Scott couldn't find his mother anywhere when he arrived at the hospital so he grabbed the nearest nurse.
"Do you know where Melissa McCall is?" he demanded.
"She's currently with a patient." The nurse eyed his bloody clothes. "Do you need help?"
"I need my mother." Scott replied, making the nurse look even more confused. "You said she was with a patient. Is it Stiles Stilinski? Can you tell me what room they are in?"
"I'm sorry sir, but Stiles isn't allowed any visitors at the moment. If you would like to wait-"
"I don't want to wait anymore!" Scott finally burst. "I want to see my best friend. If you don't tell me what room he's in right now I swear to god I'll-"
"Scott!" The sound of his mother's voice startled Scott out of his rage and he turned immediately towards her. "What the hell do you think you're doing?" Melissa eyed him angrily and turned her focus to the nurse that Scott was just yelling at. "I'm so sorry Mary, my son had a really rough night last night. I'll handle him."
Mary looked suspiciously at Scott one last time before turning on her heels and walking in the other direction.
"Mom, you have to let me see Stiles." Scott pleaded as soon as Mary was out of earshot. "I'm desperate."
Melissa's stern face melted at the sight of her broken son. She looked around to make sure nobody saw them before leading Scott to the room that was holding his friend's lifeless body.
Melissa stopped outside of the room. "Now Scott, this might be a bit shocking to see." she tried to warn him, but Scott didn't waste a second before shoving the door open to get to his friend. He immediately wished he hadn't.
Stiles looked worse than when they brought him in, if that's even possible. The blood was washed away, but in place of it were dark bruises littering what seemed like his entire body. He looked especially pale and fragile laying amidst a mountain of wires. Scott thought he looked more like a science experiment than a human.
The werewolf slowly walked over to his best friend and slumped down in the chair next to him. Melissa put her hand on his shoulder. "I'll give you two some time. I'm going to wait for the others. We will give his brain a little time to heal, but tomorrow we'll perform some tests to check his brain function. It's not over yet, sweetie." She kissed his forehead and walked out, leaving the two brothers all alone.
"Hey buddy." Scott whispered, quickly examining the extent of Stiles's injuries. "I'm right here, Stiles. I'm never going to leave you again."
Scott's eyes wandered to the machine that was breathing for Stiles and they began brimming with tears. "I'm so sorry. This is all my fault. I should've been there to protect you. I should have known something like this would happen." His voice broke. "You have to wake up. I'm not giving you a choice here."
Scott stared at Stiles's face, trying to memorize every bit of it. He could easily remember the sound of his voice and the warmth of his laughter, but Scott worried that if he didn't wake up soon, those memories would fade.
After a while Scott began dozing off, resting his head on the bed next to Stiles's hand. Melissa and the Sheriff walked in on the two boys together and decided not to disturb the moment. Stilinski walked over and kissed both boys on the head before ducking out to wait with the others. Melissa quickly followed after taking some stats and making sure Stiles's machines were all doing their jobs.
When Scott woke up the next morning, Stiles's room was crawling with doctors.
"Scott? Sweetie? I need you to leave for a little while, okay? We have some doctors here to test Stiles's brain and respiratory function but I'll call you back in when we are finished." Scott nodded to his mother and stood up, stretching out his neck painfully.
Most of the pack was in the waiting room when Scott got there, except for Derek.
"He'll be back." Lydia explained, noticing Scott looking around for the missing member. "We all went home in turns throughout the night to get cleaned up and take a nap, and it's currently Derek's turn." She scrunched up her nose as Scott got closer. "I would suggest that you do the same, but I think I already know what your answer would be."
"I'm not leaving until Stiles does." Scott stated firmly
"That might be difficult to do son." Stilinski came over and patted Scott affectionately on the shoulder before wrapping him in a bear-like hug. "Thank you for caring so much about my son." He whispered. "You two boys are closer than any two people I have ever seen. But Scott, if the news from these tests is not good, I need you to go home and get cleaned up and sleep in your own bed. One of my sons might never come back to me, so I need to make sure my other son takes care of himself."
Scott pulled away from the Sheriff with tears in his eyes. "I promise I will go home if you do."
The Sheriff smiled. "Deal."
"Oh, I wanted to ask you, what did you say to all of the officers to get them to help you? You didn't tell them about werewolves, did you?"
Stilinski chuckled, "No, of course not. I told them that my son was attacked by a group of mental patients who believed that they were a pack of werewolves and that we had to go along with their delusions in order to get them back to Eichen House." He shrugged. "They all seemed to buy it."
Scott smiled at the man that he considered a father and the two of them sat next to Lydia in the waiting room chairs that had become so familiar to them over the past few days.
Lydia reached over and grabbed both boys' hands. "He's going to be okay." She said with determination. "He has to be okay."