"How many more were found?" I asked Stiles, who'd just gotten of the phone with his dad.
Stiles sighed. "Just the two of them. Harries and the music teacher." He looked at me. "We can't tell anyone, though. Dad says they're keeping it a secret, not to cause too much worry."
I buried my head in my hands. "That's… how many total?"
"You mean so far?" Stiles looked at the cork board. "Six." The number felt like getting punched in the stomach. Six people we didn't save. "We don't know which group is next."
"Maybe healers?" I guessed, before shrugged. "Oh I don't know." I pushed myself off the bed, which I had been sitting on, and walked towards the board. "We don't even know for sure what groups are left." I paused, in thought. "Mabey-"
"You should come with us on the cross-country?" Stiles finished my sentence for me. "We should have someone here keeping an eye out." His eyes widened for a second, but he tried to cover that up quickly enough. "Never mind, you can come."
I frowned at him. "Why did you change your mind?"
Stiles shook his head. "Nothing."
"No, what is it?"
"Nothing!"
I squinted my eyes at him, and then I realised. "You don't want to leave me behind!" I laughed as he started blushing. "Stiles, I can handle myself, really." With a smug smile I went back to looking at the board.
Then Stiles smirked. "So you want to come so you can keep an eye on me?" Now it was his turn to laugh when I blushed. "Got you!" He then frowned all of a sudden. "Lora?"
"Stiles?" I mimicked his voice.
"Why didn't you lock the door last night when you took a shower?" I froze at the question. Stiles mistook my silence for not understanding. "It's just that it isn't very you to forget to lock the door." He then looked at me and saw my discomfort on my face. "What's wrong?"
I sighed. "Thing is… I…" I started scratching my temple. "Am sort of…" I groaned in frustration. "I can't stand the thought of being in a locked room, alright? Not since… y'know."
Stiles nodded and put his arm around my shoulder, pulling me closer. "I know. It's okay."
I sighed, glad that he didn't ask any further questions. "Thanks." It was then that the alarm on my phone went off. I took my phone out and stopped the alarm. "Time to go."
~o~
Scott, Stiles, and I were sitting on the backseat of the bus. Stiles, who was sitting to my left, had his Ipad with him and he was asking Scott, who was again sitting to his left, next to the window, the definition of words.
"Scotty, you still with me?" Stiles asked, snapping his finger in front of Scott's face. I leaned forward to take a look at him. He was completely spaced out, but that wasn't what bothered me. He had one arm folded over his abdomen, his hand grabbing a part of his side. I opened my mouth to say something about it, when Scott snapped out of his daydream.
"Yeah, sorry, what's the word?"
"Anachronism." Stiles said.
Scott shook his head a little, waking himself up. "Something that exists out of it's time."
Stiles nodded. "Correct. Next word," he swiped left on the ipad, "incongruous."
Scott frowned as he groaned a little, trying to sit up straight. "Ehm, can you use it in a sentence?"
"Yeah, sure. It's completely incongruous that we're sitting on a bus right now on our way to some stupid cross-country meet after what just happened, incongruous."
Scott nodded along, "Out of place, ridiculous, absurd."
"Perfect." Stiles said, doing a thumbs up.
"It's not that absurd," I said, "The darach likely knows about you. Had we stayed in Beacon Hills whilst still recovering, both the Alpha pack and ours would be too busy to focus on the darach." I frowned. "I think."
Stiles frowned at me. "Why 'you think'?"
I shook my head. "Something's wrong." The bus drove over a bump, sending us all flying forwards a bit. I coughed a little as the seatbelt pushed the air out of my lungs, but Scott full on groaned in pain. Now I knew that there was something wrong.
"Scott, did you get hurt last night?" I asked, but he just shook his head and told me he was fine. I rolled my eyes, leaned over Stiles so I could grab Scott's arm and pull it off his abdomen, revealing a dark red stain in his shirt. "You should've told me."
"It's fine." Scott said, putting his arm back over the stain. "Just takes longer to heal because it's from an Alpha."
I shook my head and went back to my own seat. "Scott, it's still bleeding. It should have at least stopped bleeding."
"Then why didn't it?" Stiles asked and I shook my head yet again.
"I don't know." I then sighed. "I'm gonna talk to Lydia." I leaned back in my seat and closed my eyes, concentrating.
"Lydia?" Scott asked.
"Yeah, she and Allison have been driving a few cars behind us for a few hours now." Stiles scoffed. "Pathetic."
"Lydia?" I asked. "Can you hear me?" Silence. "Lydia, I know you're driving behind us, now answer me."
"Hi…"
"Scott's hurt and he's not healing. Any guesses why?"
"Wh- hold on." Even though she was talking to Allison, she still let me hear it. "Scott's hurt, and Lora says he's not healing. Do you know any reasons that could happen?" Silence. "She doesn't know either."
"Okay, I'm going to try and get coach to stop at the next resting place, meet us there." I sighed before breaking off our conversation, after which I opened my eyes to see Stiles staring at me expectantly.
"And?" he asked.
I shook my head. "Nothing. But even someone who isn't a werewolf could survive that wound. If he won't heal supernaturally, I'll just have to do it the normal way." Stiles nodded and leant back in his seat, though he wasn't at rest. Oh who am I kidding, that dude's never at rest.
"Okay, so how a- whoa!" I grabbed hold of the first thing I could as I flew forward. Stupid buses had no seatbelts, and we'd suddenly stopped. Traffic jam. I looked left to see that I'd grabbed hold of Stiles' arm, which he'd put out in front of me to keep me from falling forward. "Thanks."
"Yeah, no problem," he said, his eyes a bit wide as he slowly pulled back his arm. I couldn't help but smile: he'd startled himself with his own reflexes.
"But how do we get coach to stop?" I finished the question I'd meant to ask. "I can't just stitch Scott up here, I need my bag."
But just as Stiles was about to answer, Scott rose from his seat, drawing his attention. "Whoa, what are you doing?"
"It's Boyd," Scott said, breathing heavily, "he's gonna do something." I looked over at Boyd, who was putting his hand on the seat in front of him. Said hand having a pair of claws on it.
"Bh- how do you know?" Stiles asked.
"Maybe the inch-long claws sticking out of his hand are giving it away," I said, nodding at them. Stiles grimaced and nodded. "Scott, be careful," I warned him as he walked past me and towards Boyd.
"Aren't you going to do something?" Stiles frowned at me. I shook my head, but kept a close eye on Scott, who was slowly making his way over to Boyd.
"He'll listen to Scott." I squinted my eyes. "I think."
"You think?" Stiles hissed, but I just smiled and pointed at Boyd, who was now leaning back into his seat as Scott walked back to us. "Okay, but…" he waited for Scott to sit down next to him. "Ethan keeps checking his phone every five minutes, like he's waiting for something, a message, or a signal of some kind. Something evil though, I can tell." he turned to Scott, pointing his finger at him, "I have a very perceptive eye for evil. You know that."
I scoffed and rolled my eyes. "Yeah, sure, just like how you 'could tell' that Deaton was evil."
Stiles sighed and rolled his eyes, "bu-"
"And Derek!" I interrupted him, laughing as he folded his arms with a grumpy expression on his face. I looked over to Ethan, who was sitting next to Danny, and took out my phone. Time to send Danny a text. 'Danny, Stiles and I've got a bet. Find out why Ethan keeps checking his phone. If I win, you get half the cash.' Even from the back of the bus, I could hear Danny's phone go off, and I could see Danny frown at the screen. Soon, I got a text back.
'No, I really like this guy.'
I rolled my eyes and texted back: 'Don't tell me you're not curious too.' Danny hesitated, but soon I got a text.
'Someone close to him is sick. They might not make it through the night.' I showed my phone to Stiles, who then showed it to Scott. When I got it back, I texted: 'Thanks Danny. Stiles owes you five bucks.'
"Stiles what?" I rolled my eyes as Stiles grabbed my phone from me. "Lora!" he hissed, but Scott interfered before we could start a discussion.
"Does that mean Ennis is still alive?" he asked. I shrugged. During the fight with the Alpha pack, Derek and Annis had fallen down, dropped down a floor or two. But there was no opportunity for a proper conversation about what could've happened. Choach decided it was the perfect time for a little speech. Or more like a rant.
"Don't you dare throw up Jared," he said - more like shouted - at a boy who looked very sick, "because if you throw up, I'll throw up. I'm an empathic vomiter. And then there'll be puke everywhere and it'll be profoundly disgusting."
"Please don't talk about throwing up, it's not good, it's not good," the boy, Jared, said as he shook his head. Not that Coach listened.
"I might throw up on you just to make a point, Jared."
"It's not good. Not good." Jared winced as he wrapped his arms around his abdomen.
"Now the rest of you," Coach spoke to the rest, "don't think that we're gonna miss this meet just because of this small traffic jam, or a minor tornado warning, Jared. We're gonna make this thing! Nothing is gonna stop us!" He glared at our direction. "Stillinski, put your hand down!"
"You know, there's a food exit, 'bout a mile up, we could stop a-"
"We're not gonna stop." Coach said, shaking his head.
"Okay, but if we-"
"Stillinski!" Coach blew his whistle. "Shut it! Seriously! It's a little bus! Stop asking me questions!"
Stiles leant back in his seat, sighing. "I hate him." He looked at Scott. "Did you call Deaton?"
Scott held his phone up. "Keep getting his voicemail." He leant with his head against the window and sighed. I shook my head, starting to think there might be more behind his condition that just the physical wound. With a sigh, I pushed myself up from my seat.
"What're you going to do?" Stiles asked.
"The impossible," I mumbled, "try to convince Coach to pull over." I walked over to the front, where he was standing. "Coach, I think it might be best if we pull over in a bit."
"Oh not you too, Hield!" he exclaimed.
"Coach, just five minutes, I-" I clenched my teeth as he just blew his whistle. "We've been sittin-" whistle. "People are sick-" whistle. "Wo-" whistle. "Co-" whistle. "I'll puke all over this fuc-" coach took a deep breath and blew his whislte for ten seconds straight. "Fine!" I yelled, turning around before he could send me away. With a groan, I sat back down in my own seat. "Stiles?"
"Yeah?" he asked.
"Plan B." I turned to face him. "Go make Jared puke."
Stiles smirked.
~o~
Stiles and I were supporting Scott as we walked towards the male restrooms when Lydia and Allison came running towards us.
"How's he doing?" Allison asked.
"Well, the blood is turning black, his skin is as pale as a sheet and he's barely aware of what's going on around him," I said, looking at Scott. "Isn't that right?"
He looked up, slightly dazed. "What?" I looked at Allison with an "I-told-you-so' expression as we walked into the restroom.
"Easy, easy." I said as Stiles and I lowered Scott so he could sit. Well, more like lean against the wall between the sinks. "Lydia, any thoughts?" I asked, turning to the girl to see her thinking.
"It might be psychological," she said, staring at Scott. "Somatoformic. Physical disease from a psychogenic cause." She sighed when Stiles squinted his eyes at her. "Yes, it's all in his head."
"Because of Derek," Stiles nodded. "He's not letting himself heal because Derek died."
"Dammit Scott." I sighed. "You just had to go and have good morals, didn't you." I looked at Lydia. "What can cure a somatoformic condition? We can't bring Derek back to life."
Lydia rummaged through my backpack, which she'd taken from the bus for me, and took out my first aid kit. "Stitch him up."
I nodded, understanding. "Make his mind believe it's healing?" Lydia nodded and smiled just a bit. Ever since we started working on our… connection thing, I'd become better at following her thought process. "Let's do this." I said, taking the kit and then turning to Allison. "I… could use a hand. If you want to." It wasn't easy for me to forgive her, but she had been trying and… apparantly she showed up last night during the fight. Possibly saved the lives of some people I now considered friends.
Allison nodded, silently thanking me before we started going to work.
~o~
I was busy preparing the bandages that would have to cover Scott's wound after the stitching whislt Allison started stitching Scott up. I had my back turned to her, but I could hear her muttering some words.
"Come on. Come on." pause. "I'm trying." pause. "My hands won't stop shaking." She took a deep breath, but soon afterwards grunted in frustration. I turned around to see her struggling to put the thread through the needle. Gently, I put my hand on her shoulder.
"It's okay," I said, slowly taking it from her, "it's okay. My hands shook like hell too when I had to stitch up my dad once." I kept talking in a hushed voice as I threaded the needle. "Clinically and unemotionally, am I right?" I handed the now threaded needle back to her. "Fucking hate those words."
Allison let out something between a laugh and a sob. "Thank you," she whispered before starting the stitching. I turned back to finish the last bits on the bandage.
"Come on Scott, stay with us." I said as I turned back around. Scott had his eyes closed, and I wasn't sure if he was breathing. Still, Allison was almost done with the stitching, she only had to cut the wire.
"Allison…" I said, leaning forward and putting my hand in his neck. "I'm… his pulse is weak." I looked around frantically, trying to find something to wake him up. I almost groaned as my eyes landed on the sink. I stood up, turned it on and cupped my hands, filling them with water which I then splashed into Scott's face, waking him up.
"Thank God." I muttered, quickly moving to put on the bandage whilst Scott and Allison had a hushed conversation. "All done." I said, patting my hand on it. "You'll be fine in no time." I looked at Allison and she nodded, giving Scott a new shirt to put on from his bag. Time to get back to the bus.
~o~
"Is he okay?" Lydia asked as she ran towards us. "Are you okay?" she asked Scott, who was walking between me and Allison, who were supporting him.
"Yeah, where's Stiles?" Scott asked.
"Trying to stall coach," Lydia said, taking Scott's bag from me. "We still don't have gas." she told Allison.
"I'm not leaving him." Allison shook her head.
"Then we have to leave the car," Lydia said.
Allison shrugged. "Sounds good."
I let out a laugh as Lydia immediately stopped walking. "What? That wasn't an actually suggestion!" she called after us, before muttering. "Screw it." and running to catch up.
When we got to the bus, there was a small crowd gathered around something. I could hear a few people shouting as Stiles ran towards us.
"I told him what'd happened to you and he just went after him." he told Scott, who frowned at him.
"Who? Boyd?"
Stiles shook his head. "Isaac."
My eyes widened and I let go of Scott to run towards the scene, pushing past a few people to see what was going on. Ethan was on the ground, back against a tree. He had blood running down his nose and mouth. Isaac was beating the shit out of him.
"Isaac! Isaac!" Coach yelled, running out of the bus. I stepped forward and pulled Isaac away from Ethan.
"Isaac, stop!" I said, but he kept struggling. He was about to break loose from my grip any second when…
"Isaac!" Scott yelled, something deeper to his voice that made Isaac freeze. I slowly let go of him and turned him around, forcing him to look at me.
"You okay?" I whispered, frowning at him whilst he just looked at me, slightly dazed and still panting. "Isaac, are you okay?" I shook him by the shoulders a little until he nodded, after which I let go.
"Lahey, get your ass over here!" Coach yelled. Isaac winced before walking away. I quickly ran back to Stiles and Lydia.
"Something's wrong," I said, panting, "Even if he's pissed, Isaac wouldn't just fly at Ethan like that." We just looked at each other in worry, none quite sure what to do. What could we even do?
"Alright everyone, back in the bus!" Coach yelled.
~o~
"So let's go over this one more time," Stiles said. We were once again sitting at the back of the bus, only this time Lydia was sitting next to the window instead of Scott, who was sitting in front of us with Allison. "Everything has to do with someone who thinks he's, like, a dark druid of some sorts."
"Or actually is a dark druid," Lydia said.
"Or is a female," I added, our two comments making Stiles roll his eyes.
"Yeah, alright. A Darach."
Lydia looked down in thought. "You know, in some ancient cultures they made sacrifices before battle."
I raised an eyebrow at her. "Alpha pack versus Darach?"
Lydia shrugged. "Could be."
"About sums it up." Stiles added. I sighed and rested my head against his shoulder, tired. Something told me this cross country trip would not go as planned. Not that Scott almost dying had been in the plan in the first place. A knot formed in my stomach as the feeling rose that something much worse was coming.
A/N: I'm thinking of splitting all chapters in two from now on. Writing 4k chapters isn't really working out for me and I can see that my quality is suffering under it. (Not that there's much there to suffer, but oh well)
Hope you enjoyed this chapter nonetheless, and I'll see you in the next one!
~Lilly