[ It only bothers her a little that Lydia went in to see Stiles first. What upset her more was the reason he was there. Charlie had been on her way to the saloon to do something about the school lunches, even though she really should be giving her fucking arm a rest when she heard Lydia's scream and she knew exactly what it meant so she ran, followed Lydia to the clinic and then...
Well. It was a fine time for her PTSD to kick in. She'd had a mild flashback, probably from the stress, and it suddenly was The Shop superimposed over the clinic for a couple minutes. Logically, she knew where she was, but sometimes those fears and memories were hard to pull herself out of.
She's fine by the time Lydia leaves, seated on a chair inside near his room and listening to what the doctors say about his condition.
She prays he's not upset with her when she finally does enter the room though why he would be is anyone's guess. He's asleep when she enters the room so she curls herself into the nearest chair after pulling it over so she can hold his hand. Eventually, however, she drifts off, her head resting on the mattress and her hand still lightly grasping his.
Sleep comes quick when you're sedated. Even if you fight it, it comes. So of course he sleeps. And when he wakes up, it's to tapping his fingers. Counting. But he never, ever gets past nine.
She makes a sound like a laugh that's been twisted out of a sob, and promptly reaches out to affectionately, gently scratch his nose. "You're aware of how incredibly surreal this all is, right? Even for us?"
He scrunches his face for a moment. "Our lives are always surreal." Of course Peter probably didn't sound like he'd had some sort of serious brain injury when he came back from the dead.
"I'm pretty sure laying in a medical facility on an alien planet while I scratch your nose tops anything that can happen in Beacon Hills any day." she tells him. The smile on her face weakens a bit. "I thought you were dead. I could feel you die, and I knew exactly where to go to find you."
It's the twitching fingers that wake her, and the subtle change in his breathing. She sits up slowly, watching him count and count, worrying some at him not getting past nine. Her voice is scratchy when she talks, her usual post-sleep voice. Maybe Stiles remembers it.
"There's ten. I promise." She shifts, sitting on the edge of his bed do he can see her. She remembers the doctors saying he won't be able to move much and that he's drugged to the gills, so she wants to make things easy on him.
"Hey, gorgeous. Good to see you." There's a faint swipe at her eye, brushing at the tears that waver. She's good. She's fine. Her boyfriend is back. She didn't lose him.
"I'm pretty sure you didn't." Lydia replies wryly. "Apparently not all werewolves are like Beacon Hills werewolves. Some of them from other realities actually turn into wolves."
"Seems like ten to me," Charlie says, a faint look of worry on her face. She'll blame the sedatives. At the mention of the lichen, she leans forward and presses her lips to his forehead.
"Don't do that again, okay? I really hate losing people." She doesn't sound nearly as angry as she could. Just...weighed down by the information.
"I kind of suspected you weren't as buried as he claimed you were."
"And fighting back." Which impresses her. She stretches out next to him carefully, her hand once again holding his. She missed having him next to her and she was tired. This seemed like a good idea. She'll move if he wants her to.
"Do you remember buying me cookies? Because he didn't, but he left some outside my room back home."
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