"Fuck." Stiles slumped down in his seat while Chris swirled around to face the intruder and Victoria had her hand between the braided cushions. On a gun, no doubt.

"Didn't expect you this soon." John was the only one unfazed by Derek's sudden appearance but he was facing the door and must have seen him before he'd spoken up.

"I didn't stay under as long as I should have," Stiles admitted. It was not an exact science but whenever he got injured, like when he ran into a burning house, he needed to stay under longer to fully recover. When he cut it short like today, his time away from Derek became more limited.

"I wanted to buy a new phone before you show up," Stiles whined. It had been an optimistic plan even without the detour to interrogate the Argents. However, not having a phone sucked. Not having a car sucked too but the phone thing was the one easier to fix.

"Are you arresting them?" Derek asked John, ignoring Stiles.

"Not yet," John said. "But they were just telling us about the other hunters involved."

"What are their names?" Derek asked and crossed his arms over his chest. He glared at the Argents from under thick eyebrows and the fact that there was a growing puddle around his feet just emphasized that he was not human.

"What are you going to do once you have their names?" Chris asked.

"For now? Nothing." Derek nodded over to John. "But if he can't punish them by human laws, I will punish them."

"Why do you even care about those filthy animals?" Victoria asked.

"Their names."

Stiles would have liked to stay for longer, John was asking about locations and likely accomplices and things like that but for Derek, a name was enough. Stiles didn't know how he was able to distinguish one John Smith from the other but once Derek knew the name of a person, he could find them anywhere.

So once Chris had told him the names, Derek was no longer interested in the conversation.

"Stiles." He urged him.

"Yeah, yeah." Stiles made. "Keep me updated." He waved at John and followed Derek into the kitchen. Chris came after them and Stiles would have loved to see his face when Derek whisked them away through the kitchen sink but then he was already in the lake.

"Sorry for interrupting," Derek said.

"Not your fault." Stiles let out a sigh. Now that he allowed his body to relax, he felt the lingering aches in his bones. He needed a little more time to recover.

"How's Peter?"

"Stable." The image of Peter lying in that sterile room would haunt him for quite a while, that was for sure. Especially since it looked as if his condition wouldn't change anytime soon.

Stiles didn't want to think about that and down here with Derek, he didn't have to think. He let himself sink deeper and then he was just drifting in Derek's presence.

When Stiles came back to his cabin it was past ten in the evening.

He had another email from John with an update. Peter was still in a coma but Emily would be allowed to go home tomorrow. Wherever home was for her at the moment. The house was gone. Stiles hadn't asked but he'd heard something about the Hales staying with various members of the pack living in town. It was a big pack and most of them hadn't been living at the main house anyway.

So far there hadn't been any arrests but the warrants were out and the whole department was on the case. Things like this needed time, Stiles got that. It was still frustrating.

Stiles wrote a short answer to John and he even remembered to mention Isaac as the possible contact Kate had in the pack. John might have talked to him already but Stiles wanted to bring it up just in case.

It was possible that a member of the pack with ill intent had deliberately been working with Kate but it was more likely that she'd used somebody without him realizing what she was doing. He probably should let Talia know about this as well but that was John's job. Maybe he'd already spoken with her, who knew? For sure not Stiles who had been under the whole fucking day.

Besides, Stiles was not keen on meeting the alpha or anybody else from the pack. He was not their hero. He just wanted to be left alone. On the other hand, he wanted to check on Peter.

It was late, he didn't want to bother John, the man needed some sleep, but without his car, Stiles' options were limited. He didn't want to wait until morning, he wanted to see Peter now.

"Derek?" Stiles walked out to the shore. He would arrive at the hospital dripping wet, if Derek was even willing to take him there, but he didn't care.

"Yes?" Derek's head popped out of the water. He must have been lingering nearby. Stiles had expected that he had to dive into the lake to get his attention.

"Would you bring me to Peter?"

To Stiles' surprise, Derek said yes and a second later they were standing in a restroom.

"At least it's a men's restroom," Stiles muttered under his breath while he tried to wring as much water out of his clothes as possible. "Do you even know the difference between a ladies' restroom and one for men? And why you shouldn't just pop up in the wrong one?"

More babbling to himself Stiles didn't expect an answer. Why Derek even stuck around, he didn't know. He'd expected him to just drop him off and to disappear right after.

Stiles threw away the paper towels he'd used to dry off his face and hair and opened the door to peek outside. They had to be close to Peter's room, Derek knew where he was going, but Stiles didn't recognize the hallway.

"This way." Derek stepped past him and turned left.

"You know, that ability of yours is useful but creepy as fuck." Stiles fell in step with him. Usually, he was on the receiving end of Derek's stalking, it was a rare occasion that he saw the other side.

At this time of the night, Stiles didn't expect to run into anybody from the pack. There was nothing they could do anyway, the doctors didn't even allow anybody in the room with Peter.

"Cora?" Stiles asked when they rounded a corner and he spotted her standing at the window, looking into Peter's room.

She swirled around with a yelp.

"Stiles?" She asked but her eyes zoomed in on Derek. "Is that …?"

They hadn't met before but there were not many people associated with Stiles who would be walking around in damp clothes with their hair plastered to their skull. If nothing else, the wet trail Derek was leaving everywhere he went, was a dead giveaway.

"This is Derek," Stiles confirmed. "Derek, this is Cora Hale."

Derek gave her a nod but walked right past her to the window.

"How is Peter?" He asked.

"Still the same," Cora answered, studying Derek's back. "What are you doing here?"

"I wanted to see Peter." Stiles stepped up to have a look himself. "Shouldn't his healing increase with time?" It had been two days. For a human two days were nothing but a werewolf could recover from near-death three times over that time.

"I don't know." Her voice broke.

Having a closer look at her, Stiles could tell that she'd been crying. Her face was red and blotchy, her eyes rimmed red and she could use a tissue. Sniffling she wiped her eyes with the heel of her hand.

Stiles didn't know what to do. He just stood there, wringing his hands, while he waited for her to compose herself.

"John got the names of the hunters who did this," Stiles said just to fill the awkward silence. "The whole department is working on the case, they will catch them. They will pay for this." It wouldn't help Peter, Stiles was painfully aware of that fact, but it would get the pack some closure for what they had been through.

"If he can't arrest them, I will come after them," Derek said. "They can't hide from me."

Cora looked up at him with big eyes.

"You'll come after everybody who has something to do with the fire?" She asked. She had red spots high on her cheeks but under that she was pale and she looked as if she was about to start crying again.

"Yes." Derek looked her straight in the eye. "They will all pay."

"Before we start with the drowning we let John do his job, don't we?" Stiles put a hand on Derek's forearm. He seemed a little too eager to go after those hunters.

"I should leave," Cora said, her voice cracking. She hurried away but at the corner, she stopped. "Thank you. Both of you. Without you …" She was choking on tears again.

Before Stiles could say anything, she fled around the corner.

"This is really getting to her," Stiles said once they were alone. Not that he blamed her. She'd been trapped in a burning house and barely escaped with her life. Her whole family had almost died and Peter was still in a coma. What was visible of his skin still looked like raw meat.

For long minutes Stiles and Derek stood there, watching Peter through the glass. The only movement in the room was Peter's chest rising with every woosh of the vent but that got old rather quickly.

"Do you want to come home with me?" Derek asked.

"No." Stiles shook his head. "I think I want to stay for a little while longer."

Derek accepted it with a nod and left him alone.

Stiles watched Peter through the glass, lost in thoughts. This was not right. Peter didn't deserve this.

"Stiles?" Somebody pulled him out of his thoughts.

"Scott?" Stiles had expected somebody from the pack so it took him a moment to comprehend that it was Scott who was coming over to him in a little jog. "What are you doing here?"

It was almost midnight in the middle of the week. Scott had school tomorrow. Well, technically so had Stiles but he figured with him recovering from running into a burning house he could take the week off. But they should find an excuse to take him out of school permanently, there was no point in going any longer.

"Mom's pulling a double shift, I brought her a later dinner," Scott explained with an easy grin. "What are you doing here?"

"Your mom works here?" Stiles asked to distract him and walked them away from Peter's room.

"She's a nurse in the ER." With a suspicious look around Scott's voice dropped into a whisper. "Is it true that you saved Cora's family? They say you drove your car through the front door when it was stuck. And that you ran back in because there were still people missing."

"Yeah, that was me." Stiles rubbed the back of his head. It had been all over the news but they had kept his name out. But Beacon Hills was a small town and he was the sheriff's nephew, word got around.

Of course, Scott had questions. How couldn't he? His best friend was a hero. Scott wanted to know everything but this was not the right place for this so they somehow ended up at Scott's place. It looked like they would have a sleepover.

"Don't you have to call your uncle?" Scott asked when they were getting comfortable in his room.

"He's pulling a double shift as well." Stiles lied easily.

On their way here they had stopped to get pizza and now they were having midnight pizza on the floor in Scott's room while Stiles told him in detail about his dinner with the Hales. Minus the werewolf part and the part about him dating Peter, of course. And how that had ended with him running into the burning house.

"Man." Scott reached for another slice of pizza. "You're insane."

"Peter and Emily were still in there." Stiles shrugged. "I had to do something."

"Still insane." Scott fought with a string of cheese but he was grinning like an idiot. "Is it true that it wasn't an accident? They say that it has been the same people who kidnapped you and the others."

"It's a theory," Stiles answered vaguely. Scott didn't know about werewolves and hunters so to him this was somebody attacking a well-liked family for no reason.

They spent half the night coming up with more and more ridiculous theories of who was behind this and why. It was easy fun.