Baby|| Stiles Stilinski

33

Stiles placed the vase of flowers down on Sheriff Stilinski's desk with little finesse. As soon as his hands were free, he was grabbing Baby's spare one again. "You know the last time we brought one of these to her grave, it was stolen the same day", he said. "Hundred bucks down the drain". Next to him, Baby took a swig of his thermos. Stiles narrowed his eyes at him. "You'd better have mints cause I'm not kissing you if your breath smells like blood".

Baby smiled at him and took another swig. A voice sounded from the floor behind the desk. "What did I hear about kissing?" The two boys leaned over to see Sheriff Stilinski knelt in a pile of files and red string.

"Hey dad? What are you doing down there?"

"Working", Sheriff stated. "What was this about kissing?" Stiles crossed round the desk to get a better look at the files.

"His Sheriff Stilinski", Baby shook his thermos in a small wave. The sheriff looked at him then at his and Stiles' joined hands.

"Hi Baby".

"Hey dad what is all this?" Stiles asked.

The sheriff waved a hand. "I've been looking over old files from a more illuminated perspective, if you know what I mean".

Baby peered at all the papers and boxes scattered around the floor. Stiles picked one up and read it aloud. "Strange sighting of bipedal lizard man sprinting across freeway".

"Kanima pile", The sheriff waved at a particularly thick group of files. Stiles dropped the paper down on top.

"Ewww lizard", Baby muttered. "Glad I missed that".

"You could have been cold blooded bros", Stiles voiced. Baby gave him a weird look and Stiles shrugged. "Or maybe not".

"Dad", Stiles sighed as he crouched down. The changed meant that he pulled Baby down with him. They both crouched awkwardly amongst the papers. "You're not going through your old cases seeing is any of them had anything to do with the supernatural, are you?"

"I admit that the recent opening of my eyes to the greater mysteries of the universe has got me...." the sheriff paused for a second. "Reassessing. There are at lest a hundred cases here where I can look at the details and ask 'if I knew then what know now,"-

"Are you sure you want to go down that path?" Stiles asked.

"Do I have a choice?" The sheriff sighed. "There's two cases in particular that I can't get out of my head". He stood up and Stiles and Baby moved with him. He grabbed two files. One was quite thin, only a few pages thick. The other was slightly bigger. He opened the bigger one first.

"The first case was twelve years ago. A five year old boy went missing in the woods. The familiar had moved here from England and had only been living here a few months when their son went missing". The sheriff gestured to his board of red lines. Baby scanned over it, sudden anxiety in his stomach. He could make out words such as 'full moon' written in columns and pictures pinned up next to them.

Sheriff Stilinski drew their eyes to a picture of a little boy with brown eyes and strawberry blonde hair. The child was looking grumpily at the camera, bottom lip sticking out in a pout. Baby felt himself freeze. He gripped Stiles' hand tightly as the man continued speaking. "Romeo Goldsmith went missing on June 15th, during a full moon. His family searched for almost a year before they believed him to be dead and moved back to England". The sheriff paused to sigh. "We scoured the woods for months and did not find any trace of him. It was like he disappeared into thin air".

"I remember that case", Stiles commented. "I remember overhearing you and Mom talking about it when you thought I was asleep".

"You were five", Sheriff Stilinski stated. Stiles shrugged.