work_inprogress | Is it gone, tell me what went wrong / 'Cause baby I'm not that strong

Elijah retreated to lean against the window. Chris...took up a position almost opposite him--a move Elijah noted with detached amusement. His focus shifted back to the girl, though. She was spunky and sassy and he was really rooting for her to pull through.

Peter was barely breathing, himself, willing Cora to take a breath, to be okay. The adrenaline surge couldn't keep up, drained as it was, but he ignored his own chilled, trembling sick feeling, just leaning against the table, his hand brushing slowly over her hair, concern written all over his face.

Hayley moved to Derek, fingers sliding into his, holding his hand in her own hope, and offering what reassurance she could about the rest.

When Cora coughed, but a more normal sounding cough, a shudder ran through Peter, and his hand slid to hers, curling around it tight. "Welcome back."

Cora struggled to catch her breath even as the pressure in her chest started to ease. Turning her head to look at Peter, she smiled weakly then. "Thanks." It was a loaded thank you for everything he had done to look out for her over the last few hours and then she was turning her head. "Derek?"

"I'm right here." Derek stepped forward, still holding onto Hayley's hand though he did reach for Cora's with his free hand.

"What happened to me?" She arched a brow, her voice still raspy.

Lydia looked relieved as she watched the girl coming back to them and the color spread back in her cheeks as she moved towards Peter. Allison looked relieved as well though she worried about the consequences. She nodded briefly at Klaus before glancing at her father and moving towards the door.

Cora saw the movement out of the corner of her eye, glancing at Allison before something else caught her attention and she looked to Elijah who was leaning against the window. "Hey."

Klaus gave Allison a bit of her smile, moving to sprawl on the sofa since it had been abandoned.

Peter smiled back at Cora, the relief apparent, though that had him leaning against the table again, going pale and shaky and determined not to let it show, not in front of any of them. "Well, you seem to be determined to go into the white light, which, I can say from experience is not all it's cracked up to be. Our new...friends..." He shot Klaus an ironic glance. "Made you better."

"Yeah, but you probably should be...careful the next 24 hours or so," Hayley suggested with a wry smile.

Elijah gave Cora a smile, starting to say something before Klaus said, perfectly pleasant, "You're welcome."

Hayley rolled her eyes. "Don't be obnoxious about it."

Elijah snorted. "He's genetically incapable of not being obnoxious. From the day he was born."

Allison's gaze followed Klaus as he moved to sit down and then she discreetly turned away, slipping out of the apartment.

Cora looked at Peter once more when he started to speak, her long lashes fluttering as he told her that she had been closed to dying but that their new friends had helped her. Blinking, she looked towards Klaus and then back again. "How..."

"He fed you his blood." Stiles replied flatly from where he was standing nearby, having moved back from the table while everyone else rushed to Cora's side. Then he glanced sideways as Allison slipped out, frowning a bit as he started to drift after her.

Klaus watched Stiles and Allison drifting with an arched eyebrow, bored already by the family reunion at the table. But the blood comment had him looking back over. "So, when Hayley says be careful for the next 24 hours it's so you don't turn into a hybrid. Which, I don't know if is even possible with your kind..."

"And which would be...potentially bad, anyway, because we don't have the other part to cement it, and so you'd just...die," Hayley said with a wince. "So...you can stay back with me if there's any more fighting tonight or tomorrow."

"Or not..." Klaus smirked slightly, then got up to follow the huntress.

"So..." Isaac stepped forward. "Now that Cora's okay, which I'm really glad about, too, but...um...Can we talk about how we're getting the sheriff and Scott's mom and...Sc-cott back?" Just the little tremble over Scott's name, but his heart did enough flipping to get a look from Hayley and Peter both.

Cora's eyes widened a little bit at the mention that she could become a hybrid and she found her eyes flickering to Elijah to read his expression. "What other part?"

Derek was frowning but a quiet glance at Peter had them agreeing they'd do everything they could to keep her out of trouble to keep her from turning into a hybrid. But then Isaac was speaking, drawing Derek's gaze as he heard the little stumble in the boy's heart as well. Especially when he said Scott's name.

"I'm not sure we can get him back. The Alpha pack is too strong for us...."

"Ethan." The sudden reply came from Lydia and she arched a brow at them all as they turned towards her. "What? He doesn't seem like he wants to be a part of what they're doing. He and Scott actually get along."

"What? Are you serious? Allison, you can't..." Stiles hissed whisper could be heard by Klaus as soon as he walked out of the loft and near the elevator to where Allison and Stiles were standing close and arguing.

"I have to." Allison said it firmly.

"But Scott..."

"If I can find where she's hiding them, then I can get them out and Scott won't have to stay with Deucalion. This is our best option right now." She frowned before realizing Klaus was there, standing a bit straighter as she turned towards him. "What are you doing? Shouldn't you be in there antagonizing Derek?"

Elijah's gaze followed his brother out, not trusting that smirk in the least. The boy who'd run off obviously mattered to them, but Cora had a right to know. "When humans turn, they need to have human blood within a day after turning, or they die. Anyone will do, including from a blood bank. But hybrids...aren't meant to exist. They need magic blood--which sounds ridiculous, but. Blood from a particular supernatural creature. A doppelganger, a human one. Sadly, last I checked...all the doppelgangers were vampires."

But Klaus shot him a look over his shoulder that had Elijah's mouth firming into something hard. Klaus just smirked.

Peter frowned and nodded at Derek. "Then we keep her out of the fight."

"We can't just let him go," Isaac all but shouted.

Peter moved, though the room tilted and so he leaned casually back against the table. "Yelling about it isn't going to get him back, pup." He looked at Lydia. "You think Ethan would help us? Or fight against them?" His gaze flicked out to the hall, hearing some of it and...not really caring much. If the girl could rescue the others, awesome. He wasn't going to try and talk her out of it.

Chris followed Klaus out, catching the end of the conversation as Klaus smirked at Allison. "Oh, I can do that in absentia. I've had a thousand years to perfect it. If you want to track them, we need more than guesses. She's using magic to mask her scent, so we can't do it the old fashioned way."

"Magic blood?" Cora said it slowly like she was testing it out and then she shook her head a bit. "Now I've heard of everything."

"Right." Derek nodded in agreement with Peter, giving his sister a stern look. "You're staying out of the fight from now on."

"Derek..." She started to argue but stopped under the look he shot her, fuming just a bit.

"You've already tried taking one of them on and look where it got you." He frowned at her before looking up sharply at Isaac yelling at them. "We're not going to, Isaac, but we need to figure out a plan."

When Peter looked to her, Lydia was already at his side as she had seen him wavering on his feet. "He might help keep Deucalion from doing whatever he plans on doing to Scott." She slid her arm around his waist then. "But we can talk about this while you're resting. Derek, can we use your spare room?"

"Wha...uh, sure." Derek turned to point in the direction of the room.

Allison rolled her eyes slightly at Klaus before shaking her head. "Maybe not by scent but there are other trails she could leave." She looked to her Dad. "We have to try. The lunar eclipse is coming..."

"What does that have to do with anything?" Stiles looked confused as he glanced between them.

Wetting her lips, Allison looked at him while being aware of Klaus still watching her. "Even though they can shift whenever they want, Scott and the others are still controlled by the moon. We both know that from seeing what they get like around the full moon. But with a lunar eclipse...they lose their power. Which means the Alpha pack does too..."

A look of understanding crossed Stiles's face then. "And you think Miss Blake is going to attack them on the lunar eclipse."

"Which means...."

"Which means she has to kill my dad and Scott's mom before then." Stiles felt like he was going to be sick then, the blood draining from his face. Allison nodded, reaching out to touch his arm gently.

"Welcome to our mother's fucked up world," Elijah muttered, though his gaze was drawn to the pretty, distressed wolf challenging his Alpha, head tilting a little as he studied him. Filing that away, he lightly squeezed Cora's shoulder. "There will always be later fights. And I doubt this one will be over by tomorrow night."

Peter gave Lydia a look, determined not to look weak in front of his pack and the vampires and her, for that matter. "I'm fine, sweetheart. We need to come up with a plan..."

Isaac gave them a more "wtf?" look again, mostly at the sweetheart, but he was kind of freaking out about Scott, still, and...whatever. No one else seemed concerned.

Out in the hall, Klaus leaned against the door and snorted lightly at the concept of the wolves losing their power because of something like the moon. "Trails or, I don't know. Looking at what we know about her and about this place. These many druids running around, there's bound to be magical residues, especially with the power gained from the sacrifices. That leaves a pretty strong imprint. Can last generations. It's certainly still around now."

Chris gave him a look, arching an eyebrow. "You seem to know a lot about it."

Klaus shrugged. "Have a bit of experience with sacrifices, and our mother was a fairly powerful witch."

"Mother, huh?" Cora asked softly, her eyes darting to Isaac but then they were drawn back to Elijah again as he gave her shoulder a squeeze though his statement caused her to make a face. "Come on, there must be something I could do."

"You won't be able to plan if you pass out." Lydia hissed very softly for his ears only though she did let go, frowning as she took a step or two back. She didn't see the looks Isaac was giving them.

Allison's brows drew together as Klaus actually made sense and suddenly there was something nibbling at her memories. "Wait, there was a place. A place for druids..."

"The Nematan?" Stiles offered.

Allison's eyes widened. "How did you know that?"

"Peter told me and Cora about it but I don't know where it is."

"Long story." Elijah shrugged, then gave her a half smile. "You can keep Hayley safe. Deucalion won't come after her again, but if the teacher is going after guardians...I'm not sure if mothers-to-be are included in that yet, or not." But add in the magical nature of the baby...he didn't want to put her at risk. "You and Lydia and Hayley should hole up somewhere she wouldn't look for you. And you can help keep them safe."

He glanced at Derek and Peter, slightly questioning. It wasn't placating the girl--Hayley was his first priority. And if they were going to go off and help them get their stray wolf back and defeat everyone--she needed to be safe.

Peter nodded a little at Elijah, and shifted away from the table to sit on the sofa. The look he gave Lydia said there--he wasn't passing out. He was sitting down. And maybe throwing up in a bit, but.

Isaac had caught on, though, and gave Peter a look, remembering that he had been hurt somewhere in there. "Okay. So...we find Ethan? See if he'll protect Scott?"

Klaus looked back and forth between Allison and Stiles, then just arched an eyebrow. "So...why don't we ask Peter where it is?"

Cora wanted to tell him that it wasn't likely the Darach would go after Hayley but she also recognized what he was doing by giving her a 'task' to look after her and Lydia. At least that was how she was going to spin it in her head. "And what are you going to do? Are you finally going to teach them a lesson?" She asked with a small smile that bordered on vicious. Or it would if she wasn't still so weak.

Derek was watching the exchange, wondering about the easy way they talked but he was nodding when Elijah glanced at him and then he was looking to Peter who was sitting down. Lydia saw him move to sit down either but she merely huffed at the look he gave her, crossing her arms as she looked away to look around the room for Stiles and Allison.

"Might be best to look for him in school tomorrow." She nodded then, meaning Ethan. Then she was striding towards Isaac, touching his arm. "Come here." At the look, she shrugged innocently. "You can show me where the blankets and everything are if there are any."

"Because we don't need to." Allison informed Klaus before looking directly at Chris. "He knows where it is."

"That's the plan," he promised with a small smile, just as vicious.

Peter nodded at Elijah, and Derek. "I think it's a good one. What we need to figure out is if we're going tonight or getting some sleep and going tomorrow morning. Send them to school, see if the twins are there, if Scott is there. If not, they can skip out. I doubt anyone will mind, not after tonight."

Sheriff kidnapped, one teacher a serial killer, yet another dead, in front of half the faculty and student body. No one would be calling truant officers.

"How are we supposed to sleep?" Isaac demanded, looking at Lydia, then Peter.

"Because," Peter said. "Most of us took a beating tonight, and did minimal, if any damage, in return. The Alpha pack is not actually our primary problem right now. The darach is. Deucalion wants Scott in his pack. Scott went with him. Deucalion isn't going to hurt him, certainly not the night he first gets him. The darach is not going to give us those promises about Melissa and the sheriff, but we can't track them. We figured that out earlier, so we need to know where to go, where she'd take them." He gave Lydia an apologetic look. "That we might need to do tonight. She's rarely held them longer than 24 hours."

Isaac trembled, but nodded a little.

"Go with Lydia," Peter said gently. "The girls are going to need to be comfortable, if nothing else." He looked around, finally noticing the party in the hall. "What are they up to?"

Elijah flicked a glance up. "Plotting how to get people back." His hearing kind of put theirs in the pale, anyway, at his age.

Klaus heard his brother, and shrugged a bit, smiling, but gave Allison a look. "So you want us to go riding off on our own?"

Chris shook his head at his daughter a little. "We at least need to let them know. Deucalion's worked so well, stayed so far ahead, because his pack works together. We've all been doing things on our own, and we're losing. Maybe a cohesive plan is what we need--have everyone put their cards on the table, what we all know. We may have more pieces of the puzzle than we think. And someone may know something we need to know, something that might make the difference in the fight."

Klaus nodded, giving Chris a more approving, and somewhat more appraising look.

The hunter shook his head and shifted his look to Stiles. "I know you want to get your father back, and quickly. But we have a better chance of it with a plan. Even if they are at the Nemeton, we don't know what she might have shielding them, or traps. Let's check in. Then we'll go."

"Good." Cora looked pleased with the promise and the smile on Elijah's face.

Lydia nodded as Peter instructed her to take Isaac to find some blankets and such. Leading him into the spare room, she motioned him over to the closet while she shut the door. Then she stalked towards him, keeping her voice to a low whisper do he'd only hear. "What is going in with you and Scott?"

"No." Allison hasn't planned on going off on their own, not completely, but the others had been focused on Cora and she needed to focus on getting Scott back which tied in with getting his mom and the sheriff back.

That and the Darach still needed a third Guardian and a chill in the pit of her stomach told her she knew exactly who it would be which pushed her to move faster.

Remaining quiet as her dad gave his idea, her eyes flickered up Klaus, watching him with an inscrutable gaze before finally looking away to her dad again. Stiles had been listening too and he had to admit it was a good plan even if he hated waiting. "Fine."

Isaac backed up warily as Lydia stalked toward him, eyes widening a little until he hit the closet doorjamb.

"Um...nothing's going on?" He didn't sound all that certain really. "He's my friend. He took me in when Derek threw me out and his mom let me stay and I'm worried about them..."

He was terrified for them, honestly.

Klaus gave her a smirk and nodded at Chris. "Let's reconvene then, shall we? See who's in reasonable enough shape to help, if we need it."

He moved back in to the loft, expecting them to follow. Chris shook his head a little, but motioned Allison and Stiles to precede them.

Edited 2013-08-08 01:23 (UTC)

Lydia didn't need to hear the trip in his heart that said he was lying because the uncertainty in his tone and the way he avoided eye contact was enough for her. So she crossed her arms over her chest and arched a brow, waiting patiently. "That's only part of it."

"Okay." Allison watched Klaus go ahead of them before glancing at her Dad and then moving to follow the hybrid.

It was Stiles who said something though as they walked into the loft. "We think we know where to find my Dad and Scott's mom."

Scott had said they'd tell people, but Isaac didn't want to do that without him, especially when he'd left and maybe they weren't anything anymore, because, well, his new pack probably would be happy to kill Isaac.

But Lydia was kind of scary when she was determined, and so he tried to think of something to say and came out with, "What's going on with you and Peter?"

Hayley turned when Klaus came back in and he gave her a nod, crossing to stand next to Elijah, who arched an eyebrow at him. Klaus shrugged.

Peter glanced at Stiles, then Chris, then back to Stiles as it occurred to him, and he nodded slowly. "The Nemeton?"

Lydia should have expected that and she lifted her chin, almost defiantly, before answering after a couple heartbeats. "We're involved." She pursed her lips slightly. "So?"

The mention of the Nemeton had an effect on one person in the room. The mention of it had every muscle in Derek's body tensing as he looked sharply at Peter and then to Stiles. He was already on edge from Jennifer talking about it, about how she had been sustained because of the tree that had sparked to life after the sacrifice of a virgin. Clenching his jaw, he tried to act as neutral as possible. "Are you sure?"

Stiles instantly felt bad for bringing it up, recalling Peter's story, but it was too important to ignore. With a quietly apologetic glance, he nodded.

"It's a source of power." Allison didn't know the significgance to the werewolf standing across the room and so she answered. "Plus...it's on the currents, isn't it?" She glanced at her Dad for confirmation.

Isaac opened his mouth to say something, thought better of it, closed his mouth. Frowned. Started to think of something else. Thought about the shirt Peter was wearing. Gave up.

"Okay." He ran a hand through his hair. "I guess...so are me and Scott." He looked up at her, eyes wide. "You can't tell Allison. I mean, we're not trying to hide, but...it's new and..." He shrugged. "Please don't tell."

"It is," Chris confirmed. He didn't know Derek's story, but he remembered the blood on the tree. He didn't say anything about that, though.

Peter looked back at Derek for a moment, noting his tension and his gaze fell. "It makes sense."

Elijah was a bit uncomfortable, glancing at Klaus who gave him a wry smile. Druids...had never really been their biggest fans, and not as easily swayed as witches, as it turned out. But they'd still help. "I take it you all know where this place is?" Elijah asked, looking around the room.

Lydia didn't like to hide things from Allison but this was certainly wasn't one of the things that was really any of her business and it certainly wasn't her place to spill the beans. That and she was just trying to wrap her mind around the idea of Scott and Isaac being together. Which wasn't all that hard from Isaac's side...

"Fine." She shrugged flippantly before pointing. "Grab some blankets. I'll make the bed." And that seemed to be that.

"I do." Derek replied. In fact, he was pretty sure he'd never forget that place. He was silent for a moment before glancing over at Peter. "Can you stay here and watch over Cora?"

Isaac breathed a sigh of relief, though the tightness in his chest didn't really go away. Still, that was more because of Scott being gone anyway. With a little nod, he did as she said, turning into the closet and getting her blankets. "Okay."

Peter frowned sharply, even if he knew that he likely would just be a hindrance. He could try and front, but he knew he was near done, muscles trembling a little.

Plus...Derek probably did not need him there at that place. The frown faded and he nodded slightly, gaze slipping away from his nephew. "Of course."

Elijah and Hayley watched the interplay, with Hayley frowning a bit at the tension she didn't understand.

"It's probably best to go in teams," Elijah suggested, strategy taking over. "If she's busy fending off one team, the other can slip in, possibly with a third for backup of anyone who gets in trouble. This kind of magic...Yes, she wanted protection from the Alpha pack tonight, but if we're going into her place of power, we need to be prepared."

Lydia made sure the bed was made before straightening to look at Isaac again. "What's going on in the other room?"

Truthfully Derek wasn't even thinking about Peter being in that 'place' but more because he could see how close to collapsing he was. That and he wasn't too comfortable with leaving Cora alone yet, even with Hayley and Lydia there. He needed someone in the family to watch her.

"Agreed." Allison nodded her head, looking at her Dad. "Klaus and I will be one team." Because she didn't trust him alone with her Dad and vice versa.

"I'll take the third team." Stiles didn't really want to get involved in the fight. Not again.

One day, Peter might figure that out, but he was still feeling guilty enough from retelling the story that it was hitting with the exhaustion.

"Um...they figured out that Ms. Blake is probably holding Scott's mom and Stiles's dad at something called a Nemeton?" Isaac didn't know what that was. "And they're deciding who's going after them..." He moved to the door. "We should go back down."

He hit the stairs, coming down and jumping the last few lightly. "I'm going."

Elijah studied who was left and nodded at Isaac. "All right. You're with me and Derek. Stiles, is it? You go with Christopher. When we get them out, you get them away, all right? Weapons backup will help to distract her, but we don't want her recapturing them, so get them and go. Don't wait for us."

Hand to hand with magic, he figured supernaturals had a better chance, and Klaus would be back up enough for the girl, but he glanced at them. "You two take the opposite side from the three of us. We'll coordinate a timed strike to pull her out."

He glanced at Chris, then Derek. "Does that work for you?"

Lydia felt a stab of worry that Peter would go with the others when they went to find Scott's mom and the Sheriff, so she was quick on Isaac's heels, her own heels clicking against the stairs as she looked for Peter to see where he was.

Allison glanced over at Isaac as he appeared, nodding her head as Elijah told him to join him and Derek which suited Allison just fine. As did having Stiles go with her Dad who would definitely figure out a way to get into the cellar to find the missing parents.

Derek listened before nodding his head. "Works for me."

Lydia tried not to look too relieved to hear that Peter wasn't included.

"All right." Elijah nodded. "I don't think she realized who Niklaus and I were, so we have that on our side. One of you who knows where we're going, give Niklaus and Allison directions. We need to approach from different directions, and it will be easier to do so from the start."

Peter reached for a notepad. "I'll draw you a map."

Klaus sent him a smile. "Thanks."

Hayley worried at her lower lip, fingers clinging a little to Derek's. "Is there some...warding spell or something to help against her?"

Elijah shook his head a bit, not negating but dismissing idea. "If we had time to look it up, perhaps, but we haven't exactly got a witch on hand, and if the Druid you do have knew anything, surely he would have used it already?"

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