Shifted

22 - The Blue Greenhouse

Stiles sat outside his dad’s office waiting for him to finish his phone call. With his super hearing, he could hear that his dad was talking to Rollins the M.E. who said he would be finished with the autopsy on the discovered half of Laura’s body that afternoon. While his dad spoke with Rollins some more, Stiles whispered and hoped the other werewolf in the station was listening.

“Derek, Derek can you hear me?”

Barely a second passed before he heard a reply.

“I hear you. And I also heard the M.E.”

“I have the research I showed you yesterday.” Stiles said, “I’m about to give it to my dad. It might help your case. This means you can be released this evening.”

“Not in time for the game. Do you have a plan?”

“Yeah, actua – ” He paused when one of his dad’s deputies walked by. “I broke my foot at practice earlier. Coach is benching me for tonight.”

“How did you get break your foot playing against regular humans? You’re a werewolf!”

Stiles rolled his eyes. Even when he couldn’t see him he could practically feel Derek’s judgy eyebrows judging him. As if the Great Werewolf Derek Hale never got injured before. The sound of his dad’s office door opening kept Stiles from replying to the sourwolf in the cell.

He jumped to his feet and ran inside his dad’s office barely noticing Rollins as he walked by him.

“Okay dad I know you told me not to get involved but I’ve been compiling this since the body was found last week and you need to see it.” He took the thick folder out of his bag and placed it on his dad’s desk.

As Stiles took out his folder, Noah subtly closed the open one on his desk and slid it into his drawer away from Stiles' prying eyes. With former Sheriff Dooley's case safely tucked away, Noah carefully looked at the folder Stiles presented. Normally he would have dismissed his son already, but despite Stiles’ stilesness, he could already tell he had the makings of a good detective. And he would never admit this to his son lest it make him more unbearable, but Stiles’ help was really valuable whenever he decided a case was exciting enough for him. Truth be told, Noah was already saving money for Stiles to study criminology at whichever university he chose. He just knew his son would excel at it and maybe eventually become an FBI Agent.

“I know it sounds unbelievable dad, but I truly believe this may have been just an animal attack.” Stiles explained, “Scott swore he heard a wolf howling that night we went to look for it."

"Wait." Noah interrupted, "The night you and Scott went looking for the body?"

"Yes."

"The night you told me you were alone and Scott was at home?"

"Ye - wait no."

"So you lied to me?"

Oh crap.

"That’s – it’s not…” He stuttered, “Dad is that really what's important right now? Dead girl in the woods, remember?"

Taking that change of topic as an admission of guilt was enough for Noah for now. Besides, Stiles was right, there were more important things to worry about. Stiles’ grounding could wait. Noah sighed and gestured for his son to continue his theory.

"So, I did some digging," Stiles said, "And I found that sometimes, big animals could be so enthusiastic about a kill that they literally rip their prey in half.”

Noah paused in his perusal of the report, “Did you say wolf? But wolves haven’t been in California for years.”

“Sixty years actually.” He said, “But I also learned that wolves are migratory creatures. We could be looking at a wolf that just happened to be passing by. Like a murderous, four-legged drifter.”