AN: Goodness Gracious, longest chapter ever! Almost nine thousand words!
Thank you everyone for the reviews! Mystic, Yannie, Wolvie, Loevely, Elmo, and HaleSirius, sorry if I made you sad or angry (but not really, that's what I wanted).
I kind of read trough this one while I was writing it, so if there are some parts with good grammar and stuff and some with bad, oops. Didn't really edit, I never do!
Anyway, enjoy this last chapter.
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Chapter Eleven
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It had been two years since Marlow left; she'd only come back once in order to take care of her mother's house, which she ended up leaving vacant. The last person that had spoken to Marlow was Allison, and yet the conversation had only lasted five minutes and had taken place seven months ago. Peter often asked the dark haired teen ager if she had heard anything new from his lost lover but the answer was usually negative and much the same every time he happened by the teen.
The pack was miserable for the first few months before finally getting used to Marlow being gone, though Peter never fully adjusted, they did their best to move on any way they could. Soon their lives became absorbed with their own worries, school, and the supernatural events that wandered into Beacon Hills. Each time they defeated a strange creature they were reminded of why they sent Marlow away in the first place, wondering what might have happened if she had still been living with them. Would the other pack have killed her in spite? Would that kitsune have played a prank on her just for fun? The full moon was always a constant reminder of why they sent her away.
At one point Peter had followed her scent back to where she used to live with her roommate, but she had already left that apartment as well. When he questioned the girl that still lived there she explained that Marlow had only come back to live there briefly after the funeral, for perhaps four months at the most. She explained that the art crazed woman had gotten low for a while and one day she'd come home from classes to see Marlow lying on the ground motionless, it had been categorized as an attempt at suicide. Though Marlow had insisted over and over again that she was having nightmares and merely mixed up her medication, Peter didn't know what to believe. She was definitely clumsy enough to misread her medication, but would she also be sad enough to kill herself?
Regardless of what had happened Marlow left soon after the incident and Peter had elected not to tell the rest of the pack about his findings. He was sure that the news would only depress them further and no one had needed such a story after still feeling bad about her departure. He just wished that wherever she was and whatever she was doing, she was safe.
-0-
It didn't come as a surprise to have someone, a werewolf to be more exact, wonder onto their land and invade their territory; it actually happened quite a lot with omegas over the years. Erica and Isaac came across the young teenager after Derek told them to check up on a disturbance in the forest, he'd smelled something foreign moving about. The kid looked to only be about thirteen or fourteen and he seemed very out of breath, his eyes flashing blue when Erica challenged him.
Isaac immediately cringed at the color of his eyes, he was so young and yet already the golden color of his eyes had paled under the weight of killing someone innocent. Erica noticed it as well and was immediately on the offensive, if this kid had any ill intentions she was going to stop them before they even started and send him on his way.
"What do you want Omega?" She asked in a sneer.
"I'm looking for someone," he heaved weakly. With bags under his eyes and a shaking form Isaac would have guessed that the kid hadn't slept in a week or so, and he couldn't even bother guessing when the last time he ate was. Even for a werewolf that could heal in no time the pup looked ill, whatever he was doing here Isaac had a feeling it wasn't going to be good.
"Look somewhere else," she muttered snarling at him defensively. "This is our territory," she warned him letting her won golden eyes flash dangerously.
The kids dirty blonde hair was greasy and matted to his head as he steadied himself on a tree sickly, Erica took a step away from him seeing how close he was to passing out. His dark hazel eyes flitted between the two of them as if he was searching for something in the details on their faces, as if he recognized them from somewhere.
"I'm need to talk," he slumped against the tree with an exhausted sigh. His speech became garbled and slurred as he tried to stay awake long enough to tell them what he needed.
"How does it feel to need?" Erica asked with a grin. She'd gotten sassier since Marlow left, which greatly annoyed the boys who tried to talk to her.
"Stop being so cruel," Isaac murmured towards Erica before the kids spoke again.
"Derek Hale," he whispered before his head drooped forward and he fell into a heap on the ground.
Isaac and Erica looked at each other with curious expressions on their faces, people had come looking for Derek quite often since Marlow had left, it was really no biggie, but something about a kid looking for him was different. He'd seemed so desperate to tell them about who he was looking for and he was so strained that he'd actually passed out that they decided to give him a chance and call the Alpha.
"Yeah," the Alpha answered from the other end of the phone.
"We found an Omega in the forest, a pup, barely a teenager. He's unconscious right now and doesn't look very good but he said he needs to talk to you, Isaac and I are bringing him to Deaton," she explained blandly.
"Did he say why?" Derek asked in a stern voice. When it came to protecting their territory Derek was always serious and down to the point, all of the pack worked to the set goal of getting Marlow back. Everything had to be perfect if they were ever going to consider finding her again, no breaks in command or room for messing up.
"Didn't get that far," she muttered watching Isaac pick the boy up and start towards Deaton's clinic.
"Call me when he wakes up, I'll send Scott over to help," he said before hanging up the phone.
"Let's go," Erica turned to see that Isaac was already on his way and growled a few brash insults that made him laugh.
Scott met them at the clinic and helped get the boy into the building and under Deaton inspection without too much trouble, after a few tests that Scott helped the older man with he explained what might have happened.
"Why didn't he just heal?" Stiles questioned. He'd shown up halfway through the whole predicament after Scott had texted him something about it, not having anything better to do he decided to see what was going on.
"It looks like he's been on the run from something, he's starving and sleep deprived, it could be a couple weeks since he's even stopped to rest," the man noted looking at the sleeping teen.
"Do you think he's running from something, another werewolf maybe?" Stiles offered.
"His eyes flashed blue, which could mean that he killed someone he shouldn't have and now they want revenge?" Erica countered catching a surprised look from both Scott and Stiles. He sure was young to have killed someone already.
"But then why would he be looking for Derek?" Isaac questioned stumping them all.
Discussing it for another hour or so they decided to wait until the kid woke up so they could simply ask him, although they were unsure of whether or not he would even answer them.
-0-
He'd been asleep for a whole day and lost the attention of Deaton, Erica, Scott, and Stiles, leaving Isaac as the only one still in the room when he woke up with a gasp. He groaned before pulling himself into a sitting position, they had transferred him to a more comfortable bed that wasn't just a metal slab. His eyes darted around frantically as he took in the sight of where he was currently residing, his eyes flashed blue again as Isaac moved to calm him.
"You're okay, we're taking care of you," he said pushing his shoulders back into the bed firmly. The young wolf beneath him thrashed and reared against him even as Isaac growled darkly as a warning.
"I have to hurry, please, let me talk to Derek," he grunted out as Isaac strapped his arms to the bed. He howled at the guy in front of him fiercely and Isaac was thankful that Deaton had arm restraints in his clinic.
"Not yet," Isaac insisted texting the rest of the pack that their visitor had woken up and was not happy. In the pup's weakened state he was unable to free himself from the straps holding him down, which Isaac was thankful for given that everyone else had left him to deal with the sleeping teen.
To his surprise it was actually Derek that showed up first to stand in front of the teen as he glared at the rest of them while they filed into the room. Peter, Scott, and Stiles were absent this time as they made sure no one was following the kid into the forest, Derek's orders.
"What's your name?" The Alpha asked letting his eyes flash red as a way to threaten any lashing out. Erica and Boyd let the pup out of his restraints as he sat up slowly to look at the pack in front of him; it had been a while since he'd seen wolves so closely knit together.
"Lars Bloud," he said almost sounding ashamed. "She calls me Sonny," he muttered the last part quietly.
"Where's your pack? Where are you from?" He questioned watching the boy twitch and cringe at his words.
"They abandoned me three years ago when I was twelve," he explained averting his eyes away from the Alpha in front of him. Derek looked down at the boy with a little bit of pity welling up in him, a lot had happened since Marlow left and he'd lost a smidge of the softer side of him every time something happened. But this pup in front of him was just a kid and already it seemed like a lot had happened to him, he was only fifteen. "I'm from Michigan," he added making them raise their eyebrows slightly.
He was pretty far away from home if that was where he really lived, it explained why the kid had been so exhausted and gave a clue that he could very possibly have traveled directly to them without stopping. Erica had told Derek about everything that Deaton had told them and what they thought could be the cause but the mystery was somewhat solved now.
"It took me six days to get here," he muttered rubbing his arm subconsciously. Answering their unspoken question almost perfectly.
"Why are you here? What do you need to talk to me about?" He said catching the pup's eyes as he turned to look up at him suddenly.
"I need you to turn someone for me," he stated in a breathless voice.
"No," Derek said curtly making Sonny growl darkly in front of him. The Alpha turned and glared at the Omega, causing the boy to stiffen but not back down in the slightest.
"Why not?" He asked desperately. Derek's answer sent the kid for a loop, he was sure that the Alpha would say yes considering how far he had come and how long it had taken him he'd expected more of an answer from the wolf. Derek sighed and pulled a chair in front of the kids bed to sit down in before looking at his hands, this conversation sounded very similar to one he had had a couple years ago.
"It's too dangerous, they could reject the bite and die, I don't want that on my hands," he said blandly. Just because some kid had traveled all the way from across the country to speak to him didn't mean he was going to give him everything he wanted.
"It'll be on me, I'll take full responsibility for it, please," he begged the Alpha pathetically.
"No, I won't," he shook his head as a final answer before watching. "You should have asked another Alpha," he muttered realizing how many packs the boy must have passed on his way to Beacon Hills.
"I didn't know anyone else!" Sonny shouted suddenly. "She's already dying, the full moon is one week away, this is the only chance she has. Please," teary blue eyes met the red eyes Derek had trained on the Omega. "I can't lose her, she's all I have," he cried unashamed in front of the Alpha. Isaac, Boyd, and Erica looked away from the teen, uncomfortable seeing someone so vulnerable knowing that their Alpha wasn't going to budge.
"I'm sorry," the wolf apologized sincerely. But in the end he couldn't be bothered by one little Omega who wanted to turn a human who was dying, he had enough trouble with keeping his own beta's in place. He didn't need another wolf running around on his shoulders.
"Now I know why she left, all her stories made this place sound so great and inviting, but in the end you don't even care if she lives or dies," Sonny yelled at him bitterly. This made Derek stop short with his growl and turn to stare the kid in the eye as he glared viciously at the Alpha.
"What do you mean left? Who are you trying to save?" Isaac caught on to the kid's conversation immediately and hoped with everything that the name he was thinking of wouldn't escape his lips.
"She used to live here; she buried her mother here," he went on making Isaac's expression turn sour and painful.
"Please no," his voice was the softest whisper.
"Marlow's dying."
=0=0=
Almost immediately the pack was in a frenzy, though no one had told Peter just yet Derek was doing his best to get information out of the Omega who was currently being fed.
Sonny had explained that he'd met Marlow a year and a half ago when she moved to Michigan and started to take care of Omega's in the area before connecting them to a pack of their own. He had been the first wolf that she found and tried to help even though he wanted nothing to do with humans, not after he'd accidentally killed one. At first he'd been resistant and more or less an asshole to the woman that everyone in the room loved, he'd even gone as far as to leave her in the forest to get rid of her. The next time she saw him she'd thrown the oranges she'd been carrying at him and growling out a strange list of words before expressing her concern for if something had happened to him.
It didn't take long for him to realize that the woman wasn't going to leave him alone no matter how hard he tried to get away, and after a while he started to enjoy her company. After seven months of being constantly bugged by the woman about joining a pack of his own he'd explained why he thought he wasn't good enough to have a family. In return she'd told them about the Hale pack and her old family that had wanted to protect her no matter what, even if it meant sending her away when she needed them most.
At first sonny had hated the pack that he'd never met because sometimes Marlow would look at a small photo album with pictures of her old family and sigh sadly, nightmares usually followed. Sonny didn't mind them so much because he got them as well, always he remembered the way their eyes had simply faded and drained of life. Marlow was always there to comfort him and tell him a funny story; he couldn't understand why anyone would want to get rid of such a kind and unique person.
He realized it after Marlow had found a couple other Omega's that needed a place to stay and someone to care for them, she took them in without hesitation and helped them to control their shift on the full moon. Sonny had found his anchor thanks to the help of a local Alpha months after he accepted that Marlow was there to stay, they were often uneventful as he insisted to be left alone. One night she came home battered and bruised with scratch marks all over her arms, when he questioned her she'd explained that the new girl had trouble controlling herself.
All at once Sonny no longer blamed her old pack for sending her away, as a member of the family she was loved and cared for, a person they couldn't help but care about, but as a human she was weak and fragile. Even Sonny worried for her whenever she found a new Omega that she claimed as one of her new living buddies, he always treated them with a certain level of disdain before deciding they could control themselves.
Everything had been going well for a while and Sonny was finally getting used to having a place to belong to, even though Marlow often bugged him about joining a pack of his own he knew she liked having him around. She was the older sister he'd never had or even imagined he would ever get, in the first few months it had felt like a dream. Then she'd found a sort of unstable beta who'd lost his pack and was convinced that they had left him for dead, of course she did her best to make him feel at home. But with that kid there was only so much she could do for someone who ignored everything she said.
The kids name was Marv; Marlow actually liked his name and often said that she liked him better because his name also started with an M, though she only said it to annoy Sonny.
"To make a long story short," he started to finish up after his rather long background during breakfast. "Marv couldn't control himself on the night of the full moon and went after Marlow, I found her bloody and gasping, and all she could say was that it was his fault," he spat out darkly. "They gave her three weeks, a month tops, and it's already been eleven days," he muttered looking up at Derek defiantly.
The pack in front of him was silent, all of the wolves either chewing on the inside of their cheeks or staring at their hands with determined expressions on their faces. It was evident in their expressions how much they cared for the woman, but it didn't matter anymore because Marlow was his family, and he wasn't about to give her up. All he wanted from the Hale pack was for the Alpha to bite Marlow so she could possibly live, and then they could go on living in Michigan without the pressure of being part of a family. Then if Marlow was a wolf she wouldn't be so vulnerable, it's what they wanted right?
"She's the closest thing I've had to family in a long time, and I don't think you'll be able to live with yourself knowing you let her die," he began to delve into lower tactics after Derek's first refusal.
"What happened to Marv?" Boyd wondered feeling a deep rage within himself.
"I made him leave," he stated as if the answer was obvious.
"Did Marlow send you here? Did she ask you to do this?" Derek questioned choosing his words carefully.
"No," he leaned back in his chair. "I tried to get her to call you, but she insisted that the number didn't work, and in the end all she continued to say was, I already said goodbye," he growled remembering her sad smile. "She wouldn't let any of the other Alpha's in the area bite her, and they respected her wishes, but I can't accept that. I was hoping that if I came here, you might still love her enough to save her life," his voice got softer as it progressed.
"We do," Erica muttered softly.
"Then you shouldn't have sent her away in the first pace!" he yelled getting to his feet quickly.
"We didn't want to," Isaac countered letting his eyes flash golden angrily. "She wasn't safe here, and we couldn't bear to see her get hurt over and over again, you don't understand," he accused the boy who grit his teeth in response.
"Don't assume that I know nothing," he raised his voice harshly.
Marlow often compared Sonny to a policeman's wife, always worrying about whether or not she would come home safely or if she would come home injured. He was painfully aware of how weak and vulnerable she was each time she went into the forest to help an Omega, no matter how many times he tried to keep her out she kept going. Sometimes it felt like Sonny was the parent and he had to take care of Marlow, he didn't really mind though, it meant that she was a special person that he needed to protect, someone he'd do anything for.
Sure he was thankful that they had made her leave, because if they hadn't she never would have pulled him out of the forest and into her house and convinced him that he wasn't a lost cause. So he was grateful, but he was still angry that they wouldn't want such a special person in the first place, after what had happened to her. Would they ever forgive themselves?
"Do you know what happened after she left you?" He questioned hysterically. "Do you know what she did to herself?" He snarled making the wolves in front of him stiffen and flinch at his words.
"I do," a voice called to them from the front of the clinic. Within seconds Peter was standing in the doorway and looking at everyone in the room, his eyes grazed over Sonny for a moment before turning to Derek. "Nice of you to tell me," he hissed at the Alpha venomously. He'd gone to Derek's house to speak to Derek to find Scott and Stiles instead, they mentioned something about a kid who knew Marlow at the clinic. He hadn't expected to hear the end of the conversation with some Omega speaking so fondly of his Marlow.
"What did she do?" Erica asked gently.
Sonny turned to look at the man who just walked in, but his eyes were cast downwards as he thought of how to phrase what had been a rock in his stomach for the past few months.
"It was about three or four months after you made her leave, she moved back to her apartment, but couldn't concentrate on school anymore. Nothing seemed to matter to her at all, she got low, and accidentally," Sonny's voice turned sarcastic with that word. "Mixed up her medication, if her roommate hadn't found her, she'd already be dead and I wouldn't even be here. After that happened she told me that she felt disappointed in herself and decided to start over, that's how she ended up in the forest in Michigan," he explained watching for their reactions.
"That can't be true," Isaac bit the side of his cheek bitterly.
"I actually think she did mix up her medication because she's pretty clumsy but," Sonny let a soft chuckle escape his lips. How many times had she come home with scratches on her arms after tripping over something in the woods? Way too many. "If she was still with you guys it wouldn't have happened in the first place," he added.
"Why does she need medication?" Peter asked after holding the question in his mind for many weeks.
"Nightmares, sometimes I'll find her sitting in the living room in the middle of the night because she doesn't want to dream. She also has some old lingering pain in her shoulder, but I don't know what that's from, sometimes she'll wake up screaming and holding onto her shoulder as if she's been stabbed," he explained making Derek tense at his words.
"Why are you here?" Peter questioned the kid. Sonny merely glared past the older wolf to the Alpha behind him who had moved away from Isaac to pace slowly in the back of the room. Isaac leaned into the wall next to him before letting a deep sigh escape his lips.
"Marlow was attacked, she's in a hospital in Michigan, they've given her two weeks," he explained glaring at a wall darkly. "Sonny came to ask Derek if he would turn her," he motioned towards the younger teen standing in front of them.
"Well what have you decided?" Peter turned towards the Alpha.
"Peter, Sonny, and I are going to the airport right now," he said looking at the wolves as he said their names. "Isaac, go get Stiles and start driving, Erica, Boyd, and Scott will stay here in Beacon Hills while we're gone," he commanded of them.
"There's no way you're leaving me here!" Erica protested with a snarl.
"Don't make me repeat myself," Derek snapped letting his eyes turn red as he glared at her. She lowered her eyes away from him slowly and nodded her head before rushing towards the door with Boyd in tow.
"I expect hourly updates," she said before moving to run out the door and inform the rest of the pack.
=0=0=
Sonny was quiet the whole way back, thinking over all the possible outcomes of what could happen to Marlow and himself. If she died, which he didn't even want to think about, he would be alone again, though there were many Alphas in the area that had offered to take Sonny in he had refused explaining that he had to take care of Marlow. But if she was gone would they still be willing to take him in? Would he even want to be part of their pack?
If Marlow lived would her old pack take her back now that she was a werewolf and wouldn't be as vulnerable? Would she take him with her and insist that he was part of the package? This outcome made him smile fondly; it would mean that she cared about him enough to take him where ever she ended up. Or would the pack take Marlow when she survived and leave him there? Would she leave him to stay in Michigan? Maybe.
Next to the teen on the plane Peter was anxious; Derek had filled him in on who Sonny was and what he'd told them Marlow had been doing for the past two years. Helping Omegas that had nowhere else to go and giving them another chance to live with someone who cared about them, though one of them had ended up being her downfall. It made him grit his teeth in anger; couldn't she just lay low for a while before they came to find her again? Why didn't she go to live with her aunt like she had done before, it had proved to be safe in the past, and wasn't that what she really needed at the moment.
It had been a relief to him to hear Sonny brush off the incident with Marlow's medication and a mix-up, he'd been with her longer than Peter had and it made him jealous. To think he'd ever be jealous of a snotty teenager, past Peter would have sneered and mocked himself, but present Peter couldn't stand how fondly the boy talked of her.
If only he was there instead, he could have gone with her when she left, left the pack behind and protected her from anything that might cause her trouble. She wouldn't need medication for nightmares if he was there to hold her at night when she screamed. Waking up in the middle of the night and finding her in the kitchen, he would have pulled her into his lap and whispered sweet nothings into her ear until she fell asleep. He would have taken care of her!
Yet he'd let her go.
In the end all his thoughts came crashing down on himself, a hefty weight that choked and gagged him, this was because he wasn't strong enough, he wasn't willing to leave everything behind for her. Why had he assumed that it was okay for her to leave everything she loved behind for them? Of course he knew the answer for that, because she was the outside in the pack, the human who had butted in after everything had already ended. She would never be able to understand what they had been through and they hadn't even tried to explain it to her, so they made her leave.
She was dying now.
His heart hurt just thinking about it, a deep aching pain that stole his breath away as if he had fallen on his back. At the same time that he didn't want to see her so weak and broken in the hospital, he knew that he had to, because if he never went to see her he wouldn't be able to forgive himself. Derek wouldn't tell him if he was going to give her the bite, everyone had assumed that he would, why wouldn't he when she was already dying. There was nothing to lose anymore! Though in the end they still might lose her, but the Alpha was afraid that if he got their hopes up, they would be disappointed if she didn't make it.
-o-
Even as they walked through the hospital, Sonny was leading the way, Peter was thinking about the past couple years that he had been alone. He'd tried to move on after a little while, going mostly for one night stands as was his original plan with Marlow, but his heart was no longer in it. Before it had been fun to meet a new woman every other night and spend the night with them knowing he would probably never see them again. But Marlow had made him soft, making him expect to see her smiling down at him and poking him in the ribs whenever she saw the chance arise. He liked how she had known what his expression meant and what foods he didn't like.
He missed the way the corners of her mouth would turn upwards whenever she said his name with a chuckle in her breath. He missed waking up before her and tracing the veins on her arm until she woke up to the tickling touch to push him away weakly with a disapproving groan. How her breath would brush against his cheek whenever she went to whisper in his ear. All the comments she would make under her breath when she thought no one was listening, the way she treated everyone the same even when she didn't like them.
To know that when her eyes flickered away from him when she was speaking meant she was keeping something from him, the way her voice rose when she was upset. He couldn't get over the way he felt about her and wouldn't forgive himself for letting her leave alone; he should have gone with her. He should have been there to reassure her that everything would be okay.
Before they went into the room a doctor came up to Sonny and they spoke in hushed tones, Derek heard what they were saying but Peter's thoughts were very much lost in his mind. The teen turned around to face them finally catching the older beta's attention.
"She's not awake right now, but you can go in if you want to," he explained motioning towards the door behind him.
"Where are you going?" Derek questioned the kid who took a step back defensively.
"To talk to Lenora, she's an Alpha that Marlow's friend with. She took care of her while I was gone," he explained turning his eyes to the side. He'd left Marlow behind selfishly, only thinking about what would happen if she died and not what she thought of the situation.
"I'll come with you," Derek glanced at Peter before Sonny grumbled something under his breath and led the Alpha away.
This left Peter to take slow steps into the room, he was unsure of what he would see in there, the only thing he was certain of was that Marlow was in there and he needed to see her.
Her skin was the same pale color it had always been, not deathly pale like Peter had been expecting, but the same skin tone he had seen the first day in the library. Her hair had gotten longer and now looked to go to her lower back, though it was fanned out on the bed around her. A breathing mask around her mouth made a soft sound every time she inhaled and exhaled, something dripped near him making his eyes follow a tube that went into an I.V on her hand. There were a few other things hooked up to her, monitoring her pulse and making sure her blood wouldn't clot on her legs. A bandage on her head was all Peter could see of an injury but he was sure that if Marlow was not wearing a gown there would be much worse underneath.
With everything before him, all the machines, and breathing mask Peter took in the sight of the person he had loved and sent away. Even while sleeping Peter could see some bags under her eyes as if the past two years had really worn down on her, every so often his eyes would pass over a new scar that had not been there when she left.
All at once Peter collapsed into a chair next to her bed, lacing his fingers between her own and bringing her small hand up to his mouth gently, letting his lips touch her skin ever so softly.
"I'm sorry I watched you go," he whispered as if she could hear him. "I'm sorry I didn't go with you, or follow you to make sure you were safe," his voice started to crack as he tried not to tear up. "I'm sorry I tried to stop loving you, I tried to forget about you and leave you in my past," he faltered with his words when looking at her closed eyes. She was so still next to him that Peter immediately felt the weight of his words as they crashed out his mouth, he'd struggled to move on when really he just needed to find her again. "I'm so sorry."
Then she spoke to him. It was so soft Peter thought he imagined it until he looked up to see Marlow slowly opening her eyes to look at him. She didn't say anything for a moment while her eyes looked at him holding her hand and then looked up at his face. She smiled brightly at him then and Peter felt his breath catch in his throat painfully, no matter how hard he had tried he couldn't stop loving her.
Her hand moved to take off her mask gradually, moving it off before opening her lips and closing them again, struggling with her own words as much as he had struggled with his own.
"Are you really here?" She asked in the softest of voices.
"Yes, from now on I will always be here for you," he responded with the same kind of voice. She smiled at him fondly.
"You won't have to be here much longer," she said with a sad smile. She sounded weak and her eyes fluttered around the room aimlessly before landing back on Peter's gaze as he tried not to glare at her, she was giving up so easily.
"Don't say that," he growled bitterly.
"After I'm gone I want you to take Sonny with you," her words were making him angrier and angrier, did she not understand that they were here to save her?
"I can't let you die!" He said sternly expecting to see her get defensive and mean right back at him like she used to. But all she did was smile at him solemnly which pissed him off all the more. "God damn it, stop smiling, tell me you want to live!" He shouted at her letting his hand fall away from hers.
"The only reason you're here is because I'm dying and my little troublemaker came to get you," she countered reminding Peter of how sharp of a tongue she had when they were together.
Sometimes she would say things that were right on target and he would have no comeback for her, this was one of those times where he had nothing to respond with. She was right, he'd waited too long to search for her and to ask her to come home, did he even deserve to have her anymore? Perhaps she had moved on since they had last seen each other, or had she given up altogether with anything that had to do with loving someone?
"I can't come back to you now, I'm not strong enough, you sent me away because I was weak and vulnerable, and I'm still weak and vulnerable. What if you bite me and I still die? You'll think that it was your fault, I can't let you live with that the rest of your life, and you have to move on. You have to forget about me," she said sternly while tears developed in her eyes.
"Then why are you crying? Tell me you don't want to come home," he challenged her. Her face twisted into a hard expression before her eyes turned icy and cold in front of him.
"I'm crying because I missed you, but I have two homes now, and it would be wrong of me to choose one over the other just because someone decided to show up. But I missed you so much, how you get angry so easily," she spoke letting a salty drop roll down her cheek. "The way you held my hand so softly," she turned away from him suddenly.
Peter felt himself breaking, he had no room to be angry when it was his fault that she had left in the first place, and yet here he was letting his eyes flash in front of her as she cried in front of him. His anger calmed immediately and he went to her side again, this time moving her over just a little bit so he could get on the bed next to her. He didn't care if it was wrong or bad, he hadn't held her in two years and he needed to feel her heart beating next to his, to hold her and know that this was the person that he loved.
"I'm sorry," he said as she tried to move away from him stubbornly. Peter's hands found her own again as he let his fingers lave between her own, where they belonged before she let her head rest on his legs hesitantly. "I never stopped wishing that I had gone with you, that I had made you stay. There were times that I'd wake in the night and want to run and find you," he spoke softly before looking down at her. It was quiet as her expression changed into one of longing, as if she had had similar dreams herself.
"I don't sleep very much anymore, the drugs do help me," she laughed shortly. Her eyelids were beginning to droop now, as if talking so much had taken up all of her energy. "But when I do sleep I often wake up in the middle of the night, sometimes Sonny will stay awake with me, though I'd rather he didn't. But I sit up on my bed and stare into the darkness and wonder where you are and what you're doing, and before I'd return to another nightmare I'd wish that I was in your arms instead of my own," her voice faded off as she tried to keep her eyes open to look at him. She was afraid he would disappear again, that perhaps this whole time she had been dreaming and if she lost sight of him he wouldn't be there the next time she woke up. She tied to reach up and touch his face weakly but her hand fell limply back on the bed before Peter put her breathing mask back on.
Sonny walked in suddenly and glared at Peter darkly, he opened his mouth bitterly before closing it again trying to find his words and contain his anger.
"She was waiting for you to come, hoping that you hadn't forgotten about her," his voice broke and cracked as Peter digested the words painfully. "And you never came," he spat out venomously. Sonny had grown to hate the man over the past year and a half, even though he had never met him the teen couldn't understand why someone would want to abandon someone they loved. "Derek wants to talk to you," he finished before letting his gaze fall to only look at Marlow.
"You weren't there so you don't understand," Peter said when he passed the Omega.
"What is there to understand? You loved her, and she loved you, but you made her leave because you were afraid that if she stayed she would get hurt," he pretty much summed it up. "But she didn't care if she got hurt, not if she was with you, but you still sent her away, and even though she tried to be strong and make it through. It killed her, I listen to her cry sometimes, for her brother, her father, and her mother, for you and the pack, and she cries because she's not good enough to take care of me," he started to break down. "I keep telling her that she's all I ever wanted, because she is, and she started to get better, and then this happened and the only reason you're back is because without her I have nothing. And I refuse to go with the pack that abandoned her because you loved her!" He couldn't help but yell now. "What a selfish thing to do," he added under his breath.
"To protect her," Peter countered feeling the need to state their reasons for everything. "Aren't you being selfish anyway? Turning her so that you won't be alone," his voice rose as he said this. Happy to finally have something to shoot back at the teen that was true and real.
"At least I admit it," he glared at the adult in front of him. "You have a pack to go home to, a family that will accept you no matter what," his gaze flickered to look Peter in the eyes. "If she dies, I'll have nothing again."
Peter moved away from him then, even as his throat itched and burned to fight and argue with the boy, to prove that they hadn't been selfish in sending her away. But his lips stayed closed and his eyes itched and flitted around the hallway because in his heart Peter knew that the teen was right.
=0=0=
Derek and Peter talked by themselves for a little while before Sonny joined in on the conversation and told them how the other Alpha's in the area felt about their decision, they knew that Marlow would not be happy but they didn't care. They wanted to be selfish and keep the person they loved in this world, even if it meant that she might die anyway, the full moon was only a week away, and they had to do something. Peter was slowly falling apart while watching Marlow die, he almost lost it when she gave him a soft kiss on the cheek as a practice for when she would say goodbye for the last time. Isaac and Stiles showed up the next day looking like all kinds of crap, laughing and joking with Marlow in order to keep her spirits up and hope she would change her mind but she didn't. In the end it was up to Derek to decide whether or not he was going to do what she wanted.
He bit her that night when she was asleep, because of all the drugs she didn't wake up and they tried to stop the bleeding right away. When she did wake up and found out what they had done she looked at them bitterly, and said her last goodbyes before ignoring them until unconsciousness took her again.
The last time she woke up she apologized to them, and told them why she didn't want the bite in the first place.
"I'm scared that you'll get your hopes up and I'll still die," her voice was very weak now. "I was scared that if you came to save me I would want to live as well, and I was even more scared of seeing you again," she looked at Peter. "And wanting to be with you, because what if I died, what if you bit me and I died?" she questioned looking around the room at all of them. "You'd blame yourself and I didn't want to leave that with you for the rest of your life, I love you all too much for that," she choked up.
"Whatever happens," Derek started to say before Isaac cut him off.
"We'll be here for you, we'll always be here," he said with a soft smile.
"If something happens," she started to say but Peter cut her off this time.
"You'll take Sonny home with you when we leave," he smiled making her frown at him.
"You're a butthead," she whispered softly. Stiles laughed softly next to her, reminding her of all the times she called them such a childish name and all they'd done was chortle alongside her.
"I know," Peter chuckled like he always did when she used childish tactics.
"Maybe when I get home, we can get lost in the forest again."
Those were the words that Peter wanted to hear out of her mouth, not that she wanted them to take care of Sonny, that she wanted to come home to them. To get lost in the forest, to get found, and almost burn down the house trying to teach Scott and Stiles how to make a cake. When she got home, she had said.
Home.
"We will."
-0-
It woke them up in the middle of the night, only a few hours before the day of the full moon and the machines in Marlow's room started beeping and sounding off alarms. She'd been doing well for the past week that they had been there, even spoken to Erica, Isaac, and Scott before saying goodbye for what they hoped wouldn't be the last time. Derek warned them not to get their hopes up but they couldn't help it.
A bunch of nurses and doctors rushed into the room quickly, moving everyone out of the way and otherwise pushing them out of the room to get to Marlow. She'd stopped breathing even with the oxygen mask on her mouth, she'd worn the silly thing the whole time and now it did nothing for her. Sonny burst into a fit of rage and worry that Isaac had to calm down, they were so close, so close to seeing if she would make it or not, and her body had chosen now to give up and throw in the towel.
Peter stood in the room helplessly before a nurse more or less forced him out of the room, though he could have easily over powered the woman he understood that this was their job, saving her life was their job, not his.
"Please, please, please, please," he could hear Sonny in the background faintly pleading with the heavens to let go of Marlow. He had to give the kid props for staying strong for so long and showing a determined face while everything crashed and burned around him, Isaac tried to assure him that everything would be okay.
"Come on you buttface, you can make it," Peter could hear Stiles mutter under his breath.
Everyone could hear the sound of the defibrillator the first time around, and then the constant drone of sound that meant Marlow's heart was still not beating. There was a second noise that echoed through the hallway for the pack as they stared with hopefully pained expressions towards Marlow's room, none of them wanting to break the silence or miss a single sound. Every wolf in the hospital waiting for that sound to come back into their ears again, waiting for her heart to beat once again.
The defibrillator went off a few more times, it's sound landing on breaking ears and hearts, she had been doing so well, and yet she hadn't been able to hold on for the last day, as if someone was pulling her to heaven by her hair.
Peter slid down the wall slowly, his eyes never losing sight of the room in front of him as the nurses tried again and again to revive Marlow, and yet her heart refused to create the beautiful sound that they all wanted to hear. He didn't want to say goodbye, none of them wanted to lose her when they were so close, not that they were certain she would live anyway, but it felt as if whoever controlled the universe wasn't even giving them a chance.
He was listening so intently for anything from Marlow Peter wasn't even certain what he was listening for anymore; his own heart thudding in his chest seemed to cloud his mind. Everything in the hallway seemed a lot smaller and emptier; the only noises that registered in his mind were the defibrillator and his own heart raging in his mind as the seconds ticked by. He could only say one thing as his mind raced as fast as his heart was at the moment, she wasn't breathing, she wasn't smiling, and she was no longer here.
"Give her back."
...
AN: What did you think of that ending? A great way to finish the story don't you think?
Though I guess it was kind of sad.
Don't be mad okay?
.
I lied, there's still a epilogue, imagine if I left it right here, there would be so much anger, so much hatred towards me as the author, and I'd feel as if it was unfinished.
I should get the last part out fairly quickly because I really want to write it.