The following morning Daire met up with Stiles and Scott after an odd encounter with her family last night and an even weirder run in with Allison.

"Call it again," Scott panicked as he dug through piles of comic books and movies as Daire walked into his room.

Stiles sat on a desk chair as Scott frantically searched for his phone. Daire gave Stiles a small wave before plopping herself on Scott's bed.

"It's not here," Stiles said as Scott basically pushed Daire (who was comfortable thank you very much) off his bed to search the other side. "So you lost your phone. Just get a new one."

"I cant afford a new one," Scott scoffed from under his bed, how he could fit under there Daire had no idea. "And I can't do this alone. We have to find Derek."

"Well, A, you're not alone," Stiles said. "You have me."

Daire punched him in the arm.

"Ouch. And Daire," Stiles added while rubbing his now bruised arm. "And B. didn't you say Derek walked into gunfire? He sounds pretty dead to me."

" One you said that when Peter impaled him, and two I'm pretty sure my family has him locked up and are planning to use him to get to the alpha aka Mr. crazy pants" Daire ranted stepping out of Scott's way.

"Alright, so just let them to do what they're planning," Stiles said as Scott tossed his jeans out of his closet. A pair landed on Daire and she prayed to god that Mrs. McCall actually did the laundry. "They use Derek to get Peter, problem solved."

"Not, if Peter's going after Allison to find Derek!" Scott yelled. "I can't protect her on my own, meaning we need to find Derek first. Just help me."

Stiles raised an eyebrow as a ball bounced off his head. Daire bit her cheek to keep from laughing. "You know, you probably lost it when you two were fighting. You know, when he was trying to kill you after you interrupted him trying to kill Jackson? Are you starting to see a pattern of violent behavior here?"

"He wasn't going to kill anyone," Scott said sternly. "And I'm not letting him die."

"Ugh, could you at least think about letting him die? For me?" Stiles asked.

Daire Gibbs slapped him in response.

"OWW!" he yelled. " See Scott more violent behavior! When will the cycle stop?"

Daire rolled her eyes, "I've always been violent...ish and you're the one asking for it with your stupid questions"

Scott was no longer paying attention to his two friends, he was tuning into his werewolf senses.

"Hey Scott, what's going on?" Daire asked.

"My mom just got home from work," he said. He was quiet; a pained expression etched itself across his face.

"Is she okay?" Stiles asked, moving back and forth on the chair.

Scott just shook his head as he sat by Daire.

"What's she doing?" Stiles asked.

Scott hung his head, not saying a single word. Daire took one more look at his crestfallen face before she sighed.

"She's crying. Isn't she?" Daire asked softly.

Scott nodded his head, still not speaking.

Daire reached over and placed her hand over his, " Scott, you know you can't protect everyone, right?"

Scott lifted up his head, wearing the most serious expression Daire has ever seen and looked her in the eyes, "I have to."

☾

" So did you scare him into asking Allison to the dance?" Daire asked as Scott and Stiles met her near Allison's locker.

The boys had her wait there as they went to interrogate Jackass in the locker room and convince him to take Allison to the dance since Scott was put on academic probation. Daire figured that at some point she would have to get into the lacrosse team or become Finstock's personal assistant or something so she could at least feel like she was in the loop, because currently Jackson was sweating buckets at Allison's locker and Daire is disappointed that she missed all the fun.

"How do you think?" Scott smirked as Daire watched Jackass all freaked out pelting her cousin with questions. Daire looked back at Scott, who seemed slightly pissed off that Jackson was now making Allison laugh.

Stiles patted his shoulder. "Don't worry, we'll still be there."

He looked back at them, "I'll still be there,"

Stiles looked at him with a raised eyebrow. "Is that such a good idea? Do you even have a date?"

Scott looked at Daire who just shook her head; as much as she wanted to help she did have a boy that she didn't want to think she was taken. A cute tall, awkward, curly haired boy.

"Not yet."

"A suit?"

"Not yet," Scott replied, leaning his back against the wall.

"Do you have a ticket to the formal? A ride there?" Stiles asked.

"No and no," Scott sighed, now seeing the holes in his plan.

"So you're going to ride your bike to a dance you're not even allowed to go to, without a suit, a date, a way in, with werewolves and werewolf hunters out to kick your little werewolf ass?"

"Yeah," Scott laughed, "You two gonna help me?"

Daire and Stiles shared a look before pulling Scott into a 3 way hug, " Hell yeah."

☾

Allison, Lydia and Daire were clustered in a small group as the escalator carried them up to the top. They were in Macy's and Lydia was determined on finding the Argent girls perfect dresses, no matter how much Daire complained.

"Nothing's wrong," Allison told them. "I just, have a lot on my mind."

"Well, you could at least smile, Ever hear the saying 'Never frown, someone could be falling in love with your smile'?" Lydia asked. "Smile Allison. I'm buying you a dress."

" I have to say as far as apologies go that is more than I expected." Allison admitted to the strawberry blonde. From what Daire could gather it was an apology for Lydia making out with Scott, Daire was just glad she punched the poor kid before he could kiss her.

"Great" Lydia stated as they continued up the escalator.

" But not as much as I'm gonna ask" Allison continued. Daire lifted her eyebrow in interest.

"Wait what's that supposed to mean?" Lydia questioned.

"It means your going to cancel on whatever jock you said yes to and your going to go with somebody else." Allison continued once they reached the floor.

"Who?"

Allison turned and the other two girls followed to see Stiles leaning up against the glass case on the perfume counter. Holding up a bottle of perfume in front of his face. Apparently the idiot wanted to know what it smelt like and sprayed him self in the face. He began to sneeze seeing as he was dumb enough to spray the damn thing less than 5 inches away from his face.

"Him." Allison concluded.

Daire couldn't help but smile and look at her cousin and then back at Lydia, "Don't frown Lydia, someone could be falling in love with your smile." She teased as she gestured to Stiles to join them in the dress section.

"How many dresses are you going to try on?" Stiles asked as Lydia piled on the dresses in his arms. "Are you going to just try these on right now? All of them? Is this a 24 hour Macy's?" Stiles continued to question the love of his life as she strutted away to the changing room.

" I cant imagine how happy he is that he is actually interacting with Lydia Martin" Daire teased to Allison as the girls riffled through the dresses.

" He's probably so excited," Allison grinned placing a black and white dress in front of her self in a mirror.

"That's cute." Daire commented. "Hey I'm gonna go look over there." She said walking towards the darker colored dresses.

Daire was debating over a navy blue lace dress with a cute tool skirt and a black skater dress with an Aztec pattern on the top. Her inner debate was interrupted by the stores' intercom reporting that Allison's car was being towed.

Still holding on to the dresses Daire quickly made her way over to Scott, who was sitting behind a mannequin, "What happened? Is Allison okay?" she asked.

" You don't even want to know."