So yeah since I had received a good response about this fic, I decided to add a new but last chapter to conclude it. God writing this made me cry, I'm never touching this again. Anyway, this is a gift for you guys who had given me the support I needed to fall into the Teen Wolf fandom.
He could not believe that he would be standing here again one day, amongst the rows of mourners who were clad in black as they gathered in front of a black casket. He had vowed to never let it happen again, not after the crippling guilt of his previous failure had thrown him into the bottom of the bottle. There is always a reason why he keeps on urging his students to be more successful, to put in more effort into what they are doing when he himself had failed all those years ago with Greenberg.
Most of his students thought he is crazy for always calling out to a student that was not there, scolding and jabbing at someone who none of them had known and will never know because Greenberg had been buried six feet under in this very same cemetery years ago.
They thought Greenberg as a part of his batch of craziness, a person that he made exist just to shout at. Perhaps they were right after all, he is crazy and acting as if Greenberg was still alive is his own way of coping.
It was unhealthy and he definitely does not look sane to those around him, not that he is to begin with but it helped him cling to the thinning strands of sanity that he had almost let go many times before.
Each time he closed his eyes, he was haunted by the image of red stained floor, of a pale body laying limp in a pool of red, of the full lips that still smiled despite the life bleeding out from his eyes. It still haunted him even when it had been years since it happened and now history is repeating itself once again.
Only this time, it is not Greenberg who was in the black casket, it is Stiles Stilinski, whose first name still eluded him.
He had never thought he would be going to one of his student's funeral and definitely not this early. He had expected Stilinski to die in many ways, either being gutted by someone who he pissed off with his smart mouth or by his own innate clumsiness that always brought him into countless accidents. He never expected for it to be through the same way that he had tried so hard to prevent throughout his whole teaching career.
Suicide.
It still baffled him that the boy who does not know when to shut up even if his life depended on it is now dead and his mind could not digest this fact. Perhaps it was the painkiller he had consumed before coming here but he felt too numb to accept the fact that he had not lost only one but three students in such a short time.
The first had been Allison Argent, then Aiden Lupus and now it is Stiles Stilinski.
The Argent girl had died from a stab she received from of the robbers that attacked their car when she and her friends were out. He does not know how Aiden had died but someone had said it was through the same way too.
But it was Stilinski's death that had hit him hard.
He could not wrap his head around the reason as of why the boy would choose to do it, why he had taken up the blade when he looked so happy, so full of life.
Greenberg had always been happy, always smiling goofily.
A dark voice whispered from the back of his mind and he immediately squashed it before he could lose himself to it again. He had gone a long way to free himself from the shackles of the liquid amber and he definitely would not be going back to it anytime soon, not when so many lives could be saved when he stayed sober.
But you failed to save Greenberg and Stilinski
The voice hissed before he could fully shut it out and he curled his hands into tight fists by his sides before he could start reaching out to smash something into pieces again. He had failed to save Greenberg the first time around and now he had failed to save the boy who had been right in front of him.
How could he possibly not see the signs? How had he missed it when Stilinski had shown signs of it these past months?
He had always known the boy as a great kid, a bit of a hyperactive spaz with a smart mouth that would get him into trouble but a great kid nonetheless. Stilinski is-was a good kid, super smart, zero ability to focus but the boy never took advantages of the talents he had at hand.
Finstock knew that the boy could have be anything that he wanted to be if he had put his head into it because that boy is-was a genius who knew how the world worked far better than anyone his age was supposed to, not surprising since he is-was the Sheriff's son but the boy is-was still scarily perspective for someone his age.
So why did he choose to do this instead?
His heart ached with the familiar sting that had become a constant thing to him ever since he found Greenberg on the floor of the locker room's shower, bleeding nonstop in a pool of his own blood with the blade in his hand. That image had been forever seared into his mind and he could only imagine how the Sheriff must have felt to come back home to his son's lifeless body lying in the pool of liquid that was meant to keep him alive.
He had been there and he had cradled Greenberg's body as the life bleed out from his eyes and wrist.
For some reason, his eyes sought out the crowd nearest to the coffin and he was not surprised to see McCall standing beside the Sheriff, face crumpled into an expression of utter grief. Each of Stilinski's friends wore the expression of utter anguish but Finstock saw something else as he looked closer.
He sees guilt.
He does not know what had driven Stilinski to pick up the blade but it is not his place to point finger when he is the one who was supposed to be paying attention to any signs of it amongst his students. His friends might have been one of the reason that lead to this but it is not his place to put the blame.
Especially when it is your fault that Greenberg died
Finstock shut his eyes close and tried to block out everything around him. The ache in his heart hurt more than the wound he received from the arrow in his gut and shut everything off before he could break down here.
Maybe Brunski was right after all, he is a useless person and he could not even save the one boy who had been so close to him from going over the edge. He is a failure and had always been one, more so after he drowned himself at the bottom of the bottle after Greenberg's death.
He failed to save Stilinski and Greenberg.
What kind of a teacher is he?
A failed one.
A bit of a twist from Coach's POV instead of Stiles' dad or any of his friends.
I had always been wondering who the hell is Greenberg. This is my twist of how he is related to Coach and why he always seem to after him. I know other character mentioned him too sometimes but it is more to them playing along with it without knowing anything. Yeah I know he was the one who gave the mug to the coach but I think it is more to one of Greenberg's family doing it. I know I am making no sense but bear with me. And there seems to be a history between Brunski and Coach, I am just throwing him in on the fly.
Anyway, leave a review on what you think!