new york wolves } { of broken trust and broken hearts

[hereditare]

Marcus: [and oh look, someone happened to just get assigned to check in on both the NYPD detectives admitted. Shocking! No strings being pulled at all here. After checking in on Derek, who's out like a light from a morphine drip to keep him sedated as his neck slowly heals so he doesn't make it worse, he's knocking on Espo's door and stepping in] And how is my other patient doing?

Esposito: [is also drugged up, but awake] Can't feel a thing, doc.

Marcus: Good. That’s a very good place to be.

Laura: [glances up at him with her hand tight in Espo's. She isn't really sure what to say to him that isn't going to end in yelling so she says nothing. It's the best for all parties at the moment.]

Marcus: [he goes to check on Espo's chart, nodding to himself and reading the screens at the man's side] I think it's safe to say that you will make a full recovery, detective. You will probably need some therapy for the leg, and the wrist will be in a cast for about six weeks, but otherwise you are very lucky.

Esposito: I've had worse. This ain't nothing.

Laura: [one hand comes up to brush over the top of his head] It could have been worse.

Marcus: But it wasn't. Which you can thank Mister Stilinski for. [he looks at Laura, because he's not going to beat around a bush]

Laura: [grits her teeth] Really? Should I throw in selling me out to a psychopath and shooting me in the face with kanima venom too? Because I'm not really feeling quite as grateful for those.

Marcus: [puts down his chart and looks at her] And yet his actions have your entire pack alive, your mate safe, and the Argent patriarch beyond bars with irrefutable evidence against him that no loophole can save him from, and his son restructuring the family code and methods as we speak so that they will not bother you again, and your siblings can grow up and start their own lives without fear of being found and killed by one of theirs only because of their last name. [he tilts his head] Or have you yet to get to the point to be able to see that yet?

Laura: The end result doesn't matter if I can't trust my own beta not to lie to me. [that's the problem for her here, not that Stiles hatched a very clever plan, but that she wasn't in on it. That he felt he had to lie to her] How can I have him as part of my pack if I don't know when he's going to go behind my back again? If every time something threatens our family, he exercises his judgement over mine? [shakes her head] I don't care about what he did. I could even appreciate it, because contrary to popular belief, we Hales are actually pretty smart. But I'm his alpha and that has to mean something or he can't be part of this pack.

Marcus: He knew what he was risking, Laura, and it's not you he risked. He put his bond to Cora at risk. But he did it to save you both. [goes to sit on the edge of the bed] He hasn't told you what really happened to him for a reason. But he came to me, because he knew I could help him and be impartial and willing to listen. And I promise you, if I had felt the risk was too great, I would have come to you.

Laura: [she shakes her head because no, he doesn't get it. She and Stiles is different than if it had been one of her siblings doing something dumb. She expects it from them ninety percent of the time. But she chose Stiles, she made him like them to be part of her pack, and the sting of that betrayal and distrust isn't going to go away anytime soon.] Yeah, well. It's going to be her choice. I hope he's prepared for that. [because as angry as she is, if Cora doesn't want him to leave, she'll let him stay. But if she wants him gone ... Laura won't argue that either]

Marcus: He is. I'm sure your sister has probably noticed he's been pulling back in the last week. Less affectionate, not around as much. Hints that he felt guilty for what he was doing long before you knew. [Marcus leaned in a bit] But I would advise you against releasing him into the wild right now, if for the only reason that I think you may want to keep an eye on him. There's something about how his mind works, the strength of his character that's surprised me in all of this. The lengths he was willing to go and risk to protect his pack aren't something you see in a baby beta, not like that.

Laura: [she's not really in a place to appreciate it right now.] As I said. It's Cora's choice.

Marcus: [nods, believing she's wrong in this] No, it's yours. You're just putting the decision on her. [and he's going to stand up] Just remember that a year ago, that boy was going to die because his entire agency was being taken away from him by his own body. Imagine how it would feel to be thrust mentally back into that world you felt you were from, and what kind of willpower it takes to not only be able to not break in it, but to use it to give purpose to protect those he loves. That's the kind of beta you made. [and he's going to take his exit to let her think on that while Espo has slipped back into sleep during the conversation]

Laura: [no, she knows she's doing the right thing in giving Cora that choice. Because she knows that she will be the one that is impacted the most by whatever fallout this is, beyond Stiles. She's not going to force her to be away from the person she loves, but if she doesn't want that person there, she won't force her to go through that. but she doesn't say anything, just turns back to Espo and focusing her attention on him instead]

Stiles: [meanwhile, in Hal's dorm, he's not sleeping well at all. He's just staring at the ceiling, and finally pulls out his cell phone to look at his messages]

Cora: [a lot of them are from his girlfriend, trying to find out where he is because things are happening and she's worried about him]

Stiles: [he sighs, and finally sends a text] You awake?

Cora: [the response back is almost immediate because her family is turned on it's head, of course she's not sleeping] Where the hell are you?

Stiles: Hal's dorm room. I thought it would be better being out of the way tonight.

Cora: Why? What's going on? [because no one's made it home to tell her what happened with Stiles yet. All she knows is that Espo and Derek are in the hospital and that Gerard is in jail]

Stiles: Can you meet me at the campus coffee house in a half hour? I don't want to tell you over the phone.

Cora: [well that's never a good sign. she stares at her phone for a moment, trying to read between the lines and find out what's going on, what's the thing that no one will tell her before swallowing] Sure. I'll be there.

Stiles: I'll get a booth in the back. [and he will be waiting there, hands around a coffee that he hasn't even sipped as he waits for her]

Cora: [tells Malia where she's going before slipping out of the penthouse, making her way through the streets to get to Stiles. When she spots him in the back she just cuts through the room, slipping into the seat across from him] Hi.

Stiles: Hey. How's everyone doing?

Cora: I don't know. I haven't really seen anyone since they left to find Detective Esposito. I know that Derek is in the hospital, but he's fine and Laura's staying with Javi until he's discharged.

Stiles: [nods, looking at the coffee] Cora... I need to tell you something, and you're going to hate me. And I don't blame you for it. But I wanted you to hear it from me first. Okay?

Cora: [her brow furrows some before nodding] Okay?

Stiles: When Gerard took me, he knew what I was. Scott's dating Chris Argent's daughter, Allison. I saw them on my vacation and Gerard was there and I don't know how, but he knew. He knew what I was, and that I was Laura’s beta. And while he had me... he told me that if I didn't spy for him in the pack, he was going to have my father killed. Accidents happen all the time in Beacon Hills... I knew he would. And he tortured me until I learned how to be able to lie without my heart jumping. He couldn't risk me giving myself away. So for the last week, I haven't been going to school. I've been meeting with him. Or Marcus, because I couldn't handle it. And Marcus and I figured out a way to stop it and use Gerard's plan against him, but to do that I had to do the plan. And that was to get your sister to bite him. And we.... we made it so that the bite was supposed to disable Gerard, and do it in a way that we could record for the Argent clan to see how far he had slipped so they would stop following him and stop hunting the Hales. I fed him information, altered just enough so that it kept the important stuff secret. He knew he needed a linchpin and it was going to either be Espo or Beckett and after he saw that neither of them had a mate mark... I told him Espo would be easier because Beckett was the better detective. He didn't know Espo was Special Forces, and I knew Espo would be able to handle it better than Beckett. And I had hoped Beckett would keep Derek calm to keep Laura calm. I swapped out Gerard's nitrate pills with mountain ash, so he can't change into a wolf. He'll never hurt any of you again. And I know I've been lying to all of your this last week... and I know Laura's probably going to make me leave the pack but I just... I didn't want you to always be afraid of them. It was going to always be a circle of violence that you'd never be free of, and I know you still have nightmares about them taking someone you love away from you every night. I love you, Cora, and that's why I did it. Because even if I lose you because you can't forgive me for what I did, knowing you're safe from them is worth it to me. You saved my life... and it's the closest thing I could do to save yours. [he's going to wipe his hand across his eyes, unable to meet hers] I'm sorry.

Cora: [the more he talks the more she recoils away from him, trying to process it all and make it make sense. She tries to hear the explanations and the reasoning over the rush of anger and hurt and she doesn't know what to do, so she just sits, frozen in place as she tries to think through it all]

Stiles: [he sees that and sighs, his fingers playing on his coffee mug] Hal says I can crash at his dorm until I know what's going to happen. I know I've hurt you, and you probably won't trust me ever again, and I don't blame you. I just... I wanted you to hear it from me. You deserve that.

Cora: [she buries her face in her hands for a moment, wiping at her eyes for a second before shaking her head and getting up] I have to go.

Cora: [she buries her face in her hands for a moment, wiping at her eyes for a second before shaking her head and getting up] I have to go.

Cora: [and she's just going to go home because she really just wants to bury herself in her room and cry but the second she gets there she gets hit with his scent and she realizes that she doesn't have a space that's hers and safe from him. It had been fine at the time - she didn't want to give herself one - but now she's regretting it, and all that frustration and emotion she doesn't know what to do with is going into stripping the bed instead, tossing his pillows into the closet and closing the door before pulling off the sheets and blankets]