Kate Argent chases Derek's car down the roads thinking she's chasing Derek, but when she gets word that he's on foot at the iron works she wonders who's actually driving his car. The answer: Y/n is the one behind the wheel, Stiles beside her and Scott in the back. Stiles glances out the back window while she focuses in front of them. "Faster?" She asks.
"Much faster." He answers. She grits her teeth and shifts gears, accelerating even more. After a bit Stiles looks back again to see the car still on their tail. "Y/n, I don't think you're grasping the concept of the car chase here."
"Sure I do. We're in a car, we're being chased."
"If she goes faster, she'll kill us." Scott says.
"Well, if she doesn't go faster, they're gonna kill us."
"I need to keep her on our tail. Any faster and we could actually lose her." Y/n speeds up just a bit to make him feel better.
Tires screech and Stiles looks back yet again. "They're gone." Y/n looks in the rearview while Scott turns around. Stiles presses a button on the handheld radio and it beeps before coming to life.
"All units, suspect is on foot heading into the iron works." The Sheriff's voice informs.
Y/n huffs as she speeds up yet again to pick up Derek. She skids to a stop as they near him and Stiles opens the door. "Get in." He urges as he climbs in the back with Scott and Derek hops in the front, bullets from Mr. Argent following. The tires squeal as Y/n peels out of there.
"What part of laying low don't you understand?" Scott chastises.
"Damn it, I had him!" Derek complains.
"Who, the Alpha?" Stiles wonders.
"Yes! He was right in front of me, and the friggin' police showed up."
"Whoa, hey, they're just doing their jobs." Derek glares at Stiles. "Uh, yeah..."
"Yeah, thanks to someone who decided to make me the most wanted fugitive in the entire state." He looks pointedely at Scott.
"Can we seriously get past that? I made a dumbass mistake. I get it."
"All right!" Y/n yells to get them to stop.
"How did you find him?" Stiles asks. Derek looks at them and refuses to answer.
"Can you try to trust us for at least a millisecond?" Y/n gives Derek a meaningful glance that the boys in the back miss.
"Yeah, all of us." Stiles leans forward but backs up again at Derek's look. "Or just them. I'll be back here." He settles back and Y/n manages a twitch of a smile at him.
"And stop with the glares, please. I swear you're face is gonna stick like that forever if it already hasn't."
Derek ignores her comment. "Look, the last time I talked to my sister, she was close to figuring something out. She found two things. The first was a guy named Harris."
"Our Chemistry teacher?" Stiles pipes up again.
"Of course." Y/n grumbles.
"Why him?" Scott asks.
"I don't know yet." Derek answers.
"What's the second?"
"Some kind of symbol." He pulls a piece of paper from his pocket and unfolds it to show a drawn picture. Y/n sighs when she sees it and Scott doesn't react any better. "What? You know what this is?"
"Seen it on a necklace." She grumbles.
"Allison's necklace." Scott adds.
...
"This is gonna be impossible, you know." Scott says as the teens walk into school.
"Y/n, can't you ask her if you can borrow it?" Stiles suggests.
"It's a family heirloom, you can't just borrow something like that." She shakes her head lightly. "Why don't you just "borrow" it?" She made finger quotes around borrow. At Scott's questioning look she elaborates. "Steal it."
"I can't do that!" He quietly exclaims.
"Why don't you just ask her to borrow it?" Stiles asks Scott.
"How?" The boy questions.
"It's easy. You just say, 'hey, Allison, can I borrow your necklace to see if there's anything on it or in it that can lead me to an Alpha werewolf that I need to kill in order to get back together with you?"
"You're not helping."
"Why don't you just talk to her."
"She won't talk to me. What if she, like, only takes it off in the shower or something?"
"That's why you ease-" He stops them walking. "That's why you ease back into it, okay? Get back on the good side, remind her of the good times. And then you ask for the necklace." Stiles notices Scott has a slight smirk as he looks at nothing. "You're thinking about her in the shower, aren't you?"
"Yeah." Scott admits.
"Boys." Y/n mutters with an eye roll.
"All right, stay focused, okay? Get the neckace, get the Alpha, get cured, get Allison. In that order. Got it?"
Scott nods. "Get the necklace."
They go their seperate ways and when they meet again later Scott tells them that Jackson figured out what he is. Oh, bother. Y/n sighs internally. "How the hell did he find out?" Y/n asks.
"I have no idea."
"Did he say it out loud?" Stiles asks. "The word?"
"What word?"
"Werewolf. Did he say, 'I know you're a werewolf'?"
"No, but he implied it pretty freaking clearly."
"Okay, maybe it's not as bad as it seems. I mean, he doesn't have any proof, right? And if he wanted to tell someone, who's gonna believe him anyway?"
"How about Allison's father?"
"It's kinda bad." Y/n grimaced a bit.
"I need a cure. Right now."
"I don't think it's that easy." Y/n hated to say it but she wasn't even sure there was a cure. There's rumors but as far as she knew, once you're bitten, that's it. You either change or die.
"Does he know about Allison's father?" Stiles asks.
"I don't know."
"Okay, where's Derek?"
"Hiding, like we told him to. Why?"
"I have another idea. It's gonna take a little time and finesse, though."
"We have that game tonight. It's quarterfinals. And it's your first game."
"I know, I know. Look, do you have a plan for Allison yet?"
"She's in our next class." He tilts his head towards Y/n.
"Get the necklace." Stiles walks away leaving the two to go to their class. Scott pauses when he sees Allison and Y/n takes the seat to her left, the seat on her right is open. Scott goes to sit there but Lydia puts her stuff on the desk.
"Try another row, sweetheart." She smiles at him and he's forced to take the seat behind Lydia.
"Okay, class, let's settle down." The teacher says. "Let's get our books out."
Scott leans forward a bit towards Allison. "Allison." He whispers.
She glances at him. "Hey. Class is beginning." She whispers back.
"I know. I'll shut up. I just, um-I have some stuff on my phone that I wanted to send you. I thought you might like it."
She nods a bit. "Okay." And he does so, watching her reaction as she looks at the photos he sent.
Y/n glanced over at her and saw the pictures of them together. Wrong move. Y/n winced. That is not something you want to send the girl who broke up with you when she's still trying to figure stuff out. The teacher turned back to the class then. "All right, I'd like to return to our discussion from yesterday with a more in-depth analysis of Iago and the way in which he preyed upon Othello's jealousies." Allison gathered her things and left the class with a hurt look towards Scott who jumped up to follow her out. "We seem to have some here today." Y/n sighs with a small shake of her head.
She sits across from Scott at lunch when Stiles sits next to him, his tray clattering on the table. "Did you get her to give you the necklace?" He asked Scott.
"Not exactly."
"Ah. What happened?"
"She told me not to talk to her. At all."
"So she's not giving you."
"She's not giving me the necklace!"
"Well, did you find anything else out?"
"Just that I know nothing about girls, and that they're totally psychotic."
"Hey." Y/n piped up. "I take offence to that, mister. Not all girls are psychotic. Some are just a bit nuts. Me? I'm psychotic." She takes a bite of food and smirks with a wink.
"Okay, I came up with a plan 'B' just in case anything like this happened." Stiles says.
"What's plan 'B'?" Scott asks.
"Just steal the stupid thing."
"You mean your plan 'B' was to use my idea as yours." Y/n raised a brow at Stiles.
"More like kept safe in back pocket."
"Uh-huh, sure." She said unbelieving but still smiled.
"Couldn't we try at least getting to Harris?" Scott asks.
Stiles shook his head. "My dad put him on a 24-hour protective detail, okay? The necklace is all we got. Steal it. Thank you."
Scott suddenly perks up at something over her shoulder and looks at his friends. "Guys, he's watching us." The two look over and see that 'he' is Jackson and he is indeed watching them, mainly watching Scott though.
"Ignore him." Y/n says dismissively. She vaguely hears the crunch of an apple and Scott flinches.
"Scott..." Jackson's low tone comes over the chatter of other students. Y/n would normally ignore it but it's hard to when Scott starts to be bothered and she can't help but listen to it. "You can hear me? You can, can't you?"
"What's wrong?" Stiles asks.
"Jackson's talking to me. He knows I can hear him." Stiles glances over at him but Scott stops him. "Look at me. Just talk to me. Act normal. Pretend nothing's happening."
"Are you trying to pretend not to hear me?"
"Say something. Talk to me!" Scott urges. Stiles flails his hands while Y/n frowns.
"I can't think of anything. My mind's a complete blank." Stiles says.
"Your mind's blank? You can't think of something to say?"
"Not under this kind of pressure."
"Y/n?" Scott gives her a pleading look and all she can do is give him a helpless shrug. It's like when someone asks you what your favorite book is and all of a sudden you've never read a single thing in your entire life.
Stiles looks back at the table. "FYI, he's not even sitting with them anymore."
Scott looks around but can't find the blonde. "Where the hell is he?"
"Looking for me, McCall? I'm right here." He chuckles. "So what else can you do? Huh? Can you see better? Are you stronger, more powerful? No, I knew there was no way you suddenly got that good at lacrosse. Which means you're actually a cheater, aren't you? I mean, can you even play lacrosse?"
"Yes." Scott unintentionally answers.
"I'll bet my new Co-Captain's gonna score a bunch of shots tonight, aren't you? And while you're pretending you're not a lying cheat, I'm gonna ruin your life if you don't give me what I want. And you know what I'm gonna start with? Her. I'm gonna destroy any chance you'll ever have with her." Scott grips his water bottle and his hand shakes slightly from the effort of not crushing it as he takes a sip. "And when I'm done with that, I'm gonna get her all alone, and I'm gonna get my hands all over that tight little body."
Y/n had to slightly grit her teeth to keep from physically gagging at that remark. She has to keep her expression in unaware concern for her friend, but pretending like you can't hear more than others comes easy when you've done it your entire life. "Scott, you can't let him get to you." She tries to help.
"You can't let him do this. You can't let him have this kind of power over you, okay?" Stiles tries too but it doesn't seem to be working.
"I'm gonna do everything you never got the chance to do," Scott grips the edges of his tray and that starts to shake, "and, Scott, she's gonna beg for more. I'll bet she likes to get loud. Maybe she's even a screamer. How are you gonna feel, Scott... When she's screaming my name?" The tray snaps in half in Scott's hands, the loud sound making everyone become quiet and look at him. Scott glares when he finally finds Jackson and he takes another obnoxious bite of his apple.
...
Stiles swings his bag off of his shoulders and sets it down going straight to his desk, Y/n following but pausing when she sees Derek behind the door. She raises a brow at him in question. "How did you-" She starts to ask but Noah's voice cuts her off.
"Hey, Stiles!"
"Yo, D- Derek." Stiles turns around and finally spots him, calling his name in shock. Derek puts a finger to his lips and gestures for Stiles to get rid of his dad. Stiles scrambles for the door and tries to act natural as he shuts the door and stands in front of it.
"What'd you say?"
"What? I said 'yo... D-dad'."
"Uh, listen, I've got something I've got to take care of, but I'm gonna be there tonight. I mean, your first game."
"My first game. Gosh, great. Awesome. Uh... Good."
"I'm very happy for you. And I'm really proud of you."
"Oh, thanks. Me too. I'm happy and proud... Of myself."
Derek looks at Y/n like you really like this idiot? and she just shrugs with an amused smile.
"So they're really gonna let you play, right?"
"Yeah, dad. I'm first line. Believe that?"
"I'm very proud."
"Oh, me too. Again, I'm-Oh." Noah goes to give Stiles a hug. "Huggie... Huggie, huggie..." Stiles awkwardly tries to keep his dad from suspecting anyone is in his room.
"See you there."
"Take it easy."
"Oh, and, uh, say hi to Y/n for me." Noah gives him a knowing smirk as Stiles sputters at his retreating form.
"Uh, y-yeah. Sure." He sighs once his dad is out of sight and goes back into his room, closing the door and instantly being pinned to it by Derek.
Y/n pushes Derek away and glares at him. "What did I say about touching him? Don't."
"If you say one word-" He points at Stiles over her shoulder.
"Oh, what, you mean, like, 'hey dad, Derek Hale's in my room with Y/n... Bring your gun'?" Derek doesn't say anything. "Yeah, that's right. If I'm harboring your fugitive ass, it's my house, my rules, buddy." Derek nods after a second and Stiles gives a faint laugh. He walks around Y/n but jumps when Derek feigns a lunge. "Oh, my God!" Y/n glares at Derek as Stiles plops down in his desk chair.
"Scott didn't get the necklace?"
"No. He's still working on it. But there's something else we can try." Derek makes a gesture for him to continue. "The night we were trapped at the school, Scott sent a text to Allison asking her to meet him there."
"So?"
"So it wasn't Scott." Y/n informed.
"Well, can you find out sent it?"
Stiles shook his head. "No, not us. But I think I know somebody who can."
"You want me to do what?" Turns out the 'somebody' Stiles knew was Danny who now stands next to Stiles as he sits at his desk.
"Trace a text."
"I came here to do lab work. That's what lab partners do."
"And we will, once you trace the text."
"And what makes you think I know how?"
"1- I looked up your arrest report, so..."
"I-I was 13. They dropped the charges."
"Whatever."
"No, we're doing lab work." Danny grabs a spare chair and sits next to Stiles at the desk intent on doing lab work. He glances behind them to look at Y/n, who's perched on the edge of Stiles' bed, and Derek, who's sat in a chair against the wall across from them. "Why is Y/n here?"
"I just came to admire Stiles." She got up from the bed and instead leaned her hip against Stiles' desk to look down at him, smiling when Stiles blinked at her.
"Okay." Danny nodded before he glanced at Derek again. "Who's he again?"
"Uh..." It took Stiles a moment for his brain to catch up from Y/n's comment and presence but when it did he said the first thing he could think of. "My cousin... Miguel." Y/n raised a brow at him in amusement as Derek just glared up from the book he was looking at.
"Is that blood on his shirt?"
Stiles looked at the spot. "Yeah. Yes. Well, he gets these horrible nosebleeds. Hey, Miguel. I thought I told you you could borrow one of my shirts." He urges Derek with his eyes and the man shuts the book with a 'snap' and tossing it onto the bed. He got up and took off his shirt, revealing his triskele tattoo between his shoulder blades, and started to rummage through the dresser. Y/n tilted her head and narrowed her eyes a bit at the tattoo, the image familiar but she's not able to place it at the moment.
"So anyway, I mean, we both know you have the skills to trace that text, so we should probably-"
"Uh, Stiles?" Derek calls.
"Yes?"
"This..." He tugs the shirt between his hands. "No fit."
"Then try something else on. Sorry." He said to Danny only to see him staring at 'Miguel', but averts his eyes when he notices he's been caught. Stiles and Y/n share a look. "Hey, that one looks pretty good, huh?" Derek had put on a blue and orange striped shirt. "What do you think, Danny?"
"Huh?" He tries to keep his eyes away from the man.
"The shirt."
"It's... It's not really his color."
Derek takes the shirt off and looks for another. Y/n lowered her voice. "You swing for a different team, but you still play ball, don't you, Danny boy?" Y/n smiled at him.
"You're horrible people."
Stiles sighs. "I know. It keeps me awake at night."
"I sleep like a baby." She smirks.
"Anyway, about that text."
"Stiles!" Derek calls again. "None of these fit."
Stiles looks from the shirtless Derek to Danny. "I'll need the ISP, the phone number, and the exact time of the text." Danny relents and works on Stiles computer. Y/n and Stiles share a descreet highfive while the other two aren't looking at them.
After a while the four gather around the desk, Derek now with a shirt, as Danny types. He sighs once he finishes. "There. The text was sent from a computer. This one."
"Registered to that account name?" Derek asks. Danny nods.
"No, no, no, no. That can't be right." Stiles denies.
"There's no way." Y/n agrees. They're so in denial because the name that comes up is Melissa McCall.
...
Y/n, Stiles and Derek sit in the Jeep in front of the hospital, trying to figure out how they're going to find out who actually sent the message. Y/n shivers a bit. She hadn't gotten the chance to get a warmer jacket for the night so she was very cold. "My hands are freezing." She idly complained.
"Sorry." Stiles said. "Uh, I can turn the heat on." He reached to turn the car back on.
"No, it's okay." She stopped him by grabbing his hand but when she felt how warm it was she held on with both of hers. He gave her a questioning look and she shrugged a bit. "Your hands are warm." She smiled at his flustered state from the contact and they just looked at each other for a moment.
"Can you guys save your cutesy heart eyed moments for later?" Derek grumbled from the backseat and Y/n shot him an annoyed look.
"We didn't we weren't-" Stiles sputtered. "That- that wasn't a moment."
"It wasn't?" Y/n asked him but honestly she just wanted to tease him.
"I mean, was it? Did you want it to be?"
"I wouldn't be opposed to it." Her lips quirked up in a half smile and he couldn't help the slightly hopeful one come to him.
"Oh, my God. Your chemo signals are crazy." Derek groaned annoyed.
"Stop sniffing our chemo signals then, Derek." She snapped.
"I can't. They're giving me a headache."
"Oh, you must be picking up on the migraine I get every time you talk. So sorry." She gave him sad smile but her tone was dripping with sarcasm. No more can be said between the two as Stiles' phone goes off, a picture from Scott and a call a minute later.
"Did you get the picture?"
"Yeah, we did, and it looks just like the drawing." Stiles answered.
Derek grabs Stiles' wrist to use the phone, making the boy have to bend at an awkward angle to stop it from hurting. "Hey, is there something on the back of it? There's gotta be something. An inscription, an opening, something."
"No, no, the thing's flat. And, no, it doesn't open. There's nothing in it, on it, around it, nothing. And where are you? You're supposed to be here. You're first line."
"Where the hell is Bilinski? Huh?" They hear Coach ask Scott.
"'Bilinski'?" Y/n mutters in question.
"Don't ask." Stiles slightly shakes his head.
"Man, you're not gonna play if you're not here to start."
"I know. Look, if you see my dad, can you tell him- tell him I'll be there, I'll just be a little late, okay? All right, thanks." Stiles hangs up.
"You're not gonna be able to make it." Y/n frowned a bit.
"I know."
"And you didn't tell him about his mom, either." Derek noted.
"Not till we find out the truth."
"By the way, one more thing."
"Yeah." Stiles turned his head to look at Derek just as the man pushed his head down to hit the steering wheel.
"Derek! I swear if you don't stop-" Y/n's threat is cut off by Stiles' exclamation of pain.
"Oh, God! What the hell was-"
"You know what the was for." He pointed at Stiles. "Go. Gooo!" Stiles gets out and heads towards the hospital doors. Then Derek faced Y/n as she watched Stiles walk away.
"Touch me and I break your face." She warned.
After a while of searching he can't find Melissa or anyone else for that matter so he calls Y/n and she puts him on speaker. "Yeah, I said I can't find her."
"Look, ask for Jennifer. She's been looking after my uncle." Derek instructed.
Stiles does as told but doesn't find anyone in the room either. "Yeah, well, he's not here either."
"What?"
"He's not here. He's gone, Derek."
Derek is confused for a moment before his eyes widen in realization. "Stiles, get out of there right now- it's him! He's the Alpha! Get out!"
"Stiles!" Y/n calls in alarm and bolts for the hospital, Derek hot on her heels.
Stiles backs away from the room and looks to his side to see Peter Hale up and about, old burn scars on the right side of his face. "You must be Stiles." He says.
Stiles backs up and turns to run but stops when he sees Jennifer standing in his way. "What are you doing here? Visiting hours are over."
"You..." He points at her before looking at Peter. "And him." He points at Peter now. "You're- you're the one who-" He looks at her as he pieces things together. "Oh, my- and he's the-" He looks at Peter again. "Oh, my God, I'm gonna die. I'm gonna die." He keeps looking between the two, helpless.
Suddenly Y/n comes up behind Jennifer, grabbing the back of her head and ramming her face into the wall, knocking the woman out cold. "That's not nice, little witch." Peter says.
"Like I give a shit right now." She sasses.
"She's my nurse."
"She's a psychotic bitch helping you kill people. Get out of the way." Derek said the last bit to Stiles.
"Oh, damn." He dropped down to the ground and Y/n tried to help coax him to her.
"You think I killed Laura on purpose? One of my own family?" Peter advances and Derek growls, eyes flashing and canines extending. Derek jumps and pushes off the desk to vault himself at Peter, but the older Hale simply grabs him and shoves him against the wall and then throws him into another before he falls to the ground. Stiles flails as he tries to avoid them and Y/n grabs him by the scruff of his jacket to pull him in a safer direction. Peter picks Derek up by the throat, the Beta holding onto his wrist to get him to let go. "My mind, my personality were literally burned out of me." He starts to drag Derek down the hall. "I was driven by pure instinct." He lets Derek drop and he grunts when he hits the ground. Peter crouches and fishes in Jennifer's pocket for her keys.
"You want forgiveness?" Derek gets up and punches Peter. He goes to hit him again but Peter blocks, grabs his jacket, and headbutts him.
"I want understanding." He kicks Derek in the chest and he flies back. "Do you have any idea... What it was like for me during those years?" Derek spits blood on the ground as he starts to get back up. "Slowly healing, cell by cell. Even more slowly coming back to consciousness." Stiles scrambles around a desk and stops when he sees Derek on the ground, Y/n pulling him back by the collar to keep out of sight. "Yes, becoming an Alpha, taking that from Laura pushed me over a plateau in the healing process. I can't help that." Derek gets up and swipes at him, Peter dodging his fists before catching one in his own, squeezing until Derek's down on a knee. "I tried to tell you what was happening. I tried to warn you." He hauls Derek up and throws him into the protective glass over the nurse's station and over the desk. Derek crawls away and Peter follows.
"Come on." Y/n urged quietly. "This way. Go, go, go." Y/n grabbed Stiles' hand and they ran from the hospital. The feel of the Alpha's anger still lingers on her, raising the hairs on the back of her neck and fueling her legs to go faster.
~~~
Published: 1/1/21
Edited: 4/12/22
Bonus update because Happy New Years! Hopefully 2021 will be even marginally better than 2020 was.
Wishing you all the best in this new year!
Love you all ^3^