YOUTH || Liam Dunbar [1]

SEVENTEEN

"Is three going to be enough?" Kira asked worriedly. Katherine looked at the three laptops then the others — Stiles, Scott and Liam — and shrugged her shoulders.

"It depends on how many camera's they have but I think so," Stiles sighed.

Katherine leaned forwards onto the kitchen table in the middle of Scott's house and sighed. "What if this doesn't work," she asked nervously. "I don't think I'd be able to handle it."

"Are we really doing this?" Liam asked quietly, glancing over at Katherine.

"We're doing it," Scott answered immediately. "Tonight."

"Isn't it kind of dangerous," Liam worried.

"It's incredibly dangerous," Stiles nodded casually. "And borderline idiotic."

"Have you guys done something like this before?" Liam frowned. He glanced over at Katherine again. She didn't seem nearly as scared as she had not even two minutes prior. But, much like her brother, she hid what she felt with humor.

"Dangerous or idiotic," Katherine asked jokingly, wiggling her brows.

Kira rolled her eyes. "I think it's a yes to both," she sighed.

Liam closed his mouth and looked down at the table, letting out a sharp breath.

"You don't need to be a part of this if you don't want to," Scott murmured.

"I'm not scared," Liam grumbled, a small pout forming on his face.

Katherine glanced over at him. She couldn't help the smile that grew on her face when she noticed the small Storm Trooper charm peaking out from beneath the sleeve of his jacket. Katherine then raised her hand. "Well I'm terrified," she shrugged tiredly. "But of course I'm in."

"Well then you're borderline idiotic," Stiles congratulated, patting them both on the shoulder in a sarcastic manor. Then he turned to Scott and Kira. "If we do this, we don't know what's coming for us; you know that, right?"

"When do we ever know what's coming for us," Katherine breathed, not speaking to anyone in particular. "The point is, we can handle it. We have to."

"How we even know something is coming for us?" Kira asked optimistically.

"Because the tape from Garrett's bag said visual conformation is required," Scott explained lowly.

Katherine pursed her lips and ran a hand through her hair. Liam grabbed her hand for comfort; for both him and her.

"Simon said the same thing," Stiles confirmed grimly. "He couldn't get paid by the Benefactor until he had proof you guys were dead."

"So the idea is," Scott continued slowly. "What if you kill someone on the dead pool, but you can't send the proof?"

"Then you don't get paid," Kira stated, a crease forming between her brows as she tried to pick up on what they were suggesting.

"How does this get us any closer to the Benefactor?" Liam asked with a frown.

Katherine's eyes widened as it all clicked into place. "The Benefactor has to come and get it them self," she realized out loud, her mouth forming a small 'o'. "Especially if they're high up on the list."

"So if he wants the visual conformation," Liam breathed.

Scott sucked in a sharp breath. "Then he's going to have to come and get it himself."

•••

"I don't even know what happened!" Katherine sobbed, her arms folded over her chest to hide how badly she was trembling. She followed the gurney and the ambulance tenants through the hospital, tears rolling down her cheeks. "I — he said I could go over so he could help me with my home work — he didn't answer the door so I opened it with my key and — just laying there on the — not breathing—" her sentence was broken by sobs and she covered her mouth.

The Doctor running down the hall — the same one who had told her Liam would enjoy her company the first day she'd met him — paused in front of her, then jogged into the room they'd moved the gurney into. For three minutes, Katherine tried to compose herself with deep breaths and closing her eyes.

"Melissa McCall, you're needed in trauma room 2," the speaker above her head said. "Melissa McCall to trauma room 2."

The Doctor walked out of the room with a grim look on his face, and Katherine burst into tears for the umpteenth time that day. "Is he okay?" She choked out. "Is — is Scott okay?"

"How do you know the patient?" The Doctor asked softly, sitting in the empty seat next to her. "Is he your brother?"

"Pretty much," Katherine choked, nervously fiddling with a loose string on the sleeve of her shirt. "He's been coming over to my house almost every day for as long as I can remember." Katherine smiles weakly. "I remember him and my actual brother tying my first ever loose tooth to the front door and — and pulled it out for me because I was too scared to get it out on my own. Then they cleaned up all the blood because I was crying." She let out another small sob. "My mom died when I was four, so I don't remember her all that well. Melissa stepped up and helps me and Stiles where Dad can't, in ways that involve a mom. They're like family."

"Melissa is a wonderful woman," the Doctor agreed gently.

"She's better than wonderful," Katherine agreed through a sob. Melissa rounded the corner as she finished saying the words, and Katherine felt the tears fill up in her eyes again. "I think I'm going to go in and say goodbye," she whispered.

Before the Doctor could object, Katherine pushed past him and into the trauma room. Her mouth went dry when she saw Scott — who was just as much of a brother to her as Stiles was — laying motionless and pale on the white sheets.

She could hear faint murmuring from in the hallway, and then Melissa let out a scream. "What happened to my son!" She wailed, falling to her knees.

Katherine covered her ears and closed her eyes tightly, tears falling from her eyes, quickly replacing each other. She let out a sob and stumbled closer to the bed, then slid down the empty wall next to it. Katherine curled up into a ball, wrapping her arms around her legs as she let out loud sobs. She grabbed fistfuls of her hair, desperately trying to wake herself up from the nightmare she was in.

Melissa stumbled into the room, her face wet with tears. "What happened," she managed to get out as her hands hovered over his body.

"I don't know," Katherine uttered. "He said he'd help me with some of my homework. When I got there he didn't open the door so I used my key and he was just—" She let out another sob. "I called an ambulance. I didn't know what else to do. If I'd just shown up earlier like I'd said—"

"This isn't your fault, Honey," Melissa breathed. She pulled Katherine off of the ground and into a motherly hug. "We did everything right, just not in time." They hugged each other for a short while, crying.

"We should let them take the body out," Katherine sobbed, her hands trembling as her fingertips tangles themselves in her hair. Melissa nodded and the two exited the room, tears rolling down their cheeks. Katherine wrapped her arms around her middle as another sob escaped her lips, and she immediately brought a hand up to cover her mouth.

"It's okay to be upset," Melissa voiced. "We lost a loved one, we don't need to hide it."