Fire. Fire everywhere. Stiles could feel the flames, their heat licking his skin in a desperate attempt to grab him. A woman's shrill voice pierced the scorching walls, "Stiles! Stiles, where are you?"

»»-¤-««

Dean flinched violently as his sleeping son let out yet another blood curdling scream. Stiles strained against the strong bonds that held him to the hospital bed, the only thing that was keeping him from thrashing wildly. This had been going on for hours. The doctors had finally had to move them into an isolated unit so that the other residents couldn't heard Stiles' screams.

Even though the hospital was buzzing with activity, it felt as if Team Free Will had been there for days. One wouldn't even think it's was 3:00 AM if not for checking your watch. Eventually, Castiel and Gabriel went on a food run. Sam was originally going to accompany Gabe, but figured out quickly that if Cas were to stay in that room for any longer, he would've had a mental breakdown. That left Sam and Dean alone with Stiles.

Sam reached his hand out, hesitated, then finally rested it on Dean's shoulder.

"Dean-" Sam began before Dean cut him off.

"No, Sammy, I don't wanna hear that 'It's not your fault' Dr. Phil bullshit."

The eldest Winchester felt tears slide down his face and he fiercely wiped them away.

"I did this to him, Sammy. I'm the reason he's on that bed screaming."

"No, you're not," Sam replied, giving Dean's shoulder a hard squeeze.

"Stiles will be fine," he said confidently. Or at least tried to sound confident. The truth was, Sam didn't know if Stiles was going to be alright. The kid's heart had stopped completely, he had died in their arms. But Sam had to believe there was hope for Stiles for his own sake and more importantly, for Dean's sake.

There was a knock on the door before Cas and Gabriel entered holding what smelled like burgers. Gabriel handed Dean a little box of apple pie, giving the man a sympathetic smile. No one was hungry.

"How's the kiddo doin'?"

At that moment Stiles uttered an ear shattering screech making all the men wince.

Dean shook his head sadly. "Not good."

The men sat awkwardly, not a single one touching their food. A few minutes later, a doctor walked into the room. His name tag read, "Dr. Avery". He was the same doctor that they had met once sprinting inside the hospital. Dean didn't like him.

Before the man could say anything, Stiles gave a loud shriek.

"Why does he keep screaming like that?" Dean demanded.

"Your son is adopted, yes?" the doctor asked.

"What does that have to do with anything?" Dean growled.

"Your son was most likely exposed to an extremely traumatic event before you adopted him."

"That would explain his severe anxiety," Castiel mumbled.

"Yes," the doctor nodded. "And in this state, his psyche is forcing up all of those haunting memories."

"What kinda traumatic events are we takin', doc?" Gabe asked in a concerned tone.

"Rape or other sexual abuse, battery, neglect, parental death," the doctor listed.

Castiel had begun to cry and Dean held the angel closely to his chest.

"He was just 5 when we found him," Dean countered, his voice soft and broken.

"I'm sorry to say this, Mr. Winchester, but we've had cases younger than 5."

"Is there anything we can do?" Sam quizzed desperately.

"I'm afraid not. My suggestion would be to stay around him, provide him with love and things that bring him joy. Other than that, we'll just have to wait until he wakes up."

"Is there any chance he might..." Castiel trailed off, leaving the horrible sentence in the air. The expression on the doctor's face gave them the answer they'd all been dreading.

"What are the odds?" Dean whispered.

"If your son does not wake up within the next 4 hours, he has about a fifty fifty shot at survival."

Giving Stiles' family one more kind glance, the man exited the room.

Castiel's sobs momentarily replaced the sound of Stiles' screams. Gabriel was shaking and Sam held the archangel against his elephantine body, a few tears falling onto his cheeks. Dean convinced himself that he wasn't going to cry. He had to be strong for Cas. They wouldn't even be in this mess if it weren't for him.

"I'm sorry, Stiles," Dean whispered. "I'm so, so sorry."

His thoughts of self-hatred were interrupted when Sam exclaimed, "Hey! Where'd Gabe go?"

»»-¤-««

Derek punched another hole into the elm tree he was standing beside. The words "thing" and "it" continued to stab themselves into his brain. The look of disgust on Stiles' father's face when he realized Derek was a werewolf.

"Stiles deserves more than me," he mumbled to himself. "He's better off without me."

"You sure about that?" a voice asked, causing Derek to jump.

The werewolf turned to see Gabriel leaning against a tree only a few yards away from Derek. He narrowed his burning red eyes at the angel.

"What do you want?"

Gabriel began to strut towards Derek.

"Look kiddo, I know you probably hate me, but we've got bigger fish to fry. Stiles is in the hospital."

Worry coursed through Derek's body.

"What happened? How badly is he hurt? Is he going to be-"

"How 'bout I just show you," Gabriel said before grabbing Derek's arm.

The pair appeared back in the room with Team Free Will.

Derek stumbled and had to lean against the wall for support, wheezing in gulps of air. For a moment, he thought he might pass out but managed to regain composure. Looking around, Derek found four pairs of eyes trained directly on him. One pair stood out more than the others: the pair of piercing green eyes that seemed to drill through Derek's body.

"What is it doing here?" Dean asked, his tone dark and cold.

Before anyone had a chance to respond, Stiles shrieked, the sound momentarily deafening Derek's overly sensitive hearing.

Stiles' Pop was taken aback by the amount of pain that washed over Derek's features. He stared at Stiles with a care that Dean could feel in his soul. That everyone in the room could feel.

"Is he... Why is he..." Derek trailed off as his voice broke.

The werewolf began to stumble towards his boyfriend until Dean blocked his path, a snarl of disgust on his face.

"Sam, Gabriel, take Derek for a walk," Castiel commanded, his voice final and threatening.

The two men lead a shell shocked Derek into the hall. Once they had left the room Cas spun around to face his husband. Rage filled the shorter man's face, fists clenched until his knuckles turned white.

"Stop! I've had enough of your volatile attitude towards our son's companion!"

Dean's face contorted as he sputtered, "But, Cas-"

"Dean Winchester, you will let Derek see our son. You will let them continue to date, and you will do so without lashing out towards Derek. Are we clear?"

Power cracked throughout the angel's blue eyes like lightning, the energy strong enough to make Dean's back stiffen. Cas was almost never like this, and it was disturbing.

"Fine," he grumbled. "But if it ever-"

A glare from Castiel forced Dean to rephrase his wording.

"If... Derek," Dean gritted his teeth, "Ever hurts our boy, do not expect me to go easy on him."

10 minutes, Sam and Gabriel returned with Derek, the werewolf's posture immediately slumping once he saw his boyfriend in the coma. He began to race to Stiles but skidded to a stop when he saw Dean still blocking his way. Castiel cleared his throat and gave Dean a glare that Derek never wanted to be the on the receiving end of. With an excessive huff, Dean slowly stepped aside, leaving Derek with a surprise look on his face. The look dissipated when Dean jerked his head towards Stiles in an, "I'm doing this for Cas but I don't like you and I never will so hurry it up" look on his face.

Derek rushed to Stiles side, cupping his face with his hands. "Hey, babe, how you doing? Don't worry, Stiles, I'm here now. I'm here now."

Castiel's heart melted when he saw Derek murmuring to Stiles, holding his face lovingly. So many things the couple did reminded him of himself and Dean.

Derek grudgingly stepped back from his boyfriend and turned to face Stiles' family.

"What happened?"

A silence filled the room as the men all shared looks with each other. Nobody wanted to be the one to tell the alpha werewolf why the person he's in love with is in the hospital. Dean had opened his mouth but was silenced by Castiel.

Sam finally stepped forward and told Derek what happened. Surprisingly, Derek held an expressionless face the entire time Sam was telling the story. There were a few times that his eyes flashed red, but his face was as blank as a slate. The men were all impressed.

"Have you tried to use your angel powers or whatever to help him?" Derek asked, his voice extremely low and gruff. Deadly.

"I'm afraid we cannot," Castiel answered cautiously and sadly.

"Given the past 24 hours, we can only assume Stiles is a supernatural creature. If Gabriel or I were to attempt to use our grace to cure Stiles, we could very well make the situation at hand even worse."

"Yeah, what Cassie said," Gabriel agreed. "Plus, we don't even know what the hell the kiddo is."

"He's not an angel?" Derek asked in confusion. Castiel was an angel, considering Stiles was his son it would be the obvious choice.

"No dice," Gabriel replied. "Angels give off very specific power signatures. Even fallen angels like me and Cassie."

"If Stiles were an angel," Castiel interjected, "His eyes would have turned blue during his...episode."

"But you're his father," Derek responded, still utterly perplexed.

"Stiles is adopted," Dean finally spoke.

Derek turned to focus his sharp eyes on the eldest Winchester and Dean would be lying if he said it wasn't intimating as hell. Still, he held the werewolf's gaze. He had to show Derek he wasn't the only alpha in the room, supernatural creature or not.

"Sam, Cas, and I found him on a hu- trip."

Derek knew Dean was about to say hunt. He didn't give a rat's ass. But that didn't stop the tension in the room to increase a few notches.

"Yes," Castiel said quickly, trying to soften the mood.

"We found him near a house. Or at least, the house's remains. Stiles was sitting in a humongous, dark hole of ash."

"Just sitting by himself," Sam contributed. "Crying his eyes out and rocking back and forth."

"He was only 5 years old," Dean mumbled.

"5 years old and all by himself, we couldn't just leave him there and we couldn't turn him in. The kid was already traumatized enough and the situation was too abnormal to explain to the cops. So we took the kid home with us. For the first three days, he didn't talk at all."

"He didn't even eat," Castiel added.

"But when he came out it" Sam continued. "It was really somethin'."

Dean nodded in agreement.

"At first he was annoying as hell, always talking and asking questions. But, we ended up falling in love with him anyway."

"So we kept him," Cas finished, casting a wistful look at Dean.

"Grows on you, doesn't he?" Sam grinned at Derek.

Derek answered with a slight chuckle.

»»-¤-««

"Oh yeah, that's real mature, Tough Guy," Stiles said dryly.

"Just ignore the situation at hand and maybe it'll go away."

"That's usually how I deal with most of my problems," Derek retorted and Stiles let out a laugh that contained no humor.

"Oh, so now I'm a problem? That sure as hell wasn't what you were saying last night when I was licking-"

Derek cut him off with a growl, earning a grin from Stiles.

"Ooh, did I hit a nerve? Oh wait, we're not supposed to talk about your problems right?"

Derek glared at him with a look so poisonous, most people would have flinched. Stiles merely smirked.

"Did I make the Big Bad Wolf mad?" Stiles taunted amusedly.

Derek snarled.

"Get to goddamn the point, Stiles. Why are you really here?"

Stiles abruptly grabbed Derek's hand. He used his index finger to trace patterns along Derek's palm, while simultaneously making intense eye contact.

"Well, ya see," Stiles began. "A few nights ago, I saw this guy in a diner. Gorgeous guy. Dark hair, green eyes, leather jacket. Needless to say, things ended up heating up and we well..." Stiles gave Derek a lustful look.

"I'm sure your imagination can finish that thought."

Derek's eyes clouded with desire and Stiles smirked.

"But the problem is, after that night, I can't seem to find him. You wouldn't know anything about that, would you, Derek?"

The werewolf gave the boy desperate eyes, mind racing.

This was supposed to be a one night thing! I mean, this is Stiles we're talking about. You hate each other! He makes you crazy and frustrated and oh god why did you have to kiss him?

»»-¤-««

"Almost as fast as ivy," Gabriel chortled. "Well, without the poison. Except for that sarcasm. He gets that from Cassie."

Dean and Sam snorted. Castiel tilted his head.

"I do not think that our son inherited the art of sarcasm from me, Gabriel."

"See! Isn't he a hoot?"

Derek cracked a small smile at the whole scene. He knew exactly what that was like, falling in love with Stiles.

»»-¤-««

"Look Derek, " Stiles began. "I know we've both lost people we love."

Derek's solemn face broke as a flash of sorrow went across it.

"But there's no point in pushing me away," Stiles continued. "I'm not going anywhere. I don't care what you say or do."

Derek's green eyes filled with emotions he hadn't felt in years.

Stiles sighed. "You're my air and without you, I'm not me."

He looked at Derek hopefully.

"Well, say something."

Derek stared back with pained eyes.

"One day you'll change your mind and then you'll leave me," Derek replied stiffly. "And that will kill me, Stiles."

He directed his gaze to the ground.

"When most people get their heart broken, they can move on," Derek said flatly. He began to pace back and forth.

"But that won't be me, Stiles," he said, voice finally breaking as green eyes met gold.

"I won't survive you."

Stiles rushed forward and pressed their bodies together.

"Sorry to break it to ya, Sourwolf, but you're stuck with me."

He brushed his lips against Derek's and grinned when Derek shivered against him.

"I want you, Derek. I want us. You and me. Forever," he said, wrapping his arms around the werewolf's neck.

"Isn't it obvious?" Stiles grinned. "I love you, loser."

Derek couldn't help but smile back, and it was absolutely beautiful.

"You and me forever? I can deal with that."

»»-¤-««

Dean still didn't quite believe that Derek and Stiles were in love. They were just so young. When he was that young, the thought of love was a joke. A fairytale. Sex was what was real. Sex didn't involve attachments. It didn't help their case that Derek was a werewolf. Then again, he had to consider the fact that Stiles was a Supernatural creature too...

Suddenly, Stiles gave out a small moan. His family was at his side in seconds.

"Stiles, kid, you in there?" Dean asked hopefully.

The boy did nothing and the once hopeful looks on the faces that surrounded him vanished. Cas sniffled and Sam cursed.

They all returned to their chairs only to move them closer to Stiles. Despite their expressions of despair, there was still some part of his family that thought he would pull through.

Derek pulled a chair right up beside Stiles' bed.

Looking down at the love of his life as Stiles lay there in a coma, he felt pieces of his heart slowly begin to chip away. Derek knew if Stiles were die, his heart would shatter all together.

He grabbed Stiles' hand and squeezed it lovingly three times.

I. Love. You.

A tear of joy began to run down Derek's cheek as he felt Stiles automatically squeeze four times back.

I. Love. You. Too.