chapter fifty nine
a family nickname

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STILES. STILES, stiles, stiles. The word was all Odessa Stone could think about. It was a peculiar word, but one that rolled of the tip off her tongue so easily. Like her lips were meant to utter it. It felt right, something she hadn't been feeling in a while.

After the automatic writing session at the Animal Clinic, the four friends went their separate ways, except for Scott and Odessa because they lived together. Though when they got to their house, they went to their rooms and didn't try to talk to each other for the rest of the night. It wasn't because of anything other than the fact that they were too wrapped up in their own thoughts—thoughts that revolved around the word stiles and the person who was supposedly missing from their lives. Who knew if the two were connected in some way.

Silas had texted her that night asking to sleepover but she declined him shortly, telling him she wasn't feeling well, which wasn't a complete lie.

Odessa felt like utter shit.

On one hand, the blonde felt bad when it came to Silas and her relationship with him. Now she knew why it felt so wrong. Though she didn't feel the same for him anymore as she did before, she still felt bad for essentially leading him on with their relationship. She didn't know what to do in that department. The Stone almost felt dirty for being with someone while dreaming about another. She knew her best option for the time being was to simply try her best to avoid Silas.

On the other hand, Odessa felt like she was betraying something inside of her. Though it's a stretch, she felt like she was betraying the hazel eyed boy and their memories together in her dreams. She didn't know if the word stiles had anything to do with the hazel eyed boy in her dreams but she had a strong feeling it did. A strong feeling she couldn't exactly back up with any evidence.

It was hard to escape her dreams. Every time she closed her eyes she could feel them creeping into her mind—begging to be let free. But compared to her dreams of the Salvation, she welcomed the dreams with her hazel eyed boy without a fight...

"What do you think we'll be doing in 10 years?"

Odessa Stone looked up from the pages in the book she was reading at the boy who sat next to her on her bed, "where did that come from?"

The two were excited to start reading the new book they rented from the library a couple hours before. One of their new favorite things to do with each other was simply read together, it relaxed them, made everything better.

"I don't know," the boy flopped onto his back on her bed, the book now the last thing on his mind, "we're about to start our senior year. It just makes me wonder what our future will look like."

Odessa sighed to herself, he was always so worried about the future no matter how many times she tried to calm his fears, "lovie, you can't worry about what's gonna happen in 10 years. You shouldn't even be worrying about our senior year. We're gonna be fine."

"It's just a thought," he countered calmly, looking up at the ceiling in thought, "like, will we have an apartment or a house? A dog? A cat? Maybe even a goldfish or something, I don't know."

Internally, the Stone was happy to hear he wasn't thinking about the future with stress, but almost excitement. There was no stress in his thoughts or tone, just plain curiosity about what their future would look like together.

Odessa chuckled at his rambling, looking down at him, almost hovering over him to watch him think out loud, "a goldfish? What would we name them?"

"Hmm... Nemo."

"Very original, lovie. Nemo it is."

Odessa woke up with a start, breathing heavily as she slowly sat up in her bed. She looked at her alarm clock, seeing the numbers change from 7:55 to 7:56 AM. She got home from the Animal Clinic around 1 in the morning. Almost 7 hours of sleep. Progress.

She knew if she was going to find out more and more about her hazel eyed boy, she would have to give in and sleep. She wasn't going to push away her dreams. She wasn't going to push him away. Whoever he was.

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Odessa was immensely glad she wasn't the only one who could only focus on the word stiles since the night before. During their free periods, she got together with Lydia, Scott and Malia to see what they could find that had anything to do with Stiles or any background that came with the word.

So far, they hadn't found anything useful.

The Stone exhaled sharply, leaning her head on the palm of her hand from her seat next to Lydia in the library as she listened to Scott read something off of his laptop.

"Stile, an arrangement of steps that allows people, but not animals, to climb over a fence," Scott recited, his tone turning more confused as he read.

Lydia pursed her lips, silently already knowing the definition of the word herself, "yeah, somehow I don't think these are the stiles we're looking for."

"Maybe Malia's found something," the Alpha suggested, glancing at the two girls and stopping his eyes on the blonde in particular. He knew ever since her confession of loving 'Stiles' the night before was slowly starting to mess with her head. Scott just had to make sure to be there for her when the damage hits.

Shaking her head, Lydia didn't pay attention enough to see the lingering gaze on the girl next to her as she answered, "no. She's been taking a make-up test all morning."

Odessa bit her bottom lip at the reminder of her friend's location. The blonde had been listening to Malia rant to her all morning due to her nerves for the makeup Math test she had to do in Ms. Martin's office. Odessa gave her some calming energy and a quick pep talk before Malia left to take the test. She didn't know how it was going at the moment but she hoped it was going well.

She hoped too soon.

Suddenly, an echoed howl sounded around the school, causing everyone in the library to lift their heads from their work. The three supernatural sighed, packing up their things, knowing exactly what, or who, that was as the Banshee commented, "I guess the test isn't going well."

The three teens hurriedly made their way out the library and down the halls to the one place they knew Malia would be hiding in her coyote form. Coming toward the room, they were met with a frazzled Ms. Martin and Sheriff Stilinski waiting outside the doorway. They seemed hesitant to go in by themselves. In other words, they wanted the Alpha to lead the way. And he did.

Odessa stuck closely behind Scott as the group went into the room with caution, not wanting to scare Malia. The blonde knew she was usually the one to help Malia when she was starting to lose control, but she was already not in control. She knew Scott would be better at calming down an already transformed Malia better than she could.

"Malia. It's okay. You're safe," Scott started to assure the growling coyote in the corner of the room, who only snarled in response to his words, "I'm not gonna hurt you. I think she's calming down."

Though his words seemed promising, Malia's actions were contradicting as she continued to growl and bark at the group.

Sheriff Stilinski raised a brow, "maybe you should growl back," at his suggestion, Malia grew more restless, her barking causing almost everyone in the room to flinch in response, "Scott, you're the Alpha. Can't you just make her a little more docile?"

"She's not the problem. We are."

Odessa sighed heavily at Lydia's words, scolding herself for forgetting the basics when it came to coyotes, "she's right. This is her territory. We need to get out of here," once the group was out of Malia's sight but still in the room, Odessa started to explain, "Malia came here to get through the full Moons. I would always go with her to help. Then we started using the lake house."

Ms. Martin furrowed her brow at her daughter, who started to look a bit guilty, "I thought you said a wild animal got in the lake house."

"Just be happy about all the things I don't tell you."

Suddenly, Malia's growling turned into faint pants as she slowly trotted away from her hiding place in the corner to the center of the room, transforming back into her human form. Her bare human form. Everyone in the room instantly looked away as the Tate called out, "it's all right. I'm okay."

While Ms. Martin walked over to Malia to give her back the clothes she needed, Sheriff Stilinski kept the other three teens in conversation, keeping his voice low, "any idea what made her shift?"

"She's under a lot of pressure," Scott started to list with a shrug, "school, her life after graduation."

"Her mom trying to kill her," Odessa added before pausing, thinking out loud, "but that shouldn't make her shift."

Perking in his stance, Scott looked down at the blonde when an idea formed, "could it be connected to stiles?"

"Hard to tell since we don't know what a 'stiles' is," Lydia countered while the blonde next to her seemed to check out as soon as the S word was brought up. The Martin knew her friend thought no one noticed her behavior whenever the word was mentioned, but Lydia noticed.

"It's a 'he'," the three teens snapped their heads toward the Sheriff, who looked between them with confusion at the familiar word.

"Who?"

"Stiles. It's a family nickname. I never used it but, uh, my father did."

Seven hours of sleep. A family nickname.

Once again, progress.

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Odessa had never met Claudia Stilinski in her time in Beacon Hills, and with the amount of time she had spent with the Sheriff while fighting against the threats that had come through the town, the blonde thought she would see at least a glimpse of the Sheriff's wife. But she never had until that day.

Stiles wasn't just a word. It was a name. She was sure of it. It was an odd word to be considered a nickname, or even a name in general, but for some reason, to Odessa, it sounded right. Like something was finally starting to make sense. Stiles was starting to make sense. She just hoped the Stilinski's would be willing to have an open mind on the topic.

The Stone tagged along with Lydia and Scott at the Stilinski residence to learn more about Stiles and the history behind the nickname, wondering if anything they learned could help their investigation. Odessa watched Mrs. Stilinski walk back into the room with a rustic box, the woman handing it to her husband.

"He was an army engineer," Stilinski sighed, opening the box. He took something out to hand to the teens across from him, "ended the war one bridge at a time."

Scott looked down at the old picture he was handed closely, nodding, "and he went by 'Stiles'."

The teens glanced at each other as their theory seemed to be growing stronger as the Sheriff questioned, "so, what's this got to do with the Wild Hunt?"

"We think that somebody was taken from us," the McCall disclosed, not giving any other explanation because there was simply nothing else to explain.

"Any idea who?"

Odessa almost slumped in her seat on the couch, watching her fingers fidget on her lap as she listened to Scott try to reiterate, "uh, the Ghost Riders would have erased our memories."

"Well, now, that's convenient," Stilinski exhaled in almost sympathy, exchanging a quick glance with his wife.

"We found a clue," Lydia chimed in, gaining the attention of the room, "the word 'Stiles'."

Mrs. Stilinski nodded, starting to understand why they were in her home in the first place, "and that's why you wanna talk to Elias?"

"Yeah, maybe he can help us figure it out," Odessa broke her silence, her voice quiet with little optimism. Something told her the two adults didn't think this was a good plan, "maybe he knows who we're looking for."

"Now this is someone your age?"

Scott almost faltered in his seat at the thought of someone missing from his life, someone important, "yeah. I... I think he was my friend. Maybe he was my best friend."

Maybe he was her hazel eyed boy...

"I can guarantee you, my father can't help you," Stilinski denied, standing up from the couch to take the picture back from Scott and place it in the box.

The Ember Wolf narrowed her eyes at his vague reason, "couldn't we try?"

"Odessa," the man sighed, seemingly not wanting to get into it, "he lives in a nursing home three towns over. Hasn't had a visitor in years."

Sighing in defeat, the blonde exchanged a glance with Scott, who barred the same expression she did. They were starting to lose hope. As Lydia got up to use the restroom, rather quickly Odessa observed, the two werewolves didn't want to give up that easily. The two teens and the Sheriff went back and forth on the matter, everyone now out of their seats with Lydia coming back from the hallway, staying in the doorway to watch.

"You're not hearing me," Stilinski exclaimed, trying not to lose his temper on the teens, "trust me, you don't want to talk to him."

"We just need a few minutes."

"Scott, my father can't help you."

"Just a few questions. Five minutes."

"You know, what," Odessa almost jumped in her spot when Stilinski's voice started to raise. He rarely ever yelled in her presence and it was something she wasn't used to. She didn't want to get used to it either, "you don't just 'talk' to this guy. Okay? Just find another way."

Almost cautiously, her tone more level and calmer than Scott's, Odessa tried one last time to reason with him, "but, what if this is the only way? Sheriff, please—"

"Odessa," Mrs. Stilinski intervened softly from her seat on the couch as her husband sighed, "you have your answer."

The Sheriff looked between the three teens, though feeling bad for them, his decision never wavered, "the answer's no."

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What do the members of the McCall pack do when they're told not to do something? They do it anyway. A prime example of that is Odessa, Scott, Lydia and Malia breaking into the nursing home where Elias Stilinski resided in. They would deal with the repercussions later. The lead on Stiles and the meaning of the word was too great to simply throw away and ignore.

Personally, Odessa couldn't care less that she was technically committing a crime by breaking into the nursing home. If the Sheriff wasn't willing to at least cooperate or help them, they had to do something. This was just their solution.

After Malia, ever so gracefully, knocked out the nurse at the front desk and locked him into a supply closet, the teens were in the clear to walk through the building to find Elias Stilinski. Posing as visitors, the teens were able to ask someone where the man would be and was pointed in the right direction.

Walking into the room, which looked like a living area instead of a private room of his own, the teens walked toward the man in the chair, who turned around when hearing the footsteps from behind him coming closer.

"Yes," the man called, not expecting four teenagers to be in front of him, "oh. Is it time for my medicine?"

"We don't have your medicine," Malia countered harshly, earning her a warning glare from Odessa. The blonde knew her friend's patience and control were limited to pretty much zero but she hoped she could contain herself during their visit.

"Oh..."

Lydia took a step forward, getting straight to the point, "are you Elias Stilinski?"

Soft old jazz music played in the background of the room as the man looked toward them in confusion, "I am."

The strawberry blonde sent her friends a quick subtle smile before walking toward him, "I'm Lydia Martin. Do you know who I am?"

"Should I?"

"Hey, Mr. Stilinski," Scott stepped up to the same level as Lydia while the other two girls stayed back, "we're looking for somebody who might be named Stiles. You went by that name in the Army, right?"

Mr. Stilinski nodded simply, "yes. Best years of my life."

Malia once again raised her voice, "do you know any of us," and that, once again, earned her a glare from Odessa.

"Of course I do," the older man looked up at Scott, who's face showed hope and excitement, "how could I forget my own son?"

The Alpha faltered, thinking he heard wrong, "your son?"

Exchanging a panicked glance with the boy, Lydia took over, "Mr. Stilinski. What year is it?"

"1976. It's my son's birthday next week."

As the teens all looked at each other at a loss, the Martin explained, regret clear in her tone, "he has dementia."

"Is it time for my medicine?"

Okay, that posed a slight problem. Until the Sun went down, the four teens stayed with Elias to try and get him to remember anything. Odessa knew next to nothing about dementia so she had no idea on how to help. The main thing they had been working on with the man was names. Simple as that.

"Scott McCall," Elias raised an unbelieving brow at the boy, who nodded his head enthusiastically, "no, no, no, no, no, no. You're my son."

"Keep it down, old guy. You'll wake the other old people," Malia hissed from her lookout spot by the window. Looking down at his dinner, the Tate grabbed a few peas and ate them carelessly, earning her incredulous looks from her friends.

"I don't like her."

Lydia nodded slightly at the comment she received before taking a seat next to the man, speaking clearly so he could hear her without a problem, "your son. He's the Sheriff of Beacon Hills."

"Sheriff," Elias repeated in confusion, stammering out, "no, no, no, no, no. No, no. I was in the Army."

Knowing they were running out of options, Malia suggested the only thing she could think of, "use your claws, Scott."

"It could kill him."

"I get that, but we're running out of time."

"I can't."

Through their back and forth, Odessa chimed in, a hardness to her tone, "it's not happening, Malia. We can find another way," despite her words, the Tate extended her claws with a growl, causing the blonde to step forward to grab her wrist, hissing out, "hey! We're not hurting him. Settle down."

Without anyone's knowledge, including Malia's, that one simple command called Malia's heart rate instantly. Odessa didn't know at the time, but she had used her manipulation powers with ease. Something she had never done before.

"Young lady, you need to clip those nails."

Though the air was tense, Odessa couldn't help but let out a small snort. Maybe old people were funny when they wanted to be. After another hour or so went by and no progress had been made. And Elias was only getting more agitated with their presence.

"You shouldn't be here," he scolded, pointing at each teen, his voice growing louder than before, "if you don't leave, I'll have to report you."

Scott blanched at the outburst, "uh... What's wrong with him?"

"The Sun went down. He's sundowning," Lydia explained as Elias started to grow restless in his seat, muttering incoherently to himself. Seeing the confused features she received, she reiterated, "it's when dementia patients lose their facilities after the Sun goes down."

The man's breath started to become heavy with panic, "I don't want to talk to you anymore!"

"So what do we do," Odessa asked, eyeing the man carefully as he shuffled the papers on the table recklessly.

"We wait till the Sun comes back up."

Malia scoffed at Lydia's suggestion, "we can wait that long."

"There's gotta be something we could do to keep him quiet," Scott wondered before turning to the blonde girl in the room, "Odie? Can you try to calm him down?"

"Uh... I don't think he'll let me touch him," the Ember stammered nervously, not wanting to trigger any impulsive response from the man. She also didn't know she could've calmed him down without touching him, but that didn't seem to matter at the moment because Lydia already had a plan.

"Elias. Look at the equations," the strawberry blonde laid out the crinkled sheets of paper for the man to read clearly, "look. It's binomial probability. What's 'p'?"

"Um, probably of success?"

"Right. And that means N minus K is?"

"Uh, number of trials minus the number of successes."

With each question Lydia gave him, Elias slowly started to calm down without the help of Ember abilities. Odessa tried to ignore the hint of shame she felt in her chest. She wanted to help him but she didn't want to tamper with the situation even more, especially if it meant spiraling Elias even more.

Soon, everyone pitched in to help Elias solve the equations on the papers. In the heat of the excitement of finally getting somewhere with him, the teens failed to notice the change in demeanor Elias had adapted.

"Elias?"

After a moment to pause, the man stood straighter in his stance, "that's Mr. Stilinski," the teens froze in their spots at the change of his voice. It was more firm, confident, "just who the hell do you think you are?"

Slowly, the four dropped the papers on the table, knowing the moment for them to ask the questions they wanted to ask finally came.

"You know Scott isn't your son," Lydia's caring nature was now gone as she asked.

Elias scoffed harshly, "of course I know that. Are brains getting smaller with the skirts?"

Surprisingly, both Malia and Odessa let out reactions to the man's insult. He was now starting to piss both of them off. The blonde willed herself to stay calm, clenching her fists.

"Malia, Odie, it's okay," Scott nodded to them softly, earning the attention of Elias.

"So you're that McCall kid."

"You know me?"

Elias shrugged, the words flying out of his mouth without reason or any probable cause, "I know your dad. Couldn't hold his liquor and he certainly couldn't keep that wedding ring on his finger. Pretty young thing walks by and poof, that ring just disappeared like magic."

Against her own wishes, Odessa felt her claws sprout, causing them to stab into her palm. Those words were an indirect insult to Melissa and it was painfully obvious Scott was hurt by them. If there was anything anyone knew about Odessa, it was that she would always protect Melissa and Scott no matter what. They were family.

Keeping her cool, Lydia asked with a sort of nonchalant, "do you know all of us?"

"Oh," Elias bummed while pointing at the girl, "you're Natalie Martin's girl. Am I right? You look like her. She was pretty once, too."

Malia let her eyes glow with rage, "stop talking."

Both Scott and Odessa perked in their seats at what they saw, "Malia..."

"And she also liked to talk like she was the smartest person in the room," Elias ignored the threat like it was nothing. And to him, maybe it was, seeing as he was a literal war veteran.

Having enough, Malia growled as she released her claws, a moment away from pouncing on him as Scott called for her to stop. But it wasn't his voice that made her pause in her step.

"Enough," Sheriff Stilinski shouted as he ran into the room, a nurse with a bandage on his nose following quickly behind him, "I explicitly told you not to come here. And who attacked a staff member?"

"That's her," the nurse pointed to Malia, who let out a low growl, not caring if anyone who didn't know about the supernatural could hear it.

The Sheriff looked between each teen, who were all slowly starting to avoid his harsh glare in shame, "what the hell were you thinking?"

"Noah," Elias tried to wave off the situation, starting to walk around the group to have a clearer view of his son, "we were just having a nice conversation."

"The four of you. Out. Now."

The teens didn't hesitate to grab their belongings and leave the room, hurrying out of the building. If their steps had been the slightest bit slower, the ones with supernatural hearing would have heard Elias' parting words with his son that would soon change everything.

"Go crawl back to your dead wife and your loser son!"

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Liam threw a party. Liam threw a party at the McCall household. Liam threw a party at the McCall household without telling the residents of said household about anything. Liam left the McCall household a complete mess. Liam threw a party and Odessa's door was unlocked.

Odessa was utterly pissed off at Liam Dunbar. Beyond. Pissed.

After leaving the Sheriff Station with no criminal records and charges dropped, the teens separated for the night. It was only when Odessa and Scott got home did they discover the absolute mess that was left behind. Liam explained he moved a party to their house from a club to protect a girl named Gwen who saw the Ghost Riders. He thought using the McCall house was the smartest due to the Mountain barriers they could use around the house to keep the Riders out. It seemed their plan didn't succeed because apparently, everyone at the party caught a glimpse of the Ghost Riders, meaning everyone from that party was going to be taken at any given time.

But they couldn't worry about that now, they had to clean their house before Melissa got home. The two didn't even want to imagine her reaction to her house covered with red solo cups and glass everywhere.

Once downstairs was relatively clean, the two werewolves moved upstairs where Odessa insisted her room be cleaned first, to which Scott agreed to. Thankfully, the mess in her room was just a bunch of cups. No spillage, no drawers opened that were originally closed. No one went into her bathroom. Odessa was relieved her personal space wasn't invaded too much.

Once the two started in Scott's room, big black trash bags in hand, they were interrupted by a knock on Scott's door. The teens stopped their work and were surprised at who they saw.

"Looks like a hell of a party."

Scott and Odessa chuckled at Stilinski's comment as the former shrugged, chuckling nervously, "yeah. Uh... hopefully we can get it all cleaned before mom comes home."

The Sheriff nodded with a tight lipped smile, stepping further into the room, "I'll help," he started picking up cups on the floor with a small grunt, dropping them in Odessa's trash bag she held out for him.

"Hey, Sheriff," Scott called, causing the man to turn around to face him. The Alpha exchanged a quick glance with an equally guilty looking Odessa before expressing, "we're really sorry. We never should have gone there to see your father."

"No, no, it's... it's okay. I should've been more clearer about who he is. And maybe a part of me just didn't want to have to, um, admit it," sighing, Stilinski stretched his shirt collar to display a deep scar across his left shoulder, "this is my dad, guys. He pushed me through a glass table going after my mom. There's still tiny pieces of glass in there. The doctor told my mother that they'd probably be in there for the rest of my life, workin' their way out. Small price to pay to keep him away from her. That time."

Odessa felt a tear drop down her cheek and onto her knit sweater at his story. She had no idea of the violence he had been through growing up, and it only made her admire Stilinski more to see him persevere through it and become as successful as he was today.

Stilinski exhaled sharply as he took a seat on the bench in front of Scott's bed, "you know, something you guys said has just been bugging me all day. Somethin' about memories."

"What do you mean," Scott asked while Odessa only listened intently from next to him.

"Have you ever had a dream that's, that's so real that you thought it was a memory," Odessa wanted nothing more than to blurt out yes! Yes, I have! I've been dreaming about the same hazel eyed boy for almost a week and I think I was in love with him but I don't remember him! But let Stilinski share his story, knowing he needed to vent it out, "okay, in this dream, I'm lying in bed with Claudia. It's a couple of weeks before we graduate from college and we're talking about the future and kids and what we'll call them. And I tell her that if we have a son, I want to name him after her father. And she laughs at me and she says, 'why would you want to saddle some poor kid with a name like that?' And I told her, 'because he's a great father, kind of father I wish I had, the kind I... I hoped to be.' At that point in the dream she smiles, kisses me, and says, 'okay, we'll name him that, but it won't matter. He'll just be named Stiles anyway.'"

Feeling her heart stop for a moment, Odessa grabbed Scott's arm for support, her entire body going into shock. This was what they needed. This was what they needed to hear. She could almost hear it echoing in her head so perfectly.

Stiles. Stiles Stilinski.

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wait cuz i actually like this chapter??
and no, odie doesn't remember him yet, she just put two & two together after hearing stilinski's story :) sorry this took me (what felt like) a year to write,, school started back up for me :/ comment & vote babes! ily <3