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The most important thing Scott has learned is that he is going to always be learning. It was a hard lesson to really sink in but it has served him well, especially since graduating and truly an asset in the war against Monroe. Sometimes it's frustrating to not have all the answers but to be surrounded by capable people he trusts to help him see it through when he doesn’t is something that makes it a little easier to bear.
Sometimes it's not so much frustrating so much as headache inducing. The usual suspects being the younger pack members.
And Theo Raeken. Scott still isn’t entirely sure what the story is there but an ally is an ally right now. And he’s mostly waiting until Theo cracks, he knows it's coming and Scott can be patient.
Back to the current matter, which consists of a winter break all hands war council. Originally intended as a pack meeting, invitations were extended out as the nature of the meeting moved from general updates to potential planning for their next moves. Except that Liam and company are MIA. He’s trying to remain calm but Scott can’t reach Liam and Lydia hasn’t had luck with calling Mason. Likely sensing Scott’s question before he can ask it, Derek pulls out his phone and is pressing Theo’s contact. After two rings it cuts to voicemail. Stiles making indignant noises at the clear decline but Malia shoves her hand over his mouth.
“Someone just pulled into the driveway,” she says to the room. “Three people.” Argent steps a bit closer to the doorway at the declaration. The heartbeats sound familiar to Scott but he’s not as attuned as Derek to be able to place them individually. Though by Derek’s sideways glare at the door he suspects Theo is one of the heartbeats. But that means one person is still missing. Scott braces for bad news at the sound of the opening door.
He feels his own heart spike at seeing Theo, Mason, and Corey stepping inside, their expressions thunderous and their clothes in various states of disarray. Mason and Corey with half wet clothes and Theo’s torn and wet with water and blood stains. The relief that the three of them are here and unharmed is bright but fleeting.
“Where’s Liam?” is the first thing out of his mouth, at the same time Stiles has lurched forward asking, “Jesus, what happened?”
The three are still crammed in the entryway and glance at each other, something settling like steel behind their eyes. Mason steps forward to speak in a tone that offers no quarter for argument, “Liam isn’t coming to the meeting tonight. And you will all leave it alone.”
Mason glances around the room and starts walking toward their unofficial assigned seats on the couch. Corey following close behind with a hand on Mason’s back and Theo in the rear. The whole house erupts into chaos. The only people not yelling are Argent and Derek who are both studying the trio intently.
Even Melissa and Noah are raising their voices. Scott himself sputters uselessly trying to pick a question, any question. Is he ok? Where is he? Why are you telling us to leave it alone?
“His blood is your goddamn shirt, Theo!” is the accusation from Malia that cuts through it all. Bitter silence falls across the house as everyone rounds on Theo. Mason throws an arm in front of him. To stop Theo or Malia, it’s not terribly effective but what the gesture implies picks at something in Scott’s heart. But what really stops the whole room is Corey. Corey, who isn’t the shyest, but is on the quiet side. The kid has a sharp tongue but uses it sparingly, especially in crowds.
“Leave it alone,” Corey spits at the room.
Now that? That is a sledgehammer to Scott’s heart and has his mind running a million miles an hour. Something has changed with the four of them. Corey and Liam were friends but Corey never pulled punches in Liam’s favor. Where Mason would lean toward giving Liam grace, Corey would demand better of him. That with Mason’s move for Theo pointing towards something happening. But what sticks in Scott’s heart selfishly is that Liam calls him all the time to tell him everything.
Scott doesn’t know what to do with the new knowledge that it hasn’t been everything.
Derek clears his throat from where he’s leaning in the door frame to the dining room, “Let’s start the meeting then. Scott?”
It's a few seconds as Scott tries to gather himself. Thrown by the hot sting of everyone’s anger in his nose and the sinking feeling in his gut, he coughs a few times, and then swivelling his head to look at everyone in the room, he nods and starts the meeting about some new movements they’ve had reported on some hunters moving towards Chicago.
The whole meeting is tense. Both from the actual topic of the meeting and the elephant on the couch. Lydia is trying to pay attention from the recliner, notes on the coffee table but her eyes drift across towards Theo every few minutes. Melissa and Noah mostly hide in the kitchen packing up food from earlier, knowing that if they’ll be needed, Argent or Parrish will just let them know after it’s all decided. Noah is mostly there to be company to Melissa since she has long had to accept that her worries about staying safe have been moot since the war. Whether they seek Monroe out or stay put, they will always be in danger and Scott cannot ask his mom to stay in the room every time they make plans they might not come back from. Parrish, Argent, and Derek mostly lean against the walls and don’t say much until it comes to discussing an actually viable plan. Stiles and Malia pace around the room, offering up theories or ideas but not even trying to hide their pointed staring and aggression towards the couch trio.
Surprisingly, Theo doesn’t once try to bait or taunt either of the two. Mason and Corey smell more frustrated as the night goes on but the three just hear Scott out. Try to offer up any information they think is relevant. Eventually, the pack concedes that they probably have to wait it out a bit to see if the odd move is about recruitment since Chicago is a huge city, or about supplies.
Derek is in the middle of pressing his point to Argent that, while he knows of a few small packs in the midwest, that’s not the same as having met a single one so even if he wanted to try reaching out, it wouldn’t be any quicker than waiting for Argent’s hunter network game of telephone when Mason interjects.
“Well, next week Liam actually has a college tour scheduled for Concordia. He might be able to poke around while he’s there.”
Malia and Stiles both freeze and stare at him. The room goes cold, and Scott tries not to let his surprise show on his face. Judging by Corey’s grimace at him, he doesn’t succeed.
“That could be helpful. Derek can send the list of known wolves, and he can brush up on pack courtesy with Scott before he goes.” Argent suggests. “Even if he doesn’t learn anything, it would be good if he can warn them hunters are running through their territory.”
Parrish pipes in, “Could be good for setting groundwork if we need their help in the future too.”
Scott’s mouth has gone dry since the mention of his beta so he just nods in Argent’s general direction even as Theo rolls his eyes and Mason huffs a breath out of his nose.
“Why is Liam touring Concordia?” Lydia asks Mason. Her gaze searching for something on his face when he turns to her.
He shrugs, “Their lacrosse team is only D3 but they reached out to Liam at the end of the fall season and offered a scholarship.”
There’s a beat when Scott can spot the second Lydia pieces something together. She tilts her head, “How many college tours do the three of you have scheduled?”
Mason just looks impressed and resigned at the question and Corey sighs. Theo stares at Lydia with a wry twist to his lips and an unsurprised air about him.
“Twenty two. As of right now, at least.” Mason relents.
Stiles lets out a loud guffaw at that, “Twenty- jesus christ-”
“That’s so many,” Parrish whispers to himself a little too loud.
Lydia and Mason hold each others gaze in silence and Argent steps forward to stand beside the armchair. His blue eyes sweep over the three and he finally clues the rest of the room in.
“You guys set up college tours as a cover to chase Monroe? Without telling any of us?” He sounds angry but Scott can pick out the impressed disbelief underneath. After a second he focuses on Theo.
The chimera notices and smirks, "I'm flattered, Argent, but you can’t pin this scheme on me.”
“Liam planned this?” Scott’s question punched out of him before he can really think about it. Something in Theo’s tone soft that Scott’s hind brain latched onto as a clue to who Theo meant.
“Try not to hurt yourself underestimating him, Scott,” Theo bites. Scott takes a deep breath trying not to react but his eyes catch on Mason’s hand subtly patting at Theo’s thigh.
“Well, maybe I wouldn’t underestimate him if he wasn’t keeping secrets,” he finally snaps, eyes flaring red at the chimera.
“Woah, Scotty-” Stiles steps in front of his best friend. Scott shakes his head, his eyes flicking back to brown but behind Stiles, Malia charges towards Theo blue eyes flashing and growling. Theo surges off the couch, yellow eyes flaring and before Mason can try to stop him Corey’s up too.
Thankfully, before Malia can raise her hand to swipe at Theo, Lydia snags her wrist and Argent gets a hand on the chimera’s bicep.
“Enough,” the hunter snaps. He looks towards Scott and Malia until he turns to stare Theo down until he relents and sits.
Derek speaks up from his spot on the wall across from Scott where he hasn’t moved an inch from the whole time, “So what were you guys planning to do with all these college tours?”
“For exactly times like this,” Mason gestures at the room. “The idea was that if we were already traveling around, for ‘regular’ reasons,” he waved a hand dismissively, “Then, if we ever happened to be somewhere at a time, it would be easy to look like coincidence.”
Derek nods thoughtfully, “Not a bad plan. Easy cover for recon.”
“Or a diversion,” Lydia considers out loud.
“Ok, I’m going to be the bad guy here and say I think this is actually a horrible idea,” Stiles jumps in. When everyone turns sharply, he throws his hands up defensively, “I’m just saying- Look, you guys are huge targets for Monroe being from here, where it started. If she caught wind of you guys being away from here all together, what's to stop her attacking Beacon Hills all over again? Or what? You go alone and get kidnapped or worse all the way out in Chicago?”
Scott gasps sharply at Stiles’ points. He didn’t even consider how vulnerable they’d end up one way or the other.
“We’re not idiots, Stiles,” Mason snaps. “We go with our parents to keep the cover and Theo tails us. The two of us not touring stay behind to watch the town, which still has Parrish and your parents here, by the way. It’s not completely indefensible.”
“Oh so you just risk your parents, what a fantastic-”
“Stiles!” Scott stops him. The rising heat of anger in the room starting to give him a headache.
Thankfully, Argent steps in for him, “Ok, so, it's not like they’re picking fights. It's actually pretty helpful for gathering information and possibly reaching out to more packs." He turns to the couch, “However, it’s not as helpful if you don’t tell us about it and could be dangerous. What if something happened and we didn’t know where you were? What’s your plan if you accidentally start an interpack disagreement? Do you have a plan if you run into Monroe herself?”
“What do you think I’m tailing them for?” Theo asks. He doesn't snark, just asks levelly. Scott steps forward, protest on his lips but before anything gets out, Theo continues. “I know, Scott. I know. I’m saying, I’m there to get them out, if something happens.” He meets Scott’s eyes. “But know. I will put them first. Whatever that takes.”
It feels like a stone makes a home in Scott’s gut at those words.
Quietly, Mason murmurs, “Hopefully it won’t come to that. But-”
“You know the same goes for us,” Corey finishes. All three boys look at each other. Something unspoken passes between them and Scott suddenly feels like a voyeur.
The others must feel it too. Derek and Argent nod to the boys with a quiet, “We’ll be in touch.” And before Scott can properly dismiss them, the three stand and are already heading towards the door.
“Wait!” Scott calls after them, “Look, you don’t have to- just-”
“He’ll come to you when he’s ready, Scott,” Theo says honestly. Then his shoulder sag with a heaviness and he near begs, “But not tonight. Jesus, not tonight.”
Scott nods and the three take their leave. Derek steps into the space beside him in the entryway, seeming to sense Scott needed an ear.
“How worried should I be that those three are way more okay with murder than when I last saw them?” the corner of his mouth flicker up and down, not quite managing a smile.
Derek stares at him for a moment. Waiting with his usual impassive demeanor. Scott sighs before relenting, “I knew right? That things would change with them while I’m not around. That’s just how it is, but this-this feels like I’m missing too many pieces. I don’t even know where to start.”
Bumping his shoulder, Derek quirks his lip, “You start by trusting that he’ll come to you when he’s ready.” Scott levels a look at him. “But you also start by learning to trust them, Scott. You said you left because the town would be safe in their hands, that they’d work it out and have each other. You just have to actually mean it.”
“I mean it! What are you-” Derek raises an eyebrow and Scott quiets.
“He knows you check in with Stilinski and Theo separate from him. He’s noticed how you send wolfsbane stock with Theo even when he says they have enough still here. He’s a kid, Scott, but he’s not an idiot. I know, I know you just want to be sure he’s okay but be honest. Would you feel trusted if Argent did the same to you?”
Scott has to look away, his eyes on the closed front door. “No. No, I don’t think I would.”