Liam and Hayden had left the hospital together, to wherever their feet took them. All they wanted was a moment of piece for themselves and... A hospital wasn't the ideal place for such luxury, especially not for werewolves.
They ended up somewhere near the entrance of the preserve, they didn't care much for it, they just enjoyed being in each other's view.
"So, you can really do what... They said you'd done," said Liam, his eyes never leaving her for a second.
"You're talking about the berserkers?" she asked.
He watched as she pulled a rebellious, tall strand of grass out of the dirt, he wasn't very sure how to frame his questions, "Yeah, I guess I am," he said simply.
"Well, I don't know where to start," she looked his way before continuing, "I received the message from the guardian angel, telling me where to go and what to do,"
He noticed that, upon speaking those words, she'd looked towards the ground. He could tell there was so much more she wanted to say, but for some reason she appeared to hesitate. The answer she'd given was concise, and she only repeated what she'd already said during the meeting, word for word, "Hayden, you know you can talk to me," he said.
She chuckled lightly, then she spoke, "Been a while since I was able to do that so, i guess I got a bit rusty at it,"
"Do what?"
"Talk," she said.
Liam was beginning to register the depths beneath her reluctant front. Whatever had happened to her during their years apart, had slithered its way down and latched to her marrow, there were layers to peel before reaching the Hayden he once knew.
"Hayden," he gripped her hand a little harder than he'd meant to, "Earlier when we met at the hospital, you wanted to tell me something, I knew it was important, but I stopped you," he realized there was a million other ways he could've have asked, but for one reason or another, he thought that she'd appreciate him not jumping through various hoops with her. It was hard enough for her to get the first words out; he didn't need to overcomplicate things by dancing around the subject. Although he wasn't sure, his stomach clenched onwards as he waited for her response.
"I was in Scotland when I received the message from the guardian angel," she started, and he felt the pressure in his abdomen area subside slowly, "I was scrambling to stay alive. It's pretty ironic when I think about it," she added.
The moment she mentioned irony, he knew he was getting closer to the piece of her past that tormented her the most, to the part that kept on aching her even as they were speaking.
"Were you... Alone?" he asked.
"I left Beacon Hills with her to protect her. I wanted her away from... All of this," she said.
"Your sister?" he wondered.
"Yeah, my sister...," her voice died down at the end of her sentence.
Liam knew the answer to the question he was going to ask but... He had to ask it, nonetheless, "What happened to her?"
"A little while after we left, the worldwide war between humans and supernaturals as you know it, broke out. They were aiming for me but...," she trailed off, her vocal cords tightening.
"But she got in the way, didn't she?" he said.
"Ironic, isn't it? I leave this place behind, to protect her but in the end, she was the one that protected me; worse... We were alone out there, and I did that; that was my fault,"
He moved to stand in front of her, leaving her no other choice but to stop and look at him, their faces close enough for them to feel each other's breaths, his eyes stared straight into hers, "She was your sister, you would have done the same thing for her,"
"It wouldn't have needed to happen if we just stayed here. If I just stayed here... Close to my pack," she said, this time not taking her eyes off of him.
In a way, he thought she was partially right. There was a reason the expression " A lone wolf can never survive," existed in the first place. And the fact that she was Scott's beta, put her at the top of every hunter's list, at least she was, back then. However, he also thought that nothing good could ever come from living in the past, constantly rehashing one's actions and decisions leading up to a particular event or end result.
"When I received the message from the guardian angel; I didn't even think, I just followed their instructions. When I read Ethan and Jackson's names I... Don't know how explain it, they sounded familiar, then I remember some of the stories that Scott told me about his friends and pack a while before I left town," she plucked him out of his thoughts.
Somewhere along the course of their conversation, a new question popped in his mind, but he held on to it, until he couldn't hold it anymore, "Hayden, why... Why didn't you immediately comeback to us?"
Right as he spoke those words, right under his gaze, her eyes progressively filled with a clear liquid, rapidly reaching the maximum volume of tears her sockets could contain. When the first tear finally dropped, was when she opened her mouth to answer him, "Maybe... Maybe because I didn't think I had the right to show my face to any of you, after I just took off," she said with a very small voice.
Liam felt his heart drop to his stomach, even if he'd expected her to say that; It still felt like a painful blow to the chest. Everything that she was feeling; all the guilt, and all of the shame, the hurt... He just wished he could magically make it all go away, with the wave of a hand, a blink... Perhaps, even a touch?
As those thoughts crossed his mind, he noticed that her features had begun to relax. Her once upset demeanor was steadily shifting to a surprised one. They both slowly glanced down, where their hands connected them to each other. As a stream of very distinctive black vains were flowing from her arms towards his, he realized with a gleaming smile what he was doing; he was taking her pain, reliving her of it ever so slightly, but it was enough to allow her to breathe like she hadn't done so in very long.
"I thought... That we could only do that for physical pain," she said, her voice sounding much more at ease.
"Yeah, I thought so too," he said in between two chuckles.
"Well, I am definitely not complaining," she added.
They remained rooted in place, contemplating each other's faces for a moment. Before Hayden's eyes drifted to the side in a dubious manner. It seemed as though she sensed something that only she could feel, "What is it?" Liam finally asked.
"I am not sure but... It's exactly like the night I found Ethan and Jackson with the berserker, and the same way I found Peter and Malia. It's like I can hear these very distinctive voices, and they're calling me," she said.
Liam stood to the side, after turning to face the way she was eying. He walked forward before stopping again, "Hayden, do you remember the time when Theo brought you back to life?"
"Yeah?"
"He came to you for help, he asked you to guide him towards the other chimera. The one that was part berserker," he said.
"Yeah, I think his name was Noah, or something like that," she answered.
"How did you do it? I mean, how did you find him?"
"I am not sure, but I asked Theo about it. He said that we were drawn to each other, because he was part berserker, and I was... Part jaguar. I think that's what allowed me to find the berserkers and stop them from hurting Malia, I even killed one of them with a lot of ease actually. I don't know how exactly but, even after getting the bite from Scott, that part of me still isn't gone,"
"No, no, no, it actually makes a lot of sense," he spoke as he started walking again, this time a tad faster, like he was walking with a purpose, "You were already a chimera when you took the bite, it was part of you then, it's still part of you now. It's energy, and energy doesn't just disappear,"
"Wh... Why do you suddenly sound like an expert?" she said as she caught up with him.
"I am channeling Mason... Or Stiles...," he said, unsure.
"And where are we going?" she asked.
"You're drawn to the berserkers, the berserkers are with Kate and Kate is...,"
"With the others," she finished his sentence.
"If we find Kate, maybe we can find all of them," he said.