As Stiles was waiting for the elevator to reach his floor, he couldn't get the image of Lydia out of his head. She looked so small and fragile lying on the bed and there was nothing he could do to help her. And if Natalie Martin wasn't going to allow him to see her, he might as well go back and be with his dad.

He didn't have to wait long before the doors opened to reveal only one other occupant. The one person Stiles really didn't want to see right now.

He stared at Scott for a few seconds, debating whether to wait for the next one or not, before deciding screw it. He didn't have to talk to the guy, he just had to stand next to him for the next twenty seconds or so.

He didn't even notice that Scott wasn't really aware his presence.

The boy was hunched over slightly, leaning most of his weight on the wall of the elevator.

He vaguely remembered that he was planning on going up to see his mum, but wasn't entirely sure how long he had been standing in that same spot. He was pretty sure that he had missed his floor a few times though.

Everything was just so muffled and the lights from the buttons were blurring in front of his eyes.

The now-empty plastic cup silently slipped from his hand, hitting the floor. Not that Scott noticed.

But Stiles did. He looked down at the cup before glancing over at Scott.

He might not like his friend much right now, but even he could see that something wasn't quite right.

"Scott?" Stiles asked tentatively as Scott's breathing grew heavy.

Scott could vaguely hear someone's voice but couldn't quite make out what they were saying. His head ached and his chest was burning and when a sudden darkness washed over him he was relieved to be free from the pain, even for just a little while.

Reflexes kicking in, Stiles tried to catch Scott as he fell but couldn't stop his head from violently hitting the back wall.

Ensuring Scott stayed in an upright position, head resting against the side, Stiles didn't have long to be surprised at this sudden event before the elevator ground to an unexpected halt, the jolt causing Stiles to join his friend on the floor.

"Shit…" Stiles muttered to himself, watching as the lights flickered a few times before thankfully staying on.

Knowing immediately what he had to do, he jumped up and pressed the call button a few times before the speakers crackled and a kind woman's voice answered.

"Hello?" She asked.

"Hi…um…I'm in the elevator and it just kinda stopped suddenly and I…I think it's broken down..." Stiles replied.

"Okay sir, not to worry, I'll inform the technicians right away, I just need you to stay calm for me, and we'll do our best to get you out as soon as possible. Are you alone?"

"No my friend is in here with me. It's just the two of us." He answered, not even thinking about his use of the word friend.

"Okay, are either of you injured?" The voice asked.

Stiles hesitated, looking down at Scott. "No, no, we're fine."

If this was a werewolf thing and Scott was going to heal anyway then it would probably do more harm than good telling them. I mean Scott was going to heal. Right?

"Okay good, well we're working on fixing it now so we should have you out soon, would you like me to stay on the line with you?"

"No it's okay, we'll be fine, thank you."

"Okay. Well if you have any problems, please don't hesitate to press the call button again," the voice informed him before the speakers gave a little click, signalling to Stiles that he was alone with his best friend again.

Best friend.

No.

Scott betrayed him.

He trusted Theo over him.

His dad got hurt because of him.

He hated him.

He wanted to hate him.

He was sure that blood stain was a lot bigger than it was before.

"Scott?" he whispered, crouching down and shaking his friend by his shoulders, getting no response.

He put two fingers to Scott's neck to feel for his pulse. It felt pretty normal. But then again, what was normal for a werewolf?

Next he gingerly lifted up Scott's shirt, ignoring the sticky feel of blood under his fingers. The gauze underneath was soaked through, the strong coppery smell making Stiles feel a little sick. Still he carried on, pulling the bits of tape off so he could see the damage underneath.

The distinct shape of claw marks were carved into Scott's chest. The wounds looked deep. Like really deep. They also showed no signs of healing whatsoever. Stiles was pretty sure that if they were any deeper they would have reached his heart, and werewolf or not, he doubted anyone could survive that.

It was a big bloody mess and he probably wasn't doing any good by leaving it uncovered just so that he could stare at it.

He stuck the fabric back down, not that it was going to soak up much more, and rolled down Scott's top.

Trying - and failing – a few more times to wake Scott, Stiles pulled out his phone and called Melissa.

He wasn't sure if she would pick up, in fact he was kind of hoping that she wouldn't. What was he supposed to say? He didn't want to worry her, but thought he might need some help.

"Stiles? Are you okay?" Melissa asked as she picked up the phone. She had been on the computer at the front desk when her phone rang and was more confused than surprised to see Stiles calling.

"Hey, yeah I'm fine…look we're in the elevator and it's broken down-"

"What? Okay, don't panic I'll call the technicians-"

"No, no, no Melissa it's fine I've already spoken to them, they're fixing it now. It's just…Scott's in here with me, and he doesn't look that good."

"Stiles, what happened?" Melissa demanded, instantly going into a mix of concerned nurse/mom mode.

"He just collapsed and I can't wake him. I'm pretty sure he's bleeding more than he was before too."

Melissa took a deep breath, nodding to herself.

"Okay. Look there's not much you can do for him whilst you're both trapped in there. Just keep trying to wake him alright and I'm going to deal with it when you get out. He's gonna be okay."

"But it looks really bad Melissa-"

"Stiles listen to me, I know how bad it looks, but he's healing, he told me so himself. It's just going to take a bit longer than normal…"

"What happened to him?"

"Stiles…"

"Who did this?"

"Stiles-"

"It was Theo. Wasn't it? I told you I was right! I told you that Theo couldn't be trusted, I told Scott! But yet again, no one listens to me and then my dad ends up hurt because everyone's so-"

"He killed him…" Melissa cut him off with a whisper.

"…What?"

"Theo, he killed Scott. That's why it looks so bad."

Stiles felt like his heart had stopped for a second as he took in this new information.

"But when you say killed you mean he-…what…?"

"Theo killed him, Stiles. Tonight in the library. By the time I got there Scott had been…he'd been dead for over fifteen minutes, and Mason- oh that poor boy, he was just sitting there with the…with my son's body and I…." Melissa replied, her voice catching at the end, "but I brought him back, somehow, by some miracle!"

Stiles was barely listening to Melissa as he stared at Scott. At his pale, still face. Is this what he had looked like not that long ago? Scott had been dead for fifteen whole minutes and Stiles had had no idea. He'd always thought he'd feel something if that happened, some kind of hole in his heart, even if they were nowhere near each other. Instead he had been here at the hospital with his dad, feeling more pissed off with Scott than ever.

"He was dead?" Stiles breathed down the phone.

"He's alive now, okay Stiles?" Melissa reassured him, her voice strong. "Now I'm gonna put the phone down so that I can find out how long the technicians are gonna be, will you be okay?"

"Yeah, yeah I'll be fine. Thank you." Stiles replied before hanging up.

He still hadn't taken his eyes off Scott.

Not even ten minutes ago he had absolutely hated the guy. In fact, he had wanted to scream at him again for getting his dad hurt. But not anymore. He had in no way forgiven him, but Scott was his best friend, always had been and always will be, and his best friend was currently still unconscious and bleeding on the floor of the elevator.

Just to reassure himself, Stiles checked Scott's pulse once more and was relieved to find that his heart was still beating.

He sat down properly next to Scott, his back resting against the wall, and closed his eyes. He breathed deeply a few times. In and out. In and out. He was not going to panic.

Just as he was about to try and wake Scott again, he felt the boy stir beside him.

"Scott?" Stiles asked, watching as Scott's eyelids fluttered before opening fully.

"I'm fine," Scott replied without thinking, as Stiles' face come into focus.

Stiles gave him an exasperated look. "Yeah, sure, you're perfect, it's not like you just passed out from a wound that's still bleeding."

Scott looked down, feeling very uncomfortable all of a sudden and winced as he put his hand to head, noticing the sudden pain that had appeared there.

"You hit it on the way down." Stiles muttered, not looking at him. All his anger towards Scott had returned so suddenly it surprised him, just because he was awake now to defend himself.

But it was stupid, they'd been ignoring each other for too long now, and nothing was going to get sorted if they carried on that way.

Before Stiles could break the uncomfortable silence, Scott spoke up.

"I'm really sorry Stiles. You were right. I should have listened to you. None of this would have happened otherwise. And I should have stopped him from hurting your dad…"

"Scott…" Stiles sighed, shaking his head, "…I mean yeah you're right about the listening to me part, but you couldn't have stopped Theo from hurting my dad, especially considering he had just killed you."

Scott looked at him, obviously confused as to how he found that out. "That's not the point, I should have seen it coming, I should have gotten there somehow."

"Ugh Scott, stop! See this is why things always go wrong for us. You care too much about pleasing other people and not enough about looking out for yourself. That's why you let Theo into our pack in the first place!"

They both fell into the awkward silence again, choosing to stare at the door in front of them rather than look at each other. Stiles started biting at his nail nervously and Scott's hand came back to rest on his chest.

"What happened tonight Scott? You're an Alpha, you're stronger than him. How did he manage to kill you?"

Scott looked at him warily, but decided to be honest with his friend. He told him about Theo getting Liam to kill him. About how he didn't want to hurt his beta who was already angry at him because of Hayden. About how Theo was actually a chimera, not a werewolf. About how it didn't help that he was probably already weak from the wolfsbane.

"Wait, what wolfsbane?"

"He was putting wolfsbane in my inhaler, so whenever I used it I was inhaling the poison."

"Why would you be using your inhaler?" Stiles asked, turning to look at Scott.

"Well, when I started having asthma attacks again-"

"What!? Since when was your asthma back? How did I not know about this?!" Stiles demanded.

"It hasn't been back very long-"

"It shouldn't be back at all Scott! What the hell!"

"It's fine…"

"Oh my god, back at it again with that stupid word!"

Stiles had turned to face him during this little argument, hoping to get across the point he had made so many times before.

"Scott you're not fine." His voice had returned to a softer level. "Theo killed you. You were-…Scott you were dead, like properly, actually dead, and I had no idea."

Stiles looked away for a second, fighting the tears he could feel coming, before continuing, "Look…I don't know if I can forgive you yet…but I need my best friend back, and I need him back alive. So no more of this self-sacrificing crap."

Scott smiled at him guiltily.

"So when we get out of here, you're going to let your mom look at your wound again and then we're gonna go and deal with Theo and save my dad. Okay?"

Scott nodded at him. "Okay."

Stiles leaned back against the wall again so that his and Scott's shoulders were touching. He felt Scott lean into him more and he couldn't help but smile to himself as he too leaned closer.

They stayed like that for a while in a much more comfortable silence than before, when suddenly the lights above them flickered a few times as the elevator abruptly jolted back to life.

"Agh finally!" Stiles exclaimed, relieved that they would finally get out of the small metal box.

Upon reaching the floor they had been heading to half an hour ago, the doors opened to reveal two technicians and a rather worried looking Melissa McCall.

As Stiles got to his feet, Scott quickly covered his blood stained shirt with his jacket and smiled up at his mom, accepting the hand Stiles held out for him.

"Are you boys okay?" Melissa asked them as they exited the lift.

"Yeah, mom we're good," Scott replied, smiling over at Stiles.

Glad to see that there had clearly been some kind of reconciliation between them in the elevator, Melissa hated to break up the moment, but she was very eager to check Scott over.

"Why don't we get you to a side room so I can check your wound," she said fondly, putting her hand on her son's arm.

"Oh no, it's alright, I'm pretty sure it's stopped bleeding again now."

"Uh I'm sorry? What did we just talk about in there?" Stiles asked giving him an incredulous look, before grabbing Scott's arm and dragging him down the hall, "you are absolutely unbelievable sometimes."

"Okay, okay, I'm sorry," Melissa heard Scott reply as she followed them down the hallway.

They would still undoubtedly have a lot of problems to overcome in the future, but at least this was a start.