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“I need you to authorize a kidnapping.”
Noah turned around slowly to face his son. Being a parent wasn't an easy job, and he knew every kid was special, but some days he still felt justified in a feeling that being Stiles' parent in particular was even harder. And that wasn't a complaint. He wouldn't want a different kid. He wouldn't want it easier.
Okay, maybe he could do with the slightest bit easier.
“I would have thought.” He started, carefully picking his words. “That between your general intelligence and being a kid of a law enforcement officer for... your entire life, you would have recognized the minor contradiction in this sentence.”
Stiles rolled his eyes at him. Because of course he did.
“First off, it's not always a contradiction. Our goverment authorized a ton of kidnappings. As a law enforcement officer you should know that.”
Little bastard.
”Touche. But last time I checked, you weren't a government agent with the ability to be authorized for kidnapping people. Unethical repercussions of such methods aside.“
Stiles sighed and sat down at the kitchen table.
Oh.
Oh.
So it was a serious talk. Okay. Noah sat down next to Stiles. Usually, their preferred chairs were opposite each other, but serious discussions always happened side to side. It was a better position for emotional hugging it out after.
“I don't need you to authorize it as a cop, I need your parental authorization because I am going to do something very stupid with your permission or without it, but with it is going to be so much easier.“
Oh God.
It was Noah's turn to sigh.
“Nie oceniamy?”
“Nie oceniamy.”
“Okay, fuck it. Shoot.”
“I want to kidnap Peter Hale.”
Noah blinked. He blinked again. He felt like he could actually see a little blue loading circle in front of his eyes.
“I am not sure I fully understand what you are asking here.”
“I want to break Peter out of Eichen House.”
“See, that made more sense. It's not precisely a kidnapping, I don't think, honestly. It's not precisely a good idea either, but we can shelve that for a moment while you explain where this idea came from and why you're coming clean to me about this instead of pulling off a crazy stunt on your own.”
For a second, Stiles face got that automatic indignant expression of being ready to argue about having no faith in him, before he just shrugged in that actually, fair, I probably would have but I have reasons why I didn't way.
“Look, I know you probably think he's in there rightfully, but... It's not a good place, dad.“
Noah's heart broke for a second, and he took a moment to think about everything that happened. He wasn't a fan of Eichen House. He wanted to take Stiles as far away from it as possible, but it was Stiles himself who insisted on being admitted. And no, no one really could have counted on the unknown variable being a thousand years old chaos demon, but he still felt guilty sometimes for the fact he was right to want to keep Stiles away from there and not being able to. It made sense Stiles would end up conflicted over someone he knew being put in there involuntarily.
”It's not. And the part of it where Peter is is probably an even worse place. And I am willing to admit that I judged Peter too harshly for what happened with the Benefactor. That was on Meredith. But trying to kill Scott, that was on Peter, and we don't exactly have the ability to play judge and jury over the supernatural crazy world with human laws. Peter was probably acting out for a reason, but regardless of that reason he was a danger to others, and he needed to be isolated for everyone's safety, somehow. And honestly, I think maybe he needed help himself, in a way.”
He knew Derek thought so when he admitted Peter in there against his will, and he knew Stiles knew it too. He knew Derek himself was probably telling himself it wasn't jail, it was a hospital - for all that Peter's experiences with hospitals weren't particularly better either.
But it was the best option, wasn't it?
Maybe it would help. Maybe Peter did need it.
Maybe.
”Oh, for fucks sake, I hate when you do that.“
”When I do what?“
“Make me think about life and uncomfortable answers without even asking the questions. Yes, I was justifying to myself that this was the best way out of a bad situation. No, I don't think that place is probably actually helping Peter. I still don't know if breaking him out of there is necessarily the answer.”
“Kidnapping him. Since I don't know technically if he wants to be out, but I just, I think he does, but also I don't know, I don't want to just set him free and let him loose, so like... a kidnapping. And parental authorization request.”
Oh.
Oh no.
There certainly wasn't an implication there that Noah thought there was, was there?
“If you don't want to let him loose. Which is smart. But also slightly confusing. Because if you don't want to just let Peter loose and don't trust him to stay put or behave on his own, what is your plan?”
Stiles smiled.
Noah dropped his head on the table.
“I thought maybe we'd bring him here?”
“Yeah. Yeah, this is starting to look more and more like a kidnapping the longer you speak.”
***
”It just feels like no one would look for him in the sheriff's house.“
”Oh for sure. I can barely believe I'm going to be able to find him in my goddamn house.“
So somehow, Noah not only allowed his bloody brilliant, bloody terrible little monster of a kid to kidnap someone. Free someone. Break an unethically institutionalised man out of an abusive, improperly run mental institution (whatever helped him sleep at night), no, Noah also allowed himself to get roped into helping.
”I mean, it's just that I don't feel like any of my friends would be particularly into helping me with this and I could do it on my own but--“
”Yeah no, it's fine. Or it's not fine but I'll help. The cruiser will actually end up working in our favour in terms of not drawing attention.“
”Thank you.“
And that was that. Which led them to here. Sitting in the cruiser in an alley a bit further off near the back of Eichen House, waiting for the exact minute Stiles calculated would be safe to make their move, trying to pass time without letting the silence get too awkward.
It was awkward.
It was better than the stiffling silences they used to have before Noah learned what Stiles got himself into that night Laura Hale died, but it was still bloody awkward.
”Thank you for going along with it, you know.“
”You'd have gone through with it even if I didn't, and you're safer with my help.“
”I mean, yeah, probably, you already said that, but like. You never really even tried to argue.“
”I'm sorry I put you in here once.“
Stiles turned to look at him with those huge eyes of his that always reminded him of Claudia. They had that exact same puppy face that had him wrapped around their little finger.
“That wasn't your fault. I wanted to come here. I thought it'd help.”
“But it didn't. And it's not helping Peter either.”
Stiles turned away again.
“Yeah. I just. I started to have nightmares again.” Noah bit his lip, stayed quiet, and reached out to put a comforting hand on Stiles' forearm, drawing little circles over the flannel. He listened. ”I know Peter did bad things. But I can't help but think about what if mom didn't... like what if someone murdered mom?“
Noah swallowed down bile.
He never really...
It felt like in a couple of seconds his perspective shifted and he understood Peter Hale in a way he never did before. He squeezed Stiles' arm.
”Yeah, okay, I get it.“
”I don't even think it matters that much, that it's Peter. I think it's just... I mean, I wasn't alone there. I knew I am surrounded by people who all have their personal tragedies, I recognized some of them vaguely but I never really knew them. I knew they're still there, when I left, but it was an impersonal vague awareness where I didn't register that as a problem that affects me. I was able to sort of gloss over it. I didn't want to think about the fact that terrible place is still being a terrible place, you know?“
Noah nods. It's a coping mechanism he's all too familiar with, being in the line of work that he is.
“But I know Peter. And it doesn't matter if I even like him. It's like it suddenly brought it all back, because it's not abstract anymore. It's a person with feelings and personality and a name and a life and I fall asleep and I see him trashing in the bonds they used to put on me, staring at green tiles slowly going insane. It's an abstract hell that's finally taken shape of a person and I can't ignore that anymore.”
There was an unspoken painful truth that still hung between them in the air, a silent agreement that through all that, there were others than Peter in Eichen, plenty of them likely suffering unnecessarily. But even as the sheriff, Noah knew trying to shut that place down wouldn't be so easy if possible at all.
It was something they just had to learn to sleep through, but they could take one person out because they knew who it was.
Sometimes, even that counted.
“I don't think you're fully right, though.”
“What, with the kidnapping? I mean, I know, it's technically illegal and wrong and shit but like if we do it under a police badge that like sorta cancels out.”
Noah sighed.
“Not how it works.” Or sort of how it worked too often. “But that's not what I mean.”
“Then what do you mean?”
“You said you don't think it even matters that much, that it's Peter. I think it does.”
For once, Stiles didn't have an answer to that.
They sat quietly until the clock turned to the right time.
***
Noah sat down on the couch heavily, watching the windows as if he expected the red and blue lights of the cruiser to turn on on their own and announce the sheriff just commited a crime.
But Peter looked.... They did the right thing. He knew they did the right thing. Peter was thin, clearly drugged, probably constantly pumped full of wolfsbane to keep him subdued, but it was more than that.
Peter looked haunted.
Stiles told him that he found information about Peter's cellmate in their system, and Valack apparently had a third eye that showed the person looking into it their worst nightmares.
It sounded charming.
Peter didn't look like he was very successful in avoiding the guy's gaze.
And based on how small that cell was, the way it only held one cot, the fact Valack wasn't around - the fact he got convenient breaks that worked out well enough for them to be able to snatch Peter...
Well, for all that it helped them get away undetected, Noah almost wished Valack was there for him to put a bullet in that third damn eye.
It looked like Peter was put in that cell not as another inmate but a plaything for Valack to torture. He was barely conscious and they had to almost carry him out.
“Where are you taking me?”
“We're getting you out.” Stiles eyes darted around nervously, constantly on watch. Noah let him be on the lookout, and just focused on their goal, on reaching the alley. He had more experience with operations like that. If someone saw them, there was little they could do to react. Out in the open, on the streets, the imperative was being fast, not cautious.
“I noticed.” God, even when slurring the guy was snarky. “But where are you taking me? Is this a kidnapping? I didn't consent to being taken from there and from my experience in this wonderful country of ours, people who get taken by cops in the middle of the night rarely turn back up.”
He was right, but he didn't have to say it.
“I can put you back.” Noah said, but he also reached into his pocket to unlock the doors.
“Thank you, I think I'll pass. Kidnap away.” Stiles snorted and helped Noah get Peter in the back. The werewolf curled on the side and his eyes fell closed. They exchanged a look and Stiles got in the back with Peter, Noah driving carefully with his precariously positioned passengers. He decided it was not the time to be giving a lecture about putting a seatbelt on.
He decided not to say a lot of things that night, quietly observing the way Stiles sat by Peter's side through the rear mirror.
They put Peter down in Stiles' room. He was shivering and his eyes seemed unfocused, and for all that he seemed to recognize Noah enough to know he was the sheriff, or at least a cop, he didn't seem like he fully recognized it was Stiles and Noah who got him out. He just seemed to be rolling with the punches.
They got him out of the hospital scrubs, with the exception of boxers - those could wait until Peter could dress himself, and the moment he was in clean pyjamas under the covers, Peter was pretty much instantly asleep.
Or unconscious.
But at least he was breathing.
“Dad?“
”Yeah, kiddo?“
”Thank you.“
He pulled Stiles closer and held him as he curled up into his father's side, the way they used to back when he was small enough he still fit in there like a puzzle piece.
”I'm going to try to get this place shut down.“
”You can do it.“
Noah didn't think he could, but damn if he wasn't going to try. And with Stiles believing in him, it always felt like everything was a bit easier.
”You want me to make the couch for you?“
Stiles was quiet for a while, and it felt like he clung to Noah tighter. He put an arm around Stiles' back, as if to support him.
”Can I sleep with you tonight?“
They haven't really shared a bed since right after the possession. It felt like a relapse, and Noah knew, logically, that's what this whole situation was, but it was harder to openly acknowledge it. Yet at the same time... Before their lives became hell, Stiles hadn't slept with him since before Claudia died. Back when he was little, he'd crawl into their bed on weekend mornings and bother them into waking up. After Claudia was hospitalized, they often slept together to comfort each other.
But after Claudia died, Noah didn't step up. Stiles didn't feel like he could seek comfort with him. And then by the time Noah figured himself out, Stiles was all grown up and didn't need him anymore. And for all his past failures he could never atone for, it was good to know Stiles would never be too old to need his dad.
”Sure, kiddo.“
***
Noah didn't sleep.
Stiles did, although it was restless and he clearly had nightmares even sleeping with Noah.
He shushed him, woke him up once and lulled him back to sleep, but he felt like it wasn't enough, not in the way it used to be, once. Back then.
The demons Stiles was fighting right now were no longer fox spirits that could be banished.
In the other room, Noah could hear similar sounds of distress.
He knew Peter must be suffering. Physically, from withdrawal of whatever they put him on, mentally after all the trauma, and likely being forced to relieve the other copious amount of trauma from his past - truly, Valack would have a hard time finding a better person to drag their worst memories to the front of their mind.
But based on what little Noah has managed to learn about wolves so far, he was guessing Peter was likely, once again, suffering emotionally from genuine crippling loneliness.
It was crazy to him, the way they could get physically sick because they had no one. It was terrifying yet eye-opening. Maybe humans weren't all that different in that matter, and just learned to hide it better.
It was a gross oversimplification in abstract wonderings, and maybe it didn't really give proper significance to Peter's lack of choice in the consequences of his loneliness.
But he couldn't help but think about how having no one made him go feral the last time...and now he appeared alone once again.
But did he?
He grabbed Stiles close, shushing him as his boy once again woke up with a scream, held him until his breathing evened out.
”Stiles?“
”Yeah?“ He sounded quiet and sniffly. Noah hated quiet Stiles.
”Wanna go sleep in your own bed?“
”There's a half-feral werewolf in my bed.“ It didn't exactly sound like a negative response, though.
“Well, I hear you're good at taming those and I figure he too needs someone to help him through tonight.”
Stiles turned around and for a moment, Noah thought maybe his suggestion was stupid, as his son buried his face in his chest and hugged him tighter.
But then Stiles let go and with another whispered thank you and goodnight, he was gone.
He still didn't sleep, but the rest of the night was mostly quiet. Just like wolves, humans too found tangible solace in human contact, the bonds, although less physical, were just as important to them.
Despite the quiet and Stiles gone, Noah didn't feel lonely though. The quiet was loud and comforting.
Peter Hale may not be how he imagined his future daughter or son in law to be, but he supposed it could have been worse.
(Not much.)
(But it could have been worse.)