Just like that, the hunt was over.

When the green had faded from her eyes she was standing in the middle of the lacrosse field again on her own, feeling unbearably disoriented and confused. Katherine couldn't figure out what had happened at first — she had no idea why she was standing at the school in the middle of the night — but the moment she figured it out, she was sprinting back to her house.

She didn't find her Dad there, so the next place she checked was the station. He was standing to the doorway to his office, looking at Parrish in complete and utter amazement as the other deputies wandered around, but his attention quickly turned to her the moment she threw herself into him.

As she'd cried he'd clung to her like his life depended on it, and when her phone rang in her pocket with the name JEEP KID up on the screen, she'd teared up all over again.

From there she'd gone on to find everyone, holding each of them as tightly as she could; first Lydia, then Scott, then Malia and Mason and finally her brother, who'd clung to her. He'd explained that the reason he'd vanished was because the others had brought him back so they could bring everyone else back.

Of course she'd understood, but she'd still smacked him for scaring her all the same.

From then on, life had gone on as if nothing had changed.

They all went to school, lacrosse games, work, studied for their finals and such. Stiles and Lydia were different around each other — it was because she'd kissed him the moment she saw him back from the Hunt, Katherine knew that much because they'd both told her on separate occasions — which she geeked out about with Scott over the 10 year plan because they were both still mildly surprised that it had actually worked.

She gave Liam and Hayden some space to work through things because she knew that he felt horrible for the way things had gone. As much as she wished she didn't have to be away from him again, Katherine knew that it was a good thing because it gave her time to work up the courage to talk to Brett.

Admittedly, he deserved better than what he'd gotten from her. So much more from someone who wasn't nearly as messed up and confused as she was. But she also knew that there was no way for her to truly describe just how grateful she was for him and everything he'd done for her in the past months.

There was no possible way to put it into words.

So as Katherine wandered out of the school on her last day of tenth grade to the blue jeep that wouldn't be picking her up and dropping her off anymore, she couldn't help the bitter sweet smile that rolled onto her lips. "Okay!" She heard Stiles say as she approached them. "So, Liam, since you're the new Alpha—"

"—I'm not an Alpha," Liam cut him off as she tossed her backpack through the open passenger side window, smiling almost immediately when he looked at her.

"Right," Stiles rolled his eyes. He was standing with Scott, who was watching the whole thing play out in mild amusement. "But, you know; Alpha-in-training."

He blinked at him. "Well, I'd have to kill an Alpha," he mumbled awkwardly. He was leaning against the bumped of the jeep, the open back window acting like a shield from anything that could possibly fall on him.

Being in Beacon Hills, that could be anything.

"Liam," Stiles huffed patiently. "Since you're taking over, the most important thing you can remember is that Mason is always gonna be the one who's there to save your ass all the time."

Scott frowned. "Well, not all the time."

He just grinned. "Most of the time, though." Then he cleared his throat. "Which is why—" he reached into the back of the jeep for something that made her grin "—I think you're gonna need this."

He held out the great big silver bat, an older replica of her own, and handed it to Mason who just stared at it for a moment. "Uh, I don't play baseball," he smiled faintly, though he still looked appreciative.

Stiles blinked at him. "Right, neither do I."

"It's not what we use it for," Katherine snickered, shoving her way in between him and Scott as she glanced up at the two of the with a grin. "Come on Mason, here you go; your weapon of choice."

"Love you guys," Stiles chirped as the two of them wandered off to the bus stop, Liam glancing back at her with a small smile that made her heart skip a beat. She watched as he grabbed two rolls of duct tape from the back of the jeep as well, and held one out to her and Scott. "I leave you with this." He eyed the two of them. "You know, hurt her and I'll kill you."

"You sure you won't need it?" Scott asked worriedly.

Stiles just smiled at the two of them and, noticing Katherine's fidgitiness with the duct tape roll, dropped an arm over her shoulder and pulled her into a brief chokehold where he ruffled her hair up, then let go with his arm still over her shoulders. "It's okay. Lydia's gonna drive me down to D.C. She wants to help me move into my dorm, so..."Katherine couldn't help but smile at that. She liked the idea of where this whole thing was going with the two of them, and was definitely already planning a wedding the way she normally would a crime board. "You know she's starting MIT as a Junior?"

Her eyes bugged out of her head. "How do you even do that?"

"I..." Scott gaped before finally settling on, "she's a genius."

"The real question is," Stiles hummed, "is how'd you get into UC Davis?"

"Ooo, snap," Katherine chuckled, leaning her head onto Stiles' side.

"How did you get into George Washington?" Scott countered.

Katherine's brows rose. "I feel like I've witnessed a fucking murder, holy shit," she muttered quietly, flinching when she was flicked on the ear.

"I don't know," Stiles answered without even hesitating for a moment. "Uh, your dad. The, uh, big FBI pops made a call to the little pre-FBI program."

"Pre-FBI," Scott breathed while shaking his head. "Well, I guess we're not the same kids running around the woods looking for a body."

Katherine smiled faintly, remembering the night she'd caught her brother sneaking out and had forced him to let her come along or she'd 'accidentally' trip beside his jeep with her house keys in her hand. "No, we're not."

She watched as Stiles pulled his key ring out of his pocket and fiddled with it for a moment. "You know, you can keep the Jeep," Scott murmured to him.

"No," he shook his head firmly. "I... I want you to have it."

Scott stared down at them for a moment, and then his brows furrowed. "Stiles; these aren't the keys to the Jeep."

"Well," he smiled awkwardly. "That's one to your house, another to your room, uh, it's the master key to the school, Animal Clinic, key to the Sheriff's station. Just figured you should have all the copies I secretly made. So... Yeah." Then he sighed. "They still need us."

She followed his gaze out to the students all leaving the school, some for the very last time, and sighed. "They'll always need us," Scott murmured.

"And, you know," Stiles blinked. "I...I need you. Both of you. You know that."

"We need you too," Scott murmured at the same time Katherine whispered I'm gonna miss you.

He cleared his throat. "No, really, I need you though, uh...I lost my license in the Hunt. So you have to drive."

Unable to help it, Katherine snickered.

Scott laughed too, though he still seemed a little sad. "Your dad is the Sheriff," he rolled his eyes. "I'm sure he'll let it slide." He tossed the duct tape into the back of the jeep. "You drive."

She climbed into the back left seat and leaned forward between the two of them as Stiles twisted his keys in the ignition. Immediately, their Dad's voice flooded the police scanner.

"Unit Four, repeat; you're telling me there's a body in the woods?

That's exactly what I'm saying, Unit Four responded. There's a body in the wood—

He flipped the scanner off and they all sat in silence for a moment, processing the discovery.

Without another word the three of them shared a look; Scott had his brows raised, Stiles with his mouth pulled to one corner, and Katherine couldn't help but grin. Silently, they came to the exact same conclusion at the exact same time, and she leaned back into the seat so she could peak out through Stiles' open window.

He swerved out of the parking lot and she immediately scrambled to grab the handle above her head. "Jesus, I see why the Ghost Rider's took your freaking license—"

"—Katherine, shut up oh my god it's been like five minutes—"

"—Don't even start with me Stiles—"

Even if her brothers were done with high school now, and moving on to bigger and better things, one thing was always going to be certain.

The three of them would always be the kids who went to investigate the body in the woods. And as the town slowly faded into dirt roads and forestry that was the beauty of Beacon Hills — but only during the day — Katherine could only watch the outside pass by in amazement because with the way things were going, she knew that they always would be.