The phone rang three times before the familiar false chipper voice of the secretary answered.
"Hello! Langone Medical Center. This is the Neurology department, how can I help you today?"
"Hey Jill, Its Lydia Martin. Listen I—"
"Lydia, hi. Is everything alright?" Jill interrupted, "Are you sick? It's not like you to call in sick. What's wrong? It must be bad."
The redhead couldn't help the slight role of her eyes as she walked through the gates at the airport to board her flight. Jill was one of Lydia's closest friends. They had met Lydia's first day of work and instantly hit it off, in part because Jill the closest to Lydia's age in the neurology department—aside from a few nurses and lab techs. Jill was an excessive worrier and had a history of panicking even before she was given reason to. This was another one to add to the history books, at least she hoped it was.
"I'm okay Jill, really." She soothed her worried friend on the other line, "I had a last minute emergency come up back home that I have to take care of."
"Oh." The voice sounded relieved, "So you are okay then?"
"Yeah I'll be fine, but I am going to need to take some time off. Can you let Dr. Waltzinger for me?" Lydia asked as she climbed the stairs of the plane and made her way to her seat.
"Absolutely. When should I tell him you'll be back?" Her chipper voice was back, but it was genuine now.
"Um... I'm not really sure yet." She answered loading her carry-on bags into the overhead compartment, "Just let him know that I'll get back to him as soon as I know okay?"
"Will do! See yah Lyds."
"Bye Jill." The ginger haired girl gave a soft laugh as she took her seat and put her phone in airplane mode.
Leaning her soft chair back and letting her eyes fall shut she soon fell asleep shortly after the plane took off. Her sleep, however, was cut short by the same nightmares that plagued her the night before. She awoke with a jolt as the sound of Stiles' screams for help echoed inside of her mind. Waving the stewardess over she ordered herself a large cup of coffee refocusing her attention on the movie playing on the screen above her head. It was The Notebook. That movie would always be Lydia's favorite. The flight attendant returned with her coffee within a few minutes and she curled herself up in the chair to watch the movie preparing for the long night ahead. She would not be getting any sleep on this flight.
...
"Malia, you know that's not what I meant." Stiles gave a heavy sigh. He was having yet another argument with his girlfriend.
"Do I Stiles? Because it was pretty heavily implied what you meant by that." Malia shot back at him.
"It was not a dig at your income!" The young sheriff argued, "All I meant was that ordering two different meals for yourself is a lot of money, regardless of income."
"So what you're saying is that you admit I don't make as much money as you? Because I did offer to pay for my own meal. You're the one who insisted on picking up the check." she laughed in her frustration before continuing.
"It's not my fault that I didn't get into college. I didn't have the education you had. I was left alone running around in the woods as a coyote for nine and a half years. Maybe, things would be better off if I'd stayed that way, come to think of it."
"Malia you don't mean that." Stiles offered, his voice noticeably softening.
"Stiles, if I didn't mean it then I wouldn't have said it." The girl with the short milk chocolate brown hair offered back.
They were planning to talk and eat lunch together before Stiles had to go back to the police station. Though it was unspoken, they both had been hoping to be able to spend time together like they use to without the date ending in a fight. So much for that hope.
Stiles and Malia had continued their relationship after graduation, and though they were still together, things had been pretty rocky. Stiles was beginning to think that their relationship was only capable of working when there was a supernatural monster on the loose. Ever since the supernatural world had settled down shortly after graduation the couple had been in a long term on again off again relationship. And Stiles, personally, was getting damn tired of it.
Ding! Ding!
"Go on." Malia huffed out an annoyed sigh at the sound of her boyfriends phone, "The badge comes first, I get it." At his hesitation she repeated, "Go on. Go! We'll talk about this later tonight."
"Thank you." Stiles placed a fast but gentle kiss on Malia's cheek as he set the money for the meal on the table before heading to his patrol car leaving a despondent Malina left sitting alone at the table.
…...
Stiles damn near floored the patrol car all the way to the address that his deputy gave him, lights flashing the whole way. This was a suspected homicide case, and that meant that time was important. He was met by his deputy, a man named Mark Larson, who lead him into the old abandoned warehouse where the body was found.
"Two amature photographers were sneaky around in the building taking pictures for a class." he briefed Stiles as they walked, continuing his explanation.
"They saw his foot sticking out from under an old desk. Said they thought he was hobo taking a nap. But when they grabbed his ankle to wake him up they noticed his foot was bent in an odd way, and that's how they realized the guy was dead."
When they reached the crime scene the desk had been rolled away by the coroner, who suspected a homicide upon examining the body and therefore wanted the sheriff to see the body as it was before moving it. The first thing Stiles noticed as he approached was the face, or more accurately, the fact that there was no face. Who or whatever had attacked this man had completely removed his face so that all that shown was the muscle and tissue underneath.
"Holy shit." He muttered as he cupped a hand over his nose to block out some of the smell. "They really didn't leave much for us did they?"
"Not at all Sheriff. Not at all." The deputy replied, barely holding back the gag at the sight of the body.
"Alright deputy, How about you get some pictures and head out before you lose your lunch, hu?" Stiles said giving his deputy a pat on his shoulder while suppressing a cough.
What a time for Parrish to have transferred.
A/N: I'll try to post an update every week, but I make no promises with college.
