riddled

Two bodies lay on a single bed, miles apart from each other, one soundly sleeping, the other, not so much. Scott had asked for a movie night, something that the two of them had always done, a little less since the change in their dynamics, but nonetheless, when he had asked her, it was an offer she simply couldn't refuse. He needed a night of peace after what had happened to his dad, even though the man was home now, healing, lucky to have gotten off as well as he did, the wolf still worried, and rightly so. Next time, they might not be so lucky. The two had done what they'd always done best, avoided any conversation that needed to happen, even in a room together, an opportunity to discuss what happened on her birthday, both convinced themselves it still didn't feel like the right time. If they continued, it never would be the right time. Perhaps there was no such thing, not while the two of them remained as the children of Rafael and Camila. 

By the time the movie had finished Scott was already asleep, snoring and drooling, as per usual. Noelle didn't have the heart to wake him, and she no longer had the back to go and sleep on the couch, tonight would have been her turn, Isaac was down the hall in her room, he had slept on the couch last night, Scott tomorrow. It still wasn't the ideal routine, but the three tried to make it fair on one another, all willing to keep sleeping uncomfortably so that none of them needed to leave. Isaac had nowhere else to go. This was Scott's home. And while Noelle could return to her home, neither of the boys were willing to let her go there, to live under the same roof as Camila again, not when they had seen the woman for who she really was, and Nellie was grateful, she'd rather die than live under the same roof as Camila again. 

In the hours since Scott had fallen asleep, Noelle had found herself staring at a single spot on the white ceiling, hoping that she would drift off into a peaceful slumber soon enough. That was her own version of counting sheep, she'd learned it during her time in the vault. She hadn't had it in her to think of peaceful thoughts such as sheep frolicking, while stuck in that vault it was torture to think of the outside world, a reminder of the simplicity it held sometimes, simplicity she had thought she would never see again. Falling asleep had never been particularly easy for Noelle, she had struggled to fall asleep since she was a child, she always felt out of place, uncomfortable in her surroundings, and after the fire, she found it hard to sleep without envisioning that night, some things never changed. In her first few weeks of living with Scott, it had gotten easier, she'd finally felt safe, Scott wouldn't let her out of sight, Isaac added extra security when he moved in, it was hard for her not to feel safe. And then the sacrifice happened, and she had fallen back into those nightmares of the fire, setting things alight, hallucinating. Now, Noelle was back to square one. The vault seemed more peaceful than this.

If those things weren't enough to keep her awake, a million thoughts in her head were. One of her constant thoughts was the boy sleeping beside her. How she wished she had the confidence inside of her to do what she'd done on her birthday or to even just mention it, but she knew that there was a better chance of her getting kidnapped and held hostage by an Alpha pack than that happening anytime soon. Then, when she distracted herself from him, came her mother, Camila, specifically what she had said. Not her usual condescending words that often kept the girl up at night with the urge to jump out of bed and spend all hours of the night for something to wear for school just to earn her mother's approval, no, this was one single word. Run. 

Naturally, she continued to wonder what her mother knew. About everything. Never had she felt so desperate to talk to her mother, to sit down and talk to her for hours on end if it meant finding out all that she knew. Conversing with Camila had never been something Noelle hadn't felt the urge to do since she was a young girl who would sit around the house watching the woman pace around the house on another phone call, holding up her hand to tell her daughter to wait a little longer, until night would fall, and Noelle would go to bed, if not fall asleep on the sofa. 

That young blonde had craved to know her mother, similar to how she felt now. But back then, it had been to form a bond with the woman who birthed and raised her, now, it was nothing more than a  transaction. A relationship with Camila ceased to interest Noelle anymore. They were far past that. She wasn't the young girl that she was back then. She wasn't the little girl who would spend hours sitting on the bedroom floor looking at a series of old photos in the albums, seeing all the old images of her mother's teen years, the smile that a young Camila would wear when she was younger, wondering why she never got to see her like that now. Noelle knew not that if her mother was wearing a smile, it was a malevolent one. 

She hadn't failed to notice that Camila's smile faded around the time of Cole's birth, photos had become rarely taken, even rarer once she had been born. Not a single image of Camila while she was pregnant with them, it seemed that part of her had resented them before they'd even been born. She'd always lacked maternal instincts. The woman wasn't a mother. Just someone who'd birthed two children provided them with food and shelter but never love. 

Noelle knew all that. She knew not to trust the malevolent woman who had never given her any reason to believe her, yet for some reason, she felt compelled to listen to her this time. That she should run before things really did get bad. It had been that look on Camila's face. Worry. If there was ever something she had never seen on her face, it was worry, any form of concern from her was unusual. But worry, that was new. Uncomfortably so. 

Sick of her own thoughts, the blonde sat up in bed with a huff, about to resort to sleeping on the couch after all. Only when she did, did she find herself back in that room, different from the one that she thought she had been lying awake in for hours, perhaps she had been asleep the whole time, or at least when she had finally drifted off, she didn't realize. Her reflection stared back at her in her pink flower bordered mirror that sat at the end of her princess bed. The same nausea she always felt when she ended up her rose in her stomach, she quickly turned her head to the left, Scott was gone, she was alone through it again, left to suffer as she relived the night, which version she would get she wasn't sure of, they were all as bad as each other. 

Based on her reflection, her seventeen-year-old self looking back at her, she assumed that she'd get the version of events where it played out how she wished it did, saving her father, just as she did last time she was here, Noelle didn't wait for her father to inevitably barge through the door and rescue her. 

She followed the same steps she had last time, jumping out of bed, grabbing a piece of clothing from her dresser to shield her lungs from the smoke, only this time, she took two. Before trying to place her hand on the door handle, feeling that inevitable sting Noelle heated up the palm of her hand, opening it freely, without pain as she walked into a smoke-filled hallway, the roof over her head already beginning to collapse, the other end of the hallway consumed by the fire. She swore that every time she relieved this nightmare the fire was faster than the last, it had to have the record time for a home being engulfed, giving her less and less time to feel as though she'd given this night a better ending, even if she knew that when she would wake up life would be the same. She'd still have to live with the pain of knowing the truth. But still, she couldn't just sit and wait for the fire in her dreams to consume her too, every time she came back here she got to see her father once again, making it worthwhile the torture she had to go through. 

Noelle could hear her name being called through coughs as she made her way through the fiery home, her lungs filling with the same smoke as she stepped on every weak floorboard, slowly crumbling beneath the weight of the seventeen-year-old.

"Dad!" Noelle shouted for the man. "I'm coming!" 

Noelle stumbled towards the staircase, keeping the t-shirt she had grabbed close to her mouth, her vision blurred by thick black smoke, her eyes glowing their strong orange as she made out a silhouette on the staircase, one much too different from her father's, she was sure of it. This one was taller, slimmer than her father. Still, she called for her father once again, but he didn't reply, at least not with words, the silhouette had coughed, and that didn't sound like her father either. 

The blonde stepped wearily onto the crumbling staircase, growing closer to the silhouette until she saw who it really was. Stiles. He was weak, coughing up his lungs as he tried to speak to his blonde best friend, red circles around his eyes, a tint of purple to his lips. Noelle reached for him as she touched his arm, about to pull it over her shoulders she felt his ice-cold skin. The girl had snatched her hand back for a moment, confused about how he could be so cold in a house filled with fire. Until she looked around, and it was gone. No fire. No smoke. Nothing. Just the two of them standing on the staircase of her childhood home. 

Without the smoke, Noelle got a better look at her best friend as he shivered, tears in his eyes, he looked terrified, she would be too if she hadn't been in this dream so many times, part of her still was terrified, this was a new rendition of this night, one of her friends being here too, the fire not here at all. It didn't make sense. 

Noelle grabbed ahold of the boy's hands, trying to warm them up, concentrating on that as she kept her eyes on their hands, trying not to burn him. As Stiles's breaths continued to tremble the blonde looked up, straight into the boy's eyes as he cried. "Stiles, it's okay."

Stiles shook his head. "Nell..." He mumbled. "I'm scared. Please come find me."

Her brows furrowed. "What?"

"I'm cold, Nell. I'm so so cold." He shivered. "It's so cold down here. I don't know where I am."

The blonde struggled to speak as she shook her head in confusion, unable to understand what he meant, she looked around her, they were still in her house, a house he had been to plenty of times to recognize. And perhaps she had a fire inside of her, but she didn't think it was cold at all. At least she hadn't until she could see her own breath, Stiles continued to beg her for help, but she didn't know how to, this was new territory for her, she had never experienced anything like it before. No matter how hot her hands were around Stiles's the boy didn't warm up, in fact, the heat didn't seem to have an effect on him at all, he was too cold. 

"Stiles... I- I don't know what to do." Noelle shook her head, tears in her eyes too. 

The boy looked up at her. "Wake up."

Noelle tossed and turned in her sheets, kicking them until they were pulled off of the wolf lying beside her, immediately waking him up with a groan as he complained that it was cold. As Scott sat up, about to retrieve the covers from the bottom of the bed the girl continued to kick in her sleep, talking to herself, muttering a name that sounded like that of their best friends, not in the kind of way that most people would mutter names while sleeping, no, she was in distress. Scott placed a hand on her arm, about to comfort her until he felt how cold the blonde was. Just like Noelle had in her dream he had snatched his hand back, eyes wide. Noelle didn't get cold, that just wasn't how people like her and Cole worked. Something was wrong with her.

He was about to nudge her awake, to ask why she was so cold and distressed until the blonde had shot up shouting Stiles's name breathlessly. As soon as Stiles's name had left her mouth the two felt a vibration, the wolf's phone on the bedside table ringing, his best friend's caller ID lit up on the screen. Scott quickly grabbed his phone, answering it, Stiles was talking to him, he was as distressed as the blonde beside him, whispering, he didn't know where he was, but he was cold, it was dark, begging his best friend to come and find him. 

Overhearing the conversation, Noelle had climbed out of bed, getting dressed, prepared to go and find Stiles, wherever he may be, she urged Scott to keep Stiles on the phone, to keep trying to describe the place where he was. That cold and dark place. As much as Scott tried, Stiles had still ended the call, unable to get him back, all they were met with was his answering machine.

Noelle grabbed her phone from the bedside table, trying Stiles' number herself, hoping that it would somehow work, and it did. "Stiles? Stiles, are you there?" The girl asked in a fluster, the wolf rushing across the room to stand beside her.

"Nell, I don't think I can get out of here." His shaky voice answered. "I can't move."

"Where are you, Stiles?" She asked.

"I don't know. I don't know, it's too dark." He mumbled through the phone. "I can't see much and something's wrong with my leg. It's stuck on something. And it's... I think it's bleeding."

Scott took the phone from the blonde. "How bad? How bad is it, Stiles?" The wolf asked in a panic, even more so when Stiles took too long to answer. "Stiles, are you there? Can you hear me?" He asked as he began pacing around the room with Noelle's phone. 

"There's some kind of smell down here." Stiles described. "Something smells terrible. My eyes are watering. It's brutal."

Noelle insisted that they had to call the Sheriff, he needed to know. Stiles was able to hear her as he protested strongly, begging them not to call his father, the man worried about him too much, he didn't need this now. The blonde and the wolf shared a look, Scott wanted to agree with her, but he couldn't ignore Stiles's pleads, he could hear the boy sniffling through the phone while he spoke, he really didn't want his dad to know. He begged them to promise, that they wouldn't tell his father, but those words couldn't leave Noelle's mouth. Scott depended on her for the answer as he waited for her opinion, whether they were going to promise it, she shook her head, asking what they were supposed to do if they couldn't find Stiles. A question Scott asked Stiles himself.

Stiles remained insistent on not calling him, his sob clearer than ever, he was sure that the two of them would be able to find him, he believed in them, they could do it alone. His pleads were central around Scott, appealing to him and only him, even in his flustered state Stiles knew the blonde wouldn't agree, it was her idea to call his father, she would think logically, with her head and not her heart. He couldn't convince her like he could Scott. Noelle shook her head at Scott, urging him not to promise it, they couldn't, but he did. As soon as he had, Stiles insisted that he had to hang up, but he would call them back he said, not giving them the chance to argue, they tried, but he was already gone. 

As Scott filed through his dresser for some clothes Noelle shouted for Isaac, the other wolf had scrambled out of bed at the sound of the blonde's shout, running into Scott's room as he swung the door open, respecting to see something on fire, flooded perhaps, not the two of them stood in the room, dressed for the day, in the middle of the night. Scott tried his best to explain what was going on, out of all the details that he'd told him, Isaac was focused on one detail, the part that Noelle played in this. How Stiles had appeared in that dream, one he had heard enough of to know it didn't usually play out that way, Stiles had never been in it before.

Until then, Scott had forgotten about that detail, now he was curious as to how exactly that had happened, but it wasn't an answer Noelle could provide to either of them, it was strange, she'd known that from the second it happened, but she didn't know how she had done it. In the past eight years of possessing these abilities, this had never happened to her.

Scott questioned the girl if she was still cold, considering she had opted to wear only a dress and a pair of tights, he assumed not, the blonde had shaken her head, insisting that she had warmed up now, lying through her teeth, she was freezing. Isaac had caught onto her lie as he took a step closer to the girl, placing his hand on hers, not only was she freezing, but all three of them saw a series of black veins appear on Isaac's hands. 

"Nell..." Isaac muttered. "You're in pain."

The blonde pulled her hand away. "I'm fine. It's nothing." 

Scott stepped forward, placing his own hand on hers, refusing to let go as the black veins began to stretch up his arm, not only was she in pain, but she was in a lot of it, her face contorted as she tried to take her hand back, trying to stop him taking it from her. "Nell, what's going on. Why are you in so much pain?" He asked, only when he couldn't take anymore from her.

"I don't know." She admitted, taking back her hand finally as she held it close to her, bowing her head as she spoke to them. "I think when Stiles appeared in my dream I connected to him. But I didn't even know I could. I mean, I knew I could with Jennifer and Cole. Maybe even Kira, which I still don't understand since she's not like us... but Stiles... I don't know how I did it."

"So all that pain you're in... that's how Stiles feels?" Isaac questioned, trying to make sense of it.

The blonde nodded. "I think so." She mumbled, turning her eyes to Scott. "It's getting worse."

Both Scott and Isaac rushed around to get dressed while Noelle stood trying to come to terms with it all, as well as trying to strengthen a clearly already established connection between her and Stiles in the hopes it might help them, but all she felt was the increase in pain as she wept, stopping the two wolves every once in a while as they stopped to check up on her, but the girl brushed it off, downplaying how bad she felt. When she wasn't trying to feel out for Stiles Nellie called her brother, they would need his help in this, and Allison's too, but she didn't manage to get through to the brunette, but she would keep trying, in the meantime, the three of them had decided that Stiles's house was the first place to look.

They were hoping that he had just called Scott in his sleep, that he had been having a bad dream like Noelle and that was how their connection had been formed It didn't make sense, they knew that but they didn't know what else to think, they knew nothing about the connection between a human and an elemental druid, formed while sleeping. As far as they were concerned, dreams weren't an element. This seemed like Lydia's jurisdiction. 

At the sound of a dirtbike helmet dropping on the floor, Noelle and Isaac stopped in their tracks, turning to look at Scott behind them, his phone pressed to his ear. "Hey, Stiles." The wolf said as he answered his phone, the other two rushing towards him to hear the conversation, Noelle with her ear pressed to the other side of the phone.

"Did you call him? Did you call my dad?" Stiles asked in a panic.

"No. Just Isaac and Cole. We're coming to find you." Scott reassured him. "Can you figure out where you are? Try to find something and tell us where to look."

"It's a basement." He mumbled. "I don't know, some kind of basement."

Noelle took the phone from Scott, trying to get a better description of the place, the other two were able to listen through their enhanced hearing, she kept asking questions, digging for some kind of characteristic that would let them know exactly what basement he was in, whether it be a house basement or an industrial one, eventually, she got the latter, wherever he was it was an industrial kind of basement, large, cold with a furnace, but it was still cold down there. As Noelle spoke the two wolves watched as she grew a blue tint to her lips, they were definitely connected somehow, she was feeling his feelings, his coldness. As he had many times before Stiles insisted that he needed to go one more time, but Noelle tried to fight again. 

"Wait, wait, wait. Stiles. What else is there? What do you see?" Noelle questioned him.

"The phone's dying. I can't talk, Nell." His voice turned to a whisper. "I have to go."

"Stiles..." Noelle muttered. "Why are you whispering?"

The McCall house fell silent for a moment as the three anticipated his answer, all three of them sharing a concerned look as Scott and Isaac grew closer to the girl holding the phone, her hand shaking around it, shivering from the cold that continued spreading through her. They hoped that his answer might have given them the clue they needed to find him, or at least come close, but instead, it only left them needing to know more, tonight had become more urgent than ever. Wherever Stiles found himself, he wasn't alone. That was all he had told her before he ended the call, just like he said he would, leaving her speechless as she handed the phone back to Scott.

Scott and Isaac began guiding the blonde out of the house, insisting that they'd find him, even if they weren't so sure themselves, but even if it took all night they wouldn't stop looking for Stiles until he was back and he was safe. For now, they continued with their plan, to head to his house, this time to pick up Stiles's scent, something for the wolves to pick up. 

They had also opted for sticking together, not even willing to part on the way to Stiles's house, originally, Scott was going to race ahead on his dirtbike, but this time, he wanted to stay close to Noelle, watching as her condition worsened, even so, she insisted on being the one to drive, that was all she had left to provide her with a distraction from what was happening, she couldn't deal with trying to call Allison and receiving her answering machine anymore, that job was handed to Isaac as he sat in the back seat, he too had been met with nothing but the Argent's voicemail. He watched the blonde driving as he repeatedly called Allison, how tightly she'd gripped the wheel, and then, he noticed a small smoke beginning to appear from the wheel. 

"Nell!" Isaac shouted from the back seat, the blonde slamming on the breaks, throwing all three of them forward, knocking the air out of their lungs. 

"What?" The blonde asked in a groan as she turned to look at him.

"You're burning the steering wheel."

Noelle lifted her hands from the wheel, the rubber burnt, leaving the imprint of her hands as she cleared her throat, she hadn't even known that she was doing it, even while looking down at her palms, she couldn't feel the heat that she was released, she felt stone-cold. Noelle tried to act as if she had meant to do that, it wasn't an accident as she asked. "Would you rather drive?" the girl spat out at him, not expecting his answer.

"Actually, yeah."

"Well..." Noelle stammered. "Tough." 

The three managed to make it to the Stilinski house alive, without any more burning of rubber or any other unexpected elemental-revolved problems, she had managed to retain herself for the rest of the drive, despite Isaac and Scott being on the literal edge of their seats, prepared to jump from a burning car, set alight by her. Noelle lead the wolves as she ran through the home to Stiles's room, throwing open the bedroom door only to find it already occupied, two people turning to look at them with just as much confusion as what they felt. 

"How did you know?" Lydia asked the three of them with a furrowed brow. Both of the wolves pointed to the blonde, who was also pointing at herself. "You?" She asked, even more freaked out than she had already been. "Am I missing something?"

"I don't know, but if you figure it out, do me a favor and clue me in?" Noelle suggested. The girl in front of her was the smartest one out of them all if anyone figured it out it would be her, and once again, it seemed like her jurisdiction, not that of an elemental druid. 

"I'm not even going to ask" Aiden admitted. "It only gets more confusing when you ask." He and the rest of them all knew that questions sometimes did more harm than good, it would always be a long-winded explanation, and considering the confusion that Noelle and the other wolves carried, it wouldn't be a good one. 

It was confusing, but not as confusing as what was behind Lydia and Aiden. A pair of scissors dug into Stiles's mattress, red string stretched from them to every corner of his bedroom all leading to pictures scattered around his room, whether it was photos of himself and friends, articles on murders, even simple posters used for decoration, every single one had a red string leading to it. Lydia had explained that he used red for unsolved cases, a few examples on the board, one that stood out to Noelle was the name Briar, written over a picture of a faceless silhouette. Since the night Barrow had taken her she had completely forgotten about that message left for Barrow, it still didn't make sense who Briar was, and why Barrow had taken her instead.

Aiden suggested that maybe Stiles though he was part of an unsolved case, or as Isaac injected, he was an unsolved case, nobody seemed to argue with the idea, it was Stiles, it made sense, he did think like that, it wasn't off the table. Only then did Lydia realize that they hadn't found Stiles yet, surprised that none of them knew where he was, Scott told her all that they knew- he was in an industrial basement somewhere. 

Isaac informed them of the plan, to come here and get a better scent of Stiles before they were to head out and sniff him out across town, with Allison not picking up her phone, and Noelle in a less than the healthy state, finding Stiles had relied on their senses and Cole's skills as a hunter, at least until they found out they weren't the only two who were searching for him tonight. They were a part of the search party now too, Lydia had no problem with that, like Noelle, she tried to dig deeper into Stiles's description of where he was, what else he said that might help. 

Noelle added that wherever Stiles was there was something wrong with his leg, it was bleeding, and it hurt, a lot. More than they all knew, she could feel just how much pain he was in, she was a supernatural, perhaps not to the extent of the werewolves in the room, but she still was, and the pain was too much for her to take, she wasn't sure how a human could survive such levels of pain. Not only could Noelle feel his physical pain, but his emotional pain too. He was petrified, fearing for his own life, she had felt fear many times, nothing matched this kind.

Lydia digressed, she knew how horrible it was to feel those kinds of things, maybe she didn't get them through dreams like Noelle had, but she could sympathize for the girl, she didn't push for any gory details of what the dream specifically entailed, all she wanted to know now was what a particular person had said about it all- Sheriff Stilinski.

"We kind of... We didn't tell him yet." Scott admitted, prepared for the lecture.

"Stiles is bleeding and freezing and you didn't call his dad?"

"He made me promise not to." Scott defended himself, a poor argument as Lydia rolled her eyes in disbelief that they were keeping this from the boy's father because of something as silly as a promise. "We can find him by scent. If he was sleepwalking he couldn't have gotten far, right?"

Aiden pointed out that the Jeep was gone, something that none of the three had noticed, they had been too busy scrambling out of the car that Noelle had driven here, barely managing to keep it in one piece. Noelle made a point of stating that she hadn't promised, that she told him how much of a bad idea it was to promise, and the redhead agreed, she hadn't promised either, so if someone was going to call the cops, she was going to. 

"Lydia wait. I can get more help. I can call Derek, we'll try Allison again-"

"Everyone but the cops. Great idea." The redhead interrupted him.

"You guys remember that she gets these feelings when someone's about to die, right?" Aiden deadpanned, looking between not only the banshee, but the blonde girl who was also brought here by a Lydia-like situation, and he hadn't failed to notice how bad the blonde looked, or how much she had deteriorated since walking into the room. 

The Alpha turned to the blonde beside him, her watering red eyes, her skin still cold to the touch despite how many layers she had wrapped up in before leaving the house, her lips a tint of blue, all of the things their best friend apparently felt too. While Noelle just looked as if she was close to death, Stiles really was close to it. She was their waking timer, every time she looked as if she was getting worse, so was Stiles. 

He turned back to the redhead, reassuring her that she didn't have to call the cops, it was a five-minute drive to the station, and he was going to tell the man in person that his son was missing. He and Isaac began guiding the blonde back out of the room, Aiden about to follow them until the redhead had stopped him with a hand to his chest, insisting they would catch up soon. She wasn't prepared to leave, something was in this room, she could feel it, and not just evidence of total insanity like Isaac suggested.

Scott agreed that they would figure out what was wrong with Stiles once they had figured out a way to stop him from freezing to death, until then, they had to inform the cops, they needed to get as many people as they could looking for Stiles before the worse happened. Lydia nodded in agreement, reassuring him once again that they wouldn't be far behind, she just needed to try and find whatever was in this room that she could feel.

By the time they had reached the station, Noelle had deteriorated further, barely able to stand on her trembling legs, Isaac had to support her weight through the station, her brother taking over as soon as he had seen them stumble into the building. The older Priestley running towards Nell was what alerted Sheriff Stilinski of their presence, he thought something terrible had happened to her with the way she looked, he had no idea just how bad the situation was.

A deputy, Parrish, as his bad read, wrapped his jacket around the blonde, sitting her down in one of the chairs as Scott and Isaac took it upon themselves to explain what was going on, filling the older Priestley in on some of the pieces his sister might have missed. 

Sheriff Stilinski leaned on Parrish's desk, his breathing was heavy and shaky as he tried his best to comprehend the details that he had been told by the two werewolves, neither had explained what was going on with Noelle yet, but he assumed that was because of the presence of Parrish and Cordova. She hadn't just come down with a cold. "If his Jeep is gone that's where we start. Parrish, get an APB on a blue 1980 CJ-5 Jeep." He turned to his other deputy. "Cordova, I want a list of any kind of industrial basement or sub-level of any building that he could've gotten into while sleepwalking."

Sheriff Stilinski turned to the rest of the room filled with deputies who had been eavesdropping from the second that they had seen two teenage boys stumble into the building with the girl in their arms. "It's the coldest night of the year so far. So if he's out there barefoot in just a t-shirt he could already be hypothermic." He made his judgment on the girl in front of him, who looked as if she had reached that stage already. "Let's move fast. Let's think fast. The three of you, come with me. Nellie, you stay with Parrish, okay? Someone get the girl a hot drink!" Sheriff Stilinski continued to order as he guided the two werewolves out of the room, leaving the blonde girl to throw a weak smile at the deputy beside her who couldn't even try to hide the concern he felt.

The sheriff closed his office door behind him before turning to the two wolves. "Okay. Is there anything you need to tell me that I can't tell everybody out there? Like why Nellie looks as if she is half an hour away from death for instance?" He asked as he pointed to the girl sitting outside of his office, barely able to hold the cup of hot coffee that had been made for her.

"She knew he was missing. So did Lydia." Scott deadpanned. "Noelle can feel him. How she feels now, that's what Stiles feels like wherever he is. We don't know how exactly, but she does." The wolf explained the depth of his knowledge, even Cole was surprised to hear it, he too unsure of how his sister had done that, even if she was stronger than him, much, much stronger. 

"Can they help find him?"

"Lydia's working on it," Isaac reassured him. "Nell..." Scott mumbled that had been all the man needed to know that the blonde outside of his office was out of commission.

"Anything else?"

"I texted Derek and Allison for help," Scott added.

Just as Sheriff Stilinski asked whether the two could find him by scent a knock sounded at the door, Parrish opened it, all of the deputies behind him rushing around, pulling on their coats as he informed the man that they had found the Jeep. Every and all deputies were ordered to get to the hospital where the Jeep was spotted immediately, all but Parrish who had been put on Noelle-watch, ordered to not leave her side until he was told otherwise while the girl herself had been given strict instructions of her own, not to move unless she had somehow figured out the location of Stiles, she had no problem agreeing to her orders as she gave Scott the car keys and insisted that her brother goes with them, there was no time for him to be concerned about her, he had to be focused on finding Stiles too.

Sirens sounded through the air as multiple cars pulled up to the hospital, Sheriff Stilinski and the brunette's cars leading the group of cruisers, all surrounding the blue Jeep parked in the hospital's parking lot. Sheriff Stilinski looked the car over, his son was gone and the car was as dead as a doornail, suggesting he must have left the lights open. None of them could fathom why Stiles would have come to the hospital, but they were determined to find out as all of them stormed into the hospital. Melissa met the string of cops the Sheriff at the door, she already had security sweeping every floor in search of him, though there hadn't been any sign of him yet.

While security continued to sweep every floor for him, Sheriff Stilinski and his deputies headed to the basement, the two werewolves to the roof where they had agreed to meet Derek, their own form of security to sweep the hospital. They had found Derek on the roof, but Stiles wasn't there, at least he wasn't anymore, but he had been tonight, he could catch his scent on the roof. Cole insisted he would inform the Sheriff, but Scott gave him another mission, to find Allison, it had been over an hour and she still hadn't answered her calls, the girl needed to know what was going on, sending Isaac with the Priestley too. The three seemed to work well together. 

"Notice how strong his scent is up here?" Derek asked the young Alpha beside him. "Ever heard of chemosignals? Chemical signals that communicate emotions. And just our sweat can give off anger, fear, or disgust. Take a deep breath and tell me what you feel."

Scott did as he was told, taking that deep breath. "Stress."

"And anxiety," Derek added. He didn't know what Stiles had been doing up here but there was definitely some kind of a struggle. A struggle with himself.

Rafael McCall walked into an almost empty Sheriff's Department, a sling on his arm, beside him, his fiance. Noelle had noticed the pair as soon as they walked into the building, groaning, sinking in her seat, watching as they walked through the building. With that look of superiority on their faces, they looked down on everyone the same way, just another similarity between the couple besides abandoning their children. Parrish turned to the girl, asking if she wasn't a fan of the agent and his fiance, unaware of the connection between her and the woman until she informed him, it was safe to say that Parrish was surprised. From what he had come to see of Noelle, she wasn't like her mother in the slightest, she was much more likeable.

Rafael looked around the station until he reached the desk with two of the very few people in the building, he was surprised to see the blonde bundled up beside Parrish, noticing her sickly appearance from afar, alerting his fiance. Surprisingly, Camila rushed ahead to the desk to the aid of her daughter as she knelt down before her, asking how on Earth she had come to look in the state that she did. The young girl lost for words, at least ones that could be said in front of a pair of law enforcement officers who were unbeknownst to the supernatural. She was cold, she told her mother, so, so cold. Rafael approached  the desk with a file in handing, asking where everyone was tonight, throwing in another question before Parrish could answer, he had asked whether there had been any leads on their sword-wielding maniac, the one who'd stabbed him last night, he showed no concern for his fiance's daughter, he didn't see it necessary with what he had heard her tell Camila. He was going to worry about a girl who was a little cold. 

Noelle pursed her lips, refraining from revealing that she knew anything about those maniacs as Parrish reassured him that there were posters of their guy all over town, nodding at two posters that hung on the wall behind him. Noelle turned to look at the posters, one depicting a cartoon samurai and the other showing a cartoon Zorro, her lips pulled into her smile, trying not to laugh at them, as was Parrish as he looked at her with a slight grin across his face. Then she could tell why Parrish had asked her that question, because he was just as little of a fan of them as her, she then claimed him as her favorite deputy. 

"Not exactly what I described to the sketch artists," McCall complained, Camila refusing to make a comment as she shook her head at her grinning daughter, warning her to stay out of it. 

"Well, you're not exactly the highest priority of the night, Agent McCall." Parrish deadpanned, a hint of attitude in his tone. He was definitely her favorite deputy.

"What does that mean? What's the high priority?" Camila asked, looking at her daughter who sat next to the deputy, it couldn't be her, if she was such a high priority he doubted that she would be sitting here with a full cup of now cold coffee, and she would have liked to think that at least a deputy who knew they were related would have called her if she had been the priority.

Noelle took it upon herself to tell her mother and Rafael that Stiles was missing, hoping it would make Rafael feel a sense of guilt for the way he had treated the Stilinski's over past weeks, years even. Not only that, but perhaps it would make both of them feel ridden with guilt for neglecting their own children, maybe if one of them called once in a while they would have known about it all, that applied to either of the pair, both were as bad as each other. Instead of caring for either of their children, they'd been giving sketch artists poor descriptions of sword-wielding maniacs. Just as she hoped, her mother and Rafael's faces had dropped.

Rafael retreated to the office he had taken over during his time in Beacon Hills, his fiance opting to follow him, her daughter made it clear she didn't need motherly comfort, even if she did she wouldn't have known, she had never received such a thing, not from her at least. Seething from the interaction with the couple, Noelle sat stirring the cold coffee in her cup, watching the liquid swirl around the plastic purposelessly, a little like how she sat in the Sheriff's Department doing nothing while everyone else was out looking for Stiles, she was purposeless, just like the coffee in her cup that was supposed to warm her up. The blonde couldn't believe she'd reached a point in her life where sitting in a Sheriff's Station comparing herself to a drink that had gone cold was normal, possibly the most normal thing about her life.

When she hadn't been stirring the cup, she had checked her phone, waiting for an update from anyone, but she was yet to receive anything, while she sat beside the town's best new deputy, she was out of the loop. Only left to feel everything that Stiles felt while he was out there in the cold. Parrish had been trying to keep her company with idle chatter, but even he could tell that she felt useless sitting here shivering while her friends were out looking for Stiles.

A guilt-ridden Rafael had been in and out of the office trying to assist with the search for the boy from the station, occasionally Camila had come out to check up on her daughter, trying, failing, to convince Parrish that she was actually a caring mother, not whatever malevolent being Nellie had described her as why they were in the office. At one point, while Rafael was distracted, she'd pulled aside her daughter for the real story, wanting to be filled in on the supernatural side of it all. Noelle did her that one favor, telling her the truth, how it had all begun with her dream. If not for her mother's advice in the hospital she wouldn't have bothered, but she wanted her mother to exchange any information she had, this was how that would start. Feigning trust. 

Despite the information Camila received, she reassured her daughter that she didn't know how this had happened, that even as a druid herself, she didn't know how Stiles had appeared in her daughter's dreams. She didn't have as near as much information as Noelle hoped she did. The blonde accepted it, for now at least. The two had ended their conversation just in time for McCall to come back out of the office. 

"Do you need a tissue?" Rafael asked as he stopped in front of the desk, looking at the girl whose eyes had begun watering even more until it looked as though she was sobbing. Nellie nodded as the man handed her a tissue, wiping the tears from her eyes. "Allergies?"

"No." Noelle shook her head. "It's just that smell." She sniffled.

"What smell?" Camila questioned her daughter with a furrowed brow.

"You can't smell that?" The girl asked, looking between them with confusion, all shaking their heads with knitted brows, none of them knew what she was talking about. Noelle looked at her mother with a strong look, waiting for a discreet hint that she could actually smell it, that she'd just said it so that Rafael and Parrish didn't suspect anything, but there was nothing. She really couldn't smell anything. "It smells terrible." Her lip curled as she tried to describe the smell, it had been following her around, but she had checked the bottom of her shoes, they were clean, free of anything terrible smelling feces like she originally suspected.

A confused Rafael headed back into the office, too confused to ask any more questions, as was the deputy that Camila had left Nellie with, he looked at the girl with worry, wondering if he'd missed something, she certainly wasn't a normal girl, she seemed nice enough but she was far from a normal person. Perhaps he shouldn't have been surprised with the mother who raised her, at least he thought Camila had raised the woman, he knew nothing of Noelle's past, that she'd once disappeared herself, for two years. Parrish stood up from the desk, leaving Noelle alone for a few minutes before he returned with a fresh cup of cocoa, replacing the cold one in her hand, this time he suggested that she drank it rather than watching it swirl around the cup, that wouldn't warm her up anytime soon.

Noelle nodded, taking the cup from with him a smile, he stood waiting until she took a few sips of the drink, proving that she could follow instructions. Once he had finally taken his seat again Noelle pulled out her phone, calling Allison hoping that she'd be the one to give her the update on Stiles that she craved to hear, but her phone went straight to voicemail, just like it had when she and Isaac had called her earlier. It was strange, she never turned off her phone, not even to get a good night's sleep, for reasons like this, that something may happen while she was asleep. 

With a groan of frustration the girl hung up the phone, calling Lydia instead, her phone, unlike Allison's had rung, but it continued to ring until she was eventually met with another annoying voicemail that she wasn't in the mood to hear tonight. Nobody wanted to update her on what was happening, she felt as though she had the right to know whether she had to ask Parrish to take her to the hospital anytime soon before she died from hypothermia.

Her mother and Rafael walked back out of the office with haste to their walk, waving around a piece of paper with his one good arm. "Hey, is this the exact transcript of Scott and Nellies' call with Stiles?" He asked as Parrish nodded in agreement, it was the one they were given. "These words. Stiles says, "Something smells terrible. My eyes are watering."." Rafael quoted.

Noelle and Parrish sat up in their seats, those words sounded awfully familiar, because not so long ago the blonde girl who had completely forgotten about the call had quoted them herself, unbeknownst to that fact. 

Before Rafael was able to make that point for himself a voice from the reception had perked up their ears, Melissa stood in her scrubs talking to the receptionist, announcing that she was here to see Agent McCall who quickly walked over to her, distracted for a moment. Noelle looked at Parrish with a weak smile, a quiet chuckle unable to say anything that would explain how she'd described the same smell that Stiles had. She turned back to her mother, silently questioning if this was all really happening, if it was possible for her connection to someone to be so strong, but once again, the woman was without answers. 

Melissa gave her ex-husband a weak smile, telling him that now her shift was over she wanted to see if she could help, she came here knowing that not only he was going to be here with Camila, but Noelle was here too, Scott had managed to fill her in slightly. With the mention of Noelle, he turned back to that thought of concern, how she had quoted what Stiles said, her eyes watering as they burned. As he turned to look at her Noelle was wiping her eyes again, another sniffle, still affected by that smell.

"Cam. Noelle." Rafael shouted the names of the blondes across the station, both turning to him. "Come on. We're going to look for Stiles." 

Noelle eagerly jumped out of her seat, about to take off the jacket that Parrish had given her, but he insisted that for tonight she keep it, she needed it a lot more than he did if he was going to be sitting here all night, all she had to do was return it to him at some point.

It wasn't until the blonde sat in the back of the car with Parrish's jacket wrapped around her that she regretted her decision to come. She wished she'd stayed with the deputy, shivering if it could even be called that anymore, knowing nothing, because compared to this, that was heaven. She hadn't thought about how she would be sitting in a car with not only her mother and Rafael, that would have been bad enough, but no, Melissa too, the ex-wife of McCall, the ex-best friend of her mother. Of course, it made for a painful silence. None of the adults quite knew what they were supposed to talk about, they all made fair attempts at distracting themselves, all using the same method. The blonde sitting in the back of the car, checking up on her deteriorating health when it felt as though it had gotten too awkward for them. 

Eventually, Rafael had decided to bring up a topic much easier than the girl in the back, instead, he chose to explain his reasoning behind where he was taking them to find Stiles, which he was convinced was the place that Stiles would be found. But none of the women quite understood.

"So what are you saying?" Melissa questioned him.

"I'm saying the real question might be, how do we know he's not still asleep?"

"You mean he's been asleep this whole time?" Noelle asked as she leaned forward between the two front seats, unable to see how that made sense. Stiles couldn't have gotten so far while he was still asleep, at least she hadn't thought so.

"Well, people who sleepwalk do crazy things." Rafael shrugged as he talked to the girl through the rearview mirror. Talking about a time when one guy went down to the kitchen and cooks an entire meal while another guy mowed his entire lawn naked, a tinge of jealousy surfaced inside of Camila as she sat seething in it, watching as the two talked, reminisced. 

Melissa laughed slightly, but she was still confused as she asked why any of that mattered to the situation they were in now. Stiles hadn't been at home cooking an entire meal, nor had he been on his lawn mowing the grass naked, he had managed to drive all the way to the hospital before going wherever he is now.

Rafael recalled a time they lived in a townhouse apartment, there was one night he had come home drunk, a comment that both Melissa and Noelle had scoffed at, they knew there was a lot more than one night where he had come home drunk, Melissa had seen it for herself while the blonde had heard the stories of Rafael's drunken antics, too young to remember that time when it had happened. 

He chose to ignore his ex-wife's comment, focusing on the subject at hand, he had come home drunk, passed out on the bed before getting up to go to the bathroom before hearing Melissa yell at him, asking him what he was doing, Melissa could recall the night he was talking about, he hadn't been in the bathroom. The man had been in the closet peeing in the laundry basket, even though he had been drunk, he was convinced he was in the bathroom, who were they to assume that Stiles wasn't just convinced he was in a basement, really he was somewhere else.

Neither of them women could argue with that logic, neither wanted to agree that the man may have had a point, but he did, a valid one. Not only had he managed to come up with the theory that Stiles was still asleep but he also had an idea of where they might find him too. He'd soon pulled into the preserve, all four, stepping out into the dark. 

Melissa looked over to the girl she had been sitting beside in the car, noticing how her eyes had widened as she looked out across the preserve. "Nell? Everything okay, sweetheart?"

"He's here," Noelle mumbled under her breath, her mother hearing it too. 

She was sure of it. The women both looked at her with surprise, and each other, unsure how she knew it, neither were entirely sure of the extent of Noelle's abilities, they were both aware that Noelle was stronger than most, if not all of her kind, including her own family. She had Jennifer to thank for that. Noelle wasn't sure herself, but she was sure of Stiles being her, there was a lot of confidence, assertiveness to her tone. The couple had walked around the car just as she spat out the words again. Stiles was here. She could feel it. She knew where he was, exactly where to find him. For the first time tonight, she was sure of herself.

Without another word, Noelle ran ahead of them, leaving the three adults stunned as they had watched her disappear into the darkness of the preserve, following the feeling inside of her, that was what guided her, she had run these paths more times than she could count, she didn't need a map of the trails or even a flashlight, they were burnt into her brain. Adrenaline began to rush through her body until she no longer felt the cold, her body heating up like she was used to, her eyes glowing their luminescent, flamy orange, allowing her to run even faster. 

She ignored the calls of the three adults that she had left behind, their calls fading as Noelle got further into the woods. Rafael was just glad he knew the direction that she was heading in, she clearly had come to the same conclusion as him, and he knew exactly where she would end up. The only question that remained was whether Stiles would be there too.

As the girl found herself closer to the coyote den Malia had been living in she could hear Stiles, she could hear his fearful screams, only pressuring her to get there faster. Noelle shouted the boy's name as she saw him kicking and screaming on the floor outside of the cave Malia spent eight years living in. As she reached him the pungent smell had become stronger, her eyes had begun watering again, only this time it wasn't just from the strong scent that burnt her nostrils, but tears of both sadness and joy that she had found him.

Stiles screamed at the top of his lungs over and over, telling someone or something to wait. The blonde wrapped her arms around him, repeatedly shouting his name, trying to wake him up as he kicked and screamed in her arms, trying to get her off of him. Eventually, Melissa and Rafael reached the girl, Camila somewhere behind in her heels, they watched as Stiles struggled in her arms until he'd finally woken up, seeing the arms wrapped around him, the voice that sounded in his ears. His screaming had come to a halt as he become to realize that he was no longer in a bad dream, he was awake, alive, and with Noelle, his best friend. Her warm touch was enough to make him know it was real. He turned to see Rafael and Melissa, their distraught faces before he turned to the girl that had her arms wrapped around him, a relieved smile across her face, tears rolling down it.

"You found me?" He muttered. He remembered seeing her, what he's said to her. 

"I found you." She nodded through her tears, a soft chuckle of pride. "I'm here. You're okay." She muttered softly resting her head on his, taking a deep, shaky breath. Still surprised that she had managed to find him. That this entire night happened at all.

With their heads bowed, Scott and Lydia sat in the hospital hallway, waiting to hear about Stiles and Noelle, both of them had been taken to a hospital room, even if Noelle had ensured them all that she was okay, that she was beginning to warm up, Melissa had insisted that the girl received a thorough check-up, making sure that there would be no after-effects of tonight. Noelle knew it was pointless to argue with Melissa, agreeing that she would have a check-up, simply to give her some peace of mind. For an hour the group had waited around to hear something from a doctor, Noah, who was with his son or Camila, who accompanied her daughter through her check-up, a detail that surprised all of them, especially the two teenagers who knew better than anyone how Noelle felt towards her mother. But none of them said a word, after years of Camila being a less than competent mother, they weren't going to stop her from trying to be one, out of the group it was only her allowed inside of the room with Noelle too. She was the girl's only relation, her big brother still on his way to the hospital with Allison and Isaac.

Lydia had been quiet since arriving at the hospital, she had only spoken a few words since she'd arrived, only to Scott too, she was relieved that they managed to find Stiles, that Noelle was the one to find her, but she had admitted that she wished it was her. Instead, she had left everyone on a wild goose chase to the basement of a mental institution, at least one of them had put their abilities to good use tonight.

Scott looked around the hallway, all the people who were waiting, pacing the corridor until they heard news of Stiles and Noelle, these were the people that the two of them deserved to have in their corner. This was how it should have been when Noelle had come back after two years, she should have had a small hallway filled with people waiting to see how she was, not to mention a group of people still not here, Derek and Aiden waiting outside too. Using their wait to jumpstart Stiles's Jeep. Noelle shouldn't of had to scour the woods that entire night in search of two of her friends, to sneak into a hospital in a disguise to find out her cousin was dead, sacrificed. Noelle shouldn't have had to hide it from Cole or wonder where her mother was, and why wherever she was she didn't care. This was what she deserved.

As Sheriff Stilinski walked down the hall the two teenagers quickly stood up to meet him, just his walk hadn't given them much hope, his hands buried in his pockets, his head bowed. A feeling of nausea built up inside of Lydia as she faced the man she felt she'd disappointed tonight.

"He's sleeping now. And he's just fine." Sheriff Stilinski announced, reassuring them. "He doesn't remember much. It's a bit like a dream to him." He turned to Rafael who stood, relieved like all of the other people in the hallway. "Thank you."

"It was that repellent we sprayed in the coyote den to keep other animals out. I couldn't go near it without my eyes watering. If it wasn't for Noelle's eyes watering at the station and Stiles's call with them, I wouldn't have known." Rafael insisted.

Sheriff Stilinski thanked the man again. After a small and untimely spat, McCall finally took the gratitude with a nod of the head and a shake of hands. Though Scott was grateful for the news, good news, it suspected, he still couldn't be free of worry, not until he knew that the same was to be said for Noelle too. The Sheriff didn't need to hear Scott's question to know that the wolf was asking it, he turned to Scott, saying he had checked in on Noelle, she was being kept in for the night too but she seemed well, and that she'd asked for him. Lydia also.

The two teenagers looked to Melissa for approval, they had school in less than six hours, that they should be going home to sleep, but they knew that rest wouldn't be possible until they'd seen Noelle. Melissa knew it too as she nodded in agreement, telling them that she would be waiting for them in the waiting room downstairs, ready to take them home.

Sheriff Stilinski guided them to Noelle's room where they found the girl laying in bed with an IV drip hooked up to her arm, her mother sitting beside her. With a small knock on the door, she'd turned her head, a smile on her face, something none of the three had ever seen from Camila, it was as if someone had swapped her body tonight, she wasn't the woman any of them had come to know before. Camila put down the magazine that she'd been filing through, telling Noelle she would come back later so that she could talk to Scott and Lydia, walking out the room with that same smile as she offered Noah a coffee.

With furrowed brows Lydia and Scott's eyes followed the woman out of the room, right until she had disappeared down the hall with Noah, when she was gone, both turned back to Noelle, the same question coming out of their mouths. What the hell was that. Noelle laughed weakly, she'd thought the same thing when she had seen that side of her mother tonight, frankly, she was glad someone else had, that it wasn't just a side effect of the medication.

The two teenagers sat on either side of her hospital bed, too scared to touch her, she looked too fragile to be touched, like a doll. Even if she did look in better condition than earlier, it was clear there was still a lot of recovering for her to do. The blue tint had disappeared from her lips, that redness remained around her eyes and nose from all of the sniffling and crying she had done as a result of the repellant. Not to mention just how exhausted she looked, even how she lay in her hospital bed told them that, she was limp as if she had never felt an ounce of strength in her life.

Noelle held out her hand for Scott's trying to prove that she was warmer now, even if it was just by a few degrees, thanks to the thermal blankets on her. After she had found Stiles that boost of warmth she had gained while running faded once again, placing her back in a hypothermic state to match her best friend. Scott took the blonde's hand, feeling the change in temperature, but it happened again, a series of black veins shooting up from his hand to his arm as he took her pain with a wince. This time, she didn't have the energy to snatch her hand back.

The pain was worse this time, there was more of it, it hurt even Scott more, but when he looked at Noelle she seemed to be relaxed as if it wasn't affecting her. "It doesn't hurt." She reassured the wolf. "I think they gave me something, I'm a little tired," Noelle admitted with a yawn. "I told them I didn't want to go to sleep until I talked to the two of you."

"I can stay here for the rest of the night." Lydia took the girl's other hand. "I can skip school."

"No, no. It's fine. I'm fine." Noelle reassured her. "How's Stiles? Is he doing okay?"

"He's doing better." Scott nodded with a faint smile.

Lydia nodded in agreement. "Because of you." She added. "You found him. I ended up in Eichen House's basement." She sighed, still frustrated with herself.

"Hey." Noelle squeezed her hand, as best as she could. "You went there because you followed your gut, your intuition. It's never failed you."

"It did tonight."

The blonde shrugged. "So the banshee has an off day every once in a while." She smiled. "You've saved us all before more than enough times, Lyds. Don't let this one time get you down."

Lydia laughed, wiping the tears from her eyes. "Wow, whatever they gave you is strong."

"So strong." Noelle nodded sleepily. "I- I love you guys." Her yawn muffled her words as her eyes began to slowly close, the blonde drifting into a sleep as her grip on their hands loosened, both of them taking that as their cue to leave, to try and get some sleep before school.

As the two of them walked out of the hospital room Lydia repeated it again, how she wasn't sure what had happened, why she had ended up in the basement of Eichen tonight when she felt so confident that Stiles was down there, when that was what the voices told her.

Scott reassured her that none of it mattered, repeating what Noelle had told the girl, that it was okay for her to have an off day, she saved them before, she would do it again. Besides, he didn't he had been much help either, but what mattered was that Stiles was okay, Noelle too. As Scott grabbed a hold of the redhead's hand, squeezing it for comfort the redhead flinched, turning at the sound of metal clanging in her ears, turning to look behind her, down the empty hall. Scott turned to look too, confused as he asked if she heard something. And she did. But she had lost faith in herself, in the things that she had been hearing, it caused nothing but trouble. The best thing she could do for herself and everyone else was to act like they weren't there, and she had done just that as she told him no with a shake of her head. As far as Lydia was concerned she'd heard nothing at all.

·❥·

It was the following morning. Sunlight poking through the curtains of her hospital room shining on her face, a warm glow that woke the girl up with a groan, a dull ache still in her bones, Noelle looked around the room until her eyes landed on her mother in the corner of the room, sleeping in a chair, still looking maintained and expensive, even while covered by her fiance's suit jacket. Just another reason to hate her mother, her looks were effortless. She didn't have to spend even a moment worrying about people criticizing her appearance, there was nothing for them to pick out, she didn't have a single flaw, on the surface.

The blonde looked down at her arm, a wire still attached to her veins, her IV drip bag still full, it must have been replaced while she was out, meaning that she had severely underestimated just how weak she really was when she walked in here last night. Bleary-eyed, Noelle continued her scan of the room, her eyes finally landing on the boys sitting at her bedside. Scott and Cole. The blonde quickly sat up in bed with a sharp hiss, both of them telling her to relax, not to rush her recovery. Noelle was confused by the two of them being here for a moment, she thought they'd be at school, that she wouldn't see them until the late afternoon. And then she caught a glimpse of the clock behind her brother's head. It was almost 6:00 pm. She'd slept the entire day away.

Noelle made another sharp movement. "Stiles." She muttered, starting to climb out of bed. "He hasn't had his tests yet, has he? I haven't missed them?" She asked frantically, pulling on a pink robe, and tightening it around herself.

"Nell, calm down," Cole warned her. "You're moving too quickly. You're weak."

"I'm late." She corrected him. "Stilinski said last night that Stiles's tests were at 5:30."

Scott nodded in agreement, they were supposed to be just under half an hour ago, that was why he and Cole were here, ready to stand beside Stiles through them, but when the boy had saw the blonde girl wasn't with them he panicked, asking where she was, refusing to go through with all of the tests until she was awake and in the room. Every time he'd been through something in the hospital she had been there with him, tonight would be no different, he wanted her there, to him there was no other option. If Noelle wasn't in the room, he wouldn't be either.

Of course, none of the doctors or nurses were happy about the demand, but they complied, for the sake of the Sheriff's son, though it had taken some complaining, from Camila too. Much to everyone's surprise, she had defended Stiles and his choice, using some of her lawyer tactics to convince the doctors to follow all of his demands, no matter how stupid some of them may be, eventually, they had no choice but to listen and wait for Noelle to wake up so she could be with the boy throughout his testing.

After hearing that Stiles had been waiting for her Noelle wasn't willing to let him wait for even a second longer, rushing to get to his room as she ripped the IV drip out of her arm, stumbling in her pink robe, hoping it covered the ugly hospital robe that she otherwise wouldn't be caught dead in. Grey was not her color.

There was a sorrow throughout the room as they all stood around Stiles, he was about to be put through an entire evening of medical tests, the boy himself sat in a hospital robe matching that of Nellie's, though he lacked the pink robe. He looked down at his hands, fiddling with them, he was more terrified than he was sad that he was going through these tests. He knew why he had to do them, as did Noelle and Cole, both of them had been here as comfort for him before, only then, it was his mother going through the tests. His father and Melissa hadn't had to tell them, they knew the symptoms that Claudia had shown, the ones Stiles now showed too. So far, they had all refrained from talking about the condition, or what was really going on, all too scared to admit it aloud. Scared that if they did it would become all too real.

"I'm not sure if I know how to pronounce this. Or if it's just a misspelling." The doctor mumbled as he looked down at Stiles's file, reading his birth-given name, one that nobody ever called him by, not since he had developed the nickname of Stiles at such a young age.

Noah was irritable as he snapped at the man, insisting that was his name, but to call him by the name Stiles instead. Any other time he would have appreciated a slight moment of humor, but he was on edge, he had spent the past sixteen hours inside of the hospital, sleep-deprived and on constant watch of his son and his son's best friend, a girl he'd watched grow up. The doctor nodded before turning to the boy on the edge of the MRI machine, telling him there would be a lot of noise due to pulses of electricity going through metal coils inside of the machine, he had suggested a pair of earplugs or headphones, but Stiles insisted her would be fine.

"We're just the other side of that window." Sheriff Stilinski tried to comfort his son, pointing between him, the three teenagers, and Melissa, all of them here as his support to get through both the tests and everything that would come from them. "Okay?"

"Okay." Stiles nodded with a weak smile, patting his father on the shoulder as the man excused himself, and Melissa as they headed into the small room behind the window to brush over a few minor details before the tests began. Stiles turned to Scott, Noelle, and Cole, all trying their best to be strong for him, though it was proving hard. "You know what they're looking for, right?" He asked, but it was obvious they did, none of them could meet his eyes for too long before theirs began to swell with tears. Scott nodded, but he didn't know all of the details that Noelle and her brother knew, most of his knowledge surrounded the fact it was the same illness that his mother had died from. "It's called frontotemporal dementia. Areas of your brain start to shrink."

Noelle fiddled with the strings of her robe as he continued his explanation, telling them how it was the only kind of dementia that could affect teenagers, how there was no cure. The blonde couldn't help but let her guard slip down as a tear rolled down from her cheek that she wiped away with her sleeve, her tears had been what set off Cole and Scott as they had to wipe a few of their own. None of them could believe that this is what life had come to, at just the ripe ages of seventeen and eighteen they were met with the idea of losing one of them, and against all odds, it wasn't something supernatural.

The four of them had spent almost their entire lives together, it was hard to think of a time the four of them hadn't known one another it was so long ago. They had grown up together, they'd been through hell and back with each other, defeating all the odds thrown against them. Hell, even after one of them had disappeared for two years and one of them separated themselves completely in those years, the four of them were still strongly bonded.

"Stiles, if you do have it, we'll do something." Scott insisted, finally able to look his best friend in the eye as he spoke with glass eyes. "I'll do something." He said, looking Stiles straight in the eye knowing that his words had been clear, Stiles knew what he meant, it was the only way out they could see in front of them. Stiles nodded, giving his permission as the two boys wrapped their arms around one another, holding it there for a moment as they both wept.

Scott stepped back, placing a hand on Noelle's shoulder with a faint smile, Cole stepping to say his own words. He pulled Stiles in for a hug too, something that was new territory for them after all of these years of knowing one another. "You know, I always used to ask for a little brother for Christmas, I even used to ask him to trade Nell in for a brother." He added, grinning as he peered over to his little sister who smiled at him through her tears. "I didn't realize it would be her who brought me two little brothers."

With tears down all of their faces, Cole took a step back too, both of them nodding at Noelle as they joined Noah and Melissa in the other room, letting the two have a moment on their own before Stiles went through with all of his tests. Neither boy could stand in front of Stiles without breaking down, they really were family, and they weren't ready to let that go yet.

Noelle and Stiles were silent for a moment, he gave her the time to gather what she wanted to say to him, as if it were possible for her to know what to say, in the times she had experienced death in her life, she hadn't had to say final goodbyes, she'd never had a chance to. She didn't want to think of this as a goodbye, but it felt like one. And if it were, she wasn't going to let the chance to say what she needed to say slip away from her this time.

The blonde pulled herself onto the MRI machine beside him, resting her head on his shoulder, and grabbing ahold of his hand. "I can't think of a single time I've been inside of this hospital without you, you know," she told him. "You've always been there. Even when I broke my arm when I was five. Given, it was your fault, but you held my hand the entire time." She sniffled as she thought about the memory, smiles on both of their faces. "Your mom would be so proud of you. How brave you are. How strong you are. You're so much stronger than the rest of us."

"I'm not." Stiles shook his head. "I'm terrified, Nell."

"I know," Noelle admitted. "I am too. But I promise you that no matter what I will be here like we've always been there for each other." Her voice began to crack as her tears slowly turned into a sob. "You really are like a brother to me, Stiles. And I don't know what I'd do without you."

"You're the best, most annoying little sister I could have ever wanted, Nell," Stiles said as he gave her hand a tight squeeze. "Thank you."

With a final large hug and dozens more tears, Noelle finally pulled herself away from him, wiping the last tear that rolled down her cheek before walking away, both feeling as though they'd said what needed to be said, even if there still felt like a million more things they could have said, the two of them were happy. The blonde joined everyone behind the window as Stiles lay down in the MRI machine, Noelle stood with her hands intertwined with Scott's trying to be of comfort. But the second that the machine had started, the test had begun and that sound that the doctor had described was inside of their ears, Noelle lost it.

She remembered those sounds from when she was a child, here to watch Claudia with Stiles because he couldn't do it alone. Tears streamed down her face again, her heart thudding in her ears, her breaths trembling, she barely managed to spit out the words as she nodded towards the door, signaling to her brother and Scott that she needed to leave the room.

As soon as she walked into the hallway her legs fell weak beneath her as she sank against the wall, her head in her hands as she sobbed. Unable to have hope anymore. She was broken, her life was broken. She couldn't live in a world without someone like Stiles Stilinski, a brother to her, a life where she had to keep losing the people that she loved. It wasn't fair. It wasn't meant to be this way. It was cruel.