"You know you're in love when you can't fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams."

♰ ♰ ♰

Allison escorts the two redhead girls toward the school. She watches Isabel cautiously as a blank expression takes over her face. Lydia struts forward as usual, but Allison knew something was definitely wrong with Isabel.

"You really don't remember anything?" She questions her two best friends, placing a comforting hand on Isabel's back.

She jumps at the touch, making Allison give a concerned look. She watches as Isabel gulps and shakes her head before looking back to the ground as they walk up the school steps.

"They called it a 'fugue state,' which is basically a way of saying, 'We have no idea why you both can't remember running through the woods naked for two days.'" Lydia answers, tossing her hair over her shoulder. "They are making Izzy do counseling with the guidance counselor though." Allison frowns, turning to Isabel.

"What? Why?" She questions, Isabel shrugs.

"Because it's the second time she has done an 'impromptu hike' through the woods and escaped through the hospital windows like a psycho. Something about how grief must be affecting her mind and altering her mental state." Lydia scoffs, as Isabel gives her older cousin a look of disbelief. "But, personally, I don't care. I lost nine pounds."

Allison shakes her head at the lack of compassion she holds. The three stand outside the front door of the school.

"Are you ready for this?" Allison asks, directed to Isabel but Lydia scoffs at the question.

"Please. It's not like our aunt's a serial killer." She snarks, before entering the doors.

Allison and Isabel share a look before they follow behind. Everyone turns and freezes at the sight of the two girls. Isabel could hear the whispers around her swarming her mind.

"Maybe it's the nine pounds?" Allison whispers to Lydia, as she takes a deep breath and struts off in frustration.

Allison turns to Isabel and takes her hand, before guiding her over to her locker. "I need to run to class, do you have a free period?" Allison asks. Isabel looks like she wants the ground to swallow her whole.

"They've changed my free period to counseling." Isabel sighs, gently shutting her locker. She turns to see Allison giving a sympathetic look. "I don't know what's happening, Ally."

Allison watches the tears well up in her eyes and encases her best friend in a warm hug. The two separate at the sound of the school bell, signaling the first period. Allison holds the ginger girl's arms.

"I promise we will figure this out, ok?" She whispers. Isabel looks into her eyes, sees the determination behind them and nods. "Good." Allison smiles. "I'll see you after school for our study session." She leaves with a small smile.

For a while, Isabel stands in the quiet hallway lost in her mind. She finally turns to leave for the guidance counselor's office but stops as a figure stands in her way.

♰ ♰ ♰

"Why would Derek choose Isaac?" Scott asks Stiles as they sit in their chemistry class.

Stiles is snapped out of his thoughts, he spent the whole day wondering why he hasn't seen Isabel yet.

"Peter told me that if the bite doesn't turn you, it could kill you." Stiles recounts. "And maybe teenagers have a better chance at surviving?" He suggests.

"Does being a teenager mean your dad can't hold him?" Scott questions, thinking back to when Isaac was escorted off of the field at morning practice by police.

"Well, not unless they have solid evidence." Stiles trails off. "Or a witness..." He quickly gets an idea, turning back to where Danny was sitting. Jackson usually sat opposite Danny, but his seat was empty. "Wait- Danny, where's Jackson?" Stiles whispers.

"In the principal's office, talking to your dad," Danny responds simply. Stiles frowns.

"What? Why?"

"Maybe because he lives across the street from Isaac?" Danny answers condescendingly. Stiles' mouth drops as he turns back to Scott.

"...Witness," Scott confirms.

"We gotta get to the principal's office." Stiles determines.

"How?" Scott asks confused, behind Danny shakes his head at the two boys.

"Everyone, please turn to page seventy-three." Mr. Harris instructs from the chalkboard. He jumps as a paper ball hits the back of his head. The class laughs as Mr. Harris turns back angrily. "Who in the hell did that?" He demands. He looks over to see Scott and Stiles pointing at each other accusingly.

They quickly find themselves sitting outside the principal's office, listening in on the conversation Stiles' dad and Jackson were having.

"Listen to me- you're telling me that you knew Isaac's father was hitting him?" Noah questions, baffled.

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

"Did you ever say anything to anyone? A teacher? Parents? Anyone?"

"Nope. It's not my problem." Jackson shrugs, leaning back in his chair. Noah stares at him in disgust.

"No. No, of course not. You know, it's funny that the kids getting beaten up are always the ones who least deserve it." He responds sarcastically.

"Yeah," Jackson agrees before frowning. "...Wait, what?"

"I think we're done here." Noah sighs, leaving the teenager in the room alone.

He exits the room to see Scott and Stiles sitting outside. He watches his son scramble to grab a magazine and cover his face. He lets out a disappointed sigh.

"Hi, Scott." He greets.

Scott gives a nod and a sheepish smile in response. Noah looks back at his son and shakes his head before leaving without another word.

"Boys... Come on in." Scott and Stiles slowly turn to see Allison's grandfather, the older man from the funeral standing before them: the new principal.

♰ ♰ ♰

Lydia follows Jackson to his locker, desperate to talk to him. Jackson pays her no attention and ignores her as he rifles through his locker.

"It's just... We haven't really talked since that night, and well-" Lydia rambles before looking up to see Jackson still ignoring her. "Jackson, can you, like, look at me for half a second?"

Jackson pauses before sighing and slamming his locker shut. He turns to face his ex-girlfriend. Lydia sighs at his attitude before continuing.

"They said if you hadn't found me and carried me back, I could have died..." She explains, voice shaky. "So, I just..." Jackson rolls his eyes. "I wanted to say thank you."

Jackson chuckles. "Lydia, we're not getting back together." Lydia looks at him dumbfounded.

"What?" She asks, confused.

"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." He continues coldly.

Lydia shakes her head. "I never said-"

"I'm not responsible for you, okay? But, I will give you one piece of advice- if I were you, I'd stay home tonight." Jackson cuts her off. He begins to leave as Lydia watches him.

"What does that mean?" She shouts, making him pause. "What's tonight?" Jackson laughs.

"It's a full moon." He smirks before leaving.

♰ ♰ ♰

Scott attempts to chase after the police car that was driving Isaac away, but stops as he watches Derek's car pull up in front of him. Derek rolls the passenger window down and takes his sunglasses off.

"Get in." He demands. Scott stares at him in shock.

"Are you serious? You did that. That's your fault." He exclaims incredulously.

"He knows that. Now get in the car and help." A female voice calls out.

Scott looks confused until Isabel shows herself in the backseat, sticking her head next to Derek's.

"Wha- Isab- No, I've got a better idea. I'm gonna call a lawyer because a lawyer might actually have a chance of getting him out before the moon goes up." Scott looks between the two and shakes his head.

"Not when they do a real search of the house," Derek explains in annoyance.

"What do you mean?" Scott asks.

"Whatever Jackson said to the cops, what's in the house is worse- a lot worse." Isabel finishes, having already been shown the house by Derek.

♰ ♰ ♰

"I'm not interested in whether they locked up a sixteen-year-old kid. I'm interested in what's going to happen to that sixteen-year-old kid when the moon hits its peak tonight. Do we have proof?" Gerard Argent asks his son.

"Is the next step killing him?" Chris Argent counters, avoiding his father's question.

"The next step is eliminating the threat. Do we have proof?" Gerard asks again, lifting his concoction of pills to his mouth and swallowing them.

"I haven't been in history class for a while, but I'm pretty sure straight-up genocide hasn't worked out too often." Chris huffs, watching his father closely.

"Do we have proof, or not?" Gerard asks impatiently.

"Not irrefutable..." Chris sighs. "But not insignificant. The driver's side door of Lahey's car was pried off." Gerard raises a brow at the statement.

"Pried off?" He repeats.

"Ripped off." Chris corrects.

Nearby Allison listens in closely to the conversation and when she hears footsteps approaching, she purposely bumps into them. A hunter dressed in a deputy outfit stumbles back in shock.

"Sorry." Allison apologizes. The hunter nods and leaves, Gerard and Chris watch the young girl closely.

"Allison?" Chris calls. Allison snaps her head up in shock.

"Come in. We'd like to talk to you." Gerard explains. She pauses before shaking her head.

"I'm supposed to study with Lydia and Isabel. I really don't have time to chat." She explains, motioning for herself to leave.

"Actually, that's who we want to talk to you about, sweetheart."

♰ ♰ ♰

Scott, Derek, and Isabel arrive at the Lahey house. As Derek and Scott enter the house, Isabel stands to watch outside. She makes sure she is past the police tape so that no one looks at her suspiciously.

She feels eyes burning into her skin and looks across the street to see a teenage boy staring at her from the stairs to Jackson's house. She looks around awkwardly, before looking back to see him still watching her. She offers a small wave and a smile.

The boy smiles back and gives a wave before leaving. She lets out a sigh of relief before looking up to the full moon in fear.

♰ ♰ ♰

"Hey, sorry, Harris literally just let me out of detention- literally - and he had my phone the whole frickin' time," Stiles speaks into the phone, noticing the missed calls off of Allison.

"Well, we need to do something right now. They were asking me all these questions about Lydia and Isabel and how they were bitten by Peter, and then they sent this guy out..." Allison explains, pacing around the room worriedly.

"Wait, what guy?"

"He was dressed as a Sheriff's deputy," Allison explains.

"They're sending him to the station for Isaac." Stiles sighs.

"He was also carrying this box with something on it. Like, um, like, a carving or something..." Allison tries to further explain.

"What was it?"

"Hold on, hold on... It's in one of these books..." Allison quickly flips through her books trying to find the specific symbol. "I'm taking a picture." She tells Stiles as she opens the camera app and takes a photograph of the symbol. Stiles looks at the photo and his face drops. "Did you get it?"

"Yeah. Wolfsbane." Stiles sighs. Allison pauses in confusion.

"What does that mean?"

"It means they're gonna kill him."

Allison quickly follows after the fake deputy her grandfather sent to kill Isaac and gets an angle where she can see both the front and back tires. She aims, and shoots an arrow at the front wheel, before quickly shooting another into the back wheel causing them to deflate.

The deputy gets out of the car in confusion, before looking at the wheels expasopratly. He turns, only to receive an arrow to his thigh. Allison smirks as the hunter drops, hiding behind the car. He snaps the fletching off and scurries back into the car in fear. Stiles drives to the police station, and he calls Allison on his phone.

"Hey, did you slow him down?"

"You could say that..."

"All right. Well, uh, I'm headed to the station right now." Stiles explains.

"Where's Scott?"

"Isaac's."

"Does he have a plan?" Allison questions further. Stiles shakes his head.

"Yeah, but not a very good one, and unfortunately, we don't really have time to come up with anything better..." Stiles sighs, looking up at the full moon before hanging up.

♰ ♰ ♰

"Okay. Now, the keys to every cell are in a password-protected lock-box in my father's office. The problem is getting past the front desk." Stiles explains to Derek.

He picked the werewolf up on the way to the police station as Allison went to look after Scott.

"I'll distract her." Derek states simply, Stiles swivels in his seat to look at Derek and lets out a small laugh. When he notices Derek starting to get out of the car her grabs him by his jacket to stop him.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! You? You're not going in there." Derek looks down at the boy's hand on his arm and gives him a warning look. "I'm taking my hand off." He gulps, removing the hand from Derek's arm.

"I was exonerated," Derek explains.

"You're still a person of interest."

"An innocent person." Derek exaggerates.

"An-- You?" Stiles asks exasperatedly. "You? Yeah, right!" He laughs but quickly shuts his mouth as Derek continues to glare at him. "Okay, fine. What's your plan?"

"To distract her," Derek states like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Uh-huh. How? By punching her in the face?" Stiles jokes. Derek gives a false quick laugh.

"By talking to her." Derek rolls his eyes. Stiles looks at him skeptically.

"Okay. All right. Give me a sample. What are you gonna open with?" Derek takes a breath and remains silent, staring into Stiles' face and imagining himself punching him. Stiles nods, unaware, and sighs. "Dead silence. That should work beautifully. Any other ideas?" He asks sarcastically.

"I'm thinking about punching you in the face.." Derek responds snidely. "And I'm not sure if you remember me telling you ten minutes ago that Isabel disappeared from Isaac's house during a full moon, but; Isabel disappeared from Isaac's house during a full moon." Derek sarcastically finishes.

Stiles' face drops as Derek exits the Jeep and walks into the police station. He saunters in, approaching the front counter as the female deputy exits from the back her attention on her paperwork.

"Good evening, how can I help..." She looks up, before placing the paperwork down and giving Derek her full attention. "...You?"

"Hi." Derek smiles at the deputy, she gives a smile back.

"Hi..." She trails off. Stile watches around the doorway and shakes his head at the scene.

"Um, I had a question," Derek answers, before pausing for a second. "Um, sorry, I'm a little thrown. I wasn't really expecting someone-" He trails off, as the deputy chuckles flirtatiously.

Stiles uses this opportunity to sneak along the wall and past the reception desk.

"Someone like me?" She giggles, Derek beams at her.

"Oh, I was gonna say "so incredibly beautiful," but, yeah... I guess that'd be the same thing..." He slightly laughs.

Stiles reaches his dad's office and inputs the code to the lockbox. He opens it but the keys are already gone. He hears the sound of keys jingling and his heart sinks.

"Oh no." He breathes out in worry.

He exits into the hallway, checking behind to make sure no one was there but freezes as he almost bumps into a deputy. The deputy turns to look at him and Stiles immediately begins stuttering out in panic.

"Oh, uh, I was just looking, um," Stiles looks to the ground for an excuse, noticing the blood on the deputy's trousers and the floor.

He realizes this is the fake deputy Allison warned him about and looks back up to his face in shock. The hunter has a knowing look as he follows where Stiles' eyes were and clench his jaw.

"Oh, sh-" Stiles panics, attempting to flee but the deputy was close enough to grab the back of Stiles' flannel.

He pulls Stiles back and quickly covers his mouth so he can't shout. Stiles grabs at the wall and notices the fire alarm, pulling it with his hand as the hunter drags him toward the cells.

Red lights are activated throughout the police station as the alarm blares out. The hunter throws Stiles to the ground, but they both notice the open cell.

Isaac lunges for the hunter, having turned from the full moon already, slamming him down on the table before picking him back up and throwing him against the wall.

Stiles scurries away to the back wall, hiding behind a desk in fear. The hunter tries to inject Isaac with wolfsbane, but another hand grabs his arm before he could. Stiles looks up in shock as he sees Isabel, but she wasn't herself.

Her eyes still had their blood-red glow but she now had fangs and claws. Stiles gasps as she growls at the hunter before twisting his arm and throwing the vial to the ground as he screams in pain.

The hunter's eyes widen as he is faced with two angry werewolves and his throat constricts in fear. Isabel grabs his head and slams it against the wall; causing his eyes to shut as he falls to the ground unconscious. The sound of the vial smashing causes all of their heads to turn as Isaac and Isabel angrily face their next target.

Derek stands in the doorway, lifting his eyes from the vial he crushed as the two beta's snarl at him. The sound of glass crumbling can be heard beneath his feet as he takes a step forward. His eyes linger on Isabel for a moment before his eyes snap to Stiles as he catches a glance of him hiding in the corner.

Isaac's eyes follow Derek's to see the teen and begins to move toward him. Isabel's blood-red eyes follow Isaac's and before Derek can protect the scared teen - Isabel has already jumped in-front of Isaac to growl at him in a warning.

He snarls back at her and begins to lunge for the wolf standing in his way, but Derek roars at the out-of-control beta, flashing his red Alpha eyes and fangs.

Isaac immediately drops to the ground and whimpers as he crawls away; hiding his face in his arms next to the unconscious hunter before he finally looks back up, now back to his human form. Stiles looks between Isaac and Derek in shock, not understanding what happened.

Isabel can be heard over the blaring alarm, now growling at Derek. He roars at the teen girl next but narrows his eyes as she doesn't react. He catches her hand mid-swipe as she stares him down angrily. He easily overpowers her, twisting her around and grabbing by her neck.