Chapter Text
Everything went bright and white. Everything hurt before turning burning cold. Everything went black and silent.
Isaac lost track of time. The only certainty was that he was cold. Incredibly cold. His clothes were soaked through, so all warmth he generated (even with his werewolf metabolism) was lost immediately. He tried to move and shake the snow off, but there was too much weight on him. He tried to call for Liam, but he could barely breathe with the weight of snow pressing on his ribcage. He searched through their shared pack bond, and only felt a very weak connection. Isaac wanted to cry. He was cold, wet, dark and trapped. He was trapped.
Panic slowly took over his emotions. He wished Scott were there with him. He wanted to see his boyfriend before he died in that glacial tomb. He reached through their pack bond, and sent all of his fears and emotions over to their alpha, hoping that even if he could not speak to him again, at least Scott would know how he really felt. He sobbed silently until he was too cold and exhausted to continue, and he fell asleep.
Liam felt Isaac tugging through their pack bond, and he wished he could shout aloud, and let him know that he was ok, because he could feel how scared and lonely Isaac felt. He needed to reassure his packmate. But he couldn’t. He was trapped in the snow, and he was cold. He tried to punch through the ice, but he hardly had any space to manoeuvre. He felt the snow crushing him down, sucking the life out of him second after second. He tried to shout, but he could hardly gather any air to breathe. Liam growled in frustration and kept trying to claw through the snow, until he could not feel his fingers anymore and passed out.
At some point, he could not say when, Isaac heard a dog sniffling above him. His inner wolf tried to reach out and draw the rescue dog closer, but Isaac passed out again. He came back when he felt the weight on his shoulders diminish. There were voices around him, some shouting, some reassuring, but to Isaac it was all a blurry cacophony. He was still very cold. He heard a helicopter taking off, and everything went black again.
The first thing Isaac noticed when he was fully conscious was that he was tucked in a bed under a lot of heavy blankets. It was not too comfortable, but it beat a hole in the snow. When he opened his eyes he noticed that he was in a hospital room, and that in the bed next to his was Liam.
“Li…” he tried to speak, but his mouth was dry.
“Isaac?”
A voice called his name, and Isaac’s heart skipped a beat. A warm feeling invaded his chest and, before he could turn around, he felt a familiar hand holding his. His inner wolf felt Scott’s presence, and began to howl and jump in excitement.
“Hey, babe,” Isaac managed to say when he finally saw Scott.
“You scared us all shitless, babe,” Scott said with a big smile. His eyes still red from crying. “Don’t do this to us again, please?”
“How’s Liam,” Isaac suddenly asked, trying to stand up.
“He’s ok. He woke up earlier, but he’s asleep now,” Scott reassured him. “They had to call the rescue helicopter to get you down from that mountain.”
“Did they get my notes and my camera?” Isaac asked, suddenly conscious of the entire point of their trip to the mountains.
“What notes?”
“For my project, you dumbass,” Isaac coughed and had to lie back.
“Normally people ask ‘where am I?’ when they wake up in a hospital bed after two days unconscious,” Scott joked as he passed him a glass of water, and let Isaac drink slowly.
“I’ve woken up in one before, so not much of a surprise there,” Isaac said with a grin.
“So you just survived an avalanche and your only concern is about your project?” Scott asked.
“It is the one reason why we went there,” Isaac shrugged, and Scott leaned forward to plant a kiss on his lips. “Hang on,” Isaac suddenly sat up straight, checking his fingers and patting himself all over. “Have I got all my bits still?”
“If you’re thinking about Coach and his wonderful story about cold exposure, don’t worry. You have all your bits and pieces on you. I’ve checked,” Scott reassured him maliciously.
At that moment the door opened, and Chris and Melissa walked in with three cups of coffee and a sandwich.
“He’s up, Mel!” Chris said with a smile when he saw Isaac, and Melissa went quickly to hug Isaac.
“I’ve been out for how long?” Isaac asked, eyes wide open as Melissa squeezed him.
“You don’t get to scare us like that, young man!” she admonished after she released him from her hug. “Why would you think that climbing up the mountain was a good idea?”
“I did tell him,” Liam lied with a big grin, always trying to win brownie points with Melissa.
“Did not.”
“Did too!”
“Stop it you two,” Scott flashed his eyes red briefly, still grinning, and the two betas rolled their eyes.
“Are you ok, Liam?” Isaac turned around to see his pack mate trying to sit up.
“You both are surprisingly ok,” Melissa explained, but still reproachful. “No broken bones or anything remotely painful – even if you were trapped under four feet of snow and ice for an entire day. But you were hypothermic. The doctors are surprised that you survived that long and so unharmed up there…”
“We do know why, Mom,” Scott added with a wink and squeezing Isaac’s hand.
Chris gave Scott one of the coffees and the sandwich before sitting down on one of the chairs in the corner. But their doctor came in with Liam’s step-dad tagging along almost immediately, and Chris stood up to hear the official report.
Isaac did not pay any attention to what the doctor was saying, although the words ‘surprising’, ‘lucky’, ‘miracle’, and ‘thankfully’ were repeated over and over during the doctor’s explanation. Isaac just looked at Scott, who looked back at him with his beaming big brown eyes. He also turned around to look at Liam, who gave him a thumbs up and a reassuring tug on their pack bond. Liam also winked at Isaac and pointed at the table by the window.
On the table there were a handful of cards, a couple of balloons, and a box of chocolates. Isaac had the impression that the balloon was Stiles’, but he could not tell why. But what immediately caught his attention was his backpack.
“So my notes are ok then?” Isaac asked Scott with a hopeful smile, making him chuckle.
“Yes, dummy. Your stupid camera and your stupid notes are ok,” Scott carefully ruffled his boyfriend’s hair.
“Ah well… at least we don’t have to go back there again.”
The doctor left. Liam’s step-dad sat at the end of his bed, and Melissa did the same on Isaac’s. Chris simply stood at the feet with his hands in his pockets and a small smile, but Isaac could feel the relief emanating from the hunter.
“So,” Liam’s dad explained aloud. “Your body temperature is now back to normal, and the doctors find no other reason to keep you here any longer, so whenever we are ready we can all go.”
An hour later, the Beacon Hills rescue committee walked out of the hospital with Isaac and Liam walking slowly behind them. They drove a couple of hours to the park, because their car was still at the parking lot, and the tents and all their kit was still where they had set their camp. Once there, Chris and Scott walked with Liam and Isaac up to their camping spot while Dr Geyer and Melissa waited at the park office.
It was mid-afternoon when they all left Montana on their long drive back to Beacon Hills.
“So, avalanches aside,” Scott asked Isaac and Liam. He was driving the Jeep with his two betas. “How was the camping trip? I’m sorry I missed it…”
Liam bit his lip, and Isaac scratched the back of his neck, both betas trying to think of a way to put their experience in Montana.
“Well…”
END