GROWING PAINS

chapter one ; fireflies
[ season three - episode two]

𝐇𝐄𝐑 long blond hair was pulled into a high ponytail, a black leather jacket wrapped around her petite, unhealthy body, acting as a blanket as she sat on the edge of the vault door. Her legs had been pulled to her chest and her hand was still wrapped around her pained wrist, replacing the handcuffs she had become so accustomed to hurting her. 

Allison sat closely beside her, almost protective of the girl. She assumed that at one point, when she was ready, the blonde would open up to the idea of comfort, and she was willing to provide it. Perhaps it would be easier to confess her feelings to someone she didn't know. Someone who didn't know the girl she was before, the one who had no expectations from her. The blonde still didn't know who she even was, the brunette, was who she referred to her as in her head, so far, all of her thoughts had been in her head. She hadn't spoken. It was like her throat was cut. But what could they expect from her? 

While she didn't know the brunette or anything about her, Allison had heard plenty about her. How could she not? She was a town legend. For all of the wrong reasons, but she was loved, all of this town talked highly of her, remembering her like she was a national treasure. Whether it was from Scott, Stiles, Lydia or even Jackson, she had heard tales of the blonde and the effect she had had on each of their lives. To the point Allison almost felt like she knew her herself. It was strange to actually meet the girl, realizing she knew nothing at all. 

Derek hadn't stuck around to find out more about the mysterious girl, he walked off in search of Erica, a girl Noelle had met during her time in the vault. She, like Boyd and Cora, had become a good friend. Family, almost. She knew what had happened to her, she had witnessed it with her very own eyes, she just didn't have the heart to explain it to them. Luckily, Allison knew some of the story, enough for her to be able to tell Derek that she was dead, shoved in a storage closet as though she was a piece of trash. 

That wasn't easy for any of them. Not even Scott, though nobody could quite tell what the wolf was thinking anymore. His face was still, he was still processing everything, he was shocked, he felt as though everything he knew was a lie. For two years, he had been living a lie. Mourning a girl who had been alive, and in this very town, the entire time. 

In the moments Allison had glanced over at Scott, he saw how he looked at her. She could still remember when he told her about Noelle for the first time. Jackson had told her first, hoping to ruin their relationship by bringing up the girl Scott had kept a secret. She could remember how she stormed into the canteen that day, slamming her hands down on the table, demanding that he tell her who Noelle was and what she had been to him. Of course, when she found out why he had kept it from her, she was distraught. She had shouted at him for not wanting to talk about a loss that meant so much to him. That would have been a normal thing to break the two of them up, that was when the supernatural had only just begun infiltrating their lives. Before it grew bad enough that they could no longer be together. 

Now that Noelle was back, and the two of them were just friends, or trying to get to that point at least, perhaps he could get the girl he wanted before. Even though he denied ever seeing Noelle that way, Allison had known better than to believe him, and seeing him now, how he looked at her only confirmed the suspicions that she had always had. If anyone knew what Scott McCall in love looked like, it was her, and she saw it now. Between him and her. 

She didn't think that she would feel happy for him, the two of them had only been broken up for four months, she was supposed to still yearn for him to some extent, to not want to see him with anyone else yet, knowing it would hurt. Perhaps if it were anyone else, she might feel that way. But not this time. Not with her. He deserved this one. And if something did happen between the two of them, she would be the first to root for it. 

Scott was still reeling, his mind filled with thoughts and questions, and flashbacks. Even to their last day together. She was still wearing the same clothes as he had last seen her in, somehow, it still fit her, somehow they looked perfectly fine, untouched almost. Which relieved him. It gave him hope that she had never been hurt, that the Alpha pack hadn't laid a finger on her. That all of her pain was mental, emotional. That not a perfect blonde hair on her head was touched.

He wondered how it all would all work. With her coming back. What would they tell people? It wasn't as though they could tell them she had been locked in some abandoned bank vault for the past two years by a pack of werewolves. They needed a cover story. Stiles would be good at that. Stiles. How would he react? He had known her since birth, he was the person Noelle had been closest to, even over him or her own family. Her own brother. Stiles would be ecstatic. He needed this win. They all did. 

Allison cleared her throat, dancing around the idea of talking to the blonde girl. She felt like she had no right to talk to her, and certainly not to ask questions. But she couldn't fight it off, all the curiosity inside of her. She meant no harm by it. Noelle knew that, yet it didn't stop her the girl from feeling any less dread toward what the brunette was going to say. I don't want to make you feel uncomfortable. Was how Allison began, knowing that her question very well had a chance of making the blonde extremely uncomfortable. Her every word was spoken with caution, thought out a million times over, even as it left her mouth. "Boyd and the other girl, Derek's sister-"

Cora. Noelle told her in a low mumble, informing her of the girl's name. Cora. Allison nodded as she took that information on board. They ran, and you didn't. She stated the obvious. Why? she asked, the blonde looked down at her fingers, twiddling them. Allison looked back up at Scott, wondering if she had overstepped, she expected him to be giving her a stern look, questioning if she had really just asked that, how she had the audacity. But no. He seemed just as curious. He too wondered why Noelle hadn't run the second they released her from the handcuffs. 

"I guess what I mean to ask is, uh, are you-" the brunette stuttered. "Like them? You just don't-"

"She's not a werewolf." Derek deadpanned, he seemed to have appeared from nowhere. None of them had heard him coming. He didn't have Erica with him, they didn't know where he had been all of this time, but they could tell by his red eyes that he had found her, that it made him even a little bit emotional. The time he had been away must have been to properly dispose of the girl's corpse, the way she deserved, not in a janitor's closet. But none of them had the nerve to ask the man about her. "Isaac said the girl in the vault wasn't like us. That's her," he said, pointing at her.

"I have a name." the blonde plainly spoke, the most words she had spoken since being out of the vault. And the words she had opted for took them by surprise. She looked soft, like the definition of purity and perfection itself. Even disheveled, scorned by her experience in the vault, she came out looking unnaturally beautiful. The last thing either Derek or Allison would have expected the girl to say was something that put the Alpha in his place, he was speechless. But Scott wasn't. A smile grew across his face, bowing his head to hide it. That was the girl he knew. She was still in there. "And no, I'm not one of them," she answered the brunette, her voice softer, she didn't talk to Allison in the way she had Derek, where kindness was given, it was received.

"But you are something." the Alpha stated. It wasn't a question. The blonde didn't react, instead, she looked back down to the floor, closing herself off again, as though it were a sore subject. If it did happen that she was something supernatural, it wasn't something she wore with pride like a couple of people they knew. 

"Do-" Scott began, turning the blonde's head to him, but he hesitated unsure to ask. She nodded at him, encouraging him to continue. "Do you know how long- How long it's been?" As he saw in the vault, there weren't very many amenities, not even a window for her to tell when day turned to night. No way to keep track of time. And yet, she had managed.

736 days. Was the correct, specific answer. Though not the one she had given to them. She had acted uncertain, guessing two years, she didn't want pity, for them to know that she had made it almost her life mission to calculate the time she spent sitting in that cold vault. She had her way to work it out. The Alpha pack checked in on their prisoner daily, allowing her to catch a glimpse of light and day. For a few months, her watch still worked. And then eventually, when she'd lost hope and track of it, she wasn't alone anymore. Cora came. Then Erica and Boyd. Each giving a date, allowing her to resume her calculation, and to restore a little hope inside of her. Perhaps if people had stopped looking for her, she might be found one day as they search for the others in the vault. It seemed like false hope. Impossible. But now, that day had come. 

She looked Scott up and down, taking in how different he looked from his fourteen-year-old self. He was visibly older now, more handsome. He still had puppy eyes, but on a more muscly face. A crooked jaw still. His hair was no longer a rugged mop, but cut down shorter, complimenting his new persona, or at least the confidence he now had as a werewolf. There was still some of Scott that seemed the same. I guess quite a lot has changed. She muttered, trailing off again. 

"Not to break up the reunion-" Derek intervened, no longer able to watch the exchange of looks between what was ever so clearly two former flames. It made him sick. "-But we've still got two rabid werewolves running around town ready to kill anyone they lay their eyes on." He stated, a fair point. "Thanks to someone releasing them." he added, unable to help himself, his eyes on a pissy brunette who stood up.

You want to blame me? She asked in a snarl. I'm not the one turning teenagers into killers. The blonde girl sat back, her eyes wide as she watched them argue, she had heard snippets of their bickering while she was in the vault, their shouting was what convinced her it might be a good time to try and break free, while nobody could hear her. "No, that's just the rest of your family."

Allison admitted that she had made mistakes, she wasn't perfect, she would never claim to be. But Gerard was not her fault. Noelle wasn't sure who Gerard was, but it was clear whoever the man was, he had significance to their life somehow, someone with a connection to the brunette who almost felt responsible for him. She imagined him as an old man with a name like Gerard, she wasn't sure what an old man would have to do with a bunch of teenagers. "What about your mother?" Derek asked her, confusing the brunette.

What do you mean? She asked, looking at Scott more than she looked at the Alpha, expecting it to be him who answered. She was familiar with Derek's tactics, he liked to drop a bomb only to shove the responsibility of dealing with it on Scott later. Tell her. Derek said to the wolf, just like Allison expected. Scott stood still, his face dropped, unable to believe that Derek would put him in this position, he knew how much he didn't want to tell her, and now, he had no choice, there was no chance of her dropping it. He would have to spill, breaking her heart in the process. Yet again, he would be the cause of her broken heart. 

Without another word, leaving them in the midst of his destruction, Derek left the bank to find his sister and beta. No longer interested in what arguing with Allison brought to him. He didn't care that he had thrown Scott under the bus. Noelle was tempted to join the Alpha, choosing to help him look for her friends, but part of her felt like she needed to stay with Scott. He was the only person she knew between the three of them, he was the one she knew she could rely on to protect her. 

She sat quietly, taking in what Scott said as he tried to recall the events of earlier this year. For Allison, it was quite obvious the night he was talking about. As soon as he said it was at the start of the year, a bad feeling had risen in her. And then, when he mentioned a rave, everything that had happened that night came flooding back. Their relationship was at width's end after only a little over a month together. They were torn on how to deal with a murderous creature running around town. He wanted to handle it himself. She wanted to involve her father, a man qualified for the task. Scott told her not to. She did it anyway. Nothing was ever truly the same after that. 

Tonight, she would find out her mistake wasn't the only aspect of them falling apart. Her mother had tried to kill him, he told her, with wolfsbane. Derek had found them. To save him, Derek had bitten her. Leading to her death, her vow to the hunter's code, the one that stated that death was the only option over becoming one of them. 

Allison was gobsmacked. Heartbroken. Speechless. Noelle was two of those things too. Some of the story didn't make sense to her, but the parts she could grasp, she knew wasn't good. If she'd been told that about her own mother, she wouldn't know how to handle it either. Scott had tried to comfort her, apologizing as though he were in the wrong, he wanted to tell her sooner, but he just couldn't. He couldn't let that be the final memory of her mother. The girl was inconsolable, wanting nothing more than space as she left the building with her fingers pressed to her temples in confusion and frustration, fighting back tears. 

With a heavy sigh, Scott turned back to the blonde patiently waiting behind him, still sitting with her arms around herself on the edge of the vault. "We should get you home. You can stay at my house for as long as you need. And then I need to go and find Boyd and Cora."

No. The blonde refused, standing up. I'm coming with you. She insisted, unwilling to hear any of his protests, if he had any, but he had no fight left in him. Besides, he knew better than to try and get his own way with her. It had never worked in the past. It wouldn't work now. 

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Standing between Scott and Derek, Noelle and the two werewolves scanned the preserve in the hopes that one of their three pairs of eyes would spot the rabid pair running around, or at least a clue to tell them which direction to head in. Scott had managed to find Boyd once since they had been out here, about to maul two kids who were trying to catch fireflies, ultimately, he ended up losing Boyd and saving the two small children. 

Since then, it was decided their efforts would be best combined, when there was no chance they could lose one of the werewolves. Noelle had managed to keep up, a pleasant surprise to Derek and Scott who had expected the five-foot-four petite girl to slow them down. They all ran around the preserve, quite aimlessly, moving as fast as their legs would carry them. There was no clue of where Boyd and Cora were or where they would head, only that soon enough, they would hit the edge of the preserve, able to head straight into town. They couldn't let it get to that point. 

Noelle eventually came to a sharp stop, Derek and Scott carrying ahead for a moment until they noticed that she wasn't there anymore. She was knelt down, staring into the mud. A set of tracks in the ground. The first clue they'd had this entire time. Do you think it's them? She asked, Derek nor Scott were quite sure. But the tracks told them one thing, they weren't the only ones who'd decided to stick together.

"Is that gonna make it easier or harder to catch them?" Scott asked.

"I don't know," Derek admitted.

With a sigh, Scott stood up from his kneeled position in front of the tracks. "Derek, I saw Boyd try to rip two little kids apart. Are they gonna do that to everyone they find?"

"Everyone and anyone." He deadpanned before walking away to continue their search while the other two shared a worried look, sooner or later, following him. 

For a while, their search had continued to be unsuccessful. Noelle's legs were growing tried, she tried her best to keep up with them, but had begun trailing behind. Her head fuzzy and her heart heaving in her chest. She was in no condition to be trying to keep up with them, not only did she lack the physical stamina they did, but she had been locked in a vault for two years, this was the first time since she was fourteen that she had been in the outdoor world, experiencing real air. It was a time she should have been embracing, not rushing through. She hadn't eaten. She was as thin as a twig, if not for the jacket around her, her bones would be visible. She had never been an amazingly health person, she had some bad habits, but her imprisonment had seen the worst of her health. 

There was a pause from the two werewolves ahead, both of them furrowing a brow, seeming to have heard something. And then again, as their heads whipped toward the sound. And in a flash, they were gone, speeding off again, leaving her behind as she stopped herself, bent over double as she tried to catch her breath. Her vision blurred for a moment as she stared at the ground. All of this was too much. She didn't know what she was doing. 

She took a breath, composing herself. Come on. She told herself. You've still got it in you. Fight. With another deep breath, the girl looked up through her long eyelashes, staring ahead into the dark preserve, able to see it in a brand new light as her eyes began shining their glowing shade of amber. She felt more alive than she had felt in a long time, bringing herself back to her feet, a final deep breath before she pursued them again.

Eventually, she found them, amidst a battle with Cora, them and another werewolf had joined, all swinging claws at each other, jumping around while the short rabid brunette seemed to beat them all. There was no match to her tonight. She wasn't in control. She had never been so out of control, even when this was all new to her when she first felt the euphoria of a full moon she had been in more control than tonight. Cora beat them all down until they had lost their breath, each defeated on the floor as she snarled again, as though she was warning them not to follow her as she ran off again.

Unsure of what she had missed, Noelle looked around at a loss, then seeing a girl had been here the whole time, watching them. Her eyes were wide with fear. She was stoic; frozen. While Derek and the other werewolf Noelle hadn't quite caught a good look at seemed to be following Cora, she and Scott had been the ones to hang behind, looking at the girl, unsure how to approach her after what she had just seen. She couldn't have been any older than they were, making them all the more guiltier. Scott stepped closer to her causing her to quickly take a few steps back, Nellie took that as her time to take a step closer with her hands raised in surrender. She seemed much more willing for Noelle to step towards her, after all, she was the only one who she didn't watch snarl, growl, and bare canines. 

"Are you okay?" Noelle asked softly, a hand on the girl's wrist. Though the girl looked straight at her, she didn't hear a word the girl said. She was too shaken up. Scott stepped forward too, but still remained behind the blonde, repeating the question. Unconvincingly, the girl nodded. "You need to get out of here. Far away. Get out of the woods and fast." Noelle warned her, this time, it seemed the girl was listening as she nodded at each instruction. "Did you drive here?" She asked as the stranger nodded again. "Good. Get in your car, drive, and don't look back. Don't stop. Just go home, lock your doors, and stay inside. Got it?" She asked, taking charge as the girl agreed to do exactly that. Noelle released her wrist, and immediately, the girl ran in the opposite direction.

"You should go too," Scott suggested, looking at her ghastly appearance as her condition began to deteriorate again. "You shouldn't be out here."

"I'm not leaving." the stubborn girl refused, wiping a bead of swear from her forehead. Maybe it was wrong for her to not listen, perhaps something she would regret, but she couldn't leave the woods knowing that Cora and Boyd were still running wild and nobody had an idea of how they were going to stop them from killing someone.

Almost immediately after reaching Derek and the other werewolf, no Cora in sight, Scott's phone began to ring again. He walked to the side as he answered it, talking under his breath. But Derek still eavesdropped, hearing Stiles tell him about a body at the local pool, somehow, Lydia found it. There was blood everywhere. She was pretty shaken up, and not to mention, she'd called the cops before calling him, meaning there wasn't much time for him to get any evidence they might need. Hence his call to Scott. 

Derek shook his head, it didn't make any sense. The public pool was on the opposite side of the woods, they hadn't tracked Cora and Boyd anywhere near there. But that didn't matter to Scott. They had killed someone. And now, they had officially hit the town, there was nothing stopping them from doing it again. They were moving fast. Too fast. It wasn't natural. We need help, Scott insisted, knowing the Alpha wouldn't be happy to accept help. 

"Speaking of help." the unfamiliar wolf spoke up, all eyes drawn to him. He stood leaning against a tree, all nonchalant with a scarf wrapped around his neck, looking the blonde girl from head to toe, making it clear who he was going to bring up. "Who's that." he deadpanned, pointing at her. 

Scott realized then that not everyone might recognize her as easily he had. Not everyone spent as long as he had analyzing her back when they were fourteen, memorizing every detail on her face. The way her hair sat. How there was a line of blue around the green in her eyes. How in the summer she had freckles appear. Nobody else took the time to notice all of the little things, they hadn't needed to, to them, she was just another pretty face in the halls. 

"Isaac, Noelle. Noelle, Isaac." he introduced, he didn't feel the need to emphasize with formality. As soon as he stated first names, he knew it would come rushing back for them. They had spent a lifetime knowing each other, it just happened that the two had grown into themselves, neither of them was baby-faced freshman anymore. 

She was used to seeing him with curly hair, glasses, and a black eye. He was a lot taller now too. He too had grown up to be handsome, a strong, god-like face and piercing blue eyes. Seeing how the people she knew had changed truly showed the effect of time, and how much she had lost of her own time. Lahey? she repeated. Issac Lahey? she was unable to hide her astonishment, if not for his confidence, the boy might have almost been offended by her reaction.

"What does this werewolf bite come with a full makeover or something?" she questioned them. "I mean, wow." she said in awe, staring at him. Scott's face contorted with jealousy, watching her look at him like that stung. It always stung knowing that the way she saw other people was how she would never see him. Because of their friendship, that was all he would ever be. Scott Just-A-Friend McCall. 

Sickened again, Derek stopped the reunion. "We have help," he told Scott, unaccepting of what it was that the wolf had come up with, as Scott knew he might be. "We have Isaac and Goldilocks." He said, nodding over at the blonde. She had known him all of an hour and a half, already Derek had nicknamed her, a ridiculous nickname that only her bright blonde hair fit. 

"I meant real help." Scott deadpanned, the two "not real" help clearly offended by his statement as they looked at him with a raised brow. "They're too fast for us, for all of us. They're too strong, too rabid." He continued to explain, his stare lingering over the blonde girl who was the weakest out of the group, the least able to fight, and clearly Scott's biggest worry right now.

"We'll catch them."

"What happens if we do?" Isaac questioned. "We're just gonna hold them down until the sun comes up?"

Derek sighed, obviously about to say something bad that none of them would want to agree with. Nellie had noticed that he always had a negative twist on every situation, especially if it came from Scott's mouth. That was sure to be fun. "Maybe it would be easier to just kill them."

"What?" The blonde scoffed in disbelief. "No."

"Nellie's right. We can't. Killing them isn't the right thing to do." Scott agreed.

"What if it's the only thing to do?" Isaac questioned again. "If we can't even catch them what else do we do?"

"Find someone who knows what they're doing."

"Who?" Derek asked, his voice showing he clearly dreaded the answer.

"Someone who knows how to hunt werewolves."

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Nervously, Noelle walked across the parking lot outside the local supermarket with Scott close beside her, apparently, they were about to confront a werewolf hunter who also happened to be Allison's father, Scott had done her the favor of filling her in on that detail. Her main concern was that he might just hunt her too. He didn't know what she was, much like nobody else knew what abilities she possessed, but it was the sheer possibility that when, if ever, he found out, he'd kill her without batting an eyelid.

Scott told her a lot about the Argents, trying to give her as much information as he could, hoping it would not only make her feel more comfortable, but that she would return the favour and tell him a few things too. Only his information hadn't eased her nerves. He told her how Argent had come from a long line of hunters, meaning it was in his blood, like a natural instinct to hunt their kind. Not to mention he had a thousand-page book on every supernatural creature, while Noelle was interested in that, the idea terrified her too. If the man knew as much as Scott said, he only had to take one look to discover what she was, she had been relieved from the fear of exposure, she forgot how hard it was to deal with.

One thing she had learned from Scott was that he had dated Allison at the beginning of the year. She had suspected that something was going on between them, she felt a lingering tension with the two of them. She was an expert with that. She had felt it herself for years, wanting to be with someone, but for some reason you know it just wouldn't work. For them, it was the fact that she was a huntress and he was a werewolf. For hers, well, she had never quite figured out a reason so solid, perhaps fear was all that was stopping her.

She found it strange to hear Scott talking about being in love, she had never heard it before. He used to talk about girls, all the time, especially with Stiles' influence, but that was lust. Plain-old puppy love. Crushes. This. This had been the real thing. And it hurt for her to know that she was not there to experience it, and that she had never experienced the full thing for herself either. Of course, when she had dated Jackson Whittemore from the sixth grade to freshman year, she had thought it was love, but she never felt the way about him that she did another. Thinking about it, she hadn't heard Scott mention Jackson. And technically, the two of them had never broken up. When she had been taken, they were still dating. Did that mean she was still his girlfriend?

Noelle knew Scott had never been a fan of Jackson, he loathed him, they never talked about him he hated him so much. Even so, Noelle couldn't help but ask about him.

It turned out he was one of them. A werewolf. Now, at least. For a period of time, he was another kind of creature, a Kanima, he called it. She didn't know what that was, and frankly, Scott wasn't entirely sure either even to this day. He explained that he was like a lizard with sharp claws and a long tail, not to mention venom that could paralyze someone in seconds. He died, momentarily, before coming back as a werewolf, and after being unable to explain his death, he moved over to London, nobody hearing from him since.

Noelle wondered if that was what she would have to do. Pick up what remained of her life, move across the globe to avoid the questions people would ask.

Jackson wasn't heartbroken when she was gone, at least according to Scott, hurt maybe. For like a month. As soon as the announcement had been made that the search for his missing girlfriend was over and she was suspected dead, it was like a switch flipped, he no longer cared, and soon, Lydia Martin was his girlfriend. Noelle could have seen that coming from a mile away. There had always been a rivalry between her and Lydia, she wasn't sure why, or how it started, but it came so naturally to them. They were pitted against one another, compared to each other until one or both feel inferior to the other.

Part of the girl hurt as Scott told her about the people in her old life. For some reason, because it had stopped progressing for her, she expected it for others. As though they would wait for her. It was selfish, she knew that. But she just wanted one thing, something in her life to be how it used to be. One thing was all she asked.

They had gotten so caught up in talking about their lives, they had forgotten the very reason the two of them were standing in the parking lot. As Scott looked around, he saw Argent walking to his car across the lot, his bags in hand. They were lucky to have spotted him. If another minute had passed, they might have missed their chance. He grabbed the blonde girl's hand, beginning to pull her toward the hunter's car. As he did, she released a sharp hiss of pain, causing Scott to stop, realizing his mistake as he let go. She waved it off, he didn't mean it. He began guiding her with a hand on her back instead, guiding her over to the man as they stopped behind him, they didn't announce themselves, which Noelle found strange. They simply waited as the man tried to juggle his keys and bags of shopping, it wasn't a surprise when he dropped it on the floor, his eggs broken across the lot.

Once the hunter had shut his trunk he had whipped around with a gun raised to both of their heads. The wolf instinctively placed an arm in front of the blonde, moving her slightly behind him as they both took a step back. Scott mumbled for a moment, pressured by the sight of the barrel between his eyes until he finally managed to spit out the simple greeting "Hi."

The blonde stood quietly behind the wolf, listening to Scott explain why they needed his help. Understandably, Argent had questions. "First of all, why would I care about anyone related to Derek? And second, I don't know this kid Boyd. I don't even know his last name." he explained with his gun still pointing at them. Boyd is his first name, Scott told him, Vernon his first, Nellie added. Which brought him to his next question. "Who are you?"

"Noelle. Nellie. Priestley." she stumbled, trying to figure out which was the correct answer, how to address the man, whether to be casual or formal. He intimidated her. As did his gun. "Sir." the girl added on a whim.

"Just curious," Scott spoke up, clearing his throat as he turned from the girl he was protecting to Argent. "Is there a reason the gun is still pointed at us?"

He looked at the gun in his hand, unsure whether to lower it. Between the stranger and Scott, he was aiming at Scott. He found him more threatening than the girl, and he already liked her more than he did the boy. Especially how she called him Sir, she seemed like a well-mannered girl, the kind he would like his daughter to be around, which was more than what could be said for Scott. He was honest as he answered Scott's question, admitting that there was probably still a part of him that wanted to shoot him, which he could appreciate. But ultimately, he lowered the gun as he placed it in his back pocket, taking a step closer to the two teenagers to talk to them closely, on a level, and honestly.

"Look, I watched my father brainwash my daughter, almost turn her into a killer." he recalled, it was beginning to make sense to Noelle why the man was a hunter in the first place. "That world, your world decimated mine. My wife, sister, father, my entire family." he listed. "Why would I ever step foot in it again?" Argent asked, making a good point, at least in Noelle's eyes. Of course, she hadn't known the details about his father's brainwashing Allison or what had happened with his sister, but it seemed as if the supernatural world had caused him to suffer a world of pain. Much like it had her. But where that was his reason to stay away from it, it was her reason to fight it.

"Because people are going to die," Scott told him, hoping to convince him anyway. "And because you know how to catch Boyd and Cora without killing them."

"I'm sorry. I can't help you." Chris shook his head, a tinge of guilt in his eyes.

Scott turned around prepared to give up and head back to the car that Isaac and Derek sitting in watching them as he moved his hand back to Noelle's back again but she wasn't willing to give up so easily, this was the life of her friends at risk. This was Boyd and Cora. If saving them meant standing a little too close for comfort to a hunter that had a gun at his disposal, pleading or even using his clear weakness for his daughter to her advantage, then so be it.

"Um... Mr. Argent. Sir." Nellie mumbled as she stepped forward, much to Scott's surprise. Chris turned around, stopping at his car door to hear out the unfamiliar girl. "Do you think that you could do us one little, tiny, favor?"

Chris looked at the girl with surprise, then glancing to the wolf who stood behind her choosing to keep quiet, Nellie was clearly going somewhere with this, and he was leaving her to it. From what he remembered she always had a way of charming people into getting what she wanted, and she had the charisma to get them out of sticky situations. Nellie had been the one to bring Stiles into his mischievous phase, which was still ongoing. Or maybe it was just characteristics that the children of the Sheriff inherited because both of them had that in common too. After a moment of consideration, Chris agreed to help, nodding towards his car for them to get in.

It took a while for the wolf to figure out where the girl in the passenger seat was taking them from her directions, and Derek and Isaac who were in the car behind them were also struggling to work out where exactly they were headed. It wasn't until they took a final turn into a parking lot that he had worked it out, she really was still that cunning brunette he knew two years ago. She had devised a plan she knew would work on Argent even after just meeting him, within a small conversation between them she'd figured out his biggest weakness, his teenage daughter, and protecting her from the world their family had been brought into.

The car park was illuminated by the lights of police cruisers and ambulances where a group of deputies stood around a gurney containing a body bag, Nellie watched as the man's face dropped as he looked at the black body bag, she didn't have to imply that whoever was in that bag was in there because of Cora and Boyd, it seemed pretty obvious. But the thing that had pulled on his heartstrings just like she had hoped was the parents of the young teen in the body bag stood beside it, holding onto their chests with tears streaming down their eyes as Sheriff Stilinski gave them the news. That was a feeling she too could resonate with. She could clearly remember the moment when she had been told her father was dead, and she was sure that the hunter beside her could remember the moment he had found out those he loved were dead. And that he would never want to be the parent who stood beside a body bag containing his beloved daughter, Allison.

Nellie sat patiently watching as he struggled to tear his eyes away from the sight of those parents, taking a slight intermission to look at Scott who'd now figured out her intentions, if it wasn't such a horrific sight he might have been filled with some pride.

"Thanks for the ride." Nellie broke the silence, placing her hand on the door handle but before she had gotten the chance to step out of the car Chris had placed a hand on her arm to stop her as he kept his eyes on the body bag, Scott too stopping at that sight.

"They did this? Boyd and..."

"Cora." Nellie followed, much like she had with his daughter.

With another moment of consideration, Argent turned to look at the wolf in the back seat of his SUV. "Where's the last place you saw them?"

Argent dropped a black duffel bag on the ground, its weight thudding against the pile of autumn leaves, right in the center of the circle that had been created by the hunter himself, the short blonde, and the three werewolves who all now shared the same motive. Catching Cora and Boyd before they had the chance to kill another innocent person. Scott was kneeling down beside the girl who had chosen to stand, Isaac on her other side as he leaned against a tree, it seemed as if in the small time she had been back in society everyone had gravitated towards protecting her. She should have expected it, she had just been released from two-year-long imprisonment that an Alpha pack had placed her in, and she didn't have the ability to fight in the way they did. As it stood she would have preferred not to use what she had been cursed with, not tonight, it was too soon to reveal the monster beneath the skin. Unlike the wolves she didn't see her abilities as a gift, there was nothing magical about her, she hated what she was.

"You're tracking them by print?" Chris asked as he kneeled down to meet Scott's height, in the time she had been back with her best friend she could tell he seemed to be running things around here, not Derek, the Alpha, who she would have expected upon first glance.

"Trying to," Scott answered honestly.

"Well, then you've been wasting your time." He deadpanned, looking up at the blonde who had convinced him to help and Isaac who stood playing with the hem of his scarf. "There's only one creature on Earth that can visually track footprints, and that's man. And if you're not trained like me, you have no idea that this print is Boyd's and these..."

"Are Cora's." Isaac confidently finished.

"Nope. They're yours." Chris said with a hint of humor in his tone causing the wolf to look at his shoes with a curled lip struggling to see how those prints could be his, if not Cora's he would have assumed they were Noelle's. Anyone but his own. "You trampled Cora's as soon as you walked over here. Look, I know the three of you, maybe four, are focusing half your energy on resisting your own urges under the full moon, but that's put you at a severe disadvantage to Boyd and Cora, who have fully given in. They put the pedal to the floor while you four are barely hitting the speed limit." Argent explained, clearly, he was still none the wiser as to what exactly the brunette was, even the man who owned a bestiary was clueless just like the rest of them.

"So what do we do?" Derek asked with folded arms.

"Focus on your sense of smell. Can I assume yours is heightened, Nellie?" Chris asked with a raised brow, all heads turning towards her. She simply shook her head as her reply, that was another thing she didn't have in common with the wolves around her. "Well, actual wolves are known to track their prey by up to 100 miles a day by scent. A trained hunter can use scent to track them. If the wind is with them wolves can track a scent by a distance of two miles, which means we can draw them to us... or into a trap."

Argent continued to explain as he threw a netted trap into Scott's arms, but his explanation didn't stop there, he knew for this to work he had to be thorough, and for that the three wolves and Nellie were grateful. He explained that the full moon gave the advantage of Cora and Boyd having a higher heat signature which made them easier to spot with infrared, he offered a pair of heat goggles to Derek and Isaac before they insisted that they had their own to use- their eyes. Argent raised an eye at Nellie, silently questioning if she had that ability, to which she nodded.

"Just remember, we're not hunting wild animals. Underneath those impulses are two intelligent human beings. Don't think they can't rely on that human side. It's suppressed, but it's there, reminding them how to mask their scent, how to cover their tracks, how to survive." Chris added as the four moved to stand on the edge of the cliff that looked over Beacon Hills, which from the distance of the preserve just looked like a sea of lights. "When was the last time you saw your sister?" He asked as he turned his head towards Derek.

"Six years. I thought she died in the fire."

"Do you feel like you have a lock on her scent?" He asked again but Derek shook his head, the one who would have had the best chance at having a scent on Cora was the only supernatural who didn't have the ability to sniff her out. "Scott, how confident are you in your skills?"

"Honestly, most of the time, I'm trying not to think about all the things I can smell."

"All right." Chris sighed. "The problem is when they breach the woods and hit the residential area. Once they're past the high school, they're right in the middle of Beacon Hills." Hesitantly, Isaac asked if that meant they would kill everyone they saw. Much to their surprise, the hunter answered no. But there was a difference that was vital for them to recognize. " Wolves hunt for food. At a certain point, they get full. Boyd and Cora are hunting for the pleasure of the kill, for some primal apex predatory satisfaction that comes from the ripping of warm bodies to bloody shreds. Who knows when that need gets satiated?"

"I feel sick," Noelle mumbled under her breath, holding onto her stomach.

"We can't kill them," Scott stated once again.

"What if we can't catch them?" Derek suggested once again, clearly in disbelief that they were able to do this without having to kill one if not both of them, even if it was his sister and his beta.

"Maybe we just need to contain them."

After that suggestion, the five devised a plan to lead the two blood-thirsty werewolves to the school which they presumed would be empty at this time of the night. And it was probably the best place to contain two wolves on a full moon with its boiler room that was blocked off by a steel door and no windows for the light emitting from the moon to hit them. From then it was time to kick start the hunting into full gear, Chris kneeled down pulling out a series of ultrasonic emitters, placing the first of many deep into the ground as he explained their purpose, to release a sound that would pull Boyd and Cora in the direction they desired. Of course, Chris loved to give a thorough explanation which with his equipment included a demonstration, he pressed down the button at the top of the emitter, to Nellie there was nothing but silence but the three wolves surrounding them all placed their hands over their ears as they grunted in pain. The girl would have been lying if she said she didn't take some slight joy in watching that. Once the three had recovered from the sound that pierced their ears they stood at the trunk of the SUV waiting for Chris to hand them two of the emitters each as he left what happened once Cora and Boyd got to the school up to them. But that seemed like something that couldn't be planned, more of a spur-of-the-moment thing.

Isaac had suggested that they stop and rethink the plan so that it ended in them just killing the two wolves, he really was Derek's beta, but of course, that hadn't settled well with either Scott or Nellie who both narrowed their eyes at him. Scott reassured the wolf that the plan would work but that wasn't something the girl could join in on, she wasn't as confident as he was, after all, she didn't know how well their plans usually panned out, this could be a disaster. Scott then looked to Derek who seemed just as unsure as the rest of them about this plan, once again the beta reassured them that this plan would work, but the more he said it the less sure he become.

The girl offered her hands out for Argent to hand her two of the emitters but before he could give them to her an arm had stretched out between them stopping the hunter from placing them in her hands, of course, the blonde had turned to look at the arm that had stretched out with a puzzled expression. Maybe she didn't have super speed, but she thought she'd be able to help.

"Can I talk to you for a minute?" Scott asked, receiving a nod from the girl before he pulled her aside, just far enough that neither Isaac nor Derek would be able to hear them clearly. "You can't come with us." He bluntly stated.

"What? Why? You need everyone you can get." Nellie said, prepared to argue her case.

"Because someone else needs you." Scott vaguely replied, snatching the argument straight out of her mouth. "Look, Stiles texted me while we were in the car, he needs to go to the hospital and I want you to go with him where it's safer. I told him to come here first, he'll be here any minute. Don't worry about Cora and Boyd, we've got this. We've got a plan and it will work. I won't let them die tonight, Nellie, I promise."

Nellie wanted to insist that she would stay and help, desperate to be part of finding her friends, but she knew she could put her faith in Scott, she trusted him to follow through on his promise, and it would give her the chance to see Stiles again. Maybe giving them the chance to have a better catch-up than she and Scott had managed so far. The more she thought about it the more she convinced herself that she wasn't going to be as much use to the wolves as she made herself out to be, she didn't have their speed, their senses, in fact, the only common denominator was the glowing eyes they all shared. So after some consideration, Nellie gave him a hesitant nod that she would go with Stiles. The wolf turned back to where Argent and the other two wolves stood, giving them a signal that he would be back in a moment before beginning to walk Nellie down the man-made trail that would lead them to Stiles.

Eventually, the two reached the powder blue Jeep parked at the entryway of the preserve, its lights blinding as the two supernatural teenagers walked towards it. Nellie had noticed the car immediately, she knew exactly who the Jeep belonged to, she could remember when Claudia had told her son that he would inherit it, they couldn't have been much older than seven when the woman had begun falling ill. Nellie could remember the bright smile on his face when he found out he would be getting his mom's Jeep, it was nice to know he was finally able to drive it, and legally too, unlike when they'd take small drives when they were just fourteen, usually one of them would damage the car somehow, but Stiles managed to fix it all.

Stiles climbed out of the Jeep, leaving the redhead he'd brought with him behind as she sank in her seat at the sight of the blonde beside Scott, a feeling of guilt washing over her as she thought about all of the things she had ever said to Nellie, all of the hateful things she'd spit out at her at school, sourcing from plain jealousy. Unlike Stiles she didn't quite have the guts to get out of the Jeep and face her, she was sure that the last person Nellie would want to see was the girl she'd spent years fighting with, hating. A childish smile grew across Stiles's face as he walked towards the blonde who shielded her eyes from the bright headlights, when his best friend had told him he needed to come to the preserve for something he wasn't sure why, he hadn't even thought to ask, it was his best friend, so he complied. This would have been the last guess he'd taken as to why Scott had brought him out here.

"You've gotta be kidding me." Stiles chuckled in disbelief as Noelle moved the hand from above her eyes, smiling at the boy like they were little kids on Christmas again. Everything around the two of them failed to exist in that moment, they didn't have any worries, forgetting why the two of them were there at all. They rushed toward each other, running into each other's arm as she wrapped herself around him, burying her head into the crook of her neck as tears welted inside of her eyes. "I can't believe it." he mumbled into her jacket, holding her as tight as he could, he didn't want to let go.

This was it, the one thing that hadn't changed. The one thing she asked for. Was Stiles. The boy who had always been a constant in her life.

Scott smiled as he watched the two of them, thinking back to the first time he had met them both, how they were already best friends and they had taken him in when he had nobody else to refer to as a friend. The two of them had always shared an unbreakable bond, they'd watched each other lose everything, nearly all of the bad things that had happened to them were gone through together. For two years they had been deprived of that luxury, now it was back. It was the kind of welcome home she dreamed of for 736 days, though she knew it probably wouldn't happen it was one of the things that got her through those many days. With his arms wrapped around the blonde Stiles suggested the two of them hurry and take Lydia back home before she began growing irritable with him. Nellie hadn't even noticed that the redhead girl was even in the car until he had spoken, as soon as she looked back at the Jeep Lydia had turned her head, acting as if she hadn't been watching the exchange between her and Stiles. He released the girl to head back to the Jeep, but before Nellie followed she stopped, turning back to Scott one last time. He'd thought she was going to give him another warning about keeping Cora and Boyd safe, but instead, she wrapped her arms to him too, as she had with Stiles. Tightly squeezing him, allowing them to have at least some kind of reunion before returning back to the madness that was their lives. Whispering another thank you into his ear.

Alongside the tall brunette boy, Nellie walked into the hospital disguised with Lydia's clothing and a pair of sunglasses, though the redhead had remained silent the entire journey from the preserve to her house she had at least made Stiles leave with a change of clothes for the blonde so that she wasn't sitting in the clothes of her fourteen-year-old self a moment longer. Stiles had made the addition of the sunglasses so that her identity was as concealed as possible.

Both had agreed that now wasn't an appropriate time to reveal to the world that she was still alive and back in town, not that she had ever actually managed to leave. The only person Stiles had advised her to tell was Melissa, not only was she aware of the supernatural and the Alpha pack, but she was the very person they'd come to see, it would be hard not to tell her who the blonde he brought with him was. If he had advised her to tell anyone else Noelle would have been skeptical, but not with Melissa, she was like a second mother to her, sometimes even more of a mother than her own. She knew she could rely on her keeping the secret of her being back as quiet as possible, at least until she was ready to tell people herself, she would need to start with her own mother and brother first before the rest of the town began to find out.

Everyone they passed in the hospital stared at them, trying to see behind the pair of sunglasses, as if they recognized who it was, but couldn't quite put their finger on it. Nellie remained with her head down hoping that maybe there was some stuck-up blonde in town that she could be mistaken for, someone who thought so much of themselves that they would wear sunglasses at night, and indoors. But since her mother had left town two years ago, it wasn't likely. Clara was the notorious stuck-up blonde of Beacon Hills, people would know if she were back.

As soon as Nellie had seen Melissa McCall standing at the receptionist desk filing through charts it felt like her heart had dropped, with every person from her old life she reunited with it became more and more real than she was back, out of the vault and edging back into normality. At least a kind of normality. The blonde couldn't help but grow a faint smile across her face, until the realization that Melissa would be another person she would have to tell about her supernatural nature, then the smile quickly faded and the nerves began rising in her stomach one again. The thought of everyone she loved before knowing what she really was after years of hiding it wasn't something that settled well within her.

Stiles leaned against the counter beside the woman, nodding his head slightly as a greeting while Nellie stood beside him nervously fiddling with hem of her shirt.

"Hey." Melissa greeted them with a soft smile, for a second she looked at the blonde curiously, though Nellie was too busy paying attention to the strings in her hand to notice Melissa trying to look through the dark sunglasses she was wearing. The woman refrained from mentioning the resemblance she shared with a girl who she once knew, shaking off her chance to ask whether it could be the girl herself, instead, she led both of them down the hall by their arms, close enough that she could whisper her threat. "If either of you tells anyone that I showed you this, I swear to God, I will kill you painfully and slowly." The woman warned them in a hushed tone, disguising it with a smile.

That was the Melissa that Noelle had missed, she'd always been a little intimidating under that maternal look of hers, she was a little more badass than she remembered, and she loved it. She wondered whether Melissa knew that it was her, whether she had been able to tell even through the blacked-out glasses. She didn't believe that the woman would threaten just any girl that the Stilinski boy turned up to the hospital with, and if so, Melissa had changed even more than she'd assumed.

"Why do you want to show me a body I've already seen?" Stiles asked the woman, he suspected it was the body that Cora or Boyd had mauled, as he explained to Noelle on the drive over, while Noelle was yet to see the body, she felt as though she knew enough after his vivid description of the crime scene. One she had used to manipulate Argent into helping them.

Melissa insisted that he hadn't seen everything as she stopped in front of the morgue, checking both directions of the hall before she slid her ID card across the scanner allowing them access as they quickly piled into the room. Noelle and Stiles were horrified when they saw all of the bodies in front of them, covered in a cloth, then the freezers that filled the back walls of the room which presumably were filled with even more decaying bodies. Noelle swallowed a lump in her throat, a chill crawling up her spine wishing that Melissa would hurry up and get this over with. But she had other plans, before focusing on the bodies, she turned to the blonde girl with folded arms, it was time to give up the facade.

"Do you plan on wearing those sunglasses all night, Nell?" she asked, Stiles' face dropped. How had she seen through her disguise? Noelle looked at Stiles for a final bit of reassurance, whether it was safe to take them off now, as he nodded, she took them off, blinking as she adjusted to the bright lights of the morgue.

"You knew?" she asked the woman, pulling off the hood of Stiles's jacket from her head, letting her blonde hair show.

"Please, I've known you since you were this small." she said as she lowered her hand to down by her knee. "Not to mention that I was with your mother when she brought you that bracelet," she said, pointing out the piece of gold jewelry on her uninjured wrist. As Noelle looked down at the bracelet, Melissa caught her off-guard, smothering the girl in a tight hug. "God, you had all of us worried sick, Nell. Where the hell have you been all this time? Does your mom know your here? Cole? Anyone?" she flooded her with questions, her maternal instincts kicking in, she didn't care to be soft and gentle, she wanted the truth and she wanted to know that now that Nell was back, she was safe. Her questions were just as much for Stiles as they were the blonde, she waited for an answer from either of them, Stiles knew just how much he could tell her.

Stiles shook his head, that had been all she needed to know this was supernatural business yet again. Melissa didn't touch any further on the subject, her only other question was whether her son was aware that she was back, and when that was confirmed, she asked whether he offered her a place to stay like she hoped he had. She wasn't sure why she doubted him and his kind spirit, especially when it came to Nellie, but she had to get confirmation anyway.

Nellie nodded again allowing Melissa to breathe a sigh of relief knowing she had raised her son right before she turned back to the task at hand. She walked over to one of the bodies on the far side of the room, wasting no more time as she gently pulled the cloth away to reveal a young boy who had already begun to show the signs of death. Melissa pointed out the mark around his neck to the two teenagers who were trying to refrain from gagging, telling them it meant he had been strangled with something maybe like a cord or a rope. Of course, this raised a few concerns to the two teenagers who had become very familiar with werewolves.

"What kind of werewolf strangles someone?" Stiles asked with a raised brow. "You know, that's not very... werewolf-y."

"My thoughts exactly." Melissa nodded in agreement. "And then there's this."

The woman moved to the other side of his head, carefully moving it towards her to reveal another injury on the side of his head, an injury that was still bleeding and was even more gruesome than seeing the ligature mark on his neck. Both Stiles and Nellie released a groan as they tried to keep what kept rising in their stomach down as they held onto their stomachs or placed a hand over their mouths.

"God, man, what is that? Is that brain matter?" Stiles mumbled through his hand.

"Yeah, it's brain matter," Nellie confirmed, trying not to vomit.

"See the indentation? He was hit in the back of the head, hard enough to kill him. In fact, any one of these things could have killed him. I mean, someone seriously wanted this poor kid dead." Melissa emphasized.

"All right, so then this couldn't have been Boyd or Cora, you know?" Stiles suggested. "They wouldn't have done all that."

"I feel like that should be a good thing, but it really doesn't feel like it is," Nellie added, to which neither could disagree with, if it wasn't Boyd or Cora it meant there was someone else out there who clearly had a taste for gruesome deaths, maybe even torture.

"So maybe this is just one murder?" Stiles questioned, hoping they didn't have another homicidal lizard on the run again, he had had enough of that for a lifetime. "I mean, maybe it's just a random coincidence."

"I don't think it was just one." The nurse admitted.

"How come?" Nellie asked, hesitant to whether she actually wanted to know why she would think that it wasn't just a random coincidence. As soon as the words has escaped her mouth she wished she could have taken it back.

"Because of that girl over there. She's got the exact same injuries."

Melissa covered up the boy they had been analyzing before moving over to the body of the girl who apparently had the same injuries, Nellie and Stiles stood beside the table with a growing feeling of nausea inside of them unsure how many bodies they would be able to look at before it came too much and they were unable to keep it down any longer. Once again she carefully peeled back the cloth as she began to explain what the ME had said but unlike their reaction to the boy, both of their reactions to the girl severely differed. Their faces had dropped as well as their hearts, straight into their stomachs. Tears immediately began forming in their eyes. It turned out that just seeing this body was more than they could handle. Because they never would have thought they'd seen someone they knew beneath the cloth, not in a million years.

Just when Nellie thought tonight was taking a somewhat positive turn after being saved, reunited, and finding out it wasn't her friends killing people. The world bit her in the ass again.

Because the body that lay in front of her wasn't just somebody of some random teenager. The body that lay in front of them, dead, was the body of Heather Priestley. Nellie's paternal cousin, just a few months older than herself.

Before Heather had moved to a new school the two blondes were inseparable, often mistaken for sisters due to their similar looks and the shared last name. And now she lay dead in front of her. She died believing that her cousin was dead, much like everyone else believed. After the move, the two grew apart, even more so when Nellie cut herself off from her father's side of the family, she couldn't bear to look at them without being stung with guilt. Without seeing them as a reminder that her dad was gone now. Another person that Heather meant a lot to was Stiles. The three had gone to Kindergarten together before they'd met Scott, they were the original troublesome trio.

Tears stung the eyes of the two teenagers as they took a step back, needing the distance from their former friend and cousin.

"Guys?" Melissa mumbled after noticing the lack of intervention from then during her detailed explanation of what had killed her, but after seeing the sorrow in their eyes she realized her mistake. "Oh, my God. You knew her. I'm so sorry. I didn't even think." She apologized as she pulled the white cloth back over the girl's body placing a hand on their shoulders for comfort.

"That's Heather," Nellie muttered, not only to inform Melissa but to come to terms with the fact she had reunited with the first person from her family, though when she had imagined seeing her family again it wasn't in terms like these.

"Heather?" Melissa questioned, she knew that name. It took a minute for her to gather her thoughts regarding the name until it dawned on her. Her old best friend Clara often spoke of her and Jack's niece, Heather, usually when talking about how shameful that side of the family was. But she remembered. If it wasn't enough that Nellie's mother would be returning to Beacon Hills to welcome back her daughter she would be returning for the funeral of her seventeen-year-old niece too. If she bothered to attend after she too had cut off that side of the family.

"I was..." Stiles began to mutter, his voice cracking as tears began to slowly trickle down his cheek as he thought back. "I was at her party. It was her birthday."

Despite knowing that this was hard for the two teenagers she knew there was a duty at hand that she had to follow, and doing it may just help them to figure out who was killing people.

"Okay, we need to call your father." She spoke up. "Because you're a witness, Stiles. And Nell, that means we're going to have to tell him about you too. So we need to give him a reason for where you've been for the past two years that isn't going to raise any suspicion. Can you do that?" Melissa asked as Nellie nodded in agreement.

The two looked at Stiles waiting for his confirmation but his eyes were darting across the room, clearly, deep in thought as he tried to figure something out. Like a lightbulb had been lit above his head allowing him to piece together a puzzle.

"Stiles?" Nellie muttered softly.

His breathing became more shallow, his eyes more watery as he leaned on one of the surfaces to stabilize himself, only worrying the two females who looked at him even more as he tried to figure out a way to get the words out.

"Has anyone else been through here tonight? Any other bodies or even anybody missing?" He frantically asked, obviously, he had caught onto something they hadn't.

"Uh, no bodies, but, um...two girls. They brought the first one in, Caitlin, for a tox screen, and then I overheard that her girlfriend, Emily, just disappeared. I mean they were out in the woods and..."

"I saw her. I was there. She saw Scott, Isaac, and Derek. Even Cora. They probably think she's going insane." Nellie interrupted, tonight was getting worse by the second.

"Nobody's found her yet?" Stiles asked.

Melissa shook her head and shrugged. "I don't know."

"The first one. Caitlin. Is she here? Is she here right now?"

"I think so."

"Okay, where?" Stiles asked prepared to barge out before Melissa had stepped in his path to stop him, hoping for an explanation before she allowed him to scare a patient who was probably already very shaken up after seeing four werewolves fighting after her girlfriend had just gone missing. No wonder she was having a tox screen, for an explanation like that they would think she had taken every drug that existed. It was practically a one-way ticket to Eichen.

Stiles's reasoning for needing to talk to the girl was simple, he believed he knew what was happening and why Heather, the teenage boy, and the other girl, Emily, had gone missing. Of course, Nellie and Melissa were interested to hear more before they let him question the girl, for all they knew his theory could have been completely bizarre. Which it was. But in a world like the one they lived in, it was completely plausible. Sacrifices. If Emily was a virgin like he was expecting that would make all three of the victim's virgins, Nellie didn't have to attend school for the past two years to know that virgins were often used for sacrifices, she had watched Hocus Pocus religiously. But it didn't terrify her any less. If Stiles was right it was much worse than Cora and Boyd going out on a killing spree, they had yet another serial killer on their hands, this one just happened to be a lot more insane than the one's the pack had become accustomed to.

Melissa guided them through the halls of the hospital once again, Nellie opting for her disguise yet again, at least until they had gotten to Caitlin's room, the brunette had already seen her anyway. That was probably another thing she had told the doctors that would make her seem insane. Nobody would believe that her girlfriend had gone missing, she had seen four people with glowing eyes fighting and a girl who was presumed dead had appeared in the woods after two years. It was a miracle she wasn't already in a straight jacket and heading to Eichen.

The nurse stood guard at the door while Nellie and Stiles stood at the side of Caitlin's bed ready to confirm Stiles's theory, Caitlin had put up an argument about Stiles being in her room at first, insisting that she wanted to be left alone. Until the blonde crept in behind him. Then her mood had drastically changed and she agreed to help as much as she could.

Stiles's first question had been to ask what Caitlin's version of events was that last night, but since Nellie was already aware of the whole glowing eyes things she chose to skip that part entirely, they couldn't blame her. Some of the things they'd seen at the hands of werewolves they wouldn't want to relive either.

"We weren't doing anything bad. I mean, I've camped out there plenty of times."

"Right, but why tonight?" Stiles asked.

"We wanted to be alone for one night. Emily lives with her mom, and I have three roommates. Not exactly romantic settings, you know?" Caitlin nervously chuckled.

"How long have you two been together?" Nellie asked curiously.

"Three months."

"And you wanted to make it romantic." Stiles reiterated again.

"Yeah, you know, because..."

"Because it was her first time." Nellie finished, to which Caitlin nodded, confirming that Stiles had been right to assume Emily had been a virgin. When Caitlin had asked whether they would find Emily they all knew the answer, but it wasn't one they could bear to give her. After seeing Heather, someone who meant something to them just like Emily did to her, they couldn't be the bearers of bad news. And they didn't want to lie to her. She could see that when the three that stood around her bed lowered their heads, unable to even reassure her.

Stiles chose not to question her anymore, he was somewhat satisfied with the answers that he'd received, and he felt too awkward to talk anymore about sex when he couldn't participate fully in the conversation. It was hard enough admitting he was a virgin to people he knew, let alone a pretty stranger. While they waited for Scott to come and see the bodies himself Melissa led them to a private consultation room, leaving them alone to continue catching up while she called the Sheriff. He would have to gather a statement from his own son, not to mention he would have to know about Noelle sooner or later. He would need a statement or so from her too. Someone had to explain or lie about what had happened to her.

Melissa had been vague over the phone, telling the man anything she could to get him here. She called it nothing more than a dire emergency. Of course, he rushed straight to the hospital. Noah dreaded what he would come to see, he expected to walk into the room that Melissa had guided him to see his son sitting patiently, maybe anxiously, waiting for him to come and take hear just what had happened tonight.

The last thing he expected was to walk into the quiet room to find a timid blonde beside Stiles, a weary smile across her face and her hands in her lap, unsure how he would react. Even he wasn't sure how to react as he stood still in the doorway, blinkingly repeatedly, trying to make sure that it wasn't some kind of mirage or misunderstanding. That he wasn't just mistaking some blonde for the one he missed. He turned back to the nurse standing behind him, Melissa nodded, ready to leave them alone to talk, promising that they wouldn't be disturbed by anyone. As soon as he shut the door, Noelle and Stiles stood up to greet him, the girly swallowing thickly.

He didn't say a word as he approached the girl, towering over her for a minute, making her even more nervous before he finally pulled her tightly into a hug, a familiar warmth washing over the two of them. It reminded the girl of what it would be like to hug her father, something she hadn't been able to do for eight years, Noah was the closest thing she had had in that time, she couldn't rely on her own mother to provide her comfort. For that very reason, Noelle couldn't hold in her tears as she sobbed into the man's chest. It was the final confirmation for her, she was safe, alive and home again.