My eyes fluttered open to the stark white of the hospital. I sniffled slightly, wincing my eyes shut and lifting my heavy head with a groan. I rubbed the back of my hand across my chin, scrunching my nose as I wiped away the tiny traces of drool. I tried to twist my head back and forth, but my neck was stiff. Guess that was my punishment for falling asleep in the chair next to Lydia's bed.
At least I had fallen forward though. That was a minor blessing. It was surely a lot more painful to sleep slouched back in a chair, head dangling backwards and restricting your breathing, spine contorted in an awkward manner and the back of the chair digging into your shoulder blades. Instead, I had leaned my arms on the edge Lydia's hospital cot, resting my head on its side and keeping one of her hands in mine at all time.
Stiles had driven Jackson and I back to the hospital as fast as he could. It was a good thing that he stepped on it, because my mother was having a complete meltdown in the hospital. Miss Eleanor had gone in to watch over her daughter when she arrived, but much to my mother's dismay, I was nowhere to be found. She'd asked every doctor she could find, much like I had when I was frantically inquiring about Lydia. But while several people recalled seeing a distressed, patched up girl in a red dress, no one knew where I'd gotten to. The only person who'd been able to calm my mother down was Sheriff Stilinski, who'd managed to assure her that I would be fine, that I needed some time to myself, and that he'd made sure I was okay himself. They'd apparently held up a pleasant, if tense, conversation until Stiles and I finally wandered into the waiting room. At that point, my mother sprang up from her chair, launching herself at me and pulling me into a hug that made me feel like the victim of a Burmese python. She bombarded me with question after question, desperate for answers, but not willing to wait between questions so I could give them. Finally she looked down, trailing off only when she noticed that Stiles and I were holding hands.
That had given Stiles enough time to explain that he'd shown up to the hospital a little later than he'd intended. He'd wandered around restlessly after talking to his dad, until he finally found me roaming a completely different floor. After making sure that I was okay, he and Jackson had taken me home to change into something slightly more comfortable than my dirty formal dress. He insisted that we must have just missed my mother on the road, and apologized profusely for taking so long. He was just trying to make sure I was okay.
That had sated both of our parents at least partially. My mom was obviously still frantic about me getting attacked, and handed me a large T-shirt and a pair of sweatpants she had brought with her, similarly intending to have me change. I took them gratefully, and squeezing Stiles's hand, left to get changed in the bathroom.
Stiles had promised to stay with me while Lydia was still unconscious. As far as I knew, he did stay at the hospital, but thanks to a favor from a few staff members, he couldn't stay with me. Mrs. McCall had shown up on our floor as soon as she had heard what happened. Stiles and I assured her that Scott was fine. He was taking care of Allison and would be coming as soon as he could. Mrs. McCall had pulled me into a gentle hug, acutely aware of the padding that covered the slashes on my shoulder. She'd noticed the several glances I stole to Lydia's room, and promised she'd talk to the doctors to see what she could do about letting me in.
Lo and behold, twenty minutes later she returned. The best deal she could get was for my mother and I to be allowed inside, since we were close family friends actually living with the Martins. Stiles, unfortunately, was just a classmate, which meant that he would still be confined to the waiting room. I was almost tempted to stay with him, but in the end, my loyalty to Lydia won out. Stiles had hugged me warmly, letting me cherish that warm smell of cologne and curly fries one more time, before he promised he'd stick around and pushed me into Lydia's quarters.
Since then, I hadn't left her room. I got up to use the bathroom once or twice, but besides that, I hadn't left her side. My mother and Miss Eleanor forced me to eat, bringing me food from the cafeteria or from home. The doctors had assured us that Lydia would have the utmost care, and that they would call us if anything changed. That had calmed Miss Eleanor down only slightly, enough that they'd been able to convince her to go home and try to sleep. But they couldn't move me from her side. A few whispered terms had been thrown around the room, things like "separation anxiety" and "survivor's guilt," and in the end, the staff let me stay. They'd wheeled a cot into the room for me, but I refused to move more than a few feet from Lydia's side. Every now and then, a doctor or a nurse would poke their head in to check Lydia's vitals and make sure I was okay. I was fairly certain they were texting our mothers at half-hour intervals, some condition of making them leave the premises to sleep in their own beds. Most of the time it was Mrs. McCall, until she got off work and a few other nurses took over. At one point, even Dr. Fenris had decided to stop by. He hadn't pressed the subject, but the dark look in his eye let me know that he knew exactly what must have caused our injuries. He promised vaguely that he would look into it, and if he found any explanation for what was happening, he would let me know.
And that was the scary part. None of us really knew what was happening. At first, I'd thought for sure that Lydia was rejecting the bite, that she was going to die. But by the time we'd all returned to the hospital, her body had been stable for some time. So she wasn't dying. That should have meant she'd been turned, but she wasn't healing either. She was just caught in some sort of limbo in between, not healing, not dying, not turning, not waking. The confusion alone was enough to drive me mad.
Of course, I was happy that she was still hanging on. But every breath felt like a lifetime apart, every blip on the heart monitor too far away. I was hanging on the edge, just waiting for something to go wrong, sure that if I got too comfortable, the heart monitor would flat-line, or she would stop breathing again. It was a wonder I had ever gotten to sleep.
In the end though, I guess the exhaustion of a crazy night had won out over my anxiety. We had heard from Scott later that night. Whether it was because of my plea and near-faint or because reason had presented itself in some other form, Derek and Mr. Argent had decided to postpone their fight for a single night. They had Kate's dead body, and Peter's burned corpse. It was only a matter of time before someone happened upon them, and there was still an open murder investigation in town. In the end, they had concluded it would be best to pin it on Kate. The police knew that all of the murders had been connected to the Hale fire, and that the mastermind behind that particular case of arson had been a young woman with a fancy necklace—specifically, Kate. Allison had offered up the heirloom for the frame job, making it look like Kate had gone after all of her accomplices before killing herself out of grief. Then Derek had disposed of Peter's body in some deep grave beneath the house, where it would hopefully never be disturbed again. Maybe it was that tiny bit of closure that had allowed me to drift off, lulled into unconsciousness by the steady beeping of Lydia's heart.
But now it was the next morning. I blinked around the room, trying to get my bearings once more. Lydia was still motionless on the bed, her hair lying unmoved on her shoulders, but her cheeks seemed to have a little more color, at least. There were a few cards that had been placed in the room while I was unconscious, all from Lydia's friends and admirers. I wasn't sure how many people had heard about what happened, but Jackson had carried her body to the front of the building while a hoard of teenagers were pouring out the front doors. My head had been spinning, but I was fairly certain it had caused a bit of a panic.
My free hand reached out blindly for my cellphone on the chair next to me, intending to check the time, but instead I found something soft and furry. I quickly turned my head, picking up the teddy bear that had been propped up in the seat. I glanced around the room, finding one almost identical nestled next to Lydia's other side. I looked down once more, examining the fluffy, light brown fur and cute, slightly flattened face. It was wearing a pale pink T-shirt, which had the words "Thinking of You" printed on the front in a cheesy font. A lopsided heart had been scribbled around it in Sharpie, setting it apart from Lydia's, which read "Get Better Soon." I turned back to the chair, finding a water bottle and a pack of Reese's cups as well. A wide, bleary smile spread over my face. Of course—Stiles.
Stiles. My stomach still fluttered just thinking about him, about how we'd danced, how he'd tried to protect me, how I'd finally gotten to kiss him amidst all the other crazy things that were going on. And that was the point. There were other things that were going on. Things that we had a responsibility to tend to before we could focus on ourselves. I hated it, absolutely despised it, but I needed to make sure that Lydia was going to be okay. Or deal with the fact that she wasn't going to be okay. Either way, the entire situation with Lydia needed to be closed before I could let myself concentrate on Stiles. And thankfully, he understood. He knew me well enough to know that it was nothing personal, that I was nervous and I was scared, but I wanted him. So he'd promised to wait until I was ready to talk about it. And so far, he'd been doing a pretty amazing job of staying by my side. This time, it was his turn to keep me sane.
I lay my head back down on the bed, cuddling my new bear to my side. I wanted to enjoy the last couple moments I could get before a whole wave of new problems hit. We had survived a lot over the last few months, but I knew deep down that it wasn't over. In reality, everything was just beginning.
A/N: Okay, and that is it officially. I wanted to add this little bit on the end to tie up the story with a bow, and also so you guys wouldn't freak about the excessively long author's not I am about to type.
First of all, thank you once again for all of your support. One or two of the reviews legitimately made me cry, and I'm happy you guys have enjoyed reading the story as much as I have enjoyed writing it. Which leads me to the first order of business. Yes, I will be continuing the story. I have lots of things planned for Stiles and Sadie, and it would be cruel of me to leave you with only one kiss (two if you count the dream), no official relationship status, and Sadie's best friend in the hospital, wouldn't it? So the plot will extend into season 2 (and beyond if I can manage it), even though I'm not sure what the title is going to be or when it is going to come one.
Which leads me to the next order of business. What can you guys do in the mean time?
First of all, if any of you are interested, I would love to do a video. If you guys have any questions about things that happened in The Wild Side, want me to elaborate on a certain scene or line, or want to hear me talk about anything that happened in the story, I'd love to do that to the best of my abilities. If you have questions about where the story is going, or predictions as to what would happen, I would love to talk about that too! I want to use this as a time to explain things you don't quite get (if it doesn't give anything away) and to give you a little teaser for what's coming. So if you have any questions, feel free to put them in a review, in a private message to this account, or as a message to my tumblr page, thetenthdoctorscompanion. I'm not sure when I'll get around to it, so there's currently no deadline or maximum of questions you can ask.
Secondly, several people expressed interest in hearing parts of this story from other people's point of view. Namely Stiles, but others as well. And I'm totally down for that. I'll be releasing a series of one shots, starting today, to hold you over until I start publishing the sequel. I might toy around with point of views, third person, first person of different characters, but you can go look at that on my profile, and follow "The Other Side." I'm not sure how many of these one shots there will be. I have about 4 mind, but if you have scenes that you'd like to see (either scenes that are in the story from someone else's point of view or scenes that weren't in the story at all because Sadie wasn't there) please feel free to send me those too. I'm not going to call them "requests" because I probably won't do all of them, or GET to all of them, but please feel free to drop me a line anyway. But hopefully that will sate you guys.
I think that was everything that I had to say. Not as long as I thought it was, but still. Thank you all for reading, and I look forward to hearing you soon.
-Brittney