Walk the Line by melremade

Summary: With the life her family led, her own life had always felt like one big adventure after another. When her family moved to Beacon Hills, she actually looked forward to experiencing a normal suburban lifestyle before the next adventure could begin, even if the circumstances of the move were less than ideal. But whoever thought that of all the different places she had lived, a small town in California would prove to be the one she should fear the most?

Rating: T, may go up later

Disclaimer: I don't own Teen Wolf.

Prologue

"Stiles, for the last time, if you show up at a crime scene again, there's going to be a 187 at home," Sheriff Stilinski warned his son as he pulled the squad car into the driveway, causing Stiles to groan aloud at the scolding.

"Come on, Dad. It's not like I was going around tampering with evidence. I just wanted to see if the burglars left any visible damage to the house," Stiles whined as his father turned off the car's engine before getting out and Stiles quickly followed suit.

"Well, graduate from high school, get through the police academy, and then you can see all the visible damage you want," his dad advised him dryly over the roof of the car and his son rolled his eyes.

"You know, if I had found any evidence, you would be thanking me, not threatening me with murder," Stiles replied and the sheriff only raised a disbelieving eyebrow in response.

"What crime scene did he stumble upon now?" a third voice interrupted and the pair both turned to the man addressing them.

"Hey, I didn't stumble upon anything," Stiles protested loudly, making the elderly man standing at the end of the neighboring driveway grin in amusement. "I was just observing Beacon Hills' finest at work."

"Wise decision, Stiles. Flattery is always the way out of trouble," the man smiled, glancing at the sheriff's slightly exasperated look directed towards his son's behavior.

"How's it going, Nick?" the sheriff asked, deciding to drop the matter and instead choosing to acknowledge his long-time neighbor as he shut the car door and walked around it stand next to his son.

"Boredom has effectively set in," Nick complained wryly as he moved up the driveway towards the father and son. "I'm not a big fan of this whole 'retirement' thing. Right about now is when I'd usually be coming up with a new syllabus that would have students second-guessing their decision to attend a university. And now, instead of making undergraduates suffer, I'm stuck deciding what soap opera I want to start watching."

"The Young and the Restless," Stiles unnecessarily answered, causing the two other men to give him matching surprised looks and he was quick to explain. "I'm just saying. It's summer and my days are rather long and uneventful. I needed a hobby."

"That's my son," the sheriff sighed exaggeratedly, making Nick laugh with a shake of his head.

"Yeah, well, apart from waiting to find out who kidnapped whom and who's sleeping with whom on some soap, I've just been waiting around to see what postcard I'm gonna get next from my granddaughter," Nick continued as he turned his attention to the small stack of mail he had just retrieved from the mailbox. He quickly sorted through it before his face lit up. "And it looks like today we have a winner."

"Where are they again?" the sheriff asked curiously, unable to recall where Nick had told him his daughter and her husband and daughter were currently located.

"Brazil, Ted's been working on a long-running story about the indigenous people," Nick answered as he scanned over the note on the back of the postcard.

"Anything noteworthy?" the sheriff questioned.

"Apparently my granddaughter is over the moon about having a new dog," he replied before his brow furrowed in confusion. "Something about it being as protective as a direwolf? Why the hell is she comparing it to an extinct wolf?"

"Game of Thrones," Stiles responded and Nick looked up at him, now looking even more confused. "Um, it's a show based on a fantasy book series. There are direwolves…"

Nick continued to look at him for a long moment with an observing eye before looking back down at the postcard with a chuckle.

"I'll have to get her to visit one day. She's your age, just turned sixteen this month. I think you'd get along well," Nick told Stiles.

"Really?" he asked and Nick nodded absentmindedly.

"Yeah, you're both a little weird," he replied and the sheriff laughed aloud and clapped Stiles on the back, growing even more amused at the slightly offended look on his son's face.

"I'll see you around, Nick," the sheriff waved goodbye before turning around and making his way up the driveway and towards the house.

"I'm not weird and I'm offended that you would dare imply that I was," Stiles huffed as he crossed his arms across his chest and Nick looked back up to the affronted teenager with a grin.

"Don't worry, Stiles. Weird is good. Weird sets you apart from the herd," Nick assured him. However, as he opened his mouth to continue trying to appease Stiles, a blank look fell over his face and his hands dropped to his sides, the stack of letters falling carelessly to the ground.

"Nick?" Stiles asked worriedly, moving closer to the man. Any questions he was about to ask about whether the man was all right were answered the second Nick's eyes rolled into the back of his head and he fell to the ground, losing consciousness.

"Dad!" Stiles shouted as he rushed across the short distance between the two driveways to the fallen man, fear lighting up his features as his neighbor began to experience convulsions. He instinctively rolled the man onto his side, somehow remembering the directions given to him in his seventh grade health class.

"This is unit one to dispatch! I need an ambulance at 223 Fox Mill Drive and I need it now!" the sheriff ordered into the radio hanging over his shoulder as he rushed towards his son who continued to keep a tight hold of Nick.

The night was calm and quiet. The only sound to be heard was the chirping of crickets and as Nick stood on his back patio looking out into the woods that began on the edge of his property, he attempted to relish the moment for as long as he could. Who knew how many more opportunities he would get to do just this? How many more peaceful nights would he get?

The silence was shattered as the phone in his hand began to ring and Nick looked down at the screen to see that it was his daughter calling. He sat down on a patio chair with a heavy sigh as he answered the phone and brought it up to his ear.

"Hey, Sylvia," he greeted softly, a small smile forming on his lips despite the turn the conversation was soon to take.

"Dad, I got your message. What did the doctor say?" she asked worriedly, her words coming out rushed and he sank down in his seat.

"Um, it's not good, sweetheart," he murmured and he heard her let out a soft gasp on the other end. "They biopsy of the tumor came back and it's malignant."

"Oh my God," she whispered, her voice cracking and his heart broke at the thought of his only daughter crying as she received the news. "So what do they do now? How do we get you better?"

"Sylvia, it's inoperable. They say that because of its location in the brain, it would be impossible to remove it without doing severe and permanent damage. They're going to start me on radiation treatments next week but told me that it will only give me a few more months," he explained as he looked tiredly out at his backyard. He couldn't help noting that the lawn could use a trim, but the thought quickly evaporated as he heard Sylvia start to cry and he found himself at a loss of what to say.

"Dad, we're coming back," she eventually said once her sobs had subsided. "Ted and I have already talked about what we would do if the worst should happen. Penny and I are going to be there as soon as possible. We've already looked at houses just in case. Ted has to be here in Brazil for another month or so but once he's done, he'll be there, too."

Nick found himself in awe of his daughter's levelheaded thinking, even in the face of such tragic news. She and Ted had put together a plan and were ready to follow through with it after only one phone call. This was a family he could be proud of.

"Thank you," he whispered quietly, his eyes stinging from unshed tears. "I love you all so much."

"We love you too, Dad," Sylvia replied without a moment's hesitation. "I'm gonna go now so I can talk to Ted and Penny, but I'll give you a call early tomorrow with what our exact plans are, okay?"

"Alright, sweetheart. And again, thank you. I don't know how I could get through this without you," he confided.

"I love you, Dad. I promise, you won't have to go through this alone," she told him, her voice sounding so much stronger than it had only moments before. "I'll talk to you tomorrow."

"Bye, Sylvia," he said before ending the call and dropping the phone with a loud clatter onto the patio table. With a soft sigh he brought his hands up to his face and rubbed his eyes tiredly before dropping them onto the armrests. It took him a long moment before he was able to gather the energy to stand from his chair and he picked up the phone as he turned around to go back inside. But before he could get too far, he was stopped when someone called his name.

"Nick!" he heard a voice shout, breaking the evening silence that had finally settled back over the night. A soft look fell over his face as he heard whom it was. He knew what she wanted, it was the same she thing she always wanted—help.

"Go home, Laura," he replied with a sigh, his hand still tightly holding onto the phone and his back remaining towards her.

"Nick, I need your help. I'm getting somewhere, but I need help putting it all together," she implored and Nick paused for a long moment before he finally turned to face her.

"Go home," he repeated not unkindly and the young woman only moved closer to him, a desperate look on her face.

"I don't have a home," she countered. "My home was destroyed and I'm doing all I can to bring those responsible to justice, but I don't think I can do it alone. You can help, you know you can."

"You're wrong about two things," he corrected her gently and her brow furrowed in confusion. "First, you do have a home—it's with Derek, your family. And second, you don't want justice, you want revenge."

"Shouldn't you?" she asked, her tone frustrated. "They burned down our house and murdered innocent people! They tipped the balance! If you don't care about the fact that they murdered my family, don't you at least care about that?"

Her eyes were pleading with him to help her and he gave her a long look, debating what he should do. He knew what would happen if she stayed in Beacon Hills, that it would only lead to tragedy.

"I'm going to do something I haven't done in almost a decade," he finally said and he saw the hope that filled her features. "I'll tell you what needs to be done."

"Thank you, Nick," she murmured, a smile breaking out across her face.

"No, Laura," he interrupted her before she could continue, knowing that she had misconstrued his words. "I won't help you find the killer. But I will interfere."

"I don't understand," she told him, her smile now fully gone.

"You need to leave, Laura. Leave Beacon Hills," he instructed her and she took a step back as she shook her head.

"I still don't understand. You said you would tell me what I needed to do," she argued and he sighed heavily. "You said you would help me restore the balance."

"If you keep on this path, trying to find who was responsible for the fire, then yes, the balance will be restored," he conceded with a small nod. "Keep going and you'll get the revenge you want, but at great cost. So I'm telling you to let it go. Leave behind all of this pain. Go back to your brother."

"But the balance?" she asked, unsure of what his advice meant. "You've always lived by the balance and were sworn not to interfere when you knew it would restore itself on its own. If I don't find the person responsible, then will they ever have to pay for what they've done to us?"

"No," he answered after a brief pause, his eyes sorrowful. "If you leave, then the person who set the fire will have gotten away with it and the balance will remain tipped to one side. But you'll be safe, Laura. You and Derek will both be safe."

"What do you mean we'll both be safe?" she questioned, her tone concerned.

"Just go back to your brother, Laura," he urged her yet again, leaving her question unanswered and she warily looked at him with slightly narrowed eyes.

"Why are you doing this?" she asked quietly and he continued to give her the same sorrowful look as she began to work out the clues aloud. "You've never interfered like this and you've never been willing to leave the balance unrepaired. You didn't act before because you knew that I would come back and would fix it. And now you're trying to send me away?"

When he didn't reply, she moved a few steps closer to him and as she did, he could see the realization wash over her face.

"You're dying," she whispered, her eyes widening at the discovery and he slowly nodded.

"Brain cancer," he confirmed softly and he could see the sorrowful look he had just been giving her now mirrored on her face, only it was directed at him. "Please go home, Laura."

She stared at him, taking in everything that had just happened between the two before finally turning around wordlessly and gracefully walking away from him and towards the woods. And in that moment, he knew that she had made up her mind and would stay resolute. Despite his attempt to thwart it, the darkness was coming—he could feel it in his bones.

Alright, so this was just the prologue to set up some back story before I actually introduce the main character and I hope you all liked it and that it wasn't anything too predictable! I also hope that I did an alright job writing Stiles because I would hate to make him OOC. Please let me know what you thought? I'll love you forever!