Friends with Benefits (Stiles Stilinski)(DISCONTINUED)

Chapter 33

(sorry haven't updated anything I have 30 essays due by the 28th of this month and I'm not even half way done plus I have three test days next week but I'll update tomorrow too hopefully)

|Taylor Hale|

"Tay, get up. My dad's gone."

I immediately got up and we searched the hospital. We found him in the morgue, next to Donovan's body.

"The story Theo told me about the library. That's how it happened. Except it didn't happen to him." Sheriff said when he saw us.

We nodded, "Yeah."

"I can't protect you, Stiles, if I don't know the truth. Did you really feel like you couldn't tell me?"

"I couldn't tell anyone." Stiles admitted.

"Did you think that I wouldn't believe that it was self-defense?" Sheriff asked.

"What if it wasn't? What if I told you I wanted him dead?"

"I'd believe you. I also believe that wanting someone dead and murdering them are two very different things."

"Yeah, but what if the judge didn't think so?" I interrupted.

"Then to hell with the judge. Taylor, it was self-defense, and I would destroy every shred of evidence to protect you guys if I had to. I would burn the whole sheriff's station to the ground."

"What about upholding the law? What about Kira?" Stiles asked.

"Kira was a mistake. I guess I'm learning how to bend." Sheriff shrugged.

I raised an eyebrow, "So, what, it just goes away?"

"Not for you. The problem now is how to bear this burden. This kind of thing is not at all uncommon in law enforcement. A fatal mistake. A partner who dies. Or one who gets paralyzed. Stiles, you carry that with you. Sometimes it doesn't truly feel okay again until there's a kind of counterbalance."

Stiles made a confused face, "Like what?"

"Like instead of taking a life, you manage to save one. Something like that can help, but maybe only for a moment, but the real conflict you're having now is between your head and your heart. Your head knows that the only crime you committed was surviving. Your heart still thinks it was murder. So I guess you gotta get your heart to catch up to your head." Sheriff explained.

"I feel like it's more than guilt though, you know, I feel like... I'm losing something."

"You are. Not entirely, but you can stop it by forgiving yourself. Since that's not always the easiest thing to do, then maybe you start by forgiving someone else. Someone who probably really needs it."

"Someone like Scott." I smiled.
___________________________

"You didn't have to come all the way out here." Malia said, as I climbed off my bike.

I crossed my arms and leaned against the porch, "You weren't answering your phone, so I kind of did."

"I can't help you. Not right now."

"What if I told you that you're the only one that I have left?" I admitted.

She shook her head, "You're not gonna want my help."

"Anything that happened between us..." I started to say but she cut me off.

"I'm talking about something that's going to happen. Something I'm going to do and you're not going to like me much after I do it."

"If this is about you going after your mother and killing her, Malia, I—", She cut me off again.

"Go home, I can't help." Malia demanded before going inside her house.
___________________________