Whose Eyes Were Red? [s.m][3]

part 2

"When was the last time you were in Beacon Hills?"

Levi looked to her left as Jackson sat down from putting his bag in the overhead locker of the plane. She shrugged, fiddling with the cord of the headphones that the flight attendant had just finished passing around. 

"Almost three years ago, just before Eli's thirteenth birthday," she murmured, knowing that this trip was going to bring back a lot of emotions and memories for her. She knew that if Lydia was needing Jackson's help, then she'd definitely have called others. Levi wasn't sure who else she would have called, but she knew who one of them would be for certain. "I haven't seen... them... in a long time."

"Great," Jackson muttered, reaching over and helping himself to a glass of champagne that the flight attendant had started to pass out amongst the first class passengers. He was dressed for the occasion; one of his smart, floor length coats had just been put away and his designer clothes made him fit in with those around him. "I am so excited, thrilled even, to get to be involved in this emotional shit-show that's about to go down."

Levi, however, was in jeans, a pair of battered sneakers and an old Beacon Hills lacrosse sweater that Jackson was 100% sure had his own lacrosse number on the back. He knew that it had been in storage somewhere in the apartment, but he hadn't realised that Levi had added it to her wardrobe.

She ignored his sarcastic comment as she declined the champagne that was reached out to her. Her eyes closed for a second as she tried to block out the noise of excited chatter around her, hearing lots of families talking amongst themselves about how they'd be landing in California in only ten hours time. Her throat was tight as she tried to stop the familiar lump forming as she realised exactly what they were about to do.

They were returning to Beacon Hills.

______

"You were right. It wasn't gasoline," Derek told the Sheriff and Mason as he looked around at the burnt forest remains around them. He rammed his hands into his pockets as the smoke drifted around his body as he approached the other two men. "Whoever set this fire used a chemical accelerant."

"Four fires in two weeks," Sheriff Stilinski muttered, furrowing his brows as he flickered his eyes around them once more. "That's a serial arsonist. Do I need to call in the FBI?"

"Well, maybe you should be calling your son," Derek replied, a small hint of a smile on his lips. It had been a while since he had last seen the chaotic boy, especially with everything that seemed to be going on with what was once the McCall pack. Stiles visited Beacon Hills the most out of those that had left the town, mostly to see his father but also to make the occasional check-up on the jeep. He'd never been able to really let it go.

"Trust me, right now Stiles has his own fires to put out. I think we can handle one arsonist."

"The only thing I'd say is, this one seems to have a plan," Derek said, the slight hurt in his voice hard to pick up on. Fires brought back a lot of bad memories for him, and the sights that he had been seeing in these previous fires had reminded him of a part of his childhood that he didn't like to dwell on. It was times like these that made him glad that Levi had become an almost non-existent part of his life in recent years.