Stiles crashed through the hospital doors in a gurney, an oxygen mask over his face as he came groggily to. His throat was tight and his left arm felt like it was on fire. He saw blurry faces passing over him. He lay on his back and tried to focus on something as his vision became clearer.

Derek and Scott walked with the doctors as they headed into a ward room after having diagnosed him with an infection from the scratch. They said that it was making his throat swell and stopping him from breathing properly. They put on the oxygen mask to see if it was enough but they were sending him to a private ward in case they needed to intubate.

Melissa McCall was with them and helped them lift Stiles off the gurney and onto the bed in the ward. They had cleaned up his wounds, flushing them out in case of more infection and stitching them up before setting his badly broken wrist. Derek almost tore down doors to get into the rooms with him and to find out what was happening. The sheriff was on his way but so far it was only the pack there with him.

All but one of them.

Allison and Lydia had stayed at the car when the others flocked to Jackson's howl. Their eyes were teary as they stood around his bed, still in shock. Derek held tightly to Stiles' good hand, his veins turning black as he tried to take away some of his pain.

The doctors left Melissa to finish up the exam while they tried to find a way to treat him.

"Stiles… Stiles I need you to nod if you can hear me." She said, pinching his shoulders.

He nodded and everyone in the room let out a collective sigh.

He pulled his hand away from Derek, who almost didn't let him, and pulled the mask away from his face.

"You need to keep that on Stiles." Melissa said, trying to pull it back on.

He shook his head and wheezed a few painful breaths. "…Erica…" He said.

"I know, we'll find her but we need you to-" Scott said before Stiles shook his head, his voice rasping.

"…Find… her… I promised… phone… GPS…" He said before he was almost completely out of breath.

Derek lifted the mask to his face and quietly shushed him, stroking the side of his face. "I'll get you a pen, you can write it down." He said softly.

He nodded and Derek looked up. For a second everyone just stared at him before Melissa got the hint and grabbed her clipboard, ripping off a corner of paper for him to use.

His hands were weak and his eyes were still blurry but he took the pen and began to write down everything that he couldn't say.

His writing was scrawled but they could still make it out.

Over stream, she has my phone, track her down, promised I would go back.

Derek read the note and nodded. "We will find her." He said, hurting just as much that she was in pain and alone but overwhelmed with worry for Stiles.

"I'll go, I just need someone to show me how to track your phone." Boyd offered.

"I'll come with you." Jackson said.

"What about that thing? It's still out there remember." Isaac said.

"It's injured, maybe badly." Scott replied.

"Hopefully dead." Derek muttered.

They all shook their heads but didn't argue with that. She was far more dangerous than they had anticipated and now two of the pack members lives hung in the balance.

"… maybe… Erica…" Stiles wheezed.

They all looked at him and Derek sighed. "You don't know how to track the phone." He said.

"I might know how to track the signal." Lydia said. They all looked over at her and she shrugged. "What? I used to be lab partners with Danny."

"Go, now, but I don't want her going out there." Derek said.

"Trust me, she's not going anywhere." Jackson said, taking her hand protectively.

As they headed out of the room they almost collided with the sheriff. "Where is he, where's my son?!" he shoved past Boyd and into the room, pausing to look down at his frail teenage boy. "What the hell happened?!" He growled after a moment of shock.

Stiles let go of Derek's hand and he moved aside to let his father sit beside him. He pushed past Derek and grabbed his son's hand tightly. He was clearly distraught and Melissa walked over to his side and put her hand on his shoulder.

"It's going to be okay." She said without conviction.

"What the hell happened here? What did you do?" He snapped at Derek, releasing Stiles hand and brushing Melissa off to grab Derek by the shirt and slam him against the wall.

Derek didn't protest but the rest of the people in the room flinched and looked from one to another.

"Sheriff please!" Melissa said, trying to pull him back gently.

"… dad…" Stiles wheezed, the oxygen mask once again around his neck.

Derek didn't meet his eyes and the sheriff let him go with a rough glare to sit by his son again.

"… camping… got attacked…" He said and began coughing very hoarsely.

He tried to cough out 'not Derek's fault' but his face was turning red and his father forced the mask back on. He tried to say something else about Erica but his father hushed him, stroking his forehead and looking like he was about to crack.

"We were out camping and this… creature just sort of came at us." Scott lied.

"One of our other friends was attacked and Stiles managed to get her somewhere safe, but he was attacked too and now she's missing, Erica that is." Isaac said, much less of a lie than Scott's tale.

"And where were you during all this?" The sheriff turned to Derek who just looked away, willing to let him put the blame on him for what happened.

"He was concussed, I just cleared him so that he didn't have to stay the night… but I expect that he will anyway." Melissa said, knowing that this was more than just a camping trip gone wrong.

The sheriff looked suspicious but coming from Melissa he was more likely to believe their story. Scott gave his mom a grateful look and she just nodded with a smile.

"Sorry Derek." The sheriff grumbled, rubbing his eyes with his free hand and sighing as he stared down at Stiles struggling to breathe.

"Don't be. You can blame me, I do." He said, collapsing in the chair by the opposite wall.

"It's not your fault Derek." Allison said, knowing that it probably meant nothing coming from her but still, she tried.

He just nodded, staring blankly ahead.

"How about we go out into the hall so I can explain all of this to you?" Melissa said to the Sheriff lightly.

Stiles gave him a weak smile and he sighed, placing a kiss on his forehead before standing to go outside with her.

Scott puffed out and ran a hand through his hair. Isaac put a hand on his shoulder to calm him down but it wasn't working. Allison sat beside Stiles and tried to give him a smile to relax him but she didn't look hopeful. He smiled anyway, knowing that it would make her feel like she was helping. When he looked down at his arm he saw an IV sitting in the inside of his elbow, just above his casting.

His whole hand was on fire still and it was making him sweat but everything was getting fuzzy again.

"Let him sleep." Scott said, Allison just nodded and kissed Stiles' hand as she stood up and let him drift off to sleep.

The painkillers were working slowly and he had enough morphine in him to send him off quietly for the night. It was only a few minutes before he was out.

Derek sighed, his ears trained on the sound of Stiles' heartbeat, slow and steady.

"I told Deaton to come in the morning, I know it's urgent but we'll never get him past the sheriff. I mean how would we explain why my boss is here to see him?" Scott said.

"It'll be hard enough getting him in here tomorrow." Isaac said.

"He'll be out there looking for whoever or whatever did this in the morning. We'll have time or we'll make it." Derek said firmly from the other side of the room. "You should all go and get some sleep."

"I'm not leaving." Scott said.

"We don't want to go Derek; we're still waiting to hear about Erica." Isaac said.

"Then go and stay with Deaton and try and figure out what is going on here. That's where they'll take Erica when they find her." Derek said stiffly.

"If they find her." Allison said softly, her worried eyes looking down at Stiles as he slept, his breath being exhaled in slow rasping pants.

They all let out a collective sigh and Isaac nodded a little. "We'll go and talk to Deaton. I'll text you if I hear anything. Come on Allison, no doubt your dad will have heard about this by now, or he will do soon."

"That won't be pretty for you guys if he has." She said but got up to go with him anyway.

Scott stayed behind. There was no way he was leaving his best friend now, not after everything they had been through.

The sheriff came back into the room once he had finished talking to Melissa. He sat by Stiles' bedside and stroked his hair and began to look very tired. A few times he was called by his deputies and probably some higher-ups. He told them he would start the investigation in the morning and he would not let them take him off the case. He was determined to find out what happened to his son.

He made Derek and Scott give him a statement, to which they both gave as little supernatural detail as they could while trying to be sincere. He almost didn't believe them when they said they thought there might have been a woman there orchestrating it. They left out the part where she was the creature that attacked them but said that it was very likely the same thing that had attacked Isaac two weeks ago.

He was determined to talk to Isaac but he would do that again in the morning. He had already talked to Isaac when he had woken up in hospital but now there was some new information and they would have to get a second statement. Scott felt sorry for the police in Beacon Hills, there were probably so many case files left open due to supernatural events. He was sure there was a file, or probably a whole box, labelled 'animal attacks'. The town was somewhat notorious.

He ended up managing a few hours of sleep between the early hours of the morning and dawn but not enough to get rid of the bags beneath his eyes and the weary look on his face.

He had always hated hospitals, ever since his wife had practically lived in one until her death he has never been able to stand them. Stiles lying in the bed with an oxygen mask was a reminder of that time and he was determined not to let his son befall the same fate as his wife. He needed to live a good, long life, and he wouldn't be able to deal with a life without his only son.

It would kill him too.

Melissa had been on the night shift and wasn't set to leave until midday. At around seven she came in with a large coffee and gently stirred the sheriff, who had fallen asleep laying with his arms and head on the side of the bed. She gave him a few pats on the back and he woke with a start, looking around almost hoping that this would have all been a dream and that he had just fallen asleep at his desk again.

The look on his face when he saw Stiles in the bed and then Melissa standing over him said it all. He grunted a little before rubbing his eyes and standing up, taking the coffee with a slight nod of his head. He sighed and looked over at the two chairs against the wall to see Scott and Derek fast asleep, heads lolling to the side and both gently snoring.

"Have they been here all night?" He said, stretching his neck out.

She nodded. "I tried to get them to go home but they refused. Derek won't leave him and Scott is so stubborn… I didn't think you'd mind."

"No, I don't mind. He should have someone here while I'm at work."

"Are you sure you're up to it?"

"I need to find out who did this to my son. If you see Isaac Lahey, would you tell him that I need to speak with him?"

She put a reassuring hand on his shoulder and smiled. "Sure."

"They've been scouring the woods all night for their friend… Erica, they haven't found anything yet." He rubbed his eyes and sighed again. "I'm heading out there now."

"I think you'll find a few extra teenagers out there, especially now that the sun's up." She gave him another smile and he chuckled slightly.

"Yeah, I'll bet there is. Thanks for the coffee."

They exchanged parting glances before he kissed Stiles' forehead and headed out. Melissa walked over to Scott and smacked him on the arm. He woke suddenly with wide eyes and shook his head.

"Mom? What… what is it?" He said, looking over at Stiles to see him slowly stirring.

"His dad is going out to help in the search for Erica, the police have been out through the night."

He reached into his pocket for his phone but he had no messages or missed calls. "Have they found her?"

Melissa rolled her eyes. "What did I just say?"

"Right, sorry, is there any change?" He said, looking back at Stiles.

She shook her head. "He's still having trouble breathing but he seems stable. Really there's no change from last night."

"I think Deaton is coming down soon to check him out. Can you uh…"

"I'll put the charts through when he gets here and you should have an hour after that before they'll come in to check again."

Scott sighed. "Thanks mom."

She smiled. "I'm going to take a sample of his blood to test it in the labs. I know the other doctors already have but they won't tell you anything that they find out so I'll do it myself. Just call me when Deaton gets here so I can do the exam."

Scott nodded and Melissa hugged him tightly. Stiles' injured state had given her new motives to hug her son whenever he was within her grasp and Scott didn't care, right now he was happy to give his mother public displays of affection.

She headed off to check on the rest of her patients and Scott stretched out. It wasn't long before Stiles' heavy eyes had lifted and he blinked slowly awake.

"Hey buddy." Scott said.

Stiles let out a few hoarse breaths and Derek was awake in almost an instant. He sat up and rubbed his eyes before walking straight over to Stiles' bedside. Stiles pulled down the mask and smiled up at him before puckering his lips. Derek rolled his eyes and laid a soft kiss on his lips before pulling his mask back on and planting a kiss on his brow.

"… so… paranoid…" He wheezed.

"I'm going to call Isaac, I think he's coming back with Deaton soon." Scott said.

"… Erica…" Stiles said.

Scott shook his head. "I'll ask but… nothing yet."

"We'll find her." Derek whispered, his heart hurting for her.

He was missing something from his pack and it was tearing him apart not to be out there looking for her but it would just kill him to be away from Stiles while he was in pain. His hand rested on Stiles' chest, his veins turning slowly black as he siphoned away some of his discomfort.

Stiles shook his head at Derek but he refused to move his hand. Scott walked out into the hall with the phone to his ear as he rang Isaac.

On the third ring he picked up. "Hey Scott."

"Hey, are you with Deaton? Have you heard from the others?" Scott said quickly.

"Uh, yeah, I'm at the clinic with Deaton, we're waiting for you to give us the green light. Is the sheriff gone?"

"Yeah he just left, have you got Erica?"

He heard Isaac sigh through the receiver. "No, they followed the scent but couldn't find her and Lydia couldn't track Stiles' phone. The scent ended when that creature got in the way and the whole place reeks of it. Jackson said it was like they were lost out there. I think they've joined the police search."

"You should get over here in about an hour, my mom will make sure the doctors stay out of the way."

"I'll tell Deaton, I think Lydia is going to come with us. She hates just sitting around you know?"

"I know, trust me, I know. Send me a text when you're on your way."

"How are you doing Scott?" Isaac asked.

"Uh… I'm okay I guess, just worried." Scott said, shuffling his feet.

"You know I'm here if you need me right?" He said softly.

"Yeah, yeah I know." He said before they both hung up.

When he walked back into Stiles' room he was trying to take off the mask and Derek was insisting that he didn't.

"What's going on?" Scott asked.

"He doesn't know when to shut up." Derek said, smiling down at Stiles with a shake of his head.

"You know he won't stop until you let him." Scott said.

Derek sighed and let Stiles pull away the mask. "…map… draw… a map." He said.

Scott and Derek looked at one another. "I'll get some paper. Is that what you want? To show us where she is?"

Stiles nodded and Scott started searching the room for a pen and paper. When he finally found some he brought it over and Stiles began to draw the things he could remember. The rock overhang, he circled that, and the stream running towards the rocks. Then he wrote the words 'find the stream' and underlined them.

"We're trying Stiles but they say it's like going in blind out there."

"… try… harder…" Stiles said. "…promised…"

"We know, they'll try harder." Derek said.

Scott was about to protest but seeing the exhausted look on Stiles' face and how hard Derek was trying to keep him happy he decided against it. Instead, he took a picture of his diagram and sent it to Boyd and Jackson.

It wasn't too long before Isaac sent a message to Scott saying that they were on their way and Melissa dropped the charts into the nursing station, buying them some time. She had been checking on things herself and had some information for the boys. She waited for Deaton to arrive before she headed in.

He headed up to the room with Lydia and Isaac by his side. Lydia gave Scott a warm hug and kissed Stiles on the cheek, bringing some colour to his pale cheeks.

Derek stood up and moved aside for the first time that morning to let Deaton get a better look. He pulled out his stethoscope and gave Stiles a beaming smile.

"You look a little less chipper this morning Stiles." He joked, causing Stiles to chuckle painfully before starting a rough throaty cough.

Deaton listened to his chest as the heaving continued and Derek's worried eyes betrayed what he was feeling inside.

"Scott…" Melissa hissed.

He turned around and she motioned for him to follow. He tapped Isaac on the elbow and he followed him out into the hall with Melissa.

"What's going on mom?" He asked.

"I looked at his blood-work and I've seen it before, in three other patients… and Isaac too. All of them showing the same symptoms as Stiles." She said.

"Were they the same as him when they came in?" Isaac said, folding his arms.

She shook her head. "Comatose."

Deaton listened to Stiles' heart and lungs with a furrowed brow. He was beginning to show similar signs to Isaac when he had been attacked but he had advanced much faster. Stiles was still in the early stages.

"Was he bitten at all?" Deaton asked.

"Not that we know of." Derek said.

"He was scratched, all down his arm." Lydia said.

Stiles lifted his casted arm and smiled. Derek shook his head as Deaton inspected the tips of the stitched up wounds. He looked perplexed.

"Very strange… from what I heard all of this comes from her kiss of death. It's the fangs that hold the poison. Perhaps we're missing something." He scratched his forehead and Lydia exchanged a look with Derek.

If Deaton didn't know what was happening then they were in deeper water than they had thought.

"Wait, I don't get it, how can he be progressing slower than the rest of them?" Isaac said.

"I don't know, I have to find the outpatient files of the other victims before I can figure out how long the infection lasted. They're giving him the same antibiotics but it doesn't make sense." Melissa said.

"Maybe Deaton will figure something more out, you could tell him what you know." Scott said.

"I can try but I'll find out about the others first. Maybe the police talked to them when they woke up, they talked to you so they must have figured out that these cases are linked." She said, looking at Isaac.

"How can he be getting this slower? I got it at the same rate as the others right?" She nodded. "I'm a werewolf and he's a human, I assume the rest of the people were humans too. What are we missing here?"

"I don't know." She said.

"Unless…" Deaton said, even deeper in thought.

"What? We'll take anything you've got right about now." Derek said.

"No, I don't understand it."

Stiles swallowed hard, not getting the answers that he was hoping for. A lump formed in his gut as he worried about what could possibly happen.

"You'll need to let me get back to the clinic and make some calls. There has to be something more here, something I'm missing." Deaton said.

"Make it fast." Derek growled warningly and Lydia gulped.

"Derek I assure you, I will not leave you unanswered." He said sternly.

Derek responded with a nod and Deaton insisted on leaving right away. As he left the room Melissa called to him.

"Dr Deaton!" She said, pushing past Scott and Isaac to meet him.

"Mrs McCall, how are you?" He said.

"Peachy, can I talk to you? I think I have some information that could help you." She said.

"Of course, perhaps you could walk me to my car." She smiled and nodded as they headed off.

Derek looked even more dejected than before and Lydia was in the process of texting Jackson when Scott and Isaac came back into the room.

"I take it he had nothing new to say." Isaac said with a sigh.

"…I'm a… medical mystery." Stiles grinned and Derek shook his head, wishing that for once Stiles would be serious about something.

The day passed slowly, with nothing to be answered until the late hours of the afternoon when Scott's phone began to ring frantically.

"Hello?" He said.

"We've got her. We've got Erica." Boyd's voice rang out through the phone and the entire group let out a sigh.

They were being forced to bring her to the hospital because they had been found in the midst of all the police but according to Jackson she was still conscious, just very weak. A call to Deaton cleared up the reason. She was a woman, and women were far less susceptible to the kiss of death than men. Her werewolf healing powers didn't go astray either.

The poison from her fangs had caused her to seize, her body rejecting the poison and trying to expel it. The doctors seemed relieved to have another conscious patient with a similar infection. It gave them hope that their antibiotics would work.

Erica was taken to a room on the same floor as Stiles but across the ward. Derek even let himself part from Stiles for a few minutes to check on her, the knot in his stomach loosening a little at the return of one of his pack members.

In her drowsy, drugged state she continued to request to see Stiles but they wouldn't allow it, two people with the same infection were dangerous for one another. The doctors had no idea that this wasn't something they could make worse through their contact, just that it was transmitted through the blood.

It was late evening, when everything seemed to be looking better than it had done, that it all began to crumble.

The sheriff was in the hall talking to one of Stiles' doctors, Isaac was napping in one of the chairs, Derek was holding Stiles' hand and trying to take his pain away, and the others were across the ward visiting Erica.

Stiles felt his body pulsating with warmth from Derek's soothing touch but something was wrong. Each new breath felt more and more constricted, his pale face began to flush with pink.

Derek noticed that something was wrong and his eyes searched his face. "Stiles?" He muttered.

Stiles realised that he was barely sucking any air down, even with the oxygen mask over his face. He let go of Derek's hand and held it to his throat, wheezing loudly as he started to panic. He looked up at Derek with fear in his watery eyes and Derek turned to the door.

"Help! Can we get a doctor in here!" He yelled.

The sheriff and the doctor looked in through the window and both ran for the doors, barging in and causing Isaac to wake up.

"What's happening?" He said frantically.

Derek caressed Stiles' face, trying to calm him but he wouldn't. He tried to speak, tried to get the words out but he could barely breathe let alone talk. Derek shushed him, stroking his face and nodding to him.

"Stiles… Stiles… Stiles… shh… shh… I know, I know…" He said softly.

"I need an intubation tray in here now!" The doctor yelled out to the nurses.

"I know…" Derek whispered. "I love you too." He said before kissing his blue lips and tearing himself away to let the doctors take over.

Tears spilled down his cheeks before his body tensed and he started to seize violently. They doctors turned him on his side and the sheriff ran his hands through his already thinning hair as his own tears fell.

Derek's whole body shook and Isaac put a hand on his shoulder, both of their hearts pumping furiously. The other pack members had all raced to the door after hearing the shouting and Lydia was shaking her head with tears streaming down her rosy cheeks while Scott's face was like a wounded puppy as he watched his best friend stop seizing. The doctors tilted back his head to thrust a large tube down his throat and hook it up to a ventilator as he slipped into an unconscious state.

Derek was breathing heavily, his own eyes glassy as the doctor finished his work and turned to the sheriff who was hysterical.

"What's happening? What's happening to my son?!" He cried.

"He's lost consciousness, his throat was closing up so we've given him a tube to breathe through. He won't be able to breathe without it at this stage." He said.

"Can't you do something? There has to be something more!" The sheriff said.

"All we can do now is amp up his antibiotics and hope for the best. We can only see how he is in the morning. I'm sorry, but this is the only option at this stage." The doctor headed out to get some more medication for his IV and Lydia walked over to give the sheriff a well needed hug.

Derek sank into one of the chairs with his head in his hands and Isaac sat beside him, a hand on his shoulder to try and comfort him. He had no such luck.

The sheriff fell asleep again that night in the same place as the night before. Derek, Scott and Isaac set up camp in the chairs opposite him, Derek never once leaving his vigilant post. The rest of them had found space in the waiting room downstairs or in Erica's room.

Under the chair handles Scott's fingers found Isaac's and they gripped together tightly. They both needed someone to consolidate with, and found that they were calmer with the other's touch.

It was nearing midnight and Scott was asleep, hand still held in Isaac's, and Isaac was almost drifting off. Derek was still staring hard at Stiles, almost as if it would help him to wake up.

His eye contact only broke when he heard a familiar voice at the door.

"Didn't I tell you that a trigger is only cause for trouble?"

Derek stood and growled at the figure in the doorway.

"Is that any way to greet your favourite uncle? Especially when he might have a way to help you." Peter held up his claws and raised his eyebrows as he stared down at Isaac.

Derek realised what he had in mind and right now he was desperate to try anything.