#otg2012

“But I already told them I will.”

“Yeah, but they aren’t me. I don’t wanna see you changing your mind and making me look like a fool in front of the judge, you know? I need to hear you say it.”

“Okay, fine. I’m gonna help. I’ll do it.” Kyle says, waving his arms. “As long as they don’t send me to a detention center…”

“Nobody wants to send you there, believe me. Everybody here wants to help you and I’ll be with you when you talk to the police tomorrow, so you can trust me when I say that you’re gonna be safe and nothing unexpected is going to happen.”

“Will they send me back to LA once they get those guys? Because I don’t wanna go back there… I don’t want--”

“No, nobody is sending you anywhere.” Jackson interrupts him. “We know that LA is not a good place for you and that’s why I was out of the room before--”

“Did you call social services?” Kyle asks this time. “They’re coming to get me, right? They’re sending me to another group home.” Kyle says obviously defeated, hiding his face on his hands, elbows resting on the table.

“Yes. I mean, we’ve called them… obviously. But we proposed another temporary arrangement and they accepted, so no, they’re not coming for you.”

“Another arrangement? What another arrangement? What do you mean?” Kyle rests his hands on the table with his gaze fixed intensely on Jackson.

“Yeah, that’s the other thing we have to discuss… because I know what you are. I know you’re a werewolf and we know social services can’t find out… or nobody else for that matter. So, that’s the main reason why we made this decision… to help you.”

“What? I’m not whatever you think I am. I’m not!” Kyle whines and really sounds like a child in a way he hadn’t before.

Jackson snorts. “Don’t bother denying it, okay? I’m also a werewolf and I could tell the moment I met you… that’s why I left before. Because those other three people outside had no idea what they were really dealing with.”

“You’re a werewolf?” Kyle says with disbelief. “Are you kidding? And why should I believe you?”

Jackson snorts, for some reason that answer was not what he was expecting. “Okay, if I’m not a wolf, how is it that I’m the first person to tell you what you are?”

“I... “ Kyle hesitates and licks his lips. “I told you I’m not anything! You have to believe me!”

Jackson sighs and runs his right hand through his hair. This conversation is not going the way he planned and he’s getting more tired by the second.

“Look, I’m not here to waste my time and believe me when I say that people usually make the most of my time… so, fine, since you think I’m lying…” Jackson closes his eyes and concentrates for a few seconds. When he opens them again, they are still blue but not the regular blue.. And they’re certainly not human.

“Oh-shit,” Kyle says, obviously startled.

“Believe me now?” Jackson smirks.

“How are they blue? I thought… well, I thought they were yellow.” Kyle frowns.

“No, most people think that but there are different colors.” This is not the moment for a longer explanation, so that will have to do for now. Jackson closes his eyes again and after a few seconds he opens them again back in their human form.

“How did you do that? Can you do that all the time?” Kyle asks excited.

“Just control, I guess. And yes but no, I don’t do it all the time. It’s not for show.” Jackson almost rolls his eyes but he stops himself, after all Kyle is just a kid who is totally clueless about pretty much everything werewolf related.

“But in order to get control, you need to practice and you need a teacher. You need an alpha and you need a pack… because every wolf needs a pack.”

“A pack?” Kyle seems to be considering Jackson’s words before he speaks. “You have a pack?”

“Yes, of course, I do.”

“And Detective Stiles is a wolf too? He never said anything…”

“No, he’s human. That’s why I said before that he didn’t know, He doesn’t have my… abilities, if you wanna call it that way.”

“But, if he isn’t…” Kyle shakes his head, confused. “I mean, you’re married… you can marry a human?”

“Yes, you can. He’s part of the pack. Our pack is like a family and he’s part of the family… which is exactly what you need.”

“You’re wrong. I don’t need anybody. I’m perfectly fine by myself,” Kyle says, stubbornly.

“Oh yeah? Look around you. Look at the mess you’ve created for yourself. If you had been arrested by anybody else but Stiles, you’d have probably ended up in a detention center which I know, absolutely terrifies you because they would find out what you are the first time there was a full moon and then... then I don’t even know what would happen to you. So really, you should be really grateful to my husband for being worried about your well being and calling me without even knowing the truth about you. Are we clear?” Jackson raises his eyebrows and waits for some kind of answer.

Kyle doesn’t utter a word but he nods. And at this point Jackson is going to take whatever he can get. Plus, thanks to his own children he knows that getting kids to admit that they were wrong it’s almost mission impossible sometimes.

“Okay, I’ll take that as a “Yes, Sir. Thank you Sir… So, moving on, that colleague I brought before… Derek… he’s actually not my colleague, he’s my alpha and I called him because well... that’s what you do in a case like this. You call your alpha and you ask him his opinion--”

“He’s your boss, right?” Kyle interrupts him.

Jackson smirks, he’s sure Derek would love that definition. “Umm… I guess, that’s one way to put it...” Not the way he’d put it.

“But he’s the one calling the shots, right?”

Jackson licks his lips. “Yeah, he does…” or that’s what he’d like to do “And he offered to make you part of his pack… my pack... which honestly, it’s the best thing that could ever happen to you at this point.”

“You mean he wants me in his pack?” Kyle raises his eyebrows.

“Yeah,” Jackson nods. “That’s exactly it.”

“But… Why? I mean, he doesn’t know me. Why would he want me in his pack?”

And the way Kyle just asked that with genuine wonder in his voice… that’s why he proposed what he did… because he gets it, the thought of something good happening to you when all your life you’ve been pretty much threatened by a secret and just trying to survive somewhere where you didn’t belong must be confusing to say the least. And the thing is that dealing with kids is always complicated but dealing with kids with trust issues is something else entirely.

“The same reason why I’ve offered myself as your temporary guardian... because we want to help you. And yes, we just met you but you’re a wolf like me, and you don’t know what it means; you’ve never had your parents to raise you and help you. And as a father myself, I know that I’d like somebody to take care of my kids if something happened to me, and unfortunately, it’s obvious that your parents couldn’t trust anybody… so--”

“Wait.” Kyle interrupts him. “You have kids?” Kyle raises his eyebrows. “And you wanna be my guardian?”

“Yes, I have a couple of those…” Jackson can’t help but smile. “They’re fourteen and seventeen. And yes, since you need to sleep somewhere tonight and social services can’t find out what you are, we’ve thought about it and we’ve decided that staying with us until the case is over and we can figure out--”

“Until the case is over?”

“Well, yeah. I mean, we’re taking things one step at a time… we don’t know how long it’s going to take and today has been a long day and we all need to get some sleep, okay? So if you trust that we’re doing what’s best for you, you’ll come with us and we’ll see what happens. All I can promise you right now is that we’re all acting in your best interest and we’re really trying to protect you. So, are you going to trust us and let me do my job?”

Kyle seems to be considering his words and he’s got this look that Jackson thinks makes him look a lot more mature than he is. It’s like he’s looking through him and it’s kind of unnerving. Jackson doesn’t remember his children ever having looked at him that way. Jackson feels, not for the first time today, this kid isn’t the spontaneous kind, he seems to really consider everything before he speaks probably because he’s used to making decisions since an early age.

“The other detective…” Kyle starts.

“Zach?” Jackson offers.

“Yeah, Detective Zach. He said that you’re good at your job, is he right?”

“No, I’m not good. I’m very good.” Jackson says in the most nonchalant way.

“Okay, then.” Kyle shrugs “It’s not like I have another option anyway.”

“Well, you have but they wouldn’t be smart which I think you are.” Because you have to be smart to be able to hide what you are for so long.

Kyle licks his lips but doesn’t say anything. Jackson figures that the reason is that this kid is not used to getting any kind of praise.