Thanks for the review! I do not own anything in this chapter, besides my oc, everything else belongs to their rightful owners

Chapter 16

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Laci headed over to the hospital with her mom after their talk with Scott. She knew Scott wanted to go with them, but he wasn't ready, or in any shape to come with them. When the McCall women arrived at the emergency room, Stiles was arguing with the nurse over paperwork. Isaac was standing with him. Laci could see Stiles was about at his limit before he exploded. "Mom," She said, knowing she needed to head over and help.

"I've got it." She said, touching her arm before heading over to the desk. "I'll take care of it."

Melissa reached over and took the chart from the nurse. Stiles looked relieved to see her. Isaac glanced back to see Laci standing there. He left Stiles to talk to Melissa while he went to stand with Laci. "How's your brother?" He asked, glancing back quickly before looking back to her.

Laci hugged her arms around her, her eyes flickering to Stiles talking to her mom. "He's not doing too great. He's alive thanks to my mom, but he's shaken up."

Isaac could see that she was more worried than she was letting on. Theo was still on the loose, Lydia and Malia were M.I.A and Liam tried to kill her brother. On top of all of that, Hayden was dead and the sheriff wasn't in any better shape.

"Is there anyone else we need to notify? A next of kin." The nurse at the desk called over to Stiles.

"No, it's me. It's just me."

Melissa directed the three to the waiting room once she was finished with the paper work. The sheriff was in surgery now and all they could do was wait. Laci sat on the left of Stiles, her hand in his. Isaac sat on the other side of her, tapping his foot impatiantly. Squeezing his hand, she hoped to bring him some kind of comfort. "It's going to be alright, Stiles. He's going to make it out of this, I promise." She whispered, holding his hand tightly in hers.

Stiles felt like he was completely alone, regardless of the fact Laci and Isaac were here. He'd pushed Malia and Lydia away. He'd lost Scott. His dad could be dying as they just sat here. It was all his fault. This all could have been avoided if he hadn't have screwed up. If he hadn't have killed Donovan.

Laci could see Stiles was getting stuck inside of his head. He was beating himself up about everything that happened tonight. She blamed herself too. She should have figured out Theo's angle sooner. Maybe she could have warned Stiles and Scott. She'd been so wrapped up in her own issues, she wasn't looking at what was right in front of her.

She could see the guilt was getting to him. He was drowning in it, and she wasn't sure how to help him out of it. Things had changed so much since the night Scott was bit. They had changed so much since that night. They weren't the same people as they were two years ago. Hell, none of them were the same since Laci and Allison's deaths. That was the night everything changed. That was the night they changed.

Stiles wasn't the same smart ass joker, Lydia wasn't the girl who pretended to be dumb for her boyfriend, Scott wasn't the doe eyed boy in love with a girl he could never have, and Laci wasn't the innocent ballerina who just wanted a normal life with her boyfriend.

Everything had become such a mess.

Isaac took her other hand, bringing her back from her thoughts. He could tell her head was getting away from her. It was something both she and Stiles did when they were stressed out. She looked startled, her eyes flickering between their hands and his face. "It's going to be okay." He said, squeezing her hand.

She looked grateful for his little bit of comfort. Out of everything that had changed, it was nice to know one thing hadn't. Isaac. He was still sweet and caring when he wanted to be. He was still there for her when she needed him to be. "Thank you." She whispered back.

The three sat in silence after that, both holding onto Laci's hands.

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It felt like forever before Laci's mom came back with any news. Stiles had fallen asleep and Isaac had gone to find them something to drink. Laci noticed her mom coming over and gently nudged Stiles to wake up. "Stiles, wake up. Stiles, my mom's here." She said softly, shaking his arm.

He woke up with a start, but relaxed when he saw Melissa kneeling in front of him. "He's okay. Dr. Geyer is stitching him up right now."

Stiles looked between her and Laci relieved. "Okay. I want to see him."

Melissa touched his arm when he started to get up, stopping him before he stood. "Okay, okay. The anesthesia needs to wear off. It's gonna be at least two hours."

Stiles looked suddenly worried. He was terrified of losing his dad. He couldn't lose him too. He was all he had left. "Okay, yeah, but everything's gonna be okay though? I mean, he's okay?" He asked, glancing between them. Laci took his hand in hers, squeezing tightly to show her support.

"Mmm. He's gonna be just fine." Melissa said, nodding her head.

Laci smiled, relieved as she squeezed his hand again. "That's great news, Stiles. He's gonna be okay."

Stiles eyes watered as he took in the news. His dad was going to be alright. He was going to make it another day. He ran his hands over his face in relieve. "Okay, thank god." Stiles said, his voice cracking. Laci felt her own eyes watering as she leaned over and wrapped her arms around him. He was tense at first, but soon relaxed and put his hand over hers, squeezing her fingers in thanks.

The sheriff was going to make it.

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Two hours seemed to drag longer than anything. Isaac went back to the house to check on Scott since he still hadn't shown up. Laci stayed with Stiles, her hand gripping his tightly as they waited for the time to pass. When it was finally time to go see his dad, Melissa had come up to get them and bring them down.

Unforunately, they got news they weren't expecting when they got down to the ICU. The sheriff had taken a turn for the worse and the doctor didn't know why or how. "What do you mean you don't know? Two hours ago, he was fine. Now it looks like someone took a baseball bat to his neck." Stiles said, confused by what they were telling him.

"There could have been some minor internal."

"Did you say minor internal? Since when is anything internal minor?" Stiles snapped.

"Stiles," Laci said, warning him to cut it with the sarcasm.

The doctor was just trying to help, Melissa was too. Unforunately, they were working with half the facts right now. No one knew what had happened to the sheriff or what was happening to him now. "I need to know what's going on with him, okay? Dr. Geyer, someone needs to tell me what's happening. Somebody needs to tell me what's happening to him!" Stiles snapped, looking between Dr Geyer and Melissa for some kind of answer.

Melissa paused, knowing this was never easy. Especially because it was Stiles. He was a son to her, and she could see how much he was in pain. She wanted to make it better, but this time she just couldn't. "We don't know." She said, though she wished she could give him better news.

Stiles looked up and noticed Scott and Isaac standing outside his dad's room. Without thinking, he slipped past Laci and her mom and out the doors. With no warning, he shoved Scott as hard as he could into the wall. Isaac jumped back in surprised. Scott fell back with a groan. Laci gasped as she watched them go down. "Mom," She said, tugging on her arm as she motioned to the boys.

The three headed through the doors. Melissa reached for Stiles once she was close enough. "Hey, hey, hey!"

"Where the hell were you?" Stiles snapped.

"Stop it!" Melissa yelled as Dr Geyer and she tried to pull Stiles off of Scott.

Laci moved around them, kneeling down to get to eye level with Stiles. "Stiles, it wasn't his fault. You know that. You need to stop."

Dr Geyer and one of the security guards managed to pull a struggling Stiles up from the ground as the other guard and Isaac pulled Scott up. Laci stood, standing between them. "Okay, alright. Alright." Stiles said, his struggling coming to a stop.

"Your dad's not the only one who got hurt." Scott said, pushing out of Isaac's hold.

"Oh, you'll heal." Stiles scoffed.

Scott hurried to close his jacket to cover up a blood stain on his shirt. Laci looked worried, but didn't say anything.

"I'm not talking about me."

#$#%$%$

While Stiles went to check on Lydia, Isaac took Laci home for Scott. He didn't want her alone while Theo was still on the loose. Laci felt useless. Stiles and Scott had both went through something traumatic tonight and all Laci could do was stand there. Even Isaac was more help than she had been.

Laci led the way inside, her face full of defeat. Isaac followed her inside, closing the door behind them. He wanted to say something to make her feel better, but he couldn't think of anything. It wasn't going to get better from the looks of it, and he didn't have it in him to lie to her. Tonight had been tiring keeping everything in control while dealing with Theo's mess.

"You don't have to babysit me." She said as she turned on the lights.

He rubbed the back of his neck nervously. He didn't want to leave her unprotected. If he was being honest with himself, he didn't want to leave period. After what was revealed tonight, they had a few things to figure out. "You asking me to leave?" He asked, though he hoped she wouldn't.

She looked hesitant on answering him. It was almost like she was conflicted over asking him to stay verses asking him to leave. He wouldn't blame her if she did tell him to go. She earned some time to herself. He'd leave if she asked him to, even if he didn't want to.

"No, no, you can stay." She finally said after an inner debate.

He tried not to look too relieved when she said it.

The two got settled for the night before the conversation Laci was dreading came up. "Are you going to tell Scott about what Theo told us?"

She wished she didn't have to, but she knew she would. Scott should know about Theo swapping her body with another and giving her to the dread doctors. It was his doing that ended up in her coming back because he wanted an in with Scott. He's the reason she has these . . . these powers that still confuse her. He was the reason she's not like herself. She's sick, and she looked just as sick as she felt.

Did she want to tell him all of that? No, but she had to.

"There's still one chimera left. What if it's me?" She asked.

She looked terrified by the question. She'd seen what happened to the other chimera and how they all ended up. What if she ended up being just like them? It was only a matter of time before she started showing signs of failure. She couldn't put her brother and friends through her death again. Was Theo really that cruel to do that? She hoped not.

Isaac looked a loss for words as he sat across from her. They both had been thinking it since they found out, probably even before that. He reached across and took her hand in his. Her head lifted up, her eyes raising to meet his, when he squeezed tightly. "What happened to the others won't happen to you if you are one. Scott won't let it, neither will I." He said, giving her a sad smile of reassurance.

Without thinking, Isaac cupped her face, stroking her cheek with his thumb. It was something he hadn't done in over a year, maybe almost two years now. The feeling of safety coursed through her when he touched her like this. It felt familiar and scary all at once. It felt scary because it felt so familar to her. She couldn't let herself fall back into old habits. Especially with Isaac.

She placed her hand over his for a moment before pulling it away from her. He looked hurt and confused. She gave him a small smile before shaking her head. "I don't want to be that girl who leans on you to feel safe anymore, Isaac. I'm not that girl anymore. She died a year ago. This girl who came back, I'm still figuring out who she is." She said sadly, hoping he understood.

The left side of Isaac's mouth lifted up in a small smirk. "I wouldn't mind getting to know this Laci with you."

Tears swam in her eyes as she nodded. The one person she could count on right now was herself, but it didn't hurt to be able to have Isaac in her corner either. "I don't want it to be like before, Isaac. I want to be stronger. I'm tired of crying and waiting for someone to save me. I want to learn how to fight back. Seriously this time. Not like before when we were just joking around." She said, wiping her eyes as she stood straighter.

He could tell she was serious from the look of determination in her eyes. She really wanted this and the least he could do was help her get it.