Willow ↠ Teen Wolf

[59]

"You know, it's stupid to buy the overpriced flowers." Stiles mumbled and shot a look to the backseat where they had placed the flower arrangement they bought earlier. "We should have gone with something cheaper."

"It's the gesture that counts." Willow replied with a small smile.

"Yeah..." Stiles breathed out as he parked his car. "Maybe one day we could visit your parents..."

"I'd like that." Willow nodded with a sad smile before leaning over to give him a short peck. "Come on, let's get your dad."

Willow held the arrangement in her arms as Stiles held the door open for her, leading her towards his dad's office. The office was packed with files and boxes. Stiles pushed couple of files out of her way so she could put the flowers down on his desk.

"You know, the last time we brought one of these to her grave, it was stolen the same day." Stiles said with a tight lipped smile. "Hundred bucks down the drain."

"Sheriff?" Willow asked when she heard rustling.

"Hey, dad? Hi." Stiles greeted him when Sheriff got on his knees so they could see him. "What are you doing down there?"

"Working." He was surrounded by files as he sat on the floor behind his desk with a pen in his hand. "And hey, if somebody wants the flowers that badly, they can have them. It's the gesture."

"See? Told you." Willow whispered as she nudged his side.

"What is all this?" Stiles ignored her comment as he looked around.

"I've been looking over some old cases from uh..." Sheriff scratched the back of his neck. "More illuminated perspective, if you know what I mean."

"Strange sighting of bipedal lizard man sprinting across freeway." Stiles read the file sitting on top making Willow let out a small chuckle.

"Kanima pile." His dad pointed at a stack without even looking at them.

"Dad, you're not going back through all your old cases seeing if any of them had anything to do with the supernatural, are you?"

"I admit, the recent opening of my eyes to greater mysteries of the universe has got me reassessing." Willow felt bad for the older man as she saw the shameful look in his eyes. "There are at least 100 cases here where I look at the details and I can ask myself, 'if I knew then what I know now...'"

"Right, but are you sure you wanna go down that path?" Stiles cut him off, crouching down to be on the same level as his dad.

"Do I have a choice?" Sheriff shook his head with a shrug. "There's one case in particular I can't get out of my head." He got up to pick up a file and handed it to Willow. "Eight years ago, when I was elected Sheriff of the 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 we could tell, the body of his nine year old daughter had been dragged from the wreck by coyotes." He explained as Willow looked at the picture inside.

"You mean dragged and eaten?" Stiles joined her side, rifling through the papers.

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

"So you're thinking bites and claw marks..." Stiles mumbled. "Probably a werewolf attack?"

"Maybe."

"But coyotes, they scavenge, right?" Stiles asked looking at Willow who shrugged. "So, couldn't they have just left the bites and the slashes?"

"Absolutely." Sheriff nodded. "But guess what night the accident occurred on?"