/ / / Scott \ \ \
Scott was on the ground, his ears were ringing and he couldn't breathe properly. Something heavy was sitting on him and his hip and leg were thumping with pain. He closed his eyes and tried to catch his breath. Scott put his elbow behind himself and tried to lift his torso up but the weight on his elbow caused it to explode in pain and he fell back down. It took him a few long minutes to be able to try again. He propped himself on his other elbow until he was able to sit up. There was a body on top of him. His side was red and burned but it wasn't as bad as he knew it could be. There was blood, a lot of blood, seeping out of three wounds on the hunter's torso and one in his thigh. Scott turned him over grunting with the pain as it put pressure on his leg. Scott knew he'd broken his leg; nothing else could hurt this badly. The man on top of him was breathing and he was looking up at Scott terrified.
"Help me," he said as he shivered.
"You're going to be fine," Scott said. "I just need to move you off my leg. It's broken."
Scott lifted the man as gently as he could but he couldn't move his leg out of the way. Then suddenly Lydia was there and helped him lift the hunter off his body. Scott still couldn't move his leg.
"Scott, are you okay?"
"My leg is broken," Scott said leaning over to check on the man next to him. "Danny?"
"I don't know," Lydia said. "I came straight to you. Jackson checked on him and you know he wouldn't have left Danny if he wasn't okay."
Scott smiled. "Stiles and Derek? Go and check on them. I'll stay with this guy."
Lydia nodded and left him.
Scott leaned over the man who was still bleeding heavily. He heard Lydia calling for an ambulance as he looked down at the hunter. "You're going to be fine." He looked over and saw Lydia and then he saw the fire, flames now floating on Derek's back. Lydia was putting them out but Derek had been on fire. "How is he?"
"Not good," Lydia called back. "I didn't even see them until I was…oh God Scott."
"He'll be fine, remember Peter survived worse," Scott wasn't sure if Peter's example was all that comforting at the moment but it was something. If Peter survived full body burns then Derek could too.
The man next to Scott's breathing changed becoming heavier and Scott turned back to him. He pulled his jumper off and tore it tying one of the strips around the leg above the man's wound. The man grunted at the pain but Scott couldn't do anything for him.
"What's your name?"
"Ben," he gasped out.
"You're losing a lot of blood but the ambulance is on its way."
"Why did you do this?"
Scott shook his head. "What are you talking about?"
"You," he said more weakly.
"No," Scott said. "Keep talking to me, you're going to be okay. You just need to keep talking to me."
Scott knew he wouldn't, the smell of blood was overwhelming and the ground around him was soaked red. Scott knew the leg wound was bad but one of his others must be even worse.
"Why did you blow up the barn?" Scott asked hoping for an answer before the man lost consciousness but he wasn't expecting it. The man…Ben was fading fast and Scott couldn't do anything. He felt along Ben's sides but didn't find anything until he got to the back of Ben's neck which was slick and he could feel the jagged edge of a wound. There was something sharp there and Scott swore before pulling his hand back. It was covered in blood. He grabbed the rest of his jumper and pressed it firmly into the wound at the back of his neck. The sudden pain made Ben jerk and look up at Scott.
"Tell Jenny I love her" Ben said slowly his eyes distant.
"I will," Scott said having no idea who Jenny was or where he could find her but he'd do it anyway. Minutes later Ben stopped breathing. He looked around and could see Jackson in the barn moving around trying to see if anyone was alive. Lydia was kneeling next to Stiles who didn't seem to be moving. Scott swore and rolled. His leg was useless but he wolfed out and used the extra strength to get himself to a tree so he could try to pull himself up. Scott couldn't get any leverage to get himself standing, his leg completely useless. Danny came over and helped him up but it was a slow process both of them sweating and swearing through the action of getting Scott to one of his feet. Scott could see Danny's arm hanging awkwardly and he knew Danny wasn't as strong as normal either.
"What's wrong with you?" Danny panted out when they were standing.
Scott felt along his thigh and could feel bumps where they should not be. "Definitely broken," Scott sighed. "Dislocated shoulder?"
"I think so," Danny said looking pale. "Come on, I'll help you over and we can check on Derek and Stiles."
"And you can check on Jackson," Scott said as he threw his arm over Danny's good shoulder and they started moving towards Jackson and Lydia where they were watching over Stiles and Derek. He could smell the blood, a slightly different scent to the blood from Ben. Scott and Danny didn't make it more than three steps before Jackson came over to them and pulled Scott over his shoulder supporting his weight while they moved towards the rest of the pack.
Scott knew before he was even standing above them.
He looked down at them and could see it. His entire body flushed hot as he looked down at Stiles pale and bleeding on the ground. He knew he was going to lose his best friend. Scott knew the bite wouldn't work; it would be too much for Stiles' body to handle. It would definitely kill Stiles but he wanted to try. He wanted to do anything he could to fix this. Lydia was right but he wanted to drop down to his knees and bite Stiles anyway. Stiles had always said he was just fine being human, that he didn't mind being weaker and slower and less supernatural than the rest of them. He said he'd be fine and he'd never once fallen in any fight as badly as this. Stiles came out whenever anything threatened their pack and did everything he could to make sure they all walked away safe and whole and in return they protected him. But they hadn't done their job this time. Scott hadn't done his job this time.
When the ambulance arrived the pack was forced to step back as they rushed to Stiles. Scott heard Derek wake up and climb to his feet. He had assumed that Derek wouldn't have been able to woke up given the state of his back and the blood everywhere but if he was up and moving it couldn't have been as bad as they thought. Derek called out to Stiles and tried to get to him. Scott couldn't do anything to help or stop him but he understood the desire to do something for Stiles and if any bite was strong enough to save Stiles it would be Derek's. Scott wanted to push the ambulance officers out of the way, push Derek into the ambulance with Stiles and pray to any god, deity or pagan icon if it meant that Stiles would be okay and he wasn't even in love with Stiles. Not that Derek would ever admit to being in love with Stiles either. Jackson held him back, stopped him from getting closer now that Stiles was inside of the ambulance with one of the ambulance officers climbing in after while the other came over to Scott and started checking on him.
The ambulance officer looked at his leg and helped him climb into the back of the second ambulance
"You need to check on Derek," Scott said letting out a sigh now that he was relaxed back with his leg lying out with no pressure on it. Moments later he heard Jackson call out asking for the same thing. The man smiled at him and jumped back out of the ambulance making his way over to Derek and Jackson. They needed to knock Derek out before they could get him into the ambulance next to Scott. Just before the doors closed was Scott's first glimpse of Derek's back and he was hit with a sudden need to vomit. The door closed and the smell grew, it was one he recognised from out near the barn, burnt flesh, only this time the smell was coming from Derek and now Scott had to wonder which one of his friends was more likely to need his prayers to get through this.
They started moving and one of the medical officers cut away the shirt from around Derek's back exposing the flesh that was still pale next to the red and blistered flesh of the majority of his back. Scott watched them check on Derek, perform different tests and things he didn't understand as they drove through town. Derek didn't respond to anything they did just laid on the bed silent. As soon as the doors opened Scott pulled himself out of the ambulance, he needed to get away from the smell of Derek's burns, and he needed to get away from the heavy smell of fire, he hoped distance would make it easier to stop thinking about the explosion. When he made it down to the ground someone grabbed him but the second ambulance was driving in and he wanted to see Stiles. He tried to pull away when suddenly his mother was standing in front of him and pulling him out of all the bad memories and back to the hospital entrance with his leg throbbing, clean air and everyone about to get help.
Like a signal Derek could feel even unconscious as soon as Stiles' ambulance arrived he popped up like a jack-in-the-box and staggered out of the vehicle going for Stiles again. Scott had no idea how he'd fought against his injuries and the drugs to find his way to consciousness again. His mother pulled away from him and Scott tried to hold onto her but she got away from him and he couldn't do anything to chase after her with his leg as it was. He needed to get his mother away from Derek who wasn't particularly aware of anything at the moment but Derek didn't push her out of the way just looked at her and then over at the ambulance where they were pulling Stiles out.
"Derek, what happened?" His mother asked trying to keep his attention.
"He wasn't supposed to be there." Derek turned back to his mother and stared at her, Scott tried to steady himself to move if he needed to. If Derek tried to move her out of his way Scott's mother wouldn't be able to do anything to stop him, even injured Derek would be able to hurt her. "You have to help him. Please."
Then Derek dropped suddenly and his mother tried to hold his weight. Scott moved to help but he couldn't do anything with pain blooming out of his leg and then a giant man, almost as tall as Lydia's husband, was standing next to his mother taking Derek's weight. Scott could see the exact moment that his mother saw the wounds on Derek's back.
When Derek was gone, and the flurry of people passed by with Stiles between them hooked up to things and bleeding and still just lying there unconscious, Scott's mum pushed him into a wheelchair and then moved him into the hospital, into a bed and asked him what happened.
Scott remembered the moment that Stiles stumbled into the barn on the arm of one of the hunters. He'd looked apologetic but not particularly worried even though his arm already looked red and bruised. Derek had been annoyed, demanded he be released and Stiles had grinned at him. The hunter agreed and they moved towards Derek who'd gone in to collect him. It put him closer to the barn than anyone else. There was a hollow click and Derek ran forward to pull Stiles to him. Stiles looked confused but he'd run anyway and then there was the explosion and Scott was able to see Derek's body collide with Stiles throwing them both onto the ground. The fire flicked out and towards them all and Scott was thrown back the hunter who'd been with Stiles landing on him. He described it to his mother but it was too much, the smell still in his nose and the sight of Stiles still and deathlike on the ground. Stiles was always moving but he'd been so very still. His mother pulled him close like she always had when he was upset and held him while he sobbed into her neck terrified at the idea of losing Stiles.