"Athena," Cora whined, though she'd deny it afterwards, "please, just go with them," she sounded tired and fed up but hadn't given in, she was a insanely stubborn, just like Athena.
The whole day Cora had been trying to convince Athena to go with Allison (the girl with the bow who'd saved them) and Lydia (who was apparently a banshee) to follow a school field trip to a cross-country race. Athena had no idea why Cora would want her to go and the other girl refused to tell her why she should.
"Give me one good reason, Cora." Athena stated, turning over another page in her book, which was really hard to concentrate on with Cora hanging over her shoulder, by the way.
"Because... you're going to be going to school with them soon, you may as well get to know them first," Cora spoke, Athena listened to her sister's heart rate, waiting for it to speed up or do a little jump, but it remained steady. Cora was a good liar now, she couldn't lie to save her skin before the fire.
"That's bull," Athena said, flipping her book shut and making eye contact with her, "tell me why you want me to go. If you can provide me with a real reason, I don't mind going on this little road trip."
Cora hesitated, thinking things through before deciding to answer, "I want to check out the site where Derek died." She bit her lip, "But I want to be by myself, if that's okay, I just, I need a little time to mourn, you know?"
Athena say up straight, rolling her eyes, "Cora, that's absolutely fine. You should have just said so."
"Really?" She asked.
"Mmhmm." Athena nodded.
"Man, if I knew it was that easy," the girl mumbled.
"Also, It would be good to have someone keep an eye on things over there, Boyd and Isaac can be irrational, someone should be there to stop them doing anything stupid," Cora paused, "And... something definitely happened with Scott that night, I don't know what, but it could be dangerous."
Athena scrunched up her nose, babysitting duty, great.
She rolled her eyes, "I don't know why you didn't just tell me, we could have avoided the last six hours of you annoying me."
"I didn't think you'd agree, I thought you'd want to come with us." Cora shrugged.
"I do, but you can keep me updated through texts or calls or whatever," said Athena.
"Same goes for you, I want to know everything that happens,"Cora instructed.
"Sure thing," Athena agreed, hiding a smirk.
○○○
we just pulled off a freeway Athena texted Cora.
lydia shifted to fourth gear
allison's worried the boys will notice us
we turned a big corner
there's a few trees on the side of the road
they're gone now
oh look there's some more
When I said text me everything that happened I didn't mean it literally Cora replied, Athena could feel her irritation through the phone and smirked.
you gotta be more specific sis
Just save the updates for emergency's all right?
but i'm bored.
Tough
Athena rolled her eyes.
how are things going there???
cora????????
cora answer me you bitch
fine.
Athena switched off the phone and looked around. She was sat with her legs sprawled out in front of her over the backseat and had ditched the seat belt fifty miles ago, next to her on the ground was a back pack full of snacks and a book, everything she would need on this journey.
They were driving through a very empty, desert kind of area. Nothing around for miles. Which meant there was nothing outside to entertain her either.
"So is that whole 'not letting them out of your sight thing' literal? Or in general?" Lydia asked.
"Why?" Allison asked suspiciously.
"You're running on fumes," Lydia stated.
Athena's head jerked up and she shifted so she was leaning forward, she poked her head between the too front seats, and sure enough, the gas arrow was nearing zero.
"Ugh!" Allison groaned after checking it was true.
"And I'm pretty sure that bus holds a lot more gas than this Toyota," Lydia pointed out.
"What if we stop?" she pondered.
"Is it really that big of a deal?" Athena asked.
"So, we lose them." Lydia shrugged, "We know where their headed."
"You didn't see what happened," Allison shook her head at Lydia.
"I know who started it," the red-head muttered. Athena frowned at her, that sounded slightly accusatory.
"Is that what Aiden told you?" Allison asked, also sounding slightly accusing.
"Aiden?" Lydia and Athena asked at the same time, though in different tones. Lydia was fraternising with Aiden? As in, one of the evil twins Aiden?
"Whoa, whoa, whoa." Lydia looked up from whatever she was writing, "Hold on a second. Is that why you invited me on this whole little road trip thing? Oh, my gosh. You're keeping an eye on them and me."
"So there's nothing going on between you two?" Allison asked, ignoring Lydia's dramatics.
"I'm appalled by the insinuation," Lydia defended.
"Your heart rate picked up," Athena pointed out, earning a glare from the girl in question.
"Nothing?" Allison grinned.
"Nothing," Lydia said firmly, but her heartbeat and dazed facial expression said otherwise. "What?" She asked when she saw both Allison and Athena still looking at her.
Neither replied as they pulled into a line of traffic. It looked like they might be here for a while, so Athena pulled out her phone to text Cora again.
i think something's going on with lydia and one of the twins
A few moments later she received a reply, but not what she was expecting.
Derek's body is gone.
Athena felt her eyes widen. what???
He's gone
So is Ennis
How?
I don't know, me and Peter are going to find out
Peter? As in crazy muderer Uncle Peter?
Yeah, I know.
He just showed up but I'm giving him a chance, he seems to know what he's talking about.
Be careful
You too
Athena turned her phone off again, breathing deeply to digest what she'd just found out. She supposed she should tell the others.
"Derek and Ennis' bodies have gone," she said calmly, and watched as the two girls whipped around to face her.
"What!?" They asked in unison.
"Cora just told me." Athena waved her phone at them, as if that made her statement more believable.
"Well, what does that mean?" Allison stumbled over her words, "That they could both be alive?"
"Yeah, I guess," Athena mumbled, not really paying attention. She was thinking about Derek, about how badly she hoped he was alive. She didn't think she could handle getting him back only to have him torn from her again so suddenly.
Just then Lydia's phone started ringing. She looked down at it, looked at Allison, then picked up.
"Hey, Stiles," she said awkwardly, so that's why she looked panicked. "Yeah, we're just about to walk into a movie, uh, you know, the popcorn and..."
Athena used her hearing to pick up what Stiles said, "I know you guys are right behind us. Put me on speaker," he demanded.
"O.. okay," Lydia stuttered, her lie going down the drain.
"Okay, look, Scott's still hurt," Stiles voice said through the speaker.
"What do you mean still? He's not healing?" Allison asked.
"No, he's not healing. I think he's actually getting worse. The blood's turning, like, a black colour."
Athena tensed, "That's not good, that only happens when something's wrong inside a werewolf's body," she explained.
"What's wrong with him?"
"What's wrong with him? I don't, do I have a PHD in Lycanthropy? How am I supposed to know that?" Stiles retorted sarcastically.
"Are you always this sarcastic?" Athena asked snappishly.
"Yes," he said in just as irritably, "what are you even doing here?"
"We need to get him off the bus," Allison interrupted, before an argument could break out.
"And take him where? A hospital?" Lydia asked.
"If he's dying, yes," Allison said firmly. Athena refrained from saying how much of a bad idea that would be, the girl obviously needed something to cling on to.
"Stiles, there's a rest area about a mile up. Tell the coach to pull over." Allison instructed.
"Yeah, I've been trying," Stiles said bitterly, something told Athena that he was a hard man to get along with.
"Well, reason with him."
"Reason? Have you met this guy?"
"Just try something," She said firmly, hanging up.
Athena focused her attention on the school bus a few cars ahead of them. She could hear faint chatter and a piercing whistle blowing repeatedly over it all. Had a little kid got a hold of the coaches whistle or something?
A few moments later there was a load of groaning and around fifteen people sticking their heads of the windows.
"What's going on?" Lydia asked.
Athena smelt the air, she'd caught a whiff of... Yeah, sick. She tried not to smell it but now she'd picked it up it was hard to drop.
"Someone's been sick," she supplied, wrinkling her face in disgust.
"Did Stiles do that to make the bus stop?" Allison wondered appraisingly.
"Someone probably looked at his face for too long," Athena commented causing the two girls to frown at her. She shrugged in response.
They followed the bus into a rest stop and got out to meet the rest of them. Athena was planning on sticking with Boyd and Isaac, who she was more comfortable with, or buying some more food from the little shop, but she was grabbed by Lydia before she could leave.
"Where are you going?" The girl demanded.
"I was going to buy some chips, maybe a chocolate bar, I wonder if they have Reese's?" She thought out loud.
Lydia rolled her eyes, "You're coming with us, you're the only werewolf expert here." And with that she dragged Athena into the dirty bathroom.
Scott sat on the floor, propped up by the wall and leaning on the sink so he'd didn't fall. He looked bad.
"Oh my God," Stiles said as Allison lifted Scott's shirt to see the wound. It was a large gash, bleeding back ooze surrounded by black veins.
"Yeah," Athena sucked in a breath, "That's not gonna heal anytime soon, not until it stops bleeding black blood."
The three full-conscious people in the room shot her glares so she held her hands up in surrender, keeping her pessimistic thoughts to herself.
"Why didn't you tell us?" Allison asked.
"Sorry," Scott mumbled, God, this boy was way too nice for his own good.
"Okay. Just give us a second, okay?" Allison turned to the rest of them, trying very hard to hide her distress but her heart gave it away, "This shouldn't be happening. I've seen him heal from worse than this."
"Okay, what do we do then? Do we just call an ambulance?" Stiles asked.
"No, the doctors won't know what to do, they'll waste a load of time running tests on him," Athena said, again the others glared at her, but she was just telling the truth.
"We gotta do something," Stiles said.
"You know, it could be psychological," Lydia said suddenly, looking like she'd had a major breakthrough.
"What do you mean, like, psychosomatic?"
"Somatoformic," Lydia said, Athena was fairly sure they were just making up words now.
"Som..." Stiles started, looking just as confused as she felt.
"A physical illness from a psychogenic cause," Lydia explained, "It's all in his head."
"All in his head? Because of Derek? He's not letting himself heal because Derek died." Allison realised.
Suddenly Stiles pierced Athena with a sharp glare, she wondered what she'd done wrong now, "He's your brother, why aren't you effected like this?" He asked sharply.
Athena prepared to verbally assault him when she noticed the underlying sadness in his face, he was worried about Scott, obviously, and was looking for someone to blame. Of course he would be upset that she seemed totally fine while his best friend was dying on the ground.
"I'm not healing," Athena stated bluntly, lifting her shirt to reveal a blood soaked bandage wrapped around her side, "I'm just not dying."
The three looked at her in shock before Allison snapped them out of it, "So what do we do?" She asked urgently.
"Stitch him up," Lydia stated and at Allison's surprised look, pulled out a needle and medical thread, why was she carrying that around in her bag?
"I'm serious," she said, "Maybe all he needs to do is just believe it's healing."
"What do you think?" Allison asked Athena, who shrugged.
"It can't do any harm, and they do say belief is half of healing."
"Okay." Allison nodded, "He's gonna need another shirt, where's his bag?"
Stiles backed out of the room looking queasy, wimp, "Um, I'm gonna get it. I hate needles anyway so... uh do you know what you're doing?" He asked sceptically.
"Yeah, my father taught me."
"I mean, how fast are you gonna... I mean, the bus, like, the bus could leave," Stiles failed to articulate.
"Just make sure it doesn't leave," Athena said.
"I can help," Lydia said and they both left.
"Uh, I'm just gonna make sure... Isaac and Boyd are alright!" Athena turned to leave, not wanting to be alone with Allison and the now barely conscious boy, "Yeah, that's what I'm going to do."
"Wait!" Allison called, making her stop and turn reluctantly around. "Don't leave, please. I don't want to do this by myself," the girl said, looking embarrassed.
"What do you want me to do?" Athena asked awkwardly.
"Just, provide moral support. Make sure Scott's okay."
"Okay." Athena sighed, moving to sit down on the floor next to the two of them and trying to not to think about how many germs she was touching right now.
"Come on," Allison breathed, "Okay, stay with me. Stay with me, okay? Stay with me,"
Athena watched as Allison struggled to put the thread through the needle eye, her hand was shaking too much to do it and Athena could see the girl's frustration rising.
"I'm trying," the girl hissed quietly.
Athena took pity on her finally. She lay her hands over Allison's shaking ones, halting the girl's attempts.
"It's okay," she whispered comfortingly, "I'll do it."
Allison reluctantly let the werewolf take the needle from her hands, but she realised it was the right thing to do when Athena had it threaded in less than 5 seconds, already moving to start stitching Scott up.
"Do you know how to do it?" Allison asked quietly, feeling unsure.
Athena nodded and gave no further explanation. Allison decided it was best to trust her and let her do the job, but she kept a watchful eye on her as she carefully pulled to wound together with neat lines.
"Scott?" Athena asked gently when she was done, "Scott? You need to stay awake."
Athena shook his left shoulder, trying not to jostle him too much but needing him to remain conscious.
They could faintly hear the coach yelling about getting back onto the bus, which hurried their efforts.
"Come on put on your shirt," Athena tossed it to him and he caught it, looking confusedly at his torso.
"Did you do this?" He breathed, looking at the stitches.
"Mhmm," Athena hummed, paying more attention on getting him out of the toilet than his questions.
"Nice."
Allison let out a breathy laugh, probably out of relief more than humour, while Athena put an arm around his waist and tugged him up. Allison realised what she was doing and rushed to his other side to help.
Thankfully no one paid much attention to the three limping out of the men's bathroom, despite how suspicious it looked.
Lydia rushed over straight away, checking if he was alright, "Is he okay? Are you okay?" She asked quickly.
"Yeah, where's Stiles?" Scott asked, clearly he was very loyal if he was more concerned with his friend's whereabouts than his own health right now.
"Stalling coach. We still don't have any gas," Lydia informed.
"We can just take the bus," Athena suggested.
"Sounds good," Allison nodded.
"What? But my car," she looked sadly to where her car had been parked - more like abandoned in their rush to fix Scott up.
Allison had already started dragging Scott to the bus, leaving Athena no choice but to follow as well. Lydia gave her car one last glance before rushing to join them.
"Wait up," she sighed.
When they reached the bus, they were surprised to find all the students crowded around something and cheering.
"What's going on?" Scott asked Stiles, who had seen them coming and joined them.
"They went after him," Stiles stated simply, "I told them what was happening with you and they just went after him."
Well that didn't sound good. Athena unwrapped her arm from Scott, gesturing to Lydia to take him from her. After that, Athena shoved through the crowed of people to see what was going on. Isaac was pummelling his fist into Ethan's face, one boy was trying to get him off and failing, the coach was yelling at him to stop and failing, and everyone else was standing around, some filming it on their phones.
Athena rolled her eyes and stepped forward. She crouched down in front of Isaac, appearing nonthreatening but ready to defend herself if necessary.
"Isaac, you need to stop," she said firmly, briefly flashing her eyes to put her point across.
His fist was frozen in mid-air, considering whether he should carry on beating the boy senseless or not.
"Isaac!" Scott exclaimed, using a tone most commonly used by Alpha's. It worked. Isaac calmed down completely, seeming to come out of a stupor as he turned to face Scott.
The boy who had been trying to pull Isaac back rushed forward, everyone else quieted down, looking at Isaac in a mixture of fear and shock. Isaac only looked at Scott, he looked surprised that Scott was okay.
"Come on," Athena said, softly grabbing his arm and pulling him onto the bus.
"Are you okay?" She asked once he'd sat down.
He nodded, though he didn't look so sure. "What are you doing here?" He asked over the sound of everyone else filing into the bus.
"Cora asked me to babysit you guys," She said bluntly, taking a seat in the row behind him so Boyd could sit down.
"Really?" He asked doubtfully.
"Well, those weren't her exact words, but that's the message I received." Athena shrugged.
"Why do we have three more people than we started off with?" The coach shouted as he stepped onto the bus.
Athena watched him look over all the students, he paused when he saw Allison and Lydia and said, "How did you two get here?"
When they didn't reply he shook his head and glanced around again, then he saw Athena. She could see him trying to work out if he knew her, when he finally decided he didn't he spoke up.
"And I don't even know who are, seriously, how did you get on here?" He questioned.
"I walked through the door and sat down." Athena shrugged.
Coach looked at her for a few more seconds before shaking his head again and turning towards the front, "You know what, I don't even want to know," she heard him mutter, before telling the driver to start it up.
Phew, that was a long one, but voila!