home is a fire

chapter three

The process of finding a motel to spend a few nights is nothing new, and they set up camp fairly quickly. Sam and Charlie are in one room, Castiel and Dean in another, because they can't trust the angel to be by himself yet, and Charlie speaks in too many pop culture references for him to be able to keep up.

Soon the four of them are in Dean and Cas' room, eating burgers and trying to understand what the hell just happened.

"So, apparently, this Sarah chick is dead" Sam says tactlessly, and Charlie frowns at him as Dean just shakes his head.

"Apparently" Dean answers distractedly, and Sam frowns a bit.

"She died from cancer when Stiles was eleven. It's just him and the Sheriff ever since" the girl says, still frowning at Sam.

He just shrugs and takes another bite of his hamburger.

"I'm not sure if we should be relieved that they just… bought it all, or worried."

"Why worried?" Charlie asks, and Sam focuses his attention on her.

"Because Stiles said they were calling an Argent to confirm we are who we say we are, and the only Argent I can think of that could do that is a hunter."

"A hunter?" Dean repeats, finally looking up at his brother.

"Werewolf hunters. We never actually met them, but there are a few mentions of their clan in dad's journal and in Bobby's stuff too. It's their thing, they only hunt werewolves."

There's silence in the room after that.

"You mean they could actually be hunters? If they're calling in the Argents to check our story, then they have to know what the Argents do, and it's not our style to just let random strangers know what we actually do" Dean's voice is getting louder, as it tends to do when he doesn't want things to be the way they are, as if he can scream at life events and hope they'll bend to his will because he's shouting at them.

"Uh, guys, I don't know if they are hunters, but the Argents are kind of down to two right now" Charlie says, staring at her tablet screen. She turns it around to show them a local newspaper article detailing Victoria Argent's death after her sister-in-law got killed while in a murdering spree, "It says here that the head of the family, Gerard, also went missing a few weeks after Victoria's suicide, and only Christopher Argent and his daughter are left of the family. It's, really, small town gossip more than anything else, but…"

She trails off, and the four of them seem to contemplate the news quietly for a while.

Sarah is apparently dead. Dean's son is dating a much older man with the blessing of his dad, who is the Sheriff, and they have so much contact with the Argents that they know it's a family of hunters.

What the hell is going on?

X

Derek calls the pack while Stiles contacts Allison, and they meet in the living room not even ten minutes after the hunters leave the house.

It's weird.

Stiles stops by the couch and just stares at Derek for the longest moment, not knowing what to say, what to do – his life is in danger? He's never been really the main character of this kind of story before. In danger? Yes. But being the cause of the trouble? No. That's for Derek and Scott and Allison, not him.

The Sheriff finds them still standing and looking at the other, not saying anything a few minutes later, and he sighs deeply, putting a hand on his son's shoulder.

"It's gonna be okay, son. It's not like you lack the experience in this sort of situation anyway" he comments, sitting down, and Stiles chokes a laugh, because, well, it's kind of true.

Except this is not really what's bothering him.

"How can someone just… show up at a guy's door and go all like, hey, I'm your biological father, also, ANGELS are going to try and kill you because of it? I mean, is that guy insane? Is this why I'm this crazy, because it'd be a great explanation. What right does he have to just… show up and say all that, and then… ARGH."

The Sheriff and Derek exchange a look, but don't say anything, because Stiles has every right to freak out right now. The older man sighs again before patting the couch seat beside his, and Stiles sits, putting his head on his hands.

"It doesn't change anything. If he thinks you might be in danger because you share blood, then we'll find a way out of it, and that's it. He's not coming to stay, he won't be a part of your life if you don't want him to."

"I don't want him to" the teen says firmly, "I have a father, I don't need that guy, I never did. I'm just…" he doesn't finish talking, because he doesn't really know what he is.

Angry? Disbelieving? Pissed off? Yes to all of them and then some.

He's never even thought about this moment, to be honest. His mom had made it clear that the guy hadn't known she was pregnant before leaving, and in his head, he would never had known, and he had no need to change that. He didn't want to get in touch with the guy, because he was just that: a random guy, a mistake his mom made. It all worked out in the end, his mom loved his dad, and they had been together for as long as they could, and even now his dad hasn't ever tried to date anyone else because he still loves her. He's never needed or wanted this.

This sucks.

"The pack will be here in about an hour. I thought it best for us to talk to the Argents first, confirm that they are who they say they are before talking to the others" Derek offers, sitting beside Stiles on the couch.

"I agree" the Sheriff nods, "Even if… Well, I don't think anyone would go through the trouble of making all of this up. And no one here in Beacon Hills knows of Sarah's story with that boy, except for your pack and us, so I actually think he was telling the truth."

For probably the first time ever Stiles doesn't want to say anything, so he just shakes his head and leans a bit onto Derek – they aren't exactly a cuddly couple in public. Derek has a lot of issues with personal space, and Stiles is a bit spastic and loud with his body language, and that doesn't bode well for public displays of affection, but whenever Derek thinks he's in some sort of danger, he manages to touch Stiles in one way or another – even back when they didn't even really trust each other, like when the Kanima showed up at the school pool, Derek would always physically comfort him, protect him, just touch him, as if to make sure he was there, that he hadn't run away or died on him.

At this moment, though, he needs Derek, and whatever form of comfort he can give him, because he's not good at angsting for himself. Feeling sorry for Scott when he's torn between Allison and Isaac? Yes. Feeling bad for Cora and everything she went through? Yes. Even feeling sorry for Peter and all the mistakes he's made? Yes. But for him? He's not good at it. He prefers to ignore everything until it goes away, except this time it won't work because he's the cause of it – or actually, the guy who slept with his mom and didn't have the common sense of using a condom was the cause of it, and as he was the result from that… well.

It's about half an hour later when Chris Argent shows up. Derek, as always, goes cold and tense just at the sight of the man, but doesn't outwardly antagonizes him, which is always a bonus.

"What can I help you with, Sheriff?" he asks, ignoring the Alpha werewolf glaring at him, and said werewolf's boyfriend, who is much too invested in not completely freaking out to keep a conversation.

"I need information on some… hunters" his dad says, not looking comfortable with saying that, which is hilarious seeing as he has no problem with the concept of pack, "The Winchesters" he adds, and Chris raises both eyebrows in surprise.

"If your boy is in trouble with the Winchesters because of his involvement with Hale, I don't know what I can do to help. Their father was vicious, and from what I've heard, they are just… unstoppable."

"That is not quite the case" the Sheriff tries to explain, "We just need some confirmation that these men who showed up at our door earlier actually are who they said they are. And how much of what they've told us can be taken as truth."

"They were here?" the hunter inquires, suspicious, "Why?"

"I'm going to go upstairs" Stiles says, and Derek follows him quietly.

The Sheriff watches them go and sighs again, inviting Chris to sit.

It's going to be a long afternoon.

X

Of course that, being who they are, they can't just leave it well enough alone and come back only when they were told to – they eat, they talk, they start trying to think up ways of hiding Dean's son, and then they head to the Sheriff's house, trying to stage a stakeout. They park the car near enough from the house, and keep watch through the afternoon.

There's an SUV there when they get to the place, but it's gone a few minutes after they arrive – only to come back not even half an hour later, when a girl and an older man come out. Charlie states those are the Argents, from the pictures she's seen on her research about the hunter family.

Half an hour after that comes a green dirty bike, two boys on it. They park, look around for a bit, both of them frowning, and then go in too, without even knocking this time. Not five minutes after that another expensive Toyota parks, and a man around the same age as the Sheriff goes into the house too. Almost at the same time a shiny BMW parks almost in front of the Toyota, and a girl with bright red hair and a tall and bulky kid with a tall forehead get out just as a Porsche parks right behind them and a blond boy with a dark haired girl come out, and the four of them walk to the house, getting in too.

"Are they having some sort of party before we go in or something?" Dean asks no one in particular.

"Why would they choose this afternoon for a party, after receiving such grave news?" Castiel asks, looking truly bewildered, and it startles a laugh out of Charlie and a small smile from Sam.

Dean can only shake his head, because, seriously, shouldn't Cas already be getting things by now? He turns around to answer them, but there's a knock on the window, and he actually startles – not only him, but the other three people in the car too.

The curly haired boy from before is smirking at them. Dean lowers the window and the kid leans against the Impala, smirking all the time.

"Derek asked me to tell you that you suck at this stakeout thing, and that you might as well get in now and get this conversation over with" he ends with yet another smirk and goes back to the house – a place they didn't even see he come out from, but ok.

They do get out of the car, and Charlie is frowning a bit, muttering about this being way too creepy.

"I thought we were supposed to be the creepy ones, what with the murdering angels warnings and the hunting thing" she mutters, and Dean can't help but agree.

The door is open when they cross the street and get to the house, and they get in, seeing all the people from before sitting in the living room.

They also notice there's a distinct division thing going on there.

The Argents, if what Charlie has found is right, are closets to the door, the man glaring at the middle aged man who's standing near the teens. All of the teens are on the other side of the room, standing up, slightly behind Stiles and his boyfriend. The Sheriff is almost at the middle of it, as if mediating the whole thing.

This does not bode well.

Sam, the last one to come in, closes the door quietly behind him and stare confusedly at all the people in the room.

"I kind of understand your need to have the Argents here" Dean starts, pointing to the other hunters, letting them know that, yes, they know who they are, "But I don't think having Stiles' friends here for this conversation is the way to go."

"Tough" says the red headed girl, staring at her nails, with a slightly bored look on her face, she raises her eyes slowly, gaze like steel on Dean's "If you come here saying Stiles is in danger this is where we'll be, pie-boy."

Dean raises both eyebrows, trying very hard not to react to the choked laugh coming out of Charlie, because what?

"Are these them? Can you confirm it?" the Sheriff is asking, and Dean tries to focus on the conversation again.

Argent nods.

"Yes, that's actually them. And if what they told you is true, then we have a bigger problem in our hands than what we've had so far."

The man's voice is cold and clinical, and yes, Dean is quite sure that he is, indeed, a hunter. He would recognize that kind of posture anywhere.

"You don't have to be a part of it, Argent" Stiles' boyfriend is saying, and Dean wants to slap him, just once, "It's our pack's problem, we'll deal with it."

Pack? Really, they call their little group pack?

"I know, Hale, but seeing as I have a vested interest on your pack being safe, I'll do whatever I can to help."

Hale.

Pack and Hale, why does that sound familiar?

Pack and Hale and werewolf hunters…

Oh my God.

"Werewolves" Sam says before Dean can, and suddenly there's growling in the living room.

"Werewolves, they are werewolves?!" Dean repeats, and then stares at the Sheriff in disbelief, "You let my son be in a relationship with a werewolf?!" he shouts, resulting in said boyfriend flashing really bright red eyes at him, "An Alpha werewolf?!"

"No" the Sheriff answers calmly, "I let my son be in a relationship with the man he loves. Not a concept I expect you to understand."

The man's voice is ice cold, and Dean is ready to continue arguing, but Stiles' voice cuts through the growling suddenly.

"Look! There'll be no more of this whole my son shtick! I'm not your son. I'm not your anything. If anything, I'm your blood, and believe me, if I could change that, I would. We are here to get into the whole angels want to kill me because of you, might I add, and that's it. This is not a soulful reunion of a long lost family. This is you being a problem, and us having to solve it. So suck it up with the pretend anger on my behalf, because you know nothing about me, or my dad, or my pack or Derek" he finishes, breathing hard, staring angrily at Dean.

At his back, all of the teens except for the red haired girl are flashing amber or bright blue eyes at the four newcomers.

He doesn't quite know how to respond to that, because even he doesn't know what he's feeling right now.

This is different. This is so much different. This is even different than what he had with Ben, because while he loved that kid with all his heart, he hadn't seen Ben grow up or anything to form that kind of attachment, and Ben wasn't really his. They lived in the same house for a year, but that was about it.

This is his blood. This is his family, a legacy he could leave behind like his dad did, except without the awful parts. And yet this is nothing like that, because he's sure Stiles doesn't even hate him properly, because there's nothing connecting them. They resemble each other a bit, but most of the kid is Sarah, and the rest is things he caught along the way, from the father he's always known.

"Look, we need to find a way to protect Stiles, and if we can have back up that'd be great" Sam is saying when Dean starts paying attention again, "But can we sit and talk, so we can explain to you what is going on now? Calmly?"

Argent nods first, and the Sheriff is next, but Hale – who, in Dean's head now, is no longer his son's boyfriend, but the Alpha werewolf – just glares.

And because he's glaring and not saying anything, none of the other teens move.

"Come on, Derek, they are waiting for you, and I know you don't like it, but if you are that much attached to Stiles, we'll have to get to an understanding with the new hunters over there" the older man by the werewolves says, "And I, for one, have grown way too attached to our little Spark here to just let the angels get him" he finishes with a small smirk.

"You call me little Spark again, Peter, I swear to god I'll put wolfsbane in your shampoo" Stiles threatens, but the man just smirks at him, while a few of the other teens try to hide smiles.

Hale suddenly sighs and nods, and that comes with a small sigh of relief from his pack, who take that as a sign to sit down on the floor, and look up at the hunters.

Argent takes a seat on the chair by the window, and his daughter crosses the imaginary line to sit between two of the werewolves. Derek takes a seat on an armchair, Stiles sitting on the arm of it, and most of the pack is on the floor in front of them, except for the Peter guy, who stands behind the armchair, staring unblinkingly at Castiel, and the blond boy, who stands with his arms crossed over his chest beside Stiles.

The Sheriff gestures to the four new comers to sit on the couch, and takes the last armchair.

"What do we know about the situation?" Argent asks, leaning forward and staring at Sam, who takes a deep breath.

"To explain everything we'd need to have a week just to get you started on it, but the main point of it is that the Angels aren't exactly loving us right now, since we helped cause their fall."

"When you say their fall, we're talking about…" says the bulky kid beside the red haired girl – they really need to learn their names.

"All of them. Heaven is kind of… devoid of angels right now."

That startles a laugh out of Stiles, who stares at them as if they are crazy, which, well.

Can't really blame him.

"Right. So you managed to kick the angels from heaven, and they are pissed. So they are coming after your blood. Seeing as it's just the two of you from the Winchester line, that would lead them to me, because assbutt over there can't work a condom. Got it. How do we solve this? We can't kill all the angels, which would be just, you know, wrong. Also, not very productive, 'cause we aren't killers, we've been actually actively trying to avoid the killing. Alpha Pack and Darach and Kanima and Peter here, once, aside" Stiles pauses for a second and then shakes his head, "Wow, for a bunch of people trying to avoid the killing we certainly do a lot of it."

"Stiles" says the Argent girl, "Please shut up" she smiles at him, wide and sweet, and he smiles back.

"Sure thing" he answers, and then turns to stare at Dean and Sam, as if waiting for them to already have a game plan.

Which they don't.

"We actually don't know what to do right now. We came here as soon as we found out that Dean was… that you had our blood. We still need to come up with a plan, because this mess is a lot to solve."

"So, basically you're saying you came here, just dropped the bomb of knowing you're Stilinski's biological father and that that's that cause of his impending death, but you do not have a plan?" asks the blond boy, who's still standing, "Wow, you suck at this worse than we do."

"Jackson" Derek says in a warning tone, but the blond doesn't seem bothered by it.

He and Stiles stare at each other for a moment, and then Stiles smiles, and raises his fist, and they fist bump, even if the Jackson kid looks like he's pain from doing it.

What the hell.

"Seeing as Stiles seems to be the in a pack already, there is one simple solution" Castiel says, staring at the teens calculatingly.

"What do you mean?" Charlie asks, but everyone in the room leans a bit forward, as if afraid to miss something.

"Angels could only track him down if he's human. If he's a part of who you, Dean, are. Werewolves aren't human, they don't belong into the human realm after death – they aren't creatures of God, they are creatures of Eve, of the Mother of All. The Angels wouldn't even see him as a part of your blood family if he's turned."

"Your solution to this is to have Stiles become a werewolf?" one of the kids on the floor says, sounding angry.

"Yes" Castiel says simply.

"No" Dean, Stiles, Derek and Argent say at the same time.

"I'm not turning. I don't want the bite. We already had this conversation a few times, and everyone knows my opinion on the matter. Our Pack does not need another Beta, I am not risking losing my Spark thing because of the bite, plus, I could die, and the point of this whole get together here is to avoid me dying. No. I'm not turning. Next option."

"Maybe you shouldn't just… dismiss this so fast, Stiles" one of the girls says, and Stiles shakes his head.

"Don't, Cora" Hale states, his voice afraid and cold at once, "This is not up for debate again, he doesn't want it, I don't want him to, we are fine how we are."

"Plus, we can't risk being without his sparkling powers."

"Wolfsbane in your shampoo, Peter, I swear" Stiles says, but there's a small smile playing on his lips.

"Ok, so turning is off the table, what now?"

"Wait until they attack and kill them" Stiles says, and every teen in the room, plus Derek, glares at him, "What? It's been working. God knows we've been trying to plan stuff, and nothing ever goes right. At least this way our plan is actually going to happen."

"Actually" Sam starts, stopping what Dean can see would turn into a huge debate, "That might be all we can do. The safest thing we can do right now is to be around so that in case they attack, there's someone who can protect him. Someone who's dealt with angels before" he adds when he sees the werewolves in the room are about to protest.

"And then what? You stay in Beacon Hills forever, acting like my personal shield against angels?"

"No. We are working on how to get them back to heaven. And we'll figure a way to keep you safe, but until then, this is our best option."

"I don't like this option" Stiles says with a frown, and one of the kids squeezes his knee in sympathy.

"If it's to keep him safe, then yes, you're staying" the Sheriff says in a final tone, "One of you will stay with him at all times, the rest of us try to figure out a way out of this."

"Which means we won't even need them at all, because I'm the researcher, and Lydia will help me. We don't need anyone else."

"Things aren't that simple, Stiles, you need the protection" Sam says, using his puppy dog face, and Dean watches as the kid's resolve to deny them anything starts crumbling.

"Who's taking the first shift, then?" he says moodily after a few seconds.

"I will" Sam volunteers, "You guys get head to the motel, Charlie can start research at our end too, check if Kevin has any news on anything" he says, turning to the others.

They nod, and turn their back to leave.

Dean feels as if he should say something, or do something, but he doesn't know what.

He leaves, Sam trying to give him an encouraging smile as he closes the door.

This sucks.


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