Chapter Text
Lydia lay in her bed desperately trying to sleep. She looked at her phone; it was 3am. She’d gone to bed at 11pm that night and she hadn’t slept at all. She couldn’t sleep; the noise was overwhelmingly loud now, the whispering was just irritating when it’d woke her up at 5am the night before but now it’d evolved to endless screaming making her head feel like it was on fire.
Out of desperation Lydia got out of her bed, grabbed the pack of aspirin on her desk and pulled out a bottle of vodka she’d hidden underneath her bed. She poured some pills into her hand and washed them down with the vodka. Hopefully it’d knock her out and she’d get some peace!
For a while it didn’t work. Nothing worked. So she’d take a couple more pills, a few more swigs of alcohol and try again. After drinking the whole bottle and leaving less than a handful of pills she fell asleep.
Waking up vomiting sobered Lydia up quite effectively. She staggered up to clean it when she realised there was blood in the mixture that her body had ejected. “Fuck” She whispered to herself before the room started spinning and everything went dark.
When Lydia awoke she realised immediately that something was wrong. There were tubes in her arms, a constant beeping noise and the strong smell of disinfectant. She was in hospital, she realised. Her head was pounding but Lydia couldn’t really remember what happened. She looked around the room and noticed her mom was sitting in a chair next to her dozing.
“Mom?”
Natalie Martin opened her eyes “Lydia” She smiled sadly “You’re awake”
“What happened?” Lydia asked
“You don’t remember?” Lydia shook her head “You um, well… Lyds you tried to kill yourself” Her mother replied, tears spilling from her eyes.
Lydia frowned confused and then she remembered. The pills and the alcohol; she must’ve taken too much. “I didn’t try to kill myself mom, I just had a headache”
“A headache so bad you drunk a whole bottle of vodka and took a bottle of pills?” Natalie said her voice wavering
“It wasn’t like that…”
“I knew something was going on. I knew something was wrong but I just brushed it aside, I didn’t want to see it. You haven’t been yourself for months Lydia, I don’t know what’s happening; you’ve been distracted, acting strange, drinking, falling asleep in class, talking to things that aren’t there when you think no one’s listening, disappearing for days at a time, screaming, your bodies’ covered with cuts and bruises…”
“Mom there’s nothing wrong with me!”
Natalie sighed “Lydia you nearly died, I nearly lost you, you’ve been unconscious for two weeks! I’m not going to be blind to what’s happening anymore, I’m going to get you help okay”
“What are you talking about?” Lydia asked slowly
“Once you’re strong enough we’ve decided that it’ll be best if you’re treated in a facility for a while”
“What! Mom, I’m fine, this isn’t what it looks like, I had a headache; nothing’s wrong! And who’s we?”
“Your father, the hospital staff, specialists and myself. Lydia I can’t give you the help you need” Miss Martin sobbed
“I don’t need help!” Lydia yelled “Mom please don’t send me away, please!”
“I have no choice”
Two weeks later Lydia was well enough to leave the hospital. Well, the general hospital. Against her protests she was transported by ambulance to Eichen House. As the ambulance pulled up fear rushed through Lydia’s body. Her mom squeezed her hand but she responded by harshly glaring at her.
“Lydia, I’m sorry” Natalie said softly “One day you’ll realize that this is for the best”
“That’s bullshit and you know it, there’s nothing wrong with me” She spat Miss Martin shook her head sadly and looked down.
“It’s time to go inside Lydia” The nurse who’d escorted them in the ambulance said
Lydia looked out and saw two orderlies heading towards them and her anger to her mother turned to desperation.“Mom, mom please, I’ll do whatever you want, I’ll do anything I promise, please just don’t let this happen!”
“Get out of the vehicle please Miss Martin” One of the orderlies instructed
“No, I’m not going anywhere with you” She glared “If you refuse to cooperate we will physically force you inside” The other one replied “You can’t touch me, I have rights”
“You’re under 18 and your caregivers and doctors have decided you need to be here. You have no choice”
Lydia turned back to her mom pleadingly “Mom, you have to believe me I wasn’t trying to kill myself, please let me come home and explain, I’ll see Ms Morrell again at school if that’s what you want, don’t leave me here!”
“I’m sorry Lyds, it’s going to be okay” Her mom whispered
Lydia saw that her mom wasn’t going to give in. That was something she’d inherited from her, they could both be stubborn as a bull once their minds were made up. One of the orderlies put his hand on her to escort Lydia out of the ambulance. “Don’t touch me” She snapped. There was nothing she could do for now Lydia realised. She stepped out and followed the orderlies inside. It’d be 48 hours tops, once they realised there was nothing wrong with her they’d have to release her.
“48 hours tops” She internally repeated “48 hours”
“Hey Allison” Stiles ran up to catch up to her in the corridor at school. It was the first time that day he hadn’t been with Scott and he knew that talking to her with Scott would be awkward to say the least. Scott and Allison weren’t on the best terms since what’d happened to her mom. Honestly she’d blamed Scott, as time passed she realised that it wasn’t really his fault but they could still barely be in a room together without arguing. Because of this there had been a divide between Scott and Stiles and Allison and Lydia. Stiles hadn’t really spoken to either of the girls for a while but he was worried. “Have you heard from Lydia? She hasn’t been in school for weeks”
Allison smirked sadly “You’re still totally into her aren’t you”
“What… no I’m just worried…” Stiles blushed “Okay fine, I’m still into her but I just want to know if she’s okay”
“I’m not really supposed to tell anyone but I guess it’ll be common knowledge soon” Allison sighed “Lydia is in Eichen House”
“You’re joking!”
“She overdosed, they weren’t sure she was going to make it. I guess all that stuff with Peter affected her more than we thought it did”
“Shit” Stiles muttered
“Thinking about it weird stuff did seem to be happening with her again but she said she was fine, she was normal Lydia so I didn’t think much of it. She was struggling right in front of my eyes and I was too caught up in boy drama to see it. And now she’s been institutionalised… I’ve been such an awful friend”
“Hey this isn’t your fault; you had your own problems to deal with. I’m the one who cut the pair of you off because the stuff with Scott was awkward”
“It sounds weird but I’ve missed you and Scott loads. No matter what happened we were all so close last year” Allison sighed
“I missed you and Lydia too and I’m sure Scott has as well. Maybe if you two are both ready it might be a good time to talk”
“Maybe” Allison said slowly “I’ll talk to you tomorrow okay, I’m going to visit Lydia tonight”
“You are? Can you tell her… just say I said hi” Stiles trailed off
Allison smiled softly “I will”
Allison got chills as she walked into Eichen House. It made her feel sick that her best friend was in here; it seemed more like a prison than a hospital. She signed in and an orderly escorted her to Lydia’s room then proceeded to unlock the door.
“You have half an hour maximum” The staff member addressed Allison “If we believe that the patient is becoming upset or agitated during the visit you will be asked to leave”
Allison nodded and the orderly let her in, locking the door behind her. Lydia was sitting on the bed reading; she looked up as her friend walked in.
“Thank God you’re here, I’m literally about to die from boredom” Lydia rolled her eyes
Allison smirked; same old Lydia. She sat next to her friend on the bed. “How are you feeling?” She asked gently
“Bored. And pissed off. I don’t get why they won’t let me leave, I’ve been here for a week and there’s clearly nothing wrong with me. They think I’m in denial because I won’t say I tried to kill myself. Which I didn’t by the way”
“Then what the hell were you doing Lydia!”
“I had a headache”
Allison sighed “You don’t take a bottle of pills and alcohol because you have a headache”
“It was a bad one” Lydia shrugged. Allison looked at her with disbelief and Lydia sighed “Look I wasn’t trying to kill myself, normal doses of painkillers don’t work anymore and they would not shut up okay”
“Lydia? What wouldn’t shut up?”
“The voices” Lydia looked at Allison’s facial expressions turn from confusion to horror “Now you get why I can’t explain what happened?”
“Holy shit Lydia, you need to tell them about this”
Lydia rolled her eyes “Well I can’t because they’ll think I’m crazy and I’ll never get out of here” She snapped “I’m not running around stabbing people, cutting myself, rocking in a corner or whatever. Ever since stuff with Peter happened weird stuff has been going on but I’m not crazy. It’s probably side effects of being immune to the werewolf bite or whatever. And I can’t tell them that can I, I’m not stupid”
Allison rested her head in her hands trying to take it all in “Lydia this doesn’t make sense. The point of being immune means that the bite doesn’t affect you. You’re not changing into anything, you’re not getting special powers, and from what we know what’s happening to you doesn’t fit at all. I know that what you went through because of Peter was awful but have you ever stopped to think that it could’ve hurt you psychologically too? I mean your grandmother was schizophrenic wasn’t she, this doesn’t feel like a coincidence to me”
“Fuck you” Lydia glared “You know nothing about what went on, you spent all your time running around after Scott and you’ve been pining after him since you two broke up, you have no idea what’s going on with me, it’s my head, my body and I know that I’m not fucking crazy!”
Allison’s eyes filled with tears “I know I’ve been a terrible friend and I’m sorry but I care about you Lyds, I’m just trying to help, maybe if people know what’s going on they’ll be able to treat you better and you’ll get to go home sooner”
“I don’t need treatment because there’s nothing wrong with me! What I need is for everyone to leave me alone!” Lydia yelled angrily, hot tears spilling from her eyes. She heard the door being unlocked and sighed with frustration “Fuck this shit”
“Miss Argent, I’m going to need you to leave now” The orderly who’d brought her in instructed
Allison quickly turned back to Lydia “Lydia I’m sorry…”
“Just go away!”
Allison got up and started to exit the room so the orderly turned his attention to Lydia “Miss Martin you need to calm down”
All the pent up frustration and anger that had build up that week finally flooded through Lydia, forcing her to let it out “Fuck this, fuck all of you! I want to go home!”
The orderly got out his walkie-talkie and spoke into it “I’ve got a situation in the adolescent females unit. Room 82, thanks” He then glared at Allison “Why have you not left yet? Miss Martin you need to calm down right now” He said walking over to Lydia
Lydia jumped off of the bed defensively “Don’t touch me” She spat but the orderly kept coming towards her until she felt the wall behind her. Lydia panicked and without thinking she punched him and ran. She didn’t make it to the door before the back-up arrived and pinned her to the ground.”Get off me” She screamed but they just held her tighter.
“Someone get the visitor out” One of them ordered “I need 5mls of Hadol”
“No!” Lydia screamed but she already knew she was defeated. Within seconds the needle was plunged into her left buttock and her screams quickly turned to drowsy whimpers.
Now that Lydia was dealt with one of the orderlies roughly grabbed Allison, who’d been watching the scene horrified, and escorted her out.
What had happened had only convinced Allison more that Lydia needed help.“Will I be able to see her again?” She asked the staff member
“I doubt Miss Martin will be allowed visitors again anytime soon after that performance” He said and then softened seeing Allison’s face “Don’t worry, we’re doing everything we can to help your friend, we’ve had excellent results on even the most challenging of patients”
Allison nodded and took a deep breath internally apologizing to her friend for what she was about to do “Can I speak to her doctor? Lydia told me something that I think you should know”