John woke to up the sound of heavy footsteps stumbling down the hall way. The cop's mind sharpened immediately, grabbing his firearm from the locked safe he kept in his wardrobe and turned the safety off, raising the gun and slowly making his way out to where the footsteps were making their way down the stairs.

John had his finger on the trigger and his muscles tense but sighed in relief and lowered his weapon when he saw Stiles shuffling down their carpeted stairs.

"What are you doing kid, you scared the hell out of me."

Stiles made no indication he had heard, despite his father's voice having boomed out in the silence of the near empty house, turning to go into the living room instead.

The Sheriff tucked his gun into his waistband and followed his son, clicking on the lights as he went as Stiles walked through the dark.

When he caught up he stopped in confusion. Stiles was standing there, in his pajamas, writing on the living room wall with a sharpie. John raced forward to stop his son but noticed, as he got closer, that Stiles didn't even know he was there. In fact Stiles wasn't even looking at what he was writing, his eyes unfocused and staring at the wall as his hand clumsily wrote the words the Sheriff had been hearing more and more lately from his son.

Stiles' hands moved quickly, rushed and frantic as they wrote the same thing over in over, the words overlapping and spreading out across the wallpaper.

Wake up.

John remembered Stiles sleep walking as a child, wandering around aimlessly through the house until he or Claudia put him back to bed. But this writing was new and Stiles had stopped sleep walking at age eleven when they had started giving him Adderall. John knew you had to be careful when dealing with sleepwalkers and approached his son slowly.

"Stiles? Son, I need you to…." He almost said the words written eerily on the wall but chose to opt for something different, not wanting to use the words that were obviously haunting his son.

"Come back to bed Stiles." The teenager didn't react to the Sheriffs voice but instead write faster and began mumbling the same words he was writing.

John slowly reached out to grasp Stiles' wrist, gently pulling the pen from his hand, keeping his guard up and hands ready in case the boy reacted violently as sleepwalkers often could.

The Sheriff tugged his son from the wall, turning him to face him instead, hands grasping thin shoulders feeling them tremble in the thin t-shirt covering them.

"Stiles? Come one son, come back to me." It was creepy seeing his usually lively boy with such an empty expression, hands now limp at his sides and eyes staring at nothing and so he was relieved when those brown eyes he loved so much started blinking, finally focusing on his face.

"Dad?" Stiles' face was creased in confusion and he immediately started shrinking in on himself, subconsciously making himself smaller in his scared state. The poor kid had no idea why he would be waking up in the middle of their living room.

"It's okay son, you were sleep walking, just wandering around like when you were little. Do you remember? I woke up to find you staring at me one time, it gave me one hell of a fright even your mom woke up when I screamed." He was trying so hard to keep eye contact with his boy, desperately wanting to hide the words on the wall from him but Stiles turned around anyway.

"What was I doin…..did I write that?"

John dropped his hands from his son's shoulders and sighed, carefully watching the teenager's reactions.

"Yeah, it's alright we'll get it cleaned off in the morning." Stiles was staring at the words, unmoving and John would almost think he was in his sleepwalking trance again but he could see his pale hands shaking at his sides.

The sheriff stepped in front of him, covering the words that his son was so obviously afraid of. If only he would tell him what was going on, he could help and even if he couldn't he could be there for him.

"Come on kiddo let's get you to bed okay?" Stiles was still looking at the damn wall and he had tears in his eyes now so John turned his son towards the door and pushed him to the stairs.

Stiles was sniffing and when they got back to his room he bowed his head and started playing with his thin fingers. John realized he was counting them and watched in fascination and a little fear at this knew habit that he had seen several times that day already.

But it was late and decided to let it slide till morning when he could ask him about it and waited patiently for him to finish pretending not to watch. The sheriff went to the bed and started straightening out the sheets, pulling the covers down to let Stiles in when he heard a shaky voice.

"Dad, why do you have your gun out?" John turned around, realizing Stiles had seen the gun at his waistband.

"I heard you sleepwalking but didn't know it was you. You gave me a fright that's all and you know how jumpy I can get."

The kid nodded and walked over to John and hesitantly wrapped his arms around his Dads neck, burying his face into him. John returned the hug and rubbed his sons back as Stiles took deep shaky breaths.

"Sorry I scared you. I love you Dad."

"Love you too Kiddo. Now let's get you into bed, you have school tomorrow."

They released each other and Stiles crawled into his bed allowing his dad to pull the blankets over him and press a palm to his forehead as he pushed his hair back affectionately.

"Good night Stiles."

John turned off the light and shut the door as he left, returning his gun back to the safe before getting into his own bed. He didn't know what was up with Stiles but he decided he would keep an eye on the teenager and ask him about what was going on tomorrow.

Sighing in the quiet dark the Sheriff rolled over in his bed and hoped the words on the wall didn't mean anything and knowing he wouldn't know what to do if they did.