~.~
It's hard to hear something so important pertaining to him, only changed because of a mere wish. To forget that you died and that your continued existence was made possible because of magic, because of hope in a trinket talisman.
"You understand, don't you Derek?" The woman is small, curled hair and older than him by, perhaps two years. Or older than Derek would have been had he really survived the fire. He's well aware of the truth now, this woman telling him that he and Laura had died.
'You didn't survive the fire. Your mother saw you burn but she prayed. The trinket around her neck was powerful and she believed in a different reality for you both and...here you are. Alone now. Only two were meant to survive. Your baby sister and your uncle. I am sorry Derek. But the timeline must be fixed. You...have to go away now.'
And here he is, in his loft aware that all the bad things that have happened in the town since Laura's return and his was because they weren't apart of the natural time line. They had to die, Laura having gone first and now...it was Derek's turn.
He wanted to kick and scream. Bawl like a child the way he used to when he was young. He wanted so many things. To live for them.
Except that he was just like them. He was dead and now, this Grim Reaper was here to take him to the other side.
To where they waited.
Suddenly, being dead didn't seem so bad. Not if it meant what he thought it did. He turned to the girl with brown eyes and curls dressed in white lace and nothing else. "So what happens after?"
She smiles. It's warm and full of hope.
"What was meant to happen from the beginning. None of this," She gestures to the room at large but he knows she means the bigger picture. Everything and everyone effected by the change in the timeline would be placed back to where they belonged. "Everything will have been a dream."
They would be saved.
"Derek..." Scott's voice, he's hesitant. Like he can't believe or doesn't want to believe. "You don't have to do this."
But doesn't he?
"Can they remember?" He asks the Reaper, voice young, timid.
"Only if they want to."
He nods, understanding. Of course, they can remember all the pain and anguish of what they've been through or they can move on from it like it had never been.
He remembers his mother intensely, remembers her at the piano set against the large bay window, the sun streaming and lighting her dark hair and her warm skin. Eyes closed as her fingers danced on the white keys. He misses her more intensely than anything in the world.
And yet...
Yet...
He turns towards the others, standing towards the back of the loft. Isaac, who reminds him of his baby sister, the innocence Cora lost so long ago. Scott, who is more profoundly like Laura before the fire, that it aches to look at him. Cora looks like his mother, from Derek to Laura, it's Cora who looks like her the most. Beautiful. Wild. She'll be alright without him.
Stiles reminds him of who he used to be. It hurts to say goodbye to him more than anyone else, because this human boy didn't have to stick by them so fiercely or protect him without any thought to himself most of the time.
Jackson isn't there but Derek can feel him, miles and miles away doing alright on his own. Free.
Will the other's come back? Will Erica be alright will she be the girl he met or will she have become the beautiful woman who had blossomed and yet, had crumbled all too soon? Would Boyd find her in the right timeline the way he'd found her before? He hopes.
Derek shuts his eyes, imagines the possibilities of staying anyway. The hardships they'd have to face, all the wrongness connected to his being alive when he wasn't supposed to be at all.
He holds out a hand to his uncle and sees the person that he had been before. Maybe, if Peter remembered then he wouldn't try to get revenge. Maybe...
There is an infinite number of maybe's.
Peter grasps his hand, it's...heartbreaking. This moment is too final. The end of everything and suddenly his arms are filled with his baby sister, he can imagine now what life could have been had he made a different choice. A better choice, one that hadn't involved Kate. One that had not involved Derek talking Peter into getting Paige the bite and subsequently killed. That whole sordid tale, poor Peter.
Forgive me.
It's an agonizing moment. He pulls away from them, it's the last moment the final goodbye and he wants to say 'remember me' and 'don't forget,' but the words become stuck in his throat. He thinks about the could have been if he stayed.
There is an infinite number of could have been's.
The Reaper is patient. The Reaper remains where she appeared.
She lifts her hand towards him, palm upward. She smiles.
"Lets go."
Her hand is solid, like cold marble covered in smooth velvet.
They walk towards the large expansive window where the glimmering twilight begins to fade. Maybe, Derek thinks, they'll go right through the glass. He doesn't care. Derek is done caring about anything except the people he's leaving behind for the people he's going to.
"W-wait!"
Derek and the Reaper pause, two feet from the window. Stiles' hand extended outward, Derek can see him stumbling towards them, stopping a foot behind Derek's back, arms lowering slowly and resting at his side. He'd wanted to grab Derek, to stop him but couldn't.
"You can't just go. Seriously Derek, do you trust her?"
He huffs, there is the ghost of a smile plaguing his lips. Derek dips his head and thinks that he will probably miss this harebrained kid the most out of the pack of idiots he's become acquainted with. He turns around, slowly and knows by the look on Stiles face-on all their faces that he's regressed. Or gone back to the Derek he's supposed to be.
Large eyebrows on a round smooth baby face with an expressive small mouth. He's the boy who died not the man who lived.
"You know," He says in a voice at peace. "I think I do trust her. I might have had an inkling that something was off. I think I knew." He says honestly. Nodding at his own admonition. "And I think she did too." He speaks of Laura and feels excited at the prospect of being with her again.
Stiles doesn't say anything. It's awkward to see him quiet. The others have accepted this, Derek can tell from the looks in their eyes, but Stiles is different. It makes Derek wonder if, when Stiles mother had died if the Sheriff had to convince Stiles that she was gone. He doesn't know why he wonders at all. It doesn't really matter now.
"I want to say remember me, but I don't want to burden anyone." He shakes his head, eyes closing for one long moment. He takes a deep cool breath like it may be his last. "I don't need to darken anyone's doorstep anymore. Or windowsill." He smiles at Stiles before he turns his back to him.
"All of you. Have a happy life."
~.~