Nicolette's POV:
My eyes opened and I slowly turned to see Derek asleep in the chair next to my bed.
I pulled the covers back and made my way to the bathroom. As I turned on the water, a deep voice asked, "What are you doing?"
Slowly turning, I put on an innocent smile and said, "Nothing important."
"Oh, so you weren't going to heal yourself with water?"
"Uh, no?"
"I don't believe you, Nicolette."
"Fine. Simple. Water helps heal. Would you rather be in pain or not?"
Derek took my hand and black veins trailed up his arm.
I yanked my hand away. "What are you doing?!"
He seemed visibly confused. "I'm taking away your pain."
"Please don't. We feel each other's pain."
Derek turned on the water and I stepped in, feeling instantly rejuvenated.
A short while later, I stepped out and stumbled. Derek caught me before I hit the floor.
"Bed, Nicolette," he ordered.
"Do I have to?"
"Yes. You have to."
Once I'd gotten in bed and under the covers, he tucked my hair back and said, "I'll see you soon, Nicolette. Please be more careful, okay?"
I nodded. "Careful is my middle name."
He shook his head slowly and smiled lightly. "Sure it is. Get some rest."
Derek's smile widened and his expression softened.
As he was leaving, I said, "That look. What was that?"
"What look?" he asked innocently.
"That look you gave me. The smile."
"I think you know."
Love? Whoa. "I think I do. See you soon, Derek."
"See you soon, Nicolette." He smiled again and left the room.
Stiles' POV:
As soon as I walked into my house, I heard my dad say, "Stiles, if you don't go back to that hospital, I will take you back myself."
"Dad, I'm fine. Honestly."
"I want a doctor or nurse to confirm that."
"Dad-"
"Car. Now."
I sighed, knowing I wouldn't be able to win and got in the car.
As soon as I entered the hospital, Melissa said to my dad, "Thank you for bringing him back."
Dad nodded. "You're welcome." He turned to me. "Stay. I find out you leave without getting checked out, we're gonna have problems."
He walked away and I glanced at Melissa. "How's Nica?"
Melissa nodded. "She'll be okay. She's walking around I think. Last I recall she was at the vending machine."
She led me to a room and started checking me over, which was really annoying and really an inconvenience.
I frowned at Melissa. "I'm completely fine."
Melissa shook her head. "Uh-uh-uh. You completely and totally have a concussion, Stiles. Lie back down. The doctor said you're not leaving without a CT scan. And you know what your dad will say."
"We still haven't paid for the last one."
"Oh, no, no, no. Meredith is at the station. Your dad said it might take some time, but he will get her to talk. Even if I let you go, what would you do?"
I sighed. "Okay, fine." I sat back on the bed. "Can you do me one little favor?"
Melissa smiled. "Anything."
"Can you get me a tape player?"
"Like cassettes?"
He nodded. "Yes. Tapes."
"Yeah, I'll see what I can do."
"Okay, tapes though, please."
"Cassettes," Melissa corrected as she left the room.
Nica entered the room and smirked. "Look what the gods dragged in. Your dad force you back?"
I nodded. "Yup. The Jeep's here at least. How are you doing? Last I saw you were unconscious. And Derek was holding your hand."
Her smirk dropped. "I'm okay."
"Nica, the phrase you referenced is supposed to be look what the cat dragged in."
"I know, but gods was more fun to say."
"Isn't that like cursing them?"
"So? Not like they care for us."
I studied her expression. I couldn't imagine not caring about my dad.
We sat back down and as soon as Melissa came in, I asked, "You find a tape player?"
She shook her head and glanced at Nica. "I'm not surprised. No. But I found someone looking for you two."
Malia walked in. "I heard you two almost got killed."
"I heard you almost got killed," I returned. I hate the awkwardness with her.
"You two okay?"
Nica and I nodded. "Brunski punched me in the face. Nica's okay. Turns out he was a serial killer."
Malia nodded. "Makes sense."
"What about you Malia?" Nica wondered.
"We almost got set on fire."
"Everyone okay?" I asked.
"Basically."
"You okay?" she said in a slightly deadpan tone.
Malia nodded. "I'm fine. I'm gonna go."
"Malia. Sorry we didn't tell you about Peter being your biological father. Shouldn't have done that."
Malia nodded slowly. "It's okay."
I finally got a CT scan and was fine, so Nica, Malia and I headed to my house.
Nica, Malia and I entered my room. While I sat at my desk, Malia sat on my bed and pulled her jacket around her. Nica was standing near my desk.
I frowned. "Are you cold?"
She shrugged and I took her hands, covering them, and played the tape. Almost instantly, Lorraine's voice sounded throughout the room. "Listen to me. Please listen. There's something I have to do, something I have to stop."
Brunski's voice said, "I have to take you back to Eichen, Lorraine."
I turned up the volume as Lorraine answered, "No. No. I don't think you're gonna be taking me anywhere. I can hear the recorder in your pocket. It's on now, isn't it? You're making a tape. Just like you taped the others."
Nica, Malia and I shared a look as I said, "This didn't happen at Eichen House."
"Then where did she go?" Malia asked.
"That's what we need to find out."
I started the tape again. "Get back to Eichen, Lorraine."
Lorraine started protesting. "No. No. I don't think you're gonna be taking me anywhere."
Nica heard something and pointed at the tape player. "That's it. That's where it is. Play it again, but louder this time."
He rewound the tape and Lorraine said once again, "No. No. I don't think you're gonna be taking me anywhere. I can hear the recorder in your pocket. It's on now, isn't it? You're making a tape. Just like you taped the others."
The girls heard a needle scratching and turned to me before Malia said, "It's the record player."
I frowned. "What record player?"
Nica stared at me. "The one in the lake house, in the study. Duh."
"So she escaped from Eichen House to go back to listen to a record player?"
"It makes sense, if she was a Banshee, like Lydia."
I nodded. "Yeah, but only once. Remember? She predicted Maddy's death and then just spent decades trying to predict something else."
Malia thought for a moment. "Maybe she did. But what if this time, it wasn't just one death, but numerous?"
My eyes widened slightly. "Like the deadpool."
She nodded. "Exactly. What if Lorraine predicted it all those years ago? And what if she knew there was something in the study that could stop the deadpool?"
I glanced between them. "Then we're going to the lake house."
We arrived at the lake house and spent what seemed to be forever listening to a record. I eventually let out an irritated sigh. "What are we doing? This room wasn't even made for us. No, we need someone like Lydia or Meredith, and we're just sitting here listening to a stupid record player that doesn't play anything. Come on. There's plenty of other things we can be totally useless doing."
I turned off the record player and opened the door. The sound of a faint whirring caught Nica and Malia's attention and they called, "Stiles."
I turned to them. "Yes?"
"I still hear it."
I frowned. "But it's not on."
Nica huffed. "Then it's something else. There's something spinning."
I made my way to the record player and found a cord. The three of us started moving everything out of the way. I pulled the cord from the wall and it split apart as the cord reached the ceiling. Nica and Malia pulled away the remaining dry board, as high as they could reach, and saw a huge old-fashioned looking red computer.
"Uh..." I began.
"Is this..." Malia trailed.
"The deadpool. Yeah."
A hammer caught Malia's attention and she picked it up, causing me to frown at her. "If this thing's being used to disseminate the list, then it's probably gonna keep going until everyone's dead."
"So what now?" Malia and Nica wondered.
I stared at the deadpool. "It needs some kind of prompt or command or something, right?" As Nica moved closer, I started muttering, "No, no, no."
"What about a key?" Nica asked.
I video-called Lydia and flipped the camera so she could see the computer. "You see it?" I questioned. "There's got to be a way to turn it off. Right?"
Lydia shook her head. "I don't know. I don't know anything about computers from the 1970s."
Nica frowned. "This is before the 1970s."
She sighed. "Okay, where's the monitor?"
"Lydia, there is no monitor," I told her. "There are buttons, knobs, spindles, no monitor."
I panned the phone over the floor and across the room. Lydia stopped me. "Wait. Turn the phone back. Point it at the carpet."
"The what?"
"The floor!" she cried. "Just show me the floor. Where's the stain? There should be red blotches; a wine stain."
Nica frowned as she stared at the floor. "You're right. There should be. But there's nothing there."
She shook her head. "That doesn't make sense. I gave the $500 I was supposed to hire cleaners to Brunski."
"Lydia, what the hell does wine have to do with anything?" I asked.
"Red wine doesn't just disappear. Unless it wasn't wine."
Malia and Nica shared a look before they asked, "Meaning what?"
Lydia began talking to herself. "The ashes weren't ashes. The study isn't a study. The record player isn't a record player. So... So maybe the wine wasn't wine. Stiles, you have to find the wine. Find the bottle. There could be something about it."
"What kind?" I questioned. "What's it called?"
"It's a 192 Cotes du Rhone."
I left to get the bottle and found it on the counter with the other wines. I returned a couple minutes later and shook the bottle. "I think there's something inside. Do you have, like, a wine opener or..."
Malia grabbed the bottle from him and slammed it on the ground. I picked up the key and ran to the computer. I inserted the key into its proper slot and turned it. The machine fell silent.
Nica nodded. "That's one way to do it."