Coming Back
A.N.: This makes no sence, but a girl can dream, right?
Braeden looks around carefully in full alert, the gun in her hand ready to fire at any time. In the end, though, curiosity gets the best of her and she looks at Scott who gives Braeden a look before leaning his ear to the wall.
He lets his fingers graze the aztec carving of Tezcatlipoca, the nagual's jaguar god, and he listens.
A sound of a distant heart beating reaches his ear and he lingers a moment longer just to be sure. A heartbeat it is; slow, but there.
Scott moves from the wall and looks at Braeden. "We found him.", he says and her eyes go to the wall. "We found Derek."
Scott takes a step back and pounds on the wall once with full force, making it break.
They look inside the hole in the wall and, suddenly, a hand is reaching out to them.
"Oh my God."
Stiles runs out of the jeep as Scott and Braeden head towards him, holding a figure in between them. Stiles goes to them as fast as he can, barely registering sounds of the jeep doors closing as the girls get out of it.
Reaching closer, Stiles finally gets a good look at the man Scott and Braeden are holding and he freezes. Scott just looks at Stiles, matching the confusion in his eyes. He gives a microscopic shrug of his shoulder.
"Is that him?", Malia asks looking from the man she doesn't recognise to Scott and the mercinary before her eyes settle on Stiles. "Is that Derek?"
Stiles keeps his eyes fixed at Scott as he answers. "No.", he says. "It's not Derek."
Kira furrows her brows. "Who is it, then?"
Scott and Stiles turn to Lydia. She's silent, but her eyes are wide as she looks at the person in the middle of Scott and Braeden.
Scott moves to go to Lydia, but then he remembers the weight he is carrying and realises that Braeden couldn't carry the barely conscious man all by herself, so he stays in place. "Lydia-", he starts but has no clue how to continue. 'I'm sorry' doesn't really fit the bill because he has nothing to apologise for, really, and 'are you okay' is just too stupid of a question considering all that has happened to them in the past months.
Stiles goes to put a reassuring hand on Lydia's shoulder, but she moves away.
She doesn't anyone to touch her right now.
"Stiles.", Malia called out carefully. She notices the look on Lydia's face and Malia decides to treat it the way she knows how; as if Lydia is a frightened - possibly wounded - animal. Malia's voice is calm, her actions minimum and her eyes move slowly from Stiles to Lydia before settling on the figure between Scott and Braeden. "Who is this?"
"That's-", Stiles goes to answer but Lydia cuts him off, her voice barely above a whisper. Her eyes are still looking directly at the man's eyes.
She hasn't seen those eyes in so long.
"Jackson."