teen wolf imagines

I'm Not Crazy // Liam Dunbar {Part 3}

by selfignitingimagines on tumblr

Liam stared down at you as he held you in his arms, too afraid to look away out of fear that you might get worse. His troubled blue eyes couldn't leave your flushed face as you lay against him in the back of Lydia's Toyota, unconscious and feverish. It was only minutes ago that you had passed out into his arms as Lydia stood by in shock, leaving a crushing wave of guilt to wash through him.
It wasn't like he had caused your sudden decline in health, but he couldn't help but feel responsible. After all, he was the one who had told Scott about you seeing Allison, and everything had just gone downhill from there.
"How is she?" Lydia asked anxiously as she tried to keep her eyes on the road.
The other banshee was fighting the urge to look back at you, even though she had a terrifying feeling you weren't getting any better. You were all only minutes away from Deaton's clinic, but she couldn't help but feel like they were running out of time.
"Sick," Liam told her hopelessly. "Lydia, nothing's changing."
"Well, that's sort of good, right?" Scott asked hopefully, hoping to god that Liam or Lydia would confirm it. "I mean, she might not be getting better, but she's not getting any worse."
"It's only been a couple of minutes," Lydia said pessimistically. "We don't know what's happening to her. She could be getting worse and we might not even be able to see it."
Scott frowned as Lydia swerved into the parking lot of the clinic. He knew she had a point, but he wouldn't let himself entertain the possibility she was right. You were his little sister and he was supposed to have protected you, to have believed you no matter what, but he had let you down. The whole pack had, and as Lydia slowed to a stop in front of the clinic, Scott promised himself he would save you or die trying.
The minute Lydia put the car into park, Scott was out of the Toyota and opening the back passenger door. His boots crunched in the gravel as he reached out for you, but Liam was reluctant to let go of you. After totally betraying your trust to Scott, he didn't exactly want to spend one second without you in his arms. You may have hated him, but he wanted to protect you as much as he could, even though at the moment he couldn't really do much of anything.
"Liam," Scott said with a frown. "Give her to me."
Liam hesitated for a second, but he quickly handed your warm body off to Scott. Your head fell against your brother's shoulder as he carried you over to the back door of the clinic, hoping Deaton would have some answers.
Liam held the door open for him and Lydia as they entered the building. They quickly passed through the hall and into the exam room, only to find Deaton there with a table already cleared.
"Did you close up?" Scott asked.
"The moment you called," Deaton assured him as Scott laid you gently down on the table. "But I'm not sure I understood exactly what you said on the phone. Y/n passed out? Because she was seeing Allison?"
Lydia and Scott could tell Deaton was skeptical, but at first they had been too.
"We know," Scott told him.
"It sounds crazy," Lydia added. "But-"
"Crazy just about sums up Beacon Hills," Deaton finished for her. "But it would be a lot easier to help Y/n if you could give me the exact details."
Scott, Lydia and Liam all looked at each other, and Liam took a deep breath to explain. He told Deaton all about how he had walked in on you seemingly talking to yourself, and how upset you had gotten when everyone had confronted you. Scott and Lydia picked it up from there, explaining how you knew things only Allison could have known. While Deaton believed them, he didn't exactly have any idea how he could help.
"Well," he said. "I can honestly say I've never seen anything like this, and I've seen a lot of things. This might not even be supernatural. If she really is seeing Allison, the stress could have caused her to-"
Deaton was cut off with a small whimper as your eyelids began to flutter. The group looked over to see you shifting on the table, just beginning to wake from your fever induced sleep.
"Scott?" you asked weakly as you began to sit up. "Lydia?"
"Woah, woah, woah," Liam told you as you sat up. "Don't move, okay?"
You didn't listen to him, and while you thought being stubborn was a good idea at the time, you quickly found yourself reeling when you rose from the table. Liam caught you quickly, making sure you didn't collapse and carefully placed you back on the table.
"I told you not to move," Liam said, and you could tell he was a little hurt you had ignored him.
"What happened?" you mumbled tiredly. "Where's Allison?"
"Y/n," Lydia said softly. "We can't see Allison, remember?"
"Oh," you said softly. "Right."
You blushed, adding more red to your already flushed face as Liam wrapped an arm around your shoulders to support you. You looked around the room for a second, only to find Allison still anxiously waiting in the corner. She was wringing her hands together as she stared out at you and wondered if she should speak up.
Just as she was about to open her mouth, you looked away and turned back to Deaton, who was staring at you suspiciously. You knew he was skeptical and it made you want to cry. You didn't know what the hell was going on and you weren't exactly in the mood for another person thinking you were crazy.
"What's happening to me?" you asked as your voice started to crack.
Deaton grimaced, wishing he could give you an easy answer. "I'm not entirely sure."
"I figured out something," a voice whispered in your ear, causing you to jump slightly.
You turned, only to find that it wasn't Liam who had said that, but Allison. She was right next to you, her chocolate brown eyes staring intently into yours. Deaton noticed the look on your face and his brow furrowed.
"Are you seeing Allison right now?" he asked.
You nodded slowly, hoping to god that he wouldn't think you were crazy too. "She says she knows something."
Everyone was staring at you and you quickly turned back to Allison, not being able to stand four pairs of eyes on you.
"Tell him we're connected," Allison told you. "It's the same connection from the night we sacrificed ourselves to save our parents. He'll know the rest."
"She says we're connected," you told him slowly. "That it's the same connection you had us use when I dunked her into the ice bath."
Deaton's brown eyes went wide. "Of course. The emotional tether...how could I forget?"
"Emotional tether?" Liam asked in confusion. "Ice baths? Just how much did you guys do before Scott bit me?"
"Quite a lot," Deaton told him with a nostalgic smile. "But I know exactly what Allison is talking about. I can't believe I hadn't thought of it before. The night Stiles, Allison and Scott sacrificed themselves to save their parents from Jennifer Blake, they had to effectively drown themselves."
"Drown themselves?" Liam choked.
Deaton nodded. "They would be virtually dead, but in order to pull them back from the other side the one who held them down would have to have some kind of connection. Lydia went with Stiles, I went with Scott and Allison...Allison went with Y/n."
"That's why she sees her and no one else can," Lydia realized. "No one else had the connection. Not even another banshee."
"Precisely," Deaton agreed. "But I also believe there were several other factors. Since Y/n is a banshee too, I believe the connection was even stronger than the regular kind. Allison wasn't just Y/n's best friend, she was someone who grounded her and kept her together, and vice versa. When Allison died, that connection was still there and if I'm right, it has everything to do with the nemeton."
"The nemeton?" Lydia repeated.
"I'm guessing just forgetting about that stupid tree stump wasn't a good idea?" Scott offered.
"Not at all," Deaton informed him. "Have any of you heard of something called a 'world tree'?"
When all of you shook your heads, Deaton continued.
"Well in Norse mythology, the world tree is an enormous ash tree that runs through the world and connects all living things. In Lithuania and certain parts of Germany, it was thought that spirits of the dead lived in the tree. It nourished everything and connected every part of existence. Life, death, et cetera."
"Allison's connected to it," you realized. "And she's connected to me too, all because of the sacrifices. That's why she's still here."
"She can't leave on her own," Deaton informed you. "But she also can't stay on her own."
"But she's been getting stronger," you told him in confusion. "She's popping up more and more, and she could touch me."
"Yes, Allison's getting stronger," Deaton agreed. "But you've also been getting weaker."
"Oh my god," you breathed, realizing what was happening.
Everything was beginning to make sense now and you couldn't believe you hadn't understood before. The minute Allison had touched you, you had gotten sick. When you had first started seeing her, she would usually disappear when more than one person would show up, but now she was in a room full of people. You realized that the sicker you got, the stronger she was.
You shot a glance over at Allison, who looked devastated. There was no way she could have known that she was potentially hurting you, and no way for her to control it either. All she knew was that as she got stronger, you got worse and there was no way she could stop it.
"I'm sorry," she whispered. "Oh my god, I'm so sorry."
"It's okay," you told her, well aware of the looks you were getting. "It's not your fault."
You looked back over at Deaton, then at the eyes of the others. Judging by the looks on their faces, you probably looked terrible and you all knew that you weren't getting better anytime soon. If Deaton was right, you'd waste away as Allison became more like an actual ghost than a figment of your imagination.
"How do we stop it?" you asked Deaton. "Is there even a way?"
"There might be one," Deaton told you. "But it could kill you, especially with how weak you are right now."
"But she'll die anyway, right?" Lydia asked quietly. "Allison could kill her."
Allison flinched slightly, hating herself for what she was doing to you. It wasn't like she wanted to hurt you, but Lydia had a point.
"If she keeps drawing from her energy," Deaton admitted. "Then yes, it could very well kill her."
"So what do we do?" Scott asked. "Whatever it is, we have to try it."
"We need to reverse the connection process," Deaton explained. "Since Y/n was there to hold Allison down while she was sacrificed, Y/n needs to be sacrificed as well."
"Sacrificed?" Liam demanded as his arm around your shoulders tightened. "You're going to kill her?!"
"Not kill," Deaton corrected. "She'll be a surrogate sacrifice. Not dead, but not entirely alive either."
"Just like Allison," Lydia said quietly.
"Hopefully she'll be able to find Allison wherever she ends up," Deaton said with a nod. "Once they come face to face, Y/n can sever the connection. Allison will be free to move on to wherever she needs to be, and Y/n will get to live."
You took a deep breath, contemplating what Deaton was saying. You would probably die if you didn't stop the connection, but you weren't entirely sure you wanted to stop seeing Allison. You remembered how happy you had been the first time she had showed up, how relieved you were that she didn't hate you. You had always felt responsible for not prediciting her death sooner. You hadn't even known your best friend was going to die until the very end, and you had felt every bit of it.
Those were the perks of being a banshee, as Lydia would say, and you hated every bit of them. But as much as you had hated them, they were letting you see Allison now. They were letting you get a chance to have her back, and you weren't sure if you wanted to let go of her again.
"Y/n," Allison whispered, causing you to look over at her. "Don't you dare-"
"But-"
"No," she said forcefully, her eyes becoming steely and cold. "I'm hurting you. I'm killing you and I won't even let you think about keeping this goddamn connection. I died to save Lydia and I'll die again to save you. You're going into that ice bath."
"Y/n?" Deaton asked suddenly, causing your eyes to break from Allison's.
"Yeah?"
"Are you prepared to do this?"
You sighed and looked back at Allison once more. "I guess I don't have a choice."
"Alright," Deaton agreed. "I'll set everything up."
He headed out of the exam room and down the hall, leaving you alone with Scott, Lydia and Liam. Scott opened his mouth to say something, but before he could Liam was pulling away from you.
"Are you insane?" he demanded, his blue eyes wide and hurt. "You're going to drown yourself!"
"Yeah," you said with a weak smile. "That's kind of the plan."
Liam frowned, hating how you were trying to make a joke out of this. He didn't care what you thought of him now, but he was terrified of losing you. Even the idea of drowning you in ice cold water was enough to send his heart hammering in his chest.
"Don't joke about this," he begged. "Please, Y/n we have to find another way."
"We can't," you insisted. "Liam, you know that. If I don't I'm just going to waste away."
"You're sure?" Scott asked as he leaned against one of the counter tops.
"If there's no other way," you told him.
"We brought the others back," Lydia stated. "We'll bring you back too."
"But look at her," Liam told them. "She can barely stand up. What if she isn't strong enough?"
You bristled. "I'm strong enough to save myself. You don't have to be here Liam."
"D-do you not want me here?" he asked, his voice laced with hurt.
"No," you said suddenly, your voice softening. "I do. Actually I'd prefer it, but if you're going to try and stop me maybe you shouldn't be."
"I can't hold you down," Liam admitted. "You can't ask me to do that."
"Maybe you should just go then," you said softly.
"What?" he asked quietly.
You closed your eyes for a moment, hating what you were about to do. Maybe you were still a little bitter from him thinking you were crazy, but you didn't want him to be there if you didn't make it out of the water. You loved him and you wanted him to be by your side, but he was right. You couldn't ask him to hold you down, not when he cared about you this much.
"Go," you told him. "Just go Liam."
"Y/n-"
"Go!" you snapped, causing him to flinch.
Liam backed away slowly, trying to fight the tears falling from his eyes as he began to run. He shoved open the back doors of the clinic, running out into the dying sunlight. Of course you still hated him for lying to you, just like he had suspected. He knew you wouldn't forgive him and he shouldn't have hoped you would. He just wished you would make it back alive so he would get a chance to make everything up to you.
Back in the clinic, Scott was slowly helping you sit down in one of the chairs that lined the wall. You sank into the cushions, pressing your cheek against the scratchy fabric.
"You shouldn't have done that," Allison whispered next to you. "He wants to be here for you."
"Thanks mom," you said sullenly.
"You know I'm only trying to help you," she told you as she crossed her arms over her chest. "That's all I ever wanted to do. Be there for you, make sure you had good fashion sense...I guess I didn't live up to either of those."
"Hey," you complained as you looked down at the fabric of your soft t-shirt. "What's wrong with my fashion sense?"
"Nothing," Lydia and Allison both said in unison.
You looked between the two of them, and even though it looked crazy to Lydia and Scott, you let out a small laugh.
"What?" Lydia asked as she cocked a perfect eyebrow at you.
"You both said that at the same time," you said with a laugh. "I can't believe you're still trying to tag-team me about my clothes, even after she's gone."
"Well, if there's one thing that will never die it's good taste," Lydia informed you with a soft smile.
"I have good taste," you complained.
"Mm, debatable," Lydia remarked. "And when we get you out of this, we're going to have to go on a serious shopping trip."
"If," you said quietly. "If you get me out of this."
"Don't worry," Scott told you as he reached out to put a hand on your shoulder. "I know I didn't do a very good job before, but I swear I'm gonna make sure you're okay."
"Thanks," you said quietly.
With a loud squeaking sound, the door to the exam room swung open and Deaton walked inside. His arms were crossed over his chest and you noticed a small grimace on his face. You couldn't help but feel like he was nervous, and that was not what you wanted from the man who was about to essentially kill you and bring you back.
"It's all set up," Deaton announced. "But I can't promise that it's foolproof."
"She'll die if we don't," Scott stated. "Right?"
Deaton gave one short nod and you sighed tiredly. You looked from Lydia and Scott's concerned faces, then at Allison's. You still couldn't push away the thought that if you broke the connection you would lose her too, but she wasn't having any of that. She met your eyes and gave you a stern look, even though she was breaking on the inside. All it took was one look at her brown eyes to know that she wasn't going to let you get hurt again.
You took a deep breath as you looked back at Deaton, finally set on what you were going to do. "Then I guess we don't have a choice."
"Who holds her down?" Scott wondered as he stared down into the icy water.
"You're her brother," Lydia said as she placed her hand on one edge of the metal basin.
She trailed one of her painted fingers gently across it, cringing at how cold it felt. She had never had the luck of being sacrificed, but she knew it would nearly kill you. Actually, it practically would kill you, and she would be lying if she said she wasn't nervous.
"But you're like a sister to her," Scott reminded her.
"Actually," Deaton began. "I was thinking neither of you would hold her down."
"You're going to do it?" Scott asked him.
"No," Deaton told him. "None of us are. Since Y/n held Allison down the first time we performed this, Allison will be holding her down."
"What?" Lydia sputtered. "But...but we can't even see her!"
"You can't," Deaton agreed with a nod. "But Y/n can and from what's happening, I'm willing to bet that Allison can touch her too. I'm sorry, but it has to be her."
"How will we know it's working?" Lydia questioned.
"Trust me," Deaton assured her. "You'll know."
His brown eyes met yours from where you stood beside Lydia, and he gestured towards the water. "Ready?"
"As ready as I'll ever be," you told him dryly.   
You took a deep breath and stepped into the tub, sliding your bare foot into the water and wincing. It was a painfully slow process trying to get yourself to sink into the water, but you eventually got in up to your shoulders. You looked over at Allison, who was standing with her arms crossed over her chest and grimacing.
Her lip began to tremble, and she looked like she was about to cry. You nodded at her as you shivered, willing her to push you under. She took a deep breath and placed her hands on your shoulders, looking over at Scott and Lydia even though they couldn't see her.
The minute her fingertips touched your shoulders, a wave of nausea ran through you. You groaned, and Scott reached out for you.
"Don't," you warned painfully, causing his hand to pause in the air. "I'm fine."
"Ready?" Allison asked softly.
You nodded. "Yes."
"I want you to know that I'm sorry," she whispered in your ear. "For leaving you, for hurting you, for everything."
"It's okay," you whispered as Scott and Lydia looked down at you with concern. "Just do it."
You took a deep breath as Allison pushed down on your shoulders, and then you were being dunked into the water. Your head slipped under the surface, and Scott and Lydia watched in amazement as you were seemingly held under by nothing but thin air. It took everything they had to not reach out and help you as you fought against the invisible hands holding you.
Water filled your mouth and nose, and you couldn't help the instincts that were telling you to claw your way up to the surface. You opened your eyes, seeing nothing but crystal clear water as you thrashed around. Water splashed onto the floor of the clinic as you struggled, but soon you felt the little bit of energy you had dissipating.
Before you knew it, you began to slip away and just like your energy, your consciousness quickly disappeared.