This Town

Chapter 30

"You are mega uncomfy to sleep on." I complain to Derek. "Yeah well if you stayed still for longer than two minutes, maybe I'd be able to sleep." Derek bites and I roll my eyes.

"Morning." Dad says coming into the room with some coffee for us. "Thanks." I say taking a coffee from him.

"What's the plan?" I ask dad. "I don't know, probably to just let him sleep for a while. I need to talk to Melissa though. You two should head home and freshen up." Dad says and I nod. "We definitely should." I say and turn to Stiles.

"Don't worry. I'm gonna be here with him." Dad says and I nod. "I know..." I say and Derek takes my hand and gives it a light tug. "Let me know if he wakes up." I say to dad and he nods. "I will now just go." He says before sitting in the chair.

I follow Derek to his car and we drive back to the loft.

When we get to the loft I lie down on the bed and just groan. "What are you doing today?" I ask Derek as he towers over me. "I need to speak to someone about something. But right now." He says pulling me up. "We're having a shower." Derek says and leads me to the bathroom.

After our shower I get dressed into some nike leggings and a nike sports bra. I then put on one of Derek's maroon coloured t-shirts.

My phone starts ringing and I immediately jump for it. There was no caller ID, just a phone number.

"What?" Derek asks standing infront of me. "480." I say looking up at him. "It's someone from Arizona." I say and he furrows his eyebrows. "Who is it?" He asks and I shrug.

The phone call ends and I look up at Derek. It starts ringing again but I just hand it to Derek. "Find out who it is." I say and he nods.

"Hello." He answers the phone confidently. "Ah no, this is her boyfriend. She's in the shower currently. I can take a message." He says and I furrow my eyebrows.

Whilst whoever was on the other end talks to Derek his face says stern, giving no emotion. Until he clenches his jaw. He's angry. It's definitely Jake isn't. Oh my god.

When the phone ends I look uo at Derek. "Who was it?" I ask and he sighs. "You don't need to know." He says and I sigh and sit beside him. "It was Jake wasn't it?" I ask and he holds my hand. "No." He says and I look up at him.

"That was Arizona's police department. Emily and her boyfriend were murdered in your guy's apartment. They think it's Jake, they're looking for him. They think he's coming for you. They've alerted the cops here but they wanted to tell you." Derek says and my eyes widen.

"Maybe you should sit down." He says and I roll my eyes. "Don't tell me what to do." I say before sitting down anyway.

"Derek. This is such a mess." I say and he nods. "It really is." He says and I look up at him and glare.

"You should focus on Stiles. I know the whole situation is sad, I get that. But Stiles is still here." He says and I nod. "Stiles needs me." I say and Derek leans down to kiss me.

"Call me if you need me." He says as I pick up my keys. "I know you're busy today but if you could stop by, I'd appreciate it." I say and he nods. "Of course." He says and leans down to kiss my cheek. I kiss his cheek and then head to the hospital.

I head straight for Stiles room and dad was sat beside him whilst drinking some coffee.

"Hey." I say and he snaps his head up to look at me. "I'm sorrt about your friends." He says and I sigh. "It's uh fine, I actually wanted to talk to you about Stiles." I say and dad sighs.

"Before you say anything I need to tell you something." Dad says and I nod. "We're testing him for dementia." Dad says and I look down at the floor. "That's what you wanted to tell me isn't it?" Dad asks and I nod. "Yeah." I mutter softly.

****
When Stiles wakes up me and dad danced around the idea of telling him, till we had to. Well... till he knew something was up.

"Stiles we just want to run some tests and make sure everything's okay." Dad says and looks at me. "We think you might have frontemporal dementia. What mom had. It's what mom had and we just need to know because your symptoms are very similar to hers." I say and Stiles squeezes my hand. "It's okay Nia." He says and I take a deep breath.

"Where's Derek?" Stiles asks and I raise an eyebrow. "He's busy, why do you miss him?" I ask and he rolls his eyes. "I wanna talk to him." Stiles says and I just nod. "You can when he stops by." I say and he nods.

"I kinda just wanna go home." Stiles says and I laugh. "Yeah but think about all that homework you're missing out on doing." I say to Stiles and he smiles. "That is true." He says.

****
This is hell. It has to be. I can't think of anything worse right now.

I stand beside Stiles as he sits by the MRI scan, holding my hand. He's scared.

"Stiles, just to warn you, you're going to hear a lot of noise during the MRI. It's due to pulses of electricity going through metal coils inside the machine. If you want we can get you some earplugs or headphones." The doctor says and I squeeze his hand. "Oh, no. I don't need anything." Stiles says.

"Hey, we're just on the other side of that window. Okay?" Dad says to Stiles. "Okay." Stiles says and pats dad's shoulder with his free hand as him and Melissa head into the other room.

"I'll go with them." I say to Stiles and he sighs. Unfortunately, I can't hold his hand the whole time he's in the MRI.

"If it makes you feel better, I get to look at your brain. I can tell you all about how stupid you are after." I say making him smile. "Sounds like a plan." He says and I squeeze his hand.

I kiss his forehead and give him a reassuring smile before leaving him talk to Scott.

I stand behind the glass with Melissa and dad.

The second that Stiles goes into the scan, I felt sick. No the second I left him alone I felt sick.

I really hope he doesn't have it.

"I'm gonna talk to Derek." Scott says and I spin around. "Derek's here?" I ask and he nods. "Tell Derek he can get in here." I say to Scott and he nods.

I turn back to the screen and watch the MRI scan.

I don't really understand the scans.

"You see this." The doctor says pointing to a part of Stiles' brain. "This tissue here and there. Both those spots are showing signs of atrophy." He says and I look over to him and Melissa. The look on their faces says it's bad.

"I'm sorry." The doctor says and my heart drops. Those two words mean it's bad. Really bad. It means Stiles has it.

I let out a shaky breath and grab dad's hand. I squeeze dad's hand.

"Nia." My mom says and I look up from a sleeping Stiles to her. "Yeah?" I ask grabbing her hand.

"Can you promise me something?" She asks and I laugh. "Depends on how outrageous it is." I say and she smiles.

"You'll take care of them. Promise me that. They'll need you my love. They'll have a pretty hard time without you. They just need you to love them and remind them that you're there. No matter how bad things get." She says and I nod.

"I'll always take care of them mom. You don't have to worry about that. It might be hell but someone has to make sure everyone stays sane." I say and she squeezes my hand.

"I love you." She says and I smile. "I love you too." I say sending the biggest smile to her face.

"What was that?" Melissa asks as the lights turn off and back on. "Sounded like a power surge." The doctor says.

"Where's my son?" Dad asks and I look into the scan room.

Stiles was no longer there.