Chapter Thirty

Fidgeting, Serena sat in the chair next to the still body. The room smelled strongly of antiseptic and a constant beep echoed throughout the room. Her chocolate stare scanned the bruised and scraped body, heart clenching tightly at the sight. She ran a shaking hand over his arm carefully.

A small sigh escaped the boy lying in the hospital bed. Smiling, she continued stroking his skin comfortingly.

"Hey."

Turning, she gave Scott a half grin as he stepped through the doorway. "Hi."

"How is he doing?" He pulled up one of the other spare chairs beside her. "His heart rate sounds good."

"Yeah, the drugs just have to ware off," she explained. "They said he should wake up really soon."

He reached out for Stiles hand and grasped it gently. Blackness entered his veins from the tips of his fingers through his arm.

A confused expression crossed Serena's face. "What in the hell?"

"Oh, I never had a chance to explain this to you. We can somewhat heal, mostly take some of the pain from others," he bobbed his head. "It can make us weak temporarily."

"Can I do that?"

"I don't know to be honest. We should ask Deaton and see if he has any knowledge on what werelions can do."

Serena bit her lip. "Why am I a werelion instead of a werejaguar?"

"Derek said that sometimes you take on a different form based on your personality."

"I'm just happy that I'm not like Kate. I told her too, I'd never be like her."

Scott gripped her hand squeezing gently. "Even if you did become a werejaguar you would never be like Kate."

"Do you think it's all over?" Serena let her head fall on Scott's shoulder.

He frowned. "I hope so, but it seems it never truly is."

"I don't think I can go home Scott…" She shook her head, her chestnut waves tickling under Scott's nose. He smoothed down her hair softly. "I don't want to risk my dad, you know? I mean, not that I want to risk Aunt Mel either… but she already knows. And Erin? I can't do that to her. I can get her killed."

"I know exactly how you feel," he whispered. It was the same way he felt every day. Risking his mother, Stiles, the Sheriff, and all the other innocent people that had no reason to be involved. "You can stay with us Serena, always."

She lifted her head kissing his cheek. "You are the greatest cousin in the world."

"Thanks," Scott chuckled.

"Thank you for everything you have done."

"You're thanking me for getting you kidnapped? Getting you turned into a freaking werelion? And ruining your entire summer to the point you don't feel safe going home?"

A scowl etched on her delicate features. "You have given me one of the most eventful summers of my entire life. Stop blaming yourself for everything. You don't control the world Scott and you can't let it control you. So, accept my thanks and shut up."

"Okay," he sighed.

"I'm going to kick your ass."

There was a grunt from the boy lying before them. Serena instantly stood on her feet wobbly, peering down at Stiles. Reaching for his hand, she curled her fingers in his squeezing gently. She gasped when the grip was returned. He moaned once more, eyes blinking open in a daze.

"Stiles?" Scott leant over him.

"Mmm S-Scott," he slurred. He blinked a few more times. "You're a very beautiful girl."

"That's me Stiles," Serena giggled. "Serena."

"Wow," he muttered, not paying attention to what he was saying, still drugged from all the morphine. "So beautiful."

She kissed his forehead and he had a goofy grin on his lips. "I'm so happy you're awake."

"You kissed me!" he sounded shocked. "Woah, Scott. Scott, hey, did you see that?"

"Yeah buddy I did," Scott snorted. "Unfortunately."

"You're so cute." Serena placed another kiss to his cheek. "I'd kiss you more, but I think Scott might beat you up when you feel better."

Stiles gaped, "You want to kiss me?"

"You poor baby," Serena pouted. She ran a hand through his hair affectionately. He tilted his head into the gesture enjoying the sensation. "Don't worry. Once the drugs ware off you'll be much better."

He giggled, "She wants to kiss me."

"Serena, can you stop?" Scott requested unhappily.

"Where am I?" Stiles scrunched his nose. "Smells funky,"

"You're in a hospital," Scott informed. He patted Stiles stomach gently, not sure where else to touch considering Serena clutched his hand and was rubbing his head. "Might be here for a few more hours, but they said once you woke up they'd let you come home."

"What?" He blinked, eyes still glazed over.

"Stiles?"

Scott and Serena turned to find Sheriff Stilinski in the archway. His light blue eyes scanned Stiles to make sure what he was seeing was real. He stumbled into the room and gripped onto his son's shoulders faster than the were creatures can blink. They both backed up to give them some space.

"Don't you ever scare me like that again."

"Dad, I'm fineeeee," Stiles said.

The Sheriff backed up. He glanced at Scott and Serena. "Thank you for bringing him back."

Serena grinned. "Don't have to thank me Sheriff. I did it more for myself, no offense."

He raised a brow.

"I'm kind of dating your son," Serena waved to Stiles who was looking at them all curiously "Not officially, but yeah…"

"We are dating?" Stiles asked gleefully. "This is such a good day."

"You haven't asked me to be your girlfriend yet."

"Really?" Stiles rolled his eyes at himself. "I sound really stupid because you're so beautiful."

"You haven't gotten the chance to," Serena patted his head. "Our date got interrupted by this guy-" she pointed at Scott. "It was an amazing date though."

"He took you on a date?" Sheriff Stilinski frowned. "He didn't tell me he was taking anyone on a date."

"Yeah, it was really romantic."

He nodded, his face curious. "You are Scott's cousin, correct?"

"Yes," Scott answered.

"Interesting."
Serena laughed, "Well, I know we met briefly before… but, yeah. Um… maybe we should wait until Stiles knows what's going on to have this conversation?"

"Good idea," he agreed amusedly.

"Daddy," Stiles frowned. "I'm thirsty."

"I'm going to grab a nurse," he advised Scott and Serena.

They both smiled as he slipped from the room. Stiles head flopped to the side as his eyes flickered from the cousins. "Kate's dead?"

"Yeah," Scott said softly.

"Peter too?"

He bobbed his head, "Yes."

"Huh," Stiles closed his eyes. "That kind of makes me feel bad."

"Why?"

"He's Malia's dad, ya know?" Stiles licked his lips. Serena felt an urge to strangle at the sound of her name escaping his mouth. When had this jealousy developed? Why was she jealous anyway? Malia was out of the picture. But… Stiles did love her. She scowled. "I… I don't forgive her for leaving, but she doesn't have any family. She killed her adoptive mother and sister. Her adoptive farther is nuts over it. Her real farther is dead now and her real mom is the Desert Wolf. And she just wants to be a coyote; we should have never woken her up. I wish we never woke her up…"

Scott sighed, "Malia had her own choices to make. Don't blame them on yourself."
"Serena," Stiles grinned, her name sounding rough on his tongue. "I remember our date. It was awesome."

"Mr. Stilinski, glad to see you're awake."

All eyes turned towards the doctor that entered the room. "My name is Doctor Michaels. It's a pleasure to meet you son," he pulled out a chart and his bright blue eyes trailed over Stiles chart "Right now we are just waiting on the drugs to fade. Your right arm had a bone that penetrated the skin, a minor concusion, and some bruising. We want to run a few more tests just to make sure you are fine, but it's looking like you might be released today; the latest being tomorrow evening."

"Yay!" Serena clapped.

"The cast will last around a month, maybe longer depending on how you are healing," Doctor Michaels informed. "Otherwise, besides the scrapes and bruises, you'll be able to walk out of here just fine."

Sheriff Stilinski smiled. "That is great news."

"Now, I'm sorry to do this, but I'll need to have the room cleared. Would you lot mind waiting in the lobby?"

Scott and Serena nodded.

Both cousins sat in the waiting room, Serena nervously tapping her foot while Scott listened in on all the voices around him. After a half hour the sheriff appeared before them. He bore a bright smile.

"They said I could bring him home as soon as I fill out the paperwork. If you guys would like to join, I'm going to order some pizza."

"Yeah, we'd love to," Scott said with a grin.

Another twenty minutes and they were in the sheriff's cruiser. Stiles in the passenger seat with Scott and Serena in the back. Serena offered to hold onto Stiles pain killers, they were heavy narcotics and Stiles was currently on them at the moment.

"I wish… I wish I had a cheeseburger…" Stiles muttered, his head leaning on the window. "With curly fries…"

Sheriff Stilinski chuckled. "Do you want pizza or a burger kiddo?"

"Pizza?" Stiles mused. "I want pizza."

"Alright."

His bruised and cut up fingers grazed the cast on his arm. "I want… ice cream. And to go swimming."

"You want a lot of things Stiles," Serena commented, her head popping up beside his.

Those wide maple eyes were dilated from the drugs. He gave her a crooked smile. "I want to sleep with you again."

The sheriff choked.

"Oh my God! Stiles shut up!" cried Scott.

"Not like that," he clarified. "We didn't have sex. We did all the other fun stuff that was almost sex, like more than Malia and I ever did and it felt amazing, but we slept in the same bed. It was warm and nice and I would like to go to sleep now."

Serena's cheeks burnt. "This is embarrassing."

"I'd like to have sex with you too. I'm just kinda sleepy at the moment."

"Kid, shut up," the sheriff said urgently.

"Anyway," Scott spoke up loudly. "Can we talk abut anything else?"

"I like sex though…"

His best friend groaned. "Stiles, shut up."

"I also like Serena. Like a lot. Dude, who would of thought I'd be dating your cousin. How crazy, right?"

"So crazy…" Scott grumbled.

"She's so beautiful."

"That's great."

"And she's got like… an amazing smile with cute dimples. And she's got these beautiful big brown eyes."

"I'm right here Stiles…"

"Are you? Hey Serena? Wow, you are even prettier in person."

"You are so freaking high it's ridiculous," Serena giggled.

Stiles frowned, he gave Serena a pointed stare. "I don't do drugs."

"That's good to know… I was starting to worry…" The sheriff muttered under his breath, but the two were creatures were able to hear.

"Thank God!" Scott exclaimed as he unbuckled himself as the they pulled up in front of the Stilinski home. That night pizza was ordered and the four celebrated their dumb luck at being able to survive yet another kidnapping.

Three weeks later.

Stiles gazed at his casted arm that was covered in graffiti from his friends. There was an angry looking werewolf that Scott had drawn, quite poorly. It was a stick figure with fangs. Lydia looped her name in perfect curls while Kira had drawn smiley faces all over the cast, which battled the numerous amounts of hearts Serena had scribbled.

A lazy smile grazed his lips when he looked at the wavy haired girl tucked against his side. Her dimples were at its peek from the wide grin she had on her lips, which was caused by Scott's horrific attempt at telling a ghost story over the campfire. His eyes shifted to his best friend. Scott's arms were up and he made a growling sound, his wolf'd out eyes glowing red and fangs extended for dramatic effect. Kira elbowed her boyfriend and the boy in turn snaked one of his arms around her waist. She curled into his side immediately and gently snuck a kiss along his jaw.

They finally went camping. After all this time, Scott had managed to set up a group outing (thanks to mostly Kira, Serena, and Lydia for really planning the entire event). The group even managed to convince Derek to come along, which was a hassle for an entirely uncharacteristic reason. He had stated he didn't want to be sexually assaulted by a teenage girl-specifically Serena. Which Stiles ended up needing to inform that he was currently dating said teenage girl and that shouldn't be a problem. However, said unsworn promise was not kept. As soon as Derek had entered the car for the journey to the campsite Serena had ended up squishing herself directly between Derek and Stiles. The whole car ride was angered growls from Derek and Serena apologizing, but then immediately going into another stream of sexual innuendoes that had Stiles blushing.

Serena muttered something to Lydia, who provided an unladylike snort in response. The two had grown closer over the past few weeks by bonding over taking care of Stiles. His first few weeks he had been on some heavy pain killers, which ended up giving Lydia and Serena alone time. Most of the time they had spent going over the Bestiary, Serena trying to help Lydia figure out whatever the hell Deputy Parrish was. But other times Lydia would bring magazines or paint Serena's nails for her. And sometimes whenever Scott was busy harassing Derek with questions Kira would join the girls too. Then the few times Stiles was somewhat coherent, he would be forced to sit with three girls in his bedroom talking about boys and makeup and all the things he didn't want to listen to. Like, why did he care that Serena thought Chris Pratt was the sexiest man on the earth?

"You okay?"

Was Stiles okay? His first girlfriend abandoned him to go find her mother. His current girlfriend had been kidnapped and turned into a werelion by his best friends ex-girlfriends crazy werejaguar/ex-werewolf hunter aunt. Then he was kidnapped in an attempt have Serena sacrifice herself. But his Dad was alive, Scott was happy with Kira, Lydia was still Lydia, Melissa was still being a beast at work, and he had a beautiful girlfriend. So what? Things might not be perfect. They still haven't discussed if Serena was going back home or what Doctor Valack would be doing or whatever the hell might turn up in Beacon Hills this year. But right now, Stiles was camping with his best friends.

Stiles blinked at Serena. She raised a brow as she met his eyes warily. He let a dopey smile cross his lips. Leaning to the side he joined their lips in a swift kiss. Completely ignoring the gag Scott provided. Pulling back he shot her a wide grin, whispering, "Never better."

OKAY so I am going to apologize now. I am pretty awful at endings. It's always been something I struggled with... that's why it took me so long to get this chapter out. I know it's kinda anti-climatic, but eh. It is what it is. And it's short and sweet and the end! Thanks for all the support I have been given through this story :D