Chapter 04: What About the Fire?

Twenty-four hours later, Stiles walked into the Beacon County Sheriff's Department and headed straight for his fathers office, something that he had done since he was a kid and his sister would drop him off. Stiles and Scott had spent the day together as usual, before Stiles left Scott at his house to go see his father. Emilia was still with Derek as far as he knew.

"Dad, did you know that Em knew Derek Hale?" Stiles questioned the second he stepped into his father's office.

Noah stood up, walking around his desk and shutting the door behind his son before he spoke. "Yes, they've been friends a while..." Noah looked at Stiles as he slunk over to the sofa against the wall.

"So when we told you it was Derek..." Stiles trailed off as his father sent him a very disapproving look.

"Didn't believe it was him, he's known your sister for a long time. The night of the fire, Derek and his sister were with your sister at the school," Noah told him, Noah knew better than to believe half of what came out of Stiles' mouth sometimes it was best just to let it go.

"Pops?" Stiles raised his eyebrow what did his dad know about the Hale House fire that he wasn't saying.

"Stiles, just. Just don't do it again," Noah sighed, he didn't really want to be dealing with his teenage son he wanted to track the bastard that had hurt his daughter. "You know she'll never forgive you,"

"Pops..." Stiles was speechless, he didn't think that Emilia could ever hate him. He knew that he and Scott shouldn't have blamed Derek but they had to think of something.

"The body found in the preserve was Derek's older sister," Noah spoke quietly as he looked at Stiles who was sitting, bouncing his legs up and down but stopped when the word sister came out of his fathers mouth.

"Sister? He has a sister?" Stiles blinked his mouth moving a million miles a second.

"More than one. He had a three sisters," Noah told him, Derek had been the only boy of four children of Talia.

Stiles wondering just how much about the fire at the old Hale House wasn't his father telling him.

January 2005, the night of the Hale House fire

Emilia wrapped her arms around Stiles picking him and spinning him around before planting a kiss on the top of his forehead. He was staying with the McCall's while she went to the high-school with Derek and Laura. It had only been a few months since their mother had died, and Stiles wasn't sure that he was comfortable with his sister leaving him alone.

"Stiles, I'll be home before you know it I promise. You're just staying here while I go to the school," Emilia crouched down in front of Stiles and took both of his hands in hers. "You understand that don't you?"

Stiles nodded his head, but still a tear slipped down his cheek. "Promise?" Stiles mumbled as he started breathing rapidly causing Emilia to let go of his hands and pull him into her arms.

"Always," Emilia kissed the top of his head before she got him to start mimicking her breathing. "Count with me kiddo,"

Stiles mumbled but started trying to mimic her breathing and counting at the same time. "On...one..." Stiles mumbled, Emilia pulled him close setting him on her lap until he got to ten.

"That's it, keep going," Emilia said her hand resting on his chest as she listened to his breathing evening out and returning to normal.

Stiles calmed down and curled into his sister, wrapping his arms tightly around her. Stiles didn't want her to leave him, he didn't want her leaving before she had to. Emilia wrapped her arms around Stiles and kissed the top of his head.

"I promise I'll be back soon, play with Scott," Emilia told him as she stood up with him still wrapped around her neck. "You have to get down bud,"

"Nope, no, nuh uh," Stiles shook his head vigorously as Melissa and Scott stood in the door-frame with Melissa holding Scott back by the shoulders.

"Stiles, sweetheart Em will be back before you know it," Melissa said from where she was standing, as Emilia balanced Stiles around her neck.

"I promise, go play games with Scott," Emilia smiled at him as she began to untangle his arms from around her neck.

"Come on Stiles, mom got me a new game that I wanted you to be the first to play with," Scott grinned as Melissa gently pushed him towards the Stilinski siblings.

The second that Stiles was on the ground, Scott grabbed hold of his friends arm and dragged him towards the stairs and up to his room. The last thing that Stiles heard was Emilia telling her that she'd be back by 8:30 to pick him up. Stiles and Scott sat playing Crash Bandicoot in Scott's room until Melissa walked up the stairs and told them that she had to go into work and that the neighbour would be there until Emilia returned.

While Emilia was at the high school with Derek and Laura, the three of them there so that Derek and Emilia could work on one of their last high school assignments. Emilia and Derek had one last assignment that they needed to finish before they both graduated early. Laura was there because it was the wolf moon and she was tasked with keeping an eye on the two of them. Derek and Emilia were barely talking as Derek had, had a relationship with a girl in her early twenties that both Emilia and Laura hadn't liked.

"Em, what is it?" Derek asked, as he closed the book that he'd been staring at and not taking in.

"Why?" Emilia muttered, Derek may have been her best-friend but he didn't always listen to her and Laura.

"Why what?" Derek questioned, she knew very well that Derek had heard her.

"Why her?" Emilia questioned, closing her own book and staring at Derek as Laura rolled her eyes looking at the two of them.

"Why not her?" Derek answered, Emilia sighed were they going to keep answering with questions. "She's different to her family," Derek muttered as they heard sirens heading towards the preserve and Laura was racing towards the doors of the school library. "Laura?"

"Lore, what is it?" Emilia called as she and Derek scrambled to gather things together and Emilia's phone rang. Emilia pulled her phone out and answered it knowing that it would only keep going. "Pops?"

'Em, you three need to go straight to Melissa,' Noah said the second that Emilia answered her phone, trying to make his voice heard over the sirens.

"Pops what's going on?" Emilia asked, she had to avoid giving away what the Hales were and what she was. "Are those sirens?"

"Emilia, just get Derek and Laura and go to Melissa's," Noah repeated, even knowing that his seventeen year old daughter wouldn't be listening to him. Noah's request landed on deaf ears as Emilia hung up on him.

Derek and Emilia followed after Laura, with Emilia ignoring her fathers request for them to go to the McCalls. Laura pushed both Emilia and Derek into the Camaro before she headed towards the preserve where their house was. The three of them got to the edge of the preserve and Laura stopped the car at the entrance there was smoke coming from their house.

"Lore, Der maybe we should have done what my old man said?" Emilia questioned, but it was too late Derek and Laura were out of the car and tearing up the road towards their house. Emilia took off after them, reaching Derek and grabbing hold of his arm. "Der, stop!"

Present day – February 2011

Stiles thought about the night of the Hale house fire, he remembered staying with Scott and having a panic attack because he thought that his sister was leaving him. He remembered Emilia turning up at 8 that night and wrapping her arms around him tightly. Noah looked at Stiles wondering exactly what his son was remembering about that night.

"Son, what is it?" Noah raised an eyebrow leaning forward onto his desk as he looked at his son.

"Em, she left me at Scott's the night of the fire," Stiles looked up at his father and then back down at the floor of his office. "I panicked...I thought she was leaving us,"

"She was doing what she was asked to do, she went with Derek and his sister to the high school," Noah told him, pausing as he looked up and out the window of his office and saw the officers scrambling. "Son, go home. We'll talk more later,"

"Pops what's going on?" Stiles questioned, as he watched his dad stand up grabbing his gun from his desk draw.

"Sheriff," one of the deputies opened his door and nodded to him before smiling at Stiles and shutting the door again.

"Dad?" Stiles asked again, only receiving a look that told him that he needed to go home. "Ugh, fine," Stiles grumbled, reluctantly standing up and moving to leave.

"Stiles, go home and no detours!" Noah exclaimed, running a hand over his face as he pushed Stiles out of his office and shut the door behind them both.

The sheriff's department had received a phone call about a murder. The murder being of Coach Lahey, Isaac's father, he'd been found in an alleyway near the bowling club.

Isaac had gone straight to Emilia and Derek after running from his house being chased by his father; The following morning Emilia was telling him to go to school, after he'd taken the bite the night before from Derek.

"Isaac, go to school...Derek and I'll work out what we can," Emilia sat with Isaac and wrapped an arm around the teenager to calm him down.

"And remember what we said," Derek told him, Isaac nodded almost numbly before he took a deep breath and looked at the two of them.

"Don't tell anyone... got it," Isaac nodded again, wiping his nose on the sleeve of the shirt he was wearing.

"It'll be okay," Emilia offered a smile at him, she didn't know what else to do before Derek stood up and motioned for him to follow him. "Go with Derek, he'll drop you at the corner of school,"

Derek dropped Isaac off, before heading back to Emilia's before going to the abandoned station. Emilia headed to the Beacon County Sheriff's Department to see her father, something that she hadn't done in a long time. When she got there it was lunch time so she figured she may as well take lunch to him. She wasn't counting on seeing Isaac sitting chained to the bench outside her fathers office.

"Hey, is my dad around?" Emilia questioned the deputy on the front desk. Noah walked out of his office seeing Emilia standing at the counter motioned for her to go on in.

"It's alright Deputy, let her through," Noah said as Emilia smiled at the deputy before making her way into the station and heading to her father. "Em, what are you doing here?"

"Can't a girl visit her father at work?" Emilia smiled at him before she noticed Isaac sitting on the bench, she raised her eyebrow at him and then returned her attention to her father. "Well pops?"

"Of course, it's just not the best time. You and your brother," Noah shook his head, before noticing that she had a Tupperware container in her hand. "What have you got there?"

"Chicken stir-fry," Emilia grinned handing the container to him. "What's the Lahey boy doing here?"

"His fathers was murdered last night...why am I telling you this?" Noah shook his head, Emilia glanced outside and saw Isaac hanging his head.

"Because you can never say no to me," Emilia smiled leaning over the desk and kissing her father. "Eat the stir fry and I won't tell Stiles about the stash in your filing cabinet," she added with a smirk, she'd known about that stash a lot longer than what Stiles had known about the stash in his drawer.

"Bribery?" Noah raised his eyebrow, Stiles was like her in so many ways. "Stiles takes after you, you know,"

"What? You did it to me all the time as a kid," Emilia stuck her tongue out at him and then looked at the photo on his desk.

"And did it work?" Noah questioned, Emilia nodded it worked most of the time, Stiles was the one it never worked on.