Chapter Text
After that day, Mason only seems to have Liam’s full attention during their shared classes. His best friend is tense in their last class before lunch but doesn’t hesitate to join in on the group assignment with a smile on his face.
When the bell rings for lunch, however, it’s like there’s some invisible thread pulling Liam to his new friends. They appear in the middle of a crowded hallway just moments after Mason and Liam have left the classroom. Liam doesn’t hesitate in plastering himself to Scott’s side. The older boy simply wraps an arm around him and presses his nose briefly to Liam’s hair.
Stilinski clears his throat pointedly and nods at Mason when Scott glances over at him.
“You’re welcome to join us,” Scott says, glancing over at Mason.
“You really think that’s a good idea?”
Malia gets a sharp elbow in the ribs from Lydia, “What?”
Mason shifts awkwardly from one foot to the other as the two girls frown at each other. He’s heard Malia’s story, of course, doesn’t know anyone at Beacon Hills High who hasn’t. That she spent a decade out in the woods completely alone, isolated from civilisation. He can’t imagine having to learn social norms at seventeen.
“He can come?” Liam interrupts anyone from replying, pulling away to look up at Scott.
“If you want him to.”
Liam nods once before curling back in to Scott. The older boy frowns down at the top of his head and Mason wonders for the first time if Scott finds the younger boy’s attachment as confusing as he does.
It’s Kira who steps forward with a smile, looping an arm through Mason’s. Lydia follows behind, starting a conversation about Mason’s classes as they walk. Mason is sufficiently distracted but not enough to not look back ad see Scott nudging a reluctant Liam forward.
Where, Mason wonders, is his sometimes cocky, permanently independent best friend?
* * * * *
It’s not until Saturday that Mason sees Liam without any juniors watching over their shoulders. He mentions something about Scott taking his PSATs when he agrees to hang out and Mason wonders if Liam always keeps such close tabs on Scott.
Mason arrives at Liam’s house at eleven and manages to keep his attention for a full hour before he’s pulled away. Liam’s stepfather comes down the stairs in a hurry, shrugging into a jacket as he goes.
“What’s wrong?” Liam asks, turning from the video game they’re playing with a frown.
“Your school’s been quarantined,” Dr Geyer replies hurriedly, searching for his keys.
“Why?”
Liam’s voice has a sudden edge to it and Mason remembers what he said about Scott and his PSATs.
“The CDC thinks a deadly disease might have infected those inside,” Dr Geyer says. “I’m going to see what I can do to help.”
“I’m coming with you.”
The doctor pauses, turning in surprise to look at where Liam has already stood, dropping his controller without much care where it lands. It hits the floor with a loud thud.
“Liam,” he begins.
“My friends are in there,” Liam says, his hands forming fists at his sides. “Scott’s in there.”
“Scott McCall?”
There’s an odd expression on Dr Geyer’s face and Mason wonders if he too has noticed the recent weird goings on between Liam and the older boy.
“Yeah,” Liam admits, frowning at his stepfather. The doctor eyes him back for a long moment before sighing.
“Alright,” he says. “Go put some shoes on.”
Not minutes later, they’re driving to the High School. Mason has never seen so many deputies, even when Garrett and Violet were revealed as serial killers. Amongst the men in police uniforms, there are men and women in big yellow suits running around hurriedly.
Dr Geyer frowns at the sight of them.
“What is it?” Liam demands and Mason sees that spark his best friend has been missing flash back into existence. Strange how Scott had somehow managed to take it away and bring it back within just weeks of each other.
“They’re taking this very seriously,” Dr Geyer says. “If they’re still wearing protective gear after this long, they haven’t figured out what it is yet.”
Liam goes ridged, “How long have they been in there?”
The doctor hesitates.
“How long?”
Liam’s voice is practically a growl and he’s squeezing his eyes shut.
“Almost an hour.”
Liam makes an odd noise in the back of his throat before turning abruptly away from them. He walks almost two meters away before he leans against a tree, his knuckles pressed squarely against it. He leans forward to place his forehead against the bark and remains like that.
“Liam –“ Dr Geyer calls, taking a step towards him. Liam’s shoulders tense even more and the doctor hesitates.
“Liam?”
Mason and Dr Geyer turn, glancing over to Lydia Martin’s worried expression.
Liam tears away from the tree with a cry and, though the doctor makes a move to stop him, crashes into Lydia. Liam’s stepfather reaches out but stops when he suddenly realises the two are holding onto each other tightly, Liam’s face buried into the other girl’s neck. Mason realises the doctor thought Liam was going to attack her and winces when he sees him realise his mistake.
“The others?” they hear Liam ask Lydia.
Lydia’s eyes close as though in pain, “They’re inside.”
Liam’s body begins to shake as though he’d been holding out hope that they’d made it out unharmed.
“How bad is it?” Liam asks, his words breaking.
“If it continues its current rate of progression? They’ll be dead by nightfall.”
Liam rips himself away, curling his arms around himself and putting his back to them all.
“Liam –“ the doctor tries again.
Lydia cuts him off, placing a tentative hand between Liam’s shoulder blades.
“You think Scott wants to see you like this when he comes out of there?” she asks, quietly enough that Mason has to strain to hear. “You don’t think he’s got enough to worry about with Stiles, Kira and Malia in there with him? You think he isn’t glad that you and I weren’t in there too? Do you want him to come out of there to find you a wreck?”
Liam’s whole body quakes from head to toe twice before his arms drop and he turns to face them. His eyes look golden in the sunlight for a brief moment after he opens them but he turns slightly and they return to their normal blue.
“What can we do?” he asks, his face set in determination.
Lydia smiles and Mason knows he’s not imagining the proud look on her face. Beside Mason, Dr Geyer looks on in confused bewilderment. Mason knows how he feels.
* * * * *
When the people in yellow suits start removing equipment, those waiting anxiously for news start murmuring, standing from their mostly seated positions. When a woman with her yellow helmet tucked under her arm instead of on her head walks out smiling, a small group of students trailing behind her, people begin rushing forward. A mother not feet from Mason lets out a cry and practically sprints to engulf her daughter in a hug.
“You can go inside now,” the woman in yellow tells Sheriff Stilinski.
He doesn’t need to be told twice, taking off inside. Mason belatedly remembers that his son has been inside the whole time he’s been out here doing his duty. Lydia isn’t steps behind him, along with a flood of other parents.
Liam moves to follow.
Dr Geyer who’d returned from helping only moment before, rests a restraining hand on his shoulder.
“We should wait out here,” he says. “Let them see their families first.”
Liam looks ready to protest but doesn’t, looking sharply towards the car park instead.
There’s a tall, bearded man in his early to mid twenties heading their way, his hands buried deep in his leather jacket pockets. He looks like he’s headed for the school doors but pauses by them, eyes on Liam.
“You seen them yet?” he asks.
Liam shakes his head in response, his head dropping under the other man’s gaze. He reaches out a hand to place on Liam’s head.
“He’ll be fine,” he says. “They all will. We found a cure in time.”
Liam’s head snaps back up, knocking the older man’s hand away in the process, “Yeah?”
The man nods, looking unbothered as his hand returns to his jacket pocket, but snaps his head around moments later. They turn to see Malia exiting the school with an oversized jacket curled around her shoulders.
The older man beside them moves to greet her, Liam a step behind, but she passes without looking at them.
“Malia!”
Kira comes running out of the school doors but she too is ignored. She doesn’t follow after the other girl, stopping instead beside Liam and the older man.
“Something wrong?” the bearded man frowns.
Kira glances up at him, briefly at Liam and then spots Mason and Dr Geyer standing not feet away.
“Later,” she says.
At her words, the doors swing open again and Stilinski steps out, his shirt and parts of his face covered in blood. Scott steps out behind him.
Liam launches himself at Scott and the older boy barely manages to keep them both from falling over as he wraps his arms around him.
“It’s good to see you too, Liam,” Stilinski comments dryly, accepting a clap on the shoulder and a nod from the still unknown man.
“Hey, hey,” Scott says, his voice soft as he runs a hand through Liam’s hair. “It’s okay. We’re fine. I’m fine.”
Liam nods into the older boy’s shoulder but doesn’t let go. Scott sags slightly and just holds him in response.
* * * * *
It’s not until Liam has finally let Scott go and the CDC are pretty much cleared out that Mason understands whom the older man is. He’d moved away with Scott a few minutes earlier and Mason doesn’t mean to follow them but he comes across them talking anyway.
“I was never like this – not with you and certainly not with Peter,” Scott’s saying.
“You were never meant to follow, Scott,” the man replies. “Liam is – he’d be uncontrollable any other way.”
“You think he’s controllable like this?”
The older man laughs at Scott’s disbelieving tone, “He’s like a baby duckling that’s imprinted on its’ mother. He follows you everywhere, is comforted by your scent alone and I’ve never seen someone who finds simple touch so comforting.”
There’s a moments pause before the older man laughs again.
“Shut up, Derek,” Scott mutters.
He doesn’t, “It’s not just him, is it? You feel it too, don’t you? You get antsy when you don’t know where he is or what he’s doing.”
Scott sighs, “Was it like this for you? With Isaac and the others?”
“No,” Derek Hale admits. “But it doesn’t surprise me that you two are different. It takes a lot of power to create a connection that strong with just a turning. It’ll only get worse as you both get stronger.”
“Great.”
“Oh, come off it,” the older of the two says and Mason can’t see it but he knows he’s smirking. “If you had that much of a problem with it, you know perfectly well all you’d have to do is growl at him.”
Mason took the opportunity at the sound of laughing and a heavy thud to sneak away.
What the hell had Liam gotten himself into?