No Such Thing as Fate, Part Two: We All Have a Weakness
Title: No Such Thing as Fate
Part Two: We All Have a Weakness
Author: burntotears
Pairing: Allison Argent/Stiles Stilinski - Codependency, Allison Argent/Scott McCall, Isaac Lahey/Stiles Stilinski or Derek Hale/Stiles Stilinski
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 8,628
Spoilers: Season 2
Disclaimer: © MTV
Chapter Index No Such Thing Master Post
When morning came, Allison didn’t say anything more about the nightmare. It wasn’t that Stiles necessarily expected her to, but he did think that maybe she might say something this time because the nightmare had been so different. But he’d known Allison for three years now and he’d spent every one of those days with her, so he should have had better sense than to think she’d open up that easily.
“Alright,” she sighed at him after she’d done everything that morning she possibly could to drag out the time. “Let’s call the damn werewolves.”
“Don’t make it sound like we’re headed to the gallows or anything,” Stiles muttered, pulling his phone from his jeans. He scrolled through his contact list until he found where Laura had put her name in yesterday and hit Send.
She picked up after only two rings. “Hello?”
“Uh - yeah, hi. Is this Laura?” Allison was sitting across the room rolling her eyes at him.
“Yes it is. Is this Stiles?” For some reason she sounded like she was excited to hear from him, which didn’t make much sense, because a) she didn’t know anything about him and b) the reasons that they needed to work together weren’t exactly ‘fun and friendly’.
“Yeah. I think we are ready to meet your - uh, pack.”
“Great! Derek and I have already told them about you two, so we’ll get them together this afternoon and we can all meet and discuss how best to proceed. How does that sound? I’ll text you the address, okay?”
He knew that he could probably trust Laura, but he also knew better than to go to an undisclosed location given to him by a pack of werewolves. “Um, Laura? I don’t think we’d be comfortable-”
“Oh Stiles, of course, I wasn’t even thinking. We can meet at the motel if you like? Or the diner in town? Where would you and Allison like to meet?”
Something felt off about having them come into their motel room - like the enemy crossing over into their territory - so the diner seemed like the best option for now, even if it was fairly public. “Let’s meet at the diner since we already know it - Allison and I ate there yesterday.”
“Sounds perfect. Isaac works there, did you meet him?” she asked and Stiles felt his face growing hot at the mention of the curly-haired blond.
“Er, yeah, he was our waiter. Do you know him?” Stiles wondered just how small this town actually was.
Laura laughed. “You could say that. Alright, we’ll see you this afternoon, Stiles. It was nice talking to you again! Have a great morning, hon!” She hung up the phone and he stuck it back in his pocket.
“She said they’d meet us at the diner this afternoon with the rest of their pack,” Stiles reiterated to Allison, though she had probably picked up on most of it already.
“Good. Since we have time to kill, let’s go to the police station and poke around,” she said, standing and getting ready to leave.
Stiles groaned. “I don’t wanna,” he whined. “I hate talking to the police. They’re so boring.”
She scoffed. “That may be, but we need to get to know them regardless. So get off your lazy ass and let’s get moving.”
“How’s about we actually solve some fucking crimes around here for once, huh boys? Can we do that?” was the ringing yell that filled Stiles and Allison’s ears when they entered the station. Maybe they shouldn’t have been surprised - Sheriff Finstock didn’t seem like he knew how to deal with people.
“Sheriff,” Stiles greeted him, walking up behind the wild-haired man. He whipped around to face the hunters, eyes almost as wild as the brunette locks on his head.
“Agents. Was just giving the boys a little pep-talk. What brings you to the station?” In his defense, he was pretty good at recovery.
“Wanted to stop by and have a look around if that’s alright,” Allison answered smoothly, barely bothering to glance at him as she spoke.
“Oh, right. Well we’re pretty busy this morning. We had a break yesterday after you left.”
“Really?” she said, her interest piqued.
“Yeah, my best man, Whittemore, found animal hairs on the body. Let me get him for you,” the sheriff barely turned his head and screamed, “Jackson! Get your ass over here!”
A rather cocky looking blond entered the room from the far corner, answering, “Yes, Sheriff?” casting critical glances toward Stiles and Allison.
“These are the FBI agents that are here investigating the attacks. Agents-” he pointed at Stiles and apparently couldn’t remember his name.
“Reynolds and Thrace,” Stiles answered for him.
“Right, right.” Finstock clapped the man on the shoulder, “Jackson here found animal hairs on that body yesterday. We sent them off to the lab for testing. Tell them, son.”
The deputy named Jackson raised an eyebrow at the sheriff, who nodded at him expectantly. Sighing, he repeated in a snarky manner, “I found animal hairs... on the body yesterday. And we’ve sent them off... to the lab... for testing.”
The sheriff guffawed good naturedly. “Right you are! Good job, son! Now get back to work!” he gave the other police officer a hard look and pushed him back toward where he’d come from. “Quick as a whip, that one,” he said to Stiles and Allison once Jackson had left.
Stiles looked at Allison with a raised eyebrow. “Do you mind if we look around, Sheriff? We’ll be out of your hair in no time.”
“Sure, sure. We can contact you when the results come in on the animal hairs from the body?” he asked uncertainly.
Allison snorted. “We’ll be in touch. There’s no need.”
“Oh - right. Okay,” he said carefully and walked away without another word.
“Someone planted animal hair?” Stiles asked her quietly.
“Looks like it. Think it’s mountain lion?” she asked him.
“Probably. Wolf would be harder to get ahold of. Don’t think it’s werewolf do you?”
“If they’re that careless then I have even more issues with them than I already had,” she said dryly.
“Hey, you two,” a voice said behind them and they turned around to find Jackson glaring daggers at them. “I don’t know what the two of you are here for or why, but let’s get one thing straight: we don’t need your help." Apparently Jackson could speak for himself and unsurprisingly, he was an ass. "We are perfectly capable of solving our own investigations without the feds sticking their noses in. If you’re hiding something, I’ll figure out what it is - so watch your backs. I’ve got my eyes-”
“Jackson!” the deputy that Stiles had talked to on scene before hissed at him. He put a hand on Jackson’s shoulder and said something quietly into his ear and then pushed him away; surprisingly Jackson went without another word to any of them.
“I’m sorry about him. He gets worked up when people start dying,” the deputy said. “I’m Danny, by the way,” he extended a hand to Allison and nodded to Stiles again.
Stiles raised an eyebrow. “When people start dying? You’ve had a lot of people die around here before?”
Danny shook his head. “No, not really. Only once. There was a fire about eleven years ago at the Hale house...most of the family was trapped inside and died in the fire. The Hale family has been in Beacon Hills for ages so it was very significant to the whole town. There’s only three of them left now.”
Stiles and Allison looked at one another and he knew that she was thinking the same thing that he was. Apparently the Hale pack wasn’t very large at all if the entire family had almost been wiped out eleven years ago - which also meant that it was probably hunters who had done it. That didn’t make his and Allison's being in Beacon Hills look very good right now if that was actually the case.
They needed to see those files. “Danny, could we take a look at those case files?” he asked the deputy.
“On the fire?” the man asked quizzically.
“Yes, this is the first we’ve heard of it and we’d like to learn more about it,” Allison replied without missing a beat.
“I don’t really know of a reason why you couldn’t, but I don’t see how it’s related? The fire was ruled an accident and these are all animal attacks...” Danny furrowed his brow, obviously trying to figure out how they were placing a connection between the two.
“Regardless, we’d like to see anything you’ve got on the Hale house fire, please,” Stiles said calmly, trying to keep the excitement from his voice. This was definitely an edge they could use before going into the meeting with the pack, especially not knowing how many of them there were. It may still just be the three of them like Danny said, but there was no guarantee that the Alpha hadn’t sired new wolves into the pack or mates hadn't been taken by this point.
“I’ll have Greenberg get you the files,” Danny said and went toward the back of the offices.
“It says here that Laura, Derek, and their uncle were the only ones who weren’t in the house when it went up in flames,” Allison pointed to the police report and looked up at Stiles on the other side of the bed, who was munching on Doritos. “Stiles, wipe your hands off before you touch any of this. The last thing we need is to hand back case files with cheese fingerprints all over them.”
“God Als, I’m not an idiot,” he said and wiped his hands across the front of his hoodie, leaving orange stripes down his front. He snatched at the police report that she had pointed at so he could read the information she was referring to. “So there used to be eleven in the Hale pack? You think they were all werewolves?”
Allison chewed on her lip. “I don’t know. Maybe. Danny said that they had been here a long time, so they may have been holding this territory for a while.”
“Allison it says on both of these incident reports that arson was suspected. Do you think that they were-”
“Murdered by hunters? If the police and the fire departments both suspected arson but they couldn’t pin it on anyone, I wouldn’t be surprised. I’m sure that Laura and Derek know for certain though,” she said, looking at the pictures of the smoking house that must have been taken after they had put out the fire.
“You gonna be the one to ask them if it was hunters that murdered 75% of their family while we are already outnumbered and overpowered? ‘Cause I sure as hell ain’t.” He could only imagine Derek’s response to a question like that, and they hadn’t even met the uncle yet so they had no clue of his character.
“We probably won’t have to. You think we’re going to sit down for a meeting with a pack that’s been reduced like this and that subject isn’t going to come up? Especially with these deaths happening? You know they are going to blame us first.” Allison continued to rifle through the photographs, finally getting to those taken of the bodies of the Hale family members. She only winced momentarily before replacing her features with a stoic stare as she thumbed through them.
Stiles shrugged a single shoulder. “They’ve been hunted their entire lives. Can you really blame them for being biased against hunters?”
“Can you blame me for being biased against werewolves?” Allison shot back all too easily and Stiles sighed. She had a point, of course, because they had run across more than their fair share of werewolves that were killing for pleasure and had to take care of them, but he just couldn’t see Laura as that kind of wolf. Yes, she did remind him of his mother, but even so, she had that vibe she put out that didn’t ring any warning bells in Stiles’ head.
“Touché.” Stiles opened his mouth to say something else but his phone chimed.
Laura said: Can you meet us at Morell’s in 15 min?
“It’s Laura. Wants to know if we can be there in 15 minutes.”
“Yeah, sure. We can finish looking at this when we get back. Let’s put it in the safe, just in case.”
Stiles said: We’ll see you in 15.
Laura said: Great! :)
“Alright, I guess it’s time to enter the wolves’ den.”
Stiles was pretty certain that a warmer welcome could have taken place between them and the werewolves, but in his defense, he really had had no idea. “Laura, what the fuck? Why didn’t you tell us their names when you mentioned them?” Isaac all but yelled into the open air of the diner when Stiles and Allison approached the group that apparently made up the rest of Laura and Derek’s pack and - oh.
Oh fuck. Stiles’ mouth lay agape as he stared directly at Isaac, standing next to Laura, not in an apron today, but snug-fitting jeans and a v-neck t-shirt. “You’re a were-”
“If you finish that sentence in the middle of this diner,” Derek growled at him, stepping forward, “I’m gonna rip your throat out. With my teeth.”
Laura reached forward and put a hand on his shoulder, pulling him back. “That’s enough, Derek. Stiles, please be careful what you say before we’ve been seated. We’ve got a special booth for just this sort of conversation.”
Stiles nodded numbly, too many thoughts swirling through him at once to choose just one to latch onto at the moment. He was still floored by the fact that Isaac was a part of the damn Hale pack - it was the most ridiculous thing in the world, seriously. Was he ever going to catch a freaking break?
He and Allison followed the Hale siblings and Isaac, along with three others that Stiles hadn’t bothered to get a good look at yet, into a side room of the diner he hadn’t even noticed the first time they were there. It probably served the purpose of hosting birthday parties or something, but today it was neutral meeting ground for the werewolves and hunters. Lovely.
As soon as the doors swung shut, Isaac rounded on Stiles with an accusatory glare. “You didn’t happen to mention that you make a living by slicing people in half while you were flirting with me yesterday,” he glared unpleasantly and it was not something that Stiles thought looked good on Isaac’s face at all. Not that he cared all that much right then.
Stiles narrowed his eyes angrily. “Oh, that’s probably because you forgot to make note that you were a member of the merry band of local murderers when you gave me your number, so I guess that makes us square!”
“Hey! C’mon now, that’s not what we came here for!” Laura called and stepped between the two of them, putting a hand on Isaac and Stiles’ chests simultaneously. There was a slight upward tick to her lips, like she was slightly amused by the exchange but was trying to hide it.
Even with the faint condescending smirk, Stiles’ heart evened out and he took a deep, calming breath; Isaac mirrored the action on Laura’s other side. Realization hit Stiles like a smack in the face. “You’re the Alpha?” he gawked at Laura, who stood with a commanding presence even though Isaac towered a good half-foot above her. How had he missed it earlier?
Laura smiled sweetly at him and pulled her hands back from both of the men. “Yes, I am. That doesn’t usually work on humans that aren’t in the pack though-” she said, eying him with interest.
“Oh, um-” he looked at Allison desperately, but he hadn’t really told her about the incidents with Laura earlier, so there wasn’t much that Allison could say. He rubbed his hand over his head and the back of his neck nervously. "I'm not sure. I just feel... calmer around you?"
Laura nodded, seemingly taking it in stride. "That’s interesting,” she replied and she sounded earnest.
“That’s not normal,” Derek frowned at Stiles, instantly on the defensive.
“Shut up, Derek,” Isaac said. “It's Laura. I felt the same when I met her.” For a second Isaac softened when he looked at Stiles and Stiles felt a little less annoyed with him.
“That’s a lovely sentiment, Isaac,” said a man that Stiles hadn’t bothered to pay any attention to yet. Stiles could only assume it was Laura and Derek’s uncle by his age. “However, you also were never a hunter either. I think the situations vary drastically. Laura, you have to admit that having a hunter warm to you is alarming.”
Laura raised an eyebrow at her uncle. “I don’t. Whatever Stiles may or may not be, it doesn’t change that our connection is obviously strong and I’m not going to ignore it - especially not if it helps him. And that has nothing to do with why we’re here, if any of you remember.”
“It kind of does though,” the blonde girl spoke up for the first time and Stiles looked over at her, biting at his lip. How did this whole freaking meeting suddenly become about some weird connection between him and Laura? “You want us to work with them, but they’re hunters. We don’t know anything about them. We don’t know how many werewolves they’ve killed in the past or how willing they are to lie to our faces, then stab us in the back the first chance that they get.”
Allison scoffed. “Oh please. We don’t know anything about y’all either. You think we’re going to just take it on blind faith that you’re gonna be good little doggies and not attempt to rip out our throats as Derek has already so kindly threatened to do to Stiles? And let’s not forget that there are two of us and six of you. I think we’ve got the right to be on edge here. Besides, you haven’t proven that you aren’t the ones murdering all these people.”
“We live here. This is our home and our territory and you are trespassers. We have nothing to prove. You are the ones who have come onto our land with nothing but lies and suspicious behavior. The only people who need to prove that they aren’t murderers here are you two,” Derek growled at Allison, but glanced over at Stiles for some reason even though he hadn’t said a damn word. “Ever since you came into town the murders have increased. Why is that?”
“We don’t know, that’s what we’re trying to figure out, Derek, you giant fucking assha-” Stiles couldn’t help but yell. Derek was such a dick about everything and Stiles hadn't even said anything to him.
“Enough! Honestly, I am tired of this! There are people dying out there and we don’t have time to squabble like school children! Stiles, Allison, if you’re really here to try and solve the murders - we’d like to know what brought you here and we’d like to actually get to solving them. Derek - shove it, before I give you a reason.” Stiles heard her growl in the back of her throat and he thought for a second that her eyes flashed a different color, but it was so quick that it could have just been the light. Whatever it was, Derek was done mouthing off - Laura’s word was final, that was for certain.
Stiles was so fucking glad that she was the Alpha.
“What brought us here were the stories of the murders and the fact that they are complete bullshit. We know it isn’t an animal that’s murdering them - well, it’s not a mountain lion...” Allison sneered, looking at the lot of them with a disapproving look.
The last guy who hadn’t said anything yet finally spoke. He was black and on the bulkier side, built more like Derek than Isaac who was lean and lanky. “We aren’t killing anyone. You already know that though, you just want to blame us because it’s easier than facing the truth.”
Well, dude was intelligent, Stiles would give him that. Intelligent, but apparently had a death wish. Allison was in his face in seconds, pointing a finger at him and looking murderous. Yep, Stiles saw that one coming from a mile away. “You don’t know anything about me, Wolf. Don’t make judgements about my life and my motives for doing things.”
Everyone else was now on edge, ready to pounce, as if Allison was somehow going to harm the bulky werewolf. Yeah, right. Stiles moved to pull her back anyway.
“C’mon Als, I don’t think that’s what he meant by it. Just calm down, yeah?” She let him pull her away and fell into his arms, both of them feeling more secure nearer each other in a room filled with ‘enemy’ werewolves.
Stiles scanned his eyes around the room, looking at each of them in turn. “Look. This is what we do. We follow leads when we find them. We’ve been on the lookout for strange murder patterns and when we find them, we go to the town and we check them out. We figure out what’s causing the murders, we take care of it, we move on. Simple as that.” He knew that they weren’t going to buy it. He knew that he was going to have to tell them. He didn’t want to talk about it again. He definitely didn’t want to with Allison there; he hadn’t told the story to anyone in a while.
Laura was the one that answered him, which he was grateful for, though the subject could have been better. “You’re looking for whatever killed your parents? It killed both of your families?” she ventured.
Stiles forgot about Allison’s outburst in front of Derek and Laura yesterday. Apparently he didn’t have to tell them much of anything. “Yes,” he answered simply. That felt easy. That was simple, non-committal.
“Stiles, are these murders similar to your families’ murders? Are they really so identical that you’d come all this way?”
Stiles felt Allison go stiff in his arms. He tried to squeeze her and pull her closer, but she pulled away and looked at Laura with near dead eyes. “It’s exactly the same. Whatever murdered my family - whatever killed Stiles’ parents - is here, killing people again. The same damn way, every single time. It’s not an animal, it’s not human, we don’t know what it is - we’ve been trying to figure that out this entire time. And we will. We will find it, we will torture the mother fucker to an inch of its life, and then we will kill it as slowly as is fucking possible. That is what we are here for.” Allison looked around and dared anyone to disagree with her.
“It knows they’re here,” Isaac said after a few moment’s silence. Stiles shifted his gaze over to him, staring uncomfortably. “That’s why it has been killing more than it was before.”
“That’s basically what we suspected too,” Stiles confirmed. “There’s a fairly good chance that it wants to finish us off. The question is: why is it here? What does this town have to do with our families? We’ve never been here before,” he said more to the werewolves than Allison, because they’d already talked about Beacon Hills and if they had ever heard of it before from either of their families.
“Your parents?” Peter asked.
Stiles shook his head. “My parents weren’t those type of hunters - or hunters at all. Long story,” Stiles shook his head and Isaac raised an eyebrow, but didn’t say anything. Stiles continued, “Allison’s family usually stuck pretty close to home. They documented all of their jobs in journals for uh - for Allison to learn from, just in case.” He tried his best not to look at Allison as he talked about her family, because he knew she didn’t like hearing it, especially not Stiles talking for her. “Look, I know you won’t like this idea, but I think we need to call in some backup.”
“What?” about three people said at once. One of them was Allison, which he was expecting.
“This thing is powerful, whatever it is, and we need specialists. Allison and I are good hunters, but we don’t specialize in anything. We have friends that do though.”
“No,” Allison said without hesitation.
“Allison, shut up.”
“Why is she saying ‘no’?” Isaac asked, looking skeptical.
“She’s saying ‘no’ because it’s Scott McCall,” Stiles said, exasperated. “Also Lydia Martin. Scott is a demon expert and Lydia is an expert on rituals, languages - those sorts of things.”
“Oh, I’ve heard of Lydia,” Laura said, grinning.
“What? Really?” Stiles asked, unable to hide the surprise and the obvious awe in his voice.
“Absolutely, she’s legendary. She’s been making a name for herself since she was twelve. She’s brilliant,” Laura nodded with a small laugh. Stiles had a feeling that she already knew. This connection apparently wasn’t one way.
“Yeah, she is,” he said, still sounding awkwardly wistful when he talked about Lydia. Fuck.
Isaac was narrowing his eyes at this exchange and Laura began smirking more. “Isaac.”
“What?” he asked, cocking the douchiest pose Stiles had ever seen. It was definitely a ‘I’m a mother fucking werewolf and I am beautiful and badass; you should be awed to be in my very presence, so bow at my feet and praise me, mere mortals’ type of stance, and Stiles was sort of vaguely impressed that he was able to convey all that just by standing a particular way, but supremely annoyed that Isaac was now emitting Derek-levels of asshattery. This was not the guy he’d met at the diner yesterday.
“Oh my god, you are jealous!” Laura pointed at Isaac accusingly.
Isaac’s face scrunched up in disgust. Stiles kept whipping his head back and forth between them, trying to figure out what was going on. “What the fuck, Laura, what are you even talking about?”
“You are jealous of a hunter you’ve never even met because another hunter likes her! Oh my god, this is so epic!” Laura walked over to Stiles and slung her arm around his shoulders. He looked sideways at her, still utterly confused. “Stiles, where have you been all my life? If I had known you’d make things this exciting I’d have found you ages ago.”
“Fuck you, Laura! You are such a bitch sometimes!” Isaac sneered, slinking into the corner away from them so he could lean against a booth with all the swagger God gave ten men. Really, how was that even fair?
Stiles leaned toward Laura and lowered his voice, still looking in disbelief toward Isaac. “You’re not seriously suggesting that he’s jealous that I have a crush on Lydia, are you?” The entire idea of it was so asinine that he couldn’t even begin to comprehend it, much less believe it. Isaac was sculpted from literal freaking marble and other godly materials, it was just impossible for him to be jealous of Stiles being interested in someone else. He could have anyone he wanted in this town - in this freaking state. And right now he was acting like he wanted to be anywhere in the world besides near Stiles.
“Suggesting? No, Stiles, that’s exactly what I said. It’s absolutely true. You don’t know our dear Isaac, but you just might soon enough. What you’re seeing right now is a defense mechanism. What you saw yesterday? That was Isaac. This is just a douchebag. Fairly similar to Derek, yeah?”
“Laura,” Derek groaned lowly at her.
“Yeah, kinda,” Stiles admitted.
“As amusing as this hunter’s love life may be, can we get back to the real issues? Namely the asinine idea of bringing more hunters into town? You aren’t really considering this, are you, Laura? We barely know these two, we don’t know if we can even trust them, and you think that we should allow them to bring reinforcements?” Peter said from the corner, still calm and collected, but there was strength in his voice when he spoke.
“Reinforcements? We’re not building a fucking army, we’re trying to stop a goddamned murderer!” Allison glared at the older man with ferocity.
“You’re out for revenge. You are clearly unstable.” Peter stared at her plainly, not cowed by her in the slightest.
Stiles was annoyed by that statement. “It’s not revenge, it’s retribution. Whatever that thing is, it deserves to pay for its crimes. It’s fucking justice and we won’t get any waiting on the police department. They won’t find anything.”
Isaac was chewing on the inside of his cheek, no longer holding his douchebag stance as he looked from Stiles to Peter and then to Laura. “You know that he’s right about that, Peter. We’ll have to catch it ourselves.”
“You keep saying it, yet you are conveniently ignoring the fact that the murderer could most certainly be a hunter,” Peter mused with a smirk that was practically feral as he eyed Stiles and Allison.
“That’s bullshit,” Stiles said.
“How would a human accomplish that, Peter?” Laura replied, and she didn’t look amused.
“Humans are just as capable of dastardly ventures when they are vindictive enough. I think we are all painfully aware of that, aren’t we Derek?” Peter leered at the other werewolf.
Derek scowled at having been called out. Stiles wasn’t certain what was taking place, but whatever it was, it was not an inner-family rivalry. At least it seemed a lot more intense than that. “Laura, you know that they are capable of it,” Derek gritted out between his teeth, still giving Peter a deathly glare.
“What are they talking about?” Stiles asked, because now he had a feeling that he knew what was being referred to, but he wasn’t technically supposed to know. He hoped that it didn’t show in his wording or the way his heart was beating. Fucking werewolves.
The blonde werewolf spoke again and Stiles realized that he still didn’t know her or the black werewolf’s names, but he noticed that they were hovering around one another in a way that suggested there was something more than pack comradery between them. “They’re talking about how hunters burned down the Hale house while the entire family was still inside. Laura, Derek, and Peter were the only ones that weren’t at the house and that’s the only reason that they survived.”
Stiles let his mouth gape a bit and he looked to Laura for confirmation, since she was actually a part of the family. She didn’t seem to want to offer up anything though. Her eyes looked empty and unseeing. Derek was the one who helpfully spoke up instead. “By the time the fire department got there, they had all died from smoke inhalation. We couldn’t get in to do anything and they couldn’t escape. We had to stand there and listen to our family suffocate and burn to death,” Derek spoke with a hard edge. Helpful was obviously a loose definition of what Derek was.
Stiles’ brow furrowed. “What do you mean, you just stood there? If you got there in time why didn’t you get them out?” Anger was creeping into his voice, which was stupid since he didn’t know any of those people and it wasn’t like it changed the fact that they were werewolves. Well, some of them. And that was the problem - that wasn’t how things were done. Hunters didn’t murder human members of a pack family and they certainly didn’t murder children. It made Stiles sick to even think about. He knew that there were hunters out there like that, they had just never associated with them for that reason, though they’d crossed paths with a few over their three years.
“Stiles-” Laura began quietly, her voice sounding pained.
Peter cut across her though. “We just stood there because the hunters surrounded the house with Mountain Ash. They made certain that even if someone in the family did happen to crawl toward the door after being drugged and beaten, it wouldn’t make a damn bit of difference, because they couldn’t escape. And of course we couldn’t get in to help them either. I’m sure you know how Mountain Ash works though, being such an accomplished hunter,” Peter dared Stiles to protest to that comment, staring him down dead on.
Stiles wasn’t going to dissent to his knowledge of Mountain Ash or wolfsbane or any of their properties though. He wasn’t even thinking about that right now. His mind was latched to the horrors that had happened to this family at the hands of people who called themselves hunters, murdering people in cold blood just like the monsters did that they were supposed to be hunting. There was a sudden and painful clench in his chest; Stiles felt his heart pick up and he took in a deep breath only to find that there was no air reaching his lungs. His head spun and he began to lose control of his footing and felt himself falling toward the floor, but arms caught him before he hit the ground.
“Stiles?” he heard someone say, but the person had to be miles away - he could barely hear her over the blood rushing into his ears and the pain that clenched at his chest. He still couldn't seem to pull in breath correctly and was leaning back into someone's chest while his heart practically hammered its way out of his own chest. He tried to say he was fine, that it would pass eventually, but the moment he opened his mouth his vision went black.
When he opened his eyes again he was sitting in the booth that they had yet to actually seat themselves at since they had arrived at the diner. Isaac was sitting across from him at the table, his blue eyes roaming over Stiles’ face. “He’s waking up,” he called to the room at large without actually looking away from Stiles.
Stiles noticed that there was an arm around his shoulders and snuggled into the person, assuming it was Allison. The body stiffened at the motion though, and that made Stiles whip his head around to see who it was. It made his head swim a bit and Derek’s face came into view next to him when his vision cleared. Stiles groaned. “What the actual fuck?”
Derek frowned at him, but he didn’t move. “Allison said you had a panic attack. She’s getting your medicine.”
“And you’re standing in as a werewolf space-heater because...?” Stiles prompted him sarcastically, because he had to know this was awkward.
“You fainted. I caught you,” Derek replied easily, looking at him like he was an idiot.
“Hey - what? I didn’t faint! I black out sometimes and that causes me to lose control of my body, that is not fainting!” Stiles protested.
“That’s the very definition of fainting,” Derek said and Stiles could have sworn he heard amusement in his voice. Really? Derek was fucking joking with him now?
Allison came back into the room then and he felt gloriously saved from that awkward situation. “Hey dumbass, you haven’t been taking your medication since we got here, have you?” she said, shaking her head at him, though her voice was affectionate. She handed him a glass of water and some pills. Stiles received them without question or complaint and swallowed them the same way; if Allison ever wanted to drug or kill him, she would have an easy time of it because he never second-guessed her.
“Sorry,” Stiles said automatically, looking cowed and apologetic. He knew that it worried Allison and he hated doing that to her so he always felt like an ass when it happened. But he hated taking the anti-anxiety medications, because they made him feel more sluggish than his usual and that wasn’t inductive to solving gruesome murders like these.
Isaac looked back and forth between both of them before addressing Stiles. “So it really was a panic attack? You’ve had one before?”
“Yeah, it was. I've had a few until I started taking medication. Or y'know, if I don't take it." He shrugged and tried to get Isaac to stop staring at him with such interest and... concern? "It's really not a big deal. I'm fine," he added for good measure, but Isaac didn't seem very convinced by it.
"What causes it?" And Stiles was utterly surprised that Derek was the one asking, not Isaac.
"Uh - different things, just depends. It was the story though, and thinking about my family..." He ducked his head when he felt his cheeks grow hot, but felt a hand cover his and his head shot up to see whose it was.
It was Laura. "It's okay, Stiles. Peter shouldn't have told you like that anyway. It was rude," she said and glared over at Peter.
"No-no, it's alright seriously. My fault," Stiles said and raised his other hand to wave in defense. "So, did you guys ever find out which hunters did that to your family?" he asked trying to pull the subject from himself.
Laura sighed and shook her head. "No, not really. We had an idea, but - well, those hunters turned up dead a few years ago...” Laura trailed off, looking a bit off.
Stiles nodded. “Yeah, that’s a pretty normal occurrence for hunters,” he replied without any sort of issue, like he was resigned to the fate even though it was a gruesome one. Stiles wasn’t looking forward to dying to some supernatural force, but the chances were still there, especially if whatever this thing was had some grudge against his family. “So I can see why you are opposed to us asking Scott and Lydia to come in because of what happened, but if we are going to get anywhere, we could really use their help.”
“Stiles,” Allison hissed at him. “Can I talk to you please?”
He knew what she was going to say, but he had to let her say it. She had her own reasons for going against Scott’s presence in town, but in the end it wasn’t about how either of them felt about Scott or Lydia, it was about getting rid of the bastard that was terrorizing people.
She held a grip on his arm as she whispered loudly to him in the corner, “Stiles, we do not need his help. We don’t even know if there is a demon involved, so what would be the point?”
Stiles rolled his eyes. “The point is to be ready for anything. We don’t know what the hell is going on and Scott is good at what he does. Setting your past aside, you know that, so I need you to not fight this, Allison. We are going to have enough problems convincing them without me having to convince you too.”
“I don’t need convincing, because we don’t need them,” Allison replied stubbornly.
“We might not, but I’d rather be safe than sorry at this point, Als. Look how many people have died already. This is our job. It’s not just about stopping whatever is out there, it’s about protecting people from it too.” He didn’t want more families going through what he and Allison had, all because they hadn’t bothered to use all of the resources available to them.
Allison glared at him, but he knew that he’d finally hit the right note with her. “Oh my God, fine! If he comes anywhere near me I’m gonna shoot him in the knee!”
“I’ll let him know,” Stiles quirked the corner of his lip upward and turned back to the werewolves, who would have heard the entire exchange, but that didn’t really matter.
Laura nodded at him and looked over at Peter. “He’s right, you know. It’s about protecting the people of Beacon Hills and if Scott and Lydia can help us, we need to bring them in.”
Stiles couldn’t really bring himself to be surprised by her agreeing with him - she just seemed like the type that would. But then Isaac and the bulky black werewolf were chiming in and saying that they agreed as well and he was a bit floored. The blonde, Peter, and Derek were still against bringing in the two extra hunters, which made it a divide right down the middle of their pack. Stiles wondered if that was a usual occurrence for them or if he had brought up a subject that for once had their house divided - the thought made him a little sad. Laura nodded. “In the case of a split, it is ultimately the Alpha’s final decision - so we will be asking for the other hunters’ help. And we will be treating them cordially,” she added, giving the other three a stern look.
Laura turned back to Stiles and Allison with a warm smile. “Okay then. How quickly can you get Scott and Lydia here?”
-----
Scott stretched his arms in the air, yawning. “Man, riding in airplanes always makes me so tired. You coulda at least given me better company, dude.” He smirked, rolling his eyes and snatching Stiles up in a ridiculous bear hug, practically knocking the wind out of him as he squeezed him tightly to his chest.
Stiles blushed, shaking his head. “Man, shut up. It’s not my fault you can’t keep up with her.” He pushed Scott off of him, glancing over toward where Lydia was chatting away with Allison.
“Yeah, because that’s Lydia Martin’s problem. Right. You really need to pull your head outta your ass.”
Scott was staring over at the two women too, but Stiles knew where he was looking. He rolled his eyes too. “Will you just give me my shit so I can check over it?”
Scott’s gaze whipped back over at Stiles, a look of true indignation written all over his face. “I have never been so insulted in all my life, Stilinski. You’ll be lucky to get any merchandise from me ever again.”
“I’m pretty sure as long as the money is green you’re gonna keep selling.”
“Dude, I am not that shallow! I can’t believe you would even sully my reputation that way!”
Of course Lydia and Allison chose that moment to walk over. “Your name is a smudge on the repertoire of all of us that call ourselves hunters, McCall.” Lydia said flatly, giving him a once over like he was an ugly bug she could do with seeing squashed. Yeah, Lydia had never really liked Scott very much. It was really the only reason that Allison probably did like her. Allison was smirking like the Cheshire Cat.
“McCall is a very well-respected na-” Scott started to say.
Lydia was jumping on that before he had the chance to finish. “Oh, Melissa McCall was a genius. It’s Scott McCall that rides on the skirt-tails of his mother’s talents.”
Stiles groaned. “Alright, I think that’s enough hunter politics for one visit. Thanks for coming, guys. We’ve got a lot of work to do, so can we leave the bickering for later?”
Lydia raised her eyebrows at Stiles, but shrugged. “Alright. Where are the werewolves? And if anyone in this podunk town tries to hit on me, there are gonna be some problems...”
“So these are the two who are supposed to save us, then?” Peter sneered when all of them were settled into the backroom of the diner again.
“Charming fellow. Is he always this surely or is he just that happy to meet us?” Scott asked without so much as thinking, Stiles was certain.
“Absolutely ecstatic,” Peter muttered and was the first to sit down and make himself look entirely disinterested almost at once.
Laura rolled her eyes and stepped forward, extending her hand out to Lydia. “Please ignore him, he’s just pissy because he doesn’t think we need the help. I’m Laura, I’m the Alpha of this pack. It’s a pleasure to meet you... both of you,” she added and nodded toward Scott, still holding her hand out toward Lydia who considered it for a moment before she finally took it stiffly in her own hand.
“Well, thank you for the warm receiving. I’m certain we’ll get along fantastically,” Lydia commented, looking toward Peter, and Derek, who was staring the two of them down like he was ready to pounce at the first wrong move.
Scott was obviously more receptive to Laura’s handshake, smiling hugely. “Well, let’s get this shit ironed out, shall we? I’d like to eat before nightfall. Do we know what we’re dealing with?” He plopped down in a chair and looked toward Stiles and Allison.
Stiles shook his head and eyed the room once before speaking. “No, we don’t know what we’re up against yet, that’s why we wanted yours and Lydia’s help. Something is murdering people and setting up the scenes to look like animal attacks. We obviously know better-”
Allison cut in then. “We spoke to the police yesterday and they said they found animal hair at the last scene. It’s obviously been planted, but that suggests a few things. For one, it’s not a totally mindless creature or we wouldn’t be seeing that type of calculation or forethought. It also means that there could be more than just the attacker-”
Peter grunted and cut her off. “That is an awful lot of assuming that you seem to be doing. Where is the proof?”
Allison glared at him. “It is our assumptions that keep us alive and help us solve all our cases, Hale. Can you say the same about yourselves so far, considering the body count that is piling up under your town’s name?”
“We know that we haven’t found anything yet, that’s why we’re willing to work with you. Snarking about how we haven’t done enough doesn’t help,” Derek said and Laura looked mildly surprised at his speaking up. Then, “We don’t know that your intentions are completely noble here, so don’t get too full of yourselves. What have you offered them to get their help?” Yeah, that sounded more like the Derek they’ve dealt with so far.
Lydia turned an almost bored look toward Derek. “I agreed as a favor. Believe it or not, we have a code and we honor our debts. We aren’t savage-”
“Thank you, Lydia,” Stiles cut in, giving her a stern look. “Lydia and Scott owe us for having been helped in the past. We aren’t offering them any incentives and we aren’t planning to shake your hand, then stab you in the back,” he said and stared Derek in the face as he did.
“Unless you give us a reason,” Allison added unhelpfully.
“Look. We aren’t going to solve a goddamn thing if we keep arguing like this! We’re all fucking adults here, let’s act it so we can save more people from that awful fate, can we?” Stiles was seriously pissed, glaring at both Allison and Derek almost at once, which was a feat to manage considering they were blocked off on opposite sides of the room like a pair of gunslingers.
Laura nodded in agreement. “Stiles is right. Let’s adjourn for the evening, get some rest and come back tomorrow after we’ve had a chance to consider some possibilities and maybe come up with a game plan, shall we?” Laura looked at everyone in turn, but she turned a sterner look on her own pack.
Allison nodded, shrugging. “Sure, that’s probably a good idea. I can see we aren’t getting anything accomplished here.”
“Als. That’s enough, seriously,” Stiles groaned.
“Yeah alright. Let’s go,” Allison said and started from the room, Lydia right beside her and Scott jumping up to follow like the lovesick fool he was. He gave Stiles an apologetic look on his way through the door.
“Right. I’ll call you?” he asked Laura and she nodded.
“Sounds good. Let us know what you come up with and we’ll meet tomorrow to discuss it?”
“Yeah, same to you,” Stiles answered and headed to the door, glancing over once to see Isaac watching him closely as he left. He made it out the front doors of the diner before he heard his name being called behind him. Stiles turned and looked at him expectantly.
Isaac ran his hand through his hair, looking extremely uncomfortable. It was definitely not the douchey Isaac he’d seen yesterday during their meeting. “Um... I wanted to apologize for the way I acted yesterday - and for what I said about you. I-I was thrown off guard not knowing about you guys and I didn’t handle it very well...”
Stiles chewed on his lip a moment before responding. “I was a dick too, I guess... I’m sorry.” He rubbed his hand over his head. “I uh... I don’t think it’d be very smart for us to... y’know, with all this going on. And you obviously take some issue with hunters and I haven’t exactly had the best experiences in the past with werewolves, so... it probably wouldn’t be the best idea for us to...” he trailed off, not even sure what they would’ve possibly done if Stiles had called him. Date? Fuck?
Stiles thought he saw disappointment momentarily in Isaac’s face, but it was gone in an instant, so it was possible he was misreading him. “Yeah, no... that makes total sense. I just wanted... we’re gonna be working together so I didn’t want you to think I was seriously an asshole like...like Derek. Laura was telling the truth about me... it’s a defense mechanism.”
For a second Stiles thought Isaac was saying that Laura had told the truth about Isaac being jealous. He shook that thought from his mind; hadn’t he just said this was a bad idea. “Well, you’ve already seen me faint, I’m not the person to be judging too harshly.” He shrugged and offered a small smile.
Isaac smiled a little. “Wasn’t fainting,” he snarked and his smile grew wider, eyes bright as he looked at Stiles. Stiles couldn’t help but return the grin, especially after he had poked fun at what Stiles had said yesterday. Fuck, he was seriously good looking. It was going to be difficult not to want to jump his ass, even if he was a werewolf. “Guess I’m glad you were who you were, though, since I don’t have to lie to you - and you don’t have to lie to me, like we would’ve been doing otherwise.”
Stiles smiled knowingly. “Yeah, I guess you’re right. It can get a bit old lying about who I am all the time.”
Isaac laughed. “Malcolm Reynolds? Kinda obvious, don’tcha think?”
Stiles gaped at him for a moment. “Really? You actually - no one has ever called us on it, honestly.”
Isaac still had that beautiful smile on his face. “Yeah, I love Firefly and Battlestar Galactica.”
“You’re awesome, dude,” he said automatically. Stiles was swooning a little, he wasn’t afraid to admit it.
“Stilinski! Get your ass moving or we’re leaving you here!” Scott called from the jeep where the other three hunters were already sitting in wait.
Stiles’ face burned red and he smiled apologetically at Isaac. “Well, I’ll see you tomorrow sometime?”
“Mmhm. Um... well, bye.” Isaac blushed and turned around, entering the diner again.
Stiles was glaring daggers when he got into the jeep’s passenger seat. Allison smirked at him and he was afraid that she’d been telling them about yesterday while he was talking to Isaac. “Got a hot date, Stiles?”
He sank into the seat, groaning. “I fucking hate you,” he responded and the other three laughed.
CONTINUE TO PART THREE
Part Two: We All Have a Weakness
Author: burntotears
Pairing: Allison Argent/Stiles Stilinski - Codependency, Allison Argent/Scott McCall, Isaac Lahey/Stiles Stilinski or Derek Hale/Stiles Stilinski
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 8,628
Spoilers: Season 2
Disclaimer: © MTV
Chapter Index No Such Thing Master Post
When morning came, Allison didn’t say anything more about the nightmare. It wasn’t that Stiles necessarily expected her to, but he did think that maybe she might say something this time because the nightmare had been so different. But he’d known Allison for three years now and he’d spent every one of those days with her, so he should have had better sense than to think she’d open up that easily.
“Alright,” she sighed at him after she’d done everything that morning she possibly could to drag out the time. “Let’s call the damn werewolves.”
“Don’t make it sound like we’re headed to the gallows or anything,” Stiles muttered, pulling his phone from his jeans. He scrolled through his contact list until he found where Laura had put her name in yesterday and hit Send.
She picked up after only two rings. “Hello?”
“Uh - yeah, hi. Is this Laura?” Allison was sitting across the room rolling her eyes at him.
“Yes it is. Is this Stiles?” For some reason she sounded like she was excited to hear from him, which didn’t make much sense, because a) she didn’t know anything about him and b) the reasons that they needed to work together weren’t exactly ‘fun and friendly’.
“Yeah. I think we are ready to meet your - uh, pack.”
“Great! Derek and I have already told them about you two, so we’ll get them together this afternoon and we can all meet and discuss how best to proceed. How does that sound? I’ll text you the address, okay?”
He knew that he could probably trust Laura, but he also knew better than to go to an undisclosed location given to him by a pack of werewolves. “Um, Laura? I don’t think we’d be comfortable-”
“Oh Stiles, of course, I wasn’t even thinking. We can meet at the motel if you like? Or the diner in town? Where would you and Allison like to meet?”
Something felt off about having them come into their motel room - like the enemy crossing over into their territory - so the diner seemed like the best option for now, even if it was fairly public. “Let’s meet at the diner since we already know it - Allison and I ate there yesterday.”
“Sounds perfect. Isaac works there, did you meet him?” she asked and Stiles felt his face growing hot at the mention of the curly-haired blond.
“Er, yeah, he was our waiter. Do you know him?” Stiles wondered just how small this town actually was.
Laura laughed. “You could say that. Alright, we’ll see you this afternoon, Stiles. It was nice talking to you again! Have a great morning, hon!” She hung up the phone and he stuck it back in his pocket.
“She said they’d meet us at the diner this afternoon with the rest of their pack,” Stiles reiterated to Allison, though she had probably picked up on most of it already.
“Good. Since we have time to kill, let’s go to the police station and poke around,” she said, standing and getting ready to leave.
Stiles groaned. “I don’t wanna,” he whined. “I hate talking to the police. They’re so boring.”
She scoffed. “That may be, but we need to get to know them regardless. So get off your lazy ass and let’s get moving.”
“How’s about we actually solve some fucking crimes around here for once, huh boys? Can we do that?” was the ringing yell that filled Stiles and Allison’s ears when they entered the station. Maybe they shouldn’t have been surprised - Sheriff Finstock didn’t seem like he knew how to deal with people.
“Sheriff,” Stiles greeted him, walking up behind the wild-haired man. He whipped around to face the hunters, eyes almost as wild as the brunette locks on his head.
“Agents. Was just giving the boys a little pep-talk. What brings you to the station?” In his defense, he was pretty good at recovery.
“Wanted to stop by and have a look around if that’s alright,” Allison answered smoothly, barely bothering to glance at him as she spoke.
“Oh, right. Well we’re pretty busy this morning. We had a break yesterday after you left.”
“Really?” she said, her interest piqued.
“Yeah, my best man, Whittemore, found animal hairs on the body. Let me get him for you,” the sheriff barely turned his head and screamed, “Jackson! Get your ass over here!”
A rather cocky looking blond entered the room from the far corner, answering, “Yes, Sheriff?” casting critical glances toward Stiles and Allison.
“These are the FBI agents that are here investigating the attacks. Agents-” he pointed at Stiles and apparently couldn’t remember his name.
“Reynolds and Thrace,” Stiles answered for him.
“Right, right.” Finstock clapped the man on the shoulder, “Jackson here found animal hairs on that body yesterday. We sent them off to the lab for testing. Tell them, son.”
The deputy named Jackson raised an eyebrow at the sheriff, who nodded at him expectantly. Sighing, he repeated in a snarky manner, “I found animal hairs... on the body yesterday. And we’ve sent them off... to the lab... for testing.”
The sheriff guffawed good naturedly. “Right you are! Good job, son! Now get back to work!” he gave the other police officer a hard look and pushed him back toward where he’d come from. “Quick as a whip, that one,” he said to Stiles and Allison once Jackson had left.
Stiles looked at Allison with a raised eyebrow. “Do you mind if we look around, Sheriff? We’ll be out of your hair in no time.”
“Sure, sure. We can contact you when the results come in on the animal hairs from the body?” he asked uncertainly.
Allison snorted. “We’ll be in touch. There’s no need.”
“Oh - right. Okay,” he said carefully and walked away without another word.
“Someone planted animal hair?” Stiles asked her quietly.
“Looks like it. Think it’s mountain lion?” she asked him.
“Probably. Wolf would be harder to get ahold of. Don’t think it’s werewolf do you?”
“If they’re that careless then I have even more issues with them than I already had,” she said dryly.
“Hey, you two,” a voice said behind them and they turned around to find Jackson glaring daggers at them. “I don’t know what the two of you are here for or why, but let’s get one thing straight: we don’t need your help." Apparently Jackson could speak for himself and unsurprisingly, he was an ass. "We are perfectly capable of solving our own investigations without the feds sticking their noses in. If you’re hiding something, I’ll figure out what it is - so watch your backs. I’ve got my eyes-”
“Jackson!” the deputy that Stiles had talked to on scene before hissed at him. He put a hand on Jackson’s shoulder and said something quietly into his ear and then pushed him away; surprisingly Jackson went without another word to any of them.
“I’m sorry about him. He gets worked up when people start dying,” the deputy said. “I’m Danny, by the way,” he extended a hand to Allison and nodded to Stiles again.
Stiles raised an eyebrow. “When people start dying? You’ve had a lot of people die around here before?”
Danny shook his head. “No, not really. Only once. There was a fire about eleven years ago at the Hale house...most of the family was trapped inside and died in the fire. The Hale family has been in Beacon Hills for ages so it was very significant to the whole town. There’s only three of them left now.”
Stiles and Allison looked at one another and he knew that she was thinking the same thing that he was. Apparently the Hale pack wasn’t very large at all if the entire family had almost been wiped out eleven years ago - which also meant that it was probably hunters who had done it. That didn’t make his and Allison's being in Beacon Hills look very good right now if that was actually the case.
They needed to see those files. “Danny, could we take a look at those case files?” he asked the deputy.
“On the fire?” the man asked quizzically.
“Yes, this is the first we’ve heard of it and we’d like to learn more about it,” Allison replied without missing a beat.
“I don’t really know of a reason why you couldn’t, but I don’t see how it’s related? The fire was ruled an accident and these are all animal attacks...” Danny furrowed his brow, obviously trying to figure out how they were placing a connection between the two.
“Regardless, we’d like to see anything you’ve got on the Hale house fire, please,” Stiles said calmly, trying to keep the excitement from his voice. This was definitely an edge they could use before going into the meeting with the pack, especially not knowing how many of them there were. It may still just be the three of them like Danny said, but there was no guarantee that the Alpha hadn’t sired new wolves into the pack or mates hadn't been taken by this point.
“I’ll have Greenberg get you the files,” Danny said and went toward the back of the offices.
“It says here that Laura, Derek, and their uncle were the only ones who weren’t in the house when it went up in flames,” Allison pointed to the police report and looked up at Stiles on the other side of the bed, who was munching on Doritos. “Stiles, wipe your hands off before you touch any of this. The last thing we need is to hand back case files with cheese fingerprints all over them.”
“God Als, I’m not an idiot,” he said and wiped his hands across the front of his hoodie, leaving orange stripes down his front. He snatched at the police report that she had pointed at so he could read the information she was referring to. “So there used to be eleven in the Hale pack? You think they were all werewolves?”
Allison chewed on her lip. “I don’t know. Maybe. Danny said that they had been here a long time, so they may have been holding this territory for a while.”
“Allison it says on both of these incident reports that arson was suspected. Do you think that they were-”
“Murdered by hunters? If the police and the fire departments both suspected arson but they couldn’t pin it on anyone, I wouldn’t be surprised. I’m sure that Laura and Derek know for certain though,” she said, looking at the pictures of the smoking house that must have been taken after they had put out the fire.
“You gonna be the one to ask them if it was hunters that murdered 75% of their family while we are already outnumbered and overpowered? ‘Cause I sure as hell ain’t.” He could only imagine Derek’s response to a question like that, and they hadn’t even met the uncle yet so they had no clue of his character.
“We probably won’t have to. You think we’re going to sit down for a meeting with a pack that’s been reduced like this and that subject isn’t going to come up? Especially with these deaths happening? You know they are going to blame us first.” Allison continued to rifle through the photographs, finally getting to those taken of the bodies of the Hale family members. She only winced momentarily before replacing her features with a stoic stare as she thumbed through them.
Stiles shrugged a single shoulder. “They’ve been hunted their entire lives. Can you really blame them for being biased against hunters?”
“Can you blame me for being biased against werewolves?” Allison shot back all too easily and Stiles sighed. She had a point, of course, because they had run across more than their fair share of werewolves that were killing for pleasure and had to take care of them, but he just couldn’t see Laura as that kind of wolf. Yes, she did remind him of his mother, but even so, she had that vibe she put out that didn’t ring any warning bells in Stiles’ head.
“Touché.” Stiles opened his mouth to say something else but his phone chimed.
Laura said: Can you meet us at Morell’s in 15 min?
“It’s Laura. Wants to know if we can be there in 15 minutes.”
“Yeah, sure. We can finish looking at this when we get back. Let’s put it in the safe, just in case.”
Stiles said: We’ll see you in 15.
Laura said: Great! :)
“Alright, I guess it’s time to enter the wolves’ den.”
Stiles was pretty certain that a warmer welcome could have taken place between them and the werewolves, but in his defense, he really had had no idea. “Laura, what the fuck? Why didn’t you tell us their names when you mentioned them?” Isaac all but yelled into the open air of the diner when Stiles and Allison approached the group that apparently made up the rest of Laura and Derek’s pack and - oh.
Oh fuck. Stiles’ mouth lay agape as he stared directly at Isaac, standing next to Laura, not in an apron today, but snug-fitting jeans and a v-neck t-shirt. “You’re a were-”
“If you finish that sentence in the middle of this diner,” Derek growled at him, stepping forward, “I’m gonna rip your throat out. With my teeth.”
Laura reached forward and put a hand on his shoulder, pulling him back. “That’s enough, Derek. Stiles, please be careful what you say before we’ve been seated. We’ve got a special booth for just this sort of conversation.”
Stiles nodded numbly, too many thoughts swirling through him at once to choose just one to latch onto at the moment. He was still floored by the fact that Isaac was a part of the damn Hale pack - it was the most ridiculous thing in the world, seriously. Was he ever going to catch a freaking break?
He and Allison followed the Hale siblings and Isaac, along with three others that Stiles hadn’t bothered to get a good look at yet, into a side room of the diner he hadn’t even noticed the first time they were there. It probably served the purpose of hosting birthday parties or something, but today it was neutral meeting ground for the werewolves and hunters. Lovely.
As soon as the doors swung shut, Isaac rounded on Stiles with an accusatory glare. “You didn’t happen to mention that you make a living by slicing people in half while you were flirting with me yesterday,” he glared unpleasantly and it was not something that Stiles thought looked good on Isaac’s face at all. Not that he cared all that much right then.
Stiles narrowed his eyes angrily. “Oh, that’s probably because you forgot to make note that you were a member of the merry band of local murderers when you gave me your number, so I guess that makes us square!”
“Hey! C’mon now, that’s not what we came here for!” Laura called and stepped between the two of them, putting a hand on Isaac and Stiles’ chests simultaneously. There was a slight upward tick to her lips, like she was slightly amused by the exchange but was trying to hide it.
Even with the faint condescending smirk, Stiles’ heart evened out and he took a deep, calming breath; Isaac mirrored the action on Laura’s other side. Realization hit Stiles like a smack in the face. “You’re the Alpha?” he gawked at Laura, who stood with a commanding presence even though Isaac towered a good half-foot above her. How had he missed it earlier?
Laura smiled sweetly at him and pulled her hands back from both of the men. “Yes, I am. That doesn’t usually work on humans that aren’t in the pack though-” she said, eying him with interest.
“Oh, um-” he looked at Allison desperately, but he hadn’t really told her about the incidents with Laura earlier, so there wasn’t much that Allison could say. He rubbed his hand over his head and the back of his neck nervously. "I'm not sure. I just feel... calmer around you?"
Laura nodded, seemingly taking it in stride. "That’s interesting,” she replied and she sounded earnest.
“That’s not normal,” Derek frowned at Stiles, instantly on the defensive.
“Shut up, Derek,” Isaac said. “It's Laura. I felt the same when I met her.” For a second Isaac softened when he looked at Stiles and Stiles felt a little less annoyed with him.
“That’s a lovely sentiment, Isaac,” said a man that Stiles hadn’t bothered to pay any attention to yet. Stiles could only assume it was Laura and Derek’s uncle by his age. “However, you also were never a hunter either. I think the situations vary drastically. Laura, you have to admit that having a hunter warm to you is alarming.”
Laura raised an eyebrow at her uncle. “I don’t. Whatever Stiles may or may not be, it doesn’t change that our connection is obviously strong and I’m not going to ignore it - especially not if it helps him. And that has nothing to do with why we’re here, if any of you remember.”
“It kind of does though,” the blonde girl spoke up for the first time and Stiles looked over at her, biting at his lip. How did this whole freaking meeting suddenly become about some weird connection between him and Laura? “You want us to work with them, but they’re hunters. We don’t know anything about them. We don’t know how many werewolves they’ve killed in the past or how willing they are to lie to our faces, then stab us in the back the first chance that they get.”
Allison scoffed. “Oh please. We don’t know anything about y’all either. You think we’re going to just take it on blind faith that you’re gonna be good little doggies and not attempt to rip out our throats as Derek has already so kindly threatened to do to Stiles? And let’s not forget that there are two of us and six of you. I think we’ve got the right to be on edge here. Besides, you haven’t proven that you aren’t the ones murdering all these people.”
“We live here. This is our home and our territory and you are trespassers. We have nothing to prove. You are the ones who have come onto our land with nothing but lies and suspicious behavior. The only people who need to prove that they aren’t murderers here are you two,” Derek growled at Allison, but glanced over at Stiles for some reason even though he hadn’t said a damn word. “Ever since you came into town the murders have increased. Why is that?”
“We don’t know, that’s what we’re trying to figure out, Derek, you giant fucking assha-” Stiles couldn’t help but yell. Derek was such a dick about everything and Stiles hadn't even said anything to him.
“Enough! Honestly, I am tired of this! There are people dying out there and we don’t have time to squabble like school children! Stiles, Allison, if you’re really here to try and solve the murders - we’d like to know what brought you here and we’d like to actually get to solving them. Derek - shove it, before I give you a reason.” Stiles heard her growl in the back of her throat and he thought for a second that her eyes flashed a different color, but it was so quick that it could have just been the light. Whatever it was, Derek was done mouthing off - Laura’s word was final, that was for certain.
Stiles was so fucking glad that she was the Alpha.
“What brought us here were the stories of the murders and the fact that they are complete bullshit. We know it isn’t an animal that’s murdering them - well, it’s not a mountain lion...” Allison sneered, looking at the lot of them with a disapproving look.
The last guy who hadn’t said anything yet finally spoke. He was black and on the bulkier side, built more like Derek than Isaac who was lean and lanky. “We aren’t killing anyone. You already know that though, you just want to blame us because it’s easier than facing the truth.”
Well, dude was intelligent, Stiles would give him that. Intelligent, but apparently had a death wish. Allison was in his face in seconds, pointing a finger at him and looking murderous. Yep, Stiles saw that one coming from a mile away. “You don’t know anything about me, Wolf. Don’t make judgements about my life and my motives for doing things.”
Everyone else was now on edge, ready to pounce, as if Allison was somehow going to harm the bulky werewolf. Yeah, right. Stiles moved to pull her back anyway.
“C’mon Als, I don’t think that’s what he meant by it. Just calm down, yeah?” She let him pull her away and fell into his arms, both of them feeling more secure nearer each other in a room filled with ‘enemy’ werewolves.
Stiles scanned his eyes around the room, looking at each of them in turn. “Look. This is what we do. We follow leads when we find them. We’ve been on the lookout for strange murder patterns and when we find them, we go to the town and we check them out. We figure out what’s causing the murders, we take care of it, we move on. Simple as that.” He knew that they weren’t going to buy it. He knew that he was going to have to tell them. He didn’t want to talk about it again. He definitely didn’t want to with Allison there; he hadn’t told the story to anyone in a while.
Laura was the one that answered him, which he was grateful for, though the subject could have been better. “You’re looking for whatever killed your parents? It killed both of your families?” she ventured.
Stiles forgot about Allison’s outburst in front of Derek and Laura yesterday. Apparently he didn’t have to tell them much of anything. “Yes,” he answered simply. That felt easy. That was simple, non-committal.
“Stiles, are these murders similar to your families’ murders? Are they really so identical that you’d come all this way?”
Stiles felt Allison go stiff in his arms. He tried to squeeze her and pull her closer, but she pulled away and looked at Laura with near dead eyes. “It’s exactly the same. Whatever murdered my family - whatever killed Stiles’ parents - is here, killing people again. The same damn way, every single time. It’s not an animal, it’s not human, we don’t know what it is - we’ve been trying to figure that out this entire time. And we will. We will find it, we will torture the mother fucker to an inch of its life, and then we will kill it as slowly as is fucking possible. That is what we are here for.” Allison looked around and dared anyone to disagree with her.
“It knows they’re here,” Isaac said after a few moment’s silence. Stiles shifted his gaze over to him, staring uncomfortably. “That’s why it has been killing more than it was before.”
“That’s basically what we suspected too,” Stiles confirmed. “There’s a fairly good chance that it wants to finish us off. The question is: why is it here? What does this town have to do with our families? We’ve never been here before,” he said more to the werewolves than Allison, because they’d already talked about Beacon Hills and if they had ever heard of it before from either of their families.
“Your parents?” Peter asked.
Stiles shook his head. “My parents weren’t those type of hunters - or hunters at all. Long story,” Stiles shook his head and Isaac raised an eyebrow, but didn’t say anything. Stiles continued, “Allison’s family usually stuck pretty close to home. They documented all of their jobs in journals for uh - for Allison to learn from, just in case.” He tried his best not to look at Allison as he talked about her family, because he knew she didn’t like hearing it, especially not Stiles talking for her. “Look, I know you won’t like this idea, but I think we need to call in some backup.”
“What?” about three people said at once. One of them was Allison, which he was expecting.
“This thing is powerful, whatever it is, and we need specialists. Allison and I are good hunters, but we don’t specialize in anything. We have friends that do though.”
“No,” Allison said without hesitation.
“Allison, shut up.”
“Why is she saying ‘no’?” Isaac asked, looking skeptical.
“She’s saying ‘no’ because it’s Scott McCall,” Stiles said, exasperated. “Also Lydia Martin. Scott is a demon expert and Lydia is an expert on rituals, languages - those sorts of things.”
“Oh, I’ve heard of Lydia,” Laura said, grinning.
“What? Really?” Stiles asked, unable to hide the surprise and the obvious awe in his voice.
“Absolutely, she’s legendary. She’s been making a name for herself since she was twelve. She’s brilliant,” Laura nodded with a small laugh. Stiles had a feeling that she already knew. This connection apparently wasn’t one way.
“Yeah, she is,” he said, still sounding awkwardly wistful when he talked about Lydia. Fuck.
Isaac was narrowing his eyes at this exchange and Laura began smirking more. “Isaac.”
“What?” he asked, cocking the douchiest pose Stiles had ever seen. It was definitely a ‘I’m a mother fucking werewolf and I am beautiful and badass; you should be awed to be in my very presence, so bow at my feet and praise me, mere mortals’ type of stance, and Stiles was sort of vaguely impressed that he was able to convey all that just by standing a particular way, but supremely annoyed that Isaac was now emitting Derek-levels of asshattery. This was not the guy he’d met at the diner yesterday.
“Oh my god, you are jealous!” Laura pointed at Isaac accusingly.
Isaac’s face scrunched up in disgust. Stiles kept whipping his head back and forth between them, trying to figure out what was going on. “What the fuck, Laura, what are you even talking about?”
“You are jealous of a hunter you’ve never even met because another hunter likes her! Oh my god, this is so epic!” Laura walked over to Stiles and slung her arm around his shoulders. He looked sideways at her, still utterly confused. “Stiles, where have you been all my life? If I had known you’d make things this exciting I’d have found you ages ago.”
“Fuck you, Laura! You are such a bitch sometimes!” Isaac sneered, slinking into the corner away from them so he could lean against a booth with all the swagger God gave ten men. Really, how was that even fair?
Stiles leaned toward Laura and lowered his voice, still looking in disbelief toward Isaac. “You’re not seriously suggesting that he’s jealous that I have a crush on Lydia, are you?” The entire idea of it was so asinine that he couldn’t even begin to comprehend it, much less believe it. Isaac was sculpted from literal freaking marble and other godly materials, it was just impossible for him to be jealous of Stiles being interested in someone else. He could have anyone he wanted in this town - in this freaking state. And right now he was acting like he wanted to be anywhere in the world besides near Stiles.
“Suggesting? No, Stiles, that’s exactly what I said. It’s absolutely true. You don’t know our dear Isaac, but you just might soon enough. What you’re seeing right now is a defense mechanism. What you saw yesterday? That was Isaac. This is just a douchebag. Fairly similar to Derek, yeah?”
“Laura,” Derek groaned lowly at her.
“Yeah, kinda,” Stiles admitted.
“As amusing as this hunter’s love life may be, can we get back to the real issues? Namely the asinine idea of bringing more hunters into town? You aren’t really considering this, are you, Laura? We barely know these two, we don’t know if we can even trust them, and you think that we should allow them to bring reinforcements?” Peter said from the corner, still calm and collected, but there was strength in his voice when he spoke.
“Reinforcements? We’re not building a fucking army, we’re trying to stop a goddamned murderer!” Allison glared at the older man with ferocity.
“You’re out for revenge. You are clearly unstable.” Peter stared at her plainly, not cowed by her in the slightest.
Stiles was annoyed by that statement. “It’s not revenge, it’s retribution. Whatever that thing is, it deserves to pay for its crimes. It’s fucking justice and we won’t get any waiting on the police department. They won’t find anything.”
Isaac was chewing on the inside of his cheek, no longer holding his douchebag stance as he looked from Stiles to Peter and then to Laura. “You know that he’s right about that, Peter. We’ll have to catch it ourselves.”
“You keep saying it, yet you are conveniently ignoring the fact that the murderer could most certainly be a hunter,” Peter mused with a smirk that was practically feral as he eyed Stiles and Allison.
“That’s bullshit,” Stiles said.
“How would a human accomplish that, Peter?” Laura replied, and she didn’t look amused.
“Humans are just as capable of dastardly ventures when they are vindictive enough. I think we are all painfully aware of that, aren’t we Derek?” Peter leered at the other werewolf.
Derek scowled at having been called out. Stiles wasn’t certain what was taking place, but whatever it was, it was not an inner-family rivalry. At least it seemed a lot more intense than that. “Laura, you know that they are capable of it,” Derek gritted out between his teeth, still giving Peter a deathly glare.
“What are they talking about?” Stiles asked, because now he had a feeling that he knew what was being referred to, but he wasn’t technically supposed to know. He hoped that it didn’t show in his wording or the way his heart was beating. Fucking werewolves.
The blonde werewolf spoke again and Stiles realized that he still didn’t know her or the black werewolf’s names, but he noticed that they were hovering around one another in a way that suggested there was something more than pack comradery between them. “They’re talking about how hunters burned down the Hale house while the entire family was still inside. Laura, Derek, and Peter were the only ones that weren’t at the house and that’s the only reason that they survived.”
Stiles let his mouth gape a bit and he looked to Laura for confirmation, since she was actually a part of the family. She didn’t seem to want to offer up anything though. Her eyes looked empty and unseeing. Derek was the one who helpfully spoke up instead. “By the time the fire department got there, they had all died from smoke inhalation. We couldn’t get in to do anything and they couldn’t escape. We had to stand there and listen to our family suffocate and burn to death,” Derek spoke with a hard edge. Helpful was obviously a loose definition of what Derek was.
Stiles’ brow furrowed. “What do you mean, you just stood there? If you got there in time why didn’t you get them out?” Anger was creeping into his voice, which was stupid since he didn’t know any of those people and it wasn’t like it changed the fact that they were werewolves. Well, some of them. And that was the problem - that wasn’t how things were done. Hunters didn’t murder human members of a pack family and they certainly didn’t murder children. It made Stiles sick to even think about. He knew that there were hunters out there like that, they had just never associated with them for that reason, though they’d crossed paths with a few over their three years.
“Stiles-” Laura began quietly, her voice sounding pained.
Peter cut across her though. “We just stood there because the hunters surrounded the house with Mountain Ash. They made certain that even if someone in the family did happen to crawl toward the door after being drugged and beaten, it wouldn’t make a damn bit of difference, because they couldn’t escape. And of course we couldn’t get in to help them either. I’m sure you know how Mountain Ash works though, being such an accomplished hunter,” Peter dared Stiles to protest to that comment, staring him down dead on.
Stiles wasn’t going to dissent to his knowledge of Mountain Ash or wolfsbane or any of their properties though. He wasn’t even thinking about that right now. His mind was latched to the horrors that had happened to this family at the hands of people who called themselves hunters, murdering people in cold blood just like the monsters did that they were supposed to be hunting. There was a sudden and painful clench in his chest; Stiles felt his heart pick up and he took in a deep breath only to find that there was no air reaching his lungs. His head spun and he began to lose control of his footing and felt himself falling toward the floor, but arms caught him before he hit the ground.
“Stiles?” he heard someone say, but the person had to be miles away - he could barely hear her over the blood rushing into his ears and the pain that clenched at his chest. He still couldn't seem to pull in breath correctly and was leaning back into someone's chest while his heart practically hammered its way out of his own chest. He tried to say he was fine, that it would pass eventually, but the moment he opened his mouth his vision went black.
When he opened his eyes again he was sitting in the booth that they had yet to actually seat themselves at since they had arrived at the diner. Isaac was sitting across from him at the table, his blue eyes roaming over Stiles’ face. “He’s waking up,” he called to the room at large without actually looking away from Stiles.
Stiles noticed that there was an arm around his shoulders and snuggled into the person, assuming it was Allison. The body stiffened at the motion though, and that made Stiles whip his head around to see who it was. It made his head swim a bit and Derek’s face came into view next to him when his vision cleared. Stiles groaned. “What the actual fuck?”
Derek frowned at him, but he didn’t move. “Allison said you had a panic attack. She’s getting your medicine.”
“And you’re standing in as a werewolf space-heater because...?” Stiles prompted him sarcastically, because he had to know this was awkward.
“You fainted. I caught you,” Derek replied easily, looking at him like he was an idiot.
“Hey - what? I didn’t faint! I black out sometimes and that causes me to lose control of my body, that is not fainting!” Stiles protested.
“That’s the very definition of fainting,” Derek said and Stiles could have sworn he heard amusement in his voice. Really? Derek was fucking joking with him now?
Allison came back into the room then and he felt gloriously saved from that awkward situation. “Hey dumbass, you haven’t been taking your medication since we got here, have you?” she said, shaking her head at him, though her voice was affectionate. She handed him a glass of water and some pills. Stiles received them without question or complaint and swallowed them the same way; if Allison ever wanted to drug or kill him, she would have an easy time of it because he never second-guessed her.
“Sorry,” Stiles said automatically, looking cowed and apologetic. He knew that it worried Allison and he hated doing that to her so he always felt like an ass when it happened. But he hated taking the anti-anxiety medications, because they made him feel more sluggish than his usual and that wasn’t inductive to solving gruesome murders like these.
Isaac looked back and forth between both of them before addressing Stiles. “So it really was a panic attack? You’ve had one before?”
“Yeah, it was. I've had a few until I started taking medication. Or y'know, if I don't take it." He shrugged and tried to get Isaac to stop staring at him with such interest and... concern? "It's really not a big deal. I'm fine," he added for good measure, but Isaac didn't seem very convinced by it.
"What causes it?" And Stiles was utterly surprised that Derek was the one asking, not Isaac.
"Uh - different things, just depends. It was the story though, and thinking about my family..." He ducked his head when he felt his cheeks grow hot, but felt a hand cover his and his head shot up to see whose it was.
It was Laura. "It's okay, Stiles. Peter shouldn't have told you like that anyway. It was rude," she said and glared over at Peter.
"No-no, it's alright seriously. My fault," Stiles said and raised his other hand to wave in defense. "So, did you guys ever find out which hunters did that to your family?" he asked trying to pull the subject from himself.
Laura sighed and shook her head. "No, not really. We had an idea, but - well, those hunters turned up dead a few years ago...” Laura trailed off, looking a bit off.
Stiles nodded. “Yeah, that’s a pretty normal occurrence for hunters,” he replied without any sort of issue, like he was resigned to the fate even though it was a gruesome one. Stiles wasn’t looking forward to dying to some supernatural force, but the chances were still there, especially if whatever this thing was had some grudge against his family. “So I can see why you are opposed to us asking Scott and Lydia to come in because of what happened, but if we are going to get anywhere, we could really use their help.”
“Stiles,” Allison hissed at him. “Can I talk to you please?”
He knew what she was going to say, but he had to let her say it. She had her own reasons for going against Scott’s presence in town, but in the end it wasn’t about how either of them felt about Scott or Lydia, it was about getting rid of the bastard that was terrorizing people.
She held a grip on his arm as she whispered loudly to him in the corner, “Stiles, we do not need his help. We don’t even know if there is a demon involved, so what would be the point?”
Stiles rolled his eyes. “The point is to be ready for anything. We don’t know what the hell is going on and Scott is good at what he does. Setting your past aside, you know that, so I need you to not fight this, Allison. We are going to have enough problems convincing them without me having to convince you too.”
“I don’t need convincing, because we don’t need them,” Allison replied stubbornly.
“We might not, but I’d rather be safe than sorry at this point, Als. Look how many people have died already. This is our job. It’s not just about stopping whatever is out there, it’s about protecting people from it too.” He didn’t want more families going through what he and Allison had, all because they hadn’t bothered to use all of the resources available to them.
Allison glared at him, but he knew that he’d finally hit the right note with her. “Oh my God, fine! If he comes anywhere near me I’m gonna shoot him in the knee!”
“I’ll let him know,” Stiles quirked the corner of his lip upward and turned back to the werewolves, who would have heard the entire exchange, but that didn’t really matter.
Laura nodded at him and looked over at Peter. “He’s right, you know. It’s about protecting the people of Beacon Hills and if Scott and Lydia can help us, we need to bring them in.”
Stiles couldn’t really bring himself to be surprised by her agreeing with him - she just seemed like the type that would. But then Isaac and the bulky black werewolf were chiming in and saying that they agreed as well and he was a bit floored. The blonde, Peter, and Derek were still against bringing in the two extra hunters, which made it a divide right down the middle of their pack. Stiles wondered if that was a usual occurrence for them or if he had brought up a subject that for once had their house divided - the thought made him a little sad. Laura nodded. “In the case of a split, it is ultimately the Alpha’s final decision - so we will be asking for the other hunters’ help. And we will be treating them cordially,” she added, giving the other three a stern look.
Laura turned back to Stiles and Allison with a warm smile. “Okay then. How quickly can you get Scott and Lydia here?”
-----
Scott stretched his arms in the air, yawning. “Man, riding in airplanes always makes me so tired. You coulda at least given me better company, dude.” He smirked, rolling his eyes and snatching Stiles up in a ridiculous bear hug, practically knocking the wind out of him as he squeezed him tightly to his chest.
Stiles blushed, shaking his head. “Man, shut up. It’s not my fault you can’t keep up with her.” He pushed Scott off of him, glancing over toward where Lydia was chatting away with Allison.
“Yeah, because that’s Lydia Martin’s problem. Right. You really need to pull your head outta your ass.”
Scott was staring over at the two women too, but Stiles knew where he was looking. He rolled his eyes too. “Will you just give me my shit so I can check over it?”
Scott’s gaze whipped back over at Stiles, a look of true indignation written all over his face. “I have never been so insulted in all my life, Stilinski. You’ll be lucky to get any merchandise from me ever again.”
“I’m pretty sure as long as the money is green you’re gonna keep selling.”
“Dude, I am not that shallow! I can’t believe you would even sully my reputation that way!”
Of course Lydia and Allison chose that moment to walk over. “Your name is a smudge on the repertoire of all of us that call ourselves hunters, McCall.” Lydia said flatly, giving him a once over like he was an ugly bug she could do with seeing squashed. Yeah, Lydia had never really liked Scott very much. It was really the only reason that Allison probably did like her. Allison was smirking like the Cheshire Cat.
“McCall is a very well-respected na-” Scott started to say.
Lydia was jumping on that before he had the chance to finish. “Oh, Melissa McCall was a genius. It’s Scott McCall that rides on the skirt-tails of his mother’s talents.”
Stiles groaned. “Alright, I think that’s enough hunter politics for one visit. Thanks for coming, guys. We’ve got a lot of work to do, so can we leave the bickering for later?”
Lydia raised her eyebrows at Stiles, but shrugged. “Alright. Where are the werewolves? And if anyone in this podunk town tries to hit on me, there are gonna be some problems...”
“So these are the two who are supposed to save us, then?” Peter sneered when all of them were settled into the backroom of the diner again.
“Charming fellow. Is he always this surely or is he just that happy to meet us?” Scott asked without so much as thinking, Stiles was certain.
“Absolutely ecstatic,” Peter muttered and was the first to sit down and make himself look entirely disinterested almost at once.
Laura rolled her eyes and stepped forward, extending her hand out to Lydia. “Please ignore him, he’s just pissy because he doesn’t think we need the help. I’m Laura, I’m the Alpha of this pack. It’s a pleasure to meet you... both of you,” she added and nodded toward Scott, still holding her hand out toward Lydia who considered it for a moment before she finally took it stiffly in her own hand.
“Well, thank you for the warm receiving. I’m certain we’ll get along fantastically,” Lydia commented, looking toward Peter, and Derek, who was staring the two of them down like he was ready to pounce at the first wrong move.
Scott was obviously more receptive to Laura’s handshake, smiling hugely. “Well, let’s get this shit ironed out, shall we? I’d like to eat before nightfall. Do we know what we’re dealing with?” He plopped down in a chair and looked toward Stiles and Allison.
Stiles shook his head and eyed the room once before speaking. “No, we don’t know what we’re up against yet, that’s why we wanted yours and Lydia’s help. Something is murdering people and setting up the scenes to look like animal attacks. We obviously know better-”
Allison cut in then. “We spoke to the police yesterday and they said they found animal hair at the last scene. It’s obviously been planted, but that suggests a few things. For one, it’s not a totally mindless creature or we wouldn’t be seeing that type of calculation or forethought. It also means that there could be more than just the attacker-”
Peter grunted and cut her off. “That is an awful lot of assuming that you seem to be doing. Where is the proof?”
Allison glared at him. “It is our assumptions that keep us alive and help us solve all our cases, Hale. Can you say the same about yourselves so far, considering the body count that is piling up under your town’s name?”
“We know that we haven’t found anything yet, that’s why we’re willing to work with you. Snarking about how we haven’t done enough doesn’t help,” Derek said and Laura looked mildly surprised at his speaking up. Then, “We don’t know that your intentions are completely noble here, so don’t get too full of yourselves. What have you offered them to get their help?” Yeah, that sounded more like the Derek they’ve dealt with so far.
Lydia turned an almost bored look toward Derek. “I agreed as a favor. Believe it or not, we have a code and we honor our debts. We aren’t savage-”
“Thank you, Lydia,” Stiles cut in, giving her a stern look. “Lydia and Scott owe us for having been helped in the past. We aren’t offering them any incentives and we aren’t planning to shake your hand, then stab you in the back,” he said and stared Derek in the face as he did.
“Unless you give us a reason,” Allison added unhelpfully.
“Look. We aren’t going to solve a goddamn thing if we keep arguing like this! We’re all fucking adults here, let’s act it so we can save more people from that awful fate, can we?” Stiles was seriously pissed, glaring at both Allison and Derek almost at once, which was a feat to manage considering they were blocked off on opposite sides of the room like a pair of gunslingers.
Laura nodded in agreement. “Stiles is right. Let’s adjourn for the evening, get some rest and come back tomorrow after we’ve had a chance to consider some possibilities and maybe come up with a game plan, shall we?” Laura looked at everyone in turn, but she turned a sterner look on her own pack.
Allison nodded, shrugging. “Sure, that’s probably a good idea. I can see we aren’t getting anything accomplished here.”
“Als. That’s enough, seriously,” Stiles groaned.
“Yeah alright. Let’s go,” Allison said and started from the room, Lydia right beside her and Scott jumping up to follow like the lovesick fool he was. He gave Stiles an apologetic look on his way through the door.
“Right. I’ll call you?” he asked Laura and she nodded.
“Sounds good. Let us know what you come up with and we’ll meet tomorrow to discuss it?”
“Yeah, same to you,” Stiles answered and headed to the door, glancing over once to see Isaac watching him closely as he left. He made it out the front doors of the diner before he heard his name being called behind him. Stiles turned and looked at him expectantly.
Isaac ran his hand through his hair, looking extremely uncomfortable. It was definitely not the douchey Isaac he’d seen yesterday during their meeting. “Um... I wanted to apologize for the way I acted yesterday - and for what I said about you. I-I was thrown off guard not knowing about you guys and I didn’t handle it very well...”
Stiles chewed on his lip a moment before responding. “I was a dick too, I guess... I’m sorry.” He rubbed his hand over his head. “I uh... I don’t think it’d be very smart for us to... y’know, with all this going on. And you obviously take some issue with hunters and I haven’t exactly had the best experiences in the past with werewolves, so... it probably wouldn’t be the best idea for us to...” he trailed off, not even sure what they would’ve possibly done if Stiles had called him. Date? Fuck?
Stiles thought he saw disappointment momentarily in Isaac’s face, but it was gone in an instant, so it was possible he was misreading him. “Yeah, no... that makes total sense. I just wanted... we’re gonna be working together so I didn’t want you to think I was seriously an asshole like...like Derek. Laura was telling the truth about me... it’s a defense mechanism.”
For a second Stiles thought Isaac was saying that Laura had told the truth about Isaac being jealous. He shook that thought from his mind; hadn’t he just said this was a bad idea. “Well, you’ve already seen me faint, I’m not the person to be judging too harshly.” He shrugged and offered a small smile.
Isaac smiled a little. “Wasn’t fainting,” he snarked and his smile grew wider, eyes bright as he looked at Stiles. Stiles couldn’t help but return the grin, especially after he had poked fun at what Stiles had said yesterday. Fuck, he was seriously good looking. It was going to be difficult not to want to jump his ass, even if he was a werewolf. “Guess I’m glad you were who you were, though, since I don’t have to lie to you - and you don’t have to lie to me, like we would’ve been doing otherwise.”
Stiles smiled knowingly. “Yeah, I guess you’re right. It can get a bit old lying about who I am all the time.”
Isaac laughed. “Malcolm Reynolds? Kinda obvious, don’tcha think?”
Stiles gaped at him for a moment. “Really? You actually - no one has ever called us on it, honestly.”
Isaac still had that beautiful smile on his face. “Yeah, I love Firefly and Battlestar Galactica.”
“You’re awesome, dude,” he said automatically. Stiles was swooning a little, he wasn’t afraid to admit it.
“Stilinski! Get your ass moving or we’re leaving you here!” Scott called from the jeep where the other three hunters were already sitting in wait.
Stiles’ face burned red and he smiled apologetically at Isaac. “Well, I’ll see you tomorrow sometime?”
“Mmhm. Um... well, bye.” Isaac blushed and turned around, entering the diner again.
Stiles was glaring daggers when he got into the jeep’s passenger seat. Allison smirked at him and he was afraid that she’d been telling them about yesterday while he was talking to Isaac. “Got a hot date, Stiles?”
He sank into the seat, groaning. “I fucking hate you,” he responded and the other three laughed.
CONTINUE TO PART THREE