Old Habits

Tish: crossover

Tish

Mostly, I didn't want Conor and Stefa to be left alone together. Not because I thought they would hook up, but because I was a little worried that he would leave me at the farm and go with the vampires at the end of this. That he would think that he could solve this on his own.

"You two are a good couple," Stefa mentioned.

She was lying on the bed next to me. It wasn't as creepy as I had expected. She hadn't been anything I had expected. She hadn't said anything about her missing arm, and given the scars on my face I was in no position to be judging anyone for not wanting to talk about it.

"Um, thanks, I guess."

"I don't think we met before."

"Tish. I was a hunter. I met Mike in a morgue during that whole thing, and Conor accidentally turned me when I came to their farm looking for Grant. And then I stayed. And liked it there. It's been a weird six months."

"Grant still with Aidan?"

"Oh my god, those two are intolerable. Aidan was nibbling on Grant like he was an ice cream sandwich the other day. And Grant's doing better now that he's actually drinking enough blood. He still gets a little stir crazy. But it's been cold and miserable so I don't blame him."

I yawned again, knowing that I wasn't actually going to get any sleep. My brain wasn't tired even if my body was.

"How'd you and Conor get involved?" Stefa questioned.

"Jackson came up to the farm to blackmail us into helping," I explained. "The condition was to leave Lacy there while we found you and we used some hunter resources to track you down. Of course, I think we all expected you to be in hiding or in Mexico or something. Not trapped in a basement in St. Louis."

Stefa sat up suddenly, her breathing short and ragged. I sat up more slowly and put a hand on her shoulder. Like Grant, she was cool to the touch. It was so weird being here. I had been fully prepared to loathe the woman who had sold Conor's past to Sasha and who abandoned him for her clan. But of course she wasn't nearly as imperious as Conor had made her seem. Now she was far more broken than any of us had been prepared for.

"Sorry," Stefa said, wiping her eyes.

"For what? I'm not actually napping; I just didn't want Conor to hover," I laughed. "He's so bad about hovering especially when there's nothing he can actually do."

Stefa brought her knees up to her chin again, breathing shallowly.

"But if you want, I can go get him," I offered. "I am not nearly as comforting, sorry."

Stefa managed a smile. "You're fine. I'm...just having a hard time. It's been...a truly hard time."

"Do you want to talk about it?"

She shook her head.

"Do you want to talk about something else?"

"Sure," she managed.

"So you sent a head to my boyfriend for Christmas," I mentioned.

Stefa snorted. "I did. I'm not very sorry. Candice was a horrible person."

"It was a lot of effort," I pointed out.

"Not really," Stefa shrugged. "My...we were in the area. Candice chopped my arm off a couple times." She looked down. "Not that it makes a difference now."

"Will it grow back?"

"Not like this; no, I'll have to cut it off again. And even then, it depends on the scar tissue. I probably won't deal with it, at least for a while." She looked down at her feet. "I'm a little surprised I have all my toes."

"I feel that; I am surprised I have all my fingers from being a hunter," I remarked. "I thought for sure I would have blown a couple off by now."

Stefa scoffed. "The hunters... did they know about you?"

"That I'm a werewolf? No, those ones didn't. They would have shot me in two seconds if they had. I wish, you know, we had managed not to...I get it, I guess. But I don't think it was the right thing to do."

Stefa opened her mouth to say something but then shook her head, hugging her knees tightly. I tried to steer the conversation away.

"Turns out that Grant's mom was turned," I said. "Vampire. Some sort of lab accident. She lost her cool and tried to fight the director of STF, so that was a whole thing."

"Sasha was turned? She's old guard. She hated Grant," Stefa managed.

"It's true. She had me drugged for a bit to see what would happen to Grant. Apparently, my drugged blood messed him up pretty bad."

We could hear the boys come back inside and flop down on the couch. I almost expected Conor to come check on us, but he stayed out there with Mike. Stefa seemed to be watching the door for the same.

"Any guesses as to what Jackson will think is 'actual food?'" I asked.

"He'll probably persuade a cashier or someone into getting a cart for him," Stefa said. "That's what he usually does. Jack doesn't do his own work if he can help it."

"No kidding. He doesn't even ask. He just orders us around and gets surprised when we're annoyed by that."

"Jack is like that," she agreed. She reflected. "Conor is also like that, just less loud about it."

"True," I mused.

"Why did Jack come? I get that you two were coerced, but why is he spearheading this?

"Unclear," I told her. "There seems to be a bit of feelings involved. He told our alpha he needed help to take back New York. I don't really know."

"I can't...I won't...I'm not any good to anyone right now," Stefa whispered. "You're lucky to have him, Tish."

I gathered she meant Conor and not Jackson. I didn't want to rub it in. Stefa buried her face in her knees. I rose from the bed, certain my movement would summon Conor. It did; he opened the door with a frown and glanced past me at Stefa.

"Do we have scissors?" I asked. "And do we know when Jackson will be back; I'm hungry."

"You're always hungry," Conor teased.

"Someone has to remember to eat between us," I shot back.

"I'll see if I can find some scissors," Conor promised.

I left the door open, and Conor went to rummage around the kitchen. Mike pulled himself from the couch and staggered toward the bedroom.

"Stefa," he called.

She didn't move for a moment and then slowly lifted her gaze from her toes to look at Mike's face. He seemed apologetic.

"I didn't mean what I said," he said. "I'm sorry. You didn't deserve this to happen, and I know that you tried to keep the others safe. I was just angry."

"You have every right to be," she sighed. "I'm sorry too."

He came into the room and enveloped Stefa into a hug. She hugged him back tightly.

"Found them," Conor said, bounding back to me.

He handed the scissors to me, and I smiled back. Conor looked a bit confused.

"What?'

"You're a good person, Conor Becker," I said. "Even when I'm a little mad at you."

He sighed. "I wish I were sorry about the hunters dying. But they made it hard to care, Tish. We can't always be better than they are."

"I know."

I brandished the scissors and turned to Stefa, who had just released Mike from their hug. She frowned at the blades.

"Let's sit on the porch and deal with your hair," I said. "Because a comb is not going to get those matted bits out."

"You're not wrong," she agreed.