Pancakes and Murder (Teen Wolf, Stiles/Derek) 4/4
Title: Pancakes and Murder (chapter four)
Fandom: Teen Wolf
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: Stiles/Derek
The next day, Stiles was still convinced that Mandy was their best lead. Since Stiles didn't know where she lived and he doubted he could talk Danny into hacking the school records, he decided that confronting her at school would be their best bet.
Stiles was finishing off the last of his fries, when Scott got a strange look in his eyes. "What," Stiles asked mouth full.
Scott blinked slowly as if he was having trouble believing what he was seeing. "Derek."
"What about him?"
"He's here. At school. During the day.” Scott's words were rushed, laced with panic. “What is he doing here? And why is he staring at you?"
Stiles turned in his seat and saw Derek standing by the open cafeteria doors. "Oh yeah, I asked him to meet me here." Derek nodded to him and Stiles nodded back, giving him the thumbs up. Stiles was pretty certain Derek rolled his eyes as he moved out of view. He quickly washed his fries down with soda, draining the bottom of his cup with a slurp of his straw.
Scott frowned. "Why are you meeting Derek at school?"
"Because Mandy spends her free period after lunch in the office for the school newspaper. And that's where we're going to confront her about Grady."
Scott looked at Stiles warily. "Are you sure that's a good idea?"
Stiles stood up. "Of course it is. I better go, before you know who gets grumpy. I'll let you know how it goes."
"Yeah, good luck." Scott did not look convinced, but Stiles was feeling confident. After all he had an alpha backing him up. What could go wrong?
Stiles smiled at Derek as they met outside the cafeteria. While walking, Stiles observed, "You know, it says something about our school's security that you can just wander around here without anyone saying anything." And in fact no one did say anything, even as they moved through the computer lab into the office for the school paper.
They found Mandy seated at Grady's computer pounding furiously at the keyboard. "You," she shouted as she spotted Stiles. She nudged her plastic framed glasses back into place as she pushed away from the computer and stood. She marched around the desk and up to Stiles, poking him in the chest with her finger. "What did you do to Grady's computer?"
"Ow," Stiles rubbed his chest. Derek leaned over his shoulder to snarl at the girl. She stepped backwards slightly startled.
"I- I saw you on Grady's computer the other day. Now all of his files are gone. What did you do?"
"Me? I thought you deleted them? To cover up your tracks!"
"My what?" Mandy looked just as confused as Stiles. "What are you talking about?"
"I don't know!" This was not turning out how Stiles expected. He just needed a minute to think.
Derek came to the rescue. In a calmer voice than the two teens he said, "If you didn't delete Grady's files and Stiles' didn't, than someone else did. Who would have had easy access to this room?"
"We're short-staffed this year, so it's just me, Matt, Alexa..."
Stiles interrupted, "Alexa?"
"Yes." Her eyes narrowed at the mention of the other girl's name. "She's a staff photographer, when she bothers to show up."
"So that's why Grady took her to the Hale house."
"How would-" Her eyes narrowed. "You looked at my phone." She pursed her lips. "Alexa claims she never went. That she doesn't know what happened."
Her expression made it clear that Mandy didn't believe a word of it. Stiles didn't either. "Where would Alexa be right now?"
Mandy shook her head. "As far as I know, she never showed up for school today."
Stiles rubbed his chin. He glanced out the small window on the door, into the computer lab. He smiled. "Do you by any chance have Alexa's cell number?"
* * *
"Hey, Danny boy." Stiles leaned against the table, smiling in his most charming way.
Danny looked up from the school computer in surprise. His mouth tightened into a thin line when he saw who it was. "What do you what?" He went back to typing.
Stiles tossed a piece of paper with a phone number on it in front of Danny. "I need you to track the GPS location for a cell."
"Forget it."
"Come on, please? It's important."
"No." Danny didn't bother to look up from his typing.
Derek grabbed the back of his chair, spinning Danny around. "He said please."
Danny's eyes widened. He glanced at Stiles uncertainly. "Your cousin?"
Derek growled.
Stiles bit his lip. "Um, not exactly. It's kind of a long story, but basically Derek, not my cousin, was on the run from the law and I was hiding him until we could get his name cleared."
Danny laughed, and then sobered as he realized Stiles wasn't kidding. "I still can't help you."
"There's fifty bucks in it for you."
"The answer is still no."
Danny tried to turn his chair back around, but Derek grabbed onto the arm. He leaned forward. "This is important. We'd be," Derek smiled, "...very appreciative of your help."
Danny swallowed hard. "Fine. I'll help." Derek stepped back, letting go of the chair. Danny picked up the phone number and went to work.
Stiles and Derek stepped away to give him his space. Stiles gave Derek a significant look. Derek narrowed his eyes. "Just this once," he whispered. Stiles nodded, not even trying to hide his grin.
It took Danny all of fifteen minutes and, man, did Stiles wish he knew how Danny could do that. "Got it." Stiles leaned in close to get a look at the screen. "Looks like the phone's signal is coming from the outskirts of town, here.” Danny pointed to the screen.
Stiles gaped. "You're kidding me." He turned to Derek.
"What," he asked, looking bemused and more than a little impatient.
"She's at your house."
* * *
They found a pickup truck parked outside Derek's house. Streams of ripped yellow tape fluttered on the ground as the wind blew. Stiles looked up to see the white clouds moving over for darker grey ones. The air was warm. There would be thunder later. Derek stepped beside him. He placed his hand on Stiles' shoulder and squeezed. "She's inside." Werewolf hearing. Must be nice.
Stiles hesitated outside the door. "What's she doing?"
Derek got this far off look on his face. "Crying."
"Oh." They entered together, found her sitting on the stairs. Her back was curled over, head buried against her knees. There was a bottle of Jack Daniels tipped on its side, next to her feet. She lifted her head, wiping at bleary eyes. Mascara smeared across her cheek.
Derek took a step forward, but Stiles stopped him. "Maybe I better get this one." He walked slowly up the stairs, so as not to startle Alexa and sat down next to her.
Alexa glared at him. "I know you. You're the sheriff’s son."
Stiles nodded.
"What’re you doing here?"
"Looking for you."
Alexa wiped her eyes with the hem of her sleeve. "Why?"
"Because you were with Grady the night he died, so that makes you the only person who can tell us what happened."
Her breath hitched. She turned her head away, leaning forward to pick up the bottle of whiskey. She unscrewed the cap and took a drink. She held it out to Stiles. Stiles shook his head.
"What happened, Alexa?" She took her time screwing the cap back on. Stiles noticed her long black nails for the first time. One of them was broken, rough and jagged, like it had been ripped off. "Did you fight?"
Alexa stood abruptly. She walked to the top of the stairs. "He told me that this house was connected to all those murders. He wanted to check it out. But after we got here all he wanted to do was talk about some story he was working on about drug use at school. Said he knew my friend Terry was dealing. I told him it wasn't true, but he wouldn't listen. He said he had proof and that Terry would get expelled when the story came out and that I would too unless I came forward." She kicked at some debris. "He wanted me to turn on my friends."
Stiles stood up. "So you pushed him."
Alexa's face darkened. Her grip on the bottle tightened. "I didn't mean to. I just wanted him to let me go. But he just wouldn't stop-" Alexa dropped to her knees. Stiles rushed up the stairs to catch her. She gripped Stiles jacket with one hand, leaning onto him. "I tried to grab him. I tried to hold on. But he just... fell. I couldn't do anything. I couldn't save him." She stared at Stiles, eyes wet and full of regret. "I’m sorry." Stiles knew the words weren't mean for him.
"You need to tell my dad. Everything. He'll help you, I promise."
Alexa nodded and that was all the prompting Stiles needed. He took out his cell phone and called his dad.
Later, Stiles and Derek stood beside his jeep as they watched the sheriff and his deputies question Alexa outside the Hale house.
"What's wrong?"
Stiles realized he had been frowning. "I don't know. It just feels kind of... anticlimactic."
"You were expecting monsters. Not a scared messed up girl."
"Yeah, I guess." Stiles sighed. The dark grey clouds now blanketed the town. "It’s going to get stormy."
"Yeah."
Stiles leaned against his jeep. "You should probably stay over. Just to be safe."
Derek tilted his head. "I guess I could survive one more night with you."
Stiles opened the jeep, but didn’t get in. "I should probably update Scott." He pulled out his phone, typed something in, and then pocketed it. Stiles looked up at Derek, who was watching him, and asked, "You want to get something to eat? I know a really good 24-hour breakfast joint."
* * *
"So that's it? It was an accident after all?" Scott sat across from Stiles in their booth at the Pancake Shack.
"Pretty much. Alexa's not getting away clean though. She did try to cover it up. She's the one who cleared Grady's computer, so that nothing would come back to her or her friends."
Scott put his fork down and wiped the syrup off his chin with a napkin. "I don't believe it."
"That she'd lie in order to protect her friends?"
"No," Scott shook his head. "That you two could work together long enough to solve it."
Stiles turned his head to face Derek, who was seated next to him. There was the tiniest quirk on Derek's lips that one might even call a grin. Stiles smiled, leaning back against the arm Derek had draped across the seat behind him. "Yeah, we make surprisingly good team.” He dipped a spoon into his milkshake and took a bite. The spoon slid out of his mouth with a pop. He noticed Derek staring at him. “So I was thinking...” Stiles turned to Scott. “Next time you and Allison go on a group date-" Stiles was unable to finish his thought, as a strawberry was shoved into his open mouth, effectively silencing him. He glared at Derek, who casually picked up a piece of fruit off Stiles' plate and nibbled on it. Stiles spat the strawberry out and shook it accusingly at Derek. "A little warning next time. You could choke a guy doing that."
"If I were only so lucky," Derek deadpanned. Stiles flung the strawberry at him. It bounced off his head. Derek retaliated by scooping up whipped cream off his pancakes with two fingers and smudging it onto Stiles' nose. Stiles narrowed his eyes and grinned. He picked up the metal syrup pitcher, lifted it above Derek's head, and tipped it over.
Derek did not move for a moment. Then his hand slowly reached up to wipe away a drip running down his face. He licked the syrup from each of his fingers. He smiled at Stiles and his eyes flashed red. Stiles gulped. And then he bolted.
Derek caught up with him in the parking lot. The kiss he gave Stiles was sticky sweet.
* * *
Back in the restaurant, Scott sat alone in the booth, blinking slowly. “What just happened?”
Fandom: Teen Wolf
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: Stiles/Derek
The next day, Stiles was still convinced that Mandy was their best lead. Since Stiles didn't know where she lived and he doubted he could talk Danny into hacking the school records, he decided that confronting her at school would be their best bet.
Stiles was finishing off the last of his fries, when Scott got a strange look in his eyes. "What," Stiles asked mouth full.
Scott blinked slowly as if he was having trouble believing what he was seeing. "Derek."
"What about him?"
"He's here. At school. During the day.” Scott's words were rushed, laced with panic. “What is he doing here? And why is he staring at you?"
Stiles turned in his seat and saw Derek standing by the open cafeteria doors. "Oh yeah, I asked him to meet me here." Derek nodded to him and Stiles nodded back, giving him the thumbs up. Stiles was pretty certain Derek rolled his eyes as he moved out of view. He quickly washed his fries down with soda, draining the bottom of his cup with a slurp of his straw.
Scott frowned. "Why are you meeting Derek at school?"
"Because Mandy spends her free period after lunch in the office for the school newspaper. And that's where we're going to confront her about Grady."
Scott looked at Stiles warily. "Are you sure that's a good idea?"
Stiles stood up. "Of course it is. I better go, before you know who gets grumpy. I'll let you know how it goes."
"Yeah, good luck." Scott did not look convinced, but Stiles was feeling confident. After all he had an alpha backing him up. What could go wrong?
Stiles smiled at Derek as they met outside the cafeteria. While walking, Stiles observed, "You know, it says something about our school's security that you can just wander around here without anyone saying anything." And in fact no one did say anything, even as they moved through the computer lab into the office for the school paper.
They found Mandy seated at Grady's computer pounding furiously at the keyboard. "You," she shouted as she spotted Stiles. She nudged her plastic framed glasses back into place as she pushed away from the computer and stood. She marched around the desk and up to Stiles, poking him in the chest with her finger. "What did you do to Grady's computer?"
"Ow," Stiles rubbed his chest. Derek leaned over his shoulder to snarl at the girl. She stepped backwards slightly startled.
"I- I saw you on Grady's computer the other day. Now all of his files are gone. What did you do?"
"Me? I thought you deleted them? To cover up your tracks!"
"My what?" Mandy looked just as confused as Stiles. "What are you talking about?"
"I don't know!" This was not turning out how Stiles expected. He just needed a minute to think.
Derek came to the rescue. In a calmer voice than the two teens he said, "If you didn't delete Grady's files and Stiles' didn't, than someone else did. Who would have had easy access to this room?"
"We're short-staffed this year, so it's just me, Matt, Alexa..."
Stiles interrupted, "Alexa?"
"Yes." Her eyes narrowed at the mention of the other girl's name. "She's a staff photographer, when she bothers to show up."
"So that's why Grady took her to the Hale house."
"How would-" Her eyes narrowed. "You looked at my phone." She pursed her lips. "Alexa claims she never went. That she doesn't know what happened."
Her expression made it clear that Mandy didn't believe a word of it. Stiles didn't either. "Where would Alexa be right now?"
Mandy shook her head. "As far as I know, she never showed up for school today."
Stiles rubbed his chin. He glanced out the small window on the door, into the computer lab. He smiled. "Do you by any chance have Alexa's cell number?"
* * *
"Hey, Danny boy." Stiles leaned against the table, smiling in his most charming way.
Danny looked up from the school computer in surprise. His mouth tightened into a thin line when he saw who it was. "What do you what?" He went back to typing.
Stiles tossed a piece of paper with a phone number on it in front of Danny. "I need you to track the GPS location for a cell."
"Forget it."
"Come on, please? It's important."
"No." Danny didn't bother to look up from his typing.
Derek grabbed the back of his chair, spinning Danny around. "He said please."
Danny's eyes widened. He glanced at Stiles uncertainly. "Your cousin?"
Derek growled.
Stiles bit his lip. "Um, not exactly. It's kind of a long story, but basically Derek, not my cousin, was on the run from the law and I was hiding him until we could get his name cleared."
Danny laughed, and then sobered as he realized Stiles wasn't kidding. "I still can't help you."
"There's fifty bucks in it for you."
"The answer is still no."
Danny tried to turn his chair back around, but Derek grabbed onto the arm. He leaned forward. "This is important. We'd be," Derek smiled, "...very appreciative of your help."
Danny swallowed hard. "Fine. I'll help." Derek stepped back, letting go of the chair. Danny picked up the phone number and went to work.
Stiles and Derek stepped away to give him his space. Stiles gave Derek a significant look. Derek narrowed his eyes. "Just this once," he whispered. Stiles nodded, not even trying to hide his grin.
It took Danny all of fifteen minutes and, man, did Stiles wish he knew how Danny could do that. "Got it." Stiles leaned in close to get a look at the screen. "Looks like the phone's signal is coming from the outskirts of town, here.” Danny pointed to the screen.
Stiles gaped. "You're kidding me." He turned to Derek.
"What," he asked, looking bemused and more than a little impatient.
"She's at your house."
* * *
They found a pickup truck parked outside Derek's house. Streams of ripped yellow tape fluttered on the ground as the wind blew. Stiles looked up to see the white clouds moving over for darker grey ones. The air was warm. There would be thunder later. Derek stepped beside him. He placed his hand on Stiles' shoulder and squeezed. "She's inside." Werewolf hearing. Must be nice.
Stiles hesitated outside the door. "What's she doing?"
Derek got this far off look on his face. "Crying."
"Oh." They entered together, found her sitting on the stairs. Her back was curled over, head buried against her knees. There was a bottle of Jack Daniels tipped on its side, next to her feet. She lifted her head, wiping at bleary eyes. Mascara smeared across her cheek.
Derek took a step forward, but Stiles stopped him. "Maybe I better get this one." He walked slowly up the stairs, so as not to startle Alexa and sat down next to her.
Alexa glared at him. "I know you. You're the sheriff’s son."
Stiles nodded.
"What’re you doing here?"
"Looking for you."
Alexa wiped her eyes with the hem of her sleeve. "Why?"
"Because you were with Grady the night he died, so that makes you the only person who can tell us what happened."
Her breath hitched. She turned her head away, leaning forward to pick up the bottle of whiskey. She unscrewed the cap and took a drink. She held it out to Stiles. Stiles shook his head.
"What happened, Alexa?" She took her time screwing the cap back on. Stiles noticed her long black nails for the first time. One of them was broken, rough and jagged, like it had been ripped off. "Did you fight?"
Alexa stood abruptly. She walked to the top of the stairs. "He told me that this house was connected to all those murders. He wanted to check it out. But after we got here all he wanted to do was talk about some story he was working on about drug use at school. Said he knew my friend Terry was dealing. I told him it wasn't true, but he wouldn't listen. He said he had proof and that Terry would get expelled when the story came out and that I would too unless I came forward." She kicked at some debris. "He wanted me to turn on my friends."
Stiles stood up. "So you pushed him."
Alexa's face darkened. Her grip on the bottle tightened. "I didn't mean to. I just wanted him to let me go. But he just wouldn't stop-" Alexa dropped to her knees. Stiles rushed up the stairs to catch her. She gripped Stiles jacket with one hand, leaning onto him. "I tried to grab him. I tried to hold on. But he just... fell. I couldn't do anything. I couldn't save him." She stared at Stiles, eyes wet and full of regret. "I’m sorry." Stiles knew the words weren't mean for him.
"You need to tell my dad. Everything. He'll help you, I promise."
Alexa nodded and that was all the prompting Stiles needed. He took out his cell phone and called his dad.
Later, Stiles and Derek stood beside his jeep as they watched the sheriff and his deputies question Alexa outside the Hale house.
"What's wrong?"
Stiles realized he had been frowning. "I don't know. It just feels kind of... anticlimactic."
"You were expecting monsters. Not a scared messed up girl."
"Yeah, I guess." Stiles sighed. The dark grey clouds now blanketed the town. "It’s going to get stormy."
"Yeah."
Stiles leaned against his jeep. "You should probably stay over. Just to be safe."
Derek tilted his head. "I guess I could survive one more night with you."
Stiles opened the jeep, but didn’t get in. "I should probably update Scott." He pulled out his phone, typed something in, and then pocketed it. Stiles looked up at Derek, who was watching him, and asked, "You want to get something to eat? I know a really good 24-hour breakfast joint."
* * *
"So that's it? It was an accident after all?" Scott sat across from Stiles in their booth at the Pancake Shack.
"Pretty much. Alexa's not getting away clean though. She did try to cover it up. She's the one who cleared Grady's computer, so that nothing would come back to her or her friends."
Scott put his fork down and wiped the syrup off his chin with a napkin. "I don't believe it."
"That she'd lie in order to protect her friends?"
"No," Scott shook his head. "That you two could work together long enough to solve it."
Stiles turned his head to face Derek, who was seated next to him. There was the tiniest quirk on Derek's lips that one might even call a grin. Stiles smiled, leaning back against the arm Derek had draped across the seat behind him. "Yeah, we make surprisingly good team.” He dipped a spoon into his milkshake and took a bite. The spoon slid out of his mouth with a pop. He noticed Derek staring at him. “So I was thinking...” Stiles turned to Scott. “Next time you and Allison go on a group date-" Stiles was unable to finish his thought, as a strawberry was shoved into his open mouth, effectively silencing him. He glared at Derek, who casually picked up a piece of fruit off Stiles' plate and nibbled on it. Stiles spat the strawberry out and shook it accusingly at Derek. "A little warning next time. You could choke a guy doing that."
"If I were only so lucky," Derek deadpanned. Stiles flung the strawberry at him. It bounced off his head. Derek retaliated by scooping up whipped cream off his pancakes with two fingers and smudging it onto Stiles' nose. Stiles narrowed his eyes and grinned. He picked up the metal syrup pitcher, lifted it above Derek's head, and tipped it over.
Derek did not move for a moment. Then his hand slowly reached up to wipe away a drip running down his face. He licked the syrup from each of his fingers. He smiled at Stiles and his eyes flashed red. Stiles gulped. And then he bolted.
Derek caught up with him in the parking lot. The kiss he gave Stiles was sticky sweet.
* * *
Back in the restaurant, Scott sat alone in the booth, blinking slowly. “What just happened?”