...
Thunder rumbles in the distance and Coach scowls up at the spotty overcast sky through the bus' windshield. He looks back and blows a quick 'toot' with his whistle when he catches a student not in their seat. "Back to your seat." The boy rolls his eyes yet still returns to his original spot, passing Boyd and Isaac on the way.
Isaac glances at Boyd who had a clenched jaw, clearly aggitated. "Stop thinking about it, man." Isaac said.
"Like you're not thinking about it too?"
"Yeah, well, we'll both stop thinking about it."
"I can't."
"Well, there's nothing you can do about it either."
"You sure about that?" Boyd looks back at Ethan who sits next to Danny.
Danny notices a slightly troubled look on the teen's face. "Everything okay?"
"Yeah. Why?" He smiles lightheartedly.
"You checked you phone three times in the last five minutes." Danny has a teasing smile.
"Waiting for a message."
"Anything important?"
"No." His playful tone makes Danny smile wider as he looks out the window. But then Ethan's smile fades. "Nothing." Ethan can't help but glance back towards the back of the bus where three teens sit. Y/n sits in the seat in front of Scott and Stiles, legs stretched over the bench as she sits sideways to look at the boys over the back. No one wanted to sit next to her because she has a reputation for being a bit intimidating, also she would glare at those few brave souls who even thought about trying. Why is she on this trip you may ask? She was worried about Scott and didn't want to leave him alone after what happened so she convinced Coach to let her tag along with the promise that she would cover any of her own expenses that may appear.
Scott leans his head against the window with a tired look. Stiles looks at the tablet in his hands as he reads vocab words to Scott. When he reads one and Scott doesn't answer he has to snap his fingers in front of the wolf's face. "Yo, Scotty? Hey, yo, Scotty?" Scott blinks from a daze and looks at his friend. "Still with me?"
"Yeah, sorry. Uh, what's the word?"
"'Anachronism'."
"Something that exists out of it's normal time."
"Nice. Okay, next word. 'Incongruous'."
He takes a moment to think. "Um, can you use it in a sentence?"
"Yes. Yes, I can. It's completely incongruous that we're sitting on a bus right now, on our way to some stupid cross-country meet after what just happened- incongruous."
"Out of place, ridiculous, absurd."
"Perfect. Okay, next word. Um, darach." Scott gives him a look. "Darach, it's a noun." He looks at Scott. "We have to talk about it sometime, okay? And we're gonna be stuck in this thing for, like, five hours, so why not?" Scott looks away and Stiles huffs. "Next word. 'Intransigent'."
"Stubborn, obstinate." The bus jostles and Scott winces in pain.
"I can use that in a sentence." Y/n speaks up. "My idiot friend is being completely intransigent." He doesn't respond to her comment and she sighs. "Scott, let me heal it." He shakes his head with a small wince and she huffed a breath of annoyance. Ever since she found out what happened, and noticed he wasn't healing, she's been trying to get him to let her heal him herself. Obviously she's had no luck.
"We shouldn't have come. I knew it. We shouldn't have come." Stiles fussed.
"We had to. There's saftey in numbers." Scott responded.
"Yeah, well, there's also death in numbers, okay? It's called a massacre." He starts looking at the tablet again. "Or bloodbath, carnage, slaughter-"
"Witch hunt." Y/n offered and Stiles gave a nod of appreciation for her add in.
"Butchery, wow, that's-" Scott lightly groans. "All right, Scott, I'm telling Coach that-"
"No, no, no, no. I'm all right." Scott stopped him from getting up.
"Well, you don't look all right. Would you just let me see it?" He goes to peek but Scott blocks him.
"I'm okay."
"Just let me see it, okay?"
"Okay." He finally relents. He lifts his shirt a bit and shifts so that the claw marks on his side are visible and can show that they haven't healed at all.
"Oh, dude."
"I know it's bad, but it's because they're from an Alpha. It'll take longer to heal."
"Scott." He looks at Y/n. "Why are Boyd and Isaac healed, then?"
Scott doesn't anwer as he leans against the window again. "I can't believe he's dead. I can't believe Derek's dead." He mutters to himself and Y/n frowns when she hears him. She wasn't there, she didn't see Derek fall, but Scott told her and Stiles about what happened. She honestly doesn't believe Derek is dead. He's been believed dead at least twice before and showed up just fine. Yeah, this time could be different, but she has a feeling that she would be able to tell if he was really dead. She's grown attatched to the Hale and something about him tells her she would feel it if he died.
Coach suddenly whistles and points at two students. "Two of you, back in your seats." And then he spotted poor Jared. "Jared, again, carsick? Every ti- how do you even get on the bus?" Jared groans. "Look at me." Jared seems to turn more green and Coach panics. "No, don't look at me. Look at the horizon. Keep your eyes- keep your eyes on the horizon." Then he glances at Scott. "McCall, not you too." He whines.
Scott sits up. "No, Coach, I'm good." He forces an even voice to hide the pain the movement is inflicting.
The scent of blood hit Y/n's nose and she gets up on her knees to look down at Scott over the seat. "Scott, you're bleeding again."
Stiles looks over when Scott moves his jacket to see the blood staining his shirt. "And don't tell us that it's just taking longer to heal, okay? Because I'm pretty sure that still bleeding means not healing, like, at all."
Scott looks past Y/n at Ethan. "He's listening." Y/n sits down again as her and Stiles also look over at the undercover Alpha who had his ear turned in their direction.
"Is he gonna do something?"
"Not in front of this many people."
"Okay, well, what about the two ticking time bombs sitting right near him?"
"No, they won't. Not here."
"Okay, well, what if they do? Are you gonna stop 'em?"
Scott nods. "If I have to."
"You definitely might have to." Y/n comments with a glance at Boyd. He's angry. Very angry. He wants revenge for what happened to Derek.
After a bit the bus comes to a sudden stop, a long line of cars stretching in front of it. Isaac looks at his phone to find out what the hold up is. "There's a jackknifed tractor a few miles ahead. Could miss the meet." With no comment from Boyd Isaac looks over at him. "Boyd? Boyd?" Boyd isn't listening to anything but his emotions which are telling him to rip Ethan apart. He quietly snarls and his eyes shift as he looks at the offending werewolf. Y/n can feel his shift in emotions and sees that his claws have come out. "Scott." She warns and he looks up to see the same thing she did. "He's gonna do something."
"Okay, what? How do you know?" Stiles asked on alert.
"Look at his hands." Scott said which Stiles did.
"You have to do something." Y/n urged with a look at Scott. Normally she wouldn't push Scott to do something in his condition, but she remembers what Alan had told her before. Scott has the pontential to become a True Alpha, to get that spark by rising up with his own sheer force of will. He has it within him, he has the character. This means if there's any opportunity for that character to grow, Y/n can't intervene. But that doesn't stop her from being prepared to step up for him, to help and protect him.
Scott struggles to stand, but he does, holding tightly to the backs of the seats as he passes. His conversation he had with Alan the day before replays in his head. "I don't know what else to do." His sight is blurry as he fights the pain. "Do I keep trying to get them to listen to me?" His eyelids feel heavy. "Do I tell Derek that he's gonna get them all killed?" He fights it off, pushing forward. "How do you save someone who doesn't wanna be saved?" Sweat makes his skin shine as he grips the seats. "How do I stop them?"
"Don't stop them." Alan gives him a kind smile. "Lead them."
Scott grips Boyd's hand and crouches down next to the teen's seat, leveling a serious look on him. "Let go." Boyd grits out.
"You got a plan." Scott speaks calmly. "Tell me your briliant plan, and I'll let go." Boyd glances at Ethan before looking back at Scott. "What are you gonna do? Kill him, right here? And then what? What are you gonna do after that?"
"I don't care." He decides and goes to lunge out of his seat if not for Scott holding him down with Isaac assisting.
"I do."
That's when Isaac notices Scott's bleeding. "Whoa, whoa, you're still hurt."
Boyd looks down at the blood stain and seems to calm, if only just a smidgen. "I'm fine." Scott insists. "Give me a chance to figure something out, something that doesn't have to end with someone else dying."
"Okay." Boyd replies, calmer than before. It seems he's gained some respect for the werewolf before him.
Scott sighs a little and Y/n appears by his side. She offers him a hand and he lets her help him up. She follows him with watchful eyes as they make their way back to their original seats. "Crisis averted?" Stiles asked when they got close enough.
"Mm-hmm." Scott hums.
"Okay, good. 'Cause we got another problem. Ethan keeps checking his phone, like, every five minutes. It's like he's waiting for something, you know, like, a message, or a signal of some kind. I don't know, something evil though, I can tell. I have a very perceptive eye for evil. You know that."
"No." Y/n lightly disagrees with a small shake of her head. "He's anxious. Worried. Possibly a bit scared. At the moment, I don't think he has any bad intentions." She's quiet for a moment. "But I don't like him sitting with Danny."
"Yeah, neither do I."
"Let's see what he's waiting for." Y/n digs her phone out of her pocket with the idea to text Danny. She may not have been friends with Jackson, but she did enjoy Danny's company sometimes.
"What are you doing?" Scott asked.
"I'm asking." Could you find out why Ethan keeps checking his phone? They watch as Danny looks at his phone when it chimed. He looked back at her and she waved her phone with a smile. But he shakes his head no. She huffs a little and texts again. Please?
This time he responds with a text. No.
Stiles, who had been reading over her shoulder, takes the phone and messages him himself. ASK HIM.
Danny looks back at her with the sudden change in tone and she just points at Stiles who throws his hands up at Danny. NO. I like this guy. What's wrong with you?
It's important. PLEASE. Danny shakes his head and puts his phone back in his pocket. Stiles is in disbelief. Suddenly he's tapping furiously at the screen and Y/n can hear Danny's phone chime repeatedly in a fast succesion.
She raises a brow at Stiles. "Really?"
"Yes." More taps and more chimes before Y/n snatches her phone back from her boyfriend.
Ethan decides to ask about the continuous alerts. "Something wrong?"
"Actually, I was... Wondering the same thing about you."
Stiles practically floats out of his seat as he tries to see what's going on. Ethan whips his head around and the boys duck down to seem inconspicuous. Y/n sighs at their behavior as she much more casually examines her nails to avoid suspicion. "Well, that wasn't very subtle." Stiles noted.
"No. No, it wasn't." Y/n agreed with a small snicker. Her phone chimes as she gets a response from Danny.
Someone close to him is sick. Might not make it through the night.
Y/n showed them the text. "Ennis?" Scott guessed.
"It would explain the emotions I can feel from him." Y/n agreed.
"Okay, so does that mean, uh-"
"He's not dead." Scott finishes.
"Not yet."
"It could also mean Derek isn't dead either." Y/n pointed out, trying to give Scott a bit of hope for the fate of the Alpha Hale.
More time passes and they haven't really moved much. Coach stands over Jared again. "Jared, I'm warning you. I'm an empathetic vomiter. You throw up, I'm gonna throw up right back on you. And it will be profoundly disgusting."
"Please don't talk about throwing up. It's not good." Jared whines.
"I might throw up on you just to make a point, Jared."
"It's not good. It's not good." Jared shakes his head.
Coach turns to the rest of the bus. "Now the rest of you, don't think we're gonna miss this meet because of a slight traffic jam, a minor tornado warning, Jared. We're gonna make this thing. Nothing is gonna stop us! Stilinski, put your hand down."
"You know, there's, like, a food exit about a half a mile up. I don't know if we stop and then maybe-"
"We're not gonna stop."
"Okay, but if we stop-"
"Stilinski!" Coach blows his whistle. "Shut it! Seriously! It's a little bus! Stop asking me questions!"
"I hate him." Stiles puts a hand to his mouth in frustration. Y/n 'aww's' in sympathy and pats his knee for comfort. "Did you call Deaton?" He asks both of them.
"I keep getting his voice mail." Scott says.
"I'm gonna call Lydia and Allison." Y/n finally says.
"How are they gonna help? They're back in Beacon Hills."
"If by 'back in Beacon Hills' you mean 'three cars behind us', then you are correct." The boys look back as Y/n puts the phone up to her ear.
"Hey, Y/n." Lydia greets. "Yeah, we're just about to walk into a movie, uh, you know, the popcorn and-"
"I would think with an IQ of 170 that you'd be able to lie better. I know you're right behind us so put me on speaker."
"Okay."
"Scott's still hurt."
"What do you mean still? He's not healing?" Allison asked.
"No, he's not healing. He's actually getting worse. It's turning into black blood... And it's starting to smell." She muttered the last part.
"Like what?" When she doesn't answer the girls can guess. It smells like death.
"Can't you heal him?" Lydia wondered.
"I would, but he won't let me." She sent a tiny glare to the wolf in question.
"We need to get him off the bus." Allison concluded.
"And take him where, a hospital?"
"If he's dying, yeah. Y/n, there's a rest area about a mile up. Tell the Coach to pull over."
"We've been trying."
"Reason with him."
"Reason with him?" She asks incredulous. "Have you even met Coach? This man is as unmovable as a mountain. No amount of words or even magic would get him to change his mind."
"Just try something."
"Sure." Y/n sighs and hangs up. She looks at Stiles. "Think you can give it another go?"
"Coach, it's five minutes for a bathroom break, okay?" Stiles now stands in front of Coach in the aisle. "We've been on this thing for, like, three hours-" He's cut off with a whistle blow. "It's 60 miles to the next rest stop-" Another whistle. "Being cooped up for hours is not good-" And another one. "You know, our bladders aren't exactly-" Whistle. "Coach-" WHISTLE. "This is-" whistle. "Can you-" Whistle, whistle. "Please-" Whistle, whistle! "Let me talk! I'm-" Whistle with Coach laughing. "Every time-" Whistle for at least five seconds straight with a fuming Stiles.
"Get back to your seat, Stilinski!"
"OKAY!" Stiles blows up with a shout before quickly pulling it back and turning away.
"Jared, keep your eyes on the horizon." Stiles turns back with a lightbulb over his head, and when Coach turns he slides into the space next to Jared.
"Hey, Jared." Jared looks scared. "How you doing?" Stiles gives a smile that can only be described as impish.
Suddenly the bus is pulled over at the rest stop and teens are running off, coughing, gagging and complaining. Coach sprays airfreshner out of a window and then shoves his head out through the space. "Jared, you suck! Hey, somebody grab some towels or a mop or a new bus."
Stiles and Y/n put Scott's arms over their shoulders and help him into the bathroom with the girls following right behind them. He winces as they ease him down and prop him against the wall under the sinks. Y/n gingerly lifts his shirt and reveals that the wounds have gotten much worse, black blood staining his skin, dark veins slowly spreading from the area. "Damn it, Scott. Why didn't you let me help you?"
"Why didn't you tell us?" Allison questions as she crouches next to the witch.
"Sorry." He gives them a weak smile.
"Okay. Just give us a second, okay?"
The girls move over to the other two. "This shouldn't be happening." Y/n says.
"I've seen him heal from worse than this."
"Okay, what do we do then? Do we just call an ambulance?" Stiles asks.
"What if it's too late? What if they can't help?"
"We gotta do something. Y/n, can't you heal him? He's too weak now, he can't refuse."
She shakes her head. "It still won't work. He'll still fight me. This is something my magic can't help."
"What? What does that mean?"
"It could be psychological." Lydia said, picking up on what Y/n was suggesting.
"What, do you mean, like, psychosomatic?"
"Somatoformic."
"Som-" He tries to repeat.
"A physical illness from a psychogenic cause." Stiles makes a gesture for her to make more sense. "Yes, it's all in his head."
"All in his head? Because of Derek."
"He's not letting himself heal because he thinks Derek died." Y/n confirmed.
"So what do we do?" Allison wondered.
They all turned to look at Lydia when she started digging through her bag. She pulls out a sewing kit. "Stitch him up. I'm serious. Maybe all he needs to do is just believe it's healing." All agreeing to the plan they get to work. Stiles and Y/n take off Scott's jacket and soiled shirt as Allison holds a needle over a lighter's flame to sterilize it.
"He's gonna need another shirt. Where's his bag?" Allison asked.
"Um, I'm gonna get it. I hate needles anyway, so-" Stiles gave her two thumbs up. "Uh, do you know what you're doing?"
"Yeah, my father taught me."
"I mean, how fast are you gonna- I mean, the bus, like, the bus could leave."
"Well, just make sure it doesn't leave."
"We can help. Come on." Y/n said as she took his hand and they walked out with Lydia, leaving Allison to help Scott. It seemed like only minutes passed before Coach is blowing his whistle and telling everyone to get back on the bus. Lydia has gone back to check on the two while Y/n talked to Coach, trying to get him to stay for as long as possible. Although that's not so difficult when a fight breaks out. Y/n's eyes widen when she sees Ethan being pummeled, not by Boyd like she had been expecting, but by Isaac. She ran up to Stiles. "What the hell happened?"
"He asked what was going on and when I told him he went after Ethan." He explained quickly.
"Why would you do that?" Y/n could tell that Isaac was looking up to Scott more and more like a leader, whether he knew it himself or not. Something happening to Scott because of the Alphas was bound to set him off. Y/n could only watch as Isaac beat up Ethan. There was nothing she could do here. Isaac was too enraged to listen to anyone and she knew either her magic or Scott would be the one to calm him down, but using magic with such a big crowd was risky.
"Stiles, Y/n, what's happening?" Scott called as he, Allison, and Lydia saw the scene.
"They went after him. I told 'em what was happening with you and they just went after him."
"Who, Boyd?" No. Boyd was watching the two with a smirk. Coach yelled Isaac's name, but the teen only saw red. Another boy tried to pull him off but Isaac just pushed him away with a yell.
Scott broke through the crowd and stood strong. "ISAAC!" He yelled. Y/n let out a short gasp at Scott's tone. She felt the underlying power in his voice. The power of an Alpha. Isaac's fist stilled and he slowly looked up at the wolf, letting Ethan's shirt go for Danny to go the bloody teen. Isaac looked like a sad pup who was glad that Scott was okay, but sad that he had done something that Scott didn't want.
Everyone is back on the bus (plus two extra) and back on the road. Scott sat in the back like before, but this time with Allison by his side. Stiles and Y/n were in front of them with Lydia in the seat in front of those two like Y/n had been before. "All right. Let's go over this one more time." Stiles said. "So it's the sacrifices, right? Everything has to do with them and someone who thinks he's, like, a dark druid of some kind."
"She is a dark druid." Y/n says. "A darach."
He gives her a look. "She?"
"What?"
"You said she."
She hadn't realized. It just slipped out. "He, she, they. I don't know. I just said it." Stiles frowned a little but ignored it.
"You know... Some ancient cultures sacrificed people in preparation for battle." Lydia informed.
"So we got Alpha werewolves against a dark druid." He summarized.
"Mm-hmm." Y/n hummed. "This is gonna be fun."
~~~
Published: 4/21/21
Edited: 4/12/22
Double update because today's my birthday!!! I turn 21 today so that's fun :)
I also find it amusing that I'm 21 on April 21st of 2021. I love the collection of threes I see there ÃwÃ
I hope you enjoy and see you next week!