Lydia wakes, thrashing and screaming in a heap on her bedroom floor. It takes her a moment to realize where she is. Her blanket is twisted around her and she's blinking through the sheets of messy hair in her face, staring into the darkened room.
She must have fallen from her bed because of that dream-no it wasn't a dream. She closes her eyes. She can still hear Theo's screams, his desperate cries for help-Scott's help-as he's being ripped into. She can tell, her heart slamming in her chest, that it hasn't happened yet. That there may still be time.
Her phone is in her hands, Scott's number dialed before she can even think about if they should try to save Theo.
"Lydia?" Scott's sleepy but concerned voice sounds from it as she's turning her lamp on and searching for her shoes. It's not the first time she's called him like this, and by now he knows what it means.
"Scott!" she cries urgently into the phone, slipping into her shoes and pulling on a jacket. She knows she doesn't have enough time to get fully dressed. "Scott, something is going to happen. To Theo. You have to save him."
"Okay." Scott's voice comes through immediately and unquestioning. "Where is he?"
"It'll be faster if I drive. Get here as fast as you can."
By the time she's getting her car started, Scott is already stepping into the passenger's seat. Honestly she's not sure how he does it. He's even fully-clothed, unlike her, who's going to be driving around the Beacon Hills Reserve in her nightie.
Scott's quiet as Lydia speeds off in the direction her senses are telling her to go. He stays silent for most of the very short drive, letting her focus on the task.
"He's close." she says, turning down a short stretch of a trail that her car can barely fit through. "He's very close..."
"Lydia?" Scott asks, just as they're reaching a point where they'll have to continue on foot. "I'm obviously going to do my best to save him...and I would even if you hadn't told me too...but..."
She knows what he's about to ask.
"Why are you so rattled by this? It's not like he's our friend...or even an innocent person..."
"Scott please." Lydia says, finally turning her car off. "You're just going to have to trust me on this."
"You know I do." He says, as they both step out into the cool night air.
She's relieved because she doesn't want to tell him. Not just because there's no time to explain, but because of how awful it would be if they don't make it. What if they walk in just in time to see Theo get his skull torn apart? It's a possibility that's becoming more and more likely as the minutes pass. She can feel Theo's death circling the forest like a bird of prey, waiting to swoop down and snatch his life away. It could happen any second now.
She can't do that to Scott. She can't tell him Theo is supposed to be important to him, that he should have been important all along only to let the the alpha wolf witness him getting brutally murdered. If they can't save Theo then it's better that Scott never have to know what could have been.
"He's that way. Douglas is with him..." she says, pointing ahead. "In some kind of structure...I-I think you're going to have to run."
Scott nods and takes off into the woods at a pace she would never be able to match.
Scott has gotten used to Lydia's sudden and urgent directions, he trusts her as deeply as he would trust Stiles or his mother, but something in her voice this time was bothering him.
He can feel that there's something she isn't telling him. Something she's purposefully holding back and it's scaring him. What could possibly be so terrible that she couldn't tell him?
He tears through the dark trees and cold night air like all the specters and demons of the world are at his heels, clawing at his feet. When he finally reaches a small clearing with a heavy rusted iron gate covering an entrance to a below ground chamber he tears it off with enough force to collapse a small building.
The air in the tunnel is dry and stale, if it weren't for a shallow yellow light down the other end of it he might have trouble seeing where he was going. As he approaches the light he can hear voices-one high and malicious, the other angry, broken and desperate-echoing down the concrete walls.
The sound of the desperate voice makes him feel like there's a piece of glass in his chest...even though it shouldn't.
"Now hold still and this will be over faster than you deserve..."
Theo flinches, squeezes his eyes shut trying not to scream but fails miserably as his scalp is pierced by Douglas's claws.
This is it. He can feel it. No more lies or games. No deals or trades will to get him out of this. He's trapped, helpless, completely and totally alone, and all he can think is how he wishes that the Doctors had just killed him the first time they'd taken him. That they had just pinned him down and ended him right there, when he was uncontaminated and innocent. If they had killed him then, people might have actually missed him. He'd never had hurt his sister, his parents wouldn't have had to die.
His family, his friends, Scott, they could all have missed him as a guiltless child, the way he was supposed to be. He wouldn't have had to live through all those horrifying experiments. He wouldn't have had to go to school the next day shell shocked and traumatized.
He would never have had to know that his parents wouldn't believe him when he tried to tell them what was happening to him. Wouldn't have had to talk to the worthless child psychologist that thought he was making it up for attention. Wouldn't have felt himself growing colder and colder each day more disconnected from the world around him. Isolated and alone, with no one to turn to but the Dread Doctors and their lies.
Why couldn't they just have drilled a hole in his eight year old skull and been done with it? Why did they have to corrupt and twist him first? Why did he have to let them? If he had been just a little bit stronger would he have been able to resist them?
His vision is now completely clogged over with tears, he has no more words to spit at the person about to end his life. He's not ready to die, even though he wishes it had happened a long time ago.
He braces himself as the claws dig deeper, ready for the darkness that's hung about him his entire life to consume him, when he feels the claws suddenly recede as a loud roar rips through the small chamber.
He recognizes that roar.
His eyes dart open, his vision still blurred with pain, but he can make out the outline of true alpha's back, standing between himself and Douglas who's recovering from a blow.
"Come for something of yours?" Douglas taunts, eyes glowing green.
"He's not mine." Scott growls, and Theo feels his heart twist. "But I protect everything in this town. Even him. Now get out or you're going to live to regret it."
"I would," Douglas almost purrs, taking a step closer to Scott. "But I'm not finished with him just yet."
"Trust me. You're more than finished."
"We'll see about that."
Theo stays still, hardly daring to believe that he might live through this, as the small room is filled with the clamor of guttural growls and claws swiping through flesh. Metal fixtures topple and tools clatter to the floor as Theo struggles to stay conscious.
He feels himself slipping, the edges of his vision darkening, when a sharp cry from Douglas reels him awake. He forces his eyes to focus on the two, each a torn up bloody mess standing opposite one another, trying to stare the other down.
"Fine." Douglas growls after a long moment. "Have your precious little psycho."
"Thanks, I will." Scott quips back.
"I'm sure he'll murder you in your sleep."
"All the easier for you then, wouldn't it be?" Scott replies with spite. He doesn't relax his protective stance in front of Theo for a moment.
The lowensmench growls once more, but turns on his heels and leaves. He'd gotten mostly what he wanted anyway.
Scott watches Douglas's back as he retreats down the long dark hall, he waits till he hears the man climbing out through the gate, a safe distance away before turning back to face Theo. He keeps his expression hard and unwavering as he silently approaches the chimera and roughly unbuckles the leather straps holding him down.
He feels a swooping rush of pity move through him as reaches for the binds and sees the red chafed eyes still leaking tears and he has to remind himself that he can't feel that way about Theo. Any pity, any compassion that he shows, any at all, Theo will try to exploit. He'll use it against him and his pack. Use it to hurt him and the people he cares about most.
He can't feel bad for Theo. No matter how pathetic and broken and hurt he looks, Scott knows he can't give into the urge to pull Theo close to him, to whisper in his ear that everything will be alright, that he won't let anyone hurt him.
Restraining himself becomes even harder as Scott's eyes travel downwards, to the mess of incisions in the other teen's chest and the small metal rods holding the wounds open. What had Douglas been doing to him?
He glances back up at Theo's face, but the wounded coyote actively avoids his eyes. Scott's not sure why because he's always known Theo to be absolutely shameless. Maybe this had been different. Maybe this time he is humiliated over what happened to him.
Scott reminds himself again that he doesn't care.
He slowly reaches for the small metal spikes, and carefully draws them out one by one, dropping them onto the dirty concrete floor. Theo gasps and hisses occasionally, but doesn't say anything.
"How did you even get out of the house?" Scott asks after a while, forcing himself to sound exasperated and annoyed. He tries to remember the look in Theo's eyes when he cut his throat. Tries to remember him forcing him to drop Lydia down that chasm. "Weren't you chained up?"
Theo doesn't answer. He keeps his eyes screwed tightly shut and turns his head to the side as Scott pulls out the last rod.
Scott doesn't press the issue; it doesn't really matter. He drops the final cruelly-shaped piece blood-soaked metal to the floor with the rest.
He can hear Lydia starting to make her way down into the tunnel now, and he's glad she got to miss at least some of the scene he walked in on. Theo's wounds, at least the ones made by a knife and not the alpha's claws, are slowly starting to stitch back together. In a few days Theo will look like nothing even happened at all.
He swallows another rush of sympathy as he wonders how many times something like this must have happened to Theo before now. With him so quiet and subdued it's hard not to see him as the Theo from seventh-grade, the one that had just discovered skate punk and was starting to realize that he didn't like little league. The one Stiles had accidentally hit in the face with a wiffleball bat on the playground with an over-enthusiastic reenactment of something he'd seen on TV. The Theo he'd once thought about trying to tackle when a girl in their class had suggested they play kiss tag.
The one he'd thought about doing a lot more than kissing with when he'd come back to Beacon Hills claiming to be looking for a pack. He wants to kick himself every time he thinks about how he'd fallen for that sweet vulnerable act. How he'd really felt like everything was about to slide right into place. Like it was all about to be the way it should be.
"Come on..." he says, a little bit more gently than he probably should as he reaches one hand under Theo's back, the other behind his neck to help him sit up. "Let's try to get you out of here..."
It's then that Theo meets his eyes for the first time, and Scott's will is thrown into another trial as what he sees reflected in Theo's hopeless glassy irises threatens to make his chest cave in. There's a deep searching pain in them; a desperate, heartbroken quality like he wants to say something, wants to say something so badly, but can't speak. His chemosignals are a mess, radiating off his slowly-healing body in such thick waves Scott feels like he might choke on them. He can feel that Theo wants to pull him closer but won't let himself and it takes every ounce of the true alpha's considerable self-control not to wrap his enemy in his arms and give him the comfort and safety he knows he needs.
Don't believe him. Scott tells himself. Any vulnerability he shows you, he shows for a reason. He doesn't want you; he doesn't care about you; he doesn't want to be with you. He's never wanted to be with you. He'll never be yours. Not your friend, or anything else. You've only ever been a means to an end for him. An end that doesn't include you. Any second now he'll open his mouth and say something to try to get you to forget all the things he's done to you.
He doesn't though. Instead, he stays quiet and holds the gaze for a long minute, tears brimming on the edge of his lashes, eyes begging Scott for something. What that something is, Scott has no idea, and even if he did he wouldn't give it to him.
Hardening himself with a stamina that could only come from the desire to protect his friends, Scott stuffs down the feelings welling inside of him and pulls Theo up into a sitting position. Theo quickly turns his head away, and Scott tries not to notice how he tries to blink away the gathering tears in shame.
Scott can see him struggling to stay vertical, so he stays still, providing Theo's body a frame to hold onto till he has balance. When he thinks Theo's stable, he pulls off his jacket and helps pull his arms through the sleeves. Some of the wounds don't look like they're in a hurry to close and he doesn't want them to get infected brushing against whatever dust will brush them in the tunnel ahead.
He pulls the zipper up, doing his best not to be affected by the sight of Theo wearing his cloths, but he'd be lying if he said there wasn't a part deep inside of him that's extremely satisfied with it. Once he gets to the collar he lets his hand move to Theo's neck, finding a small patch of untarnished skin to lay his palm across to take at least some of the chimera's pain away so they can get out of here.
Theo's reaction surprises him.
"No." he says, his body stiffening as if Scott is trying to poison him. "Don't."
"What?" Scott asks, confused. "Why not?"
"Because I don't want you to." Theo replies bitterly, every syllable wracked with a pain that Scott can't understand the source of.
"Theo, I'm not going to hurt you..."
"I said don't."
Scott sighs. He's not going to force it if Theo doesn't want it, which is obviously the case. Instead, he helps the other teen onto his feet, pulling Theo's arm around his neck and hugging his waist to his hip for support. It's only to save Theo some pride; he can feel practically all of the chimera's weight pressing into him as he pulls them both towards the tunnel. He might as well just be carrying him.
Theo doesn't look at him again as they make their way down the tunnel. He keeps his eyes trained on the floor, and honestly Scott finds it a relief. He doesn't think he could stand to have Theo look at him like that again.
***
A short-lasting relief floods Lydia's veins when she sees the pair hobbling down the corridor toward her. Theo's alive. Scott got there in time. She's barely released the tense breath she was holding when she feels her stomach twist in nervous knots once again.
What did Scott know now? Had Theo told him? Had Douglas told him? What would he do if he found out?
Once they're close enough for her to make out their faces, she can tell by the downcast and avoidant expression in Theo's features that he's kept his mouth shut about it.
She moves to Theo's other side as if to take some of the weight but Scott doesn't let her.
"I've got him." He says firmly, and she falls quietly in step beside him.
As they make their way out of the rusted gate and over the first floor Lydia starts to wonder if it's worse for Scott to find out the awful truth or to go on not knowing what should have been his. The guilt that would come from the realization, the fact that Theo had been targeted because he was meant to be Scott's would be crushing. But more than that Lydia is worried about how Theo might try to exploit that guilt.
She can't tell him.
She makes up her mind as Scott's stuffing Theo into the backseat and buckling him in like a misbehaved child. She can't risk Scott making another mistake with Theo. Letting him get hurt another time.
Besides, it isn't her secret to tell.
Theo knows, and if he wanted to tell Scott he could.
"I didn't have time to grab the handcuffs." Scott says once he has Theo buckled. "But I swear if you try to pull any kind of crap while we're driving..."
"I won't." Theo says flatly, still refusing to look at either of them.
As Lydia climbs behind the wheel, Scott settling into the seat beside her, she begins the treacherous task of backing her car up the narrow path.
The car is silent as she expertly navigates her vehicle in reverse along the poor excuse of a road, save for the occasional wince and hiss of pain from Theo as they go over the rougher bumps. She swears she can see the corner of Scott's mouth twitch into a small grimace slightly every time he hears it, but he keeps his eyes trained on the windshield.
When they're back on the main roads Lydia glances into her rear view mirror to see Theo, head leaning against the window, peering dejectedly at Scott's profile. He keeps his eyes on him for several moments before tucking his face into the neckline of the jacket wrapped around him-Scotts jacket she notices for the first time-and breathing in deeply.
He closes his eyes, she watches two silent silvery tears slip down his cheeks.
She questions for a moment, her decision to keep the secret to herself, but quickly reminds herself that it's not her place to tell.
Maybe there's hope for them still. The fact that Theo didn't immediately try to use the discovery to his advantage, that he's actively trying to hide how much it's affected him, those are good signs.
It may be far too late for Theo to change, but maybe there's a small chance that he could. If they were truly meant for one another, then maybe they'll find a way back to it.
Only time can tell.
A/N: Thank you for reading! Comments and feedback are always appreciated. There will be a sequel!