So close. I hope you guys are still enjoying even though Stiles isn't really here at the moment
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Hours later the sun had set and I was still at the hospital with Isaac and Iris. Charlotte had gotten out of surgery about an hour after Scott had left, but was yet to wake up. Her doctors had told us she would be okay, but until I was talking to her myself, I wouldn't believe it.
Isaac had gone down to the cafeteria to get some coffees for everyone so for the moment, it was just Iris and I with Charlotte. I sat in one of the seats beside her bed watching her sleep. She shifted slightly every now and then, which told me she was at least alive. Iris was sitting in a chair on the other side of the bed holding my sister's hand and talking softly to her.
I couldn't help but thinking back to when the roles had been reversed after Isaac had found me buried in the woods. Was this how Charlotte had felt watching me lay unconscious?
My phone began buzzing on the table beside the bed, a call coming through. I picked up my phone and read the screen before looking over at Iris.
"It's Stiles."
"Go. Answer it," she smiled gently. "I'm not going anywhere."
I thanked her as I stood up from the chair and left the room, answering the phone. I let the door close behind me, but stood right outside the room, not wanting to go too far.
"Hey, Stiles. How was school?" I asked, trying to sound like everything was okay.
"Good, yeah it was really good," he replied. I could almost hear the smile in his voice.
"This is all so crazy, Ri. I still can't believe I'm actually training at the FBI."
For the first time in almost 24 hours, a genuine smile reached my lips. "I'm so proud of you, Agent."
"Thanks, Ri," Stiles said. "Still no news on Derek, though. They're hunting him down still and I think they might actually be getting closer."
"I hope not, because I really doubt he'll be able to talk himself out of a federal prison," I sighed.
Stiles scoffed on the other end of the line, "Definitely not. I mean, the werewolf attitude alone."
I attempted to laugh, but it came out rather flat. It was hard to joke around with everything that was going on.
"Ri, are you okay?" Stiles asked softly, a note of worry in his voice.
I cleared my throat, nodding to myself. "Yeah, sorry. It's just, uh, it's been a long day."
"You seem to be having a lot of those lately," he observed.
"What can I say? It's Beacon Hills," I replied, hoping that he would accept that as enough of an answer.
There was a moment of silence and I was worried that he was going to give me the third degree over the phone. Instead, his voice seemed to quieten as he spoke, "You know that you can talk to me, right?"
"Of course I do, Stiles," I replied, not leaving room for hesitation.
"I can't wait to come home," I said, hoping to change the conversation.
"Me, too," Stiles said. "Don't forget you need to be home in time for your orientation. How much longer are you planning on staying in Beacon Hills?"
"Yeah, I know. I will be," I told him, thankful for the reminder that I did in fact have a coarse I was supposed to be starting. "Not too much longer, I don't think."
There was a tapping on the window behind me and I turned to see Iris standing with a smile on her face. Looking past her, I saw Charlotte laying in the bed still, but her eyes were open now.
"Hey, I'm gonna go, okay? You need rest for school," I said, getting ready to walk back into the room.
"Oh, yeah, you're right. It is starting to get late," he said with a small laugh. "Talk tomorrow."
"Definitely," I replied. "I love you."
"Love you, too."
I hung up the phone and rushed back into the hospital room. Charlotte's head lolled to the side as she heard me coming, a small smile reaching her lips.
"I'm getting really sick of this hospital," she laughed weakly.
"Dammit, Char," I sobbed as I went over and wrapped my arms around her.
"I'm okay," she whispered to me, stroking my back gently as I held onto her. "I'm okay."
I wiped my eyes as I pulled back, smiling down at her. "I know. I'm just. . . I'm so glad to see you."
"I'm glad to see you too, Ri."
She laid back down on the pillow, a light sheen of sweat on her forehead. "Are you okay?"
Charlotte looked down at herself and then up to me, "Well, I have a hole in my stomach, so I've been better."
"It wasn't exactly your stomach, but either way, you're very lucky, Miss Winters," the doctor said as he entered the room.
"What can you tell us? Is she going to be okay?" Iris asked as she sat back in her chair, reaching over and holding Charlotte's hand.
The doctor nodded, looking down at his chart. "Thankfully, they were able to tend to all the damage done by the bullet during your surgery. Besides that, you're through the worst part. Although, you will need to be on bedrest for a while."
"That does sound pretty awful," Charlotte frowned playfully, looking between Iris and I. "I mean, having you both at my beck and call, bringing me chocolate and books and anything else I want. Honestly. . . it's tragic."
I rolled my eyes with a smile, crossing my arms, "Well, maybe I'll just head back to Washington, make it a little better for you."
Charlotte laughed as she turned back to the man at the door. "Thanks, doctor. Thank you all for saving my life."
"Just doing our job, Miss Winters," the doctor smiled. He then informed Charlotte of her medication and when it was to be taken, before leaving.
Charlotte groaned as she shifted in her bed, trying to get more comfortable. Iris began to worry, her brows pinching, "Are you alright? Is there anything I can do?"
My sister bit her lip with a smile, putting her free hand on top of Iris'. "Just by being here, you're already doing so much."
Iris laughed softly, her eyes glazed over with unshed tears as she leaned over and pressed a kiss to the top of Charlotte's hand. "You know I'm not leaving your side for a single moment."
I had never seen them together like this, and it really made me realise just how much they loved each other. It also made me feel like I was intruding on a moment.
"Scott asked me to call when you woke up, so I'm going to call him and check on Isaac," I told the women as I stood up, picking my phone up off of the side table.
Charlotte smiled as she looked at me, "Go and help your friends. I'll still be here when you get back."
"You'd better be," I warned jokingly, walking over and kissing her on the cheek before saying goodbye to them both and heading down to the lobby.
I ran into Isaac on the way out of the elevator, a smile on my face as I threw my arms around him. Isaac was quickly to put his arms out so that I didn't spill the coffees all over both of us.
"Woah, what happened?"
"She's awake," I smiled as I pulled away. "The doctor said she's through the worst of it now."
Isaac's face split into a grin, "See? What did I tell you?"
I rolled my eyes as I looked up at him, "Alright, no need to get smart about it."
"Sorry, all I heard was, 'you were right and I was wrong, Isaac. I'll never question your geniusness again.'"
"You're such a smartass," I laughed as I pulled my phone out of my pocket and dialled Scott's number.
"Ri, hey, how's Char?"
"She's okay. She's awake now," I told him.
There was a sigh of relief from the other end of the phone, "Good, I'm glad. Look, I'm sorry to cut the moment short, but you and Isaac should come down to the school. I think there's something you need to see."
"Well, that doesn't sound good," I groaned. "We'll be there soon."
Isaac watched as I lowered my phone, his smile falling. "Back to work?"
"Another to you, Lahey."
♧♤♢♡
Isaac pulled his bike to a stop in front of the school about fifteen minutes later. We followed his sense of smell until we found Scott, Malia, Theo and Liam waiting in a classroom.
None of them were smiling, and I was beginning to grow afraid to ask why.
"What's going on, Scott? What did you find?"
"In there," he said quietly, pointing to a chest freezer against the wall.
Isaac and I walked over, both of us quite nervous. Isaac reached out and propped open the lid of the freezer carefully, not sure what we would find inside.
The smell hit me before anything else; like rotted flesh. Which wasn't exactly far from being right. In the freezer were three dead bodies. Each of them appeared to be missing their eyes and possibly their teeth.
It was strange though, it wasn't just like their eyes had been scooped out. It looked like maybe they'd been torn out, but they also had several cuts coming for their eye sockets, lines of blood frozen down their frostbitten skin.
"What the hell happened to them?" Isaac asked as he stared at the bodies.
Liam, surprisingly, was the one with the answer to this question. "A guy on the lacrosse team, Gabe, was testing students to see if they were werewolves. They were cutting them to see if they would heal. He said that he wasn't killing them, though.
"This- this was the Anuk-ite looking for its other half. Any time they found someone who was a werewolf, they ended up like this."
I thought about what he said, closing the lid of the freezer. "You said 'they'. who was working with Gabe?"
"The Anuk-ite's first half," Theo told me. "Aaron. Another player on the lacrosse team."
"It gets worse," Malia stated.
"How in the holy hell could it get worse than this?" I asked, gesturing to the freezer.
Scott scratched the back of his neck before crossing his arms in fron of him. "Malia and I went searching out this other pack - the Primal. We were hoping that they would help us fight Gerard. We found them, but they had all already been killed. And they all looked like that."
He nodded towards the freezer, and I felt sick to my stomach. What an awful way to die.
"And then Lydia showed up," Scott sighed.
Isaac's eyes widened, "God, we leave you alone for a few hours and suddenly there's dead bodies everywhere. Why was Lydia there?"
"She said that Halwyn led her there," Malia told us.
"'Halwyn'?" I repeated. "As in the dead Hellhound? That Halwyn?"
"Yeah," she nodded. "She found another body just like the one that Parrish killed. It was skinned just like the last, and we saw that it had the symbol of the Primal pack burned into its muscle. Whoever the other half of the Anuk-ite is, they were apart of that Pack."
"Okay," I said slowly, trying to take everything they had just told me in.
"This is just the start," Liam stated. "There's going to be a lot more if we don't find Aaron's other half."
"Which we know nothing about," Theo pointed out.
Scott turned to the chimera, "Well, we do know one thing. We know it's a werewolf."
"That's kind've interesting," I thought aloud. "Don't you think? How one face is human and one is a werewolf."
"Maybe it's a part of what makes the Anuk-ite the Anuk-ite. Two halves making one whole. One human, one supernatural."
"Either way, we need to find this other werewolf right now," the youngest Beta said.
"Preferably before they merge," Theo tacked on.
Isaac held a hand up, "Wait, what? Why? What happens if they merge?"
We were more behind than I thought.
"I don't know," the True Alpha admitted. "But I've got a feeling that it's not going to be good."
"Any chance you got to put together that army, Scott?" Liam asked.
"You're looking at it," Malia sighed disappointedly.
She had mentioned earlier that they were going to try talking to Deucalion, but apparently that hadn't worked out. They had offered for me to come with them to talk to him, but I had refused. I didn't care if Scott thought he had changed - the last time he was in town he had killed my mother and then tried to kill me.
I ran my fingers through my hair, hand shaking slightly. "Well, this just keeps getting better."
"Let's hope this thing doesn't feed off of desperation, because this room reeks of it."
We all turned to see none other than Peter Hale standing in the doorway. Half his face was covered in soot and he held what appeared to be a steering wheel in one of his hands.
My mouth fell slightly agape as I turned to Scott and Malia, "What the hell is he doing here?" I then turned to Peter, "What the hell are you doing here?"
Yes, I didn't hate him anymore, but nothing good tended to come from him being in town. Plus, I usually liked a heads up when my previously homocidal birth father was back in town. Especially when my sister and best friend were the ones to call him.
"I could ask you the same," Peter said as he focussed on me. "I thought the point of helping you buy an apartment in a whole other state was so that you wouldn't come back to this godforsaken town."
I shrugged, "What can I say? My friends needed help, so I'm here."
"And I certainly don't know where you get that from."
"My mother," I answered. "Clearly."
"What happened?" Scott asked, nodding his head towards the steering wheel.
Peter held it up, frowning heavily, "The hunters destroyed my perfect automobile. So, if this things had anything to do with it, I'd like to see its demise is appropriately painful."
"Good to see you haven't changed," I stated as he dropped the steering wheel into the bin beside the door.
"Why does it matter?" Malia asked our father. "I thought you had two cars?"
He held up what I could only assume was what was let of his second car. "There's going to be hell to pay."
♧♤♢♡
Theo offered to take Liam home, while Peter somehow managed to convince Malia to give him a ride. Isaac, Scott and I walked out into the parking lot together, where Isaac offered to give me a ride home.
I turned to Scott, pursing my lips. "Would you mind if I stayed at your place tonight? Iris is staying at the hospital with Char and I just. . . I don't want to be alone."
"Yeah, of course, Ri. You know you're always welcome," Scott told me as he walked up to the Jeep. "Do you wanna ride with me? I'm sure you're missing the Jeep over in Washington."
Isaac nodded, "I'll meet you guys back at the house, then."
"Thanks, Isaac," I smiled before he went over to his bike. I then went to the passenger side of the car, talking to Scott, "I do miss it, actually. We have so many memories in this car."
"Tell me about it," Scott said as he climbed into the driver's seat. "I'm honestly surprised it's survived this long."
"It's definitely had its share of close calls."
We drove along quietly, the police scanner humming between us. Being in the Jeep and driving through the streets of Beacon Hills almost made me feel like I was back in high school. It would be more nostalgic if we weren't here under such dark circumstances.
"I'm sorry about Char, Ri," Scott said quietly out of no where.
I turned to him with brows furrowed, "Why are you apologising.
He bit his lip, sighing, "I just. . . I feel like this happened because of me. If I hadn't been bitten, if I hadn't let the Argetns into our lives, if Gerard wasn't so hellbent on killing the supernatural, none of this would have happened. My mum, Lydia, Mason, Char - none of them would have been shot. Brett and Lori would probably still be alive, too."
My heart broke to hear those works come from him. Scott had only ever cared about helping other people, so of course he was putting the weight of these losses on his shoulders. He always thought he had to be the one to bare it alone.
I reached over and put a hand on his arm, "Scott, none of this is your fault. Sure, you were bitten - you're the werewolf. But that doesn't mean that any of this happened because of you. I mean, we live in Beacon Hills, we became friends with an Argent, Lydia and I were born supernatural - one way or another, we were going to go down this path. It's just. . . it's chaos theory."
"What do you mean?" he asked.
I pursed my lips as I brought my hand back, "Well, your bite was just a small change to something already there that brought forth the outcome. You had no control over how that change would affect us or the outcome."
Scott looked from the road to me, and then back again. "I just feel like nothing I do is actually helping."
"Scott, believe me when I say that if that were true, we would have been dead a long time ago," I assured him.
The True Alpha thanked me as he pulled into his driveway, putting the Jeep into park.
"You can have my bed since Isaac has your old room, I'll take the couch," he offered as we walked inside.
"You don't have to do that, Scott. I can sleep on the couch," I told him.
He shook his head as he unlocked the door, "It's fine. I end up sleeping there every other night anyway."
"Thanks, Scottie," I smiled as we walked inside.
Isaac was in the kitchen making coffee, waving as he saw us enter. "Hey. Either of you want a coffee?"
"Thanks, man, that'd be good," Scott said as he shut the door behind us.
I pulled my phone out to look at the time, before shaking my head. "I think I'm just going to go and get some sleep."
Scott came with me to his room so that he could make sure I had everything I needed, as well as grabbing some pillows and blankets for himself. Sitting down on his bed, I watched as he went into his cupboard to grab out some blankets.
"So," I said slowly. "You and Malia?"
He turned from his cupboard, wincing as he looked at me. "You're not mad, are you?"
"Of course not," I laughed. "You're grown adults, you can make decisions for yourself. When did this happen?"
The boy smiled, blushing as he thought. "I'm not even sure. I mean, there was something there for a while - we both noticed it. Neither of us wanted to do anything because we didn't want to make things weird for you. We only kissed for the first time last night."
"You don't have to worry about me, Scottie, I'm a big girl. Besides, I'm happy for you both," I informed him as I went over and hugged him.
"I'm glad," he said through a sigh of relief.
I pulled back from him, my smile falling to a serious look, "But if you hurt her, I will kill you. I know how, and my boyfriend works for the FBI, so I'll be able to get away with it, too. Understand?"
His eyes widened for a moment as he nodded, "Understood."
"Good," I smiled. "You should get some rest, too. You look exhausted."
"I will, don't worry," Scott said as he closed his cupboard. "We're going to go to the veterinary clinic in the morning and meet with Liam and Mason. I want to figure out who the Anuk-ite's other half is as soon as possible."
"Well, that sounds like a plan I can get behind," I nodded. "I'll see you in the morning."