Right Beside You | Stiles Stilinski | Two

24 - Translation, Please

The four of us stood in front of the stolen prison transport van, forming a forlorn semi-circle as we stared inside. Jackson was gone, and we had no idea how long he'd been gone. Allison and Scott had been cuddled up asleep when Stiles and I pulled up. I couldn't blame them though. Even if they'd been awake, there wasn't much they could've done to stop Jackson once he transformed. The van had been enough to contain him when he was human, but it was starting to look like there was no beating him after he got his scales.

"I have to tell my father," Allison said into the silence.

The sentence hung there, heavy with all it implied. No more time to protect Jackson. No more time to find a humane way to stop him. No more time to pretend that Allison and Scott hadn't been seeing each other. My heart seized at just the thought.

Scott was reeling too. He wandered away from the van in a daze, looking out over the edge of the cliff.

"Scott," Allison continued sharply. "He's going to kill someone."

"Okay," he said shakily. He swallowed thickly and nodded. "Tell him. Tell him everything."

"I'm sorry, what?" I blinked at him in disbelief. "No, that's—Scott, we're not just throwing you to the hunters."

"Scarlett, what do you think we can do about this?" Allison demanded. "Jackson is out there, and we have no way to find him, and no way to stop him! Maybe—maybe my family can, but only if they know what they're looking for. We have to tell them what we know."

"I know that, but—but that doesn't mean we have to say anything about Scott, right? I mean, if they find out the two of you were together—"

"It doesn't matter," said Scott, sounding resigned. "If it saves people, we have to take that chance."

"No," I said stubbornly. "Look, I—I'll go with Allison. They already know I'm working with you guys. I'll just...tell them that things got out of hand, and I told Allison today. They don't need to know that she was in on it."

"Scarlett," Allison said with trepidation, "my parents already hate you. If they find out you were keeping this quiet, after everything that happened with Kate—"

"Then they'll hate me just as much. I'm not thrilled about sitting down with your family either, but...if it saves Scott, I don't care."

The silence stretched on as we all looked at each other. I knew why Allison was nervous—hell, I was nervous too. The Argents would know I was keeping the kanima's identity a secret either way, but it was one thing for them to hear it from Allison. Going to tell them in person meant that I would be a lot closer to the knives, guns, and crossbows that were itching to make me a target.

Scott had turned to face us again, and gave me a half-hearted smile. "Thanks, Scarlett."

I nodded, hoping I looked more confident than I felt.

"Scott, I gotta tell my dad too," Stiles sighed.

Scott nodded, his eyes falling down to the dirt. "This is all my fault..."

"It's not," said Allison, "but we have to tell them. We're just a bunch of teenagers. We can't handle this."

He bobbed his head again, hands clenched at his sides. "You're right."

"How are you gonna convince your dad?" I asked Stiles.

He gaped for a moment, trying to think of a reasonable answer, but the only thing he managed to say was, "I don't know."

"He'll believe me."

Scott lifted his head again, his eyes glowing a brilliant gold in the darkness.

Part of me wanted to voice my concern. I knew that Stiles was right—we had to tell the adults if we wanted to save lives—but telling Sheriff Stilinski the truth felt a lot more dangerous than telling Lydia. If Lydia didn't like what we had to say, the worst she could do was run or have us committed. It the sheriff didn't like it, if he saw Scott transform and decided he was a threat...well, at least Lydia didn't have a gun.