Chapter Text
Between the chatter and the engines running and the people moving around, it was hard for Allison isolate the heavy thumping of Lydia’s heart, but somehow when Stiles started whispering his voice rose immediately above the din.
“There’s a body,” he said. “Lydia and Jackson weren’t the targets. I don’t think he was even interested in them.”
Allison nodded, even though he wasn’t looking at her, and sought out Lydia’s heartbeat again. It was still hammering, and when Lydia told the police she hadn’t seen anything she was lying.
“Come on.” Derek pulled on Allison’s elbow to turn her away from the scene below and she followed him back across roof with her head down and her arms tucked against her sides. He’d already reached the edge when she stopped and scowled.
“Derek?”
He turned to face her.
“Is - this looks weird. The roof is different colors.” She climbed up onto one of the raised metal contraptions beside her to get a better look. Her scowl got deeper. “There’s a spiral.”
“Move,” he ordered, and she scrambled out of the way so he could climb up.
“What does it mean?”
He glared at the thick dark lines of the spiral and jumped down, but he didn’t stop to answer her question - he didn't say anything, in fact, until they'd gotten all the way back to his car, and even then it was a perfunctory, "Get in."
Allison watched his face change colors as they passed beneath the streetlights, and it wasn't until they'd gotten out of town and onto the long twisting road that lead out to his property that she asked again. “What does the spiral mean?”
“It means he’s got a vendetta. They’re revenge killings,” said Derek.
“For the fire?”
“I don’t know."
“Did you know Mr. Jenkins?”
He scowled. “Who?”
“The video store manager.”
Derek shook his head.
“If it’s revenge for the fire, why would he kill Laura?” asked Allison.
“I don’t know,” repeated Derek, but it was more of a growl this time.
“Did anyone else - was anyone else not there?”
“No. One person survived.”
“Werewolf?” she asked.
“He’s not much of anything anymore,” said Derek. “Our best bet is to find out what Lydia and Jackson saw, and keep following Laura’s trail. Whatever she found put her in his way.”
Allison agreed quietly.
She filled Stiles in before school the next day. The news that the killings were done for revenge didn’t get much of a reaction from him, but he promised to try and find out about the fire survivor and when she told him that they needed to talk to Lydia and Jackson he groaned.
“Can we at least draw straws to see who has to talk to who?”
“No,” said Allison. “Lydia and I are lab partners and you’re on the lacrosse team with Jackson.”
“But I hate him, and he only knows I exist is when he’s being a prick to me.”
Allison stared him down and he groaned again and rolled his eyes.
“Fine.”
She smiled and hooked an arm through his elbow so she could pull him to class.
* * *
Lydia wasn’t at school, so Allison went to see her that afternoon and found her in bed, doped up on prescription medication. The conversation didn’t yield much.
“Did you see anyone else out there? Before the attack? Did anyone else go into the store?”
“Jackson did,” said Lydia.
“Aside from that,” said Allison.
Lydia leaned against her, pressing her face into Allison’s shoulder. “You smell nice.”
Allison sighed. “Thanks.”
Eventually she got Lydia to migrate downstairs with her to watch a movie, and by the time it was over, Lydia seemed to be approaching sobriety. She curled up against Allison’s side on the couch.
“I didn’t see anybody before the window broke. You doing some kind of Veronica Mars thing?”
“Something like that,” said Allison. “What about after the window broke?”
Lydia got quiet.
“Please? I won't laugh. I need to know what you saw."
Lydia reached over and grabbed her cell phone and handed it to Allison, who gave her a questioning look before waking it up and unlocking it. The phone opened to a video, and when Allison glanced at Lydia she said, "Play it," so Allison did. The alpha's red eyes flashed as he leapt through the front window of the video store, and then it was over.
“It walked away,” said Lydia. “Like a person. I saw him in my rearview mirror. He just strolled off down the street like nothing happened.”
“What did he look like?”
“Tall. He had nice hair.” Lydia shrugged. “At least I think so. I couldn’t really see much, it was dark. Which I'm kind of grateful for because I'm pretty sure he was naked. Sorry.”
“Don’t be. It’s more than I had before.”
Lydia’s hands tightened around Allison’s arm. “Do you know what it was?”
Allison hesitated and then said, “Yes.”
“Are you going to tell me?” asked Lydia.
“Not yet. Do you want me to?”
Lydia thought about it for a few minutes. “Not yet,” she decided.
Allison leaned over and kissed the top of Lydia’s head. “I have to go.”
Lydia pouted a little, but she allowed Allison to disentangle herself so that she could get up and locate her shoes.
“You should probably delete that video,” said Allison. “We don’t want anyone else finding it.”
“We don’t?” asked Lydia. Allison shook her head. She was almost out the door when she heard Lydia say, "Happy Birthday."
She glanced back to find Lydia smiling a sad, sleepy smile at her, and Allison returned one that was warm and genuine. "Thanks."
* * *
There was a little gravel parking lot about two miles from Derek’s house where people could leave their cars while they explored the running trail. Allison parked there and ran, like Derek had told her to, but when she got near the house she was surprised to smell other people. Familiar people. Kate, Jim, and Jeremy to be precise. She strained her ears and heard a loud thump, the crackling of an electrified riot stick, and her aunt’s laughter.
“Well, this one grew up in all the right places. I don’t know whether to kill it or lick it.”
Allison swallowed. There were four heartbeats in the house but only two people moving around - small, light footsteps pacing around the body of someone who was crawling across the floor. She growled without meaning to.
“I hear you’re building up the ranks,” crowed Kate, “I couldn’t believe it, but those monster movie posters aren’t really your style, are they Derek?” She received a growl in response and chuckled. “You know it’s not too late for everybody to come out of this happy.” She laughed again and clicked her tongue. “Well, I say happy.”
Allison could hear an easy grin in every word that she could picture clear as day. She had seen it too many times to count - most recently before school that very morning, when Kate had given Allison her birthday present early (Kate had always been impatient about presents). It was a pendant that Kate claimed was an old family heirloom, and Allison actually liked the little depiction of a wolf and star, so she'd worn it happily. Now it hung heavy around her neck, rooting her feet to the ground where she stood as bile rose in her throat.
“Come on, Derek, smile! You’ve got a new pack. And if you just tell me who the alpha is, I might be able to resist cooking your new pup extra crispy.”
There was a growl and a zap and several thumps and Allison heard Derek dragging himself over the floor again. She vaguely registered that her hands were shaking and her claws were sliding out, but Kate was talking again.
“Work with me, here. He killed your sister. You know that right? She was dead when we found her. If you just tell us who he is, we’ll take care of him for you and everybody wins.” There was a creak of leather as Kate knelt down, and Derek’s pulse rose. Allison’s teeth grew into fangs and she growled again. “Or I could go find that pup he turned and get it out of him instead. To tell you the truth I’ve been wanting to get a closer look at those adorable brown eyes of his.”
Kate’s voice was soft and vicious, and Allison was shifting the rest of the way even as her feet were suddenly moving, carrying her toward the house and the implied threat to Stiles. She vaguely registered the scuffling noises and gunshots coming from within before Derek burst out of the front door and leapt off the porch, catching Allison’s arm and yanking her away. He didn’t let go immediately this time - he dragged her with him as he sprinted away through the woods. It was a long time before she shifted back and even longer before she said anything.
“Why aren’t you wearing a shirt?”
Derek glanced back at her. “I was working out.”
“And you couldn’t hear them coming over the sound of your muscles getting larger?”
He glared and folded his arms over his chest, which struck Allison as endearingly self-conscious and pissed her off because she was angry with him and she wanted to stay that way.
“Someone else was out jogging,” he muttered, “I was listening to their music.”
“Oh. That’s clever.”
“Not when there are hunters around,” said Derek.
Allison was quiet for a little while. She listened to the forest, waiting to hear the thudding footfalls of a pursuit, but there was nothing around them but trees and animals. It started to rain, and she listened to that too before finally asking, “Why didn’t you tell me?”
Derek didn’t bother pretending not to know what she was talking about. “You have to live with her.”
“And you don’t think I should know who I’m living with?” demanded Allison.
“You live with hunters, Allison, what did you think they do with us?” demanded Derek.
“They have a code!”
Derek spun to face her and she had to stop short to keep from bumping into him. “That’s why you told them when you were bitten, is it? Because they have a code and you trust them to follow it?”
Allison turned to glare at the gaps between the trees. When they finally started walking again, she pulled Kate's pendant off and shoved it in her pocket.
The rain got heavier as they went, so that by the time they reached Allison’s car, they were both soaked. Stiles’ house was closest, but when Derek saw it looming ahead of them he said, "What about his dad?" even though the Sheriff's car was clearly not in the driveway.
"Teacher conferences," said Allison. When they reached the front door, Derek raised a fist to knock and Allison ducked under his arm to push it open and shove him inside. “Stiles!”
There was a series of thumps and then the hammering of footsteps on the stairs before Stiles jumped the last few and slid into the living room. “Hey, what did you - oh.”
“We need to borrow some clothes,” said Allison.
“Sure,” said Stiles, his red cheeks getting slightly redder. “Shoes off, and come on.” He bounded back up the stairs and Allison and Derek left their shoes by the door and followed him. Stiles led them to his room, though they both knew where it was, and then stood in front of his desk while they both watched him uncertainly and shivered.
“You’re welcome to anything in the closet or the dresser. I’ll get you guys towels.” Stiles ducked back out into the hallway and then cursed at the hall closet and ran down to the laundry room.
Allison dug through his dresser to find something to change into so that she could let her clothes dry, and when she got back from the bathroom Derek was looking very out of place in a colorful striped shirt and fire engine pajama pants. He was sitting on Stiles’ bed with his back against the headboard and arms and legs folded over one another, as if taking up less space would make the outfit less offensive.
Allison had to try very hard not to laugh at him until she saw his face and remembered Kate’s jeering and all the ash-ridden debris she and Stiles had been smuggling to the dump for weeks. Suddenly she had a lot of words and questions buzzing around in her head but the one that slipped out was, “How old are you?”
He glanced up, surprised, and said, “I’ll be twenty in a month.”
“Really? I mean that’s not - you can’t even drink?”
He shrugged. “I can. Laura got us fake IDs after she turned eighteen - you can get into a lot of trouble smuggling minors over state lines - but alcohol doesn’t really affect werewolves.”
“Oh.”
Stiles returned just long enough to throw towels at them and grab their wet clothes and then ran off again, and Allison sat down on the corner of the bed to dry her hair. A couple minutes later Stiles was back, pressing mugs of hot tea into their hands before he tossed himself into his computer chair and stared at them. After a moment, during which the only noises to be heard were their breathing and the dryer running, he spread his hands and said, “This would normally be the point where someone explains what just happened.”
“Kate paid Derek a visit,” said Allison.
All the humor and excitement slid off Stiles’ face. “Oh.” He glanced at Derek but Derek didn’t meet his eyes. “Does she know about you?” he asked Allison.
“No,” said Derek.
“Okay,” said Stiles, “Well I didn’t get anything from Jackson. Did you have any luck with Lydia?”
“She saw the alpha come out of the store and turn into a person, but she didn’t get a good look at him and she didn’t see anybody else go into the store before the attack.”
“So Lydia knows about werewolves?” asked Stiles.
Allison shrugged. “Not really. She doesn’t want to.”
Stiles looked confused for a moment and then shrugged it off. “Okay, what’s next?”
“Laura said she’d tracked down a guy named Harris who knew something about the fire. There were eleven in the phone book, and I’m narrowing it down so I can find out what he told her,” said Derek.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” asked Stiles, “My dad could-”
“No,” said Derek, and Stiles and Allison both turned to look at him, surprised.
“He’s on our side,” said Stiles.
“I know that. But so far he hasn’t done anything other than enforcing the law, and we need to keep it that way. If the hunters think he’s knowingly helping werewolves they’ll get him fired. Or worse.”
Allison set her jaw and glared at the floor, but before she or Stiles could form a response to that statement her phone started ringing. She pulled it out and her expression turned sour as she glanced at the screen before she answered it. “Hey d-” She scowled. “I went over to Stiles’ after school. Yes, I’m aware that parent-teacher conferences were today, but seeing as they’re called parent-teacher conferences and I'm not failing anything I didn’t think my presence was required.” She rolled her eyes and there was a pause before she said, “Hi mom.”
Whatever her mother said made both her and Derek’s eyes widen.
“Mom, nobody brings their friends home to ‘meet the parents,’” said Allison. There was another pause and then, “That’s because his dad has always made it clear that I’m welcome, whereas you freaked out after he fell in the woods and tried to forbid me from hanging out with him.” By the time Allison spoke again, she and Derek were both glaring daggers. “Fine, I’ll ask him.” Allison hung up, and silence fell.
“So?” asked Stiles.
“You’re invited to dinner tomorrow night,” said Allison.
“Okay?” said Stiles.
“It’s not okay,” said Derek. “It’s dangerous.”
“It’s not dangerous,” said Stiles, “they followed me on the full moon, they know I didn’t change, they’re not going to-”
“Kate still thought you were a beta,” said Allison.
“He doesn’t have any reason not to go,” said Derek, and there was a growl to his voice that made it sound like it was being dragged over gravel. “If he declines he might as well tell them they’re right.”
“Okay,” said Stiles, “I’ll go and show them I’m not a werewolf and it’ll be fine.”
“How are you going to show them you’re not a werewolf?” asked Allison.
“I don’t know, by not being a werewolf?” asked Stiles. “We’ll figure it out. Maybe they’ll make me a wolfsbane salad or something.”
“Or shoot you,” said Derek.
“Let’s not go there,” said Stiles. He smiled for Allison. “Tell them I’d be happy to. Big fan of food. Especially free food.”
* * *
The Argents’ house had never looked quite so imposing. Stiles had also never met a group of people whose smiles made him want to flee the way Chris, Victoria, and Kate’s did. He did his best to smile back and make jokes, and things went fairly smoothly from the jeep to the dinner table, where Kate managed to swing it so that Stiles was between her and Victoria and Allison was sitting across from him, looking apologetic, with Chris at the end of the table opposite his wife.
Allison looked mortified that her parents had turned it into a restaurant-style meal, with salad and appetizers followed by dinner followed by dessert, but she managed to keep up a stream of fairly safe small talk until Chris took the salad plates to the kitchen. Kate bumped Stiles’ shoulder with hers and he nearly choked on his water.
“So Allison tells us you two aren’t dating. What’s wrong, she not your type?”
Stiles actually managed a real laugh at that and said, “I think the wrong type thing is mutual, actually.”
“Aww, come on,” Kate smirked at Allison, “you telling me you couldn’t fall for these adorable brown eyes?” She actually reached over and ruffled Stiles’ hair - or would have, if he had any hair to ruffle.
Allison looked uncomfortable enough that Victoria swung in to change the subject and put the spotlight firmly back on Stiles. “So, what do you do when you’re not at school or wandering through the woods? Any hobbies?”
Allison cringed.
The questions were subtle enough that if there had been anyone at the table who didn’t know that Victoria, Chris, and Kate thought that Stiles was a werewolf, they would have thought that he was being judged poorly for his extra-curricular activities and prowess at lacrosse - which is to say that they had not come right out and asked him if he was a werewolf.
But he and Allison both knew better, and after an hour of Kate reaching over to touch him at every opportunity it was pretty clear she was trying to cover him in her smell with the assumption that he’d go back to Derek as soon as the meal was over. Stiles was wishing more than ever that he had convinced Derek not to wait up with his dad for him to get home, but it had been no use - when they told the Sheriff about the dinner, Derek’s nervous energy and obvious fear for Stiles’ safety had gotten under his skin. The two of them were sitting by the phone in Stiles’ living room, waiting to come rushing to the rescue.
Allison and Stiles both tried to get them to skip dessert but they weren’t having it - Kate actually pulled Stiles back into his chair when he started to get up and slung an arm around his shoulders, insisting that there was so much more she needed to know about him. Chris was taking his time getting the cheesecake from the kitchen and Allison gave Stiles a look like she was about to leave him to die.
“I have to go to the bathroom,” she said.
“Well don’t tell us about it, just go,” said Kate with a laugh.
Stiles laughed as well. “Are you waiting for a hall pass?” he asked.
Allison stood up and glared at Kate and her mother in turn. “Be nice.”
It was silent for a long moment after she left the room, until Chris returned and placed the cheesecake at the center of the table and Kate said, “So if you’re not interested in Allison, was it a kinky thing or were you hoping it would make you better at lacrosse?”
Stiles looked up at her blankly. “What are you-”
Her hand shot out, latching onto his arm where it was still bandaged and Stiles yelped and tried to pull away but her fingers were digging in and pulling only made it hurt more. “The bite,” she clarified.
“It’s not a bite,” said Stiles frantically, “and that’s - ow, ow-ow-ow-”
Kate dropped his arm with a sneer and Stiles pulled it against his chest. Blood started dotting the bandage, and the Argents all froze.
“You thought I was a werewolf?” Stiles demanded, because there didn’t seem to be much point in pretense. “Is that why you’ve been so unbelievably creepy all night? Why didn’t you just ask?”
“I’ve seen you out at the Hale house,” said Kate.
Stiles glared at her. “You can’t become a werewolf by walking into a house!”
“Why would you go out there if you weren’t one?” asked Victoria.
Stiles shrugged. “Dude saved my life when I fell. We’re friends now. At least, I think we’re friends now. I’ve got enough evidence to make a solid case for friendship.”
“Allison-” began Chris, but Stiles shook his head.
“Derek asked me not to say anything to anybody. I hang out with him when Allison’s busy with Lydia.”
“You ‘hang out’ with him?” repeated Victoria. “A twenty-four-year-old? And that doesn’t seem odd to you?”
“He’s not even twenty yet, actually, so no, it doesn’t,” said Stiles. He tried to ignore the scandalized look that Chris gave Kate.
“You shouldn’t be hanging out with a werewolf,” said Victoria, “they’re dangerous.”
“I’ve been friends with Derek for nearly two months and I haven’t gotten hurt once since then. One dinner with you and I’m bleeding,” he heard a noise outside the dining room and got up abruptly. “excuse me, I’m going to go check on my stitches.” He caught Allison in the hallway, fangs out and eyes glowing and dragged her back to the guest room. “I’m fine.”
“You’re bleeding,” she snarled.
“But I’m fine. Considerably finer than you or I will be if you go out there looking like you do, so stop it.”
She started to snarl again, so Stiles hugged her. For a moment she went stiff with surprise, but he buried his face in her hair and he could feel her pulse pounding frantically in her neck so he knew that she could feel and hear the slow, steady thrum of his heart. Slowly, her arms came up to hug him back and her claws and fangs retreated as her body relaxed.
“You reek,” she told him.
“Yeah I’ve got some very intense showering planned,” said Stiles. He pulled away and offered Allison a smile, but mostly she just looked miserable. He reached over and ruffled her hair. “Let’s get those adorable brown eyes back out there.”
Allison gagged and swatted his hand away. “Don’t ever do that again,” she said, but at least she was smiling at him.
Dessert didn’t last long, but Chris and Victoria spent the entire time being especially nice to Stiles while Kate sulked at having her chew toy taken away. When he finally got back to the relative safety of his jeep, he called his house and his dad picked up immediately.
“Stiles? You okay?”
“Yeah, I’m fine. It went well. They no longer think I’m a werewolf. They gave me an extra big slice of cheesecake for being assholes. Can I talk to Derek?”
His dad muttered something about being chopped liver but he passed the phone off and Derek’s particular brand of silence filled the other end of the line.
“Go home,” Stiles told him.
“What?”
“I know you’ve been worried and I appreciate you waiting up for me, but I’m fine. I need about a million showers, though, and then sleep, so you should go home and I’ll come by in the morning before school to prove how totally fine I am. Sound good?”
Derek was reluctant, but he agreed, and he was gone by the time Stiles got there. Stiles went straight from the front door to the bathroom and dragged out the supplies he needed to re-bandage his arm. His dad followed, scowling.
“That’s your definition of ‘fine?’” he asked.
“I just pulled a couple stitches,” said Stiles, but when he got the gauze off it was pretty clear that the stitches hadn’t been pulled so much as pushed.
“This is why you sent Derek home?” asked the Sheriff.
“They know they were wrong about me now,” said Stiles, “we’re back to neutral ground. We need to stay there. It’ll buy us some time to figure out who the alpha is.”
“And you’re keeping me in the loop on all of that, right?” asked the Sheriff.
“Yeah,” lied Stiles. “Hey, Derek said someone survived the fire. Do you know who?”
The Sheriff folded his arms and leaned against the doorway. “Peter Hale. He’s been catatonic since it happened. He’s out at the long-term inpatient care center at the hospital. Why?”
Stiles shrugged. “Just trying to see how it all fits together.”
“Because it’s all leading back to the fire?” asked the Sheriff.
Stiles nodded. “But Derek’s the only werewolf with the right motive, but I know it’s not him. But if Peter’s catatonic, then it’s not him either.”
“I’ll try and ask around,” said the Sheriff, “maybe he’s been improving.”
“Thanks, Dad,” said Stiles.
His dad pulled him into a hug and Stiles was careful to keep his arm from hitting anything in the process. “You be careful.”
“You first.”