Present ...
Stiles was seething with rage and pacing the hallway waiting for Derek to return; he couldn't believe how he'd threatened Scott, especially after he'd told him to be nice. He'd seen everything thanks to the video chat - Derek shoving Scott against the wall, holding him by the neck and threatening to kill him if he tried to play the Lacrosse match on Saturday night. Stiles ran his hands over his head and sighed angrily - he shouldn't have told Derek and dealt with it himself, he knew this was how he'd react.
Where was Derek anyway - it had been ages since he'd left Scott's - why wasn't he home yet? Was he avoiding him because he knew he'd done wrong?
When Stiles finally saw the outline of Derek heading up the steps toward the front door Stiles wrenched it open. "What were you thinking?!" he shouted.
Derek pushed passed Stiles and headed through to the kitchen, dumping down the carrier bag he had with him down on the counter. "He needed to be told." he said simply.
"You threatened him!" Stiles raged.
"I needed to make sure he got the message." Derek said emptying out the carrier bag.
Stiles was about to rant some more, really lay into Derek, but then he looked at the contents that had come out of the carrier bag: flour, sugar, butter, apples. "What's all this?" he asked.
Derek shrugged his shoulders. "Though we could make apple pie like you suggested." he said heading for the fridge and pulling out the steaks he'd bought earlier. "You said it was you and your dad's favourite." he added.
At once all of Stiles's anger drained away and he sat down at the counter sighing a sadly. "It is." he nodded. "But I'll never be able to make it as good as mom's."
Derek glanced at the ingredients and realised he'd done the wrong thing - he was trying to do something nice for Stiles, to cheer him up, but he'd only gone and upset him by reminding him of his mother - how stupid of him. "Sorry, we can make something else." he said quickly putting the ingredients back in the carrier bag.
"No no I want to." Stiles said as he rubbed at his eyes - the last thing he wanted to do was cry in front of Derek; he'd done that enough as a kid. "Thanks, I'll err ... I'll go find a recipe online." he said heading out of the kitchen up to his room.
Derek just nodded, knowing Stiles didn't want him to see his tears. "I'll start dinner." he called after him.
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Past ...
Derek ran to catch up with Stiles. "Something's wrong." he told him as they passed the police cruiser parked outside the house and climbed the steps up onto the porch.
Stiles shook his head. "I'm sure it's just Lucas getting into trouble again." he said with a roll of his eyes as he let himself into the house. "Dad?" he called dumping his school bag down and glancing in the kitchen to find it empty. "Dad?"
"Stiles, sweetheart, why don't you go upstairs with Derek and Cora." Talia said appearing in the hallway, closing the living room door up behind her. "Derek, take him upstairs." she said smiling a little too forcefully at her son.
Derek's eyes darted over his mother's and knew instantly what he suspected was true. Derek's heart sank, he sucked in a deep breath and knew he had to be strong now for Stiles - he was going to be devastated when he found out. "Come on Stiles." he said grabbing him by the elbow.
Stiles glanced at Talia and could see she had been in tears - it shocked him because Talia was such a strong woman, the head of the Hale family, and she was usually so calm and controlled. "Where's my dad?" he asked slowly, a sense of dread overcoming him.
"Stiles come on." Derek said pushing him toward the stairs.
Stiles shook himself free, determined to find his father. He pushed past Derek and Talia and let himself into the living room, when he entered he saw his father sitting on the sofa with his head in his hands. "Dad?" he asked his whole body trembling and his breaths quickening as his pulse started to race. "Dad?" he asked again.
The Sheriff lifted his head and Stiles saw that he was in tears - he'd never seen his father cry before and it frightened him. "I'm sorry son." he choked out. "There was nothing they could do."
Stiles's heart clenched in his chest and spasmed violently, his blood ran cold and suddenly he couldn't breathe. It felt like the room was swallowing him up. Stiles's vision blurred over and he leant on the wall for support as his knees gave way. Stiles tried to suck in air but the more he couldn't breathe the more he panicked creating a vicious circle. He could feel his heart drumming in his ears, drowning out everything around him.
"Stiles sweetheart, breathe." Talia coaxed kneeling down beside him but the words didn't seem to be getting through; she glanced over at the Sheriff was still staring at nothing with a lost look in his eyes. "Derek -" she said looking up at her son who was leaning against the doorframe looking very much how he looked when he found out his father had been murdered. This only confirmed what she'd been expecting all along; Derek's wolf had chosen Stiles and because of this he could feel everything Stiles felt. "Derek." she said trying to snap him to his senses. "Stiles needs you."
Derek pushed himself off the doorframe and sank down beside Stiles. "Breathe." he said gripping his hand tightly. "Stiles just breathe." he coaxed rubbing his shoulder with his free hand.
Stiles's wasn't sure what was happening; everything was blurred around him except Derek who was clear in front of him; the drumming in his ears had faded and Derek's voice was strong although everything else muffled. Stile stared down at Derek's hand wrapped tightly around his and noticed that the veins in his hand and those leading up his arm were jet black. "What are you doing?" he choked out as his breathing started to ease and his senses returned to normal.
"I ... I dunno ..." Derek said glancing up at his mother for help.
Talia glanced at the Sheriff but luckily he hadn't seen, not wanting to take any more chances she crouched down and eased Derek's hand away from Stiles's. "Mom what was that?" Derek asked.
"It's okay sweetheart." Talia said pressing a kiss to Derek's temple. "It's nothing to worry about." she said stroking the back of his neck.
Stiles pulled himself up off the floor and looked at his father; he then turned to look at Derek. "You promised me she would be okay." he said needing to blame someone although he knew it was not Derek's fault. "You promised!" he cried, tears breaking free and running down his cheeks.
"I'm sorry." Derek said reaching out to him.
" I trusted you." Stiles spat batting Derek's hands away before fleeing the room.
"Stiles!" Derek shouted, chasing after him followed by both Talia and the Sheriff who seemed to have come to his senses. The Sheriff pushed past the Hales and ran after his son as he fled the house.
Talia held Derek back. "Stay, Stiles needs his father right now."
"He needs me." Derek protested. "I have to go, I can't leave him."
"Cora go up to your room." Talia said glancing at her youngest. "Now." she said in a tone that said not to argue. Cora did as she was told and quickly scooted upstairs. Talia steered Derek into the living room and sat him down on the sofa. "I know you want to go after him, but that's not a good idea son." she said. "He'll find out about you and that will put us all at risk."
Derek wanted to tell his mother that Stiles already knew that he was a werewolf like the rest of his family but he kept quiet - knowing he'd be in trouble if he revealed the truth. "What happened back there?" he asked stroking his fingers down his arm, his veins had returned to their usually light blue under the milky white skin of his arm but he could still see how black they'd been when he closed his eyes.
"You took away Stiles's pain." Talia explained. "It's something werewolves can do for each other ... usually it only happens between close family members. That's what brought him out of the panic attack."
Derek glanced at his mother. "Stiles isn't a werewolf or family." he said not quite understanding.
Talia swallowed hard. "Well it can happen between a werewolf and a human in certain circumstances."
"What circumstances?" Derek asked, his eyes darting over his mother's.
Talia wasn't sure what to say, Derek was still young and Stiles even younger - he wasn't even a teenager yet. If she told Derek the truth, it would only complicate things and Stiles needed his friend right now. "It's nothing for you to worry about." she told him. "Stiles is your friend and you helped him, that's all you need to know."
Derek just nodded too drained to argue for more. "I felt it mom." he said leaning against her. "Everything he felt ... it was like losing dad all over again." he said rubbing at his eyes with his sleeve - he was determined not to cry. "What do I say to Stiles? How do I make this right?" he asked.
Talia cuddled him close. "You can't sweetheart, you just need to be a good friend to him that's all - be there for him when he needs you."
Derek just nodded.
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Present ...
"Something smells good." Stiles said bouncing into the kitchen a little while later appearing to be his usual chirpy self again, but his slightly red eyes and nose gave him away - not that Derek said anything of course. "I found a recipe, I'll start on the pie." he said grabbing the flour and moving over to a free area of the counter.
Derek checked on the curly fries which weren't quite done and so occupied himself with laying the table. "Look I'm sorry about how I handled things with Scott." he said grabbing some cutlery from the drawer. "I just panicked - if someone finds out werewolves exist then Scott and I are both in trouble. We don't need more hunters on top of the Argents. If he plays that Lacrosse match on Saturday he'll shift - he won't be able to help himself and someone will get hurt." he told Stiles. Derek thought about what Stiles had said earlier about how he'd managed to stop Scott, he squeezed his eyes shut and shook the thought of what could have happened if that fire extinguisher hadn't been to hand from his mind - Stiles was okay. He was safe. But he couldn't risk that happening again.
Stiles looked at Derek and could tell by the worried look on his face that he was the one Derek was concerned about. "I understand and I agree with you but there is one thing you need to know about Scott - if you back him into a corner he won't give him, he'll fight his way out of it. What you did - it's only going to make him more determined to play on Saturday."
Derek's eyes swept over Stiles's and he could tell he was perfectly serious. "We have to stop him." he said simply.
Stiles was about to reply but then he heard the front door slam closed and his father's tuneless whistling as he headed toward the kitchen. "We'll talk about this later." he said putting his finished pie to one side ready to bake later.
TBC
