Standing in front of the investigation board, Stiles rubbed his chin thoughtfully. He was currently studying the connections between Malia and his dad. No matter how hard he thought, he couldn't think of a reason for them both to be in the car without him knowing about it. Clearly he was missing something, but what it was he had no idea. Lydia stood next to him, squinting at Malia's photo. They had already connected her with the supernatural, and added the desert wolf to the board just in case. The only connection between her and the Sherriff was Stiles, and of course the car accident. Another line of string led off to the details of that incident. Stiles had insisted they included the Eichenhouse in their list of locations, as he and Malia had both spent time there, and it was famously coined the Echo House. Lydia had seemed sceptical, but wrote it up anyway. They had spread a map out on the floor as well, marking out the locations of important events: the cruiser crash, Malia's crash, where the tracker was found, Eichenhouse, a few old warehouses that were on their list, the station, the hospital, the house.
Stiles knelt down to study the map further, tracing possible routes with his finger. They must have walked from the crash because there were no other tire tracks. That limited the places they could have gotten to about a five mile radius given the time constraints. Liam said they headed North, which ruled out a few locations as well. Even so, there were still at least ten possible locations scattered across the map. Sighing he looked up from the map, glancing at Lydia. She was still staring at Malia's picture. "You need to tell Malia that we kissed. When we find her I mean."
"What? Why? It was a medical emergency!"
"I know that, and she'll understand if you tell her that."
"She's more likely to rip my throat out Lydia!"
"Maybe. But think about it, would you rather she found out now from you, or that it somehow gets back to her if one of us carelessly mentions it, and then not only did you kiss me, but you lied to her about it. She would definitely rip your throat out if that happened. It's not like it meant anything, she'll realise that, it's just best if she knows."
He rubbed the back of his head, "You have a point there. Alright, but first we need to find her, then I can tell her what happened."
"Deal. Right, so I was thinking, and isn't there another link between Malia and the forest?"
"Yeah, the coyote den."
"Do you remember where it was on the map?"
He looked down at the paper at his feet, "Yeah, it was right, here." He pointed at a spot North of the crash site. "You don't think? I'm pretty sure it wasn't big enough to echo."
"Yeah, but we should add it to the board anyway." With that, Lydia picked up the white marker and went to write on the board. However, as soon as the marker tip touched the screen, whispers erupted in her head. Gasping in shock she took a step backwards.
Stiles looked up and saw her reaction. Jumping to his feet he stood anxiously beside her, "Did you hear something? What was it? Are you alright?"
She told him to be quiet, swatting him away before moving back towards the board. Gingerly she placed the marker back down beside Malia's portrait. The voices returned to her head and she strained to listen to them. A man was speaking, his voice low, almost mechanic, "Where is the other one?"
A new voice appeared, sultry and feminine, "Indisposed. He is of no use. He's human."
The mechanic voice responded, "Will he cause trouble?"
"No, and neither will the girl. Isn't that right Malia?"
"So long as you don't hurt me or Stiles, I won't cause any trouble at all." Her voice was matter of fact and strangely calm. Before Lydia could listen in to any more of the conversation, and image appeared right in front of her vision. A man in a strange metal suit was standing before her. She wanted to jump back in shock but she was frozen. He spoke up:
"That's enough of you Banshee. Run back to Stiles." With that, he reached out a mechanic arm and shoved her backwards. Her eyes flashed open and she fell back onto Stiles, and they both tumbled on to his bed.
"What? Lydia what is it, what happened? Is my dad ok?"
She was shaking, her lip quivering as she tried to comprehend what had just happened, "He- he knew. The man knew I was listening. How did he know?" Her voice was barely a whisper, and she clung to Stiles for comfort.
"How did he know? Did he hurt you?" Stiles pulled her closer to him, trying his best to calm her down.
"No, he just, told me to leave, and, sort of shoved me out of the vision."
"How does that work? What did he look like?"
"He was in a metal suit, completely metal. It makes sense, because the man's voice I heard earlier was almost mechanical."
"Huh, so is he 'The Dread Doctor'?"
She looked at him as though he were crazy, "What?" Instead of answering, he pointed to the investigation board, which was now full with her handwriting. Over and over again, filling every available space were the names 'Desert Wolf' and 'Dread Doctor'. "Did I write that?"
Stiles stood up, gesturing between himself, the board and Lydia, "Yeah, well, it wasn't me so..."
"That must have been the woman's voice, the Desert Wolf. Malia was there too. She sounded fine. Really calm actually, it was weird. The Desert wolf clearly knew who she was, so they must have spoken before. The man said that your dad was- was indisposed."
Stiles whipped around, grabbing her shoulders, "Indisposed! Well what does that mean?"
She struggled free, "I don't know Stiles! He isn't dead, I know that." She turned her back to him, staring out the window with a frown on her face.
Realising he had hurt her feelings, Stiles was suddenly riddled with guilt. She had only been trying to help after all. Gingerly he took a step forwards, reaching out to touch her arm. "Lydia, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have shouted. I know that you're doing your best, and I appreciate it, I really do." As he spoke he gently turned her around to face him. "Lydia, you are the smartest person I know. Together we're gonna figure this out, I know it." She smiled weakly at him, squeezing his hand to let him know he was forgiven.
"There's something else. The woman said that your dad wasn't of use, because he was human. Like they only wanted supernatural's for whatever they're up to. And Malia seemed willing to go along with it. I just don't understand."
"What do you mean willing? Why wouldn't Malia have told me about this anyway?"
"I don't know, maybe she wanted to keep meeting her mother for the first time to herself? Anyway, she said so long as they didn't hurt her, or you, that she wouldn't cause them any trouble." She moved to the board and began to erase all of her scribbles. She was about half way across the board when Stiles grabbed her hand to stop her. "Stiles, what-"
"Look." He pointed at the photo of the coyote den. She had circled it four or five times while in her trance. "It must be important. Why else would you circle it? I'm going to go check it out. Stay here in case anyone calls, I won't get much signal out in the woods." With that he grabbed his jacket and rushed out of the door before she could protest. Staring out the window as he jumped into the jeep and drove off, she felt the ominous banshee feeling growing.
Whispering to herself, "Be careful, Stiles" she turned back to the board and tried to make sense of everything.