A/N AUGUST 4, 2013: GUYS I'M BACK! HERE'S THE OFFICIAL FIRST CHAPTER :)

Chapter 1 – FAMILY TIES

You know what's so great about being eighteen? You get to do a lot of things without your parent's permission.

You can finally vote, go to a strip club, buy cigarettes, and in my case, you can rent a hotel room.

After the fight my dad and I had, I packed up and the next day I left the house.

I was pissed off and I couldn't stand to be around my dad. I stayed up in my room all day and when I knew he left the house, I got my bags and drove off. At first, I wasn't sure where I was going. And now I'm still not sure. So I stopped right outside of town and got a room at a cheap motel near the highway.

It's been a few hours, and I wasn't sure if my dad was home or not.

I knew he'd know something was wrong as soon as he notices my car is gone. Will he look for me? I don't know. Most likely he will. But I'm not going back to that house, at least not right now. I needed some time for myself. I needed time to go back on everything that had just happened in the last 48 hours.

Peter was dead. That made Derek the alpha because he killed him.

Both my father and Allison's knew Scott was a werewolf.

My dad knew about werewolves and hunters.

How did I manage to end up like this, honestly? Could I not have a break from stress? No?

Shaking my head, I stood up slowly and headed to the bathroom for a hot shower. My body was still really sore from all that I had gone through. After I had taken a shower at home and was all cleaned up, I had inspected my body for damages.

I had a few bruises all around, claw marks on my right arm, and a nasty cut on my forehead. I also had a dark bruise on my cheek. Today, they looked the same. Nothing looked like it was healing but it had only been two days so I couldn't do much right now but wait until I heal.

I had remembered that Peter was the one to knock me out right before everything went down. I was out of it long enough for them to take Peter down and burn him.

The day after everything had happened, Stiles called to talk and told me Kate was dead, and Lydia was in the hospital.

Peter had either bitten or scratched her, and they were afraid she would be turning into a werewolf. None of us were sure how we felt about that, because I mean… it was Lydia. Who knows what would happen with her as a werewolf. She's mean now, imagine then…

I stripped all my clothes off and turned the water on in the shower and waited for it to get hot. As soon as it was ready, I stepped in carefully and let out a content sigh when the water hit my skin.

I let the water run down my body and I stayed like that for I don't know how long. Eventually though, I finished up. Just as soon as I was done blow-drying my hair, I heard a noise out in the room. I shut the bathroom light off, tightening my towel around me.

My damp hair dripped just a little and I shook it out a bit. I carefully opened the bathroom door and peeked out. I had left a lamp on next to the bed, but it was really faint so I couldn't see much.

I probably just imagined whatever I heard, I told myself.

Shaking my head, I opened up the door wide and stepped out and headed over to my bag that was next to the window. I bent down and then I heard a clearing of throat and when I turned I let out a scream.

"Scott! What the hell!"

Scott looked at me with his hands up in surrender and gave me a sheepish grin.

"Sorry, you weren't returning my calls…"

Rolling my eyes, I grabbed the closest thing to me, which was a pamphlet of nearby restaurants and shops and threw it in his direction. It missed completely and I groaned.

"Give me a minute, I'm gonna change." I muttered, walking past him.

As soon as I was dressed in my pajamas, I walked out to see that Scott had sat down on the bed. He patted the spot next to him and I raised an eyebrow. Did he really think I felt like sitting down next to him at the moment?

"Did you get a haircut?" I asked.

"Yeah, I did… but that's not why I'm here." He said shaking his head.

"Okay look, I just want you to be careful, alright? We just got word that Lydia escaped the hospital. I was out all night with Stiles trying to find her but so far we've got nothing. There was a bloody scene in an ambulance that got stopped not too far from here. We think maybe it was her, but we're not sure yet." He explained.

"You think Lydia really turned?" I asked.

Scott sighed, "I have no idea! We're not sure. Maybe it's her… maybe it's not… but it's not looking so good right now. With everything that happened the other night, and now she's gone and this random attack happened, it can't be a coincidence."

I gave in and went to sit next to him, looking down for a moment.

"You'll find her, I know you will. I trust you, Scott you got this. She couldn't have gotten very far. Do you have any leads, a scent?"

Scott nodded, "I got Stiles to get me her hospital gown. The scent was pretty strong and I was able to make it out here and there around town. It's hard to pinpoint exactly where she could be though. I'm still getting used to this, it's not easy."

I patted his leg and we just looked at each other for a moment.

"We're gonna be okay. We'll figure this all out together. You have me and Stiles."

"Thanks." Scott said with a smile and shifted to sit up properly.

"How's your arm?" he asked.

I looked down to the side and frowned. I don't remember mentioning anything about my arm, but as I lifted the sleeve up, I saw a small trickle of blood start oozing out of the deep wound. I stood up quickly and grabbed my towel to wipe the blood off.

"Nothing, it's fine… it just happened the other night… with Peter. It hasn't been healing correctly yet." I muttered.

"You should… you know… ask Derek about it." He said.

Turning my head up sharply, I raised an eyebrow, "Ask Derek? Really?"

Scott rolled his eyes, "I know he's around here somewhere. I haven't seen him since that night. But I know he's somewhere in town, or out of town. I caught his scent close by here actually. I have a feeling maybe he knew you were here and he was checking up on you."

I snorted, "Sure. Okay."

"I'm serious though… I have a feeling in my gut he was around. If that thing doesn't heal normally by the end of the week like it should, we're going to find him and talk to him, alright?" he said.

"Sure, whatever." I sighed.

"Good. I should get home now, my mom's getting there anytime soon now. Come back tomorrow, I know your dad is worried."

I looked up, "How do you know that?"

"Because he made Stiles' dad send out half his team to go on a lookout for you this afternoon." He said quietly, "Also, I'd like you back. School isn't the same. You should really come back for all of us."

With that, he took a few steps back and he was out the door.

I groaned loudly and threw myself backwards, wincing in pain slightly. Tomorrow was going to be one hell of a day if I was going back. My dad was going to have a million questions and he would probably ground me until graduation day. I stood up to lock the door and get into bed thinking about all the different scenarios that could occur the following day.

Later on in the early hours of the morning, my dreams were filled with fire and screaming people for the third consecutive night.

I parked onto the side of the road next to my house the next day at around noon. My dad's truck was nowhere to be seen but his Impala was out in the driveway and I could see his legs coming out from under the car. As soon as I stepped out, I took a deep breath and counted my blessings as I walked over to him. I saw his legs stop moving when he heard my footsteps and he slowly pushed himself out from under.

There was an angry look on his face, but also a tired one.

"Dad." I said and crossed my arms.

Closing his eyes, he rubbed his forehead with his forearm and wiped his hands on a dirty mechanic's rag. He stood up, fixing his wife-beater (A/N: WHY DO THEY EVEN CALL THESE SHIRTS THAT OMFG) and set a heavy looking wrench down. Giving me a once over, I was pretty sure he was making sure I looked physically all right, and that nothing was wrong. When he figured out I was okay, he suddenly grabbed my arm roughly and pulled me into him. His arms went around me tightly and I heard him let out a deep breath.

"Valerie, I swear to God, if you ever pull some shit like this again…" he said in a steady voice.

I didn't need him to finish his sentence to know what he meant.

"I'm sorry." I said quietly and wrapped my arms around him.

After a moment, he pulled back and sighed, looking down at me.

"Are you hungry?"

"Starving."

We headed inside where he washed up quickly and made us some burgers on the grill outback. There wasn't much said except for he occasional 'pass me this' or 'hand me that.' I was pretty sure he was waiting to go on a rant, I was sure of it. Any time now he was going to blow. Halfway between cooking, he had gone inside and I saw him go on his cell phone for a short minute. After that he came back out and finished grilling our food.

Sitting in silence, we began to eat before he popped the question.

"Where were you?"

I sighed and set my burger down.

"I was at a motel, clearing my head. I needed some space."

"If you need some space, lock yourself in your room. Tell me to leave the house, don't just up and pack and not tell me where you are for three days." He said, eerily quiet.

"Sorry, I just needed time away from here. From everything that happened. From the lies. I just needed to get away."

He slammed his knife down and I jumped a little by surprise.

"Damn it! Valerie, you are my daughter! I have to know where you are at all times no matter what age you are! Eight, eighteen, eighty! I don't care! You have no idea what it feels like for me! You have no idea what I went through these past few days, wondering where you were, what you were doing, I'm lucky that Sherriff Stilinski told me his son was in contact with you if not I would have gotten the damn FBI to look for you. I don't want you to leave like that ever again, do you hear me Valerie Renee Carson, I swear I'll lock you up until you're fifty!"

While he went on his rant, he had stood up mid-way and he was clutching his knife tightly in his hand. He looked scared, sad, and mad. I realized I must have put him under a lot of pressure. I instantly felt guilty. Standing up, I walked around the table and took the knife from his hand and set it down. I wrapped my arms around him once again, and I felt a few tears slip down my cheeks.

"I'm sorry dad, I am." And I meant it.

After we had finished our lunch, we went back out to the front and I helped him fix up the Impala a bit. There was something wrong with the breaks and my dad was trying to figure out exactly what it was. We spent the rest of the day doing just that and he let me stay home for a few days so we could both recover.

In those few days, we talked about werewolves. It was a very long and odd conversation. He of course wanted to hear about my side, and I told him half the story. I didn't want him knowing how I was sorta-kinda involved with a former suspect of a murder. It would have been way too complicated. I learned about how he and Allison's dad had met, and he also told me about Kate.

Speaking of, there was a funeral planned the following Monday and the Argents had asked for my dad to go, which included myself as well. Apparently Allison hadn't been in school this whole week because there was a lot of press around trying to get information on Kate and the Hale house.

At the end of that day, I could honestly say that my dad and I were much closer now without all the lies and sneaking around between us. We started to trust each other openly. I was feeling a lot better since the night of the showdown. The only downside was that I was still having nightmares filled with fire.

[ END OF CHAPTER ]

WOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOO THAT WAS THE MUCH AWAITED FIRST CHAPTER!

PRETTY SLOW, I KNOW (I THINK?)…. BUT I PROMISE THINGS WILL BE PICKING UP!

A lot of you thought it was going to be Derek that popped up here haha xD Sadly no, not this time…. But most definitely next time…. I think…. YOU'RE JUST GOING TO HAVE TO FIND OUT HA.

I HAVE SO MUCH IN STORE FOR YOU GUYS, AND OMFG SEASON 3 HAD BEEN FUCKING CRAZYYYYYY. I HAVE SOME KICK ASS IDEAS WRITTEN DOWN TO WRITE ABOUT WHEN THE TIME COMES!kjwnakjldqwjdkqwed babyDEREKEKKKDJEKDJOIEDJEDJ(jjwednwed3489

Don't forget to come back, it's going to be fun introducing all the new characters like Isaac and Erica, and AHHH kjndkjdwnw love you guys so much :))))))

Reviews keep me going!