◤ chapter five: ❛ blood in
the water ❜ ◢

✧

THE LINE WAS DEAD, AND COOPER HAD NO IDEA WHAT THE FUCK WAS GOING ON AT THE BANK. His head was in his hands, trying to calm his heartbeat because the last thing he wanted was Peter Hale knowing that he was worried while Stiles tried time and time again to reach Scott. It wasn't like his attempts were going very far as every call went unanswered, upping his already high anxiety.

          Stiles paced as he tried to reach Scott and this time, neither of the other two tried to stop him. Cooper felt the need to do the same, though he stopped himself because he wouldn't be caught dead doing that. Caring about people? Yeah, not really his thing.

          "How about we just drive there?" Stiles offered, babbling on and on.

          "Drive to the bank where there are at least two moon-starved werewolves looking for fresh meat? Yeah, that means like a great idea," Cooper rolled his eyes at the notion, though he had thought the same as well. He promised Julia he wouldn't get involved in any of this shit, but that promise was becoming increasingly hard to keep now that two batshit crazy wolves were in Beacon Hills.

          Maybe Scott and Derek were already dead, maybe they weren't, he didn't know. Probably not. At least, he hoped not because those would be some hard deaths to cover up.

          Never mind that, it probably wouldn't be too hard if he really wanted to try. Stranger things had happened in Beacon Hills, especially as of late. Two deaths would be nothing! Maybe, anyway. But that didn't matter because he really just didn't want them dead. Shit was always happening in town and the last he wanted was to face them all alone – or with just Peter and Stiles.

          No, he didn't think he could survive more of him with those two. Maybe small doses. Nothing more. He couldn't handle anything more than that.

          "Well, what do you suggest?" Stiles stopped pacing, looking at him with a face of anger. He was frustrated, that was obvious enough, and Cooper couldn't exactly blame him for that. There were rabid werewolves running around town who could easily kill anything in their path – and probably would – and they didn't know if the only two people trying to stop them were even alive.

          Yeah, okay maybe he had the right to be stressed and angry.

          "I don't know, but not going to the place where we will easily be killed!" Cooper exclaimed, because he was not good at thinking under pressure. Well, he wasn't good with problem solving on a good, stress-free day either. Jackson had always been the planner, Cooper was the charisma who allowed the plan to work flawlessly even when they found problem.

          "You're a siren, you can – I don't know – siren them?" Stiles suggested.

          Cooper scoffed at him. "It's not that easy. Last time I 'sirened' someone their eardrums began to bleed and I almost killed them. Would've if Julia hadn't found me."

          "But you've been learning control!"

          "Yeah, I'm learning control. On bottles. I can break a bottle no problem but that does not equate to me knowing how to control my sirening on actual people and not killing them. Unless we want them dead. Then I can do that," he added the last bit as an afterthought, trailing off a little and looking away from Stiles.

          "We're not killing them," Stiles said blankly, firm and exasperated as if he couldn't believe he actually had to state that and make the notion clear.

          Cooper only shrugged. "That's too bad then."

          "Will you two stop your bickering already?" Peter groaned, looking at them as if he wanted to murder them. Which, yeah, he probably did and probably would if they continued to annoy them. And, well, Cooper knew how powerful he could be, but he didn't have as much control over his powers as Peter did over his wolf abilities, so he would be dead meat if Peter came after the two of them. "You're not getting anywhere like this!"

          "And what, like you're being a great help?" Stile bit back at him and Cooper shot him a look.

          "You're really going to argue with a murderer who will kill you if pressed?" Cooper questioned him. Honestly, with how Stiles acted around people who could kill him without flinching all the time, he wondered how the boy had made it this long.

          It wasn't like he wanted Stiles dead, but others probably did. Peter probably did. No, with the way Peter was looking at him, Peter definitely wanted Stiles dead. And Cooper couldn't say that he didn't understand, because he definitely did. Oh well.

          Stiles opened his mouth as if to argue that point with Cooper when his phone rang. "Lydia?"

          He groaned, putting his head back in his hands and drowning out Stiles and the rest of the world around him. He shouldn't even be here. He should've left before Derek and Scott did – that would've been so much easier. Julia would be so disappointed in him if she knew what he was up to, and he hated when she was disappointed in him.

          It was like a mother's I'm not mad I'm just disappointed look, air, everything. He couldn't escape from it when he was with her and then clouded the air around him for hours after. It was suffocating. He never had that growing up. He and Jackson weren't bad kids, they weren't, and there was no need for it. And when they finally started acting out, it wasn't like his parents were there to ever notice.

          He checked his phone. Yeah, no calls from either of them. Typical. He could be gone in Mexico for a week and they wouldn't notice, only getting suspicious when the apples in the fruit bowl on the kitchen counter never seemed to fluctuate. He was sure they barely even noticed the change in the house now that Jackson was gone.

          It probably wasn't any different from them, but it was a completely new environment for him. His house was always cold, stale, but when he went upstairs it was warm. Because Jackson was there, at least his presence anyway, but now it was just...cold. Like everywhere else.

          His room was cold and stiff, unmoving except for the dust coating the new bedspread and empty room. There was no character anymore, nothing reminiscent of Jackson anywhere. It was like he never even existed there. But he did. To Cooper.

          But he was the only one who noticed.

          "Cooper!"

          Stiles jostled him and Cooper was quick to slap his hand away, arising a yelp from the other boy. "I don't like to be touched," Cooper snapped at him. Only Jackson or people he was fucking were allowed to touch him. Not Stiles. Never Stiles.

          "Sorry," the Stilinski boy shuffled around a bit, "It's just – Lydia found a dead body."

          "Lydia did what now?" Cooper stared at him, because he definitely did not hear that right. Lydia – poor old Lydia who was too sweet to Jackson when he didn't deserve it and painted Cooper's fingernails sometimes when he asked did not just go out wandering and find a dead body. There's no way that happened because it couldn't. He didn't believe it because it simply couldn't be true.

          No.

          Not Lydia.

          She could absolutely not be dragged into this mess at all.

          "She found a dead body at the pool," Stiles repeated again and Cooper groaned. That was so not what he wanted to hear. "I'm going to meet here there."

          He stood up. "And I'm coming with. Don't act too thrilled about it," Cooper snipped at the unwanted expression on Stiles' face.

          "Fine," Stiles agreed, although he still didn't look happy. At least he didn't argue. Cooper might hit him if he started another argument. But the boy was quiet, so Cooper kept his hands to himself and moved with him to the ratty old Jeep that Stiles seemed to love.

          He didn't know why. The car was a piece of shit and needed to be crushed, like, yesterday. It was falling apart and was that...? Yep, there was definitely some duct tape holding it together. He really didn't understand Stiles' fondness for this.

          Wrinkling his nose as he got it, he made sure not to slam the door shut because honestly he didn't know if it would fall off. This time, though, he kept his opinion to himself. It wouldn't benefit anyone to complain about a shitty car, especially when he didn't own it. Still, the last thing he felt sitting inside was safe.

          But it started, and Stiles drove. Quickly and like a mad man. Cooper had to hold on for dear life. He was too young to die. It wasn't his time even though Stiles was trying to make it so.

          This was so the last time he drove with Stiles.

          In record time, because they were speeding at a highly illegal rate, they made it to the community pool, seeing only Lydia there looking paler than normal and scared out of her mind. Her eyes were terribly wide and Cooper rushed towards her as Stiles called out her name.

          "You alright there?" Cooper asked her in a hushed tone, grapping her hands. Okay, so maybe some contact was alright – just not when it came to Stiles. And it was Lydia. Yeah, they might not have the best relationship, especially after Jackson broke up with her only giving her a shitty explanation.

          ("I just have bigger plans now," Jackson shrugged.

          "You sound like a dick," Cooper snipped at him. His brother only laughed at that, not denying it.)

          "I'm okay..." Lydia told them, shaking. She turned to the pool "That, over there...? Not okay."

          Before he could stop himself, his eyes wandered to where Lydia directed. It was a body. Floating. Blood everywhere around it. He shut his eyes quickly and moved his body away so that he wouldn't have to see it, bringing Lydia with him. He couldn't imagine how traumatizing it had been to find the body, not after seeing it. God, he was going to have nightmares, wasn't he?

          "This shouldn't have happened," Cooper shook his head before looking back at the strawberry blonde, "Lydia...I'm – you shouldn't have been the one to find them."

          Lydia didn't respond, too much in a state of shock, and Cooper supposed that he wasn't exactly being the most comforting. But what was he supposed to say? It's not like he's been in this situation before; a dead body in a pool and a girl in front of him who found it alone and was now traumatized. This was new territory and he didn't think well under pressure!

          "I'm gonna call my dad," Stiles told them, bringing out his phone when Lydia's eyes snapped toward him.

          "I already called 911."

          "You called the police before you called me?" Stiles asked her incredulously.

          "I'm supposed to call you first when I find a dead body?" Lydia turned the questioning around on him, eyebrows furrowing in confusion. Her voice was tense and angry, but overall puzzled.

          "Yes!"

          "Stiles," Cooper broke in, looking at the boy, "You know, normal people when they find a dead body call the cops or run away because they don't want to be involved. They don't call a scrawny teenager who should be doing his math homework. Just saying."

          Stiles opened his mouth but after a quick glance to Lydia shut it. He huffed and shook his head. "Whatever," he snapped back at Cooper.

          The Whittemore boy rolled his eyes. He didn't blame Lydia for calling the police, he would've done the same thing before he learned about the crazy and ever-growing world of supernatural creatures. First, there was him almost killing a person with his newfound siren abilities. Then there was Julia – his guardian angel. And after that there were the wolves, then the kanima, then Jackson deforming from the kanima to a wolf to a bastard who left him behind in pursuit of a new life in London.

          Whatever. It doesn't matter. He's not still pissed at his brother even though he understands why he had to leave.

          (Fuck Jackson. Metaphorically. That asshole.)

          But it wasn't sitting right with Cooper. This. Any of this. "Lydia, why were you at the pool?"

          She wasn't wearing a swimsuit, or a cover-up. She didn't have a pool day bag which Lydia Martin would totally have if she was laying out. And it was night. The pool was closed.

          Lydia opened her mouth then closed it, then opened it again. "I don't know," she admitted, confusion over her own actions appearing on her face, "I didn't mean to drive here. I was going to CVS..."

          "But you ended up at the pool...why?"

          "Like I said, I don't know," Lydia snapped at him, "But I had a feeling, like a pit in my stomach, that something bad was going to happen. I just knew it."

          Well, that didn't answer anything. Really, it just added a whole lot more questions to his list. God, it was all so confusing. He knew of a gut instinct, he knew of driving without thinking and ending up at home or at Julia's without even realizing that he had turned that direction. But, he didn't know this.

          It felt different. In his mind or his soul, whatever. It just wasn't right. Lydia wasn't going home or school in a haze, she was going to CVS and ended up at the pool. Cooper had never ended up at a location he barely went without realizing it. He would be aware, in control, but Lydia wasn't. Still wasn't, though he chalked that up more as the trauma over the night's events.

          And she knew. The way she said it, it didn't sound like a gut instinct. It felt like something more. Something even more dangerous that he really didn't want to unpack even though he knew he probably should. But he didn't want to push her, partly because he didn't think she'd know.

          Hell, he still only knew the surface of sirens. The songs were deadly, but there were different ones. Ones that lured people in, ones that killed them, ones that weren't songs at all. The aura. The smiles. The charisma. It was a song even though he wasn't singing a single tune.

          "I know I'm not your go-to person or anything, but if you have this...gut feeling again, tell me," Cooper told her earnestly, "If you find another dead body, which would be worst case scenario and I would never want to happen to you again, at least you won't be alone."

          "Oh, I'm never doing this happen," Lydia shot him down, and he internally shrugged. Yeah, he should've predicted that this would happen. "If I have another feeling like this, I'm not getting out of my bed. I'll slam my head into the bedpost and knock myself out, which is what I should've done tonight. No going to the pool, no finding a dead body, no calling Stiles and having him tell me I should only call him and not the police!"

          "Stiles...doesn't always think logically," Cooper said in the nicest way possible, because it was true. He knew the boy was smart, miles above Cooper, but he didn't think logically. He thought with his knowledge of events, not others. How would Lydia know about Boyd and not-Erica (maybe, that was still being debated) and supernaturally connected dead bodies?

          Lydia scoffed at that and shook her head. She began to squint her eyes as light poured onto them and Cooper himself had to hold up a hand to stop the bright lights from harming his eyes. The cops. Lydia went up to them first to explain what happened and Cooper crossed his arms, looking at Stiles who was scrambling on his phone.

          A cop came up to him and asked for his recount of the events, but left after a moment finding him utterly useless. It wasn't like Cooper knew what happened. He was innocent.

          He checked his phone periodically and after Lydia tore herself away from the cops, Stiles came up to Cooper. "I'm escorting Lydia home. Well, we are."

          Cooper raised an eyebrow, looking at the strawberry blonde who was heading back to her car. "Really?"

          "Really," Stiles confirmed.

          "She's fine, dude."

          "You don't know that."

          Cooper gave him a blank stare. "I highly doubt that Lydia will find herself in trouble for the second time tonight. She'll be fine, Dumbo."

          "Just in case!"

          "Just admit that you have a raging hard-on for her and that's the only reason you wanna follow you, like a crazed stalker," Cooper deadpanned.

          Stiles sputtered for a response, conjecting with different beginnings for defense but Cooper ultimately shook his head. "Whatever, let's go and get her home safe as quick as we can."

          He sighed, getting back in the shitty Jeep, following Lydia and a cop car back to the Martin residence. He really doesn't get paid enough for this shit.

author's note
it's been more than a hot minute y'all. thank you to everyone who patiently waited for this and did not ask when cooper would be updated. technically, this book is still on hold so i don't know when the next update will be so don't hold your breath. it could be another ten months or so before more cooper content. probably not because i didn't finish writing for the episode and if i don't finish it soon, i'll forget where i'm at and my plans for it so you're welcome if there's another update soon.

but here's this! sorry for no scott content this chapter but there's no way i could work cooper into the scott and derek plot side of the episode without throwing common sense out the window but at least we got bickering between stiles and cooper! lots and lots of bickering...

honestly i'm loving the relationship between stiles and cooper and it's so much fun to write conversations between them. and a sweet moment with lydia! honestly im really proud of this chapter because i love cooper's internal monologues and i hope you can the character peaking through a lot in the narration :)