EIGHT LETTERS || Liam Dunbar [2]

FOURTEEN

"Yes, Scott, I know that it's weird," Katherine rolled her eyes, speed walking next to Liam as they made their way down to Beacon Hills Memorial Hospital. "But none of us could think of any other explanation for it."

After they'd parted ways with Brett and Mason, who had both gone home, Katherine and Liam had spent nearly ten minutes walking around town, trying to theorize another explanation for what the holes were used for. Any explanation other than Tracy being buried, then coming back to life. But, unfortunately, they couldn't.

Scott sighed. "Okay, well, how far away from the hospital are you?"

"About ten minutes," Katherine panted. Her hand that was gripping her phone began to tremble so she stopped, causing Liam to turned around a few feet ahead of her in confusion. "She's going to be okay, right?" She asked quietly, her voice small. "It wont be like..."

"No, that's not going to happen again," Scott answered softly. "Now hurry up so you can talk to her. And be safe."

"I will," Katherine promised. "I'll see you in a few."

Rather than jogging to catch up to Liam, who hadn't moved, Katherine stuffed her phone in the back pocket of her jeans, and stood still. Her chest felt tight at the thought of loosing Lydia, like she'd lost Allison; without being able to do something. She shook her arms out and exhaled shakily, her caramel coloured eyes closed.

"Is everything okay?" Liam called hesitantly, taking two steps forward.

Opening her eyes, Katherine offered him a weak smile and jogged forwards to catch up to him. "Yeah, I'm all good."

"Do you want to talk about?"

Katherine bumped his arm with her elbow as they picked up the pace. "Nope, not even a little bit."

The rest of the walk was silent, and they reached the hospital just as Scott did. He held the door open for the two and they raced inside after Lydia's gurney. "So Tracy was buried?" He frowned.

"In a hole, buried alive, crawled out," Liam nodded rapidly.

"There was a second hole, too," Katherine panted as she tried to keep up with the two of them. She kept her hands in her back pockets to hide just how much they were trembling.

"Who was buried in that one?" Scott questioned, tilting his head to the side.

"I don't know, but I think we're gonna want to find out," Liam sighed.

As she walked through the emergency room, she saw Stiles, Theo and Kira standing there, waiting for an update on Lydia. Katherine lightly bumped Scott's arm, reached over to give Liam's hand a light squeeze — which he returned — then walked over to her big brother.

She didn't say anything, just threw her arms around his middle and buried her face in his shoulder. After allowing a few tears to roll down her cheeks. Katherine pulled away and curled into his side. "How is she?" She mumbled. "How's Lydia?"

"She'll be okay," Stiles promised. He kissed the top of her head, then ruffled her hair, causing Katherine to scowl. "Did you know that Tracy was part Kanima? Because we didn't. And she paralyzed us all in the middle of Deaton's examination room, then went off to the police station and tried to kill Lydia's mom. She just got Lydia with her tail, so everything should be okay."

"If you say so," Katherine mumbled. She slid into one of the waiting room chairs and picked at the skin around her thumb nail, staring off into space.

Naturally, just as they always did whenever she had time to think, her thoughts drifted to Liam, and how Lydia was probably right. That she should tell him how she really felt about him.

But then she couldn't help but think about Hayden Romero.

How Liam had watched her walk away from them in the hallway earlier that day, how he seemed to be worried about the injury Tracy had caused on her wrist. And that thought alone was enough to make her change her mind.

"Stiles and Kira, Kat, honey?" Her eyes snapped over to Melissa as she approached the group, and lurched out of her seat.

"How bad is it," Stiles asked worriedly. Katherine gripped his hand tightly.

"It could've been worse," Melissa answered honestly, her tone somewhat grim. She nodded her head at Theo, who was standing a short distance off to the side. "Nice work on that tourniquet, you probably saved her life." Scott and Liam joined the group, seeming to come back from whatever conversation they'd been having. "Alright, Melissa sighed. "She's about to go into surgery, so it's going to be a while. Any other supernatural details that I need to know about, or do we just stitch her up and hope for the best?"

"It was the tail," Kira piped in shakily.

"Tracy cut her with the tail, if that makes any difference," Scott nodded slowly. He reached around Stiles and set a hand down on Katherines shoulder, which she leaned into.

"Okay," Melissa breathed out. She patted the top of Katherines head, then walked away.

"But it wasn't just Tracy," Malia frowned. "There were the others. The guys in the masks."

Scott and Stiles shared a short look, lips pursed.

"I think it's time we get Kat home," Stiles murmured.

Katherine nodded tiredly.

After saying goodnight to everyone, she gave Liam a tight hug, then followed Stiles and Malia out the emergency doors and to the parking lot

•••

Katherine was sprawled out comfortably on her brothers bed, her feet resting in Malias lap as they both watched Stiles update his board.

He scribbled Tracy Stewart in a white pencil, right below the question they'd all been trying to answer in their free time: who is the Desert Wolf?

Malia gently moved Katherine's feet off of her lap and stood up, then made her way towards the board. She stared at the question, then sighed and grabbed an eraser from ledge at the bottom. She pursed her lips, then erased the words she'd been thinking about all summer. Then she turned around and offered Stiles a weak smile.

"I'm going to go to bed," Katherine mumbled, folding her arms over her chest. "I'll see you tomorrow, Malia."

"Night," Malia nodded.

"I'll be in to sleep on the beanbag in a few minutes!" Stiles called after her.

Katherine smiled lightly and nodded, then shuffled down the hallway and into her bedroom. She grabbed her pajamas from where she'd tossed them on top of her blankets that morning in her hurry to get dressed and quickly changed, then pulled her beanbag chair right up to her bed and climbed under the covers.

True to his word, Stiles came stumbling into her room less than ten minutes later, wearing Star Wars pajama pants and a black tee-shirt, mouth wide open in a yawn. "So," he mumbled. "Do you want to watch a Disney movie on the portable DVD player or just go straight to sleep.

"Disney movie," Katherine mumbled from under her pile of blankets, mouth barely visible.

Stiles rolled his eyes and rummaged through the middle shelf where she kept her crime books for the movie he knew she wanted. "Secret of the Wings or Legend of the Neverbeast?" He questioned, holding up her two favourite Tinker Bell movies.

After a brief moment of thought, Katherine mumbled a quiet wings, and Stiles put the movie in before flopping down onto the bed next to her.

A/N:
Sorry for not updating last week, I've got tons of stuff going on and loads of homework and it's absolutely killing me