Liquid Silver

Nineteen

It felt weird splitting after everything that had happened.

Scott left with Hayden to bring her home, and while Stiles helped Liam to clean Jem's blood off the wooden floor in his room she sat at the kitchen sink with Brett.

He was cleaning up the blood gingerly, never pressing too hard with the cloth he'd found. The water should have been warm but it felt almost painfully cold on her skin. She looked at his face, the way he was chewing his lip as he concentrated on gently wiping around the cuts.

"Guess the tables have turned" she tried a joke, making him perk up from his serious concern for a minute. She didn't like seeing him anxious like this.

"Finally my turn to fix you up" he laughed, beginning to wrap bandaging around her wrist, in an effort to stop the blood staining her blazer anymore. She was already in trouble on that issue, knowing her dad wouldn't be majorly impressed by the tears in her uniform.

"I think I prefer being the nurse" Jem winced as his fingers brushed a little roughly over one of the cuts.

"No kidding" he smiled sideways, pinning the gauze into place. His hand hovered on her skin for a few extra seconds, warm and soft compared to the cold water. "Just promise you'll tell me if it gets worse again" He insisted, and she nodded. She hoped he didn't trip on the fact that she didn't really promise, at least not with words.

She let her head fall onto his chest again, leaning against him for a few seconds. He felt like the only solid thing in that moment, as her head kept spinning and the skin on her wrist tingled. He sighed into her hair, holding her a little tighter than usual. He'd never admit it but Jem figured he was scared.

It was weird. This supernatural problem didn't really affect him or his pack all that much. The only reason he'd involved himself at all was because of Jem. She wondered if she should feel guilty about that. If he wasn't so close to her, then he wouldn't be so close to all of this mess.

When Stiles finally came down the stairs again she didn't want Brett to have to leave. But she knew he had Satomi and Lori at home, probably worrying. And she had to go with Stiles. She ignored her brothers look as she kissed Brett before he got back on his bike outside, him being too nervous about the older brother situation to kiss her first.

She might have laughed about it, the fact that this six foot, athletic and ridiculously powerful werewolf was nervous in front of her brother. She also knew that made Stiles like him a little more. They didn't speak much on the ride home, the jeep rumbling to interrupt the peaceful silence.

Of course the night couldn't have ended on a semi-positive note, and as Stiles kissed her forehead goodnight and disappeared into his room, she glanced back down at her arm and her stomach knotted.

She had bled through the bandaging around her wrist, staining the cream coloured gauze. But it wasn't red like earlier. Instead there was a silvery black flower of blood spreading very slowly across the material, enough to reignite the awful dread in the pit of her stomach.

It would have kept her up if she wasn't so exhausted. Instead she was determined to deal with it the way she used to deal with things, by ignoring it and hoping it would go away. She wrapped her arm with more bandaging before falling into bed, and despite the dear, the nerves and the dread, the minute her head hit the pillow she blacked out.

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It was possibly the worst day of school to date.

The multiple layers of bandaging on her wrist had soaked through by the time she woke up, still stained black and silver. It made her feel sick but she knew if she didn't get up for school then Stiles and her dad would start asking questions.