***

Wake up.

Those were the words Sarah kept internally repeating to herself as she was driven to the McCall family's house.

Sarah, after having time to mull over her conversation with Scott yesterday, had managed to convince herself that her belief on having been transported to another world had obviously been the result of her mental breakdown.

It had just been a lapse in judgement. She had been hit by lightning, after all. That had to affect a person's mind in some way. There was no way that the show, Teen Wolf, was actually real. It was impossible.

She was asleep. She concluded, staring dazedly out the car window as the scenery of Beacon Hills passed her by. She had been hit by lightning and put into a coma, and was now simply dreaming about the last thing her mind had been focused on. It all made sense now. All she had to do was wake up.

The word denial flickered vaguely passed her thoughts, taunting her, but Sarah slapped the thought away in resentment, content to repeat her ongoing mantra.

Wake up, Sarah. She told herself desperately, digging her nails into her jeans as her heart-rate accelerated.

Wake up, wake up, wake up, wake up—

"Sarah?" Scott's voice rang out hesitantly, cutting through her thoughts.

Sarah flinched, head snapping towards Scott, who was looking at her in worry as he stood next to her now open car door.

He gave her an uncertain smile, gesturing to the now visible house. "We're here." He peered down at her in concern. "You okay?" he asked.

Sarah stared up at him for a moment, eyes flickering between him and the McCall house with unease. She let out a slow breath, climbing out of the car and giving him a shaky smile.

"I'm fine." she managed to get out, trying to hide the tremble in her voice. She fiddled with the edge of one of the new shirts she was wearing that Melissa had bought for her, giving Scott a tight-lipped smile.

"Your heart's racing." he pointed out gently.

Sarah looked at him in surprise for a moment, before she remembered. Right. Werewolf.

She cleared her throat, lifting her chin, stuffing her overwhelming thoughts down. "I'm okay," she insisted. She tried to give him a more convincing smile. "Really, I'm fine. Just nervous." she continued on, at his unconvinced expression.

"Alright." Scott said slowly. "If you're sure." He slung the bag of clothes Melissa had bought for Sarah over his shoulder. "Come on, I'll show you around." He turned to start walking toward the house, waiting for Sarah to follow.

For a moment, Sarah stood staring at the once fictional house of the McCall's, one that now stood tall in front of her in all of it's glory. She glanced towards Scott, who stood waiting patiently, giving her a reassuring look, understanding dawning on his face.

"You'll be safe here." he told her sincerely. "I promise."

At those words, Sarah let out a deep breath, straightening up before walking towards the house, Scott at her side.

Making her way into the house, Sarah caught sight of Melissa heaving a box of old tools down the stairs. Just as Sarah began to walk over to help, Melissa shook her head in dismissal, stopping Sarah in her tracks.

"Don't mind me," Melissa let out, slowly making her way to the back of the house. "Just cleaning out your new room. We had been using it for storage space." She dropped the box down onto the kitchen floor unceremoniously, dusting her hands off as she glanced at the numerous boxes around her. "And that... was the last one." she breathed out, before looking towards Scott with a stern expression. "Your supernatural werewolf-self can lug them up to the attic though, because I for one am exhausted." She looked at Sarah, giving her a small smile. "And how are you holding up, honey?" she asked.

"Um, I'm fine." Sarah muttered quietly. She frowned down at the boxes. "I'm really sorry about all of this. I know I'm probably causing you both a lot of trouble." She looked down at her shoes, hugging her arms tightly around herself.

Scott frowned down at Sarah, opening his mouth to argue, but Melissa beat him to it.

"Oh, don't worry about that, it's no trouble at all." Melissa said earnestly. "I've been meaning to clean out that room anyway. You just finally gave me a reason to get up and do it." she joked, grinning at Sarah, as she wiped the sweat from her forehead. Her expression then turned serious, sympathy appearing on her face. "But in all honesty, you have nothing to apologize for. So, don't worry about that, alright?" she finished gently, a reassuring tone in her voice.

Sarah simply nodded, swallowing the lump in her throat, not trusting herself to speak without breaking down.

"I should probably let her check out her new room." Scott cut in awkwardly, putting an end to the conversation.

"Oh! Of course." Melissa nodded. "You two go ahead. I'll just be down here sorting through all this stuff." she said, gesturing towards the cluttered boxes splayed out around the room.

Scott slung Sarah's bag higher over his shoulder, motioning with his head towards the stairs. "First door on the left." he said, smiling down at her.

Sarah hesitantly walked up the stairs, her gaze scanning the pictures strewn about the wall as she went. She recognized a few with a younger version of Scott, a toothy grin on his face as he stood next to Melissa and his estranged father.

Her heart jolted in her chest as her clear blue eyes caught a glimpse of a snapshot of an older Scott, his arm around the all too familiar character of Stiles Stilinski, who had a proud smirk on his face, as if he had just told Scott the best joke of the century.

Person. Sarah corrected herself, in a daze, having stopped in her tracks to survey the image. She had been so caught up in her staggering situation, that thoughts of her favorite character hadn't even entered her mind. It was still hard to wrap her head around the fact that she was walking around in the same universe as the actual Stiles Stilinski. It was hard to imagine that she was walking around in the same universe as any of these characters at all.

She was snapped out of her thoughts as Scott came to stand next to her, looking at the image with a fond smile.

"That's my best friend, Stiles." Scott explained, before furrowing his eyebrows in thought as he looked down at her. "But I guess you already knew that, since you probably knew us in the other dimension and all." he finished awkwardly, scratching at his head with his free hand.

Sarah swallowed nervously, trying not to look at him. "Yeah. I mean, in a way I did, I guess, but we weren't—I-I didn't really—" she stuttered, trying to think up a convincing response. "We weren't really close. I mean, I just—" she broke off in frustration, hands shaking.

"Hey, it's okay," Scott reassured, gesturing for her to stop. "We have plenty of time to talk about all of that later. Let's just get you settled, alright?" he said, head tilting towards the left, at the now vacant room. He walked through the door as Sarah ambled in behind him, studying the barren walls of the empty room.

The only furniture currently in the room was a single bed and two chests of drawers. There was also a large window, curtain open, light spilling into the dusty room.

Scott laid her bag of clothes on the bed, huffing out a breath as he glanced around the room. He watched as Sarah slowly trailed around, running her hands over the top of the dusty drawers, before she came to a stop next to the already made bed.

"I know it's not much," Scott began uncertainly, stuffing his hands in his pockets. "But it's—"

"It's perfect." Sarah cut him off, giving him a quick smile. "It's a place to stay, which is way more than you or your mom had to do." She sat down on the bed, clenching her hands as she gazed up at him. "It's great. Thank you." she told him sincerely, trying to hide her anxious thoughts.

"Great! That's great." Scott beamed at her. "I'm glad you like it. I want you to feel comfortable here." He hesitated, gazing at her in indecision. "Sarah, about what you said downstairs..." he trailed off, looking down at her in concern.

Sarah sighed, looking down at her lap. "I know. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to make it seem like I wasn't grateful for—"

"No, it's fine!" Scott let out in assurance, clearing his throat awkwardly. "I just wanted to say—I mean I wanted to—" He broke off, running his hand through his hair nervously. He sighed, looking up at her again. "I just wanted to say that... I know you don't want to be here—and that's okay!" he encouraged, as Sarah opened her mouth to deny his statement. "I know this must be hard for you, being in a place you don't know and living with people that are basically strangers to you. And being separated from your family and friends.

"I can't imagine being in your position. I'm going to do everything I can to help you find a way home, but until then, I just wanted to let you know that—you're not causing us a lot of trouble—and... and I'm glad you're here." His hazel eyes widened in panic, realizing how his words might sound. "Not that I mean that I'm glad this happened to you or anything!" he stressed, holding his hands up in a peaceful gesture. "I just mean that—I know you might think that we're just doing this out of obligation and actually wish you weren't here or something but—but I just want you to know that you're welcome here. And I... I think it'll be nice having somebody else around." He gave her a shy smile, shrugging his shoulders, before a sudden sadness seemed to grip him. "It's been a long summer." he muttered quietly, staring down at the ground.

Sarah looked at Scott in silence, her heart filling with a momentary warmth. She blinked back tears, swallowing the lump forming in her throat, smiling at him gratefully.

"Thank you." she whispered, staring down at her clenched hands, not wanting him to see her cry.

Scott gave her a look of compassion. "Do you wanna talk or anything?" he asked hesitantly.

Sarah gave a short shake of her head, still gazing at her hands.

Scott nodded in understanding. "I'll give you some time alone." He walked towards the door, stopping in his tracks at Sarah's words.

"Scott?" Sarah asked, still looking down at her lap.

He glanced back at her. "Yeah?"

"What... what year is it?" Sarah asked slowly, squeezing her hands tighter in nervousness.

Scott gave her a look of confusion. "Um... it's 2011. It's about a week before school starts back up."

Sarah tensed up in shock. She bit down on her lip to stop herself from panicking. "T-Thank you." she stuttered out, voice shaking.

Scott gazed at her in concern a moment more, before apparently deciding to drop the subject. He gave her a gentle smile. "I'll let you put away your stuff." He turned and walked out the door, shutting it behind him.

Sarah stared in silence around the room for a moment, before sighing and getting up to put away her new clothes.

***

Sarah continued to gaze up at the ceiling of her darkened room, still wide awake, as her mind raced with overwhelming thoughts.

Scott and Melissa had went to bed an hour ago, both coming in to wish the girl goodnight, before heading to their rooms. In that hour, Sarah had found her restless thoughts leaving her unable to sleep.

Maybe it was the deafening silence ringing throughout the house, or the emptiness of the room she resided in, but for whatever reason, Sarah felt all of her emotions suddenly crashing down around her.

She sat up, sitting on the edge of the bed, gazing around at the barren walls of her empty room as she was suddenly filled to the brim with agonizing loneliness. She thought of her loving father's kind smile and her little sister's sweet laugh, realizing she might never see them again.

And in the silence of the night, surrounded by
darkness, Sarah Williams started to cry, chest heaving with muffled sobs as she clamped her hand over her mouth, trying to hide her heartbreaking sorrow.

"Wake up, Sarah." she whimpered to herself, clenching her eyes shut as tears streamed down her face. "Wake up, wake up, wake up..."

***

In the next room, head leaning against the wall, Scott McCall listened to the heartbreaking sobs of Sarah with his werewolf senses, his chest aching in sorrow at the girl's grief.

He was tempted to go in to try and console her, but seemed to realize that it would only cause her to close up her emotions again. So, he could only listen in growing sadness at her anguish, frowning in dismay.

At that moment, Scott made a promise to himself.

He would do everything he could to protect Sarah Williams. He would help her as much as he could to try and get her home, and until then, he would do everything he could to make her time in Beacon Hills as amazing as possible.

As long as Scott McCall was around, Sarah Williams would be safe.

***