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CHAPTER EIGHT
MAGIC BULLET
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MIA SAT AT THE DESK in front of Scott, anxiously tapping her pen against her notebook as the teacher began returning their most recent tests. She hadn't gotten to do a lot of studying for the test and was silently praying that she had done decently on the exam.

The brunette could hear her twin talking to their best friend, but chose to ignore him for as long as possible. She was still annoyed that he had eaten the last Oreo cookie, which was rightfully hers, and then put the empty box back into the cabinet.

Sure she was being petty, but he knew that Mia had wanted that cookie more than anything. He had even pretended to not know anything about it until Mia threatened to get rid of his Boba Fett action figure. Her threatening of the coolest bounty hunter's action figure ended when the older of the duo mentioned what he had noticed earlier that night.

"You seemed upset when Scott was talking about Allison. Are you okay?" Stiles had asked with a kind smile on his face. He listened to his sister lie to him about not feeling well, but he knew her better than that. "If it bothers you, you can always talk to Scott."

Mia had shaken her head at the thought of telling Scott about anything she had been thinking of since he had fallen for Allison. It wasn't like she had anything against the new girl, but she didn't know how to describe what she was feeling. Allison seemed to be really sweet, and she seemed to make Scott happy. If someone could make Scott happy, they were always appreciated by Mia, but she didn't understand why the thought of Allison and Scott made her stomach bubble.

"It's nothing." She reached for the box of chocolate chip cookies that were hidden at the back of the cabinet. "Scott's finally happy, so I'm happy for him."

Mia's attention was brought back to class as the teacher placed a test paper on her desk. She looked at the red pen marks on the page and sighed before looking at the top, where her score was written.

"Good job me," Mia whispered to herself. Her lips pulled into a smile as she looked at her paper, which was marked with a bright red A.

She turned around as her brother told their best friend that he needed to study more, only to see his grade on the paper.

"That was a joke," Stiles deadpanned. "Scott, it's one test. You're gonna make it up. Do you want to help studying?"

Scott sighed, which made Mia glare at her twin before moving her gaze to her best friend. She knew that he wasn't happy with his grade, and he was probably beating himself up about it.

"It's okay Scooter." Mia gave her best friend a small smile. "I can help you study later if you'd like."

"No," Scott responded. "I'm studying with Allison after school today."

"That's my boy." Mia rolled her eyes at her twin's proud expression.

"We're just studying." Scott replied before looking toward Mia, whose smile had faltered for a split second.

"Uh, no, you're not."

"Stiles, he wants to study, so let it just be that." Mia turned around to glare at her twin before facing the front of the classroom again.

She took the boys continuing their conversation as her cue to stop listening to their conversation as she had a pretty clear idea of what was about to be said.

Her brother was probably complaining about how Scott was his only source of contact with females he wasn't related to. He also probably threatened to castrate the werewolf if he wasted this opportunity. Scott was probably telling Stiles to stop talking, especially because the older Stilinski had no real sense of what a whisper was.

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Mia tossed her backpack into the back of the Jeep as Stiles started the car. Her lips pulled into a smile as the engine roared to life. She loved the sound of Roscoe's engine, especially when it meant that the school day was over.

"Put the pedal to the metal Sti." Mia smirked at her twin as he put the car in reverse. She began to play with the radio of the car as they pulled out of their spot, only to nearly hit a familiar man wearing a leather jacket.

Stiles hit the breaks, which caused Mia to hit her head against her seat. The brunette groaned before looking from her twin to the werewolf who stood in front of the car.

"Derek?" Mia's voice was laced with confusion as she watched the man reach toward the car. She could hear the people in the cars behind them honking their horns, but the noise seemed to fade into the background as she noticed the state Derek was in. His skin was pale and his gaze was unfocused.

"You've got to be kidding me," Stiles groaned. "This guy's everywhere."

Derek collapsed to the floor and Mia opened her car door. The brunette moved to the front of the car where the older werewolf had collapsed. She saw Scott approach Stiles in the corner of her eye before he moved toward the duo on the pavement.

Mia helped Derek into a seated position as Scott started to talk to the werewolf.

"What are you doing here?"

"I was shot." Derek had his left arm crossed over his stomach as Mia's eyes widened.

"He's not looking so good, dude." Stiles said from where he stood.

"Why aren't you healing?" Scott's voice was frantic as he looked between his best friend and the werewolf that was seated next to her.

"I can't." He started before looking up at the younger werewolf. "It was, it was a different kind of bullet."

Mia scoffed as her twin asked if the bullet was a silver one before focusing on the injured werewolf. She listened to the green eyed werewolf call her twin an idiot before speaking up herself.

"We should get him out of here before someone comes," Mia suggested, only to be ignored.

Scott cut her off as he looked at Derek with wide eyes.

"Wait," he started, "that's what she meant when she said you had forty eight hours."

Mia's eyes widened at her best friend's words. She glanced around the parking lot only to see Allison getting out of her car. The brunette ignored the conversation happening around her and focused her attention on Derek's pale figure.

She flinched when the older werewolf's eyes flashed from their normal green to blue.

"I can't," Derek groaned.

"Derek, get up!" Scott turned his attention from Derek to the Stilinski twins. "Help me get him in your car."

Mia moved to try and pick up the older werewolf before turning to her best friend. With a sigh, she helped Scott pull Derek into the front seat of the car before moving into the back seat.

"People are coming this way." Mia turned around in her seat, only for her eyes to meet Jackson's. "Jackson is staring at us."

"I need you to find out what kind of bullet they used," Derek looked at Scott as the younger werewolf closed the car door.

"How the hell am I supposed to do that?" Scott asked with a confused expression.

"Cause she's an Argent. She's with them." Mia's heart dropped at Derek's answer. The hunter who shot him was an Argent, which meant that they were automatically attached to Allison.

"Scooter, Allison is coming this way." Mia looked past Scott, where the newest member of their school was walking away from her car.

"Why should I help you?"

"Because you need me." Derek's tone was serious.

Scott sighed before agreeing with the other werewolf before moving him toward the passenger side of the car.

"Get him out of here." Scott gave Mia a small smile before walking away from the powder blue car.

"I hate you for this so much." Stiles looked at his best friend before driving out of the parking lot.

Mia gave the older werewolf a small smile through the rear view mirror before moving her backpack to the side.

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"Can you change the song?" Mia asked from her seat. "I'm sick of listening to pop, I've listened to Katy Perry for the past week. Play something else."

Ignoring her twin's protests, she reached into the front of the car, only to be pushed back into her seat. She groaned at her brother's childishness before taking out her phone and texting her best friend.

"Thank god for rock." Mia smiled as the song playing on the radio changed.

TO: Scoots McCool

Have you found it yet?

I don't care if you're swapping spit with Allison

Answer me!!

She began to pull at the string hanging from the end of her flannel top as Derek removed his jacket. She sighed before checking her phone once more and thankfully, there was a message from Scott.

FROM: Scoots McCool

Need more time

Mia reached forward and tapped her twin's shoulder before showing him the message. She could practically feel his agitation when he pushed her hand away so he could focus on driving.

"Hey, try not to bleed out on my seats, okay?" Stiles turned to face Derek, who had his chin close to his chest. "We're almost there."

"Almost where?" Derek asked with a groggy voice.

"Yeah, where are we going?" Mia leaned in between the front seats so she could feel more involved in whatever would happen.

"Your house." Stiles answered with a sigh.

"What?" Derek turned to face the older twin with a look of disbelief. "No, you can't take me there."

"We can't take you to your own house?" Mia asked at the same time as her twin, which caused Derek to give them a strange look.

"Not when I can't protect myself."

Derek's answer caused Stiles to pull to the side of the road and face the older werewolf. The brunette leaned back in her seat so that she would not be subjected to hearing her brother shout in her ear.

"What happens if Scott doesn't find your little magic bullet?" Stiles demanded. "Are you dying?"

Derek answered with a simple not yet, which was not comforting to either of the Stilinski twins.

"I have a last resort," Derek explained as he reached for the end of his shirt's sleeve.

"What do you mean?" Stiles asked.

"Last resort?" Mia spoke up with a nervous expression.

The twins had a mutual look of disgust on their faces as Derek pulled up his shirt sleeve to reveal his wound, which was surrounded by black veins.

"Oh, my god. What is that?" Stiles asked as he turned toward his steering wheel. "Oh, is that contagious?"

"Please tell me it's not contagious." Mia whispered from where she sat in the back seat. "I don't want either of us to get sick."

"You know what, you should probably just get out." Stiles pointed toward the passenger side door of the Jeep.

"Start the car," Derek said with a sigh. "Now."

"I don't think you should be barking orders with the way you look, okay? In fact, I think if I wanted to, I could probably drag your little werewolf ass out into the middle of the road and leave you for dead." Stiles retorted as he looked from Derek to his twin, who had dropped her face into her hands. "Back me up?"

"I love you Sti, but he's a werewolf and we're human.  I'd listen to him." All the brunette could do was shrug before looking toward the older werewolf. "It's kinda common sense."

"Start the car, or I'm gonna rip her throat out." Derek reached a hand back toward Mia and wrapped it around her neck, which led to the brunette shooting the older werewolf a look of disbelief. "With my teeth."

"Come on," Mia groaned, "I'm the only one who hasn't been a dick to you."

Both twins felt Derek's grip tighten around her throat, which led to them simultaneously letting out a gasp. Derek's gaze instantly changed from one of anger to one of curiosity as his eyes flickered between the twins. He let go of Mia and noticed how both siblings reached toward their necks at the same time before turning to face him.

"Dick move Hale." Mia glared at the older werewolf as she rubbed her neck. "If that bruises, I'll kick your ass."

Derek looked to Stiles to see if the girl was joking, and the human boy responded by turning on the engine of the car.

"She took self defense when we were younger, so she can hold her own in a fight." Stiles explained with a small smile. "She's always been a fighter."

Mia stuck her tongue out at her twin as they pulled out of their spot.

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"Wanna play twenty questions?" Mia suggested as her brother tried calling their best friend, again. "I've already got something in mind, all you have to do is ask the questions."

Derek rolled his eyes at the teenage girl in the backseat of the car. She hadn't stopped talking for the past ten minutes, and if he had to admit it, she was getting his mind off of his wound.

"What am I supposed to do with him?" Stiles asked when their best friend picked up the phone.

"Put Scooter on speaker!" Mia exclaimed as she bounced her knee up and down. "It feels like he's been taken hostage by Allison."

Stiles shook his head before waving his hand at Mia, who scoffed at his actions.

"I'll give you five bucks if you scare him." Mia whispered as she leaned close to Derek's ear. "Ten if you make him scream."

"He's starting to smell," Stiles answered Scott, which caused Mia and Derek to shoot him a look.

"Do we have a deal?" Mia asked with a mischievous look on her face.

Derek nodded, much to the brunette's delight.

"Like death."

"Stiles?" Mia asked, and her brother turned to face her. "Shut up."

He ignored her and started to listen to Scott while the brunette pulled her iPod out of her backpack.

"Green Day or Paramore?" Mia's question made the older werewolf give her a confused look. "I want to listen to anything but his voice right now."

Derek thought about the question for a moment before giving the brunette his answer.

"Green Day."

Mia skipped through the songs on her playlist until she landed on 21 Guns, a song Green Day had released the year before. The opening notes of the song were soft before the guitar started to play. She tapped her fingers along to the rhythm of the song.

One, two, three. That was the tempo she repeated with her fingertips. It was calming for Mia to listen to the song as everything happened around her. She almost didn't notice her brother start driving away from their spot, but she didn't care enough to learn their destination.

When she looked away from the floor of the Jeep, she noticed that they had arrived at the Animal Clinic.

"Why are we here?" Mia asked, only to be met with a look of confusion on her brother's face.

"You don't pay attention, do you?"

"Nope." Mia simply smiled at her twin as he got out of the car.

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The past five minutes had taught Mia some things. First, she wasn't able to hold up Derek Hale on her own. He appeared a lot lighter than he was, but it was probably all muscle. The muscle wasn't a bad thing, but him being poisoned was a downside on the whole situation. Second, apparently the bullet used on Derek by the hunter was some rare form of wolfsbane, which could kill him. Who would have guessed that a plant that was basically called the bane of the wolf could poison wolves? Oh right, Mia did. Finally, Mia learned that even as he might be dying, Derek was able to keep his dramatic timing with his words, especially as he explained that he needed one of the wolfsbane bullets.

She sighed as her twin tried, and failed, to get Derek into the examination room of the clinic before taking out her phone.

TO: Scoots McCool

Where are you?? You need to get here

NOW!!

"Please don't drop the werewolf Sti." Mia pleaded as she moved to help her twin. "He's actually funny, and he has good taste in music."

Derek had removed his shirt, and the brunette couldn't help but notice how toned the older werewolf's chest was. The only downside of the shirtless werewolf was the fact that his wound was visible, and his arm was covered with black veins.

"You know, that really doesn't look like anything some echinacea and a good night of sleep couldn't take care of."

Mia could hear her brother's voice rise an octave as he looked at the wound. He would never admit it, but Stiles wasn't the best with gore when it was put in front of him. When it was in movies or in pictures, he was fine, but if you put a bloody gunshot wound in front of him, he would get uncomfortable. He was also squeamish around needles, which Mia never really understood.

"Stiles, he's literally being poisoned, sleep won't help."

"When the infection reaches my heart, it'll kill me." Derek's breathing was shallow, which worried the brunette as she knew that it was never a good thing if it became hard to breathe.

"Positivity just isn't in your vocabulary, is it?" Stiles looked at his sister, who was leaning against the brick wall of the clinic. "Are you going to help?"

"I'm just going to stand here and watch you squirm." Mia joked before moving next to her twin. "Promise I won't let you hit the floor if you faint."

"If he doesn't get here with the bullet in time, last resort." Derek spoke as he looked through cabinets in the room before opening a drawer.

"Which is?"

"You're gonna cut off my arm." Derek held up a bone saw for the twins to see, and he watched as the color drained from both of their faces.

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"Are you kidding me?" Mia's eyes were wide as she looked at Derek, who was tying a blue elastic around his bicep. "You want one of us to cut off your arm?"

"What if you bleed to death?"

"It'll heal if it works." Derek pulled the elastic tighter, hopefully preventing the poison from spreading.

"Look," Stiles sighed before looking at the older werewolf. "I don't know if I can do this."

"Why not?" Derek's voice was harsh as he continued adjusting the elastic.

"Well, because the cutting through flesh, the sawing of the bone, and especially the blood!"

Mia groaned as she and Derek gave the older Stilinski the same look of exasperation.

"You faint at the sight of blood?"

"Not me." Mia held her hands up as a sign of surrender.

"No, but I might at the sight of a chopped off arm!" Stiles sassed as Mia moved to stand at the end of the table so she was equidistant from both of the boys in the room.

"Alright, fine," Derek sighed. "How about this? One of you two cuts off my arm, or I'm gonna cut off your head."

The second option was directed at the older of the twins, which didn't sit right with Mia.

"Threaten my twin, and I will kill you," she growled. Her fingers curled toward the palm of her hand until she could feel her nails against the skin of her palms. "Actually, I'll castrate you first."

Stiles and Derek both looked toward the brunette, who was glaring at the werewolf.

"Mia." Stiles moved next to his twin and used his hand to open her hand so it was no longer in a clenched fist. "I'm okay."

Mia let out a shaky breath as she regained her composure, but kept her gaze on Derek, who was glaring at Stiles.

"I'm so not buying your threats any-" Stiles was pulled across the table by the werewolf as Mia moved to push him away from her twin. "Oh my god. Okay."

"Get your hands off my twin." Mia shoved Derek away from Stiles, who started to apologize to the werewolf.

Her eyes widened as Derek leaned to the side before throwing up black blood. Thankfully, it didn't reach her shoes, but it was safe to say that Mia gagged at the sight.

"Holy God, what the hell is that?"

"That's disgusting." Mia gagged in unison with her twin as they looked at the puddle of black blood.

"It's my body trying to heal itself," Derek panted.

"Well, it's not doing a very good job of it."

Both twins felt sick looking at the sickly wolf and his black blood. Mia turned to face her twin in hopes of ignoring the stench of death that lingered in the room, but of course, Derek had other plans.

"Now," he panted, "you gotta do it now."

Stiles started making excuses as Mia looked toward the bone saw. She knew that Derek was right, if they wanted to save him, one of them would have to cut off his arm.

"Rock, paper, scissors?" Mia suggested as she turned to her twin, who shrugged before making a fist with his hand.

The two teens hit their fists against their palms before making their choice. Mia knew how to win against her twin, especially as he almost always picked the same gesture.

With a smile, Mia picked paper and placed her hand over Stiles' fist, which meant that he would have to saw off Derek's arm.

"You know the rules." Mia gave her twin a small smile before Derek demanded that he do it.

She watched her brother pick up the bone saw and place it against Derek's arm before preparing himself.

"Here we go!" Stiles spoke as he went to turn on the saw, only to stop when the familiar voice of Scott McCall rang through the building.

"In here!" Mia called out before letting out a sigh of relief.

"What the hell are you doing?" Scott's voiced was panicked as he noticed the bone saw that was pressed against Derek's arm.

"You have officially become the best person I know Scott." Mia said with a sigh of relief. "Had you not walked through that door, I would have been provided with a lifetime of nightmare fuel."

"Did you get it?"

Scott took the bullet out of his pocket and handed it to Derek, who held it up so the group could see.

Mia ignored her brother's voice as Derek collapsed to the floor, while the bullet rolled away from him. She rushed toward the werewolf with her brother by her side.

"Derek?" They asked in unison as Stiles hit the man's face.

"Wake up man," Mia pleaded.

"Scott, what the hell are we gonna do?" Stiles looked away from the unconscious werewolf and toward his best friend.

"Should I try CPR?" Mia suggested as she moved to Derek's side. She had been certified over the summer, so she knew how to perform CPR, but it was more a question of if it would work.

"I don't know!" Scott called out from where he was in the room.

"He's not waking up!"

Mia took a deep breath and positioned herself so that her knees were near Derek's shoulders. She interlocked her hands, with her left hand grabbing the top of her right so she could start chest compressions if necessary.

"Stiles, I need you to get off his chest. Either figure out how to wake him up or I'm starting CPR." Mia watched her brother take the older werewolf's pulse before placing her hands over his heart.

"I think he's dying!"

"Stiles, shut up!" Mia started pushing down on Derek's chest and counted to herself.

"I think he's dead."

She continued counting until Stiles punched the werewolf in the face while pleading for the man to not kill him after.

Derek woke up with a dazed look on his face, which calmed Mia a bit. She felt a shooting pain in her right fist from when her twin punched the werewolf in the face.

"Dude you suck." Mia groaned while rubbing her knuckles.

The two boys helped Derek stand up before he opened the bullet and burned the wolfsbane. The trio watched as he pressed the smoking ashes into his wound and let out a shout of pain.

He collapsed to the floor beside Mia, who stumbled back into her brother's chest in hopes of getting away from the werewolf. They watched in awe as his wound completely healed in a matter of seconds.

"That was awesome!" Stiles cheered, only to receive strange looks from his twin and best friend. "Yes!"

"Are you okay?" Scott asked as Derek pulled himself into a seated position.

"Well, except for the agonizing pain."

"Glad to know you're okay," Mia rolled her eyes. "Your ability to use sarcasm almost surpasses my own."

Stiles glared at his sister, a bit annoyed that she had gotten to make a comment about sarcasm before he was able to do so. He was about to speak up, only to be cut off by Scott.

"Okay, we saved your life, which means you're gonna leave us alone, you got that?" Scott stepped in front of his best friends. "And if you don't, I'm gonna go back to Allison's dad, and I'm gonna tell him everything."

Mia face palmed at her best friend's words. Why would you trust a person who hunted werewolves, especially if you were one?

"You're gonna trust them? You think they can help you?" Derek retorted.

"Well, why not?" Scott fired back. "They're a lot freaking nicer than you are."

Derek stopped for a minute and nodded before speaking again.

"I can show you exactly how nice they are."

"What do you mean?" Scott asked with a confused expression.

Mia sighed as she looked from her brother to the two werewolves in the room. She could tell that this wasn't going to be the end of the strange supernatural events in her life.

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Author's Note

Hey everyone! I hope this chapter finds you well! I'm glad to have written this as it's one of my longest chapter to date! This has about 4.4K words, so I hope you enjoyed it. I hope you are all enjoying this one episode per chapter format, but feel free to let me know how you liked the chapter!! Remember to comment and vote because that always helps with inspiration!

- Daniella

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PUBLISHED: June 3, 2020

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