After his initial hesitation, Sam warmed up to answering John's questions. John had the suspicion that Sam liked to talk about what he knew but rarely ever got the chance to indulge in just sharing his knowledge. With his brother, it was most likely just the cliff-notes on how to kill something.

When Dean joined them again, John got the more practical side of this knowledge which would come in handy more than the theory.

Over the next half an hour, John learned more about the supernatural than he'd ever imagined but he should have known that this was a bad idea. The Winchesters weren't stupid, they did pick up on his special interest in werewolves and after his slip with the omega streak, John was busted.

"I won't." John shook his head as an answer to Sam's question about the local pack. There was no point in denying that there was a local pack, though. "They are just people living their lives. You had a look into our death records, I don't think there's even one case with the victim missing their heart."

"True." Dean nodded and reached for the last donut in the box. He took a bite and licked powdered sugar off his thumb. "Are you a member of the pack?"

John blinked at him. He shouldn't be surprised by that conclusion but it had never even occurred to him that the Winchesters might think that he was part of the pack.

"Me?" John couldn't help but laugh at the idea. "I'm just somebody who stumbled into this mess."

"Most would run screaming in the other direction if they stumbled into something like this." Dean finished his donut and washed it down with the rest of his coffee. "But not you. You made friends with them."

"Aside from the accident and yes, I do call it an accident." John gave them a challenging eye. "Beacon Hills is a quiet town. There are no gruesome deaths like you described with the monsters you hunt. When I first met Stiles I thought he was just a homeless teenager. Which is basically what he is. With him came Derek. He doesn't want to kill and he feels guilty for what he's done to those teenagers. You should have seen his face when I told him that I'm going to keep an eye out for people coming out to the lake." He paused, rolling his cup between his hands. "What I want to say is: Beacon Hills is safe. To be honest, you are the ones disturbing the peace around here. Everybody is holding their breath, waiting for you to go on a killing spree."

Those weren't the exact words but Stiles had said that hunters liked to take care of rogue werewolves. Agnes and later Mark as well had confirmed that hunters had slaughtered entire packs, children and human members included, just because they could.

"We're not like that," Sam hurried to say, clearly disgusted by the idea.

"If you knew that somebody is a werewolf would you let them live?" John asked. He kept both brothers in his line of sight but his focus was on Dean. He was the one who would have shot Stiles on a hunch alone. Neither of them gave him a clear answer. They just shifted uncomfortably in their chairs and shared another glance.

"Thought so." John finished his coffee and stood. "I'm an officer of the law. It's my duty to protect the people in Beacon Hills."

"Not all of them are people," Dean reminded him.

"As far as I'm concerned they are." John was in civil but he put all the authority he could muster into his stance. "As long as they obey the law the members of the pack are the people I have sworn to protect. And at the moment it looks like I have to protect them from you." He fixed them with a stern look. "Thank you for the information but I think it would be for the best if you left Beacon Hills."

When John walked back to his car, the Winchesters were watching him through the curtains, he didn't have to look back to know that. So John didn't idle and put the car into gear quickly. Where he was heading he didn't know, though. It was his day off but he felt too restless to just go home. He would have liked to stay to see if the Winchesters left but for one, he doubted that they would back off this easily, not with knowing about the pack of werewolves now, and second, John didn't know how far they would go to get information out of him. He didn't put it past them to jump into his car and to force him at gunpoint to tell them what he knew. That second part most likely only happened in Hollywood but he'd thought the same about werewolves.

For a while, John just drove. He cursed himself for outing the pack like this but nothing he could do about that now. On the other hand, he'd gotten quite some information from the Winchesters. Nothing too in-depth but he got a general idea and he had some more things to google.

On a whim, he stopped at the library. The internet was nice and dandy and he'd found out a lot about werewolves that way but this felt like something he had to look up in old leather-bound books. How much he would find in a public library he was about to find out but it was a start. This whole supernatural thing had turned out to be way more complex than he'd thought and he wanted information from as many different sources as possible.

"I could ask Agnes," John muttered under his breath when he entered the library. "If they have a wine cellar in that mansion they for sure have a library."

John wasn't that much of a reader, that had been Claudia's thing, so when he entered the library he must look lost enough for one of the employees to come over and to ask if he needed help. Her name tag read Denise and she was more than happy to set him up with a library card and to show him the section about folklore.

Since it wasn't busy at this time of the day, Denise helped him to get started with some books about European folklore.

"Interesting subject," Denise commented when she put two more books on the table.

"Just something to keep the mind busy," John said, not sure how to justify his interest. He'd put his notepad on the table to take notes so it was obvious that this wasn't just some leisure reading.

"Not judging, Deputy," Denise said in a motherly way. She was in her thirties, not more than ten years older than John, but she had that vibe.

"Claudia liked to mix murder mysteries with bodice rippers," Denise said, a fond smile playing on her lips.

"You knew my wife?" She'd called him deputy just a second ago so she knew who he was but that she remembered what Claudia liked to read kind of sucker-punched him. John fought the urge to rub his sweaty palms on his thigh. He needed a drink. His mouth was too dry, his throat too tight, and he needed a fucking drink.

"She came here quite often and I know my regulars," Denise said, oblivious to his sudden distress. "We talked now and then."

Of course, people had known Claudia. Beacon Hills was a small town and she had grown up here. It still felt weird that other people remembered her. That a librarian even remembered what kind of books she liked.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to upset you." She'd noticed how much this was getting to him and was retreating but he held her back.

"What did you talk about?" John asked, his voice breaking.

Denise looked around but the library was still mostly empty, nobody was demanding her attention right now, so after a moment of hesitation, she took a seat next to John.

"Everything and nothing, most of the time," Denise admitted. "Books, mostly. That one time we saw a mother with her baby. Claudia mentioned that she wanted kids, at least two. She said that you would be a good dad." She smiled at him.

John felt his throat working but he wasn't able to form words.

"She was a bit worried about your job, though," Denise added, her smile turning sad. "Beacon Hills is a quiet town but being a deputy …"

"Yeah, we had that talk. More than once," John managed to say. Claudia had supported him but they both had known that every time he put on his uniform there was a chance that he didn't come back.

"Ironic that she's the one to die first." John let out a bitter laugh.

For a long moment, Denise didn't say anything, there was nothing to say.

"How are you holding up?" She eventually asked.

"Getting there," John said honestly. He wasn't doing great but he was getting better. "Keeping my mind busy." He nodded to the stack of books.

"I'll leave you to it, then." She patted his forearm and stood. "But John?"

"Hmm?"

"If you need a distraction or just an open ear, the library is the place to go to."

"I'll keep it in mind." John meant it. He hadn't even thought about the library before but he might come in from time to time. He liked the atmosphere here and Denise seemed like somebody who liked to get to know her patrons but he didn't get the impression that she was one to gossip.

After a moment to collect himself, John dug into the books.

He found some legends that hadn't made it to the internet yet but they were mostly about the omega streak. Which made sense. Those were the werewolves with the body count.

John got lost in his research and suddenly it was past five in the afternoon. He didn't know if Stiles would come over for dinner, he'd said that he might not make it, but John wanted to be home just in case. So John gathered his notes, put most of the books on the return table, and with a small stack under his arm he headed to the front desk. He'd picked three books with hints at the other kind of werewolf but he needed to have a closer look at them and when he'd come across a section about something called a Nöck in a book about German myths, he'd added that to his stack as well.

"Looks like you found something to keep your mind busy," Denise commented when she checked him out. Since he was new she explained the return policy to him and stressed the point of fees for late returns.

"I'm an officer of the law." John puffed out his chest. "Do you know how bad it would look if I had outstanding fines on my record?"

"I knew we would understand each other." Denise laughed and slid the stack of books towards him. "Hope to see you here again soon."

"I have to at least bring back these." He tapped the stack. He would have loved to chat with Denise for a little while longer, it was refreshing to talk to somebody who wasn't something supernatural or a hunter, but he wanted to have dinner ready just in case Stiles showed up.

Stiles wasn't there at six and he wasn't there at seven either.

John ate by himself. He kept his mind from worrying about Stiles by reading that section about Derek he'd found. Stiles had been right, the book said that Nöcks would drown people if they entered their body of water but that they would help out people from time to time. John thought about Dean and the fish, that made a lot more sense now. The book mentioned that Nöcks could keep a person they had drowned as some kind of servant but the text didn't go into detail there. There was nothing about how to get rid of a Nöck either. The book just said to avoid them.

Deep in thoughts, John put the dishes in the dishwasher and since Stiles still hadn't shown up, he put the leftovers in the fridge.

He did call him but Stiles didn't answer his phone. By now it was clear that Stiles wouldn't come topside today, at least that was what John hoped was keeping him from answering his phone, but it still felt wrong.

When around eight his doorbell rang, John's heart skipped a beat in excitement but the "Glad you made it" died on his lips when he opened the door.

"Can I come in?" Dean asked.