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TW: DEATH, GRAPHIC DETAIL

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.*･｡. AN ODE TO CLARK KENT .*･｡.
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041.
LITTLE INCENTIVES.
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——

Last year, Lois always found herself following Scott like a lost puppy. This year, Lois seemed to go everywhere with Isaac Lahey.

   She could never escape him, lately.

   Honestly, Lois wasn't sure why she always ended up with Isaac in recent months. It wasn't as if she rushed to be paired with him, or join him on whatever escapade they were on. Usually, Lois wanted to be with Stiles, or Scott.

   Somehow, Lois Lane was always with Isaac Lahey. Without even asking to be. She found him incredibly annoying, annoying as she had found him a whole year ago, and he didn't half drive the girl insane. Most of the time she wanted to impale him with an arrow again, like she had when defending Lydia, because he had a habit of saying things that would get under her skin. He always did. The beta knew how to bug her, and he took full advantage of it. So, she couldn't really be blamed for not throwing herself at the chance to go with him over everyone else — could she? While Lois didn't dis-like him, anymore, per say, she wasn't his biggest fan. Perhaps that was her pride speaking, or the fact when Lois just started to warm to him, he always ruined it with a stupid comment.

   Regardless, something always got in the way of her being alright with Isaac. Despite the help, the saving her ass, the stopping her if she was close to losing her mind. Something always got in between them. They consistently managed to push each other away when it felt like they were too close for comfort.

    "Do I have to be stuck with him, dad?"

   Exhibit A.

   Isaac smiled tightly, "I can hear you, gumdrop. Y'know— I'm sat right here."

    "Yeah—" Lois retorted, "—that was kinda the point."

   He rolled his eyes and turned away, looking ahead of him with his hands tapping against the wheel, instead. Lois sent him a look full of fake joy, and turned back to the phone in her hand where a set of eyes were sending her warning looks. Matthew sighed.

    "Can't you just get along, for five minutes?" He asked her, although he knew the answer already. "You guys won't be stuck there, for long. Okay? It'll be over, before you know it. So, shut up."

   Lois rolled her eyes, sinking down in her seat.

While Allison had gone to change into Miss Blake's clothes and fool the alpha pack into thinking the Darach wasn't stuck with her kind of ex-boyfriend, Derek, in the elevators, Argent and Matthew Lane had gotten themselves prepared for a fight. Scott was ready to help Derek and Jennifer out of the elevators and into the garage safely, and Peter had gone with Melissa to the roof to turn back on the backup generators to get the whole escape moving.

That left Lois with Isaac.

As much as she had wanted to fight, she had been told to stay in Argent's car with the beta. Their job was to take his car and drive around to the ambulance that Stiles, Luna and Peter Hale had sat for an hour with Cora, and get the girl to safety, then pickup Chris and Matthew, and Allison.

Not everyone would fit in the car, but Stiles and Derek had both driven. In the parking lot, Derek would move Cora to his car, and the three Hales would be out of there.

Melissa, Peter, Luna, Scott, and Stiles would make an escape to the jeep — and then, boom! Plan completed. The alphas wouldn't know what hit them. Although, Lois really wished she got in on all the action. Rather, she was stuck in a car with Isaac Lahey... again. Just as she had been, basically all freaking day. Although, earlier that day had been far less tetchy and held less of a friction between the two of them. Now, however, something was sat in the air. Making it heavy and stiff. A lot had happened since that morning, and Lois had a feeling there was only more to come. What, exactly, being a thing she didn't crave to know. Lois really just wanted to find Noah.

"I'll put the camera down, and when you see the twins you get out of there. Okay?" Matthew recalled, "The Argents and I will meet you, out front."

"Got it," Lois mumbled.

"Lahey? You got it?"

Isaac nodded and leaned into frame, "Yes, sir."

"You ready?" Her father asked, to which Isaac told him he was as ready as he could be. Matthew seemed to think and then rose an eyebrow, trying to read the boy as best he could. "You're not nervous, are you?"

"Do I look nervous?"

"No, not at all..." Lois said, nose wrinkled as he leaned back in his seat.

"He looked nervous," Matthew did an awful job at whispering.

"Terrified," his daughter agreed. She made no effort in being quiet, seeing as he was only ten centimetres away and could hear her well enough that she might as well be a voice in his own head, at this point. When he moved his head to face her, brows risen to his forehead, Lois snorted. "Crap his pants, terrified."

"Yeah— I can hear you," Isaac mused, "Very, very clearly."

    "We've gone over this," she taunted him, seeing her father brave a snicker at his misfortune. Isaac rolled his eyes; trust him to be a grown man, but still a male version of Lois. Now he knew where it came from. Although, Isaac couldn't help but wonder whether her mother was as sneaky and sarcastic. He had never met her, but he had a feeling at least one member of the Lane family had to be a little less... witty. "You were supposed to."

"Can I trust you guys to not kill each other, before this is all over?"

"Unlikely."

"Probably, not."

"Just go as soon as you see them— alright?" Matthew clarified with them. "Watch my daughter, Lahey."

Quirking a brow, Isaac repeated his earlier words; "Yeah, I got it." He pursed his lips, "Hey— I'm not gonna be held responsible if she jumps out the car, or something... am I? She does that, a lot."

"Lois, no jumping out of cars." He reprimanded, but she just rolled her eyes. Teenage attitudes, man... "I don't wanna have to convict the poor kid of negligence when you're the one who's gotta be stopped. It would be a messy lawsuit, so make my job easier? Please?"

"Fine," she groaned. "No car jumping. Got it."

    "Good. Was that so hard?"

   Lois gave him a sour look.

   Her father sighed, eyes flickering over to Chris Argent behind his phone, who was signalling that it was time for them to get started.

    "Hey. Come on, little Lo." The words were sweeter in tone, and in that moment, Lois felt like a kid, again. Her childhood nickname being used in front of Isaac Lahey made her go bright pink. "The sooner we do this, the sooner we find your Uncle Noah. And we will find him, okay? But to do that, you gotta be all on board for me, sport."

    "I know," the girl murmured, softly.

    "From the things I've heard, and the things I've seen, you two seem to work pretty well together." Matthew was right; they did. "You can do this." He said, "Both of you."

   Isaac's eyes flickered back to the phone, and his heart warmed in his chest. It had been a long time since somebody had believed in Isaac; he truly couldn't remember an instance that faith had been instilled in him, by another person. Not since they lost his mother and his brother, Camden. After that, his father had never believed in him. Not even once. Nothing Isaac did was good enough for his father to believe that he could do something, anything, and now he was sat there, with a man telling him that he could do something; a big something, an important something. A man that didn't owe him anything, not really. A man who wasn't his father, but a man who'd taken it upon himself to care.

   Matthew Lane believed that Isaac could do it. He really did. And he was telling him that, in a way that his father had never done. It made Isaac feel all mushy, and soft, and grateful for Lois' father — he was good to Isaac when he didn't have to be. To hear it coming from a man that had no obligation to say it meant a lot, especially when the man who should have believed in his son wholeheartedly had never.

Being told that he was able to do it was one thing, but then being told that he could do it even better when he and Lois worked as a pair was another; it made him rosy and embarrassed. He tore both his eyes away from the screen with a bashful smile.

Lois, unable to do much else, glanced over at Isaac out of her peripheral.

She supposed they did work well together.

Sometimes.

Her heart thumped in her chest at the realisation. Every success ran through her head all at once; fooling Matt, capturing Jackson, fighting Gerard and the kanima, catching Boyd and Cora, getting back at Ethan and Aiden. Hell— the boy had helped her figure out that her abilities responded to emotion, and joined in her efforts in trying to find her memories.

Isaac and Lois had done a lot together. And they had done it all well, too. Of course they had equally done many things separately and often against each other, but maybe that was starting to even; it might even become outweighed by the duality of their pair. They always found themselves working together, now.

    "Okay."

   Surprised, Isaac peered over at the girl. She didn't look back at him, but she didn't take it back either. Finally it seemed like Lois was on board with her role in the plan.

   Her father nodded and let out a satisfied breath, "Love you, Lo."

    "Love you, too." Lois promised.

   With a final farewell, the man put his camera on silent and set it down, Lois doing the same. She pursed her lips and kept an eye on the screen, although all she could see was an empty hall. Isaac was looking at it as well but she didn't take much notice — it left her all jittery and anxious to know her father was in there, where it was most dangerous with an entire alpha pack, while she was safely sat outside in Argent's car. While Lois trusted that Chris wouldn't let any harm come to her father, it still didn't feel quite right. It wasn't much help that she was sat in tense silence with the beta that drove her to insanity on most occasions. Isaac Lahey drove Lois mad.

    "You're lucky, you know." He eventually broke the silence, the words referencing her father.

    She nodded, "I know."

   And she did. Despite losing her mother, Lois Lane was incredibly blessed for the family she did have. Matthew Lane had put his all into raising and loving his daughter. She was lucky to have a father that cared as much as he did. He loved her wholeheartedly. Some people didn't have that.

   Isaac didn't have that.

Her father had been a constant. Much like Stiles, he had always been there. Caring for her, looking after her, teaching her. No one had loved her like her father — even with the loss of her mother, he had loved her double. He had made sure Lois always felt safe, and loved, and as happy as she could be. And, while the love was unconditional, Lois wasn't sure how well she had repaid him. Was getting him involved in a life of supernatural an adequate way to repay him for all that he had done for her?

With a murderous bitch of a teacher potentially snatching him for a ritual sacrifice? That didn't exactly scream thank you to Lois.

It was her fault that he was wrapped up in this mess. He was just a lawyer. He had always been just a lawyer. But now, since that day Matt had held them hostage in the sheriff's station, her father was as stuck in this life as she was.

If something happened to him in that hospital, it would be her fault. That was what weighed on Lois' mind as she sat there, and sucked in a deep and shaky breath. It would be all Lois' fault.

How could she live with that?

How could she live without him?

"Nothing's going to happen to him," as if he had been reading her mind, Isaac assured her for the millionth time that day. Tone softer than minutes ago, but still confident, he tapped his hands on the wheel and turned to look at her. "He's gonna be fine, by the end of all of this."

    "You can't promise that," Lois shook her head.

   He shrugged his shoulders, "I already did."

   That was true. Isaac had already promised that. Lois pursed her lips and nodded, fighting back a small smile as she finally turned to meet his eye.

   His eyes were sparkly. If they had always been that sparkly, Lois wasn't so sure she had noticed. Not until now.

   And they were sparkly. And blue. She was so used to taking note of his eyes when they were amber, that Lois had hardly realised. It was a pretty blue, a striking blue. It was a blue that made her feel warm and twinkly, and a blue that suddenly made her tummy turn in a way that amber had never done. This was a different turn; not a shift that made her queasy and afraid, but a rise and fall that fell in pace with her heart. Isaac Lahey had elicited several reactions from Lois Lane, but none of them had been like this. No... this was different. A different that made her hands clammy, and her chest constrict, but at the same time allowed her to breathe easy. A good different. Isaac was all sorts of different to Lois, and yet it was still new. A different kind of different. Her brain was just in scrambles.

Staring at Isaac, in that moment, ignited something in Lois. In her belly, deep into her ribs, in her bones and in her heart. The tip of her fingers felt tingly, as did the goosebumps on her skin, and it became hard for her to look away. His eyes. His eyes were so blue. An oceanic blue. Waves that sucked her in and drowned her, but it was such a caring depth that she didn't mind. For the first time in her life, Lois didn't seem to fear drowning. She let the water totally encompass her. She let it suck her in. That water spoke to her, as it blinked.

Eventually Lois nodded, and Isaac noticed the small twitch from her upper lip; an action that he found himself mirroring.

"Yeah," she said, softly. "You did."

"I keep my promises," the beta assured.

"I'll hold you to that."

"By all means," Isaac welcomed her to the challenge. A light and airy laugh escaped him, and the atmosphere returned to the usual teasing one that they stirred in often. "I'm sure that you will, gumdrop."

"I told you not to call me that," Lois sighed at the name.

"You tell me not to do a lot of things," he countered, and Lois furrowed her brow at the words. They were specific, yet ominous. As if they had hidden meaning.

She wanted to ask what that meant — although she had a deep and awful feeling that she might have already known — but a light flickering on her phone screen stole her attention, instead. Lois let a noise sound in the back of her throat, and she smacked a hand on Isaac's arm as she watched Ethan and Aiden walked into view.

"That's them!" She told him, "We—"

"Already on it," Isaac quickly put the car into drive, and took off through the grounds.

   As soon as they pulled into the parking garage, right beside the ambulance that Stiles and Luna had been huddled together inside with Cora and Peter Hale, Lois and Isaac jumped out and hurried to help them pull the unconscious girl out. Lois rushed to the side door and yanked it open, letting Isaac takeover as he took Cora out of Stiles' grip, in turn carrying her top half while Peter Hale took her legs. She rushed them; "Come on! Hurry!"

   They didn't argue. Rather, they moved to get Cora into the car even quicker. There wasn't much time.

   Lois strayed from the vehicle and threw herself onto Stiles, arms looped around his neck while he buried his face into her shoulder; it felt like years since they had seen each other, and he had been out of his mind with worry.

   Last thing he knew, she had gone after Jennifer Blake and then seemingly disappeared while their teacher made a safe return. He had been so worried about her — Stiles was still worried.

   Stiles would always worry about Lois.

     "Thank god," he sighed.

   She pulled away and gave Luna a hug, holding onto the blonde tightly as she shuddered. Lois rubbed her back and kissed her on the cheek, then pulled away to assure they were both perfect and in one piece. Luckily they were, and so was Cora.

    "Let's go!"

   Isaac's voice had Stiles gently pushing Luna towards the car, his hand on the small of her back and allowing Lahey to help her into the back seat alongside Cora and Peter. He turned to pull the door to the ambulance shut while Lois looked around, confused when it occurred to her that Melissa and her cousin were nowhere in sight; they were supposed to be meeting them in the garage after they'd turned on the back up generators, but they weren't there. Her eyes scanned the entirety of the garage, and then again, but they didn't magically appear.

    "Lois! Stiles!" Isaac waved them over, "Come on!"

    "Where's Peter?" She asked.

    "In the car," Peter Hale deadpanned, not knowing what she was talking about at all. He hadn't met her cousin. "Come on, let's go."

    "Not you," Lois scowled. "Peter— my cousin, Peter. He's meant to be here with Melissa." She turned to Stiles, who was entranced by something on the door of the ambulance. Lois yanked on the back of his plaid shirt, "Stiles, where's Peter?"

    "They didn't show," Luna explained. She sounded worried, as she climbed into the car.

   Lois felt her face pale. Something wasn't right. She knew there was something not right, she could feel it in her bones, and around her the world fell silent. There was only a ringing in her ears, like all else had been muted, like life no longer had volume. Something wasn't right about this.

   Peter and Melissa hadn't shown up. Lois didn't understand, why hadn't they shown up? They were supposed to be here. That was the plan: they would meet them in the garage, and wait for Scott.

   It filled Lois with an awful feeling that she couldn't shake.

She felt sick, they didn't show?

"Lois, we gotta go!" Isaac repeated.

He stopped by the drivers seat door, watching her with wide eyes that shone with urgency. What was she doing? They didn't have a spare minute to dilly-dally, he was sure that Sabrina would be fine on his own — especially if he had survived life being apart of the alpha pack. Sure, Isaac was concerned about Melissa McCall, but they were probably with Scott. He hoped so.

Instead of moving towards the car, Lois found her feet heading in the opposite direction. She ran back into the hospital as Isaac's calls for her rolled off her back. If they weren't there, then there was every possibility that they could still be inside. If something in their plan failed, and the alpha pack hadn't fallen for it, then they could still be inside too. And if there was any chance that Peter and Melissa could run straight into Deucalion, Lois wasn't sure it would end so well. Peter had betrayed him. He had betrayed him, in the name of saving his cousin, and she doubted that was going to be taken lightly. It would be four against one. Melissa wouldn't be able to do anything — Peter would be eaten alive.

Lois had to go back inside.

"Lois!" Isaac called, "Lois, come back!"

He wanted to run after her, to tell someone else to drive, but he was beaten to it by Stiles Stilinski.

"Lois!" Stiles followed after his friend, face sporting a look of realisation, also ignoring the way Isaac and Luna now called for the two of them. He disappeared into the building shortly behind Lois, and they vanished into the darkness.

"Stiles!"

Before she could follow, Isaac grabbed Luna and pulled her into him. It was too much of a risk letting a third person go back inside, and Isaac had a feeling Stiles wouldn't be best pleased if his human girlfriend followed after him and ended up getting herself injured, or worse: killed. Isaac wasn't going to let that happen. Not when he could help it, anyway.

He and Stiles didn't see eye to eye, but he liked Luna. He didn't want anyone else to get hurt, especially not the girl in his arms. If Isaac couldn't stop Lois, he would stop Luna.

It made him feel less useless. Jesus Christ, he should have stopped her.

But Lois wasn't stopping for anyone. Not when she saw the back of Scott McCall as he stumbled towards the opening elevators, his eyes laying upon the unconscious body of Derek Hale. He stood, a frozen figure, until his head snapped up and he was crying out for his mother, forcing himself up the stairs to the roof, two by two.

Lois skidded to a stop when she reached the elevator, her heart in her throat as she peered down at Derek's lifeless body. He wasn't dead. Scott wouldn't have left him if he were dead, but it still left her stunned. Derek was supposed to be with Jennifer, and with the help of the teenage omega they were supposed to get out so their teacher survived and thus saved Cora, and lead them to Noah. But Scott had made for the roof, Derek was out cold, and Jennifer was nowhere to be seen. The bitch was gone.

Although her heart yearned to help him, Lois gave Derek a last guilty glance and hauled her body up the stairs and after Scott. It wasn't long before Stiles followed.

By the time Lois had fallen through the door and onto the roof, Scott was stood a metre ahead. She immediately moved to his side.

"Guardians, Scott."

Her body seized up, eyes on Deucalion.

"If you were with me, I could've told you what it meant." He said, "I could've warned you." Deucalion sighed, "Let me help you, Scott. Let's help each other. You help me catch her, and I'll help you get your mother and Stiles' father back."

Guardians? Lois' breath caught in her throat when she realised what it meant. Parents.

"Your father could be next, Lois." Deucalion said the words she feared. "But if we help each other, I can help you stop that. If you two come with me, then we can start to fix things together. All that I want is for you to help me get to her," he spoke in reference to Jennifer. "Then we will find your parents, and you'll both be free to go."

The deal sounded far too good to be true. Even to Lois, who had succumbed to paralysis in the threat of her fathers demise. He was right; it could be her father next, it could be her father now as they spoke, but she still didn't believe it would be that easy. That if they helped him, he would let them go.

Peter had told her it was hard to slide from beneath Deucalion's thumb. That he would never let any of them go willingly. He had been trying to get Lois and Scott within his grasp for months, and he was going to leave them be when they did him one favour? That was all he wanted, and it would be over with if they bagged him a rogue Jennifer Blake? Lois wasn't stupid. Deals with the devil were tricky games. They had almost been fooled many times before. It was never that easy. Deucalion had been long attempting to initiate Lois and Scott into his pack, and still he claimed that was the only thing he had wanted? Jennifer Blake? Lois didn't quite buy it.

Scott, however, did.

He drifted towards Deucalion, feet like cinder blocks.

They dragged beneath him while atop his shoulder quivered, as if he were freezing in the cold left by the absence of his mother. It took Lois off-guard, and she was rendered speechless as Stiles soon ventured onto the roof.

A moment watching Scott get further from them was all Stiles had needed. He called out for him, "Scott!"

They watched the werwolf still.

"Scott, don't do this." Stiles begged, "Don't go with him."

"I don't know what else to do," Scott admitted to them, his face forlorn. It spoke louder than his words. He really didn't know what else to do. He was out of ideas, this time. He had nothing.

"No, there's gotta..." shaking his head, Stiles tried to blink the tears away from his eyes. "Scott, there's got to be something else, okay?" He tried to sound confident, "We always— we always have a plan b."

"Not this time."

He turned back around and continued his way to Deucalion, an action that finally seemed to snap Lois out of her trance. She took no hesitation in leaving Stiles' side and rushing after Scott, with an arm pushing her friend's hands away from her. For a minute, Stiles feared that Lois was going to go with him. That they were both on their way to joining Deucalion. That they were both going to leave him all alone on that rooftop.

But not Lois — Stiles should have known better.

"You're not going, anywhere."

Scott sighed, "Lois, get out of my way."

The girl stood her ground and remained in front of him, back to Deucalion. There was no way that she was joining him. She wasn't going to let Scott join him, either. Lois had promised herself that she wouldn't let that happen. She couldn't let it happen.

"No," she denied, voice shaky. "You can't go with him, Scott. I won't let you."

Nostalgia crossed his eyes, and she could tell that he was taken back to the end of sophomore year, when he and Lois had been in this exact situation with Gerard Argent.

It was the definition of déjá vu — albeit last time he had a plan, but it was still the same. Lois had been willing to do whatever it took to prevent Scott from making a big mistake. If he joined sides with Deucalion, Lois was positive that they would never be able to get him back. This would have been worse than helping Gerard in his attempt to become an alpha; this would have been them losing Scott McCall forever. If they didn't get him back, Lois was sure she would die. Her and Stiles couldn't survive without Scott. This couldn't be the only way.

There had to be something else.

"Lois—"

"I wasn't going to let you do this last time, and I'm not going to let it happen again." Lois cut him off, watching his sad eyes turn a watery shade of brown. Her voice trembled in her throat. "I'm the one that stops you making stupid decisions," she sucked in a deep and shaky breath, "And this one is really stupid, Scott..."

"I think our Scott's already made up his mind."

Lois grit her teeth, "Shut up."

"You could come with us," Deucalion didn't listen to the bark of a command she had given. "The offer was to the both of you."

"Like hell, I would!" She hissed, spinning on her heel to look at the alpha who seemed set on ruining their lives. Lois didn't care if what Peter had told her was true — that he may not put up with her denial anymore, that it could end badly on her part. She was sick of caring. Deucalion could kill her, if he wanted to. Death was better than joining him.

He hummed.

"Perhaps a little incentive would help?"

Brows furrowed, Lois watched as Kali shoved a boy into view, his legs failing to hold him. He hit the ground and landed roughly on his knees.

They only realised who it was when Deucalion stepped forwards and yanked his head back by his hair, and they saw his face. Their trio stilled — Peter Parker. Lois felt her stomach drop and she could hear her pulse in her eardrums.

Everything went slowly. Painfully slowly.

She was unable to do anything but watch Deucalion flex the set of claws on his spare hand, bringing them up to Peter's throat and striking his jugular with one swift swoop. Peter's body fell limp to the floor, his head bouncing upon the concrete until the movement eventually stilled too, and the last remaining motion was the blood trailing from his neck and into puddles upon the concrete. Then, it was completely still. There was no movement, at all.

Motion resumed when Lois let out a pained shriek, one so loud that Isaac's ears ached when he heard it, and she collapsed into a heap on the ground. Scott and Stiles were too frozen to catch her.

"I don't like to be defied, Lois." Deucalion announced, wiping his bloody hands on a handkerchief from his pocket while Kali held his walking stick. "I suggest you remember this, the next time you don't heed my warnings — don't you?"

He took his stick and turned around, and started walking away from the scene with Kali in tow.

Lois released a loud sob, smacking Scott away when he tried to reach for her. She didn't want him. For one of the first times in a long time, Lois didn't want Scott McCall. What Lois wanted was for Peter Parker to get back up; she wanted him to he alive. But it didn't happen. Peter's body didn't move. Her cries grew louder, a hysteria of grief-ridden screams, and all Scott could do was follow after Deucalion in a daze, unable to look at Peter without the rise of bile in the back of his throat while Stiles watched on in horror. Scott could barely feel himself move. He was numb. It was only a toss and turn of his stomach that he felt. Scott had promised Peter that he would protect him, keep him safe from the alpha pack. He had promised, he had promised, he had promised.

   As they ventured into the fog and out of sight, Lois crawled on her knees and over to Peter's body. She cried even louder when his head lulled as she lifted his shoulders, struggling to settle him onto her lap, and again louder when she saw the state of his neck. Lois placed a hand over the wound, unsure of what else to do. His eyes were open and glassy.

    "Pete," she whispered with wet lips. "Pete."

   Nothing.

   He was gone.

   It wasn't like when Boyd had died. There was no wave of water, and Stiles wasn't knocked off his feet. There was no water but the tears from her eyes, rolling down her cheeks.

   The droplets fell from her jawline where they had pooled at the best of her chin, and landed on her hand, then seeping through tiny cracks between her fingers. All it took was a few of her tears; that little bit of water was enough, and Peter's neck started to heal.

   At first, Lois didn't notice. Her eyes were clenched shut with the sobs that wracked her body. She didn't notice the skin reforming, or the tissue reconnecting, or the blood drying up until all that was left was the crimson staining her hands. Underneath her palm, the teardrops started to glow. It was a light that Stiles noticed through his own tears, but was too stunned to form the right words — he'd have told her if he knew what was going on, but he didn't.

   Second later, a croaky voice spoke; "Lois...?"

   Her heart stopped, and then started beating again when her eyes cracked open.

    "Pete?"

   There he was: alive.

   As if he hadn't had his throat mutilated and torn to pieces only minute before, there laid a very much alive Peter Parker. His eyes were hooded with purple bags, and his skin was pale, but the life was slowly coming back to his cheeks. Actually, the life was slowly coming back to the whole of him, and then all at once.

   Lois sobbed again, pulling him into her arms. Stiles wrapped his arms around the both of them, and held them closely to his heart.

   Scott was gone, and it seemed with him all hope, but maybe that wasn't the case. There had to be hope. Peter Parker was dead and was now alive, and maybe that was their sign of hope. Maybe hope was in the form of Lois.

——

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