Empathy.

Prologue

"Who Scott? Scott's home, he said wanted to get a good night's sleep for first day back at school tomorrow," Stiles lied knowing that his dad and Scott's mom were two different ballparks, and he could play the game when it was his home field.

This only caused the boy's father to look at him with skepticism, "Uh huh, and where's your sister? You didn't drag her out here in the middle of the night did you?"

One of the last times they had gone on this kind of rendezvous Maeve took the blame, and almost took the charges from the not so happy landlord, even though it was her twin's idea to sneak into the building. Stilinski knew this despite Maeve's reluctance to admit it.

"Maeve wasn't even ho- I mean awake when I left, yeah I tried to wake her up but she threw a water bottle at me," Once again lying, Stiles covered for his sister, who told her dad that she would be home by 9:30, and it was WELL past then when Stiles left.

"Scott? Maeve? Either of you out there? Scott!?" Asked the hesitant father, waving his flashlight around the area before he chose to believe his mischief of a son.

"Well young man, I'm going to walk you back to your car, and you and I are going to have a conversation about something called invasion of privacy," exclaimed the Sheriff has he dragged his son away from the scene by his jacket, unknowing to the fact that they were leaving behind a defenseless teenage Scott alone in the rainy woods.

......

"Hey, don't be late in the morning, I have to talk to Coach after our meeting," demanded the blue eyed boy as Maeve climbed out his small car.

She just playfully rolled her eyes as she bent down to look at him in the car, "I may be a women capable of many things, but I can only say that I promise to try," exclaimed the hazel eyed brunette.

"Just try," he retorted, but Maeve had already spun on her heel and was walking up to her front door, "Goodnight Maeve!" he pronounced flattly as she sauntered away.

"Goodnight Jackson!" she yelled back, not turning to look at the boy, but put her hand up to wave, listening to the sound of his car shifting gears and driving away from the curb.

She noticed that the blue jeep was not in the driveway and that it looked as if all the lights were off in the house besides the dim one over the kitchen sink, but she didn't want to risk being wrong about her brother's apparent absence.

As she slipped in the door, her first move was to remove her shoes, aiming to make the least amount of noise possible. The coast seemed clear as she reached the stairs, only to have the lights in the room flick on, and a brooding Stiles' appeared to be sitting on the chair on the other side of room.

"It's a little past 9:30 don't you think?" The sarcasm radiating off his tongue.

Maeve's first response was a small scream, having not expecting to see her twin in the room, "Jesus, Stiles! What the hell are you doing just sitting in the dark?!"

"What are you doing getting home at 1:30am, on a school night, with Jackson Whittemore? I thought Lydia was with you, huh? Where have you been?"

The string of questions only annoyed the girl, "I was with Lydia and Jackson and others at Danny's house hanging out, we all lost track of time," she defended herself, "Now why did I get a call from dad asking if I had been in the woods, huh?" Maeve shot back as she stared at her brother's brown eyes.

He seemed a bit taken back by the last comment, not expecting his dad to call her, but he guessed their father hadn't realized how little time Maeve had actually been spending with her twin.

"Scott and I were looking for the half of the body that had dad's whole department and state police are searching for, you would know if you came home when you said you would," The boy added a bitter tone to the end of his sentence.

Maeve chose to ignore his bitterness and focused on the detail that didn't align with what her father has mentioned on the phone, "Wait, Scott was there? Dad didn't mention that."

"Yeah well I lied for the both of you."

"So you just left your best friend, a severe asthmatic, alone, in the woods, at night, while its raining and with a potential murderer on the loose???" Maeve felt instant panic for the boy, the same boy she had tried so hard to get over this past year.

"First, our best friend, and uh...yeah, but he texted me saying he got home a few minutes ago. He's fine." Stiles had let his demeanor down as he rubbed the back of neck, knowing it was not his best move.

Maeve just stood there trying to suppress her worry and skepticism, "Okay, well I'm going up to bed, I have to meet Jackson in the morning before homeroom, so please go to bed too, I can't be late. Goodnight." The troubled girl headed up the stairs to her room, hearing her twin say goodnight as he followed to his own.

As she laid in her bed, pajamas on and makeup off, she pulled her phone out to text the brown eyed boy whom she had distanced herself from this last summer.

Maeve: Hey, talked to Stiles, wanted to make sure you got home alright.

Scott: Yeah, I can't be mad since it means my mom won't find out, but no worries I'm fine. See you tomorrow :)

Maeve: See ya!

But Maeve had this gut wrenching feeling that Scott McCall was in fact, not fine.