You Be the Anchor That Keeps My Feet on the Ground

Twenty minutes later, Derek had called his uncle, and Olivia had been reminded two more times that she didn’t like this… Peter. Isaac had even sat her down and explained to her that he was a bit of an asshole and that she should just try to ignore him. She asked again if he was just trying to scare her, and he assured her that no, he wasn’t, he just wanted her to be prepared.

A few minutes later, there was a knock on the door and a man whom she assumed was Derek’s uncle just walked in before Derek got a chance to open the door. He nodded his head slightly at both Derek and Isaac and then made his way straight to Olivia. He looked her up and down and the smiled slightly.

“You really don’t remember anything, do you? I can smell your curiosity on you. You know, I almost don’t want to help you get your memories back because I almost enjoy your company when you’re not trying to punch me as soon as you see me,” Peter said, and Olivia scoffed.

“If that’s my normal disposition toward you, I’m sure I have a very good reason. You probably deserve it,” she said, and Isaac nodded.

“You definitely deserve it,” Isaac added, and Peter smiled again.

“I don’t have to help you, you know, and if you keep being rude, I might just decide to go home,” he said, and Derek stepped in.

“Just help her,” he said, and Peter laughed quietly.

“Why is everyone always so demanding? What’s the magic word?” he asked, and Olivia realized that she could smell Derek’s rising anger.

“The magic word is ‘now’. Stop screwing around and just do it,” Derek growled, and Peter finally got a serious look on his face.

“You’re no fun, but fine. We’ll need a tub of water. Ice water. You remember how we got Isaac’s memories to come back a few years ago by slowing his heart rate down? Well the process for complete memory loss is almost identical but admittedly a bit more severe. We don’t just have to slow her heart rate down dramatically, we have to temporarily stop it,” Peter said, and Isaac automatically began shaking his head.

“Temporarily stop it as in kill her? No. No fucking way,” Isaac said, and Derek placed a hand on his shoulder.

“You’re sure it’s the only way?” Derek asked, and Peter nodded seriously.

“It’s the only way I’ve ever come across that brings back a wolf’s memories. There’s different methods for humans, but since she’s primarily wolf, they wouldn’t work on her,” Peter said, and Isaac started shaking his head again.

“Then, no. That’s not happening. We’ll just wait until she gets them back naturally. It’ll happen eventually; she’s already having flashes of memories,” Isaac said, and Peter shook his head back.

“She may be having flashes, but I guarantee you that she will not get her full set of memories back naturally. They have to be recovered, and this is the only way,” Peter said, and in the next second, Peter, Derek, and Isaac were all three animatedly yelling over one another. Olivia listened to them for a moment, but soon became annoyed that they were arguing over what to do with her about her memories and hadn’t even thought to ask her opinion.

“Hey,” she said, trying to stop their arguing. They didn’t even blink. “Hey,” she repeated, a little louder, and again, they didn’t even bat an eyelash. “Hey!” she roared in voice that was much more wolf-like than human-like. They all three stopped in the tracks and turned to look at her.

“If I can trouble you to actually listen to the girl you’re arguing about for a moment…” she trailed off and looked up to make sure she had their complete attention. “Thank you. Now, I want to do this thing Peter is talking about. It’s killing me not knowing anything about anything and I hate it. I want to feel like a person again; I want to feel like me again, and if this is the only way to do it, then fine, let’s do it,” she finished, and Derek and Isaac both gave her severe looks.

“It could kill you. For good. If for some reason we’re not able to resuscitate you, then you’ll be dead and we won’t be able to bring you back,” Derek said, a deep frown forming on his face.

“I get that. But right now, I’m not me anyway, right? I’m just the shell of the girl that you know. I don’t know anything about myself and I don’t even feel like I have an identity. If he’s right and my memories don’t all come back on their own, then what? I’ll have to live the rest of my life not truly knowing who I am, and I don’t want to do that. I can’t do that,” Olivia said, tears slowly rising to her eyes. She glanced at Isaac and realized that he was teary too.

“I don’t like it. I don’t like it at all. But I can’t make your decision for you; none of us can. If it’s what you really want to do, and if you’re sure, then we’ll do it,” Isaac said quietly, and Derek shot him a look like he was surprised that those words were coming out of Isaac’s mouth.

“I’m sure. I know there’s a risk, but honestly, I just really want to be me again,” Olivia said, and Isaac and Derek both nodded, although they both still looked like they wanted to stop her.


A little while later, there was a huge tub of ice water in the middle of Derek’s living room, Olivia was wearing an oversized shirt of Derek’s and a pair of his boxer shorts so that her clothes would be dry when she (hopefully) woke up, and Isaac kept littering little kisses all over her and telling her that he loved her.

She sighed deeply as she looked at the tub of water, and Derek and Isaac both asked her for the millionth time if she was sure this was what she wanted. She nodded her head, planted a firm kiss on Isaac’s lips, and said that she was ready.

“Alright, so here’s how this is going to go. We’re going to lower you into the water and your first instinct is going to be to jump out, but we’re not going to let you. For this to work, we’re going to have to hold you down. Memories should start flowing back as soon as your heart rate starts to slow, but the more prominent ones won’t be back until after you’ve been resuscitated. Now, as your body realizes that it’s near dying, it’s going to start fighting you. You’re probably going to turn into your wolf, and you’re probably going to fight us back pretty hard. But try to keep in the back of your mind that what is happening is good in a sense; that it’s what you want to happen, and you should be able to fight your anger and desperation a little bit. For this to work completely, you are going to have to be technically dead for at least a minute. But, the great thing about werewolves is that once they’re dead, they’re still technically alive inside for about two minutes or so after death until their wolf side dies off as well. That two or so minutes should be enough time for us to electrocute you and bring you back,” Peter explained, and hearing everything out loud like that almost made Olivia rethink her decision. Almost. She shot looks to Derek and Isaac and they both looked worried. She hoped she didn’t look as worried as they did.

“Are you sure you’re ready?” Isaac asked, planting another kiss on her forehead.

“I’m ready,” she responded, and he nodded slightly.

“Okay. Let’s do it, then,” Derek said, and she could almost hear the worry in his voice.

“One more thing: please don’t let me die,” she said, and she meant it to sound like a joke to lighten the mood, but as soon as the words escaped her lips she knew that it didn’t sound like a joke at all; it sounded like a plea.

“You’re not going to die,” Isaac told her, kissing her one more time.

“Don’t worry, you’ll be completely fine,” Derek added, and this time she could tell that he was trying really hard to keep the worry out of his tone.

“Okay,” she said, and Peter, Derek, and Isaac all nodded.

Gripping Derek’s arm with one hand and Isaac’s with the other, she put her feet into one end of the tub. The cold hit her immediately and she almost jumped out before she was even in all the way. Taking a deep breath, she allowed Isaac and Derek to lower her backwards into the water, and she felt Peter reaching into the tub to hold her feet steady. Once she was almost submerged, she shot one last look at Isaac and he smiled at her weakly. She returned it, and a second later plunged her head under the water.

It was absolutely unbearable. As soon as her head was under, she felt the claws on both of her hands extending. She was fully wolfed out a second later, and she began involuntarily kicking her feet as hard as she could and flailing her arms. She felt hands reaching into the tub to hold her middle down, though she couldn’t be sure whose they were. She tried to do what Peter had said and think about how this is what she wanted, but she didn’t think it was working. She couldn’t think at all.

She thrashed about for a good three minutes before she felt herself starting to go limp. She could definitely tell that her heart rate was slowing down; her limbs felt heavy and rock-solid and it was getting harder for her to move them. She vaguely heard Peter talking outside of the tub, but she couldn’t make out words. A hand that she figured must be Isaac’s laced its fingers with hers and gave them a squeeze, and she did her best to squeeze back.

A moment later, she felt the consciousness draining from her body. She tried to fight it even though she knew Peter had told her not to, but it won anyway. Everything slipped away fast, and soon she was completely out cold, although somehow she could still hear slightly.

Everything sounded like it was a hundred miles away as she barely heard Peter yelling that it was time. She felt herself being lifted out of the tub and then being placed on the floor, but instead of really feeling it, it felt like she was just seeing it in a dream.

Everything was silent for a while, and she wondered if that was it; if she was really dead. But then she heard more voices and barely felt the electricity from the cattle prod coursing through her. In her ridiculously dazed state, she wondered why the hell someone was trying to electrocute her. A moment later, there was yelling; a lot of it. She felt someone hitting her hard in the chest, and seconds later, more yelling.

A vaguely familiar voice was screaming and sobbing violently right above her. “You said it would work! You fucking said it would work! Olivia! Liv, honey, please wake up! Please,” the voice screamed, and suddenly the name ‘Isaac’ flashed through her barely conscious mind, and it seemed important, but she couldn’t figure out what it meant. Someone else’s tears dropped onto her face, and she wondered why they were so sad. The last thought she had before slipping completely away was that she wished she could help them.