Stiles got into his jeep and went over to Scott's to pick him up. Scott told him to head for the school and along the way filled him in on what he and Derek talked about. Soon enough, they pulled up close to the parking lot.
"Alright," Stiles said getting out. "Let's go."
"No," Scott said. "Just me, someone has to keep watch."
"Why am I the one that has to keep watch?"
"Because there's only two of us," Scott argued.
Stiles narrowed his eyes. "Okay, why is it starting to feel like you're Batman and I'm Robin? I don't want to be Robin all the time."
"No one is Batman or Robin any of the time."
Stiles looked bemused. "Not even some of the time?"
"Just stay here. They're my memories, remember."
"Alright," Stiles said in surrender. "Go, I'll keep a wolf eye and ear out. Just hurry back," he said as Scott climbed the fence.
Scott got into the parking lot and as he was heading for the bus, he suddenly saw himself in bed. He was struggling and then woke up to be shifted. Scott gasped. Was that a memory? He moved closer until he got to the bus and then went inside. As he touched one of the seats, he saw Meyers screaming as he was being dragged off. Scott reached his hand out to the floor and then saw himself trying to pull Meyers free before a hairy clawed paw came and swiped at his chest. Scott gasped as the pain of it was remembered.
Stiles was sitting in his jeep, calmly watching the lot, but he gasped when he saw a man with a flashlight moving in for the buses. "Oh crap," he said before he went and blew the horn to warn Scott.
Scott heard the horn and soon enough saw the light and quickly took off to get back to Stiles. He jumped the fence and got into the jeep and Stiles quickly put it in reverse and got them out of there.
"Did it work?!" Stiles asked. "Did you remember?!"
"Yeah, I was there last night! And the blood, a lot of it was mine!"
Stiles spared him a look. "What? So, you did attack him."
"No, I saw glowing eyes on the bus but they weren't mine. It was Derek."
"And the driver?"
"I think I was trying to protect him."
Stiles shook his head. "Okay, that doesn't make sense. Why would Derek help you remember that he attacked the driver?"
"That's what I don't get?"
Stiles couldn't wrap his mind around this. "Maybe it's a pack thing. You know an initiation."
"What do you mean?"
"You know you do the kill together."
"Because ripping someone's throat out is such a bonding experience?" Scott asked hysterically.
"But, Scott this means that you're not a killer. Which also means-"
"That I could go out with Allison," he added happily.
Stiles gave him a look. "Actually I was going to say it means that you won't try to kill me again and that I don't have to be one."
"Oh, yeah, that too," Scott nodded.
Stiles loved that Scott had that as an afterthought.
__________
Allison was looking through her closet for something to wear to their group date tonight while Lydia was there to help her out. As they were going through what would be the best thing to wear her father came in.
"Hey Mr. Argent," Lydia said putting on the most charming smile she could muster.
Allison cleared her throat. "Hey dad, did you need something?"
"I wanted to tell you that you're staying in tonight," he said fixing his jacket.
"What? But I'm going out with my friends tonight," she said.
"Not while there is a wild animal out there attacking people," he argued. There was a hidden meaning in his words that Allison was remaining blissfully unaware of.
But Allison was going to keep fighting him on this. "Dad, I'm just-
"Hey," he cut in. "It's out of my hands. There's a curfew out anyway and no one's allowed out past 9 pm." He then saw her throw her clothes angrily. "Hey, no more arguing," he said sternly before leaving.
Lydia raised her eyes. "Someone's daddy's little girl."
Allison just huffed. "Sometimes...but not tonight." She then went over to the window and then climbed down to land firmly with her feet to the ground. "Eight years gymnastics," she happily explained. "You coming?"
Lydia snapped out of her stupor. "I'm...going to take the stairs."
They soon made it to the bowling alley where Scott and Jackson were waiting for them. They all went and got their balls and shoes before getting to their lane.
Scott watched as Allison weighed the balls in the shoot. "You, really look like you know what you're doing."
"Used to bowl with my dad. When was the last time you bowled?"
"Um, at a birthday party." When Allison turned around he added silently, "When I was eight."
Jackson and Lydia got pretty handsy as they got up into the lane before Lydia went to make her throw. Allison made hers and showed that she was actually good. Jackson showed off that he was good as well. But, when Scott was up, he seriously tanked his shot and got a gutter ball.
Jackson then started to laugh. "Oh, I'm sorry," he said when they were all looking at him. "I was just flashing back to the words: I'm a great bowler."
Scott just wanted to sink into the floor then.
"Maybe he just needs a little warm-up," Allison said in his defense.
"Yeah and maybe he just needs the kiddie bumpers," Jackson teased back to Lydia's amusement and Allison's aggravation.
"Just, aim for the middle," she said to try and encourage him.
"How about you aim for anything other than the gutter," Jackson said to discourage him.
"Let him concentrate," Allison scolded him.
Scott liked that Allison was trying to support him but he hated that he wasn't giving her much to support. He took in her smile and then breathed out slowly as he took in the pins down the lane. He then threw the ball but he deflated when it went into the gutter again.
Jackson broke into more laughs. "Oh, ahh, great job McCall. You are a pro," he mocked.
"Don't worry, you'll do better," she said giving his hand a gentle squeeze.
But he wasn't. When it was his turn next to bowl, he couldn't bring himself to even throw the ball just so he could mess up again. "Oh man," he said to himself.
Allison went over to him. "Scott, you're thinking too much."
"I know. I'm sorry, I'm ruining this," he apologized.
She snorted. "No, not at all. Look, just clear your head and think about something else."
"Like what?' he asked.
"Well, think about me. Naked," she whispered in his ear before running off.
Scott had a silly grin come over his face as the image of Allison naked came into his mind and he threw the ball down the lane and got a solid strike. From then on, every time it was his turn he kept that image going and got strikes down each and every time.
"How many strikes is that?" Allison asked after Scott got his latest one.
"It's six," Jackson bit out. "In a row."
"Something just clicked I guess," he said smiling over at Allison.
"Must be natural talent," she smiled back.
"I could use some natural talent," Lydia said smiling over at them. Mind helping me with some Scott?"
"No," he said. "You're good. Go for it."
"Thanks for the vote of confidence," she said as she went to bowl. Jackson offered her his help but she told him that she got it. She then went and bowled a solid strike down the lanes as if it was nothing. "I think I'm getting the hang of it."
"That, was sort of perfect form," Allison noted.
"Was it?"
Allison leaned in to whisper to her. "Maybe you should stop pretending to suck just for his benefit?"
"Trust me, I do plenty of sucking for his benefit."
Later Jackson was over at the arcade playing some pinball when Scott noticed him and went over to try and ease up some of this built up tension. "Nice shot man," he said as he flipped the ball into a chute. Jackson just stared blankly at him, annoyed. Scott deflated. "Listen, I know we both didn't want to be here but we don't have to hate each other."
Jackson straightened up. "I don't hate you. I just don't believe you. You know, you have everyone thinking that everything is fine and normal with you but I know something's off. You cheated tonight."
"How do you cheat at bowling?"
"I don't know but you did. Something's off with you and I don't know if its drugs or something weirder since it's obvious that you're a freak. And not just with you either. But your friend Stiles too. Something is going on with the both of you so don't think for a second that I've given up trying to find what your secret is."
Scott narrowed his eyes. "I don't have any secrets. None of us do."
"Yeah you do," Jackson answered back. "And, for whatever reason, you don't want her to know about it," he said looking over in Allison's direction.
___________
Derek pulled up into a fill-up station to refill his car's gas tank when two mini-vans pulled up to box him in. Derek stayed calm as men got out of the cars, one of them being Chris Argent, the father of Scott's girlfriend Allison. He just kept filling his car and took the pump out when it was finished.
"Nice ride," Argent said stepping up to run his hands over Derek's car. "Black cars though, very hard to keep clean. Definitely suggest a little more maintenance. You have something that's nice, you want to take care of it, right?" he asked as he took a squeegee and started to run it across the windows.
Derek bit back the mess of emotions of when Argent was touching his car. He just kept himself still and stayed stoic.
"Personally," Argent continued. "I'm very protective of the things I love. Something I learned from my family. Though, you don't have much of these days, do you?"
At the look on his face Derek made his hand come into a tight grip, one that Argent noticed, but he steadily pushed it down and loosened back up.
"There you go," Argent said as he stopped wiping the window. "Everything is so much clearer."
He was about to go but Derek didn't feel the need to let Argent think he scared him. "Forgot to check the oil," he called out.
Argent smiled. "You heard him. Check the man's oil," he said to one of his hunters.
The man went up and shattered his windshield. "Looks fine to me."
"Drive safely now," Argent smugly said before they took off leaving Derek to stare after them with a glare.
He was in a sour mood as he headed for the hospital and got to Garrison Meyer's room and found the broken man in the hospital bed. "Open your eyes," he said to him softly but sternly. "Open your eyes. Look at me." He then woke up. What do you remember?" he asked.
"Hale," he muttered.
Derek's face softened a bit. "How do you know my name?"
"I'm sorry," he whispered.
Derek could smell the genuine remorse and sadness coming off him as he went to lay his head back down.
Melissa McCall was getting ready to head on home when the alert sounded. She took off for Meyers' room to see that he had flatlined.
__________
Stiles sighed as he analyzed his fingertips and was glaring hard at them. He was trying to force his claws to come out. He was opening and closing his hand and even shaking his hand a bit.
"C'mon, come out. Come out claws," he muttered but his fingers remained unchanged.
He had been looking into ways to keep calm because he theorized that higher pulses make it easier for to change. However, Scott told him about how Derek had his claws out at his neck when he jumped him in his room that night when they were video chatting. That had to mean that they could control what part of them transformed at will. With the attack on Meyers and with the hunters out there, Stiles thought that learning how to do that could come in handy but so far, nothing.
He then let a hard breath out as he sat down at the foot of his bed. "Oh man, Scott gets to hang out with both Allison and Lydia and I'm stuck in my room trying to make my nails grow. How is that fair?" he mumbled to himself. He then looked over at his clawless hands again. "Maybe I should go and talk to Derek myself."
Derek had told Scott that he would help the two of them learn how to control all of this, for a price, and though Stiles dreaded to think what he might ask for, he knew they needed his help. And for some reason, Derek seemed to be going out of his way to help them. Despite Scott's belief that Derek was the one who attacked Meyers, Stiles wasn't so sure. First of all, what reason would Derek even have for attacking the man? Besides, Stiles didn't smell any trace of Derek's scent anywhere around the parking lot when he drove him and Scott there. Yet, Scott said that he saw Derek which still didn't make sense to him. Why would Derek attack someone, deny it, but show Scott a way to prove he was there? He could tell that Scott wasn't too eager to ask these questions. After all, he still hadn't gotten over the fact that Derek tried to keep him from playing in the game or tell him to stay away from Allison. Personally, Stiles understood why Derek would tell Scott to stay away from the game as to avoid killing someone and to stay away from Allison as to avoid getting killed. Though, the way he could've gone about it was way out of line but Stiles wasn't so sure that Derek was as guilty as Scott would like to think he was. After all, they went and got him arrested and he still tried to warn them to stay out of the game instead of just letting them suffer. And he also saved Scott from being attacked by Allison's father. However, Stiles did feel that Derek knew something that he wasn't telling them. After all, he was the only other werewolf in town besides the two of them. Scott said that Derek was the one that bit them in the woods that night and if he was then did that mean that he was trying to help because he felt responsible for them? But if he was then why would he try to attack Scott at the school bus? Was all of this some sick and twisted kind of initiation into werewolfhood? All he knew was that he wouldn't know more until he saw Derek himself.
Stiles then heard the phone ringing from downstairs. "I got it Stiles!" his father called out.
His hearing then zoomed out and picked up his father speaking gently downstairs as if he was talking directly to him.
"Stilinski," his father said into the phone.
"Sheriff, we have news from the hospital," he heard from the phone's other end. "Garrison Meyers, the guy that was mauled at the bus, he's succumbed to his wounds."
His dad let out a deep huff. "Alright, I'll be right there."
Stiles eyes widened. Meyers was dead. He leaned back in shock and he heard a soft ripping sound. He looked over at the side to see that there were four thin tears into his bed coverings. He pulled his hand out to see that his fingers were now sporting claws.
___________
Scott got Allison back to her house and he gave her a goodnight kiss that had him smiling as he took off for home. He didn't notice that her father had seen the whole thing.
After the disaster at the hospital, Melissa McCall was happy to be home but was annoyed to see that her son wasn't home at all.
"Seriously," she said shaking her head as she went to head for her room. But then, she heard a noise and then went back to the room where she saw someone climbing in through the window. She went for the baseball bat leaning on the wall to attack him when he held his hands out.
"Whoa, whoa," he cried.
"Stiles!" she spat out after she was done screaming. "What the hell are you doing here?"
"What am I doing?! God, do either one of you even play baseball?!"
The lights went on and both of them turned to see Scott there looking at them in shock. "What happened?"
"Can you please tell your friend to use the front door?" she huffed out.
"But we lock the front door. He wouldn't be able to get in."
"Exactly. Do either one of you even care that there is a police enforced curfew?"
"No," they said together.
"No?" she repeated but then she just gave up. "You know what, that's enough parenting from me for one night. Good night," she said leaving the two of them.
Scott then noticed the look that Stiles had on his face. "What?"
"My dad, he left for the hospital 15 minutes ago. They say that he succumbed to his wounds."
"Succumbed?" he repeated.
"He's dead Scott." Stiles explained.
The two of them headed straight for the Hale house right after with Scott not letting up in his pursuit to lay it into Derek as he was convinced he killed Meyers. Stiles still wasn't too sure that he was guilty but also still felt that Derek knew more than he was telling them about this. They pulled up and Scott practically jumped out of the car before Stiles actually stopped it. Stiles quickly followed after when his eyes went to Derek's parked car. He noticed that the driver's side windshield had been broken in. He didn't smell blood or anything from it so it wasn't werewolf related, at least he thought not. He spent a second wondering what did do that before he jumped up onto the porch and followed Scott through the front door.
"Derek!" he roared. "We know you're here. And we know what you did!"
Stiles' eyes moved side to side as he stepped into the house. Derek was definitely there. He could hear a heartbeat outside his own and Scott's.
"I didn't do anything," Derek said from somewhere in the house.
Scott started to climb the stairs but Stiles decided to stay on the bottom. "You killed him!" he accused.
"He died," said Derek.
"Like your sister died?!" Scott spat out.
"My sister was missing. I came here looking for her."
"And you found her,"
"I found her in pieces!" Derek spat. "Being used as bait, to catch me."
Stiles' eyes narrowed.
Scott just kept on walking up. "I think you killed them both and I'm going to tell everyone, starting with the sheriff."
"Scott, keep my dad out of this," Stiles mumbled. But Scott kept walking off and Stiles saw Derek coming in from behind him. "Scott!" he yelled out to warn him.
Scott looked back in time for Derek to grab him and toss him down the stairs. Scott shifted and roared up at him while Stiles own eyes flashed gold in response of his friend being attacked. Derek hopped down the stairs to be at the foot of them to when both Scott and Stiles went and tossed him through the wall into the opposite room. Derek took off his jacket and then stomped over to where they both came in. Derek's face shifted and he roared at them which made Stiles cringe as his own face morphed into a wolf's as well. Scott attacked first. Moving in to claw Derek but he grabbed him and flipped him down to the ground. He then grabbed Scott by the scruff of his shirt and slid him down the room.
Stiles then pounced for Derek with his own claws out. As he made to swipe at Derek, Stiles suddenly saw himself lifting the thick branch to hit the wolf that night. Derek grabbed onto Stiles' wrist to stop him before he then drove his other hand's claws into his torso. As Stiles yelped in pain, the pain from the bite in his arm came back to him. Then Derek's blue eyes flared at him before he grabbed Stiles and threw him across the room where his back hit the wall. As his back made contact Stiles saw himself being thrown in the woods to hit that tree, the wolf's red eyes glaring back at him.
At seeing his friend thrown aside, Scott bared his teeth as he advanced for Derek again but Derek launched himself at Scott to drive his feet to kick Scott back. Scott flew back but then picked up a wooden plank to try and hit Derek with it but Derek easily disarmed him and whipped him back down.
There was the sound of wood shifting as Stiles got up from the rubble, panting as he stared back at them. Scott moved a bit so that Derek would be in between the two of them. Derek looked from each one of them, seeing that they had boxed him in. Stiles charged first and then Scott moved in. Derek saw that Stiles would reach him first so he readied himself but was surprised when Stiles zipped passed him. He went for Scott and pushed at him as he made his way to be behind him and grip at his arms.
"Stiles!" Scott struggled. "What are you doing?!" he roared.
"It's not him! It wasn't him!" Stiles roared as he kept pulling on his friend.
"What are you talking about?!"
"He's not the one! He's not the one who bit us!"
"Let me go!" Scott roared as he kept struggling against Stiles and tried to claw at him to let him loose.
Derek then went over and clawed at Scott's chest before he pushed at them to make fly back and hit the wall. They both crumbled against each other and slid to the floor but their faces shifted back to normal.
"It is him!" Scott said getting to his feet first. "His fault! He did this! He ruined our lives!"
"It's not my fault!" Derek said as his face went back to normal. He then went to extend his hand to Stiles. "He's right. I didn't do anything and neither did you."
"You bit us!"
"No I'm not!" Derek spat. "I'm not the one that bit you!"
"It wasn't him Scott," Stiles panted.
"What?" Scott asked him. Why was he taking Derek's side all of a sudden?
"I remembered," Stiles panted out. "That night. The werewolf, its eyes. They glowed red." Stiles then pointed at Derek. "His are the wrong color."
He remembered? Scott stared astonished at his friend. Did he just remember the same way Derek told him to remember? Scott looked at where Derek had slashed him and he wiped the blood off before he saw himself back at the bus that night. The bus driver was attacked not by Derek but by that same beast that they saw in the woods.
"There's another?" he said as he went to grip the wall.
Derek nodded. "It's called an Alpha. It's the most dangerous of our kind."
"I think that goes without saying," Stiles muttered out.
Derek just gave him a look. "The three of us, we're betas. This thing, it's more animal and powerful than any of us. My sister came here to look for him and now I'm trying to find him. But, I don't think I can do it without you."
Stiles let out a breath. "So that's it. When you told Scott you would help us but not for free. You want our help to find this thing."
Derek firmly nodded. "Yes."
Scott raised his head up. "Why us?"
"Because...you're what he wants."
Scott's blood chilled. He remembered that thing. It was a monster and Derek wanted them to help him get it? How were they supposed to stop something like that? And it wants them? Why?
Stiles let it all sink in. It was a painful search but they had one more piece to the puzzle now. There was another werewolf, an alpha werewolf, out there and he was the one that bit them that night. That means that it was what attacked the bus driver. But something still wasn't making sense to Stiles. He listened in on Derek's heartbeat when he said that he didn't kill Meyers, about his sister, it was steady the whole time so he wasn't lying. So, if Derek didn't kill Meyers, then who did?