Chapter Text
Lydia cut the call with Malia and stared out at the road in front of her, shock and anger twisting together in her gut. She was supposed to be heading to the High School, to settle her suspicions about Jordan, but she knew this anger wouldn’t go away until she’d spoken to Scott.
The news itself wasn’t that surprising.
With what they all did, with what they’d lost, it was only a matter of time before someone on their side had to cross the line to protect themselves.
She couldn’t help but think of Derek, hunched over Boyd’s body. Malia’s cold blue eyes. Neither of them had had a choice, they’d been forced to take lives and Scott still welcomed them into the pack with open arms.
So why when it was Stiles was it so much different?
Is it because Malia and Derek were killers long before Scott knew them? Or maybe he just put human Stiles on a pedestal above the rest.
No matter what Scott’s reasoning was and no matter the circumstances that lead Stiles to… to kill somebody, she shouldn’t have had to have heard it from Malia that Scott had warned Stiles away.
She pulled up outside the vet clinic just as Scott was coming out, an agitated look on his face as he moved towards his bike but he stopped as Lydia pulled up.
“What’re you doing here?” he asked, “there’s another chimaera at the high school.”
“It can wait,” she said, her hands resting on top of her open car door. “I need to talk to you first.”
Scott sighed, but put his helmet back on top of his bike and turned to her.
“Did you tell Stiles to stay away from me?” she asked and Scott’s eyes widened slightly.
“Lydia, it’s not that simple. He- he-”
“He killed someone,” she said bluntly and Scott physically recoiled. “He’s not the first person, Scott and he won’t be the last. Malia killed her sister and mother, Ethan and Aiden killed Boyd and had a hand in Erica’s death too, Derek… his eyes were blue before we knew him. Why is Stiles any different?”
“Malia didn’t know what she was doing!” Scott protested. “She was just a kid and lost control. Deucalion made the twins do those things and Derek never had a choice!”
“And you think Stiles did?!” she exclaimed. “You think he just woke up one morning and planned a murder? If you honestly think he had a choice and that it wasn’t self-defence, do you even know him?” Scott stared at her blankly so she went on. “What if it was me? What if someone attacked me and my scream threw them into a wall a little too hard? What if it was Allison? She learnt to fight to protect herself. And sometimes self-defence isn’t just wounding somebody.”
“We’ve all been in fights, Lydia. We’ve all managed not to kill people!” he said.
Lydia’s nails dug into her palms as she pushed down the urge to scream or slap him, she wasn’t sure which.
“We’re not all werewolves Scott! We don’t all heal! Sometimes it comes down to we have to hurt them before they hurt us. Nobody likes it, but it happens. You’re the son of an FBI Agent, I thought you’d understand that.” She remembered Stiles’ blood splattered face after Agent McCall shot the chemist and the fury in her veins burned hotter. “Whatever your problems are with the term justifiable homicide that’s for you to deal with and if you lose Stiles because of it, so be it. But don’t you dare tell him to stay away from us. Don’t make it out like we need protecting from him. He is not the Nogitsune. He is not a murderer. He’s Stiles and he’s pack. If you kick him out of the pack for defending himself then…” she started to trail off but reconsidered. “Then Stiles won’t be the only one leaving.”
“But what if he wasn’t just defending himself?” Scott asked. “What if Donovan was already down and he kept going?”
Lydia stared at him, her mouth falling open as she studied the man in front of her.
Scott always had a history of naivety but never did she dream that it would go this far, especially not when it came to Stiles. She was wrong. Every since the Nogistune, Scott had hesitated more when Stiles made decisions, especially if those decisions were made out of emotions. At first, she thought it was just him making sure Stiles had thought it through, but now she knew it was something else. A lack of trust. Fear.
Scott who’d trusted Deucalion, Peter, Gerard and even Theo despite the rest of the pack’s doubts yet he was unable to trust Stiles, whom he’d known most of his life, a person Scott claimed to view as a brother.
She always knew he had set morals, that was what gave him the Alpha Spark, but now it seemed that his set ideals would be what tore his pack apart.
“If you really believe that so easily, Scott. Then maybe you don’t deserve the colour of your eyes and the pack that comes with it.”
Scott recoiled as though she’d slapped him, but she didn’t wait for his reply. She slid back into her car and backed out of the parking lot. She made a mental note to find Stiles as soon as this thing with Jordan was settled and maybe, just maybe she could give Jackson a call. After all, he could probably understand what Stiles was going through on a level that the rest of them couldn’t even consider.