Work Text:
We're safe. Traveling. Will contact you in a couple of weeks. Love you. --S
John read the email with a sigh of relief. He had one of the burner phones connected to the secondary email account Stiles had set up for him so it would be less likely to be tracked back to him or Stiles.
"Good news?" Derek asked.
"Yeah," John replied with a smile. "Stiles left a message that he and Peter are safe and traveling and that he'll reach out again in a couple of days."
Derek peered over John's shoulder at the phone in John's hand to look at the message.
"It says weeks," Derek said with a puzzled frown.
"It's a code thing," John said. "From Star Trek."
Derek thought for a second and shook his head.
"Guess we have to do a movie night soon," John teased. "It was The Wrath of Kahn where Kirk and Spock knew their transmissions were being overheard. So when Kirk asked how long repairs would take, Spock replied in terms of days but Kirk knew he meant hours."
"Pretty simplistic and almost obvious," Derek replied.
"Sure, but it's also close enough to throw anyone off," John said. "It's a basic step down. Weeks mean days, days mean hours, hours mean minutes, that sort of thing."
"True," Derek nodded. "Contact again in a couple of weeks isn't out of the question."
"But I'll know to look for another message in a couple of days," John said.
"Good to know," Derek nodded.
"And the signature is a secondary flag," John said. "The hyphens and the capital S are an authentication sign that only we know. If he uses other punctuation and/or the full Stiles, then that's either a don't-believe-what-you're-reading flag or it comes from someone who is not Stiles."
"Simple but effective," Derek agreed. "Does Jordan know any of this?"
"No, it's just something Stiles and I have been doing for a long time," John admitted. "Being a Deputy and then Sheriff has always put Stiles in the spotlight. As a cop's kid, he's a candidate to be used against me in any number of ways. So we've built up a shorthand that we can use to verify messages."
"You should tell Jordan about this," Derek suggested. "It's good to know you have that already developed between you but it's more helpful if the three of us are on the same page."
John nodded. "It was kind of on my list of things to share but, to be honest, it's a pretty long list. And I had forgotten some of this until the email came in."
"Although I can tell from the Pack bonds we have that they're safe for the moment," Derek said.
"But it doesn't tell you what is going on," John countered. "There's no detailed communication through the bond, is there?"
Derek shrugged. "It is more emotional than anything," he admitted. "Most of the time it's relatively peaceful unless I go looking for it. Strong emotions will activate the bond."
"Do you have a bond to both Stiles and Peter?" John asked.
Derek nodded. "Let me try something?" he asked.
John nodded warily.
Derek carefully telegraphed his moves before putting his hand over John's heart. Derek said, "Think about Stiles." Derek closed his eyes.
John closed his eyes and thought about his son. His beautiful, infuriating, brilliant, headstrong son. The one he missed so much.
They stood together in silence for almost five minutes. Then John's eyes opened. "Stiles!" he breathed.
"There you are!" Derek said, letting out a long breath. "I don't know what was going on but there was something preventing you from feeling the Pack bonds." Derek took a step back.
John rubbed his chest. "That's... amazing!" He looked up at Derek with wide eyes. "You feel this all the time?"
"It becomes background noise at some point," Derek admitted. "Although I've always had a handful of Pack bonds since I was a born 'wolf, even after... the fire. Since you're human, it will be different. But I suspected your strong connection to Stiles would help you feel the bonds."
John frowned. "Would Scott have bonds to us?"
Derek shook his head. "Peter would be the one most likely to have a Pack bond with Scott, since Peter bit him. But especially for a turned 'wolf, the bond takes some... nurturing, is the best I can describe it. Since Scott had refused to learn anything about Pack bonds and has actively refused to work with Peter, or any of us, the bond between Peter and Scott would be thin at best. After all this time, and knowing Peter, it probably doesn't even exist."
"But it's... I can't even describe how comforting this is," John was bewildered.
"Some of that I can lay at Peter's feet," Derek said. "He was insane when he bit Scott, so he didn't have the mental capacity to support the bond between them. But Scott also had no interest in learning anything, even when I offered to teach him what I could. So Scott was an Omega, that is without any Pack bonds, until he became an Alpha. Even then, it wasn't until he bit Liam that he really had a chance to build a bond with another 'wolf."
"Also, knowing how stubborn Scott can be," John added, "he has probably not nurtured that bond and still doesn't have any Pack bonds."
"That's what Peter and I think," Derek nodded. "The Pack he has gives Scott some stability, but we suspect that Deaton is Scott's main support. Take Deaton away and Scott could go feral."
John winced. "That's not good."
"No, it's not," Derek agreed.
John closed his eyes for a moment, smiling. "That's Stiles, isn't it?"
Derek nodded. "He's felt the bond from his end and is reaching out to you. You can do the same for him."
John thought happiness and stay safe and got a positive feeling back.
"I see what you mean about it just being emotions," John said. "But it's good to have a secure way to keep in touch."
----
Stiles rubbed his chest. "Whoa! Derek must have brought my dad into the Pack bonds somehow! I didn't know he could do that. That is cool!"
"Part of it had to be something your father wanted," Peter said. "Humans feel the Pack bonds more when they want to be part of the Pack."
"That makes sense," Stiles nodded.
"Especially for someone who is as human as your father," Peter went on.
"Sometimes, I'm not so sure he's purely human," Stiles admitted. "The more I learn, the more I want to think he has some supernatural in his family tree somewhere."
"What makes you think that?" Peter asked.
"He's really good with almost any weapon he's worked with," Stiles said. "He says it's a 'knack' but that could be something else helping that skill."
"True," Peter nodded.
"He also has this 'Sheriff voice' that works on more people than you think it might," Stiles said. "Again, some of it is a skill he's worked on over time, but he's always had this commanding ability. He wouldn't use it a lot when I was growing up but when he did bring it out, I always obeyed."
"I will admit to being surprised he didn't use it more on you," Peter said cautiously.
"Yeah," Stiles sighed. "But, well, now that I think about it, he didn't use it a lot when he was drinking. Something in the alcohol wouldn't let the voice work."
"Whatever he has wouldn't allow him to abuse it," Peter guessed. "At least not on you."
"Wish there was more of that regulating in all of this supernatural crap," Stiles sighed.
"Free will at its best," Peter laughed.
"Oh!" Stiles touched his chest. He closed his eyes for a moment. "Did you feel that?"
"Since your dad is new at this, yes," Peter admitted. "He's essentially broadcasting to the entire Pack. There is a way to fine tune that and even mute your bonds. Sex has its own feelings and muting your bonds means you're not sharing your feelings with the entire pack."
"Oh!" Stiles felt himself blushing.
"One of the ways to think of it is like dials," Peter said. "You can turn them up and down to make something louder or softer."
"I'm going to have to work on that!" Stiles nodded.
"I'm sure Derek is giving your father the same lesson," Peter grinned.
-----
Derek had a hot meal ready as Jordan came in from his shift. He was working afternoons and John was working days this week, so they only saw each other later in the evening. But John made sure to be around when Jordan came in, to keep in touch.
"Anything unusual?" John asked.
Jordan shrugged. "Some strange faces downtown, but not sure yet. I ran their plates and they have a rental from Sacramento, so they could be tourists. But my gut says not."
"We'll trust that gut," John nodded. "Come on, eat dinner while it's hot. And we have a movie to watch."
"We do?" Jordan asked as he sat to eat.
"Derek's never seen Wrath of Khan and even I consider that a travesty," John grinned.
"No!" Jordan pretended to be shocked.
"I've kind of spoiled the surprise at the end for Derek but he's making popcorn..." John said leadingly.
"I'm in!" Jordan laughed.
Derek had a sweet tooth that came out when popcorn was involved. Derek making popcorn involved a drizzle of chocolate, a drizzle of caramel, a touch of real butter, and sea salt. It was a salty goodness that Stiles would definitely enjoy but would be a party-pooper enough to frown at John for eating any of it. John was glad Stiles wasn't here to frown at him, even as he worried if Stiles was as safe as Stiles thought he was.
They piled together onto the couch. John was aware enough of 'wolves to know that Derek would appreciate the physical contact and while John wasn't sure what Jordan needed, some closeness wouldn't hurt. John found himself in the middle, enjoying the warmth of the bodies around him.
"That was fun," Derek said at the end of the movie. "And you're right, that time thing can be an effective code. We'll have to keep that in mind."
"What other things have you taught Stiles that we should be aware of?" Jordan asked.
"He knows enough about handguns to handle one safely," John said. "I had planned to take him to the range more often than I did, but he can shoot reasonably well."
"Okay," Jordan replied gently. "What else?"
"He can pick handcuffs, even from behind his back," John laughed. "Taught himself that one summer. I think it took him all summer to manage that."
"Handy skill to have," Derek admitted.
"Anything else?" Jordan asked.
"Mostly just the signature thing," John said. "Anything not signed with a hyphen-capital-S is suspect. So something signed with 'Stiles' is either not from Stiles or written under duress."
"Good to know," Jordan nodded.
"And with that, I'm going to hit the sack," John said with a yawn.
"Yeah," Derek nodded. "Me, too." Derek had thrown money at a local store and had a bed, mattress and bedding delivered during the day. He had spent time clearing space in the unused spare room for himself as John worked around the house.
"I'll throw in some laundry when I get up in the morning," Jordan volunteered. "Leave whatever you need done in your baskets."
"We'll pick up groceries tomorrow," Derek added. "After work. So text me with anything you may want."
----
"Okay, while we've been traveling, I forgot completely about time zones," Stiles bitched. "So Casper is Mountain time and we've lost an hour."
"The good news is that this is big enough of a town to have some decent hotels and food," Peter replied. "And a good place to rest for the night."
Stiles nodded. "Feeling a bit stupid for not thinking about time zones."
"I've traveled enough to be more aware," Peter said. "You'll get used to it. One hour is easy. When it's several hours, that's when it gets odd. It's harder to remember that your morning is someone else's dinner time."
"Oh. Right. That is weird," Stiles admitted. He looked around. "And I hate to admit it, I need a meal with vegetables. Or at least a salad."
"No one made you order yet another burger at lunchtime," Peter teased.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Stiles sighed. "I know. But it was so-o-o good!"
Peter laughed. He pointed at a hotel, "I'm thinking there."
Stiles looked as Peter drove by at a natural speed. "Doesn't look too bad."
"See what you can find?" Peter directed.
"On it!" Stiles brought up the hotel on the phone he was currently using. "Decent reviews. No red flags that I can see."
"Okay, let's find you that salad and we'll come back here for the night," Peter decided.
"Sounds good," Stiles agreed.