Chapter Text
Lydia scrambles out of the jeep with Stiles, running round to grab his hand as they make their way through the woods, the sounds of fighting becoming louder as they get closer.
"Be careful, okay?" Stiles speaks as the pack come into view, Lydia watches as a vampire throws Malia to the floor and anger courses through her immediately. They’ve arrived too late, she knows they have.
"Yeah. You too, I love you" she replies, before they both lean in for a quick, meaningful kiss. She's hesitant to let go, but she watches Stiles swing the metal bat in one hand as a blue glow emits from his finger tips, ready to use his new magic if needed.
They both run towards where the fighting is happening, Lydia wasting no time before she's pulling a cold female off Malia, and directing her scream towards her. She has no idea if her screaming will work, but it’s the best she’s got for now.
Lydia gasps when a cold hand snakes round her throat, but herself and Malia fortunately end up knocking them out. Leaving the unconscious corpse before moving to help the rest of the pack.
"Scott, move!" Lydia yells over to the Alpha who is standing in her way, he goes to throw one of the vampires against the tree before moving out of the way.
So Lydia screams, pushing her voice in the direction of the coven, Malia, Kira and Issac move out of the way thankfully. And then nearly all of the stone cold creatures are sent flying to the ground. Eyes unmoving and it’s as if they’re dead weight.
Liam, Hayden and Theo run back over, ready to help fight once the coven are back up again. Lydia sighs, her shoulder sagging as she watches the pack stare the bodies down.
They were all rather shocked when they realised vampires were in town, let alone that they were real. The beastiery didn’t hold anything for them, so they were basically fumbling around in the dark with this.
Lydia begins to walks over to join the pack, her body less tense than it previously was. She’s just about to reach Issac, when she watches the werewolves spin around all at once to face her. She can’t make out the expressions on their faces, it’s something she’s seen only once before. Lydia doesn't think anything of it as she feels the urge to scream, but how can she feel the need to scream if vampires are already dead?
"Oh my god" Lydia watches all of the colour drain from Malias face while stares at something that’s behind Lydia. So the red head decides to turn around also, and when she sees the sight before her, she literally swears that she's going to be sick.
Stiles is standing still next to a tree, violently clutching his neck. Crimson blood is coating his hands like second skin, as he tries to stop his own bleeding. He doesn’t even look scared, and that scares her. Lydia herself seems frozen on the spot as she watches her boyfriend bleeding out in front of her, she can barely hear the rest of the pack fighting off the weakened vampire coven over the sound of her own heartbeat quickening.
All at once, herself and Scott move. Rushing over to Stiles, needing to get to him as soon as possible. The banshee falls to her knees beside him, pressing her hands on top of his own. She ignores the stones and the sticks that are currently digging into her bare legs and possibly even drawing blood, focusing on her boyfriend instead.
"Stay with me, come on. Scott call an ambulance" Lydia murmurs frantically, pulling her jumper off, pressing it to his neck. She catches a glimpse of the huge gash, her stomach churning at the sight but instead she forces her shaking lips into a smile.
"Lyds, there's no time" Stiles splutters, while she briefly looks over to Scott who's speaking fanatically into the phone. She drowns the alphas voice out, but doesn't miss how his eyes are glitching from their normal brown colour to red.
"No Stiles, this is fixable. We have college in a few weeks, okay? We're both going to go to Stanford and get our degree, we're doing this" she nervously chuckles. Lydia knows she's being in denial, but she can't face the fact her boyfriend is dying, she just can't.
When Scott ends the call and throws the phone to the floor, blood slowly falls from Stiles lips. The red substance trickling down to his jaw line. A sob then breaks from Lydia's chest. One of her shaking, red hands reach up to wipe a tear away from her eye. Stiles' own hand reaches up to her cheek. Smudging blood over her perfect, porcelain skin that he loves so much.
"You- both of you need to promise me something, okay? You can't dwell on me, Lydia you need to move on at some point, I want you to have the family you've always wanted. You deserve it so much. I need you to have it, I’ll be with you always" his thumb brushes her dimple, coughing aggressively before carrying on.
"And Scott, buddy, you keep the pack together and don't forget me okay? You have Issac and yes, he’ll never be better than me but promise me you’ll watch Star Wars with him. Please Scotty"
"Stiles, no. The ambulance is on its way and you're going to carry on training to be my emissary like you have been for the past few weeks okay? You're going to be okay, you're my brother and you're not leaving me just yet" Scott's hand tightly clings onto Stiles' forearm, as fresh tears fall into his best friend's bloody shirt.
"You're my brother Scott, always. But you two need to stay together. I love you both so much" Stiles coughs again as his skin starts to slowly grow whiter by the second. She can’t bear to watch this unfold in front of her, Lydia thinks.
"Baby, no. You can't leave me, no no no" Lydia presses her hands down harder, but she can't even bring herself to look at him. So instead she moves to look behind them. Her eyes are frantic as she catches the faces of the rest of the pack.
The vampires are no where to be seen, but she catches Issac and Kira siting next to Malia who has her head in her hands as she sobs, their faces void of any emotion. Lydia can't even bring herself to look at the younger members of the pack, knowing how painful and new this is to them, as they haven't lost a pack member before.
They didn't lose Allison.
"I'm going to be with you always, don't forget that Lyd" a wave of fresh tears fall from her eyes without warning, and she has no fucking idea what to do with herself. Her and Stiles have only had a matter of weeks together, they haven't had as long as they should have. It’s not fair. It’s not fucking fair on them.
"No Stiles, I love you. Come on, okay? Stay with me baby, don't go. Please don't leave me again, I've only just got you back. We all have" Lydia's voice breaks, staring longingly into his eyes. They’re not the melted caramel orbs that she adores. They’re nearly black now. Lydia can feel the scream rising and bubbling up in her chest, she won't scream. She can't.
Scott leans down to kiss Stiles forehead, and his best friend only smiles at him as his eyelids start to fall closed.
"I love you, Lydia. It's always been you. Tell the pack I love them. And my dad, please make sure he stays eating the greens" his voice is barely a whisper now, and Scott manages to force a chuckle as he wipes his own tears away.
But Lydia doesn't find it funny. She kisses him. Not giving a shit that there's blood around his lips. Or that now, that she can't feel his warm, full breaths like she could only a few minutes ago.
When she pulls away she catches the faint smile that her sends her, before his eyes freeze over and his chest stops rising. She watches Scott stand up and walk away, without even a look back. Her alpha has just heard his own best friend's heart stop beating.
Lydia begins to shake relentlessly, as she slowly moves to reach forward and close his eyes. He’s still warm. He's still so warm to her, she stays with him. She lies down next to him, as violent sobs fall from her chest and her small hands clutch his shirt. Stiles, the love of her life, is still next to her. Still with her.
"Lydia, you need to leave him now. The ambulance will be here soon" Theo crouches down next to her, his voice is rather hoarse but gentle too. He desperately tries to pull her away from Stiles' lifeless body.
"I can't, he's still warm Theo. I can still feel him" she whispers, feeling the now cold blood against her cheek where her head rests.
"I know. But they're going to take him, and you need to say goodbye now so we can think of what to say" he replies, his hand falling onto the broken girls shoulder. Lydia faintly shakes her head, refusing to leave him until it's necessary.
"I will say someone came at us while we was taking a stroll through the woods and I didn't see anything. All of you can go" she moves her hands to find Stiles'. She always loved his hands and how they would always touch her so delicately and so gentle. Always different to how any other boy would used to touch her.
On impulse, Lydia links her own fingers through his cold ones. It’s then when Lydia realises that she needs to scream. But she won't, she refuses to. Instead keeps her mouth shut, closing her eyes and focusing on Stiles’ smell other than the smell of his blood.
Lydia doesn't open her eyes after that. She's not sure if she falls to sleep, or if someone has done something to her so that they would be able to take her away from Stiles without her putting up a fight.
But the next thing Lydia knows, is that she's in the back of Kiras car, with the flash of red and blue lights lighting up the darkness outside. The drivers seat is empty, so Lydia figures it's Kira who is speaking to the police.
However in the passengers seat, Liam sits staring out of the window and hes not fidgeting, or moving around like his hyperactive self, like he usually would be. He's still, he's not moving at all. Lydia isn’t even sure that she can see him breathing.
Lydia knows it’s Malia who’s sitting next to her, in the middle seat of the car.
She has no idea what to say to her, because she loved him too. Malia got to have her time with Stiles, and he was her anchor, Stiles was Malias first love. All Lydia does, and all she really can do, is place her own hand on top of the coyotes. Within not even a second Malia is clutching at Lydia's hand as if she's a lifeline.
The red head doesn't have to look to know that it's Scott sitting on the other side of Malia, she can hear his familiar sobs echoing throughout the silence in the car. She last heard him cry like that when they lost Allison.
Lydia bites her lip, deciding to drown the sobs out, so she looks out of her window. Regretting it immediately when the all too familiar blue, rusty old jeep comes into view.
That's when she loses it completely. A loud, piercing cry escapes her lips and she can't help the tears that fall from her already red, raw eyes.
"I want him back" she screams into the silence that is surrounding everyone. She can barely breathe, she can't stop herself from crying. Images of him are practically embedded into her mind. He’s all she can think about.
"Lydia, stop. Please" Malia sniffles, her lips shaking as she watches the banshee breaking down next to her. Lydia knows that she’s making people feel worse, she’s not the only one who has lost him tonight. But she feels so alone in the world now he’s not here in it with her. She’s lost her tether, and now Lydia has lost her way.
"I- I can't. I don't want to calm down or count my fingers because this is real. It's fucking real and everything reminds me of him. He's never coming back" she cries into her lap, fingers attacking, and clutching at the leather drivers seat in front of her.
"Lydia, don't" Scott speaks up, he sounds weak and his voice is muffled by the hoodie he's clutching. Stiles' hoodie.
"I need to get out of here" she whispers, pushing the car door open before any of them can argue with her, to make her stay in the car.
She spins around to see Theo's car pulling away in the distance. She needs to leave here. So Lydia climbs into the blue jeep just as she hears someone yell in the distance.
Sheriff Stilinski. Before she can hear any more of his cries or sobs, she slams the jeep door shut behind her. She’s ambushed by the smell of him, it’s too much for her since she’s gone so long without it. Her stomach turns vigorously, and she has to roll the window down so she can throw up onto the grass outside.
Looking around, she finds one of his shirts in the backseat. And she wastes no time in pulling it over her head, it bunches up around her legs but she couldn't care less. She wants to smell him, she wants to feel him here with her again.
Lydia doesn't know how long she stays in the jeep, curled into the drivers seat. She thinks she can still feel the warmth of it, from where he was sitting here only just a couple hours ago. It’s a trick of her mind, she knows that. When the girl opens her eyes, she spots the Sheriff walking up to the car, his body looks light. It’s as if it’s not even him. Noah climbs into the passengers seat, leaning back with a broken sigh.
"I don't know what to do, Lydia" his voice is barely a whisper, she have to think twice to even guess why. The whole pack must sound like it.
"Me neither"
His hand falls on top of her own, he’s the only Stilinski left in her life. Suddenly it hits her, how Stiles was the only family the Sheriff had. Stiles was the only one who could carry on the Stilinski name, but all of that has been snatched away from Noah now.
"I'm going to take this home with me, because- because it still smells like him. It was his. Would you like me to drop you home?" He asks her with a light voice, but Lydia doesn't want to leave him alone.
"No. I'm coming back with you" she starts the jeep up, pulling out of the preserve and driving back to the Stilinski home. She faintly thinks about calling her mother, but she can’t even muster up the energy to pick her phone up. It’s full of too much, too much of Stiles. She’s sure one of the pack members will tell her mother for her.
Not a single word is exchanged for the duration of the entire drive back. Not even when they see Scott waiting outside the front door as they pull into the drive.
Noah lets them both into the house, and it's almost as if Lydia can't remember how to breathe when she steps inside. She doesn't dare look at any of the photos that are hanging heavily on the walls, as she makes her way upstairs. Scott and the sheriff decide to sit in the kitchen, leaving her to it whilst they talk.
She bursts into his room. A mess of red hair brushing through the air in her wake. Lydia leaves the door open behind her. Because she's hurting, god she's hurting so much. But she knows she's not the only one, and she doesn't want to shut anyone out, physically anyway.
Lydias body immediately freezes as she looks around the room, because it's just how it was left. How they both left it earlier this afternoon. She can’t help but think back to how it was only a few hours ago that they were lying in bed with eachother. His laptop on their laps while they looked at pictures of the Stanford campus.
"I can't believe we're actually going together. God, I'm so lucky to have you coming with me" Stiles nuzzles his nose into her hair, making her giggle as she closes the laptop and places it on the floor.
"I'm not going anywhere without you, Stilinski. Never" she teases, just as his eyebrows rise with surprise. She swings one of her bare, tanned legs over his torso as they move to get comfortable. Stiles’ fingers weave through her red glowing locks that have just dried from their shower.
"Don't you think it's like, really crazy how far we've come? Like from third grade to here?" He thinks out loud, before Lydia just about drops off to sleep, making the most of being able to have afternoon naps before college starts. But this wakes her up.
"Yeah, I do. I mean especially from freshman year, I barely even spoke to you. And now I don't think I could love anyone as much as I love you" Lydia whispers, feeling her boyfriends golden arms snake around her waist, just to pull her even closer to him. And they both think, that in this moment, they couldn't be happier than they are right now.
"Yeah, I've loved you nearly my whole life. And damn, of course the sex is fucking great. But I think that the feeling of actually loving and having you, is the best thing I've ever felt" Lydia lightly flicks his bare chest playfully, eyeing the tanned skin up as she does so. Glad that the summer sun has blessed them both. But, she agrees with him.
"We're in this for keeps right?"
"Of course we are, Martin. Forever" Stiles winks with a sincere smile playing at his lips. He kisses her lightly before sittting up and pulling his sweats over his legs.
"So, let's finish solving this vampire situation" He holds one of his hands out for her, once she’s finished pulling his shirt over her body, before they get back to solving the new threat that has entered town.
Her head falls back against his wall, hitting it with a thud. Lydias chest tightens uncomfortably at the memory from earlier today. The banshees eyes catch sight of the murder board, his writing filling most of it up. She can’t help but chuckle when she sees a comment that she doesn't remember him wiring.
'Solving vampire mysteries leads to amazing sex with Lydia'
Her fingers carefully ghost over his writing, not wanting to smudge anything he's written. However she does get rid of the sex comment, it isn’t very appropriate for the Sheriff to see.
Sleep pulls harshly at her eyelids, so Lydia pulls off her tights and skirt, adamant on leaving his shirt on her body. Because she honestly doesn't think she could even bring herself to take it off, not for a while.
Falling back into his unmade bed, all of a sudden his scent invades her senses once again, she pulls the cover around her body, inviting the smell to linger around her. Deciding to sleep on his side of the bed, leaving room incase Scott decides to sleep in here too.
Tears fall out of her closed eyes and onto his pillow. With no intention of stopping.
And that night, Lydia cries herself to sleep. All while knowing that Scott, the Sheriff, and possibly even the neighbours, can hear her sobs.
The funeral brings everything flooding back. Lydia had barely left Stiles' bed since she arrived the night he died. It's been two and a half weeks since then.
The one week mark was hard. Harder than anything she’s ever felt before. Lydia was lying in his bed whilst wrapped up in his lacrosse hoodie. It was nearing nine on the night when Malia climbed through the window. Something cold tugged at Lydia's heart, because she vaguely remembered Stiles saying something when he was with Malia before. He said, that she never bothered knocking the front door, instead she always came through his window.
So the two girls lay on his bed, with a rather large bottle of whiskey between the two of them. And they drank, not speaking one word to each other. Sheriff Stilinski found both girls asleep in his sons bed the next morning when he woke, and a few tears fell from his eyes at the sight. He didn’t wake them, he didn’t have to heart to do so as he noticed the empty bottle of whiskey and their red eyes. So he left, and went to work.
Scott was round everyday, sometimes with Issac and Liam by his side. But he was worried about Lydia. She hadn't even screamed that night when he died, and Scott doesn't know if that is a good thing or not.
Kira was basically now living at Scott's, despite her mother’s protests. She was eighteen, and going through so much pain, as were her friends. So she ignored her mother and she left. Kira resorted to constantly helping Melissa and Scott with a lot, and the McCalls were so grateful for her. They didn’t know how to thank her, but Kira didn’t want them to. She just wanted to be with them. Melissa has taken it hard, Stiles was like a son to her. She doesn't know how to cope with it at all, she doesn’t know what to say to her son or to Noah. Or even herself. So the nurse busies herself with work and constantly making sure Noah is okay, and sober.
Noah Stilinski thought he would definitely fall back into the routine of drinking when he found out he had lost his son. Because the enormous amount of pain that he felt when he saw his sons dead body, was so much worse than arriving at the hospital and finding out Claudia had passed. But surprisingly, he hasn't touched a drop.
Sheriff Stilinski feels like he has taken on a whole new family now. Almost like it’s his duty to look out for the Mccall pack. They are round to see him everyday, most of them even stay with him and Lydia most nights. Melissa and Argent have been checking up on him a lot now too. Noah knows how Argent feels all to well, and it's too much of a shame that the two have grew so close, over such a tragic circumstance.
Everyone is worried about Lydia. And most of the pack have been thinking that they're going to lose her too because it's almost as if she isn't even here either. It’s as if the banshee has been so consumed by Stiles’ death, that she’s slowly slipping into it herself.
Lydia can’t even begin to explain how she’s feeling. She dreams of him every night. She dreams that she sees him and they talk. She dreams of their time together and how it was no where near long enough. Sometimes, she dreams about joining her boyfriend and her best friend. But she couldn’t ever leave Scott, they would kill her.
So when Lydia watches the wooden, dark brown box enter the ground whilst everyone stands in the pouring rain and wearing black. She can feel the scream impatiently crawling back up yer throat again.
But she refuses to let it out, she did with Allison and she doesn't want to scream like that again, because it makes it so real. It also caused a dead pool to occur last time.
She and Scott are the only ones left standing behind while the sun is setting, their fingers tied together as they stare at the grey, headstone with Stiles' name engraved onto it. And this doesn't feel real, this shouldn't feel real but it is. They know it is.
"I'm going to join everyone at the wake. You coming?" He lets go of her hand, slowly walking away hoping she will follow him. But all Lydia does is shake her head, moving so she is sitting on the grass.
"I'll join later" she mumbles, glad he has supernatural hearing because over the rain and her racing heartbeat, she's not even sure she can hear herself.
"Okay. Call me if you need anything, I love you Lydia" he walks back over to her, gently kisses her forehead and drapes his black, heavy coat around her shoulders.
"I love you too Scott" she tears her eyes away from the headstone, looking into the alphas eyes. He backs away with a small, sad smile before climbing into Kiras car and pulling away from the church graveyard.
"I miss you, so much. I don't know how to cope without you" she starts to say, taking note that it's slowly getting darker outside. Lydia notes that she needs to be quick, she hasn’t been outside since that night and she doesn’t think she can handle it. A reminder of the darkness that overtook her life.
"You once said to me, that if I died then you would go out of your freaking mind. And I don't think I understood back then, because I didn't love anyone to such an extent. I thought you was overreacting so I walked away to try and save Jackson, who I thought I loved" she wipes a tear away as she chuckles and rolls her eyes. She can feel her legs getting damp from where she's sitting on the wet grass. But it doesn’t make her want to leave like it normally would.
"When we were at the motel and I saved you, I thought that I might have liked you then, because the thought of you dying scared me so much. And then the nogitsune happened, and I couldn't even think about letting you die. Because damn Stiles, I didn't want to lose you. I couldn't have lost you. I didn't know it then, but I was in love with you, I had been ever since I kissed you. And as each day went by I fell in love with you so much more" her voice breaks, whilst she picks at the grass next to her. The raindrops perching on her eyes, fall off her eyelashes and mix with her tears as she talks.
"I loved you then and I love you now. I love you so much that it used to actually hurt me to see you with Malia, not even getting to be with you. But now I wish I didn't love you, I wish it didn't feel like this. Because I'm going out of my freaking mind without you Stiles, and I literally don't want to live without you in my life, because I can't even see or begin to imagine a life without you in it" she sobs into her hands, and soon enough she's pulling at her hair as the scream builds up in her throat. Her breaths are irregular and it’s as if she’s panting into the misty air around her.
"I'm so, so painfully in love with you, I just want you back" she cries, as she touches his headstone. Her head falls back as she lets out an ear splitting scream, and she's sure she's never screamed like that before. She definitely hasn’t screamed like that before.
Because she passes out next to her dead boyfriends grave, whilst her pack rush to get back to where they just buried their pack mate, to get their broken banshee.
Lydia wakes up the next morning in her room, and she's confused because everyone knows that she would have wanted to go back to Stiles' house, back to his bed.
But as she forces her eyes open she realises that her room is purple again. It’s how it used to be back in sophomore year.
Her mother must have re-decorated with the old paint they had, whilst she was away. So that nothing would remind her of Stiles. Upon instinct she pulls her phone off her bedside table, and she realises something isn't right.
August 23rd 2011.
She drags back her bedsheets, throwing her bedroom door open and running downstairs to become face to face with her parents. Both of them, smiling and kissing each other.
They should be divorced and her dad should be in England right now.
She grabs the newspaper from off the floor in their porch, unrolling it and searching for the date ignoring her mother's calls about breakfast being ready.
August 23rd 2011.
There is no way this can be real, she drops the newspaper and counts her fingers. She has all ten, no extra ones.
"Mum! Good morning" she tries to act normal but how is any of this normal? Who is she kidding, she lives in a supernatural world where she's a banshee and her best friend is an alpha werewolf.
"Hey honey, are you excited to start you're new school next week? I know how nervous you must be about starting sophomore year in a new school, but you will fit right in!" Her mother kisses her forehead, before handing Lydia a plate of pancakes and syrup.
"Uh yeah. Totally nervous. Why did you both pick Beacon Hills to come back to? I don’t think I asked" Shes asking to see why the hell things are different and what's going on. Her dad places his coffee cup on the table, a frown on his face.
"You know why honey. People found out you was a banshee and we just had to leave, you was in danger. We also grew up here so we knew it was a nice safe place for our kids" her dad says it like it's the most normal thing in the world. Her mouth falls open in shock, what the hell is happening?
"But there's werewolves here, dad" Lydia mumbles dumbfounded. Her just dad laughs, as if she's talking nonsense. But if she’s being honest, she feels as if he's the one talking fucking nonsense.
"There isn't, we checked. Honey we wouldn't move here to put you in more danger. Now, here's some money for you to go shopping and get some new clothes for school, meet new people and make friends" he kisses her cheek before grabbing his coat and leaving the house, shouting a quick 'love you' to her and her mother.
"Right, I'm going to get changed so I can head out" she tells her mother, smiling at her as she leaves the kitchen with her mother is on the phone to Claudia.
Claudia. Claudia?
She should be dead...she's Stiles' mother.
"Mum! Who's that you're taking to?" Lydia runs back into the kitchen, skidding on her socks as she comes to a halt in-front of her wide eyed mother.
"Claudia. Honey you know she's my only friend here. We're meeting for lunch, now go and get changed"
"How's Stiles?" It slips out of Lydia's mouth before she can stop it, and her mother just rolls her eyes before covering the speaker of the phone with her hand.
"He's fine, I don't know how you know about him but he's actually in your year in school so get to know him, he's...nice. Now get ready" her mother pushes her playfully out of the kitchen, closing the door as Lydia makes her way up the stairs.
She turns on the shower, leaning against the door as she holds her head in her hands.
What is going on? Stiles should be dead. She should be eighteen and leaving for college soon. She shouldn’t be here like this. It has to be a dream.
Lydia needs to speak to someone, she can't keep this in at all and she needs to know what the hell is going on. But if there's not any supernatural creatures here apart from her, then who isn't supernatural but knows about it?
The vet clinic. She needs to speak to Deaton, as soon as she can.