Previously:

"Tell me who she is." Stiles said seemingly unafraid of the angry werewolf staring him down. "Tell me who she is so I can tell my dad and convince him it was just a terrible animal attack. And maybe he can give you the other half of her body so you can give her a proper funeral. That's all I want to do for now. Everything else, the Alpha, the killer, the game they can all wait until the girl can rest in peace. She deserves that."

Slowly, Derek calmed down and released him.

"Her name's Laura. Laura Hale." Derek said letting his grief show for a brief second as he acknowledged the death of his older sister.

"She's my sister."

Now:

"What?" Stiles asked as far as he knew Derek was the only surviving Hale. He thought they all died in that fire six years ago.

"But I thought – the fire."

"Neither of us were in the house when it happened." Derek said looking at the charred building where his entire family spent their last moments screaming in agony. He remembered everything about that night. He remembered the fight, the cold, the smell of burning flesh… the crushing guilt of knowing he was the reason his family was killed.

"By the time we got back, it was too late."

Stiles didn't know what to say or how to react. He felt sorry for Derek, six years ago he lost his entire family, and now the only family he had left was murdered by an unknown psycho. He didn't even want to imagine the kind of pain the older werewolf was feeling right now and it just strengthened his resolve to make sure the girl – Laura, got the justice she deserved. Maybe after she can be at peace, Derek could lay his ghosts to rest, start over, and go back to being the basketball star that he was before the fire happened.

He didn't know what to do for Derek who seemed to be trapped in his own thoughts reliving his family's last moments. If it was Scott or his dad, he'd give them a hug to comfort them and remind them that they weren't alone. But he knew if he even tried to do the same thing with Derek, he'd end up with a few broken bones and a vivid reminder that Derek Hale doesn't do hugs. What he did know was that it wasn't good for him to be so close to the place where his family was murdered. He didn't think it was healthy and not for the first time wondered why he stayed here instead of renting out an apartment.

"Come on." He said clapping Derek's shoulder before getting on the driver's seat, "We have a lot of planning to do. We'll go over to my place since dad's working and the house will most likely be empty."

A beat or two passed before the broody Hale relented and got on Stiles' jeep.

OoOoO

It was approximately one and a half minutes after the two werewolves drove away that their silent tail finally moved from his spot in the bushes. Still reeling from what he saw and heard, the boy sagged against a tree and proceeded to stare ahead of him for a few more minutes.

When he followed Stiles after he decided to skip school, Scott didn't know what he was expecting to find, but his best friend meeting with town recluse Derek Hale never even made the list. As far as he knew, the only time Stiles has interacted with Derek was the day after they found the body in the woods when the two of them were looking for his inhaler. Apparently, he was wrong because by the time he caught up with Stiles, the two were in the middle of a conversation and Derek didn't seem bothered at all by Stiles' presence.

Truth be told, he still wasn't sure exactly what he found out. Obviously, Stiles and Derek were a lot closer than what he thought and they had some sort of secret between them. He tried to think of what it could be but he couldn't think of a single thing that the two had in common. So he got as close to them as he dared and hoped that he could hear something that would answer all his questions.

Because he was too far from them, he couldn't exactly make out what they were saying but he did manage to catch a few words and he didn't like what they all added up to. Stiles mentioned the dead girl in the woods a few times and he sounded like he was accusing the older boy of something. Scott paled at what it could mean and froze even more when he saw Derek Hale move at an inhuman speed as he chased and pinned Stiles to his own car. From his vantage point he couldn't see either of their faces but it didn't take much for him to realize that his best friend was being threatened. He heard some animal roar almost at the same time Derek grabbed Stiles and if he weren't so scared, he would have marvelled at the timing of the roar. He grabbed a fallen branch beside him and was just about to come to Stiles' rescue when Derek released him. Confused, he strained his ears and listened harder than he ever needed to his entire life.

'…tell my dad…attack…Alpha…killer…girl'.

He only heard a few of what Stiles was saying but he thought it was enough. Stiles was talking about the girl found dead in the woods, more specifically about her killer, and from what Scott heard, it seemed the killer was closer than he thought. He didn't know how, but Stiles figured out that Derek Hale was the killer and Scott thought that he was here to take the older man to the station. He didn't know why Stiles didn't just call his father to do the arrest or at least tell him of his suspicions but he figured Stiles had a good reason for it.

He tightened his grip on the branch in case his friend needed help, he didn't know how volatile Derek was and he wasn't taking any chances. Then he got the shock of his life when instead of 'arresting' the older man, Stiles actually patted him on the shoulder and invited him to his car!

Scott watched his best friend drive away with a possible murderer unable to comprehend what just happened. At first it seemed like Stiles was there to accuse Derek Hale of murder and bring him to the station to help his dad, then it looked like he was actually helping the man.

Was Stiles helping a murderer?

Furiously, Scott shook his head. No matter how distant he and Stiles have gotten over the past few days, he still believed he knew the other boy better than anyone and he knew Stiles would never associate with a criminal.

He was sure of it.

But if that was true, why did Stiles act like he was friends with Derek Hale? Why was he in the woods in the first place?

Why didn't Stiles tell him about the dead girl and his suspicions?

Suddenly, his phone rang snapping him out of his thoughts.

Allison Calling…

Sighing, Scott accepted the call.

"Hey."

"Scott where are you? You and Stiles missed Chemistry and Mr. Harris seemed all too happy to give us a pop quiz after he noticed you guys were gone."

Scott debated whether or not to tell Allison the truth. Even if he didn't fully understand what just happened with Stiles, he knew enough to keep it a secret so his best friend wouldn't get in trouble. But this kind of trouble seemed far worse than what he initially thought Stiles was caught up in. He was driving around with a possible killer and Scott didn't know what to do.

"I – I'm in the woods." He said, "I followed Stiles after he left school and now I'm in the woods."

"What are you guys doing there?"

Scoot took a deep breath before replying. "Allison, it's Stiles. I – I think he's in trouble. I followed him to try and find out more but now I'm more confused. Allison I don't know what to do. I want to help him but how can I if he doesn't even tell me what's going on?"

Allison was quiet on the other side of the phone and Scott knew she was finding it hard to give him advice because she wasn't exactly close to Stiles. No matter how many times he tried to get his best friend and girlfriend to hang out more, things just kept popping up to keep it from happening.

"Have you tried asking him? Maybe you're just worrying over nothing." Allison suggested.

"Ofcourse I have, I —" He paused. Has he actually asked Stiles about this?

"Scott – I know you're worried about Stiles and want to help him but maybe the best way for you to do that is by talking to him. Maybe he just needs to know that you've got his back and he can trust you to help him deal with his problems."

"He does know that," Scott insisted, "We've been best friends for as long as I can remember. Stiles knows he can come to me for anything."

"Well then maybe all you need to do is remind him of that. But don't push him too hard by grilling him, it might just make things worse." She paused, "Shoot, that's the bell, listen I gotta go but call me if you need anything okay? Good luck with Stiles, I hope he's okay."

"Me too." Scott sighed as the call disconnected.

He thought about what Allison said. He knew things haven't been great with him and Stiles since school started but it wasn't so bad that Stiles felt like he couldn't confide in him, right? Stiles still trusted him, right?

But then he thought about the last time they talked, really talked without either of them keeping something from the other. It was the night Scott found the dead body and they exchanged stories of their night in the woods as they bandaged Stiles' bite.

Has it really been that long?

Well, he knew lately he was spending a lot of his time with either Allison or lacrosse practice but Stiles knew how important both things were to him. He understood why he had to spend so much time with dates and practice. Stiles wouldn't think that meant he couldn't rely on him anymore, right?

OoOoO

"Crap!" Stiles cursed stopping the jeep just around the corner from his house.

Right there on the Stilinski driveway was his dad's car looking like it's been there a while. Stiles had his dad's schedule memorized so he knew that he wasn't supposed to be home until like six pm.

"What's wrong?" Derek asked

"My dad's home so we can't go to my house unless we want him asking too many questions about you." Stiles explained. "Damn it!"

"I thought you said the house was supposed to be empty."

"It should be. Maybe he forgot something at the house or decided to rest for a bit. Whatever it is, I gotta get him out of the house."

"Or we could just go somewhere else. There's a coffee shop near the hospital." Derek suggested.

Stiles coughed and waved his arms around, "Uhh No we can't! In case you forgot, I'm supposed to be in school right now and everyone in this town knows who I am and more importantly who my dad is. If they see me, they'll tell him and he will kill me and I will be dead. So no we can't just go anywhere."

He looked back at his dad's car completely missing the look that Derek was giving him.

"I know!" Stiles snapped his fingers, "I'll call him and get him out of the house for at least an hour."

So he got out his phone and dialled his dad's number, after a couple of rings his dad picked up.

"Stiles?"

"Hey dad just — " His carefully constructed plan of getting his dad out of the house shattered when his moody passenger suddenly got out of the jeep and started walking to the Stilinski house.

" — just checking you're okay. Obviously you are so I gotta get back to class now. Bye dad!"

Stiles threw the phone on the passenger seat and followed the leather jacket wearing werewolf on the street.

"Derek!" He called, "Derek! What are you doing?!"

For one horrible second, he thought that Derek would try to talk to his dad right now. That couldn't happen! They weren't ready yet and if this sour wolf said the wrong thing, his dad could think that he was the killer!

He was about to tackle the older werewolf to the ground, damn the consequences, when he saw him head to the side of the house rather than the front door. He frowned as Derek stared at the window on the second floor as if he was studying it. Then he just jumped. Stiles watched, his mouth open wide as Derek Hale jumped onto the window sill in the second floor with ease.

"Woah." Stiles exclaimed watching Derek disappear into the house.

Despite all the training he's done with Derek, Stiles didn't feel like he was doing anything particularly 'werewolf-y' other than the super healing, super strength, super speed, and super coordination. He wanted to do something so awesome it will make him feel like a real werewolf and not just some guy on steroids.

"Alright, this is easy." He was standing beneath the window Derek disappeared into psyching himself out, "Just bend your knees and jump."

He stretched, took deep breaths, and muttered a few encouragements to himself to prepare.

"Hoo. You can do this Stiles. You're batman."

With one last deep breath, Stiles bent his knees and jumped. His left hand grabbed onto the windowsill and he was so surprised he just stayed like that for a couple of seconds just marvelling at what he did. He wanted to scream so badly to let the whole world know that he, Stiles Stilinski, jumped two storeys like it was nothing. But he knew he couldn't so he just gloated in silence and grinned like the Joker.

After a couple more seconds of silent gloating, he decided it was time to get inside lest one of the neighbours actually see him hanging on the side of his house. Swinging slightly, he reached out with his right hand to pull himself up. He landed in his room and took a moment to wonder how Derek knew this was his room. But that thought was pushed aside as he saw Derek looking at his crime board.

"What is this?" Derek asked

"That's my crime board." Stiles replied turning on his computer. "I started that after you told me about the Alpha so I could try and figure out some stuff on my own."

"You know most of these are wrong, right?"

Despite the scepticism in Derek's voice, he was honestly quite impressed with Stiles' research. True, a lot of the stuff on his board was fiction but some of them were really obscure myths that he didn't even know about. Like the myth of Tezcatlipoca and the Nagual. Derek was sure that it wouldn't take Stiles long before he learned all about the supernatural world even without his help.

"Which is what the strings are for." Stiles said opening up his Documents folder and began searching through the results on the screen. After that, he continued his search online.

"You can help me sort that out after we get your sister's body out of police custody."

"What's your plan?" Derek asked though he chose to remain standing.

"First things first," Stiles said printing out a few pages and turning to Derek, "Are you absolutely sure that the Alpha killed your sister? It couldn't have been the hunters or an actual wild animal?"

Derek thought about it for a while before shaking his head.

"Laura wasn't just a werewolf. She was an Alpha, and she was fast and strong. Any wild animal stupid enough to take her on would never have stood a chance."

"And the hunters?"

"I don't think it was them either. I know there are hunters out there who use swords and chainsaws to kill werewolves before cutting them in half but the cut on Laura's body was jagged and irregular, not clean and sharp which is what it would have looked like if a hunter did that to her. She was ripped in half and it would have taken someone as strong as her to even come close to doing that."

Visions of sadistic hunters wielding a broadsword and chopping him in half flashed through Stiles' mind but he banished them as quickly as they came. There would be time to ask Derek about those but for now he had to focus on Laura.

"Alright," Stiles gathered all the printed pages and showed them to Derek, "Now luckily for us Beacon Hills Preserve has a long history of animal attacks that killed one or two civilians in a year. These are all news reports of those attacks and a few others where wild animals tore their prey in half. There's one there about a coyote leaving cats cut in half on the doorstep of several upset ladies. Really gross but also kinda cool."

He watched Derek study the pages, he got especially curious when Derek seemed to fixate on a few of the Beacon Hills attacks.

"If we can prove to my dad that the same thing happened to Laura then they won't have any reason to keep her body in the morgue as evidence when you claim it."

Derek raised his eyebrow, "You expect me to just walk up to the police station and tell the Sheriff that the body in his morgue is my sister?"

"No. I expect you to go to the station and file a missing person's report on your sister after telling them about her return to town. Then give them every distinct mark on Laura's body, a scar, tattoo, birthmark, everything. If you do that, the cops will do the rest and all you'll be asked to do is identify the body before they release her."

Stiles grinned, this was quite possibly the sanest plan he's ever concocted and the possibility of it actually succeeding was great. He was just thinking about how great it was to have a plan that wasn't destined to fail when he heard his dad's phone ring.

AN: Uh oh Scott heard them and thanks Derek is the killer. To be fair to him, the snippets he heard and what he saw did look a teeny bit suspicious. I also think it wouldn't be ooc for Scott to think this of Derek since in the show he pretty much blamed everything on Derek.

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Updated: August 11, 2021