16: Coming to an End

After Peter drags Stiles away with the promise of letting them live if he helped him, Jackson comes sprinting over to them. He runs straight to Lydia, picking her up and letting Ariel stay with Sky, assuming she was going to heal.

He starts running towards the school, "Come on, Lydia. Stay with me. Come on," he pleads.

He shouts to the first people he comes across, "Help me! Somebody help! Get help, please!"

The sound of ambulance sirens could soon be heard and Ariel almost collapses in relief at the sound while she tries to stop Sky from bleeding out as she cries in pain, but sucks in a breath when she realises something.

She moves one of her hands up and brushes the hair out of Sky's face, ignoring the streak of red she leaves behind, "You have to calm down, Sky," she whispers. "They can't see your eyes."

She leans forward and presses their foreheads together, covering her from view as the paramedics get closer, "C'mon," she begs quietly.

Sky groans weakly yet her body slumps as she lets the tension drain from her, letting her eyes turn back to normal, but also making it more difficult to stay awake as the adrenaline leaves her body.

The paramedics reach them and move Ariel out the way, immediately getting to work, leaving her to stare helplessly.

***

They see Sheriff Stilinski first.

"Where are they?" Ariel asks.

The Sheriff holds his hand out to stop them from moving any further into the hospital, "Hey. Hey! What happened to those girls?" He asks sternly.

Jackson and Ariel glance at each other, "We -- We don't know. We went out looking for Lydia," says Jackson.

The Sheriff's face shows his disbelief. He shakes his head, saying, "What, you just happened to wander into the middle of that field and you just found them like that? Don't lie to me, son."

Jackson stutters, "No, I -- "

"Hey!" the Sheriff shouts at them, unable to keep the emotion out of his voice. He had known Sky most of her life. "What happened to them?"

"This isn't my fault!" Jackson exclaims.

Ariel bites her lip, not knowing what to do, "Sky was helping me look for her, and -- and she must have found her first and got hurt with her," she says carefully.

The Sheriff rounds on Jackson, "Lydia's your girlfriend! That's your responsibility!" he tells him.

Jackson shakes his head, "No, she's not, okay? She didn't go to the formal with me," he tells him.

The Sheriff looks confused, "Then who'd she go with?" he asks.

"Do you really wanna know?" asks Jackson. "She went with Stiles."

The Sheriff does a double take, "What?"

"Stiles took her."

The Sheriff looks around him, "Somebody better find my son." he demands.

***

Eventually, the doctors let Ariel and her family in to see Lydia. She was asleep and the nurses said she wouldn't be waking up for a short while whilst her body stabilises.

Ariel hadn't been allowed to see Sky as she wasn't family, but luckily Melissa McCall kept her informed on Sky's condition, even though she herself was nearly hysterical about her daughter. Sky had deep claw marks on her abdomen and some punctures on her neck. By the time they had gotten her to the emergency room, she had lost so much blood that she went into hypovolemic shock, but the doctors had managed to help her in time before her organs started to shut down.

She had not long after got a call from Scott, telling her everything with Peter Hale was over. Derek had killed Peter, taking the role of Alpha and also taking Scott's chance at a cure. Allison was in the loop now and Kate Argent was dead -- Peter had ripped her throat out after getting her to admit to being behind the Hale fire.

Overall, Ariel was deeply worried. She barely had time to wash the blood off her hands and clean her own shoulder wound. The bite didn't look too deep so she hoped she wouldn't be affected. But only time would tell.

Scott also told her that they would be there to visit straight away and that he would try to sneak her in to see Sky. The worry was clear in his voice, and Ariel was glad Sky has a brother like him. She and Scott had slowly become friends with having their love for Sky in common.

Currently, she was sitting at Lydia's bedside, holding her hand. Their parents had gone to the cafeteria for some food. She knew her sister would be okay, but she couldn't help but worry, especially since she had gotten bitten and was having such a strange reaction to it.

She hadn't had the chance to peek at Lydia's bite to see if it was healing yet, and just as she was about to lift up the bandage, there was a knock on the door that made her jump and retract her hand.

Her head whipped around to see Scott peeking through, "Hey," she murmurs, getting up to see him.

Scott sends her a small smile, "Hey, do you want to come see her?" he asks, both of them knowing who he was talking about.

Ariel nods gratefully and the two walk down the hallway together.

Scott breaks the silence after a moment, "I'm sorry about Lydia. She shouldn't have been dragged into this mess," he tells her as they come to a stop at a door.

Ariel looks at him and tries to smile, but it comes out as more of a grimace, "It's not your fault," she assures him. "But why isn't Sky healing?" she asks.

The mention of Sky makes Scott look down. She could tell he was extremely upset about her being hurt -- guilty that he wasn't there to help her.

Scott sighs as he answers, "I'm not sure. I asked Derek and he said Alpha wounds don't heal like normal ones and, mixed with psychological trauma, it could be stopping it altogether so she's healing like a human right now," he murmurs. He looks to the door they stopped at. "She's in there. You don't have long but I'll keep watch and knock when you need to come out."

Ariel nods, hesitating for a moment before abruptly bringing him into a hug, "Thank you," she mumbles. She feels him squeeze her in reply before she steps back and opens the door, stepping in.

The first thing she notices is that it was strangely quiet, only interrupted by the occasional sound of steady beeping from the heart monitor. Sky had multiple wires connected to her, keeping her monitored and hydrated and more.

Ariel takes a breath as she walks to her bedside, sitting down on the chair that was next to the bed, reaching out and gently grabbing Sky's hand. She looks at her girlfriend's now peaceful looking face and smiles slightly before frowning as her eyes trail down to the bandage on her neck. She was wearing a hospital gown now -- covered by a blanket so she couldn't see her other wound.

Ariel squeezes her hand with a sigh, "Only you would try to attack an Alpha werewolf that's obviously stronger and faster," she mutters.

"It's bad enough that Lydia is here, but she'll wake up any time now. The bite just affected her weirdly and her body was exhausted from blood loss. And you -- You were impaled by claws -- you're not healing."

"I'm so pissed at you for getting hurt," Ariel adds with a sniffle. She clears her throat, "You're a reckless idiot who lets your anger control you -- and when you're better I'm going to smack you so hard your ancestors will feel it."

She lets her head drop onto their hands as exhaustion starts to creep in.

A scratchy voice speaks up, making her freeze, "I'm going to go ahead and say you're mad."

Ariel's eyes snap up to Sky's face, her jaw dropping.

"You're awake," she breathes.

Sky gives her a sleepy grin, "Princess, you look cute when you're annoyed."

Ariel can't help but breathe out a laugh, lifting her hand up to kiss it, "Don't scare me like that again," she pleads.

"And here I was thinking of making a habit out of being almost killed," Sky drawls as she gazes at her.

Ariel rolls her eyes, frowning when she notices her stare, "What?" She asks.

"You're beautiful," Sky mutters, smirking when Ariel shakes her head. "I'm serious. I thought I had died and gone to heaven for a second there."

Ariel chuckles and lightly taps her arm, "Okay, the drugs are obviously getting to you. Do you want me to get Scott?" she asks.

Sky sighs but nods slightly and her eyes drift shut, "Please," she murmurs.

Ariel stands up and leans over to give Sky a kiss on the forehead, but a shaky hand wanders up, grabbing her shirt to pull her down for a real kiss. Ariel huffs a laugh before pulling away, "Cheeky," she comments.

She leans back to see Sky grinning sleepily at her and shakes her head, "I'll see you soon," she promises, "I'll be coming between yours and Lydia's room."

"Lydia's okay?" checks Sky.

Ariel nods with a smile, "She's okay."