The search party had left Venus by her car a couple minutes ago, Lydia had called saying she knew where the boy was and Venus had quickly agreed to stay behind after Dereks reminder. Part of her hoped that whatever was happening had something to do with Stiles, but he said he was in a basement. Ignoring her doubts, she drives down to the preserve, mainly following her gut feeling as she makes her way through the trees.
She wasn't entirely sure on where she was headed before she found herself in the clearing by her mother's tree. It was Nymph tradition to be buried in your protected area, and that's where Venus had found herself that night. The pain in her head was only growing at that point, so she did what she had learned and succumbed to it. It took a few seconds before the whispers became clearer, finally helping her understand why they were referring to coyotes.
Malias den.
Venus immediately pushed herself into a sprint, remember exactly where they had been only a few night ago. She starts to slow down as she nears it, looking closely around her for any sign of the boy and that's when she heard it. A quiet whimpering coming from between the trees. Walking towards it, she notices his freezing body right away. She pulls off her jacket and runs towards him, lying it on his front as she hold his shoulders against her front and attempts to shake him awake. Then he starts screaming.
"Stiles! Stiles it's me, i've got you, it's okay!" she tried to calm him down but his yelling and whimpering only continue. "Stiles you're alright! Hey, look at me." he finally stops his yelling as he notices that it was just Venus but her body goes into panic as she spots two figures running towards them. She calms down almost instantly however as she notices it was just the Mccalls.
The missing boy was now lying in Venus' arms, fully awake and breathing heavily as her hands run up and down his arms, trying to get him warm in any way.
"How did you figure it out?" Raphael McCall asks, his eyes narrowing at the girl sprawled across the dirt.
Melissa notices the panic in the girls eyes as she tried to come up with a convincing lie, the woman pushing past her ex husband and moving closer to the two shivering teens. "Does it matter? At least we found him."
Melissa helps Venus lift Stiles off the ground, the boy holding tightly onto the both of them as they make their way back to Mccalls car. Venus gets in the back seat next to Stiles, the boy refusing to let go of her hand.
"Hey, I found him." Venus speaks as soon as Scott answers her call. "We're on the way to the hospital."
"Is he okay?" she hears Stilinski yell from nearby, clearly having been on speaker.
"He's not hurt, don't worry."
"We'll meet you guys there."
The rest of the car ride was silent, the only sound being heard was Stiles' heavy breathing as he rested his head on Venus' shoulder, his finger clutching tightly onto her own. Her mind was running wild trying to figure out why this was still happening to him, her dainty fingers resting on his cheek.
The two of them only part when they reach the hospital and they take Stiles to a room so they could check he was okay. Venus was sat outside on the waiting chairs alongside Lydia and Scott as Melissa and Raphael paced in front of them while the sheriff was inside with his son.
All of them come to a stand still as they see Stilinski coming out from Stiles' room and approaching them. "He's sleeping now and he's just fine."
The group in front of him let out a collective sigh of relief at his words.
"He doesn't remember much, it's a bit like a dream to him." the man continues before turning to Venus and Scotts father. "Thank you. Both of you."
"It was the repellent we sprayed in the coyote den to keep the other animals out." Mccall explains. "I couldn't go near it without my eyes watering. It's just a good thing he mentioned it over the phone."
"No, it was more than that. Thank you."
"It was a lucky connection, Venus was already there when we got to him."
"Mccall, can you shut up please and accept my sincerest gratitude." the taller man hesitated before accepting and shaking the sheriffs hand.
Melissa then turns to the three teens with a small smile. "Alright you three, you've got school in less than six hours. Go home and get some sleep."
The three of them begin walking away, Lydias steps faltering a little before Scott starts pulling her along.
"I was so sure." Lydia whispers to them, keeping her eye straight ahead.
"I wasn't much help either." Scott admits. "Doesn't matter though as long as he's okay."
•••
School seemed like the least of Venus' priorities that next day. There was a million and one thoughts racing through her head all day, it was like she was functioning on auto-pilot. It was the same for almost all of her friends, everyone who was there last night, no one seemed to have any idea what was happening to Stiles, not even Deaton. It was safe to say it was driving them all crazy.
Venus barely even noticed when Lydia bumped into her in the middle of the hall. The strawberry blonde didn't even give her a second glance before continuing down the hall, causing confusion to fill the brunette she left behind.
"Venus!" Scott calls from behind her, startling her and making the boy laugh. "You okay?"
"Yeah, yeah, sorry. I just zoned out a little." she gives him a not so convincing smile but he brushes it off since he had an idea about how she was feeling.
"Well I was going to see Stiles today, they're running tests all afternoon. He asked me to bring you with me."
"Why?"
"You were the one that found him, Vee."
"Uh, well, if he asked for me then I can't really say no can I?" she lets out a small laugh before pointing her finger straight at his face. "But i'm not getting on that death trap of a bike of yours."
•••
Knocking gently on the hospital room door, she opens it slowly, locking eyes with the pale boy almost instantly. Scott had just left the room a couple minutes ago, allowing her to talk to the boy alone.
"Hey." she greets him, taking slow steps into his room after closing the door behind her.
"Hey, Vee." he speaks quietly, giving her a small smile. "I, uh, I never got to thank you. For last night."
"Don't be stupid." she perches herself on the end of his bed. "There's absolutely nothing to thank me for, you would've done the same for any of your friends too."
"I guess, yeah."
Venus reluctantly reaches her hand out and takes hold of his cold fingers, contrasting with the warmth of her palms. "How're you feeling?"
"Disoriented. Tired, mostly." he shrugs, looking at her. "But i'm okay, I guess."
Their conversation was cut short by the boys dad walking into the room, informing him they were taking him down to the MRI room. Venus stood up and was about to say goodbye to Stiles before he latched onto her hand again.
"Could you stay?" he asks her quietly and she couldn't even think about saying no.
Venus walked alongside Scott down to the room they were taking Stiles. She never really liked hospitals, for this exact reason, but with the amount of times she'd been here in the past couple months, she was starting to get used to it. Somehow, watching Stiles being wheeled around had brought back all the uncomfortableness.
They're all stood in the white room, listening to the doctor explain what would happen during the scan before Stiles' dad gives him a reassuring smile and leaves the room with the two other adults.
"You know what they're looking for, right?" Stiles looks up at his two friends through his eyelashes, not feeling quite prepared for this conversation. "It's called frontotemporal dementia. Areas of your brain start to shrink, it's what my mother had. The only form of dementia that can hit teenagers and there's no cure."
Venus felt the urge to cry at his words, she hadn't known the boy for that long but he didn't deserve this. No one ever deserved a fate like this. She fought her urges though, knowing she couldn't cry here in front of everyone, no matter how emotional she was.
Scott hesitated for a second, seeming to be fighting his own emotions. "Stiles, if you have it, we'll do something. I'll do something."
"I bet you there's a healing tree somewhere we can take you to." Venus attempts to lighten the mood, thinking back to when he told her he had done some research about Nymphs and what they can do.
Stiles lets a small smile cross his features as he looks at the girl, before looking back at his best friend and pulling him into a tight hug. Venus watches them with sad eyes, until they pull apart and Stiles pulls her in for a hug.
"Thank you for being here." he whispers into her hair.
"We're friends now right?" she whispers back, smiling at him before placing a soft peck on his cheek and walking out into the waiting area with Scott.
EDITED