Allison Argent (imfailingecon) wrote in oldcityacademy, @ 2016-02-01 10:52:00 |
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Entry tags: | !gdoc, allison argent (imfailingecon), chris argent (gunsvsclaws), isaac lahey (wearsascarf) |
WHO: Isaac Lahey, Allison Argent and Chris Argent
WHAT: Haunted
WHEN:Sunday Night
WHERE: Isaac's room to Chris' room
WARNINGS: TBD
STATUS: Closed/Completed Gdoc
After Allison’s death, Isaac had to run. He’d gone to France, first, with Allison’s father, but being around him had just reminded him constantly of the love he’d lost. He’d tried everything, but as alcohol and drugs didn’t work on him, it felt like he’d had no way out of the pain that had consumed him. He’d never loved a girl before. And he’d never lost a girl he’d loved. Both of them were eating at his heart and he didn’t think that he’d ever get over it.
In fact, he knew that he wouldn’t.
In Paris, he’d heard of Old City Academy, and not knowing what else to do had decided to give it a chance. He needed to finish school, too, if he ever wanted to do anything with his life, and he’d been told it was a safe place for his kind.
He’d been there for about six months now, and the pain still hadn’t left. But at least now he had things to think about in the meantime, something to distract him from the pain.
After class, he made his way up to the dorms, throwing his books on the floor before throwing himself on the bed, burying his head under his pillow, and allowing himself five minutes to cry. It was the only way he’d gotten through every day since Allison’s death.
***
It was so hard to get closer. Allison had died and things had been dark and quiet for the longest time. But there was always this tugging from somewhere near her heart every time she thought it would be easier to just let go and drift.
This time as she pushed to be closer it happened just as Isaac was thinking about her and letting himself feel and it was like some sort of barrier between them cracked like thin ice and the dark went away to be replaced by...a room she didn’t recognize.
“Isaac?” Her voice still sounded like it was coming from far away and down a tunnel.
***
Isaac jumped. His werewolf hearing had heard that clearly, and he sat up suddenly, the pillow that had been covering his head falling abruptly to the floor. His eyes flicked around the room, but he didn’t see anything. Was he going crazy, hearing things that weren’t there?
But it had sounded so much like her...so much like his Allison…
He really was going crazy.
“I miss you so much,” he said to the empty room.
***
“Damn it.” The way his eyes had darted around the room without settling on her told Allison he wasn’t seeing her. It was so frustrating to be this close and still not be able to have him see her.
“I’m here Isaac.” She couldn’t get closer, she couldn’t leave, she was stuck and there wasn’t anything she seemed to be able to do about it.
***
That voice again. The words, telling her that she was here. It was what Isaac wanted more than anything in all the world. He needed her. He needed her strength, her goodness, the home that he’d found with her that he knew he’d never find again.
“No,” he whispered. “You aren’t. You’re gone.”
***
“I should be. But I’m not.” Allison wanted to walk forward but she didn’t really have a body but the will seemed to be enough to find herself closer. “I’m here. Somehow.” His need translated into another of those tugs on the tether holding her there with him.
“I think you’re keeping me here.”
***
He looked up and around the empty room, still seeing nothing. But he felt her, and felt that she was closer than she had been.
“Allison...I - “
He was keeping her here?
“I - I’m sorry. I just...I can’t. I miss you so much. I can’t let go.”
***
“It’s all right. You don’t have to let go...I just couldn’t get close enough for you to hear me before.” It was hard to make herself heard even though she was closer but at least he could hear her now. Dying had been okay at the time. Isaac and Lydia were safe and she’d found the way to save them from the Oni but if she didn’t have to be gone Allison didn’t want to be.
“Where are you?” She didn’t recognize any of this, it was the first time she could see anything but him.
***
“It’s a school,” Isaac said. “In Philadelphia.” He shrugged. It wasn’t any wonder she didn’t recognize it, it was about as far from Beacon Hills as he could get, because he’d been afraid he’d go crazy if he’d stayed.
Like he was now, talking to a dead person in his room. Oh well.
“After you - after...I went to France with your dad. But it didn’t help either.”
***
Philadelphia was one of the few places she’d kind of like to see that she hadn’t lived. Beacon Hills had just been one of many homes for Allison.
“I’m sorry. I’ve been here but I couldn’t make you hear me. It takes a lot.”
He went with her dad. She hadn’t seen her Dad any more than she’d seen the world surrounding Isaac but she was glad to know he’d gone with him.
***
“I know you aren’t really here,” he said, as if admitting that to a dead person somehow made him less crazy. “But it’s good to at least think I hear your voice. Are you...I mean...you’re not hurting or anything, are you?”
He really wasn’t sure how death worked.
***
“You’re not insane Isaac.” Allison sighed softly wishing she could touch him. “But no, it doesn’t hurt. I just feel...distant.” And she didn’t know how to fix that. But she was going to keep trying. No one could be more stubborn than an Argent who put their mind to something.
***
...that was exactly what a hallucination would tell him. That he wasn’t crazy. So it really didn’t help him discern the truth about that. Oh well. For the first time in months, his heart ached a little less, so he was going to go with it.
“What can I do? Do you need to...I don’t know...move on or something?”
***
“Are you crazy?” Allison couldn’t help the bark of laughter she let out although it probably sounded more wispy than like a real laugh. “Do you know how hard it was to get this far? I’m sticking around thanks.”
***
It was wispy, but it also sounded so much like her, Isaac smiled for the first time in what felt like months.
“Have you been here all along? With me, I mean?”
***
“I think so. It’s a little fuzzy after the fight and until now I couldn’t see anything but you. It’s like I pushed through some sort of barrier today and now I can see more.” Seeing the smile made Allison feel like she was smiling too but she had no way of telling. She couldn’t even tell if she had a face and it was starting to bug the hell out of her. This was really hard to get used to.
***
“I always felt like you were there…” He said softly. It was true, too. He’d always had this sense of her, although he thought it was just his sense of loss. Maybe it was more. Maybe he was crazy. Right now, he didn’t care.
“Your dad’s here, you know. We came together.”
***
“He is?” Allison wanted to see her Dad but she couldn’t get very far away from Isaac. She didn’t want to either. But he’d have to be in the same space at some time so she just had to be patient. “I’m glad you went with him. Otherwise he’d be alone.”
***
“Yeah,” he said. “He took it really hard. We both did. Staying in Beacon Hills without you, well...it just wasn’t something that could happen.” He grimaced, looking down at his hands, fidgeting with them.
“So, why me? Why are you here with me instead of with him?”
***
There could only be one ‘him’ when it came to their situation. Allison felt the emotions that went along with that in an even sharper tug against her chest on the tether.
“You were the one that was supposed to call me back. When I went under the water.” She somehow managed to get close enough to him to feel like she was sitting next to him on the bed. Even if she couldn’t feel the bed.
“There was a reason I told him what I did. I don’t know if it’ll help for you to hear it but I’ll tell you if you want to hear it.”
***
Isaac flinched, as if the words still brought him pain. Which, of course, they did. He wasn’t sure he wanted to hear the answer, but he felt that he couldn’t say no. He had to hear. He had to know why she’d used practically her last words to tell Scott that she’d loved him. Of course, maybe it was that straight forward - maybe she always had loved Scott, and he’d just been filling in the time.
“I want to hear.”
***
Allison had been honest when she said she didn’t know if it would help but it was something he had the right to hear. That was the thing though, she did love Scott, part of her would always love Scott but that didn’t mean she only loved him. She had outgrown him.
“All right.” It hadn’t been a lie but it partly had been a calculated thing for her to say at the time. “Scott’s never been to the bottom. Stiles and Lydia, all of you needed him to keep it together and be there but if he was too broken he could break you all. And part of me always will love my first love but that doesn’t mean it’s still the way it was.” Her family’s teaching about reacting in a situation calmly and without emotion was necessary right now.
“You knew how to survive better than he did. But I’m sorry...I didn’t mean to hurt you like I did.”
****
Isaac remained silent for a long moment, thinking through her words, trying to make sure he understood.
“You said it so that he would stay strong. For the rest of us.” It made a very logical sort of sense, and it wasn’t something he would have thought up himself. Which was weird, because he was still pretty much convinced he was having this conversation with himself.
“Did you - did you love me too?”
***
“More than I knew.” That had been the hard part. Allison hadn’t thought she’d started to care about Isaac as much as she had but she’d figured it out after she’d died and had to watch him miss her. “I wish we’d had more time. I hate being able to only watch you. I couldn’t even talk to you before now. It’s not enough.”
***
No, it wasn’t. It would never be enough. It could never be enough, not ever again, because she was dead and this in itself was an enormous gift he’d never expected to be given. Just to hear her voice. Even if he was going nuts, at least he was going to be happy on his way there.
“No,” he agreed. “But you have no idea how good it is to hear your voice. It’s been killing me, Allison. I wanted to die with you.”
***
“NO.” That time her voice came through loud and clear from the intense rush of emotions that send through her. “I wanted you all to live. It was my job to protect you, all of you. It was all so you could all live.”
***
“But what is there for me to live for now?” Isaac asked miserably. “My Alpha doesn’t want me. I have no family. You’re gone…” Tears started streaming down his cheeks. “I have nothing left.”
***
“I’m not gone. I’m just not as here as I want to be.” Allison couldn’t touch him or hold him. All she could do was pitch her voice and try to put her heart in it for him. “And you have my dad. And he has you. He lost my Aunt Kate, my mother and me, but he still has you.” And Isaac wouldn’t have been taken under her dads’ wing if he didn’t care about him. Even if her dad might not have shown it plainly.
***
Isaac wrapped his arms around himself tightly, trying to control his grief. He’d lost so much in his life, losing Allison was the final straw. His mother. His brother. Boyd and Erica. Derek….he didn’t know how much more he could take.
“I’m not going anywhere,” he finally said. “But I think I’m cursed. Anyone who I care about dies.”
***
“I’m not going anywhere either.” Damn it this was torture for both of them to have her here but not here at the same time. But neither of them would change it. There had to be a way to fix it. Some way for her to actually be able to interact with him.
“I know it’s not the same but I’ll be here with you.”
***
“You’re not real,” he said. He knew she wasn’t. She was his heart trying to convince his brain that all wasn’t lost, or maybe she was just the beginning of his losing it completely. She wasn’t there. She couldn’t be. There was a lot in this world that Isaac hadn’t known existed, but they’d never seen ghosts. Ghosts weren’t real. They weren’t a thing that existed. When people were dead, they stayed dead.
Well, usually. Sometimes, anyway. But this was different than Peter.
“I love you,” he said softly, because he wasn’t sure what else to say.
***
“I am real.” She wouldn’t be able to convince him talking about anything she and he both knew but since her dad was here there was a way around that. “Go see my dad. Ask him what happened when I won my first bow competition.” She’d also blacked the eye of an obnoxious boy two years older when he tried to get her to miss her shot.
“I love you too.”
***
Well, that was an idea. Isaac didn’t know the answer to that. They’d never talked about it.
“What happened?” He asked. He’d have to have something to compare it to, after all. If they matched, then he’d know something else was going on here.
***
“You know we moved around a lot. This time we were in a really redneck cowboy area of California when I was competing. There was this guy who thought he was god’s gift and he tried to blow in my ear and make me miss while I was practicing. So I went out, took first place then punched him in the eye on my way off the field.” It should have cost her the competition but her dad had a ‘word’ with the officials and the whole thing had blown over. Knowing what she knew now she wondered if the boy had been threatened by her dad along with getting the black eye.
***
Isaac couldn’t help but burst out laughing at that - the first laugh he’d had in a long, long time. He definitely didn’t know that, although it didn’t surprise him all that much that she’d do that. It sounded like her.
“I’ll ask him. And maybe I’ll discover I’m crazy and maybe I won’t. But will you be here when I get back?”
***
“I won’t ever be far Isaac.” There was some humor in her voice for having made him laugh. She liked to hear him laugh and he hadn’t done it in a long time. Allison couldn’t go far from Isaac and she didn’t want to. “Go talk to him and I’ll be here.”
***
He nodded, and stood, getting ready to go and find Chris, when he realized what time it was. “That’s going to have to wait until tomorrow. He’d kick my ass if I showed up now.”
An an Argent was one of the few people who could.
“You’ll be here tomorrow, right? How long can you stay?”
***
“Isaac, I’m not going anywhere. You’re...okay to use the werewolf term you’re my tether.” She wasn’t happy with the delay. Allison really wanted to let others know she was here but how would her dad react? “Don’t you think he’d be okay with you showing up if it turns out you’re not crazy.”
***
“Your tether...like...when the three of you went under?” They’d had to, in order to save the people that had been captured, and Isaac had hated every moment of it. But he’d been there to bring her back. This suddenly seemed quite a bit more possible.
“I don’t know. I could - “ He sat up again. “I could try.”
***
She’d meant to say anchor but apparently her mind had other ideas. And it had been right. “Yes. just like that.” There was a sense of relief he’d understood. “Someone who could…” bring me back Suddenly there was a lot of hope in her chest along with that insistent tugging from Isaac. “...go see him. Please.”
***
Isaac nodded. “Yes. I will. But if he kicks my ass, you’re going to have to hear me whine until I heal.”
Which of course, wouldn’t be that long.
***
“So five minutes unless he uses wolfsbane which of course he won’t do.” She snorted softly, definitely a weird sensation when you weren’t really breathing or moving air.
***
“Yeah, yeah, okay.”
And with that, he left the room, going to talk to Argent, stopping before his door and knocking nervously. He really hoped he didn’t kick his ass for waking him up in the middle of the night.
***
Chris Argent slept with one eye open. He had trained himself to sleep in short bursts, because he'd been raised with an awareness of supernatural creatures and he knew there were far too many dangers in the world that would gladly take advantage of a man while he slept. He couldn't say he heard Isaac coming, but he was awake, sitting in his tiny living room with a photo album open in his lap, his handgun sitting on the table beside him. He reached for the gun, sliding it into his hand as he got to his feet and stalked toward the door just as Isaac knocked.
He looked through the peep hole to see the familiar tussled curls of Isaac's head. He sighed, felt slightly annoyed but also certain Isaac had a very good reason for coming to his door in the middle of the night. That was the reason he kept his gun in hand as he opened the door. "Isaac." Chris raised his chin, and looked the werewolf over. He seemed to be alone, but Chris wasn't putting his gun away until he knew for sure that Isaac wasn't a decoy for a bigger plan.
***
Isaac’s eyes dropped to the gun, and he gulped a little in concern, then looked back up at Chris.
“Um...I need to talk to you. I think...I think I’m going crazy, or something, or maybe do, it could be...I don’t know….can I come in?”
Yeah, he wasn’t exactly making much sense right now.
***
Allison had stayed right with Isaac while he walked to where her dad was and if she was alive seeing him would have made her catch her breath a little. He looked tired. But she was so glad to see him that she felt a little surge of joy that she couldn’t help but wonder if Isaac would feel it the way she could feel some of what he did.
“I keep telling you that you’re not crazy.”
***
Chris looked out the door, checking both directions before he stepped back to let Isaac into the apartment. He frowned at the boy, and looked outside once more, as if he were looking for something specific, before he shut the door.
“When have you ever made sense, Isaac?” Chris asked, trying to ease the mood. He moved to put his gun down, but decided he didn’t want to put it too far out of reach. He checked that the safety was on then jammed it in the wasitband of his jeans.
“What’s bothering you right now?”
***
“But I am crazy,” he said, replying to Allison. “Or he’s going to think I am.”
Turning to Chris, he reddened. How was he going to say this? How was he going to convince him.
“Okay...um...before anything else, what did Allison do at her first bow competition?”
***
“You know talking to thin air probably doesn’t help with the perception.” She had to steel herself against the disappointment that her dad apparently didn’t hear her. “But that should help convince him.” Here was hoping that her dad remembered the events of the black eye as clearly as she had. It had just been the first thing that had popped into her head.
It wasn’t like she’d ever had pets he could ask about or anything.
***
“First place,” Chris answered without hesitation. He frowned, thinking it over. “She had an altercation with some pompous jerk. Gave him a black eye. Why?” It seemed like an odd thing for Isaac to bring up. Why now, and why was this something that had to be discussed at this hour?
Chris stepped close to Isaac, and gave him a thorough look over. Something was off, and Chris couldn’t pinpoint exactly what it was. He had a fondness for Isaac that he couldn’t really explain Oh, he knew it was because Allison had cared for him, but it was deeper than that. Chris actually cared about him too, though he tried to deny it.
“What is this really about, Isaac?”
***
“I’m hearing Allison,” he blurted. “I don’t know if I’m going crazy, or if ghosts are real, or...she said something about being...tethered to me and I don’t know and I’m scared.” It all came out in one breath, and then his hands went into his curls.
“I don’t know if it’s just that I miss her so much that I’m imagining things but...she did tell me about that bow competition. And that was what she said. And she’d never told me that before.”
***
“I keep telling you that you’re not imagining it.” She was glad that her dad remembered the jerk she’d punched. It made all of this a lot easier. “I never...really gave him a lot of details about being a sacrifice. I just told him Deaton helped us find the three of them so we might have to explain that part.”
***
Chris not so subtly touched his gun. Just to make sure it was still there. He sighed, as his hand dropped away, then lifted up to scrub his face as he processed what Isaac was saying. It wasn’t the words he was fumbling with, but the message in them.
“My daughter. You’re telling me my daughter is haunting you?” Chris let his eyes close for the briefest moment, a split second that allowed him to draw a deep, stabilizing breath before the floor seemed to spin out from under his feet.
“How long has this been happening?” He wasn’t sure he believed it, but he wasn’t exactly ready to dismiss it. He needed more information.
***
“Yeah,” he said, and looked quite upset at the whole idea of it. He hadn’t wanted to upset Argent, but...if this was real…”Your daughter. And it’s only been tonight. I started hearing her tonight.”
Was that too early? Should he have waited and seen if this would go away in the morning?
No. He had to. He had the feeling that Allison wouldn’t leave him alone until he did.
***
She didn’t know if her family had ever run into hauntings. There hadn’t been mention of it in the beastiary and it hadn’t come up. “I couldn’t get close enough to until tonight. He’s going to be very matter of fact...compartmentalize. It’s part of the training to be a hunter. That doesn’t mean he isn’t feeling it.”
***
Chris had some basic knowledge of hauntings, but had never experienced anything of the sort first hand. Or even second hand. He’d read about cases, mostly from distant lands and distant times. It wasn’t something he had ever really put much stock in.
He hadn’t heard what Allison said to Isaac, but she was right. He would, and did, compartmentalise. “You started hearing her tonight. What’s so special about tonight? What were you doing when you heard her?”
Chris was entirely matter of fact. As if they were discussing anything other than the potential ghostly presence of his daughter.
***
Well, he’d have to be honest.
“I was crying. I was laying on my bed missing her, and then I heard her voice. And I thought I was crazy, but she insisted that I come talk to you. And she’s here. She’s here right now.”
***
“Hopefully I don’t have to jump through hoops remembering things for him.” She’d known that was what her dad would do because it was what they were teaching her to do. Allison hadn’t been as good at it as he mom and dad were before she died but it definitely came in handy.
She’d give anything to be able to be audible to both of them right now.
***
Chris would give anything to hear her voice one more time. But he didn’t hear her, and as the days and nights wore on after her death, he could no longer hear her specific vocal nuances in his mind.
He cut his eyes at Isaac. Was he able to hear her, assuming she was actually there, because he was a werewolf? No Chris was not going to go that route, it would make him go mad if he did. He sighed and scratched at his jaw.
“Can you ask her something for me?” Maybe if he asked her something specific, something Isaac had no chance of knowing, he might believe his daughter was actually there with him now.
***
Since she could hear him even if he couldn’t hear her Allison figured she’d cut out the middle man of poor Isaac having to play telephone and ask her the same thing her father had. “La Bette, and the Maid of Gévaudan. Marie-Jeanne Valet defended her little sister against the beast and was my ancestor. Hopefully that’s good enough for him because it took a lot of research to find that it was a girl not a man.”
***
“I can,” he said, answering Chris, but then Allison’s voice spoke, and he smiled a little sadly. “But she’s a step ahead of you. She says that it was a girl who took down the Beast of Gevaudan, Marie-Jeanne Valet, and she was defending her sister. That was Allison’s ancestor.”
He hoped he got everything right...she had spoken quickly. But hopefully that would make the difference to her father.
***
Chris was quiet for a moment, taking it all in. He’d practically seen the wheels turning in Isaac’s head, like he’d been listening to something and then reworked the information to spit it back out. And for a moment, he wanted to say it was impossible, that no, Allison must have shared that with Isaac some other time, sometime before she’d died, but...but he knew that wasn’t the case. He knew Allison had somehow just told Isaac that fact, right then and there.
Even though Chris couldn’t see or hear her, she was right there, in the room with them. HIs eyes scanned from wall to wall. “Where is she?” he asked, wanting to focus his gaze where his daughter’s ghost stood. He couldn’t see her, but she could most likely see him.
***
“I know you can’t see me either. I’ll make it easy on everyone and stay by your right shoulder.” Allison still didn’t even know how she moved since there wasn’t really any sensation of it so the best she could assume was it was willpower. After she said it she was by Isaac’s shoulder watching her dad knowing he would turn to look at her once he knew where to look.
“You have to tell him about the sacrifice. I’m not a hundred percent sure that is what did it but it’s the only thing that makes sense. Maybe he’ll know someone that could help. Or maybe he could ask Deaton assuming he’s still in Beacon Hills.”
***
“She says she’s by my right shoulder,” Isaac said. “But I can’t see her either. I can just hear her. And kind of...sense her. I know she’s there, but I wish - “ He stopped abruptly. He wished he could see her, but he couldn’t, and he needed to be happy with just hearing her voice again.
“What - what did Allison tell you about how we found you under the Nemeton?”
***
Bright, hopeful eyes turned to Isaac’s shoulder. He couldn’t see anything out of the ordinary, of course. But if Allison was there, he wanted to look that way. “She didn’t tell me much. She didn’t like to talk about it, and I...I didn’t push.”
He’d suffered so much loss, and upsetting Allison without justifiable cause wasn’t high on his list of priorities. He accepted her vague account of what happened, because he really hadn’t wanted to know what she’d suffered in order to rescue him. “Sometimes less is more, you know?” It sounded lame, and right now he was wishing he had more information, but...he didn’t, and that was that.
“She wouldn’t let me put my weapons away, though. She said something might be coming, because of what she and Scott and Stiles had done, and she wanted me to teach her everything I could, so she could be ready.” There was a hint of sadness to his voice. He’d trained her, all right. He’d trained her with everything he knew. And it hadn’t been enough. She’d died anyway.
***
It really was like her father could see her for a moment and it made Allison wish even more they could see her. “I should have told him all of it I just didn’t want to...mom hadn’t been gone that long, or Kate. I don’t know if it would have helped but I should have.” She sighed lightly.
“You’ll have to tell him about being my emotional tether.”
***
“I will,” he said to Allison, then turned back to Chris. “They died. Temporarily. The three of them,” he said. He wasn’t quite sure how else to say it, so he said it as bluntly as possible. “They had to, to find where you were. They each - Stiles, Scott and Allison - had a tether, to bring them back. Someone they had an emotional connection to,” he said. Then he stopped, taking a deep breath.
“I was Allison’s,” he said. “That’s why I think she’s here. We’re still...tethered.”
***
“Still tethered,” Chris repeated. Okay. He could work with that. Maybe. He didn’t know anything about it off hand, but he knew people who knew things. He could...put the word out, and if there was anything he could do to help his daughter, he wouldn’t rest until it was done, until he’d exhausted everything.
It was a lot to take in. He needed time to process everything, and work up a game plan. If Allison was still here, if there was a way to keep her here...Chris shifted his focus, the intensity of his gaze focused just beyond Isaac’s shoulder. “Does she want...what does she want? Isaac? Does she want to be tethered, or…” He closed his eyes. If Allison wanted to be set free, he’d look into that, too. For her, as much as it would pain him to do so when she was apparently so close.
***
“What is it with you two?” There was another of those sort of snorts from Allison. “I’m trying to get back not get sent to the light so no Ghost Whisperer’s or any dumb things like that.” She was someone who fought, that meant she wanted back not sent on.
“There has to be something we can work with.”
***
“She says no Ghost Whispering,” he said, and couldn’t help but laugh a little. It was so like Allison. “She wants to come back, if she can. She’s not done living yet.”
Slowly, somehow, he was letting hope back into his heart. He hoped he wouldn’t pay for it in triplicate later.
***
The corners of Chris’ mouth twitched, then turned up in a wry smile. Ghost Hunters. That’s exactly what Allison would say. He drew a breath and reached up to paw at his jawline. He needed to shave, judging from the stiff hairs that scratched back.
“I’ll put in some calls first thing in the morning. I know people who know things, but it’s going to take some time.” He would expedite the process whenever he could, but he knew how frustrating it could be to have to wait on other people to get off their ass and actually do something.
Worst case, he’d take a personal leave from his teaching job, and chase leads across the world. Whatever it took to bring his little girl back, he’d do it.
***
It was hard for Allison to repress a sense of impatience but at least someone would be working on it. It seemed like the closer she got to being alive or at least the closer to where she could see and interact with the people that were alive the more she could feel things like impatience. Before it was just drifting with a focus on that tie to Isaac. Now it was feeling more like being alive or at least close to it.
“So we just have to wait. And maybe do a little of our own research.”
***
“Yeah, but see, I suck at research,” he said to both of them, rolling his eyes. “I’m just the Guard Dog, remember? Just a werewolf. Not smart. Not researcher.”
He wished he could see Allison, wished he could give her the impish smile he was feeling, but for the first time in weeks that hadn’t come with a pang of grief and sorrow, but a feeling of hope. Maybe they could make it happen, in time.
***
“We might have gotten a lucky break,” Chris said. He was talking to Allison as much as to Isaac. “I got a new class roster, and one Stiles Stilinski is on it. He’s the research kid, isn’t he?” Chris was pretty sure he remembered that about the kid. “I imagine he’d be willing to throw his skill set into the ring.”
***
“Hey I know how to research but I can’t type or turn pages so you can definitely help.” Allison could tell ther her father was talking to both of them which she appreciated. “Stiles, that could definitely help. I wonder how he ended up here.” It was weird to have another here from Beacon Hills. She understood Isaac and her dad both being there at the same time since they had been traveling together. Stiles was just a little weird.
***
“There are other people from Beacon Hills here, too,” Isaac said with a shrug. “I don’t know her, though, and she pretty much keeps to herself. She’s a werewolf, though. Not that anyone else knows that. You know Miss K, right?” He said, looking at Chris.
***
“The music teacher?” Chris frowned. He knew her, vaguely. In passing. He’d never really taken time to talk to her. He shrugged, that wasn’t important right now.
“I knew there was something off about her.” He shifted his gaze to the spot behind Isaac’s shoulder. He wanted so badly to see Allison there. “You should go back to the dorm and get some sleep, Isaac. I’ll start making calls first thing in the morning, and throughout the day, between classes. Someone out there has to know something, and I’m going to find them,” he stated firmly. Even if he determined there was nothing to be done, he wasn’t going to stop until he knew he had exhausted every possible avenue.
***
“Let’s get out of his way. He isn’t going to sleep now that he’s got a bunch of avenues to explore, I don’t care what he says about first thing in the morning.” Allison knew because she would be doing the same thing.
***