Sam kept a careful distance between her car and the black SUV in front of her as she followed them down an empty stretch of road, when she saw them slowing to a stop she sighed in frustration and passed them.

But once she was out of sight she turned onto another side street and back tracked, when she got back to the road she'd originally followed them onto, the other vehicle was gone.

Carefully she made her way to the same spot they'd slowed down at and looked around, hoping for any kind of clue as to what they were doing.

About twenty minutes earlier she'd been staking out the Argent household when the dark SUV sped out of the garage and her gut told her to follow it.

Just when she was about to give up and keep going she saw movement off the side of the road.

Getting out of her car she walked over and breathed a huge sigh of relief when she saw it was Stiles.

"Stiles, oh my god!" She exclaimed as she rushed to where he was trying to stand up, but his arms were tied behind his back.

"Sam?" He strained, surprised as she pulled him to his feet.

"Everyone has been so worried!" She exclaimed as she used her claws to cut the ropes around his wrists, "I tracked your scent to one of the cars outside of Allison's house and I-"

When he turned to face her, rubbing his sore wrists, her voice trailed off.

"Do I look that bad?" He asked, knowing by the look on her face that he already had his answer.

He was sure there was no way it looked as bad as it felt.

She stared back at him, her eyes roaming over his wounded and bruised face.

"Stiles..." Her voice had a whimper to it.

He put a hand up to the side of his face, flinching against his own touch.
If he were being honest, he was surprised all of his teeth on the side were still intact.

Sam stepped closer to him.
"I know we're not really good friends or anything but I –I'm going to hug you."

With that she wrapped her arms around him in a snug embrace.

After a few seconds he raised his arms and returned the hug, he breathed out a sigh of relief.
There was a point when Gerard was beating him, that he wondered if he was going to die or if the severe beating would only the start of the torture.

But the kind, warm gesture from Sam was the first time since then that he realized he was okay, for the time being at least.

A few more seconds passed and Sam closed her eyes, wishing she could take what happened away from him.

Like Erica had said in the woods earlier that night, this wasn't their battle.

This most certainly wasn't Stiles' battle either, but here he was, caught in the middle of it and they'd hurt him to send a message.

Just as quickly as those thoughts crossed her mind, she was hit with a strange sensation running through her veins. Dull and tingly.
Not quite painful but definitely not comfortable. More like a sharp pain being dispersed through her entire system.

Over Stiles' shoulder, she should see the veins in her back of her hand were extremely dark under her skin and slightly raised.

Stiles stepped back from the hug with a stunned expression.
He reached back up to touch his face, but the pain wasn't there any longer.

"It-it doesn't hurt." He was baffled and truthfully so was Sam.

"How'd you do that?" Stiles asked her.

"I, uh-" She stammered, staring down to her hands, "I'm not sure."

Derek had told her werewolves were capable of easing pain, that they could take it on for themselves to ease it for someone else.

But he'd also told her it was one of the more complicated things to learn and that some weren't capable of it at all.
While others could only do that for people they really cared about.

Stiles blinked his eyes rapidly and she could see in the streetlights that he was holding back tears.

"Thanks."

"Come on, let's get you home. Your dad is going to be so happy to see you." She said as she ushered him towards where she'd parked her car.

~()~

It was a while later that Sam got back in her car after staking out the Argents' house again.

On the drive to his house, Stiles told her that Erica and Boyd had been captured and were tied up in the basement attached to wires that kept electrical currents running through them to keep them from transforming.

He'd been trying to free them when Gerard had caught him and decided to use him to send a message to the rest by beating him.

After dropping Stiles off and making sure his dad was there so he wouldn't be alone. Sam went back to Allison's house.

She wasn't sure what her plan was.
There was a high probability that if she went in there to try and save them, that she'd end up strung up right beside them.

Looking at the big picture, she knew this had to be part of a plan to draw Derek out so Gerard could get revenge for Kate's death.

If she got captured, that would leave him with only Isaac to help him fight against them.

But she couldn't just leave her former pack mates as the hunter's hostages either.

When she'd gotten to the house and moved in closer on foot to hear what was going on inside, she'd heard Chris Argent talking to them.

She hadn't been able to make out every word but she'd heard something about questioning where the line between supernatural and human was -and a mention of how he was surprised to see what side he'd ended up on.

She could feel the tension oozing out of the walls of the house.
Something was going on inside of there between the family since Allison's mom had died.

Sam lingered around the house until she was sure that Erica and Boyd were free.
She'd wanted to flag them down, try again to convince them to stay and fight with the rest of them.

But in the end she chose to let them go.
Made the decision to respect their wishes and hoped that they'd find whatever it was they were looking for outside of Beacon Hills.

Sam stared down to her cellphone in her hand and started to call Derek, but then stopped.

There was someone else she needed to call first to let him know that his best friend was alive, a little bruised but that he was back home safe.

She scrolled though the contacts in her phone and called Scott.

"Sam?" Scott answered, "Any update on Stiles?"

"Yeah, I just dropped him off at his a little bit ago. He's with his dad now." Sam answered.

"Oh my god, you found him? He's okay!"
She heard him tell someone else that they'd found Stiles.

She could feel the relief radiating off of him through the phone.

"Where are you now?" Sam asked him, "Still will Derek?"

"Yeah and Isaac." Scott explained, "Peter thinks he might have information on the kanima, in a book or something."
He explained as he watched Peter pull a dusty object from under a false board on the stairs.

"What is that? A book?"
She could hear Derek in the background followed by Peter's snarky response, "A book? It's a laptop, what century are you living in?"

"I'll be there as soon as I can." Sam quickly said before hanging up when she saw her Aunt Alice's call was beeping in.

She hurried to answer the call, fearing something might be wrong with her brother or mom.

~()~

"You at the hospital?" Derek asked over the phone.

"Yeah, running in now." Sam answered in a huff as she ran towards the room her aunt had told her to meet her in.

"Scott and Isaac-" He started to tell her they'd be there shortly.

"They're here." Sam told him when she saw the two teenagers running down the hall from the opposite direction.

They were all headed to the same room.

Sam took the phone away from her ear to greet them both as they walked in the room where Scott's mom, Melissa, and Sam's Aunt, Alice, were waiting for them.

Jackson's lifeless body was on the table in the middle of the room, his top half visible from the unzipped body bag.

As they moved closer she saw exactly why her aunt had been so freaked out when she called her earlier.

Jackson's abdomen area was covered in a thick casing of a clear, gelatinous looking substance.
Like it had enveloped him in a protective layer.

"Mom?" Scott asked looking between their classmate's body and where his mom was at, "What's happening?"

Melissa and Alice exchanged looks.
The entire reason they'd called the teens there was to get an answer to that same question.

"We thought that you were going to tell us!" Melissa exclaimed, "Is it bad?"

Isaac who was leaned over the table trying to get a better look at what was happening with him commented, "It doesn't look good."

"Definitely doesn't look good." Alice echoed.

Isaac started to reach a hand out, like he was going to touch the substance coating Jackson but Sam quickly stopped him.

"Isaac, no!" She cried out, "I think... I think that's the venom."

"Venom?" Alice stammered looking at her niece, "Venom like... snakes?"
She shivered.

"Derek," Sam breathed as she raised the phone back to her ear and said, "He's covered in the kanima venom, it's like forming some kind of protective shield around him?"

"A shield?"
Derek repeated back.

He looked down to the computer screen as Peter quickly tried to go through files he'd backed up on a computer of old family records from things the Hales had documented over the years.

"Yeah, it's like a clear casing of the venom?" She tried to explain.

"Not a shield." Derek realized when Peter read aloud that what they'd been seeing was the kanima's beta form, "More like a cocoon."

Sam stared wide-eyed at Jackson's body.

"You mean he's changing into something else?" She gasped.

"Something like what?" Scott and Melissa asked in near unison.

Sam shrugged as she waited for Derek to give her more details.

Just then Jackson's previously motionless body shifted on the table.
His chest rose from a deep breath.

Everyone in the room jumped back.

"Mom can you zip it up, please?" Scott asked.

Melissa stared wide-eyed at her son over where she had her hands clutched to the mouth to keep from screaming in case he moved again.

"Zip it up!" Alice echoed what Scott said.

Melissa shot her co-worker a look silently asking why she had to be one to get close enough to reach the zipper.

"Mom!" Scott called.

"Fine. Fine." Melissa took in a deep breath, mustered all of the courage she had and stepped forward, willing her hands to steady as she grasped onto the zipper and started to close up the black body bag.

"He's moving." Sam updated Derek over the phone.

She heard him relay the information and then heard Derek say something about wings.
Just when she started to ask if she'd heard that right, the zipper got snagged right under Jackson's chin and Melissa struggled to get it to move.

Melissa jumped back with a loud gasp when Jackson's mouth dropped open with a loud hiss, revealing multiple rows of razor sharp clear teeth against a black backdrop.

Sam was struck by the resemblance of it to the open mouth of the black mamba snake that she'd seen on her brother's school project.

"Zip!" Scott frantically chanted, "Zip mom, zip!"

Once she finally got the bag closed they breathed a collective sigh of relief, albeit short lived, when Sam was able to gather her thoughts and asked over the phone, "Did you say he's going to grow wings?"

"You have to get him out of there, now!" Derek instructed.

"We have to get him out of here." Sam relayed the message to the room.

When the movement inside of the body bag increased she said, "I don't know that we've got time for that..."

Derek told he was leaving to meet them now, that they needed to get out of the hospital and to call him for where to meet up when they did.

Sam acted as the lookout to make sure the path was clear as Scott and Isaac each had a hold of one end of the body bag.

The plan was to get Jackson into Sam's car and then to Derek.

"Okay, go -go!" Sam whisper-yelled as they reached the corner of the building and she did a visual scan of the parking lot to make sure no one would see them.

Scott and Isaac quickly walked to where Sam's car was parked.

She fumbled in her jacket pocket for the keys and accidentally knocked them out onto the ground.

Not even realizing what he was doing, Scott dropped his end of the body bag to the ground to lean down and pick up the keys.

They all three froze at the crack sound Jackson's head made when it collided with the pavement.

"Scott!" Sam exclaimed while Isaac stared at him wide-eyed, still holding the bag in his own hands.

Scott looked between them with his mouth hanging open, unable to form words.

"Guys, hurry!" Isaac urged but it was too late of a warning.

The headlights he'd spotted drew much closer until the car stopped just mere feet away from where they were standing.

The car shut off and Chris Argent got out of the driver's seat.

"You're alone." Scott observed after a tense standoff in silence.

"More than you know." Chris admitted.
He was worried, scared and hurting. All three of the werewolves could feel it.

"What do you want?" Scott questioned.

"We don't have much in common, Scott. But at the moment we've got a common enemy." Chris said.

"That's why we're trying to get him out of here." Scott explained.

"I didn't mean Jackson. Gerard has twisted his way into Allison's head -just like he did with Kate. I'm losing her and I know you're losing her too." His eyes pleaded with the teenager for understanding that all he cared about now was getting his daughter back.
Nothing else mattered.

"Can you trust me to fix this?" Scott asked him.

Chris lowered his head and then looked at him from under his brows with a begrudging nod.

"Then can you let us go?" Scott pushed.

"No." Chris said, nodding back to his own car, "My cars faster."

Sam stood in silence as they loaded Jackson into the back of the SUV

Her mind was racing.
Scott seemed to trust Allison's dad, but she didn't.

Her senses; the same senses Derek taught her how to master, did tell her that he was telling the truth about just wanting to save Allison from Gerard's influence.

As much a she wanted to trust that, she was also highly concerned this could be part of the plan to draw Derek out into the open so they could kill him.

"Come on."
Sam looked down to see Isaac's hand on her arm, he was pulling her towards the SUV.
Clearly, believing in and trusting Scott on this one.

She got into the car without saying a word and scooted over so Isaac could get in the middle bench seat beside her.

Once everyone was in the car, Chris asked them, "Where are we meeting Derek?"

Isaac glanced into the back of the car where Jackson was still moving inside of the bag.

"I still need to call him." Sam quietly answered.

He stared at her in the rearview mirror when she made no attempt to do so.

"Now, would be helpful." Chris instructed and Isaac nodded in agreement when Jackson moved again.

She stared down his name in her contact list.

"You have to promise; swear to me that you won't kill him when he shows up." She pleaded, her stomach was in knots.
She felt hot and sick.

"This isn't about Derek." Chris turned in his seat to look her in the eyes, "You have my word." He promised.

When she still didn't make a move and a loud hiss was heard from the back of the car again, Scott said, "Sam, come on."

"I know you trust him." She looked at the teenager who'd turned to face her from the passenger seat, "But I don't."

Chris Argent let out a heavy sight and shook his head.
Time was of the essence and none of them had time for this.

"Sam?" Isaac swallowed hard, "We need to do something. Jackson's still moving in there..."

"I'm taking a risk here too." Chris tried to reason with her, "I'm outnumbered and trust is a two-way street."

Sam eyed him.

Looking back to Scott, Chris Argent asked, "How do you even know Derek will listen and agree to work together on this?"

"He will." Scott promised.

Seeing the look of disbelief on his face, Isaac spoke up, "He'll listen to Sam."
Turning to face her he added, "You need to call him now."

Nodding she dialed his number and tried to think of a way to explain that they were now working with Chris Argent.

Minutes later they pulled into the iron works, outside of an abandoned warehouse.

Allison's father and Isaac got out of the car to wait on the alpha, but Scott stopped Sam.

"Sam there is something I need to tell you, but you can't say anything to anyone else." He pleaded.

"Okay." She nodded.

He leaned between the front seats to speak quietly with her from where she was sitting in the back.

"Everyone kept saying that Gerard had a plan, and I don't know how that plan involves Jackson or anything. But I know one thing, and it's that he's dying... I could smell it on him."

She shook her head back and forth, not understanding.
But her eyes widened slightly realizing she'd smelled it on him too, the day they'd first met at Allison's house when she shook his hand.

She didn't realize that's what it was at the time, maybe she could have if she hadn't been so on edge.

"If I'm right about this, then part of his plan has to be to get bitten. If he gets the bite, it might heal him. I think that's the real reason he's been trying to find Derek." He continued, "I don't think he cares about what happened to Kate -or cares about anyone at all really."

"Oh my god..." Sam breathed out, knowing that Gerard wouldn't settle for being anything less than an alpha, which means he'd kill Derek to take his power.

"Scott, you know what he's going to do if you're right. He'll kill Derek to take the alpha power for himself." She fearfully whispered.

He nodded.
"Deaton and I filled some capsules with mountain ash, and I switched them for his medicine, so if that's the case... that should stop the bite from working." He continued.

Her head felt like it was spinning.

"I have to warn Derek." She gasped as she started to open the door but he stopped her.

"You can't. Sam. I'm only telling you so that you don't get in the way and get hurt." His eyes were soft, full of concern and understanding, "I know you care about Derek-"

"Scott..." She cut in.

"You've got to trust me-" He started to say but she let out a dry laugh.

"I've got an awful lot of people asking me to trust them today, and every time I do it's endangering the life of the one person I do trust." Her head cocked to the side.

"I know." He sympathized.

"No, you don't get it... I can't lose him." She whispered, her eyes a little dark.

"I do get it." He reminded her, closing his eyes for a few moments as he thought about Allison.

"Come on." He said nodding to where Chris Argent was watching them from the outside of the car, with Isaac.

The two betas stared at one another in silence.

In many ways, Sam felt like she and Scott had an understanding about things. They both saw the benefit in working together even if he wouldn't join the pack.

Their morals often seemed to align with one another and while Sam believed Scott wouldn't intentionally do anything to harm Derek, she also knew that if it came down to it -he would choose Allison above all else.

But she, herself, had been the one to point out outside of school the night they'd faced off against the kanima the problem was that no one was trusting anyone else.

She looked at Scott, slowly nodding her head in agreement with him.
To win a war you need allies and she was choosing to trust Scott.

They both got out of the car and joined Isaac and Chris Argent.

Looking around the hunter asked, "Where's Derek?"

"He's here." Sam replied as she caught the briefest glimpse of red eyes in the distance before they were gone.

Seconds later, they saw Derek racing towards them, on all fours before doing a flip in the air and landing in a crouch.
His eyes were glowing red as he looked up at them.

He stood up, illuminated in the headlights of the car as he surveyed the group.

His attention went to Sam, she didn't appear to be under any kind of duress -but it also felt like she were there entirely against her own will.

Derek's eyebrows lowered briefly, an expression that only she caught and read.
A wordless, 'What's wrong?'

Taking a deep breath, she turned and stared at Scott, who seemed extremely uncomfortable with her eyes on him.

He made a mental note to ask her about it later; before focusing on the one who didn't belong in the group at all.

"I'm here for Jackson, not you." Chris Argent assured him as he stared the alpha down.

"Somehow I don't find that very comforting." Derek returned the heavy stare before instructing the others, "Get Jackson inside."

Once they were inside an old warehouse, Derek unzipped the body bag and stared down to Jackson's corpse.

"Where are they?" Scott questioned.

Derek glanced around before asking, "Who?"

"Peter and Lydia." Scott replied.

Sam glanced over her shoulder to where Peter was staying hidden out of sight.

Sam stared at Derek, a flash of betrayal in her eyes, "I told you that I didn't get to talk to her and you said someone else would."

"Derek?" She asked, through gritted teeth when he didn't respond.

"We had a plan to save him." Scott backed her up, "We don't have to kill Jackson. We've got a plan!"

"We're past that." He argued as he raised his hand, claws extended in the air.

"Stop it!" Sam took an aggressive step closer.

"Think about it!" Derek yelled back at her, "Gerard controls him now. He's turned Jackson into his own personal guard dog. He set all of this in motion so that Jackson can get even bigger and more powerful!"

"The fact that after everything we've been through, you're now referring to him by Jackson, instead of just the kanima... that mean's something, Derek. Don't do this." She pleaded with him, "There is still time to get Lydia here."

Processing what was said Chris stepped forward, "No –no, He wouldn't do that. If Jackson's a dog, he's turning rabid. And my father wouldn't let a rabid dog live."

"Of course not." Gerard's voice echoed through the room as he made his presence known.

Once all eyes were on him, he continued, "Anything that dangerous, that out of control, is better off dead."

Realizing this was his last chance to get to Jackson before Gerard did, Derek raised his arm and started to bring it down, intending to slash Jackson's throat. But before he could, Jackson woke up.

Sam raced forward when Jackson stuck his claws in Derek's chest and raised his body up, before effortlessly throwing him across the room.

Jackson hit her, sending her flying backwards until her back collided with the hard cement wall.

With a pained noise she looked up when Gerard started talking again, "Well done to the last, Scott. Like the concerned friend you are, you brought Jackson to Derek to save him. You just didn't realize that you were also bringing Derek to me."

His sentence was concluded with the whistling of an arrow flying through the air, which Scott skillfully avoided. Unfortunately Isaac was standing behind him and didn't move in time.

Sam pulled herself to her feet and ran across the room, helping Scott as they dragged Isaac off to the side where Derek was just starting to come to from as hard as he'd hit his head.

They watched as Chris tried to shoot Jackson, but it didn't work as he morphed into his full kanima form; tail whipping wildly in the air.

Sam stared at Derek and then back to Scott.
If Scott was right, then Gerard would probably end up dead, dying from his own greed.
But what if something went wrong? She was terrified.

She didn't expect this all to be happening tonight. She'd thought she'd have some time, a few days at the least to really weigh the pros and cons of what Scott told her.

But once Jackson got the upper hand against Allison's father, she didn't have much of a choice in the matter.

They were no match for the kanima, especially not now that he was bigger and stronger than ever before. The only way to win might be to let Gerard's plan blow up in his face.

Spinning around she watched as Derek flipped over a stack of wooden crates, growling at the kanima as his face shifted and his eyes glowed red.

Moments later Scott, Isaac and Samantha were also transformed and ready to fight.

Normally when she concentrated it was like everything was in slow motion, giving her plenty of time to react and stay ahead of the situation. But with Jackson being stronger and faster than any werewolf, her senses weren't doing her any favors.

And from the looks of it, it wasn't helping anyone else either.

Picking herself up from the dusty floor she saw the kanima throw Derek against a metal support beam and hold him there, as he raised his clawed hand in the air.

It didn't even take an entire second for her to cross the room, jumping in the air as she got closer, doing a flip and kicking the kanima away from her alpha.

As she landed perfectly on her feet, she saw Isaac looking at her shocked from the side.

She didn't even have a moment to appreciate how far her skills and abilities had come before she felt something wrap around her leg, looking down she saw it was the kanima's tail just before everything turned a blur and she was tossed across the room landing at Gerard's feet.

Her head collided violently with the floor and she fought to keep her eyes open.
The sharp pain made it hard to catch her breath.

Managing to finally pull herself to her knees she gasped, "Derek!" As she saw Jackson slice into his side, paralyzing him.

She'd started to race forward, but an arm wrapped around her and then she felt something against her throat.

"Oh, I think you might want to watch this from a safe distance." She heard Gerard say, as she struggled to get away, the blade nicked her neck and a trail of blood started to run down to her chest.

Her breathing was labored and tears burnt her eyes as she stared to where Derek was laying on the floor, fighting against the effects of the toxins and trying to stand up.

Then her eyes drifted across the room to where Isaac's bloody body fell to the floor revealing Allison standing behind him with Chinese ring daggers in her hands.

This was bad, really bad and one wrong move and she'd be dead.
One misstep and none of them might be left standing when the sun rose.

Allison was quickly disarmed by the kanima as it's clawed hand wrapped around her throat.

"What are you doing?" Allison asked, fearfully looking at her grandfather.

Sam's face shifted back to human as she looked at Derek, trying so hard to come to her aid but he could barely move.

Her human blue eyes locked with his red eyes and she mouthed, It's okay, it's going to be okay.

She knew he didn't believe her, but for the moment she had to believe it was going to be okay.
Scott wanted her to trust him, and right then, trusting in what he'd told her was the best possible outcome.

For Derek at least, she wasn't so sure about herself, not now with Gerard pushing a knife to her neck.

"He's doing what he came here to do." Scott answered Allison's question and shook Sam from her thoughts.

"Then you know?" Gerard's voice boomed through the building.
Much too loud for as close as his mouth was to Sam's ears, it was painful.

"What is he talking about?" Allison directed her question to Gerard.
She struggled to breathe through the panic and constriction on her neck.

"It was that night outside of the hospital when I threatened your mother, wasn't it? I knew I saw something in your eyes. You could just smell it, couldn't you?" He asked Scott.

"He's dying." Isaac explained, he'd been able to smell it on the older man.

Sam breathed a small sigh of relief, Isaac was awake and alert.
Weakened from wounds and blood-loss, but he'd heal.

Chris watched as his father admitted, "I am. I have been for a while now. Unfortunately, science doesn't have a cure for cancer yet. But the supernatural does."

Samantha stared at Derek who hadn't taken his eyes off of her. A few tears rolled down her cheeks and wondered if she was going to die that night.
The longer she stared at him, the more she wondered if worst case scenario for him was his own death, or watching her die.

She knew the answer for herself, she'd rather face her own demise, then to be left there without him.

"You monster!" Chris angrily yelled at his father.

"Not yet..." Gerard taunted.
She didn't have to see his face to know the smug smile he was giving the room.

"What are you doing!" Allison yelled, tears running down her own cheeks.

She made choking noised as the kanima tightened his grip on her neck.

"You'd kill her, too?" Chris asked, appalled at the man who raised him.

"When it comes to survival, I'd kill my own son!" He announced, not an ounce of shame in his weathered voice.

Samantha's mind drifted again as she thought how she didn't just have Derek to think about it. She had her mom and little brother, she was the only reason their family remotely functioned.

She was having trouble keeping her mind present in her body the longer she stood there with a knife to her throat, but she knew she needed too.

Her only option now was to fight.

She felt his arms flex as he tightened both his hold on her and his grip on the knife. All signs were pointing to the realization that she really might not survive the night, but if she'd learned anything in her life it was that giving up hope means you've already lost.

And for the first time in a long time she had a lot to fight for.
One of the most important reasons was still staring at her, his red eyes slicing through the dusty air in the dark, shadowed room.

~(Flashback)~

Samantha sat on the back of an ambulance, her arms wrapped around her shaking 5 year old brother.

Her bloodshot eyes were glassy as she watched the ambulance drive away, lights flashing and sirens wailing as they tried to get her mother to the hospital before she bled out.

"Samantha?" A voice repeated.

Wiping her tears she looked up to the police officer standing beside the ambulance with a note pad in his hand.

She fearfully stared back at him, not sure what he wanted.

"It's Samantha, right?" He asked, his tone friendly and voice soft.

She nodded.

"I'm Deputy Stilinski, I just need to ask you a few questions. Is that alright?"

When she didn't respond he asked, "Do you like to be called Samantha or Sam?" He asked, trying to get her to open up.

"Sam."

He smiled and continued, "How old are you, Sam?"

"I just turned eleven."

"I have a son your age." He said as he wrote the information down.

"And who is this big guy?" He asked, trying to keep a smile on for the kids, in spite of the dismal situation.

He knelt down in front of them, and Samantha immediately tightened her grip on her brother, "This is Jacob, he's five."

"Is there a close family friend, or a nearby relative we can call for you?"

"Aunt Alice... she's at work... at the hospital." Sam slowly gave more information way.

He noticed how guarded she was with any tidbit of information she gave away, most children growing up in abusive households were.

"Alright, I'm going to get her here as soon I can." He assured them.

As he started to walk away, Sam called after him, "Is our mom going to die?"

He froze, taking a deep breath before he walked back over to them and rested a comforting hand on her shoulder.

"I don't have an answer for that, now the paramedics said she's lost a lot of blood. But she's strong, and her medical training might have saved her life. Right now, you're doing the best possible thing, staying strong for you and your brother. Okay?"

Her chin quivered again but she tried to hold back the fresh wave of tears threatening to hit her.

"You don't understand! I'm saving them! I saw it, I saw all of it and it needs to be stopped!" Her fathers voice echoed as the police pulled him outside.

Jacob started screaming and shaking uncontrollably at the sight of him.

Once he spotted his kids, he lunged for them, continuing to scream about how he needed to save them. But before he got any closer, another police officer caught him.

Samantha finally raised her head and looked at him, his light gray shirt was soaked in her mothers blood, which had also spattered on his unshaven face.

"I'm coming back for you, Sam." He yelled, trying to break free from the police, but they kept their hold on him, pushing him towards the patrol car.

Stepping in front of the children, trying to shield them from the view, Deputy Stilinski angrily yelled to his fellow officers, "Get him out of here!"

As they pushed him into the car and slammed the door behind him, Sam got one last look at him before the car sped off.

"I'll come back for you." He slowly mouthed.

The tears she'd been fighting came rolling down her cheeks and she tried to listen to anything or anyone else, to distract her.

There was so much noise and chatter from the crowd gathering trying to piece together what happened, to all of the police radios and scanners, sirens in the distance and her younger brother sobbing loudly as he clutched onto her yellow shirt.

Every sound blurred together until she focused on the sound of paramedics talking just around the side of the ambulance.

"It's a miracle she's even alive."

"She's a nurse... she made a split second decision, tilted her head back and made it harder for him to cut through the muscle to get to the jugular."

"Yeah, but all the blood she lost, and the blood in her lungs. She probably won't pull through this."

"I don't know... those poor kids though. I hope she makes it."

~(End of flashback)~

Her watery eyes snapped up from the floor where she'd been staring. That was it, a split second decision; a move completely unsuspected and perfectly timed.

That was what she needed, to use all her senses and time her move perfectly. If she did that, her body might be able to heal before her lungs completely filled with blood.

It was a long shot, but it just might be enough.

Blinking back more tears and trying to clear her vision, she surveyed the room. Derek was now on his knees, Scott was standing behind him holding him in place. Which didn't take much effort since the paralytic toxin hadn't completely left his system.

"Scott, don't you know he's gonna kill me right after to become the alpha?" Derek said, still struggling to get away.

"That's true. But I think he already knows that, don't you Scott? He knows that the ultimate prize is Allison. Do this small task for me and they can be together. And in case you haven't learned, there is just no competing with young love. You are the only piece that doesn't fit, Derek." Gerard's voice was completely void of emotion as he spoke.

When he readjusted his grip on the blade, she knew the clock was ticking.
She had to take her eyes off Derek and focus on her own survival.

She needed to trust.
Trust in her own strength that she had what it would take to survive the next few minutes, and trust that Scott's plan would save Derek.

Her chin quivered as she looked at him, storing one last image of him as she closed her eyes, in case it was the last time she ever got to see him.

Knowing that if she had any chance at surviving a cut to her neck, she'd have to remain calm and try to find peace.

Taking in a deep breath she savored the feeling in her lungs, as she heard Gerard say. "Actually, Derek... you're just one of the pieces that doesn't fit."

The old man let out a booming laugh.
Void of everything except spite and utter cruelty.

She felt Gerard's body move against her back as he moved the knife to cut her throat. Keeping her eyes closed and trying to hold onto the peace she'd found in her own strength she tilted her head back as far as she could, making sure the knife would have a hard time slicing past the tightened muscles before hitting anything vital.

Feeling a warm rush over her chest from the blood, her legs turned to Jell-O. He moved the arm he'd had over her, holding her still and let her body drop to the floor.

Through the silence in her own head she could hear the chaos around her, feel the mood completely change in the room.

Scott yelled, "No!" And Isaac had said something, but their voices sounded muffled, as if her ears were filled with water.

But through the muffled commotion and chaos surrounding her she could hear one thing very clear.
The loud pained growl of a wolf, unable to help the one person he cared most about.
The growl trailed off into a lone, devastated howl... the defeated cry of a warrior. A barren sound. No hope. No fight left.

Still holding the air in her lungs, she kept her eyes pinned shut.
She didn't need to see, she already knew who the sound was coming from.

Oblivious to what was going on in the room, she was entirely focused on her internal struggle. The fight to stay alive.

In those moments, strangely enough she thought of Matt. Of how he'd drowned and that feeling had to be so very similar to what she felt right then.

After a few more minutes it felt like her head was about to explode, she hadn't taken a breath and was holding the air in her lungs to try and keep them from filling with blood.

Her body was healing, but she wasn't sure if it was going to heal fast enough.

Eventually, despite her desperate attempts to not take a breath. Her body involuntarily let out the breath of life she'd been clinging too, with the exhale came a rush of blood, spewing from both her mouth and her nose.

Amazingly, when she gasped for air, she was able to breath.

Her hands went to her neck and there was just the slightest trace of the wound left.
More like a bad scratch versus a deep cut.
There was nothing left to show how severe the wound had truly been, aside from the massive amount of blood she was covered in.

She opened her mouth, to yell for Derek, let him know she was okay. But before she could, a loud roar filled her ears.

Looking up she saw Jackson as he shifted into a werewolf, scanning the room she saw Lydia and Stiles were also there.
But she had no memory of them showing up.

She wondered exactly how long she'd been able to hold to hold her breath and what else she'd missed while fighting for her own life.

Within seconds he was human again, a look of shock on his face as he looked at Lydia who stood crying in front of him, she rushed forward in Jackson's arms ;and Sam smiled to herself for them.

She saw Scott and Allison standing beside one another, their hands connected.

They'd done it.
They were all still standing.

Well, everyone except for Gerard who'd staggered away some before collapsing on the ground.

Everyone was watching Lydia and Jackson still as Sam pulled herself to her feet.
She looked down to her blood soaked clothes, to her bloody hands that were caked now with dirt and small rocks from the old cement floor.

She looked around the room again, glancing back to the floor where she'd just stood from to make sure this wasn't one of those scenes from a movie where the it turns out the person is actually dead and their soul just left the body.

There wasn't a body there, just more blood.

She pulled in a deep breath, wiped off the last bit of blood that had run from the corner of her mouth onto her chin and walked over to where she saw Derek had his back turned to the room, looking away from the group.

She reached a hand out for him, then stopped when she saw the blood and dirt on her palms again.

"Derek." Sam called his name but her voice was quiet and hoarse.
She wondered for a second if he'd even been able to hear her but then he spun around.

He stared at her in shock.
He'd seen Gerard cut her throat, he'd listened for her to take a breath or the sound of her heart but had heard nothing.

"Sam?" Her name left his mouth as more air than voice.
He tilted her head back to look for the severity of the wound.

She watched as his eyes skipped from her face, over to the floor when she'd fallen, and then back to her again.
She understood; for a moment she'd wondered if she was a ghost too.

"I'm okay." She promised.

His mouth hung open, the start of several questions at the ready.
Utter shock keeping his tongue from putting any discernible syllables together.

Unable to think of anything else to say in that moment, Sam opted for the truth, "My mom saved me."

His expression shifted more to confusion and bewilderment.

He had no idea what she was talking, or for that matter, how she'd survived what Gerard had done -but he didn't care.
The hows and whys didn't matter.

The only thing that mattered was that Sam was alive; somehow, someway, they were both still standing.

They stared at each other, their eyes completely focused on one another.

He looked her over again, before pulling her into his strong arms.
She clutched onto him, he held onto her like the world was ending because for the both of them, it almost had.

She managed another weak smile against his lips as he kissed her, not even caring if every single person in the room was watching them.

They'd managed to weather the storm, against all odds they'd come out on top and still had each other.

~()~

A/N - Thank you so much for reading the chapter. Ahh, this story is almost finished!