▌𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐍𝐢𝐧𝐞 ━︎━︎ 𝐄𝐢𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐇𝐨𝐮𝐬𝐞 ▌

━︎━︎━︎━︎𝐄𝐋𝐀𝐈𝐍𝐄 𝐒𝐀𝐓 𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐑𝐄 with her arms crossed over her chest, a small frown prominent on her face. It hadn't taken long for Noah to arrive along with other members from the Sheriff's department as well as Rafael. Of course he would show up the one time she didn't want him to be there. Anger settled in her chest. Why hadn't he been at Scott's game like he had promised? Her jaw clenched and her hands balled into fists, eyes closing as she listened as Coach kept the rest of the lacrosse players from coming into the locker room.

     Scott stood their in front of the father, having been trying to convince the man for the past ten minutes that they were both okay. Of course, Rafael didn't believe him. "Dad, really, I'm okay." He pointed a quick hand to Elaine. "We're both okay."

     "I should've been here." Rafael stammered making Elaine roll her eyes. "And I said I would be at the games."

     Scott shrugged his shoulders. "Well, I mean this was just a pre-season scrimmage. I didn't even tell you about it."

     "But I promised your mom I'd be around so she could pick up some double shifts at the hospital. I should've been here."

God, where was Stiles when you needed him?

     "You're here now." Scott replied earning a loud scoff from Elaine. They both glanced at her and Scott softly sighed. How was it that she had an even worse relationship with their father than he did? She could hold a grudge, that's how. She remembered every drunken encounter, she remembered when her brother had accidentally been pushed down the stairs. She remembered everything and Elaine would be damned if she forgave him for it. They were just kids and although Melissa managed to hide their fathers actions from Scott pretty well, Elaine had a tendency to be at the wrong place at the wrong time quite often, especially as a little kid.

     Everyone's attention turned when Parrish and Noah came walking out with Parrish holding Violet, their assassin, in handcuffs. They watched as the dark haired girl glanced at Jordan's name tag. "Parrish? As in Jordan Parrish?"

     "Deputy Parrish." He corrected her. As they walked by Elaine narrowed her eyes dangerously at Violet, coming to a stance beside her brother. They watched as Jordan kept leading her away as Noah stopped beside of them.

     "Sheriff, what is that? Is that the weapon?" Rafael asked, nodding towards the clear bag in Noah's hand that held the weapon Violet had used in an attempt to kill Elaine.

     "Yeah. It's a thermo-cut wire." Noah answered, twisting the bag around so that he could get a better view of the item. Rafael stared it for a moment before quickly turning on his heel and following after Parrish and Violet. Noah, Scott, and Elaine all exchanged a look with one another before Noah followed after him and when Elaine and Scott tried to do the same, they were stopped by Liam.

     Immediately, a frown pulled at Scott's lips. "Where's Kira?"

     "She took off." Liam told him. "Stiles told her about Lydia cracking the second part of the dead pool."

     "Her mom's on it."

     "Everyone's on it," Elaine whispered.

     Scott shook his head, looking at Liam. "You're not."

     "Not yet. There's still another third, right?"

     Scott didn't answer, instead his attention was focused elsewhere. Elaine and Liam followed his eyeline towards where Rafael stood talking to Violet. They tuned in. ". . . now, we've got a file at the Bureau on something similar. Used in over a dozen murders."

     "I don't know what you're talking about." Violet shrugged carelessly. "I just go to school here."

     "Maybe we should call your parents then." Rafael suggested. "Oh, no. . . that's right. You don't have any parents. That's why they call you The Orphans." Violet looked at him and for once a little bit of fear shown in her eyes. As Parrish pulled the girl away Rafael looked at Noah. "We need to find her boyfriend, Garrett." And then he went to walk away before he stopped and turned back towards the three, making his way over to Elaine who immediately stood up straighter. He stopped in front of her, placing a hand on her shoulder and looking her in the eyes. Elaine could've sworn she actually saw true worry dancing in his eyes. "Are you sure you're alright?"

     For some reason his concern shocked her system. She stared at him for a moment, biting back the surprise that wanted to take over her features before she swallowed thickly, crossing her arms over her chest. She nodded her head. "I'm alright." Rafael nodded, squeezing her shoulder slightly before walking away. Elaine watched him go with a frown on her face.

     Scott stared at his sister for a moment before reaching out and grabbing her hand, bringing her back to reality. She turned her head to look at him before giving his hand a gentle squeeze in return. When he was sure she was alright, he let go of her hand and turned to watch the hallways slowly clear. Scott looked at Noah and the two shared a silent nod before he looked at the other two. They waited until it grew dark. "Alright, I'm gonna break into his locker, you two keep an eye out." Liam and Elaine nodded before following Scott into the locker room.

As she and Liam stood there watching, she couldn't help but focus back on Rafael and his worry for her. Maybe she never paid enough attention, or simply didn't care enough to, but not once had she seen that man look at her with such worry and fear in his eyes. He was never there, he never cared, seeing him care like that was throwing her off. Elaine was pulled from her thoughts when the sound of radio could be heard further down the hall. Liam was quick to warn Scott, telling him to hurry.

     "Scotty, you find anything?" Elaine asked, turning her head to look at him.

     Scott stood in front of Garrett's locker, his eyes focused on the lacrosse bag that was filled to the brim with money. He knew he would tell Elaine later, she would figure it out anyways and he couldn't keep lying to her, but for Liam's sake all he said was, "No. Nothing."

☾ ⋆*･ﾟ:⋆*･ﾟ

━︎━︎━︎━︎𝐋𝐈𝐒𝐓𝐄𝐍𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐓𝐎 𝐇𝐄𝐑 mom talk on the phone about how she was three months behind made Elaine want to cry. She sat on her bed, book in her hand although she wasn't actually reading, she was too busy kicking herself for not picking up another job to help her mom pay the bills. Elaine stood up from her bed, opening up her window and making her way outside. She landed on the ground with a thud before she walked over to the power box. She softly sighed to herself, opening it up before muttering a soft spell and glancing through the back window, smiling when the power flickered back on. She closed the power box before jumping up and grabbing onto her window sill, pulling herself through and landing on the bed.

     Elaine closed the window before making her way into her brothers bedroom, watching as he stared at her with a knowing look. She shrugged her shoulders, silently telling him that this wasn't something that mom needed to know about to which Scott nodded in agreement. Elaine softly sighed. "Listen, I'm going to stay here with mom, feign illness. You go to school, okay? Keep me updated."

     "Okay," Scott nodded.

The two stood up and Scott made his way out of the house whilst Elaine went to head back to her room. She stopped, listening as Scott drove away before turning on her heel and making her way back into his room. She narrowed her eyes. Something was different. She knew she shouldn't be nosey, he deserved privacy, but she couldn't help but feel like something was bothering her brother and she had a feeling it was in his room. She searched for a few minutes before finding nothing. She huffed, placing her hands on her hips before her eyes slowly moved to his bed. She got down on her hands and knees, looking under his bed and quickly snatching the bag out from underneath the bed.

     Elaine opened the bag and her mouth fell agape. "Scott McCall you fucking liar." She pulled out her phone, letting it ring and when it went to voicemail she scoffed. "When you get home, you're dead, you hear me? Dead. How―︎" She stood up, running a hand through her hair in disbelief as she quieted her voice. "How could you not tell me you found the money? Call me back." She hung up the phone and scoffed, shaking her head as she pushed the bag back under the bed. "Unbelievable."

     Her phone began to ring and she picked it up without looking, thinking it was Scott. "Scott, I―︎"

     "Wrong one," Stiles said. "You wanna come with me and Lydia to Eichen house to talk to Meredith?"

     "When?" Elaine hummed.

     "Uh, in like an hour. I don't know. When it's dark."

     Elaine huffed. "Fine." She hung up the phone, glancing at the bed once more before making her way out of Scott's room.

As night fell and Elaine met up with Stiles and Lydia, she couldn't help how tense her entire body became. She had bad memories with this place because of what Stiles went through. She didn't understand how he was inside this place and not facing all the horrors that it brought him. Elaine was doing it for him she guessed. With each step her stomach churned, she thought she was going to be sick. Noticing her unease, Stiles instinctively held out his hand for her and Elaine didn't hesitate to grab it, interlacing their fingers and closing her eyes as she allowed his presence to bring her comfort.

     Just as the door was about to open, someone walked around the corner. Stiles threw his head back and groaned. "Oh no, not this guy."

     "What the hell are we running here?" He snapped, storming up to them. "A bed and breakfast?" He moved to stand beside the other worker, snatching the keys from him. "You do not just open the door for anyone with a badge."

     "We need to talk to Meredith Walker." Parrish spoke up. "It involves a murder investigation."

     "Well you can talk to her all you want, but these three, especially that one," He pointed at Stiles, "they're outta here."

     "They're crucial witnesses in an ongoing investigation." Parrish argued. "I wouldn't have brought them here if weren't absolutely. . . crucial."

     "Okay, Deputy." The man said, getting really close to Parrish. Elaine really did not like this guy. "How about you come back with a court order, then I'll listen." He moved away from Parrish and walked over to Stiles, Elaine squeezing his hand a little tighter, this time to keep herself from losing control and punching this man square in the nose. "As for you, Mr. Stilinski, how about you come back with payment in full. That's right. Daddy may be the Sherriff, but he's late on the bills. I guess those government jobs aren't as reliable as they used to be, huh?"

     Elaine opened her mouth to snap at the man, but Parrish spoke first. "But they do help when you need a favor. Like, how a month ago Canaan P.D. helped you get home after blowing 0.1 on a breathalyzer."

     Stiles eyebrows rose as amusement danced on his lips. "No. . ." He pressed his lips together in attempt to hide his smile.

     "Alright." The man nodded. "I'm not against a little quid pro quo. Not at all." He handed Stiles the keys as Stiles allowed a goofy smile onto his face. "Nothing at all." He walked away.

     Stiles turned towards Parrish. "You. You, I like you. I'm gonna keep you." Elaine smiled in amusement, not paying attention to the fact that they were still holding hands as Parrish took the keys and started to unlock the door.