Falling Slowly
Chapter 35: The Brighter Side
Fandom: Teen Wolf
Characters: Stiles + Lydia, The Jeep, Noah Stilinski, Allison Argent, Kira Yukimura, Alan Deaton, teenage Derek Hale
Summary: Smiling, she refocuses on her task, emptying the cubby of old candy wrappers and inkless pens, checking the charge in the flashlight. She organizes the maps, owner’s manual, insurance card, and registration. Before returning them, she digs into the back corner where she finds a handful of lose coins.
Not just any coins. Eight pesos to be precise.
She clutches them in her palm, listens to metal scraping against metal, and she remembers.
She remembers when she learned why the Jeep is so special to Stiles...
It was the night they got back from that miserable two-day trek to Mexico. Two days of too much desert and too much sun, then too much darkness and too much cold. Two days worrying and being in danger and fighting for their lives, all while pretending to be calm and confident and fine. Two days in constant, whiplash-inducing flux, from soft banter and familiar protectiveness to uncharacteristic indifference and abrupt harshness. Two days of uncomfortable proximity, followed by one heart-piercing moment of almost being left behind. Two days of straining to recognize the Stiles she knew...and loved.
And then it was over. They made it back. All of them alive and as they were before...for the most part. All of them, plus one more. Derek Hale.
Lydia remembers being at the Beacon Hills Animal Clinic, the words I'm so not okay with this and not going anywhere ricocheting between her head and her heart.
After Scott dragged an adamantly protesting Stiles out of the building, Deaton retired to his office to research Derek’s condition. Lydia remained in one of the exam rooms, recently age-regressed teen wolf clinging to her hand.
While normally, she wouldn’t be jumping at the chance to babysit any member of the Hale family, she remembers volunteering to stay. In the moment, it seemed like the most logical thing to do. Yes, it was late and a school night. But Scott was working so hard to improve his grades, and Stiles already had more than his fair share of absences for the semester...especially last month.
Despite missing a few classes, Lydia’s GPA was in no danger of being affected. So there she was, at two in the morning, watching over Derek. Someone who wasn’t exactly her enemy but wasn’t really a friend either. Someone who, not so long ago, had plotted to kill her, and who had been more than willing to lay all the blame on her for the horrible things his uncle compelled her to do.
She supposed it helped that his current appearance made it easy to separate the trembling, helpless boy on the exam table from the grumpy, former alpha she was so used to avoiding. But if she were totally honest, the main reason Lydia offered to stay was that she needed a distraction.
Read more: ao3 & ffnet