CHAPTER TWELVE
A SHOULDER TO CRY ON
"all i want is love that lasts"
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     Shivani never really had trouble admitting she was in the wrong. It was completely normal to be in the wrong sometimes. Even when it came to guessing who the kanima master was. To be fair, Shivani hadn't really objected when Stiles had accused Matt of being the one, even if his reasoning wasn't too grand. But then again, she hadn't really believed it either so it wasn't like she could take any of the credit for it.

     "I told you so." Had been the first thing to come out of Stiles' mouth when the trio realized who the master was. Shivani would have scowled at him for it hadn't it been for the pure shock she was feeling. Matt was the freaking master. Matt. In all honesty she had expected someone with a bit more. . . edge to them. Matt was just so bland. Who would've thought? Well, Stiles did think that. Then again he did accuse like five other people too, one of which were Derek ( Shivani heavily objected at this one ).

     Guess sometimes creepy stalker vibes also meant pshyco killer master dude too!

Shivani was currently standing at the hospital, her arms wrapped around a sobbing Allison Argent. Shivani hadn't really seen Allison expose her soft side like this, but then again they hadn't known each other that long. Still, the sight infront of her was heart breaking.

Shivani had gotten the call just moments after her, Scott and Stiles had realized that Matt was the one controlling Jackson. Allison had been all over the place, sobbing as she explained the situation to Shivani. Victoria Argent was dead, she had killed herself.

Shivani had originally been suprised that Allison called her instead of Scott, or Lydia or something, but then she remembered that her family didn't exactly approve of Scott, and Lydia was a no show. The Caddel girl had rushed to the hospital at an alarmingly fast pace, running several red lights. Barely arriving unscaved, she had hurried in the direction of the elevator. She had briefly bumped into her mom, but didn't stop to explain the situation. She instead flew down the hallways, skidding to a halt infront of the mess of a girl.

Allison had practically collapsed in Shivani's arms. Her father, Chris Argent, was standing a mere few feet away from them, a broken look on his face as he was forced to listen to the loud cries erupting from his daughter. He had yet to inform his daughter that her mother hadn't killed herself, but instead had been forced to protect her family because Derek Hale had bitten her. How did one even begin to explain something like that to one's daughter?

In all honesty, Chris was afraid. He was afraid that telling her would fuel the side of her that reminded him of his own sister. That type of hatred was dangerous, especially at times like this. He had already seen his daughter go crazy mode once before with Kate Argent by her side. He wasn't tempted to see the same thing again. Gerard, on the other side, was more then happy to. The older man had been the one to encouraged the 'suicide'. Allison's mom wasn't likely to live her life as a werewolf anyway, but the elderly man heavily influenced the situation. Chris had noted so much, but his head was too clouded to question it.

Shivani was feeling the same horrible gut feeling she had been feeling earlier the night. Damn her and her gut. She hated when she was right at things like this. It wasn't like she could have predicted it, but maybe she should've stepped in and encouraged Allison to speak to her mother. Maybe then things could've been different. . . There was no telling, but that didn't mean Shivani wasn't wracked with guilt.

Shivani couldn't imagine loosing her mom, ever. Could anyone really? Though not too present, her mother was her hero, her idol. They were as close as they could be given the circumstance, and Shivani never doubted that she could trust her mother with anything. Well, almost anything. The pain Allison was feeling was truly unimaginable.

Shivani had no idea what to do. She had never really comforted someone, and she hadn't really been comforted herself before. All she could do was run a comforting hand over Allison's back while whispering reassuring words to the girl. As for right now, Shivani was Allison's shoulder to cry on. And she was planning on taking this task seriously.

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     "Stiles what are you doing at my house." The party had ended a few hours ago when the police had showed up with a notice complaint, and Lydia was still nowhere to be found.

     Ignoring Shivani's hostility, Stiles brushed past her, entering her house without an invite. She scoffed, arms crossed. "Why am I here?!" Stiles nearly exclaimed at the girl. "You're really asking why I'm here?" Shivani simply shrugged. "I don't know, maybe because I was freaking right, Matt is the one controlling Jackson!"

     A deep, sorrowful sigh escaped Shivani's lips. "That still doesn't explain why you're here, Stiles." Knowing Stiles, rubbing it in that he was right wasn't the only reason he was here.

     Shivani had barely just got home when she was forced to open the front door. The Caddel girl had initially planned to ignore Stiles, but knowing him he would end up breaking in. Allison had gone home with her dad. The Argent had finally stopped sobbing, but the state of the girl wasn't any better. Her eyes looked drained as she blankly stared ahead of herself. A frown was etched on her lips, and she refrained from talking. It was heartbreaking. Shivani had shot her a few text letting Allison know that she was there for her if she needed anything, and to call her up whenever. The texts had gone unnoticed, but Shivani didn't mind. The Argent would answer on her own time.

     In truth, Shivani was drained. Spending hours trying to comfort Allison had brought her energy level down drastically. The mermaid was both hungry and exhausted, and in no mood to be handling any supernatural business. She had barely managed to change out of her tear soaked outfit before Stiles had come knocking. Shivani understood that the supernatural world wasn't one she could put on hold whenever she wanted to, but she really freaking needed a break. Or at the very least, a hot bath.

     "Because now that we know, we need to stop him." Stiles explained hastily. Shivani leaned against the door frame of the front door, one brow arched.

     Shivani, for once, found Stiles fascinating to watch instead of annoying ( okay so she used to find him incredibly annoying, but it had slowly faded into fascination ). The way his face twitched when he rushed to explain something was kind of. . . cute. Shivani would never be caught dead admitting that, of course, but maybe Stiles wasn't too annoying. He always had a sarcastic comeback at hand, and he never appeared to be sitting still. Stiles was slowly starting to grow on the Caddel girl. She didn't like it.

     "Yeah, and precisely how are we going to do that?" The look on his face fell. "Exactly. Why are you even at my door? Doesn't Scott seem like a better person for this job?"

     Stiles found himself thinking the same thing about Shivani. He enjoyed the banter between the two. It was like the Stilinski boy had somehow met his match. The mermaid had no problem firing back a sarcastic remark at him, or tell him when he was being a little too spastic. Stiles wasn't about to admit that to himself, though. For now he was still being cautious around her and that wasn't about to change anytime soon. At least that was what he was telling himself. . .

     "Well, no. As much as I hate to admit it, your powers might come in handy and you're not too dumb either. Also, Scott is waiting in the car." Shivani scoffed loudly. "Hey, you're the one who wants to be a part of the 'pack'. Now, will you help us or not?"

     With a loud sigh, Shivani reluctantly nodded her head. "Fine. Where are we going?"

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Stiles shoved Shivani forcefully into the back of his Jeep. She grunted in response when her head slammed against the seat. "Hi Scott." She sourly grumbled. He mumbled back a greeting.

The trio was headed towards Stiles' house. Apparently Scott and Stiles had figured the best thing to do was consulting Stiles' father who, by the way, no longer was the sheriff. Stiles had been the reason behind him being fired and he was making it his mission to make up for the fiasco. So if they gave enough clues to Noah Stilinski, maybe he'd be able to piece the puzzle together. That way he would get his job back, and Matt wouldn't be a problem anymore.

Two birds under one stone.

God, that's a horrible saying, Shivani thought.

"So, how are we going to explain all of this without revealing anything. . . abnormal to your father." Shivani questioned, poking her head out from the backseat. Stiles spared a quick glance aim her direction.

"We haven't figured that out yet." He admitted. Shivani pursed her lips.

"Well, how are you going to explain how you even know any of this?" Stiles frowned at the question.

"Again, we don't know."

"Okay but what about-"

"Shivani is it not painfully clear that we rarely have a thought through plan to execute? We're just going with it." Stiles grumbled. Shivani grinned widely, satisfied by the fact that she had managed to get on his nerves. After the night she'd had, she needed this win.

"I don't know how either of you have survived this far." Shivani remarked tauntingly. Stiles scoffed loudly.

"Whatever. We're just going to present to him what we know and go from there." Stiles said. The car ride remained silent from there on. Soon enough they were parked outside the Stilinski resident, the three piling out of the rusty blue jeep.

The three rushed inside and bursted into Noah Stilinski's office, catching the man by suprise. "What the hell- Stiles. Are you trying to give me a heart attack?"

"We know who the killer is!" Stiles exclaimed, slamming the yearbook down on the desk infront of the sheriff. Stiles pointed on him. "Matt." He confidently stated.

His father shot him a skeptical look. "So this kid's the real killer?" Judging by his tone, he didn't believe it.

"Yeah."

"No." He simply said, shaking his head.

"Yes!"

"No."

"Dad, come on." Stiles groaned. "Everybody knows that the police look for ways to connect victims in a murder, okay? So all we had to do is, like, look through their transcripts and figure out which class they all had in common." He argued. Shivani and Scott remained in the background, watching the two argue. It was best not to meddle.

"Yeah, except for the fact that the rave promoter Kara wasn't in Harris' class." His father said matter of factly.

"All right, okay, you're right, sorry. Then I guess they dropped the charges against him?" Stiles' question caused a frown on Noah Stilinski's face.

"No, you know what? They're not dropping the charges. But that doesn't prove anything." Shivani grinned at his stubbornness. It was obvious who Stiles got it from.

"How-"

"Scott, do you believe this?" The older man interrupted, switching his attention over to Scott and Shivani.

"It's really hard to explain how we know this, but you just gotta trust us. We know it's Matt." Scott confirmed. A look of disbelief washed over Stiles' father's face.

"Shivani?"

"As much as I hate to admit it, your son is right. It's definitely Matt." She said.

"Yeah, he took Harris' car, okay? Look, he knew that if a cop found tire tracks at one of the murders, and that if enough of the victims were in Harris's class, that they'd arrest him." Stiles explained, his arms wailing around as he did. Shivani almsot laughed at his dramatic way of gesturing.

"All right, fine. I'll allow the remote possibility, but give me a motive. I mean, why would this kid want most of the 2006 swim team and its coach dead?" A moment of silence went by as Stiles thought about a possible motive. Well, other then the fact that they all 'killed' him.

"Isn't it obvious? Our swim team sucks! They haven't won in, like, six years." The former sheriff shot his son an unimpressed look. "Okay, we don't have a motive yet. I mean, come on, does Harris?"

Stiles had a point. "What do you want me to do?" Seeing as he no longer was the sheriff, he couldn't really do anything.

"We need to look at the evidence." Scott said, a hopeful look on his face. If they could convince Stiles' father that Matt was the killer, they could take him down.

"Yeah, that would be at the station, where I no longer work." The Stilinski man stated with a sour look on his face.

"Trust me, they'll let you in." Stiles said, waving his hand dismissively.

"Trust you?" Shivani snorted at the comment.

"Trust - trust them?" Stiles tried, jutting his thumb at Shivani and Scott.

"I don't really know her." The older man started. "But Scott, Scott I trust."

And with that, the four of them headed in the direction of the police station. They needed the evidence stored there to nail Matt down, and when they had that, Stiles' dad would get his job back and everything would go back to normal for the teenagers.

At least that's what Shivani was hoping for. Sadly, in a town like Beacon Hills, things never really did go as hoped. Usually, it went the total opposite way, and tonight was not going to be any different.

word count; 2430
a/n

we are slowly reaching the end of season two, and thus this book. as for now, things between stiles and shivani are still platonic and have yet to developed into feelings. i mean, stiles haven't really shown any trust in her till now. wanted to include the hospital scene when allison's mom dies bc i haven't really seen that in a lot of books, and seeing as shivani and allison are friends, it seemed fit. i hope u guys enjoyed the chapter, stay tuned for more!

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