The Dangers of Falling (in Love)

Chapter 3

Derek doesn't sleep much that night. When he does his dreams are full of fire, smoke and bullets. Instead he sits outside on the railing out the front of the hut. It's a warm night and there isn't a cloud in the sky to cover the shining stars. He notices a light turned on in the main farm house and recognises the window as Stiles' bedroom. He wonders why the boy is awake at such an hour, although he is awake right now too so he shouldn't judge.

As the sun begins rise he's already managed to fix the broken door on the hut with the few tools he could find in the next to empty draws. He was nearly finished turning the last screw when he hears voices chatting in the distance. He looks over towards the house to find three young men walking from what looks to be some sort of cottage behind the main house. He recognises one of the boys as Scott, he thinks his name was, who helped him yesterday but the other two he'd never seen before. They were all wearing jeans and flannel with their cowboy boots and hats, they must be the farm hands Stiles was talking about. He watches them curiously, Scott glances over towards the hut a few times obviously knowing he was there but the others just carried about laughing and talking to each other.

"He's awake! Good." Stiles says and Derek turns towards the voice spotting Stiles walking up to the hut.

Derek grunts in response putting the screwdriver down on the floor. "Wait did you fix that door?" Stiles asked with a shocked expression and Derek nods suddenly worried that he shouldn't have touched the door. "Man my dad is gonna love you." Stiles responds and Derek stares at him, fighting the urge to roll his eyes.

"Are they the farm hands?" Derek asks nodding towards the group of men.

"Yeah, that's Scott getting into the passenger side of the white ute, he's basically a brother to me, the one by the drivers side is Boyd. We went to school together and now he lives and works here. The other guy is Parrish, he use to work with my dad at the station but now works and lives on the farm. They're good guys, they can get annoying and push your buttons sometimes but they're hard workers and good people." Stiles explains and Derek nods wondering if Stiles has any siblings he hasn't seen yet and wonders where his mother is, he hasn't seen any women on the farm either. Maybe the sheriff got a divorce, or maybe she's where his mother is too. Derek thinks to himself as he looks up at the sky.

"Ready for breakfast? I make a mean omelette." Stiles says snapping Derek out his thoughts and he nods following the boy towards the house.

They take their boots off at the door and Derek notices Stiles staring at his feet. It takes him a moment to realise it's because his socks are dirty and have holes in them but there's nothing he can do about that. Stiles quickly looks away opening the front door and leading him into the kitchen.

"Good morning Derek." The sheriff says as he pours himself a cup of coffee. He notices the sheriff isn't in his work uniform, he's wearing jeans and flannel which seems to be the trend for everyone around here.

"Morning." Derek replies awkwardly as Stiles starts grabbing eggs out of the fridge.

"Take a seat son." The sheriff says nodding to the chair opposite him. "How'd you sleep?"

"Alright." Derek answers sitting down on the wooden chair. He knew this morning was going be interesting, the sheriff would want to know about him and would ask questions and he knew it was about to start.

"Derek fixed the door on the hut!" Stiles pipes up as he leans over the stove cooking something Derek can't see.

"He did?" The sheriff asks looking over at Derek waiting for an answer and he nods not sure what else to do. "How?"

"I found tools in the hut, sorry I should have asked first." Derek says and the sheriff shakes his head.

"Don't. I've had that door on my list of jobs for years just nobody's ever gotten around to it. Too many other jobs that take priority." The sheriff replies and Derek nods understanding. There's always something to do on the farm, always a fence to patch up, livestock to move, machinery to fix, wood to chop or really anything, there's always jobs to do.