I wasn't gonna post this yet but now that the Ao3pocalypse is over, everyone can have another chapter. As a treat XD
October 1st, 2009
Despite it being somewhat annoying that the school had yet to find a substitute History teacher, Stiles couldn't say he wasn't glad for the self-study period, especially since he could use it to catch up with Bonnie.
"And what did she say?" Stiles prompts once she pauses her retelling of having gone to Grams after leaving the fundraiser and informing her of what had happened.
"It's normal, kind of." Bonnie frowns slightly, "Apparently, witches usually get their powers earlier, I- she didn't elaborate much. But," she injects some cheerfulness into her tone, "I'll be working on my control in the afternoons from now on."
"That's good," Stiles nods, but before he can say anything else, Caroline drops into the chair in front of him.
"Have either of you talked to Elena today?" his cousin asks, making Stiles tense slightly.
"I said hi before class," Bonnie offers, looking unsure of what exactly Caroline is looking for, "but that's it."
"I asked if we were meeting for lunch and she totally blew me off," Care tells them, all but pouting. "Is that weird?"
Stiles just shrugs.
"Maybe she has other plans?" Bonnie offers.
"Stefan didn't come in today," Caroline points out, "Maybe that's why?"
"Could be," Bonnie agrees while Stiles just hums, noncommittal.
Caroline rolls her eyes, "Whatever it is, she better get over it. There's more to life than Stefan Salvatore."
Stefan isn't home.
It's the first thing Stiles realizes once he makes it to the Salvatore mansion that night. He'd been too jittery to go to sleep yet, and it was early enough in the evening that stopping by would still be acceptable. He'd parked his Jeep a little further from the entrance and walked up to the door, but even before ringing the bell he could tell there was no one home, it was too silent.
Damon's car is also nowhere to be found, which tells him the man isn't back yet, but Stiles doesn't really feel like going back home. Luckily, an approaching engine sound tells him Stefan is back, or at least that's what he thinks before realizing the car going around the building to park by the back is Elena's SUV. Curious, Stiles puts together every ounce of stealth he has in his body and moves silently toward the back, watching as the car stops and Elena comes out, followed by Stefan. Instead of heading to the back door, however, Stefan opens the trunk and-
"Holy shit, is that a body?" Stiles blurts out, rushing forward to see who the hell was being pulled from the trunk and over Stefan's shoulders. The dude's unconscious face seems vaguely familiar, and he remembers why just a moment later, "That's Logan Fell. Why is the news guy in your trunk?"
"Stiles?" Elena's voice distracts him from the stream of questions going through his mind. She sounds confused, even a little scared, and keeps throwing glances at Stefan.
The first thing that comes to mind is that she's compelled, but if so she would probably be relaxed and not look as high-strung as she seems at the moment. Except, if she's not compelled, why the hell is she driving with Stefan and a whole ass body in the trunk of her car? He doubts she has the guts to be a closet serial killer, so there must be a more rational explanation for the situation.
Well, as rational as it gets with vampires involved, at least.
"I didn't hear you," Stefan says to him with some surprise before walking toward the backdoor with the body still over his shoulder.
"That's kinda the point of sneaking around," Stiles points out, following right behind him. Elena seems to hesitate for a moment before joining them. "Now, the body?"
"He's not dead!" Elena exclaims, apparently fed up with Stiles referring to the body as what it is. "He's just unconscious."
The fact that she thinks having an unconscious body in her trunk as opposed to a dead one is less worrying makes him stare at her for a moment, as if willing her to realize the situation he's caught her in.
"Alright," Stiles eyes her warily as she takes a deep breath. She kind of looks a few seconds away from a mental breakdown. "Why is he unconscious, exactly? And where are you taking him?"
"To the cellar," Stefan replies, heading to a seemingly hidden door by the entrance that leads straight down and sounding way too chill for someone carrying an unconscious person.
Stiles glances at the stone walls of the cellar and its generally dark and doomy vibe before nodding to himself. Finally, something that fits the horror movie stereotype of vampires, even if it's a secret room in the basement with, apparently, actual working cells. He's kind of curious about what the cells are used for when not being occupied by unconscious people.
"Can't help but notice we never got to the why," Stiles points out a minute later, once Stefan is closing the door of the cell with the news guy inside, passed out on the ground.
The vampire teen takes a breath – making Stiles wonder if he actually needs to or if he's just used to it – before turning back to Stiles and Elena, who was hovering slightly behind him.
"He shot me with wooden bullets," Stefan explains, and Stiles blinks before turning his gaze down to the teen's torso to see that his shirt was, in fact, torn with a couple of bullet-sized holes and tinted with blood. He hadn't noticed before, but the whole body in the trunk thing had him a little preoccupied.
So vampires do bleed, good to know.
"He knows?!" Elena exclaims incredulously, stepping back just as Stiles sends her a curious look and asks "You told her?", their voices mix slightly but hers rings much louder.
Stefan hesitates, throwing a questioning look at him. Stiles just shrugs, "he's supernatural too, so yes. He knows."
"I'm not a vampire," he feels the need to point out, "which you should know since we literally grew up together, kind of. I just got bit by something before coming here and ended up with cool powers," Stiles explains, glossing over the whole story because the last thing he feels like doing is explaining himself to Elena. "Like some werewolf origin story."
"Werewolf?" Elena chokes out.
"It's the leading theory," Stile says before turning back to Stefan. "How did he know to use wood?"
"I don't know, he could be a hunter," Stefan admits, sounding unsure.
That's… worrying, to say the least. Not because he's scared for himself, but the last thing he wants is for his new vampire friends to die, he may be a little attached and that's definitely not happening on his watch, especially after Anna had just told him how to hurt vampires the other day. It could look as if he actually did what her mother accused him of, and put people he cares about in danger because of it.
"And he isn't dead, because?" He prompts, assuming that would have been the usual reaction from a vampire attacked by a hunter and looking between the two, only to be greeted with a horrified look from Elena and a disapproving one from Stefan.
"Wha-" Elena starts, but Stefan cuts her off.
"If we leave him a couple of days, the vervain will be out of his system and I can compel him to forget what he saw," the vampire offers, and it has to be enough for now.
Because as much as Stiles would rather the threat be completely out of the picture, he's still an eighteen-year-old, barely an adult, and he really doesn't want to kill someone before he's even allowed to drink if he can help it.
"Alright," Stiles sighs, "What did you do to the gun? And did you pat him down?"
Stefan looks surprised but is quick to answer "It's still in the woods. Should I have-?"
"I'm gonna hope you're only being this careless because Elena turns your brain into goo," Stiles tells him in a deadpan tone before making a shooing motion, "open the cell."
"He could wake up-" Stefan starts, but Stiles' glare seems to be enough to get him moving and opening the door once again.
Stiles lets out an annoyed grunt as he crouches on the floor and starts patting the man down as well as going through his pockets, pulling out a phone - which earns Stefan a glare - as well as some sort of pocket watch and a keychain with a couple of keys in it, including car keys. He opens the phone to see a variety of missed calls before turning it off and placing it on the ground, immediately stepping on it with enough strength to break it.
"There, now he can't have contacted anyone even if he wanted to," Stiles explains, "which will help with whatever alibi we come up with. I'd say to find his car, but having lost his keys works better since he'll be here more than one day," Stiles adds, pocketing the keys. The last item in his hands is the old-looking watch.
"That's the Gilbert watch," Elena gasps, snagging it from his hands before Stiles can inspect it more thoroughly. "It's Jeremy's, how did he-?"
"Stefan will have to ask him that," Stiles points out, "as well as how he knew he was a vampire in the first place. I can be here too if that would help? I've seen a few interrogations, another pair of ears couldn't hurt," he tells the vampire, but it's not quite in a questioning tone.
"That-" Stefan hesitates, but Stiles just raises his brows at him and looks pointedly down at the broken phone, "would be helpful, thank you. I can call you once I'm sure the vervain is out of his system," he offers as they finally exit the cell and make their way back up to the living room.
"I get that you're- something," Elena starts, turning her attention to Stiles as soon as they're out of the cellar, "but why are you involved in all this," she motions in the general direction of the room.
"I'm friends with Damon," Stiles says like it should be obvious, "of course I'm involved."
He can almost see it coming even before she opens her mouth, the tightening of her lips and a slight widening of her eyes like she can't believe what she just heard, that small straightening of her posture he recognizes from every time she's about to launch into some sort of lecture, and he almost chooses to just- leave. Simply walk out and leave Elena to whatever accusations she wants to throw at him now. Almost.
"I can't believe you!" She exclaims, "Don't you know how many people he's killed? Those animal attacks? They're all Damon, Stefan told me-"
"Right," Stiles moves his slightly incredulous gaze from Elena to Stefan, "Is demonizing your brother for something instinctual to your species some sort of hobby or…?"
"We're predators," Stefan frowns, sounding offended, "not monsters."
"And foxes just kindly ask bunnies to donate a bite of their flesh before leaving them alone, yeah?" he asks, sarcasm nearly dripping from his tone. "Lions never kill any gazelles, humans are all vegetarian, and the world is made of glitter and rainbows."
"It's not the same, you wouldn't understand," Stefan starts, but Stiles just raises a hand, halting his speech and anything about to leave Elena's mouth.
"It's not really my business," he points out simply, feeling way too tired for this whole conversation all of a sudden, "just like it's not any of yours who I'm friends with, and since Damon's not here… I'm out."
"Stiles!" Elena tries to call him back, but he's already halfway out the door by then.
The mention of animal attacks lingers in the back of Stiles' mind until he's finally back home, sinking into his computer chair and opening a browser, this niggling feeling telling him he's forgotten something until he's looking up any news from Beacon Hills. The first attack had made sense, a wild animal attacking in the woods wasn't entirely unheard of. The second one, where the bus driver was attacked in his own backyard, was also plausible. It was an open space, and Stiles doesn't doubt the fence could be jumped over. The video store… that's what's bothering him. It's a small town, there's only one video store it could have been, and the place is entirely surrounded by glass and located in the city center, someone would have seen the supposed mountain lion approaching.
Unless it wasn't a mountain lion, but Stiles dearly hopes it was, since the alternative… well, puts Lydia in a very difficult spot very soon.
Thinking of Lydia, Stiles pulls up Scott on his contacts and makes the call.
"Dude," a tired voice comes from the other side of the line a few moments later, "It's late."
"Sorry, you can get back to your beauty sleep in a sec," Stiles assures in a sheepish tone since he really hadn't thought to check the time before calling, "How's Lydia?"
"Oh, right, she woke up," Scott tells him in a more cheerful tone, "still in the hospital though, but she'll probably leave tomorrow morning. Mom says she'll be fine."
"Good, that's good," Stiles lets out a relieved sigh and, since there's no subtle way of asking for Scott to check if maybe her wounds closed up on their own, he says his goodbyes and hangs up the phone.
Stiles(1:34a.m.): can I stop by for lunch? Got some news.
So, yeah, that was pretty much what remained of S01E06, since there's no turned Vicki to worry about. Some things are changing :) some things are not :) We'll see where this goes.
Up next is a bit of the Lockwoods, some more Stefan, a couple of texts and something slightly unexpected.