home is a fire
chapter six
"Actually, it kind of is" Peter goes on, walking to the middle of the room and looking around, smirking.
Dean has a feeling that this guy enjoys being painted as a villain.
"What…" Stiles starts, but Peter just raises a hand, asking for silence, before going on.
"I know you are all full of scruples, and you would never have gone to any kind of… shadier source of information if you had the chance, so I went, and I found some things out. We can hide Stiles with the help of an angel, one that has full capacity to use their power to hide him, and we can achieve that by summoning one to us. Deaton has already agreed to do it."
"Deaton is dangerous" Derek bites out, his eyes bleeding red for a moment. Dean notices Stiles putting a hand on his arm and the man seems to calm down some, but not much.
"We know that, but Deaton also owes us. In more ways than one, because Blake would have gone after him and his sister if Stiles and Lydia hadn't stopped her. He'll do the summoning, he'll make the threats, all we have to do is show up."
"That's crap" Aidan says, shaking his head, "If we do that, then the angel will know where Stiles is. If he hides him, he is the one to know, he'll know who Stiles is too, which seems to be the one thing keeping him safe right now."
"That's why Deaton has already agreed to kill the angel when we are done with him" Peter states, as if he's talking about buying burgers, "He won't be able to mess with us if he doesn't exist, now will he? And as far as I can tell, the angels are actually the enemy, so it'll be one more threat for daddy dearest over there to deal with when the time comes. It's this, or we keep hiding Stiles forever, or, worse, actually see him die, or be tortured, because I don't think creatures such as angels will have much mercy when it comes to this. They are soldiers, after all."
Dean doesn't really like the way this whole situation is just… solved, as if it were this easy from the beginning, but he has to admit is sounds like a solid plan.
"I don't know, man" Scott says, looking at Stiles and then Derek, "I mean, killing an angel sounds just… wrong. And you know I care a lot about Deaton, but the guy isn't really… good. I don't know."
Stiles bites his lips and exhale loudly, looking around the room.
"Lydia?" he asks, and the two of them look intently at each other, having a silent conversation.
"I'm for it. We know Deaton is who he is, but he's been playing his part as he should. If he had offered the help, I'd be more concerned, but we all know Peter doesn't ask for things, he blackmails them out of people, so, if he has something to hold over Deaton's head, I'm for it."
Peter smirks, seeming pleased with himself.
"You have until two to decide, that's when the most auspicious moment for the summoning is, apparently. You know what to do, and where to go, so I'll leave your merry gang to it."
And with that he leaves through the front door, as if he hasn't just suggested they kill a freaking angel.
"What do you think?" Jackson asks Dean, and he turns to stare at the kid. Out of all the teens, he seems to be the one who doesn't quite… fit in like all the others do, "You have experience dealing with this kind of thing, what do you think?"
Dean takes a deep breath and thinks about it before talking.
"Who is this Deaton, and why don't you want to trust him?" he asks, because when it comes down to it, that's the main problem. He's dealt with a lot of people in his life that shouldn't be trusted, but trust is relative, especially in a situation like this.
"He's Scott's boss" Stiles starts, "He's an emissary. In theory, he's the Hale Pack's emissary, but he doesn't really follow the rules anymore. He tried to encourage Scott to become an Alpha, which could have got him killed, and would definitely get Derek in trouble; he knew that Lydia was immune to all things magical and he didn't think it prudent to tell us that until we had pretty much figured it out by ourselves; he kept information from us when we were dealing with the Alpha pack; he let Kali believe that Derek had killed Ennis, when it was really Deucalion who did it; he knew Blake was the Darach we were having trouble with and he didn't tell us, and when he did, he pretty much set Lydia and me up, and we had to fight her on our own. Without much more to go on with than have faith and enjoy."
"So he wants you guys dead?" Sam asks, his voice disbelieving as Stiles shakes his head.
"I think he only has some kind of Yoda complex. He never says everything, he's always keeping things to himself, and he keeps trying to guide us through the path he thinks is the right one, but it may not really be it. He decided Derek wouldn't be a good Alpha, so he set Scott up for the job, even though he knew it could get Scott killed. He decided Lydia and I could use the training to get the Darach, so he set us up to find a whole lot of clues on our own, without telling us that he knew from the beginning that Derek's gi… that our English teacher was it the whole time. Forget Yoda, he thinks he's Dumbledore, and we are all his Harry Potters" he stops for a moment and looks at Derek, shrugging a bit, "Doesn't mean he's wrong about this, though. Especially if Peter is twisting his arm."
Derek still looked unconvinced, though, and Dean decides it's time to intervene – he doesn't know much about how this kind of werewolves work, but he has a feeling that the whole room could be in favor of this plan, if Derek wasn't, then it wouldn't happen.
"I think we should at least try it. Summoning an angel is not that difficult, and we've done this before to know if he's doing something wrong. We can't try to do it ourselves because we don't really have the stuff to do it anymore, and the part I'm really worried about is killing it afterwards. Can this guy do it? Can he really kill an angel? Because it's not just jump him, or shoot him, it takes a whole lot to do something like that, you know?"
"I really don't know" Stiles says, shaking his head, "Last time we saw each other, we didn't really part on the best of terms, and I might have said some things that he wasn't really fond of hearing…"
"It didn't stop them from being the truth, though" Cora says, her voice cold, colder than any teenage girl's voice had a right to be, "What Blake could have done to Derek because Deaton was playing at being Dumbledore is unforgivable, and he deserved what you told him. He knows that."
"He may know that, but can he really help me? Why would he?"
"Because is the right thing to do" Scott says, looking at Stiles with hard eyes, "He's not the villain, Stiles."
"He certainly isn't the good guy either" Stiles answers, and the two friends glare at each other.
"Who is in this room, really? There are no good guys in this, and if Deaton says he can help, he will" the kid looks at Derek then, "You know I'm right, Derek, and if there's one thing we will always agree on is Stiles' safety. We need to help him, and if Deaton's plan works, we'll be safe."
"And if it doesn't, we'll be dead, because I'm thinking one angel, untrapped, can take all of us out" Stiles argues.
"What do you think?" Lydia asks in a loud voice, looking straight at Castiel, "You were an angel, after all, or maybe you still are, I'm not clear on the details, but you know how this is supposed to go. Can you tell us if Deaton, or the angel he'll summon, are doing something wrong or harmful?"
"I'm able to do that, yes. I don't have any of my… powers anymore, but I'm still an angel."
"So that settles, then. We try, and if they are doing something wrong, we kill them" the girl says casually, and Dean's eyes widen, not exactly at the suggestion, but at the flippant way a teenage girl with shoes that probably cost more than the Impala just says they're going to kill someone.
"Agreed" Derek finally says, and Scott shakes his head.
"Sure, suggest to kill someone, and he'll agree."
"I'm with them" Stiles says.
"Of course you are" Scott shoots back, and they are glaring again.
"I'm not getting into this again" Stiles says, sighing.
"No one is. Meet us at Deaton's ten minutes before two. I want the whole pack there in case anything goes wrong" Derek orders them, and the teens start leaving, Scott and the tall blond, Isaac, leaving last, with the shorter one muttering angrily under his breath.
"I honestly though he was over this" Stiles says, sighing and dropping on the couch. Derek looks at him, and seems to decide to ignore the rest of the people in the room.
"He is over it most of the time. He's over it until it comes a time when he has to face that I'm the leader, and he's not, and then things get complicated, you know that."
"It's not the you leading thing, Derek, it's the us thing. You know that too."
Derek just sighs and stares at Stiles with an exasperated look, as if he doesn't know what to say, until the teen sighs and shakes his head.
"It's not going to be a thing, I just… thought he could be over this by now. He and Allison are back together, things are good with them, why can't he just be happy for us like we are for them?"
"I'm not happy for them" Derek says, looking at Stiles with an eyebrow raised, "I think she and Scott are going to crash and burn along the road, and you know that. They can't work together, Stiles, she's a hunter."
The last word is said like hunter is the worst thing a person can be, and Stiles stares at his boyfriend for a long moment. He looks at Dean then, and back at Derek before speaking.
"My biological father is a hunter too. Does that mean we won't work?"
"Your father is not an Argent" Derek answers simply, and gets up, going into the kitchen.
Stiles exhales loudly and looks up to find Dean staring at him.
"Sorry about that" he says to the room at large.
"I take it there's a story in there somewhere?" Sam says, and Dean can see Charlie's eyes stop moving on the screen, in the way that she does when she's paying attention to the room, and not her screen.
"Allison's aunt… wasn't a very good person. Neither was her grandfather. Chris is a good enough man, but he's blind to a few things. Probably by the way he was raised. He doesn't trust Derek, and Allison has a hard time dealing with a lot of things – she helps us, and we help her when she needs it, but she's not a part of the pack, mainly because she doesn't trust Derek, and he doesn't trust her. She really loves Scott, though. I believe in the power of love, Derek doesn't think they'll last. It's kind of a sore point between him and Scott, and it seems to always be the main reason why they fight. That and me."
"Why you?" Charlie asks before Dean can.
"Because Scott thinks Stiles could do better than me" Derek answers, getting back to the living room.
"But as Scott has no say in my love life, actually, as no one but me has a say in my love life, he'll just have to learn to deal."
It feels like a line that has been said a thousand times before, and Dean feels this is an issue that they have, and are still working through.
It can't really be easy, being the human in the middle of werewolves and hunters. Being the boyfriend of the Alpha of the pack probably means he outranks his best friend too. It must be very confusing.
"So, we're doing this, then? We're going to summon an angel, blackmail him into hiding me by tattooing my ribs with his holy magic, and then killing it?"
As Derek nods, Dean has to admit that it sounds pretty bad when someone just says it all out loud.
He just hopes there'll be better results than they expect.
X
"You're worried."
Castiel's voice is firm and steady, as it always is. It's like even being almost human right now he still hasn't mastered how to show emotions – or the right emotions – at the appropriate times.
"Yeah, we'll be summoning one of the enemies to come and help my kid, and having to kill it afterwards. We don't have a good track record for killing angels, Cas."
"If it doesn't work, I'll stay behind and protect him."
Dean looks at the angel then, not because of what he said, but the way he says it, not like a question, but a statement.
"Not much you can do against a full on angel, Cas. They don't have wings anymore, but you don't have your powers."
"It may be so, but I'll protect him with my life until you can get back here and save him."
"You would die for a kid you haven't even exchanged ten words with?" Dean's voice is disbelieving, and Castiel looks ahead of him, towards the houses on the other side of the street from the Sheriff's garden.
"Yes, I would" he answers, solemnly.
"Why, Cas? You don't have to sacrifice yourself to prove you're worthy or anything like that."
Castiel is silent for a long moment before answering, and he doesn't look at Dean when he starts talking.
"It's not because I have something to prove to you or to me. It's because he's yours. I know you care deeply about family, Dean, and that boy is your son. And if he means anything to you, then I would gladly die to protect him. Because he matters to you."
The angel looks at him then, his piercing blue eyes steady and calm.
"I know I have made mistakes. I know I didn't tell you all you needed to know, and I know I may be the cause of all of this problem right now, by trusting Metatron. But I need you to know, Dean, that I… care deeply for you. More than I care for anyone else, even if I feel dishonest by saying this. I should care about all of God's creatures the same way, and yet I can't."
Dean doesn't really know how to answer to that, because he himself is very confused about his relationship with Castiel. And he can't think of this kind of thing right now, because he has to hide his son, he has to send the angels back, and he doesn't even know how things are going to be if they do manage to send them all back to heaven.
What if Cas changes again? What if they mess with his head, and he goes back to being a douche?
What then?
He settles for taking a deep breath and putting his hand on Cas' shoulder, squeezing hard.
Castiel looks down and away, but takes a small step closer to Dean, not saying anything.
Maybe they'll be fine.
Hopefully.
X
At two o'clock they pile up into Deaton's office, and the man only raises his eyebrows to show his surprise at seeing four more people than he was expecting.
"I think it would be too much to ask why are there Winchesters in here too?" he asks, and Stiles glares at him.
"Yeah, it would. Can you help us or not?"
Deaton sighs, as if he's suffering a great torment at this, and looks at Stiles deeply.
"I would have hoped that your grudge against me would have passed by now, Stiles."
"Help me get out of this alive and hidden from any angels, and maybe it will" the teen answers, and Dean is oddly proud of the kid.
Derek doesn't do much more than glare at the man, and they follow him into the back, where he has already set up for the whole thing.
Castiel walks around the circle, and inclines his head, confirming that it is holy fire in there, and that the ritual is ready and good to go, no misgivings.
"Okay, let's do this" Stiles says, sighing, and Deaton lights the holy fire, speaking the words.
"This is not the ritual we used" Castiel whispers to him, and Dean stares at the angel intently.
"Is he doing something wrong?" he whispers back, and Cas tilts his head to the side.
"Not really… he's just… making sure it's not an enemy. He is doing the best he can" the angels adds, and Dean feels a little bit better, because he and Cas are still in a pretty shaky territory, but he trusts him enough to know that he wouldn't mess with his kid.
Suddenly, the fire flares up and starts to die down to a tamer flame, and everyone in the room tenses, waiting to see who is the angel they'll have to blackmail and then kill.
When they recognize the shape, Dean's eyes widen and he can hear Sam's sound of surprise.
"Hey, there. Did you miss me?"
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