Chapter 15: Him Before Me
Chapter Song: Chasing Cars by Snow Patrol
"If I lay here. If I just lay here. Would you lie with me and just forget the world? I don't quite know how to say how I feel."
~
FLASHBACK:
Isabella arrived at Allison's new apartment after getting an "urgent" call from her to get there quickly. She burst into Allison's room frantically, thinking that something bad had happened to her best friend. To Isabella's surprise, Allison was sat comfortably on her floor sorting through her arrows and carefully shining them until she could see her reflection in the titanium. Allison didn't even look back at Isabella as she heard her door slam open aggressively, she had expected her to do that after receiving her text. It had been her plan actually.
Upon seeing Allison unbothered and perfectly fine, Isabella skidded to a stop in the middle of her room and scoffed annoyedly, folding her arms over her chest. She quietly walked up behind Allison and glared at the back of her head, " What the hell, Allison? I thought you were dying or something!"
Allison didn't look up at Isabella and instead continued to shine her weapons as she shrugged her shoulders nonchalantly, " It got you here, didn't it?"
Isabella continued to glare at Allison as she took a seat reluctantly next to her on the hardwood floor and picked up an arrow, twisting it around in her hand, " Well, what was so urgent that you had to make me think you were in danger? And why the hell do you have these out in the open? Chris is going to kill you if he finds out that you aren't keeping up with your side of the agreement."
Allison rolled her eyes at the mention of the agreement of retirement between her and her father and turned to Isabella rapidly as she took the arrow from her hand placing it on the ground gently, " That could have exploded and killed you, don't touch them. And don't worry about my dad because he's never going to find out."
Isabella knew Chris better than most people in Allison's life and she felt as if Allison was totally misjudging the detective skills of her father. She cringed and watched as Allison fixed the arrangement on the floor that Isabella had ruined, " Allison, he's going to find out. I'm surprised he didn't see you at the school the other night, you got lucky. Trust me, parents always know."
Allison shook her head, in complete resistance to Isabella's words even though deep down she knew she was right. Allison just didn't want to admit it, she didn't want to admit that Isabella was like another part of the family and knew the Argents better than she even knew herself or her father.
" No. He won't. I won't let him, he'll make me stop again. I wanted to keep my end of the agreement, but I couldn't. I won't stand around and do nothing when all my friends are dying, not when I have the ability to help."
Isabella gave Allison a sad look and sighed deeply to herself, " Yeah. I get that."
She felt the exact same way that Allison did, she was a bit sick of putting herself into dangerous situations but she knew she had to. Isabella knew she had the skills and she knew that she couldn't waste them; she'd always be there to fight for her friends no matter how annoying it got.
The two girls stayed in silence as Allison shined the rest of her arrows and Isabella just watched her in wonder. She didn't know how Allison could be so strong when all she had was a bow and arrow with no supernatural enhancements running through her body. She was stronger than Isabella thought herself to be, she had all those enhancements and she still thought herself to be weaker than Allison; emotionally and physically. Allison was so special, she was in her own league; something Isabella quietly envied.
After around 10 minutes of silence, Allison slowly placed the last of her arrows down onto the wood floor, she had successfully cleaned them all and now she was prepared for the night ahead of her and Isabella. The night Scott's dumbass didn't want them involved in. Allison took one last look at the beautiful arrangement on the floor of her bedroom before turning to Isabella with a loud sigh, breaking Isabella out of her previous thoughts.
Allison grabbed Isabella's hands that were laying on top of her lap gently and pulled them to her," If I tell you this you have to promise me that you're in it with me for the long run. You have to go through with it no matter if you disagree with me. I can't have you bailing on our plan."
Isabella's eyebrow rose in confusion as she stared into Allison's brown eyes that lacked no amount of seriousness in them, " Okay, I promise. What plan? I have no idea what you're talking about. "
Allison smirked at Isabella mischievously, " We're going to kick some ass."
" Whose ass?" Isabella asked again, even more confused. She wasn't aware of anyone who really deserved an ass kicking besides the Alpha Pack, but as far as she knew there were no plans of an attack anytime soon.
" Some Alpha ass. It's going to happen tonight at an abandoned mall. Scott doesn't want you there and by default he doesn't want me there so that I can protect you or some shit like that, so you in? Remember you can't say no."
Isabella looked at Allison, still in utter confusion and shook her head while holding her hands up to signal Allison to slow down, " What? Where did you even hear this? If they were doing something like this they would have told...."
" But they didn't tell you. Look Izzy, I only know because Scott came here to tell me to stay out of it and to make sure you didn't get involved tonight either. I thought it was completely toxic that he doesn't believe you can protect your own body mentally and physically, so I planned for us to just show up and prove him wrong. I got the location from Isaac, it was actually quite easy to trick him. We're stronger than Scott thinks and you know it."
Isabella took a few moments to process Allison' s words in her mind, she didn't really know what to say at first because she was feeling two emotions at the same time. She was angry that Scott had the balls to come to her best friend when she had specifically told him not to come see her and that he would think it was okay to question her ability to fight for herself, but she was also sad that he wasn't the only one keeping her in the dark. No one had told her about the plan to attack the Alpha pack that night, not a single person had mentioned it and it hurt her. She thought that by now that she was essential to them, but she guessed she was wrong.
After a few moments of quiet thinking, Isabella looked up at Allison with a new fire behind her eyes, she had decided to focus on her anger as the primary emotions she was feeling in that moment of revelation, " What time is this happening and how are we going to get in there undetected?"
Allison smirked evilly upon seeing the look Isabella was giving her, " Around eight o'clock tonight... so you're fully in?"
Isabella scoffed under her breath briefly before rapidly flicking her hand in the air, her claws popping out of her fingernails, " Of course I am. Let's show them that we're not as fragile as they think."
*****
PRESENT TIME:
Lydia was quite literally bored out of her mind as she continued to stare at the annoying bright yellow bus ahead of them. She cared about Isabella too, but she felt as if Allison was taking it to the extreme. She had been through many traumatic events recently and anyone could tell she needed space and time, something Lydia knew all to well. Lydia just figured that Allison felt guilty in a way for the incident and maybe that was why she was so adamant on making sure Isabella was alright. Allison was the one who had convinced her that going to the abandoned mall that night.
Lydia rolled her eyes as quiet music played throughout the small Mazda and pulled her eyes off the rear of the bus to look at her nervous looking friend, " Allison, can you be honest with me for a second? Are you doing all this because you feel responsible or what? I mean this is a bit excessive."
Allison's hands became sweaty upon hearing Lydia's words and her hands gripped the steering wheel harder. She shook her head frantically and her voice shook nervously, " No...why would you think that? I'm just looking out for my friend."
Allison's words did not fool Lydia, you could tell from a mile away that she was lying. Lydia didn't need to have supernatural hearing to know it either.
Lydia looked over at Allison with sympathy and put her hand on Allison's shoulder comfortingly," Allison... you aren't to blame for her dad's death. No one thinks that and I can tell you for certain that she doesn't either."
At the feeling of Lydia's hand on her shoulder, Allison's knew she had been caught and that immediately brought tears to her eyes. She briefly looked over at Lydia with her eyes begin to gloss up, her voice breaking, " I should have listened to Scott, we should have never gone."
Allison then quickly put her eyes back onto the road and the big bus in front of them as she shook her head, tears falling down her face, " It should have never happened."
*****
FLASHBACK:
Isabella and Allison were almost done packing up the trunk of the Camaro full of Allison's arrows when Isabella's phone rang out for the twelfth time in the last ten minutes. Isabella ignored the rings and let her phone continue to sit unbothered in the back pocket of her black jeans. Allison on the other hand stood next to her as Isabella threw one of the last bags in with an affirmative look on her face.
After securing the bag in her trunk and continuing to ignore the constant ringing, Isabella turned to grab the last bag off the ground only to see Allison standing next to her, silently reprimanding her. Isabella stopped in her tracks and stared back at Allison who raised her eyebrow at her in question.
Isabella threw her hands up in the air and then smacked them down on her legs, " What?"
" Are you gonna answer your phone?" Allison asked as she crossed her hands over her chest and leaned against the side of the black Camaro.
Isabella rolled her eyes as she bent down to pick up the last bag, " It's just Scott. He's trying to check in on me and make sure that I have no idea that he is keeping secrets from me, that everyone is keeping shit from me."
" I think you should answer at least one of his calls." Allison said as she shrugged her shoulders and came over to Isabella's side.
Isabella threw the last bag into the the trunk before slamming it shut and turning to Allison with her eyebrows threaded together in confusion, " Why would I answer him? I thought we were trying to keep our endeavors a secret, do you want him to stop us? If he finds out he will do everything in his power to keep us away."
" Don't you think he'll get more suspicious if you ignore him? Of course he's trying to make sure that you have no idea what is happening. We need to make sure he has no idea what were doing either. Now, answer him...he's calling again." Allison demanded as she motioned towards the phone that began ringing again.
Isabella wanted to argue but she knew Allison was right. If she didn't answer him soon he would begin to worry and come looking for answers. She didn't want to answer him because of the annoyance she felt in that moment towards him but she knew she had to...she had to if this was going to work.
Reluctantly, Isabella sighed heavily and pulled her phone out of her pocket before swiftly pressing the green icon to finally answer one of Scott's consistent and persistent calls.
His voice immediately flowed through her phone, " Finally you picked up, what are you doing?"
Isabella kicked her foot against the asphalt of the ground, uninterested, " I'm out with Allison. We decided to go catch a movie, were actually on our way in right now, can we talk later?
It wasn't intentional but Scott audibly let out a sigh of relief upon hearing her words, something that didn't go unnoticed by Isabella causing her to roll her eyes at him as he next spoke, " Oh alright. Just wanted to make sure you were alright, I'll be at Stiles' tonight. I'd invite you but he said it was a guys night."
Isabella again rolled her eyes, if she really wanted to she could make Stiles confess the truth to her. Hanging out with Stiles was probably the worst excuse he could have thought of, especially hanging out with him and not inviting her. That was something that never happened and wasn't very reflective of who Stiles was, he always invited her. It was also a bad idea because he would be easy for her to crack, he would spill the truth to her with one threat to his life.
Isabella bit the inside of her cheek harshly to keep herself from sassing Scott as she spoke, " Yeah, I'll be fine. Allison and I know how to watch out for ourselves. Have fun with Stiles, I got to go."
Scott began to speak again but he was abruptly cut off as Isabella hung up on him. She had said that she had to go and it wasn't a lie, the sun was setting and it was almost time for them to take off to the abandoned mall. She also just didn't want to talk to him anymore, yeah she loved the guy but she was upset with his lack of faith in her. She wasn't in the mood to talk to him kindly anymore than she needed to.
Isabella then without a second thought turned her phone off completely, she didn't need him calling her back. It was time for action, not words. She was going to show him and everyone else in the pack that she was stronger than they gave her credit for. She wasn't fragile and she had the strength to pull herself back together...on her own.
As Isabella slipped her sleeping phone into her pocket, Allison chuckled under her breath and shook her head, " You didn't have to hang up on him like that."
Isabella shrugged her shoulders before turning on her heels and walking towards the drivers side of the car, Allison following suit and going to the passengers side, " I know."
With a proud smirk on her face, Isabella then swung open the car door and jumped into her expensive and sleek car. Allison stayed stunned by Isabella's confidence outside of the car. She had never seen Isabella act that way towards Scott and she had to admit it was refreshing to see her embracing the feminine power she had inside of her.
Upon noticing that Allison had not entered the car, Isabella rolled down the window slowly to reveal a stunned Allison and asked her with a smirk on her face still, " Well, are we doing this or not?"
Allison looked into the car at her best friend and shook her head with a chuckle, opening the car door and jumping in, " Of course we are but like can I just say that if you and Scott don't make it to the end, can I marry you? I found that confidence to be rather attractive."
Isabella smiled at Allison mischievously and raised her eyebrows at Allison in a teasing manner, " Allison, honey, if you wanted to make out with me all you had to do was say so."
Isabella then began to lean over the middle console, making kissing noises and lips at Allison who simply pushed her away with a loud laugh while shaking her head, " Shut up you goon. I swear you become more and more like Stiles each day. Just shut up and drive."
Isabella pouted dejectedly before turning around in her seat and revving the engine of the Camaro loudly, " I take that as a compliment."
As Isabella began to drive under the darkening California sky and calm the nerves that were beginning to rise as the fight neared closer, she turned to Allison and smiled, excited to prove herself, " Lets show them that were more than anyone bargained for. We're doing this together, Ally, just like we always will. Forever proving the men wrong, right?"
Allison nodded her head and stared out onto the road with a satisfied smirk on her face, "Forever."
*****
PRESENT TIME:
"God, can this bus move any slower?" Isabella said in annoyance under her breath as the bus once again stopped after only moving a few feet in the the huge traffic line they had suddenly hit. She needed to get somewhere she could think of a way to heal herself and Scott, sitting on a basically immobile bus was not helping and in fact, it made her want to off herself before the wound on her side got to her again.
She'd rather give herself the satisfaction of taking down the "almighty" empath which Deucalion had called her the previous night when he had first seen her enter the abandoned mall, than give it to one of the Alphas who had already killed her father.
Stiles gave her a look of sympathy and rubbed her shoulder gently since Scott had seemed to go off into no mans land again with his head pressed against the glass, " It's gonna be okay, Izzy. I'm not gonna let you or Scott die. I'll think of something."
Usually Isabella would have snapped at Stiles when she was at this level of annoyance, but she didn't really have the strength to argue with him and besides he was trying his best to comfort her unlike Scott.
She looked over at Scott and sighed heavily in sadness, they couldn't seem to keep him engaged in a conversation for more than ten minutes at a time before he went back into a daze and refused to respond to them.
After staring at Scott with pity for a few seconds longer, she turned to Stiles and gave him a small smile of appreciation, " Thanks for trying to lift my spirits, Stiles. If I survive this I promise I won't smack you for a week, maybe even two if you can find a way to get us out of this traffic."
Normally, Stiles would have scoffed at Isabella's words and been annoyed with her but he just couldn't. All he could do was chuckle and shake his head at her. Isabella looked like shit still, even worse than when she had almost died the first time. He didn't have the heart to say anything to her, he didn't know what to say that could actually help her...so he simply stayed quiet.
Fortunately for him, Isabella didn't notice the lack of words coming from Stiles because she was slowly rising out her seat, more interested in something happening at the front of the bus. Upon feeling Isabella move next to him Scott took his head off the window and looked at her in surprise.
Isabella said nothing as she kept her eyes locked on a specific person at the front of the bus, a person she needed to get to no matter how much her side hurt her. She began to shimmy her way past a confused Stiles and a panicked looking Scott, but before she could get fully out into the aisle, Stiles grabbed her arm gently making her turn to him briefly.
Stiles looked at her with wide eyes and whisper shouted to her, " Where are you going? You need to sit down, you're going to rip your wound even more."
Isabella looked behind her and watched as a clawed hand wrapped around a seat, digging the nails into it as the person owning them growled repeatedly. She looked back to Stiles and pulled her arm out of his grip as tears filled her eyes, " I don't care. I have to stop him, he can't do anything. I promised I'd stop him."
" Stop who?" Scott asked, he was finally focused on something again other than his self pity. It was the first time he had been alert since she almost died.
Tears began to fall slowly from her blue eyes as she shook her head, " Boyd. He's going to do something. I have to stop him before it's too late. It's my duty."
" How is that your duty? He's not your beta or your responsibility. I'll go, just sit down. We almost lost you once, we can't have that again." Scott began to rise out of his seat as he spoke but Isabella reached down and pushed him down by the chest.
She shook her head and began backing up slowly making her way towards Boyd and Isaac's seats, " He was my dad's beta though which makes him my responsibility. Boyd sees me as a leader, he doesn't trust you like he does me. He's my family."
Without waiting to here Scott or Stiles protest to her words, Isabella turned on her heel and made her way over to Boyd who looked as if he was out to spring out of his seat and charge at Ethan, only two rows behind him. She held her side as she hobbled over to him, feeling the blood coating her hand. It hurt so bad that she wanted to stop but she knew she couldn't.
Boyd began to rise out of his seat causing Isabella to increase her speed towards him. Just as he was about to stand up she launched herself onto his body and gripped his arm tightly.
Boyd's growling ceased and his attention was immediately drawn to the small blonde holding onto his arm for dear life, nuzzling her head into his arm, whispering, pleading to him, " Don't do it. Don't do it. Please don't do it."
Boyd's eyes that had been previously golden had changed back to their usual dark brown upon looking at her, she calmed him just by catching sight of her. Boyd's face was overwritten with confusion as he turned to Isaac next to him and raised his eyebrows in question, hoping he'd have an explanation for what his sister was doing.
Isaac had a suspicion that she had seen him about to snap just like he had and taken charge of making him stop, he knew she'd want to be the one to stop him for Derek's sake. Even though he pretty much knew what Isabella was doing, Isaac stayed silent and shrugged his shoulders at Boyd.
Isabella held onto Boyd's bicep for as long as she could until she felt him sit back down in the seat, squishing himself as close as he could to Isaac so that she could sit next to them.
As soon as her butt was planted on the cushioned seat, Isabella quickly let go of Boyd's bicep and pushed the hair out of her face, " Thank god that worked."
She looked up to see Boyd looking at her in confusion to which she rolled her eyes at. She looked at him angerly for a few seconds before hitting him repeatedly in the shoulder, " Can you please control your emotions? We don't have time to expose ourselves! If you kill Ethan then you're going to out us all, my dad would not want that. Please don't do anything, please, for him."
Boyd looked down at the girl whos expression had quickly transitioned from anger to intense sadness as she choked out her words with tears falling down her face. He watched her finish speaking respectively before he nodded his head and wiped the tears off her face with the sleeve of his shirt.
"Sorry, Izzy. I promise I won't." Boyd said as he slowly moved his sleeve away from her face and gave her a small smile.
Isabella's recent burst of energy to stop Boyd was fading as she slowly molded into the seat and let out a sigh of relief while closing her eyes, " Good. That's one less thing I have to worry about."
There was a change in Isabella's voice as she finished speaking, a change that both Boyd and Isaac noticed, it was almost as if it was fading. Isaac's watched for a few seconds trying to figure out was wrong with his sister, but when he got nothing from her and just saw her sitting there with her eyes closed and teeth clenched behind her closed lips he slowly began to turn away. However, his attention was immediately brought back to her when a bump in the road tossed all their bodies up suddenly. Isabella flinched in agony and grabbed her side, she hoped that neither of them had noticed but she wasn't so lucky.
Isaac's eyes widened as he looked down to her side in urgency to see blood not only seeping through her shirt but also through her thin cross country jacket. Isaac leaned over Boyd and tried to lift her shirt and jacket only to have Isabella glare at him and knock his hand away.
Isaac didn't back down at the sight of her glare and sent an identical one to her as anger began to rise in him. Unlike Boyd, it wasn't anger towards Ethan but rather anger aimed at Scott who in his eyes always seemed to be always hurting his sister in some way or another.
" What the hell is going on, Izzy?" Isaac asked as he stayed right up in her face and seethed out through his teeth angrily, his shoulders heaving up and down, " I thought you said that was healing this morning?"
Isabella shrugged her shoulders and rolled her eyes at her brother, " I lied, okay? I didn't need you worrying about me with everything else going on. Scott and I are handling it."
Isaac scoffed and pulled himself back upright in his seat, " Handled my ass. You are just so stuck up Scott's ass that you can't see what is really going on."
Isabella turned to Isaac and glared again, now fuming with the same anger he had but for a different reason, " Oh yeah, Isaac? If you're so smart why don't you tell me what is going on? You're not the one with a huge gash in your side that already almost killed you, so I'd say you actually have no idea what is going on!"
Isaac was too angry to hear clearly what his twin had said which is why his anger with her persisted as he again turned towards her and glared too. Isaac leaned in closer to her and whispered with disgust laced within his voice, " I have no hate for Scott as a person but with you? After last night? I absolutely hate his guts and I think you should too. He doesn't have any faith in you and quite frankly, I don't think he ever did. He just wants you cause he knows he can get you back every time, but Izzy, if you can't see that I guess you two deserve each other. Maybe you're just as bad as him."
Isabella looked as Isaac as if he was a stranger, she knew that he had some underlying dislike for Scott just like Allison did because of all the times he had hurt her but she never knew it was like this. She knew he'd say something someday, but she didn't think that he would stoop so low as to insult her at the same time. Isabella stared at Isaac whose shoulders were once again heaving up and down rapidly and she didn't say a word, she didn't shed a tear, she didn't show him any emotion.
Deep down she knew he was right in a sense. If she wasn't so attached to Scott maybe she could have only replicated some of his injury but instead she took all of it and she was seemingly paying for it even more than he was. She loved Scott, boy did she ever, but she also couldn't argue with Isaac's words. Scott and her were slowly making their way towards something sane people would call unhealthy. The on and off again relationship and the lack of trust in one another was definitely not a good thing and Isabella knew she was wrong for only now starting to realize it.
The three werewolves in the small bus seat had stayed silent for almost twenty five minutes after Isaac's outburst, even Boyd who had just been sitting there letting the two emotionally distraught sibling hash it out. He too deep down agreed with Isaac, but just didn't have the heart to speak his mind so confidently. It was better that she heard it from Isaac than him, she would value his words as her brother on a whole other level.
After the long amount of silence that was close to reaching almost a half an hour, Isabella sighed and began to play with her hands sadly as she looked down at her chipping black nail polish coated with dried blood from the previous night.
" You're right." Isabella whispered to Isaac, she wasn't looking for an answer and she didn't receive one but she knew he had heard, " I was going to go back to them but I think I'm going to stay up here with you guys if that's alright."
No one said anything but Isabella was reassured that they had wanted her with them when Boyd stood up and motioned for her to squeeze by him. Effectively allowing her to sit between himself and Isaac. Without a word, Isabella stood up and with a small struggle scooted across the seat until she was in the middle of them, Boyd then sat down beside her.
Still in silence, Boyd took hold of one of her hands when he was fully sat down and began running his thumb over it soothingly. With her free hand, Isabella grabbed Isaac's right hand and put her head down on his shoulder, closing her eyes and relaxing into the two of them. She felt more okay with them than she had the whole bus ride and it felt nice to think about something other than dying. She was with her family, and she felt at home, something she didn't expect to feel only one day after he father's death.
****
"Izzy! Hey, wake up!"
Isabella was awoken by someone shaking her shoulders and shouting her name, or what sounded like shouting to her tired and slowly dying mind. In actuality, Boyd had been very careful with her and promised Isaac he would get her off the bus in as little pain as possible.
He hated that he had to move her because she looked to be in even worse condition but everyone was already off the bus and Coach was yelling at him to hurry up so that the driver could clean up the mess that Jared had made. Boyd and Isaac had been too busy making sure that Isabella didn't die in her sleep due to the injury on her side to see what had happened specifically, but they did know that Stiles had somehow gotten Jared to puke causing the bus to have to be pulled over.
Isabella's eyes slowly fluttered open as she looked around the now empty bus, sleep still lingering in her weak voice, " What happened? Where is everybody?" Isabella stopped abruptly and smelled the air around her, it was horrendous and pungent, " What the hell is that smell?"
Boyd simply shrugged his shoulders and began to try and pick Isabella up in a bridal motion, "Jared puked. Stiles did something to make him do it."
" I guess I can't smack him for at least a week." Isabella said before going silent and closing her eyes once again, struggling to keep them open for more than ten seconds.
Isabella normally would have argued with Boyd's means of transporting her and insisted that she could walk but even she knew that she had gotten worse while she had been asleep. The pain and dizziness she was feeling made her wonder how she was even still alive and hadn't died in her sleep. Instead of making a big deal out of it, Isabella let Boyd carry her bridal style off of the bus while she cuddled into his muscled chest.
He carried her through the heat of the afternoon along the side of the road that was littered with soft sand until he reached the group that was standing in front of a small white bricked bathroom. A group made up of two of Isabella's best friends, the two other members of her trio of girls: Lydia and Allison. As soon as they saw Isabella in Boyd's arms they instantly rushed him into the bathroom where they had just placed Scott down on the cold tile, he was beginning to die too.
Allison and Lydia watched in fear as their best friend's head fell to the side as soon as she was placed on the floor, she didn't even acknowledge their presence as they snapped their fingers in front of her face. Boyd took a longing look at Isabella in sadness before swiftly existing the room to find Isaac, he was going to need someone by his side if they weren't able to help her. He also couldn't stand to be in the room if that happened. He had already seen Erica die he couldn't watch it be her too. Being outside with Isaac seemed like the option that would save him the most heartbreak.
Normally, Isabella would have been shocked to see Allison and Lydia in front of her, but she was falling too far gone to really care. If she would have stayed in the back of the bus with Stiles and Scott she would have heard that Allison had been following the bus for hours just to watch out for her well being. She would have known that Allison had a terrible gut feeling the whole day about Isabella's health and she would have known that Allison had been right; she was slowly dying for the second time that day.
Ignoring an sense of confusion Isabella felt about the appearance of Allison and Lydia, she used the last bit of strength she had to turn her head to look at Scott. He now looked just as bad as she did; his eyes had abnormally large dark circles under them, blood was pouring out of his shirt at a rapid pace, and he too was slipping in and out of consciousness. Isabella could feel bile rising in her throat but she knew it was more than that, she had been through this before; she was about to throw up blood.
She smiled weakly as she watched Stiles crouch down and try to keep Scott's eyes focused on him before she turned to her side and threw up all the blood in her mouth onto the white floor of the small outhouse bathroom. She then sat back up weakly and leaned her head against the pipe of the sink to her right, wiping the blood from off her lips.
Stiles head snapped to her in disgust and surprise as he held Scott's head in his hands, " Awh, Izzy. Really? " He pouted before he began frantically yelling to Allison and Lydia, " Can you guys please make sure she doesn't die over there? If she's throwing up blood I'd say she's definitely dying and I am not planning on losing my partner in crime."
"She won't even look at us!" Lydia screamed back at Stiles as she continued to snap her fingers in Isabella's face trying to get her attention, " It's like she's off in her own world, she has yet to acknowledge either of us!"
Stiles scoffed loudly and let go of Scott's face momentarily as he threw his arms up in exasperation and said with desperation in his voice, " Try something else then! She can't die because of Scott's stupid mistakes. She has to live."
Upon hearing the desperate plea in Stiles' voice, Allison stopped snapping abruptly and did the only thing she knew would get Isabella to focus. She was going to have to just go for it. Allison looked down at the blood seeping through Isabella's shirt and jacket and immediately began to make her way towards exposing it to the open air. As soon as Allison's hands reached the hem of Isabella's shirt, her head snapped up and she jerked away harshly, making herself wince in pain.
She held the hem of her shirt down tightly and looked at Allison while she shook her head rapidly with tears starting to flow out of her eyes, " NO! Don't touch me! Save him. Save him first, Allison. Please-" She looked over at Scott who was slowly closing his eyes as Stiles screamed at him not to before snapping her head back to Allison and pleading, " Please, him before me, Allison. Him before me."
Allison's eyes widened and she began shaking her head as tears now filled her eyes too, " What? No, are you crazy, Izzy? Stiles told us that you almost died once on the bus, it has to be you first, okay?"
Isabella smiled kindly at Allison as she still continued to cry, " No-o-o." She stuttered out, barely able to speak as her energy faded quickly, " Sa-v-ve him f-fir-st. I-I will heal if-f he doe-s-s. Trust me."
Allison was about to argue more with Isabella, but she felt Lydia take her hand softly. Allison's looked at Lydia who also was crying and looked at her questioningly.
Lydia just shook her head and tried to stop herself from whimpering as she spoke, " Allison, do it. Save Scott, you have to trust Izzy. She knows more about what is happening than any of us. If she says it will save her to save Scott then we have to do it."
Allison looked at Lydia for a few more seconds before turning to look at Isabella apprehensively. She didn't want to feel like more of the reason for her friend dying, she wanted to fix her so bad. It had been her fault that they even went to the mall in the first place and it was her fault that she was like this. No one else thought it was her fault but she did. That is why it took every bit of strength she had in her to turn away from her blonde friend who was smiling at her with blood stained lips and to slide herself across the floor to Scott's body.
Stiles already had Scott's shirt ripped open, exposing his wound in the dimly lit bathroom. The blood in between the gashes and leaking down them was dark black, the same color blood Isabella had just previously thrown up. Allison shook her head as she sighed in disbelief and traced the scratch mark gently, making Scott twitch a bit under her touch.
" How did they let it get this bad?" Allison asked as she looked up at Stiles who stood next to Allison picking at his nails nervously.
Stiles looked down at her and shrugged his shoulders, " I don't know. They are both two of the most stubborn people I know. Scott more than her. She knew it was a problem but he was too lost in his own mind to think clearly."
" Well, I don't know what I can do. This shouldn't be happening. I have seen Scott heal from worse than this. What if there is nothing we can do?" Allison said as she looked back down to Scott and then over to Isabella who was slowly slipping off of the drain, unable to keep holding herself up.
Stiles shook his head frantically and watched his two dying best friends as he began panic inside, " We have to do something, Allison! They can't just die!"
Lydia slowly pulled Isabella's sinking body back up and held her steady by the shoulders before turning to Stiles and Allison with wide eyes; still holding Isabella upright, " It could be psychological. "
Stiles eyes snapped to the small strawberry blonde knelt on the ground and his eyes widened too, " What? You mean like psychosomatic?
Lydia shook her head and placed Isabella gently against the wall, smoothing out her tangled blonde hair lovingly before standing up curtly and walking towards Stiles, " Somatoformic."
Stiles looked at her in confusion and said in a low whisper, " Som-"
He may be smart but he was not Lydia smart. The word she had said only made sense to her, leaving her two friends utterly confused by what she was trying to suggest.
Lydia rolled her eyes impatiently at Stiles and questioned him, she didn't understand how she was the only one who was seeing what was happening, " A physical illness from a psychogenic cause?"
Stiles looked at her like she was crazy and threw his arm up angrily, urging her to explain it in terms that he and Allison would understand. They didn't have all day to figure out the riddles of Lydia Martin's genius mind; their friends were dying and they needed to fix it now.
Lydia sighed sadly when she realized they still did not understand her and that Stiles was getting annoyed, looking at Scott and Isabella sadly, as she said under her breath, " It's all in his head. His own brain his stopping him from healing and by consequence, Izzy is not healing either. The empath still thinks Scott is hurt so it is not allowing itself to heal. Scott doesn't want to heal."
Stiles' eyes widened, it was like a light bulb suddenly went off in his head. All the hints from how Scott had been acting and the words he had been speaking all connected in Stiles head as he let out a sad breath, " All in his head...because of Derek. He's not letting himself heal because Derek died."
Allison too understood now and she let her gaze wander over to Isabella who seemed to still be alive at the moment as she had begun to softly talk to herself as she held the pipe of the sink with a death grip. The words coming out of her mouth could barely be heard but they all knew what they were: Alpha, Beta, Omega.
Allison almost let out a gasp at hearing the words and her heart ached for Isabella. She was speaking the Hale family mantra. She was thinking of her father in that moment and Allison knew it. What Allison didn't know was that those words meant something deeper to Isabella. She was not just trying to hold onto the thought of her father as she died...she was actually welcoming death like an old friend.
Death would give Derek back to her... Death would bring them all back, even Laura. She wasn't scared anymore. Those words showed acceptance, luckily Allison had no idea of the thoughts running through Isabella's head, otherwise, she would have not followed her wishes to save Scott; Isabella would have been the priority.
Allison took her eyes off of Isabella and brought them back to Stiles and Lydia as she spoke with a sad whisper, tilting her head towards Isabella, " What about her? Is it the same for her? Is his death causing her not to heal?"
Lydia shook her head, " No, I don't think so. This is Scott's wound not hers. The only reason hers is not healing is because of Scott's unwillingness to heal. From what you guys have told me about the Empath, it seems as if she only heals once the person she is connected to heals...or dies. I'd like to make sure Scott heals."
" So what do we do?" Allison asked with concern, " How do we make them heal?"
Lydia instantly reached down into the orange bag hanging on her body and pulled out a needle and thread that she kept handy for any possible wardrobe malfunctions. She held it up for Allison and Stiles to see and shrugged her shoulders, " Stitch Scott up."
Stiles looked at Lydia like she was crazy for possibly the second time in the last five minutes while Allison let out a large breath of anxiety that seemed to wash over her at the thought of them having to physically stitch up the mess that was Scott's leaking wound.
Lydia saw the way her friends reacted and shook her head as she looked at them wide eyes, " I'm serious. Maybe all he needs to do is just believe it's healing. Izzy's wound will follow suit if Scott allows himself to heal. It's our only shot."
Stiles looked at Allison who was trying to keep her emotions under control with a skeptical expression, but they both knew that Lydia was right. They had no other ideas, no other options, no more time. If they wanted to save both Isabella and Scott, they had to try.
****
Allison held the lighter shakily in her hand while Stiles began ripping up paper towels to clean up the thrown up blood. She slowly turned the spark wheel with her thumb, the flame erupting from the lighter. She then brought the needle that Lydia had provided to the flame and watched as the tip of the needle began to turn black.
Once she had burnt the tip to her liking she brought it away from the flame and shoved the lighter in her pocket. She looked down at Stiles and shook her head as she spotted Isabella's blood stained outfit out of the corner of her eye, " They're gonna need new shirts. Where are their bags?"
Stiles immediately stood to his feet, throwing the paper towels to the ground in a hurry, beginning to back up towards the archway of the bathroom, " Uh- yeah I'll go get them. I hate needles anyway so-"
He held his thumbs up and was about to run out of the room when a scary and worrying question crowded his thoughts making him turn back around to Allison in a hurry, " Um, you know what you're doing right?"
Allison took a deep breath full of nervousness and nodded her head, not looking up from the needle in her hand, " Yeah, my father taught me."
Stiles swallowed nervously, " I mean, how fast are you gonna-" He motioned with his hand spastically as he began to stutter out words, " I mean, the bus, like, the bus could leave."
Allison finally looked away from the needle up to Stiles and Lydia as she said annoyedly towards him, " Well, okay, just make sure it doesn't leave."
Lydia nodded her head frantically and grabbed Stiles' hand in hers, beginning to drag him with her towards the entrance of the small bathroom, " Yeah, I can help. Come on, Stiles."
Allison watched the two of them run away and couldn't help the thought of how happy Isabella would have been to see Lydia grab his hand from flooding into her mind. Too bad Isabella was now off in her own world like Scott had been earlier as she continued to hum the Hale mantra over and over, holding onto the sink pipe for dear life; handprints of her black blood covering its once white exterior.
Allison kept her eyes on the two of them until they were both out the door and she could no longer see either of them, all she could see was the soft sunlight of the afternoon seeping into the room. When they were both out of her sight, Allison got onto her knees and down to Scott's level. She looked at him worriedly as his head began to droop to the side and his eyes remained closed. The only thing telling her that Scott was not dead was the small voice of her best friend's repeated whispers.
Allison put the heated needle in one of her hands before swiftly grabbing Scott's chin in her hands making him open his eyes slightly to look at her, " Okay. Okay, stay with me."
Scott moaned in protest and tried to push Allison away but she kept her grip on his chin tight as she whispered quietly but in a demanding tone, "Stay with me, okay? Stay with me."
Scott blinked his eyes for a few moments before staring into Allison's light brown ones, " I'm tired."
She kept her hands on his chin for a little bit longer before she nodded her head frantically, " Okay, Scott. Just look at Izzy, okay?" She guided his head to the right to where he locked eyes onto the small girl who was in more pain than anyone knew, "Look at that beautiful girl that you love, stay awake for her. Just keep your eyes on her."
Scott kept his eyes trained on Isabella and nodded his head in agreeance. He enjoyed looking at blonde girl, she was his favorite view. The only problem was that he couldn't see her eyes because she had them clenched shut due to the pain; her blue eyes were his most cherished part of her.
Once Allison knew that he was focused on Isabella, she slowly let go of his chin and took a deep sigh as she began to attempt to thread the needle in her hand. She froze for a few seconds and tried to wash away the nerves within her body before she slowly raised the thread to her mouth and wet it, hoping to make it smaller and easier to thread through the tiny hole of the needle. Unfortunately, her hands began shaking and every time she tried to stick the thread in it wouldn't go. The thread always hit the edge and bounced off the side.
Allison shook her head in annoyance as the nerves began to get to her, making her want to cry for the second time that afternoon.
" Come on." She quietly whispered to herself desperately, she didn't have time to be nervous and she didn't have time to mess up like she was now. If she took much longer not only would Scott be dead but her friend could bleed out.
Allison stuck the thread back in her mouth with her hands shaking before trying to thread the needle again while pleading, " Come on, Come on."
The nerves that Allison had tried to wash out of her system had not left, in fact they were getting worse. The more frantic and panicked she got, the harder it was for her to line the thread up with the needle. Not only was Allison beginning to physically tremble as tears slowly fell from her eyes, but she began to hear a voice with her in the room. A voice that taunted her and made the necessary action she needed to complete that much harder. The voice of her now dead mother, Victoria Argent.
" Unbelievable." Victoria sneered from behind Allison as she fumbled with the thread, " One simple little task? You can't thread a needle?"
Allison didn't have time to question why she could hear her dead mother all she knew was that it was stressing her out and was not helping her in the current situation. Allison shook her head at the sound of the voice and continued to lightly cry and struggle, " I'm trying."
Allison then licked the thread for the third time and began to once again attempt to thread the needle. Victoria scoffed at the words spoken by her daughter and mockingly said, " What? You want my sympathy? Because you're a seventeen-year-old little girl and this is all too much for you to handle?" Victoria's voice paused for a moment before it turned harsher, " Well, get over it it. Thread the needle!"
Allison let out a small cry as her hands shook more than they had been that whole time, " My hands won't stop shaking."
Every time Allison tried to bring the thread closer to the needle it would move off course and move spastically due to intense shake of Allison's hands. Victoria sighed and softened her voice as she moved next to Allison, " Breathe. Allison, breathe."
Allison stopped trying for a moment and placed her hands down in her lap as she listened to the voice of her dead mother. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes. She had no idea if Isabella and Scott could hear her mother too but she doubted that they really cared either way. They were too focused on staying alive. She however felt as if Victoria was actually right beside her and it was affecting her majorly; it was as if she had never died. Unbeknownst to Allison, the other two could, in fact, not see or hear Victoria Argent. It was all in Allison's head and was stemming for the sense of urgency and adrenaline flowing through her.
As soon as Allison's eyes opened again, Victoria spoke in a demanding yet light tone, " Try it again."
Allison brought the thread and needle directly into her eye sight and tried to line them up with each other. The first attempt ended the same as it had been before and so did the second attempt. Desperation began to rise in Allison's body as her body began to shake, following suit with her hands. She hastily tried to wet the thread for the forth time before trying to thread the needle. When she was yet again unsuccessful, she let out a loud cry of anger and frustration; all her tears were now flowing aggressively down her face.
Isabella and Scott twitched at almost the exact same time in response to the cry of anger from Allison but neither one of them reacted too much. Their time was slipping away and if Allison did not get control of herself and the needle soon, Scott would surely die. Isabella had never experienced anyone dying while she had been connected to them and she no idea what would happen to her when he did, she was accepting of death if that was what happened though. If Scott dying didn't kill her, the amount of blood she had lost surely would. Allison wouldn't have enough time to stitch her up instead.
Allison didn't notice the movement her outburst had caused among the two werewolves as her mother's voice once again entered her frazzled mind, " How do we approach a situation like this?"
Allison didn't answer but instead just let out a small whimper as she continued to try and thread the stupid needle in her hands. The whimper and silence from Allison seemed to anger the spirit of her mother as Victoria shouted at her, " Allison!"
Allison chocked back the lump in her throat and immediately responded to her mother's anger with a loud and confident response, " Clinically!"
Allison wet the thread once more and tried to shake off the tremble in her hands while Victoria tried to further push her, this time with a calmer voice, " And?"
Allison shook her head and once again swallowed a lump in her throat as she stammered out," And unemotional-and unemotionally..."
" Then stop crying and do it!" Victoria demanded aggressively towards Allison.
Allison nodded her head at her mother's words and closed her eyes gently as she let out a deep sigh, freezing her trembling hands momentarily. Once she opened her eyes, Allison's body seemed to calm and the tears on her face immediately washed away. Her hands had stopped shaking and she began to try to thread the needle for what she hoped was the last time. Fortunately, the thread went through the small hole of the needle easily and she was able to pull it through and tie it off.
She let out gasps of relief and pride for herself and she looked at the now threaded needle. After letting herself marvel in the wonder of herself and the action she was able to finally complete, she went to work on sewing up Scott's wound. To her surprise he was still awake and conscious and now that her mother's voice was gone, she could once again hear Isabella talking to herself.
As she mended together Scott's blood coated flesh, Allison let out a huge sigh of relief that Isabella was still talking. To her hearing her mother was scary but she also thought of it as a blessing. She had no idea if she would have been able to calm down if she hadn't and in return her best friend could have died and become silent. She was just happy to still hear her voice.
Allison was almost done stitching up Scott's wound when Isabella's voice stopped and a loud crash was heard from her general vicinity. Allison continued to stich but looked over at Isabella in worry.
Isabella was laying face down on the cold tile, worrying Allison once again but she was soon relieved as the blonde sputtered out from under her breath, " Ow."
As soon as Allison had started sewing up the gash on Scott's side, Isabella had immediately begun to feel more alive. She had begun healing and she now felt like she was in the real world which had led her to trying to push off the pipe of the sink only to fall flat on her face...into her own pile of bloody puke.
Isabella was gaining some of her strength back as Allison tied off the thread after finishing the last stitch, she began to try and pull herself up. She let out a disgusted moan as she saw her hands and shirt now covered in the black blood and slowly pushed herself up onto her knees.
Allison backed away from Scott and looked over at Isabella who was staring at her with a unimpressed look on her face as she sat on her knees in the blood, " Please tell me someone is getting me new clothes."
Allison let out a chuckle as she sighed in relief at the new alive looking appearance of her best friend, " Yeah, Stiles is getting Scott's and your bags."
Isabella nodded in understanding and closed her eyes, " Thank god you know how to sew."
Allison chuckled and rubbed the back of her neck as she looked around the blood stained and awful smelling dimly lit bathroom, " Yeah, thank god."
She decided not to make Isabella aware of her mini panic attack while sewing up Scott's wound or the voice of her dead mother she had heard, it would be too much for her. Isabella didn't need anymore stress especially after coming back from the near dead. From the way Isabella was healing it was obvious to the both of them that Scott was finally letting himself heal, Allison had tricked his mind into believing that this was doing the healing for him. She had tricked him into moving past his own mental block and Allison figured that was enough pressure for her to last a life time. Little did she know that all of their nights were just getting started.