Chapter Text
Stiles opened his eyes, but this wasn’t his bed, this wasn’t his room. He tried to take in his surroundings; he didn’t know where he was, or why he was sleeping in a strange bed. The room was silent, dark, and it smelled strongly of disinfectant. Stiles realized he was in the hospital. How was he in the hospital? Why was he in the hospital?
Stiles thought he was alone in the hospital room until he heard a yawn from somewhere beside him. He tried to sit up and look who it was but he couldn’t move. Stiles started to panic, why couldn’t he move. The sudden intake of breath alerted the person next to him that something was different.
Scott quickly appeared in Stiles sightline. He looked different; his hair was longer than he remembered it being. “Stiles, Stiles, hey, welcome back!” Scott was smiling.
Stiles was relieved to see Scott, if Scott was there, in the hospital with him, then the Nogitsune did not kill him.
The doctor and nurses came into the room a few minutes later. After a lot of talking and checking, Stiles learned that he was experiencing muscle atrophy due to being in the hospital for so long. Six months, Stiles had been in that hospital bed for the past six months.
“Where’s my dad?” Stiles questioned Scott suddenly.
“He’s on his way. He went home to shower.” Scott said calmly.
“So he’s fine? And the Nogitsune is gone? How is everyone else?”
“Yeah your dad is fine, everyone else who?” Scott raised an eyebrow, “And what is a Nogit-whatever?”
Stiles stared at Scott. “Lydia, Derek, Allison, Isaac, the twins, and Kira; you know, Everyone!”
“Who? Lydia, Lydia Martin?” Scott questioned. “I mean, I am sure she is fine, Stiles are you alright?”
“Scott,” Stiles sighed. “Why do I feel like you are trying to hide things from me? I can take it, I know what I did; did I hurt anyone? Is anyone dead?”
“Are you talking about the car accident? No one got hurt, I got a bit banged up, but it wasn’t that bad. You are the only one… You hit your head on the steering wheel and you’ve been in a coma since.”
“What about the battle? What about the Oni? Scott, what happened?”
Sheriff Stilinski walked into the room; his eyes brimmed with tears when he saw Stiles sitting up in bed.
“Hey dad,” Stiles smiled.
“Hey son,” The Sheriff ran over to his son’s bed and hugged him.
The Sheriff looked tired, like months of stress and worry weighing him down. Stiles felt incredibly guilty for the stress he put on his father. He wished he could go back to the time before his father knew about the whole supernatural world, back when Stiles could protect him from that world.
“Oh, Stiles, you scared me. I thought I had lost you for good.” His dad looked close to tears again.
“Dad, I am so sorry. I am sorry about this,” he motioned to the hospital bed. “I am sorry for the nogitsune, and I am sorry for getting you involved in this, in this supernatural world.”
The Sheriff gave his son a quizzical look. “Excuse me?”
“I mean it, I know Scott is my best friend, but if I had just did as you told me, not gone out and looked for the body in the wood. Peter wouldn’t have bit Scott, we never would have met Derek, the whole werewolf world would still be a secret to us, and none of this would have happened.” Stiles couldn’t look up at his dad. He just felt too guilty.
“Maybe I should get the doctor,” Scott stood up.
“What? Why?” Stiles questioned him.
“Werewolves aren’t real.” Scott said sadly.
“Why are you talking like that? I am the one who figured it out before you,” Stiles was getting upset. “Why are you trying to hide things from me?”
“I think it is best if the doctor comes in now.” The Sheriff said calmly.
Scott got up and walked out of the room.
Stiles just watched them. What was going on?
The Sheriff held his son’s hand, “What are you talking about? Werewolves? And who’s Derek?”
“Derek, Derek Hale? Former Alpha, grumpy Beta, dark hair, bruty eyebrows, giant sour wolf. He lives in a loft in the warehouse district, which come to think about it is kind of funny, werewolf in the warehouse district. ” Stiles smiled to himself.
The Sheriff thought for a few minutes, “The only Derek Hale I can think of, his family died in a fire about 10 years ago. But he and his sister moved away after that and have never returned.”
Stiles raised an eyebrow, “Yeah him, but he’s back, has been for like two years. You are the one who arrested him for Laura’s murder back in like my sophomore year. Why do I feel like you have no idea what I am talking about?”
“Stiles, you haven’t started your sophomore year yet.” His dad just watched Stiles.
“What?”
Just then the doctors entered the room followed by Scott.
After what seemed like hours of doctor talk, with poking and penlights in the eyes, the doctors decided to run an MRI. The doctors gave Stiles a sedative because the testing was going to take several hours and they didn’t want him moving around.
Stiles laid back, quickly hit with the inability to stay awake.
~\*/~
When Stiles woke up he was in a different hospital room. Next to him, asleep in the chair was Derek Hale.
“Derek?” Stiles questioned.
Derek sat up quickly in the chair. “Hey, welcome back.” Derek seemed genuinely happy that Stiles was awake, but on guard as though he was ready for someone to attack at any moment.
“I don’t understand. The last time I woke up, before the MRI and the tests, my Dad and Scott didn’t know who you were, or anything about werewolves. And now I wake up and you are sitting here with me.”
“Stiles this is the first time you’ve woke up. You’ve been in a coma for about a week now. When the Nogitsune left you… we weren’t sure you were going to wake up again.”
“Where’s Scott? We were talking earlier, before the MRI…”
“Scott hasn’t been here.” Derek looked sad.
“What?”
“Scott hasn’t been here. He has been at county with his Mom. She got hurt, Stiles.”
“No, no, no, not Melissa, no. He was here. He sat over there and he, he said that none of this, that none of this was real.” Stiles started to have a panic attack.
Derek just held onto Stiles and tried to calm him. The nurses came into the room.
The doctors checked Stiles over, and gave him something for the attack. After what seemed like an eternity of doctor jargon, Derek and Stiles were once again alone in the room.
“Where’s my dad?” Stiles asked calmly.
“He’s on his way. He was working tonight, but I called him when the doctors came into the room.”
Stiles sat there silently, and then questioned Derek, “What happened to Melissa?”
“Stiles, we aren’t talking about that right now.”
“Derek, what happened to her?”
“Stiles, don’t do this,” Derek pleaded.
“Did I hurt her?” Stiles played with the seam in the blanket on the bed and couldn’t look up. He would never be able to forgive himself if he is the reason that Melissa got hurt. Stiles knew that the only reason he wasn’t having another panic attack was the medicine the doctors had given him.
“It wasn’t you. The Nogitsune was controlling you. No one blames you, and you cannot blame yourself.”
Stiles had never heard Derek talk so calmly or with as much concern. “Is she going to be okay?”
Derek was silent for a beat. “We don’t know yet.”
Stiles collapsed back into the bed. Between the tears and the exhaustion, Stiles’ eyes became heavy and soon he was asleep.