Disclaimer: I hold no claim to the characters or places in this story, only to the way they are presented.
look after you/chapter two
12:04 a.m.
"I don't know, Liam. You know her way better than any of us. How do you think we should handle this?" Liam listened to his alpha speak through the phone. As he had decided only a few hours earlier, he had let his friends know of his findings as soon as he could. After three conference calls discussing the respectively ludicrous nights of each person, he was now weighing different options on how to break it to Hayden that she was now a supernatural creature with Scott. Even though he was pretty confident, Lydia had given him confirmation that Hayden was in fact everything that he suspected. From that point, he had sent Mason on research duty before calling Scott for his guidance on how to handle things.
"She's kind of a firecracker, Scott. I have no idea of what I'm supposed to do. Besides, you're the alpha here, you're supposed to know how to handle situations like this." He somewhat whined in return. He wanted nothing more than to tell Hayden what she was and be done with it. Yet, though they would never admit it, the were alike in a lot of ways. For that reason, he knew that if he did not inform her with perfect execution, the results could be quite disastrous. Though, they had decided to tell her sooner rather than later as it would be the most logical way to keep her safe.
"Are you forgetting the fact that I kidnapped you, tied you up, and stuck you in my bathtub when I tried to tell you what you were? I think it's safe to say that I didn't handle that very well." Scott spoke, alluding to one night that Liam would never forget. As a toss up between his anger management issues and believing that Scott and Stiles were pretty much batshit crazy, the attempt was very unsuccessful.
"Yeah, you did kind of suck at that. But still, I'm sure that I won't be much better than you. She would just end up punching me in the face...again." Liam retorted, causing Scott to slightly laugh in return. He never understand why people found his situation with Hayden humorous when walking around with prominent nose scars in middle school was not an enjoyable time for either of them.
"Well, we don't want that to happen, do we?" Scott stopped to chuckle once again. "Tell you what, The Dread Doctors are probably already after her, so you should see if you can get her over here tonight. Then, we can take it step by step from there and come up with a plan to deal with the doctors." Scott suggested. Liam had to admit, it sounded like a pretty good course of action. Except for one little thing.
"Scott, there's one problem. Just how the hell do you expect me to convince her to come with me to your house? I don't know if you've noticed but we're not exactly BFFs, plus she doesn't really know who you are." Liam retorted.
"Regardless, I'm pretty confident that you'll think of something. Her life could depend on it." Scott replied.
Stress was a feeling that Liam had become very familiar with in the last couple of hours. He would feel extremely guilty if something happened to Hayden, especially if he could have prevented it but did not due to lack of trying. He just had to figure out a way not to screw everything up.
"Geez, thanks for not putting any pressure on me." He sighed in return. "I'm gonna figure something out I guess."
"I know you will, don't worry." Scott responded. Liam could never express to him how much he appreciated the reassurance he constantly gave him. Scott made it seem so easy for him to be a better person.
They quickly exchanged goodbyes before Liam hung up the phone and returned it to his pocket. What do I do now?
Following his earlier ventures, he hadn't strayed too far from Sinema. There was a nice little diner about two blocks away where he sat in to refuel while he conferred with the pack. During that time, he'd asked Mason what time Hayden usually got off so that he could know when to be expecting her text. Now, he was thinking to reconstruct his plans a little and intersect before she left. He looked to a clock hanging on the wall of the diner. 12:09.
Mason told him that Hayden got off at midnight, meaning that if he rushed, he could possibly catch her lurking around the parking lot and have a chance to talk to her. Thank God for werewolf speed! He dug in his pocket and slapped some change on the table where he was seated and quickly exited before taking off.
Hayden sighed as she exited the warehouse building of Sinema. She silently scolded herself for not taking the time to find a less obnoxious job. At least she'd be off for the rest of the weekend, though. Fishing into her purse, she retrieved her keys as she walked towards the parking lot. As crazy as he sounded, she did pay attention to a few of the warnings Liam had gave her earlier. She felt sort of obligated to keep safe just because of their talk and the sooner she got home, she could alert him and try to erase the strangeness of the night from her brain. On top of that, she couldn't help but feel a little creeped out at night.
Once at her destination, she quickly unlocked her doors and swiftly slid into the driver's seat. Her car wasn't anything special, just a hand me down from Clarke that needed major work done. It was a simple silverish color and it got her where she needed to go, though. She still loved it, nonetheless.
After cranking the car up, she leaned under her seat to retrieve the gray sweater she had been keeping to fend off against the painfully long amount of time it took for the heat to come on. Making it a point to put the car in reverse, she carefully backed out of the parking lot and entered onto the main road, heading home.
The drive home from Sinema was pretty quick, usually no more than fifteen minutes at most. The roads were often pretty empty due to the late hours and not having to worry about other cars left her time to tally up the money she'd make a night made in her head and see if it was enough to pay for her medication.
However, cruising through town that night, her mind seemed to wander to one thing that had nothing to do with how much money she had made. Liam. The image of the slightly short lacrosse player with the minuscule gap kept invading her brain. She kept wondering why he had seemed so freaked out. Then, there was a little hint of something else. He'd almost seemed worried about her and that kind of confused the hell out of her.
He kept insisting that he had changed. Even if that was true, which she very much doubted it was, she didn't understand why that would change that mannerisms that the two of them had towards each other. She assumed they would go on acting the same way that they had been for years. Besides, it's not like she was planning on treating him any differently. On top of that, she wasn't in any impending danger to her knowledge, so she didn't see any reason for him to be worried about her in the first place. Her thoughts were interrupted by the sudden sputtering of her engine.
Damn it! She debated whether she should pull over to check the engine, but found it not to be necessary when the car slowed to a stop in the middle of the road, a few hundred feet in front of a street light. Mentally cursing her mechanically challenged car, she quickly checked if there were any cars, people, or places of interest around her. Save for the street lights, she only saw empty road in both directions. She sighed. What am I going to do? She made a note to put some money aside for car repairs before repeatedly turning the keys in the ignition. Nothing. "Shit." She swore angrily while running her fingers through her.
Taking the time to glance back up at the road, she noticed something new in her vision. Instead of just nothing, she then saw three dark figures walking, or more so gliding down the steep road. She didn't want to believe so, but it kind of looked like the were coming towards her. She gulped hard. She tried cranking up the car again, stealing glances up at the road between each try. Every time, it seemed as if the figures were coming closer and closer. A feeling of panic began to overtake her. It was too dark to see what the figures looked like, but they didn't exactly put her at ease. She checked their distance again. They weren't too close but it was still close enough to label alarming. She looked over at the driver's door. She figured that she could get away from them if she made a run for it.
She leaned to grab the door handle, yet, just as she did the car door locked. That's definitely not normal. No matter how bad off her car was, it never had experienced something like that. She leaned over to the passenger's side and tried to open that door but the same thing happened, evoking a gasp from her. Now I'm definitely paranoid. She searched around for ways out but couldn't seem to find any. What the hell is going on?
The figures were really starting to close the gap between her and the car. Her heart was practically beating out of her chest. She had no idea what to do. At this point, there was nothing she could do. Hayden silently prayed, wishing something would come to suddenly get her out of her current predicament. When nothing happened, she closed her eyes in a feeble attempt at preparing herself for whatever was going to happen. For this reason, she didn't see the figure jump out in front of her car. Yet, she did in fact hear the growl.
Her eyes snapped open at the sound. What was that? She watched as someone stood as a barrier between her and the now halted figures that were coming her way. The person had their back to her, keeping her from seeing who exactly they were. Yet, what she could make out looked strangely familiar. She was still unsure of where the growl had come from. The person took the opportunity of having stalled the figures and rushed towards Hayden's car. Not really sure what they were all about, she was kind of apprehensive. As they came around to the driver's side door, she let out a breath as she was finally able to see their face. Dunbar. It was probably the first time in her life she was happy to see him. She wondered what he could possibly do to help her when her doors wouldn't even open. Looking out from the car window, she saw as he gripped the door handle and pulled hard. Instead of him failing like she had expected. the door popped opened despite being locked.
Hayden gasped in amazement. How in the hell did he do that? She couldn't even form words. Taking the time to glance back at the once again advancing figures, he turned back towards Hayden. "We need to run. NOW!" He spoke while grabbing her hand and pulling her out of the car. Feeling that it wasn't the time to second guess him as she usually did, she quickly hopped out of the car and sprinted in the opposite direction behind them. It wasn't the appropriate time to ask questions when he was kind of maybe saving her life.
So, they just ran. Neither said anything, just listened to the cold, brisk air whip in their ears as their speed increased. After a while, Hayden didn't know if they were going to stop anytime soon or if the figures were even following them anymore. Liam seemed to hold all the cards and following his lead seemed to be the right thing to do at the time.
About fifteen minutes later, Liam began to slow up as they neared the more lively parts of the Beacon Hills nightlife. Hayden followed his suit. "They're not following us anymore." He breathed out.
"How do you know that?" She inquired out of breath, breaking her silence since he had shown up in front of her car.
"I can't smell them anymore." Liam answered nonchalantly. "I couldn't for a while now. I just kept going to make sure you were safe."
"What do you mean you don't smell them? That doesn't make any sense." She retorted. "And how did you even know where I was?"
"I went back to Sinema to look for you, but you had already left so I followed your sce...Look, I know you're scared right now and you have a ton of questions and I would really love to answer them. But first, I need you to come with me, okay?" He finished.
"I am not scared!" Hayden immediately protested although it was quite far from the truth. "Plus, how do you expect me to go somewhere with you after the night I've just had? Where are you even gonna take me?" Her questions begun to pile up. Her joy from initially seeing Liam come to her rescue was now gone and replaced with a bunch of red flags.
"You'll see when we get there, I promise. Please Hayden! I need you to trust me on this. It's for your own good." He spoke back and she immediately wanted to laugh. She wasn't sure trust and Liam Dunbar would ever belong in the same sentence.
Yet, she still considered his words. After all, he did save her life, although she didn't want to admit it. Weighing her options, she realized that going with Liam was her best option. Clarke was working the graveyard shift and probably wouldn't answer if she called. Her car was somewhere on a dark road and she didn't really want to be alone after all that had happened.
"Fine." She spoke reluctantly. "But if you waste my time, I'll kick your ass."
1:45 a.m.
Hayden couldn't help but laugh as she tried to process the craziness of everything that been told to her. She was now sitting in the living room of the home of Scott McCall, a senior at Beacon Hills High School that she had seen around a few times. From the moment she got there, Liam, Scott, and a few of their friends insisted that she sit down so that they could explain a few things to her. However, she wasn't aware that they wanted to tell her that she was apparently a supernatural creature. Not only that, but most of them were too. From that, she pretty much assumed that they were all insane.
First, it was Liam who told her that he was a werewolf. Then there was Scott, the "alpha" of the aforementioned. There was Malia Tate, the werecoyote. Also, Kira Yukimura, the daughter of her history teacher expressed to her how she was a kitsunate. Lydia Martin, a well known girl from school was supposed to be a Banshee. Then, there was Stiles and also Mason whom were the staple humans of the group.
What really got her was when they suggested that she was something too. A chimera. She had no idea what the hell that was and she didn't even want to find out as she was sure they had all lost their minds. She watched as Liam sighed and knelt down in front of her.
"Hayden, I wish this was a joke. I really do. But it's not. We're telling you this because we want to protect you." He spoke uneasily. His words surprisingly seemed sincere, but she couldn't help but referring back to how outrageous the situation was. Supernatural creatures didn't exist. They couldn't, right?
Before she had a chance to respond, Scott chimed in. "I know this is probably a lot to take in and it seems ridiculous, but we're not making this up. Besides, if you think hard, there have probably been some completely weird things going on that didn't make any sense to you at all." She thought for a moment. Tracy. The girl had clawed her nails into her skin, resulting in her drawing a vast amount of blood. However, when she went to clean the wound, there wasn't one. Not to mention, Tracy had mumbled something about someone coming to get her.
The group had informed her about Tracy too. They told her that she was turned into something called a kanima by some people referred to as The Dread Doctors, though, she was seemingly defective so they pursued her until they killed her. Hayden pursed her lips. They were all beginning to sound more and more convincing. Yet, if what they were saying was true, that would mean that those Dread Doctors were the things that were following her.
"Okay, fine. Let's pretend that I believe you. What am I supposed to do from here on out? Am I gonna hide from them for the rest of my life?" Hayden inquired.
"No." Scott answered. "But we do need to come up with a plan to protect you. These guys are ruthless. Killing is what they do." He finished.
What a way to be blunt. Hayden couldn't really deal. They were telling her that she was in danger because experienced supernatural killers were after her. That was a pretty tough thing for her to wrap her head around. They killed Tracy because she wasn't a perfect experiment and they would kill her too. Does that mean I'm defective? She was suddenly beginning to feel a little sick.
"Uhm, where's your restroom?" She asked, jumping to her feet. She suspected she needed a few moments to herself to collect her thoughts and deal with the fact that her life was in danger. Scott pointed upwards and she nodded, making a b-line for the stairs.
Once getting to her destination, she locked the door and stepped in front of the sink, placing her hands on both sides of it. She attempted breathing in and out in an attempt to calm her nerves. Her whole life was being redefined in one night and she had no idea how to handle it. Her eyes wandered up to the mirror on the wall, yet, her reflection caused her to jump back. Her eyes were glowing! Like, actually glowing! Holy shit.
She quickly checked around for any other changes, and unfortunately found them with ease. Her finger nails had seemingly morphed into claws. She shook her head, trying to get back to normal, as if she was dreaming. Yet, nothing changed for the better. Instead, she felt her teeth protrude out from their usual size and shape into much longer and sharper ones. She looked back in the mirror. Horrified, she did the only thing that made sense.
"Liam! Scott!" She yelled for the two boys with increased difficulty as she hadn't learned how to talk with fang like teeth in her mouth. It didn't take long before she heard noise on the stairs and soon someone was bombarding through the locked door. Liam was first, followed by Scott.
"What's going on?" The youngest boy asked, his question obviously answered when he took a good look at her. She watched as various emotions played across his face.
"What the hell is happening to me?" She exclaimed. Whenever they were explaining what she was to her, they never included that something like this would happen out of nowhere.
"You're turning." Scott responded coolly from behind Liam.
"I get that! How do I stop?" She basically demanded an answer, expressing her exasperation with her hands, which was now probably very dangerous.
Liam slowly advanced towards her, placing a hand on both of her shoulders. "You need to calm down. Just breathe." He spoke quietly, trying to soothe her with her words. She looked back down at her claws. She wished it was that easy.
"I can't calm down!" She replied, beginning to feel hopeless and defeated.
"Yes, you can! I believe it. Look at me and don't think about what's going on right now. Breathe." He responded, while Scott looked on and seemed pleased with his methods. Hayden listened. She focused in on his green eyes and tried to think about nothing but them while constantly breathing in and out. It took a while, but her breathing eventually evened out and she felt everything begin to revert back to normal. She stole a glance in the mirror just to be sure, though. She sighed in relief.
She looked back at Liam, thinking about the night in full. He'd helped her so much in the past couple of hours in fending off things that she didn't even understand. They weren't even friends and yet he had no obligation to do so. They'd never shared a moment that could be categorized as 'tender' before then and she didn't quite know how to feel about it. "Thank you." She spoke almost inaudibly and quickly before she could convince herself that it was a bad idea.
Their eyes lingered on each others momentarily before she reminded herself of now pressing matters at hand. Her eyes cut up to Scott's approving figure in the corner of the room. "How am I supposed to handle this?" She asked, not really sure if he had the answer she was looking for.
"Don't worry about that right now. You'll figure it out. What you need to worry about is getting some rest. You can sleep here, my mom has to work the night shift at the hospital and Liam and I will keep watch and make sure nothing happens to you. Someone can go get your car if you want. Then, we can talk about everything in the morning." He answered. Hayden wanted to ask him more as the foundation of her world was just shaken, but she figured that he was right and she probably couldn't deal with much more. She just nodded in return.
The three of them exited the bathroom and Scott instructed Liam to show Hayden his bedroom as he would be staying in his mother's instead. Liam obliged and guided her down the hall as Scott went back downstairs. They entered Scott's room easily and Hayden could tell from the way Liam acted that he admired the boy very much. She looked around the room. It was simple and screamed 'teenage boy' but it would do. "This is it." Liam spoke.
She sat down on the bed, suddenly feeling quite exhausted from the night's activities. She hadn't realized how worn out everything was going to make her.
"Well, I'll leave you to it." Liam spoke again, backing out of the door frame.
"Wait Liam." She barely caught the boy but felt relief when he raised his eyebrows in response. "I just wanna say thanks again. Not just for the bathroom, but you know you did kind of save my life. I'm probably only telling you this because I'd feel like an asshole if I didn't. But yeah." Hayden finished off in a hushed tone.
She wasn't sure, but she almost thought that she saw him smile softly for a second. "Just trying to make up for the sixth grade here." He joked, evoking a small giggle from her. "Now get some rest, Hayden. You deserve it. Goodnight." He said, once again backing out of the door and shutting it firmly.
She paused for a second. "Good night." She spoke to seemingly no one, though, she knew that he could probably hear her. She sighed before letting go of the night's weight and falling backwards on the bed.
A/N: Hi again! For this story, I want to stick as close to the actual plot of the show and just heavily elaborate on it. However, I want this story to seem as original as possible so I referred to the Season 5 Supertease, the clip from Comic-Con, and the 5x07 promo to write this chapter before episode 5x07 airs. There was a lot of making deductions involved in this chapter and somewhere in the middle it got away from and ended up a lot longer than I originally intended. However, I really think this chapter flows well and I hope you guys enjoy this long chapter. Once again, feel free to leave thoughts and questions in the reviews. :)
