Beacon Hills Memorial Hospital/Beacon Hills Road
"Hayden just... I'm sorry, Mason." Melissa said sadly, over the phone, still at the hospital. "She just - she just died."
Numb. Mason felt numb, he didn't even feel the wheel in his hands, although he absentmindedly took a turn leading him to his destination, Beacon Hills High School.
"Mason," Melissa called his name, her concern audible.
"She died without seeing her sister," Mason commented, a lump in his throat and silent tears falling down his cheeks. "She wanted her sister."
Melissa didn't know what to say. It was always hard reporting the death of a loved one, and though she didn't know the extent of Mason's relationship with Hayden, telling him that she was dead was just as hard.
Before she could respond, however, Mason ended the call, and then focused on the other person who wasn't there when Hayden died: Liam, Liam who was supposed to check on Scott and see what was keeping him and Deputy Clarke, Hayden's sister.
Oh, Liam.
Mason's heart broke for Liam. His best friend who just lost his first love and didn't even know it, and this thought pushed Mason's feeling back into his hands and feet and allowed him to speed up.
He couldn't believe how excited he was when he first found out that the supernatural existed, he didn't know the tragedies that went along with it.
Stopping in the school's parking lot, Mason was surprised to find Scott's bike and Theo's car, but not Deputy Clarke's service car, or any police car. What was even more surprising, though, was the destroyed school building.
Still, he rushed into the building and hoped that at least one of the werewolves heard his car and were coming to get him.
No such luck, even after calling out to them, necessitating Mason to search for them.
It took a while, and in that time he experienced a series of flashbacks of Hayden on her death bed at the hospital, nearing her death with each passing second, and Melissa McCall's voice reporting her death.
Mason was spared from another flashbacks when he heard murmurs coming from the library.
He slowed down, not wanting to reach the library because of the news he had to deliver when he reached it.
Sadly, he didn't slow down enough, if the murmurs that were getting clearer were anything to go by.
Speaking of the mumbling...
"I c-can't [wheezing] let you [wheezing, followed by a pained rough cough, and then a groan] k-kill me."
Scott, that was Scott's voice. He was the one murmur-ring.
"I-I can't [a weak cough followed wheezing] I can't let you kill m-me."
Mason realised that the murmur-ring was all Scott, and there was no one responding to it.
Too focused on Scott's weak murmurs mixed in with wheezing, Mason didn't notice the signal blocking device Theo placed just outside the library or the mountain ash he stepped over a moment before his eyes locked on Scott.
Directly across from him, the moonlight bathed a blood covered limp Scott laying back first on the steps facing the library entrance, clothes torn apart, revealing bloody and torn flesh, including a gruesome wound around the area of the diaphragm, a human face painted with drying blood and pure pain that seemed to have worn Scott out, eyes unfocused.
No.
Mason realised that the eyes weren't unfocused, they were focused, just so intensely that it appeared they weren't focused at all.
Mason followed the direction Scott's eyes were set on, a little to Scott's right at his feet, and his heart stopped at the figure they laid on: a beaten motionless Liam laying on his side with his head bent forward in an unnatural manner, and the reason was right there for Mason to look upon with so much horror that he fell to his knees, fresh tears building up.
Liam's spine was severed four times from and at the back of his neck, and by the look of it, by four deep claws.
Mason crawled to Liam's body, barely hearing Scott's murmurs.
"Liam," He called his best friend, his closest friends, with pure anguish as he crawled towards him. "Please wake up!"
Liam didn't wake up.
"Please," Mason begged desperately as he reached him and sat beside him, his body.
He tried to reach a hand to shake Liam awake but his buddy locked up and his had froze half an inch from Liam's, unable to touch his best friend's, fearing how his temperature was going to solidify the nightmare as reality, hence Mason retrieved his hand, but he didn't stop pleading for Liam to wake up.
With silence being the only thing he got from Liam, Mason searched the room for someone, anyone, to tell him that this was only a nightmare that would go away when he woke, a part of his mind telling him that Scott was broken and couldn't be that person.
His search led to the discovery of another motionless body: Theo's beaten motionless body facing upwards, a foot of a table buried in his chest.
Mason looked at Scott, but his eyes where still on Liam's body.
"I ca-n't, let you k-kill me," Scott repeated once again.
Mason was confused about why Scott said those words while looking at Liam, until he noticed something that bought everything to a halt and in to place, Scott's dominant hand was covered in blood, and bony fragments on his fingers...
"What did you do?" He whispered his question, as shocked as he was confused, not wanting to believe the picture he saw.
Scott only repeated his murmur.
Mason got up and stared at him.
"What did you do, Scott?!" He demanded angrily, taking a step towards Scott.
That seemed to snap Scott out of his mantra and he gave Mason his full attention as he took another step towards him, and his eyes flickered Alpha red a moment before he visibly struggled to sit with a muffled cry of pain.
"I can't let you kill me too," Scott said without wheezing, pushing through the pain, eyes still flickering between human and werewolf, the bloody hand reaching for the support structure.
Mason paused, more than a little confused.
"Wh-What?"
"I..." Scott began, only to enter a violent coughing fit that saw him lose his grip on the support structure, but fall onto it, as his body jerked right before he coughed out thick black blood.
Mason didn't know what to do. Everything was just wrong, very wrong, from Hayden dying to the destroyed library and, most of all, Scott killing Liam. It was all wrong.
"Why did you k-kill Liam?" He asked shakily, maintaining his position.
Back to wheezing and unable to speak, Scott used his eyes to answer by looking at his abdomen, the bloody wound.
"Wait, Liam did that to you?" Mason didn't get it. "Why would he..."
"Hay..." Scott tried to answer but ended up violently coughing blood.
Mason's mind worked a mile a second to understand what Scott was saying, and with what Scott was trying to say before his coughing fit and his flickering eyes, a hard to accept theory started forming.
Unfortunately, though, Mason didn't find it that hard to believe the theory he was forming of what happened because Scott refused to save Hayden's life with the Bite and Liam's violent history was harder to forget, but Theo's role was hardest to place, until Mason truly took in the poor state Scott was in.
From what he was told, Alphas were powerful, and Scott was certainly powerful, he was a True Alpha, whatever that was, too powerful for Liam to take on and bring to the coughing bloody mess he was right now all alone.
Considering that Melissa told Mason that Theo called and picked up Liam...
Mason looked at Liam's body in shock, which increased when he saw Liam's dominant body covered in blood, a lot of it, and it made a trail to Scott, Scott whose eyes where now focused on the upper part of the library, a shelf, a shelf her wrote his initials along with Allison's, specifically, although Mason didn't know that.
"Allison," Scott whispered a moment before his eyes closed.
"No, no, no, no, no!" Mason hurried to wake him up, not wanting another death today.
He tried to wake up the shallow breathing Scott but failed to do so, prompting him to take out his phone to call for an ambulance, but his phone had no signal, at all.
"What do I do?! What do I do?!" Mason asked himself panicking.
He thought about taking Scott to his car and driving him to the hospital, but Scott was too wounded to move, and heavy.
Mason took off his sweater and used it to stop Scott's bleeding abdominal wound and used Scott's limp arm to put pressure on it before running to the top level of the library to get a signal, but didn't get any, although he did get to see the full damage to the library, broken chairs and tables, toppled shelves and books, and the shattered glass roof.
Not allowing himself to be distracted by the destruction, Mason ran down with the intention of leaving the room to get a signal and help, and that's what he did, until he noticed something out of place on his way out, the signal blocking device, hence he paused and gave it his attention.
It was easy to deduce what it was because of its shape and label, it was also easy to switch it off, and the moment Mason switched it off and checked his phone's signal, hope of saving Scott's life appeared, although he was conflicted about it.
ICLYKM
Beacon Hills Memorial Hospital
"How is he?" Stiles asked an approaching Melissa, standing up. "How's my dad?"
"It seems like he's going to make it," Melissa answered, relieved that at least one life was saved, although she mourned the young life she couldn't save. "A foreign bone fragment was found in his neck but he's going to be fine, they took it out."
Stiles released a heavy sigh of relief.
"Can I go see him?" He asked. "I have to see him."
"Not yet," Melissa replied. "He just got out of surgery, and I'm off duty."
Stiles sat down helplessly.
"I can't lose him," He said.
Before Melissa could assure him, a commotion drew their attention as an ER team rushed to wheel in a patient from the elevator.
"This way! This way!" A nurse from the reception directed with urgency, and the ER team followed without delay.
As they rushed past Melissa and Stiles, the former's heart stopped as she caught sight of who was being rushed to the ER.
"No," She said with a trembling whisper, shaking her head while her eyes followed the team, unable to move her body. "No."
Stiles barely heard Melissa's second 'no' before he saw her suddenly run towards the ER team
"Scott!" Melissa yelled.
The eyes of the nurse that was leading the team widened as they met the running Melissa's for a moment, the nurse having thought that his co-worker was not at work, and that was all she needed for confirmation and she doubled her speed.
Unfortunately, her path to her son was blocked by two nurses.
"I'm sorry, but you can't..." One of the nurses, younger than the other, began.
"Get out of my way!" Melissa interrupted furiously. "That's my son, and I work here!"
"I know, Mel-Mel," !Xo, the second nurse, older than both the first nurse and Melissa, replied sympathetically. "But you know the rules."
"He's my SON!" Melissa's fury at being prevented from getting to Scott rose exponentially.
She tried to push her way through, but Doctor Geyer, Liam's stepfather, caught her by the shoulders from behind and prevented her escape, but just barely as she tried to get his hands off her.
ICLYKM
Realising what had Melissa acting the way she was, Stiles took advantage of the commotion she caused and sneaked through, heart sinking as he remembered Theo's warning when he gave him two options: to save Noah or Scott.
Stiles thought that Scott could take care of himself, but it seemed like he was wrong, and that only pushed him to reach Scott, and reach him he did, just as he was wheeled into a surgery room.
He was shocked by what he saw before a nurse dragged him away.
"You can't be in here," The nurse said, leading Stiles out.
Stiles didn't have the strength to fight to stay, he was too shocked to do anything, and the nurse was way bigger than he was.
However, he came to a halt when his eyes caught sight of his father's recovery room, and immediately rushed towards its door.
"Dad!" Stiles called out.
Having dealt with situations like this before, the nurse was ready and caught Stiles before he could open the door and shifted him so that he was between it and Stiles.
"Listen, kid," The nurse said with a voice and tone that demanded attention, although it was oddly calm and comforting. "Your father is recovering from surgery, and if you enter this room, you may put his recovery in jeopardy."
That put a stop to Stiles' attempts of bypassing the nurse.
"How is he?" He asked instead, looking at Noah through the window.
"I don't know, I'm not his nurse," The nurse answered honestly. "If you want an update, go to the reception and ask for his nurse. Why don't you call your mother?"
"He's all I have left," Stiles replied sadly.
"Oh. Er-Is there a family friend that you can call?"
Stiles shook his head and was reminded of Scott.
"What happened to Scott?" He inquired.
"I can't tell you that, hospital policy doesn't allow me to divulge patient information to people outside family."
"I'm family," Stiles said, looking at the nurse. "Scott is like a brother to me."
"'Like a brother', keyword being 'like'. Go to the waiting room, kid. If there's an update on how your father is doing, his nurse will look for you there. Come on."
Stiles reluctantly went along with the nurse after one last look in the direction of Scott's surgery room and then Noah.
ICLYKM
"What just happened?" Doctor Geyer asked Nurse !Xo as they left Melissa in one of the rooms reserved for staff after they gave her a shot to put her to sleep. "I may not know her that well, but I'm pretty sure Nurse McCall isn't prone to hysteric episodes."
"Paramedics just came in with Scott, her son, and he's in bad shape, immediate emergency surgery-on-arrival bad shape," Nurse !Xo replied. "And I'm afraid the surgery may not be enough to save him. It's actually a miracle that he's still alive.
The blood loss alone warrants Melissa's hysteria, and she doesn't even know about it, the wounds... (Nurse !Xo shook her head in dismay.)
I need to call my grandson and tell him that I'm not coming home tonight. Mel-Mel is going to need all the support she can get when she wakes up."
Nurse !Xo promptly left Doctor Geyer to get her phone from her locker. She wanted to be there for the woman who had no problem filing in her shirts when she couldn't make it these past few years.
Sure, Melissa filled in because she needed the money most of the time, but they were co-workers and looked out for each other, and Melissa was one of the last nurses working at the hospital that Nurse !Xo took under her wing when they first set foot there years ago.