Danny left that night with Stiles in a much better mood than he had been in a long time. Sure, they had talked about his mom a little bit, watched some TV, eaten some pizza, but he felt as though they had also gotten to know each other, as though he made a friend in the goalie that had previously not liked him very much. Stiles cleaned up the pizza box and headed upstairs to his room, taking another look at the pages of information about curing werewolves before sighing and tucking them away again. There were tons of theories, but none of them fit into the lore that seemed to be real life. Every single one of them seemed like bullshit to him, and as far as he could tell, Scott agreed.

"What are you still doing up?" Sheriff Stilinski walked into Stiles' room, surprised to find his son in bed with the light on, reading a book.

"Couldn't sleep." Stiles shrugged. "Good book, you know how that goes."

"You'd best try and find a way to get some rest, it's a school night," he pointed out.

"Will do."

"Oh, and I noticed that there's no left over pizza?" He leaned against the door frame, looking at his son, one eyebrow raised. "You eat the whole thing?"

"No, I had a friend over."

"Really? Didn't look like Scott was in much of a pizza sharing mood when he stormed out of here earlier."

"He wasn't, it wasn't Scott."

"Stiles…we've talked about this, you're not supposed to have girls here when I'm not around!"

"It wasn't a girl, dad." Stiles rolled his eyes, dog-earing the page he was on and setting his book on the nightstand. "I do have other friends, you know."

"You do? Since when?"

"I don't know, since always, they just didn't used to come over."

"Well tell me about this new friend of yours, then."

"Dad, it's 3 AM."

"You seem pretty awake, I'm pretty awake…I want to be a part of your life, Stiles." He walked in, sitting down on the edge of the bed. "I know it's been hard without your mother and with me working all of the time, but you're still my son and I want you to know that I know that."

"Of course I know that, dad." He smiled at his father, glad that he was taking an interest. He sat up, deciding that he might as well spend some time talking to his father, after all, this was a fairly rare occasion.

"So, tell me about this new friend."

"His name's Danny, we're on the Lacrosse team together except, well, he actually plays. He's the goalie." Stiles continued to tell his father about Danny for about 15 minutes before switching around to other things – school, the book Stiles was reading (High Fidelity, by Nick Hornby), girls (namely Lydia and how he was finally giving up on his crush since the 3rd grade) and eventually, they both fell asleep, Stiles in the bed, his father on the floor, too exhausted to even go across the hall to his own room.

When Stiles' alarm went off at 6:30 the next morning, despite less than three hours of sleep, he felt refreshed. He and his father hadn't had a heart to heart like that in a really long time, maybe ever, and as he shook his father awake, he couldn't help but feel like today was going to be a better day, even if he wasn't on the right foot with Scott.

"You seem happier," Danny pointed out, sitting next to Stiles in chemistry instead of taking his usual spot in front of him.

"Had a good night last night." Stiles shrugged.

"Wow, I didn't know that gross pizza and some TV with me could be so good for the soul," Danny teased.

"Who said it was all you?" Stiles threw back.

"Oh? Did you have someone else in your house after me? Busy boy!"

"No, no." Stiles laughed, shaking his head. "My dad came home from work late last night and, I don't know, we actually talked."

"Really?" Danny smiled. He didn't know much about the relationship between Stiles and his father, but he knew that, with the loss of a mother and a wife, as well as all of the responsibility of being the Sheriff, it had to be a strained one.

"Yeah, I was up late reading and he came in and kind of decided that it was time to have a conversation and we started talking and just…didn't really stop until we both fell asleep."

"That's really great." Danny smiled, opening his notebook and turning his attention to the front of the room as class started. Stiles tried to do the same, though once again, his focus was elsewhere.

Scott wasn't in class…again, meaning that he was out doing something or trying to find a cure, and Stiles didn't like what that might mean. He had done so much research to try and help his friend, and it was useless, at least it had been so far.

After school, Stiles decided to drop by Scott's house and see what was up. He started climbing onto the roof, heading for his best friend's bedroom window when he heard a car pull up.

"Use the front door, Stiles." Melissa McCall stepped out of her car, hands on her hips as she saw the teenager trying to sneak into her son's bedroom window.

"Sorry, Ms. McCall," he stated, vaulting down from the roof and onto the ground next to the woman. "Just wanted to see if Scott was home."

"Do you know how to knock?" she asked, rolling her eyes as she unlocked the door. "I don't know if Scott's here, but you're welcome to go up and see for yourself."

"Thanks Ms. M." Stiles saluted her playfully and ran up the stairs to see if his best friend was in. To his surprise, Scott was still in bed, covers pulled up around him. "Hey…" Stiles walked over, poking his friend. "You okay?"

"What?" Scott woke up, looking up at Stiles. "Yeah, yeah, I'm fine."

"You don't look fine," Stiles pointed out. "And you have to stop missing class or you're going to have to repeat the year. I brought you notes and your assignments, though." He opened his backpack, prepared to take the materials out, but Scott reached out, stopping him.

"There's no point," he stated, shaking his head. "Derek came by last night. He wants me to join his pack."

"So?" Stiles shrugged. "Just tell him no."

"He's not the same, Stiles, he's different, he's…he's not our friend anymore. He said that I had a week to think about it before he'd ask me again, but I think…I think he's going to do something to Allison if I say no."

"So protect her," Stiles said, sinking into Scott's desk chair. "You and I both know that with her skills and yours combined, you can help keep her safe." He offered his friend an encouraging smile. "But no matter what, moping around in bed all day isn't going to help things."

"I guess you're right…" Scott sighed, pulling himself up into a sitting position. "I should go over and talk to her, maybe let her know what's going on. I guess now that I'm not hiding all of this from her, she deserves to know."

"Atta boy." Stiles smiled, trying not to care that, even though he was the one with the ideas and suggestions, it was Allison that Scott wanted to talk to. "I'll let you get all pretty for your lady, but don't forget to do your homework, okay?" He pulled out the papers and left them on Scott's desk. "I don't want to go to college without my best friend in tow."

"Thanks." Scott nodded appreciatively towards Stiles and headed for the bathroom.

Stiles hopped in his jeep and drove back to school for Lacrosse practice…just in case that, with Scott out, he had a chance at first line and maybe seeing some playing time.

A/N: I know, this chapter was Danny light, but I think it's important to touch on the other relationships in Stiles' life. Don't worry, next chapter will see more of Danny and Stiles interacting, I promise!