A/N: Okay, so this isn't my first story, but it's my first in the Teen Wolf fandom. I usually write The Vampire Diaries, so this is quite a transition for me. I'm really nervous about this, so please be gentle with me. Comments and criticism is always welcome.

Stiles Stilinski had been through a lot. He had been part of the pack since Scott became alpha, all right? He had been there, through thick and thin, always helping Scott with whatever came their way. Sure, he had gotten a few broken bones and a few scars along the way, but it was the price to pay in the good vs. evil fight that he'd be in for the rest of his life. He'd known that werewolves, among other nasty creatures, went bump in the night since his sophomore year of high school, and going away to college wasn't going to change that.

He had made it through college in one piece, and even though he came back every now and again to Beacon Hills to help Scott and Derek fight whatever was out there, he felt good about it. When he decided to start up a service to help other people with supernatural problems figure out what the hell they were fighting, he felt good about that, too. He felt proud, prepared. He was prepared for anything.

-x-

The day that Stiles opened his front door and saw Lydia Martin standing there, he wondered if part of him had crossed over into the twilight zone. The Lydia Martin that he had grown up knowing looked fabulous always, and this Lydia…she stood there, tear tracks on her cheeks, dark circles under her eyes, and she looked like she hadn't slept in weeks. Her red hair was up in a messy bun and she wasn't wearing makeup, and the most surprising thing of all was the little girl on her hip.

Stiles just stood there for a moment. He was completely silent, which, even now, five years later, was an abnormality for him. He watched her closely until she let a tiny, awkward laugh, "Can I come in?"

He still couldn't find his voice and just nodded. Yeah, a nod would just have to do.

She set the child on the floor, and Stiles could tell right away that this was Lydia's child. She had her same big, expressive green eyes and the same red curls. She was a beautiful baby.

"I know it's been a long time," Lydia said, after a moment. She reached into the bag she had been carrying and pulled out a few assorted toys, handing them to her daughter. "I'm sure that, after I left and didn't contact anyone but Allison for the last five years, you aren't really keen on me being here, so I'm going to make this short." She sighed softly, taking a drink of a bottle she also pulled out of her bag. "This is Kristy. She's my daughter. She'll be one in a few weeks."

Stiles nodded, still trying to find his voice.

"She's Aiden's," Lydia said, and was that remorse on her face? "I went to MIT, like I always said I would, and he would come visit me. The pack would travel around, Deucalion added more pack members after the ones got killed here all those years ago. I know that you guys kicked the alpha pack out and everything, but Aiden…I felt something for him. It was a lapse in judgment, okay?" She sighed again, taking another drink. "About a year ago, he stopped coming around, which was fine, because that's about the time I found out I was pregnant. I don't want him, nor anyone else from that damn pack, near my baby."

Stiles just nods.

Lydia watched him closely, "I realize that you guys probably don't want to even acknowledge me. I mean, I just took off, and I fraternized with the enemy. I haven't even talked to you since I've been gone."

"No need to feel guilty that for that," Stiles said, finally, finally finding his voice. "We get updates from Allison."

There was something that he was deliberately not telling her; not long after she moved to Boston, Boyd and Erica had moved there, too, saying that staying in Beacon Hills was kind of traumatizing, with getting taken by the alpha pack and everything, so they needed the change in scenery. Boyd got a job in construction and Erica became a personal trainer in a gym over there. Stiles wasn't sure if it was coincidence or what, but they managed to nab the apartment next door to Lydia's. When Erica had told him, Stiles had begged her to keep him informed about Lydia. Erica and Lydia had tentatively become friends; it was slow and took a lot of patience on both their parts, as Erica told him, but now they were really close. She had told him when Lydia had had her baby, but Lydia didn't know that, and she wasn't ever going to know.

"You look good, though," she said, snapping him from his thoughts. "Finally made some girl happy?"

"Uh, just Scott," he said, before realizing what he said and then laughed nervously. "I mean, uh, sorry Lyds, you still make me kind of nervous."

Lyds. It was a nickname that she hadn't been called in almost five years, since Stiles had really been the only one to call her that, and it felt good to hear it once again. Of course, if anybody else called her that, it felt wrong. She didn't have much tie to dwell on it though, as her daughter started to cry and she lifted her up, bouncing her in her arms slightly. She shushed her daughter, whispering things to her, telling her they were safe, even though Stiles could tell that Lydia didn't feel it. When Kristy had calmed down a little, Lydia dropped a kiss on her head, and she looked at Stiles, "I need your help."

"When people come to me, why isn't it ever a friendly chat that they're after?" Stiles asked, mostly to himself, but saw the grimace on Lydia's face.

"Stiles, I know you're an emissary now, but I know you're human. And more importantly, I trust you, and I trust Scott. He's a damn good alpha and I've known you forever. I need you guys to help me." She paused for a moment, taking a breath, "I think Deucalion's after my baby."

-x-

When Lydia walked into Scott and Allison's apartment the next day, she was ambushed by four-year-old Melanie, Scott and Allison's daughter. She wrapped her arms around Lydia's legs and said, "Aunt Lydia, I missed you!"

Lydia giggled. Scott and Allison came and visited her a few times while she was in Boston, and she had become kind of attached to the little girl.

"Mel, you gotta let me put Kristy down at least," she said. Melanie let go of Lydia's legs and she handed Kristy to Allison, who was right behind her daughter.

"Wow, Lydia, she's gotten so big since we saw her last," Allison said. Lydia nodded, picking Melanie up and holding her for a minute, giving her a hug, "You haven't seen her since she was about six months old. She's going to be one in a few weeks."

"Can you say Aunt Ally?" Allison asked Kristy. She just stared at her for a moment and then smiled, "Ally."

Allison beamed as Lydia put Melanie down.

Allison looked at Lydia, "They're meeting in the den," she said, handing Kristy back to Lydia. She led her through the apartment to the den. Once Lydia got there, she almost froze when she saw Aiden's twin.

She cleared her throat, "Ethan." She was pretty sure that her voice squeaked, but prayed that Ethan hadn't noticed. She knew that when Aiden went with the alpha pack, Ethan had stayed behind. He had way too much kindness and compassion to be with the alpha pack. Lydia was more surprised that Deucalion hadn't forced him to go with them.

"Hey, Lydia," he said, watching her closely. Or, more accurately, he was watching the child in her arms. "What's going on?"

"God, this is weird," she said, laughing nervously. "I haven't seen you in a while, but you make me think of your brother."

His face fell, but said, "Have you seen him recently? Aiden, I mean."

Lydia shook her head, "No, not in about a year."

"H-How was he the last time you saw him?"

"Have you cut off contact with him?" Lydia asked. She watched as Danny grabbed Ethan's hand and stroked his thumb over Ethan's. This probably wasn't a very comfortable conversation for him.

"He cut it off. When he went with the pack and I decided to stay, we had a fight. He didn't want any contact with me."

"I'm sorry about that, but in all honesty, you're in a better place. I know he's your brother, but Aiden…he isn't a good guy. I mean, he wasn't, like, a wonderful person before, but in the last few years, he's…" her voice trailed off. How was she supposed to tell Ethan that his brother was abnormally evil? "You wouldn't want to be around him. Trust me."

When Lydia stopped talking, she noticed everybody watching her. The silence was as far from comfortable as it could get when Kristy held out her arms for Allison. Lydia handed her over and Allison said lowly, "I'm going to put her in Mel's room. Those her toys?"

Lydia nodded, "She's got some DVDs in there. She's partial to the Ninja Turtles."

Allison raised an eyebrow, "Really?"

"Honest to God," Lydia said, laughing. "She's not really into the girly toys. Of course I would have a daughter who hates My Little Pony."

Allison grabbed Melanie's hand and they started walking away, but Allison's laughter filled the apartment. Nervously, Lydia took a seat next to Isaac on the loveseat that was on the other wall.

If anybody noticed how Lydia looked, nobody said anything. She knew she looked a little worse for wear, considering she didn't look like she used to. Aiden had really broken down her spirit. She felt like she was drifting off into her own mind, which was happening a lot lately, but she tried to continue to listen.

When she pulled herself from her thoughts, she noticed Scott was patiently waiting as Stiles cleared his throat.

She smiled weakly, as an apology, "I'm sorry, guys. I just…I get lost in thought lately. It actually been's happening a lot, in fact. So, let me start at the beginning." Lydia took a deep breath. "First thing's first. That was my daughter, Kristy. She's a few weeks away from her first birthday. She's also Aiden's daughter. He used to come and visit me, and we…" her voice trailed off. She was sure that Ethan didn't want to hear about that, as well as the abuse she had endured from Aiden's hands, so she skipped that part. "You can use imagination. Anyway, I don't think he knows about her, but I'm not sure."

"If Deucalion knows, then so does Aiden and every other pack member," Ethan said. Lydia nodded.

Kristy's a werewolf, of course, but she's also a banshee. I've been taking her to a specialist that was recommended by Erica and Boyd's new alpha." She hated bringing that up as well, but everybody knew that being an omega was dangerous, and Erica and Boyd had sought out an alpha and a pack right after moving to Boston. "We don't know one hundred percent how much banshee is in her, but last week she got really nervous. She was really fussy, and about five different times she let out this wail. It was a banshee scream. That wasn't the first time she had done that. It means something's coming. When Erica came over one day to babysit, she said our apartment had Deucalion's scent all over it. She'd never forget that scent as long as she lived."

Ethan looked down guiltily, but Lydia continued, "I can't be certain. But he's got eyes and ears everywhere. Just because Aiden cut off contact with me doesn't mean he knows about her, but it doesn't mean that he doesn't, either. And the fact that Kristy is half were, half banshee makes me inclined to think that that's why his scent is all over the building."

"Erica's the one who convinced me to come back to Beacon Hills. She convinced me that you guys managed to defeat the alpha pack once, maybe you can do it again. This is my daughter's life we're talking about here."

"Are you sure she's half banshee?" Derek asked, speaking up for the first time.

"When she howls as a werewolf, she lets out a banshee scream. Trust me, she's both."

"She howls?" Scott asks, surprised.

"Look," Lydia said, getting a little irritated. "I don't know anything about raising a werewolf, okay? I'm just winging it here. But yes, she gets agitated and lets out howls on the full moon. She has ever since she was about six months old."

"Does she transform at all?" Derek asked, getting interested. Lydia knew if Derek, a born werewolf, was getting interested, then something was definitely special about Kristy.

"Yeah. She shifted when she was born – from the stress of the birth, the medic said."

"A complete shift?"

Lydia nodded, "Yeah. A wolf."

Derek looked incredibly intrigued at that, "Howling starts early, from six to eight months. But shifting, that doesn't start until about two or three – and at that, only a few people can do a complete shift, like a full wolf. Mom, Peter and Laura were the only ones I knew that could actually do it. Your daughter is incredibly early."

Lydia nodded, "It's the banshee."

"Huh?" Stiles said, speaking for the first time. Huh. Now that she thought about it, Lydia was surprised that Stiles hadn't been talking their ears off already. She probably wasn't the only one who had changed in the last five years, she just never thought about it before.

Lydia sighed, "Look, I've made peace with it, because when I found out about it, it made me feel like a fraud. But banshees can…well, we can kind of tap into different wavelengths. Like, if Stiles says something to me, because of the banshee in me, I can easily understand what he is saying because I get the wavelength. I understand where he is coming from. It's kind of learning without speaking, or even without meaning to. I felt like a fraud when I found out about it, because maybe I wasn't really as smart as I thought I was, but it's just part of the earth, or some shit like that. She's been around other wolves, and they have some kind of unspoken links to each other."

"Not to mention," Lydia said, deciding she should add it, "her hair turns white when she shifts."

"A white wolf?" Stiles asked.

Lydia just nodded. A few moments of silence passed before Lydia added, "I'm a little surprised. You guys act like you haven't come across another banshee before."

"Other than you, they really don't show up here," Scott said truthfully.

"Well, Kristy's special. She's part were, part banshee, as I've already said, and the pack medic who birthed her told me that half and halves are a rare breed. That's probably why Deucalion is after her. I know I probably sound crazy paranoid right now, but if growing up here has taught me anything, it's just that sometimes it pays to be a little paranoid."

"Are you sure he'd be after her?" Scott asked finally.

"Am I sure?" Lydia asked, somewhat incredulously. "Scott, you're the one who handled Deucalion before he left. You're the one who ran the alpha pack out of town – well, what was left of them, anyway. You know how ruthless he can be. And now you're asking me if I'm sure? He's a collector of sorts, Scott. He collects unique werewolves. And, as far as I understand, Kristy's as unique as they get."

The meeting went on for a little while longer and Scott decided, while there was nothing they could do until Deucalion showed his face there, someone would always be around Lydia and Kristy, to protect them. Lydia felt a little worthless that she had to ask for help, but if it was going to save her daughter, she'd take it.