Sorry for the delay, my internet went down when I was going to post, and then life got super busy. Enjoy!

Stiles

Derek woke slowly, sleep falling away from him like honey until he opened his eyes – suddenly awake as soon as sunlight reached his brain. Derek sat up and looked around the room but he was definitely alone. Derek felt surprisingly well rested for his upset night and he threw off the blankets. He walked to the bathroom and threw cold water on his face but it didn't make him feel any more settled so he stepped into an icy shower.

He was unsure if he could believe what he had dreamed or experienced the night before but under the cold water he knew that there was only one thing he could really do. So he climbed out of the shower, dressed warmly, and drove to the cemetery.

Derek knelt in front of his mother's grave and laid the handful of geraniums on the ground in front of the headstone – more in his hand for Laura and his Nana. His father's grave was to the left, his Pop's two rows behind him. This series of plots held nothing but Hales and one day Derek would be buried here too. Laura was at the end of this row, next to little Janey who had only been six when Kate had come after them.

Derek visited his whole family, sitting gingerly on his Grandpop's grave and wondering if the future that he'd been shown could possibly be real. He sat back against Laura's headstone and wondered aloud if he was simply, finally, going mad or if he had honestly been visited by ghosts the night before. When he was done with his family he intended to leave but his feet were taking him in another direction. He stopped in front of Claudia Stilinski's grave completely unsurprised that he'd found her grave so easily. There was a fresh bunch of daisies sitting on the grass – the petals brushing the word mother. And just like that, he knew where he needed to go for answers. He placed the last geranium he was holding – one he hadn't quite known why he wasn't placing on his Nana's grave, onto Claudia's grave, and turned to leave the cemetery.

When he was sitting in his car in front of the Stilinski house he realised how insane what he had to say, what he had to ask, was and couldn't force himself to get out of the car.

He couldn't leave either. He wanted to know what Stiles thought even if he didn't know how to ask for the other man's help. In the end, he didn't need to. There was a knock on his car window and Derek turned, eyes flashing, at the sudden noise. Stiles was standing outside of the car with a shy grin and a wave.

Derek sighed and pushed the car door open. He cocked his hip against the side of the car and looked at Stiles silently; trying to work out what to say.

"Merry Christmas, Derek."

"Merry Christmas."

"Is everything okay?"

Derek shook his head and Stiles took a step closer.

"Are you in danger?" Stiles asked, dropping his voice down to a low rumble.

Derek shook his head. "It isn't that. Something happened…or didn't happen."

Stiles frowned at him.

Derek rolled his shoulders, not all that sure how to even say what he wanted to.

"Whatever it is," Stiles said, watching Derek's movements carefully. "You know you can tell me…anything."

Derek nodded. "I do know that."

Stiles smiled at him, widely, and Derek's chest tightened at how please Stiles looked.

Derek metaphorically girded his loins and just spurted out what he'd come here to say. "Do you believe in an afterlife?"

Stiles gaped at him.

"I mean-"

"Yes," Stiles said, like he hadn't even heard Derek start to qualify his question. "I swear I've seen Mum since she died."

Derek nodded. "I'd never see anyone."

"What changed?"

Derek grimaced, knowing this would sound stupid. "I had these dreams last night."

"Dreams?"

"Where I had the right number of fingers and people came and visited me and then showed me things."

"What type of things?"

"What would have happened if Kate hadn't killed my family when I was sixteen."

Stiles reached out and rested a hand on Derek's forearm very gently as though he wasn't sure of the response he would receive. Derek had to admit that his reluctance was understandable. Derek wasn't sure how to show that he appreciated the touch so he just made a show of looking at it and then looking back up at Stiles with an expression as close to a smile as he could manage at the moment. Stiles' hand tightened on Derek's arm.

"Why do I get the feeling I don't want to know what they showed you."

Derek shook his head.

"She still came?"

Derek nodded.

"I'm sorry."

"Do you think it could have been real?"

"What else did they show you?"

"A possible future."

"Was it good?"

Derek felt his lips quirk. Stiles matched him with a goofy smile.

"I'm glad," Stiles told him quietly.

"But should I believe in the dream?"

"Did it feel like a dream?"

"I had ten fingers."

Stiles smirked.

"I don't believe in good things happening," Derek admitted quietly.

Stiles took a deep breath and nodded decisively as though Derek had just confirmed everything he had been thinking about Derek. "Here is what I think…"

Derek waited but Stiles' voice drifted off. Derek frowned at the other man.

"Would you like to stay for lunch? Melissa and Scott will be coming over – Dad's cooking up a storm in the kitchen. It'll be good – it's not the perfect picture of Christmas maybe but we have fun and there is going to be a lot of food."

Derek's mouth opened, ready to say no like he had the last time Stiles had asked but he thought of the dreams he'd had and found himself saying yes instead. Stiles beamed at him.

"Who visited you?" Stiles asked, tugging Derek gently towards the house.

"Laura, and my Grandpop, and…someone else."

Stiles frowned at him but didn't ask the obvious question. "What was their message to you?"

"How do you know they had a message?" Derek asked, confused.

Stiles shrugged. "A bit like Dickens, right?"

"Yeah."

Stiles shrugged.

"Why do you believe it?"

Stiles smiled. "That's what I do – I believe. I believed that Scott was a werewolf, I believed in Jackson being the kanima, I believe in my spark, I believe in you, I believe; it's my only superpower."

"Laura told me I needed to let go of my guilt. Then Pop showed me a future where Kate came when I was older and killed even more of my family."

"That makes sense."

"How does that make sense?"

Stiles stopped under the front verandah of the house and looked at him for a few long beats, then dropped his head sheepishly. "Her family keeps coming back to Beacon Hills and she keeps coming back to you. Did she use you in the future?"

Derek shook his head. "She couldn't."

"Because she's the problem; it was never your fault, it was her psychopathy."

"Should I even be telling you any of this?"

Stiles shrugged. "Don't tell me about the future you want."

Derek nodded. "I still survived…when she came, I was still the only one to survive."

Stiles' eyes immediately grew soft and sad and Derek's chest ached at the empathy. "Are you going to let go of your guilt and move on? That seems like it's the only real question. If you can't have faith in being happy or good things happening to you maybe all you really need to worry about is; can you help yourself move on and let go of all of that stuff?"

Derek blinked slowly – what Stiles offered him made so much more sense than any of the dreams he'd had the previous night – he could work on forgiving himself even if he never actually got to have Stiles, he could admit that Kate's dogged, and psychopathic, hate of him and his kind at least wasn't his fault. But, if he never quite let another stranger into his life like that again he wouldn't consider that too much of a price to pay. His pack attracted people enough for everyone.

"Come on," Stiles said, grabbing Derek's wrist. "Let's go inside – you can help me with the table."

Derek nodded and followed Stiles into the house.

Even as Derek sat down to lunch with Stiles, Scott, and their parents he couldn't hold onto quite what Amerie had looked like, or the name of the little boy he had never quite met. Stiles smiled at him brightly as he handed over the plate of steamed vegetables and Derek returned it, pushing those thoughts from his head. Maybe he wasn't supposed to remember everything – just enough so that he would make the changes he needed to, to have a better life.

The End

Obviously, Derek gets the future with Stiles and they live happily (for a majority) ever after.