The moon had lit up Lydia's hospital room with a sense of warmth and relief. Everyone had left Stiles and Lydia to be alone after Lydia fell asleep straight after laying eyes on Stiles.

Stiles had pretended to doze off next to her bed just so he could have a moment alone to piece together everything that had happened in the space of a very short amount of time.

Lydia was alive.

Stiles leaned against the side of her bed, holding onto her hand with great care. He stared at his white knuckles that were being illuminated by the moon light. They began to shake as the realization sunk in and he started to sob silently.

His whole body shook as he let out all the emotions that had been bottled up ever since Lydia had disappeared.

Grief, anger, sadness, heart break. All flooding out of him so quickly; it felt good. He felt better.

Stiles let his head lean on his hand and stared at Lydia's sleeping face. His heart felt like it was going to explode with relief. He'd never felt so greatful in his entire life.

As he stared at the strawberry-blonde, her eyelids began to move and they slowly opened, revealing her tired and confused eyes. She took one look at Stiles before almost gasping and her eyes welled up. It had finally sunk in for Lydia, too.

Stiles eyes turned watery just at the sight of her pained expression. He stroked her hand with his thumb. "It's okay, Lydia."

"Stiles..." It was barely a whisper when Lydia spoke, but Stiles could tell it was a lot of effort and a great amount of pain to say just one syllable.

"Lyds." Stiles smiled through the tears in his eyes, tilting his head as he begged for her pain to vanish. "My Lyds."

Lydia closed her eyes, but it didn't stop the tears from escaping. Her eyelashes dampened as the tears fell down her cheeks, her hand shaking in Stiles'.

"Pl...please, please tell me this isn't a dream."

Stiles shook his head, scrunching his face together as more emotions poured out of him. "No. No, Lydia, this isn't a dream. I promise, this is real. You're alive. You survived."

Lydia opened her eyes, barely able to see. Stiles leaned over to wipe her tears away with his free hand. She stared at him with a weak expression.

"I'm so sorry."

Stiles glared at her with a pain in his chest. "Sorry? Why are you sorry? You shouldn't be sorry for anything. I'm the one that's sorry because I can't help you."

Lydia's expression hardened as she began to think. "What's wrong with me, Stiles."

Stiles paused, staring into her eyes. "What do you mean?"

"Well it doe...doesn't," Lydia breathed in once more so she had enough energy to finish her sentence. "...take a genius to figure out I didn't survive unscathed."

Stiles looked down at her wrist. Her scarily thin wrist.

"For instance, my ankle. That wasn't in a good state." Lydia mumbled, blinking at Stiles. "I'm certain I must...must have lost a lot of weight. No water...I'm probably dehydrated, right?"

Stiles closed his eyes and shook his head slightly. "Let's not get into this now. I'd rather you sleep some more before giving you the specifics. The main thing is that you're here, you're alive."

Half of Stiles was waiting for Lydia to argue back, being the classic stubbern banshee that everyone knew her for. But the other half of him was aware at how drained she was. She barely had enough energy to speak. Her face showed she was ready to be patient, she couldn't conjur up enough energy to talk back.

Stiles swallowed, studying Lydia's pale and thin face.

"Lyds...you're a walking miracle."

..

"Hey, son." The sheriff spotted Stiles heading towards the table his father and Lydia's family were seated at. The sheriff could see how emotionally drained his son was, pulling out a seat for him. "You want a drink?"

Stiles shook his head, placing a hand on his father's shoulder. "I'm good, dad."

"You okay?" Natalie asked from across the table.

"Yeah, I feel more at ease now I've actually seen her awake and talking." Stiles nodded.

"She was talking?" Stephanie asked, happiness spreading through her.

"Barely. Short sentences; she was out of breath a lot of the time, and she fell back to sleep so I sat with her for a while longer before leaving her to rest." Stiles replied.

"Well," Natalie turned to her daughter. "How about we go back to her room? We can try and get some sleep."

Stephanie nodded before pushing her chair back and standing up.

"Will you boys be okay down here?" Natalie asked as she rose from her seat and picked up her half empty cup of coffee.

"Of course, Natalie. Go get some rest, the pair of you. Me and Stiles will stay in the waiting room tonight." The sheriff smiled.

Stiles' stomach twisted at the thought of being away from Lydia for the night. He was terrified that something would happen while he weren't there. But there was only two seats in her room, and Natalie and Stephanie had much more priority over Stiles; family came first.

He smiled and nodded at Lydia's family as they left the cafeteria before he turned to his father. "Dad, I need to talk to you about work."

"Stiles, we can wait till tomorrow. Don't put pressure on yourself."

"It's fine, dad. I'm okay. I'm worried about you being away from the station. It can only go on for so long without you until everything and everyone collapses." Stiles let a humourous expression rest on his face. The sheriff chuckled lightly.

Stiles clasped his hands together. "I'm staying here. Until Lydia gets better. And I know that obviously messes up things for me back home at the station, what with the offer I've just recieved from the faculty-"

"Stiles." The sheriff placed a hand out to stop his son from rambling. "I've sorted it."

Stiles blinked with confusion.

"First of all, I've called the faculty and they are completely fine with this. They said that you can have a couple of weeks to stay here with Lydia before making your decision."

"Dad, a couple of weeks?" Stiles frowned, shaking his head. "Lydia won't be better in a couple of weeks, I can't-"

"Second of all..." The sheriff raised an eyebrow at his son for his lack of patience. "I spoke to doctor Richards, he's predicted that Lydia will be able to be transfered in two weeks to a hospital in the states, closer to home."

Stiles exhaled with relief. "Wow. Well, that's great."

"They want to put her in an area that will be able to tend to all of her injuries with great interest. He wants the best doctors in the state working with her." The sheriff explained.

"Well, where's best for her?" Stiles asked.

"The same place as where the faculty want to transfer you."

Stiles frowned. He hadn't been told a specific location yet. "Where?"

"New York."