Reader Trivia: What's your favorite Stydia moment/scene/sequence/episode? And why?
Part Three
"You guys can't be serious," Isaac whispered crudely towards the detectives, they were walking side by side in front of him.
Lydia twirled back just to say, "Don't worry."
"Easy for you to say. You only have to see death eat me, I have to live it!" His whisper yells were echoing down the hall.
Scott slapped Isaac's shoulder, "Stop it. We're doing this. End of story."
"I just hope this guy doesn't remember me," Stiles mumbled in the front, stopping outside a door.
Eichen House was rather quiet on that midsummer's night; the pack being the only ones walking around either. It was a few days after the smoothie get-together slash pow wow and the detectives had taken the honors of creating the plan for the night. Lydia had insisted on bringing more backup but their Alpha wouldn't have it. He didn't want to stress more people out, this might not even result in much.
Lydia knocked lightly on the office door.
"Who in the hell-" Brunski stopped his sentence once he caught sight of who was in his doorway, "The Sheriff's kid? This should be good.."
Several minutes and a bucket load of cash later, the group headed for Meredith's room. Or as Stiles said, her 'cell'. Lydia felt the tension rolling off of the young human as they walked down endless corridors and spiral staircases. Finally Brunski unlocked a barred door and moved out-of-the-way.
"Fifteen minutes."
Lydia took the lead, gently walking into the small room. There was one bed and one side table. Brunski had explained how she was in critical lock down and away from others after she tried killing herself a few weeks before. This information only made Lydia more determined. Stiles was hot on her heals.
"Lydia," Meredith's facial expression showed her excitement, even the way her hands slightly moved up from her lap did, but her voice was a low and groggy whisper. She sat on the edge of her bed, near the pillow and side table. Lydia noticed there were on windows and only a singular light bulb dangling from the ceiling.
The younger Banshee sent her a smile, "Meredith, I've brought someone here I'd like you to look at."
"I'm no doctor."
"You're a Banshee."
"Like you."
Lydia sent her a softer, more genuine smile, realizing their understanding, "Can you?"
"Yes."
Lydia nodded to towards the door, "Thank you Meredith... and I'm sorry."
Her words caught the boys off guard. Scott stiffened, his spot in the corner becoming more defensive, and Stiles looked down at her like he'd never seen her before.
Isaac hesitantly walked into the small space.
Curly hair tightened even more and her eyes darkened with feverish understanding. Meredith's hand's clasped together and her finger nails turned purple. Her palms were sweating and so was her forehead. It now creased while her eyebrows moved closer together. Her pale, almost translucent, skin started a slow decent to a deeper color. Crooked teeth chattered against each other and her dry lips were in a hard line. The Werewolves could hear it and might have even thought they could hear her uncontrollable blinking. It was abundantly clear that Meredith was trying her hardest not to scream, not to make any noise at all.
The voices didn't only speak to Meredith. They branched out to Lydia, too. Even though they didn't affect her as much, now that she had seen Isaac a few times, the words were still jumbled and rushed. Speaking in tongues.
"Meredith," Stiles was the one to speak.
The girl's eyes flashed to his silhouette and seemed to lighten at the change in content.
"I understand," Meredith's hands parted and she quickly disposed of the under her thighs.
Lydia knelt before her, causing Stiles to move closer and tower, "You understand what?"
"You don't?"
"No.."
"Didn't you hear them?"
"I did the first time."
Meredith's eyes flickered over Isaac once more, "Then what do you understand?"
"I understand that he's in life-shattering danger."
"No. Yes."
Meredith shook her thoughts around with her head.
"Why is it that way, then?" Lydia was practically resting her head on the other Banshee's lap. There were only a few inches between chin and knee.
The inmate's right eye twitched, "Danger; yes. Life-shattering; to be determined."
"But you're Banshee's. Death is what you do," Stiles threw his frustrations around with his hands.
Lydia rolled her eyes, "Stilenski."
"Lydia," Meredith didn't bother to acknowledge the human, "What do you see when you look at him?"
"Death."
"No. What do you see? With your eyes."
"Death."
"It's never that simple, Lydia."
"Dark."
"Black," Meredith added.
"Dust."
Meredith nodded her head in pure encouragement, "What's it doing, Lydia?"
"Moving."
"No. Specifically; what is it doing?"
"Growing. Engulfing."
"Why do you say that, Lydia?"
Stiles shuffled behind her and the Banshee's remembered they weren't alone, "I guess that's just the feeling."
"Look again."
And she did, she saw the same thing she always did.
"Yeah?" Lydia was growing tired of the mind games. She wanted Meredith to just spit it out already.
"What are you really looking at, Lydia?" Meredith eyed the other girl while she focused on the Beta.
Lydia took in a ragged breath, "Isaac."
"Be more precise, Lydia."
"A Werewolf. A Beta. A Teenager."
"A bit more."
Lydia began shaking her head in defeat, though with a second glance she slowly stopped. Her mouth hung open and wouldn't seem to shut.
"That's it. Look beyond the dust, the supernatural, the human. What's left?" Meredith edged her on.
"Desire."
Meredith nodded her head in satisfaction and pulled her hands up to clutch the bed.
"Pain."
Isaac stirred uncomfortably against he door frame, he had hardly come into the room at all. Scott moved closer to the girls, completely oblivious to anything but them. Stiles put his hands on Lydia's shoulders and breathed deep.
"Care."
The invested Beta rubbed the back of his neck, looking between all four inhabitants of the room and hoping they understood what the Banshee's were saying.
"We have a winner," Meredith's voice should have grown an octave and her face should have returned to its natural color. That is, if that statement wasn't just a way to end the conversation and get the Beta out of there.
Stiles moaned, "And what the hell does that mean?"
"Bro, stop pushing them. They figured it out. That's all we need right now," Scott softly hit Stiles' shoulder and headed for the door. Isaac practically ran out.
Stiles was about to argue when Lydia stood up. He now was pressed up against her backside and was extremely worried about his little buddy. Even though the situation was stressful, he was still a guy. And an inexperienced guy, at that. Lydia left the spot as quickly as she came, feeling determined and completely oblivious to Stiles.
"Thank you," Meredith muttered, Stiles and Lydia were closing the door when they heard her. She was crawling under the covers and physically trembling.
Lydia winked at her, "Thank you."
Stiles led Lydia out of the room and down the hall.
When they all were outside again, the fresh air tasted a bit lighter. Scott was leaning against the hood of Stiles' jeep and Isaac was already buckled in the back. Lydia chuckled at something no one else understood, or heard, and Stiles started twirling his keys around. He felt accomplished and thought this little fiasco was almost over; he could see the finish line already. Only twenty minutes and one bathroom break later, when Lydia finally spoke to the boys, Stiles' good attitude vanished.
"He most likely won't die."
"What?" Isaac was thoroughly upset by the fake-out. His entire body turned sideways in the seat to stare at Lydia. Stiles watched through the rearview mirror.
Lydia sighed heavily, "You're more like a bringer of death. The dust I see around you isn't trying to consume you. You're manifesting it. With your soul, I think."
"Desire, Pain, Care." Stiles repeated.
She nodded her head, "That's what your soul is basically shouting. I'm not sure exactly why it's strong enough to do what it's doing to Meredith but I do know that this won't happen every time I see someone before they are due to die.."
"Well isn't that just a relief. Case-closed guys, let's head on home," Isaac was bitter.
Scott interrupted, "What else, Lydia?"
"He's like a death, or almost death, omen. Whenever he's around other's, it will always mean trouble. Danger."
Stiles knit his eyebrows together, "Like wha-"
It was a few hours before any of them woke up, Scott being the first. He felt scrutinizing pain in his neck and as his hand reached it, a giant shard of glass came into his peripheral vision. It was stuck in his shoulder. He yelped as his Alpha strength pulled and threw it out the window. Scott looked left and saw an unconscious but definitely breathing Stiles rested against the radio. He leaned the human back and unbuckled him. Through the rearview mirror, Scott saw Isaac starting to move with a subtle wince. Lydia was not in her seat. Examining the damage to Stiles' jeep and the tree in front of them, Scott wondered when they had swerved off-road. But as he looked past a now lucid Isaac, he saw a small pick-up truck slammed into the jeep. Shaking his head, he felt his neck start to heal.
The Beta woke to an agonizing pain in his stomach region. A piece of wood was lodged in it and he tossed it to the floor. Isaac squinted for a good minute before the backs of his hands cleared his vision up. He then saw his Alpha holding on to the ceiling with his claws and heard him kicking the door. The windshield was only shattered on the Alpha's side and when Isaac went to check on Lydia, who should have gotten hit with that glass as well, he couldn't find her. There was only a tiny blood stain where her head must have been against the window. Her seatbelt was cut in half with what Isaac guessed were scissors. Scott was now standing outside the jeep and pulling Stiles' limp body over the center console only to be laid on the damp grass.
Scott could hear his neck stitching itself back up and it made him want to vomit, "Isaac?"
The Beta tore his seatbelt at the top and crawled out of Lydia's door, "Where is she? Where's Lydia?"
"I don't know," The way Scott's voice softened, Isaac knew he shouldn't stress him even more.
"I'm going to call Chris," Isaac searched his pockets until he found his phone. He hit the speed dial and was about to reply to Chris's tired hello when the wolves heard a death-defying scream. He dropped the phone into the dewy night.
The older wolf pulled him toward Stiles, "Stay here. Wait."
Isaac nodded, already seeing the Alpha eyes coming out.
Scott jogged around the back of the vehicles, only to come to a halt in the middle of the road. Each foot on either side of the yellow line, mimicking the man his gaze was boring into. Scott stepped forward, but this only made the man hear him and turn around. He had Lydia by the throat, facing out, with his hand and his other one was digging in his coat pocket.
There was a thick gash on her hairline that made a line of blood trickle over her right eye and down her cheek. Lydia's mascara was running, her usual lightly bounced curls were tattered and flat. Her bright orange, spaghetti-strap romper was covered by lairs of dirt, bark and blood. Lydia's eyes grew increasingly more terrified when the man kidnapping her held his hand up in the light, trying to see if he grabbed the correct weapon.
The man pushed his hood back and Brunski admired his poison device.
"Scott McCall, how did I know you would be one?" Brunski edged the needle towards Lydia's neck and she squealed, "Maybe it was that minor tingling at the pit of my gut when you walked in."
"Brunski?" Scott moved closer, "What the hell are you doing?"
"Cutting some loose ends." ϟ