Lydia didn't know how long she had been passed out, but when she awoke, her hands were cupped over her ears and the stereo was blasting in the car at full volume. Hesitantly she removed her hands and literally breathed a sigh of relief when the only noise she heard was the music. Nothing supernatural or unexplainable in nature whatsoever.
After turning off the stereo, she just sat in the driver's seat for a full minute. In comparison, the silence was almost more deafening than the horrible rock music that she had used to drown out the clanking. Too many thoughts swam through her head, all fighting to break the surface at once.
When her cellphone suddenly began to ring, it burst through her thoughts so efficiently, she was stock still for a moment in surprise, not able to focus much on anything let alone a simple, single thought.
Finally, she darted out a hand and picked up her phone, swiping a finger across the touch screen simultaneously to accept the call.
"Hello?" Lydia winced at the sound of her too loud, scratchy voice.
There was a pause on the other end, then "Lydia?" The voice was quiet, hesitant even. Scott McCall was many things, however uncertain was not usually one of them.
Immediately Lydia straightened in her seat, alert and tuned into every sound he made. "Scott, what's wrong? Is everything alright?"
Something like a soft sputtering could be heard on the other end of the line. At first Lydia didn't know what it was, but then she discerned that it was someone talking. Rapidly.
Of course it would be Stiles who could chatter his way through anything, no matter how frightening or seemingly impossible. Despite the worry building up inside her chest at Scott's unusual tone, Lydia smirked at the familiarity and felt slightly calmer.
"Um, I didn't wake you up, did I?" Scott asked, speaking over Stiles so Lydia could not hear him anymore.
"You did, but it's fine," she responded nonchalantly, not bothering to mention that it was her car that she had slept in, nor that it was more the inability to tolerate an imaginary clanking noise in her head than actual tiredness that had caused her to fall unconcious in the first place. When Scott let out a loud, shaky breath, Lydia felt her anxiety return and crawl further up her throat, tightening her airways and making it hard to breathe. "Scott, seriously, what is it?"
That's when she heard the one word that made her stop breathing entirely. "Dad." It didn't come from Scott but another voice nearby. Lydia didn't know how she could have confused the voice before with Stiles. In just one word she knew it was him. And with that word, the sputtering paused, trailing off with a choked sob that could only be Mr. Stilinski.
"Um..." Scott muttered, and Lydia realized this was more than just his usual distracted nature when a quiet sniffle echoed over the line. When there was a burst of static and rustling, she was sure that he had given up on speaking to her entirely.
But then a woman's voice came on. "Hi sweetie. We're all at the hospital right now and Scott was just checking in to let you know so you wouldn't be worried." Melissa McCall's voice was as kind and friendly as always, however Lydia picked up on the strained ends of her words, and the careful way she spoke.
"Just tell me what is going on," Lydia said, trying to stay calm. With jerky movements she was pulling her key out of the ignition and jamming it into her purse. Before Melissa could even respond, Lydia was slamming her car door shut and running towards the front door of the hospital.
When Melissa spoke again, Lydia tried to concentrate and failed, finally interrupting the flurry of speech. "What room?"
Without pause Scott's mom responded "312" and hung up.
Lydia tried not to think of what the different floors of the hospital meant as she bypassed the elevators and dashed up the stairs. She tried not to remember that floor one was for basic inpatient procedures and that floor two was comprised of pediatrics and prenatal care. As she yanked open the cold metal door that led to floor three, she tried to forget that this was the floor for psychiatrics. Her brain wouldn't let her though, working as quickly as ever through the floorplan schematics she had memorized on one of several trips to the hospital in the past year.
Ask anyone, Lydia Martin did not rush anywhere. People waited for her. Especially a certain boy who had been waiting forever.
It was a personal rule.
Today though, she broke it for the first time in her life without a second thought. There was to be no waiting today as there was the very real chance that she could already be too late.
During this episode 3x18, I always imagined Lydia already being parked at the hospital, being drawn to it because of her banshee powers. Even if that's not canonically correct, I'm going by that assumption for this story. I also took some liberty with the floor levels and what is on each floor. I wrote this in about 20 minutes flat, so if someone wants to correct me, leave a comment and I'll fix it. I don't think it's important to the integrity of the story though. And apologies for any spelling or grammatical errors!
Right now I plan on leaving this as a one-shot, but I could definitely be convinced to expand it with an additional chapter or two. I have a few scenes in mind that would follow up with this nicely, but let me know what you all think!