Who: Stiles Stilinski and Lydia Martin What: Decompressing after tonight's episode of Teen Wolf. Where: The house. When: Monday night. Rating: Low, but spoilers for the most recent episode of TW. Status: Complete!.
Lydia hadn’t been sure this was a good idea ever since he suggested it. For her own, selfish reasons, she really wanted him to be there, yes. She and Stiles had been spending a lot more time together in the past couple of weeks and she felt better than she had in months. Probably since that thing took control over him. But she still wasn’t sure he was going to handle the episode well. She had no idea what was going to happen aside from what the previews had showed. And that was basically just the two of them getting kidnapped or trapped somewhere.
Logically, she knew that there’d be more to the episode, but she also knew that if it focused on just the two of them being in danger, it wasn’t going to be as hard on Stiles as it’d be if his dad or Scott were in danger.
And of course, both of those things had happened, as well.
She had tried to prepare Stiles as much as she could about the deadpool and the assassins and what had been going on back home. But she hadn’t done a very good job of it considering it felt like most things had changed.
As the episode ended, Lydia pulled away from Stiles just long enough to reach for the remote and shut down the TV. They had decided to watch it in her room, so they were both sitting on her bed, leaning against the headboard as Reese slept peacefully on the foot of the bed. At least one of them was comfortable.
With a deep breath, she set the remote down on the bedside table again and turned to look at Stiles, her eyes wide. She had been handling the episodes fairly well aside from guilt here and there, but this one was deeply personal for obvious reasons. She wanted to ask him if he was okay, but she wasn’t sure that was a good idea considering she couldn’t answer that question if he threw it back at her. So instead, she went with: “You must have a million questions.”
Stiles was still staring at the TV after she shut it off. His face was paler than usual, shoulders tense. He wasn’t sure that having a million questions began to cover it, really. “So...Scott bit that kid. But it -- I mean it had to have been to save his life right? Because no way would Scott just bite someone for no reason.” Because focusing on that at least would give his mind a little time to process the massive amounts of other information he’d just learned about and watched unfold.
His dad had been shot.
They were in serious financial crises, apparently.
Lydia’s grandmother had been murdered by the asshole warden who’d drugged him in the previous season. She’d had to listen to her grandmother’s murder on tape. And Meredith, the banshee who’d helped them out on more than one occasion, was possibly evil.
Jesus. What were their lives?
“Liam.” She nodded, taking a deep breath as she leaned back against the pillows. “He got caught in our mess and he was almost killed. He was slipping from the rooftop of the hospital and one of the assassins was there. Scott bit him as a way to hold on to him,” she explained. “I was already here when that happened.”
“So you don’t actually know him?” Not that it really mattered. Liam wasn’t there. But for once Stiles was at a loss for what to say.
“No. I must have seen him around school before, since the semester started, but not really,” she said with a shrug. “He seems to be adjusting okay, though, aside from today.” Okay, maybe not really but the whole pack was helping him and doing what they could.
He drew in a breath and let it out slowly, nodding and falling silent as he stared at the TV again. “I’m sorry you had to listen to that.” His voice was almost inaudible.
Sighing softly, Lydia looked away from him and shook her head. “When I got here, everyone warned me against watching, Stiles. Including you. Whatever happens, it’s been my choice. You don’t have to apologize for any of it,” she said just as quietly as she looked down at her lap. She was accountable for it and she didn’t want anyone, especially him, to think otherwise.
“It doesn’t matter, Lydia. This sucks. You don’t have to pretend it doesn’t.” He raked a hand through his hair and moved off the bed, rising to his feet.
“I’m not pretending it doesn’t suck.” She stretched her legs in front of her and sighed, hands on her lap. “I’m just choosing to focus on whatever useful information I can get out of it instead. I’m not there, Stiles. I can’t change anything.”
Stiles paused at that, expression unreadable as he glanced back at her. “Do you think that’s really true? I mean, do you think it’s definite? That it can’t be changed?” His voice was quiet.
With a frown, Lydia looked up at him, her chest tight. She assumed he was asking because of Allison, because of the Nogitsune. “Not while we’re still here,” she said, mostly because she felt like it was what he needed to hear. She didn’t remember ever being there before, they had no proof that anyone who went home could actually remember any of it, no proof that they could change it.
He chewed the inside of his cheek, nodding and looking away. Scott didn’t think it could be changed, either. He rubbed the back of his neck. “Yeah.” He didn’t want to voice his own thoughts or argue about it, or do anything to tip anyone off about his side project. “Something’s not right though. With Meredith. It just doesn’t make sense.”
Something definitely wasn’t right. She could tell Stiles was thinking of something he wasn’t saying. But apparently, he didn’t want to talk about it right now. Lydia shook her head and moved to sit on the edge of the bed. “You don’t think she’s doing all of this on her own, either,” she said.
“No. No, I don’t. Something’s off about it.” Granted, he was missing a lot, apparently, since he hadn’t been watching. Which meant he needed to get caught up. “I mean, what’s her motivation even?”
“It seems it could be what my grandmother did, what I did,” Lydia said quietly, sighing and rubbing a hand over her face. “It could be someone is controlling her, too. But she’s obviously a much stronger banshee than I am if she can mind control people,” Lydia added, looking up at him again.
“If she was really mind controlling him. The guy seemed pretty unhinged. Could have just been a well-placed suggestion rather than actual mind control.”
“Yeah,” Lydia agreed. It was a theory, anyway. She just felt like there was more to Meredith than that. And maybe it was just her insanity, maybe she was more of a banshee than Lydia was. Maybe she was something else entirely. “Maybe Lorraine is still alive and controlling her.”
He looked down at the floor for a moment. Or maybe Brunski had really murdered Lydia’s grandmother. And from how the tape it sounded like that was probably the case. “Maybe,” he echoed quietly.
“I don’t know. But it looks like my other self at least has some more information on my family and where banshees come from,” she added, pursing her lips together. She just hoped that if there was progress, she could see what that progress was.
“You think maybe she found all that out about your grandma from your mom?” he asked, chewing his thumbnail.
“Not all of it. I know my mom doesn’t know anything about the supernatural and if she figured it out, she’s really good at pretending,” she said. “I think I must have found all that research and records my grandmother kept. She was a researcher, she kept notes of everything. And she was obviously obsessed over figuring out what happened,” she added quietly.
He could relate. He blew out a breath, rubbing a hand over his face. “Lyds, have you ever...thought about telling her? Your mom, I mean.”
With a deep breath, she looked down and nodded, then after a moment, looked back at him. “Yeah. But I think it’d only put her in more danger. She’s smart but she doesn’t have any fighting skills or anything either. And-- I don’t know how she’d take it. My dad obviously would be a terrible person to find out about any of this. I’m not sure about my mom.”
He hesitated for a moment, then moved back over and sat down beside her on the edge of her bed, resting a hand on her back. “Yeah. I didn’t...wanna tell my dad about any of it either. Like, at all. I’m still not sure he’s better off being in on what really happens in Beacon Hills.”
“I think we would get into a lot more trouble if it wasn’t for your dad. And considering his job, it might be safer for him if he knows what he could potentially be facing,” she said sincerely, turning toward him slightly. “Would you choose to keep him in the dark if you had the opportunity, though?”
“Kinda the hell of it,” he said quietly. “The last conversation I had with him back home before I ended up in Lawrence was about him not believing any of the stuff I’d told him about. I threw it in his face that my mom would have believed.”
Her face fell and she reached for the hand he didn’t have over her back, taking it in both of hers. “I’m sorry. Watching this must have been hard on you. At least you know you two are okay?”
“It’s fine,” he assured her. “It’s just...weird. Knowing how things are back home when everything here is completely different.” He shrugged.
“I miss my mom, and I’m sure you miss your dad. But here seems better than home.” Because of Allison, because she felt like they were safer here. All of them. Now that she and Stiles were okay, now that she didn’t feel so lonely anymore. It was definitely better.
At least he hadn’t gone on a murderous rampage here. That was a definite plus. But Scott and Lydia had both been sent back home since he’d been there. And he’d been there before, too, and he had no memories of that. But he understood why she thought Lawrence was better than Beacon Hills. Her best friend was still alive.
He squeezed her hand lightly. “Yeah.”
“How are you feeling? After not watching it for so long,” she asked quietly. She knew it had to be weird, at the very least. Especially without all of the context from the previous episodes.
“Uh. Confused mostly. Like I’ve missed a hell of a lot. Which...I have so.” He glanced at her sideways with a small smile.
“Nothing you need to worry about catching up on,” she said. She didn’t want him to see what was going on with her and well, she really didn’t want him to watch himself with Malia. But mostly, she didn’t need him to be thinking about all those assassins that were after them. “If you have any questions, I can answer them.”
Stiles arched an eyebrow at her. “Probably just be easier for me to go back and watch. I think they’re on the network’s website.” And that way at least he’d have a very clear, very detailed picture of everything that was going on.
Of course he was going to do that. He was Stiles. He needed all the details possible and he needed all the information he could get his hands on so he could put the pieces of the puzzle together. And the more she told him not to, the more curious he would be. “Was there anything in particular you wanted to know more about?”
“Just all of it, really,” he said honestly. Otherwise he was going to be even more lost next week when the show aired.
Lydia took a deep breath and nodded slightly. “I’ll watch it with you.” He had decided to watch it again because of her, after all.
“You sure? You don’t have to. I mean you’ve already seen all of it, right?” He frowned.
“Yeah, I have, which is why it doesn’t really matter if I watch it again.” She paused and smiled softly at him, squeezing his hand as she shrugged. “Didn’t you say something about us being a team?”
His chest tightened at her words and he nodded, squeezing her hand in return and then using his free arm to pull her closer to his side. “Yeah. Always.”
She let out a breath and shifted closer to him, wrapping her arms around him as she let go of his hand. It wasn’t going to be easy, watching him watch her like that. Or watching him watch himself with his supposed girlfriend. But having him there was going to be a nice reminder that things here were different. “Does this mean you’re really going back to watching every week?”
Stiles hugged her, lifting a hand to the back of her head. He could feel the tension in her body and he wished he knew how to take it away from her the way Scott could take away people’s pain. “Yeah. There’s only three more now, right?” His voice was quiet.
In a way, he did. At least hers. Because as Lydia laid her head on his shoulder and closed her eyes, she sighed deeply and managed to relax some. Watching him being in danger, even if she was right there with him, had sucked as much as hearing her grandmother’s voice had. Lorraine was gone as far as she knew. But Stiles was still there and she didn’t want him in danger. “Yeah. I thought about googling spoilers but I was told that googling yourself is a really bad idea here.”
Stiles grimaced at the mention of googling themselves. “Yeah, when I first got here, you and Allison both warned me about that pretty much immediately. You seriously don’t even want to know.” He shuddered.
Lydia nodded a little, taking a deep breath then lifting her head just to look at him. “I think it’s better if we wait, then. Hopefully it will stay the way it’s been so far.” With fake deaths and near misses.
“Yeah, hopefully.” But somehow he doubted it. Their luck just wasn’t that good.
“Are you doing okay?” she asked quietly, cheek resting on his shoulder as she looked up at him.
“Yeah. I mean there’s not much we can do about stuff back home right now, like you said. So I think we can just...try and figure out what we can here that’ll make a difference and…” His voice trailed off and he shrugged a shoulder.
“Yeah,” she agreed quietly. “What do you think that is?”
“Trying to have a semi-normal life?”
Sighing softly, she nodded, laying her head on his shoulder again and looking back down. “It will be weird. But we can try.”
“We can always try,” he whispered.
“Stiles?” she asked quietly, looking up at him once more. “Do you wanna stay here tonight?” She still didn’t know where exactly they stood after their talk, but she knew it was a much better place than they had been before. And they had obviously missed each other if the amount of time they’d been spending together was anything to go by.
Stiles held his breath at that, meeting her eyes. Then he nodded slowly. “Yeah. I do,” he said, voice quiet.
She smiled softly and relaxed against his side again, nodding. Seeing him in danger was part of why he wanted him to stay and she was guessing that was part of why he had agreed so easily. But partially, she wondered if he had just gotten used to sleeping with her when they were together. That was a question for another night, though. She wasn’t quite ready to find out details about the relationship she’d lost, along with her memories, just yet.