Anchors Part 2:

Bex hurried out of the art classroom as not to bump into Isaac again. She didn't feel like him trying to talk to her again. A conversation about their relationship was the last thing on her list. She was happy to see Stiles and Scott at their lockers as she walked over. "Hey, are you alright?" She asked Stiles as he stared at his lock. "Stiles?"

He looked up, glancing back at it. "Y-yeah, yeah I'm fine." He assured her.

Bex turned to Scott before freezing. "Scott, your eyes. They're starting to glow." She muttered at him.

He quickly averted his gaze to look down. Stiles looked up. "Scott, stop it! Stop it." He said hurrying to glance around so that no one else would notice it.

"I can't." He said exasperated.

"I can't. I-I can't control it."

Stiles looked around. "Alright, just keep your head down. Don't look up, Come on."

Stiles hid his head in his jacket as Bex led them to an empty classroom. She locked the door behind them as Scott moved away from them, for fear of hurting them. He started growling as he pulled out of his jacket. "Scott, listen to me, you need to calm down." Bex told him as she neared her friend, but Stiles kept her back.

"I can't!" He shouted. "Get back, get away from me!"

"Scott, it's okay." Stiles tried to say calmly.

Scott stayed away from them as his claws came out. He groaned as he gripped his hands. Dark red blood dripped from his hands, down to his arms as his claws tore into his skin. It was painful, but he slowly seemed to go back to normal. He sank to the ground, completely human.

Scott breathed heavily as his friends came close to him. "Pain makes you human." Stiles sighed. "Scott, this isn't just in our heads. This is real and it's starting to get bad for me too." He admitted quietly as he averted his gaze to the floor.

Bex looked at her best friend, concerned. "Stiles? What are you talking about? I thought they were just the dreams?"

Stiles looked into her perfect blue eyes, that clenched his heart to see her so upset. "It's not just that anymore, Bex. Sometimes I have to literally scream myself awake in these dreams. And sometimes, I'm not sure if I'm ever actually waking up." He told him looking down at his slightly shaking hands.

Bex took his hand into her own, comforting him. "How so?"

"You know you can tell if you're dreaming? You can't read in dreams. More and more in the past few days, I've been having trouble reading. Like I can't see the words. I can't put the letters in order." Bex knew that must be killing him. He read, a lot, and to not being able to contribute research, it wasn't a good feeling for him.

"Like even now?" Scott asked.

Stiles looked up looking at the board, but everything was out of order. The words on the board, books, notes, none of it made sense to him. "I can't read a thing."

Bex stood up holding his hand. "Hey, you're going to be okay. You both are." She looked at her boys. She helped Scott up as he shrugged his jacek back on. "Look, we just have to get through the rest of this day. Last class and then we can get out of here."

Scott hesitated before nodding. "You're right, come on." Stiles was still trying to read before pulling away rubbing his eyes. He walked out of the classroom with his friends, trying to forget their problems for last period.

xxxxx

"I swear, if one more person tries to kill me, I'm going to lose it….again," Lydia muttered through the phone line to her friend. She was just happy that Isaac was there before it got any worse.

Bex walked up the steps of the Mccall house. After hearing from Scott how Allison nearly killed Lydia with her bow and arrow, she immediately called her friend. Lydia was, of course, still shaken up, but she knew that her friend was strong and she was going to be okay. "Look, are you sure that you're okay? I can always come over." She suggested.

"No, honestly, I'm fine, Bex. I'll see you at school tomorrow. Where are you anyways?"

She looked up at Scott's room, then over at Isaac's. "Scott's. I needed to ask him something on the way to Stiles'."

"You're sure you're not there to check in on blue eyes?" She teased her.

"I think him stalking Allison says it all." Bex reminded her friend. It wasn't that hard to put two and two together. Apparently, it wasn't for Scott either seeing as there was a dent in the wall, across from his bedroom, "I'll see you at school tomorrow."

As she hung up, walking into the room, Scott turned around from his chair. He was practicing releasing and retracting his claws. She smiled at him. "Any luck controlling the beast yet?" She asked her friend.

"None, well, sometimes I feel normal and then other times, I don't know. It's like it's not really me, you know?" Scott sighed as he fell onto his bed, looking up at the ceiling. Bex sat at his desk, propping her feet up on his bed. "Are you alright?"

"Better than you." She smiled weakly as she glanced over at his friend. "I talked to Lydia, she's doing okay. I think she's just a little shaken up. I take it that you've already heard from Allison?"

"No, Isaac. I don't know what's going on. Between me and her having hallucinations and Stiles having nightmares, I don't know what this is."

Bex patted his knee, sympathetically. She knew that this had to be difficult for him. He had tried so hard to figure out how to handle being a werewolf and he was losing control of that side again. "We'll figure it out. I promise. I'm going to go over to Stiles' house now. I'll see you tomorrow at school."

She slowly closed the door behind her, but ran right into another wolf. Bex jumped frightened, making her things crash to the floor. "Jeez, mind giving someone a warning." She snapped at Isaac, as she hurried to grab the things that spilt out of her bag.

He immediately kneeled by her side, helping her gather them all up. "Yeah, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to scare you." He told her honestly. Isaac glanced up at her. She barely came near him anymore, only when it was necessary. Their conversation in art class was just out of luck of being paired close to each other. When he heard her coming up the stairs, he knew that this might be his only chance to talk to her. Bex took her books from him, stuffing them back into her back pack.

Isaac smiled weakly as he handed her the last notebook. "I, um, I was wondering if we could talk more? In private?"

Bex glanced up at his hopeful eyes. She'd be lying if she said that sometimes she didn't miss him and she did. Right now, it was too hard to talk to him about them or Allison. She couldn't bring herself to open up to him. "I can't. I need to go, homework and everything." She fibbed as she hurried down the stairs out of the house.

xxxxx

Bex watched Stiles pace around his bedroom as she flipped through her notes, writing down her homework. "You need to relax, Stiles, You're going to make me dizzy." She commented, glancing up from her history book. It was dull reading about World War II and depressing, so normally she wouldn't mind being distracted, but she didn't wanted to take Stiles' mind off of everything.

"Yeah, right." He muttered as he took a sip from his water bottle, staring at the bottle, trying desperately to read the words printed. It was after midnight. They both knew that the reason she was over there and up late was so that he wasn't alone. The nightmares scared him and he didn't want to be alone. Without having to ask, she was there.

"Did you know that I betted against Greenburg and now I've resorted to running around the entire school tomorrow night, at midnight, naked?" Bex revealed watching his reaction. Her friend skidded to a halt at her last words.

Stiles choked on the water, staring at her with his eyes bugged out. "W-what?" His voice went up an octave, his pulse increased and his

Bex smiled, amused. "Just checking to see if you were listening." She turned back to her homework. Stiles scoffed sitting next to her on the bed.

"It's not nice to toy with people's emotions." He complained as he hoped she didn't notice his racing heart at the prospect of seeing her wearing less than she already was. However, the small smile on her face confirmed his fears. "I can't help it, alright? I mean, it's frustrating. Sometimes, it's fine, I can read fine and then it just...it's like it's not even English, Bex." He sighed, running a frustrated hand through his hair,

She looked over at her friend, concerned. Stiles' hand was shaking and he couldn't stay still. It was clear that he was becoming more prone to panic attacks. They hadn't happened regularly for years. "Hey, look, it's going to be alright. When have we not figured this out? We will, always. Until then, we will do homework together. It's...scary, but you're not alone, you have Scott and me." Bex smiled squeezing his hand.

He smiled weakly at her. "Yeah, I know. It's not just that though...I spoke to my dad. Bex, Scott's dad is trying to get him fired."

Bex looked shocked. "Wait, what? Since when? H-how can he even do that?" Stiles was just as upset at her. He knew that his dad was an asshole for walking out on them, but it was more than that. Now, he was trying to get his dad.

"I don't know. My dad says that he is trying to conduct a case for impeachment. He's getting all of his cases sent over and everything." Stiles looked down. He couldn't help, but feel guilty. He didn't know what he could do to stop this. When his dad needed him the most, he couldn't be there.

"Look, nothing is done yet. I'm sure they won't. Maybe Scott will talk to his dad. It's not your fault." She sat up straight, taking his hand in his own. She kissed his cheek, leaning on his shoulder. "It's going to be okay."

He smiled at her feeling his cheeks warm up. "Um, what are you working on?"

Bex pulled the notebook, closer to her. "Just doodles, it's nothing. It's horrible enough hearing Finstock drone on about Economincs, I need something to help me pass the incredibly slow time." She yawned.

Stiles was entranced with her art. "These are...amazing, Really, Bex. These are really awesome." He told her truthfully, as he looked at a specific page of a wolf. It was really realistic. Stiles had forgotten her talent for art.

She smiled, lightening up as he took a true interest in her work. Isaac was the only one who saw it, but after what happened, they hadn't talked about a lot. "Really? I mean some of these are just doodles and some are dreams I have."

Bex laid down as he flipped through the notebook. Stiles felt her relax by his side. "These are great. You should like enter a contest. In a town that has every monster known to mankind, I'm sure that they have some galleries that you could show this stuff." Stiles hesitated waiting for an answer. "Or not, you know, privacy and everything. Artists are supposed to be hot and mysterious. N-not that I said you're hot or, I-I mean you are and everything but just um…" Stiles was saved by glancing over at his friend who was fast asleep

Stiles smiled watching her and gently placed a blanket over her, laying down on the other side of the bed, like when they were kids. "Night, Bex."

xxxxx

Bex nervously tapped her pen on the table as she watched Stiles jerk out of some kind of trance. She had noticed it only a few minutes before the coach did and he was upset enough as it was. "Stilinski!" Finstock yelled at Stiles. He shook his head. It was though Stiles thought that he was asleep.

"Uh-huh?" He answered, breathing heavily.

"I asked you a question."

There was a small pause before Stiles answered as he tried to relax. "Sorry, coach, what was it?"

"Oh, it was, Stilinksi, are you paying attention back there?" He smirked sarcastically. Most of the class chuckled at him.

Stiles shifted in his seat a little, more disturbed about his dream than anything else. "Well, I am now.

"Stilinski, stop reminding me why I drink." He demanded as he turned around to the board. "Every night. Does anybody else want to try the question on the board?"

Scott and Bex both looked at their friend worried. Stiles caught their looks and moved in his seat a little. "I'm okay, I just fell asleep for a second." He defended himself quickly as not to draw anymore attention to himself.

"Dude, you weren't asleep.' Scott told him. Stiles looked down to see his entire notebooks page scribbled with the words 'Wake Up', except he didn't remember writing those. He quickly closed the page, waiting for the class to end.

Their break had finally come and they walked over to where they saw Isaac, Allison and Lydia sitting next to each other on the bench. Scott sat across from them. Isaac tensed seeing how close Stiles and Bex were as they slid into their seats. next to Scott. After filling them in on what had happened in class, they were at a loss for words.

"Okay, so what happens to a person with a near-death experience and comes out of it seeing things?" Scott asked them all.

"And is unable to tell what's real or not." Stiles added.

"And is being haunted by demonic visions of their dead relatives." Allison chimed in as she nervously thought of her aunt.

Isaac looked at them. "They're all locked up because they're insane."

Stiles wasn't finding this funny. "Ha, can you at least try to be helpful, please?" Isaac wasn't the victim of this, he had no idea what it felt like.

"For, half of my childhood I was locked in a freezer, so being helpful is kind of a new thing for me." He retorted.

Stiles rolled his eyes ."Hey, dude, are you still milking that?"

"Yeah, maybe I am still milking that."

"Stop it." Bex silenced them both, annoyed. "Both of you bickering like old people isn't going to help anyone of you." That made them both sheepishly looked down and Lydia looked at her impressed.

"Hi, hi, sorry. I couldn't help, but overhear what you guys were talking about." They all looked up to the owner of the voice. It was a young Asian girl. Scott seemed to recognize her as he smiled when her eyes caught his own. "And I think I might actually know what you're talking about."

They all stared at her and she continued on. "There's a Tibetan word for it. It's called Bardo. It literally means 'in-between state.' The state between life and death." She explained to them.

"And what do they call you?" Lydia narrowed her eyes at the girl."

Scott answered her first. "Kira." They all looked at him surprised, most of all, Allison. "She's in our history class."

Lydia looked at the girl. "So are you talking Bardo in Tibetan Buddhism or Indian?" She challenged the girl.

"Either I guess," She sat down besides Bex."But all the stuff you guys were just saying? All that stuff happens in Bardo. There are different progressive states where you can have hallucinations. Some you see and some you just hear. And you can be visited by peaceful and wrathful deities."

Isaac looked interested. "Wrathful deities? And what are those?"

"Like demons." Kira wasn't noticing the dark overtones of the groups. She was just happy that they were actually listening to her.

"Demons, why not?" Stiles said sarcastically.

Allison realized something "Hold on, if there are different progressive states, then what's the last one?" She asked her

"Death, you die." She said simply. They all glanced at each other trying to make sense of what was happening and if this were true, how long did they have left?

xxxxx

Bex took the shortcut to the vet's office. When she got a text from Stiles about him not being able to come over because Scott and him were helping his dad with something, she knew this was a good opportunity to talk with Deaton. As she walked into the building, she felt calmed. This place had that effect on her, knowing that it was hard for a supernatural creature, even herself to lose control in here. Deaton looked up as she came in beckoning her to the back room. "Come on."

He started putting up the supplies on the table. "I can't say that I was surprised to get a call from you. Scott had informed me of everything, I'm just surprised that it took that long. I expect that you have questions?" He asked glancing over his shoulder at her.

She leaned against the cold metal table. "Yes, Scott...he's a true alpha, because of sheer force of will, He never had to kill anybody, he never took that power away from someone. How did you know that he could do it if this hasn't happened in centuries?" She asked the vet, curiously.

Deaton smiled. "I'm sure, like you know, Scott is a very unique individual. He cares about others safety. He's very considerate and willful when he wants to be. I knew that if anyone could do it, it would be him. He has overcome a lot of difficulties, Bex. You could do the same."

"What if I don't want to be an alpha? What if I couldn't be one?"

Deaton looked at her, confused. "Why wouldn't you? You already have many of the qualities of one. That was one of the reasons that Deucalion took an interest in you. He could sense that as well."

Bex looked up at Deaton. "My mother was a hunter. She was cruel and calculated. What if...what if I become like her? I wouldn't be able to be a true alpha if I hurt someone. If I couldn't...control it." She was scared. Bex felt her resolve slowly starting to diminish with each passing night. It was though she could feel the full moon coming and it would be testing her this time. If she lost control and hurt someone, Danny or Stiles or Lydia, she couldn't handle that.

Deaton walked over to stand across from her. "Being a werewolf isn't easy. Being an alpha is even harder. If you're not meant to be one, you won't. It will not come down to you hurting someone. Our parents, even or siblings qualities do not affect our own. Our choices are our own. It doesn't matter who your mother was, you do not have to become as she was. Perhaps, you should discuss this with Scott or Stiles." He suggested.

There was a pause before she began speaking again."They have enough on their mind right now. I prefer not to bother them with this." There was a certain plead to her words and Deaton smiled wistfully.

"I understand, but I also know that they would want to know, as you would if you were in their positions." Deaton reminded her. Bex knew that he was right. She should tell them, but they needed her help. The last thing she wanted was for them to be concerned about her when they should be worried about themselves.