Calculatingly Wise

31

The teens had gathered at Scott's house and Stiles said, "My dad's got an APB out..."

"For a 5'8 16-year-old?" Kira interrupted.

Stiles smiled awkwardly. "I recommended nine-foot tall rampaging werewolf."

Tessa sighed. "I told the sheriff not to use those words."

Liam looked between the couple. "It still might not be him. But Hayden's at the school looking."

"I can keep checking the woods," Malia said.

Scott walked into the room. "My mom can check all the hospitals in the county. We can find him."

"What happens then?" Liam wondered.

Tessa shrugged. "Then we figure out a way to save him."

Lydia nodded. "Okay. Where else could we look?"

"Let's ask Corey," Scott replied, clutching something with his hand.

Corey became visible and tried defending himself. "Wait. Wait. It's not my fault. They took him and I couldn't do anything. They took him..."

"Who?" Tessa pressed.

"The Dread Doctors."

Tessa made her way to the station with Stiles and Lydia. She held a huge grudge against Theo for what he'd done to Scott. He'd hurt her cousin, and that was not something she could let slide.

"Still nothing from Scott and Liam," Stiles informed.

"Are we really sure this is a good idea?" Lydia asked.

Tessa shrugged. "It's a terrible idea, but it's the only one we've got."

The sheriff turned to his son. "But you're trusting Theo anyway?"

Stiles shook his head. "We're not trusting him. We're using him."

Lydia frowned. "What if he's using us?"

Tessa met her friend's eyes. "Oh, he is most definitely using us."

Stiles nodded. "Definitely. But, look, we're just trying to cover every place Mason could show up. Malia and Braeden are at Scott's house. Melissa's got the hospital. Hayden and Corey are at the school."

Sheriff Stilinski sighed. "Somebody's got to find him."

Tessa pursed her lips. "And we better hope they find Mason and not the Beast."

Stiles fell asleep on the couch in the sheriff's office and Tessa sat on the desk, playing on her phone. She noticed Lydia coming back and shook Stiles' shoulder.

Stiles jumped up. "Hmm? What? What happened? Who's dead?"

"No one. At least not yet," Lydia replied.

Stiles sat up and Tessa sat next to him, crossing her legs on the couch.

She noticed his expression and asked, "You okay, Stiles?"

He nodded. "Yeah, just thinking. Still trying to figure out why Mason? I mean, he wasn't even on the genetic Chimera list."

Tessa shrugged and Melissa entered as she said, "He is now."

The demigoddess grabbed a file and looked through the pictures. "Why now?"

"Mason was born with twin embolization syndrome."

Lydia nodded. "You mean fetal resorption."

"He had a vanishing twin in utero, which accounts for two sets of DNA."

Stiles frowned. "Can someone please say it with words that have less than three syllables?"

Melissa and Tessa turned to him and said bluntly, "He ate his twin."

"Oh, God," Stiles muttered.

"Did it help?" Tessa asked.

Melissa shook her head. "I don't know. But it's just bizarre enough to sound like it might be something important, right?"

Tessa let out a sigh. "Maybe. There has to be something."

They looked at the ultrasound of Mason eating his twin and Tessa's lip curled in disgust.