The Bae..She Ain't Ok
A/N: I have never written a one-shot so fast in my life and i don't even know if it's good. I just know I had to write it because Draeden that's why. They inspire me. I don't own Teen Wolf but enjoy it anyway! Tell me if it sucks. Bye loves!
"Help! Somebody help!" Derek screamed crashing through the double doors of Beacon Hills Hospital, a barely conscious Braeden in his arms. She was in awful shape with deep lacerations covering most of her body, a black eye that looked like it had brutally inflicted and bruises that were quickly turning the deepest color of ash. Derek could feel her struggling to breathe as he held her close to his chest.
Her head lolled to the side and she her eyes closed.
"We need help! Now!" Derek demanded pushing his way through the small crowd of waiting patients in the lobby. He needed to make sure she could get help and he needed her to get it now.
He frantically looked around for staff but everything was moving too fast for him. There were too many colors, too many harsh lights. There were loud beep and clinks. Pens clicking. Someone was crying off in the distance. The ambulance outside just shifted into park. Seemed like he could hear everything except what he needed to… a heartbeat.
Derek glanced down at Braeden who was a ghastly shade of puce.
"Stay with me, Braeden." He whispered as he bolted down a long hallway at top speed, ducking into an empty trauma room to his right.
Carefully he laid her onto a gurney and checked her pulse. He felt nothing. Scanning the room for anything at all to help, he spotted a button at the headboard and held it down. It made a long high pitched shriek and immediately two nurses ran to his aid leaving scuff marks on the linoleum behind them.
"How did you g-" They questioned but stopped when they saw Braeden in the bed. They hurried to her side to examine her.
"She's not breathing!" Derek made known.
He couldn't force himself to move from his spot next to the bed as he watched them strip away the tattered shreds of clothing from her still body, slice into her exposed throat and insert plastic tubing. The nurses started to squeeze a bag connected to it in hopes that it convince Braeden's body to breathe on it's own.
As she laid there unmoving, Derek started to panic, his breath now coming in short spurts and the room starting to spin. He swallowed thickly past some uncomfortable emotion and blinked rapidly.
"We've got a code red!" one of the nurses bellowed into the air "We need a crash cart stat!"
And suddenly there were too many people in the room. It was too hot and too humid and loud but not loud enough. Someone, somewhere was yelling at him to do something but the sound was muffled as he stared at Braeden's closed eyes.
A small hand met his shoulder and he glanced over to find Malia standing there,his car keys in her hand. She offered him a quick smile. "Come on, they need the room." She said pushing on his back.
When he wouldn't budge, she pleaded. "Derek."
Outside in the waiting room, he sat restlessly in a chair too tiny for his broad frame. It was cramped and uncomfortable but probably more comfortable than anything Braeden is going through right now, he thought. Malia was across the room on the phone and he could hear her talking to Stiles telling him all that had happened. She peeked at Derek briefly from the corner of her eye then whispered "Not so good from what I could see." into the receiver covering she covered with her hand. Hanging up the phone, Malia turned and slowly ambled over to Derek.
She took a tentative seat next to him.
"She's going to be fine." she hesitated.
"You don't believe that." Derek mumbled defeatedly under his breath, staring down at his blood stained hands. He could still feel the weight of her body from earlier but now they just felt empty. Dead. He hoped against hope that that was something Braeden would never be.
"Everyone's on their way " Malia said interrupting his train of thought when she realized he had not broken his catatonic state. "They'll be here in a little while." she relented and shifted uncomfortably in her chair never taking her brown eyes off Derek.
When everyone arrived later, they each had to take a deep breath and a step back. They had rarely seen Derek like this. The only other time being when Boyd died. Tip-toeing into the space, they each took seats surrounding him.
"How long has he been like this?" Scott questioned Malia in a hushed tone.
"Um, for the last hour." She replied swiftly getting up so she could sit next to Stiles at the opposite end.
Scott took her chair and leaned into Derek. " Stiles told me. What happened was not your fault, there was no way you could have known she was there but she's really lucky you were." he advocated. Derek didn't reply, he just continued sitting there motionless.
Lydia knelt by his chair and covered his hand with hers. He didn't move or acknowledge her, only his bloody palms.
"She's tough… she will get through this. She's a mercenary for crying out loud, she was built to survive stuff like this. The doctors are doing everything they can right now and Braeden will do the rest. Derek.." She paused "you're doing everything you can for her right now."
Kira observed silently, offering a somber smile while Stiles and Scott gave each other knowing looks over Malia's shoulder.
"Excuse me " came a soft voice from the entryway, startling everyone "I didn't mean to startle you but I'm trying to identify the Jane Doe in trauma room 4." she informed, clipboard in hand. "She's going into surgery and I need to notify the next of kin."
Derek shot up from his seat and enunciated Braeden's name so clearly it sounded like music. He gazed intently at the nurse with the blonde hair urging her to continue.
" I need to disclose crucial information to her family members regarding the procedure." she informed " If you are not related to Jane Doe, do you know how to get in contact with her family?" she asked her eyes searching Derek's.
He expelled a tight breath and gestured for her follow him outside. The gang exchanged equally confused and worried looks as Derek & the nurse talked in low voices away from the room.
"Thank you." he confided, shaking the nurse's hand.
"You're welcome." she said, smiling at him sincerely before she left.
When he came back,everyone stood with expectantly anxious faces while Derek explained the extent of Braeden's injuries. She had 7 broken ribs, several contusions, a ruptured spleen and massive internal bleeding.
"She's going to be in surgery for the next six hours." he announced stuffing his hands into the pockets of his jeans. "You guys don't have to stick around, I know it's a school night."
The gang exchanged glances, nodding at each other in confirmation before they collectively sat down in their seats. Together, they all waited. Eventually everyone fell asleep, Kira leaning on Scott's shoulder while Stiles was awkwardly stretched out over Malia's lap. Lydia, was perfectly poised resting her head in her hands on the arm rest. When they awoke, Derek was gone.
They all flew out of their seats and into the hallway searching every exam room on the way, opening doors and knocking frantically.
Where did he go?
After finding no sign of him, Kira suggested that instead of searching like normal people, someone could just sniff him out. "Wouldn't that be easier?" she remarked shrugging her shoulders and smiling at Scott.
Lydia raised an eyebrow. "She has a point." she agreed.
He snuck a peak at Malia and asked her if she wanted to try it for practice.
"No." she deadpanned with a straight face.
Scott inhaled deeply and instantly caught Derek's scent. "He's this way." he said rushing toward the elevators. Everyone quickly followed him and they got off on the second floor.
The smell was the strongest in this part of the hospital so he was definitely here, it was just a matter of where. Following the long expanse of sterile lighting and waxy floors, they crept along slowly making sure to survey the patients in each area through the windows they passed. There were only two more rooms to check at the end of the hall, they had to be in one of them.
Passing a window on the left, Stiles stopped in his tracks and caused Lydia,Kira and Malia to crash into him. "What the hell,Stiles! " Malia grunted as she righted herself. Kira and Lydia threw up their arms in agreement. Stiles' focus was trained forward, his jaw slackened and hanging open, eyes bulging out of their sockets.
"Stiles!" Lydia snapped. "What is going?"
Scott made his way over, spied through the tiny bracketed window and soon his face resembled his best friend's.
"Umm..guys I think we found him." Scott said in disbelief.
They all crowded around only to find an image that shocked their systems. Derek Hale was stretched out sideways on a cot right next to Braeden's bed. He was peacefully sleeping,one arm under his head while she was supine with a nasal cannula helping her breathe. Her neck and head were bandaged. The IV's in her arms connected to a rack that housed a bag with dripping fluid inside and her right index finger was hooked up to a cardiac monitor. She didn't appear to be in significantly better physical shape than earlier but she wasn't getting worse either.
"She looks better than when I saw here earlier." Malia quipped from her perch next to Stiles. " I can't smell death on her anymore."
"I guess that's progress." Stiles smiled, his eyes trained on the scene in front of him. "Eh, just out of curiosity what scent would you give to a grumpy werewolf who has feelings for an invalid mercenary?"
"Why would you ask me that?" Malia questioned, clearly confused.
"Probably because Derek is holding Braeden's hand." Lydia stated with confidence.
"Yeah. Look!" Kira said surprised,pointing inside the room.
How could anyone have missed their hands, they thought, taking in the sight before them. Derek was facing Braeden, his right arm extended and angled toward her hospital bed, draped gently over her stomach. Braeden's right hand was seamlessly entwined with his. They looked as if they fit together perfectly and were made exclusively for each other. The pair were unconsciously attuned to one another as they breathed in each others sighs. Derek looked the most relaxed anyone had seen him in the last 24 hours while Braeden, appeared content under his arm.
She was going to be okay if the man laying next to her had anything to say about it.
"Maybe we should leave them alone?" Kira murmured cautiously. "I mean, they look like they won't wake up for hours. We can come back after school."
"Great idea." Lydia said clapping her hands together and turning on heels she had been wearing for far too long. Malia followed but Scott and Stiles stood frozen in place. They stared at each other,then Derek & Braeden, and back to each other, smirking.
"Bro." Stiles began.
"I know." Scott nodded confirming that they were thinking the exact same thing.
After hearing the girls harshly warn them against making them wait anymore, they quietly backed away from Braeden's room snickering about how Derek's taste in women always left him seeking medical attention. Scott said something about this time being different - that Derek was physically able to handle a relationship with Braden, to which Stiles snidely retorted. "Just give it time."