This is "loosely" based on a movie of the same name. All mistakes are mine. I do not own any of the characters. Thank you for reading.

"Dad, what's taking so long? We're going to be late!"

Lydia was standing by the door, backpack on her shoulders, arms crossed, waiting for an adult to finally take her to her to school. She managed to look like a miniature parent at just six years old.

Stiles cursed under his breath as he ran down the stairs, his shirt only partially tucked in. "Almost ready," he yelled out, trying to save time by shoving his feet into already tied sneakers. "You ready to go?"

Lydia let out a dramatic sigh. "Aren't you forgetting something?"

He paused and patted himself down. His keys were in his hand, and he had his wallet.

"Your lunch," she answered, holding her Barbie themed lunch bag up to show Stiles. "Grandpa put it in the fridge."

Stiles jogged to the fridge, pulling out an Avenger's themed lunch bag that he had refused to replace with a boring monochrome one like his other coworkers. Stiles and his dad had come up with a system over the years; his dad usually took care of everybody's lunches and Stiles was in charge of all the other meals at home. This really was for everybody's benefit. His dad could make one hell of a sandwich, but he wasn't allowed near the stove for reasons – reasons that required calling the fire department.

Lunch in hand, Stiles proceeded to herd Lydia into the Jeep, helping her strap in before getting into the driver's seat. But if he thought that his day was already bad because he was running late, the universe decided to send him an additional 'fuck you' in the form of his car not wanting to start.

"Are you fucking kidding me!"

"Daddy! You're not supposed to swear."

Stiles threw a quick sorry over his shoulder and stifled another curse as he turned his attention back to the Jeep.

"Come on, baby, you know I'm not angry with you, but I'm running late and I cannot deal with this right now. I know, I know, an old gal like you deserves to be treated with respect, and I promise I'll pamper you with a nice car wash this weekend, but just, please go along with me this once. Don't quit on me now," he pleaded, turning the key in the ignition again and again. But no matter how much he tried, no matter how much he begged, the only response he got was a pathetic sputtering of an old engine.

"I don't think it's going to start," Lydia piped in from the backseat.

Stiles groaned and banged his head against the steering wheel. It was a Monday, the beginning of the god damned week, he did not need this. His dad had come home only a couple of hours ago from a night shift, he was the one to wake Stiles up after his alarm had failed to go off on time. And now Stiles was going to repay him by asking him to drop Lydia off at school before taking him to work.

With a final deep breath, and one more turn of the key in the ignition, Stiles unbuckled himself and went in search of his dad. A few minutes later, the three of them were strapped into a police cruiser, with his dad still dressed in his pajamas.

"Just remember, sweetie," Stiles said when they finally came to a stop in front of the school. "If anybody asks, it was all daddy's fault."

"I always say that. You're going to have to come up with a different excuse soon," Lydia said as she unbuckled herself, hopping out of the car after Stiles opened the door for her.

Stiles yelled after her, "I love you, have a good day."

"I love you too," Lydia called over her shoulder as she hurried toward the school entrance.

"How many times have I told you to get a new car?" John asked as they pulled out of the school parking lot.

"I cannot believe you just said that about Delilah."

John rolled his eyes. "Well, when Delilah forces me to drive my fully grown son to work after a 12 hour shift it's hard to not say anything."

"I did apologize on her behalf." His dad turned to give him an unamused look. "Look, I know, I know – she's lasted a really long time and it may be time to bid her farewell into her next life. But let me at least get her into the shop. Who knows, it could be something really simple and fixable."

John shook his head in exasperation but didn't say anything else, he knew that Stiles' hesitance stemmed from sentiment for his late wife's car. Stiles, meanwhile, fished his phone out of his pocket a shot a quick text to Scott, asking him to cover for him until he got to work.

When they finally arrived, Stiles barely waited long enough for the cruiser to park before jumping out of his seat and sprinting off with a hasty "See you" over his shoulder.

"Stiles, you forgot your lunch."

Stiles turned around and ran back, grabbing the lunch bag out of his dad's hands. "Thanks," he said and dashed to the building. Stiles cursed as he looked down at his phone, seeing that he was about half an hour late. He decided to forgo the elevators in favor of the stairs, thinking that it would be faster to go up the five flights rather than wait for the elevator. Besides, he wasn't that out of shape.

He had never been so wrong.

Stiles exited the stairway completely out of breath and sweating through his undershirt. He waived a sheepish hello to the receptionist before making his way to his desk, taking a moment to drop his lunch off in the refrigerator in the break room.

Isaac, with his headphones in, was so immersed in his work that he didn't even notice Stiles' arrival. But Scott noticed his entrance, and the panicked look in his eyes only made Stiles want to turn around and go back home.

"Hey, man," Scott said as Stiles took a seat at his desk, "just wanted to let you know, Derek has been making rounds this morning. He noticed you were gone."

Derek Hale was one of the new partners in the firm and the bane of his existence. He had been an up and coming project manager at one of their other branches who had gotten promoted and moved to the current branch after the previous partner had retired. While his work ethic and accomplishments were supposedly legendary, his abilities as a boss were subpar at best – Alice from auditing compared him to the physical manifestation of a cluster headache.

The attitude of the office was a mixture of annoyance and a healthy dose of fear. The man had no qualms about firing people, even if they had personal or family problems – Stiles had witnessed, firsthand, the aftermath of one of these events early on after Derek's transfer. Safe to say, after that day people tended to avoid Derek like the plague, they didn't talk to him unless they had to.

"Fuck," Stiles groaned. "Can this day get any worse?"

"Oh, good, you're finally here. Derek wants to see you in his office," Erica said as she rounded the corner and stopped in front of the shared cubicle.

Stiles jumped in his seat. "Jesus Chris, can you not do that?" He glared at her satisfied smirk.

"Can you be aware of your surroundings?" Erica counteracted. "And you better hurry up, he's not in a good mood."

"When is he ever in a good mood?" Stiles muttered as he stood up.

"Come on, I don't have all day" Erica said as she waited for Stiles to follow along. Stiles threw Scott a defeated look before getting up.

Erica was Derek's secretary, and she was the only person in the office able to handle Derek, even in his worst moods. It seemed impossible, considering the fact that she exuded a no-nonsense attitude and had even made an intern cry for making a borderline sexist joke. But as much as their dynamic didn't make sense, it still somehow managed to work.

"Good luck," she said as she sat down at her desk and starting to click away on her computer.

Stiles muttered his thanks. He took a deep breath before plastering on a pleasant smile and knocking on Derek's office door.

"You wanted to see me?" Stiles asked as he entered after hearing Derek's voice telling him to come in.

"Yes, please, take a seat," Derek said as he gestured to the chair in front of the desk. Stiles sat down as Derek continued to type on his computer. He chanced a glace, trying to decipher his odds of coming out of this ordeal unscathed. But the combination of Derek's unwavering scowl and the confining feeling of the small office left Stiles feeling just as uneasy as he had felt before entering the room.

With a final click of his mouse, Derek turned his attention to Stiles, "Do you know why I've called you into my office?"

Stiles had a few ideas, but he still shook his head no.

"I have noticed a pattern of mistakes in your work recently, especially in the past month," Derek stated as he turned one of his computer screens to face Stiles. "In all of the instances you were spending too many billable hours on single projects, and yet with all that extra time you were still sending in unbalanced reports." Stiles watched as Derek clicked through the different spreadsheets one by one, pointing out the exact mistakes made in each one. "I'd expect this level of work from a new hire straight out of a low level undergraduate program, but from what I understand you've been a tax analyst for over six years."

Stiles felt his face heat up with embarrassment. "Well, I-"

"And on top of that you're now showing up late to work. In fact, this is the second time this month this has happened."

Stiles winced. "I-"

"Mr. Stilinski, the spring deadline is fast approaching. We are all having to work hard to get everything filed on time. I expect you to not only fix your mistakes, but to also have enough respect for your coworkers to show up on time. This kind of behavior is unacceptable."

Stiles didn't say anything, expecting Derek to continue. But Derek stared back at him, lifting an eyebrow as if waiting for a response. "I understand," Stiles answered hastily.

Derek turned the computer screen back. "Good, I'm glad we're on the same page. And I'm sure you also understand that any future tardiness will be met with appropriate consequences. There are plenty of people at this company with busy family lives and they always manage to make it into the office on time. What's your excuse?"

Stiles gave a tense, tight lipped smile. As much as he wanted to launch into an explanation about his car, he didn't think Derek would give a shit about any of it. He was sure Derek could get shot and still come in to work.

"Do you have any questions?" Stiles shook his head no. "Then you're free to go."

Stiles nodded to himself, half terrified of this office visit and half relieved that he managed to come out of this with only a warning. Nevertheless, he didn't waste any time getting out of the office as quickly as physically possible. Stiles threw a quick glance over to Erica, but she was too busy typing something on her computer to pay him any attention.

But just as he was rounding the corner to go back to his cubicle, he barely managed to avoid running into another person.

"Stiles?"

Stiles looked up, feeling a grin spread across his face in recognition. "Jackson?"

"I haven't seen you in years. What are you doing here?" Jackson asked as he pulled Stiles in for a quick hug. Stiles took a moment to observe him, taking note of his pristine designer suit and professional looking, lightly disheveled hair.

"I work here," Stiles answered.

"No shit."

"What are you doing here?" Stiles asked.

"I just got transferred to this branch, it's my first day today."

"I thought you were working overseas."

"I was," Jackson answered. "I had a job in Sweden, got it out of college, it was a pretty nice gig."

"Why did you move back then?"

Jackson shrugged. "You know how it is, one day your parents are trying to kick you out of house and the next they're trying to make you come back." Stiles nodded along, even though his dad always wanted him to stick around even after he got out of high school. "Anyway, I ended up getting a position with this company in New York, worked for them for a couple of years. About a month ago they had this position open up and I thought it wouldn't be a bad idea to hang out here for a while."

"Well, it's cool to have you back," Stiles said. "We'll have to catch up some time."

"Definitely," Jackson agreed as he started walking toward Derek's office. "Actually, I'm having a get together this Friday, like a celebration of me getting this job, you should come."

"Yeah, that sound cool." Stiles smiled at the idea.

"I'm glad you think so. It's going to be at the sushi place downtown, you know the one I'm talking about?"

"Yeah, I've been there once."

"Great. Well, it's going to be at seven, so don't forget."

"I'll be there," Stiles answered as he turned around to go back to his desk. Turning around to walk backwards he asked, "Hey, is it cool if I bring Scott and Isaac along?"

"Scott and Isaac?"

"Yeah, we all went to high school together, remember? Is it cool if they come along too?"

Jackson shrugged. "Sure, why not."

"Cool, I'll let them know. Well, I'll see you later."

Jackson waved back in answer. Stiles turned back around and hurried on to his desk.

"You are never going to guess who the fuck I saw today," Stiles said the moment he made it back to the shared cubicle.

"Who?" Scott turned around.

"Jackson."

Isaac took his headphones out and turned to face Stiles. "Jackson?"

"Jackson," Stiles answered, trying to emphasize the significance of the name.

"You don't mean that Jackson."

"I do mean that Jackson."

Jackson had been somewhat of an enigma growing up. Aside from having wealthy parents he had also been a talented lacrosse star at their high school. Stiles, Isaac, and Scott had been on the team as well, although they were all only talented enough to be used as backup. Nevertheless, they had managed to share some of their high school classes together and from that they had formed a close group during their last couple of years in high school.

"No way, he's here?" Scott asked, excitement coloring his voice.

"Yup. I ran into him on my way here."

"How does he look?" Isaac asked before stammering out, "I mean, how has he been doing?"

"I don't know, I guess he's okay, we didn't have a lot of time to catch up," Stiles answered.

"Wait, what position was he hired for?"

"I'm not sure. Regional manager, I think. That was the last open position I heard about," Stiles answered as he sat down at his desk and turned on his computer.

"Dude."

"I know. By the way," Stiles said as he turned around to face both Isaac and Scott. "He's having a get together this Friday and we've all been invited."

Isaac threw Scott a questioning look to which Scott replied with a shrug. "That will be fun. Do you all want to go together?"

"What kind of question is that?" Isaac asked. "Yeah, we're all going to go together."

"Then that's settled," Stiles said as he turned back to his computer screen. "Now we just need to wait until Friday comes."

"Too bad it's Monday," Scott replied.

Stiles couldn't help from dropping his head onto his desk. "Fuck."