I won't bore you too much right now, so there's a longer author's note at the end of this chapter. All I'll say right now is that I appreciate your support and your reviews of last chapter. They really made my day!

Chapter 15: What comes after…

Scott's body felt heavy and dense as he tried to remember what it was like to be human after spending so much time being nothing.

The first time he had been shocked with those terrible almost magical wires, it had only been for a couple of minutes but, this time, it had felt like forever and, glancing at his best friend still lying on the floor with half of his clothes thrown a few paces away from him, he knew why.

Scott brought his hands around to push himself off the floor and go to him, but he failed at the first try; his body still too weak and unstable. He cursed and tried again, managing to crawl on his hands and knees towards Stiles. He stared at his friend whose chest was pressed against the floor and noticed how shallow his breathing was. He looked at him in the eyes and saw that he had a faraway look; a very glassy and red rimmed faraway look. Tear tracks ran down his cheeks and a small spot of blood was noticeable on his bottom lip where he must have bit it. A fine tremor ran down his body, indicating that he was cold, but Stiles had made no movement to reach for his clothes and cover himself up; and Scott couldn't take it any longer.

"Stiles?" he asked with a hesitant voice. He received no reply or even the recognition of having been heard, so he tried again "Stiles. Come on man, talk to me" and then he made the mistake of reaching for him. Scott had only meant to place a hand on his shoulder, maybe even shake him a little if he continued to be unresponsive; but instead, Stiles's eyes came back to focus and he flinched away. Scott's hand stopped in mid-air and then he drew it back "Stiles?" he asked again, hoping that his friend's now focused stare (even if it was focused on his now retrieved hand) was a sign of him coming back from the shocked state he was in.

At hearing his name, Stiles's eyes looked up and met the worried stare of his best friend, managing to sustain it for a whole two seconds before dropping it to the ground. He put the palm of his right hand on the floor, attempting to move and get into a position that allowed him to breathe better, to relieve his chest from the pressure of his own weight, but when he went to lay on his side, pain shot up from his still exposed behind and he let out an almost undetectable moan. Scott, though, being a werewolf, heard it and he didn't let it pass.

"Stiles, you're in pain" for a moment, he thought he wouldn't get a reply but finally, Stiles's scratchy voice was heard.

" 'm fine" he kind of slurred, now lying completely on his side, facing Scott, with his knees drawn all the way to his chest to cover his nakedness. Another tremor ran through his body and he hugged himself tighter.

"I can smell the blood" Scott let out bluntly. He knew his friend wasn't fine. He may not have been able to see it due to what had been happening to him, but he could hear bits and pieces of what went down between Rivers and Stiles and he also knew that apart from the physical pain his brother must have been feeling, the psychological trauma of what had been done to him would take a hell of a lot more time to mend, if it was even possible to do so. At least the physical pain he could help take away "let me take some of the pain Stiles" he said as a warning before he reached again with his hand, intending on putting it on his shoulder.

"NO!" Stiles's eyes widened in fear and he moved back, pulling away from him "I don't want you to feel this" for the second time, Scott's hand was stopped before reaching its target and he stood there, staring at his friend.

"Stiles-" he started to say but was interrupted by a hard stare and the sound of his own name.

"Scott, this isn't... This is not..." he was having trouble finding the right words to make his friend understand why he didn't want him to touch him "What I feel right now... I don't want you to feel what I'm feeling right now Scott. So please..." the look Stiles was giving him was tugging at the strings of his heart and he wanted with every fiber of his being to be able to take away memories as he was able to take away pain, but he wasn't. He didn't know if Stiles was rejecting his help because he was too ashamed or because he didn't want Scott to have to live even a fraction of what had happened to him. Either way, he needed to respect his decision; even more so after his free will had been so brutally assaulted.

"Okay. I won't" he stated "but you need help Stiles. You need to get up and get dressed. I promise I won't take the pain but you have to let me help" Stiles thought about it for a moment and accepted the fact that he needed help right now. He just didn't think he'd be able to stand up on his own and not collapse like a hip on the floor again.

"Promise?" he asked just to make certain.

"I promise" Scott stated with his most serious tone.

Stiles nodded then and asked him to pass him his clothes. Very slowly and carefully he put on his underwear and his pants, feeling how every movement made his insides burn and then put a hand on the floor to push himself up.

He hadn't seen what he was doing and the moment his hand touched the floor, he lost his balance by attempting to get away from that spot as fast as he could, only managing to fall over it and smear the sticky substance all over his arm. He had been on his knees and Scott had come to him to give him a hand in standing up and when he saw him falter, he had reached for his shoulders to steady him wondering why had he lost his balance so unexpectedly. When he saw Stiles staring at his arm with a disgusted expression on his face, he understood.

He had smelled it, just as he had been able to smell the blood that was already drying inside of Stiles. There had been three different scents permeating the air by the time he had come back to his senses: one was blood, one was Rivers's load also inside of Stiles and the third one had been Stiles's own one. It didn't take a genius to know what had happened and the expression of disgust and shame of Stiles's face was enough to confirm it.

He decided to make no comments about it, sparing his friend the embarrassing moment of having to explain himself because, on Scott's eyes, Stiles was not to blame about anything. He had nothing to explain and much less to him. So he squeezed gently on his friend's shoulder and prompted him to get up.

"Come on" he said softly.

Stiles held out his arm as far away from him as possible while he got his feet under him and as soon as he was able to walk, he all but ran to the sink on the corner of the room and turned on the faucet, putting his arm under the running water and scrubbing it until it felt like he was going to peal the skin off and, even after that, he kept scrubbing. His movements were starting to get frantic and he could feel his stomach turning the more he thought about what he was washing away and why he was doing it. He didn't even turn off the water when he dashed for the toilet to hurl everything that he had on his almost empty stomach. He gagged and heaved, sputtered, spit and threw up over and over again until there was just no more strength left in his body and he wasn't able to hold his own weight any longer. He sank to his knees in front of the toilet and held his head with his left hand.

The moment he saw him falling, Scott ran to him debating whether or not to grab him from behind to prevent him from hurting himself but decided against it at the last minute, letting him crash half on the ground and half on the toilet. He hated this! He hated this so much! There had never, ever, been any awkwardness between them, no hesitation or reluctance to embrace each other. In fact, their friendship and brotherhood had always been rather touchy (and not in a weird way), they were just comfortable with each other and they had known each other for so long that hugging and being there for each other when needed was the most natural reaction between them. Now Scott was reluctant to even get close to Stiles because he didn't want to startle him. He had already flinched away from his touch once and when he had been helping him get up, his body had been stiff and his posture defensive. Scott hated that he was afraid to go to him now because of how he would react and he didn't know what to do about it.

He decided to be helpful some other way and when he noticed the water on the sink still running, he went to it to turn it off. Silence dominated the room then, only broken by Stiles's now occasional heave that would end up with nothing else to throw up.

Scott's eyes landed on the floor where Stiles had placed his hand not so long ago and stared at the stain. He searched for something that would help him clean it up, make it disappear but other than their clothes, there was nothing else he could use and so he went to the sink again, turned on the water and scooped some in his hands, walking back to the liquid on the floor and splashing the water over it. He did it at least two more times and then he grabbed a hold of his mattress and pulled at it, bringing it closer to Stiles's and placing it directly on top of the wet space. At least now Stiles didn't have to see it and they wouldn't step on it by mistake. Scott figured this was the best he could do because getting a cleaning room service was definitely out of the question.

When he turned around after inspecting his work, he found that Stiles was staring at him, no longer hunched over the toilet but merely supporting himself with his arm on the edge of it. He had an expression on his face that Scott wasn't able to recognize and he filed it as Stiles having just so many emotions to deal with right now that not one, but all at once, were showing on his face.

After staring at him, Stiles's eyes dropped to the floor and to the now joined mattresses on the floor. He didn't say anything; just kept staring at them and Scott feared for a moment that he had stepped over the line, a line he wasn't exactly sure where to draw.

"Ammm, I just thought you'd rather not see it" he said, and they both knew what he was referring to "and this is the only thing I could think about. But if you're not cool with the mattresses being close I can just put it back...?" he asked, again hating the fact that he had to be careful with how he talked to his best friend.

"It's okay" Stiles replied surprisingly "thanks" then he looked back at him "would you mind...? Can you help me?" he gestured between himself and the joined mattresses and Scott immediately went to him, glad that Stiles had asked for his help and that it didn't seem like he was shutting himself off. Well, not much.

They reached the other side of the room in a relatively short amount of time; Stiles trying to not let any discomfort or pained sound leave his mouth and Scott trying to ignore the ones that did, until finally they were both lying face-up side by side. They stared at the ceiling in silence, each one lost in their own thoughts until Stiles's tired and sleepy sounding voice broke the silence.

"Did you do it?" he asked "Did it work?" knowing what he meant, Scott didn't delay his answer.

"I found a phone and called my mom. She didn't answer though" before he could continue, Stiles's horrified face turned to him.

"What?" he said with a bit of a break in his voice "What are we going to do now?" still that break in his voice, Scott noticed.

"I left a message" Scott said immediately to try and reassure him, although he didn't know if the knowledge reassured even him "all we can do now is wait and hope it works"

"Hope for a voicemail from an underground fortress to reach a phone hardly ever used between shifts and wait for the cavalry to arrive?" Stiles surmised.

"Well, I did say it was urgent" Scott joked, hoping with every fiber of his being to lighten the atmosphere inside the room.

Stiles stared at him like he had suddenly grown a second head before releasing a laugh that was neither humorous nor sarcastic. It was just a laugh that allowed him to release some of the emotions threatening to bury him alive. Scott joined for a second with a smile of his own and soon the laughing became harder.

It wasn't long, though, before the laugh transformed into a sob, followed by another and another until there was no mistake that he was now crying his eyes out. He brought his hands up to cover his face and kept crying into them while turning around on his side and pressing himself against Scott, who put an arm protectively around him and just held him there while he shook and sobbed. Scott's eyes watered and he couldn't avoid the few tears that escaped as well.

He didn't know how he was going to fix this, how he would help his friend heal; but he would. If holding him while he cried was all he could do for now, then he would remain there forever if it was the amount of time Stiles needed to feel better.

He closed his eyes and willed his message to be delivered and received. To be enough to warrant some help coming their way; and somewhere on a kitchen counter, next to a pot of already cold coffee, a cellphone beeped and a hand reached for it.

TWTWTWTWTWTWTWTWTWTWTWTWTWTWTWTW

I realize that some of you don't want me to show Stiles too out of character and, trust me, I don't want to do that either, but I think after what happened to him, he's allowed at least a moment of OCness while he figures how to deal with the situation. I personally enjoyed how Scott was there for him to hold him in the end of the chapter and of course this experience will only serve to bring them closer as brothers.

From now on, I think I'll want to explore a bit of a dark side in Stiles that may or may not have anything to do with the nogitsune but that will definitely be a consequence of the events of last chapter. Also, the pack will make an appearance again soon enough, maybe even next chapter, so you should expect some of that too.

For the person who suggested bringing another werewolf into the mix like Isaac or Derek, I wouldn't really know how to do it, but I'll give it some thought and if an idea pops up, I'll use it. But be assured that I'm taking into account every request.

Now, as you may have noticed, I forgot to change the rating of this Fic from T to M based on the previous chapter. Do you think I should still do it or is it save enough to leave it like it is? I would appreciate some insight into that.

About making a series out of this Fic, I am DEFINITELY thinking about it! There are a lot of ideas running around in my mind about future adventures that could have references to the things happening in this story, so there is a great possibility that it will happen. I would like count on your support as readers for that project!

I think that's all I have to say for now and remember to leave a review or a request when you're finished reading this. I really want to know what you guys thought of this chapter.