Chapter Text
“It’s just up ahead. Not far now.”
Dead branches and fallen leaves crunched under foot as Scott followed Liam through the woods. Almost all the light being thrown by the half-full moon was blocked out by the foliage, leaving nothing to illuminate his way, anything more than a few feet ahead reduced to only vague shapes in the dark. Instead, he relied on his hearing to keep him on track behind his excited friend, who was clumsily crashing through the trees, forsaking any beaten path in his eagerness to show off his discovery.
If he’d had his way, he wouldn’t have been out at all. Only an hour ago, he’d been lying on his couch, watching tv, spending a quiet night in. With his mom at work, he’d had the house to himself, and had no plans to do anything, other than relax and maybe order in some take-out for a late dinner. Earlier, at school, Malia had said she might stop by, but she never showed up, and he’d been content to just lie there, mindlessly channel-surfing.
That kind of downtime had been hard to come by lately, he and the entire pack perpetually on the go since the fight with the Dread Doctors, with the Beast, with everything that followed. Months spent dealing with the fallout of that whole situation, tracking down escaped Eichen House inmates who’d taken advantage of the power outage during the Lydia rescue mission to find their freedom. Months of chaos as those inmates started working together, pooling their strength, angry and unwilling to go back easily. Months of constant struggle, of chasing, of fighting, that finally came to an end a week ago, after a brutal battle that saw the majority of the violent escapees put back where they couldn’t hurt anybody.
That was in the past now, and he was happy, ecstatic to finally be done with it. His friends, his pack were safe again, didn’t have to put their bodies, their lives on the line every night. He could finally afford to take a few nights off.
Unfortunately, circumstances demanded his presence, whether he liked it or not.
A dead body, Liam had said on the phone. Maybe not human. Maybe shifter. Maybe the only shifter they’d failed to return to Eichen House, the one who’d dropped off the face of the Earth after narrowly avoiding capture two weeks ago. He’d sustained some pretty significant injuries in a fight not far from where they currently were, but managed to escape, and though they’d made an effort to search the area for him after everything was over, he never reappeared.
Until now. Potentially.
“Scott! I found it! Down there!”
The words floated back to him through the still air, and he broke into a jog, calling on his supernatural reflexes to dodge over and around fallen logs in his way as he picked up his pace. When he broke through the tree-line, finding himself next to a wide, deep creek, he spotted Liam just up ahead, kneeling next to a large boulder right on the edge of the bank.
“Right down there. See it?”
Peering down over his shoulder, Scott couldn’t see anything but murky water. It was brighter out in the open, but still not enough to see what he was pointing at. Frowning, he glowed his eyes and squinted, and after a second, he finally picked it up. The unmistakeable shape of a human arm, sticking out from under some weeds right at the base of the bank, slowly moving as the water flowed around it, almost like it was waving to him. Mostly obscured by both the weeds and the shadows around it, it would have been easy to overlook, even in the daylight.
As he let his eyes fade back to normal, he arched an eyebrow and frowned. “How the hell did you even find this? Were you swimming in the creek or something?”
Liam, who was already moving forward, trying to inch down the steep bank without falling, shrugged. “I was out here with Hayden. It’s a pretty nice night, and we figured we’d take a walk, get some alone time, y’know?” The slight increase in his heart rate said everything that needed to be said about what that ‘walk’ had probably included. “We were sitting on the other side of the creek, under those trees,” he continued, waving a hand toward the trees in question, “and she thought she saw something moving. I came over to check and I—” His words abruptly morphed into a high-pitched shriek as his legs slipped out from under him, sending him sliding down the bank and into the muddy water below.
Scott cautiously leaned over the edge and looked straight down. “You okay?”
“Yeah, I’m fine.” There was some splashing, then his head popped into view as he stood, shaking his hands to try and clear the dirt off them. Looking up, he grinned sheepishly and shrugged. “Just a little muddy. Don’t bother trying to come down. I’ll grab it and—“ His voice cut off as Scott simply jumped off the bank, clearing the worst of the muck, and splashing down on the wide, flat rocks right at the shallow edge of the creek. “Or you could do that,” he muttered, shaking his head. “Why didn’t I do that?”
Ignoring his friend, Scott turned toward the arm, craning his neck to get a better look. Up close, it only took a second for him to realise something wasn’t quite right.
“Liam,” he said softly. “Did you come down and check this out before you called me?”
“Uh… no. When I realised what it was, I figured you’d want to know right away. And I didn’t want to trample all over the place, in case it was just some regular person and the cops had to come. Why?”
“It’s not a body.”
“What?”
“It’s not a body. Look. It’s not attached to anything.” He pointed to the weeds clumped around where a shoulder would be. From above, it was impossible to tell what was or wasn’t there, most of the area covered in plant-life or muck. But from lower down, straight across from the supposed body, it was clear there was nothing else. It was just an arm, floating there, hung up in the weeds. “It’s a severed arm.”
Liam was quiet for a second, just looking at him. “Shit,” he finally said, under his breath. “So, I guess it’s not our guy, then? I don’t think we tore off one of his arms, did we?” He paused, a contemplative look appearing on his face. “Maybe that’s a good thing. I mean, he was a pain in the ass but he didn’t need to die.”
Scott shrugged. “Yeah, I don’t know. Could still be him, I guess. He was hurt pretty bad. Maybe he didn’t survive. We know there are coyotes out here. They could tear a corpse to pieces.”
Moving forward, he headed toward the arm, boots squelching through the thick mud. Crouching down, he studied the slowly-moving limb for a second through narrowed eyes, then inhaled through his nose. Other than the expected smells, there was nothing. No blood. No flesh. No rot. Frowning, he tried again, taking in an even deeper breath, and again, all he picked up was mud and dirt and plant-life. Suspicion building in his mind, he reached out and gingerly tapped the arm with the tip of his finger.
The second he touched it, he knew.
Biting his lip to stop any laughter from escaping, he grabbed the limb and rose to his feet. “So, I’m thinking you probably should have taken a closer look earlier,” he said as he turned, holding it up for inspection. When Liam reached for it, he pulled it back, fighting to keep the smirk off his face. “Rubber,” he stated, waving it back and forth. “Pretty sure it’s an old Halloween decoration.”
“What?” The look on Liam’s face was priceless. For a second, he just stared at the arm blankly, like he couldn’t believe it. Then his whole body seemed to go limp, shoulders dropping as he hung his head and let out an embarrassed groan. “Oh, man. You’ve gotta be kidding me.”
Scott could hear the humiliation in his voice, and once again fought the urge to grin. Liam had been trying hard to prove himself lately, knowing he’d be the one in charge of the effort to protect Beacon Hills once the older members of the pack left for college next year. He’d been itching for a chance to step up before they moved on, show what he could do, but it wasn’t easy with everybody else still around, still leading the way. Being the one to find the guy they’d lost, tying up that loose end once and for all must have felt like a bit of an opportunity for him. Having it turn out like this, with nothing to show for it but muddy pants had to be rough.
“Hey, don’t worry about it,” he said, mostly successful in suppressing his mirth as he reached out and patted his friend on the shoulder with the rubber arm. “It happens to the best of us.”
“Does it? I feel like it probably doesn’t,” Liam muttered, looking up at him with a frown. “How many times have you mistaken holiday decorations for a dead body?”
He had him there.
“Never,” he admitted, shrugging sheepishly. “But cheer up. This is a good thing. You shouldn’t be disappointed that we didn’t find a body out here tonight. You know, most people go their whole lives without ever even seeing a corpse in the woods.”
“We’re not most people.”
“Yeah, I guess not. I—what the hell?” Squinting, Scott held the limb up, trying to spot the indent in it his thumb had just accidently dipped into. It took a second, but eventually, he spotted it, a neat little hole just above the elbow.
“Is that a bullet hole?”
“Yeah, I think so. Hang on.” Reaching inside, he dug around until he found something metallic, and pulled it out. Sure enough, there was a bullet pinched between his fingers. He didn’t really know one kind of ammunition from another, but it was big and surprisingly heavy. Definitely not something he expected to find embedded in a severed rubber arm, out in the middle of the woods. “Huh. Weird.”
“Yeah.” Liam frowned. “What do you think happened?”
Scott shrugged. “I don’t know. Target practice, maybe? Might explain what this is doing out here.” He waved the arm around, then shrugged, and slipped the bullet into his pocket. He could give it to the Sheriff next time he saw him, see what he thought. “Whatever. I’m not gonna worry about it. Here.” Reaching out, he pressed the arm into Liam’s hands, finally losing the battle and grinning at the disgruntled scowl on his face as he accepted the decoration. “Keep it. A souvenir.”
While Liam clutched the rubber limb, studying it and shaking his head, Scott turned and began searching for the easiest way up. Soft, wet mud didn’t exactly provide the best surface for jumping off, and he really didn’t want to scramble up the bank on all fours, end up covered in muck and slime and whatever else there was. Instead, he scanned up and down both sides, hoping to find spot where the bank was lower, or there were some rocks or something to step on. When he came up empty, he began to trudge along the side, hoping something presented itself before too long.
“There,” Liam said after a moment, reaching out to pull him to a stop and pointing to their left.
Squinting, he looked over that way and spotted a narrow line of rocks sticking out of the bank, almost like steps. The pair quickly made their way up out of the creek and back onto dry ground. Doubling back along the bank, they found the spot where they’d initially left dry land and began to trek back through the woods to where they’d parked.
As they walked along, Scott was happy to stay quiet, just listen to their surroundings. Now that he knew there was no corpse waiting for him, that it had been a false alarm, he no longer had to rush forward. He could enjoy being out in the woods, so far from the rest of the world, appreciate the stillness, the peace, the crispness of the air. He’d always been a night person, always loved being out after dark, ever since he was a kid. Now, with his senses, he could hear and feel just how alive everything really was, there but hidden, pleasant and soothing. He focused on the sounds of the night, a little smile twisting his lips.
“So,” Liam suddenly said, breaking the silence, “what were you doing when I called earlier? You sounded half-asleep.”
“I was half-asleep,” he replied, ducking under a low-hanging branch. “It’s my first night off in forever, man. I was watching tv. You know, relaxing.”
“Yeah, no, I get that. I just—” He shrugged. “I don’t know. I was just kinda surprised you were alone when I picked you up, I guess.”
Scott immediately knew where he was going with that, and rolled his eyes. “What are you talking about?” Playing dumb was always a good way to go when trying to deflect from topics he had zero interest in talking about. “You know me. I’ve got no life. I’m always alone.”
Liam snorted, more disbelief in that sound than should have been humanly possible. “Are you kidding me? You’re never alone. There’s always at least one of us with you. And lately…” His voice took on a knowing tone, and Scott didn’t even have to look at him to know he was smirking. “It’s been one specific person who’s been with you. All the time. Every day. I was actually starting to think you were literally attached at the hip.”
“Huh? I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Sure you do,” was the cheerful reply. “You haven’t gone more than, like, six hours without seeing Malia in months. You guys are always together.” He spread his arms, eyebrow arching in question. “Where is she tonight?”
Scott shrugged, dropping the act. It clearly wasn’t working anyway. “I don’t know. At home, I guess. I haven’t seen her since lunch.” He didn’t bring up the fact they had originally planned to meet up tonight. That wasn’t going to help his case at all. Nothing was, if he was being honest, because Liam was right. They had been spending a lot of time together. Something Liam had been pointing out more and more lately, apparently taking some kind of pleasure in hinting there was something going on between the two of them. Which absolutely did not mean he was about to just give in and admit to anything, give him any ammunition toward any point he was building to. Time to downplay. “And you’re wrong, for the record. Yeah, we hang out or whatever, but we’re not always together. Not even close.”
For the second time in as many minutes, Liam’s snort set a new world record for its level of audible disbelief. “Bullshit. You blew off my birthday party for her, remember?”
Scoffing, he waved his hand dismissively, trying to hide his reflexive wince. Hard to downplay that one. He was going to try, though. “Yeah, so what? She needed help.”
“Uh-huh. She needed help with what, exactly?”
“Oh, you know, she couldn’t, uh…” He cleared his throat, rubbed at the back of his neck, grimacing at how he knew his words were going to sound. “She got a new shelf thing for her room and she was having trouble setting it up. You know how it is with Ikea stuff, right? She asked me to give her a hand.” He shrugged helplessly. “I couldn’t just say no. And then, y’know, she wanted me to watch a movie with her, and I couldn’t just walk out on her, could I? I mean, that wouldn’t have been very nice.”
Liam rolled his eyes. “Oh, yeah, no, sure. You skipped my birthday to help her set up a shelf. And then you watched a movie. To be nice. Yeah, no, that… that’s cool. That’s definitely normal behaviour. Nothing weird going on there at all.”
Time to change tactics. “Maybe I just don’t like you very much. Ever thought of that?”
“Nope. What I think is it doesn’t matter what else is happening, what anyone else is doing, or how much you like them. When she calls, you go running.”
Stopping in his tracks, Scott decided a direct confrontation was the only way to put an end to this. “What exactly are you implying here?”
“Nothing, nothing,” Liam replied, throwing up his hands, doing everything he could to look innocent. Which lasted about a second, until a wide grin spread across his face. “Only that she’s got you wrapped around her finger. Come on, man, admit it. You’re completely whipped.”
Scoffing, Scott started forward again, not so gently putting a shoulder into his chest as he moved past him. “That’s pretty rich coming from you, don’t you think?”
“Nice try,” Liam said, as he fell back into step alongside him, “but we’re not talking about me and Hayden right now. We’re talking about you and your girlfriend.”
Rolling his eyes, Scott gave him a half-hearted shove. “Shut up. Malia and I are just friends.”
“I don’t believe you.”
“Yeah, well, I don’t care what you believe. We’re just friends. That’s it. So, please, drop it.”
“Oh, come on. There’s no way you’re getting off that easy.”
He sighed wearily. “Of course not.” He hadn’t expected any different, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t annoyed. Because despite Liam’s disbelief, they really were just friends. There wasn’t anything else he could tell him, because it was the truth. Which meant he needed to take a different path if he wanted to end this conversation. Fortunately, one had already been provided. Looking over, he arched an eyebrow, challenging. “All right, how about we make a little deal then? You stop talking about this right now, and I don’t tell everybody about your new friend there.” He nodded toward the rubber arm, grinning when Liam scowled and nodded, stuffing the limb behind his back. Flashing him a thumbs-up, he winked. “Good choice.”
Plunged once more into welcome silence, Scott returned his attention to the woods. Even with the lack of lighting, he recognised the area, nearly back to where they’d parked. Which meant they were probably close enough to civilisation to get a signal, so he slipped his phone from his pocket and checked. He actually was hoping to see a message from Malia, who he’d texted right after Liam had called, a reflexive action. She hadn’t gotten back to him by the time he left, but he was expecting to find something by now.
“You got a signal?” Liam asked, his own phone out as they broke from the treeline, and made their way toward his car.
Scott just grunted an affirmative, busy going through his messages. There was one from his mom, asking him to take out the garbage before he went to bed. Already done. One from Stiles about some homework assignment due next week. That one was ignored. And then there was the one he was looking for. Or two, as it turned out.
— no that sounds shitty, i’m not going
— good luck tho, let me no what u find
Shaking his head, he grinned and texted her back.
— false alarm. no corpse, no problem. tell you about it tomorrow.
He went to slide his phone back into his pocket, but it vibrated again before he could, three times in rapid succession.
— u can tell me 2night
— i’m bored and alone, come hang out with me
— i’ve got chinese food
It was just about impossible to pass up an offer that good, especially since he wanted to hang out with her anyway. Firing off a quick reply, he told her he’d be there soon, his grin wider than ever as he put his phone away. It was only when he looked over, saw Liam again that he abruptly realised what was going to happen when he asked to be taken to her place, and his grin morphed into a grimace. It was almost enough to keep him silent. Almost.
“Hey, Liam? Can you, uh, can you do me a favour?” he asked, as they reached the car. He really didn’t want to re-spark the teasing, but it just didn’t make sense to go all the way home, only to drive halfway back across town to Malia’s on his own. Which didn’t exactly leave him many options. “You mind dropping me off somewhere?”
“Yeah, sure,” Liam said, as they both climbed into the car and got settled. “Where are we going?”
A second’s hesitation, prepping for the inevitable reaction. “Malia’s house.” The unholy grin that lit up his face as he looked over then had Scott pointing at him, a warning and a threat. “Don’t say a word. Not one. Just shut up and drive.”
“I think I love you.”
Malia, on her way to the kitchen to grab some drinks, huffed out a breath and looked back at him, one eyebrow raised. “Love, huh? That sounds pretty serious. Are you sure?”
“Oh, yeah. But only if you keep feeding me,” Scott replied through a grin, taking another appreciative sniff of the container of orange chicken in his hand before he shovelled a bunch of it into his mouth.
Anything else he might have said then was lost as he let out a moan, eyes rolling back in his head. He was pretty sure it was the most delicious thing he’d ever tasted. That might have been because he was starving, hadn’t eaten anything since breakfast, a fact his growling stomach had been reminding him of since he’d stepped through her door and smelled the Chinese food laid out on her coffee table. Earlier, while he was at home, or out in the woods on the corpse hunt with Liam, it hadn’t been that bad. But with the food right there, smelling and looking so delicious, it was an entirely different story. It was even enough to make him forget about the relentless teasing he’d been on the receiving end of the entire drive over. None of that mattered anymore.
“Wow.” He cracked open his eyes and found Malia had returned, two cans of soda in hand, and was standing next to the couch now, lips curved in an amused smile as she watched him. “Looks like you and that chicken are really having a moment. You want me to leave you alone or…?”
“Was that supposed to be funny?” he asked, once his mouth was empty.
“It was funny.”
“If you say so. Here.” Holding up the container, he tilted it toward her and gestured for her to dig in. “It’s good. Like, really good.”
“Yeah, I could tell.” After setting the cans down on the coffee table, she dropped heavily onto the cushion next to him, grabbed her fork, stuck a piece, and took a big bite. While she chewed, she gestured toward the table, and the small feast sitting on top of it. “You know you owe me for this, right?”
He frowned. “Right, yeah, of course. I, uh… I could—”
“Scott, stop,” she said, rolling her eyes. “I’m kidding. I owed you dinner anyway, remember?”
“Oh, right,” he said sheepishly, rubbing a hand across the back of his neck. It had honestly slipped his mind. After he’d helped her study for a test a few days ago, one she’d ended up acing, she’d offered to spring for dinner during their next movie night, to show her gratitude. “Sorry, long day.”
She blew out a heavy sigh. “Tell me about it.” When he cocked an eyebrow, surprised at her weary tone, she grimaced. “Peter’s been texting me all day. He wants to meet.”
He sat up straight at that. Peter contacting her was nothing new. He’d been doing it on and off for months, ever since he broke out of Eichen House. Unlike the other escapees, he chose not to stick around, had fled Beacon Hills immediately. Which was the only reason the pack hadn’t tracked him down, their focus on the more immediate danger to the city, and themselves. But just because he was gone, wasn’t dangerous to them at the moment, didn’t mean he couldn’t be annoying. So he texted Malia, sometimes multiple times a week, sometimes not for several weeks in a row. He claimed his time inside had changed him, that he just wanted to get to know her, which none of them were buying. But he hadn’t made any direct threats, hadn’t tried to poison her against anybody, so they all just sort of tolerated it.
A meeting, though. He’d never requested that before. There was an unspoken agreement—or Scott had always thought so, at least—that as long as he stayed out of Beacon Hills, away from them, they’d leave him alone. It was a good arrangement, good for them, and good for him.
“A meeting?” he asked tersely. “He’s here?”
“Relax. He’s not in Beacon Hills.” Leaning forward, she snagged her phone off the coffee table, fiddled with it for a second, then turned it so he could see the screen. “He wants me meet him in Los Angeles.” Sure enough, there were a wall of texts there from him, imploring her to come to LA for a couple days. Apparently, there was something important he wanted to discuss with her. “The dumbass keeps trying. I guess a straight-up ‘go fuck yourself’ wasn’t clear enough for him.”
He snorted, sinking back in his seat. “Not surprising. I’ve never met anybody less capable of letting something drop.” Almost on queue, her phone dinged, a new message from the man in question coming through. “Jesus. You know what he really wants?” It went without saying that whatever he was attributing this sudden desire to see her to was a lie.
“No, no idea,” she replied, shutting off her phone without checking the latest text, tossing it back down on the table. “It started last night. Just text after text. He even called me tonight, wanted to talk.”
His eyebrows went up. “You actually answered?”
“Yeah. I was curious.” She huffed out an annoyed breath, shook her head. “Waste of time. It was just the same shit he’s been texting. I hung up on him. After I told him there’s no way in hell I’m meeting him anywhere.” Pausing, she frowned at her phone. “Guess the message didn’t sink in.”
With a mouth full of orange chicken, he shook his head. “Again,” he said, after chewing and swallowing, “not surprising. What do you want do abou—”
“I want to not talk about Peter anymore tonight,” she interjected, before he could get his question out. “I’m tired of thinking about that dickhead. I just want to watch some tv, eat a shit-load of awesome food, and not have to think about anything else.” Arching an eyebrow, she met his gaze. “Sound good?”
“Sounds great. I never want to talk about Peter anyway,” he replied, flashing her a grin, before he shovelled another forkful of chicken into his mouth.
They both settled in to eat then, and he was happy to sit there quietly next to her, his attention focused on the tv. They were halfway through a Buffy re-watch they’d started a couple weeks ago, a few episodes into the fourth season, and he was really enjoying it. Though hearing the little sounds she made during the fight scenes, deriding the moves she thought were ridiculous, appreciating the ones she thought were good were almost as entertaining as the show itself. Not that he was going to tell her that. His sense of self-preservation was too strong.
When the food was finished, the empty containers thrown away, Scott didn’t even consider going home. It was a Friday night, he was having a good time, and he was where he wanted to be.
“So, what happened with Liam?” Malia asked, turning her attention from the tv to him as an episode ended and the credits rolled. “How did you go from ‘dead body in the woods’ to ‘no corpse, no problem’? How did he manage to fuck that up?”
Grinning at the reminder, Scott shook his head, as she leaned his way, intrigued by his amusement. “It was an honest mistake,” he tried to say, though the laughter in his voice made it difficult. “He thought it was a body. He was so sure. Like, absolutely positive. So we go out there, trek through the woods for half an hour, I see this severed arm, and…” That would have been a good place to pause for dramatic effect, but he actually stopped because it was just impossible to picture the look on Liam’s face after the big reveal and not laugh. “Sorry, just, you should have seen his face,” he said through his laughter, “when I grabbed the thing and it turned out to be a fake. Some kind of Halloween decoration, I think. Rubber, y’know? It was…” He bit his lip, shrugged. “I mean, we were both glad it wasn’t a real dead guy. But he was, uh, a little embarrassed.”
“He should be,” she replied, eyes sparking with amusement. “He didn’t check first?”
“Nope. He was kinda distracted, to be fair. He was out there with Hayden,” he explained, “and I got the impression they were, uh, a little busy, if you catch my meaning.”
She pulled a face. “In the woods? Why?” He shrugged, busy trying to stifle his laughter at her reaction. “Jesus. That’s a good way to get jabbed with sticks in places that should absolutely not be jabbed with sticks.” She shook her head. “His parents are never home, and her sister is always working. They’ve got options. Like, they do know they can just fuck in a bed, right? Or, I don’t know, on a couch.”
“I’ve never asked.” Pausing, he shrugged again, lips pursed. “Honestly, I don’t want to know. That is… that’s none of my business.”
“Yeah…” The sigh she let out then was equal parts amused and exasperated. “God, our friends are dumb. I hope you teased the hell out of him over all of it.”
“I may have cracked a joke or two,” he admitted.
She snorted, leaned closer to knock her shoulder against his. “What a dope.” Shaking her head, she looked back at the television, as the theme song began playing, a new episode starting. “Extra glad I didn’t go now. I probably would have kicked his ass for wasting my time.” Letting her head loll back against the back of the couch, she looked at him and grinned. “And you, for dragging me out of the house.”
“Eh, I think it would have been worth it.” She arched an eyebrow in question, and he shrugged. “It would have been more fun if you were there.”
He wasn’t lying about that. Things were always more fun when she was around. And, perhaps more importantly in this case, there was no way Liam would have run his mouth so much if she’d been there. He was more than willing to push his luck with Scott, because he knew all he’d get back was words, even if they were threats or blackmail. With Malia, there was a very good chance he’d get a punch in the face, and that was generally a pretty good deterrent.
“Of course it would have,” she replied simply, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. “I’m awesome.” He grunted an agreement, which apparently wasn’t enough for her, because she looked at over at him again, and dug her elbow into his side. “Come on. Tell me you’re not having more fun right now than you did all week. Go on, lie to me.”
“I can’t,” he said with another grin, shaking his head even before she got the words all the way. “This is definitely fun.” Looking mollified, she nodded, but he couldn’t resist needling her just a bit more. “I mean, the food is a big part of that for me. But you’re all right, too, I guess.”
That got another snort out of her, and earned him another elbow to the ribs. “Jerk,” she said affectionately, as he chuckled and grinned at her.
The episode began for real then, and they both settled down to watch. Just like she usually did, it wasn’t long before she was leaning against him, using him like a pillow. It was a reflexive action on his part to lift his arm, drape it over her shoulders, just like he always did. Then he was sinking down just a little lower in his seat, stretching out to put his feet up on the now-empty coffee table, and letting out a little sigh of pleasure. Warm, comfortable, and well-fed, he was done. Nothing short of somebody bursting through the door and trying to kill them now was going to pry him off that couch.
“I’ve got a question,” Malia said softly, after a couple of minutes had passed in silence. “Why was there a random rubber arm in the middle of the woods?”
Scott grunted. “I don’t know. We were thinking somebody was doing some target practice. Look.” With some effort, he managed to dig his left hand down into the pocket of his jeans without having to move much, and grabbed the bullet he’d found. With it lying loose in the center of his palm, he held it up so she could see it. “I pulled this out of it. Gonna show it to Stiles’ dad tomorrow, see what he says.”
“Hmm.” Plucking it from his hand, she held it up to the light and eyed it for a second. “Weird.”
“Uh-huh,” he replied, as she handed it back to him. Taking a second, he studied the bullet closely for a second, again noting its surprising size and weight. “I’ve never seen this kind of ammo before. Maybe the Sheriff can figure out who it belongs to, and, y’know, if they’re supposed to be firing guns in the woods.”
She hummed softly, as he slipped the bullet back into his pocket. “Yeah, maybe.” She paused for a beat. “Hey, are you planning on sticking around tonight?”
Arching an eyebrow, he shot her a crooked grin. “Is that your subtle way of kicking me out of your house?”
“Trust me, if I wanted you out, you’d know.” Hard to argue with that. She wasn’t the type to beat around the bush, especially when it came to her personal space or private time. “No, I just have some errands to run tomorrow.” She shrugged. “If you’re staying over, you could come with me, give me a hand. I could use somebody good at carrying stuff.” He huffed out an amused breath at that, as her eyes sparked with amusement. “We could stop off at the station first thing tomorrow morning, talk to Stiles’ dad, then get my shit done. If you’re not busy, that is,” she added, a hint of a grin touching her lips, “y’know, dealing with any more dead bodies. Or rubber ones.”
“Nope, not busy, with corpses, fake corpses, or anything else. Clinic’s closed tomorrow.”
He had told Liam he was up for running some training drills with him and a couple of guys from the team, but he hadn’t made any kind of real commitment to that. Which meant when he bailed on them, the cost of his freedom would be small, probably just another helping of annoying teasing the next time Liam saw him. Nothing he couldn’t handle.
“Convenient,” she said with a smile, nudging him gently with an elbow again. “You’re in, then?”
“I’m all yours.”
Her smile widened. “Ooh, careful. A girl might start getting ideas.”
With a snort, he shook his head at her playful teasing. “Shut up,” he said through a grin, laughter colouring his voice, as he nodded toward the tv. “Watch the show. It’s a good episode.”
For a second, he thought she was going to keep going, amusement written all over her face, burning in her eyes. But she managed to bite her tongue, choosing instead to shoot him a wink, before she leaned back into his side, her head coming to rest on his shoulder. Still grinning, he adjusted his position slightly, wrapping his arm more comfortably around her, and settled in for a relaxing night.