Come What May

xxStilesxx

“Okay so my Dad, Carl, and a few other deputies are here already talking to the principal. He said they’re going to get them to make an announcement about Hailey and that they’ll randomly call people in for questioning. Us too so it doesn’t weird Lydia out,” Stiles said as he sat backwards in his chair, elbows resting on the table that Allison and Scott sat in for Physics.

“I was hoping that was the plan,” Allison said.

“Ixnay on the ydialay,” Scott said, looking towards the door. Stiles flailed in his seat as he turned around. He put his head in his right hand and peeked through his fingers, clearing his throat when Lydia walked in.

“Where’s Hailey?” Lydia asked, setting her purse on the table and sitting down leaving an empty spot between them.

“Not here,” Stiles muttered and Lydia pursed her lips.

“Obviously. Is she sick?”

“I think you know the answer to that,” he spat, rolling his head towards her and glaring.

“Excuse me?” she scoffed.

“Good morning,” the principal said, his voice booming through the PA system. “As most of you may have noticed, a few members of the Sheriff’s department are here today. Last night, Hailey Miner was kidnapped from Beacon Coffee and Tea around 10 o’clock.”

“What?” Lydia gasped, turning to Stiles. Stiles just stared her down, watching for any ticks.

“Throughout the day they will be calling a few people to my office to ask some questions. If any of you were customers at the coffee shop last night and think you might have seen something suspicious, please come down. Any information will be helpful. Thank you.”

The classroom all of a sudden erupted in chatter. Stiles stayed quiet and kept his eyes on Lydia. She sat with her mouth slightly open and had a tear sliding down her cheek. Stiles rolled his eyes and shifted in his seat as the class quieted down.

****

“Stiles when is your Dad going to call Lydia to the office?” Danny asked at lunch. “Allison and I have already gone down.”

“Hopefully soon,” Stiles said as the bell rang for their next class. He gathered up his lunch trash and dumped it in the can as they walked out of the cafeteria.

“So where do you think Lydia was during lunch?” Scott asked, looking around.

“I have no idea. I hope she’s still here though,” Allison said as they walked into class and took their seats.

“Oh she is,” Stiles said, nodding towards the door as a teary eyed Lydia walked in, wiping at her eyes. Just as class was about to start, Carl walked into the room.

“Uh, sorry to interrupt but uh, the Sheriff would like to see Lydia Martin and Stiles,” Carl said, pointing to the two of them.

“Stiles, Lydia, take your things,” their teacher said as they stood.

“I’ll text you,” Stiles whispered to Scott as he shoved his books into his backpack.

“Nothing to worry about. The Sheriff just wants to ask you both a few questions. And so there’s no bias, a deputy will be in there as well,” Carl said.

“Anything to help,” Lydia said.

“Stiles, stay here,” Carl said, pointing to the row of chairs in the hallway. “Lydia, follow me.”

Stiles sat in his chair and looked over his shoulder to look through the window but the blinds were closed. He huffed and turned back around, slouching in his seat. Carl walked back out of the office, closing the door behind him. Stiles looked up and Carl motioned to the window.

“What?” Stiles asked in a hushed tone.

“We took one of the panes out,” Carl said so quietly that Stiles had to strain to hear him. Stiles’ eyes widened and he had to bite his lip to refrain from making a sound. He nodded at Carl and turned in his chair, leaning his head towards the window, closing his eyes and concentrating.

“So, Lydia,” he heard his father say. “I spoke with Allison Argent earlier. She said that you and Hailey slept over at her house on Saturday night. Is that correct?”

“Yes,” Lydia answered.

“Would you say the three of you are close friends?”

“Allison and I used to be best friends.”

“Used to?” he asked.

“Before everything happened with Jackson,” she said and it was silent for a moment. Stiles could just picture his father giving Lydia a sympathetic look, feeling guilty that he was a part of it.

“And Hailey?”

“I approached her a few weeks ago to form a truce… of sorts. We came to an understanding and started building a friendship.”

“That’s incredibly mature of both of you. Considering,” the Sheriff said.

“A girl needs to have some friends to get by. Might as well start with someone whose life you tried to… end.”

“Was Hailey trying to help you rekindle your friendship with Allison?”

“Yes,” Lydia said.

“Did the evening go well? Did you… notice anything strange, maybe, outside the house?”

“No. Everything seemed normal.”

“Did Hailey ever feel like someone may have been after her? Someone who would have reason to kidnap her?”

“Not that I know of,” Lydia answered. Stiles jumped in his seat when he heard someone knock on the door to the principal’s office and turned to see Carl.

“Come in,” his father called and the door opened.

“It’s been ten minutes,” Carl said.

“Ten minutes?” Lydia asked.

“Your principal told us we could only interview anyone if we kept it to ten minutes or less,” Stiles heard his father say. “But I’d like to keep talking with you. Would you mind missing some school and coming down to the station with me?”

“Of course not,” Lydia said and Stiles thrust his fist in the air. He grabbed his phone out of his pocket and furiously started texting.

It worked. She’s going to the station, he sent to Scott, Derek, and Isaac in a mass text.

I’ll let you know when she gets here. Then it will be safe to search the school and house, Derek responded.

“Stiles,” his father said, walking out of the office with Lydia in tow.

“Yeah,” Stiles said, turning to look up at him and sticking his phone in his pocket.

“Carl and I are going to take Lydia to the station for some more questions. Frank’s heading over with Lisa to take over so just wait here.”

“Got it,” Stiles said with a nod. His father hesitated before turning down the hallway, Lydia and Carl following. Stiles watched as they made their way to the end of the hallway and saw Carl signal to him as they turned the corner.

He jumped up from the chair and sprinted back to class. He had so much momentum when he reached the classroom that the door flew open when he twisted the knob and he skidded inside. The entire class turned to look at him and Scott let out a slight laugh before covering his mouth.

“Sorry,” Stiles squeaked, slowly closing the door behind him. “Uh Lydia had to leave so…”

“Thank you Stiles,” their teacher said, nodding before turning back to the chalkboard.

“Right,” Stiles nodded as he walked back to his desk.

“Smooth,” Scott whispered and Stiles rolled his eyes.

xxDerekxx

Derek sat parked in the back of the Sheriff’s station, impatiently waiting for the Sheriff to arrive with Lydia. Although he had stayed at the Miner’s house the night before he hadn’t been able to sleep. He just kept walking around Hailey’s room trying to figure out who could have taken her. He kept going over every little detail in his head trying to figure it out and was pulled out of his thoughts when he heard a car pulling in to the area.

“I hope you didn’t feel like too much of a prisoner,” he heard the Sheriff say and he straightened up in his seat.

“It was fine,” Lydia responded and he listened as they walked inside. He turned his head when he heard someone walking towards him. Carl waved and Derek stepped out of the car.

“Ready?” Carl asked and he nodded. He pulled out his phone as he followed Carl inside.

Now! he sent to Isaac and Scott, shoving his phone into his jacket pocket as Carl led him to the room where they had taken Lydia’s things.

“Have at it,” Carl said, pointing towards it.

xxAaronxx

“Okay, let’s go in,” Isaac said, putting his phone in his pocket. Peter walked towards Lydia’s house, Aaron and Isaac following behind. They walked around the side of the house to the backyard. Peter walked up to the back door, extended his claws, and slid one into the keyhole, unlocking the door.

“Cool,” Aaron said as Peter pushed the door open for them.

“All right, to the bedroom,” Peter said, leading the way to the stairs. Isaac put his hands on Aaron’s shoulders and gave them a firm squeeze before following him.

“Look everywhere you possibly can. Have you ever hid something from your parents in your room?” Isaac asked Aaron.

“Candy,” Aaron answered, nodding his head and Isaac laughed.

“Look anywhere in Lydia’s room that’s similar to where you’d hide candy in your room.”

“And anywhere that Isaac and I can’t fit,” Peter said.

“Okay,” Aaron said.

Aaron took a deep breath before walking into Lydia’s room. He went straight for the bed, pulling the pillows off and looking inside of the cases, squeezing the pillows to make sure nothing was inside of them. Isaac went over to the closet and started looking on the shelves and Peter went over to her desk.

“She has a lot of clothes,” Isaac muttered, pushing aside hanger-by-hanger and checking the pockets.

“And shoes,” Aaron said, pulling two different shoes out from under the bed.

“Hey, make sure you put everything back where you found it,” Peter said and Aaron’s eyes widened as he looked at the bed realizing he left the pillows all over. “It’s better to clean up as you go. That way she won’t suspect anything.”

“Sorry,” Aaron mumbled and Peter waved it off.

“Remember, Lydia’s a clever girl. She might have created a hiding space on her own, check everything. Even if it seems silly.”

Isaac parted all of the clothes hanging up and stepped forward, running his hands along the back wall of the closet. Peter was checking the drawers for fake bottoms. Aaron stood at the foot of the bed with his eyes squinted. He knew there were other places to check but there was something about the bed.

“I wonder,” he said, kneeling on the floor and pulling bags and shoes out from underneath.

“What are you onto?” Peter asked and Aaron shushed him causing him to laugh. “Sorry.”

Aaron continued pulling things out until there was enough room for him to go underneath. He heard silence as Isaac stopped what he was doing and knew they were both watching him, waiting. He lay on the floor on his back and grabbed onto the bottom edge of the bed, pulling himself under. Squinting he looked at the bottom of the mattress, running his fingers along the fabric.

“Can you lift the mattress up please?” he asked and Peter and Isaac moved to opposite sides of the bed, lifting the mattress with ease. “Not so high! Just enough to get it off of the boards.”

“Is that better?” Isaac asked as they lowered it.

“Yes, thanks,” Aaron said. He put his arm through two of the boards and felt along the mattress, grunting as he reached higher up than was comfortable. Suddenly he felt his finger dip into a slit in the mattress. “I found something!”

“What is it?” Peter asked.

“I can’t reach it. You need to flip the mattress over,” he said, pushing himself out from under the bed. When he stood up Peter and Isaac already had the mattress flipped.

“What did you find?” Isaac asked as Aaron crawled onto the mattress and ran his hands over it again.

“There,” he said, sliding his fingers into the cut. He patted the mattress around the area until he felt something hard. Peter pulled Aaron’s hand away before extending his claws again and tearing at the material until the cover of the notebook was exposed.

“Genius, Aaron,” Isaac said excitedly, picking the notebook up.

“Check it and make sure this one actually has writing in it,” Aaron said and Isaac nodded as he flipped through the pages.

“It does. Wow,” he said, his eyes widening.

“What does it say?” Peter asked.

“She wrote down when your parents work and where, what kind of cars they drive, when Hailey works… she even has your friends names and addresses for when you go to their houses,” Isaac said, looking down at Aaron.

“What else?” Aaron asked.

“Here are some things she wrote down after talking to Hailey,” Isaac said, skimming the page. “She knew that the backroom of the coffee shop has bad cell reception. Remember how Hailey tried to call Derek last night?”

“We have to go,” Peter said, picking Aaron up off the mattress and flipping it back over. “Put everything back where you found it, I’ll call Derek.”

xxDerekxx

“Anything?” Carl asked as Derek continued to pull items out of Lydia’s purse.

“It’s like Mary Poppins over here,” Derek grunted and Carl laughed. Derek paused as his phone rang. “Hello?”

“We’ve got it,” Peter said and Derek sighed in relief.

“And?”

“She did it. She had to have done it. We didn’t look through the whole thing yet but all the signs point to it,” he said and Derek turned to Carl.

“Bring Aaron home and wait for us there. The others will be getting out of school soon.”

“What about Lydia? She’ll know it’s us when she notices it’s gone.”

“I don’t know yet. We’ll figure that out when it comes to it I guess. Let Scott know,” he said, hanging up.

“They’ve got it, I assume?” Carl asked and Derek nodded.

“I need to speak to the Sheriff,” he said.

“Wait here,” Carl said, turning to leave the room. Derek turned back to Lydia’s purse and began putting everything back. He turned when he heard the Sheriff approaching.

“Did you find it?” he asked, walking into the room.

“Peter, Isaac, and Aaron did at her house. We’re meeting at the Miner’s house to look it over. Peter said they glanced at it and all signs point to Lydia.”

“So we have her, but we have to let her go,” Sheriff Stilinski said, shaking his head.

“Right,” Derek said.

“Okay. Well you get out of here, I still have a few more questions to finish up with her before I bring her back to the school.”

“Thank you, for doing this,” Derek said sincerely as the Sheriff nodded. Derek walked out of the building and headed quickly to his car, climbing in it and peeling away.

****

“Where was it?” Stiles asked, running into the house and skidding into the living room.

“They’re upstairs, Stiles,” Alyssa said from where she sat on the couch. Stiles groaned and he followed Scott, Allison, and Danny upstairs.

“Where was it?” Stiles asked with the same enthusiasm he had before.

“Inside her mattress,” Isaac said. Derek sat on Hailey’s bed, slowly flipping through the notebook reading each page carefully.

“Aaron found it,” Peter said.

“Way to go,” Stiles said, giving Aaron a high five.

“What does it say?” Allison asked quietly, looking at Derek. He held up a finger as he turned another page.

“She has… everything in here,” Derek said in awe.

“Define everything,” Stiles said.

“Everyone’s phone numbers and addresses. “Where Jason, Hailey, and Alyssa work and between what times; Aaron’s and Hailey’s friends names and addresses; the ash line around the house; what nights I’ve stayed here; the fact that Hailey wouldn’t get cell phone reception in the back of the coffee shop… and… then on the inside front cover there’s a phone number.”

“Whose is it?” Allison asked.

“I don’t know,” he said, shaking his head. “There’s no name.”

“Should we call it?” Danny asked.

“I vote yes,” Stiles said, raising his hand.

“Agreed,” Peter said.

“Put it on speaker,” Aaron said as Derek pulled out his phone and slowly pushed each number. Everyone held their breath as they listened to it ring. After three rings, someone answered.

“Hello?” came the voice of what sounded like a little old lady. Derek looked up with furrowed eyebrows unsure of what to say.

“Uh, hi,” Allison said, walking closer to Derek and taking the phone from him.

“Can I help you?” the woman asked and Allison bit her lip.

“Um I uh, this is going to sound… strange but… do you know a Lydia Martin?” Allison asked and it was silent for a moment.

“No… I don’t believe so.”

“Okay um… sorry to bother you,” Allison said, hanging the phone up and tossing it on the bed. “Okay, I’m confused.”

“I think we all are,” Stiles said, sticking the string of his hoodie in his mouth and chewing on it.

“Why would Lydia have some old ladies phone number in her notebook?” Aaron asked and Derek shook his head.

“I don’t know. It doesn’t make sense,” he said, squeezing his hands together with his elbows resting on his knees. “Stiles, was your Dad able to figure out what kind of car those tire tracks went to?”

“I don’t know I haven’t heard anything. But I’d assume they would have it by now,” he answered.

“Find out and let me know,” Derek said, standing up. “Can you let me out of here?”

“Sure,” Stiles said, standing up and following Derek downstairs. “Where are you going to go?”

“To find Lydia and keep an eye on her. She has to know by now that it’s gone,” he said, walking to his car as Stiles re-connected the line.

xxHaileyxx

Hailey groaned as her eyes fluttered open. Her head was throbbing and for some reason her ankles were aching. She was pleased to find, however, that this time her mouth wasn’t taped shut and her wrists weren’t bound together. As the room came to focus she realized she was lying on a bed, if you could call it that, in a dark, smelly basement. Slowly she sat up and swung her legs over, wincing as she felt a pull and realized there was a chain connecting her ankles to the bed.

“Fuck,” she groaned, looking around for a light source nearby.

“Ah you’re awake,” a woman’s voice said causing Hailey to jump and her heart to race.

“Where are you?” she asked, her voice shaking. Slowly a figure appeared, moving closer to her from across the room.

The room became bright when she reached up to pull a string, turning a light on. Hailey raised a hand to shield her eyes from the sudden change and squinted to get a better look at this woman. Her eyes widened when she saw it was a harmless looking old lady.

“Better dear?” she asked with a grin and Hailey shivered.

“What do you want with me?”

“Now, now, none of that,” the woman said, wagging a finger and Hailey pursed her lips.

“How long was I out?”

“Oh it’s been a full day now. You’re probably hungry,” she said and Hailey shook her head.

“I don’t want anything from you,” she said through her teeth.

“Sooner or later you won’t be thinking that,” the woman said. “Now make yourself at home. You won’t be seeing yours anytime soon.”

“Who are you?” Hailey asked loudly, her voice echoing across the basement.

“You tell me,” the woman said, stepping into the light even more.

Hailey’s eyes widened as she saw the woman’s shape begin to morph, her skin bubbling. She grew taller, her shoulder’s broadening and hair receding. Hailey pulled her legs back up onto the bed and moved towards the wall as she watched in horror as the woman began to take on masculine features. Tears started to spill over as Hailey began to recognize the person in front of her. Shaking her head in denial she pulled her knees to her chest and tried not to scream.

“Gerard,” she whispered and he began to laugh, sliding a tray with a small loaf of bread and a glass of water over to Hailey with his foot.

“Don’t worry child. The fun is only just beginning,” he said as he backed away, pulling the string and thrusting Hailey into total darkness again. Hailey heard him climb some stairs and a door close. She sobbed as she heard footsteps creak over her head, causing dirt and dust to fall onto her head from the ceiling above.

“Come on Derek. Find me,” she whispered as she hugged her knees tighter to her chest, her sobs causing her to rock her body back and forth against the grimy wall.