Gabriella lies awake under the covers. Unable to sleep, tossing and turning when BOOM.

She bolts upright. The sound is like a thunderclap in the distance.

Turning to the window by her bed, she listens, Then just as she's about to lie back down again BOOM.

This time, with her hearing attuned, the sound is far more distinct.

It's a SHOTGUN BLAST. Scrambling out of bed, Gabriella grabs the nearest pair of shoes and puts them on and grabbing a jacket before jumping out of her window and running towards the sound.

Moving at breakneck speed behind a series of industrial buildings, Hugging corners, Jumping atop a large dumpster being as silent as possible.

As she landed on the ground she saw two people talking a blonde women and a brunette man who she recognized as Chris argent.

She saw somone hiding behind a tree as she foucses her eyes she realized it was Scott, she slowly approaches him and puts a hand around his mouth to stop him from making any noise, and when Scott was gonna claw at her hand Gabriella whispered "Stay quiet it's just me"

After seeing Scott had calmed down she slowly removed her hand from his mouth and focused back to the hunters infront of them.

"How long will it take?"

"I'd give him 48 hours. If that"

[...]

Gabriella was in class knees bouncing nervously underneath her desk thinking back to what the blonde women said 48 hours.

48 hours until what?

Are they gonna kill the alpha.

Do they know who the alpha is?

Did they know about Scott?

Gabriella was pulled out of her train of thought when Scott screams in frustration at Stiles "I DON'T KNOW"

Scott slinks down in his seat when he realizes everyone is staring at him.

The Teacher finally drops Gabriella's test on her desk as she turns it over the teacher drops two tests one on Scott's desk and the other one on stiles's desk

Gabriella's test paper had an A+ on it she smiled before looking behind her to see what her friends got stiles holds up his paper that had an A- on it, she smiled in happy for him and then she looks at scott who had a disappointed look on his face.

She peers over at his paper to see a big D- and a message: Not like you! What's happening? See me after class.

"Dude, you need to study more"

Scott puts his head in hands, overwhelmed.

"he was joking and It's one test, you'll do better next time but if you need help studying, I could come over and help you" Gabriella offered

"thanks but am studying with Allison at her house after school

Stiles smiled proudly "That's my boy"

"We're just studying" Scott said

Gabriella shook her head "No, you're not

Scott looked at her confused "No, I'm not?"

" Scott your going over to a hot girl's house, her parents aren't home and everyone knows that the word studying actually means sex, so bring a condom"

"we are actually just studying and please stop with the questions"

Stiles leans back on his chair "Done. No more talk of Alphas or Derek. Especially Derek... who still scares me"

[...]

Students rush the parking lot, racing for their cars at the end of the day.

Stiles and Gabriella hops into Stiles's Jeep, since Stiles was the one who gave her a ride.

" you know since Allison and Scott are studying maybe we should do a little studying of our own" Gabriella suggested

Stiles cheeks turned red as he pulls out, swinging around for the exit and he was about to answer when Derek steps right in front of him. Stiles SLAMS on the brakes.

All of the cars behind him SQUEAL to a stop as well, a near pile-up in the school lot.

" so much for studying" Gabriella jumps out of the jeep followed by stiles just as Derek collapses right in front of the Jeep,

Scott runs over catching Derek before he falls and then sets him on the ground slowly "What are you doing here? Get up"

Stiles frowns noticing the pale look on the werewolfs face "Dude, he's not looking too good"

Derek who was struggling to spea, spit out "I was shot"

Derek tries to push himself up while Gabriella kneel down to him "Why aren't you healing?"

"I can't. It was a different kind of bullet--"

Stiles eyes widen "A silver bullet?"

"No, you idiot--"

Gabriella thought back to last night with Chris Argent and the woman he was talking to "Wait a second. That's what she meant when she said 48 hours"

"What? Who said 48 hours?"

"The blonde who shot you--"

Derek sucks in a breath, a wave of pain rolls through him, his eyes flicker blue.

Scott looks atound to see if anyone noticed "What are you doing? Stop that"

"That's what I'm trying to tell you. I can't"

Scott grabs him, struggling to keep him from falling to the pavement.

Other students take notice. HORNS start BEEPING behind Stiles's car.

"Get up. Derek, get up"

But he's grounded, seemingly powerless as witnesses come closer and closer...

"he can't, he's to weak" gabriella helps scott who was still struggling to pull Derek up "stiles open the door to your car, we need to put him in"

"Him? My Jeep? No way"

"Stiles!"

Reluctantly, he unlocks his jeep and opened the door while both Jackson and Allison see Scott and Gabriella pushing Derek into the Jeep.

But as he slumps down in the backseat, Derek latches onto Gabriella's arm, not letting her go. "I need you to find the same kind of bullet. I have to know what they used"

"How are we supposed to do that?"

"She's an Argent. She's with them"

"ok Scott you go to the argent house and find out what bullet was used"

"Why should I do it?"

" Because we can't find the alpha if Derek is dead and your already going over to them" Gabriella explained

Stiles slams the door shut on his side. People now SHOUT from their cars for him to get out of the way.

" Fine, fine. I'll try. Just Get him out of here"

"I hate you for this"

Stiles drove away with Gabriella and Derek in the back frustrated because he has been cock blocked once again.

[...]

Gabriella is in the backseat next to Derek putting pressure on his wounds and taking away his pain, while Stiles is driving them to the hale residents

"Try to not to bleed out on my seats, okay? We're almost there"

" Almost where?"

" Your house"

"No. You can't take me there"

"why can't he take you to your house?" Gabriella put more pressure on his wounds

Derek groaned from the pain "because the hunters know i live there and I can't protect myself"

Stiles hits the BRAKES, skidding to a stop "What happens if Scott doesn't find your magic bullet? Are you dying?"

"Not yet. I have a last resort"

"What do you mean? What last resort?"

Derek looks at Gabriella with a blank expression making her eyes widen realizing what the last resort was "Trust me you don't wanna know"

Derek exposes his gunshot wound. It's stopped bleeding, but the veins surrounding it climb from his forearm like vines, creeping toward his inner elbow.

" What is that? Is that contagious? Maybe you should just get out"

" seriously stiles"

Derek looked at stiles weakly "Start the car. Now"

"I don't think you should be giving orders the way you look. In fact, I think if I wanted to, I could probably drag your werewolf ass out to the middle of the road and leave you for dead"

"Start the car or I'm going to rip your throat out with my teeth" Derek and Gabriella stare at him as Stiles starts the car.

"Where the hell are we suppose to go"

" my house" Gabriella said

" aren't you parents home?"

"no, I'm emancipated"

"wha- since when!"

" since I moved here" Gabriella looks away from him not wanting to answer any more questions about her past or family.

[...]

The door to Gabriella's house swings open and stiles clicks on a light while Gabriella is helping derek to the couch.

"Does northern blue monkshood mean anything to you?" Stiles turns the phone so it's now facing the two werewolves and on the screen is a picture from Scott that shows a bullet case.

On the back is an engraved with an image of a flower called northern blue monkshood .

Gabriella nods " yea It's a rare form of Wolfsbane. Tell scott to bring the bullet"

"Why?"

"Because he will die without it"

Derek slowly pulls his shirt off to reveal the gunshot wound is now far worse, veins branch out from open sores while the rest of his arm has turned a sickening yellow.

"Well, that doesn't look like anything some Echinacea and a good night's sleep couldn't take care of"

Gabriella looked at Stiles in disbelief before tying a tourniquet tightly above his wound.

"When the infection reaches my heart, it'll kill me"

"Positivity just isn't in your vocabulary, is it?"

"If he doesn't get here with the bullet in time... last resort"

Gabriella sighs before moving out of the living room to head to the garage "I'll grab the chainsaw"

Stiles eyes widen looking between the two werewolves "wait why!?"

"because you two are going to cut off my arm"

[...]

Gabriella, stiles and Derek have been waiting half an hour since Stiles found out about the the last resort and they have been waiting for scott to bring the bullet.

But now they can't wait any longer if they it's gonna be to late.

"What if you bleed to death?" Stiles asked nervously

'he'll heal... I mean If it works he'll heal" Gabriella tried to reassure him

"I don't know if I can do this"

"Why not?" Derek looked at him

"Because of the cutting through flesh, the sawing of bone, and especially the blood"

"You faint at the sight of blood?"

Stiles raised his voice "No. But I might at the sight of a chopped off arm"

" you don't have to do it you can wait outside while I cut off the arm"

"how the hell are you not phased by this"

Before Gabriella could answer Derek starts gasping, choking and coughing.

Hunching over, he opens his mouth as if to throw up. But instead of vomit, an inky black liquid is choked out, spilling across the floor.

Stiles looked away and whined 'Holy God, what the hell is that?"

"his body is trying to heal"

"It's not doing a very good job"

Kneeling on the floor, Derek looks up with glowing blue eyes "Now... You have to do this now"

Dragging himself up, he puts his infected arm on the table where Gabriella has sterilized it.

Gabriella Placed the edge of the chainsaw against Derek's skin, just above the furthest-reaching infected vein, Stiles takes a deep breath Turning away from the two trying not to faint

just as Gabriella was about to start up the chainsaw.

Scott bursts through the door, shocked to see Gabriella preparing to saw off Derek's arm "What the hell are you doing?"

Stiles sighes in relief "You just prevented a lifetime of nightmares"

"Did you get it? " Scott holds up the bullet. Gabriella grabs it, raises it up to look at it in the light.

"What are you going to do?"

"first we are gon-"

Gabriella was interrupted by derek Collapsing right to the floor.

" crap" Gabriella quickly kneels down and cracks the tip open and pulls out lighter from her pocket.

She holds the flame to the contents inside, sparks fly as bits of wolfsbane light aflame.

She palms the smoldering ashes and grinds it into Derek's gunshot wound.

As she did that Derek gained consciousness and winced in pain, he opens his mouth, revealing his sharpened fangs.

Derek tilts his head back and screams.

It's an ear-piercing, earth shattering howl of agony, and then In seconds, the open sores close, wounds healing, returning to normal.

Scott and Stiles share a incredulous look.

Stiles smiled "That....Was.... Awesome!"

Derek's eyes blink open. Slowly, he pushes himself back up from the floor Catching his breath, he stands upright.

'Are you okay?"

"Except for the agonizing pain"

"I'm guessing the ability to use sarcasm is a sign of good health"

Derek grabs his shirt, pulling it back on.

"great we saved your life, but now Allison's family hates me" Scott whined

" your seriously want that family to like you? So what... when they find out your a werewolf there gonna help you and not kill you?"

"yes, They're a lot freaking nicer than you are"

"don't say that, you have no idea what the argents are really like" Gabriella said remembering the things her father told her about them

" What do you mean?"

[...]

Gabriella, Derek and scott are in the hospital, they walk past a sign that reads: LONG-TERM CARE

Scott and Gabriella follows Derek past it while Scott throws glances back to see if they're still alone in the hall.

"What are we doing here?"

But Derek doesn't answer, just continuing toward a room at the end of the hall.

Derek ushers the teenagers into the dark hospital room, quietly closing the door behind them.

He pulls the curtain back from the window to let in the moonlight which reveals a man in a wheelchair sitting nearby.

Only one side of his body can be seen, a blank, catatonic expression on his face.

"Who is he?" Gabriella asked

"My uncle. Peter Hale"

Scott looked away from him "Is he... like you? A werewolf?"

"He was. Now he's barely even human" Grabing the arm of the chair, he pulls
Peter hale around,

As the man's head lolls to the side, Scott and Gabriella see severe burn scars on the other side of his body.

Darkened flesh twists across his face, down his neck and arm.

"Six years ago my sister and I were at school when my house caught fire Eleven people were trapped inside he was the only survivor"

"How are you so sure they set the fire?" Scott said not wanting to believe his girlfriend's family are actually monsters

"They're the only ones who knew about us"

"Then they had a reason"

Gabriella looked at him in disbelief "seriously Scott?! What justifies this? They literally murdered his entire pack and countless other people and lets not forget he literally tried to kill you just because your a werewolf even though you have never spilled innocent blood an-"

Gabriella pauses, sensing something, she takes a step back as the door opens, a night nurse, named Jennifer was looking in "What are you doing? How did you get in here?"

She retreats from the door as if to yell for security. But then stops when she sees Derek in the light from the window.

" We were leaving"

"Wait. Are you a relative?"

He doesn't answer, heading past her. Not knowing what else to do, Scott and Gabriella follow ignoring how the night nurse looksed at them with curious.

[...]

Gabriella enters her house, shoulders slumped, her eyes heavy with exhaustion.

Her heart aches with the weight of emotions she's been holding in all day.

Gabriella collapses onto the living room couch, burying her face in the couch cushions.

The room is filled with memories of her mother: photographs on the walls, a vase of her favorite flowers, and the lingering scent of her perfume, that Gabriella bought and sprayed in her house everyday not wanting to forget her mother

Gabriella's tears finally break free, and her sobs fill the room. She clutches a framed photo of her mother, her fingers tracing the smiling face frozen in time.

"I miss you, Mom. Today was so hard, and I needed you here, argent family is bringing back up unwanted emotions, I mean they are the reason our family is so messed up"

She clings to the photo as if trying to bridge the gap between the living and the departed.

The room remains silent, except for the soft weeping of a daughter who still longs for her mother's comforting presence.

So we found out one more clue about Gabriella's past, originally i was gonna make the ending smut with stiles but it didn't fit into the vibe of the chapter