Who: Lydia and Allison When: A few hours after Allison’s arrival, after this post Where: Medical What: Allison has arrived, has been healed/saved, and Lydia is by her bedside when she wakes Rating/Warnings: Low/None Status: Completed via GDoc
When Allison’s eyes slowly dragged themselves open, the first thing she saw was an unfamiliar ceiling - which was, in and of itself, unusual if only because she hadn’t expected to ever see another…anything. For a few seconds, she stared at it in confusion, before slowly turning her head. She didn’t hurt, which was strange, and she didn’t feel drugged, just…really tired. As her eyes adjusted to the dim brightness of the lights, there was a sudden flash of red in her peripheral vision, and she turned her head - then blinked as the figure resolved into the face of her best friend.
“...Lydia? Where am I?”
Thankfully, Lydia had the sense of mind not to start shrieking when she felt the presence come through the portal. A person near death--a person that she knew well, that she loved, even--came through. Thankfully, someone came to help the person, brought her to the Medical wing. Lydia didn’t waste any time beyond sending a message to Derek, Scott, Stiles, and Sheriff Stilinski that Allison was here. She just knew. And she fought her way in to where Allison was sleeping.
Lydia was sitting by her bedside, one hand wrapped gently around Allison’s, her head down on her own forearm. It’d been a long few hours that Allison was resting after the surgery, after the healing. But at the sound of her voice, Lydia perked up.
“Allison?” She said, and then gave a half-laugh that was also half-sob. “Oh my God, it’s really you.” She squeezed her friend’s hand. “You’re not going to believe this. We’re in another universe.”
“Who else would it be?” Allison was more grateful than she could express that Lydia was holding her hand, the squeeze helping to center her and convince her that this place was real. At Lydia’s next words, she stared her friend for a long moment before giving a nervous laugh.
“Okay, you had me going for a second there….but really. This…doesn’t look like the hospital?” Or the vet, but she didn’t think her friends would’ve taken her to Deaton - considering she definitely wasn’t a werewolf, coyote, or anything else like that. After a moment, her smile faded. “And I..I remember….” Trailing off, Allison’s free hand moved to her stomach, but frowned when she realized she felt no pain or anything, and started to lift the hospital bed’s sheet. “Wait, what happened?”
That was a very good question. Who else would she be? Lydia stared right back, and then gave a gentle shake of her head in response to Allison’s laugh. “You’re not in the hospital. Well, you’re in a hospital.” Lydia quickly amended.
And then… well, Lydia should have anticipated this question. She should have prepared for it. And yet when it came, she didn’t have an answer prepared. So she paused for a moment, considering, before answering. “So many things happened. This place.. It brings people from different times.”
Lydia paused for a moment. “We’re in another universe. So far as I can tell… another world.”
“Different times? Lydia, that doesn’t make any sense,” she replied, before her eyes widened at the “another universe” and “another world” parts. “Is this a joke? Or some elaborate prank? Or am I just dreaming, because…whatever. Where’s Isaac? The oni were trying to kill him, is he okay? Is my dad around?” That was another weird part about all of this - if she had been hurt, why wasn’t her dad the one sitting by her bed and holding her hand?
Not that she wasn’t extremely happy to have Lydia there, of course, but Allison was just trying to make sense of it all.
“Allison, honey,” Lydia brought her other hand over so now she was cradling Allison’s hand with both of her own. “This isn’t a joke, or a prank. It’s some kind of magic, or science, or… I don’t know what. But there’s this portal and it draws people from different times. Different worlds.” Jesus, it sounded batshit when Lydia tried to explain it this way.
“...I’m actually from your future. So are Stiles and Scott… Stiles was here, but he--” He felt guilty for being the cause of your death, so he had to run way? “--he had somewhere to be. Isaac isn’t here. Your dad isn’t here, either.”
The worry and exasperation that been building shifted to worry, concern, and maybe even a little fear as she studied her best friend’s face, working on processing all of that. She prided herself on being able to tell when Lydia was lying and at the moment? The redhead definitely wasn’t - which made her even more afraid as the meaning of what she was saying began to dawn on Allison.
“You’re from…so I did.” Allison paused, not even wanting to say out loud what she was pretty sure had happened, and instead went back to the whole ‘future’ thing. “How long has it been?” It hurt, hearing that Isaac and her dad weren’t around, but knowing that Stiles - who she definitely didn’t blame - and Scott were nearby helped a little, and kept her from completely freaking out.
"I came from April, 2013." Lydia knew that was months in the future from the last thing Allison likely remembered. The hard thing about all this time travel business was trying to reconcile what everyone knew and didn't know, and to avoid spoilers. Though, in this case, the spoilers were justified. "And here it's actually January of 2019."
Allison frowned at the reply, then slowly shook her head as she lifted her free hand to rub at her temple. “I don’t get how any of this is possible,” she finally admitted. It was like something out of a movie or book, definitely not something that could actually be happening.
Then again, she’d dated two werewolves and her best friend was a banshee, so.
“Okay, assuming all that is true…what happens next?” She asked as her hand fell away from her face again, still very confused.
“I didn’t, either,” Lydia admitted. “But it’s happened. Happening.” Of course, they were used to things that were impossible--werewolves, banshees, hellhounds?--so this shouldn’t be that far outside of their world.
“We settle down and wait to go home,” Lydia said it without thinking, then realized that Allison… well, she didn’t have a home to go to. She was pulled from right before her Death--otherwise Lydia wouldn’t have known she was here.
And with that, Lydia started not wanting to go home anymore. Stiles was here. Allison was here. She missed her mom, sure, but her heart was here.
It was obvious that while she knew Lydia told the truth and she trusted the other girl completely, Allison was having trouble believing any of it. It would probably come down to seeing was believing, or something like that, but for now she’d just focus on one thing at a time.
At Lydia’s words, Allison looked away for a moment, especially since she knew what her friend was probably thinking about right now. Letting out a slow breath, Allison’s worried gaze lifted again. “You said they’re not here, Isaac and my dad. But are they okay? And if Stiles is here….did we do it? Did the nogitsune get stopped?” Since Lydia seemed to be in one piece, she hoped that meant that they had, but she had no way of knowing at the moment.
Jesus. That felt like a lifetime ago. Lydia nodded. “We did it. We won. And we saved Stiles.” At least… until the Ghost Riders came and took him away. But this was neither the time nor the place to discuss that. She squeezed Allison’s hand, hardly believing that her best friend was back. “Your dad and Isaac are definitely okay. Though, Isaac left town after you--” she stopped herself from saying it. “...and your dad was still around. Still helping us protect the town. For a long while.”
She went on. “After the Nogitsune, there was this thing called the Deadpool. Anyone with supernatural powers was put on there with a price on their heads… people were killing werewolves left and right to get the bounty. After that there were these freaky Doctors.. The Dread Doctors. They kept kidnapping people and performing experiments on them, trying to make the perfect hybrid supernatural creatures. And after that the Ghost Riders kidnapped Stiles and erased him from our memories.”
Of course, she planned on telling Allison the full story about everything eventually. But broad strokes to start with. She didn’t want to overwhelm her best friend.
She didn’t relax until Lyds confirmed that her boyfriend and her dad were okay, but frowned at the thought of Isaac leaving. She understood it, but…right now, she wasn’t ready to think about the fact that she’d died - a while ago, apparently.
“What the…it’s always something in Beacon Hills, I guess,” she replied, already more than a little overwhelmed by everything her friend was saying. Shaking her head again, Allison sat up more fully.
“I feel fine - do I have to stay here? I want to go home.” Wherever home was, at the moment. “Or somewhere.”
Lydia took a breath. “There’s one other thing. Beacon Hills… it doesn’t exist in this world. The facility we’re in is in New York, and a lot of this world is really similar to our world, but… well, there’s some differences. They have people with superpowers here.”
Right. Poor Allison was probably exhausted, and Lydia should just… stop talking. But she couldn’t help herself.
“I have a room here. Upstairs. 2-K. The doc says you’re free to come upstairs with me, if you’re feeling up for it.” And it sounded like she was. “...there’s two beds in my room, if you want to be roomies.”
Allison stared at her for a long moment, before responding more slowly. “...Beacon Hills doesn’t exist?” She asked it incredulously as once again her worry increased. “And what do you mean superpowers? Like your powers and Scott’s?”
When Lydia went on to talk about a room and an extra bed, Allison nodded. “Yeah, that’d be great. I…don’t really want to be alone right now.” Plus, she wanted to get away from the medical area and all that it implied. Maybe this would be easier to digest in a more comfortable setting?
“I’m so sorry.” Lydia said. She hated being the bearer of bad news. And this news was the worst news. “Sort of. There’s another werewolf, too, but he’s a different kind… I haven’t met any other Banshees yet. But there’s a girl who can read thoughts. And this guy, Steve Rogers? He’s been alive for a hundred years, but looks like he’s thirty. There’s another guy with a metal arm. It’s bizarre.” And she came from Beacon Hills, so bizarre was sort of her specialty.
“Of course. I can help you.” Lydia jumped up and moved around the room quickly to collect Allison’s clothes, and then gave her some privacy to get dressed. “I’m right here on the other side of this curtain. Then we can go upstairs. Are you hungry?”
Holding up a hand to stop her from going on, Allison shook her head. “I’m going to have to think about all this, because it still isn’t really making sense,” she replied, deciding that it was a problem for future Allison. Right now, she just wanted to try and adjust to where she was that very moment.
Sliding out of the bed after Lydia handed her clothes over, she let out a slow breath, then nodded a little about the curtain even though her friend couldn’t see her. Silently, she pulled off the hospital gown and pulled her dress and leggings back on, then her boots. When she was done, she studied the front of her outfit which was, indeed, torn and stained with blood - then pushed it out of her mind to focus on Lydia’s voice as she pulled the curtain aside again.
“Not really. Not right now, anyway. I might be later, though.” Another problem for future Allison.