Riddled Part 2:

Derek and Bex went through the whole school, but there was no scent or evidence that showed that Stiles was here anytime in the past few hours. They were nearly at a lost of where to look for him next. "Where else could he possibly be?" Bex asked frustrated as they made their way back to the entrance of the school.

"If he was sleepwalking he could've ended up anywhere, Bex. We'll go down his street, one more time and see if we can follow his scent from there." He told her as they left the school.

She walked with him to the car and got in the passenger seat as he slid into the driver's side. "I know." She sighed. She was angry, she should've been with him. He was having trouble sleeping, she should've stayed over and looked after him and now he was missing. "I'm sorry."

"Your sense are just in overdrive. I'm sure Scott is having as much trouble, especially now that he's an alpha."

She thought about that. It reminded her of the conversation that she had with Deaton. "I'm glad that I'm not one."

"You could be." Derek told her. "If you wanted to." Bex glanced down, not answering him. There was enough going on without another alpha in the mix. Scott was more than enough to lead them all and she had too many doubts to ever become a alpha.

He glanced over at her. "Are you still getting those phone calls from that woman?" He asked her as he started the car and pulled out of the school. He knew that the best way to keep her from worrying about Stiles was to have her concentrate on something else and that women could possibly help them.

"Yeah, sometimes." She replied. She thought of the day the oni came to the hospital. Scott knew about the calls, but she didn't tell Stiles. He had enough on his plate already and the last thing she needed was to worry him about it.

"Have you heard anything as of recent? Anything that could possibly help us find Stiles, Bex?" Derek questioned her.

She glanced at him. "If I knew something that would help us find Stiles, I would've told the sheriff. I'm not going to keep it from them just because I don't want to talk about it. I haven't heard from the women recently. Trust me, I tried to call her before, but it was just a phone booth. Whoever it is obviously doesn't want to be found."

Derek nodded, listening to her. "Alright. Let's stop by his house then."

Bex's phone jingled and she glanced down at it, relieved. "No need. They found him. Drop me off at the hospital."

xxxxx

Bex jumped out of Derek's car as soon as they came to the entrance of the hospital. Scott was waiting for her in the hallway with Lydia and she walked up to him. "Hey, where is he? Is he safe? What's going on?" She asked him hurriedly.

"He's going to be fine," He replied quickly. "Lydia thought that he was in the basement of this institution but he wasn't."

Lydia glanced at her. "Agent McCall and Melissa found him in the forest. He was still asleep, like he thought." She told her as they sat down together. Scott's parents were still talking on the side.

"A-are you sure that he's alright?" Bex asked worried.

Scott smiled weakly squeezing her hand. "I promise that he is. Look, there's his dad now."

They stood up as the sheriff neared them. "He's sleeping now and he's just fine." Bex sighed in relief. "He doesn't remember much. It's a bit like a dream to him. Thank you." He directed the thanks towards Scott's father who shook it off.

"It was that repellent we sprayed in the coyote den to keep the other animals out. I couldn't go near it without my eyes watering. It's just a good thing he mentioned it on the phone."

"No it was more than that, thank you."

"It was a lucky connection."

"McCall, can you shut up and accept my sincerest gratitude." He sighed in annoyance with the agent.

He shook his hand. "Accepted." He agreed.

"Alright you three have school in less than 6 hours. Go home." She hugged her son, close before hugging Bex. "Go to sleep."

She came the nurse a smile as she walked away with Scott and Lydia. Lydia was being strangely quiet. "I don't know what happened. I was so sure."

"Yeah, I wasn't much help either. Doesn't matter, if he's okay." Scott assured her.

Bex smiled weakly. "It's fine. Stiles is safe now and he's going to be okay. That's all that matters. Let's just get home before something else goes wrong tonight." Lydia nodded she continued walking, but only stopped as she began to hear a metal noise.

She glanced around. Scott and Bex shared a worried glance. 'Lydia, do you hear something?" She seemed to consider this for a minute.

"No. I didn't hear anything."

xxxxx

Bex snuck down the stairs as soon as she heard the front door close. She had told Danny a white lie to skip school. He was already upset that she took off the night before without warning him and didn't return to nearly 3 in the morning, but she couldn't spend all day at that school. She needed to see Stiles for herself. "I knew you didn't have the flu."

Bex turned on her heels giving Danny a meek smile coughing. "I just thought I'd get some soup or you know some fresh air?"

"Try again." He rolled his eyes as he took a seat at the dining room table.

She sighed. "I can't just go to school while Stiles is in the hospital. He could've died last night, Danny. I have to see him." She pleaded with her cousin. He knew how much Stiles meant to her. He, himself wouldn't be able to go to school if Bex almost died the night before.

Danny hesitated grabbing the keys to his car. "I'll drop you off on the way to school. The last thing I need is Finstock being angry at both of us. Next time tell me before you go running out in the middle of the night. There have been too many homicides recently." He told her, worried. Bex smiled as she kissed his cheek.

"I will. I promise. Have I told you that you're the best, Danny?"

He nudged her. "Yes, but I wouldn't mind hearing that more often. Come on. I'm sure Stiles will be fine. He's probably running his mouth off to one of the nurses as we speak." He tried to comfort her. She opened the front door and he followed her out.

By the time Bex got to the hospital, Stiles was asleep. She knew from Scott's text that they had been doing tests on him. She quietly sat by his bedside for a few hours when he finally started to stir. He smiled weakly as he sat up slowly. "I got a hot nurse, finally." She smiled back at him, weakly as she wrapped her arms around him. "How did you get in here? I didn't think they'd let you in so early."

She sat at end of his hospital bed. "I snuck past the front desk. No one was paying attention. You've been asleep nearly all day. How are you feeling? Scott's still worried about you." She told him, seriously.

He smiled. "J-just one of those nights where I decided to take a midnight walk by myself to a coyote den. No big deal." She smiled weakly squeezing his hand. "I don't remember much of last night."

"You don't have to talk about it, if you don't want to." She assured him. "I came to check in on you. I couldn't go to school without knowing that you're alright."

Stiles looked down running a hand through his hair. "W-what's happening to me, Bex?" He asked her shakily. This was worst than what any of them imagined. Something was happening to Stiles. It was more than just the effects of the Nemeton now. It was something different. Bex glanced outside the room where his dad and Melissa talked.

"I don't know, Stiles. I don't know. Look, it's going to be okay. We'll figure this out, together." She promised him.

Stiles teared up. "They want to do some tests, they told me this morning. They did one earlier. They'll be doing some more too, an MRI soon. B-Bex, they're looking for what she had. I-I don't know what to do anymore." He was shaking as he started to think about it.

Bex took his hand, holding it tightly in her own. "Stiles, you're the bravest person I know. If anyone can do this, you can. Scott is coming. He and I will be right here, don't worry. Y-you'll be just fine." She wiped her eyes as a tear fell down her cheek. She had to believe that, for him.

Stiles nodded, glancing up at her. "Enough about that, are you alright?" He asked taking her hand in his.

She smiled. Stiles was always concerned about his friends more than himself. "I'm fine, Stiles, really."

"No, you're not. I can tell when something is bugging you." Stiles reminded her, "Come on, I need something to keep my mind off of all of this and knowing someone is having as bad of day as me helps." He small teasing smile.

She hesitated. "I've been getting these calls from this person, some woman. They know about me, about the oni, werewolves. I don't know how but they do. They could be one of them or someone worst." She muttered. "I don't know."

Stiles listened intently. "What has she been saying?"

"Warnings, mostly. It started the night of the party Danny through. She kept saying that the demon ninja's were coming for me and not to attack them. It was odd. She knew my name and everything. I mean, it could be whoever is with them and she's trying to trick me. I don't know." She ran hand through her hair.

Stiles glanced up into her eyes, rubbing the back of her hand with his thumb, comfortingly. "Do you have any idea who it could be?" He asked her. There was a certain hesitation that made him look at her. She looked unsure and scared. "You think you know."

Before she could answer, the hospital door swung open. They both jumped as the sheriff walked in. He didn't seem nearly as surprised as Bex thought as he saw her. "I thought you'd be here." He gave her a sad smile. "Scott is outside now, actually. Stiles needs to...he needs to get ready for his exam."

Bex tensed and nodded as she stood up. "I'll see you outside." She promised Stiles as she left the room.

Scott stood in the hall as she came out of the room. He gave her a sad smile that she returned slowly. It didn't need to be said between them. They were both scared for their best friend and what would happen to him. They waited together, silently until Stiles finally came out of the room with his father and they went downstairs.

The room in which they did the MRI was huge, but completely bland. All it held was the machine and the window to see the patient. Stiles sat on the edge of the end of the beginning of the machine. Stiles scratched his arm, looking straight down at it. Bex could sense how nervous he was.

"I'm not sure I know how to pronounce this or if it's not actually a misspelling." The specialist said to the Sheriff who stood next to Melissa.

"Just call him Stiles." HIs father said seriously

He nodded, understanding and walked over to where Stiles was with his friend. "Stiles, just to warn you, you're going to hear a lot of noise during the MRI. It's due to pulses of electricity going through the metal coils inside the machine. If you want we can get you some earplugs or headphones." He suggested.

"Oh no, no. I don't need anything." He rejected the request, politely.

The sheriff looked at his son, concerned. "Hey, we're just on the other side of that window." He assured him. "Okay?"

"Okay," Stiles gave his father and Melissa a sad smile, patting his arms before they left with the specialist, giving him time alone with his friends. He glanced at Scott. "You know what they're looking for right? It's called frontotemporal dementia. Areas of your brain starts to shrink. It's what my mother had," He muttered. "It's the only form of dementia that can hit teenagers." He said this as though he had memorized it, which he had. This was Stiles, he would have looked everything up on this disease. "And there's no cure."

Bex teared up looking down. "We'd find one, Stiles." She promised him, looking over as his eyes met hers.

"She's right," Scott spoke up, sniffling. "If you have it, Stiles. We'll do something. I'll do something."

Stiles had nothing but trust in them and nodded in agreement. Scott hugged Stiles and patted his back. He let go long enough for Stiles to pull Bex into a hug. She closed her eyes as he tightened his grip and then slowly let her go. He gave her a weak smile, though she could tell his eyes were cloudy with tears and nodded as she and Stiles left the room, to face his fate.

xxxxx

Bex and Scott waited outside the MRI room for their friend. Bex could barely sit still on the hard chairs. Derek came to see them not long ago and sat across from the two teenagers. Scott began to talk to take their minds off of what was happening. "You know the stuff you were telling us about earlier about chemo signals?" Scott asked Derek. "It reminded me of the time you were teaching me to use anger to control the shift."

"I think you ended up teaching me more about that." Derek gave him a wry grin.

"Are you teaching me again?"

"Think of it more like sharing a few trade secrets. You two know, I took Cora back to South America, right? It's where she spent most of her time after the fire, but that's not the only reason I left. I needed to talk to my mother." He said rubbing his hands together.

Bex glanced at him. "Your dead mother? Said mother who died in a fire a very long time ago? Who is very much dead?" She asked to clarify that Derek hadn't completely lost his mind.

He chuckled. "That very one. It's a long story, but she told me something that changed my perspective on a lot of things. She said my family didn't just live in Beacon Hills, we protected it, This town needs someone to protect it. Someone like you." He said directly to Scott.

"And someone like you to teach me a few trade secrets." Scott replied. Derek smiled and then noticed him stand up.

"Scott, what's wrong?" Bex asked looking at him.

"He was trying to protect us. Stiles was protecting us."

Bex realized it at the same time. "From himself. Come on." She led them up to the roof where they looked around. There was something that Stiles wanted to stop himself from doing. "If Stiles was struggling with himself, what are we looking for, Scott?"

"I'm not sure. I think Stiles was also struggling not to do something."

Bex walked around before seeing bag on top of a wire cage. She climbed up on another level of wooden slats and knocked it down. It had tools in it, enough to mess with something electrical. Her met a piece of metal, with a wire that had been tampered with. Bex stepped down as it blew up, sparks of electricity flew everywhere and all three of them backed up as stray wire flew around in the air They all were thinking the same thing.. What the hell was Stiles doing up here.