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When they reach the coffee shop, Lydia is surprised to see that Iris is not working. Then again, she realises, it is very late. Barry finds them a table and they sit in silence for a while, until a waitress appears and asks them what they want. After they've ordered and their drinks have come, Barry looks at her and asks,
"Are you okay?"
Lydia contemplates the question for a moment. Normally it would be asked to make the other person feel better; that they had actually tried to help the person who was obviously not okay. But the way that Barry looks at her, genuinely concerned, lets her know that he is actually anxious for her.
She sips her coffee. "Yeah. I mean, Stiles is my friend so obviously I'm concerned, but... he's gonna live, right?"
Barry nods and tries a genuine smile, which makes Lydia's stomach flutter weirdly. "Definitely."
They're interrupted- yet again- by a tall, dark man in suspenders with a police badge attached to his trousers. He looks first at Lydia and then turns to Barry.
"I heard that you let friends and family see him before they were allowed," the man lectures with a raised eyebrow and his arms crossed.
"Joe," Barry sighs. "I- er... yeah?"
Joe looks like he's trying to refrain himself from rolling his eyes too dramatically. "Barry, we talked about this," he warns.
"Come on, Joe, they wouldn't let her in and they were being kind of aggressive," Barry argues. "She's practically family anyway."
Lydia looks at him for a second with a quizzical look, confused as to why he was lying to protect her, but then regains composure as Joe turns to her again.
"You're Lydia Martin?" he asks. "The girl they rang after the accident?"
Lydia nods. "Yeah."
"I'm Detective Joe West," he greets. "I'm heading the investigation behind Mr Stilinksi's case."
"Nice to meet you," Lydia smiles, and suddenly is horrifically aware of how awful she must look. Having barely got through her door after work, her hair was ratty and her make up smudged and her clothes rumpled. Joe doesn't seem to notice any of this, though, as he launches into questions.
"Does Stiles have any previous experience with accidents like this?" Joe asks, and Lydia pales.
"Er... kind of," she says, slowly so that she can think of explanations and alternatives. "He's, er... he's not ever had the best of luck when it comes to accidents."
"What do you mean?" Barry suddenly looks incredibly interested in what she has to say, and she thinks again of how horrid she must look.
"Well, the town we're from," Lydia says. "It's kind of a... beacon for bad luck."
"Beacon Hills, right?" Joe asks, and she nods. "I've heard some of the horror stories. The Sheriff's department blew up a while ago, didn't it?"
"Yeah," Lydia confirms. "And my friend, Allison, got killed there." Even though it's been a few years since Allison died, talking about it still gives her a lump in her throat. "A lot of bad things happen, and Stiles is the Sheriff's son, so he gets involved a lot. Plus, he's a nosy little beggar who's, like, a magnet for bad luck."
Barry and Joe both smile at that. And then Joe's pager buzzes. And their faces fall.
"What is it?"
Lydia hears it from where she's sat. And then she feels it, building up inside her, while the voices get louder in her head.
"Stilinski taken a turn for the worse."
"On my way," Joe says in a low voice and Lydia needs to escape now. She needs to tell Scott.
She stumbles back from the table and her coffee falls, as if in slow motion, exploding on the floor and spilling across it.. She clamps a hand to her mouth and flees the shop, running into an alley and panting against a wall. The voices threaten to overwhelm her and she needs to scream now. She fumbles with her phone, dialing Scott's number with shaking hands.
"Lydia? Are you-"
"Scott," she cries. "Scott, I can feel it. I can- Stiles-"
"Lydia, do you need to scream?" Scott asks with worry in his voice.
"Scott," she's sobbing into her hand now, and it's quite literally on her lips. The phone drops and she bends over as if she's going to throw up.
And then she screams.