Chapter Text
“Sup, Scottie,” Stiles said to his younger cousin. The kid was on his bed re-threading laces on his lacrosse stick, but still startled when Stiles flopped down on the bed next to him.
Stiles chuckles at the yelp Scott let out.
“What are you doing here?” Scott asked. Stiles did not resist the urge to mess up the mop of hair on his head.
“Aunt Mel is working late and wants me to keep an eye on you,” Stiles reminded him. They didn’t talk about how it was a bit of a lie at this point. They didn’t talk about the real reason Stiles was back in town much, or like at all.
Scott continued to glare at Stiles.
“Look, you know how you are always begging me to take you to go do something cool, I figured since I am home, I should supervise your teenage shenanigans.”
Scott's shook his hands to gesture around the room as if to say what teenage shenanigans.
Stiles rolled his eyes, “Dad left twenty minutes ago. Dispatch called-- they're bringing in every officer from the Beacon Hills Sheriff Department, and even state police.”
“For what?”
Stiles grinned, “Two joggers found a body in the woods.”
“What, a dead body?” Scott was baffled, as if seeing a dead body in the woods wasn’t the epitome of cool things to do in a small town. Maybe Stiles' perspective was warped from his time away at college.
“No, a body of water. Yes dumbass, a dead body!” Stiles grabbed Scott’s shoes and tossed them to him.
“You mean, like, murdered ?”
Stiles shrugged, “Possibly, no one knows just yet. Where’s your coat?”
“Uh I think I left it at school, but, wait— hold on if they found the body, what are we looking for?” Scott asks, putting on his shoes.
“Oh little Scottie that's the best part-- they only found half. Now come on, we're going I have a spare coat in the Jeep you can wear that. ”
Contrary to popular belief Stiles did know that this was a bad idea dragging along his fifteen year old cousin out to the Beacon Hills Preserve to search for a dead body. He was still doing it anyway. Technically he could have gone with his dad to look for the body, but he had also told Aunt Mel he’d keep an eye on Scott. He’d rather not cancel on Aunt Mel. So taking Scott was the best way to know where the kid would be. The only reason Stiles wasn’t more trouble in high school was that he had skipped most of it and gone straight to college.
Stiles shuts off the Jeep and grabs the flashlight annoyed he forgot to grab an extra for Scott. At least he had a hoodie.
“Are we seriously doing this?” Scott whines looking down at the hoodie with ‘Silly Goose University’ emblazoned across the front Stiles had put on him.
“You always complain that we didn’t do fun cousin stuff together,” Stiles gestures around them in the woods in the dark looking for a dead body. Stiles would have killed to have done this when he was Scott's age.
“I was trying to get a good night's sleep before practice tomorrow,” Scott mumbled.
Stiles rolls his eyes, “You’ll do great Scott, have a little adventure. In fact, think of it this way you’ll have a cool story to tell on the bench.”
“I don’t plan on bench warming this year. I want to make the first line.”
“That's the spirit! You’ll totally make the first line and this will be the thing that does it.” Stiles is trying to be the encouraging older cousin he never had. Not that Stiles played sports in high school. Positive thinking was what Lydia was always telling him. Stiles isn’t sure how he can sense Scott’s eye roll in the dark.
They have a moment of quiet before Scott pipes up, “Just out of curiosity, which half of the body are we looking for?”
Stiles didn't even consider that. He actually didn’t think they would find the body top, left, right, or bottom half before he can admit to that, Scott's brain fires off another really good question.
“And um, what if whatever killed the body is still out here?”
Stiles swears that kid is blindingly smart for 30 seconds a day and none of them are usually consecutive.
“I uh, didn’t think about that.”
“It's comforting to know I’ve been lied to and you don’t actually get smarter at college. You’ve planned this out-” Scott starts to wheeze and breath rapidly as they have continued up a hill.
Stiles pauses and pulls out Scott's rescue inhaler. “- with my usual level of attention to detail.”
Scott takes the inhaler wordlessly with all the teenage murder in his eyes.
“I know,” Stiles turns around to look over the top of the hill to see several of the sheriff's department personnel waving flashlights around.
“Maybe I should be holding the flashlight, instead of the cross-country want-to-be,” Scott snarks.
Stiles drags him down to avoid being seen. He didn’t think that they were on a collision course with the sheriff department.
“Hush hush,” Stiles tells Scott.
“What do we do now my brilliant elder cousin?” Scott's whispers could use some work. One of the police dogs looks over in their direction. Stiles tosses a rock away from them and pushes Scott back towards where the Jeep was parked. Scott is still wheezing and Stiles would rather deal with his dad's annoyance that Stiles is out on a late night walk alone rather than anger that Stiles brought Scott out for a late night adventure. Stiles pulls the self sacrificing gambit, “They have seen us. So get back to the Jeep and I’ll tell them I’m out here alone.”
Scott wheezes a bit quieter in response.
Stiles gets caught in a deputy’s flashlight beam.
“Hold it right there!”
Stiles puts his hands up, “Howdy Officer.” Stiles hears his dad sigh.
“Stand down, that's my delinquent,” Stiles' Dad looks disappointed and resigned. It’s probably not in Stiles best interest to tell his dad he’s getting a little too old to be a delinquent; he's probably just a regular criminal now.
“Hey Dad, what's going on?” Stiles greets and his dad pulls him aside.
His dad sighs, “I asked if you wanted to tag along before I left to avoid this. And you said you were going to-” His dad cuts himself off and looks around. “Where is Scott?”
Stiles plays dumb not that his dad will believe him. “He’s home, said he wanted to get a good night's sleep for the first day back to school tomorrow. The high school has such a weird schedule this year like a whole extra day off after Christmas break what's with that.”
His dad doesn’t believe a word out of Stiles mouth and has stopped listening while looking around to see if he could spot his wayward nephew.
“Scott, you out there? Scottie.”
When Scott doesn’t appear when called, the Sheriff looks back at Stiles to see if Stiles has dropped any more useful information as to Scott's whereabouts.
“I just need to clear my head, out in the woods…” Stiles tries.
Stiles knows his dad doesn’t believe him. The Sheriff raises an eyebrow, “You walked here?”
“No I drove, head was really noisy tonight.” That doesn’t make the concern in his dad’s face lessen.
“You’ll be okay getting home, or do I need to drive you?” The Sheriff is gone and it’s Stiles’ Dad that is talking. His stupidly concerned dad.
“I’ll be fine. I’ve been fine for months Dad.”
His dad sighs, “Okay get home, we’re going to be here a while longer. I still don’t want you out here in the dark alone.”
Stiles nods and is surprised by the quick hug that his dad gives him.
“I’ll see you in the morning,” Stiles says as they part ways.
~.x.~
Stiles finds Scott at his house when he gets back home. It is late, after midnight and the teenager looks really pale and Stiles feels guilty having left Scott in the preserve alone with no ride home.
“Scott, are you okay?”
“I need a little help.” Scott flashes what looks like a bite mark at Stiles. The hoodie that Stiles gave him is muddy, like it had ridden up when Scott was injured. Stiles doesn’t do well with blood, but guides his cousin into the bathroom and helps him clean it up. The hoodie goes straight for the wash.
“I really think we should go to the hospital. You don’t know what bit you, do you?” Stiles asks.
Scott hisses as Stiles cleans out the wounds.
“I think it might have been a wolf?” Scott yelps in pain.
“A wolf bit you,” Stiles scoffs.
“It was too dark to see much, but I’m pretty sure it was a wolf.”
“Yeah, no wolf didn’t do this. Wolves don’t live in California.”
“But I heard a wolf howl,” Scott pleads.
“Scott, I am this close to putting you in the car and taking you to the hospital myself, parents be damned,” Stiles is so wrapped around Scotts little finger. He would never get away with taking the kid to the hospital like this without Scott's agreement.
“Stiles I’ll be fine, it's just like patching up animals at the clinic,” Scott pleads.
Stiles shakes his head, “Yeah there you have medical care and usually know what bit the animal and when you don’t know what bit the animal what do you do?”
Scott thinks for a second. Stiles wants to slap him upside the head. “You give them antibiotics and tetanus shots. Hell rabies vaccines even.”
“It's not that deep Stiles. If this were a cat or a dog I would wash it out, put some antibiotic cream on it and a fresh bandage. Just patch me up and we can check in the morning and if it really does look that bad I’ll go to the hospital.”
Stiles doesn’t like that idea, but Scott will dig his heels in and fight harder if he says they need to go right now and not in six hours. The kid has his big brown eyes out and those are hard to say no to.
“I’m calling your mom and letting her know you are staying the night.”
Scott grins and Stiles feel like he has lost already.
~.x.~
In the morning Stiles checks on Scott's side and to his relief it really doesn’t look that bad. It's still tender, but Stiles doesn’t know much more than the basic first aid and he wouldn’t take the kid to the hospital for this.
“See I told you!” Scott crows.
Stiles grumbles and gets breakfast together and tells Scott he will be dropping him off and picking him up at the school that day. Scott grins and lets Stiles fuss over him.
When Stiles dropped off Scott at the school he notices a new girl is just starting that day and points it out to Scott.
“So?” Scott looks at him questioningly.
“It's a new school right after Christmas vacation. Just be nice to her…” Stiles trails off thinking she looks familiar for some reason.
Isaac walks by as Scott gets out and Stiles hollers out the window, “Tell Camden I said hi Izzy!” The tips of the kids' ears go red and Stiles laughs to himself. Stiles takes off to get coffee and donuts for the Sheriff department that morning.
Isaac and Scott go into the building.
“Are you sure he wasn’t dropped on his head as a kid?” Isaac asks Scott.
“Not really, but it would explain a lot,” Scott tells his best friend, “Did you hear about the body found in the woods?”
Isaac lights up, “What? Really”
“Yeah, apparently they were looking for the other half in the preserve last night.”
“I wonder what did it,” Isaac is more curious than cautious.
“When they figure it out Stiles will totally tell us.”
When the two boys get to their first period English class the teacher tells them to settle down before they get started for the day. Scott zones out because for some reason he can hear the new girl talking to her mom, or well talking to her phone while texting her mom. She's apparently forgotten a pen. When Scott zones back in, the vice principal walks the new girl into class and introduces her as Allison. When Scott actually gets a look at the new girl, he thinks she's really pretty and offers her a pen.
She seems a bit confused by the interaction, but thanks him anyway.
~.x.~
Stiles shows up at the very end of the tryout and spots Malia and the new girl on the bleachers. He figures he should bug his best friend's little sister, if Lydia is going to spend the year abroad Stiles can pick up the slack and annoy her sister.
“Did they play that rough all through practice?” Stiles asks.
Malia rolls her eyes, “It’s Lacrosse . And it’s just try outs of course they won't go easy on each other.”
“All snark and spite today, where's the usual Martin sugar and sweetness?”
“Don’t you have a job?” Malia asks him.
Technically no, but also he plays go-for for the sheriff department and it’s his gap year. After finishing college, Stiles wanted a gap year. His life has been all education since age ten or so; he wanted a break this year.
“Weren't you going to join the team this year?”
“Who is this?” The new girl asks.
“Stiles Stilinski,” He holds his hand out to shake, “I’m McCall's ride home.”
“Allison Argent,” She smiles and shakes his hand. Stiles notices she has some pretty impressive callus on her finger tips. At first he thinks they might be from violin, but then remembers those would be on the left hand. Archery maybe?
“Lydia insists he is not her boyfriend, but they graduated high school early together and went to college together and are constantly in each other's space,” Malia tells Allison with her usual level of tact.
Allison smiles very prettily, “Lydia’s your sister right?”
“The one backpacking through Europe,” Stiles adds. He is not bitter about that, like at all.
“As opposed to all my other sisters,” Malia rolls her eyes.
“Looks like tryouts are over, I gotta take Scottie home. Tell Lydia I love her,” Stiles pats Malia's shoulder and moves off to catch Scott.
“Hey Scott ready to go?”
Scott shrugs and says goodbye to his teammates.
“Did you need your inhaler during tryouts?” Stiles asks as they get in the Jeep.
Scott goes pale.
“What is it?”
“I think I dropped it in the preserve,” The kid gets out.
“Jesus Christ, Scott,” Stiles exclaims. “Okay we’ll stop by the preserve and take a look around. How much is it to replace?”
“Like eighty dollars,” Scott sounds exactly his age, voice crack and all.
“Okay we’ll take a really thorough look for it, but how was practice without it?”
Scott grins, “Fantastic!” and launches into a story about how well the tryout practice went.
Scott is still talking when they are in the trees, “I-I don't know what it was. It was like I had all the time in the world to catch the ball. And that's not the only weird thing. I can hear stuff I shouldn't be able to hear. Smell things.”
“Smell things? Like what? The other players on the field? If so, I'm sorry that part of puberty sucks.”
Scott scowls, “No not like that like the mint mojito gum in your pocket.”
Stiles pats himself down, “I don't even have any mint mojito--” Oh shit, it's right there. Wonder when he forgot it. He unwraps it and offers a piece to Scott. It's a little stale. It might be a couple years old.
“You think this has to do with that bite you got last night.”
Scott shrugs, “Maybe, but like you said earlier maybe it’s just puberty.”
Stiles laughs to himself, “I am no means an expert, but between the bite, the smells, and the phase of the moon,” Stiles looks up at the sky to make sure he’s right. The smallest of waxing crescents is in the sky. So maybe the moon is total bullshit- whatever Scott won't notice. “You probably have this specific kind of infection.”
Scott looks at him all wide brown eyes and eager innocence, “Wait- what kind? Are you serious?”
“Yeah I think it is called Lycanthropy.”
It’s amazing to see how fast Scott can pale when Stiles freaks him out. The kid is so gullible.
“That sounds serious, is it bad?”
“Oh yeah absolute worst, but only once a month.”
Scott's brow furrow, “Wait once a month?”
Stiles nods and elaborates, “On the Full moon.” Then gives a howl.
Scott shoves him away annoyed. Stiles giggles in amusement and stumbles into a puddle.
“You are the worst,” Scott says.
“You’re the one who said you heard a wolf howl.” Stiles loves pushing Scott's buttons.
“What if there is something seriously wrong with me.”
“Oh Scottie, I know there is something seriously wrong with you. We're out here looking for your inhaler near a crime scene.”
Scott pouts, “I could have sworn it was here. I saw the body, a dear came running and I dropped my inhaler.”
Stiles looks around for the white and blue inhaler around, “We can keep looking.”
Stiles bumps into Scott while looking at the ground. Scott seems frozen in place. Stiles follows his line of sight and sees a man standing not too far off with a scowl on his face.
“What are you doing here?” The stranger, who for the second time that day looks familiar to Stiles, demands. Stiles places himself between Scott and the stranger.
“This is private property.” The man says.
“Oh, sorry. We didn’t know.”
The stranger's attention is stuck on Stiles and he seems to scowl harder.
“We were just looking for-”
“Derek Hale?” Stiles finally comes up with.The man's scowl disappears and right there. That's Derek Hale, the kid that Stiles had shared a class with until he started skipping grades. Derek Hale whose family home burned down in a fire when Stiles was fifteen.
“You were looking for me?” The man, Derek, if Stiles is right.
Stiles shakes his head. “No, we were looking for an inhaler.” There's a puzzle here and Stiles is going to put it together.
Derek tosses the inhaler at Stiles. Scott catches it with his very recently improved skills.
“Thanks,” Scott says.
Derek turns and leaves without a word.
Scott taps on Stiles shoulder, “So now that we found it can you drop me off at the clinic?”
“Uh yeah okay,” Stiles is still a million miles away trying to figure out how a dead body plus a lost now returned inhaler equals a returned Derek Hale.
“How do you know Derek Hale,” Scott asks.
“Um,” Stiles is pulling on the thread of that one. Derek Hale was his desk buddy in third grade, the year before things went bad and his mom got sick and Stiles skipped a few grades and threw himself into academics to avoid any emotions at all. “We went to school together, we were classmates in elementary school. Remember that big Christmas fire that happened when you were like ten. I think that was his family.”
“Did you know him well?”
Stiles shrugs. Derek was a good friend before Stiles pulled away when his mother died.
“I wonder what he is doing back in town.” Scott says.
Stiles has his work cut out for him after dropping Scott off at work. Pulling old sheriff reports on the fire, figuring out if Scott is really a werewolf or if something weird happened in the woods and Stiles should write it off.
Stiles is going to chase this research rabbit.
~.x.~
The research rabbit hole takes over Stiles' life for the next three days. Starting with the Hale House fire lead Stiles finds out it happened late in 2004 a day after Christmas while Stiles was deep in prep for college and upcoming midterms. He was focused on graduating. The fire set to the Hale Family home killed eight people, Peter and Laura Hale were the only surviving adults. The unnamed minor must have been Derek. Peter was badly burned and remained in hospice care. The poor guy seemed comatose going off of the mentions of him in the reports.
As for the Scott research bunny, Stiles decided that it's quite probable that Scott will turn into a wolf and oh boy was that a fun idea. It would be more fun if Scot turned into like a cute little gray wolf and not a murderous beast during a full moon. Although a lot of the research seemed to say that it was an allegory for domestic violence. There was also a bit of research saying that werewolves didn’t just turn at the full moon, they could turn any time. Stiles wasn’t sure what to do with that logic, but when the next full moon, January 19th rolled around Stiles was keeping a close eye on his younger cousin.
And then the sheriff had possibly identified the body in the woods as Laura Hale from DNA samples. Stiles was pretty convinced that it was Laura Hale, with Derek Hale in the area. Maybe they came back to the area to visit graves? Visit their uncle in the area? Fiber analysis came back determining that the animal hairs found were likely wolf hairs, and boy did that send Stiles for a head spin. What did that mean? Was Laura Hale killed by a werewolf? The same one that bit Scott? Could werewolves turn when it was other than the full moon? Scott was bit on the fourth when it was a freaking New Moon. Werewolf lore was absolute batshit about this whole moon thing. The only connecting bits seemed to be that a werewolf was a person and a wolf. They could shift whenever, the moon be damned.
The knock on the door startled Stiles, “Scott?”
The kid entered Stiles' room with wide eyes. That caused Stiles to look around and see the disaster that was the room. He could be a bit neater in his study habits. Lydia was always nagging him about that.
“What happened?”
“Research rabbit,” Stiles dismissed, “What's up with you?”
Scott was fidgeting with his hands, “Did- I mean. What do you- Jackson asked me for steroids.”
Huh, Stiles did not see that coming, “Like demanded you get him some, or like wants you to do steroids with him?”
“I don’t know! It was really weird, like he started off with asking about juice and it was weirdly tense when he finally came out and asked about steroids.”
“Well first of all don't use steroids- well technically your inhaler is partly steroids but probably not what Jackson was asking for,” Stiles feels his mouth running away on him.
“Do I need to, like, I don’t know how to report him?” Scott asks.
Oh this is that conversation, “Do you think he is using steroids?”
Scott shakes his head an emphatic no, “I mean he’s athletic enough already, we both got on to first line today, but not really.”
“So what’s the problem,” Stiles knows Scott and Jackson have had a contentious relationship, but they are not not friends.
“It's weird!” Stiles wonders where all the teenagers learn that over the top body language and when they grow out of it. Stiles has yet to grow out of it.
“Sounds like a you problem then,” Stiles tosses back, going back to his research.
Scott huff and Stiles swears it sounds like a dog. Which reminded him.
“Hey you haven’t-”
“Did they find what happened to the body in the woods,” Scott asked.
That prompts Stiles to tell Scott all about what he officially and unofficially knows about that murder investigation.
“You think the fire is connected to this body in the woods and it has something to do with the Hale House fire?” Scott's eyes are bouncing all over the printouts Stiles has hanging around.
“Well if it’s Laura Hale and Derek is back in town, I don’t think they are disconnected,” Stiles admits.
“But what do wolves have to do with it?” Scott presses.
“Okay that gets into a conspiracy theory I don’t think we need to get started on,” Stiles warns Scott.
“But if you were to go on,” Scott pressed.
“We’d never get to the part that involves you,” Stiles tells him. That shuts up his younger cousin as Stiles tells him how he thinks the Hale house fire was a part of something bigger involving werewolves. How the thee remaining Hales, Peter, Laura, and Derek were not meant to survive the fire with Peter in the hospital and a two younger Hales in the wind who ever targeted the family was back with this attack on Laura. Scott's animal attack in the woods, the insistence on wolves and fiber analysis on the body might include Scott in the worst way.
“You think a werewolf bit me to finish off the Hales!?” Scott asks.
“Possibly I mean you do have a connection to the hospital that Peter is at, your mom works there.”
“That’s insane, I’m a High School sophomore. I don’t want to kill anyone…except maybe my chemistry teacher.” Stiles remembers what a hardass Harris was. The man never should have been a teacher.
“Yes it is. I don’t think the lycanthropy joke is a joke anymore. I think that wolf is trying to recruit you for this vendetta against the Hales.”
“So I won't kill Hales then. There, problem solved,” Scott looks proud of himself.
If only it were that simple. “Scott I don’t think you understand the implications of being a werewolf-” Scott glares at him. “Implications of being a possible werewolf,” Stiles corrects.
“What are they then?”
“Okay look when I went to your practices and saw you on the field you were amazing, but also like, really aggressive.”
“So I made a few good shots?” Scott shoots off.
“No, they were impossible, I know you. Your asthma was kicking your ass last month and, what now it's all gone? No, you made some incredible shots with the way you moved your speed and your reflexes. People don’t just change like that overnight. There's the vision and the sense of smell. Don’t think I haven’t noticed your inhaler hasn’t left the Jeep. You’re also way more growly than before.”
As if to prove his point Scott starts growling. “Okay so I made first line because I am more aggressive and a girl actually wants to go out with me. For the first time in a while things are looking up and now you want to ruin it?”
“Wow a girl-” Stiles is blind sided, last he checked Scott was more concerned with Lacrosse than girls. “Since when did you have a date?”
“Ugh, since today. I’m taking Allison to Malia’s party.” Did Scott's eyes just flash gold at him?
“Congratulations, how are you getting there because the car math is not matching right now. Aunt Mel is working a late shift, Dad is at the office late and you can’t drive.”
Scott flips back on the bed and groans over dramatically, “I was going to ask if you’d drive me.”
“Yeah, when's the party?”
“In an hour.”
Stiles should not enable this behavior. Scott's behavior has been swinging wildly with his mood and well it would be better to keep an eye on him to make sure that no one gets caught in his possible blood lust. Not that Scott was usually prone to violence. Well not before the past few days. What was the line from the book? The change can be caused by anger or anything that raises your blood pulse. Stiles is pretty sure that a party and girls would absolutely raise Scott's blood pulse.
“I’m supervising,” Stiles decides. “Go get ready. We’ll pick up the girl in forty minutes and be at the Martins house in an hour. Our parents are going to kill me if anything happens.”
It was only after Scott shot off did Stiles think to ask if Aunt Mel knew Scott was going to a party with a girl.
Scott gave him an address for the affluent part of town to pick up Allison. It was the same girl Stiles had met a few days before at the lacrosse field whose appearance tickles something in the back of his mind.
“Why do you look so familiar,” Stiles asked Allison on the way over to the party.
The girl shrugged, “I don’t think I met you before, my family moved around a lot when I was growing up.”
“I don’t think I’ve met you before either, do you have an older sister?” Something about her face feels familiar to Stiles.
Allison shakes her head, “I have an aunt? People say I look a lot like Aunt Kate.”
“What did you say your last name was?”
“Argent?”
“I think I remember a substitute teacher by that name. She wasn’t a very good teacher and I think there was a scandal around her leaving town so quickly.”
Allison's face is bright red and Scott is looking a bit more aggressive than usual, “Dude cut it out. You’re embarrassing her.”
“Miss Argent was great if you didn’t care about your grades,” Stiles tries, which is not the right thing to say apparently when Scott's brown eyes flash that gold from earlier. Yeah okay maybe this wasn’t Stiles brightest idea.
Stiles turns the kids loose on the party and wonders if he should clear off before Derek Hale of all people approaches him.
“Hi.” The man is not very verbose and yet Stiles flails in surprise that the man talked to him.
“Oh, hi Derek right?” Stiles asks.
Did Derek just smirk? That seemed like a smirk. There was definitely a lip twitch.
“You're at somewhat of an advantage.” Stiles is trying to figure out what that could possibly mean when it hits him. Derek doesn’t know his name.
“Stiles, I go by Stiles. Do you really not remember me?” They were desk buddies in second grade when Stiles started going by Stiles.
Derek's face goes red at that. And yeah Stiles would be embarrassed as well if this were the other way around. “Uh, what are you doing here?” Stiles asks changing the subject.
“My sister and I were visiting my uncle before joggers found her body.”
“Oh-shit. I’m sorry. That sucks, but I mean like why are you at a high school party?”
Derek raises an eyebrow. Stiles looks around and surprisingly they aren’t the oldest at the party.
“Okay fair, but like your sister just died.”
“Don’t judge my coping mechanisms,” Stiles could have sworn Derek was blushing but it must have been the light.
“My bad,” Stiles leans on the wall next to Derek watching the sea of teenagers and college students dancing and drinking.
Scott and Allison are dancing fairly close and as much as Stiles wants to keep an eye on the kid to make sure he doesn’t get hurt. This is not what Stiles wants an eyeful of.
“Why do you keep such a close eye on him,” Derek asks.
“He’s family. Even if he is an idiot teenager. He got into some trouble last spring, we don’t really want a repeat of it here,” Stiles says. Between Scott's incident last spring and Aunt Mel finishing her medical degree that was a major reason for Stiles to take the year off to play parent to Scott when Melissa was busy.
“So who’s the blond?” Derek nods to Isaac. Isaac is not dancing but like them he is on the peripheral watching Scott and Isaac.
“Izzy’s Scott’s best friend. I’m surprised his older brother let him come. Camden is pretty protective of Isaac.”
Derek makes a sound in the back of his throat that Stiles doesn’t know how to interpret.
“How much do you know?” Derek asks. Stiles is thrown off wondering what he was on about.
“Probably not enough and probably too much,” Stiles answers honestly.
That’s when Scott seems to flinch and then detaches from Allison and shoots off across the room.
“Oh that’s not good. I didn’t bring him any extra pants,” Stiles starts after him.
Derek shoots a hand out and stops Stiles, “Let me handle it.”
Let Derek Hale, a freaking stranger, that Scott might murder, handle Scott who has seemingly creamed his pants. Yeah right that sounds like a recipe for disaster.
Right before Stiles opens his mouth some details catch up with his brain. Scott’s golden eyes and claw-like fingernails are really freaking similar to Derek’s own suddenly strange fingernails and electric blue eyes. Maybe Derek should handle that.
“You so owe me an explanation later,” Stiles mutters.
Did Derek just fucking wink at him?
Allison is watching after Scott, offended as hell. Stiles watches as she tries to process why her date just ditched her for seemingly no reason. He looks over at Isaac wondering if he’d swoop in and show Allison a nice time but no. Isaac is also staring at where Scott disappeared. Guess it’s up to Stiles to sort out what is happening for the kiddos.
Being an adult sucks.
~.x.~
After dropping Allison off at her home. Stiles heads back to the house.
Thank God that Scott and Derek are there on the front porch, otherwise Stiles would be figuring out how to legally microchip his cousin. Tracking his phone would probably be the best way to get around that actually. Unfortunately Scott still had a tendency to lose things like phones.
“He’s a freaking werewolf!!!” Scott hollers at the top of his lungs when Stiles approaches.
Derek flinches and Stiles feels his whole board of crazy fall apart.
“Stiles, he’s a werewolf and he bit me!” Stiles grabs Scott by the back of his neck and pulls him into the house.
“Stop yelling,” Stiles doesn’t think anyone actually heard but they don’t need a noise complaint at the Sheriff's house. “Derek, get in here and explain what’s going on.”
“The kid is not completely wrong. I am a werewolf,” Derek admits from his place still on the porch.
“Well obviously,” Stiles can feel himself falling back into his first language of snark quickly and with immense irritation, “Get in here before I repeat myself for a third time. I think you owe us some explanations.”
“I promise I didn’t bite him,” Derek pleads, his green eyes large and terrified.
“I said get in here-“
Derek takes three quick steps into the house and closes the door behind him.
“So, werewolves are real?”
“Well obviously,” Scott mocks Stiles' words from earlier. “And I’m turning into a freaking monster.”
“Hey,” Stiles scolds him, “Let him explain before we jump to conclusions. Because honestly, you just sound like an angry teenager right now.”
Scott doesn’t just flash golden eyes at Stiles this time, his whole face transforms like the vampire on Buffy, but with more wolfie features and sideburns. Honestly it kind of hurts that Stiles' younger cousin can grow a beard before he can.
Derek laughs softly, “You can just accept that werewolves are real, just like that?”
Stiles shrugs, “That face right there,” Stiles gestures to Scott in all his side burn and fangs glory, “is enough to convince me, believe me I have questions, but I think there are bigger concerns here.”
“Okay,” Derek concedes, “What do you want to know?”
~.x.~
So that was a long conversation. Werewolves were real. The Hale Family was full of werewolves, and it was very probable that it wasn’t werewolves after the remaining Hales. Scott was going to be a much angrier teenager than usual if they couldn’t get his wolf under control.
“So what bit Scott, if it wasn’t you?” Stiles presses.
Derek looks like he would rather be anywhere else than the Stilinski couch. Scott could probably still hear them and was annoyed to have been taken away from the party, but he needed to cool down. It wasn’t the worst end to the night for him.
“You have a theory.”
“It sounds crazy. Not all werewolf packs have this, but mom’s family had what we called an Alpha. When Mom died in the fire Laura inherited the position.”
That sounded like magic to him “And what does an Alpha do?”
“They were stronger. The bigger the pack the stronger the alpha was. When Mom was the alpha she kept the pack small. I don’t remember all the reasoning. Laura knew more about it, when she had the power it was always just the two of us, she healed a bit faster than me and was a bit stronger,” Derek pauses for a moment, “I think when Laura died, something stole the Alpha power.”
“Do you think whoever took the Alpha power also murdered your sister,” Stiles says.
“Maybe,” Derek says.
“So if we figure out who has this Alpha power, then we figure out who murdered your sister,” Stiles says. Stiles was excited to have a mystery to solve but he was still worried about Scott.
“What do we do about the teen wolf in the meantime. Do we chain him up on full moons and feed him live mice?” Stiles asks.
Derek looks at him as if he had just asked when they were murdering newborns.
“What? No, you don’t need to chain him up. You do know he can shift anytime, not just during full moons?” Derek tilted his head looking like a puppy.
Stiles kind of wanted to reevaluate his life, “You’re telling me that he just just goes all”- Stiles brought his hands up and made claws, “Rawr just anytime?”
Derek lifts an eyebrow and then drives the point home by baring his fangs.
“Is anything real? What does happen on the full moon?”
Derek shrugs, “A full shift is forced. We spend the night as a wolf, changing back when the sun rises.”
“Right so we do need to chain him up and puppy proof the place,” Stiles puts his head in his hands.
“Well usually, but it looks like some new hunters have come to town.”
“Somewhat?” Stiles can feel his day- his week really weighing down on him. He’s tired and what did Derek just say, “Werewolf hunters?”
“Yeah,” Derek agrees.
“Well aren’t you just a ray of fucking sunshine.”
Notes:
Chapter title in reference to Stiles and Scott searching in the woods.
Be on the outlook for foreshadowing. Let me know if you catch it.
Chapter 2: The Body
Summary:
Stiles, Scott, and Derek go on a hike. We have a movie night. Visit some friends and nothing bad happens at all.
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
So not only were werewolves a thing, but werewolf hunters were also a thing. Which would all be way less concerning if Stiles' baby cousin wasn’t a freshly turned werewolf. The way Stiles sees it they need to: One, leave town and avoid all the god forsaken werewolf hunters for the rest of time. Two, failing Stiles' wonderfully simple one step-plan when no one agrees with him, gets Scott's new wolf tendencies under control. Three, find this werewolf and give it to the hunters. Four, Profit?
Apparently the first step to all of this would be to find the other half of Derek's sister. Which, yikes not a fun sentence to think about.
“You want me to try and follow my dead sister’ scent to her body?” Derek was pissed off and fragile and yeah Stiles should have thought about what he was asking a bit more.
Derek's whole family died in a fire just over six years ago and his sister might just have died a week ago. Asking him to show Scott how to follow a scent trail to his dead sister's body might not have been the most tactful thing to do.
“The deputies are still looking for her body.”
“I know what killed her,” Derek says.
“Oh?”
“Hunters are the only ones who would sever a body. It was cruel of them to let her be found like that,” There Derek goes channeling the dark and brooding guy that is really a very damaged person under all his bravado.
“If we don’t find Laura's body first, when the deputies do any clues that aren’t straight forward are going to be lost,” Stiles pauses then adds, “And I think you’ll need the closure.”
Derek is actually on the edge of tears. Stiles watches as he rubs his face and pinches the bridge of his nose, “I guess we are going hiking tomorrow.”
~.x.~
Finding the rest of Laura’s body isn’t all that fun. The hike in the woods was nice in theory, but it was still really morbid when Derek found his sister's body. There was a lot more crying than Stiles had anticipated. Scott was traumatized by actually seeing a dead body in that state. Scott and Derek were able to tell that whatever had killed her was not the werewolf that bit Scott.
Stiles called his dad that they had found the rest of the body that had been in the woods for at least a week. That resulted in the three of them being carted off to the sheriff station.
“Do you want to tell me what's going on,” Stiles wasn’t sure if it was the Sheriff or his Dad talking to him right then.
“This is exactly what it looks like Dad. We went on a hike and found a dead body,” Stiles says.
His dad slides over a cup of coffee that Stiles should really turn down, “We’ve already gotten your statements. I am asking as your father, not the sheriff.”
Stiles pulls his head out of his hands, “What exactly are you asking me?”
“I didn’t know you and Derek Hale were good enough friends to go hiking.”
Stiles shrugs, “It’s new?”
His dad drinks his coffee.
“What else do you want me to say, pops?”
An eyebrow goes up. Stiles doesn't normally break out the sarcastic names for his dad when he is being honest.
“We’ve run into each other a couple of times this week, it's not really that unusual is it? I’m…on a gap year taking care of my family. Derek is back in town visiting family, shit hit the fan we figured a hike would be fun.”
“And Scott?” Stiles' dad ignores the blatant lie about Stiles' motives.
“I wasn’t going to leave him alone after lacrosse practice. He and Derek have a few things in common.”
“Like?”
Stiles has to think for a minute so that he is not flippantly saying claws and fur. “Sports. Derek was like the captain of his basketball team and Scott wants to Captain the Lacrosse team.”
His dad hums at that.
“Bring him to dinner tonight?”
“What?”
“He’s clearly traumatized. The only other family member he has in town is in Beacon Hills Memorial, he needs support right now.” Stiles' dad is looking at him like he is the dumb one.
“You want me to take him home, put him to bed, and what, keep him there?” Stiles asks. Except thats not exactly what came out of his mouth. The Sheriff is choking on his coffee.
“I mean that's one way of doing it. I just meant, show him a gesture of friendship. This situation has got to be tough for him. He doesn’t need to get on his feet all alone, but sure he can get on his feet from your bed if that's what you want him to do.”
Stiles' face is bright red, “We can start with putting him in the guest room.”
His dad smiles warmly at him. “I’ll give Melissa a call about Scott, I think he could use some friends too. Ask the Lehays to come over.”
“Full house it is I guess,” Stiles tosses back.
Stiles bundles Derek and Scott into his Jeep and texts Camden to see if he is free.
By the time he gets home Camden has called him back.
“What's going on? You never text.” Camden's voice is nice to hear.
“Scott and I might need a bit of company for the evening. We went hiking and well, Scott saw a dead body and it freaked him out a bit. Can you and Izzy come over? I’m making dumplings and potato soup.”
“Oh shit. Are you okay?”
Is Stiles ever okay?
“I’m working on it.”
“I’ll bring Erica to boss the boys around. Do you need anything else?”
“If you could stop by the store for sausage and potatoes. I don’t have enough here to feed everyone as much as I want to make.”
“We’ll be there in half an hour,” Camden promises.
It's at that point that Stiles realizes that he had forgotten to explain Derek's presence at all to Camden. Stiles can’t remember if Derek and Camden knew each other enough to have an opinion on the other.
Scott is just getting out of the shower when Camden, Isaac, and Erica show up. Stiles puts Derek to work chopping vegetables in the kitchen while Stiles works on mixing in the dumplings innards. His dumplings were always closer to perogies than not but calling them perogies felt wrong.
“Isaac?” Scott is baffled by the appearance of his lanky best friend. Honestly sometimes so is Stiles.
Isaac holds up his Nintendo, “Mario Kart?” That perks Scott up. The three teenagers go to the living room to set up the console and Camden heads into the kitchen with his load of groceries.
“I got five pounds of potatoes, I wasn’t too sure what you wanted? Who’s this?” Camden doesn’t look too shocked to see Derek, but the guy really rolled with the punches.
“Uh- Oh this is Derek,” Stiles looks up from the latest dumpling. Fuck he’s gotta explain what happened to Camden, but he’s pushed Derek pretty far today. “Hey Derek, do you mind prepping the potatoes while Cam and I take care of the trash real quick?”
Stiles just wants this to go well.
“Sure.” Derek isn’t putting up too much of a fuss.
Stiles hustles Camden out of the house, and they are probably still in werewolf hearing range but like Stiles is trying to be tactful. It's a new thing.
Camden squints at him, “Why is Derek Hale in your house?”
“We went hiking with Scott this afternoon. The dead body was his sister’s,” Stiles says.
Camden's eyes go wide and sympathetic.
“Dad wasn’t going to let Derek be alone, so he’s our surprise dinner guest. That cool with you?”
“Yeah that’s fine,” Camden says.
“Now when we go back in there are you going to be chill about this whole thing?”
The sly smirk on Camden's face makes Stiles want to smack him but also reminds him of highschool.
“I regret every hour I spent tutoring you in math.”
Stiles wasn’t getting rid of Camden that easily.
The night goes by surprisingly well. Between Stiles and Derek there is a freaking dumpling factory in the kitchen. Camden has rounded the teenagers into a coherent tournament of Mario kart. Erica is kicking Scott and Isaac’s asses when his dad comes home.
It’s a feast of Stiles cooking. Scott is looking less numb and shell shocked by the end of dinner. Derek is more coherent after a few hours under Stiles' directions. His dad suggests they plan on staying the night because of the animal attacks and Stiles gets extra bedding out while fighting with the teenagers about what movie to watch. Erica has convinced the boys they need to watch Twilight while Stiles would have rather watched a Star Wars movie instead.
They end up watching Twilight. Scott is nestled into Isaac’s side. Stiles doesn’t know how to feel about that, but Erica is on Scott's other side just as cozy. Scott covers Erica's eyes during the ballet studio scenes, worried about the scene setting of her epilepsy. She must have muttered something vicious that only Derek heard because there a pillow flying right for the teenagers and a quiet “watch your fucking language” muttered from the other man that sets the teenagers and Camden (but really Camden should be counted as a teenager) off into peals of laughter. He shouldn’t be surprised Derek fits the big brother archetype so well.
Stiles is of course the one picked on that he’s Bella when someone --Camden-- mentions how he is the only child of the chief of police. No one listens when Stiles explains the difference between the two. A sheriff is elected while a police chief is appointed.
Stiles doesn’t know how he ended up half in Derek’s lap when the next movie starts. When Derek goes stiff under Stiles at the reveal of Jacob being a werewolf, Stiles had wondered why he didn’t put up more of a fight.
Scott looks over at Derek and therefore Stiles at the pack reveal. What are they supposed to do? This is a dumb romcom drama that Erica picked. When no one else seems alarmed at the fictional werewolves Scott teases Stiles for the impromptu cuddle pile.
Camden ruins the moment or saves it, when he points out Scott is in a cuddle puddle of his own. Then launches himself on the teenagers claiming it was a snuggle emergency and absolutely not fair that he didn’t have snuggles for the past movie and a half. Stiles doesn’t want to think about how nice it is to be so close to Derek.
Derek pulls Stiles closer and sniffs his neck.
Yeah okay Stiles has more questions about werewolves now, but he is not asking his teenage cousin and Derek doesn’t seem to want to share information on why Stiles is now Derek’s personal teddy bear.
When the movie ends Erica declares the movie was so bad it was worth watching to make fun of. Isaac says something about her just being Team Jacob. That makes Scott and Derek giggle. Which is a really nice sound.
Fuck Stiles likes Derek's laugh. Hes never really paid attention to that in real people.
Pushing those thoughts aside, Stiles tells them all firmly that it’s bedtime and informs them of the sleeping arrangements. Teenagers and Camden in the living room. Camden looks ready to throw a fit but then thinks for a minute and yeah maybe he is the best one to be supervising the mixed gender sleepover with his little brother and foster sister.
Stiles gets the guest room ready for Derek, but twenty minutes after he’s gone to bed Derek sneaks in his room.
“Derek?”
The other man crawls in bed with Stiles and snuggles close. “Your dad was right, I don't really want to be alone.”
“Do you want to explain this one to me?”
Derek grunts and pulls Stiles close, “You smell like home.”
Stiles does not dig into that concept because the optics don’t look good if Derek were to have gone to anyone else in this house. So Stiles goes to sleep with a werewolf in his bed.
~.x.~
“Hey Stiles, do you-?”
Its too fucking early for this, but here Stiles is anyway. During the night Derek did not become any less clingy. He managed to turn Stiles into his own personal Teddy bear. So now Stiles face is smashed into Derek's unfairly brawny shoulder and Derek’s arms are wrapped around his waist. It's all very incriminating and to make matters worse Stiles' fifteen year old cousin is grinning at them like a loon.
“Uncle Noah!” Scott hollers.
Stiles jerks himself up and away from Derek to chase after the little shit.
“Scott Miguel McCall!” Stiles enters his kitchen in his boxers and tee shirt to find his dad, Camden, and Isaac all up and looking at him. Wherever Erica is, Stiles is just glad its not this room.
“Derek didn’t leave! He was sleeping with Stiles,” Scott crows from the ground where Stiles is currently trying to kill him.
His dad looks thoroughly unimpressed “Stiles, don’t kill your cousin.”
Stiles gives Scott one last shove before letting the kid up.
Derek comes into the kitchen after that. It's not even fair that he looks that good having just gotten up. He is wearing a pair of Stiles pajama pants and they are a little tight and a hoodie over his bare chest. Stiles is still literally in his underwear. This would have killed him a few years ago.
“Morning?” Derek asks.
That’s when Erica comes in and gives Derek a once over, “A good one at that."
Camden makes a little noise in the back of his throat that sounds like he is dying. “I wonder why I ever wanted a little sister.”
“Makes me look like a perfect angel, doesn’t it?” Isaac says.
So yeah Stiles’ Sunday could have had a better start. Camden packs up his young siblings and gets them out of there after breakfast, but demands that Stiles meet him on Wednesday. Stiles packs up Scott and drops him off with his actual Mom. Aunt Melissa might be busy, but she does want to see her son when she can.
Leaving Derek and his dad alone is a bit of a gamble, but way less irritating than Scott's questions in the car.
“So…” Scott starts.
“You know I have black mail on you and Isaac.”
Scott shrugs that off as if it were a minor inconvenience, “The lacrosse team has done way weirder. You had a boy in your bed.”
“We’re both in adults.”
Where the hell did Scott learn that eyebrow thing?
“You made Camden sleep on the couch,” Scott accuses.
“Didn’t want you getting up to anything stupid under the county Sheriff's roof with Isaac. I figured between his big brother and Erica you’d behave yourself,” Stiles knows that kind of a dick move, but its so much fun fucking with Scott.
“You never talk to me about the fun stuff in your life.” Scott grumbles.
“Scott, you know all the fun stuff in my life. My cousin got turned into a werewolf, what else do you think is going on that I haven’t told you?”
“That's my life! Are you telling me life gets so boring when you turn twenty one that teenage drama is the best it's going to get?”
“Absolutely. Now I need you to go tell your mom exactly what you told me.” Aunt Mel will absolutely get a kick out of that.
“Whatever, I’m not some little kid,” Scott slams the door and the Jeep and the whole car rattles. Teenage werewolf aggression is something Stiles is still trying to figure out how to dealt with. If and when he pushes too far is something he will deal when it happens.
His dad and Derek are still drinking coffee when he gets back. Stiles feels like he did when he was little and his parents had to confront him on his behavior at school. Which is stupid he didn’t even do anything to get in trouble.
“What's up?”
“How do you feel about Derek staying here for the foreseeable future?”
Like he is about to have some more really weird shit go down in his life.
While Stiles was gone his dad had decided Derek needed to stay in Beacon Hills until they figured out what happened to his sister. Which, cool okay now the Stilinski’s had a house guest for the foreseeable future. Which added with Scott’s status as a werewolf is probably the best. Stiles can’t teach Scott how to be a good werewolf in human society. So Derek needs a good reason to stay in the area for a while. It saves Stiles from some headaches to keep Derek around. Now he’s been tasked with getting Derek situated in their house and around town.
“You’ve been camping at your burned down childhood home!?” Derek is such a disaster, not that Stiles has much room to judge.
“Laura and I weren’t planning on being here that long.”
Stiles wants to mock him for his poor planning skills, but he guesses that you can’t really plan for life to go to shit.
“I didn’t think my dad would take a man in my bed so well,” Stiles says when it doesn’t seem like Derek is going to be any more forthcoming about the trip he and Laura planned.
“I told him I had nightmares and didn’t want to scare the kids that’s why I was in your bed,” Derek doesn’t meet Stiles eyes. Though they are in the woods packing up Derek’s camp site.
“Was it true? I know you said you didn’t want to be alone,” Stiles knows he is prying.
“To an extent. I didn’t want to be alone last night, big family and even when it was just Laura and I in New York we always slept better the closer we were.” Derek does not seem like he is done, Stiles keeps his mouth shut to see what happens next. “Last night though, I did have a bad dream.”
“Vampire rivals?”
Derek looks at him like he started speaking Polish. So Stiles tries again in his rusty Polish.
“You’re insufferable.” Derek says and pushes him to the side. Stiles grins.
“I am the one helping you,” Stiles points out, “Speaking of which, how much of your life do you need to transfer back over to Beacon hills?”
Derek groans in frustration.
The answer is not much. Derek had just finished his Bachelors a semester early so go him. He and Laura were going to set off on some post college sibling world tour. If Derek isn’t careful he will end up working at the Sheriff's department.
Which means Stiles' life settles into a sort of routine over the next few days. Between caring for his dad, Scott, and Derek he gets to pepper in sessions of twenty questions with Derek about what exactly being a werewolf means. Derek is not exactly a wealth of information. He isn’t very amused when Stiles asks him if Scott needs to go to the vet now instead of the doctor.
“I mean he isn’t all human any more. Doesn’t that like fuck with his biochemistry?”
Derek growls at that, “What just because he’s not human that means he shouldn’t get to see a doctor?”
“What no!? I mean like would regular medications work for him? Like it seems like he’s hungrier than usual and hasn’t needed to use his inhaler. If he had ADHD would those medications still work?”
Derek settles down at that, “Mom used to take us to the doctor when we got sick. I don’t know if anyone has ever done research into human versus werewolf biology,” He pauses, “Well useful research.”
And what does that mean? What kind of research is useless- oh. That could be dark. Or is that a sex joke? Stiles can’t tell. He hopes it’s the later
“Is that a thing, human and werewolf relations?”
“Well I’m here aren’t I?” Derek says. Stiles blue screens again.
“Your mom was a human?”
“Dad, was. Born wolves usually have a werewolf mother, whether the mother was bitten or born doesn’t matter. A born wolf with just a werewolf father is unusual.”
Huh, well that’s interesting information. Stiles wonders if it’s a bit like Judaism, but that’s a can of worms he is not opening with a ten foot pole. Other things can be passed down from the mother, like mitochondria, although that’s not something that can be changed over the course of a lifetime.
Stiles catches sight of the time and realizes he’s gotta pick up Scott and get the kid to Deatons.
“You coming with?” Stiles asks, grabbing his keys.
Derek looks at Stiles like his dad does when Stiles has changed the topic seemingly at random. “Scott is getting out of practice now and I usually give him a ride to work.”
“He can’t drive yet?”
“Nah this coming fall he’ll be getting his permit, kid is only fifteen.”
“You ask me a ton of personal questions, but never offer anything in return,” Derek grouses.
Stiles shrugs, “I’m an open book, what you see is what you get.”
Derek gives him a skeptical look, “What's your job?”
“Officially, writing a breakout mystery novel. Unofficially I am taking care of my family,” He looks over at the scowl on Derek’s face, “And the rogue werewolf in the area.”
Derek mouths those words to himself, “I’m not rogue!”
Stiles laughs at his outrage.
Scott is annoyed at having to sit in the back of the Jeep with all his equipment. Stiles gets to say his favorite line to him, “Them’s the breaks Scottie.”
His eyes flash golden again. Derek growls at him, “Take a breath and calm down.”
Stiles is going to call that look Scott's murder eyes. The murder eyes are not put away and Derek's face goes red.
“Open the window Scott,” Stiles orders, “I’m sure you’ll have fun sticking your head out it anyway.” Both werewolves give Stiles a look of hurt, but Scott does as is asked and they all calm down a bit.
When they pull up to the vet office Derek looks alarmed and worried, “What are we doing here?”
“Scott needs a rabies booster,” Stiles distracts him, while they are waiting for Scott to gather his stuff up.
“Shut up no I don’t,” Scott protests, “I work here, well I volunteered until Dr. Deaton hired me as a part time assistant.” Stiles thinks Scott does too much work at the vets office for his meager minimum wage job, but Scott wants to be a Vet one day. This job also keeps Scott out of trouble, well unsupervised trouble.
Derek moves to get out.
“Whoa where are you going?” Stiles asks.
“I need to talk to Deaton,” is all he offers up. So Stiles turns the Jeep off and gets out to follow his stupid werewolves.
Wait, his werewolves? When did he start thinking that? Scott is his cousin. But Derek is his… reluctant housemate?
“The things I fucking do for this family,” Stiles mutter.
Deaton is looking at the three of them annoyed and resigned, “I guess we have a few things to talk about.”
Stiles is so fucking lost, what would the vet have to talk to them about?
“Scott, you should stay away from the cats for a while, but go and check out supplies. We can walk after I take care of these two.” Scott looks a bit surprised, but does as Deaton tells him. Deaton turns to Stiles and Derek, “With the Argents back in town of course there would have to be more werewolves coming here.”
“We didn’t plan it. Laura and I were planning on leaving the day after New Years. She didn’t bite Scott and neither did I.” Derek is already so defensive.
“You might not have planned it. However, the world is always trying to keep the balance. Although with a newly turned wolf things are bound to be hectic for a while,” Deaton looks at Derek and then Stiles.
“At least one of you lot can keep a cool head.” Stiles resolves not to tell Deaton about his panic attacks and ADHD. Derek snorts.
“Right so you know about their…uh, their furry problem?” Stiles asks.
“He’s a druid, of course he knows,” Derek says.
Stiles turns to him, “Dude, you can’t keep springing this shit on me, werewolves and werewolf Hunters are one thing. You add in druids and suddenly I am questioning a lot more mythology. Vampires? Witches? Any other creepy-crawly from Buffy I should know about?” Stiles explodes. Deaton and Derek exchange a look.
“Vampires are a bastardized myth of some long ago werewolves,” Deaton says.“Everything else is a bit more… conditional.”
“Conditional.” Stiles repeats. He will have to process that more later, “Okay so if you know about this whole supernatural world do you know who the wolf who bit Scott is?”
Deaton looks at Derek, “The only other wolf in Beacon Hills has been comatose for six years.”
“So it has to be an outsider? Someone new to town?”
Derek grabs Stiles' wrist and tugs him outside without another word, “We need to go to the hospital.”
“What why? I am fine. You are fine. What's going on?” Stiles asks as Derek starts patting him down. “Are you looking for my keys?”
“Will you drive us to the hospital?”
“Sure, but explain?”
Derek is sullen and growly for a few minutes before he can get the words out. “My Uncle Peter is in the hospital, their long term ward for his burns. If I was a new wolf in town I would want to know all the wolves in the area.”
Stiles could respect that. The guy was worried for his family. “Didn’t you say that your uncle was basically comatose? What would a werewolf want with another comatose werewolf?”
Derek doesn’t answer, which Stiles is learning is his shorthand for he doesn’t know.
It's a little early for visiting hours but Stiles charms the nurses and they let him and Derek into the ward early. Stiles is a bit useless in looking for whatever Derek is worried about. He mostly stands to the side while Derek sniffs around. Like literally sniffs around the room.
Peter Hale must have been a looker before he was burned. The red scars across his face are horrific. Stiles sits down in the chair by the bed.
“I guess you don’t get many visitors usually.” What is Stiles doing? He remembers visiting his Mom in the hospital. Sometimes she was present but usually Stiles had to fill up the silence with a one sided conversation. Which is kind of what Stiles is doing right now.
“When my mom was in the hospital I would visit her almost every day. The worst six months of my life and I was only like ten. Aunt Mel and Scott were probably the only reasons Dad and I got through it,” Stiles looks down at his wrist where Derek grabbed him earlier. Finger shaped bruises are starting to form. He pulls his sleeves down to cover it.
“I guess it’s a good thing Scottie is strong. I hear that really helps in surviving the first transformation. It’s all a bit like a wild dream. I guess I’m glad I am not the sick one in this scenario. That nightmare was getting old. Not that Scottie is sick, in fact I think it cured him of his asthma. He used to get it really bad, but since the new moon he’s not really needed the medications.”
Stiles is aware that Derek is paying attention to what Stiles is saying to Peter, why Derek has zeroed in on what Stiles is saying he can’t be too sure.
Derek mouths the words “Keep going,” to Stiles and he stumbles for a minute.
“He’s a really good kid. We were worried about him last year when he was caught with that group of kids tagging the high school. He was lucky he didn’t really know what he was getting into with them and that he’s the Sheriff's nephew, he could have gotten in a lot more trouble.” Derek is shaking his head.
They leave shortly after that.
“He stopped listening,” Derek tells Stiles, “For a moment he was really listening to what you had to say.”
“How do you know?”
Derek makes a hand wavy gesture, “Between his heart rate, his breathing, and the way his scent changed it felt like he was really listening.”
“You can tell that sort of stuff?” Stiles squeaks out. He thought he was past that age of occasionally sounding like a squeaky toy.
Derek shrugs. Again with the non-answers, except this time Stiles knows Derek has an answer.
“Hey wait, does this mean Scott can tell when I tune him out? Can you tell when I tune you out?”
“Your father can tell when you aren’t listening.”
Stiles' life is absolutely unfair.
~.x.~
The next day his dad makes Stiles and Derek come with him to the station. Stiles spends most of the morning dicking around on his laptop, editing and re-editing old chapters of his work. He could have done this at home, but his dad insisted he come into the station. Derek is apparently being questioned further on Laura's death, at least that's what Stiles thinks until around noon when Derek sits next to him.
“Hey man are you okay?” Derek looks worn out in a way that reminds him of Saturday when they found Laura's body.
Derek grunts and Stiles notices his dad standing in front of him.
“What's going on?”
“Some new things came to light. It's probably best if you take Derek home for a bit.”
“Yeah sure, but what happened?”
“As the Sheriff I can’t talk about it. As your father,” he pauses and looks to be hesitant, “I would hope to never have you in the same situation,” Stiles’s dad answers, skirting the line between professional and parental. Derek looks like he wants to crawl into bed. Stiles can’t think of what would make his dad say that.
Stiles feels like he is fifteen again babysitting Scott after Aunt Mel divorced Scott’s sperm donor. Scott was a mopey nine year old for a while there. Stiles perfected the PB and J sandwiches lunches and usually helped Scott with his homework, but now he is trying to get Derek to talk to him.
“Do you want to tell me what happened?”
Derek's lips twitch, but he still won't meet Stiles' eyes. He hadn't answered the first three times Stiles had tried this. So Stiles gets his comforter and wraps it around Derek. He thinks Derek might take a sniff of the blanket and pulls it tighter around himself.
“I was answering more questions about Laura when the house fire came up.”
Oh. Stiles bites his tongue not to burst out with any interruptions, this is the farthest he has gotten, “They asked if I knew anyone who might have wanted to hurt my family.”
He did.
“I did. Her name was Kate Argent, she was-”
Stiles knew this, Kate Argent had been a substitute English teacher the fall of 2004 and she had left abruptly after Christmas on a family emergency. Which was fine because Mrs. Brown was set to come back at the beginning of February. Stiles didn’t have Mrs. Brown that year, but he liked her and was excited to show off his college acceptance letters to her.
“-my first.”
Wait. Hold on Stiles was missing some information.
“Your first?”
Derek's tongue peeks out from between his lips, wetting them nervously, “Yeah.”
Stiles' brain clicks a moment later, “But she was a teacher? And you were fifteen, sixteen. That's, that’s statutory rape.”
Derek nodes but doesn’t look at Stiles. Stiles is still reeling trying to imagine Scott in a sexual relationship with his teachers. And no, that's just awful. Why was Derek in such a position?
“Why would Kate want to hurt you in such a way?” Stiles asks.
“Because my family was full of werewolves and her is a family of werewolf hunters.”’
Stiles is beyond pissed that this happened. Why target Derek, why target the Hales specifically, what reason could they possibly have to justify what Kate Argent did.
“That's so fucked up man,” Stiles says, “I’m so sorry this happened to you. Can I, uh, can I hug you?”
Stiles is pulled into Derek's body and comforter almost before the words are out of his mouth. Honestly it's a little like his comforter is trying to eat him, but Derek is warm and comforting. Stiles wants to help his friend the best he can. But he knows there is more to the story than Derek is telling him and maybe more than Derek knows. Stiles remembers Derek saying he smelled like home when the other man's nose brushes against his neck. Now is probably not the time to ask about that.
Later, Camden calls and bitches at Stiles for thirty minutes because it seems like Scott has lost his tiny little werewolf mind and forgotten about Isaac in favor of Allison.
Stiles can’t do much but listen and say he’ll talk to Scott. Stiles didn’t have many friends in High School, and when his best friend left him for another affections it was never long. Lydia absolutely ditched him for her flavor of the week, but Stiles was the one she’d tell everything. Stiles was the one she came back to over and over. When they tried dating it was too much like kissing his own sister for Stiles. Stiles had a niggling suspicion that it might not have been his platonic feelings for Lydia that were the issue there.
When Camden takes a break to make sure Stiles is still on for their plans later, Stiles realizes he had forgotten the date. Either his dad will get home on time or he’ll have to take Derek with him.
His dad texts him ten minutes later telling him he needs to stay late at the office. One of the deputies called out with a sick toddler. Stiles is taking Derek to the sports bar and grill Camden wants to meet at. It goes well for a bit; they are all getting along when Derek excuses himself from dinner.
“Seriously dude, since when were you friends with him?” Camden asks.
“What, he’s not a bad guy. Dad wants to help him get back on his feet. What's your deal with him?”
“Seriously you don’t remember?”
“I skipped two years of school after Mom died. I didn’t spend much time or attention on high school drama. Explain it to me.”
Camden snorts, “Yeah I guess you wouldn’t. The Hale family was a big name in town before the fire, you know that they were all a little odd. Okay but like Derek dated this girl Paige Kra-somthing really Polish when we were like sophomores.”
“Paige Krasikeva, the girl who died in that weird animal attack in the spring of 2004.”
Camden nods, “Yeah that one I told you you knew it.”
Stiles frowns, “So he dated a girl who died in an animal attack, that's not weird, that's tragic.”
“Before it all went down he was pretty popular like Scott, confident, friendly and a bit of a temper but afterwards, he was all quiet and subdued. He seemed so guilty over it.”
“Camden, his girlfriend died of course he was depressed.”
“Okay, sure but then in the fall he was almost back to his normal self. And that really hot substitute teacher started paying attention to him and he was almost never around. He was almost cut from the basketball team because he skipped too frequently. And then the fire happened over Christmas break and he and his sister left town.”
Stiles is starting to get it. Derek has the worst luck in relationships it seems.
Camden puts it all together for Stiles, “Now he's back in town after his sister had been brutally murdered. Like death seems to follow him around.”
Stiles stares at him open mouthed, “Dude. He just has the worst luck.”
Camden looks at him harder. “Or he is dangerous.”
“I live with the Sheriff of Beacon Hills,” Stiles reminds him.
“Just be careful is all I am saying. No one thought anything was wrong with Dad until you brought it to your dad's attention,” Camden sips his beer and sits back in his seat.
The thing is Stiles can see where Camden is coming from, but Stiles knows better. Derek didn’t kill his sister. Derek was the victim with Kate. Stiles doesn’t know what really happened with Derek and Paige, but he knows Derek didn’t hurt the girl.
Except now Camden is looking at Stiles arm where the finger shaped bruises still linger.
Oh.
“It's not like that.” Stiles hisses.
“Then do you want to tell me how that really happened?”
“I slipped, he caught me, that's all.” Stiles lies. Which is of course when Derek returns.
“When was that?” There is no way Derek overheard that conversation. Camden looks between the two.
“When you bruised his arm,” Camden spits out with as much anger and accusation in his voice as he could manage.
Derek needs to stop looking so pale and shaky, “I- what?”
Stiles' heart is beating too fast, “When you grabbed my arm the other day, it left a bruise.”
“Look I don’t care what is going on between you two, but you need to remember his father is the town Sheriff and I owe Stiles more than standing by and being a shitty friend,” Camden was on more than a few sports teams in high school. He is on track to joining the sheriff department once he finishes his degree. He can be down right scary when he wants to.
“I- didn’t know,” Derek whispers.
“Don’t let it happen again,” Camden tosses enough cash on the table for their meals and leaves.
Notes:
Up next:
Derek is unsupervised, Stiles takes a wolf to the vet, and Scott has sticky fingers.Chapter title in reference to Laura’s body being found.
Anyway drop your theories on Stiles, illness and snarky comments included.
Chapter 3: The Bullet
Summary:
Derek needs some help, Scott learns a thing or two about werewolves, we get Stiles and Hale Family Lore, and we get a guest star POV.
Notes:
Canon is well and truely dead in this chapter. I am still scavenging the body for bits I liked.
Also if you pay attention in this chapter Stiles does what I am referring to as: The Thing™️. It happens in almost every chapter and when its pointed out you will be mad. It happens in almost every chapter.
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
“Scott wants to know if you have any clue on who the werewolf who bit him is,” Stiles tells a pale and sweaty Derek who is lying on the couch. “However, I want to know if werewolves can get sick.”
Derek scoffs, “I told you werewolves don’t get the common colds.”
“So what's all this about?” Stiles gestures to where Derek is pale and pasty and sweating his ass off on the Stilinski couch.
Derek groans, “I’m fine.”
Stiles swoops in next to him and sets his hand on Derek's forehead Derek bats his hands away feebly but not before Stiles feels how warm the other man is.
“You’re not fine, you're burning up,” Stiles tells him firmly.
Derek flashes his eyes blue at Stiles. Stiles grabs his arm when he notices the lump on his inner arm. Bout an inch down from his elbow is a freaking bullet wound that looks very fresh.
“You told me werewolves don’t stay hurt, what is this?” Stiles feels his temper rising.
“I was shot.”
“Clearly, when did this happen?” Fight dead pan delivery with sarcasm, they aren’t getting anywhere anyway.
“I ran into some hunters last night and they shot me. I thought it might have been a fluke. I’d be okay after sleeping it off.”
“You were gone for maybe ten minutes, Derek! I can’t take my eyes off you for twenty minutes. What did you get shot by a silver bullet? Is this a werewolf thing, is Scott going to be like this constantly getting himself into trouble and getting himself killed.” Stiles is freaking out a bit. He closes his eyes and takes a deep breath. “What do I do, tell me there's something more I can do than let you die on my couch?”
“Take me to Deaton.”
There is a certain level of irony that the werewolf is asking Stiles to take him to the fucking vet. It’s amazing Deaton is able to stay in business with so few employees. Between the vet and his sister who acts as both the reception and a vet tech when needed they can barely be breaking even with the addition of Scott part time. The place is completely empty on a Thursday afternoon, which is convenient for them, but not great for Deaton's bottom line.
“I was told it was insensitive to ask if a werewolf went to see a doctor or a vet, but he told me to bring him to you,” Stiles tells Deaton.
Deaton is scanning Derek, “You better come into the back and explain what happened.”
Stiles helps Derek to the back room. This would have been so much harder back in high school when he was a scrawny twig. Stiles isn’t small but he is nowhere near as brawny as Derek is.
“I was shot this morning on a run through the preserve,” Derek tells the vet. He pulls up his sleeves and shows Deaton the bullet wound. Since when did Derek do morning runs?
Deaton hisses, “It's not healing is it? Do you know what kind of bullet was used?”
Derek shakes his head, “It must have had poison on it.”
“Wolfsbane poisoned bullets,” Stiles whispers to himself, horrified.
Deaton looks grim as he digs the lead that was stuck in Derek's arm out. Derek grits his teeth and growls. Once the remnant of the bullet is pulled from Derek's arm the man looks worse. Deaton is prodding the lump of lead with one of the tools.
“It's been a while since I had any aconite on hand. Not many wolves in the area any more,” Deaton speaks as he is going through his cabinet’s. “I might- oh no.”
“What’s oh no. How is it an oh no.” Stiles is freaking out.
Deaton reveals a glass jar with two small yellow flowers at the bottom.
“It appears I’ll need to restock.”
“Okay so restock?” Stiles feels like he is missing something.
“It’s not as simple as going to the grocery store and picking up more painkillers,” Deaton says, “It has to be that specific type of aconite, which doesn’t grow around here or the same poison as what was shot into Derek.”
Stiles' phone beeps with a text from Scott.
“What do we do?”
“That's up to you, I am restricted by the Druidic responsibilities. I must keep things in balance.”
“That’s a load of bull shit. If you don’t help him then there will be one less wolf in the area where more and more Hunters are moving in. The balance is already disturbed.” Stiles yells showing Deaton the text from Scott. It reads, Going to Allisons place after school to study. Her aunt is in town.
“Allison is an Argent. Her aunt is not here on some kind of family visit.”
“I can’t just go to the Argents and ask for some of their aconite laced bullets. That-” Stiles is cut off.
“Get Scott to find it.” Derek speaks up from where he is leaning over the exam table.
“That might work.” Deaton says.
“Wait, hold on, think about this. You want to send a fifteen year old freshly turned werewolf into a house of werewolf hunters,” Stiles is not okay with this plan.
Deaton smiles, “There is a certain sense of poetry to that. A wolf pup in a hunters den to save a pack mate. If he succeeds the pack would be bound better.”
“ ‘If’? If he is successful? If he doesn't, Derek dies and worse the hunters know Scott is a werewolf, I really don’t like this plan.”
“I’ll die when the infection reaches my heart, there is a last resort before that,” Derek looks at a bone saw meaningfully.
Why is Stiles the only one with any kind of common sense around here, “You mean cut off your arm? What if you bleed to death?”
“Last resort,” Deaton reiterates, “And something we can revisit in two hours. Call Scott.”
Stiles takes a step away to call the kid.
“Stiles?” His cousin sounds confused.
“Hey Scottie, I need to ask a favor.”
“We’re just going to study-” Scott is ready to protest.
“No it's not about your study date with Allison. Derek’s been hurt and needs a special kind of bullet to reverse the poisoning. We think if you go to her house you can find what kind of bullets he was shot with.”
“What? You know her Dad is an arms dealer right? What does that have to do with,” Scotts voice gets quieter, “Our wolf problem.”
Shit Stiles knew they had forgotten to tell Scott the Argents were werewolf hunters. Stiles had thought the kid has put it all together already.
“Scottie, I am asking you to trust me on this. They will have what we need and I will explain it all after this crisis is over. I’ll pick you up in an hour and a half okay?”
“I guess, but Stiles I don’t like this.”
“Me either kiddo,” Stiles tells him when he hangs up. When Stiles goes back into the exam room not much has changed.
“Scott tends to do well with a time limit, but how do we prevent this in the future?” Stiles demands.
Deaton is on a laptop, “I am contacting another druid in Colorado if they are willing to send some samples of their own aconite flowers so I can get my stock up again.”
Colorado, wonderful Stiles thinks. What do they sell wolfsbane along with weed there?
“What about the failwolf over there?” Stiles nods to Derek who is slumped against the wall.
“We wait.”
So helpful.
It's a relief when Scott calls, “I think I found it but, Stiles, I need an assist out of here.”
Stiles rolls his eyes, “Yeah okay coming. Do you know what it's called?”
“Northern Blue Monkshood. Stiles are these guys, are they werewolf hunters?” Scott asks. And he sounds young and terrified and just like he did when his parents were getting a divorce and Stiles was the person he wanted comfort from. A lump of guilt is in the back of his throat.
“We’ll talk about that when this is over okay?” Stiles promises. He tells Deaton the name of the aconite poison and is shooed out the door and told to get back quickly.
The Argent house is in the same neighborhood Lydia's family lives in, so that's to say the house looks expensive and the neighbors are stuck up. Stiles’ Jeep sticks out like a sore thumb. He doesn’t know why he feels like he is picking up his prom date when he knocks on the door.
The woman who answers it has dyed red hair that looks like it used to be a buzz cut. She also kind of looks like an unhappily married lesbian. “Hello?”
“Hi, yeah I’m here to pick Scott up,” Stiles tries to sound sure of himself.
When she gives him another look over, Stiles adds that he’s Scott's cousin.
“I’m Victoria, Allison's Mom. Come on in. I think they are just finishing up. I was going to keep him over for dinner, but he couldn't give me a straight answer as to when his mother was getting out of work.” Her manor was not exactly warm.
“Oh Aunt Mel works late on Thursdays. I usually feed him dinner while Dad does payroll at the station,” Stiles babbles on his way in.
“You sound like a close family,” Victoria says.
Stiles shrugs, “Between the divorce and Mom dying we kind of had to be.”
“I’m sorry to hear that,” a man's voice comes. Stiles looks at the newcomer. If Derek’s appearance hadn’t made him question his sexuality this man would. He has kind blue eyes and enough rugged stubble to make Stiles a bit jealous how well it works with his close cropped hair. Stiles always looks like a cue ball when he buzzes his hair. And he can’t grow a beard for shit.
“I- Thank you. It’s been a decade.”
“Losing family members is never easy.”
“No it's not.”
The man must be Allison's dad, or really attractive older brother, Stiles decides.
“You’re the Sheriff's boy? Stilinski? He stopped by the other day.”
Stiles flashes a quick smile, “Yeah that's my dad. He does that sort of stuff. I hear you are an arms dealer.”
Where the hell is Scott and why is Stiles getting the third degree from the werewolf hunters?
“That's one of my jobs,” The man agrees, “what about you? You don’t look old enough to be out of school.”
Stiles shrugs, “I graduated early then took the year off. Aunt Mel needed help keeping a closer eye on Scott.”
Stiles is going to go out on a limb here and call this man Argent. Until he actually introduces himself to Stiles.
Argent pauses and thinks for a minute, “His last name is McCall and yours is Stilinski. How does that work out?”
“Gran left Grandpa Stilinski for Grandpa McCall.” Stiles gives Argent the short and sweet answer but really Dad and Scott's sperm donor are sixteen years apart. Stiles always thought his gran had terrible taste in men. Grandpa Stilinski and McCall were both kind of awful. How his dad turned out halfway decent Stiles doesn’t know and will not question the implications it has for himself. Scott is a ball of sunshine thats a trait he inherited from Aunt Mel.
There is not much Argent can say to that summary.
Thankfully Scott and Allison hurdle down the stairs before Stiles has to think of anything else.
“Hey Stiles,” Scott greets, trying to look unbothered.
“Took you long enough, you have everything?” Stiles asks.
Scott nods. They are almost out the door when a blond woman who looks like Allison yells for them to stop.
Stiles knows this woman from Derek's descriptions. This is Kate Argent.
“Someone took something from my room,” Kate accuses.
Stiles looks at Scott and then Allison's parents.
Scott can’t lie for the life of him. It's very possible that he took something from Kate's room, but Stiles asked him to do so.
“I didn’t,” Scott manages to be convincing on that. Stiles is glad of it.
“Right so my purse happened to upend itself on my bed?” Kate is glaring right at Scott.
“I didn’t go through your purse, my mom would kill me if I did that.” Stiles doesn’t think Scott went through her purse.
“Aunt Kate,” Allison protests.
“No it's not right that your friend goes through my stuff,” Kate looks like she is building up to a rant.
Allison reaches into her pocket and pulls out a small foiled object. Allison has a sealed condom wrapper in her hand, “I went through your stuff.”
Has anyone had the bird and the bees conversation with Scott? Or does that need to be the wolves and the bees conversation.
“Okay awesome, we gotta go, family emergency. I’ll talk to him about this, you talk to her,” Stiles pushes a red faced Scott out the door.
“Get in the Jeep, we’ll talk on the way to Deatons,” Stiles growls.
“I didn’t know she did that,” Scott says, his voice high with anxiety.
“Not the details I am worried about right now. You’re a smart kid, you use protection. But, uh.. has someone had that conversation with you. And like more than tab an and slot b?”
Scott's face is bright red, “Not really, that and I -uh this wolf thing might factor into that as well.”
Stiles nods, “Right we will get right on that after we fix up Derek and find this rogue wolf. Hey maybe the rogue wolf can-”
“Please, god no. Can’t you?” Scott interrupts and pleads.
Stiles shakes his head, “Nah you do not want me to give you the birds, the bees, and the wolf talk. I only got tab a and slot b. I wouldn’t know how to factor in fangs and claws.”
Scott gives him a look. “That would explain so much.”
“One day I will leave your scrawny ass on the side of the road and never pick you up again.”
Scott flashes a 100 kilowatt smile at Stiles, “Uncle Noah would never let you.”
“You have the bullet right?” Stiles ignores the fact that Scott is his dads favorite for the moment.
Scott holds the bullet up. Stiles does a double take he shouldn’t do while driving.
“Why is it in a baggie?”
“It's an aconite bullet, I’m a werewolf,” Scott stresses.
Okay, point in favor for Scott. The kid is using protection, maybe he doesn’t need the talk? Stiles would have used his bare hands and not a sandwich baggie, but that is only because he doesn’t carry around evidence baggies anymore. Stiles throws the Jeep into park at the Clinic and hustles Scott inside.
“Okay we have the bullet,” Stiles tells Deaton, who looks to be prepping the bone saw.
Stiles feels his blood drain from his face. He really doesn’t like the idea of Derek with one less arm, but now is not the time to yell at the doctor. “What do we do?”
Derek of all people is the one who snatches the bullet out of Scott’s hand and bites off the tip of it to sprinkle the dried monkshood onto the table. And then lights it on fire. What the fuck, seriously how does that work? Stiles was expecting a tincture type thing, not werewolf magic. The wound heals itself before their eyes and Stiles feels a bit queasy.
Then Derek passes out.
Like, he drops right then and there onto the floor of the exam room. Stiles is on him quicker than he can open his mouth to shout at Deaton about that not working.
“No, no. Absolutely not. You have made my life a living hell since you have come into it you do not get out of it this quickly,” Stiles is shaking Derek from the side ready to start CPR if need be. Derek is thankfully breathing so Stiles straddles him to get a good smack on the man.
Wow does it hurt to slap a werewolf, just as Stiles is winding up for a second slap Derek grabs his hand. Stiles freezes and then slumps down on Derek.
“Oh. Thank god, you’re okay,” Stiles is babbling into Derek’s chest.
“You good?” Scott asks. The sound of his voice feels distant to Stiles. Two warm hands settle on Stiles' back and hold him tight bringing him back down to earth.
“Aside from the hysterical Sheriff son on top of me and agonizing pain I’m great,” Derek rumbles from beneath Stiles. Derek sits up and shifts Stiles' weight so that Derek is the one holding Stiles in his lap. Stiles takes a couple of calming breaths.
“You were going to be literally dismembered,” Stiles points out.
Derek laughs. “I think you are looking for the word disarmed. My member is still very much attached.” Derek murmurs apparently loud enough for Scott to react with a retching noise.
“The use of dick jokes is probably a good sign of health. I am going to ask you three to leave the clinic. I need to sanitize the room so we can reopen tomorrow,” Deaton shows them out of the clinic for the rest of the day.
Stiles is sitting in the front of his Jeep with Derek in the passenger seat and Scott in the back.
“I did you your favor. Are you going to explain what's going on now? Are the Argents werewolf hunters? Why didn’t you tell me earlier?” Scott demands
“Quite frankly because I didn’t want you to know while you had an object to steal from them. Also Scott, I am still reeling from almost seeing Derek die, so give me a moment,” Stiles turns in his seat to tell Scott hand motions and all.
Derek grabs Stiles hand and rubs it out of Scotts eyes eyesight. Something in Stiles' chest unfurls just a little bit. He doesn’t really want to see anyone die again.
“Okay but like my girlfriend's family is full of werewolf hunters?”
“It’s never a fun fact to find out,” Derek says.
“What, like you have experience with that?” Scott scoffs.
Derek's eyes flash blue at Scott. “Yeah actually I do.”
Scott and Stiles jump back in shock at the admission.
“Oh.” Scott's voice is soft and unsure of where to tread.
“Six years ago my family’s house was set on fire while my older sister and I were out on a joy ride. Eleven people were stuck inside and died. Not all of them were werewolves either. Not my dad, not baby Nate, not my older brother.” Derek’s voice was tight and full of pain. Stiles squeezed his hand in reassurance.
“But that wasn’t Allison’s family?” Scott asks.
“Scott, listen to my heartbeat and tell me if I am lying when I say yes. It absolutely was Allison's family that killed mine. Heartbeats don’t stutter or skip when someone is telling the truth.”
“They had to have had a good reason right, people don’t go around killing others,” Stiles wants to shut Scott's mouth before he can say anything else dumb and really set Derek off. There had been times when Stiles too often suffered from Foot in Mouth disease.
“Like what? You tell me what could possibly justify murder on that scale. The Hunters code says they’ll only kill adults and only then with absolute proof. There were people in my family who were perfectly ordinary in that fire. It's what they do, it's what Allison will do given enough time.”
Scott looks close to tears. He wipes the tears that have yet to fall out of his eyes and glares at Stiles, “How long? How long have you known about the Argents and not told me?”
Stiles swallows, “Do you think you would have taken it any better?”
“Just tell me,” Scott pleads.
“Not long, a day maybe. I haven’t seen you in that time to tell you. And does it matter?” Stiles asks.
Scott doesn’t meet his eyes but reluctantly answers, “No I guess not.”
“Great, then I am driving us home and making beef stroganoff while you do your homework and wrap your head around the idea of how dangerous the Argent family can be, because I am still working on that one.”
~.x.~
Stiles can’t hear exactly what Derek and Scott are discussing in the other room but it sure as hell is not Scott’s geometry homework. It still settled something inside of him to know they were both safe and soon to be fed.
“-really lie to themselves?” Scott's voice doesn’t care so much as the acoustics in the Stilinski house are funky sometimes.
“If it’s something they wholeheartedly believe absolutely,” Derek answers. It’s good that they are getting this werewolf bonding time. Scott has never really been at a want for male authority figures in his life, but there aren’t a whole lot of werewolves that can talk him through this.
"-beat is steady and he doesn't smell like sickness. He’s okay.”
“He just. He never talks about it.”
“I’d imagine his health is a hard topic to talk about after what happened to your aunt,” Derek answers. Stiles missed part of the conversation, but he didn’t know Scott was as worried about Stiles’ Dad as Stiles was.
“I just wish he did more for himself, he doesn’t have to take care of us all the time.”
Derek makes a sound that is close to a laugh, but not quite, “This is part of being such a small pack. If there were more of us around it would be easier for you not to fixate so hard on one member. After the fire I was very focused on Laura’s health to the point that I got too nosey for my own good and found out way too much about my sister's reproductive health.”
Stiles can imagine the look on Scott's face. Though to be honest that might just be him projecting. Stiles wasn’t any good at period things but Scott would pick up his mom a box of midol and chocolates without batting an eye. Stiles kind of wonders what Derek’s wolf nose told him that was TMI for his sister's period but also didn’t really need to know.
“Dinner!” Stiles called from the kitchen when it hit him he was spying on the werewolves. Well at least they felt safe enough to let their guard down and talk freely. He wonders if maybe they underestimate human hearing abilities and that is why he got to listen for so long.
Scott and Derek come in from the dining room to the kitchen when Stiles has served the soup.
“Get all your math homework done?” Stiles asks.
Scott scowls, “Geometry is the worst.”
Stiles laughs as Scott goes on a rant about how proofs aren’t even math because where are the numbers.
“How is playing tutor?” Stiles asks Derek.
“It's fine,” Derek is eying him suspiciously. “What are you dancing around?”
“Scotts parent teacher conferences are coming up. If he gets his grades up he won’t have to go in with aunt Mel.”
“You know I am not actually tutoring him.”
“Nah you are, just not with the school stuff he needs to know,” Stiles is grinning at the annoyance that is rolling off the two of them.
“The parent teacher conferences are next week?” Scott asks.
“Nope, they are in two weeks, week after the full moon,” Stiles tells him, “Which by the way what is the plan for that?”
Derek makes a thoughtful noise in the back of his throat, “We’ll probably have to chain him up in the basement, feed him live rats.”
“You’re lying,” Scott accuses him. Derek grins at him.
“Catching on quick there cub. We’ll just run you to the point of exhaustion during the day and feed you a big meal, probably go camping in the preserve.”
“Mhh it's a school night, Aunt Mel won't go for that,” Stiles tells him.
“I don’t want to go camping,” Scott whines.
“Scott I don’t know how to break it to you but you’re going to have to go camping for the next like what 1200 moons,” Stiles pats his back. Scott whimpers like a puppy. It makes Stiles' heart sing for joy. It's just so cute.
“Cheer up cub, it's probably closer to 900. Besides, you'll love it. Chasing after woodland creatures in the preserve is a blast.” Derek’s sarcasm is really dry.
“What happens after 900 moons?” Scot perks up.
“You die?” Derek seems bewildered by the question.
“I’ll die!” Scott's face is glorious in shock at the revelation.
“I mean werewolves don’t live forever, nor do humans for that matter,” Derek is so relaxed talking about their inevitable deaths that Stiles feels wigged out.
“You are a little slow aren’t you? 900 moons is like 75 years, 1200 moons is a hundred,” Derek rattles off the information quickly and then pauses for a second, probably double checking his math.“Scott, do you want to live until you are 115?”
“No.” Scott sound unsure.
“Okay then next wednesday night you’ll have your first full moon as a werewolf. It's better to count up the moon than to count down the moons.” Derek says.
“Wednesday? I was going to go bowling with Allison that night.”
Stiles knows Scott has a scrimmage that night, he really is a disaster.
“You can reschedule,” Stiles tells him, “It’s all part of growing up.”
~.x.~
The next few days Derek spends a lot of time with Scott working on his temper and general werewolf things. Stiles doesn’t go out with them while they are doing things like following animal scents and centering themselves. He’s there more often than not with his notebook. His official book has taken a back seat to Stiles wanting to document and know more about his wolves. He’s stopped trying to figure out why that's how he has come to think of Derek and Scott.
Watching them together makes Stiles wonder about Derek's family. How big was the wolf pack he had grown up in? What was it like after the fire? Did Laura teach him all of this or did he have to figure it out on his own? Scott is not exactly a natural from Stiles perspective but it does become clear that Scott knows exactly how to get under Derek’s nerves.
On Saturday afternoon Derek takes a spectacular fall that would have probably killed a human. While Stiles is still remembering how to breathe, Scott is right there at Derek's side.
Derek tries to push Scott to the side before Scott snaps at him that his arm will heal wrong if Scott doesn’t set it. Derek is growling and snarling at the teenager, but Scott doesn’t seem to care. He re-breaks Derek's arm and sets it correctly, which is impressive.
“How did you do that?” Stiles asks.
Scott looks at him sideways, “I work at a vet clinic? Greenberg broke his arm in practice once. I was the one who stayed with him while the ambulance arrived.”
Stiles thinks that over. Yeah okay maybe Scott isn’t a total idiot. Working with animals would give him an edge with grumpy and poorly socialized werewolves.
“For his age, he is not a bad healer,” Derek admits.
Scott beams, “I also drew away some of the pain like you taught me.”
That must have been a lesson that Stiles missed, because what?
~.x.~
Camden has convinced Stiles that they need one last good movie night before he goes back to college for the semester. Which is how that evening they end up in the Stilinski’s living room to watch some action movie. Except that’s not exactly what happens. What is actually happening is probably closer to an interrogation. Erica has goaded the boys into explaining how exactly Stiles and Camden knew Derek.
Scott has managed to grab all of Stiles' old year books from the attic. Wow does Stiles wish that Scott’s asthma didn't go away with his werewolf abilities. It would have been a good reason not to go spelunking in the attic.
“Stiles really did look like a cue ball his freshman year,” Erica says.
Stiles wants to roll his eyes. He was a scrawny twig of a kid back then.
“Haha, very funny cat women. Flips through the rest of that year book and you’ll see Camden the year he wouldn’t cut his hair. Derek is also in there somewhere.”
“Basketball team page probably has one of me,” Derek volunteers. The hope that they could wrap this up quickly has long since died for anyone over age twenty.
“You really don’t want them to see the sports pages, I was on the swim team,” Camden tells Stiles
“And cross country and-“ Camden interrupts by putting a hand over Isaac’s mouth.
”That’s enough.”
“Aren’t people usually proud of their high school sports teams?” Scott asks.
Stiles gleefully finds the worst of the candid shots of Camden and shows the teenagers.
“I can’t believe you don’t remember the hair arguments your parents had,” Stiles teases Erica and Isaac handing over that particular yearbook to them.
Scott is paging through a different yearbook and a familiar looking face sticks out on the page. He points this out to Stiles.
“Derek is that you?” Stiles points to the boy in the picture.
“What? No this is your freshman year book right?” Derek peers at the photo and his whole demeanor changes.
“Oh, that’s Finn,” he says, flipping through the pages to the senior portraits and finding the glossy portrait of a boy that looks a lot like Derek. The caption reads Finnagan Hale.
“Finnegan?” Scott questions.
“Dad was really Irish.”
Stiles wonders where Derek as a name came from. “Mark is probably in this one too.”
Derek finds the portrait of a dark haired youth that definitely looks like Derek with less impressive eyebrows. And wow Stiles knew Derek's family had died in the fire but he hadn’t remembered how big the family was. It’s like they can’t throw a cat without hitting a dead Hale. Stiles vaguely remembers a moment of silence at his graduation ceremony for the lost students.
Isaac and Scott are now combing through the pages to see if they can find any more lost Hales in the pages.
Camden has softened toward Derek over the few hours they have spent together that night, “I forgot how big your family was. You all just disappeared over that break.”
“Laura was in charge of most of that. It’s all kind of fuzzy,” Derek admits.
While Derek and Camden are making nice, Isaac and Scott are in paroxysms over a candid of fourteen year old Stiles making a weird face in a photo.
Erica is looking through the 2003-2004 yearbook and is paused in the sophomore pages, “Look at this girl. She looks like Stiles in a wig.”
Stiles squawks in indignation because wow that was mean. He is not sure if it was mean to the girl or to him but still that was very much rude. Scott and Isaac scramble over themselves to see what Erica was pointing at.
The girl really does look like Stiles in a wig. Camden gets a glance at the pages and snorts. Derek’s face does a weird thing.
“Paige Krasikeva,” Scott reads and frowns, “Why do I know that name? Is she one of your cousins?” Scott asks.
“Wow, Scott you can’t just ask if some vaguely European name is related to your vaguely European cousin.” Isaac throws at him.
How people think Isaac is all sugar and spice and butter wouldn’t melt in his mouth when he says shit like that, Stiles will never know. Isaac is perpetually the personification of a cat who knocked the glass of water off the counter and pretends to be both innocent and surprised by the results.
“You went to her funeral,” Derek says. His tone so far from the snappy banter that had been going moments before. He pulls the year book out of Erica’s hand and flips to the dedication in the back. In loving memory of Paige Krasikeva 1989-2004.
“How did she die?” Erica asks.
“A wild animal attack,” Stiles had looked into her death a few days prior. It was ruled an accident but her body was found in the woods attacked by a mountain lion. Her broken spine was ruled the ultimate cause of death. It wasn’t easy to explain. Stiles was also starting to think that mountain lion wasn’t really a mountain lion.
Scott is looking at Derek eyes full of questions, “I was at her funeral, but so were you.”
“We had been dating.” Derek’s voice is dull and void of emotion.
Scott turns to Stiles, “Why was I at her funeral?”
Stiles had to dig through his memory to find a good reason why he might have been there, “Your parents were involved I think? I can’t remember the exact reasons. Maybe they were friends with the Krasikevas.”
“This is depressing as fuck,” Camden interupts, “Are we going to watch the Tron remake?”
It’s a good break in the tension. Stiles has to give to the other man, still kind of abrupt.
“Camden is right, let's get the movie started before a murder can happen. Scott, Isaac go make the popcorn, Erica gets the TV set up.”
“You’re going to burn down my fucking kitchen,” Stiles grumbles following half the teenagers into the kitchen to supervise the popcorn making. It almost proved to be unnecessary until Scott lost his temper and snapped at Isaac for dropping the bowl. Derek came in to cool Scott off while Isaac and Stiles remade the snack.
~.x.~
Noah Stilinski thought for a while he wouldn’t come home to a house full of teenagers and young adults. He and Claudia wanted more kids, but after the difficulties with Stiles they never really got the chance. Then when Stiles proved to be too smart for his own good he left most of his peers behind and didn’t bond with his older classmates. And yet here Noah was coming home to a group of young people in his living room eating his food and watching his TV.
He wouldn’t have it any other way really. It was partially his fault he had all but adopted the Hale boy. Scott was his nephew and didn’t count. The Lehays’ are Stiles’ and Scott's friends. The Reyes girl Noah couldn’t quite figure out why she kept hanging out with all the boys. Her family fostered and offered to adopt the Lehays.
After the surge in animal attacks Noah was glad they were all here under his roof. He gave himself a minute to watch the six of them in the living room. Scott and Issac flanked Erica while Camden sat behind them, annoying his younger brother with his socked-feet. Stiles looked- plastered to Derek's side. Noah wondered if they were aware of how close they had gotten over the past week and a half.
“Stiles,” Noah interrupted and motioned with his head to talk in the other room. His son murmured something to the others and extracted himself from Derek's side and came over to Noah. When Stiles was Scott age he might have fallen on his face while doing that. Now it was done with a minimal amount of stumbling. They don’t seem to be pausing the movie.
“What's up Dad?” Stiles asked, eyeing the folder in Noah's hands.
“I want you to take a look at something. Fresh eyes and all.”
Noah didn’t do this often but occasionally he needed fresh eyes to try and figure out a case. Stiles has expressed plenty of interest in solving hard cases. Between his health and the extenuating circumstances around Scott it really was a shame that Stiles didn’t go into that FBI program. He would have been great at solving the tough crimes. Noah is still debating getting Stiles to join the Sheriff department as a consultant at the very least. Stiles claimed it would make him a nepo baby and wanted to work on his crime mystery novel while he got better. He would get better.
Stiles was looking through the pages trying to figure out what Noah couldn’t. For the past week and a half dead body’s have shown up all over town. At first it was ruled by mountain lion attacks with the two homeless men in the woods. Then a bus driver was found dead in his own home again by a mountain lion which was strange because Meyers lived alone in an apartment building where no one else was harmed or even saw a mountain lion. Tonight however a cashier at the local DVD rental place was found dead again by a mountain lion, but no signs of forced entry by a wild animal, nothing strange had come back on the cameras either. In fact, he saw the Lehays and Erica come by and rent the movie they were watching tonight on the cameras.
“These are all animal attacks?” Stiles asks.
“It looks like it, which for Reddick and Ungar makes sense they were in the woods, but Meyers and Leaveque there is no way an animal got into the area where they were found. What's weirder is that the animal hairs on Reddick, Ungar, and Meyers are all from the same animal. The lab tech says it's a wolf,” Noah says.
“But wolves don’t live in the area,” Stiles says, “They also don’t get big enough to do this to a human.” Stiles eyes glance over the paper.
The attack patterns are all fairly similar. The ankles are clawed, so the victims can’t run, then the head and neck injuries are what ultimately kills the victim.
“Is there a connection?” Stiles asks. “I mean besides the animal attack.
“Nothing conclusive. Reddick and Ungar were picked up a couple of times for petty crimes. Meyes had some white collar crime a while ago. Leveaque just happened tonight. So if he has any criminal records we haven’t found it yet.”
“What? When?”
“Maybe an hour and a half ago. Lydia’s little sister and her boyfriend called it in.”
Noah can see the wheels turning in his son's head. He would be such a good investigator if he gave himself half a chance.
“An attack wolf is insane,” Stiles mutters to himself. Noah thought so as well. “People have to tell the town when they get big animals right?”
“No animals big enough to do this have come to town lately,” Noah tells Stiles.
“But that would be the most logical-” Noah sees something click in his son's face. Stiles has a theory and doesn’t want to share it. Noah tries to pick up on that thread Stiles almost laid down.
“You think some mass murderer is using an attack wolf.”
“No,” Stiles is lying, Noah can taste it like the turkey bacon Stiles insists is better for him.
“If so, there has to be a connection between the victims,” Noah wishes Stiles was a bit more helpful on this, but as it is he has been quite helpful. It just means that Noah has to find the connection before another victim dies.
“Attack wolves aren’t a thing,” Stiles hisses.
“Stiles, you know this. Once is by chance, twice is a coincidence, three times is a pattern. And four times is a trend. These are intentional and there is an animal out there whose owner is killing people.”
“What about Laura?” Stiles asks.
“There’s not been much headway on her case,” Noah collects the case files from their dining room table.
“Not much or none at all?”
“A partial size eight boot print was found. Not much,” Noah concedes to Stiles.
His son fidgets in a way Noah knows means he is thinking.
“Did they figure out what cut her in half?” Derek asks and jesus when did he get in the dining room?
Laura Hale was bisected probably by a sword, but that is again insane. Who carries a sword these days? Who has a sword and the amount of strength to cut a fairly fit thirty year old woman in half? And a size eight shoe. That would actually narrow down the pool of people it could be.
“Not conclusively.”
“Can I see the other files,” Derek asks.
“Son I can’t-”
“You showed Stiles, why not me? I know the wildlife around here better than him.”
That's a pretty bold statement. Stiles hangs out in the woods like it’s his job. On the other hand, Derek did specialize in wild animal care. The Hale sisters had quite a hand in the preserved wildlife and rehabilitation center even if they weren’t always involved directly.
“You said you wanted fresh eyes on this case,” Stiles pushes.
Noah is a shit cop, he always has been when his priority has been to keep people safe. He hands the case over to Derek.
Derek flips through the documents, and then Stiles' phone rings.
~.x.~
“I’ll take this in the other room,” Stiles moves to the kitchen to answer the phone, while Derek looks through the animal attack case. Stiles is pretty sure that it's the rogue wolf that's killing people.
It's not often that his phone rings. Most of the people who call him are in this house. “Hello?”
“Why do I keep dreaming of death and you Stiles?”
“Lydia?” Lydia who is in Europe right now backpacking. Stiles is very confused.
“Yes, Stiles. It's Lydia. I keep dreaming about you and dead bodies. What is going on?” She sounds out of breath like she was just running.
“Lyd’s, not that I don’t enjoy the fact that you are dreaming about me, the dead bodyies are a bit concerning.” Stiles mouth is running faster than he is thinking. It's been a long time since he had gotten over his crush on her.
“Shut up Stiles, you know it's not like that. First it was the woman in the woods, then it was the two bums. That sad old man, and then the video store clerk. Are you a mass murderer? Am I psychically linked to you?” She sounds more certain of herself.
“Wow, what, no, I am not a murderer. I mean I did find part of Laura’s body- Lydia what time is it there for you?” This long distance phone call is going to raise his phone bill so high.
“It's six am here, that's besides the point! You and dead bodies explain.” Lydia sounds extra sharp and annoyed over the phone.
“Severe sleep deprivation for you? I am not yet at the point where I find dead bodies in the woods. Yeah my life has been a little weird lately but not exactly dead body weird.”
“I was so sure you were connected,” Lydia murmurs, her breath has settled while Stiles heart rate has raised.
“There's a tenuous connection at best.” Stiles' brain has finally done the math on what Lydia said. “Are you dreaming of murders in Beacon Hills?”
“Why would I be dreaming of murder in Beacon hills? I’m on vacation, I’m not stressed.”
“Every instance you name, corresponds with a dead body here. Remember last time you had dreams of death.” Lydia is totally stressed. That's why she chose to backpack through Europe rather than go right into her Post Graduate Studies.
“The Hale House fire,” Lydia says.
Lydia had dark circles under her eyes for the weeks leading up to Christmas and horrible nightmares in the weeks after. She had chalked it up to anxiety about graduating early and then fears about a fire that killed almost a whole family.
“Yeah.”
“Stiles, what do I do?” Lydia asked.
“I don’t know. It's late here, but I have a few ideas I’ll work on in the morning. Don’t do anything rash.”
“I’m coming home early,” Lydia decides.
“Lydia, no! I just said don’t do anything rash!”
She’s hung up on him already. Great. Lydia Martin is coming back to Beacon Hills and Stiles is going to have to explain werewolves to her because he cannot keep a secret from Lydia Martin.
“What did she mean about the Hale house fire,” Derek asks from the doorway.
Derek had probably heard the whole conversation.
“It's a coincidence,” Stiles blurts out. Stiles is pressed against the wall by Derek's forearm and babbling faster than he can think. “At least we think it was. She wasn’t sleeping well leading up to Christmas 2004 and afterwards she kept having nightmares about the fire. She was pretty close with one of your cousins.”
“That was Lydia Martin?” Derek moves away seemingly embarrassed by his actions.
“Yes?”
“She’s dreaming about death in Beacon Hills, and thinks you're connected,” Derek murmurs almost too softly for Stiles to hear.
“I swear I’m not,” Stiles protests, probably too quickly if judging the flash of blue in Derek's eyes is any indication.
“She’s a witch,” Derek says.
“You don’t need to call her names,” Stiles grouses. Derek rolls his eyes.
That's when Scott walks into the kitchen, “The movie finished. Did you guys want to watch the ending or…” Scott trails off his nostrils flaring and eyes flash gold.
“It’s fine, we should get you guys home at a decent hour this week,” Stiles says, moving past Derek trying not to wonder what the look between Scott and Derek meant or why Scott was sniffing the room. He tells Camden he’ll watch the ending on his own before taking the DVD back to the rental place tomorrow since it's closed tonight.
Notes:
That was a long chapter but did you see it? The Thing ™️ that Stiles did? Leave your best guesses as to what it was in this chapter.
Title in reference to the bullet Derek got shot with AND the bullet Scott steals.
Next up: Stiles continues to be oblivious, Scott has his first full moon, and Lydia Martin returns to Beacon Hills.
Chapter 4: The Return
Summary:
In which Scott doesn’t trust Derek, Stiles pokes holes in my plot, Derek does his best impression of a Stiles on a research binge, Lydia returns and oh it’s a full moon.
Notes:
I feel I should warn for blood this chapter, also panic attacks on Stiles part. However, the fic is tagged chose not to use archive warnings. That’s its own warning.
If you watched teen wolf I think you’ll be okay.
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
“Why aren’t you and Derek telling me things,” Scott demands bright and early Monday morning.
“Well first of all there are lots of things I don’t tell you. Secondly, what exactly are you asking about?” Stiles didn’t think he was keeping anything important from Scott. It's also six A.M. and Lydia has figured out how to get herself back in Beacon Hills just in time for the full moon. Stiles needs more coffee for this cluster fuck.
“Saturday night,” Scott says and doesn’t elaborate.
Stiles sighs, “Okay Scottie that doesn’t narrow it down, what exactly about Saturday night do you want to know more about?”
“The rogue wolf you think is killing everyone, what does Lydia have to do with that, what does she have to do with the Hale fire, why are you so involved in all of this?”
Oh so he wants to know everything from last night. “Have you considered that this maybe only happened Saturday night and we haven’t had time to fill you in?”
Scott looks like he has considered that but also tossed it aside like it was unimportant building instructions.
“Move aside. I’m making eggs and toast for breakfast. Dad’s asleep and Derek is insane and does morning runs,” Stiles moves around the kitchen gathering eggs and a pan.
“So tell me.”
“I wish I could return you,” Stiles mutters. He takes a deep breath and then launches into what he could gather from the animal attack case that should be relabeled wolf attack.
“There's a fifth victim to the rogue wolf,” Scott says.
“What, no there isn’t?”
Scott's eyes flash yellow, and okay maybe he is a victim. “You mean I wasn’t attacked by a werewolf in the woods.”
“Okay sure. You were attacked by the rogue wolf in the woods, but why leave you alive?” Stiles sips his coffee while he goes through the facts. The other victims were men at least in their late twenties if not much older with some form of crime in their past. In comparison Scott is a young teenager, with one count of vandalism, he doesn’t exactly fit the profile. Reddick and Ungar were homeless which is probably why they were in the woods, Meyers lived alone in a pretty full apartment building, Leveque was at work. Scott was alone in the woods where he wasn’t supposed to be. He only had a bite on his hip, the others were mauled to death, not bitten or chewed on. Scott is the outlier. Is Scott the exception to the rule?
“I don’t think you're a victim here, you are just a bystander who was in the wrong place at the wrong time. I mean you are a victim, but not the target of the wolf,” Stiles says, scrambling the eggs.
“What?”
“Think about it, the other targets were much older than you, and died differently. I think you might have just been convenient to bite. Derek said something the other day about wolves doing better in a pack. A healthy pack can be anywhere between two and thirty-two wolves. Between Derek, Peter, and the rogue wolf that should be a stable pack, but with Peter so sick more members would be needed. Ergo they needed another member. You’re a victim, not a target.”
“Why is the rogue wolf targeting these other people and not me?”
“Probably revenge,” Derek says from the doorway. It's way too cold for the man to be walking around shirtless, much less running shirtless. Stiles is solving a mystery and he does not have the bandwidth for this man's levels of attraction.
“How do you figure that?” Stiles absolutely did not whine. Not at all.
“It's connected to the fire. Meyer's name rings a bell. I’d have to go through Laura’s papers, but I remember Laura being mad about a corrupt insurance agent named Meyers.”
Scott narrows his eyes at Derek, “How do we know you are not in cahoots with this killer?”
“Scott!”
Derek is growling in Scott's face, “Watch your place, wolf cub. I’ve done everything I can to help you and yours since I’ve come back to this helltown. I’m not the one murdering people, nor am I helping the rogue. If anything you are more likely to be helping the wolf that turned you.”
“If it's revenge for the Hale fire, who else is left with that motivation?” Stiles asks. The two fighting wolves turn to him.
“What?” They say together.
“Derek, you just said it's connected to the fire. If the rogue wolf is killing people connected to the fire and three Hales survived that fire. There’s you, but you aren’t the rogue. Laura is already dead, unless ghost wolf Laura?” Stiles checks to see how that lands. It doesn’t so he moves on to the next bit of his logic train before it gets derailed. “The third and final Hale who survived the fire is Peter. He'd want revenge for a fire that killed his family.”
Derek looks shocked and confused. “Peter is comatose in the Hospital, you saw him yourself.”
“Yeah and werewolves exist, I don’t think we should rule Peter out. How likely is it that another wolf was in town with the same motivations as a Hale wolf?” Stiles plates the eggs and toast.
Did Stiles just solve this whole case with half a cup of coffee? Maybe he should drink less coffee more often. Not that it matters he can’t actually prove it to authority figures without explaining werewolves and hunters.
“There are still a lot of maybes and probables this is based off of. We’d have to connect the victims to each other and then to the Hale fire to prove it,” Stiles finishes his coffee and gets another cup.
Scott shoves Derek away and grabs breakfast.
“What does Lydia have to do with all of this?” Scott asks.
“Look, I can solve one mystery a day before seven A.M. Lydia Martin is never going to be one of them.”
~.x.~
Derek wants to go through Laura’s old notes and journals before they visit Peter again.
Stiles doesn’t like the nagging feeling in his gut that says this is wrong but he pushes it down and after dropping off Scott at school sees how Derek is making out on that front.
Usually it’s Stiles with the conspiracy board and string but Derek is doing a pretty good impression right now. Sitting at the dining room table with notebooks and papers in piles all around him. His hair was messy as if he had been pulling at it.
“You uh, figure it out?”
“Meyers was the insurance agent who insisted the fire was an accident,” Derek tells Stiles.
“Reddick and Ungar have a bunch of arson charges, and I think Leveque has a history of odd jobs and animal endangerment.”
Stiles sits down and takes in Derek’s research, “I am still not seeing how that connects them together. Walk me through what happened in the fire.”
Derek glares at him, “No.”
“Derek, I’m just trying to follow your thought process on this.” Stiles pleads.
“I wasn’t home. I don’t know what happened.”
Derek knows more than he is letting on. He just has to find the right buttons to press.
“Why weren’t you home?”
“I just turned sixteen. Laura wanted to take me driving.”
Stiles wants to press more. How long were they gone, where did they go? How long were they gone for? Why was everyone else at home? ‘I I just turned sixteen. Laura wanted to take me driving.’ Derek had said.
“Why did she feel so strongly about driving with you that day?”
Derek’s face is flush with anger and embarrassment, “Mom wanted us out of the house for a few hours. Laura said they were setting up a surprise party for me.”
Because he had just turned sixteen. Stiles bites his tongue to prevent himself from guessing at unimportant details.
“We went to the ocean. When we got back the house fire had happened. The deputies were looking for Laura and me. Laura handled most of the conversations. Uncle Peter was found with horrific burns, I just shut down because of all the pack bonds snapping. The office must have thought I went into shock.
“Ruling the house fire an accident simply because there were Christmas decorations still up felt like a slap in the face. Dad knew electrical safety.” Derek continues.
Stiles is still reeling from the horror of the story- seriously imagine going driving on your sixteenth birthday and coming home to your whole family dead. It’s still not connected to how Derek knows the fire is what connects the rogue wolf's victims.
“Why would they all attack your family?” Stiles brain clicks the last piece into place before he finished the question. “They were hunters, or worked for hunters.”
Derek gives a tight nod.
Derek isn’t in danger from the rogue wolf. Derek was in danger from the Hunters.
If the rogue wolf was Peter Hale, Stile was pretty sure the man didn’t know about the danger he was putting his last remaining family into.
~.x.~
Stiles ended up in the woods. He spent a lot of his time in the woods on the preserve when he was younger. His dad said it was because he was born in the woods. His mother was inordinately proud of that fact. The idea that his mother had decided one early spring morning to go for a walk wasn’t unusual. The detail of her being nine months pregnant while in the woods was unusual. She went into labor and delivered Stiles in the woods. It was the eighties, she couldn’t exactly call her husband on her cell phone. A kind stranger had found her and wrapped baby Stiles in their sweater and brought them to the hospital. Noah Stilinski had gained more than a few gray hairs that day from his young wife, but the results were clear. Stiles was born healthy and the woods were his safe place.
It was probably why he drove his dad mad with the stunts he pulled off in the woods. Taking Scott to look for a dead body at night wasn’t even in his top five worst crimes he’s done because he was too comfortable with the woods and the preserve.
“Why are we here?” Derek asked right as Stiles' trips over a root. Damn sapling think they can just grow wherever.
“You needed a break, also I wanted to be somewhere comfortable when I told you Scott has a lacrosse game on the 19th.”
Derek scowls at him.
“It’s a pre-season skirmish and should be over by 7:30,” Stiles would really like a baseball to throw at his grumpy wolf.
“It’s his first moon,” Derek points out.
“You want to tell him he needs to skip the meet, be my guest, but the details you gave us about what he needs to do for his first transformation did not imply that he would have to skip this game. He is already rescheduling his date with Allison because of the skirmish. I think it would work in our favor. It will tire him out.” Stiles unzips his red hoodie getting heated from the walk and talk.
“He’s going to be a rage fueled hormone monster.”
“Sounds like a day ending in y,” Stiles tosses back.
They walk for a while in the woods. Stiles stays silent in the woods for far longer than he does outside of the woods.
“Was that all you had to tell me?”
“That and the fact Lydia is arriving at some point on Wednesday.”
“The witch who dreams of death,” Derek says. Wow, does that sound ominous in Derek's low voice.
“Yes, well no. Look she’s a bit like my sister and it would be nice if you stopped calling her names,” Stiles says.
“I haven’t called her names,” Derek looks confused.
“You keep calling her a bitch! Like yeah sometimes she is but you don’t just say those things. She’s strong willed and opinionated-“
“Stiles, I’m not calling her a bitch. She’s a magic user if she’s had premonitions of death she’s probably a Banshee line witch.”
Stiles would like this man to stop making the gears in his brain grind to a halt. His best friend in the whole world, half the reason he was allowed to go to Stanford at sixteen, the standard he measures most people against, Lydia Martin. A magic user.
Is this one of those things werewolves just know? Like the grass is green, waters’ wet, and Lydia Martin is a magic user.
“I was told it’s all conditional to the idea of witches and now you are telling me my best friend is a witch on the basis of her having dreams of dead people?” Stiles has finally rebooted and is angry.
“Magic users are conditional. Druids are typically those who work with nature. Mages typically amplify their abilities with learning. Witch is a general catch-all term for those who work with magic.”
“People can just learn magic?” Stiles probes.
“To varying degrees, it’s a skill most people have to work very hard at. Not everyone who picks it up can do much with it, but some people are more suited to it than others.”
Stiles needs to think that one over. Is it like training for a sport? Like in theory anyone can become an Olympic or Paralympic athlete but not everyone is equipped to handle the training. Wait, this is not the issue at hand, “How do you know Lydia is a magic user?”
Derek gives him a sideways look, “She’s had dreams of death.”
“I’ve had dreams of death, does that also make me a magic user?” Stiles asks hysterically. Derek shrugs.
“That's so inconclusive,” Stiles complains sitting down on his tree stump.
Derek gives him another incomprehensible look, “Stiles, where are we?”
What a way to change the topic, “In the woods?”
Derek nods, “Why did you bring us here, to this tree stump?”
Stiles feels he is missing something Derek has already asked this question. “Because I wanted to feel safe when I told you about Scott scrimmage.”
“You feel safe in the woods where there have been several animal attacks,” Derek looks at him incredulous. “You’re an absolute idiot.”
~.x.~
It's Tuesday afternoon before Stiles gets Derek to agree to check on his uncle in the hospital. It also happens to be too damn late they get there.
“What do you mean his wife checked him out? He’s been here as a long term patient for the last six years,” Stiles asks the nurse at reception. If this was his aunt Mel he would have been able to get away with a lot more than he is.
“I’m sorry Mr. Stilinski I can’t give out patient information to non-family members,” The woman tells him.
“Okay so tell Derek, he’s Peter's nephew,” Stiles gestures to the man beside him. Derek pulls him aside. “We need to leave.”
“No we need to see your uncle, except he and his wife have check-”
“Peter wasn’t married," Derek cuts him off.
That's not good. Stiles wonders if Derek can follow the scent trail, but then again this is a hospital they are pretty good at cleaning up smells or at least covering them up to the point of distraction.
Telling the deputies about this newest development is helpful. Unfortunately it's not a quick fix. Whoever actually checked Peter out of the hospital did a fairly good job of building a paper trail and staying out of the way of the cameras. Kaisa Hale-Mysliwiec is a fake name and about as Polish as Stiles’ own name. The hyphenation was a strange touch.
Peter’s release and subsequent kidnapping (Wolfnapping? Wolf ransom? Or is that only for when there are demands to get him back.) are added to the Laura Hales murder case file. Which is progress. Stiles is now stuck with a very anxious Derek Hale.
The fact that Peter is most likely the wolf that bit Scott isn’t doing Stiles anxiety about the missing man any good
~.x.~
Wednesday morning Stiles has a list that makes him miss his college days when his multiple deadlines weren’t so life or death.
Just to recap the facts: Stiles has not one but two nervous werewolves to handle tonight, a rogue wolf that is more likely than not Peter Hale the missing coma patient, a scrimmage to show up for, and one Lydia Martin is coming to town for answers Stiles doesn’t have. It feels like a perfect storm. At least he has the energy to deal with these disasters now.
The werewolf in his bed is also a new addition he doesn’t know what to make of. Derek in his bed isn’t new but usually Stiles has a bit of warning when the other man crawls into bed with him. Waking up in just his boxers with an equally naked werewolf is a surprise. Stiles takes a few moments to trace the tattoo on Derek’s back, might as well get the human contact in while he can get it.
Derek snuggles in closer to Stiles neck when the front door closes letting Stiles know his dad left for work.
“I’m not exactly complaining about the werewolf heated blanket, I am wondering when this happened and if Dad knows about it.”
Derek grunts in answer. Stiles swears he sounds just like the dog Scott had once. Stiles looks across his room and judging by the trail of clothes from his window to his bed his dad doesn’t know Derek is in Stiles' bed.
Stiles wonders why Derek feels the need to sneak in and out through the windows, but really it's harming no one so why worry?
Stiles pats Derek’s shoulder, “Alright you can sleep in a bit more, but I really need to pee. Off.”
Derek reluctantly lets Stiles out of bed and goes right for the warm spot Stiles left.
He wonders if Derek wants more than the friendship they have developed over the past few weeks. Stiles kind of does but doesn’t know how to broach that. Derek has latched into him in a way Stiles doesn’t really understand. It leaves Stiles with a lot of questions. Are these kinds of bonds typical in wolf packs, if not what does a typical wolf pack looks like? What is Stiles to Derek? Derek had said Stiles smelled like home, but what did that even mean to a werewolf? Is Stiles Pack to Derek or something else?
~.x.~
Stiles goes throughout his day with the sense of dread looming over him. Dread or the impending return of Lydia Martin. Maybe it’s the full moon. It’s probably the full moon.
Is this really the first full moon since Scott was bitten? Then again Scott was bitten on the new moon.
The game starts at 6:30 and Stiles is jittery far earlier than that. Part of him knows that just nerves and the other part is blaming the coffee he’s ingested all day. He knows it's not the coffee. It might be the message Lydia sends him to meet her at the Lacrosse game that evening.
The crowd is full of parents, siblings and other students. Stiles and Derek don’t stick out as badly as he thought they might. He tells people he is supporting his cousin and lets the other parents draw their own conclusions. Derek had firmly attached himself to Stiles' side. Stiles tries not to wonder what those conclusions might be.
It’s not a total disaster, Scott is more aggressive but no one gets anymore injured by Scott than any of the other players. Lydia greeted Stiles with a crushing hug and hissed threat in his ear that he needed to explain just what the fuck was happening in Beacon Hills and why her skin was crawling after the game. Malia had already latched on to Lydia and did not appear to want to let her go at least during the game.
Actually sitting through the game with Derek on one side, Aunt Melissa on the other and Lydia in front of him is right out of his finals week stress dreams. It takes him fifteen minutes to clock that Erica is cold and doesn’t have a coat. Stiles gives her his spare flannel. Camden would be pretty mad if Erica had a seizure because she was cold. Stiles didn’t think that was actually how it worked, but didn’t know enough to argue with that idea. He was nervous enough on his own. Malia, Allison, and Erica kept Lydia too busy for her to turn around and talk to Stiles and Derek about her weird death dreams.
Melissa had to leave the game just before it's over having to fill in for another nurse, she tells Stiles to take Scott out for ice cream to celebrate and is gone.
“Stiles, how do you know…” Lydia trails off, eyeing Derek like he was a ghost from her past. Malia and Allison have wandered off to talk to the boys on the team. Which is a weird time to choose to flirt with them but hey they are teenagers what else is new with them.
Stiles is startled, “Derek? You remember Derek,” Stiles is not paying attention to the conversation, looking around the field trying to keep track of Scott. They are on a bit of a time crunch. Kid needs to shower quickly before Derek decides to scruff him and take off.
“Derek Hale?” Lydia looks shocked. Why is she shocked? She knew the Hales better than Stiles did. She had one as a tutor.
Stiles spares her a sideways glance, “Lyds, I know we said we’d talk at the game but we are in a bit of a hurry here. I promise I’ll explain once I get Scott.”
It's of course great timing that the power goes out and they are plunged into darkness on the mostly empty Lacrosse field. Some idiot yells. Derek darts off faster than Stiles can keep up.
In the confusion of the crowd Stiles loses track of everyone. Derek, Scott, Lydia, Allison, Malia, Erica, fuck even Isaac. And all of Scott's other teammates are missing.
He ends up in the school with the crowd. Derek has reappeared and is urgently leading Stiles somewhere. Stiles would like to know where they are going, but he is not testing the werewolf on a full moon. That’s a decision that he had made that morning and was sticking by it even if it was killing him not to know. At least this time Derek is making a conscious effort not to bruise Stiles' wrists leading him off to find the teenagers hopefully.
Being presented with Scott holding a bloody Isaac is like something out of a horror movie. He has the stupid ‘Silly Goose University’ hoodie on. How it ended up on Isaac is a mystery to Stiles. That thing has to be cursed. It's slashed to ribbons now.
“He’s dying,” Derek says softly.
“Make it stop,” Scott hisses out, slurred with his fangs out.
Stiles doesn’t know how to fix this. Isaac is bloody and bleeding and overall does not look great Derek is frozen at his side and Scott is looking at him like Stiles has to power to fix all of this.
Stiles kneels besides two teenagers.
“Izzy, you’re going to be okay. I know it because if anything ever happened to you Camden would come and beat my ass. I don’t believe for a minute that you’d miss that. So you aren’t dying, okay?”
Isaac glares at him, “What's happening?” He sounds so small and pitiful.
“Your life is about to get much more difficult, but you chose to hang out with Scott even when he got that terrible haircut a few years ago. Being a werewolf with Scott won't be much harder.”
Isaac chokes on a laugh. Then coughs up some blood. It's quiet and somber for a minute. Stiles belief that Isaac will pull through flickers for a moment. Then he remembers this is Isaac. The kid is a menace and never once listened to Stiles if given the choice.
Isaac punches Scott.
“You’re a fucking werewolf and didn’t tell me?”
Stiles laughs in relief.
The story comes out in drips and drabs. Scott was heading to the showers after the game and heard a voice or felt a pull or calling. The teen is confused on exactly what happened. Isaac wasn't going to let his teammate and best friend go after something alone. What was calling Scott was the rogue wolf. Isaac freaked out over what he thought was Scott moments before being attacked by the wolf. Scott swears the wolf wasn’t going to hurt him, but Isaac was bitten when the wolf lashed out, then tore off into the school.
They are making their way out of the sports complex when Derek hears something else that has him darting off. Stiles is left with Scott and Isaac wondering if he should invest in leashes or a microchip for Derek. Scott can hear what pulled Derek away and direct Stiles there while he is still half carrying Isaac.
Derek is beating down a metal door and before Stiles can really figure out what is happening the door bursts open to reveal Lydia, Allison, Erica, and Malia.
“Oh thank god someone heard me,” Lydia sounds a bit hoarse and is holding her side that looks like she was hurt, but not definitively. Allison and Malia are just fine if a bit shaken.
Erica is definitely hurt based on the way she is holding herself.
“What happened?” Stiles wants to scream. He really does but that won't help the situation.
“A fucking animal attacked us,” Lydia tell him.
That much is obvious, “Why are you locked in the boiler room?”
“I don’t know, okay. There was this giant monster running around and this was the closest place I could get the girls before it attacked us.” Lydia is at the edge of hysteria. Stiles needs to walk her down before this panic takes over her rationality.
Derek has Erica in his arms checking her over.
“She’s hurt.” His eyes hold the faintest shimmer of blue. He is telling Stiles that Erica was also bitten. It appears that Isaac is not the only new werewolf. The wolf had found poor Erica before he left the school.
If the rogue wolf was Peter, Stiles was getting really concerned about the connections he was drawing on these bitten teenagers. Lydia makes a sound of frustration and pain. Stiles needs a plan. How is it that these things happen so quickly?
“You need to take her and Isaac for help. Scott can go with you,” Stiles decides and fishes out his keys to give to Derek. Then turns back to the girls, “Lydia, look at me. I need you to look at me. Take a deep breath. Okay?”
Lydia slows her breathing while Derek heads off with the teen wolves.
Stiles squeezes her hands, “Are you here with me?”
Lydia nods.
“Okay, now we need to get out of here. No one else is hurt,” Stiles looks at Malia and Allison.
They both shake their heads, they must not have noticed Lydia’s injury. Stiles doesn’t want to clue them into that, “Awesome. We are going to go from here to Lydia’s car. I’ll drive you all home. Understood?”
Of course the plans are not that easy. The plan is never that easy, because they are fifty feet down the hall and Lydia screams. It's blood curdling, and horrific, and utterly necessary because Stiles has found a bloody mess of what probably was janitor. Dave, if the jump suit has anything to say about that. How did Derek and Scott miss that?
Now they have to wait for the deputies. Stiles is glad he sends Scott, Isaac, Erica, and Derek off to do werewolf survival 101 or whatever. The rest of them end up in the school lobby waiting for the deputies to take their statements.
“Stiles?” That’s his dad. “Where’s Scott? Why are you still here?” His dad looks tired.
“I sent him and Derek home in the Jeep,” Telling the truth to his dad in partial lies, back to his delinquent ways.
“And you didn’t go with them?” His dad raises a brow. How does he do that?
“Lydia wanted to talk,” Stiles knows he is not being as verbose as he should be so he pushes himself, “And then we found the-” Stiles flails around for a minute. They found the body? They found the dead man? They found the gorey mess? Why was he so anxious about that? What if that had been Scott. What would Stiles have told their parents?
“Stiles breathe,” His dad tells him.
Stiles does as he is told. His dad walks him through the rest of the statement. Afterward he is waiting with Malia and Allison while Lydia does the same.
“My dad is picking me up,” Allison tells him and goes to the bathroom. Argent arrives while Allison and Malia are away.
Argent looks exhausted. His mouth twitches when he sees Stiles, “I thought you said you graduated.”
“I did. I was here for the game,” Stiles sasses.
“Heard you found something pretty scary afterwards,” Argent's tone of voice implies he is looking for something more.
“Better an adult than the kids,” Stiles tosses back, “The girls just went to the bathroom. You got here pretty quick.”
Something flashes across Argent's face. Stiles knows where the man lives. It should have taken him longer to get here. Allison knows how long it takes to get from her house to the school.
“I’m always going to come when my kid needs me.”
Allison and Malia come back from the bathroom. Allison burrows into Argent's side. Argent hugs her back fiercely, “Hey Ally-cat. I’m here.”
Allison burst into tears.
“Let's get you home.”
Stiles swallows a lump in his throat. He hadn’t realized that Allison was so scared. He thought Lydia had protected her from the worst of it, but still Isaac and Erica were sent off injured and a dead body was found not long after that.
Malia turns to Stiles after the Argents have left.
“I know Lydia was bitten.”
Malia, Lydia’s little sister, is not book smart, not particularly tactful, and not scared easily. At this moment she looks scared, “She hasn’t told anyone. She needs medical help right, you sent Erica off for help, why not my sister?”
Stiles snorts, “Malia, you think I could ever get your sister to do something she doesn’t want?”
“She’s hurt.” The girl insists.
“Malia, believe me. If for one moment I believed your sister would not be hundred percent okay I would not leave her side. Lydia will be just fine,” Stiles tells her.
Malia wrinkles her nose. “I need a hug.”
Stiles lifts an arm and pulls her close. Malia was always tactile when she wasn’t showing off for others.
~.x.~
Stiles drives the Martin girls home when Lydia is done with her statement.
“Malia go inside, I’ll be there in a moment.” Lydia orders her younger sister. The girl leaves with minimal fuss.
“She still thinks we’re dating,” Stiles leans back on the headrest of the car as they watch Malia go inside.
“You have avoided my questions for three days. What is happening in Beacon Hills,” Lydia turns in her seat to glare at him.
Stiles looks out the windshield at the full moon and bites his lip.
“Stiles.” Her voice is sharp.
Stiles pulls his gaze away from the celestial body. Lydia's green eyes are boring into him like they used to when she was waiting for him to explain his latest disaster in the kitchen,
“Mieczysław Genim Stilinski.”
“That's not my middle name!” He hates when Lydia full-names him. It freaks him out and he never likes the way his first name feels. Never mind the tongue twister it used to give him.
“Mischief is a stupid legal name,” Lydia replays. “Tell me what's going on.”
“I am trying,” Stiles tells her, “I don’t know where to start.”
“I’d say the beginning is a pretty good place.”
Stiles thinks back on what Lydia has said. First it was the woman in the woods, then it was the two bums. That sad old man, and then the video store clerk. “I was looking for a body in the woods two weeks ago.”
Her dreams had started two weeks ago.
“I think that might have been the first woman you saw.”
“It was dark,” Lydia tells him.
“Yeah it was a new moon or nearly new moon,” Stiles says, “I took Scott looking for her, I wanted the body found and my woods safe. It was dark. He lost his inhaler. We found her body, but not that night. It was after I reconnected with Derek.”
Stiles is glad she doesn’t point out that to reconnect with Derek he would have had to connect with Derek before.
“The investigation into her death hasn’t been very fruitful. Someone with a size eight women's boot might have cut her in half.”
Lydia gasps, “That’s horrible, why would anyone do that?”
“Well that's the other thing, the motive for her murder is a bit…”
“Supernatural.” Lydia's gaze is steady.
“Yeah.” Stiles agrees.
“So?” Lydia presses.
“It’s not my secret to share! I don’t have any proof about this supernatural stuff and it sounds insane.”
“Stiles, I keep dreaming about you and dead bodies in Beacon Hills. I thought coming here would help, but another person has died.”
“You honestly believe I am supernatural and am killing people here?” Stiles tries not to scream.
“I’m here in the car with you, obviously I don’t think you are killing people.” That did not reassure Stiles at all.
“I’m supernatural? Me? The scrawny guy with anemia? The one who almost failed his thesis because he couldn’t get out of bed last May?”
“You are doing just fine now. I told you it was homesickness. Now look at you. You are home doing better and connected to the supernatural. I don’t know how you survived Stanford without your stupid woods.”
Is Stiles supernatural? Yeah right, it was Scott and Derek, his werewolves who were supernatural.
“What do you want me to say Lydia? Scott's a werewolf, bitten by a rogue wolf who's been murdering people with a very loose connection to the Hale fire,” Stiles snaps out sarcastically. Then quieter and with less flailing, “How Laura’s murder factors in we are still working on it. There, happy?”
Lydia smiles, “Yes actually. Let me help with this mystery because I would rather not dream about death again. My family lives here and I want them safe from my freaky death dreams.”
“Why was I ever in love with you?” Stiles asks her.
“Because you, Stiles Stilinski, have incredible taste and unfortunately lost it at some point,” She kisses him on the cheek. “Take the car home tonight. I expect you to pick me up tomorrow at eight am sharp. I’ll pick up my car then.”
Notes:
Title in reference to Lydia actually returning to Beacon Hills.
Next up: Stiles looses his temper(again), Lydia fixes that, and Scott is the voice of reason?
Leave a comment. Did you catch all that foreshadowing?
Chapter 5: The Forest
Summary:
Stiles does morning drop off, Derek drops some more werewolf lore, Scott is a bit dense but asks really good questions. Lydia wonders how they all survived without her.
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
For the first time in nearly two weeks Stiles comes home to an empty house. His dad is working late with the body at the High school. Derek is off who knows where with Scott, Isaac, and Erica. Jesus, Camden was going to actually kill him. It’s not like Stiles could account for Isaac and Erica getting bitten by a wolf. That will be fun news to break to him during spring break, but that wasn’t for a few more months. God knows what they were going to tell the Reyes. Stiles didn’t actually know them all that well. The Reyes had been the Lahey's permanent foster family after Keith was put away when Camden was nine or so. Back then Isaac was as angelic as his looks, Stiles vaguely wonders if he was always a little shit or if Erica had just encouraged him to be such a sarcastic bastard. That occupies him enough while he gets ready for bed.
Stiles wakes at the ungodly hour of five am when his phone rings.
“What?”
“Can you bring me fresh clothes?” Scott asks.
“Where are you?” Stiles isn’t awake enough to put two and two together and come up with four yet.
“The old Hale house. We took the spare clothes from the Jeep, but we only had two sets of my stuff in there. Really it's Isaac who needs fresh clothes for school.”
“Scott, it's ass o’clock in the morning, but that doesn’t change the fact that he is a god damn string bean and everything you own will be too small for him. What happened?”
“We’re okay. Transformation on a full moon is exhausting, and apparently clothing doesn’t survive the change. Bring something of yours please.”
Stiles chokes, offended. “Get Derek to drive you three back to the house, you probably need showers, do the Reyes know where their kids are?”
“I don’t know where Derek is,” Scott admits sounding five instead of fifteen.
Stiles has to recalculate at that one.
“You don’t know where your resident werewolf babysitter is?” Stiles really doesn’t want to hike to the old Hale house and drive his werewolves home or to school.
It's exactly what Stiles does.
The three teens are sitting on the porch of the burnt house when he arrives. Erica in a set of Scott’s clothing, Scott is in a pair of boxers and holding his arm at a strange angle. Poor Isaac looks cold wearing a pair of Scott’s ill-fitting basketball shorts.
“No food?” Erica asks.
“I am not talking about the hike it took me to get here. Scott, Isaac, get changed and we can stop by for a drive through coffee shop for breakfast on the way back to-wait, where am I taking you lot?”
The three teenagers look between themselves as if they hadn’t thought that far ahead. They probably hadn’t.
“School?” Scott suggests.
“Home,” Erica insists.
“Bed.” Isaac complains while catching the clothing Stiles throws at him.
“How much do they know?” Stiles asks Scott.
“Enough that Camden is the lamest Lahey.” Isaac says.
“They know they are werewolves,” Scott confirms.
“It’s been pretty rough so far, but the upside is my epilepsy is cured,” Erica chirps.
“Sort of,” Stiles says.
“What?” Scott looks to Stiles, “it cured my asthma, why wouldn’t it cure epilepsy?”
“Lycanthropy doesn’t cure all diseases, but it does put chronic ones in remission.” Stiles explains.
“But I don’t need my inhaler.”
“Yeah, remission because your body heals itself faster than the asthma can set in. Hence remission. Derek has gone over this a couple of times, are you not paying attention?”
Isaac snorts as he reappears in Stiles' old clothes. The kid is six two and still growing. Stiles keeps telling Camden that he should see if he can get a refund if his little brother is so insistent on being the taller of the two. “The day Scott pays attention is the day we are all doomed.”
“It’s not that bad. The day Scott pays attention is a day you’ll treasure,” Stiles flings back.
Scott growls at Isaac annoyed but not threateningly. Stiles doesn’t miss the pink of Isaac’s cheeks.
“Alright if you are a Beacon Hills high schooler load up,” Stiles tells them.
“Shotgun!” Erica calls.
The boys both complain.
Stiles ends up dropping them off at the high school, but only after hearing Erica's rant about how Twilight got it all wrong and wanting a full explanation on lycanthropy transmission. Stiles does not have an answer on that. He kind of wants one now.
He goes back to his house as his dad is headed out to the station. Stiles hands over a bag of croissants and a box of to-go coffee to his dad as an explanation of where he has been. It works in avoiding the question of why Lydia’s car is on their street, but maybe he didn’t notice the extra car? Stiles is not hopeful on that one as the town sherrif.
There is enough time to shower before he has to bring Lydia’s car back to her. He wonders about Derek in the shower. Wait, that was bad phrasing. Stiles wonders where Derek is, not what the man would be like in the shower. Probably very wet and steamy. The water droplets do a lot the heavy lifting in Stiles' mind.
Okay so Stiles wonders both. Which is why it’s such a shock to find the man in his bed.
“I’m not mad you didn’t tell me where you took my cousin and two other teenagers last night, but I am mad you abandoned them to your OSHA violation of a house,” Stiles tells him.
Derek grunts. Stiles gets dressed; he feels vulnerable while interrogate Derek while in a towel.
“Why was Scott’s arm injured? I've seen you heal from broken bones almost instantly.” Which meant the injury was either very recent or very bad. Maybe both.
Derek sits up and runs his hand through his hair, “I pushed him.”
Stiles tries to hold his temper. “You pushed Scott? What off a cliff?”
“Down the stairs, I don’t have an excuse, okay? I lost my temper after keeping them from killing each other all night Then he came at me blaming me for turning the other two.”
The logical part of him thinks Scott might not have gone after Derek if they knew more about lycanthropy transmission. Unfortunately Stiles can only see red right now. Derek pushed Scott down the stairs and Scott got hurt. Scott is Stiles to protect. He always has been but especially since the day the sorry excuse for a ‘father’ knocked Scott down the stairs and gave the kid a concussion and a sprained elbow. Stiles is pissed this mess ended up in his lap. “You pushed him and what, ran away?”
Derek looked at him sideways, “He was fine, I went to get you.”
“You’re a fucking idiot!” Stiles explodes. “Scott is my fifteen year old cousin! And you hurt him and then left him alone and hurt? What’s wrong with you?” He has gotten very close to Derek’s face. Stiles turns away. As he does so, it does not register the brief flicker of shock on the werewolf’s face. Stiles' temper isn’t as bad as it once was but now he is struggling to remember why punching Derek is a bad idea.
“Don’t answer that, get your ass in gear. We are going to talk to Lydia and inform her of all the goings and death in this town,” Stiles orders.
~.x.~
Stiles fumes the whole way to Lydia’s with Derek following him in the Jeep. The time alone lets Stiles stew. Stiles thought he was mad before at Derek leaving the teenagers in the burnt husk of his family home to go get Stiles. Especially when, Derek could have just driven them to Stiles, he had the Jeep. But pushing Scott down the stairs?
Doing exactly what Scott’s shitty excuse for a sperm donor did to him? Hurting Scott in ways the kid couldn’t even remember.
Scott couldn’t remember but Stiles sure could. Scott’s head, all bloody and pale. The confusion and panic that set in when Aunt Mel said it would be okay, that head wounds bleed more than others. Stiles had wanted to go to the hospital with Scott. Aunt Mel insisted they were fine at home. It was an expense they didn’t need. When Stiles' dad got home the yelling match between him and Scott’s dad destroyed everything between the half brothers. Noah and Rafael never had a great relationship to begin with but that night sure did set fire to the already tattered relationship they had.
Poor Scott was hurt for being in the wrong place at the wrong time not once, not twice, but at least three times. Stiles felt he had a right to fume at Derek.
Lydia takes one look at Stiles face and sighed.
“Get back in the car, we are going to your happy place.” She ordered.
“We have to wait for Derek,” Stiles said. Lydia rolled her eyes.
“You let him drive your Jeep?” Lydia raised an eyebrow.
Stiles doesn’t respond.
“You have water with you, correct?” She asks.
“Why do you turn into such a mother hen around me?” Stiles snaps.
“I was the one caring for you six months ago. I still worry.” Lydia huffed.
“I’m fine now. I get out of bed just fine, no fainting spells, no big falls. I actually have energy now. I’m twenty-one, not ninety-one.”
“Stiles, you couldn’t see yourself last year, it looked like you were fading away. You were paler than any healthy person should be and couldn’t stay awake. I am shocked you finished your thesis on time,” Lydia confesses.
“Lyds, I know. I am better now. It's fine.” Stiles tries to soothe her.
“Yeah, but you never figured out why you were like that. And you never told your dad.” Lydia crossed her arms.
“Dad didn’t need to know,” Stiles mutters. Derek has finally parked and come over to the two of them.
“We are going on a quick trip,” Lydia tells Derek as they head back to the Jeep.
Derek looks at Stiles and nods. Stiles lets Lydia drive.
“Why are we at the preserve?” Derek asks.
“I am not dealing with Stiles in this mood. The woods are usually the quickest way to get him back to normal,” Lydia says.
Derek hums, “Yeah he is usually stronger there.”
“I want explanations while we walk,” Lydia demands. Stiles waits for her to tell him where to go.
“What are we waiting for?” Stiles eventually asks.
“You to lead the way.” Lydia and Derek say together then look at each other. Stiles stomps off into the woods to avoid thinking about that. He doesn’t do a whole lot of talking in the woods. He had decided that he could reveal the werewolf thing, but explaining the Hale family fire was best done by an actual Hale. That was why Derek was here to tell Lydia all about it.
Stiles was busy trying not to ruminate on Derek and Lydia bonding with each other and his feelings on that. So he had not noticed when the conversation had shifted from werewolves are a thing to… whatever it is they are talking about.
“Everytime?” Derek asks.
“Yeah pretty much,” Lydia tells Derek.
Derek is looking at Stiles like Stiles is a particularly confounding puzzle.
Stiles takes a deep breath.
“Works like a charm to calm him down too. See?” Lydia adds. That mildly annoys Stiles. He shakes a nearby branch to shower the two irritants in leaves.
Lydia squeals and Derek smiles and oh no Stiles heart has skipped a beat. Derek cannot keep getting away with this.
“I guess he is not fuming anymore,” Derek says.
“What did you do to set him off?”
“He pushed Scott down the stairs of his family's ruined house,” Stiles says.
Lydia winces and smacks Derek. Derek takes her assault as if it were just a swat with a magazine or newspaper. Stiles knows from experience that Lydia can leave a bruise when she wants to and Derek is a fucking stone wall who doesn’t flinch. He is not going to be the one to figure out the physics on that equation.
“You don’t hurt Scott! You don’t push him down the stairs! And you don’t act like Stiles' piece of shit uncle!” Lydia commands.
“Rafael is not my uncle,” Stiles snaps.
“He’s your dad’s brother.” She waves her hand at him.
“Half brother.” Stiles says.
Derek quirks an eyebrow at him.
“We’re not hear about my family issues, it's Derek's family issues that have brought us here.” Stiles says.
Derek looks to the ground then Stiles then Lydia, “Yeah he still doesn’t realize.”
“Do we tell him?” Lydia asks, leaning against a tree.
Stiles turns around on the stump he had climbed on while watching Lydia beat Derek ineffectivly. “Tell me what?”
Derek flashes a quick smile in Stiles direction before turning back to Lydia, “No. It’s the kind of thing- it’s better if- I’ll explain later.”
Stiles did not like that they are excluding him from something, but Lydia derailed his protest. “So people are dying in Beacon Hills. The deaths have something to do with werewolves, but if they are the victims or not remains unclear. I am having dreams of death,” she adds ‘again’ under her breath. “The question is why?”
Stiles nods.
“I feel like at this point I should also add that we have a pack forming between Scott and the blonds,” Derek adds.
Stiles snickers ‘the blonds’ would hate to hear themselves referred to as such.
“My top theory is that it’s Peter Hale killing these people and he is the one turning the teenagers.”
Lydia gives him a skeptical look. “The absentee cousin-uncle?”
Stiles is so lost he looks to Derek for an explanation.
“Mom adopted him when he was five. And he’s been comatose for the last six years; he can't be behind the killings.”
Stiles is still trying figure out that family math and how it is factored in to the former Hale Pack. “Regardless, he is the only one with the motivation to commit the murders. How old was your mom?”
“Twenty-seven,” Derek says. Stiles did not actually get any useful data out of that question, at some point he would have to piece together the Hale family tree. He remembers about a million of them when he was in school.
“She was really pretty,” Lydia throws out. When Stiles gives her a questioning look she gets defensive. “I worked with Mark a few times on a presentation.” Who’s Mark? How does he factor into this conversation? Stiles is still so lost. Must be another Hale family member.
“Whatever, I still think it’s Peter.” He repeats.
“So what do we do to stop it?” Lydia asks.
Stiles looks to Derek, the expert in all things supernatural around here.
Derek helpfully does not have an answer.
“Well if this were a normal case, I guess I would start with all the facts. Go from the top,” Stiles says. He has seen his father do the same thing hundreds of times before.
“But?” Lydia prompts.
“I need boards, string, and paper print out,” Stiles shrugs with his palms to the sky. “Not things I normally have access to here. Also it will make us look like we have lost the plot. Do we let the teenagers know about this?”
“Will it effect them?” Lydia asks.
“It already has,” Derek points out.
“Okay, point to Derek, but counter point. They are nosy little shits and don’t need more going on with their hormone riddled minds.”
“Wait.” Lydia holds up a hand. “Scott has been bitten, okay fine. Derek and you have been handling that transition, but Isaac and the girl? They are freshly turned. And you just sent them off to school today?”
Stiles doesn’t like where this is going.
“Its not ideal, but we can work with it,” Derek says.
“Yeah and what are you going to tell the Reyes’? Camden? Does your aunt even know about Scott?” Lydia is annoyingly a voice of reason.
Stiles looks to Derek to see what he thinks, “That’s a lot of people to bring into this. What if they reject their kids.”
“The Reyes’ are foster parents. They have fought tooth and nail to keep the Laheys and would absolutely adopt if that's what the boys wanted. Melissa has single handedly raised Scott since he was what, nine? She loves her kid and divorced your uncle for Scott's well-being. This is not going to push her away.”
“But it will put them at risk.” Derek insisted.
“From what?” Lydia demands.
“Hunters,” Derek says darkly.
“Rule of Buffy,” Stiles says.
“First of all, Stiles, that's not a thing. Second of all, what kind of Hunters are we talking about? Very organized Secret Society that is actually part of the government or like revenge nuts with guns and half a clue,” Lydia asks.
“Probably somewhere in the middle,” Derek admits. “They can be organized but they aren’t part of the government anymore than werewolves and other shifters.”
“Can we take half a step back and go over Lycanthropy transmission and werewolf reproduction,” Lydia asks.
“Uh sure?”
“I was also bitten last night, why did I not turn?”
Derek nods, "Because you are a Banshee line witch and lycanthropy doesn’t transmit to other supernatural creatures.”
“We are going to come back to that casual drop of ‘other supernatural creatures’. How does one transmit lycanthropy? Do we need to talk to the teenagers about wrapping their fangs, are they going to turn their friend into little werewolves”
Derek pauses, “It’s not that simple. Bitten wolves don’t develop that trait for a few years, and even then it’s age and gender dependent. Scott won’t be able to turn anyone until he is closer to full grown. A female werewolf bite doesn’t turn humans. Mom’s mom was the only wolf in the area and had all daughters for a while.”
Stiles raises his eyebrow, “‘Doesn’t turn humans’, what does that mean?”
Derek is bright red and refuses to meet Stiles’ eyes. Stiles will draw his own conclusions.
“But it does narrow down the rogue werewolf to a male,” Stiles taps his chin and tilts his head, “It’s looking more and more like Uncle Peter is the rogue wolf.”
~.x.~
It takes a while to get Lydia up to speed and a plan to find the rogue wolf is still something of a debate. They weren’t all on board with telling the Reyes their youngest two children were now werewolves, but they did decide that they needed to get the kids opinion on that. Lydia was still pushing very hard on telling Stiles’ dad and his Aunt Melissa. Stiles had gotten Derek on board with waiting until they have solved this rogue werewolf mystery to tell those two, so Lydia was out voted.
Stiles leaves Derek and Lydia at his house to sort through more details. He decided he needs to take his dad lunch and check in on the man. It might have been his anxiety deciding that.
The sheriff station is not in as much chaos as Stiles had anticipated when he had shown up. A few of the long-time deputies wave at him and send him right back to his father’s office.
“Everything okay?” Stiles asks hesitantly. His dad is at the desk working on a report with an empty mug of coffee and bags under his eyes.
His dad sighs. “As well as can be. I swear these animal attacks were never this bad before. It’s escalated in the past six months.”
His dad sets aside the report and looks at the lunch Stiles brought him and raises an eyebrow.
“Has there been any new construction? Maybe we disturbed a den or something.” Stiles avoids the question of the heart healthy soup he had brought.
“Not particularly. With these kinds of big animal attacks we’d usually get animal sightings before people were mauled to death.”
Stiles hums.
“Scott and his friends didn’t see animals last night?” His dad questions.
“Didn’t come up this morning, the kids were mostly hungry,” Stiles admits while reading the report his dad had left on the desk.
“Has anyone moved in the area? What if it’s like an exotic pet?” Stiles wonders.
“Hadn’t thought of that. I might take a look into that idea. We could probably also run a campaign on wild animal safety.”
Stiles doesn’t think that would really help because all of the places people have been killed have been pretty well populated areas. He leaves his dad to the case and does a few admin assistance tasks around the office then it’s time to pick up Scott and his blonds.
Stiles rolled up to the school to pick up Scott, Isaac, and Erica. He’s worried when Scott alone shows up, but at least his arm looks normal now.
“Where are your friends?” Stiles asks.
Scott gave him a look.
“They got pulled out of school during second period,” Scott tilts his head in confusion.
Why is Scott confused, it’s Stiles here who isn’t in the know.
“By who?”
“Their parents.” Stiles is the newest recipient of teenage attitude from Scott.
“What why?”
“Erica didn’t go home last night. Isaac didn’t have permission to sleep over,” Scott says.
“Fuck.” They didn't exactly give Isaac and Erica the run down on the whole situation. Yeah they knew about being werewolves but they didn’t exactly know about the Hunters in the area.
Scott sniffs.
“You smell stressed.”
“Scott, my werewolf problems nearly doubled today. I have not one, not two, but three teenage werewolves to worry about. Two of them went home to their parents and told them what? You had an ill-advised sleep over after the murderous rampage a wild animal committed at the high school last night after the Lacrosse game?”
“Yeah?” Scott is clueless. Stiles is trying not to spiral.
Stiles pulls over.
“Scott, I am going to be honest with you,” Stiles says and turns to look at the teenager, “I have been hanging in by a thread all day, between the murders, Lydia returning to town, and three teenage werewolves. It's been a rough two weeks. I am missing all of the obvious facts here. Lydia is going to walk in and show me I already have the answer.”
Scott squints at him, “So take a step back. That’s what Uncle Noah always says when you get caught up in the details. You’ve been working on this nonstop between taking care of everything from grocery shopping and household chores to solving a murder mystery. You don’t need to take care of everything here. We survived while you were at college.”
Stiles will not admit that Scott is even partially right. “Scott, what were you doing last spring?”
Scott doesn’t answer.
“You were getting involved with the wrong sort. Kevin and Anthony weren’t given such light community service sentences after the incident at the vet clinic. Dad put his job on the line to get you down to working with Deaton instead of Juvie. Anthony lost his place at college and Kevin is looking at serious jail time. You were committing crimes. Aunt Mel was trying her hardest to keep you fed and a roof over your head while fighting to keep custody of you. Dad was miserable between trying to help Aunt Mel and my-“
Stiles cuts himself off because Scott didn’t know how sick Stiles had been last year. He had never really told Scott the extent of it, because Scott was, is just a kid and doesn’t need to know all of the gritty details. Stiles had stayed at Stanford for two consecutive years trying to finish some extra credits to graduate with a masters, not just the bachelors. He had never been so run down. The prior years he had been tired by the time he had finished the semester, but not like he had been last year when he had gotten so sick.
Scott is looking at Stiles like he’s hiding something. Stiles is hiding something, "Your what?”
Stiles could feel his heart beating in his chest, “My sickness.” He doesn’t even lie. He doesn’t know what he can say to avoid lying.
Scott’s pupils contract in focus and nose flairs. “You are sick? How serious? Why did no one tell-”
“It’s fine, I am better now,” Stiles does not want to deal with this guilt trip right now.
“You moved home when you were sick to take care of us?” Scott persists.
“It sounded better than going to the hospital. Besides, it’s what you do for family,” Stiles says.
“Shouldn’t you have asked for help?” Scott says.
“It wasn’t necessary. I would have asked for help if I hadn’t gotten better,” Stiles assures.
Scott whines in the back of his throat, “You shouldn’t have had to take care of us.”
“Scott, Aunt Mel and Dad needed more help. I filled that spot, it's fine. Nothing to worry about now.” Stiles tries to calm his worried werewolf.
“Now you have all of this crazy to deal with! You didn’t sign up to be a werewolf babysitter!” Scott is working himself up to an asthma attack.
“Scottie, breathe with me,” Stiles directs, “it’s okay we’ll figure this out.” Stiles puts the Jeep back in gear to drive home.
When Stiles and Scott get back to the house Derek is on the phone talking like some perfectly reasonable person.
“Of course I can send you over some of my references, but I think the two of them are a very good match for this program.”
He pauses and waves hello at Stiles and Scott.
“Yeah it’s all paid for by the state, no cost to you.”
Stiles raises an eyebrow at that. Lydia passes over a note to him.
He’s talking to the Reyes’ about putting Isaac and Erica into a ‘mentorship’ program.
Stiles is kind of impressed at that. When he had left they were still trying to figure out what to say to the Reyes’. Now they had a whole scam running.
Maybe things aren’t as dire as he had been thinking.
~.x.~
They get it set up so that Derek is mentoring Isaac and Lydia is mentoring Erica at least on paper. It’s kinda genius and not totally a lie since Derek had a little history of working with children, and Lydia is still a town darling.
“Okay maybe this is because I am fifteen but wouldn't Erica need an older female werewolf to actually mentor her?” Scott asks.
“They aren’t actually mentoring the two,” Stiles' head is in his hands, embarrassed about his cousin's misunderstanding.
“Then,” Scott is trying to think through his question. “It just feels wrong? Like who is Lydia to Erica? Who is Derek to Isaac?”
Stiles smashes his face on the table. He honestly think the wood is smarter than his cousin right now.
“Scott, do you trust me?” Lydia asks.
Scott must nod, Stiles hasn’t lifted his head off the table yet. “Would you feel comfortable letting me drive you to a lacrosse game?”
“I guess but usually they want us to take the bus together,” Scott says.
“Scott, you know Lydia and Derek, they are not strangers. We won’t want to hurt your friends. This is not a stranger danger situation,” Stiles says.
“Okay but like Coach Finstock-”
“Nope, not listening to it. Finstock has issues we are not addressing,” Stiles ends the conversation. “Don’t you have a test you need to study for? To get your grades up?”
Scott looks at him lost.
Lydia leaves them with a to do list when she leaves for the night. Stiles elects to ignore that in favor of watching some comfort TV. Unfortunately baseball doesn’t start for another few months.
“Star Trek?” His dad asks.
“Being a teenage mom is exhausting,” Stiles answers.
“Kiddo unless you have something to tell me then you are in fact a twenty-one year old male with no children.” His dad moves Stiles stretched out feet on to his lap and sits down next to him.
“That last part is debatable. How did you manage with me at Scott's age?” Stiles asks.
His dad shrugs, “At fifteen you were looking at colleges and attached to Lydia Martin’s side. Natalie did a lot of the work with the two of you.”
Stiles remembers that. He also wasn’t a teenage werewolf.
“Its not getting to be too much helping out around here with Scott?” His dad asks.
Stiles shakes his head, “No. I am doing pretty well. Sending in some job applications seeing what I can get for remote work.”
“When is your next check up?” His dad asks.
Stiles thinks for a moment, “Everything looked good right before Christmas so I wasn’t going back to the doctors until like April, May?”
“Do you think you should move that up sooner if you are this tired?” His dad eyes him with concern.
“I think it's just because of yesterday Dad.”
“I don’t want you to get so bad again.” His dad pats his leg.
Stiles closes his eyes. He doesn’t want to get so bad again either.
~.x.~
Friday morning Stiles is cooking breakfast when Derek comes in from his run.
“Do you know why Lydia put ‘hoodies’ on the to-do list and underlined it twice?” Derek asks.
Stiles has a pretty good idea as to why that might be and does not want to voice it.
“She also put ‘find Peter’ and ‘schedule wolf training’ on the list,” Stiles says.
Derek rolls his eyes, “Two things that make sense. I just want to know what she means by ‘hoodies’.”
Stiles stomach turns over. Derek’s eyes latch on to him, “You know something more.”
“Erica and Isaac had two of my hoodies on when they got bit,” Stiles points out.
Derek nods, “Okay, and?”
Stiles swallows. “Scott did as well the night he got bit.”
“You think you might be targeted by the rogue wolf?”
Stiles didn’t voice it or phrase it that way but looking at the facts,“It’s not exactly coincidental that all three teenagers were bitten while wearing my outerwear.” Stiles is frustrated and scared having said that out loud.
Derek snorts.
What? Stiles felt he had a legitimate concern there.
“I mean if it is Uncle Peter, then he really doesn’t like your fashion sense.”
Stiles is gobsmacked and insulted, “Lydia gave me the Silly Goose University hoodie for our undergrad celebration! Erica was wearing a flannel sold at Walmart, like half the town probably has one,” Stiles protested.
Derek raises his hands, “I didn’t say they were bad hoodies. Uncle Peter is just a fashion snob.”
Stiles can’t believe it. “This is what makes you believe that it might be your uncle? His snobbery?”
Derek shrugs, “I can’t prove him innocent with all of this evidence stacking up. At this point I feel like the only way its not him is if we asked him point blank.”
“Well I know what we’re going to do today Ferb,” Stiles quips.
~.x.~
Stiles has to spend far too much time working to get into the hospital databases to find out who checked out Peter Hale from the long term ward. He is in fact redoing the investigative work that the Sheriff Department had already done, but this time illegally. He feels like he should charge Derek for his service. The other man disappeared after the second hour of Stiles committing a felony in the town Sheriff's house. What Stiles finds on Peter is strange but not really what they were looking for. Peter had been making a very slow recovery over the past couple of years. It seems to have stalled out a few months before the strange animal killings had started.
Stiles could have found the information on who had checked Peter out a bit quicker if he hadn’t dug into the older history in the file. Kaisa Hale-Mysliwiec is listed as the person who checked Peter out. The paper trail goes back a few months only proving to Stiles that Kaisa isn’t a real person, but an alias and dead end. His next course of action would be to dig into the hospital cameras and see if there was footage of whoever had checked them out. If between the three of them they could identify the woman then they might have a lead on where Peter might be. He runs into the same issue the deputies did where Kaisa stays out of the cameras.
Stiles was sure that Peter was the rogue wolf based on motives alone, but it felt like he might have been more than the suspect. Maybe Lydia would have gotten more than what Stiles uncovered.
Derek slinks back in when Stiles is ready to throw in the towel on this endeavor.
“Did you find anything?”
“Peter’s been getting better before he was checked out. The women signed him out under the name ‘Kaisa Hale-Mysliwiec.’ Lydia might have found out more than I have if she's gone into the ward. She’s pretty charming when she wants to be.”
Derek nods.
“Can I ask some off track questions? Let's start with their ages. Peter is thirty-six and your uncle. Laura was thirty. Was she born early or Peter born late?” Stiles does not give Derek a moment to say no.
“Peter was a surprise late baby for grandma and pops. He didn’t really sell mom on the whole parenthood concept. If he hadn’t been born Mom might have had Laura sooner. Then the whole adoption thing happened while mom was pregnant with Laura.” Derek shrugs.
“So like, was he raised as your uncle or older brother?” Stiles asks, glossing over the adoption thing. The lack of grandparents in the housefire is probably telling enough.
“A bit of both? Like everyone called him Uncle Peter but he didn’t act like the other aunts or uncles. Probably because he was so young in comparison. And the boarding school didn’t help. Mom and my Aunts were very firm that he was their brother.”
Stiles wonders what it was like to live in such a big family and why Laura made the decision to leave Peter in the Hospital here rather than transfer him to New York.
“Interesting, what was he like?” Stiles asks. Derek makes a face and sits up.
“A bit like you, too smart for his own good, a smartass, nose where it didn’t belong, big hearted,” Derek says with that look still on his face. Stiles thinks he’s gotten pretty good at interpreting the other man’s face. This is a cross between fond and exasperated. When his words finally register with Stiles his face burns up and he looks away.
“You haven’t eaten since breakfast,” Derek changes the topic.
Stiles doesn’t push on that. Sometimes Derek is willing to talk, sometimes the man wants to have his own secrets. That was more than what Stiles thought he would get out of him about the Hale Family.
Later that day Stiles finds a new hoodie and coat folded neatly on his bed. The hoodie has a ridiculous tree pun on it and the other is just a really quality Carhartt jacket.
~.x.~
Early Saturday morning Derek has Stiles and the teen wolves out in the forest to do some pack bonding. Watching him trying to get the new werewolves to focus long enough to actually learn how their new senses effect them is an exercise in patience. Stiles is kind of impressed that Derek had decided to teach the blonds tracking at the same time as Scott.
“I know it’s only been a couple of days but you’ve had to notice that everyone has a different scent,” Derek repeats.
The three teenagers look at him blank faced. Stiles can see Derek looking for patience to explain this concept.
“Okay maybe you need a physical example,” Derek has pinched the bridge of his nose.
“Stiles for example, what does he smell like?”
Stiles freezes, nervous and very aware that he is being smelled by three teenagers.
Isaac is the first to wrinkle his nose, “Spicy? Like it makes the wolf tickle.”
Derek shoots Stiles a look to stay quiet.
“Whats under that?”
Erica’s brows furrow in concentration, “A sweet fresh scent. Not like candy or flowers but more substantial.”
Scott rolls his eyes, “Stiles always smells like the woods. He spends all his spare time there.”
Stiles has so many questions. He was pretty sure his Old Spice deodorant was pretty distinctive. That and he had recently found a fragrance free soap ever since Scott had mentioned the other soaps bothering his nose.
Derek raises an eyebrow. “Do you three really not know how to name scents?”
“I mean they are pretty close aren’t they?” Stiles asks.
“Aspen and Oak are the undertones to the ‘spicy nose tickle smell’,” Derek tells them, while glaring at Stiles. Which, no? Stiles does not smell like trees; he was pretty sure that his deodorant smelled less like trees and more like a manly meadow.
“I have an objection,” he speaks up.
“No.”
Okay then.
Stiles is then treated to watching the four of them gather different plants. Derek is insistent on having them learn all the local flora scents like the back of their hands. Stiles doesn’t want to know what he does to teach them the fauna scents, but this is kind of logical. It’s a way to keep them safe knowing the areas and what is typical is the best way to figure out what should stick out.
Stiles is also baffled by the bundles of herbs, small rocks, and collections of dirt samples that he is left with after the exercise. “What am I supposed to do with these?”
“You can preserve them and trade them to Deaton for knowledge,” Scott suggests.
“I’ll get right on that,” Stiles mutters sarcastically, packing them all safely away in his bag.
~.x.~
After the Saturday morning training session in the woods Lydia shows up to Stiles house. “I got footage of the mystery ‘wife’, but also did you know Malia was so close with the Whittemore boy? Like I knew they had the same music tutor when they were younger, but she’s always with him. She’s there not even to work on a school project or for tutoring! Is that dating? Is that what teenagers do?”
Stiles looks at Lydia like she’s grown another head, then pinches his arm. “It’s usually me that is the one babbling.”
“I know the ‘wife’ footage is more important than the Malia and Jackson thing, but it’s been bothering me all morning,” Lydia gets out a printed page with a still of the woman who Peter was released to.
She’s familiar. Her athletic build and glossy hair are tickling something in the back of Stiles mind.
“I know this woman,” Stiles says looking at the photo.”
Derek reaches for the paper and Stiles holds it tighter, “Give me a second, Kaisa looks familiar.”
“Kaisa?”
“Kaisa Hale-Mysliwiec is what she called herself.”
“Stiles, you are an idiot,” Lydia berates him.
Derek finally snatches the paper from Stiles.
“It’s Kate Argent.” Derek and Lydia say at the same time.
Of fucking course it is. She practically signed her name with that alias. Kate Hale-Hunter. Holy Fuck.
Notes:
At some point I will be sharing the family tree I made up for the Hales. Derek never feels the need to specify those things. His aunts are named Clio and Calliope yes names after the Greek muses. Peter was the Boring name kid for grandma Hale.
Title in reference to the shear number of times Stiles visits the forest in the preserve.
Can you tell Foreshowing is my favorite lit technique? Kate is just bold as hell here.
Up next: We go bowling, Stiles does at least three impossible things and thinks nothing of it.
Please leave a comment, it would really improve my day. Especially if your name is Sam.
Chapter 6: The Mycorrhizae
Summary:
We pick up right were we left off.
Notes:
Last round of editing not yet done. Still have to download and listen to the Chappie I’ll do that later this week. Did I mention I do all my own edits?
The other chapters are edited/updated tho. I didn’t do anything to major.
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
It’s quiet for a moment then Derek is scrambling towards the front door.
“Where did Scott say he was going tonight?” Derek says.
“Hold on. Derek we’ve only just confirmed that Kate has taken Peter from the hospital,” Stiles tries to slow down the werewolf.
“He said he was studying with Allison. Is he at her-”
“They are on a group outing at the bowling alley," Lydia says. “With, Malia, Jackson, Allison, I think a few other kids were going.”
“Derek wait- we can’t just go off without even the semblance of a plan.”
Derek’s eyes flash blue, “Scott could be in danger and you are telling me to calm down.”
Stiles freezes caught in the anger Derek is putting off. “I think Peter is the bigger concern here.”
“Scott is my pack. It’s been five days since Peter has been in her custody. She killed the rest of my family pack why would she keep Peter alive for that long. I need eyes on Scott and Isaac and Erica.”
Stiles can work with that.
“Scott is out in public with a lot of witnesses around, we will know if something happens to him. Isaac and Erica are together. The teenagers are all accounted for and safe. It’s Peter we need to find.”
“I need to see them. I need them together. Packs are stronger together,” Derek says. Stiles looks to Lydia for some back up here.
“We can pick up Isaac and Erica and go to the bowling alley,” Lydia offers, sounding more scared than she should. Stiles looks between the two of them. What has gotten those two so scared? Derek is in his half shift and Lydia has never really seen that in close quarters. Stiles needs to get the two of them back to baseline.
“Text Malia let her know of the change in plans. It’ll take maybe forty minutes to get Isaac and Erica to the bowling alley. We can figure out what to do about Peter once the pack is all together. In the meantime I’ll just manifest a book that tells me what exactly has happened here.” Stiles says the last bit more to himself than to Lydia.
~.x.~
Scott has had a weird few weeks. First there was getting bitten by the rogue werewolf. Then there was meeting Allison. She turned his world upside down, he had never met someone so beautiful. Next there was that weird thing with Jackson asking for juice. Then there was Derek. The guy was cool and all, but he made it look like Stiles was a rational human being. He was kind of a cool mentor in the whole werewolf thing. Derek had moved in with Uncle Noah and Stiles after finding his sister's body in the woods. Which given, Scott didn't know everything that was going on there, so he couldn’t really judge. He could however, judge whatever Stiles had going on with the older werewolf.
The two of them ran hot and cold around each other. Sometimes it was like they had known each other for years and had communication down pat, other times it was kind of embarrassing how they acted around each other. Scott had hoped Stiles would say something if he liked guys, but his cousin was always pretty quiet on if he was attracted to more than just girls. Beacon Hills wasn’t the most progressive place, but Scott knew a Danny was gay and everyone liked him.
Then Isaac almost died in Scott’s arms. Scott hated all the emotions that brought up. Isaac was his best friend and having to keep secret his new werewolf nature was not something Scott had enjoyed, but now they got to be wolves together. Scott really liked that. Having a pack with Erica was okay too.
Having to reschedule this time with Allison was annoying but really it was kind of his fault because he had forgotten about the Lacrosse game. And like was it really a date? Scott and Allison were the only two who were maybe dating. Malia and Jackson were here, but whatever they had going on, it wasn’t dating. It had been Danny’s idea in the first place. Scott thought it might have something to do with the older cashier that was working at the snack station.
“My sister is bringing by Isaac and Erica, do you guys think they can join as well?” Malia asks.
Scott thinks thats a bit off, because he had asked Isaac if he wanted to go with them. Isaac had said he had to clean his room that afternoon.
“Is Erica going to be okay with all the lights?” Allison asks.
Malia shrugs, “I mean the last time I had asked her she said she could only go during certain hours. I don’t know about the lights.”
They all look to Danny, who is usually the smartest about these things. He just shrugs, “I mean the more the merrier?”
Scott looks down at his phone. He has a message from Stiles. It reads: Derek wants to see that the three of you are safe. Crashing your date seemed the easiest way to get the lot of you all in the same room.
“Why did your sister come home early?” Jackson asks.
Malia shrugs, “She said something about a research opportunity that had gotten back to her. Mom is just thrilled to have her home and hasn’t questioned her too hard on that.”
“Wasn't she like a math major?What kind of research opportunities are in Beacon Hills?” Danny asks.
Malia shrugs, “I think it's remote? You’d know more about that than I do what with your research papers. Anyway her being here annoys Dad. He wants her to be just like Grandma Lorriane work in San Francisco to be closer to him.” Malia make a face.
Scott tunes out the conversation but notes the annoyed look on Jackson’s face. He wonders what that’s all about. Jackson has been weird all year.
When Lydia finally arrives with the other three werewolves and Stiles, Scott lets out a sigh of relief. Isaac doesn’t look thrilled to have been brought along but Erica is grinning ear to ear. Jackson gives her a once over Scott doesn’t like and can’t figure out why he doesn’t like Jackson looking at Erica. He doesn’t care who Jackson or Erica date. Not really. He has Allison. Danny draws Isaac into conversation right away.
Scott is trying to figure out what Derek and Stiles are talking about while Lydia and Malia are assigning bowling teams and snacks.
“I’m glad you all could come,” Allison is telling Erica. Erica beams at Allison in a way Scott doesn’t like. He is trying to remember what Derek has said about reigning in his instincts.
“We got done with the dance committee early. The Winter Formal is only three weeks away, and it's going to be so awesome,” Erica gushes.
“Oh what's the theme?”
“Enchanted Forest,” Erica says. “Do you think you’ll go?”
Allison blushes so prettily. Scott’s heart skips a beat.
~.x.~
“Look, all three pups are here. Lydia will stay with them. We'll retrace Kate's steps to see if we can’t find Peter,” Stiles tries again to get Derek to leave the bowling alley.
Derek is still laser focused on the teenagers. It’s getting a bit weird.
“I need to go over the plan with Scott. Isaac and Erica won’t explain why he can’t go home with Allison,” Derek pushes.
Stiles swears Scott's ears perk up like a dog hearing the word food and the kid trots over to Stiles and Derek.
“Of course he is listening in on our conversation,” Stiles grumbles.
“Yeah it's pretty weird you show up to the bowling alley while I have a date with Allison planned,” Scott snarks.
Now is not the time to point out this is way less a double date and more like a group outing, if it was, someone was the fifth wheel, or maybe seventh wheel.
“This has less to do with you and more to do with our ongoing problems,” Stiles intercedes before Derek can escalate it.
“Why can’t I go home with Allison?” Scott asks Derek.
“Her family.” Derek grits out.
“What Derek means to say is that we don’t want you to be alone with the Argents. You are free to go to the Martins, the Whitmores, The Reyes, or The Mahealani’s. Allison is not a factor in this,” Stiles interrupts.
Scott narrows his eyes and looks between the two of them. Not a trace of gold glimmers in his gaze. “Okay I guess, but I want explanations when tonight is over. I think I probably know why, but what is it you always tell me about assumptions.”
Stiles is a little bit proud of his cousin for growing up like this.
“Also I need twenty bucks,” Scott holds out his hand. Stiles rolls his eyes, is less proud, and gets out his wallet.
“This feels like extortion,” Stiles hands over the money. Then Derek draws Scott into a quick hug. He had done the same with the other two earlier. He also murmurs something Stiles cannot hear.
Scott looks at him with wide eyes and nods. Then he's back off to his friends. Lydia waves them away so Stiles and Derek go back to the Jeep.
“So…Do you think you can follow the scent trail from the hospital to find Peter?”
Derek shakes his head. “No, too long has passed and too many people have gone through there for it to be of any use. I have a feeling, we need to go back to my parents’ old house.”
Right, the burned down ruins on the edge of the preserve. Derek insist they need to hike to the house and not park near it like rational people. Stiles takes a deep breath and reminds himself that this is a wigged out werewolf going with a a feeling that he is dealing with, not a rational person.
The house is old and creepy and could probably star in a bad horror movie.
Derek has gone ramrod still. Stiles doesn’t know if it's a reaction to the memories this place holds or something else. He leads Stiles forward cautiously then seemingly stops.
“Whats wrong?” Stiles is trying to calm his racing heart.
“Mountain Ash,” Derek growls out at the ground. Stiles follows his line of signs to a line of dark powder in a circle around the house. He hasn’t come across anything about Mountain Ash in his research into the occult and supernatural. He does, however, know the tree is not native to this part of California. Not that native species have meant much lately.
Stiles crouches down to see the stuff better, then back at Derek.
“It’s blocking me,” Derek says.
Oh in that case all Stiles has to do is break the circle, like demons and salt circles. He reaches out to break the line, but then something weird happens. It's like the wind picks up and suddenly there is a small hill of the black powder where Stiles had touched.
Okay that’s pretty odd, “Uh problem solved?”
“Maybe,” Derek eyes the house with even more trepidation than before. Stiles doesn’t know why he collects some of the ash in an old water bottle and follows Derek into the house.
Derek is prying floor boards up in the entry way. He is looking for something. Stiles is still trying to understand why the house was surrounded by Mountain Ash and what that could mean. He’s come up with nothing good. Either it was meant to keep something out, or worse something in.
And by something he meant werewolves. And the only thing that would do that would be…
“Hunters,” Derek says, looking towards the back door.
“Derek what are we here for?”
Derek makes a frustrated noise, he can't seem to get the words out fast enough and makes a box shape with his hands, “It can help.” He is moving up the stairs. The same stairs that he had pushed Scott down. Stiles shakes his head to get out of those thoughts. Now is not the time to question why Derek has been keeping something that can help in the fire ruined shell of a home and not somewhere safer. Why is it now that Derek decided it's time to get the damn thing when they were fucking hunters coming into the damn house.
Stiles trips up the stairs trying to follow Derek on his quest. Fuck, he just kicked out the steps and his foot is caught on the boards. He takes a moment to pull his foot out from the boards. As he does so there is an item that should not be there behind the steps. Stiles pulls out the device with extra caution as if it were a bomb.
The wooden box encases and a dusty old laptop, and that is a generous term for it.
Stiles puts it in his bag alongside the bottle of mountain ash. Derek has turned around from where he was looking out the second story windows.
“Of course you found it,” Derek says, then looks off into the distance. That's the cue Stiles has recognized means werewolf hearing is in play, “We need to get going now.”
Stiles wants more answers, but Derek doesn’t let up until they are much farther into the preserve and Stiles feet are following familiar paths. He is annoyed they left his Jeep so far from the house. The silver lining at least is that the Jeep was left in a parking lot people used when they went into the Preserve.
“Derek, what the fuck is this? Why was it in the house, and not, I don’t know, in a storage locker?”
The werewolf has the god damn audacity to grin at Stiles.
“It’s the family bestiary. It has all the family histories in it and maps of the preserve. If Kate has Uncle Peter, then this is the best tool we could have had to find him,” Derek explains.
“That still doesn’t explain why a relic of a laptop was stored in a wooden box under the stairs in a burned out home for the past seven years!” Stiles yells.
“It’s a laptop?” Derek asks.
Stiles pulls out the box to show him. The dusty laptop has changed inside the box. It’s no longer a decade old laptop, but a newer model with aspen trees and wolves carved on the back of the screen. The keys are now wooden with an inlaid mother of pearl luster. It looks like a laptop made by Tolkin Elves, not the dusty junker Stiles had pulled from the house. Derek is as surprised as Stiles is scared.
“That’s neat.”
That’s all Derek has to say? An ancient laptop has seemingly transformed into a Lord of the Rings prop and all he says is ‘that’s neat’?
“It was never something I had access to. I had forgotten about it until today,” Derek tells him.
Stiles thinks there is more to it than that. This is the first Stiles has really seen of magic being more than just shape shifters and unhelpful vet-slash-druid. Stiles opens the Bestiary turned laptop and takes a look at what he needs to do to get into the magical device.
“Password?” Stiles reads. He looks to Derek for help. His shrug is less than helpful.
Stiles types in Hale Bestiary to see if that will work. It does, Stiles hopes to change that soon. That is such a dumb password. It’s like if his Dad's password at work was ‘Sheriff Database’.
The thing boots up quicker than any other computer Stiles had dealt with, it’s pretty convenient.
“That doesn’t look like any PC I’ve seen before,” Derek helpfully adds.
It's more intuitive than any other computer Stiles has used. He very quickly pulls up files of the land. There are maps and photos and drawings. It’s not just records but a database to all things supernatural and Beacon Hills. Stiles sets the thing down on the tree stump and steps back.
He needs to catch his breath. It was so obvious now that he had the time to think about it.
“What’s wrong?”
Stiles can’t tell him. If he tells Derek that Peter was in the burned down Hale house, they wouldn’t leave the woods. They would never get back to Scott and the others. Derek would tear the whole house apart to get to his uncle.
“Stiles, breath,” Derek orders.
Stiles can only vaguely hear him. His vision is swimming. Steady hands direct him to sit. Glass green eyes fill his vision. The hand is back on his chest. His own hands are on a broad chest that’s doing exaggerated breath for him to follow.
“Are you with me now?”
“Yeah.”
Derek doesn’t look convinced. “Do you think you can walk back to the Jeep or do I need to carry you?”
“I can walk,” Stiles says, getting to his feet. He stumbles and Derek helps him steady out.
“Can you get your bag?” Derek asks.
Stiles puts the items back in his bag and hands it over to Derek. He then shoulders the bag and grabs Stiles hand.
Stiles looks at their hands entwined confused for most of the way back to the Jeep. Then decides it must have been Derek’s compromise in not carrying him.
They don’t talk about Stiles' panic attack or what might have caused it.
~.x.~
Sunday, Stiles wakes up with Derek in his bed again.
Last night was the first time that it wasn’t Derek crawling into Stiles bed for comfort but Stiles asking him stay.
“I think we need to talk about this,” Stiles says, voice thick with sleep. Derek grunts and rubs his face into Stiles' chest.
Derek like this is making his heart soft and gooey. Stiles runs a hand up and down Derek’s back. Stiles looks to his bedroom ceiling.
“I wasn’t the most social kid if you can recall. I was scrawny and a bit of a know it all. Then I skipped a grade and Mom died and I just wanted to leave this town. Lydia had really pushed me. My high school years were condensed. A.P. classes took up most of my spare time. Then I was one of the youngest kids on a college campus. I didn’t date. I’ve never really had a person sleep in my bed with me,” Stiles confesses.
He doesn't look at Derek as he continues, “I don’t really know where to start with you,” Stiles says.
Derek lets out a breath in a way that could be construed as a snore.
“What does home even smell like to you?” Stiles asks. “Why do you keep holding me like I am precious? What even am I to you?”
“A very loud mattress,” Derek grumbles.
Stiles startles and Derek tightens his hold on Stiles.
“You’re part of the pack,” Derek tells him. Shifting to Stiles' side to look him over better.
“You don’t sleep like this with Scott,” Stiles says to Derek’s frost green eyes.
Derek makes a noise like a dog grumbling while rolling his eyes. “Scott is a cub, if he wants snuggles he will get wolf snuggles.”
“So why do I get…Derek snuggles?”
“Because you smell like the preserve.” Derek says and yikes morning breath.
Stiles moves back from Derek’s grasp, “I guess that means it’s shower time.”
~.x.~
It being Sunday means they put all of their werewolf investigations on pause to deal with household chores. Stiles puts everything from Saturday aside and throws himself into cleaning the house and getting his kitchen restocked.
It's nice to be busy with his dad at home. It hasn’t happened a lot lately. Halfway through the day Derek is off to deal with some official business, which is weird because the town doesn’t usually deal with legal stuff on a Sunday. He looks to his dad for an answer. He gets a shrug in return. Stiles will ask later.
Overall Stiles has a lovely and quiet day at home. He even managed to get Aunt Mel and Scott over for Sunday dinner.
It's Tuesday before Stiles remembers the laptop they had pulled out of the Hale home. He had also forgotten his realization that Peter had probably been in the basement of the Hale home. When he thinks about it, it's weird that Derek hadn’t bugged him to look through the thing earlier. Whatever the town had needed him for on Sunday and Monday must have been all consuming.
He digs out the wooden box from his bag and gets the laptop out. Except it was not the laptop he had looked through in the Preserve. It's the dusty clunker he saw in the Hale house.
Maybe he had been mistaken in the woods and it didn't look like a Lord of the Ring prop. He digs around on the clunker for a while frustrated with how long it was taking to get the files open let alone connect to the internet. When his dad comes home from work he does a double take on Stiles working with the clunker.
“I thought you had a newer computer,” His dad says.
Stiles groans. “I do.”
His dad makes a gesture asking what is going on with this one.
“It’s got research on it that I am trying to get off of the damn thing,” Stiles explains.
His dad raises an eyebrow, “don’t you usually use cords for that? Actually, do you want to bring it down to the station? I'll see if Vargas has time to help you pull data off of it.”
Stiles makes a face. “It’s got sensitive information on it. It’s fine, I'll keep working on it.”
His dad looks at him again with his lips pressed tightly together. Stiles shrugs.
“As long as you know it’s an option.” His dad throws out while going to shower.
It only occurs to Stiles that he hasn’t seen Derek in a while. He sends the other man a text message to see what is up. The next time he looks up the file he was looking for has loaded on the clunker.
Finally.
Derek and Scott show up later looking for dinner and Stiles has to pull himself out of the research hole he is digging himself into. Luckily he has had his mothers tomato soup going all day in the crockpot so getting ready for dinner is easy enough to get on the table.
Derek makes a face at the eggs in it. Stiles narrows his eyes before the other man can complain. Scott laughs to himself.
“Where have you been all day?” Stiles asks. Derek's scowl makes a return.
“I’ve been trying to get the town to fast track the demolition,” Derek tells his soup.
Stiles looks to Scott, “He also made Isaac, Erica, and I practice tracking woodland creatures.”
Derek had said it helps them sort through the scents at the high school. It also makes a great way to frustrate the teenagers when they are getting along too well and he needs a little conflict happening.
“Building a hunting team there?” Stiles’ dad asks.
Derek shrugs his shoulders, “Between the fights they started and the animals they scared away, probably not.”
Scott's jaw drops, “That’s why you set us on the same trails?”
There is a flash of a grin on Derek's face. Scott launches into a story about Erica asking out one of his teammates. Boyd or something. Apparently Isaac had dared her to after she had annoyed him for too long on Saturday.
Stiles is only half listing because he is trying to figure out what the town needs to give its approval to demolition that Derek would be involved in.
The old Hale house. Where Peter is being kept.
“You good there son,” His dad asks.
Stiles realised he has had the spoon in front of his mouth for too long. Derek and Scott are looking at him too.
“I- yeah lost in thought,” Stiles locks eyes with Derek.
Derek does not get the message Stiles is trying to send him telepathically. His dad however slides him a notebook.
“Write it down before you forget it.”
Stiles scribbles down some nonsense. Then while they are cleaning up the kitchen he goes off to call Lydia. Text would prevent the werewolves from overhearing him, but hopefully they don’t eavesdrop on Stiles out on the rooftop.
“We need to bring Malia in on the situation,” Lydia answers his phone call.
“What- why? Wait, that's not what I called you about. I need you to come with me to the Hale House.”
“No, it's dark out right now and isn’t the curfew still in effect,” Lydia shoots him down.
“Okay maybe not tonight, but tomorrow as soon as it’s light out,” Lydia has slipped right back into being his filter.
“Why, isn't it Derek’s property? Take him.”
“When we went there Saturday there was Mountain Ash around the property. That stuff prevented him from going into the house,” Stiles tells her. He has leaned back on the roof outside of his bedroom window. The moon is waning nowhere near as full as it was last week.
“You mean Hunters are watching the Hale house and you want to look around?” Lydia asks.
“Without any of my fuzzy charges,” he confirms.
“This is going to go so well,” Lydia complains.
“I know, now tell me why does Malia need to know about what's going on?”
“Well first of all she is my little sister. Scott knows, so I think I should get to bring her in out of fairness. Secondly she’s got questions on why I am hanging out with the Reyes kids and you so much. Thirdly she will get weird about things and I don’t want her to get information from the wrong sources, because fourthly she is really close with the hunters kid,” Lydia lays out.
Stiles thinks over all four points. He dismisses the first point right away.
“She’s my sister, what if she also has these weird death dreams!”
“She’s adopted," Stiles reminds her.
“That means nothing. She could also have this Banshee witch thing going on. We don't know for sure its genetic.”
Stiles pinches his nose and reminds himself to breathe, “Your other points are fair enough, but if we tell Malia what's stopping her from telling others. I mean I agree she shouldn’t learn about this supernatural stuff from Hunters, but she’s never been what I would call tactful.”
“It would give Erica a peer to talk to about all the murderous urges,” Lydia points out.
“Malia would still be a human girl in all of this,” Stiles says, “And didn’t you have murder urges at that age.”
“I still have murder urges Stiles. That's the problem. Think about it though, it would make it easier for me to cart the Reyes around if Malia knew.”
Lydia has won the argument with Stiles, “I am not the one you need to convince,” Stiles tells her.
“You’ll back me up when I bring this up to Derek,” She asks.
“Yeah Lyds. I will.”
“Great, I'll see you tomorrow morning. We'll go do your investigation and then bring Malia to pack training after School tomorrow. What's the worst that can happen?”
“Oh you know, someone dies,” Stiles' sarcasm bubbles out of him before he thinks too hard.
“Don’t even joke about that!” Lydia hisses sharply in his ear.
“Ugh okay, there is no need to be so shrill.” Stiles often wonders what he did to deserve Lydia as a best friend. Some days it must have been a really good thing, others it feels like a punishment.
~.x.~
He tells Derek and his dad that Lydia wanted to do sunrise yoga out in the woods. His dad doesn’t question it. He knows Derek could hear the lie in his heartbeat when he gave his plans for the next morning.
Stiles greets Lydia with her extra sugary coffee order and a kiss on her cheek. Her green eyed glare does not let up, but she accepts the coffee without a complaint. She looks so beautiful when she is grumpy.
“What's the bag for?” She asks.
“It was useful last time. I’d rather be prepared than caught by surprise,” He tells her.
“Okay then.”
They pass by the section of the property that had the Mountain Ash barrier with no problem. Stiles is kind of disappointed and wanted to see if the stuff would have any effect on Lydia, but it looks like the barrier was not replaced. He had wanted to show that off for Lydia as well. He still has the water bottle of ash in the bag.
“I remember how beautiful the house was when I came here with Mark,” Lydia says in a hushed tone.
“You thought it was weird so many people lived in the house,” Stiles remembers suddenly.
“Fourteen people in one house was 350% more people than I lived with at the time,” Lydia states.
Stiles doesn’t think that mathis accurate, but he is not the one with the math degree. “Mark was a year older than us?”
“He was two years older than us,” Lydia says. “His birthday was June 11th, 1987. So he was 562 days older than Derek. Eighteen months and thirteen days,” She rattles off.
“Was he the oldest boy you kissed at the time?” Stiles is trying to distract her from her nerves in this mansion of a home.
Lydia makes an indignant noise, “Mieczysław!”
Stiles shakes of the chill his name give him. So far he hasn’t found anything in the house that was incriminating. It's much bigger than prior experience has shown him.
“I was fourteen at the time.”
“He was, what sixteen? That’s like two years?”
“He was only twenty-one months and twenty-five days older than me. That’s practically nothing.”
Stiles raises an eyebrow.
Lydia blushes, “We only kissed after we finished the project.”
“So he was the oldest person at the time.” Stiles teases. Lydia was a lot more shameless in college. Granted she was a sixteen year old college freshman and didn’t do a lot of dating before their junior year, by the time they had turned eighteen they were juniors in College. Stiles wasn’t all that impressed at the maturity of any of the guys she brought around. Mark must have been the oldest boy she kissed for a while.
“You know more about sleeping with Hales than I do at this point.”
Stiles looks at the stairs that his foot went through a few days ago wondering if he really needed to go up stairs to look for evidence of Hunters.
“What happened there?” She asks.
Stiles does not answer and once again lets her draw her own wrong conclusions.
“Do you remember where the basement was?” Stiles asks.
Lydia unhelpfully shrugs. “You should have brought Derek if directions were what you wanted.”
“If I were an architect I would put it in the kitchen,” Stiles says.
Lydia rolls her eyes then leads him to the back of the grand staircase. “Its a good thing you are not an architect.”
Stiles grabs her hand and they descend down the stairs.
“There is no way this is safe.” Lydia whispers.
Stiles doesn’t mention that Derek has been trying to get the place condemned to speed up the demolition.
“Why would the Hales have a creepy murder basement?” Lydia asks.
Stiles sees the newer generators and …implements. This was not how the Hales would have kept the basement. There are syringes and stocks of herbs and medicine on one table. On another are cattle prods and brands. This is vaguely looking like a torture basement.
Lydia's hand tightens in his.
Stiles recognizes that form on the floor, between the brown hair and burn marks, this is Peter Hale. And he is healing.
“Stiles, there’s a cage,” Lydia points out.
The iron bars and padlock make it clear this is where Peter has been kept for the past week. The man is asleep on the ground wearing not hospital scrubs, but sweat pants and a t-shirt. Stiles works on getting the padlock open to get Peter out.
The stairs creak behind them. A woman with a devious grin on her face is standing at the bottom of the steps.
“No one is meant to disturb the patient,” She says with a chill in her tone.
Lydia tries to hide herself behind Stiles. He can see her try to stifle the scream building in her throat.
“I don’t know about you, but this is not a hospital or even Eichen house. Actually scratch that I know for a fact that this place is being condemned and not able to offer any kind of medical care,” Stiles tells her.
She cackles. She’s not very tall, has maybe a few inches on Lydia. Stiles has seen her before. Her scrubs say she's a nurse.
Stiles throws one of the brands at her legs to trip her up. He hits her right shin and causes her to stumble on her steps toward him.
“That wasn’t very nice,” She says when she gets herself back up.
“This was not how I wanted to spend my morning, so I guess we are both unhappy,” Stiles tosses back.
The woman launches at him bare handed. Stiles has been on the other end of an angry Lydia. He knows this woman will use her finger nails. He grabs both of her wrists in her next lunge and twists to pull them behind her back and bring her towards him.
The woman struggles and honestly so does Stiles. He is a twenty-one year old with health issues, not a werewolf or a hunter, but neither it seems is this woman. He gets her on the floor with her hands behind her back.
“What the hell are you doing with this man? What is going on here?”
She laughs manically. Of course she is not quite all there. “Thats no man.” She cackles.
“Lydia get me the zipties!” Stiles has to yell to get Lydia’s attention with the woman struggling under him.
Lydia scrambles to get to the extra large zip ties a table over from where Stiles could reach.
Peter chooses that moment to wake up and lunge at the bars of his cage
“What's your plan boy?” The woman asks while Stiles is still trying to zip tie her hands together.
“I had just wanted an early morning hike, but we can put a call into the Sheriff station. This setup is not looking very good for you.”
“That monster will kill you,” She tells him while he is tying up her ankles.
Stiles looks from Lydia to Peter to the woman. He stands up then goes over to the cage and yanks off the padlock. This was not very well thought out as Peter is in the partial shift and throws himself at the door. Then goes right for the woman. Stiles had clearly not thought about that action hard enough.
Peter doesn’t claw her or even bite her head off. He very deliberately twists her head to the side and undoes all of Stiles' very hard work to have a witness, or accomplice, or even perpetrator to the murders that have happened in Beacon Hills stay alive.
Lydia squeals. No Lydia wails, screams. The woman is dead and there is a half crazed werewolf in front of Stiles and Lydia.
Peter has gone past the half shift Derek and Scott usually run around in. The man is more wolf than human now. Stiles' heart is pounding when Peter bounds over to him.
Then the werewolf rubs his head against Stiles' middle. It's reminiscent of a cat looking for attention so Stiles pats the creature on his head. Peter affectionately rubs his face against Stiles and then runs up the stairs still in that more than half shift.
“Stiles,” Lydia has found her voice. “What the hell was that?”
A perfectly awful start to his day? A hostage situation gone bad? A very weird reunion?
“At least no one was bitten this time?” He tries.
Lydia makes a face. “If we are making jokes then I guess he approves of your fashion choices today.”
Stiles squawks in outrage. “You weren’t even there for that conversation!”
“I mean at least you picked out halfway decent clothes this time,” She sniffs.
Stiles looks down at the Carhartt jacket he was wearing that he definitely hadn’t picked up. He brushes aside those thoughts and the blood on his jacket.
Stiles looks at the body with its twisted neck. While Peter had not clawed the woman, he had not really been gentle. There was still blood and torn flesh. It wasn’t a petty sight. “I think we need to call my Dad.”
“Oh hell no, Stiles, that looks bad. How many times a month can you be the one to find a dead body?” Lydia cries.
This is technically the second time this month he had found a dead body in the woods, the other one was in the school. Stillthree dead bodies was kind of adding up.
“If we leave it looks worse. And we didn’t technically find a dead body!” Stiles can’t bring himself to leave the scene without at least telling his dad he was there.
“No, we witnessed a murder. You see how that’s worse right?” Lydia points out. Then asks, “How many times a month can you find a dead body?”
Well. Stiles was going three for three on this dead body scavenger hunt. He wishes he had not had that thought. And really Laura was only half a body.
“We didn’t exactly find a body in the woods,” Stiles attempts to persuade her.
“No, we witnessed a murder, you see how that is worse right?” Lydia asks.
“I think leaving the crime scene is the bad choice here,” Stiles gestures around them.
“What are we going to tell them? The truth because that sounds reasonable.” Lydia snorts.
“Yeah. We’ll tell them the truth. We found a rabid animal and this woman came in making strange threats,” Stiles offers.
Lydia picks up the padlock that Stiles had dropped. “What about this? How are we going to explain why it looks like squished wet clay? How did you even do that?”
“We’re calling the sheriff's department. We were doing sunrise yoga and heard a strange noise coming from the house. It was like this when we got here,” Stiles tells Lydia. “We did not do anything wrong, Lyds.”
Stiles takes the lump of metal from Lydia and examines it. That's his hand print. The padlock looks like Derek or Scott had just ripped the thing off with their supernatural strength. He hadn’t unlocked the device like he had thought he had. He takes a deep breath and puts the former padlock in his bag.
Notes:
Stiles found Body Count: 3
Mycorrhiza refers to the role of the fungus in the plant's rhizosphere, the plant root system and its surroundings. Mycorrhizae play important roles in plant nutrition, soil biology, and soil chemistry.
I find if I talk about chapter count or give estimations I am cursed not to finish the work. That said I think I am working on the last chapter, but I keep finding plot threads I dropped.
Did you catch the Thing™️ Stiles has been doing? He did it twice here. I think this chapter is really obvious on it.
Up next: things get choppy, parent teacher conferences happen, and the Stilinski’s go fishing.