Chapter Eleven
Two Weeks Later
*Stiles
Stiles let out a huff as he yet again had to go over what happened in the woods with his father. It's been two weeks since it's happened and he's had to go over the story thousands of times, which he understood. He was the only living victim, but it wasn't like he could tell the truth. So every time he told it he had to be sure that it was always the same story, and the details were always the same, it was all very nerve racking. His nerves were severely racked.
Stiles finally finished going over the lie of what had happened for the last time with a police officer, and he was glad it was finally done. Well at least he hoped it was done, he made his father promise that there wouldn't be anymore questioning after this, because he just couldn't take it anymore. He hated going over that night over and over again, it haunted his dreams enough he didn't want to have to talk about it everyday too. It didn't help that he's had two more panic attacks since the one in the hospital. Both times Derek would suddenly appear and pull him out of it, which was kind of relieving, knowing that a badass werewolf always had his back.
Stiles walked out of the police station and sure enough there the badass werewolf was, leaning against his jeep. He couldn't keep the smiled off his face as he walked over to him. "What are you doing here, Derek?" he asked.
"Just checking up on a friend" Derek said, "Kind of scrawny and a little awkward. He's giving the police a statement right now. Should be out soon," he said with a smirk.
"Oh really?" Stiles said and gave a small laugh, "Give me a little more detail maybe I saw him," he said, deciding to play along with Derek's joke.
"Oh, he's pretty hard to miss," Derek said with a smile. "He's loud, and very sarcastic," he said and paused as if he was thinking about other characteristics. "Kind of lanky, yay high," he said and held his hand up to about where Stiles' height would probably be. "Dark brown hair….." he said trailing off like he didn't have anything else to say, though about a thousand other descriptions popped into his head, just none of them were very appropriate for a friendship.
Stiles made a face 'Lanky…. really' he mouthed and shook his head slightly, "Nope haven't seen him. Must have missed him," he said and shrugged slightly. "Sucks for you dude, sounds like an awesome guy."
Derek laughed softly "Eh, he's okay. Kind of annoying honestly," he said with a smile.
Stiles gaped, "You think he's… annoyi…. Oh dude that's just not cool," he said and shook his head slightly before getting into the jeep.
Derek laughed out loud, "Hey I said kind of, didn't I?" he said with a smile before getting into the passenger side of the car.
"Still unacceptable," Stiles said jokingly with a smile before starting the engine and pulling out of the parking lot. "You're a horrible friend, by the way," he said jokingly.
Derek laughed. "Now that's just rude," he said and shook his head.
Stiles laughed softly and looked over at Derek, "Okay, now seriously, what's up Derek?" he asked. He knew the werewolf was prone to just randomly showing up, but it still was strange to him.
Derek shrugged, "Just wanted to check up on you," he said honestly and turned his head to look at Stiles. "It's been a few days. Wanted to see how you were doing," he said. He's been busy the last three days, so he hasn't really been around Stiles, not even watching over him like he'd been doing over the past few nights.
"I've noticed," Stiles said and looked over at Derek, "What have you been up to?" he asked. "Looking for that Bitch, Josie, I hope?" he said, not only because of what she did to him but because there has been two more murders since that night. "I might have found a connection by the way," he said with a proud smile.
"Stiles, don't worry about Josie. I have it handled. You just rest," Derek said.
Stiles sighed, "I've been resting for the past two weeks Derek, I'm sick and tired of resting. I want to get back into things!" he said.
Derek sighed softly, "Stiles, it's too dangerous, and you're not completely healed yet" he said. He suddenly jolted forward, barely having enough time to catch himself on the dashboard. "What the hell Stiles?" he said and looked over to see the human glaring at him.
Stiles gaped at what Derek said before realizing what he was doing, he was trying to sideline him. He slammed on the brakes, luckily there were no other cars on the road so he didn't cause a crash. "Seriously Derek, you have to ask," he snapped and pursed his lips as he tried getting a grip on the anger that had started to boil in his gut. "What are you trying to do, Derek, sideline me, get me out of the way so you can just do it yourself? Think I can't handle it? Huh!?" he asked.
Derek sighed softly, "Can we do this somewhere else?" he asked. "Preferably not in the middle of the road."
Stiles glared at him a moment before huffing and lifting his foot off the brake. He drove to Derek's place, not exactly going the speed limit as he did so. He parked in the usual spot before getting out of the car, slamming the door shut before walking up to Derek's loft. His anger dissipated a bit, but he was still angry that Derek was trying to take him out of the fight. Like he just saw him as some weak human or something. Sure he was a human but that didn't mean he was weak, or couldn't handle this, he was fine.
Derek walked into his apartment and shut the door behind Stiles, "I wasn't trying to insult you or anything Stiles. I'm just trying to look after you" he said and looked over at Stiles with a sigh.
"Yeah I'm sure that's all it is" Stiles said sarcastically. "Just admit it Derek, you always saw me as the annoying human who got in the way." he said.
Derek sighed, "Okay fine, yeah maybe at first that is how I saw you. I thought Scott was an idiot for letting you get involved, but you were always the one to figure things out. You've always got a plan, good or bad" he said. "You helped several times, so no, I don't see you as just the annoying human anymore. I do, however, see you as a friend who's gotten hurt," he said. "One I'd rather not see get hurt again."
"So what? I'm just supposed to sit back and let you take this all on by yourself? Not happening," Stiles said and shook his head slightly.
"Would you look at yourself Stiles? You may not like it, but you are human," Derek said. "You can't just heal…. you could die, Stiles," he said and let out a heavy sigh. "You have people who care about you Stiles, what would your dad do? What would I… If you died, I'd… I'd be devastated," he said and shook his head slightly.
"Okay, not that's not fair. Using my own argument against me" Stiles said and pointed at
Derek as he remembered almost the exact same conversation he had with Lydia. He'd gotten his ass kicked that time too. Maybe that was all he was good for.
"What?" Derek asked, extremely confused.
"Nothing, just something I said to…. doesn't matter," Stiles said and shook his head slightly. "But this is different," he said and was about to say something when he changed his mind. "No, actually, it isn't" he said and walked closer to Derek, "I was wrong then, and you're wrong now Derek," he said and poked the man's chest, ignoring the small glare that, that earned him. "People are dying Derek and we can do something about it, I might not be able to help like you can, but I am still usefull!" and poked the man again.
"Poke me again and you'll lose the finger" Derek threatened and let out a small sigh as he tried finding a convincing argument. "If I say no, you're still going to get involved, aren't you?" he said.
Stiles nodded slightly "Correct," he said with a smile. "I'm not going to back down just because I got hurt, or that I'm scared Derek. That's not who I am."
Derek sighed softly with defeat, he might not know the human well but he knew he'd just end up getting himself in trouble. "She said she'd kill you," he said and stared at Stiles for a moment. "You forgot to mention that."
Stiles gaped at him for a moment, not knowing how he knew that, but then it hit him, she told him herself. "Yeah she said that, what's your point?" he asked, crossing his arms.
"That someone literally put a hit out on your life if we continue with this whole thing," Derek said and crossed his arms. "I'm not okay with that risk,"
"Well I am, that's why I didn't tell you about it, Derek," Stiles said and stared at him for a moment. "I didn't want it to be a problem."
"Well it is" Derek said.
Stiles shook his head slightly, "Oh my god Derek, you can't be serious" he said in surprise. "I'm just one person, she's killed dozens, and will probably kill dozens more," he said. "She needs to be stopped, and the police won't be able to do it. Come on Derek, we need to do this."
Derek sighed with defeat, there was no way he was going to win this argument. "What was your lead" he asked, because there was no way he was going to outright admit defeat.
Stiles smiled victoriously, "It's not exactly a lead because it's not all the victims, but most of them are sixteen to eighteen, dark hair, green eyes, about 5' 10." he said and shrugged slightly. "Sound familiar?" he asked, talking about when Derek was that age. "I noticed when I was looking over the pictures that some of them kind of looked like you, not creepily but you know same general appearance for most part" he said. "So I looked through some old yearbooks and pulled up a picture of you, to make sure I wasn't just nuts and I compared them. I was right." he said with a small smile. "She definitely has it out for you. Don't know why but she does" he said.
Derek couldn't help but smile as well, though as the human spoke his slowly faded. "Really?" he asked, not getting why she would be after him. He didn't even know who she was.
"Yeah, I mean it's not very noticeable, but it's there. I stared at the pictures for hours before I even noticed it" Stiles said with a shrug. "Know why she might want to target you? Or why she would kill so many people just to get to you?" he asked.
Derek shrugged, "I don't know, never met her before" he said and sighed softly. "She's nuts though, so that's probably why she's killing a bunch of random people"
Stiles nodded slightly before walking around Derek and sitting down on the couch with a sigh. He was still a little sore, but al his bruises were mostly healed, it was just the claw marks that hurt. "Well whatever, guess the reason doesn't really matter. Just have to stop her" he said with a small nod before looking over at Derek.
Derek nodded slightly, "Yeah I guess you're right" he said with a small sigh before going to sit next to Stiles, their shoulders brushing together lightly. He turned his head and looked at Stiles for a moment, "Don't freak out, but I would feel better about it if we at least awaited a few more days before getting back into this" he said. "Make sure you're at your full strength" he said.
Stiles sigh with frustration but nodded anyway, deciding not to argue this time. "Fine" he said a bit exaggeratedly. "I suppose we could wait a few more days" he said and looked at Derek. "But not long, I don't want anyone else getting hurt" he said, and meant it.
Derek nodded slightly, glad he at least got him to wait a few more days before jumping back into this. "Good" he said with a smile. "What would you like to do until then?" he asked.
Stiles shrugged "I don't know, watch a movie" he said and looked around a bit, "You don't have a t.v. so uh…. maybe uh….. I don't know" he said and shrugged again. "I guess we could go back to my place" he said and looked at Derek.
Derek really wasn't the movie watching type, but he really didn't know what else they would be able to do. He wasn't used to having friends so he had no idea how to do this. "Yeah okay" he said.
The next three days were quiet, and actually kind of fun. Stiles and Derek hung out most of the time, doing random things, watching a lot of movies and even just going on walks and talking. They did a lot of talking, Stiles never thought of Derek as a good conversationalist, but these last three days definitely changed his mind on that.
Though Stiles was glad when it was finally time to start working on the case again, he liked it when he had a set task to do. Especially something as interesting as the supernatural and cases in general. They were back at Derek's place, because he was finally able to convince the werewolf to let him put the evidence wall there.
Stiles finished taping everything up and connecting everything he was able to connect, which wasn't much, on a empty wall at Derek's. Then he stepped back a little bit and just stared at it for a moment.
"I can't believe I let you convince me to allow you to do this" Derek said and shook his head slightly.
Stiles scoffed, "Had to be done" he said and looked over at Derek. "It's my process, deal with it" he said and stared at the board.
Derek chuckled softly before sitting down on the couch, "So what exactly is all this crap supposed to tell us anyway. Don't we already all we need to know. Which is who she is, and who she's after. The rest just doesn't matter" he said.
Stiles scoffed, "Says you" he said and studied the wall for a moment longer before turning around and going over to the couch to sit down next to Derek. "Every little bit of information is useful Derek, it will help us know what we're up against" he said.
"Right?" Derek said with a small nod before leaning over and flipping open the pizza box.
While Stiles put up his ridiculous evidence wall, Derek went out and got a pizza for them. "hope sausage is alright" he said and looked at the human. "I asked what you wanted, but you kind of just ignored me"
Stiles laughed softly, "Yeah uh….. sorry about that" he said and picked up a slice of pizza. "I prefer pepperoni but sausage is good too" he said with a smile before taking a big bite.
