CHASING PHANTOMS // TEEN WOLF [bxb]

TETHERS

***

       "Come here, you crazy bastard," Jake shook his head as he took the two steps to his best friend and barreled Scott in a hug. He was beyond relieved that Scott was okay and not currently running around with the alpha pack.

       Scott showed up almost immediately after he got the call that they were formulating a plan that would find their parents. He laughed at Jake's enthusiasm and hugged him back just as tightly, taking a good look at him when they pulled away. 

       "Are you okay? I'm sorry I left you like that," he apologized since he felt guilty that the last time he'd seen him he was unconscious in the hospital corridor by himself.

       "It's your mom, Scott. You did the right thing," Jake waved it off with a clap to his shoulder and stepped aside to let Stiles nearly knock Scott down in his own hug. 

       There was no harm done because he would've told Scott to go anyway had he been conscious at the time. What none of them knew, however, was that Deucalion had found him first and had chosen to leave him unharmed.

      "Never do that again," Stiles scolded after he had crushed Scott enough for his liking, knowing full well that if anyone was getting their ribs smushed it was him with Scott's strength. 

       He was still on edge with his dad being missing, and more so now that Jennifer had three potential sacrifices, but he couldn't deny that having Scott back made him feel more at ease. The three of them were together again and they'd figure a way out of this just like they always did.

       "I hate to cut this reunion short but I can feel Isaac complaining about how long we're taking from here," Jake announced with a slight gesture to the backroom to remind them of the others that were waiting on them. Some more patiently than others.

       "Maybe he'll strangle himself with his own scarf out of boredom," Stiles shrugged as he contemplated letting him wait a little longer out of spite. 

       "Kidding! Kidding," he defended at the looks his two best friends shot him. "Maybe," he added with mischievous grin.

       "I heard that!" Isaac called from the back room, and the response earned laughs from the three as they finally moved to join the rest.

       "Looks more like he's going to strangle you with that scarf if you're not careful," Scott warned with the expression of content that had been missing from his face recently— one that would disappear again as soon as they stepped foot in the other room to discuss the matter at hand, and especially when he discovered his dad was in town.

***

       "So they really have to die for this?" Isaac asked again for what felt like the sixtieth time by now for everyone in the room, including himself. 

       He was just trying to wrap his head around how this was going to work without them dying, dying for real. He also did not want Allison to have to experience what he did with his own ice bath stint, just plus the death part.

       "He said that like seven times," Boyd reminded in a flat tone that still somehow managed to convey his exasperation with his friend, giving him a look from where he was leaning against the wall. 

       He really regretted letting Derek convince him to take a break from Cora's side to tell the others that neither Derek nor Peter remembered the exact location of the nemeton. Next time Derek could just send a text like a normal person.

       Isaac rolled his eyes at his friend and ignored him in favor of continuing to explain his thinking. 

       "I don't get why we can't just dunk Jake in one of these instead and see if it triggers something?" he asked with a gesture to the ice bath closest to him. "I mean, it worked for me after I got attacked and I don't even have his weird fortune teller shit," he explained.