*ARCHIVED* Open Wounds (Sterek)

Chapter Fourteen - It's Late

Author's Note: So I'm bad at writing, funerals and traveling and parties. So there you go. Also, I apologize for the shortness that is this chapter, but I was unable to finish it due to personal circumstances, and I wanted to upload it now :3.

When Stiles finally made it to his apartment in New York, he didn't expect to find the door unlocked and his friend Karen sleeping on the couch in her bra and panties. But that's exactly what he found when he opened the door and stepped inside. With a sigh, he shut the door, maybe a little harder than he should have, and watched in amusement as Karen yelped and tumbled off the couch. "I asked you to apartment sit," Stiles said, throwing his keys onto the floor beside the door. "Not leave the door unlocked so I would come in and find your mutilated body."

Karen groaned from the floor and sat up. "I'm sorry, I fell asleep. If it helps, I organized your sex drawer."

Stiles sputtered. "Wait, what? You went into my--you touched my--"

Karen stood, rubbed her elbow ruefully, and came over to Stiles. "Calm down, gay boy, I just organized the dildos and condoms according to size and pleasure. I'm surprised to see you, you know. I wasn't sure if I ever would again."

Stiles removed his jacket, threw it onto the couch and sat down on the island stool in the kitchen. "Why would you think that?"

Karen followed him and pulled out a soda from the fridge. "Because you left without a single word. No goodbye, no note, no nothing, until three weeks go by and I get a voicemail saying that you need me to watch your apartment. That was all the information you could give me, really?" Karen hopped up onto the island and turned to face Stiles with a glare.

"I'm sorry, I wasn't really thinking. I just left," Stiles returned, taking a sip of Karen's soda.

"Yeah, I know. That's what I just said. But now that you're here, are you gonna tell me why you left to begin with?"

"My father was shot, and I had to go home and take care of him. And then Lydia died-"

"Hold up, what? Lydia? Best friend Lydia?"

Stiles nodded and Karen's face dropped. He could tell that she felt guilty for asking now, for getting even slightly angry over the fact that he'd left without a word. She pulled him into a hug. "I'm so sorry, Stiles. I know how much she meant to you."

Stiles wrapped his arms around Karen and relished the touch - he hadn't realized that he'd missed her so much until now. "Thanks," Stiles whispered, and then broke away. "I really missed you."

Karen smiled. "I missed you too. I'm glad you're back. Are you staying?"

"Until I finish school, yeah," Stiles nodded. "So,fill me in on the dirty shit's that been going on since I've been gone."

"Nothing much has really happened. Dave and I broke up, but that's fine because Mitchell found out I liked him so we're kind of a thing now. Oh, and Alanna got pregnant with her sister's brother's baby. That's pretty much it. What about you? Other than..."

"Well, um...Derek and I are back together."

"No way! The mysterious hot guy you've been hiding from me? I don't even know why you broke up in the first place. That's just one more thing you're going to have to tell me when we're old and wrinkly and changing each other's diapers in Elderly Acres."

Stiles frowned. "Thanks for that mental image."

"Oh, no problem."

Three hours later, Stiles finally crawled into his bed, which he assumed Karen had slept in by the wave of peach perfume that hit him in the face as soon as he touched the pillow. He felt his eyes grow tired and droopy the moment he was under the covers, but he dug his phone out of his pocket and forced himself to open his eyes and look at the wallpaper of his phone. It was a picture of him, Lydia, Allison, Derek, Scott and his father on a giant fish statue at the aquarium. Scott was actually in the process of tumbling off the statue. Stiles laughed remembering how much he'd complained about his butt hurting the rest of the week.