Hope Andrea Argent

Formality (Part 2)

In the pitch black, a cell phone display lights up revealing Kate while she listens to a voicemail.

"It's me. I'm getting tired of leaving messages. I want to know where you are. Call me. Now," Chris says, and Kate only puts the phone back in her pocket.

"Unfortunately, Derek, if you're not going to talk, looks like I'm going to have to kill you. So... Say hi to your sister for me," Kate says, turning to the control box, but she pauses with her hand on the dial,"You did tell her about me, right? The truth about the fire?"

She watches his face for a reaction. He won't look at her.

"Or did you? Did you ever tell anyone?"

Derek closes his eyes, trying to shut her out.

"Oh sweety, that's a lot of guilt to keep buried. It's not all your fault. You got tricked by a pretty face. It happens. Handsome young werewolf mistakenly falls in love with super hot girl who comes from family that kills werewolves. Is that ironic? I'm reluctant to say ironic because I know most people don't use the word correctly. Is it ironic that you're inadvertently helping me take down the rest of the pack again? Maybe it's just funny. Or just history repeating itself," Kate says, about to turn the current up, but she again pauses,"History repeating..." She whispers to herself.

She flips the dial back down and approaches Derek.

"It's not Jackson, is it?" Kate asks, looking up at Derek's face,"He's got a little scratch on the back of his neck, but he's not in love with Allison," Kate says, a smile starting to spread across her face,"Not like Scott."

Time Skip

Stiles struggles with his tie as the sun sets, he looks at his phone for the time and it's 6:30.

"Everything alright here?" Stilinski asks, sticking his head into the room.

"Yeah," Stiles says, finally getting the tie right, and he straightens it.

"Who are you going to the formal with again?" Stilinski asks, stepping into the room.

"Hope Argent," Stiles says,"Allison's cousin."

Stilinski nods,"You like her?"

"Yes," Stiles says immediately,"I don't really know how she feels though."

"After almost fifteen years of marriage I've learned one thing," Stilinski says, running his thumb over his wedding ring,"Women like to hear the words. So if you really like her, be honest about it."

"There's also the painful crushing humiliation to think about," Stiles reminds him, grabbing his keys.

"I thought the exact same thing," Stilinski tells him,"In school there was this one girl that everyone loved, a girl who could help anyone if you only ask, and hell to pay if you got on her bad side. Then I finally got the courage to tell her how I feel."

"Was it the one who got away?" Stiles asks curiously.

Stilinski shook his head, smiling as he went over to Stiles' desk and straightened the last family picture they took before Stiles' Mom died,"The one I married."

Stiles chuckles as he hugs his Dad goodbye before running to his jeep and driving over to the Argent's house.

When the door opens Argent is glaring down at Stiles.

The teenager smiles nervously at him.

"Hope's still getting ready," Argent says, opening the door wider so Stiles could step in.

"Okay," Stiles says, glancing around the house anxiously, and part of him expected the house to have more taxidermy products coming from a family of werewolf hunters,"Is this uh... the part where you give the whole intimidating speech while you clean your shotgun?"