Teen Ascendants 👑 S.S.

The Girl Who Knew Too Much part 2

Stiles was taping colored papers with names to his chess pieces while Cora was looking at the evidence board he made with all of the information about the Darach's victims and The Alpha Pack.

"Wow." Cora wouldn't pretend to be an expert with crime investigations but this almost seemed professional. Especially given that the supernatural was involved with everything. "You organized all of this yourself?" she asked him.

Stiles lifted his head a bit. "You sound surprised," he said raising his eyebrow over in her direction.

She narrowed her eyes at him. "Maybe I am. I guess you just didn't seem like the type."

"Oh, and what type do I look like?" he said with a bit of a challenge hinted in his tone.

Cora shrugged. "I don't know. I guess the stay at home all day playing video games type. I'll admit, when I first met you, I thought you had that whole picked on nerd thing about you."

Stiles laughed. "Yeah, actually I used to be. Scott too. It feels like so long ago."

"What happened?"

"Uh, your uncle went and bit me and my best friend in the woods one night."

"Right. Sorry about that." She then walked over to see what he was setting up. "How exactly is all this going to clear things up to your dad? Wouldn't it be easier just to shift in front of him first and then tell him what's going on?"

"It's kind of our thing. My dad and I always seem to make sense of confusing things when they're laid out, especially on a board. And, he's the one that taught me how to play chess. Said that his job is just like a chess game. Pieces moving, thinking three of four steps ahead, trying to guess where all the opposing pieces will be heading. I'm hoping it helps explain everything and keep us both calm. We're going to need to be if I'm going to stop him from getting taken to be one of the sacrifices." Cora nodded but then sucked on her teeth as she went and put her hand on the cut above her head. "Hey," Stiles said moving for her. "Is that still not healed?"

"It's just healing slowly," she tried to pass off like it was nothing. Stiles went to reach for it but Cora went to grip his hand before it could touch her forehead. "Really, I'm fine," she said a bit hard. "I can take care of myself."

"I'm just trying to help," he said softly to her.

"Well, you don't have to."

"I know, but I want to." Stiles looked over to his hand that was being gripped by Cora as he closed his fingers around it and his veins went black as he pulled some of her pain from her.

Cora took a soft breath but then let go and turned around. "Stop."

Stiles widened his eyes at her. "What, what is it?"

"Nothing," she breathed. "I just...I guess I'm just used to not needing help with, anything. I've had to learn to help myself and not...have help."

"From anyone? What about your brother?"

Cora let a small pained laugh out. "Derek kind of doesn't have a lot of experience being the big brother. Specially lately." Cora then moved to sit at the edge of Stiles' bed with sour look on her face. "Sometimes I wonder if I shouldn't come back here at all. That he was better off thinking I was dead."

Stiles watched her for a second before he walked over and sat next to her. "I don't think that's true. I think learning that he was still a big brother was one of the happiest things to happen to him for a long time."

She kept her eyes firmly locked on her hands as she picked at her cuticles. She didn't want Stiles to see that she was close to crying. Anyone to see her crying at all. "How could you know that?" she tried to ask in a hard tone.