The next day, the Hale girl picked at the eggs she had made only ten minutes ago. She had felt sick to her stomach. She still couldn't believe Stiles thought Derek killed their sister. She was even more annoyed at herself for being so upset.
But things got even worse when the Sheriff showed up at their front door with an arrest warrant. He had been tipped off by someone that there was a body buried in front of the Hale house.
Staring down tearfully, she watched as Noah Stilinski brought out her brother, who handcuffed. Her gaze shifted when she noticed Scott waiting by a blue Jeep.
"No..." Scott mumbled when he spotted Stiles walking from behind a tree and sneak into the cop car. "Oh, God...what are you doing?"
"Okay, just so you know, I'm not afraid of you," Stiles declared, looking back Derek. His blue eyes gleaming with malice as he gave the teenage boy a death stare. Stiles gulped with his big brown, puppy dog eyes that said otherwise. "Okay, maybe I am."
"Why are you so worried about me when it's your friend who's the problem?" Derek asked lowly, glancing through the window at Scott. He turned back to Stiles. "When he shifts on the field, what do you think they're gonna do, just keep cheering him on?"
Stiles gulped, realizing that what Derek was saying actually made sense.
"I can't stop him from playing but you and Gracie can," Derek said firmly, leaning forward. "And trust me, you want to."
As Stiles asked him more questions, Scott stood back, watching until Sheriff Stilinski caught his son and yanked him from the car.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?"
"I'm just trying to help," Stiles defended weakly.
"Okay, well, how 'bout you help me understand exactly how you came across this."
"We were looking for Scott's inhaler," Stiles answered as Scott watched the interaction from the car.
"Which he dropped when?"
"The other night."
"The other night when you were out here looking for the first half of the body?" His father remembered.
"Yes."
"The night that you told me you were alone and Scott was at home."
"Yes," Stiles admitted. His eyes widened when he realized what he said. "No...Oh, shit."
"So you lied to me," The Sheriff sighed.
"That depends on how you define lying."
"Well, I define it as 'not telling the truth'. How do you define it?"
"Mm, reclining your body in a horizontal position..."
"Get the hell out of here," his dad told him.
"Absolutely..."
As Stiles walked away from his dad and toward his jeep, he saw Gracie standing at one of the windows in the apartment building. Thankfully, social services didn't need to take her away since she was emancipated.
But that didn't matter.
As she stared at him in anger, Stiles gulped, practically shrinking under the heat of her glare. Gracie was going to kill him and Scott. Not only had they gotten Derek arrested, which was a problem all by itself, but they dug up Laura's body. They dug up her dead sister's body from her resting place and now the police had it in their custody.
Hours later after Derek had been arrested and Gracie contacted their lawyer for legal help, she was currently standing outside the school, debating on what she should do. The lacrosse game was the last thing on her mind, but she knew Derek would want her to be there just in case something happened and Scott shifted on the field. She was hoping that wouldn't happen, knowing it would be hard to explain why one of the players went all crazy and suddenly had claws for nails and fangs for teeth.
"You gonna try to convince me not to play?" Scott asked as Stiles walked up beside him on the field, standing in front of the very crowded bleachers.
"I just hope you know what you're doing," was all Stiles could say. Of course he wanted Scott to start, but he also didn't want to see him rip anyone to shreds.
"If I don't play, I lose first line and Allison," Scott whined.
"Allison's not going anywhere," Stiles tried to reason. "And it's one game that you really don't need to play."
"I wanna play! I wanna be on the team. I wanna go out with Allison. I want a semi-freaking normal life. Do you get that?"
Stiles nodded. "I get it."
Scott sighed, looking more overwhelmed with each second.
"Just try not to worry too much while you're out there, okay?" Stiles advised. Scott bobbed his head. "Or get too angry."
Scott nodded, taking a deep breath. "I got it."
"Or stressed," Stiles added.
"I got it."
"Don't think about Allison being in the stands. Or that her father's trying to kill you." Scott looked back at him, his nerves getting worse. "Or that Derek's trying to kill you. Or the girl he kill. Or that you might kill someone. If a hunter doesn't kill you first..." He trailed off as he noticed the panic look on his face that said "so not helping, Stiles". "I'm sorry. I'll stop. Good luck."
As Scott headed towards the field, Stiles plopped down with the rest of the bench players on second line.
"Hey, kid," Sheriff Stilinki came up behind his son as Stiles sat down, crouching down beside him. "So, you think you'll see any action tonight?"
"Action? Maybe," Stiles said as he watched his friend anxiously.
"Please," Scott begged as the game started.
"That's it, Jackson!" Coach Finstock yelled as Beacon Hills scored a point. As soon as the first whistle blew, everyone had caught the ball besides Scott. More like no one was giving him the ball. When he finally got the chance, Jackson nudged Scott over and scored. Everyone started screaming and jumping as the crowd exploded. "Get fired up! Fired up!"
Gracie, who had been sitting in the crowd far away from Stiles, watched as Lydia and Allison jumped to their feet, cheering along with the crowd as the scoreboard changed -- Beacon Hills High taking an early lead. Lydia and Allison held up the sign the strawberry blonde made before the game.
"Brutal," Stiles shook his head when he looked back and saw the sign.
After it became obvious the rest of the team wasn't passing to Scott on purpose, the game started to turn around. Watching in slow-motion as the ball flew in the air, Scott ran forward, catching it with his stick as he jumped over a bunch of his teammates.
Sitting on the bench, Stiles were biting into his glove as he watched his friend whiz through all the players, ducking and dodging them before he chucked the ball into the net.
Everyone yelled and cheered, especially Stiles. Gracie grinned softly as they gained the lead. While she always supported Jackson, she was glad they were back on top.
"McCall! Pass to McCall!" Coach shouted.
As the next round started, one of the players on the other team passed the ball to Scott. Stiles, on the edge of his seat, watched Scott dash across the field once again with ease.
"Did the opposing team just deliberately pass us the ball?" Coach asked Stiles as he sat next to him.
"Yes, I believe so, Coach," Stiles replied, still biting his glove.
"Interesting," Finstock hummed.
The explanation behind it didn't matter when Scott scored the winning goal. After the ball went into the net and the game was over, it was chaos.
Gracie made her way off the bleachers as she felt her phone buzz in her pocket. Shockingly, it was Derek.
📶 T-Mobile LTE 7:58 PM. 55%🔋
Today 7:58 PM
Derek
Just got out. We need to talk.
Gracie sighed in relief, and she rolled her eyes when she heard some call after her.
"Gracie!" Stiles caught up to the Hale girl. "Look, my dad just told me about your brother. They released him from custody a few minutes ago."
"Yeah," Gracie nodded, looking everywhere else. She couldn't even look at him. "He just texted me."
Stiles just nodded. "I'm sorry, Gracie. Really, I am. I just thought--"
"--I know what you thought," Gracie cut him off. She sighed, pushing her hands in her coat pocket. "Thanks for apologizing...at least."
"You're welcome."
As the silence settled in, Stiles awkwardly looked around, seeing that Scott wasn't on the field, which probably wasn't a good thing.
"I should probably find Scott," Stiles was the first to speak up. Gracie nodded, and watched him run away as he gave her an apologetic look.
As Stiles rushed off the field to find Scott, Gracie made her way home, hoping that Derek only had good news.
"Scott..." Stiles called out as he rushed into the dark, quiet locker room. He turned past a set of lockers and saw Scott and Allison kissing. He ducked his his head back, trying not to interrupt them.
"I gotta get back to my dad," Allison was beaming as the two pulled away. Off Scott's nod, she turned back and stopped as a sheepish grin formed, seeing Scott's best friend. "Hi, Stiles."
"Hey, yeah," he replied, waving at her before she left.
"I kissed her," Scott said, still stuck in his gleeful trance.
"I saw."
"She kissed me."
"Saw that too. That's pretty good, huh?"
"I-I-I don't know how, but I controlled it. I pulled it back. Maybe I can do this. Maybe it's not that bad."
Stiles was still on the fence about it. "Yeah, heh. We'll talk later, then."
"What?"
"The, uh, medical examiner looked at the other half of the body we found," Stiles revealed, repeating what his father told him only a few minutes ago.
"And?"
"Well, I'll keep it simple. Medical examiner determines killer of girl to be animal, not human. Derek's human, not animal. Derek not killer. Derek let out of jail."
"Are you kidding?" Scott asked as his eyes went wide.
"No, and here's a bigger kick in the ass. My dad I.D.'d the dead girl. Both halves. Her name was Laura Hale," Stiles added.
"Hale?"
"Gracie and Derek's sister," Stiles revealed hauntingly.