◤ chapter eight: ❛ suggestions ❜ ◢

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AS A CHILD, CAR RIDES ALWAYS LULLED COOPER INTO SLEEP. The gentle hum of a moving vehicle, his little head resting against the cold window, letting his eyelids drupe until he couldn't keep them open anymore awakening only when his hair was being brushed through by his mother's fingers, fading back into consciousness when she whispered softly that they were home. Even now, when he was especially tired and someone he trusted was driving, he could allow himself to relax and fade away into unconsciousness.

         But the hum was only aggravating now, and the cold glass only made him shiver and the seat belt felt more like a trap than a safety measure. Allison was a responsible driver, but a tense one, though that could be due to the events from yesterday more-so than a testament of her normal driving.

         She wasn't the only one on edge; Cooper spent too much time checking his phone for a text and Lydia's leg kept bouncing. Stiles sending him nothing didn't quell his nerves, though nothing should be better than something negative. Still, not knowing was about to send him over the edge, but he wasn't about to call him or Scott.

         Calling was entirely too needy, and Cooper was anything but needy. He was independent, cool, and unattached. And it was better this way. Things with Scott were still a little rocky, and he didn't want the wolf to become too enamored due to Cooper's aura. It felt wrong, now more than ever since he considered Scott a friend.

         Auras, Cooper was beginning to learn, were fucking annoying for sirens. Sometimes useful, he can admit, and sometimes he takes full advantage of it because someone falling for him when he's horny is definitely convenient and it's not like they don't have control over themselves. The sex is always consensual, if somewhat influenced.

         But auras used on strangers is completely different from auras influencing friends. Lydia seemed immune to his presence, but Julia explained that auras don't affect everyone. His parents weren't affected, nor was Jackson, and now Lydia. Penelope wasn't pulled into Julia's either, so he summarized that auras didn't allure any familial connections.

         Those who couldn't be sexually attracted him weren't too affected either, but were suggestable if Cooper projected strongly onto them. (He would never admit it to Julia because she would disapprove, but that's definitely how he has an A in econ.) But then was Scott; someone who could definitely be sexually attracted to him, and someone who was being pulled in.

         And he couldn't help it, Cooper knew, so it was on him to destroy his aura around Scott and keep his distance. It was better that way, but it made things rocky and awkward, and that was the last thing that anyone needed at the moment.

         Not with Derek dead.

         Derek Hale was a whirlwind; he singlehandedly changed Cooper's entire life, all with one little bite to him and Jackson. Had Jackson not asked to be a wolf, he would have never become a kanima, he never would have murdered anyone under the control of some loser, and he would never have left Beacon Hills. No, if Jackson had stayed Jackson Whittemore the captain of the lacrosse team, he would still be here, and Cooper would still have his brother.

         Not only that, but Cooper would have stayed human as well. He would be Cooper the flirt, Cooper the slut, Cooper the whatever anyone wanted to call him. And that was alright, he had long since grown accustomed to the reputation he had, no longer begrudging it or finding peoples opinions about it insulting.

         And that was a terribly selfish thought, wasn't it? To blame someone for all of your problems when they didn't know they were creating them? Because how could Derek know Jackson wouldn't end up as a wolf and Cooper would be a siren just waiting to be awakened? He couldn't, because no one could, because that's not something people just know about themselves.

         Cooper didn't hate Derek, no, it wasn't his fault, Derek didn't bite him because he felt like it or anything, and now Derek was dead. It didn't matter that they weren't close, that he and Derek only had limited conversations, all that mattered was that he was dead. Someone he knew died.

         Not only that; they were murdered. Because of course, in Beacon Hills people can't just die normal deaths, no they had to be murdered by an alpha pack or sacrificed by a fucking darach for power. Of course. It made total sense. Completely normal and not something that could drive a person insane if they weren't careful.

         "Am I getting too close?" Allison asked. Cooper could see her biting her lip through the mirror, then let his eyes flicker to the school bus in front of them.

         Lacrosse trip, with all of their friends – some in the loosest terms, some not-so loose – and the alpha twins. When the trip got announced, Allison immediately jumped on the opportunity to follow them, too worried after Derek's death. Soon it grew into Lydia coming and then Lydia inviting Cooper, because the whole gang had to go.

         "I'm getting too close, aren't I?" Allison asked again, more nerves present in her tone.

         "That depends...are you just following the bus, or are you planning on mounting it at some point?" Lydia questioned.

         "If you wanted everyone to know we're following them, you definitely succeeded," Cooper added unhelpfully.

         Allison nodded. "Yeah, I should back off..."

         "Well, that also depends," Lydia posed, "Oh, do you mean the bus, or the ex-boyfriend you're currently stalking?"

         Cooper snorted. "And here I thought it was your idea to break up," he muttered to himself. Lydia shot him a look and he raised his hands in mock surrender, but he still didn't feel like he was wrong for saying it. She wanted to break up, and now here she was all worried about him. Made him wonder why Allison cared so much about Scott but didn't want to date him – damn feelings must be so difficult.

         "Well, after what happened, I'm not letting him out of my sight," Allison said defensively.

         "Hmm."

"And, by the way, this all started when he came knocking at my door," she added.

         Cooper leaned forward in interest. "For what?" Lydia asked before he had the chance.

         Allison sighed. "He warned me to keep my distance from the pack. Caught one of my arrows from the bank. Just wanted me to back off from trying to fight them."

         "Fair," he shrugged, "You're ranged, werewolves are close up fighters. It's dangerous when you mix the two."

         "I don't like feeling helpless. I want to do something – I want to fight," Allison huffed.

         "There are other ways to help, and not getting yourself killed just to prove that you can fight is plenty helpful," Cooper shot back at her. He shook his head, wondering why Allison had a death wish in the first place.

         The last thing he wanted to do was fight the alpha pack personally. They know how to fight, they've proven that murder isn't off limits to them, and Cooper was a rookie who knew how to make someone deaf but killing eardrums has nothing on actual murder.

         Allison didn't respond to him, so he didn't continue his argument. There was no reason to get too worked up on it anyway, wasn't like it would lead anywhere good. He crossed his arms and tried to relax, but his shoulders didn't lessen any tension so his body remained stiff.

         He checked his phone again. Nothing.

         "So, is that whole 'not letting them out of your sight'-thing literal, or more like a general rule...?" Lydia asked after a bit more time had passed.

         "Why?"

         "You're running on fumes."

         "Ugh."

         "Yeah...and I'm pretty sure that bus holds a lot more gas than this Toyota," Lydia pointed out.

         "What if we stop?"

         "Is it really that big of a deal? I mean, so we lose them – we know where they're headed," Lydia said.

         "Yeah, and we can call them to let them know, unless you're still trying to pretend that we're being stealthy," Cooper suggested, "Because there's no way they don't know we're following them by now."

         Allison huffed. "You didn't see what happened," she started, "I can't let Scott know I'm following him, but..."

         She trailed off, and there was a beat of silence until Lydia muttered, "I know who started it..."

         "Is that what Aiden told you?" Allison scoffed.

         "Aiden?" Lydia sobered up, back leaving the seat to stare at Allison, "Whoa, whoa, whoa. Hold on a second – is that why you invited me on this whole road-trip-thing? Oh my god! You're keeping an eye on me and them!"

         "That's fucked up," Cooper nodded, "But a bit understandable if you're concerned."

         Lydia glared at him but he just shrugged. He would do the same thing for Jackson, so he couldn't totally disregard Allison even if the move was fucked up.

         "So there's nothing going on between you two?" Allison asked suspiciously.

         "I'm appalled by the insinuation!"

         "You are the one who said you wanted to fuck one of them," Cooper mentioned, "Granted, I did say I'd take the other, but I don't think that's such a good idea anymore."

         "Not helping, Cooper!" Lydia hissed.

         He shrugged carelessly. "Sorry," his tone implied that he wasn't sorry at all.

         "Nothing?" Allison clarified.

         "Nothing," Lydia finalized. Cooper squinted his eyes staring at her, but shrugged it off a moment later. It wasn't his business if Lydia was fucking Aiden, though he didn't recommend it.

         Silence followed, so Allison turned up the music and Cooper continued to look out the window. There was nothing interesting to see, only billboards and loneliness. His phone still had no texts or calls.

         Lydia's phone rang which signaled Allison to lower the music as she accepted the call and put the phone to her ear.         "Hey, Stiles!" she greeted and Cooper's heart jumped, "Yeah, we're just about to walk into a movie! Uh, you know, the popcorn, and –"

         Cooper smacked himself in the face as he hid behind his hands. "Lydia, that's the worst fucking lie I've ever heard anyone say," he mumbled to himself, peeking behind his hands when Lydia put the call on speaker and held out the phone for them to hear.

         "Okay, look, Scott's still hurt," Stiles informed them.

         "What do you mean, 'still'? He's not healing?" Allison jumped to ask. Cooper felt his own heart fall in his chest. Werewolves were supposed to heal fast, and even a bite or scratch from an alpha should be healing by now, but...

         "No, he's not healing. I think he's actually getting worse. The blood's turning, like, a black color..."

         "How is that possible?" Cooper spoke up, "How – how can he not be healing?"

         "We need to get him off the bus," Allison focused.

         "And take him where, the hospital?" Lydia questioned her.

         "If he's dying, yeah. Stiles, there's a rest area about a mile up. Tell the coach to pull over."

         "We can't take him to a hospital," Cooper shook his head, "Too suspicious, they'll ask questions we can't answer."

         "I've been trying to tell coach..."

         "Well, reason with him," Allison snapped.

         "Reason?" Stiles asked, "Have you met this guy?"

         "Just try something!"

         Stiles ended the call, so Lydia put her phone away. Cooper tapped his fingers against his leg until that did fuck all to stop his nerves before starting to pick at his nails. All he could focus on was Scott – still hurt, dying, and the fact that they didn't know he was hiding such an injury.

         Fuck.

         And here he could've been ignoring Scott up until the day he died just because of his own siren shit.

         Nothing quelled his nerves until Stiles texted them that he found a way to get everyone off the bus, and they weren't completely satisfied until they pulled into the rest stop. Cooper didn't waste a moment throwing the seat belt off of him and unlocking the door, running to the bus, letting everyone out until he got on to help Stiles carry Scott off.

         Sweat dripped from Scott, and his eyes drooped and wandered. "Oh god, Scott," he muttered. He looked like he was dying, there was no other way to think of it. Shallow breaths, unsteady footing, inability to form more than a few words...

         They lugged him inside the bathroom, gently easing him down against a wall until he was sitting. Allison reached to pull up his shirt, revealing claw marks oozing with black blood with black flooding the veins surrounding the wound.

         "Why didn't you tell us?" Allison asked him as she started to stand back up.

         "Sorry," Scott managed a weak smile and apology.

         "Okay, just give us a second, okay?" she let Scott to get close to them, and they huddled away from the dying wolf. "This shouldn't be happening – I've seen him heal from worse than this."

         "What do we do, then? Do we just call an ambulance?" Stiles asked.

         Cooper shook his head. "No. We won't be able to tell him how he got the wound, why it's black, or any other questions they might have."

         "We gotta do something," Stiles stressed.

         "You know, it could be psychological..." Lydia suggested, arms crossed as she looked back at Scott.

         Stiles brows' furrowed, "What do you mean? Like, psychosomatic?"

         "Somatoformic," she corrected, "A physical illness from a psychogenic cause? Yes, it's all in his head."

         "All in his head?" Stiles processed, "Because of Derek. He's not letting himself heal 'cause Derek died."

         Cooper's mouth started to gape a little as he looked back at Scott. He couldn't seriously think it was his fault, could he? Derek didn't die because of him, and it wasn't like he could do anything to stop the pack from killing him.

         Fuck.

         "So, what do we do?" Allison asked.

         "Stitch him up. I'm serious! Maybe all he needs to do is just believe it's healing."

         Allison sighed. "He's gonna need another shirt. Where's his bag?"

         "Um, I'm gonna get it. I hate needles anyway, so..." Stiles got to the door before looking back, "Uh, do you know what you're doing?"

         Allison nodded, crouching down to Scott and lifting up his shirt. "Yeah, my father taught me."

         "I mean, how fast are you gonna...? I mean, the bus, like...the bus could leave," Stiles stammered.

         "Well, you just make sure it doesn't leave."

         "I can help," Lydia offered, walking towards Stiles.

         "And I'll help distract Scott," Cooper summarized, sitting down next to the dying wolf. He tried to smile, turning Scott's face to look at him, "Hey, how you doin?"

         "I'm tired," Scott croaked out weakly.

         He nodded. "I know, but you gotta stay awake. You gotta stay with me, alright?" he spoke softly, channeling all his energy into Scott and trying to persuade him. His voice became lighter, and he magnified his aura to be near blinding for Scott to focus on him. "Stay with me."

         "Stay..." Scott muttered.

         "Yeah, you have to stay with me. Stay awake. Everything is going to be okay. You're going to heal, and you're going to be okay," he assured the werewolf, keeping a hand on his cheek to ground him. Cooper's eyes flickered to Allison as she stitched him up.

         "It's all my fault," Scott whispered.

         Cooper was quick to shake his head. "No, look at me, Scott. Look at me. Derek is not your fault, he is not dead because of you, it had nothing to do with you. You're guiltless, so you have to heal. Allison is stitching you up, and when she's done, you're going to heal."

         He kept his eyes on Scott, only taking his eyes off when Allison announced she was done. "Scott, you're okay now," he breathed out, looking at the boy but seeing him still.

         "Scott?" both Cooper and Allison asked. He inched closer, using both of his hands to hold Scott's face.

         "Scott," he said again, gripping onto him perhaps a bit too harsh, "Scott?"

         There was a large gasp, and then Scott's eyes flew open, their heads almost knocking together. Cooper let out a sigh of relief, a small smile creeping onto his face. He took his hands back, gripping onto the sink beside Scott to help himself up.

         Scott blinked, gathering his surroundings before looking at the stiches. "Did you do that?" he looked to Allison after.

         "Yeah..." Allison admitted nervously.

         "Nice," he smiled at her.

         "Can you stand?" she asked, and they watched as Scott pulled himself off of the ground. His movements were shaky, and Cooper caught him as he rocked back and forth, waiting for the werewolf to balance. Once he was stable, Allison handed him a new shirt. "Okay, put this on."

         Cooper turned around while he changed, recentering himself. He reigned in his aura, feeling lightheaded from the usage. He had never concentrated to use so much of it before as quickly and loudly as he did. "Are you starting to heal?" he asked.

         There was a pause. "Yeah, I think I am."

         He swallowed, nodding. Then his energy spent wasn't for nothing. "Good."

         "I'm dressed," Scott announced, and it was enough for them to start heading to the door. Allison led the way, sending Scott a weary glance, moving forward to meet Lydia near the bus. Cooper tried to follow but Scott pulled him back.

         "Thank you," he started, and Cooper blinked in surprise, "For – whatever you did back there. I don't really know, but it kept me conscious. You're, uh, very persuasive."

         His cheeks turned a bit pink. "It's, uh, a siren thing. Put on the charm, and we can be, well, persuasive like you said," he scratched the back of his head, "I hope you don't mind that I used it on you."

         Scott shook his head. "No, it helped. It was good."

         Cooper nodded, and that seemed to be enough as Scott started walking forward. He waited another moment before following, getting in there in time for Allison to start walking on the bus so Cooper turned to Lydia with a confused expression.

         "We're ditching the car and getting on," Lydia summarized and he nodded. He didn't know what he would argue, so he decided against arguing at all. He was too tired to ask an actual question about it anyway.

         "That's fine I guess," he nodded, moving along until Stiles ran up to Scott.

         "What's happening?"

         "They went after him. I told 'em what was happening with you, and they just went after him," Stiles explained, though still not explaining anything at all.

         Scott began to rush where the crowd was formed, and they all trailed behind, seeing Isaac ruthlessly punching one of the twins in the face. Coach tried to pull Isaac off but it didn't work, not until Scott yelled, "ISAAC!"

         Everything went still, and Isaac let go of the hold he had on the twin's shirt, looking to Scott with a hint of a guilty expression. Scott led Isaac away, who still obviously seethed with anger. Cooper sighed, reaching out to place a hand on Isaac's shoulder and projecting his aura onto the wolf, "How about we calm down, yeah?"

         Isaac looked at him, shoulders relaxing as he nodded, and Cooper released him. They got back on the bus. Lydia took a seat next to Stiles, Allison with Isaac, and Cooper took a seat by Scott. Coach didn't question the added passengers and they didn't notify him.

         He listened to Stiles conversation with Lydia, going over the darach and the sacrifices, closing his eyes.

         "It's the sacrifices, right? Everything has to do with them and someone who thinks he's, like, a dark Druid of some kind..."

         "Or actually is a dark Druid," Lydia interjected.

         "A darach."

         "You know...some ancient cultures sacrificed people in preparation for battle..."

         "So, we've got alpha werewolves against a dark Druid?"

         "Yeah..."

         Cooper cracked open an eye to look at Scott. The boy still looked like he was drowning in guilty, hand pressed on the wound as he stared out the window. "It's not your fault," he mentioned again, causing Scott to startle and look at him.

         "You said that earlier."

         "And I meant it. Mean it, still. Derek being dead isn't your fault, so stop blaming yourself," he said bluntly.

         Scott hummed and there was a beat where the only noise was mindless chatter from others and the hum of the bus. "What you did earlier, to Isaac and I – how does it work? Can you just make anyone do anything?"

         He shook his head. "No, it's not like compulsion. I can't force anyone to do anything, I just...make them more suggestible. Make myself more irresistible and influence people, but they don't have to do whatever I say. I don't take away autonomy. I wouldn't force someone to do something."

         Scott nodded. Cooper continued to look at him, assessing the boy more, before a yawn tore through him. "I hope you don't mind if I rest my head on your shoulder, doing that shit earlier wears me out."

         "That's fine," Scott confirmed, and Cooper took the opportunity to lay his head on Scott's shoulder, letting his eyes close softly, shoulders relax, and heartbeat steady as he let himself be lulled into sleep.