Love's Spiral

Spencer and Isaac had hung out all day. Thankfully, he hadn’t said anything about her missing the last game. Maybe he didn’t go. He might have gotten in trouble, but either way, neither pushed and asked about what happened.

After Spencer had dropped Isaac off back at his house that night, Spencer returned to her own house to do a little reconnaissance. She didn’t go in. Spencer didn’t even get out of her truck. She only wanted to drive by and sit for a minute to make sure that her mother was okay. The two didn’t get along very often, but Amy was still her mom. Spencer still loved her, or at least, she told herself that she did. Amy had let her move out of the house, regardless of how hard it was for her to do so.

And Brian, well, he was an evil, psychotic werewolf helping another, even eviler, alpha werewolf murder people. Someone like that needed to be watched out for.

When Spencer got to the house, she was focusing her hearing inside of the house. There was nothing abnormal going on. The two had settled down for dinner in the living room, watching tv; something that they always did together. There was no talk of the daughter that Brian pretended not to remember. No talk of the villainous werewolf that had managed to bring two of the handful of people Spencer trusted over to his side: Derek and her father.

Brian got up from the couch to look out the window.

Spencer didn’t even bother hiding herself. It was apparent that he knew that she was there. The truck was old and made massive amounts of noise when the engine was one. No doubt that Brian could pick the sound out of hundreds of cars. It used to be his truck after all.

Spencer caught the faint smirk that grew on her father’s face. “I swear, if you hurt her, I will end you.” Spencer promised out loud, knowing very well that Brian could hear her. “You’ve already been dead to me for years. I won’t even have to hesitate.” Spencer didn’t want to be around the house longer than that. She put the truck in drive and drove back to the Stilinski house. When she entered the house, Stiles was getting the whiskey from the cabinet and a glass.

“Hey, Spence.” Stiles greeted.

Spencer furrowed her brow at the bottle and glass in his hands. “That’s not for you is it?”

Stiles looked down at the bottle in his hands. “What? This? For me?” He shook his head. “No. Dad is in the other room. He’s, uh, working. I’m gonna see if I can get anything out of him.”

“By getting him drunk?” Spencer asked.

Stiles shrugged.

“Just beg for forgiveness.” Spencer joked, before entering the room where the sheriff was sitting at a table covered in paperwork.

Spencer always looked to the sheriff as her father after the ‘accident’. Looking at him now, Spencer saw no difference. Her actual father remembered her, but he’s not the same guy that he was when she was little. Papa Stiles had always been the same, aside from the rough patch after Claudia died, but they never talked about that.

Spencer smiled and walked around the table, hugging the man from behind. “Hey, Pops.” She said before kissing his cheek. “Whatcha working on?” she asked before sitting in the chair to the right of him.

“Any leads?” Stiles asked, sitting in the chair across from Spencer reaching for one of the papers.

“Ah!” the sheriff stopped him by slapping his hand. “You know I can’t discuss that.”

Stiles nodded, but he wasn’t going to give up. He opened the bottle of whiskey and started pouring.

“Not too much.” the sheriff warned.

Stiles poured a little bit, then stopped. He looked up to his father, busy with his work, then to Spencer.

Spencer looked at Stiles as if to say, ‘we can hate ourselves later’.

Stiles sighed silently and continued pouring until the glass was full. “Okay.” Stiles placed the glass in front of his father. “Here you go, Dad.”

“Thanks.” he responded.

“Bottoms up.” Spencer cheered.

The sheriff’s eyes didn’t even leave his paper as he quickly emptied the glass that was given to him. The sheriff sighed from finishing the glass, and placed it on a stack of post-it notes. He hunched over the table and continued going through the paper work. “You know, Derek Hale would be a whole hale of a lot…” That’s when they knew the sheriff would spill everything. “A Hale of a lot?”

“Hell of a lot?” Stiles questioned.

“Hell.” the sheriff agreed, showing his son a thumbs up. “Yes. He would be a hell of a lot easier to catch if we could get an actual picture of him.”

“How do you not have a picture of him?” Spencer asked. “Didn’t you arrest him a few weeks back? Don’t you take pictures of arrestees?”

“We do, but it’s the weirdest thing. It’s like every time we try to get a mug shot, it’s like two laser beams were pointed out the camera.”

Stiles took the picture from his father as he continued explaining the situation. Stiles narrowed his eyes at the picture and flashed it to Spencer.

Spencer laughed at the picture. Derek knew his eyes would make that happen. The little shit, Spencer thought.

“Oh, my God.” the sheriff exclaimed, taking his glasses off. “God, that ounce hit me like a brick. And I have said way too much, and if either of you repeat any of that - ”

Stiles held up his hands defensively. “Dad, it’s me. I’m not gonna say anything. And Spencer’s the god one, so you shouldn’t even be questioning her loyalty.”

The sheriff just sighed.

Stiles and Spencer both picked up a packet from the piles of paper and dug through them.

“See, the thing is, they’re all connected. I mean, the bus driver that got killed, he was an insurance investigator assigned to the Hale house fire.”

“He was fired.” Spencer chimed it. “‘Terminated under suspicion of fraud’.” She held up the packet that she was reading from.

“Exactly.”

“Who else?” Stiles asked his father.

“The video store clerk, who got his throat slashed… He’s a convicted felon, history of arson.”

“What about the other two guys?” Stiles asked.

Spencer was lost on this one. She didn’t remember these two guys.

“The homeless guys who got killed in the woods?” Stiles stressed.

Then Spencer understood. It was the men from the night they went out drinking.

“Priors all over their records including - ”

“Arson.” Stiles finished.

“So, maybe they all had something to do with the fire.” Spencer said, saying exactly what Stiles was thinking.

Stiles nodded.

“The only person who could remember what happened, can’t remember what happened.” The sheriff said, confusing the teenagers.

“Who’s that?” Spencer asked.

“Your father.” The man pulled a file out from under other ones and showed it to Spencer.

Spencer immediately dug through it. “My dad?”

The sheriff nodded. “He was found, not far away from the Hale house that night. Your mom said that he was out for a jog that night. My guess was he was running the trial through there.” The sheriff back up from the table, seemingly giving up for the night.

“Another shot?” Stiles offered.

“No, no!” the sheriff repeated. “No more.”

“Dad, come on. You work really hard, right?”

“Yeah, Pops. You deserve it. Taking care of two unruly children like me and Stiles.” Spencer joked, even though she was still distracted by her father’s file.

The sheriff sighed. “Oh, my god.” He rubbed his forehead and back through his hard like Stiles did sometimes. “I am gonna have such a hangover.” Sheriff waved for Stiles to pour another shot.

Stiles laughed.

“You mean you’re gonna have such a good night’s sleep.” Spencer insisted.

Stiles took the glass and turned in his seat, so his father wouldn’t see him pouring. “And we’re gonna have an eternity in the lowest circle of hell.” Stiles said quietly, but Spencer could hear him.

Spencer took it upon herself to distract the sheriff so she pointed to another spot in her father’s file. “Did they figure out what caused the trauma?” she asked, wondering if the sheriff’s department knew the real story.

Sheriff looked at the file and shook his head. “Just a blow to the head.” He studied the file as he reached for the glass Stiles poured. “They never figured out a specific weapon.” Once in his hand, the alcohol was downed quickly.

Stiles refilled the glass again and that one was drained just as fast.

Sheriff played with the glass, almost dropping it to the floor, but Stiles managed to catch it. “Oh, Stiles, there’s just so many questions.” the sheriff slurred.

“Like what?”

“Like, if Derek wanted to kill everyone involved with the fire, then why start with his sister?” He questioned himself, rubbing his temple. “I mean, she had nothing to do with it.”

Both Stiles and Spencer hated seeing the man be so frustrated with the case. There was just a lot to the story that he didn’t know, and couldn’t know.

“And why make it look like some kind of animal did it? When that cougar ended up in the parking lot, the night of the conferences, I checked with animal control. You know the instances of wild animal reports were up seventy percent over the past few months.”

Stiles sat back in his seat.

“It’s like they’re just going crazy, running out of the woods. I don’t know.” By this point, the sheriff was slurring too many words it was hard for the teenagers to understand him.

“Or something’s scaring them out.” Stiles brought up.

The sheriff nodded and looked to his son, lovingly, nearly forgetting that Spencer was in the room with them. “You know, I miss talking to you. It’s like we never have time.”

Stiles fidgeted into his pockets. “Dad, you know, I have to make a phone call. I’m sorry.”

“Stiles.” Spencer chastised. She placed a hand on the arm that was holding up the sheriff’s head.

“I’ll be right back.” Stiles promised.

Spencer focused her attention on her Pops. She moved her chair closer to him and leaned her head on his shoulder.

“I do.” the man said quietly. “I miss it.”

Stiles walked away, scrolling through the contacts on his phone.

“And I miss your mom.”

Spencer’s heart dropped. She looked up and towards Stiles.

Stiles had stopped and turned around. “What’d you say?” Stiles asked, his voice breaking a little.

The sheriff lifted his head from his arm, and reached for the bottle left on the table.

Stiles walked over quickly and stopped his father from pouring anything into the glass. They put the bottle back on the table.

The sheriff smiled a bit. “Thanks.”

Spencer looked to Stiles again, a tear rolling down her cheek. She gestured for him to help her. “C’mon, Pops, let’s get you upstairs.” Spencer said, pushing herself out of her chair and helping the sheriff up. Once the two of them managed to get the older man upstairs into his room, they settled into Stiles’ room, each taking a spot at the foot of the bed.

“So I’ve been meaning to ask you.” Stiles said after a couple minutes of silence.

Spencer looked to him, waiting for him to continue.

“Are we… I mean, will you go to the formal with me?”

Spencer sighed. “Stiles, we have some stuff that we need to talk about.”

“Is this about Derek being alive? Do you still have feelings for him?”

“It’s not that.” Spencer said quickly, not believing if she actually meant it.

“Well, what is it? Is it because I didn’t tell you?”

“No. I-I don’t think so. I’m just - I’m freaking out right now. Derek’s alive. Yes, you kept that from me and for good reasons, but for reason, it’s still got me a little peeved. Then we found out Peter is no longer catatonic and he’s been the one killing people. And, of course, the icing on the cake, my father has remembered who the hell I am this entire time. He’s known and he’s pushed me away to help Peter. Brian has been one of the bad guys this whole freaking time and I was too blind to even notice it. I was living with a psycho crazy killer. My mother is living with him. I drove by the house today. That was fun. It was almost like he was taunting me.”

“Spence, we’ll figure it out. Don’t worry about your mom.”

“How can I not worry about her, Stiles?!” She whispered, standing from the bed. “I’ve got so much going on right now. I’ve got so much to worry about.”

“Are you saying that you don’t even want to date me?”

“No, I’m not. I’m just saying that my life is so freaking messed up right now. My dad is a freaking werewolf. You really don’t know what that’s like. He’s holding it over my head and it’s scaring me.” she cried.

Stiles’ phone went off in his pocket.

Spencer sighed frustratingly. “You’re joking.” she mocked.

“I’m sorry.” Stiles took the phone out of his pocket. “It’s Scott. I’m sorry. Just a minute and, I swear, we’ll talk.”

Spencer nodded, rolling her eyes, allowing Stiles to take the call. She began pacing the room, focusing on the sound of her footsteps on the floor so she wouldn’t listen in on the conversation with Scott. Her hearing had been extremely sensitive since Derek came back into the picture. Being connected with him was awfully hard on her. Spencer wasn’t with him, but it felt like she could sense him. Her feelings about him weren’t helping much either, as confusing as they were. The feelings she had about the werewolf only seemed to make the bond stronger.

Stiles hung up his phone and threw it lightly on his bed.

Spencer looked to him and noticed how scared and upset he looked. She sighed. “You have to go help Scott with something, huh?”

Stiles nodded to her question.

“What happened?”

Stiles began rushing around his room looking for the keys to the Jeep. “Apparently, Peter has taken out Scott’s mom.”

“And by ‘taken out’, you mean…”

“Like on a date. Only Peter freaking threatened Scott to join his pack by saying he’ll bite his mom.”

Spencer’s eyes widened. “Well, go!” Spencer insisted. “Get Melissa far away from that man.” Spencer looked down to her phone and searched for Derek’s number. “I just can’t believe that Derek would let this happen.” Spencer looked up briefly to see Stiles still standing in front of her. “Go, Stiles! I’ll see if I can reach Derek.”

Stiles looked at her and took quick steps towards her. “I’m sorry. I want to talk about what’s going on with you. I really do.”

“I know.” Spencer nodded, still going through her phone.

Stiles grabbed the phone from her hand, forcing her to look at him. “Spence, I - ” He stopped, thinking. “You know that I - You know you’re my best friend, right?”

Spencer bit her lip and nodded, glancing down.

Stiles leaned his forehead on hers. “I’ll be back soon. Okay, don’t go anyway. I’m expecting to find you, right here, when I’m back.”

Spencer nodded a little.

Stiles grabbed the side of her face and engulfed her lips into a kiss.

Spencer wasn’t sure how she felt about this kiss. Normally, her kisses with Stiles were sweet and sensitive. This one felt too forced. It worried her a little bit.

Finally, Stiles released Spencer, giving her back her phone, and rushed out of the room.
Spencer put her phone up to her ear after dialing the older werewolf’s phone number. She wasn’t sure if she actually expected him to answer the call or not. She had hoped, just to find out what the hell was going through his mind when he agreed to help his uncle. Spencer had hoped that Derek had nothing to do with convincing Peter to go after Scott’s mom. Derek knew exactly how much Melissa McCall had meant to her. As far as she knew, Derek wasn’t even upset with Spencer about anything. They were on good terms. Or as good as they could get knowing that Derek hid him actually being alive from her.

After a few rings, the call went to voicemail. She ended the call without leaving one and attempted calling again. This time, there were less rings; as if Derek had seen the call and sent it to voicemail. She tried a final time, this time one ring and the voicemail. Spencer decided to say something this time. “Derek! I don’t know what you’re doing, but I swear to God, if you hurt anyone in my family, I will not hesitate to hurt you. I don’t care how I feel about you or how you feel about me. But you are on the wrong side. Your psycho uncle just took my best friend’s mom out on a date, threatening to bite her if Scott didn’t join his pack. If it happens, you’re both as good as dead.” Spencer ended the voicemail and threw her phone on Stiles’ bed.

Spencer had no idea how she was making all of these threats. She had hardly ever actually thought about killing someone, and at this point, there were three people that had seriously bugged her just enough to consider it.

Spencer paced the room, breathing heavily, running her hands through her hair. She needed to calm down. This wasn’t good for her temper. She needed to control herself since Pops was in the next room. If something magical happened that woke him up, Spencer wasn’t sure how she would explain it without Stiles’ help. He always got them out of sticky situations with his quick thinking. Spencer was only able to make plans about how to keep out of trouble.

The phone rang from the bed five minutes later. She reached for it and answered it without looking at the caller ID. “Derek?” She questioned into the receiver.

“No, it’s Scott.”

“Scott!” Spencer breathed. “God! What the hell is going on? Is your mom okay?”

“My mom’s fine. We think we were able to get there just in time, although Stiles’ Jeep is not a little banged up.”

“Who cares? He’ll live. What happens now?”

“Well, now, I’m pretty sure that Derek has Jackson. I don’t know if they plan on killing him or changing him, but considering he’s with Derek…”

Spencer realized what was happening quickly. “Derek can’t change him. He’s not an alpha.” she walked quickly to Stiles’ closet and pulled out one of his sweatshirts. “Scott, his house. They’re going to his house. I’ll meet you there.”

“You’ll what?! Spencer, no! You c - ”

But before Scott could argue with Spencer more, she hung up the phone and stuffed it in her pocket before rushing out of the house and towards Derek’s house.

Spencer was running quickly. She wasn’t sure how, but she wasn’t going to question it. She needed to get to Derek’s house quickly before Derek did something he might regret later. Spencer liked to think that she knew Derek very well. While he wasn’t the most good-natured person in the world, Spencer knew Derek could feel a little remorse in killing Jackson for no reason.

When Spencer got to the house, the place was surrounded. She saw a blonde woman and a couple of other men shooting at the house. She nearly had a panic attack when she realized that Derek, Jackson, and Scott could all very well be in the house.

Maybe the barrier spell will work against the bullets. Spencer thought. She waved her hands in front of her a few times, thinking of the incantation. It had worked, but it was too late. She saw Scott come out of the house, clutching his side.

Scott had been shot.

Spencer quickly broke the barrier down around the house and focused it around Scott. She ran quickly through the trees to meet him. As she ran, she pulled out her phone and dialed a number. The other end had picked up when she found Scott collapsed on the ground. Spencer fell to her knees next to him. “I know you didn’t want to get too involved, but now would be a perfect time to out yourself.” she huffed into the phone, trying to catch her breath from the run, talk, and focus her spell on the two of them at the same time.

“Spencer?”

“Deaton… It’s Scott. He’s...been shot. We’re… We’re by Derek’s. Help.”