SONG: Makes me that much stronger…Makes me work a little bit harder…It makes me that much wiser…So thanks for making me a fighter ~ Fighter by Christina Aguilera

Chapter 23

Scott:

"Scott…Scott, wake up."

I woke up slowly, to Stiles shaking me. I sat up and stretched, careful to not to jostle Lydia, who was still sleeping peacefully. She had woken for a bit during the night, and I reassured her she was fine. Stiles had moved his chair to a corner, pulled another one from another room and made a makeshift bed. He had fallen asleep looking as awkward as I am sure it felt. Lydia and I talked for a minute but mostly I just watched her until she went back to sleep. My mother came in periodically to check on her and me but mostly it was a quiet night, minus the beeping of machines.

"What time is it?" I whispered.

"It's going on nine. My dad is here. He wants to talk to you. Ask some questions about the crash." He said.

"Yeah okay. Give me a second." I agreed. He nodded and left the room. I stood and gently stroked the side of her face. "Lydia." I called softly.

"Hmmm." She shifted and her eyes slowly opened.

"Hey girlfriend."

"Hey boyfriend." She smiled.

"I need to talk to the Sheriff, and I should go home and freshen up. I'll be back in a few hours, okay?"

She tried to nod but winced. I pulled some pain from her, and she sighed.

"Okay. Love you." She mumbled, her eyes already closing back.

"Love you, more than anything." I told her, placing a kiss on her head before leaving the room, closing the door behind me. Stilinski was standing with Stiles across the hall. They both looked at me when I appeared.

"Scott, how is she doing?" Stilinski asked.

"Good, she's resting more comfortably now." I told him.

"That's good. I hate to do this now, but we need a statement for the report."

"No, it's okay. She's sleeping so…"

"Okay, why don't you start by telling me what happened? Stiles said Lydia called you?"

I nodded and told him everything from the time of the first call, even though that wasn't reportable since it couldn't be explained un-supernaturally. Stiles jumped in from his end, as is his way, and explained what the car looked like before Liam, and I flipped it over and I tore the door off.

"Yeah, that's going to be hard to explain, the door ending up five feet away from the car." Stilinski tapped his pin against the pad he had been writing on.

"Adrenaline?" Stiles offered with a shrug. Stilinski and I both snorted at him.

"Now you say you heard him speaking. What did you hear?"

"I guess we will have to reschedule this date, Lydia. See you soon." I recited clenching my fist and trying to stay calm.

"I know you want to do something, I would if it were me. But I need you to let me handle this legally. You can't take matters into your own hands with this. I can't protect you if you do that. So, for now I need you to just be Lydia's protective boyfriend who is worried about her wellbeing. Report anymore letters, texts, calls or anything to me so it's all documented."

"And if he comes after her again?" I asked.

"If we can't be there to help at the time and you are… justifiable homicide and I will do everything I can to make sure that's what it's documented as. But you better be sure that it actually is."

"Okay."

"Let's try not to let it get that far though okay."

I nodded in understanding.

"Dad, do you guys have anything, at all?" Stiles asked.

"We do…" he started and looked at me trying to decide if he should tell me anything.

"It's okay, I'll be okay, tell me." I told him.

Alright," he sighed. "We got fingerprints off the car and are running them through the system. But we found her phone. We had someone do a quick diagnostic on it and it looks like it's been tampered with. We need to run some more tests, but we think he put a tracker on it, so he would know where she was at all times. Probably the night he broke in."

I took a deep breath and nodded.

"We are running the prints now but unless he is already in the system then we won't have a record of them. But we have them. You think it's this Greenberg guy, right?"

"Yeah, Lydia said that he used to watch her a lot in classes. And uh…" Stiles hesitated glancing at me before going on. "We uh, well Isaac and I, we kind of found a picture, of Lydia with Jackson and he had photo shopped himself over Jackson." Stiles admitted.

"What?" I growled. He winced.

"You found a picture? Where did you find a picture?" Stilinski asked looking at his son suspiciously.

"On the floor?"

"On the floor where?"

"Of a room." Stiles offered.

"Stiles."

"Okay fine, it was on his bedroom floor."

"You were in his house?" Stilinski asked.

"Why didn't you tell me?" I asked at the same time.

"One at a time please, my ADHD can't take the go between."

"Stiles." Stilinski said sternly.

"Okay fine. I found out where he lives, and no don't ask me how because I don't think you want to arrest your own son. But Liam, Mason, Isaac, and I drove by there, we had only planned to check it out and see if we could spot him but then Isaac and Liam… scented him." He whispered. "And it matched the same one we found at the locker and in the locker room. We followed it around the back and found his room. So, we kind of… broke in and looked around his room."

"You broke in. How the hell did you do that?"

"It wasn't hard. You just have to jimm-. That's not important. What is important is the picture. It was a picture from last year before Jackson left. The guy photoshopped himself into it, holding hands with Lydia and he had a heart on it with his and Lydia's initials."

"Do you have the picture?"

"Well, no we left it there. We didn't want to leave evidence that we had been in there behind. But I did snap a picture of it on my phone."

"Get that too me."

"Isn't that inadmissible since it wasn't obtained legally?"

"You scare me sometimes with how much you know about this stuff. And yes, it is but I will figure it out."

"Okay sure." He pulled out his phone and started fiddling with it. "We also got a picture of his closet, he had, like a shrine to Lydia on the inside of the door. I'll send that as well."

"So, you left fingerprints anyway, which is evidence."

"That's what they make rubber gloves for dad." Stiles mutter as he sent the information.

"Why the hell do you have rubber gloves?"

"In case I have to break into somewhere." He put his phone away and then looked up. Stilinski stroked his temples in frustration.

"Why do I get the feeling that I will be working well into my 80s because I will have to use my life savings to bail out my delinquent son for multiple felonies?"

"That's only if I get caught. I haven't been yet." Stiles shrugged.

"How many places have you broken into?" Stilinski asked, incredulously.

"We are getting off topic. Let's focus."

"Fine, but we are having a talk later Stiles."

"I look forward to it." Stiles smiled.

"Why didn't you tell me?" I asked again.

"Scott, you were so over the moon giddy to be with Lydia and I didn't want to ruin that. I was planning to tell you yesterday while we were out but then this happened."

I nodded.

"Besides, you are already having control issues because of this stuff. I'm sure you would have just completely gone off the rails with that."

He was right, I probably would have.

"Can I see it now?"

"No." Both Stilinskis' said at the same time.

"Remember our agreement, Scott. Human Scott needs to stay out of this and protect human Lydia. Sheriff Stilinski is going to do everything he can to catch this guy and make sure he never harasses her again."

"Did you just refer to yourself in the third person?" Stiles asked. Stilinski rolled his eyes, a practice he has perfected when it comes to Stiles.

"I'll get this to the station. I'll contact you if I have any more questions, okay?"

"Yeah, okay. I'm going to check on Ms. Martin and catch a nap at home before I come back here."

"Good, idea. Stiles, you get home too. I'm going to wait here until my deputy gets here. He's going to stand guard for Lydia. I'll let him know to expect you back. I think there is a list at the front desk of who's allowed to see her or not."

"Thank you."

"Go home Scott, refresh and come back and just be with her. Stiles, you… just go home." He said shaking his head.

"Sure thing, daddy-o. Love ya."

We both waved a goodbye. We went to see Ms. Martin first, making sure she was okay and didn't need anything. She thanked me for staying with her daughter and checking on her. Stiles gave me a ride home saying he would check in with me later. As soon as I made it to my room I crashed.

Lydia:

My head was pounding, and it was duking it out with the ringing in my ears. But I think the nausea was winning. The pain medication was slowly helping but it had nothing on Scott. He needed rest though. I'm sure it couldn't have been comfortable sleeping bent over in a chair all night, but I was so grateful he was there when I woke in the middle of the night.

Sheriff Stilinski left not too long ago after getting my statement and telling me he has an officer stationed outside of my room just in case. I told him everything including how I saw him and confirmed it was Greenberg. He said he would send a sketch artist over so they could get a poster drawn up. I was sipping on a cup of broth when Ms. McCall came in to check on me.

"Good, you're eating something."

"I don't know if I would call this eating, but I seem to be keeping it down." I showed her the broth in the cup.

"Nausea? I know it sucks. It will wane in time. Just let us know if it gets any worse."

"Okay."

"How are you feeling otherwise?"

"I'm okay, I'm sore and have a headache. The ringing in my ears is really becoming annoying but I'm alive so I won't complain too much." I tried to adjust and hissed. "Oh, and the ribs, those really hurt."

"Do you need more medication, when was your last dose?" she asked, checking the chart. "Just an hour ago. Too soon for more. Try to relax okay, you're too tense. Your muscles need to be relaxed to heal."

"I'm trying but it's hard for me to relax when Scott's not around." I admitted shyly.

"He's the same way." She smiled adjusting my pillows for me, which helped some. "You gave him quit the scare last night. I have never seen my son so broken before. It was like he couldn't function without you."

"He couldn't. I know that sounds arrogant, but it's how we work. It's this alpha mating thing we have." I shrugged.

"He explained it to me. But I also know it's more than that. I'm so happy he has you. You have no idea. He's struggled so much with the werewolf stuff and then being an alpha now. It's a lot for a 17-year-old to handle. But… you seem to ground him somehow, bring him back to himself."

"He does the same for me. With my… power, I could spiral out of control quickly. He is always there to bring me back. To keep me calm and safe."

"Right. Banshee."

"Yeah. It's a lot to handle sometimes."

"I won't even pretend to understand what you all go through. You kids take on too much, but you are always looking out for each other."

"We're a team. We all have different strengths, even Stiles." I joked, "But it's all because of Scott, he's a great leader." I smiled.

"He doesn't think so, but I can see it. He cares so much. He is just so…good."

"He is. That's why I am worried about what all this is doing to him. I worry he's going to lose himself going after this guy. I don't want him to do something he'll regret." I admitted.

"Me too. But I also know that if anyone can keep him from doing something irreversible, it's you. He loves you so much he would tear this world apart for you. But he would also put it back together if you asked him too. You're good for him."

"Thank you." I whispered. She smiled running her hand over my head.

"Finish your broth and try to rest. I'm on shift until about four, so page if you need anything okay. I'll check on you in a bit, okay?"

"Okay. Thanks Ms. McCall."

"Sure sweetheart." She opened the door and then looked back. "Oh, and I think you have a visitor."

She opened the door, and I sighed in relief.

"Mom."

She walked slowly into the room; Ms. McCall closed the door behind her.

"Lydia, oh baby. I'm so glad you're okay." She said leaning in to give me a gentle hug before settling herself slowly in Scott's vacated chair. "How are you feeling? The doctor said everything looks good and you should recover well."

"I'm fine, just a bit of pain. How are you?"

"I'm good. Neck pains and a mild headache but I'm okay. They said I can be released today."

"That's good. You still staying with Maggie?" I asked about my mother's best friend.

"Yeah. She's letting me stay as long as I need too."

"How are you getting there?" I asked, remembering that the car was totaled.

"Scott offered to take me and to bring me back to visit you anytime."

"He did? When?"

"He came to check on me this morning before he left to go home. Make sure I didn't need anything. Him and Stiles. He let me know how you were doing as well."

"He did?" my eyes brimmed with tears.

"He's a good boy. I'm happy you have him."

"Me too."

"He's also very intense about your safety. Stiles told me all that was going on with the case, not sure he was supposed to, but I was glad he did. Scott looked like he was ready to commit murder."

If she only knew.

"I'm so glad you're okay Lydia. I don't know what I would do if I lost you. It scares me to think of it."

"You're not going to lose me, mom. I'm okay. And I'm going to stay that way. I promise." I told her. i was angry all over again and determined to not let him win.

"You don't sound scared at all. What changed?"

"I am scared, I'm terrified. But I'm also angry. I saw his face mom. After we crashed, I was conscious long enough to see his face and he was smiling." I growled, clenching my uninjured hand. She rubbed a hand over my fist.

"I'm tired of all of this. I refuse to live my life hiding and looking around every corner. I'm not going to do anything stupid, but I'm also not going down without a fight. And like you said, Scott is very protective. He won't let anything happen to me. Between him and my friends and Argent and Sheriff Stilinski, I know he'll be found and put away."

"You guys are all so tight knit that I'm sure you all will find him before the police. But let's just hope your boyfriend leaves him in one piece." She snickered.

"I'll do my best." Scott said opening the door and coming in. "Hi Ms. Martin."

"Hey Scott, I think this is my cue to leave and let you visit."

"You don't have too." Scott said.

"No, it's okay. I'm going to go lay down for a while and wait for the doctor for my finally assessment before I get out of here." She said getting up.

"Okay, let me know when you are ready to go. Mom is letting me use the car, so no motorcycle."

"Thank goodness I don't think I have the capacity to balance on that thing. I haven't ridden a motorcycle in years." Mom sighed.

"You rode a motorcycle? When?" I asked in shock. She grinned and winked but didn't answer me.

"Do you need help back your room?" Scott offered.

"No, I got it. Thanks for offering." She walked slowly to the door. Scott opened it and kept watch of her leaving before coming back to me.

"Hey girlfriend." He greeted me with a chaste kiss.

"Hey boyfriend." One more kiss, a little longer, ignoring the sting in my lip. He didn't though and I felt all the pain ease a bit as he kissed me.

"Come on, you guys are still at that? The cutesy nicknames need to stop." Stiles grumbled as he came in the door.

Allison, Isaac, Liam, Mason, and Argent followed him. I didn't know you could have, let alone, fit this many people in one room. Now I'm even more surprised when Ms. McCall enters and closes the door behind her, standing with her back against the window. Argent moved to stand next to her and they shared a smile.

"They're standing together, aren't they? Mr. Argent and my mother." Scott said looking only at me, refusing to look up even though I know he knew. I giggled and nodded. He sighed and shook his head. Standing up straight he looked anywhere but at the two of them.

"Oh, stop it, Scott. It's not that big a deal." His mom said.

"I like to think it is." Argent said. Both Scott and Allison groaned.

"You know what I mean."

"You know Scott, if things work out you and Allison-." Stiles started with an evil little grin, causing everyone to chuckle.

"You finish that sentence and I start telling everyone about-." Scott cut in.

"Fine, fine. You don't have to go all Isaac on me." Stiles pouted.

"What the hell? How did I become a descriptive?" Isaac exclaimed.

"Now who's got word of the day?" Stiles said.

I laughed and then hissed as my ribs protested. Scott twitched, to work his magic I assume, and I stopped him.

"I'm fine, really. It just hurt to laugh but I'm okay." I told him.

He nodded but held my hand anyway.

"Not that I'm not happy to see everyone. But why are you all here, at once?" I asked.

"I'm here for a visit." Allison said.

"I'm here with Allison." Isaac said, as if that was a surprise.

"I'm here as lookout and to make sure they don't overwhelm you." Ms. McCall said.

"The rest of us are here for an impromptu meeting. Well except Scott, who would happily move in here for however long you are here if his mother and the hospital would allow it." Stiles said making Scott roll his eyes.

Scott sat on the edge of my bed, kissed the side of my head and we settled in to listen to Stiles hyper obsessing over the problem.