Jackson was warm, this last week he had gotten the best sleep of his life but waking had become harder and harder. He was reluctant to do so now, he wished he could just sleep forever in the warmth and safety of this place. But he began to stir. He felt Derek's hand start to rub circles across his chest which helped make him sleepier.

"It's still early, try and get more rest. We have a long way to go to get back home," he could feel Derek's stubble scrap against the back of his neck and feel his warm breath against his ear as he spoke.

"Okay," was all he could think of saying and with Derek's chest against his back and his body pressed against his own he did.

Derek watched his pup fall back asleep and listened to the forest noises around them. Nothing was out of place, there was no snap of a twig, no scent that didn't belong, just the peace that all forest possess without the presence of humans to break it. Last night went better than he had ever expected. Jackson had taken to his wolf like no other bitten Derek had ever seen or known. It usual took years to show a born wolf how to get things under control, from puberty to adulthood, usual thirteen to twenty. Derek never got to finish his training. Jackson didn't seem to need very much, just guidance and support. Derek wasn't sure he knew how to give either of those things. But he would try.

When Jackson opened his eyes again the day had moved well into morning. He tried to disentangle himself from Derek but the Alpha used his hand to hold him down against the ground. With that Derek got up and left. Jackson just waited not really worried and just relaxed. Soon Derek returned.

"The coast is clear," he said and helped Jackson to his feet. They both walked naked through the woods following a path only Derek could see. They had to take the long way back home to avoid more populated areas and to make their way across deep lakes and streams. But the walk was peaceful and the day was sunny, they both walked through the tranquility of the woods and when the sun began to set, they continued walking. Neither spoke, they just basked in each others company. Derek tried hard not to make Jackson feel so awkward but the boy made it too easy. The way he blushed and looked away or down, or the way he would scratch the back of his head or cross his arms across his chest, it all just made Derek smirk.

They finally made it back to the Hale house some time around ten. They were both still naked but Derek insisted they eat first, to regain their energy. They stuffed their faces with everything in the fridge, slices of deli meats, a whole loaf of bread, raw vegetables, and cold leftovers. Like most of the day they ate in silence.

Afterwards Derek led Jackson into his bedroom and they both curled up and slept. They slept all Saturday and didn't awake till Sunday evening.

Stiles felt like the worst person in the world. At first he hadn't tried to avoid Jackson but he was always there, always asking him if he wanted to talk and Stiles didn't. So when he saw Jackson and ducked into a classroom, or hid behind a person, sometimes even just turned around and headed in the opposite direction, well he justified this as him not avoiding Jackson per se. No, he was only trying to protect them both from another embarrassing situation. But Stiles couldn't deny the fact that the only person he was protecting was himself. As the week went on, he could see the hurt and confusion on Jackson's face whenever he caught Jackson staring at him. He realized he couldn't justify it anymore. He had to man up…on Friday, after school they would sit down and just have it out. Get it over with. But before he even got the chance to build up enough courage Jackson just left, in the middle of class, and after school when Stiles went to go look for him all he found was his car in the school parking lot. He waited but Jackson never showed up.

He spent most of Saturday with his dad who surprisingly had the day off. They ate breakfast together and spent a few hours at the bowling alley, his dad even gave him a few quarters to spend at the arcade. They then went and watched a movie Stiles knew his dad had no desire to watch but did so for him. It turned out to be a great day of father son bonding but beneath the happiness and the comfort Stiles couldn't keep certain dark thoughts from entering his mind. When he was feeling happiest he couldn't help but wonder, 'did Jackson ever get to feel this way with his family?' Something told him he didn't and that thought just left Stiles feeling like a worse asshole than Jackson ever was. His father could tell that something was wrong but he couldn't possible think of what it was.

They ate dinner at their favorite Diner and talked about school, friends, touched lightly on work, and finally his dad made the effort to ask Stiles if there was anything he wanted to talk about. He could tell by the way his son stiffened up and let out a little laugh that clearly there was. Stiles for his part didn't know where to begin, there was so much he wanted to talk about, but he wasn't sure his dad had the right answers for any of his questions.

"Well," started Stiles, "I've been feeling kind of weird lately, like…confused…and other stuff." Stiles looked at his father and he could see a million different emotions cross his face, he didn't know what his father was going to get from that statement.

"Well son, when your mother and I got together we did so with the blessing of her parents and God…of course after…well I didn't have much left to believe in…but there are laws against…I'm sure you'll grow out of it…"

"Wow dad that's….just wow," Stiles was completely dumb founded. He had never expected his dad to go all Christian on him. They hadn't gone to church since forever. Stiles couldn't even remember what it was like, couldn't remember the prayers, the feeling, it was all foreign to him and for his dad to use that as some sort of answer, with everything that it implied, well it was fucking cowardly. It wasn't even an answer, to any of his questions…except for one.

After that, neither father nor son knew what to say or do, they simply returned home, each to their own room, and spent the night alone wondering where they could go from there.

On Sunday Stiles decided to go find Jackson and finally get some answers for himself. He drove up to the Whittemore household but the driveway was empty. Stiles called Scott but he was buys shopping with Allison and her mom. Scott thought it was a peace offering, a way for Allison's family to accept him into their fold, he was wrong, apparently it was a form of mental torture Scott was ill prepared to deal with. Stiles hung up on Scott before he could be tricked into joining him. Instead, Stiles simply drove around town with nothing to do. The day was bright and sunny and somewhat hot. He drove aimlessly around until he passed the high school. There was Jackson's car, in the same spot as Friday. Stiles got out and looked inside, everything was the same. He didn't know what to do so he wrote a simple note asking Jackson to call him, it was kind of pathetic he knew, but also necessary.

He spent his day completely alone wondering what to do. He stayed up most of the night watching old westerns. When his father came home around two in the morning he gave Stiles a strange look before disappearing into his own room. This is what Stiles was trying to avoid, this is what he had feared, and he had stupidly caused it himself. He thought that Jackson would have been the person to freak out and deny any happenings thus giving Stiles an out, but he hadn't. Instead, Jackson wanted to discuss it, to what purpose Stiles didn't know, but he wasn't avoiding it. Now Stiles' dad thought he was…he was…confused. He couldn't even say it, because it couldn't be true, right? He liked Lydia, didn't he? He wasn't….he couldn't be…no not that, because that wasn't who he was, it…not if it destroyed the only family he had left.

Monday morning Stiles was hanging out in at the back of the school with Scott, Allison, and Lydia. They were each in their own little sphere of conversation that Stiles didn't really feel like joining, no one really seemed to notice. From the distance he could see Derek's shiny black muscle car rolling up into the school parking lot.

"Hey Scott, were you supposed to meet up with Derek before school," said Stiles, slapping him with his arm to get his attention away from Allison.

"No…why,"

"Dude he's totally here."

The small group looked across to the school parking lot and sure enough, there was Derek's car. It idled there for five minutes before the passenger door opened. Jackson fucking Whittemore got out of the car. He bent over the window to listen to Derek before walking away, Derek tore out of the school lot.

"What did he say," asked Stiles knowing that Scott probably heard using his Werewolf senses.

"He just said 'remember what we talked about.'" No one knew what that could mean but the other two wolves seemed worried. Everyone knew that Jackson and Derek hated each other, though, apparently not any more. No one knew what was happening but they all decided that they would head over to the Hale house after school to find out. The rest of the pack entered the school but Stiles stayed, he wanted to talk to Jackson. Stiles saw him walk across to his car and remove the note he had left and read it. Jackson looked confused like he wasn't sure what it meant, he closed his eyes and scrunched them, he looked like he was in pain. But then he just opened his eyes, sighed, and just crumpled up the note and tossed it over his shoulder he then opened his car and dropped off a couple books before making his way to the entrance.

Stiles just stood there waiting and when Jackson walked passed him all he did was turn his head smile and say, "Hey Stiles," before walking away.

"Wait what the hell. Are you avoiding me now, I'm sorry okay, geez, I'm sorry…"

Jackson stopped and sighed loudly, "What do you want Stilinski…Shit, I tried and you didn't want to so what do you want?" Jackson didn't sound angry it was more like…defeated. But the way he had said his last name, it was a way to push him away and Stiles, he couldn't let it happen.

But before he could talk Jackson interrupted, "listen, I know something….weird happened between us, I know that you saw me naked and vulnerable. I know you saw what has…what happened to me, what my father does to me, and I know you and me found some comfort in each other but god damn it you didn't have to pretend it never happened! Because it fucking did and I can't forget it!" Jackson was shouting so loud spit was leaving the corners of his mouth and the entire time he was taking slow steady steps towards Stiles. People around the school stood shocked, this was the first time they had seen Jackson break his silence and to see him shout like that was going to be the talk of the school for the rest of the day.

Stiles tried to respond, "I know it was fucked up, I know…I tried but…I, it doesn't have to…I can't because it was just some," Stiles bit his lip and closed his eyes. Jackson could see his body slowly start to tremble. He sighed, again. This time Jackson grabbed Stiles by the shoulder and led him to his car. Stiles tried to keep it together but he started to cry before he could get in. Once inside, Jackson drove away with Stiles slowly falling apart in the passenger seat. He drove to a place he knew in the woods, there was just enough room to get his car through a small narrow road without also getting it stuck. It was an open field with large boulders in its center and a stream nearby. He led Stiles to this spot and sat him down on one of the boulders and then hugged him.

Stiles pressed his face against Jackson's torso he wrapped his arms around him squeezed and cried.

"I can't, I'm so sorry, but I can't," Stiles sobbed.

"I don't get it, what's wrong? What can I do?" Jackson was confused, the entire time he thought that Stiles hated him but instead it was something else and Jackson didn't know what. Stiles squeezed Jackson until he cried himself out.

He let his arms fall away and Jackson took a seat next to him. They just sat there as Stiles tried to regain his composure.

"You smell weird," said Stiles after a while. Jackson laughed,

"I'm wearing Derek's clothes." Stiles looked and saw the dark tight black jeans and the dark long sleeve Henley and yea that was Derek's clothes. Stiles couldn't help the tiny pang of jealousy that shot through his body faster than he could push it down.

"Why," he asked cleaning his face of tears, "where were you all weekend?"

"With Derek…he was showing me…teaching me," Jackson sighed he didn't want anyone to know yet, but he knew that maybe if he opened up to Stiles, well maybe Stiles would open up to him, "over the weekend, on the full moon, I transformed…the bite finally took effect."

"…On the full moon…that was you!" Stiles couldn't believe it, after so much time it had never occurred to him that the lone wolf the night of the full moon could have been Jackson.

"Yea…I don't know if you noticed but these last couple months I hadn't been feeling very well…I was…sick,"

"I noticed, right after the bite, I thought something was wrong but…"

"Its okay, you didn't care-No don't deny it I know it's true. You didn't really have a reason to care, I was an asshole," Jackson laughed, "I was an asshole…" Jackson had a far off look on his face like he was remembering something old. "I feel so weird…it hasn't been that long but…I'm not that same person from before, the bite took so long to take and it caused me so much pain but…it helped cleanse me from who I was. It made me a better person"

"I don't know," said Stiles, he finally knew what had made Jackson change but he wasn't so sure if he understood it. It was like he was a stranger now. "I didn't hate you, and I did care, I did, its just I didn't think you would. I mean…it took so long for people to realize that you had stopped talking…I guess your right…we weren't really looking, if we had we would have confronted you three months ago when it started." Stiles was ashamed that a fellow classmate had let out a silent shout for help and he was petty enough to ignore it simply because he had once been mean to him.

Jackson just laughed and smiled at him, "don't worry about it, I'm not the same. You saw me…you saw how broken I am. But its okay, that was just left over, from before. I promise that from today forward ill do my best to get better, to just let go of all my past insecurities and fears but…I'm going to need your help," Jackson was blushing but he looked up at Stiles and smiled sheepishly. Stiles couldn't believe what he was hearing. All he wanted to do was disentangle Jackson from his life so that his 'confusion' would go away and here was Jackson asking him to help him be a better person, how could he possible say no.

"Also, don't think I've forgotten about what happened to us the night after the full moon, or what happened today…But if you don't want to talk about it, its okay…" Stiles was shocked by Jackson's sincerity and embarrassed how easily Jackson saw his evasion.

"If I tell you…you'll hate me. Maybe…is it okay if I can tell you later, because honestly I don't know what made me breakdown like that. I guess I just want a little time to try and figure some stuff out myself…" It was embarrassing admitting this much out loud but all Jackson did was smile at him and wrap his arm around his shoulder.

"I miss my mom…" said Stiles. He really did, so much. Jackson just squeezed him tight and they both just let an easy peace fall over them.