A/N: Welcome to The Sound of Silence (named after the Disturbed cover of the original Simon and Garfunkel song, because basically I'm obsessed with it).

If you are here because you just saw that a new story had been posted and wanted to check it out, you should know that this is a prequel to It's Just A Matter of Time, but it was written simultaneously to and after completing it's sequel. That means it may make more sense to read IJAMOT first, but it's completely up to you.

If you are here because you read It's Just a Matter of Time then, I'm sure you're looking forward to getting some answers. Just so you know, I've known the events of the prequel the entire time I was writing IJAMOT, so everything was written purposefully. So, once you read this...if you wanted to go back and read a few chapters of IJAMOT, then you may get a clearer picture. Also, you should know that some scenes and chapters may seem familiar, from the flashes, but I've added more detail to a few of them, so don't skip them because you think you've read it.

As a reminder if you read IJAMOT, or an FYI if you haven't, the headings mean the following:

03232018-Month, Day and Year...in this case March 23, 2018.

San Francisco, Ca.- General area of where scene is taking place.

1711 Hours-Time in military time, in this case 5:11 p.m.

Scott, Kira, Stiles, and Lydia's House-The specific area in which the scene is taking place.

In It's Just a Matter of Time, they were in their second semester of senior year in 2016. All dates are based on that. Keep an eye on the dates. As of right now, they are in chronological order, but once I've posted everything that I've written, if I get requests or if I get inspired, I may post other drabbles about this timeline.

As always, please favorite/follow/review! And if you have any questions please let me know!

03232018

San Francisco, Ca.

1711 Hours

Scott, Kira, Stiles, Lydia's House

Stiles chewed on the tip of his pen, a notebook and a laptop sitting in front of him on the kitchen table. He peered over the top of his screen and saw Lydia typing madly. He groaned.

"What is it, Stiles?" She asked, almost bored, never stopping her fingers from flying over the keyboard.

"I don't know what to write."

"What happened to Ted Bundy?"

Stiles sighed. "I lost interest."

"Then what about the Boston Strangler? I mean, that De Salvo guy confessed, but whether or not he did it has been wildly debated. There's also Jeffrey Dahmer, Son of Sam, Lizzie Borden."

Stiles groaned. "I don't know. None of these seems as cool as Jack the Ripper."

Lydia sighed. "Do you want Jack the Ripper?"

"No. Because if I take it, then I'll find a reason to not like it."

"Well, at least you're aware that you're an idiot."

"Hey, I resent that!" Stiles groaned again. He tapped his fingers impatiently on the table and looked around the room, as if hoping to draw inspiration from something. His eyes landed on a picture of him, Scott, Lydia, and Allison. Next to that picture, Allison had been replaced by Kira. It was taken on the day they all moved in to this house. Scott and Kira shared the master, while Stiles and Lydia each had their own room. He wondered, if Allison were still here, would the four of them have lived together? It was true that Scott and Allison were not together at the time of her death, and she and Isaac seemed to have something going, but, that didn't mean they couldn't all live together. As he stared at the brunette, he had a thought.

"Why did you insist on taking this class with me?"

"I needed a PolySci credit for my major. Remember? And don't you love having a study partner?"

"Well, yeah. But, I mean, there are so many other classes you could have taken for your credit. Why this one?"

Lydia finally stopped typing and closed her laptop with a sigh. "What is this about, Stiles?"

He closed his laptop as well and leaned forward. "It's about you telling the truth."

They stared at each other for several moments before Lydia bit her lip. "Okay, fine. We finished all of our gen ed classes and I..." She sighed. "I wasn't ready to stop having classes with you."

Stiles eyes widened. "Really?"

"Yes, really! Stiles, we've been in the same classes since elementary school! I took that advanced math class last semester and as I sat there I realized that every college class I take from then on was going to be just like that: Boring and best friendless."

"Awe. Lydia Martin cares."

Lydia picked up a pencil and threw it at him. "Of course I care, you dork."

"Well, then let's vow, right now. We'll take at least one class together each semester. And we'll make it fun, like bowling or ballroom dancing."

"Ballroom dancing?" She asked as she quirked an eyebrow.

"Hey, I know a thing or two about ballroom dancing."

Lydia rolled her eyes. "Yeah, right."

"Okay, fine. Now you'll never know." Stiles lifted his screen again and began to tap on the keys.

Lydia lifted hers as well and read back over the last thing she had written. "What did you decide on?"

"I don't know. I was thinking maybe Kate Argent."

"Seriously?" She asked, lowering the screen but not closing it completely.

"Well, yeah. I mean, I feel like I have an advantage being a first-hand witness to her family's craziness. And I mean, as much as we talk about what our lives would be like without the supernatural, it's what we know. And don't they always say 'Write what you know'? I mean, isn't that why you're writing about Jack the Ripper?"

Her eyes widened slightly, "How did you-"

He looked down at her notebook, and her eyes followed and saw where she had written: Jack the Ripper-werewolf?

"I'm observant." Stiles gasped as he remembered something and grabbed his phone out of his pocket.

"Who are you calling?"

"Argent. I'm going to have so many primary sources for this paper." He said giddily, then stood up from the table and grabbed his notebook and pen.

She raised her screen again and readied her fingers to type when she heard Stiles say, "Hey, Chris! Buddy! It's Stiles! Stiles Stilinski...Well of course you only know one Stiles...I'm like Tigger, I'm the only one." He turned to face Lydia and gave her a thumbs up and she just shook her head. "So, listen..." He walked away, probably toward his room.

"Finally," she mumbled, and read back over her last sentence. Mary Kelly was found on the morning of you're in love with him. Stop denying it. Lydia's eyes widened and she re-read the last line over again. No, it was actually there. She wasn't seeing things, she had actually typed it. Quickly she erased it just as she heard his door open. He walked in and flashed her a smile as he continued talking on the phone while he was looking for something. Lydia felt her insides melt. "Shit."

06022020

Beacon Hills, Ca.

1516 Hours

Stiles's Apartment

Stiles was sitting on the couch in his newly leased one-bedroom apartment, his very own bachelor pad. After the freedom of being out of his father's house while he was in college, Stiles knew he wasn't going to stay there long once he graduated. He had kind of always thought he and Scott would get a place, but then Scott and Kira decided to move in together, and then he had to start looking for one-bedrooms instead of two. He ended up finding a perfect one bedroom, that was close to work and it didn't hurt that Scott and Kira had leased an apartment in the same complex.

The couple had been living in their place for a little over two weeks, while Stiles moved into the apartment below theirs the day before. It was late by the time Scott had helped him move all of the furniture and boxes into the first floor apartment, and Stiles had gone to bed without unpacking anything. When he woke up the next day, he quickly realized he had no food. He also quickly realized he had no desire to start unpacking boxes so he made a trip to the grocery store.

When he left the apartment, it was cloudy and overcast, and by the time he returned it was starting to thunder. Thankfully, he was able to get everything inside before the skies broke loose. After putting all of the bags of groceries away, he felt super accomplished, but then he turned around and looked at all of the boxes piled up in the living room. He decided that he would start going through them, and at least put them in the room they were supposed to be in.

The first few boxes were clothes and those went into his room, then there were dishes that he moved to the kitchen. He still had seven boxes that needed to be moved when he opened the one that held his Xbox, and things only went downhill from there.

He hooked up his television and his gaming system, found his games (decided to "organize" them), then popped a game in "just to make sure everything worked properly." That was two hours ago and he was still sitting there playing the game. Suddenly, there was a bright bolt of lightning and loud clap of thunder and the power went off.

Stiles sighed and looked up at the ceiling. "Kira?" He yelled.

Faintly he heard, "That wasn't me! I swear!"

He chuckled and stood up to walk back over to the boxes he hadn't touched (he was pretty sure there were candles and a lighter in one) when he heard a knock on the door. Stiles looked back at the door, confused. "Kira?" He asked, then chuckled again as he walked toward the door. "Kira, I know that wasn't you. It was just a joke." He opened the door and it wasn't Kira. "Lydia?" The banshee was sopping wet from head to toe, and her mascara was smudged down her face, although Stiles wasn't sure if it was because of the rain or if she had been crying. She was looking off to the side and not making eye contact. "Hey, come inside. Get out of the rain." He told her. She didn't move. "Lyd-"

"My mom's dead." She said, as if she couldn't believe it. Finally, she looked up at Stiles. If she had been crying, she wasn't crying now. His mouth was open slightly, hand still on the door, and he didn't know what to say. They stared at each other for a moment before Lydia finally walked inside the apartment.

"Uh...umm." Stiles stammered as he closed the door behind him. "Wh..what happened?"

"They...they think she had a stroke and fell down the stairs."

"Why didn't you call me?"

"I can't find my phone. I think it's in my car." She told him innocently. Stiles was pretty sure that she was in shock.

"Oh...So, you walked here?" She nodded. It was a beat before Stiles realized Lydia had been dripping water all over his new bachelor pad. "Hey, let's get you into something dry."

She nodded and followed him into his room. He found a t-shirt and some sweatpants and handed them to her. She took them, but didn't move. He stood there awkwardly. "The uh... the bathroom is right that way..."He pointed. "I'll just leave the room and let you get dressed." Stiles got back into the living room and pulled out his phone, sending Scott a quick text.

'Lydia's here. Her mom died. I think she's in shock.' Stiles had barely put the phone back into his pocket when he got Scott's reply.

'OMG! Do you you need me?'

Stiles shook his head then realized Scott couldn't see that. 'No. We're okay. I'll let you know though. If your mom is still at the hospital, you may want to let her know where she is. Lydia doesn't have her phone. They're probably looking for her.'

'Okay.'

Stiles suddenly heard loud sobs coming from his bedroom and he ran in. Lydia was on her knees, holding herself as she rocked back and forth. The only thing she was wearing was Stiles's shirt.

"Hey," He knelt down next to her and began to rub soothing circles on her back. Lydia leaned her head against Stiles's shoulder.

"She's gone, Stiles."

"I know." After a long time of Lydia sobbing into Stiles's shoulder, she had fallen asleep. Stiles lifted her off the ground and laid her down onto his bed, figuring he would let her sleep while he went back to the boxes. He had made it to the door before he heard her voice.

"Stiles?"

"Yeah, Lyd?"

"Don't leave...just...can you...can you hold me?" Stiles didn't say anything, he just slowly walked back over to the bed. He climbed in and Lydia turned onto her side to face away from him. He laid down on his side the same way she did, and draped an arm around her. She grabbed his hand in hers and shimmied as close to him as she could get. He was so focused on her, that he didn't even have time to remember that she was in only his shirt.

With the steady beat of the rain against the window it wasn't long before they were both asleep.

So much for unpacking.

When he woke up, Stiles looked at his phone and saw that he had a few missed texts from Scott and a missed call from Melissa. All of them basically saying that Lydia had to sign a few forms to release her mother to a funeral home.

Lydia was still asleep and he wasn't about to wake her up to tell her that, so he quietly got up and left the room.

"Hey, Stiles." Melissa answered quickly when he called her back.

"Hey, Melissa." He kept his voice low.

"How is she?"

"Well, she walked to my apartment in the pouring rain and then broke down on my bedroom floor. She's been asleep for a couple of hours. I don't have the heart to wake her up."

Melissa sighed on the other end of the line. "I understand. As soon as she wakes up though, we really need her back here."

"Yeah, I get it."

Half an hour later, Lydia woke up and he gently explained that they had to go back for her to sign the forms and at least get her phone, but she was in no condition to drive. They stopped by her house to grab clothes as well because Lydia didn't want to be there alone, and Stiles wasn't about to let her out of his sight when she was in such a fragile state. Scott and Kira wanted to help somehow, so they went to the hospital and drove Lydia's car back.

Stiles helped her plan the funeral, and little by little, Lydia brought more and more of her things over to Stiles's apartment. A month had passed and Lydia insisted on splitting the rent. When talking to their friends they always referred to the place as Stiles's apartment, but they both secretly knew it was theirs.