So, I usually do author notes at the end of the chapter, but I literally love this so much. So @-kiniag made so many amazing covers for this fanfiction and I adore them so much. I chose to have one of their graphics up for the cover. I hope you all enjoy it as much as I did.
* * *
Paige stood beside Isaac and Scott, her hand was practically in her mouth as she bit at her nails from all the nerves. She felt sore all over her body which she was hoping wasn't from Stiles and just from her playing the game today... but she knew it wasn't from her. Stiles was hurt and she could feel it. She felt like crying. She wasn't even paying attention as Sheriff Stilinski spoke, her eyes practically glazed over as she stared ahead at the wall in the locker room.
"Paige-"
She flinched and her eyes connected with Noah, she saw his sad eyes and he brought her in for a hug. His hand went up through her hair and he pulled her closer. Paige sniffled and hugged him tighter.
Sheriff Stilinski backed away from her and gave her a small kind smile, "It's going to be okay. Okay? I'll find him."
"You will find him." Paige says back to him, to also give him reassurance, "Stiles is okay. He'll be okay."
"Okay." Sheriff Stilinski kissed her forehead and walked off.
Paige wiped at her cheeks and slapped them a few times before facing her Aunt who insisted that she stay with her. For once, Paige just wanted Maggie there because she was worried about Stiles and was afraid if she blinked her aunt would be taken too.
"Are you alright, sweetie?"
"I'm okay. I'm okay." Paige mumbles and wiped her hand down her face again. She placed her hands on her hips and breathed out. "I'm okay. And Stiles is okay."
"He is okay."
"Okay." Paige huffed softly before she approached the boys again.
Scott looked over at her and gave her a small smile before getting right to business, "Is that everyone?"
"I think so." Isaac answers as he walked past them to look at the door, when he turned he saw that Scott had ripped off Stiles' locker door, "You're gonna find him by scent?"
"Yeah-" Scott tossed him one of Stiles' shoes, "We both are."
Isaac stared at the item in his hand before slowly looking back at Scott, "But how come you get his shirt and I get a shoe?"
"Maybe it's cause you've been a werewolf for less time than Scott." Paige offered as enthusiastically as she could, hoping her happy attitude would help, "And the shoes have a stronger scent."
Isaac pursed his lips, "I mean... I guess that's true."
Scott smiled at the two of them before he noticed that Derek was in the room, he stepped a little forward and blocked the three in the room. Derek had his hands behind his back, his eyes connected with Paige's and he watched as her eyes moved to anywhere but him. She didn't bring up the kiss or even told anyone about it. She didn't really want to talk about it at all. She hit him for kissing her and then snapped at him. That wasn't how she expected her first kiss with him to be. Not that she had imagined her first kiss with him. She would never imagine that. She didn't really know him. He didn't know her. Nothing was going to ever happen. She was rambling in her own head.
"We need to talk."
"All of us."
"Whoa!" Paige screams and points her finger at Peter, "Hold the phone! Hold the phone! Alive! You are a living breathing thing! Wait! Am I losing my shit again? Am I seeing things with my fairy eyes? Is this happening again?"
"No, not at all, Paige. This time it's me you see and not your faeil connection to Lydia."
Scott was too angry with the fact that Peter was there that he ignored the fairy information, "What the hell is this?"
Paige turned her head to see Scott's jaw tense, and then she felt pain in her jaw. She brought her hands up to her face, her brows furrowed together. Someone was being hurt and she wanted to cry because she was sure that it was Stiles. Stiles was getting hurt right now and they couldn't help him.
"You know-" Derek was calm and didn't really react to the hostile reactions of them, "I thought the same thing when I saw you talking to Gerard at the sheriff's station."
"Okay, hold on." Scott cut him right off to defend himself, "He-he threatened to kill my mom. And I had to get close to him. What was I supposed to do?"
"I'm gonna go with Scott on this one." Peter chimes in, "Have you seen his mom? She's gorgeous."
"Shut up." Scott and Derek say at the same time.
Isaac raised his hand in curiosity, "Okay, who is he?"
"That's Peter, Derek's uncle."
"My Aunt's ex." Paige added, now noticing that her Aunt Maggie hadn't said a word just yet.
"Little while back, he tried to kill us all, and then we set him on fire, and Derek slashed his throat."
Peter raised his hand and waved, "Hi."
Isaac swallowed with wide eyes, "Ah... that's good to know."
"I've got an even better question that I think we're all thinking here." Paige says as she raises her own hands in the air, "How is he alive?"
"Look, the short version is he knows how to stop Jackson." Derek says completely avoiding her question, which made her scowl, "And maybe how to save him."
"Well, that's very helpful except Jackson's dead."
"What?"
"Yeah, Jackson's dead." Paige mumbles a bit, she was so focused on Stiles being taken that she didn't even process what happened to Jackson. She felt even worse about Jackson than she did with Matt. "It just happened on the field."
Isaac felt the entire room go silent and he looked around at everyone in the room, "Okay, why is no one taking this as good news?"
"Because if Jackson is dead, it didn't just happen. Gerard wanted it to happen."
"But why?"
"Well, that's exactly what we need to figure out. And something tells me the window of opportunity is closing. Quickly."
Paige went to say something when she noticed her Aunt walking forward, "Maggie?"
Peter stared down at her and then her fist connected to his face. Everyone in the room said absolutely nothing but did stare in shock. Maggie pulled her hand to her chest and released a string of curses. "Oh, it was so fucking worth it. It was worth it. Oh, you son of a bitch!" She yelled at the top of her lungs at him, "You attacked my niece, you absolute fucking trash bag! You tall blue eyed piece of shit!"
Peter lifted his head off the ground and stared up at her, "Are you done, Margaret?"
"Not even fucking close. I should kick you in the-"
He covered his crotch with his hand and raised the other up to point at her, "Okay, that's a little too far, don't you think?"
"No." Paige says with her hands on her hips, "You could have stayed dead a little longer. That would have been great."
Isaac hummed and pointed at Maggie, "I like her. Why hasn't she been around?"
"Oh, well that's because she lied to me about me being a fairy and basically kept me on drugs until my powers slowly seeped through even on the drugs."
"Drugs?"
"Sugar."
Isaac breathed out with his brows up, "Good to know. Are we heading out now?"
"Yes." Maggie stood up and stared down at Peter for a couple more minutes, "I really don't want to look at his face."
"I've missed you too Margaret."
"Shove it up your ass, Peter."
Paige released a breathy laugh and walked out of the locker room. She had never seen her aunt like this before and honestly this was amazing. Though, she was still upset with her aunt but it was nice seeing a different side of her. "Maggie, you should go home."
Maggie stopped outside and faced her niece, "I'll drive to the hospital and check on Melissa. Stay safe out there. Especially with him."
"I do love how much you think of me."
"Shut up."
"So you don't care that I'm involved with all of this?"
Maggie hugged her niece closely to her, "I don't care as long as you stay safe and come home. Okay? I'll call you later."
Paige stayed with Scott and Isaac, she kept looking at her phone hoping to get a call or text from Sheriff Stilinski. She stepped into the old Hale house and grew a little uncomfortable. She had been here before but didn't even remember all those times. Just knowing that her Aunt took her memories away of growing up here was a little sad. Maybe she wouldn't feel so uncomfortable around Derek.
Her phone buzzed and she quickly looked down. Paige grabbed onto Scott and smiled, "They-they found Stiles. He's okay."
Scott hugged her tightly, "That's good news. We'll call him after we're done here to make sure he's okay."
Derek turned his head away from them with his arms crossed and chose to focus on his uncle, "I told you, I looked everywhere."
"You didn't look here."
Paige blinked her eyes a couple of times, "You're getting creepier the longer I get to know you, you know that?"
Peter turned around and set Paige a glare before pulling a box out of the steps of the house. Which then made Derek go, "What is that, a book?"
"No. It's a laptop." Peter rolled his eyes again, "What century are you living in? A few days after I got out of the coma, I transferred everything that we had. Fortunately, the Argents and the Merciers aren't the only ones that keep records."
Paige made a face when she saw how Isaac looked at her, "Dad's side are hunters, thought you already knew that."
"I did... I think, maybe it's processing now." Isaac mumbles slowly while nodding his head, it wasn't exactly hitting him until now. "Okay... it's processed. Good to know that you could probably kill me in your sleep."
"Okay, I'm not a hunter. I mean... my Aunt Odette has been training me a bit but it's not like I could do any damage to anyone."
"Noted." Isaac hums and stuffed his hands into his pockets, "You still scare me now."
"I'm not scary."
Derek turned to look at them, "She's not scary."
"See." Paige blinked and then glared at him, "Hey, wait!"
Scott looked down at his phone and answered, "Hey, mom, I can't talk right now." He clicked on the speaker to Paige could hear as well, not remembering that she mentioned that she somehow could hear well if she focused on it.
"Oh, yeah? Well, I'm so freaked out that I can barely talk either."
"What's wrong?"
"Something- definitely something." It was Maggie's voice this time, which made Paige sigh in relief when she realized she had made it to Melissa, "I don't know what, but I think you're going to want to come and see this for yourself."
"Uh..." Paige glanced over at Derek and Peter before looking at Isaac and Scott, "We're on our way." She faced the two Hales again, "We'll keep in contact. Keep us posted on whatever you find."
Derek raised his had to look at her, "I'll call you if we find something."
Peter glanced at his nephew silently and waited until he was sure the three were gone, "So, you'll keep Paige posted?"
"Whatever you're insinuating-" Derek says slowly, "Stop it. Keep your mouth fucking shut. Got it?"
After finally arriving at the hospital, Scott, Isaac, and Paige followed Melissa and Maggie to where they wanted to show them all. All three of them did not say a word as they stared at Jackson while in the body bag. Neither said a thing for a few minutes.
"What is even happening to him?" Paige whispers, finally breaking the silence at that moment.
Melissa released an airy laugh, "I thought you were gonna tell me."
Maggie scratched the back of her head, "Is it bad?"
"It doesn't look good..."
Isaac lifted a small popsicle stick with the goop on it, "Whoa..."
"Ew, I hate it." Paige whispers as she stares at the goop hanging from the end of the popsicle stick, "Put that down, please."
"Gross..." Scott cleared his throat, "um, mom, could you zip it up, please?"
Melissa sent her son a rather dirty look before sighing. She reached forward, "Okay. Okay, okay. Okay, here we go."
"Mom, zip."
"Okay, okay, okay, okay."
Paige flinched as the bag shifted a bit, "Ah, oh, my God. Zip it! Zip!"
"Oh, my God!" Maggie yells out and reaches for the zipper, "I've got it." She shut the body bag and shook her hands in the air, "I'm never touching something like that again."
Paige let out a laugh, "So I'm guessing this isn't a good thing?"
"Paige..."
"Right, sorry."
Something about writing Maggie and Peter is just so fun. To be clear, I do not plan on making them an endgame pair in this fiction, but the tension is just fun to write. I also like writing Isaac and Scott's friendship with Paige. Especially without Stiles around because it takes away their natural sibling-like relationship so Paige could interact with Scott and Isaac.