Behind Enemy Lines

Isaac and I stood, dripping on the front porch, waiting for someone to answer the door. We had walked the entire way to Scott's house in the pouring rain.

"Uh, hi, Mrs. McCall. Is Scott here?" Isaac asked Melissa when she opened the door a moment later.

"Yes, hon. He's in his room. Come on in from the rain." She replied, motioning us inside.

"I'll go talk to Scott." Isaac told me and I nodded in reply.

"What happened to you guys? You looked like you've spent your entire night outside." Melissa asked me as she returned from a hallway with a pile of towels in her hands. I took the dry cloth gratefully and wrapped it around my soaked frame.

"We, uh, we walked here. From Derek's."

"Couldn't you have borrowed his car?"

"Maybe if he hadn't kicked us out." I said, biting my bottom lip.

"Is that what Isaac's talking to Scott about?" she asked.

"Yeah. We don't really have anywhere to stay. Isaac thought maybe Scott could help us out with finding somewhere." I pushed a wet strand of hair from my eyes.

"You're both more than welcome to stay here. It's just Scott and I, and we have a guest room upstairs..." Melissa offered.

"Really."

"Of course. I mean Stiles practically lives here anyway, having you two stay here wouldn't really be any different. Nicer, actually. You know that boy had a key made?"

□☾□

"Do you need anything else before I head to work?" Melissa ask, standing in the doorway of the guestroom where I would be staying tonight. Isaac said he was perfectly fine with sleeping on Scott's floor.

"I think I'm okay, thank you." I smiled, searching through the pile of dry clothes Melissa had set at the end of the bed for me. I don't think she knew just how much I appreciated the loose, soft cotton and absence of corsetry.

"Just ask Scott if you need anything." She smiled before turning to leave.

I changed into some more comfortable clothes and headed to talk to the boys, who were both in Scott's room. "Perfect timing, Hannah." Scott smiled.

"For what?" I asked him, taking a seat next to Isaac on the bed.

"We're trying to decide the best way to talk Derek out of his plans to kill the alpha pack."

"Why would you want to do that?"

"Scott's got a no-kill rule." Isaac explained.

"It's not a rule, I just don't see why killing is always Plan A."

"Well, they're bad, what's so bad about ridding the world of bad people?"

"Forget I ever mentioned it." Scott sighed.

"Hannah, I think maybe you should stop looking at the situation as if you were still a hunter." Isaac looked at me. "Scott's right."

"Wait, Isaac, what do you mean by 'still a hunter'?" Scott asked.

"Oh, uh..."

"Derek didn't find out until after he gave me the bite." I told Scott.

"Shouldn't you be dead? Like Allison's mom?" The second half way directed more towards Isaac, who was the one to answer Scott's questions.

"She tried. I talked her out of it."

□☾□

No one told me about the meeting. I was out with Melissa when the guys left.

The only time either of them talked was when Isaac told me that Derek had died. They left for their cross country meet the next morning.

Melissa said Scott hadn't said much to her either. She didn't even know about Derek.

So, for the first time since I was bitten, I went to the one person I didn't trust for information.

"He's dead, Hannah, I don't know what else there is to know." Peter rolled his eyes.

"Details. How'd he die? Who killed him? Was he the only one?"

"One of the alphas, too." Peter said, answering my last question. "Look if it's really that important I'll take you to where they fought."

"Let's go then."

The site of the battle was an abandoned mall. Weird choice if you ask me.

As we got closer to the actual area where they fought, we noticed Cora sitting on the broken down escalator. She stood up as she heard us approaching

"It's just us. Hannah and your uncle, Uncle Peter."

"Uncle Peter who killed sister Laura." She said, walking closer towards us. I knew I had a reason not to trust him.

"Mhm. Not my finest hour, no, but I'm hardly the only dysfunctional family member. Did Derek mention that he killed me, too? Slashed my throat, ear to ear." He sure didn't mention that to me. Not that it bothered me. I probably would've done the same.

"So that means I should trust you?"

"Actually, I'm wondering if I can trust you." I'm almost certain I can't trust either of them.

"You've known me for seventeen years."

"I knew you for eleven, leaving the last six unaccounted for. And I'm not particularly fond of things unaccounted."

"What are you doing here?"

"Hannah here needed some answers, and I fear I do as well. Where'd the bodies go? I'm wondering if they were carried out or maybe if one of them managed to find enough strength to push himself up off the floor, and walk out, leaving the three of us here to answer the all-important question."

"Which one?"

"Are they really even dead?"

"Wait, so you mean they're not even definitely gone? Like Derek could still be alive?" I asked them, mind suddenly swirling from the new information.

"Yes." Peter replied.