"If you touch that dial one more time Derek, you're walking."

"It's too loud," Derek insisted, and Peter tensed up with irritation. Back in Black by ACDC drifted from the speakers.

"Birdbrain back there is too loud whenever he opens his mouth. This, this song is a classic. It can't ever be too loud. Car thief, is it too loud for you back there?"

"Actually, asshole, I can barely hear it," Stiles shot back with a look of bafflement on his face, as if it was a trick question.

"See, it's perfect volume." Peter continued driving, letting the music blare softly. Derek finally reached over and dug the cassette tape out of the car, then threw it out the window. Peter glared at Derek as he veered into the right hand lane, then turned into the motel. "You better find that later."

"You can find it yourself. Stiles, let's go in. Motel room 5." They climbed out of the car, and Peter still gave Derek a pressing leer from across the roof of the car. Stiles walked out towards the motel, followed by Derek. When they reached the room, Derek motioned for Peter to use the key to open it.

Peter stood there, his hands in his pockets.

"Peter, open the door." Derek said with annoyance, and motioned towards the door. Peter shrugged.

"I gave my key to Gramma. Talia has the other." Derek rolled his eyes at the excuse, and then rapped his knuckles on the door loudly. Talia opened the door and let them in.

At first, Stiles wasn't sure this place was even hospitable. He could see why Derek wanted to keep Luna at his house - there were clothes everywhere. Not only that, but the amount of stuff was amazing. They had only been here a short while and somehow this place looked like they had lived in it for three months. Stepping over an abandoned crumpled bag from McDonalds, he looked at Derek, and Derek motioned for him to sit on one of the double beds. He moved to where he saw Cora sitting, and sat near her. She gave him a smirk. "You look afraid."

"No, I'm actually just thinking," Stiles commented idly, looking around. Cora looked at him with vague interest.

"About what?"

"How your family didn't have more house fires if this is how you live. You know this place is clearly a fire hazard?" Cora rolled her eyes at Stiles' observation.

"Are you offering to clean, Stiles," Peter asked as he threw a bag on the floor, sitting in the chair it had been resting on previously. He crossed his legs and leaned back. "Because if you're not, shut your trap."

Stiles glared at Peter, and Talia chuckled.

"I apologize for the mess. We haven't been using this place more than a way-station. Now, Stiles." She pulled another chair up to him, and sat down in front of him. Derek walked over to the mini-fridge and started digging around for something. "We need to know what you know. Do you remember who you saw? I'm sure it wasn't just the Walcotts."

"Well, no, there was a guy with a cane and sunglasses. Said he was a werewolf? And this really intimidating woman. And another guy, but I didn't look at him really, I think he was bald...Um, something about symbols..." The memory was already getting foggy, and he squinted his eyes as he put his hands together, twiddling his thumbs in thought. "...symbols, and something about the annihilation of your family? Sorry, I've got a lot on my mind. And I'm trying to block out that whole thing already." His eyes fell on Derek, who had retrieved a cup of yogurt from the fridge and now was moving towards the other bed. He leaned down and picked up a snoozing Luna, who flopped onto his chest with little resistance.

"Stiles, did they mention anything else?" Talia pried gently, smiling at Stiles' attention to the baby. "Can you remember?"

"Um...not really, they said I was useless and threw me at the Walcotts. It's not the first time someone's said that so it's not shocking, but then they did their...creature thing," He watched as Derek pried the lid off with his teeth, and then nuzzled Luna's cheek with his nose. The baby scrunched up her face at being woken up, but after a brief grumpy gaze she noticed Derek, and smiled.

"Stiles, attention," Stiles jumped as Peter threw a balled up pair of socks at his head. The ball hit his forehead and bounced off onto the floor.

"Hey! No, really! That's all I know."

"If it was Deucalion, he's increased his pack size again," Talia said with a frown, looking over at Peter. "They must have thought Stiles was a weak link and tried to get information about the crests. I never shared the more intricate ones with him. Thank you, Stiles. We'll discuss this later without you present, because we don't want to put you in any further danger."

"Wait, I can help. My dad's the Sheriff. Trust me, I'm useful," Stiles said with a sudden intrigue, not liking that he was suddenly being cut out of the information exchange on what was going on.

"It's too dangeorus," Talia cautioned as she stood up. "Derek, after you feed Luna, you should probably leave her with Gramma. We need to go talk with Alicia."

"You really think that ragtag misfit group is going to help us? They've been a pain in our ass ever since they started grouping together." Peter said with a great amount of skepticism, standing up. "Look, what we need to do is take out the Alpha pack. Forget all the other packs, we can do this by ourselves."

"Peter," Derek's mother warned, obviously not even entertained by Peter's suggestion.

"Don't 'Peter' me, I know what the situation is. Even with Gramma sick, we can do a lot more than sit in a motel waiting for them to come to us. Or going to talk to a bunch of children and see if they want to enlist. They're not going to, Talia. Our connections have all soured, we don't hold any weight anymore."

Stiles looked at Gramma, who didn't say anything to Peter's comment. Her expression looked remorseful as she looked at a wall.

"Peter, we don't have the numbers anymore to handle a full fledged attack," Talia explained, standing up to look the other in the eyes. They were inches from each other.

"We have the four of us. And Laura, if she ever quits being selfish and returns to the group. It was a mistake letting her go out of state, Talia." He moved closer to the other, and Stiles looked at Cora, then Derek. He wasn't sure if someone should be getting in between the two to stop what looked like a potentially huge conflict. "Ever since your husband was killed by that hunter, everything you've done has weakened our group. We can't be separated at times like these. I disagree with your tactic of trying to pacify this situation. It didn't work a few months ago, and it won't work now. We all will be dead by next year."

Even Luna was quiet as she watched the interaction. Stiles looked at Derek, who seemed as if he wanted to put the baby down and strangle Peter.

"Peter!" Talia said, then shoved him back. "Leave."

He put up his hands, and then said without a hint of disagreement, "Gone." He stomped towards the door, and then flung it open. "We can't survive peacefully, Talia. It was a good dream for while it worked. But we need to fight, even if all we have is two alphas and four betas. And I'd prefer if we fought before we lost anymore of this pack." He slammed the door shut, making Stiles jump as he held the edge of the bed. Everyone was silent as Talia turned and looked towards the door, and then looked back at Gramma.

"Momma..." Talia said quietly, and Gramma put up her hand to stop her from saying anything.

"I am a weak link, Talia," Gramma said with a quiet tone. "I don't hide anything about my restrictions."

Stiles looked around, trying to feel like he belonged there. Unfortunately, the more the family interacted, the less he felt like he fit in.

"Even with your restrictions, you're indispensable. Now, Cora, Derek. We're going to meet with Alicia as we planned. Gramma, can you handle Luna?"

There was a pause, but Gramma nodded. Stiles looked at the older woman, feeling a familiar sense of sadness.

"Well, Luna's already staying at my place. And now that I know what's going on, sort of," Stiles said as he hurriedly stumbled over his words, "Maybe, I could give Gramma a break and watch Luna? I mean, if you want, Gramma..." He felt sort of awkward calling her Gramma when he wasn't her 'gramboy', "You can rest in the guest room at my place. I mean, it's the least I can do after what you've all done for me, with saving my life and...all that."

"That's an extremely generous offer, Stiles, but..." Talia hesitated, but Derek walked over with the now partially yogurt-sticky baby and put her in Stiles' arms. Stiles smiled at her when she looked happy at him holding her again.

"He can handle her." He said as he turned to Talia, throwing the yogurt container and plastic spoon in the overflowing garbage can from a distance.

"If it's all right with you, Derek...thank you, Stiles. Are you certain? Your father is still recovering."

"Nm-nbm," Stiles said as Luna grabbed his lips, giggling. He tickled her to get his lips free. "No problem. I can handle it." Deep down he wasn't sure if he could, but he almost felt obligated to watch the kid so Gramma could rest.

"All right," Talia said, motioning for Derek to take Stiles, Gramma and the baby to Stiles' house. She tossed him the keys to the rental and then turned to Cora and started whispering something. Stiles lifted Luna up, carrying her as he followed Derek out the door. When they were all buckled into the car and Luna in her car seat, Stiles stared at Derek and Gramma from the back seat, casually letting Luna play with his hand as the car rolled into motion.

He wondered what was wrong with Gramma. It seemed like everyone else was extremely healthy - almost too healthy - including the baby.