Harper was shaking when she finally made it back to the hospital, praying to find her friends or Melissa still there. She didn't have a key to her house on her and nobody was picking up their phones, so she was forced to walk two miles in the pouring rain. Her body trembled as she hugged herself tighter, her wet hair sticking to her uncomfortably.
Her brown eyes cast upon Stiles. He was sat defeated in one of the waiting chairs while police moved around him, inspecting something Harper wasn't sure about. The brunette moved over to him, quickly catching his attention. His hazel eyes locked with hers and his lips parted to let out a sigh of relief.
He stood up, immediately wrapping his arms around her and pulling her close to his chest, not caring whether or not she was soaked to the bone. She exhaled shakily, thankful to be this close to the boy she loved so dearly. He felt so warm that she never wanted to let him go.
"What happened to you?" Stiles questioned, pulling apart from her, "why were you out in the rain?"
"It's a long story," Harper's teeth chatter, "I can tell you later. Where's everyone?"
Stiles took his plaid shirt off and handed it to her, "go change in the bathroom."
She sent him a tight lipped smile and took it from him, "t-thanks, Stiles."
Once she was back from the bathroom and in his plaid shirt, which was too big on her, she sat down beside him in the chairs, leaning her head against his shoulder. Her head filled with memories of the voicemail that he had sent her- the one she wanted to talk about before they got caught up in the whole supernatural mess.
He turned to look at her and couldn't help but smile softly, "I love it when you wear my shirts."
Harper blushed a little, her hands moving to hide inside his sleeves. He wrapped his arm around her shoulder and began to trace soothing circles.
"You never answered my question before," Harper realised, "where is everyone?"
Stiles sighed, his face falling. He begins to explain the shortened story of what happened that night while Harper was gone. How they fought the Alpha twins, how he found Cora and had to give her CPR because she stopped breathing, how Melissa was taken as a sacrifice, and how Scott...
"He left us for Deucalion?" Harper repeated in disbelief, "why?"
Stiles ran a hand down his face, "to save his mum and my dad. I still think he's an idiot though."
Before Harper could reply, the doors of the hospital swung open and a very familiar man entered. Harper's mouth fell open a little and Stiles groaned, leaning his head back against the wall behind them. The FBI agent saw the pair and began to walk over.
"Just perfect," Stiles muttered sarcastically.
Scott's dad was back in Beacon Hills.
Harper looked up as the tall man towered over them.
"A Stilinski at the centre of this whole mess. What a shocker," Agent McCall spoke very monotone, his eyes dragging over to Harper, "Ms Verum," he acknowledged distastefully.
Harper rolled her eyes in response.
"Think you two can answer some questions without the usual level of sarcasm?" He shoves his hands in his pockets.
Stiles replied quickly, "if you can ask the questions without the usual level of stupid."
Scott's distant father chuckles dryly, his stone cold eyes settling on Harper's tiny frame beside the witty teenage boy. He quickly notices how the flannel she's wearing is two times too big for her, and puts two and two together.
"Stiles and Harper. Never thought you'd actually grow a pair and ask the girl out," he looks back at the Stilinski boy.
Stiles rolled his eyes, "yeah, well, I did," he spat, allowing Raphael to assume that they were together.
Agent McCall sighed, "where's your dad and why has no one been able to contact him?"
"I don't know, I haven't seen him in hours," Stiles replied.
"Is he drinking again?" Raphael almost taunted them.
Stiles exhaled loudly and shook his head, "what do you mean 'again'? He never had to stop."
Harper glared at Agent McCall as he carries on, "but he did have to slow down. Is he drinking like he used to?"
"All right, how about this? Next time I see him, I'll give him a field sobriety test, okay?" He retorts, "we'll do the alphabet. Start with F, end with U."
Raphael can't help but grin sarcastically, "how about you two just tell me what the hell happened here? What about you, Harper? I haven't heard you speak once."
The Empath pursed her lips together and shrugged, "because I don't know what happened here. Neither does Stiles. We were stuck in the elevators the whole time."
"You're not the ones who put the names on the doors, are you?" Agent McCall questioned.
Harper's eyebrows furrowed together in utter confusion, "what names?"
She turns her head and looks at Stiles, but he seems just as puzzled as her.
...
"The word is 'guardian', Allison," Chris mutters as he pushes the front door to the Argent apartment open, "and more than anyone, you know that's a role I haven't exactly lived up to lately."
The middle aged man leads his daughter, Harper and Stiles into his study room, striding over to his large desk.
"But she took Scott's mother and Stiles' father. That's not a coincidence," Allison debated, frustrated that he wasn't taking what the teenagers were trying to tell him seriously.
'ARGENT' had been written in bold, red letters across all of the elevator doors in the hospital, leading them to conclude that Chris would be the Darach's next sacrifice. Once Jennifer had the third and final sacrifice, that was it for their parents.
"Yeah, and I'd also consider the fact that someone put your name up in large, block letters on the elevator doors," Stiles added, "that kind of felt like a warning to me."
"I think it might be Morrell," Allison admitted, "she knows a lot more than she lets on, and she might even be trying to help us."
Harper nodded, "yeah, like at the bank."
Allison made eye contact with the Empath and nodded back. Stiles just huffed and rolled his eyes.
"Yeah, well, she needs to get on that a lot faster, okay? Seeing as the lunar eclipse is less than two freaking nights away," the brunet slumped down into Chris' leather seat, folding his arms.
Harper's eyes softened, "Sti, don't give up yet."
"He could already be dead," Stiles replied regretfully.
"I don't think so," Chris Argent interrupted, "there's something about Jennifer's tactics. It's like she's still positioning, still moving pieces into place."
Allison cut in, "and you're one of them."
Chris pulled a map of Beacon Hills off of his desk, "then let's not wait around to see her next move. Everything she's done has been on a telluric current. So, Melissa and the Sheriff have to be somewhere on one of those currents, right? Stiles, if we're gonna find them, we need your help."
Stiles shook his head, looking at the carpet, "so you seriously wanna go after her? I mean, what if she just takes you like the others, huh? No offence, but what's the difference between you and them."
Chris loaded the gun in his hand so it clicked. Harper flinched at the noise and shuddered slightly.
"I'm carrying a .45," he put the safety on, "maybe she can heal from a shot to the leg and a few slashes to the face, but personally I'd like to see how she holds up with half her skull blown off. We've got one priority right now, and that is to find Melissa and your dad. We've got a map and every clue we need to figure this out. The only thing we don't have is time, which is why I need all three of you."
Harper looked down at a hesitant Stiles. She placed her hand on his shoulder, his hazel eyes glancing up to meet hers. She looked up and answered for the both of them.
"Where do we start?"
...
"The place where the sacrifices have been committed have usually been different from where the bodies have been found," Chris began as they hovered over the massive map of their small town, "I think the placement has to do with the strength of the current."
He pointed at the places as he named them, "so, there's the school, the animal clinic, the bank."
Stiles' eyebrows furrowed together, "wait a sec. She wouldn't have used the same place twice, would she?"
"Only if she didn't succeed the first time," Chris answered, tapping the animal clinic.
"Scott's boss," Allison realised.
"Deaton," Harper murmured.
"It was her only failure. That could mean something," Chris nodded at the two girls.
"That's just one place so far. We're gonna need a lot more help," the hazel eyed boy spoke.
"What about Lydia?" Allison looked between Stiles and Harper.
Harper made a face as she considered what the hunter was saying. Chris frowned deeply, confusion written across his face.
"Lydia?" He repeated, "what can she do?"
"When- when I came conscious after Jennifer had knocked me out, she was talking to Lydia. I don't know if I heard them right because everything was distorted, but I'm pretty sure she called Lydia 'the wailing woman' or a banshee, I can't remember," Harper replied hesitantly.
"They're the same thing," Allison's father nodded at Harper, "and if that's the case, then Lydia's good at finding dead bodies- correct?"
"Correct," Stiles muttered back.
...
Chris began to place guns down on the oak table in front of him while Allison opened up cases filled with arrows and knifes. The older Argent lifted up a large gun and aimed it towards Stiles as he examined it, causing the Stilinski boy to take a step back and Harper to flinch. Guns would always be one of her many weaknesses, just the sight of one caused her heart to pick up a little.
Stiles and Harper stood side by side awkwardly in the corner of the room as Allison did tricks with her knives and Chris loaded his guns. It was possible that the two teenagers had never felt so out of place in their entire lives.
"I thought you guys retired," Stiles questioned.
"Retired, yes. Defenceless, no," Chris Argent replied quickly, "now, make sure your phones' are on, if you hear from Scott, you let us know immediately."
Stiles pulled his phone out of his pocket, "yeah, I'm thinking that's gonna be kind of unlikely."
Harper watched as Allison's face fell slightly at the remark. She couldn't believe it either when the brunette had informed her of Scott's choice to leave with Deucalion on the car ride over to the Argent apartment.
"The three of you, try to remember he's just doing what he thinks is right," Chris reminded the teenagers just as a figure moved into the door way behind them.
"I can't shoot a gun or use a crossbow, but..." Isaac looked down at his hand, "well, I'm getting pretty good with these."
He made a flicking motioning with his hand and his werewolf claws came out, razor sharp as always.
Chris nodded, "you're in. Allison, come help me the others."
"Do you really need more weapons?" Stiles called after the small family as they left Isaac, Harper and Stiles alone in the room.
Harper scratched her arm awkwardly as Isaac made himself comfortable and leaned against the wall. Stiles just rolled his eyes, moving closer to the short brunette. Isaac raised his brows at the two of them.
"So..." he began, "are you two back together yet?"
Harper's heart clenched at the question as she shook her head, "no."
Isaac's face fell a little and he nodded, "sorry."
Stiles just rolled his eyes in response. He knew it wasn't really Isaac's fault they broke up, it was Stiles' own insecurities and jealousy. The brunet was just glad when Chris called Isaac to leave.
...
when it takes you a month to write a chapter and it's absolute rubbish !
i've just had really bad writers block sorry :/ but thank you for all of the lovely comments recently!
my summer holidays start next tuesday so hopefully i will have more time to write then.
thanks so much for reading, i hope you liked it.