|| The Return
Stiles remained in the waiting room, Scott, Kira and Lydia all there with him. For three hours he'd been sitting there in silence with his leg bouncing nervously.
No matter what any of his friends tried to say, nothing was making him feel better.
Doctor Dane came out to them, a strange look on her face. "Stiles," she softly said, "could you come with me?"
Stiles nearly jumped, hastily getting up and barely looking back to Scott as he followed Jacy's mom. "What is it? Is she okay?"
"It's hard to tell." Olivia's professional facade had been slipping away. "She lost a lot of blood. The cuts, they went really deep. I'm only getting information relayed to me because I'm not allowed to be her doctor and her mother."
"Do you," Stiles nearly choked on his own words, "do you think she'll make it?"
"We don't know yet, but," Olivia stopped Stiles in the special until he'd been kept in for nearly a month, "she's a strong girl. She's survived a lot."
"She told me about the swimming accident."
"It wasn't an accident," Olivia said, acting as if she hadn't just wiped a stray tear from her face. "And neither was this, was it?"
Stiles shook his head, "No, it wasn't."
"Jordan is in there but I know Jacy would want you there too." Dr. Dane sniffed just barely, "She had surgery to close up the wounds but it was hard. She's still unconscious, but we've got her stabilized for the moment."
"For the moment?"
Olivia looked sadly at Stiles, "She could change any given second. Just, go ahead and go in."
Stiles slowly opened the door, Jordan looking up from his spot next to the bed.
His eyes stuck to Jacy, feeling as if they had swapped places.
He understood why she felt so helpless.
"How is she on her back?" Machines whirred around them, i.v's hooked up to Jacy. "Doesn't it hurt?"
"Her morphine is on high." Jordan looked tired, having sat there panic stricken for hours. "Incredibly high."
Jacy was paler than usual, if that was even possible. All of her makeup was gone and her hair was softly lying over her shoulders in waves.
She looked peaceful.
"Have you, uh, have you seen-"
Deputy Parrish shook his head, "She's not drifting."
"Oh, thank God." Stiles went around to the other side of Jacy, sitting down.
"She should wake up, it just may not be tonight."
Stiles hadn't noticed at first, but Jordan had his sister's hand in his. "You were with her, right?"
"Sort of." He ran his hand through his hair before speaking, "I came in when it happened. It was a ghost - it was Aiden."
"Aiden?" Jordan furrowed his eyebrows, "But-"
"I don't get it either," Stiles said. "Honestly, I was hoping you would."
"Ghosts can touch us, but when werewolves die and don't pass on, they can't use claws. They're not even able to shift."
"Well," Stiles watched Jacy softly breathing, "that's not the case."
"Jacy mentioned something about the ghosts disappearing."
"Allison, Erica and Boyd." Stiles nodded. "We were in the library trying to figure it out. That's why we were there."
"Was she acting weird?" Jordan asked, the 'J' necklace Jacy always wore in his other hand. He tried to convince them to let her keep it on but they had to remove all of her jewelry for admission.
"A little. Someone was there talking to her but she wouldn't tell me," he said. "They - who I'm guessing was Aiden - put a random book on the table, but she seemed annoyed."
Jordan looked suspicious. "Do you know what book it was?"
"Some house cleaning one from a different decade." Stiles lifted an eyebrow, "Why?"
"I know what Aiden wanted, and how he did it." Deputy Parrish sighed with annoyance in his voice. "Uh, J didn't know about it, but our grandma asked me to hide it in a safe place."
"Your safe place was a library in a cleaning book?" Stiles asked with a slightly judging look.
"Would you have looked there?"
Stiles held up a hand, "Touché."
"I didn't see it on her when she came in though." Jordan knew she only had her necklace and earrings.
Stiles touched his pocket, pulling out what he'd found at the library. "Was it this?"
Jordan looked at the necklace like it was a forbidden object. "Is that...is it her blood?"
He lightly nodded, handing it over to him. "What is it?"
"It's not good." Jordan had pocketed Jacy's other necklace before grabbing the one Stiles handed him. "It's an old talisman from our family. It makes more sense now."
"A talisman? Like witch stuff?"
Jordan slightly lifted his shoulders, "Sort of. It's not supposed to be used. I don't know how Aiden even knew about it."
"What does it do?" Stiles looked from the gate shaped amulet to Jordan with curious eyes, arms folding casually over his chest.
"It can, uh, it can pull a ghost through the veil. It brings someone back to life." Jordan shook his head, "But it comes at a high cost. That's why Aiden did what he did with taking the ghosts. He must've bound them for their power so he could get through."
"Bound?" Stiles realized that Jacy and Jordan were a lot alike when it came to explaining. "What does that mean?"
"Think like, hypothetical handcuffs. Aiden took their power so he would have a better chance at getting through."
"Why did he scratch her, then?" Stiles asked, Jordan putting the family necklace into his uniform jacket.
"I don't think he meant to, at least not as deep as he did." Deputy Parrish reluctantly let go of his sisters hand. "I'm gonna make a phone call."
"Do you think Scott could come back here? It's, important."
"I'll have him come back." Jordan took his jacket off of the chair, taking a last look at his little sister before leaving.
Stiles let out a sigh as the door shut, leaving him with only Jacy. He found himself looking at her in the same way she had with him when he was the one helpless.
"I don't know how you did this with me." Reaching out, he went to grab her hand.
"Stiles?" Scott opened the door before Stiles could, taking his attention.
"Shut the door," Stiles said as he waved him in, standing up.
"Have you checked?" Scott softly shut the door behind him, walking over to the hospital bed.
"It was a ghost. It couldn't have worked, right?" he tried, his hope little. "And it was scratches, not a bite. She probably-"
"I'm not saying she is, but, we should check." Scott didn't want it to be true and neither did Stiles. "We need to move her a little."
"Wait," Stiles held out a hand to stop him, "it'll hurt her Scott."
"I'll take some of it away. We just need to make sure."
Hesitantly, he agreed. "One starts on her shoulder," Stiles said, shifting back the blanket over Jacy.
Scott touched Jacy's arm, quickly yanking it back as black spider-webbed through his veins.
Scott and Stiles exchanged a worried look.
"She's in a lot of pain."
Stiles looked up, trying to push away the water brimming in his eyes. "I'd imagine so. Aiden nearly killed her trying to claw his way from death."
"He-"
"Don't worry. It didn't work." Stiles acted as if he wasn't about to break. "Come on, let's ch-"
Jacy's eyes bursted open, a wild sense in them as she was lost in her own head. She squirmed violently if she was being held down, heavy breaths tight and tense.
"Woah, Jacy, hey." Scott tried to calm her but seemed to have no effect. "Jacy, it's Scott."
Jacy was mumbling with clenched teeth about loudness, her words lost to the boys. She frantically reached up to her ears, struggling with something out of sight.
"Jacy, hey, Jace." Stiles' words weren't working with her either.
There was a soft tearing noise, Jacy's shaking hands dropping something to the ground before she fell still. A pleased look seemed to cross her face before her brown eyes shut as she fell out of conciousness.
"What the hell was that?" Stiles asked, glancing over her machines to make sure nothing had gone flat.
"I have no clue." Scott crouched down as Stiles did, each retrieving a half of what Jacy had torn from herself.
At the same time, they held up skin colored wires.
Stiles moved Jacy's hair from her ear, a dribble of blood slipping out. "What are these?"
"I, I think they're hearing aids."
Stiles narrowed his eyes at the alpha, "What?"
Scott looked just as surprised, "I think Jacy was deaf."
Stiles looked from the hearing aid to Jacy, "Then why would she rip these out?"
"Maybe she's not deaf...anymore." His eyes went from Jacy to Stiles and back to Jacy. "Advanced hearing if she's-"
"Don't say it."
"Stiles," Scott urged, "this could be happening to her."
"She was scratched by a ghost." Stiles was trying to convince himself more than anyone else. "That's impossible. She can't be..."
"Let's just check her wounds," Scott tried, setting down the hearing aid on the table next to Jacy's desk.
"No." Stiles shut his eyes in frustration. "Just, let her sleep. She got out of surgery like half an hour ago."
"I'm calling Derek." Scott pulled out his phone but complied to Stiles' wishes. Picking through his contacts, he called the wolf that had gone AWOL.
Stiles looked over Jacy with concern in his eyes. He wasn't sure what to think.
"Okay, he's not answering."
"He hasn't been answering in forever, Scott," Stiles abruptly said, trying to think of anything other than what was happening to Jacy.
"I'm going to the loft," Scott decided, putting his phone in his jacket. "He knows more about this than we do. He could help."
"Scott-"
"Stiles," is Scott carefully said, "I don't know how, or why or what, but this is happening to her."
Stiles stood in silence as Scott left him, only the sounds of machines filling the void.
Reluctantly, he crouched down and shifted Jacy just a little. Able to see the gauze peeking from the back of her gown, he pulled it back slightly. After setting her back down, he simply sat in the chair next to her.
Grabbing Jacy's hand, he leaned back and didn't say a word.
||
Scott pulled up to the loft complex in the dead of night, climbing off of his bike and tucking his helmet under his arm as he looked over the unlit building.
How long had it been since he last saw Derek? How long had it been since anyone had seen Derek?
Scott went up to the top floor, listening for any sign of another person around. And from what he could tell, it was only him, alone.
He took the stairs up and walked down the hall to Derek's loft, knowing that knocking would do no good for an empty home. Grabbing the wooden panel door, it slid open before he could apply the force he intended to.
The door to the loft rolled open, the space inside drenched in darkness.
Scott glanced around as he took the steps down into Derek's space. His eyes adjusted quickly, the room appearing untouched.
Slowly moving around, something connected with the toe of his shoe and clinking away.
Scott furrowed his eyebrows, crouching down to retrieve what he had heard. Metal touched his fingertips as he held up the chrome tube to eye level.
It was a bullet casing, a leering skull etched into the shell.