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IT had been a few days since Aspen had been back to her normal-ish life. She'd spent them all quietly, hauled up in her room resting. Last night, she had gone over to Stiles' house to spend the night with him, having missed him the past few days while he'd been at school and she was at home, and she'd crashed at his, waking up in his bed.
Sleeping had pretty much been the same, waking up most nights from nightmares and flashbacks.
Stiles woke up with Aspen in his arms. She had crept back into bed once she noticed the sun coming up and tried to get another hour of sleep before the day started. Stiles let out a great, morning yawn as Aspen's eyes fluttered open too.
"Morning, baby," Stiles murmured softly in his morning voice, pressing a chaste kiss to Aspen's forehead. "How'd you sleep?"
Aspen groaned slightly, and then replied "Honestly, not great. The past few nights have been rough."
She was going to try out the whole honesty thing from now on.
"I'm sorry," Stiles said, feeling sympathetic for his girl who had suffered so much trauma, he'd be surprised if she did sleep well. "You wanna just, I don't know— stay in bed all day again? I could bring you breakfast in bed..."
Aspen smiled as she rubbed her eyes awake, and then let out a sigh. Staying in bed all day with her boyfriend sounded like a dream, but it would have to wait until there wasn't a nine-foot centuries old ruthless werewolf running around the town.
"I'd love to," she said in her own croaky morning voice, "but we can't, there's so much going on right now, I need to get back to school, and y'know, help everyone."
"No one is expecting you to do a thing," Stiles told her, running a hand through her hair softly, "Seriously, you don't have to lift a finger, just say the word."
Aspen sat herself up in the bed, the duvet resting around her waist as she turned around to look at him and his messy bed hair.
"I want to help, Stiles." she said, feeling like she owed it to herself and everyone else. "I— I have to help."
Stiles could tell her a million times that what was happening with the Dread Doctors had nothing to do with her, and that she shouldn't blame herself. But the truth was that if it wasn't for what she did with Theo all those months ago, Theo wouldn't have come back to town with the Dread Doctors as his evil sidekicks. She had to help everyone, it was one of the only things that might ease some of her guilt and make her feel better.
Stiles noticed the way Aspen had said that, saying that she had to help everyone. He knew how guilty she felt, and he gulped slightly, flashing back to what he had to said to her the night outside the animal clinic: "Do I have to reiterate that this is all your fault? You want to tell him so badly? Go right ahead— it's not my secret to spill anyway!"
