Chapter Twelve
Back to It
*Derek
Derek sighed softly as Stiles yet again started thinking out loud, which the human had a bad habit of doing. The mumblings never really made any sense to Derek, they were kind of all over the place. "Stiles what are you talking about?" he asked and looked over at the human, who wasn't even listening to him. He sighed again before nudging him lightly, "Stiles" he repeated.
Stiles shook his head slightly "Uh….. what?" he asked and looked over at Derek a bit startled and confused having been deep in thought. "Oh…. right…. I was doing it again wasn't I," he said with a small chuckle as the real world came back to him.
Derek smiled and nodded slightly "Yeah" he said and chuckled softly before looking at the human again. "What do you got?" he asked
Stiles smiled, "Okay, so you remember when Peter had this big fit about Talia, your mom, taking one of his memories away, of his daughter Malia" he said and sighed softly. "Anyway I was thinking that maybe she did something similiar to you with this Josie chick" he said and shrugged slightly. "I mean something pretty terrible had to have happened to make her this bat shit crazy, and want to murder a bunch of people just to get to you right" he said and paused a moment as he straightened his thoughts out in his head for a moment. "That being said, maybe it was bad enough for her to want to take the memory from you" he said. "I mean didn't she take away the location of the nemeton" he said, a bit tentatively, considering what happened at there.
Derek nodded slightly, "Uh… yeah she did" he said and furrowed his brow as he thought about it. "Yeah I…. uh guess that is possible" he said and sighed softly as he tried to wrap his mind around this. "Must have been around sixteen around the time it happened" he said. "Before the fire obviously" he said and paused as he tried to think of something that could have been so bad she would take the memory from him. Was it something he did?
Stiles frowned as he watch Derek process this, kind of wishing he'd just kept his mouth shut. "Doesn't really matter what happened to maker her do this Derek. Nothing you could ever do would warrant this behavior. Besides it could have just been something you witnessed right?" he asked. "Something that could have scared you or something?" he asked.
"Yeah I guess" Derek mumbled, not really believing it. He just couldn't shake the feeling that it all had something to do with him, that this was all his fault. He didn't want to burden Stiles with that though so he just pushed the feelings down for the moment and forced a smile. "You're right Stiles, doesn't matter" he said and sighed softly. "Just got to stop Josie and move on" he said.
Stiles could tell there was still something wrong, but he knew Derek well enough to know he wouldn't talk about it, so he just moved on. "Right" he said with a nod before standing and walking over to the evidence wall, that he put up two days ago. They really hadn't made much progress, but luckily no one else has died either so that was good. He put up a small note about Derek's memory possibly being erased before going to sit back down next to Derek, probably closer the he needed too. "Okay, I think we should start patrolling the woods again" he said and turned to look at Derek. "The police kind of gave up on that part. Plus the case has kind of been taken over by the FBI or something" he said and shrugged slightly. "Anyway, what I mean is if we're going to stop her we kind of have to find her" he said.
Derek nodded "You sure you're ready for that?" he asked worriedly, kind of scared to actually really get into this. What they've been doing for the past two days was not really anything, but as soon as they start looking then Josie's threat became real. He wasn't exactly ready for that.
Stiles sighed, "Please Derek don't start that again" he said and looked over at him. "I mean come on I already won that argument." he said jokingly with a smirk.
"Oh really, maybe that's just what I wanted you to think" he said.
Stiles chuckled, "Okay, come on Derek I'm fine. Getting my stitches removed tomorrow and everything." he said with a smile and nudged the werewolf. "Come on Sourwolf" he said jokingly.
Derek sighed and shook his head slightly, again just giving up on trying to fight him on this. He knew there was no way he was going to win, unless he forcefully stopped Stiles and he really didn't want to do that. So instead he'd just have to protect him, he could do that. They pretty much spend all their time together anyway, hell Stiles as fallen asleep on his couch several times already. "You got an actual plan or are we just going out to walk around aimlessly all night?" he asked.
Stiles smiled brightly, because he knew that once again he won the argument, if you could even call that an argument.. "Of course I've got a plan…. Who do you think you're talking to" he said with a small laugh before rearranging some papers on the coffee table and pulling out a map. "Okay, so this is where all the bodies were found. A lot of them are repeats, which is why there's so few spots" he said and smiled as he started connecting the dots on the map. "It's really messy, but it's pretty much a pentagram" he said and smiled small as he picked up the book about the Ahzi. "And in here it says the Ahzi, just naturally does that, doesn't really say why though. It does say that it kills them and then brings them back to the forest, placing them at these general points…. And you know what else it says? That it usually stays or lives in the center" he said and laughed softly. "And you'll never guess what's at the center" he said.
"What?" Derek asked as he looked over the map, it was definitely a messy pentagram, though what else could you expect from a being with no self control, something that couldn't even think for himself. Plus Stiles' lines were definitely not straight.
"The nemeton" Stiles said with a smile. "At least if I remember it's location correctly" he said and shrugged slightly.
"So you think Josie and the Ahzi are camping out at the nemeton" Derek said, not sure how much he believe that.
"Well no" Stiles said with a small shake of his head, "But the center of the pentagram is about three miles long in all directions…. so I guess we can start at the nemeton and make our way around" he said.
Derek nodded slightly, "Yeah okay, I guess we can do that" he said and looked at Stiles.
"We start tonight" Stiles said and leaned back into the couch and made himself comfortable. He could see that Derek was about to protest so he quickly added, "Sooner the better Derek. More people are going to get killed if we wait any longer."
Derek sighed because he knew he was right, "Okay fine" he said with a grunt. "We can start tonight." he said and looked over at Stiles. "What time you planning on going out?" he asked.
"Ummmmm eight" Stiles suggested, because he really didn't really care when they started.
"Okay, yeah works for me" Derek said with a small shrug.
"And until then I suggest pizza and movies" Stiles said and stood up. "Come on, we can pick up a pizza on the way to my place"
Derek sighed softly and stood up to follow Stiles out of his place. "Why not get something a little different this time. We always get pizza. Aren't you sick of it yet?" he asked.
Stiles scoffed, "No, are you?" he asked and looked over at him.
"Yeah" Derek said with a small nod before he locked up his place. He turned around and looked at Stiles a moment before he started down the stairs to the lobby of his building. He knew they were going to take the jeep so he didn't even bother asking before walking over to the stupid thing.
Stiles sighed softly, "Okay fine, what do you suggest we get then?" he asked as he hurried after him. Derek always tended to walk fast and Stiles had to practically jog to keep up with him. Not so bad though, I get a pretty good view, he thought to himself with a smile before walking around the jeep and getting into the driver's side.
Derek thought a moment, his fingers lightly tapping on the dashboard, "I don't know but not pizza" he said and looked at Stiles. "Literally anything, but pizza" he said.
Stiles shook his head at Derek, "There something wrong with you man" he said joking before starting the engine and pulling away from the curb. "How could you possibly be sick of pizza" he said and sighed softly. "Whatever I guess we can just make something at my place. Shouldn't be that big of a deal" he said
Derek nodded slightly, "Ummm yeah okay" he said with a smile, even though he really wasn't much of a cook.
