|| Far From Human
"Welcome to San Francisco International Airport."
Already deplaned and headed toward luggage claim, a warmly bundled Isaac Lahey had set his feet on American soil for the first time in nearly a year.
Scanning over a dozen signs welcoming him to the city on his pursuit of the exit, Isaac readjusted the strap of his leather satchel more out of anxiety than necessity.
Nearly the whole way over, he'd questioned if he made the right choice by returning.
There was nothing quite like being trapped in a steel bird with only your thoughts for 12 hours.
By the time Isaac had reached the baggage carousel for his flight, his luggage was already on the move.
Isaac checked his phone as he joined the crowd of Paris travelers, towering over nearly everyone around. A text noted his escape route.
Blue CRV in the pick up line.
"Excuse me," he hummed, moving between a slew of people as his suitcase circled around. He sighed ever so slightly, suitcase in tow as he headed for the airport exit.
The California fall blew in sharp over the werewolf as he walked outside, an overwhelming sense of memory sweeping in.
He'd forgotten how charged Northern California felt.
Blue CRV, he thought, ocean eyes panning a long line of vehicles.
And just as Isaac spotted the matching description, the Honda's passenger window began to roll down.
Isaac smiled, suddenly ready to return to Beacon Hills. As he strolled up to the car, he realized that although he knew it wasn't going to be Allison, he didn't recognize the driver's face.
Slinking a pair of sunglasses further down her nose with a charming smile, a stunning brunette's eyes glimmered as they locked with his. "Isaac Lahey, you're even prettier in person."
Holding a smile as he leaned in one the passenger's open window, Isaac made a strategic guess.
"You must be Jacy."
||
The front door of the McCall home hung open, the mountain ash barrier secured and only one guest in mind.
Stiles sat on the lower steps of the staircase, elbows rested on his thighs as he waited.
Scott, however, was in hiding upstairs. He hadn't been sure of what to make about Allison's news, so the idea of helping Stiles with whatever he needed sounded like a more proactive thing to do.
And just as Stiles wanted, Theo Raeken appeared.
Stiles' eyes went from Theo's face to the clear black line along the doorway, then back.
Theo stepped over the mountain ash with ease. "I guess we're all telling the truth now." He breathed in, craning his neck around.
Stiles tossed a black shirt at Theo, the forced catch pulling his attention. "You killed my best friend?" he asked, eyes glinting with tears meant for someone other than Scott.
"Let's be honest, Stiles," said Theo. "Was he still really your best friend?"
"Are you going to let my father die?" Stiles asked in reply.
"If I wanted him to die, I wouldn't have told you where to find him."
"Then why are they saying his body is shutting down?" Stiles stood from the stairs, stepping closer to Theo. "That some toxin's poisoning him and they don't know how to stop it. Olivia's the best doctor I've ever met and she has no idea what's going on with him."
"I'm not the bad guy, Stiles," Theo defended. "I'm just a realist. I'm a survivor. If you knew the things that I know-"
"Yeah, but what do you know?" he interrupted.
"I know what's coming. I know what the Dread Doctors created."
"You mean Jacy?" Stiles snapped, temperament rising. "You know what they did to her? What they made her?"
Theo's eyes narrowed, the ghost of a grin on his lips. "Why would you assume it's Jacy? I came here to talk about Jordan. I know what he is and I think you should, too."
Stiles' arms folded over his chest, witnessing Theo try to dig himself out of a hole. "And?"
"Lydia figured it out," Theo told him. "I saw it in her memories."
"Right after you drove her out of her mind."
"Collateral damage," he countered. "But if she's right about Parrish, then things around here are gonna get a lot worse."
"I don't care," replied Stiles, lightly shaking his head.
"You should. Because if your dad does survive, he's not gonna be sheriff of anything much longer."
"What's happening to him?" And the moment Theo turned to leave, Stiles lunged. "Hey, tell me!"
Theo spun on his heel, grabbing Stiles first and throwing him back onto the stairs. Subduing his rage, he left the house in a hurry, shutting the door behind him.
Scott's head poked out around the corner, finding Stiles knocked out on the stairs. He bounded down, shaking his best friend's arms. "Stiles. Stiles!"
A sudden gasp came from Stiles, wet eyes tearing open.
"Are you okay?" Scott stressed. "Are you hurt?"
"I'm fine," he urged, standing up by himself as he pushed Scott away.
Concern was written all over his face. "You blacked out."
"I'm okay." He glanced toward the door, thankful the werewolf had come to the house despite the request to talk to Theo alone. "Did you get anything off of him?"
Scott lightly shook his head. "Nothing. He was calm the entire time."
"What about his heart?"
"I heard it jump, but only once, and only for a second."
"Jacy, right?" Stiles questioned. "Because we weren't supposed to know about her being a chimera."
"No," Scott countered. "It was when you said that your dad was poisoned."
"That could be something," said Stiles. "A jump could mean surprise right?"
"Yeah, yeah, I think so."
"All right," Stiles mulled over the mismatched information, "so why would he surprised that my dad's still dying?"
Scott's expression fell. "He didn't say that he was the one who attacked your dad, did he?"
"No." Stiles met eyes with his best friend, face suddenly mirroring Scott's. "She wouldn't."
||
"So your brother is a deputy at the station, right?"
Jacy, sunglasses still on, mildly glanced over to Isaac as she drove. "Yeah. You probably met him at some point. He worked with Stilinski on Allison's death. He moved here not long before everything with the nogitsune started."
Lightly nodding, Isaac absently rested his arm on the ledge of the passenger window. "And he's like you?"
"He was like me," she replied. "We both used to be just clairvoyants. Things are different now. Jordan was found unconscious on the road one night by Allison's spirit, actually, and he woke up without any memory of the supernatural or any ability, clairvoyant, at least."
"So he became something else?" Isaac's brows furrowed. "How does that just happen?"
"We never really figured that one out. How or why it happened, we're not sure, but he's something called a Hellhound."
Isaac scoffed a little, the name clicking. "So he's an omen of death, too? Now there's two in Beacon Hills?"
"Welcome home, I guess."
"And you?"
Jacy glanced over to the wolf. "What about me?"
"You said you both used to just be clairvoyants. Not to mention you smell far from human," said Isaac. "So what are you?"
Jacy pushed her sunglasses onto the top of her head as they slowed to a stoplight just on the outskirts of Beacon county. With a light smile, she flashed her dual-toned eyes, deep blue attempting to overtake the royal purple rim.
Isaac's eyes widened, staring in disbelief even when the color faded back to brown. "What the hell are you?"
"Technically, a ghost wolf, or loup fantome."
An eyebrow arched. "And non-technically?"
"Rare."
And although a brief silence crossed the car, Jacy spoke again.
"So, I'm curious," she said. "How long have you been in contact with Allison?"
Isaac paused. "She never said anything to you? She said you were one of her best friends."
Jacy hummed softly. "I've been going through a lot lately. She and I haven't had ample time to talk about much of anything."
Softly nodding as he watched out the window, he said, "I had a dream one night during the summer - granted, no one had told me when you pulled her through the veil. She had been alive for several months at this point, but no one thought that would be information I needed. I had a dream about her for the first time in a while in July. It was frequent after she died, but she stopped coming when-"
"When she came back to life," Jacy finished, knowing he hadn't connected the thought. "You know that was her visiting you, right? She would check in on you and Chris often. Whenever I couldn't find her, I knew she was in France."
Isaac's brows furrowed. "I guess I never thought about that as a possibility."
Although nodding, Jacy said, "Tell me about your dream from the summer."
"Well, I don't know if it was more of a dream or a hallucination. I had been in a fight that night and I saw her when I got home and passed out," Isaac told her. "And the difference this time, was that she wasn't wearing the same thing she died in. It was summery, which didn't make sense. She was always in that same dress and jacket she died in, but this time it was different. She never even said anything to me that night. I woke up and it just didn't settle well. So, on a whim, I called Stiles."
Jacy's eyes narrowed slightly. "Stiles?"
"Yeah, I know. We were never friends, but in a weird way, I didn't think I could call Scott."
"Why didn't I hear about this?"
"Because even though he confirmed my thought of Allison being alive, he said I shouldn't come back. I never told him or said I wanted to come back because Allison was alive, but he made it a point to tell me I should stay where I was. To stay in France and not to interfere."
The reason, however, was evident.
"Scott was still with Kira in July," protested Jacy, pulling into her own neighborhood.
"But Scott still loved Allison. The two of them will never not love each other." Isaac shrugged softly. "That was something I found out as she died in his arms and not mine, so I'd say I learned my lesson."
"Wait, you never told me how long you've been in contact with her. You found out she was alive in July, and then what?"
"Stiles said not to come back to town," replied Isaac. "He never said anything about talking to her. You know Chris never disconnected her phone after she died, right? He kept it to listen to her voicemail, but when you pulled her back through the veil, he just gave it back."
"So, since July? You and Allison have been talking since July?" asked Jacy, astounded.
"Intermittently. Never too often, but we kept each other in the loop."
"I guess you were the only one in the loop," Jacy replied, pulling up outside her own house. "Well, this is my place. Everyone's here."
Isaac was first to get out of the CRV, pulling his suitcase from the backseat. And although he was expecting Jacy to get out, she rolled down the passenger's window again.
Isaac leaned in, brows furrowed. "Are you not coming?"
"No, but give this to Al, would you?" she casually replied, handing over a phone.
Taking the device, his confusion only grew. "If it's your house, why aren't you coming in when everyone else is here?"
Jacy grinned slyly, sliding her sunglasses back down over her eyes. There was a tinge of pain behind her discreteness that Isaac never could have caught. "Because they're all looking for me. Welcome home."
Isaac stepped back from the Honda as the car started to move, the horn blaring once as she sped off.
Left at the curb with only his luggage and a rogue cell phone, Isaac Lahey was lost.
The front door behind him squeaked open, the wolf still staring off after the blue car.
"Isaac?"
Turning over his shoulder, Isaac found Scott practically rushing him into a bear hug.
And although hesitant, Isaac hugged him back.
"Isaac, I'm so sorry I didn't pick you up," Allison said, hugging him in short progression after Scott. "My phone went miss-" her eyes fell to the device in his hand. "That's my phone."
"Jacy said to give it to you," Isaac hesitantly replied, glancing behind himself.
"Wait, what ?"
He hesitantly motioned toward the road. "She picked me up in San Francisco. I was under the assumption you sent her, but I guess if she had your phone...Why did she say you were looking for her?"
"Because she's been missing," said Stiles, joining the trio in the driveway. "For almost a day."
"I really did miss a lot, didn't I?"