A/N: I want to thank you guys who have been commenting and those of you who are following me. I'd love some more comments, but what I have is pretty good, too. This story is going to have to go on a mini-hiatus for a while. I'm moving this weekend and I wanted to post at least one more chapter before I'm without internet. I should be getting internet by next weekend at my new apartment, but it's still kinda up in the air. Anyway, comments are loved. This story has been a pretty new experience for me, so comments are good things.

Also, I really should warn that, even though it's not a big thing, there are mentions of abuse in this story, mostly past. In case physical abuse and scars from said abuse are triggers, then maybe you shouldn't read it.

Days passed, but they seemed to pass slowly. Whenever someone had to work, someone came over to babysit Lydia. Of course, that's not what they called it, but it was pretty much what Lydia called it. She couldn't leave the house without someone else present, and she couldn't even stay home by herself. By the third week, Lydia had major cabin fever. She needed to go out, but she wanted to go out alone. She was so tired of being watched 24/7.

Thankful that Stiles lived on the first floor, Lydia slid out the bedroom window. She jiggled her car keys between her fingers and drove herself downtown. She found herself in front of Minnie's diner, which, when Lydia was in high school, she wouldn't be caught dead in. It was one of Stiles' favorite places, mostly because of their milkshakes and bacon cheeseburgers. She sat down in a booth, ordering a piece of key lime pie and water.

"Ms. Martin," a voice said from in back of her. She saw Deucalion and Aiden approaching her, and she wanted to turn and run, but decided she wouldn't. Kristy wasn't here; she was safe back at Stiles' apartment with Isaac and Derek. If anybody could protect her baby, she knew it'd be Isaac and Derek. Especially Derek – who, in the last few weeks, had taken a liking to her daughter.

Finally, Deucalion and Aiden took a seat across from her as she sipped her water. When her pie arrived, she spent some time looking at it before taking the first bite.

"Where is your daughter, Ms. Martin?"

"Our daughter," Aiden corrected.

"She's not here with me," Lydia said, trying to keep a stone face. She tried to hide her emotions from them, but knew they'd be able to smell them anyway. "She's safe from you and your pack."

"Why, Ms. Martin," Deucalion said, folding his hands on the table in front of him, "Are you insinuating that we are going to hurt her?"

"I'm pretty sure you are," Lydia answered.

"She'd be better off with our pack, Lydia," Aiden said, but Lydia just rolled her eyes.

"I take care of her fine," Lydia answered.

"She needs an alpha."

"She's got one."

Deucalion watched Lydia closely, "Who? Scott?"

"Scott's the alpha here," Lydia answered. "Boyd and Erica have an alpha in Boston, too. Why do you want her so badly?"

"She has potential. She's unique. There aren't a whole lot more half and halves like her."

Lydia swallowed the last of her pie. She was going to spit out a response, but then she heard Deucalion say, "Derek Hale. Are you the bodyguard today?"

When Lydia looked up, Derek had a hard look on his face. Lydia knew she'd have it coming – a lecture, or something.

"Lydia's done talking to you, Deucalion. My alpha and my pack are going to make sure that you can't hurt the child." He grabbed Lydia by the arm and he led them out of there.

When they were finally outside, Lydia looked at Derek, "What are you doing here, anyway?"

"Funny," he said, practically pushing her in her car, "I could ask you the very same question. Stiles doesn't know you're missing, but Isaac and Scott noticed. You scared them."

Derek got in the driver's side, holding out his hand as to silently ask her for her keys. She obliged, dropping them in his hand.

Derek was silent the whole drive back to Stiles', but Lydia could swear that she felt his anger. When he led her into the apartment, Scott looked at her, his eyes flaring crimson.

"Look, Scott -" Lydia started, but Scott cut her off.

"We're here to protect you, Lydia. Why do you think there's someone around all the time? We don't want him to hurt you."

"It's not even like that!" Lydia found herself screaming. She was tired of this bullshit. "Deucalion doesn't even fucking want me! He's after Kristy. He was there, at that diner. He didn't hurt me. Do I look hurt? Do I smell hurt? Do I have the scent of blood anywhere on my person?!"

Scott's eyes flared again, and Stiles stood in front of him, "Look, Scotty, you need to calm down. Focus on your anchor, okay? Otherwise, this is going to get really violent really fast."

Scott took a few deep breaths before sighing and his eyes went back to his normal brown as he said, "Lydia, I don't want you hurt."

"And I'm not. He's after Kristy. He and Aiden, they were at that diner. He was trying to make a deal with me before Derek came along." She sighed, "What's up with that, anyway? Sending out a guard dog for me? I was fine. I was going to walk out of there unscathed."

"A dog joke? Really?" Derek muttered, but Lydia just looked at him.

"You know Deucalion," Scott said, temporarily changing the subject. "Don't you remember the bullshit he inflicted on this town when he was here? He kidnapped Boyd and Erica for Christ sake!"

"I was completely safe. I felt no danger there. Look, Scott, I know you want to protect your pack and everything, but I'm not pack, and haven't been in a very long time."

Isaac, Stiles, Derek, and even Allison had gathered to see the showdown between the alpha and banshee. Finally, Stiles said, "Is that what you think? That you're no longer pack?"

"I stopped being pack when I left. I don't expect to be treated like you guys. I left. I'm grateful that you're helping us, but you don't have to. Why do you even care?"

"Because you are pack, Lydia," Scott said softly. "You never stopped being pack. Not to us."

Lydia didn't know what to say, if anything, so she just sighed and walked off to her room, closing the door behind her.

-x-

Even after the confrontation between Scott and Lydia, most of the pack hung around Stiles' apartment after Lydia walked off. Derek was in the middle of playing with Kristy – building a castle with her, out of blocks, which seemed to be causing more problems than solving them – when Stiles snuck off to see Lydia.

He opened the door and slid inside silently. Lydia was lying on the bed on her stomach, face mushed into a pillow. He wasn't sure if she was sleeping or not, but took a seat in the rocking chair across from the bed anyway. After a few moments of silence, Lydia groaned.

"What do you want, Stiles?" She asked, her face still mushed into the pillow. It came out as a distorted mumble, but Stiles still understood what she said.

"Just to talk, Lyds. We were all really worried about you. Why'd you sneak off like that?"

Sighing, Lydia rolled over so she was lying on her back and watched Stiles for a long minute. She paused, shoving another pillow under her head before folding her hands together on her stomach. Finally, she said, "I can't take it. All the babysitting. It's been three weeks since I got here, and I haven't had a moment to myself since. I would really like to just be by myself sometimes."

"You would like to?"

"Yes!" Lydia exclaimed, sitting up. She pulled her knees towards her chest and looped her arms around them, "I'm used to being alone, Stiles. Other than Erica and Boyd, nobody has cared about being around me in a very long time. It was really difficult at first, to be alone with just my thoughts and Kristy, but I like it now. It's kind of my sanctuary."

When Stiles came over to sit beside Lydia on the bed, she flinched away. He saw how she reacted, how she looked afraid of him. He sighed, regaining the distance that had been between them. "What are you not telling me?" he said finally.

Lydia sat back up, running a hand through her hair, "Look, Stiles I just can't handle being around everybody all the time. You guys are my friends, my family, but I've changed a lot in the past five years. So have you."

"Lyds, before you left, we were friends. We figured things out for the pack and we were pretty damn great at it, if I do say so myself. What has changed?"

Lydia sighed, "If I show you something right now, will you promise it won't go further than this room? That you won't tell anyone, not even Scott?"

Stiles nodded, "Of course."

She pulled her shirt off, a lot like she had done that first night, but her hair was now up instead of down. And without her hair in the way, Stiles saw them. Most of her body was all scars, and a lot of them looked like claws. Stiles always figured that Aiden would get off on hurting others, but he had never imagined that he would do it to Lydia. Without really thinking about it, Stiles absentmindedly traced one of the scars on her back with his finger, and Lydia jerked away.

She pulled her shirt back on, "I don't want anyone to know. The scars I got from Peter are lower, mostly on my side. These scars, however, are from Aiden. He gets off on the pain factor. He liked a lot of pain to go with his sex. The only reason I got pregnant in the first place is because we fucked on a full moon – a stupid idea, honestly, because that really made the wolf take over – and I landed in the hospital for a few days. They were afraid I was going to bleed out."

"Lyds, I don't know what to say," Stiles said honestly.

"Then don't say anything," Lydia said. "I can deal with silence. I can't, however, deal with the looks of pity that I get whenever someone sees my scars. I've stopped wearing things that show off my body. Luckily, you can't really see them through the tank tops I wear, but I'll never forget the look on the nurses' faces when I was in the hospital. I don't want to be pitied."

She sat back down on the bed, "I'm alone most of the time, Stiles, because I like it that way. I know I'm safe. And yes, I know how to defend myself – I took quite a few self-defense classes in Boston, and Erica taught me quite a few things, too – but being alone means that nobody can hurt you. The only reason I let Erica and Boyd in to begin with is because they don't pity me. They know what happened with this whole supernatural shitstorm, and they are there for me anyway. Erica doesn't shy away from me if she gets pissed, she tells me what she's thinking. We've had quite a few shouting matches with her living next door and everything, but I need to make sure that nobody can hurt me. I don't want anyone to shy away from me because of the shit I've been through."

"I bet she had quite a few words for you when you and Aiden were hooking up," Stiles said. Lydia snorted.

"You have no idea."

"So, stop me if this is insensitive, because you know how I can get," Stiles started, "but do you have these scars anywhere else?"

Lydia's eyes darted around the room before she said, very softly, "Yeah. The reason you probably didn't seem them before is because you weren't looking."

"Jesus Christ, Lydia," Stiles said exasperatedly. "You've got them everywhere, don't you?"

"He got off on pain. Even if someone else was inflicting the pain onto him, he liked it. He just let his wolf take over though – in bed and out – and he's not the person that he was when the alpha pack was here, Stiles. He may have been a little bit ruthless then, but he's totally different now. He's totally unhinged. When Ethan asked me about him when I first came here, I didn't want to tell him – that would have been a lot of shit to take in, but Aiden is practically Deucalion now. Not to mention that Aiden's his second."

"Out of everybody, Deucalion chose that bastard as his second in command?"

Lydia rolled her eyes, "Aiden's changed. He may have had a little conscience when he was here, around his brother, but now…" her voice trailed off. "Now, he's evil. There is no stopping him. Honestly, I'm a little surprised he hasn't tried to overthrow Deucalion. They're not like a villain on his henchman. They're more like a villain. You know, two halves to one whole."

Silence had overcome the both of them, Stiles just sitting there, in the rocking chair, rocking slightly, as Lydia sat on the bed, her head lost in thought, before Stiles spoke up again, "We have to tell the pack, Lyds. They have to know. They think they're just dealing with the Aiden of six years ago. They'll have no fucking idea what to do if they think he's one way but turns out to be another. They have to know."

Other than letting out a sigh, Lydia was silent. Stiles could tell from just looking at her that, even though she was thinking it over, she really didn't want to tell anyone. So he changed the subject, "Lyds, what made you come to me? To us?"

That was a subject that Lydia would gladly talk about. She hated talking about the abuse, but this, this was safe. Looking at him, she said, "Erica. In the past five years, I've grown distrustful of werewolves. The only good ones I know, back in Boston, are Erica, Boyd, and their alpha. They've been good to me, looking after Kristy. But Aiden and Deucalion…they make me lose trust in the whole species. I've managed to subsequently mask Kristy's scent with Boyd and Erica's, since the four of us are around each other so much. From what I hear, there is no Boyd's scent, or Erica's scent. Aiden used to tell me that. It's just BoydandErica. But now, it's BoydEricaandKristy. It's like, it's hard to decipher which is which. But, since Kristy is half banshee, her scent is going to change, and we could only mask her scent for so long. Erica's been telling me that for months. But, after Erica smelled Deucalion's scent in the apartment building, that was it. She told me she was done."

Lydia took a moment and chewed on her thoughts before adding, "I came to you, Stiles, because you're human and I trust you. Even though you're human, and even though you don't have werewolf strength or any of that shit, and even after all these years, I know I'm safe with you."