Upon reflection, Stiles decided it was probably safer to head on toward Italy during the day, anyway. It was becoming obvious that if he wanted any answers about the child, he would have to extract those answer from either the Templars or the vampires. And of the two, only one was likely to talk before trying to kill him.
Another thing had also become apparent. As much as he'd love to prove Derek wrong, and he was wrong about Stiles cheating at least, Stiles had somehow decided that the child was his. He wasn't sure if he'd always known it and refused to accept it or maybe he'd just come to realize that Argent wasn't blinded by rage and hurt and betrayal and certainly wouldn't lie about believing Stiles was the father, especially since he didn't think Stiles actually cheated on Derek. There had to be another explanation. And Stiles had to figure out what it was.
They rented a car this time, with Finstock driving, but by the time they got just over the border into Italy, Stiles had the feeling they were being followed. Finstock evidently had this feeling too, because when they entered Ventimiglia, after under an hour of driving, Finstock pulled over and they took a train instead.
When they got off the train, a group of men in large white robes with a massive red cross embroidered across the front circled them. They dismissed Lydia and Finstock without a second glance.
Finstock looked annoyed.
"What is it?" Stiles hissed, but Finstock just shook his head slightly.
The leader spoke, his English perfect. "Zycie Stilinski, son of Zoya Stilinski, how wonderful. We have been waiting a very long time for you to come here."
With that, he gave a little nod and Stiles felt a prick on the side of his neck.
He heard Finstock shouting something, but he was yelling from a very long way away, and then Stiles collapse backward into the waiting arms of the holiest of holy antisupernatural elite, the Knights Templar.
Agent Chris Argent generally kept to a nighttime schedule, but he spent the afternoon prior to the full moon awake in order to conduct some last-minute research. Unfortunately, Erica's revelation only served to complicate matters. Despite all of his and BUR's combined sources, Laura Hale and her drones were still missing. Stiles's son remained impossible and Derek Hale was still out of commission. The Alpha was, most likely, no longer drunk, but, given the impending full moon, Argent had seen him safely back behind bars with strict instructions that this time no one was to let him out or there would be uncomfortable consequences.
He was so involved in his current work that he was behind schedule for his own confinement. His personal clavigers awaited him in the Newark foyer wearing expressions of mild panic. They were accustomed to Newark's Beta, tamest and most prepared of the pack, arriving several hours ahead of moonrise.
"Sorry," was Argent's only comment.
He held out his wrist obediently, as he could already feel the strain of the moon, even though it had not year peeked over the horizon.
They led him down into the pack dungeon and into his cell. It wasn't long before the pain and noise and madness of the moon took him.
He awoke to the sound of Derek yelling. This was fairly commonplace, so Argent barely noticed.
"Who is Alpha of this damn pack?" The roar carried through the dungeon.
"You, sir," said a timid voice. They were calling him 'sir'. This couldn't be good, thought Argent.
"And who is currently giving you a direct order to be released from this cell?"
"That would be you."
"And yet who is still locked away?"
"That would still be you."
"Yet somehow you do not see what's wrong."
"Argent said – "
"Argent, my ass!"
"Yes, sir."
Argent yawned. His clavigers noticed he was awake and unlocked the door, bringing him raw meat and clothes. By the time he'd eaten and dressed, Derek had almost – but not quite – convinced his own clavigers to let him out. The young men were looking harassed and had, at least, passed some clothing through to Derek.
Argent wandered over unhurried.
"Chris, let me out now."
Argent ignored him. He took the key and sent the clavigers to see to the rest of the pack, who were starting to wake up.
"Do you remember what the Newark Pack was like when you first came to challenge for it?"
Derek paused in his yelling and his pacing to look up in surprise. "Of course I do. It wasn't that long ago."
"Not so nice, the previous Alpha. Excellent fighter, of course, but he'd gone a bit mad." Argent shook his head. He hated talking about his previous Alpha.
"Your point." Derek could only be surprised out of his impatience for a brief length of time.
"You're becoming a bit like him."
Derek took a deep breath and then worried at his lower lip with his teeth. "Huh."
He didn't say another word and neither did Argent. Derek stared down at the floor of his cell.
"It is time for you to face up to your responsibilities, Derek Hale. You have had enough time to wallow in your mistake."
"Excuse me?"
Argent had had more than enough of his Alpha's behavior and he was a master of perfect timing. Unless he was wrong, and Chris Argent was rarely wrong, Derek Hale was ready to admit the truth. And even if Argent was, somehow wrong, Derek couldn't be allowed to continue to act like this simply out of stubbornness.
"You aren't fooling any of us."
Derek resisted admission of guilt even as his face crumbled.
"But I kicked him out."
"Yes, you did and wasn't that a stupid thing to do?"
"Possibly."
"Because?" Argent crossed his arms and dangled the key to his Alpha's cell temptingly from one fingertip.
"Because there is no way he cheated on me. Not Stiles. And not with Laura."
"And?"
"And there has to be some sort of explanation for the child." Derek paused. "But it did smell like them."
Argent held up a hand. "But?"
"But there's no way Stiles kept a hold of her for nine months to have a child without me noticing. There has to be another explanation." This was followed by a much longer pause. "He's never going to forgive me for this, is he?"
Argent had no mercy. "I wouldn't. But then, I have never precisely been in his situation before."
"Dammit. Couldn't he have stayed around and argued with me some more? Did he have to disappear so quickly?"
"You do recall that you looked like you were going to attack, don't you?"
"I would never hurt Stiles. I'd rather die."
"Yes, well, that doesn't mean you don't look like you could hurt him."
Derek looked, if possible, even more guilty.
"Are you going to behave yourself now? Stay out of the everclear?"
"I guess."
Argent let his Alpha out of his cell.
"So what do I have to do to win him back? How do I convince him to come home?"
"You are forgetting that, given your treatment of him, he may not want to come home."
"Then I'll make him forgive me." Derek's voice was both loud and anguished.
"That's not quite how it works."
Derek glared.
"You remember groveling?"
Derek glared again. "I guess he's gone to Italy? It'll take me some time to get there. Boats take forever, but hopefully I can catch up."
Argent looked surprised. "How did you guess?"
"That's where I would have gone for answers."
"Well, you'll have to wait a little."
"What now? He's in danger. I need to find him."
"Stiles can take care of himself." Argent put his foot down. "You have responsibilities here. Laura Hale has disappeared, as have all of her drones. Completely gone. I have been trying to find out what and why and where, but it has been somewhat hectic, what with you drunk all the time and Jackson missing, I'm doing the work of three people. You can't run off quite yet."
Derek frowned. "Oh right. Jackson. I forgot about him."
Argent sighed.
"Fine. I'll give you three days. I have to trust you're right. Stiles can take care of himself and I'm sure he took Finstock with him. But only three days."
Argent let out a sigh of relief. "He is much better at taking care of himself then you give him credit for."
Derek glared. "Yes, but he also likes to run into the middle of things. I'm only staying because Stiles definitely won't take me back if Laura gets hurt because I was too drunk to watch out for her. He may even think I did it on purpose. I'll lose him forever. You'd think she was his sister instead of mine."
Argent had to work very hard to keep from rolling his eyes. He suspected Derek couldn't decide whether to be more worried that his sister – whatever the state of their relationship was currently – was missing or that Stiles was mad and potentially too angry to ever forgive him. But whatever would get his Alpha to help was fine was all Chris Argent could really ask for.