spamalot } { of late nights and new information

[impetere]

Stiles: [answering the phone] Hey, what's up?

Cora: [well, he's answering the phone. that's a good sign] It was getting late, my mom was getting worried. Are you still at work?

Stiles: Uh huh. [he's obviously distracted]

Cora: Do you know what time it is?

Stiles: Uh huh. [yup, so doesn't]

Cora: Stiles, look at the time.

Stiles: [looks] It's not that... [looks again] Holy crap.

Cora: Yeah.

Stiles: [sighs] I'm not done yet.

Cora: What are you working on?

Stiles: [takes off his glasses and rubs his eyes] It's a um... an algorithm to look for specific names on the internet and in historical databases.

Cora: Are you on a deadline?

Stiles: Not really, but it's not actually a paying gig either.

Cora: Then you can afford to take a break for some sleep. The distance might help.

Stiles: [sighs because being that it's for Lydia, that makes it important to him, but he knows she's right] I think I'll just crash here on a couch for a few hours. Can you tell your mom that I'm fine and I'll be back tomorrow?

Cora: Yeah, sure. Are you sure you're going to be okay on the couch?

Stiles: Yeah, we made sure it was a very comfortable couch when we bought it. One of us crashes on it at least once a week.

Cora: Okay. Just get some rest, then.

Stiles: I will. Thanks for checking up on me.

Cora: Of course. I'll see you later.

Stiles: Love you.

Cora: I love you too. Night.

Stiles: [and he's going to hang up, go lay on the couch and sleep for maybe an hour or two... and then he will be back at the desk with a red bull and a microwave burrito working on it again]

Cora: [Stiles that was not sleep.]

Stiles: [totally counts. Especially when an hour later he's going to fall asleep at his desk until Neha comes in, sees him, sighs and goes out to get breakfast for the boss with a very large Starbucks coffee with extra espresso shots]

Cora: [She knew she should have made you come home.]

Stiles: [yes, you did so really, the crick in his neck is all your fault]

Cora: [uh-huh. Well, if he actually comes home that night, she might be able to do something about it for him]

Stiles: [he will finally figure out the right parameters around noon and he will run the program to send his results to his tablet, and at that point, nope, he's going to go home and will literally get to the Hale house looking like he's ready to crash for a week]

Talia: [an eyebrow raise at him as he makes his way in] Long night?

Stiles: I slept, I swear. It was just a very detailed program I was trying to create from scratch. [yawns and rubs his eyes] Thank you for taking care of Dina for me.

Talia: Of course. It's never any trouble.

Stiles: I think I'm going to go crash for a bit until she gets home from preschool.

Talia: Good plan. Dinner's at five.

Stiles: Thanks. [and yup, he will be passed out in his room until there is a tiny child bouncing on him to wake up because she missed him, and he's going to grab a shower and then come back down. He'll sleep more later, right?]

Cora: [totally. And eventually he will have a girlfriend, because she's having dinner with them, so she'll be sitting on the couch with chemistry exams. Yay paper grading.]

Stiles: [coming down the stairs behind 4 year old and dragged into living room to say hi] Hey beautiful.

Cora: [glances up with a smile] Hey. How was your day?

Stiles: Good. Finished the project and just waiting for results to come in.

Cora: Good. What were you working on, anyway?

Stiles: Trying to find a common denominator for a group of random people.

Cora: [her eyebrows furrow a bit at that] Just for fun?

Stiles: Oh yeah, totally. [his own curiosity counted as fun]

Cora: And you had to stay up half the night to do it?

Stiles: I was really into the code. You know what it's like when you get in that flow state.

Cora: [nods a bit] Alright. It's your sleep cycle.

Stiles: I'll survive half a night's missed sleep, I promise. [he probably won't survive when Lydia finds out]

Cora: [teasing] You better. [before reaching for his hand to tug him closer, while she goes back to grading]

Dina: [gets up on the couch with them, snuggling into her dad's side while grabbing the TV controller to find something to watch.]

Stiles: [looking over Cora's shoulder] Chemistry. [wrinkles his nose]

Cora: [shifts a bit so that she can settle comfortably against him] Yep.

Stiles: [yeah, he's used to being a human pillow at this point] I hated that class. Not that it was cool, but really, Harris just hated me.

Cora: Maybe you would have liked it more if you had a different teacher.

Stiles: Maybe. I think Harris and my dad had issues as kids and he took it out on me.

Cora: [she turns and gives him a soft kiss on the cheek] I'm sorry.

Stiles: Don't be. He was a... [looks at his daughter] … Very mean person.

Cora: Mmhm. [she laughs] I remember.

Stiles: But now if you were teaching the class, I'd probably be distracted anyway.

Cora: Oh really?

Stiles: Yeah. I'd totally be hot for teacher.

Cora: [she has commentary for this but it's not safe for four year-old ears, so for now she'll just say ...] Duly noted.

Stiles: [kisses her head that's leaning against him, and then just relaxes back to enjoy time with his girls until it's dinner time]

Cora: [and there will be dinner and family time, and eventually Cora will have to return to her apartment]

Stiles: [and he will walk her out while Dina is playing in the yard before bath time] So still on for Friday?

Cora: Always. [she places her bags in the car before turning back to him with a smile] Anything planned that I should know about? [since it's his turn]

Stiles: I was just thinking dinner and a movie at the theatre. Nothing big.

Cora: Sounds good.

Stiles: [goes to kiss her, and his pocket vibrates so he pulls back suddenly, shocked] Sorry, wasn't expecting that]

Cora: [she laughs a bit, before pushing up on her toes to try and see] What is it?

Stiles: [pulls up the e-mail and it's the server telling him that the report is complete] I must have sent it to my phone and not my tablet.

Cora: So work stuff. [she takes a step closer and pushing down his phone a bit so that his attention was back where it was supposed to be] That can wait?

Stiles: [but he wants to knooooooow Cora, but yeah, he can wait a few minutes and puts the phone in his pocket] Yeah, totally can wait. [and he will go back to kissing her]

Cora: [mmmmm kissing. She will do that for a while, but eventually she'll have to pull back because she really does need to go] I can't wait until me going home means you coming with me.

Stiles: We're almost there. And even so, I still want to keep Friday date night going.

Cora: I like the sound of that.

Stiles: [kisses her quickly again] Love you.

Cora: Love you too. [and with that, she'll get into her car and drive away home]

Stiles: [and he's going to take Dina back in, bathe her, get her to bed and after three stories and one glass of water, he's creeping back downstairs with his tablet and phone to start working on the report in the kitchen to analyze the data]

Talia: [wanders in for a cup of tea before bed] Working late again?

Stiles: Nah, I'm going to bed at ten. Got an alarm set and everything. [holds up his phone, his eyes on his tablet still]

Talia: Mmmm-hmmm. [at least he's doing it in his own house] What are you working on?

Stiles: Seeing if I can make a program run to find similarities between random people.

Talia: What kind of similarities?

Stiles: Schools, locations of home ownership, lawsuits, basically most public record databases.

Talia: Are you trying to find something?

Stiles: Kinda. But this kind of program would be amazing I'm sure for some companies.... [his eyes stop and he looks closer to the tablet] Huh.

Talia: [moves closer because now she's curious]

Stiles: [she would see a list of database links on a spreadsheet style format, and he's focusing on the fact all of them had been residents of Beacon County] Well, that answers one question.

Talia: [pauses, tipping her head to the side for a moment] I know a lot of these names.

Stiles: Do you? [looks up at her]

Talia: [she nods a bit, before pointing] Marissa Morales was a friend of mine. Reyna was her mother.

Stiles: [nods] Okay, this is going to sound really odd, but what do you know about her mother?

Talia: She passed away many years ago, in Eichen House. Marissa didn't like to talk about it and I didn't push.

Stiles: [thinks a moment, then scrolls down to open the table of "place of death" and then sits back] Crap.

Talia: What is it?

Stiles: [scrolling] Was your friend's mother a banshee at all?

Talia: [her eyebrows rose] Not that I was aware of.

Stiles: [sucking on his lower lip, and then sending a text to Peter] Well, let's just hope I'm not just sending Peter off on a wild goose chase.

Talia: Do you think they're all banshees?

Stiles: Only one of them was that we know of. [points at Lorraine Martin] But everyone on this list died at Eichen House. [information Parrish is giving Lydia at this same moment]

Talia: [glances over to peer closer] I'd have to have Peter look at the records, but I don't think all of them were. This name - [she points to "Rollins" -] was Nagual, from what I remember.

Stiles: What the heck is a Nagual?

Talia: Werejaguar.

Stiles: [blinks, processing that] Yeah, that's not terrifying at all.

Talia: They're generally a peaceful people unless provoked. [but she moves to sit down next to him] However, there's also a ward in Eichen House ... built to handle these sorts of things.

Stiles: [nods] Well, if I'm reading this right... everyone on this list died in Eichen House.

Talia: Where did you get this list?

Stiles: Um.... [crap. That is his "I wasn't supposed to be doing this" face]

Talia: [oh dear] Stiles.

Stiles: .... Lydia and Peter came to me with this code and we cracked it and this was a list of people and I kinda wanted to know how they were all related.

Talia: Uh-huh. [a beat] Does Lydia know you're doing this?

Stiles: [scratches under his ear] Peter gave me the nod to do it. [no, no Lydia doesn't know]

Talia: Mmm-hmm. Does Lydia want this looked into?

Stiles: Oh yeah. [just you know, not by him]

Talia: But she wanted to do this on her own.

Stiles: I think she had someone else in mind to look into it. But Peter totally gave me the "do your geek thing" look so I'm going to blame him for this.

Talia: Mmm. [yep, she's going to have a talk with her brother about that later] Let's not bring this up to her unless she asks for it.

Stiles: I'm all for that plan. [nods and goes back to texting Peter]

Talia: [sighs and takes a sip of her tea] I'll deal with Peter tomorrow.

Stiles: [yup, doesn't like the sound of that. Poor Peter. Totally not his fault though. Nope, Peter made him do it.]

Talia: Do remember to get some sleep, Stiles.

Stiles: I will. Trust me, I'm exhausted.

Talia: Good. [and with that, she'll take her tea and head to bed]

Stiles: [and he'll work on this until bedtime, then back to work in the AM.]

Peter: [is coming over to grab the stuff Stiles left for him that mid-morning]

Talia: [and she's sitting there at the table waiting for him because Peter. :|]

Peter: [sees that look and instantly looks back at her all innocent] What did I do this time?

Talia: Stiles told me about your little project. The one you're working on behind Lydia's back?

Peter: [deep breath and rolls his eyes] The boy was going to do it anyway, Talia. You know he was.

Talia: You didn't need to encourage him.

Peter: If he could provide answers that Lydia is looking for, I don't see a reason not to. It's for her benefit to know.

Talia: Did you ever consider that she may want to find them on her own?

Peter: Did I say that I was going to tell her without her asking?

Talia: No, but you could have waited for her to tell you. Or ask you for that matter.

Peter: I would prefer to know what we're walking into so that if it's something dangerous to her, I can be aware.

Talia: [she sighs, curling her hands around the tea cup in front of her] Do you realize what this means to her, Peter? Being a banshee, having to deal with all of this - finally finding something that might get her somewhere.

Peter: Yes, I do. And this is the first thing she's found that can hopefully give her answers. I want to make sure they aren't going to set her back.

Talia: Yes, but you trying to control it doesn't make it hers. There are some things about what she is that she needs to discover on her own - you can't always pave the way for her to make sure it's safe - go with her, yes, but you can't jump the line.

Peter: [there is a sigh and his look. the agreeing to disagree look she probably sees a lot when they are discussing things] I'm not going to tell her unless it becomes necessary. I'm going to let her pursue it on her own and let her make her own discoveries. Would you rather I just destroy the information that could provide her the answers when she can't find them on her own?

Talia: Hardly. And I'm not saying she won't turn to you eventually when she hits a dead end. But having the answers prepared already is going to make it seem like you're pulling the strings.

Peter: Let me worry about that if it happens.

Talia: I hope it's worth risking her trust, then.

Peter: To be able to find her answers and keep her safe? It is to me.

Talia: [sighs softly] This is one of those things where she needs to find her own answers.

Peter: [sighs] I don't know how many times you want me to repeat what I've already said, Talia. I can't undo what's been done.

Talia: No. But you can slow down.

Peter: [nods] Then I will.

Talia: Thank you.

Peter: [and he will just hope that nothing bad happens in the meantime]

Talia: [if it does, they can handle it]

Peter: [which means.... Derek has no reason to go to Eichen house at the moment now...]

Talia: [If she goes, Lydia will probably ask Peter to come with her]