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Even though Liam was currently on break from lacrosse he still wanted to support the team. If coach Andrews was willing to hold a spot open for him until he had his meds figured out it was the least he could do. He enjoyed lacrosse anyways, it wasn't as if watching it was a hardship. Luckily Lori went to every game home or away so he didn't even need to worry about a ride. While he and Lori weren’t all that close he was beginning to appreciate her bulldozer like tendencies when it came to socializing. It was the only reason he had let her sandwich him between her and some girl she knew from Beacon. Sydney had cooed about the stray Lori had picked up which Liam was proud to say hadn’t sent him. It was a good sign anyways.
Liam hadn’t ever played against Beacon Hills’ lacrosse team; they didn’t play a fall season. What little he was actively seeing didn’t look particularly impressive. Brett had mentioned something about it being a rebuilding season for the other team but whatever they’d built wasn’t very strong. Lori seemed to agree as she leaned in front of Liam to whisper to Sydney.
“Aren’t you supposed to be three time state champions?”
“Scott is pretty good?” Lori’s friend offered though it's not enough to convince any one of the three of them.
“Maybe they have some new members that aren’t half bad?” Lori suggested, ever the optimist. Liam abstained from commenting. Devenford was going to beat Beacon Hills whether they’ve found a second good player or not.
Liam had asked if Mason was going to attend the game but had been surprised when he’d said yes and even more surprised when he’d fallen onto the bleachers on the other side of Sydney. Lori gave Mason a bright smile even though Liam knew they’d never met. Her introduction and hand shake carried the same energy.
“Did I miss anything?” Mason’s eyes were glued to the field despite the lack of activity.
“They’re still warming up.” Mason nodded but his eyes remained on the field. “What are you doing?”
“Nothing, I'm just scoping out the teams. Who is that?” Liam follows Mason’s gaze. Of course it's on Brett, shirtless for some goddamn reason. They had a locker room to use.
“Oh my god.” Liam covers his face with his hands muffling his next words. “You think he’s hot don’t you?”
“What no?” Mason is lying and even Lori who had just met him four minutes ago knew it.
“Lets just watch the game.” Liam muttered. It was hard to slump down in the bleachers but Liam gave it a valiant effort.
He was proven to be right about Beacon Hills’ team as soon as the game started. Obviously their captain was good, number fifteen was killing it before she got unceremoniously benched, and seven might be okay too though he seemed distracted. In total Liam thought they had maybe three good players which was not enough to make any progress against Devenford.
It was apparently disparaging enough that Beacon Hills made the decision to play dirty. During Liam’s entire time with Devenford he had never seen Brett go down as hard as he does when player number seven collides with the taller boy in the second half. Liam’s on his feet a moment after Lori. A minute stretches by then two. The stands are silent as the medics conferred with each other. It seems they decide he's well enough not to need a stretcher as they pull him up. It seems like the wrong choice as Brett is essentially dragged off the field.
Coach Andrews turned his eyes towards the stands as the game started back up. Everyone knew Lori came to every game no matter where. Lori wasn't paying enough attention to see coach Andrews looking for her she was so caught up in watching where Brett had been taken. Liam caught his eye instead and gave him a nod. Coach Andrews had to stay on the field but Liam and Lori could go check on Brett. Liam tugged on Lori’s arm to lead her off the bleachers. When she snaps out of it enough to realize where Liam is taking her it turns into him being dragged behind her.
Despite the fact that neither one of them have a clue where the medics would have taken Brett Lori is navigating the hallways like she can tell where he is. Maybe it's a sibling thing.
Lori broke out into a sprint suddenly slamming into the boys locker room at a speed Liam found impressive. Liam spared a glance to the medic sprawled across the floor before following Lori in. He’s not actually sure what he’s followed Lori into once he sees it. The other medic who had assisted in getting Brett off the field was sprawled across the locker room floor. Brett was conscious at least.
Some girl was trying to change that though as she attempted to choke Brett out with a necklace. It was a weird choice but Liam tried to take it all in stride. Lori was valiantly trying to get the other girl to stop so Liam felt confident that he’d absorbed enough of the situation to tackle the stranger. They hit the floor with a crack before she rolled them over. Strangling must have been her preferred style of assault, which Liam didn’t personally think a person should have, as her hands made themselves at home on his neck.
“They’re worth one point twenty-five million collectively but I don’t think you’re worth a thing. Then again if you’re spending time with them maybe I need to check again.” The pressure increased on his throat. She was surprisingly strong and Liam couldn’t dislodge her though that might have had something to do with how hard his head had hit the tile.
“Shit Liam.” Lori grabbed under the attackers arms and managed to physically haul her up off of Liam before receiving an elbow to her face. The fighting must have drawn someone's attention as Liam heard the locker room swing open again. Liam pushed himself up as spots blurred his vision. With Lori clutching her face and Brett and Liam unable to stand, the girl turned her attention to the other team's captain who’d managed to stumble into the brawl happening in his locker room. He apparently hadn’t anticipated seeing so many people down for the count which allowed her to scoop up her necklace and try to garrote the new guy.
“Garrett insisted that we needed to wait.” Liam had no idea who that was. Just how many unstable people could attend this school. “Just wait till he sees that I caught an alpha all on my own.” Apparently gloating had been the wrong choice as her current victim pulled her necklace away from his throat and snapped it. The guy's eyes seemed red which could have been a trick of the light or from his previous lack of oxygen. Either way it was something weird he could worry about later.
Liam had caught his breath enough that he rolled onto his knees and crawled towards Lori. She didn’t seem to have been hit too hard as her nose looked fine. There was hardly any blood. Brett looked much worse. When Liam had entered the locker room Brett had at least been awake. He was slumped over, breathing unevenly, hands by his neck where he’d been touching what should have been a bruise but instead looked like a burn.
“I think we should call your dad.” Liam twisted to look at the guy who had spoken. He wasn’t addressing their injured cluster but instead an incredibly out of breath teen from his own team.
“Will he be able to help? I think Brett was poisoned." Lori drew the boys' attention back to them.
“He definitely was.”
“Stiles dude.” The captain admonished.
“What Scott? Did you want me to sugar coat it?”
“Hello? My brother might be dying. Could you argue some other time?” Lori stood then, after a moment, held her hand out to haul Liam up. “Did she do anything else Liam? Maybe cut or burn you in some way?” Lori’s voice was low as she checked in with him.
“Liam? Liam Dunbar?” The girl Scott was currently restraining perked up. Liam didn’t like that one bit but he was going to try and ignore her.
“I’m fine but shouldn’t we call an ambulance or take Brett to the hospital? My stepdad is on shift.” Technically Dr.Geyer was a surgeon but if Liam asked his dad would do whatever he could to help. Lori’s mouth moved but she didn’t manage to say anything.
“I have someone who can help, don't worry.” Scott gave what Liam was sure the other boy perceived to be a comforting smile. Neither he nor Lori took any comfort in it.
Scott’s solution was to send them with Stiles to an animal clinic where they would meet with people who could provide medical care. Liam was glad for the additional people because Stiles had been kind of useless at helping them get Brett into his jeep. Brett was too tall to carry or to fit in the back of the thing. He also started to seize part way into the drive. Liam had been in the front seat but quickly found himself hanging over into the back trying to help Lori prevent Brett from hurting himself. He’d already unintentionally hurt Lori as he’d seized, Liam could see the dark bruise that had formed on her forearm.
“Does this thing go any faster?” Lori gritted out as she tried to stabilize Brett’s head.
“Listen kid, I'm driving as fast as I can.” Stiles spared them a glance in the mirror before gripping the steering wheel tighter.
“He’s having a seizure and taking his pain isn’t doing anything!” Lori shouted. Brett’s mouth had begun to foam. It felt as if Scott had sent them to a different state with how long the drive took but eventually, thankfully Stiles skidded to a halt and they were met by whoever it was Scott thought could help them.
Scott must have called ahead as they were quickly instructed to get Brett up on a table. Stiles and and one of the other men stayed beside the table to keep Brett from hurting himself or the doctor who was supposed to be helping them. Lori and Liam fell back and Liam gently grabbed her arm to see the bruise. Her arm was unblemished and she quickly shook it free, muttering she was fine.
“You need to hold him still.” The steady voice of the doctor drew Liam’s attention away from Lori’s lack of injuries and back towards Brett who was seizing more intensely.
“Get out of my way.” Lori shoved Stiles aside as it was clear that despite trying to restrain Brett he wasn’t being successful. Liam wasn’t exactly happy to stand back and watch with the creepy old man but whatever the hell was happening he was severely out of the loop. Lori was the most successful at pinning Brett which would have been surprising had Liam not seen several attempted murders that night.
“Brett, we're trying to help you.” Lori grunted as she slammed Brett’s shoulder back onto the metal table. Liam couldn’t help the wince he made at the sound. Hopefully Brett had a hard head because Lori was not being gentle.
“Jesus Christ Lori. You’re going to hurt him.” Liam made a half-step towards them before shuffling back again as Brett managed to wrestle himself free and launch himself off the table. It didn’t seem like Brett was seeing them as he bodied the same kid Lori had shoved. The creepy old guy seemed to take a little too much joy in returning the favor and clocking Brett. Even with Brett being down he was still moving, seizing even worse.
“Deaton, he's dying.” Lori’s knees slammed into the clinic floor and Liam watched as her veins turned black. Once Brett was done dying Liam had so many questions.
“It's because he can’t breathe.” Deaton joined Lori on the floor so he could make an incision. The placement or depth made little sense to Liam but the sudden plume of yellow and the return to normal breathing showed that Liam didn’t know much about medicine.
“How long do you think he’ll be out of it?” Lori scowled as she asked. No one was particularly impressed by the use of force to keep Brett down.
“It may be a while as his body tries to heal itself.” Deaton stood as he spoke. “I’ll go call Satomi and let her know that you’re both okay. I imagine she had expected you to be home by this point.”
“How mad do you think your foster mom will be and do you think she’ll vouch for me?” Liam felt bad as soon as he spoke and drew attention to himself.
“Better question, who even are you? We’ve got what the were-wonder twins who Deaton can at least vouch for but what about you? Are you in their pack or something? I honestly didn’t realize how many supernatural creatures were in Beacon but I guess it's in the name.” Stiles mouth was moving a mile a minute.
“No he’s just as pathetically human as you.” Liam would have been more offended if it wasn’t such a ridiculous statement.
“What does that even mean? Could someone please actually explain what's going on because not a single thing has made sense in the past few hours and I’m starting to feel insane.” Liam was struggling to keep his cool. His previous observation about his meds starting to even out would need to be reevaluated.
“Does this kid not know or something?” Stiles turned to Lori who grimaced. “You brought along a stranger? What kind of pack is this Satomi running anyways?”
“Brett was hurt! I wasn’t thinking. It’s fine though Satomi can help explain when she gets here.”
“Explain what? Could you all stop ignoring me for a second and actually answer the goddamn question!” Liam’s voice rose to a shout.
“Is he always like this?” Stiles leaned towards Lori conspiratorially before immediately retreating as he was faced with a glare. As the universe seemed to love a joke Brett managed to gain enough consciousness to start muttering. Liam could make out enough words to recognize it as the mantra Brett used sometimes when he was struggling. The younger boy hadn’t ever been quite sure why Brett found it motivational but it wasn’t his mantra so it didn’t matter.
“Look Liam I promise I will explain but right now Brett’s hurt and I don’t-”
“Right of course." It shut down the anger that had been building.
“I don’t know what I’m supposed to do!” Lori finished with a cry. Liam hesitantly tucked her against his side and tried not to feel too weird as she cried into his shoulder. After the night they’d had they were definitely friends.
“Satomi isn’t answering.” Dr. Deaton’s returning words made Lori’s breath hitch.
“Maybe she just went to the store?”
“At eleven at night?” The man who’d helped Lori pin Brett down managed to make it sound like the stupidest thing he’d ever heard. Liam knew it wasn’t likely but he was trying to be positive for Lori’s sake.
“I don’t know!” Liam threw the arm that wasn’t holding Lori up in the air. “Look, we all need to get the hell home.”
“You’re not in a position to go anywhere with this guy out of commission.” Stiles snapped at the older man's words.
“Exactly so maybe Derek you could give a crash course on all this. I mean you got all that practice in. You’ve got to be better at it then when you gave it to Scott.” Stiles gave Derek a shit eating grin at the scowl his words received.
“Yea I explained to them that they were werewolves and that the bite was a gift. It's harder to explain to someone who isn’t experiencing it.” Liam really wasn’t sure what the hell was up with these people. This was a weird joke or something.
“Werewolves? My mom loved the Twilight movie as much as any other woman in her forties but that's all fiction.”
“Liam we’re going to talk about what you think being a werewolf entails some other time because if that's your frame of reference then… Anyways we’re werewolves and there are hunters out there who want us dead.” Lori didn’t seem nearly as put out by the idea that there were just people out there who wanted to kill her as she should have been.
“Well they’re more like bounty hunters. There's this list, we’ve been calling it a deadpool, and all the supernatural creatures in Beacon are on it.” Stiles' explanation had taken any clarity that Lori’s had provided and stomped on it.
“Theres a what? Is that what that girl was talking about us being worth a million?”
“Are you all aware just how insane you sound?” Liam’s voice rose enough that Brett stirred from where he was on the floor. “Obviously there's something weird going on but not werewolf weird.” Lori seemed to contemplate how to proceed before rolling now yellow eyes and waving clawed finger tips at him. “Okay, maybe it is werewolf weird.”