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.*･｡. WAITING FOR SUPERMAN .*･｡.
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049.
DETECTIVE WORK AND
RETURN OF THE ALPHA.
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——

Lois rolled her eyes at her father, "Dad, I'm fine."

    "You've got a bruise on your face, Lois." He tilted her chin up to get a better look at the mark, "It doesn't look fine."

    "Some kid just bumped into me, is all." She batted his hands away and stepped back, swallowing hardly to try and get rid of the lump at the back of her throat. Lois sucked in a breath and turned her to face to look away from him, "It doesn't even hurt. We have bigger problems, right now."

    "We'll find them," Matthew told her.

The girl pursed her lips tightly, feeling her eyes start to water at the inner corners. She cleared her throat and shook her head, her vision focused on Scott, Isaac and Sheriff on the other side of the locker rooms. Lois couldn't help but feel like her father was only saying that to make her feel better, which is didn't. Not when she knew the reality of what was happening — what could have been happening to Stiles and Luna as they spoke.

They didn't know where the pair had gone. It seemed as if they had just vanished, no where to be found. Lois knew that Stiles would have never ran off without telling someone, and neither would Luna. If they had gone to get to alone time, he would have texted Lois and asked her to tell his dad. Lois would have known, Scott would have known, their fathers would have known. Stiles was a hyperactive idiot, but he was responsible. While he was a teenage boy with an eloquence in sarcasm, he knew better than to scare his best friends and father out of their wits. Lois knew that it was more than that. He hadn't just disappeared. She knew that he hadn't — she could feel it in her gut.

Perhaps it was 'twin-instinct'. Lois and Stiles weren't related, but they had been destined to be friends since before the womb, so they may as well have been.

Lois knew, deep down, that this was more than just a couple of teenagers vanishing. Gerard had been planning something, and she was positive that it had something to do with him. She just knew. If he harmed a hair on their heads, Lois was going to kill him.

"Lois, I promise you..." Her father regained her attention, pursing his lips. "We will find them."

She nodded slowly, coming back to reality. Lois turned to face her father, wiping away the stray tear that had managed to trickle down her cheek. His heart broke at the sight, wanting to pull his daughter into a hug, but resisting. Matthew knew that she wasn't one for tears, not until she was truly terrified, and the last few weeks had been a lot for her to handle.

Lois had been stalked, held at gunpoint and suffered a bullet injury, tried to save a boy who had just died right in front of her, and now her two friends had vanished. Her best friend.

Matthew Lane knew that his daughter was hurting.

But Lois had never liked to show that she was hurting, so he led her be. He watched her dry the tears and take a deep breath, in attempt to fit herself back together piece by piece. Lois has always been good at pushing on, and he had always been good at letting her. Even when he wished that he could hug her and tell her that it would all be okay, he let her pretend that she was alright. Lois had already lost her mother and now she was terrified that she had lost her best friend, her other half, and she was still pushing on. It was admirable, in a bitter-sweet kind of way. Matthew supported his child more than anything, but he hoped that one day, she would begin to open up again. But she was scared.

"I know—" Lois lied through the skin of her teeth, "—I know."

    "Do you trust me?"

   She rolled her eyes and sniffled, "Obviously."

    "And do you trust Noah? Do you trust us?" Her father pressed, watching her nod and mumble more than anything. He nodded and placed his hands on her shoulders gently, leaning down to look into her eyes. "Then, you know that we'll do everything we can to find them, they couldn't have gone far."

    "I'm not worried about where they've gone, dad." Lois bit her lower lip nervously, ignoring her trembling hands, "I'm worried about why."

    "They wouldn't just leave for no reason," Matthew nodded in agreement. She was right, as always. "We'll know, soon enough."

   The brunette took in a deep breath and followed her father as they gravitated to where the teen wolves stood with Stiles' dad, by his sons locker. Most of the other players had left by now, the last few trickling out, and soon it was only them.

    "I've got to meet with the medical examiner and try to figure out what happened with Jackson," Sheriff explained, in full cop mode. He flicked through his notes and counted his jobs on his fingers, trying to find some sort of pattern that may have occurred that night, but they knew that he would never find one. Noah didn't even know about the supernatural, "And I've got an APB out on Stiles and Luna."

    "Stiles' jeep is still in the parking lot," Lois pitched in, her nose blocked and making her voice a bit muffled. Both wolves looked at her in concern but she dismissed it. Her father nodded.

    "That means—" Noah pursed his lips, "—the hell, we don't really know what that means." He looked between the teenagers and sighed heavily, feeling more defeated by the second, "Um— look, if any of them answer their phone, if they answers emails, if any of you guys see them—"

    "We'll call you." Isaac assured.

   Sure, he didn't like Stiles and Stiles didn't like him, but that didn't mean that he wanted him in danger. Not Luna, either.

    "Stiles' probably just freaked out from all the attention, or something," Scott suggested, hopeful for the sake of Stiles' father, Lois, and himself. Luna and Stiles meant a lot to people, more than they realised. And it wasn't as if they could tell Noah that his son may have been a victim of Gerard's plans, not when he didn't know anything. "Took Luna with him."

    "Scott's right," Matthew Lane agreed with the boy, placing a hand on his friends shoulder. "Stiles isn't used to winning games, he never really plays. It's likely that he got overwhelmed and needed a break, Luna went with him. We'll find them."

    "Plus, he'd never leave his jeep behind." Lois nodded, "Roscoe is part of the team. He'll be back for him, you know Stiles."

    "Yeah," Noah blinked away his tears, thankful that they had tried to rationalise the situation. They were right. "You're right, Lo. Well, uh— I'll see you guys, okay?"

   Lois gave the man a hug before he turned and left, noticing the way that he clung onto her for comfort. She was his second child, the daughter he never had, and one of the few people that could truly understand how it felt not knowing where Stiles was. Lois had known him her whole life, literally, and he was as much her family as he was Noah's. She understood how he was feeling, right to the pits of her would, and he appreciated that. Stilinski had appreciated all of them. They cared.

   Matthew Lane turned to his daughter when the man was out of the locker rooms, "You guys find anything, you call me."

    "I know, dad." Lois sighed, "We will."

    "I mean anything, even if it's some creepy, twisted creature of the night. Okay?" He cringed at the idea, pointing a finger at the trio. Usually Stiles was the third, but it seemed that the new kid Isaac was taking his place. Matthew didn't know the kid, but he also didn't care. "Call me, and I will be there."

    "Yes, sir." Scott nodded, while Isaac's eyes widened.

    "Wait— he knows?"

   Scott nodded, "He knows."

    "Everything?" Isaac rose a hesitant brow, glancing between the girl at his side, and her father. He pursed his lips and cleared his throat. "Like, everything?"

    "Almost," the man confirmed, "Watch yourself, Lahey."

   Isaac took a step back and Lois rolled her eyes, stepping in between the pair. She didn't like that her dad seemed to still be convinced that she was into Isaac, and now wasn't really the time for him to jump into over protective-father mode.

   In fact, it would never be the time.

    "Is that Uncle Noah calling you?" Lois smiled sarcastically, spinning him round and pushing him towards the exit. "Bye, dad!"

She waved him off as he followed Stiles' father, giving her one last look and rounding the corner. Lois let out a breath and made her way back to the teenagers, where Finstock had appeared.

"McCall." He beckoned the boy towards him while Isaac and Lois stood at the side, both leaning against the row of lockers behind them. Scott listened closely to his coach, "We need you on the team, okay? You know I can't put you on the field next season if you don't get your grades up."

He nodded, "Yeah— I know, coach."

"Alright." The man nodded, "I mean, I— I know I yell a lot, but it's not like I hate you guys. Well, I kind of hate Greenberg, but, you know— that's different. It's Greenberg." He huffed, "I'm just saying we, I need you on the team. Get your grades back up."

"I will." Scott smiled softly, appreciating the words.

"I know."

Coach hummed to himself and turned away, clearly feeling very weird about such a sentimental moment. He had hesitated for a moment, as if contemplating whether he should say something mean to compensate, but he walked away. Lois rose a brow as she looked up at Isaac, unknowing of Coach's soft side, and the boy returned the very same expression like a mirror. Evidently, he didn't know about it either.

   Lois pushed away from the lockers and peered around, "Is that everyone?"

   The two boys walked through the locker rooms and scanned for any lacrosse players left, both shaking their head when they were confident that it was just them.

    "I think so—"

   Isaac was interrupted when Lois banged her fist on Stiles' gym locker. He watched with wide eyes as she hit it again, turning the dial left and then right, and smacked it one more time before the door flew open. The brunette smiled in satisfaction and began rooting through his things, Scott walking up to join her.

    "How did you do that?" Isaac frowned.

    "Every year, it's me or Stiles who gets a dodgy locker." She shrugged and handed Scott a shirt, "He taught me."

   He nodded slowly, then looked at Scott who was holding the shirt to his nose. Lois passed him Stiles' left shoe, a pair of vans that he hardly ever wore anymore, and Isaac looked at his fellow wolf curiously. "You're going find him by scent?"

    "Yeah—" Scott confirmed, "—we both are."

Clearly unamused, Isaac glanced between the shoe in his hand and to the shirt Scott held. He pouted hit bottom lip and squinted his eyes at Lois, humming under his breath.

"How come he gets a shirt and I get a shoe?"

Lois raised a finger to her chin and tilted her head childishly, making him roll his eyes, "Considering you tried to kill Lydia that time, threatened to kill me and my friends when I shot you in the shoulder, and only went on the fake date with me to see if I was the kanima and then kill me..." she smiled tightly, "...I happen to think you deserve to smell a foot."

    "She's got a point, dude."

Scott earned a glare from the cranky beta.

   Smiling wider than before and receiving a mocking smile back, Lois returned her attention to Stiles' gym locker. She stood on her tiptoes and peered around the top shelf, not finding anything that was particularly interesting. She sighed and shut the door, her attention now refocused on the two werewolves.

   She clapped her hands, "Let's get this show on the road, boys."

They both nodded and made sure to get a strong smell of their items, ready to venture into the night and find their friends.

"We need to talk, first."

Lois rose a brow as Derek Hale walked into the locker rooms, the usual serious expression plastered upon his face. While she hadn't expected him to show up in their school at this time of night, she also wasn't too surprised.

Derek had a habit of showing up whenever he was uninvited.

Honestly, Lois wasn't shocked about him. How could she have been shocked about Derek showing up out of nowhere, when Peter Hale walked up behind him? Now that was shocking.

Her jaw dropped, handing wide open with her brow eyes wide. She found herself unconsciously stepping back as Peter stepped foreword, and he noticed this. The smirk he sent her left Lois in a fit of chills, her skin crawling at the mere sight of him. It wasn't everyday that you came face to face with the ex-alpha who had bitten your friend, gone on a killing spree, and the been murdered right in front of you. In fact, that never happened. Usually dead people stayed dead, at least that's how it worked in the real world. Apparently this wasn't real anymore, none of it.

He added to Derek's words, "All of us."

"Holy—!" Scott breathed out, "What the hell is this?"

Although he didn't know what was going on, Isaac noticed how standoffish Lois had become. He inch towards her, his body in front of her own in a way that was hardly visible to most, but it was definitely there. This new guy seemed suspicious to him, and he didn't like it.

"You know—" Derek growled at the stray beta as he folded him arms, "—I thought the same thing when I saw you talking to Gerard at the sheriff's station."

"Okay, hold on!" The lacrosse co-captain grit his teeth, ready to defend himself. Lois wasn't sure what they were on about, so she stuck to watching Peter with uneasy eyes. She didn't understand how he was there, alive and breathing, when they had seen him die. Scott seemed just as shock as she was, "He— he threatened to kill my mom and I had to get close to him. What was I supposed to do?"

"I'm going to go with Scott on this one," Peter piped up with a smirk, "Have you seen his mom? She's gorgeous."

"Shut up!"

Lois glared at him. She recalled the time he has taken Melissa out on a date to get to Scott perfectly, and she wasn't going to let the comment slide, "Weren't you creepy enough when you both randomly showed up in a school locker room?"

"Always a charmer, Lois." Peter retorted with an eye roll.

"Who is he?" Isaac finally asked, staring between the short girl and the man whose tone he didn't appreciate. He found himself glaring at him too, even if it was unprovoked. If Scott and Lois didn't like him, then Isaac had decided that he didn't like the guy either. He wore too much black, anyway.

"That's Peter, Derek's Uncle." Scott explained.

"A little while back, he tried to kill us all." Lois continued, crossing her arms and cocking her hip. "And then he bit Lydia, we set him on fire, and Derek slashed his throat. He should be dead."

Peter waved, "Hi."

Isaac pursed his lips and nodded slowly, processing all of the information he had been given. He cleared his throat and tried to erase the confusion from his face, but it didn't work very well. He wondered how all of that had happened, and no one else had even realised. In a way, he was impressed that they had managed to keep this life so low-key. Isaac thought that he would have noticed another werewolf trying to kill everyone, but evidently not. Isaac suddenly wondered if he was anywhere near as observant that he always thought he had been.

"That's good to know..." He eventually spoke, tilting his head back and letting the situation carry on.

"How is he alive?" Scott demanded.

"Look, the short version is he knows how to stop Jackson."
Derek cut the chit-chat with his blunt tone, surprising all three teenagers. His next words, however, made Lois' heart drop. "And maybe how to save him."

"Well, that's very helpful—" Isaac shrugged and threw Stiles' shoe over his shoulder. All eyes were on him, "—except Jackson's dead."

"What?"

"Yeah—" Nodding his head, Scott let out a sigh. It was someone that he hadn't been able to save, and it felt heavy on his shoulders and on his conscience. The boy could feel it weighing him down, getting harder to carry with each and every second that passed. He knew that Lois felt the same, "Jackson's dead."

Lois bit her lip, "It just happened on the field."

"Okay," Derek's beta peered speeded around curiously, taking in Derek and Peter's downtrodden expressions. "Why is no one taking this as good news?

"Because if Jackson is dead, it didn't just happen." Peter shared the information with them, "Gerard wanted it to happen."

"But, why?" Derek demanded.

"Well, that's exactly what we need to figure out." His uncle spoke ambiguously, as though he knew something that they didn't — which Lois didn't doubt that he did. Peter always seemed to be hiding secrets, and she now knew where Derek had gotten the trait from. "And something tells me the window of opportunity is closing. Quickly."

——

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