Chapter 26: Questioning

Chapter Text

Stiles POV:

I have to walk everywhere, which is no problem, but it's confusing, and it takes longer than if I had a car. I regret not having the Jeep. But it wouldn't have lasted a road trip down here. Hmmm, maybe I need a new car, something new this time. Perhaps I'll get a Camaro; Derek's is cool. I have the money for it, at least. On my walk, I eventually make it to the spice and tea shop. I was expecting a tiny shop, but it was quite a big store. It was in a very nice-looking building with windows that were cloudy from being so old. Most of the lights were off because it was pretty late at night, but there was one light in the back that I could see from the outside.

I was about to walk in, but I noticed the sign said "closed for business" in my mind; I figured out that they probably closed it because they wanted to have a "private conversation." This was fine by me as I didn't want anyone else to find out I was a Grimm because, unlike Nick, I don't go around telling everyone. Actually, I'd rather tell nobody.

I knocked on the door a few times and waited.

A guy I had never seen before opened the door.

"Uh hi, I'm looking for Nick," I said, trying to snoop behind him.

The guy looks me up and down and opens the door wider.

"Yeah, come in; he's in the back." I nod and head in.

The shop is cluttered. My clumsy self would not do good in this kind of workplace. All of those bottles would probably fall on the floor at one point or another. So I try to step with caution and away from the bottles. But it was a pretty neat-looking shop. I definitely would have to come back and check everything out. That is if I get out of this meeting with everyone still being my friend.

I walk into what I presume to be the back. It's where the lights are coming from behind two double doors. I open one door cautiously, and inside the room is more cluttered, but aside from the clutter, there are people standing there.

Obviously, Nick and Hank and Wu. The Captain is also there. There's a woman I don't recognize and a man, the man from the police station, the guy who recognized me as a Grimm. I don't know his name. But he was there as well. As soon as I took a few steps into the room, I heard the doors close behind me, and the other guy that led me here was standing there.

"Okay. Nice to see everyone…I...I think. What did you want to talk about?" I ask, directing the question at Nick but leaving it open for anyone to answer.

"Well," Nick said, looking at the guy behind me before starting; they had a silent conversation with their eyes before Nick sighed and smiled, "let me introduce to everyone." He continued.

Around the room were nods and small 'yes' in agreement.

"Sure." I said I thought they might as well because it was confusing me; I don't know their names, so saying 'this guy' and 'that girl' in my head was kind of confusing.

"Okay, well, as you know, that's Hank and Wu and the Captain. This is Bud; you knocked into him the other day." Bud waved.

"Right, the guy who told you all I was a Grimm," I said, looking at Bud.

For some reason, that scared the guy, and he hid behind Nick, which didn't really work out because you could totally see him behind Nick, but whatever.

"Right, Anyway this is Rosalee, she owns the Spice & Tea Shop, and this is Monroe, her husband." Nick finished.

"Hello, it's nice to meet you." The girl, who is now called Rosalee, is holding out her hand.

I shake it.

"Nice to meet you. I'm Stiles." I say as I shake the Monroe guy's hand as well.

After that, it was a few minutes of awkward silence where we didn't know how to start the conversation because it was weird. But after Rosalee offered some tea, we all sat down and started the chat.

"So is this gonna be like Grimm 101 because I'm pretty well adjusted already. Not that I'm not down to learn more, by the way. I mean, it's weird, don't get me wrong, but not the weirdest thing I've ever seen." I told them as they seemed to be waiting for me to speak.

"Well, you do seem very well adjusted for someone just becoming a Grimm. Nick freaked out." Monroe said.

"Not just Nick, Wu and I had our own bouts at the mental hospital thinking we were going crazy," Hank said.

"So it wasn't like that for you? You just accepted the fantasy as reality?" Nick questioned.

"Okay. I think my explanation came off wrong. I'm well-adjusted because I'm used to this. Wessen is not the only weird thing out there. While I've never seen them before, it doesn't mean I haven't seen similar things. That's why when I first saw a wesen, I didn't freak out because I kind of already has seen them before, just not of the same kind." I tried to explain.

"Are you telling me there are other things out there besides wessen? Not that we didn't already know that with Volcanails or that Golem. But there's more?" Hank said, looking tired of it all.

Nick shrugged his shoulders.

"So you're saying because you've seen these non-wesen creatures before, the wesen now, isn't as shocking. Like you are used to it, and the shock has already worn off?" Rosalee asks.

"Yeah, exactly. The first Wesen that I saw was Daniel, and I think he was more surprised to see me than I was to see him. Originally I had thought he was something I had come across before."

"Something you saw before?" Monroe asks.

"Yeah, he looked just as reptilian as the other creature I saw. Thankfully not as dangerous. Though I'm sure, he's plenty dangerous." Stiles added on as an afterthought.

"Daniel? Who you said tried to mug you?" The Captain asks.

" Yeah, him, he's a…ahhh Skalengeck. I thought he was a Kaninma. Thankfully not." Stiles said truthfully thankful, one Kaninma a lifetime was enough.

"Kaninma?" Nick asked curiously.

"Yeah, I guess they're not around these parts. Though I don't exactly know what parts they come from, one ran across my friends and me back in Beacon Hills. I almost died a few times. Not fun." Stiles recalled being paralyzed in the mechanic shop and having to carry Derek in a swimming pool while he was paralyzed.

Not fun.

"And it looked like a Skalengeck?" Wu asked.

"Not exactly the same. But the reptilian features in the heat of the moment definitely looked like one. But he's definitely not a Kaninma; he doesn't have a tail." Stiles said matter-of-factly.

Stiles then snapped his fingers, "Do you have a laptop?" He asked Rosalee since it was her place.

She nodded her head, getting up to get it. Stiles then pulled out his key chain that had his USB version of the bestiary on it.

"What's that for?" Hank asked.

"Well, I thought it'd be better to show you than to let you all rely on your imagination. I have a bestiary with a bunch of information that I've compiled throughout the years of seeing the unnatural." After he finished saying that, Rosalee walked back in with a laptop and handed it off to Stiles.

"Thanks."

Stiles plugged in the USB and opened it to the page about the Kaninma.

"Here." Stiles handed the computer to Nick.

Everyone else crowded around to look at the screen.

"That's a Kaninma."

"What happened to the one you came across," Wu asked an important question everyone else seemed to just forget about.

All other Grimm's in history, when they come across a wesen, or whatever this is, the first point of action would be to kill it and then move on. But this kid is a kid. Is he some bloodthirsty murderer like the Grimm's in his ancestry, or was he like Nick?

"Oh. Uh." Stiles blanked.

He couldn't exactly tell everyone that Jackson, who was once the Kaninma, stopped getting controlled by Gerard and became a werewolf and then moved to London and is now happily doing werewolf things in London.

"Uh. It's a bit complicated. Think of the Kaninma transformation sort of like a possession. The possessed person turned back to normal after we got rid of it. And that person is alive and well as far as I know." Stiles was keen on keeping the werewolf thing a secret.

It was easier to explain to them about the other creatures he's encountered because there were quite a number of them. But the werewolf part, he wanted to keep a secret to keep his friends safe. Because as much as these people were kind and friendly to him. And even though he knew some of them were Wesen and were still alive, he was hesitant because he didn't really know them at all.

"So being a Kaninma is like a virus?" The Captain asked.

"Yes, sorta. That's the best way I can explain it. But don't worry, it's very, very, very rare because of the circumstances for it to happen, and all the factors involved are rare."

"It happens, though," Hank said softly.

"Yeah, true. But Beacon Hills is a strange place." Stiles said, remembering what his dad wrote about how Beacon Hills was this place where it had its own bubble of weirdness that was different from the rest of the world.

"So, do we have to worry about Daniel?" The Captain asked as an afterthought after everyone became silent, thinking of Kaninma's.

"No, no, no, Daniel is cool," Stiles said.

"A Skalengeck and a Grimm, weird. But I guess I don't have any right to talk." Monroe chuckled, looking at Nick.

"He's a nice person," Stiles said again.

But everyone had a look on their face as if they couldn't believe that a Skalengeck could be a nice person.

Eventually, they put the laptop back down again and continued their interrogation/questioning.

"So how did you know you were a Grimm? You said before that your family explained it to you." Nick clarified an old conversation we had when he and the Captain thought Daniel kidnapped me.

"Well, no. Both my mom and dad died before they decided to share anything with me." Stiles said a little bitterly about how his dad hid everything.

Even though he felt like it was karma because he hid everything from his dad. It became awkward silence for a bit; Nick wasn't sure how to follow up on that. And no one else felt qualified to give their two cents. Luckily Stiles continued.

"My parents left letters to me. Explaining everything."

Nick, Monroe, and the Captain shook their heads.

"Apparently, I'm a rare Pokémon," Stiles said as an afterthought.

"What?" Hank and Wu asked while everyone else just looked confused.

"Huh? Oh sorry. My parents both said in the letters that I was rare. Cause both my mom and dad were Grimm's from like two famous bloodlines or something." Stiles said, shrugging his shoulders,

"So like a rare Pokémon."

There were mixed reactions around the room. Bud and Wu seemed to understand the comparison, while the Captain, Nick, Rosalie, Monroe, and Hank looked shocked.

"Both your parents were Grimm's?" The Captain said, shocked.

While he found out that Stiles' father was a Grimm not too long ago, which shocked him enough as is, but to find out his mother was also a Grimm's was unheard of, literally unheard of.

"Yup. They left me a bunch of books and stuff passed down from our ancestors and stuff. Weapons and other Grimm stuff." Stiles told them this, not worried because they were safely tucked away in Beacon Hills under Peter's care.

"He has a trailer," Monroe mumbled.

"A trailer?" Stiles asked, confused.

"Oh uh, my aunt Marie left me a trailer full of stuff passed down from my ancestors too. Not much of it is l eft, though, uh it got set on fire not too long ago, but we salvaged some stuff. But uh, where are your books and weapons? I doubt they let you on the plane with it." Nick explained.

"Oh, I left them in California," Stiles said simply.

"All of it?" Monroe asked, stupefied.

"Well, no, my dad shipped me some before he died. So I have that here, but I left the rest. I have someone watching it for me back home." Stiles said, not understanding why everyone was shocked.

The problem was that everyone around him in the room was shocked that he didn't decide to take all of it with him. Whether he had to rent out a room or a storage facility or something, they were surprised he just left it all back home in Beacon Hills. They were also sort of worried that Stiles entrusted it to someone else.

"Do you have any plans of bringing them here?" Nick asked.

Stiles thought about it.

"Uh no. It's honestly just too much stuff. Minus the weapons and weird unidentifiable liquids I have, there are a lot of books. Like more than one trip worth. I might as well leave it where it's safe." Stiles explained.

"Is the person you left it with trustworthy? What if they sell it or steal it?" Hank asked, thinking Stiles was getting scammed.

"Ha! Like he would. Peter is too intrigued to betray me." Stiles chuckled.

"You told him you were a Grimm?" The Captain asked.

"Yes," Stiles said, rolling his eyes for a second before stopping himself.

"It's not like I plan to leave it there forever; I'm just thinking about making it virtual so I don't have to lug it everywhere. Also, my friend, Peter, already knew about it, so it's not like I just blurted out I was a Grimm to everyone; I'm not stupid. I've already almost died enough times." Stiles said, clarifying himself.

"Okay, okay. Right, well, I guess it is a good idea to make it easier to access." Nick agreed; he didn't want to upset Stiles, Grimm's were hard to come by, and Stiles was still just a kid.

"Are you continuing your internship?" Wu asked, breaking the tension.

"Oh uh. Well, I still gotta go to school. But uh, if it's still a thing, I'll do it. I mean, I still wanna be a cop. Or maybe something in the field." Stiles shrugged his shoulders.

Stiles does not really care anymore since he still had 3 years of school left before college was even an option. And with how his life is currently, he couldn't even tell you what his future looks like anymore.

"Oh right, I was gonna ask you, but I forgot. Did you find out about the people who kidnapped me?" Stiles asked curiously.

"You were kidnapped?" Monroe says, shocked.

"Yeah, the other day. I went to visit Daniel when I came back, but his shop and a bunch of others were broken into. And I guess they saw me and took me. I don't really understand why." Stiles gave a very abridged version of what happened the other day.

"Do you think they took you because you were a Grimm?" Rosalee asks.

"But how would they know? I just stepped off the plane, and Daniel was in the hospital. I think they took me just to take me. I mean, if they knew I was a Grimm, wouldn't they have just killed me or something. Or maybe put me under better guard rather than just tying me up and leaving me in a room alone?" Stiles thought they might've as well, but it seemed less and less likely.

"We haven't found much. We've classified it as a gang problem to the public, but we think it's more of a wesen problem. All the shopkeepers were wesen." The Captain explained.

Stiles looked up, thinking about his saviors,

"Well, what about the people who saved me? At least one was a wesen. Extremely strong too. She Jedi mind-tricked all the bad guys, and there were like 30 people down or dead when I left." Stiles remembered seeing all the probably dead people on the floor of the warehouse he was in.

Nick stood there debating whether or not he should come out and say it but figuring this was a place of trust and that he should build some sort of connection with Stiles, he decided to share what he had come to the conclusion of.

"While I'm not sure who all of them are, the girl you mentioned with black hair who calls herself trouble is someone we all know. She's also a Grimm."

"Wait, Trubel kidnapped you?" Monroe asked, confused.

While at the same time, Rosalee said, "Trubel's back?"

"No, apparently she saved him," Hank said.

"Wait, Trubel, the fake criminology student/Grimm, rescued Stiles after he got kidnapped by some wesen, and she and her two friends took on 30 people?" Wu asked, trying to clarify what he was hearing.

"No, I think the girl with the white wig took them on herself. That's why I said she used a Jedi mind trick or something like that. None of them looked even a little bit tired, and they were all blood-free and clean, which didn't make sense if they fought 30 people no matter how good they were." Stiles deduced.

"Huh. I guess we have to get in contact with Trubel." Hank said.

"Easier said than done." Nick scoffed, not knowing where Trubel was, considering he thought she was with Josh.

Trubel was supposed to be in Pennsylvania with Josh helping him deal with the Verrat. But if she wasn't there, he had no idea where she could be. But apparently not too far away because Stiles was kidnapped in Portland, which means she's in Portland. It just didn't make sense to Nick that she didn't come by or let anyone know she was back; something was iffy.

"I just can't believe that Trubel is back in Portland without telling you, Nick," Monroe said, confused, sharing the same thoughts as Nick.

"I agree; I feel like she would've stopped by or called. Do you think she could be in some trouble?" Rosalee asked worriedly.

Stiles, who had been quiet this whole time, finally spoke up,

"Wait! She was a Grimm too?"

"Oh yeah!" Monroe said, remembering her almost taking his head the first time he met her.

"Huh? How many Grimm's are there?" Stiles asked.

"I don't think anyone knows that. But not many. Even though most Grimm's make it their priority to hunt and kill wesen, it goes the other way too." Monroe shared.

"So considering I met 4 Grimms in my life, that's an accomplishment, huh. Great. Maybe I should've stayed in Beacon Hills." Stiles muttered the last part to himself.

"Well, considering there are wesen everywhere, nowhere is wesen free," Nick said, trying to console Stiles.

And Stiles didn't mention the Beacon Hills was, in fact, wesen free. He thought it was better to keep that to himself for now.

H.W. Head Quarters:

Trubel POV:

The search of Stiles was currently put on the back burner because something came up. But eventually, a few days later, I got back to searching for him. I had someone draw a sketch of his face, which I ran through our database. However, it was still processing.

Our equipment was the best of the best, but the sketch from my memory after a few days was a bit lacking.

I was just typing on the computer, searching as best as I could for at least two hours now before a loud beep of an alarm flared across the screen; the room glowed red from the alarm indicating something important.

I reached for my knife turning around to the door before I realized it was that the computers had found something and not an enemy intruder.

Meisner walked in quickly, inputting a code that shut the alarm off and pulled up the file that made the system go haywire.

It was the death certificate of someone called John Stilinski.