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Scott doesn't wake up for another twenty-four hours. The entire while, the pack does not leave his side and the entire while they wait, Malia tries to think of a way to explain Phoenix's betrayal. Not for lack of effort, she simply cannot. So, she doesn't say anything, not yet, and no one asks anything, and it's just hours of silence and waiting and silence and waiting.

When Scott does finally wake up, Stiles and Kira explain the situation to him, but he's still exhausted and looks like absolute shit, so Deaton tells them to hold off for a bit. They oblige, though it's obvious they need to share the Rosary information with him.

The alpha smiles when he sees Malia. She tries to smile back, but the pain is still so real that it comes out as a grimace.

"Are you okay?" He whispers to her when the pack isn't hovering over, surrounding them.

Malia does smile then. Wakes up twenty-four hours after almost dying, and still, the wellbeing of his friends is the thing he cares about more. "I'm fine. Are you okay?"

Scott gives her a knowing look. "Malia."

"I'm okay," she says. That's a lie. "I'm back." That, however, is not a lie.

Scott has questions but he decides not to push. "Good to have you back," he says. "We missed you."

"Yeah," she says. "I missed you guys too."

They all drive Scott home and stay until Mama McCall literally has to kick them out.

The rest of her friends, tried and worn out, decide to call it a night. Malia doesn't want to go the Tate house, but she can't go to the den. She asks Lydia if she can sleep over and they spend the night in bed, staring aimlessly at the ceiling as mindless chatter is exchanged.

Until it's not mindless anymore.

"That guy with you today. The one you kicked out. That was Phoenix, wasn't it?"

Malia's voice is caught. It feels as if her throat is closing in on itself. "Yeah," is all she manages to get out.

Lydia is silent for a moment, obviously processing and analyzing. Malia is scared she'll ask more questions.

"He's cute. Total douchebag, but cute."

Tears coat her eyelashes. The image of him is still so vivid and she wants nothing more than to cry her heart out, to lament to Lydia about how all of this freaking sucks and how her heart feels like it may just give in at any moment and ask how could she be so damn stupid to have not seen him for who he truly is before. But she won't cry over a boy, especially not one who almost got her alpha killed.

She doesn't say anything. Lydia figures its best not to ask.

The heartbreak stays with Malia for the rest of the night. Lydia falls asleep and Malia suffers in silence.

Phoenix || Malia TateWhere stories live. Discover now