NOTES: OK, this chapter is almost entirely exposition. But hopefully it's interesting, I hope I've had an interesting take on something that other people have already done..

Derek had been incredibly stupid and horny, he'd let his hormones take control of the situation and now at just 15 years of age, he was about to be come a father. The girl's parents had already decided that she couldn't keep the child. They'd also decided that if Derek came within 20ft of her ever again, he'd find a knife in his chest. Mrs Hale was disappointed in Derek. But she was also a loving and supportive mother, who would never allow her grandson to grow up in care. She took Derek and his newborn child back to the Hale mansion. But there were conditions to this arrangement: Derek would raise the child as his own, since it was his own, while herself and other family members who were in a position to do so, would offer child minding services while he was finishing school and went to college.

A few days after Jackson's 6th birthday, Derek met her.. He'd gone to a nightclub to unwind and relax, then he'd noticed her and was unable to keep himself from staring. Her honey blonde tumbled down her back in loose waves, her light strappy top revealed her flesh - but not in a trashy way. Her jeans clung to her hips and ass, in a way that was impossible for him not to notice. By the end of the night, he'd gone back to her place, he hadn't intended for the romance to be such a whirlwind. But that's the way life works sometimes and the whirlwind romance ended just as quickly as it had began. It ended on the day he walked into the kitchen of the Hale Mansion, just in time to see Kate slapping Jackson across the face. Nobody was going to abuse his kid and just like that there was no room in his life for Kate Argent.

A few days after Derek had forcibly removed Kate from the Hale Mansion, he had to go to San Francisco for a job interview. He'd made a day of it, going to the theatre and a few strip clubs - something he'd never do in Beacon Hills. He bought a giant cuddly bear for Jackson and finally got back in his car, he made steady progress back to Beacon Hills. There was no need to rush, Jackson would already have been put to bed by Derek's mother or perhaps by Laura. Around 11pm he finally arrived in Beacon Hills, as he waited at a red light in the town centre shrill sirens blared and fire engines raced past his black Camaro. Derek thought nothing of it until he pulled into the driveway leading to the Hale Mansion, all the activity he'd witnessed in the town centre seemed to have descended on this spot.

The clearing glowed eerily as the orange flames licked the wooden walls of the huge house, Derek lept from his car and broke through the group of firemen trying to hold him back. "Jackson, Jackson." Derek screamed as he tried to push his way into the burning house, it was useless. He put his hands across he face, attempting to shield himself from the heat so he could find his son, but the intense heat beat him back. He tried to fight through the heat, ignore it, but his redoubled efforts failed. Eventually he collapsed, dropping to his knees "Jackson, Jackson." he continued to scream - his voice sounding dangerously like a howling animal. Slowly the voices began to infiltrate his consciousness and he stopped screaming long enough to let the sense of relief wash over him.

"Derek!"

"Daddy, Daddy!"

He glanced over his shoulder and saw Laura's sleek silver Mercedes parked next to his own car, she was trying to suppress the look of terror on her face and Jackson was safe in her arms. Derek stood and raced to them, Jackson reached towards him and he swept the small boy out of Laura's arms and into his own - squeezing him tightly. Jackson pressed his face into father's shoulder and squeezed him back, as tightly as he could. Laura proceeded to explain "Kate showed up at the house 30 minutes or so before Jackson went to bed, and Jackson was terrified she'd hit him again. So I took him to my apartment. I tried to get back here before you, but I also didn't want Jackson witnessing an ugly scene if Kate had hung around." Jackson's breathing slowed as he fell asleep in his father's arms.

Then the relief he'd felt upon seeing Jackson in Laura's arms faded, because the realisation sunk in that others had been in the house. His mother and father, his 2 older brothers, aunts, uncles cousins and grandparents. They'd all have been sleeping, because the family vacation began tomorrow with a ridiculously early flight. He looked at the house and saw that the fire was nearly extinguished but the firemen hadn't actually managed to get anybody to safety. Suddenly there was movement at the front door and Uncle Peter was wheeled out on a stretcher, he was badly burnt and barely conscious, but he was alive and that was the important thing. For the briefest of moments Derek was hopeful that his family somehow managed to survive, until the next stretcher came out and sheets were pulled up over the occupant's face.

Uncle Peter was the only one that survived the fire at the Hale Mansion, his recovery was slow and painful but within a year he was back on his feet and refusing cosmetic surgery for his burns. He wanted everybody to know what "that Argent bitch" had done, but she'd somehow been clever enough to avoid detection. Her and some rednecks had lobbed tear gas canisters into the Hale Mansion and then set it alight, his sons, daughters, nieces nephews and practically everybody he cared about had died without any chance of escaping, that had made him bitter and changed his usually sunny disposition. It disturbed Derek and Laura that Uncle Peter now spent most of his time plotting against the Argent's it was stupid and pointless, even if revenge was a viable option Peter was in no fit state to seek it.

That's why it was surprising when the day after the 1st anniversary of the Hale Mansion fire, the police found the bodies of Peter Hale, Kate and Chris Argent in the burnt out shell of the former Hale residence. Peter had died from a single stab wound, Kate had died from multiple stab wounds and Chris had a broken neck. Probably a result of falling down the stairs and crashing through the fire-weakened hall floor on to the basement concrete. Of course it wasn't apparent why any of them were there in the first place or how exactly, the events leading to their deaths had unfolded. 2 days later Laura, Derek and Jackson Hale buried Peter, while Victoria and Allison Argent buried Chris and Kate. After the funeral Victoria put Allison, her adorable 4 year old, to bed, then she went to her own room put a gun in her mouth pulled the trigger.

This was the chain of events that led to the decimation of the most 2 affluent families in the very affluent small town of Beacon Hills, it was also the chain of events that led to Derek Hale adopting Allison Argent. He couldn't bare the thought of her ending up in care and the events that transpired had nothing to do with her, she couldn't help it if her aunt had been a raging psychopath. It also wasn't Allison's fault that her only living relative was serving a prison sentence. There was so much bad blood that Derek figured one small act of kindness, would actually benefit everybody concerned. Jackson would also gain a little sister. Derek had grown up in a large family and sometimes wondered if being an only child was in Jackson's best interests, only later did he wonder if he could survive being a single father of 2.