Bullseye

By: Riley

Summary – Lydia gets some help when taking up archery.

With the moonlight streaming around her in shafts of warm light combating the darkness of the dry forest trees around her, Lydia Martin wondered if she had truly gone crazy. If not having lost a bit of her mind to have even suggested this in the first place. But it was too late to turn back now.

Taking a deep breath, Lydia turned towards Chris Argent, holding out her closed fist. Looking into his eyes, she rotated her wrist so that her fingers faced up towards him, still curled into her fleshy palm, and opened her fingers.

Chris stared back at her, his lower jaw trembling for a moment. Then he pressed his lips together and swallowed hard, the skin at the sides of his jaw moving outward as he tried to swallow his emotion. The two understood the point of the exercise, but it was still going to be hard. Harder than they had anticipated. Slowly, she opened her hand and waited, waited for him to do what he was scared to do. Waited for him to pass the proverbial torch over to someone outside of the Argent family. She didn't even know if she could do it, but she had to try.

The two continued to stare at each other for a few moments then Chris reached into the quiver that lay across her chest and pulled out an arrow. Lydia took a deep breath as she tightened her grip against the bow she held onto for dear life. Allison's bow. They were her arrows, as well. Chris took in a deep breath and nodded, pressing the arrow into Lydia's palm. Before she could talk herself out of it, she took the arrow, turned around and strung it into the bow, aiming herself at the target that lay across the clearing that same way she had seen Allison do hundreds of times before.

And she stood there in silence, taking it all in. The moonlight, the gentle touch of wind that moved across her cheek like a stroke of gentle fingers, the stillness of the area around them. She took the few moments to imagine what it would be like to know it was what she was destined to do. Not to be a werewolf hunter in particular, but to know there was something she could physically do to help her friends. It was all she wanted to do. To help. But she couldn't help her best friend.

Lydia took in another breath and steadied herself as she gazed at the target. She did the same thing Allison did, lowered her arms to rest then brought it back up and drew back the bow, straightening her arm so that her fingers gently graze her jaw, strawberry blonde hair pulled back behind her ears. She took another calming breath, squeezed an eye shut to steady her vision, and released her breath.

She let go of the bow, the string gracefully plucked from her fingers, allowing the arrow to rocket across the clearing towards the target. And Lydia closed her eyes, turning her head away as time seemed to slow down around her. It came almost instantly, just as soon as the arrow left her fingers. The voices. No, just one voice. Not just any voice. The voice. The voice she longed to hear.

"Lydia."

"Lydia!"

"Lydia…"

"Lyddie."

Allison.

Alli.

She could hear her best friend's voice whistling around her, whispering, taunting, laughing, cheerful, sad, proud, hurt. Every feeling, every emotion Allison had ever gone through, everything that Lydia had been there for to see her best friend go through, she heard in each and every whisper of her name. She had always hoped to hear Allison's voice one more time, the last message on her voicemail didn't help; it was panicked, scared, but strong and talking about the battle they were going to go into to save Stiles. she had seen her best friend go through before her life had been taken away from her too soon.

Oh how Lydia's heart hurt. The pain made her squeeze her eyes so tightly it was as if her eyes were about to pop out of her head due to the pressure. A burning red pressure that made its way to her chest and heart, incinerating everything in its path. It was worse than being punched in the stomach, worse than breaking a nail, worse than stubbing a pinkie toe on the leg of a bed. This pain seized her heart and lungs, and she distinctly heard something crack. She didn't feel it, but heard it and immediately the pain was gone, flushed out of her system and replaced with numbing cold.

Her heart broke.

It had been bruised and battered through Jackson and Aiden but still held strong. In the days before and after her best friend's death, her heart was damaged beyond repair, but she could still keep it beating. And it continued to beat until she heard the heard the voice, then it broke entirely, shattering into a million pieces that would take forever and a day to be put back together.

It was all she wanted, to hear her voice again and now she got it. She hated it. Be careful what you wish for, you're damned sure that you might just get it.

Opening her eyes, Lydia turned towards the target.

Bullseye.

She smiled.

Thanks, Alli.

THE END