They held me in the hospital for 24 hours after Issac was hurt. That was how long it took for them to stabilize him. The first time waking up I made it to his room terrifying everyone on my way to finding him. I had flung the orderly who tried to tell me, "family only" into the wall. I didn't even hesitate when I heard the crunch of bones. I made it to him only to start sobbing as I checked him over. I was feeling sluggish due to the medication they gave me. He looked so wrong lying there so still. As soon as I had started crying his heart rate skyrocketed, nurses surrounded us and I felt another prick on my arm and everything faded away again.
Waking up the next time I had been handcuffed to the bed. I groaned sore from being in the same position for so long. Fixing a glare at the nurse who had the unfortunate timing to have come check on me. "Unlock these," I growled at her. She started sputtering and poked her head out of the door calling for someone. Melissa came walking in a few moments later.
"Hi honey," she said tentatively. I burst into tears. She came rushing in to hug me awkwardly because of the cuffs. She just stayed there and pet my hair. When I stopped trembling she leaned back to look at me "Now if I unlock these are you going to go running or hurt someone?" I hiccuped and shook my head no. She nodded and unlocked my cuffs slowly, trying to gauge if I was telling the truth or not. "Your mom is coming right now, she went to the cafeteria to grab you some food in case you were hungry. Your dad is on his way back from his conference in Seattle,"
I gulped and tried to speak and had to swallow again "How is he?" I barely got it out before I felt tears falling again. She helped my hand rubbing it soothingly.
"He is stable," I sat back in relief. "He hasn't woken up though," I covered my eyes with my hands trying to will the tears away.
I could hear feet hurrying toward me and I was wrapped in another set of arms. Mom. I leaned into her crying more. I could feel her tears hit my hair as she held me even tighter. She was trembling too.
"If she gets hysterical we may need to sedate her again," Melissa told my mom apologetically.
"She is going to be alright, can we go see him?" I could hear Melissa hesitate.
"We aren't supposed to allow anyone but family,"
"Well it's a good thing he is my son then, he's adopted," I heard my mom say firmly. I peeked out to nod my head in agreement.
She led us to him as soon as I was properly dressed. I clutched both of their hands tightly as we stood watching his chest moving up and down slowly, helped by the ventilator. I let go of them to go and run my hands through his hair gently messing up his curls, something he would never hesitate to grumble at me about. I could feel in my throat that I was going to cry again.
"Can I stay with him?" I asked Melissa. She looked up trying to gather herself.
"Sorry hon, because he needs to be monitored so closely he can only be visited for a short amount of time a day. But you can stay for a little while longer."
I nodded. My mom brought us each a chair, we sat and each held one of his hands. I laid my head on his arm and for the first time, I prayed to my family to look over him. I fell asleep like that, still exhausted from the injections.
I was woken up a little while later by my mom whispering to me that our time was up and that it was time to go home. I let her maneuver me up and stayed pressed against her with her arm over my shoulder as she guided us out.
()()()()()()()()()()()()()()(
I was out for another 12 hours after getting home. I was tired and restless calling the hospital to check in every few hours. They let me know I could come and visit him if I wanted to. Mom said it was alright if I missed school today, but I need something to distract me. I decided I would go right before school, sit with him a bit and then go and get updated on Stiles' situation. All I knew was that he was missing.
I got there and they let me go right in. They said a nurse had just unlocked his room. Melissa greeted me when I got close "Hi kiddo how are you feeling?" I just shrugged and she nodded "Scott and Allison are visiting Isaac right now,"
I could hear them now that I focused on it "Did Stiles really do this?" I was moving forward before I subconsciously told my legs to move.
"Whatever's controlling him did it. Whatever's inside him,"
"Well, then how do we get whatever's inside-" I was yanking her head back by her hair and throwing her down the next second. I breathed heavily watching her scramble in shock on the floor. I heard Scott make a noise of surprise behind me.
"Get out," I snarled at her.
"Arielle wha-" She paused to push herself back more as I nearly kicked her.
"You are the reason he is in here," She protested against my harsh words "You and your hero complex are going to get Isaac killed-" I advanced towards her only to have Scott get in my way, not grabbing me like he did 48 hours earlier but had his hands out in a surrender motion.
"It was an insane situation, Arielle. If anyone is going to survive this it's going to be the werewolf okay? Think about everyone else who got hit with that current, they are all dead. That would have been Allison if he hadn't gotten to her," I stopped my forward advance.
What he said made sense, technically. It did not mean that I was going to forgive her, and I said so "I'm not going to hurt you Allison, and it's his choice when he wakes up, but when he does I am going to make sure he knows every second he is with you that my whole family is against you being together," I don't know for sure if my parents didn't like her now, but I wanted my words to hurt her if I couldn't. By the way, her eyes were getting red I think I succeeded.
()()()()()()())
I stretched as I waited for cross country to start. Surprisingly, Coach had come up to me before talking to the guys and let me know that just this once he would make an exception and let me miss a session. I let him know that it would probably help for me to run, I just wasn't going to try and beat my time today. He nodded and awkwardly patted me on the shoulder before heading into the locker room.
A buzzing noise started, I thought I was just hearing things but Scott and the twins came out of the locker room quizzically. "You guys hear that too?" I asked them.
Scott looked at me like he was gauging my mood before he answered me. "It's an emitter. One of Argents. It's coming from the basement."
"What would Argent be doing in the basement?" I asked.
"I'm gonna go ahead and guess it's not him," Scott said before walking past me.
I really, really did not want to go into that basement. It was creepy on the best of days and today already sucked. I moved slower than the guys, only making it halfway down before I heard him. Stiles. "Okay, I know what you guys are thinking, but it's me. I swear to God, it's me." I froze at the sound of the voice, and then the twins rushed him snarling.
I ran down the rest of the stairs and watched as they grabbed him by the throat and suspended him. Scott ran forward and threw Ethan off of Stiles and growled as an alpha to Aiden who immediately dropped Stiles. I inched around them all to get to Stiles. He looked so exhausted. I touched his forehead with one hand to check his temperature and he reached out and held my other one. He squeezed my hand with his as he turned to look at Scott
"It's me, Scott. I swear it's me. I don't know where I've been the last two days or what I've been doing, but this is me. I promise."
"You know what happened at the hospital?" Ethan asked while glaring. My hands spasmed.
Stiles looked at me apologetically and removed his hand from mine "I know more than that." He crouched down and grabbed something from the duffel bag on the floor "You see this? It's a blueprint of the hospital's electrical wiring. Do you see all these markings in red? That's my handwriting. I know I did this. I caused the accident. And everything in this bag, it's all stuff that could be part of something bigger." Scott crouched down to see and looked very unsettled by the bag.
"What the hell have you been up to?" Ethan asked concerned as he held up an electric knife.
"I think something worse. A lot worse."
The boys started to pull things out of the bag and inspect everything "What the hell were you doing? Building a Terminator?"
"Thank you for that," Stiles said sarcastically while pacing. I gave him a reassuring smile. Seeing him act erratically was actually helping my nerves, it was just so normal for him.
Scott opened up another of the papers "Guys, this is a map. Isn't that the cross-country trail?" Aiden asked us. We all moved forward to look. Scott confirmed as it went right by where Malia's family had died.
Stiles put his hand over mine on the table and squeezed hard. It almost hurt but I decided not to say anything because he felt like he was trembling. I hoped it would help him calm down "You mean that's where her father put the steel-jawed traps," He whispered. Everyone looked at each other in worry.
"Let's go," Scott called out and started running up the stairs "We'll drive it'll be faster," he called back.
For some reason the guys didn't even hesitate to let Stiles, the guy who has memory problems right now, drive. Ethan and Aiden decided to run directly to the trail to head off anyone there and we would go to the Coach. When we got there Scott sprinted off because he could hear Kira and she was closest to where they thought the traps might be. Stiles and I tried to explain to Coach that there might be traps and that we had to try to stop everyone. He kept shouting questions as we ran but followed us.
Stiles called out for everyone to stop. We all had our hands out but I think it was more of seeing Stiles that made every one pause. Stiles looked down and started to brush through the leaves. He found the end of a chain and started to follow it shaking. Scott looked scared but didn't move forward keeping everyone else back. Stiles' face fell into confusion when he pulled the rest of it up and…nothing. We all just stared at the end in surprise.
Coach started to clap sarcastically "Congratulations, Stilinski. You found a length of chain." He started to move forward toward the team. I moved up to rub Stiles' back soothingly. I can't imagine the stress he is under. "Can somebody now please tell me what the hell's going on?" he yelled.
Scott saw the tripwire sooner than I did, and called out for Coach. I was closer so I started to move forward when Stiles gripped my hand hard again.
I started to hyperventilate as I watched the arrow go through him. The tip was sticking out of his back. "Oh crap," he groaned and then passed out. We all rushed to him checking to make sure he was alive.
When I saw Scott sigh in relief I scrambled for my phone. I was shaking as I watched the guys hold him down and try to calm him. Aiden yelled for everyone to get back and give him some room. My hands were trembling so much I almost couldn't hit the buttons but finally, I got a hold of emergency services. An ambulance was on its way. I saw Scott taking away the Coach's pain, and Aiden let us know he had passed out. Stiles started to tremble badly.
"I could have killed him." He said while staring at the blood on his hands. "I could have killed him, right? What if it was his head or his throat?" I fell next to him cradling his head onto my shoulder. I looked at Scott in worry at how wrecked Stiles sounded.
Scott nodded "But it wasn't. And he's going to be alright" he reassured Stiles. Scott looked like he just wanted to hug him too.
"I think I just heard an ambulance coming," Aiden said, sounding relieved.
Stiles lifted his head "And my dad," he whispered shakenly. I kicked myself at that moment because I hadn't even thought to call his dad. There probably were enough kids out there that I'm sure that the Sheriff knew.
Coach was loaded into an ambulance while the Sheriff hugged his son frantically. He pulled away to look over him and then pulled him into another hug. I watched Stiles rub the back of his neck sheepishly as he talked. I was barely listening to what Scott and Aiden were talking about until they mentioned a bomb. I just wanted to cry. Would this day never end?
The boys explained what they thought might be going on to the Sheriff, who was able to get the school on the radio to warn them and to get everyone away from the buses He let them know he would be right there. Everyone was getting into the car to go back to school, I hung back. "Arielle hurry up Scott called to me,"
"Uh," I hesitated. "I'm just going to get a ride to the police station to give my statement I think," I called out.
Stiles was out of the SUV and in front of me in a second "You can't Arielle," He said. I looked at him confused "Please I need you with me until I know what I've done, you and Scott," He pleaded with me holding onto my hands. I nodded. He squeezed my hand all the way there. Scott looked at me questioningly. I shrugged my shoulders. I probably would be clingy too if I couldn't remember anything and all this chaos was happening.
We followed the crowd when we got to the bus parking. I was surprised the Police Department was letting everyone stand so close to them. I heard Jared was the only kid on the school bus, he had picked up the bomb wrapped as a present and now couldn't move. Deputy Parrish was getting dressed in some heavy equipment and he was arguing with the Sheriff who looked like he relented. Parrish turned to climb onto the bus.
"What the hell is he doing?" I questioned in worry. He was not part of the bomb squad and he basically had no protection. I felt Stiles stumble next to me, I forgot what I was talking about. "Stiles? Here let's go sit you down real quick," I told him worriedly. I pushed through the crowd and sat him down on a bench.
Stiles looked at me and his breathing changed. He cupped my face "How could he be so stupid to let you go?" He whispered eyes falling to my lips and caressing them with his thumb. I was so confused as to what was happening. "I don't know what's gotten into you, or who you're talking about, but I am not doing this again," I removed his hand gently but firmly away from my face. "I'm going to attribute this to whatever is going on with you, and the stress of what's happening,"
A flash of anger swept through his eyes but then his head fell and a sob ripped through him "I'm so scared Arielle," His shoulders shook and I immediately felt terrible. I slid closer gathering him into a hug. His arms went around my waist hesitantly and then tightened almost too much. His head went into the space between my neck and shoulder as he shuddered. I could feel his warm breath on my neck and I had to tell myself to calm down and that it was not the time for any of that. Stiles needed someone to just be there for him. I rubbed his back soothingly.
Both our heads shot up when we heard the commotion from the crowd, we pushed through again to find Scott. I was hoping that Parish had defused the bomb. Instead, he leaned forward and showed us a nameplate…with Sheriff Stilinski on it. We all looked at each other in confusion. What the fuck was happening.
"My God. There is a bomb, but not here," The Sheriff said in horror.
Cue the running again.
())()())()()())()()())()()()
I started sobbing as soon as we reached the station. You could tell what happened as soon as you saw the building, glass was shattered and people were stumbling out covered in blood. We ran inside anyway.
Stiles looked around in horror, he knew every single one of these people. I kneeled and began healing who I could, one man here and another person there. I heard Stiles call for Scott. I had helped heal my third person when I heard Allison's dad, he was talking to Derek. I got up and ran to him even as the Sheriff ordered Stiles and Scott to get out.
"Derek?" I called out and stopped as I saw all of the glass embedded in him. I kneeled next to him and gently started removing bigger pieces. "Der?" questioned as he was breathing hard. I was healing him as much as I could as I went, tears were starting to constrict my vision blocking what I was doing and my hands were shaking badly.
"Hey, I'm alright," He muttered, squeezing my arm and rubbing it as I tried to help. I reached out and gently hugged him, his arms going around me tightly holding me to him.
"Arielle, you can't be in here!" Parish called to me, he gently pulled me away from Derek. "Listen I will make sure he is alright, I promise, but you have to go now," he told me. I nodded through my tears and thanked him, rushing to get out. Once I was in the parking lot Stiles' jeep squealed next to me.
"The Oni are coming for Stiles," Kira called to me as I stumbled in. Scott explained we were going to the animal clinic, and that it was lined with mountain ash. Stiles protested but finally agreed, hitting the gas harder. It was pouring out and we could barely see anything. We were immediately drenched as we got out running for the door. I couldn't hear anything over the rain except Scott calling for Stiles to get inside. The Oni were here. Stiles fumbled with the keys as Scott began fighting the Oni. I took the keys from Stiles and practically threw him in once I got it open. I kicked one of the Oni down from where he almost got inside. Stiles yelled for Kira to get inside, instead, she went all badass. That was until Scott got stabbed with a sword. Kira screamed for him and kicked the Oni away. I grabbed Scott and Kira helped me shuffle him inside, both of us taking turns to balance him and fighting until we were able to slam the door closed once we were in.
I collapsed on the ground shaking from the cold. I knew we had to get the sword out of Scott but we all needed a moment. I thought over the day and got more confused as I thought about it, there was just no way it all made sense. Kira grabbed the sword and nodded at Scott reassuringly. Scott nodded to her. I tiredly got up to help hold him still when Stiles grabbed Kira, slamming her head against the table and knocking her out.
I was frozen, and so was Scott who looked utterly shocked. Stiles tapped on the sword which made Scott wince. Stiles raised his hands and said it was okay. "Please don't," Scott pleaded as Stiles gripped the sword gracefully.
"Stiles," I barked. He smiled and looked at me "You stopped me from going to the police station so I wouldn't be near the bomb," I stated. He nodded and held one finger up to me.
Without warning he slipped the sword out of Scott a little, making him cry out. Then he began to twist it inside of him "Does it hurt? Hey, look at me." Scott looked up into his eyes, shivering. I took a step forward. "Arielle, if you move I will gut him and he will die," he warned without looking away from Scott's eyes. He began twisting again "You should have done your reading, Scott. See, a nogitsune feeds off chaos, strife, and pain," Scott looked like he was going to pass out.
"This morning, you took it from Isaac, then you took it from Coach. And then from a dying deputy. All that pain. You took it all," Stiles looked at Scott almost lovingly, then grabbed his hair "Now, give it to me. '' Stiles started to shake, coming closer to Scott, black lines ran from Scott into Stiles. His eyes rolled like it was the best thing he ever felt. Scott started gasping for air in panic. He slid down to the floor, the sword jarring everything on the way down. I watched as he stilled. My hands were trembling, clenching and unclenching not knowing what to do.
Stiles cracked his neck and turned towards me. I trembled as I looked around the room, scrambling back as he moved in my direction "Now, now Arielle, I can still hurt him," He taunted. "Don't think I forgot about you, if anything you have more pain inside you than the whole Pack put together," he murmured "The good news is I don't have to hurt you more to get it," He pinned me against the wall and pressed his lips to mine. I could feel everything I had helped take flow out of me. I relaxed more and more into the kiss as he took what he wanted. He tongued my mouth open and I let him. I felt my eyes fluttering closed and I let him guide me to the ground.
I heard Scott groan from the other side of the room. Stiles got up and turned to him "You really have to learn, Scott. You really have to learn not to trust a fox." He taunted as he got closer "Mmm-mmm. Know why? 'Cause they're tricksters.," he told him, nudging the sword with his foot. Scott whimpered in pain "They'll fool you. They'll fool everyone"
"Not everyone," Came from behind him and then he was collapsing on the ground. My eyes were barely open and I absentmindedly questioned why I cared if they closed or not. As I pondered it I saw the shadowy figure help Scott up, it was Deaton. He gripped the sword and in one smooth move, he had it out of Scott.
Scott started panting in relief "What was that? Was that a cure? Is he okay?" he questioned.
I decided it was time to take a nap, these people are too dramatic. I let my eyes close as Deaton spoke "The fox is poisoned. But it's not dead. Not yet." I felt like for some reason this should worry me, but this may have been the best I have ever felt. I embraced it.