Chapter 3

Stiles squinted his eyes open, then slammed them closed again as he realized he wasn't in his own room. Plus if the large jagged dagger slamming through his head repeatedly was any indication, he was severely hung-over. The sunlight coming through the blinds on the window didn't help.

He inched his way across the bed so that he was at least out of the blinding sunlight before he tried to sit up and that was done in increments. His mouth felt like a heavy wool sock complete with the dead sheep still attached.

He turned to face away from the window and saw a glass of water with a folded piece of paper leaned against it. Setting that as his goal, the teen did an incredibly slow shimmy to sit up beside the nightstand. Finally with a long drawn out pitiful sounding groan. He pulled the note toward him. That's when he uncovered a baggie that included several toiletries and a tube of pain killers.

The note read, "Stiles,

Take the pain killers, drink all of the water and take a long hot shower and then a short cold one. It will help. By the time you get out I should have some breakfast and clean clothes for you.

Be careful kiddo. Back soon,

Mary."

Stiles flipped the covers back and discovered he was only wearing his boxers. Just like that Stiles went into serial killer mode, anyone this nice to a strange teenager had to be a serial killer. He started to stand up concerned that Mary would be back at any minute with a fire axe from down the hall. When he really should have been more concerned with the demonic dwarves and their pickaxes as they were digging for light in various areas of his brain.

He breathed through his teeth for a minute before taking the tube of pain killers and shaking two out into his palm. He popped them into his mouth and swallowed half the glass in almost one swallow. He paused for just a second as his stomach protested at the addition of anything.

Waiting a couple of minutes longer for his stomach to settle, the teen looked around the hotel room for his missing clothes. After he checked all of the drawers and the closet in the small hotel room for any sign of his missing clothes. His shoes sat on the floor at the foot of the bed, no socks in sight.

His belt and the contents of his pockets sat on the dresser. The contents of his wallet were all still there, including the XXL condom he kept tucked under the picture section of his wallet. Not that he missed it at all right now but the remainder of the bottle of Jack was missing, even though he didn't remember finishing the amber colored liquid off last night.

Finally smelling his own armpit and his own breath Stiles decided despite his innate paranoia that there was a very real reason to take the recommended shower. So grabbing the small bag of toiletries and the surprisingly large and thick bath sheet laid out on the foot of the bed he went into the bathroom.

~X~

He had just finished up and was coming out of the bathroom with the bath sheet toweling his hair dry when he realized Mary was back and setting things out on the table. She turned to him and the streak of her hair that he had thought was moonlight was actually a streak of gray.

"Ah just in time, good." she said picking up a bag of clothes off the foot of the other bed and handing it to him. "I went by the sizes and style of your own clothes, so they should fit fairly well. Breakfast can wait a bit while you get dressed," she said shooing him back in the direction of the bathroom.

Nodding Stiles held onto the bath sheet with one hand and the bag of clothes with the other as he said, " Yeah, I'm just going to …" he said sheepishly, indicating the bathroom. The woman just smiled benignly as the teen ducked into the bathroom. Feeling brave Stiles left the door open just a crack so he could ask, "Where are my clothes?"

"Your others are at the hotel laundry, I'm having them done and they'll deliver them to the room later. Despite the excellence of your fake ID. I really find it hard to believe that you're 32. So you smelling like you spilled more of the Jack than you drank, probably wouldn't have gone over well."

"Yeah, no probably not." Stiles said, blushing to his ear tips despite the fact she couldn't see him. As he proceeded to drop the bath sheet and get dressed.

"So Stiles how well do you know the local area?" she called through the door.

His response was muffled as he was struggling to get the t-shirt over his head. After another minute he came out of the bathroom still barefooted. He sat on the foot of the bed to put on socks and his trainers, when he saw her still curious expression he realized she hadn't heard him and repeated, "I've lived here for as long as I can remember, why?" He said as he finished tying his shoes.

Mary indicated the food she had set out on the table and said, "Shall we?" Stiles would have been proud to say he didn't rush the table to stuff his face and suddenly growling stomach, if it were true. Unfortunately, his mother would have been embarrassed at his sudden lack of table manners.

Mary only laughed and said, "Greasy food and coffee are great follow ups to an after binge hangover"

The teen merely shrugged as he consumed four breakfast biscuits, a pile of hash browns, all the bacon, and two hearty slices of French toast. While sipping the second cup of rich smelling coffee.

"Ah to have that metabolism again," the older woman sitting beside him at the little dining table in the room said, with a little smirk. "Is your name really Stiles Stillinski?"

"Yeah well, nickname really. My real name is a state secret" he said the blush tingeing his ears again.

"That's good actually. Keeping your name a secret is good. Names have power you know." she said wisely. "You seem fairly intelligent Stiles. So can I ask why you were in the woods alone, getting bombed in the middle of the night?"

He shrugged again using a fork to make patterns in the syrup left on his plate from the French toast as he said, "Oh you know, bored, frustrated…"

"Feeling sorry for yourself…" Mary supplied helpfully.

"Yeah, maybe," Stiles said dropping the fork as he finally worked up the courage to stare the woman in the eyes.

Mary nodded and said, "Well I don't know about the frustrated part and I'm not going to pry. You can tell me when you want to, but I think I can help with the boredom part, and you can make a little money as well."

The suspicion was back and the teens eyes and rather than being sorry to see it Mary was glad. It meant that despite the events of the previous evening the boy had a healthy survival instinct.

"I need an assistant, I'm offering you the position." her smile turned into a smirk as she added, "I promise I can make your employment package a competitive one. Just one thing. How in the know are you about the supernatural?"

Stiles eyes went wide, his pupils blown in panic, before he managed to squeak out, "Oh, I love that show."

"Good comeback," she nodded her head in approval, "You hesitated just a second too long though. Don't worry, whoever it is you know, I mean them no harm." she said mildly.

"You however, are another matter entirely. Stiles has anyone ever referred to you as a Spark?"