What Pain It May Bring

chapter 7

Just like everyday for four years....Stiles is running through the woods...he knows if he stops... he's dead... his legs are heavy.... pain is shooting up to his head...it's screaming there....his lungs are on fire.... getting less and less air in them with each breathe... his throat is buring each time he inhales... and still he runs.... what's behind him...he's not sure... it sounds hungry...angry... what's in front of him he can't see.... his eyes are blurry....the pain is making all his scenses slowly fall apart... but he keeps running... hoping..... he might make it home alive... home?....he hasn't been home in four years...hasn't seen his father...his friends.....his Derek.... he has to stay alive..he has to get home to them..to him...he can't give up...then he trips... he falls to the ground... and the pain shooting through him is unbearable.. and he screams...he thinks his last scream..and he screams for Derek...

The pack, John, Chris, Allison, and Melissa were all sitting around the bed in chairs brought up to Derek's room ....they weren't leaving his side....Derek set to the right of Stiles...just staring at him... Peter was downstairs making lunch for everyone.... it had been over twenty four hours since he had came back in that bright pale blue ball of energy.... when he colapsed into Derek's arms... when Derek ran him back to the house... twenty four hours of everyone to afraid to close their eyes...to leave the room ... to scared that he would just disappear...that this wasn't real...that Derek would wake up in the clearing with not Stiles but the shadow again...a whimper escaped from the alpha's mouth.

Peter walked into the room with a cooler full of sandwhices and sodas... he was passing out the food..though never taking his eyes off the young man in the bed...he smiled...he could see the desperation leaving Derek.... he still had concerns in his eyes..but the rest was falling off of him... and he could understand the concerns...how does an almost eighteen year old boy turn into  mid twenty something man.... and the scars... how did all this happen in one month...Stiles had grown over an inch taller too..... his scent while was Stiles...it was a bit different....what was weird...really weird... he had no other scents on him.... you can't not have any other scents...it's impossible... unless that energy had burnt them off... but how could it have done that without burning Stiles' skin too... something was making him worry...he needed answers...he needed the man to wake up...

"Derek!!!" Stiles screamed at the top of his lungs....he flung himself back slamming into the headboard of Derek's bed....he was suddenly in crouched position ...ready to attack or defend himself.... tears were running down his eyes...yet they couldn't quite see...it was blurry...but he saw shapes.....as everyone was becoming clearer....a hand touched him gently.... his skin just for a second.....reacted to this threat.... lines over his body criss crossed...light blue energy...forming shapes and lines.... circles and images.....the hand was drawn back quickly with a hiss of pain.

"Fuck Stiles...my hand!" Derek said through clentched teeth...his hand was burnt... blackedened... just a moment he sat it on Stiels and his skin was flash burnt.

"D-Derek??" Stiles said unable to believe his eyes... he grabbed the alpha...who stiffened in his arms...afraid he would be burnt again....but he wasn't..he felt only Stiles holding him..holding on like he was the only thing keeping him from sinking and drowning....it was desperate...he climbed into Derek's lap...held on...he was mumbling so softly to himself...but everyone heard it...if they were a wolf....he was praying ..."if this is a dream...please don't let me ever wake up again...please"

The voice was strained...filled with a lifetime of pain... and fear... the boy was afraid to open his eyes...that if he did....he would wake up again there.... in that living hell...the hell he had to endure now for four years.... and he knew if this wasn't real....and he said again praying, "If this isn't real this time...let me die...I can't go on...just let me die...just to make the pain go away."