A/N: Hello! I would like to first start out by apologizing like crazy for the long break between chapters. I did not abandon any of my stories, it's just that with school, I started getting blocked. It wasn't until tonight that I was able to find inspiration for all of my fics. Also, thank you to all the people that followed, favorited, and reviewed while I was away. It's kind of surprising to see because I wasn't sure anyone would enjoy this story to begin with.

So, as always, please follow, favorite, and review. It keeps me a happy 'lil writer.

"I got a fear in my blood.
She was carried up into the clouds, high above.
If you bled, I bleed the same.
If you're scared, I'm on my way.
Did you run away, did you run away?
I don't need to know.
If you ran away, if you ran away,
come back home.
Just come home."

-"Where's My Love" by SYML

x-x-x

Two days later, Lydia was let out of the hospital. Deaton had called his people about the claw, but they hadn't heard a word from him since. In effort to help her out, the pack decided against telling Lydia about what they found. It was for her own safety, even though she'd go off on them for it later.

Stiles hadn't taken his eyes off of Lydia since the incident. As the days dragged on, he made sure to be by her side as often as he possibly could. If she stayed at her house during the night, he sat in a chair beside her bed to make sure she wouldn't wander off. If she stayed with him, he also made sure that nothing bad would harm a single hair on her head. It was obvious that he had become physically exhausted, but he couldn't help it. The girl he loved since the third grade was viciously attacked on his watch. Or at least that's how he thought of it. If anything else happened to her - if any stupid creature would lay a nasty finger on her - then they'd have to come through him first.

Right before third period, Stiles got an urgent text from Allison. He didn't even read the entire thing before he broke out into a sprint to the parking lot. He wasn't risking anything. Not this time, not ever again.

Once he reached the pack, he hunched over out of breath and tried to ask what was going on, but it came out in a lot of breathiness instead. It took a minute for him to lift his head up, but when he finally did, he saw Lydia lying in the backseat of Allison's car. "What happened?" he asked with pure concern taking over his face. His heart started pounding as soon as he saw her. It was so bad that Scott and Isaac were about to tell him to calm down since that was one of the only things that they could hear.

"She almost passed out during trig," Allison explained. "She got hot and was unable to breathe for a second. Scott had his inhaler and she tried it, but it wasn't working." She was holding Lydia's hand while telling the whole story to Stiles. Her thumb was lightly stroking the back of the redheads hand as she gave her a look of sympathy. Allison was scared for the safety of her best friend, as was everyone else, but if she lost Lydia, she'd have to be locked up in Eichen for all of the crazy things that would pursue.

"Whatever it is, I could be an after effect from the claw," Scott started thinking out loud, but didn't realize what he said until Lydia shot up from her position.

The girl saw her vision go black and her body tingled all over as her head became extremely heavy, but she needed to know what Scott was talking about, even if it meant she passed out afterwards. "Claw?" She asked with wide eyes. "What claw?"

Isaac placed a hand on the alphas shoulder, signaling that he'd take over from there. "The doctors found a claw wedged into you after you were attacked," he explained slowly, wanting to back out of the awkward explanation before he was midway through his sentence. "We don't know what it is yet, but we took it to Deaton immediately. We're still waiting for him to call back."

With that, Lydia nodded her head and slowly laid back down. "Stiles?" She asked with a strained voice.

"Yeah, yeah?" He said, quickly pushing the two boys out of his way and to the car door. "Do you need something?"

"Can you take me home? Allison has a test next period that she can't miss."

The brunette laughed, "I can definitely skip it and make it up tomorrow."

Lydia shook her head, thinking that everyone's education was far more important than her health.

"I'll take you home," he promised her. "Help me move her to the Jeep," he told Scott, whom politely stepped in.

Once she was in the leaned back passenger seat, Scott took Stiles by the shoulder and pulled him towards him. "Keep an eye on her." He raised his eyebrows so Stiles would know that it was serious. "We can't lose her and we can't lose you either. Stay with her, okay?"

Stiles smiled, "I was already planning on it."

x-x-x

As soon as Stiles pulled up to Lydia's house, he carefully dragged her out of the seat and placed her on her unbalanced feet. "Do you have your key?"

Lydia very subtly nodded as she handed him her purse. "My dad always told me not to go through a ladies purse," he told her as he tried to hand it back. "At least not until you're a few blocks away," he laughed. "Just kidding. He's a cop. He could never say that."

Lydia was too much in her own daze to make a sarcastic comment about his poor joke and Stiles saw that and instead took her bag and rummaged through it to find her keys. "Let's get you to bed," he said as soon as he opened the door and waited for her to walk through.

"I don't think I can make it," Lydia said as her eyelids started to close, they were too heavy for the girl to keep open.

Stiles bit down on his bottom lip and scooped her up in his arms and headed upstairs to the girls bedroom. He was able to open her door without causing any damage to the girl and for that, he thought he should've earned a medal. As he was placing her down on her bed, he looked around the room and realized that after a few years, it still gave him the feeling that he got the first time he walked in when he was a sophomore. He had been there a few nights throughout the week, but he never realized that his breath hitched in his throat once he came through the door. Everything in the room was just so Lydia. It screamed Lydia and the scent was intoxicating to Stiles' senses. It was a bit too pink and purple for his liking, but he got over it immediately. It wasn't like he was going to argue with the girl about the color of her walls. It was too Lydia to even think about doing.

"Lay down with me," she demanded him. It wasn't supposed to sound like that, but Lydia was too sleepy for her own good and patted the spot next to her while pulling the blankets over her shoulders.

This wasn't the first time that she wanted him to sleep in the same bed either, but he hadn't done that at her house. It was Lydia Martin's room and everything about it was great, but now she wanted him next to her in her bed that smelt of strawberries and vanilla. Of course he wouldn't pass up the chance and gave in immediately. He wasn't surprised that the pillow he was using smelled exactly like her shampoo. He was surprised, however, when she flipped over and nestled her head against his shoulder and placed a hand on his chest. "Goodnight, Lydia," he said even though it was still morning.

"Goodnight," she smiled and drifted off to sleep right after the word escaped her mouth.

He wanted to move out of bed to do some research, but instead he realized just how tired he was and yawned. Sleeping next to Lydia was one of more comforting things in his life and he wasn't about to ruin either of their naps.