The Fox and The Wolf:

I entered open the swinging door to the sheriff's station in a KUT Jackie Geo Print Maxi Dress, Crochet Knitted Short Sleeve Cardigan and ISOLA Delanna Leather Platform Heels with my hair in a messy side braid. I looked around curiously for John but I couldn't see him so I walked towards the counter where I could see a deputy with dark blonde hair facing the other direction.

"Hi. I'm here for Derek Hale and Chris Argent." I said calmly as I stopped on the opposite side of the desk and the young deputy turned around with a curious expression on his face. I instantly recognised him as the deputy that entered the bus to defuse the suspected bomb the other day and my gaze swept over his handsome face, light green eyes and sandy blonde hair. "You're the officer who walked onto the bus the other day. Aren't you –"

"Handsome? Thank you. For a second there, I thought you were going to say aren't I really young and I was gonna have to launch into my explanation about how I'm actually 24 and that anyone can look young if they eat right and exercise. Although it's probably just good genes anyway, right?" the young deputy asked rhetorically as he leaned both of his hands on the counter between us with a small smile and I gaped at him in shock of a second before letting out a breathy laugh while ducking my head.

"I was actually going to say, 'Aren't you meant to have some kind of explosives training before you jump on top of a potentially lethal bomb?'"

"Oh." He murmured in embarrassment as a blush crept up his neck while rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly and I smiled at him as I bit my lower lip gently in between my teeth. "Sorry. Um, I worked as a certified HDT during my two years in the army. A HDT is a – "

"Hazardous Devices Technician. I know." I admitted with a modest shrug of my shoulders as I tilted my head to the side and his light green eyes widened in shock as he grinned at me. "Well, anyway, it was very brave of you, Deputy…?"

"Parrish. Jordan Parrish." He supplied quickly as he held out a hand out for me to take and I placed my hand in his as we shook gently in greeting.

"Sophie McCall."

"McCall? As in Agent McCall?" Jordan asked with a quirked eyebrow as he rested his hands back on the counter and I sighed out a chuckle as I scrunched my nose up slightly.

"Ah. So, you've had the pleasure of meeting my father. I'm sorry." I told him honestly as I looked at him with a straight face and he laughed lightly as he shook his head at me.

"If he really is your father than I'm the one who should be apologising." He said in amusement with a smile as he leaned both hands on the counter in between us and I laughed out loud as I covered my mouth with both hands while I nodded in agreement.

"Yeah, luckily for the both of us he's based out of San Diego." I replied easily as I leaned my hands on the counter opposite his and leaned forwards slightly with a flirty smile on my lips as he laughed a little. I couldn't help but noticed the way his light green eyes sparkled with mirth when he smiled and I found myself leaning closer to him until I remembered that I had a boyfriend so I cleared my throat gently while adverting my gaze. "So, um, Derek and Chris?"

"Right! I'll call down." Jordan stuttered as he shook his head to himself and I forced a small smile as he picked up the phone on the desk with a small smile. "Hey, it's Parrish. Yeah, can you send Hale and Argent up? Someone's here to pick them up. Yeah, both of them. Thanks." He said into the phone as I shifted on my feet restlessly and then he hung up as he looked over at me with a small smile. "They're on their way down now. I'll just go get their personal effects."

"Thanks." I said softly as I turned back to him with a smile on my lips and he nodded in reply with a smile as he walked away from the desk.

"Sophie." I heard Derek greet me from behind as I turned around to face him with a smile and saw him and Chris walking towards the desk with another officer.

"Hello, handsome." I greeted them brightly with a grin as the approached me and Derek gave me an unamused look as Chris shook his head at me.

"Shut up." Derek complained with a sigh as he rolled his eyes at me slightly and I frowned at him in mock confusion as I turned my head to the side.

"I was talking to Chris."

"What are you doing here, Sophie?"

"Well, someone went and got himself arrested for murder, again I might add, so I had to haul ass down here to pick up you up." I pointed out in amusement as I leaned my side against the side of the counter with a quirked eyebrow and his lips twitched into a smile as they both stood on either side of me at the desk. Deputy Parrish walked out of the evidence room with two plastic bags full of things and we looked over at him as he stopped on the other side of the counter.

"Alright, Derek Hale, one cell phone and one wallet with licence, bank card and $50 cash." Jordan listed as he reached into the bag and placed each thing down on the table as Derek collected them from the counter top.

"I'll take that." I said nonchalantly as I took the $50 note from Derek's hand and he gave me a questioning look as I shrugged innocently. "What? For gas."

"And Christopher Argent, one wallet with licence, bank card and no cash. Sorry, but I can't let you walk out with this. It's way above the legal voltage limit." Jordan stated as he held up a black electrified baton and pressed the release button to make to extend.

"I only use it for hunting." Chris defended himself lightly as Derek and I both gave him doubtful looks that he ignored and Jordan's expression remained unchanged as he meet Chris' gaze unflinchingly.

"Yeah, well, I'm pretty sure you could use it to jump-start a 747."

"This property belongs to me and the charges were dropped. Although, I'm not exactly sure who's responsible for that."

"I am." I heard John say before the doorway to his office as we all looked over in his direction and he nodded in our direction as I smiled at him while Chris and Derek looked surprised. "I'll take care of this, Parrish."

"Sheriff, I'm not kidding. This thing's a few watts from being a lightsaber." Jordan insisted quietly as he leaned over the counter and Derek and I both gave Chris pointed looks that he ignored once more.

"I said I'll take care of it." John repeated firmly as he took the baton out of Jordan's hand and then turned to face us with a small smile on his lips. "Come into my office, guys."

"Alright. Bye, Jordan." I said warmly with a smile on my lips as I waved my fingers in his direction and he smiled at me as Derek sent him a glare before gently pushing me towards the office after Chris and John.

"You have a boyfriend." Derek reminded me in amusement as he leaned down to whisper in my ear and I turned my head around to scowl at him as I closed the sheriff's office door behind us.

"Well, he's not here."

"The specialist I saw in LA told me the thing that every doctor says when he's trying to avoid a lawsuit. 'We can't say for sure.' And then I spoke with Melissa. These are brain scans. My wife's and Stiles'. I knew they were similar." John said sadly as he walked around the far side of the desk and pulled out two copies of a brain scan from his desk drawer. I frowned to myself as I took the brain scans from his hand and studied them critically as I held them up to the light while Chris and Derek looked over my shoulder in confusion.

"But those are the same. Exactly the same." I murmured thoughtfully to myself as I tilted my head to the side and the guys all looked at me as I bit my lower lip in between my teeth.

"And I'm guessing this isn't possible?" Derek asked me as I sighed heavily and placed the scans back onto the desk as I shook my head sadly while turning back to the guys with a determined expression.

"Not even remotely. So the trickster is still playing tricks."

"But why this trick?"

"When I was in the Army, an officer told me, 'If you want to defeat your enemy, you don't take away their courage. You take away their hope.'" John quoted quietly as he ran a frustrated hand through his hair and Derek raised an eyebrow at me as I looked back at the sheriff with a grim frown on my lips.

"You don't look like a man who gives up hope easily." Chris pointed out firmly as he raised both his eyebrows and John nodded in agreement as he sighed to himself a little.

"But Stiles might. If this thing inside him, if it's using his mother's disease as some sort of psychological trick, then this isn't just a fight for his body. It's also a fight for his mind. Right?"

"That might be a fight he's already won." I informed them sadly as I bit my lower lip gently and they all turned to look at me in a mixture of shock and confusion. "I don't know the whole story, because I was on my way here, but this morning Malia Tate showed up looking for Scott. After she was turned back into a human her father sent her to Eichen House. I suppose living as a coyote for eight years will do that to you. She said that Stiles sent her. Apparently, the Nogitsune is in control again."

"I thought Deaton poisoned the fox?" Chris asked me sadly as John closed his eyes in distress and I nodded numbly in agreement as I kept my gaze locked on the sheriff's weary face.

"He did. The lichen must have worn out and allowed the Nogitsune to gain control. It's either that or Stiles voluntarily gave control to the Nogitsune."

"What would make Stiles hand over control?" Derek asked me softly as he placed a hand on the small of my back comfortingly and I glanced at him quickly with my lips pressed in a tight line before turning my attention back to John.

"To make Stiles hand over the reins voluntarily, something must have happened that he couldn't handle on his own. Probably to someone he cares about. If he felt he couldn't help them on his own, he'd do anything in his power to help them."

"You know, he's left people severely injured." Chris reminded us in a hard tone of voice as he looked around at all of us and I closed my eyes momentarily as I shook my head slightly to stop the onslaught of mental images the words inspired.

"And others severely dead." Derek added in a gentler tone as he removed his hand from my back and he crossed his arms over his chest as he looked at John sagely.

"That's why I need the three of you. I need people who are experienced in this kind of thing. I need you to help me stop him." John stated in a shaky voice as he looked between the three of us steadily and I frowned in confusion as to why that would include me because I had no experience in this, other than dealing with Peter when he was the Alpha and Jackson when he was the kanima and the Alpha pact when they evil and Jennifer when she was the Darach.

"And by stop him, you mean trap him." Chris stated in more than asked as he stared gravely at the other father in the room and the Sheriff nodded back at him with his eyebrow raised slightly. The atmosphere suddenly felt much tenser as John slowly held out the electrified baton like some kind of offering and Chris switched his gaze from his face to the baton before reaching out to grab the other end as the two men locked gazes.

I followed behind Chris as he lead Derek, John and I into his apartment where Allison was patiently waiting for us in the doorway to his office with her arms crossed over her chest and a determined expression on her pretty face.

"This is everything non-lethal I could find." Allison said to her father in a business-like tone she turned on her heel and we followed her into the office where she had set up an arsenal of non-lethal weaponry.

"Take all of it." Chris ordered with a sigh as we all gathered around the desk covered with weapons and I picked up a dagger and thigh holster from the desk before strapping it on under my long skirt.

"What's the plan here?" John asked us as he surveyed the weapons on the desktop and I took the gun that Chris tried to hand Derek because I knew that the older werewolf hated guns.

"Our best shot right now is for Derek or Sophie to try to pick up Stiles' scent at Eichen House."

"Especially if he went through something stressful there. Should all four of us be going to the same place?" I asked pointedly as I took another leather thigh holster from the desk and placed my foot on the chair next to me so that I could strap it on under my skirt on the opposite leg on the dagger.

"Where else has Stiles been showing up?"

"School, the hospital…" Allison listed thoughtfully as she frowned to herself a little and I nodded in agreement with her as I leaned my hands on the end of the desk.

"Okay, hold on. We did this already." Derek pointed out pensively as he crossed his arms over his broad chest and I bit my lip in between my teeth as I meet his intense light green gaze across the length of the desk.

"He disappeared. We started looking for him." I agreed contemplatively as I nodded along with my own words and everyone looked between us like it was an interesting tennis match taking place in front of them.

"Then walked right into a trap at the hospital."

"He's getting us to repeat the same moves."

"So, what do we do? Wait for him to come to us?" Allie asked us both as she tapped her chin with her finger and Derek and I both shook our heads at the same time as I folded my arms over my stomach.

"We can't. Not if the Oni find him when the sun goes down." Derek disagreed with a small shake of his head as he rubbed his chin absently and Allison sighed in defeat as she nodded in understanding.

"Scott's working on them right now, with Kira." I informed the others softly as I tilted my head to the side in thought and I closed my eyes tightly as I shook my head to myself before opening them with a determined expression.

"That's the problem. We're all trying to outfox the fox." Chris said sagely in realisation as he looked at all of us and I glanced down at the ground as I tried not to think of the worst possible outcome. There was a tense moment where no one said anything at all and I looked around at four of the most important people in the world to me with the burning desire to protect them with my life.

"Listen. I'll understand if anyone wants to back out." John announced in an understanding tone as he leaned his hands on the desk and looked around at all of us as we all exchanged knowing looks over the desktop. Derek's light green eyes meet mine from the opposite end of the table as my lips twitched into a small smile and he smirked back at me as we both nodded a little in agreement.

"I'm not gonna be the first wolf to run from a fox." Derek offered casually with a shrug of his shoulders as he reached over to pick up a Taser from the desk and I chuckled lightly at his statement as I nodded in agreement.

"I've risked my life for total strangers, this is Stiles." I stated pointedly as I grabbed another throwing dagger from the desk and John gave me a thankful look as I smiled at him faintly.

"Apparently I'm carrying the lightsaber." Chris said in amusement as he shot a look towards Allison and she smiled up at her dad for a second before turning her attention to the weapons in front of her.

"Dad, you and Derek hit Eichen House. Sheriff, it's you and me in the hospital." Allison ordered calmly as she started packing some rope and other weapons into a duffel bag while the men nodded in understanding.

"I'll go with John and Allison. I'll be the muscle." I stated calmly with a smirk on my lips as I shot a wink in Derek's direction and he rolled his green eyes at me as his lips twitched into a small smile. "We all meet in the school."

"Sophie, be careful." Derek ordered me sternly as he strolled over to my side with a serious expression and I raised an eyebrow at him as I placed a hand on my hip.

"I'm always careful."

"No, you're not."

"I am most of the time."

"No, you're not."

"Shut up. I'll be careful." I assured him with a small laugh escaping my lips as I placed a hand on his arm and he smirked down at me as I pressed a chaste kiss to his cheek. "You be careful too. You have the tendency to get kidnapped and/or serious injured to the point that everyone thinks you're dead. I have enough to deal with."

"I'll be careful." He promised softly with a faint smile as he squeezed my hip gently and I scrunched up my nose cutely as I patted his cheek patronisingly while he mock glared at me.

"Okay, you two go check the MRI suite Stiles disappeared from and I'll try to catch his scent on the roof." I said to John and Allison as we walked into the hospital together and they both nodded in agreement as we walked further down the crowded corridor. I squeezed John's arm reassuringly with a tiny smile on my lips as I walked passed him and he smiled back shakily as he followed Allie towards the elevator. I knew that he was extremely unnerved by everything that was happening because he was still new to the supernatural and now he was thrown into the deep end. It was totally unfair that he had to deal with this. It was totally unfair that Stiles had to deal with this.

"Sophie?!" I heard my mom call out to me in question and I snapped my head up in confusion as I followed the direction her voice had come from.

"Oh, hey, what are you doing here?" I asked her absently as I glanced around the nurse's station and she grabbed my upper arms with a frown as I blinked in surprise at the sudden pressure on my skin.

"I work here. What are you doing here?"

"I'm trying to catch Stiles' scent so that I can track the Nogitsune."

"I thought Stiles was locked up in Eichen House?" mom asked me in a low voice as she guided me towards the on-call room to the side and she pushed me into the room with a frown as I shook my head.

"He was but the Nogitsune got control back and broke him out." I explained in an emotionless voice as I stared blankly at the wall passed her shoulder and she frowned at me in concern as she rubbed my arm gently. "John asked Derek, Chris and me to help him find and trap the Nogitsune. Allison and John are looking in the MRI suite right now. Derek and Chris went to check Eichen House. And Scott is with Kira and her parent's learning about the Oni."

"You know what, I don't know how you guys do it. You're all so strong. You're fearless. Hell, you even manage to keep your grades up." mom muttered with a spluttered laugh at the end as she shook her head in amazement and I exhaled deeply as I looked down at the ground to avoid her gaze because the pride in her voice actually physically hurt me. I didn't want to disappoint her. I didn't want her to be wrong about me.

"I'm not... Fearless. I'm terrified. I'm always terrified. I... I act like I know what I'm doing, but I don't." I admitted shakily in a quiet voice as I shook my head gently and she titled her head to the side as she frowned at me. "I don't know if Isaac is dying right now. I don't know if I made a mistake with being with Aiden. I don't know what Scott is thinking. I don't know if we are getting Stiles back. I don't know what will happen if we can't. Scott's not going to be able to make that decision. It's going to fall to me. I don't know anything. People are dying because of the Nogitsune. What if it keeps happening? What if we can't save Stiles? What if the only way to stop the Nogitsune is to stop Stiles?"

"You're gonna be okay. You're strong."

"I'm not. I'm not strong. I'm breaking. I feel like I'm one gentle breeze away from toppling over. Like I'm barely holding it together. I'm a werewolf and a True Druid, and everyone's looking at me like I have all the answers, but I know nothing. Absolutely freaking nothing! Every time someone asks me for advice, I feel like I'm in this spotlight, and everyone's looking at me and It's like that clichéd dream people have where they're standing in front of a roomful of people in their underwear. You know? What if I give them the wrong advice? What if my advice ends up getting them killed? I'm going to have their death on my conscious forever and ever and ever and ever and ever and –"

"Sophie!" mom snapped sternly as she shook my shoulders a little to get my attention and I blinked owlishly at her for a second before I realised that was weeping like a child that was told to go to bed without ice-cream.

"Oh, god." I moaned to myself as I pulled out of her grasp and roughly wiped the tears from my cheeks with both hands as I willed myself to stop crying because now was not the time to be having a mental break down.

"Sophie, that's enough!" my mother said in a hard tone that I couldn't ever remember hearing directed at me and I froze with my back to her as I slowly turned around to face her almost cautiously. "I don't want to hear anymore! You – you are normally so smart. Genius level intelligent, but this? This is stupid."

"I don't understand." I mumbled in a whisper as I crossed my arms over my stomach and she shook her head angrily at me as she ran a hand through her hair with a serious expression on her face.

"Sophie, you are the strongest person I have ever met. You've been through so much, and you're still going through so much, but you are strong enough to persevere. Through everything that's happened, you are still the same caring, thoughtful, sweet girl that you've always been. You can't let them win."

"Them?"

"Everyone! Everything! Anyone who tries to take away your spirit, your hope, your courage. Anyone who doubts your intelligence, your strength. You blow them away with your optimism and your confidence. Just like you blow me away every day."

"I'm scared. I don't feel like the person you just described." I murmured softly as tears ran freely down my cheeks and mom smirked at me as she reached up to wiping the tears away with the back of her hand before cupping my cheeks gently.

"You are strong. You are intelligent. You are beautiful. And I'll tell you something, kid, I want to be just like you when I grow up." she joked lightly as she looked me right in the eyes with a smirk playing on her lips and I laughed breathily as I rested my hands over hers gently before pulling her into a tight embrace.

"'If you're going through hell, keep going.'" I quoted under my breath as I closed my eyes tightly and buried my face into the crook of my mother's neck as she soothed my hair back. I took a deep breath in through my nose before slowly exhaling and I cleared my throat gently as I pulled back from the embrace with a fake smile plastered on my lips. mom's gaze swept over my face searchingly as she tucked a strand of hair behind my ear and I wiped the tears from my cheeks with the back of my hand as I pulled myself back together. "Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time, - Thomas A. Edison."

"Whatever keeps you going, sweetie."

""All that I am or ever hope to be, I owe to my angel mother, - Abraham Lincoln." I quoted honestly with a small smile on my lips as I placed a hand on her cheek and she leaned into my touch with a smile on her own as tears filled her eyes.

"I like that one." She told me pointedly with a small laugh as she wiped under her eye with her finger and I giggled slightly as I grabbed her hand in mine before leading her towards the closed door. She linked her arm through mine as we started walking down the corridor and I leaned into her side with a smile as she rested her head on top of mine.

"Sophie!" I heard Allison call out to me from behind and we both stopped in our tracks as we turned around to see Allie and John both jogging towards us with serious expressions.

"Someone's breaking into my house. After Stiles started sleepwalking, I had some security precautions put in. Motion sensors. Cameras. Stiles is in his room. " the sheriff explained to me in a rush as he shoved his phone into my hand and I frowned at him as I glanced down at the phone screen. Stiles was sitting on the edge of his bed, but it was clear that the Nogitsune was in control because his face was hard and his eyes lacked their normal spark. The Nogitsune stared straight at the camera in the corner of the room and he slowly wriggled his finger in a mocking wave.

Stiles' room was completely empty when we arrived there along with Derek and Chris and we searched the room for clues silently until I caught sight of the chessboard in the corner of the room.

"What is all this? What are these sticky notes for?" I asked out loud as I walked over the board with a frown on my lips and I tilted my head to the side as everyone joined me around the chessboard.

"This is what Stiles used to try and explain to me about all of you." John explained awkwardly as he shrugged his shoulders slightly and I bit my lower lip in between my teeth as I crouched down so that I was eyelevel with the board.

"Well, maybe it's a message from Stiles. The real Stiles." Allison suggested hopefully as she looked up at the three men and Chris picked up a piece labelled Isaac which had been removed from the board.

"You think there's any reason my name's on the king?" Derek asked them curiously as he crossed his arms over his chest and I stood back up as I pursed my lips thoughtfully while my gaze ran over all of the names on the board. Everyone was on there. Scott, Allison, Derek, Aiden, Ethan, Peter, Chris, Isaac, Deaton. Even Kate and Jackson. One name was conveniently missing from the pieces.

"Well, you're heavily guarded. Though I guess the alarming detail is that you're one move from being in checkmate." John informed us all gravely as he met Derek's eyes across the board and I squinted my eyes at the board as all the pieces of the puzzle fell together in my head.

"It's not a message from Stiles. It's a threat from the Nogitsune. He's at the loft. That's what he's trying to tell us. And he wants us to come there." I interpreted sagely as I nodded towards the board with a frown and crossed my arms over my chest as everyone nodded in agreement with my assessment.

"Night's falling." Derek reminded us as he looked around the group with a serious expression and I turned my attention back to the chessboard in front of me with a confused frown.

"This couldn't sound any more like a trap." Chris said firmly as he shook his head to himself and I frowned when I saw something lying on the ground under the table the chessboard was on.

"I don't think it is." John disagreed hesitantly as he scratched his chin thoughtfully and I crouched down next to the table as I reached for the white queen with the yellow sticky note on it. I stood back up with my head tilted to the side curiously as read the note on the piece and I immediately froze in horror as the word echoed around in my head mockingly.

"I think your opinion might be slightly biased, Sheriff."

"Hear me out. What we're dealing with here is basically someone who lacks motive. No rhyme, no reason, right?"

"Meaning what?"

"Our enemy is not a killer. It's a trickster. The killing is just a by-product."

"If you're trying to say it won't kill us, I'm not feeling too confident about that." Derek stated pointedly with one eyebrow raised and the sheriff shook his head slightly as he looked between the werewolf and the hunter.

"It won't. It wants irony. It wants to play a trick. It wants a joke. All we need to do is come up with a new punch line." John told them in a rush as he shifted his gaze from one to the other and Chris heaved out a sigh as he shared a look with Allison before turning his attention back to the sheriff.

"The sun is setting, Sheriff. What do you have in mind?" Chris asked him

"Sophie?" Allie asked in concern as she touched my arm gently and I snapped my head up to look at her with my mouth gaping open slightly.

"What's in your hand?" Derek asked me curiously with a frown on his handsome face and I silently handed the chess piece over to him as my hand shook a little. The older werewolf's light green eyes swept over the sticky note as his forehead furrowed and Allison wrapped her arm around my waist as Chris and John watched in confusion.

"My name wasn't on the board." I told them weakly as I leaned into Allison's arms and they looked at me as I nodded towards the chess piece in Derek's hand. "It is now."

Sophie – I'll see you soon.

Tell me what you think of Sophie and Parrish! Do they have chemistry?

Or are you solely a Dophie shipper?

Or does Saiden own your heart?

Review for me people!