Title: Ghost of You
Series: Ghost Of You (1)
Rating: T
Pairing: Derek/Stiles
Summary: Stiles has become a ghost, but he's not even dead! Semi Ghost!AU

He was so cold. How could he be this cold in the middle of a sweltering summer? Had someone dropped him in a bath tub filled with ice? He felt so cold…so maybe he had been. But he couldn't feel any water or ice around him; and he was lying on his stomach.

His eyes opened slowly and he pushed himself up on shaky arms, only to scream when he looked down at his own body.

How could this be happening? How could he be looking down at his own body?

He jumped up and moved away from the hospital bed that his body was lying on. The monitors said that his heart was beating normally; but it appeared that he wasn't breathing on his own; if the air tubes going into his chest were anything to go by.

What had happened to him? How was this possible?

He stumbled back and cried out as pain ripped through his skull. He clutched at his short hair and tugged it as he fell to his knees.

The memory was coming back.

His lungs burned as he ran. He wasn't as fast as Scott or Jackson; but he had been with them when the hunters had attacked.

Said hunters were a few of Kate's followers that didn't care if you were human. If you were part of a pack, then you were fair game.

They had been trying to run to where Stiles' jeep was parked on the side of the road. It was across the street from where they were now. Jackson and Scott were able to get there with no problem; but Stiles was slower; and a shot rang out, hitting him in the leg.

He went down and turned to look at the hunters, only to be blinded by the bright lights of a car.

Pain exploded throughout his entire body and the last thing he heard was Scott and Jackson screaming his name.

He had been shot and hit by a car. How was he even alive?

He slowly walked through the room and examined the various files and x-rays that were open for viewing. His ribs were pretty shattered and the file said that they had been forced to open up his chest to fix a punctured lung. It seemed like they had been forced to use metal to piece his ribs back together.

So how was he alive?

God he was so cold…

Maybe he should remain outside of his body until it had healed a bit.

It had been three days and Stiles had spent most of his time roaming the halls of the hospital. He ended up in the maternity ward at one point. He found a premature infant in the NICU. The child seemed as if it could see him. He reached into the incubator and took the infant's hand. The infant's hand was the first thing that he could truly feel against his skin, and the child was actually able to hold on to him as if he was solid.

After that; he spent most of his time in the NICU watching over little Matthew. The child grew stronger every day and eventually after a week the child went home with his parents.

At this point; Stiles had been outside of his body for ten days.

He wanted to check on his father…needed to check on him; but every time he tried to leave the hospital, he would end up right inside of his own room again.

It was on day eleven that he noticed Derek sitting at his bed side. Derek looked like he hadn't slept in a very long time.

"He's come here to watch over you every night since the accident."

Stiles turned and looked at an old woman who was dressed in a hospital gown similar to his own.

"You can see me?"

The woman smiled softly.

"Yes, of course I can. You and I are in the same predicament after all…outside of our bodies but still alive. The difference however is that I will never wake up again. You…you're in a medically induced coma as your body heals."

Stiles nodded slowly and walked closer to Derek.

"He's crying. Why is he crying?"

The woman smiled softly and rested a hand on his shoulder.

"The love of a werewolf is a powerful thing. He spends the day working to find the hunters that did this to you…with the full co-operation of the Argents and your father…who now knows about werewolves by the way…and at night he comes here to watch over you."

Stiles turned to look at her with wide eyes.

"My father knows about werewolves!"

The woman smiled softly. "It was a bit of an accident on Derek's part…really. Your father arrived to see him clutching your body and fighting to keep himself in control of his beta form so that he did not shift into his alpha form and harm you. Your father begged him to give you the bite; but he was afraid that in your weakened state that you would not survive. And he was right…you would not have survived."

The woman began to flicker.

"Are you okay? You're flickering."

The woman smiled softly.

"My body is dying. I will not be here much longer. But I can grant you and that boy a gift. I'll give your spirit the last of my strength so that he can see you."

The woman rested her warm hands on Stiles' cheek. Her hands glowed softly before she flickered out of existence.

"Whoa, that felt weird."

Derek looked up with a gasp, tears staining his cheeks.

"S…Stiles?"

Derek was up in an instant and jumped towards Stiles. He went to wrap his arms around the teen; only for his arms to go right through him.

"Derek?"

Stiles reached up slowly and somehow found the ability to brush the tears from Derek's face.

"I'm going to be okay. The woman said I would wake up. It's kind of a good thing that I'm not in there right now actually…I imagine it would hurt. Like this I don't feel much of anything…and it's fun to play with the kids. They can see me. And now…I guess that you can too."

They spent the rest of the night talking. Derek told Stiles how the Argents and the Sheriff were working to track down the small group of hunters that had shot Stiles and led to him being hit by a car.

The Sheriff wanted to allow Derek to kill them; but the Argents had warned against it, as it would give other hunters a reason to attack and kill Derek. In the end, Chris Argent had decided that he would be the one to take them out…for good. Chris refused to let the Sheriff deal with the guilt of taking human life; while Chris felt that he needed to fix the mistakes that his sister had created.

Stiles now spent the days playing with the children in the children's ward. Other than Derek, the young were the only ones able to see him. At night; he would return to his room and chat for hours with Derek.

Derek was looking better as well. It was obvious that Derek was getting some sleep.

The two frowned when a doctor came in; though only Derek could actually be seen.

"We have to take him for another x-ray."

Derek nodded slowly and left the room. Stiles waited outside of the room with him until sneaking into the room where he could see his x-rays and hear the doctors talking.

"His bones have healed well. We'll be able to remove the bolts tomorrow. Then we'll give him a bit more time to heal the incisions before waking him up."

Stiles watched his own surgery with fascination. He kind of hated that he would have so many scars over his chest though. There was no way that he was going to get himself a girl looking like Swiss cheese.

Derek and Stiles were talking about how Chris had succeeded in finding and killing the rogue hunters. Derek frowned suddenly as he looked at the teen.

"You're sort of…blinking."

"Blinking?"

Stiles looked down at him to see that his form was fading in and out.

"Oh god…oh no."

"Stiles? What is it?"

"When I blink out…I die."

In that instant, Stiles blinked out of existence.

Derek was just about to call for the nurse in a panic when the machines started beeping rapidly. He looked down at Stiles to see that his eyes were open and he was coughing and choking around the tube in his throat.

"Nurse!"

His body still hurt, but he was alive. He would still be in the hospital for a few more days so that the doctors could make sure that he came out of the medically induced coma properly. He was lightly dozing during the afternoon when the scent he had come to associate with Derek filled the room.

He opened his eyes slowly and smiled at the alpha wolf.

"Hey."

There were tears on Derek's face again.

"What's wrong?"

Derek reached forward slowly and touched Stiles' chest and face. His body was shaking lightly as he tried to hold back sobs.

"I was so scared…I thought I had lost you. You just sort of…blinked out of existence and I thought…"

Stiles placed one finger against Derek's lips.

"I'm okay. I'm right here Derek."

Derek practically fell forward as he hugged Stiles tightly. He pulled back slowly and kissed the teen's lips deeply…almost desperately.

The old woman's words echoed in his head. 'The love of a werewolf is a powerful thing'. Was Derek in love with him?

"Derek? Are you…in love with me?"

Derek looked down at Stiles with a soft smile.

"Since the first moment I saw you. It took you getting hurt for me to get over your constant talking though."

Stiles laughed softly and pulled Derek into a soft kiss before wincing and pulling away.

"Ouch…stitches suck."

Stiles pulled up his shirt to reveal the stitches and staples down his chest from where he had been cut open.

"You know…I can get rid of that for you…if you want."

Stiles looked up slowly.

"Are you offering me the bite?"

Derek smirked lightly. "Well, as an alpha I do need a strong mate."

Stiles blushed brightly.

"Did you just give me the werewolf version of a marriage proposal?"

Derek's eyes grew very shifty and he began looking at everything but Stiles. "M…maybe."

Everything was so much clear than before. His chest was no longer itching and Scott was in the process of slowly removing the stiches and staples from his healed flesh.

He had only been out of the hospital for two days now; and Derek had bitten him the night before. Derek had held him all through the night while Scott and Jackson had slept on the floor of Stiles' room.

Jackson had been different since Stiles woke up. Apparently, nearly loosing Stiles had led Jackson to realize just how important the talkative teen was.

Stiles winced as Scott worked out a particularly stubborn staple. "Sorry, that was the last one."

Stiles sat up slowly and looked down at the little pinpricks of blood that dotted his skin. Derek leaned down and licked the strip up Stiles' chest, washing away the blood and bringing a blush to the teen's face.

"Derek!" It came out as a whine. "You can't just do that kind of stuff in front of Scott."

Said teen looked slightly mortified.

"What did I miss?" Jackson was just walking into the room with a small tray of coffees and a bag of bagels.

"Derek just licked Stiles' chest to get rid of the blood from removing the sutures."

Jackson slowly scrunched up his nose. "Eww."

"Yea, tell me about it. That is one image I will never get out of my head."

Jackson shuddered before handing Derek and Stiles their coffees and their bagels before pulling Scott out of the room to leave the alpha pair to themselves.

Derek was curled up around Stiles. The alpha hadn't left Stiles' side for more than five minutes since he had been bitten. Not that Stiles minded. He was still trying to forget about how cold he felt when he was stuck outside of his body. Derek was like a furnace; and it kept him nice and warm. It almost pushed the memory away.

Stiles was sort of hovering between being awake and being asleep when he saw her. The old woman from the hospital that had given his spirit enough juice for Derek to be able to see him. She smiled at him and slowly she began to grow younger and younger until she took on the form of Stiles' mom.

"Mom…?"

His voice was so quite…so tired. Was he still asleep?

"Yea, sweetie. It's me. Get some sleep…tomorrow…everything changes."

With those words, Stiles finally fell into a deep slumber.