✓ | battle wounds, scott m.

chapter sixty one.

Stiles and Ella stood beside their father's hospital bed, the both of them chewing on their nails. "All right, Mr. Stilinski," The doctor started. "Sheriff," The Twins corrected. The doctor nodded, turning back to Noah, "Sheriff Stilinski. I've got you scheduled for surgery first thing in the morning. Unfortunately, it's going to take a little digging to get that slug out of your shoulder." "Yeah, it's fine," Noah said, "One more. What's this part here?" Stiles and Ella moved out of the way for the doctor to see what Noah was pointing at. "This line?" Noah asked. "Patient Responsibility. Parts of the procedure and hospital stay not covered by insurance," The doctor said. "Are those big parts? Expensive parts?" Noah asked.

"That's between you and your insurance unfortunately," The doctor said, Stiles and Ella sharing glances, "You should start feeling the morphine in a minute. Try to get some rest, Mr– Sheriff." Noah looked up at his children to see the both of them staring down at him with scared and worried expressions. "Hey, stop that. I was just curious about the terminology. We're not in any kind of dire straits," Noah shook his head. "We know about the bills, Dad," Ella said in a low voice. "We know about the collectors calling about Eichen House. We know about the advance from the department, about the credit cards," Stiles added on. "Stiles, Ella, are you two going through my stuff?" Noah asked with narrowed eyes.

"Yeah, we go through all of your stuff," Ella shrugged. "Especially when you keep things from us," Stiles said. "I keep things from you two because you guys don't need to know everything," Noah said. "Yes, we do. We have to know everything," Stiles said. "How the hell else are we supposed to take care of you?" Ella asked.

"You're not supposed to take care of me!" Noah exclaimed, "I'm the dad. You're the son. You're the daughter. You get it? Dad. Children. I take care of you two!" Stiles went to sit on the chair, Ella sitting on the arm of it. "We're supposed to take care of each other," Stiles said, motioning his hand at all three of them. "Hey, we're going to be all right," Noah tried to convince his children. "How do you know, Dad?" Ella asked, shaking her head. "I don't," Noah said, "But the morphine's kicking in. I'm not all that worried about anything right now." Ella took her twin's hand into her own. "But we are." Ella's phone rang, Liam's nickname and picture of them together coming up on her screen.

She excused herself from the room and went out to the hallway. "Hey, bud, what're you doing awake?" Ella asked, rubbing her right temple. "I can't sleep. And right now the printer - the printer kept going off and the thirds of the Deadpool kept coming out of it constantly. I had to unplug the whole machine for it to stop printing," Liam said in a hurry. "Okay, Liam, try to get some rest and we'll talk about this in the morning, yeah?" Ella asked, letting out a deep sigh.

"What's wrong? Did something happen? Did something happen to you?" Liam asked worriedly. "Thank you for your concern, Li, but nothing happened to me but my dad. My dad was going to shoot someone else when the person knocked the barrel up and ended up making my dad shoot himself in the shoulder and he had surgery in the morning," Ella sighed, licking her lips as she lightly kicked her feet.

"Okay. Stay safe, alright? Goodnight," Liam said. "Goodnight, Liam."

▽

Stiles had dragged Ella to school yet he stayed home with Lydia, something about Ella missing way too much school. So she decided to skip her fifth period and just walked around campus. Whilst doing so, she caught sight of Liam on the staircase. She furrowed her brows and walked up to him, "Liam, what're you doing? You skipping too?" "If I was I wouldn't be anywhere this obvious," Liam said, looking up at the brunette. Ella nodded, "True, True. So what are you doing?" "Taking a breath," Liam answered, watching as Ella sat beside him. Ella tilted her head to the side, "So what happened last night?" "My printer wouldn't stop printing the thirds of the Deadpool and some things changed," Liam looked up at her with worry-full eyes. Just then, Scott came down the stairs and sat on the other side of Liam, "Hey. You okay?"