It happened when fairies were the monster of the week. Fucking fairies. It wasn't how Stiles thought he'd go that was for sure. For once he hadn't had to research, because fairies had been a problem only a few months before the Hale Fire and Derek had been allowed to help. They were mostly just pranksters, but they liked to prank the pack the most so they had to go. Go figure the time they actually know what to do would be the time that it all went to hell.

The spell to banish the fairies involved sage, deer urine, and a ring of pure iron. Which was gross by the way. The pack, Scott and Stiles had armed themselves with a couple of old iron crowbars. Stiles, of course, was the only one that could probably pull the stupid ritual/spell thing off so that duty fell to him. Well, he probably could have argued that point, but Derek could still probably snap him in half and not in the good way... not that Stiles wanted Derek to snap him in half in the good way.

Anyway, they were in the middle of the woods at midnight and Stiles was chanting in Latin or Fairynese for all he knew as the pack, Allison and Scott stood around him at the ready. They could see the lights that would randomly dance through the trees slowly going out. Derek encouraged Stiles to keep going, sounding excited. Stiles knew it was because a plan was actually working for once. But as it turned out, the fairies weren't too keen on being shoved back into fairyland.

Suddenly, he and Derek were tackled to the ground by seven or eight of the things. Stiles did his best to keep chanting, even with the wind knocked out of him. The ring around the fire was glowing which meant they were almost done. Stiles tried to stand but was shoved hard by another bunch of fairies. His foot caught on the iron ring and he stumbled, falling towards the fire. Stiles saw Derek reaching out to stop him, a look of horror in his eyes, but then it all went black.

When Stiles came back to reality it was quiet. He was on the ground on other side of the fire and unharmed. Everyone was staring at the fire silently. Stiles just kept looking from shocked face to shocked face as he sat up.

"Did it work?" he asked. No one even looked at him. "Guys... you're freaking me out."

Slowly, everyone started to look at Derek. Derek didn't take his eyes off the flames. Scott was the first one to speak. "Where'd he go?"

Stiles frowned. "Where did who go?"

Derek looked up and over at Scott. "He was just..." He trailed off and stepped closer to the fire. Walking around it, Derek seemed to be looking at it from every angle, like if he found just the right view of it he could figure it out.

Stiles stood slowly before following Derek on his next pass around the fire. "Look, Der, calm down a second would you?" Stiles reached out to grab Derek's shoulder. Instead of the dark cotton in his fingers, Stiles' hand went right though. "What the fuck?" Derek stopped walking and looked around but Stiles was only half paying attention. "Am I a ghost? Seriously? Shouldn't I be, like, staring down at my dead body or something- whoa!" Turning around, Derek pretty much walked right through him, stopping just behind Stiles. "Watch it, alpha boy! I may be incorporeal but I will haunt the shit out of you. So stop."

Derek didn't look at him because yeah, invisible.

Scott stepped forward. "Derek?"

"I don't... he's not here," was Derek's intelligent reply.

The pack all exchanged looks and Allison made her way over to Scott. Erica moved closer to Boyd, looking uncertain. They met half way. The obviously growing romance would be cute if Stiles was solid. Derek's eyes were on the fire, like he could stare it into giving Stiles back.

"Do you think the fairies took him?" Everyone looked to Boyd. While he wasn't a man of many words, the ones he mustered were always quality.

Derek's brows furrowed. "You can't just take a human to their realm. It would be such a shock to the system that Stiles would be-" Derek stopped talking as the idea sunk in. "But that is not what happened."

Scott squeezed Allison's hand. "I'm gonna have to tell his dad."

Everyone, even Derek, looked at Scott. "I'll come with you."

Scott's laugh sounded broken and Stiles wished he could hug him. "Because that is a good idea."

"It's my fault. We'll tell him together. Tell him the truth." Derek seemed to be only just holding it together and shit. Derek thought this was his fault. Well it was a little his fault but Derek was brooding with guilt already from the rest of the shit that went down in his life. And holy shit, his Dad was going to break down.

"Whoa, I am not gone, I'm right here. Don't you let them give up on me, Der. You're supposed to be the leader! Reason with them!" No one could hear him and it was getting frustrating—being there but not at the same time.

The group didn't say anything after that. Derek put out the fire, and they all migrated back towards the cars. Derek gave his keys to Isaac and the pack piled in the Camero. Allison, Scott and Derek went for his Jeep. "Wait, Scott, no. I don't care if I'm dead or invisible or whatever I will not have your paws on my baby." Derek made his way to the front and soon after it turned on. "The son of a bitch hotwired my jeep! I've been gone five minutes!"

Realistically Stiles knew they couldn't just leave his car in the middle of the woods. It wasn't their fault his keys were in his pocket when he pulled a Houdini. He wanted to just stay in the woods. He didn't want to see his dad's face or watch them mourn him. But as Allison and Scott slid into the back, Stiles felt a tug-a need to go with them. He was debating how to ride along without being able to open the door when he was suddenly in the passenger's seat. "I can teleport? Nifty."

When they got to Stiles' house, he imagined himself to the porch while he waited for everyone else to catch up. "I'm going to miss this teleporting thing if you guys ever figure out I'm not dead-dead."

Stiles would hold onto the hope he wasn't really dead until they found a body. Scott knocked on the front door. Stiles dad was actually home tonight but he thought Stiles was at Scott's. This wasn't going to end well. Stiles stood with his friend, unseen but unable to let him face it alone.

The door opened, his father looked like he'd just woken up. When he saw the three of them fear crossed his face. "Where's Stiles?"

Scott took a deep breath and his voice came out crack. "It's a long story... one that you might want to be sitting down for."

Stiles' dad only nodded and they all headed for the living room. There was a glass on the coffee table and Stiles frowned. Then again his dad would probably need that drink after this talk. "You going to finally tell me what's been going on?"

They all sat down, and Derek took point. "This is going to be hard to believe, but you need to know. So just, brace yourself for a second." The expression on his dad's face was skeptic. But he sat back and waited. When Derek transformed Stiles' swore his father had been close to shitting himself.

"What the hell, kid?"

"I'm a werewolf. The whole Hale family was for the most part..."

Scott chimed in. "Back when you guys found Laura? She was killed by his uncle, Peter. He wanted to be Alpha."

"Wait, the guy who was catatonic?" Yeah, Stiles supposed he should have known his dad knew about that. He was one of the cops who had worked the Hale Fire.

Derek nodded. "Yeah, except it drove him crazy and he bit Scott."

"Wait, Scott's a werewolf?"

Scott nodded this time. "That's why Stiles was caught up in all this supernatural shit that's been going down. It happened when we went out in the wood to look for Laura's body."

His dad picked up his drink and drank it. "This is a lot to take in. Wait... what do you mean was?"

Derek looked at the floor. "Tonight we were expelling fairies from town. Stiles preformed the spell while we protected him. He fell across the spell circle and… disappeared. He's missing."

Stiles dad ran a hand across his face. "Did they take him?"

"If they did… he'd be either concussed or comatose in the fairy realm. He'd need help immediately and we have no way to reach him."

Stiles had never seen his dad look so scared in all his life. What was weird was Derek looked about the same.

"The spell takes a finesse none of us has. I would need a proper witch. Stiles only worked because he's a spark. Not a full magic user… but something. I need to research it; make sure that is what happened and find something to bring him back."

Oh God, Derek was forming some kind of plan. His plans never worked. Besides, Stiles was most definitely not in the fairy world if he was watching them plot. If Derek was taking the lead, Stiles was dead for sure if he wasn't already. Life had been so much easier without magic.

Stiles dad was smiling sadly as he started to shake. "She always said he was special… And all this time he was dealing with this and lying to protect ME." He met Derek's eyes and stared the alpha down. "How long would he have?"

Derek looked away first. "If that is what happened to him?... Maybe a couple days. According to all the info I've got time doesn't work the same in the Fae." Wow, so his chances were shit. That was always good to know. Derek the Blunt. Always a comfort.

The sheriff buried his head in his hands. That was when Derek stood abruptly and knelt next to him. "I am not giving up on him. He's alive. I know it." There was a certainty there that Stiles had never heard before, well, not directed at him. John looked up to meet Derek's eyes.

"What if you don't find a way soon?"

"I keep looking for a way. Stiles is smart and strong. He'd find a way to survive there." Derek meant that and Stiles smiled sadly, because obviously not. Way to give him a vote of confidence now, sourwolf.

It gave his dad some comfort, so Stiles decided to just be grateful. Hope could be dangerous if he really was dead and a ghost. This sucked royally, not knowing what the hell was going on. Typical. He couldn't just be allowed to pass on. He had to watch their mad scramble to rescue him. Stiles hated everything. Stiles' dad stood then and so did Derek. "This is really crazy, Hale. Beyond crazy."

"I know… I'm sorry." Derek looked at the floor and Stiles remembered that he was, what? Twenty three?

His dad put a hand on Derek's shoulder. "Get him back."

"Yes, Mr. Stilinski."

"If you need anything, you let me know. Who's your point of contact on this?"

Derek bit his lip, uncertain. "Deaton-at the vets office. He's a kind of… medicine man."

That was one way of putting it. The sheriff took that in stride. "I'll put out a missing persons. We'll start a search. I have to go be the frantic worried father. You do what you've got to. And don't think this is the last of it. I expect a full account of everything that's been going on once Stiles is found."

Derek and Scott nodded together. They all moved towards the door and Stiles turned and stepped right through Allison. He'd forgotten she was there, quietly hovering in the background. When Scott passed she took his hand. Eyes meeting they walked out together in silence. Derek turned and headed towards town, not looking back. This time when they left Stiles didn't feel the tug he did in the woods. His dad was pulling on his sheriff jacket and getting in his police car, cell phone already to his ear.

Stiles teleported to his room just to have something to do. Looking around his room suddenly made him feel exhausted. He wondered if he could sleep, being a ghost. It was unlikely, but why not, right? The real trick would be not falling through the mattress. He concentrated on being on his bed. The teleport thing apparently worked for that too. It didn't feel soft and he didn't sink into it, but he was on it and that was some kind of victory. Laying back, he closed his eyes and tried to let his mind slip away. It wasn't long before he felt the familiar lull in his mind that was drifting off.

Suddenly he was in anguish. "Holy fucking sweet Jesus—" The blasphemies came out in one long slew. Every inch of his body screamed and he wasn't on his bed. He was in a leaf bed and a cold hand pressed to his forehead.

He sat upright and found himself back in his room. "What the hell just happened?"

Stiles didn't dare fall asleep again… just in case.