"Dude, either call her or not…" stiles hears from behind him. Swiveling in his chair to find the source of the voice his eyes fall on his partner and buddy Jamal. "I'm just saying, you've been staring at that card since you got here, and either you call or you could give me the number and I'll call." Jamal says, cheekily, earning him a glare from stiles.
"Or not…" He says, raising his hand in defense.
Stiles didn't mean to get defensive, it's just he has had Lydia on the brain ever since they exchanged numbers at the coffee shop, and when she raced out the door in a blur. He couldn't blame her, she does have a life, and a husband. He knew that he shouldn't be bitter or angry at the fact that Lydia has a new last name. Wait… Is her name even still martin? He chuckled internally, because he knew how independent Lydia was and there was no way in hell she dropped her last name in favor of her new found matrimony.
The sound of Jamal's voice dragged him out of his internal monologue, "I didn't mean to offend, it just seems like this chick is doing a number on her mood today, man." He says, sitting at his desk across from where stiles was currently sitting.
"It's cool, man, and no you didn't offend. I just have a lot on my mind." Stiles says, truthfully.
Stiles can see that Jamal wants to ask him something, but he doesn't want to be greeted with that death stare Scott says he mastered from Lydia from when they were spending a lot of time together. Feeling like the sudden silence between them was like nails on a chalkboard, stiles decides to take the bait.
"What?"
"What do you mean what?" Jamal questions, looking up from the police report he clearly wasn't reading.
"I mean what?"
"What's what?"
"Jamal… You obviously want to ask me something. So just ask."
"Well, since you brought it up," Jamal offers with a grin and leaning further into his chair as if he and stiles were really going to do some major ass girl talk. "Who's the girl?"
Secretly Stiles knew that this was what he was going to ask, but was he really ready to get into a deep conversation with someone about the soap opera that was the Stiles & Lydia relationship. The plus side was that Jamal didn't know Lydia or their history together, unlike Scott and his dad and maybe he'd be easier to talk to without all the mushy stuff that will lead him down a road that would undoubtedly end in heartbreak. "She's a friend," He replies, shortly.
"Ok, this must be one hell of a friendship because you haven't stopped staring at that card since I got here, and even as I'm talking to you now you can't seem to take your eyes off it."
Eyes slowly leaving the card in question to look at his partner who is currently looking at him with a raised eye brow. "Fine. She's my ex-girlfriend."
Jamal's eyes widen like saucer like he finally hit the jackpot, "You know I can go for beer, how about you?" He says, grabbing his leather jacket from behind his chair, and tugging on stiles' arm as they quickly made their way out of the prescient.
Finally arriving at the local bar that was just up the street from the prescient, that's when Jamal decided to unload all of his questions. "Dude, thanks for the beer, but I'm really not in the mood for girl talk." Stiles says, taking a sip of his beer.
"Ok, I'm going to be straight with you, Stiles, I was starting to wonder if you were some type of hermit or something because I honestly didn't think you had a life outside of the walls of our prescient."
"What can I say I love my job," he responds, with a shrug.
"And apparently the girl who's number is on that card." Jamal shoots back.
Shit they were definitely going to have this conversation.
Suddenly feeling like he was 16 and being interrogated for something his father caught him and Scott doing. "What do you want me to say?" he asks, with a shrug and slouching further in to his chair like he use to do when he was a kid.
Jamal stayed silent decided to let Stiles reveal what he wanted. He could tell that Lydia was obviously a touchy subject (he really didn't mean to push). "She's my ex… No, scratch that… the love of life." He exclaims, somberly.
"Ok…" Jamal feeling like there is more to it than that. "So, you ran into the love of your life and you have her number, which means she wants to reconnect. That's good, right?" eyes furrowing when he sees the look on stiles' face. "Or not?' He recants.
Stiles eyes leave from Jamal and lands on the card that he was clutching in his hand. "No, because the love of my life is now my married ex." He says, sitting straighter into his seat, when his phone begins to vibrate. Jamal can see the hurt on his partners face, as well as the picture of the pretty red head that pops up on stiles' phone. He doesn't answer though, because the reality of Lydia being married to another man was something that stiles was trying to avoid and because he is just now expressing his true feelings on the matter (to his partner of all people) it was hitting him kinda hard.
"Look man… I'm-" Jamal tries to apologize but is cut off when he sees the red head walk through the door of the bar with whom he presumes is her friend in tow.
Stiles watches as his friend's mouth opens and closes while shaking his arm making him spill beer on him and the table in front of him. "Dude, what the he-" He follows his partners line of sight "Shit" He mutters and before he's able to get up…
"Stilinski!"
,,,,,
Lydia decides to give stiles a call just to see where he was. Because after last night running into him was the last thing she needed. Great… no answer. Maybe he's at work or something.
Sighing to herself and slipping her phone into her purse. Lydia joins her friend who was waiting for her outside the bar.
When Lydia Martin says she is having a fucked up couple of days – She means it. The night she had with her husband or was it stiles? Was getting the best of her. So, what better way to rid all of your troubles then with her best gal pal. No, not Kira or Allison, but Bonnie Salvatore. Well, she hates her husband's last name and she prefers to be called Bonnie Bennett. Lydia was pretty homesick when she first moved to Chicago, and running into Boyd's sister who wasn't that much older than him made things a lot less... miserable.
"Bonnie, why the hell did we come to this bar? When you know there's a bar right up the street from work. And besides, I'm not getting wasted today, I just want to take the edge off." She says, eyeing her friend who was already walking into the somewhat crowded bar.
"If your attitude is any indication of how much edge you need to take off… you're definitely getting wasted today." Bonnie answers, scoping out a place to sit.
"Whatever," Is all the response Lydia can muster up because let's be honest wasted was more of a necessity at this point.
Bonnie turns around to face her friend eyes narrowing when she sees the somber look on Lydia's face.
"What is wrong with you? You've been a funk all day. Did you and Mike not have make up sex after he called everybody and their mother's when you disappeared yesterday?" Bonnies asks, nudging Lydia away from the door they were standing front of.
Lydia blushed from head to toe as the thoughts that haunted her all day returned. Not that they went away or anything, but Bonnie was always a straight shooter and had no filter, she reminded her of her brother in that right. Her bright red cheeks must've shown in the dimly lit bar because bonnie couldn't hide her own shit eating grin. "I'll take that as a yes. Was it bad or something?" she asks, questioningly raising an eyebrow.
Lydia felt like she was burning up, "No... It wasn't bad, it was actually-"
"Stilinski!" Is all she heard when she was suddenly being pulled to the other side of the bar. "Shit" she mutters under her breath.
,,,,
This was beyond awkward for more than one reason. Lydia and Stiles had agreed to meet tomorrow at the coffee shop, but that was before Lydia had a sex dream about him and before Stiles poured his heart out to his partner. Yup, this was going to be fun.
Stiles didn't even have enough time to act like he didn't hear bonnie because as soon as he turned around she was standing right behind him with Lydia at her side.
Internally cursing Jamal who was standing behind him with a grin that could rival Chester the cat.
"Bon!" he replies, engulfing her in a huge hug. Despite not wanting to run into Lydia at this very moment. He really was happy to see bonnie. Boyd was pack, she was pack… now that Boyd is gone, the pack made it their business to make sure that no one lost contact with bonnie.
He smiles in Lydia's direction because he knows that she was just as determined to keep their promise as he was.
"I missed you" Bonnie says, releasing herself from the bear hug stiles was giving her.
"I've missed you too, bon."
"Lydia, here forgot to mention you were in town." She says, nudging Lydia, who was struggling to make eye contact with stiles. It's not that she was trying to hide the fact that Stiles had moved to Chicago. It's just that Lydia knew that Bonnie wasn't new to the saga that was their relationship, and like she said Bonnie is a straight shooter, and being a married woman she didn't think it would be appropriate to have an in-depth conversation about a relationship that was in the past. It is in the past, right?
"I … huh… It kinda-" Lydia stuttered.
"Actually I told her to keep it quiet. I knew you were living here and I thought when I ran into you I wanted it to be a surprise, but I didn't think it'd be this soon." He says with a smile, looking at a baffled Lydia.
Lydia's heart felt like it was about to fall out of her chest. Because here he is still covering for her after all these years. And it only made her feel a thousand times worse. Great. Lydia gives him an apologetic smile.
"Okay, well, I'm glad we ran into you because I hate surprises, and Lydia needs her two friends to cheer her up, she's been in a funk all day." Bonnie spills, because that whole Stiles told Lydia to keep it quiet was complete bullshit, and she wanted to give Lydia payback for not telling her stiles was in town. And since it's obvious he's the reason her friend has been in a funk all day. What? Being a witch does have its perks.
"Damn it, Bonnie" Lydia says through gritted teeth.
Concern filled stiles face as Lydia knew it would. "Is everything ok?"
"Yup, peachy, can we get our drink now?" Lydia responds, shortly
Actually…" Stiles, Bonnie and Lydia turn to Jamal who seems to be enjoying the scene that was playing out in front of him. "How about Stiles & I buy you two lovely ladies a drink and we all get to know each other a little better." He offers, with a smile ignoring the look stiles is giving him.
"And you are?" Lydia & Bonnie questions with equally curious expressions.
"Oh, sorry, this is my partner, Jamal" stiles introduces, with a little to no enthusiasm.
"Nice to meet you ladies." he says, offering Lydia and Bonnie a hand to shake.
Stiles couldn't stop his eye roll if he tried.
After catching sight of it he hears Lydia giggle. Her laugh was always one of the many things he loved about Lydia. And since Bonnie not so subtly mentioned her bad mood, making her smile and laugh made his heart soar. His admiration must've shown on his face because suddenly he was being elbowed in his side by Jamal and Bonnie was looking at him with a sly smirk on his face. God he hated that look, it was the same look Scott would give him when he use to catch him looking at Lydia when they were in high school. Feeling himself blush he clears his throat. "Um... What were you saying?" voice coming out a little ready. Get it the fuck together, Stilinski. You're not that 17 yr old kid anymore.
"The place is getting packed, so I invited the ladies to sit at our table." Jamal says, through a chuckle. "Ladies you can take a seat, we'll get your drinks." but before turning to leave he asks Bonnie what she wants and because why not make an awkward situation even more awkward, "Lydia, I'm sure stiles knows what you like." he offers, with a wink that Lydia misses when she looks down to check her phone. Leaving the girls at the table alone, Bonnie takes the opportunity to give Lydia shit for not telling her about stiles.
"So, why didn't you tell me about stiles being here?" she questions.
"Like Stiles said… he wanted to surprise you. And I didn't want to ruin that for him," Lydia answers, with a shrug, avoiding eye contact. She can feel Bonnie's eyes boring into the side of her head. "I'm sure I don't need to tell you that I knew stiles was lying then and I know for a fact you're lying now. Being a witch does has its perks, Lydia." Bonnie says, echoing her thoughts from earlier.
"For fuck sake, Bonnie. Are you doing that mind reading thing again? What happened to privacy?"
"Look, no need to get pissy, Lydia. I didn't venture off into parts neither of you want me to know, but it doesn't take a mind reading spell to figure out that stiles is the reason for your funk." she utters, giving Lydia a knowing look. She trusted Bonnie with all her secrets just like she did with Allison, Kira and Malia, but Lydia knew that she wasn't ready to spill about the sex dream she had about stiles especially since it could've been a onetime thing. No need to rock the boat, right? But before Lydia could even open her mouth to reply Stiles & Jamal were back with their drinks, and like Lydia knew he would he order her a captain Morgan with cranberry juice.
Joining the guys was actually a pretty fun idea. They shared stories about their pasts, jobs and weird Chicago encounters. And of course laughing after Jamal tried (And failed) to hit on bonnie for the gazillionth time until she finally told him she was a happily married woman. Which made Lydia feel terrible because here she is with one of best friends and Stiles and she hasn't thought about her husband once all night. She doesn't miss the look on stiles' face when he catches her rubbing circles on the piece of jewelry that had taken space on her left hand. "Pool, anybody?" they're both snapped out of the overwhelming sadness that was lingering between them, when they see Jamal standing next to a vacant pool table with 4 pool sticks. "I'm in!" Bonnie says. Grabbing her purse and what's left of her drink. Not wanting to dwell on last night or the hurt she saw in stiles' eyes when he caught her playing with her wedding ring, she gets up from the table and joins Jamal and Bonnie at the pool table.
It takes stiles a minute to get up from the table. He's finding it more and more difficult to be around Lydia. Which sucked because he and Lydia were friends first before anything romantic happened between them. The reality of Lydia being married to someone who wasn't him was hitting him hard. Maybe he should just cut out early, but he looks over at the table and sees Bonnie, Jamal and Lydia laughing and gesturing for him to come over. He decides to suck it up. Besides he really was having a good time. When he makes his way over to the group he finds out its girls vs. boys, losers have to buy the next round of drinks.
He can't help but to admire the way Lydia's dress is lifting slightly revealing the back of her upper thighs, as she gathers the balls to rack them. "Take a picture, it'll last longer," he hears Jamal whisper. He flips him off rounding the table to stand next to bonnie. "Hey, no witchy business. Jamal doesn't know about my friends being real life supernatural freaks and its cheating." he says, giving her knowing look,
Bonnie gives him her best "fuck off, stilinski" look for the 'supernatural freaks' remark. Overhearing said remark Lydia chimes in, "Look, no more magic for bonnie today. When we kick your asses it's going to be because we're women, and women are badass, clearly the better gender..." she leans down to make her shot. And as if it she was a professional pool player all the balls go into the hole. She straightens her posture to blow on her stick. They're standing so close she can feel stiles' warm breath on her face, "And overall better pool players." she says smirking, giving Bonnie a high five.
Stiles scuffs at Lydia's cockiness. "You better get your cash out for my drink, red, I want scotch." he says, before landing a perfect shot of his own. Giving Lydia a wink that makes her heart skip a beat. The game goes on like this for an hour or two. It's filled with laughter egos and drinks. The girls won, of course. And they took full advantage of the boys paying. Lydia, unfortunately had more than she bargained for and ended up getting shitfaced. Jamal and Bonnie had to leave early. And because Bonnie knew that if anybody would be able to take care of Lydia it would be stiles. So, she left her bestie in his capable hands after giving stiles a hug goodbye and Lydia a kiss on the head.
Stiles & Jamal agreed to swap cars since Jamal's was parked outside and his was still at the station. Good thing Roscoe was still in beacon hills and he was driving a rental because stiles wouldn't be able to deal with Jamal driving his baby. Stiles helps Lydia to the car and carefully buckles her into the passenger seat. Her speech is slurred and stiles can barely make out what she's saying until he realized he has no idea where he was taking her.
"Lydia, where do you live?"
"No," she mumbles.
"Lydia, I have to take you home." he says, taking his eyes temporarily off the road to look at Lydia.
"No," she repeats louder, "I… I can't go home, not like this... Just take me to my office."
Stiles didn't understand why she didn't want to go home. He could imagine this wouldn't be the first time she got drunk and went home after. So, he's quite sure it's not the first time, but he was willing to bet it was because he was the one bringing her home. No husband would be comfortable with their wife's ex dropping their drunk wife off at their doorstep. And that he could understand.
"I'm not going to leave you at your office this late and you're drunk, Lydia you need someone to take care of you."
Lydia just continued to mumble something incoherently under her breath. He knew that Lydia was easily agitated and stubborn when she was sober. So dealing with a drunk, stubborn and agitated Lydia was a walk in the park. "Fine, you can sober up at my place," He asserts, leaving little to know room to argue.
He hears Lydia sigh and shifts uncomfortably in her seat as she plays with her seatbelt. "I don't think that's a good idea." She says, below a whisper. "Why not? You need someone to look after you and you know that I'm not going to leave you alone since you refuse to go home." Eyes shifting from the road to Lydia, frustration starting to show on his face.
"BECAUSE IT'S A FUCKIN BAD IDEA, STILES!" Lydia shouts, letting a whimper escape her lips. Lydia didn't peg herself as an emotional drunk, but even shitfaced she knew that going to stiles' house after having a sex dream about him was not a good idea. It wasn't because she didn't trust him because she knew she could trust him with her life… she just didn't trust herself to be around him and not give into the clusterfuck that was her feelings.
Stiles pulls into his apartment garage, " Look, since you refuse to let me take you home… I just want to make sure you're sober enough to that take a cab home." His voice is pleading and genuine and once again Lydia feels terrible for yelling at him. Her safety was always a priority and she hears herself cry because nothing has changed and he's still looking at her like she's his everything. He gently strokes the hair that was sticking to her face from the tears she shed earlier from her eyes. She gives him a small smile and agrees to let him take care of her.
When Stiles opens the door to help her out of the car the fresh air hits her and it's like she consumed twice as much alcohol and almost loses her balance, but of course stiles is there to catch her within seconds. They make up to his apartment and Lydia isn't in the apartment 30 seconds before she needs to run to the bathroom to throw up. Stiles is once again there to hold her hair and rubbing soothing circles in her back. Lydia would laugh if she didn't have her head in a toilet. After he had nothing left except an aching stomach and the bitter taste of the alcohol and whatever else she emptied in the toilet she clambered off the floor to follow stiles into the living room.
He offers her some water and she simply smiles. "Thank you…" she says, grabbing the glass from him, "For everything and I'm sorry for snapping at you earlier. I'm just having a bad day." She says, looking at the half filled glass of water stiles gave her (really trying to avoid any and all eye contact with this man).
"Yeah, about that… what's up? Bonnie said you were in a funk. Is everything okay?"
Lydia finally looks up and sees the worry and the hesitation on his face because she knows he doesn't want to pry especially if it's about her marriage. There was always something about the way stiles looked at her that made her want to spill her guts to him and reveal her true feelings no matter how big or small, but telling him that she is confused about the sex dream she had about him, and how ever since he reappeared into her life she can't stop thinking about him, she can't stop wanting to be around him, wanting to be around him and wanting to hold him. It's not fair to him or husband, so she lies.
"Work. I'm stressing over this work related project. You know me… good ol' Lydia martin, I have to be perfect and good at everything. Perfect clothes, perfect hair, perfect job, perfect husband," she vents, voice thick with sadness and frustration. Stiles just sits and lets her get everything off her chest. "Do you know my husband doesn't know me?" she asks. Stiles furrows his eyebrow not understanding the question. "He doesn't know that he's married to a supernatural freak," She spits, voice cracking at the end of the sentence.
Stiles' hangs his head in shame when he hears Lydia repeat the joke he said earlier. "Lydia, you know I didn't-"
"Its ok, stiles. I know you didn't mean it, but it doesn't make it any less true. When Michael looks at me he sees the Lydia martin that doesn't scream her head off when she feels death looming. He sees the Lydia martin that isn't terrified for her friends every night because she can since that they are in trouble. He sees the Lydia martin that didn't leave the life she had in beacon hills behind. She's crying now and looking Stiles directly in the eyes when she says, "the people she loved behind…"
She hears stiles' sharp gasp and is about to turn and walk away, but is stopped when he pulls her into his arms and holds her likes he's trying to squeeze all the pain and regret out of her. He hears a low sob and knows that she's been holding it in for so long. "It's ok, Lydia, I'm here now and I'm not going anywhere." He says, kissing the top of her head and rubbing soothing circles in on her back.
Lydia has never felt this complete in a long time and it's only confirming that coming to stiles' apartment tonight was in fact a bad idea.
