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They were fast. That's the first thing Stiles tells Chris Argent. The Calaveras men were fast, and brutal and smart. They barely bothered with Stiles. One of them threw Stiles to the ground and kicked him hard in the kidneys, but it was perfunctory, get him out of the way and then go for the real targets.
With Scott and Liam they have cattle prods and again, they were so damn fast. Liam doesn't even have time to turn around before he's collapsing on the ground, convulsing. Scott manages to get a swing in, but then he's down too. It all takes just minute, and then Stiles is alone, lying on the sidewalk and watching their van speed away.
He call Chris Argent first. He doesn't know what else to do. He's surprised at how adrift he feels without Scott. Surprised that the girls feel the same way.
He's glad to let Chris take charge and tap Derek and Lydia to come with him, on the idea their combined senses with help them track down Scott and Liam. The rest of them stay behind at the animal clinic, waiting.
The first thing Scott notices when he wakes up is the smell of Liam's fear. It invades his whole body and makes him struggle desperately, before he's even fully conscious, to try to get to Liam. The next thing he notices is the acrid taste of wolfsbane in the air, and the heavy chains that keep him tight to the metal chair.
And then the voice, the rich, accented tone of the Calavera woman, that makes his stomach drop.
"I told you I would come knocking at your door, Scott."
Stiles, Mali and Kira are slumped in various corners around Deaton's office. They're waiting for the call from Chris, the one that says, "we found them" and the one that they hope says, "we found them alive." It's been hours. Malia has watched Stiles pace over every single inch of floor. She knows because she's kept track. His pacing makes her anxious, she can feel the fury rising up from her stomach and focusing on Stiles' feet does a little to push it back down.
Finally she can't hold it in anymore and she snaps, eyes glowing, "Stiles, can you please sit down? I can't take it."
Stiles sits for a few seconds, but then his feet are tapping against the linoleum in an insistent rhythm and is beating into Malia bones. She wants to rip his legs off to make him stop, but more she wants to hug him tight and she figures that's a sort of progress, feels safe enough to walk over and clutch him against her so that it's his rapid heartbeat she can feel thrumming through her.
"I'm sorry." Stiles whispers against her neck.
"You don't have to be." She says back, running a soothing hand down his back, "It's going to be okay. They're going to find them."
"I'm sorry" he says again, before backing away from her and leaning against the wall, running his hand down his face over and over again, "I'm so sorry."
Malia thinks he looks like he's about to puke, or explode but finally he just speaks.
"I love him. Like a brother and like my best friend but also like I'm in love with him...I just..." Stiles slides down the wall and lays his head down on his knees and when he lifts it again his eyes are wet with tears. He looks desperately at Malia.
"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I just... I'm afraid we're not going to find him in time and he's going to be dead and I'm never going to have gotten the chance to tell him that I love him. "
Malia kneels down in front of him and furrows her brow before she smiles at him and takes his face in her hands, "Stiles...shhh...It's okay. Really."
From across the room Kira says, "It's fine, Stiles."
When he looks over at her she's beaming. In that moment Stiles feels his breath coming back into his body and the tiniest sense that this might actually turn out all right. Malia slides around to sit next to him, and Kira sits down on his other side. The three of them stay like that for a long time, hands clasped, just breathing together.
Scott watches as the two Calavera men grab Liam's shoulders and push his head down towards the floor. The younger wolf is struggling, but with the wolfsbane that's still coursing through his system, he's weak and easy to push down.
Scott feels like he's drowning and he'd be afraid of the thundering beat of his own heart if had the time to think about it. Instead he yells desperately at the Calavera matriarch, "It's not his fault! He didn't ask for it! I did this to him! I did! It's my fault!"
There's a hint of sadness in her eyes, a flicker of compassion across her face that gives Scott hope, "I know, Scott. He was an innocent and you changed him, just like I said you would, just like every other alpha."
"Please let him go." Scott sobs out, "I'm the one you should punish. Not him. He's innocent. He's only 15."
And again, there's a sadness that flits across her face and she steps dangerously close to Scott before saying, "It's too late for that, Scott. Do you really expect me to unleash a new omega, with no control, no alpha to direct him, into the world?"
Her face grows cold as she speaks to him, clipped and harsh, "You should be punished and we will make sure you are, because it is your doing that we are forced to kill this child."
She nods her head towards one of the men, who pulls a machete out from under the table. He see Liam twisting in the men's grip and Scott is pulling against the chains so hard that he's sure they are breaking until he realizes it's his own shoulder tendons ripping under the strain.
"I know you have seen Gerard Argent kill before, " the Calavera woman says, "There is no honor in that kind of brutality and we do not practice it. "
She ignores Scott's desperate roar as the men push Liam further to the floor and lay the blade across the back of his neck, "It will be quick. Your pup won't suffer. My man is very good and the blade is very sharp.
"You should speak to him, your pup. Tell him to relax, not to struggle. Then I promise you it will be painless for him; just a rush of air and then silence."
But Scott finds he can't even make words, his throat feels full of sobbing and then suddenly, in that moment when he's trying to speak, to find something to say to Liam to comfort him, the tiny hopeful thought leaps into his mind and he shouts before he has a chance to think too hard, "Kill the wolf that bit you and you change back!"
She stops, and gestures the man to step back, "It's a story, Scott, no proof it's true."
And Scott feels like he's clinging on a life raft, the words coming out of him like desperate last breaths, "But no proof it isn't right? So let him do it and then you'll know. You're going to kill us both anyway, right? So at least this way he has a chance."
"You would do this?" She ask him.
"Please, it's my fault, please give him a chance."
She nods and one of the men drags Scott, still chained to the chair, into a cell in the back of the room. Then he flings Liam into the same cell, unlocking his cuffs quickly and retreating behind the cell's locked bars before Liam even manages to sit up.
The Calavera woman says, loudly, eyes shifting between the two wolves, "If he changes, we'll send him back to Beacon Hills. If he becomes an alpha, we'll kill him. There's no getting out of that."
Scott just nods and looks down at Liam as he crawls to his knees. Scott realizes he know Liam well enough to know that the anger that seems to always be bubbling below the surface is nearly always fear. And he feels rush of protectiveness towards Liam, not just as his beta, though he feels that too, but this genuine affection for this boy who doesn't want to be a monster. It helps him less afraid and when he finally speaks to Liam he sounds confident, sure.
"It gonna be okay, Liam. I promise."
"It's fucking crazy Scott. I'm not going to kill you." Liam whispers; his eyelashes are wet and it makes his eyes seem even more blue.
Scott feels calm now, peaceful, not afraid at all. It makes him remember Allison, saying it didn't hurt anymore, and makes him wonder if that was true, and think maybe he'll ask her when this is all over. That makes him smile, the thought of seeing Allison again, and it's with thoughts of her that he says to Liam, "It's okay. It's perfect. I never wanted this for you, I just wanted you to be safe."
"I can't do this." Liam says as Scott watches him clutch in on himself the way he does when he's ashamed.
"Yes you can. I want you to do this." He speaking calming, tilting his head to the side to expose his throat, smiling at Liam, "You can do this."
Liam stands up, and Scott can see that his eyes are wet with tears, but Scott still feels deeply at peace, like this is right and he knows it will work. Liam lets his claws extend, he's trembling as he put his claws near Scott's neck.
And that's when the smoke bombs come clanging into the basement, and the sounds of gunfire echo above.
Scott comes to in Deaton's office, a lingering headache, probably from the wolfsbane but otherwise unhurt.
"Liam?" He asks?
Malia points to the other table, where Liams curled on his side sound asleep, "Dr. Deaton gave him a sedative, said he needed to rest to get the wolfsbane out of his system."
Scott manages to smile, big and dimpled, at all of them, but especially at Stiles, who is bouncing on his heels.
"You found me. " He says.
"Your damn right." Stile says before launching himself at Scott and wrapping him in a hug. "We found you right before you were going to kill yourself. Jesus, Scotty,"
Scott buries his head in Stiles' shoulder and says, softly, "They were going to kill him. I had to."
"I know, I know. Just, Scott, Please don't die on me, okay? I can't...." Stiles stops talking in a sudden rush, straightens his back as if he's gathering his courage and then kisses Scott firm on the mouth. It's a sweet kiss, for all the panic and after believing he would die today, Scott can't help but treasure it.
"I'm sorry, " Stiles says, breathless, after, "I just, I love you, Scott and I couldn't stand the thought of you dying and me never telling you how much I love you and I'm in love with you. Not like a friend, not like a brother, but like you're the great love of my life and I want kiss you and hold your hand and touch your dick and marry you and all that. And I love Malia too but we talked about it. Me and Kira and Malia all talked about it and it's okay, if you want it to be. If you love me even a quarter as much as I love you just..."
He stops only when Scott kisses him again and look at him with a bright smile, "I love you too."
Scott looks over at Kira and twitches his eyebrow, and she just grin back at him before grabbing Malia and swinging her around. They kiss, quick and joyful before hugging each other and laughing with relief.
"So," Scott says, "You guys really did talk about this?"
"We had to talk about something," Kira says, "It was either that or just sit around thinking about you dying."
She walks over to them and takes Scott's hand, entwining their fingers and biting her lips for a second before she seems to make a decision, taking her other hand to Stiles' cheek and kissing him sweetly. It makes Scott feel like his heart is going to burst.
"Hey there, " Scott says to Malia, surprised at how hoarse his voice is, "Get over here."
Malia walks over, more hesitant than Kira was, but she leans in and kissed Scott mouth before saying, "I'm really, really glad you're not dead."
"Me too."
They would have stood like that for hours, wrapped loosely around each other, trading soft kisses, but a cough from Liam interrupts them. "Um, are we dead? Are you guys having an orgy in a veterinarian's office or are we dead?