h2New Constellations by Ryn Weaver/h2
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal"Lydia woke up to someone shaking her shoulder. Stiles was looming over her and it took her a moment to figure out where she was: a darkened hospital room at Beacon Hills General./p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal""Home time," Stiles told her quietly. A purple bruise was blooming on his temple./p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal"Lydia rubbed her eyes and stretched, getting up from the vinyl armchair. "You got the all clear?" she asked, yawning./p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal""Yep. Melissa is worried about radiation so we have to check in again in a month, but physically I'm fine. Just bruised," he said, holding out her jacket to her. "She's worried about you, you know. Tried to come here to convince you to get checked out."/p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal""Lucky I'm not a weak human. It would take more than some magical energy to knock me out," Lydia joked, freezing as her eyes fell on the girl in the hospital bed. "Kidding. I just… have a little bit of tolerance," she said self consciously./p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal"Well, coma patients could hear, apparently, so it was better safe than sorry./p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal"Stiles sighed. "She was right in the middle of the blast. It's been what, ten hours? She'll wake up in the morning, just needs some time to heal. Ethan told us she's a slow healer."/p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal"Lydia nodded, unconvinced. She couldn't imagine anyone surviving that explosion of energy, which was something she hadn't foreseen./p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal""Okay. Home time," she agreed./p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal"They drove in tired silence. It was 2am in the middle of the week, so the streets were accordingly deserted. Stiles pulled into the Martin House driveway and turned off the ignition. Lydia was halfway out of her door until she realised that he hadn't moved./p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal""Stiles? We're here," she said, looking at him, perplexed./p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal"Stiles sighed, chewing on his lip. "I know."/p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal""Well? Are you coming?"/p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal"He turned to look at her, swallowing. "I don't know."/p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal"Lydia frowned, staring at him. Then she nodded decisively and got back into her seat./p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal""You're mad at me," she said. It wasn't an accusation, or tinged with hurt, or even a question. Just a fact./p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal""Yeah, kinda," Stiles said, looking straight ahead again. "I went along with the ritual thing because I thought you were telling the truth. I really thought you were trying a protective ritual, based on that book Deaton gave you. You know, I even considered that you might be lying about the ritual to get Jackson's memories back, and I don't like the guy but I was willing to go along with that too. Seemed like a decent trade. I never thought you'd actually try and shut the Nemeton down without telling me first. We had a deal, Lydia, that you wouldn't without working it out first with a sample. Because we wanted to be safe, right? But you ignored the deal, and it wasn't safe."/p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal""I already apologised for that. I'm truly sorry that you got hurt."/p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal"Stiles sighed, frustrated. "You used to treat me like crap, you know that?"/p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal""What?" Lydia protested./p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal""Please listen to me. For ages, you treated me like crap. You straight up ignored me for like, years. And I was okay with it, you know? I was like, 'of course Lydia ignores me, I am unworthy. I'm just glad a Lydia Martin exists to ignore me in the first place'. But I'm not that kid anymore. I'd like to think we're serious, and that you see me as an equal, and that you no longer think you can just do what you want to me and I won't be mad at you. Because I emam/em mad that you basically lied to me about something that was so dangerous. We're supposed to stick together on things like this. That's how this works."/p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal"Lydia blinked. A stray tear slid down her cheek. "Okay," she said. "I'm sorry."/p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal"Stiles gave her an exasperated look./p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal""Well, what am I supposed to say?" Lydia suddenly snapped. "Yeah, I went behind your back. Yeah, I just assumed you'd forgive me, as always. And yes, I did something stupid, and reckless, and people got hurt, and Morinna is probably braindead. I don't know what more I can say but that I'm sorry!"/p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal"Stiles chewed his lip, staring straight ahead, considering this./p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal""For what it's worth," Lydia continued in a small voice. "I do think of you as an equal. And we are serious. And I didn't tell you because I knew you would say no, and I needed to shut down the Nemeton so that we could be safe, and be happy, and so that the no more fucking monsters would show up and kill you. And I don't regret it, because it worked."/p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal"All of his resolve and anger left his body. "I'm not going to die, Lydia. I promise."/p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal"Lydia didn't meet his eyes. Stiles could see from the sad, faraway look in her eyes that she was thinking about Allison./p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal""I'm going to bed, I guess. Come in if you want," she said eventually, turning to open the door of the jeep./p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal""Wait," Stiles said, grabbing her arm. She turned back around. "I'm serious, Lydia. Look at me. I am not going to die until I am old and grey. I am not going to leave you. There is no timeline in any dimension in which I would leave you."/p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal"Multiverse theory actually dictated that was impossible, but Lydia decided that now was probably not the best time to discuss that./p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal""You don't know that."/p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal""Yes, in fact, I do. I am more sure of that than anything in the entire world. We're going to be so happy. We're going to get married and have amazing babies, and I'm going to make terrible dad jokes and embarrass them. When you win your Fields Medal, I'm going to shout 'that's my wife' at the ceremony. We're going to get very old, and I'm going to spend my final years begging you to watch Star Wars with me because apparently it will take several decades to convince you. And then I'm going to die first, because that's how serious I am about not leaving you."/p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal"Stiles' eyes were lit up with exhausted, enthusiastic energy in the moonlight. Lydia wanted so badly to kiss him./p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal""You want to marry me?"/p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal"Stiles stared at her for a moment and then laughed. "Lydia, of course I want to marry you. I have wanted nothing more since I was six years old."/p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal"Her heart felt as if it had risen to the top of her chest./p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal""Well, why don't you?"/p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal"He gaped at her. "What? Marry you? Like, now?"/p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal""Well, it would take a while to get the ceremony sorted. But yes," Lydia said, suddenly aware of tears spilling down her cheeks. Scarcely believing what she was saying, she said "Stiles. Marry me."/p
h2 /h2
h2Neptune by Sleeping At Last/h2
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal""It's been three days, Isaac," Melissa said gently. "She hasn't even stirred. I need you to consider that whatever happened with the ritual was too much for her. Less brain activity every day. She might not be coming back."/p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal"Isaac nodded, rocking on his heels. "I know. I still want to see her."/p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal"Melissa sighed. "Of course. You can go." She stood on tiptoes to kiss him on the forehead./p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal"She really hadn't moved at all. Someone had piled her blonde hair into a messy bun on top of her head, and washed the smeared makeup from her face, leaving her looking younger than he had seen her before./p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal"The doctors were having a meeting in a week to discuss next steps, which he knew meant not putting her on life support when the brain activity ceased. No point maintaining a house without an occupier. She had no next of kin to object to it. It would be a sad, anticlimactic end to a very sad story./p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal"Isaac wasn't a doctor. He knew nothing beyond high school level biology about brains. But there was one thing he did know a little more about than any neuroscientist./p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal"Gently, he turned her head to the side, revealing the patch of skin at the back of her neck where four little claw mark scabs had formed. He lined his fingers up carefully./p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal"And then: everything was white./p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal"He was in a cavernous room of doors, and one was ajar. Isaac walked towards it./p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal"Inside was a living room. It was worn and lived in: dark blue couches pushed against the walls, a purple painted mantlepiece over an electric fireplace, a messy bookshelf. Morinna was pressed against the wall in the corner, sitting cross-legged. Dried tear tracks painted her face, and her eyes were huge and glazed over, staring unfocused at the area in front of her. A dead woman was lying on the floor, her blue eyes widened forever, and crouched over her was a disgusting creature with skin the colour of old paper, slurping obscenely from a bite mark in her arm and looking absently around him the way a toddler with a juice box might./p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal""Jesus fuck," Isaac muttered, deeply unnerved. Morinna didn't look up./p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal"He crossed the room, dodging limbs and spotting a pale hand slumped through the doorway, a second victim. Isaac crouched down next to Morinna./p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal""Hey," he said quietly. She didn't move, continued staring directly ahead of herself. "emMorinna/em."/p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal"She flinched and stared at him. "Who are…"/p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal""Isaac," he prompted./p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal""Oh. I remember," she said, sounding far away. "So long ago…"/p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal"Isaac tried not to feel insulted that she had forgotten his name./p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal""So…" he began, wondering how to phrase the words 'you're in a weird coma, please wake up'./p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal""Isaac," Morinna said suddenly, turning her chin towards him but keeping her eyes on the creature. "Please don't interfere."/p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal"He frowned, wondering for a moment if she wanted him to just leave her there. And then the monster clambered over the body on the floor and went for her throat./p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal"Isaac immediately jumped to his feet, his claws bursting free./p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal""emStop/em," Morinna croaked. She was slumped against the wall as it guzzled from her neck, fresh tears streaming now. This was what she had meant. She didn't want him to intervene./p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal"Shaken, he sank down onto the arm of the sofa./p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal"Morinna's eyes rolled into the back of her head. After a few seconds the creature pulled back and regarded her, blinking its narrow red eyes. It licked its thin lips once, and then gave a violent hiss, sinking his fangs back into her neck. Morinna's back arched and she screamed. Isaac had to clench his hands to stop himself from throwing the monster off of her. It removed itself in just a few seconds, moved on all fours to sniff the women's corpse once more, and then retreated through the shattered window./p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal"Morinna was lying on the floor, twitching. Isaac knelt down to try and help her up, but she flinched and cried out when he tried to touch her./p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal""I don't know how to help you," he said helplessly./p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal""You can't," she forced out, quivering. Then, like a balloon slowly deflating, she relaxed and sat back up./p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal""What –"/p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal""emSshh./em"/p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal"Isaac flinched, suddenly aware that the creature was back, drinking from the corpse again./p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal""You've been reliving this," Isaac realised. "Morinna, you need to stop."/p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal""You need to stay out of it."/p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal""Bullshit. Time to wake up. Why would you sit here and watch it happen again and again?"/p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal""Why wouldn't I? This is them. These are my parents. I came downstairs and I saw this and I didn't do anything. I just watched it happen. Why change that now? They'll still be dead and it will still be my fault."/p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal"He sighed. "Maybe because punishing yourself just hurts the people around you?"/p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal""Good thing I have nobody."/p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal""Stop being a brat," Isaac snapped. "You're the only thing keeping yourself here. Clearly I cared enough to come in and find you. Clearly Lydia and Scott care enough to sit in your hospital and wait for you to wake up. I refuse to let you die because you're feeling sorry for yourself."/p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal"Morinna rolled her eyes, not even looking at him, and then the creature was at her throat again. Isaac folded his arms, seething, refusing to watch./p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal"The creature disappeared./p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal""You done?"/p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal""Just go home, Isaac," Morinna said, annoyed./p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal""Nope."/p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal""I don't want your help."/p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal"Isaac stood up, stretching his arms. "I know you don't. But I'd be an asshole if I didn't know that you need it."/p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal"He took a step towards creature, which was crouched over her mother once again, sand his claws descended./p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal""Isaac!"/p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal""Oh, I'm sorry, were you gonna do it?"/p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal"Morinna rose to her feet and crossed her arms. "If you even care about me a little bit, you will leave. emNow/em."/p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal""Well, that's where you're wrong," Isaac said simply, and then he attacked./p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal"She was crying in the corner when he finished, wiping the near black blood from his forehead./p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal""Time to go," he announced, and when she shook her head he sighed and hauled her up by the wrist. "Consider it an intervention."/p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal"They burst through the door and back into the vast white hall of doors, Morinna sniffing back tears. "Where the fuck are we," she said in a small voice, glowering at him./p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal""Welcome to your mind," Isaac said sarcastically. "Doors to your memories, yada yada yada."/p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal""My memories? I haven't seen this before."/p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal""You wouldn't. You don't experience your memories like this usually, because you're too invested. This is… a neutral space. Kind of like a hotel lobby."/p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal""So, I could go through any of these doors and see parts of my life? The happy parts?"/p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal"Isaac rubbed the back of his neck. "Yeah, you could. I guess."/p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal""But you're going to force me to wake up."/p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal"He sighed. "I can't. I mean, I went into your head to try and figure out if you were still here. I… unstuck you from one of the memories. But I can't wake you up. That's on you."/p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal"Morinna stared wistfully at one of the doors. "It's my thirteenth birthday party through there. I don't know how I know that, but it's true."/p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal"Isaac folded his arms. "You can go through and see. You can go to all of them. And eventually, in a few days, you won't be able to come back."/p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal""And then what?"/p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal"He laughed darkly. "What happens after you die? Well, that's the question, isn't it."/p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal"Morinna stared at the ground sadly. "Okay."/p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal""Okay?"/p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal""I need to think about it."/p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal"Isaac nodded, stuffing his hands in his pockets. "Okay. Well. Goodbye."/p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal"She looked at him tearfully, and then he was gone./p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal"Isaac pulled his claws from her neck and stepped back from the bed. He wasn't really sure what to do now, so he carefully turned her head back to its original position and sat in the vinyl chair by the bed to tap his feet nervously. He watched her for twenty minutes before accepting that she had made her decision./p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal"He couldn't blame her, really. Hell, he'd wanted to end things before, when he could see his whole life stretching before him, the knowledge that every day he'd wake up and have twenty blissful seconds of existing before he remembered Allison and Erica and Boyd and the way his father used to look when he was angry. Every day. It had always seemed like too much to cope with. Morinna had different ghosts, sure, but the exhaustion was the same./p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal"It was going to hurt. He knew that. But right now it just felt like a lump in his throat. Isaac stood up and kissed her on the forehead./p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal""Bye, Morinna. I'm sorry this all happened," he whispered, and then, with a lingering final look, he left the room./p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal"She coughed./p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal"It was a tiny cough, barely audible, but he heard it all the same. Isaac turned around in shock./p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal"Morinna was clawing at her throat./p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal"He re-entered the room and grabbed her hand. She opened her eyes, squinting against the fluorescent light, coughing more./p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal""Ssh, shh, it's okay, you're okay," Isaac placated her. "Do you need blood? I can find you blood."/p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal""Water," she croaked. Isaac looked around and spotted a jug on one of the counters, tipping it into a plastic cup so quickly that most of it splashed onto the floor. He thrust it into her hands and she took a sip. "My throat is dryer than the Sahara desert."/p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal"Isaac stared at her, and she stared back at him, and then she burst into tears and he took the cup away and let her cry into his shoulder./p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal""I couldn't kill it. Thousands of times I saw it, and I couldn't even try," she sobbed./p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal""I know," Isaac said, because there wasn't much else to say./p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal"Morinna pulled away from him. "Thank you for helping me," she said in a small voice, and then she looked directly at him and her eyelashes were wet and her eyes were huge and then she was kissing him./p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal"Isaac pushed her away gently. She looked hurt./p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal""You were right," he said. "It was the blood thing. I was obsessed with saving you because of the weird connection, and it made me think I was in love with you. But I'm not."/p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal""I… oh," was all that Morinna could say, and she sat back, her lip quivering./p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal""I like you," Isaac added. "I think you're great. I definitely care about you. But this whole thing wore off days ago. I'm not in love with you. I came to get you because you deserve saving, and because I don't want you to die. But that's it."/p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal"Morinna swallowed painfully. "Okay. Understood."/p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal"Isaac chewed his lip. "Guess I should go let the doctors know you're awake."/p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal"And then he left./p