Some of you have asked about the couples for this story and the father of Lydia's baby and while that is going to stay a secret for a few more chapters if you read my other stories it is not hard to figure out who my favorite couples are :-)! Thank you so much for reading and please let me know what you think!
Chapter 3
Two hours later Stiles was driving, blindly following the GPS as Lydia had set it while Isaac slept in the backseat and Lydia dosed in the passenger seat. While Isaac was laid out across the backseat, face twitching every now and then reacting to what Stiles like to think were the bunnies he was chasing in his dreams, Lydia was curled into herself, head propped on her fist against the window, the other hand curled protectively around the slight bump between her hips, face tense. Looking at her he sighed. He knew something was going on with her, something beyond this ridiculous mission to save the Hales from whatever bullshit situation that they had gotten themselves into now. Stiles also knew Lydia and he knew that she was too smart and too meticulous to go into this situation blind. She was playing some other angle even if she didn't want to share it with Stiles just yet. Glancing back at her he worried at the way her brow tensed and her hand clutched tighter over her belly. She was scared of something and that worried him because Lydia rarely ever feared anything. She liked to be in control of everything in her world, that control kept her safe and right now she looked as if she felt anything but safe.
For nearly half an hour, the car was quiet, then Lydia gave a sudden jerk as she cried out. Turning his head, Stiles instinctively throws his right arm out to brace her in her seat as he quickly pulled off of the abandoned highway. Just as he brought the car to a stop Lydia started to scream, her eyes flying open and her whole body tensing. Before he realized that Isaac was even awake, the other boy had jumped out of the car and was pulling Lydia's door open. Stiles aided him by unlatching her seat belt.
"Lydia," Isaac barked as he grabbed her shoulders firmly, "Lydia can you hear me?"
Stiles winced at her scream so he could only imagine what it sounded like to Isaac but he leaned in closer to the girl, rubbing her back as he whispered, "Lydia, if you can hear us try to calm down."
Looking to Isaac who, for once, looked completely terrified, "I don't think she can stop the scream once she starts."
Just as Isaac looks like he is going to crawl out of his skin, Lydia stops screaming and, still panting, stares straight ahead, bracing her arms ion the dashboard.
"Lydia, what was that?" Stiles asks gently, still rubbing her back.
Looking towards him, her eyes wide and glassy she blinks slowly, like she doesn't know if she is awake or still dreaming.
"Lydia," Isaac asks quietly, "Does that mean that Derek," the wolf looks down, "Is he," he tries to ask again but cannot seem to say the word dead.
Shaking her head, she reaches blindly for the boy, brushing her hand through his hair and resting it on the back of his neck, "No," her free hand comes to rest over her chest, "I can still feel him, he is fine for now. I don't know what that was." She is still completely shaken by whatever caused her to scream.
"Lydia, is everything," Stiles starts only to be cut off by the redhead, "Just drive Stiles," she says hollowly, "The sooner we get there and get them, the quicker this ends." As Isaac gently closer her door and climbs into the back of the SUV, Lydia's hand takes up residence on her belly again as she lets out a breath, trying to settle herself from whatever nightmare it was that had woken her. Stiles notices as he pulls back on the road how fragile she looks. For someone who seems somewhere between shocked that she could be pregnant and in denial that she is pregnant Lydia seems protective of her baby. Stiles is dying to know why she is so secretive about her baby, not wanting Isaac or the pack to know that she is pregnant or willing to admit who the father is. Part of Stiles worries that she doesn't want to admit that she doesn't know who the baby's father is, or that worse the father is that dick Alpha twin that murdered Boyd, another part of him worries that the baby is a product of something else, that something horrible happened to the banshee and that is way she won't talk about it.
Curling her legs up into the seat, wrapping her whole body around her hand, Stiles can't help but notice how pale the girl is or how sad she looks. Whatever is haunting his friend is hurting her, both psychologically and physically. He only hopes she is strong enough to overcome whatever this is. Especially if she is going to have and raise a baby. That is the other thing that baffles him, why is she having this baby? Stiles is as pro-choice as the next guy, he believes that every woman had the right to decide what happened to or in her own body, he would never tell Lydia what to do but if this baby was the source of Lydia's hurt, and if she didn't want anyone to know about it, why have it? Why not just end it before anyone ever knew? Why hide it from everyone for this long? Did she even have a plan about what she was going to tell the pack because they were going to notice soon enough if they hadn't already. There was definitely more to this situation than he was seeing or than she was allowing him to see.
The miles passed slowly until the tense silence was interrupted again, this time by the shrill ringing of Lydia's cell. The sound seemed to startle the girl at first but then she looked down at her bag and quickly unwound herself to retrieve the phone and answer it.
"Braeden," She answered, nearly breathless.
"Uh huh," she paused and Stiles, once again, wished that he had werewolf hearing.
"Yeah, we are about three hours out. Okay, we will meet you there and move together. Okay," she finished the conversation.
"Well," Stiles prompted.
Looking to the boy as if she had forgotten he was there, she sighed, "She found them, she has disable most of the security system but she could use more bodies to move in."
"Who has them?" Stiles asks, already plotting. "I mean I know hunters but why did they take them?"
"She doesn't know," Lydia said with a finality that said she didn't want to discuss it.
They crossed the border with little fanfare, honestly it was amazing how easy it was to get into Mexico at a random boarder crossing in bum fuck nowhere Arizona. Stiles woke the others as the approached a dusty motel that looked like a set left over from a horror movie.
"Um guys, we are here?" He looked around at the deserted building, seriously why did this werwolf shit always have to go down at the creepiest possible places.
Both of the others woke slowly, looking around at the less than exciting establishment.
"Braeden is meeting us here," Lydia whispered, her voice horse with exhaustion. Pushing her hair back, she reached into her bag and pulled out a band, pulling it into a pony tail before opening the door and stepping out to looking around. Stiles and Isaac followed suit, taking in the vast desert around them, the dingy motel must have looked like a mirage to anyone else. Stiles caught a movement off in the distance, squinting further at it, he spoke up, "Um guys, it looks like we have company," he pointed to the gray SVU speeding towards them from the desert to the east instead of the road that ran North to South.
"Shit," Isaac muttered, his face tensing as he focused his hearing, "I can hear heartbeats, three, one of them is definitely Derek. She is coming hot, something must have happened."
"Shit, I thought we were going to get them together," Stiles muttered climbing back into the drivers seat, he turned to the redhead, "Lydia get in the back," as he cranked the car.
"What?" She scoffed.
Grabbing her elbow, Isaac steered her into the backseat, "Just do it Lydia."
Looking over his shoulder Stiles nodded his thanks to the other boy.
"Get in the floorboard and stay there until I tell you to get up," Stiles instructed as Isaac jumped in the passenger seat.
Locking eyes with Lydia for a moment before she relented and nodded, climbing into the floor behind the passenger seat, curling herself into a ball. Honestly it was a good thing she was so little because she actually fit pretty well and if they were in a high speed chase, Stiles knew that the safest place for her, particular in her condition where a seat beat could do more harm than good to the baby, was the floor just in case the people chasing them started shooting.
Jamming the car into gear, Stiles pushed the petal to the floor and sped out of the parking lot, looking over the Isaac he said, "Use Lydia's phone to call Braeden, work out a meeting point with her," his voice was completely calm but the command was clear, Isaac nodded and retrieved the bright pink phone from the dash. Punching the programed number he waited a moment before someone answered, "Lydia?" Derek's voice echoed strangely with an emotion Isaac couldn't identify.
"It's Isaac, what is going on?"
Breathing heavily, clearly in pain, Derek answered, "Braeden took out several of the hunters and we got out but they are on our tail."
Looking to Stiles, Isaac said, "They got out but they are being chased," his concern clear.
Nodding Stiles said, "Put them on speaker."
Pressing the button, Derek's panting soon filled the car, "Derek?" Stiles prompted.
"Stiles?" The wolf asked, his confusion clear.
"Yeah, how much of a lead do you have on the hunters?"
"Why do the two of you have Lydia's phone?"
"Not really the time Derek just answer me," Stiles snapped.
"Is she okay?"
"Since when do you care, isn't she just the bitch who used you to resurrect your psycho fucking uncle?" Stiles snarked back, but when he caught Lydia's flinch from the floor behind him he moved on, knowing that that was a sensitive subject. Yet another way that this shit show of a world had fucked up Lydia's life and she had been left to pick up the pieces on her own. "How much time are we working with?" He asked again, trying to refocus the conversation.
"We have maybe a five minute lead on them," he relented, his voice hollow, "We have avoided the roads but they are still trailing us."
"Okay," Stiles processed the situation, "We are about an hour from the border, half and\ hour if we can keep up our speed but they have the advantage because they know the area. Do you have any friends around here?"
"Stiles," Derek sighs tiredly.
"What, where there are hunters there is a pack, that is how it works. Chicken and egg. So do you know the local pack?"
"I am not leading the Plata family back to their compound. It is too dangerous," He barked.
"Do you honestly think that we can make it across the border with you bleeding like that?" They all heard Braeden yell in the background, "Call in whatever favor you have with the Luna pack and get us sanctuary! We cannot out run them but they will not cross into the pack's territory!"
"Listen to the girl!" Stiles yelled his support.
"Stiles," Lydia said in a small voice from the back, "Take the phone off speaker and hand it to me."
Sparing her a brief glance, confused but unwilling to take his eyes off the road for too long at this speed, he nodded to Isaac who seemed just as confused as he was. Taking the phone off of speaker, he handed it back to her, watching the redhead intently.
Closing her eyes, she took a deep breath before opening them again, "Derek."
"Lydia, what the hell are you doing?" He started, his perpetually rage at her clear.
"You know what I am, I cannot ignore it and I refuse to let you die no matter how must you hate me you son of bitch so just make what ever call you have to and text me the address so I can save your ass again." Her voice was firm and commanding, even if her entire body was shaking with the emotions rolling through her.
"Don't you dare try to tell me what to do," he growled, only to be cut off by her, "Text me the address and don't worry, I won't expect a thank you." With that she bitterly hung up the phone, handing it back to Isaac before curling back into herself. Several minutes later it dinged with a message, it was an address.
Staring at the screen for a moment, Isaac seemed confused. He knew Derek pretty well and he had never seen anyone order him around. Looking at the message, he blinked a few times, there was not any other text, just the address but it meant that Derek had relented and followed Lydia's orders. Entering the address in the map app on her phone he relayed the directions to Stiles. For nearly an hour, they drove, still way too fast towards their new destination. It was only as they neared the territory line that all hell broke loose. SVU's descended on them from the desert, opening fire as the attempted to cross into safety.
"Oh shit," Isaac yelled, seeing one vehicle heading straight for them but Stiles quickly turned into the hard earth off the road, swerving the attack and dodging the majority of the approaching vehicles. Sliding the SUV he was driving around as he saw Braeden approaching from the north directly into the heart of the attack. The sound of bullets returned, echoing across the desert as Braeden gave as good as she got, Derek now driving, she and Peter both firing back at the Plata's soldiers.
Signaling Stiles to keep moving as on of the Plata's SUVs hit Braeden's Derek held the wheel straight and kept driving even though the car was nearly ruined.
It took another 20 minutes but both cars pulled up to a high block wall surrounding a compound. Metal gates blocked their way but they were suddenly opening as if in invitation to Stiles. He sped through them, Derek just behind him and the gate slammed shut behind them. Stopping in front of the main building, Stiles throws the car in park and jumps out, adrenalin still pumping. Isaac follows, opening the back door to help Lydia out as Braeden and Peter climb out of the gray SUV behind them.
As soon as her door is open, Lydia is on her feet and running to the other car. Before anyone else can react, she is wrenching open the driver's door and all but pulling out a bleeding Derek Hale.
"Oh God," She whispers seeing the bullet wound in his chest, blue smoke from the wolf's bane bullet still seeping out of it as his blood spills down his chest. Lifting her hand she delicately traces the hole with a morbid fascination.
He groggily cups her face with his right hand, smearing blood onto her cheek, "Lydia?" he whispers, "I don't hate you," before his knees buckle and he begins to fall. Throwing her head back, she can not control the scream that bubbles out of her as his weight falls into her.
