Beta'd/occasionally co-written by:
Shirosagi
Beast of Burden
Chapter One
Invasion of Privacy
"There are wounds that never show on the body
that are deeper and more hurtful
than anything that bleeds."
-Laurell K. Hamilton
Sometimes life hits you hard. Like full force, wrecking ball flying off the chain and hitting you in the face. It happened that way for Mars once, when Claudia Stilinski died. The eight year old watched Claudia deteriorate, but having her be gone was different in its entirety. Death shattered Mars, made her look at herself, at her place in the world. In the grand scheme she was nothing, no matter how long she lived, what she did- She wouldn't even be a blip on a timeline, and her memory would die eventually. Everyone will continue on when its said and done. Those were the thoughts that haunted her every day.
Death was a weird thing to think about, something she never thought could happen. A time and a place where she simply wouldn't exist anymore. Sure, she might get brought up in a conversation or leave behind a house and a few kids, what have you- but really nothing she would ever do matters. In theory she could still watch her big brother on a sunny Saturday afternoon, sipping some tea on the porch and reading a good old book, she could watch her little sister fall in love, be happy and be sad- but no one really knows what's going to happen once you've gone.
Mars knew what she was when she was alive, she was the bad kid. The one new parents didn't want their children hanging out with, the one who wore too much eyeliner, wore too little clothes and kissed one too many boys. She was different, she intimidated people with piercing eyes and a smirk that said 'I dare you' no one could seem to imitate. She was "hot" but not in the Lydia Martin way, in fact she could be what's considered the Anti-Lydia. No, Mars Moss was hot in the "I don't give two fucks", "lost youth" sort of way.
She tried too hard to not try at all.
No one really knew when it happened, when she switched over from the little girl that loved princesses and smiling and was so damn smart that she skipped a grade to a girl who habitually cut classes and just skated by. It was a slow process, but most people couldn't remember a time when she was different. No one really cared enough to even try and remember.
Wearing a denim jacket over a tight fitted black bodice, a pair of black jeans and combat boots, she'd gotten off her plane back from London and stretched. Her family already far ahead of her, they all knew this airport like the back of their hands and didn't feel the need to stick together. It was a slow walk to the baggage claim, and she stopped a few times along the way. Once at mcdonalds and another to look at departing flights.
Hawaii. She thought. Must be nice. She added, promising herself to go one day.
The car ride home was even slower than waiting for her little green suitcase, because her mom decided, (since she'd be the new math teacher this semester) that she'd review algebra one. Which just frustrated the petite teen. In fact, she never even went into the house when they were home. She left her suitcase in the trunk and walked down the street to the Stilinski house settling on a day of video games before school started back up in the morning.
"Ha! Headshot!" Stiles laughed, looking over to his best friend with a wide smile for approval. She just focused on the game, annoyed that his score was higher than hers by only 20 and she couldn't seem to catch him. Mars had promised that she wasn't going to shut the system off if she was losing this time… it might've been a lie. She wasn't sure yet. "So how was your trip?" He questioned, glancing over at the brunette. Smiling yet again when he saw how concentrated she was and knowing that the scrunched up eyebrows meant she was about to rage quit- and if she did, he was going to get 20 bucks.
"Good." Mar continued looking at the screen while she shot at a swarm of zombies in Black Ops.
"Thats it? Good? thats all the details I get?" Mars glared at him, knowing exactly what he was doing. He was trying to get her talking, so she'd stop focusing on the game and she'd lose and she'd have to give him money. That wasn't gonna work this time though. "You can do better than that, Moss."
"You know, good old motherland. Reliable." She sighed. England was the same for as long as she could remember. Well, maybe not England but her family was. Same old countryside estate, same old grandparents, even London- though the people looked different, everything else seemed to stay the same. "What did you do over break anyhow, Stilinski? Get anything good for Christmas?" Mars changed the subject, she'd actually forgotten Christmas had happened when she was gone, it felt like forever ago even though it was only January 9th.
"I got new tires for the Jeep" He shrugged, spraying the zombies in front of him. "Mostly me and Scott just hung out. Would've been more fun with you here." They smiled at each other before looking back at Black Ops. "I'm sure you wankers enjoyed the guy time."
"Wait… you're… you're not a guy?" Mars bit the inside of her cheek and pursed her lips, nudging him on the rougher side. If it hadn't been for the sped up pace of the game he would've looked over at her and seen the pursed lips has turned into a smirk. Sometimes he forgot she had a gender… which is weird… but it made sense to him. Yanno, like, he'd just known her so long and was so used to her it was just like - she's Mars. Just Mars. A whole being in and of itself. And Mars felt the same way about him.
"So you mean to tell me, every year, nothing happens when you go to England." She rolled her eyes. They had this conversation every time she got back to the states, and she always said the same thing. 'It's fine' 'It was boring.' 'Eh.' The only time she'd ever had anything different to say was when the plane she was in went down last summer. It wasn't a Lost style crash and no one was hurt. Something had blown in the right engine during a ritual flight between JFK and Heathrow and the plane was forced into a crash landing. Granted, she still wasn't afraid of flying- statistically speaking, she rationalized that she was in the air so often it was bound to happen one day- in fact you could say she got a sort of sick thrill when her stomach lurched and the final announcement was made saying 'brace for impact'. It was the first time she felt like she was about to die and it was better than any drug.
Everyone around her was far more affected by the experience than she was. Her dad, Sayid (her only family member on the plane that time), wouldn't let go of her hand for hours and he kept putting off the flight home. When Mar did manage to convince him to get back on the air his hands shook before she placed her hands over his and gave him an Ativan, which took his mind off flying well enough. It was more focused on "Is my kid addicted to pills?!" But Mars was able to pull out some bullshit about buying it for the flight and how she was super nervous.
When they landed and got outside they were in a sea of people who surrounded and smothered them. They all cared so much, having everyone care felt nice and all but Mars didn't understand the concern- it wasn't like she'd died- or even had a scratch for that matter. Back to the original point, that was the only time she'd come back to Beacon Hills and said something new; and that was "Eventful"
"It's not as exciting as you seem to want it to be, Stiles."
"It's another country!" Stiles exclaimed
"Where everyone speaks English and I spent half my life in." Plus, she kinda sounded like them... half sounded like them? Her accent wasn't as much as her dads or her older brother, but she wasn't quite American either. She was in some weird middle ground a little closer to the American side, but with the slang and speech patterns of Brits. "It's like going from your house to mine or Scott's- no big deal."
"I guess?" Stiles agreed, Mars yelled at the screen when she ran out of ammo and was attacked. "Ha, I'm not reviving you." Stiles smiled.
"Don't be a dick." She glared, getting ready to take the controller from him.
Knowing her all too well he moved his arms away from her. "Too many zombies, if I try- I die"
"Come on just revive me before you get taken out." She argued.
"No." Zombies started surrounding the screen, it took less than a minute for him to get killed. She smirked and leaned back against the headboard. "Ha, told you that was gonna happen."
"I- Shut up." Stiles put the controller down and stretched. He'd won. But he also owed her 20 bucks. So he pulled out his wallet and put it in her open palm. She counted the stack of ones and shoved the green papers into her back pocket. "You do any of the reading?" He knew the answer, but thought asking might be nice. Only the AP classes were full year, and her mom, being a teacher, made Mars' schedule for her. And of course that meant she had homework over break.
"No." Mars decided to lay on her back and pick up a magazine off the nightstand, she opened it up without looking at the cover. "Well then" She noted, eyes glazing over the forms of naked women on the page. Stiles took it from out of her hands with an awkward laugh. "Seriously, you and Scott. Haven't you ever heard of the internet?"
"Ha. Ha." Stiles moved the porn onto his desk and sat in the chair. "So, you gonna do the plan this semester?" Stiles wiggled his eyebrows and bit his lip, leaning forward in his chair.
"Your plan. And no." Mars and Lydia had been in all the same classes since they started elementary school. Every year since Stiles decided he had a crush on Lydia, he'd been trying to convince Mars to work with her on a group project, so that he could just drop by and she could go to get drinks or something and 'forget' about them so that he could put the moves on the stunning red head. Stiles started to pout. "Stiles, no."
"Don't you love me?" He questioned, she sat up and ran a hand through her dark curls.
"Not that much." There was no force on earth that could make her spend more than the school day with Martin.
"I-" Stiles pointed at her, the start of a smile twitching at the end of his lips. "Will pit you." Stiles threatened. 'Pitting' was his favorite thing to do when he wanted his way. It involved taking her face and shoving it in his sweaty armpit. It had made her physically sick on more than one occasion.
"And I'll kick your ass, twiggy." Stiles narrowed his eyes, challenging her. She could beat him without much effort at all, it wasn't a very difficult task, considering his lack of muscle. She wasn't muscular either, and she may have even been just as tiny, but she had this little thing called technique in her favor. Stiles looked her over, scanning her freckly face and waiting to pounce. Mars cocked an eyebrow over her heavily kohl lined eyes, and beckoned him to her with an index finger. Stiles winked, or twitched, Mars could never really tell the difference with all the adderall that kid took.
Stiles' dad opened the door and came in, "Hey, kids." Mars and Stiles waved half heartedly. "How was the flight?" Sheriff asked the kid who might as well of lived at his house, she even had a key. "Cramped. I had to sit between Ineas and Ahmir." Her big brother and little sister were definately characters. And, as a matter, Sheriff was Ahmir's godfather. A.j. was a goober, quite a bit like Stiles in a few ways but a little taller and skinnier with big bushy brown hair and slightly too big hazel eyes like his sisters blue ones. He tended to go off on philosophical rants and blast Garth Brooks in his pickup a little too loud. Ineas, though the cutest kid with the curliest hair in history, was evil. At least in Mars' eyes. Nay-nay loved to torture her older siblings, get them in trouble, that sort of thing. Long story short, being stuck in between her too loud brother and perfect little sister for 10 hours in a tight space was pretty low on her list of favorite things. "Gotcha." Sheriff decided not to inquire further. "I ordered Chinese food, Scott coming over?"
"He wants to get 'rested for practice' tomorrow" Stiles stated, a little annoyed. "He thinks he's gonna get first line."
"Sounds like a waste of a perfectly good night of greasy food and video games to me," Sheriff smiled, trying a hand at sarcasm. Considering that this was his son's and Mars' every single night. Mars noted his tone and gave a closed mouth smile before looking down at her chipping blue nailpolish and picking at it.
"Speaking of, Dad, you sure you should be eating-" Stiles started in on his issues with his dad's diet, so Sheriff cut him off before Stiles could start throwing around "well, the doctor says…"
"Don't worry, Stiles, it's just for you guys. I'm heading to the station in a few."
"Kay, Dad."
"Thanks, Sheriff. Did you get-" Mars started, Sheriff cut her off.
"Crab rangoon? Yes. And I have a name, Marsi." Once he'd become Sheriff, which was ages ago now, she stopped using his name. It seemed like so much less fun.
"No one uses their real name these days." Mars reminded him, well, at least no one in this room did. Sheriffs real name wasn't so bad, but Mars and Stiles? Come on, their nicknames are Mars and Stiles. How bad would a first name have to be to constitute that?
Sheriff shook his head and started back for the door. "Moneys on the counter." He informed them, "Be safe guys"
"Can we have ten bucks to go buy-" Mars shot him one of those looks that said 'keep talking and I'll kill you'
"Keep dreaming, Stiles." Sheriff joked and with the shake of his head was heading back downstairs.
"Yanno, it's not totally unrealistic. I mean-" Again, with only the raise of an eyebrow, she silenced him. "Shut up."
The house phone rang once, then twice. Both of the friends pounced across the bed, wrestling for control of the device. Mars managed to get Stiles in a chokehold while she muted the microphone and raised the thing to her ears. When she let go of Stiles, he pressed his ear against the other side of the phone. "The state is coming in." The dispatch officer on the other line told Sheriff, and consequently, the two idiots eavesdropping. "You said the body was in half?" Sheriff Stilinski's voice came, Stiles and Mars gave each other excited, wide eyed looks. "Yes, sir. In the woods a few miles from the Hale House- the joggers said it looked pretty bad." Both Stiles and Mars' smiles were growing wider by the second, it was morbid- but they were ecstatic something was happening in this town. "One more thing Sherriff, we can't seem to find the other half of the body." The pair high fived and hung up the phone.
"We're going." Mars informed him. "Lets go grab Scott."
"W-what about the chinese food." Mars rolled her eyes.
"Stiles." she put both of her hands, palms up, in front of him. "Dead body." she raised the right. "Greasy food." she lowered the left. "Dead body." She raised the right even higher and dropped the left lower. "Chinese food." She grabbed her jean jacket from the back of Stiles' chair and put it on. "Not much of a contest, mate."
They waited for Sheriffs car to leave the driveway before trekking outside, leaving money on the mat for the delivery guy.
"We're seriously doing this?!" Scott exclaimed, lagging quite a ways behind Stiles and Mar. Unlike Stiles she slowed her pace whenever she took notice, but it wasn't very often. "You're the one always bitching that nothing ever happens in this town." Stiles remarked.
"You do too." Mars reminded Stiles, hell, she complained right along with them. He bitched just as much, if not more than Scott did.
Stiles shrugged and continued up the hill. "I was trying to-" Scott started.
"Get a good nights sleep for practice?" Mars cut him off and raised an eyebrow, sometimes she thought maybe she should stop cutting people off. Every once and a while she even put in the effort, but it continued with no avail."So you said. Is practice really more important than quality time with your two best friends?" She taunted. "Besides, you're both just gonna be benched again anyways."
"No. I'm playing first line this year." Scott tried to convince them. It wasn't that he was a bad player, he was good- he was just a lot smaller than everyone else, and his severe asthma didn't help. Mars wasn't trying to be mean… but someone had to tell him.
Stiles of course came in with his ironic sense of humor. "Hey, that's the spirit. Everyone should have a dream, even a pathetically unrealistic one." Mars smacked him with the back of her hand.
"Just out of curiosity, which half of the body are we looking for?" Scott questioned, Stiles and Mars exchanged looks.
"Huh! I didn't even think about that." Stiles remarked.
Mars turned back to face Scott and wait for him. "I guess we'll know it when we find it?" After thinking about it for a moment, just finding a pair of legs would be weird. "I hope it's the top half." She remarked with a scrunched up nose as Scott caught up.
"And did either of you think that the killer is still out here?" Oh Scott, always such a worrier.
"Also something I didn't think about." Stiles laughed a little to himself, seemingly unworried. The thought had crossed Mars' mind in the car, but she figured 3 on 1 odds would work in their favor.
"It's comforting to know you've planned this out with your usual attention to detail."
"I know."
"Stiles!" Mars grabbed the back of Stiles' shirt and pulled him down below the top of the hill, catching a glimpse of the blue and red lights turning.
"Yes?" He smiled.
"Cops. You guys wait here." She commanded standing up and brushing off her jeans.
Stiles' face lit up. "Ha! I love when it's your turn." Mars hated when it was her turn to take the fall, but it was only fair. You'd think maybe they would stop doing stupid and incriminating things, but that would be so much less fun for the trio of adrenaline junkies.
Mars glared at him for his comment, but it didn't deter him. "Shut up you tit." She mumbled while emerging from the trees and stuffing her hands into her back pockets. It took a minute for anyone to notice her, as always when she was noticed she was greeted with a pair of eyes looking her up and down. She gave Deputy Marks a smirk and a wink, he smiled and scratched the back of his head. Another, newer deputy greeted her with a gun, pointing it at her. She raised her hands with a sigh. "Hold it right there!"
Sheriff came over, stepping into the scene. "I'm afraid I know this little delinquent." Right on cue. She thought.
"Oi there, Sheriff, lovely night." Sheriff took a deep breath in and closed his eyes, he should have known that they'd turn up here.
"You've got 10 seconds to explain why you're not at the house." He gave her a chance to talk her way out of trouble, something she was usually quite good at.
"What? Can't a girl go out in the woods for a stroll?" She defended, cocking her head to the side to move her hair out of her eye, then winking at Deputy Marks a second time upon noticing the stare. Sheriff took note and stepped in front of her, putting a hand on her shoulder.
"Not tonight, no. Have you been drinking?" His brows pushed together.
"Not this time," She noted.
"I'm going to pretend I didn't just hear that." He attempted to file it away in his mind, along with a whole lot of other things that she'd done and said. "Where's Stiles?"
"Not here." Sheriff crossed his arms, he didn't believe her. Not in the slightest. For one, they'd been together only an hour ago. Two, finding one, without the other two was like striking water in the Sahara. And finally three, he knew it was her turn, Stiles was the one found at the last crime scene.
"Mars, I wasn't born yesterday."
"I can see that." It slipped before she could stop herself, and his slightly taken aback look guilted her. "Ugh, get out here you wanker!" She shouted back into the clearing she'd come from. They were caught, might as well quit while ahead.
Stiles walked over to them with a nasty case of the jitters and waving energetically to bystanders like he'd done no wrong. "So," Sheriff started, looking between what he considered to be his kids the majority of the time. "Do you listen to all my phone calls?"
"No, heh. Not the boring ones." Stiles laughed, waiting for a reaction he wasn't gonna get.
"Now, where's number three?"
"Who? Scott? No, he's home getting some sleep for practice tomorrow. It's just us. In the woods. Alone. At night." Stiles squinted a little after he'd said it. Playing back his words when he looked at his dad's face. "You know I see where that could potentially sound bad."
"You should really let me do the talking, Stiles." Mars muttered, shaking her head, trying to figure out why in the hell of it all she still talked to this kid.
"Scott, you out there? Scott?" Sheriff called out into the woods, when Scott didn't follow them out, Sheriff- even though he knew the kid was out there- let it slide. "Well, children, I'm gonna walk you back to the car. And we're gonna have a conversation about something called invasion of privacy."
Sheriff clapped a hand on each of their shoulders and started walking them back to the Jeep. Mars questioned; "Is that really necessary?"
"Unfortunately yes, Moss."
"Ya know, the way I see it is if there is a murder running around- that information should be public. Am I right, Stiles?" Mars side eyed the boy. Trying to make her point.
"So right it hurts." Stiles agreed, turning to his dad when they reached his Jeep.
"See, Sheriff." Mars continued. "Plus… yanno, we're only trying to speed up the process in helping you to find part two!" It was a weak defense, but better than nothing in her eyes.
"I can see your record growing bigger the more and more you talk." Sheriff remarked. "You two tampered with another crime scene." He was nearing his wits end, he could only do so much more with the department. Not to mention trying to get the trio- especially the two with the very questionable moral compass- out of trouble. "Do you want me fired?"
"No of course not." Stiles chimed in. "We love you."
Sheriff ignored the comment, because it was the 'I love you' that meant 'we're excused.' "I don't want to have to write either of you up. One more misdemeanor and you're in hot water, Mars." He reminded her, despite his best efforts, there were some things he just couldn't get her out of. Like flying high as a kite and getting fined with possession of illicit drugs (thankfully it was California), and on another occasion getting cited for driving without a license. Thankfully, Stiles hadn't been caught doing anything illegal just yet- but it was really only a matter of time. "Just go home for now, we'll finish this talk later." Sheriff concluded before catching Mars' arm. "And I will be calling your parents." He didn't want to. At all. No one wanted to deal with the wrath of her mum, Mary, but he realized it was better to come from him than through the grapevine.
"I think they've stopped caring." Mars noted, eyes growing a little sad for a moment before jumping into Stiles' Jeep.
She was wrong, they definitely still cared.
"What the fuck is wrong with you?!" Mary shouted, Mars sat upright in the living room chair with her legs crossed. She so desperately wanted out of this place it wasn't even funny anymore. Sometimes she thought she hated her mom, and then she'd remind herself that Mary could kick it, like Claudia had, and she couldn't bring herself to use the word hate. One thing was for sure, Mars sure as hell didn't like Mary."I just don't understand what goes through your head, kid." The mother shook her head, annoyed with her daughters lack of facial expression. "I could deal with the constant detention, I can deal with the possession charges, I can deal with you being a shit student. Want to know what I can't deal with, Marit?" Mary used Mars' middle name that was much prefered to the unpronounceable first. "I can't deal with my kid running out in the woods late at night with a fucking murderer on the loose!" Mars knew that she wasn't being completely irrational. When it was put like that, it did sound pretty bloody stupid- but it didn't feel that way at the time. "Do you know what people are saying about you?" Mary exasperated.
Wasn't a mother supposed to be proud of their children? Mary looked over her middle child. She was the only one that looked like her really at all. Her other two looked like their dad with caramel colored skin and curls, but not Mars. No, Mars had Mary's blue eyes and the same nose. Granted, she was paler and had more freckles and her hair was a few shades darker but there was no denying the relation. You could hardly see her dad's half-egyptian side at all. It upset Mary just to look at her, such a pretty girl ruining her beautiful eyes with all that makeup, dressing the way she did. Today was a conservative day and the bodice top still showed off a little bit of her stomach.
Mars leaned back, stretching her arms out on the arms of the chair and leaning back. "Enlighten me."
"Cut the attitude!" Mary shouted, Mars noticed Nay-nay poking her head out down the stairs, followed by A.j. not too long after.
"Can I go to bed now, mother?" Mars cocked a brow, not wanting her siblings to have to deal with the shouting.
"No!" Mary screeched and raised a hand to hold her head "Fucking fuck, kid"
"I'd appreciate it if you'd stop yelling." Mars looked at her little sister, who was smiling a little and her brother who was giving Mars a sympathetic look.
Before Mary could stop herself, she snapped. "And I'd appreciate it if I could swap you out for someone else." Mars looked as if she'd just been slapped. It wasn't the first time Mary had said something like that to her, but Mar recovered quickly, moving to her feet and grabbing the weekender she kept in the shoe cupboard. Even Ineas stopped smiling and sat down on the steps, it wasn't all fun and games anymore. "Mars, shit, I'm sorry."
"No, Mum, you're not." Mars put her jean jacket back on and put her school bag on her back before returning the stocked weekender to her right arm. "I'm out of here." Mars informed her mother and walked straight out the front door.
"Mars, get back here!" Mary tried, "We can talk about this!"
"FUCK YOU!" Mars cried and slammed the door behind her before beginning the short trek to the Stilinski home. She tried to brush her mother off unsuccessfully. When she got to her destination she took the key off her necklace and went inside. It was late and she didn't want to wake anyone who was in. With the lights off she locked the door and went into the kitchen, taking off her boots and jacket and put down her bags. Remembering a few hours ago, she grabbed a glass of water and the box of crab rangoon from the bag in the fridge. She used a paper towel to wipe off the traces of her smeared eyeliner and beads of water from her face, then decided to put her hair up into a high ponytail. She needed to occupy herself, do something thoughtless. So she decided to do the dishes. Because one, she always helped around the house with chores and things or else nothing would get done, and two- they started to smell funny and pile up while she was overseas. When she was done, she made her way to the couch at an agonizingly slow pace, stepping one foot in front of the other, thinking deeply about all the reasons she needed to change herself before deciding that maybe it was other people who should change. She sat down, and then she lied down, looking at the dining room table that was covered in Sheriff's paperwork and some week old coffee. She fell asleep, thinking to herself I'll vacuum in the morning.
A few hours later, at around 2 a.m. Sheriff came home overly stressed out about this new case. They were unable to find the other half of this girl and they'd have to make an announcement sooner than later. He sure as hell was looking forward to his four hours of sleep. He caught a glimpse of Mars green bag and went to the linen closet, grabbing her a spare pillow and neatly folded blanket before walking over to the couch he knew she'd be on. It's where she always was when there was trouble at home. He laid the blanket over her and placed the pillow under her head as gently as he could. He still remembered the day she was born, Claudia was more happy than Mary about it. His wife had been so excited, bouncing in the room with a 10 month old Stiles on her hip and a two year old A.j. wadling to come meet his new little sister. Even though Claudia never said it, Sheriff knew the reason she was so excited was because her best friend just had a daughter, and she had a slightly older son and it couldn't have been more like one of her books. Claud and Mars had been so close when she was alive, "Ce ce" as Mars would call her, was the one to braid her hair and take her to the park with Stiles and helped her through her first boy crisis… Sheriff turned the ring on his finger, he didn't want to think about Claudia right now.
Upon going to leave, he felt a small hand grab his. When he turned around he was met with a small smile. "Thank you." She mumbled, blinking heavily, finding it a little hard to keep her eyes open.
"Your Mom?" Sheriff suggested, not really needing the confirmation she gave him with her nod of the head. "Are you okay?" The nod turned into a shake, she saw no point in lying about it. He'd know anyways.
"Was she always like she is now?" Mars propped herself up on her elbow, a little surprised she'd never asked before. Sheriff sat on the edge of the couch and pondered it.
"No. In fact, she used to be like you." Sheriff thought back to those days in college, when Mary was a free spirit and loved a good time and wanted to travel the world and see exotic places. Things used to be so different, it was amazing how much could change in the blink of an eye.
"Then why does she hate me?" Mars asked with glassy eyes. Teenagers acted out all the time. It was supposed to make parents try and reel them in, to give a fuck about the kids well being instead of their own reputation. Her mom should want to help her. Sayid was too busy with work to even know what was going on in his eldest daughters life. He'd caught glimpses of it on family vacations, when she would disappear and come back, or when Mars and his wife would fight… but he didn't know what to do about it. So he just did nothing.
It hurt Sheriff to hear that this child believed her mother didn't love her. "She doesn't hate you, Mars."
"Yes she does, she's said it." Mars informed him. She never said much about those arguments with her mom. She'd just kind of show up and clean a bit every once and a while. He couldn't believe Mary would say something like that to her own blood, it just didn't seem like the woman he knew, she wouldn't put that on a teenager. She knew better; at least he hoped she did.
He didn't know how to respond to what he'd been told. At all. So he decided to let it be until he could say something proper and let her know what she'd learned when she was given a key. "You're always welcome here, kiddo." Sheriff knew it said a lot that Mars wore the key around her neck instead of on her keychain that would just get tossed into her purse. It hung beside a crescent moon pendant of her paternal grandmother's. It told him that she cared about it, that she didn't want to lose that key, it told him that his house was what she considered home.
"Hey sheriff?" The blue eyed girl asked when she saw him going to get up. "Yeah?" He replied.
Something her mom had said was eating at her. "What… what do people say about me?" She asked, it didn't sound very good.
"Wouldn't know, I don't listen to it." Sheriff assured her. Granted he had on occasion, sometimes that was unavoidable at the station, she'd had more than one complaint come in. Most of the time it was the Butler family mother, who had convinced herself that Mars was stealing away her only son and bringing him to the dark side. Saying that the little tramp needed to have a stern talking to from the authorities, she was also the one to tip them off that Mars had drugs on her. Any other complaint was about noise at parties she just so happened to get herself stuck in.
"Why not?" Mars asked, looking him over. "Mom does."
"Because I'm more concerned with the girl than the legend." He answered, making her laugh a little, her slightly uneven teeth showing.
"Thanks." She nodded, moving her arm out from beneath her and laying back down.
"Get some rest, kid." Sheriff suggested, tucking the blanket into the couch out of habit, even though he knew they'd get ripped out overnight. "And promise you'll attend every class tomorrow."
"I promise." Mars held out her pinky finger, which he took. "Night, Sheriff"
"Mars, Its-"
"Sheriff." She insisted, giving him one of her looks that told him she would not be swayed.
"Sure, yeah, it's Sheriff." He shook his head, giving in, and kissed her forehead. "Sleep tight, kiddo."
"You too." She half smiled, pulling the blanket up above her shoulders and getting comfortable, already taking out the tucking of the blankets.