Who: Stiles, Scott, Jeremy What: Doing something Where: Inside the pack house When: Friday Evening during the fight outside Warning: very wounded Stiles, lots of blood Status: Complete Gdoc
Stiles had been carried into the main house by Nick and he’d been glad to see that Clay was running outside to help Kate. He was worried about her. Whatever that fucked up looking dog thing was it was the size of a small pony and there was still a lot of commotion going on outside.
Worrying about Kate and the others helped him because otherwise all he had to focus on was the fact that there was a lot of blood coming out of his body and being bit like that hurt worse than just about anything he’d ever run into so far. Stiles would rather not think about that.
“So, this is what it takes for Clay not to threaten to hug me.” His voice was high and shaky but when in doubt and scared out of your mind joking was always acceptable.
****
Jeremy had been unceremoniously forbidden from going outside. He may be Alpha, but when it came to his own safety, he relied on his Pack for protection. As much as it was his duty to protect them, it was theirs to protect him and as much as it grated on him nearly every time, there were some occasions when he didn’t mind listening. Nick carrying a bloodied Stiles was a very good reason.
He’d ordered him quickly into the kitchen, onto the table, and promptly sent Nick away again. He didn’t need concerned hovering. This was too serious.
In the face of the threat, however, he was perfectly calm, didn’t let his concern show, just leaned over Stiles to take a good look at his shoulder, packing towels against it to stop the bleeding. They didn’t do much at all..
“Apparently so,” he agreed, more absentmindedly than he would have in another situation. “A strange beast in the yard is a good distraction, it seems.”
He didn’t like what he was seeing one bit.
***
Scott was headed to the yard, to see just what the hell was going on. He’d caught Stiles’ scent among everyone else, and he smelled blood. It didn’t take his nose long to realise the blood he smelled was Stiles’ and that it was close. He barely touched the bottom half of the stairs as he made his way down and all but slid across the floor into the kitchen.
The kitchen, where Stiles ws laid out on the table with Jeremy and only Jeremy there with him. Scott had presence of mind to know something was wrong, very wrong, but he couldn’t quite process what it was. He saw Stiles, saw that Stiles was bleeding out on that table, and nothing else mattered. He aborted the plan to join the fray outside, and instead rushed to the table.
“Stiles?” He said, and looked up at Jeremy. “What...I don’t...What happened?” He didn’t think for one moment that one of the werewolves had attacked Stiles. That was ridiculous. But something had attacked him, and he wasn’t looking so good. Scott groped for Stiles’ hand, and held it tight though it was slick with blood.
He felt the pain transferring from Stiles to himself, but it wasn’t enough. He knew it wasn’t going to be enough. The pain was a problem, but the blood loss was the real problem.
***
“Hey Scott.” Stiles was glad that Scott was there and not just because he was taking some of the pain. “Really big fucked up dog. I knocked Kate out of the way...she’s going to be pissed.” He knew that he was going to get yelled at for what he’d done but it had just been instinct.
And that was assuming that he was going to be around to get yelled at. He wasn’t feeling super confident on that point right now.
He let out a sigh for the pain easing and relaxed a little under Jeremy’s ministrations. “You keep that up you can marry me.” The problem was without the pain he didn’t focus quite as well as he was a minute ago. Or maybe it wasn’t the pain it was the blood. He wasn’t sure.
***
Jeremy knew a lost cause when he saw it. Even if he was as prepared for this kind of emergency as he would have been at Stonehaven, he hadn’t had a need here and his supplies were more limited, there would have been nothing he could do. Stiles was losing too much blood too quickly.
He tried anyway, fell silent as he worked, fighting to even find the biggest source of the bleeding. The towels soaking through almost as quickly as he could place them.
He didn’t even try to reach for a needle to start stitches. There wasn’t a point.
***
Scott moved, shifting and ducking out of Jeremy’s way as the Alpha worked on Stiles. But he knew. He could tell. He could see it in the lines that marked Jeremy’s forehead. There was nothing he could do. He couldn’t even stop the bleeding because the wound Stiles had taken was too great.
He was a human against something that was tossing werewolves around like rag dolls. Scott drew a breath, steeling himself. He knew what he had to do. There was only one thing to do, at this point. Letting Stiles die wasn’t an option.
“I told you, remember, when you have that MRI,” Scott said as he moved closer to Stiles. Still holding his best friend’s hand, he sought to meet Stiles’ gaze. He’d give Stiles the chance to agree, but if he didn’t, well. Scott knew what he was going to do, regardless. He’d rather have Stiles alive and pizzed at him than gone. “I told you I’d do something. Well. I’m here now, and I’m going to do something.”
He didn’t look to Jeremy. He respected Jeremy, respected his status as the Alpha of this pack, and though he was also an Alpha, he considered himself under Jeremy. But this wasn’t Jeremy’s choice. It was Stiles’ choice, and if Stiles refused, Scott didn’t want Jeremy influencing his decision to do what he knew he had to do, what he’d always known he might eventually have to do for Stiles.
***
Stiles could tell too. Jeremy wasn’t the kind of person that would tell you everything was going to be okay while it wasn’t and since he wasn’t saying anything that was definitely a bad thing. Stiles didn’t want to be a werewolf. Okay yeah that was a partial lie. Just like when Peter called him out on it there was a part of him that wanted power, wanted all the things he didn’t have, but the rest of him knew that having power was a bad thing. Void Stiles was always still there even though the Nogitsune was gone.
But he wanted to die even less than he wanted to be a werewolf. He didn’t want to leave Nick and Kate or Scott. Allison had died and left this huge hole in everyone and he didn’t want to do that to people.
It took pretty much all of his energy he had left to do show Scott he understood. Stiles closed his eyes and managed the slightest of nods. He was so tired now. His eyes didn’t open again now that they were closed. They just weighed too much to try.
***
Jeremy was a smart man. He knew, without being told, without any information beyond what was right in front of him, what Scott was planning. If it was a member of his Pack, someone he considered under his orders, he have stopped it. Biting a human was against their laws and carried a hefty punishment. Jeremy had banished his own son for many years after he’d bitten Elena in order to save her life.
But Scott wasn’t his to order. And Stiles was making a choice. The only chance he had was to take the risk of a bite. If it was in time, if it didn’t kill him, it would save him.
So Jeremy just kept his hands pressed against the bloodied shoulder and didn’t stop what was going to happen. He couldn’t condone it, but he wouldn’t stop it from happening.
***
The nod from Stiles was all he needed. Scott drew in a breath, shifted and lifted Stiles’ hand, and his arm away from the table. For a spilt second he considered not doing it. He dismissed whatever concerns he had, though. This was the only way.
Biting Stiles would give him the strength of the wolf, and the power to recover. He would be a werewolf, but he would be alive. And it wasn’t like he was going to be shoved out on his own and left to figure things out for himself. Scott wasn’t going to abandon him, and if it was in their power, neither would Nick or Kate, or Jeremy, or Clay, or any of the other wolves in the house.
He was going to be fine. Scott told himself that, his mind chanting it like a mantra as his teeth sank into Stiles’ arm just past his wrist, where the flesh was tender and pliable.
***
Stiles hadn’t expected it to hurt. Which was dumb because someone was biting him of course it was going to hurt. It shocked him into opening his eyes and he gasped when the teeth sunk in.
“Ow. Damn.” his voice was thin and kind of reedy sounding but it was still there.
“Okay...gonna...gonna rest…” He was still so tired but something felt different. The bite was working it just had a lot to work against.
***
Rationally Jeremy knew that the way a bite from a werewolf like Scott took was bound to be different. He hadn’t anticipated how quickly it would work. For them, a bite was a process. A long, excruciating transformation that dying from was as likely as surviving. There was something fascinating about watching the process of a different kind.
Hands bloodied, he lessened the pressure he held against the wound on Stiles’ shoulder, leaning in to take another look. Already there was enough improvement that he could withdraw one hand completely, keeping the other against his patient, with a soft, barely recognizable sigh of relief.
***
Scott sat down in a chair beside the table. Stiles was already looking better, his color improving. There was too much blood to tell if the wound had stopped bleeding, but based on Jeremy’s reaction to looking at Stiles’ shoulder, Scott was pretty sure it had stopped bleeding and was likely already starting to heal.
The transition happened quickly. He hadn’t even known really what was happening, after he’d been bit. He had felt different, certainly. He’d had enhanced hearing and even his sight had improved. But he hadn’t know what the bite he’d taken meant. Stiles didn’t have that uncertainty. He knew exactly what had happened to him.
“You’re gonna be back on your feet in no time.” Scott told him. He just hoped there wasn’t going to be a body count out in the yard. He couldn’t save any of them the way he’d saved Stiles.
***
“Yeah.” Stiles did feel better but he also felt like there was a giant wave of exhaustion about to suck his feet right out from under him. The only thing that was keeping him from going completely under just yet was needing to know about Kate and Nick and the others. “Go help...okay?” He looked ghastly with his paled out skin that made all the blood splashed across it look like ink but he managed a twitch of a smile.
“I’ll just stay with Jeremy...keep him company.”
***
Jeremy glanced to Scott and gave the slightest nod. There was nothing more to be done but wait and see if the Change took, or if it was the end. If it was the latter, Jeremy did not want Scott there to see it.
“We’ll be fine,” he assured quietly. “I’ll get him comfortable downstairs.”
There was only one thing downstairs. The cage. But Jeremy was not about to let a newly turned werewolf loose anywhere. If he was going to live, he’d live there until they were sure of his control.
***
Scott didn’t want to leave Stiles. Not now. Not so soon. But he wasn’t alone. Jeremy was with him. And was going to take him downstairs. Into the cage. Stiles probably really didn’t need that. The full moon had just passed. He would be fine until then.
But Scott knew Jeremy was looking out for Stiles as much as anyone else. And maybe putting him in the cage where he’d be safe was a good idea, for the moment. Scott didn’t like it, but he wasn’t going to argue at the moment. Not when there was so much commotion outside, and he didn’t even know what was happening. He gave Stiles’ hand a squeeze. “I’ll be back, you just rest. And heal.” An injury like his would take time to heal fully. He’d have that chance in the cage.
***
Oh god he hated the cage. The cage was where the Nogitsune had been imprisoned while it was here and Stiles couldn’t stand the memories of it but he also didn’t want to argue the rules about making sure a new werewolf didn’t hurt anyone. He still remembered having to use the fire extinguisher on his best friend to keep him from attacking him.
“I’m good.” No, he wasn’t. But he was alive. And he wanted to make sure everyone else was that way as well. He waited until Scott was out the door before he let his head thump back on the table and closed his eyes. “Have to tell Dad. Shit.”
But maybe he’d sleep for a little bit first. Now that his eyes were closed they were really hard to open again and after a minute he didn’t even try. He wanted to ask Jeremy to make sure Kate and Nick were okay but Stiles didn’t get past the part where he thought about asking and instead drifted into sleep while his body took all of his energy and started using it to try to heal.