frayed

It had been days since Isaac had moved in with the McCall's, Kinsey had never spent so much time there, not even through all of the time in supporting Scott with his newness to being a wolf, though both she and Isaac continued to deny that they were anything more than friends. As if Scott hadn't caught her sneaking in and out of his home on multiple occasions, or as if he didn't have supernatural hearing too. But he let them continue their facade for a little longer. He found it quite amusing just how far the two were willing to go to keep their secret.

Even Melissa had begun to suspect the two, her son wasn't so much of a good liar as the two of them, his "shock" when she had asked him if they were a thing had told her everything she needed to know. But she too kept it a secret. Mainly, because she could remember what she'd said to Kinsey the night of the formal about love. When she found the right person, it would scare her, that's how she will know whether he was the right one for her, and what proved she was scared of the relationship more than keeping it a secret from everyone she loved?

Kinsey had found herself at the McCall house once again, though this time she didn't sneak in, she was there to help Isaac study, considering everything he had been through since school had started it was safe to say he hadn't had the time to prioritize his studying, and he didn't have the help from Lydia that the girl did when she felt as though she was falling behind. Even if he didn't have the genius redhead herself, he had all of the notes that she had given to Kinsey, which was the second-best thing he could ask for. Kinsey had to admit she wasn't the best tutor, but she tried her best. It was when the two had been sitting and studying that the wolf abruptly stopped, droning out the sound of Kinsey talking about the Pythagoras theorem to listen to what he could hear just down the corridor as he looked straight ahead to the door. It had taken a while for the brunette girl to realize that he wasn't listening and not just because he was trying to process all of the big words she had thrown out at him, or because he was trying to figure out one of the maths problems like he was supposed to be doing. She recognized the look on his face, he often gave it to her, the look of concern.

She nudged him in the side, turning his attention to her for a split second. "What is it?" She asked in a low whisper.

"Scott," Issac mumbled back. "He's going somewhere. Are we gonna try and stop him?"

Kinsey shook her head, taking the wolf by surprise. He would have thought that she would be the first to suggest rushing into the room to find out where he was going, and if she didn't agree with what he was doing, then to stop him. "Of course, we aren't." She followed in a soft mumble. Kinsey closed her books, rolling off of the bed and onto her feet, the brunette grabbed her jacket that she had thrown on the back of the desk chair. "We're going with him."

Isaac smiled at the girl as he closed his books too, that was the Kinsey he knew. He sprung off of the bed, grabbing his own jacket that, unlike her own jacket, she had neatly hung up for him. The tow rushed to throw a pair of shoes on before they missed their chance to gatecrash Scott's plans for tonight, the ones that he was clearly trying to keep away from them as he tiptoed in his room. He wasn't the only person in this house who had superhuman hearing now. Now that Isaac was squatting in his spare bedroom he had no chance of stepping out of the house alone, whether it was Isaac barging in on his plans, or texting Kinsey to do so. They were his personal bodyguards now, even if he was physically stronger than the girl, she had a lot more attitude than him or Isaac put together, and she had the benefit of being a huntress in training. Kinsey and Isaac leaned against the doorframe of Scott's bedroom as he stood with his back turned to them, pulling his jacket on. Scott was so focused on listening to the sound of his footsteps to make sure that they were quiet enough he forgot to focus on whether he could hear either of them from down the hall, that had been his mistake.

Scott picked up his helmet and turned around prepared to sneak out but as soon as he had seen the two staring at him he had jumped out of his skin, they had taken the breath right out of his lungs. He knew he'd been caught.

Isaac copied the girl as he threw the book off of his lap, grabbing his jacket that she had hung up in the wardrobe followed by both of them quickly shoving their shoes on before they headed to Scott's room, ready to gang up on him. He had no chance of stepping out of this house without them. He could consider them his personal bodyguards, even if he was a lot stronger than Nova. The two leaned on the wolf's doorframe, he'd been so consumed in trying to sneak around he hadn't been focusing on listening to whether the two had heard him, so when he turned around with his motorcycle helmet in his hand he'd jumped out of his skin at the sight of them.

"Going somewhere, Scotty?" Kinsey asked with a flick of her ponytail, tilting her head as she looked at the wolf. He should have known there would be no getting around the girl, she was everywhere and yet nowhere. She was like Beacon Hills' very own ninja.

Scott stammered for words as he tried to come up with a plausible lie. "I was gonna go get some food to eat." He decided was a sufficient enough lie.

"Oh, cool. We'll come with you." Isaac suggested. Or more so decided for him.

The wolf shook his head. "Nah, guys, it's okay. I can eat alone. You two have studying to do." Scott tried to convince them but his efforts were getting him nowhere. One, he was a terrible liar, there were a million better things he could have said than food and he hadn't chosen one of them. Second of all, even if he wasn't lying, food was still the wrong thing to say to a werewolf who was never not hungry and a girl whose appetite was bigger than she was.

"What are you getting?" Isaac questioned, interested in how far he was willing to lie. Which apparently was a lot more than they thought. Frankly, they thought that Scott would've caved the second that they had caught him. Both of them thought he knew better than to try and lie to them by now, surely he knew that he wasn't good at it, everyone had told him enough.

There was a brief pause as Scott tried to think of every food place in town. Preferably one that he knew Kinsey wasn't a fan of if she didn't want to come then neither would Isaac, at least he hoped that was how this thing between the two of them worked, he still hadn't quite figured them out. He was still in shock that there even was a thing between the two of them for him to try and figure out. "Uh... Mexican?" He lied poorly, honestly, he had no idea if Kinsey liked it or not, he just prayed for the latter. His poor skills only made the exchange between the three of them that much more painful than it needed to be, but he persisted.

"Dude, I love Mexican." Isaac beamed. "You like Mexican, right, Kins?"

The brunette girl nodded with a smile, insisting that she would drive. They couldn't exactly take his bike when there were three of them. And if she knew anything about Scott they would need the weapons that she hid in her car. Both Kinsey and Isaac tried to turn around to head out but Scott had grabbed their arms, turning them back around to face him. It was clear now that the charades had ended now. It seemed to have become the entire packs' thing now to cover up what they were really talking about by disguising it as something else, whether it was Scott and his use of food or Allison pretending like she wasn't talking about herself. "Guys. I can eat alone. It's okay." Scott insisted as he held onto their arms.

"You're not going alone." Kinsey followed with a faint smile. "Come on."

Scott sighed placing his helmet back down on his bed as he followed the two of them out of his room, though this wasn't how he had wanted this to go he was quite thankful he wasn't going alone and that the two were so stubborn. It proved to him that he had good friends who would walk through fire with him if need be. But if now was the time that they were ending all of their charades it was time he ended the one that they were playing with them.

"You know. The two of you not sleeping together would be so a lot more believable if you didn't spend every day with each other." Scott spoke up as he walked behind them. Of course, the two had stopped in their tracks to turn and look at him with shock. Another person, seriously?

"I'm going to kill Derek," Kinsey mumbled under her breath.

"Derek knows?" Scott questioned, now he was even more shocked. Was he late to all of this?

"He wasn't the one to tell you?" Isaac asked with a raised brow.

"No. I thought I was the first to figure it out."

Kinsey and Isaac both sighed as they stood in the hallway. Their plans to head wherever it was that Scott planned on going alone had been temporarily pushed back while the wolf used the five minutes that they had given him to ask all of the questions he could about the two of them. His first was how many other people besides him and Derek knew, which as far as they were aware of was just Cora. Next, was how long it had been going on. He was surprised to know that it had been so long and people were only just beginning to figure it out. His third question had been the one he thought about the most. What were they? That was one they hadn't been able to answer, they hadn't asked it themselves yet. Scott took their silence and awkward faces as his sign to change the topic of conversation and put a pin in this one until the two of them figured it out. Isaac had walked ahead of the two in a desperate attempt to get rid of his blushing cheeks, and as he rushed down the stairs and back out of the front door Scott took it as his chance to make one last comment about it to Kinsey. When he had stopped her she thought that she knew what he was going to say, that she needed to tell Stiles, but that hadn't been it. His final words on the topic were to tell the brunette girl that he was happy for her, happy that she was happy.

The three ended up at the mall. An abandoned mall. Though Scott hadn't distinctly said it, the two knew why they were here. They were very aware of the warning that Scott had given Allison, the warning for her to keep out of this business, he had planned to give the same warning to the other Argent who now stood with him, but things happened faster than he had anticipated. That night where he warned Allison was the night he rushed to Derek's loft to find him, Cora, Peter, and Boyd already plotting an attack of their own against the Alpha Pack. That was just yesterday, he hadn't had time to warn Kinsey to stay out of it all, hell, he had barely had time to arrange with Deucalion a chance to meet the man alone before all kinds of trouble was caused. While the girl and Isaac were aware of his conversation with Allison, he wasn't quite aware of everything himself. He wasn't the only one capable of making plans behind people's backs.

Kinsey and Isaac weren't quite sure why Scott thought he would be able to do this without them. Had he not learned yet that him doing any of this alone was out of the question? And it wasn't just the two of them willing to stand up against an Alpha pack for him. They may be his backup but Kinsey had called back up of her own. While Scott had driven her call to the mall in his attempts at hiding where they were really going she had texted Allison for backup, she knew from the lack of details that Scott was giving them that it was happening tonight. Allison was more than willing to follow them all into a fight against the Alphas who were plaguing the town. She'd also called Cora, but she was already in on it all, she, Derek, Boyd, and Peter had already planned on a fight with the Alpha pack tonight. That was just another thing Scott thought that Kinsey and Isaac didn't know about, they knew almost everything about what was going on. Everything but why he was doing this.

As soon as they had entered the mall Kinsey began feeling that churning of a bad feeling inside of her stomach, or maybe it was just fear overseeing Deucalion again. She couldn't quite decide which one it was but she tried to push it to the back of her mind. There was no room for any distraction tonight, against an Alpha pack they all needed to be on their A-game, no matter how terrified they all were of each member of the Alpha pack. They hadn't even met all of them yet, which made them worry that much more.

"We're just gonna talk to him, try to reason with him. That's it." Scott reassured his backup but neither looked as confident as he would have hoped for them to look, even then he couldn't blame them for the weary look on their faces. They hadn't entirely known what they were getting themselves into when they gatecrashed his plans. But Isaac was the one who seemed the weariest of all, his facial expression was much different to that of Kinsey's. "What?"

"Nothing." Isaac shrugged. "It's just that... I'm actually kind of hungry now."

Scott sighed before growing a smile as he placed a hand on Isaac's shoulder. "So am I."

"Well, personally, I'm terrified." Kinsey deadpanned, causing her to receive a look of furrowed brows from both of the wolves. "What? You two have claws. And teeth. What do I have?"

"An entire arsenal of weapons, hunter training, and probably a dagger hidden in your boot," Isaac suggested. Considering she had opted out of wearing a skirt or dress today he could only assume that she had hidden her dagger in her boot instead, it wasn't likely she went without it at all, it had to be somewhere on her.

Kinsey shrugged in admittance. "Okay, maybe your right. But that boot thing was meant to be a secret." She warned him with a point of the finger.

Despite their underlying nerves, the three walked with their heads held high until they were met with the silhouette of Deucalion as he stood on the escalator, the shadow of his cane had made it clear that it was him. The closer they stepped the clearer they could see him, the more they were rattled. An uneasy look was shared between each of them as they stopped at the bottom of the escalator that he stood tall on, showing that he was above them, apart from at the school for a split second they had never been so close to him. It was more real than ever that they were standing in front of a man who was much stronger than they were. Maybe even with their skills and strengths combined. Scott and Isaac kept the girl close to them as they stood on either side of her, they would try their best to keep her that close if they could.

"You didn't come alone," Deucalion spoke.

"Yeah." Scott cleared his throat. "This is Isaac and-"

"Kinsey Argent. I'm familiar." He nodded, a chilling thought to know that he already knew her name and how she was. She assumed that was thanks to her threatening Aiden and what had happened in the halls of the school, but she still hated the idea of the man knowing who she was without an introduction. "But I wasn't talking about them."

From the shadows two glowing red eyes appeared, eventually revealing Derek as he stepped under the light from the skylights that hung over their heads. Two pairs of yellow glowing eyes in the near distance. Cora and Boyd. A smirk grew across Kinsey's face. They'd come.

"You knew I would do this?" Scott asked the Alpha. "Derek, don't. You can't do this. Someone is going to get hurt." Scott tried to warn him, unaware of how Derek had actually come to be here. "If someone else dies-"

"Him." Derek interrupted. "Just him." He said as he pointed to Deucalion.

"Just me?" Deucalion asked. "Now, how's a blind man find his way into a place like this all on his own?" He continued to ask and just like that the churning in Kinsey's stomach strengthened. Right on cue, Kali appeared as she clawed her way down one of the cement columns that held up the abandoned mall, instinctively, Kinsey took a step back behind Scott and Isaac hoping to gain more distance between herself and the wolf.

They'd done their research on the Alpha pack. They had known about two twins who could merge, now those twins had names. Ethan and Aiden. There was Deucalion's right-hand man, who in this case happened to be a woman, Kali. They knew her name before meeting her, she was known for those clawed toenails that were Lydia's worst nightmare. Kali wasn't as fair as Deucalion, if it was up to her they would have all been in that vault, or dead. Probably the latter.

Once Kali had reached the ground and her red eyes were more visible Scott and Isaac too took a step back, growing closer to the brunette girl they were adamant on protecting tonight. A chill had crawled up Kinsey's spine, something telling her to turn around. And just like that another Alpha, a large male one that she knew to be Ennis. After Kali, Ennis was the one who Deucalion depended upon the most. He was the strength of their operation. He was bigger than a normal wolf, and he didn't need to merge with someone to be that way. Until now, Boyd was the largest they had seen of a single wolf, but he was much bigger than Boyd. Ennis was what indicted the most fear inside Scott and Isaac. After seeing that large wolf Isaac couldn't get close enough to the girl he wanted to protect, he placed a hand on her arm, moving slightly closer to her, he had to know that she was in close vicinity to him at all times. Ennis would snap her like a twig.

From up above the last two of the Alpha pack appeared. Just like they had brought together a pack, or two, to fight against Deucalion he had brought his own to fight against them. She should have known it wasn't going to be as fair as Scott presumed, maybe the amount of backup she called wasn't enough. Allison had been her only option. Chris hadn't listened, he still wanted no part in all of this business, he wanted the same for his daughter and niece, there was no changing his mind in that.

"Someones needs to help them." Kinsey blurted out. There had been no beating around the bush, they didn't have time for that. She and Allison had approached the man asking to talk to him about something. He could tell by their tones and their faces that it wasn't them coming to ask for some fatherly-like advice, that was why he brought them into his home office where he kept his private business, it seemed appropriate based on his expectations for the conversation they were about to have. He switched on his desk lamp, further illuminating the room before he sat back in his chair, the two girls taking the seats that opposed his desk.

"Not us." Chris shook his head. He needed no clarification on who his niece was talking about. "I'm getting the consulting business back up and running, and the two of you need to graduate. That's a normal life. And it's what we agreed to." He insisted, opening up one of his books. For him, nothing else needed to be said, an agreement was an agreement.

"So we just ignore it?" Allison asked with folded arms, a stern look across her face.

Chris shook his head. Though he agreed, he knew that giving the girls a physical agreement to that wouldn't go down well, their conversation was already beginning to head south. "We stay out of it." Chris corrected his daughter, another thing that the three of them had agreed to do.

"There's a pack of Alphas trying to kill my friends. How do I stay out of that?"

"There's a saying for these kinds of situations, the kind you have to navigate carefully. It's called 'threading the needle.' It's finding a safe path between two opposing forces." Chris explained.

"Sounds like saving your own ass." Kinsey stood up from her seat with a sigh, turning to her uncle for one last sentence before she excused herself from the conversation. She knew he was never going to agree to help, she had always known, even when Allison suggested asking him in the first place. But as ever, his lack of agreement towards what she was doing would do nothing, she would help her friends and her family either way.

Chris watched as his niece disappeared into the darkness of the apartment's hallway, shortly followed by the slamming of a door. The front door. It wasn't the first time since living in this apartment that he had heard that slam, before, in the old house she used to resort in storming into her bedroom, slamming that door behind her. But she didn't do that anymore. She never stayed in the house anymore, she never stayed and waited for Allison to come and talk to her, he wasn't sure where she ever went when she stormed out. Only that he wouldn't hear the front door open again for a few more hours, early hours of the morning when she returned. He turned back to his desk, unable to bear the look of disappointment from his daughter that he could feel burning into him. It didn't take more than a minute for Allison to follow Kinsey's actions, she too stood up from her seat as she walked towards the door.

"They're not your family," Chris spoke up.

"But Kinsey is. And they are hers." Allison turned to face the man one last time. "And with all the family we've lost, we could use a few friends."

The group instinctively grew apart. Cora and Boyd separated. Isaac had moved aside with Kinsey leaving Scott on his own as he stared into those dead eyes of Deucalion through his blacked-out sunglasses. Derek too was alone for the fight as he prepared to take on any and all of the Alphas. They all stood, waiting. Waiting for someone to make the first move. Nobody knew who it would be. Now all of their moves were yet to be predicted. There was no sitting back and observing in this, no scoping for all of the weakness each individual in the room carried, all of them had been uncovered. Kinsey looked across all of the faces that stood around her, both those who she'd be fighting against and fighting for, there was one missing. Part of her wondered whether Allison had chosen to listen to her father and step down from the fight in hopes that she could be that normal teenager that he kept trying to bargain with.

There was complete silence in the mall until the building shook under the sound of a growl.

Derek had made the first move, charging straight towards Deucalion, only to be pounced on by Kali. The twins jumped down from their view above everyone else, merging as they hit the floor that everyone else stood on. Ennis had headed straight for Boyd who was his closest match for him in size. Kinsey looked at Isaac to see that, unlike Scott, he had already transitioned, it was no surprise that he headed straight for the twins. He still had plenty of bones to pick and break, with them. He was still desperate for that fight with them. There was revenge to be sought after he had locked himself, Allison, and Kinsey in that janitor's closet, after he had pushed him into hurting the girl, almost killing her if he had been in there a moment longer. Kinsey had turned to Scott who shook his head with disapproval, he knew what she was going to do, the exact thing he hadn't had time to warn her not to do. Just like he expected Kinsey had pulled out the dagger from inside of her brown boot, rushing after Isaac to help him in his fight. Then came his own transition, he rushed to their aid with his eyes glowing their golden yellow, matching that of the beta he was fighting with. With all three of them fighting against the merged wolf they may just have a chance of beating them this time, and they wanted it, more than anything.

Cora had tried to aid Boyd in his fight with Ennis but the wolf was much too strong for her, he was able to throw her across the cement floor in a matter of seconds while Deucalion stood with a smile across his face. He knew he was winning. He could hear it. The sound of multiple wolves who were struggling. The sound of a dagger slashing across the skin and a grunt of a human girl as she tried her best to fight against something and someone so much larger than herself.

A swing of the twin's arms and he had taken down both Kinsey and Scott, both flying across the floor, scraping against the rough cement. They had Isaac locked in one arm, stopping him from moving whether it was to fight against them or run to the aid of the huntress pulling herself off of the floor as she winced through the pain. Scott stood up much quicker than she had, trying to fight them off of Isaac once again, this time they had slashed the boy's chest causing a blood-curdling growl to escape his mouth.

Kali continued to fight Derek, successfully, allowing her the time to turn around and scratch her long toe-claws against Boyd's chest as Ennis held the wolf still for her, instantly dropping him to the ground. Four of them had gone down, only one had quite managed to pull themselves back up. An injured Cora still struggled, though she hadn't given up on getting back up, neither had her human huntress of a cousin who used the wall behind her to pull herself off of the floor but in the time it was taking her the pain all over her body only grew and the two wolves she found herself fighting for were only becoming more beaten.

The merged wolf knocked down Isaac, sending him rolling across the floor. Seeing him being tossed around as though he was nothing built up some strength in Kinsey. With her dagger in hand, she lunged towards the merged wolf again as they dragged Scott across the floor, the blade pushed straight into their back, a sharp growl escaping their mouth as they released the beta in their hands. They turned to face the brunette with their glowing red eyes of an Alpha, staring into her soul, eyes like that didn't scare her like they used to. She didn't stand down from them as she would have in sophomore year when it was her father behind those eyes, it was a mistake, frankly. Her confidence was stupid, brave, but stupid. The merged wolf wrapped its freakishly large hand around her throat, using it as a leash as they walked to where they had dumped the two betas she'd accompanied tonight.

Everyone was down somehow. Boyd was on the floor with scratches across his chest. Kali had Cora underneath her foot that pressed down on her throat. Isaac and Scott lay on the floor beside one another as the burning sensation came from every wound they had gained from Ethan and Aiden. Kinsey stuck underneath their tight grip.

"Kill him." Deucalion's words echoed through the empty building. Derek looked down at his wounded beta on the floor, laying helplessly. The twins dropped Kinsey onto her needs as she desperately gasped for breath, replacing their hands with her own as she coughed weakly. Ethan and Aiden replaced the girl that was in their grips for the two betas, the two more capable to fight against them as they tried to get Derek to kill his beta. They'd weakened the huntress for now, by the time she built up enough strength to fight against Boyd would already be dead. She and Derek were the only ones who weren't being held down by an Alpha. "The other's can go."

Derek looked around the room, at all the people who'd been taken down in this fight.

"Derek." Kinsey's raspy voice warned him.

"You're beaten," Deucalion spoke again as he stepped down the escalator. "Do it, Derek. Take the first step." He spoke convincingly.

"Are we serious with this kid?" Kali asked. "Look at him. He's an Alpha?" It was clear she was trying to insult him, trying to anger him until Deucalion got what he wanted. Until Derek had been pushed so far with his anger that he did kill his own Beta and became just like them. Just like they wanted. She knew exactly what she was doing as she spoke. "To what? A couple of useless teenagers?" Kali continued as she looked at all of the teenagers she was referring to.

"Some have more promise than others," Deucalion spoke. His stare moved to Scott and Kinsey, the corner of his mouth turned up into a slight devilish smirk. It was clear he'd seen something in the two of them, maybe in uncovering all of the dirt on the pack he had uncovered even more than they had managed to themselves. He knew about her, he knew that she wasn't just human or just a huntress, somehow, someway Deucalion knew that she was something else.

"Let him rise to the occasion then. What will it be Derek? Pack or family?" Kali asked as she dug her foot down further into Cora's throat blocking her airways almost completely.

Derek looked between his whimpering sister and his beta who stood under Ennis with eyes that pleaded to be saved by his Alpha, he hadn't escaped near death from the Alphas just to end up back there. He looked at the man who promised him things much greater than this. It almost looked as if he was considering the offer rather than fighting back as he had always promised to do. He was going to pick the easy way out. He would rather kill his beta than fight the cause he was supposed to be standing behind. Derek's eyes turned from Cora and Boyd to the girl who lay on the floor looking at him hoping he would have enough of a moral compass to save her friends and his betas, even Scott who wasn't officially his own beta. Surely he knew that they would be there to fight against the Alpha pack with him again, even if they were all beaten and bruised he had to know they would all pull themselves up and fight to the death if they had to. Especially if it meant protecting Boyd and Isaac's lives. Before he could make a decision an arrow whistled through the air, straight past the wolf's head as he ducked down, the arrow brushed past Kinsey as it traveled straight to the merged wolves who stood over her, gripping onto Scott and Isaac. The hit from the arrow caused them to separate as it flashed, the betas dropping beside Kinsey.

Up above Allison stood proud, looking down at the crowd of wolves, the single huntress that lay amongst them. In the brief pause she took from shooting flash-bang arrows down at them she smiled at Kinsey who weakly returned it, her backup had finally arrived. The brunette huntress began shooting her arrows again, scattering them around the floor as Deucalion warned them to cover their eyes but they were already feeling the effects of Allison's arrowheads.

With Kali trying to shield her eyes Cora was able to escape from her grip. Scott and Isaac were able to escape from the twins who lay trying to recover after their forceful separation, quickly helping Kinsey off of the floor ready to begin their fight once again. Ennis stood tall looking at the three of them. A free Cora rushed to Boyd, pulling him off of the ground with the help of her big brother before she whisked him away from the next round of the fight.

Scott and Ennis began charging towards one another, their bodies colliding had echoed through the empty mall, shaking the floor beneath everyone's feet. Scott had fallen back, sliding across the cement floor on all fours as his claws scratched into the ground, he looked straight up at the Alpha he was up against. Rather than yellow eyes being met with the red of Ennis's, there were two sets of red, Alpha red, not the eyes that Kinsey had become so used to seeing on Scott in her time of knowing the wolf. Scott shook his head, opening his eyes again as they turned back to their rightful color of yellow, he had felt the change, but he ignored it, it was nothing. Nobody had seen it. At least he thought nobody had. But two very observant huntresses had caught that split second of change and they weren't going to let it go so easily.

Before Ennis was able to charge at Scott again he was attacked from behind by Derek, the two having a fight of their own as they dodged each other's hits until Ennis had managed to hit Derek with one, knocking him onto the floor. But the wolf stood up again quickly, the two continued to fight more and more as the rest stood by watching, barely able to fight themselves. But with every hit that was thrown the closer, the two became to the edge that was no longer protected by a barrier now that the mall had been shut down. Scott had tried to peel himself off of the floor, holding onto the wound that Ennis had created, but it was clear he wouldn't reach Derek fast enough.

With adrenaline rushing through her all of a sudden Kinsey began rushing to the two wolves as they lingered over the edge, the two Alpha's had a grip on one another as they teetered over the edge. Scott had leaped over, his claws scratching Ennis's leg causing the wolf to lose his balance but Ennis's grip on Derek remained, pulling him with him as his foot slipped off of the edge. Scott hadn't been quick enough to pull himself up in time to grab Derek. And Kinsey hadn't been quick enough to reach the edge. The two had already slipped when she had reached it, her hand extended for Derek as he reached out for it as she screamed his name.

Derek Hale was dead. 

Kinsey sat at the back of the bus, her head resting on Stiles's shoulder while Scott sat on her left. After the events of last night neither the girl nor the wolf had managed to get any sleep, neither had Isaac who sat a few rows ahead of them beside Boyd, who probably had trouble sleeping too. Every time the girl closed her eyes the image of Derek falling to his death reappeared in her mind, the way he had looked at her as he fell through the air with an outstretched hand hoping she would have caught him before it was too late. But she didn't. Now she was left with a guilt that stung her and the wolf that sat beside her. When the two had first met Derek, and even for a long while after they never thought they would care about his death, at one time they thought they would have been relieved when he had finally kicked the bucket. Now they realized that couldn't be further from the truth, if it were the truth, neither would feel the way that they did as they sat at the back of the bus trying, and failing, not to relieve those events.

Scott and Isaac had spent all night sitting up in the living room staring blankly at a black TV screen until Melissa had come home, encouraging them to get some sleep before the big cross-country meet that they would be travelling hours for. Even then, the two had laid awake staring at the ceiling of their rooms. Kinsey, along with an anxious Allison had taken Cora back to the loft, Cora wasn't so welcoming to the older Argent, she had heard about what she had done to her family and Derek's pack. But still, she allowed the two to accompany her for the night as they sat up in the loft with Peter's company, all trying to figure out what had gone so wrong for them. None could come up with a feasible explanation.

What was done was done. Cora was left without a big brother, a guardian, leaving her in the care of her uncle Peter, a man she hated. All she had left was him and a girl she barely knew, though she was learning to love Kinsey, there was a lot of room for growth in their relationship. The two were still trying to adjust to the idea of having one another as a friend, let alone as family. Kinsey had lost the closest thing she had ever had to a brother, if she had only been a second faster, nobody would have lost anyone. Boyd and Isaac had lost their Alpha. Scott had lost his mentor. That second where she hadn't been quick enough had cost someone their life.

Scott could still see the image of Allison and Isaac pulling Kinsey away from the edge as screamed out Derek's name, clawing at the floor, refusing to believe that he had been snatched away so quickly and so brutally. He could still feel his heart beating heavily in his chest like it had when he looked over that very edge to see Derek and Ennis laying dead a few floors below, an image that would never leave his mind again. Everyone, even his enemies felt his death. Allison felt it, maybe part of what made her feel so much towards his death was seeing Kinsey's reaction or maybe it was sitting up with both her and Cora all night, but it had affected her too.

It was no surprise that the huntress had been up all night sending texts to Scott to check up on him and Isaac, as well as texts to Kinsey from the moment they had separated in school, none of which she had answered. She had told her cousin multiple times that she was fine, as had Scott but she knew they wouldn't be. They'd both just watched a man fall to his death, if the two of them were fine she would have more to worry about than she thought.

That was why Allison made the executive decision. To follow the bus all the way to the cross-country meet with Lydia beside her. It had took as little as half an hour for Kinsey to notice that Allison was behind them when she leaned over the seats to grab a drink from her bag. Allison hadn't been very discreet, driving a mere two cars behind the bus, practically tailgating them.

During the bus ride so far Stiles had tried his best to distract his two friends through studying, something neither wanted to do, but they appreciated that he was trying to take their minds off of what had happened. It was hard not to think about it when Ethan, who Kinsey saw as just one of the people responsible for Derek's death was sat a few rows ahead of them smiling at Danny. As if he hadn't caused someone's death. Like he hadn't lost a member of his own pack. Kali had seemed the only one affected by Ennis's fall to death. Deucalion lacked emotion and the twins had stood aside as if they were scared to show any.

"Yo, Scotty," Stiles spoke up but the two sat beside him were so deep in their thoughts they hadn't even heard him, their thoughts were too loud. "Hey, yo, Scotty." He repeated, this time both Scott and Kinsey had jumped slightly, startled. Kinsey had quickly sat up, keeping herself awake while the wolf beside her had barely been able to lift his head from the window to look at either of his friends. "You two still with me?"

"Yeah, sorry," Scott mumbled as he rubbed the sleep from his eyes. "What's the word?"

"Anachronism."

"Something that exists out of its normal time."

"Nice. Okay, next word, this one's for you, Kins. Incongruous."

The brunette girl groaned as she racked her brain for that word, pushing through all of her much less educational thoughts to try and think of all those big unnecessary words that Lydia had taught her like the one that Stiles was asking her about. "Can you use it in a sentence?" She asked sleepily.

"Yes. Yes, I can. It's completely incongruous that we're sitting on a bus right now on our way to some stupid cross-country meet after what just happened, incongruous."

"Out of place, ridiculous, absurd," Kinsey answered. It definitely was incongruous that they were sitting on this bus after Derek had died. They should have been at home mourning or plotting their revenge. Derek needed to be avenged. Last night shouldn't have ended with the three packs splitting their separate ways to try and comprehend what had happened, she should have continued the fight, unleashing all of the anger that had been building up inside of her. It should have ended with each and every Alpha in the same state as Ennis. Dead. Even if that wasn't what Scott wanted, it was what all of them needed.

"Perfect. Okay, next word. Scott. Um, Darach." Stiles said casually, Scott pulled his head off of the window as he looked at the boy with a furrowed brow, Kinsey pulling her head off of his shoulder to provide him with the same look. Not this again. "Darach, it's a noun." He added before looking at the two of them, finally seeing the look that he gave them. He hated that when he wanted it the least they were on the same side, why couldn't this be one of the things the two of them disagreed over? "We have to talk about it sometime. And we're gonna be stuck on this thing for, like, five hours, so why not?"

Neither Kinsey nor Scott dignified his question with an answer. Scott lay his head back onto the window while the brunette moved her head to lean on him instead because knowing Stiles he would continue to shrug her head off until she was annoyed enough to start the conversation about the Darach. The two wanted nothing but to sleep and forget about what had happened, which seemed pretty impossible, which is why it needed their complete concentration.

Stiles sighed knowing they wouldn't be talking about it yet. "Next word. Intransigent."

"Stubborn, obstinate. Kins."

Kinsey didn't get the chance to hit the wolf for calling her intransigent before the bus hit a pothole in the road causing the entire thing to rattle causing the wolf to release a pained groan as he clung onto his stomach, then her slight irritation towards him had quickly turned into concern as she raised her head to look at him wincing.

"Oh, buddy, you okay?" Stiles asked, just as worried about Scott but the wolf was in too much pain to give them an answer. "We shouldn't have come. I knew it. We shouldn't have come."

Stiles had spent the entire morning trying to convince the two of them not to come to the meet, as Scott packed his bags, as he walked down the halls beside Kinsey, as they got on board the bus. Of course, neither had listened. Both were just as intransigent as each other. At one point Kinsey had resorted to signing abnoxiosuly over Stiles's arguments as he listed all of the reasons why she and Scott shouldn't be going. The main one being that Scott still hadn't healed from his injuries inflicted by the twins and Ennis, but the wolf was adamant that it would take a little longer, that he would be fine. Which so far had proven incorrect.

"We had to." Scott insisted once again like he had every time Stiles had tried to persuade them into staying home. "There's safety in numbers."

"Yeah, well, there's also death in numbers, okay? It's called a massacre..." Stiles continued to argue by Kinsey and Scott had already begun drowning out the sound of his talking once again, laying their heads down and shutting their eyes as though he wasn't there. "Or bloodbath, carnage, slaughter, butchery, wow, that's..." He could have listed another million synonyms to get across his point but Scott had released yet another painful groan.

Kinsey sat up, looking at the wolf once again. She hated to admit it, really, really hated to. "Okay, Scott, maybe Stiles has a point. You really don't look good." She spoke softly. Stiles interjected as he yelled a thank you, finally someone had seen his point. Kinsey turned to him for a moment to narrow her eyes at him, his first and last signal for him to close his mouth before she turned to Scott again. He was more likely to listen to her, someone had a little more sense, or just because she wasn't being so annoying about it. "We should tell Coach-"

"No. No, no, no." Scott stopped her, apparently she was wrong. He wasn't going to listen to either of them apparently. "I'm all right." He insisted once again.

"Well, you don't look all right." Stiles argued back.

Kinsey sat up in her seat, turning slightly towards the wolf. "Let me see it." She demanded as she moved her hand to raise his shirt but the wolf quickly flinched, moving out of the way, repeating once again that he was okay. But his face and the painful groans he kept murmuring told both her and Stiles much different. "Scott, let me see it. Now." She repeated with a much sterner tone.

The wolf sighed but he agreed. Stiles moved forward to see the damage that the Alpha pack had caused on his best friend as the wolf turned in his seat, taking every movement carefully as he raised his shirt. Despite Kinsey and Melissa's advice, he hadn't bandaged the wound, once again because he'd insisted that he would be fine. But as he showed them the large scratches that stretched across the left side of his body, right over his ribs it was clear he wasn't as fine as he made himself out to be. It hadn't healed at all since she had inspected the wound this morning.

"Oh, dude..." Stiles mumbled, like the Kinsey, he knew it should have been somewhat better by now. Even if it had been just the wound not bleeding anymore.

"I know, it's bad, but it's because they're from an Alpha. It'll take longer to heal."

Kinsey and Stiles shared a look with one another as Scott settled back into his seat, pulling his shirt back over his wound, that was enough of a bandage in his eyes. They were both filled with an equal amount of worry. It had definitely been worse than Stiles imagined when Kinsey had told him about the wound this morning when he had called her on the way to school, his first attempt at convincing her to stay home before she left the apartment. Stiles knew it would be bad based on the run-through of the night that he had been given, but nothing had prepared him for what he had just seen on Scott. Stiles had a question in his mind, hesitant to ask it because after seeing Scott's wound he wasn't sure he wanted any more detail on the night than he had already received. But he felt as though it was a point that needed to be made.

"How come Boyd and Isaac are fine then?" He asked as he nodded toward the two wolves who sat quietly in their seats towards the front of the bus.

Scott didn't have an answer to that question. Boyd and Isaac had taken their fair share of hits from the Alpha's last night, even Kinsey had, apart from a few bruises to her legs and a faint mark around her neck that she had managed to cover up with some make-up, but none of them were injured as badly as Scott. Isaac and Boyd had healed well, Kinsey had made sure to check up on them before the road trip, there was still damage lingering but their wounds had almost completely healed. Nothing like the wolf that she sat beside.

"I can't believe he's dead," Scott mumbled. Those words caused a wave of nausea to pass over the brunette girl. That had been the first time since last night that any of them had said it aloud. Or even suggested it, until now the word dead had been avoided by each and every one of them, they still had hope then. But it was real now. All of the time that they had had to think since last night had allowed them to come to the realizastion. "I can't believe Derek's dead."

A little time had passed. Scott had fallen asleep for little while, Kinsey had tried to fall asleep as she laid her head on Stiles's shoulder again while he tried to study alone, him repeating all of the long and boring words from the dictionary had helped her settle down slightly, he'd almost bored her to sleep. But when she closed her eyes for a little too long it all came flashing back again, the image of Derek falling, the image of him laying dead, the feeling she felt as Allison and Isaac pulled her away. They continued replaying until she was startled upright in her seat with Stiles trying to comfort her, he knew what was bothering her, every time she flinched a little in her sleep he was able to tell she was reliving it all over again. He'd play with her hair until she lay her head back down, prepared to try again until she was successful.

It felt as though she had caught five minutes of sleep without that image in her mind before the sound of Coach's voice had woken her up as he talked to Jared, a kid in junior year infamously known for his ability to hold down vomit. His terrible road-sickness. There wasn't much that didn't make the poor boy sick, even something as simple as being picked on to answer a question during class had made the boy sick before. So she dreaded how the boy felt now only two hours into their five-hour journey, so far it had gone well, he was yet to fill the bus with that horrible stench but even from the back of the bus, she could see the boy's sweaty pale skin. She looked down the bus to Coach who stood beside Jared instructing him to look at the horizon to stop him from vomiting, but it sounded completely unsympathetic considering the situation.

His yelling was only making it harder for Jared to hold in his sickness.

"McCall, not you, too." The man shouted as he looked to the back of the Coach to the ghastly wolf who leaned his head against the window. He'd lost some of the color in his usually tan skin, his forehead had begun to line with beads of sweat, and frankly, he just looked terrible.

"No, Coach, I'm good." Scott quickly retorted after clearing his throat, lifting his head up.

He was far from good. He was on the complete opposite side of the scale to good. Kinsey and Stiles shared another worried, sympathetic look with one another for the health of their friend before the girl turned back to Scott ready to check up on him which was when she noticed his cream shirt now had a red blotch right on the ribs, where his unhealed wound was.

"Scott, you're bleeding again." She muttered softly, the wolf quickly looking down to see what she was talking about. When he straightened out his shirt there was even more blood than she'd thought. He looked at her guiltily, but she could tell he was about to say that same phrase again.

"Don't even try to tell us that it's taking longer to heal, okay?" Stiles spoke up before the wolf had the chance to brush off his injury once again. "Because I'm pretty sure that still bleeding means not healing, like, at all." He added as Kinsey nodded in agreement.

"He's listening." Scott deadpanned, nodding towards Ethan.

"Is he gonna do something?"

"Not in front of this many people." Kinsey shook her head. "Deucalion wouldn't be happy." She could tell by how sheepish the two twins acted that they were scared of their Alpha, scared to step out of place, out of line, even if it meant standing up for themselves.

"Okay, well, what about the two ticking time bombs sitting right near him?"

All three of them looked straight to Isaac and Boyd who sat still seemingly calm, Isaac was staring out of the window daydreaming, at least that was how it looked from afar. Really, he just wanted to get up and go and sit with Kinsey, talk to her about what happened, ask her if she was okay, he hadn't gotten the chance to do any of it before getting on this bus. Boyd on the other hand peered over his shoulder to look at Ethan while they were watching him, it didn't seem like he would do anything. Scott made a point of saying that, at least he hoped they wouldn't. Of course, Stiles couldn't leave his question there as he asked what would happen if they did happen to start something in front of all of these people, whether the wolf and Kinsey would try to stop him to which they both nodded in agreement. Scott added a small "if they had to.", almost as a warning to the girl that she wouldn't be allowed to touch Ethan either unless it was completely necessary, he knew she would take any opportunity presented to her to lay her hands on him. That was made clear when she had made a final lunge at the two wolves while they were merged last night, when neither he or Isaac could gather the strength to try and stop her from making the mistake.

Every time she had looked at Ethan during the road trip he could feel as the anger inside of her rose, it was obvious she was just as much of a ticking time bomb as Boyd and Isaac were.

The bus came to a sharp stop, throwing the three teenagers as well as everyone else on the bus forward. Stiles and Kinsey hit their heads on the seat in front while Scott had had a quick enough reaction to stretch his arm out preventing him from getting hurt even more than the sharp stop had already hurt him. Horns began honking loudly outside, a huge line of traffic both in front of the bus as well as behind them, Allison's Toyota included which was now six cars behind them, maybe Lydia had pointed out her inability to sneak behind the bus from just two cars away. Something had put some sense inside of her.

With a large sigh, Stiles pulled out his Ipad again preparing to continue his studying, the traffic jam they were now stuck in had definitely brought them some more time, maybe so much time that they would miss the meet. Kinsey looked at Scott who still sat with his hand hovering over his wound, he'd noticed her staring, looking straight back at her but rather than a reassuring smile or another "I'm okay." he just furrowed a brow at her, wondering why she stared at him like that. Kinsey kept his stare for a little while longer, staring at the eyes as she remembered that split second that they had turned a luminescent red last night when he was fighting Ennis.

Scott's stare had broken when his face had dropped, his head quickly turned towards the front of the bus before he began standing up from his seat.

"What... What... Scott." Stiles mumbled as he watched the wolf. "Where are you going?"

"Boyd." Scott deadpanned. "He's gonna do something."

"Wait, what? How do you know?" Kinsey asked as she shifted in her seat.

"Look at his hands."

Boyd's hand was wrapped around the leather of the seat in front of him, his claws extended as he readied himself to make a quick swipe at the Alpha who sat just a few inches from him. With the amount of time they'd already spent and were bound to spend in this steel can he couldn't contain himself any longer. Not when Ethan's stare had been in the back of his head for the entire ride so far, as if he was taunting him, mocking him. His eyes turned towards the Alpha as the three teenagers at the back of the bus watched. Scott pushed past Stiles and Kinsey as they quickly moved to let him through, none of them removing their eyes from Boyd at the chance that he would pounce in the time that they blinked. Scott was barely able to hold himself up as he stumbled through down the aisle of the bus towards the other two beta's, his vision blurred.

Kinsey stood up prepared to follow him.

"Kins, don't make it worse" Stiles warned her as he grabbed her arm to stop her.

"Stiles, he can't even walk."

She quickly jumped out of her own seat, pushing past Stiles's leg to get to Scott. Kinsey placed her hands under his arms, pulling him up slightly, carrying his weight for him as they both stumbled towards Boyd and Isaac's seats. He was a lot heavier than the kind of weight she could carry, there was a lot of difference between their statures. She was petite, five-foot-five, he had the weight of a werewolf not to mention he was five inches taller than her too. Kinsey had barely managed to hold upright until they reached Boyd, by that point she couldn't hold him up any longer. Scott grabbed the hand that Boyd had placed on the chair in front of them, using it for balanced as he crouched down beside the wolf, Kinsey kneeling down beside him hoping that Coach didn't see them and tell them to get back to their seats, it wasn't the time.

"Let go." Boyd snarled in Scott's face.

"You got a plan?" Scott asked. "Tell me your brilliant plan, and I'll let go. What are you gonna do? Kill him right here? And then what? What are you gonna do after that?"

"I don't care." Boyd deadpanned, he moved to try and release himself from Scott's grip hoping to get to Ethan but Scott's grip had tightened, Isaac had grabbed a hold of him and Kinsey had tried to push him back down in his seat. All four of them struggled for a moment until Boyd stopped fighting against them and looked straight at Scott.

"I do."

"Whoa, whoa, you're still hurt." Isaac pointed out, nodding towards the bloodstain on Scott's shirt that his jacket had failed to cover. He though that Kinsey might have mentioned that, maybe texted him an update from the back of the bus, but he had been left none the wiser over his friend's condition. He knew that she was the type to hide things, but not from him.

It seemed that Isaac pointing that out had made Boyd realize something as he looked between the mark on the wolf's shirt and back up to him with less anger and more guilt, but like Scott had told Stiles and Kinsey a million times, he told the two wolves that he was fine. It didn't seem like they believed him either as both wolves looked at Nova who shook her head discreetly.

"Give me a chance to figure something out, something that doesn't have to end with someone else dying." Scott pleaded.

Boyd took a moment to consider it, his eyes lingering on the bloodstain on Scott's shirt. "Okay."

As Scott began peeling himself off of the sticky bus floor girl began holding his weight again, the two of them stumbling back to the back of the bus as Kinsey shared a look with Isaac, she noticed a slight tinge of hurt in his eyes, quickly making her look at Boyd, giving him a final look of warning. Because if Scott didn't stop them she would, both seemed to understand that from the single look. The wolf practically fell back into his seat as Stiles tried to help him move back against the window, taking some of his weight from Kinsey, now it made sense why it looked like she was struggling so much when he'd been watching the two make their way up and down the aisle. Scott really did carry some werewolf weight. He asked the two whether they'd managed to avert their Boyd crisis to which both of them nodded, but rather than being able to catch a break he had given them another crisis to deal with. Ethan.

According to Stiles the Alpha had been checking his phone every few minutes as if he were waiting for something, a signal Stiles suggested. He wasn't quite sure what he was waiting for but he was adamant it was something evil, in his words he had a perceptive eye for evil, which actually, Kinsey couldn't deny. After all, he had been the one to suggest that Matt Daehler had something evil about him, which now seemed to be a major underestimate, but now he believed that he was right about all of those things. Which he might have been, but they hadn't quite confirmed Ethan was being evil right now.

"I don't like him sitting with Danny," Kinsey snarled.

"Neither do I." The two boys followed simultaneously.

Stiles pulled out his phone insisting that he was going to find out what Ethan was waiting for as Kinsey peered over his shoulder watching as he began texting Danny, before he had even typed a full message she was filled with regret. It had only just begun and it was already a nightmare.

She looked at Scott who shook his head signaling her to leave him to do whatever it was he was going to do, and seconds later Danny's phone had chimed from across the bus. They all watched as Danny read the message before peering over to them where Stiles waved with his phone in his hand but the boy shook his head mouth "no." Danny turned back around his seat preparing to ignore Stiles's request but Stiles pulled out his phone again, rapidly typing another text as Scott and Kinsey sat back, quite enjoying watching the exchange between the two boys as they sat with smirks growing across their faces.

Danny's phone chimed.

Stiles's phone chimed. No.

Danny's phone chimed. ASK HIM.

Stiles's phone chimed. NO. I like this guy. What's wrong with you?

Danny's phone chimed. It's important. PLEASE.

The boy read the message but put his phone back in his pocket only aggravating Stiles more as he groaned and began doing that thing with his arms where he swung them around rapidly while mouthing a string of curses underneath his breath. Scott and Kinsey knew it was important but they couldn't help but sit back and snigger, covering their mouths before they aggravated Stiles more than he already was. The two avoided looking at one another knowing that even a glimpse of the other smiling would cause the two of them to burst into laughter.

Kinsey peered over Stiles's shoulder again as he typed another message.

Danny's phone chimed. And again. And again. She had lost count after 23 chimes. It had become too painful to keep count after that point, the entire bus had turned around to look at Danny questioning why he would be receiving so many texts, so of course, Ethan had raised a brow at the boy wondering who would be texting him. Stiles looked at his two best friends as he smiled proudly but the two shook their heads at him in disapproval.

Kinsey looked over at Danny and Ethan to see the two of them talking, quickly nudging the boys on either side of her as they all began staring at the boy and the Alpha, only Scott was able to hear the conversation happening between them as he commentated on Danny asking Ethan if something was wrong with him. Stiles and Kinsey had slowly lifted out of their seats as if they would be able to see or hear better by doing so, but as soon as Danny had asked that question Ethan whipped his head around to look at the three teenagers at the back of the bus. All three dived down, covering their heads as they lingered behind the back of the seat in front of them for a second as if Ethan wouldn't be able to see or know they were there.

"Well, that's wasn't very subtle," Stiles mumbled as the three all sat cramped together.

"And the series of text messages were?" Kinsey asked sarcastically.

When it felt like it had been long enough the three slowly rose again, Scott having a harder time than the other two who'd resorted back to staring at Ethan and Danny just in time for Stiles's phone to chime once again. He quickly scrambled to read the text.

Someone close to him is sick. Might not make it through the night.

"Ennis?" Kinsey and Scott asked each other. It could only be Ennis. They had watched the rest of the Alpha pack walk out of the mall with a practically perfect bill of health, even the twins had been quick to heal after Allison had forcefully separated them with an arrow.

Between the three, only one conclusion could be made. Ennis wasn't dead. Not yet.

Another hour had passed. In that time the bus had moved a maximum of three cars. At this rate, they definitely weren't making the meet. Kinsey had insisted in that time while things seemed calm in the world of Werewolves: Road trip edition, that Scott get some rest rather than worrying about Ethan, Boyd, and Isaac, insisting that she'd handle it herself, or wake him. He obviously preferred the latter option. Though he didn't want to risk something happening for the sake of him getting some rest he lay his head back on the window, falling asleep within seconds. Then it was Stiles's turn to give the demands as he instructed Kinsey to do the same, though he hadn't been as gentle with his words as Kinsey had been with Scott. Once again he lacked subtlety as he told the Kinsey she looked like she hadn't slept since she left her mother's womb. And frankly, she wasn't surprised because that was exactly how she felt. Kinsey had put up more of a fight against sleeping than Scott had, even defending herself by confiding in Stiles about why she hadn't been able to sleep lately. Both the visions of Derek and Ennis as well as the fear that she would wake up back in the vault again. But of course, he already knew that, he knew her like the back of his hand, and her argument had only made him more adamant that she should get some sleep. With a little more arguing between the two and him promising that he wasn't going to go anywhere the brunette girl gave in, resting her head on his shoulder once again, using his jacket as a blanket, one of the things he had suggested to make sure she slept.

She wasn't sure how long she'd been able to close her eyes and rest, but it didn't feel like long. Like last time she had been awoken by the exchange between Coach and Jared who'd become even closer to throwing up, surprising considering their lack of movement in the traffic jam.

Coach hadn't grasped the concept of the loud he yelled the harder it was for Jared to contain himself, with every word that he yelled Jared had begun to heave, ready to vomit at any given moment. What made it worse was Coach continuously talking about the vomit that Jared was trying to hold inside of his body. I'm an empathetic vomiter, Jared. You throw up, I'm gonna throw up right back on you. That had been the phrase he yelled that woke Scott up, he had mumbled Jared's name questioning his two friends if it was him again as both nodded. Of course, it was him, who else was this bad for car sickness? Or just sickness? Jared begged the man to stop talking about throwing up but this was Coach, he lacked sympathy, and also he occasionally lacked the ability to shut up when it was necessary. I might just throw up on you to make a point, Jared. It was a miracle that the boy hadn't exploded with vomit by now. He had more self-control than anyone Nova knew, supernatural like herself included.

"Now, the rest of you, don't think we're gonna miss this meet because of a slight traffic jam, a minor tornado warning, Jared. We're gonna make this thing. Nothing is gonna stop us!" Coach announced as he stood in the middle of the bus. That was right. In the time she and Scott had been asleep a minor tornado warning had been announced, because why not? "Stilinski put your hand down!" The man yelled as he looked at the boy at the back of the bus.

"You know, there's, like, a food exit about half a mile up. I don't know if we stop and then maybe traffic..." Stiles tried to persuade the man, more so for the sake of Scott who was looked worse after his nap, and slightly because he'd eaten all of the food that Kinsey had packed while she was asleep. But he thought it would be best he didn't mention that to her. She had a habit of getting angry when she was hungry, and while they were stuck on a bus that wasn't a great thing for her to be. There was nowhere for him to run and hide from her fiery wrath.

"We're not gonna stop." Coach insisted.

"Okay, but if we stop..."

"Stilinski!" Coach yelled before blowing his whistle in their ears. "Shut it! Seriously! It's a little bus! Stop asking me questions!"

Stiles threw himself back in his seat in irritation as he mumbled how much he hated Coach before turning to Scott to ask if the wolf had spoken to Deaton yet, he hadn't. Once the wolf had woken up from his nap his mind has gone straight back to their werewolf problems, mainly if Ennis was still alive. Kinsey had tried calling Cora while Scott called Deaton, both of them getting the voicemails of the two individuals. There was nobody else left for them to call. Allison and Lydia were behind them stuck in the same traffic jam. Meaning they were at a loss. All they could do was sit and wait in the small steel can known as the school bus, waiting out the traffic.

Kinsey, Scott, and Stiles sat in silence for a while. The wolf looked out the window as he tried to breathe through the growing pain that his injury caused him. Kinsey sat thinking about whether there was a possibility that Derek wasn't dead, it was possible, right? If Ennis wasn't dead could it be possible that Derek wasn't? Even if Ethan had said that Ennis might not make it through the night there was a possibility that Derek could be in a better state, good enough to survive. While she sat thinking that Stiles stared straight down the aisle of the bus wishing that he would have rationed Kinsey's snacks because he was now hungry once again, which meant she would be too soon. And that's when getting off this bus would become urgent.

Their silence continued for a little while longer, the bus still crawling along the roads, it was almost blissful silence until it had been interrupted by Kinsey's growling stomach. Stiles's heart dropped to his stomach. He knew what that meant. He was a dead man.

Isaac, Boyd, and Ethan would be the last of their problems. There was nothing like the wrath of an angry Argent girl, but an angry Argent girl with a growling stomach, that was bad enough material to start world war three. Kinsey kept her head on Stiles's shoulder as she asked him to grab one of the many snacks she had prepared this morning, she knew it was going to be a long ride, she packed enough for all three of them. The brunette girl held out a hand waiting for one of those many snacks to be placed in her hand, she didn't have the energy to pull her head off of Stiles's shoulder to get one herself. But after a few seconds of waiting and the lack of rustling wrappers sounding in her ears, Kinsey sat up looking at the boy who gave her a nervous chuckle. Scott had been waiting for this moment, even in the half-asleep state he had been able to hear as Stiles munched away on the snacks, clearly, Kinsey had been in a deeper sleep than she thought if she was unable to hear his loud chewing. The brunette girl narrowed her tired eyes at him, the eyes of a girl who was exhausted and starving, an awful match.

"Funny story..." Stiles began to laugh.

"Stiles... Where are the snacks?" She asked, now piercing daggers into him with her eyes. His lack of answer made it clear there weren't any snacks. Not anymore. "Did you eat them?"

"Pfft. Me? What? No. What? No. Me?" Stiles scoffed in disbelief acting offended that she would even insinuate that, he repeated it over and over again until he finally confessed. "Yes." For proof he showed her her bag full of empty wrappers, waiting to feel a painful death at her hands.

Kinsey released a loud groan as she threw her head back. "That's it. I can't take anymore. Call Allison and Lydia. We need to get the hell off of this bus." She ordered as she looked back at Stiles who wasn't willing to argue after stealing her snacks.

"How are they gonna help from back in Beacon Hills?" Scott asked, barely able to lift his head.

"Oh please, they've been behind us the entire time." Kinsey scoffed, surprised he didn't know.

"Pathetic if you ask me," Stiles mumbled under his breath as he began dialing Lydia's phone number, putting it on speaker so that Kinsey could hear, he imagined she would do most of the talking. After all, she was a lot more convincing than him. And frankly, in this state, she was a lot more terrifying than he could ever dream of being. Lydia would know straight away from the girl's voice that she was in that hangry mood that made her lethal, within two days of living with each other she had discovered just how mean Kinsey could be when she was hungry, she wished she saw that side of the brunette more often.

The phone rang a few times, it was obvious that the two girls were probably panicking as they tried to think of something to say to make it seem like they hadn't been following them the whole time. Anything that would make it sound like they weren't scared to leave Kinsey, Scott, or Stiles alone long enough for them to go to a cross-country meet.

"Hey, Stiles." Lydia's voice beamed through the phone. An immediate indicator that she was about to lie, and terribly at that. Usually, she answered the phone a lot less happy, at least if it was Stiles calling her because it was never for something good. Ever. "Yeah, we're just about to walk into a movie, you know, the popcorn, and..." The girl continued to talk making it worse for herself. Kinsey and Stiles hadn't even asked what she was doing for them to receive that answer. She had panicked and talked herself into a hole.

"We know you guys are right behind us." Stiles deadpanned. "Put us on speaker."

"Yeah, okay," Lydia mumbled as she removed the phone from her ear, placing it in between her and Allison. She wasn't even going to try and defend her horrible lying. It had definitely been the worst lie she had told to date, frankly, she was embarrassed for herself.

"Okay, look, Scott's still hurt. Stiles ate all of my snacks and I'm getting really sick of this bus." Kinsey began her rant, she knew which one of those points was the most important, but she felt as if she needed to mention the fact she was snack-less. It was necessary information. They needed to know just how much of a dire situation they were in, and a snack less Kinsey and a dying Scott was as dire as it could get. "We need to get off of this bus and soon."

There was a second of silence from the two girls as they processed what their brunette best friend/cousin had told them, sharing a look with one another questioning which points to raise first until Allison opted to start with the most important. Scott is not healing.

"What do you mean still? He's not healing?"

"No, he's not healing." Stiles reiterated. "I think he's actually getting worse."

He and Kinsey looked to their left to the wolf who couldn't even try and defend his health any longer, his skin was almost transparent. The blood on his shirt had become more prominent. He had sweated so much that it was now visible through his jacket. Carefully the brunette girl moved towards him, raising his shirt carefully to re-evaluate the wound to see it was now oozing black liquid rather than the bright red blood it had been before, both her and Stiles cringed at the sight as they tried not to end up like Jared. Scott had lost so much of his energy trying to fight against the pain he hadn't even flinched when Kinsey raised his shirt, he couldn't anymore. He was running on fumes.

"The blood's turning, like, a black color," Kinsey informed her, almost gagging on her own words.

"What's wrong with him?" Lydia asked.

"What's wrong with him? I don't... Do I have a PhD in lycanthropy? How am I supposed to know that?" Stiles sarcastically retorted, he tended to become more sarcastic than usual when he was hungry, but Kinsey still nudged him to be a little more helpful and a little less sarcastic.

"Kinsey's right, we need to get him off the bus," Allison stated.

"And take him where, a hospital?" Lydia asked the brunettes.

"If he's dying, yeah." The huntress agreed, Kinsey and Stiles agreeing between them as they nodded at one another. Maybe it wasn't ideal but they didn't have much other choice. It was either risk being asked some questions by the doctors or risk Scott's life, it wasn't really a question which one all of them were going to choose. "Guys, there's a rest area about a mile up. Tell Coach to pull over." She instructed as if they hadn't already thought about that.

"Yeah, I've been trying,"

"Well, reason with him," Allison suggested. She wasn't as experienced with Coach as the three on the bus were. She didn't participate in any extra-curricular's like they did. Even after going to lacrosse games or watching an occasional track practice for Kinsey she had little interaction with the man, she had heard him shout on an odd occasion, she'd heard stories, but she didn't know the half of just what the man could be like.

"Reason? Have you met this guy?"

Allison didn't care if they had already tried, she was determined to get all three of them off of the bus. So with a little more convincing from Kinsey after they had ended the phone call Stiles stood up with an exasperated sigh, ready to try his best to convince Coach. He had little no hope. She watched intently as Stiles begged the man to stop at the rest area because he needed to use the bathroom, obviously, Coach didn't care. Not even when he worsened his need to use the rest area's toilets. Stiles's description became more detailed than necessary, he had nearly the entire bus in the same state as Jared with his vivid portrayal of his bathroom needs but it didn't change the man's mind. Eventually, Coach had given up with saying no, he resorted to simply blowing his whistle in Stiles's face as an answer. Any time Stiles tried to speak he would blow the whistle.

The wolf beside her raised his head at the sound of repetitive whistling, but as soon as he had seen Stiles and Coach in the middle of the bus he rested his head back on the window, once again he lacked the energy to ask questions.

Stiles didn't give up even after being whistled at every time he opened his mouth so Coach, like the oversized child he was, blew on the whistle with every breath he had in his lungs making a long continuing whistle in everyone's ears while Stiles patiently, or not so patiently, waited for it to end. As the noise continued Kinsey swore she'd been able to see steam coming from Stiles's ears, and as dire as this situation was, she couldn't contain her laughter.

"Get back in your seat, Stilinski!" Coach bellowed after he could no longer blow down on the whistle, Stiles shouted back an "Okay!" at him, heading back towards his seat where Kinsey tried to disguise her laughter. "Jared, keep your eyes on the horizon."

She watched as Stiles stopped in his tracks, turning towards the sick Jared.

"Stiles," Kinsey called at him, once again with that tone of warning that she felt like she was having to use a lot lately. Clearly, none of this group she associated with enjoyed listening to anyone, this whole group was intransigent. "Stiles, don't do it. Don't you dare." She warned again as he looked at her with a large smirk growing across her face as he slowly walked backward, further and further away from her and Scott until he sat down beside Jared. He took pride in being a menace to society. "Oh, no. This, this is not good." The brunette girl mumbled to herself. "Scott. Get ready. It looks like we're finally getting off of the bus."

The mile to the rest stop couldn't have come quick enough. It had taken Stiles a matter of thirty seconds sitting beside Jared for him to finally puke up his guts. Everyone had begun heaving. Girls had desperately pulled their perfumes out of their bags to mask the smell, the boys following their leads as they removed their cans of Axe body spray. Once all of those were empty they changed to their more expensive aftershave, desperate to cover Jared's odor. Coach in the meantime hung his head out of the window like a dog. From Allison and Lydia's view a few cars back the two had been able to see that encouraging them to text the huntress on the bus asking if that was a good sign. It was, but it meant dealing with the smell for another mile of traffic, which was definitely a negative to the plan. The only person on the entire bus who hadn't been phased was one of the ones with an enhanced sense of smell- Scott. He hadn't even murmured after hearing Jared's heaving or smelling the mix of body spray, perfumes, aftershave, and Jared's breakfast.

The bus had barely pulled into the rest area before the driver had flung open the doors, running off himself before all of the students began clamoring off of the bus with their shirts over their noses. Kinsey and Stiles threw Scott's arms over their shoulders, all three stumbling off of the bus as Coach fumigated it with an air freshener from someone's bag, his head hanging out of the window still as he urged someone to find towels, a mop, or even a new bus. Which nobody seemed opposed to.

As soon as they had stepped off of the bus Allison and Lydia were stood waiting. Allison quickly offered her help to carry Scott's weight instead of Kinsey who really did look as bad as Stiles had described while Lydia hung back trying not to get too close to Scott. He was sweatier than ever. His clothes have soaked through as they all stumbled towards the bathrooms, it wasn't the most hygienic place to put someone with an open wound, but it was the best they were going to get in the middle of nowhere during a tornado warning.

Lydia followed Stiles, Scott, and Allison to the bathroom quickly, looking around to make sure that nobody was getting suspicious enough to follow them in there. Only as she looked around did she realize that she lacked the presence of her brunette best friend or at least one of them. She turned to see Kinsey walking slowly behind, rubbing her bleary red eyes. She looked at the bag that teetered off of the edge of the brunette's shoulder, it clearly wasn't her own given its obvious boyish look and well, the stench she could smell from afar. It had to be either Scott or Stiles's, which gave her hope that something in there would give the brunette a boost of energy.

The redhead rushed over to Kinsey, stopping them both in their tracks as she dropped to the floor with the bag. She dug through the sweaty shoes, smelly gym clothes until she found an even more disgusting sight, an energy drink. It had been what she was hoping for, but she was still disgusted that anyone would put something like that in her body, but it was a very Stiles thing to do. And now, she would be forcing Kinsey to put that atrocious substance in her body.

"Drink this." Lydia insisted, jumping back up to her feet with Stiles's bag on her shoulder.

"Ew," Kinsey mumbled, looking down at the can in her hand.

"Kins, you look like you've been dragged through a bush backward. Please, just drink whatever is in that disgusting can." Lydia urged, shoving it in front of her face. "I'm sure it will come back up soon enough, right now, you need that burst of energy."

Kinsey turned up her nose at the drink once again as she opened the can. Before she pressed the drink against her lips she muttered a soft apology to herself and her body, never would she forget the day she put herself through the torture of drinking an energy drink, nor how Lydia had been the one who forced her into it. Her beloved body was destroyed by a series of unnamable chemicals mixed into one and put into this can in her hand. She just hoped her dear body would forgive her for this act of betrayal. With a final frown Kinsey looked at the can before tipping it all into her mouth, imagining it as a shot of burning hot tequila in a red solo cup than what it truly was; a liquified abomination. She cringed with every gulp, as did Lydia, neither would forget this horrifyingly beautiful bonding experience for the two of them.

As soon as the can of liquified abomination was finished, as empty as possible Kinsey tossed it to the ground like she hoped to do with the memory of drinking it. Both quickly put the moment behind them as they rushed into the bathroom after the other three teenagers. Stiles and Allison placed Scott on the riffy floor, his back against the tiled walls of the bathroom before they raised his shirt carefully, reassessing his wound to find that the black liquid continued to ooze from the gashes that hugged his waist. But since Stiles and Kinsey had last seen it the gash had worsened, black veins had begun to stretch across his chest and stomach from the marks buried in his skin. The two girls who had rushed in late both let out a sharp gasp at the sight, quickly slapping their hands to their mouths. Suddenly the reality of the supernatural was a lot more real to Lydia than it had ever been before, this was the first time she had seen such a gruesome sight. She thought that seeing Jackson, her first love, die in front of her was the pinnacle, but it was simply the tip of the iceberg. A titanic-crushing-sized iceberg.

"Oh, my God. Why didn't you tell us?" Allison asked as she kneeled in front of the wolf.

"Sorry," Scott mumbled, a delusional smile across his face.

"Okay. Just give us a second, okay?" The brunette reassured him before standing up to talk to the three who stood behind her, all of them taking a slight step away from Scott as they discussed what they were going to do to help him, he didn't seem to have the right sense of mind to be able to eavesdrop on their conversation. Based on his face he was in a world of his own imagining sunshine and rainbows, a place of peace. "This shouldn't be happening. I've seen him heal from worse than this." Allison shook her head in disbelief, worried for the poor wolf.

"Okay, what do we do then?" Stiles asked nervously. "Do we just call an ambulance?"

"What if it's too late? What if they can't help?"

"We have to do something." Kinsey insisted, she refused to believe it was too late to come back from this. Scott would not die because of this. She wouldn't allow it.

"You know, it could be psychological," Lydia spoke up.

"What do you mean, like, psychosomatic?" Stiles asked but the two Argent's had never been so confused as they raised an eyebrow at one another. That was a big word that had never come up in Allison's study sessions with Lydia, as for Kinsey, well she was too pumped up on a bunch of chemicals to think straight, she could already feel herself becoming ready to bounce off of these filthy walls that were covered in the same kind of atrocity that was in that energy drink.

"Somatoformic." She corrected, that was where she lost Stiles too. "A physical illness from a psychogenic cause. Yes, it's all in his head." She continued to explain.

"All in his head?" Allison asked, more confused than ever.

"Because of Derek." Stiles followed. "He's not letting himself heal 'cause Derek died."

"But it wasn't his fault. It was mine. I didn't reach him in time." Kinsey shook her head.

"It doesn't matter. He thinks it was his fault."

"So what do we do?" Allison asked.

Lydia began digging through her Prada purse until she pulled out a sewing kit suggesting that they stitch him up. It was their only option. The genius redhead suggested that all Scott needed to do was believe that he was healing, and stitching him up might just allow him to do that. Between the other four teenagers, none of them had any arguments against the idea. Allison volunteered herself to do the stitching. From that point on it was go time. Allison began heating up the needle with a lighter that Lydia also had in her purse, Stiles began laying out a tissue to make the area somewhat more hygienic and Kinsey stood bouncing up and down resisting the overwhelming urge to run around the bathroom causing complete chaos.

"He's gonna need another shirt. Where's his bag?" Allison asked as she looked at Stiles.

"Um, I'm gonna get it. I hate needles anyway, so..." Stiles volunteered himself, already prepared to run out of the bathroom. "Um, are you sure you know what you're doing?"

"Yeah, my father taught me." She nodded as she threaded the string through the needle. Though she lacked complete confidence she reassured them that Kinsey was here too, that she had the same skills and could lend a helping hand if needed. At least that thought had comforted her for a split second, then she as well as the other two had all looked at the girl who was bopping her head and humming to a tune in her head. Then it had been decided she was in no shape to be in control of holding a needle, especially not so close to a wounded Scott.

"Okay. How fast are you gonna... I mean, the bus, like, the bus could leave." Stiles tried to pressure her as gently as possible as he tried not to look at the needle in Allisons' hands.

"Then make sure it doesn't." The huntress snapped.

Lydia offered her help to the boy as she began pushing him out of the door before they had him fainting to deal with. She opted to take Kinsey with them, hoping that if she was out of the small, smelly confined space that she would start acting normal again. The redhead dragged Kinsey behind them as the brunette skipped out of the bathroom as if she were walking on sunshine.

The three teenagers walked out of the bathroom to a sea of students still gagging over the smell of Jared that lingered out of every open window of the bus. Coach was already complaining that they had to get back on the road, and soon. While they allowed Kinsey to soak up the fresh air and fix her sugar rushed mind Lydia and Stiles began scheming. If Stiles dared to step back onto that bus Coach would use it as his excuse to pile every other teenager back onto it, they couldn't possibly allow such a thing to happen. They needed a distraction. But none of them were able to think straight, not after the scene that they had just left behind, they needed more brains in on this, working brains unlike their own. Lydia's brain had been used on all of the big words she'd spat out at them. Stiles had been all been used on getting Jared to throw up and get them off of the bus, and what Kinsey did have, well those chemicals may have just infiltrated them.

Allison kneeled down in front of Scott, cupping his face with her hands as she urged him to stay with her, shaking his head side to side slightly until his eyes had opened again and he was looking straight at her. The wolf could barely keep them open as he mumbled how tired he felt because of the blood loss but Allison continued to talk to him, encouraging him to look at her. She looked back down at the needle, the string had become unthreaded. Now more nervous than ever as she began to lose Scott slowly the girl shakily tried to thread the needle again. She continued to mumble to herself, stressing herself out as she put more pressure on herself to thread the string through the needle. She could hear the mocking voice of her mother as she tried to do it, trying to hold back the tears and all of the emotions rushing through her.

"I think I have an idea," Kinsey mumbled, looking between Stiles and Lydia. Both were shocked that they could understand her, they expected that when she finally spoke it would be in a slur or maybe even in a song based on her head bopping. It seemed as though the fresh air had in fact helped like they hoped it would. She had her usual devious head-on, the one they needed now.

"How fast can you make this idea happen?" Stiles asked.

"If I know anything, maybe two tops." Kinsey nodded assertively. She was confident about that.

Stiles and Lydia looked at one another, a raised brow shared between them. Neither quite sure whether they wanted to know what was going on in that mind of hers, they both just agreed to go along with it. While Kinsey completed her part, Lydia would talk to Coach, throw in some of those big words that she knew so much of, that was sure to distract the man before Kinsey and the real big plan come into play, and Stiles would sneak onto the bus and grab Scott's bag.

As the three of them stood, just about to move a whistle blew through their ears, Coach began ordering everyone back on the bus sooner than they had expected him to. Luckily a groan had come through the entire crowd of teenagers as they all slowly moved towards the bus, none of them wanted to get on when they could still smell Jared's breakfast. The three teenagers all turned back to one another, Kinsey quickly ordered them to go, they didn't even have those two little minutes anymore. They had to move faster than their legs could allow them to.

Lydia and Stiles rushed towards Coach who stood at the doors of the bus while Kinsey rushed to the only two people who could help her carry out her plan.

"I don't have time to explain. So shut up and listen." Kinsey deadpanned taking the two wolves by shock. Small and mighty, as Boyd had always referred to her as. "Scott's hurt and we can't get him back on that bus. Not yet. We need a distraction. And fast."

"Well what do you want us to do?" Boyd asked, prepared to offer as much help as they could.

"Isaac?"

"Yeah?"

"You still want that revenge."

"Yeah."

"Then go and get it. Nothing is off of the table." Kinsey nodded at him.

"Nothing?"

"Nothing."

Isaac still couldn't believe it. He looked at Boyd, who nodded, he had heard correctly. He looked back at Kinsey who nodded again, she meant what she said. She knew how much he wanted this revenge because she wanted it just as bad. It was about time one of them got to avenge Derek, Erica, anyone who had ever fallen prey to the Alpha pack. Now was the time to do it, a distraction for Scott and what all of them had been wanting since seeing that mark on the Hale house door. Isaac rolled up his sleeves before marching towards Ethan, following the orders he'd been given.

Clinically and unemotionally. That's what Allison kept telling herself through heavy breaths. It was what her father taught her, what her mother was repeating to her now as she stood behind her with that stern look of judgment, just like she had seen after falling asleep in French class. Those two words were how Argents did everything, clinically and unemotionally. No Argent had ever been able to deal with emotions, because all of them acted as though they didn't feel any. Kate reacted by setting fires, murder. Chris, through anger, lashing out. Victoria, through sadness. Kinsey hid them completely, buried them, ignored them. Allison, well she took after her mother in that sense, she would have loved to be like Kinsey, to act like she wasn't filled with all of the emotions that the past few months have caused her.

At this moment, all she could do was ignore her mother and channel her inner Kinsey, she knew she had it inside of her somewhere, she'd spent enough time with the girl to practically become her. She just had to uncover it. Allison began talking herself through the procedure step-by-step along with those two words as she pierced the needle into Scott's skin, carefully pulling the thread through his skin as she closed the wound. Clinically. Unemotionally. Her breaths were calm, her hands steady as she used a soothing voice, watching her own work closely until Scott's wound was closed. Clinically. Unemotionally. She took another deep breath. The huntress looked at Scott, talking to him again as he told him to stay with her, his eyes opened slowly, drifting away from her again as she continued to speak. Slowly Scott's wound was beginning to look better as she closed it up more and more. But Scott's consciousness was still fading.

"Scott, talk to us. Tell us about something. Don't stop talking." Allison urged the wolf.

He opened his eyes again, for longer than he had before. He was about to fade again until he looked straight at her with something coming into his mind, something that him want to stay awake for her, even for just a second longer.

"Scott?" She mumbled softly but there was no reply. She placed her ear close to his mouth, his breathing shallow, she could barely hear a breath. "Scott? Scott?" Her voice began to croak as she repeated his name, gently tapping his face as she spoke. "Scott. Scott, please. Scott? Scott talks to me. Talk to me, Scott. Scott!" Allison said another time, her last call of his name louder than the rest, startling the boy back to consciousness as he took a deep gasp.

With a relieved breath, Allison rested her head on the boy's sweaty chest. Her heart began to beat again after it felt like it had stopped for a moment.

"It's my fault," Scott said breathlessly, his eyes glazed over from the tears.

"Scott, look at me." Kinsey insisted, lifting up his chin so he looked at her. "It's okay." She insisted as she looked back down at where his stitched-up wound was.

"Did you do that?"

"Yeah." She nodded. "Yeah, I did." The girl repeated again, with a little more pride.

"Nice." He smiled faintly.

A nervous laugh escaped the girl before she began taking a few more deep breaths, calming herself completely. She held out her hands to help the wolf off of the floor as Lydia walked in, handing the wolf his shirt but he wasn't quite strong enough to pull it over his own head yet. The two helped him carefully pull it over his head before throwing his arms over their shoulders, all three began to stumble out of the bathroom, finally prepared to head back onto the bus. But Lydia tried to delay telling them what Kinsey had gotten herself, and others involved in just to make sure that they had a good enough distraction, one that was bound to buy them even more time than what was necessary. Stiles had rushed over to the three repeatedly asking whether Scott was okay, as though the wolf wasn't there to answer himself. He looked better, but he still had to be sure that he was all stitched up, slowly beginning to heal. Though between the three he had never been given an answer, Scott's first thought had been to ask where Kinsey was, frankly, because he dreaded what they were all going to tell him.

"Trying to stall Coach." Lydia mumbled, she looked at Stiles, shaking her head. "Allison, we still don't have gas," The redhead, steering away from the topic of conversation that was Kinsey's idea of distractions like her life depended upon it, her life may not have, but Kinsey's might of.

"I'm not leaving them." The huntress shook her head.

"Then we have to leave the car."

"Sounds good." Allison shrugged, walking away with Scott on her shoulder.

Before Lydia could explain that she wasn't offering that as an actual option the three of them had already stumbled away leaving her with no other choice but to abandon the car, they would have to pick it up on their way home, which meant convincing Coach to stop at the same rest stop once again. The real challenge. Her attention was quickly pulled away from abandoning the car to the fact that Scott, Allison, and Stiles were working their way towards a large crowd, she knew it wasn't going to end well. Scott wouldn't be happy about Kinsey's idea, no matter how desperate they were, he wouldn't agree with it. When the three had reached Kinsey she was standing on the edge of the large crowd, a large smirk across her face as she watched it all go down, her plan working perfectly. Finally watching one of the twins get the revenge they all wanted was something that brought her an immense amount of joy. Everyone who had managed to get onto the bus had quickly jumped off, cheering as they all surrounded someone who Scott couldn't quite make out through all of the people. Scott stumbled over to the girl with Allison, asking her what had happened. A frozen Kinsey barely managed to spit out an answer, her face and the cheering made it clear enough what had happened, she didn't have a chance to explain to him before Scott was hopping away to stop the fight. Though in his assumptions he had gotten mixed up, he pushed through the crowd preparing to stop a fight between Boyd and Ethan, after their interaction on the bus he could only assume it would be Boyd who was the bomb who had finally ticked over.

After pushing his way through the crowd, the rest of the pack following him they were all met with the sight of Ethan on the ground, bloody and beaten as Isaac repeatedly punched him in the face. Boyd stood right beside them with a smirk on his face, a replica of Kinsey's, he would have loved to do it for himself, but watching Isaac do it brought him just as much pleasure. Everyone but Kinsey seemed to worry about the fight in front of them, she was filled with pride while they all looked horrified, at first the idea didn't sound so bad to Stiles and Lydia, but they hadn't thought it would quite look like this in front of them. Personally, Kinsey thought they had it coming, the entire Alpha pack did, and a lot more if she had anything to do with it.

Coach, who had been trying to clean up the bus, finally noticed the fight happening outside, he rushed towards the fighting teenagers as Danny tried to pull Isaac away from Ethan while the man shouted Isaac's name repeatedly but nobody was stopping him. Isaac shoved Danny off of him, ignoring Coach's calling of his name as he began hitting Ethan again, but the Alpha wasn't even trying to fight back. He had a smile across his bloody face. While everyone else in the crowd was either cheering, or wanting to like Kinsey, or shocked like the rest of the pack, or recording the fight ready to show everyone back home.

Scott knew there was only two people who would be able to stop Isaac from this fight, and considering the smirk across her face, he couldn't rely on Kinsey to attempt putting a stop to it. Somewhere inside of him he wanted to smirk too, relish in the thought of one of the Alphas getting what they deserved, but right now he couldn't do that. He was the only one who could stop the fight now. He pushed to the front of the crowd to step in the small gap that had been left for Isaac to punch Ethan with as much force as he pleased.

Louder than even Coach the wolf's voice sounded through the air. One single yell of Isaac's name. That was all it had taken. Not only for Isaac to stop, but for the entire crowd to fall silent. As soon as Isaac had moved away Danny picked Ethan up from the floor, quickly pulling him away from the wolf before the fight continued, but as Isaac looked at Scott he didn't dare to try and resume his fight. He looked terrified. Kinsey had guilt ridden across her face as she stood with a straight face, not quite sure whether to speak up and try to defend herself and Isaac. She looked at Allison but the girl was too busy staring at Scott's eyes, she had seen it last night too. When Scott's eyes had turned Alpha red for a split-second, neither could explain how or why, but both had seen it and both knew that was how he's stopped Isaac.

"All right. That's enough." Coach announced. "Everyone back on the bus."

The rest of the crowd began to pile onto the bus, the smell of vomit thankfully gone. But those of the McCall and Hale pack remained. Between the seven of them, none had any words. Isaac had bowed his head, heading onto the bus, followed by Boyd. Before being pulled onto the bus by Stiles Kinsey apologised to the wolf for starting the fight, though he insisted it wasn't her fault. Maybe that fight had been what they needed, it seemed to have gotten it out of Isaac's system and Boyd's too, for now at least. One by one they all began heading onto the bus, Coach didn't bat an eyelid as Allison and Lydia walked onto the bus, as if they had been on it the entire time.

Kinsey and Stiles sat beside one another, Lydia in the seat in front of them while Scott and Allison had taken the row of seats opposite, them too sitting side by side. They were prepared to spend the remaining two hours on the bus relaxing and healing, mentally, physically and slightly emotionally. Stiles pulled out his jacket from his bag once again, handing it to Kinsey as he told her to get some sleep, it wasn't a suggestion, it was an order, one that she didn't argue against as she settled into her seat, throwing it over her as she lay on his shoulder.

She tried to rest with the hope that Derek Hale could very well be alive. Maybe, for the first and last time luck would be on their side when it came to death. Maybe a guardian angel was looking over them and protecting them all.