Fic: Discovery Channel (5/12) Part 1
Title: Discovery Channel
Author: kayevelyn
Fandom: Teen Wolf
Pairing: Stiles/Derek
Rating: Overall R
Warnings: eventual knotting
Summary: Stiles is the best werewolf ever. fork in the road au. (were!stiles)
[Read on AO3]
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
“So on a scale of one to ten, what do you think are the chances of us seeing the alpha tonight,” Stiles asked, hands stuffed in his pockets as he followed Derek through the town.
They weren’t running, even though alpha’s scent was thick in the air. Stiles had grown tired of the goose chase the alpha was taking them on by the Wednesday after they started following him, and two weeks on he was not enjoying it any more. Especially since Derek and him had to limit their hunts to late at night, heads ducked, constantly on the lookout for anyone because they didn’t want to risk being caught together.
The hunters had put a lookout by Derek’s apartment immediately after leaving, causing Stiles’ exit to be a challenge, and making meeting up there ever again too dangerous of a risk. Derek had told him if the hunters knew he had been turned nothing would stop them from killing the two of them, no matter how under control Stiles was. So they couldn’t be seen together, which would have been a great thing to think about before they had spent the last month running around together without a care in the world.
Stiles knew it was just luck that no one mentioned Derek during school, and he could only assume Allison didn’t think anything of it, or at least not enough to mention it to her father. Her father, the hunter who was after them. Hunters were the enemy, and Stiles knew he saw the world in black and white most times, good versus bad, but this whole situation just made it more obvious. It was them versus the other. There could be no middle ground, just the strange, tense standoff that there was now. The shaky unspoken truce that could snap so quickly.
Stiles didn’t even want to think what would happen when the truce broke. He didn’t want to think what he would be capable of.
“Stiles, Stiles!” Derek growled, grabbing him by the shoulder to stop him.
Stiles frowned, snapped out of his thoughts. “What?” He looked down the street, following Derek’s gaze. His eyes narrowed as a large dark form came into focus, furry, with blood red eyes.
Stiles gasped, and his body shifted on instinct. Beside him he felt Derek shift too, body tensing as his claws came out. He growled, crouching down ready to spring, and Stiles copied him.
The alpha moved, running away from them. Derek was sprinting a moment later, and Stiles followed him, not even thinking. He had the alpha in his sights for the first time since he was bit. He was not going to lose him.
They veered towards the main road, gaining on the alpha with each turn. It was large and fast, but took sharp turns slower than Derek or he needed to, and they were able to weave through the trees more easily than the alpha.
Stiles burst onto the main road behind Derek, swerving in front of the stopped car, jumping over broken glass, body already preparing to make the jump up onto the metal awning outside the local diner before getting to the roof, where he could see the alpha running. Derek was only a few beats ahead of him, making the jump with no effort, not breaking his stride as he landed on the roof.
Stiles followed him, touching down on the awning only to spring up to the roof. His feet hit the ground at the same time he felt something rip through his leg, a loud bang echoing through the night.
He dropped, rolling in pain as he grabbed his thigh. He felt blood on his hands and he forced his eyes open to try and assess the damage. Another shot went off, and Stiles saw Derek drop down beside him, but he didn’t smell fresh blood. Derek wasn’t hit.
“The alpha?” Stiles asked as he let Derek take his hand away from the wound. The bullet wound. He’d been shot.
“Don’t worry,” Derek gritted his teeth as he tried to look at the wound. “I need to get this out of you.”
There was another shot that hit right above them. They were hidden behind the ledge of the roof, but there was one more shot, and if Stiles focused he could hear the sound of a gun being cracked open to reload.
“Hunters?”
Derek shook his head. “I didn’t look.” He pulled away from Stiles’ thigh. “We need to move you. We need somewhere safe.”
“My dad’s home tonight,” Stiles reminded him, closing his eyes as Derek maneuvered them to a crouching position, ducking around the roof to climb down the other side.
Stiles watched Derek look down, making sure their attacker wasn’t lurking around. “We aren’t going to the old house, hunters have been there.”
Stiles grimaced as Derek picked him up, and a jolt went through his body as Derek landed on the ground, running quickly down a back alley to get them as far away from their attacker as possible. He sucked in a breath, trying to think. There was only one other option, one place that was safe, even though he knew it would probably end badly for everyone.
“Head to Scott’s.”
***
His private cell phone went off at midnight, and Chris rubbed his eyes as he looked up from the accounts he was going over. He had hired Martin under the pretense of doing them, but the truth was he couldn’t trust anyone but himself to double-check them. Running a business was tough, even if most of the time it was just a cover.
Most of his clients weren’t even hunters, something he hadn’t considered when he had started up. But at the end of the day it just made the cover that much better. He could travel freely, taking all kinds of artillery over state lines, and even up into Canada when he needed.
“Argent,” he said, not looking at the caller ID.
“Chris,” his sister drawled.
“Kate.” Chris rubbed his face. “What’s up?”
“I got into a little accident.” She sounded almost sweet and innocent over the line, but he could hear rustling which could only be her looking through the trunk of her car, going over the guns she had stashed back there. “I’m on the main road going into town. We’re gonna need to fix my window.”
“What happened?” Chris asked as he stood up, grabbing his jacket from behind his chair. He poked his head in where Victoria was already asleep, before heading down the stairs.
Kate was going on about the hunt she was on in Montana as he passed by Allison’s room, the light still on. Chris sighed, knocking once before opening the door a crack. Allison looked up guiltily from her computer, headphones on from where she was no doubt on Skype with that boyfriend of hers. Chris gave her a look.
“Allison,” he said sternly. “It’s a school night.”
She smiled sweetly, playing with the ends of her pigtails like she always did when she knew she was about to get in trouble. “Where are you going, dad?”
He let out a long suffering sigh. “Your aunt is coming into town and has a busted tire. I’m going to go look at it. When I get back I expect you off the computer and asleep.” She nodded, flushing a little when he added, “say goodnight to Scott,” as he shut the door.
“Chris, are you listening?” Kate asked as he jogged down the stairs.
“Yes. You heard news about the murders over here and decided to head over.”
“Yup. But here’s the strange part. I hit about Walla Walla and suddenly I pick up the trail of an alpha. Lead me straight back down here.”
Chris groaned. “Which is the accident you were just in.”
He heard Kate hum over the line, but he waited for her to speak. “Saw it too! Big, nasty thing. You know how alphas are, though. Two betas were behind it.”
“Two?”
Kate laughed. “You sound surprised, big brother.”
He groaned. “We’ll talk more when I get there, alright? I’ll fill you in on everything here.” He hung up the phone without a goodbye, starting his car as he dialed for Martin and Alexis. He’d need someone to pick up Kate’s car.
***
There was a soft blue light coming from what Derek could only assume was Scott’s room. He looked at the wrap around patio, trying to judge how best to jump up to Scott’s bedroom window while keeping Stiles comfortable. He had started to sweat as they ran, and Derek could smell the wolfsbane from the bullet seeping into Stiles’ blood stream. He needed to get the bullet out as soon as possible, and he would have done it already but they weren’t safe yet. He couldn’t help Stiles until they were safe.
“I have a key. Grab it from my pocket,” Stiles mumbled into his shoulder and Derek shifted him, not asking questions as he fumbled for Stiles’ keys, reaching inside his jean pocket.
He opened the door, stumbling in as Stiles tried to kick the door shut. Derek growled softly at him and Stiles smiled faintly.
“Don’t overexert yourself.”
“Dude, it’s just shutting the door,” Stiles said. “It’s not like I’m dying.”
Derek’s eyes narrowed at Stiles’ leg but instead of saying anything he just picked Stiles up, walking up the stairs. He didn’t want to risk Stiles hurting himself even more, but it worried him when Stiles just relaxed in his arms, not even giving a snide comment.
The scent of disease was getting stronger.
Derek focused on Scott’s scent instead, using it to figure out which room was his. He was surprised that Scott hadn’t come out to see who was stomping around, but he didn’t think too hard on it as he kicked the door to Scott’s room open, hurrying over to the bed so he could put Stiles down.
He ignored Scott’s shout of surprise, focusing all his attention on helping Stiles get his pants off. Or at least down to his knees. Derek just needed to see the bullet wound. Stiles hissed in pain but the snarky words Derek was sure were about to come out were cut off by Scott.
“What the fuck?!”
Derek growled, looking over the entry point on the side of Stiles’ right thigh. The wolfsbane had stopped the wound from healing over and he needed to get the bullet out.
Stiles’ scent spiked with fear. “Tweezers! Scott get tweezers!” Stiles ordered. Derek looked up at his face, frowning when he saw how pale Stiles had gotten.
He could hear Scott in the distance, having run out of the room to get tweezers, but Derek couldn’t focus on that. All he could focus on was the fact that his pack mate was hurt, smelled diseased. Derek knew that smell led to death.
Stiles grabbed his hands, making him finally noticed they were claws and he was about to rip into undamaged skin to try and get the bullet out.
“Calm down,” Stiles said as soothingly as possible. “I’m fine. I’m not bleeding as badly so it obviously didn’t hit a major artery, thank god, and so the chances of me dying are slim.” He stroked his thumb over the back of Derek’s hand, almost like he was urging them to retract back to his human hands. “Despite what movies tell you, a bullet wound doesn’t equal death. Actually it’s rarely an instant death sentence. I did my freshmen research project on it. Well, actually I was supposed to do it on the Civil War and how Red Badge of Courage related to it, or something, but the bulk of my paper was that bullets don’t kill people, poor health care kills people, and ripping my leg to shreds? Totally poor health care.”
Derek stared at him, watching Stiles’ face flicker. He was in pain and scared, the babbling just a defense mechanism to hide the fact. Derek flipped his hand around, linking their fingers together and squeezing Stiles’ hand in his.
“You’ll be okay,” Derek said as quietly as he could, trying to will his voice to convey how much he wanted that to be true.
Stiles shut his eyes, laying back. “Tell that to my body. I feel off.”
Scott returning stopped Derek from saying anything as he held out his other hand for the tweezers. He felt Scott hesitate and Derek turned the full force of his glare onto him. Scott jumped and handed them over as he said, “what the fuck?”
“I got shot,” Stiles said cheerfully, before letting out a cry as Derek dug the tweezers into the wound. He tried to work as quickly as possible, reopening the parts of the wound that were trying to heal so he could see better.
“Take Scott’s hand,” Derek said quietly, letting go of Stiles’ hand so he could get some leverage by resting his own on Stiles’ thigh.
“Why were you shot? What happened?” Scott slid onto his bed, taking Stiles’ hand without a second thought. Derek could feel Scott watching him.
“Hunters,” Derek said simply, getting a hold of the bullet and beginning to pull it out.
“We were chasing the alpha,” Stiles tried to continue, his breath coming out in pained pants. “Fuck that hurts.”
Derek held his breath as he finally got the bullet out of Stiles’ thigh, the stench of the wolfsbane poisoning Stiles hitting his nose full force.
“The alpha shot you?” Scott asked, finally pulling his eyes away from the wound.
Stiles hissed, and Derek was watching the wound, trying to will it to heal. It wasn’t. The part of Stiles that he had cut open was, but the bullet wound was still open, bleeding sluggishly.
“No,” Derek muttered, clutching the bullet in frustration.
“No, the alpha didn’t shoot him? Then who did? It’s not like there are people hunting at midnight!” Scott said, getting up to follow Derek as he stood up in disbelief.
Stiles was tense on the bed. Derek gave him a look. “You didn’t tell him?”
Stiles huffed. “It wasn’t his concern. He would just have been worried.”
“What? Tell me what?” Scott shoved Derek, and he growled threateningly. Scott didn’t back down. “Tell me right now or I’m calling the police.” He wasn’t looking at Stiles, staring Derek down as fiercely as he could.
Derek could smell Scott’s fear, and how it spiked when Derek snapped at him instead of answering but he stood his ground.
“There are hunters,” Stiles said slowly, gritting his teeth as he sat up. “Werewolf hunters. They know Derek’s here, and we think they are here for the alpha, because they’ve left us alone for the past couple of weeks, even though they know we’re here.”
Scott turned around quickly, going back to Stiles’ side. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
Stiles grimaced. “Didn’t want you to worry.” He looked down at the bullet wound, and Derek could see what he saw, his veins turning black around the wound. “Derek it’s not healing.”
Derek frowned, gripping the bullet in frustration. “I know. It had wolfsbane in it. The bullet.”
“That’s not good,” Stiles said, gritting his teeth as he tried to twist his leg so he got a better look at the damage.
Scott shot back up. “I’ll get peroxide.”
“It won’t do any good,” Derek muttered, looking at the bullet. He was trying to work out what could be done. He knew he had read about this before, it was in one of his books.
Scott stared at him. “What?”
“It won’t do any good,” Stiles repeated, dropping back onto the bed to stare at the ceiling. “We need another bullet, from the same hunter.” He flicked his eyes to Derek, unapologetic that he had researched this. “I didn’t recognize the person in the car. Just thought it was someone normal.”
Derek shifted on his feet, trying to remember anything about the hunter who had shot Stiles. He had been so focused on the alpha he hadn’t paid attention. “They must have been new here. It wasn’t any of the other three.”
“Stop talking over me,” Scott muttered, gripping Stiles’ hand. He shot Derek a glare. “Explain. Because I bet you aren’t going to be able to walk right into some hunter’s house, so you’re going to need me to do it. Right?”
Stiles looked guiltily at Derek. “You’d probably have the easiest time doing it anyway.”
“Why?”
“The head hunter is Allison’s dad,” Derek snapped.
Scott froze. “Allison’s dad shot you?”
“No,” Stiles said slowly. “But he probably knows who did.”
Scott sucked in a breath, running his hands through his hair. “This is so crazy. I had dinner with them last week and they were perfectly normal.”
Derek zoned out Scott’s whining, trying to work out who the second hunter was. He wanted to go out and track, his wolf was begging for him to do something instead of just sitting around, doing nothing while poison crept through his pack mate’s body.
“Derek.” Stiles’ voice snapped him back to attention.
“What?”
Stiles gave him a look, and Derek tried to relax. He hadn’t realized that he had started to shift to his wolf form. “Do you think you could get us a better idea of who it was? And grab your book so I can tell Scott exactly what he’ll be looking for?”
Derek nodded stiffly, walking forward to give Stiles a hug before he left. He didn’t care if Scott saw him in this moment because he needed this. Even if Stiles smelled like death he was still the only pack Derek had. He wasn’t going to let anything bad happen to him. He pulled away from Stiles. “Stay safe.”
Scott stood up with him and herded Derek towards the door, forcing him to walk down the stairs. Derek had to keep himself from looking back to where he had left Stiles. Scott walked him to the door, stopping him from leaving with a hand on his shoulder.
Derek looked at the contact in surprise before glaring at Scott. He didn’t remove his hand.
“What’s happening to Stiles?”
“He’s been shot.”
Scott returned his glare, dropping his voice. Stiles could probably hear them if he tried though. “There’s something else going on. You two seem to think is much worse than a simple gunshot. What was in the bullet? Wolfsbane?”
“Yes,” Derek gritted out.
Scott nodded. “His body isn’t healing the wound. It’s working against it, isn’t it? That’s why there are those black lines.”
“Yes.”
“How long before the poison reaches all parts of his body?”
Derek shrugged. “Doesn’t matter. It only needs to get to his heart.”
Scott dropped his hand, looking defeated for a moment before trying to steel himself. “He knows, doesn’t he?”
“Most likely.”
“We aren’t letting it get that far,” Scott said. “We can’t.”
“We won’t.” Derek sucked in a breath, stepping outside. “Make sure he stays here. I’ll be with him while you’re at school. Your mom isn’t coming home anytime soon, is she?”
Scott shook his head. “She’s working a full twenty-four hours.”
“I’ll text you all the information I find.” Derek started to walk away, but he stopped before Scott could shut the door. “Be safe tomorrow.” Scott looked surprised. “They’ll kill you if they know you’re working with us.” Derek left with the scent of Scott’s fear fresh in his mind.
***
Allison let out a shriek of delight as she returned from her morning run to see her Aunt Kate sitting at the kitchen counter nursing a cup of coffee.
“Aunt Kate!” Allison said as she ran up, wrapping sweaty arms around Kate.
Kate laughed, putting down her coffee so she could hug Allison back better. “Look who it is!” Kate took a step back, looking her up and down. “You’ve gotten so big.”
Allison laughed, a blush coming to her cheek. “Come on, it hasn’t been that long.”
Kate gave her a look. “Uh, yes it has. When did you become this tall, pretty thing? No wonder you scored yourself a boyfriend not even a month into your new school.”
Allison covered her face, trying not to remember that she is supposed to be upset with Scott for closing out of their webcam session for no reason last night, and then not even have the decency to return any of her texts seeing if he was alright. “You heard about that?”
“Your boyfriend? Of course I did. First thing your dad mentioned.” Kate pulled Allison to sit down next to her at the kitchen counter. “I heard he even came over to dinner. So you must like him.”
“Maybe a little,” Allison admitted, shy. She hadn’t thought much of Scott coming to dinner, but the way Kate said it made it seem like a huge deal. “How long are you staying? Maybe you’ll get to meet Scott.”
Kate grinned. “Oh, I’ll be around for awhile. Got a job around town that I need to do.”
Allison nodded, reaching for an apple. “I’ve missed you a lot, so it will be great to hang out with you.”
“I’m sure you don’t want to spend time with me when you have your friends.”
Allison laughed, thinking of what would happen if her group of friends mixed with her aunt. “But what if I like spending my time with my favourite aunt?”
Kate winked at her. “No harm in that.”
Allison looked at the clock, groaning as she saw the time. “I have to go to school. Do you want to drive me? We can talk in the car and maybe you’ll get to see Scott?”
“Wish I could but my engine broke down last night. That’s why your dad needed to get me.” Kate gave a half frown.
Allison paused. She must have heard her dad wrong when he said it was a flat tire. “Oh. Well. When your car gets fixed then?”
“Of course.” They hugged one more time before Allison ran out the door, kissing her dad and mom as she dashed for her car, hoping she would get to school on time.
She hadn’t forgotten that she was supposed to be upset with Scott, and she had every intention of ignoring him at least through homeroom because he could at least have texted her this morning to tell her he was alright. The last thing she had seen was someone, she wanted to say kicking in his bedroom door, and Scott letting out a shriek as he slammed the computer shut.
By the time she pulled into the school parking lot her thoughts had turned back to the pure worry that she had had the night before, and when she saw Scott locking his bike up it took all her control not to run up to him and give him a hug. She needed to show composure.
Scott turned to her before she could say anything, and he looked terrible. He looked like he hadn’t slept at all, and he jumped when he saw her, looking around frantically.
Allison frowned and opened up her arms. “You look like shit,” she said, beckoning Scott closer to her.
He hesitated before collapsing in her arms, pressing his face to her shoulder. “I feel like shit.”
“What happened last night?”
Scott shook his head. “Nothing. Nothing happened.”
Allison pulled back, looking him in the eye. “Then why didn’t you return any of my calls or my texts? I was worried sick.”
“I know. I know. I fell asleep.” Scott looked sheepish when she just glared at him, not believing that for a second. “I don’t want to talk about it Allison. Just trust me when I say everything is okay?”
Allison frowned, but she nodded, locking their fingers together. “If something’s the matter tell me okay?”
“You got it.” He smiled weakly at her before checking his phone.
Allison wished she knew what was bothering him, and she had planned on asking Stiles in Spanish class, since that was the first class they had without Scott, but then Stiles ended up being absent. Allison leaned over to ask Scott if Stiles was alright, and he jumped, shoving his phone away, almost getting them caught by their English teacher.
Scott shook his head when she opened her mouth to ask about Stiles and Allison pulled away from him, confused. She couldn’t understand why Scott was acting distant and completely on edge. He kept checking his cell phone every few moments, sending messages out. Allison hadn’t wanted to be too nosy but she saw that a few of them were sent to Stiles, while some were sent to someone he hadn’t put in his phone yet. If it had just been Stiles Scott was texting Allison could understand, because they had a close friendship, and were constantly checking on one another, but it wasn’t.
She was confused and she didn’t like being confused. She walked alone from Spanish to Chemistry, meeting up with Danny halfway there because normally she had Stiles with her, and the three of them would walk together. She gave Danny a faint smile.
“Hey. Heard about Stiles?” Allison asked, dodging someone who was running for their next class.
Danny nodded. “Yeah. He texted me this morning. Said he came down with a pretty bad stomach bug. It’s throwing him for a loop.”
“I can imagine. Scott’s been texting him all day.”
Danny laughed. “Sounds about right. Wouldn’t surprise me if Scott took off during lunch to go check on him.”
“You think?”
“Sure.” He shrugged. “I’ve done it once or twice for Jackson. Sucks being without your best friend.”
“I guess.” Allison pursed her lips. “Maybe I’ll go with him to check on Stiles after school.”
Danny held open the classroom door for her. “Mind if I tag along?”
“No, that will probably make Stiles feel better, you know?” Allison said after a moment of thought. She took her seat in front of Danny, smiling as Lydia slid into the seat to her left.
“What would make Stiles feel better?” Lydia asked, looking around. “And where is he?”
Danny leaned forward, laughing. “He’s sick.” Lydia scrunched up her nose in distaste. “Me, Allison and Scott are gonna go over and see him after school. Do you want to come along?” He grinned. “I’m sure that’ll make him feel better.”
Lydia rolled her eyes. “I have better things to do than get sick. However I’ll make up a list of his missing homework and he can feel my presence that way.” She flashed a wicked grin and Allison couldn’t help but laugh. Sometimes she didn’t understand half the friendships in their group. She was sure everyone was in fact friends, and got along in a weird, possibly twisted way, but sometimes it didn’t seem that way.
Scott came in last, dragging his feet and looking even worse than he had when Allison had left him at the end of first period. He slumped into his seat and didn’t look up until Allison had poked him in the side twice. Before they could talk though, Mr. Harris called the class to attention, beginning his lecture, and then immediately getting them into a lab.
Allison didn’t have time to think much more about Scott and his obvious exhaustion until they were being let out for lunch. She tried to catch him, but Scott was already out the classroom door, on his phone and Allison couldn’t run after him without drawing attention to herself. She sighed, turning to follow Lydia, Danny and Jackson into the lunchroom.
Lydia looped arms with her, tapping her cheek lightly. “Perk up. At least you know about Scott’s co-dependence early. It can only save the relationship.”
Allison laughed, but she couldn’t help but worry. Something was definitely off.
***
Derek felt his bones itching as he stood out in the parking lot, waiting for Scott to come out so he could hand him the pages Stiles had made him photocopy so Scott would have some idea what to look for when he was searching through the Argents’ house. Of course it was the Argents who had done this, attacking because they could.
It left a terrible taste in his mouth, one that had been there since he had picked up exactly who it was in that car. He hadn’t been expecting it, and really he should have been. He knew there was always the risk of running into her again, and knowing she was here just made him want to run away. He would take Stiles and they would run. It was safer. They had gotten too lax, too comfortable and this is what had happened.
He saw Scott running from the side of the school, not even checking over his shoulder to see if he was being followed. Derek could tell how terrible he felt. He knew Scott hadn’t slept the night before, staying up with Stiles while Derek was gone, and refusing to go back to bed when Derek had returned.
“Do you have it?” Scott asked, swinging his backpack around so he could open it.
Derek nodded, holding out the pages. “Stiles wasn’t sure if you knew what wolfsbane looked like, so he made me include a picture of that, as well as a picture of the bullet.”
Scott snorted. “That’s a good sign. If Stiles can be a jerk then he’s still fine.” His eyes scanned over the pages, nodding as he read them. “And so if we get this bullet, we can save him right?”
“Yes.” Derek didn’t have the luxury to doubt his memory or the lore. This is what they said could save a wolf from wolfsbane poisoning and he was going to believe it.
“I’ll go right after school. You said I should be looking through Allison’s aunt’s stuff right?” And now Scott seemed unsure, thrown off by the idea of snooping no doubt.
“Yes. And remember if you need anything call me.”
“Got it.” Scott looked back at the school, probably gauging how much time he had to get back for lunch. “How is Stiles? He stopped replying to my texts so I hope he’s getting some rest.”
Derek shrugged as he flexed his hand, his arm stinging with the memory of taking a bit of Stiles’ pain from him. “He argued with me about sleep making the poison go faster, but being active won’t stop that. Better that he gets some rest.”
Scott nodded and started to walk backwards. “Keep me updated. I’ll get everything as soon as possible.”
Derek watched Scott run off and waited for him to be back in school before he took off back towards Stiles.
Part 2
Author: kayevelyn
Fandom: Teen Wolf
Pairing: Stiles/Derek
Rating: Overall R
Warnings: eventual knotting
Summary: Stiles is the best werewolf ever. fork in the road au. (were!stiles)
[Read on AO3]
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
“So on a scale of one to ten, what do you think are the chances of us seeing the alpha tonight,” Stiles asked, hands stuffed in his pockets as he followed Derek through the town.
They weren’t running, even though alpha’s scent was thick in the air. Stiles had grown tired of the goose chase the alpha was taking them on by the Wednesday after they started following him, and two weeks on he was not enjoying it any more. Especially since Derek and him had to limit their hunts to late at night, heads ducked, constantly on the lookout for anyone because they didn’t want to risk being caught together.
The hunters had put a lookout by Derek’s apartment immediately after leaving, causing Stiles’ exit to be a challenge, and making meeting up there ever again too dangerous of a risk. Derek had told him if the hunters knew he had been turned nothing would stop them from killing the two of them, no matter how under control Stiles was. So they couldn’t be seen together, which would have been a great thing to think about before they had spent the last month running around together without a care in the world.
Stiles knew it was just luck that no one mentioned Derek during school, and he could only assume Allison didn’t think anything of it, or at least not enough to mention it to her father. Her father, the hunter who was after them. Hunters were the enemy, and Stiles knew he saw the world in black and white most times, good versus bad, but this whole situation just made it more obvious. It was them versus the other. There could be no middle ground, just the strange, tense standoff that there was now. The shaky unspoken truce that could snap so quickly.
Stiles didn’t even want to think what would happen when the truce broke. He didn’t want to think what he would be capable of.
“Stiles, Stiles!” Derek growled, grabbing him by the shoulder to stop him.
Stiles frowned, snapped out of his thoughts. “What?” He looked down the street, following Derek’s gaze. His eyes narrowed as a large dark form came into focus, furry, with blood red eyes.
Stiles gasped, and his body shifted on instinct. Beside him he felt Derek shift too, body tensing as his claws came out. He growled, crouching down ready to spring, and Stiles copied him.
The alpha moved, running away from them. Derek was sprinting a moment later, and Stiles followed him, not even thinking. He had the alpha in his sights for the first time since he was bit. He was not going to lose him.
They veered towards the main road, gaining on the alpha with each turn. It was large and fast, but took sharp turns slower than Derek or he needed to, and they were able to weave through the trees more easily than the alpha.
Stiles burst onto the main road behind Derek, swerving in front of the stopped car, jumping over broken glass, body already preparing to make the jump up onto the metal awning outside the local diner before getting to the roof, where he could see the alpha running. Derek was only a few beats ahead of him, making the jump with no effort, not breaking his stride as he landed on the roof.
Stiles followed him, touching down on the awning only to spring up to the roof. His feet hit the ground at the same time he felt something rip through his leg, a loud bang echoing through the night.
He dropped, rolling in pain as he grabbed his thigh. He felt blood on his hands and he forced his eyes open to try and assess the damage. Another shot went off, and Stiles saw Derek drop down beside him, but he didn’t smell fresh blood. Derek wasn’t hit.
“The alpha?” Stiles asked as he let Derek take his hand away from the wound. The bullet wound. He’d been shot.
“Don’t worry,” Derek gritted his teeth as he tried to look at the wound. “I need to get this out of you.”
There was another shot that hit right above them. They were hidden behind the ledge of the roof, but there was one more shot, and if Stiles focused he could hear the sound of a gun being cracked open to reload.
“Hunters?”
Derek shook his head. “I didn’t look.” He pulled away from Stiles’ thigh. “We need to move you. We need somewhere safe.”
“My dad’s home tonight,” Stiles reminded him, closing his eyes as Derek maneuvered them to a crouching position, ducking around the roof to climb down the other side.
Stiles watched Derek look down, making sure their attacker wasn’t lurking around. “We aren’t going to the old house, hunters have been there.”
Stiles grimaced as Derek picked him up, and a jolt went through his body as Derek landed on the ground, running quickly down a back alley to get them as far away from their attacker as possible. He sucked in a breath, trying to think. There was only one other option, one place that was safe, even though he knew it would probably end badly for everyone.
“Head to Scott’s.”
***
His private cell phone went off at midnight, and Chris rubbed his eyes as he looked up from the accounts he was going over. He had hired Martin under the pretense of doing them, but the truth was he couldn’t trust anyone but himself to double-check them. Running a business was tough, even if most of the time it was just a cover.
Most of his clients weren’t even hunters, something he hadn’t considered when he had started up. But at the end of the day it just made the cover that much better. He could travel freely, taking all kinds of artillery over state lines, and even up into Canada when he needed.
“Argent,” he said, not looking at the caller ID.
“Chris,” his sister drawled.
“Kate.” Chris rubbed his face. “What’s up?”
“I got into a little accident.” She sounded almost sweet and innocent over the line, but he could hear rustling which could only be her looking through the trunk of her car, going over the guns she had stashed back there. “I’m on the main road going into town. We’re gonna need to fix my window.”
“What happened?” Chris asked as he stood up, grabbing his jacket from behind his chair. He poked his head in where Victoria was already asleep, before heading down the stairs.
Kate was going on about the hunt she was on in Montana as he passed by Allison’s room, the light still on. Chris sighed, knocking once before opening the door a crack. Allison looked up guiltily from her computer, headphones on from where she was no doubt on Skype with that boyfriend of hers. Chris gave her a look.
“Allison,” he said sternly. “It’s a school night.”
She smiled sweetly, playing with the ends of her pigtails like she always did when she knew she was about to get in trouble. “Where are you going, dad?”
He let out a long suffering sigh. “Your aunt is coming into town and has a busted tire. I’m going to go look at it. When I get back I expect you off the computer and asleep.” She nodded, flushing a little when he added, “say goodnight to Scott,” as he shut the door.
“Chris, are you listening?” Kate asked as he jogged down the stairs.
“Yes. You heard news about the murders over here and decided to head over.”
“Yup. But here’s the strange part. I hit about Walla Walla and suddenly I pick up the trail of an alpha. Lead me straight back down here.”
Chris groaned. “Which is the accident you were just in.”
He heard Kate hum over the line, but he waited for her to speak. “Saw it too! Big, nasty thing. You know how alphas are, though. Two betas were behind it.”
“Two?”
Kate laughed. “You sound surprised, big brother.”
He groaned. “We’ll talk more when I get there, alright? I’ll fill you in on everything here.” He hung up the phone without a goodbye, starting his car as he dialed for Martin and Alexis. He’d need someone to pick up Kate’s car.
***
There was a soft blue light coming from what Derek could only assume was Scott’s room. He looked at the wrap around patio, trying to judge how best to jump up to Scott’s bedroom window while keeping Stiles comfortable. He had started to sweat as they ran, and Derek could smell the wolfsbane from the bullet seeping into Stiles’ blood stream. He needed to get the bullet out as soon as possible, and he would have done it already but they weren’t safe yet. He couldn’t help Stiles until they were safe.
“I have a key. Grab it from my pocket,” Stiles mumbled into his shoulder and Derek shifted him, not asking questions as he fumbled for Stiles’ keys, reaching inside his jean pocket.
He opened the door, stumbling in as Stiles tried to kick the door shut. Derek growled softly at him and Stiles smiled faintly.
“Don’t overexert yourself.”
“Dude, it’s just shutting the door,” Stiles said. “It’s not like I’m dying.”
Derek’s eyes narrowed at Stiles’ leg but instead of saying anything he just picked Stiles up, walking up the stairs. He didn’t want to risk Stiles hurting himself even more, but it worried him when Stiles just relaxed in his arms, not even giving a snide comment.
The scent of disease was getting stronger.
Derek focused on Scott’s scent instead, using it to figure out which room was his. He was surprised that Scott hadn’t come out to see who was stomping around, but he didn’t think too hard on it as he kicked the door to Scott’s room open, hurrying over to the bed so he could put Stiles down.
He ignored Scott’s shout of surprise, focusing all his attention on helping Stiles get his pants off. Or at least down to his knees. Derek just needed to see the bullet wound. Stiles hissed in pain but the snarky words Derek was sure were about to come out were cut off by Scott.
“What the fuck?!”
Derek growled, looking over the entry point on the side of Stiles’ right thigh. The wolfsbane had stopped the wound from healing over and he needed to get the bullet out.
Stiles’ scent spiked with fear. “Tweezers! Scott get tweezers!” Stiles ordered. Derek looked up at his face, frowning when he saw how pale Stiles had gotten.
He could hear Scott in the distance, having run out of the room to get tweezers, but Derek couldn’t focus on that. All he could focus on was the fact that his pack mate was hurt, smelled diseased. Derek knew that smell led to death.
Stiles grabbed his hands, making him finally noticed they were claws and he was about to rip into undamaged skin to try and get the bullet out.
“Calm down,” Stiles said as soothingly as possible. “I’m fine. I’m not bleeding as badly so it obviously didn’t hit a major artery, thank god, and so the chances of me dying are slim.” He stroked his thumb over the back of Derek’s hand, almost like he was urging them to retract back to his human hands. “Despite what movies tell you, a bullet wound doesn’t equal death. Actually it’s rarely an instant death sentence. I did my freshmen research project on it. Well, actually I was supposed to do it on the Civil War and how Red Badge of Courage related to it, or something, but the bulk of my paper was that bullets don’t kill people, poor health care kills people, and ripping my leg to shreds? Totally poor health care.”
Derek stared at him, watching Stiles’ face flicker. He was in pain and scared, the babbling just a defense mechanism to hide the fact. Derek flipped his hand around, linking their fingers together and squeezing Stiles’ hand in his.
“You’ll be okay,” Derek said as quietly as he could, trying to will his voice to convey how much he wanted that to be true.
Stiles shut his eyes, laying back. “Tell that to my body. I feel off.”
Scott returning stopped Derek from saying anything as he held out his other hand for the tweezers. He felt Scott hesitate and Derek turned the full force of his glare onto him. Scott jumped and handed them over as he said, “what the fuck?”
“I got shot,” Stiles said cheerfully, before letting out a cry as Derek dug the tweezers into the wound. He tried to work as quickly as possible, reopening the parts of the wound that were trying to heal so he could see better.
“Take Scott’s hand,” Derek said quietly, letting go of Stiles’ hand so he could get some leverage by resting his own on Stiles’ thigh.
“Why were you shot? What happened?” Scott slid onto his bed, taking Stiles’ hand without a second thought. Derek could feel Scott watching him.
“Hunters,” Derek said simply, getting a hold of the bullet and beginning to pull it out.
“We were chasing the alpha,” Stiles tried to continue, his breath coming out in pained pants. “Fuck that hurts.”
Derek held his breath as he finally got the bullet out of Stiles’ thigh, the stench of the wolfsbane poisoning Stiles hitting his nose full force.
“The alpha shot you?” Scott asked, finally pulling his eyes away from the wound.
Stiles hissed, and Derek was watching the wound, trying to will it to heal. It wasn’t. The part of Stiles that he had cut open was, but the bullet wound was still open, bleeding sluggishly.
“No,” Derek muttered, clutching the bullet in frustration.
“No, the alpha didn’t shoot him? Then who did? It’s not like there are people hunting at midnight!” Scott said, getting up to follow Derek as he stood up in disbelief.
Stiles was tense on the bed. Derek gave him a look. “You didn’t tell him?”
Stiles huffed. “It wasn’t his concern. He would just have been worried.”
“What? Tell me what?” Scott shoved Derek, and he growled threateningly. Scott didn’t back down. “Tell me right now or I’m calling the police.” He wasn’t looking at Stiles, staring Derek down as fiercely as he could.
Derek could smell Scott’s fear, and how it spiked when Derek snapped at him instead of answering but he stood his ground.
“There are hunters,” Stiles said slowly, gritting his teeth as he sat up. “Werewolf hunters. They know Derek’s here, and we think they are here for the alpha, because they’ve left us alone for the past couple of weeks, even though they know we’re here.”
Scott turned around quickly, going back to Stiles’ side. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
Stiles grimaced. “Didn’t want you to worry.” He looked down at the bullet wound, and Derek could see what he saw, his veins turning black around the wound. “Derek it’s not healing.”
Derek frowned, gripping the bullet in frustration. “I know. It had wolfsbane in it. The bullet.”
“That’s not good,” Stiles said, gritting his teeth as he tried to twist his leg so he got a better look at the damage.
Scott shot back up. “I’ll get peroxide.”
“It won’t do any good,” Derek muttered, looking at the bullet. He was trying to work out what could be done. He knew he had read about this before, it was in one of his books.
Scott stared at him. “What?”
“It won’t do any good,” Stiles repeated, dropping back onto the bed to stare at the ceiling. “We need another bullet, from the same hunter.” He flicked his eyes to Derek, unapologetic that he had researched this. “I didn’t recognize the person in the car. Just thought it was someone normal.”
Derek shifted on his feet, trying to remember anything about the hunter who had shot Stiles. He had been so focused on the alpha he hadn’t paid attention. “They must have been new here. It wasn’t any of the other three.”
“Stop talking over me,” Scott muttered, gripping Stiles’ hand. He shot Derek a glare. “Explain. Because I bet you aren’t going to be able to walk right into some hunter’s house, so you’re going to need me to do it. Right?”
Stiles looked guiltily at Derek. “You’d probably have the easiest time doing it anyway.”
“Why?”
“The head hunter is Allison’s dad,” Derek snapped.
Scott froze. “Allison’s dad shot you?”
“No,” Stiles said slowly. “But he probably knows who did.”
Scott sucked in a breath, running his hands through his hair. “This is so crazy. I had dinner with them last week and they were perfectly normal.”
Derek zoned out Scott’s whining, trying to work out who the second hunter was. He wanted to go out and track, his wolf was begging for him to do something instead of just sitting around, doing nothing while poison crept through his pack mate’s body.
“Derek.” Stiles’ voice snapped him back to attention.
“What?”
Stiles gave him a look, and Derek tried to relax. He hadn’t realized that he had started to shift to his wolf form. “Do you think you could get us a better idea of who it was? And grab your book so I can tell Scott exactly what he’ll be looking for?”
Derek nodded stiffly, walking forward to give Stiles a hug before he left. He didn’t care if Scott saw him in this moment because he needed this. Even if Stiles smelled like death he was still the only pack Derek had. He wasn’t going to let anything bad happen to him. He pulled away from Stiles. “Stay safe.”
Scott stood up with him and herded Derek towards the door, forcing him to walk down the stairs. Derek had to keep himself from looking back to where he had left Stiles. Scott walked him to the door, stopping him from leaving with a hand on his shoulder.
Derek looked at the contact in surprise before glaring at Scott. He didn’t remove his hand.
“What’s happening to Stiles?”
“He’s been shot.”
Scott returned his glare, dropping his voice. Stiles could probably hear them if he tried though. “There’s something else going on. You two seem to think is much worse than a simple gunshot. What was in the bullet? Wolfsbane?”
“Yes,” Derek gritted out.
Scott nodded. “His body isn’t healing the wound. It’s working against it, isn’t it? That’s why there are those black lines.”
“Yes.”
“How long before the poison reaches all parts of his body?”
Derek shrugged. “Doesn’t matter. It only needs to get to his heart.”
Scott dropped his hand, looking defeated for a moment before trying to steel himself. “He knows, doesn’t he?”
“Most likely.”
“We aren’t letting it get that far,” Scott said. “We can’t.”
“We won’t.” Derek sucked in a breath, stepping outside. “Make sure he stays here. I’ll be with him while you’re at school. Your mom isn’t coming home anytime soon, is she?”
Scott shook his head. “She’s working a full twenty-four hours.”
“I’ll text you all the information I find.” Derek started to walk away, but he stopped before Scott could shut the door. “Be safe tomorrow.” Scott looked surprised. “They’ll kill you if they know you’re working with us.” Derek left with the scent of Scott’s fear fresh in his mind.
***
Allison let out a shriek of delight as she returned from her morning run to see her Aunt Kate sitting at the kitchen counter nursing a cup of coffee.
“Aunt Kate!” Allison said as she ran up, wrapping sweaty arms around Kate.
Kate laughed, putting down her coffee so she could hug Allison back better. “Look who it is!” Kate took a step back, looking her up and down. “You’ve gotten so big.”
Allison laughed, a blush coming to her cheek. “Come on, it hasn’t been that long.”
Kate gave her a look. “Uh, yes it has. When did you become this tall, pretty thing? No wonder you scored yourself a boyfriend not even a month into your new school.”
Allison covered her face, trying not to remember that she is supposed to be upset with Scott for closing out of their webcam session for no reason last night, and then not even have the decency to return any of her texts seeing if he was alright. “You heard about that?”
“Your boyfriend? Of course I did. First thing your dad mentioned.” Kate pulled Allison to sit down next to her at the kitchen counter. “I heard he even came over to dinner. So you must like him.”
“Maybe a little,” Allison admitted, shy. She hadn’t thought much of Scott coming to dinner, but the way Kate said it made it seem like a huge deal. “How long are you staying? Maybe you’ll get to meet Scott.”
Kate grinned. “Oh, I’ll be around for awhile. Got a job around town that I need to do.”
Allison nodded, reaching for an apple. “I’ve missed you a lot, so it will be great to hang out with you.”
“I’m sure you don’t want to spend time with me when you have your friends.”
Allison laughed, thinking of what would happen if her group of friends mixed with her aunt. “But what if I like spending my time with my favourite aunt?”
Kate winked at her. “No harm in that.”
Allison looked at the clock, groaning as she saw the time. “I have to go to school. Do you want to drive me? We can talk in the car and maybe you’ll get to see Scott?”
“Wish I could but my engine broke down last night. That’s why your dad needed to get me.” Kate gave a half frown.
Allison paused. She must have heard her dad wrong when he said it was a flat tire. “Oh. Well. When your car gets fixed then?”
“Of course.” They hugged one more time before Allison ran out the door, kissing her dad and mom as she dashed for her car, hoping she would get to school on time.
She hadn’t forgotten that she was supposed to be upset with Scott, and she had every intention of ignoring him at least through homeroom because he could at least have texted her this morning to tell her he was alright. The last thing she had seen was someone, she wanted to say kicking in his bedroom door, and Scott letting out a shriek as he slammed the computer shut.
By the time she pulled into the school parking lot her thoughts had turned back to the pure worry that she had had the night before, and when she saw Scott locking his bike up it took all her control not to run up to him and give him a hug. She needed to show composure.
Scott turned to her before she could say anything, and he looked terrible. He looked like he hadn’t slept at all, and he jumped when he saw her, looking around frantically.
Allison frowned and opened up her arms. “You look like shit,” she said, beckoning Scott closer to her.
He hesitated before collapsing in her arms, pressing his face to her shoulder. “I feel like shit.”
“What happened last night?”
Scott shook his head. “Nothing. Nothing happened.”
Allison pulled back, looking him in the eye. “Then why didn’t you return any of my calls or my texts? I was worried sick.”
“I know. I know. I fell asleep.” Scott looked sheepish when she just glared at him, not believing that for a second. “I don’t want to talk about it Allison. Just trust me when I say everything is okay?”
Allison frowned, but she nodded, locking their fingers together. “If something’s the matter tell me okay?”
“You got it.” He smiled weakly at her before checking his phone.
Allison wished she knew what was bothering him, and she had planned on asking Stiles in Spanish class, since that was the first class they had without Scott, but then Stiles ended up being absent. Allison leaned over to ask Scott if Stiles was alright, and he jumped, shoving his phone away, almost getting them caught by their English teacher.
Scott shook his head when she opened her mouth to ask about Stiles and Allison pulled away from him, confused. She couldn’t understand why Scott was acting distant and completely on edge. He kept checking his cell phone every few moments, sending messages out. Allison hadn’t wanted to be too nosy but she saw that a few of them were sent to Stiles, while some were sent to someone he hadn’t put in his phone yet. If it had just been Stiles Scott was texting Allison could understand, because they had a close friendship, and were constantly checking on one another, but it wasn’t.
She was confused and she didn’t like being confused. She walked alone from Spanish to Chemistry, meeting up with Danny halfway there because normally she had Stiles with her, and the three of them would walk together. She gave Danny a faint smile.
“Hey. Heard about Stiles?” Allison asked, dodging someone who was running for their next class.
Danny nodded. “Yeah. He texted me this morning. Said he came down with a pretty bad stomach bug. It’s throwing him for a loop.”
“I can imagine. Scott’s been texting him all day.”
Danny laughed. “Sounds about right. Wouldn’t surprise me if Scott took off during lunch to go check on him.”
“You think?”
“Sure.” He shrugged. “I’ve done it once or twice for Jackson. Sucks being without your best friend.”
“I guess.” Allison pursed her lips. “Maybe I’ll go with him to check on Stiles after school.”
Danny held open the classroom door for her. “Mind if I tag along?”
“No, that will probably make Stiles feel better, you know?” Allison said after a moment of thought. She took her seat in front of Danny, smiling as Lydia slid into the seat to her left.
“What would make Stiles feel better?” Lydia asked, looking around. “And where is he?”
Danny leaned forward, laughing. “He’s sick.” Lydia scrunched up her nose in distaste. “Me, Allison and Scott are gonna go over and see him after school. Do you want to come along?” He grinned. “I’m sure that’ll make him feel better.”
Lydia rolled her eyes. “I have better things to do than get sick. However I’ll make up a list of his missing homework and he can feel my presence that way.” She flashed a wicked grin and Allison couldn’t help but laugh. Sometimes she didn’t understand half the friendships in their group. She was sure everyone was in fact friends, and got along in a weird, possibly twisted way, but sometimes it didn’t seem that way.
Scott came in last, dragging his feet and looking even worse than he had when Allison had left him at the end of first period. He slumped into his seat and didn’t look up until Allison had poked him in the side twice. Before they could talk though, Mr. Harris called the class to attention, beginning his lecture, and then immediately getting them into a lab.
Allison didn’t have time to think much more about Scott and his obvious exhaustion until they were being let out for lunch. She tried to catch him, but Scott was already out the classroom door, on his phone and Allison couldn’t run after him without drawing attention to herself. She sighed, turning to follow Lydia, Danny and Jackson into the lunchroom.
Lydia looped arms with her, tapping her cheek lightly. “Perk up. At least you know about Scott’s co-dependence early. It can only save the relationship.”
Allison laughed, but she couldn’t help but worry. Something was definitely off.
***
Derek felt his bones itching as he stood out in the parking lot, waiting for Scott to come out so he could hand him the pages Stiles had made him photocopy so Scott would have some idea what to look for when he was searching through the Argents’ house. Of course it was the Argents who had done this, attacking because they could.
It left a terrible taste in his mouth, one that had been there since he had picked up exactly who it was in that car. He hadn’t been expecting it, and really he should have been. He knew there was always the risk of running into her again, and knowing she was here just made him want to run away. He would take Stiles and they would run. It was safer. They had gotten too lax, too comfortable and this is what had happened.
He saw Scott running from the side of the school, not even checking over his shoulder to see if he was being followed. Derek could tell how terrible he felt. He knew Scott hadn’t slept the night before, staying up with Stiles while Derek was gone, and refusing to go back to bed when Derek had returned.
“Do you have it?” Scott asked, swinging his backpack around so he could open it.
Derek nodded, holding out the pages. “Stiles wasn’t sure if you knew what wolfsbane looked like, so he made me include a picture of that, as well as a picture of the bullet.”
Scott snorted. “That’s a good sign. If Stiles can be a jerk then he’s still fine.” His eyes scanned over the pages, nodding as he read them. “And so if we get this bullet, we can save him right?”
“Yes.” Derek didn’t have the luxury to doubt his memory or the lore. This is what they said could save a wolf from wolfsbane poisoning and he was going to believe it.
“I’ll go right after school. You said I should be looking through Allison’s aunt’s stuff right?” And now Scott seemed unsure, thrown off by the idea of snooping no doubt.
“Yes. And remember if you need anything call me.”
“Got it.” Scott looked back at the school, probably gauging how much time he had to get back for lunch. “How is Stiles? He stopped replying to my texts so I hope he’s getting some rest.”
Derek shrugged as he flexed his hand, his arm stinging with the memory of taking a bit of Stiles’ pain from him. “He argued with me about sleep making the poison go faster, but being active won’t stop that. Better that he gets some rest.”
Scott nodded and started to walk backwards. “Keep me updated. I’ll get everything as soon as possible.”
Derek watched Scott run off and waited for him to be back in school before he took off back towards Stiles.
Part 2