Stiles wakes up with another of his morning, pounding headaches. They pretty much became a norm since, shit started going down again. Still he feels more rested than he's felt since… Well, he doesn't even remember when.

He knew why.

It wasn't like in those movies or books, where the main character wakes up in a different place from where he's used to, and is momentarily lost on where he is or how he got there. Stiles remembers really vividly where he is and what happened just before he fell asleep on top of Derek. Which probably explains the blush creeping on his face.

"You up?" Derek asks from somewhere not far.

Stiles, finally, opens his eyes and sits up as a reply. Derek is in the small open kitchen, beside the coffee machine.

Coffee.

It's all the incentive Stiles needs to get up and walk over there, faintly resembling a zombie.

Derek hands him a steaming mug looking amused. Stiles' not sure though, his eyebrows just look less broody.

Once he sipped contently at the nectar of the gods for a while, he's awake and rested enough to start feeling really self-conscious about what happened that night.

"What is it?" Derek asks.

And Stiles sighs, because of course he would pick on the upturn of his pulse. "About yesterday…" Stiles begins shuffling a little on his feet, not quiet meeting Derek's eyes, "I kind of slept on you, uhm sorry…"

After a while spent in silence Stiles, being too busy staring at his feet, finally looks up when he hears a snort. Derek rolls his eyes, "It's fine Stiles, you kind of looked like you didn't sleep in ages, of course you'd sleep on the first available surface, that happened to be me, no big deal." Derek say frowning at his coffee.

Stiles gapes, "No big- Okay, who are you and what you've done with Derek Hale." Derek scowls and Stiles grins, "There he is."

Derek shakes his head in a I'm so done with you way and then asks, "Do you want something to eat? We could go somewhere,"

Stiles doesn't know how to react, so he stares for a while. The question di per se made sense, because Derek hasn't lived in the loft for a while, so of course he didn't have food. What was really, really out of the ordinary, was Derek offering him to buy food for. He was pretty sure that would've never happened a couple of months ago. Well, to be fair neither was the whole sleeping on each other business.

Maybe it was the coffee or the fact that Stiles had actually got some real resting sleep, or the fact that Derek was finally back and made Stiles feel comfortable enough to forget his worries even for just a while, but Stiles hasn't felt more like himself like in that moment.

Derek takes the silence and Stiles' staring, as a yes apparently, and shrugs on his leather jacket, but before he can walk to the door, Stiles grabs his wrist, stilling him in place. "Wait," Stiles says and Derek looks up from where the boy is touching him. "About… uhm-" Stiles tries to take deep calming breaths, but the panic is settling down on his skin again. His heart pounding in his chest.

Then he feels a hand on his shoulder and glances up, relaxing a little in the touch.

"About, what I told you.. About Donovan, I-"

"You have to tell them, to Scott and your dad." Derek says firmly.

"How…" Stiles forces out gulping, suddenly feeling a lump in his throat threatening to choke him, "How.. –What do you think of what- "

"I'm glad he's dead." Stiles focuses back on Derek's face, eyes wide. Derek merely shrugs, "If he wasn't, it'd mean that you'd be," Derek's jaw twitches and breaths out from his nose, like he needs to steady himself before he continues, "You'd be dead. So yeah, I'm glad he's dead." Derek pries Stiles' fingers open from his grip on his wrist so that he can take Stiles' hand in his. "First, it was an accident, and if you really want to put it on you, then it was self-defence. It was either gonna be you or him. That's why you have to tell your Dad and Scott, you don't have anything to feel guilty about, if he hadn't died that night, we all might have been standing at your bedside in a hospital or worse," Derek gulps, "… At your funeral. And I'm sure neither of them would ever want that."

The lump in his throat seems to tighten and Stiles takes a deep, shuddering breath to try steadying himself. For so long, Stiles had never felt safer than he felt right now. Again he wondered why Derek had come back, but didn't voiced it out.

Derek lets go of his hand and takes a step back, "Let's get some breakfast."

Stiles' nibbling at his half eaten doughnut when finally he remembers something that he'd been dying to tell Derek.

Derek is already looking at him and he raises his eyebrows in that Hale eloquent way, when Stiles turns to him eyes wide, "I don't trust Theo." He starts point blank, "There's something about him that is really shady, and I know he's a wolf and your wolfie nature probably tells you to trust him, or whatever, like Scott's seems to do, but I swear Derek, this is not like those other times, I just, I-"

"Stiles," Derek interrupts, "I believe you."

Three little words that have the power to render Stiles absolutely speechless. Not only on the outside but in his mind too. He's been so used to try to convince and bring proofs of his distrust of Theo, to his friends, that when Derek says those three simple words so easily, he just doesn't know what to do. Well, his body does, apparently though. Because now he's pretty sure his eyes are filling again. Ugh. Since when did he became so emotional? Oh, no, don't answer that. Cause that would make him think of Dread Doctors, guilt like he never felt before, lying to his dad again, and the possibility of his friends not believing him.

If he ever had an excuse time to feel kind of emotional, that was probably now.

He exhales then, a small smile creeping on his lips, "Thanks,"

Derek shakes his head, "You don't have anything to thank me for, I don't get why Scott seems to trust the kid so much. He's different somehow,"

Stiles nods, "We'll figure it out."

Turns out that Stiles has a free period when he gets to school, so he goes to search for the Nemeton with Derek and Lydia.

Lydia smiled a weird smile when she saw them arriving together, kind of surprised and pleased, but then Stiles hadn't got time to think about it in too deep, because then she's asking him why they can't just go to Parrish in the first place.

Stiles sighs as he marks another tree, and catches Derek watching him from another tree a couple of feet away. "We can't,"

"Why not?" Lydia asks exasperated.

"Because one of them…" He starts, "One of them… Could be a clue…" He says lamely.

Lydia shakes her head, "I'm leaving now, Stiles. I'm gonna talk to Parrish and tell him he's the one taking the bodies."

Stiles glances at Derek helplessly, and the Lydia turns again to say, "It's always better when they know" and walks away.

"Well, he should know that he owes me a Jeep."

Derek walks over to him and squeezes his shoulder, "She's right."

Stiles nods, "I know, I know, I just…"

"When are you going to tell them?"

Stiles takes a deep breath, "After School."

After Derek takes him to school again, Stiles goes to the library and meets Theo halfway there. He asks about the Nemeton and Stiles tells him that, that's probably where they were going to find the bodies.

Then Theo brings out Donovan and Stiles frowns, "Yeah, and she'll also gonna find Josh."

When Theo tells him that now, maybe, things are different, after what Scott did to Cory, and tries to reassure him telling him that he's sure Scott wouldn't blame him. He doesn't feel much better.

It's different from when Derek had told him, now if possible, he kind of feels worse, like he probably deserved Donovan's faith. And it's then that he sees himself impaled.

Stiles has another free period and he's just gotten down the stairs when he comes face to face with Derek, "Dude, have you been here the whole time?"

"Cory's at the hospital and there's another dead chimera." Derek says completely ignoring his question.

Stiles curses under his breath and pulls out his phone to call Lydia, while Derek calls Scott.

Lydia is not answering and Stiles' curses become more colourful.

"Scott's at the hospital, Cory's dead." Derek informs him. And Stiles sighs, shaking his head tiredly. He wonders, if he'll ever get back those normal days when he didn't necessarily had to hear of the death of another kid. Derek squeezes his hand in a comforting way, "He's looking for Hayden and Liam, I told him we'll look too."

Stiles nods, "Yes, of course. Uhm," he checks his watch, "My jeep should be ready now, if you take me to the mechanic we can cover more ground."

Derek has a constipated look on his face, like he doesn't like the idea at all, but doesn't want to show it. Finally, he nods a little too stiffly, and then walks to his Camaro.

After searching unsuccessfully for a while, Stiles finally receives a text from Scott telling him that he found them and that they were going to the animal clinic. He calls Derek and they meet halfway and drive together.

Big, heavy raindrops start to fall and Stiles sighs, praying that the wipers of his poor, battered, but still somewhat hanging Jeep, work. He checks Derek from the rear mirror, and smiles when he sees him close behind. It's good that Scott has already found the lost puppies cause turns out, Stiles and Derek didn't cover much ground as Stiles first expected. Once Derek had driven him to the mechanic, Stiles had gotten on his jeep and went to the Preserve thinking that it was worth checking it out. He had driven for a while for then notice the Camaro behind him, when they got there he asked Derek what he was doing there, and the wolf broodily replied that the preserve was too big for only one person to check out, which okay, made sense, but still, it didn't stop Stiles to feel a warm flutter in his chest. He had tried to convince him to go one way while he took the other though, so that they could encompass the whole preserve between the two of them. Derek had protested but in the end had given in. The broody, protective werewolf.

He stops in front of the Clinic just as Scott mounts down from his motorbike.

"Hey, sorry. I had trouble starting the jeep again. The thing's barely hanging on… and I couldn't get in touch with Lydia," Stiles says getting out of his jeep. He turns as he hears the Camaro coming to a stop just then.

When he turns to look at Scott, his friend wouldn't meet his eyes, "Scott?" then he pulls out the wrench that he used to protect himself from Donovan while he was trying to repair his jeep. Stiles gulps as he tries to understand what's going on, "Where did you get that?"

"Is this yours?" Scott asks and somehow succeeds in conveying all the judgement that Stiles had always been afraid of. He takes a deep breath and takes the tool, still covered in blood, from him. "Why didn't you tell me?"

Stiles looks down at the wrench, "I was going to…"

"Why didn't you tell me when it happened?"

Stiles heart was pounding in his chest, "I couldn't," He says, finally, gathering the courage to look up.

"You killed him? You killed Donovan?" Scott asks again in that same tone that now was grating on Stiles skin.

"He was going to kill my dad." He says suddenly angry, "What? I was supposed to just let him?"

"You weren't supposed to do this! None of us are."

Stiles narrows his eyes, "You think I had a choice?"

"There's always a choice."

And it's the last drop. Stiles is mad, like he'd never been before. Suddenly all the times that he felt inadequate confronted with Scott's unrealistic expectations when it comes to their decisions in shit-show that became their lives since they were thrown in the supernatural world, come bubbling up, "Well, I can't do what you can, Scott! I know you would've have done it. You probably would've figured something out, right?" he asks rhetorically, because of course, Stiles knows the answer.

"I'd try." Scott says uselessly.

"Yeah, because, YOU'RE SCOTT MCCALL! You're the True Alpha. Guess what, all of us can't be true alphas. Some of us has to make mistakes," he says, looking him dead in the eyes, "Some of us has to get out hands a little bloody sometimes, some of us ARE HUMANS!"

"Did you have to kill him?"

Stiles thinks that his heart broke a little just then. Was Scott seriously asking him that? "Scott, he was going to kill my dad!"

"The way that it happened– There is a point where it's just not self-defence anymore,"

Stiles frowns, his heart starting to pound again in his chest, "What are you even talking about? I didn't have a choice, Scott." He looks at his friend and he knows from the furrowed line on his forehead that he's not listening to Stiles, "You don't even believe me, do you?"

"I want to,"

"Alright, so believe me, then." Scott's still frowning and the anger that filled Stiles just a few seconds ago is gone, all he wants is his best friend to, if not understand him, at least believe him. He needs it. "Scott, say you believe me." He takes a step closer, "Say it. Say you believe me."

Scott won't look at him, "Stiles, we can't kill people that we're trying to save!"

Stiles clenches his jaw, taking another step closer, "Say you believe me." Scott flinches away, taking several steps back. Stiles looks down at the wrench in his hand and then up to his friend's face, frozen in place.

"We can't Kill people! You believe that?"

He's losing him. But he can't lose him. Stiles can't lose his best friend. It's always been Scott and Stiles. Stiles and Scott. He's nothing without him, "What do I do about this?" he asks, "What do you want me to do okay, Jus-" his voice weavers and he gulps around the knot in his throat, "Scott tell me how to fix this alright, just tell me what do you want me to do!"

"Don't worry about Lydia," he starts, "I'll find her, maybe… Maybe you should talk to your dad." And he starts walking away but then, suddenly Derek is calling Scott's name.

"Scott wait!" he says suddenly in front of Stiles, grabbing at Scott's wrist to keep him where he is, "Can't you see what's happening here? He's playing you!" Derek thunders, "I couldn't figure it out at first, but now I can. His plan had always been to make the pack fall apart. And you are falling for it! You trust someone that you haven't seen in years over your best friend?"

Scott frowns without saying anything and Derek goes on, "Your best friend that would literally do anything for you. You push Stiles away? For what? Killing someone that otherwise would've killed him and his father? What is wrong with you!?" Derek bellowed in anger, furious like Stiles had never seen him before, "You would've preferred otherwise? Standing in front of a coffin where he" Derek turns sideways to point at Stiles, "You're best friend would've laid? Huh, Scott? Would that have been better for you?"

Scott looks at him bewildered, "No!"

Derek scoffs, "Then, what the hell are you doing?" he asks, but doesn't give him time to reply, "You have these insanely high standards," he starts again quieter. "You're willing to sacrifice the people who love you, who you supposedly love back, in order to live by them. But guess what, Scott." Derek says taking a step towards him, "People fuck up. And I'll tell you something even more incredible," Derek slaps lightly on his chest, "You just fucked up too."

And with that Derek turns determined to walk away without a glance back, but as soon as he catches Stiles eye, he hesitates, suddenly unsure of how Stiles would react. Then he gulps and continues to walk to his car, leaving him alone with Scott again.

Stiles looks at his best friend. His heart actually hurts at seeing him like that, completely lost and broken. And if it were any other time, Stiles wouldn't have thought twice before going to him and wrap Scott in a hug, offering his comfort and his strength.

But Stiles is broken too, now. He doesn't have any strength in him, any comfort to offer. He's empty. So he turns and climbs on his jeep, driving away. Leaving Scott behind, for the first time in his life.

A/N: Okay wow, I actually wrote it. This whole last scene is one of the reasons why I started to write this fic in the first place. I had actually written this Derek's intervention part, way before 5x09 aired. We knew there was going to be a fallout between Sciles, and I wanted more than anything for someone (DEREK) to open Scott's eyes and defend Stiles. *sobs*

Please leave comments telling me what you think, I'm in so many feels right now. #MissingDerekHale2k15