Chapter Text
There was screaming and grunts all around him. Everywhere he looked, someone was fighting. Howls of pain. Trails of blood. Gunshots rung out through the otherwise quiet night. It could all be heard. It was all visible to the naked eye. It didn’t take the supernatural to realise they were in trouble. They were on the back foot and fading fast. If they didn’t find an advantage and soon, this could take a sharp turn and spiral beyond control.
For the most part, he ignored the sounds around him. The Pack could handle itself. They could take care of each other. He had to focus. He had to stop the hunter threatening to overpower him. They were vastly outnumbered and surrounded by armed men. No one could afford a slip in attention. Not even for a second.
Despite that, his world came to an abrupt halt. It happened in an instant. One moment, and it all changed. He was in the middle of taking down the biggest threat on his side of the Preserve, when he heard it.
The ear splitting crack of someone’s spine.
The agonising howl.
“Scott!”
There, in the middle of the open patch of land amongst the cluster of trees, lay their Alpha. Immobile and prone to attack. All eyes were on Scott. Every hunter had directed their guns at that sole spot. Intent on killing the True Alpha.
The injuries were healing, but not fast enough. It was a severe break. Scott needed time to heal, and he’d be damned if he didn’t get it. He was moving in the blink of an eye. There was no time to process what was happening; he had to act.
In only a few seconds, he’d knocked out three hunters. The advantages of standing in a row, and ignoring your surroundings. The Pack were right behind. They had moved at the same time, which resulted in a scattering of hunters lining the ground. Liam knelt, hunched over Scott. It was like watching the beta build a protective cocoon. No one could make it through. Not without first taking Liam out.
A rush of fear swept through him, and once again, he found himself propelled forward. He didn’t know what he was doing. He didn’t know what would come next. All he knew was he had to act. He had to get there in time.
The moment he saw the lone figure standing amongst the shadows, buried within the trees, he leapt into action. The loud crack of gunfire meant nothing to him. All he could see was Liam. Open and in danger.
The pain was immediate. It flared through his shoulder, trailing down his arm and burrowing deep within his chest. His knees hit the ground a second later; his chest burning and tight. It didn’t matter. All that mattered was he made it. Liam remained unharmed. Liam, who was staring up at him, eyes wide in shock. He couldn’t breathe, but it didn’t matter.
Liam was safe, and that’s what was important.
“Theo!”
The shout was lost to a rush of a blood filling his ears. Vision blurred, the world fell to pieces. Darkness crept in, dragging him under, and as fast as it had occurred, it was over.
~
Slowly, he begun to realise something. Something he didn’t think would happen again.
He was breathing.
He was alive.
The world around him was still rendered pitch black. There was nothing to indicate where he was, or how long it had been. He didn’t know if he was alone or surrounded by people. If there were others here, how many were there, and who are they? Was he with the Pack, or had he been captured? Was he tied up somewhere, held hostage by yet another sadistic murderer, or was it someone after information?
The next piece of information he registered, was the lingering tightness in his chest. It was strong. Unrelenting. It refused to permit even a second of peace, but it had, in fact, subsided from earlier. It wasn’t suffocating in intensity, anymore. So, then. It had simply hit a plateau.
After that, he recognised the stale scent of sweat. It filled his nose so quickly, he was overcome by a wave of nausea. The retching motion was impossible to subdue. It tore through his body, shaking it to the core. A stream of pain coursed through him. There wasn’t a single inch left unaffected. With his sight still escaping him, he was left to the dark and confusion.
There was no room for fear. He was too busy trying to understand why he couldn’t focus or control his senses. It should have been the cause of his terror. It should have left him afraid of what he might find, but all he could think of was how he needed answers.
This wasn’t a nightmare. It wasn’t a sleep induced illusion that he could wake from. He had to concentrate. He needed to work out where he was and fast. If he was with the hunters, then there was no telling what they had in store. Torture wasn’t exactly on the list of exciting activities he wanted to revisit. More than that, he needed to find the Pack. He needed to know what had happened to them.
He needed to ensure they were safe.
Breathe. Slow and steady. Tune out the disgusting smell of sweat, which seemed to have intensified. How was that possible? Were there more people present, or had they come closer? Deep breath. In and out. In and out.
Gradually, he found a sliver of control. Minute as it was, it was there. It was enough to give him hope, and right now, that was all he had.
Above all else, he needed to regain his sight. He needed to know how much danger he was in. It was the only way he could start to assemble a plan to escape. Deep breath. In and out. In and out.
Now, open your eyes. Let the light in. Cast out the shadows, and fill in the holes. That’s it. It’s working. Thin dots of white surfaced, one after the other, spread across the darkness. They multiplied by the second, crowding the once blank slate. Soon, the room was awash with light.
It took a moment for the sudden brightness to ease. Once the blinding quality was gone, the world emerged in an array of colours. Blinking to rid himself of the lingering blurriness, he took in his surroundings. A doctor’s- no, vet clinic. People surrounded him. A large group.
The Pack.
They were here. They were safe.
He wasn’t with the hunters. That was an enormous relief, in and of itself.
That realisation was lost to the sudden barrage of questions. There were so many voices, it was impossible to make out the words. Everyone spoke over one another; their words joining to form one loud cluster of sounds.
“Liam.” His own voice came out weak. It was no surprise with how dry his throat was, (a fact he only now became aware of). He likely hadn’t spoken in a while, and whatever had taken place before, had probably led to this.
The noise faded to a nonexistent blur, as the beta knelt down; closing the distance between them without hesitation. A hand wrapped around his own, and he knew if he looked down, he’d see his fingers intertwined with Liam’s. Only then, with that thought in mind, did he realise he was lying down. The surface felt hard. Solid. Cold.
The examination table.
“Thank goodness. We were beginning to think you wouldn’t wake up.” The sheer relief in those words was almost palpable. It was evident in those blue eyes. In the way they never strayed from his.
“What- what happened? After...” He could barely talk. Every word drained the little oxygen he retained.
“You jumped in front of a bullet.”
The image of the Preserve floated before his eyes, as clear as if he were standing there, instead of lying in the Animal Clinic.
“Scott?” His voice had taken on a raspy tone. It was worse than before.
“I’m fine, Theo.” Scott walked forward to stand beside him. The spinal damage had finally healed. The hunters hadn’t killed Scott. Oh, thank goodness. They were all okay. They had survived.
“The hunters...?”
“They’re with the Sheriff. He’ll deal with them.” A rush of anger flooded Liam’s voice. He recoiled at the enraged scowl directed right at him. “You’re an idiot, Theo.”
“Liam-”
“No. Don’t interrupt me. Do you have any idea how dangerous that was? How stupid that was?”
Swallowing, he tried his best to answer. To explain.
“I had- had to- stop them. I had to- pro-protect you- and Scott.”
That only seemed to anger Liam more. “What about you?! Did you even think about what would happen if you died?”
“Liam-”
“Do you realise how close it was?” You were this close to not surviving!”
That left him speechless. He’d thought that he was going to when he was first shot, but he didn’t know it was that serious. Regaining consciousness had taken longer than usual, and it didn’t resemble any of the previous close calls he’d had, but he thought he was out of the woods. If he was alive, then it mustn’t have been that bad.
Apparently, he was wrong.
“I’m sorry.”
“No. No, you don’t get to do that. You don’t get to say you’re sorry, and expect it to be okay. I thought we lost you. You were dying, and there was nothing I could do to help you. I thought you had died. For a moment there, a long, agonising moment, I thought you had died. Do you know what that’s like? Do you know what it’s like to watch the person you l-” Liam’s breath hitched, sobs racking his body. “-your friend die?”
He didn’t know what to say. He didn’t know how to make this better. It was devastating to see Liam in so much pain. Knowing he had caused it, made it so much worse.
“I’m sorry, Liam. I am. I just- couldn’t let you- be shot. You- or Scott.” He needed Liam to understand. He needed the Pack to understand. “I didn’t mean to- scare you. I didn’t- think. There was no time. I just- ran.”
Liam didn’t respond. Overwhelmed by tears and residual fear, it was beyond Liam’s current capabilities. Instead, Stiles spoke, and oh, was the human furious.
“Those bullets you were shot with?” (Wait, bullets? There was more than one?) “They were poisoned.” (Well, that explains the pain. It didn’t explain the rest, though. This wasn’t the first time he’d been poisoned, and he had never experienced something like that).
“Wolfsbane. Some unknown variant. Deaton didn’t have time to research. We had to rely on what little knowledge he had on the rare types of wolfsbane. There was no guarantee that it was the right one. For all we knew, the remedy would be useless. It could have been a complete waste of time, but we had to try. We had to do something.
“The bullet couldn’t just be burned out. Oh, no. We had to concoct some random potion with a bunch of herbs, that Deaton just happened to have, and apply it to the wounds. With the potion counteracting the damage, that’s when we had to burn the wolfsbane out of your system. Even after all of that, there was no way to know if it had worked. Not until you woke up. If you woke up.”
He couldn’t imagine what that would have been like. He couldn’t imagine going through that. Experiencing such uncertainty. It was a terrible situation, and he definitely didn’t want to know what it felt like.
“I didn’t mean to- scare you. I was just- trying to save them.”
“You can’t do that if you’re dead. You need to protect yourself, as well.” Stiles refused to relent.
“I don’t know what you want- me to say.” It was getting a little easier to speak with each passing sentence. Each lecture provided a chance to breathe. Every second the poison seemed further from his heart. Every second the pain lessened.
“I don’t want you to say anything. I want you to stop sacrificing yourself.”
“I’m not sacrificing-”
“Oh, don’t give me that. We all know you’d risk your own life for the Pack. Well. No more.”
“Stiles, I’m not doing anything you wouldn’t-”
“I never jumped in front of a literal bullet!” Stiles was fuming. Disagreeing wasn’t helping, but he couldn’t help it. He didn’t mean to scare everyone, but he wouldn’t allow anyone else to be hurt. Not if he could help it.
“Even if it were Derek?”
“I’d push him out of the way!”
“I’m glad you could do that, but I didn’t exactly have time. I barely made it as it was.” He might be able to speak clearly now, but that didn’t prevent the fatigue from setting in.
“I mean it, Theo. You can’t keep doing this.” Stiles crossed his arms, defiantly. This was going to be a long day. All he wanted was to go back to his truck, find somewhere to park and sleep.
As a tired sigh slipped passed his lips, he let his eyes wander. The entire Pack was here, and they all shared the same look of disappointment, mixed with frustration and anger. No one was going to take his side in this. It was a rather conflicting moment, if he were honest.
This was what he’d wanted for so long. To be part of the Pack. To be accepted. For someone to care about what happens to him. He finally had that. Don’t get him wrong, he was happy about that; he just didn’t realise it would mean dissecting his every decision.
“I’ll try, okay? I’ll try to be more careful.” He groaned at the lack of agreement. He was met with the same unwavering stare as before. “I can’t promise it won’t happen again, Stiles. I don’t know what might happen.”
The stare stayed the same for a moment, before it was broken by a small smirk. It grew as he watched, and he knew Stiles too well to expect anything good from that look.
“You’ll promise, or I might just have to share some more stories from our childhood.”
He really should have known this would come up at some point. Stiles had way too much blackmail material on him. There was no telling what he might reveal. He was far from confident when they were children, and it led to some extremely uncomfortable moments.
“You can’t trick me, Stiles. I’m not fooling for the blackmail routine.”
That smirk grew wider still. Apparently, that was the response Stiles had been waiting for.
“I guess I’ll just have to share the incident from third grade, then.”
Oh, that’s so specific. Out of all his embarrassing moments, the majority occurred during third grade. He merely rolled his eyes, which Stiles seemed to take as his cue to continue.
“You don’t believe me? What do you say we talk about October 23rd?”
He nearly choked on air from the shock. In an instant, he was sitting up. Probably not a good idea, given the way his head swum from the sudden movement, but here they were. He cringed at the sense of victory in Stiles’ eyes.
“You can’t.”
“That’s up to you. Anything you’d like to say?”
“Stiles.”
“Last chance, Theo.”
No. No, this couldn’t happen. He couldn’t afford to have what happened that day come to light. Ever. It had to be the third most embarrassing day of his life. Unfortunately for him, Stiles had been present. No one else was around, but Stiles just had to have followed him.
The only things worse were the ice rink, and if Liam were to find out about his feelings.
“Okay.”
“Are you sure?” He didn’t appreciate the raised eyebrow.
“Yes.”
“No more stupid martyr act?”
“Yes. Now, shut up, Stiles.” He really didn’t want to talk about this. He understood Stiles was trying to protect him, and if they ended this now, it could stay that way. He just really didn’t want to get into this.
Thankfully, Stiles agreed, and despite the curiosity from the Pack, no one mentioned the scene or existence of said unknown event.
After that, the Pack went home, and he was left to rest, alone. Okay, not alone. Liam was the one person who stayed. The beta refused to leave. Not until it was certain he wouldn’t relapse or experience any unknown complications.
An hour later, he woke to Liam’s quiet snoring.
Liam looked so peaceful, he couldn’t bear to wake the beta up. He waited almost half an hour, but he really needed to leave. He needed to move his truck. He needed to find somewhere to sleep, where he could hopefully obtain a full night’s sleep.
Begrudgingly, Liam finally agreed to go home, but only after practically examining every inch of him in the process. To say it was uncomfortable would be an understatement.
It felt good to be behind the wheel of his truck. Someone drove it back, much to his relief. He didn’t want to trek back through the Preserve to find it. Reversing out of the carpark, he couldn’t stop thinking about just pulling over and lying down. The further he went, the fatigue begun to take control. He fought to keep driving, at least until he reached a more secluded place.
Eventually, it became too much. He couldn’t keep going. If he didn’t stop now, he’d end up crashing. He wasn’t particularly keen on the idea of waiting for his bones to heal, or what Stiles would say if he ever found out.
Pulling into a spot behind a closed supermarket, he climbed into the back seat. It felt so good to stretch out, before curling in and letting his head fall. Tugging the blanket close, he let himself fall into a deep sleep.