Fandom: Teen Wolf
Story Title: "Brighter Than Before"
Summary: Stiles hates group projects on principal.
Character/Relationship(s): Erica Reyes/Stiles Stilinski, Lydia Martin/Stiles Stilinski, Allison Argent/Scott McCall, Jackson Whittemore/Lydia Martin Isaac Lahey, Sheriff Stilinski, Melissa McCall
Rating: T
Warnings: Mentions of epilepsy, language
Story Word Count: 7000+ (so far)
Disclaimer: I don't own anything recognizable.
Notes: I'm not a medical genius so I don't know if I'm correct about everything in this chapter, but I tried to be. Also this is going to be more than two parts, I'm just not sure how many now.
Brighter Than Before
Chapter Two
Stiles can't decide if it's a blessing or a curse when Johnson lets the pairs work on their projects.
Erica won't look at him, instead spending at least ten minutes digging through her backpack for a pen, and another ten retrieving the sources that she'd gotten from the library. He likes to think of himself as a patient guy, but really enough is enough.
"Hey, will you just chill out? Don't make this awkward, okay. Just...don't."
"Sorry," Erica whispers, still looking at her desk.
"So do you want to come by after school?"
"What?" Finally, she looks at him, and it eases a weight off Stiles's chest.
"Yeah, if you can you should come over, and we can work on this stuff more in depth. I bought a poster and I printed some pictures out the other night."
"I can swing by the library and get us some more book sources," Erica says after a pause. "And I'm pretty sure dad will be okay with it because it's for school so...okay." She smiles tentatively at him, and he smiles back.
Damage control, done.
.
Erica comes over at four, and they actually get something done, believe it or not. They work for a while, but there's only so much of looking at the disgusting conditions of Civil War prisons that can be taken before eventually everyone gives up.
She finds his Batman cosplay in between showing him all the new books that she got from the library, and raises her eyebrows as she holds it with her fingertips. "What's this?"
"Cosplay. Scott and I are going to Wondercon this year and I'm going to be Batman."
"What's Scott going to be?"
"Green Lantern, Kyle Rayner style I think is what he's decided."
"Cool. I went to a con last year with my dad, they're a lot of fun."
There's not a drop of awkwardness left by the time his dad texts him, and he's happy. He never wanted things to stay awkward between them.
"My dad's getting off early, so I'm probably going to start cooking dinner," Stiles tells Erica. "We can finish this up really fast, though."
"Oh, should I go?" Erica asks.
He thinks about it for a moment, before shaking his head. "Nah, you should stay and help. Can you cook?"
"Sort...of? I'm really good at cereal and at my house I'm the queen of the toaster and microwave, does that count?"
"Okay, you're on salad duty then." The amount of sodium in microwavable meals is atrocious, and Stiles doesn't allow them in the house anymore.
He texts Scott and tells him to pick up a loaf of garlic bread and to bring Allison, just because he wants for Erica to be okay with them too. There's no way that he can get in touch with Lydia without things getting weird, and he's not about to get Jackson involved, so he figures that's an issue for another day.
Erica's laughing at one of his stories when Scott and Allison get there, and while she raises her eyebrows she doesn't stop laughing, which Stiles counts as a win. "Need help with this?" Allison asks her, and Erica hands her a knife and half of the vegetables.
"Hey, thanks for the bread, I'll pay you back later," Stiles tells Scott.
"Are you making your ravioli?"
"Yeah."
"Marry me."
"You might not want to say that with your girlfriend so close, she'll kick my ass."
"She'll understand why I'll have to leave her eventually when she tastes it."
"Wow, try to keep it in your pants," Stiles laughs and punches Scott in the shoulder before putting the garlic bread in the oven.
By the time his dad gets home, pretty much everything is ready. He doesn't even seem phased that there are four teenagers at his house instead of the usual one. "Did you already make dinner?"
"Yep, enough pasta for five people. But eat your salad first."
"Allison and I made it ourselves, Sheriff," Erica points out, smiling in a way that will charm the pants off his dad. And hopefully make him eat his salad.
There's pointedly less grumbling than usual when the Sheriff makes his plate, which Stiles counts as a win. His dad starts telling stories about his early days on the force, ones that Scott and Stiles have heard a thousand times but the girls haven't, which makes the stories even funnier than they usually are.
Everyone finishes and Erica helps clear the table while Allison and Scott keep talking to his dad. "This was a lot of fun," she tells him.
"Life with the Stilinskis is always fun," he tells her, even though it's not necessarily true. She beams anyway, before going up to his room and getting her stuff so that he can take her home.
Allison corners him before she and Scott leave. "You know, if you and Erica ever want to hang out with me and Scott doing something fun, you guys totally should. It won't be weird like last night, promise."
"Well, Erica and I aren't really dating and I don't think that we'd want to be third and fourth wheels the whole time."
"Are you sure that you guys aren't dating?" Allison asks, and she looks adorably confused. It's a bit disconcerting.
"What? No. Why, did Erica say something?"
"No," Allison says slowly, watching him. "I guess I'm just surprised is all."
Before Stiles can ask her what she means by that Scott comes over and kisses her on the cheek. "Come on, I should get you home before your dad murders me."
"He wouldn't kill you on a school night," Allison tells him, before turning to Stiles again. "See you tomorrow, and thanks for inviting us. Tell Erica that I said bye and that I'll bring the stuff tomorrow. She'll know what I mean."
When Erica comes back down Stiles is still standing at the front door. "Allison and Scott said bye," he tells her. "And Allison said that she'll bring the ultra girly, no boys allowed clubhouse stuff tomorrow."
"Good. Can you take me home?" Erica asks.
"Sure."
He watches her go out to the driveway and wonders what Allison meant. Especially if Erica hadn't given her the wrong idea. But then he shakes his head and decides that it's not worth worrying about.
.
"You need to leave her alone," a voice next to his ear says the next day, causing Stiles to jump and almost drop his Economics book.
He turns to look and it's Isaac Lahey standing at the locker next to his, arms crossed over his chest, obviously trying to look intimidating. It might have worked if Isaac wasn't slouching.
"What?" Stiles asks, wondering what Isaac meant.
Isaac just looks at him before rolling his eyes. "Erica. You need to leave her alone. You keep leading her on, asking her to go bowling and study dates, but then you turn around and she's getting made fun of because she has epilepsy, which she can't help."
"Okay, you know what. That is definitely not my fault, and if you're feeling so high and mighty about it go talk to Jackson Whittemore yourself, because that was all him."
"I'm just saying..." Isaac trailed off, because the thought of him talking to Jackson was laughable. "She's got the worst crush in the world on you." Stiles couldn't imagine what his face was doing, because Isaac snorts and goes, "Yeah you Stiles. And you never even noticed her, just like you're not noticing her right now."
Isaac waves at someone over Stiles's shoulder, and it's Erica. "Hey, guys," she says, a question in her voice. She's looking at Isaac, eyebrows raised and mouth hard, but when she notices Stiles noticing this her face changes. "What's up?"
"Isaac here was just-" What? Warning me away from you? Making sure I don't hurt you? Telling me that you've had a crush on me just like I had a crush on Lydia and he was right, I never even noticed?
"I was just telling him to be careful, is all." He shrugs and moves off the locker to stand next to Erica, leaving Stiles to look at them both. As far as he knew, everyone had sort of assumed that Isaac and Erica had been a couple, but obviously that wasn't the truth.
"Oh, really?" Erica asks flatly, as though she had an idea of what Isaac had been telling Stiles. "Well that's nice. Isaac, can I talk to you, please? Now?" She tugs on the sleeve of Isaac's hoodie, pulling him after her. Stiles watches them go, and he can see Erica glaring at Isaac and telling him something harsh while Isaac just shrugs. Then they turn at a bend in the hallway and he can't see them anymore.
He finds Scott at lunch, picking at the three chicken fingers the cafeteria ladies had concocted with their blood, sweat, tears and some questionable chicken, and says, "Erica likes me."
Scott snorts, but when he sees Stiles looking at him he just shrugs. "Duh."
"How did you pick up on this before I did, honestly?"
"It's not hard to notice. Plus, Allison thinks so too."
Well that explains Allison's comments when he had them all over for dinner.
"Allison thinks what?" the girl in question asks, sliding next to her boyfriend. Lydia and Jackson and the rest of their court don't seem to be following her, which is nice considering the fact that Stiles really doesn't feel like having them come over here and grab the conversation out of his hands.
"Stiles is freaking out because he thinks that Erica likes him."
"I don't just think it, Isaac Lahey told me..."
"Well, if you guys aren't dating, you should be," Allison says, like that's that.
But how can Stiles explain that things aren't that easy? For Scott and Allison, there wasn't anyone else but the other person, they just saw each other and knew and it was all over, boom, hole in one.
But Stiles has Lydia, who he has liked since the third grade. You don't just get over something like that, no matter how much he's beginning to want to, because she started dating one of the biggest jerks in school and seems to honestly like him. Like, like him, like him. The way that Stiles likes Lydia and Erica evidently likes Stiles.
He also has to think of their friendship, even though that might be shot to hell anyway just because of Erica's feelings. He honestly likes talking to Erica, and hanging out with her, and he wants to tell her everything that pops into his head. It's not exactly the same as it is with Scott, but that's because she's a girl. Right? Right?
Stiles honestly doesn't know anymore.
.
Though his talents definitely lie in other places than on the lacrosse field, Stiles generally likes gym class. Finstock isn't as hard in gym as he is during practices and the athletic period, and it's mandatory for everyone for the first two years, so Scott's in his class too, which makes it better.
In the locker room Finstock tells everyone to shut up, and then informs them all that the girls are going to be joining them today, which causes a round of celebratory hand claps and fist bumps. Then he informs them why the girls are coming, which is rock climbing.
There's some groaning, but Stiles is pumped. This stuff is actually fun.
Lydia and Allison are in this class, which makes it more than nice. But then Stiles sees Erica too, in the back of the group, and he walks over to her. "Ready for this?" he asks her, and Erica just gives him a brittle smile.
"Nope," she tells him, sighing. "I hate gym. Coach Finstock is a weirdo." That makes him laugh, but he really can't deny it, so he doesn't try.
Allison and Scott go third, and they're obviously flirting all the way up. Even Finstock is rolling their eyes, but nods thoughtfully when Allison pushes Scott all the way down to the floor.
Erica looks positively green when Finstock calls her and Stiles up next, but Stiles just nudges her with his shoulder. "Come on, you've totally got this."
She just shakes her head, but puts herself in the harness anyway. Stiles just climbs, because it's better not to look down. When he's done Erica's not even half way up, and she looks like she's freaking out.
"Coach," Allison says, "she's epileptic."
"Why does no one tell me these things?" Coach grumbles, and he tells Erica to let go and come down.
Erica looks humiliated, and she totally ignores Stiles when he tries to tell her...something. He's not exactly sure what he wanted to tell her, but she's stalking off before he gets the chance.
.
Erica isn't in Study Hall, and no ones seems to know where she went. Stiles wonders if she was so embarrassed that she went home, but he decides to double check with Isaac anyway. Isaac's at the bike rack, where Scott's bike is missing, but he looks up when he sees Stiles. His face looks tight, mouth unhappy and downturn at the corners.
"Hey, is Erica okay?"
"No," Isaac says. "She went back to the rock wall after everyone left, and she had a seizure climbing the wall and fell off it. She broke her arm, but they're worried about brain damage because she hit her head pretty hard when she fell."
"Why am I just hearing about this now?" Stiles demands, because he can't imagine people keeping this quiet once they found out.
"The school doesn't want everyone to find out. Evidently the rock wall was an insurance liability."
"So how do you know?"
Isaac's frown gets more pronounced. "Because I'm the one that found her." Then he turns away and hops on his bike, like he can't get away from the school fast enough.
.
After hearing about Erica, the first place that Stiles goes is the hospital. Ms. McCall is at the nurse's station in the lobby, so he makes a beeline for her.
"Did a Erica Reyes come in today?" he asks her, making her look up from the paperwork she was reading.
"Yes." Ms. McCall narrows her eyes. "Why?"
"I just want to know if she's all right. I heard about what happened. Rock wall, fall, seizure."
She studies him for a few more seconds before lowering her voice and telling him everything. "She's okay, lucid now even though the paramedics said that it's likely that she blacked out for a few moments before the seizure. Her arm's broken, though, and she fractured a rib. The doctors want to keep her overnight to make sure everything's all right, but then she's going to be released. She should be fine. Now leave before I lose my job."
"Yeah, totally," he tells her, backing off and going to sit in one of the lobby's chairs. A few other people are there, but none of them seem to notice him. He wonders if he could get away with staying at the hospital all night, since it doesn't seem like Erica's going to be allowed visitors any time soon.
He wants to see her, though. Needs to.
.
In the end his dad makes the final decision for him, asking him to come home, so after three hours in the hospital waiting room he leaves.
"What's wrong?" the sheriff asks when Stiles gets home, dropping his backpack off in the living room and coming to the kitchen. He starts eating a slice of the pizza his dad obviously picked up when he realized Stiles wasn't going to be there, even though he's not particularly hungry.
"You remember Erica, the girl that came over the other night? She's in the hospital. She fell off the rock wall."
His dad winces, and Stiles realizes that he probably already knows. "Yeah we got a call about that today. I'm sorry, Stiles."
Stiles doesn't say anything, just pushes the unfinished slice of pizza away and goes up to his room. He decides to Google epilepsy, and spends the rest of the night reading about it.
.
When he finally wakes up at noon, Stiles texts Erica. Are you ok?
It takes thirty minutes before she finally responds. Yes.
You up to seeing visitors?
That one takes a while for her to answer too, and Stiles bites his fingernails and bounces his foot up and down, staring at the phone while he waits for her answer.
Yeah, mom's gone so you can come. Can't stay long tho.
Which, okay. Stiles can deal with that. His dad's gone to work by the time he finally comes downstairs, so Stiles just hops in the jeep and drive's to Erica's house. He's never actually been inside it, though he's taken Erica here plenty of times after working on the project and then to pick her up to go bowling, once.
He knocks on the door, hoping that he'll even be let in, and someone that he assumes is Erica's dad opens the door. He looks at Stiles for a long moment before saying, "She's in her room."
Erica's room is covered in posters. There are actors and actresses—Orlando Bloom and Chris Evans and Lily Collins, among others—but also pictures of models and fashionable things that Stiles would never be able to name, despite having an interest in what Lydia Martin, most fashionable girl at school, was wearing on a daily basis.
And that wasn't even covering the whole wall full of superheros and movie posters. She has the poster for The Dark Knight, but also for the Avengers. And she has pictures of Batman and Superman and Wonder Woman, and a few pictures that look like commissions of Stephanie Brown.
He takes it all in for a minute, since every inch of wall is covered and it's a little overwhelming, before noticing Erica sitting in her bed. She looks so small, like the cast is the biggest part of her.
She smiles when she seems him though, and it makes him angry.
How could she be so stupid? If it wouldn't hurt her anymore, Stiles would shake her. She probably wasn't even wearing a harness when she climbed by herself, and obviously the mat that had been place below her hadn't done jack squat to help protect her.
"Why?" he asks, suddenly wanting an explanation. He doesn't like looking at her like this, when she's overwhelmed with everything around her. "Why would you go in there by yourself? Did you want to die or something?"
"What? No. Jesus, Stiles. No I didn't want to die. I just..." Erica pauses, bites her lip. "I wanted to do it. Everyone else could, and stupid me, I freaked out. I wanted to prove that I'm strong too."
"Yeah, well, all you proved is that you're an idiot."
Erica's eyes harden. "Wow, are you really going to tell the sick and hurt girl that? Well thanks. I appreciate it."
They just stare at each other for a while, angry, before Stiles finally deflates. "Are you really okay?" he asks, sitting down on her bed with her. He wants to touch her—any part of her, her not broken arm, her leg, her shoulder—but he doesn't dare.
"Yeah," she says finally, reaching out to grab Stiles's hand like she knows what he's thinking. Her hand's warm under his, and solid. He's glad. "I'm fine."