Sterek One Shots: Book Two

Why deja-vu is a dangerous thing

Why deja-vu is a dangerous thing by MsCee
*Happy December 7th*
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John Stilinski remembers the first time his wife stepped foot into the police station. She wasn't his wife then, of course, she was a stranger with a bright red sundress and the cutest nose John had ever seen on another human being. John was a deputy then, brand new to the force and paying his dues with piles and piles of backlogged paperwork. Their eyes met over the top of some petty vandal's arrest record, and John had frozen, tensed up completely, because his wife had just walked into his life.

And he knew it.

Twenty-odd years later and John hasn't felt that since. That kind of love, you only get it once in a lifetime. John knows he was lucky he ever got to feel that way, lucky he shared that with her for as long as they did. Lucky to have their son to remember her by, his amazing boy with her nose and her smile and her spirit.

John had his moment, so now he sits back and watches others have theirs. He likes to think he's fairly adept at reading people, mostly because people aren't nearly as subtle as they think they are. Or maybe it's the years of keeping up with his son's tall tales that keep him on his toes. Either way, John knows a lie when he sees one, and he can usually guess what people are feeling before they do.

So when his new deputy tenses up beside him one morning, John huffs out a small laugh, and thinks of his wife. John's can't wait to see how Hale handles meeting whoever made him freeze up like that, wonders if it will be anything like John's stammering mess of an introduction decades earlier. Knowing Hale, the kid'll probably just scowl, looking uncomfortable and put out and like he never quite grew into his grown-up emotions.

John's prepared to watch it all, and then tease the ever-living hell out of Hale as soon as the lucky lady leaves. He's prepared to look up and see some pretty girl with a bit of an edge, with a loud laugh and a bright smile that could coax even his sullen deputy out of his frown.

What he's not prepared for is looking up to see a very familiar face ambling towards his desk. John blinks. Blinks again. Darts a look towards Hale, who is (as expected) scowling something fierce, eyes locked with the boy headed over. John was prepared to share his story with Hale, reminisce about the day he met the love of his life three desks over from this very spot. He's not prepared for his son to factor into the story at all.

"Hey, dad!" Stiles' voice interrupts John's brain before it sparks out and turns off completely, short-circuiting somewhere around the fact that his deputy is in love with his barely-legal son.

"Derek," Stiles continues, nodding towards Hale, who returns the nod with a barely perceptible twitch that John decides to interpret as a smile.

John knows that Hale and his son know each other, and have done since Stiles was in high school. He thought they were friends, though, not... He was sure they were friends. In fact, Stiles was the one who convinced John to give Hale a chance on the force, ranting for nearly an hour about why it was such a great idea to have him there. Reasons that ranged from 'his eyebrows alone will make suspects weep and confess' to 'biceps'. That last one was delivered without further explanation, save for some dramatic arm waving that would make Vanna White proud, and a facial expression that was so patently Stiles it made John snort back a chuckle.

God, John was an idiot sometimes.

Then again, he had never seen them together, or he would have realized sooner. He had to cut himself a bit of a break. He had all the clues, but seeing them together connected the dots. Because he's looking at his son now, looking at the bright spark in his eye and the quirked grin that promises mischief, and it's so painfully obvious he doesn't know how he never noticed.