend it in the terms that he was speaking, hunting down two humans was nauseating enough.
Then came Katherine.
"She was one of the most fun," he sneered. "With a little tip off from an informant we learned that she would do anything to get to Derek, and it was easy to use it to our advantage."
"Wait, wait..." the sheriff said. "She was after Derek? Why?"
He scoffed a little. "Because she wanted what he had, she got greedy, besides, you of all people can't tell me that you don't see why. A creature like him sticking to your son, it's enough to make anyone sick―"
"Alright, that's enough!" the sheriff yelled and the deputy put his hand on his arm, pulling him back into his seat.
Cal sneered at the two of them and the sheriff exhaled heavily, folding his arms and leaning back.
"So you were informed of Katherine's motives," the deputy said, prompting him to continue. "Then what happened."
"Well then we used her to get to him, two birds with one stone," he said. "But there were too many of his little slaves to win that one. We told her we were hunting him and that if she helped us to kill him she could have her pick of the litter."
The two officers looked at one another with confusion clear in their eyes. To them, Cal had some kind of delusion, living in some kind of paranoid world where the forces he felt were out to get him were merely figments of his imagination. His bloodlust was real, as was his arrogance and the desire he had to boast of his crimes. He was actually proud of killing all those people.
"Of course she was just as easy to manipulate, so when we got her down to watch Derek burn I got the better of her. She was pretty feisty, put up a little more fight when I tied her to the tree. I told Cassie it was her turn to finish one off but I did all the hard work. All she had to do was slash her throat, she could have done it in her sleep."
"And your informant, who were they? Clearly they wanted this woman or Derek killed too?" the deputy asked.
"He was a tiny piece, he doesn't even matter," he smirked up at them. "Besides, where I shot him earlier, he could be dead already."
"Is there anything else you want to confess while we're here?" the sheriff said dryly. "Maybe there were a few more teenagers you planned on maiming?"
"Can I ask," the deputy said, leaning in a little. "Why didn't you kill those teenagers? Why hold them hostage instead of just doing what you did with the others?"
"Because we wanted to get to the alpha," he said and the two gave one another a look. "Don't think I didn't have fun with it though."
"You better watch your mouth," the sheriff said and Cal just started laughing again.
"Your son was the first one right? He's got a sarcastic little mouth on him."
"That's enough," he said.
"He needed a little discipline, someone to show him a firm hand like I'm guessing you never did or he never would have wound up as the alpha's little play thing―"
"You want to stop right now," he said, standing up in his chair.
Cal grinned. "He was nice and soft under my fists, and his throat would have been so easy to crush if I'd decided I wanted to do more than just scare the pathetic little faggot―"
"That's enough!" the sheriff yelled and the deputy had just enough time to grab him as he lunged at Cal.
"You want to kill me? Go on, kill me!" he yelled. "What are you waiting for!"
The sheriff pulled himself back, staring down at Cal's now reddening face as he screamed up at him, yanking at his chains and thrashing in his chair.
They shook their heads in disbelief and left the room, backing out as he screamed some more and tried to free himself. The medics rushed in to tend to him with a sedative but the last one they had given him had worn off in remarkable time.
"What the hell was all that about?" the deputy asked as they looked through the window of the room.
The sheriff shook his head and ran a hand through his hair. "Well I don't think there's any denying they were behind all of those other murders, I think we better get psych in to see him too. What was he talking about? Alphas and creatures... an informant?"
"Hallucinations?" the deputy asked. "It could explain why they weren't targeting any specific groups of people."
The sheriff sighed.
"We better call in the higher-ups," he said. "They're going to want to talk to both of them. Him especially."
"If they can get anything out of him," he said.
The sheriff nodded and then heard his phone ringing from his pocket and fumbled to fish it out.
"Sheriff Stilinski," he said out of habit, listening for a moment before his eyes grew wide. "I'll be right there."
"Good news?" the deputy asked.
"My son is awake," he said. "Do you―"
"Go, I'll call if we hear anything new."
He nodded and gave him a friendly clap on the shoulder before heading off to the hospital to see Stiles, safe and awake, finally.
Derek sat back at Stiles' bedside once Ethan and Aiden were in Daisy's room without too much fuss. He kept his senses alert lest they made any unsavoury movements but he didn't think they would, they seemed to worry only about whether or not she was okay.
He didn't want to leave him, not until he was awake and back to himself. He knew it was impractical and probably a little overprotective but there was no way he was going to be anything but in the near future.
Scott was just sitting opposite, staring over at Stiles but not really looking as he tried to go over everything in his head.
Where do they go from here?
He couldn't doubt that Isaac loved him, he just couldn't. But maybe he loved her too, maybe he had once loved her more. Maybe nothing happened in that time he had lost in his mind but maybe it had. Maybe he could have left and never looked back.
He wanted to ask Derek about triggers, about whether their ties could break or be broken, but now wasn't really the time.
Instead he sat with his eyes heavy and waited with Derek for Stiles to come around. It had to be soon.
It took a few more hours, enough time for Lydia and Jackson to show up and head in to see Allison first and for Erica to arrive on her own.
She stood in the doorway and gave Scott a look. He knew what she was trying to say but he ignored her, taking his eyes away from her accusing stare. He got to his feet and left the room without another word, brushing past her quietly.
"Leave him alone," Derek said quietly.
"He's being unreasonable," she said without shifting her gaze.
"It's not unreasonable for someone to hurt another person, even with the best intentions behind them," he said.
"So you're siding with Scott?"
"I'm not taking sides, let them figure it out themselves and stay out of it."
She sighed.
"Can't I just―"
"Erica."
"Fine," she huffed. "I'll leave it, but I'm not happy about it."
"I remember when you didn't give a damn about anyone else's drama," he said, turning to give her a look and her face softened a little as she rolled her eyes.
"Yeah, well, the bastards got to me I guess," she said and he smiled as he turned back to Stiles.
"I know what you mean."
His hand was back to Stiles' cheek and this time as he looked over him he saw his eyelashes begin to flutter. His stare grew stronger and he could feel his heart beating faster as the small stirring sound came from his throat.
Erica moved quickly from the doorway and stood by the bed, her heart rate also on the rise as Stiles' stiff body began to wake and his eyes opened slowly to reveal a room blurry to more than just the one of his senses.
"Stiles?" Erica said with a smile on her lips.
Derek was standing now, his body curved over as his other hand cupped Stiles' cheek and holding him carefully between them.
"Er...ca..." he mumbled.
She grinned wider than she had in a while and she put a hand on Derek's shoulder.
"I'll give you two a minute," she said and Derek gave her a nod without looking up from Stiles' fluttering eyes.
She left the room to go and tell the others and Stiles was lifting a hand to touch Derek's arm, sending a warm shudder through him.
"Derek..." he said in a breath.
"I'm here," he cooed.
Stiles closed his eyes and his lips drew into a smile as his fingers tightened around Derek's wrist.
"Can... can you..." he murmured.
Derek's thumbs brushed against his pink cheeks and he nodded even though his lover was not looking up at him.
"Kiss me?" he asked and Derek almost laughed, his lips poised in the shape of it as he leant in slowly and pressed his mouth against the soft welcome of Stiles' lips.
He felt as though an oppressive pressure left his body at that moment, the weight that had been crushing him into the ground since the moment he went missing was gone, his stomach once again thrumming with that electric buzz that came with being near him.
He pulled his lips back from him, the smile now the star of his beautiful face.
"How do you feel?" he asked quietly, hands still caressing Stiles' cheeks and chin.
"Tired, a little sore," he croaked. "Never thought I'd be happy to be in a hospital bed, concrete isn't much of a luxury."
Derek chuckled a little. "Only you could make jokes from your hospital bed."
"Not true, I'm sure Jackson could..." his face changed and he suddenly remembered the events immediately prior to his black out. "Jackson, Scott, Isaac... what happened? Are they alright? Where―"
Derek shushed him gently.
"They're fine, physically," he said and everything began to come back to him.
"I have to talk to them," he said, pushing himself up and Derek sat back, moving his hand to Stiles' chest and pushing him back down.
"You will, just not right this second," he said. "You've got time."
"Derek I―"
"I'm going to call your dad," he said, taking out his phone. "And you're going to stay in this bed. I'll get the others."
Stiles slumped back in the sheets and sighed with a smile before mumbling back at him. "Lucky you're cute."
Derek raised an eyebrow as he put the phone to his ear, waiting a few rings until the sheriff picked up.
"I don't know how busy you are, but I thought you should know that he's awake," he said.
He didn't have to say anything more, the sheriff had already hung up, clearly in a rush to get back.
Stiles reached his hand out and Derek took hold of it, a contented sigh passing through his lips.
"Climb in with me?" Stiles asked.
Derek sighed. "I think you need to just relax."
"I said get in not jump my bones," he said.
Derek shook his head and rolled his eyes. "I'm not getting in with you, the others will be here soon."
Stiles sighed but let it go, staring up at him with his tired eyes.
"I didn't know if I'd ever see you again," he said quietly and Derek stood again, lips pressing softly against his brow.
"The feeling's mutual," he replied.
"Thank you," he said and Derek just tilted his head questioningly.
"For what?"
"For staying this time," he said.
Derek reached down to tangle their fingers together with a smile.
"I'm not going anywhere."
Isaac walked down the streets in the unfamiliar part of town looking for the address he'd been given. Peter didn't answer his phone but Isaac knew that Jackson had been to his apartment with Lydia and Allison before to try and get some information so he asked him, and he managed to find the address for him.
He maintained that there was no good reason for anyone to be going to see Peter but Isaac had to do it. He had to know.
It was the only way to clear his conscience.
He finally made it to the apartment building and buzzed the number Jackson had given him. There was no response on the first try. He kept pushing the button until he heard the sound of the intercom turning on.
"When one does not answer the doorbell you would think that they were either out or in no mood for company."
Isaac rolled his eyes. "Open up Peter, it's Isaac."
"What do you want?" he asked.
"I want to talk to you," he said.
"And why should I oblige?"
Isaac growled a little. "I don't want to talk about you or what you did or didn't do, I want... I want to ask you a favour."
Without saying anything further the door to the building buzzed open and Isaac was on his way up to Peter's apartment.
Jackson was right about it. It was cold, almost sterile, and the door to Peter's flat was already open when he reached the right hallway. As he walked inside he felt the cool shiver run down his spine and his brow set, trying to pick anything that might be out of the ordinary.
"I do hope you're aware," Isaac spun around to see Peter behind him, leaning up against one of the walls. "My favours never come free."
"What do you want to know?" he said.
Peter's lips turned up in a smile. "What kind of favour are you asking for?"
"I want to unlock a memory," he said. "One that I can't seem to find."
"Interesting."
"Is it?"
"I can help you, if you'd like," he said. "But if I'm going to be in your head―"
"You want to look at more than what I'm asking for, don't you?" Isaac said, feeling his stomach drop a little at the idea of Peter looking through his head like a filing cabinet.
"Well aren't you intuitive."
"Why can't you just ask me what you want to know?"
"If you're not interested then I don't have to help you," he said. "It's your choice. How much is this information worth to you?"
Isaac thought on that a moment. If he could recover what he'd lost from that night he'd finally know what really happened, his mind at ease. He could face Scott with the full truth, he could finally stop feeling anxious at the thought of that night and what might have happened. He needed it as a piece of his closure.
On the other hand, having Peter rifle through his memories was potentially dangerous, who knows what he could see and use by doing so.
His decision came down to his sanity, the one choice that he knew he would regret if he didn't make.
"Okay," he said with a sigh.
Peter's smile grew wider and he stood up off the wall to gesture to one of the dining chairs.
Isaac walked over and took a seat, eyeing Peter carefully as he walked around him.
"What? You don't trust me?" he asked and Isaac scoffed.
"Give me one reason why I should?"
"Because I'm about to put something very sharp into your skin, trust would go a long way," he said.
"Don't think Derek wouldn't come after you if you did something to me."
"I don't doubt that he would, now hold still... this may sting..."
Isaac felt the sharp tips of Peter's claws as they broke through the skin of his neck and he felt his eyes flash wide open. He remembered mostly how to do this, his mind thinking back to the night in question and it wasn't long before he could practically see it.
Cassie's lips against his, his dizzy protests, and then it all began to come back.
"No Cassie, I'm― I love Scott... I can't do this," he had said.
"You know once you would have done anything to be with me..." her voice sounded different than he remembered, laden with something more than just disappointment.
"It's different now... I'm in love with someone else."
"Sometimes love isn't always what it seems."
He body swayed as she sat up, her dark hair hanging over her face.
"Cassie, I can't..." he lay back down and looked up at the ceiling as it spun above him. "I can't..."
"You can't or you don't want to?" she asked as she lay down beside him, her face without expression.
He thought for a moment and led with a heavy sigh. "Both."
"I guess I was stupid, huh?" she asked. "For thinking that after all this time, after not even speaking to you for months, that you could still feel the way you did when I left."
He turned his head to look at her.
"You knew?"
He had never realised that Cassie knew just how deep his feelings for her ran. He always thought that what happened between them was almost like a way of saying goodbye when she left for college.
"Of course I did," she said. "But you were Isaac, and I was me."
"What does that even mean?"
"It means you were so good, despite everything that happened to you... you were so wonderful... and I knew you were too good for me. I was already broken and you were putting all the pieces of yourself back together."
"You weren't broken..." he said quietly.
"I was," she said with a nod. "I probably still am."
"You can't think like that."
"What they did to you... I should have stopped him―"
"You couldn't have stopped him," she said. "There's only one way to stop monsters like that."
"But I knew..."
"I know you did, and I made you promise not to tell anyone."
"I could have stopped it..."
When Isaac moved in with his temporary foster family and first met Cassie he would never have guessed the things that had happened to her, she had seemed so happy. She was fostered as a very young child because her mother had overdosed on some kind of hard drug. Her father had been a junkie too.
As far as she told him he was a terrifying man, always high on something and paranoid to the max. He once left her at the park down the road from their house until well after dark because he got lost in a trip.
She had only been five.
Her first foster home had six other kids, mostly older boys who would tease and scare her because she was so little, and then came the place where Isaac had met her. The couple had been fostering kids for years, they had a perfect record.
The woman worked from home and the man had a standard nine to five job but he was far from standard.
Some nights proved worse than others, and while Cassie claimed that he never crossed that unforgivable line, Isaac knew what he had seen. He was cruel to her when no one else could see; perhaps he enjoyed watching kids get scared. Whatever it was, he played the perfect father figure at all other times and no one ever suspected him.
"I told someone once," she said. "A teacher I think. She thought it was an excuse for handing in late homework."
"You never told me that."
"I never told anyone else that either," she said. "But I've decided I can't be voiceless anymore."
"I could have said something with you," he said.
"I can't talk about this anymore..." she whispered and he reached over to hold her hand.
They lay together like that for a few more minutes before she said anything again.
"He's really that important to you?" she asked, and this time he knew she was talking about Scott.
"I've never felt anything like this for another person," he said. "I don't even think I feel it about myself."
"You should," she said.
"So should you," he said, turning to look at her a little, noticing the glistening lines on her face that trailed from her eyes to the hotel sheets. "Do you love him?"
She smiled a little, closing her eyes and a tear rolled down the predetermined path. "Of course I don't love him."
"Then why be with him?"
"Because otherwise I would have to be alone with myself," she said. "And we take from people what we think we're owed. We never look for something better. If we find it, we convince ourselves we aren't good enough for it."
Isaac remembered thinking that her sentiment sounded familiar, from a book or a movie he had heard of and he squeezed her hand a little harder.
"Don't settle for him," he said with a little shake of his head. "I think that I don't deserve Scott, every day I wake up and look at him and I'm terrified he'll wake up and know what I know, that he is too good for me."
"The difference is that you're extraordinary, and deep down you know that," she said. "I wouldn't know how to love even if someone did love me."
"Sometimes I'm not sure I even know how to love him..." he said softly, staring up at the ceiling.
"Even an idiot would be able to see just how much you already do," she said, turning to look at him. "It's written over every inch of you. I was an idiot to think..."
"Cass... don't―"
"I'm not," she said firmly. "And you know exactly how to love him, loving comes as naturally to you as breathing."
"Don't settle for him," he said again. "You deserve better."
"I'm not sure that I do anymore."
They spoke for a while longer, about Scott, about themselves, about lots of things. The only physical contact they made was their hands held tightly together by their sides. When the hour mark closed in Isaac knew he couldn't stay and it wasn't because he didn't trust himself but that he knew he couldn't stay with her, not after speaking so intimately. It didn't feel right.
And there it all was, laid out before him in all its bare honest truth. Nothing happened, nothing like what he had thought anyway.
He felt a stabbing of guilt through his chest, creeping up into his throat as he thought about what he might have been able to do, about how he could have helped her and got her out of it all before it got this far. Maybe it could have been different. Maybe people would still be alive.
It was then that he felt Peter's claws give a subtle change in their position and he felt the spasm go through him as the memories changed.
"My turn..." he heard from behind him as it all flashed forward.
He saw everything in a blur, from telling Scott about Denver to Boyd and Erica going missing, the fire at the Hale house, all of it went by quickly until Cassie and Cal took them to the warehouse.
Peter was watching it all, maybe he was looking for something. He seemed to stop when Cal was talking and Isaac didn't know why, maybe there was some piece of information he was looking for.
He got a little further forward and Isaac knew what was coming, even as Peter let his memories play out to watch the scene unfold.
"No, no, no, no, no!" Cassie's voice came ringing out. "No that can't be right!"
When Scott looked back at Isaac his eyes were back to normal, not even a trace of the deep red that they had been only a moment before.
Peter lingered on that memory for a minute before skipping through the rest of the incident, nothing else peaked his interest as much as that did.
"That's enough!" Isaac growled, getting ready to jump up but Peter was already pulling away.
Isaac turned to him, both eyeing one another with caution.
"I take it you got what you wanted?" Peter asked.
"Did you?"
Peter's lips turned up in a smile. "I wanted nothing, you were the one who came to me after all."
He didn't stay long enough to thank Peter. Instead he left, knowing that Stiles was probably awake and that he'd learned exactly what he'd wanted to. He just thought it would feel a lot better than it did.
~ ~ ~
A/N: Please keep leaving your feedback guys, you are all amazing and I love hearing from you. Hope you liked it!