𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐓𝐇𝐑𝐄𝐄

𝘌𝘓𝘐𝘈𝘚 𝘚𝘛𝘐𝘓𝘐𝘕𝘚𝘒𝘐

WHAT THE HELL IS A STILES?

The words bounced around in Meilani's skull all night as she tossed and turned in her bed. She was surprised that she hadn't woken up Isaac with her racing mind and restless body. Sleep graced her for all of three hours and Meilani had stumbled her way out of her bed, curls knotty and sticking every which way as she got dressed in a sleepy daze. When sleep had finally graced her, she'd had flashing of visions about the hazel eyed mystery boy that she apparently loved.

Flashes of them leading her through the woods the night she was bit

Flashes of them waking up next to her in bed and a sleepy " good morning, beautiful " echoed around in her skull when he spoke.

Flashes of them driving her around town during supernatural drama, definitely exceeding the speed limit more times than she could count. She wondered how the mystery boy never once got a ticket for all the times he'd sped.

Now Meilani sat in the library with Lydia, laptop opened up to Google as the two girls searched up anything they could about the word " Stiles ". A search popped up and Meilani clicked on the first result to reveal a blue and white colored home page with the word " Stile " written across the page with its meaning beneath it.

"Stiles, an arrangement of steps that allows people, but not animals, to climb over a fence," Meilani read off the screen, raising her eyebrows as she glanced over to Lydia.

"Yeah, somehow I don't think these are the stiles we're looking for," Lydia sighed, running a hand over her strawberry blonde hair that had been pulled back into a half up/half down do.

Meilani puffed out her cheeks, crossing her arms across her chest as she collapsed back against the chair she sat in. Every time she felt like they got closer to figuring this whole thing out, another ten steps were added so it was like she was moving, but not really going anywhere. The dull void in the middle of her chest still remained and she felt like half a person because of it. It was an odd and ominous feeling and one that she'd like to fill or get rid of soon. "You think Malia's figured something out?"

"No, she's been taking a make-up test all morning," Lydia reminded Meilani who nodded silently as she remembered Malia freaking out to her, Lydia and Kira the night before. She didn't handle tests too well and Meilani tried to remind Malia she needed to breathe the best she could. As if on cue, a coyote's howl was heard echoing around the school and Meilani and Lydia both shared a look. Malia's test definitely did not go well and the girl no doubt shifted from the intense feeling of anxiety and nerves from the test she'd had to take.

It didn't take long for Meilani to find Malia as the werecoyote had ran off to hide in the school's basement where she used to chain her wrists up on the full moons before she switched over to using the basement at Lydia's lake house. She rounded the corner of metal shelvings to find Malia hidden next to one of the lockers, her blue eyes glowing in the semi-dim room that she hid herself in.

"Mal, it's okay. You're safe. I'm not gonna hurt you," Meilani said soothingly, making sure to keep her voice gentle as she took slow steps towards her friend. She didn't even flinch when Malia growled at her and Lydia's footsteps along with Natalie Martin's and Sheriff Stilinski's were heard coming down the steps next. She held her hand up for Lydia, Natalie and the sheriff to stay back just in case. "I think she's calming down."

Sheriff Stilinski jumped back when Malia growled again, taking one step forward as her blue eyes flashed dangerously. "Maybe you should growl back? Meilani, you're the alpha. Can't you just make her a little more docile?"

Lydia grabbed Meilani's arm to gain her attention, green eyes wide as they watched Malia who continued to growl dangerously at the group before her. "She's not the problem, Mei. We are. This is her territory. Maybe we need to get out of here so she can calm down." 

Tugging on Meilani's arm again, the strawberry blonde tugged her back around the corner of the metal shelving along with Natalie and Sheriff Stilinski. She gently let go of Meilani's denim jacket sleeve and turned to her mother and the sheriff. "Malia came here to get through the full moons. Then we started using the lake house."

"I thought you said a wild animal got into the lake house," Natalie accused her daughter.

"Mom, just be happy about all the things I don't tell you."

Another low growl was heard before the group could say anymore and all eyes darted around the corner of the shelving unit to see Malia now stood up in her human form — and naked. She didn't even flinch at being naked in front of Meilani, Lydia, Natalie and the sheriff. "I'm okay now."

Sheriff Stilinski diverted his gaze from the naked teenager and turned his back while Natalie ran over to get Malia some clothes that were kept in the locker for occasions like this. He exhaled heavily as his eyes bounced between Meilani and Lydia. "Any idea what made her shift in the first place?"

Meilani frowned softly, scratching the back of her neck. "Malia's been under a lot of pressure lately. School, her life after graduation. Her mom trying to kill her. But none of that should make her shift like that." She chewed the inside of her lip as she looked to Lydia next to her.  "You think this is connected to Stiles?"

"Hard to tell since we don't know what a " Stiles " is."

"It's a " he "," Sheriff Stilinski said, earning both girls' attention once again in surprise. "Stiles. It's a family nickname. I never used it but, uh, my father did."

Meilani found herself seated in the Stilinski living room with Lydia, Noah and his wife, Claudia Stilinski. She was a beautiful woman with brunette hair, brown eyes and soft features that brought a soft glow to her face. The two girls had been invited back to the Stilinski household so Noah could tell them about his father, Stiles, and Claudia had brandished a metal tin for Sheriff Stilinski once they were all seated comfortably.

"He was an army engineer," Sheriff Stilinski explained to Meilani and Lydia as he popped off the lid on the metal tin. He plucked out a tiny, black and white photo and handed it to Meilani and she realized it was a photo of Sheriff's father back when he was in the army. Stiles was dressed up in an army uniform and his face was long and slim, a straight face was directed towards the camera. "Ended his career with the war. What I don't understand is . . . is what this has to do with the Wild Hunt."

"We think that somebody was taken from us," Meilani responded after getting a nod of encouragement from Lydia. "Uh, the Ghost Riders would have erased our memories of who it was, though."

"We found a clue," Lydia chimed in, lacing her fingers together delicately in her lap. "The word " Stiles "."

"And that's why you wanna talk to Elias?" Claudia guessed, seeming to catch on to what Lydia and Meilani needed to do.

Meilani handed the photo back to Sheriff so he could place it back in the tin and sat back in the chair she'd sat herself down on. "Mm, yeah, maybe he can help us figure it out. Maybe he'll know who we're looking for."

Noah sighed and rubbed a hand over his face before her leant forward, resting his elbows on his knees. "Now this is someone your age?"

"Yeah, I . . . I think I loved him," Meilani admitted, the void in her chest flaring suddenly and she rubbed absently at the middle of her chest where she felt the ghosting ache. It was like every time Meilani brought up or spoke up about the mystery boy, the voice would pulsate inside of her like it was trying to tell her something, but she couldn't figure out what. "Maybe . . . maybe he was my boyfriend, I don't know."

"I can guarantee you, my father cannot help you with this," Noah shot down immediately, closing up the tin and pushing himself up from the couch where he sat next to Claudia. "He lives in a nursing home three towns over. Hasn't had a visitor in years."

With that being said, Lydia had asked to use the bathroom and rushed out of the room before Meilani could ask her if she was okay. She could smell the uncertainty and nerves wafting off her and she furrowed her eyebrows as she watched the Martin girl rush out. To Sheriff and Claudia, it must have looked like it was just because she really had to go to the bathroom, but Meilani knew better than that.

While Lydia was gone, she tried to convince Sheriff to let her and Lydia go talk to Stiles. She didn't mind going to the nursing home, especially if it meant giving the man a visitor. He hadn't one in years as Sheriff had said and it pained Meilani's heart to know the poor man didn't have anyone that visited him, not even his own son. However, Sheriff was not having any of it as he progressively got more and more annoyed with Meilani trying to convince him to let her go.

"Meilani, you're not hearing me. Trust me, you don't wanna talk to him," Sheriff stressed, placing his hands on his hips as he shook his head. "My father cannot help you. You don't just " talk " to this guy! Okay? You have to find another way."

"But . . . what if this is the only way?" Meilani cried, feeling like she was finally one step closer to figuring this whole thing out and Sheriff was ripping the rug from right under her feet. "Sheriff, please."

Noah's blue eyes swam with sorrow as he placed a hand on Meilani's shoulder and shook his head with finality. "I'm sorry, sweetheart. The answer is no."

Okay, so . . . Meilani has admittedly done plenty of stupid shit since she's been bitten. Many of them nearly ending her life ( minus that one time that Liam actually nearly killed her, but it's fine, we don't speak of that ) and she still conquered through it all. She would just about anything to get to the bottom of what was happening around her. However, Meilani had never done anything as stupid as sneaking into a nursing home to talk to the Sheriff's father. Her brown eyes swept along the massive floor to ceiling windows that took up the front of the the white building before her and tugged at her denim jacket sleeve.

"I seriously cannot believe we're breaking in a nursing home right now," Meilani mumbled, feeling weird about the whole plan, but knew she had to do what she needed to do. If they were going to find out more about the mystery boy, they needed to talk to Stiles.

"After the orderlies at Eichen House, pretty sure we can handle some nurses," Isaac remarked, blue eyes sweeping along the building as well. He'd offered to go with Meilani and Lydia to the nursing home while Malia stayed back at the school with Kira and Scott while they made sure Liam kept a girl named Gwen safe from harm. Her sister had gone missing that morning from the Wild Hunt and Meilani needed to make sure that Gwen didn't get stolen next. "You wanna find out about your mystery lover boy, don't you?"

Meilani scrunched up her nose at Isaac's wording and exhaled heavily. They hadn't had a proper talk yet about their situation, especially since Meilani could feel their mate bond weaken the tiniest bit. Almost like it was beginning to make room for something else to come in and a part of Meilani wanted to think it had something to do with the mystery boy. She knew that she needed to have a talk with Isaac which would no doubt lead to their official break up ( though, Meilani was one hundred percent certain they were unspokenly ) but that was a conversation that could wait until later. 

Right now she needed to focus on the conversation with Sheriff's father.

The trio were able to make their way passed the front desk after Meilani had flashed her innocent smile and tilted her head, pretending to be the granddaughter of Sheriff's father. The nurse oddly did not ask for any sort of ID, but Meilani didn't comment on the definite violation there and accepted that she had managed to get through. They had walked down the corridor and towards what looked like a lounge room where music from the fifty's played on a record player in the corner of the medium sized room.

An older gentleman sat all by himself in the room at the table in the far corner. Food was laid out on the table, half of it going untouched as the man just stared down at the table, unblinking. However, when he heard the footsteps of Isaac, Meilani and Lydia, he turned and his greyed eyebrows furrowed in confusion as he obviously did not recognize the three teens before him. "Hello? Oh. Is it time for my medicine?"

"We don't — uh . . . we don't have your medicine," Isaac stammered slightly, grimacing at nervous he'd sounded. "Are you Elias Stilinski?"

"I am."

Lydia perked up slightly when he confirmed who he was and she walked closer to him, standing on the other side of the table from Elias. "Hi, I'm Lydia Martin. Do you know who I am?"

Elias was quiet for a long moment, he tried to remember Lydia even though he had never met the girl before. "Should I?"

"Hey, Mr. Stilinski, we are looking for somebody that might be named Stiles?" Meilani chimed in, walking over so she could be stood next to Lydia. "You went by that name in the army, right?"

"Yes. They were the best years of my life," Elias replied solemnly before his eyes finally drifted back to Isaac again, a flash recognition flaring in his blue eyes. "Oh, dear me, how could I forget my own son?"

"Your — uh, your son?" Isaac balked, not prepared for the man to think he was Sheriff Stilinski. He shot a look to Lydia and Meilani for help and they both rolled their eyes at him.

"Mr. Stilinski, what year is it?" Lydia asked next, keeping a kind smile on her face.

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

Lydia bowed her head and blew out a breath before she turned to Meilani who rose her eyebrows in curiosity. "Mei, he's got dementia."

Before Meilani could offer a response, Elias diverted his gaze from Isaac and over to her with glazed over eyes. "Is — is it time for my medicine?"

This was going to be a long day.

"Isaac Lahey?" Elias asked after Isaac explained to him for the third time who he, Lydia and Meilani were. The three teens were now sat around the table with Elias and they had tried to explain the situation the best they could to him, but he kept forgetting after a minutes. It only showed how much his dementia had progressed and Meilani wondered how long the man had been suffering. "No, no, no, no. You are my son."

Lydia shook her head gently and leant her arms on the table. "Mr. Stilinski, your son. He is the sheriff of Beacon Hills now."

"No, no, no, no. I was in the army."

"Lans, I think you might need your claws for this," Isaac murmured quietly to her while Elias continued to tell Lydia all about the army and how he was happy to be home with his son again. Just in time for his birthday, too.

Meilani frowned deeply and crossed her arms across her chest, a bad feeling bubbling in the pit of her stomach at the thought of using her claws on Elias. "I can't, Isaac. It could kill him."

Isaac brushed a stray piece of Meilani's curled hair back over her shoulder so it was out of her face out of habit. "I get that, but we're running out of time here. If you don't do it, I will and I don't even know how to do it."

Meilani gasped and quickly shot her hand out before Isaac could even move to flick out his claws. Her glare was harsh as she used her hair as a veil so she could flash her alpha eyes at Isaac. "You forget I could read your damn mind. We are not hurting him, Isaac. I refuse to do it."

"You should leave," Elias' loud voice snapped Meilani and Isaac's attention over to him, Meilani's hand still gripped tightly around Isaac's wrist. "If you don't leave, I'll have to report you."

"Lyds, what happened? He was just quietly talking to you a second ago," Meilani said, flashing her eyes over to Lydia who glanced out the window to where the moon now hung high in the sky. A darkness now took over the room as no lights had been switched on in the time the trio spent with Elias.

"The sun went down. He's sundowning," Lydia informed, standing up from her chair as Elias began to mumble to himself and mess around with the cards that had been left on the table. "It's when dementia patients lose their faculties after the sun goes down."

Elias' breathing began to grow rapid as he visibly grew more and more agitated with Meilani, Isaac and Lydia's presence. "I don't want to talk to you anymore!"

"So what do we do now?" Isaac questioned, scrambling out of his seat and away from the table as Elias' voice raised higher and higher.

"We wait till the sub comes back up."

"We can't wait that long. There's gotta be something we could do to keep him quiet," Meilani stated, desperation seeping through her as Elias continued to beg the trio to leave him alone. 

Lydia was quiet for a long moment before she turned and grabbed papers and a pen from the table behind her, placing the sheet down before the mumbling Stilinski. The sheets looked like they had some sort of mathematical equations scrawled across them and Lydia turned one around so Elias could look at it properly. "Elias, look at the equations. It's binomial probability. What's " P "?"

Elias quietened down instantly and he stared at Lydia's pen for a second before he took it from her hand and began to work out the equation. "Um, probability of success?"

"Right. Uh, and that means N minus K is?"

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

Meilani was stunned momentarily as Elias' previous agitation was washed away and he grabbed up another sheet of paper with a different equation on it. He stood from his seat and examined the paper closely and he tilted his head, mentally trying to work out the problem in his head. The action made a rush of familiarity course through her as if she'd seen that same action before and Meilani had half a mind to think it was the mystery boy. Almost like he'd done that same action anytime he was deep in concentration when doing school work or working out a problem that dealt with the supernatural.

"Just who the hell do you think you are?" Elias' voice snapped Meilani out of her momentary train of thought, his eyes scanned the three teens suspiciously. 

"You know Isaac isn't your son?" Lydia checked, realizing that Elias might have had a moment of clarity. Something that tended to happen in dementia patients where they would have small, tiny bursts of clarity like they didn't have a brain disease. 

"Of course I know that. Are brains getting smaller with skirts?" Elias grumbled, his eyes then drifted to Meilani and he had full recognition in his face. "So . . . you're that McCall girl?"

Meilani balked at his words, blinking rapidly for a moment. "Um . . . you know me?"

"I know your dad. Man couldn't hold his liquor and he certainly couldn't keep that wedding ring on his finger. Pretty young thing would walk by and poof, that ring just disappeared like magic. Almost like he was never even married. Felt bad for you and that brother of yours, especially after your little accident there. Man, that brother of your sure does love you, never left your side for a second after your mother threw that drunken dickhead out."

Meilani felt her mouth dry at the mention of Rafe. Their relationship was still strained, regardless of him sticking around a few months and trying to reconnect with her and Scott, and Meilani was pretty certain it would remain that way. He still called or texted whenever he could, but he was always busy back in San Francisco with his FBI job and Meilani knew better than anyone that his job was always more important to him. Now to hear that Rafe may or may not have cheated on Melissa shouldn't have made Meilani feel as sick to her stomach as it did because she should have expected it of him. 

"Do you know all of us?" Lydia cut in before Isaac could tear Elias a new one for making Meilani upset. 

"Oh . . . you're Natalie Martin's daughter. Am I right? You look just like her. She was pretty once, too."

"Stop talking," Isaac growled out at Elias when he noticed the slight flinch that took over Lydia, yellow wolf eyes glowing dangerously at the man.

"Isaac, no!" Meilani warned lowly, shoving him back down and snapping for his eyes to turn back to their natural blue color.

However, Isaac's threat didn't even affect Elias and the man merely continued to go on. "And she also liked to talk like she was the smartest person in the room."

"That's it!" Isaac roared, going to move out of his seat and flick out his claws when Sheriff's booming voice sounded in the room. It earned every pair of eyes on him and the teens all paled at the sight of him. How did he know they were even there?

"That's enough!" Sheriff hollered, storming over to the teens and his father with a male nurse at his side. "I explicitly told you not to come here, Meilani. What the hell were you thinking?"

"Aw, Noah, were just having a nice conversation," Elias waved his son off like he didn't just open a can of worms on both Lydia and Meilani that they both rather not hear about.

"The three of you. Out," Sheriff ordered, jerking his finger in the direction of the exit with a stern gaze. "Now."

Meilani can officially add being dragged to the Sheriff's Station onto her list of things she never thought would happen to her. Sure, Meilani had gone there willingly more times than she could count with all the supernatural drama that Sheriff and Parrish both helped her out with. Though, Meilani had never once been taken there by Sheriff himself and had Natalie Martin waiting there for her, Lydia and Isaac when they showed up at the Sheriff's station twenty minutes later from the nursing home.

"I know this looks bad," Meilani began sheepishly, rocking back on her heels awkwardly as she usually was never one on the other end of a reprimanding. Then again, there had been a lot of firsts since sophomore year.

"It doesn't look bad, Meilani. It is bad," Natalie scolded the alpha, causing the girl to shut her mouth instantly. "You broke into a nursing home and you harassed a dementia patient. This could affect the rest of your lives. Just because you weren't arrested and thrown in jail, does not mean you're not grounded for eternity. I'm sure Melissa will say the same about Meilani and Isaac."

"I can promise you no more breaking into nursing homes, Mrs. Martin," Meilani assured the Martin woman.

"I'm still telling your mother, Meilani."

"Yeah, I figured."

"You said to find a safe place for Gwen. So we brought the party here."

Meilani seriously could never catch a break. When Natalie dropped off Isaac and Meilani to the McCall household, the duo walked in to the banister on the stairs being broken, a table smashed into a million pieces with alcohol and snacks spilled across the living room floor and two holes in the wall next to the stairs where it looked like two bodies had been thrown into it.

"Can we put him down now?" Isaac begged Meilani who shot him an unamused look. "What? I'm serious. That little runt destroyed the house. Clearly, you can't trust him to do anything."

"Isaac, shut up," Meilani snapped, turning back to her beta with a disappointed expression. "Liam, I told you to watch over Gwen, not throw a fucking party. If my mom sees this, I will literally die. She might actually shove wolfsbane down my damn throat."

"At least we saved Gwen?" Liam tried, smiling cutely at Meilani but it faltered at the sharp expression that took over Meilani's face to show him she was not finding him cute nor adorable at the moment. "Sorry, sorry."

Meilani kicked away one of the broken pieces of banister and moved further into the trashed living room, running her eyes over Liam to make sure he was okay. She may be disappointed and upset with him, but that didn't mean she wouldn't make sure he was still okay. "But you saw the Ghost Rider, didn't you? Doesn't that book say that if you see the Wild Hunt then you'll be taken, too?"

"i don't — everyone at the party saw him, Lan. Does that meant that . . . "

"They're all gonna be taken," Meilani finished for Liam, suddenly feeling the crushing weight of the world right on top of her shoulders again. She tugged a stressed hand through her hair and threw her head back with a groan. "I should have been here!"

Could the night get any worse?

After forcing Liam to go home for the night, Meilani took the liberty of cleaning up the upstairs while Isaac offered to clean up the downstairs. He knew a way to fix up the banister so he had Meilani go do the easy work so she could at least have somewhat of a break. Even though it wasn't even a break at all. Cups and crushed up chips littered her room and the garbage bag she'd brought up with her to clean was already half full. At this rate, Meilani was going to need another bag.

A knock on her doorframe alerted Meilani and she glanced up from where she cleaned up cups from her bed to see Sheriff stood in her doorway, now dressed in a blue crewneck and jeans. "Some party you had here."

"Yeah. Uh . . . remind me to never have teenagers. I can barely handle Liam," Meilani joked, earning a soft laugh from Sheriff as she shoved more cups into her bag. "Hopefully, I can get this all cleaned up before my mom gets back from her shift. Of course Scott wasn't here when it happened."

"I'll help," Sheriff offered, stepping into the room and grabbing up some cups to dump into the bag that Meilani had missed. 

Meilani offered Sheriff a grateful smile and held out her bag for Sheriff to dump the trash inside, adding a bit more weight to the already weighty bag. "Um . . . Sheriff? I'm really sorry about earlier. We never should have gone to see your father, especially after you asked me not to."

Sheriff waved her off and bent down to pick up a pile of napkins that had been unused, but Sheriff still dumped them into the bag just to be safe. "No, no, it's . . . it's okay. I should have been clearer about who he is. Maybe a part of me just didn't want to admit it." He pulled down the neck of his sweater and revealed a bit of scarred over skin near the top of his shoulder and Meilani gaped slightly at the sight. "This is my dad, sweetheart. 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 keep him away from her."

Meilani's hand absently rubbed at the back of her head where there was a small dent from when Rafe knocked her down the stairs the night he was kicked out. The night he was screaming and gaining closer and closer to Melissa. The whole reason Meilani had rushed out of her room that night in the first place and tried to help her mom before Rafe could even think of hitting her. Now she was left with a bruise to remember the whole night by. "Yeah . . . sounds like the dent in my head thanks to good ol' dad. Thanks for coming that night, by the way. Scott told me the whole story after my dad brought it up the last time he was in town. It means a lot to me that you'd come when my mom calls."

"Anything for you, sweetheart. You know that," Sheriff assured her, squeezing Meilani's shoulder softly. "However, something you said had just been bugging me all day. Somethin' about memories. Have you ever had a dream that's so real that you thought it was a memory? Okay, in this dream, I am lying in bed with Claudia. It's a couple of weeks before we graduate from college and we're talking about the future and kinds and what we'll call them. I tell her that if we have a son, I want to name him after her father. She laughs at me and she says, " why would you want to saddle some poor kid with a name like that? ". 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 called Stiles anyway. "."

Meilani paused at the mention of the name again, the same name that happened to be a Stilinski family name. Something that every male was called no matter what their birth name was. Did that mean that there was another Stiles?

A Stiles that the pack was missing?

word count: ( 5.1k )

— not Noah and Meilani still making me soft. ugh, my heart simply cannot handle them && i cannot wait for Stiles to come back so Noah can call Meilani his daughter-in-law again, thank you.

MEILANI FACT OF THE CHAPTER ( 17 TO GO )

MEILANI'S FAVORITE SUBJECT IN SCHOOL IS SCIENCE AND SHE WANTS TO GO TO SCHOOL FOR NURSING SO SHE COULD BE JUST LIKE HER MOM SINCE HER MOM IS HER LEGIT HERO.

( beginning banner by hellstarshipper / ending banner by murdersongs )