The sheriff didn't knock at the Hale house's door the next day or the day after that so Peter was pretty sure whoever the kid had been, he hadn't told the sheriff. And it didn't look like the body had been found either but he doubted that anybody would find it. At least not this decade.

So Peter turned his attention to other things.

To babysitting Emily for example. The girl had come down with the flu and as a human, she had to suffer through it. Why it had to be him who had to bring her fresh tea and read her story after story, Peter didn't know. Okay, he didn't have a nine to five like the others, strictly speaking he didn't work at all, but even if Emily's parents had to work, Pamela and Walter were retired, why couldn't they look after the kid? Reading stories was basically in the job description for grandfathers but Walter was off with some church thing and Pamela out to buy more supplies for the garden. Peter appreciated the fresh fruits and vegetables but couldn't she let the garden be for one day and look after the sick child? Apparently not which was the reason Peter was stuck with that duty.

He didn't mind that much, his complaining was mainly out of principle alone. But Emily liked the way he read the stories, with sarcastic comments sprinkled in, so he sat with his back propped up against the headboard, the feverish child tucked into his side and read to her until she fell asleep.

When he was sure that she was deep asleep, her breath heavy from her congested nose, he untangled her and slipped out of the bed. He had stains of snot on his shirt and he was reeking of sweat and sickness and the medication he had given her earlier but to his own surprise, he didn't mind. Nothing a shower and a fresh shirt couldn't fix.

Emily was still sleeping when he came out of the bathroom and it looked as if she would sleep for quite a while now. Earlier the coughing had kept her up.

"How's she doing?" Cora asked when he came into the living room. She was back from school but instead of starting with homework right away, she was busy on her phone.

"Sleeping." Peter watched her from the doorway. It hadn't been long since Cora had been a nine-year-old he had read stories to. And when had he become a sentimental old man?

"Being sick sucks." Cora made point of sniffing the air. Even after his shower, Peter was pretty sure that she could smell the traces on him. And that was nothing compared to what Emily was reeking of. Poor kid but at least human kids seem to bounce back from something like this pretty quickly.

"Can you keep an eye on her for a while?" Peter asked. Emily should be sleeping for the next hours, at least, but he didn't want to leave her alone just in case.

"Why don't you do it?" Cora had turned her attention back to her phone like the teenager she was. "I'm going out with a friend in a bit."

"I want to get some books from the library, I'm getting sick of reading this series to her." Emily was enjoying the stories but some variety didn't hurt and it would keep them both sane.

"Can't you ask Boyd or Isaac?"

"They're still at school, lacrosse training," Peter reminded her. "And Erica has work after school. At the moment it's just you and me so you're going to keep an eye on her while I'm gone."

Cora groaned with a hint of a growl.

"Park your ass on that couch until I'm back," Peter snapped at her. "If she wakes up, you check if she needs anything. I won't be long."

Cora glared at him but didn't object. Knowing that this was all he would get from her, Peter left the house. He wasn't worried that Cora would skip out the second he was out of the driveway, she was a wolf after all. She wouldn't abandon a pack member in need. On the outside, she might be all huff and puff but on the inside, she loved her cousin. Well, second cousin. Not that that made a difference.

Peter could have waited with the library run until the rest of the pack was home but this was one of the times it was likely that the sheriff's nephew was at the library as well.

Even if he saw the kid there, Peter doubted that he was the one he'd met at the lake but so far no other name had come up. Peter had even spent an evening with Cora's yearbook but so far no luck. The kid didn't go to Beacon Hills High.

When Peter wanted to pull into the lot of the library, he had to wait for a beat-up jeep to exit first. Peter didn't pay much attention to it, his mind was on what kind of books he should get for Emily and that he might need Denise's help to find something for her, but then he noticed a familiar face behind the wheel of the jeep.

Library forgotten Peter turned the car around and followed the jeep. It was a pretty distinctive car so Peter kept his distance to not alert the kid to his presence.

However, he might not have been as sneaky as he'd thought because the kid drove right to the sheriff's station. Peter drove by slowly but kept an eye on him through the rear-view mirror.

The kid parked the car and got out without a care in the world, though. Peter noticed gangly legs and a wide plaid shirt before he was out of sight.

He dared to turn around and park at the other side of the road, not directly in front of the station but close enough that he had a good view on the jeep. A stakeout in front of the sheriff's station might be a bad idea but Peter was not willing to let that kid go again.

The pack's WhatsApp group was full with new messages so he wasn't just pretending that he was on his phone but he did keep an eye on the entrance of the station.

Cora was complaining that Peter had basically grounded her but nobody bothered to answer to that. So she spammed a few pouty faces but then she moved on to other things.

At least Deborah and Talia should be home any time now so Peter didn't feel bad for her.

He glanced over to the station again but the kid wasn't coming back out.

"What are you doing in there?" Peter wondered aloud. He had only gotten a short glimpse at him but the teenager hadn't looked like somebody who had been constantly looking over his shoulder for the murderous werewolf coming for him for the last few days.

Twenty minutes later the kid still hadn't come out and Peter started to get an uneasy feeling. This was most likely the Stiles Stilinski Denise had told him about so it might be normal for him to pop in at his uncle's work, Peter didn't know. He did know, however, that it would look rather suspicious if he stayed here much longer. He gave Stiles another five minutes but when by then he still had failed to appear, Peter cursed under his breath and turned the key in the ignition.

But at least now he had a name and a license plate, he could work with that.

He drove back to the library but his mind was not on books for Emily. However, he could use that as an opener to get Denise to talk.

Like expected Denise was delighted to show him all the books they had for nine-year-old girls. At the sight of this much pink and unicorns, Peter wanted to throw up. He picked a few that didn't let his teeth rot just looking at them and he even found one or two that sounded pretty cool.

"By the way, did I see the sheriff's nephew in here earlier?" Peter asked innocently. "That Stiles kid?"

Was Stiles even a name?

"Oh, yes." Denise lit up. "He reminds me a lot of you. He was looking for old newspaper articles as well." She shook her head, amused by the coincidence, but Peter couldn't help but wonder if Stiles had been looking for him. Maybe that was what he was doing at the station. Maybe he wasn't there to report anything, maybe he was there to use his uncle to get information about him.

"What was he looking for?" Peter asked while he pretended to be engrossed in the blurb of a book with princess in the title. It also read dragon so it might not be too bad.

"I don't know, it was quite busy here at the time," she said. "And I usually don't read over somebody's shoulder while they're in here."

"You could have fooled me." Peter gave her a toothy smile. She was nosy but she also knew where to draw the line. "Does he usually read old newspapers or was this the exception?"

"Peter Hale." She straightened up to her full high, which wasn't that high, and gave him a scolding look. "Why are you so interested in that boy?"

He did look like some creep, Peter had to admit, but he couldn't tell her the truth either. So he went for the next best thing.

"Cora, she …" He lowered his voice to a conspiracy whisper. "She's sixteen now and well …" He made a vague gesture and let her fill in the blanks.

"You mean your Cora and the Stilinski kid?" Denise whispered back but way louder than him.

"She hasn't used a name." Peter back-paddled a bit. He didn't want to spread rumors but Cora was sixteen, there was most likely somebody she had hearty eyes for. If so it was nothing serious, though. He and every other wolf in the pack would have smelled the pheromones on her if she were in love. But she was a teenager and Peter had given up on keeping track of the emotional roller coaster she was emitting.

"You keep out of that." Denise pointed with her finger at him. "Let the girl make her experiences. She doesn't need her uncle to give some poor kid the shovel speech. Besides, he's the sheriff's nephew, he knows right from wrong." She paused at that. "Most of the time. But he's a good kid."

"You said he has trouble at home," Peter prompted.

"I also said that the sheriff took him under his wing," Denise reminded him but it was enough to get her talking.

Stiles came into the library at least once a week and he had dinner with the sheriff quite often. And he visited him at work regularly so his trip to the station today was not out of the ordinary.

"I once saw the sheriff over at that burger place a bit down the street and he begged me to not tell Stiles that he had a burger and cheese fries there. Stiles is obsessed with him eating healthy, it's kind of a running gag by now. Deputy Parrish even said that the sheriff had paid him a twenty just to keep him quiet."

Peter left the library deep in thoughts. Thanks to Denise he had gotten quite a good picture of Stiles. However, he didn't seem to be a guy who was unfazed by blatant murder. So Peter was pretty sure that this was only what Stiles wanted people to see about him.

Peter drove back to the Hale house, by now it was almost dinner time and most of the pack should be home.

"You!" Cora was right in his face when he came through the door. "You said you would be right back."

"Didn't you want to go out with your friend?"

"Yeah but guess what." Her eyes showed a hint of gold. "She left without me because I was stuck babysitting Emily. Which was your job."

"Haven't Deborah or Talia been home by then?" He wondered. He had counted at least on his sister to come home right after work. She always came home right away.

"Mom had a meeting and Deborah had to finish a project, they were counting on you to look after Emily." Her voice dropped into a growl and now there were too many teeth in her mouth to talk properly any longer.

"Cora!" Talia called from deeper into the house.

Cora let out one more growl which was answered by a deeper one from her mother which was enough for her to gain control again.

"I'm sorry," Peter said. He had fucked up, he knew that. "I'll make it up to you."

"You better." She growled at him and then stalked back to her room.

"I just hope Denise isn't spreading any rumors," Peter muttered to himself.