Jordan sat in his patrol car staring at his outstretched hands, still seeing the plastic cutting into his wrists and the flames singeing his skin. Or at least he thought he saw it happen. He wasn't so sure any more.

He remembered the heat. The painful heat that wrenched the air from this lungs. But did it burn? He thought. He couldn't be recall.

He remembered the fear though. Of that he was sure.

Werewolves, banshees, kitsunes, werecoyotes, supernatural assassins, and a number of other things. He expected to make some kind of discovery in this town, but never this. He let out an exhausted breath and reached into his pocket for his keys when he spotted the red head exit the warehouse.

"Ok, ready to go," said Lydia as she slid into the passenger seat of the cruiser. "Thanks for offering me a ride back. I'd totally get it if you wanted to go home as soon as possible. Let everything settle in before jumping back into it all again tomorrow."

"It's no problem. So, how do we get you home?" Asked Jordan as he pulled out onto to road.

"Actually we're getting me to the Stilinski house. This new code needs to be cracked as soon as possible, and Stiles can help." Lydia rubbed her temple to lessen the ever-present tension that now seemed to pulse behind her skull.

"I know where that is, but are you sure? It's pretty late," questioned Jordan with a concerned brow. He snuck a glance at the young woman next to him. Her tired eyes watched the buildings pass by the passenger window. Her usually immaculate appearance now rumpled after the day's events, wisps of auburn hair that had fallen from her updo grazed her neck and cheeks. The sudden urge to twine the curls in his fingers surged through his arm. He forced his focus back onto the road and tightened his grip on the wheel.

"Yeah, I'm sure. Like I said, 'as soon as possible.' Besides, with all this new information, the last thing I could do right now is sleep." Lydia threw him a sardonic smirk.

"If you say so."

They rode a mile or two in comfortable silence. The lack of conversation allowed Jordan's thoughts to drift again.

The blunt knock to the back of the head. Waking up with a spinning head, a ringing in his ears, and nausea that almost dissipated in way of panic at the sight of his bound wrists. The man, whom he had worked beside every day, dousing him in gasoline and throwing a match onto his lap. The flames engulfing him and melting off his skin.

No. That last part didn't happen. Because he was - Not human.

"Can I ask you a question?" Asked Jordan.

His hesitant request awoke Lydia from her reverie and she spun to him, "Okay," she affirmed before biting her lip in preparation.

"Did you - Did you always know you were a banshee?"

Lydia let out a scoff, "It was practically only yesterday that I found out what I was. It all didn't kick in until about two years ago…" She trailed off.

"Just like that?"

"Not exactly," she said before pausing again after a maddened expression flashed across her features. She worried her bottom lip as she studied him. Jordan was about to apologize for digging into such a personal matter before she huffed and continued.

"Derek's asshole of an uncle, Peter, attacked me during his rabid werewolf rampage, and instead of turning me into one too, it was like he flipped a switch inside my head. I'd hallucinate, hear things, wake up in places I had no memory of going to. I thought I was going insane." Her voice cracked at the end and she turned back toward the window for a moment to compose herself.

"But I wasn't. And the hallucinations don't really happen anymore. I only had those because I was sort of possessed by Peter at the time." Jordan almost lost control of the car at her confession. From his peripheral, he caught a look at her pursed lips as she mulled over the memory.

"Possessed? Like a ghost? Did he die?"

"Yeah, but sadly it didn't stick," she grumbled.

The sheriff's house appeared ahead and Jordan pulled into the driveway. He shifted the gear into park before settling back into his seat. He turned to Lydia, who appeared stuck in her thoughts, fiddled with a strand from her ponytail while she stared at the dashboard with an unfocused gaze.

"We're here."

Lydia snapped out of her daze and perked up. She grabbed her bag from the floor and cradled it in her lap when she faced him.

"Thanks again for the ride," she said with a grateful smile.

"Of course." Jordan returned a warm smile of his own. He watched as Lydia reached for the door's handle, pulling it, and opened the door an inch before stilling for a few seconds and then letting go. She twisted back to him, a strand of hair stuck to a glossed lip that she primed in determination.

"I can be your supernatural emergency contact."

"Wh-What?" Sputtered Jordan, his eyebrows creased in confusion.

Lydia rolled her eyes and looked away as she clarified herself, "Like what you asked Meredith that day at the station; when you asked her if there was anyone she could call. I can be that for you." Her voice was soft at the end. Her large bright eyes shifted back to him. She waited a moment before slightly leaning in and saying, "I can understand what you might be going through. If you ever need to talk to someone about it…" She trailed off and nervously shrugged a shoulder.

Jordan could only stare back at her, one elbow braced on his seat and the hand of his other arm still clutching the wheel. He was still trying to swap his label of her as a psychic with banshee, so his fear that she might have been reading his mind and hearing his racing thoughts about what happened to him lessens somewhat. Could banshees read minds?, he wondered. When Lydia didn't speak up confirming his question, he released a sigh. She was offering him exactly what he needed, and that slightly settled the anxiety that had been bubbling in his chest since the fire died out.

At his silence, she pulled back and fanned a hand at him as she shook her head, "It's okay. It would be weird. Forget about it. Derek would probably be better for this kind of thing anyway." She had pushed open the door and was sliding off the seat when Jordan stopped her with a hand on her wrist.

"Lydia!" He gently pulled her back into the car, his grip sliding from her wrist to her palm, "Sorry, I was just - Yeah. That would be great."

Her guarded expression faded into a small smile and she nodded, "Okay."

Jordan's smile quirked as he remembered the orders she gave him earlier at the station to snap him out of his funk.

"Give me your phone," ordered Lydia again. She slipped the fingers he had unknowingly been holding from their resting place on the seat between them. He grabbed his phone out of his pocket and handed it to her. She punched in her information and returned it to him; he let out a small chuckle when he saw that she had given herself the moniker, The Psychic.

"Goodnight, Deputy," she said as she slid from the car.

"Night," Jordan replied with a wave.

He reversed out of the sheriff's driveway but idled in the front of the house to wait for her to go inside. She rang the doorbell before throwing a goodbye wave to signal him that it was okay for him to leave.

Stiles opened the door and let her in, then stepping around her to get a glimpse of who brought her.

Jordan pushed on the gas and began his ride home.

Lydia had just finished filling Stiles in on what had happened while he was with his father when her phone beeped. She fished it out of her bag and grinned at the message.

You can call me Jordan.

She saved his number under The Deputy.

AN: I know Lydia said "Call Parrish" in that one episode, but that was to Stiles who probably got it from his dad so I think my story can still take place within canon. And I'm sorry if I messed up the timeline of when she got bit. I'm still not totally clear on the timeline of the show.

And to the guest who left the review on the first edition of this story (I had to delete the first version I published because there was a glitch with the category settings) about what my Parrish theory was, I'm with you on the phoenix theory. At least in terms of the show.

But in relation to this story, he may or may not be a phoenix. I have my own headcanon of what Jordan is, and his backstory that I barely introduced in this chapter (I hope you noticed) is what I want to unravel through this story.

Thanks for reading! Reviews are always appreciated :)