"GET…THE FUCK…OUT…OF MY HOME"

In the split second between a closed door and an open one, Stiles had put the whole thing together. It was Derek who had careened past him in the alley and that explained the vague feelings of recognition he'd experienced. It was Derek who had returned his wallet and that meant he must have been in Stiles' apartment last night as well. Stiles was seething.

"Oh, come on now; is that any way to greet an old friend?" Derek's tone was still far from friendly.

"I don't care; you're no friend of mine. How dare you just…just walk in here…..twice!"

Stiles' initial anger was now giving way to apprehension. He still hadn't moved from the doorway. In an instant, Derek had risen from the chair, pushed the door closed behind Stiles and effectively pinned him to it. It had been quite some time since Stiles had had his movement restricted in such a way - about ten years to be honest. He wasn't sixteen anymore and he had been spending the odd afternoon at the gym so he thought that maybe, this time, it would be different. He tried to bring his arms up through Derek's to break the hold but failed. Derek pushed in closer to Stiles and hissed in his face.

"I just need to ask you a question."

"Ever heard of email?" Stiles snarled back, he was damned if he was going to be intimidated by the wolf anymore, he might still be geeky but he wasn't going to be a pushover.

Derek loosened his grip and allowed Stiles to slide out from under his hold. He was actually quietly impressed that this older Stiles would stand up to him.

"I'm not here to hurt you, I just want information, you don't understand how important it is." Derek affected a more reasonable tone. "Look, can we not just sit down for a few minutes and then I'll go and you can forget about this?"

With the threat of bodily harm lifted, Stiles was prepared to give Derek a small break. He gestured to the recliner and sat on the sofa himself.

"I suppose the quicker we deal with this, the quicker you'll be gone but this is gonna go two ways. There are some things I want to know too."

Derek conceded with a shrug, "OK, you first."

"How long have you been here?"

"A little over eight years. You?"

"I came here for college and never went back. Did you know I was here?" Stiles really wanted to know if this whole business was a one-off or whether he'd been stalked for a while.

"No, I had no idea, not until we, uh, metthe other night"

"OK", Stiles was mildly relieved; at least his whole life hadn't been under the microscope without him knowing. He thought for a moment, tapping his fingers on his chin. "What are you doing here?"

"Right now, I don't know that I want to share that with you." Derek's patience was starting grow thin. "My turn. You still talk to Scott, don't you?" Stiles nodded. "And he's still with Allison, yes?" Stiles nodded again, unsure where this was going. "How is it between Scott and her family?"

"You know, you could have just picked up the phone for this. Or perhaps we could have included you on the Argent Christmas round robin. But, oh…no…we didn't know where the fuck you were!"

Stiles threw himself back on the sofa and gave Derek a look like he was the stupidest thing on earth.

"This is important, answer the question."

Derek's eyes narrowed and Stiles got the impression that a breaking point could be reached quite soon. He sighed.

"They tolerate him. He really does have it under control; you taught him well, you should be proud." Although he didn't want to rile Derek up any more, Stiles couldn't help a trace of mockery creeping into his voice." Allison has devised some ways to keep him, um, 'safe' around the full moon. As long as he doesn't wolf out in public or start devouring cute animals they leave him alone. Allison said she didn't care what her heritage was; if they laid so much as a harsh look on him she would disown them. Anyway, they were far more interested in what happened to you." Stiles leaned forward, "What did happen to you?"

He wasn't going to catch Derek out that easily, Derek just ignored the question.

"Did you ever see or hear about them associating with any other Hunters? Any strange visitors to the Argent house or long trips away?

"No, no and no. I was barely there any longer than you. It was quiet, we wanted to keep it all very quiet and somehow, God knows how, we managed it."

The tension in Derek's voice intensified but his tone dropped. He fixed Stiles with a steely glare. "Look Stiles, this is important; people's lives could depend on it. I have to know what you know."

Stiles was frustrated now. "You keep saying it's important but I don't know anything! Don't you get it? I've spent the last ten years trying to forget I ever did know anything. Now, will you please go?"

Derek relaxed a little but his eyes continued to bore through Stiles'. Stiles thought the back of the sofa might spontaneously combust. Taking on a more conversational tone, Derek said, "You know, you did a good job back there. It wasn't easy and we all had choices to make. Yours were OK."

Stiles couldn't look Derek in the eye anymore; he dropped his head and stared at the floor. It was all starting to feel real again and the buried memories he'd tried so hard to keep down were fighting to break loose. "I was a kid; I woke up every morning and thought that was the day I was going to die. I was scared shitless and running on nothing. When it was over I never wanted to ever feel that way again." A tear threatened to escape Stiles' eye.

Derek was starting to appreciate just what the actions of the Alpha had cost Stiles. "But you did good, kid, I don't think you realise…"

Stiles broke in, "I'm not a kid anymore, I stopped being a kid the minute I found out that human wasn't the species at the top of the food chain. I lost my innocence in a few short weeks, you and your kind saw to that. So you'll excuse me if I don't want to relive the past with the person responsible"

"Stiles", Derek leaned towards him, "Stiles look at me." The upward glance was reluctant but eventual. Stiles just looked like the saddest thing Derek had ever seen, a world of hurt etched on his face. This is time it was Derek's turn to cut some slack.

"The Argents have their traditions but so do we; it's the only way to pass the skills on, to ensure survival. We tell tales, we exchange experiences as much as we can because one wolf can learn a lot from another, about enemies and the tactics that work on them. We help each other stay prepared. Humans don't help wolves, they run from us, we don't trust them. But you, you didn't run and you trusted Scott and then you started to trust me a little and the oddest thing, the most unusual, I actually trusted you more. Do you know how rare that is?"

"No, how could I? It was all new to me. We didn't get a manual on dealing with supernatural creatures." Stiles was still feeling defensive, the unexpected rush of buried emotions had floored him.

Derek, on the other hand, was surprising himself with how confessional he was becoming but it felt quite cathartic so he continued, "Well it is rare. I've come across teams of wolves that've taken down a rogue Alpha before but I've never come across a human helping a wolf. Not unless they were forced to. I didn't really get to thanking you before so I'm doing it now."

"Think nothing of it, believe me, I try to." The fight was starting to leave Stiles and he could almost emphasise with the struggles of the secret brotherhood of wolves. Almost...but he wasn't quite there yet.

The beginnings of an idea were floating round Derek's mind. "Stiles, there's a situation now; you know I could probably use some help with it...if you wanted to, of course."

"Oh, why the hell not? I've been in deadly peril before; it should be second nature by now."

"Your fondness for sarcasm hasn't changed I see but no, this wouldn't involve putting yourself in the frontline, it's more your computer skills I'm after."

Stiles was damned if he was going to do something for nothing. "If you want me to help you, you owe it to me to tell me why you left and why you never contacted Scott, at the very least. He wasn't ready, you know, we could only support him so far but he really needed someone to talk to, someone who understood exactly what he was going through. And there you weren't."

Derek had already told Stiles far more about lupine ways than he ever intended to. However, for the first time in an age he was feeling the benefits of unburdening himself. It felt pretty good, he may as well continue.

"I left because as an Alpha, I had the skills to help others, to lead and protect. As a community, we were really taking a hit in some areas. Other Alphas had been taken out and the pups couldn't look after themselves on their own."

"But wasn't that exactly what Scott was, you left him defenceless, what if the Argents had tried to kill him?"

"Scott had you and Allison. I thought the Argents would leave him alone for a while. I never meant to be away for so long but it turned into a war."

"A war, a war against whom?"

"Do you think the Argents are the only hunters out there? They're not and some of the others are even more ruthless and cruel. I came here because a young pack had taken refuge in the city and were being picked off one by one. I stayed because these Hunters need to be stopped."

"What makes them so different from the Argents, what makes them so much more of a threat?" Stiles wondered how all this could have kept Derek away from his home for almost a decade.

"They have no noble reasons for the fight; they are only interested in sport. They don't just kill us, they torture us first. Not like Kate did, worse; they make us fight other animals and they bet on the outcomes. Sometimes they'll release a captured wolf and then hunt it in teams. Only a few have ever escaped, it was several years before we even knew what was happening to us. "

"Wow!" Stiles was incredulous, and then a thought struck him. "But you left Scott alone, unprotected, knowing that there are people like that out there and knowing that other Hunters knew where he was?"

"And that's a part of the matter. We don't think these Hunters are affiliated to any others. We think this group found out about us by chance and have been taking advantage of us ever since. As long as that is the case then Scott is safe."

Stiles considered Derek's tale. "Okay, I get the threat but I don't see what I can do for you."

"In all this time, we haven't got close to the head of the group, the core that runs it. We've taken out a few of them but they are only doing what they've been paid for, the ones that control them, we can't get near. I thought that perhaps with your skills, you could look in place we don't know about. Could you track them online? We think that's how they organise their 'events'"

A little spark of excitement had hit Stiles, his mind was ablaze with possible ways to tackle Derek's problem. The adrenaline boost had kicked off another whole wave of recollections but this time it was all about the buzz he used to get in the thrill of the chase. Stiles looked Derek in the eye and smiled for the first time that afternoon.

"Yeah, I can do that," he confidently nodded.

"So you're in?" Derek was simultaneously relieved and petrified, he could almost feel his fur tingling. Deep down in his bones he knew this was going to be a game changer in the war against the Hunters, he just didn't know how.

"I'm in", confirmed Stiles.