Love's Spiral

Scott biked to the veterinary clinic as fast as he could with Spencer riding on the back pegs, holding onto his shoulders. He was late to work and he absolutely hated to be late. Spencer wasn’t any help in making him on time either. After she came running out of the school, shouting for Scott to stop, he had groaned, but remembered he said he would take her with him. He wasn’t all that sure why she wanted a job. She had her parents to take care of her still. Last Scott knew they were pretty well off, with nothing economic wise to worry about. It was a surprise to him with so many frequent visits to the hospital. Either way, Spencer wanted a job, and he’d eventually find out why.

When the two arrived at the clinic, Spencer jumped backwards off of the bike so that Scott could park it along the outside wall. Spencer was surprised that Deaton hadn’t had a bike rack installed here yet. Scott was the only other person that worked with him and he rode a bike. She followed Scott into the clinic and to the back. He entered and area where Deaton was going through a box, possibly organizing.

“Sorry.” Scott mumbled as he crossed the room, removing his backpack and placing it under a table.

Spencer stood next to the closed door, leaning against the wall.

“Sorry.” He repeated. Like it was said, he hated being late.

Deaton glanced at Scott for just a moment before returning to the box of supplies he had in front of him. “You’re all of two minutes late.”

Scott shrugged. “I just don’t want you to think I’m slacking.”

“Scott, I guarantee you, you’re one of the least slacking kids in this town.” Deaton and Scott both grinned at each other, realing that it was the truth.

“Ironic, isn’t it?” Spencer said, quietly, trying to keep herself from laughing. Sure, Scott was one of the least slacking, but he still was as lazy as a sloth. Both Deaton and Scott turned to look at her.

“Hello.” Deaton said, politely.

Spencer smiled and pushed herself off of the wall in order to go shake Deaton’s hand. “Hi, Doctor Deaton. I’m - ”

“Spencer Garner.” He said, like he already had known.

Spencer furrowed her brow. How did he know that? she thought to herself.

Sensing her confusion, Deaton explained. “I was friends with your parents. Your dad mostly. He and I had a few things in common.” He said, giving her a knowing look.

Spencer’s eyes widened. Instantly her sighed when to Scott, to see if he had noticed her shock, but he was putting some things away for Deaton. Two seconds later, Scott turned around with his own look of shock. Sheriff Stilinski was standing at the door, clad in his aviators. Spencer could sense that Scott was becoming worried, freaking out that the sheriff had figured out that it was him at the crime scene. A second later, the Sheriff opened the door and comes in with a dog.

Deaton leaned down to be eye level with the dog. “Hey. I see somebody’s ready to get their stitches out.” He said, excitedly.

“Hey, there Scott, Spencer. You two staying out of trouble?” The Sheriff asked. Spencer nodded and Scott answered him with a ‘yeah’. “Hey, listen, while I’m here you mind taking a look at those pictures I was telling you about? Sacramento still can’t determine an animal.”

“I’m not exactly an expert.” Deaton said. The sheriff took out the pictures and handed them to the veterinarian.

Spencer tried to move into a position where she could sneak glances at the pictures.

“This is the guy who was attacked on the bus?”

The sheriff nodded. “Yeah. We found wolf hairs on Laura Hale’s body.”

Spencer perked up at the sound of Derek’s sister’s name. All that Scott heard was ‘wolf’.

“A wolf?” Scott questioned. He became flustered when he noticed confused eyes on him. “Um, I mean, I think I read somewhere that wolves haven’t been in California for, like, sixty years.

Spencer nodded, agreeing with Scott.

“True enough, but wolves are highly migratory.” Deaton explained. “They could have wandered in from another state, driven by impulse or strong enough memory.”

“Wolves have memories?” Spencer asked, curiously.

Deaton looked to Spencer, not at all surprised at her curiosity. “Longer-term memories, yes. If associated with a primal drive. See this one here?” Deaton pointed out a spot in the picture on the man’s face. Everyone nodded. “Those are claw marks. A wolf would have gone for the throat or the spinal cord with its teeth.”

“So what do you think?” Sheriff Stilinski asked. “It’s a mountain lion?”

“I don’t know.” Deaton admitted. “A wolf could chase down its prey, hobbling it by tearing at the ankles.

Spencer noticed Scott space out.

“And then the throat. But that seems to be all that I know.” Deaton said, handing the pictures back to the Sheriff.

“Thanks anyway. I’ll go out in the waiting room while you handle this.” The sheriff said gesturing to the dog. Deaton nodded as he started attending to the dog on the metal slab. Spencer stood again in the corner, trying to stay out of the way as Scott assisted Deaton in taking out the dog’s stitches. Deaton glanced at Spencer before turning back to the dog.

“I can guess that Spencer isn’t here just to hang out.” Deaton said, matter-of-factly.

Spencer stepped forward with her hands held behind her back. “No, sir. I was actually wondering if you needed a little more help around here. I know Scott can’t always be here with his lacrosse. I could organize or maybe even groom dogs.”

Deaton gave her a look. “Why don’t you come back after Scott’s shift? Say about eight. We’ll talk about it.”

Spencer smiled at Deaton’s words and nodded. “I’ll be here.”

“Alright.” Deaton said. “He’s all set. Why don’t you take him out there? I’ll see you later, Spencer.” Deaton gave her another knowing look. Something in her, told her that she might need her book when she came back tonight.

Spencer grabbed the dog’s leash and pat the dog on its head. Spencer gave Scott a small wave before walking out to the waiting room. The Sheriff stood up when she entered the room. He smiled when he saw Spencer with the dog.

“Hey, there, boy.” He said, to the dog. “And Spencer.”

“Hey, Papa Stiles.” Spencer said, handing the dog leash over to the man. “Can I get a ride home?” I mean ,your place?”

“Sure. Is everything alright?” he asked, concern written all over his face.

“Yeah, of course. I just wanted to ask Deaton about a job. Get some money coming in, you know?”

“I think that is very adult of you, Spencer.

The redhead smiled at the sheriff. “Yeah, I’ve just got to come back later. Talk to him about it.” Spencer followed Sheriff out of the clinic and into the squad car. She sat in the front and the dog went to the back. He drove safely through the tow, just like every Beacon Hills Sheriff should. When he arrived, he put the car in park and looked over to the girl.

“Will you need a ride?”

Spencer nodded. “But I’ll just get Stiles to take me. Don’t worry about it.” She opened the door and walked around to the other side. “See ya later, Pops.” She leaned through the window to kiss his cheek. She jogged up to the house, saving as the Sheriff took the car from its parked position.

“You two behave!” he called as he drove away. Spencer opened the door to the house and walked upstairs into Stiles’ room. He was sitting at the computer, probably still doing research on Scott’s condition. Spencer knocked on the open door. Stiles ended up jumping out of his desk chair.

“Sorry, Stiles.” Spencer apologized.

Stiles nodded accepting the apology. “So, do you wanna get to work on cleaning this room with me?”

Stiles started to get nervous. “Uh, yeah, about that…” he stumbled.

“Do you not want me to move in?”

“No, it’s not that. It’s just…” Stiles sighed. He walked over to Spencer and grabbed her hand. “Come with me.”

Spencer nodded her head, though she was very confused. Spencer would be lying if she said she hated the feel of his hand around hers. It almost felt as if she was two different people When she was with Stiles, she was this sarcastic, yet prepared person. With Derek, she was reckless and carefree. She got butterflies from both boys, and her life with both of them was easy. She could decide which she could live without more.

Stiles stopped them at the door to the room she would be staying in. “Ready?”

“To see the mess?” Spencer asked, sarcastically. “Yeah, I guess.”

Stiles shooked his head with a smile. Stiles turned the knob and opened the door. Surprisingly the room was spotless. There were no papers or clothes that didn’t fit anymore. The walls were even painted, striped with thick red and yellow vertical lines. Spencer walked in with her jaw dropped circling the room, finding it hard to believe.

“Stiles we were supposed to do this together.” She exclaimed, a little hurt that he did it without her.

“Yeah, well, you were completely AWOL this weekend. And I didn’t know when or if you were gonna ever have time with it. If you couldn’t tell, I’m kinda excited for you to be living here.” And that was true. But he also knew that with her in the house, he could keep a close watch on how things were going with Derek. He knew she wouldn’t dare bring him here. A suspect in a murder case at the town’s sheriff’s house? That wasn’t the smartest idea.

“I’m sorry. I just… I didn’t mean to abandon you. You seriously did not need to do this.”

“Well, I’ll help you move your stuff. Get settled.”

Spencer smiled at her best friend. She skipped a step and wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling him into a hug.

Stiles was surprised for a moment and didn’t know where to put his hands.

“Thank you.” she said in his ear.

Stiles relaxed and wrapped his arms around her waist.

“You are really making this so much easier on me. I, honestly, don’t know what I would do without you, Stiles.” She held his neck tighter.

“Alright, well, you’re about to find out if you don’t loosen your death grip, Spence.”

Spencer gasped and pushed herself away from Stiles. “Oh, gosh. Please, do not tell me that it was the inexplicable werewolf strength.”

“No, just normal Spencer strength.” He smirked.

Spencer smiled. “Good.” she said, moving to lie on her back in the middle of the room on the floor.

“What are you doing?” Stiles questioned.

“Join me!” Spencer said, excitedly, holding a hand up to pull him down.

Stiles didn’t need her help, but laid down next to her with his hands under his head.

“Just imagine how life will be when the two of us actually live with each other.” She told him.

“We’re going to drive my dad crazy.” He said, smirking at her. “Let’s just hope that he doesn’t find out about your secret boyfriend.” Stiles mentioned, hating the second that he did.

Spencer looked to him for a moment and shook her head. “Derek is not my boyfriend.” She said, defensively.

Stiles scoffed.

Spencer knew that Stiles didn’t believe her. She looked up at the ceiling and bit her lip. She sighed. “You know that you’re my best friend, right?”

Stiles looked to her, a little confused.

“I would never leave you. I would always care about you.” Spencer looked to her friend with a nervous look. She hoped he would just drop the Derek conversation all together and just let them be ‘Spencer and Stiles: partners in crime. “You know that right?”

In Stiles’ eyes, there was nothing but admiration and worry. He knew that he would always be there for her, but her for him was probably a different story. So he lied. “Yeah, I know.” Stiles said, opening his ar, for her to curl up in.

Spencer smiled and gladly accepted the notion. The two sighed contently.

!@#$#@!

Stiles dropped Spencer off just before eight. She was nervous, to say the least. She wanted a job really badly. Granted, it would give her less time to juggle all of the things she had on her plate. Between school, Derek, Scott and Stiles, and all of her supernatural goings on, it was going to be a lot harder when she added a job to the mix.

Scott’s bike was gone from the side of the building. He told Spencer that he was going to visit Derek to ask him about what could have happened on the bus. They both hoped that Derek knew what was going on, otherwise, Stiles would have had the point on this one.

Spencer promptly texted Derek when she found out Scott was heading over there, but she received no reply. She decided not to worry about it and just go home later and wait until he came through her window.

The redhead opened the door into the clinic and the bell rang, signifying her entrance. Deaton came from the back and looked to Spencer.

“Spencer, hello again. Are you ready to have that conversation?”

Spencer crossed her arms over her chest. “That depends. Exactly what is this conversation about?”

“The first, you’re hired. You’ll be helping keep this place organized and the animals well-groomed.”

“And the second?” Spencer asked, a little worried about what his answer was. She didn’t know if he actually knew anything about her family history, but if he did, he could definitely be a little more help than Derek and Stiles could be. The most they could do was read the book along with her and figure it out as they went. If Deaton know about this stuff, he could help her to understand what the book says.

“Second, involves that book that’s in your backpack.” He said.

How had he known that she had the book in her bag? Spencer brought her bag around to her front to unzip and pull the book out. It was still disguised as a spiral notebook.

“That’s just wonderful. You’re a witch.” He supposed.

“How do you know about all of this?” Spencer asked.

“Like I said, your father and I were very good friends. We aren’t part of the same group, but we do pretty much the same thing. It is very rare to have so many of us in the same place. I consider it some sort of advantage.”

“Advantage over what? What are we anyway?”

“Sometimes we are referred to as advisors. That’s what I was to Derek’s mother.”

“You knew his family? Do you know what happened to his sister?”

Deaton shook his head. He wasn’t at all surprised that the girl was asking so many questions. Her dad was always the same way. Brian always had to have the answers. “All of that will be figured out. But for now, we need to cover the basics. Who have you been advising?”

“Honestly, I don’t think I’ve been helping Scott or Derek. There’s not much I can help Derek with because he knows more than I will or ever will, and that’s why I can’t help Scott.” It was then that Spencer remembered that no one knew about Scott. Her eyes widened when she noticed that she just told the secret.

“That’s alright.” Deaton said, as if he knew that she was embarrassed with herself. “I already figured out what Scott was. The dog the sheriff brought in is usually a feisty one, but he remained still. I could only assume it was Scott’s doing. And I’m sure that you’ve helped the two of them with something.”

“Look, I’m still really lost on everything. I don’t know what half of these words even are. How could I have helped them if I don’t know what the hell is going on?”

“You’re very wise, Spencer, I’m sure. If there was one thing that you would have gotten from your father, it is intelligence.”

“Oh, yeah, that and his eyes.” Spencer said, sarcastically, rolling her eyes. “Can you help me with this or no?”

Deaton nodded. “On days when Scott doesn’t work. I’ll help you with what you need. Don’t tell anyone about our little lessons. Am I clear?”

“Crystal.” Spencer said, she turned to leave. She was going to walk home since her house wasn’t that far from the clinic. “Thank you.” she said, quietly, but loud enough for him to hear. She walked out of the door and braced herself for the chill of the night air. Thankfully, it wasn’t a full moon or she would have been freaked out. She probably would have made Stiles wait for her. When she got to her house, no one was home. She made herself a bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios and hurried back into her bedroom. Spencer’s window was closed, courtesy of her mom, so she quickly opened it to wait for the arrival of Derek. She knew that she should pack, but she was tired and didn’t want to mess with it. She laid on her bed with her bowl and quickly ate. Derek didn’t show up for another hour and Spencer had managed to fall asleep. Derek slightly crept into her room and joined her on the bed. This woke Spencer up and she jumped away from him.

“Red!” Derek whispered. “It’s just me.” he calmed her down.

Spencer laid her head back onto a pillow, facing Derek.

Derek was leaning up on one elbow on his side.

“Where were you all day? I’ve been trying to reach you, but you never answered.”

“I got caught up.”

“Did Scott come to see you?”

Derek nodded.

“What happened? Did he kill the guy?”

Derek shrugged. “He’s probably gone to find out.”

Spencer furrowed her brow. “Why didn’t they tell me?” she asked, rhetorically, reaching for her phone in her pocket. “Oh, they did. Guess I didn’t hear it while I was sleeping.”

“You wanna go?”

Spencer shook her head, closing her eyes, letting her exhaustion take her away. “I wanna stay with you.” she said, tired written clear through her voice. Derek nodded and didn’t respond. He was nervous to say the least. There was a good chance that Scott could kill her, or even that he, himself, could. Even with her advantage of being a witch, she hadn’t learned it yet. More importantly, he was worried about what she was doing to him.