Nature and Nurture: Finding the Perfect Blend

Chapter 2: The Hospital

His dad holds up another ice chip. He's got a cup of them and Stiles bets it was Melissa who had the foresight to give it to him.

"Stiles, it's okay," his dad is telling him.

It's not, it's really not.

Stiles shakes his head slightly. He wants his dad to help him out here, but he can't speak to let him know what the problem is. Before he can spin into more panic, his dad shows him why he's the best dad ever and reads his mind.

"They're gone Stiles. They're all gone." His dad puts the cup down and gently lifts Stiles' hand, supporting his elbow.

A perfect white bandage is wrapped around his wrist instead of a cruel metal band and pin. His dad lifts his other hand to show him a second matching bandage.

Stiles swallows shallowly and winces at the pain. His dad lifts his hand further and Stiles touches his throat with fluttering fingers. He finds the edge of the bandage. He gets a finger underneath before his dad tsks at him and lies his arm back on the bed.

His dad keeps holding his hand and strokes his thumb gently over a patch of undamaged skin. "Okay?" he asks.

Stiles gives a shallow nod, because even though there's a hell of a lot wrong, he knows for sure that the poisonous metal is gone. He blinks away the tears that had formed again. Relief makes his head swim.

He manages to press his fingers into his dad's grip in thanks. His dad smiles crookedly in understanding.

Melissa enters the room, wanting to make sure everything was okay after the monitors had relayed Stiles' agitation to the nurses' station. His dad explains what had happened and Stiles finds himself falling asleep quickly after Melissa ups his pain medication. He couldn't stop from wincing when she'd checked inside his mouth and didn't try to stop her when she suggested more pain relief.

His dad stayed with him as he drifted off, telling Stiles he'd be there when he woke up again and how much he loved him.

***

The days go by, with Stiles spending more and more time awake.

As he comes back to himself, he makes an important decision. There's going to be a lot of questions for him as soon as they think he's capable of answering. He doesn't want to talk about what happened to him at all; he's having disturbing dreams and the memories hurt. He does his best to ignore most of what happened, though there are some parts that are crystal clear; parts he can't let go off, things he isn't going to tell anyone.

To give himself time before the questions start, he fakes listlessness and ignores the gentle overtures of the hospital staff.

With his throat still healing there's an excuse for being quiet, but his general tiredness and despondency starts to worry the nurses and his dad. Stiles knows he's being a bit of a dick towards everyone with his attitude but if he can flatten out everything in his brain, he'll know what to say when the time comes.

Eventually, he figures out enough and he starts to get restless. As restless as his body will let him be. He stops pretending but it still takes a whole week of being awake and alert enough during routine checks before anyone decides to talk to him about the abduction.

***

Stiles' bed has been raised a little so he's no longer lying flat, and it was great. He'd wanted to sit up fully, but Melissa had explained how he'd suffer dizziness and possible nausea with too sudden a change in position, so he'd made do with turning on his side and with only a slight tilt to the bed.

Strength was slowly returning to his body and Melissa had told him that someone would discuss exercise and conditioning options when he was ready. He was pretty sure whatever physiotherapy he'd be given would be horrible, but the fact that it was even an option had him excited enough that he didn't care about how bad it would be.