Stiles and I ran through the woods trying to find Scott but Scott ended up finding us. He ran into me and grabbed my arms to keep us from falling. "Scott, I think we found something." Stiles nodded as Scott wiped at his shirt. "Yeah so did I." I followed behind Stiles as he lead us to the coyote den. "It's a coyote den." Scott crawling inside of it and shook his head. "Werecoyote,"
I nodded. "Werecoyo- wait what? What do you mean?" Stiles walked, well more waddled over with a small jacket like thing in his hand. "You see this? This is Malia's. Remember, it's the same one she was wearing in the photo." I glanced at it and furrowed my brows. "What picture?" Stiles shook his head and turned to Scott. "One we saw at Tate's house." Scott grabbed the jacket and shook his head. "We shouldn't be here. She's not going to come back now. We just invaded her home. Our scent's going to be everywhere."
I crawled out and we all stood up. "Can you track her now? You think you got her scent?" Scott shrugged slightly and glanced at Stiles. "Maybe. But I'm better at this when I'm a full wolf. And I'm still worried that if I do it, I won't be able to turn back." I sighed and glanced between Scott and Stiles. "Your doors are still open." Scott nodded and glanced over at me. "If I can't get to Derek, we're gonna have to find someone else to help. This is basically a crime scene, right? I think it might be a little out of my boss's league.'
Stiles nodded and looked at Scott. "And more in my dad's." As he said that he pulled out his phone and dialed his dad's number then walking away. "So how's that going?" Scott's voice made me turn and raise an eyebrow. "What?"
"You and Stiles. How is that going?" I let out light laugh and looked up at him. "You know that's exactly what Allison asked. But we're doing good, great." Scott nodded and turned to me. "You're happy?" My eyes went over to Stiles who was still on the phone, waving his hands around as he spoke and glanced back at Scott, nodding.
"Yeah, yeah I am." Scott nodded and patted my shoulder. "Good." Stiles came back with a straight face. "Alright, my dad's on his way and he's only bringing a few deputies. So your dad shouldn't be with them." My jaw clenched at the mention of my dad but nodded.
"Good. Don't need him being here anyways." Stiles turned to me confused. "Hey come here." Scott turned and glanced towards Stiles' jeep. "I'll sit in the jeep."
He walked away and Stiles pulled me back a bit. "Hey, you okay?" His hands held onto mine and I nodded. "I'm fine Stiles." Of course that was a lie. Any mention of my dad was sure to make me one of the maddest people on the planet. "No you're not. You know don't you. Why your dad left." I lifted my head and looked at him confused.
"You know why?" He nodded and licked his lips. "Yeah, your mom called my dad after it happened. I heard it, just like most things." Without answering him I just stepped forward and wrapped my arms around him. "You're alright." I nodded and pulled back when I saw the flashing lights shining off of the trees.
Scott was the one that had to explain the werecoyote being Malia while Stiles stood next to me. He kept his hand in mine as I put my head on his arm. Staying up late every night and waking up early for school had never been a talent of mine. Also didn't help now that during the day and into the night we were forced to run around and figure out all of this supernatural stuff.
"You're sure it was her?" The boys went into a very detailed explanation of the reason as to why it's most likely Malia and it made sense. At least to somebody that has been drowned in the supernatural world for about two years now. But to Stilinski it probably just sounded like jibber jabber. "That makes sense." Stiles and I let out a sigh. "In a Chinese folktale. Guys, this is this is insane."
A light groan left my lips as I stepped forward. "Look d-" I cleared my throat. "Stilinski. I know it sounds inside but you have to trust Scott." He sighed and nodded. "I need this kept quiet. The two of you, not a word. I don't want anyone hearing about this. I especially don't want Mr. Tate hearing about this. Scott? Scott."
He wasn't paying attention but his head snapped back forward when Stilinski said his name. "Sorry. What did you say?" Before he could answer he looked over Scott's shoulder. "Oh, hell. Mr. Tate." I turned slightly and of course the person with this Mr. Tate guy was our dad. "Of course." Stiles squeezed my hand and I glanced up at him.
"Mr. Tate?" Mr Tate grabbed the jacket and nodded. "It's hers." Dad nodded and glanced at him. "All right, wait here." Scott stepped forward and bent his eyebrows. "Dad."
"I'll talk to you two in a minute. I wouldn't mind hearing how your mom's okay with you guys running around in the woods this late." He walked away and I let out a sigh. After a couple minutes he came back. "Alright, Scott Jayla. Let's get you two home." He put a hand on my back but I shook my head. "I can't. I'm staying at Stiles' house."
Dad shook his head as he turned towards me. "Not tonight. You've been staying at his house since I got to town." I nodded and let go of Stiles' hand to cross my arms. "Have you ever thought that that was for a reason?" Stiles and Scott both put their hands on my shoulders and pulled me back. "Jayla. It's fine, you can go home tonight. I'll be fine."
Instantly I shook my head. "I said I would stay with you until you stopped having the nightmares. I'm not breaking that." Stiles grabbed my shoulders and sighed. "Go." He turned me before I could reply and Scott put his hand on my arm to keep me walking towards the car.
I ignored dad the entire ride home, dozed off a bit as well. Once we actually got home I did the same. Went into my room, ignoring my dad. Harsh? Yes. but did I care? Eh not really. Not when I had to leave Stiles. It wasn't even completely because of that either. It wasn't because I was a brat who would rather be with her boyfriend that at her house, or because I needed to be with him. But it was the fact that with most of my being I disliked my dad.
He left us. He left the house one night and didn't come back aside from a visit once when we finished middle school. Even then neither Scott or I were allowing him to get close. So he left, again. But that time. It was for good. Well, at least we thought until he decided to come back once more and try to get Stiles' father fired, as if that would get Scott and I to like him more than we do now.
Scott seems to be the more lenient when it came to him than I was. I know Scott would never say half of the things I say to him and I don't blame him. He was always the 'nicer twin'. Everybody always said that. Told us that if one of us turned out to be the evil one it would be me. Of course they were probably right. I was the one with trust and anger issues. Never giving people the benefit of the doubt unless they acted nice straight off the bat.
Take Derek. He never proved he was on our side until he tried to help us with the alpha. For the longest time I disliked him. Even when he helped us with Peter there was still a part of me that thought that Peter is his family and evil or not, family is family. You always have to choose family over anything else. No matter how much or how little you cared for it.
Also now, with Peter supposively on our side, missing, but on our side to say the least, there's still this nagging feeling down in the pit of my stomach and a swamp in the back of my brain that tells me not to trust him. As far as I'm concerned, I'll trust him to certain extents. Meaning, I'll trust him in certain situations but never, never will I ever trust Peter Hale with my life.
I fell asleep on my bed but my phone ringing woke me up. Without opening my eyes I answered it, putting it to my ear. "Hello?" Internally I cringed at how horrible my voice must sound but didn't do anything aside clear my throat. "Jayla. I-I- Can you come over?" Stiles' voice cracked through the phone and I sat up quickly. "Yeah, hey are you alright?"
He didn't get a chance to reply but I heard a sob through the phone, worrying me and causing me to stand up and put on my sweater, well, Stiles' sweater and a pair of boots. "I'll be right over. I've gotten better at running there. Do you want me to stay on the phone with you until I get there?" A whimper came through and I bit my lip nodding. "I'll take that as a yes. Alright, I'll be right over don't worry okay?"
Stiles didn't reply but I glanced at the time, 3am. Looks like I'll be coming and going through the windows. Holding the phone between my head and my shoulder, I slid out of the window and walked along the roof until it was low enough to jump off, then ran, well jogged fast. Had to make sure Stiles was still there every once in awhile. "Stiles you still there?" He murmured back and I nodded. "I need to hang up to climb up but unlock and open your window for me okay?"
"Okay." His voice was just a whisper and I bit my lip as I hung up and shoved my phone into my jean pockets, I hadn't gotten to change before I fell asleep. Like I asked the window was open so I was able to slide in but not without a slight thump. "Sorry. Hey come here." Stiles was sitting on the end of his bed, his head down looking at his hands and the light from the moon shining on his back.
Without hesitation I sat behind him and put my arms around him to pull him against my chest. His hand went up and grabbed onto my lower arm tightly. I looked down at him and frowned, he looked a mess. His hair was disheveled, probably from tossing and turning in his bed. Around his eyes were puffy, this from crying. His eyes were shut but if they were open they would probably be bloodshot from the tears that left his eyes before he was able to calm down enough to call me and as he spoke to me.
Once more a whimper came from him and I ssh'd him. "It's okay, you're okay." My arms stayed around him, one going up into his hair and the other holding onto one of his hands. "sh," I slightly moved us side to side and I think he actually fell asleep in my arms so I let myself lay down, my arms still around him. Personally, I always thought of myself as the little spoon, but sometimes you have to be the big spoon, especially with Stiles.
That's the thing with us, we were always together. Once Stiles and I officially cemented our friendship in second grade him, Scott and I were virtually inseparable. That stayed true all the way up til now. Even when Scott got a little over his head with Allison he was still able to remember that Stiles and I have been here forever. He remembered that family came first.
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"Here's where we found the den. It's right in the middle of the hiking trail." Allison, Scott, Stiles and I all stood around a desk before our next period and Stiles showed Allison what he pointed at and she nodded, looked up. "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. And they're really smart. If they don't want to be heard, they actually walk on their toes."
Stiles' eyebrows shot up in shock. "Coyotes tip-toe?" I sighed and rubbed my eyes. "Yes, Stiles. Coyotes tiptoe." The bell rang and Allison picked up her backpack. "I got to go, but send me the pinned location." Stiles nodded as Allison sped-walked out of our classroom. Our history classroom to be exact. Stiles went to his seat in the front row and I took my seat to the right of Scott.
The girl from yesterday, Kira, came up to Scott with a smile on her face. "Hey. I'm Kira. You knew that. I knew you knew that. I don't know why I just told you that again. Anyway, I have something for you." Scott rose his eyebrows and glanced at me. "For me?" Kira nodded. "Yeah. About the bardo. My explanation was sort of all over the place, so I did some research and I printed it out for you."
Kira nodded again and laughed slightly. "Ah, you didn't have to do that." Kira shrugged and pulled her back to she could reach it. "It only took a couple of hours." Scott's face contorted into shock. "Wow. Then you really didn't have to do that." Kira went through her back and sighed. "I swear I printed it out."
"Kira. You forgot all the research you did for that boy you like." Scott's eyes widened as Kira's dad, our teacher, handed Kira a bundle of papers. Her face noticeably turned a light red as she handed Scott the papers and walked past him. Without turning to me, Scott sat down and glanced through the huge packet. "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. Stilinski, how about you?"
I sighed and started to draw on the notebook paper that was sitting in front of me, leaning on my hand. Suddenly I heard a gasp and my head lifted, seeing Stiles gripping onto the podium tightly, causing me to stand up slowly. "Stiles?" He didn't answer but I could see him stay swaying to I walked over to him. "I should get him to the nurse."
Mr. Yukimura nodded and I put my arms around Stiles, pulling him out of the room. Once the door closed behind us he let himself go into the boy's bathroom. Honestly, at this point I didn't even care about following and I shut the door behind me. "Stiles, Stiles what's happening? Are you having a panic attack?"
His hands held on tightly to the sink as he shook his head. "It's a dream, it's a dream. This is just a dream." The voice that left his mouth sounded shaky and I stepped forward putting a hand on his back. "Stiles this is real. You're awake. I'm right here. You're here with me." He shook his head, still breathing heavily. "How can you tell? What's different in dreams?" Stiles glanced at my hands.
"Your fingers you count your fingers. You have extra fingers in dreams." I nodded and rose up one finger. "Okay one. Stiles, you have to look at me okay? Babe, count with me okay? One." My second finger went up as Stiles kept heaving. "Two." I nodded. "Good, keep going."
"Three. Four." With each number I put up another finger and slightly stepped forward. "Five." Stiles swallowed as I lifted my other hand. "Six. Seven."
"Eight." His breathing picked up as if he was ready for my digit count to go over ten. "Nine. Ten"
"Ten. See? I have ten." He re-counted all of my fingers and nodded slightly. I put my hand on his shoulder and pulled him down to kiss him on the forehead. "You're okay." He slid onto the ground and pulled at his hair. "What the hell is happening to me?" I knelt down on the floor and sighed. "I don't know, but Stiles," He lifted his eyes without lifting his head, to look at me. "We're going to figure this out. We're all going to end up okay. I promise you."
"Am I? Is Scott? He can't transform. Allison's being haunted by her dead aunt. And I'm straight up losing my mind. We can't do this. We can't we can't help Malia. We can't help anyone." I grabbed his hand and lifted him off the floor, and pulled his closer to me by his cheeks. "Yes we can. And even if we can't, we still try." He didn't meet my eyes until I pulled him closer to my and his face so he was able to see me. Me, being only 5'0, and Stiles being around 5'10 we had a pretty strong height difference.
The bell rang and Stiles just wrapped his arms tightly around me. "Thank you." My hand went to his hair like it usually did and shook my head. "Don't thank me. I'm always here for you alright?" He nodded and pulled back slightly, pushing a long kiss to my cheek. Under his eyes were a bit red so I moved over to the sink and wet a paper towel and squeezed it in my hand. "Come here." Stiles stood in front of me and I waved my hand.
"Gonna have to bend down a little bit." He bent his legs and his face was even with mine. "Hey look," He sniffled and let a slight smile appear on his face. "now I know what it's like to be your height." I rolled my eyes and gently placed the paper towel under one of his eyes. "Shut up Stilinski and hold this under your eye, but don't move." He put his hand over mine so I could let go and I repeated.
"This should help make it less obvious that you cried. Well, that and your face gets really warm. This will also help cool it down a bit." When he removed his paper towel he turned to the mirror and smiled. "Does my face get as hot as you?"
I rolled my eyes. "Your face is already hotter than me, now let's go." Stiles shook his head. "No you're definitely the hot one. And I think that pick up line was better than your name one."
"Stiles, shut up. Mine was definitely better." We walked out of the bathroom as Stiles scoffed. "Well what if I said, there's something wrong with my phone. It doesn't have your number in it?"
"I would probably laugh in your face and walk away because that is the worst pick up line. I like the batman one better." He sighed and grabbed my hand. I smiled lightly as we walked and he sighed. "God I love you." The sound level of his voice meant that he didn't want me to hear that but I did, and I felt my cheeks full on go red and my heart rise.
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"A couple of students said they saw it running across the field and back into the woods. Thank God, nobody got hurt." Stiles sighed and propped his hand onto his hip. "What happens if she does hurt someone?" Stilinski sighed and faced us. "Most likely they'll have to put it down." I shook my head. "Put her down? Stilinski let's not forget about the girl in there, one that will die if you kill it." The look on Stilinski's face made Stiles sigh. "Come on dad, you aren't back to not believing, are you?"
Stilinski shook his head and put his hands in his belt. "I believe there are a lot of things I don't understand yet. But that doesn't mean that everything and anything imaginable is suddenly possible. Now, are you 100% sure that this is a girl and not an animal?"
Stiles nodded. "Yes. Because Jayla's sure." Stilinski turned to me and I smiled widely. "And I' definitely sure because Scott's sure." I glanced to my left and Scott stood by the door and I turned to face the opposite. "Scott. Have you been listening?" I turned back as Scott nodded and looked up at Stilinski. He sighed and nodded. "All right, let's get this figured out. Come on."
We walked to the locker room and Scott met us there. "Scott. Jayla/ I think I know what she was looking for." Stiles' bag was on the floor and in it was he doll from the car wreck."Stiles you did not seriously take the doll from the car." Stiles nodded sheepishly, scratching the back of his neck. "Yeah, I thought Scott could use it, you know, for like her scent."
Scott sighed and nodded, as I grabbed it. "Where did you get that? Where did you find this," Mr. Tate walked in the locker room and took the doll from my hands. "It belonged to my daughter." His face caused me to frown and I bit my lip as Stilinski stepped forward. "Mr. Tate, I don't know how you heard about this. If you got your own police scanner or what but you can't be here." My eyes saw the gun holster under Tate's jacket and I hit Stilinski slightly with my elbow.
He turned to me and I slightly nodded my head towards Mr Tate. Stilinski lifted his jacket and Tate sighed. "I have a permit."
"California schools are gun free zones, permit or no permit. You need to leave, Mr. Tate. Now." As Stilinski pushed him out of the room Tate pushed back and looked at the officers. "You find that animal. You find that thing." His voice stuttered as he was lead out of the school. Scott, Stiles and I all glanced at each other as I sighed. "Deaton."
They nodded and we left school, going to the animal clinic. "Xylazine. It's a tranquilizer for horses. For a werecoyote, expect it to work within seconds. I only have three. So whoever's shooting, needs to be a damn good shot." Scott nodded. "Allison's a perfect shot." Isaac, who met us here after I texted him, shrugged. "She used to be." Scott sighed and leaned onto the table. "She can do it."
Isaac sighed again and crossed his arms. "If we manage to find the thing." Isaac was the opposite of me. Where as I was, or at least I tried to be an optimistic person, he was a deep pessimist. No matter how hard I tried though sometimes I felt myself slip into that side. The side that believes there's nearly no way to do things and finding all of the tiny flaws in plans.
"Okay, what is the point of him? Seriously, I mean, what is his purpose? Aside from the persistent negativity and the scarf? What's up with the scarf anyway? It's 65 degrees out." I let my mouth fall open as I glanced at Stiles. "Hey, don't knock the scarf. It's nice." Isaac smiled smugly and shifted on his feet. "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 for eight years? and when our usual aimer is a bit out of loop?"
Scott nodded. "I can do it." Stiles looked at Scott confused. "You can?" Scott nodded. "You remember the night that Peter trapped us in the school? In the gym, he was able to make me turn using just his voice. Deucalion did the same thing in the distillery."
I rose my hand and sighed. "If Allison doesn't want to I can do it. I mean I'm not as skilled but I know how to keep a ready aim." Scott shook his head. "Allison is going to need to. I'm going to figure out my wolf thing. Allison can figure out her hallucination and shaky hand thing. Stiles can somehow fix his no longer being able to read thing."
A sigh left my mouth as I squeezed my eyes shut. "I would put a lot more hope into you guys if you had said situation or condition instead of thing." Scott shot a glare at me and I held my hands up in defense. "I mean, yes! I totally believe in you and know you can do it. We just need an alpha that can teach you how to roar. And since Derek isn't in town and neither is Peter. Even though I wouldn't recommend him. So that only leaves a set of used to be alpha twins."
Scott shook his head and sighed. "Nobody's seen them for weeks." Stiles shook his head. "Actually, that's not totally true." I nodded and pulled out my phone. "Lydia."
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"They said they'd meet us here." Stiles, Lydia, Scott and I all walked into Derek's loft. After I called Lydia, she called Aiden and then came to pick me up. Stiles and Scott went in the jeep. As she said that there were grunts from behind us and Stiles grabbed my elbow, pulling me aside. I mirrored him and did the same to Lydia.
Ethan and Aiden started to hit Scott and Scott didn't fight back, just dodge as best as he could. Wasn't very efficient seeing as he was fighting two people at once. A smile came on Stiles face as he nodded. "Hey, you know, that's funny. I've actually tried something like this one time using a heart monitor and lacrosse balls. But you're right, beating the living crap out of him is probably a lot better." I hit Stiles in the stomach, causing him to groan and he held onto me so he didn't fall.
"Sorry." They taunted Scott and they pushed him back and forth until Aiden lifted Scott, pushing him onto the table. Ethan glanced at us and my eyes were wide. He nodded and grabbed Aiden's arm before he could punch Scott again. "What? I thought we were helping him." Ethan shook his head. "You help too much."
They left the loft and I ran over to Scott. "Hey, hey you okay?" He nodded and sat up. "Yeah, yeah I'm fine." He smiled lightly and I sighed. "Go get cleaned up. You think you can help Malia now?" He nodded and I smiled back. "Good. There's a bathroom here. Somewhere up those swirled stairs."
Scott rose his eyebrow at me and I sighed. "What? I've been here a few times and I am human." He nodded and walked up the stairs.
After Scott came back, all cleaned up we called Allison and Isaac, telling them to meet us at the reserve like always. So now here we were outside of the reserve and Lydia glanced around the group. "Anyone else think we might be doing more harm than good?" Scott: shook his head. "We're trying to keep a father from killing his own daughter." Isaac, who had both hands on his hips sighed. "Actually, we're trying to keep a guy from killing a coyote who is actually his daughter, who we don't know how to change from a coyote back to his daughter."
Stiles groaned from behind me, "And again with the not helping." It's a struggle really. Having my boyfriend practically hate somebody that I considered my best guy friend, even if he's kissed me. Twice. Still my best guy friend. "Did you bring it?" Allison nodded and there were gunshots. Thankfully this time I heard them I knew that anybody I cared about were safe. Unfortunately that wasn't enough to stop Isaac and Allison from running into the woods.
Scott, being the alpha he is, got on his bike instantly and followed them. Stiles phone rang and he picked it up. "Dad?"
"It's the doll." There was a slight pause as his face contorted into confusion. "It's the doll?"
There was another gunshot as Stiles hung up his phone and I widened my eyes. The calm from before being erased by the panic that nearly set in this time. Stiles showed Lydia the doll as his eyes widened. "I know where she's going."
Lydia furrowed her brows and glanced at his jeep. "I think I'll sit this part out. My leg's been bothering me all day." Stiles nodded and grabbed my wrist, pulling me through the reserve.
He got ahead of me as I followed behind. "Scott, it's me, you gotta call me back as soon as you can. It wasn't Malia's doll. It was her sister's. Malia left it at the car for her sister. It's like bringing flowers to a grave. Okay, and we stole the flowers. So, that's all she's trying to do, right. Bring the doll back to the grave, to the car wreck. That's where she's headed. The car wreck."
My foot hit metal causing me to freeze. "Stiles." He turned slightly. "What?"
"Stiles. Look for a warning label." He stepped over to me, confused. "why the hell would they put instructions on the bottom of a trap?" I sighed. "Well animals can't read Stiles."
"Jayla, we got a problem. I can't read either." I let out a shaky breath and nodded. "Alright, just- you don't even need them. You never used intructions growing up so just- just do what you've been doing since last year and figure it out okay? I trust you. You just have to figure it out." He sighed and stared at the trap before moving a few dead leaves out of the way.
I squeezed my eyes shut and bit my lip. "Okay, here we go. Ready?" I heard the turning of metal and nodded. "Okay, here we go." He turnt it again and I looked down, removing my foot quickly and falling into Stiles. My face pressed against his as he put his arms around me. "You did it."
He nodded as a loud roar erupted through the trees. "That's what I'm talking about."
Stilinski and Scott met at the edge of the woods. Scott had given Malia his jacket and I smiled lightly. She looked at us confused and I sighed. "Let's get you cleaned up, then we can take you home." Malia nodded and Stilinski guided her to his car. We brought her to the Stilinski house first so she could shower and I let her borrow an outfit of mine from the personal Stilinski house collection.
I even went with them to bring her home. Stiles sat in the front with his dad, so I sat in the back with Malia. "I'm Jayla." Nobody had spoke since we left the reserve so she lifted her head towards me and nodded slightly, not replying. I wouldn't either if I had just became human again. "Malia." Stilinski stopped the truck and lead her to the front door.
When her dad saw her he smiled widely and hugged her tightly. Stiles, who was half out of the wind, nodded and sat back, glancing in front of him. "It's back." I sat forward confused. "What is?" He pointed at the side view mirror with a huge smile on his face. "I can read that." I smiled and kissed his cheek. "See. I told you we would fix all of this. I keep my promises." He nodded and turned to me. "Yeah. I guess you do."