Chapter Text
“Stiles!! Derek’s here!” Sam shouted up the stairs from the door.
“He’s got headphones on.” Lucifer muttered from where he was laying on the couch. Sam sighed, looking from the stairs to the dining room, back to Luc.
“Would you mind letting him know-?”
“Yes, I would actually, quite a lot…” Lucifer grumbled. Crowley side eyed him from the chair he’d commandeered since they’d been staying there.
“Well, you’re just in a bloody mood today, aren’t you?” Lucifer shrugged in response. Sam rolled his eyes.
“Crowley?” Crowley unrelaxed himself, setting down the paper he was reading.
“I was gonna fetch Juliet for a walk anyway…” Sam nodded.
“Thanks. I’ll be back soon.” Sam hurried out as Crowley disappeared. Derek offered a polite smile as he walked up past Sam’s car. Sam returned it. “Hey, see y’in a bit.” Derek just nodded, pausing in stride.
“Heading out?”
“Yeah, I’ve gotta see a guy about a thing.” Derek spared a laugh.
“I’ll assume I don’t wanna know?”
“Aah,” Sam chuckled a bit in return. “Something like that I guess. Stiles should be on his way down. Dean and Cas are down in the basement if you need anything.”
“Thanks…” Derek scratched his nails against his jeans nervously as they both walked away. He paused in front of the door, almost reaching for the knob, before realizing he should definitely knock. He knocked once….
Nothing.
He was confused, but he knocked again, four knocks this time. He heard Stiles finally running down. He smiled, waiting patiently. Stiles opened the door wide, welcoming him in.
“Hey…” Stiles greeted once he was inside. Derek grimaced out a fake, nervous smile glancing at Lucifer who was glaring at him with a vengeance. He looked back to Stiles not really wanting to maintain eye contact.
“Uncle babysitting?” Stiles looked over as there was a noise that sounded vaguely like a huge bird taking flight. Derek glanced over where he was looking, where Lucifer had been but the couch was empty now. Stiles just shrugged.
“Guess not?” Stiles gestured at the stairs. “Wanna come up?” Derek nodded, following Stiles up. They left the door ajar as Stiles sat in his desk chair, and Derek took a seat on Stiles’ bed. “I was actually just seeing what I could find on the attack.”
“What sources d’you have??” Stiles tilted the screen his way. He had at least 10 different tabs open, not all on the attack. A few looked like local news pages, but another few had icons he didn’t recognize.
“They never took my dad off the system. They usually don’t bother. Not that people drop dead often enough to observe much of a, uh… standard… But my dad was sheriff, so I have access to everything they have right now.” Stiles sighed. “Which isn’t much. They’ve looked into this guy that got messed up, but they haven’t had time for much else. They’ll probably consult an animal expert by then end of the night though. Whether or not they’re keeping up on paperwork is another issue. Depends on who's on it.”
“What do they have on the victim??” Derek asked confused, wondering if it was actually worth mentioning or if Stiles had just rambled it out.
“Bus driver, from around, no family. Arrest record, but nothing that amounted to anything. Could mean he’s clean, but more likely means he’s got friends looking out for him. Guy’s sketchy, sketchy as fuck if they’re bothering to make a note of it, but nothing’s pointing back to who would want him dead. Or mauled. Which is surprising given what he’s been investigated on.” Stiles rambled quickly and quietly in an easy unwavering drawl, that showed how focused he must’ve been. Derek leaned in a bit to read the report on the screen.
“Why; What’s he been investigated for?” Stiles cycled few a couple tabs.
“Some… concerning things. ‘Mayhem’, shooting a gun in city limits, ‘suspicious activity’, stuff like that.” Derek furrowed his brow.
“Why are those concerning?”
“Because, a rural town like Beacon? I can tell you, they don’t write crap like that down… Unless it was all they could be sure of. If he was arrested or even investigated for this stuff, there’s a good chance they wanted him for something scary and he had a real good lawyer.” Derek nodded, catching what Stiles meant.
“And you’re wondering why a bus driver has a lawyer covering for him so hard?” Stiles nodded confidently. “What if it’s just a friend of his?” Stiles shook his head.
“BHPD isn’t afraid of somebody’s childhood bro. This guy has to have somebody with money and sharks keeping him out of the hot seat.”
“Why though? That’d take some steady pay, why is it worth it for someone to keep this guy out of jail?” Stiles scooted over in his chair, messing with his nightshade when he made it.
“Well… the way I see it, he either has dirt on someone… he’s important to somebody… or, more likely, he’s some for-hire-thug… And given he’s a born and raised local boy, all boils down to ‘who in the area has big money’.” Derek looked up at Stiles, who looked back, brain still obviously turning over in his head.
“You think he’s on our payroll?” Stiles looked away, shaking his head.
“If not, it’s kind of weird. Hale heiress, then some other mogul’s goon? I mean if it’s a coincidence it’s a crazy one.” Derek shook his head in return.
“If Laura was up to something like that, I’d know.” Stiles looked at Derek, making sure he was certain about that, then nodded.
“Well then, what we need to figure out is who did he work for. Then we can figure out what he did, and then we just narrow down to who’d want him and your sister dead because of it.” Stiles sighed. “I’m making sense here, right?” Derek furrowed his brows.
“Yeah, about as much sense as anything could be making right now… Why??” Stiles shrugged looking at the police database open on his browser.
“I can get a little… crazy when it comes to stuff like this. Just wanted to make sure I wasn’t jumping the gun on anything.”
“...‘Stuff like this’?” Stiles tried to hide his sigh.
“Yeah… My… dad.” Derek waited to see if Stiles wanted to continue or not. “After he died, I didn’t really have any answers, and I… just kind of went crazy in my head for a few day trying to figure it out… Scott… was really worried, seeing me like that… It’s fine.” Derek took a moment before nodding.
“You’re right, it is.” Stiles looked over to him questioningly. “It’s completely normal to want answers, Stiles. It’s natural to go a little insane not having them…. But it won’t bring him back.” Stiles scoffed an almost tearful snicker.
“Yeah, I know I just-” Stiles jumped up, in a panic as his computer immediately shut down, the only light now what was streaming through the window as evening approached and dark following after it. Thank goodness for Summer they both figured. Derek looked from Stiles to the computer.
“Please tell me we didn’t just lose all of that…” Stiles threw his head exasperatedly.
“Well, no! That’s just going to be a pain in the ass to go and sign back into all of those, and my computer is gonna update, and-” Stiles sighed. “It’s fine… Better go check on the idiots.”
“What?”
“Dean and Cas are the only ones home, and they’re down in the basement, so I’m guessing this is their fault.”