Losing her entire family was hard enough on Josephine Cohen, but to lose them, upend her life in Boston to live in Beacon Hills, and move in with her infamous cousin Lydia Martin all within a month's time didn't make it any easier.
To make matters w...
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Josephine Cohen hadn't left Lydia's side since she'd arrived back at the hospital. Even when her aunt and uncle had taken the time to leave the small hospital room and do just about anything else, Josie couldn't bare to leave her side. Not when she laid so unmoving on the bed, skin pale and multiple wires and machines hooked up to her.
The only thing that kept the girl sane was the sound of Lydia's heartbeat through the monitoring machine. That was the only thing that differentiated this moment from the moment Josie had to stand over Eleanor's body on such a similar bed.
She really hated hospitals.
Lydia's hand laid in Josie's as she ran her fingers lightly over the back of her hand, just wishing to feel her squeeze her hand back for even just a second.
The creaking of the door behind her, followed by multiple hushed whispers back and forth had Josie sighing, shaking her head with a tiny smile threatening to peak out.
Stiles and Scott managed to crawl into the room, quickly shutting the room door behind them as they both winced at the loud squeak that it let out. They rose to their feet, turning toward the bed only to pause as they saw Josie already staring at them both. They opened their mouths to speak, pointing between one another as they tried to figure out where to begin.
"Uh...hey?"
"I've been in here the whole time, all you had to do was knock and I would've let you in," she teased the pair with an eyeroll, gesturing over to her side for them to walk over.
The teens boys didn't hesitate, joining Josie at her side next to Lydia, all three looking down at her. Scott took a second to glance over at Josephine, watching her intently.
"Derek said he came to see you,"
"Him, Chris Argent, who didn't come see me," she retorted, glancing over at the two boys. "Argent didn't have much to say, besides something along the lines of 'don't do something to make the Argents and Cohens enemies', real threatening and all. Derek...he had a bit more to say."
"What'd he tell you?" Stiles jumped in as Josie locked eyes with him. She bit into her bottom lip, trying to find the right place to start.
"My dad's side are all witches and warlocks, which frankly was something that I already presumed. Dad and Ellie were both...magical. Apparently dad had been visiting Beacon Hills for years regarding some supernatural bullshit, and got close with the Hale family. Also met the Argents on multiple occasions over the years, so I guess that explains why everyone knew my dad, and in turn knew who I was,"
"What about your powers?" Scott tacked on. "Does he know how to help you figure them out?"
"He said my dad would've left me something, something that could teach me. But other than that...no," Josie sighed, squeezing onto Lydia's hand as she looked down at her. "Apparently Peter's promises of 'teaching' me were all bullshit, too, and he had no idea how my magic actually works. But...there was one thing Derek was able to tell me, about what I did that night at the Hale house."
Stiles and Scott looked to one another, and it was Stiles that looked back to Josie first.
"What was it?"
"It was triggered by some innate need to protect. To protect all of you the way I couldn't protect Lydia, or even Ellie," all three teens looked down at Lydia at her words. "He said the need to protect you all was enough to make something happen, but I have to learn. I need to be taught the root of magic, the root of who I am and who my family are, and then I'd be able to do something like that, and so much more, at the snap of a finger."
It wasn't much to go off of in terms of answers regarding Josephine and her magical abilities, but it was more than the three teens knew before. All that was clear was that Josie was something powerful, and power needed control.
"We're going to help you," Scott promised her with a squeeze to her shoulder, eliciting a grin from her. "We're going to do whatever we can to help you figure it out and learn."
"Thank you, both of you," she looked back at her two friends, at the two boys that she never knew from that day she'd introduced herself outside of Beacon Hills High School would become so important to her. She gave them a small smile, before letting go and Lydia's hand and reaching toward her hospital gown. "Now, let's talk about the more pressing issue at hand."
She gently moved Lydia's hospital gown out of the way, showing off the patched up side of her abdomen. Josie's movements were careful as she peeled back the bandages, Scott and Stiles leaning in with wide eyes to get a look at Lydia's wound.
"It's...it's not fully healed?"
"No, but it's better than before, meaning it is healing," Josie countered back at Scott's statement, shaking her head as she replaced the bandage and turned back to the boys. "The doctor's said she's going to be just fine, that she's getting better."
"But the bite isn't healing like it did with me, how it should be," Scott muttered, still gazing down at Lydia in confusion. "It would've healed overnight, like mine did."
"That means she's not a werewolf," Stiles concluded in astonishment.
All three teens turned to look down at the girl, watching her sleeping form as the sound of the heartrate monitor beeped through the room behind them.
