Chapter 2

As soon as she gets in her car with the boy, Lydia puts her phone on speaker so she can talk to Scott while driving. The alpha answers at the third ring, extremely excited to see that the banshee is calling him so soon. He knew she didn't want to face everyone right away but hell, he'll try and make it happen. Stiles didn't have such a great summer either and Scott knows this thing between them will need a solution and fast or it'll blow in their faces. "Hey, Lydia." He tries to take advantage of the fact that he is with his best friend to see how they'll both react. "Wait, let me put you on speaker."

"No, Scott. Don't!" she asks to no avail. Lydia can already hear other voices more clearly and no, not just in her head.

"Oh, come on Lydia. Everyone is excited to hear from you." Emphasis on the word everyone.

She can hear the smile in his voice but this is not the time. "McCall, off speaker, now."

Before Lydia can help it, Stuart speaks, looking at her with a stunned expression. "McCall? Scott McCall? I know him."

Lydia still whispers a No, trying to get the boy next to her to not say anything else, but Scott, of course, heard and it wasn't just him. "Lydia?" he asks, inquisitive.

Almost at the same time, Stiles speaks too. "Who's that?"

Lydia's breath catches in her throat when she hears him. It's been too long. She is sure Stiles recognized the voice the same way Stuart did. Stuart looks at her and whispers "Is that…"

Lydia nods. "Scott, off speaker, right now!"

She hears muffled noises and assumes the Alpha is doing as he is told. In the meantime, she asks Stuart to keep quiet. When Scott finally says something again – after having to distance himself from Stiles who's actively trying to listen in -, he sounds concerned. "Lydia, what's going on?"

"Where are you?"

"The loft. Why?"

"Who's with you?"

"Only Derek and Stiles, but Isaac and Allison should be arriving any minute now. Why?"

Stuart shifts on his seat and he must have recognized someone else's name but as he promised to Lydia, he keeps his mouth shut. "Something happened. I'll be there in five but I'll need you downstairs before I go in. I'm taking someone with me."

"Who?"

"I'm not sure how to tell you. It'll be easier if you see for yourself, I think. But Stiles can't come with you."

Scott has to once again step away from his best friend, who heard the banshee say his name. "Lydia…"

"This is not about Stiles and I, Scott, but it is about him. Five minutes, downstairs. Maybe bring Allison with you. Someone needs to make sure Stiles doesn't come down."

"Then we're doing it the other way around and I'll leave Allison with him. There's no way he'll be alone with Derek and Isaac."

"Alright, fine. In the meantime, call everyone."

"Everyone?" His tone is a little panicked.

"Oh god, Scott, yes. What did I just tell you?" She's growing exasperated, edgy. The thought of seeing the actual Stiles so soon is not working so well for her. She smiles apologetic at Stuart, who remains quiet.

Scott gets worried. "Lydia, is this something supern-"

"Scott!" she interrupts him. If Stuart picked up on what Scott was going to say, he doesn't show it. "Just… Do as I told you. I'll be right there."

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Stuart remains in silence for the rest of the short trip. He has to be freaking out, Lydia thinks. A girl he's never met before picked him up and is taking him to see a lot of people who, according to her, will be interested to find out about him. If it were Lydia, she had probably thrown herself out of the car by now.

"So, Lydia."

"Mm?"

"Your name. Lydia. You hadn't told me that yet."

"Oh, right. Sorry." She starts slowing down her speed. "I'm really sorry about all this," she says, smiling sadly. If what the boy told her is true, this is not his city and he doesn't know how or why he got here. She parks outside Derek's building, far away enough for Stiles, who's probably at the window, not to see who's in the car.

He seems to get what she meant and smiles back, shrugging his shoulders. "It's okay. I don't know what I'm doing either so…"

"Could you please wait for me in the car? I'd like to have a word with them before they see you." Lydia really hopes this is not a scam of some sort. She just got to drive her car back and she wouldn't want it to be stolen. Still, like Stuart, she feels like she can trust him.

"Yeah, I guess." He bites his lower lip nervously. "Just please don't take too long. This whole situation is making me anxious and I have panic attacks sometimes. I wouldn't want you to come back to your car to find a dead body."

Lydia chuckles. That sounded like Stiles and she misses it. Misses him. "I won't. It'll be quick, I promise." She'd noticed the boy had had his phone on his hand the entire trip, always tapping his fingers on the screen and that is something that's not so much like Stiles. She asks the question not only out of curiosity but also because Stuart being here can be a good, bad or neutral situation and she's not sure which one just yet. The more she can find out about him, the better. "Have you tried contacting someone?" Then she admits things might be different where he came from. "Do you even have any service?"

The boy looks down at his phone disappointed. "I have signal but I tried checking everything and nothing comes up. I have no contacts on my phone, text messages, photos. Tried connecting to the internet and I can actually access to it, but apparently my bank account doesn't exist and neither do my online accounts."

The boy frowns by the end of the sentence and Lydia notices. "What online accounts?"

"You know, Instagram, Tumblr, Facebook, Twitter. It's kind of my thing. I'm online pretty much whenever I can and now I don't even exist there." Lydia smiles at him comfortingly, but the boy is uneasy. "And before you say something, yes, I don't have many friends and I'm pathetic. No need to rub it in my face." He didn't mean to sound harsh but the truth is almost no one ever values him. Why would she be any different?

"Oh, I wasn't going to." Lydia instinctively reaches out for his hand and squeezes it softly, momentarily forgetting that this isn't Stiles. "We all deal with our things the way we can. You shouldn't be embarrassed about it."

She smiles and he trusts her sincerity. But what would she even know about being lonely? He's about to say something but, far away enough that Stuart can only distinguish three figures, he sees who she probably wants to meet. He nods in their direction. "Look. Is it them?"

Lydia turns around on her seat to check. It can only be them. "Yes. So will you wait for me here, please?"

"Yes."

He seems to be telling the truth. "Okay. Maybe we can continue our conversation later?" She can't deny she's interested to know more about him.

He smiles shyly. "I'd like that."

She smiles back. "I'll be right back then."

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The boys wait for her at the building's entrance and Lydia shortens the distance between them quickly. Scott did as she told him and is tailed by Derek and Isaac. She knows Scott is about to hug her with that stupid, cute grin on his face and his puppy dog eyes and she missed her friend dearly, but they can reconnect later.

She stops right in front of them, crossing her arms at her chest. "Hey guys."

Scott notices she's defensive, so he holds back. "Lydia!"

She gets right down to it. "We have a problem. I mean, I don't know if it's a problem, but more of a situation."

Isaac is trying to see who's in her car but they are too far away from it. "Who is that? We left you by yourself like half an hour ago."

She turns to him, but motions for the three boys to follow her as she walks back to her car. "I was gonna get some pie and go home, right?" Isaac nods. "Well, at the grocery store, I thought I found Stiles but…"

Derek interrupts her. "Stiles is upstairs."

"I know that now, but I didn't when I found him," she says, pointing in her car's direction. "I thought it actually was Stiles but he wasn't making sense. He kept saying that his name is not Stiles and that he didn't know me or how he got here…"

She starts rambling. They are halfway when Derek grabs her arm, making her stop suddenly. Being the more experienced werewolf of the trio, he's the first one to catch the scent. "Stop." The other two boys follow suit.

She looks up at him in confusion. "What?"

Derek's eyes are glowing. "Werewolf."