Chapter 5

Season 5A

Lydia was slow to get back to her car after another long day of school. Normally, she would be happy that nothing supernatural was happening and that her and her friends could live a normal life, but this time, she almost wished there was another crisis to distract herself. Ever since Kira left and Theo had rescued Liam and Hayden, the pack had splintered off onto their own.

Liam and Hayden stuck close together, as did Corey and Mason. She noticed that the two Chimeras were avoiding everyone like the plague, not that she could blame him. The stress of their situation had gotten to Scott and he hadn't acted in the best way possible. Mason still occasionally talked to them but Liam had obviously sided with Hayden, every time the two of them saw Scott, the distrust was evident in their eyes/

Stiles and Malia were also distant, with the pack and each other. There were days where the two of them barely said two words to each other. Stiles busied himself accompanying her on her searches to find the Nemeton, while Malia…well, did whatever it was she was doing. She knew that something was the matter with them, she didn't need a supernatural sense of smell to notice the guilt rolling off the them in waves, but ultimately decided that they would talk when they were ready to.

When she really thought about it, the only ones who still talked with Scott were herself and Theo. They both seemed to understand that the pressures of trying and failing to save everyone had eventually broke through his armor and didn't blame him for his actions, even if they didn't agree with them. She was initially suspicious of Theo's loyalty, especially with Scott's continued reluctance to let him join the pack, but the other wolf stayed true and kept searching for signs of any other Chimeras, which truly surprised her. She herself, kept busy by trying to find the Nemeton every day after school, hoping it would somehow help them find out how to stop the Dread Doctors and possibly why Parrish as taking the bodies.

Morale was at an all-time low, causing her to wonder if they truly could save anyone. She hadn't felt this hopeless since she failed to find Stiles when he was sleepwalking or when she thought she was going crazy and finding dead bodies. Back then, she at least had Scott to convince her that it wasn't all for nothing, but this time, it seemed that he felt as hopeless as she did, especially since his asthma had somehow returned with a vengeance. Still, she trekked on and searched every day after school to find the Nemeton.

"I'm going to talk to Parrish." The tone of her voice left no room for argument as she turned and walked away from Stiles back to the car. The sound of hurried steps behind her told her that he wasn't far behind.

"Lydia, please listen to me for just one second," he hurriedly said as he moved in front of her, "If Parrish is the one taking the bodies, then he's dangerous okay, very. He took out an entire squad of officers without being seen, and we're not even sure what he is, so tell me how taking him to the place where he's taking the bodies is in any way helpful?

"We have to try something! We've been walking around the woods blindly for days. What if another Chimera shows up? We need to find out why he's doing what he's doing."

"Lydia, for the love of god-" but before he could say any more, she pushed past him forcefully, intent on ignoring the rest of his argument. She heard him huff, before she heard a resigning sigh. "Alright, alright. If I can't convince you not to go, can you at least get someone to go along with you?"

"You mean like Scott?"

"No, no, no, no, not Scott."

"Why not?"

She saw him freeze up and open his mouth as if to disagree, but the words never came out and eventually he just nodded his head, as the two of them headed back to her car. Once she dropped Stiles back off at the High School so he could get his car, she headed straight to Scott's house. When she made it to his front door and rang the doorbell, a relieved Melissa answered the door.

"Oh, thank God!"

"What is it? Is something wrong?"

"Scott's been a little out of it lately, and I can't seem to talk him out of it. I've been trying to get a hold of Stiles but he hasn't been returning my calls." That was definitely strange, why was Stiles actively trying to avoid Scott. The two of them were practically bound at the hip and now it seemed Stiles was doing everything in his power to stay away from him. She returned to the present at the hopeful look on Melissa's face. "Do you think you could try and talk some sense into him?"

With a nod, she was let in the door and she made her way up to Scott's room. When she entered his room, she found him sitting near the edges of his bed, staring intently out the window. Feeling curious, she too directed her gaze outward and was met by the sight of the near full moon. She idly wondered if recent events had shaken his control over himself; she had wondered before what the dangers were of a werewolf becoming their own anchor. She shook the thought from her mind, this was Scott, he would always pull through in the end.

"You know, it's going to be a Super Moon in a few nights. Do you know what that means?"

"I assumed that it means that it will increase the effect it has on you."

"Yeah. I just hope that we can get through another moon without another body."

The mention of bodies brought her back to the reason she was here. She had only agreed with Stiles to get him off of her back, but figured that she could at least ask and if Scott ask if she wanted him there, she would kindly let him down easy.

"Stiles and I haven't had any luck finding the Nemeton, so I'm going to go talk to Parrish."

"Do you want me to go with?"

"Honestly, I think Stiles is overreacting. As long as another body doesn't show up, I should be fine."

That brought a brief smile to Scott's face, a small laugh escaping his throat. "Well, if there was anyone who didn't need me help, it would be you." As soon as the words left his lips, so did his smile. The haunted, almost pained look returned, catching Lydia's complete attention.

"Scott?"

He didn't answer her for several minutes, before he turned his incredibly lost eyes towards her. "I can't help but feel like I'm losing everyone. Stiles won't talk to me, I can tell that Malia is keeping something from the rest of us, Hayden and Corey don't want my help, my girlfriend's left, and to top it all off, the Super Moon is coming and Liam is still struggling to keep control, but he won't talk to me."

As the words poured from his mouth, he began to hyperventilate. He had worried and worked himself into such a frenzy that he was having a panic attack, which coupled with his returned asthma, wasn't a good thing.

"Scott," she tried, but Scott seemed unable to hear her, as his breathing continued to get more labored. "Scott!" he finally looked up and met her eyes as he began wheezing. "Take deep breaths. You need to slow your breathing."

"I-I…can't!"

"Where's your inhaler?" she began frantically looking around the room, but at first glance, said object was nowhere to be found.

"I…I h-haven't gotten a new one y-yet. I thought it w-would g-go away by now!" He was working himself up even further, making her worried that if he couldn't get his breathing under control soon, not even his increased healing could save him.

She recalled a similar scene nearly one-year prior, where their mutual best friend was suffering through the same thing, and though she knew it was a terrible idea, no other answer came to her panic-stricken mind. Taking an ironic deep breath, she gave him a remorseful look for a second, before she closed the distance between them and kissed him.

Scott's eyes widened in a way that she would've found comical if they weren't in the current situation. She slowly felt the tension leave his body and finally after a few seconds, she pulled away. The silence was awkward for a few minutes, so Lydia decided that she would be the one to break it.

"Sorry about that. I didn't know what to do and it worked for Stiles so-"

Before she could get the rest of her sentence out, Scott had pulled her back in and panted his lips onto her. For a few seconds, she allowed the kiss to happen, her body unconsciously returning it, before she abruptly pulled away. For a second, Scott looked confused before he realized what he had done and visibly recoiled further onto the bed, as if afraid that their proximity would make it happen again.

"Oh, my god. Lydia I'm so sorry."

"It's okay Scott," she began, and though she honestly believed it, her words were more to prevent another panic attack than anything else. "I get it. Kira left and the Super Moon is messing with your brain. I shouldn't have kissed you, but I couldn't think of anything else to do."

"Still, I shouldn't have done that. I mean… I have a girlfriend."

"Scott", she said firmly, cutting off his rambling, "it's fine. Remember, I did the same thing for Stiles and it didn't ruin our friendship."

Scott still didn't seem convinced, as his eyes trained once again to the moon outside. Lydia was about to try and comfort him, but Scott beat her to it.

"Maybe it is best that I don't go with you to talk to Parrish."

"Scott-"

"It's fine Lydia. Just…text me if you find anything out."

Feeling dejected at the clear dismissal, she reluctantly turned and exited the room. As she did she heard, "I can't help anyone", come from the room, Scott obviously not realizing that she could hear him. Fighting back the need to go back and comfort him, she headed back to her car. As she began to pull out of his driveway, she couldn't shake the feeling that maybe she had done more harm than good by going to talk to Scott. For the first time, in what felt like an eternity, Lydia felt as though things were actually starting to look hopeless.

AN

This was another hard chapter to write. I knew that I wanted to show how dark of a place Scott was at by having him kiss Lydia, but it was difficult to try and nail down a situation that showed off the hopelessness that he's feeling, while at the same time not being too OOC. Still, many people will probably find a fault with my reasoning, but when you think about it, he feels as though his pack is drifting apart, his girlfriend has left for the foreseeable future, and then Lydia shows up and appears to be the only one of his friends hat truly cares about him, I feel even Scott would break in that situation and try to latch onto whatever comfort he could find. I also like the parallel that I created between the 1st chapter and this one.

I also like the idea that Scott managed to find temporary comfort with Lydia, but instead of having this chapter end on a more uplifting note, I decided to keep it in line with how 5A was at the time.