What Could Have Been [Thiam Rewrites]

Chapter 10: Icy Inferno

Notes: This one is longer than I normally like them to be, but I couldn't find a good break in the middle. This was also one of the harder rewrites for me. I feel like Liam's style is hot blooded and he really is only violent/angry in the moment. Plotting revenge is more of a Theo thing, so I really had to work hard to make it work. Enjoy!

Liam

The next morning, they only made one stop on their way to the hospital to grab donuts and coffee for the pack. Liam sipped his coffee and tried to shake the intense rage and guilt that had been building in his chest. Even though Theo had slept soundly through most of the night, he was nursing his own coffee like he had the world's worst hangover.

But if Liam thought Theo looked bad, Scott looked even worse. He and Malia were sitting with their hands joined in the waiting room. Isaac set the box on a nearby table and plopped down into a chair beside Scott. Theo leaned against a nearby wall, keeping his distance from Liam with the rest of the pack around.

"Did you sleep at all last night?" he asked, voicing the very question Liam was wondering. His guilt for going back to the safe house last night skyrocketed.

Scott shook his head, taking the coffee Liam offered him.

"I tried to make him," Malia said, sinking her teeth into a blueberry cake donut. "What was I supposed to do, knock him out?"

Theo shrugged. "I would've."

Malia shot him a glare that had Liam inching just a bit closer to Theo.

Out of thin air, Corey appeared in the middle of the waiting room. "Mason's up if you guys want to see him."

"And Lydia?"

"She's still asleep," Scott said. "I can hear her."

The pack crammed into Mason's room, and Liam wrapped his best friend into a hug. It was one thing for the pack to go through all this, but Mason was vulnerable as a human. He wasn't even a target. He'd just gotten caught up in the crossfire of the war with the hunters.

The scent of blood, and Mason's slightly pale, weak expression had Liam clenching his fist in an effort to keep his fiery rage contained.

"So what do we do?" Liam asked, forcing his voice to stay level. He couldn't stand the thought of them judging him for his anger right now. Sitting on Mason's bed, he watched Scott closely and waited for any sign that he'd condone a revenge plan. "We can't let them get away with this."

"We're not. When my mom came out of surgery, she made me promise not to run," Scott said, looking each of them in the eye as he spoke. "No more peace summits. No more running. No more half measures."

"What's the plan, then?" Mason asked.

"We fight back."

The fire in Liam's sparked and crackled at that. He met Theo's icy, calculating gaze from across the room.

"I'm good with that plan," Isaac said.

"Me too," Theo added, as if there was ever any doubt in anyone's mind that fighting wasn't his second language. Hell, it was practically his love language.

"Gerard. Monroe. The hunters," Scott said. "We take them all on."

"I hate to be the bearer of bad news," Isaac said, "but you do realize at this point what it'll take to beat Gerard."

"We have to kill him," Malia said bluntly.

Scott's sigh was exasperated, and he pinched the bridge of his nose.