Chapter Text
Chapter One
A New Beginning
“This is a collect call from the Beacon Hills Sheriff’s Department on behalf of,” the prerecorded voice paused for a moment before being replaced by a familiar voice, “Laura Hale.”
Derek paused, his eyes sweeping over the city in front of him.
“Will you accept the charges?”
Derek shook his head and briefly toyed with the idea of declining and letting Laura sit in jail overnight just to prove his point, to drive home the fact that he knew she never should have gone back to the town that stole everything from them.
Laura would kill him though and Derek couldn’t deny the relief that washed over him as he realized the call was coming from Laura herself and not from someone in Beacon Hills calling to inform him that his sister was dead. He would already know if she was, he’d been checking into their pack bonds all night, but it was beside the point.
With a labored sigh, “Yes, I’ll accept all charges.”
There was a soft click on the other end of the phone before another mechanical voice, a man this time, spoke, “This is a recorded line.”
Silence.
And then, “Hey, little brother. How are you? Did you remember to call the cable guy? I hope you found the grocery list I left you, the fridge was looking a little dire before I left.”
“Laura,” Derek all but growled, “Seriously?”
Laura huffed out a low sigh, “I’m sorry. You were right, I shouldn’t have come here alone.”
“What happened?”
Laura laughed, “It’s really not anything major, they don’t have any probable cause.”
Laura shouted the last two words and Derek could hear the people in the background laughing at his sister even from the other side of the phone.
Derek scrubbed his free hand over his face, “Do I need to come bail you out or are you just going to annoy the Sheriff until he releases you?”
Laura must have been drumming her fingers against the bars of the holding cell, “The Sheriff decided it would be a good idea if I stayed here overnight to…calm down and then I’ll be released in the morning.”
“Laura, what the fuck happened?”
Laura sighed, “I went to visit an…old friend and out conversation got a little out of hand. No, before you ask, no bodily harm. The Sheriff just happened to be around and interrupted out conversation and decided to haul me in before anything else could happen.”
“And?”
“And nothing. My friend isn’t going to press any charges, I can promise you that. The Sheriff is using some legal mumbo jumbo to hold me here for the night but I don’t even think he’s mad beyond the fact that he had to arrest someone when he was in his sweatpants. Well, that and the blood he found in my car.”
“Blood?” Derek gasped, “Laura, what the hell?”
“Recorded line,” someone in the background yelled out.
“Quiet!” Laura snapped, “It was just from the deer that I hit on the way into town but I will admit that bloody handprints on leather seats could be perceived as a little bit suspicious.”
Derek pinched the bridge of his nose, “I’m hanging up the phone and booking the next flight out, I’ll see you in like twelve hours.”
“Derek,” Laura said softly, “you don’t have to.”
Derek clenched his fist, wincing as he felt his claws extending into the palm of his hand, “I’ll see you in the morning.”
X
The all too familiar oppressive weight fit itself perfectly back over Derek’s chest the second his plane touched down in California. It was as if it was just waiting for him to come home, like an excited dog that was ready to pounce on its owner the second the front door opened.
He hated it. He hated the entire fucking state of California.
He especially hated the shitty little Prius that was the only car available for him to rent long term. Derek lowered himself into the small car and winced as his knees knocked against the center console before he found the lever to shift the seat back a merciful few inches. This car was not made for someone of his size and he hated it.
He allowed himself to resent Laura for making him come to California and stuff himself into a real-life interpretation of a clown car because Laura was alive and he was allowed to be a little pissed off that she was dragging him back to the place she promised they’d never have to return to.
Derek pulled the car onto the highway and tried to shut his brain off as he made the three-hour drive from the airport to Beacon Hills.
X
Derek’s face went blank as he hit the welcome sign for Beacon Hills. He curled his hand around the wheel of the Prius, barely restraining himself from breaking it under his grip, and made the familiar drive to the Sheriff’s station on autopilot.
He tried to ignore just how much the town had changed since he’d left but he couldn’t ignore how much Main Street seemed to have evolved in his absence. He counted new book stores, cafes, and a comic shop that his younger self would have killed for when he was growing up in town.
Now all the new sights just filled him with a bitter and resentful rage and he forced his foot down on the gas, pushing the small car past the speed limit in an effort to make it to the Sheriff’s station as fast as he could.
The faster he made it to the station, the fast her could get Laura, and the faster they could get the fuck out of this hellhole of a town.
Derek saw Laura’s Camaro first as he pulled into the parking lot of the station. The car was behind a flimsy chain-link fence with a rolling gate, it was something he could easily tear down with his pinky. Derek filed that observation in the back of his mind in case he and his sister needed to make a quick exit.
Derek parked the Prius next to a powder blue Jeep and killed the engine. He was out of the car and inside the station in less than ten seconds, keeping his head angled low to minimize the admittedly small chance of being recognized.
The station was bustling with energy as Derek stepped inside, he could distantly hear voices in the far back of the office, muffled and talking about mountain lions. A phone was ringing off to the side. Derek focused on blocking all of them out and homed in on the one thing he was here for.
“Admit it,” Laura’s voice echoed in his ear, she was talking to someone who was humoring her at this point, “you’re going to miss me when I’m gone.”
The woman Laura was talking to laughed, “Miss Hale, you’ve certainly been entertaining.”
Derek rolled his eyes. Leave it to Laura to make friends anywhere.
The reception desk was empty and the phone in front of Derek was alternating between blinking incessantly and ringing every three seconds. Just as Derek was about to lose every ounce of control and smash the damn thing, a chair rolled around the corner and long fingers picked up the handset before dancing along the keypad to answer the phone with a practiced ease.
“Sheriff’s Department, Stilinski speaking.”
A pause.
“No,” the guy groaned, “the other Stilinski.”
“Stiles,” the voice on the other line laughed, half warm and half exasperated, “get off the phone.”
“Hey!” The guy, Stiles, protested, “Tara is away from the desk at the moment and left me in charge!”
“Really?”
Stiles was quiet for a few moments, “Listen, do you want me to transfer your call to someone or not?”
The voice laughed, “Fine kid, send me to the Sheriff.”
Stiles narrowed his eyes, “If he asks…”
“You weren’t the one to answer the phone,” the voice sighed, “transfer me and finish your damn homework.”
Stiles rolled his eyes and punched in a few keys before placing the handset back onto its cradle and looking up at Derek with big, impossibly brown eyes.
The guy, Derek realized, was a teenager. A teenager who apparently spent a lot of time in the Sheriff’s office.
Derek sniffed, because he wasn’t planning on sticking around long enough to have to deal with manners, and was met with the scent of hormones, some kind of synthetic medication, and a faint hint of cherries and pine.
Derek’s brow drew up in confusion as he stared down at Stiles, his eyes tracing the smattering of moles across his face and the buzzed hair on top of his head. Derek maybe, possibly, wanted to rub his hand across the top of Stiles’ head.
Laura would say that Stiles looked fluffy.
Stiles cleared his throat before threading his fingers together and resting his chin on top of them, “Hello person whom I’ve never had the pleasure of meeting, how can I help you?”
Derek blinked.
Stiles’ eyebrows rose to his hairline, “Let’s see, you can say something like ‘I need to see the law man,’ or ‘I need to confess a heinous crime that I committed because it’s eating me up and my soul is being torn apart by repressed guilt!’ Actually, don’t say that because I don’t really think I’m qualified to take someone’s confession and it would probably get thrown out in a court of law…unless that’s your plan to relieve your guilt but also get away with your terrible mass murder!”
Derek blinked again, unable to focus on half of what just poured out of Stiles’ mouth, “Law man?”
Stiles nodded, unthreading his fingers and pointing one at Derek, “Right, you need a cop! Now, any run of the mill cop or do you need the Sheriff directly?”
Derek didn’t know if he needed to speak to the Sheriff directly or just any regular cop to have Laura released, “My sister?”
“Your sister?” Stiles repeated slowly, “Dude, I don’t think your sister is a deputy here because I’m here like all the time and I sure as hell would have remembered seeing someone like you around here.”
Derek sputtered as the telltale scent of arousal hit his nose, it was small enough to be written off as nothing but a passing attraction but it was distinct none the less and it made Derek cringe. He hated that smell.
“I’m here to pick up my sister,” Derek snapped, his human teeth showing a little more than necessary, “I don’t need some little delinquent wasting my time!”
Stiles’ chair rolled back until it thumped against the wall hard enough to make the boy wince in slight pain, “Wow, OK then. I’m just going to…go and do something that’s not…here.”
Stiles waved his hand in Derek’s general direction as he rose from the chair and rubbed the back of his head where it had hit the wall.
Derek opened his mouth to say something but was cut off by another man who rounded the corner and grabbed Stiles by the back of his hoodie, “Seriously, Stiles? What have I told you about sitting up here?”
“Hey!” Stiles looked offended, “I told Tara I’d watch the desk while she ran to the evidence room for you!”
The man, Derek now realized was the Sheriff himself thanks to the golden badge that glinted under the fluorescent lighting, sighed, “And what did Tara tell you when you said that?”
Stiles huffed, “That I was under no circumstances to go near her desk, or to touch the phone, or to talk to anyone that came to the front while she wasn’t here.”
The Sheriff raised a single brow as he let go of Stiles’ hood before he turned to Derek and crossed his arms over his chest, “Mister Hale, I’m so glad you could join us.”
Derek tensed, “Derek is fine, sir.”
The Sheriff narrowed his eyes, “Your sister has been a pain in my ass over the last half a day.”
Stiles face lit up, “Dude! You’re Laura’s brother! You’re Derek Hale!”
The Sheriff’s head snapped back towards Stiles, “Son, why are you still here?”
Stiles clutched his chest, “Father, why must you wound me so?”
The Sheriff rolled his eyes, “Go wait in the conference room, I’ll grab you after I’m done having a chat with the Hale’s and we can go grab some dinner.”
Stiles pushed himself off the wall and saluted, “10-4!”
Stiles gave Derek one final cautious glance before turning his back and heading towards what Derek assumed was the conference room.
Derek turned his attention back to the Sheriff and it suddenly hit him.
Son. Father.
Shit.
Stiles wasn’t a delinquent, he was the Sheriff’s son.
Derek fixed his eyes on the space that Stiles previously occupied and watched as Stiles drifted down the hallway into what he assumed was the conference room. Derek wasn’t aware that he’d been staring until the Sheriff cleared his throat.
“Mister Hale,” The Sheriff’s voice was deep and vaguely threatening, “if you’re done staring at my teenage son I can take you back to your sister.”
Derek coughed, frantically turning to face the Sheriff and waving his arms in front of him, “No! I, uh, I just thought he worked here at first.”
The Sheriff laughed and the tension eased out of his shoulders, the scowl on his face making way for a small smile, “He wishes.”
The Sheriff led Derek to the back of the station, punching in a code to an electronic door and holding it open as Derek stepped through. He caught sight of Laura instantly, she was sitting on the floor of the cell with her back pressed against the stone and her head resting on the top of her knee.
Laura’s head perked up instantly, she smiled, “Derek.”
Derek sighed, “Hi,”
The Sheriff shook his head and turned to the deputy who sat on the bench across from Laura’s cell, “Thanks for doing me a favor, Missy.”
“No problem, sir. Miss Hale has been lovely company.”
“See,” Laura grinned, “I told you I wouldn’t cause any problems.”
The Sheriff laughed and took a seat on the bench across from Laura. Derek settled himself on the floor of the holding room and felt the tension he didn’t even know he was carrying melt away when Laura shifted her position and pressed her shoulder against him through the bars.
“So, Derek,” The Sheriff said, “I found your sister at the High School.”
“High school?” Derek’s brows drew together as he looked at Laura in confusion.
Laura sighed, “I told you, I went to visit an old friend.”
“An old friend by the name of Adrian Harris?” The Sheriff questioned.
“That’s the one!” Laura smiled.
“I don’t know about you, but when I visit my old friends I don’t pin them against the wall and scream in their face.”
Derek’s jaw dropped, “Jesus, Laura! What were you thinking?”
Laura was silent.
“Is Harris pressing charges?” Derek asked.
The Sheriff scrubbed his hand over his face, “No, he says the same thing as your sister. Old friends.”
“Good, then I can leave.” Laura smiled.
“Not just yet,” The Sheriff shook his head, “there’s still the matter of the bloody handprints in your car.”
Derek’s stomach dropped.
“I told you,” Laura snapped, “those were from the deer I hit on the way into town. The thing jumped out in front of my car, I hit it, I went back to see if there was anything I could do to save it but by the time I found it in the woods it was already dead.”
The Sheriff looked between Derek and Laura before Derek spoke, “I know we’ve been gone for a while but is it a crime to hit a deer and flee the scene now?”
The Sheriff shook his head, “No, but I sent a few guys out to see if they could find this deer you claim you hit?”
“And?” Laura tensed.
“They found it,” The Sheriff said, “Funny thing though, they said that the entire right flank of the deer had been skinned and that couldn’t have been caused by the accident.”
“What does that have to do with Laura?” Derek leaned forward, “You can’t prove she did anything like that.”
The Sheriff laughed, “It’s interesting because we’ve had to deal with a few suspicious animal attacks around town lately. Mutilated deer and dogs keep popping up all over the preserve.”
“I just got into town last night,” Laura shrugged, “you really think I’m some kind of serial animal killer or something?”
“Any way to prove you just got here?” The Sheriff asked.
“I drove from New York City to California, I’ve got a whole mess of receipts in my car and I’m sure you can find pictures of me at about five thousand toll booths and fifteen gas stations. I can get you bank statements if you need them.”
The Sheriff nodded, “Thank you, Laura. I’m not trying to be a hard ass, I promise. I was friendly with your parents and you’ve always been a good kid. It’s been a tense couple of weeks in town and I hope you can understand how your sudden reappearance could be construed.”
Laura deflated, her bravado failing as the mere mention of their parents, “I understand. I’m sorry too, for being such a pain in the ass. It’s hard…being back here and I let my emotions get away from me. It won’t happen again.”
The Sheriff smiled and stood, “I get it. I’ll start the paperwork to get you out of here.”
Derek stood, “We’re done? We can go home?”
The Sheriff turned around, “Not quite yet, I still need to check on Laura’s alibi and it will take a day or two to get everything in from about fifteen different departments but I don’t see the need to keep Laura locked up for a few days. I’ll need Laura to hang around town until everything comes in though, just to be safe.”
Derek deflated and leaned against the bars of the cell.
“My car?” Laura asked.
The Sheriff shook his head, “We’re going to need to keep it until your story checks out.”
Laura sighed, “Understood.”
Laura bumped her nose into the side of Derek’s cheek through the bars and whispered, “I’m sorry, pup.”
“Derek,” The Sheriff spoke up, “come with me and I’ll get the paperwork started to process Laura out, it should take about half an hour. She’ll meet you out front.”
Derek nodded, gave Laura one last small, pained smiled, and followed the Sheriff back out to the lobby.
They passed the conference room on their way out and Derek briefly noted that the door was open and the room was empty. The Sheriff stopped them at the lobby and leaned across the desk to speak to a deputy who he assumed was Tara. He got far enough to tell Tara to start the release paperwork for Laura before a call summoned him back to his office.
Tara assured him that she would get the paperwork for Laura release processed as quickly as possible so Derek found the closest chair and fell into it. His head dropped to his hands and he let out a low, almost inaudible growl. He was so tired and so angry that he was forced back to this place and now he had to stay there even longer just to make sure his sister didn’t end up in any more trouble than she was already in.
Derek lifted his head after about ten minutes and found the desk once again empty. He focused his hearing and heard the Sheriff in his office arguing on the phone with someone about tests results on an animal, and he heard Tara further back in the station telling Laura she should be out in about ten minutes.
Derek stood to stretch his legs and roll his neck; the chair had done nothing to help his already tense muscles. His eyes swept to the front of the station and fell to Stiles who was leaning against the powder blue jeep he parked next to and absentmindedly kicking at the ground in front of him.
Derek hesitated for a moment before he remembered the look of hurt in Stiles’ eyes when he snapped at him. Derek may be a hard ass but he isn’t normally an asshole and he felt like he owed Stiles some sort of apology, even if he’d never see him again.
‘Hey,” Derek said as he came into a stop in front of Stiles.
Stiles jumped about a foot in the air and fell back against the hood of the jeep, “Jesus! Make some noise next time, would you?”
Derek swallowed a laugh, his mother always told him he needed to work on making more sound when he moved, “Stiles,”
Stiles settled and hopped up to sit on the hood of the jeep and fidgeted with the sleeve of his hoodie, “That’s me, everyone’s favorite neighborhood delinquent.”
Derek winced, “I’m…sorry.”
Stiles looked up and blinked, “You’re…sorry?”
Derek sighed, “Yes, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have called you that. It’s been a stressful day but I shouldn’t have snapped at you, you were just trying to help.”
“Wow,” Stiles face cracked into a smile, “I didn’t know you could say that many words at one time.”
Derek narrowed his eyes and opened his mouth to reply but Stiles waved him off, “Seriously dude, don’t worry about it. I’ve been called way worse than a delinquent.”
Stiles’ voice trailed off as he finished speaking and his scent spiked with sadness and embarrassment that betrayed the smile that was still firmly stuck on his face.
Derek got the sense that Stiles was used to having to shrug off what hurtful things people say to him, “Don’t do that,” Derek said before he could stop himself.
“Huh?” Stiles looked up, confused.
Derek sighed, “Don’t…don’t force yourself to deal with shitty things people say to you or act like it doesn’t bother you. Don’t bottle it up.”
Stiles’ face fell and he hesitated for a moment, he opened his mouth to speak but he was cut off from a voice calling out to Derek from behind.
“Derek!” Laura voice rang across the parking lot, “I thought you left me for a second.”
Derek knew that was a lie, Laura could feel his presence stronger than he could feel hers.
“Oh hey!” Laura laughed as she leaned into Derek’s side, “You met Stiles!”
Derek coughed, “You know Stiles?”
“Duh!” Laura smiled, flicking Derek on the side of the head, “Stiles here is the first friend I made when I got back into town.”
“Friend?” Derek repeated.
Stiles grinned, “When I heard my dad arrested this like…impossibly hot girl for grabbing Mr. Harris by the neck and slamming him against the wall I just had to meet her.”
Laura cackled, “Imagine my surprise when I look up from my self-loathing and find this fluffy little guy reeking of excitement on the other side of the bars.”
“Fluffy…” Derek shook his head.
“Mhm,” Stiles nodded, “I even let her rub my head.”
Derek was dumbfounded, he stared at Laura who only shrugged.
“What can I say? I have a weakness for a nice buzzcut!”
Derek sighed, “I’m sure the Sheriff appreciated you touching his underage son.”
Laura cackled again, “I’m pretty sure he gave us both the same conversation.”
Derek felt his cheeks heat up. Of course Laura was listening when the Sheriff said something about Stiles to him.
Stiles looked confused. Confused and utterly excited.
As if on cue, the Sheriff stuck his head outside, “Stiles! Inside! Now!”
Stiles groaned, “Well, it was…nice meeting you to. And thank you for the head rubs, Laura. And…thank you, Derek. For the…apology.”
Laura’s hand fell to Stiles’ shoulder and lightly shook him, “Don’t mention it. We’ll be in town for a few days, maybe we’ll see you around before we head out.”
“Maybe,” Stiles smiled, his eyes flicking to Derek.
“Don’t count on it,” Derek said quickly, “I’m not staying here any longer than I have to.”
“Oh,” Stiles’ face fell again, his scent spiking with something confusing that Derek didn’t have the energy to sift through, “Well, it was nice to meet you for a few minutes then. Try not to commit anymore mass murder, huh big guy?”
Derek huffed in amusement, “I’ll try.”