For six nights straight Lydia was showing up at his window around the same time every night. After a few nights, he grew to expect the girl to show up with a mascara stained face and was already waiting with the window wide open for her to crawl through. He had mentioned her behavior to Scott, but the alpha didn't seem too concerned about it all. Scott thought it was nightmares right off the bat. He struggled with the thought all day, consulting the pack along with Deaton, but no one could come up with a viable answer. The only one left truly concerned was Stiles. Maybe Scott was right and there was nothing to worry about.

However, that line of thinking vanished on the twelfth night.

When Lydia showed up, Stiles pulled her inside and they went through their normal routine. He didn't question her anymore. There was a comfortable silence as they crawled into bed, an unspoken connection that begged both of them not to talk. Tonight Lydia's tears didn't seem to stop, making the boy eventually throw his arm over her waist and pulling her close, trying to soothe her. The nightmares must've been getting worse, but he'd never know because she refused to talk about them. Every morning when she'd slip out of his room unnoticed and showed up at school, it was as if she was an entirely different person. She was always back to herself, looking around with a glimmer in her eyes and a makeup filled face that fooled everyone into thinking that she was entirely well rested and okay when she was everything but.

As Stiles drew her closer, shushing the whimpers that escaped from her throat, he noticed something wet. At first, his sleep deprived mind thought she could've been caught in the rain, but then the realization hit him that Beacon Hills hadn't had rain in months from the California drought. As he lifted his arm up slowly, his skin stuck to the substance, making an alarm go off in his brain. "Lydia," he says slowly, "are you bleeding?" The girl stops her crying as he gently pulls her up off the bed and lets out a sharp breath. How didn't neither of them noticed until now? He rushed her to the bathroom as quickly as possible and flipped on the lights. As his eyes adjusted, he saw what was truly going on beneath Lydia's clothes. There were large tears in the girls blue dress revealing scratch marks on her body. Some of the blood had dried, but some of the marks were still bleeding profusely. "What the hell happened to you?" He asks, frantically grabbing a towel from the closet and leading her to sit down on the counter. The girl didn't reply. She didn't have a single answer for him. "We need to get you out of that dress and bandage those, okay? Can you do that for me?" Lydia nodded, not caring what Stiles saw at this point. She was too tired to care and her eyelids were growing heavier by the minute. When Stiles ran back to his room, Lydia slipped out of her dress and eyed herself in the mirror. What she saw were jagged gashes going across her stomach, leading onto her back and a few on her thighs. Did she do this on accident in the woods or was there something else behind it? The thought slipped away from her mind as she grew too lightheaded to stand and leaned up against the counter, waiting for Stiles to return.

Once he got back to the bathroom with spare clothes, his heart began to race. Lydia was almost passed out on the ground, her face completely pale as her eyes were refusing to shut. He looked down at the wounds, finally seeing that they were horribly deep as blood dripped from her hips and onto the floor. "Oh my God," he remarked, dropping the clothes to the ground, "we need to get you to the hospital right now. C'mon." Stiles threw her arm over his shoulder as he lead her out the door. Becoming aware that she was half undressed, he wrapped her in a blanket as soon as they made it down the stairs. "Stay with me, Lydia. We'll be there soon." Stiles wasn't so sure he believed his own words as he grabbed his keys and headed towards the door. Her body was becoming limp, falling against his with all of her weight. "Lydia, stay awake. We need to get you into the car. Can you do that for me?" Lydias eyes fluttered open momentarily, making note that she was still somewhat with him.

Once they were on the empty roads, speeding towards the hospital, Stiles called Scott. Every few seconds, his eyes would flicker over at Lydia, making sure that she was still breathing. "Scott? You need to get to the hospital right now." There wasn't time for a decent hello or an explanation as to why he needed to rush there in such a hurry, but Scott listened and quickly ran to be by his friends side.

By the time Scott arrived, the Jeep was pulling up to the emergency room door. "Stiles, what the hell is happening?" He asked as soon as he hopped out of the Jeep and ran to the passenger door.

"Lydia."

One simple name got Scott's attention and he ran to check her out, immediately growing concerned and protective as he saw her slumped over in the passengers seat. "Lydia!" Scott yelled, pulling her up and out of the car. He held her tight, sprinting towards the door while she lied limp in his arms. "We need a doctor! Right now!" Scott screamed as soon as they got to the nurses station and Stiles quickly followed suit, looking like he was ready to start screaming or crying due to the situation.

Melissa quickly turned around noticing her sons voice the second it hit her ears. The woman ran, noticing the redhead in his arms and looking at the teenage boys with disappointment and fear. "We need a gurney!" Melissa yelled, making the staff run off and find the correct equipment for the girl. "What happened to her?" Melissa asked, checking her pulse to make sure she was even still with them. If she hadn't done so, she would've thought the resident banshee was dead in her sons arms.

"I don't know," Stiles said, "she came to me like this. I don't know- I don't."

Melissa's face softened as she placed a hand on Stiles' shoulder, nodding at him. "It's alright, we'll figure it out."

Scott cradles the girl tighter as he notices the rest of the nurses rushing towards the group. "Mom, you have to stay with her. I don't think this was an accident."

Melissa knew exactly what he meant by those words and nodded solemnly before helping him place Lydia's body on the gurney and rushing her off into the hospital.

x-x-x

The two boys were completely shaken up, pacing the emergency room lobby as they waited to hear any news about Lydia. Stiles' head was swarming with questions, wondering how he missed the blood the second she climbed through the window and wondering if it was too late. But he couldn't think that way, no matter what. He was not going to lose Lydia; she had been through so much worse already and there was no way she couldn't survive this.

Scott, on the other hand, switched right into alpha mode. He wanted to protect his banshee, to keep her safe from any harm. He knew that she was in good hands, but his stomach was tied in knots as they waited to hear back from Melissa. The second Scott thought of calling his mother, she raced out of the room, heading towards the boys who already had her full attention. "Mom? Is the okay? She's going to be okay, right?" Scott asked frantically.

Melissa nodded, placing a hand on her son's shoulder for comfort as she looked towards Stiles with eyes full of assurance that she was okay. "You're lucky you got her here as soon as you did," she tells the freckled boy honestly as he chewed on his nails. "She's going to be okay. Drugged for a couple of days, sure, but she is going to be just fine. I can assure you that." As both of the teenagers let out a deep sigh of relief, Melissa scrambled to pull something out of her pocket and motioned for both of them to come closer to her. "I did find this dug into her back, though." The woman held up what looked to be a claw, one that was long and hideous, making the boys exchanged confused glances.

"What the hell is that?" Stiles asked, looking over at his best friend with furrowed brows.

"I have no idea." Scott shrugged. Neither of them had seen anything like that before in their lives. But then again, just when they thought they had defeated the bad guys in town, another one always popped up. "I'll call Deaton," Scott nods.

"And I'll check on Lydia." Stiles says as he heads past Melissa who promptly grabs him by the arm and shakes her head. "Or maybe I'll just sit outside her door until she wakes up." With that suggestion, Melissa let go, giving him a quick nod before he headed down the hallway.