John had one last look over the lake but neither Stiles nor Derek came back up. It was probably for the better but John couldn't get Stiles' shredded chest out of his mind. He just hoped that Stiles was right and that he would be okay. If he was honest, John would have preferred for Stiles to get checked out in the hospital but nothing he could do about that now.

"She okay?" John stepped over to where Mark was taking care of the girl. She was breathing on her own but otherwise, she hadn't improved. John wasn't sure if she was even conscious.

"She's going to be fine," Mark said but John couldn't tell if he truly believed it or if he was trying to convince himself of that.

"I'm going to check on the ambulance," John said. He needed to get away for a moment.

When he reached the cruiser there was no sign of the ambulance yet so he used the moment to take a deep breath. He wished that he had a flask on him to take a healthy gulp from, he needed something to calm his nerves, but he didn't have any alcohol with him. He might be on his way to becoming an alcoholic but that was a low he hadn't reached yet. Since Stiles had shown up at his doorstep he'd been optimistic that it was a low he would never reach. Now he wished he had.

John ran shaking hands through his hair while the last minutes replayed in his mind.

Nobody was dead, that was good.

But Derek had almost drowned a little girl.

Stiles had tried to save her life and as a thank you he got mauled almost to death.

And what had Mark been thinking? Had he seriously wanted to fight Derek? While standing in the fucking water?

When he'd seen Nancy, something in Mark had snapped.

"You said you have control," John said aloud but he doubted that Mark could hear him. He was a few minutes' walk away from the lake, the ears of a werewolf weren't that good, right?

As hard as it sounded John was glad that it had been Stiles Mark had lashed out at. He didn't want to think about what the Winchesters would do if somebody with lashes like that showed up in the hospital. This way there would be no record of the incident so at least things should stay calm on that front.

"If you told me bullshit and you're not going to be fine ..." John muttered to himself. He didn't know what he would do if Stiles didn't come back.

How things between Derek and the pack would turn out, John could only guess. John hoped that Nancy would make a full recovery. Not only for the girl's sake but for the truce in Beacon Hills as well.

"I hit him." John suddenly remembered with a groan. He had swung that branch like a baseball bat and he hadn't held back when he'd hit Mark over the head. A hit like that could easily kill a person but Mark had barely gone down. John guessed that adrenaline played a role in this but damn, the werewolf could take a blow.

Finally, the ambulance arrived.

John led the paramedics to where Mark was still watching over Nancy. By now she was awake but her breathing didn't sound good and she seemed disorientated and drowsy.

John had to drag Mark from her side to give the paramedics some space. John answered the usual questions of what had happened but aside from that she'd almost drowned and had stopped breathing for a while he couldn't tell them much.

She was there enough to state her name but not much more. They took her vitals, put an oxygen mask on her face, and strapped her to the stretcher.

In silence Mark and John followed them back to the road.

"I need to call her parents," Mark finally spoke when the ambulance drove off. They would follow in the cruiser in a second. "And Agnes, she needs to know. Maybe Greg as well."

Mark didn't sound right. Not all there. Not like before when his animalistic side had taken over, he just sounded lost. Traumatized and in shock. John had seen it with victims and survivors but he would have never guessed that he would see his partner like this.

"Okay, sit down." John opened the passenger side door and urged Mark to sit sideways with his feet still on the ground.

"I'm going to call the parents and then I'm going to call Agnes." He dreaded both calls but Mark was in no condition for them. "Until we know what exactly happened, we'll keep it simple. We happened to be in the area. We found her, gave her mouth to mouth, called an ambulance."

"We can't lie." Mark shook his head. "Agnes will know."

"Nothing of that is a lie," John reminded him. "I did give her mouth to mouth. But you're right, Agnes needs to know, I'm not trying to keep this from her. But no need to make it more complicated for the parents."

John ducked his head to look at Mark who reluctantly gave him a nod.

"What was she doing out here alone anyway?" John let out his frustration.

"She wasn't alone," Mark said. At least he sounded more there now.

"Did you see somebody?" John had been a few seconds behind Mark so he couldn't tell for sure but he hadn't noticed anybody else around.

"No." Mark tapped his nose. "But there were other scents. I would guess a group of three or four people."

"Her friends?" John put his hands on his hips and walked a few steps back and forth, he needed to move. The lake was known as a spot where teenagers came to for a dare. With what had happened here recently it wouldn't come as a surprise if that spiked up again.

"I don't know." Mark shook his head. "I don't … what happened there … Stiles was trying to help her and I … I completely lost it."

"I noticed." John let the bitterness drip off his words. "Don't know if you noticed but Stiles was bleeding out there."

"I didn't mean to …" Mark didn't finish the sentence but there was no need for that. John had been there, every second had burned itself into his brain. All he could see was Stiles' pale face, his big eyes, and the blood. So much blood.

"Stiles was just trying to help." John wanted to yell in his face but suddenly he was just so tired.

"Yeah, it was Derek who tried to kill her," Mark said darkly. His hands had been dangling between his knees but now he balled them up as if he wanted to punch somebody.

John could point out that it had been Nancy who went into the lake in the first place but he knew it was a moot point. So he just asked Mark for her parents' number.

Calls like this were never easy but at least he didn't have to inform the parents that their child was dead. Still not easy and when John ended the call, he needed a moment to steel himself for the next one.

Agnes was not amused.

John gave her the basics, that a member of her pack had almost drowned in the lake, that she was alive, and on her way to the hospital. Everything else they better discussed in person.

Agnes didn't like it, she wanted the full story now but she agreed to meet them at the hospital.

"That's going to be fun," John said when he ended the call. For a second he glanced in the direction of the lake and wondered if Stiles and Derek had room for one more at the bottom of the lake.

In the end, he just got in the car to drive them over to the hospital.

"Sorry for hitting you over the head," John said after a few minutes of uncomfortable silence.

"Nancy would be dead if you hadn't," Mark admitted and rubbed his neck.

"It was either that or shooting you." John shrugged. "And you know the paperwork for a fired round."

That got him a snort from Mark.

"You and Stiles." Mark sobered up. "You saved Nancy's life. You saved my life. And I completely fucked up."

"Nancy is going to be okay," John tried to reassure him. "But Stiles is going to hold a grudge against you."

"We just keep fucking him over."

"Understatement."

"What about you?" Mark turned towards him and John felt his eyes on him.

"What about me?"

"You're on Stiles' side," Mark stated a fact. "Even if not, you just saw the ugly side of being a werewolf. How can you even be in the same car as me?"

"I doubt that you'll lash out on me," John said. Earlier he didn't have time to be scared and now Mark just looked miserable. However, the way he'd attacked Stiles … That was not okay. On some level, John understood that Mark had seen a pack member on the ground and a possible enemy over her but lashing out like this?

This was part of their job. They did it every time they got called to a crime scene. Assess the scene, find out who's the victim and who's the perpetrator. If Mark had given himself a second to take in the scene he would have realized that Stiles was helping Nancy but no, he'd gone feral in blind need to protect his pack member. John wasn't sure if he could deal with that.

And Stiles had paid the price. John didn't dare to think about him and his injury too closely but he knew that it would sneak up on him later tonight.

When they arrived at the hospital, a nurse, her name tag read McCall, gave them an update. Nancy had arrived ten minutes before them so she couldn't tell them much aside from the fact that a doctor was with her now. When she came in her oxygen level had been low, which was expected, but her vitals were stable.

"All in all things are looking good," the nurse told them. "But we'll know more once the doctor has finished her examination."

John had been here often enough to know the only almost decent coffee vending machine in the hospital so he parked Mark in the waiting area and went to get them some coffee. He had put quite some money into this machine over the weeks Claudia had fought her losing battle but he didn't allow himself to dwell on that now.

When he came back with two cups of coffee, he passed the same nurse who was telling a couple the same thing she'd told him and Mark just minutes ago.

"The parents are here." John gave Mark a heads-up along with the coffee. Mark made a face and took a gulp of coffee. He looked like he too was wishing for something stronger.

Not a minute later the couple joined them in the waiting area.

"Mark." The woman spotted him and then she had him in a tight hug. Mark almost spilled his coffee but held on to her just as tight.

"What happened?" The man asked. They hugged as well but over Mark's shoulder the man glanced over to John. Right, he was the outsider here. Agnes and Mark knew that John was in the know but to the average pack member John was somebody they had to be careful around.

John excused himself under the guise that he wanted to give the family some space. He shared a quick glance with Mark, trying to tell him to keep Stiles and Derek out of this. Mark gave him a small nod in return and John could only hope that they understood each other.

Sipping his coffee, John went outside. He needed fresh air.

He sat down on a bench and tried to keep his mind busy by watching people coming and going. The picture of Stiles, pale and bloody, still crept into his mind. His mouth felt too dry and his hands were shaking and damn, he needed a drink.

"You look like shit," Agnes commented when she stepped into his line of view.

"I feel like shit." John raised his cup in a mock toast. "Mark is inside with the parents and a doctor is with Nancy. She's stable and things are looking good," he repeated the nurses' words.

Agnes relaxed visibly at that and after a moment of hesitation she sat down next to him.

"Okay, what the fuck happened out there?"