Teen Wolf One Shots

Another Mother Lost

Deputy Tara Graeme was going through the case files on the Hale fire, since after three years, they had found some new evidence, when she heard someone ring the bell on the front desk.

"Coming!" She announced, since she was helping with the front desk as well since Charlotte had called in sick.

The person rang the bell three more times before she made it back to the desk, to see a slightly smaller then usual nine year old with black hair and two of his top teeth missing as he smiled widely.

"How can I help you, Stiles?" She smiled as she moved the bell out of his reach, making him pout for a few minutes before smiling again.

"I'm just waiting for my Dad."

"He's gonna be busy for a few more hours." Tara told the boy, making him sigh, nodding before he went to go sit on one of the benches, opening his backpack and pulling out his homework.

Tara sighed, before going over to him, case files in hand and asking.

"What are you learning about?"

"Long division. It's complicated, but I'll get the hang of it." Stiles insisted.

"Need help? I used to teach middle school, you know."

"OK." Stiles smiled as Tara looked over at the paper.

"You know, when I taught long division, I taught them a song to remember the steps. 'First you divide, then you multiply, add your numbers then subtract.' So your math problem is 123 divided by 3, right?"

"Yeah."

Tara slowly helped him with the problem, till he got the answer and continued with the homework, Tara helping him when he got stuck, before he finally finished the math.

"Alright, your dad should be able to help with the rest of your homework in about a hour when he gets off." Tara smiled, starting to return to the files as Stiles sighed, staring down at his feet that were swinging back and forth, as the deputy sighed, wrapping her arm around the young boy. "What's bothering you, kiddo?"

"Ever since my Mom died, my dad has been super busy. Do you know why?"

"He's been working on several stressful cases recently, kiddo, but I promise when things settle down, you'll be able to do more stuff with him."

Stiles nodded as Tara opened the files about the Hale fire before he looked over her shoulder to see.

"Stiles, this is adult stuff." She sighed, closing the files as Stiles' brown eyes met hers.

"Can I help so my Dad won't be so busy?"

"I don't think so, kiddo." Tara sighed as he continued to read over her shoulder, making her sigh before he spoke.

"It looks like a regular fire, right? It's definitely arson, no accident, and from what I can tell, it had to be two or possibly three people to pull off that much damage, but there was no way it was the two survivors, Derek and Peter Hale. It was someone from the outside."

Tara stared at the nine year old in amazement, speechless, to which he responded with.

"I know stuff. Just don't tell my Dad I was listening to his phone calls again, I just want him to have fun again."

Tara chuckled, before ruffling the boy's hair.

"I won't, kiddo. But you're really good at this. Thinking about maybe being in law enforcement when you're older?"

"I wanna be just like my Dad and you." He grinned as Noah came out of his office, to which Stiles ran up to him and hugged him tightly.

"Hey, sorry for making you wait longer then usual, kiddo. You ready to get some dinner?"

Stiles nodded, putting his homework back in his backpack before putting it on.

"Kay, the car is unlocked. Open one of the windows and wait for me, Kay?"

Stiles nodded, hugging Tara one last time and his dad again before getting in the parole car.

"So, Graeme, what did you find with the new evidence on the Hale fire possibly being arson?"

"It was definitely arson. If you look at all the evidence including the traces of gasoline that were found recently, and how timed it was when all the Hales were home, it would've had to be two or more people who set this fire."

"Thank you for going through that, and thank you for watching Stiles. He was good, right?"

"Perfectly behaved. He even worked on his math homework."

"You are a miracle worker. He hates homework, even though he's smart enough to do it." Noah explained as he heard Stiles slam the horn. "I should go. Goodnight, Tara."

"Goodnight, Noah."

5 years later.

Stiles watched as his Dad was talking to a few officers before asking to be excused which lead him to put his backpack behind his hair and start walking while his dad yelled behind him.

"Hey! Hey, hey, hey. Back it up."

To which Stiles turned around, slightly frustrated about being caught while his dad continued.

"I know what you're thinking. I know you've got all these ideas about patterns and people dying in threes."

"Dad, murdered, okay? Sacrificed, actually." Stiles interrupted as Noah sighed.

"I've got half the state, including the FBI, coming in on this, they're not getting away with killing one of our own."

Stiles' eyes started welling with tears as his voice cracked when he spoke.

Dad, they killed Tara, you know, how many times did she help me with my math homework when I had to wait at the station for you?"

To which his Dad sighed again before speaking.

"Just, uh, get to class, okay?"

Stiles nodded, walking towards the classroom, and wiping a tear from his face.