OF COURSE I'M GOING TO WORRY ABOUT YOU
"I'VE got to meet with the medical examiner and try to figure out what happened with Jackson. I've got an APB out on Stiles. His Jeep is still in the parking lot, so that means..." sheriff Stilinski murmured defeatedly to Scott, Isaac and Aspen.
"I don't know what that means..." he added in a sigh. "Um, look, if he answers his phone, if he answers his emails, if either one of you see him-"
"You'll be the first person we call." Aspen whispered, also in defeat.
The fact that Stiles was nowhere to be found was making her feel like the ground beneath her was shifting.
"She's right, we'll call you." said Isaac in a soft, comforting voice.
"Look, he's probably just freaked out from all the attention or something." Scott suggested, "We'll find him."
"Yeah..." said Noah, "I'll see you, okay?"
The three teenagers nodded at the man as he left the locker room, Isaac and Scott were drawn to the immense worry that Aspen was radiating.
"Hey." Isaac nudged her arm as her gaze was locked on the ground. "He'll be fine."
Aspen lifted her head up, and the two werewolves were suddenly aware of the red rims around her eyes.
She was on the verge of crying, just like the sherif was.
"Do you really believe that?" her question came out as a weak whisper as she looked up at the Lahey boy who towered over her in height.
Isaac waited a short moment before nodding his head at her, and then he surprised her by wrapping his muscular arms around her small frame.
She found a weird amount of comfort in the action, considering this was the same boy who had tried to kill her not long ago.
"I don't know what I'd do if something happened to him..." she whispered as Isaac hugged her.
"Asp," said Scott as Isaac released her, "we'll find him."
Then Coach Finstock approached, looking like he was actually about to be sincere for once.
"McCall... We need you on the team, okay?" said coach, "You know I can't put you on the field next season if you don't get your grades up."
"Yeah, I know, Coach..."
"All right. I mean, I-I know I yell a lot, but it's not like I hate you guys." Coach shrugged, "Well, I kind of hate Greenberg, but, you know... that's different. It's Greenberg..."
That managed to get Aspen to chuckle.
"I'm just saying, we- I need you on the team. Get your grades back up."
"I will." Scott nodded.
Finstock left the locker room, only leaving Scott Isaac and Aspen left.
"Is that everyone?" Scott asked.
"Yeah, that's everyone." Aspen murmured.
Scott opened his locker and ripped the door off the hinges, like it was a totally casual thing to do.
"Was that really necessary?" Aspen mumbled, her eyes widening at the dented locker door on the ground.
"You're gonna find him by scent?" Isaac asked Scott, as the McCall boy began sniffing one of Stiles' shirts.
"Yeah." Scott answered bluntly, "We all are."
Isaac snapped his head towards Aspen who's eyes were widened yet again, her brows furrowed.
"Are you...?" Isaac said hesitantly, pointing his finger at Aspen as he cocked his head to the side.
"Long story." she scoffed, "But Scott, I'm not like you guys, whatever I am, I'm not going to be able to catch a scent or whatever."
"You healed from a gunshot to the stomach, Asp." Scott raised his brows at her, Isaac's eyes widening in shock as this was the first he was hearing of it.
"Right, but I don't know what I am. Derek still hasn't told me anythi-"Aspen's words trailed off as Scott's eyeline was gazing at something behind her now.
Her and Isaac both shared a confused glance as they too turned around to see what had caught Scott's attention.
"Fucking hell!" Aspen gasped in shock as Derek stood there. "How are you everywhere!"
"We need to talk." was all Derek mumbled in response.
"Yeah, no kidding." Aspen scoffed, "You said you were gonna tell me about..."
Her voice trailed off again when she heard footsteps from behind Derek.
And then her eyes laid on Peter Hale, in the flesh, very much alive and not burnt to a crisp.
"Holy shit." she muttered.
"What the hell is this?!" Scott spoke up, just as shocked as the Carter girl to be seeing Peter Hale before their eyes.
"You know," Derek said, "I thought the same thing when I saw you talking to Gerard at the Sheriff's station..."
"Okay, hold on!" Scott yelled defensively, "He-he threatened to kill my mom! And I had to get close to him. What was I supposed to do?"
"I'm gonna go with Scott on this one." said the formerly-dead Hale man, "Have you seen his mom? She's gorgeous!"
"Shut up." Derek, Scott and Aspen all said at the same time.
"...Who is he?" Isaac ducked his head down to Aspen's height to ask her in a quiet but confused voice.
"Derek's uncle. Peter Hale. A right creep who's attempted homocide on all of us at one point or another, then he burnt to death which was quite symbolic to be honest with you, and then his dear nephew here slashed his bloody throat out."
"Beautiful summary." Peter smiled, "Hi."
"..That's good to know." Isaac stood up straight again.
"How the hell is he alive?" Aspen turned her attention back to Derek.
"Look, the short version is he knows how to stop Jackson..." Derek explained, "and maybe how to save him."
"Well, that's very helpful..." said Isaac, "except Jackson's dead."
Aspen snapped her head up to look at Isaac with widened eyes.
"Dead?" her voice came out weak and whispered from the grief and shock.
Isaac gave her a look that suggested he didn't understand why she sounded so surprised.
"No one told me he was... actually dead..." she said weakly, not knowing how she was supposed to feel.
She hated Jackson, he had said things to her that would stick within her depths of insecurities forever, he treated Lydia like she was dirt on the sole of his shoe, he hadn't been a good person in a long time.
But the idea of him being dead terrified her. Death has always terrified her, no matter how many times she experiences losing someone.
Plus, Jackson wasn't a stranger, and she didn't always hate him.
Once upon a time they were friends, and good ones at that.
"He's dead?" Derek repeated in shock as Aspen stood there, battling her grieving emotions.
"Yeah, Jackson's dead. It just happened on the field." said Scott.
"Why is no one taking this as good news?" Isaac asked, earning a scoff from Aspen.
"What a big heart you have, Lahey." she mumbled.
"Because if Jackson is dead," Peter started to explain, "it didn't just happen- Gerard wanted it to happen."
"Why?" Aspen asked, "I thought the Kanima was supposed to be his beloved pet."
"Well, that's exactly what we need to figure out." Peter replied. "And something tells me the window of opportunity is closing. Quickly."
▬▬▬
Aspen found herself reluctantly trekking through the woods not long after Peter Hale showed up, the five of them headed to the Hale house to try and find answers to why Gerard would want Jackson dead.
But Aspen's mind flicked back to the worry of Stiles.
Worrying about whether he'd shown up yet, worrying over whether he was hurt or not.
But all the worrisome emotions were washed away when Scott looked at his phone, and sighed, "They found Stiles." in relief.
Aspen's head shot up with relief and hope glimmering in her eyes, then she gulped again as the only thought she had was how she wanted to ditch these guys and go see him.
Scott noticed and spoke up again before she could even say anything.
"Go." he said softly, stopping in their tracks, Isaac too.
"Are you sure?" she felt she had to ask, but in her mind she was already running in the other direction.
"Of course." said Scott, putting a hand on her shoulder. "Go make sure he's okay."
She gave both boys a half-hearted smile before she did as she was told, and bolted in the other direction as fast as she could to get to Stiles.
▬▬▬
Twenty minutes later, after a lot of running and walking through the town of Beacon Hills, Aspen found herself stood on the other side of Stiles' door, which her fist curled up ready to knock on it.
Noah let her in without so much as a hint of hesitation, he knew the one person his son really needed to see was the girl who had run all across town to get here.
Aspen knocked on the door a couple times, her heart still racing.
"I'm fine, dad!" she heard his voice call out, then she knocked again.
"Dad, I said I'm fi-" his words came to a halt as he opened the mahogany door, his hazel eyes meeting her emerald ones.
Immediately, Aspen noticed the bloody cuts on his cheek and the red rims around his eyes, sending her into more panic.
"What the hell happened?" she asked with concern, stepping forward eliminating the space and bringing her small hands up to his jaw, tears starting to brim as she looked at the wound.
"Asp, it's nothing-"
"That's not nothing!" she argued, her glossy eyes meeting his.
"Don't worry about me." Stiles tried to softly pry her arms away, but she wasn't buying it.
"Don't worry about you?" she repeated his words with a tone of accusation at how ridiculous that was. "Stiles, I love you, of course I'm going to worry about you when you go missing and then turn up with a bloody gash to the face!"
"Asp." he said softly, his calming voice already having its desired effect on her.
She took in a deep breath and lowered her hands from his face, using one of them to dry her eyes, trying to prevent the threatening tears from spilling.
"Do you want to come in?" Stiles asked softly, not able to take his eyes off of hers.
Even when they were glossy with tears, he still found himself lost in them.
She gulped down a lump in her throat and nodded, walking into his room and sitting on his bed.
He sat down next to her, and for a moment they just sat in an uncomfortable silence.
Aspen had her legs crossed with her fiddling hands in front of her, her eyes fixated on his bedroom wall.
Stiles sat with her feet rested on the ground, his hands clasped with one another, as he stared at the bedroom floor.
"Jackson's dead." Aspen finally broke the deafening silence with a broken whisper.
On the way over here, she had come to terms with the fact that she did grieve Jackson. Because the person he had been these past couple months wasn't him, it was the worst parts of him manifesting itself into one alter-ego. Before so much got in the way, she was his friend, in fact, along with Danny, she was probably his best friend.
And now he was dead.
"I'm sorry." Stiles whispered into the quiet room, his tone filled with genuine sincerity.
Silence washed over them again, but this time Aspen shifted her legs so that they dangled off his bed, and she moved her body closer so she could lean her head on his broad shoulder.
This time, it wasn't a voice that broke the silence, but the sound of Stiles' phone going off with incoming texts.
Aspen furrowed her brows at how quickly the pings were coming in, and lifted her head off of Stiles' shoulder.
"You should probably check your phone." she mumbled to him, and he picked up his cell from the other side of him, checking the screen to see loads of texts from his best friend.
"It's Scott." he stated, unlocking his phone.
They both looked at the screen to see a series of 'Peter frickin Hale is alive' texts, along with a hell of a lot of 'where are you's.
"Please tell me I've lost the ability to read and that does not say that Peter Hale is alive." Stiles asked the girl beside him.
"It's true, I saw him in the flesh. Still just as creepy, if you were wondering." she tried to lighten their somber mood with her natural jokey sarcasm.
Stiles just looked stunned, but there wasn't time to dwell on that thought when Aspen's phone now started buzzing off the hook with incoming messages.
She gave Stiles a puzzled look before grabbing her phone out of her jean pocket.
She unlocked it and saw all the texts were from Scott, but hers were a lot different.
FROM DOGBOY🐶:
There might be a way to save Jackson, using a connection from his human nature.
Aspen and Stiles both looked up at each other with quizzical expressions, until a follow-up text came through.
FROM DOGBOY🐶:
It requires you, though. You're his strongest connection.
"No way." Stiles was quick to shut it down before she could even get a word in.
"Stiles-"
"No, I'm not having you be the centre of some dangerous plan to bring him back to life, Aspen!" Stiles sprung up from the bed and began pacing.
"Hey." she spoke firmly, standing to her feet, her loud voice stopping him from pacing the bedroom floor. "I love you, okay?"
As stressed and panicked as he was, Stiles' heart still melted hearing those words again.
"I love you too," he was quick to rebuttal, "which is why I don't want you putting yourself in a situation that could possibly get you killed."
"Let me finish." she said softly, walking over to where he stood on the other side of the room.
"I love you, but that doesn't mean you can make decisions like this for me."
"Asp, you could get hurt!"
"If I can save his life, Stiles, I'm gonna do it!"
"You don't care about getting hurt, do you?" Stiles concluded, taking a step forward so that there was less than a meter between them, his height lingering over her short frame.
"You may not care about getting hurt, but I do. If you get hurt, I would go out of my god damn mind. If something were to happen to you, I swear to God,
I would lose a part of me too!"
"I'm not gonna get hurt!" she raised her voice just as he did, both of their arms flailing in the air.
"You don't know that!" he took another step closer with his raised voice that was border lining on being a yell.
"I'm not gonna die." she changed her words, as the brimming tears from a couple moments ago resurfaced, her eyes swimming in the honey specs of his own.
"You don't know that either." he shouted, "And death doesn't just happen to you, Aspen, it happens to everyone around you, okay? To all the people left standing at your funeral, trying to figure out how they're gonna live the rest of their lives now, without you in it?"
Aspen took a small step back at his raised voice, the things he was saying were resigning in the depths of her chest. Maybe he wasn't thinking as the words spilled out, because everything he was saying were things she already knew. From experience.
"And look at my face, huh?" he added, stepping forward again when she stepped back, pointing at the bloody wound on the side of his face that made her heart drop just by looking at it. "Come on, you think this was meant to hurt me?"
"Stiles!" she finally found it in her to raise her voice back, she hated that this visit had turned so sour. "You're talking as if I want to die!"
Stiles snapped out of his brief moment of anger, stepping away from her and examining her face, seeing that she was hesitant crying, looking up at him with worry.
"I-" he stuttered in a whisper, "I'm sorry."
"Look, I get it, I really do." it was her turn to talk now, though she kept her tone calm and collected. "You're worried about me, like I worry about you."
She took a couple steps towards him, as their eyes got lost in each other's.
"But you know me better than anyone else." she said softly, bringing her hands up to his face. "You know if I have the chance to save someone, that I'm always going to take it."
Stiles looked down at her, feeling the soft skin of her dainty hands clasp his face.
He looped his own arms around her waist as they looked at each other with longing and adoration.
"I know," he whispered, "And it's one of the many reasons I fell for you."
They both smiled weakly but sincerely, as he tilted his neck down and kissed her with all the passion he had.
She returned it with an equal amount, moving her hands from his face to loop around the back of his neck, his hands still firmly on her waist as the lips collided.
Every kiss still felt like the first, they never lost that feeling of novelty. And as hard as their lives were with all of the supernatural terrors they had to face every day, Aspen still revelled in the glory that she had finally won the boy's heart, just like he won hers years ago.
When they kiss, it still feels like she was dreaming and any second she would wake up and it would no longer be her reality. But it was.
As they finally parted from the kiss, both of their smile's had grown significantly from before, as they stared at one another with the softest and purest expressions.
Because amongst everything wrong with their lives, they felt right.
They only hoped that feeling would last.