Father || Teen Wolf

11 - Bend and Break

"You're the biggest idiot in the entire world, you know that?"

Stiles' words would have stung if they hadn't been spoken with a smile. He was bent down, attempting and failing to use a paper clip to free Jamie from his chains - a task that was supposed to be performed by Lydia, only Lydia was not in the vicinity and neither was the key to the heavy padlock that had prevented Jamie from breaking loose during the full Moon.

Needless to say, when Stiles had finally reached the lake house after one utterly crazy adventure, he had not been expecting to find Jamie alone, sitting in a corner with his hands still restrained. The sight had made him smile as he guessed Lydia had gone to bed, leaving her boyfriend stranded without a key to unlock the chains.

"Yes, I'm aware of that fact," Jamie replied, resignation in his voice.

Stiles chuckled and shook his head, eyes fixated on the padlock that was proving much harder to pick than its rustic appearance suggested. The various lock-picking tutorials he had watched in the past made it look so easy, yet all their helpful instructions proved to be quite useless in the end as the only thing he managed to accomplish was to lightly scratch his thumb with the pointy end of the paper clip.

The spastic teen kept blabbering about the night's events, telling Jamie everything that had transpired in his usual rapid tone, barely stopping to breathe between two sentences. How Allison had followed one of the Argent hunters and shot an arrow through the tires of his car, preventing him from reaching Isaac; how they had broken into the police station; how Isaac had latched out at them until Derek had arrived and, using his dominance as Isaac's natural Alpha, had brought him back to his senses - he told Jamie everything. It was painfully obvious how much Stiles struggled to say anything positive about Derek but Jamie didn't seem to notice, too caught up in the contemplation of something Stiles couldn't seem to spot despite turning around to look multiple times.

"Are you even listening to me?" Stiles finally asked, tired of his friend's silence.

When Jamie didn't reply, Stiles had his answer. The paper clip in his hand looked nothing like a paper clip anymore, more like a twisted metal wire, and much to Stiles' despair, the padlock was still securely and resolutely locked. His cheeks were reddened with both focus and frustration yet he wasn't about to give up. Stiles Stilinski wouldn't be defeated by a mere padlock.

His eyes scanned the room in search of some helpful tool but failed at finding anything other than dust and splinters of wood. Suppressing a heavy sigh, Stiles turned to his friend, about to fire ideas at him and hoping one of them would be good. He stopped, mouth half-open, before any sound left his throat.

At first he had thought the full Moon had simply drained Jamie of all energy, yet he was starting to doubt that was all there was to Jamie's unusually quiet attitude. There was something else. Stiles searched his friend's face for a clue, only to freeze once he found it. There was something in Jamie's expression that betrayed more than weariness after a rough full Moon, something deeper, a sort of guilt that had been seen on his face for so long many years ago, after the car accident that had claimed three of his family members.

"Jamie?" Stiles asked in an uncharacteristically small voice. "Where's Lydia?"

The mention of Lydia' name caught Jamie's attention and he briefly looked up, eyes not reaching high enough to meet Stiles' worried gaze. He looked down again.

"I don't know," Jamie said in a flat tone. He paused, his breathing shaky. Stiles knew better than to interrupt or press him. He simply needed time to gather his thoughts and his words, and a bit of courage perhaps. "I... I told her we needed to stop."