Damaged

Bella knocked on Stiles' bedroom door quietly. "Dad, I said I'm fine." He spoke from inside the room. She was just happy to hear his voice. She knocked again and stood back when she heard him fumbling around and muttering. He opened the door, and they just stared at eachother for a moment. She felt a piece of her heart break off when she saw the blood bruise on his face and the cut on his lip - he had obviously been punched multiply times. She wanted to cry. Again. He felt so bad when he saw her wet cheeks, she had clearly been crying. "Hi.." He spoke.

"Hi," Bella replied quietly. "Your dad let me in." She told him. Stiles nodded, and then a second later they were holding eachother. Stiles closed his eyes and nestled his head into her hair. "What-what happened to you?" She choked out onto his shoulder.

"It's nothing. Don't worry about it. I'm fine."

Bella leaned her head back to look at him, her eyebrows knitted together. He clearly didn't want to talk about it, so she let it go for the moment and her face softened as they looked at each other. He closed the gap between them and touched his lips to hers for a moment before Bella's phone buzzed. She apologised and moved away to pull her phone out of her pocket. Her eyes widened as she read the text from Scott. Bella quickly gave Stiles her phone so he could read it too. "You're gonna need to read this." was all she told him.

Stiles read the text and looked up at the girl standing in front of him. "How much do you remember about this stuff?" He said before throwing her phone on his bed.

She blinked at him. "Pieces." She spoke, "Half of it's like a dream."

"Yeah, well, guess what? The other half of it is like a freaking nightmare."

"I don't care, I have to help them."

Stiles shook his head at her. "See, that's the problem." He said, "You don't care about getting hurt." Bella opened her mouth to say something, but Stiles cut her off. "But you know how I'll feel? I'll be devastated. And if you die? I will literally go out of my freaking mind." Stiles said bitterly and Bella just watched him. "See, death doesn't happen to you, Bella. It happens to everyone around you, okay? To all the people left standing at your funeral wondering how they're going to live the rest of their lives now without you in it!"

Bella just stared at him with her mouth closed tightly shut; she had absolutely no idea what to say to him. But he wasn't finished.

Stiles moved closer to her, making her jump back a step. He pointed to the markings on his skin. "And look at my face, huh?" He yelled at Bella, her lips now separated in shock, fear and sadness. "Come on, you actually think this was meant to hurt me?!"

They stared at each other for a moment; Stiles' eyes fixated on Bella's as she looked away from him.

Stiles took in the look on her face before exhaling. "Uh.." He said, exasperated and wishing he could take back what he had said. But he had meant it; every word of it. Stiles stepped back, shaking his head at himself and the situation. "I'm so sorry - I.. "

Bella shifted her eyes, trying to avoid his. "It's okay." She said, the sadly high tone of her voice showing that it was the opposite. She finally looked at him before turning around. "I'll find them myself."

-

Bella had barely made it a mile down the street when Stiles called her for the eighth time. She sighed before answering and holding the phone to her ear.

"Bella? Hey, look, I'm really sorry. But I meant what I said. I can't let you get hurt, okay? I just - I can't."

"Stiles, I'm not mad at you."

"You - you're not?"

"No, I'm not." She almost smiled when she heard the relief in his tone.

"Oh, thank god. Okay. Wait, why aren't you mad?"

Bella did smile this time. "Because I feel the same way about you."

There was a pause before Stiles spoke again. "Where are you? I'll pick you up." Stiles said, "We'll find them together."

-

Bella opened the door and climbed into the jeep, ignoring the slightly awkward tension as she looked straight ahead. Stiles sighed quietly before driving off.

After a few minutes of silence, Stiles looked at her blank face, and back to the road. "I thought you said you weren't mad at me."

"And I'm not."

"Then why are you acting like you are?"

Bella looked at him tiredly. "Almost everyone I love is in danger - how do you expect me to act?" She said. "It's not just about you anymore, Stiles."

Stiles glanced at her again before nodding slowly. "So, do we have any idea where we're going?"

"Kind of. But we need to pick someone up first." Bella said.

"Who?"

"Lydia."
-

After picking up Lydia, driving around for what felt like hours and a few calls to Bella's mom, they found exactly where everyone was. Stiles' jeep was parked about thirty metres away from the building.

"Are you sure about this?" Lydia asked hesitantly, glancing between Stiles, Bella and the wall.

He nodded slowly, his lips pursed in determination. "A hundred percent."

"Really?" Bella asked him.

"No - more like ninety-five. " He shrugged.

She almost laughed. "It's gonna be fine." Bella reached over and grabbed his hand, squeezing it before letting go and facing forward.

Stiles nodded, facing forward and taking a deep breath. "Ready?" The two girls nodded and Stiles pushed his foot onto the accelerator as hard as he could. All three of them closed their eyes before they hit the weak, patched up wall and completely shattered it, sending them speeding through into the building. Stiles skidded to a stop when he felt them crash into something. Bella and Lydia opened their eyes and Stiles opened one, all of them breathing heavily. "Did I hit him?" Stiles yelled to Scott, making the werewolf grin gleefully with surprise.

Before anyone else could say anything, the Kanima jumped up onto the hood of the car, staring through the windscreen at the three, making them all scream and jolt in shock.

Lydia was the first to climb out of the car; Bella was too fixated on the creature that her friend had become. Stiles had to grab the girls arm and shake her as he screamed at her to get out. When she did, he jumped out after her. The both ran to Scott's side. When they turned around, they saw where Lydia had went.

She was standing in front of the Kanima, shaking as she held up a gold key in front of her face.

Bella ran forward in a plea to help her friend, but the two boys that stood beside her grabbed her and pulled her back to them. She gaped at the both of them in turn, her brother just shaking his head at her.

The three of them watched in complete awe as the scales on the creature faded; Jackson slowly returning to his true form. His blue eyes took the place of the Kanima's reptile orange ones. Jackson reached out and took the key from Lydia's hand, parts of his body still etched with the creature he had just been.

Jackson breathed out in small, quiet gasps as he walked backwards slowly. He closed his eyes and Bella finally noticed that Derek and Peter were both watching, waiting. They both pounced; Bella and her brother moved forward.

But they were both too late.

Derek stabbed his claws into Jackson's torso, Peter piercing the boy's lower back. Bella covered her mouth. The boy choked out, pleading for air. The two men retracted their claws, stepping away, dropping the boy to his knees.

Lydia ran forward. She held onto Jackson who was holding on to his last few seconds of life.

"Do you.. do you still... " Jackson said, his voice almost too quiet for anyone to hear.

Lydia had known what he meant. "I do." She said as tears fell from her eyes, "I do, I do still love you."

Jackson's head dropped to Lydia's shoulder as she sobbed. Stiles reached out to the girl who was in front of him and grabbed onto her hand.

Bella had never felt so much pain; never witnessed so much. She felt it, like it was in the air and if you breathed too much of it, it'd poison you. Bella held onto Stiles' hand as she watched Lydia, her best friend, lay down the boy who had just died in her arms.

The scales that were staining his face disappeared.

Bella heard someone say something about Gerard. But at that moment in time she didn't want to listen to anything that wasn't Jackson's heartbeat. She also saw Isaac in the corner of her eye; he was watching her.

Lydia had turned away from Jackson's limp body and just as Bella moved forward - something happened.

The sound of claws scraping against gravel filled the air. Lydia turned back around and everyone watched in bewilderment.

Jackson's eye lids shot open, revealing his now piercing, shining, full of light blue eyes.

They all watched, lost for words as Jackson rose, and shifted into a werewolf; he bellowed at the sky.

Bella had absolutely no idea what the hell had happened, but at that point she didn't really care. All she cared about was that Jackson was alive. He was alive.

Jackson shifted back to his human self and not a second later, Lydia was in his arms. Bella smiled, wiping at the tears that had dried on her cheeks. With her other hand, she squeezed onto Stiles.

-

"Is this safe?" Stiles said as he cautiously stepped on to a loose tile. They were walking across the roof of the McCall house; Bella had said that you could see the stars better from there.

"No." Bella glanced back at him, smiling before taking another step, almost at the stop of her house.

"You're funny."

"I know, thank you." She grinned and so did he. Bella reached the top and carefully sat down before holding her hand out to Stiles. He latched on and she did her best to pull him up to where she was; when he reached her, he sat down beside her and put his arm around her.

After a moment, Stiles spoke quietly. "I can't believe we made it." Bella looked up at him. "Kanimas.. werewolves.. Kanimas dying and turning into werewolves... " He listed and Bella laughed quietly, looking away. "Werewolves trying to steal my girlfriend." Stiles said and Bella looked back at him. He looked at her and she frowned at him. "What?"

Bella looked back at the sky. "I don't want to talk about that."

Stiles shrugged. "Okay." He grinned. "I just like to reminisce in the fact that you chose me over a werewolf."

She rolled her eyes and smiled. "I didn't choose anyone."

"Right." Stiles nodded. "Except me." He beamed down at her. "You definitely chose me."

Bella just grinned, shaking her head before gazing up at the stars. Stiles smiled down at her.

"I love you."

Bella turned her head to gape at him. She had expected to see him quivering with nerves, but he was completely calm, the contentment and euphoria was evident in his eyes. Bella closed her mouth, her lips slipping into a delightful grin. She opened her mouth again to speak.

"I love you, too."

And she did.