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“Lydia, Lydia, Lydia. My beautiful rose. Here is a piping hot, triple shot, low-fat vanilla lavender latte from that place you love on 3rd,” Stiles crooned, handing one of the cups in his hand to the agent with the bright red hair.
“Stiles, you know if you want something you have to bribe Hale, not me,” Lydia sighed, taking the coffee cup anyway.
“Who says I want something? What could I possibly want?”
“Oh, I don’t know, time in the field, an office that doesn’t look like a closet, a weapons permit.”
“You… might have got me there. But this one is just for funsies. Because I love you and respect you?”
“Is that a question?”
“STILINSKI,” the voice came from the office upstairs. Hale.
Stiles cowered. “Save me Lyds!”
“Hey, you’re on your own here, cowboy.”
Stiles dramatically clutched his chest. “You wound me, Lydia. See if I bring you a latte tomorrow!”
“You bring me a latte every day, Stilinski.”
Stiles winked at her, then slowly began to climb the stairs towards Hale’s office. He was halfway up when his name was yelled even louder and even more forcefully. He ran the rest of the way.
“Yes, Agent Hale, sir, MA’AM. Sorry, ma’am.”
Hale narrowed her eyes. “You need to calm down, kid. Drink less espresso. Something.”
“Yes, ma’am. Right away, ma’am.”
“Stilinski, I got your third request for more field time and to carry a weapon.”
“Yeah,” Stiles perked up.
“And I don’t know if I should approve it.”
“Ma’am, I’ve gotten high marks on my weapons test. I proved I can hold my own in the field on the Ruiz case and the Subway Slicer case-”
“Don’t call it that.”
“Can I ask what the hold-up is? Why don't you want me out in the field?”
“Stilinski, you’re smart. You’re clever, and you are an asset as our technical analyst.”
“I know, but Danny is more than capable of taking my place.”
“Frankly, you scare me, Stilinski.”
That shut Stiles up. “I scare you?” He asked quietly.
“More accurately, you getting hurt in the field scares me. Stiles, if something happened to you, my brother would lose his mind.”
“Wait. You won’t promote me because I’m married to your brother!? Laura, that’s unfair.”
Laura sighed and sat heavily in her desk chair. “Close the door and sit.”
Stiles did as he was told. “Laura, I chose this job because I wanted to help people and take down bad guys. Derek knows that. He knows I want more responsibility, he knows I want to be out in the field with you. He’s okay with it. Don’t you think that you getting hurt won’t gut him, too? Because it would. But here you are, BAU director, constantly putting yourself in harm’s way for the team.
“Derek’s a big boy, he can handle himself. He can love two people who work for the FBI and still function every day. Trust me, we’ve had the hard conversations.”
“Stiles, what if we’re both out on a call, and something happens? We’re all he has left. We’re his whole family. I can’t risk that. I can’t.”
Stiles was silent for a moment, before reaching across the desk to cover Laura’s hand with his own. “I’m sorry, Laura. I didn’t think about that. But he’s not going to lose either of us, okay? You’re the most badass FBI agent I’ve ever met, next to Lydia. You’re going to be okay. I trust that your training and the team will keep you all alive every time you take a case and I’m stuck in that closet of an office only able to keep tabs on you via phone. That terrifies me sometimes, you know? You are family, and so is this team - Lydia, McCall, Argent. I want to do more to protect you all. Do you get where I’m coming from?”
“I do, Stiles,” Laura whispered. She closed her eyes for a moment, before opening them and grabbing a pen from the cup on her desk. She signed a couple of forms with it, then slid them across the desk.
“You’re approved for a weapon and will join us on our next case, which by the look on Danny’s face outside my office, is right now. Call Derek before we leave, please, and remember - I can take this away just as fast as I gave it to you.”
“Oh my GOD, thank you, Laura!”
“That’s ‘Agent Hale’ to you, Stilinski.”
“Yes, of course, Agent!”
Laura laughed. “Get out of my sight. I have to brief Danny, now, so go get assigned a gun then meet us in the briefing room.”
Stiles cheekily saluted Hale, then pulled out his phone, dialing his husband as he left the office.
“Babe! You’ll never believe what just happened!”