Beacon Hills Memorial Hospital, 2004
Four and a half days had passed since Parker had woken up, causing almost everyone a miniature heart attack.
Andie had been coming in every day, whether it was to give Parker a royal bollocking, or the regular chats about nothing and everything in between. Sometimes, she'd eat whatever Parker wanted just to make him jealous, but always - against all of the doctors orders, Parker was given bites of whatever it was that she had brought in.
"Come on, Lazy Bones. You need to do a lap around the ward or your bones will rot." Andie poked and prodded at his arm, her free hand grasping at his.
Parker knew that groaning would only encourage her to poke and prod at him more and rolling over would do just as much. He didn't want to move out of bed, but he wasn't wallowing in self pity. He felt guilty, but he wanted to feel a sense of freedom too... okay, he wanted to wallow in self pity but he didn't want to feel anymore guilty than he already did.
He had, accidentally, overheard a conversation about Peter Hale. The fire, the mass murder— and without being there, he felt like he had a sense of survivors guilt, if he had been there he would've been able to help.
"Please, Park— do it for me?"
"You know, my dad already thinks we're dating and how you want me to do this for you?" Though the slight accusatory tone he had, his voice was light and the bubbles that popped with almost every word made Andie roll her eyes.
"Oh shove off, Park! Just get up and move."
Yet another loud and unforgivable groan, Parker began to throw his legs over the side of the bed. Seconds felt like hours, but Parker was being slow on purpose- he felt completely fine and able to move.
In the back of his mind, he knew that the bite worked— he felt different in every sense of the word. He was well aware of the sounds he could hear and the things he could smell— it was no longer what humans had the ability to do. His tastebuds had remained the same, but he hadn't had much of a chance to test it out.
"I think it's safe to assume that my legs aren't made of beetroot jello anymore."
Andie, and one of the nurses who had come in to check on his vitals, both chuckled at his statement. Neither of dynamic duo had expected another laugh, but it did cause a small smile to etch its way onto Parker's face.
At least someone appreciates my humour, Parker thought before finally putting all of his weight onto his legs, no longer relying on the bed to support him.
As the nurse left, Andie came to Parker's side, offering him her arm to take. For a moment, Parker was reluctant to take it but he knew he'd only have nurses chide him when they spot the lack of support.
"Are you really considering Chicago? It's so— far away..." Andies voice, for the first time in a long, long time sounded like she did back when they were in pre-K.
Sure, she understood why he wanted to leave- what happened to him was unbelievably traumatic but Chicago was such a big move and he wasn't even nineteen yet. Barely even 18! The same guy who used to be so afraid of his own vomit— how could he ever do something that has so many risks?
"I was thinking about Philadelphia, maybe New York but Chicago has the best programme that I've researched. I—" Parker was cut off by an exasperated sigh. Andie couldn't believe what she was hearing.
"But, Park! You've only been out for a few days, how could you have done so much research?!"
Well, truthfully, Parker hadn't done a whole lot of sleeping during his nights. If he wasn't staring at his phone, writing lists of the pros and cons.
"Get off my back, okay? I don't need you yapping down my ear like a chihuahua telling me how much of a stupid idea it is. I need to do this for myself. Make mistakes, live a life on my own without my dad, without the sympathy glances!"
Andie let go of his arm, stepping in front of Parker with her arms crossed over her stomach.
"I'm not on your back, Parker!"
"Yes, you are!"
Without hesitation, Andie left Parker standing alone in the middle of the hall. She couldn't let her anger out on him no matter how much she wanted to, but she was scared that they might never recover from a fight like this. Not with Parker's altered temperament.
Now with his own anger circulating his body, Parker had no idea how to correctly release it. He hadn't been taught anything from other werewolves- he had been on his own from the second he woke up. Glancing down at his talons for fingernails, he clenched his fist, strangely enjoying the feeling of his palm skin being pierced. He was so focused on his hands and the feelings he was trying to focus on, his hearing hadn't picked up on the incoming footsteps.
It took a few moments before he could get his nails to retract, he was just lucky the facial hair and the teeth hadn't grown out and made him look like a beast.
"Let's get you back to your room, Stilinski." An unexpected voice called out, Coach Finstock poked at the boys shoulder. "Might not be on my squad anymore but that doesn't mean I can't boss your ass around."
As Coach led Parker back to his room, they remained in comfortable silence. Parker allowed his mind to go completely empty, not a single thought of Andie or Chicago dared to enter his mind.
Coach Finstock may have been a fleeting person in Parker's life but he was one of the best people around. Not only was he patient, he was coaching Greenberg after all, but he enjoyed the smallest things that life had to offer. Good whiskey, good jokes and good Pierogi's.
"Got any news for your old coach?" Finstock broke the silence the very second that Parker sat down on his bed.
Coach always did ask the most difficult questions for anyone to answer. Every year, he'd ask the big life questions that he'd think everyone had the right answers to, but this one was difficult for different reasons.
"Heh— big news for some but you're not gonna like it."
A few seconds passed as Coach processed the tidbit of information. It wasn't his first rodeo when it came to hearing the news of a past student leaving for a big university in a bigger county. Maybe it would be different for Parker Stilinski, maybe he'd stay in California and study at UCLA.
"God, I don't like the sound of that one bit, Stilinski."
Parker laughed at his reaction, it was exactly what he was expecting and hoping for. He had taken it almost as well as Stiles had, minus the constant questions about the weather and how many times a week he could visit.
"I applied to the Chicago FD academy yesterday to start in April of next year." Just like ripping off a bandaid, Parker said it without hesitation or beating around the bush.
The best thing was to always say things as it was, sugarcoating it would only lead to discomfort when things came to light. It had been a motto of Parker's for a while and it wouldn't be something that'd change because of one sour reaction to it— or even several sour reactions.
"Are you even cleared for leaving your room let alone the state?" Finstock commented, an eyebrow raising an inch or so from its usual position, concern radiating from his body.
"That's just semantics, coach. I'll figure that out when it gets to me."
The two fell back into a comfortable silence as both figured out the next step to either change the topic or to make the awkwardness less-so. Bobby Finstock was the worst at comfort, and Parker was the worst at being subtle— in fact, they were both as awful as the other at both things.
"Well, at least you're not becoming a doctor. You'd be a crappy one."
Now that joke made both men belly laugh, it was always something to make the conversation lighter that made them so easy to have. No pressure to preform on the field, no pressure to be the perfect role model either.
"One day, I might even play for the Redskins..."
"Can you skate?"
"Eh... that's semantics."
The two talked for another hour or so before coach had to leave and Parker did what he did best after talking for hours. That meant staring at the ceiling for a few hours before the next round of tests, and then that was repeated until nine the evening.
Things could only go up from that day forward. He had already been dealt the cards of death and survived.
There was almost nothing that he couldn't do.