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CHAPTER TEN; 10

        "What do you want me to do? She's unconscious!" 

        Stiles hissed over at Jackson, making sure to keep his voice at a whisper. The whole group, Lydia, Jackson, Allison, Scott, Sage, and himself, met up in the lobby just a few minutes ago only to have their parade rained on when Sage fell to the floor right after Jackson walked in. Everyone seemed to throw themselves towards her body, even Lydia, in an attempt to catch her.

        Shockingly, Jackson was the one to grab a hold of her, slowly placing her down on the floor with his knee supporting her head. That was when panic set that one of their friends was bleeding to death and, now, unconscious with no way for them to get out of this place.

        Lydia and Allison were in hysterics, Scott was speechless, Jackson was being a jackass trying to pick a fight with Stiles, and Sage was just lying there motionless. Stiles knew that it was only a matter of time before the alpha decided to appear, and he didn't know how he would be able to explain that to the others.

         Looking away from Sage, Stiles met eyes with Scott. 

        "We need to move," Scott explained to the others, glancing back at his best friend, knowing exactly what the look he was giving was for.

        Lydia looked up from Sage's body with a horrified expression. "She needs to go to a hospital. Her heart is slowing down." 

        Stiles went to reply but the ceiling tiles began to crack, much like they had done in the boiler room. Everyone seemed to divert their attention to the sound. When he realized that the ceiling was going to come crashing down on them at any second and the alpha would be appearing from the rubble, he wasted no time bending down and picking up Sage. 

        Although he definitely wasn't as strong as Scott or Jackson, he was able to hold her tightly in his arms due to the pure determination to take her to safety.

        Scott got the memo that they needed to haul ass, grabbing a hold of Allison's hand and uttering out a single word. "Run!" 

          All of them immediately obeyed, following Scott's instructions and running as fast as they possibly could. Stiles felt Sage's body slip from his arms a few times because of the amount of blood on her wet skin, but aside from that, he was able to coordinate as well as any person could holding an unconscious, hundred and something pound girl in their arms.

        Everyone seemed to agree that following Scott was the way to go, and when he crashed into the cafeteria, they all trailed behind without a second thought.

       While Scott locked the doors, Stiles carefully placed Sage on the table. Her blonde hair was no longer blonde at the ends, rather stained such a dark hue Stiles wndered if she would be able to get it out. He looked away from her with a lump in his throat, not being able to stare any longer. What did grab his attention was the wall of windows that resided in the cafeteria, even worse than them being in the classroom before.

        "Grab some chairs," Scott ordered, running over the the plastic, blue chairs. They all picked up two at a time, beginning their work, completely ignoring any and all things Stiles shouted their way. 

        "Scott, wait. Not here," Stiles tried to protest, continuing to stare at the windows with wide eyes, gnawing on his lips as he took a few more steps towards the group.

        Allison spoke up from beside Sage's side. "What was that? Scott, what was that?" 

        "It came through the ceiling!" Lydia cried out. 

        "Would you just help?" Scott barked while he moved a table with the help of Jackson. "The chairs, stack the chairs." 

        "Guys, would you just wait a secon—" Stiles was cut off by the screeching of metal chairs. "Would you just—Scott! Will you please just wait a second! Guys, Stiles talking. Can we hang on one second, please? Gu—hello!" they all turned around, eyes wide. "Okay, nice work. Really beautiful job everyone. Now, what should we do about the twenty foot wall of windows?" 

        They stared in horror when they realized he was right, having just completely barricaded themselves into a room that could easily just become the Alpha's entrance through the array of glass.

        "Okay, can somebody please explain to me what's going on because I'm freaking out here. Sage is— Sage— what's going on, Scott?" Allison begged, clinging onto his arm in hopes that he would just answer her, not even capable of stuttering out what was going on with her blonde friend lying helpless on the table.

        Scott didn't though, instead he just pushed her off of him and went to stand by Sage's body. All of the others were completely baffled at the werewolf's reaction, especially since it seemed like he was the only one with plausible answers. Scott looked towards Stiles in panic, trying to get his best friend to save him. 

        Stiles sighed, looking at Sage before talking. "Alright, somebody killed the janitor." 

        "What?" Lydia asked, eyes wide as she choked out the word.

        "Yeah. The janitor's dead and we think Sage got attacked by the same person." 

        Allison stared in disbelief before letting out an exasperated exhale, turning to look at her boyfriend. "What is he talking about? Is this a joke?" 

        "What? Who attacked her? Who killed him?" Jackson spluttered, all of them having too many questions that just blurred together; no one wanted to admit that the only thing on there mind was how in the hell they were going to get Sage out of here as well as how in the hell they were going to get themselves out.

       Lydia swallowed hard, tears blurring her vision. "No. No. No. This was supposed to be over. The mountain lion—" 

        "Don't you get it? There wasn't a mountain lion," Jackson hissed over at Lydia, the girl's inability to see the truth making him want to claw out his eyes.

      "Who was it?" Allison yelled, directing it towards Scott who was avoiding the whole conversation in general, knowing if he opened his mouth he would be saying too much. "What does it want? God, what's happening? Scott!" 

       Scott finally had the nerve to turn around and face her. "I—I don't know! I just... it's just if we go out there he's going to kill us!" 

        "Us?" Lydia screeched. "He's going to kill us? He already tore Sage apart!"

        "Who? Who's he? Who is it?" 

        There was an unpleasant pause, Stiles looking over at Scott for any help what-so-ever. They couldn't just say that there was an alpha werewolf chasing them around the school who killed the janitor, killed Derek, and by accident, mutilated Sage's whole backside because she has a weird, freaky ability that makes her a target to remotely anything dangerous that the people in this room do. 

        Yes. Stiles can see that ending well. Like hell, he'd sooner be put in Eichen House. 

        "It was Derek. Derek Hale," Scott finally revealed, feeling nausea sweep over him as he realized he just handed a dead guy over to the police for another convicted crime he hadn't done.

        Jackson shook his head. "Why would Derek kill the janitor? More importantly, why would he want to hurt Sage? Aren't they, like, related?" 

        "Are you sure?" Allison inquired, weary at the idea of the man being capable of doing any of this.

        She honestly didn't believe that Derek would deliberately hurt Sage, having seen small interactions between the pair; it wasn't much, but it was definitely enough for her to know that the man could never lay a hand on her, much less stab her in the back.          

        Literally.

        "I saw him," Scott continued on with the lie.

        Allison frowned, still trying to put the pieces together. "But I thought it was a mountain lion—" 

        "No! Derek killed them!" 

        "All of them?" Allison snapped, her voice cracking as she listening to Scott rave on about a lie that she could easily tell was not the truth. 

        "Yes. Starting with his own sister." 

        "And the bus driver—" 

        "And the guy in the video store. It's been Derek the whole time. He's in here with us. He hurt Sage. He tried to kill her. And if we don't get out now, he's going to try to kill us too." 

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        When the alpha finally caught up to them in the cafeteria, they were forced to relocate up on a higher floor. Scott had grabbed Sage this time, having to carry her up two flights of stairs in fear that he would drop her. He also took note of her wounds opening up, feeling the wet liquid coating over the already dried on his arms and it just brought a sickening feeling to his stomach.

        The teen wolf was already feeling terrible for outing Derek just a few minutes ago, lying and saying he was the one that attacked Sage. If this girl ended up dying in his arms, there was no way he would be able to live with himself knowing that he had gotten her into this mess by wanting to attract the Alpha's attention.

        The group ended up finding an open classroom, flinging the door open and propping a chair on the handle as if it would do any good. Scott put Sage on one of the tables in the front of the classroom, and the rest turned silent, trying to catch their breaths from running up so many flights. Scott looked over at Stiles, jerking his head down to signal that he needed to get his ass over to Sage. 

        Stiles walked over, making sure he picked his feet up so his shoes wouldn't squeak. When he reached the blonde's body, his teeth ground together when he realized what Scott needed to show him. He didn't think twice about taking off his plaid shirt, handing it over to Scott to rip up. Everyone else turned when they heard the shredding of cloth.

        Allison rushed over, grabbing a hold of Sage's hand despite the blood that would get on her. Everyone seemed even more stunned when Lydia took the bandages from Scott's hands, swallowing hard as her own fingers began to nimbly shake.

        "We need to get the other bandages off," Lydia whispered, looking towards the group of boys.

        Jackson nodded and began the search while Lydia went back to Sage's back. She slowly pulled up her tank top, and almost threw up with how much blood Sage was losing, even more when she saw what her back looked like. Lydia grabbed one of the ripped cloths, wrapping it tightly around the wound before lapping another three to secure it. 

        "Here, take my jacket," Allison muttered, giving it to Lydia.

        Lydia quickly grabbed it, and carefully put it on Sage's body, wincing when she, much like everyone else already had, touched blood. Stiles looked at Sage's body and felt his heart drop in his stomach. He hadn't really taken into consideration that she might actually die. He thought they would find a way to get out, but right now they were trapped in a classroom and Sage's life was ticking down by the minutes. 

        When he saw a hand grasping Sage's, not Allison, something fueled inside of him that he was trying to avoid all day. How terrible was it that he was pissed off Jackson was holding her hand and she was literally on her death bed?

        He pressed down on his lips, trying to ignore the feeling as best as possible. All he could think about though is how he almost kissed Sage earlier that day and now he may never get the chance to now, never even got a moment to tell her goodbye. 

        "Jackson, how many people can fit in your car?" 

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        The air was tense after Scott left to retrieve the keys from the janitor's body.

        Allison's goodbye kiss definitely created drama, and Jackson's obvious flirting towards the girl didn't help either. Sage was still unconscious, and Stiles would check her pulse what seemed like every second just to assure himself he hadn't lost her.

        It was still there, and it wasn't getting weaker any time soon, but Stiles wasn't exactly sure if that was a good thing. Something happened to her abilities; she told him that she couldn't be physically effected by someone else yet she was bleeding out on Harris' desk while everyone seemed hesitant to let out a breath in fear it would hurt her.

        "Jackson, you handed me the sulfuric acid, right?" Lydia asked, beginning to doubt her boyfriend the more she saw him with Allison. Jackson turned to her and raised his eyebrows. He clearly wasn't happy that his girlfriend was apprehensive. "It has to be sulfuric acid, it won't ignite if it's not." 

        "Okay, I gave you exactly what you asked for, didn't I?" he snapped.

        Lydia almost stumbled back, seeing straight through the lie. "Yeah. Yeah, I'm sure you did." 

        Stiles frowned, and continued to stare at the variety of chemicals sitting on the table. He knew well enough that Jackson hated Scott to the point of letting him die. He just didn't know if Jackson believed Derek was the murderer or if he was suspicious about it being more. The teenage boy also wasn't ready to tell Sage that Scott basically outed her best friend as a psychopath who tried to kill her.

        No, he definitely wasn't ready for that. 

        It seemed like Scott had been gone a millennium, and everyone was growing more impatient as they started running through all the possible scenarios happening outside. Just as Stiles went to check on Sage again, a loud roar rang through the whole building, causing a tremor that was five times louder than Scott's ever was. 

        A gasp was caught in the mixes of the alpha's howl, and everyone turned their heads to see that Sage was now sitting up, eyes roaming the area until they caught sight of one person: Jackson. When they connected eyes, it was like something kicked in, and they both started to scream in sync with each other, Sage managing to fall off the table completely, landing hard on her side as she clawed at the back of her neck. 

        "Sage!" Stiles screamed, diving towards the ground, grabbing a hold of her face, pushing the loose strands of her ponytail out of her face. "Sage! Sage, what's going on!" 

         "Jackson, are you okay?" Allison asked, pulling him up to a standing position. Lydia had abandoned her boyfriend, falling down next to Sage and propping the blonde's head on her lap to try and level her out. "What happened?" 

        "Nothing, nothing. I'm okay. How is—" Jackson cleared his throat as he rubbed the back of his neck. "How is she?" 

        Sage wasn't screaming anymore but she was still flinching any time Stiles or Lydia tried to touch her. Stiles was more concerned about her having another seizure like she did when she acquired Derek's wounds in his bedroom. He was one hundred percent positive that Sage's abilities must have kicked in with Jackson and that made her start screaming bloody murder.

        He just didn't know why.

        "Sage, can you sit up? You're still losing blood," Lydia tried to explain, reaching to pull her up.

        Sage followed along, and grimaced when she felt something tear in her back, but she also noticed that she wasn't in as much pain as she was when she passed out. Whatever the hell that meant, something was helping her stay alive and she didn't know what.

        "What happened? Where are we? Where's Scott?" Sage croaked out, looking around the group until she focused in on Stiles. He had already been looking at her for quite some time, and she leaned forward, grabbing a hold of his arm. "Stiles, what happened?" 

        "Your lunatic best friend is trying to kill us, just like he tried to kill you, and Scott decided to play hero by going to fetch the keys off the janitor's dead body," Jackson explained, relieved that the attention was now off of him and he could ignore everyone's questions. 

        Sage looked over at the lacrosse player in confusion. "Derek? Derek didn't try to k—" 

        "Sage." 

        Sage looked over at Stiles, wondering why he called her name. The look on his face said all that needed to be said, and she felt her heart break a little bit. Someone had told the others Derek was the one chasing them, not the alpha. Tears began to well up in her eyes, not because of them lying about it, but because it was so easily believed. She remembered when Derek couldn't even have been considered as a killer because of how good he used to be. He used to be like Scott. 

        And, now, he is in such a degree of lunacy because of Laura's death that people think he's a homicidal manic. 

        "So, are you dying? Is she dying?" Jackson asked, looking to Lydia for conformation. Sage clenched her jaw. He could have at least been more subtle about asking instead of just shooting it out. 

        "I—I don't know. She needs to get to a hospital, though," Lydia spoke, running her hands through her hair as she tried to keep her pulse calm. For once in her life, all of those medical books had come in handy.

         She gave up on the 'too-pretty-to-be-smart' charade after she saw Sage covered in crimson and stumbling to keep stable. The two girls weren't friends, they haven't talked since she's been back, but Lydia wasn't going to just let her die. Maybe one day, Sage would return to favor. 

       The hazy blonde gathered that they were in Harris' room. Someone must have carried her from the lobby after she passed out. Scott was the only one not present in the room, and Sage was beginning to grow weary when she questioned whether or not the what Jackson had said about finding the keys was true. 

        Allison went to ask Sage a question when there was a clicking sound coming from the door. Everyone turned to see that a shadow was looming through the blurred window out of the classroom. Allison was the first to react. "Scott? Scott! No, no. Scott! Scott!" 

        "Wait. Stop!" Lydia screeched over to Allison. "Do you hear that? Listen." 

        Everyone leaned in to try and figure out what Lydia was talking about. Sage's mouth opened and she turned to Stiles, who looked on the verge of a panic attack. Police sirens were blaring, and Sage bet if she were in the right condition to look out the window, she would find Stiles' dad parked outside. That meant one of three things: she wasn't going to die, she was going to die and the alpha would kill her before she left, or the alpha would just kill everyone.

         Including the Sheriff. 

        "You're going to be okay," Stiles muttered, not bothering to join the group by the windows. He fully collapsed down beside her, and gave a small laugh, pressing his lips to her head. "You're going to be okay. You're going to be okay."

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        "You. Home. Now." 

        Sheriff Stilinski grabbed a hold of his son's wrist, starting to pull him towards the cruiser. They had showed up at the school about thirty minutes ago, no sign of Derek Hale or the alpha. Sage was immediately driven to the hospital while Scott and Stiles were forced to fill Sheriff in on what happened. Meaning lie about Derek being the one that chased them through the school and attempted to chew them to pieces. 

        Stiles stopped in place, staring at his dad in shock. "I'm not going home." 

        "Excuse me?" Sheriff Stilinski asked, turning around to raise an eyebrow.  

        "I'm not going home. Not when Sage is in the hospital, Dad." Stiles pursed his lips, running his hands through his hair as he tried to word his next sentence correctly. "If I just went home, I'd end up thinking about her the whole time. I'd just be worrying about whether or not she's okay, and if something happens to her while I'm not there—" 

        "I'll have one of my deputies drop you off."  

        Stiles looked at his dad with a crooked smile before leaning forward and giving him a hug. His father was hesitant at first, but eventually followed his son's actions and returned the embrace. While they were standing there, Sheriff decided to whisper something in his son's ear. "Don't miss your chance." 

         Stiles knew his time was running out to get the girl. 

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         When Sage lifted her eyelids, it took a while for her to adjust to how dark it was in the room. The only light was coming from the outside the door, shining on a body that was snuggled up into one of the room chairs. Before she was even able to fully inspect their face, she knew that it was Stiles Stilinski. No one else would voluntarily spend the night in those chairs. More so, no one would be here at two thirty in the morning. 

        Sitting up, she felt something pull and her hand instinctively went out to her back. She could feel bandages and she knew that there were probably a few stitches in her back as well. When she got the hospital, they immediately drugged her with something that sent her into a comatose state for a good two hours. 

        "Are you okay?" 

        Her whole body froze and she swore the wind was knocked right out of her, even though she hadn't even been hit. Emerging from the corner of the room was Derek Hale himself.

        He had bags under his eyes and blood was dried on his face and clothes. He looked exactly like she did when she came into the hospital. She jumped forward, thankful that there wasn't an IV in her arm, attaching herself to Derek. He instantly reacted, wrapping his arms around her as well even though she was so much shorter, and let out a deep breath in relief. 

       "I thought you were dead," he said, smoothing out her hair as he pulled away.

        She looked up at him, and saw that there were genuine tears building up in his eyes, making her start to cry herself. It seemed stupid. They had never cried in front of each other before. Hell, Derek hadn't cried in four years, much less hug her. And yet, here they were doing both.

        It was the simple yet terrifying thought that they might have lost each other today. If Sage hadn't of held on, or if Derek hadn't of healed, they would have died. One of them, or both of them, would have died. That simple thought of having to survive alone scared the hell out of Sage, and she knew Derek felt the same. They were all each other had left. Laura was dead. Luke was dead. Cora was dead. Talia was dead. Her mother was dead. Her father was dead. His father was dead. His cousins were dead. Peter was dead  Everyone was gone. 

        Everyone was gone.   

        "You know me," Sage choked out. "I'm a fighter." 

        Derek nodded, and clenched his jaw tightly. "I have to tell you something. Just in case something like this ever happens again. I wasn't going to tell you because I know you used to be close with him but—" 

        "What, Derek?" 

        "Peter's alive."

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        Stiles felt himself waking up, and he stretched as best as he could in the hospital chair, feeling his back crack as he moaned in pain. The chair definitely wasn't going to be his best friend. If worse comes to worst, he'll end up sleeping in the bed with Sage. The thought of her reminded him that she was probably already awake, and he opened his eyes to that he had been correct about his assumption.

        She was sitting criss-cross on her bed, staring directly at the wall in front of her. He furred his eyebrows when he saw that her eyes were swollen and red, looking as if she has been crying for four hours straight. 

        "Hey," he broke out, cringing when he heard how terrible his voice sounded. "You okay?" 

        "No," Sage replied bluntly, finally looking over at Stiles.

        Attempting to smile, she felt it falter when the tears started to come back. And soon enough, she was sobbing all over again. The action woke up Stiles faster than coffee or Adderall ever would, and he walked over to sit on her bed.

        She stayed where she was, but looked at Stiles. "Why do we devote our life to things that will ultimately bring us nothing but pain? Why can't we just let go of the past and move on? Why is it—" she stopped to choke on her words, allowing Stiles to wipe her tears. "Why does everyone I love get hurt, or die? Why me?" 

        "Life sucks," Stiles muttered, moving closer to her so that they were directly in front of each other, his own legs crossed and touching hers. "I lost my mom, Sage. I know what it feels like to lose a parent— and it's a horrible feeling that you never get over. You hate your whole life and you hate your beliefs. You hate everyone because you think they didn't help enough. They could have done more to help, that they could have fixed it. They could have tried to find a cure. But it's incurable. It's not something anyone could have changed." 

        Sage watched as he started to ramble on, realizing that he wasn't talking about her anymore. She knew that Stiles' mother had died. On the first day of school, when she said a light was missing in his eyes, she knew that his mother was the reason; and Sage couldn't have felt any more like shit watching as he continued to speak about his mother because she never talked to him about it before.

        It was shoved aside because werewolf problems came first. 

        Grabbing a hold of Stiles' hand, she intertwined them and gave it a tight squeeze. He stopped speaking, and looked down at their hands. Smiling lightly, he glanced back up to see that she wasn't crying anymore, just a few stray tears that were refusing to drop from her cheeks. The brunette boy quickly used his sleeve to wipe the tears that were refusing to fall from his own eyes, and then dried her face too. 

        "Stiles?" Sage asked. 

        He cleared his throat, releasing her hand as he felt the thudding of his heart beat. The feeling was back. "Yeah?" 

        "Why did you send that text?" she questioned, her voice low as she tried not to raise her voice too much. 

        He still hadn't spoken about the text message, and she knew it was more than just an 'oops wrong person' mishap. She wanted to know what he meant. More importantly though, she wanted to know why she felt the way she did when he sent it. 

        Stiles paused for a few seconds, picking at his flannel sleeve. "I saw you and Jackson kissing." 

        Sage was absolutely frozen in shock. She didn't know how he could possibly— The blonde's eyes widened when she realized exactly what had ended up happening. Stiles had been meaning to visit her that night to help her figure out why she had the seizure, the same night that Jackson showed up to her room completely drunk and bloody.

        "I didn't kiss him, Stiles." 

        Stiles snorted and shook his head. "I'm pretty sure you did. Unless my whole definition of kissing has been completely erroneous and eating each other's faces off isn't kissing." 

        "I didn't kiss him," Sage repeated. "He was drunk and kissed me. I pushed him off three seconds later. It wasn't a big deal, besides why do you even care?"

        She didn't understand why he was getting so upset over the whole thing. Yeah, Jackson was being his usual dick self, but that was expected and she had gotten over the kiss. It was a mistake that the lacrosse player made in his time of weakness, everyone has them. Sage didn't understand why Stiles was so affected by something that shouldn't even be a huge issue.

        Stiles was caught. "Uh— um, be-because of Lydia." 

        "Lydia?" Sage asked, completely taken back.

        She hadn't expected for it to hurt her as much as it did, but just knowing that the boy had made such a big deal out of his all for Lydia's feelings seemed to drop her heart in her stomach. There was nothing else that hurt more than feeling like she wasn't good enough to be cared about, that Stiles hadn't even felt a single thing even after everything they had been through.

        "You know," Stiles started, laughing nervously as he crawled off the bed. "The whole crush thing. I was just worried she would find out and she would be hurt. It's—I was just worried. No big deal. I won't tell her. Uh, I should go. My dad's probably—" he jerked his thump towards the door. "Yeah. I'm just going to go. Text me." 

        Sage watched as he quickly left the hospital room, tripping over the end of the chair he slept on. When he was gone, she took a deep breath before rubbing her swollen face, trying to forget everything that happened in the past two days because honestly, forgetting was a hell of a lot better than remembering. 

        And she was ready to forget everything.

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        not edited(n.e)

        There aren't even enough words to describe how relieved I feel at this very moment. I spent the last three days procrastinating, killing Sage, crying, eating, and complaining about killing Sage. So, if it hasn't already been announced, I love my friends. I really do. Because for one, they haven't brutally murdered me yet, and two, they encourage me to not kill my characters because I will eventually regret it. You perdy people know who you are. 

        I also apologize for the beginning of this chapter. It's so terrible because I had no motivation left to write the episode 'Night School'. It was legitimately the hardest thing I have ever written. Even worse that Lunacy. So, props to every TW writer that has had to go through what I went through. Season Two is going to be like this every episode. Yeah. Yay. Woo. Shoot me. 

        So there is a lot of Stage at the end. I think the idea of Stiles' mother needed to be brought up and what better time than when Sage is realizing how shit of a life she has that her whole family was burned alive and only a complete asshole ended up surviving? So, if you all were wondering why she was crying, it will spoken of in later chapters (a.k.a bookmark that scene or something because it's important to the Connelly's) and I'm very excited to write about it.