Just as a reminder to all of those who are reading: When the text is written in bold and italicized lettering "like this," that is the part of the conversation had in sign language.

Disclaimer: I do not own Teen Wolf. I also have no claim on any pop culture references that I may use throughout my writings. I only own my OCs. Enjoy the read.

(o.o)

Chapter 2.02

After school was over, Stiles and I stopped by the florist to pick up the arrangement that Sheriff Stilinski had placed an order for earlier in the week. I smiled happily at the beautiful flowers as I held them in my lap on the way to the station. I was incredibly certain that his mom would have loved them. When we arrived at the station, Stiles came around the Jeep to grab the flowers from me so I could climb out and follow him through the building.

Stiles entered his father's office, not noticing the things going on around him. I saw them though. Boxes on boxes of old case files were piled all around the room.

Stiles placed the flowers on the desk and fluffed them a little bit. "You know, the last time we brought one of these to her grace, it was stolen the same day." He said to no one in particular. "A hundred bucks down the drain."

I stood next to Stiles, catching the top of his father's head peeking from the other side of the desk. The man was on the floor. I pulled on Stiles' shirt, bringing his father to his attention.

Stiles looked down at me and then to his dad. "Hey, Dad?"

The sheriff looked up at us, catching my eye and sending me a wave. "CJ, hi."

I smiled at the man. "Hey, Sheriff." I waved, my eyes still on the clutter strewn throughout the room.

"Hi," Stiles said, gaining his father's attention back. "What are you doing down there."

"Working. And, hey, if somebody wants the flowers so badly, they can have them." The sheriff insisted. "It's the gesture."

Stiles led me around the desk, revealing even more boxes and case files on the floor around the man. "Dad? What's all this?"

The sheriff sighed, sitting back on his heels. "I've been looking over some old cases from a more...illuminated perspective if you know what I mean."

Stiles picked up a file from the corner of his father's desk. He read from it. "'Strange sighting of bipedal lizard man sprinting across freeway'."

"That was Jackson!" I said, recalling the tale from my cousin.

Sheriff nodded at me, tapping a pile of folders by his knee. "Kanima pile."

Stiles dropped the folder and scratched his temple before crouching down in front of his father. "Dad, you're not going back through all your old cases, seeing if any of them had something to do with the supernatural, are you?"

"I admit, the recent opening of my eyes to the greater mysteries of the universe has got me reassessing." Sheriff explained. "There's at least a hundred cases here, where I look at the details and I ask myself, 'if I knew then what I know now'..."

"Right, but are you sure you wanna go down that path?"

"Do I have a choice?" the sheriff asked of his son. He stood to his feet with an open file in his hands, Stiles following him. Sheriff passed the file to his son and I made my way around to look at it, too. "There's one case in particular that I can't get out of my head. Eight years ago, I was elected Sheriff of Beacon County. My first official duty was to tell a man that not only had his wife and two kids died in a car accident but, as best as we could tell, the body of his 9-year-old daughter had been dragged from the wreck by coyotes."

"You mean dragged and eaten?" Stiles questioned, clarifying.

I narrowed my eyes at the picture of the girl. "I remember this. The girl, the night."

"You do?" the sheriff asked.

I nodded. "Carther, my brother, and Derek were part of a search and rescue team for the girl. Thinking about it now, I'm pretty sure there was a specific reason behind that. They thought they could find her."

Sheriff nodded. "We didn't find the car until three days after the crash. They had driven off the road, into a pretty deep ravine. Two bodies that were still in the car were covered in bites and slashes."

"So, you're thinking 'bites and claw marks,' probably a werewolf attack?" Stiles asked.

"It had to be. Coyotes scavenge." I recalled, looking at both of them. "They take everything that's left. They wouldn't have just left bites and slashes."

"Exactly." Sheriff cheered, making me smile. "Also, guess what night the accident occurred on." He pointed to the calendar he had on his wall with the picture of the missing girl pinned next to the date.

Stiles sighed. "The night of the full moon." He looked all around the office, probably trying to find a little bit of sanity on it, but instead, it looked like he found something he feared. "Where are all these going?"

I looked closer at the boxes, spotting the yellow label. "Agent McCall? Is that Scott's dad?"

Sheriff nodded, "We probably need to talk about that." He said seriously, putting his hands on his hips. "He thinks that with all these unsolved cases that I'm no longer fit to be sheriff."

"What the hell?" Stiles exclaimed in aggravation.

"That's not fair," I said in tandem. Where Stiles took a breath, I kept going. "It's not like these cases are actually solvable without knowing about certain things that go bump in the night."

"I know. That's why I'm going over them." Sheriff explained. "I'm trying to see if there's anything I can solve to turn things around before the hearing."

Stiles scoffed. "There's already a hearing?"

"What can we do?" I asked, trying to ease the growing tension in the room and Stiles' obvious fit of anxiety. He had enough to worry about. His dad losing his job didn't need to be one more thing. "Can we help you solve them? Maybe we can find out what happened to Malia." I said, recalling her name from the file.

The sheriff smiled at me, glancing at Stiles. "If I need your help, I'll certainly let you know."

I turned to Stiles who was staring at me curiously. "What?"

Stiles smiled and shook his head. "Nothing." We stuck around for another few minutes so that we could help the sheriff clean up the mess he made. Once it was relatively tidy, we caravanned our way to the cemetery, Stiles and his dad leading me towards his mother's grave.

I stood a few steps before the father and son duo while they dropped the flowers off, letting them have some time to themselves as a family. I enjoyed witnessing the relationship that Stiles had with his father. It was something that I was beginning to see blossom between me and my dad. They were there for each other. Especially now that the sheriff knew everything that was happening with the supernatural half of Beacon Hills.

I kept my distance for a few minutes before taking a step forward, reaching in my bag. I pulled out a paper flower that I had folded sometime during one of my classes. It wasn't anything special, but I didn't want to come empty-handed. I looked up at Stiles and his father. "Can I?" I asked, gesturing to the grave.

Stiles looked to the flower in my hands and then met my eyes; his brimming with tears. He nodded.

I took a few more steps forward and laid the origami flower at the base of the headstone next to their bouquet. I stood back up and looked around to the other graves. I hadn't been back in a little over a month. I didn't feel like I needed to. Sure, I missed Carter, but being here reminded me of when I was lost. I didn't miss that feeling. Although coming back was therapeutic, I could find Carter in his dream journals. I didn't need to find him here.

(o.o)

After hanging out with his father for another few minutes Stiles and I took his Jeep home to work on some homework. His father had to get back to the station to handle something and he'd be home late.

We sat at the round kitchen table, and I focused mostly on doing the work. Stiles had had a rough few months and I wasn't worried about him just copying my homework. He was smart and he knew the answers.

I pointed the answer out to him and watched as he wrote it down before moving myself to the next one. I felt Stiles' gaze on me as I worked through it. I looked up at him, finding the gaze from earlier at the station. "Stiles, why do you keep looking at me like that?"

Stiles nodded his head almost as if he was trying to encourage himself. He tapped his pen on the table before putting it down. "How'd you get to be like you?"

I furrowed my brow, surprised and confused by the question. "I don't really know how to answer that."

"It's nothing bad, I swear, just - " Stiles sighed. "You're so freaking patient and I can't even begin to understand how."

Honestly, I hadn't realized that I was patient. I shrugged at him. "I don't know. I guess I just had to be. I wasn't always. Remember, I told you I struggled with everything."

Stiles nodded. "And your compassion? You have to have that, too?"

"Stiles, what are you talking about?" I asked, wanting to find a straightforward reason for this conversation.

"Me, Scott, wanting to help my dad save his job?" Stiles sighed. "The paper flower for my mom."

I pursed my lips, still trying to figure out what he was playing at.

"Every turn, every damn thing that went wrong today and there wasn't a single moment when you worried about yourself. I mean, you haven't worried about yourself since I asked you to hold me under the water."

I looked away from him, not wanting to relive that memory.

Stiles reached for my chin, turning my head back to face him. The importance he held in his face told me I didn't want to fight him. "Even when I told you that I dreamt about Lydia, you still worried about me."

Because I know you and Lydia aren't…" I met his eyes. That's not what this was about and I could tell just by one look. "That night my reason was Carter. If it helped someone else, Carter would do whatever he could without even questioning it. I mean, just look at me. I'm here. Instead of dead. That's the kind of person he was. I wanna be like that. I wanna..." I took a breath, watching as he waited for me to continue. I shook my head. "I want to help me. Help you and Scott, and your dad, and - "

Stiles stared at me, his honey-brown eyes, piercing mine.

I shrugged. "If there's an afterlife or anything like it, I think it would help to know that someone cares, even someone you've never met."

Stiles scooted his chair closer to mine and grabbed my hands in mine. He placed a kiss on the back of each hand and then gave them a squeeze. "Thank you."

I smiled at him, leaning forward wanting a kiss from him. Stiles obliged and then leaned his forehead against mine. He was taking slow easy breaths. I knew he was tired. Between not sleeping last night from his multitude of nightmares and being up all day, Stiles was running on fumes. I cleared my throat and backed my head away slowly so he didn't fall forward. "Why don't we go lay down? Maybe try and sleep some?"

Stiles didn't even argue with me or the mound of homework we had sitting on the table. He nodded his head slowly and got up, slowly heading for the living room.

I hurried after him, reached for his hand, and started pulling him towards the stairs. The confusion he held only lasted for a second before the nerves kicked in. I looked at him with a quick smile. "You said you wanted to sleep next to me in bed." I gave him a quick wink. Pulling on his hand, I led us to the bed. I laid down first, getting comfortable in the middle of the bed.

Stiles slowly pushed himself forward to get in bed next to me. He was hesitating, but he curled up next to me.

I wrapped my arms around his shoulders and helped him to relax with his head on my chest. I lazily ran my fingers along the back of his head, knowing how tired he was and how quickly he was going to pass out.

Stiles grabbed my free hand, holding it tightly in his own.

I landed a kiss to the top of his head, passing along peaceful vibes and calming breaths. I closed my eyes to catch a nap for myself. I rarely took naps in the middle of the day, but relaxing after the day we had seemed like a good plan.

I wasn't sure how long I'd laid in Stiles' bed with him snuggled next to me, but when I opened my eyes again, it was dark. There was a light coming from the hallway, but a shadow was blocking most of it. I blinked a few times before I saw the sheriff clearly. I gave him a small wave and he waved back. Slowly, I replaced myself with a stray pillow by my head. I got out of the bed and left the room, leaving the door cracked. "What time is it?" I asked the sheriff.

"Almost ten."

I looked at the door behind me then back up to the sheriff. "Sorry about that. I just know that he hasn't been sleeping, so I thought - "

Sheriff shook his head, quickly dismissing my stumbling. "It's okay. "It's good he is. How long has he been out?"

I shrugged. "A few hours."

Sheriff nodded. "That's good."

"I agree," I said, with a smile. "I should get home. If he wakes up, would you tell him he can call me?"

"I will. Do you want me to walk you home?"

I shook my head. "I'll be fine. Thanks, though."

"Thank you, by the way. For the flower." He said, reminding me of the origami flower I left for his wife. "It was a nice gesture."

I smiled, debating in my head. Ultimately, I walked forward and wrapped my arms around the sheriff. He was slower to reach, but after a beat he did the same, squeezing my shoulders. I pulled away from him, heading towards the stairs. "Good night, Sheriff."

(o.o)

I did get a call from Stiles in the middle of the night. Well, more like 4 in the morning so we were both able to get quite a bit of sleep before being up for the day. The vibration from my phone under my pillow woke me up and we talked until it was time to get up for the day.

Econ with Coach Finstock was one of our first classes of the day and it was, by far, the easiest class I had ever taken. Coach didn't really know what was going on in his class most of the time, but still somehow managed to teach us the subject.

I spent most of my time reading from the textbook and taking my own notes, and this particular class period was no different. At least it wasn't until the desk behind me shook. I turned around to look at Stiles behind me. He looked alert and frightened like he'd been jolted awake. I turned back to the front to find Coach had blown his whistle to wake him.

"Stilinski, stop reminding me why I drink." Coach grumbled.

I shook my head, rolling my eyes at the man. I turned back to look at Stiles. "Are you okay?"

Stiles nodded, looking between me and Scott. "I just fell asleep for a second."

"Dude…" Scott said, my gaze going to him. "You weren't asleep." His eyes glanced down to the notebook on Stiles' desk and mine followed.

What I saw was a little bit more than shocking. Stiles had written 'WAKE UP' nearly a hundred times. Different sizes, written over and over. I sighed and looked up at Stiles, who looked horrified. "We're gonna figure this out.

Stiles nodded, less than convinced.

We had another class or two before lunch, which we spent outside to enjoy the fresh air. Lunches with the whole group were a little hard for me considering I couldn't focus on everyone at once. Thankfully, I had Lydia across from me for help and Stiles next to me with Scott on his other side.

Stiles leaned into me, getting my attention. "Have you thought about looking at your brother's computer for anything on Malia?"

I shrugged at him. "To be honest, I was more worried about you to even think about it," I admitted, quickly wishing I had the thought myself.

Stiles nodded, waving it off like it was no big deal. I knew that it was though. His dad's job was at stake. Stiles didn't want to ask Scott about it yet, though, considering it was his father's fault why the Sheriff might lose his job. The relationship Scott had with his father was apparently already strained.

"I will though. Tonight."

Stiles nodded again, nervously staring down at his notebook from Econ.

I passed him a sad smile, catching Scott beginning a conversation.

"So, what happens to a person who has a near-death experience and comes out of it seeing things?" Scott asked no one in particular.

"And is unable to tell what's real or not?" Stiles added.

Allison continued from across the table. "And is being haunted by demonic visions of dead relatives?"

"They're all locked up because they're insane." Isaac shared, shrugging.

I shook my head and rolled my eyes. I couldn't tell if he was trying to be funny or not.

Stiles didn't appreciate the humor because he scoffed out a laugh. "Can you at least try to be helpful, please?" He begged.

"For half my childhood I was locked in a freezer, so being helpful is kind of a new thing for me."

I furrowed my brow at the brand new information. "Jesus, seriously?"

Isaac nodded at me before looking pointedly at Stiles. "I am still milking that."

I felt a shadow over my right shoulder and looked up to see Kira. I gave her a quick, friendly smile. "Hey."

"Hi, sorry. I couldn't help overhearing what you guys were talking about." Kira shared. "And I think I actually might know what you're talking about."

I panicked for a second, realizing that we probably should tone down the supernatural talk while we were in public.

"There's a Tibetan word for it. It's called 'Bardo.' It literally means 'in-between state.' The state between life and death."

Lydia pushed her brows together. "And what do they call you?"

Before Kira could answer, she met Scott's eyes and smiled. He'd answered for her and explained that she was in our history class.

I raised my brow with a nod, looking at Lydia. I wondered what further interrogation my cousin had for this poor girl.

"So are you talking Bardo in Tibetan Buddhism or Indian?" Lydia questioned.

Kira shrugged, not phased by my cousin's unreal mean girl attitude. "Either, I guess. But all the stuff you guys were saying? All that happens in Bardo. There are different progressive states where you can have hallucinations. Some you see, some you just hear. And you can be visited by peaceful or wrathful deities."

"Wrathful deities?" Isaac asked. "What are those?"

"Like demons," Kira said, a little too cheerfully for my liking.

I quickly looked back at Stiles.

"Demons. Why not?" Stiles shrugged, exasperated.

I wrapped my arm through his and grabbed his hand for support.

"Hold on," Allison said, getting the attention. "If there are different progressive states, then what's the last one?"

"Death. You die." Kira said as if it were obvious.

I swear, I've never gripped Stiles harder at Kira's words. We weren't going to lose any of them. Scott, Stiles, and Allison were all going to come out of this alive. I'd know it if it were any different.