June Ficlet: Melissa's Story (Teen Wolf) Spoilers for S2
Today the dice roll chose liliaeth's prompt! Yay! I think this month's lesson is that I'm much happier when my prompt is very specific.
Prompt: I just desperately need to read something that deals with how Scott and Melissa regained their close bond after she found out that Scott's a werewolf. The show skipped over this way too quickly and the McCall family relationship is probably my fave interaction on Teen Wolf.
This is another fic written (mostly) in the present tense. Hopefully it's not annoying, but I wanted to do it sort of stream-of-consciousness style and the present tense is best for that. Also, I had the day off work (not by choice, but because of system troubles), so this peace is a little bit on the longer side.
This is actually my headcanon for what happened...
Melissa's Story
Words: 1,880
Major spoilers: S2
Melissa locks herself in her bedroom, the morning after. She’s afraid of being in the same room with him - the monster that looks like her son. He tells her that he loves her through the door and Melissa nearly unlocks it, nearly goes after him - but she doesn’t. It might be a trick.
The night before, she had watched her son get shot - she had watched, helpless, as her son was dying. Melissa is an experienced ER nurse and she knows how long it takes to bleed out from a gut-shot - she knows exactly what organs can be damaged. She knows that, depending what organs are hit, it can only make it worse. She knows it’s one of the worst ways to die. She had cried when Scott tried to reassure her, tried to tell her that he was okay - because she knew that he was dying and she knew that he had to know it too.
And then Scott - the person she thought was Scott - had pulled a monster off her prison cell, but when he had turned to look at her, it wasn’t Scott, it wasn’t Scott because it was a monster.
Had she been stuck in a prison cell when her son died of a gunshot wound? Did he turn to a monster after death? The boy with the gun, Matt, had said “you don’t even know, do you? You have no idea,” and laughed at her - laughed at her when she tried to argue that Scott needed medical attention. Melissa wonders what Matt knew about Scott that she didn’t. Had her son already been dead long before? Had Scott died one night while Melissa was at work and been replaced with a monster? How had she not noticed?
When the shooting had stopped and the Sheriff woke up and Melissa had been set free. They found Stiles shaky and clumsy, and the Sheriff held onto him tightly and wouldn’t let go - and then the boy who looked like Scott had pulled Melissa away, had said, “Mom, you have to tell Stiles’ dad that it was fake - the gunshot, the bullet wound - you have to tell to tell them it was a trick by Matt, who wanted to frighten you. Mom, I’m sorry, there’s no time to explain, but I can’t have them asking questions-”
And that was when the rest of the Sheriff department swarmed in and Melissa only had time to nod at the monster that looked like Scott before they pulled her away to ask questions - to take statements. She saw them separate the Sheriff and Stiles, and she saw the tears in Stiles’ eyes, the way he collapsed into a chair, adrenaline wearing off... and she wondered if Stiles knew...
She keeps wondering if Stiles knows, as she continues to avoid the monster that looks like her son. Does Stiles know that his best friend has been replaced with a monster? Does he know when Scott died? Melissa tries to think, tries to think if there were any signs. She thinks about how Scott’s grades had been slipping, but Melissa had blamed that on his love for Allison.
Then she arrives home from work and there’s another monster waiting for her, the lizard thing that was in the sheriff’s station, and it grabs her and drags her up the stairs, pulls her up towards the ceiling and her feet are off the ground, and it’s got her by the neck - and it’s hard to breathe and she’s terrified.
There’s an old man sitting in her son’s room, and she can hear the shower shut-off in the bathroom, and she tries to scream but the thing pulls tighter at her neck and she can hardly breathe...
She doesn’t know what the old man wants, she doesn’t know why she’s still a bargaining chip - she doesn’t know why the monster that looks like Scott is still living in her house and pretending to be her son... and she doesn’t know why when the monster lets her go and the old man leaves, Scott gets on the floor next to her and talks to her like she’s his mother and tells her that things aren’t as simple as she wants them to be.
She flees the room, locks her bedroom door, cries... if things aren’t as simple as she thinks, she realizes that maybe the reason that she doesn’t know when her son died is because maybe he didn’t - maybe Scott isn’t dead, maybe Scott is just a monster, has always been a monster and she didn’t even know. Scott tells her that he loves her through the door, that he’s sorry. He leaves for the Lacrosse game.
Melissa is supposed to go to the game, sit with Stiles’ father like she always does... he’ll wonder where she is if she stays home. They always sit together and discuss their kids while Scott and Stiles watch the game from the bench. Only, Scott’s been playing more lately, so it’s usually just Stiles on the bench now-
Stiles, Melissa thinks, and again wonders how much he knows. She needs to talk to Stiles.
So, she gets dressed and drives to the school. She finds her way to the locker room and there’s Stiles, just the same as he always is... he doesn’t bat an eye at Melissa, doesn’t treat her like the world is different. Melissa listens to the coach’s speech and then she leaves the room first, but as soon as Stiles follows after her to make his way to the field, she pulls him into an empty classroom.
“Mrs. McCall?” Stiles says, and then she sees his face shift into an expression so much older than he is. He knows.
“Is it... is it still Scott?” Melissa asks.
Stiles’ brow furrows momentarily, and then he sucks in a breath as he understands. He understands, Melissa thinks, but he wasn’t expecting that question.
“It’s still Scott,” Stiles answers. “100% Scott.”
“How?” Melissa asks, and she can feel her eyes burn.
Stiles swallows, looks out at the corridor as the footsteps of the team die away.
“Scott will explain everything,” Stiles says. “You just have to let him... there’s no reason to be afraid of him, Melissa - you have to believe me. He’s still your son, nothing... nothing about that has changed.”
Melissa nods, and Stiles gives her a little smile and the slips back out the door.
She makes her way to the field, and she watches Stiles sit on the bench next to Scott - Stiles isn’t afraid. She knows what fear looks like on the boys. Stiles is stressed, he’s worried, but he’s not afraid. Scott had been afraid - earlier, in his bedroom, when Melissa was being choked. Scott had been terrified.
She sits next to the Sheriff like always and asks him how his day was, makes small talk, and she thinks of her son hiding things from her - not just hiding things, but fighting monsters - fighting monsters and being terrified.
Now she’s angry at herself for not knowing, because her son was all alone and terrified, and where was she?
She vows to be there now. Now that she knows. Scott won’t be alone in whatever this is. Not anymore.
As soon as the game is over, the lights go out and there’s a scream, and there’s a lacrosse player down on the field, Melissa can see it from the stands - and all she can think is that it’s Scott, that it’s Scott and Melissa came to her senses too late and now she really has lost her son...
So she runs out onto the field calling for him. He finds her. It’s a momentary relief, because she still doesn’t know who collapsed, who is lying prone on the field - it could be Stiles - it could be Stiles...
It’s Jackson. Melissa does her job until the ambulance arrives, but it was too late before she even started. Jackson is dead. The Sheriff can’t find Stiles - Melissa tries not to panic or think that the two might be related.
Instead she pulls Scott aside, before the ambulance leaves.
“I’m going to the hospital,” Melissa says.
“Okay,” Scott nods, all wide-eyed and accepting, just like himself.
“Scott,” Melissa says. “I want you to know that I love you. I love you and I don’t care... I don’t care what you, because you’re my son and I love you.”
It’s less eloquent than she’d like, but Scott’s face crumples even as he smiles, and Melissa knows it was the right thing to say - they hug, and Scott’s hug is nearly crushing.
“I love you too, Mom,” Scott says into her hair.
“But don’t think you’re not in trouble for keeping things from me,” Melissa counters. “We are having a long talk when I get home, okay, young man?”
Scott pulls back to smile at her like that’s the very best news he’s ever heard.
“Yes, Mom, I’ll tell you everything, I promise.”
Melissa smiles and drives to the hospital.
She waits until they place the body in the morgue. Waits and gets a call from Stile’s father, frantic, because Stiles’ still hasn’t been found. She waits until the hospital is on its late-night skeleton crew, and then she goes down to look at Jackson’s body.
Jackson is a clue to Scott’s secret life - to whatever is going on...
After she unzips Jackson’s body bag, she calls Scott. She doesn’t know what this is, but it’s not death.
Melissa didn’t realize that she had any doubts left until after Scott and Isaac Lahey arrive (and Melissa does file away the fact that Isaac Lahey is apparently involved in whatever this is too). She didn’t realize that she still had doubts about whether Scott was still Scott, until he and Isaac are standing by the wall, and he’s telling her to “Zip, Mom! Zip! Zip!” because he’s too afraid to do it himself - and Melissa almost laughs, because Scott’s a monster, but he sounds just like the little kid who saw a spider in the bath and stood on the other side of the room and demanded Melissa get rid of it, because he was too scared to do it himself.
She helps Scott and Isaac sneak the body out of the morgue and then she goes home. She goes home and waits.
When Scott arrives, he’s tired, but he smiles and tells her that it’s over, as he sinks onto the foot of his bed. He tells her that Gerard is gone, that Jackson is alive and he’s not a kanima anymore-
“Kanima?” Melissa asks.
“Yeah, that’s what Jackson was,” Scott nods.
Melissa takes in that information, and then asks the question that she’s been too afraid to ask since that night at the Sheriff’s station.
“And what are you?”
Scott stares at her for a moment, eyes a little wide.
“I’m a werewolf,” Scott answers.
“Okay,” Melissa says, and she finds herself inexplicably relieved just because she knows that word already.
Scott smiles at her, as though she were the best mother in the world.
“How about I make us some hot chocolate and I tell you everything from the beginning?” he offers, still smiling.
“I’d like that,” Melissa says.
And so that’s what they do.
The End.
Prompt: I just desperately need to read something that deals with how Scott and Melissa regained their close bond after she found out that Scott's a werewolf. The show skipped over this way too quickly and the McCall family relationship is probably my fave interaction on Teen Wolf.
This is another fic written (mostly) in the present tense. Hopefully it's not annoying, but I wanted to do it sort of stream-of-consciousness style and the present tense is best for that. Also, I had the day off work (not by choice, but because of system troubles), so this peace is a little bit on the longer side.
This is actually my headcanon for what happened...
Melissa's Story
Words: 1,880
Major spoilers: S2
Melissa locks herself in her bedroom, the morning after. She’s afraid of being in the same room with him - the monster that looks like her son. He tells her that he loves her through the door and Melissa nearly unlocks it, nearly goes after him - but she doesn’t. It might be a trick.
The night before, she had watched her son get shot - she had watched, helpless, as her son was dying. Melissa is an experienced ER nurse and she knows how long it takes to bleed out from a gut-shot - she knows exactly what organs can be damaged. She knows that, depending what organs are hit, it can only make it worse. She knows it’s one of the worst ways to die. She had cried when Scott tried to reassure her, tried to tell her that he was okay - because she knew that he was dying and she knew that he had to know it too.
And then Scott - the person she thought was Scott - had pulled a monster off her prison cell, but when he had turned to look at her, it wasn’t Scott, it wasn’t Scott because it was a monster.
Had she been stuck in a prison cell when her son died of a gunshot wound? Did he turn to a monster after death? The boy with the gun, Matt, had said “you don’t even know, do you? You have no idea,” and laughed at her - laughed at her when she tried to argue that Scott needed medical attention. Melissa wonders what Matt knew about Scott that she didn’t. Had her son already been dead long before? Had Scott died one night while Melissa was at work and been replaced with a monster? How had she not noticed?
When the shooting had stopped and the Sheriff woke up and Melissa had been set free. They found Stiles shaky and clumsy, and the Sheriff held onto him tightly and wouldn’t let go - and then the boy who looked like Scott had pulled Melissa away, had said, “Mom, you have to tell Stiles’ dad that it was fake - the gunshot, the bullet wound - you have to tell to tell them it was a trick by Matt, who wanted to frighten you. Mom, I’m sorry, there’s no time to explain, but I can’t have them asking questions-”
And that was when the rest of the Sheriff department swarmed in and Melissa only had time to nod at the monster that looked like Scott before they pulled her away to ask questions - to take statements. She saw them separate the Sheriff and Stiles, and she saw the tears in Stiles’ eyes, the way he collapsed into a chair, adrenaline wearing off... and she wondered if Stiles knew...
She keeps wondering if Stiles knows, as she continues to avoid the monster that looks like her son. Does Stiles know that his best friend has been replaced with a monster? Does he know when Scott died? Melissa tries to think, tries to think if there were any signs. She thinks about how Scott’s grades had been slipping, but Melissa had blamed that on his love for Allison.
Then she arrives home from work and there’s another monster waiting for her, the lizard thing that was in the sheriff’s station, and it grabs her and drags her up the stairs, pulls her up towards the ceiling and her feet are off the ground, and it’s got her by the neck - and it’s hard to breathe and she’s terrified.
There’s an old man sitting in her son’s room, and she can hear the shower shut-off in the bathroom, and she tries to scream but the thing pulls tighter at her neck and she can hardly breathe...
She doesn’t know what the old man wants, she doesn’t know why she’s still a bargaining chip - she doesn’t know why the monster that looks like Scott is still living in her house and pretending to be her son... and she doesn’t know why when the monster lets her go and the old man leaves, Scott gets on the floor next to her and talks to her like she’s his mother and tells her that things aren’t as simple as she wants them to be.
She flees the room, locks her bedroom door, cries... if things aren’t as simple as she thinks, she realizes that maybe the reason that she doesn’t know when her son died is because maybe he didn’t - maybe Scott isn’t dead, maybe Scott is just a monster, has always been a monster and she didn’t even know. Scott tells her that he loves her through the door, that he’s sorry. He leaves for the Lacrosse game.
Melissa is supposed to go to the game, sit with Stiles’ father like she always does... he’ll wonder where she is if she stays home. They always sit together and discuss their kids while Scott and Stiles watch the game from the bench. Only, Scott’s been playing more lately, so it’s usually just Stiles on the bench now-
Stiles, Melissa thinks, and again wonders how much he knows. She needs to talk to Stiles.
So, she gets dressed and drives to the school. She finds her way to the locker room and there’s Stiles, just the same as he always is... he doesn’t bat an eye at Melissa, doesn’t treat her like the world is different. Melissa listens to the coach’s speech and then she leaves the room first, but as soon as Stiles follows after her to make his way to the field, she pulls him into an empty classroom.
“Mrs. McCall?” Stiles says, and then she sees his face shift into an expression so much older than he is. He knows.
“Is it... is it still Scott?” Melissa asks.
Stiles’ brow furrows momentarily, and then he sucks in a breath as he understands. He understands, Melissa thinks, but he wasn’t expecting that question.
“It’s still Scott,” Stiles answers. “100% Scott.”
“How?” Melissa asks, and she can feel her eyes burn.
Stiles swallows, looks out at the corridor as the footsteps of the team die away.
“Scott will explain everything,” Stiles says. “You just have to let him... there’s no reason to be afraid of him, Melissa - you have to believe me. He’s still your son, nothing... nothing about that has changed.”
Melissa nods, and Stiles gives her a little smile and the slips back out the door.
She makes her way to the field, and she watches Stiles sit on the bench next to Scott - Stiles isn’t afraid. She knows what fear looks like on the boys. Stiles is stressed, he’s worried, but he’s not afraid. Scott had been afraid - earlier, in his bedroom, when Melissa was being choked. Scott had been terrified.
She sits next to the Sheriff like always and asks him how his day was, makes small talk, and she thinks of her son hiding things from her - not just hiding things, but fighting monsters - fighting monsters and being terrified.
Now she’s angry at herself for not knowing, because her son was all alone and terrified, and where was she?
She vows to be there now. Now that she knows. Scott won’t be alone in whatever this is. Not anymore.
As soon as the game is over, the lights go out and there’s a scream, and there’s a lacrosse player down on the field, Melissa can see it from the stands - and all she can think is that it’s Scott, that it’s Scott and Melissa came to her senses too late and now she really has lost her son...
So she runs out onto the field calling for him. He finds her. It’s a momentary relief, because she still doesn’t know who collapsed, who is lying prone on the field - it could be Stiles - it could be Stiles...
It’s Jackson. Melissa does her job until the ambulance arrives, but it was too late before she even started. Jackson is dead. The Sheriff can’t find Stiles - Melissa tries not to panic or think that the two might be related.
Instead she pulls Scott aside, before the ambulance leaves.
“I’m going to the hospital,” Melissa says.
“Okay,” Scott nods, all wide-eyed and accepting, just like himself.
“Scott,” Melissa says. “I want you to know that I love you. I love you and I don’t care... I don’t care what you, because you’re my son and I love you.”
It’s less eloquent than she’d like, but Scott’s face crumples even as he smiles, and Melissa knows it was the right thing to say - they hug, and Scott’s hug is nearly crushing.
“I love you too, Mom,” Scott says into her hair.
“But don’t think you’re not in trouble for keeping things from me,” Melissa counters. “We are having a long talk when I get home, okay, young man?”
Scott pulls back to smile at her like that’s the very best news he’s ever heard.
“Yes, Mom, I’ll tell you everything, I promise.”
Melissa smiles and drives to the hospital.
She waits until they place the body in the morgue. Waits and gets a call from Stile’s father, frantic, because Stiles’ still hasn’t been found. She waits until the hospital is on its late-night skeleton crew, and then she goes down to look at Jackson’s body.
Jackson is a clue to Scott’s secret life - to whatever is going on...
After she unzips Jackson’s body bag, she calls Scott. She doesn’t know what this is, but it’s not death.
Melissa didn’t realize that she had any doubts left until after Scott and Isaac Lahey arrive (and Melissa does file away the fact that Isaac Lahey is apparently involved in whatever this is too). She didn’t realize that she still had doubts about whether Scott was still Scott, until he and Isaac are standing by the wall, and he’s telling her to “Zip, Mom! Zip! Zip!” because he’s too afraid to do it himself - and Melissa almost laughs, because Scott’s a monster, but he sounds just like the little kid who saw a spider in the bath and stood on the other side of the room and demanded Melissa get rid of it, because he was too scared to do it himself.
She helps Scott and Isaac sneak the body out of the morgue and then she goes home. She goes home and waits.
When Scott arrives, he’s tired, but he smiles and tells her that it’s over, as he sinks onto the foot of his bed. He tells her that Gerard is gone, that Jackson is alive and he’s not a kanima anymore-
“Kanima?” Melissa asks.
“Yeah, that’s what Jackson was,” Scott nods.
Melissa takes in that information, and then asks the question that she’s been too afraid to ask since that night at the Sheriff’s station.
“And what are you?”
Scott stares at her for a moment, eyes a little wide.
“I’m a werewolf,” Scott answers.
“Okay,” Melissa says, and she finds herself inexplicably relieved just because she knows that word already.
Scott smiles at her, as though she were the best mother in the world.
“How about I make us some hot chocolate and I tell you everything from the beginning?” he offers, still smiling.
“I’d like that,” Melissa says.
And so that’s what they do.
The End.