hold me closer

38

"It still might not be him," Liam said, looking down. "But, Hayden's at the school looking."

"I can keep tracking the woods," Malia offered.

"My mom can check all the hospitals in the county." I looked at Scott who seemed more than fine. "We can find him."

"What happens then?" I asked and my eyes glanced to the cupboard beside Scott.

"We figure out a way to save him," he said slightly nodding to me, then looked at Liam assuringly.

"Okay. Where else could we look?" Lydia asked.

"Let's ask Corey."

Scott reached over towards the cupboard and roughly yanked Corey, who turned visible. Corey looked frantic when he saw us as most of us took a defensive stance.

"Wait!" he said, looking at Scott. "It's not my fault. They took him and I couldn't do anything. They took him."

"Who?" Scott asked.

"The Dread Doctors."

:::

We had split up in groups, making sure we weren't alone in case we bumped into the Beast and/or the Dread Doctors. Stiles, Lydia, and I went to the station to hear and give any updates.

Scott had told us of his plans to work with Theo. Though we were anxious about that, we let him go. Besides, I trusted Scott had a backup plan.

"Still nothing from Scott and Liam," Stiles informed, walking inside the office.

"Are we really sure this is a good idea?" Lydia said, doubtful.

"Uh, no," he replied. "No one thinks this is a good idea."

"But you're trusting Theo anyway?" Stilinski questioned.

"We're not trusting him," I told him. "We're using him."

"What if he's using us?" Lydia suggested the idea.

"That's probably a given," Stiles answered. "But look. We're just trying to cover every place Mason could show up. Malia and Braeden are at Scott's house."

"Melissa's got the hospital," Stilinski said.

"Hayden and Corey are at the school," I added.

"Somebody's got to find them," Olivia nodded.

Lydia looked at all of us and said, "Let's hope they find Mason and not the Beast."

:::

"Nothing here," Melissa informed on call.

"Same here," Stiles responded.

"Anything on your end?" I asked Malia.

"Not a thing," she replied, slightly agitated. "And I'm gonna lose my mind if I don't get out of this supernatural cage."

"The mountain ash is there to keep you safe," Lydia reminded.

"I should be keeping Stiles safe," Malia argued.

I watched as Stiles ran into the wall and he looked around in embarrassment.

"He'll be fine," I assured. "Call if anything changes."

We sat outside Stilinski's office, waiting for an update. We would glance at each other once in a while. We were all anxious, even the other officers and deputies in the station.

In no time, the sun had gone down. I was checking my phone constantly, waiting for a word from Scott or Liam. When hours passed and nothing happened, it only made me more anxious.

Lydia came back and poked Stiles awake.

"Mmm, what? What happened? Who's dead?"

Lydia rolled her eyes and sat beside him saying, "No one. Well, at least not yet."

"I checked," I told them and yawned. "Nothing yet."

"You okay?" Lydia asked after Stiles sighed.

"Yeah. I'm still thinking," he replied. "Still trying to figure out... Why Mason? I mean, he wasn't even on the genetic chimera list."

I looked up as Ms. McCall entered the room with a file in her hands. "He is now." Both of us walked towards her. "Mason was born with twin embolization syndrome."

"You mean fetal resorption?" I asked, furrowing my eyebrows as I looked at the file.

She nodded, humming in response.

"He had a vanishing twin in utero?" Lydia questioned.

"Which accounts for two sets of DNA," she confirmed.

"Can someone please say it with words that have less than three syllables?" Stiles spoke, who appeared to not be following along.

"He ate his twin," Ms. McCall explained, enunciating her words.

"Oh, God... "

"But did it help?" Lydia turned to her.

"I don't know," she said. "But it's just bizarre enough to sound like it might be important, right?"

"It has to help," Lydia said in an urgent tone. "There has to be something."

Ms. McCall looked through the file. She folded one page up and allowed us to take a look. It was a picture of the ultrasound of Mason's mother. One baby was bigger than the other. I assumed the bigger one was Mason.

Stiles and I got in his jeep, heading for the animal clinic, hoping Deaton would see something in our predicament that we hadn't.

"You sure you're okay?" Stiles asked, his fingers tapping his thigh. He glanced at me, who looked at him to clarify. "It's just... " He let out a breath. "Mason told Liam who told us."

"About what?"

"Well, for one, you threw a dagger at Liam one night," Stiles said. "Because of your nightmares."

I shook my head, looking out the window. "It's nothing."

"Lu, I think you could have dislocated my shoulder this morning," said Stiles, emphasizing his words. "Tell me that's not something to worry about."

"It's not something to- "

"It is," Stiles interrupted. "What do you dream about?"

I sighed and he waited patiently. "It used to be my parents' murder. Then, it was Theo," I said. "It's like he's making me doubt Scott. And maybe it's saying that I doubt myself, which isn't wrong... But recently, I've been seeing memories."

"What kind of memories?" he inquired.

"Last night, I dreamed that we were in the bank vault," I replied. "Argent had just sacrificed himself. But it was different... It's like someone else was supposed to be there, but they aren't."

"Liam said Mason said that you felt like you forgot someone," Stiles stated and I nodded. "We're gonna find that out... After we save Mason, but we will figure it out. I promise."

He gave a reassuring smile and I returned it. He parked in front of the animal clinic and we walked in, showing Deaton the file.

"Vanishing twin syndrome," Deaton read as we walked to the back of his clinic.

"This is part of your expertise, right?" Stiles asked.

"Not particularly, no," he responded.

The door burst open. We turned around and Liam and Scott came in, helping one of the Dread Doctors.

"What the... "