Brett ended up carrying Jules back to the clinic in silence, the girl shivering in his arms, too traumatized to even say a single word. He could feel her tears as they were soaked up by his shirt. Jules grabbing onto it for dear life, never wanting to be let go.
When they finally got to the clinic Scott ran out taking his sister into his arms. He carried her to the table where Liam had previously been and placed her there. Deaton lifted up her shirt only enough so he could make the incision in her chest. Yellow smoke quickly rising out of her chest as she inhaled a normal breath of air.
She just layed there not talking to anyone, just staring at the light above her. She didn't know what to say, she knew she wanted to thank them but she knew words weren't enough. She turned to look at Scott, the boy having tears running down his face. "Is Liam okay?" She asked him her voice breaking in the process.
Scott nodded, smiling at her as he grabbed her hand. She smiled feeling the tears build up in her eyes again but not letting them go as she covered her face in relief. "We gotta go home, Mom's been worried and we have the PSAT tomorrow, are you sure you're gonna be okay to take it?" He asks her as she sits up slightly wincing.
"Yeah Scotty I'll be fine, nothing a good nights sleep can't fix." She says as Scott helps her stand. He holds her a little bit longer until he's sure she can stand on her own. They turn to Deaton smiling at him in goodbye as they walk to the door. Jules stops however, feeling the need to do one more thing.
"Can you wait for me outside, I gotta do something first." She tells Scott as he nods in agreement turning away to a walk out the door. She goes back to the room she had previously been in to see Brett sitting there. He looks up at her, his hands intertwined as he thinks of what to say. She doesn't say anything at first, but she walks up to him slowly wrapping her arms around him catching him by surprise.
He didn't know whether to hug her bak or not. "Thank you. . .for saving me." She tells him and at this Brett hugs the smaller girl back, his arms engulfing her as he closes his eyes and smiles. "I guess we're even now." He says to her, the girl letting out a slight chuckle.
"Yeah I guess we are." She tells him finally letting him go from her embrace as she smiles up at him. As she turns to leave she looks back once more seeing that he's still staring at her. Her cheeks heat up as she walks through the door realizing that maybe he wasn't so bad after all
Brett watched her leave as his cheeks were heating up as well. He had only known the girl for two days and she already had this kind've effect on him. Something about her intrigued him but he couldn't quite figure out what it was.
Brett, still wanting to talk to Jules, he decided he would ask Deaton for her number as he was the only one left in the clinic and Deaton had to text her every time they had an emergency at the clinic. Brett wasn't gonna let it end this way. She saved him, and he saved her, but he wanted more than that.
***
Jules had woken up feeling a little better than she felt yesterday, the sleep she got actually doing her some good. After getting home Scott had taken her to his room, showing her and Stiles the bag of money from Garrets locker.
She looked at it in shock. This money could pay off their debt along with Stiles' and yet they couldn't. It wasn't their money to spend. Not only that but Derek and Malia had found Bretts pack. The ones that they found all dead.
She didn't even notice how long she had been staring into space until she felt Scott nudge her shoulder."Jules you sure you're okay." He asks her sitting down next to her.
"Yeah I'm fine, just thinking." She tells him, her hands gripping her shirt. "You know you don't have to take the PSAT today, you can take it another day." He tells her worried for his sisters mental state.
"Scott it's okay I'm fine. . .we should. . .get to school." She tells him, Scott walking out of her room to wait for her downstairs as she changed. The words of her reflection lingering in her mind as she stared into space again.
***
The group of teens waited in line for what seemed like forever. Jules pulling the hair tie on her wrist to distract her self. Kira looked around as if she were looking for someone. "Where's Lydia?" She asks them.
"She took it her freshman year." Stiles answers her not looking at the girl. Malia turns to him slight annoyance in her voice. "Does that mean I could've taken it some other time." She asks him.
"Malia you studied harder for this than anyone." Scott tells her, trying to encourage her. "Doesn't mean I'm gonna do good." She tells him.
"Well." Stiles says correcting her.
"Well what?" She asks him confused. "It's well not good." He answers her. "Oh God!" She gasps.
"We're still doing this because while we're trying not to die we still need to live. If we survive I'd like to go to college, a good college." Scott tells the group of teens as the lines gets closer to the door. Yet Jules only looked at the ground not talking to any of them.
"It's only three hours, we can survive three hours." Kira says trying to encourage the group. They were soon let in, all of them placing their thumbs on the thumb pad and giving their phones to Ms.Martin and getting their test booklets and pencils.
Jules sits behind Scott as a teacher she's never seen before starts talking. "Please do not open the test booklet until you are instructed to do so." He says, Stiles immediately slamming his closed his after looking through the first few pages. "This test is two hours and ten minutes, there will be two twenty five minute critical reading sections, two twenty five minute math sections, and an essay writing portion that will last 30 minutes." He finishes.
"There's supposed to be two teachers monitoring this exam?" He asks, directing his voice to Ms.Martin. "I know, it's Coach he's not exactly punctual, let me just try him again." She says as she grabs her phone and walks outside.
The test soon starts, Jules' nerves building up more and more. She was passing through the questions with much more ease than she thought. She looked around her, Kira seeming to be doing well, Malia and Stiles seemed to be struggling as Malia took off her jacket due to the sweat and Stiles bit down on his pencil. She placed her eyes back on her test until she heard a thud behind hee coming from Sydney, who had just passed out and fell out of her chair.
"Sydney!" Ms.Martin calls out, helping the girl up from the floor. "Are you okay?" She asks. "Yeah, just felt a little dizzy." She says holding her head.
"How long have you had this." Ms.Martin asks her looking at the strange markings on her arm. "I don't know." Sydney tells her. "Ms.Martin do I need to stop the test." The other teacher in the room asks her.
"Uh no it's- it's fine." She tells him walking back to the front of the class, leaving as she grabs her phone. Scott turned to look at the group of teens, all of them confused as to what was happening.
Hearing Ms.Martin scream at a group of students, they all rush out only for her to tell them to get back in their seats.
***
Their test had stopped as they waited for the CDC to arrive, Scott telling them that Ms.Martin had called them, however he didn't know the reason why. Jules was desperate to get back in their and finish her test. She knew taking the PSAT would be good to prepare her for the actual test and if she wanted to get into a good college she would need to finish it. She just wanted to make her parents proud. Especially her mom who she knew struggles with paying the bills.
The group of teens watched as people in hazmat suits walked into the school carrying bags of equipment and setting it up in and empty classroom. "They think it's smallpox." Stiles tells the girls as Scott talks to Sydney.
"Not likely, smallpox was eradicated worldwide in 1979." The teacher says interrupting their conversation, their attention now on him. "We've only managed to eradicate two viruses in history, the other being rinderpest. . . it killed cows." He says.
"Oh and we're supposed to be comforted by that." Stiles says as Jules leans on Malia shoulder feeling a bit weak, but she just thought it was the effects of the wolfsbane being in her system for so long. "Unless it's something worse." He says answering Stiles."Whatever it is they're taking it pretty seriously, there's a lot of cars and trucks out there." Malia tells the group. "Your Dad's with them." Malia tells Stiles.
"I should call him." Stiles says as he grabs the envelope containing his phone. "Don't bother,they would've shut off any access to outside communication by now, no cell service, no wifi, no starting a panic. Looks like we're just gonna have to wait here and see what happens." He tell him directing his eyes back into his book.
***
Scott had been gone for a long time and Jules had started to track his scent eventually finding him in the boys locker room. She found him looking at himself in the mirror. His eyes red and his fangs protruding from his mouth as he held on tightly to the sink.
Jules could feel herself getting hotter and hotter. Her body starting to sweat as she leans against the locker, sliding down. Her eyes beginning to change color and her claws forming through her fingertips. She dug them into her palm trying to change back but it wasn't working. The pain wasn't making her human. The voices around her were distorted but she could hear Scott telling someone to get Stiles. Scott walked over to his sister putting her arms around his shoulder helping her stand. She said realised the person Scott was talking to happened to be Kira's Dad.
The group all gathered in the locker room, Scott unable to make his eyes go back to normal and Malia not being able to retract her claws. All of them sweating, the only person who seemed not to have a problem being Kira. "Obviously the virus is affecting you three the way it won't affect any other human being." Mr.Yukimura tells them. "You guys have to stay out of sight we have to quarantine you, from the quarantine." Stiles adds on. "Yeah but where? I mean what if they get violent like on a full moon" Kira tells him, concerned for her friends who were sweating buckets.
"Not in a locker room." Scott tells them. "A classroom is not gonna hold us." Malia adds.
"There isn't really any place to hide at school, unless any of you know some secret passage to a hidden room." Jules says jokingly, not realizing that Scott and Stiles' eyes had double in size.
"The Vault." Stiles says, almost in a whisper. "The Hale Vault."
"The Hales always have an escape route, there has to be another way in." They soon go to Coaches office where he keeps a map of the entire a school. "This is where the school sign is, so the Vaults got to be right about here." He says pointing to the map. "I suppose if there's a second entrance, it would probably be accessible from the basement." Mr.Yukimura tells them as Malia wipes the sweat off of her face.
"It's probably somewhere in this hallway. Or this corridor." Stiles says as his body jerks into Mr.Yukimuras. "It's happening to you too. You're getting sick. You all are." He tells them turning to Kira who looks back up at him. "I don't feel sick." She tells him, looking perfectly fine. "I think it's affecting you differently,neurologically." He then pulls out Kira test sheet. "I found your test answers here in a pile with the others." She grabs them from his hand only to see that her answers weren't even remotely in the right place.
Realizing this they all head down to the basement making sure no one sees them. They all looks round for some type of entrance. Jules feeling more weak as the seconds pass. "Hey guys over here!" Stiles tells them moving boxes out of the way. "Look at the cracks in the wall. Looks like the entrance outside, it only opens with claws. Anyone's claws, right?" He says looking at Scott. "Um Malia can you try." He asks her looking nervous. "Why me?" She asks him crossing her arms. "I don't have control." He says showing her his hand.
"Ok I'll do it. . .but first you have to tell me what you've been hiding from me." She tells them as Jules leans against Kira for support. "I know you think you're trying to protect me, but I can handle it. I know I'm on the list."
"Yes. . ." Stiles answers her nervously. "So how much?" She asks catching them by surprise. "How much what?" Stiles asks her. "How much am I worth." She says annoyed wanting to hear their answer. "Four million." Stiles answers her as she stays quiet. "You okay?"
"Yeah! Scott's worth 25, Jules 20, and Kira 6, they'll take you guys out way before me." She tells them, no regret in her voice as she puts her claws in the cracks in the walls. The door soon opening to reveal the Hale Vault.
***
Jules didn't know how much time had passed. She leaned against the wall, her hair sticking to her forehead and her vision slowly becoming blurry. She kept her claws in her palms hoping it would help change her back but nothing was working. She felt dizzy, she couldn't keep her attention focused on a single thing. The things in front of her looked so blurry it was almost as if she was looking into a kaleidoscope. She could feel her heartbeat start to slow down. Her breath sounded rigid as she tried to take deep breathes. She could feel herself letting go. The words said to her yesterday repeating in her head.
"They would be better off without you."
"Scott wouldn't have to worry about you all the time."
"Mom would have one less head to feed and take care of."
She could feel the tears streaming down her face as she had now completely become blind. Darkness filling her vision. She didn't react, she didn't say anything, she just let it happen. Jules McCall was tired of fighting. She was tired of everything. The deadpool, Erica's death, Boyd's death.
Aiden's death.
If Scott knew the things that went on in Jules' head, she knew he would look at her differently. He would treat her as a weak person who needed to be taken care of and she hated that. She didn't need to become a burden to anyone else. All she needed to do was let go. So that's what she did.
She let go.
***
Scott waited for Stiles to return as he had left to get help. Soon the rest of the teens lost their sight as well. Malia and Kira both began panicking as they tried finding their way through the vault. Both girls pleading with Scott to help them.
But there was one thing lingering around his head. He couldn't hear Jules. She wasn't saying anything. She wasn't panicking. There was nothing.
Silence.
That was all there was. There was four of them in that room not including Stiles. So he did the only thing he could do, he listened for the three girls heartbeats. But what he heard next was the thing that broke him internally.
He only heard two heartbeats.