The coffee sloshed against the edge of each styrofoam cup as I walked down the hallway of Beacon Hills Hospital with a drink in each hand for Stiles and I.
We had been hanging around the hospital all weekend and I was now used to the cheap stuff they sold out of the machine in the East wing. Personally, I was taking every chance I could get to stay out of the house and to busy myself after the loss of Aunt Kate. It was hard to face any grief I was feeling without getting conflicting thoughts about what she had done. I lost the Aunt Kate that I loved like another sister, but I had also lost the Aunt Kate who had burned down a home with innocent people inside.
Mom and Dad had both been edgy the past couple of days, whispering about 'others' and setting out plans for Kate's funeral. My dull black dress was still hanging on the back of my door.
Plus, I would rather not be at home when Allison had Scott over. She had been coping with her grief by ignoring it as well, finding windows for time with her boyfriend even after Dad had banned them from seeing each other after he caught them making out in the car the other day.
I was supportively on backup to go along with Allison's cover up stories because obviously the forbidden lovers were still together and obviously, as a loyal sister, I was still protecting their secret.
When I reached the waiting room, I noticed Stiles leaning across his chair; using his crossed elbow as a headrest. Judging by the snores and the subtle sleep-talking, it was clear he was asleep.
"Oh just like that," he murmured between snores. "No, no, you first. Me first?"
I wasn't sure what he was dreaming about, but to save any further embarrassment for the both of us, I nudged his leg with my foot sharply.
Stiles gasped quickly and jolted up. I held out a cup to him. "Coffee first?"
"Oh, um, yeah thanks."
His cheeks were burning red now and it made my heart flutter slightly to see him blushing instead of me, for once.
Stiles hadn't prodded too much this weekend and I was grateful for his attempt at being polite, but whenever he looked over at me his eyes suggested that he had a million questions bubbling up at the surface in addition to the few he had sprinkled in occasionally during our conversations.
"Lydia's not-" Stiles looked around and shrugged his shoulders. "-healing the way Scott did. We checked it out."
"Healing?"
He grinned. "Scott's werewolf abilities make it pretty easy for him to bounce back."
"Right," I nodded. "But the doctors said she was getting better so she isn't dying. But the alpha-Peter-said you either turn from the bite or you die. So, she must be turning, right?"
"Well, yeah. But not necessarily into a werewolf."
My eyebrows knotted together. "What else is there to turn into?"
"I guess we'll just have to wait and see," Stiles shrugged and took a swig of his coffee. He sighed quietly and set his cup down to get up. Sliding his hands into his pockets, he turned back to me. "You want a Reece's?"
My ears perked up at the idea of my favourite combination of chocolate and peanut butter. Just what I needed.
"Of course, just-" my train of thought was suddenly cut off by a flash of hot pain searing across my temples.
I cringed harshly and hissed through my teeth, clenching my hands into fists in a moment of forgetting that one of those fists was holding a nearly full styrofoam cup of scalding coffee. The weak material collapsed under my fingers and the hot liquid spilled over the side, running down my arm and onto my leg.
I cursed under my breath at the burn and jumped up from my seat, but fortunately felt the pain subsiding in my forehead.
"Ohmygod, are you alright?" Stiles rushed to my side and placed a hand on my shoulder. "What happened?"
"Um, it's fine. Just go get the chocolate I've gotta go clean this up and-" I stammered.
"Eleanor," Stiles face faltered. "Please."
"It's okay! I'll go to the bathroom for some paper towel."
Stiles didn't budge at all, frozen with his hand still outstretched.
I sighed. "I'll talk to you later, alright? I just can't right now."
He nodded softly and dropped his hand. I watched his gaze hesitate to leave me until he finally, reluctantly, turned the corner in the direction of the vending machines.
When he was gone, I sped briskly to the women's washroom and stood with my burned hand running under cold water. In the meantime, I glanced up at my reflection.
There were dark circles under my eyes and my hair was slightly disheveled, but I hoped that my effort to put on a nice top made me look like I was less of a mess. Although, I guess everyone was a mess at hospitals.
As I was drying my hands, a familiar sound rang through the air that made me halt in place, throwing my hands over my eardrums which felt like they were going to explode.
The sound was like the sharpness of my screams whenever I couldn't keep them in, but I was certain that I hadn't made a noise. I crippled from the pain in my head shortly, before pushing myself back up.
Rushing out of the bathroom, I ran down the hallway to find a large metal vending machine blocking half of the passage and Stiles standing alert next to it.
"Was that Lydia?" I shouted in alarm.
"I have no idea."
I pointed to the vending machine. "Was that you?"
"It was like that when I found it," he gulped.
"Just come on," I tugged at his arm, sprinting down the corridor and bursting into Lydia's room at the same time as Mrs. McCall, or Melissa, and our strawberry blonde friend's main doctor. "LYDIA?"
"What the hell was that?" Melissa demanded, rushing into the adjacent bathroom where the tap was still running. She pulled back the shower curtain and cranked the controls until the water was off.
The four of us stopped in our tracks, turning desperately in place with no sign of Lydia anywhere. I halted when I noticed the draft in the room, coming from the open window on the side wall that was letting in the night air and offering a perfectly good escape route.
I whacked my hand against Stiles' chest and he turned at my motion, following my eyes to the window.
"That's not good," he breathed.
Melissa noticed the only trace of Lydia, her hospital gown laying on the floor, and immediately started calling orders to the doctor beside her. "Call the police and tell them we have a possible missing person. I need all available staff searching this hospital for this girl, now! Stiles, Eleanor, you two should get back outside."
I nodded at her words before watching her speed out the door behind the doctor.
"Where could she have gone?" Stiles rubbed is face with anxiety.
My eyes were still fixed on the hospital gown laying on the tiled ground. Reaching out slowly, I began to pick it up before I was hit with a wave of dizziness.
For a moment it was like I was in a whole other universe, seeing tilting images like I had at the dance. But they were blurrier this time and sufficiently darker, the only visible thing ahead of me being trees before I was able to blink back the small bathroom surroundings and drop the gown with a shudder.
The look of concern on Stiles' face was clear, and I knew he had noticed. Before he could ask me anything I spoke up.
"Could Scott maybe use some of his werewolf, er, abilities to find Lydia using that?" I asked, pointing to the gown. "He's like a dog, right? In the sense that he can smell things and track with his nose."
"He can at least try."
Soon after we had left the room with the gown stashed under Stiles' jacket, Scott arrived outside the hospital and we handed it to him so he could catch a scent. Sitting in the back of Stiles' jeep now, I watched Scott look between us and square his shoulders. I knew now that werewolves could also smell emotions, and I bet he was getting plenty of anxiety from Stiles and I.
"Don't worry," Scott spoke firmly. "I'm gonna help. I won't let anyone hurt her, not again."
"Alright, just shove the thing in your face and let's find her," Stiles sighed.
When the Jeep sprung to life, the headlights illuminated Allison's figure standing right in front of the vehicle. Stiles jumped in surprise and I rested my hand on his arm to settle him down.
"I texted her to meet us here," I explained quickly to the two shocked boys. "She's part of the team too."
Allison quickly jumped in the back seat next to me, causing Scott to turn around with a worried look written across his face.
"What are you doing?" Scott whispered nervously. "Someone's gonna see us."
"Who cares?" my sister looked at him with a certain softness. "She's one of my best friends and we need to find her before they do."
"I can find her before the cops can!"
"How about before our father does?" Allison glanced over at me. "I just saw Dad send out two SUVs with three other guys."
Scott nodded. "Search party."
"More like a hunting party," I squeaked.
My balance was thrown again, making my stomach churn as I got another flash of forest instead of the Jeep's interior. I couldn't help but groan.
"Alright, you've gotta tell me, us I guess," Stiles looked at me with an extreme sense of worry from the front seat, accompanied by Scott's look of confusion and Allison's genuine panic. "What's going on, Eleanor?"
"I just know something's wrong."
"How?"
"Because... I just do."
"Like at the dance?" Stiles questioned.
I nodded in confirmation slowly. "Like at the dance, or the night we were locked in the school, or when we were fighting the alpha werewolf at the Hale house."
I watched everyone's eyes widen so I took a long breath in. A breath long enough to carry myself through an explanation.
"I know it sounds weird but I can't help it, okay? I don't know whats wrong with me but there's a pattern."
My sister placed a hand on my knee. "Pattern?"
"Every time something bad happens, I've....sensed it," I struggled for the correct words. "Right before it happens, it's like I know it's about to."
"Like a psychic?" Scott spoke from the passenger seat.
"Not really. They're just feelings."
Stiles straightened up. "Spidey senses?"
"Sure, something like that," I shrugged, stifling a grin. "Look, I don't know what they are. I just know that something is wrong with Lydia."
"This hunting party, they won't actually kill her if she is turning, will they?" Stiles asked in sudden alarm.
My sister and I shared a glance and she bit her lip. "They didn't say anything to me."
"All they've been telling the both of us is that 'we'll talk after Kate's funeral when the others get here'." I explained.
"What others?"
"They won't tell us that either," my sister sighed.
I gripped Allison's hand tightly as yet another image from the forest blocked my vision, this time showing signs of a more recognizable clearing. One that we had been to only a few days earlier. I scrunched my face up in concentration to get the Jeep's reality back again and met eyes with Stiles who was glancing quickly between the road and me in the rear-view mirror.
"El, you okay? Is it your..." he was gazing at me frantically. I noticed Scott sending him a strong look that warned him not to use the term 'spidey senses' again. "Feelings?"
I breathed. "Well, I don't know if you have a, er, scent on Lydia yet. But I think I know where we should start looking."
After sticking his nose quickly out the car window like a true canine, Scott turned back to me. His eyebrow twitched up. "The Hale house?"
I simply nodded.
Defying all hesitation, the four of us soon found ourselves trudging slowly through the familiar paths of the forest until the Hale house came into view. We stopped, glancing on from behind trees.
"She came here? You're sure?" Stiles asked wearily.
Scott shrugged. "This is where the scent leads."
"Has Lydia ever even been here?"
"Not with me," my sister mumbled. And I hugged my arms closer to myself when all of us shared a collective look of confirmation, that our friend had never had a reason to visit the charred structure of the Hale house. "Maybe she came here instinctively, like she was looking for Derek."
Scott breathed nervously. "You mean looking for an alpha."
I shuddered at the memory of Derek Hale roaring at us all about his new status in the werewolf community. The wind felt colder.
Allison continued, trudging forward. "Wolves need a pack, right? Is it an instinct to be part of a pack?"
All eyes turned to Scott. He shoved his hands in his pocket and nodded slightly. "Well, yeah. We're stronger in packs."
A silence fell among us as Stiles continued to trudge around the surroundings of the pathway, the sounds of leaves crunching beneath his feet filling the break in conversation.
"Hey, whoa, look at this," he spoke, crouching down to the ground. I wandered over next to him and Allison moved forward slightly, craning her neck over our shoulders. "I think it's a trip wire."
Without stopping to think, Stiles pulled gently up on the faint string otherwise unrecognizable on the dark forest floor. A mechanical noise went off, and with a slight whip and rush of wind, Scott was caught behind us in the system and yanked upside down into the air.
"Uh, Stiles?" he grumbled, flailing slightly as he swung back and forth by his feet. "Next time you see a trip wire. Don't trip it."
I had to suppress a laugh and I heard my twin chuckle quietly from beside me while Stiles winced. "Noted."
The three of us advanced towards the hanging boy, but he swung his arms out in front of him rapidly.
"Wait, wait, wait," we froze in our tracks on his command. "Someone's coming."
We perked our heads up, but all I heard was the same silence from earlier. However, it was best not to doubt the werewolf with the enhanced listening abilities.
"Go!" Scott hushed quietly and we nodded before making ourselves scarce, Stiles hand on my back gently as we ran into the deeper and darker parts of the woods until we settled behind a thick tree trunk.
Soon after we had pressed into hiding, and once I found myself in a tight sandwich between my sister and Stiles, we heard the sounds of approaching footsteps over our heavy breathing.
"Scott," my dad's voice greeted. I huffed silently, rolling my eyes. Of course it was him.
"Mr. Argent."
"How are you doing?"
"Good. You know, just hanging around," I heard Scott speak casually as if he wasn't dangling a couple feet off the ground. Upside down. "Is this one of yours? It's-uh-good. Nice design. Very constricting."
"What are you doing out here, Scott?"
There was a brief pause. "Looking for my friend."
"Ah, that's right. Lydia's in your group now, isn't she?," Dad hummed. "Part of the clique? Is that the word you use or is there another way to put it? Part of your pack?"
"Actually, clique seems about right to me," Scott seethed.
"I hope so. Because I know she's a friend of the girls and one special circumstance, such as yourself, I can handle. Not two."
Another silence echoed through the forest, and I tensed up.
"Scott, do you know what a hemicorporectomy is?" I heard my dad ask.
"I have feeling I don't want to know."
"A medical term for amputating someone at the waist," Dad drawled on. "Cutting them in half. Takes a tremendous amount of strength to cut through tissue and bone like that. Let's hope a demonstration never becomes necessary."
I held my breath for a beat, feeling Allison press against my side. However, after a short moment of silence, the sound of footsteps reappeared as our dad made his way down the path and out of our sight.
As soon as he was gone, the three of us burst out from behind the tree and hurried over to Scott.
"Are you okay?" Allison asked.
"Just another life threatening conversation with your dad," Scott said with fake enthusiasm. Both Allison and I cringed at our father being so harsh, and my sister began glancing around for the source of the wire that could release Scott from his misery.
Spotting a pulley system notched into one of the tree trunks, she rushed over to it. "Ellie, help me with this."
I followed after her and began to examine the wire, but we had never been trained to use traps like trip wires before and the whole thing looked like a confusing mess.
Fortunately, Scott didn't need our help and released his claws momentarily to swipe up and cut the wire, dropping down to his feet again and adjusting his jacket. "Thanks, but I think I got it."
Stiles, Allison, and I looked between each other for a moment.
"Coming?" Scott teased, nodding towards the Hale house.
With that, the group of us walked across the clearing we had shot guns and arrows in, watched Kate die in, and set an alpha werewolf on fire in just a few days ago. But none of that fazed us because we were on a mission.
We were going to find Lydia.
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a/n: aaaaaaaaaaaaand we're back with season 2
holy wowzers we are at 4.5k reads on this story how crazy is that oh my lord
i hope you guys liked this chapter and the progression of eleanor coming to terms with her special talent that we will of course see unfold in coming chapters.
ISAAC IS COMING FRIENDS im happy i get to see him again when i rewatch the episodes for reference while i write
please let me know what you think with a comment or a vote xx
ps: 5b is ruining me
{DISCLAIMER: I do NOT own Teen Wolf in any way, I only own the character and story line of Eleanor Argent}