The party was going great. The alcohol was flowing, the girls were down to bikinis, and Jared was primed and ready to move in on his next target. He had her leaning up against the hand rail, his hands on either side of her hips, and was just about to go in for the kiss. Then he saw something on the beach and broke away to get a closer look. Once he realized what he was looking at his eyes widened and he rushed down the side stairs to the beach while calling for Peter to come help him.

Staggering down the beach, looking about to collapse at any moment, was a young man. He had blood all over one of his arms and was covered in bruises. Half his face was covered in blood as well from an obviously broken nose. Jared reached him just as the kid fell to his knees, "Hey, kid, can you hear me? What happened?"

The kid looked up from where he had collapsed against Jared's chest, "Please, I need to use your phone." his voice was pleading and broken sounding, "I need a phone, please."

"Kid, tell me what happened." Jared insisted as he got the kid to his feet, supporting him with a shoulder under the arm, and helping him back to the house

"Please, I need to call someone. It's life or death." the kid's voice was now broken because of the tears in the young man's eyes

"Yeah, yeah, sure. We'll get you phone while we call 911." Jared said as he got the boy inside and downstairs away from the eyes of the party guests. They settled for Jared's bedroom, as it was the closest to the stairs.

"No, no hospitals. I'll be fine, I just need to make a call." the kid repeated.

Peter showed up at that moment with Pindar's first aid kit, "Jesus Jared, what happened?"

"I don't know, but the kid needs a phone." Jared said with a shrug

Peter instantly handed over his cell phone. With shaking hands the kid called a number and held the phone to his ear. After a few seconds he started to speak, "Derek, it's me." pause, "I'm fine, well, mostly fine. But you have to know, it's a scam. Maria isn't in on it, but her minions don't like us so they took me. I managed to get away, but you have to sort this out now before they try and find me again." a longer pause, "Alright, I'll stay where I am. Have Danny trace the call and send some security for the place. No need for anyone else to get hurt." and then the kid hung up and collapsed backward onto the bed, eyes closing and a pained groan coming out, "Oh God, why is this my life?"

"Alright kid, start talking." Jared said as Peter opened the First Aid Kit, "What the hell was that all about?"

The kid just lay there, eyes closed and arms spread wide, and sighed, "It's really complicated."

"Well, I found you bloody on a beach so I think you can at least try." Jared said, "Especially since you just picked our pad to hide in from whoever turned you into hamburger meat."

"It's really nothing." the kid sat up with a pained grunt, "I've had worse for less. It's just a negotiation that got out of hand."

Peter snorted as he started to used an alcohol pad to clean the blood off the kid's face, "Kid, we're lawyers, we do negotiations all the time. And it usually doesn't end like this."

"Well..." Jared interrupted, "There was that one time a few years ago with that surfer dude who..."

"Hey, we don't talk about that." Peter interrupted

"I'm just saying, some negotiations end this way." Jared said with a shrug

Peter started cutting off the kid's shirt after all the blood had been mopped off his face. Peter let out a shout of surprise as what he uncovered, "Holy Shit!"

Jared looked and hissed with sympathy. The blood on the kid's arm was coming from what looked like claw marks on his shoulder. His whole torso also looked like one giant bruise. Not to mention the several scars that littered the kid's body, "Dude, what happened?"

"It's nothing, honestly." the kid said as he took the supplies from Peter's hand and started to clean his own shoulder, "I've had way worse. I've almost been killed three times in the last two years, trust me, this is nothing."

"Who the hell are you?" Peter asked in shock, "Some kind of secret agent or something?"

"No, I'm the second in command of the Hale family." the kid said simply as he searched in the first aid kit for something

This brought Jared up short. The Hale family, over the last three years, had become a big name in California. They we a family that started a company that sold lucky charms, scented candles, crystals, and a bunch of other new age stuff. The head of the family and the company was a man by the name of Derek Hale. He was rumored to have a secret weapon known only to those in the inner circle of the company, someone only known as the Second. Supposedly the Second took care of all the little details that most people missed, as well as a few things that were rumored to be a bit shady. And this kid was claiming to be that person.

"Wait, your the Second? The big scary monster that Hale House keeps in it's back pocket?" Jared asked in indignation

"That would be me." the kid said as he pulled away from the first aid kit, a needle and thread in hand, "Hey, can you find me a clean shirt? I'll pay you back." and then the kid started to stitch up the claw marks on his arm without flinching

Both Peter and Jared took a few steps back and exclaimed in shock, "Kid, what the hell?"

The kid rolled his eyes and continued to stitch his arm, "Oh grow up. And stop calling me kid. I'm 22 and married, not a kid." he held up his hand for a second to show off a wedding ring tattoo on his finger. As he went back to stitching himself up as he said, "You might want to go meet the guys who are on their way over before they..." suddenly there was the sound of shouting and many footsteps above them, "oh, to late."

Jared motioned at the kid, "Stay with him, I'll check it out." and then he was out the door and up the stairs. He got there just in time to see the last person of the party leave. There were three people he had never seen standing in his living room. Two of them appeared to be twins and there was also a guy with curly brown hair. They all looked about as young as the kid downstairs. But they had a different feel about them. The leather jackets and hard expressions were the first clue. They also sported gun holsters which were clearly visible under the jackets, "What the hell is going on."

As one the three people turned to look at him, hard eyed look making Jared take a slight step back. The guy with curly hair stepped forward, "Where is he?" it was more of a demand then a question

Jared was about to answer when he remembered the kid downstairs was in big trouble. It was likely that these could easily be the people who had hurt him as it was the people who had come to protect him, "Sorry, no idea what your talking about."

The young man glared, "Where is he?" he took a few more steps forward before a voice called out from behind Jared

"Chill Isaac, I'm right here."

Suddenly all three of the intruders were rushing past Jared to get to the top of the stairs where the injured kid was leaning against Peter's side. He was quickly taken from Peter and supported between the two twins. The other guy, Isaac, was checking him over and suddenly looked more like a puppy then a bad-ass, "Jesus, you said it wasn't that bad." Isaac said as his hands roamed over the kid's chest, but didn't touch skin

"It's not as bad as that one time last year in Colorado." the kid said with a pained smirk

The twins snorted as one and moved their supporting hands to the center of the kid's back as they maneuvered him over to the kitchen counter to sit at the bar. As soon as they touched him the kid seemed to relax and looked to be in less pain. Peter and Jared went over to stand by Pindar and Carmen against a far wall

"What the hell is going on you guys?" Carmen asked

"Found a beat up kid on the beach. Guess he has friends in high places." Peter said as he watched the four talk in whispers in the kitchen, "He claims to work for Hale House."

"The New Age company?" Pindar asked, "I love their organic bath scrub, it makes me feel so tingly. And it doesn't have a single inorganic chemical in it."

"I heard they were in town meeting with the Tanner company to set something up." Carmen said, "Supposed to be a big deal."

"Wait, Tanner?" Jared said as he stepped away from the wall in shock, "He said something about Maria not knowing about the attack. The head of the Tanner company is Maria Tanner."

"Yeah, and thats all you need to know." said a voice from behind them. They all jumped and spun around, not having heard anyone approach. It was the guy known as Isaac. He looked relieved and a bit tired, "Thanks for taking care of him. But you can't tell anyone about what happened here tonight."

"But that kid was assaulted. And from the sound of it, assaulted by a rival business." Peter said, "You need to call someone."

"It's being handled internally. We've already been in contact with the Tanner's, and they are currently dealing with their two rogue agents. Maria Tanner had no part in this, so it doesn't effect the deal we are doing." Isaac said simply, "And you need to leave it alone. This isn't something you can be involved in."

Before anymore could be said the front door burst open and a man in a leather jacket and jeans rushed into the room. He took a quickly look around before rushing over to the kitchen counter and stopping right in front of the kid. The guy was handsome in a rough kind of way and looked like he was about to explode with nerves, "Stiles." he said in relief before leaning forward to kiss the kid gently

Isaac relaxed next to them and was quickly joined by the twins. They all watched as the new person kissed the kid, Stiles, for a few more seconds before pulling back and putting their foreheads together.

"Is everything handled?" Stiles asked

"Maria took care of it. She knows how big a problem this is, so she let us call the Argents to deal with it." there was a sort of darkness to the statement but both of them were smiling. And then the man was looking right at the Franklin and Bash group. He was across the room in seconds and was smiling at them gratefully as he offered his hand, which Jared took, "I really don't know how to thank you for finding him. He was missing for hours."

"No problem. I couldn't just leave a bleeding kid out on the beach." Jared said truthfully. He looked down at the hand holding his and was surprised to see a tattoo matching the one the kid, Stiles, had, "Are you his husband?"

"Yeah, Derek Hale. And you are?" he seemed genuinely happy about everything that was going on right now and everyone would understand that

"I'm Jared Franklin." Then it hit Jared, "You're Derek Hale, head of Hale House?"

Derek took his hand back but kept smiling, "Yeah. And if you ever need anything, Hale House owes you one." there were murmured agreement from the others in the room

"Well..." Jared hesitated before asking, "Is it true your trying to work out some kind of deal with Tanner?"

"It's a work in progress." Derek said, smile falling, "This is gonna set us back a bit."

Peter snorted, "I'll bet."

Jared elbowed him and continued, "I was thinking that your negotiations might go a little better with legal help. We all happen to work for a very powerful law firm, Infeld, Daniels, King, and would be happy to help in any way we can."

Derek looked a little confused by that, "We've never really tried using lawyers before. Most agreements are made on good faith and family ties."

Stiles sighed from the other end of the room, "Yeah, but this is the first real company we've ever dealt with. I told you it would be different. And I think the fact that I'm a giant bruise right now might prove that we need a little help."

Derek spun around, "But they don't know the...traditions of our business." the last part was said with a clear double meaning

"Well, I'm sure we can accommodate for any sort of special circumstances." Peter said quickly, "Whatever it takes to make sure that both parties are happy and no one else gets hurt."

Derek seemed to seriously consider this for a few moments before giving a slow nod, "I guess it couldn't hurt. We really need this land deal to work." he looked at Jared, "Will you be in charge of this?"

"If that is what you want." Jared said quickly with a smile, "Like Peter said, anything to make you comfortable."

Derek sighed but nodded, "We'll be by tomorrow at 11 to set stuff up and fill you in on the traditions. We'll bring some people to help with negotiating a contract." he held out his hand to Jared

Jared took it and shook it, "We'll be looking forward to it."

With that Derek turned around, "Ethan, Aiden, Isaac, help Stiles to the car. We've got to get him home and properly patched up."

And then they were gone, just like that. Jared may have been slightly freaked out, but he couldn't help but smile at the look that Damien would have on his face when he heard they had just booked the up and coming Hale House as clients of the firm.