"Just call my name,"
•• ━━━━━ ••●•• ━━━━━ ••
"So, is that whole "not letting them out of your sight" - thing literal, or more like a general rule...?" Lydia asks, keeping her eyes on the book she is reading.
"Why?" Allison frowns, looking at Lydia.
"You're running on fumes," Lydia tells the huntress, who jumps forward to look at the dashboard and groans in annoyance. "Yeah... And I'm pretty sure that bus holds a lot more gas than this Toyota."
"What if we stop?" Allison questions anxiously.
"Is it really that big of a deal?" Lydia shrugs. "I mean, so we lose them - we know where they're headed."
"You didn't see what happened." Allison shakes her head.
"I know who started it..." Lydia mutters.
"Is that what Aiden told you?" Allison scoffs.
"Aiden?" Lydia repeats, turning to look at Allison. "Whoa, whoa, whoa. Hold on a second - is that why you invited me on this whole road-trip thing?" Lydia watches Allison for a second, realising that she never planned on telling her that Isabel was hurt in the first place. "Oh, my gosh! You're keeping an eye on them and me."
"So, there's nothing going on between you two?" Allison pointedly asks.
"I'm appalled by the insinuation!" Lydia responds defensively.
"Nothing?" Allison skeptically repeats, a smile on her face.
"Nothing." Lydia insists, before reliving the other day at school when she and Aiden found an empty classroom. She reapplies her lipstick as Allison watches her with a smirk. "What?" She asks, feigning innocence.
•• ━━━━━ ••●•• ━━━━━ ••
The bus' brakes squeal as the driver suddenly brakes, jolting the bus. Isabel winces in pain as she tries to ignore the burning in her side. Stiles looks at her worriedly as he clutches her hand, giving it a light squeeze to show he is there.
Scott suddenly jumps out of his seat, eyes set in front of him as Stiles looks at him concerned.
"Woah, Scott? Where are you going?" Stiles asks, watching as Scott manoeuvres his way past Isabel and himself.
"Boyd - he's gonna do something." Scott lowly explains.
"Okay, what? How do you know?" Stiles questions, confused.
"Look at his hands," Scott tells him.
Stiles looks over, catching sight of Boyd's claws on full display - digging into the seat in front of him and watches as Scott makes his way down the walkway.
Stiles turns to Isabel, sighing as he takes in her pained face. "How are you doing?" He quietly asks.
"It hurts." She groans. She shakes her head, placing her hands on top of the wound as she tries to build the energy to heal the wound again.
Stiles watches as her face contorts in pain, looking down to see her hands filled with Chaos. He lets out a shaky breath, quickly looking around to make sure no one could see. He watches her, before noticing her nose bleeding again.
"Stop, Isabel." He instructs the girl, but she ignores him. "Izzy!" He tries again, slightly louder.
She shakes her head, reopening her eyes to look at Stiles. "It's not working." She weakly tells him.
He gives a sad look before taking out another tissue, holding it against her nose. She sighs, taking the tissue from his hand and slowly leaning back in her seat. After a few moments, Scott hobbles back to the two.
"Crisis averted?" Stiles asks as Scott takes his seat again.
"Mmhmm." He hums, gently sitting in his seat.
"Okay, good, 'cause we got another problem. Ethan keeps checking his phone, like, every five minutes. It's like, he's waiting for someone, you know? Like, a message or a signal of some kind. I don't know, something evil though, I can tell. I have a very perceptive eye for evil, you know that." Stiles rambles.
"I don't like him sitting with Danny." Scott quietly agrees.
"Yeah, neither do I." Isabel breathes out.
"I'm gonna see what he's waiting for," Stiles says, pulling out his phone.
"What are you doing?" Scott questions, watching him confused.
"I'm gonna ask," Stiles explains, and the three can hear Danny's phone chime from the notification.
Danny pulls out his phone and reads the message.
'Find out why Ethan keeps checking his phone.'
Danny turns in his seat to look over at Stiles. Stiles holds his phone up and motions to Ethan. Danny frowns and shakes his head mouthing 'no'. Stiles looks over at Isabel and Scott in annoyance before turning back to see Danny facing the front again.
Stiles shakes his head, watching Danny move to put his phone away and quickly types another message.
'Just do it!'
'No.' Danny responds. Scott watches as Stiles angrily types on his phone.
'ASK HIM.'
Danny reads the message and shakes his head, turning back to Stiles again. Stiles motions to him exasperatedly, causing Danny to look back at his phone. Danny gives a sheepish smile to Ethan as he watches him type on his phone.
'NO. I like this guy. What's wrong with you?'
'It's important. PLEASE.'
Danny rolls his eyes, putting his phone away and deciding to ignore Stiles. Stiles throws his arms out in disbelief before furiously sending Danny an onslaught of messages, causing his phone to continuously chime. Ethan looks at Danny as the pair try to ignore the phone chiming continuously.
"Something wrong?" Ethan finally asks.
"Actually, I was... wondering the same thing about you." Danny counters.
Stiles and Scott watch the two before suddenly jumping and hiding. Isabel frowns as she looks up to see Ethan and Danny's heads turned to watch them.
"Well, that wasn't very subtle..." Stiles groans, hiding his head down by Isabel's lap. Isabel weakly hits the two on the arm, signalling they can sit back up. Stiles' phone chimes with a message.
'Someone close to him is sick. Might not make it through the night.'
"Ennis?" Scott asks in disbelief.
"Okay, so, does that mean, uh..." Stiles trails off.
"He's not dead." Isabel sighs.
"Not yet." Stiles corrects.
"Jared, I'm warning you, I'm an empathetic vomiter - you throw up, I'm gonna throw up right back on you, and it will be profoundly disgusting," Coach warns from the front of the bus.
"Please don't talk about throwing up... It's not good..." Jared weakly responds.
"I might throw up on you just to make a point, Jared." Coach irritably snaps.
"It's not good... It's not good..." Jared shakes his head.
"Now, the rest of you, don't think we're gonna miss this meet because of a slight traffic jam... a minor tornado warning... Jared..." Coach lists. "We're gonna make this thing. Nothing is gonna stop us! Stilinski put your hand down." Coach sighs.
"You know, there's, like, a food exit about a half-mile up. I don't know, if we stop, and then maybe-" Stiles shouts from the back.
"We're not gonna stop." Coach tells him.
"Okay, but if we stop-" Stiles tries to reason.
"Stilinski!" Coach interrupts, blowing his whistle to silence him. "Shut it! Seriously! It's a little bus! Stop asking me questions!" Coach shouts.
"I hate him." Stiles groans. "Did you call Deaton?" He asks Scott.
"I keep getting his voicemail." Scott weakly breathes out.
Stiles looks over at Scott and takes in the sight of him. He looks down at Isabel, who rests her body against his as she takes shallow breaths.
"That's it. I'm calling Lydia and Allison." Stiles decides.
"How are they gonna help, back in Beacon Hills?" Scott frowns, looking over at Isabel.
"They're not - they've been following us for hours," Stiles explains, looking out of the window and spotting Allison's car. "Pathetic." He scoffs as he clicks on Lydia's contact.
"Hey, Stiles! Yeah, we're just about to walk into a movie! Uh, you know, the popcorn, and-"
"I know you guys are right behind us. Put me on speaker." Stiles tells the redhead.
"Yeah, okay..." Lydia responds sheepishly.
"Okay, look, they're still hurt." Stiles quickly explains.
"What do you mean, "still?" They're not healing?" Allison frowns.
"No, Scott's not healing and Isabel can't heal herself. I think it's actually getting worse. Their blood's turning, like, a black colour..." Stiles shakes his head, running his hand through his hair.
"W-what's wrong with them?" Lydia's worried voice speaks.
"What's wrong with them? I don't... Do I have a PhD in lycanthropy and witchcraft? How am I supposed to know that?" Stiles scoffs out.
"We need to get them off the bus," Allison tells him.
"And take them where a hospital?" Lydia worriedly asks.
"If they're dying, yeah. Stiles, there's a rest area about a mile up. Tell coach to pull over." Allison instructs, worry evident on herself and Lydia's face.
"Yeah, I've been trying..." Stiles frustratedly explains, holding his hand on his head.
"Well, reason with him," Allison says.
"Reason?! Have you met this guy?" Stiles exclaims, quickly lowering his voice.
"Just try something!" Allison tells the boy.
Stiles hangs up and sighs before getting out of his seat and heading over to Coach at the front.
"Coach, it's five minutes for a bathroom break, okay? We've been on this thing for, like, three hours-" Stiles attempts, only to be cut off by Coach's whistle. "It's sixty miles to the next rest stop-" Coach cuts him off again with the whistle. "Being cooped up for hours is not good-" Coach smugly blows the whistle again. "You know, our bladders aren't exactly-" Coach raises a brow as he whistles again. "Coach, this is-" Stiles angrily looks at Coach as he whistles again. "Can you please-" Coach blows his whistle multiple times. "LET ME TALK-" Stiles shouts, but Coach whistles again. "I'm-" Coach whistles again before laughing. "Every time-" Coach blows the whistle for a final time, continuously blowing it and fuelling Stiles' rage even further.
"Get back to your seat, Stilinski!" Coach demands.
"OKAY!" Stiles shouts back, angrily glancing at Coach before turning away.
"Jared, keep your eyes on the horizon." Coach instructs.
Stiles turns back as he listens to Coach, watching him leave back to the front. Stiles quickly makes his way next to Jared, a big smile on his face as Jared looks at him worried.
"Hey, Jared... How you doing?" Stiles grins evilly.
•• ━━━━━ ••●•• ━━━━━ ••
Students cough and hold their mouths and noses as the bus pulls up at the rest stop, everyone rushing out. Coach opens the window as he sprays air freshener before angrily looking at Jared.
"Jared, you suck! Hey, somebody grab some towels, or a mop... or a new bus..." Coach groans.
Stiles carefully holds Isabel as he helps her off the bus, Scott weakly following behind. Allison and Lydia rush toward the group, Allison quickly holding up Scott to help him walk. Lydia looks over Isabel fearfully as they follow Allison and Scott into the bathrooms.
Allison lowers Scott onto the floor by the sinks while Lydia and Stiles help lower Isabel onto the floor opposite. Allison raises Scott's shirt and gasps at the wound.
Lydia lifts Isabel's shirt and looks at the new bandages, once again soaked in black blood. She raises her head to see her nose bleeding and grabs the tissues Stiles brought with them with shaky hands.
"Oh my God," Allison whispers, looking behind to watch Isabel.
"Why didn't you tell us?" Lydia asks, voice shaky. "Why didn't you tell me?" Lydia whispers.
"Sorry..." Isabel weakly tells her cousin, raising her hand and comfortingly placing it on her shoulder.
Lydia looks at her, eyes watering as she tries to focus on cleaning the blood from her nose. Stiles kneels beside her, helping her to steady her hand. She looks up at the boy in love with her cousin - tears threatening to fall.
"This shouldn't be happening," Allison says as she stands up from Scott, looking between the two. "I've seen him heal from worse than this. And Isabel should be able to heal herself, Deaton was teaching her over the summer."
"Okay, what do we do, then? Do we just call an ambulance?" Stiles anxiously asks, holding Isabel's hand as he turns to face Allison.
"What if it's too late? What if they can't help?" Allison worriedly questions. Lydia's heart sinks at the thought.
"We gotta do something," Stiles demands.
Lydia looks between the two injured teens - trying to detach herself for a moment to come up with a plan.
Lydia stands from Isabel, moving over to Allison. Stiles frowns, gently kissing Isabel's head before following the redhead.
"You know, it could be psychological..." Lydia theorises.
"What do you mean? Like, psychosomatic?" Stiles frowns.
"Somatoformic." Lydia corrects.
"Som-?" Stiles attempts to repeat.
"A physical illness from a psychogenic cause?" Lydia explains impatiently. "Yes, it's all in their heads."
"All in their heads?" Stiles repeats confused before realising. "...Because of Derek. Scott's not letting himself heal 'cause Derek died. And Isabel feels like she can't heal herself 'cause Derek died." Stiles breathes out. Lydia and Allison share a look before nodding in agreement.
"So, what do we do?" Allison asks.
Lydia rifles through her bag before pulling out her sewing kit. "Stitch them up," Lydia explains. Allison exhales harshly while looking between the group. "I'm serious! Maybe all they need to do is just believe they're healing."
Stiles looks at Lydia for a second before glancing between Scott and Isabel - nodding with a gulp. Allison nods in agreement after another moment of hesitation.
"He's gonna need another shirt. Where's his bag?" Allison explains as she heats a needle.
Stiles quickly prepares tissues and paper towels around Isabel and Scott. Lydia anxiously bites her nails as she watches Allison.
"Um, I'm gonna get it. Isabel has bandages and stuff in hers too. I hate needles anyway, so ...Uh, do you know what you're doing?" Stiles questions the brunette.
"Yeah, my father taught me." Allison nods.
"I mean, how fast are you gonna...? I mean, the bus, like... the bus could leave." Stiles worries, looking between Scott and Isabel. When Allison doesn't respond, Stiles steps forward. "We don't have enough time for you to do them one by one."
Allison looks up in the mirror and catches Lydia's eye. Lydia's face drops as she meets the brunette's eyes.
"I'll teach you the basics now, it's not too hard." Allison begins as Lydia's mouth falls open. Stiles gulps as he looks between the two girls. "You just make sure it doesn't leave," Allison tells Stiles. "We can handle this."
Stiles looks down at Lydia worriedly, before looking back at Isabel who now sits slumped against the wall. Lydia follows his eyes before nodding determinedly.
"I can stay with Isabel. I can do it, Stiles." She reassures him before walking forward and meeting Allison at the sink.
She reaches forward for the spare needle in the kit, as Allison begins to explain what to do as simply as she can.
Lydia shakily makes her way over to Isabel, having sterilised the needle with the lighter and taken a roll of thread from her sewing kit as Allison instructed. Lydia wills back her tears as she kneels on the dirty ground next to Isabel.
"Izzy?" She calls out, rubbing her shoulder to wake her up.
Isabel tiredly opens her eyes, revealing a glowing red. Lydia swallows hard as she realises her body is trying to fight it, but can't.
"It's okay, I'm going to stitch you up." Lydia shakily tells the girl, threading the needle. "It's going to hurt, but I'm going to be here with you, okay?"
Isabel nods weakly, watching her with hooded eyes as Lydia ties off the thread and lifts her shirt, tucking it into her bra to keep it away.
Lydia takes a deep breath as she removes the bandage and gauze from her cousin's side, revealing the wound.
Stiles was right - the blood was black. Lydia breathes heavily as she looks over the wound, glad it wasn't as big as Scott's. Lydia reaches out, softly touching the edges of the wound, where she can see where Isabel had begun to heal but couldn't finish.
Lydia blocks out the sounds of Allison stitching up Scott in the background and focuses on Isabel. She steadies her hands, following Allison's rushed instructions as best as she can.
She tries to ignore Isabel's body reacting as she starts to suture her wound as best as she can. After a minute, Lydia freezes as Isabel's body no longer finches as she sutures. Lydia looks up to see Isabel's head hanging to the side, lips chapped and skin clammy.
"Isabel?" She asks as she freezes. Lydia can feel the familiar burn in her throat as she shuts her eyes to stop them from flooding with tears - pushing stray tears down her flushed cheeks. "Isabel." She calls again, but she doesn't respond.
She blinks hard to clear her blurry vision, forcing herself to continue. She quickly finishes her task, tying off the thread as she finishes. She places the needle aside as she raises her hands to Isabel's face, holding it upright.
"Izzy?" She asks again, her heart races as she doesn't respond. "Isabel." Lydia tries again, more forceful.
Lydia breathes out in relief as Isabel's eyes slowly open, her mouth opening in a weak gasp. Lydia shakes her head, glancing at the wound to see the stitches have managed to stop the bleeding.
She grabs the bandages that Stiles had brought for her and quickly protects the wound before gently pulling her top back down.
"I tried to stitch you up, it's not great but it's stopped the bleeding," Lydia explains, turning her head to see Allison helping Scott put a new top on.
She turns back to see a smile on Isabel's face as she stares at Lydia. Lydia breathes out as she gives a weak smile back.
Lydia helps Isabel stand as she throws Isabel's bag over her shoulder, following behind Allison and Scott as they make their way back to the bus.
"Is he okay?" Lydia calls to Allison as they exit the bathroom. "Are you okay?" She asks Scott.
"Yeah. Is Izzy?" Scott asks, looking over his shoulder to see the girl had a little more colour, yet still not looking great.
"Stiles... Where's Stiles?" Isabel mumbles, stumbling beside Lydia as she holds her up.
"Trying to stall Coach," Lydia tells her softly. "We still don't have gas," Lydia calls to Allison.
"I'm not leaving him," Allison says.
"I don't want to leave Isabel either, but then we have to leave the car," Lydia tells the girl.
"Sounds good." Allison nods, before directing Scott toward the bus.
"What?" Lydia asks in disbelief. "That wasn't an actual suggestion... Allison, wait!" Lydia calls after the two. "Aw, screw it." Lydia shakes her head before helping Isabel back toward the bus.
"Stiles, what's happening?" Scott asks as they approach a huge group of commotion.
Stiles rushes forward at the sight of the four - moving straight over to help Lydia hold Isabel waves of relief washing over his body. He looks over to Lydia, who gives him a nod. He gives a nod back with a grateful smile before taking in the sight of Isabel.
"They went after him. I told 'em what was happening with you both, and he just went after him!" Stiles explains as he takes over for Lydia.
"Who, Boyd?" Scott asks, Allison moving him toward the crowd.
"Isaac! Isaac! ISAAC! Back off! Stop!" Coach shouts, trying to stop Isaac from punching Ethan. Danny tries to hold him, but Isaac just shoves him off.
"ISAAC!" Scott roars, pushing in front of the crowd. Isaac's fist stops mid punch, as he freezes at Scott's voice.
Danny rushes forward to help Ethan as Isaac backs off, Scott keeping eye contact to make sure he gets the message.
Stiles and Lydia help Isabel get back onto the bus. Stiles and Lydia sit with Isabel between them in the back row as Allison and Scott sit in-front.
After a bit of rest, Isabel was able to conjure enough power to heal the rest of the wound, the stitches Lydia did helping the healing process.
It was still somewhat painful - and her powers clearly hadn't healed through all the way but it seemed the worst was over.
Stiles watches in relief as Isabel reveals the wound, now only a slight cut being held closed by Lydia's stitches.
"All right, let's go over this one more time..." Stiles speaks to Isabel and Lydia. "So, it's the sacrifices, right? Everything has to do with them and someone who thinks he's, like, a dark Druid of some kind."
"Or actually is a dark Druid," Lydia speaks.
"A Darach." Isabel corrects.
"You know... Some ancient cultures sacrificed people in preparation for battle." Lydia grimly tells the two.
"So, we've got Alpha Werewolves against a dark Druid?" Stiles sighs, taking Isabel's hand in his.
"Yeah." Lydia breathes out.