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They were in the middle of the hallway at school and Stiles felt the panic attack coming on. His hands were trembling, his chest was going tight and around him everything was going blurry. Lydia was talking to him, urgency bleeding into her tone. With great effort he managed to wheeze out that he was having an attack. This had to be the worst timing. He needed his wits about him, his Dad was missing and he might not ever be coming back if Stiles didn’t do something about him.
Before he knew it he was being pushed into the locker room and hands were on him, helping him down to the floor. Lydia’s voice was a bit too high to be normal and he just couldn’t concentrate on it at all. He wanted to tell her to let him go, that you weren’t supposed to touch someone who was having a panic attack unless they told you it was okay.
The severity of the attack was far beyond anything he’d experienced in years. It was terrifying. How had he forgotten how mind numbingly horrifying it was to experience these. Usually it helped when his Dad was there to talk him down. But Lydia didn’t know what she was doing. Gods she was a genius but this was not her forte. Luckily she pulled back and it took him a second to realise it was because Isaac was there and had pulled her away.
“....him space! Especially if its a panic attack,” Isaac scolded. He actually scolded Lydia and if Stiles had had enough breath in his lungs he would have been laughing.
“Well I was doing the best I could!” Lydia snapped back, but moved slightly further away, leaving more room around him.
“Okay Stiles, I want you to listen to me closely. Just concentrate on my voice. We’re going to breath together okay. Deep calm breaths in and out. Ready?” His voice was more soothing than Stiles had ever heard it, pitched low and filled with warmth. Isaac took a few deep breaths to demonstrate and started encouraging him to copy his actions. Focusing on the other boy was hard but he eventually caught on the rhythm and finally managed to pull in a few breaths.
Slowly he came down from the attack, vision clearing and leaving him feeling exhausted. Eventually Isaac asked if it was okay to touch him and after getting a nod of encouragement he helped Stiles up and onto a bench. Lydia was nowhere to be seen and he had a vague suspicion that the beta had sent her away. The fact that she had listened in the first place just highlighted how serious the situation had been.
“Thanks,” he said after a few minutes. The bitterness that he felt towards Isaac sometimes was still sitting uneasy in his stomach but the other boy had really helped him out. The fact that he was jealous of Scott’s new friendship wasn’t going to change that he really owed him one.
“I heard your heart going crazy from outside,” he shrugged as if it was no big deal. Not really acknowledging that thanks.
“How did you know what to do?”
“My Mom… she sometimes used to get panic attacks. I don’t really remember much but..” The rest didn’t really need to be spoken. Stiles could figure it out for himself. It wasn’t always easy to talk about it, even after all this time. “Look I know we don’t like each other but I’m sorry about your Dad.” The sincerity in his voice really hit home.
“Thanks,” his voice may have cracked a little but panic attacks really took it out of a person okay? “And it’s not that I don’t like you it’s just...hard.” That was a really lame description but Isaac seemed to get his point because he nodded understandingly. “Maybe sometimes soon it won’t be?” He offered it up tentatively and was rewarded with a soft smile in return.
“Alright. Yeah, now lets go find the Sheriff huh?” Hauling Stiles to his feet Isaac turned and headed to the door. Although they weren’t really friends, he meant what he said. Maybe soon they could be. But in the meantime it was nice to know that the pack was still watching out for him and had his back, even when they weren’t on the best of terms. But then that’s what pack was for.