𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒑𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒆𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕𝒆𝒆𝒏 | 𝔀𝓱𝓮𝓷 𝓽𝓱𝓮 𝓹𝓪𝓻𝓽𝔂'𝓼 𝓸𝓿𝓮𝓻

𝘉𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘈𝘯𝘥 𝘌𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘐𝘯𝘵𝘰 𝘈 𝘊𝘳𝘪𝘮𝘦 𝘚𝘤𝘦𝘯𝘦

CHARLOTTE DUMPS HER BACKPACK ON the floor and takes a seat in one of the chairs outside the principal's office. She sits still for a few moments before she cracks a grin, and a giggle slips past her lips. Scott and Stiles look to her as she whispers, "I can't believe I got to hit him!"

Stiles purses his lips. "Well, you didn't actually hit him," he points out.

"No, but it's close enough," Scott corrects him.

With the smile still plastered on her face, she nods in agreement. "See, Scott, this is why you are my bestest of all the best friends."

The Stilinski stares at her in offence. "Excuse me?" He winces when realising his voice is probably too loud. "That's not even a word!" he hisses. "What could he-"

But before he can continue, Scott places a hand over his mouth to keep him quiet. Stiles' eyes bulge in irritation and the werewolf points a finger towards the room behind them. Sure enough, just like Danny had said, Jackson is in the office. All three teenagers lean forwards toward the gap in the door. "Listen to me... You're telling me that you knew Isaac's father was hitting him?" Noah Stilinski questions.

Charlotte's lips part in shock at the revelation. "Holy shit," she murmurs.

Stiles and Scott have the same expression mirrored on both of their faces. The latter leans over to the girl and mutters, "Did you know?"

"Did I know? No!" she denies quickly. "No, of course not. I mean, I had a guess that stuff at home wasn't going too well, but I never knew he was..." Her eyes close. "How did I not see it?"

Stiles frowns. "Hey, it's not your fault."

"But I should've noticed," she whispers guiltily. "Maybe if I had paid more attention, I could've been able to help him."

"Hitting him?" Jackson repeats. "He was kicking the crap out of him."

Charlotte's fist clenches in anger and she grits her teeth together. "I want to kick the fucking crap out of him so fucking bad," she seethes.

"Did you ever say anything to anyone?" the Sheriff asks. "A teacher? Parents? Anyone?"

"Nope," Jackson replies with a shrug. "It's not my problem."

"No?" Noah Stilinski shakes his head in disbelief. "No. Of course not. You know, it's funny that the kids getting beaten up are always the ones who least deserve it."

"Yeah," the boy agrees. He freezes. "Wait, what?"

Charlotte snickers at his obliviousness and Stiles snorts. The door swings open and Jackson walks out. He immediately scowls at his classmates who had very clearly been listening in. The girl sends him her middle finger and he mockingly smiles in response.

Stilinski walks out next, a deputy shortly behind him. Stiles quickly grabs hold of a nearby magazine and hides his face behind it. His friends look at him in amusement. He must be daft if he thinks he's suddenly turned invisible. His father's eyes linger on him before he greets the others. "Hi, Scott. Charles."

She grins. "Nice one in there, Sheriff."

Scott slowly raises his hand and awkwardly waves at the man. Glancing back to his son again, who is still hidden behind the magazine, Stilinski sighs in defeat and shakes his head whilst walking away.

Stiles peeks over the top. "Did he see me?" he questions.

"Nope. You're all good."

"Definitely didn't see you."

His satisfactory grin quickly disappears when a shadow falls upon the three. They slowly move their eyes up to the adult and try to keep their sudden anxiety at bay.

"Come on in, guys." When the fuck did Allison's possibly psychotic grandfather become principal of their school? Gerard Argent looks down to the pile of papers on his desk and picks out a folder. His eyes meet one of the teenagers seated in front of him. "Charlotte Martin..." He smiles at her after quickly scanning the documents again. "Flawless grades, and seemingly a wonderful role model for my granddaughter."

Charlotte forces a smile, although it doesn't reach her eyes. Thankfully, the man doesn't seem to notice. "Thank you," she replies.

"Ah, Scott McCall. Academically not the most accomplished, but I see you have become quite the star athlete!" Scott hesitantly nods in response. It's clear to both of his best friends that he's extremely uncomfortable interacting with a member of the Argent family. "Mr Stilinski. Also excellent grades, but little to no extracurriculars. Maybe you should try lacrosse?"

Surely the file states he's on the lacrosse team. "He's already on the team," Charlotte points out with narrowed eyes.

"Yeah, actu-"

Gerard holds a finger up as he interrupts. "Hold on, McCall..." Stiles and Charlotte watch Scott raise his head to look the older man in the eyes. "You're the Scott that was dating my granddaughter," he realises.

Scott's glances to his friends and he anxiously starts to ramble. "We were dating, but not anymore. Not dating, not seeing any of each other or doing anything with each other at all..."

"Shut up," Charlotte mutters.

"Scott, relax! You look like you're about to crack a cyanide pill with your teeth."

"Just a hard breakup..."

"Guys, listen." Gerard smiles. Goosebumps travel down Charlotte's spine. It's the same sort of smile Kate once gave her. "Yes, I am the principal, but I really don't want you to think of me as the enemy."

Stiles' eyebrows raise in amusement. "Is that so?"

Charlotte nods her head in agreement. "What could possibly give us that impression?"

His smile slowly turns into a frown. "However, this being my first day, I do need to support my teachers. So, unfortunately, someone is going to have to take the fall and stay behind for detention."

Scott and Gerard turn to stare at the pair who have quickly busied themselves playing Rock, Paper, Scissors. Feeling eyes upon them, they hesitantly look up. Charlotte sighs and gives her friend an innocent smile. Stiles' jaw drops in bewilderment and he scoffs. "Fine," he mutters in defeat.

"All right, Mr Stilinski. Mr Harris will see you in detention after school."

The three walk out of the office shortly after, and the minute the door shuts Stiles spins around and holds a hand in front of his friends, preventing them from moving any further. "Are you kidding me?" he shrieks. "What the fuck was that in there?"

Charlotte hums. "I think that was you volunteering for detention."

"Me?"

"Yeah," she agrees. "If I'm recalling this correctly, and please interrupt if I'm wrong, but did you or did you not say 'Fine'?"

Scott quickly nods. His lips twitch into a small smile. "I think he did," he confirms.

"Okay. But it was peer pressure," Stiles points out exasperatedly. "You peer pressured me! Why me?"

"Firstly, I will not take responsibility for something that I have wanted to do since the minute I met the man."

He rolls his eyes at her as they head toward the cafeteria for lunch. "What if Scott and I also enjoyed it?"

"Have you had over sixty hours of detention with him in the past two years?" The boys are silent. Charlotte clicks her tongue as she makes her point exceptionally clear. "Exactly. So I am not taking detention for something I thoroughly enjoyed."

"Bu-but-"

Scott grimaces. "Would it make a better excuse if I said it's a full moon and I need someone to look after me?"

"I can look after you just as well as she can!"

Charlotte sighs. "Stiles, we can seriously argue about this-"

"Sorry boys! My sister has somewhere to be!"

Scott and Stiles stare after their best friend as she is dragged along by Lydia through a set of doors and out of their eyesight. The latter turns to the werewolf and frowns in thought. "So... Can we just throw her under the bus and say she decided she would go?"

"Stiles, do you seriously think Harris would believe that she would willingly spend more time with him?"

"That's a really good point."

As soon as Charlotte realises exactly where she is being pulled along to, she loudly groans in annoyance. "Really?" she questions her twin.

"Please?"

"Lydia, come on!"

But Lydia's grip around her sister's hand only tightens as she continues dragging the girl down the corridor. After a few steps, she suddenly stops and turns to the girl to say, "If I said you could punch him if it goes wrong, would you come?"

Charlotte grins. "Why didn't you start with that?"

"Jackson!" With her sister protectively standing beside her, Lydia tries to start a civilised conversation with her ex-boyfriend, who currently has his back to them as he grabs things from his locker. "I just... We haven't really talked since that night, and, well-"

The blonde-haired girl narrows her eyes at him and forcefully grabs hold of his shoulder to turn him around. "When she talks to you, you face her and look her in the eyes," she snaps.

Jackson stays silent and Lydia takes this as a sign to continue. "They said that if you hadn't found me and carried me back, I could have died... So, I just... I wanted to say thank you."

He stares at her and finally replies, "Lydia, we're not getting back together."

Charlotte tries to refrain herself from interjecting, wanting to give her sister her own chance to stand up for herself. Lydia's eyes widen in surprise. "Excuse me?" she retorts.

"And just because I kept you from bleeding out on a field once, don't expect me to come running every time you start screaming."

Lydia's eyebrows furrow in confusion at his behaviour. "I never said-"

"I'm not responsible for you, okay?"

"I never said you were!"

"But I will give you one piece of advice." Jackson's eyes flick briefly to Charlotte, then fall back onto the strawberry blonde. "If I were you, I'd stay home tonight."

The older twin rolls her eyes. "Yep, thanks for the concern, jackass."

"Wasn't talking to you, bitch."

He turns around and walks away from them, only for Lydia to tense at the insult thrown at her sister. "Fuck you, Jackson!" she yells angrily.

"You already did!"

Lydia's smile promptly falls and Charlotte places a hand on her shoulder and steers her in the opposite direction to where he had taken off in. "I... I said fuck you!" the strawberry blonde points out in shock.

Charlotte grins at her confidence. "Yes you did."

"You have no idea how long I've wanted to say that for."

"And I could not be any prouder."

Lydia giggles. "You just wanted me to punch him," she says pointedly.

"Maybe not punch him... A slap would have been just as good though. Like, a proper bitch slap."

"Next time."

Charlotte's smile widens so far that her cheeks begin to ache. "There's gonna be a next time?"

Lydia rolls her eyes in amusement. "Most likely," she confirms.

Leaving her sister to return to the rest of the day's classes, Charlotte turns around and heads towards the meeting place that she and Scott had agreed upon through text. Once realising the rest of their day consisted of maths and English, the pair of friends had decided to skip. After all, they have a much bigger concern than whether they have another assignment or not. Just as she walks around a corner, she smacks into the boy she's looking for.

"Dude!"

"Bitch! Oh, it's you." Charlotte apologetically smiles. "Sorry I called you a bitch."

Scott chuckles and they walk side by side towards the closest exist of the school. "It's fine. Oh, what did Lydia want?"

"Right, so she dragged me with her to talk to Jackson, and she said fuck you to him, and I just got immersed into all of it..."

His eyes widen in surprise. "She really said that?"

"Yup."

Scott grimaces. "And let me guess, he replied 'You have'?"

Charlotte sighs. "Yup."

They break into laughter at their equal hate to the teenager, and Scott pushes the double doors open. Almost immediately as they walk outside, they see a Sheriff's car drive past them. Isaac stares at them out of the rear windscreen until the vehicle disappears around a corner.

The girl sighs again. "So, what's the plan now?

Scott frowns and looks to her puzzled. "Plan?"

"You mean to tell me that you don't have a well thought out strategy on how to get Isaac out of jail before tonight?" She places a hand on her chest and gasps. "I'm shocked."

"I have a plan!" he exclaims defensively.

"Really?" she muses. Charlotte gestures him to continue. "What is it? I'd love to hear."

He opens his mouth to respond to her obviously sarcastic question but is cut off by a familiar ebony black car skidding to a stop before them. The driver's window is rolled down, and Derek leans over to open the passenger door. "Get in," he orders the two.

She arches a brow. "But didn't you know that you're not supposed to get in a car with a stranger? And you also didn't say please."

"I'm not a stranger, Charlotte," he says exasperatedly. 

"But you were arrested for murder," she points out. "Twice."

"Okay!" Scott interjects their bickering. "You can't be serious. You did that! That-" He points off into the distance where Isaac had just disappeared. "-is your fault."

"I know that."

Charlotte's jaw falls to the floor at his confession and she walks closer to the car to scrutinise his expression. "Did you just willingly acknowledge you made a mistake?"

Ignoring her, Derek impatiently continues barking orders. "Now get in the car, both of you, and help me."

"No. I've got a better idea."

She folds her arms over her chest and turns back to her best friend. "Yeah, okay, go on. What is this brilliant idea?"

"I'm gonna call a lawyer. Because a lawyer might actually have a chance of getting him out before the moon goes up!"

She nods in slightly surprise. "Huh. That's not as bad as I was imagining," she admits.

Derek rolls his eyes. "No. A lawyer won't be able to help. Not when they do a real search of the house."

Scott's eyes fill with confusion. "What do you mean?"

"Whatever Jackson said to the cops, what's in the house is worse. A lot worse."

Charlotte slams her backdoor closed as she takes full advantage of having the backseats to herself. She leans her back against the door whilst crossing her legs on the leather seat. But as soon as she spots Derek's disapproving scowl, she straightens up and clears her throat. "Look, what could there possibly be in there?"

"Just wait."

Scott's eyes widen slightly when the Camaro speeds off. "We're going there now? To his house?"

"Yes."

Charlotte hums. "You do realise it's a crime scene?"

Derek meets her eyes in the rear-view mirror. "Yes. So?"

"So, normally that means you can't just freely walk into it."

"Okay," he answers nonchalantly.  

She sighs. "You really don't care, do you?"

"No, Charlotte. I really don't."

She scoffs in realisation. "You've already been there," she concludes.

"Yep."

"You know what? Fine! Add breaking and entering into a crime scene to the list of illegal things I've done this year."

Scott's grin slowly fades away as he glances to the adult beside him. "Will they kill him?" he seriously questions.

"The Argents?" When the boy nods, Derek softly sighs. "I don't know," he honestly answers.

"Wait, what do you mean you don't know?"

He looks back to the girl in the mirror again. "I don't know. The Argents are unpredictable. All hunters are. Most of them go by a code. But some... some disregard it and do whatever the fuck they want."

"Like Kate."

"Exactly. And Scott, based on what we saw the other night, I really don't know what Gerard will do."

Charlotte looks between the two in the front with confusion. "Wait, what happened last night?"

Scott's eyes widen in alarm. "Shit!" he exclaims. "I forgot to tell you! You had Lydia back and I wanted to give you your moment, you know?" She smiles at his empathy then moves her hands for him to expand. "Right! After I ran off from you guys, I ran into this other guy-"

"Werewolf," Derek interrupts.

"Werewolf. Anyways, he got caught in one of Argent's traps..."

Charlotte grins as she recalls the events from the other night. "The net?"

Derek's eyebrows knit together. "How do you know it was a net?"

She suddenly breaks into laughter, and only stops when a stitch forms in her stomach. Breathing heavily, she shakes her head at Scott. "You didn't tell him?"

He glares at her, and to his utter delight, she ignores it as she pulls her phone out. Once she lands on her target within her camera roll, Charlotte leans forward to hold the device out so Derek can see. A selfie shows her with a wide smile and a very pissed off Scott in the background, trapped upside down in the net. Derek's lips twitch into a small smile as he momentarily looks at the photo.

"You took a photo?" Scott exclaims in frustration.

"Of course I did. Did you seriously expect me not to?"

Scott rolls his eyes and he scowls at Derek whose smile quickly disappears. "Derek found me, and we saw Gerard and Allison's dad walk up to him... Charles, they killed him. With a fucking sword!"

"They gave him a hemicorporectomy?" They stare at her in confusion. "Cut him in half?" She receives two nods and she stares out the window. "Intense..."

"Not 'intense'!" Scott scolds. "They killed him! He said he was looking for an Alpha."

"Me."

Both teenagers roll their eyes at Derek's answer and Scott adds, "He'd done nothing wrong! And they just murdered him in cold blood."

"See? This is what I mean when I say I have no idea what Gerard will do," the Hale points out. "Yes, Isaac's a teenager, but he's also a werewolf. If he would kill a kid? I have no idea."

"Derek, if we help you then you have to stop," Scott says firmly. "You can't just go around turning people into wolves!"

Charlotte pinches the bridge of her nose. "Scott, unless there's a secret book of rules for the supernatural in Beacon Hills, there's nothing that says he can't." He frowns. "These kids know what they're getting themselves into."

Derek nods at her. "If they're willing, I can," he adds.

"Did you tell Isaac about the Argents? About being hunted?"

"Yes! And he still asked."

"Then, he's an idiot."

"And you're the idiot dating Argent's daughter."

Charlotte's eyes widen. "Oh damn," she mutters. Scott turns around in his seat, silently pleading her to back him up. She sighs. "Oh no, he's right," she says, siding with Derek.

"Scott, you saw what happens to an Omega. With me, you learn how to use all of your senses. With me, you learn control, even on a full moon."

"If I'm with you, I lose her," Scott glumly concludes.

Charlotte grimaces and she reaches forward in her seat to pat him on the shoulder. "Okay, buddy, I hate to tell you this, I really do, but you and Allison have been bound to end horribly since the very beginning." The conversation is cut short when the car rolls to a stop and she looks out the window to see what she recognises as Isaac's house. "Great..."

»»———-　　———-««

"We couldn't have done this, I don't know, during the day?"

Derek rolls his eyes as he hands her a flashlight. Charlotte points it at the floorboards to light up their path; not that the darkness would affect the werewolves beside her though. With her senses hyper aware of imminent danger, her eyes dart around the room and she notices that it's pretty much identical to when she had visited the boy for tutoring.

Scott clears his throat as they follow Derek down the hallway. "So, gotta put this out there... But if Isaac didn't kill his father, who did?"

"I don't know."

"There's a lot of 'I don't know' coming from you today," Charlotte comments. "The guy was a real dick. I honestly wouldn't be surprised if more than one person wanted to kill him."

"Okay, so how do you know Isaac's telling the truth?" Scott questions.

"Scott McCall, what possible reason would he have to lie? Plus, even if he did kill him, would that really be so bad? What if it was in self-defence? Isn't that justifiable?"

"He would have still killed him, Lottie!"

Charlotte frowns at his reply. "Scott, Isaac didn't kill him," Derek says firmly. "I know he's telling the truth, because I trust my senses." He pauses and thinks about what to say next. "It's a combination of them; not just your sense of smell."

Her frown lifts into a grin when she realises the meaning behind his words, and Scott's eyes widen as he stops walking to stare at man. "You saw the lacrosse thing today," he hesitantly says.

"Yeah."

"I mean... Did it really look that bad?"

"It was absolutely terrible."

Derek turns to Charlotte who is struggling to contain her laughter, and he places a hand on Scott's shoulder as they venture further into the house. "Yeah."

He leads the two towards a door and twists the handle, only for Charlotte to dig her heels into the floor as she stares down into an endless sea of darkness. "I am not going down there," she states.

"Charlotte, you're fine."

"How do you know that?" she exclaims. "What if whoever killed Isaac's dickwad of a father is down there? Like, what if we end-"

"Charlie!" Scott interrupts her and points to his ear.

"Right, of course. Super hearing."

Derek rolls his eyes at her. He looks back to the boy. "You wanna learn? Let's start now."

Charlotte reluctantly follows after Scott, moving one foot in front of the other down the stairs. A shiver makes its way down her spine. "Of course they have a basement," she whispers.

Scott's torch flickers on and off, causing shadows of their silhouettes to appear on the walls. "What's down here?" he questions. His voice reverberates off the walls, creating an eery echo.

"Dead bodies?" the girl suggests.

"No. Motive."

"Okay, then what am I looking for?"

The torch switches off and Charlotte squints her eyes as they slowly begin to adjust to the dark, the few windows throughout the room becoming the only source of light. She goes to follow after her best friend, but Derek sets a hand on her shoulder to stop her. She flinches in surprise, but when she turns back to him in confusion, he shakes his head. "Just follow your senses," the Alpha says.

The pair watch Scott slowly move around the basement, stopping every few seconds at certain pieces of furniture then moving on to repeat the previous actions. "What's he looking for?" Charlotte whispers.

"Motive."

"You said that a few minutes ago."

"I know."

Realisation dawns upon her when Derek points to Scott then to his own ear. If he told her, it would defeat the entire purpose of being down here. As he pushes through fabrics and materials, Scott asks, "What happened down here?"

"The kind of thing that leaves an impression."

Charlotte heaves a sigh and her eyes close whilst her heart breaks for Isaac. "It happened here, didn't it?" she murmurs.

"Some of it." She watches her best friend stop at a large rectangular object and follows Derek as he leads her down the stairs. An idea floods into her head as Derek passes her the flashlight. She grins and quickly turns the flashlight on. Scott jumps at least five centimetres in the air and a scowl swiftly appears on his face. Charlotte giggles. Derek rolls his eyes for what must be the hundredth time in the last hour, and motions to the large freezer-like-box. "Open it," he instructs the boy.

"What is this?"

"Just open it."

Scott pulls the lock off and lifts the lid up. Charlotte's eyes widen in horror as she takes in what is in front of them. The freezer is empty, however, the walls and lid enclosing it are littered with scratch marks. Not only are they scratch marks, but marks of human nails that have desperately tried to claw their way out. Faint stains of blood decorate the metal, and the girl has to turn her back away in fear of throwing up. She can't believe this had been happening underneath her nose the whole time.

"God, I was such a shit friend," she murmurs. Scott turns to her with a sympathetic look. She clears her throat. "Sorry..." Thankfully, her phone rings, disrupting the now rather uncomfortable atmosphere. She apologetically smiles and points back to the stairs before walking up them and out of the basement. "Alli, hey! What's up? I'm with Derek and Scott at the moment, do you need me?"

"Whatever you guys are planning, well if you even have a plan to get Isaac at all, it needs to happen now. Like, right now."

Charlotte frowns and begins to pace around the kitchen. "What happened?"

"My dad and Gerard, they were asking me all these questions about Lydia and how she was bitten by, you know..."

"Shit. Shit!"

She hears Allison's shaky breathing on the other side of the phone. "They know about you," the girl adds carefully.

Charlotte's eyes widen. "What?" she says quietly.

"Because both of you were admitted at the same time, they connected your hospital stay to Lydia's, then the bandage on your neck..."

She instinctively touches the injured area. "Fuck!" she exclaims. "I mean, I guess it's obvious when you think about it... Fuck! Oh, my God, do they think I'm one too?"

"No," Allison quickly answers. Something about her tone instantly reassures the girl. "They don't have any evidence at all showing that you are."

"That's because I'm not!"

"I know! And I told them that. I told them I didn't know how any of the stuff with..."

"Peter."

"Yeah... I told them I didn't know what happened because I wasn't there."

Charlotte sighs. "Okay, so what about Isaac?"

"They sent this guy out. He was dressed as a Sheriff's deputy, I saw him."

It takes a second for it to click. "They're sending him to the station," she realises.

"He was also holding this box with something like a carving on it."

"What was it?"

Allison pauses for a few seconds and Charlotte's phone beeps. "I just sent you a photo."

"Yeah... I got it." Zooming into the picture that is from an old book, her heart drops when she sets eyes on the large drawing of a purple flower in the centre of the yellow page. "Shit," she mutters. "It's wolfsbane."

"Oh, my God... They're gonna kill him," Allison concludes in fear.

After saying a quick goodbye, Charlotte races back down to the basement for Scott to steady her with hands on either of her arms. "Woah! Hey, what happened?" he asks in concern.

"Allison's dad and Gerard, they sent someone to the station with wolfsbane."

That's all Derek needs to head back up the stairs. After clenching his jaw and debating his choices, Scott groans. "Wait!" he calls out. "I want him out, too."

"Why, because he's one of us?"

"Because he's innocent."

»»———-　　———-««

The Jeep skids to a stop in front of the Lahey house and Charlotte races up to it and jumps into the front seat. Not even before the door is fully closed, the engine starts up and Stiles' floors the gas pedal. "So, what's the plan?" he asks his best friend.

"Did Allison call you?"

He briefly glances to her then back to the road. "Yeah, she did," he confirms. "She said she managed to hit the guy with an arrow. It should slow him down enough for us to get to the station before him."

"All right, so she's staying with Scott to lock him up to control his wolf side..." Charlotte takes a deep breath. "And we need to go stop this asshole from killing Isaac." With Derek hot on their heels in his own car, it takes the three a few minutes to reach the Sheriff's station. The blonde-haired girl turns around in her seat to face the werewolf now in the back of their car. "So all the keys to every cell are in a password protected lock box in his dad's office."

Stiles nods and he points to the doors of the station where they can see a female officer moving around. "The only problem is getting past the front desk."

"Okay. I'll distract her."

Charlotte doesn't even try to conceal her loud laughter. "That's hilarious!"

"Exactly!" Stiles agrees. "You're not going in there. You were arrested for murder!"

"I was exonerated," Derek points out.

"You were still a person of interest."

"An innocent person."

Stiles narrows his eyes at the man in disbelief. "You are the most non-innocent person I've ever met in my life."

Charlotte shakes her head with a sigh. "I mean, what could possibly go wrong?"

"Thank you, Charlotte!"

Stiles' eyes flick to the station, and he finally shrugs in defeat when turning back to Derek. "Fine," he agrees hesitantly. "What's your plan then?"

"To distract her," the werewolf states.

Charlotte raises an eyebrow. "Sure. Wanna give us a demonstration?"

"Yeah, are you gonna punch her in the face?" Stiles suggests.

"No. By talking to her."

"All right, angry Yoda. What's your opening sentence?" Derek huffs a sigh and glares at both of the teenagers. Stiles nods. "Dead silence. Great! Any other ideas?"

"I mean, literally anything else could work," Charlotte adds pointedly. "Anything else."

"I'm thinking about punching both of you in the face."

They both scramble out the vehicle and linger behind in the parking lot until Derek enters through the front doors. Stiles and Charlotte hide behind the doors and watch Derek try to flirt with the woman behind the front desk. The girl rolls her eyes as Stiles drags her along and they rush past into the corridor. Charlotte quickly turns back to Derek and opens her mouth as she pretends to vomit. To her delight, he grits his teeth and forces a smile to the woman before him. When the officer looks down and shuffles through a pile of papers, he flashes his scarlet eyes at the girl.

Charlotte gulps and grabs onto Stiles hand. "Go!" she urges in alarm. "Go, go, go!"

Barging into the Sheriff's office, Stiles beelines to the lock box in the corner. He turns around to his best friend in alarm and moves aside for her to see what he's discovered. Her eyes widen at the empty box.

"Where the fuck are they?" she whisper-yells. He shrugs cluelessly. Keys jingle nearby and they pair hurriedly exit the room. However, just with their luck, Charlotte runs into someone as soon as she turns the corner. "Oh! I'm so sorry, we were just looking for the Sheriff-"

She winces when Stiles elbows her, then follows his line of sight to see the stranger's leg stained in fresh blood and a syringe clutched in his left hand.

"Shit."

They both take a step backward but the man lunges forward to grab hold of the girl's arm and drags her over to him. Charlotte's heart skyrockets when she feels the syringe gently jab into her neck. Even though it's yet to break through skin, she's terrified to be on the brink of death for the second time this month. Stiles' eyes intensely watch them, and despite his crushing fear, he takes a deep breath and confidently meets the hunter's eyes. "You won't do it," he states.

The man smirks and raises his eyebrows, then looking down to Charlotte. "You really think I won't kill her?"

She looks at her friend, then to the wall opposite him. Catching on to her plan, Stiles slowly starts to walk backwards. "Yeah, we do, because I think you want the werewolf in there a lot deader than me," she adds.

Suddenly, a shrill siren rings through their ears, and she grins when laying eyes on Stiles with his hand presses on the fire alarm. The hunter takes one look at the alarm on the ceiling and removes his arm from around the girl, running forward into the holding cells.

As they reach the doorway, the pair of teens freeze their movements once they notice the cell door wide open. A blurred figure rams into the man and pins him to a nearby desk. "Isaac..." Charlotte whispers.

The werewolf growls and slams the hunter's head against the wall, letting him roll to the floor unconscious. Isaac's gaze shifts onto the newcomers, and he makes slow advancements on them, like a predator hunting its prey.

Charlotte anxiously holds a hand up to him as they are backed into a corner. "Easy, doggy... We aren't going to hurt you."

A foot crunches glass and Stiles and Charlotte's heads snap over the noise. Derek stands before them, the once lethal weapon now rendered unusable. He jerks his head towards the side, motioning for them to move out the way. As Isaac takes a step forward toward him, Derek lets out a booming roar. The Beta wolf immediately submits and cowers in the corner of the room.

"How did you do that?" Stiles questions incredulously.

Derek turns away from his pack mate, his eyes glowing a blood red. "I'm the Alpha," he says.

Charlotte rolls her eyes at his theatrics. "Sure you are." Building up enough confidence, she takes a step toward to Isaac, only for Derek to put a hand in front of her.

"Be careful," he warns.

She nods and crouches before her friend. "Hey, Isaac," she begins softly. "It's Charlotte." The boy opens his eyes and looks up at her, body shaking in fear. "Let's get you out of here, yeah?" He hastily nods.

"I'll take him home."

"Derek, he doesn't have a home anymore," she points out. "You can't take him back there."

"Then he can come with me."

They watch Derek take Isaac out, and once they're both gone, Stiles leans his head against the wall and loudly sighs. "Fucking hell," he mutters tiredly.

"Talk about it," she agrees.

"Does someone want to talk to me about it?"

They spin around when they hear Noah Stilinski's exasperated voice. They look at each other, to the unconscious hunter on the floor, then to the open cell door behind them. Stiles nervously rubs a hand on the back of his neck. "Haha... Hey, Dad! So, it really isn't as bad as it looks..."

Charlotte points to the body on the floor. "He did it!" she exclaims defensively.

"Uh huh..."

𝘐 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦 𝘐𝘴𝘢𝘢𝘤 𝘴𝘰 𝘮𝘶𝘤𝘩. 𝘖𝘬𝘢𝘺 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵'𝘴 𝘢𝘭𝘭.