Title: Dice in the Mirror
Series: The Prepared Mind #1
Fandom: Teen Wolf
Pairing: pre Stiles/Derek
Word Count: 1,771
Warnings: None
Summary: The showdown with Gerard Argent was a turning point for Stiles.
Authors Note: This is the first in a series of linked one-shots. Right now I have four planned. Let’s see what I end up with.
The showdown with Gerard Argent was a turning point for Stiles.
Scott had been Stiles’ best friend for years. They’d done everything together, shared their hopes and dreams, made plans for the future.
When Scott had become a werewolf, it was unthinkable that Stiles would be anywhere but by his side, helping him out. Things had changed, of course. They had to. But Stiles had faith that together, they could pull through.
He’d put Gerard’s offhand remarks about how Stiles’ injuries would be motivation for Scott not to betray him down to an attempt to sow dissension between them, had scorned Gerard for resorting to such an obvious, futile ploy.
At the warehouse he rushed to the rescue, putting his beloved jeep—which had belonged to his mother—on the line, only to discover that far from being part of Scott’s trusted inner circle, Stiles was no better than a disposable flunky.
Lydia and Jackson were having a whole ‘Beauty and the Beast’ reunion thing, Scott and Chris Argent were focused on comforting Allison—who was crying, but who otherwise didn’t look to be in bad shape.
Derek and Isaac were displaying some worrying body language. Stiles might not be an expert, but he’d spent a lot of time hanging out at the station, and he’d seen body language like that before.
Peter Hale—a surprisingly sane looking Peter Hale—gave him the rundown of the events prior to his arrival.
And Stiles…was done.
Done with being used as some kind of message to someone who hadn’t looked twice at him since he’d arrived. Done with turning a blind eye to bad behaviour because of an ‘ends justifies the means’ mentality that had grown progressively worse.
Scott didn’t need him, as he had just demonstrated.
Lydia didn’t need him, she just liked the ego boost that his constant devotion supplied.
Derek had repeatedly told him to get lost, to stay out of it, that it wasn’t his fight.
No one needed him. No one even really wanted him, so what the hell was he even doing here?
“Stiles?”
Derek was looking at him, brow creased in a scowl. Stiles scowled back. So what if Derek had a shitty day? Stiles’ day had been pretty shitty too, and on top of everything else, he now needed to find a way to explain the fresh damage on his jeep to his dad. He didn’t need to deal with Derek’s angst as well.
Stiles turned on his heel and got back into the driver’s seat.
Fuck this shit.
He went home.
v^v^v^v
Stiles had been hoping to have some time to work out what he was going to say, but that plan died a quiet death when he saw his dad at the door, watching him approach. Stiles pulled into the driveway beside the cruiser and cut the engine.
The world was starting to get that sharp, slightly off focus look it got when Stiles was building up to an anxiety attack.
There was no point in putting it off, so he got out and walked over.
Noah’s expression was blank. “What the hell, Stiles? You’ve been gone less than half an hour!”
Stiles opened his mouth, hoping something would come to him. Nothing did.
Noah shook his head, turning away. The disappointment was almost too much for Stiles to bear.
“I thought Scott needed my help,” Stiles said. His voice sounded funny. It was like he was hearing it from outside his body. The whole scene seemed unreal; like Stiles was watching it rather than living it. “Gerard was going to kill him, was going to…but Scott already had a plan. He didn’t need me, after all.” Not wanting to look at his dad’s face anymore, Stiles pushed past him, planning to go upstairs and lie down.
Noah stopped him with a hand to his shoulder. “What? Kill Scott? Who was going to kill Scott? Is he okay?”
Stiles laughed bitterly. “Don’t worry, Scott is fine. Turns out, Gerard wasn’t interested in beating him up. Guess he thought his ‘message’ would be enough. Which is funny, if you think about it.”
Noah was starting to look worried. “Gerard? Is he one of the kids on the other team?”
Stiles laughed again. Even to his own ears, it was starting to sound a little hysterical. “Gerard Argent, the school principal. Being beaten up by a geriatric isn’t nearly as impressive as being thrashed by a whole team, is it? Who would believe me? Even if you did, the Argents sell guns. Their whole house is an armoury, and the Hale fire is proof that Argents don’t care about collateral damage. They’d kill you and not miss a wink of sleep over it.”
Noah steered him into the lounge and onto the couch, pulling him into a hug. “Is this what you’ve been hiding? Gerard Argent…has he been threatening you? Is that why you didn’t want to tell me?”
“Gerard doesn’t bother with threats,” Stiles informed him. “Not for someone as inconsequential as me. I’m only good for reminding Scott what’s at stake. No, Chris Argent was the one who threatened me. I should probably count myself lucky that it wasn’t Allison. I have it on good authority that she goes straight for sharp and pointy—arrows for Erica and Boyd, daggers for Isaac. Chris just shoved me around a bit. Victoria never really bothered with me, thankfully. I don’t know if I would have survived her attention.” Now the floodgates had opened, Stiles couldn’t seem to stop talking.
Noah’s grip tightened. “Tell me everything. Start at the beginning.”
Stiles did. Starting from that night when he and Scott had gone looking for a dead body in the Preserve. He talked about how amazing it seemed at first, about the challenge of trying to help Scott deal with his new senses. About how quickly it had turned dangerous, about Derek, the Alpha, Deaton, about Kate Argent and Peter Hale. The actual events of the night of the dance, the horrific discovery that Kate Argent had been torturing Derek for a week. The words just tumbled out.
A couple of times, Noah tried to interject, but Stiles just talked over him. He was worried that if he stopped, he might not start again. He spoke of Gerard Argent coming to town, Derek building his pack, the revelation of the Kanima. The events of the pool. How Victoria had tried to kill Scott. It went on and on. He finished up with the events of the night, relating what Peter had told him about how Scott’s secret plan had played out. The stabbing, the forced bite, the revelation of the switched meds.
How Derek and Isaac had refused to meet anyone’s eyes and how Scott only had eyes for Allison.
Noah sighed gustily. “No wonder Derek Hale comes across as surly. What a god-awful mess.”
“You believe me?” Stiles’ voice wobbled slightly. “You don’t think I’m crazy?”
“I’ve been around this town long enough to know that there are things I don’t know,” Noah replied ruefully. “In retrospect, there are a lot of things that make sense if your story is true. Things from before you were born, things you don’t know about.” There was a moment of silence. “I wish you’d told me, kiddo. I could have helped.”
“You could have been killed,” Stiles responded tartly. “I wasn’t going to let anything happen to you, not if I could help it.”
“You could have been killed,” Noah pointed out. “How do you think I would have coped, Stiles? I had enough trouble dealing with your mother’s death. Your death would have been the end of me anyway.”
Stiles sniffed, wishing he had a handkerchief. He didn’t really have an answer for that one. Now that he’d spilt his guts, he felt a lot better. Like a great weight had been lifted from him that he didn’t even know he was carrying.
“What the hell are we going to do now?” Noah asked. “I’m not happy with how things have been. I’m really not happy with how banged up you are.”
“Me neither,” Stiles agreed. “But what was happening to Erica and Boyd was worse. Fucking Argents.”
Noah didn’t bother reprimanding him for his language. “How would you feel about going to stay with your mom’s cousin, in Boston?”
Stile blinked, then pulled out of the hug to look at his dad’s face. “You mean Danuta and Besi? I haven’t seen them in years. Not since mom died.”
Noah nodded. “It can’t hurt to ask, and while I’d miss having you around, I’d be glad to know that you weren’t caught up in the middle of this…werewolf thing.”
“Would they even want me?”
“Danuta is still listed in my will as custodial guardian in the event of my death,” Noah informed him. “She mentions you coming to stay every year when they send their Christmas card. Why don’t I give her a call and ask?”
“I don’t want to leave you here,” Stiles objected.
Noah raised his eyebrows. “Last I checked, I was still the father in this relationship. You’ve got another year of my tyrannical rule, kiddo.” He studied Stiles’ face. “I think we can agree that, despite the inherent dangers of my job, you’re the one that’s spent the last few months in life-threatening danger.” He sighed. “Nothing can be decided until I talk to Danuta, but if she agrees…”
Stiles stuck his lower lip out in an exaggerated pout. He wanted to argue, but his dad had a point. In all probability, it was Stiles’ involvement with the supernatural that would be putting his dad in danger. With him gone—and with Gerard Argent hopefully taken care of—then maybe things would settle down. Still, the supernatural wasn’t the only reason he was loath to leave Noah to his own devices.
“I know that look,” Noah commented. “You’ve come up with something I’m not going to like, haven’t you?”
Stiles pursed his lips. “Can you promise me that you’ll follow my dietary recommendations if I’m not here to enforce them? Cause if not, then you’ll have to drag me out of here kicking and screaming.”
Noah groaned. “Why can’t you let me have some joy in my life? I’m not going to keel over if I have an occasional pizza!”
Stiles stared him down.
Noah rolled his eyes. “Okay, fine. So long as you agree to stay with Danuta at least through the next school year.”
Stiles nodded, then extended his pinky. “Deal.”
He hoped like hell it was the right choice.
I like this. Stiles getting all that off his chest is fantastic. Not to mention daddio sending him away. Definitely should make for a better quality of life. I look forward to your other ‘squares’
Thank you
Great fic
I honestly adore your various TW fics.
I find the fact that canon!Stiles never seemed to have a problem with what Scott did at the end of S2 to be really incomprehensible.
It just seems wildly OOC that not only did he apparently forget all about Erica and Boyd being trapped in the Argent’s basement, and appear totally oblivious to both Scott’s betrayal of Derek and the implications of it; but he wasn’t even slightly bothered by the fact that Scott was working with Gerard. The fact that in canon he said nothing to Derek about his two captive betas and never even asked him how they were recovering – which would have alerted him right away to the fact that they were missing and in trouble rather than simply having defected – also makes no sense.
Then the fact that Allison’s actions were promptly swept under the rug and dismissed like they had never happened, by everyone? Scott is literally the only person who would be dumb and callous enough not to care.
(Personally, I think it’s telling that Allison and Aiden were the only pack members the Nogitsune was able to kill while possessing Stiles – Allison, who was a sociopath, and Aiden, who was one of the people that helped to kill Erica and Boyd and faced no repercussions for it thanks to Scott. I think that one of the reasons Stiles would have felt so guilty about it afterwards is that there might have been a small part of him that was grateful it was those two instead of anyone else.
Allison being a sociopath is something that another fic I read made a very good argument towards; Stiles explained it to Isaac in a way that made me unable to see her as anything else ever since I read it. Basically, it went:
“Your dad was a bit of a racist, wasn’t he? I remember that he was pretty prejudiced against the Mahialanis. And you were really upset and grief-striken when your brother Camden died, right?
“So say that when he died, your dad told you that Danny Mahialani killed him. Because he’s Polynesian, and they do that you know.
“And yes, I know that he was killed overseas, but let’s just pretend that you were *so* upset and desperate for someone to blame that you *believed* him; even though you knew he was a bigot and willing to blame the Mahialanis for everything bad that happens from bad weather to poor traffic conditions.
“So your Dad tells you that to get revenge, the two of you are going to capture and torture Danny’s little sisters. THAT will teach him not to mess with the Lehays.
“Oh, you wouldn’t? But remember; you’re *upset*, and you’re *grieving* – so *surely* it’s totally understandable and acceptable if you went a little bit nuts and shot, captured, and dragged a couple of innocent kids off to drop them in front of your dad for torture like some kind of messed-up present, right? After all, you’re being manipulated by your dad; it’s not really your fault. Nothing about your actions in that situation indicates that there’s something wrong with you mentally; not at *all*.
“No? But that’s *exactly* what Allison did with Derek, Boyd, and Erica under the influence of her grandfather; and *that* is why I say she’s a sociopath and I want nothing to do with her.”)
Derek still being desperate to get Scott into his pack like he hadn’t just helped his worst enemy to bite-rape him is just ridiculous.
So I can’t even tell you how much I love the way you actually address these glaring inconsistencies in many of your stories. Even when you don’t, you still always point out Scott’s many flaws, the way no one ever seems to acknowledge how self-centered, arrogant, and short-sighted most of his choices tend to be, and the lack of accountability he usually faces for his actions.
Your fics are always enjoyable and well-written; but it gives me a particularly visceral kind of satisfaction to read your TW fics.
Thank you! The end of S2 is a pivot for a lot of my ideas. That’s the point where the lack of consequences stops being something that can be explained away (barely) and just becomes ridiculous.
I hadn’t considered your point about Allison and Aiden, but then my knowledge of canon takes a steep dive immediately after Scott becomes the ‘True Alpha’, because that just…I have no words for my reaction to that. No. Just…no.
FYI, that bit where Stiles is explaining things to Isaac…looks remarkably similar to a conversation in my story Master Plan Fallout 🙂
Oh… now I feel kind of dumb. Quoting your own work at you… yeah. Not quoting exactly, because I was going off of memory there; but close enough.
I am now incredibly embarrassed by myself. >_<
It was seriously bugging me that I couldn't remember the name of the fic where I'd read that, or who wrote it; I usually like to mention credit for things like that if I'm telling someone about them. But I was in the middle of writing the comment on my tablet, and didn't want to open a new tab to look it up because that would refresh the internet on the tab I was using and mean I'd have to start all over again. I was basically being lazy; so apparently I needed a bit of humbling to remind me not to do that in the future.
My knowledge of subsequent events is also a bit sketchy, I'll admit – I cheated and read the episode summaries online since it was faster and let me know if I was missing anything worthwhile. (Spoiler: No, not really.)
The only watching I did after that was basically limited to viewing youtube clips of specific scenes that caught my interest.
There are a couple of elements of the remaining series that I really like – the Nogitsune, for example: it actually tortured Derek to convince Stiles to stop fighting it and let it possess him fully. When he knew full well it wanted the full, uninhibited use of his body to kill everyone, including his dad; when he was so determined to stop it that he tried to kill himself rather than risk letting it have him; it chose Derek as the one to kidnap and torture and threaten to kill unless Stiles handed over control *and Stiles agreed to save him at the possible expense of everyone else.* Between how loyal Derek was and how much he cared about saving Stiles, and Stiles basically choosing to put Derek over everyone… It just gives me a lot of Sterek feels.
I literally hate everything about Scott becoming an Alpha (and totally subscribe to the school of thought that it only happened because Deaton stole the Hale Alpha Spark and shoved it into his chosen patsy); but I really appreciate the character building certain elements of the Nogitsune Arc would have given some of the characters.
I think that between the Nogitsune using Stiles to kill a couple of his pack members (even if he had major reservations about them), having his body hijacked to bomb both the police station and the hospital, and having his own hands be the ones used to inflict bloody torture on basically everyone he cared about at one time or another, he and Derek would have had similar enough traumas to relate to one another and understand each other more than anyone else ever could by the end of it.
There are other things about it that I dislike – particularly the introduction of Braeden and Derek's very OOC relationship with her, along with the very dub-con situation between Stiles and Malia while they were both locked up in Eichen House – but overall I find a lot of elements of it are pretty good.
Other than that, there's pretty much just the whole situation with Theo Raeken and the Donovan incident in particular that I like simply for the way it highlights the sheer shittiness of Scott as an Alpha and as a friend. It offers an excellent opportunity for a wake-up call to Stiles that honestly *should* have made him decide to get away from the "One True Moron" asap.
Overall, though, I have to agree with you that the end of S2 is basically begging for a canon divergence. The lack of long-term consequences, along with Scott offering endless amnesty and second chances to monsters in order to avoid killing anyone personally – not to mention shaming and denouncing Stiles for killing Donovan in self-defence – just reaches a point where the suspension of disbelief is simply no longer plausible in any way.
There’s no need to be embarrassed, it was very flattering. It’s nice to discover my words have an impact on readers, and that the point I intended to make was received.
I agree with you that the Nogitsune arc has several high points and is good for character development (of some of the characters, anyway) but the problematic areas just turn me off from writing it. I’m happy to stay in my little box, which lasts until mid S3. I generally just pretend that all the stuff that happened after that doesn’t exist, nor the people introduced. No Malia, Kate is still dead, etc. I’m happy to read in later seasons, I just doubt I’ll be writing it any time soon.
Scott…part of what makes him so unlikeable is his hypocrisy. When he wanted to kill Peter with his own hands, that was fine and Derek was the bad guy for taking it away from him. That stunt that Scott and Deaton pulled with Gerard…there was no way that they could know for certain what the outcome of that would be. That was a gamble, and the fact that it didn’t kill Gerard outright came across as very contrived. Regardless, that plan set Gerard up for daily torture. That was not a moral victory. Gerard’s hands were stained red with the blood of innocents, he never pretended that he was reformed, they should have killed him. Put him down like the monster he was. Any deaths that he contributed to after that were also on the heads of those that let him go.
Sorry, I have a lot of feelings about that whole thing 🙂 Maybe one day I’ll write enough fic to reduce the salt level.
I love this idea of acctions having consequences and Stiles just having enough and saying no. Alison deserves prison and Boyd and Erica deserved people trying to free them. Scott deserves a 2*4 in the head.
I always enjoy your explorations of what should have happened post Master Plan. I’m really glad Stiles opened up to his dad here. <3 <3 <3
Sounds like Stiles has reached the end of his tether and getting away for a break will be good for him and maybe, if he is missed, people will remember how much he contributes.