Stay With Me

Chapter Twenty-One: Saving Him?

Stiles stepped towards the geriatric psychopath. "What are you doing with them?"

"At the moment," Gerard glared at him, "just keeping them...comfortable. There's no point in torturing them, they won't give Derek up. The instinct to protect their alpha is too strong."

"Okay," Stiles swallowed. "So what're you doing with me? Because Scott can find me, all right? He knows my scent. It's pungent, you know, it's more like a stench! He could find me even if I was buried at the bottom of a sewer, covered in fecal matter and urine." Derek could find me, too...if he even knows I'm missing.

"You have a knack for creating a vivid picture, Mr. Stilinski," Gerard smirked. "Let me paint one of my own. Scott McCall finds his best friend, bloodied and beaten to a pulp. How does that sound?" He stalked up to Stiles, who tilted his head back.

"I think I might prefer more of a still-life, or landscape, you know," he told Gerard, before sighing. "Look, what are you, ninety? I could probably kick your ass up and down this room - "

Gerard slapped him across the face so hard that he hit the ground with a loud groan. Erica cried out. He moved over to Stiles' fallen body.

"Okay, wait, wait," Stiles protested, well aware that he'd underestimated Gerard. "Wait, please - "

Gerard simply continued punching Stiles in the face, holding him up with one hand by his lacrosse jersey.

Was it only a few hours ago, that the same jersey had made Stiles feel like a celebrity?

<<<<<<>>>>>>

"What the hell is this?" demanded Scott angrily.

"You know, I thought the same thing when I saw you talking to Gerard the other night at the sheriff's station," Derek dodged the question.

Scott glared at Derek. "Okay, hold on! He threatened to kill my mom! And I had to get close to him, what was I supposed to do?"

"I'm gonna go with Scott on this one," reported Peter. "Have you seen his mom? She's gorgeous."

"Shut up!" shouted Derek and Scott together; Peter rolled his eyes, but obeyed.

Isaac leaned in close to Scott, to whisper in his ear: "Who is he?"

"That's Peter, Derek's uncle. Little while back, he tried to kill us all, and then we set him on fire, and then Derek slashed his throat," Scott told Isaac bitterly.

"Hi," waved Peter.

"That's good to know," swallowed Isaac.

"How is he alive?" demanded Scott.

"Look, the short version is, he knows how to stop Jackson!" started Derek, but Scott cut him off. 

"Are you serious right now? You aren't even worried about finding Stiles?" asked Isaac incredulously.

Peter frowned, looking at the other three werewolves. "Why would Derek care about that pale, skinny, defenseless - " he noticed Derek's furious glare, and held up his hands in surrender. "All right, fine, I'm shutting up."

"Okay, why would we need to find Stiles?" demanded Derek.

"Because he's missing, which you would know if you had actually gone to his game! Which we won, by the way, because of him!" shouted Scott.

Derek went pale. "He's missing?"

"Yes, and while your offer to save Jackson is very helpful, Jackson's dead," added Isaac.