Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Derek's POV

“Derek?” His mom said moving to the side of his bed, “Derek honey you need to eat your food before it gets cold.”

“I’m not hungry,” he answered.

“Your mouth says one thing but your stomach is saying another,” she said back after his stomach had growled.

Derek groaned and sat up on his bed, “I don’t get why I have to stay here, I feel fine now; my wounds are already healed.”

“You’re still in the hospital because the doctor recommended you stay so they can keep a close watch on you just in case anything goes wrong,” she said as she picked up his plate off the tray and handed it to him, “eat.”

Derek sighed and grabbed the plate and started eating, “I don’t get what they need to watch, Deat-the doctor said that the Wolfsbane is gone and I should be fine.”

“Yes, he did say that but he also said that considering the nature of the Wolfsbane, it’s best you stay here so they can monitor you just in case there was anything they missed,” she said.

“I don’t know why you’re complaining about being stuck in the hospital, you’re basically getting pampered by everyone,” Cora said from a chair near the tv.

“Besides that, you’d be miserable being stuck at home too,” Laura said next to Cora.

“No, I wouldn’t, I could at least go out,” Derek shot back.

“If I let you,” his mother said and Derek scowled in response, “don’t give me that look, after what happened I’d think that you’d understand why I would be a little apprehensive letting any of my kids out of the house.”

Derek frowned, “sorry mom.”

It had been 3 days since the school had been under siege by the now infamous group Aucune Anomalie; they took plenty of hostages and there were casualties involved, from what Derek knew, it was only adults that had been killed, the security guard, the vice principal and one or two teachers, maybe more; Derek couldn’t be sure, people were telling him different things. What’s crazy is people were talking more about how the shooters were dealt with rather than the incident itself, it was all hearsaybut Derek had heard from Erica that there were two men that had gone into the school and took out the shooters themselves; others said that the school got raided by police and they managed to stop them which sounded more believable than what Erica was saying.

The police didn’t manage to catch the ring leaders of the group, the woman whose voice was heard over the intercom later released a video after the school had been liberated, her face was covered as were the two men that accompanied her; she announced the group’s name and their intentions to the world and word of what they had done got around like wild fire, they were being reported on all major news networks; Especially when it was discovered that they had taken the two known male Omegas. The government had deemed the group a terrorist organization and promised to deal with them swiftly and hoped to find the Omegas already taken, alive and well; people all around the world were in shock to find that there was such a twisted group of individuals out there that felt Omegas were abnormal, the whole thing was a giant mess.

“I don’t really wanna go back to school any time soon,” Cora said as she flipped the channel to a news station.

Laura huffed, “there’s reporters everywhere, they’ll interview anyone they can to find something out.”

“Well it could be worse …” Cora said.

“What do you mean?” Derek asked.

Cora sighed, “Stiles dad is the Sheriff and the press have been staking out at their house for the last few nights and anytime anyone goes outside they get hounded. It’s kind of awful, Stiles was even on tv, they had a breaking news segment when he opened the door and tried to leave somewhere.”

“It’s no better for mom either, every time we come here and leave, they’re always out there waiting,” Laura said.

“That will soon come to a stop,” their mother said. “The way they’re going about doing their work could be considered borderline stalking and I have no qualms in seeking the Beacon Hills Police Departments help to ascertain the situation and they will know as much tomorrow when we have our press briefing.”

“Press briefing? I thought you already had one of those,” Derek wondered.

“We did but it was short if you were awake during the time I gave it, you would understand why there is a need for another,” his mother said.

A knock came from the door and Deaton entered the room, “hello everyone, Talia, Cora, Laura;” Deaton said nodding at them before turning to Derek, “Derek, how are you feeling today?”

“Fine,” Derek answered, “when can I get out of here?”

Deaton huffed, “let me check and see how your wounds are healing first,” he said as he moved to check on Derek, “they healed up perfectly.”

“He doesn’t even have any scars,” his mother said in wonderment.

“Yes, that is quite surprising,” Deaton said looking back at Derek’s mom, “but as I mentioned to you before when we were performing the surgery to remove the bullets we did notice he was healing at an unusually fast rate.”

“Did you ever figure out the reason for that?” Derek’s mother asked.

“I have my theories,” Deaton said ominously, “but I am inclined to keep them to myself for now, due to the nature of the matter.”

“He means it has something to do with Stiles,” Cora said nonchalantly.

“Yeah, it’s pretty obvious,” Laura agreed.

Deaton cleared his throat and turned back to Derek, “well … your sisters are very intuitive.”

Derek shrugged, “they’re just annoying to me.”

“Derek,” his mother scolded him.

“You’re just mad because you’re not as smart as we are,” Laura said.

“Laura, it’s not nice to make fun of someone that doesn’t have a fully functioning brain,” Cora tittered.

“Girls,” Derek’s mother said with a scowl.

“Sorry mom,” they said in unison.

“May I have the room, I would like to speak with Derek in private if you all don’t mind,” Deaton asked.

Derek’s mom got up from her seat and looked a little reluctant to leave, “we’ll be right outside,” she said.

“Can we go to the cafeteria? I’m kinda hungry,” Cora said as she got up to leave the room.

“You’re always hungry,” Laura said leaving the room behind her, their mother was the last out.

“I can see that there’s never a dull moment with you and your family,” Deaton said as the girls left the room.

Derek sighed, “sorry about that.”

“No need to apologize,” Deaton said, “now, tell me Derek, how have you been today?”

“Lately … lately I’ve been-I don’t know, I just feel like somethings different with me,” he said.

“Do you feel like the dreams have something to do with this?” Deaton asked.

Derek shrugged, “I don’t know, I think so but I can’t really be sure.”

“And you’re sure you’ve never had these sorts of dreams until after the incident?” Deaton pressed.

“Is this why you’re keeping me here?” Derek wondered, “because of my dreams?”

“That among other things, please answer my question,” Deaton suggested.

Derek sighed, “yeah, it was after everything happened.”

“They’re still the same?” Deaton pressed.

Derek nodded, “yep, same thing for the last three nights.”

“Interesting,” Deaton said fiddling with his glasses.

Derek and Deaton had been having these private conversations ever since he woke up; the dreams he had had since he’d fell unconscious before going into surgery had been replaying like a broken reel every time he shut his eyes. He didn’t clue any of his family in on what was going on with him, he felt it was best that he just keeps that between himself and the good doctor.

“How um … is Stilinski alright?” Derek asked tentatively.

Deaton peered at Derek from behind his glasses, “well it depends on which Stilinski you’re referring to.”

“Are you serious?” Derek deadpanned.

“Very,” Deaton responded with the same expression.

Derek sighed heavily and rolled his eyes, “fine, how-how is Stiles?”

“You can ask him yourself,” Deaton said quickly.

“What?” Derek questioned.

“He’s down the hall,” Deaton said nonchalantly, writing something on his notepad. “By my guess I think he probably wants to check up on you.”

Derek narrowed his eyes at the man, “how would you know?”

Deaton stopped writing whatever he was writing and looked to Derek, “forgive me, I often forget that this hospital has soundproof walls in certain areas; but he’s here for an appointment with me and I may or may not have heard him mention the idea.” Just then a knock came from the door, “come in,” Deaton announced.

The door cracked and Derek instantly heard voices and homed in on a specific heartbeat, “dad just give me a minute,” came Stilinski’s voice.

“You have ten seconds,” came the Sheriff’s voice.

“Dad, seriously?” Stilinski shot back.

Deaton moved to the door and opened it fully, “ah Sheriff, I’m glad you could make it,” he said casually.

“Of course, I could make it, you said this is important,” the Sheriff responded.

“Right,” Deaton said with a huff, “why don’t you join me in my office?” He then turned back towards Derek and said, “Derek I will be back to see you later.”

Derek nodded in response, “okay.”

“Sheriff if you will?” Deaton asked turning his attention back on the man.

“My son is hellbent on seeing … him,” Derek could guess that the Sheriff was referring to him, “I don’t want him in there.”

“Well I’m sure he’ll be fine; wouldn’t you agree Parrish?” Deaton asked.

“I’m sure he won’t try anything,” came a voice Derek recognized as the deputy who had scared him shitless at his house.

“But-“ The Sheriff tried.

“Please follow me to my office, we wouldn’t want to keep Ms. Yukimura and her family waiting,” Deaton said as he walked out of the room, “Stiles, try not to take too long.”

All Derek could see was the door being held open and suddenly in walked Stilinski, “hi,” he waved casually.

Derek could feel himself clamming up instantly, but he made an effort to offer a casual wave back and strained to say, “hi.”

“Sorry if I … if I interrupted anything,” he said cautiously taking a step further into the room.

“You didn’t,” Derek answered quickly.

“Oh, okay,” Stilinski said and then fell silent for a moment before saying, “well I just wanted to stop in and say thanks for what you did for me, or well I mean what I think you did …” he fiddles with his fingers before asking, “you were trying to save me right?”

Derek nodded, “yeah …”

Stilinski sighed, “okay cool … thanks for that.”

“What did you think I was doing?” Derek asked.

Stilinski frowned and looked away from Derek, “to be honest, I-I thought you were trying to save me but I … I had some doubts.”

There was no uptick in Stilinski’s heartbeat so Derek knew he was telling the truth, “well I was trying to save you so … yeah, you don’t have to have doubts anymore,” Derek said.

“Yeah …” Stilinski said and sighed before asking, “so, how are you? You healed up yet?”

“I’m fine,” Derek answered, “I’ve been healed up for about a day or two now but Deaton wants to keep me here just in case.”

“Oh well … I guess that’s good to hear,” Stilinski said gnawing at the side of his lip, “so um … you know when you’re getting out?”

There was a sort of tension flowing within the conversation that Derek couldn’t describe, it made it hard to normalize and treat the conversation at hand as something casual rather than something hard and awkward, “well … I-I’m not sure,” Derek answered. “Could be today or tomorrow or the next day, it’s up to Deaton.”

Stilinski nodded, “well I hope you get out soon,” he said and looked over at the door, “I should probably get going, I just wanted to thank you for what you did.”

“The feelings mutual you know …” Derek said suddenly.

“What?” Stilinski asked flabbergasted.

“You saved me too,” Derek said and Stilinski looked a bit confused at that, so Derek clarified, “the guns that you went back to get …”

“Oh that … well I wouldn’t have had to get them if you didn’t … if you didn’t try and save me,” Stilinski said.

“But you got them anyway when you didn’t have to,” Derek said.

Stilinski narrowed his eyes at Derek, “but I did have to …”

“Did you?” Derek challenged, “after everything me and my friends have done to you, you really think you owed it to me to save me?”

Stilinski scoffed, “you saved me, so why not return the favor?”

“I hurt you, so why don’t you return the favor?” Derek threw back.

“What?!” Stilinski shouted exasperated.

“I hurt you and so did my friends … so by your logic you should return the favor,” Derek said. “You should have just let me fend for myself after I got shot.”

“If I did that then I’d be no better than you or your friends, in fact I’d probably be worse,” Stilinski said.

“But you have to admit that I’d deserve it,” Derek said.

“No, I don’t,” Stilinski shot back quickly.

Derek felt flustered and couldn’t help but ask, “Why?”  

“Because I don’t agree with your idea that I should get even because I don’t see a point to it; all it would do is cause an endless cycle of crap that I don’t wanna deal with and besides that I don’t wanna be that person, I don’t wanna turn into someone like you or your friends,” Stilinski said.

“It doesn’t have to be an endless cycle of anything, it’s just about making things right … I-I mean … I heard you that day, when you were talking to Boyd in the library after we got in a fight with Mitch and his friends, you said that what we did could drive a person …” Derek shuddered trying to say the words, “that it could drive a person to consider suicide.”

“That … that’s not even-God!” he shouted in frustration. “Are you mad or something? Are you mad that you saved me?!”

“No,” Derek answered quickly and honestly for the most part, he was a little upset that he felt indebted to Stilinski.

“Are you sure, cause you coulda fooled me,” Stilinski retorted.

“You’re trying to change the subject,” Derek responded calmly.

“You’re trying to compare something that’s impossible to correlate,” Stilinski shot back.

“How so? You said you felt the need to save me because I saved you, so why not repay me and my friends for hurting you?” Derek asked.

“Do you hear how stupid that sounds?! What is it with you and Boyd?” Stilinski asked exasperated, “You’re both hung up on me getting revenge and for what? So, you can feel justified in what you did to me? Or so you can feel less guilty about what you did to me? Which one is it?”

“Neither,” Derek grumbled.

“You’re lying, I can tell,” Stilinski said with a hard expression.

Derek was fuming, Stilinski was so unbearable and irritating to the point that he found himself ready to explode, “you don’t make any sense,” he said.

“No, you don’t make any sense,” Stilinski said instantly, “I came in here to say thanks for saving me and you get mad at me because you did just that, you saved me … but I’m starting to think that maybe you shouldn’t have, at least that way neither one of us would regret it.”

“I don’t regret saving you,” Derek growled out, “I saved you because I wanted to and because it was the right thing to do.”

Stilinski shrugged, “but me hurting you the way you hurt me, isn’t right; and you know that …” Stiles stared Derek down for a moment before saying, “I won’t give you what you want.”

“What do I want?” Derek asked smugly.

“Validation,” Stilinski answered confidently, “a reason to feel like what you did to me was right and justified. A reason to escape feeling guilty about what you did to me,” Stilinski huffed and shook his head, “you can own that guilt and whatever else comes with it, just like I had to own everything you and your friends put me through.”

Derek clenched his fist, “nobodies that good, nobody doesn’t wanna get back at someone that’s hurt them, especially as much as I … as much as we hurt you,” he looked up at Stilinski and angrily said, “eventually you’ll wanna get back at me.”

Stilinski laughed as if Derek had told the most hilarious joke he’d ever heard, “no I won’t,” he said and there was no hitch in the rhythm of his heartbeat, “like I said, what’s the point? And what good would it do me doing that to you? I don’t think I could live with myself if I honestly thought it would be okay to do to you what you did to me.”

The saying ‘the truth hurts,’ never rang truer than it did in that moment, Derek was hurt, he was hurt not only because Stilinski had thrown one truth in his face and revealed to Derek that he would never receive the validation he didn’t realize he was seeking; but also, because Stilinski was in fact a good person, too good which in turn made Derek feel even guiltier about the things he’d done to him. There was no point in further denying anything, Derek was wrong now like he was wrong before. He looked down at his hands and laughed at himself, “damn …” he said and looked up at Stilinski, “I keep making the same mistakes.”

Stilinski’s brows furrowed, “what?”

Derek looked away shaking his head, “nothing,” he answered, “you’re right though … I am seeking validation and I’m sorry for that … just like I’m sorry for everything else and all the times I’ve hurt you,” he shrugged, “not that that means much.”

 Stilinski seemed at a loss for words, “I-I” he stammered, “I should go,” he said and without another word and started making his way towards the door of Derek’s room but suddenly turned back, “hold on, what just happened?”

Derek sighed, tension that had built up due to their conversation had been relieved; “I realized I was wrong and you’re right … and I’m saying sorry.”

Stilinski fell silent looking at him and frowned, “And you said I don’t make any sense,” he muttered.

“You don’t,” Derek said and Stilinski flailed as if he were surprised Derek heard that, “not to me at least … not yet.”

Stilinski huffed, “right … well thanks for coming to save your sister and inherently saving me, I really appreciate it.”

“What?” Derek asked.

“What?” Stilinski responded, “I was just saying thank you.”

“No, you said something about my sister,” Derek said.

Stilinski nodded, “oh that … yeah, I mean you came to save your sister and you wound up saving me instead …” he immediately frowned when he noticed Derek’s expression, “did I say something wrong?”

Derek couldn’t honestly say that was the reason he showed up in Stilinski’s classroom because it wouldn’t be true, at the time he was running on auto pilot and even he knew that the sole reason he even went to the class was because of his concern for Stilinski’s wellbeing, “don’t you have to go?” Derek said trying to throw Stilinski off.

“Huh …” he looked over to the door and back at Derek, “yeah I-I do …”

“You should go before someone winds up coming back to check on you, I don’t want anyone thinking I’m hurting you again,” Derek said, doing anything and everything to get out of the conversation.

“Yeah you’re right … I should do that, I-I should go,” he stammered as if he wanted to avoid the conversation just as much as Derek.

“See you around Stilinski,” Derek offered.

“Stiles,” he threw back over his shoulder as he headed for the door and just before he left the room he turned back and said, “my name is Stiles and thanks again.”

“Derek leaned back in his bed and told himself, “yeah … whatever … Stiles.”

A few moments later the door to his room had burst open and Derek sat up quickly to see both of his sisters rushing into the room, “Stiles was in here,” Cora said.

“Don’t even think about lying and saying he wasn’t,” Laura chimed.

“He just left,” Derek deadpanned.

“Why was he here?” Cora asked quickly.

“Yeah, what did he want? You didn’t do anything stupid, did you?” Laura pressed.

“Girls, leave your brother alone,” their mother said as she entered the room and took a seat next to Derek’s bed; Cora and Laura both reluctantly fell back and sat near the tv where they were before. “Derek, your football game for this week has been officially cancelled and is pending a reschedule and your father will be here in about 2 to 3 hours, his flight out of Chicago was delayed and your Aunt and Uncle and your new baby cousin are downstairs and will be up shortly.”

“Okay,” Derek said.

“So, how’s Stiles?” She asked, and Derek should have known she was coming with an angle. If it’s one thing his sister’s get from their mother it’s her need to know everything going on.

Derek sighed, “he’s fine.”

“Kind of a surprise that he came to pay you a visit, don’t you think?” His mother asked.

Derek shrugged, “he said he wanted to thank me.”

“And did he?” She pressed.

“Yeah,” Derek answered sullenly.

“Good,” she said and smiled, “you know Derek what you did for him was very brave and selfless; and I am so proud of you.”

“Hey, wait, speaking of what you did, I have a question,” Cora shot up and moved over near Derek’s bed, “this has been bugging me ever since you got out of surgery … maybe even before that but … why did you show up to my class?”

“What?” Derek wondered.

“You have weight training for first hour and that class is all the way at the other end of the school and you weren’t even dressed in your workout clothes and neither was Boyd,” Cora said.

If it was one thing Derek did not want to do, it was have this conversation especially in front of his mother, “We got out of class early …”

 “I can tell you’re lying from over here,” Laura called him out.

“You wanna try telling me the truth this time?” Cora asked.

“Oh, come on, Cora I don’t wanna go over that right now, can’t you just thank me for being there?” Derek asked trying to dodge the subject.

“I am thankful that you were there but I wanna know why you were there? I mean at first I thought it was because you were being the overprotective big brother that I know you to be and you were looking out for me; but then I thought about it and I know that if you came for me, you would wanna get Laura too but … but when you got to the class and found me … you didn’t even seem concerned about going to find Laura …”

“Gee thanks Derek,” Laura said bitterly.

Both Cora and Derek shrugged off her comment and Cora continued, “you just wanted to get out and when things were all clear for us and we had the opportunity to leave … you went back to find Stiles,” Cora said.

“So?” Derek responded.

“You had the opportunity to escape and you chose to stay?” His mother asked with an edge to her voice. “It seems there’s more to the story then …” she said looking between Derek and Cora, “I was not aware that you put yourself in harm’s way twice,” she said eyeing Derek. “It’s been a few days since everything happened and I’d like to know everything that transpired while you all were … going through that situation.”

Derek sighed, he figured that somebody had told his mother everything she needed to know but apparently not; “What don’t you know?”” Derek asked.

“Well I’m pretty sure I know everything from your sister’s prospective but … Cora failed to mention to me that you were able to escape and you chose not to,” she said.

“Mom …” Cora tried but their mother put a hand up silencing her.

“So, you were shot while you were in the classroom with Cora before you had the chance to escape, correct?” She asked.

“Yes,” Derek answered.

“You were shot both times in the classroom?” She pressed.

“Yes,” Derek answered again.

“Stiles was not with you guys when you originally had the chance to escape?” She asked.

“He-he was but … but he felt that he had to go back and save someone,” Derek said.

“Kira,” Cora said, “Stiles went back to save Kira.”

“We were going to leave after he left but … I just couldn’t bring myself to walk out of the school,” Derek said.

A knock came from the door and Deaton entered the room, “I apologize if I’m interrupting anything but considering the nature of the situation I think it’d be best if you all came with me.”

“Is something wrong?” Derek’s mother asked.

“No,” he answered quickly, “well yes and no but it’s best you all come and join me; it’s important,” Deaton said.

Not much needed to be said after that, Derek’s sisters were the first to follow Deaton out of the room, Derek and his mother were right behind them. Deaton led them down the hall and around a corner before opening up a office door and inviting them all in. It wasn’t necessarily an office they stepped into but more of a conference room and inside were Stiles and his dad along with the deputy as well as Kira and two other people who Derek presumed to be her parents and another guy who Derek wasn’t familiar with.

“Deaton what is the meaning of this?” The man who Derek assumed was Kira’s father asked.

“Like I said Mr. Yukimura I would offer you an explanation on my return and I plan to see that through,” Deaton said as he closed the door behind him, “Mrs. Hale you and your kids find a seat and get comfortable,” Deaton told them and they each took a seat at the table.

“Alright,” Deaton announced as he made his way to the head of the table, “first I will start with the explanation of why I brought the Hales in here; Mr. Yukimura if you didn’t already know the boy in the hospital gown sitting over there, otherwise known as Derek,” Deaton pointed directly at Derek, “is Stiles soulmate and Derek,” Deaton called turning to him.

“Yes?” He answered.

“Correct me if I’m wrong but you and your sisters know about Kira, correct?” Deaton asked pointedly.

Derek frowned, his sisters were not eager to jump up and answer the question for him all they could do was clear their throats and act as if they were clueless to what was going on. Feeling like he was being backed into a corner Derek felt he had no other choice but to tell the truth, “yes, we know.”

“Kira, you told them?!” Mr. Yukimura asked flabbergasted.

“You understand the danger that can come if other people know what you are,” the woman (Mrs. Yukimura) scolded her.

“Mom, I … I didn’t have a choice,” she said scared.

“You always have a choice and you know that telling anyone could put your life in danger,” Mr. Yukimura said looking angrily at Derek and his sisters, “I wouldn’t be surprised if these mutts were the reason my daughter’s location was found out!”

Derek’s sisters protested immediately but Derek’s mother shushed them before anything bad could be said and went on to say, “I may not fully understand the nature of your situation, but I can assure you that my children had nothing to do with whatever has transpired in the last 4 days and I will not sit here and let you insult them while I am present.”

“How can you be sure that they had nothing to do with what happened?” Mr. Yukimura pressed.

“They’ve known about me and what I am and they’ve kept it secret,” Stiles said, “and if you ask me I’m pretty sure people would be much more interested in knowing about me than Kira … no offense.”

Mr. Yukimura looked like he was struggling to come up with a rebuttal to that, he grunted, “fine … I apologize for my inappropriate words against your children, Ms. Hale.”

“Thank you, I understand this must be stressful for you, I’m sure I would be just as defensive if it were my children in your daughter’s position;” Derek’s mother said.

“Well then, I’m sure you all will have much to speak about in due time, but I am pressed for time and the information that I need to share is very important,” Deaton announced. “The situation isn’t as grave as it seems,” he said confusing majority of the room.

“I’m sorry but correct me if I’m wrong, was our local high school not just under siege with some casualties involved?” Mr. Stilinski asked.

“Yes, John but please let me finish explaining,” Deaton answered; “the school was reportedly announced to be under siege by the group Aucune Anomalie but thanks to the work of Deputy Parrish and Ben we can conclude that the individuals subdued in the siege were not official members of the group.”

“What?” Mr. Yukimura asked shocked.

“You heard correct Mr. Yukimura, the people involved in the siege of the high school were not actual members of the group Aucune Anomalie but hired henchmen paid to do their bidding,” Deaton said.

“Hired henchmen? Why would a group of people, a big group of people at that, need some hired guns to do their dirty work?” The Sheriff asked.

“That we do not know,” Deaton said.

“Then how do you know that they were hired guns?” Mrs. Yukimura asked.

“Well considering that me and Parrish were able to subdue majority of them by ourselves, I think that’s proof enough that these guys aren’t really members,” the guy (Ben) said.

“Not that I’m complaining but what does you two being able to take out majority of them on your own prove?” The Sheriff asked.

“Everything,” the Deputy (Parrish) said.

“I’ve tangoed with guys from Aucune Anomalie before and let me tell you it’s not a walk in the park,” Ben said.

“They’re trained to be lethal, every move you make against one of them could possibly be your last, we’re led to believe that majority of the group is possibly ex-military special forces or they’re trained by someone who is,” Parrish said.

“Those guys that we took on at the school were definitely not ex-military, at best they were amateur mercenaries,” Ben said.

“That still doesn’t explain why that group would hire a bunch of mercenaries, as you say, to do their bidding,” Mrs. Yukimura said.

Derek wasn’t sure why but he thought back to when he was in the coffee shop the day the school was attacked and he remembered the conversation he overheard between the two men outside of the bathroom, “because they weren’t sure if the person they were going after was actually what they were looking for,” Derek said and immediately regretted it as the whole room turned on him.

“Excuse me?” Mr. Yukimura asked.

“Do you have something you would like to share Mr. Hale?” Deaton asked.

“Well um … I-I think I heard two of the guys talking about what they were going to do before they actually did it,” Derek said.

“You heard that they were going to attack the school and you didn’t report it?” Mrs. Yukimura asked accusingly.

“No, I heard them talking about doing something but I didn’t know they were planning on raiding the school. One of them was complaining about the length of time it took for them to even get to that point and how he didn’t want to be labeled as a terrorist and the other guy … well he was fully on board with what they were doing and kept saying they just needed to complete what they had to do and they would be able to go home to their families.” Derek explained. “One of the guys said that they had been following a girl around for about a year and a half and they didn’t have anything on her or her friend and I think it’s safe to say that the people they were talking about were …”

“Stiles and Kira,” Deaton answered for him.

Derek nodded, “they didn’t know everything … one of the guys said that they had to assume that their bosses had information they didn’t.”

“That definitely means these guys weren’t Aucune Anomalie,” Parrish said.

“So, the man in the black trench coat …” Kira started.

“He wasn’t there,” Ben answered, “we didn’t find him anywhere in the school, it’s probably safe to assume he hasn’t stepped foot in Beacon Hills.”

“Wait what?” Derek blurted out.

“Something else you want to share with us Mr. Hale?” Deaton asked.

“He was at the school, I saw him when they got out of their vans, he killed the security guard,” Derek answered.

“What?!” Ben shouted. “Then how did he get by us?”

“Damn it,” Parrish huffed, “he probably didn’t even enter the school, I’m thinking he just sent his men in and watched from afar.”

“I don’t mean to sound like an ass hole or anything but do you boys care to share what the problem is?” The Sheriff asked.

Deaton sighed and rubbed at his temples, “that man that Mr. Hale saw is in fact a part of the group, he is ruthless and deadly and has been involved in many of the missing Omega cases.”

“What about the woman that was talking on the intercom?” Stiles asked, “it’s the same lady that was in the video they released.”

“It’s safe to assume the she’s an official member as well,” Deaton said.

“So, then I’m going to assume that we are all, excuse my language, fucked straight to hell then?” The Sheriff asked.

“John please,” Deaton tried.

“What? I mean it sounds to me like the purpose of this meeting is to tell us that the real group we need to be worried about is worse than a group of lunatics that found it okay to put a high school under siege!” The Sheriff said.

“Forgive me, again, I may not understand the full aspect of what’s going on, but I feel I know enough and I am inclined to agree with the Sheriff on this,” Derek’s mother said.

“Right, well then, I guess I should get to the point of this meeting then, by the sounds of things I’m sure you can all agree that we are in a very, very stressful and dangerous situation right now and I must say that before the start of this meeting I was inclined to tell all of you that you are being considered for immediate relocation,” Deaton said which drew a gasp from majority of the room.

“Relocating again, after we just moved here … this-this is getting out of hand, YOU PEOPLE WERE MEANT TO KEEP US SAFE AND MAKE SURE THINGS LIKE THIS WEREN’T NECESARRY!” Mr. Yukimura yelled.

“Mr. Yukimura I would advise that you keep your voice down,” Deaton commanded, “I said that before the meeting I was going to advise all of you that you were being considered for immediate relocation, but given the information that Mr. Hale has provided I think that would be the worst plan of action. Now that we know the group does not have concrete proof that Kira is in fact what they are looking for I feel it would be best to stay put.”

“But they’ve already tried to apprehend her once, what if they come back to try something again?!” Mrs. Yukimura asked.

“What if they realize that you’ve all packed up and left and moved elsewhere?” Deaton countered. “Wouldn’t that be giving it away that your daughter may be of some value to them?”

“Deaton’s right,” Ben said; “if we run again, it would basically be a dead giveaway that Kira is, what they think she is.”

“And if we were to move along with you, their interest in Stiles may rise,” Parrish said.

“I know that my word in this conversation may not hold much weight considering none of my children are at risk when it comes to this group but-“ Derek’s mother tried until Deaton cut her off.

“On the contrary Mrs. Hale, I’m not sure it’s safe to assume that children would not interest Aucune Anomalie. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see that your daughters and Stiles here are close friends; and given the fact that we know they don’t mind taking their time to gain intel on individuals that interest them, if Stiles were to be found out, your daughters would become an immediate interest to the group and should they find out that Stiles has a soul mark, who are we to say that they won’t take interest in the person who carries the matching mark?” Deaton asked looking straight at Derek; “this is why I brought you in here because you could be in just as much danger as anyone else in here; and when I said all of you were being considered for immediate relocation, you and your family, Mrs. Hale, were included.”

Derek knew for a fact that it took a lot to make his mother extremely uncomfortable, it wasn’t something that he was used to seeing but he was seeing it now; his mother definitely did not know what to do with herself as she looked between Derek and his sister’s, “then-then might I suggest we take more precaution and maybe get these kids a police detail or-“

Deaton held up a hand before interrupting her, “if we were to put a police detail on your kids that would only draw suspicion and it might interest the group should they still be watching us.”

“Then what do you suggest?” Derek’s mother asked voice wavering.

Deaton sighed, “I suggest we carry on as if the event that just occurred wasn’t anything personal to us.”

“That sounds crazy,” Mr. Yukimura snidely said.

“I have to agree with Mr. Yukimura on this,” the Sheriff said.

“It might sound crazy but it’s the best plan that we have,” Parrish said.

“Can I-Can I ask something?” Kira asked in a soft voice.

“The floor is yours,” Deaton said to her.

“If we stay, then … what do we say to the people at school? Everyone knows they were looking for someone that fit my description and they know that the friend they were looking for was Stiles and it won’t be hard for people to put two and two together and figure out they were looking for me.” Kira said.

“We actually have a cover for that,” Ben said.

“We’re planning on telling the press that the girl they were in search of isn’t actually the person they were looking for and the whole incident was caused due to false information given to the group,” Parrish said.

“So, you’re going to lie,” Derek’s mother asked.

“It’s the only option we have and it’s the only option that will keep these kid’s safe,” Ben said.

“Sheriff were you planning on filling me in about this before the press conference?” Derek’s mother asked turning her attention to the Sheriff.

He huffed out a laugh, “you think I knew anything about this?”

“I’m sorry,” Derek’s mother said, “I just assumed you might have known something.”

“I’m in the dark about this just like you,” the Sheriff responded.

“Anyways,” Deaton chimed, “we have our plan, you will all stay put and act accordingly; if things go well the group will no longer be breathing down our necks and none of you will have to look over your shoulder at every turn.”

“Question,” Derek’s mother said, “what if they come back? What if they start stalking my kids and try and apprehend them? Who’s going to keep them safe?”

The room fell silent for a moment before Deaton answered, “well I figure that will only happen if either the group becomes increasingly invested in Kira or Stiles is found out, either way you won’t have to worry. If you feel that you are being watched or anyone suspicious keeps showing everywhere you go then feel free to call me and we will take the appropriate actions to ensure you and your families safety but please remember your children aren’t their objective with the exception of Derek.”

Derek’s mother nodded, “right, thank you.”

“Is there anything else anyone would like to add before we end this meeting?” Deaton asked and no one answered, “okay then, I will see you all in due time, until then have a nice day, try and enjoy yourselves and live as if nothing is wrong.”

“Easier said than done,” Derek heard Stiles snark.

With that the meeting was all but over and people started shuffling out of the room one by one, starting with the Yukimura family along with Ben and soon after Stiles and his dad along with Parrish. Derek’s sisters exited the room shortly after Stiles but Derek suspected it was because they were going to talk to him out in the hallway; their mother had purposely stayed behind to have a few words with Deaton but it wasn’t anything of importance to Derek, she was just discussing possible precautions they could take to ensure their safety and Deaton reassured her that living life normally is the best precaution they could take. Soon after Derek and his mother left the room and to no surprise found his sister’s outside in the hall conversing with Stiles along with Kira, “may I have a moment of your time?” Came the Sheriff’s voice, Derek was surprised to see him approach along with Parrish.

“Sure Sheriff, what can we do for you today?” Derek’s mother answered.

The Sheriff cleared his throat and adjusted his utility belt, while looking over at Parrish who nodded at him, “well … we wanted to-“ Parrish cleared his throat and the Sheriff huffed, “excuse me, I wanted to come over and … thank your son for … for saving my son.” Parrish cleared his throat again and the Sheriff uncomfortably adjusted his utility belt again, “and I also wanted to apologize if your son might have heard any choice words I had for him earlier.”

“Oh well …” Derek’s mother placed a hand on his shoulder, “I’m sure my son really appreciates that … right Derek.”

Derek was dumbfounded by what was happening, “um … yeah, yeah but uh …” he looked over in Stiles direction before looking back at the Sheriff, “he saved me too so, no thanks necessary.”

“Well I was gonna say-“ The sheriff started until Parrish spoke over him.

“On the contrary,” Parrish said quickly, “considering your history with Stiles, it came as quite a surprise when we heard you were responsible for helping him get out and for that we’re thankful.”

The deputy still gave Derek the creeps but Derek wouldn’t let him know it, “oh yeah … well it was no problem,” Derek said.

“Actually … mam if you don’t mind I’d like to have a word with your son in private, it will only take a minute,” Parrish asked Derek’s mother.

“I don’t see a problem with that, I actually would like to have a word with the Sheriff,” Derek’s mother said.

“Ah okay well this was … pleasant, Mrs. Hale if you will,” The Sheriff gestured for Derek’s mother to lead the way.

“Sheriff, I know that my son was involved in some horrible things that were done to your son but for the sake of my comfort, I’d feel much better if you’d call me by my name, especially since neither one of us are currently on shift.” Derek’s mother said.

“Speak for yourself, I’m just on an extended lunch,” The Sheriff said and released a heavy sigh, “fine, Talia if you will and please feel free to call me John, just as you did before.”

“Right, well John, please follow me,” Derek’s mother said cheerily, “I’ll be right back,” she told Derek before leaving him alone with Deputy Parrish.

The Deputy hadn’t said anything for a moment, in fact he watched as the Sheriff and Derek’s mother made their way down the hall before disappearing around the corner before he said anything, “you realize you don’t need to be afraid of me …” he said and turned to look at Derek and shrugged, “at the moment at least,” he said looking Derek in the eyes.

“I-I’m not,” Derek answered.

“Sure kid,” he said not buying Derek’s words, “look you need to get stronger …”

“What?” Derek questioned baffled by the sudden change of subject.

“You need to get stronger, in fact all of you do because who knows when those guys are gonna come back again and who’s to say they won’t send their actual members next time? If that happens you all need to be prepared to defend yourselves in case either me or Ben aren’t there to protect you,” The Deputy said.

“Okay but … you don’t even protect me now,” Derek said.

“You’re right, I don’t and that’s because up until recently I saw you as a potential threat,” the deputy said.

“And now?” Derek wondered.

The Deputy sighed, “Now, I don’t know how I see you but you did risk your life to save Stiles so … I want to believe that you’re not a threat to him anymore.”

“I-I’m pretty sure no matter what happens I can’t hurt him anymore,” Derek tried but the Deputy didn’t look too convinced.

“So, you say,” he responded coldly, “look like I said you need to get stronger, which means you need to learn how to defend yourself.”

“I know how to defend myself,” Derek said.

The Deputy grunted and rolled his eyes, “Beating up a helpless kid over a period of time isn’t defending yourself, most would call that assault;” he said and the meaning behind his words cut deep. “Listen, I’m gonna run it by the Sheriff but eventually you may be seeing more of me.”

“Why?” Derek asked.

“Because I’m going to teach you how to fight but let me tell you something before we start anything and let me make this very clear, you ever use anything I teach you against someone that’s obviously weaker than you or someone that wants no trouble with you, someone like Stiles for instance … I will hurt you and that’s not a threat it’s a promise especially if Stiles is involved, do you understand me?” The deputy asked keeping his voice low.

Derek huffed, “I’m not like that anymore.”

“Yeah right, we’ll see about that,” he uttered skeptically.

Derek frowned, “if you don’t trust me and you think I’m such a shit person, why teach me anything?”

“Because obviously you’re not completely shitty if you were willing to risk your life to save Stiles and … on the off chance that you and Stiles do grow closer, it’s better that both of you are able to defend yourselves,” the Deputy said. Derek gave him a stiff nod in response and after a moment of the deputy sizing Derek up, he eventually sighed and relaxed a little and gave Derek a pat on the shoulder, “I’ll see you around kid and stay outta trouble, oh and thanks again for what you did for Stiles, I know it may not seem like it, but I am grateful as is his father.”

“Yeah … thanks,” Derek said and watched as the Deputy made his way down the hall in the same the direction the Sheriff and his mother had went. Whatever Derek’s sister’s, Kira and Stiles were talking about must have been important because the group seemed to be discussing amongst each other pretty intently.

“Derek, is everything okay?” Came his mother’s voice as she made her way back down the hall.

“Yeah mom,” he answered, “everything’s fine. Is everything okay with you … and the Sheriff?”

She smirked at him, “yes everything’s fine, I just needed to speak with him about some things that involved our coming press conference.” She looked over in the directions of where his sisters were talking to Stiles and looked back at him, “Did you wanna go back to your room now, I’m sure your aunt and uncle are there wondering where you are.”

Derek nodded, “yeah, we should probably get back.”

She patted his back and looked back over to where his sisters were, “girls … girls!” she called until she got their attention, “we’re heading back to the room, your aunt and uncle and cousin should be there so try not to be too long,” she announced and turned to head in the direction of Derek’s room.

Derek glanced over and saw Stiles looking at him and all he could manage to do was nod before leaving to follow his mother back to his room.

Stiles POV

The first day after the siege Stiles found himself walled up in his room for most of the day, his father was reluctant to let him go anywhere, he even forced Parrish to stay at the house with Stiles while his father worked throughout the day. The second day Stiles tried to head to the coffee shop only to be met with multiple reporters outside of his house and when he finally got free of them he still had to deal with them following him around. The third and fourth day were no better, although he did get to go to the hospital and managed to speak with Derek and lay to rest a few of his suspicions about the reasoning why Derek saved him but he also found out that his presence was a potential threat to the Hales, at least that’s how he saw it; when he made his concerns known to both Cora and Laura and the two were not happy because to them it seemed like Stiles was trying to cut ties with them completely and they didn’t like it, even if they knew it was for their own benefit; the two made sure to let Stiles know he was being an idiot and shouldn’t even think about trying to get rid of them as it was impossible.

The days after were pretty much the same, every time Stiles tried to leave the house there was a few reporters waiting outside; To say the least ever since Beacon Hills High went under siege, life in Beacon Hills became hectic, news reporters swarmed the town with the hopes of uncovering a story that would sky rocket their careers and they completely invalidated the feelings of the victims involved and totally violated their privacy. It seemed like no matter how much time had passed, the media was still interested in a story they should have let die, it was like kicking a dead horse when it was already down.

“They’ll go away soon kid,” Stiles father said as they looked out the window of their house.

“Is it even legal for them to camp outside of people’s houses like this? I mean it seems like stalking,” Stiles said.

“Technically it is but they aren’t coming onto our property and they aren’t constantly knocking on the door, they’re smart enough to remain on the street which is public property and because of that I can’t really arrest them,” Stiles father responded.

“That’s stupid,” Stiles said.

His father patted him on the head, “I know but trust me after tonight I doubt they’ll keep hanging around here.”

“So, you hope,” Parrish said behind them.

Stiles father turned around, “oh come on Parrish, have a little faith.”

Stiles looked back to see Parrish shrug, “I’m just keeping my expectations low so I’m not disappointed.” Parrish cleared his throat after that and said, “anyway Sheriff …” Stiles father interrupted him by humming and looking at Parrish smugly, “sorry, John, can we continue the discussion we were having earlier about …”

Stiles figured that because Parrish didn’t say what the conversation was about it was clearly about him and Stiles father had no problem confirming it, “ah you mean the conversation about training my son how to fight.”

Parrish frowned, “yeah … that conversation.”

“What?” Stiles wondered.

His father looked at him and then back at Parrish, “well son to put it simply, Parrish here thinks that it’s a good idea that he trains you how to fight in case you need to defend yourself against that group of psychos should they try and make another appearance using their actual members.” Stiles father explained and then said, “personally I’m against the idea because I don’t like thinking that my son will eventually have to face those deranged lunatics but … should that happen I’d much rather he be able to defend himself rather than simply being helpless and an easy target.”

“That … that’s good sir, I-I’m glad you’re taking this under consideration,” Parrish said.

“Of course, if you can train Stiles you can train me as well,” his father added quickly.

“John,” Parrish frowned, “as much as I would like to … this training is pretty rigorous and it’s not something that someone who has a job that’s pretty time consuming and requires them to put their life on the line every day should go through and … it may take a lot out of you considering … you know you’re older.”

“Did you just not so subtly call me old?” Stiles father asked appalled while Stiles tried his best not to laugh, “Listen here you little shit I may be older but I’m no senior citizen, not even close … in fact I’m not even half your age, you little bastard, aren’t you turning 27 or 28 this year?” Stiles father asked but never let Parrish answer as he continued his tirade, “and need I remind you, you also have a job where you put your life on the line every day, in fact you have two jobs where you do that, and they’re both extremely time consuming, so don’t give me that shit that you can’t train me too.”

“Alright, alright,” Parrish said holding his hands up in mock surrender, “you’re right, you’re definitely right but …”

“There’s something else you need to talk to me about, isn’t there?” Stiles father asked.

“Well … yes but I’m not sure if we should talk about it here or-“ Parrish was cut off by Stiles father talking over him.

“Just spit it out,” Stiles father exclaimed.

Parrish fell silent for a moment before speaking, “I’ve asked that … Derek Hale also join in on this training.”

Stiles father groaned, “oh you’ve got to be kidding me;” he said before furiously shaking his head, “no, absolutely not, I will not put my son in danger or let that little fucken monster around my kid.” Stiles father pointed at Parrish and walked up to him, “you’ve got a lot of nerve asking me if I’d approve of something as crazy as that when you know what that little bastard and his horde of mutts did to my son!”

“Yes, I do but John,” Parrish yelled, “this is serious … you have to see where I’m coming from, what happened at the school was minor in comparison to what could really happen if they had actually shown up.” Parrish said looking visibly shaken and it was the first time Stiles had ever seen him so unhinged. “These people are not people that you can take lightly and any and all help against them is welcome and if I can at least ensure that Stiles is able to defend himself even a little then I’ll do that and if there are people out there that I feel can also help then I’d gladly train them too, especially if they do it with the pretense that they’re doing it to keep your son safe.”

“How do you know that little fucker won’t turn around and try and use what you teach him on Stiles?” Stiles father spat.

“Because he saved Stiles,” Parrish said, “he took two bullets for him, when he didn’t have to; and just so you know he asked me the same question and I gave him the same answer; so, going off my intuition, I really don’t think he’s capable of hurting your son anymore.”

“Yeah, we’ll see about that,” Stiles father said angrily.

Parrish gasped, “I said the same thing to him but sir, I know this doesn’t seem ideal but we have to consider the severity of the situation and-“

“The severity of the situation?! I am considering the severity of the situation but I’m also considering the immediate safety of my son,” Stiles father shouted over Parrish.

“And I’m not?! It’s my job to see that he is safe, I would willingly give my life to make sure of it and by the looks of things so would Derek,” Parrish shouted back and Stiles dad looked taken aback by that and if Stiles were being honest he was a little flabbergasted by Parrish’s statement.

Stiles dad sighed next to him and scrubbed a hand over his face before saying, “look, at the end of the day it’s not my opinion that matters on this situation,” Stiles watched his father turn and look at him, “it’s yours. So, Stiles why don’t you tell us how you feel about the idea of Parrish training Derek?”

Stiles frowned and looked between both Parrish and his father, “I don’t know …” he answered honestly; “can we maybe give it some time before I give you an answer? I’m thinking that if you’re gonna train both of us, that means I’m gonna see him more and I’m not really sure how I feel about that.”

“Of course,” Parrish said, “I should have asked you how you felt about it before bringing it up to him and for that I apologize.”

 Stiles shrugged, “you’re just trying to help …”

Parrish nodded, “I am just trying to help but … now that I think about it, the help I was trying to provide was sort of like using a double edge sword; I didn’t consider all the history between both you and Derek and I disregarded how you would feel about being put in a situation that would cause you to be in his presence for an abundance of time.”

Stiles simply nodded and was unsure of what to say at that so he settled with, “right.”

“The idea in itself isn’t a bad idea,” came Stiles father looking at Parrish, “I’m fully behind you training my son … and me when we have the time but that kid … Derek, I’m not so sure about.”

“Then we should definitely take Stiles suggestion and wait,” Parrish stiffened before saying, “this may sound somewhat disrespectful but … please try to come up with a decision quickly.”

Stiles didn’t have to think about why his decision would need to be made in a reasonable amount of time, the group could rear the ugly heads any day and he was certain that Parrish wanted to utilize all the time they had to teach them a thing or two, “okay,” Stiles nodded.

“Well, I’m glad we had that chat, now Stiles if you’ll excuse us, we have a press conference to get to,” Stiles father said.

“Oh yeah, I forgot that you guys were doing that tonight,” Stiles said.

“Why do you think I mentioned that the media would go away soon?” Stiles father asked but didn’t let Stiles answer, “never mind don’t answer that, anyway Parrish, it’s time to go.”

“Right,” Parrish said and looked over to Stiles, “see you later tonight.”

Stiles nodded, “yeah see ya.”

“Make sure you think about what you wanna do,” Parrish added.

“Wait how much time do I have to decide?” Stiles asked flabbergasted.

Parrish contemplated the question for a moment before saying, “a week is ideal but the sooner the better.”

“A week?!” Stiles gasped.

“Take your time son, we gotta go,” Stiles father said heading for the door, with Parrish in tow.

Stiles sighed heavily and went to look out the window and watched as his father and Parrish made their way to the cruiser to leave; of course, the reporters waiting outside were eager to ask them some questions but by the looks of things Stiles father and Parrish gave them little to nothing as they quickly got into the cruiser and pulled out of the driveway and disappeared down the street.

Stiles managed to watch the press conference on TV, Mrs. Hale (Talia) and his father gave statements on what happened and provided a cover story that would wind up satiating all the reporter’s appetites for a potential big story. Within two to three days the press that blanketed Beacon Hills was practically nowhere to be found; and now the town had a chance to heal without the constant reminder that something horrible happened.

Eventually Stiles caught wind that most of the student body wanted to throw some kind of big bon fire as a sort of memorial for the victims of the siege. Officially, 3 people were dead, the school security guard, the vice principal and the Home Ec. Teacher, who didn’t actually die because he was killed by anyone, he wound up having a major heart attack during the siege and people just assumed that it was caused because of what happened, so they tallied him as one of the casualties in the siege.

Stiles wasn’t sure whether or not he would go to the bon fire, it’s not that he didn’t want to go, he just didn’t want to go and have to interact with a bunch of people that he didn’t know for a while; social settings like parties and big group gatherings were definitely not his thing, not yet at least; but if he didn’t go it would be sort of disrespectful to the victims, at least that’s what Kira tried to convince him. His father even expected him to go and mentioned that he would have a few deputies out patrolling the area for just in case purposes.

With that being said, it should have been a no brainer that he was going but he still found himself a little hesitant, regardless of how he felt Kira, Cora, Laura and Allison were at his doorstep to pick him up when it came time to go to the bon fire and the four girls managed to talk him into going and quelled whatever fears he might’ve had.

The five of them arrived at the spot where the bon fire would be taking place, it was somewhere out passed the preserve in a big open field, which sort of reminded Stiles of the place he went to for his first shift and moon light run. “There’s already so many people here,” Cora said in wonderment as she got out of the car.

“Well from what I heard around town, everyone said they’re gonna come;” Allison mentioned as she got out of the car.

“Oh wait, Cora, Allison, we forgot to tell them,“ Laura said suddenly before she shut her door.

Stiles and Kira had just gotten out of the car and stopped dead in their tracks, looking around at the three other girls, “tell us what?” Stiles asked.

“It’s nothing bad or anything,” Cora said quickly.

“Yeah definitely not bad,” Laura agreed.

Allison sighed and stepped forward and said, “what they wanted to tell you two was that some people suspect the two of you were the people those group of freaks were looking for; after your dad and Mrs. Hale did that big press conference and told everyone what happened, people sort of put two and two together.” Allison shrugged and looked back over at the bon fire, “now it seems like a lot of people wanna see you.”

“So, in other words we shouldn’t have come then,” Kira wondered.

“We’re walking into an angry mob?” Stiles asked, he could feel his heart rate elevating.

“Actually, it’s the opposite of what you’re thinking,” Allison said. “We should have told both of you before you came but I guess we just sort of forgot to bring it up.”

“People aren’t mad at you guys, in fact they feel sorry for you;” Laura said.

“There’s something else,” Cora said and looked at Stiles, “people might think you’re sort of … a hero,” she said cautiously.

“A what?” Stiles asked flabbergasted.

“You heard her, people think you’re a hero,” Laura said.

“And rightfully so, from what I hear,” Allison said, “Danny’s been telling people how you helped get his class out of the school.”

“And he’s also been telling people that you beat up one of the gunman and took his gun to save Derek,” Cora said.

“And speaking of Derek, people are talking about how Derek saved you and … well …” Laura frowned.

“There may or may not be some people that are convinced you and Derek are an item,” Allison said for her.

Stiles frowned, “great …” he sighed.

“Stiles!” came Scott’s voice coming from the direction of the bon fire; Cora, Laura and Allison all turned, and Stiles was able to see him running up to them; “hey you guys made it,” he said greeting each of them.

“We said we would be here,” Laura said.

“Yeah but you managed to get Stiles to come,” Scott said.

“We told you guys we could make it happen,” Cora said.

“Why does it sound like you guys planned this whole thing?” Stiles wondered.

“Well … we sort of did,” Laura said.

“It was more Braeden’s idea than anyone but we had a hand in it,” Allison said.

“I meant me being here,” Stiles deadpanned.

“Oh, that well …” Laura looked over at Allison he scoffed at her.

“Okay so you know how we said we forgot to mention a few things to you before we came here? Well the truth is we didn’t, Scott said that if we told you everything that was going on, you might not wanna come to this and I mean given the fact that we had to convince you to come anyway without knowing everything, we had to assume that he was right so, we held off until you got here. But yeah we did basically go behind your back and plan on you being here …” Allison said.

Stiles thought about that for a moment and shrugged, “oh well,” he said and looked out at the bon fire and all the people that were there, “I’m here now so might as well make the most of it.”

“That’s the spirit,” Laura said cheerily and with that the group made their way over to the bon fire, carrying small chatter amongst each other that was until people started noticing them, Stiles and Kira in particular.

“Everyone’s staring …” Cora said as they came to a stop and looked around at everyone that was there.

A girl had come pushing through the crowd and Stiles recognized her immediately, it was the girl who was being taken by one of the gunman in Danny’s class, the same girl he had saved, “hi,” she said and threw her arms around Stiles.

“Uh … hi,” he said unsure of how to react and patted the girl’s back and she immediately pulled back probably sensing Stiles unease.

“Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to overstep or anything, I’ve just been wanting to thank you for a while.” She said quickly, “my name is Austia by the way,” she said holding her hand out.

Stiles looked down at it and took it in his own and shook it, “Stiles,” he said introducing himself.

The girl smiled bashfully, withdrawing her hand and said, “well Stiles, thank you so much for what you did for me.”

“Thanks for what you did for us too,” Danny said as he pushed through with a small crowd of people behind him, Stiles presumed they were the people that were in Danny’s class. He looked at each of them in awe, the moment was a little overwhelming for him, seeing so many people show their appreciation for him was definitely a foreign feeling.

Kira moved and stood next to him and nudged his shoulder, “hey, are you gonna say something?”

Stiles looked at her and then back at the small crowd of people that stood around Danny, “I don’t know what to say …” he whispered.

“Just say whatever’s on your mind,” Cora said as she came to stand on the other side of him.

Stiles looked at Danny then every single person that was in the class he helped liberate before saying, “I’m happy you all made it out okay …”

Everyone was silent for a moment, Cora was the one to break the silence, “that’s not exactly what I thought you would say but it’s something.”

Stiles sighed, he hated being put on the spot like that; Braeden had come out of nowhere and made her way over to him and gave him a hug, “Stiles, I’m so glad you could make it,” she said and then turned to Kira and gave her a hug as well followed by Cora. After a short exchange of words Braeden had turned to address the people that had gathered at the Bon fire, “everyone, thank you all so much for coming tonight; as you know our small little town was just put to the test and while it did take a while, we’ve finally managed to come together to not only remember and move past the events of that horrible day but also remember and celebrate the lives that were lost that day as well; so tonight put aside your differences and enjoy yourselves;” People all around cheered at that.

Stiles envied the way Braeden spoke with absolute confidence and poise, he hoped one day he would be as confident as she was, “you should go into public speaking or something,” Stiles said a little awestruck.

Braeden turned to him and flashed a cheeky grin, “you aren’t the first person to tell me that but I think I might wanna take up being a lawyer …” she shrugged, “I don’t know I have time to figure it out,” she said and laughed along with Stiles.

From there the night progressed better than Stiles could have ever expected it to, of course there were the onlookers who looked his way with pity in their eyes but that couldn’t be helped; Kira was dealing with the same issue but it wasn’t anything that deterred them from wanting to be there; eventually Stiles somehow managed to get himself into a situation where he was alone with Scott and based off the expectant look on his face, Stiles knew he wanted to say something to him badly, “so … are you okay?” He asked.

Stiles sighed, “I guess,” he answered.

Scott frowned, “are you sure? Cause … well … I’ve been wanting to talk to you since … you know, what happened but I just haven’t been sure how to approach you.”

Stiles huffed, “you just say hi, like you usually do.”

“That’s not what I mean,” Scott tried as he contemplated his next words, “I was worried about you, when everything happened; I tried to find you when we got out and I freaked out when you weren’t anywhere to be found and then I heard that you had helped get a class out and that you left and … and well I don’t know …”

Stiles was a little taken aback at the confession, “you tried to find me?”

“Yeah, I mean … I wanted to make sure you were okay, that’s what friends are for right?” Scott asked innocently.

Stiles couldn’t help the small smirk that crept on his face, “yeah … that’s what friends are for.”

Scott was on him in an instance, embracing him as if he were truly relieved that Stiles was alive and well, “I’m really, really happy nothing happened to you Stiles.”

People make mistakes, it’s human nature, some mistakes can be corrected but some can’t; what Scott had done to Stiles was a mistake that couldn’t be fixed because Scott could not turn back the hands of time. But right now Stiles realized that Scott wasn’t the only one that had made a mistake, he did as well, he mistakenly assumed that his old best friend wouldn’t possibly learn from his old mistakes or even try to earn a semblance of his forgiveness and because of that he kept him at a distance and while Scott tried and tried, Stiles consistently rejected any attempt to really try to rekindle the relationship they once had but after everything that happened, he figured he could give it an actual shot,

Stiles returned the hug and whispered, “I’m happy you’re okay too.”

The two stayed like that for a few moments before finally separating and making their way back to the bon fire together. The rest of the night was spent doing a little mingling here and there with different people Stiles wasn’t too familiar with, Scott stayed close by; eventually Stiles found himself deep in conversation with Cora and Kira while Allison and Scott went off to spend some time together. It was until Stiles found himself looking into the bon fire alone that he became extremely aware of his surroundings, he wasn’t sure how long he had been standing where he was, and he wasn’t sure how long he had been staring into the bon fire but something had caused him to tense up and come back to reality, “hi,” came a light voice from behind him.

Stiles turned, and his eyes widened when he caught sight of Derek, “oh-oh, hey … you’re uh … you’re out of the hospital,” he said, heart racing in his chest.

Derek frowned, “yeah … are you okay?”

Stiles shook his head and heaved sigh, “yeah, yeah I’m fine, sorry I was just,” Stiles waved his hand above his head, “I was kinda spacing so … you know you kinda startled me, that’s all.”

Derek seemed to buy that excuse and nodded, “oh … okay.”

Stiles worried at his bottom lip, “so … what’s up?”

“Oh yeah,” Derek said as if he needed to collect himself, “well I … I just wanted to come over and thank you again, for what you did for me.”

Stiles huffed, “I thought we already went over that, I wouldn’t have had to do that if you hadn’t of saved me, so in all honesty I should be thanking you again and before you try and say anything, think of it like this, if you hadn’t of taken the bullets for me and I wound up getting shot … who says I wouldn’t have died?”

Stiles could have been seeing things, but he could have sworn he saw a look of hurt flash across Derek’s face after he asked the question, “yeah,” Derek said as he brushed off the question and looked away, “anyway … you never said that you took on one of the gunman to get his gun and saved a class in the process.”

Stiles shrugged, “well considering what was happening in the moment, I didn’t think it was important to mention.”

“I guess,” Derek said and glanced over at the fire, “I … I wanted to ask you something, but I wasn’t sure how or when to ask but …”

Stiles wasn’t sure how, but he knew what Derek wanted to ask him, “is this about Parrish and the whole training thing?”

Derek quickly glanced back over to Stiles, “so he told you?”

Stiles nodded, “yeah, he let me know …”

Derek looked like he was struggling trying to figure out what to say next,” I uh … I wasn’t sure if maybe he changed his mind or if something else came up, since I haven’t really heard back from him.”

Stiles sighed, “that’s because of me …” he looked over at the fire and said, “he told me about what he wanted to do but he told me that it was my decision if he followed through with … you know helping you and I haven’t exactly given him an answer yet.”

Derek stepped forward, lowering his voice when he said, “look I know you have no reason to trust me …”

Stiles took a small step back, “you’re right, I don’t,” he interjected.

Derek frowned and looked down at the ground and back up towards Stiles and said, “but I want to help … it’s the least I can do.”

Stiles narrowed his eyes at him, “why?”

“Because,” Derek exclaimed before calming himself down, “because I feel like I owe you that much, I owe it to you to at least do something and try and help because of everything I’ve done to you.”

Stiles looked around, he knew he would need to choose his next words carefully as they were in the middle of the bon fire with way too many ears around that could easily pick up on their conversation, “you really didn’t pick the best place to talk about this,” Stiles thought he whispered to himself.

“Then-then come with me, please,” Derek pleaded, and Stiles was a bit taken aback by that, “we can talk somewhere else but we have to talk about this.”

“You want me to go somewhere,” Stiles pointed at Derek, “with you, alone, to talk?” He asked as if he couldn’t even fathom the idea, “I’m supposed to trust you enough to do that? How do I know that wherever we go you won’t have your friends waiting to jump me or something?”

Now Stiles was sure he could see a pained look on Derek’s face, one would even go as far as to say that Derek looked offended at the notion Stiles made, “you think that after everything that’s happened, I still want to beat you up? You think I still have it out for you?”

“Well what am I supposed to think? We don’t exactly have the best history, remember? You hated me for I don’t know how long over something stupid and you and your friends did everything you could to ensure my life was a living hell for more reasons than one and you only stopped because you finally got caught and then you got in trouble; it wasn’t because you all came to your senses and realized that what you were doing was horrible and-and unjustified and-and inhumane,” Stiles said, struggling to get out the last of his sentence.

“You’re right,” Derek spat, “what we did to you was stupid and unfair to you and you have every right not to trust me, hate me and be angry at me and whatever else you feel but … look, I can’t speak for my friends but I can speak for myself and I understand that I messed up; I realize that I came to that understanding when it was too late but I know what I did was wrong and all I really wanna do is try and make up for that.”

Stiles could hear that Derek’s words were genuine and that he wasn’t lying but he just couldn’t find it in himself to accept that so easily, “if you say so,” Stiles said stubbornly.

“I mean it,” Derek said adamantly.

Stiles huffed and ran a hand over his face, by this point it had dawned on him that he was being a bit petty, justifiably, he quickly collected himself and said, “okay fine … lead the way.”

Derek appeared bemused, “What?”

Stiles gestured around, “lead the way, if we’re gonna talk then we obviously can’t talk here, so let’s go somewhere, unless you changed your mind.”

“No,” Derek said quickly, “no … come on then,” he said and moved past Stiles walking out into the open fields, towards the tree line.

Before they could completely break free of the crowd Stiles watched as a girl with dark hair had flung herself onto Derek. “There you are,” the girl said, and Stiles recognized that the girl was Paige, “I’ve been looking everywhere for you, I was so worried about you; I found everyone else and they said that you were around but acting funny and … Derek, what’s wrong?”

“Sorry, I’m a little busy right now,” Derek said keeping his tone very serious as he glanced back at Stiles.

Paige turned to see what Derek was looking at and a look of surprise came over her, “oh-oh my god hi Stiles … I-I didn’t notice you there, I’m sorry.”

Stiles offered her a small smile, “it’s fine,” he crossed his arms and said, “I’ll leave you two alone …” Stiles said as he began to step around them.

“Wait, wait,” Derek pleaded frantically, and Stiles stopped, “hold on, I’m coming with you,” Derek turned back towards Paige and said, “Paige … I can’t talk right now; I really need to talk to him about something, I’ll find you in a little bit, okay?”

Admittedly Stiles felt bad when he saw the sad expression on Paige’s face but considering how determined Derek seemed to speak with him he knew nothing he said would deter him, “okay,” Paige whispered.

“You sure you wanna leave now?” Stiles questioned allowing his guilt over Paige to get the better of him, “I mean we can always talk another time.”

Paige instantly lit up at the notion but the hope in her eyes was instantly crushed when Derek said, “Yeah right, when?” He asked disbelievingly, “now’s probably the only chance I’ll get, I can’t screw this up, not for anything.”

Stiles sighed, “alright well … you could at least stay and talk for a little bit and then come and find me, whenever you’re done.”

“What? And leave you to go out there by yourself, no,” Derek retorted.

“My dad has cops all over the place, I highly doubt something bad will happen,” Stiles insisted.

“Will you just-“ Derek tried but Stiles cut him off.

“Enjoy your conversation Derek, you can sniff me out when you’re ready to talk,” Stiles said over him and started to walk away. It seemed odd to Stiles that Derek seemed so insistent on speaking with him and convincing him that he was different; what’s more is that Derek was even willing to push time with Page aside to speak with him and that was apparently supposed to be his girlfriend; ‘the guy’s mindset is all out of whack,’ Stiles thought to himself.

He only managed to take a few steps before he heard someone running up behind him and he was only a little surprised to see that it was Derek, “you could have waited for me,” he said scowling.

Stiles shrugged, “Wasn’t sure how long you were gonna be and I told you that you could come find me when you were done talking.”

“We didn’t really have much to talk about other than what happened,” Derek said easily.

Stiles couldn’t help the sour look he gave Derek and he definitely could not help asking, “this is a joke, right?”

Derek’s brows furrowed, “What?”

“Correct me if I’m wrong but she was the reason you thought it was a good idea to put me through hell, right? Now she’s your girlfriend and you disregard her like she’s nothing, so, was all that talk about her being the reason to be-“

“Wait, wait, hold on,” Derek interrupted, “what do you mean, she’s my girlfriend? Me and Paige aren’t dating,” Derek said.

“That still doesn’t change the fact that you’re treating her like she’s nobody,” Stiles retorted.

“She’s not-she’s not nobody,” Derek countered, “but this, this conversation we’re about to have is important and it has to happen now, or it probably won’t happen.”

Stiles huffed and rolled his eyes, “whatever,” he said and gestured ahead of him, “if this conversation is going to happen you’re gonna have to lead us to wherever you’re taking us.”

Derek gave Stiles a stiff nod and turned about and started his venture towards the tree line; as they broke the tree line and made their way into the woods Stiles found himself getting a little nervous, not only because he had no idea where they were going but because it was kind of dark and werewolf sight or not it was still a little hard to see where they were going; Derek must have gotten clued in on Stiles nervousness based off of his scent, “calm down,” he grumbled, “I’m not going to do anything to you …”

“Yeah right,” Stiles mumbled to himself not really caring if Derek heard him or not.

Stiles wasn’t sure how long they moved through the woods, but they eventually came to a stop and Derek turned around and looked upon Stiles and said, “okay, this should be good.”

Stiles looked around, it wasn’t any place special, wherever they were they were near a waterfall which was perfect as the sound of the waterfall would make it hard for prying ears to listen in, “okay … so talk,” Stiles said.

“I want you to consider letting me train with that Parrish guy,” Derek said.

“Already on that,” Stiles deadpanned.

“I’m serious,” Derek spat.

“So am I,” Stiles shot back.

“Well you could’ve fooled me,” Derek grumbled.

“Why do you want to do it?” Stiles asked choosing to forego Derek’s last statement, “just tell me that and I’ll make my decision right here, right now.”

“I told you, I just wanna be able to help,” Derek said.

It didn’t take a rocket scientist to know that Stiles was being stubborn as hell but again it was with good reason, “you’ve said that already, but you never said why; you realize that the only reason Parrish even reached out to you was because he was looking for people to help keep me and Kira safe, and let me reiterate that last part so it’s perfectly clear, he was looking for people to help keep me and Kira safe.”

“No, he told me that it would be best if we both knew how to defend ourselves should something else happen; this isn’t just about keeping you safe, this is about me as well.” Derek said, and Stiles could appreciate the fact that he was telling the truth, “the way you make it sound, it seems like you’re under the impression that I’m signing up to be your personal bodyguard but that’s not it; what if that group takes interest in me, what if they come after me and my family, would you rather there be no one that can help stop them or …”

“No,” Stiles interjected, as much as he hated to admit it, Derek had a very solid point and Stiles thought himself foolish for overlooking that fact, “no … you’re right, you’re right …” he sighed collecting his thoughts; “you should be able to help yourself if something comes up … I’m sorry I didn’t take that into consideration but to your point, I don’t know how much training Parrish is planning on putting us through and I don’t know if we will even be able to do any real damage should something happen.”

“But at least we’ll be able to do something,” Derek said.

Stiles nodded, “right.”

“So … does that mean you’ll consider the idea of me getting some help?” Derek asked.

Stiles scoffed, “it means that I’ll tell Parrish that I’m okay with you training with him.”

Derek offered Stiles a wide grin, “really?”

Stiles deadpanned, “yeah, just don’t think about doing anything funny.”

The grin on Derek’s face quickly disappeared, replaced with a look of seriousness, “I won’t hurt you.”

Stiles sighed, “yeah, for some reason I wanna believe you.”

Derek held his right hand out, “let’s shake on it …”

Stiles glanced at Derek and then at his hand and caught a glimpse of his wrist, his memory might have been vivid, but he remembered what Derek’s mark looked like the day it appeared on his wrist and by the looks of things no matter how dark it was, Stiles could tell it was bigger, “glad I’m not the only one that happened to,” Stiles mentioned offhandedly.

Derek retracted his hand and looked at it, “what?” he wondered.

Stiles lifted up his left wrist and pulled back the sleeve to his hoodie revealing his mark, “it’s been doing a little expanding,” he said showing Derek his mark.

Derek’s eyes widened in horror, “I didn’t know … I didn’t know it would happen to you too, I’m-I … please you have to believe me, if I knew that it would have a bad effect on you too I wouldn’t have kept doing-“

Stiles held up his hands, “whoa hold on, aside from my veins popping out and turning black, making me look like a steroid junkie for a few hours, nothing bad happened to me.”

Derek gasped and rubbed both of his hands through his hair, “shit,” he managed.

Stiles wasn’t sure why Derek seemed so alarmed and he didn’t necessarily care but his curiosity got the better of him, so, he felt compelled to ask, “I’m presuming you know what the deal is then?”

Derek spun around and looked back at him and offered him a stiff nod but didn’t say anything.

Stiles looked to him expectantly waiting for him to say something, “so are you gonna clue me in or would you rather I try and guess what’s going on?”

Silence was the answer Stiles was met with, which Stiles wasn’t surprised about. Sighing to himself he gazed through the woods until his eyes landed back where the bon fire was being held, “I don’t know why I expected you to answer that …” he said lowly, “but on the bright side, I guess that means our chat is over, so I’m gonna head back.”

“It happened because of me,” Derek said suddenly.

Stiles was just about to walk away and stopped when he heard Derek answer, “you don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to.”

“No-no, I’m sorry I just wasn’t sure how to say it,” Derek answered honestly.

Stiles turned back and narrowed his eyes at him, “you just say it; it’s not like you have to spare anyone’s feelings, especially not mine;” he answered coldly, the statement shouldn’t come as a surprise to Derek one way or another.

“Right,” Derek sighed, “well let’s see the first time it happened I was going to mate with Braeden …”

Stiles was actually intrigued by that, “I didn’t realize you two were that serious …”

By the look on Derek’s face, Stiles statement caught him off guard, “well yeah … I mean we were talking but it wasn’t anything serious.”

Stiles cocked his head to the side, “but you just said you were going to mate with Braeden …”

Derek brows furrowed, “yeah it was just supposed to be a hook up …”

Stiles scoffed, “way to send the wrong message.”

“How am I sending the wrong message? I’m just telling you what happened,” Derek said sounding a little offended.

Stiles huffed, “you realize there’s a difference between mating with someone and hooking up with them, right? I mean I’m not saying I’m an expert or anything because the idea of mating and hooking up with someone became an unrealistic idea for me at some point in the last year, but I at least know that when you mate with someone that means you’re choosing to bond with them because you’re in a pretty serious relationship; hooking up on the other hand is hooking up, it doesn’t really mean anything.”

“Are you planning on being alone forever or something?” Derek asked, and it came as a surprise to Stiles that out of everything he said that’s what Derek got stuck on.

 Stiles decided to forgo Derek’s question with a question of his own, “did you get the point I was trying to make or not?”

Derek grunted, “oh yeah … I guess you’re right, sorry,” he sighed, “well anyway me and Braeden were going to …” he then put both hands in the air and made air quotations when he said the words “hook up” before continuing on, “and it didn’t exactly happen … because … because there were complications, which you obviously know about, seeing as how your mark got bigger too.”

“Complications? So, your saying’s your veins started busting out of your arm and your mark grew and that’s why you couldn’t go through with it?” Stiles asked, and Derek’s eyes widened in surprise a little.

“That and puking up this black stuff, along with the pain …” Derek said.

“Huh,” Stiles said getting lost in his own thoughts.

“Did that not happen to you?” Derek asked when Stiles fell silent.

Stiles shrugged, “no, I just got the steroid junky veins, otherwise I was good.”

Derek frowned at that, “oh … well the second time, I uh … I kissed Paige or well actually she kissed me, and I instantly felt that searing pain and I just … I couldn’t do anything about it other than break contact and well … yeah.”

Stiles looked around and contemplated what all that meant, it definitely sounded similar to mate rejection based off the internets definition of it but he and Derek were in no way mated so it shouldn’t be happening, “so you’re saying that you can’t kiss or do anything, with anyone, without something bad happening?”

Derek sighed, a somber expression falling upon his face “I don’t know, it looks like it.”

Stiles frowned and wondered if it would be the same for him, not that it mattered too much, “that sucks … I guess,” silence loomed between them, all that could be heard were the people enjoying themselves at the bon fire off in the distance; Stiles found himself looking at Derek and of course Derek was looking right back at him, the moment seemed heavy for a number of reasons and it was making Stiles uncomfortable, so he broke eye contact and said, “We should get back.”

Derek nodded and said, “yeah … yeah okay,” and just like that they were on their way back towards the bon fire, parting ways with Stiles ensuring that Derek would probably hear from Parrish soon. The rest of the night was met with Stiles being badgered by not only Laura but Cora, Kira and Allison as well, as they unsuccessfully tried to figure out why Stiles left to speak with Derek.

A few days passed and suddenly Stiles found himself back in school, in the classroom where the siege had started, Mr. Harris was teaching a lesson, and everyone was paying attention, seemingly going about their day as if the siege had never occurred. Matter of fact the whole town seemed to have moved on from the whole event in general, from what Stiles could tell, “ugh I really didn’t wanna come back today,” Cora said next to him.

“You and me both,” he whispered back to her.

The two fell silent and continued listening to Mr. Harris’s lesson and then he assigned them to partner up and work on an assignment, Stiles and Cora had no problem finishing the assignment quickly and turning their work in before class ended which left them with some free time to chat, “so are you ever going to tell me what you and my brother went off into the woods to talk about?” Cora asked.

“I already told you it was nothing, he just wanted to know something, and I gave him an answer,” Stiles said.

Cora’s brows furrowed, “And that required the two of you to be alone?”

“Considering the nature of the conversation … yes,” Stiles said easily and looked over at Cora who eventually shared a look of understanding before nodding at him.

“Alright well I guess that settles that then, so, what are we doing this weekend?” She asked leaning forward in her seat.

Stiles shrugged, “I don’t know it depends on whatever I have going on at home, I’ll let you know.”

Cora nodded and said, “okay,” and the two wound up sharing small talk until the bell rang, releasing them from class. Kira had come along from her class to join them as they made their way over to Stiles locker, joining in on the small talk the two were having from their previous class.

“I don’t know if you ask me things seem weirdly normal around here,” Stiles said as he put some books into his locker.

“Normal is good though, at least people don’t seem to be really dwelling on what happened,” Cora said.

“I wouldn’t say they aren’t dwelling on it …” Kira said, “in fact I’d say that they’re choosing to ignore the bad things that happened and instead they’re focusing on the good things that came out of what happened, like you and saving that classroom from one of those guys,” Kira said to Stiles.

Stiles couldn’t help but frown, “I was actually kind of hoping that wouldn’t be such a big deal …” he said honestly.

“Are you serious?” Cora asked surprised, “Stiles you dressed up as one of the gunmen and wound up beating one of the gunmen unconscious and saved a class, people aren’t just going to forget that.”

“Yeah and not only that but people know that you went out of your way to get some of their guns to save Derek and they’re also still talking about how he took two bullets for you,” Kira said. “It might not seem like it now but if you focus on the conversations going on around us you’ll understand what I mean.”

‘Focus on the conversation going on around him,’ Stiles hadn’t really done that since before Derek and his friends got caught doing what they did to him; in fact, he hadn’t really been too conscious of his surroundings because he no longer had a reason to worry anything was going to happen to him, but now that he was made aware people might be talking about him he couldn’t help but get back into his old habits. He looked away from Kira and Cora and let his eyes roam over everyone that was passing by them and/or standing near them, he noticed that some people walking by were nodding at him as they passed and others standing near them waved his way to which he awkwardly waved back, before turning his attention back to Kira and Cora, “okay to be fair I haven’t really been paying that much attention to my surroundings …” Stiles said nervously.

“Hey,” a voice came from behind Stiles and he spun around quickly to find a guy he did not recognize, “I’m not here to cause trouble or anything, I just wanted to come and find you and tell you thank you for what you did, saving that class; you saved my girlfriend when everything went to shit, and I don’t know how to repay you for that.”

Stiles wasn’t sure what to do or say, so he did the first thing that came to mind and shrugged, “it’s no problem really, I uh … I was just doing what anyone else would have done.”

The guy shook his head, “no, anyone else probably would have left when they had the chance but you didn’t, instead you helped out, when you didn’t have to and that-“ the boy had stopped talking when he heard someone calling for him.

“Brandon, what are you doing? I have been looking for you everywhere,” came a familiar voice from down the hall, Stiles turned to see Austia weaving her way past students and heading over to them. Her eyes went big when she noticed Stiles, “oh hi,” she said with a large grin on her face.

“Austia, sorry … I was just thanking him for what he did,” the boy, Brandon, said.

Austia had come over and stood next to Brandon, “I don’t think there’s enough thank you’s in the world that will make up for what he did for me … for us,” Austia had glanced over at both Kira and Cora and said, “Oh sorry, I’m Austia by the way and I’m not sure if he’s introduced himself already but this is my boyfriend Brandon.”

“It’s nice to meet you guys,” Kira said.

“Nice to meet you,” Cora said.

Brandon had stuck his hand out for Stiles, “I know it’s not enough but thanks,” he said.

Stiles looked down at his hand and instantly shook it, “it was really no problem.”

“You’re way too modest man,” he joked and they all laughed at that, he eventually looked down at Austia and said, “we should get going,” and Austia nodded in agreement and the two said their goodbyes to them and left walking down the hall hand in hand.

“Look at our little hero in the making,” Cora said randomly.

“Let’s not get too carried away please,” Stiles said turning back to his locker and putting the rest of his things away.

“Oh, come on Stiles, at least take some credit for what you did and act like you enjoy it,” Kira said, “that guy had a point you know, not everyone would have done what you did.”

“I know that,” Stiles said irritably, “I just … I just don’t want to give people the wrong impression of me, I really only did it because I saw someone who needed help and decided to do something about it and the only reason I did that was because when I was being put through hell here, nobody had ever come to help me when I needed somebody.”

A somber expression fell on both Kira and Cora’s faces, “should have known,” Cora said lightly and then looked elsewhere, “Derek?”

“Should have known what?” Came Derek’s voice from behind Stiles.

Stiles sighed, he knew he was eventually going to have to get used to Derek’s presence, regardless of how much he didn’t want to; he turned around and answered, “nothing,” for Cora and asked, “do you need something?”

Derek pursed his lips before saying, “yeah, I need to talk to you …”

Stiles grabbed his bag off the floor and closed his locker, “about?” He asked, and weirdly enough Derek simply gave him a certain look and Stiles easily deduced what he was getting at, Parrish and training, “oh that … uh …” he turned around to face Kira and Cora, “I’m gonna head to class, I’ll see you guys at lunch.”

“Hold on, what are you guys talking about?” Cora asked.

“Nothing important,” Stiles said raising his eyebrows at her, “I’ll see you at lunch,” and with that he moved past both the girls with Derek following closely behind him.

“My sisters are going to be hell later,” Derek said offhandedly.

“I can imagine,” Stiles said back.

“So, what time am I supposed to show up?” Derek asked.

Stiles sighed and stopped in the middle of the hallway they were walking down, “I think Parrish said we start at 6:30 but could be closer to 7, depending on how his and my dad’s shift goes today.”

“Is it alright if I show up early?” Derek asked and quickly reiterated stating, “I’ll wait outside, of course … I just … I don’t think I wanna be late to this.”

Stiles quirked an eyebrow at that, “you scarred of Parrish?”

Derek shrugged, “him and maybe your dad …”

Stiles smirked, “good, you should be.”

“Thanks for the boost of confidence,” Derek whispered, and Stiles half expected that he wasn’t meant to hear that.

“I think given our situation, I’m not entitled nor obligated to boost your confidence,” Stiles deadpanned and adjusted his bag on his shoulder, “I’ll see you later,” he said without giving Derek a chance to say anything else.

The rest of the school day was rather annoying to a certain extent, people were talking about Stiles and what he had done and there was apparently a video of him going around explaining his reasoning behind why he did what he did. People labeled him a ‘tragic hero,’ as if that wasn’t enough to throw Stiles off there was also talk about him and Derek; people hadn’t really pressed on the matter of them being soulmates even when word got out but now something was different, the fact that Derek risked his life for Stiles and vice versa gave people the idea that maybe something was going on with them which led to more rumors considering people were convinced Derek and Paige were an item; it was all a bunch of mess that Stiles wasn’t really willing to deal with. To add on top of everything, Laura and Cora were becoming increasingly persistent with their questions in regard to what Derek has to talk about with him and Stiles is at the point where he might just tell them what’s going on, but he doesn’t want them to get any ideas in their head that they should be trained as well to risk their lives defending him.

The release from school was everything Stiles wanted and needed at the moment, he booked it out of his final hour and made it to his jeep before either Cora or Laura could make it anywhere in sight and got out of the student parking lot in record time; luckily, he hadn’t given Kira a ride that day, so he didn’t expect her to need a ride home. Obviously, his little stunt led to the two ladies blowing up his phone with messages and phone calls, but he knew the remedy to that was texting them he was busy helping his dad with something and telling them he didn’t have time to stay and chat; it worked out for him, for the most part, thankfully.

His dad and Parrish had gotten home from their shift at 5:30, bringing takeout to eat before they officially started training. Kira and Ben had also come over and Stiles took the opportunity to apologize to Kira for disappearing after school to which Kira completely understood his reasoning behind it and accepted his apology. “What time will that kid be here?” Stiles father asked bitterly from the table as Stiles and Kira sat on the couch watching tv. On que the doorbell rang, and Stiles huffed, “I guess now …” Stiles answered, “I don’t even remember giving him our address,” he said offhandedly.

“His mother is well aware of where we live, and she knows all the details about what will be going on,” Parrish said.

Stiles frowned at that but suddenly a knock came from the front door and nobody made a move to answer it so he got up off the couch and quickly made his way over to the door, he didn’t necessarily expect Mrs. Hale to be present at all and he didn’t want to be rude to her on account of what her son had done to him; he opened the door and was greeted with Mrs. Hale adjusting her purse on her shoulder offering him a wide grin, “Stiles, it’s so nice to see you again,” she said and Stiles moved to shake her hand.

“Yeah it is, how have you been?” He asked.

“Busy, but I can’t complain,” she answered, “is it alright if we come in?”

Stiles glanced around her and noticed Derek standing off to the side minding his own business, he looked back at Mrs. Hale and nodded, “sure uh … my dad and Parrish are finishing up their food.”

Mrs. Hale walked in, “John,” she called out.

“In the kitchen,” Stiles father answered, and she made her way over, Stiles noticed Derek hadn’t made any attempt to walk in with her; he turned back to the open front door and made his way over and poked his head back outside and found Derek standing in the same place.

“Is something wrong?” He asked.

Derek squirmed, and it was no secret he was way out of his comfort zone, “I’d rather wait outside …”

Stiles quirked an eyebrow at that, “because?”

Derek sighed, “I don’t think it’s appropriate of me to be in your house.”

“Well Talia, it’s nice to know your son has some form of common sense,” came Stiles father’s voice from behind him; Stiles turned and saw Mrs. Hale, Ben, Parrish and Kira heading towards the door.

While the comment was a very snide remark, Mrs. Hale didn’t seem offended by it at all, “He is much smarter than his past actions make him out to be,” she responded.

“I hope so,” Stiles father said in return.

Parrish had moved past Stiles and led everyone out into the front yard and turned to address all of them, “alright so, we aren’t doing this here,” he said, Ben moved to join him at his side.

“It would be way too out of the ordinary and we don’t need any of the neighbors seeing what we’re up to,” Ben added.

“We will head to our spot in the preserve that we use to start our moonlight runs and get everything underway there,” Parrish announced and from there went on to explain to Mrs. Hale that she could follow them there. Ben and Kira road together in the SUV they came in, while Stiles, Parrish and his father road in the cruiser, Derek and his mom followed them in their van.

Stiles dad still hadn’t warmed up to the idea of Derek being around and he made it known as they drove to the preserve, Parrish wasn’t helping anything as he made sure to reiterate that should Derek do anything that should threaten Stiles safety he will take care of him; while all that went on Stiles sat in the back and tried clearing his head, trying hard to focus on what exactly they would be doing in these training sessions.

Arriving at the clearing in the preserve was a relief as Stiles found himself sick of the rambling going on in then front seat between his father and Parrish. When the cruiser was parked he bolted out of the car as soon as the doors were unlocked and made his way over to the SUV to meet up with Kira, “you have any idea what we should expect from this?” He asked as she got out of the SUV.

“Um well Ben said something about getting a lot of exercise and not to expect too much at this point because apparently we need to get into shape,” she said.

“Not apparently, you do need to get into shape,” Ben said as he came around the SUV, “can’t really expect to put up a fight if you’re not in decent shape and no offense to the both of you but you’re not really up to par.”

Stiles wasn’t surprised by the remark, he knew he could use a few pounds, but it wasn’t his fault that his metabolism was fast, “What exactly are we going to be doing?” Stiles asked Ben.

“Well we’re going to start with building some muscle, so expect to do a lot of push ups and sit ups,” Ben said casually as he walked away towards Parrish and his dad.

“This is going to be so awesome,” Stiles said sarcastically.

Kira and Stiles followed Ben over to where Parrish and Stiles father were standing, Derek and his mother had also come over form their van. Parrish then went on to explain what they would be doing to get things started and it was just as Ben said they were all going to get whipped into shape and they shouldn’t expect to learn any kind of self defense for the first few weeks, by the sounds of It, it sounded like an intense exercise session that a personal trainer would put their clients through. “Why didn’t you just send us to the gym to work out?” Stiles asked, unintentionally voicing his thoughts.

Parrish gave him a reasonable explanation and told him he would understand once they got things underway and he totally did; Ben and Parrish were ruthless to everyone, even Mrs. Hale who no one except Parrish expected to join in on the session. They asked everyone to do at least 50 pushups excluding Derek and Stiles dad, they were expected to do 100 considering they were in better shape than everyone else. Following the pushups, they went straight into sit ups, the same rules applied, 50 for Stiles, Kira and Mrs. Hale, 100 for Stiles dad and Derek. If one of them seemed like they couldn’t make it, either Ben or Parrish would yell at them to keep going or face doing an extra 20 reps.

Once they finished the initial work out they were expected to do it again, following that they got a 5 to 10-minute break and then they were told to run a mile, Derek and Stiles dad would run a mile and a half. Following the run, they took another break and redid their initial workout, by the end of it all Stiles, Kira and Mrs. Hale were exhausted to say the least; Stiles dad looked like he was ready to keel over while Derek seemed, okay, “Derek do another set,” Parrish said and surprisingly Derek obliged without complaint. “John … I think you’re done for the day,” Parrish said regarding the Sheriff as he struggled to compose himself.

“I think I’m gonna be done for the week, I feel like I just got my ass kicked,” he said as he rolled over, “Oh God, I think I’m gonna puke.”

“Walk it off,” Parrish said kneeling down next to the Sheriff, “this is just the start, we haven’t even begun to really do anything yet, you’ll get used to this eventually.”

“Was that supposed to be motivational? Because it sounded like it was and honestly, I feel more uninspired than anything,” the Sheriff said.

Parrish grunted and stood, “hey, listen up,” he announced, “one thing I need for all of you to understand is, we aren’t doing this just to do it; we’re doing this because peoples lives are at risk, your own lives and either you learn to defend yourself and get stronger or you buck up and take the blows when we’re attacked again. You might not like me or Ben much after all this is said and done but remember we are doing this for your benefit and ours.”

Stiles really didn’t pay too much mind to what Parrish was saying, he felt like he was seconds away from having a heart attack, his body felt severely over exerted and the feeling was definitely not something he was used to. “How does he expect us to focus on anything he’s saying when I’m pretty sure we’re all seconds away from dying?” Stiles asked Kira.

“I think I need an inhaler … and a bath,” Kira said with her head down on the ground.

“I’m not cooking or cleaning at all for the entire week, I’ll be lucky if I make it in to work tomorrow,” Mrs. Hale said next to them and glanced over at her son, “I’m not sure how he’s still managing to do anything,” she said offhandedly which caused Stiles to glance in Derek’s direction; Stiles had to hand it to Derek he seemed to be taking this “exercise” very seriously.

“He’s like a machine …” Stiles muttered.

“Are you sure he’s your son? I can see the resemblance between you two but are you sure he’s yours and not an alien from another planet?” Kira asked Mrs. Hale.

“You mean like superman,” Stiles wondered.

“Or maybe he’s like a terminator from the future disguised as your son,” Kira mentioned.

Mrs. Hale stifled a laugh, “I’m pretty sure he’s my son and I shouldn’t be surprised that he’s able to perform these exercises, he has always been extremely active.”

Stiles sighed and laid back onto the ground, if he were to shut his eyes now, he probably would pass out instantly, lucky for him, Parrish had come over and offered to help him up, “hey, you alright?” He asked.

Stiles gave him a pointed look, “If you mean by alright, feeling like I’m on the verge of death, then yes I’m alright,” Stiles said taking his hand and allowing Parrish to help him up.

“You’ll get used to it, don’t worry,” he said patting Stiles on the shoulder; he looked back over to Derek and said, “we’ll be done as soon as he finishes up his reps.”

Stiles nodded and walked over to Kira, “need some help?”

Kira looked up at him and said, “sure,” offering Stiles her hand and allowing him to not so successfully help her up. The two then went over to Mrs. Hale and helped her off the ground, afterward Mrs. Hale looked on at her son as he finished his reps while Stiles and Kira opted to wait by the vehicles.

“You really think we’re up for this?” Kira asked leaning against the cruiser.

Stiles sighed, and looked over at where everyone else was gathered watching Derek finish up, “honestly we don’t have a choice but to do this,” he said.

Kira frowned at that, “true …” she then jumped up and said, “let’s make a pact.”

Stiles narrowed his eyes at that, “okay?”

“I’m serious,” Kira said moving closer to Stiles, “let’s become strong enough to take down the group.”

Stiles huffed, “you actually think we can do that?”

Kira shrugged, “we’ll never know unless we try and we’ll never be ale to try if we don’t stick to training.”

Stiles grunted, “fine.”

Kira offered him her hand, “shake on it.” Stiles reluctantly took her hand, “we’re gonna be so badass,” she said.

“Yeah in like 30 years,” Stiles muttered.

“Oh, don’t be so negative,” Kira swatted him.

Derek eventually finished up the remainder of his reps and Parrish and Ben called for everyone to gather round, “Alright I know this might have been tough for the lot of you but remember this is only the beginning,” he started, “eventually we’ll be doing a lot more and this will all seem like a walk in the park; when the time is right we will move into defense training but until then, we’re mainly focused on exercise.”

“I’ll be lucky if I make it to the defense training,” Stiles dad said grimacing.

Lucky, he would be, after that night the group wound up falling into a set schedule for their trainings, every two days they would meet up and go about their routine; everyone would do what they had done the first night they started training, Stiles, Kira and Mrs. Hale doing what seemed like the bare minimum, while Stiles dad did a little extra and Derek went the extra mile. Of course, these little outings would draw suspicions from the other Hale’s but Derek’s mom had come up with a reasonable excuse as to why they would be stepping out of the house so frequently, Mr. Hale joined when his schedule would allow him to. After about two weeks the original exercises were becoming easier and Parrish and Ben decided to amp things up a little and push everyone harder by adding more reps and forcing them to run longer than they did before.

If Stiles were being honest, it wasn’t so bad, Derek being there wasn’t bad either as he didn’t interact with him at all during their sessions, but he had to admit that he found it admirable the way Derek put in extra work when it came to training, his determination was on another level. But Stiles hadn’t realized just how determined Derek was until he ran into him at school a little over a month after they began training, he was searching through his locker for his notebook with all of his French homework in it, “what the hell did I do with it,” he asked himself.

“Hey,” came a light voice from behind him and Stiles spun around to find Derek and he appeared to still be dressed in his gym clothes, “you uh … you left this out on the field last night …” Derek said holding out the notebook that Stiles was looking for.

Of course, he would go and do something stupid like that, he pulled it out when everyone was waiting for Derek to finish up and laughing at his father for trying to keep pace with Derek and failing miserably; “oh … thanks,” Stiles said grabbing the notebook from Derek. Stiles regarded him once more and couldn’t help but ask, “how-how do you manage to do PE or whatever after everything Parrish puts us through?”

Derek’s eyebrows lifted in surprise, “uh well, I don’t know … it was pretty rough the first week, I don’t think I’ve ever been so exhausted from working out in my life, but I eventually got used to it.”

Stiles huffed, “a week,” he said more so surprised than anything; he glanced down at the notebook in his hand and couldn’t help but notice Derek’s gym clothes again, “did you … did you like run from class or something to give this to me?”

“Yeah uh … I thought you might need it,” Derek said anxiously, “I would have given it to my sister but then she would have asked why I have your notebook and that would have been hell to explain.”

Stiles nodded, “yeah … I guess that’s true,” he said, luckily Cora wasn’t around at the moment.

“I uh, I sort of have to get back and change into my football uniform, if coach catches me not wearing it, I’m gonna get into trouble,” Derek said as he backed away.

“Football?” Stiles wondered out loud, he completely let it slip his mind that Derek was on the football team, ”Hold on don’t you have to do workouts for that too?”

Derek shrugged, “it’s not so bad.”

Stiles gawked, he realized that while they were all being put through Parrish’s rigorous training, Derek was doing that and two other things and was somehow still managing as if he wasn’t much to him. “It just seems like a lot,” he said.

Derek shrugged, “it might be but …” Derek’s expression went very serious before he said, “it’s worth it.”

Stiles couldn’t look Derek in the eyes for too long after that, he glanced away and nodded, “yeah, I guess,” he said. He glanced back down at the notebook in his hand and looked at Derek again and said, “I guess we should go then; um thanks for bringing this to me.”

Derek offered him a smirk and said, “yeah, no problem,” before he backed away and made his way down the hall.

That was the first encounter with Derek that Stiles would say was relatively normal and not full of any sort of animosity since everything between them transpired. The next happened the following Monday, the football team had won their game Friday night and they were a shoe in for the playoffs; Derek had managed to lead the team to victory, despite everything he was going through. Obviously, the team’s success had everyone at school high in the school spirit, Laura and Braeden loved to indulge in it of course and at lunch Laura began boasting about her brother and Stiles couldn’t help but wonder how he was holding up; he would be lying if he said that he hadn’t been a little bothered with all the work Derek was putting in and he said as much when he happened to run into Derek by chance in the middle of their 3^rd hour.

Stiles was walking back to class from the restroom when he happened upon Derek coming down the main corridor; it started out as one of those extremely awkward encounters where you see someone you know but you aren’t particularly friendly and you’re unsure of what to do or even say. At first it seemed like they were just going to pass each other up while offering each other a stiff head nod as a sign of acknowledgement but Derek was the one to speak up and said “hey,” and Stiles found it hard not to say ‘hey’ back.

What Stiles wasn’t expecting to do was ask Derek, “how are you?”

Derek obviously was surprised by the question given the way he was looking at Stiles, he hesitated for a moment before he said, “I’m good I guess …”

Stiles couldn’t help but ask, “you sure?” As he could see that Derek seemed a little tired to say the least.

Derek shrugged, “maybe I could use a little more sleep but … but I’m good, I guess,” he cleared his throat and looked around as if he wasn’t sure what to do with himself before he eventually asked, “what about you? Are you okay?”

Stiles was surprised by the question, “uh well … yeah I guess, I mean I can’t complain considering I’m not even doing half of what you’re doing,” he said. Derek nodded and didn’t seem to know what to say after that, so Stiles took it upon himself to end their little ‘conversation,’ “I should get back to class,” he said quickly.

“Yeah, I uh … I have to go to the office, for some things for my bathroom, my class, my um … you-you know,” Derek said stumbling over his words.

Stiles huffed, “yeah I guess,” he tried but clearly didn’t understand what Derek was trying to say and he wasn’t really trying to stick around and find out, “alright well, see ya,” he said and started to make his way back to class; he didn’t let Derek’s, “later,” go unnoticed.

The next time they happened upon each other was 2 or 3 days later at the local diner when Stiles was coming in to pick up his to go order, he had noticed Derek in one of the booths and as much as he wanted to just ignore him and get his food and leave he couldn’t mainly because of the way Derek was sitting and the way his head was sagging over to the side, if Stiles didn’t know any better he would presume he was sleeping and he just so happened to be right about that; when he got to Derek and saw his face, his eyes were closed and he was lightly snoring.

One of the ladies that worked behind the counter had called out to identify that his order was ready, “I have an order ready for Hale,” she said but Derek didn’t seem to hear her, and she called once more, “order ready for Hale!” She said a little louder but still no response from Derek.

Stiles looked down at him and frowned, seeing Derek now made Stiles feel a little sorry for him; he was obviously working himself too hard and wasn’t getting enough sleep in the process which would explain why Derek was in such a deep sleep now. The woman behind the counter called over to Stiles saying, “excuse me,” to get Stiles attention, when he turned to and acknowledged her she then asked, “would you mind waking him up and letting him know that his order is ready?”

Stiles could have easily said no and told her to let him wake up on his own and find out his food is ready for him; but that would be rude, and he was better than that. So instead he said, “sure,” and looked back down at Derek; Of course, Stiles wasn’t sure how he was supposed to wake Derek up and if he were being entirely honest the whole situation made him feel uneasy simply because he wasn’t sure how Derek would react to someone randomly waking him up. But Stiles couldn’t dwell on his fears for long otherwise the woman behind the counter would probably become impatient with him; so, without thinking he reached forward and shook Derek’s shoulder and said, “hey … hey Derek,” Stiles tried but to no avail, so he tried again, shaking Derek a little harder, “Derek, Derek wake up your order is-“

“STILES!” Derek shouted snatching Stiles hand with his claws extended, heaving.

At first glance Stiles could see that Derek had shifted into his Beta form and admittedly he was terrified; Derek had a firm grip on his hand and one would figure that if he held onto Stiles any tighter he would probably wind up seriously hurting him. Derek blinked a few times as if he realized he wasn’t where he thought he was and that told Stiles he was just having a bad dream but if that was the case why would Derek scream his name? A few seconds had passed, and Derek slowly shifted back to his human form and eventually said, “sorry, I’m really sorry,” as his claws began retracting. His eyes eventually found Stiles and his expression went from neutral to shocked instantly, his rough hold turned soft immediately, “what-what’s going on? What are you doing here?”

Stiles heart was hammering in his chest, he would have said something if he weren’t frozen due to stone cold fear; after a moment he managed to calm down a little and noticed Derek still had a hold on his hand, he quickly withdrew his own hand from Derek’s grasp and pointed back at the counter and said, “your … your order it’s ready.”

Derek looked bewildered by that and looked around Stiles at the counter and slowly realization dawned on his face and he quickly slid out of the booth and walked over to the counter, apologizing to the woman behind it as he paid for the food and gathered the many bags the woman had waiting for him. Stiles was still trying to collect himself as he struggled to get a handle on breathing properly, one would think he was hyperventilating; a few bags being placed on the table he was standing by caught his attention and he realized quickly that Derek had come back over. One glance at Derek’s face and Stiles could see that he felt guilty for what happened, “I’m fine,” Stiles tried.

“No, you’re not,” Derek frowned.

Stiles wasn’t sure what to say to that, so he did the only thing he could do in that situation and that was calm himself down; he started by taking a few deep breaths, leveled out his breathing and told himself everything would be fine and before he knew it he was okay. He looked back at Derek and said, “I’m fine now.”

Derek looked over him as if he were sizing Stiles up and asked, “you sure?”

“Yeah,” Stiles answered quickly, “I just-I just get like that sometimes whenever I’m scared, my mind just takes me back to when I was dealing with everything on my own and it’s like it’s all happening again and I just freeze up and-“ Stiles stopped when he realized he was rambling and that was when he noticed Derek’s expression had gone from guilty to pitiful.

“Order for Stilinski is ready,” the woman behind the counter said.

Stiles being Stiles jumped on the opportunity to escape the current conversation he was having saying, “I uh I gotta get that,” as he ran over to the counter and pulled out his dad’s credit card and paid for his food. The woman placed his bags on the counter and Stiles collected them and then his fathers credit card, telling her ‘thank you’ before turning back to face Derek. “I gotta get this back home,” he said quickly trying to walk out of the diner.

“Wait,” Derek called as he ran after Stiles, “hold on a moment,” he tried again, “Stiles!”

Stiles stopped just as he got to the door, “what?”

“I’m sorry,” Derek said earnestly.

“I-I know,” Stiles stammered, “it wasn’t you fault, you just got startled and-“

“No,” Derek interjected, “I’m sorry for everything,” he reiterated, “every wrong thing that I’ve done to you, I’m sorry.”

“I …” Stiles stopped when he realized he couldn’t think of what to say, so he went with, “you told me that in the hospital.”

“Yeah, I did, and I meant it then just as much as I mean it now,” Derek said.

Stiles gawked for a moment and looked around the diner and back at Derek, “I-I don’t know what you want me to say to that, I-I mean I know what someone would usually say in this situation but … but …” he stopped when he realized that the conversation as getting to him.

“But it doesn’t matter,” Derek said, “you don’t have to say anything, you just have to know that I’m sorry and I’m not telling you that because someone told me to, I’m telling you because I really am sorry; I hurt you so many times and not once did I ever feel bad about what I was doing, I acted like you deserved everything me and my friends did to you but … but in actuality you didn’t,” Stiles was surprised when he saw a few stray tears fall from Derek’s eyes, “I was stupid, I still am, it eats me up every time I see you because all I see is how much I took part in hurting you and I uh … I sort of hate myself for that,” he said as a few more tears fell from his eyes.  

Stiles wished he could be anywhere but where he was, he never expected to have this conversation least of all with Derek, “why are you telling me this now?” He asked, and he hated the way his voice waivered because it revealed just how effected he was by what Derek was saying.

“Because of what happened just now, because every time you see me you always smell like you’re afraid and I know what you’re afraid of … you’re afraid of me hurting you, but you have to know I won’t hurt you, not anymore,” Derek said and the amount of conviction behind his words made it hard not to believe him.

“You don’t know that,” Stiles said allowing a bit of his bitterness to speak for him.

“I do know that,” Derek said quickly with earnest eyes, “I-I’ve had time to think and realize what I did and see how my actions can affect people. I’ve had time to actually see you for who you are rather than what I thought you were and I’ve been trying to figure out a way to tell you this for a little bit but I’ve been a coward and I know that you hate me so I figured that I try and respect you and your boundaries rather than force myself and what I wanted to say on you but … but you’re here and I know you have to leave but if you’ll listen I-I wanna tell you my perspective, I wanna tell you that I initially didn’t hate you, I was just curious about you and a little jealous of you because at the time the person I liked seemed more into you than me, then words were said and I used those words as an excuse to justify my hating you and the reasoning behind me hurting you but you didn’t deserve that because I realized too late that you’re a good person and regardless of me finding out you were a good person, you still wouldn’t have deserved what happened to you. I am really, really sorry and I can’t say that enough to make up for what I did but I am, and I promise I won’t hurt you ever again.”

Stiles gnawed at his bottom lip, “you can’t promise that you won’t hurt me again because you could probably hurt me without even realizing it and-“

“Then I promise I won’t intentionally hurt you,” Derek said quickly.

Stiles wanted to ask why Derek was telling him all of this now, but he had already gotten his answer and some, now Stiles was left with the choice to believe that Derek was truly sorry and that he wouldn’t try and hurt him again and that choice was a difficult choice to make, “we’ll see,” Stiles said.

“What does that mean?” Derek pleaded.

Stiles sighed, “it means we’ll see,” he answered and lifted his bags of food, “I have to get home before this gets cold … and I’m pretty sure you do too so, I’ll see you around or something,” Stiles said and exited the diner without another word and drove home contemplating everything that had just transpired. Of course, the situation now weighed heavily on his head and affected his mood the following day, which of course, worried his friends, especially Scott now that they were really trying to mend their friendship.

Friday eventually rolled around, and Stiles still had the thought of everything Derek told him on his mind, Cora was sat next to him rambling about something that he wasn’t particularly following until she asked, “hey, did you hear anything I just said?”

The question thankfully snapped him out of his thoughts, “uh honestly? Not really,” he said.

Cora sighed, “what’s going on with you? Yesterday you were being all weird and distant and now you’re still being weird but spacey and I know you don’t like when we worry about you but I’m feeling like I should be worried … and I am worried.”

Stiles frowned at that, the last thing he wanted to do was make people worry over him, “it’s not anything bad, I just … I’ve been thinking a lot and I don’t know, I guess I just got lost in my own head.”

Cora pursed her lips, “I’m gonna say it feels like there’s something you’re leaving out but I’m not gonna pressure you to tell me. But since I do have your attention now, I was saying that my sister wants me to go to the football game tonight with her and Allison, but I don’t really know if I wanna go because it gets kinda boring after a while and I’d rather do something else, so if you want we can maybe hang out and do something if you’re up for it?”

“Why does she want you to go to the football game with her?” Stiles wondered.

“Well she wants me to be there because it’s the last game of the regular season before the playoffs and I guess we’re going against our rival school again and she said that she wants me to be there to support my brother, but I think she just wants me to be all up in the school spirit when I’d rather be all up in a good movie and being lazy,” Cora said.

Stiles huffed, “that does sound like a good idea …”

“We should totally do it and we can have Kira over too and whoever else wants to join … if not that we should do something else, I feel like we haven’t hung out in forever,” she said.

“Didn’t we just hang out last weekend?” Stiles wondered.

“Like I said I feel like we haven’t hung out in forever,” Cora restated.

 He should have known she was just exaggerating, he sighed and contemplated the idea of having a movie night and while he was all for it something in him told him that he should encourage her to go to the football game, “you should go to the game.”

“You don’t wanna hang out?” She asked a bit surprised.

“We can hang out … at the game,” he said

Shock settled on Cora’s face, “wait, you wanna go to the game tonight?”

Stiles shrugged, “yeah sure, it’s something different and I can go see what all the hype is about.”

“Stiles, you actually wanna go to the football game tonight?” she asked again as if she couldn’t believe her ears.

“Ye-yeah why not? It could be fun … I guess,” he said.

“Who are you and what have you done with Stiles?” Cora asked.

“Haha very funny,” Stiles deadpanned, “I’m serious we should go, I’ve never been to one and I think I should at least go and experience it once especially now that I have some friends.”

Cora stared at him for a moment before she shrugged and said, “okay, I’ll tell my sister after class then, oh and it’s an away game so … either you’re gonna have to find your way there or you can catch a ride with us.”

“I think I’ll catch a ride with you guys if that’s okay,” Stiles suggested.

“Obviously it’s okay,” she said as if Stiles should have known better, “my sister’s gonna freak about this,” she added, and she was right; the moment they told Laura that Stiles wanted to go to the game she jumped for joy and immediately told him the plan and what time she would be at his house to pick him up; Kira even got invited just to get invited so she wasn’t left out.

Stiles didn’t really think of how his dad would react when he told him that he wanted to go to the football game later that day, “you wanna go to the football game?” he asked bewildered.

“Ye-yeah, I wanna go see what it’s like, I never had the opportunity before but now I do and I wanna go,” he said only for his father to narrow his eyes at him.

“Doesn’t Derek play for the football team?” his father asked crossing his arms.

“Yeah,” he answered honestly.

“He’s the QB,” Parrish added from the other room.

“Uh huh, you sure you’re not going to see him?” His father asked.

“That would imply that I like him,” Stiles affronted.

His dad seemed to have bought that answer and nodded his head, “alright fine, you can go, just remember check ins; and one more thing, how are you getting there? You realize that tonight’s game is an away game, right?”

Now Stiles was the one looking at his father skeptically, “I wasn’t aware that you followed our school’s football team …”

His father snorted as if he were trying to play off whatever Stiles was getting at, “Stiles please, I’m the sheriff I have to know their schedule in case I need to place a deputy or two at the game.”

“Actually, that’s the secretaries job,” Parrish said, “everyone in the office follows the team,” Parrish admitted, “they’re good and they have a real push to win it all this year.”

Stiles father grunted, “thanks for sharing Jordan, now please butt out.”

Stiles smirked at his father mischievously, “you realize Derek is the one leading the team and all the star players had a hand in what happened to me, right?”

“I can root for the team and root for a few injuries at the same time,” his father said bitterly, “now how are you getting to the game?”

“Laura is picking me up,” Stiles answered.

“Alright well you make sure you stay out of trouble,” his father said pointedly.

“I never get into trouble,” Stiles responded.

“Sure kid,” his dad said waving him off.

Stiles huffed and left his father to go rant at Parrish about his big mouth; later that day Laura and Cora were at his doorstep at the time they said they’d be; Laura boasted about how excited she was that Stiles considered coming along with them, but she and Cora made sure to ask Stiles if he was really comfortable with going, to which he told them it was fine and soon after they left, picking up Kira and Allison on their way to the game.

“I can’t believe you’re actually going with us,” Allison said as she got in the car with them.

“Tell us about it, none of us can believe this is happening either,” Cora said.

“I think its good this is happening, it’s a new experience for Stiles and hopefully it’s a good one,” Kira said.

“Hey, wait, it’s a new experience for you too Kira, this is the first football game you’re going too for our school, right?” Laura asked.

Kira nodded next to Stiles, “yeah … I would have gone sooner, I just … I guess I was a little nervous.”

Allison huffed, “a little nervous and you totally use Stiles as a crutch, not in a bad way of course,” she said hastily, “you guys seem like each other’s support factors for obvious reasons and it’s a good thing that you’re coming with us because tonight we are gonna support you two through this and hopefully show you a good time.”

“I believe you,” Kira said lightly with a smile on her face.

“Trust us, it’s gonna be fun, even if you don’t like sports you somehow manage to get really into the game and before you know it you’re having a good time,” Laura said and looked at Cora, “right Cora?”

Cora grunted, “I only like this because I have someone I can root for … and maybe it’s a little entertaining,” she admitted lightly.

They all laughed at that, “oh by the way Braeden said that she’s really happy you guys are coming, and we have to meet her after the game and cheer hard for her at halftime when she performs with the cheer team.”

“Oh yeah, she’s gonna be out there performing,” Stiles said offhandedly, “isn’t there gonna be a lot of people? How does she not get nervous?”

“She’s very confident about herself and she’s good at what she does, you’ll see,” Laura said.

Stiles didn’t doubt that for one second, the group had pulled into the Casanova parking lot and Stiles gawked as he looked out the window and saw all the people gathered for the game, “this many people come to these things?” He asked in astonishment.

“Well yeah … it’s kind of a big deal especially for us since our football team is really good this year and we can actually play a good game against Casanova,” Laura said as she put the car in park.

“You’ll see people who don’t even have kids in high school come to these games, it’s kind of important, even I can see that,” Cora said.

“Is it like this for the lacrosse games too?” Stiles wondered.

“Pretty much, there’s probably not as many people but it still gets a pretty big turnout either way,” Allison said.

“Wow, you guys take your school sporting events really seriously here,” Kira mentioned.

“Was it not like this at your school in Japan?” Laura asked.

Kira shook her head, “no not at all, the one time I went to a game, there weren’t that many people there, but I think that was probably because my school was notorious for having terrible sports teams.”

“Well prepare to be surprised,” Laura said and got out of the car along with Cora and Allison.

“You ready for this?” Kira asked Stiles before they got out.

“I mean I guess,” he said shrugging and followed Allison out of the car and Kira opened her door and got out as well.

The group then made their way over to the entrance and paid the fee to get in, luckily Stiles had some money on him because he totally forgot to ask if he would have to pay to get in or not and his dad didn’t spot him any money. The group then made their way towards the bleachers and Stiles was surprised that it seemed even more crowded than it did when he initially saw the place. “There’s people everywhere,” he said in amazement.

“Yep, come on our parents saved us some seats in the bleachers,” Laura said as she clung to Stiles.

“Mom and dad are here?” Cora asked as she followed them to the bleachers.

“Yeah, they sort of decided to come at the last minute, mom texted me when we got here,” Laura said.

Stiles continued looking around as Laura led him over to the bleachers, he caught sight of the field and then he saw the cheer team warming up and Braeden had noticed him and waved frantically and ran over towards them, “hey, oh my God you’re actually here,” she said excitedly, as she tried giving Stiles a hug even though there was a small fence dividing them. She then turned towards Kira and gave her a hug and told her hello. “How did you guys manage to get them here?” Braeden asked.

“Stiles was the one that wanted to come, and Kira came by default,” Laura said.

“Good stuff,” Braeden said with a grin, “I know that this is your guys first game and I hope that you have a good time and please cheer loud for me when me and the squad go out to perform.”

“Yeah definitely,” Stiles said.

“You won’t have to worry about that,” Laura assured her.

Braeden then waved at all of them and made her way back over to the cheer team and Laura continued to lead Stiles towards the bleachers. Laura had been looking out towards the field as if she were trying to find something and then she suddenly yelled, “knock em dead Derek!!”

“Go get em Scott!!” Allison added.

Stiles then noticed the football teams on the field, one team had Black with red stripes on, the other wore white with purple stripes, two of the guys that had on black had turned and Stiles assumed that was Derek and Scott, Derek had caught sight of Laura who waved at him and he waved back but he eventually stopped and continued staring and eventually wound up taking off his helmet and Stiles didn’t need binoculars to see that Derek’s eyes were glued on him. Laura chuckled mischievously, “I don’t think he was expecting this at all,” she said.

“Scott looks like he’s looking at a ghost or something,” Allison chuckled.

Stiles eventually looked at Scott who did in fact look like he was staring at a ghost and turned his head and looked straight, “why did you guys have to do that,” Stiles wined.

“Because we knew it would get a reaction out of them,” Allison said.

“And it was a lot better than I thought it was going to be,” Laura added.

“Derek’s probably going to freak out on you later,” Cora said.

“Why? It’s just Stiles, they don’t even talk,” Laura said.

“Whatever you say Laura,” Cora said dismissively. 

They then heard a woman calling Laura’s name,” Laura, we’re up here!”

Stiles looked up and instantly found Mrs. Hale along with Mr. Hale waving at them, the group then made their way up the bleachers and moved to sit next to them, “Stiles, you’re here!” Mrs. Hale said excitedly.

“Yeah, I figured I see what these things are like,” Stiles offered as he gave her a hug and offered Mr. Hale a hand shake.

“Oh, is this your first game you’re attending?” Mrs. Hale wondered.

“Yeah … I sort of never really got the chance to before and I was kinda nervous about coming up until now,” Stiles said, and he noticed the way Mrs. Hale’s smile faltered a little.

“It’s going to be a wild ride kid,” Mr. Hale said, “this is Casanova we don’t like them, at all.”

“Right, rival school, they’re the enemy,” Stiles said.

“Exactly,” Laura and Mrs. Hale said simultaneously.

The bleachers were filled up but the row ahead of where Stiles and the group were seated was partially empty and then Stiles heard someone call his name, ”Stiles?”

Stiles looked and smiled instantly when he saw Ms. McCall, “Oh hey Melissa,” he said happily.

She came up to the row in front of him with snacks in hand and gave him a hug, “what are you doing here? I didn’t think you came to these,” she said surprised.

“I figured I would see what these are like, so I came,” he told her, and she smiled at that.

“Well I’m happy you’re here and I know Scott will be surprised to see you,” she said, she then turned and said hi to everyone else and gave Allison a hug. Ms. McCall took her seat in front of them and Stiles wondered who the other empty seats were for and then he got his answer when Lydia, Erica and Paige came into view and made their way up the steps of the bleachers towards the empty row.

Allison got up and greeted the three girls, Cora looked over at Stiles and openly asked, “this is okay right?”

Stiles nodded, “it’s fine, it’s just a football game,” he said trying to sound as normal as possible.

Mr. Hale had leaned over and said, “it’s gonna be okay kid, just smile big and look like you’re enjoying yourself and eventually you’ll wind up doing just that,” he joked.

Laura swatted her father away, “dad,” she said annoyed, “just ignore him,” she said to Stiles.

Lydia had come up and said hello to Stiles and everyone as did Erica, Paige said hello and offered a bit of small talk with Stiles, asking him how he was and what he had going on, it was a simple, innocent conversation. Eventually the game started, Braeden and the cheer team did their little performance to which Stiles and everyone around him cheered loudly for them and once it was time for kick off they were all up on their feet cheering for the team. The whole experience was pretty worthwhile, Stiles had to admit that the atmosphere and everything about what was going on around him was nice. Cora eventually coaxed him to get up and grab some snacks with her and Kira tagged along, Allison and Laura chose to stay behind and chat with Erica, Lydia and Paige.

“So, what do you guys think?” Cora asked as they got in line for the concessions stand.

“Well it’s a lot better than I thought it was going to be, that’s for sure,” Stiles said.

“Yeah, I’m actually having a really good time,” Kira said.

Cora smiled, “good, I’m glad,” she said and suddenly the crowd erupted in applause and they all turned to see that Beacon Hills had gotten a touchdown and took the lead, “crap of course we miss the good part.”

“I wonder who scored the touchdown,” Kira said.

“Who knows, I guess we’ll find out when we get back up there,” Cora said.

They finally made it to the front of the line and ordered their desired snacks and took their food back to where they were sitting, Erica, Lydia and Paige were giggling up a storm, while Allison and Laura seemed a little off, “what’s going on?” Cora asked as she sat down.

“I don’t know …” Laura said.

“Derek scored the touchdown and he looked up here,” Allison said.

“Okay, so?” Cora wondered.

“Yeah, what’s the big deal?” Kira asked.

Stiles wasn’t really interested in finding out he was more interested in demolishing the nachos he got, he sat down and started going to town on them, “these are really good,” he said with a mouthful, Cora and Kira snickered at him. Then he happened to overhear a conversation going on between two girls he wasn’t familiar with and Paige.

“You’re the one that managed to tame Derek Hale, aren’t you?” One of the girl’s asked.

“Must be so great being with a guy like that,” the other girl said, “did you see him looking up here, I bet he’s a romantic.”

Paige tittered, “we’re just talking at the moment.”

“Just talking? You can’t be serious, you gotta get that before someone else does,” the first girl said.

Paige huffed, “I think we might be working to get to that point, we’re just taking things slow.”

Stiles noticed Allison and Laura were looking at one another, “what’s up?” Stiles asked them but neither one of them spoke up, so he shrugged it off and continued eating his nachos. Next thing he knew everyone had jumped up and started yelling again and he almost flung his nachos everywhere in the process, “what happened?!” he wondered out loud.

“Boyd got an interception!” Laura told him over the yelling.

He nodded, “ah cool,” Stiles said.

Erica and Lydia were understandably going crazy and Lydia said, “let’s go down by the fence, Paige you coming?”

“Might as well,” she said, and the three girls made their way down the bleachers and moved towards the fence.

“Why stand by the fence?” Stiles asked, “don’t they have a better view from up here?”

“They only went down there to try and get the guys attention,” Laura said a little annoyed.

Stiles nodded and went back to eating his nachos, he noticed that Derek and the offense were now on the field; by their positions he could tell they were going to run a screen play and moments later they did, and Derek tossed the ball and from what Stiles could see Scott was the one to catch it and ran it in for a touchdown. Allison and Ms. McCall were going wild for obvious reasons, as were Laura, Cora and their parents, Stiles attempted to give high fives to Laura and Cora to the best of his ability, but he was more concerned with keeping his nachos in hand. He glanced back down at the field and noticed that Derek was running back to the side line and he took his helmet off and looked in his general direction, “oh look he’s looking up here again,” Laura commented.

Stiles glanced over at her, “doesn’t he usually do that?”

Cora huffed, “usually he pretends like no one outside of the field exist until after the game.”

Stiles shrugged and grabbed another one of his nachos, “must be something bothering him or-“ Stiles stopped mid-sentence when he noticed that Derek wasn’t just looking at anything but he was looking at him. It was clear to anyone sitting around them that Stiles was where all of his attention was going.

“I could be seeing things, but I think he’s looking at you Stiles,” Kira said.

Stiles glanced over to her and then back to the field, “I-I’m gonna go with maybe you’re seeing things.” The situation turned awkward quickly because now Stiles was extremely self-conscious, and he wasn’t sure how to deal with it.

 “It’s about to be halftime, I wanna go down and see Scott before he goes into the locker room,” Allison mentioned.

“Yeah … we should all go down,” Laura said looking to Stiles for approval.

“I-I don’t know, maybe you guys can go, and I’ll stay here,” he said worriedly.

“You should go,” Ms. McCall said in front of them, “I’m sure Scott will be happy to see you down there.”

Stiles sighed and nodded, “okay,” he said and a few moments later the ref blew his whistle signaling that it was halftime and the group had gone down near the fence to see the team off into the locker room; Allison had caught Scott’s attention quickly and he waved over to them as he ran into the locker room. That wasn’t the highlight though, Derek was looking in their general direction and Stiles wasn’t sure what prompted him to do it, but he gave him a thumbs up and that earned him a small smirk and a nod from him.

“What was that?” Cora asked.

“What?” Stiles asked bewildered, “he’s doing good, I thought it was appropriate …”

“Since when do you do things that are appropriate when it regards my brother?” Cora asked him skeptically.

Stiles shrugged, “Maybe I’m feeling the school spirit and wanna show support?”

“You say that like a question more than an explanation for your actions,” Laura said.

“So, what I did was wrong then?” Stiles asked.

Cora and Laura looked at each other, “well … no,” Laura said.

“And that’s the end of that conversation,” Stiles said looking back out onto the field and noticed that the opposing schools marching band was taking the field. He glanced out of the corner of his eye and caught sight of Lydia along with Erica but what really took his attention was Paige glaring at him.

“If looks could kill,” Allison said next to him.

“What’s her problem?” Kira asked.

“My brother,” Laura said.

Stiles scoffed, “I really don’t need problems with anyone over something stupid like that.”

“It’s not your fault she has it wrong and thinks my brother still has a thing for her when he clearly doesn’t,” Cora said loudly to ensure that Paige could hear them.

“I’m gonna go sit back down,” Stiles said as he fled back towards the bleachers and took his seat; the rest of the game was relatively peaceful, Stiles enjoyed himself a lot and really got into the game, he didn’t let any unnecessary problems bug him; as the clock wound down in the 4^th quarter and there was only a minute and 20 seconds left in the game Stiles and everyone around him found themselves on their feet as Derek was leading what could presumably be the final drive of the game. Beacon hills was only down by 3 and if they managed to play the clock right and get a touchdown they would ensure their victory.

Derek had thrown a long pass which Jackson had caught but he was tackled short of the 10-yard line, the play took about 33 seconds off of the clock leaving only 47 seconds left. Everyone around Stiles was yelling, ‘Come on Derek,’ or ‘You can do it,’ Stiles on the other hand found himself silent but highly anticipating the outcome of the game and if he were being honest he really wanted to see Beacon Hills win it. Derek snapped the ball, but the play was bad from the start and he wound up getting sacked, losing about 4 yards pushing the team back to the 16-yard line and losing another 20 seconds off of the clock; people continued to scream their support for the team and it looked like they were gathering for one final huddle before the last play of the game.

“Oh man this is it,” Laura said anxiously.

“If he doesn’t win this he’s gonna be a sourpuss the whole night and it’s totally gonna kill my mood,” Cora said.

“Oh my God I can’t take this, it’s too much I think my heart might explode out of my chest!” Kira raved.

“Do you-do you think we can maybe win this?” Stiles asked no one in particular.

“That all depends on Derek and the team,” Mrs. Hale answered.

“He’s pretty good, I think he can handle this,” Mr. Hale mentioned.

Stiles couldn’t help but wonder how they were managing to keep themselves so composed but a closer look at the two and Stiles could see they were buzzing with excitement. He looked back out on the field and the team was getting ready for the final play, everyone around was yelling and Stiles wasn’t sure what came over him, but he yelled out, “Come on Bobcats, let’s go!!!” and snickered to himself afterward. Derek hiked the ball and the play was underway, nobody could seem to get open and time was running out; Derek looked left, then right and still couldn’t find anyone and in that very instant he bolted forward with the ball in hand and managed to get into the end zone for the touchdown to win the game.

Everyone in the crowd was buzzing, one moment they were all standing in the bleachers and then the next, people were charging for the field, Stiles felt tempted to but thought better of it and stayed where he was in the bleachers, luckily Kira shared the same mindset and stayed with him. “Oh man this was so crazy,” she said looking out onto the field.

“Yeah, it was a lot better than I thought it would be,” Stiles said.

“Yeah, now I see why everyone gets into this stuff, it’s kinda fun,” Kira said.

Stiles shrugged, “seems like it would give you heart problems from too much excitement,” he joked and they both shared a laugh. Stiles then looked back to the crowd and caught sight of Scott with Allison and his mom and to their left was Derek who was surrounded by his family and it was hard to miss Paige clinging onto Derek.

“Hey, you wanna go wait by the entrance or something?” Kira wondered.

Stiles looked around and told himself they didn’t really have anything else to do so he said, “yeah sure, might as well I guess.”

The two got up and began heading down the bleachers, making their way over to the entrance; something along the way had caught Stiles attention though, there was an elderly couple talking to one another, the older woman had said something Stiles couldn’t ignore, “that damn group managed to snatch another one of those poor Omegas,” she said.

“It was in Pima Country and that’s the next county over, 4 casualties have been confirmed,” the elderly man said.

Pima county was only about a two-hour drive away from where they were, if the group really was there who’s to say they weren’t nearby, that’s what made Stiles so painfully aware of his surroundings and what caused him to notice a group of men standing near the entrance. They weren’t ominous looking or anything, but they were sorely out of place; Kira walked next to him seemingly oblivious to what was going on and he couldn’t help but stop her, “hey hold on,” he said grabbing hold of her elbow.

“What’s wrong?” She asked.

“I think we should probably stay with people,” Stiles whispered into her ear, “don’t freak out.”

Kira’s response was looking at him with wide eyes, but she quickly composed herself and said, “you know what why don’t we go back and celebrate with everyone, we just beat Casanova!”

It was obviously a cover and a good one at that, “yeah and that doesn’t happen too often,” Stiles added, playing along. The two doubled back making their way towards the crowd; Stiles couldn’t help but glance over his to see where the group of men had gone, and he noticed two of them had broken away and started seemingly following them while the others stayed behind. He grabbed hold of Kira’s hand in that moment and pulled her forward and into the crowd, “don’t let go,” he told her as they made their way through all the people.

It didn’t take long for Stiles to run into Scott, Melissa and Allison, thankfully; “Stiles!” Scott yelled elated and grabbed hold of him.

Scott understandably did not smell the best at the moment and Stiles couldn’t help but comment on it, “Scott, you totally smell,” he said lightly.

“Oh sorry, big game and all,” Scott said with his dopey grin, he looked over at Kira and said hello to her.

Stiles smiled back, “congrats on the win.”

“Thanks man, I’m really happy you came; I was like freaking out when I saw you from the field; why did you come?” Scott asked.

Stiles shrugged, “I’ve never gotten a chance to experience this so, we decided why not give it a shot? It was really fun.”

“Yeah?” Scott asked, “Did you see me out there? We really stuck it to them,” he said.

“Yeah you did,” Stiles huffed, he looked around to make sure none of the men he saw before were around them.

Scott knew something was up, Stiles could tell by the pointed look Scott was giving him, “hey, are you okay?”

“Uh um … yeah just uh … just looking for someone,” Stiles said.

“Are you looking for Derek?” Scott asked, “I saw him out there you know, he kept staring up at you, the whole team saw him or at least most of us did, is something going on with you two? I thought you didn’t like him?”

“Scott, really? You’re going to confuse him with all those questions,” Melissa said.

“Mom you had to have seen him out there,” Scott whined.

“I did but I think if something were going on, either Derek or Stiles would tell you,” Melissa clarified.

“Yeah Scott, come on, besides when would those two have time to have something go on between them? Have you ever seen them hang out or talk?” Allison wondered.

Stiles glanced around again worriedly and completely missed what Scott said and now it was Melissa who asked, “is everything okay Stiles?”

Stiles couldn’t lie, “I-I don’t know …” and with just that answer both Scott and Melissa’s expressions went from mildly concerned to completely concerned.

“Stiles …” Kira said tugging his hand and he glanced over at her and noticed she was looking away from him and he followed her line of sight and saw one of the men from the group through the crowd staring in their direction.

Stiles tugged her hand and whispered, “don’t stare back, it will probably make them suspicious.”

“Stiles what’s going on?” Scott asked.

“Scott please, I need you to just stay as calm as possible and don’t freak out okay, just do whatever you have to do and come back here, okay?” Stiles asked making sure to keep his voice low, “please do that for me.”

“Stiles what is it?” Scott tried.

Allison didn’t need an explanation for Stiles sudden erratic behavior, “Scott, please you have to do what he asks you okay?” she said stepping closer to them.

Scott looked to her for answers but eventually he wound up nodding his head and said, “will you tell me when you can?”

“Yeah, right now I just need you to act like you would and don’t do anything out of the ordinary,” Stiles said.

“Stiles, what is going on? You’re scaring me,” Melissa said.

“I can’t say right now, just please, trust me and-and stay close,” Stiles said, and Melissa nodded, “I have to find Laura and Cora, now.”

Allison was the one to point and said, “they’re right over there, come on.”

“Stiles,” Kira whispered, “I texted Ben.”

Stiles nodded, “okay.”

Allison led Stiles and Kira over to where Laura and Cora were with Scott and Melissa in tow, as soon as Laura was in sight Stiles went directly to her and got close and said, “hey,” he whispered coming up behind her.

She turned and smiled at him, “there you two are, we were wondering what happened to … Stiles?”

Cora instantly knew something was off and stepped into Stiles space, “what is it?”

“Act normal,” he whispered and then said, “do you know how long we’re gonna be? My dad kinda needs me home …”

“Um … well I think Derek just has to go back in the locker room to change and then we can go,” Laura said.

Derek had been just behind Laura and Cora, with Mrs. Hale and Mr. Hale and Paige, Boyd and Erica were nearby as well, “I think we have to get out of here, now,” Stiles whispered, his anxiety was growing, and he couldn’t help but start fidgeting.

“Hey, it’s super exciting right? All of this? It’s crazy how much goes on, it makes you feel jumpy, right?” Cora said grabbing hold of Stiles freehand in hopes to keep him calm.

“Yeah, it’s super crazy,” he said.

Scott had managed to get in front of Stiles and made sure all of Stiles focus was n him and said, “Stiles I know when you’re freaking out and right now you’re freaking out but you’re doing a really good job at hiding it but it’s really making me nervous, what is wrong?” Scott couldn’t help but ask.

Kira wasn’t doing any better than Stiles was, her grip on his hand had gone from soft to death grip in a matter of moments, she gasped, “what are we gonna do?”

“Oh, hey there’s Stiles,” Mr. Hale said suddenly as he turned around, based off his expression he knew something was wrong, instantly, as did Mrs. Hale.

Derek finally came into view and easily managed shrug Paige off himself and moved past his parents and sisters and stood in front of Stiles. “What is it?” He asked.

Stiles was having trouble saying anything, it felt like he was moments away from having an anxiety attack, “Stiles,” Kira said grabbing his hand tighter, he turned to look at her and noticed that some more men from the group had come upon the crowd and they were all looking in their general direction.

“What are you looking at?” Derek asked. “What’s going on?”

Stiles turned to him and moved into his space and whispered, “don’t freak out … just stay calm and don’t freak out. I-I think they’re here.”

Derek took a step back with wide eyes and glanced around, he turned around and mentioned something to his parents and turned back to face Stiles and asked, “you wanna come somewhere with me?”

Stiles looked bewildered at that but asked, “where?”

“The locker room, don’t ask questions just do this for me okay?” Derek said.

“I’ll go get the car started, we can all go to the diner to celebrate,” Derek’s mother said easily slipping into their conversation.

“I’ll go start up my car too,” Laura said, “it’s gonna be awful trying to get out of here.”

“Oh, that’s a good point … Scott, Allison, you wanna meet at the car and we can join them at the diner?” Melissa asked.

Scott nodded, “yeah sounds good, we’ll see you there.”

"Actually, I'll go with your mom to the car and meet you there, okay?" Allison said.

Scott nodded at that, "alright."

Melissa, Allison, Mrs. Hale and Laura each left the group offering a slight nod to Stiles and Kira, Scott wound up coming up next to Kira looking as lost as ever.

“Derek, Scott” came a voice through the crowd and then Boyd appeared, “we gotta head into the locker room, coach is about to give his post-game speech, they said he’s crying … oh hey Stilinski.”

Stiles only offered a slight smirk, it was the best he could do at the moment. 

“Boyd ... do me a favor, walk with us, we’re going straight to the locker room,” Derek said.

“Okay?” Boyd said and thankfully didn’t question what was going on.

“Hey dad, we’re gonna head back to the locker room, we’ll meet you guys at the car,” Derek said to his father and then turned towards Stiles, “come with us,” and Stiles did, and he dragged Kira along with him.

Derek had walked just ahead of Stiles, while Scott walked next to him and Boyd walked on the other side of Kira, “Stiles your dad is trying to call you,” Kira whispered.

Stiles hadn’t thought of pulling out his phone, he was so preoccupied with everything going on he forgot about it, “he grabbed it out of his back pocket and saw he had a few missed calls and called his dad immediately and he picked up on the first ring, “Where are you?” He asked.

“We’re walking into the locker room with Derek, Scott and Boyd,” Stiles said.

“Stiles,” came Parrish’s voice, “are you sure it’s them?” He asked.

Stiles glanced over his shoulder and noticed one of the men from the group not too far behind them, following them back to the locker room, “pretty sure it is.”

“Can you get out?” His father asked.

“Working on that,” Stiles answered, “dad meet us at the diner, bring your friends.”

Stiles heard his father curse on the other end of the line, ‘bring your friends,’ was another way of telling his father to bring back up, “just get to the diner and if anything happens to you I’m holding that kid responsible,” his father said obviously feeling bitter that Derek was present.

Stiles said, “see you in a bit,” and hung up the phone.

“Hey Boyd, you doing anything after this?” Derek asked suddenly.

“Erica, Lydia, and Jackson wanted to go somewhere, Isaac was looking for you a minute ago and Paige is mad at you,” Boyd said.

“But are you doing anything?” Derek asked again.

“I guess not,” Boyd said.

“Cool, you’re coming to the diner with us, you can tell the others to meet us there,” Derek said.

“I’m just going to assume that this isn’t up for debate, so okay,” Boyd said.

“What the hell is going on?” Scott asked.

“I’ll tell you later Scott,” Stiles said.

The group entered a hall that a lot of the football players were walking down and entering what Stiles presumed was the locker room. Stiles initially thought they were all going into the locker room, but they didn’t, instead, they passed the room up and kept going down the hall. Stiles looked back to see if any of the men were following them and to their luck none of them had been behind them. There was another room that turned out to be the janitors closet, “I know this is bad, but we have to get our stuff and if we brought you in with us people would probably ask questions, you okay to wait in here?” Derek asked Stiles.

It was bad considering there was only one way in and one way out but if none of them men followed them they wouldn’t know where to look for them, “yeah this should work … just don’t take too long,” Stiles said.

“We’re leaving them in the closet?” Scott asked.

“Just for a minute,” Derek said as he and Boyd backed up and closed the door.

“You wanna know what I liked most about tonight?” Kira asked suddenly when they were alone.

“What?” Stiles asked.

“The sense of normalcy,” Kira answered, “it felt like I wasn’t worried about anything, I was just a normal person living my life with nothing to worry about and then-and then this happens and suddenly we’re right back to facing reality and dealing with the fact that we live in a pretty screwed up world.”

“Look at it this way,” Stiles started, “at least you’re not going through this alone.”

Kira smiled at that, “yeah … I don’t even wanna imagine what that would be like.”

Stiles nerves were getting the better of him, “God I can’t stop shaking,” he said.

“Me neither, do you think they’ll come back soon? I mean how much longer do you think we can wait in here?” Kira asked.

 Stiles shook his head, “I don’t know …”

A few minutes went by and Stiles couldn’t help but open the closet to see if there was anyone in the hallway, “Stiles … Stiles what are you doing?” Kira asked.

He shushed her and pushed the door open a little, from what he saw the hallway was relatively clear, but it looked like some men were standing just outside of the door at the end of the hallway. Stiles shut the door and moved back, “crap,” he said.

“What’s wrong?” Kira asked.

“I think they might be by the doors,” Stiles said.

“Well there has to be another way out of this place, they can’t just have one exit, isn’t that some kind of like safety hazard?” Kira asked.

She was right, there had to be another exit somewhere, they would just need to figure out where, a moment later the door swung open and in walked Derek along with Boyd and Scott, “Come on,” Derek said, and Stiles and Kira followed Derek out of the closet.

“Is there another way out of here?” Stiles asked.

“Yeah, follow us,” Derek said, and he led them in the opposite direction than the way they entered, “my mom is waiting for us outside.”

“Jackson and Isaac are already in the car with Lydia and Erica, Paige is catching a ride with them,” Boyd mentioned.

They got to the exit and before they walked out Derek halted them, “hold on.”

“What are we waiting for?” Scott asked.

“It could be dangerous Scott,” Stiles said voice wavering.

“What are we gonna do if they’re out there?” Kira asked.

“Run in the opposite direction,” Derek said.

“But they’re covering the other exit,” Stiles said.

“We are gonna have to figure, something out then,” Derek said as he checked to see if there was anyone around. When he seemed sure the coast was clear the group exited and cautiously made their way over to where Derek’s mom, Laura and Scott’s mom were waiting for them.

Stiles opted to ride with Scott only because he felt obligated to at least fill them in on what just happened, Derek didn’t seem all that thrilled with his decision but didn’t voice any opposition to it; Boyd decided to go with Derek in Derek’s parents truck. Stiles did make sure to let Laura and Cora know he was riding with Scott and they completely understood why, Kira decided to stay with Stiles and he suspected it was because she felt safest with him.

As they got into Ms. McCall’s car before anything could be said Stiles said, “I’ll explain everything I just need to call my dad.”

The phone rang once, and his father picked up, “are you okay?”

“Yeah, dad we got out, we’re going to the diner now,” Stiles said.

“Who is driving you?” His father asked.

“Me-Melissa …” Stiles said, “I have to tell them … they helped me get out.”

His father went silent for a moment and Stiles knew he didn’t like the idea of more people knowing but it couldn’t be helped, “Put the phone on speaker,” Parrish said, and Stiles did, “hello, who is present in the vehicle?”

“P-Parrish?” She questioned before saying, “It’s Melissa McCall and I’m with my son Scott and his girlfriend Allison who is his soulmate and I have Stiles and Kira with me,” Melissa said.

“Alright, what you’re about to hear is extremely confidential information, if any of you disclose this information to anyone I will see to it that you’re tried to the fullest extent of the law as you will be breaking a federal crime disclosing this information to anyone, do I make myself clear?” Parrish asked.

“Ye-yes … we understand,” Melissa stammered.

“None of you speak a word of this to anyone,” Stiles father reiterated, “if you do and you put my son in danger I will come after you myself.”

“John … we understand,” Melissa said.

“Go ahead Stiles,” his father said.

“Obviously you guys know that a few months ago I presented,” Stiles started, “it turned out to be kinda horrible, hurt like hell and it just wasn’t what I was expecting. It was so bad that I got sent to the hospital, I had the school nurse thinking I was probably going to die or something,” Stiles joked but nobody laughed. “Anyway, I uh I passed out because I was in a lot of pain and when I woke up I figured out what I was …” Stiles glanced in Allison’s direction, “might as well let you know before I tell you, Allison knows, and she’s known for a while and she’s kept my secret …”

“What secret?” Scott asked.

Stiles figured he ought to warn Melissa beforehand to drive safely, “I’m an Omega,” he said.

“What? No, you’re not … I mean if you were we would have heard about it,” Scott said.

“He is,” Kira said, “and so am I.”

Neither Scott nor Melissa seemed to buy what Stiles and Kira was selling, “Omegas just don’t pop up anywhere,” Melissa started, “I mean look at the statistics in all of this, the chances of their being an Omega in Beacon Hills of all places would have to be roughly 2 to 3% and that’s only accounting for female Omegas; a male would be below 1% and I just … I can’t believe this, I mean I know that group has been going around and-“ Stiles decided then that now was as good a time as any to prove himself and the one way he could do that was allow the shift to take over his eyes, Kira must have done the same. “Oh my God!” Ms. McCall exclaimed.

“Dude … you’re really an Omega,” Scott said in awe.

Stiles let his eyes shift back, “yeah I am and so is she and we are in trouble right now.”

“They’re in a lot of trouble,” his father added, Stiles almost forgot he was on the phone, “we hope you understand why it’s essential that you keep this information to yourself.”

“John trust us, no one will find out from us, I promise you that much,” Melissa assured him.

“Time will be the judge of that,” Stiles father said harshly, “Stiles, Kira is okay, correct?”

“Yes, I’m fine,” Kira answered.

“Good, I will see you guys at the diner, be safe,” the sheriff said.

“Yeah, see you soon,” Stiles said and hung up the phone.

“You definitely are something special that’s for sure, I have to wonder how your father is holding up with all of this,” Melissa said.

“I don’t know, I think he’s barely managing to be honest; I know this has to be a lot on him,” Stiles said.

“It would be a lot for anyone,” Kira spoke up, “when my parents first found out about me the first few months were weird, they were normal but different at the same time; it took me a while to realize that they had become practically obsessive over my well-being especially after certain incidents happened.”

“I would hope any parent would obsess over their child’s well-being, especially if they were in your guys situation,” Melissa said.

Stiles phone rang the next moment and he saw that he had a call coming in from Laura, “hello,” he answered.

“Hey, so not to cause any concern or anything but …” she was cut off when a commotion went on in the background, he could hear Cora fighting for the phone.

“Stiles,” Cora said.

“Hey,” he replied back.

“Listen, Laura thinks there could be people following us,” Cora said outright.

Stiles looked out the back of the window, “well yeah there’s a lot of people leaving the game so-“

“No, Stiles listen, there were three black SUV’s, tinted windows and all, anyone with commons sense would think that’s a little fishy,” Cora interjected.

Stiles turned back once more, “I don’t see any black SUV’s behind us.”

“It’s dark and we’re driving on a road that’s only one lane with a bunch of cars behind us with their headlights on, of course you won’t be able to see them behind us,” Cora said, “just keep a lookout will you.”

“Yeah got it,” Stiles said and hung up the phone, he filled everyone in the car in on what Laura and Cora were concerned about and they went about their drive like normal.

Once they were about 5 minutes from the diner, Ms. McCall started slowing down and made a turn that took them from the path to the diner and led them elsewhere, “What are you doing mom the diner is that way,” Scott said.

She didn’t answer at first, she just kept staring adamantly into the rearview mirror, “I just …” suddenly a pair of headlights had come into view behind them, “I have a hunch and usually they’re right,” she said and made the next left turn going nowhere in particular.

The vehicle behind them made a left as well which seemed like cause for concern, they then came upon a little family owned restaurant on the right side of the road and Melissa turned into the parking lot, “shouldn’t we just go to the diner and meet up with everyone else,” Scott suggested frantically.

“That would be ideal but there’s only one car behind us,” she mentioned, “if there were more vehicles, where are they?” She asked, and Stiles had to admit that the question was valid.

“But that’s not a black SUV, it’s just a regular car,” Kira mentioned.

Melissa had pulled through the parking lot of the little restaurant slowly and acted as if she was looking for a parking space before she ultimately decided to forgo the entire parking lot and leave; the car that was apparently tailing them didn’t seem like it was leaving the parking lot, “oh hey they stayed there, I guess they weren’t following us … never mind,” Kira said and Stiles turned around and noticed the car sped out of the parking lot and back on to the main road.

The car suddenly swerved violently as Melissa went through the intersection and Stiles noticed that they barely missed getting hit by a black SUV  “everyone make sure your seatbelts are on,” Melissa commanded she then made the next right which would lead them towards the diner and she hit the gas; Stiles phone was buzzing up a storm, he figured he was getting calls from not only Laura and Cora, and maybe their parents but his dad and Parrish as well, especially since they were no longer following them.

“Hello,” he finally answered.

“Where are you?!” Cora screamed into the phone.

“We … we had to take a detour, Melissa had a bad feeling and I’m pretty sure she was right,” he looked out of the back passenger window as they were coming upon another intersection and noticed another black SUV coming towards the same intersection on the right side and they didn’t look like they were going to slow down and stop at the light, “WATCH OUT!” Stiles shouted, and Melissa hit the brakes and they barely missed the SUV as Melissa managed to drive around it.

“What the hell is wrong with these people?!” Allison screamed.

They were determined, too determined, that is what was wrong with them, Stiles deduced. Luckily Melissa had gotten them to the Diner parking lot in one piece; The Hales and Boyd were all waiting outside as they pulled in and Melissa hurriedly threw the car in park and told everyone to get out immediately.

They ran over to the entrance of the diner, “everyone, get inside,” Mrs. Hale said.

They entered in a frenzy, the host looked a little baffled by how alarmed they must have seemed, thankfully Mr. Hale was able to compose himself enough to walk up to the hostess and ask, “do you have a table for more than ten people available?”

They did, Stiles could see that just by glancing around, the Diner wasn’t really busy at the moment, “yes we can put two tables together and get you guys seated in just a second,” the hostess said and signaled for one of the waiters to come and help them with putting the tables together.

More than one person breathed a sigh of relief, Stiles on the other hand looked around frantically, “my dad isn’t here yet,” he said.

“Don’t worry,” Melissa said patting his shoulder, “I’m pretty sure he will be here in just a moment.”

The hostess returned and gathered a few menus and led their party towards the table that they just set up, Kira sat next to Stiles on his right side and Cora was next to him on his left side, Scott, Allison and Ms. McCall were on the other side of Cora and Laura sat next to her parents on the other side of the table and next to her was Derek who somehow managed to get sat across from Stiles and Boyd sat next to him, “We have a few specials going on tonight and because I see a few Bobcats players here all of your meals will be half off, congrats on your win tonight boys,” the hostess said.

From what Stiles could see Scott, Boyd and Derek all gave the hostess a strained grin, Derek was the only one that managed to say, “thanks.”

“Your waiter will be with you all shortly,” the hostess said and left.

A few moments later the waiter had come, “good evening everyone, my name is Don, I will be your server tonight, what can I get started for you?

“Water,” more than a few people said simultaneously.

“Okay … so the whole table wants water?” Don asked.

“Uh I-I’ll take a coke,” Boyd said.

“Make that two,” Stiles added.

“Alright waters all around and two cokes, I’ll be right back with those,” Don said and walked away.

“You don’t think they’ll try to come in here, right?” Laura asked eyeing the front door.

“Well considering their track record … I wouldn’t put it past them,” Kira said.

A moment later their waiter had come with their drinks in hand, “Alright here are your drinks, do you guys need a minute to look at the menu or do we know what we want?”

“Could you give us just a moment,” Mrs. Hale asked politely.

“Certainly, take your time,” Don said and walked away.

It was in this moment they all heard the chime to the door and then they heard the hostess say, “Good evening gentlemen, can I get a table set up for you?” Unfortunately for them they were unable to see the men as there was a wall that obscured their view.

One of the men responded with, “it’s already been prepared,” and in walked a man that Stiles instantly recognized from the football game, followed by three others, they each made their way over to the table that Stiles and company were sitting at, “Evening everyone,” the man said in a monotone voice, “I believe you may have something that doesn’t belong.”

“What would that be?” Mrs. Hale asked bravely.

“Not what but who,” the man said and glanced over in Kira’s direction. “We’d be happy to take it off your hands if you have no objections.”

“I’d say the only thing that doesn’t belong here is you and your friends, you should go,” Melissa said.

“We just have some questions for-“

The man was quickly cut off by Mr. Hale, “I believe you were asked to leave.”

The man grunted, “look at all of you acting so brave, I’m sure you know that either way we will get what we want, regardless of the circumstances; I think we’ve proven that already, and considering that we were only paid to apprehend one of you, it would be a hassle if we had to deal with everyone else here as well.”

Stiles caught a glimpse of movement behind the men and he could see Parrish and his father flanked with a few other deputies, “Yeah? Well, maybe next time you’ll be a little more cautious with the way you go about handling your business.” Several safeties could be heard clicking off and the men turned to see a few guns pointed their way, “hey dad,” Stiles said.

“You don’t want to do this,” the man in charge said, “we have people all around ready to go at my signal.”

“You mean your guys in the trucks parked outside and the guys you had planted on every street corner 2 blocks from here that failed miserably at playing an unsuspecting pedestrian?” Stiles father asked, and the man gasped in surprise, “You’re all under arrest,” he finished.

“Amateurs,” Parrish added as he cuffed one of the men and the other deputies got the remaining men. Ben along with Kira’s parents entered the Diner then and she shot up and ran over to them and the sight made Stiles breathe a sigh of relief, at least everything turned out okay, for the most part, their night was ruined though.

Stiles had gotten up and rushed over to where his dad and Parrish were now escorting two of the men out of the diner, when they went outside he was surprised to see a slew of cop cars surrounding the diner; the Hales along with Boyd, Scott, his mom and Allison had all come out of the diner behind Stiles, soon after. Stiles glanced around the scene, there were at least a dozen or more cop cars, he figured his father must have gotten help from other counties to help pull this off. The entrance to the diner had been blocked off and a small crowd of people had been gathering there to see what was happening.

Stiles couldn’t help wondering, ‘Is it always gonna be like this if they found out about me?’

“Stiles!” His father called, “we are heading over to the police station, let’s go,” he said.

Stiles wanted to say something to everyone that stood by them but his father appeared adamant to leave the scene now, so all he could do was turn around and wave at them and yell, “thank you,” knowing that wasn’t enough but he would convey as much when he contacted them later; he spun on his heel and ran for his dad’s cruiser and got in and before he knew it they were off towards the station, hopefully, they would have some answers as to how and why the events of the night happened.