AN: Here is chapter two. Enjoy!
To distract himself from the annoyance of discovering he was working with some idiot with connections, Derek started exploring his new desk. He started by turning on the computer and while he waited for that he checked through the drawers to see what they had given him. Standard amount of paper, plenty of blank forms for various uses, and in the far back corner of the bottom drawer something gleamed at him. Confused, Derek reached back and pulled it out.
A small glass wolf. It was black with bright blue eyes. It stood as if howling at the moon and Derek marveled at how each individual piece of fur fell perfectly. For a brief time he was so entranced that he almost forgot he was supposed to be glaring at everything. He looked questioningly over to Stiles to see if he knew what the wolf was.
"Shit." Stiles muttered when he saw the wolf. "I'm sorry Derek. That belonged to my last partner. I must have missed it when I cleaned out his desk."
"Will he want it back?" Derek asked.
Stiles looked uncomfortable for a moment. "Um… No. I don't imagine he will."
Derek placed the wolf on his desk and shut the desk drawer again. If ex-partner didn't want it back there was no reason Derek couldn't leave it with the desk. It added a nice touch. Stiles was still staring awkwardly at the wolf but Derek ignored him and turned to the computer that had finished starting. "Stilinski. Can you show me how to get logged into the system here?"
Stiles shook himself out of whatever had been happening in his head and replied, "Yeah. It's pretty simple. Username is BeaconPD and the password is Allison."
"Allison?" Derek said slowly with a raised eyebrow.
"That's Scott's fault." Stiles explained. "He was the one in charge of choosing a password and now none of us can figure out how to change it to something else." There was a pause as Derek logged into the system and made sure everything was working properly. "Hey, speaking of Scott, I need to show you around. Introduce you to the rest of the team."
Derek nodded unenthusiastically as he locked his computer and stood up to follow after Stiles. Stiles took him first back to the locker room and the adjoining gym. "This is your locker." Stiles pointed to a locker that had recently had a name scratched off it. Derek made a mental note in the back of his mind to find out later why Stiles had looked sad when he passed the locker. "Through there is the gym. There's not much there." Stiles continued the tour leading him to the cells, the evidence lock-up, the filing room, a meeting room, and finally back to the offices.
Stiles grinned cheerfully as he stuck his head in the first office. "Scott, my man, come meet Derek." From inside the office came a guy who Derek assumed must be Scott. "Scott, this is Derek. Derek, this is Detective Scott." Stiles introduced them and as he said Derek's name he plopped his hand onto Derek' shoulder. The glare Derek gave him could have killed. "Uh, sorry." Stiles hastily removed his hand. "No touching then? I can deal with that."
Scott didn't comment on the exchange, he simply nodded at Derek and started up a conversation. "So, how are you liking Beacon Hills?"
"It's small."
"Well that's true enough. It's part of why I like it here though."
"I don't like small."
Scott looked taken aback and he struggled to find an answer. "Well maybe you'll change your mind if you just give Beacon Hills a chance." Scott finally said. Then he perked up and smiled broadly, "Hey, if you want to get to know some more people my wife Allison and I would be glad to have you over. Allison is wonderful. She alone could convince you to like Beacon Hills." Scott's eyes had gone a little hazy and his voice was dreamy.
Derek fought the urge to throw up. He actually found himself thankful for Stiles all of a sudden when he said, "No, Scott, I will not have you scaring off my new partner on his first day because you can't stop gushing over Allison. Come on, Derek." Stiles turned and walked further down the hall. At the next office he actually went in so Derek followed after and walked into a room with two more guys. "Derek this is Officer Danny and Detective Isaac. Isaac is Scott's partner. He's helping Danny out a bit while his partner Jackson is out." Stiles paused and looked like he was searching for the right words. "Jackson is out sick right now." He finally concluded. "Jackson is a bit of a jerk anyway so you aren't missing much."
"Hey!" The officer named Danny protested. Stiles gave him a look and Danny conceded, "Yeah, you're right. He is a jerk sometimes." Isaac chuckled and continued to fill out some paperwork at what Derek assumed was Jackson's desk.
"Anyway," Stiles stated, "You two seem busy so I'll go introduce Derek to the last two." This time Stiles led him back to the front of the precinct. "Derek, this is Officer Lydia and her partner Officer Erica. They got stuck with front desk duty today so try to make fun of them as much as possible."
Lydia, the red head from earlier, beamed at Derek while gently elbowing Erica in the side to get her attention. Erica looked up at him with tired eyes and gave a weak smile. "Good to have you here." She intoned before looking back down to the desk.
"You've already met the sheriff, he's my dad," Stiles said with pride. "So that's the whole clan. We're pretty small so we all do pretty much everything. You and I will eventually have to work front desk once in a while too. Everyone pulls their weight. It's not hard; it just means we take in the emergency phone calls and if people show up here directly we help them out. No big deal."
Derek gave what could only be described as a grunt. Stiles assumed that was meant to convey Derek's understanding. "Right. Well, I have a case I'm working on right now so we should get back to our own office. You can finish getting settled in." Stiles headed off in the direction of the office and Derek trailed behind.
"If you have a case doesn't that mean I have a case too?" Derek asked with a tone that implied Stiles was an idiot.
"I guess that's true." Stiles shuffled back and forth on his feet. Derek got the distinct impression again that Stiles was searching for the correct words. In Derek's experience that generally meant you were looking for a valid lie. He would have to keep an eye on Stiles. "You can help me with some of the case. It would just be hard to catch you up to speed at this point so I figured I'd let you pick up on the next new case."
The two had made it back to the office by this point and instead of heading to his own desk he waited next to Stiles'. "So, tell me about the case."
Stiles moved some papers around on the desk and it took a few seconds for him to meet Derek's gaze. When he spoke it was with a voice that seemed much more clinical and detached than the exuberant voice he had been using so far. "There's a guy who's going around attacking people. He's been pretty vicious so far. One person… One person has been killed." Derek didn't miss the slight hitch in Stiles' voice. "A few others have come close. Jackson inclu…" Stiles stopped abruptly. He cleared his throat nervously. "Jackson was the one assigned to the case before he got sick and then it got handed to us."
Something was definitely wrong with the way Stiles had said Jackson was sick. Not to mention that Derek was almost positive Stiles had been about to imply that Jackson had been hurt by the criminal they were after. If a cop had gotten hurt in the line of duty why was Stiles hiding it? There were a lot of questions rising in Derek's mind. Something was off about this whole place. Instead of confronting Stiles, Derek asked, "What do we know about the culprit?"
"Not much. Witness reports say it's a white male with black hair and that's about all we have for a physical description. Attacks happen in the woods mostly or on the edge of them; nothing in town. That's probably why there aren't many witnesses." Stiles pointed to a map that he had laid out on his desk. "Each 'X' is a spot where an attack happened. We haven't found any sort of pattern yet. They seem fairly random. We'll find something though."
"Do you know the motive? Do the victims have anything in common?" Derek felt like he was dragging the information out of Stiles.
"Motive? No, there isn't a motive. Just crime of convenience attacks. The victims have just been in the wrong place at the wrong time."
Derek was certain now that Stiles had only gotten this job because of his dad. It was ridiculous to assume there was no motive at this point. It didn't sound like there was anywhere near enough information to determine that. What mattered was catching the guy though so Derek pulled the map a little closer to him and leaned down to look closer at it.
Grudgingly he had to admit that Stiles was right. There didn't seem to be much pattern to the locations. They were all over the forest. Still, there had to be something. Maybe this, 'Jackson,' would be better able to enlighten Derek on the case since Derek's own partner seemed to be an idiot.
Derek went back to his own desk and got quietly started filling out the paperwork that confirmed he had arrived and started work at his new precinct.
Night had fallen and a full moon shone down on Derek where he stood on the sidewalk. In his hand Derek held a slip of paper with an address on it. He hadn't expected the address to be such a nice place. Cops didn't usually make enough money for that. He supposed Jackson could have gotten family money like Derek himself had. He walked up at the rich white house and was about to knock on the door when he heard a very loud crash inside. It sounded like something, or someone, had been thrown against the wall.
"Jackson! Get ahold of yourself! Find an anchor!" Derek stiffened. That voice, which still sounded annoying even when tinged with anger and panic, was Stiles. Should Derek burst through the door and help his idiot partner? Did Stiles need help? What on earth was happening?
"Come on Officer. I know it's your first moon but you have to control yourself." This voice was much calmer but still sounded stressed out. It also clearly belonged to Sheriff Stilinski.
'First moon?' Derek thought to himself. He glanced up at the moon in the sky above him. 'It's not like the moon popped into existence today. How exactly is this Jackson's first moon?'
"Dad, you didn't bring enough chains!" Now Derek was beyond confused. What the hell would the sheriff and his son need chains for? What were they even doing in Jackson's house talking about the moon and an anchor?
"Guys, he will get more control of this for future shifts right?" This time the voice was female. It was familiar to Derek but he wasn't quite sure who it was.
Thankfully Stiles inadvertently answered Derek's question. "He'll be fine, Lydia. The others are all able to control it, Jackson will be too. It would have been a hell of a lot better for him if he had had a bit more time between being attacked and the full moon though."
Others? What did Stiles mean when he said others? And what did this have to do with the attacks that had been happening?
Finally realizing that standing with his ear pressed against a door that could open at any time wasn't the most subtle move, Derek slowly backed away and towards the sidewalk again. His mind was in overdrive trying to put together all the pieces. What in the hell was going on in this small, stupid, little town? Derek didn't know if he should be even more annoyed at his situation or slightly happier. All he knew was that this town, or at least the police department in it, had a mystery for him to solve. He intended to solve it.
AN: Please review. Remember I can't become a better writer without helpful feedback.