☒ ☒ ☒ ☒ ☒ ☒ ☒ ☒ ☒ ☒ ☒ ☒

FORTY SEVEN;

THE CATALYST

Sheriff Stilinski stared at his son, watching as the boy picked around at his food all while his foot tapped on the ground at a fast-paced rhythm. It was, once again, another night that the two of them were sitting down in the office that belonged to the man himself, trying to figure out a way to create a conversation when there weren't any words that needed to be said. It had been a constant repeat of the situation where Stiles would come to the station without warning carrying dinner, place himself into the chair across from his father, and stay silent. It was up to Sheriff Stilinski to figure out the cause of his hyperactive son's silence, and wonder how he could help.

The older man pursed his lips, watching his son. "Stiles."

The teenage boy looked up at the sound of his name, his eyes slightly wide as he glanced around, unknown to the world around him. The contorted expression had become familiar in the past few weeks, something that he didn't know how to fix. There was obviously something wrong with his son, something that Stiles didn't know how to explain, and he was growing exhausted trying to help a cause when he didn't know what it was.

"Yeah?" Stiles asked, frowning at his dad before glancing down at the untouched salad of his father, knowing that he wasn't the most enthusiastic when it came to healthy food. He noticed the look that the man was giving him and his lips tugged even further down. "I'm fine. Just tired, that's all. I didn't get much sleep last night."

The sheriff, however, didn't believe him. "Have you talked to Sage lately?"

"Uh, no," the boy denied, his cell phone being tossed in his hands as he swallowed hard. "Scott and I have been trying to get a hold of her for the entire week, but she hasn't been picking up her phone. He wanted to go to her loft, but I figured it was best if we just gave her space. You know, after her old house burned down and Cora left."

"She's a strong girl," Sheriff admitted, watching as his son continued to play with his phone.

Stiles couldn't help but let out a small snort, running his hands through his hair as a nervous gesture, not excited with how the conversation led to the girl that had broke up with him a week ago. "Yeah, she is."

"Do you remember when you first met her?" Sheriff asked, crossing his arms over his chest to lean back in his chair, knowing that this wasn't ending any time soon. His son glanced up, eyebrows raising at the question all while he gave a small head shake. "It was when I was still a deputy, and your mother started going to the hospital for her treatments. You decided to come that time, and there was a little girl that was running through the hospital, and you wanted to find out who she was. Her father, Hal, had started calling out her name, and soon enough, I was calling out your's too. You went after her."

Stiles didn't seem to have a reaction, his eyes gazing off as his father told the story. Sheriff Stilinski realized that there was something missing in the teenage boy's eyes, that there was a light that had been dimmed ever since Stiles came home and told him that he was no longer dating Sage. There was something in Stiles that had been replaced with a bleeding wound, and Sheriff didn't know how he was going to be able to fix his son's first heartache. It had been Claudia's job, not his own. She was supposed to be the one to comfort him when his heart was broken.

"When I was a kid, I asked Mom what being in love meant," Stiles began, his broken stare on the wall behind his father never once leaving as tears nearly shed his eyes. "She told me that it was when you lose control of your heart, when it physically hurts to breathe without them, and I can remember thinking in my head how completely idiotic it sounded to love someone. I wondered how someone could be fine hurting so much just for one single person."

Sheriff watched as his son's hands tightened around each other, the boy beginning to lose grip of himself as he spoke of his mother and the girl that he fell in love with, words falling from his mouth to try and comfort his son. "So, you're not together right now. That doesn't mean you give up on her, Stiles. Do you know how many times your mother and I broke up when we first started dating? We would go months without even speaking to each other. But, when you really love someone, you find your way back to them."

"That's the problem," Stiles muttered, shaking his head as he leaned back in his chair, finally glancing at his father. "I don't know how we can find our way back to each other if we can barely find ourselves in all of this mess. Her ex-boyfriend is back in town, Dad. The first guy that she dated is back in town, and it doesn't help that he can have her all he wants now. I can't compete with a werewolf. One that used to be an alpha."

His father smiled at that, somewhat amused at his son's words. "You're worried about him?"

"I'm worried about her," Stiles corrected, reiterating the man's question. "I'm worried that she's going to get hurt by him, and I'm worried that I'm going to lose her completely. I get that she's not my girlfriend anymore, I get it, but I can't lose my best friend, too."

"I don't think you have to worry about him," Sheriff dismissed, shaking his head as he leaned forward in his seat, clearing his throat a bit when he noticed Stiles' raised eyebrows. "I'm just saying that, whenever I found out that you liked Sage, I couldn't even imagine it. I was confused because she was raised alongside so many Hale's, and there were nails and bullets put into her before she was even a teenager. I couldn't see it—"

Stiles narrowed his eyes slightly. "Dad, I don't really see how this is supposed to be encouraging."

"— I couldn't see it," Sheriff repeated, giving his son a look. "I couldn't see it because I figured that the two of you would always be friends and nothing more. But, then, I saw the way that she looked at you. I saw the way that she worried about you, and I realized that I had been wrong, all because the relationships that last the longest, the ones that should be fought for, always come down to the deeper root of friendship that is shared. You're her best friend, Stiles. He isn't."

Still, Stiles found himself confused. "Did you just friend-zone me with Sage?"

"Maybe," his dad said, wincing slightly. "Look, I'm not the best at this. I just want you to know that you can't give up on her just because she's given up on herself. You said it yourself that she kept the ring that you gave her, so that's got to count for something. You can't fall out of love with someone in just a week, Stiles. Have more faith in how you feel about her."

Stiles nodded, swallowing down the lump that was forming in his throat. He didn't know how he was supposed to feel about the entire break up, he didn't know how he was supposed to react to being dumped by a girl that he vowed to love until his heart literally fell from his chest. Most importantly, he didn't know how he was supposed to act like none of it mattered, like they hadn't spent days and nights loving each other, like they hadn't laughed and shared moments that would be burned into his brain for the rest of his life. He didn't know how he was supposed to just forget about the fact that she was his first love, that she consumed him and tore him apart just by saying his name.

He just didn't know anything without her.

Glancing up at his dad, he felt his hard exterior crack. "I know what Mom meant now."

☒ ☒ ☒ ☒ ☒ ☒

Sage Connelly had encased herself in panic, heart continuing to pound in her chest as she followed behind Isaac and Scott into the Sheriff's office. There was nothing that could even begin to explain the amount of dread that was building up in her chest, ceasing to leave, only diagnosing her into a further dyfunctioned state. It was a horrible feeling knowing that someone you cared about was missing, it was an even worse feeling to throw your mind in a situation where you make up scenarios as to what could be happening the very moment you stood breathing. The idea of Stiles being hurt, the idea of him being gone, had increased Sage's level of insanity the longer that she spent doing nothing to help him.

The worst feeling broke her chest when she and Scott were forced to tell their best friend's father that his son was nowhere to be seen. Just the look on his face when they had to utter out the words of Stiles being missing had the Sheriff stumbling into his deputy's desk, trying to contain the abrupt wave of nausea that crept up on him. Not a single teenager in the room could begin to explain the gutwrenching sense of pain that came with seeing the man fall into frantic movements, gesturing for all of the remaining deputies to send out APB's on his son's jeep as well as his son himself.

"If his jeep is gone, that's where we start," Sheriff said, his palms pressing down on the desk just before he glanced up to meet eyes with his newest deputy. "Parrish, get an APB out on a blue, 1980 CJ5 Jeep. Cordova, I want a list of any kind of industrial basement or sub-level of any building that he could have gotten into while sleepwalking. It's the coldest night of the year so far, so if he's out there barefoot and in just a t-shirt, he could already be hypothermic. Let's move fast. Let's think fast."

Sage blinked. That was all she did. It was the only thing that she could do when all of this finally hit her hard, when she realized that this wasn't just a nightmare that she was experiencing. All of this, everything around her, was the cold, hard reality that Stiles was gone, and no one knew where he would go. No one, not even Stiles himself, knew where he was, and that created a barrier inside of Sage's chest, preventing her from reacting too unpredictably in this situation when she knew Sheriff Stilinski was left vulnerable. She, at the very least, had to pretend to be strong for him.

Stiles' father glanced back at the three teenagers standing behind him, the look of utter defeat still present on his face, bringing up the constant reminder that his son was all he had left. "The three of you, come with me."

All of them hesitated, particularly Sage, who needed to be pushed forward gently by Scott. It was only a few moments after that did the blonde shoot her arm out, reaching for the werewolf's hand to try and keep herself stable long enough while in front of Stiles' father. The only person that she had right now was Scott and Sheriff Stilinski, the two of them being the only people aside from herself that couldn't even think straight when Stiles was out there somewhere, practically hypothermic, without a sense of reality. The others were the moral support, but they would move on with their lives if something happened to Stiles; they could move on.

Scott glanced down, his eyes focusing on the pale and trembling hand of Sage Connelly, before looking back up at her face. He could easily tell what was wrong with her, and that was only because the exact same thing was happening to him every single time he thought too deeply through the fact that his best friend was gone, nowhere that anyone knew. It wasn't another moment of question when he saw the silent pain in her green irises that he squeezed her hand back, letting her know that he was there for her through everything.

The two teenagers moved their attention back to Sheriff Stilinski, standing together next to Isaac, who only gave the blonde in the room a cautious stare before turning away. The man was giving them a hard look as he shut the door, frowning deeply. "Is there anything you need to tell me that I can't tell anybody out there?"

"Lydia knew he was missing," Scott muttered, feeling another ounce of pressure on his hand, reminding him of the situation with Sage's abilities as well and only made him sigh. "He said that his foot was hurt, but Sage doesn't feel anything like she normally does. We don't know if it's just an after-affect of the sacrifice or something else."

Sage felt Sheriff's eyes turn to her in question. "Something else?"

"There's the possibility," she began, "that, for whatever reason, Stiles isn't connected to Scott anymore. Which would mean, if he's not connected to Scott through his pack, then he's not connected to me, and none of his injuries would be affecting my body. It's just a possibility, though."

Sage watched as the man's face dropped, him reveling in the fact that something might have happened to his son that led him to disconnect himself with Scott's pack. Something might have happened that lodged a barrier in between what Sage was and what Stiles felt, and that had been a terrifying thought all on its own. It had been enough for him to force his attention on a different subject before he further let the concern he had about his son swallow him whole, leaving him incapable of doing anything but worry.

"Lydia," Sheriff muttered, raising his eyes to the others as he directed himself off the topic of what Sage just revealed. "Can she help find him?"

Isaac pursed his lips from the corner of the room. "She's working on it."

"Anything else?" Sheriff questioned, glancing in between the three to make sure that they weren't leaving out any critical details, especially considering every little thing mattered at this point.

Scott gave the man a nod. "I called Derek and Allison for help."

"Alright." Sheriff replicated the nod. "Can you find him by scent?"

Before anyone could answer the question, their conversation had been abruptly interrupted the moment that the door to the office opened. Sage's attention focused on the deputy that was coming into the room, his bright green eyes going to the stack of papers that had been situated haphazardly in his hands. "We got it, Sir. We found the jeep."

Immediately, the four in his office all moved towards the door, ready to go find out if it was actually Stiles' jeep and where in the hell it was. The only thing that stopped the process of leaving the station had been when Sheriff Stilinski turned around, stopping the three teenagers behind him before they could follow him any further. Sage's eyebrows raised, the minuscule amount of patience that she had at the moment resulting in a hostile action to nearly everyone as she felt Scott tighten his grip on her hand.

"Sage," Sheriff called, the look on his face saying everything that needed to be said.

She began to shake her head, jaw clenched. "You can't keep me here, Sheriff."

"Someone needs to stay in case he comes here," Sheriff explained, noticing the look that was beginning to develop on her face, clearly stating she was opposed to the idea. "Sage, if he comes here and no one that he knows is in the room with him, he's going to be scared. I need you to stay here, please, for me."

Sage stared at him. "Why can't Isaac stay?"

"I didn't date him sophomore year," Isaac retorted, which only resulted in a harsh look from the blonde that was situated in front of him, cringing slightly when he realized that there was still the insensitivity in his words when it came to Stiles.

She held herself together for a few moments, refusing to give in up until she realized that they were wasting time arguing about who would be going and who would be staying. She just couldn't accept the possibility of staying here and Scott and the Sheriff being the ones to find Stiles. She couldn't handle the even more intensifying guilt that would build up if she wasn't there for him, again, when he needed her. Maybe if she answered her phone the first time it rang, maybe if she hadn't even been with Aiden but with Stiles in the first place, maybe he wouldn't be in this mess.

"Fine," she muttered, running her hand through her hair as a nervous tick, giving Sheriff a nod before slowly, and reluctantly, letting go of Scott's hand. "Just... if you find him, call me, alright?"

Scott gave her a weak smile, pressing a kiss to her head before following after a dispersing Sheriff Stilinski, Isaac trailing only a few moments later. There was a short and loud sound of the doors opening and closing, leaving Sage to stand there with disheveled clothing and a disheveled heart. It had been three seconds of silence, and she was already allowing the thoughts to strangle her, slowly moving her feet until she was stepping back and landing on one of the benches in the station.

Her eyes traveled across the entirety of the room, trying to focus her attention on something that didn't have to do with the reversion of her thoughts. In reality, there was only one other person in this sheriff's station considering most of them had either, (a) quit the job due to the amount of deaths in this town, or (b) became one of those deaths in this town. Nonetheless, there still proved to be a catalyst in this situation, and Sage stared at the deputy, wondering why he chose to stay in a station full of ghosts, or better yet, why he even came to Beacon Hills in the first place.

Frowning slightly, Sage brought her knees up so that they were on the bench with the rest of her body. "Parrish, how old are you?"

"Twenty four," the man answered, his eyes turning away from the computer he engrossed himself on, giving her a confused look as he wondered why she asked him the question. The only time the two talked had been when he was working to get his badge in the summer and she just happened to show up alongside the Sheriff's son, a small introduction greeting them. "Why?"

She didn't turn her eyes away from him, just found herself even more wounded at the fact that the deputy was so young, and had so much to live for, yet he moved to a town that only brought death and destruction. "Because, I'm trying to figure out why you would give up the rest of your life for a town that can end it in a second. You've seen the statistics. I know you have. I just don't understand it."

Parrish seemed to straighten his back completely at that, and rather than just his eyes, the man turned his entire body in the direction of the blonde girl. He understood what she was trying to tell him, understood that it was her way of telling him to get the hell out of dodge and run for the hills. He just didn't know why she was so adamant on getting a complete stranger out of a town, especially considering she didn't know anything about him apart from his name, age, and occupation.

"I figured that saving someone's life is worth the risk of losing my own," Parrish explained, shrugging his shoulders once as he noticed the blonde purse her lips, her face falling flat. "When I got out the military, I didn't know what I was doing with my life. I joined when I was eighteen, straight out of high school because I knew that I didn't have anything else going for me. Eventually, I was learning all about bombs and explosives, realizing that my life was anywhere a weapon was. There were openings here, and I wanted to do what I loved. Something about this place is different. It drew me in."

Sage blinked, trying to ignore the weight that fell on her chest. "You should leave, Parrish, before something happens to you. For once in your life, be selfish and walk out the door before you begin to care about people in this town."

"Speaking from experience?" Parrish asked, his eyebrows raising in question when he noticed how strongly she felt about the subject of Beacon Hills. "You sound like something's happened to you that changed the way you saw this town."

She frowned, playing with the loose strings in the holes of her jeans. "I'm honestly surprised you haven't heard— just proves you are new here. Uh, I lost my entire family when I was ten. House fire. There was another family, they actually owned the house, and ten people died all together. I left after that, and I just came back about a year ago... when my friend also died."

"Oh, wow," Parrish spluttered, his face lifting him surprise. "I'm sorry."

Sage couldn't help but let out a small, breathless laugh, although that could very well be from the sleep deprivation and exhaustion, rubbing her eyes as she began nodding her head. "Yeah, me too."

The deputy and the teenage girl didn't speak to each other after that, and even though their conversation left on a silent term, there was an understanding between them that neither properly fit in any other category. Jordan Parrish was a deputy, and that was all he knew how to be, and Sage Connelly was an altor, and orphan, and that was all that she would ever be. Both of them were struggling with their identities, with what they were hiding underneath their skin, and that had been where Sage realized the new deputy working for Sheriff Stilinski deserved so much more than an awaited, and inevitably cursed, death.

And, just ten minutes later, the silence between the pair had been abruptly interrupted the moment that a pair of heavy shoes entered the room. Sage didn't even bother raising her head from her knees, the headache she had pounding so agonizingly that she feared it was going to randomly combust, while Parrish didn't even turn his eyes away from the computer that he was still occupying his time on.

"Where is everyone?" a familiar voice asked, breaking the quiet. Sage let out a groan from the corner of the room, not even bothering to lift up her head because she already knew what the scene in front of her would look like. Agent McCall would be standing there, brooding as always, in front of Parrish's desk with a sling on his shoulder. "We get a lead on our sword-wielding maniac?"

She heard a small huff come from Parrish's mouth. "Nope, but we've got posters up all over town for your guy."

"That's not exactly how I described him to the sketch artist," Agent McCall answered, his eyes narrowing on the picture of what looked little like what attacked him and stuck a sword in his chest.

Sage felt herself growing even more annoyed by his presence, not completely sure if it was because she already had his blood on her hands and didn't need any more, or because she just genuinely hated the man due to all of the shit that he put Melissa and Scott through. However, her temper was already running on a short fuse, and the occupation in his name completely flew by her head when she lifted herself straight, staring at the man with a clenched jaw.

"Nobody really gives a shit about your problems right now, Agent McCall," Sage snapped, rubbing at her eyes for what seemed like the thousandth time tonight, feeling burning gazes on her body the moment that she opened her mouth. Dropping her hands, she gave the man a sarcastic smile. "I would apologize but I'm not sorry. There are bigger things to deal with than your psychotic break."

He raised his eyebrows at her, but didn't say anything about the Connelly girl's choice of words considering she was his son's best friend. "What does that mean? What bigger things?"

Sage stayed quiet, returning to picking at her jeans but not before she caught Parrish's eyes, of which she practically begged him not to make her repeat everything that she's been through in the past few hours. The last thing that she needed was to be reminded that she was, now, separated from each and every single one of her friends, left alone in a sheriff's station with a man that had been stabbed in the shoulder by a demonic Oni, as well as another man that had no idea about all of the shit he was getting himself into by working here.

Before either of them could explain to what happened, a dim sound of a phone ringing had Sage stumbling to retrieve her phone from her jacket, nearly twisting her wrist in the process. She couldn't take the chance of it being Stiles and miss the call again. To her painful dismay, it had only been Scott, but that was enough for her considering there was the other chance of it being him calling to tell her that they found Stiles. Instead of a pleading look, this time, Sage glanced at Parrish to tell him that she was going to have to leave him alone with the literal embodied version of Satan, and pushed herself off the bench with a wince in apology.

"Scott," Sage called out the second that she pressed answer, making sure that her voice was low enough so that Agent McCall didn't hear. "Did you find him? Where was the jeep?"

There was a sigh on the other end, which only confirmed the grim fears in the blonde's head. "We haven't found him yet, but Lydia said that she's positive he is at the mental health center Barrow was committed to. The jeep was at the hospita—"

"Wait," Sage interrupted, her feet stopping her when she finally processed Scott's words. "Mental health center?"

"Yeah. It's called Eichen House," Scott confirmed, the facility's name rolling off his tongue without even the knowledge of the fact that the place nearly made the girl on the other phone choke on oxygen that wasn't finding its way to her lungs. "Look, Sage. There's no point in you coming here, so I would just stay at the station, alright? Mom can come and get you so you'll be on your way to the hospital when we find Stiles."

Sage was still trying to recover from the revelation that Stiles was at Eichen House, the same place that her mother was currently a resident patient at, and the same place that the teenage girl nearly lost her grip on humanity at. There shouldn't even be a single reason why Stiles even felt obligated to go to that place, sleepwalking or not. If anything, she should be the one due to the actual relations she had with the person beyond the echoed walls of the place. Not Stiles, not him.

"Okay," she whispered, trying to find her voice even though it was lodged in her throat. "Yeah, okay. Just be prepared. Your dad showed up talking about sword-wielding maniacs, and I don't think he's going to be letting go of that idea any time soon. Be careful, Scott. That place is full of psychopaths."

There was a moment of hesitation on the other end. "Have you been there?"

"No," she denied, lying straight through her teeth. "But, if Barrow was put in that place, there has to be more people like him."

Like her mother.

She didn't feel the need to say anything else after that, her finger finding the 'end call' button so that she wouldn't have to continue a conversation where lies spilled from her mouth. The last thing that she needed was people finding out about her insane mother being locked up in a mental institution, or the even bigger issue of her actually being alive, not rubble under an empty casket six feet in the ground. Sage didn't need people trying to convince her to let her mother back into her life, because, at this point, her mother barely knew anything aside from how to accomplish faking her own death.

Slowly, she turned her body from out of the empty hallway to return back to the lobby of the station, pushing her phone into the back of her jeans. When she got back, she noticed an absent Agent McCall and a, once again, occupied Deputy Parrish. Before she could even open her mouth to ask the only present human where Scott's father went, a body nearly went crashing into her. Thankfully, she had been paying attention unlike the man, who was staring down at a large array of paper.

"What's going on?" she asked, raising her eyebrows as she watched Agent McCall stop in front of Parrish's desk again, continuing to inspect the paper that was in his hands as if answers would magically appear.

The man whipped his head around to face her, holding up the piece of paper. "Is this the exact transcript of Scott and Stiles' phone call?"

Sage stepped forward, grabbing the paper from his hands as she took a quick glance at the paper, trying to ignore the sting in her chest when she saw the words, 'help me' plastered in black ink right in front of her face. She figured that that was enough for her to confirm it, giving Agent McCall a single nod before returning the transcript back to him. She didn't see how returning back to the phone call was going to help when they already knew he was at Eichen House.

"Yeah," she said, crossing her arms protectively over her chest. "Why?"

He frowned, giving the two in the room a hesitant stare. "But, these words... Stiles says, "Something smells terrible. My eyes are watering.""

Parrish gave the man a confused look, his mouth opening to try and give a conclusion while Sage just stood silent, not completely sure why this was even relevant. There could very well just be chemicals down in the basement of Eichen House, or some kind of medicine next to him that had his eyes watering. Neither of the questioning stares were answered because, by the time that they were ready to ask, a voice had interrupted them from the front of the station.

Three heads turned around to see Melissa standing there, rubbing her hands nervously. "Hi, I'm Melissa McCall. I'm here to pick up Sage Connelly. My son said that she would be here."

Sage turned around, giving Agent McCall a final glance before moving until she was walking through a door frame and in the sights of the woman. Immediately, Melissa turned around and her face contorted in relief at the sight of the blonde. The teenage girl only gave a weak smile, hoping that it did its job and showed that she was going to be okay, eventually. She just needed to see Stiles, she just needed to physically touch Stiles to make sure that he was still real, and she would be okay.

From behind her, Agent McCall spoke up. "What are you doing here?"

"I came to pick up Sage after my shift ended," Melissa explained, gesturing towards the teenage girl. "But, I also wanted to see if there was anything that I could do to help."

Sage pursed her lips, wanting to let them know that they were already aware of where Stiles was, but had been interrupted at the sound of a text tone going off. The blonde picked her phone from her pocket, her eyes glazing over the message only to near fall back in defeat as she read the sickening words that, one by one, made all of the hope left in her body slowly diminish until she was left with only the strong hold of stability when Agent McCall kept her from falling to the ground.

From: Scott

He wasn't there.

And, Sage realized that in that moment, not only was she still completely in love with a boy who's heart she broke, but she was in love with a boy who was missing and no one knew where to find him. She still felt something, and she still needed him, and she still couldn't breathe properly if that meant she was breathing without the boy who she tore apart her heart for. There was always one person, and that had always been Stiles. It had always been him, and no matter the title that they placed upon themselves, he would always be Stiles Stilinski, the person that consumed her morals and beliefs, the boy that gave her the ability to function without feeling like she was dying. But, now, she felt like she was dying all over again.

She just didn't know anything without him.

☒ ☒ ☒ ☒ ☒ ☒ ☒ ☒ ☒ ☒ ☒ ☒

before you yell, let me remind you that this is a good thing. i understand that the ending might have wounded you, because it definitely wounded me, as well as the beginning, but it was all necessary so that we could begin the process of being wounded over more things. this entire episode is basically sage and stiles, and i just want to mentally prepare you guys for the next chapter because it's going to be much worse than this if my ideas go according to plan.

but hEY, on the bright side, STAGE. and the beginning to a beautiful friendship between sage and parrish. brotp name must be initiated. i love you guys, and just know that everything is now turning to shit and im so excited because there is only half an episode left until the next one and shit goes doWN. or, rather, in considering the whole 'ive-been-impaled-with-a-sword-by-my-bff' thing.