Shifted

15 - First Impressions

Two days before the big game on Saturday found Scott training at the Beacon Hills public jogging track. A few minutes into it, Scott's thoughts drifted to his deal with Jackson.

He knew his best friend, his brother. He knew him better than anyone else and he would never ever do anything like what Jackson was suggesting. It was this absolute certainty that convinced him it wouldn't hurt anyone to take Jackson's offer. But what if, what if there was some truth to Jackson's accusations?

He checked his phone and considered calling Stiles to join him. Sure the janitor told him not to let anyone else in but maybe he'll let Stiles in for a price? He was just about to call him when he heard something crash against the bleachers. Curious, Scott did what every smart horror movie character always did, he followed the noise.

The bleachers at the jogging track were made of solid aluminum with concrete footing. High school boys often liked to play on the structure, pretending to be parkour guys. The bleachers always won in those games and the boys all went home with laughs in their bellies and bruised body parts.

Knowing this, Scott knew how strong and sturdy these bleachers were. So when he followed the crash and saw Derek Hale scream and punch one of the support beams, he winced and waited for the older man to cradle his surely injured hand.

But it never happened. Instead, Derek just walked away as if nothing happened.

After the other man was out of sight, Scott walked over to the support beam that bore his anger and was shocked all over again.

Right in front of him, in the solid aluminum beam was a fist-sized dent! It looked like a hammer smashed into it instead of Derek Hale's fist! Warily, Scott raised his left hand and touched the inside of the dent. It was warm.

Slowly, he backed away from the beam. He thought about calling the Sheriff and reporting Derek Hale for vandalism but another look at the fist-sized dent had him changing his mind.

No matter what weirdness was going on around Derek Hale, Scott wanted no part of it. He knew all he needed to know, the last surviving Hale was trouble and best kept away from him and his family.

OoOoO

On the other side of town, the sound of glass shattering echoed around a different house.

"Damn it!" Chris Argent cursed and clenched his fist to staunch the blood flowing from the injury caused by crushing a whiskey glass with his bare hands.

He was angry. Furious actually. In his entire hunting career, he's never met a werewolf that made his blood boil worse than Derek Hale did.

Earlier that day, he had his first encounter with the werewolf in his human form. Words were exchanged and that monster had the nerve to accuse his family of killing his six years ago. They were hunters, but what they really did was protect the humans from abominations like Derek Hale who was a risk. They never and will never hurt humans or even werewolves who haven't harmed humans.

OoOoO

Chris was on his way to the school to pick up his daughter. He was a little early but he needed to do something to get his mind off of the fruitless search for the Alpha and the young beta that he shot on the full moon. It's been a little over a month since they decided to come back to Beacon Hills and this was the longest time he's spent searching for one werewolf and he was getting frustrated.

He turned a corner and saw Derek Hale walking on the street across from him. Before he knew it, he was pulling over and confronting the werewolf.

"Derek, out for a walk?" he said.

Derek tensed immediately as soon as he saw him. Chris recognized the defensive stance and smirked which only agitated the werewolf further.

"Just doing my part in patrolling the neighborhood." Derek said, "Can't be too careful. Beacon Hills is a dangerous place, but of course, you already knew that."

"I think you and I have different definitions of dangerous. To me, the dangers are the ones who change and become monsters and killers every month."

"Really Argent?" Derek asked, "Because to me, the killers are the ones who hurt innocent people due to prejudice. Like say, burning an entire family."

Chris stilled.

"We had nothing to do with that. From what I heard, it was your deadbeat uncle that started the fire."

"I never said it was your family. Maybe your guilty conscience is catching up to you."

That was when Chris got back in his car and drove away. As much as he would have wanted to teach the dog some manners, he wasn't stupid enough to antagonize a werewolf a few days after the full moon when there were plenty of innocent civilians around.

OoOoO

His wife, Victoria, came in and one look at his hand had her clicking her tongue and pulling him to the sink.

"It's time Chris." She said.

"Time for what?"

"To tell Allison."

Chris has lost count of the times he and his wife have had this conversation over the years. The minute their daughter was born, Victoria wanted to tell her the truth about the supernatural and their families but Chris always refused. The conversations eventually turned into arguments that just got more and more heated especially as they talked about moving back to Beacon Hills.

"We already talked about this Victoria." He said, "She's too young."

Victoria's furious eyes locked on his and she angrily dropped his injured hand. "She is an Argent. This is her legacy. She should have known about this before we came back to this town. It's not safe!"

"We can protect her!" He shouted.

"She should be able to protect herself!" Victoria fired back, "Why are you so insistent that she stay a child?"

"So she can have the childhood that I never did!" When the truth spilled out, Chris deflated. She'd never told Victoria the real reason why he was so adamant that Allison not know about what their family really did. He and Victoria grew up learning the difference between marks left by wolves and werewolves. They were kids and instead of playing in parks with their friends, they were at home melting silver and mixing aconite with gunpowder. That wasn't the life he wanted for his daughter. His daughter's biggest worry should be getting into the college of her choosing, not how many of her classmates might be werewolves.

"I just -" He continued, "I want her to stay innocent for as long as possible. But I promise, if this new werewolf becomes too much trouble, I'll tell Allison myself."

Chris also made a silent promise to himself, he swore that he would finish this business with Derek and his friend and he'd take his family out of Beacon Hills. He would do everything he could to protect them.