Stiles stops crying by the time the car stops moving. No use letting these monsters see her cry. So, she sucks it in and is taking deep even breaths by the time they yank her out of the car and into a house. The house feels large, and there is something painfully familiar with the turns they take. Then, suddenly, she can see and it's blinding and now she's tumbling down some uncarpeted stairs.
Her knees connect with one of the steps and she feels the throb go up her leg. That is definitely going to suck ass in a few hours. If she has a few hours, that is. At the bottom of the stairs the room is dark. But Stiles is starting to figure out where she is, she has only been here once but it feels like the same place.
That thought is chased out of her mind when she sees the horror in front of her. Good news, she found Erica and Boyd. Bad News, she found Erica and Boyd at the Argent's.
"Well Fuck." Stiles breathes out, knowing that this is going to end horribly.
Erica and Boyd let out muffled grunts and maybe screams as she runs to them. Stiles motions for them to calm the hell down and shut the fuck up. She can totally untie that. Stiles used to tie knots in everything. No really, the shoelaces of her house never recovered from the year when she realized that her and Scott could not be in Boy Scouts together, because you know, she is not in fact a boy.
Her hand barely touches the wire before she feels the shock run up her arm and sweet six pound nine ounce baby jesus does that sting. Like, really fucking sting. How are Erica and Boyd doing still conscious with that kind of pain coursing through their limbs.
"Your friends were trying to warn you," Captain Old Pants says coming down the creaky stairs. Stiles wants to say fuck again, but she figures a geezer like him might take offense and beat the crap out of her. Well, he might do that anyway.
"Scott will find me," Stiles says because she has to believe that. After everything they have been through, she has to believe that her best friend will come for her. Mentioning Derek feels like a jinx and not something that should be said in the presence of this monster.
"Oh, I'm counting on it," he says with a grin and a swing. His fist connects with her cheekbone and Stiles can feel the pain even after he moves his fist away. Damnit, this is going to hurt like a bitch in the morning. The second and third hits land near her eye and that is when she says enough is enough.
The jerk has a grip on her jersey but it leaves her legs free to move. Stiles thrashes out her right leg and it connects with Gerard's knee. He goes down backwards and she has a moment to gather herself and try to move. Surprisingly, the bastard is pretty fucking spry for his old age, so she manages to get onto her hands and knees before he is back. This time Gerard is not as kind, his kicks are aimed right at her ribs and he laughs a little when she goes down.
"I was hoping for visibility," Gerard huffs out.
"But this works just as well,"
Stiles lashes out when she feel the ache settle in her ribs. Her fist connects with his gut but he is expecting it somehow and yanks her head back by her hair. "I am starting to see why they keep you around," Gerard sneers and then goes back to trying to break her nose. His hold on her hair is too strong for her to fight back much; he has also learned his lesson and angled himself away from her legs.
Stiles tries to count. Tries to remember the way this goes because later she will do something about it. When help comes she wants to be the one to return the favor. But before she can do the numbers its over. Just over. Gerard drops her and storms off.
Stiles lays on the floor looking at Erica and Boyd and feeling the bruises from. Erica is crying. Huh. Didn't know she cared. Then again does anyone really ever want bare witness to what just happened?
Just when Stiles starts to contemplate having another go at releasing the wayward werewolves, a big brute of a man comes into the room and throws a hood over her head with a zip tie cinching around her neck. She doesn't even fight it when he drags her up the stairs. She does, however get the guts to do something foolish as they reach a place that feels open and she can hear the echo of footsteps.
"Thanks Allison!" she shouts despite the grip on her neck. The thug shoves her a bit harder after that and she stumbles onto the concrete and scrapes her hands bloody against the concrete. He yanks her up and marches her for a while longer in the cold evening air. At some undisclosed location the zip tie is cut and the hood is yanked way. Stiles turns to see the thug get in a waiting car some distance back.
Stiles is left standing in the middle of, well nowhere really. Clearly, an upscale subdivision. Fucking hunters, don't even have the decency to live in the older, more normal part of town or something. This is going to be a long ass walk. Stiles and her dad are not poor but they don't live in one of these mini mansions.
About half way through the walk the steam just slips out of her. Stiles is tired and she hurts everywhere and she just wants to sleep. Mostly she wants her daddy. She wants to have him rub her head and make the extra cheesy Mac and Cheese and never, ever talk about werewolves again.
So yeah, maybe by the time she drags herself inside her house and hears her dad shouting she kind of collapses. Well, she holds herself up until he crushes her into a hug and then she really lets the last hour or so wash over her.
"Gem," her dad says a while later after she has finished half a bowl of Mac and Cheese and they are sitting at the table.
"Daddy," she mocks him.
"Please tell me what is going on," he begs. "I promise to only press a few charges," she snorts. "I can go with battery, I mean that's way less than what I could do,"
"I don't think that would work out," she gives him a tired smile.
"Okay, fine you got me," he sighs and takes his bowl to the sink.
"I am going to string up whoever did this by their hamstrings and beat them with a club," he comes over and kisses her hair. "Nobody gets away with this shit, especially not to you honey,"
"I'll think about it," Stiles offers. Her dad sighs and takes her plate. He shuffles around for a few minutes, before he turns back to her.
"Go lay down," he gives her a light pat on the back and Stiles relents. Upstairs she falls onto the bed face first. Only, her dad doesn't really keep his distance. Every few minutes her door cracks open and he pokes his head in. Really, who needs another parent when she has this big teddy bear for a dad? Eventually, she locks the door so he will go away and she can try to sleep.
That's when the knocking starts.
"Lydia?" Stiles gasps. This is the last person she was expecting. In fact, her window is currently locked to ward off some other people who she was expecting to come sooner. A tiny, small, soft, squishy part of Stiles' heart is sad not to see stubble on the other side of the door.
"They won't let me see him," Lydia begins looking more defeated than she ever has.
Neither of them say anything for a while after that. The two of them just sit and stare into space. Then Stiles remembers something from when she was younger.
"You know I was friends with Jackson when we were kids," Lydia looks at her like she's crazy. "Don't give me that look. I loved sports as much as he did, and I could take a hit," Lydia snorts at her face. "Whatever, the point is we used to be in all the co-ed little league teams together. So I was there the day his parents told him,".
"He was so hurt, I mean he didn't really look hurt, he looked angry. But, we all know angry is Jackson's version of feeling pain," Stiles sighs and picks at her nails.
"So I hugged him," she realizes she is crying. "I hugged him and I told him he would always be special. I said it meant he was blessed because his parents chose to love him, they weren't forced to like everyone else," Lydia makes a face, somewhere between disbelief and awe.
"He never said anything," Lydia mutters through small hiccups.
"Well that might be because he kicked me in the shins and told me to never speak to him again," Stiles laughs a little.
"I hugged him at every practice for a month before I realized that he really meant it," Stiles shakes her head. "But, the thing is I don't think he meant it, not really. He was scared. He never like being scared."
"I'm sorry," Stiles said when Lydia opened her mouth. "I am so sorry that asshat convinced me to stop being his friend. I should have just kicked him back,".
Lydia cries for a while then. Like, really cries. Stiles has always sucked at this girl stuff but she gives it a shot. Lydia collapses into her arms and they stay like that for a while, with Lydia shaking in grief and Stiles feeling numb to the world.
It's her phone that ruins the moment a while later. It rings out Derek's ringtone, which she of course set to something ridiculous. "Why is your phone making horror movie noises?" Lydia asks with a raise of her eyebrow.
"It's a joke," Lydia keeps watching her. "It's hilarious if you knew everything,"
"You mean the monsters," Lydia's eyes get hazy and far away, and Stiles is suddenly concerned for where this is going, and for what they haven't told her.
"What do you remember?" Stiles demands with a little bit more force than necessary.
"Bits and pieces, it's a big jumble in my mind," Lydia's face looks lost. Then the phone chirps with a text message, Stiles leans over to read it.
Derek: Find Lydia. We need her to save Jackson.
"Save?" Lydia gasps.
"I'll get my keys," Stiles makes a grab for her shoes. Lydia tosses her the phone and they bolt out of the house.
"Stiles?" her dad shouts as she runs past.
"This calls for ice cream or at least an entire cheesecake and the store closes, in like twenty minutes," Stiles shouts back.
"Ooooh get fudge!" her dad calls out as the door closes.
"I could really go for fudge actually," Stiles tells Lydia as they start to drive.
"We save Jackson, I will buy you the whole Cheesecake Factory!" Lydia snaps.
"I can deal with that," Stiles nods. "But dibs on beating the ever living fuck out of our principal."
"Yeah, sure. Whatever," Lydia opens Stiles' phone. "Whoever the contact with the picture of a fantastic looking ass, just sent you an address in the warehouse district."
"Best use of camera phone ever," Stiles smiles seeing the snap shot she took the last time Derek was naked.
"Stiles," Lydia sounds like a disapproving mother.
"I'm driving, I'm driving," Stiles feels like this is going to be a recurring event.
Stiles is not proud of the scream that she lets out, or about how much her arms go absolutely everywhere. Also, can people stop hurting her Jeep, like really.
Everyone else is mostly standing off to one side, away from Jackson's attack. Isaac is bleeding all over the place and Allison has blood on her hands. (Things on the list that need to be addressed, number one.) Peter was off in a corner, alive. (Things on the list that need to be addressed, number two.) Christ Argent is crying, or sweating, or some shit. He appears to be helping Scott, so it's okay. (Things on the list that need to be addressed, number three.)
Lydia jumps out to deal with Jackson. It's kind of sweet in a creepy and naked kind of way. Not that Stiles is looking, but like lizard scales seem like they would chafe. Not that Stiles is thinking about Jackson's junk or anything, but it's hard not to notice that the lizard scales kind of stay on the lower region the longest.
So she stumbles out of the car and looks around to see just where the fuck Gerard is. The bag of maggots is lying on the floor and Stiles makes a detour from the group to go kick him, hard. Which, apparently is not the thing to do because Derek rushes over and pulls her away. Well, tries to pull her away. He wraps his arms around her midsection, hitting right where the bruises that are still blooming and making her want to gasp in pain.
"Stop that," he growls.
"Get your furry paws off of me," Stiles struggles out of his grasp. "I have business with this psycho."
That, of course is the exact moment that Lydia shouts because apparently Peter is now double stabbing Jackson. Derek groans and drops her to make a dash for that. He seems like he is about to help; only Stiles kind of kicks Gerard again and Derek's attention goes back to her and then Jackson is falling over.
Stiles notices that Jackson isn't getting up, at all. Nor is he breathing. Oh crap. She abandons trying to hurt the old geezer and rushes back over to grab Lydia. This is going to be too much. Just way too much for her friend to handle. Everyone else seems to be dealing with other people. Scott laces fingers with Allison and Derek grabs Isaac. No one is reaching for Lydia, except Stiles.
No one is more surprised by the gasp that Jackson releases than she is. The whole room goes completely still, and suddenly Jackson is up and moving, and roaring. Also, naked; minus the scales this time. Stiles would like the record to state that he is still butt fucking naked and she is completely allowed to take a peek at that; no matter what anyone says, coughDerekcough.
"Um guys..." Stiles says looking over to where Gerard was a moment ago. "Sauron is gone," Scott snorts.
It takes awhile to sort everything out. Scott goes with the Argents, well not exactly with; with them. Scott follows them like a creeper because he is really worried about Allison.
"Her mom died, and I am pretty sure her grandpa is dead now, too," Scott looks heartbroken.
"I get it," Stiles waves him off.
"I'll be by later," he promises ruffling her hair and then leaves.
Lydia and Jackson disappear somewhere and Stiles is not really that surprised to find that her secret stash of condoms in the car is now mysteriously missing.
The weird part is that Peter stands near her for a while and keeps looking at Stiles like there is something on her face.
"What?" she snaps when there is a moment alone.
"You hit him with a truck," Peter smiles and then wanders off into the abyss. Stiles turns to Derek with a confused look on her face.
"Has your uncle ever watch Venture Brothers?" Because that sounds like a quote to her.
Which would make Jackson Brock Samson and Stiles 24. Stiles does not want to be 24. She doesn't want to be any of the henchman.
"I have no idea," Derek shakes his head and looks around. "What are you still doing here?" he suddenly seems to figure out that besides a wandering Isaac they are the only ones left.
"Waiting to give rides to wayward werewolves," Stiles supplies jingling her keys at him.
"Isaac?" Derek shouts and the other boy perks up. "Run home," Isaac's face falls and he Charlie Brown walks out of the warehouse.
"That was mean," Stiles tsks at him, but Derek is on her before she can get the rest of her joke out of the old noggin. He makes a grab for her pulling her flush against him. Derek's hand, unfortunately, ruins the moment by hitting the exact spot on her ribs where the creaking has been coming from. Stiles hisses and pulls away.
"What the hell happened?" Derek growls and yanks at her shirt. That was, of course, when he notices the bruising all over most of her side. The black eye hasn't set yet so it just looks swollen and a little bloody on her face, but her side was taking to the bruising a great deal faster.
"Seriously?" Stiles slaps his hand. "Now you wonder?"
"Stiles, the fuck happened to you?" Derek snaps.
"Did you miss the part where I was kidnapped today?" she was done with this idiot. He hadn't even been aware that she was missing. Unbelievable.
"What?" Derek looks, really and truly confused.
"I was missing. For most of the night." Stiles is going to try small sentences, maybe that's the trick. Derek blinks and then looks furious.
"What," that wasn't even a question. Stiles doesn't know what to do with that.
"I was at the lacrosse game. I was kidnapped. Bad stuff. Pouted for a bit. Lydia cried on me. Came here to be a bamf," Stiles makes hand motions to show him the the progression of events. Derek looks wrecked all of a sudden and he steps closer to her, brushing his hand across her bloody cheek.
"I had no idea." Derek whispers. His thumb stops it's route near her nose and stays there for a moment. Stiles feels the headache that had been threatening her for an hour or so fade into blissful nothingness. Stiles felt a sigh escape her lips. "That feels broken."
"It probably is." Stiles admitting feeling the change in the air. Oh, so that was where this was going.
Derek's thumb took a path across her face followed by other fingers that paused and skipped at different points. She feels the pain disappearing and knows she should ask about that, find out what weird mojo he was up to, but she was having the first moment without overwhelming pain in over an hour.
When he moves down to her ribs is when the issue arises. Now that the adrenaline was gone and she wasn't hopped up on pain meds Stiles was pretty sure there was a crack somewhere in the mess of her torso. This was when she notices the snaking black veins that had been appearing all over Derek's arms.
"Oh my god!" she shouts yanking at his arms. "Where is the wolfsbane?"
"No, these are different." Derek shakes his head and reaches for her again. "Just relax."
"I can't relax, I think I might have more than one broken bone. I need to get to a hospital or something." Stiles bats his hands away.
"How about I make you less of a bitch and then we go seek medical attention?" Derek offers with a smirk.
"What did you call me?" Stiles shouts, only as she goes forward to smack the idiot upside the head his hand shoots out and his palm rests on her slightly discolored stomach. The veins appear the same moment that Stiles realizes her pain was ebbing. "Oh you sneaky cocky asshole,". It was not a moan, it really wasn't. It was a groan. She groaned those words.
Stiles is not proud of it, but she does take a little snooze then. Not really a massive one. Just a close of her eyes and then suddenly they are in the car. Wait, no. Bad Derek. No other people driving The Tardis.
"Wha..."
"Scott's mom is going to meet us." Derek says pulling into the vet clinic.
"Do you have a key?" Stiles wonders trying to stretch but feeling the tug on her chest knowing that it was a bad idea.
"No." Derek is really good with the dry stuff. That is his humor. The ass. She squints at him wondering what he is going to do to get in.
He breaks in. Using his claws.
"You are a cliche," Stiles mutters as he opens the door and helps pull her in, being careful of her ribs. They didn't have that long to wait. Melissa was always prompt and she gasps when she sees the state Stiles is in.
"Why aren't you at the hospital?" Melissa demands in her angry mom voice.
"Because if my dad saw what I really looked like he would make me file a report. And if I have to file a report I have to explain that my principal just beat the fuck out of me in the basement of my friend's home or lie through my teeth. And I don't want to do either of things." Stiles hears a low sound close to her and realizes that Derek must be growling softly. "Down Kujo,". She snaps her fingers at him and he snaps his teeth in response. Melissa jumps at the motion and looks between them.
"It doesn't bother you?" Melissa asks in a hushed voice as she pulls out some bandages to wrap up Stiles' ribs.
"Not really," Stiles tries to shrug and then thinks better about it.
"They have weaknesses?" Melissa whispers. Someone needs to tell her that it won't do her any good to whisper with this bunch.
"Oh yes. Many." Stiles hold up her fingers and starts counting off. "Flea baths. Emotions. Lack of hair gel. Indoor plumbing. Facial expressions. Large words. Rawhide bones."
"Enough with the dog jokes," Derek sighs more bored now than anything.
"Never!" Stiles hisses in the golum voice. Melissa and Derek roll their eyes. Heathens.
They don't have sex. Mostly because they can't. Stiles is under strict instructions not to do any kind of activity like that with her ribs cracked and her nose at least fractured. Melissa actually has the audacity to say the word 'sex' like she knows exactly what is going on. That was troubling.
So Derek just drives her home. Which is also troubling and weird. The thing about their, arrangement, is the fact that they never talk about the arrangement, and that neither of them go out of the way to be extra nice.
"I wasn't worried because I didn't know," Derek says out of the blue at a red light.
"Oh," Stiles isn't sure what to say to that. Well you should have. Why didn't you wonder where I was? Do I mean so little?
"I should have known," Derek starts again when she is quiet for too long. "Your scent at the school was off and the police were everywhere," his grip on the steering wheel tightens. "I missed it because I was more concerned about Peter,"
"That is a legit reason," Stiles supplies and Derek looks shocked. "Peter is one creepy mother fucker, and you did kill him. I set him on fire if you forgot. This is not a guy that lets these kinds of things slide," Derek turns to look at her. "Be worried," Derek did not seem to relax or take this any better. That boy needs some serious help, or a sugar coma. Oh shit. Sugar. "After fudge,"
"What?" Derek doesn't seem like the kind.
"I told my dad we were going out on an ice cream run to drown our sorrows in melty goodness, and I said I would get him fudge," Stiles has no way of conveying the extreme importance of this task. "Dude. We have to stop. This is serious,"
So yeah. Maybe Derek doesn't huff or sigh and just turns around. And he pulls out bills and pays for the pint of Ben and Jerry's as well as a quarter cut of fudge at the grocery store. Stiles munches happily on her Chubby Hubby as Derek drives the rest of the way home.
"I am glad you're okay," Derek tells her as she jumps out of the car to go inside. It catches her off guard.
"Yeah. Me too," she smiles and is pretty sure there is pretzel in her teeth.
A look flashes across Derek's face and then he turns and leaves. Stiles wants to think about that look. Wants to talk about what it could mean. The desire to graph it out as part of her study on Derek's face is rather overwhelming.
But she doesn't. Because she can't. Not now. Maybe, maybe when the dust is done settling she can have a talk with him. Summer vacation is coming up. She can find time to deal with it then.
AN: Hello faithful readers. So this is the day you have been dreading. We are now up to the point where the show ended for the season. I might be able to squeeze out one more chapter with the closing scenes but this is it. I am officially going on hiatus... for this story.
Derek Diaries will continue. And a few other one shots are in the works. So have no fear. If you are reading this on FF I highly suggest you come read on AO3 because I tend to post things there days (try weeks) before I get around to FF. Also the commenting section is better.
Any of you that are cross over readers from Sponsorship please know that it will be coming back when the second movie is released. I need the fandom steam to keep me going.