Tattoo

Kristie reached in between her shoulder blades. She felt the bandage, where her new tattoo was. This summer had been crazy. She and Derek and spent most of their time together, but with him teaching Jackson to gain control of being a werewolf, and him looking for Erica and Boyd, it felt like the whole time, he was distant. She hoped this tattoo, and this new school year would bring them together and give them a new start.

One issue though, that had plagued them over the summer, was about Derek turning her. She felt like they had grown so close together and that if they were mates, Kristie no longer needed to be human. She wanted to be with Derek fully as a mate, and if that meant being a werewolf, then Kristie was willing to be one.

"Boy, it's a good thing you drew me a picture." Kristie looked over at the tattoo artist, drawn out of her thoughts. He was holding up a picture of the tattoo Scott wanted. It was two bands. Kristie didn't really understand why he needed that tattoo. It had no real meaning.

"Hey, Scott, sure you don't want something like this?" Kristie turned to see Stiles holding up a tattoo design that looked like the Kanima.

"Really?" Kristie asked.

"Too soon?" Stiles asked. Kristie nodded and Stiles put the design down. "I don't know man, are you sure about this? These things are pretty permanent, you know? I mean, Kristie already made the mistake, but I can still save you."

"I'm not changing my mind." Scott said.

"Okay, well why two bands?"

"I don't know. I just like it."

"Well, shouldn't your first tattoo have some sort of meaning?"

"Getting a tattoo means something."

"He's right." The artist said. "Tattooing goes back thousands of years. The Tahitian word 'Tatua' means "to leave a mark". Like a rite of passage."

"Yeah, you see?" Scott said. "He gets it."

"He's covered in tattoos, Scott, literally." Stiles said, putting emphasis on literally.

"Okay, you ready?" The artist said, raising the needle to Scott's arm. Scott looked hesitant. "You ain't got any problems with needles, do you?"

"Nope." Scott said with a gulp.

"I tend to get a little squeamish though, so..." And he started on Scott's tattoo. "Oh, man." Stiles said and fainted.

"Stiles!" Kristie exclaimed, rushing over to his unconscious form.

Stiles groaned, holding an ice pack to his head, as he, Kristie, and

Scott got into his jeep. Scott began groaning. Kristie sat forward from her place in the back seat. "You okay?" she asked Scott.

"Kinda burns." Scott said, examining his bandaged arm.

"Yes, you just had your skin stabbed about 100,000 times with a needle." Stiles replied.

"Yeah, but I don't think it's supposed to feel like this." Suddenly Scott groaned, sitting straight up in the car. "Oh, God. No, it's definitely not supposed to feel like this. Oh, I gotta take this thing off." He said, starting to unwrap the bandages.

"No, no, no, no, Scott." Stiles begged. "Oh, Scott, please stop." As he unwrapped it.

Scott revealed his arm. It was red and the dark black ink began to fade away. "Oh, no, what?" Scott sighed. "No, no, come on." And it was completely gone. "It healed."

"Ah, thank God." Stiles sighed. "I hated it." Kristie gave him a look. "Sorry."

Scott groaned as Stiles left the parking lot and began driving the two home. "So have you two talked to Allison over the summer?" Stiles looked in his rearview mirror at Kristie.

"Not really. A couple texts here and there, but nothing much." Kristie replied, messing with the end of her shirt. "You?" she asked Scott. "You haven't said one word about her this whole time."

"Nah, we agreed to give each other the summer... no texts, no calls." Scott mumbled as they pulled up to a stop light.

"So then how do you know she won't be back at school then?" Stiles asked.

"After everything that happened, I'm not sure she's coming back at all."

"I think she is. I'd say pretty definite, you know. Like one hundred percent." Kristie and Scott followed Stiles' gaze and looked in the car next to them, seeing Allison and Lydia inside.

"Oh, my God. Oh..." Scott exclaimed, ducking down in his seat. "Can we just drive please, Stiles?"

"Scott, it's a red light."

"Will you go? Just go!"

"But the light." Stiles paused. "I think we should talk to her, I just think we should say something." He reached over Scott to roll down the window.

"No. No, no, Stiles, come on. Oh, my God, dude, no."

And that's when Lydia's car sped away. "You know, they probably didn't see us." Stiles said. Kristie groaned and sat back in her seat. Stiles kept going as the light turned green.

"What are you doing?" Scott asked.

"I'm driving." Stiles said.

"We're right behind them."

"Okay, well, do you see any turns?" Kristie asked.

"I don't want it to look like we're following them."

"Well, what do you want me to do?" Stiles asked.

"I don't know, anything." Stiles sighed and slammed on his breaks. A few seconds later, the girls car stopped. "What are they doing?" Scott asked.

That's when Kristie saw it. A mass was headed towards their car. "What the-" But she was interrupted by the sounds of the girls screaming. All three got out of the car and ran over as the girls got out to.

"Are you okay?" Scott asked.

"It came out of nowhere." Lydia exclaimed.

"Are you hurt?" Stiles asked.

"It ran right into us."

"Are you okay?" Kristie asked.

"I'm okay." Allison replied.

"Well, I'm not okay." Lydia exclaimed. "I am totally freaking out. How the hell does it just run into us?" Lydia paused as Scott and Kristie walked over to the dead animal body on the hood of the car. "I saw its eyes right before it hit us. It was like it... it was like it was crazy."

"No, it was scared." Scott said putting a hand on the animal.

"Actually..." Kristie paused. "Terrified."

Kristie put on a final layer of lipstick and examined herself in the mirror. "If you need an opinion…I think you look beautiful." Kristie turned and smiled. She went over to Derek and wrapped her arms around his body, kissing him. She pulled back and her attitude changed. She hit his chest.

"Where have you been!" She exclaimed. "I haven't seen you all week! Where have you been?"

"I've been out, looking for Erica and Boyd." He replied, his head falling a little.

"You still haven't heard from them?"

"No. It's been months….Kristie….I'm scared that they're…dead."

"Hey. Don't give up hope." Kristie paused. "Look, there's something I need to show you."

"What is it?" Derek asked, his voice full of intrigue and confusion. Kristie smiled and turned around. She was about to reveal the tattoo when her door opened, revealing Scott.

"You ready to go?" Scott asked. Kristie turned around and saw that Derek was gone.

"Yeah. I'm ready." Kristie said, sighing, grabbing her book bag.

"Derek was in here, wasn't he?"

"Yeah, he was."

"You wanna ask Derek for help?" Stiles asked as the trio walked down the school hallway. "Why, why?"

"He's got the triskele tattooed on his back." Kristie said.

"And now you have the triskele on your back."

"So there has to be a way to do it without healing, right?" Scott stepped in.

"Yeah, but doesn't he seem to have his hands full right now?" Stiles asked, motioning to two missing person's posters. They had pictures of Erica and Boyd on them. They had been hanging around town for months, and still no sign of them.

Scott and Kristie sighed. They walked a little ways, before stopping at the office, just in time to see the principal holding up Gerard's sword. Let's just say they got out of there fast.

Kristie bit on her pencil as she's waited for first period English to start. Allison sat awkwardly n front of Scott. Kristie scoffed. That's when everyone's phone began to go off. Kristie looked down at her's, opening the message.

"The offing was barred by a black bank of clouds and the tranquil waterway, leading to the uttermost ends of the earth flowed somber under an overcast sky, seemed to lead into the heart of an immense darkness." Kristie looked up, seeing a pretty woman walk into their classroom and lean against the desk. "This is the last line to the first book we are going to read." She told them. "It is also the last text you will receive in this class." She smiled. "Phones off, everyone."

Their new teacher, which was now obvious, looked around the room, her eyes catching Kristie's for a moment. As they did, Kristie got that familiar sensation up her spine. She cringed, t was a lot more painful then normal and her tattoo seemed to burn in-between her shoulder blades.

She shook t off and began to take notes as they were being written on the board. She heard the door open, but didn't look up. "Mr. and Ms. McCall?" The teacher asked. Scott and Kristie both looked up, and then looked at each other. The teacher motioned outside and the two followed, taking their belongings.

"Uh, I'm sure it's an emergency if your mother needs you to leave school, but I'm gonna give you a warning in the nicest possible way." She started as the classroom door closed. "I am well aware of both of your attendance records. I don't wanna see you two to slip back into old habits."

"We won't." Scott answered. "It's gonna be different this year."

"Resolutions are only good if you stick with them, Scott."

"We will. I promise it won't be ephemeral." And he turned and walked away, Kristie following behind him.

"Ephemeral?'" She asked.

"What? It's my word of the day."

"Why didn't you tell us before?" Kristie asked as she and her brother walked with their mom into the hospital.

"Honestly, I was hoping I didn't have to."

"What do you mean?"

"Everything that you've been doing... the extra reading, the summer school, saving up for the bike, telling me about the werewolf boyfriend…" She looked at Kristie. "Even though it scares me half to death... honey, I just didn't wanna disrupt a good rhythm."

"It's not gonna stop." Scott said. "We're gonna be better this year. A better student, better kids, a better friend, a better everything. We promise."

"Okay." Melissa said with a sigh. "He's in room 215 if he isn't already in surgery."

"Thank you." Kristie said, the two giving their mother a kiss on the cheek. Scott and Kristie went over to the elevator, getting in. The door was about to close, when a white cane stopped it. They looked up a saw a blind man, who got inside as well.

"Would you hit the button for the second floor, please?" he asked.

"Yeah." Kristie said, pressing the button, even though it was already pressed for journey to that floor.

"Thank you."

They slowly ascended their way to the second floor. When the door opened, the man put a hand on Scott's shoulder. "Can you help me out for a second."

"Sure." Scott said. He led the man to where he needed to go, before he and Kristie made their way to find Isaac.

They continued walking. Kristie made her way down the hall when suddenly Scott grabbed her wrist. She looked at him, but soon followed his gaze, seeing an older man wheel Isaac into the elevator. He turned, pressing the button, slyly smiling at Scott.

Scott reacted fast, not giving Kristie much time to think. He ran at the elevator, making it in just enough time to jump in. Kristie saw the number three above the door blink, and she took off toward the stairs. She ran as fast and hard as she could up them. She burst through the door, huffing and puffing just in time to see Derek throwing the guy out. Kristie ran up to them. "Aren't you two supposed to be in school?" He asked them, putting an arm around his girlfriend. Scott sighed and Kristie saw he had wolfed out. .

"We got a serious problem at school." Stiles said over speaker phone, as Scott and Kristie followed Derek into his old house, carrying Isaac. "Ms. Blake's class..."

"Hey, can you tell me about it later?" Scott asked.

"Well, no, pretty sure this qualifies for immediate discussion."

"All right, then meet us at Derek's." Kristie said.

"Derek's house, what? What the hell are you doing at..."

"Just meet us here, okay?" Kristie cut him off. Scott hung up the phone and the two went into the living room, to find Derek crouched toward the ground.

"You don't still live here, do you?" Scott asked.

"No." Derek replied. "The county took it over, but there's something here that I need. "It'll help heal a wound from an Alpha."

"Yeah, but it did heal." Scott said, looking at Isaac, who lay on an old table.

"Not on the inside." He continued to clear off the floor.

"Hey, are you gonna tell us who that was back there?" Kristie asked. "That Alpha."

"A rival pack. It's my problem. I know you two wanna help, and you did. I owe you one. Now go home." Kristie sighed. There was no point in arguing right now. Derek picked up some wolfsbane and went to tend to Isaac. The twins were about to leave, when Scott stopped them.

"Uh, hey, Derek. If you wanna repay back that favor now...There is something you can do for me."

Derek's eyes flashed red as he looked at Scott's shoulder. Kristie bit down on her lip. Those eyes made him to even sexier and more powerful.

"Yeah, I see it." Derek said, his eyes turning back to normal. "It's two bands, right? What does it mean?

"I don't know." Scott replied. "It's just something I traced with my fingers." He said, tracing the pattern in the dust of the table.

"Why is this so important to you?"

"Do you know what the word "tattoo" means?"

"To mark something." Stiles chimed in, giving a smile.

"Well, that's in tahitian. In samoan, it means "open wound." I knew I wanted to get a tattoo when I turned 18. I always wanted one. I just decided to get it now, to make it kind of a reward."

"For what?" Kristie asked.

"For not calling or texting Allison all summer. Even when I really wanted to, even when it was so hard not to sometimes. I was trying to give her the space she wants. Goin' four months later, it still hurts. It still feels like a, uh...

"Like an open wound."

"Yeah."

"The pain's gonna be worse than anything you've ever felt." Derek informed him.

"Ah, that's great." Stiles mumbled.

"Do it." Scott said. And that's when Derek lit the blow torch.

"Oh, wow." Stiles squeeled. "That's a... that's a lot for me. So I'm gonna take that as my cue. I'm just gonna wait outside."

"Nope." Derek said. "You can help Kristie hold him down." Stiles sighed and he and Kristie went over to Scott and held him down. Derek looked at the three before slowly touching the fire to Scott's skin.

That's when the screaming started.

Scott had passed out a few minutes after it started. He remained unconscious, covered in sweat, until he woke up, seeing a permanent tattoo on his arm.

"Well, it looks pretty damn permanent now." Stiles said as the two started to walk out. Kristie was going to stay with Derek for a while. She had her own tattoo to show off.

"I kind of needed something permanent." Scott said. "Everything that's happened to us...everything just changes so fast. Everything's so, uh..."

"Ephemeral." Kristie said, smiling at her brother.

"Studying for the psats?" Stiles asked Kristie, motioning to Scott.

"Yep."

"Nice."

The three exchanged a smile as Scott opened the door. He looked at it, puzzled. "You painted the door." Scott said. "Why'd you paint the door?"

"Go home, Scott." Derek yelled from the other room.

"And why only one side?" He asked. Scott extended his claws and scratched at the door.

"Scott." Derek warned, coming over to them. Scott continued to scratch at the door, until finally, he revealed a black symbol.

"The birds at school and the deer last night... just like the night I got trampled by the deer when I got bit by the Alpha." Scott said.

"How many are there?" Kristie asked.

Derek sighed. "A pack of 'em. An Alpha pack."

"All of them? How does that even work?"

"I hear there's some kind of a leader. He's called Deucalion. We know they have Boyd and Erica. Peter, Isaac, and I have been looking for him for the last four months."

"So that's what you meant by search party, and why I couldn't come along." Kristie sighed.

"Let's say you find them." Scott proposed. "How do you deal with an Alpha pack?"

"With all the help I can get."

"Where is she?" Everyone turned to see Isaac had awoken. "Where's the girl?"

"What girl?" Kristie asked.

"The one from the hospital. The one who saved me."

Sorry this took so long. I've been crazy busy with school right now. The finale was insane! So looking forward to writing that! I hoped you liked this chapter. Sorry for not much original stuff, but I wanted to get this out to you. Look for the new chapter soon. Read and review! :)