Chapter Text
Mornings were never easy for anybody. Especially not for Stiles Stilinski. He spent most of his life being a night owl, and most of his adolescence chasing werewolves and mysterious leads in his seemingly cursed hometown. Waking up at 6 am to get ready for work was an adjustment he was essentially held at gunpoint to make. Working at the FBI meant he couldn’t be late, and working with the BAU meant being late could’ve been life or death for someone. If Hotch was in a bad mood and Stiles showed up late on top of it, that someone could be him.
Stiles dragged himself out of bed, rubbing his bleary eyes to try and adjust his vision. He’d been working with the BAU for about 5 months now and the cases they would pursue were right up his alley. He’d tried working in different divisions, each team not really meshing with his style of chugging 5 redbulls and chasing a lead down with scary accuracy. It’d worked for him back in Beacon Hills when their monsters were masters of deception and hiding their true identities from the pack, but when every unsub was a white collar criminal or a cybercriminal, he felt like the repetitiveness was killing him. Finally, when the legendary Behavioral Analysis Unit was accepting members and Stiles had passed his profiler certification, he jumped at the chance to join the team.
As he poured 3 shots of espresso into his morning coffee, Stiles thought back to when he first joined. Mixed with excitement for new cases and a gut wrenching anxiety of joining an already well oiled machine of a team and being the loose screw that ruins it all, he walked into SSA Hotchner’s office. He remembered how he tried making as much eye contact as possible, trying to seem professional but coming off slightly creepy and too eager. He remembered how Hotch had stuttered through his Polish jumble of a first name before cutting him off and saying he went by Stiles. He remembered some of that fear melting off of him when he was met with JJ’s comforting smile, Garcia’s excited hug, and Reid’s rambly introduction that had mentioned some statistics about handshaking and germs. Rossi, Prentiss and Morgan had honestly intimidated him along with the stone wall that went by Hotch, but everyone eventually warmed up to him and his antics.
Stiles shoved a cookie that Scott brought over from his mom after visiting last weekend into his bag to save for later. He and his old friend had hung out and reminisced about old times while Scott had also mentioned being accepted into a veterinary practice after getting his license. The two 28 year olds laughed about how Stiles would have trouble handling serial killers while the wolf would have trouble handling cats. Both were difficult careers in their own right, but Stiles would’ve much preferred the cute and cuddly animals to the monsters he dealt with. While Scott was in veterinary school, Stiles suffered through law school while working his way up in the FBI, thinking it would be great for his resume and a fun challenge to take up. He was definitely wrong about one of them. He refused to take the bar after graduating, fearing the toll it would take on his life, and after seeing Scott post-MCAT, his hairline.
He was incredibly grateful that he was able to stay close to his pack. He remembered the fear he felt when entering senior year, worrying if the people he’d survived hell with would leave him and consider him a “highschool friend.” However, the pack’s bond remained strong even with the long distance.
Lydia was an incredible biomedical engineer at her own company that taught lectures at MIT in her free time, spearheading incredible research that saved lives. She became the youngest woman to win a Nobel Prize in biology after discovering something that made even Stiles’s head spin.
Derek, already being incredibly rich due to his family, didn’t exactly need to work, but got into real estate after remembering that living off his family’s money would set a bad example for Eli, his 3 year old son that was significantly cuter than his sourwolf of a father.
Malia never lost her love for the wild, starting an incredibly popular camp that assisted children with learning disabilities to discover their own love for nature.
Liam went pro with Lacrosse and was heading into the final stages in his career. This was insane for Stiles to wrap his head around considering Liam would just retire in 2 years at 29 and be well off forever.
Mason was continuing his PHD studies and also did lectures at universities every once in a while. He and Lydia had audited one and were proud of where he had gotten.
Kira shared her father’s love for teaching and taught at an elementary school in the city in California that Scott was in. She also began tutoring children with dyslexia to make school easier for them. The kitsune, being a trickster, made it harder for her to read, and she wanted to help make an impact on those who struggled like her. She also did fencing lessons to encourage women to learn self-defense skills.
Everyone was successful in their own right and yet, they all tried their best to navigate their lives with each other in them. When Stiles broke the news about being in the BAU (and promptly explaining what that meant, how big of a deal it was, and how incredibly cool it was), they all threw a reunion celebration.
Stiles reminded himself of how cool his job was as he struggled shoving himself into his rickety blue Jeep to get to work. Roscoe had survived so much. Driving 15 minutes to work was the least of its problems. After finally entering the building, scanning his badge 3 different places, chatting it up with Jeff from white collar crimes in the elevator, and slumping at his desk, he took a fat sigh. He looked over at his watch. 7:45, just on time. Morgan looked up from the paperwork his nose was in to give him a sympathetic look. He had the feeling they shared a similar morning. He took out the cookie from earlier, hoping to enjoy it before letting a case ruin it, before JJ walked out, announcing to the bullpen to head to the office. They had a case. Yay…
Everyone got up from their desks and walked into the office, each taking their spot at the roundtable. JJ started with the case outline. “We’ve got 2 missing teenagers, a 16 year old white female and a 15 year old Chinese male. The girl went missing approximately 21 hours ago, while the boy went missing around 9 hours ago. The reason we were called is because these missing cases took place in Beacon Hills, California.” Stiles fully woke up at that moment. His dad hadn’t mentioned anything about missing people, but then again his dad had retired 3 years ago and he wasn’t that close to Sheriff Parrish. JJ continued saying “The town hasn’t had any serious crimes in the past decade, but was well known around 10 years ago for a number of bizarre suspicious deaths that hadn’t been fully resolved. We’ve been called in to help.” Reid looked as if he had remembered something, and he unfortunately had. The 29 year old turned to him and whispered “Isn’t that where you’re from?” Curse his eidetic memory.
Unfortunately, as smart as he is, the man isn’t great at whispering. The team looked at him and Hotch said “Do you have any conflicts of interest that prevent you from handling this case?” Stiles quickly replied with “Oh definitely not! I have zero idea who these kids are. I mean I definitely knew about the big crime problem back in the day considering I was in highschool, but the new stuff is completely new to me -I mean obviously cause it just happened so it's new to all of us- but seriously there is no conflict of interest for me. I’ll be completely professional. Nothing unprofessional from me here!” He didn’t have a mirror to confirm, but he had the feeling that he was bright red after that extreme word vomit. Prentiss started to say something to him, but Hotch interrupted any concerns she was going to relay with “Alright then. Everybody pack your bags. Wheels up in 30.”
Stiles followed everyone out of the room and hoped to himself that it was just a normal murder and not the supernatural kind. Unfortunately, he knew he wasn’t that lucky.