Chapter Text
Noah isn't stupid. He knows when people are hiding stuff from him, and he's bloody damn good at connecting the dots. At least, that's what he thought, until he became acquainted with one Chris Argent, an apparent magnet for children… and also a man strangely connected with a series of violent deaths, the Hales and the man's own sister amongst them.
He doesn't actually believe that Chris is directly responsible for any of them; the sister was a close call, but she managed to survive the shot to the chest, only to kill herself afterwards. Still, there’s something in this chain of events that rubs him the wrong way, but since the document examiner confirmed the authenticity of the handwriting on her suicide note, Noah was forced to close the case.
And now, John Lahey has been found dead with multiple gashes looking like claws marks, with a head smashed against a rock; the man probably stumbled and hit his head as he was trying to fight some animal off. What's surprising, though, is that the man's sons were admitted to the hospital roughly at the same time as John's time of death: one with a head injury and the other with half-healed ribs.
The boys’ story seems straightforward enough: a scuffle between John and his sons ended with the youngest, Isaac, getting hit on the head, while John left the home in a huff, saying that he needed to cool off. Since Isaac's head injury seemed serious, the older boy, Camden, called Argent for help, who after arriving at the Laheys’ house took the boys to the hospital.
What in other circumstances would've been a reveal of a domestic child abuse, turned out to be a case of the boys getting orphaned, and because of an animal attack no less. All of it seems like a weird coincidence, one that he wouldn't normally buy… if it wasn't for the claw marks on the corpse. Even the local vet, Deaton, confirmed that they were inflicted by a large animal, most probably a mountain lion or other mammal, either feline or canine.
Even though the story seems rather improbable, Noah can't deny that the boys’ injuries are real, and so are the claw wounds on their father's body. Since he doesn't have any tangible proof that something doesn't match up, besides his own gut feeling, he needed to close that case too, no matter how wrong it felt.
How did Camden get Chris' phone number, anyway? And why?...
And if that isn't enough, Talia Hale has been making inquiries about the Lahey boys’ guardianship, dropping big hints that she wants to become their foster parent. Naturally, he feels for the woman's plight: he can't imagine losing not one, but two children in a fire, while the third remains in a coma. Still, he can't help but wonder if it's healthy for her to become a foster mother for kids who went through child abuse and losing said abusive father on top of it. That's a lot of combined trauma, but then again, it's none of his business. After all, he has plenty of his own troubles, and he doesn't need to add even more to them.
“Honey?” Claudia's voice pulls him out of his thoughts. “Is w-work, ‘gain?”
He smiles weakly and gives her a peck on the cheek. “You know me too well. Yeah, there are a few cases that rub me the wrong way, but that might just be my suspicious nature speaking. But don't worry, they're closed now.”
Not unlike understanding the infant speech when their son was still gurgling and babbling, once Claudia began having trouble speaking, he needed to start to guess what's on her mind. It helps that they've been married for more than a decade and know each other inside-out; that's why a few stuttered words are enough for her to communicate with him, more or less.
He doesn't really mind guessing what she means. What truly worries him, though, is that speech impairment is considered a stage three of the frontotemporal dementia, and she's been diagnosed less than a year ago. Moving to stage three out of seven in such a short period of time… It means that Claudia's dementia progresses quicker than the doctors assumed it would.
He's not ready for it.
***
Chris lets out a long exhale, finally allowing himself to relax.
The last few days were hectic, and if it wasn't for Talia, they would've been even worse. When he called her from the Laheys’ house, he half-expected her to outright refuse his request for help in covering John Lahey's death. However, once she learned that the man had been abusing his sons, there was a 180 degree change in her attitude. She viciously stated that the man is lucky to be dead, because otherwise she would rip him to pieces while he was still alive.
Despite her numerous faults, Talia seems to despise child abusers as much as he does. Maybe losing her own children made her slightly more vulnerable in that area, but he's not about to complain, since with her help he was able to stage quite a believable death scene. It was a double surprise when she volunteered to become a foster mother for the boys, since they have no adult relatives left (that they know of, at least), but he's glad that she did.
Normally, he would've offered to take custody of the boys himself, but with the recent charges of him shooting Kate, he doesn't have a perfectly clean criminal record, a fact which wouldn't be looked favorably at by a family court – even though the case has been dismissed on the defense-of-others basis. Plus, he's actually glad that Camden and Derek will have a chance to get to know each other better. Who knows, maybe if they get on well together, Talia will have an additional incentive to apply for a permanent guardianship, not only for a temporary one?
His train of thoughts is interrupted when he hears Allison's footsteps on the stairs. Usually, when she's happy and bouncing from excitement, she takes two stairs at once, no matter how often he's been warning her against it, afraid that she would fall and hurt herself. This time, though, she seems more subdued, and he knows at once that something is amiss.
“Come here, sweetheart,” he opens his arms invitingly and she runs to him, clutching on for dear life. “What's wrong?”
She looks at him with those big eyes of hers, now welling up with tears. “Dad, are you going to give me away?”
“Give you–” he repeats incredulously, “Of course not, what made you say that?”
She sniffles, then makes a move as if she wants to wipe her nose with her sleeve, so he immediately grabs a handkerchief from the table and gives it to her. One thing that he learned early as a parent, is that having something to wipe off tears, snot, food and dirt within an arm's reach can be really handy.
“Because you started to read about adop- adoption,” she hiccups, “and you like Scott better than me, and–”
Damn, if she really thinks that, then he's been doing a botched job as a father. With everything that was going on lately, Victoria has been taking Allison to San Francisco more often than they initially planned when discussing their informal separation. Plus, with his attention split between all those kids needing his help, it's no wonder that his own daughter thinks he plans on abandoning her, even though it couldn't be further from the truth.
He kneels, cupping her face with his palms, and wiping away the fresh tears that started to flow down her cheeks. “I don't like Scott better than you. You're my daughter, and I love you with all my heart. That's never gonna change, I promise you that,” he assures her. “Those adoption articles, I've read them for my friend, who became a foster parent for two boys who just lost their father. As for Scott, he has a mom who loves him very much, so he doesn't really need me to adopt him. But I do care about him very much, so would it really be so bad if he visited and played with you more often?”
Allison thinks deeply for a moment, then brightens. “Does it mean that we can have a sleepover?”
“You may have them as often as Scott's mom will allow,” he promises her. “Stiles too, but I'd have to talk with his parents first. So you see, no one is ever going to replace you, sweetie. You're gonna be my little girl forever, even when you're all grown up. But having more kids around would be almost like having siblings, wouldn't you like that?”
She nods enthusiastically, then hugs him and mutters into his chest that she loves him.
“I love you, too,” he murmures into her hair, inhaling the scent of her strawberry shampoo, and her own, unique scent that he'd recognize everywhere, even with his eyes closed.
***
Later, as they're snuggling together like they haven't done in ages, Allison asks another question that breaks his heart.
“Daddy, what happened to Aunt Katie?” She bites her lower lip. “The kids at school have been saying all kinds of stuff, but you and mom haven't talked about auntie since the, um, funeral. Why?”
He runs his hand through her hair to buy himself a few moments to gather his thoughts. He should've known that he wouldn't be able to hide the truth from her - or at least the parts of it that are public knowledge. After all, kids gossip as much and as often as adults tend to do, but without having the social filter or the empathy that comes with age. He wonders what awful details, true or made up, Allison heard from the other children. Did they give her trouble because of it?
“Has anyone said mean things to you? Do I need to talk to their parents?” He asks, but thankfully she shakes her head.
“They're just kids, I can handle them,” she says brazenly, some of her future self-confidence shining through. He suppresses the urge to remind her that she's a kid, too, and instead marvels at how quickly she grows up. “But dad, you need to tell me this stuff!”
“These are grown-up matters, but you're right, it's better that you hear this from us,” he admits. “Your Aunt really disliked one family, she disliked them so much that she decided to hurt them really badly, by setting a fire to their house. I tried to stop her, but I was too late and two children died in the hospital from burns. I'm sorry, I know this is awful, but it is the truth.”
“But Aunt Katie was always so nice to me… How could she do this?” Allison gasps, her eyes full of pain and betrayal, and he sighs.
“Your aunt's actions don't change the fact that she loved you, but what she did was wrong. I don't want you to grow to hate her, especially since she's gone now and it won't do anyone any good. But people shouldn't hurt other people simply because they dislike them, or because they're different, and I want you to remember that.”
It's a lesson a majority of hunters seem to forget, and he's determined not to let Allison make the same mistakes. Because regardless if she eventually joins the hunters or not, sooner or later she will learn about werewolves, and he needs to build a foundation for that moment, so that she doesn't see them as monsters when it happens.