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harringtonstilinski · 27 days

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Always The Babysitter - Chapter Twenty-Five: The Battle of Starcourt

Author: @harringtonstilinski Characters: Steve Harrington x Olivia Henderson(OC) Word Count: 9,951 Warnings: buckle up, we got a lot - angst, fluff, el's leg, canon violence with the mind flayer, small intentional car accident (no one gets hurt), singing, liv being sleep deprived, main character deaths Smut: no | yes; you're welcome oral (f+m receiving), fingering, protected m+f A/N: Hi, friends! As stated above... you're welcome. If you like this chapter, please do not hesitate to reblog and give some feedback, whether it be in the reblogs, comments, or my inbox. As always, read at your own risk and enjoy 😊

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I felt two arms go around me as I cried, watching El scream and sob in pain from her leg. I knew it was Steve because anytime I cried, he wrapped me in his arms like he was protecting me from whatever it was that caused tears to stream down my face.

“What is that?” Erica asked.

It sounded like El’s flesh was about to burst into flames as Mike said, “There’s something in there.”

I moved from Steve’s arms as El yelled out “No!”, sitting on my knees at her head, brushing her hair down on her head.

“Jesus Christ,” Dustin said, looking at her leg still.

I think everyone’s eyes were glued to El’s leg as we just watched as something moved under it.

“Keep her talking,” Jonathan said, standing up. “Keep her awake, okay?”

El closed her eyes, whimpering just a little.

“El, baby, keep your eyes open,” I said. “You gotta stay awake, baby, okay?”

“Let’s get on this side, on this side,” Mike said.

“Just lean her up on me,” I said, putting my arms under hers.

“Easy, easy, easy, easy,” Steve said, helping me pull her up in between my legs as I kicked them out.

Robin’s voice rang out as she said, “It’s, uhh… ya’know, it’s actually not that bad. There was a… the goalie on my soccer team, Beth Wildfire, this other girl slid into her leg, and like, the whole bone came out of her knee, six inches or something, it was insane.”

“Robin,” Steve and I said.

“Yeah?”

“You’re not helping.”

“I’m sorry.”

Jonathan’s footfalls had me turning my head in his direction, the boy stopping right in front of El, saying, “Alright, El? This is gonna hurt like hell, okay?”

She sobbed out an “Okay.”

“Liv, I need you to help keep her real still.”

“Okay,” I said, gripping onto her a little tighter, feeling her hands doing the same on my arms.

Jonathan put on some gloves and handed me a wooden spoon, saying, “Here. You’re gonna wanna bite down on this.”

I put the handle between her teeth, the young teen biting down on it. Watching him pull out a knife, I said, “Holy shit, Byers!”

Jonathan looked at everyone before Mike said, “Do it.” He plunged the knife into her skin, her grip on my arms tightening tremendously. It hurt, but I didn’t care as she screamed in pain.

He dropped the knife before plunging his fingers into her leg, her grip once again increasing, her screams coming out more painfully. He felt around as Nancy was saying his name, him telling no one in general to stop talking, tossing out a “goddamn it!” in frustration.

“No!” El screamed, dropping the spoon from in between her teeth. “Stop it! Stop! Stop!” She let out a little sob, saying, “I can do it.”

“El,” I said as she sat up from my lap.

“I can do it,” she repeated, sitting up more, feeling for my hand. I scooted closer to her, my hands resting on the outside of my thighs, watching her as she reached out with her right hand, pulling whatever was stuck in her leg out with her psychokentic skill.

She screamed and the glass behind us shattered as she pulled whatever was in her leg out, suspending it for a moment before pushing it away. It started crawling as she leaned back against my chest, but it didn’t get very far before a foot stomped on it. That foot belonging to the one and only, Jim Hopper.

After we had picked El up and moved her to a bench, I wrapped her leg up before she laid on Hop while Joyce sat beside her, everyone else standing around.

Mike began explaining, “The Mind Flayer, it built this monster in Hawkins, to stop El, to kill her and pave a way into our world.”

“And it almost did,” Nancy added. “That was just one tiny piece of it.”

I sighed, and turned towards Steve, his arms going around me as he walked a few steps forward, taking me with him.

“How big is this thing?” Hopper asked.

Jonathan replied, “It’s big. Thirty feet at least.”

“Oh, sweet shit,” I whispered.

“Yeah,” Lucas said, looking at Hop. “It sorta destroyed your cabin. Sorry.”

Steve had moved us to stand by Max… well, I was standing by Max, he was on the other side of me. “Okay, so, just to be clear,” Steve said. “This big fleshy spider thing that hurt El, it’s some kind of gigantic… weapon?”

“Yes,” Nancy said, sounding annoyed.

“But, instead of, like, screws and metal, the Mind Flayer made its weapon… with melted people?”

“Yes, exactly.”

“Yeah, okay. I– yeah, I’m just making sure.”

Grabbing his attention, I said loud enough for only him to hear, “Do not let her make you feel small, okay?”

“What was that?” Nancy asked.

“No need to act all annoyed and shit just because someone’s asking a question to fully understand what we’re about to go up against.”

“Well maybe some people shouldn’t ask questions about what this thing is made of.”

Stepping forward, I said, “You wanna go, Wheeler?”

“Olivia,” Hopper said, gaining my attention. “Station?”

Groaning, I stepped back in between Steve and Max, saying, “Someone’s gonna have to teach her a freaking lesson on how to not be in control all the time.”

“Are we sure this thing is still out there, still alive?” Joyce asked.

“El beat the shit out of it, but yeah, it’s still alive,” Max said.

“But if we close the gate again–” Will said.

“We cut the brain off from the body.”

“And kill it,” Lucas added. “Theoretically.”

I jumped at the sound of Murray’s voice saying, “Yoo-hoo!” while waving some papers around. Looking back at Hop, I said, “Really, Jim? Murray?”

“Since when do you call me Jim?” Hop asked.

Murray walked over to us, saying, “Hello, Olivia,” before he set the papers down on a table, saying, “This is what Alexi called the hub,” while pointing to a spot on the papers. “Now, the hub takes us to the vault room.”

“Okay, where’s the gate?” Hop asked.

Pointing to another spot, Murray said, “Right here. I don’t know the scale on this, but I think it’s fairly close to the vault room, maybe 50 feet or so.”

“More like 500,” Erica said, walking towards the table. “What, you’re just gonna waltz in there like it’s commie Disneyland or something?”

“I’m sorry, who are you?”

With all the sass she could muster, Erica said, “Erica Sinclair, who are you?”

“Murray… Bauman.”

“Listen here, Mr. Bunman, I’m not trying to tell you how to do things, but I’ve been down in that shithole for 24 hours. And with all due respect, you do what this man tells you, you’re all gonna die.”

I started laughing during her spiel, not sure if it was from lack of sleep or because she was doing what I had been dying to do since last year. “She’s got a point.”

“I’m sorry, why is this four year old speaking to me?” Murray asked.

“I’m ten, you bald bastard,” Erica said.

Laughing, I said, “Oh, my god, this is great!”

“Erica!” Lucas said.

“Just the facts!” Erica said.

“She’s right, though,” I said, my laughter dying down. “You’re all gonna die.” Walking forward, I continued, “But you don’t have to.” Looking at Murray, I smiled. “May I?”

“Please,” he said, smiling.

I sat down, feeling Dustin coming up behind me. Turning towards Dustin, I said, “You got a pencil on you?” Once he handed me his pencil, I said my thanks and moved the paper, marking where I needed to as I explained, “You see this room? Storage facility. There’s some sort of hatch that leads into their underground ventilation system. That will somehow lead you to the base of this massive weapon that I almost died from. It’s a fucking maze down there, but between these two-” I pointed to Erica and Dustin. “-they can get you through.”

“They can show us the way?” Hop asked.

“Don’t worry, Hop, you can be all macho man and do the brunt work, and they will just be your navigators.”

“No.”

“Hopper,” I groaned.

Shaking his head, he shrugged once and said, “Nope.”

~~~

“He can be such a jerk sometimes,” I said, getting whatever supplies we needed.

“Who?” Steve asked.

“Freaking Hopper,” I exclaimed. “He won’t let Dustin and Erica help them through the vent system when we’ve spent the last like–” I looked at the nonexistent watch on my left wrist. “–12 or so hours down there!”

“Eh, just let him take control for a little bit,” he said, passing in front of me.

Taken aback, I said, “What’s that supposed to mean?”

He sighed, placing whatever he had in his hands down. “Babe, it means you can’t always be in control.”

Sighing, I retorted, “You know why I have to try and be… especially for Dustin.”

“I know,” Steve breathed. “But just… take a step back and breathe for a little bit.”

Closing my eyes, I hung my head forward, my chin meeting the dip in my collarbone. “You’re right. I’m sorry.”

I breathed his scent in as he put his arms around my shoulders, my own going around his middle. “It’s okay,” he said.

“Hey, if you two could stop being all cute and shit and grab some stuff we need, that’d be great,” Robin said.

“I should go check on Dustin,” I said, looking up at Steve’s chin. He looked down at me, saying, “I can see him, he’s fine.”

“I’m being protective now. A sister. Plus, I can sense they’re about to start talking shit and I want to get in on that action.”

Steve chuckled, looking down at me. “Alright, beautiful. Go be a shittalking big sister.”

I smiled at the new nickname, kissing his chin before he looked down at me. “Okay, handsome.”

He smiled, leaning down to place a sweet kiss to my lips. I pulled my lips back into a smile, slowly pulling my body away from his as I backed myself up to the counter to jump over it, making my way over to Dustin and his group of friends.

“Well, that settles it,” Erica said. “He’s gonna die. They’re gonna die.”

“Yeah, most likely,” I said, walking down the small ramp to the fountain they were standing at.

“You guys survived,” Lucas said.

“Barely,” Dustin said, after turning to face Lucas.

“Call it luck,” I said.

“We could have really used you guys down there.”

“Could’ve used you up here, too,” Mike said. “Especially Liv’s protective side.”

“Yeah, well, I probably would’ve knocked your sister out in the process,” I breathed.

“We miss you, dude,” Lucas said, looking at my brother.

I put my arm around my brother’s shoulders, seeing a ghost of a smile on his face. “See? They missed you. I knew it all along.”

“Big-time,” Will said.

The four younger boys I adored all huddled together in a hug. I tried to get out of it, but Will pulled me in, saying, “You’re a part of this party, too, Liv.”

“Honorary member,” I chuckled, causing them to laugh as well.

“Please, don’t cry, nerds,” Erica said.

Turning around to face her, I laughed, “Shall we tell them the little discovery we made about you in that vent system?”

“Erica,” Lucas said, stepping forward.

“Keep saying my name,” she sassed. “See what happens.”

“Ohh!” I breathed out.

“Hey, heads up,” Hopper said. “You can navigate, just from someplace safe.”

Shrugging with a frown on my face, I said, “Looks like you won’t die after all,” before smiling wickedly. “But it’s not that simple.”

“The signal won’t reach,” Erica added.

“Not with this,” Dustin said. “You need something with a high enough frequency band to relay with the Russian’s radio tower. But for that to work, you need someone who has both seen their comms room and has access to a super-powered handcrafted radio tower, one preferably already situated at the highest point in Hawkins. Oh, wait. That’s me. If you want us to navigate, you got us. But we need a head start.”

I held my breath the entire time Dustin spoke to Hopper, releasing it once he was done. “Holy shit, I thought he’d never stop talking.” Looking at Hopper, I watched as his brows quickly rose up before Dustin looked at Erica then back at him saying, “And a car.”

Hop looked over at me, my lips scrunching to the side as I shrugged. “He’s right.” I put my hand out, saying, “Fork ‘em over.”

He turned to the side a little, yelling Steve’s name, said teen making his way over. Hopper put the keys in Steve’s hand, telling him to take us where Dustin told him to take us. I gawked at Hopper, who just shrugged and raised his brows like he couldn’t care less.

Letting out a groan, I tiled my head back, turning around and walking towards the front of the mall. Steve and the rest of our group followed behind a few moments later, until Steve got in front of me to open the doors.

“Oh, man, now this,” he said, tossing the keys a few inches out of his hand before they fell back into his hand. “This is what I’m talkin’ about.”

“Toddfather?” Robin and I asked.

“Oh, screw, Todd! Steve’s her daddy now.”

“Please don’t ever say that again,” I said, climbing into the front seat.

“Did you just talk about yourself in the third person?” Robin asked.

“Did he just call himself daddy?” Erica asked.

As the three of them - Robin, Erica and Dustin - all climbed into the back, Steve asked, “Alright, where are we going?”

“Weathertop,” Dustin answered.

“Weather-what?”

“Drive,” I said.

“Okay. Jesus.” Steve turned on the car and put it in reverse, sitting up to see behind him as he backed out, putting it in drive to start us forward on our newest mission.

I sat with my arms crossed, looking to my right at the scenery passing by. I was jealous that Steve got to drive, okay? I could hear the smile in his voice as Steve asked, “Baby, are you jealous?”

“Can you please stop calling her baby in front of me?” Dustin asked. “It’s gross.”

“Dustin, hush,” I said. “Steve, yes. I am. Now let me wallow.”

He chuckled, putting his hand on my elbow to drag my arm away from me, sliding his fingers between mine and kissing the back of my hand.

We drove for what felt like two states before I asked, “Sweet shit, Dustin, how far is this place?”

“Relax, dear sister, we’re almost there,” Dustin replied.

“This girl better be fucking special, Dusty. I mean, because of the fact that you went to camp, met her, built this radio and put it in the middle of nowhere just to stay in communication with her.”

“Nobody’s scientifically perfect, but Suzie’s about as close to being perfect as any human could possibly be.”

Looking at Steve, who never let go of my hand, I smiled and said, “I know someone.”

“You two are gross,” Erica said. “And this girl sound made-up to me. What about you?”

Steve and I looked at each other before Dustin said, “Why are you two hesitating?”

“I’m-I’m-I’m not! I’m not,” Steve said. “I think she sounds real. Ya’know, totally, absolutely real.”

“Left, turn left,” Dustin said.

“There’s not a road here.”

“Turn left now!”

“Jesus. Hang on!”

I couldn’t help but scream as Steve made the sharpest turn in the history of sharp turns, hitting a wooden fence, the car’s tires meeting nothing but grass.

“Whoa! Henderson, where are we going?!” Steve yelled, both hands now on the wheel.

“Up!” Dustin said.

“We’re definitely gonna die!” I yelled, the car bumping against the grass.

“We’re not gonna make it!” Robin and I yelled.

“Yes, we are,” Steve said. “Come on, baby. Come on, baby!” He pressed the gas to accelerate us up this stupid hill, being unsuccessful as the car struggled to get more up. “Come on!"

“I guess the Toddfather has its limitations,” Robin said.

“In other words, we’re stuck,” I said, resting my elbow on the part the window’s at, letting my fingers rest on my forehead.

Steve breathed heavily before I heard him get out of the car, the rest of the group following, aside from me.

“Liv!” Dustin called. “Come on!”

“Nope, I’m waiting for the Mind Flayer to come and eat me,” I deadpanned. A moment later, a body was leaning against the door, the backs of their fingers gently rubbing up and down my arm.

“What’s up, babe?” Steve asked, gently.

I sighed. “Guess I’m just wallowing.” I looked up at him, placing my hand on his cheek, careful not to rub my thumb over his bruised eye. “Even with a black eye… you’re still perfect.”

He chuckled lightly, turning his head in my hand, pressing his lips to my palm. “I’m glad someone thinks so.” Locking his eyes on mine, he whispered, “I love you.”

“I love you,” I whispered back, smiling.

“Come on,” he whispered, backing away from the car to open the door.

I sighed and got out, taking his hand after he closed the door, Dustin complaining about Steve and I taking forever, which in reality it was more like a minute.

We started walking up the hill, finally making it to Dustin’s man-made radio, my brother picking up the mouthpiece, pressing the button on it and saying, “Bald Eagle, do you copy? Bald Eagle, I repeat, this is Scoops Troop, do you copy?”

Standing with Steve a few feet away, I said, “I’m gonna be repeating radio talk in my head for the next two years.”

“Yes, I copy,” Murray responded.

We all chuckled before Dustin asked, “Call sign?”

We had assigned everyone group names and call signs before we left… or at least Dustin did while I was walking away from everyone to get in the car. In case you were wondering, call signs are as follows;

Griswold Family; El, Max, Lucas, Mike, Will, Jonathan and Nancy.

Eagles Nest; Murray, Joyce and Hop.

Scoops Troop; Robin, Erica, Dustin, Steve and myself.

“Bald Eagle,” Murray responded.

“Please repeat,” Dustin said.

Without missing a beat, Murray came back with “Bald Eagle! This is Bald Eagle!” before Dustin said with a smile, “Copy that. Good to hear your voice, Bald Eagle. What’s your 20?”

“We reached the vent. I’ll contact you when I need you. Until then, silence.”

“Roger that, Bald Eagle. This is Scoops Troop, going radio silent. 10-10 over.”

I decided to lay on the wet grass a little while later, bored out of my mind. “Ya’know, I have a slight fear of space, but I find it fascinating. I especially love looking up at the stars. This angle suits you.” I chuckled, shifting my eyes from the stars to Steve as he came into view, his head tilted down, looking at me.

“Why are you laying on the wet grass?” he asked.

Shrugging, I said, “My legs were getting tired. And I’m tired. I haven’t slept in over 24 hours.”

“Scoops Troop, this is… hm… Bald Eagle. I’ve reached another junction.”

“This is what?” Dustin asked.

“The fourth junction,” Erica said.

“Alright, so, if memory serves–”

“Right after the nerd epiphany,” I said, turning on my side a little.

“We went left, so he has to go right,” Erica said.

“Fly right, Bald Eagle,” Dustin said. “Fly. Right.”

“Roger that, flying right,” Murray confirmed.

“What’s the nerd epiphany?” Robin asked.

I noticed Steve walk away a few feet, looking out at Hawkins from our view. I got up, brushing myself off, and walked towards him, wrapping my arms around his middle, pressing forehead in between his shoulder blades. “What’cha doing?”

“Look,” he said.

I looked around him, seeing the mall’s lights flickering. “Uhh, guys!” A few seconds later, Erica, Dustin and Robin walked over to us before I turned to face Dustin, telling him, “Get your ass back over there right the hell now!”

The five of us rushed back to the radio, Dustin picking up the mic, saying into it, “Griswold Family, this is Scoops Troop! Do you copy? Over! Griswold Family, I repeat, this is Scoops Troop! Do you co–” The radio went staticy, Dustin asking once again, “Griswold Family, do you copy?”

Grabbing the mic from him, I pressed the button and yelled, “Do you copy?!” before hearing a roaring sound that shook me to my core. “Griswold Family, this is Scoops Troop! Please, for the love of God, confirm your fucking safety! Griswold Family, please confirm your safety! Are you on your way to Bald Eagle?” I sighed before whispering to myself, “Goddamn it.” Pressing the button again, I repeated my words to Griswold Family.

Dustin grabbed the mic from me, telling them that someone needed to answer to confirm their safety.

“Why aren’t they answering?” I asked.

Dustin repeated “Griswold Family, do you copy?” over and over again. I had to stand up, feeling suddenly overwhelmed by everything going on, so I did what I felt the need to do; run. I ran past the group, hearing Erica ask not a second later, “Where are you going?”

“To get them the hell out of there!” Steve answered. “Stay here! Contact the others!”

I looked back, seeing him gaining speed as he caught up with me, Robin following his lead until we got back to the car, Steve putting it reverse and tearing out of the grass and back onto the main road, speeding like a bat out of hell.

“Steve,” I said. “Faster.”

“I’m already going–”

“Steve! Those kids are in danger! Faster!”

I watched his face as the car gained more speed, the trees zipping by us like the speed of light. Before we knew it, he was slowing down, turning somewhat carefully as to not flip the car and kill us all.

I saw a car headed for Griswold Family’s, so I patted Steve rapidly on the shoulder. “Baby, crash the car into Billy’s.”

“What?”

“He’s gonna kill Griswold! Crash the car!”

Right before Billy’s car went to make an impact, Steve yelled, “Hang on!!” before he t-boned Billy’s beautiful Camaro, both cars spinning 90 degrees before coming to a stop. A few seconds and heavy breathing from all three of us later, Steve asked, “You guys okay?”

“Ask me tomorrow?” Robin answered.

“Babe?”

Looking from somewhere in front of me to Steve, I said, “That was terrifying, but exhilarating! I have so much adrenaline right now, I could beat that motherfucker to a pulp.” Looking up, I said, “Holy fucking shit.” I stood up, resting my arm on the top of the windshield, watching as the Mind Flayer stomped its way up onto the roof of Starcourt Mall before it roared.

“Let the Battle of Starcourt begin,” I breathed. Hearing a horn honk, I looked to my right, seeing Mrs. Wheeler’s new car beside us.

I jumped out as Nancy said, “Get in!”, going to the very back of the stationwagon. I sat against the back of the seats in front of me, Steve right next to me by the door with Robin across from us.

“Byers, drive!” I said, looking at the 90 foot monster about to chase us as it descended from the building. I repeated, “Oh my god” about thirty times in a whisper, watching this thing chase us down the road.

Steve put his arm around my leg, breathing heavily, my own arms going around his. The radio in Robin’s hand, that Dustin had apparently given her, went off.

“Dusty-bun, you copy?”

“I copy, Suzie-poo. It sounds much better now, thanks.”

I looked at Steve before looking at Robin, all three of us saying Suzie’s name.

“Okay, so, listen, do you know Planck's Constant?” Dustin asked.

“Do you know the Earth orbits the Sun?” Suzie countered.

“Okay, so I know it starts with two sixes, and then a… w-what is it?”

“Okay, so let me just be clear on this. I haven’t heard from you in a week, and now you want a mathematical equation that you should know so you can… save the world?”

“Suzie-poo, I promise I will make it up to you as soon as possible.”

“You can make it up to me now.”

“What?”

“I want to hear it,” Suzie said, bribing my little brother.

“What?”

“I want to hear it,” she repeated.

With fear in his voice, Dustin said, “Not right now.”

Sternly, Suzie came back with, “Yes, now, Dusty-bun.”

“Suzie-poo, this is urgent.”

“Yes, yes, you’re saving the world, I heard you the first time, but Ged is also saving Earthsea and he’s about to confront the shadow, so this is Suzie signing off.”

“Wait, wait, wait! Okay,” Dustin said. “Okay. Okay.” Even from here, I could hear him say, “Shit.” What came next had me groaning the same word, my forehead meeting Steve’s shoulder. “Turn around, look at what you see. In her face, the mirror of your dreams.”

I picked my head, grimacing as Steve looked confused. He looked down at me as I joined in, “Make believe I’m everywhere, given in the light. Written on the pages is the answer to our never-ending story.” Insert vocal run here.

“Reach the stars, fly a fantasy. Dream a dream, and what you see will be. Rhymes that keep their secrets will unfold behind the clouds, and there upon a rainbow is the answer to our never-ending story.” Insert second vocal run. “Story!” Last vocal run.

“Plancks’ Constant is 6.62607004,” Suzie said.

“You just saved the world,” Dustin said, super proud of his girl.

“Gosh, I miss you, Dusty-bun.”

“I miss you more, Suzie-poo.”

“I miss you more, multiplied by all the stars in our galaxy.”

Grabbing the walkie from Steve, who had taken it from Robin, I pressed the button as soon as Dustin started talking again, saying into the mouth-piece, “Enough, Dustin!” Looking between Robin and Steve, plus Lucas and Will who had turned around to look at me, I breathed, “Shut up,” before looking back behind us, seeing the monster stopping.

“It’s turning around!” Steve said.

“What?” Nancy said.

“It’s turning around!” I exasperated.

“Maybe we wore it out,” Lucas said.

“I don’t think so,” Jonathan said. “Hold on.” He made the sharpest and quickest u-turn in the history of– oh, sweet shit, you get it!

I yelled out, feeling my body lurch forward towards Robin, who held her hands out to stop me. Once I was sitting right again, I turned my head to the front saying, “Never do that again, eldest Byers!”

~~~

We made it back to the mall in record time, quickly making our way to the second floor. Griswold Family apparently picked up some fireworks from a store they broke into the first time they cared for El’s leg.

Seeing El on the ground, scared, made me angry and concerned all in one. Grabbing a firework, I lit it before tossing it at the Mind Flayer, the firework exploding once it hit. I lit another one before Lucas and I both yelled out, “Flay this, you ugly piece of shit!” before launching our fireworks at it, Lucas’ landing in the Flayers mouth.

One by one, we all lit the fireworks, tossing them at the Mind Flayer, trying to either kill it or keep it distracted enough to not kill El.

“Hey, asshole!” Steve said. “Over here!” He tossed his firework at the monster, Robin tossing hers after, Billy going down with each hit.

With all the fireworks going off with our throws of them, you’d think we were having our own firework show in the middle of the mall.

“Shit, we’re almost out!” I yelled.

“Dustin,” Steve said into the walkie. “We’re outta time!”

“Hurry!” Dustin said. “Close it now! Close it!”

One last firework went off before I went to the railing, putting my hands on it, looking out Billy and El, the former leaning over her, still as can be before he turned his head towards the Mind Flayer, standing up before El started scooting back.

“What’s he doing?” I asked, to no one in particular. Just seeing him stand there, I wanted to make my way to El, and started to when two arms went around me. “Let me go, Steve. I need to get to El.”

“You’ll die if you,” he said. “She’ll be okay.”

Before I knew it, I was jumping in surprise in Steve’s arms, watching as Billy reached his hands out as the Flayer’s tongue, tentacle… thing reached out, Billy’s hands grabbing onto it as he said, “No!”

Color me surprised when I felt the protective side of him come out as he walked forward, yelling out to try and keep El from being attacked. Two tentacle-like arms came out of the Mind Flayer, digging themselves into Billy’s sides, him screaming out in pain.

It was very well known that I wasn’t the biggest fan of Billy after what he did to Lucas and Steve a few months ago, but I couldn’t help the tears that began to form at my waterline, knowing he was gonna die protecting Eleven.

Four more tentacles came out, grabbing onto him from all sides, hoisting him in the air as the teenager screamed out in pain. The creature brought Billy to his knees, who had black blood coming out of his mouth as he screamed at the creature roaring at him.

I screamed in horror as the creature’s mouth tentacle came rushing out, piercing itself into Billy’s sternum, Max screaming out his name.

The creature’s tentacles retreated, Billy dropping to the ground with blood coating his white tank top.

“Oh, my god,” I said, covering my mouth with my hand.

All of a sudden, the creature started writhing, tossing itself around. Steve pulled us back as it made its way towards us, crashing into the railing before landing on the floor, hopefully dead.

Making my way back to the part of the railing it didn’t destroy, I leaned over it, looking at the monster, feeling Steve and Robin all around me, fire all around the creature.

Watching Max lean over Billy’s body immediately had me looking around for Dustin, wanting to do nothing but hold him as tightly as I could.

“I’m sorry,” Billy choked out before letting out his final breath.

I moved from Steve and Robin, quickly making my way to Max, sliding onto my knees and wrapping her in a hug that I knew she needed in that moment. She grabbed onto me, sobbing into my shoulder at the loss of her big brother.

“I’m so sorry,” I cried. “I’m so sorry.” I sniffled. “It’s okay. It’s okay.” Feeling two hands on me, I looked to see El, our eyes locking before she rested her head on my shoulder.

Before we knew it, we were being brought to our feet by our military, the soldiers rushing us out of the mall before the fire could get any worse. There were soldiers, paramedics and firefighters everywhere when we got outside.

A paramedic went to grab at me first to check me over but I ushered Max forward first, letting them check her. A blanket was wrapped around my shoulders as I looked around to see if Dustin was gonna show up. When he didn’t pop up, fear took hold of me. “Where’s Dustin?”

“What?” a paramedic asked.

“My little brother,” I said, looking into her eyes. “Where is he?”

“Ma’am–”

“H-he’s got curly brown hair, like mine. He’s wearing a-a Roast Beef t-shirt–”

“Babe,” I heard Steve’s voice. I looked at him as he made his way towards me, a blanket around his own shoulders.

“Oh, thank god,” I breathed, hopping down from the ambulance to rush to him, wrapping my arms around his neck. “Thank fuck you’re okay!” I pulled back to look at him, crashing my lips to his not a second later. Pulling my lips away from his, I said, “I love you. Holy shit, do I love you! I’m so in love with you, it’s ridiculous!”

He smiled before it faltered a bit, his face slightly scrunching up at the pain in his lip. “You heard that?”

“Every single word.”

We smiled at each other before he kissed me again, our lips moving in sync for a moment before he pulled away, grimacing. I touched the bottom of the cut, saying my apologies before he shook his head, saying we should go check on our friends.

Dustin showed up a few minutes later, Erica right on his heels. I ran over to them, wrapping my brother in the biggest hug I think I’ve ever given him since his birth. A couple minutes later, I pulled away, keeping my hands on his shoulders. “From now on, we’re never separating again, do you hear me?”

He nodded in agreement, pulling me back into a hug. I let all the tears slide down my cheeks, happy that I had my brother, but sad for Max, as she lost hers.

~~~

Three Months Later

I sat in the front seat of Steve’s BMW, he in the driver's seat, Robin in the backseat. “Okay, so what are we doing?” I asked.

“Steve and I are going to see about getting a job at–” Robin said, handing me the classifieds. “Family Video.”

“The movie rental store?” I asked. “You two should get the job! I mean, Steve and I spend a shit ton of time there weekly.”

Steve had asked me to basically move in with him since his parents weren’t home a lot of the time. I had asked my mom and she practically cried as she said yes, saying how much she’d miss me. I had told her that Steve and I worked out a plan that when his parents come back, I’d be back home until they left.

So, Steve and I had movie nights pretty much every single night, although I fell asleep during every single movie we rented.

When we pulled up and Steve put the car in park, the three of us got out as Robin asked, “You put your mom down as a reference?”

“Yeah, why not?” Steve said, standing at the front of the car, hand held out for me to take. “She’s, like, super-well respected.” He opened the door, lifting his arm for me to walk under, Robin walking in behind me saying, “You’re such a dingus.”

Seeing Keith behind the counter eating Cheeto Puffs, I turned to Robin and said, “One of you might get a job.”

Keith, Robin and Steve chatted for a minute before Robin corrected Keith’s words of them getting fired. “Uh, just to be clear, we weren’t fired, ya’know. The mall burned down and, like, killed a bunch of people.”

Keith dropped their resumes, deadpanning, “Thanks for sharing. Didn’t know.”

I scoffed, “Please.

He snapped his fingers, pointing at Robin, asking, “Three favorite movies, go.”

“Uh,” she said. “The Apartment, Hidden Fortress… Children of Paradise.”

“Liv, go,” Keith said.

Confused, I said, “Uh… Sixteen Candles, Weird Science, The Breakfast Club.”

He scoffed. “Typical. John Hughes.” Snapping and pointing at Steve, he said, “You, go.”

“Favorite movies?” Steve asked.

“Did I stutter?”

I facepalmed as Steve replied, “Uh… Animal House, for sure. Uh…”

Keith snapped at him again, using two fingers to point to his eyes as he said, “Eyes on me, Harrington.”

“Yeah, uh… Star Wars.”

Pressing my forehead against Robin’s shoulder, I muttered, “Oh my god.”

“A New Hope?”

“A New what-now?”

“Which Star Wars?”

“The one with the teddy bears,” Steve said. “Duh.”

“They’re called Ewoks,” I whispered. Steve then proceeded to make noises like an Ewok.

“No? Uh… oh, the one that just came out. The movie that just came out. Babe, we saw it, remember? The one with the DeLorean and Alex P. Keaton, and he’s trying to bang his mom.” Steve chuckled as I closed my eyes and sighed. “The time… yeah, those are my top three. Classics.”

Point between Robin and I, Keith said, “You two start Monday.”

“Wait, what?” I said. “I didn’t even apply! I’m just here for moral support.”

“Monday,” Keith enunciated. Look at Steve, he said, “You start never.”

Steve looked at me, annoyance in his eyes. I rested my forehead on his shoulder, upset for him. He’d been at this all day.

Feeling a hand on my back, I turned head to face Robin as she said, “Steve, will you, uhm… give Liv and I a moment with Keith? Will you just give us a minute?”

“Why?” Steve asked.

She whispered his name as I picked my head up, looking up at him as he turned his eyes to our best friend before downcasting them to me. I leaned up just as he was leaning down, his bottom lip captured between my own.

We pulled apart just as he was reaching for his resume, sliding it along the counter as he started backing away.

“Alright, Keith, you gotta understand,” I said.

“His taste is a bit pedestrian,” Robin said. “But the dingus has other qualities.”

“He’s a douchebag of the highest order, girls,” Keith said.

“Eh, not anymore,” I defended. “I mean, to be fair, he was a bit of a prick to everyone in high school, myself included, but he’s–”

“A total chick magnet,” Robin interrupted.

I cleared my throat, looking at her with raised brows.

“Yeah, okay, and this is relevant to me, how?” Keith asked. “Besides, he’s with Henderson here.”

“Earth to Keith,” Robin enunciated. “The ladies will come in just to see him. They’ll come in in droves.”

“Quit prostituting my boyfriend,” I said.

Ignoring me, Robin continued, “We sold so much ice cream, they had to get a second shipment from Michigan. Goddamn Michigan, Keith. And these ladies–” She inhaled sharply. Yes, I know about her being gay. “These ladies are hot. They’re so very hot.”

“Okay, calm down.”

“And there are too many of them for little Steve. He needs assistance. He needs your assistance, Keith.”

Munching on a Cheeto Puff, Keith asked, “What’s in it for you? What’s in it for Olivia since she’s dating the douchebag?”

I quickly turned my head to look at the commotion behind me, watching Steve pick up a cardboard cutout of Phoebe Cates from Fast Times at Ridgemont High.

“Goddammit,” Steve said. “This is–” He tried putting the stand back in place, his resume between his lips.

“We’re just friends,” Robin said.

Turning back to her, I said, “I’m not prostituting my boyfriend. Again.”

“Oh,” Steve said, causing me to look back at him again. “Fast Times. Fast Times. Ever heard of it? Top three for me, Keith.”

Robin and I laughed at him before I went over to him, wrapping my arms around his neck after taking the paper from his mouth. Pressing a kiss to his lips, I brought a hand to his cheek, feeling his hands grip my waist.

Pulling away, I whispered, “I love you. And I think Robin just got you a job.”

“Really?” he whispered back.

“Yeah,” I smiled. “But I have to prostitute you out for sales again. Oh! I need you to take me to the Byers. They’re packing up and I want to be there to send them off.”

~~~

I got to the Byers’ house as soon as Nancy and Jonathan were bringing a mattress out to put in the U-Haul truck that was backed up to their front door. After I greeted them, I went inside, Max’s face lighting up as she saw me.

“Liv!” she said, standing up to give me a hug. Ever since the 4th of July, she’s been by my side, almost like a shadow that I welcomed. Her mom and stepdad weren’t doing so well, so I told her that I’d be there for her. She’s turned into the little sister I’ve always wanted. I’m grateful for Dustin, do not get me wrong. He’s my little buddy, and I love him.

Max guided me to a box that Dustin was sitting at, asking me to help him pack it and tape it up. I wasn’t there for five minutes before her and Lucas started singing, “Turn around, look at what you see.”

I laughed and joined in, “In her face, the mirror of your dreams.” As I looked at Dustin’s profile, the three of us continued, “Rhymes that keep their secrets will unfold behind the clouds.”

“Wait, did we get that verse right?” Max asked.

“It is ‘unfold behind the clouds,’ right?” I asked.

Turning his head to lock our eyes, he said, “Yeah, you should know it. But all three of you are butchering it, so could you please stop?”

“Oh, I don’t know,” I said. “I think we sound pretty good.”

“Yeah, join in, Dusty-bun,” Lucas said, dreamy like before blowing a couple kisses at him.

I laughed, “Yeah, Dusty-bun, join us!” as I put my arm around his shoulder.

Looking at me, Dustin said, “You’re so funny, you should be on Carson.”

“Can we hear it again?” I asked, smiling.

“No.”

“Please?”

“No, Liv. It’s reserved for Suzie’s ears and Suzie’s ears alone.”

I looked at Lucas and Max, still smiling as they shifted their eyes to mine, all three of us starting to sing again. “Turn around, looking at what you see!” Looking at Dustin, I started laughing while continuing my singing as he flipped all three of us his middle finger. Resting my head on his shoulder while looking at Lucas and Max, I laughed harder than I have in the last three months.

Of course, Steve and I have shared laughs like this in the last three months, but I haven’t shared a good laugh with my kiddos.

Yes. I consider the party my kids, as well as Dustin. I used to call him my baby when we were little.

Will packed up some things in the donation box they had set up as Jonathan and Nancy came back in the house, I’m assuming going to his room. Joyce came out with a box in her arms, her face lighting up when our eyes met.

I smiled at her, standing up and giving her a hug once she set the box down, giving me her thanks for coming to help, even though the majority of everything was already done. “I’m just here for moral support,” I told her.

She picked her box back up and went outside to put in the moving truck. I grabbed a box that the kids had packed and taped, bringing it out to the truck and setting in an open space. Tears streamed down my face as I hugged the Byers family, El included.

“You’ll call me, right?” I asked her, sniffling.

She nodded her head. “Yes.”

“I want to hear every single detail of everything you experience, okay?”

She chuckled. “Okay.”

“Okay,” I whispered. I gave her another big hug, whispering, “I love you, El.”

“I love you, too, Liv.”

Giving Joyce one last hug, she said to me, “You be good… and careful.”

I nodded, the tears flowing once again. “I will.”

Pulling out of the hug, she said, “You take care of yourself. And be safe.” She gave me knowing eyes that I chuckled at, wiping a tear away.

“We’re not there yet, but once we are, we will be.”

She nodded her head, giving me one last hug before moving to the driver’s seat of the moving truck, Jonathan and Will getting into his truck. Joyce’s car was being towed on the back of the moving truck.

The Wheeler’s, Lucas, Max, Dustin and myself stood in their driveway, watching as they drove off for the very last time. The kids got on their bikes while Nancy and I got into her mom’s car, offering me a ride to Steve’s house.

Over the last few months, Nancy and I have been on okay terms. She told me that she didn’t care that I was with Steve, she was just upset that he and I got together as quickly as we did after they broke up.

I told her the same thing, just with Jonathan, who was like a brother to me. I told her that I didn’t want to see him get hurt, but I could tell she loved Jonathan a hell of a lot more than she ever did with Steve.

When we made it to Steve's, I thanked her and got out of the car, making my way to the front door, where I let myself in with the key that he had made for me. I smiled as I took my shoes off, setting my keys down on the table by the front door. The smell of popcorn filling the air.

Steve and I walked into the living room around the same time, a handful of popcorn up at his mouth as he stared at me. “You’re home early,” he said around that handful.

“They pretty much had everything packed and loaded on the truck when I got there,” I said, walking towards him, taking my own handful of popcorn, dropping a couple of pieces into my mouth at a time.

He nodded his head, pointing to the couch with the popcorn bowl. “I was about to watch a movie.”

“Ooooh, which one?” I asked, turning on my toes to walk to the couch, plopping down on it.

“Police Academy.”

Nodding my head with an impressed look, I said, “Nice. Can I join?”

He chuckled. “Of course.” He sat down next to me, the bowl of popcorn on his lap, no sound coming from either one of us.

As the movie played, Steve and I cuddled, the popcorn long gone, and before I knew it, the movie was long forgotten about, my back to the cushions, our lips in hungry kisses.

***

Steve was slotted between my legs as he pulled my shirt up to just below my breasts, his hand resting on my ribs, lightly.

“Take it off,” I breathed. I knew he knew what I was referring to, but the look in his eyes had me say the material I meant. “My shirt. Take it off.”

“Are you sure?” he asked.

We’ve only ever made out, clothes staying on the entire time. I knew I wanted to go there with Steve, give him all of me, and I knew he wanted to give me all of him as well, but we never got there. No time ever felt like the right time.

Sure, I’ve had sex with two other guys in high school, but they never made me feel that good. The rumor mill in school said that Steve was the best and he cared for his partners, wanting to make them feel just as good as he did.

So, as I looked him in the eyes, running my hands through the sides of his head, I nodded my head. “Yes.”

“It could lead to… other things.”

“I know,” I said, softly. “I want it. I want you… again.”

Without a moment's hesitation, he leaned down, saying, “I want you again, too,” before connecting our lips in a kiss that I felt every emotion, all the love and care in. Pulling me up gently, he grabbed the sides of my shirt, lifting it over my head. He stood off the couch, taking my hands in his, lifting me to my feet. He placed his hands on my hips, telling me to jump, which I did, my legs wrapping around his hips.

As he walked towards the stairs, he checked to make sure the front door was locked. It was because I had locked it before taking off my shoes just an hour before. Taking careful steps, he walked us up the stairs, over the landing and to his room, my face buried in his neck the whole time.

I felt my back on the mattress, Steve still hovering over me. “Our first time as a couple shouldn’t be some couch fuck,” he said. “It should be special… like you.” I smiled, threading my fingers through his hair as he leaned down once more to kiss my lips, both of us breathing in deep.

It’s funny how connected you can feel to someone just by kissing them, or being around them. I’ve always felt connected with Steve, ever since we were kids. Before my dad left, he would bring me over to Steve’s, him and I swimming in his pool while his parents and my dad talked inside. When my dad walked out of his and Mom’s bedroom with his suitcase was the last time I saw him before I snuck out, Steve letting me stay over that night.

I felt Steve pull back, our eyes locking, as he asked, “What’s wrong?”

Shaking my head, I said, “Nothing. I just… love you. So much.”

He smiled, cupping my cheek with his hand. “I love you, too.” He kissed me again, the hand cupping my cheek making its way down my neck and the middle of my breasts before moving more south towards the button of my jeans. I watched him pop it open with one hand, a smile on my face as he did so.

“Look at you, Mr. I-Can-Do-Shit-With-One-Hand,” I mused.

He chuckled, looking down at my stomach. “That’s not all I could do with one hand.”

Flood gates opened at my entrance, my panties becoming wet with my arousal. “Fuck me,” I whispered. “Damn, Harrington. You have a way with words.”

“You bet, babe,” he smiled, kissing me again.

I swear, if a Demogorgon came and killed me, I would want to die right here in Steve’s arms with his lips on mine.

He moved his lips from mine to my cheek, down to my neck where he left a lovely bruise that I would have to cover tomorrow when I go to do my errands, before moving to the valley of my breasts.

They aren’t big, a low B cup, but they’re just big enough to fit into Steve’s hands after he removed my bra from my chest, tossing the material to the side of the bed, a small thud sounding on the floor as he did. I watched as he admired my breasts, looking me in the eyes after a moment.

“So perfect,” he whispered, before taking his lips to my left nipple, a gasp sounding from me.

“Oh… my god,” I breathed, carding my left hand through the back of his hair as he lapped and sucked and licked and kissed my nipple and breast. He moved the other, showing the same amount of attention as he did my left.

No eye contact was made as I watched him kiss his way down my stomach to the tops of my jeans. He sat up and looked at me before wrapping his fingers around the material hugging my hips, pulling them down slowly before dropping them to the pile that’s being started on the side of the bed.

I could tell he was straining behind his own pair of jeans, so I sat up and cupped him lightly, hearing him let out a sharp breath. “Don’t worry,” I mused. “I’ll get to him next.”

“Fuuuuuuuuuck,” he breathed as I popped the button on his jeans, bringing down his zipper to help give him more room. He laid me back down, hand resting on my stomach. “Next time, you can take care of me. This time, our first, I want to take care of you.”

All I could was smile at his words as he looked down at the center of my panties. His eyes widening for just a moment before he looked at me.

“Goddamn, babe,” he said. “All that for me?” He lightly ran a finger over my clothed core, a hiss sounding from me at the anticipation I was having.

“Yes,” I nodded. “All for you, Stevie.” There’s only a few people in the world that could call him Stevie. His mother, Robin and myself. His mother because… that’s his mother. Robin because he decided to deal with it, and me because I called him that once when we were in middle school and he said I could call him Stevie anytime.

He pulled my panties to the side, dragging his finger through my folds from my entrance to my clit, where he drew light and small circles, my back arching a little as I moaned. “That all you got for me?” he asked, drawing faster circles.

“Do other things and I’ll give you more,” I panted.

“Oh?” he asked, arching a brow. “And what else can I give you?”

“Your mouth.”

Putting my panties back in place, he said, “What do you want, Liv? What do you want me to do?”

“Eat me,” I said, hooking my thumbs into the sides of my panties, taking them off and spreading my legs. “Eat me like I’m your last meal.”

He laid on his stomach, wrapping his arms around my thighs, kissing each one carefully while making his way up, his face eventually meeting my core. Looking at me, he asked, “Are you sure?”

I nodded my head almost too eagerly. “Yes. I’m sure.”

Without missing a beat, he licked a long stripe from my entrance to my clit, just like he did with his finger. Letting out a long moan, my head went further into the pillow, my right hand grasping at the sheets while my left went for his hair.

I had also heard in that rumor mill that Steve liked his hair pulled roughly, which I didn’t believe. He would always come to school with a headache or stay home with a headache that I would ask him about the next day.

Steve wrapped his lips around my clit, sucking lightly. There were also rumors about me in the sex department at school, saying that I liked it super rough, but I didn’t. I liked a little bit of roughness when done correctly, not the kind that would have me sore all over the next day, and not the good kind of sore either.

I didn’t believe any sex rumors about Steve, and I don’t think he believed any about me, which is a really good thing. I looked down at Steve as he worked magic on my core, his tongue diving into me as his nose brushed my bud that was growing sensitive. “Steve,” I moaned out.

He put one finger in me to start, looking at me. “Yeah, baby?”

“Need you.”

Chuckling, he placed a kiss on my bud before licking it again, adding another finger to my entrance. Moaning again, I lightly pulled his hair, hearing and feeling a satisfied groan from him.

Just as my orgasm was climbing to its peak, he pulled his fingers from me, climbing up my body. “What… the… fuck… did you just do? I was gonna cum in the next five seconds!”

He chucked, kissing me to stop my unnecessary whining. “You’ll cum, don’t worry,” he said, reaching into his nightstand. He stood from the bed, shedding his jeans and boxers as I sat up quickly, getting to my knees in front of him.

“You’re getting a blow job whether you like it or not,” I said, kissing the head of his penis while wrapping my hand around his shaft. I don’t really like giving guys head because of my experience with other guys being extremely rough. But with Steve, I want to. His cock is like a drug at this very moment for me as I take the head and put him into my mouth, hearing him moan above me.

I slowly take more of him in, going as far as I can to not set my gag reflexes off. Starting my bobbing rhythm, I jerk off what’s not in my mouth. When I look up through my lashes, I see his head is tilted back. Moaning around him, I close my eyes for a moment before feeling him tap my cheek.

Pulling back, I let go of him with a small pop before kissing his shaft and standing up. Steve places his lips on mine as I hear the tearing of a foil packet, Joyce’s words sounding in my head. “Be safe.”

I can’t help but smile through the kiss, breaking apart momentarily to look down, watching as Steve rolls the rubber onto his glistening shaft.

“What’s with the smile?” he asked. “Not that I’m happy to see it.”

Shaking my head, I said, “Nothing. Just something that Joyce said earlier. No biggie.”

“What’d she say?”

“She said to be safe.” I grabbed his hand in mine, crawling backwards on the bed until my head met the pillow again, Steve hovering over me before he pulled back up again, pulling the sheets back.

“Personal preference?” I asked.

He shook his head, bringing the covers over us after I laid back down. “No. Just wanna feel closer to you, that’s all.”

I smiled at that, threading my fingers through his hair once last time before letting out a moan as he carefully and slowly slid his cock inside me. “Fuck, Steve.”

“Damn, you feel good,” he groaned.

We stayed like that for a moment, Steve letting me adjust to his size again. He’s the biggest I’ve ever had. I could cum just from this alone, his head already reaching that spot inside me that my own fingers can’t reach.

“I’m gonna move now,” he said, kissing my cheek.

All I could do was nod my head, basking in this moment. He started moving his hips back and forth at a slow, but good pace, letting me continue getting used to him. When that no longer did anything, I bucked my hips, letting him know he could go a little faster.

Resting his forearms beside my head, he looked me in my eyes and I knew he was going to say what he told the other girls, but what came out of his mouth shocked me. “You’re out of this world beautiful.” Well, I wasn’t expecting that.

Cupping his cheek, I whispered, “And you’re out of this world handsome.”

He kissed me stupid after that, both of us cumming at the same time.

After he disposed of the condom and carefully helped to clean and dress me, we laid in his bed, his arm around me as I cuddled into his side. He ran his fingers up and down my arm as I closed my eyes, content in this moment with him.

***

“I love you,” I whispered, tears coming to my eyes.

“I love you, too,” he whispered back.

“No, like…” I sniffled, sitting up. “I love you. Like, I wanna marry you one day, have your babies, grow old with you kind of love.”

He cupped my cheek for what felt like the millionth time tonight, wiping away a tear that had fallen from my waterline. “Is that why you’re crying?”

I nodded, leaning into his touch.

Smiling, he said, “Well, it’s the same for me, baby. Always has been.”

“Aside from–”

“Even with Nance. I think I loved her because I felt like I couldn’t have you.”

Another tear fell, and another wipe with his thumb. I leaned down, capturing his bottom lip between mine before laying back down, my head on his shoulder. I sighed, closing my eyes, ready for sleep.

“I love you, Stevie.”

“I love you, Livvie.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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A/N 2: hi, friends! pls be kind and reblog! it really helps us content creators out <3

Additional Note: S4 COMING NEXT WEEK!! also, if y'all want a backstory on the "again" comment before they do the smexy time, let me know!!

~~~

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~~~

*Please don’t post my writing anywhere else without my consent. The author of this work will always and forever be @harringtonstilinski.

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Posted on April 16, 2024

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peonierose · 2 years

Text

Last Christmas…I gave you my heart

Chapter 2

Underneath the Christmas tree

Book: Open Heart

Rating: Fluff / Teen

Pairing: Bryce Lahela x Luna Auclair (F!OC)

Words: 895

Premise: All Events occur after OH ended.

Sidenote: All characters belong to Pixelberry, I’m merely borrowing them for the sake of this story. Luna, Maxine are creations of my own.

Sorry it took me some time to post this after the first chapter, I just couldn’t get into writing these days.

Summary: Bryce and Keiki wrap Christmas presents, while Luna and Maxine shop for last minute presents. Please enjoy 😊

Bryce

I have the day off, finally.

After a long shift, I just want to spend the day in bed, preferably all day long.

It wasn’t a complicated surgery by any means, but after a while you just get tired, and your bed is calling your name.

I can fall asleep while standing, no joke.

Luna found me like that many times just nodding off.

Keiki has been talking non-stop and I have to say I wasn’t really listening to her.

We both agreed to wrap Lunas gifts we got her, while she‘s out with Maxine, probably buying presents at the last-minute, or doing other girl stuff, I smile to myself.

My ears perk up when I catch the last words of what Keiki was saying.

“…yeah you’re getting old,” Keiki says to me, while we’re wrapping the gifts to put underneath the Christmas tree.

“What? Says who?” I say stubbornly, while putting a green ribbon around the present I got for Luna, green is her favorite color.

She squints her eyes together

“Is that a grey hair I see,” she points to my messy hair.

“What?“ I put away the gift I started to wrap and in a panic I sprint to the nearest mirror, part my hair to check for any grey hairs.

That’s when I hear roaring laughter coming from the couch and see Keiki rolled onto her stomach from laughing, almost slipping onto the floor.

“You’re so easy to tease, it’s hilarious,” she wipes tears from her cheeks.

“Ha ha very funny,” I retort, sitting down on the carpet to continue wrapping.

She sits down next to me.

“Admit it, you believed it for a hot second,” she nudges me with her shoulder.

Smiling reluctantly at her words.

“Maybe,” I mumble, not wanting to admit it.

She stares at me until I have to look up.

“No,” I say shaking my head already.

“You don’t even know what I’m going to say,“ she argues.

“Uh-uh, yeah I’m not going to give you any hints about your present. You’ll have to wait for Christmas morning to unwrap it,“ is all I say.

Keiki pouts at that.

“Ugh fine,“ though a small smile slips onto her face.

I wonder if Lunes and Maxine found all the presents they need, and if Luna will like what I got her.

———————————————————

Luna

Meanwhile I dragged Maxine to go shopping with me.

Literally. She flew in from Maui to spend Christmas with us, and the first thing we did in Boston was to go shopping.

Our warm breath forms little clouds in the cold winter air, as we walk across town to go to all the stores, because I need one more present.

Yes, that’s right I need one for Bryce.

I just can’t figure out what to get him, we spent almost all afternoon going from one store to the next, coming up empty-handed.

“You should just get him a lap dance, cause that green lingerie is really something. Even I would love to see you in that,“ she says suggestively and smiles at me her dimples showing.

“A lapdance?“

I come to a halt and scare an older lady who walks her giant poodle down the street, she just gasps and with wide eyes, lifts her chin and says

“Come along poochy,“ she walks by but gives us a sideways glance full of disdain.

Maxine and I just break out into a fit of laughter in the middle of the busy street.

“Oh my god, who in the world names their dog poochy?“ Maxine catches her breath first, while I’m hunched over from laughing.

“I have no idea, but the look she gave us? Priceless,“ I turn serious again

“On a serious note what should I get Bryce? I want it to be something special, you know? Not just anything,“ I sigh in frustration.

Maxine eyes me for a second before she replies

“You’re an artist, make him something“ she says matter of fact.

My eyes light up and I snap my fingers

“That’s it. There’s this picture I took of Bryce when we were in Maui, last summer. It was in the evening he had his surfboard under arm, and was staring into the distance. I could paint that, frame it and give it to him“ I finish, and give Maxine a fierce hug.

“Thank you, thank you,“ I mumble into her shoulder, and give her a kiss on the cheek.

“You know I love you, but not that much,“ she continues and winks at me.

“Although where are you going to paint it?“ she asks wondering out loud.

My shoulders slump

“Oh yeah, I haven’t thought of that“ I say sadly.

“You could just bring all your stuff to the place I rented and finish it there,“ she suggests.

“You wouldn’t mind?“ I ask hesitantly.

“Of course not, bring Keiki along, we’ll do a slumber party,“ Maxine adds.

I nod, my mind spinning with ideas for the painting.

I count off on my fingers

“I need some more paint and they’re these brushes that would work perfectly and…“

Maxine just shakes her head in amusement.

“Come on let’s make that dream a reality, artist girl.“

Together we walk into town to get me all the things I need for an epic painting, laughing all the way to the stores.

Please let me know if you want to be added or removed. Thanks for reading, liking and reblogging 😘

@openheartfanfics

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#Bryce Lahela x Luna Auclair #Keiki Lahela x Dylan Yu #Maxine #Last Christmas…I gave you my heart #Open Heart

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harringtonstilinski · 5 months

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Always The Babysitter - Chapter Six: The Monster

Author: @harringtonstilinski Characters: Steve Harrington x Olivia Henderson(OC) (eventually) Word Count: 2,879 Warnings: lil’ bit more angst, canon violence (aka; steve gets his ass kicked) Smut: no | yes; A/N: Hi, friends! I’m sorry this is late! We get a small Henderson!Sibling interaction in this chapter! If you like this chapter, please do not hesitate to reblog and give some feedback, whether it be in the reblogs, comments, or my inbox. As always, read at your own risk and enjoy 😊

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“I just don’t understand why we’re coming out here,” Carol said from the backseat. “She obviously doesn’t wanna talk to you.”

“That’s… that’s not it,” Steve said.

“Oh, really?” I said. “Because no girl in their right mind would wanna blow off King Steve.”

“She took the words right out of my mouth,” Carol said.

“Liv, you saw her,” Steve said. “She was acting weird. Something was wrong.”

“She’s stressed because of Will,” I retorted. “So am I, but so what? Who cares?”

“You’re worried about her?” Carol asked.

“What?” Steve and I asked.

“Aww, he is!” Carol leaned forward, putting her arm around Steve, saying,” Aww, Steve has a heart.”

Taking her arm off of him, Steve asked her to stop as she moved to the backseat.

“Oh, Stevie’s in love,” Tommy boasted.

I shrunk in my seat, getting very uncomfortable. I crossed my arms and looked out the window.

I’m not sure if Steve sensed my uncomfortableness or was just tired of the two in the backseat, but I jumped and looked over at Steve as he shouted, “Shut up!”

He looked over at me, saying, “Sorry,” in a quiet voice, knowing that I hate loud noises due to my anxiety.

Steve pulled up next to the Wheeler house, and I just… looked at it. I felt Steve’s eyes on me, so I looked at him. “I’ll be right back.”

I nodded, tightening my arms. I hated that Steve left me in the car with the two popular wannabe idiots. I watched Steve climb up to Nancy’s window when Carol asked me, “So, how long have you liked Steve?”

“What?” I asked, confused. I looked back at her, seeing her smiling while chewing on her gum. I sighed, “You’re annoying,” while turning back towards the front.

“What was that?” she asked.

“You look like a damn cow chomping on that gum.”

Steve entered the car just then, demeanor completely changed. He looked over at me and the look in his eyes told me he saw something he didn’t like. He tilted his head just a little, his tell tale sign of him asking me a specific question.

I nodded my head, sighing. “Yeah,” I whispered. “I’ll stay.”

~~~

After he took Carol and Tommy home, Steve and I rode back to his house, the tension intense. I looked out the window, playing with my fingers. When I looked over at him, he was just… calm.

“Do you wanna…”

“No,” he said.

I nodded my head, afraid he knew we were lying to him earlier.

When we got to his house, he put the car in park and killed the ignition. We sat there for a moment before he just… got out. I looked down at my fingers, taking a few breaths. I half expected him to have already been in his house, but when I looked up, he was waiting for me at the front passenger tire.

I got out and closed the door, following him inside his house where his parents actually sat in the living room. Did they acknowledge us? Nope.

Steve and I went straight to his bedroom, him going to his pajama drawer as I went to the phone in his bedroom. I called my mom, letting her know that I was going to be staying at Steve’s and that I would call her in the morning.

When I turned around, Steve was standing at the foot of his bed holding a pair of sweats and another one of his shirts that I loved. I grabbed them and went into the bathroom to change, quickly brushing my teeth with a spare toothbrush I found.

I went back into Steve’s room, finding him sitting on the side of his bed before I sat down next to him, facing him with my legs crossed. I looked at my hands and waited a moment before asking, “Do you wanna talk about it?”

“Did you know she was with Byers?”

“With him, with him? No, I thought she was with you.”

“No, I mean hanging out. Is that why she ditched me today?”

“I really don’t know,” I said, looking back down at my hands.

I felt the bed move as he got up. Watching as he paced the room, I said, “Steve–”

“You’re lying to me.”

I sighed, closing my eyes. “I knew they were hanging out.”

“Dammit, Liv.”

“But I didn’t know he was going back to her house! I know they started hanging out a little because of Will going missing–”

“How do you know him?”

“I babysit Will from time to time. Dustin, my little brother, is best friends with him, as well as Mike, Nancy’s little brother. We all know each other.”

He sighed. “I can’t believe this.”

“Can’t believe what?”

“That she’d cheat on me,” he whispered.

“Do you honestly think she’s cheating on you?”

“Why else would she be hanging out like that with that weirdo?”

“Why are you so obsessed with this?”

“Because he had his arm around her!” he all but yelled.

“You put your arm around me! What the hell is the difference?”

“She’s my girlfriend! You’re my best friend!”

“Maybe they’re friends now, Steve. Have you ever thought of that?!”

I could feel the anger rolling off of him, so I did the one thing I used to do when he would get this angry with his dad; I wrapped my arms around his middle and pressed my ear to his chest. I could feel him trying to resist until he put his arms around my shoulders and sighed.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “I’m just a little upset.”

“I understand,” I said. “And it’s okay to be upset.” I looked up at him, into his beautiful brown eyes. “Just don’t take it too far.”

He kissed my forehead, just like he used to and suggested we lay down. It didn’t take long before I fell asleep to the sound of Steve’s breathing.

When I woke up the next morning, I heard him say, “Yeah. Today. Theater. Just get everything and get down there.”

I sat up and rubbed my eye a little, yawning. “What’s going on?”

He looked at me, walking back to my side and sitting on the mattress. “Nothing. Uhm… do you wanna hang out again today? I can take you home, let you shower and change, check on your mom and little brother.”

I smiled a little. “I’d like that, thank you.”

He changed into some normal clothes for the day, telling me it’s okay if I left my clothes.

“I’m not sure you want me to do that.” He looked confused, so I told him they were Nancy’s clothes and that I’d probably better take them with me.

We left his house a few minutes later, arriving at mine about ten minutes later. He’d asked me to meet him at the movie theater a little later, and I agreed, thinking we’d be watching a movie.

After I went inside, I showered and changed, running into Dustin in the hallway. I instantly hugged him, asking him where he was after the funeral. I could feel the confusion running off of him, so I pointed down the hall, silently telling him to go along with it. He gave some bullshit excuse that even I didn’t believe.

He asked me to go with him to Mike’s house, so I followed him on my bike, letting him know that I had to meet Steve at the movie theater in just a little while. We walked into the Wheeler’s basement, seeing that El’s tent that Mike had set up was torn down.

Mike sighed before saying, “I just… I can’t believe she didn’t come back.”

“She’s gotta be close,” Dustin said.

“Wait, back up,” I said. “What do you mean, didn’t come back?”

Dustin quickly explained to me about how while they were following the magnetic field, they kept going around in circles. Turns out that El was using her powers to mess with the magnetic field. She threw Lucas back with her powers at one point and he went home mad as all hell. El ended up disappearing while Mike and Lucas were fighting.

“She said it wasn’t safe,” Mike said. “She just messed up the compasses because she wanted to protect us. She didn’t betray us.”

“Mike, calm down,” Dustin said.

“I shouldn’t have yelled at her. I never should’ve done that.”

“Wait, you yelled at her?” I asked, arms crossed.

“I didn’t mean to!”

“Mike, this isn’t your fault,” Dustin said.

“Yeah, it’s Lucas’.”

“It wasn’t his fault, either.”

“Look, I’d love to sit here and figure out who’s fault it was for whatever happened, but I have to go,” I said. “I have to go meet and help Nancy with something.” I kissed the top of Dustin’s head. “Be safe, and please for the love of God, make things up with Lucas.”

I walked outside and got on my bike, making my way to the theater where Steve was standing at the bottom of a ladder while Tommy H. was on the top of it, spray painting All The Right Moves with Nancy The Slut Wheeler.

“Oh, my–” I said, covering my mouth. I looked at Steve, who had an apologetic look on his face. “Don’t you dare. You could’ve called her and broken up with her, not do this.”

“I bet she’s with Byers right now,” Steve said.

“Maybe! I don’t know! I’m not her keeper!”

He sighed and looked back at Tommy, who was climbing down the ladder. When he saw me, he smiled and said, “Come to join the party?”

I rolled my eyes and went down the nearest alley, sitting on a concrete step, Tommy going back to his spray painting on the wall. I just shook my head and looked down at the ground. A pair of shoes came into my view, so I looked up to their owner; Steve.

“Look, I’m really sorry I dragged you into this,” he said, looking almost… regretful. “I know you don’t like this, and I know I’m the one you dragged you here. Just–”

“I won’t say anything,” I said. “Unless she asks.”

He lightly chuckled as Carol was telling Tommy that he wrote like a three year old. He moved a little out of the way as I went to stand, looking at what Tommy was doing.

“Wow, Tommy,” I said, sarcastically. “I didn’t know you could spell. I guess you did learn something last year.”

Nicole snickered as Tommy turned to face me, eyes moving up and down before he said, “Yeah, well, at least I don’t hide shit.”

“Aw, hey there, princess,” Carol said.

I looked over and watched as Nancy made her way towards us. I scratched my temple and moved to stand beside Steve.

“Uh-oh,” Tommy said. “She looks upset.”

“Shut up, Tommy,” I said.

I watched as Nancy slapped Steve on his cheek out of nowhere. Moving to stand kind of in between them, I held my hands out a little, saying to Nancy, “Calm down, Nance.”

“Calm down?” she asked, voice quivering a little. She looked at Steve and asked, “What is wrong with you?”

“What’s wrong with me?” Steve asked. “What’s wrong with you? I was worried about you. I can’t believe that I was actually worried about you.” He looked at me for a split moment, eyes asking for backup.

“What are you talking about?” Nancy exclaimed.

I sighed and said, “I wouldn’t lie, Nance.”

“You don’t wanna be known as the lying slut now, do you?” Carol piped up.

Looking back at her, I said, “Shut up, Carol.”

“Speak of the devil,” Tommy said.

I looked over and saw Jonathan standing behind Nancy. She turned and looked at Jonathan before looking back at Steve, asking “You came by last night?”

I just looked at Steve looking down at her as Carol said, “Ding, ding, ding! Does she get a prize?”

“Carol, knock it off,” I said through gritted teeth.

“Look, I don’t know what you saw, but it wasn’t like that,” Nancy tried to explain.

Steve’s eyes went up to look at the oldest Byers boy and said, “What, you just let him in your room to–” He blinked and looked back at Nancy before finishing his sentence with, “Study?”

“Or for another pervy photo session?” Tommy asked.

Reaching behind me, I hit Tommy in his stomach. “Shut. Up.”

“We were just–�� Nancy said.

“You were just what?” Steve asked. “Finish that sentence. Finish… the sentence.”

She looked at me, asking me with her eyes to back her up now. A few more seconds went by and I took a step towards Steve. I knew exactly what they were up to today and I know that she needed me, but I was kind of upset at her for ditching me for Barb. I wasn’t about to let Steve hanging by doing what she did to me.

He scoffed and said, “Go to hell, Nancy.” He took a step back towards me as Jonathan took one towards Nancy.

“Come on, Nancy,” Jonathan said. “Let’s just go.”

I grabbed Steve’s arm because I knew exactly what was about to go down, but he lightly shoved my arm away while addressing the Byers boy.

“You know what, Byers?” Steve said. “I’m actually kind of impressed.”

“Steve,” I said.

“I always took you for a queer, but I guess you’re just a screw-up like your father,” he said, shoving Jonathan as they walked.

“Steve!” I started walking towards him, trying to get in between him and Jonathan so that something bad wouldn’t go down.

Steve just kept trying to keep me behind him as he continued to taunt Jonathan. “Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That house is just full of screw-ups.”

“Steve!” I exclaimed at his choice of words.

“You know, I guess I shouldn’t really be surprised,” Steve continued. “A bunch of screw-ups in your family.”

“Jonathan, leave it,” Nancy said at the same time I said, “Steve, stop it.”

“I mean, your mom–”

“Steve, stop!” I said.

“I’m not even surprised what happened to your brother. I’m sorry I have to be the one to tell you, but the Byers, their family, it’s a disgrace to the entire–”

Nancy and I were yelling at Steve to stop antagonizing Jonathan, but he wouldn’t listen to us ‘cause Jonathan just turned around and punched Steve right on the left side of his face.

When Steve turned to me when he got punched, his shoulder bumped mine. I couldn’t move as I watched him turn a little towards Jonathan. He put his hand on my stomach to push me back as I said, “Steve, no!” to no avail.

Steve launched himself towards Jonathan, wrapping his arms around the oldest Byers boy, putting him on the hood of the car behind them. Steve then got a better grip on Jonathan sending him down the concrete below.

“Steve, stop!” I said, sternly. Again, to avail.

Steve got on top of him for a second before Jonathan rolled them over as Tommy said, “Kick his ass, man!”

“Steve,” Nancy and I said.

He ended up kneeing Jonathan in his side to make him get off of him. Steve tried standing as Jonthan did, the Byers boy getting the advantage by punching Steve in the face again.

“Get in there, he’s going to hurt himself,” Carol said. Wow. She actually does have a brain.

Tommy shoved Jonathan off of Steve, which gave me the clearance I needed to try and get in front of my best friend to talk some sense into him, but as I got in front of him, Steve put his hands on my shoulders and lightly pulled me out of the way as he said, “Hey. Hey! Get out of here! Get out of here! Get out of here!”

Tommy moved as Nicole wrapped her arms around me, trying to keep me in place. We all watched as Jonathan swung at Steve, who ducked before landing a punch to Jonathan, who swung another punch at Steve, causing him to go down.

“Jonathan, stop!” Nancy and I said.

“Stop! You’re going to hurt him!” I exclaimed, slightly struggling to get out of Nicole’s hold as Jonathan punched Steve again.

Steve went to the ground and Jonathan kneeled next to him, bringing him up by his jacket and punching him again.

“Cops!” Tommy said.

“Shit!” I exclaimed, looking down the alley.

“Jonathan, get off of him!” Nancy yelled.

Three punches, a lot of yelling about cops, plus yelling at Jonathan to stop punching Steve and him also accidentally punching Callahan, Tommy finally got Steve off the ground.

Tommy and Steve started running just as Callahan and I made eye contact.

“Back to the station for you,” he said to me.

“Shit,” I said before I bolted away from him, going in between Tommy and the car parked in front of me. I didn’t stop running until I found Steve’s car, asking him for his keys. All I could hear as we were running was Callahan calling my name and saying that I was in big trouble and sooner or later I was gonna find myself at the station again.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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~~~

A/N 2: hi, friends! i have no excuse why this late. i really don't. but, please do not hesitate to reblog and give some feedback, whether it be in the reblogs, comments, or my inbox.

Additional Note: i know that some of y’all are waiting to see your requests, and i promise i’ll get to them. the writer’s block hit really bad with them. atb is the only thing i have motivation to post for at the moment.

~~~

Forever / Everything Taglist: @stiles-o-dylan24 @stixnstripesworld @fandom-princess-forevermore @quanticobae @mischiefandi @kellyashcroft @lauren-novak

Steve Harrington Taglist: @madaboutjoe

If you’re tagged and didn’t want to be, please let me know.

~~~

*Please don’t post my writing anywhere else without my consent. The author of this work will always and forever be @harringtonstilinski.

All characters, story lines, and plot aside from y/n and her storyline & plot, are all of the work of The Duffer Brothers.

*These works contain material protected under International and Federal Copyright Laws and Treaties. Any unauthorized reprint or use of this material is prohibited.

Posted on December 12, 2023

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harringtonstilinski · 4 months

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Always The Babysitter - Chapter Eleven: The Pollywog

Author: @harringtonstilinski Characters: Steve Harrington x Olivia Henderson(OC) (eventually) Word Count: 2,167 Warnings: fluff, lil' bit of angst, Smut: no | yes; A/N: Hi, friends! We've got some fluff in this episode!! If you like this chapter, please do not hesitate to reblog and give some feedback, whether it be in the reblogs, comments, or my inbox. As always, read at your own risk and enjoy 😊

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I had Steve drop me off at the station on the way to school so that I could show Hopper that I could go to a party and not be at the station all night… and so that Steve could go get some breakfast. Hopper was surprised and so was I, so I got a little bit of work done before Steve came back by to pick me up.

We rode to school, just talking about nothing, reminiscing on a few memories, laughing. Once we got to school, we sat in his car, eating our breakfast, still laughing and sharing our favorite memories with one another.

“Oh, my god,” I said, swallowing my bite of food. “Do you remember that time when we were like 12 or 14 and your parents busted us for looking at their special book?”

Steve laughed, putting his hand on the steering wheel. “Yes! It was one of the few times they were actually home for a while.” His laughter died down, and so did his mood before he took a bite of his breakfast sandwich.

I sighed, “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have brought that one up.”

“No, no, it’s… it’s cool,” he said. “I like it. I like this.”

Looking at him, I asked, “Like what?” before looking at my own breakfast sandwich and taking a bite, eyes back on him.

“This. Us. What we’re doing.”

“Being friends?”

He nodded. “Best friends.” Taking another bite, he sighed before chuckling. “You might be upset with me for bringing this up, but what about the time before you started getting busted by the cops?”

I had to think for a moment before smiling and chuckling. “The 4th of July party at Tina’s? “

Nodding, he said, “Yeah. That’s the one! When they came and tried to break the party up because some snitch called them and said someone ordered a keg?”

“Oh, my god, I totally forgot someone called!” I exclaimed, laughing. “And we ran back to your house, almost falling in the woods from laughing, and then actually falling into your pool from not watching where we were going?”

Throwing his back against the headrest, Steve laughed… hard. I haven’t seen him laugh that hard in a while, and it felt good to see him let go for a moment. As his laughter started to die down, he cleared his throat. “Do you, uhh… do you remember what else happened that night?”

I nodded my head, looking down at my half eaten sandwich. “I do. How could I forget?” I looked at him, his eyes already on me. I had a feeling about what would happen next, and I wanted it to, but I instead cleared my throat. As I opened my mouth to say the memory, I heard the first period bell ring.

“Guess that’s our cue,” I sighed. “Let’s go try and learn something. Oh! Did you ever finish your essay?”

He shook his head, “No. I missed the deadline.”

“Steve, I’m so sorry,” I said, sadness in my tone and facial features.

“It’s alright, there’s always next time,” he sighed. “Come on. We don’t wanna be late.”

~~~

Second period. Gym. Well… it was Steve’s gym period. I had another class, but Steve had also asked me to sit in the gym with him like I used to, so I went and got my classwork from my teacher and went to the gym.

Watching Steve in his element playing basketball was… awesome. I hadn’t seen him play in what felt like forever, it was nice seeing him play again… even if it is against Billy Hargrove being a skin. Skins vs Shirts.

When I heard someone grunt, I looked up from my papers, seeing Steve and Billy’s back towards me. I could hear their conversation.

“Harrington, right?” Billy said. “I heard you used to run this school. That true? King Steve they used to call you, huh? Then you turned bitch.”

“Hey, maybe you should just shut up and just play the game,” Steve said.

“Don’t let him get to you, Steve,” I muttered, knowing he couldn’t hear me. I was about three benches high on the bleachers.

Billy went around Steve, getting the ball from him while knocking Steve to the ground. I jumped a little, a grimace look on my face. My eyes were on Steve the whole time as he got up, so I guess Billy made a basket because his teammates cheered for him.

As soon as Steve rested his hands on his knees, I went back to my work for a moment before hearing Nancy calling his name. He walked over the bleachers, grabbing a towel and putting it around his neck.

I felt a tap on my arm, so I looked over, seeing Steve gesturing to the door with his head. I put my stuff down, and got down off the bleachers, following him and Nancy to the pathway in between the gym and another building.

“What are you doing here?” Steve asked.

“What do you think?” Nancy retorted. “Where were you this morning? I missed first period.”

“No need to be harsh,” I muttered.

“I figured Jonathan would take you,” Steve said.

Looking at me, Nancy asked, “Wha… what is he talking about?”

“I told you to go on easy on the fuel,” I sighed. “You remember the party last night, right?”

“Yes.”

“What happened during and after?” I asked, crossing my arms.

“I remember dancing, and… spilling some punch, Steve got mad at me because I was drunk, and then you two took me home.”

Steve scoffed. “No, yeah, see, that’s where your mind gets a little bit fuzzy. That was your other boyfriend. That was… that was Jonathan.”

“I don’t understand,” Nancy said.

“In all fairness, I did tell him to take her home,” I said, gently tapping a couple times on his shoulder.

“It’s pretty simple, Nancy,” Steve said. “You were just telling it like it is.”

Looking at me, she asked, “What?”

Seeing Steve looking at the ground, I knew I had to take care of this. “Uhm… let’s see. Apparently, all three of us killed Barb ‘cause she’s the only person on your mind these days and we don’t care, apparently Steve is bullshit, and your whole–”

“Our whole– our whole relationship is bullshit, and… I mean, pretty much everything is bullshit, bullshit, bullshit,” Steve said, counting the last three bullshit’s on his fingers. “Oh, yeah, also, you don’t love me.”

“I was drunk, Steve,” Nancy said. “I don’t remember any of that.”

I stood a step back as Steve exclaimed, “So that makes everything that you said– it’s what? It’s just bullshit, too?”

“Yes.”

“Well, then tell me,” Steve said, voice breaking ever so slightly.

I stepped back to him, feeling the need to be there for my best friend now more than ever.

“Tell you what?” Nancy asked.

“You love me,” Steve said.

I was pissed at Nancy for giving her retort of, “Really?”

“Harrington!” came Drew’s voice. I turned around and looked at him as he said, “Dude, we need you, man! That douchebag’s killing us, let’s go! Come on!”

I felt Steve’s hand brush against my back as he said, “Alright!”

Turning my head, I looked at Nancy, rolling my eyes as she didn’t give Steve the answer he wanted. She looked down in the direction of my shoes before looking back up at Steve, giving us both the answer we knew; she didn’t love him and she probably never did.

Putting his hand on my back, he pushed me gently, but I shrugged him off as he told Nancy, “I think that you’re bullshit.” Hearing his footsteps walk away, all I could do was keep my eyes on Nancy.

“Did you ever really love him?” I asked. “Like, truly?”

She didn’t give me a reply either.

I scoffed. “I still stand by what I said last night. That you just ruined the best thing you ever had. I hope you don’t fuck up with Jonathan because if you do, there’s no coming back from that.” I walked back into the gym, taking my seat. I couldn’t focus on my school work, so I just watched Steve play basketball until it was time for them to hit the showers.

~~~

As I walked outside from turning in my homework late, I saw Billy’s car zoom off. All I see when I look at him or his car is the color red. I still wanted to hurt him. Before I could run off after his car, an arm on my shoulders pulling me in the opposite direction stopped me.

“Let me take you to work.”

“Steve, I don’t wanna work, I wanna kill,” I said.

“No, you don’t.”

I sighed, relenting. We got in his car and drove in silence for a few moments before he said, “Thank you. For being there for me today.”

“Anytime,” I smiled.

“And last night.”

“It’s no problem, Steve. Really.”

I looked at him, seeing the ghost of a smile creep across his face. We didn’t bring up Nancy or the fact that they broke up. We talked about almost anything and everything, and not the fact that my feelings for my best friend hit me like a charter bus.

When we arrived at the station, Steve told me to stay put as he got out. I watched with confusion as he walked over to my side of the car and opened the door. He helped me out, which I told him he didn’t need to.

He wished me a good day at work before he gave me a hug, our special hug. I walked to the station door as I heard his car door shut before turning around to wave him goodbye before he drove off.

I walked inside, punched my timecard and got to work doing all the things that Flo prepared for me, like always.

“Where’s Hop?” I asked.

“He went out,” she replied.

“Where, Flo?” I smiled.

She didn’t say anything, and that told me she really didn’t know.

I sighed, and stood up. She started writing something on her pad of paper as I grabbed my things and went back outside the station. Walking home, I knew that what I was doing was stupid, but Hopper was like a father to me since my own abandoned his own family.

When I got home, I asked my mom if I could borrow her car, to which she told me she needed it for errands. I totally understood, so I walked back outside and got on my bike, going to whatever property Hopper was on since that morning I heard him say something about the pumpkin patches.

When I found him, he was standing with a man from the lab. I only knew he was from the lab because Hopper told me about him. I guess Hop heard me walking quickly towards them because he turned his head before approaching me.

“What are you doing here?” he asked. “You’re supposed to be at the station.”

“And leave all the fun to you? No way.”

He sighed. “Stay quiet.”

We walked back over to the man, the smell of the rotting pumpkins hitting me in the face.

I watched as men in white hazmat suits packed a few pumpkins into metal boxes. “What?” I said quietly.

“Well, you were right about these pumpkins,” the other man said. “Some nasty stuff. And the smell– gee, mother of God.”

“Damn,” I muttered.

“Dr. Sam Owens,” the man said.

I looked at him, seeing his hand sticking out.

“Olivia, or Liv,” I said, shaking his hand.

“We got a last name?”

“You from the lab?”

He looked at Hopper, who was looking ahead.

“Then to you, I have no last name.”

“Henderson,” Dr. Owens said.

“What?”

“What exactly do you think is going on–” Hop said.

“Well, I told you what I think,” Dr. Owens replied. “But, we’ll run the tests, and we’ll see what comes up. In the meantime, I just need you to keep the area clear for us. I don’t think it’ll be more than a day or two.”

Turning to face Dr. Owens a little bit, Hopper asked, “What do you want me to tell people?”

I swatted a few flies away from me as Dr. Owens replied, “I’m sure you’ll think of something. Olivia can help you.”

“Olivia can do what now?” I asked, swatting at the air.

Dr. Owens walked away as Hop’s radio went off. “Hey, Chief, you copy?”

Hopper answered with, “Yeah.”

“Do you remember that Russian girl Murray was going on about the other day? Yeah, well, now I’m thinking he’s not so crazy after all.”

Hopper looked at me, putting a hand on my shoulder to guide me to his truck as he said into his walkie, “Stay where you are. Do not move.” Putting his radio away, he said to me, “Put your bike in the back and get in, now.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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~~~

A/N 2: hi, friends! i have no excuse why this late. i really don’t. but, please do not hesitate to reblog and give some feedback, whether it be in the reblogs, comments, or my inbox.

Additional Note: there’s kind of a deleted scene in this episode where hop and liv talk. if y'all are interested, i can write that scene for you!! also, i know that some of y’all are waiting to see your requests, and i promise i’ll get to them. the writer’s block hit really bad with them. atb is the only thing i have motivation to post for at the moment.

~~~

Forever / Everything Taglist: @stiles-o-dylan24 @stixnstripesworld @fandom-princess-forevermore @quanticobae @mischiefandi @kellyashcroft @lauren-novak

Steve Harrington Taglist: @madaboutjoe

If you’re tagged and didn’t want to be, please let me know.

~~~

*Please don’t post my writing anywhere else without my consent. The author of this work will always and forever be @harringtonstilinski.

All characters, story lines, and plot aside from y/n and her storyline & plot, are all of the work of The Duffer Brothers.

*These works contain material protected under International and Federal Copyright Laws and Treaties. Any unauthorized reprint or use of this material is prohibited.

Posted on January 15, 2024

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harringtonstilinski · 5 months

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Always The Babysitter - Chapter Five: The Flea and the Acrobat

Author: @harringtonstilinski Characters: Steve Harrington x Olivia Henderson(OC) (eventually) Word Count: 3,879 Warnings: lil’ bit of angst, Smut: no | yes; A/N: Hi, friends! I’m sorry this is late! All is explained in A/N2. We don’t get much of Steve in this chapter. BUT!, If you like this chapter, please do not hesitate to reblog and give some feedback, whether it be in the reblogs, comments, or my inbox. As always, read at your own risk and enjoy 😊

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While I was sitting in the living room with my mom, the phone rang. With a huff, I got up and answered it, hearing my brother’s pleading voice on the other end of the line. I sighed before hanging up, telling my mom that I needed to head to the Wheeler’s house for a moment. I don’t think she heard me as she held onto Mews.

I got on my bike and made my way to the Wheeler’s, thinking about everything that has transpired since the 6th, which was only a few days ago. The boys had told me, once I stepped foot into the basement, that they heard Will’s voice. Of course, at first, I didn’t believe them, but once I stopped and thought about it for a moment, my belief was there.

Crossing my arms, I looked from El to Mike, asking, “So, what was Will saying?”

“Like home… like home… but dark?” Mike said, getting up from his seat on the couch.

“And empty,” Lucas added.

“E.T. home phone,” I muttered.

Dustin sighed from his seat on the basement stairs and said, “Empty and cold. Wait, did he say cold?”

“Does it matter?” I asked.

“I don’t know,” Lucas said. “The stupid radio kept going in and out.”

Sighing again, Dustin said, “It’s like riddles in the dark.”

I thought for a moment, sighing. “Like home. Wait, like his house?”

Pointing his finger in agreement, Lucas said, “Or maybe like Hawkins.”

“Upside down,” El said, fatigue lacing her voice.

I looked at her for a moment before walking to the couch and squatting beside it at the armrest.

“What’d she say?” Lucas asked.

“Upside down,” I whispered.

“What?”

“Upside down,” Mike said.

I turned my head and watched as he sat at the table, messing with the D&D game board as he explained, “When El showed us where Will was, she flipped the board over, remember?” He flipped it a couple times before looking at me and saying, “Upside down. Dark. Empty.”

Turning to look at me, Lucas asked, “Do you understand what he’s talking about?”

“Not got a clue,” I said, standing. I walked over to the table and sat across from the Wheeler boy, Dustin agreeing with me.

“Guys, come on, think about it,” Mike said. “When El took us to find Will, she took us to his house, right?”

“Yeah,” Lucas said. “And he wasn’t there.”

I was finally picking up what Mike was laying down as I shook my head, “But what if he was there, and we just couldn’t see him? What if he was on the other side?” I took the board from Mike as Lucas thought about it, and flipped in on the white side. “What if this is Hawkins and…” I flipped the board back to its black bottom. “This is where Will is? The Upside Down.”

“Like the Vale of Shadows,” Dustin said.

“Yeah, whatever.”

“You don’t understand, do you?”

“Nope.” Dustin sighed, saying, “Sisters,” before he grabbed Mike’s gaming manual, setting it on the table. He turned to the page he needed before reading from the pages. “The Vale of Shadows is a dimension that is a dark reflection or echo of our world. It is a place of decay and death. A plane out of phase. A place of monsters. It is right next to you, and you don’t even see it.”

“An alternate dimension,” Mike and I said.

“But… h-how do we get there?” Lucas asked.

“You cast Shadow Walk,” Dustin said.

“In real life, dummy.”

“Hey, watch it with the names,” I said, pointing at Lucas. “Only I can call him dummy.”

“We can’t shadow walk, but…” Dustin said, looking at El. “Maybe she can.”

I got up and walked back over to her, squatting beside her once again. She smiled softly at me, to which I returned. “Hey, sweetie. Do you know how we can get there; to the Upside Down?”

She shook her head no, to which Lucas sighed out, “Oh my god!”

I never took my eyes off of her as I gently rubbed her arm. “Listen, Dustin and I are gonna go home. You get some sleep, alright? We’ll see you later, okay?”

She nodded her head, her eyes thanking me. I smiled softly at her, and curtly nodded my head once. I stood up, motioning for Dustin to get his stuff so that we could go home. I made sure that Lucas knew to go home as well, and that we’d see them all at the funeral tomorrow.

~~~

“Fear not, for I am with you,” the preacher said. “Be not dismayed, for I am your God.”

The boys, their families and myself, plus some of the kids from the Middle School, were at the gravesite attending Will’s funeral… or rather his fake funeral.

“I will strengthen you,” the preacher went on. “Yes, I will help you. I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. It’s times like these that our faith is challenged…”

While the preacher went on with his sermon, I looked over at Joyce, only seeing the back of her head. I knew she knew this funeral was bullshit, and I could only hope that she could feel my support behind her.

I then looked over at Jonathan, and I could sense from him that this was very real to him. I only wish I could knock some sense into him. Lonnie couldn’t care less about what happened to his kids. He was only there to “show support.”

I was standing behind Dustin when I saw his head move from the corner of my eye. Looking down at him, I was fully prepared to knock him upside his head as he said, “Just wait ‘til we tell Will that Jennifer Hayes was crying at his funeral.”

Mrs. Wheeler put her hand on my shoulder, shushing the boys. She couldn’t see it, but I rolled my eyes at her shushing, knowing all this was bullshit.

After the preacher was through with his sermon, those that had roses dropped them onto the casket in the grave. I walked over to Joyce, tapping her on the shoulder. When she turned around to face me, I could tell that was grateful, but also a little fearsome. I hugged her, not letting go for a minute. Before I did let her go, however, I whispered in her ear, “I believe you. We’ll find him.”

We pulled back and all I saw from her eyes was gratefulness. Grateful that someone was on her side. I felt a tap on my shoulder, and as I turned to see who it was, I saw Jonathan walking away. I decided to follow him, eyebrows furrowed. I sat on my knees in front of him and Nancy, a paper in his hand.

“So, this is where we know it’s been,” Jonathan said, looking at Nancy then up at me.

I looked over the paper as Nancy asked, “So, that’s–”

“Steve’s house,” I answered.

“And that’s the woods where they found Will’s bike,” Jonathan pointed. “And that’s my house.”

“It’s all so close,” Nancy said.

“Yeah. Exactly.”

“Okay, before we go any further,” I said. “Why exactly am I over here?”

“Because I know you believe my mom, and I know you know something is up.”

“Yes to the first and yes to the second,” I answered. “More importantly, what the hell are two talking about?”

“Do you remember that thing my mom was talking about; the creature?”

I nodded. “The one that had no face.”

Jonathan nodded, looking down for a moment before going back to the task at hand. “Anyway,” he said, looking at Nancy. “It’s all within a mile or something.” Looking back up at me, he said, “Whatever this thing is, it’s… it’s not traveling far.”

I looked down as Nancy said, “You wanna go out there.”

“We might not find anything.”

“I found something.”

I quickly looked up at her, wanting to know what this something was that she found. “Care to share?”

She looked at me like she didn’t know how to put it into words before saying, “And if we do see it… then what?” She looked between Jonathan and I as if we’d have all the answers.

Jonathan and I looked at each other, and I knew we were both thinking the same thing. We both looked at Nancy as we said, “We kill it.”

We all walked over to where the cars were parked, Jonathan leading us to his dad’s car. He opened the passenger door, getting in and removing a pocket knife from his pocket.

“What are you doing?” Nancy asked as Jonathan shoved the tip of the knife into the keyhole of the glovebox.

“Just give me a sec,” he said. He pulled out a revolver not five seconds later, checking the rounds for the bullet count. He took out the ammo that was in the glovebox, and put it in his jacket pocket, ultimately freaking Nancy out.

“Are you serious?” she asked, looking around.

“You want to take a picture of this thing–” Demogorgon. “--or would you prefer to yell at it?” I asked.

She crossed her arms after shaking her head. “This is a terrible idea.”

“Didn’t seem so terrible five minutes ago.” I mimicked her stance.

“It’s the best we’ve got,” Jonathan said. He looked at me then back at Nance. “What? You can tell someone, but they’re not gonna believe you. You know that.”

I scrunched my face in confusion. “You didn’t even believe it.”

“That was about Will,” he said. “This is about that thing.”

“Your mom would,” Nancy said.

“She’s been through enough,” Jonathan said as I looked down, toeing at the grass.

“She deserves to know.”

“Yeah, and I’ll tell her…”

“When it’s dead or when we bring Will back?” I asked, looking up at him.

He and I were having a stare down before Nancy suggested that I go with Dustin to the reception, and that she and Jonathan would figure this out and let me know the plan.

~~~

Once I got to reception, I immediately made my way to Joyce and had a small conversation with her. I shared my favorite memory of Will with her, celebrating the boy he is rather than was. I got a small smile from her as I lightly laughed at a memory I shared. She chuckled as I said, “I mean, I still don’t know how we got it out without making his nose bleed. I was scared to death that I'd get in trouble!”

We both looked at Lonnie as he laughed at something someone said. Joyce and I looked back at each other, a somewhat happy moment ruined. I scooted my chair closer to her and grabbed her hands. She looked me in my eyes as I said, “I swear, Joyce, we’ll find him, and we’re gonna bring him home. I won’t sleep, I won’t go to school–”

“Go to school,” she interrupted, patting my hands. “Sleep, go to school…” She trailed off for a moment, looking down. She sniffled and looked back up at me, saying, “Then we’ll bring him home.”

I shook my head. “No, no no. He’s like a little brother to me. I can’t live on like everything’s normal–”

“Liv!!” Dustin yelled.

I looked over at him, eyes wide as he motioned for me to come sit with him, Mike, Lucas, and Mr. Clarke. I nodded my head and looked back at Joyce. “You’re family, and I would burn Hawkins to the ground to help you look for Will.” I stood up some and hugged her, feeling her appreciation through it.

Once we parted, I sat down next to Dustin at the table he was sitting at. “What, Dustin?”

“Listen,” Lucas said.

“Boy–”

“So, you know how in Cosmos, Carl Sagan talks about other dimensions?” Mike asked. “Like, beyond our world?”

I reached over and took one of Dustin’s Nilla Wafers. I looked down at it while leaning over towards Dustin, saying, “These aren’t real Nilla Wafers.”

“That’s what I said,” he replied.

“Well, basically, there are parallel universes,” Mr. Clarke said. “Just like our world–”

“With infinite variations of it,” I said.

He smiled at me, saying, “That’s right.” He looked at each of the boys as he continued, “Which means there’s a world out there where none of this tragic stuff ever happened.”

“Yeah, that’s not what we’re talking about,” Lucas said, defeat in his voice.

“I think what they were thinking, Mr. Clarke,” I said, “is something more less than good, more of the evil spectrum. Like…” I looked at Dustin, hoping he would back me up.

“Like the Vale of Shadows,” Dustin said. I leaned my shoulder into his, telling him thank you in that movement.

“An echo of the Material Plane, where necrotic and shadow magic–” Mr. Clarke started, interrupted by Mike saying, “Yeah, exactly. If that did exist–”

“Like the Vale of Shadows,” I interrupted.

He looked at me, annoyance on his face as I said, “Doesn’t feel good, does it?”

Rolling his eyes, Mike looked back at Mr. Clarke and continued, “How would we travel there?”

“Theoretically,” Lucas said.

“Well…” Mr. Clarke said, trailing off to find something to write on and with. He drew two lines on a spare plate with a stick figure on the top line. “Picture an acrobat standing on a tightrope. Now, the tightrope is our dimension, and our dimension has rules.” Drawing a right and left arrow, he said, “You can move forwards or backwards. But, what if right next to our acrobat, there’s a flea?” He drew a circle with legs next to the acrobat. “Now, the flea can also travel back and forth, just like the acrobat, right?”

Dustin and I were both sitting with our fingers laced and up to our mouths, concentrating on what Mr. Clarke was saying, Mike and Lucas just sitting, paying attention. All of us replying, “Right,” in answer to his question.

“Here’s where things get really interesting,” he said. “The flea can also travel this way, along this side of the rope.” He drew an arrow going both ways in between the two lines. “He can even go underneath the rope.” He drew a curved arrow pointing toward the bottom line.

“Upside down,” the boys all said.

“Exactly.”

“But we’re not the flea, we’re the acrobat,” I said, pointing towards the plate.

“In this metaphor, Olivia, yes, we’re the acrobat.”

“So, we can’t go upside down?” I asked, turning my hand over to my palm is parallel with the table.

“No.”

“Well, is there any way for the acrobat to get to the Upside Down?” Dustin asked.

“Well… you’d have to create a massive amount of energy. More than humans are currently capable of creating, mind you, to open some kind of tear in time and space, and then…” Mr. Clarke folded his plate and stabbed the plate with his pen. “Create a doorway.”

“Like a gate?” Dustin and I asked.

“Sure,” Mr. Clarke said. “Like a gate. But again, this is all–”

“Theoretical,” Lucas answered.

“But… what if this gate already existed?” Mike asked.

“Well, if it did, I think we’d know,” Mr. Clarke said. “It would disrupt gravity, the magnetic field, our environment. Heck, it might even swallow us up whole. Science is neat. But, I’m afraid it’s not very forgiving.”

~~~

I ended up driving the boys back to Mike’s house, where they told me El still was. When we walked into the basement, I smiled at her, to which she smiled back. Mike sat down and immediately started telling her what Mr. Clarke had just explained to all of us. She jumped when Mike stabbed his pencil through the folded paper in his hand.

“It would take a lot of energy to build a gate like this,” Mike said. “But, that’s gotta be what happened. Otherwise, how’d Will get there, right?”

I stood from where I was sitting, putting my hands on my face and whispered, “Jesus, Mike.”

“R-right,” I heard El reply.

“What we want to know is, do you know where the gate is?” Lucas asked.

I looked at Dustin as he was walking back and forth with a compass before turning in circles. “Dusty, what the hell are you doing?”

“Then how do you know about the Upside Down?”

It was quiet for a moment as I watched my brother. I shouted his name with the help of Lucas and Mike.

He stopped and looked at us before locking eyes with me. “I–I need to see their compasses.”

“What?” Mike asked.

“Your compasses! All of your compasses, right now!”

All the compasses we could find were placed on the table in the middle of the basement.

“What’s exciting about this?” Mike asked.

“Well, they’re all pointing north, right?” Dustin said, smiling.

“So?” I dragged out.

“Well, that’s not true north.”

“What are you talking about?”

“What I just said. Clean your ears, Liv,” Dustin said. “That’s not true north.” He and I stared at each other before he said, “Are you seriously this dense?”

“Watch it, Dustin. I know where you sleep.”

“Oh my god,” he whispered. He grabbed my shoulders and said, “The sun rises in the east and sets in the west. Which means your ass is facing true north.”

“Don’t talk to me like I’m a child, first off,” I said, shoving his hands off my shoulders.

“Before you two fight like me and Nance,” Mike said. “What Dustin’s saying is is that the compasses are completely broken.”

“Do you even understand how a compass works?” Dustin asked. “Do you see a battery pack on this?” He put a compass in Mike’s face.

“No, he doesn’t,” I said, putting his arm down.

“Besides, it doesn’t need one,” Dustin said. “The needle is naturally drawn to the Earth’s magnetic North Pole.”

“So, what’s wrong with them?” Lucas asked.

“Well, that’s what I couldn’t figure out, but then I remembered. You can change the direction of a compass with a magnet. If there’s a presence of a more powerful magnetic field, the needle deflects to that power.”

I looked off, confused as ever.

“And then I remembered what Mr. Clarke said. The gate would have so much power–”

“It could disrupt the electromagnetic field,” Mike and I said.

“Exactly.”

“Meaning, if we follow the compasses’ north,” Lucas said.

“They should lead us to the gate,” Dustin said.

I looked over at El, seeing fear on her face. At first, I thought it would be a good idea to find this gate thing, but now… now I’m not so sure.

~~~

When I started to walk towards the Wheeler’s front door, Nancy stopped me and asked if I could stay a little bit longer. I agreed and walked up the stairs after telling Dustin to be safe on his travels home. I changed into some clothes I had left over as she walked down the stairs.

Once I had changed and walked down the stairs, I asked Mrs. Wheeler where Nancy went, and she informed me Nancy was in the garage. The moment I walked outside, I watched as Nancy almost hit Steve with her bat.

“What are you doing here?” she asked.

“What are you doing?” he asked.

I leaned against the side of the car on the hood, watching their exchange.

“Nothing,” Nancy said.

“I hope that’s not meant for me,” Steve said.

“What?” She looked down at her bat. “Oh, no, I was just–”

“She was thinking about joining softball,” I said.

She and I locked eyes, mine telling her to play along. When I looked back at Steve, he looked surprised.

“Hey, Liv,” he said. “What, uh, what’re you doing here?”

“Helping Nance with softball.”

He looked at me like he didn’t believe me, but I guess he decided not to speak on it because he looked back at Nancy and said, “I’m really sorry. I mean, even before you threatened me with the baseball bat.” He walked over and leaned on the car next to me. I looked at his profile as he kept talking. “I panicked and… I mean, I was a total dick.”

“Yeah, you were,” Nancy and I answered.

“Did you get in trouble with your parents?” Nancy asked as I looked down at my shoes.

“Totally, but…” Steve said. “Ya’know, who cares? Screw ‘em. Any news about Barbra?”

It was quiet for a moment before I heard Nancy whisper my name. I looked up, seeing two pairs of eyes on me.

I shook my head, Steve asking if her parents heard from her. “No,” I answered. I looked up at Nancy, sensing some tension.

“Hey, listen,” Steve said.

I looked at him, noticing that he was looking at Nancy and taking a few steps towards her. “Why don’t we, uh, why don’t we catch a movie tonight, ya’know? Just kinda pretend everything’s normal for a few hours.”

I walked towards the door as Steve said, “All The Right Moves is still playing. Ya’know, with your lover boy from Risky Business?” He chuckled as Nancy said, “Yeah, I know.” “Ya’know, Carol thinks I actually kinda look like him.” I watched him move his head from side to side. “What do you think?” He took Nancy’s hand that was still holding the bat and brought the bottom of it to his mouth like a microphone, singing, “Just take those old records off the shelf, I'll sit and listen to ‘em by myself…”

I remember when Steve and I used to sit in his room and listen to records, singing along to them and dancing, having a great time. But then he became popular and King Steve, so all that kinda stopped cold turkey.

“I just, I don’t… I don’t think I can,” Nancy answered. “I’ve been really busy with this whole funeral thing and… with my brother. It’s been really hard on him.”

“Yeah, sure,” Steve said. “Sure, yeah, yeah.”

“But, you can take Olivia!”

I nearly choked on my own spit. “Olivia can do what now?”

“You can go hang out with Steve,” she said. “I know it’s been a while since just the two of you hung out.”

“Are you sure?” I asked.

“Yes. I’m sure.”

I looked at Steve, asking him if it was okay with him. He agreed almost instantly, and asked if I wanted to go right now with him or meet up at the theater. Nancy told him that I would go ahead and go with him.

As I hugged her, she whispered to me that she’d tell me everything she and Jonathan find out about the creature.

I hung out with Steve that night, mind off of everything for a few hours. It was great because I got to hang out with my best friend for the first time in ages. Bad part? Fucking Tommy H. and Carol decided to tag along as well.

I voiced to Steve about how I was getting worried about Dustin. Lying to him and saying that I hadn’t seen him since the funeral.

He was on the way to my house when he took a familiar turn. This was going to be a long night.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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~~~

A/N 2: hi, friends! so, reason for the late upload is because a baby migraine appeared out of fucking nowhere and my daughter wanted to watch a christmas movie while he ate dinner! i’m am so sorry, but my kids come first!! but, please do not hesitate to reblog and give some feedback, whether it be in the reblogs, comments, or my inbox.

~~~

Forever / Everything Taglist: @stiles-o-dylan24 @stixnstripesworld @fandom-princess-forevermore @quanticobae @mischiefandi @kellyashcroft @lauren-novak

Steve Harrington Taglist: @madaboutjoe

If you’re tagged and didn’t want to be, please let me know.

~~~

*Please don’t post my writing anywhere else without my consent. The author of this work will always and forever be @harringtonstilinski.

All characters, story lines, and plot aside from y/n and her storyline & plot, are all of the work of The Duffer Brothers.

*These works contain material protected under International and Federal Copyright Laws and Treaties. Any unauthorized reprint or use of this material is prohibited.

Posted on December 5, 2023 *Happy Birthday, Walt Disney!*

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harringtonstilinski · 2 years

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You’ll Always Be My Hero - Chapter 95 ; Pressure Test

Author: @harringtonstilinski Characters: Stiles Stilinski x Emma Thomas (OC) Word Count: 5,965 Warnings: angst, tiny bit of fluff, mentions of guns & gun shots, mentions of dead bodies, minor character deaths A/N: Hi, friends! 95 Chapters down, 5 to go!! If you like this chapter, please do not hesitate to reblog and give some feedback, whether it be in the reblogs, comments, or my inbox. As always, read at your own risk and enjoy 😊

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Next morning, Scott, Malia, Lydia, Liam and I were standing in Sheriff’s office, my dad and mom included. Sheriff set down a folder with two pictures of two teens clipped to the front of it.

“I’m not letting them out,” Sheriff said. “We’ve got bodies with slash marks. They confessed to killing two people.”

“Hunters,” Scott and I said.

“People, kids,” Dad said. “Self-defense or not, they’re still here, the other guys are dead. And there’s a process we have to follow.”

“Yeah, but Dad, you know what’s happening around here,” I said. “It’s not safe for them.”

“This may actually be the safest place for them in Beacon Hills, Emma,” Sheriff argued.

“At least we can protect them here,” Dad said.

“Noah,” I whispered, leaning against the front of his desk on my hands. “Would Stiles think that? Especially if one of your Deputies is working for Gerard? Ya’know, the guy that took your son and beat him up?”

“I’m not buying that,” Sheriff said. “We know these deputies like the backs of our hands. Know their families, kids, brothers and sisters. We know who they are and we trust them.”

“While that may be true, Noah,” I said, voice raising with each of my next words. “You know who they were. There’s something out there. Everyone’s afraid, and it’s getting worse.”

“Yeah, you can’t protect two werewolves from hunters if they’re already on the inside,” Scott said, voice surprisingly calm.

Sheriff looked at Scott and I before letting his eyes scan over Malia, Lydia and Liam… who were standing there kind of awkwardly before letting his eyes land on the girl behind us. “It’s Quinn, right?”

She looked up and nodded her head, confirming his question to her.

“You’re sure it was a deputy who shot you?” Dad asked. “Absolutely, 100% sure?”

She nodded her head again, almost like she was scared of ratting this deputy out before launching into explanation. “I saw flashing lights. A police car. I--I saw a badge, a gun, and then they shot me. They shot me in the head and that’s all I remember.”

“It wasn’t this Deputy was it?” Sheriff asked. I looked over at him, seeing him pointing at Dad, Quinn’s voice soon following, “No, it wasn’t him.”

“Okay, you can calm down,” I said, putting my hand out towards her. “We’re just trying to help.”

Sheriff breathed in deeply, standing up straighter. “Emma, there’s a couple holes in her story.”

“Maybe because there’s a hole in her head,” Lydia sassed, to which Malia chuckled at.

“I’m sorry,” Malia said.

I sighed and closed my eyes, shaking my head. “Noah, we need to get Jiang and Tierney out of here before anyone realizes they’re here.”

“She’s right,” Scott said.

“See?! Even Scott agrees,” I exclaimed.

“And take them where?” Dad asked.

“Daddy--”

“No, Emma. We can’t let him go,” Dad said, voice raised.

“Carter, go easy on her,” Mom said, putting her hand on Dad’s shoulder. “She’s stressed enough as it is.”

“Daddy, if you keep them here, then--” I said.

“Look, if there’s a problem--” Dad said, before getting interrupted by lights shining from outside.

Dad and Sheriff ran out of the office, 6 out of the 7 of us following.

“Get away from the windows,” Sheriff said. “Put those guns away.” The other officers in the building put their guns back in the holsters at Sheriff’s command.

“I’m guessing you know who’s out there,” Parrish said.

“I got a pretty good idea,” Sheriff breathed.

I walked forward and stood next to Parrish, knowing exactly who they were talking about. “Noah, they’ll be armed to the teeth.”

Taking his gun from his holster, I furrowed my brows as he said, “Which is why I won’t be.”

“Noah, what the hell are you doing?” I asked, watching as he set his gun on Dad’s desk.

“I’m going with you,” Parrish and Dad said.

“Parrish, no. You’re gonna get some deputies, check the exits, and hope we’re not completely surrounded,” Sheriff said. “Carter, you’re with me.” Leaning closer to Parrish, he said, “And keep an eye out. Let’s make sure we’re all on the same side here. Also, make sure she doesn’t do anything reckless.”

Parrish looked back at me for a second before turning his back in Sheriff’s direction. Dad kissed my temple as he walked by us, following his best friend out the door. I felt arms around my shoulders, not caring about the fact that they were pulling me back into Sheriff’s office.

Malia was standing at the window, holding the blinds down as I stood beside my mom, her arm wrapped around me. Malia quickly backed up, saying after a couple seconds, “We have to get out of here.”

“Give them a chance,” Scott said. “They know what they’re doing.”

“I am giving them a chance,” Malia said, freaked out. “They can talk all they want, but we have to get the hell out of here.”

“How do we get Jiang and Tierney out?” Liam asked.

“Screw them. That’s Stilinski and Thomas’ job.”

“But it’s our job to keep them alive,” Scott said.

“Yeah, and you might want to watch what you say about my dad and Sheriff,” I said. “If it weren’t for them, you wouldn’t have had a home to go back to after we saved your ass.”

“Emma,” Mom said, grip on my shoulders tightening. “Honey, calm down.”

I let out a shuddered breath. “I’m sorry.”

Theo walked in, looking dead at Scott. “Not mine.”

“Do you want me to kill him?” Liam asked.

“No, just leave him,” Malia said. “Can we please, just go?”

“We’re not going anywhere,” Quinn enunciated. “Don’t you get it? We’re trapped. They have all of the windows and doors covered. We’re going to die in here.”

“Does someone wanna kill her?” Theo asked.

“Shut up!” Malia growled, walking a couple steps towards Theo.

Jumping over to her, Scott put his hand on her arm saying, “Malia, hey. Take a breath. You’re shaking.”

Malia looked down at Scott’s hand, breathing heavily as she states, “I’m fine.”

Walking up to the pair, Lydia said, “Guys, there’s only a dozen of them out there. We can take them.”

“Did you suddenly forget the part where they have rifles, pistols, and ARs?” I asked. “We’d all be dead on the spot.”

“Emma, they’re the last of Satomi’s pack,” Liam said. “We can’t leave them behind.”

Scott looked around at everyone, eyes landing on mine for a second before I slowly shook my head. Don’t think he got the message because he looked at Malia and said, “Okay. We go. But Jiang and Tierney are coming with us.”

Liam nodded his head in agreement and I just sighed loudly. Walking out of the office, I heard Scott call my name before grabbing my arm and turning me around to face him. “What the hell are you doing?”

“If you wanna get yourself killed by trying to run, be my guest,” I said. “But if I’m gonna do something at trying to save the supernaturals in this town, it’ll be trying to negotiate something with Monroe.” What he didn’t know was that I had another plan up my sleeve. I walked out of the building, hands up as red lasers pointed at my chest. “I don’t even have claws or fangs, so those won’t be necessary.”

Monroe looked at the people behind her, nodding her head to let them know it was okay to put their weapons down… even though she didn’t fully trust me being out here. “Do you know what a subduction zone is, Sheriff?”

“I do,” I said, moving to stand in front of my dad and Sheriff.

“Oh, Emma, please no,” they both said.

“It’s when tectonic plates are crushing together with enormous force,” I informed her. “One of two things can happen. Either pressure releases with a series of small quakes or an entire city levels with one devastating quake.” I crossed my arms, letting out a deep breath.

“Smart girl,” Monroe said. “I’m impressed, but we need to release the pressure.”

Wanting to fuck with her, I said, “So, if by release the pressure you mean murder two teens--” I let out a breathy chuckle. “Yeah, that’s not gonna happen. Good try, though.”

She looked me dead in the face, taking one step closer to me. If she thought I was going to back down, well, she thought wrong. “Right now, Emma, I’m the only thing holding this mob back from killing you first then storming the station.” Looking around at the people behind her, they all raised their guns again, cocking them to get the round into the chamber. “And at some point, Emma… they’re gonna stop listening to me.”

Putting his hand on my shoulder, Dad asked, “Do you want a bloodbath?” I wasn’t sure if he was talking to me or Monroe, but we both answered, “I’m trying to stop one.”

“All you have to do is bring them out,” Monroe said. “I don’t care if they’re dead or alive.”

I hummed, tilting my head to the side, lips scrunched. “I think I know which one you’d rather prefer, though.”

After a negotiation and stare down later, Sheriff, Dad and I walked back in the station. At seeing all my friends at the back door, I sighed, “Nobody’s going anywhere.”

“I can get through them,” Lydia said.

“We’re not gonna fire the first shot,” Dad said. “Now, get back from the door.”

“All of you,” Sheriff said. “Parrish, get these two back in their cell.”

Parrish moved around us to take Jiang and Tierney back to their cell as Scott moved towards us, looking at me and asking, “What happened?”

“Well,” I said, crossing my arms. “I negotiated. Using Stiles’ tactics, of course.”

“And?” Scott asked.

I sighed and looked at Sheriff before looking back at Scott. “She gave them until midnight.” Turning to face my dad, I said, “Daddy, we need to block the doors. Desks, filing cabinets, whatever.”

“Alright, sweetheart,” Dad said, kissing my temple before instructing everyone else what to do. Feeling my phone vibrate in my back pocket, I removed it to look at my screen, seeing that Stiles was calling. Sighing, I swiped across the screen, answering his call. “Hey, handsome. Now’s not a good time.”

“Why? What’s wrong?”

“Uhm, just trying to stop a bloodbath, is all,” I said, watching as Malia, Scott, Sheriff and Dad pushed a couple desks against the doors.

“A what?” he asked, shock laced in his voice. “Emma, please tell me you’re being safe.”

Without missing a beat, I said, “Trying to be.” My eyes never left Scott, worried for my best friend. I didn’t hear what Stiles was saying to me as I looked over at Dad and Sheriff as they talked.

“We’re gonna need help eventually, Noah,” Dad said.

“Any help we call is gonna risk exposing Scott and the others, including Emma,” Sheriff said.

“If they see actual werewolves,” Dad said. “They’re not gonna be able to tell the good guys from the bad.”

Tears lined my eyes as I walked into one of the back rooms, needing to be alone for a minute. I let out a soft sob, forgetting that I was talking to Stiles before his voice came through my ears.

“Emma? Baby, why are you crying? What’s wrong?”

I sniffled, wiping the tears away before I answered him. “Everything’s falling apart. I feel like I’m failing at trying to keep everyone safe. I’ve been running around like a fucking chicken without a head. I haven’t been going to Mom’s firm for my internship, which in turn means that I probably won’t get my dream job. I feel like the pack’s getting ripped apart again, but it’s not, we’re just being dragged in fifteen different directions.” I took a breath, running out of air. Stiles’ voice stopped me before I could go on.

“Emma, listen to me. You’re not failing, alright? You’re doing the best you can. And who said you had to keep everyone safe? Your internship will still be there which means you’re gonna get to have your dream job. Alright? You’re a badass. You don’t need to be doing all the protecting.”

“Even when the supernatural’s being hunted? Banshees, too?” I asked, another small sob escaping me.

It was quiet for a moment before I closed my eyes and sat on the ground, leaning my head against the wall behind me. Taking a deep breath, I whispered, “It’s just hard without you here.”

He sighed on the other end as more tears leaked out of my eyes. “I know, baby.”

“I want you to come home, but you need to stay there to continue working on the Derek case,” I said, voice soft. “I just wish you were here to hold me when I’m stressed, to kiss me and tell me it’s going to be okay. To show me how much you love me.”

“And I will be. Soon, I promise,” he said. “The moment we’re done with this case, I’m coming back home to you. And we’ll do like we planned. We’ll go to the courthouse and get married.”

I smiled into the phone, even though he couldn’t see it. “Really?” I sniffled.

I heard him release a breathy chuckle before going radio silent for a moment. “Hey, do something for me.”

“Okay?”

“Take your ring off your chain,” he said, me doing as instructed before letting him know I was ready for his next instruction. “Now. I don’t have a big speech prepared, and I’d rather do this in person instead over the phone, but… put the ring on your left finger, and let everyone know that we’re engaged.”

I smiled even wider as I rested the phone in between my shoulder and ear, placing my ring on my left finger. “Okay,” I whispered, a smile still ever present on my face. Keeping my voice to a whisper, I added, “Mrs. Emma Stilinski. Nice ring to it.”

“Yeah, it does,” Stiles said. “Now, go be my badass Banshee future wife.”

“I love you,” I said.

“I love you more.”

After hanging up the phone, I stood back up and took a deep breath before walking back to where my Dad was, wrapping my arm around his middle.

“Everything okay?” Dad asked.

“For now,” I said. Tapping on my shoulder caused me to look at the culprit; Lydia. She motioned with her head for me to follow her, which I did. Standing behind her and Quinn as they sat in the chairs provided in the room, Lydia turned to look at me.

“Our cell phones have no service,” she said.

“Well, that’s because it’s jamming the service to the phones,” I said. “What about the radio?”

Turning back around to turn the dial on the radio that was on the table, Lydia shook her head, saying, “All I’m getting is static.”

“Yeah,” I sighed. “I can hear that. So, they’re jamming that too?”

“Em, you know as well as I do that it’s not easy to find a jammer capable of disrupting a law enforcement transceiver,” Lydia said, voice soft.

“Unless someone has access to it,” I suggested.

She turned around in her chair, looking out into the open area of the station. I followed her sights, looking out for anyone that I might deem suspicious.

“Someone in here,” Quinn said, right before the lights went out.

“That can’t be good,” Lydia said, looking up at me.

Shrugging my shoulders, I informed, “The backup generator should kick on within seconds.” I thought about it for a second, tilting my head to the side. “Maybe.” I walked out of the room and over to my mom, her arms wrapping around my shoulders again.

“How easy is it to cut the power in a Sheriff’s Station?” Malia asked, looking at me.

I went to say my opinion, but Vargas’ voice cut me off. “Too easy.” A body landed in the middle of the room, Vargas holding a pair of chain cutters.

“Throw him out,” Liam growled.

“No, y-you can’t,” Nolan said. “Okay? Please don’t.”

“And why the hell not?!” I asked, voice raised.

“She’ll know I screwed up,” Nolan pleaded.

“He’s with them,” Liam said.

“Liam,” Scott warned.

“Sheriff?” Parrish asked.

“He’s a liar, and he’s sick in the head,” Liam said.

“And now he’s under arrest,” Dad said. “Pick him up.”

Parrish moved forward, picking Nolan up by his arm and taking him to the holding cells. Coming back into the room with the rest of us, Parrish, Sheriff and Dad stood by the windows, looking outside.

I turned to my mom and smiled. “Mama.” “Yeah, sweetheart?” she asked.

“Uhm, has Stiles asked Daddy for permission yet?” I wondered. “I was just curious. Ya’know, when the day finally does come for him to get one knee.”

Mom chuckled, shaking her head in confusion. “Yeah, honey. He asked before you two left for DC, your father giving him our blessing.”

“Good,” I said. “I thought it’d be awkward to ask you to come wedding dress shopping with me when the time comes.”

“What do you mean?” she asked, a smile spreading across her lips as her eyes welled up with tears.

“I was on the phone with him earlier and--”

“Everyone, get down!” Parrish yelled.

I felt myself being pulled to the ground, my face buried in someone’s chest. I wasn’t sure who it was, but I was grateful for it. I sat up, seeing nothing but smoke, noticing that my ears were ringing a little as the person who pulled me down sat up as well, putting an arm around me.

“What the hell was that?” Malia asked.

“A distraction,” Scott whispered.

If Scott didn’t pull me down, then who did? Looking behind me, I got my answer; Theo.

“Emma?” Dad said, helping me up. “You alright?”

“Yeah, I’m fine,” I said. “Uhm, Theo pulled me out of the way.”

“They said midnight!” Sheriff yelled.

“The grenade came from in here,” Parrish informed him. “It was one of us.”

Walking up to Scott and Malia, Liam had Nolan in one hand, a vial in another. I walked up to them just as Liam said, “Wolfsbane. He was trying to kill them.”

Nolan had the nerve to have a scared look on his face, which caused me to chuckle. “Oh, you’re such a good actor, Nolan!”

“Scott, Emma, there’s something else you both need to see,” Liam said.

Scott and I looked at each other before walking into the holding cell room, standing in front of Jiang and Tierney’s cell.

“Show them your eyes.”

“We never said we were innocent,” Tierney said.

“Show us,” I said, calmly. I even surprised myself with how calm I was.

Letting out a roar that had me jumping back and my eyes glowing their Were-banshee Greens, Scott grabbed the bars of the cell, Alpha Reds and fangs on display as he shouted, “SHOW US!”

Jiang and Tierney looked up at us, shining their Beta Blues at us.

~~~

Swiping a card through the reader, I stood back as Scott took a step into their cell, grabbing my hand. “Tell us what happened,” he said.

“They were hunters,” Tierney started.

“If we’re asking our friends to risk their lives for you two Betas,” I said, trying to gain control of my irritation. “Then you have to tell us the truth.”

“What happened?” Scott asked.

“Satomi didn’t want to fight,” Jiang said. “We were on the run for two days, but they were everywhere. Then it was just us hiding in the storm drain while Satomi tried to talk to them.”

“But they didn’t wanna talk,” Tierney said, attitude on high.

“Check your attitude, little girl,” I said.

She sighed before continuing with her attitude, “She died so we could keep running.”

“Then what?” Scott asked.

“We stopped running. And we started hunting them instead.”

“How?” I asked.

“It’s not hard to use public records to find where someone lives,” Tierney said. “All we needed was a name. I thought you were the smart one.”

I chuckled, tipping my head forward to press the tips of my fingers to my forehead. “I’m one of the smart ones.”

“Were they the ones that killed Satomi?” Scott asked. “Or Brett and Lori?”

“Did you see them kill anyone?” I added.

“Does it matter?” Tierney asked, attitude in full swing.

“It does matter,” I said, taking a step towards the two Betas, Scott wrapping his arms around my middle. “You can’t kill innocent people.”

Standing, Tierney said, “They murdered our whole pack. You really think any of them are more innocent than us?”

“Em, back down,” Scott whispered in my ear.

“What are you gonna do?” Jiang asked, eyes dancing between me and Scott.

“I don’t know,” Scott sighed.

~~~

After Scott and I told Sheriff and Dad about what Jiang and Tierney told us, Scott, Sheriff, Dad and I went back into Sheriff’s office, all four of us obviously exhausted about this whole thing.

“It doesn’t change anything,” Sheriff said.

“Well, it does for me, for us,” Scott argued, glancing back at me. “They killed innocent people.”

Feeling Scott’s anger rolling off of him, I wrapped my arm around his back, feeling his own arm settle around my shoulders. Sighing, I rested my head against his shoulder.

“It doesn’t matter, Scott,” Dad said. “Because if you find yourself fighting a war, you’re gonna have to kill people.”

“And there’s no such thing as guilty or innocent,” Sheriff added. “There’s only the other side.”

Thinking for a moment, I looked at my dad and Sheriff. “Sometimes wars take prisoners.”

“And others take none,” Dad and Sheriff said.

Tightening his grip on my shoulders, Scott took a deep breath in. The sound of glass shattering distracted the four of us for a moment. Scott and I looked at each other before running towards the door, him opening it upon hearing screams.

“Scotty, look,” I whispered, pointing to an arrow in the wall. We both looked at the window that was shattered, running up to Malia and Liam as she took the arrow out of the wall.

“Wait, there’s something attached,” I muttered, reaching forward and taking the piece of material off of it. A piece of a green jersey with a bloody number on it. I looked up at Liam, noticing him standing in front of me.

“This is Brett’s number,” he said.

“They’re trying to rattle us,” Lydia said, voice a little shaky.

“It’s working,” Theo said.

I looked up at Scott, a little bit of fear coming over me before we all heard a scream. Dad, Sheriff, and Parrish ran into the next room, me following behind them. I screamed at the scene I was looking at.

“Scott!” Dad yelled. “Get Emma out of here!”

I felt hands around my shoulders, pulling me back into the main area of the station. My body was turned around, face buried in someone’s chest as tears came flooding out of my eyes.

“I--I didn’t do anything,” I heard Nolan say. “I--I didn’t even say anything. He just got up and started putting the wire around his neck.”

“Get him down,” Sheriff said.

I looked up at the person that was holding me; Scott. “Holy shit, Scotty.”

“I know, I know,” he said, putting his hand on the back of my head, guiding my head to rest against his chest again.

“How did I not feel it?” I whispered.

Scott’s grip on me tightened as a gunshot was heard from the room with my dad.

Parrish uncuffed Nolan, sending him with Liam into the holding cell room. Scott, myself, Lydia, Mom and Dad walked into the room with the two dead deputies. I immediately went into my mom’s arms. Lydia kneeled in between the bodies before looking up at me after a moment. I nodded my head, letting her know that I was on the same page.

“That wasn’t just panic,” Lydia said.

“It’s in here with us,” I said. “Probably has been the whole time.”

Lydia looked in front of her, fear written all over her body language.

“What do you mean?” Sheriff asked.

“Whatever’s causing the fear,” Lydia said. “The same thing that drove the wolves to kill each other.” She turned her head over her shoulder to look at my godfather. “It’s here with us.”

“Guys,” Scott said. “It’s almost midnight. We’re out of time.”

“We’ve already got two bodies,” Dad said, softly. “We’re not giving Monroe two more.”

Scott looked over at me, locking our eyes. The looks we gave each other said we had the same idea.

Walking out of the room, Theo met up with Scott and I, saying, “I watched two guys bring them in and tie them up.”

“Okay, but how long did they actually have with Jiang and Tierney?” Scott asked, leaning against the desk that was pushed up against the door, looking outside.

“A couple hours, maybe,” Theo said.

“Did Monroe talk to them? “I asked.

Theo turned his head over to look at me, our eyes connecting for a moment. “No. I don’t think so. Just that guy from Eichen, maybe one or two other guys with shotguns. I think they were waiting for Monroe to do the real interrogating.”

“So, she might not have seen them,” Scott and I said.

“What are you getting at, kids?” Dad asked. I hadn’t realized that him and Sheriff followed behind us.

Scott and I looked at each other, and sighed out, “I got an idea.”

“But, you’re definitely not gonna like it very much,” I added.

“Sweetheart, if it keeps somebody from getting killed, I’m pretty open,” Dad said.

“Yup, same here,” Sheriff said.

I looked at Scott, silently asking if I could take the reins on this one, to which he nodded. Sighing, I looked back at my dad and Sheriff, explaining, “Monroe said she wanted Jiang and Tierney brought out. Dead or alive. We get a couple of body bags, put the dead officers in them and take them outside to her. It’s not a very good plan, but it’s all that we’ve got at the moment.”

Dad and Sheriff looked at each other for a moment before Sheriff sighed. “Alright, let’s do it.”

~~~

Firing off a couple of rounds from his gun, Sheriff looked less than thrilled at the moment, even though he was fully on board. Holstering his gun, he looked down at Theo and Scott, holding his hand out saying, “Five minutes.”

Scott and Theo zipped up their respective bags, covering the faces of the two fallen officers.

Theo and Scott took the fallen officers outside, kneeling beside the bags. Standing by the window, Malia asked, “Anyone think this is going to work?”

Liam, Lydia and I gave Malia a look that said for real? before she turned back around, saying, “I’ll stop asking.”

I sighed, giving them the time they needed outside before telling the rest of the group that I was going to do my part of this plan. Walking outside, I stood in between Scott and Theo, hands raised a little to let Monroe and her goons know that I wasn’t armed.

Sheriff sighed and looked at Dad before addressing Monroe, “They tried to run, and tried to take a couple deputies with them, including Carter here.”

Dad’s fake involvement complete.

“Either way,” I said. “You got what you wanted.”

Monroe looked from me back to my dad and Sheriff. “Let me see their faces.”

Feeling their anxiety rolling off of them, Scott and Theo unzipped the bags, revealing Jiang and Tierney.

Monroe looked at their faces, her own contorting to one of thought and confusion.

“What’s wrong?” Scott asked.

“You don’t recognize them?” I asked.

She took in a small breath before saying, “Show me their tattoos.”

Almost choking on my own spit, I said, “Tattoos? You wanna see tattoos? I have one.” I lifted the sleeve of my jacket, revealing my Pisces tattoo I got with Scott… before the sacrifices.

“I’m not interested in your Zodiac tattoo,” Monroe sneered. “I want to see their tattoos. The pack symbol.”

Weeeeeeeeeell, shit!

“I was hoping for a fight,” Theo said, softly.

“Good thing you’re not the only one here to negotiate,” Rafael said.

“Dad?” Scott said.

“Wait, your dad’s here?” I asked Scott, looking at him as he stood up with Theo.

“What are you doing here?”

“Making sure no else dies tonight,” Rafael said.

I scoffed and crossed my arms, muttering under my breath, “I’d love to see that.”

~~~

Scott, myself, Lydia, Malia-- well, basically everyone-- was now back in Sheriff’s office, Rafael closing the door behind him.

“Scotty, are you sure about this?” I asked, crossing my arms and turning my body towards him.

“I’m not,” Liam said. “This deal sucks.”

“But it’s the only one on the table,” Rafael said. “In a situation like this, the best solution is always to de-escalate.” Looking behind me and Scott at Sheriff and Dad, Rafael asked, “That’s why you called me, isn’t it?”

“To be honest,” Sheriff said. “We didn’t think anyone was gonna show up.”

Scott looked over at me, seeing the plea in my eyes as my answer to his silent question, but already having made his mind up. He looked back over at his dad, eyes soft. “Okay.”

“Scott--” I said.

“We’ll go,” he said, looking over at me.

Dad, Sheriff and Parrish led us outside, my mom and Rafael following behind us with Jiang and Tierney, Rafael taking them to the black van parked a few feet from us. Nolan had walked behind us over to Gabe as Mom walked over to me, putting her hands on my shoulders.

“Thank you,” Tierney mouthed. I watched as Scott gave her a curt nod with a tight smile before she got in, Rafael closing the door and lightly banging on the window, letting the driver know to haul them off.

The eleven of us watched as Rafael walked away, Monroe looking back at us. I slipped my hand into Scott’s lacing our fingers together to let him know that I was here for him… through anything. I could feel his disappointment as his dad walked away, the deal that’d been set with Monroe about to take place.

~~~

I was silently packing clothes into one of Stiles’ old duffle bags when I heard footsteps stop at my doorway. Sniffling, I said, “I don’t wanna talk, Dad.”

He sighed and paused for a moment before saying, “Then just listen. Look, I know this isn’t what you wanted, but it was the right decision. When Noah suggested that we call McCall--”

“Can you, uhm, hand me that picture of Stiles and I that’s on my dresser?” I asked, not wanting to hear anymore on the matter. I guess Dad grabbed the picture frame because not five seconds later the corner of it was poking at my shoulder. “Thanks,” I whispered, taking the frame from him and setting it down between a few shirts.

“You can be mad at me all you want, but I’d rather watch you leave the state than watch you die,” Dad said.

I sighed, stopping all movements to stand up straighter. “Daddy, I’m not mad. I mean, I get why y’all did it. Why you called--” I gestured out with my left hand, disgust filling my body language. “Raf.”

“Em, you’re not the only one who gets to protect her family,” Dad said.

“I know,” I said, putting my head down a little, tears lining my eyes. “I just--” I took a deep breath, trying to suppress the sob that wanted to escape… that ended up escaping anyways.

“Emma,” Dad whispered.

“I’m sorry, Daddy,” I cried, turning around and hugging him, arms around his neck. Burying my face into his neck, I continued my sobs while trying to speak. “I-I’m just under a-a lot of s-stress. St-Stiles not b-being here, me not going to my in-internship at Mom’s fi-firm, and now having to l-leave the damn state to not get k-killed--”

“Hey, calm down,” Dad softly said, one hand on my back with the other on the back of my head. “Everything will be alright, I promise.” He moved his hands to my shoulders, looking me in the eyes.

I was still crying even though I felt Scott’s presence downstairs. “I don’t want to leave,” I whispered. “I don’t want to leave you and Mom.”

“We’ll be fine,” Dad said, pressing a kiss to my forehead. “Just call us when you’ve crossed the state lines.”

I nodded my head, crying harder. Dad sighed and turned his head towards my door, asking, “Who’s here?”

“Scotty,” I hiccuped.

“Scott, you’re gonna have to come and get her,” Dad said. “I know you can hear me.”

Not a few seconds later, Scott walked into my room. I ran into his arms, wrapping my own around his neck.

“Can I get her bag?” Scott asked. Dad must’ve handed it to him because a few seconds later, Scott released me, my cries dying down as he wrapped an arm around my shoulders to walk me down the hallway.

I stopped once we were standing in front of Stiles’ room, taking in a breath. Walking to his desk, I grabbed a pen and piece of paper writing a note to him.

Stiles,

My Handsome. I can’t believe I’m writing you a letter instead of calling you on the phone. Anyway, if I’m not here while you’re reading this, the pack had to leave the state. Something about Monroe and her fucking goons not killing us if we left California entirely.

Sucks that it’s come to this point in our lives. I still plan on marrying you. I’ll call you once we get settled somewhere to let you know where I’m at.

I love you so much, it’s insane.

Your Beautiful,

Emma Grace <3

~~~

Scott had told me that he had another plan set in motion, which I was more than fucking grateful for. We were all standing in the exam room of the Animal Clinic. The front doorbell dinged as someone walked in. Scott had called Dad to let him know this part of the plan, texting my mom to have her meet us at the clinic after picking Mason up from the school.

Both of them walked in, Mom looking frazzled as ever as she looked at me, happiness in her eyes.

“Oh, Emma,” she whispered, walking over to me and giving me a hug, which I returned. After releasing each other, I looked over at Scott, jumping on the table behind us and resting my arm on his shoulder. Watching my mom embrace Corey, I cleared my throat, pointing to the waiting area as Corey’s eyes landed on mine.

“You told me you were leaving,” Mason said, tears in his eyes.

“I had to,” Corey said.

“You lied,” Mason said, anger and hurt in his voice.

“We all did,” Liam said.

Mason looked in the room, seeing me, Scott, Liam, Malia, Theo, and Lydia standing (or sitting) around the table. “So this was the plan all along?”

“With or without one of us knowing,” I said, looking at the side of Scott’s head.

Scott nodded his head, saying, “Sorry, Mason and Ms. Rose. My dad had to believe we left Beacon Hills.”

I still had my eyes on the side of Scott’s head, adding, “Everyone has to believe it.”

“Then what happens next?” Mason asked. “We fight back now, right?”

Looking back at Mason, I asked, “What did you think we were gonna do?” “Run?” Scott and I asked, smirks on our faces.

That would be a HELL NAH!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A/N 2: hi, friends! i’m so excited for the next two chapters, y’all don’t even know, lol. but,let me know what you thought! again, please do not hesitate to reblog and give some feedback, whether it be in the reblogs, comments, or my inbox.

Additional Note: i probably won’t do anymore timezone reblogs from here on out since the feedback on this series has stopped, and reblogging isn’t doing shit.

~~~

Forever / Everything Taglist: @stiles-o-dylan24 @stixnstripesworld @fandom-princess-forevermore @quanticobae @mischiefandi @kellyashcroft @lauren-novak

YABMH Taglist: @stiles-o-dylan24 @stixnstripesworld @sammypotato67 @originalamethysthealer @alittlebitofeverythinggg @katemusic @hcomet28 @good-vibes-and-glitter @louie-bug @luckylovestruck @quxxnxfhxll @lettersofwrittencollective @shawty-fenty @onelesslonelygirlbieber6 @kenziemaehl @gabxbyr @hogwartsstar @theycallmegreentea

If you want to be added to the YABMH Taglist, just click here. If you’re tagged and didn’t want to be, please let me know. Tumblr’s trying to tag people for me, lol.

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~~~

*Please don’t post my writing anywhere else without my consent. The author of this work will always and forever be @harringtonstilinski.

All characters, story lines, and plot aside from Emma and her storyline & plot, are all of the work of Jeff Davis. Our home slice Emma was made up all by me. As well we her parents and their storyline throughout the series.

*These works contain material protected under International and Federal Copyright Laws and Treaties. Any unauthorized reprint or use of this material is prohibited.

Posted on August 10, 2022 *My Kindergartner's 1st Day of School!*

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harringtonstilinski · 2 years

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You’ll Always Be My Hero - Chapter 70 ; Status Asthmaticus

Author: @harringtonstilinski Characters: Stiles Stilinski x Emma Thomas (OC) Word Count: 2,633 Warnings: angst, squint for fluff, A/N: Hi, friends! Chapter 70 is here! We’re already halfway through with Season 5 as a whole and I can’t believe it. She’s a little on the shorter side. If you like this chapter, please do not hesitate to reblog and give some feedback, whether it be in the reblogs, comments, or my inbox. As always, read at your own risk and enjoy 😊

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As Stiles was driving down the road, he kept eyeing the wrench that was in my lap. I only knew this because I was watching him. He moved his eyes back to the road as I heard the Jeep making breaking down noises... and then I saw the smoke... then saw it start to fill the cabin causing coughs to come pouring out of us.

Stiles quickly pulled over, both of us jumping out. I closed my door softly as I heard Stiles slam his. I sat on the curb as he went around the back, opening the window and grabbing his tools.

I let out a couple of more coughs before I decided to try and speak up as he came around front and threw his tools on the ground. “Do you need--”

“I got it,” he said. He knew when to control his voice when talking to me after getting into disagreements with people. He always has. If it wasn't my fault, his voice was calm and gentle with me.

He lifted the hood, resting it against the windshield. He grabbed the tools and placed them on the front bumper, opening the box up. He stopped once he realized that one of the wrenches was missing. The one that was in the Jeep. Getting a little angry, he grabbed the box, still opened, and tossed it down the road. Turning back around, he put the hood back down and opened the passenger door, grabbing the wrench that I had placed on the seat when I got out. He stepped back on the street, totally prepared to throw it with the rest of the wrenches before he turned back around and looked at the Jeep.

“Em, move,” he said.

I didn't question it as I stood up and moved across the street. Putting my hands over my mouth and feeling my eyes go wide, I watched as Stiles launched the wrench at the Jeep, hearing and seeing it connect with the windshield.

He moved and sat down against the front left tire, staring down at the ground for a few seconds before moving his eyes up to mine, which were filled with tears... again. He moved his hands in a come here manner, to which I did.

I walked over and stood in front of him, seeing him raise his hand up. I grabbed it and he turned my hand, telling me to turn and sit against him. So that's what I did. Sitting down in between his legs, I pressed my back against his chest, not caring that we were both damp from the downpour just a little bit ago. I put my head on his shoulder, feeling him immediately rest his against mine. We both sighed.

“I'm sorry,” he whispered.

“It's okay. None of this is your fault,” I said.

He wrapped his arms around me as I turned my head to face him more. He pressed his lips against my forehead.

We sat there in silence for a few moments before I sighed again. “Want me to call my mom? See if she can't come and take us home?”

“Yeah,” he sighed. “Yeah.”

So I did just that.

~~~

After I had called my mom, she came and got us. She was smart in not asking questions at the moment. She took us back to Stiles' house, where I showered and changed into some pajamas. Stiles did the same. Once dressed, I took our clothes and put them in the dryer.

I wasn't sure about Stiles, but I barely slept that night. I kept thinking about Corey, and the 'break up' between Scott and Stiles. Kept waking up every couple of hours, but once the sun hit my eyes, I was up.

Stiles dressed back in the same clothes he was in the day before, and I put the same pants back on with a different shirt and shoes.

He had called a tow-truck while I was getting dressed, to which the tow-truck guy told us to meet him where we left the Jeep all night. Taking my Jeep felt awkward and wrong, but we didn't have any other choice.

To be quite honest, seeing Roscoe on a tow-truck being hauled away was like we were losing something. I remembered what Cora told us when she was here during the sacrifices when Jennifer Blake was here. “Losing a member of your pack isn't like losing family. It's like losing a limb.” And damn, was she right about that. This Jeep was a part of our pack, a big part.

We looked at each other before climbing back into my Jeep. Silence was deafening, yes. So, I decided to ask a stupid question since I wasn't standing anywhere near Stiles when he was talking to the tow-truck guy.

I sighed before speaking. “Can they fix it?”

“There's not enough duct tape in the world to fix that thing,” he said.

Smirking a little bit, I tried to be playful. “Maybe we should try something other than duct tape.” I sneaked a glance at him, a smirk still on my face. He wasn't having it.

“It's got a bad alternator. Ya'know, it needs all new belts, transmissions's going... brake pads are basically metal on metal. Come on, babe, you know this.”

I lifted one hand off the steering wheel. “Parameter breached. Duly noted.” It was quiet for a second before I whispered, “How come we let it get so bad?”

“There's been a few distractions, if you haven't noticed.”

I took a deep, quiet breath, tears coming back to my eyes. I quickly blinked them away enough that I could see the road. “Am I one of them?”

“Yes, but in a good way,” he said. I spared a glance at him, seeing that he was already looking at me. I turned my eyes back to the road because road safety. Always keep your eyes on the road, kids!

“Emma, I'll always want you to be my distraction, good or bad. You're the reason I'm still sane after all of this.”

I blinked a tear from my eye and cleared my throat. “Same here.” I smiled a little. “Am I going back home?”

“No. Sheriff's Station,” he said, reaching over and grabbing my hand from the steering wheel.

I watched as he leaned over the console to put my promise ring over my shirt instead of under it.

“Wear it over. Looks better that way,” he said.

I chuckled. “Did you seriously just quote Hercules to me?”

“I don't know, maybe,” he said, lacing our fingers and resting them on my thigh. “We gotta talk to our dads.”

“Duly noted.”

~~~

I pulled in at the front of the station, sitting there for a second. “You want me to go in with you? I can always talk to my dad over dinner.”

“Look at me,” he whispered, so I did. “Always go in with me.”

“Even when you're running this place?” I asked.

“That's never gonna happen, but sure,” he chuckled.

I nodded. “Okay.”

Giving me a quick kiss, Stiles opened his door and got out as I did the same.

I met him at the front of my Jeep. “Hey,” I said. He looked at me. “Are you gonna tell him about Donovan?” He took a couple of steps closer to me. He reached up and rubbed his shoulder. “I never said anything to my dad because it didn't matter to me. We both know the full story, the real story.”

“Yeah, but it matters to me,” he said, voice low.

“Hey, I'm not saying either of us are in the wrong here. You pulled the pin not knowing what was gonna happen, and I never told my dad because you didn't tell me I could. I wasn't about to overstep an invisible boundary. We're both right in our own way.”

He looked at me like I had just given him the answer to life and connected our lips in a long, sweet kiss.

When we pulled apart, I smiled a little. “Come on. Let's get inside.”

We walked inside and stopped at the front desk, asking to see our dads.

“Sheriff and Deputy Thomas left half an hour ago,” the officer said. “Sheriff said they're both on their way back.”

“Okay, thanks. We'll just wait in his office,” Stiles said. He grabbed my hand and pulled me into his father's office. We weren't sitting in the chairs for five minutes when I took a deep breath in and heard a crap ton of voices, a man groaning and a beast growling.

“Babe? What's wrong?” Stiles asked.

I closed my eyes tight and shook my head. “Banshee senses.”

“What is it?”

I swallowed hard and looked at a spot on the front of Sheriff's desk. “Something's coming. Someone's going to die... at the library.”

The alarms going off in the station caused me to come out of my Banshee trance, both Stiles and I going to the door.

He opened it and I heard someone ask, “Somebody pull the fire alarm?”

“Babe, go back in Dad's office,” Stiles said.

“Alright, I'm pulling a Rose from Titanic; not without you,” I said.

I pulled him back into the office for approximately two minutes before my eyes went Green.

“What?” he asked.

“Parrish.”

As he saw Parrish coming walking through the station, officers pulled their guns out, causing Stiles to open the door back up and went out of the office, shouting, “Wait, wait, wait! Don't shoot! Don't shoot!”

I came out of the office, not caring that my eyes were still Green. “Get back! Stay out of his way.”

Stiles and I followed him out of the station, not knowing where he was headed.

~~~

Turns out, Parrish was headed to see the dead body of another Chimera. We followed him in my Jeep... very, very slowly. When we got to our destination, Stiles told me to wait in the Jeep, so I did. After the last couple of days we'd had, I didn't want to trigger either one of us by not listening.

Yeah, that lasted about five minutes before I saw Theo show up in his truck. So, I did what any person would do; drove up closer and got out of my vehicle.

Aaand the reason why Theo is here is because Stiles apparently called him.

“Back in the Jeep, babe,” Stiles said as Theo got out of his truck.

“Sorry, I got here as fast as I could,” Theo said.

“We gotta go. Now. Parrish has got the bodies,” Stiles said. I could tell his words were rushed even from here. “Get in the Jeep.”

“Okay, wait up... Stiles, wait,” Theo said.

“Parrish is out and he's got the bodies. We've gotta find Scott. And we've gotta tell him.” He opened the passenger door, but before he could get in Theo's voice stopped him.

“Stiles!” Theo yelled.

Stiles and I looked at each other before he put his hand out, telling me to stay put and closed the door. I rolled my window down, ready to hear this conversation.

“I don't think Scott wants to talk to you right now,” Theo said.

“Yeah, thanks, I'm aware of that,” Stiles said. “It doesn't matter. He needs to know about this.”

“Stiles… Scott doesn't want to talk to you. Or Emma.”

Stiles took a couple of steps towards Theo, who was now standing directly in front of my Jeep.

“But I think your dad does,” Theo said, holding up Stiles' Senior ID card. “Your dad was looking for you, Stiles. He found me instead. Same with Emma's dad.”

Stiles was now following Theo around the gravel in front of me. My eyes went wide at the mention of my dad.

“Where are they?” Stiles asked.

“I covered for you,” Theo said. “This was taken care of.” He was gesturing with Stiles' card. “If Melissa didn't find it at the hospital... I guess even the son of a cop can make mistakes.”

“Did you hurt him? Both of them?” Stiles asked.

Theo stopped right in front of my Jeep again, facing Stiles. “I never lied about why I came to Beacon Hills. I'm here for a pack.” He started circling around Stiles as he spoke. “I came for the were-coyote, the one whose first instinct is to kill. I came for the Banshees, the girls surrounded by death; one whose powers are more stronger because of her family's history, the were-banshee. I came for the dark Kitsune, the Beta with anger issues, I came for Void Stiles. That's the pack I want. Unfortunately, it doesn't include Scott.”

I could see Stiles' anger beginning to take over from here, so I just stayed still and listened.

“Your heartbeat's rising, Stiles,” Theo said. “It's not because you're afraid. Nogitsune is gone, but you've still got more blood on your hands than any of us.”

My mouth dropped open at the mention of what that monster made him do while possessing him. We never spoke of that since the cylinder was buried with the firefly inside.

“I'm about to get more,” Stiles said.

Theo moved to come over by my opened window. “I'll tell you where both your dads are,” he said, handing me Stiles' card before walking back to stand in front of Stiles. “If you promise not to help Scott.”

Stiles landed a punch right on the left side of Theo's jaw... to which that psychopath laughed at.

“There he is!” Theo said. “That's Void Stiles. It felt good, didn't it?”

Stiles landed another punch on Theo's face, causing him to fall to the gravel. Obviously, I silently cheered... even though I'm not the biggest fan of violence.

Theo sat up, spitting out blood. “We won’t tell Scott. 'Cause you can't lose your best friend, right? Even though all three of us know, you never needed him.”

Stiles launched himself at Theo, grabbing his jacket.

“You two hate me now, but you'll get it eventually. This is the hard part. 'Cause you can't help Scott and save both of your dad's lives. You've still got time, Stiles. You've still got time.”

I gasped and sat up straighter, causing their eyes to look in my direction.

“Hayden,” I whispered.

Theo ended up telling Stiles where our dads were and had me scoot into the passenger seat, just in case someone else died.

I sniffled and wiped my cheek, clearing them of any tears. The only thought running through my mind was my dad. I had texted my mom and told her that we were going to find Dad and Sheriff and that once we got them to the hospital, I'd call her and let her know what was going on.

Around ten minutes went by before we got to where Dad and Sheriff were. We got out and ran to their sides, dropping to our knees. They both were pretty bloody, but I didn't care as I grabbed my dad's cheeks. As soon as I did that, I looked up as my eyes went Green. I looked back at Stiles, his eyes already on mine.

“Cover your ears,” I mouthed.

He moved and covered Sheriff's ears, turning his face away from me as I took a deep breath while covering my dad's. I let out the most loudest scream I've ever done since Allison's.

“SCOTT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

~~~

As I was crying on my dad's chest, I picked my head up at the sound of a roar. Scott's roar. I've had an experience like this where I respond to and hear Scott's roar. It showed me that we're still connected. Best friends even. Another gasp out of me, feeling... Corey? What the hell was happening?

And why was I reacting to people dying and coming back to life?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A/N 2: hi, friends! let me know what you thought! again, please do not hesitate to reblog and give some feedback, whether it be in the reblogs, comments, or my inbox.

~~~

Forever / Everything Taglist: @stiles-o-dylan24 @stixnstripesworld @fandom-princess-forevermore @quanticobae @mischiefandi @kellyashcroft @lauren-novak

If you want to be added to the YABMH Taglist, just click here. If you’re tagged and didn’t want to be, please let me know. Tumblr’s trying to tag people for me, lol.

Italics wouldn’t let me tag 🥺

~~~

*Please don’t post my writing anywhere else without my consent. The author of this work will always and forever be @harringtonstilinski.

*These works contain material protected under International and Federal Copyright Laws and Treaties. Any unauthorized reprint or use of this material is prohibited.

Posted on February 19, 2022

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harringtonstilinski · 3 years

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You’ll Always Be My Hero - Chapter 31 ; Currents

Author: @harringtonstilinski Characters: Stiles Stilinski x Emma Thomas (OC) Word Count: Warnings: jealous!emma, small bit of fluff if you squint, some angst, minor character death A/N: Hi, friends! I’m a day late, but what’s new? But Chapter 31 is here, and I can’t wait for y’all to read it. If you like this chapter, please do not hesitate to reblog and give some feedback, whether it be in the reblogs, comments, or my inbox. As always, read at your own risk and enjoy 😊

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Stiles was doing more research to figure out what the hell is going on with me and Lydia when his phone started to ring. Without looking, he picked it up. “Yeah?” He stopped all movement. “Now? Do you want Em-- okay. Alright.” He hung up the phone. “I gotta go meet Scott really fast at the hospital.”

“He didn't want me to come?” I was already putting my shoes back on when he turned around in his desk chair.

“No, he-- of course you're gonna come,” he said, sighing his last few words.

“Yes, I am.” My phone started ringing, so I answered it. “Hello?”

“Stay home, you understand me,” Dad said.

“Dad,” I sighed. I started toeing off my shoes. “Alright. Only because you asked so nicely,” I sassed.

Stiles chuckled as I hung up the phone. Dad and Sheriff may or may not have walked in on Stiles and I getting our naked groove on the other night. We have a very nice talking to about that.

“I'll be back as soon as I can,” Stiles said, walking over to me as I laid down on his bed.

“What am I supposed to do while you're gone?” I asked.

“I don't know. Watch your romance movies. Watch, uhm, Dear John or The Notebook.”

I sighed. “Okay.”

He bent down to kiss me quickly, but I grabbed his shirt, pulling him back causing him to chuckle.

“Baby,” he said. “I gotta--” Kiss. “Go meet--” Kiss. “Scott--” Kiss. He pulled away. “We can finish this when I get back, okay?”

“Okay,” I said. He grabbed his laptop from his desk, messing around on it. He turned it around and handed it to me.

“There. All set and ready.”

“Thank you,” I whispered.

He smiled and kissed me again.

After he left, I watched about half of The Notebook and fell asleep. Needless to say, we didn't finish that make out session.

~~~

Next morning in Chemistry, Ms. Blake walked in the classroom. Scott, Stiles and I were sitting at the same lab station. Let's see how long until she notices.

“Good morning,” she greeted. “As you all know, Mr. Harris is still missing-- uh, I mean sick. Anyway, I'm filling in while we all hope and pray for a more qualified substitute to take my place. Okay, so, let's get started, shall we?”

“Hey,” Stiles said, leaning over me to talk to Scott. “Our dads said that the ER attending wasn't strangled but did die of asphyxiation. They just don't know how.”

I looked at him with furrowed brows, jerking my head back a little. “You never told me that.”

“You were asleep,” he said. “I didn't want to wake you.”

“Aw. So sweet.” Sass Master in full effect.

Getting the conversation back on track, Scott spoke up. “Do you think the on-call doctor could still be alive?”

“I don't know... but, Scott, there's got to be at least 20 other doctors in that hospital-- at least, ya'know?” Stiles said. “Any one of them could be next.”

Scott's phone started buzzing, so naturally he did what any other student would do. If you guessed let it go to voicemail, you're wrong. Boy answered it right in the middle of class. “Hey, Doc, sorry, I'm in class right now. Can I call you back later?” He was quiet for a minute before he spoke up again. “Doc, Doc, Doc, Doc? What's happening?”

“Getting ready for the animal clinic play of Back to the Future?” I sassed.

“No. Deaton said he's gonna be taken,” he said. “We gotta get to the clinic.”

“Okay. We'll go free period.”

“But you don't have one.”

“My grades won't suffer that bad,” I said. “Plus, I can lie and say that I'm going to see my dad about something super important. Which, your boss missing? Important.”

~~~

He didn't wait for free period. I guess getting to the clinic meant going as soon as class was over.

Stiles had called his dad while I called mine. Except... my phone call was a little longer than his.

“You stay at school. Understand?” Dad said.

“Yes, Dad, I understand,” I sighed. “But my grades, honestly, are fine. I'm sure missing a cou--”

“You got a C on a paper a few weeks ago,” he said. “That's not fine.”

“Dad, one C isn't gonna affect my chances of getting into a good college, I promise. Plus, I literally fell asleep while writing that paper. I was in a hurry to get to school the next morning, I didn't have time to finish.”

It was quiet on his end, so I took that as a good sign. “Scott's here. We'll talk later.”

“Okay. I love you, Dad.”

“Love you, too, sweetheart.”

I hung up and looked up at Stiles, asking, “We're still going, right?” “Have you met us?” he said.

I chuckled and grabbed his hand, lacing our fingers.

Lunchtime saw Stiles and I driving to the animal clinic, so I decided to make conversation.

“Stiles?” I said.

He hummed, letting me know he was listening.

“I don't know why I'm asking this now, but...”

“What?” He glanced at me then back at the road.

I sighed. “Did you ever have a crush on Lydia? Or did you tell me that in middle school to get me to open my eyes?”

He sighed. “Yes and no to both.” He gripped the steering wheel a little tighter. “Well, I mean, I thought I did,” he said, gesturing his hand out to the side then back to his thigh. “I thought you didn't like me back, so I...”

“Well, it did, ya'know. It made me open my eyes. After what you told me at Winter Formal last year when you--” I stopped and chuckled. “tried to get me to dance with you and successfully did, and while we were dancing... I realized that I liked you back… since third grade.” I looked at him and smirked at his profile. He glanced at me for a second and smirked back.

“How did I get lucky?” he asked, reaching over and lacing our fingers.

“Fate.”

~~~

After parking outside of the animal clinic and helping me out of the Jeep, Stiles kissed me and grabbed my hand, walking us inside. We went to one the rooms Scott was sitting in. Stiles was leaning against one of the walls and I was standing on Scott's right, hand on his shoulder.

Sheriff and Dad walked up to us. “Alright,” Sheriff said. “We're gonna do everything we can. Right now, the best thing you can do is go back to school.”

I looked at Dad, who's facial expression told me he was not happy I was here and not at school. Scott nodded, and Sheriff and Dad walked away with Deputy Tara. Scott looked at me and Stiles and nodded slightly with his head towards the room where they kept the cat cages.

After three of us walked in, Stiles walked over to stand by a row of them. Scott walked over and stood in front Stiles, which put me in the middle of them, facing the cages.

“We have to tell them,” Scott said.

“You mean, like, tell them tell them, or tell them something else that isn't telling them what I think you want to tell them?” Stiles said.

“Wait, who's them?” I asked.

He sighed and looked at me. “Our dads.”

“You know what I mean,” Scott said.

I let out a couple of quick breaths, one of them being a chuckle. “Yeah, no. Not an option.”

“You remember how your mom reacted?” Stiles asked, left hand on the cage next to him. “She didn't look you in the eye for, like, a week.”

“And she got over it,” Scott said. “And-- and it actually made us closer.”

“Scott, I can't even be in the same room with Stiles right now without my dad having a fit, thinking we're going at it. He would literally make me move back home with him and Mom if we told him. Not an option for my dad,” I ranted.

“Yeah, I don't know, dude. Emma, I mean, look at them. Come on, they're completely overwhelmed as it is,” Stiles said. I looked through the window and saw Sheriff bring his hand up to his face, rubbing it. My dad had that look on his face that read he was exhausted and wanted to sleep for two weeks.

“They're overwhelmed because they have no clue what's happening,” Scott said. “They've got people dying in their town, the town they're supposed to protect, and it's not their fault that they don't know what's happening. They're gonna find out sooner or later.”

“Yeah, but is now really the right time, Scotty?” I asked, raising a brow and getting frustrated. I didn't want my dad hurt. I wouldn't be able to live with myself if he did. Or got killed.

“Emma, what if not telling them now gets someone else killed?”

“What if telling them gets them killed, huh? I mean, okay, look, I get that Deaton's been like a father to you. I get that, okay? But this ou--” I stopped my thought for a moment, looking out the window, tears coming to my waterline. “Scotty, these are our actual fathers. I can't...” I stopped again, a tear rolling down my cheek. Stiles reached out and wrapped his arm around my shoulders. I put my arm around his back, pressing my cheek against his chest.

“Scott, I can't lose both of my parents, alright?” Stiles said. “Not both of them.”

“And I'd go insane if I lost just one,” I said, voice shaky.

Scott was quiet for a second before he looked up at us. “You're right. You're both right.”

Stiles sighed. “No, I'm not.” I looked up at him, but he was still looking ahead of him. “I'm not right.” He looked down at me. “Come on, Em.”

I sighed and looked down at my shoes before I took in a deep breath and slowly replied, “I don't want to see my dad hurt.” I looked up at Scott, three more tears rolling down my cheek. “But if it's gonna save his life in the long run--”

“We'll tell them,” Stiles inputted.

“I'll help you,” Scott said.

Stiles took his arm from around my shoulder, holding his hand out for me to walk in front of him.

“Oh, we're doing this now?” I asked.

Scott opened the door and walked out, me and Stiles right behind him. We stopped, however, when we noticed Morell standing with Sheriff, Dad, and Deputy Tara.

“Please, whatever you need, however you can help find my brother,” Morell said.

The three of us looked at each other. I looked at Stiles as he mouthed brother?

“Will you excuse us for a moment?” Sheriff asked. I looked back at Morell as she walked towards us.

“Okay, listen closely, all three of you,” she said. “No Sheriff, Deputy, or Detective is going to be able to find him.”

“You don't have to ask us for help,” Scott said.

“Actually, I'm trying to help you, because if you're going to find my brother, then you need to use one or both of the people that might actually have an ability to seek out the supernatural,” she said, eyes landing on me.

Stiles put his arm around my shoulders again, and looked down at me.

“What?” I asked.

“You... and Lydia,” he said.

~~~

We went back to school after going to the house to get a couple things to find Lydia, but when we got there, the fire alarm had been pulled.

“What the hell?” I mumbled. Stiles and I walked through the halls, trying to find Lydia, but with no luck.

“Oh, shit. I just remembered something,” I said.

“What?” he asked.

“I almost forgot. My mom had Bobby go by the house this morning. She packed some leftovers from last night for me. She texted me this morning and told me to get them before lunch. And well, we were too busy arguing with Scott about not telling our dads that I forgot. I gotta go to his office.”

“Alright, I'll come with you,” he said.

“Let go,” I heard Lydia say as we walked into the locker room. I walked over to the office door, Cora’s hand wrapped around Lydia's wrist.

“I said--” Lydia started.

“Let go,” Stiles interrupted.

“He said let go,” I said, crossing my arms.

“Text Scott,” he said, not taking his eyes off Cora and Lydia.

I pulled out my phone and texted Scott, telling him that we found Lydia.

Stiles and I told Lydia that she needed to come with us. Cora, eck, followed us. We went inside of an empty Chemistry room. Lydia sat down at a station, Stiles and I standing next to her, and Cora, again eck, was sitting beside Lydia. Stiles grabbed a game board that I didn't care to take a good look at, and set it down on the station in front of Lydia.

“A Ouija board?” her and I asked.

“Also called a spirit board, and it's worth a shot,” Stiles replied, opening the box.

Lydia looked at me, leaning slightly towards me. “I asked this the other day and I'm going to ask again; why are you with him?”

“It's just fate, I guess,” I said, smiling when I looked at Stiles, his expression reading one of doneness.

“A shot in the dark,” we said, looking back to Stiles, who continued to set up the board.

“Could you two just try it, please, okay? Let's not forget who this is for-- Scott's boss,” Stiles said, placing the planchette on board upside down, to which Lydia fixed. Not that Stiles noticed. “The guys who has saved our collective asses on more than one occsasion.”

“Oh, wait, should we all do this?” Cora asked. I looked at her and squinted my eyes. I was getting a bad vibe from her.

“Yeah, yeah,” Stiles said.

Lydia and I sighed, putting our hands on the planchette, Stiles and Cora following our leads.

“You guys ready?” Stiles asked, looking at me and Lydia.

I nodded hesitantly, looking down at the board and sighing.

“Yeah,” Lydia said.

“Yes,” came Cora's short reply.

Stiles sighed and kissed my temple before talking. “Where's Dr. Deaton?”

Nothing. Happened. I hung my head and let out a sigh of relief. I didn't feel like dealing with demon ghosts today on top of needing to tell Dad about the supernatural and also dealing with an Alpha pack. I picked my head up and looked at Stiles.

He was looking at me and Lydia expectantly. Lydia and I looked at each other, then back to him and Cora. “What?”

“Aren't you gonna answer it?” he asked.

We looked at each other like is he serious.

“Oh, we don't know the answer,” I said.

“I thought we were asking some sort of spirit,” Lydia said.

“Well, do either of you know any spirits?” Cora asked.

I pointed at her and looked at Stiles. “Is she for real?”

Stiles groaned, and we all took our hands off the playing piece. He put the board and planchette back in the box, putting it off to the side. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a set of keys, holding them out.

“Wha-- who--” I started to say, but was interrupted by the boyfriend.

“These are Deaton's keys for the clinic,” he said. “Close your eyes and I'm gonna put them in Emma's hand, palm up, Lydia you put yours on top, palm down, and then we're just gonna try and see if you can feel out for his location. It's called psychometry.”

“We're not physics,” Lydia said.

“Yeah, and I don't have that strange pull or feeling to find Deaton's body, just like with Derek,” I said, looking at Stiles, who had a look of annoyance starting on his face.

“You're both something! Okay?” he exclaimed. “Just-- baby, put out your hand, and...”

“You're something else,” I said. “Just give me the damn keys.” I took the keys from his hand and placed them in my palm, Lydia placing her hand on top.

She hummed a little bit, making Stiles jump into small action.

“What?” he asked.

“They're cold,” we said.

I looked at him and the look on his face made me cover my mouth to cover the snicker I let out. He looked like he killed us in his head about 20 different ways.

“Guys, concentrate, please,” he said. “Trying to save lives here, for the love of God.”

I looked at Lydia and shrugged my shoulder, us closing our eyes. Whatever it is that we were supposed to be doing, I'm not sure it worked... or we didn't know what we were doing just yet. I scrunched my brows.

“Baby, what is it? What do you see?” Stiles asked.

I opened my eyes. “Nothing,” I said, tone reading bored.

Since we were in the classroom, I set the keys down on the table and walked to the desk, grabbing a couple pieces of paper and some pencils. I set one down in front of Lydia and placed mine on the table in front of her. I leaned forward and rested my arms against the table, slightly swinging my hips back and forth.

“Automatic writing?” Lydia asked as we locked eyes.

I shrugged one shoulder. “Wasn't really going for that, but yeah. Sure.”

She picked up her pencil and started moving it across her page. I did the same, only I wasn't writing words. I was drawing the tree that had been on my mind for weeks that I couldn't stop drawing.

“Em, Lydia, what are you doing?” Stiles asked. “What-- what the hell is that?”

“A tree,” we responded, tone again bored.

“A tr--” Stiles started to say. “Guys, you're supposed to be writing words, like in sentences, something like a location, something that would tell us where he is.”

“Well, maybe you should've said that,” Lydia said.

“Aren't they supposed to be some kind of geniuses?” Cora asked.

I looked up from my paper to look at Cora, responding without missing a beat. “Genius? Yes,” I said, tone argumentative. She gave me a look with narrowed eyes. I rolled my eyes and went back to my tree.

“Psychic, no,” Lydia said.

“Honestly, babe, I don't know why we're bothering with this anyway,” I said. “I mean, especially since it's obvious we should be talking to Danny.”

Stiles looked at me, hand coming down from his mouth. “What? Why Danny?”

“Because...” Scott's voice came through, making me turn to look at him over my shoulder. “Last night, he was a target. But it wasn't a sacrifice.”

Stiles and I looked back at each other. I turned my head back to Scott, seeing him holding his shoulder. I put my pencil down and walked over to him. “Scotty, what happened to your shoulder?”

“Deucalion,” he said. “Don't worry about it. It's healing.”

~~~

We all went to class after that little bit of information, and when the bell eventually rang to let us know class was over, we all walked out of the classroom, Stiles and I hand in hand.

“But isn't Danny still in the hospital?” Cora asked.

“Yeah. That's where Emma and I are going right now,” Stiles said.

“I'll meet you there,” Scott said.

“Why?” I asked.

Scott quickly turned around and showed a text from Allison that read “I think I found something.”

~~~

Riding with Stiles in the hospital, I realized something. So, I decided to voice it.

“Having the chance at a normal life just isn't gonna happen for us anymore, is it?” I said.

“What do you mean?” he wondered.

“I mean,--” I sighed. “I just... kind of want everything to go back to normal, ya'know?”

“Like, before us?” He glanced a look at me.

“Before Scott got bit. I mean, we'd still end up together, obviously, but... I don't know,” I said, feeling Stiles reach over and intertwine our fingers. “I guess I just hate the fact that this supernatural shit has infiltrated our lives. That's all.”

He let out a sigh of relief. “I thought you were breaking up with me there for a second.”

I chuckled. “No. I'm stuck with you. We're gonna end up like our parents. I'm probably gonna be a lawyer like Mom, and I'm seeing either a Deputy or Agent in your future.”

“Nah. That won't be me,” Stiles said, voice a little low.

“Yes, it is. Cops and Agents have to have a very...” I started snapping. “Oh, what's the word? Uhm, distinct attention to detail. You have that. You never stopped trying with the Matt Kanima case last year..”

“You helped.”

“Because you asked me to. But that's not the point. My point is--” I paused when Stiles parked the Jeep at the hospital. “That you can do it. You can be anything you wanna be. I think you'd be a great Cop or Agent. And I'm not just saying that because I'm your girlfriend. I'd say it even if I wasn't. I'm saying it because it's true. You always sell yourself short.”

He looked at me and just stared. “Cops and Agents are heros, Em. That's not me.” He looked down to his lap. I pulled my hand from his, putting it under his chin and bringing his eyes to mine.

“You'll always be my hero.”

~~~

Walking into the hospital, we tried to be... not suspicious. We found Danny's room and Stiles opened the door, looking around the hallway to see if anyone was coming. When he gave me the okay nod, I walked in the room, him right behind me. He closed the door and walked over to Danny's bed side.

“Danny, you awake?” he whispered. After not receiving any answer from him, Stiles started shaking him.

“Don't you think that's gonna wake him?” I whisper asked.

“Nah, nah, he'll be fine. Danny?” This boy started slapping sweet old Danny in the face. After Danny took a deep breath, Stiles stumbled backwards, to which I quietly chuckled.

“Wow,” Stiles said. As Danny groaned, Stiles held out a hand, silently asking him to stop making noises. He looked back at me for a hot second then back to Danny. His head moved slightly down, so I knew he must've spotted something. He reached down and I heard the unmistakable noise that a zipper makes when being unzipped.

“What are you doing?!” I whisper-yelled.

“Shhh.”

“Did you just shush me?”

“Yes, I did. Now--”

“What are you doing?” Danny asked, groggily.

Stiles sat straight up to look at Danny. “I'm... not doing anything, Danny. This is just a dream that you're having.” He sat down back and messed around more in Danny's bag.

“Why are you going through my stuff?”

Stiles sat back up. “Right, but only in the dream, remember? Dream,” he said. “You’re dreaming,” he singsonged, sitting back down.

“Why would I dream about you going through my stuff?”

Popping back up, Stiles said, “I don't know that, Danny, okay? It's your dream. Take responsibility for it. Now shut up and go back to sleep.” He went back to Danny's bag.

“You're so mean,” I whispered. Throughout that whole exchange, I was trying hard not to laugh at Stiles getting caught by sleepy Danny.

“Oh, Danny boy, you might've actually found something here,” Stiles said.

Stiles stood up and walked right past me, looking at some papers in his hand.

“Wha-- well, okay, then,” I sassed, walking behind him. He pulled his phone out of his pocket. “Hey, mind filling me in here, or what?”

“I'm calling Scott,” he said, putting the phone up to his ear. “Hey, let me put you on speaker so Emma can listen.”

“Deaton's got to be at one of the six locations, but they're all over town. I don't know how we can get to all of them fast enough,” Scott said. He texted Stiles about the map that Allison had found in her dad's office at their apartment.

“Well, we might not have to,” Stiles said. “Danny was doing a project on something for Mr. Harris' physics class, and I think it actually means something.”

“What project?”

“Something on telluric currents,” Stiles said, unrolling said project.

It was quiet on Scott's end for a second before he spoke again. “Did you say currents?”

“Yeah,” Stiles said, looking at me. He walked past me again to the Jeep. “Come on, baby,” he said as he opened the door for me, hanging up his phone.

“Ya'know, I'm really starting to feel abandoned a little bit here,” I said, getting in.

“No one's abandoning you,” Stiles said before giving me a kiss on the cheek. He walked around the Jeep and got in, starting it up and driving.

“Where are we going?” I asked.

“Animal clinic.”

~~~

We got to the animal clinic, Scott, Lydia and Cora meeting us there. We went into the examination room, Danny's paper and other papers on the table. Stiles, Lydia and I on one side, Scott and Cora on the other side.

“Okay, so, what does this kid's homework have to do with finding Deaton?” Cora asked.

I gave her a small glare, as Stiles just looked at her while giving his reply, “Because it's not just homework, okay? It's a project on geomagnetic fields--”

“They flow through the Earth. They can be affected by lunar phases,” I interrupted. At this point in our lives, when I took over someone's thought train, I meant business. I was feeding off of Stiles' energy, too.

“Alright, now, look at this,” Stiles said, flipping to the next page of Danny's project. “This is a note from Harris on Danny's proposal.”

I read from the paper, “I strongly advise you to choose another subject. The ideas here, while innovative and thoughtful, border on pseudoscience. Not suitable for class.”

“Harris wasn't just a sacrifice,” Scott said. “He knew something.”

“Now, check this out,” Stiles said. “Allison's dad wasn't the only one with a map, alright? Danny had one, too.” He was unfolding the map that Danny had and spread it out on the table. “Danny marked all the telluric currents, okay?”

“Now, the weird thing about Beacon Hills is that it actually is a beacon. You wouldn't believe how much energy flowing through this Earth is around this town,” I said.

I guess Scott, Stiles and I forgot about Cora and Lydia being in the room because we never addressed them. “Guys, look they match,” Scott said. Stiles and I looked down. Scott took the papers he had brought and started messing with them, then wrote on them as he continued his thought process. “Alright, there's three places, right? Where they're kidnapped, and then the place where they're body was found.”

“Look, that's right on a telluric current,” Lydia said, pointing at the map. I jumped a little, placing a hand on her back.

“Shit, I forgot you were here. Sorry,” I said. I went back into business mode in 0.2 seconds. “Maybe where he was sacrificed is somewhere in between.”

“Let me see that,” Stiles said, looking at Scott. He took the pen from Scott's hand and hovered it over the map, getting ready to mark. “You said there's six more bodies to be found,” he said, marking an X on the clinic. “Deaton's one of them. Got to be somewhere in between, right?”

“Stop,” Cora said, placing her hand on Stiles'. They looked at each other before she moved his hand to the between place. “He's in the vault. He's in the same vault.”

“Yeah, hello, hi,” I said, putting my hand up by my face and sharing a tight lipped smile. “Uh, this,” I gestured to their hands. “Yeah, that can stop now, thanks.”

Lydia snickered next to me while Cora glared at me. Yeah, we weren't gonna get along after this. Unnecessary touching with my boyfriend, yeah, no. Not okay with me.

They all started gathering up the papers that they placed down. Scott started walking to the back door.

“Guys, hold on,” Lydia said.

“Lydia, we don't have time,” Scott said.

“It's Boyd. The plan didn't work,” Cora said, looking up from her phone. “They cut the power.”

“Uh, someone wanna tell me what that plan was because I have no clue what the hell she's talking about,” I sassed.

“It's just like he said,” Scott said. “Go. I can save Deaton myself.”

“What? Scott, what about us?” Stiles asked.

“Cora can't get there fast enough without you. Go. We can save both of them. Emma,” he said, looking at me. I looked at him with a raised brow. “Play nice.”

“Don't plan on it,” I said.

“Let's go,” Stiles said, grabbing my hand and pulling me out of the clinic.

~~~

We made it the loft in record time. Stiles, of course, breaking all the road rules. Once we piled out of our vehicles, we all rushed to the control room.

“Okay, what do we do?” Stiles asked. I stayed by the door while him, Lydia and Cora faced the control panels. That dread feeling was back.

“Pull all of them,” Cora said.

They started pulling and twisting the knobs, the lights coming back on soon after.

“We gotta go. Upstairs. Now,” I said, not waiting for them. I booked it to the elevator, repeatedly pressing the button to go up.

“Babe, what is it? What's happening?” Stiles rushed out, putting a hand on my back.

“Feeling's back,” I said, continuing my assault on the button. “Someone's gonna die.”

The elevator finally opened up and I rushed in, putting my assault on the button to the loft. I had tears streaming down my face. I wasn't sure who was gonna die, but I just knew.

The elevator started going up as soon as everyone else was in and the doors closed. Once we got to the floor, I rushed out and ran up the small set of stairs. I stood by the door, putting my hand over my mouth, muttering, “No.” I shook my head at the dread feeling that was slowly going away. A couple of tears flowed down my cheeks. I saw from the corner of my eye Stiles standing a step in front of me. I looked up at the back of his head. I watched as Cora placed a hand on his arm, stepping around him and down the steps into the loft.

I rushed forward and straight to Derek, wrapping my arms around his neck in an awkward side hug. I was still pissed at him for the ice bath with Isaac a few weeks ago, but I felt bad because he was made by the twins and Kali to kill one of his own. And that person was Boyd. I felt Stiles put his hand under my arm to rest on Derek's shoulder. Derek slowly brought his arm up to place his hand on my arm. I'd never seen Derek so sad before.

“I'm sorry, Derek, I'm so sorry,” I whispered.

~~~

After Stiles and I got home, showered, and dressed for bed, we laid in my bed. I was on my right side, curled up against him with my left arm over his stomach, head on his chest and my eyes closed, while he was on his back, left arm around me and his right arm behind his head. He took a deep breath before he spoke.

“Em?” he said.

“Hmm?”

“Are you... jealous.. of Cora?”

“No,” I replied, not needing to think. “She just pisses me off. First, doubting mine and Lydia's unnamed ability, then the whole hand thing at the clinic. I don't think she understands or cares about boundaries and how she talks to people. I mean, she's a Hale after all.” I hummed as I got more comfortable.

“If you were... you'd tell me... right?”

“Where is this coming from?” I breathed.

“Just... I don't know,” he said. “You're being a lot more sassier than normal. Like, more than your extra sassiness. Did you put on, like, three pairs of sassy jeans on today?”

I giggled. “No. I guess I'm just still tired of not knowing what's really going on with me... and now Lydia, since she and I keep showing up at different places finding dead sacrificed bodies.” I looked up at him. “Babe,” I whispered.

He looked down at me.

“Don't worry about it,” I said, placing my hand on his cheek. “If I was jealous, I'd be all over you, like, holding your hand, your arm, your leg, your back--”

I was interrupted by Stiles planting one on me. As our lips moved in sync, I realized just how tired I was. When we pulled away, I put my head back on his chest. We both took a deep breath, and sighed.

“Good night, beautiful,” he whispered.

“Good night, handsome.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A/N 2: what’d y’all think? how do we feel about emma always calling stiles her hero?

~~~

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~~~

*Please don’t post my writing anywhere else without my consent. The author of this work will always and forever be @harringtonstilinski.

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Posted on January 6, 2021

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harringtonstilinski · 4 years

Text

You’ll Always Be My Hero - Chapter 22 ; Fury

Author: @harringtonstilinski Characters: Stiles Stilinski x Emma Thomas (OC) Word Count: 5,862 Warnings: y’all might hate emma in this chapter, matt (ew), jackson/kanima, matt having a gun and just being a fucking creeper, hostage situation, mentions of our boy scott getting shot, A/N: Hi, friends! We’ve got a bit of doozy for today’s chapter. Lot’s of warnings up above. You know how Emma’s life was no longer threatened? Hope you enjoyed that little break 😜 If you’ve watched the episode, you’ll definitely know it was a crazy one, lol. Anyway, if you like this chapter, please do not hesitate to reblog and give some feedback, whether it be in the reblogs, comments, or my inbox. As always, read at your own risk and enjoy 😊

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We were all in Stiles' room, surrounding his desk; him, myself, Scott and Sheriff. We explained to Sheriff almost everything about the big murder case. And yes. Scott and I explained what we saw with Matt and Jackson. In the most recent yearbook for our class we could find, Stiles had Matt's picture and name circled with an arrow going from the picture to his name. Talk about attention to detail.

Sheriff looked at it and said, “So this kid's the real killer?”

“Yeah,” Stiles said.

“No.”

Stiles, who was sitting in his desk chair, looked at his dad in almost shock. “Yes!”

Crossing his arms, Sheriff replied more sternly, “No.”

“Dad,” Stiles said, abruptly standing. “Come on. Everybody knows that people look for ways to connect victims in a murder, okay? So, all you have to do is, like, look through transcripts and figure out which class they all had in common.” He quickly turned back to look at Scott and I. We both just raised our brows.

“Yeah, except for the fact that the rave promoter, Kara, wasn't in Harris' class,” Sheriff said.

“Alright, okay, you're right, sorry.”

“Then I guess they dropped the charges against him?” I asked, wanting to take some of the heat off Stiles.

Sheriff looked at me and pointed his finger. “No, you know what? They're not dropping the charges. But that doesn't prove anything. Scott, do you believe this? Emma?”

Scott and I looked at each other while Stiles said, “Oh.” Almost like he couldn't believe his own father doesn't/wouldn't believe him.

“That's really hard to explain how the three of us know this, but you just gotta trust us,” Scott replied.

“We know it's Matt,” I added.

“Yeah, he took Harris' car,” Stiles said.

“He knew that if a cop found tire tracks at one of the murder's, and if enough of the victims were in Harris' class, that they'd arrest him.”

“Alright, fine,” Sheriff said. He was talking sweetly with me. I bet if it were Stiles talking, he'd be a hell of a lot more stern. “I'll allow the remote possibility, but give me a motive. I mean, why would this kid want most of the 2006 swim team and its coach dead?”

“Isn't it obvious?” Stiles asked, throwing his arms out to his side. “Our swim team sucks! They haven't won in, like, six years. Okay, we don't have a motive yet.”

I pinched the bridge of my nose and let out a deep sigh.

“I mean, come on, does Harris?”

Sheriff was quiet for a moment. “What do you want me to do?”

Stiles looked back to me and Scott.

“We need to look at the evidence,” Scott said, trying to sound all professional. Detective work like this isn't his forte. Sorry Scotty.

“Yeah, that would be at the station,” Sheriff said. “Where me and Carter no longer work.”

“Trust me, they'll let you in,” Stiles said.

“Trust you?” Sheriff asked, this time pointing two fingers at Stiles.

“Trust--” Stiles looked over his shoulder, locking eyes with me first. “Trust Emma?”

“Emma, I trust…,” Sheriff said. “And Scott.”

Fifteen minutes whizzed by and before I knew it, we were all at the Sheriff's Station. My dad wanted to come with, so hey, party at the Station!

We walked up to the front desk, Sheriff and Dad at the front. The overnight deputy looked at them like she didn't know what to say.

“It's 2:00 in the morning.”

“Believe me, we wouldn't be here if it wasn't extremely important,” Sheriff said. We gave my dad a briefing on what was going on as we drove here.

“We look at the hospital stuff first,” Stiles whispered.

“Why?” Scott asked.

“Because all the murders were committed by Jackson, except for one, you remember?”

“The pregnant girl, Jessica.”

“Yeah. Since Matt had to kill her himself, somebody from the hospital could've seen him,” I said.

“Thank you. Kids,” Sheriff said, looking in our direction.

We followed him to his office where he pulled up the hospital footage from the night of Jessica's murder. “I don't know, kids. I mean, look at this. There was a six-car pileup that night, the hospital was jammed,” Sheriff said.

“Alright, just keep going,” Stiles said. “Look, he had to have passed one of the cameras on that floor to get to Jessica, okay? He's gotta be on the footage somewhere.”

“Wait, hold on, stop,” I said. “Did you see that? Scroll back.” I felt Stiles' eyes on me, but I didn't pay him any mind. I guess I had caught something in a case before he did. Mental high five for me. I heard Dad clear his throat and quickly looked at him as Stiles looked at the computer in front of his dad.

Sheriff scrolled back some. I watched Matt on the screen.

“That's him! That's Matt!” Stiles said.

Sheriff looked at the screen for a second. “Carter, do you see what they see?”

Dad walked around Sheriff and looked at the computer screen. Shrugging he said, “All I see is the back of someone's head.”

“Matt's head, yeah,” Stiles said. Dad looked at him with a face that said is there something else you wanna add. “S—sir.”

“Stiles sits behind him in History, and be nice,” I said.

“Yeah, he's got a very distinct cranium, it's weird.”

“Are you crazy?” both our dads asked.

“Alright, fine, then look at his jacket, huh? How many people do you know who wear black leather jackets?”

“Millions, literally. One is standing beside you,” Sheriff said, tilting his head towards my dad. That was the one thing my mom let him keep from the '80s. I guess he was like... a troublemaker kid in school. Think John Bender from The Breakfast Club but not as intense.

“Can we scroll forward?” Scott asked. “There's gotta be a shot of him coming at one of the cameras.”

Sheriff sighed and did as Scott politely asked. He scrolled forward again... but was stopped by Stiles' loud mouth, exclaiming, “Right there! Stop, stop! See, there he is again.”

“You mean there's the back of his head again,” Sheriff said.

“Okay, but look,” I said, putting my hand on Stiles' back to lean forward a little to point at something on the screen. “He's talking to someone.”

Scott leaned forward and looked at the screen, trying to figure out who it is. “He's talking to my mom.”

Sheriff told Scott to call Melissa, so that's what he did.

“Scott, you know how many people I deal with in a day?” she asked, voice somewhat muffled over the phone.

“This one's sixteen,” Scott said. “He's got dark hair, looks like a normal teenager.”

“Yeah, he looks evil,” Stiles added.

“Oh, my god,” I mumbled, pinching my nose once again.

“Scott, I already talked to the police about this,” Melissa said.

“Okay, Mom, I'm gonna take a picture and send it to you.” Doing as he said, Scott took his phone, which was on speakerphone, and took a picture of Matt and sent it to her. “Did you get it?”

“Yeah,” she said.

“Do you recognize him? Do you remember him?” I asked, sweetly.

“Yeah, I did,” she said. “I mean, I remember I stopped him because he was tracking mud in the hall. Scott, what's going on?”

“It's-- it's nothing, Mom,” Scott said. “I'll explain later. I gotta go.”

After Scott hung up with Melissa, Sheriff took a folder and opened it. My dad placed a hand on my back. Wow. Fatherly affection for the second time in the last few weeks a few months after he gets sober? Damn.

“We've got shoe prints alongside the tire tracks at the trailer site,” Sheriff said.

“And if they match, that puts Matt at the scene of three murders,” Stiles said.

“The trailer, the hospital, and the rave,” I said.

“Actually four,” Dad said. Nice to see he was getting somewhat involved. He picked up a piece of paper from the file in front of Sheriff. “A credit card receipt for an oil change was signed by Matt at the garage where the mechanic was killed.”

“When?” Stiles asked.

“A couple of hours before the two of you got there,” Dad said, gesturing to me and Stiles with the paper.

“Alright, Noah, if one's an incident, two's a coincidence, three's a pattern, then what's four?” I asked.

“Four's enough for a warrant,” he said.

Stiles looked at me and silently celebrated while I just smiled a little as Sheriff said, “Scott, call your mom back, see how quick she can get here. If I can get an official ID, I can get a search warrant. Emma, go to the front desk. Tell them to let Scott's mom in when she gets here.”

“Got it,” I said, moving around the desk and out the door. This place was like a second home to me, so I knew my way around pretty well. I walked to the front desk door and stopped dead in my tracks, seeing that the deputy wasn't there. I looked around, wondering where she could've gone. “Hello?” I just happen to look down and see her on the ground... with blood covering her chest/ab area. I gasped and covered my mouth before I noticed that her gun was missing. There were two people I wanted right now and I was going to make my way back to them.

I turned around to go back to Sheriff's office when my eyes were met with a gun. I looked at who was at the other end of the gun and saw that it was Matt. He had a tear in his left eye. “Oh, Emma. How I hate that it's you I'm pointing this gun at.” He tilted his head towards Sheriff's office. “Go.”

I started walking back to the office area, Matt following behind me, gun pointed at my back. I walked through the door and immediately locked eyes with Stiles. I went to take another step towards him when Matt grabbed my arm and pulled me back against his chest causing a whimper to leave my throat. He moved the gun to my temple, and let me tell you, being held against your will at gunpoint; not fun. Quite scary.

“Matt? It's Matt, right?” Sheriff asked.

“Matt, whatever's going on, I guarantee you there's a solution that doesn't involve a gun. Especially pointed at my daughter's head,” Dad tried to reason.

“You know,” Matt said, moving the gun to under my jawline, pressing his lips against my temple with every word he says next, still looking at them all. “It's funny you say that, because I don't think you're aware of just how right you are.”

I never took my eyes off Stiles. He had a look of murderous rage and Scott's look was one of more concern. By this point, I had tears streaming down my face.

“I know you don't wanna hurt people,” Sheriff said.

“Actually, I wanna hurt a lot of people. You five we're on my list, but I could be persuaded.” He looked over at me and let out a quick breath, smirking. “And one way is to try dialing somebody on your cell phone, like McCall is doing.”

I looked down at Scott's pocket, seeing him quickly pull his hand out.

“That-- that could definitely get someone hurt. Like our precious Emma here,” Matt continued. He took the gun from under my jawline and gestured it out as if saying well? “Everyone.” He put his arm down. No one moved. He didn't like much. “Now! Or I'll blow her fucking brains out.” He replaced the gun on my jawline, which caused me to let out another whimper.

“Come on,” Dad said. They all placed their phones on the desk. Why I got to keep mine, I don't know.

Matt had all of us go into the holding room. Same room where Isaac was held and almost killed me and Stiles. Matt ordered for mine and Stiles' dads to sit on the bench and for us to handcuff them to the railing. I was a sobbing mess by now.

I tightened the cuff on my dad's wrist, but not too tight. I wanted to make sure he could get out if needed.

“Tighter,” Matt said, gun pointing at us.

My dad looked at me, and Sheriff to Stiles.

“Do what he says, Emma,” Dad said. I heard Sheriff say the same to Stiles.

After a couple seconds, I reached over and tightened the cuff. “I'm so sorry, Daddy,” I sobbed.

“It's okay, sweetheart,” he reassured. “Just do what he wants. You'll be fine.”

I nodded and walked towards Stiles. I needed a comforting hug, but I was instead pulled back by Matt. “Where do you think you're going, love?” he whispered in my ear. I turned my head away, not wanting him anywhere near me.

He pushed my arm forward, making me walk towards Scott and Stiles. We turned down a hallway and stopped because of Scott. He was looking down the hallway to our right. Stiles and I looked and what I saw made me gasp and grab onto Stiles' shirt, his arm going around me. There were three officers, dead, blood all over the walls.

“What, are you gonna kill everyone in here?” Scott asked.

“No, that's what Jackson's for. I just think about killing them, and he does it,” Matt said, grabbing my arm and pulling back flush against him. He pushed Stiles with his other hand, same with Scott.

He told us to go back to Sheriff's office. So, that's where we were headed. Matt had ordered that Stiles delete everything off the computer about him and made Scott shred every piece of evidence against him. He still had me flush against his body, making me sit on his lap because he was sitting in a chair. I was trying my hardest to move from his grasp, but he wouldn't budge.

“Deleted. And we're done,” Stiles said. “Alright, so, Matt, since all the people you brutally murdered deserved it because they killed you first-- whatever that means-- we're good here, right? So, I'll just get mine and Emma's dads, you let Emma go, and we'll go, ya'know? You continue on the whole vengeance thing. Enjoy the kanima.”

I looked behind Scott and saw headlights, and that made everyone else turn their attention towards the windows.

“Melissa,” I thought to myself.

“Sounds like your mom's here, McCall,” Matt said, his grip on my arm never faltering.

“Matt, don't do this,” Scott said. “When she comes to the door, I'll just tell her to leave. I'll tell her we didn't find anything. Please, Matt.”

Scott looked behind me and Matt as the front door opened and closed.

“If you don't move....” Matt said. “Now, I'm gonna kill Stiles first, then your mom, then Emma and I here, are gonna go far away from this town and live happily together.” He chuckled. “Get up,” he told me.

I got up from his lap, fully prepared to run to my best friends, but alas, his grip on my arm returned. All four of us walked to the door that leads to the front desk.

“Open it,” Matt ordered.

Scott never pulled his eyes away from the door. “Please.”

“Open. The. Door,” Matt enunciated. “Or Emma here, gets a bullet through her stomach.” He pressed the gun on my side, causing me to whimper.

“Scotty, open the door. Just open the damn door,” I said, trying not to cry.

Scott closed his eyes for a second, then proceeded to open the door. I didn't want to die and I sure as hell didn't want Melissa or Stiles to die. When the door opened all the way, Scott, Stiles and I let out a collective relief sigh.

“Oh, thank God,” Scott and I said.

Derek Hale was standing on the other side of the door... then fell on his back at my feet. He looked at me and saw the look on my face then looked at Matt.

I looked back over at the door and saw a half-kanima Jackson walk into the doorway, his eyes shifting as he walked over to stand behind Stiles.

Matt let me go, so I ran to stand in between Scott and Stiles, both of them putting their arms in front of me, protectively.

Matt bent down beside Derek. “This is the one controlling him? This kid?” Derek asked.

“Well, Derek, not everyone's lucky enough to be a big, bad werewolf,” Matt said, causing me and the boys to look at each other. “Oh, yeah that's—that's right,” Matt stood up and faced the three of us. “I've learned a few things lately. Werewolves, hunters, kanimas, whatever the hell Emma's going to be. It's like a freakin' Halloween party every full moon. Except for you, Stiles. What do you turn into?”

I placed my hand on his arm, whispering, “Now's not the time to be sarcastic. Don't say anything.”

He looked at me and totally ignored what I just said before looking back to Matt. “Abominable Snowman. But, uh, it's more of, like, a wintertime thing, ya'know, seasonal.”

All I could do was close my eyes for a split second. I looked at Matt, who looked over at Jackson and tilted his head towards us. “Jackson, no!” I said.

Too late. Jackson had swiped his hand across the back of Stiles' neck.

“Hey!” Scott and I exclaimed. Jackson turned to us, hand in our faces.

I still had my hand on Stiles' arm, so when he went down saying, “Bitch,” I went with him. Matt immediately grabbed my arm, pulling me back up into his chest.

“Wait, wait! Stop!” I yelled, but no avail.

Derek grunted when Stiles landed on top of him. “Get him off of me.”

“Oh, I don't know, Derek. I think you two make a pretty good pair. Right, Emma?” Matt said. “It must kind of suck, though, to have all that power taken away from you with just a little cut to the back of the neck. I bet you're not used to feeling this helpless. Is he, Emma?”

Why he kept asking me all these questions after addressing someone else is beyond me.

“He's still got some teeth,” I sneered.

“Why don't you get down here a little closer, huh? We'll see how helpless I am,” Derek said.

“Yeah, bitch,” Stiles said.

I heard another vehicle approaching. This time I was sure it was Melissa.

“Is that her?” Matt asked. He looked over to Scott. “Do what I tell you to and I won't hurt her. I won't even let Jackson near her.”

“Scott, don't trust him!” Stiles said.

Matt walked us over to Stiles and Derek. “Roll him over, Emma.”

“What are you gonna do to him?” I asked, voice shaky from the tears that were yet again pouring out of my eyes.

“You'll find out, my love,” he said, mouth pressed against my ear.

I bent over and placed my hand on Stiles' arm, getting ready to roll him over. “I'm so sorry,” I whispered.

“Just do what he wants,” he whispered back. I rolled him over and just looked at him. I went to put my forehead against his when Matt yanked me back up and pressed his foot on Stiles' chest.

“This work better for you?” Matt asked Scott.

“Matt, please, stop! You're killing him!” I yelled.

“Okay, just stop! Stop!” Scott said.

“Then do what I tell you to. Both of you,” Matt said.

“Okay,” Scott relented. “Alright.”

“Emma?”

I was trying to hold back my tears, not wanting to give in, but ultimately knowing I had to. “Alright. I'll do what you want, just please, stop hurting Stiles.”

“Stop!” Scott said.

Matt took his foot off Stiles and walked us backwards. I couldn't keep the tears at bay, sobbing out.

Stiles and I locked eyes. “I'm sorry,” I mouthed. I looked over at Derek, who was already looking at me. “Are you healing?” I mouthed to him. He looked away like he was thinking, then narrowed his eyes. I took that as a maybe.

“You, take him in there,” Matt said to Jackson. “You... with me.”

“What about me?” I asked.

“You'll go where I tell you,” he sneered.

The three of us, Matt, Scott and myself, walked through the door to the front desk.

“Mom?” Scott said.

Melissa sighed and started walking towards us, not seeing the scene that's in front of her. “You scared me. Where is every--” she said, but stopped when she finally looked over at me and Scott. I was still flush against Matt, and Scott stood in front of us, Matt holding the gun at Scott's head.

“Melissa, just do what he says,” I said, the crying never stopping.

“He promised he wouldn't hurt you,” Scott said.

Melissa looked between me and Scott, fear in her eyes.

“He's right,” Matt said. He lowered the gun and shot Scott in the stomach, causing me and Melissa to let out screams.

“Scott! Stiles! Emma!” I heard Sheriff yell out. “What happened?”

Scott and I locked eyes. Matt walked forward which made me walk forward. “But I didn't say I wouldn't hurt... you,” he said, looking at Scott on that last word.

“Wait, baby--” Melissa started.

“Back, back!” Matt yelled, raising the gun at Melissa, who cowered back.

“Mom, Mom, stop, Mom!” Scott said. Melissa and I both looked over at Scott, seeing blood stain his shirt, him putting a hand on his wound.

“Come on, Scotty. Heal,” I said to myself.

“I said get back!” Matt said.

Melissa obviously didn't want to back down. “Scott.”

“Mom, do it,” Scott said after a grunt. “Please, Mom.”

“Melissa, please,” I said, tears continuing their stream down my cheeks.

“Get up, McCall,” Matt said, never taking his eyes off Melissa.

“Matt? Matt, listen to me--” Sheriff said.

“Shut-- shut-- shut up!” Matt yelled. “Everybody just the hell up!” I felt his lips against my ear once again. “Except for you, my love.”

Why the hell was he being soft and quiet with just me and rude and hard to everyone else?

“Now, get up, or I shoot her next!”

I couldn't see it, but I knew that Scott had gotten up just by the sounds of it.

Matt told us all to go to the holding cell room where Sheriff was, so we did. Melissa walked into the holding cell at Matt's request, letting go of me. I ran over and sat in between Sheriff and my dad, who wrapped me in a protective hug with his free arm. I held onto him, burying my face into his shoulder, and didn't let go. I didn't intend to, either.

“Please, he needs to see a doctor,” Melissa said.

“You think so?” Matt asked, quietly.

“Matt, don't. She doesn't know. It's safer that way,” I said.

Sheriff stood up, and pointed his finger at Matt. “Hey, hey, you listen to me!”

“It's alright. I'm okay,” Scott said, voice a little hoarse.

“No, honey, you're not okay,” Melissa said as I felt Dad wrap his arm around me protectively as best he could.

“It doesn't hurt, Mom.”

“Cause that's the adrenaline, okay? Please, let me-- let me just take a look at him, okay? I mean, I can help stop the bleeding.”

Not happy with what's going on, Matt got a little furious. Looking between me and Scott, he asked, “They have no idea, do they?”

“Please,” I heard Melissa say. She was crying at this point. “Let me just take a quick look. I--”

“Shut-- shut-- shut-- shut up! If you keep talking, I'm gonna put the next two bullets through his head and through Emma's stomach,” Matt said.

“Okay,” Melissa relented.

“Back to the front, McCall. After you,” Matt said, grabbing a hold of my arm. I squeezed Dad tighter, crying out no repeatedly.

“It's okay, Emma,” Dad said. “You'll be okay. Do what he says.”

I nodded and let him go, going with Matt and Scott to the front, back into Sheriff's office. I looked down at Stiles and Derek. I don't know how I've been crying for the past hour because the waterfall on my cheeks never stopped. I looked back up at Scott.

“The evidence is gone,” Scott said. “Why don't you just go?”

“You-- you think the evidence mattered that much, huh?” Matt asked. “No, no, I—I want the book.”

“What-- what book?” Scott asked.

“The bestiary,” Matt said. I looked down to Stiles and Derek, seeing them side-eye each other. “Not just a few pages, I want the entire thing.”

“We don't have it,” I said. “It's Gerard's. What do you want it for, anyway?”

Matt shoved me towards Scott, who caught me, despite having a freaking bullet in his stomach. “I need answers.”

“Answers to what?” Scott and I asked.

“To this.” Matt lifted his shirt and showed us kanima scales. Scott and I looked at it, wide eyed, then to each other. I looked down and saw that Stiles had the same look we had and Derek just had a normal look on his face.

Matt decided to let me stay in the room with Stiles and Derek while he took Scott into a different room... but he left Jackson in charge of babysitting us.

I sat on my knees next to Stiles, and pressed my lips to his forehead. “I'm so glad you're okay.”

“I'm the one that's glad you're okay,” Stiles said. “I heard a gunshot and was worried it was you.”

“No. It was Scott.” I looked to Derek, and Stiles moved his eyes in Derek's direction.

“You know what's happening to Matt?” Stiles asked in a whisper.

“You know, the book's not gonna help him. You just can't break the rules, not like this,” Derek whispered back.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“Universe balances things out. Always does.”

“Is it because he's using Jackson to kill people who don't deserve it?” Stiles asked.

“Killing people himself.”

“So, if Matt breaks the rules of the kanima, he becomes the kanima?”

“Balance.”

“Will he believe us if we tell him that?” Stiles inquired.

“Not likely.”

“He's gonna kill all of us when he gets that book, isn't he?” I asked.

“Yep,” Derek said.

“Shit,” I sighed. “Alright, so what do we do? Do we just-- do we just sit here and wait to die? Because I really don't want to with being a virgin.”

“You're still--” Stiles started.

“Yes,” I interrupted.

Derek, putting us back on track, said, “Unless we can figure out a way to push the toxin out of my body faster.”

“Like triggering the healing process?” I asked. Derek looked at me and his eyes told me yes. I looked over and eyed his hand. “Can you bring out your claws?” As if on cue, I saw his claws sprout. I looked at Jackson and saw his back. I shifted my body from beside Stiles to in between him and Derek. I grabbed Derek's hand. “Please don't hate me for this.” I pushed his claws into this thigh.

“Wha-- oh, Emma, what are you making him do?” Stiles asked. At the sound of me pushing Derek's claws more into his thigh, Stiles said, “Aw, gross.”

“You wanna get out of here and not die?” I asked.

“Yes, please.”

“Then shut up and don't look down.”

~~~

I'm guessing Matt was launching into why everything's been happening. I heard him shout at Scott a couple times.

“What about Emma? I know you've been taking her pictures and she's still alive!” I heard Scott shout.

“She's not the only girl I take pictures of,” Matt said. “She's not dead because her and I will have a life together. I was there the night of the formal, and I heard what Stiles told her as they were dancing.”

I zoned out after that and went back to the task at hand. “Emma, is that hypothetical situation we talked about getting any less hypothetical?” Stiles asked.

I pushed Derek's claws as deep as I could without actually hurting him. “I don't know. Derek?”

He grunted a little. “I think so. I can move my toes.”

Stiles sighed. “Dude, I can move my toes.”

The lights shut off then, the emergency lights kicking on and the alarm sounding.

“Shit,” I said. “Derek you gotta start healing faster, buddy.”

Just then, gunfire sounded. Bullets flying through the window causing glass to go everywhere. I ducked down between Stiles and Derek, trying to shield all three of us, but to no avail.

“Scotty!” I yelled.

What seemed like mere five seconds later, Scott had tossed Jackson out of the way. I started coughing due the smoke grenade that was thrown in as Scott knelt next to Stiles.

“Take him! Go!” Derek said.

I got up and helped Scott hoist Stiles up.

“Damn, you're heavy,” I sassed.

“Shut up,” Stiles said.

We practically dragged him out of the office and down a hallway. “Scott, hold him.” I let go and shut the door behind us, seeing Jackson following us. I locked the door and turned back towards the boys. “Go!” I squealed when Jackson kicked the door open. “Shit.” I closed and locked the next door we walked through. I did that as I followed Scott until we reached an interrogation room, helping Scott sit Stiles down in one of the chairs provided.

Grabbing the back of Stiles' head, Scott said, “Don't move. You know what I mean.” He let go of Stiles' head and went for the door. I looked over Stiles.

“I'll be back as soon as I can,” I said.

“Em, no, wait!” Stiles said, but I basically ignored him and walked out behind Scott.

I walked down a hallway, my main mission was to make it to my dad's desk and grab a bottle of water. Why I thought water would help him “heal” faster, I wasn't sure. Scott ran down one hallway and I ran down another.

I rounded a corner only to be met with a crossbow. I followed the arm of the person holding it, locking eyes with Allison. “Allie, thank God,” I breathed.

“Where's Derek?” she asked.

“What are you talking about? What are you doing? Allison, what's going on?”

“If you're not going to tell me, then get out of my way.”

I saw the look in her eyes, and what I saw wasn't the brightness that Allison constantly had. It was darkness. “Allie. Wha--”

She raised her crossbow. “Where is he?”

“What happened?” I was genuinely concerned for her.

“Em...” she said, pointing her crossbow back at me. I raised my hands in surrender. “Emma, you need to stay away from me right now. You need to go. Watch your back and duck out of the way. But just... stay out my way.”

I followed her with my eyes as she walked past me. What the hell happened?

My eyes widened in horror. “Noah. Melissa.” I turned the corner and started running back towards the holding cell room.

When I walked in, I saw that Sheriff was struggling to break the handcuffs off the wall. “Ah, god--”

“Come on, come on, come on,” Melissa encouraged. “You can do it. Come on, come on, come on!”

Sheriff successfully pulled the handcuff chain off the wall. I walked over to him and gave him the biggest hug I think I've ever given him. I looked over at Dad and saw that he was still just sitting there.

“Emma, sweetheart. Run,” he said.

“Why?” I asked.

“Because I can't move,” he said.

My eyes went wide as I felt a hand on my arm then saw Sheriff go down to the ground. “Where do you think you're, my love? Why didn't you give me a chance?”

I started crying again, seeing my godfather passed out on the ground from being knocked out cold and my dad just sitting there, paralyzed.

“Matt? Matt, please, listen to me,” Melissa said. “My son has been shot, and I've heard other gunfire, and I don't know what's happening, but can you please just let me see my son?”

“How totally clueless are you people?” Matt asked.

“Matt, please, don't. It's so much safer if they don't know,” I cried. He turned me around making me face him and pulled me close, chest to chest. I looked away and saw Stiles on the ground, trying to crawl his way into the room, albeit very slow.

I heard heavy breathing and saw two Red eyes, automatically knowing it was Derek. Those Red glowing eyes I trusted. He then growled.

Matt turned me around, my back now back against his chest like it'd been all night. Matt, Derek and I looked over to the other side of the room, and saw Jackson in full on kanima form walk through and hissed. Matt let go of me as soon as Derek and Jackson started fighting. I knelt down next to Sheriff, putting a hand on his shoulder.

“Noah, you gotta get up. Please, Noah. Get. Up. You're a Stilinski, a fighter. Get up,” I said. I looked at Dad. “Daddy, you somehow have to tell your body to heal itself. I don't know if it'll work, but you gotta try.”

I looked up at Melissa, seeing her face while the two supernatural creatures were fighting. I saw nothing but confusion and terror cover her face. I looked back to my dad and saw the same look on his face; confusion.

Jackson jumped over my head and landed on the cell bars, grabbing a hold and kicking Derek away. I looked over my shoulder at Stiles and gave him a look that said to not move.

Jackson flipped himself upside down on the bars and looked at Melissa before he flipped himself back the right way and put his face in between a couple of bars, hissing at her. I had to lay my head against Sheriff's arm, dodging Jackson's tail.

Next thing I knew, Jackson screeched and was tossed to the floor. I looked up and saw a wolfed out Scott. We locked eyes for a moment, mine telling him to shift back to his human face. I don't think he got that memo because he turned his head to his right and stood up, looking at Melissa, who gasped and went absolutely quiet. Her face read confusion then fear.

“No,” she said, covering her mouth with her hands, backing into the cell more and more until we couldn't see her anymore.

I had a couple of tears go down my face at this. Scott just outed himself to his mom at the worst possible time. I looked back at Scott and saw that he was already looking at me with the most saddest face he's worn in a while.

He ran out the room. My attention went back to Dad and Sheriff. Thank God Sheriff was still unconscious.

We'd tell him and Dad when the time was right.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A/N 2: what a creeper matt is, huh? i’m so sorry this is a day late. i really tried to get it up for y’all last night but my day ended up getting away from me, as well as my evening. things are getting more serious with moving, so things and uploading schedules are probably gonna change, so just be on the lookout for that.

~~~

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Taglist was taken from the Forever / Everything taglist. If you want to be added, just click here. If you’re tagged and didn’t want to be, please let me know. Tumblr’s trying to tag people for me, lol.

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~~~

*Please don’t post my writing anywhere else without my consent. The author of this work will always and forever be @harringtonstilinski .

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Posted on November 7, 2020

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harringtonstilinski · 4 years

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You’ll Always Be My Hero - Chapter 23 ; Battlefield

Author: @harringtonstilinski Characters: Stiles Stilinski x Emma Thomas (OC) Word Count: 4,821 Warnings: lacrosse, brief mentions of drowning, A/N: Hi, friends! Chapter 23 is here! If I’m being honest, this is probably one of my favorite episodes of this season. We’re almost at the season finale, and I honestly can’t even believe it. If you like this chapter, please do not hesitate to reblog and give some feedback, whether it be in the reblogs, comments, or my inbox. As always, read at your own risk and enjoy 😊

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THIRD PERSON POV

Stiles was currently sitting in front of Ms. Morell's desk. He was tying up his lacrosse net, needing something to do with his hands since Emma wasn't at school today. Her father thought it was best if she stayed home, at the Stilinski house, of course. She tried to protest about how her being home alone wasn't good because of what happened, but her father wouldn't budge. Stiles had left that morning without Emma, feeling bad about the events that happened.

“You know when you're drowning, you don't actually inhale until right before you black out,” Stiles explained. “It's called voluntary apnea. It's like no matter how much you're freaking out, the instinct to not let any water in is so strong that you won't open your mouth until you feel like your head's exploding. But then you finally do let it in, that's when it stops hurting. It's not scary anymore. It's... actually kind of peaceful.”

“Are you saying you hope Matt felt some peace in his last moments?” Morell asked.

Stiles sighed and looked up at her. “I don't feel sorry for him.”

“Can you feel sorry for the nine-year-old Matt who drowned?”

“Just because a bunch of dumbasses dragged him into a pool when he couldn't swim doesn't really give him the right to go off killing them one by one,” Stiles retorted. “And by the way, mine and Emma's dads told us they found a bunch of pictures of Allison and Emma on Matt's computer. And just not of them, though. I mean, he photoshopped himself into these pictures, especially ones of Emma. Stuff like them holding hands and kissing. You know, like he had built this whole fake relationship. So yeah, maybe drowning when he was nine years old was what sent him off the rails, but the dude was definitely riding the crazy train.”

Morell smirked at Stiles' rant. “One positive thing came out of this, though. Right?”

“Yeah,” he said.

She was referring to Emma's and Stiles' dads getting their jobs back as Sheriff and his Deputy, respectfully.

“Yeah, but I still feel like there's something wrong between us. I don't know. It's just like tension when we talk. Same thing with Scott,” Stiles said.

“Have you talked to him since that night?” she asked. “What about Emma?”

“Scott, no, not really. I've tried with Emma, but she's been--” Stiles sighed. “Pretty quiet since it all happened. I mean, Matt wouldn't let her go the entire night. He let her go when he wanted to talk to Scott privately. Her dad blames me and Scott for not keeping her safe. I mean, we did everything we could considering the situation we were all in. Scott's got his own problems to deal with, though. I don't think he's talked to Allison, either. But that might be more her choice, ya'know. Her mom dying hit her pretty hard. But I guess it brought her and her dad closer. Jackson? Jackson hasn't really been himself lately. Actually the funny thing is, as of right now, Lydia's the one who seems the most normal.”

“And what about you, Stiles?” Morell asked. “Feeling some anxiety about that championship game tomorrow night?”

He looked at Morell like he wanted to rip her head off, lacrosse net in his mouth. “Why would you ask me that?” He looked down and took the netting away. “Uh, no. I—I never actually play. But hey, since one of my teammates is dead and another one's missing, who knows, right?”

“You mean, Isaac. One of the three runaways,” Morell said. “You haven't heard from any of them, have you?”

“How come you're not taking any notes on this?” Stiles wondered.

“I do my notes after the session.”

“Your memory's that good?”

“How about we get back to you?” Morell countered.

He didn't say anything, just looked down at his shoes.

“Stiles?”

He picked his head back up, looking at Morell, shaking his head. “I'm fine. Yeah, aside from the not sleeping, the jumpiness, the constant, overwhelming, crushing fear that something terrible is about to happen.”

“It's called hypervigilance,” she said. “The persistent feeling of being under threat.”

“But it's just not a feeling, though,” he said. “It's-- it's like it's a panic attack. You know, like I can't even breathe.”

“Like you're drowning?” she asked.

“Yeah.”

“So, if you're drowning, and you're trying to keep your mouth closed until that very last moment, what if you choose to not open your mouth? To not let the water in?” she inquired.

“Well, you do anyway. It's a reflex,” Stiles said.

“But, if you hold off until that reflex kicks in, you have more time, right?”

“Not much time,” he said.

“But more time to fight your way to the surface?” she asked again.

“I guess.” He was getting a little bit irritated.

“More time to be rescued?” she wondered.

“More time to be in agonizing pain. And did you forget about the part where you feel like your head's exploding?” he said, a little bit aggravated at this point in his session.

“If it's about survival, isn't a little agony worth it?” Morell said.

“And what if it just gets worse?” Stiles asked. “What if it's agony now and then-- and it's just hell later on?”

“Then think about something Winston Churchill once said,” Morell said. “ 'If you're going through hell, keep going.' ”

~~~

FIRST PERSON POV

The next morning, I woke up to the sound of my alarm going off. I rolled over and looked at my clock, seeing the time; 8:30AM. I looked at the notifications on my screen, seeing that I had a text.

Stiles: Went to check on you last night, but you were asleep, which is good... I guess. I'm still really sorry about everything that night. We just didn't want you or anyone else getting hurt.

I groaned and rolled back over, placing my phone back on my nightstand. I eventually got up and grabbed my towel and clothes. I opened my door with every intention of going to shower, but Stiles' form at my door stopped me. I sighed and turned back around, walking to my bed and sitting, Stiles following my lead.

“I don't wanna talk about it,” I said.

“You don't have to. I was just making sure you were still alright with going tonight.”

I sighed again. “Stiles, I'm basically on the team. Coach's niece, remember?”

He nodded and looked down. I looked over at him and rested my head on his shoulder. “I'm not mad at you or anything. I'm just...” I paused, letting out a big sigh. “I don't really know what I am. I guess I'm scared that it'll all happen again; at school, the games, the mall.”

“I won't let anything happen to you,” he said. “Ever again.”

I looked at him and right before I leaned up to press a delicate kiss to his cheek, my phone dinged with a text message.

Bobby: I need you to come at least 45 minutes early tonight. Your mom can drop you off since she's dropping off takeout for me.

“Who was that?”

“Bobby-- err, Coach. Wants me to come by earlier than normal,” I said. “Mom's dropping off food for him, said she can drop me off.”

I looked at him and saw that he was looking down. “I can totally tell her it's cool--”

“No, don't,” he said. “Spend time with your mom. I'll see you in the locker room.” He got up and walked to my door.

“Stiles, wait,” I said, getting up and following after him. He turned around and I didn't give him a second to say much else because I placed a long kiss to his cheek before he could ask any questions.

When I pulled back, he was already looking at me. “What was that for?” he asked, voice low.

“For trying to keep me protected that night and every other night since Scott got bit,” I answered. “I'll give you my full answer tonight after the game, win or lose.”

He smirked and kissed my forehead, walking down the hall and into his bedroom.

Tonight was the night that was going to tell Stiles I want to be together.

~~~

“I don't see why this is necessary,” I said. “I mean, can't you give another spee--”

“No. I can't,” he said. “It's a great speech.”

“You do realize it's got nothing to do with sports or lacrosse, right?” I deadpanned.

Coach looked at me with incredulous eyes. “Get out of here.”

I giggled and stood up from the chair I was sitting in and walked over to the door. “Please, don't embarrass me tonight.”

“Can't make any promises.”

I turned around and walked out of his office, fully intending on finding Scott and Stiles. I found Stiles and walked towards him. “You ready for tonight?”

He jumped and turned around, making me giggle. “Jesus, Emma. You could've given me a heart attack.”

“That's the point. Now...” I started, but saw Melissa walk towards us.

I smiled at her just as the feedback from Coach's megaphone sounded. “ 'Good morning. In less than an hour, aircraft from here will be joining others from around the world. And you will be launching the largest aerial battle in the history of mankind',” Coach recited, almost perfectly. I couldn't help but mouth along.

“What?” Melissa asked.

“ 'Mankind-- that word should have new meaning for all of us today.' ” Coach continued.

Melissa tapped my shoulder, so I turned and faced her. “What the hell is he talking about?”

“He does this every year,” Stiles and I answered.

“Seriously?” she asked.

“Yeah,” Stiles said.

“ 'We are fighting for our right to live.' ”

The rest of the team cheered.

“Wait, is this?” Melissa asked.

I knew it was coming because I answered rather quickly. “Yep, tis the speech from Independence Day.”

“ 'But as the day the world declared in one voice...' ”

“Coach's favorite movie,” Stiles said.

“ 'We will not go quietly into the night!' ”

“He doesn't know any sports speeches?” Melissa asked.

“Nah, he doesn't care,” I answered.

“ 'Today, we celebrate our Independence Day!' ” Coach and I said.

I felt two sets of eyes on me. I looked between the two, shrugging. “When you're the Coach's niece and you spend time with him, you tend to watch the movie... countless times... to the point where you know the speech.”

“Wait, you're his niece?” Melissa asked.

I nodded my head. “Mhmm, Mom's brother.”

“Well spoken, Coach,” Gerard said. I turned my head quickly back towards the front. “I might've chosen something with a little more historical value, but there's no denying your passion. And while I haven't been here long, there's no denying my pride in having a winning team for this school.”

I felt Stiles' hand brush against mine, so I took it, lacing our fingers and squeezing.

“I know you'll all be brilliant tonight, even with only one co-captain leading you,” Gerard continued. “Now, I'm your principal, but I'm also a fan. So don't think I'll be content to watch you merely beat this team. Get out there and murder them.”

“You heard the man,” Coach said. “Asses on the field!”

As the team cheered, I saw Scott run up to Coach. “Coach, are you benching me?”

“It's not my decision,” Coach said.

Stiles had pulled me out of the locker room before I could hear the rest of the conversation.

~~~

I was sitting between Scott and Stiles on the players bench. I should've been sitting in the stands, but since I had on a team shirt that Coach gave me, I figured it would be okay for me to sit with my best friends.

“Your dads coming?” Scott asked.

“Yeah, they're already here,” Stiles answered. I looked over and saw that our dads and Melissa were all sitting with each other.

I looked at Stiles as he exhaled, “You seen Allison?”

“No, you seen Lydia?” I asked.

“Not yet,” Scott said. “By the way, are you two friends again?”

I shrugged. “Only time will tell.”

“You know what's going on?” Stiles asked.

Scott exhaled as he said, “Not yet.”

“It's gonna be bad, isn't it?” I asked. “I mean, like people screaming, running for their lives, blood, killing, maiming kind of bad?”

Scott looked at me for a second. “Looks like it.”

Both boys looked away from each other. “Scott, the other night seeing my dad get hit over the head by Matt, you know, while I'm just lying there and I can't even move, it just-- I want to help, ya'know, but I can't do the things that you can do. I can't...”

Stiles looked over at Scott, who was already looking at him.

“It's okay,” Scott said. I nodded in agreement.

“We're losing, dude,” Stiles said.

“What the hell are you talking about?” Coach said from behind me, making me jump.

“Goddamn, Bobby. You just made me jump about a million feet out of my skin,” I said, letting out a deep breath.

“Game hasn't even started. Now, put on your helmet and get out there. You're in for Greenberg,” Coach addressed Stiles.

“What? What happened to Greenberg?” Stiles asked, looking out at the field for a second.

“What happened to Greenberg?” Coach repeated. “He sucks. You suck slightly less.”

I could feel Stiles' excitement which made mine go up.

“I'm playing? On the field? With the team?” Stiles asked, excitement flooding him.

“Yes,” Coach said. “Unless you'd rather play with yourself.”

“I already did that today. Twice,” Stiles said, looking directly at me, making my face go red.

“Get the hell out there!” Coach yelled.

Stiles flailed to get his gear. He ran off towards the field then double backed and what he did next shocked the hell out of me. He planted a kiss right on my lips. It was, like, five seconds long, but still! He kissed me in front of everyone! And we're not even dating!

Scott looked at me and had the same look I had; pure fucking shock.

“My son is on the field!” I heard Sheriff say. I looked over and saw him standing. He looked at me and gave a look that said we're gonna talk when we get back home and sat back down.

“Oh, dear God,” Scott and I heard Stiles say once he got onto the field. Of course, Scott heard him more clearly than I did. Ya'know. Wolf hearing.

Scott's whole demeanor changed. I looked over at him and saw that he had a serious look on his face.

“Scotty?” I asked, turning to face him more while placing a hand on his shoulder. “What is it?”

“Gerard,” he said. “He's talking to me.”

I looked around the field and the stands, trying to find him, but I couldn't. Scott looked at me at one point.

I scrunched my brows, asking, “What?”

“He said someone's gonna die tonight. He said my mom, Sheriff, your dad, Lydia..... you.”

He looked up towards Stiles. I looked over at him as well and my eyes widened. “Not Stiles,” I whispered.

“He said Coach,” Scott said.

I looked over at Coach and tears started forming in my eyes. Not my uncle. No.

Scott started breathing a little heavy as the ref blew the whistle. I looked back at Lydia, who was sitting beside Melissa, then I looked over to my dad. I really didn't want him to die tonight. Or Stiles. Or Sheriff, Melissa and Lydia.

I sighed and turned back to the game.

~~~

I was still sitting beside Scott as the game went on. I was staring at Stiles the whole time, wondering when he was gonna get the ball.

I guess the universe was listening because the ball landed right in Stiles' net. He had a smile on his face... then a player from the other team pummeled him to the ground.

“Ooohhh,” I groaned. I leaned over towards Scott, telling him, “Maybe he's just warming up.”

Next play, the ball landed in front of him. I heard him say on repeat, “I got it.” and struggle to put the ball in his net. Scott and I both rubbed our eyebrows with our fingers.

“Come on, Stiles,” I whispered. I looked over to Scott. “He's just a little nervous.”

The odd thing is, I heard Lydia say the same thing. We looked at each other for a second.

“Plenty of time to turn it around,” I heard Scott say to me. I looked at him to see that he was looking between me and Lydia. “Don't worry. It's you.” I smiled a little, not really feeling good about the current situation. I looked back over to Stiles and saw the ball hit him right on the helmet. I closed my eyes and let out a quick sigh, hanging my head.

Thank the good Lord above that whistle blew. Scott stood up and Coach walked over to him, sitting him back down. “Sit down, McCall.”

“But, Coach, we're dying out there,” Scott said. “Oh, I'm aware of that. Now sit,” Coach said. “Emma, make sure he doesn't go anywhere.”

Scott and I sighed. “We gotta figure out a way to get you other there. Although, I'm sure Stiles would love the spotlight for a little while,” I said, looking over to him.

“I know. I know,” Scott replied.

Someone sat down on Scott's other side, so I looked to see who it was.

“Isaac?” I asked, shocked.

“Hey, Emma,” he said, a little smile on his face.

“You came to help,” Scott said.

“I came to win.”

“Are you talking about the game or our current situation?” I asked, shaking my head once.

“Both,” he smirked at me.

Isaac looked over my shoulder... well, head. So that caused Scott and I to do the same. What, or rather, who I saw is the one person I didn't want to see; Gerard fucking Argent. My blood started to boil. How dare he threaten the lives of everyone Scott loves? I wanted to rip his face off.

“Don't do anything,” Scott whispered to me, putting his hand on my arm.

Looking back over to Scott, I told him with my eyes that I didn't want to, but I'd stay put.

“You got a plan yet?” Isaac asked.

“No, right now it's pretty much just keeping Jackson from killing anyone,” Scott replied.

Isaac and I both looked to Scott. “Well, that might be easier if you're actually in the game. We have to make it so Coach has no choice but to play you,” Isaac said.

“Trust me, I've tried. He won't listen. He's a stickler for rules,” I replied.

“How do we do that? He's got a bench full of guys he can use before he ever puts me on the field,” Scott whispered, completely ignoring what I had just said.

We all looked over to Coach and the other players. Coach was currently chewing on his jacket string. Doesn't he know not to do that? As if a light bulb went off in Scott's head, he looked over to Isaac, who looked at Scott like he could hear his every thought. “Can you do it without putting anyone in the hospital?”

“Wait, do what?” I asked. I wanted in on this plan.

Isaac exhaled. “I can try.” He put his helmet on and walked onto the field.

Scott looked over at me and saw my expression. “Isaac's gonna make it to where Coach has to play me. He's gonna hurt our own players, but not enough to put them in the hospital.”

“Terrible plan, but okay,” I sassed.

We looked back out to the field. The play started and all Isaac did was just stand there and stick his lacrosse stick out, hitting our own Number 42, causing him to go down to the ground.

“Lahey!” Coach yelled. “Ramirez! You're in.”

Ramirez put on his helmet and ran to the field, taking 42's spot. Isaac went after 32, sending him to the ground as well.

“Murphy. You're in.” He went in and another came out... then another... then another.

“Lahey!” Coach stood up and pointed towards Isaac on the field. “Seriously, what the hell is your problem?”

Isaac lifted his hands out to his side, as if saying sorry, coach. My bad.

The next play started, and Isaac went down with two of our other players. Scott and I stood up as I spotted Jackson taking off his helmet and smirking. Shit.

Scott and I ran out on the field, kneeling by Isaac.

“It's not broken,” he said. “But I can't move it.”

The EMT's brought over a stretcher.

“I think Jackson nicked me 'cause I feel it spreading.”

Scott looked over to Gerard while I helped the EMT's put Isaac on the stretcher.

“Don't worry. You'll be okay,” I whispered. “Just tell your body to heal.”

“McCall. Either you're in or we forfeit,” Coach said, handing Scott his helmet.

“He'll play,” I said, turning around. “He's gonna play.”

Melissa ran up to us, putting her hands on both mine and Scott's arms. “Hey, something's happening, isn't it? Something more than a lacrosse game?”

“You should go. Both of you,” Scott said, looking between me and Melissa.

“Not a chance in hell. Both of my best friends are on this field right now, and I'm not missing that. I'd rather die than not watch you two play together like when we were little,” I said, seriousness in my voice.

“I agree with Emma. I'm not going anywhere,” Melissa said. “And everything that I said before, forget it. All of it. Okay? If you can do something to help, then you do it. You have to.”

“I will,” Scott said before looking at me. I told him how I felt about this situation with my eyes. “It's gonna be okay. I'll protect him,” he reassured me.

“Protect yourself, too,” I said. I leaned up and pressed a kiss to his cheek. Strictly platonic, of course.

Melissa and I walked back over to the benches, her taking her seat and me taking mine. I was alone on the players bench, and that was okay. I had a lot to focus on. Scott ran in and not two seconds of being in the play, he went down the ground. I saw Stiles had the ball in his net, him going down, too.

I grabbed a fistful of hair with both my hands, worried for my best friends. “Get up!”

Scott got up and I let out a little sigh of relief... then I saw Jackson.

After about 5 minutes into the 4th quarter, Scott disappeared. “Oh, holy hell,” I said to myself.

I couldn't help but not be happy that my own team was losing because yet another player for us went down to the ground by the opposing team. “I need to see some birth certificates on these kids.”

“McCall,” Coach said. “Where's McCall?!”

The whistle blew and the play started, more of our members going down.

I kept my eye on the ball, seeing it roll right in front of... Stiles. I stood up and had a look of shock and surprise on my face. Stiles scooped it up easily this time and started booking towards the goal... because there was a herd of lacrosse players chasing after him.

All I heard out of him was screaming. Reminded me of Captain Jack Sparrow in the second Pirates movie when he was running from those people on the beach.

He stopped right in front of the goal as I ran down by Coach and cupped my hands over my mouth to make my voice go farther. “Stiles!” We made eye contact. “Shoot it! Shoot the ball!”

He looked around.

“Shoot it, you idiot!” Coach said.

“SHOOT IT!” I yelled.

He turned around and shot the ball into the goal. I erupted in a celebratory scream, immediately running out on the field, not caring about my surroundings.

When I got close enough, I heard him ask, “I scored a goal?”

“Yes!” I jumped into his arms, my own going around his neck, wrapping my legs around his waist. He caught me and watched the score go up by one.

“I scored a goal!” he yelled. He spun me around a few times, eliciting a squeal laugh from me. He put me down and looked at me. “If we weren't in the middle of the last quarter, I'd so kiss you.”

I giggled and patted his chest. “That's okay. You can afterwards. I'm just glad I was here for your first goal. Now, go get 'em, tiger.”

I ran back over to Coach and watched as Stiles became a whole new man on the field. It was like my promise encouraged him to play better.. which is not what I said at all. He kept dodging players left and right, making another goal, tying up the game. I think he liked the attention it was bringing him because he was celebrating on the field.

Two goals later, and everyone in the stands cheered for Stiles. I jumped up and threw my arms in the air, screaming out, “Yeah!”

Our players went over to Stiles and celebrated with him as we again made eye contact. I was clapping for him and smiling my biggest smile. He smirked back at me, happy. He had single handedly won us the Championship. I was so proud of my best friend.

I saw Jackson walk into the huddle of players from the corner of my eye, not looking anywhere else but Stiles. When the buzzer went off to indicate the game was over, everyone in the stands stood up and cheered.

“We did it,” Coach said. He put his hand on my shoulder, making me look at him. “We won!”

“Hell yeah, we did!” I cheered, turning and giving him a hug, to which he returned.

Stiles was still cheering with his teammates when I looked back over to him.

The lights started going out then and my heart sank to my butt. Everyone started screaming. There was only one person on my mind. Stiles. I let go of Coach and started making my way towards what I thought was the field. “Stiles?”

Who I found instead was Scott. “Scotty?”

“Emma!” he said.

“Have you seen Stiles?”

“No. No, I haven't. Just stay by me. I don't want you getting hurt, or risk Gerard taking you.”

I grabbed onto his arm and he put it around me, protectively.

“Scott!” I heard Melissa cry out. “Scott, where are you?”

“My dad! Sheriff! I gotta find them,” I said. I let go against Scott's wishes. “Dad! Noah! Daddy!”

I felt a hand on my shoulder and almost punched the mess out of the person. “Whoa, whoa, whoa, it's me. It's Dad!”

I saw Scott run up to me. “Em, someone's hurt. My mom just told me that someone's down on the field.”

My eyes widened to saucers. “Stiles,” I whispered. I ran from my dad and Scott and made my way towards the huddle that was starting. “Stiles? Stiles!”

“Back off,” Coach said as he pushed a couple players from beside me. I let out a breath of relief, thanking God it wasn't Stiles. Instead, it was Jackson.

“Jackson?” I heard Lydia cry out.

I turned to face where I heard her voice. “Lydia! Over here!” I said.

She came over, frantically screaming Jackson's name. “Jackson, what's happening?”

“Can we get a medic over here?” Coach yelled. “We're gonna need a medic!”

Melissa walked through the huddle and knelt by Jackson's body. She put her ear on his chest, listening for signs of life. Scott stood next to me, Isaac behind him. “He's not breathing. No pulse,” she said.

“Nothing?�� Coach asked.

She lifted his jersey, revealing holes in his stomach.

“Oh, my god. There's blood,” Lydia said, freaking out. She started crying. “There's blood.”

Scott patted Isaac on his chest while putting a hand on my back. “Look.”

We looked down to his fingers, seeing blood. “He did it to himself,” Isaac said.

Melissa looked up at Lydia and said, “Get down here,” while doing chest compressions. Lydia just stood there, not knowing if she should listen or not. “Get down here and hold his head. Tilt it up.”

Sheriff came over to the huddle, along with my dad. I walked over to them, giving Sheriff a hug. “I've been looking for you, kiddo.”

“I'm fine,” I said, going to give my dad a hug. “Have either of you seen Stiles?”

Sheriff looked at me then around at the group of people. “Stiles. Where's Stiles?” He looked at me quickly. “Where-- where is my son? Where's Stiles? Where's Stiles?!” He walked a couple steps away. “Where the hell is my son?”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A/N 2: gif was found on google. what do we think? i think y’all are definitely gonna like the next chapter 😏

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Italics wouldn’t let me tag 🥺

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*Please don’t post my writing anywhere else without my consent. The author of this work will always and forever be @harringtonstilinski.

*These works contain material protected under International and Federal Copyright Laws and Treaties. Any unauthorized reprint or use of this material is prohibited.

Posted on November 10, 2020

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