Cadmus and Nova finally left the hospital at three twenty-six in the morning, his cousin barely awake as he practically carried her out to the car. The doctors all reassured them that Veronica would make a full recovery and that the injuries seemed not to be as bad as they should have been, considering the blood loss she'd suffered. Cadmus told them that his mom had always bled a lot, even from the smallest cuts, and they seemed satisfied enough with the answer.

They weren't allowed to go to the house, considering the fact that it was a crime scene, so Cadmus had been about to book a room in a hotel when Mrs. McCall kiboshed that and declared that they'd be staying at her house until theirs was okay for them to live in again. Cadmus had tried to argue with her, but she was insistent, and Cadmus was pretty sure that he'd rather fist-fight a bear than make that woman angry.

So after he got Nova buckled into the passenger seat, Cadmus begrudgingly made his way to the McCall house, trying to keep his palms from sweating at the idea of spending the night under the same roof as Scott McCall, of all people. He was sure he'd rather grovel at Stiles's feet and beg for a place to stay.

Scott was waiting on the porch when Cadmus pulled into the driveway, and he started making his way toward the car before Cadmus even had it properly parked.

"How is she?" Scott asked softly as he carefully opened the passenger side door, waiting for Cadmus to unbuckle Nova's seatbelt before scooping her into his arms with a gentleness that made Cadmus's throat tighten for some reason.

"Shaken," Cadmus replied as he got out of the car and followed Scott toward the house, noting how he kept making sure to support Nova's head with his shoulder and smiling despite himself at the concern that Scott was showing. "But that's to be expected."

"Yeah," Scott agreed, nudging the door to the house open with his foot and gesturing with his head for Cadmus to go in first. "How about you?"

Cadmus paused for a moment, not sure how to answer. Somehow, he doubted 'I'm alright! Nothing like a good old revenge murder spree to lighten the spirits!" would go very well. So instead, he gave a simple shrug. "Not as bad as I could be."

Scott seemed to be appeased by the answer, telling him to make himself at home while he got Nova settled into the spare room. Cadmus stood awkwardly in the living room, careful not to touch anything. He'd changed clothes and burned what he'd been wearing before to destroy any incriminating forensic evidence and washed his hands at the hospital while waiting for answers about his mom's condition, but he was still covered in dirt and blood. He didn't want to ruin any furniture.

Scott came back downstairs about five minutes later, talking softly on the phone and hung up with a small smile aimed at Cadmus. "Kira and Lydia are going to stop by tomorrow morning and bring Nova some of their old clothes since your house is going to be on lockdown for a little while. I figured you could just wear something of mine unless you'd rather steal something from Stiles. I can ask if you'd like."

"No," Cadmus said quickly, raising his hand and giving a small awkward smile. "Yours are okay if you're sure it's alright with you."

"Of course I am," Scott assured him. "Anything you need, and I mean that."

Cadmus nodded, not really sure how much of that he meant, but appreciating it all the same. "Thank you, really."

Scott nodded back and looked at Cadmus with such an intensity that it made heat threaten to rise up in his cheeks. "You're allowed not to be okay, you know that, right? What just happened is absolutely insane. First, Nova almost gets killed in the locker room, and then your mom? No one is going to be completely okay after experiences like that."

"Yeah," Cadmus acknowledged, resisting the urge to cringe at how flat his tone sounded. "But they're both going to be okay, and that's all that matters. I'm just angry that I couldn't stop it."

"Of course you are," Scott said empathetically. "It's frustrating, having all of this power and still having times when you're powerless to protect the people you love the most."

Cadmus glanced at the other boy from the corner of his eye, practically feeling the way his mood sank and was unable to stop himself from speaking. "What happened to Allison wasn't your fault. She would've gone to save Lydia whether you went after the nogistune that night or not."

Scott looked over at him sharply and let out a shaky breath. "I know. And what happened to your mom wasn't yours."

"I know."

They stood in silence for a few minutes, Cadmus staring at a photo of Stiles and Scott when they were younger, both covered in mud and grinning like they didn't have a care in the world. Scott's smile was gap-toothed and blinding, making Cadmus smile despite himself.

"You were there, weren't you?" Scott asked, making Cadmus look over at him with a little bit of confusion. "When she died. You said that you've known about everything since the beginning."

Oh.

"Not right there," Cadmus said slowly, trying to figure out how to word it properly. "There was an Oni that was trying to pull a little bitch sneak attack from behind. I was dealing with it when everything went down."

"Why didn't you just tell us about you?" Scott asked, making Cadmus rock back on his heels. "You were already helping us the entire time. Why didn't you want us to know about you?"

"Dragons don't have the best reputation," Cadmus said simply. "Just ask Deaton. There are no good kinds of dragons, packs, or redeeming factors. Just the association with death and scales. There's speculations that the first kanima was a descendant of a dragon, or maybe they're just a different species of dragon in general. It's why I don't really like shifting, I look just like one, just brown and with orange eyes. No tail yet, though."

He glanced over at Scott and shrugged. "I'm just not really a very trustworthy species, I guess. Besides, it wouldn't have don't a lot of good for someone you didn't even know existed to just walk up to you and go, 'Hey, I know you're a werewolf. Don't worry, I won't tell anyone because I'm a literal firebreathing lizard."

"I knew you existed," Scott said quickly with what looked like a blush, making Cadmus have the dumbest urge to smile.

"Yeah?"

Scott nodded with a shy little smile. "Yeah," he confirmed. "How couldn't I?"

They looked at each other for a moment, neither saying anything and yet Cadmus felt like they were having a wonderful, life-changing conversation.

The moment was broken by Scott clearing his throat. "We, uh, have to be ready for school in a few hours," he said slowly, making Cadmus nod. "You can take my room, I'll sleep on the couch."

"No," Cadmus objected right away. "Go to sleep, Scott. I'm good with the couch. I sleep on mine all the time."

Scott looked like he wanted to argue, but nodded when Cadmus made an insistent motion with his hand, walking back toward the stairs and turning off the lights as he went.

"Night, Cadmus."

Smiling to himself as he moved toward the couch, Cadmus raised his hand in acknowledgement. "Goodnight, Scott."

Staring up at the ceiling before he was finally able to find sleep, Cadmus couldn't help but grin to himself. He knew he'd existed.

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Nova woke up in an unfamiliar bed and almost lost every semblance of cool remaining in her body. The scream was already rising in her throat as she sat up, when the sound of a familiar voice made her freeze.

"I know that I'm a month late," Mrs. McCall was saying, making Nova realize that she was in Scott's house. A moment of drowsy pondering later was all it took for everything to come back to her, bile rising in her throat at the memory of her aunt lying on the kitchen floor, covered in blood.

She shoved the images away from her mind, trying her best to think of anything else. Unfortunately, that meant that she was a horrible person and started eavesdropping on the woman downstairs.

"Three months late?" She asked, making Nova's eyebrows furrow together as she tried to figure out what the woman was talking about. "Oh. Are you sure it's three months?"

There was another pause, and Nova realized that she must have been on the phone. "Okay, I understand... Um, but if you could just turn the power back on for even a few hours, that would be really great. I have a refrigerator full of food that's going to go bad, and obviously, I don't have the money to run out and replace three hundred dollars worth of groceries..."

The realization of what was going on hit Nova like Violet's foot in the face. The idea of money problems had never really been real to her. Her mom had come from money, and her dad had been one of the most successful defence attorneys in New York. They owned four houses, for Pete's sake.

Her typical privilege aside, she'd been a little too caught up with the whole 'supernatural creatures are real and now there's a hit list out for them' thing to think of something as mundane as money.

Closing her eyes as the unmistakable feeling of shame washed over her at her own selfishness, Nova reached in the darkness to feel for her phone, glad when she finally found it after knocking her hand into the bedside table for the hundredth time.

Scrolling through the contacts, Nova hesitated before tapping one and typing out a quick message.

I need a favour.

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She didn't really sleep for the rest of the night, so it wasn't really a surprise to her that she felt like crap when Scott finally knocked on the door and told her that it was time to start getting ready for school. Apparently, Kira and Lydia would be around soon with some clothes for her.

Sighing as she sat up, Nova groaned at the pressure she felt when she tried to breathe out her nose. Her hand rose instinctively to it and she grimaced at the feeling of the "cast" the doctors at the school had applied the night before. Her head started to pound, and something told her that it just wasn't going to be a good day.

Swinging open the door, she was met with the sight of both Lydia and Kira standing outside, Kira's hand outstretched as though she'd been just about to knock.

"Hi," Nova greeted a little awkwardly, wanting to be bright and energetic, but ultimately failing as the pain in her head increased.

"Hey," Kira responded, her smile kind. "How are you feeling?"

Lydia scoffed. "How do you think she's feeling? She looks like she got punched in the face!"

"Stomped," Nova offered weakly, making Lydia smile a little as she walked in.

"Punched, stomped, whatever," she said with a wave of her hand. "I won't stand for it. Now come over here. We brought a few options. We weren't sure what styles and colours you like, so we figured we'd bring a little bit of all of it."

"You can keep anything you like," Kira spoke up quickly, making Nova look over at her quizzically. "It's stuff I either outgrew or think you'd like better. Same with Lydia."

Nova glanced at Lydia as the other older girl nodded in confirmation. Handmedowns were a concept she wasn't really familiar with, if she was being honest. If her dad thought that she needed new clothes, he'd send her to whatever store was the most popular at the time with his credit card and a limit.

She walked closer to Lydia when the banshee beckoned her to come closer and stayed pretty quiet while the strawberry blonde-haired girl talked about things she could wear for the day. Nova didn't offer much to the conversation, too far into her own head to really do anything but agree when Lydia eventually picked out an outfit consisting of light blue shortalls and a striped pink and black long-sleeved shirt. She felt bad for not being more involved, but neither of the older girls seemed all that upset by it, which relieved her some.

Kira braided her hair while Lydia helped her cover up her black eyes using what Nova was sure was magic, but was apparently just Lydia's skill with colour theory and having foundation of all shades for emergency situations.

It took another five minutes of Lydia poking and prodding for the three to finally go downstairs, where Nova saw Cadmus and Scott whispering to themselves while they sipped on coffee at the dining room table.

The sound of Lydia clearing her throat was all it took for Cadmus to shoot up from the table and make his way over to Nova so he could carefully hold her by the shoulders and look at her. She wasn't quite sure what he was looking for, but she must have passed the inspection because he eventually dropped his hands. "How are you feeling?"

"Head hurts," she said with a shrug. "Can't really breathe out my nose... tired... but okay. You?"

"I'm fine," he promised. "Look, Scott's going to take you to school. I agreed to go with Lydia and Stiles to talk to Parrish. Is that okay? If it's not, I can take you—"

"That's okay," Nova assured him with raised hands. "As long as Scott's okay with it?"

"Absolutely," Scott promised with a grin. "It'll be nice not to drive alone. You okay with bikes?"

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Nova learned that she wasn't okay with bikes. If Scott wasn't a werewolf, she was sure that she would have completely shattered his ribcage from how hard she was holding on. He didn't seem to really mind, humming to himself as he wound down the roads of Beacon Hills and cruised along.

She wondered if that kind of nonchalance came from experience, or if the reassurance that he'd heal in moments if anything happened was also a factor. Whatever it was, Nova was certain that she just didn't have what it took to own one of these damn death traps.

Scott grinned back at her as he pulled into a parking spot in front of the school, looking down at where her hands were still firmly latched around his middle. "I'm pretty sure that the danger of falling off now is slim," he teased, making Nova blush and snatch her arms away from him as quickly as she could. Scott just laughed again and accepted the helmet that she held toward him, telling her to have a good day and walking toward the main set of doors. Nova touched her nose with a frown, already dreading the looks she was going to get from her classmates, when her phone buzzed in her pocket, effectively distracting her.

Meet me around the trail behind the school, the text from Liam read, making Nova's forehead scrunch up as she tried to figure out why he would make such a strange request

It's almost time for class, she typed back. Is everything ok?

It didn't take Liam long to respond. I'll explain when you get here, I promise.

Sighing, Nova shoved her phone into her back pocket and jogged as fast as her aching limbs would let her, groaning inwardly as her sore muscles protested the movements.

Looking around for Liam as she got to the path, Nova cleared her throat and called out his name, hoping that he wasn't going to make her trek even further into the woods to look for him. What could he even want, anyway? Did he think he found something important? Did he need to copy her homework?

"Liam?" she called again, feeling a lot less certain as she followed the path just a little further.

"Sorry," a familiar voice said as Garrett emerged from the tree line a few feet away from her, making Nova stumble back a little. "But Liam's a little... caught up at the moment."

"What did you do?" Nova asked immediately, a cold feeling washing down her spine at her former friend's words. "Where's Liam?"

"He's alive," Garrett responded with a dismissive wave of his hand. "I have him stashed away for safekeeping. Just to make sure Scott doesn't try pulling a fast one on me, you know? But I thought about it a little harder, and I figure that your cousin might be a bit of a pain for me too... so better to be safe than sorry, right?"

Nova tried to stay calm, even as the blond boy raised a gun that she hadn't noticed, aiming it toward her. "What do you need them for?"

"That's not for you to worry about," Garrett's voice was less friendly now, tightening as he straightened. "Now, we're going to go for a little walk, you and me. We can make it easy, and you just come along, or I can shoot your kneecaps out, and I'll drag you there."

Nova tried to come up with a solution that would get her out of there, something that would buy her time so she could warn Scott that the crazy assassin had kidnapped Liam, but a voice from behind her made her entire brain short-circuit before she could form a plan.

"I mean, you could try. But I bet that I'm a bit of a better shot than you are."

Turning slowly, Nova had to bite down a squeak of surprise at the sight of Stefan standing behind her, holding what she presumed to be a loaded crossbow that was aimed right at Garrett's head.

"I know he is," Rowan tacked on, having been a few steps behind her brother, seemingly unarmed. "But we can always check and see... just for fun."

Garrett's hand flexed on his gun, looking between Nova and the two siblings behind her. "This doesn't concern you. Now get out of here, or you'll regret it."

Stefan rolled his eyes and let out a bored breath. Before Nova could even process what was happening, the bolt in her friend's crossbow was launched into the air, embedding itself in the tree right beside Garrett's ear.

Her would-be attacker let out a yelp of pain and surprise. Nova wasn't sure what had happened at first until she saw the trickle of blood running down Garrett's neck.

Stefan had shot him right in the ear and was casually loading another bolt into his weapon. "Now, that was a warning shot," he informed the other teenage boy with an easy grin as he looked up at him. "Do you want to see what happens when I'm not being so friendly?"

Garrett hesitated for a moment until Rowan grinned. "I think that's your exit cue," she quipped.

Nova watched as Garrett snarled at them before walking backward, keeping his gun levelled at the three until he disappeared from view.

Neither Rowan nor Stefan relaxed for several minutes, both watching the shadows in the direction that Garrett had exited until they seemed to be reassured that he wasn't about to pop out for a surprise attack.

Stefan turned to Nova with a genuinely concerned expression, pressing his crossbow into Rowan's arms as he moved closer to Nova and carefully held her arms to give her a once-over. "You're okay, right?" he asked, not waiting for Nova to confirm or deny. "I saw you heading out here and just knew something was wrong. Rule number one; never ever walk into a potential ambush alone, alright? This was as stereotypical as it gets."

"I thought it was Liam," Nova muttered, sounding petulant even to herself. "Not like I was trying to get kidnapped. Besides, what were you doing? And where did you get that?" She waved a hand toward the crossbow Rowan was holding as the older girl walked toward the tree Stefan had shot, hissing through her teeth as she ripped it from the wood with a disappointed shake of her head.

"No saving the head," she commented as casually as she could.

Nova felt her head start to pound, no doubt a result of the head wound she'd suffered the day before, and her rapidly skyrocketing blood pressure. "Can someone just explain what's going on?" she pleaded, making the siblings exchange glances and sigh in synchronization.

"Okay," Stefan agreed. "But you're going to have to come with us, alright? I am not having this conversation anywhere near the school, and I don't want Garrett trying something again, okay?

"Where are we going?" Nova asked with a little trepidation, not liking the idea of just wandering off when there were people around who definitely wanted her dead.

"To our house," Rowan replied with a shrug. "Seems like the best option."

"Cadmus will look for me," Nova said automatically. "He'll freak out if I'm not where I'm supposed to be."

Stefan gave her a slightly irritatingly nonchalant shrug. "Text him and tell him you're coming over to work on our music project."

"Liam's been kidnapped."

Rowan nodded like she was talking to a child. "Yes, Nova, he was. And if you don't come with us, there's a good chance that you will too. Now, can we go? You want answers, don't you?"

Nova glanced back at Stefan, who looked at her with earnest eyes and an extended hand. "I promise, I just want to help."

Closing her eyes for a moment, Nova reflected on her terrible life decisions and slipped her hand into Stefan's. "Lead the way, then."

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A/N

HELLOOOOOOO EVERYONE!!!!

How are we all doing this fine night/evening/day??? It's almost three am for me, and I work in two hours, so we can all tell how I'm doing. It's been a pretty rough couple of days for me, so when I found out I can publish stuff again, I ran through the chapter, did some tweaking, and decided that it was time to give you what you've been asking for.

So, how we feeling about this one? I know it's pretty much a filler chapter, but Nova really doesn't do much in this episode, so I figured it was no better time to just put in some information and just have fun with it. Plus, you got a little Scott and Cadmus moment there, so don't say I never gave you anything nice.

Leave any comments below, pretty please, as I have churned out over eleven pages for you all. Hope you're having an awesome time, and let's hope that I actually update/publish some of my stuff on here lol