Chapter Text
Allison ducked under the porch out of the rain, her arms wrapped around her wet cardigan, trying to preserve what dry clothing she had left. Going from the car to the front door left her soaked, but she was too angry to feel the cold right now.
She rang the doorbell and didn’t have to wait long before Scott opened the door with that bright, hopeful, completely oblivious look on his face.
“Allison,” he started in surprise, “you’re soaked! Come in. What are you doing here?”
“I’m fine.” She stepped past him and into the hallway. “Is Isaac here?” she asked, despite already knowing the answer.
Scott frowned at his beta’s name. “No, I think he’s at Derek’s,” he said, the disapproval clear in his voice.
Allison knew he was, because he’d left her apartment some ten minutes ago to see him. But she found it interesting that Scott had thought Isaac had been at Derek’s this whole time.
“So it’s just you here?” she checked, not really wanting to have this conversation with Stiles input or worse, his mom’s.
“Yeah, mom won’t be home for another hour,” Scott said and the soft, almost suggestive tone in his voice confirmed that he really didn’t have a clue why she was here.
“Right,” she said, then took a breath and decided to not beat around the bush. “What did you do to Isaac?”
Scott frowned. “Nothing. I haven’t seen him since this morning.”
“You see, I saw him earlier and he mentioned something about you. He thought nothing of it, you see, even tried to laugh about it. But… I don’t think he found it very funny, and neither did I when he explained it,” she said, trying to keep her voice level.
“What did he say?” he asked.
“He said that the two of you had a couple of… altercations last week. Over me.” Scott opened his mouth but she kept going. “He said that the first one was right before we all started hallucinating, and then again after he stopped me shooting Lydia. Tell me you did not hit Isaac, hard enough that he went flying into a wall because he was worried enough to follow me?!”
Scott faltered. Apparently, whatever he was expecting her to say, that wasn’t it.
“It wasn’t like that!”
“Then what was it like?” she shot back.
“It was a joke! He told me to hit him,” Scott said, suddenly defensive.
“So, Isaac came to you and told you to hit him because he liked me. And you did?” she clarified, raising an insulted eyebrow. “Isaac, someone who has been abused most of his life, felt bad about his feelings for me. Asked you, his friend and alpha to punish him for feeling that way and you did. That’s not okay, Scott! And what’s worse is that he was then worried about me enough to go after me, he saved Lydia’s life and you punished him for that too!”
“He was following you into the woods,” Scott said, like that excused everything.
“And if anybody is allowed to have an issue with that then it’s me!” she said, trying and failing not to raise her voice. “I can take care of myself, Scott. We’re not together anymore. You don’t get to decide who I speak to, hang out with or do whatever else with! If you’re gonna be angry at someone, be angry at me. But Isaac deserves more than that from his alpha and from his friend!”
“I didn’t do it as his alpha though.”
Allison sighed, wondering not for the first time how someone so clueless on the lore and customs of the Supernatural world could be in such a unique position of power. “But you did because you are. Everything you do is as his alpha because you are his alpha. He doesn’t know the difference and you can’t just abuse that power!”
“I’m not abusing-”
Scott broke off as behind Allison the front door opened and Mrs McCall stepped inside, her hair and scrubs wet.
“Hey, Scott, I got out early and-” She faltered in the doorway, looking between the two of them and frowned slightly as she sensed the tension. “Hey, Allison,” she said slowly instead. “What’s going on here?”
“Nothing,” Scott said too quickly and Mrs McCall stepped further into the hall, raising a disbelieving eyebrow.
“Really? Because it sounded like you two were shouting at each other about Isaac,” she said. “Are you gonna tell me what that’s about or should I ask him?”
“No!” Scott said as Allison cut in, “It’s not Isaac’s fault!”
Allison looked up at Scott, waiting for him to explain.
“I pushed Isaac, twice, and Allison thinks it’s something that it wasn’t,” Scott said.
Allison gaped at him and it took her a second to see through her anger so as not to scream at him.
“Allison?” Mrs McCall asked and Allison suddenly felt like she was in Kindergarten again and a teacher was asking for both sides of their story.
“I asked Isaac out and he said that he didn’t think it was a good idea because of Scott. I asked him why. He said the last time he mentioned to Scott that he had feelings for me, Scott punched him. Across a hall. Twice. Scott doesn’t think Isaac’s history with male authority figures has anything to do with this situation, and he also thinks that he was justified in doing this because he was protecting me,” Allison said cooly.
Mrs McCall looked at Scott sharply. “You did wha- You hit him? Twice? When was this?”
Scott shrugged slightly. “Last Tuesday,” he said.
“And this was all over him liking Allison?” she clarified.
“He followed her and Lydia into the woods!”
“Because he was worried about us and if he hadn’t, Lydia would be dead right now!” Allison snapped.
“Alright!” Mrs McCall said, waving her arms between them, looking worn. “Scott we’re gonna have a conversation about this. Allison, thank you, don’t worry. I will speak to Isaac too and make sure he knows this isn’t acceptable.”
“Thank you,” Allison said, the anger seeping away slightly, knowing that Mrs McCall would make sure it was dealt with properly no matter if Scott was her son or not. “Isaac is training at Derek’s, he’ll be home for tea.”
Mrs McCall smiled in thanks and Allison turned to duck back into the rain.
-oOo-
Melissa waited until the door closed behind Allison to speak and when she did, she tried to keep her voice calm. “Let’s go sit down, I have a feeling like this is gonna be a long conversation and I’ve just got off a twelve hour shift.” Scott hesitated, clearly not expecting her to have taken Allison’s side. “Scott, go sit.”
Scott sighed but started moving towards the couch, dropping into the cushions angrily like he was fourteen again. Melissa sat down next to him, her body twisted to face his.
“Okay,” she said, “explain this to me from the beginning, all of it. Don’t try and leave parts out.”
And he did.
He told her about how Isaac had come into his room, anxious about something and he’d told Scott that he should hit him. When Scott had asked why, he’d confessed that he’d wanted to kiss Allison and then Scott had hit him. He told her how Isaac had come to him to relay what happened in the woods.Allison nearly shot Lydia with an arrow, and probably would have done if Isaac hadn’t been there.
“He saved her but he was following her. He can’t think it’s okay to just follow her into the woods so I…” Scott trailed off but she didn’t need him to finish that sentence.
Melissa sighed, remembering hearing both of those incidences, and what she had said to them after she heard the commotion.
“Just because I didn’t have this conversation with you then, doesn’t mean I thought what you were doing was alright. I thought something had been knocked over or you were messing about. If I’d have known that noise was Isaac hitting the wall because you hit him, we’d have had this discussion then,” she said evenly. “Let’s take the werewolf thing out of the equation for a minute. Isaac has just got out of a very abusive living situation. He’s been told for years that nothing he does is right and he should be punished and that’s not right. He should be able to fail a test or have a crush on a girl without having to worry about the repercussions. He should be allowed to make mistakes without being scared of someone hurting him.
“He came to you, asking for you to hit him because that’s all he knows and you did. You enforced the idea in his head that it’s the appropriate response to that situation, which it isn’t. But you’re both werewolves, and like Allison said, you’re his alpha, he looks to you to protect him and help him. When you let him join your pack, you accepted the responsibility of being an authority figure to him that he could trust. And then he came to you with things he was worried about and you hurt him, just like everybody else did.”
She watched Scott carefully, he was staring at his hands as the realisation of what he’d done seemed to start sinking in.
“When I took Isaac in, I told him he would be safe here. I told him we wouldn’t hurt him and that he could just focus on being a teenager again. If you ever make me break that promise to him again, we’ll be having a much more serious conversation,” she said firmly. “Do you understand?”
He raised his head, looking up at her with wide eyes and nodded. “Yes.”
“Good,” she said. “And Scott, Allison broke up with you. I know it hurts, but she’s allowed to move on and you don’t get a say in it. You don’t get to be angry or upset that she’s not focussing on you. She can look out for herself, okay?”
Scott nodded again. “Okay.”
Melissa sighed. “Now go make sure your homework is done and when it is you can go to the grocery store for me. Then when you get back you will apologise to Isaac and tomorrow, Allison.” She left no room for argument.
He didn’t say anything, just pushed himself off of the couch and headed upstairs.
One conversation with a teenager down, one to go.
-oOo-
Melissa was halfway through pulling things out of the fridge to make dinner when she heard the front door open. She glanced up at the clock and frowned; no way was Scott finished with grocery shopping already.
“Isaac, honey? Is that you?” she called out.
There was a slight shuffling noise in the hall, like Isaac didn’t know whether to come in or just go straight upstairs before he stepped into the kitchen. He slouched in on himself in the doorway, making his tall frame look considerably smaller.
“Hey, Mrs McCall,” he said politely and Melissa smiled at him warmly.
“Hey, how was training?” she asked, knowing that training with Derek was getting better again now that they were both on the same page but also Isaac was still waiting for the other shoe to drop and for it to be a disaster again.
But this time Isaac’s eyes brightened. “Good,” he said, “Derek leant me a book on werewolf lore. Different customs and everything.”
“That sounds interesting,” she said. “Can you come in a minute, sweetheart? There’s something I wanted to talk to you about.”
She wiped her hands on a tea towel and sat down at the table, patting the space next to her with a reassuring smile.
Hesitantly Isaac shuffled further into the room with a startled, deer in headlights look on his face as he sat down at the end of the table.
“So, when I got home from work this afternoon, Allison was here and her and Scott were arguing about something,” she said carefully, watching closely as Isaac started to tense, his eyes fixed on the table. “Sweetheart, look at me. Look at me, Isaac. You’re not in trouble, okay? I’m not angry or upset at you.” She hoped for some sort of gesture of understanding but her reassurances seemed to do nothing to ease Isaac’s anxiety. She carefully tucked her hands under the table so his eyes would stop darting between them and her face warily. “Scott told me what happened last Tuesday, I’ve already spoken to him and he understands now that what happened wasn't okay.
“Isaac, nobody has a right to hurt you, okay? Not me, not Derek and certainly not Scott. Not for anything. You’re allowed to have feelings for Allison. Scott, as her ex or as your alpha has no right to tell you any different and he certainly isn’t allowed to hit you because of them. It’s not justified, you don’t deserve it. Do you understand that?” she asked. Isaac frowned, tugging the ends of his cardigan sleeves over his hands, toying with the loose strands of wool.
“Yes,” he lied.
“And when I walked in the other day, and you were on the floor, I shouldn’t have just assumed you were messing about. I should have made sure you were okay and that Scott didn’t do it again. I promised you when you moved in that you’d be safe and we wouldn’t hurt you and I’m sorry that I broke that promise,” she said and his head shot back up to look at her.
“No. You didn’t. It was my fault. I told him to.”
Melissa shook her head. “It’s not your fault, Isaac. You shouldn’t think it’s okay for people to hurt you and Scott should know better. Scott was in the wrong that day, but so was I and I’m sorry. You should be able to feel like you can come to us if you’re worried about something or you just want to tell us about what’s going on in your life without being scared of our reactions. I’m never going to hurt you and I’m going to do everything I can to make sure nobody else does too.”
“Okay,” Isaac said, his voice soft and small. He seemed less tense and frightened now, his disbelief just a little bit less.
Melissa smiled reassuringly at him. “Now, if you want to, you can hang around in here while I make dinner and tell me all about what’s going on with you and Allison,” she said with a teasing wink, pushing herself away from the table.
Isaac’s cheeks flushed pink and he couldn’t stop the soft smile that touched his lips and Melissa’s heart warmed. This was the boy she wanted to see more of in the future.
-oOo-
Scott nudged the front door open with his shoulder, careful not to drop any of the bags he had wedged in his arms. As he went to shut the door, he hesitated at the sound of his mom’s laughter. He left the door open a crack and edged towards the kitchen.
Isaac was sitting on top of the counter, shredding vegetables with his hands straight into a pot on the stove.
A little further down Melissa was cutting up slices of chicken, looking up at Isaac with a warm smile as he spoke, telling her about something he’d read earlier in the day about werewolves, his voice soft, yet enthusiastic. It was the most open Scott could ever remember seeing Isaac and it was the complete opposite of how he’d looked at Scott when he’d admitted he wanted to kiss Allison.
Isaac’s head twitched and his head shot up, his eyes meeting Scott’s and he froze, the sharp smell of fear drifting across the kitchen made something inside of Scott lurch, his mom’s words ringing louder in his ears.
He;d thought nothing of it at the time, but now it was clear what impact his actions had on his beta and Scott silently swore to try and change that.