Scott's POV
"Anything important yet?" I looked at Deaton for an answer.
"Yes... might be an understatement to my research, and No... might be an oversimplification to your question, so it's a 50/50." He was back with his usual witty replies. I guess he never changed. The same old Alan Deaton, the veterinarian of Beacon Hills town, if not, possibly the only badass veterinarian in the whole town.
"Keeping in mind the fact that I had to bribe my dad to come over...Can someone here not speak simple English?" Stiles was halfway through seeing stars in his eyes.
"You bribed your dad to come over?" I smiled, looking at him trying to bring a little sense of humor in the midst of all the pain. I lied to Stiles about me being okay, I was not okay, not physically, not emotionally, not mentally. The healing has slowed because of this.
"Very funny...It's two weeks of washing the dishes, doing the laundry, making three days of meals all by myself... for God's sake Scott! Enough with your tiny little teases!"
"Yes...like I've told you," Deaton spoke in seriousness, cutting in between our conversation, "... the symbol in the picture stands for an Irish term called, athbhreithe, which means Rebirth or to rise from below. The strange part is... the Dermaptera species, isn't native to Beacon Hills so that many numbers in a single place is just... impossible."
"The Dermaaa...umm...What?", Stiles stumbled on his words, he wasn't that happy on his feet, especially with the bugs and scientific words used in front of him.
Deaton apologized, humbly saying, "apologies, I mean...The bugs that you have submitted for an investigation. It's their scientific name."
"How was it possible then?" I asked, "The picture that Alec gave..." I reopened that same photo on my phone, "..it looked like a whole community. Did they migrate here for some reason?"
"As it happens. No" Deaton spoke as calmly as before,
"No. These species don't migrate. Could you hold this please?"
He was holding the insect on a pair of forceps and looked at Stiles for an answer, who was the closest person standing with him,
"I have to dissect it for a clearer perspective on facts."
"Huh?" Stiles looked at the lifeless creature like it was a demon from hell. He was disgusted by its presence,
"Definitely not doing that. I am gonna go over to that place and join her."
He pointed to his back without looking, and then when he saw our surprising faces, he turned back to see Malia snoring on Deaton's desk, with Duke, my dog on her lap, taking a nap.
"she looks pretty useful by the way...this is some really good cooperation skills..", Stiles said, looking at both of us.
"Tired... Had a rough day, probably." I replied to Stiles, and I took the forceps from Deaton, "Here, let me help..."
"at least..." Stiles jumped and sat on the desk as well, "she has someone who...you know..umm... looks up for her."
I've wanted to ask him this for a long time, "okay, what's the deal with you and Lydia?"
"Scott!" Stiles exclaimed, "we are not having this conversation...Not now."
"Yes, we are Stiles. It's now or never."
"I'd rather choose never." Stiles narrowed his eyes in disgust, "Scott..There's a killer out on the loose, the killer..who ...by the way...could've shot any of us dead inside a police station, and thank god..it wasn't either one of us or our friends... we are more than just eighteen-year-old adults who have abandoned their colleges and came back to this same old Beacon Hills town...we're trying to figure out what's wrong with the strange patterns made by bugs in the forest, and that's what you wanna know? Are you sure about what you wanna know? Because clearly! I feel like this is not the priority that we should be giving to."
I felt ashamed. I felt guilty.
I supposed that Stiles didn't know the guilt and hatred I had for myself not just since last night, but from the last week. I shouldn't have even involved either one of Stiles, Lydia, Malia, or any others. I should have just let them live their lives, maybe go to college, do their thing. I should have been the one to stop going to the police station, even though I knew something was coming. I should've warned the others not to go inside.
"No..No...I am not sure.." The guilt inside me started to weigh heavier than ever. The heavyweight of guilt caused my head to bend down and look at the ground in shame.
"Found anything about the killer?", I asked, trying to outweigh the guilt, with the power of moving on.
"No...They're still looking for him. I've heard that they couldn't even track down the car. The car that they ended up catching was a group of thugs who admitted to having shot down the man inside the Sherriff's station.."
"Those weren't the real killers, were they?"
"Of course not...Those were wanted men who the police have spent months and years trying to put them in prison, but they were unable to do so." Stiles shouted.
"Decoys...yet again...Must be more leveraging to those thugs from Monroe's side.." I exhaled.
"And please, for the love of god...stop asking what's wrong with Lydia and me...It's starting to make me sick." Stiles said.
"I don't know, I guess I was just overthinking stuff. But the way it is going now..you guys are doing things. But at that same time, both of you seem dead from the inside. Every time she talks you look away and every time you do..."
"...she looks away." Stiles sighed and placed his face on his palm in frustration.
"As far as I know she's mad about the fact that she couldn't attend her first day of college, for the most part. Other than that...I... I don't know." Stiles heartbeat was steady for a few seconds but it rose rapidly at the end. He was lying, or perhaps, hiding something from me and I probably didn't need my powers to figure that out.
"She isn't here with us, for that?" I asked.
"Do I look like I have a clue other than that? Stiles' heartbeat was rising again, this time, it was way higher.
I decided to change the subject for avoiding a potential panic attack on his way, "I have something to tell you.."
"yeah? what?"
"It's about Derek and Mr. Argent."
"What about them?"
"you know that they were out for investigating Deucalion's missing dead body right?"
"I'm sorry when was this?"
"dude..one month before, when Monroe and her workers attacked us with rifles and loaded guns out of nowhere, Deucalion was shot, we thought he was dead, but a few days after the shootout his body was missing.."
"Oh yeah yeah..now I remember ..but just like the glimpse of it..yeah go on.."
"Deucalion has a daughter.."
"hahaha...very funny.."
"it's not a joke.."
"you're being dead-ass serious Scott?"
"yes, I am..she is actually an alpha, I'm not sure how that's possible but she is..she has a pack..she was the one who took his body for giving him a proper respectful goodbye... she is not happy with Monroe for her doings so she will be joining us in this fight.."
"wow that sounds...reasonable... the guy who calls himself death, destroyer of worlds, who is a demon wolf by the way... who is an alpha by the way... has a daughter..who is herself an alpha..okay..really cool..what's her name?"
"From what Derek said last night I think it's ...Destiny.."
"Destiny?"
"yup.."
"Weird name.."
"Yeah, Derek and Mr. Argent are bringing her and her pack along very soon, they are in Mexico now..I have some other news...I don't know if it's good or bad for you...Theo's got a lot better from what he was initially...and he's leaving the hospital tomorrow.."
"I don't understand..did it have to do with his healing?"
"Not exactly...It had to do with the power of belief and willpower. From what I've heard from Liam, Theo hasn't been having the smoothest of times as compared to us recently, he was pretty isolated even before this happened to him, so he was trying to accept the pain and was very optimistic that he would meet his fate..which he thought was..death..., he was not letting himself heal because he believed that he was a loner and no one else would ever come to pick him up...but.."
"...but he started to heal when we came to Beacon Hills?", Stiles asked.
"That's how it works..the healing has always been related to mental strength..He started getting the hope of fighting back and standing up again on his own feet day by day...and then slowly came the power of confidence..confidence that could make him believe that his life still had a purpose, something that he could be a part of.."
"Does that mean...that he's..that...he's a part of...", the things about Theo were a bolt from the blue for Stiles. It was not just me, but also Stiles himself who started to accept that Theo was no longer against us after he learned that Theo was not lying about his injuries.
"yes...it means...Theo's with us now...he's a part of the pack...The McCall Pack..."
"the way you delivered that last line....now I definitely don't feel like celebrating...", Stiles joked while smiling.
"By the way...did Liam say anything about his friend, to you?" I asked.
"dude, all I know is that he has a friend who gives out the banshee-vibes. What about you?"
"I don't know I felt like his heart was skipping beats every time he spoke to me. What do you think it could be?"
Out of the blue, I heard a low vibration approach my feet, I looked down at the floor. Then it slowly got bigger each second until it was massive.
"GUYS!! IS IT JUST MY MIND...OR EVERYTHING'S ACTUALLY SHAKING?", Stiles yelled.
Malia woke up with her eyes turned on, Duke jumped from her body and ran his way towards me. Stiles, Deaton, and me looked at one another in surprise and terror.
It felt like an earthquake. But quite an unusual one, at an unusual time.
What the hell was happening?
Maybe it was destined to happen..it was our destiny to be stuck in the never-ending problems of Beacon Hills and its stupid supernatural fantasies.
***