The drive to his dad's house was probably fast enough to get him arrested. It had taken ten minutes for him to get the keys from Eli and move Rowen's car seat. Even though his dad lived on the other side of town, he knew he had to get to them and fast on the off chance that he could talk to Lydia and finally get an answer.

So when the car stopped, he shouldn't have been surprised that Rowen beat him to the door and started to pound repeatedly on it. Stiles shouldn't have been surprised when Lydia opened it, her strawberry blonde hair glimmering in the small amount of sunlight that hit her in the entrance.

"What are you doing here?" She demanded, her voice quiet like when she was having a prediction all those years ago, "you shouldn't be here."

"Lydia-" He tried to reason with her, but she sounded near tears as she took a step back, despite the fact that Rowen was now clinging to her legs.

"You were supposed to sign the papers two months ago. You were supposed to let me go."

Stiles knew he couldn't get an explanation now, not when Rowen was treating Lydia like a lifeline. He didn't want to hash this out in front of her, not when he had seen first hand what that had done to Scott. So, he swallowed back his curiosity and forced out a cold hearted response that would forever make him shudder in disgust when he looked back on it.

"I'm here for the funeral, for Derek and for Scott. I am not leaving Beacon Hills just because you told me that I should. If you have a problem with me being here, there's room in Derek's house for you to stay."

"Fine," she snapped back, "as soon as the funeral is over, you leave me alone."

Before he could argue with her, that she should at least try to make an effort for the six-year-old clinging to her tightly and calling her "mom", he heard his father call out from the living room.

"Lydia? Who's at the door?"

She didn't say another word as she picked up Rowen and went towards the living room, Stiles was forced to follow and look his dad in the eyes for the first time since his wedding and swallow down the guilt for leaving as he managed to greet him.

He hadn't seen his father move so fast to hug him since the night that they had expelled the nogitsune from him and he hadn't been in that tight of a hug for that long either, but the tightness sent him right back to that spot and he couldn't stop himself from holding on just as tight while regretting not returning his calls.

"Scott called me and told me about what happened," Stiles offered the explanation as soon as he was able to pull away from his dad's grip and Lydia and Rowen had gone off to somewhere else in the house for their own reunion.

"So they told you about the Nogitsune then," Stiles nodded in response and had to keep himself from returning to the nervous habit of biting at his fingernails. His dad had seen it too, or at least must have known what was cycling through his head, because he added, "you can't push this on yourself when you weren't even here, Stiles."

"Exactly. I wasn't here. I've dealt with it before, I know how to stop him…" a choked gasp escaped his lungs, the one that had been fighting its way to the surface since the phone call, "but I wasn't here and now Derek is dead."

"I don't know why Scott or Malia didn't call you, but the reason I didn't? When Derek suggested that I should? I knew that you were dealing with your own problems and that all of this needed to be the last thing on your mind."

Stiles' first thought when his dad said that wasn't everything with the move, Rowen or even Lydia. What his mind jumped to instead was the smug face of Special Agent McCall, who worked at the same San Francisco office he did.

"Scott's dad ratted me out?"

"The fact that you are one misstep away from losing your job? He was worried about you, and he knew that I'd be worried about you. He knew that you were not going to call any of us because you hadn't in ten or more years. He also mentioned that you were distant, or distracted all of the time but he didn't know why."

Stiles turned his head to make sure that the two girls weren't in hearing range before inhaling deeply and returning his vision back to his dad and finally spilling his guts to someone like he had needed to for months.

"Lydia left me in the middle of night ten months ago. I guessed it was some sort of banshee thing, so I didn't push. Rowen sobbed herself to sleep for months. I tried to tell myself that she would come back, but two months ago, she sent divorce papers through her lawyer. I was supposed to sign them and send them back. But every time I went to do it, I just couldn't. Signing them felt like giving up and when I look at Rowen, I see Lydia. If I gave up on Lydia, I would also be giving up on Rowen," he let out a breath and tried to read his father's expression, but it wasn't angry or sad, it was just…nothing, so he continued. "I also...I've been having nightmares again. They started coming back about six months ago. They're all different but they end the same way. With me in the woods in front of the Nemeton and on the other side is the Nogitsune and he's grinning."

"Stiles-" His dad started, but now that Stiles had started letting everything out that he had been holding to himself for nearly a year, the tears now started to build in his eyes as he spoke.

"I hoped that if I ignored them, if I ignored everything, they'd go away. That's why my work performance is tanking. Now I hear about this, and I feel like I could've stopped it and if I hadn't been such a coward, then maybe I could have saved Derek. But Derek is dead, the nightmares aren't stopping and I don't think I can convince Lydia to come home."

The living room was eerily silent for way too long, but the silence started to dissipate the building panic inside of him. It was only when the tears that hadn't escaped his eyes dried that his dad finally spoke again in a soft, comforting voice.

"I think some insight, or perspective, may be good for you. To get a full scope of what was going on here."

"What do you mean?"

"I'm saying that you need to let Lydia watch Rowen for a few hours and head down to Hale Auto. I have a feeling that Eli will be there waiting for you."

The thought of asking Eli anything about what he had gone through with losing his dad made Stiles' stomach churn and it must have been obvious when his dad asked if he thought it was a bad idea, but Stiles managed to come up with an excuse.

"Well, Malia tried to rip my throat out earlier and Derek threatened it multiple times. Just wondering if it runs in the family."

"No," his dad smiled softly, "Eli's... Well, I would say a good kid, but until everything happened, his delinquency rivaled yours. You go talk to him and get his side of things."

Stiles knew when he was cornered into having to do something despite his best interests, but fighting being cornered never did much of anything, so he reluctantly nodded and headed toward the door, but before he left, he turned back to his dad and added.

"I'll be back to pick up Rowe."

And with that, he shut the door behind him and made the drive to Hale Auto. It wasn't hard to find since it was only a few blocks from the police station but his target was leaning against the wall of the building, throwing and catching something that looked suspiciously like a lacrosse ball.

"Did you talk to Lydia?" Eli questioned, still throwing and catching the ball while making full eye contact with Stiles.

"As best as I could," Stiles admitted, pulling his coat tighter around him before continuing, "My dad sent me to you to get some insight on what happened here, but I want something else." He explained, remembering what Malia had said in her explanation about Allison.

"What do you want?" Eli raised an eyebrow suspiciously at him.

"I want you to take me to the Nematon."