Once in a Lifetime

16

Stiles rushed to the station due to the fact that Tracy had been seen there. Scott had gone off to help the sheriff and Stiles saw Tabitha and Lydia lying on the ground with Kira applying pressure to their wounds. Stiles hesitated and Theo called to him. He pulled off his belt and wrapped it as a tourniquet around Lydia's wound. Stiles did the same to Tabitha.

Stiles pushed Tabitha's hair back and kept a gentle hand on her head.

He heard ambulance sirens in the distance and looked down at the redhead. "You're going to be okay, Tabi. You're gonna be just fine. Your dad's gonna help."

Stiles glanced to Lydia and she nodded. "Stiles, I'm fine. Tabitha will be fine. Help Tracy. Find Tracy. Go."

Tabitha weakly squeezed Stiles' hand. "I'll be okay."

Theo reassured the panicking boy. "It's okay. They're all right."

Stiles didn't want to leave either of them, especially Tabitha. He should have gone with her.

"Come on, Stiles," Scott said as Stiles got up and followed him down to the basement.

When they got there, they saw Malia standing over Tracy's body. The first thing she said was, "It wasn't me."

"What the hell happened to her?" Scott asked.

Malia hesitated a moment before saying, "There were these people... They had masks. Um, there... There were... Three of them. I think there were three."

"What... What are you talking about?" Stiles asked in a slightly impatient tone.

Malia continued stammering. "They were strong, Stiles. They had a weapon. Stiles, I didn't do this."

"Okay." He nodded.

Deaton looked at them. "She's not changing back. We're going to need to get her out of here."

Sheriff Stilinski shook his head. "What, hey... Absolutely not. This is a crime scene. We call the coroner."

Deaton glanced at the sheriff. "I think the coroner might be very confused by this girl's severed reptilian tail."

"I don't care..."

"You should. Unless you're prepared to hold a press conference announcing the presence of supernatural creatures in Beacon Hills."

Stiles looked at the sheriff. "Dad, he's right."

"Maybe at the clinic we can figure out how to change her back, then call the coroner?" Robin suggested. "There's a line... There's a line we have to draw."

"Dad, Mrs. Young, you've both already crossed it. More than once."

"Sheriff, Deputy Young, please," Deaton said. "Let me help. I've dealt with things like this before."

Sheriff Stilinski and Robin nodded and relented. "Just do it fast."

The moment Stiles was able to leave, he rushed to the hospital. "Melissa! How-"

"Stiles," Melissa replied. "Calm down."

"How bad is it?"

"Could have been worse. Theo, nice going on that tourniquet. You probably saved her life. You too, Stiles. You gave Tabitha a fighting chance." Melissa looked to see Scott and Liam appear and then said, "All right. They're about to go into surgery. So it's going to be awhile. Any other supernatural details that I need to know about or do we just stitch them up and hope for the best?"

Kira stepped closer to Melissa. "It was the tail."

Scott nodded. "Yeah, Tracy cut them with the tail, if that makes a difference."

Melissa nodded. "Okay."

She walked away and Malia said, "But it wasn't just Tracy. There were others. The guys in masks."

Stiles didn't want to wait at the hospital, so he made his way to his house and Malia followed. When they got there, they got up to his room and he walked over to his murder board. He wrote "Masked" and "Tracy Stewart" on the board.

Malia noticed something and erased the part about the Desert Wolf.

Stiles got a text from Melissa and Micah that Tabitha and Lydia were out of surgery and turned to Malia. "You good?"

She nodded. "Go check on your friend and girlfriend."

He drove to the hospital and entered the hospital and ran into Micah. "Where is she?"

Micah led him to Tabitha's room and he saw her lying in her bed.

A small smiled crossed her face when she saw her boyfriend. "See? I told you I'd be okay."

"You and Lydia could've died, Tabi."

"But we didn't."

"What if Kira hadn't been there? What if Theo and I hadn't shown up? I can't lose you! Don't you get that?"

"Why are you yelling at me? I did nothing wrong. I tried to help my friends and got hurt. But I'm okay. Dad? Can you-"

Micah nodded and led Stiles out. "She needs rest. And next time you talk to her, try not to yell at her."

Stiles nodded. "I'm sorry, it just slipped out."

"We're passionate about who we love. I get it. But yelling isn't going to help her. Get some rest, Stiles. You look exhausted."

"Will you have her, or will you let me know when she's out of the hospital?"

"Of course I will."

"Thanks."

---

After one let glance at Tabitha, Stiles made his way to the school. He met his friends in the library and they turned to him. "Did you get in to see Lydia or Tabitha?"

Stiles shook his head. "No. I saw Tabitha earlier, but I can't get back in to see her. I tried using my free period, but they're still in the ICU and no one outside family is allowed in. But her Micah and Melissa been updating me on them."

Malia slammed a book on the table and said, "We got one thing." It was the Bestiary.

Kira looked at Malia. "Anything in here about half-werewolves, half-kanimas?"

"The Chimera," Scott said.

"Um, what?" Stiles asked with a frown.

"Chimera," Scott repeated. "It's a creature made of incongruous parts. And if Liam said he found two burial sites, it means Tracy's not the only one."

"Who's the second one?" Kira wondered. "And why would they bury them?"

"Deaton thinks it's part of their process."

"The people in masks," Malia stated, remembering what she'd seen the previous night.

Eventually, Stiles felt his eyes closing and he didn't fight oncoming sleep.

Malia woke Stiles up and after giving her a nod of thanks, he headed out to his Jeep.

The engine began smoking and Stiles lifted the hood. He wrapped duct tape around another hose. He quickly brushed away the thought of Tabitha saying something sarcastic or one of her many references, which put him at ease. He felt something slam onto his shoulder and cried out in pain.