Hey, guys! Thought I'd write something since I heard that Daniel isn't returning for s4 :[

"Is there anything I can do to change your mind?"

Isaac's hands stiffened around the zipper of his bag, shutting his eyes tight. Why did Scott have to make this harder for him?

"Sorry. But my mind's made up," the beta said finally, forcing himself to turn all the way around with a straight face.

But after meeting the true alpha's gaze, he just...couldn't.

Scott appraised his friend sadly, looking at him from underneath his long eyelashes, feeling a growing emptiness inside.

"There's nothing for me here," Isaac tried to convince him-and possibly himself.

"Yes...there is," Scott replied slowly, taking a step forward.

"I have nobody-"

"You have me," Scott corrected, taking another step closer. "You have my mom, you have the pack."

"Well yeah, but-"

"Who else do you need?" he went on. "All I have is my mom, Stiles, you, Derek, Kira, Lydia, and the rest of the pack. You guys are all I need. Allison is dead and it tore you apart. It was the same for me too...But she's still with us. She'll always be with us." He placed his hand over his heart. "In here."

"And I get that, but-"

"But what?"

"Scott, look at you! There's a difference between you and me. There's a reason why you became a true alpha. I always screw up everything..."

"You think I don't screw up too? You think I don't make mistakes?"

"No, but you're always able to fix things. I...can't."

"What do you mean you can't?"

"How hard is it for you to understand that I don't belong here?!" Realizing he was raising his voice, Isaac took a deep breath and treaded carefully. "Look...if you leave, right now. If you just dropped everything...and left, or went missing, how many people would you think would drop everything they're doing and go after you?"

Scott was quiet for a moment.

"Me leaving would be nothing...it would mean nothing," Isaac nearly whispered.

"Are you sure?" Scott enunciated. "Are you sure about that?"

"There's nothing you can say that can convince me otherwise."

Isaac slung his bag over his shoulder, and Scott was quick to block the doorway. Both pair of eyes were glassy as they stared each other down.

Isaac swallowed inaudibly before, after a beat, stalked forward and engulfed his friend in a tight embrace. Scott pounded his back, holding him just as fiercely, his eyes closing for a bit to relish in the moment a while longer.

"If you stay...I'll pay for Mexican?" Scott attempted, and Isaac laughed weakly against him.

His smile faltered as he focused on not letting his tears betray him. "I'm gonna miss you."

Scott nodded, his voice cracking, "You too."

"Thank you." He gave him one last squeeze. "For everything."

Scott clenched his jaw, stiffly following Isaac's retreating form down the stairs.

But when Isaac reached the bottom step, he froze.

Because there, standing before him, were the remaining, permanent members of the McCall Pack; Stiles, Malia, Kira, Derek, and Lydia. Mama McCall was at work, and Papa Stilinski was working a late night shift. Ethan left town after his brother's death.

"What's...going on?" Isaac asked slowly.

"Please don't go, Isaac," begged Kira, and Scott moved to stand next to her.

"Yeah, even if you are a pain in the ass," said Stiles, and Scott chuckled. Isaac rolled his eyes but smiled anyway.

The two Hales in the room, with their arms crossed, nodded in silent agreement. Derek regretted throwing Isaac out, but the latter proved himself to be a worthy and trusted ally. Malia didn't know Isaac personally, but from what she's heard, she wouldn't want him to leave either if she was close with him too.

"Allison may be gone..." Lydia's gaze slowly drifted from the floor, all the way up to his shining eyes at the mention of the archeress. "But none of these guys are going anywhere. And neither am I."

Isaac stared at her in disbelief and awe.

"You see?" Scott softly smiled. "If you really wanna leave, you're gonna have to get through all seven of us."

Isaac rose a skeptical eyebrow at the only human in the room, lips twitching in the corners. Stiles slowly raised his iron bat, and both Kira and Malia giggled.

He looked at Lydia, crossing his arms. "And what are you going to do?"

Lydia stared him down boldly, giving him the physical definition of sass. "I'll scream."

"She's not kidding," Stiles added.

"Point taken," said Isaac sheepishly.

"She loved you, you know."

Isaac looked up to see Lydia standing behind him on the porch. He wanted to escape the little going-away-but-really-getting-you-to-stay party before it got too mushy in there. Derek left a while ago to leave the teens be. Scott, Kira, Stiles, and Malia were all curled up on the couch together, skimming through the movie channels. Seeing them be all couple-y made Isaac uncomfortable and this was where he ended up.

"Not like the way she loved Scott," he said, lacing his fingers over his knees. "It was always him..."

"Can you blame her?"

Isaac hung his head.

"Did you come out here to make a point or just make me feel worse?"

"Both."

Isaac smiled a little, and he was surprised when she sat down next to him and smoothed out her skirt.

"So..."

"So."

"Uh..."

"Are you really leaving?"

"Yeah."

Silence.

"Are you really gonna stop me?"

"I don't know."

"Will you text me?"

"Probably."

"Why?"

"What do you mean?"

"Because not even a year ago, I tried to hurt you?"

Lydia softly smiled. "Not even a year ago, Allison stabbed you. Multiple times. And that didn't stop you from having feelings for her."

Isaac smiled weakly.

"What do you think of me, Lydia? Really?"

Lydia was quiet for a long time. Then, just because she could, she reached over and took one of his hands. "Well...you're tall, you have curly hair, I love your scarves..." He smiled again at that part. "You only went after me because you thought I was the kanima. I get that. Even I didn't know what the hell was wrong with me...

"Then you started taking an interest in my best friend, and I knew she started to like you back. The sexual tension between you two began to get on my nerves, up until I saw you two dancing together at the blacklight party.

"And we can even go further back, to that time when you asked me out freshman year..." Their eyes met full on then, Isaac embarrassed and Lydia sheepish. "I'm sorry."

"What're you sorry for?"

"I was so rude to you back then-"

"Yeah, but you've changed."

"And so have you."

They were silent again. Isaac decided he liked the warmth radiating off of Lydia's hand. It felt nice.

"I do...have a family here..." he broke the silence quietly, and she eyed him out of her peripheral vision. "But...I'm still going with Mr. Argent."

Lydia nodded.

"Maybe...I can come back?"

"And if you don't?"

Isaac's head was hung again.

"If you're gonna leave, then you might as well leave a token of your gratitude." Lydia freed her hand to poise it out expectantly. "Scarf. Hand it over."

Isaac gasped, hands fluttering to the scarf around his neck. "But...b-but it's the blue one!"

"Yes, and it brings out the color in your eyes-now give it!"

"Nuah!"

And that's how the wrestling started. Well, Lydia was using all her strength and Isaac was being gentle with her. Okay. She was definitely not gonna make this any easier. Screw pretending like he didn't care about her.

Because he did.

Ever since Scott became his alpha (and this was before Scott even scored the red eyes), his friends became Isaac's top priority. After Erica and Boyd died, well...Scott was determined to keep everyone safe. This included Stiles, who Isaac loved to mess with, Derek, his former alpha, Allison...

And even Lydia.

Lydia had been right. Isaac couldn't care less about Allison.

Up until the feelings came along. He was still bothered by the fact that their relationship might have been built upon sexual tension. Lust.

He knew about the hallucinations, and when he saved Lydia from her own best friend, he realized he cared for the small girl too.

"Okay, okay, okay-! I'll give you the scarf-on one condition."

Lydia leaned back. "What?"

Why in the hell did I just-? "I get a kiss from a pretty girl."

Lydia blinked, and his gaze drifted down to those plump, ruby red lips.

"I'll go get Kira," Lydia offered, but Isaac stopped her with a hand on her wrist. She smiled and took his face in her hands. Why not?

And then she kissed him. It was short, chaste, and sweet, and Isaac was perfectly still. But his senses were on fire, taking in all that was Lydia. Her long hair falling on his arms as she closed the distance between them, the sweet smell of strawberries and perfume that was her natural scent, and he could barely feel their chests brushing against each other and-

The kiss was over.

Mr. Argent pulled up in the driveway.

"Bye, Iz," Lydia whispered.

They were standing now, just as the others piled out onto the porch. Isaac turned to face her one final time, already unwinding his scarf. His gaze lingered on hers as he gingerly wrapped the scarf around her neck instead; she threw herself at him one more time, he giving her one final squeeze and whispering in her ear, "Bye, Lyds."

He didn't look back as Mr. Argent drove them out of the neighborhood. But if he did, he would have seen Lydia run into Stiles' arms and Scott enveloping the remaining members of his pack in a group hug.

It wouldn't be the same without him.

It never will be.