DISCLAIMER: I OWN NOTHING. Well that's not a true statement, I do own some things, like my laptop, but I don't own Teen Wolf so there is that. I'm just having fun with the characters.
A/N: All right first let me say while I really enjoyed episode 8 (poor Derek), it doesn't really mess with the childhood I've been creating for Derek and Holly so this is where we get into the slight AU. I figure since Kate entered the picture at some point there's room for Paige to so the flashback below would primarily take place prior to Paige. Hopefully this won't stress you all out too much and y'all will continue reading and enjoy my fanfic! *crosses fingers*
To my reviewers:
OhhKellyRose: Another chapter! Yay. Hopefully you'll be bummed when you get to the end of this and I mean that in a good way of course. Thanks for the kudos and thanks for reading!
Guest: I understand, a lot of people are like that with characters they like, I know I am. The more I like them the more I care about what happens to them, but I want to take a minute to say thank you. Thank you for letting me know that I've written a character you like enough to get pissed off at someone that hurts her. That really means a lot to me as a writer, to know I've created a character worthy of people bonding with on some level. Deaton's awesome! He's like Dumbledore and Yoda.. Dumbloda?
PhoebeNixon: I got your PM with your full review! I figured pulling in some of the "off screen" scenes would be a good way to help me flesh out some of the other characters in the story and in my head, as well as giving you guys some of the canon characters we all love.
RHatch89: Thanks for the feedback. I hope you enjoy chapter 11 too!
MrsAlexandra-Hale: The more I see of Cora in the show, the more I like her! Especially during those scenes with Stiles. Their interaction reminds me so much of how Derek and Stiles interact it's brilliant! I'm looking forward to working more of those in since Stiles is one of my favorite characters, but I haven't really been able to incorporate him much into the story. I have a feeling that will be changing.
And now, so I've done something different with this chapter, I've made it completely a flashback. I know... risky right, but I kinda like delving into their past. And like I said above it does take a different path than episode 8 so again, my apologies for that, though it did give me a couple ideas for a future flashback. We'll see how this goes. If you guys don't like it let me know and I'll keep the flashbacks to only part of present time chapters.
TEN Years AGO…
Chapter 11 – Everyday is Halloween
Ten Years Ago…
The knock on the door came as no surprise to Derek. The doorbell rang ten minutes ago and for the past nine he heard Holly in the kitchen with his mother and Cora, helping them carve Cora's pumpkin.
Derek stared at his reflection. Laura helped him with the black liner that rimmed his eyes. According to her he couldn't officially be a punk biker if he didn't wear eyeliner. She put it on fairly thick, but staring at the results he was glad she hadn't listened when he objected. His hair was just long enough to create black spikes with hair gel holding it in place, but it would only last if he remembered not to touch it.
The spiked choker and studded fingerless gloves had been from his dad. His father hadn't told him why he had a spiked choker or studded fingerless gloves and Derek didn't want to know. Sometimes too much information was too much information. The jeans with the left knee ripped belonged to him, though he generally only wore them on full moon nights, or when he cut the grass. They were the kind of jeans he didn't care if they got destroyed during a change or scuffling around in the dirt. Everything else about the costume, Uncle Peter helped him pick out from vintage clothing stores on their San Francisco trip last weekend.
The black tee-shirt with the white skull and crossbones on the front. The half denim, half leather jacket with metal studs on the shoulders and down the sleeves. And the black scuffed steel-toed boots, all purchased in the Haight-Ashbury district. He embodied the stereotypical image of a punk biker. The Harley the only thing absent from the picture.
"Come in," he called when his uncle knocked a second time.
"Your date's here," uncle Peter teased.
Derek rolled his eyes. "She's not my date."
"Aren't you and Laura double dating?"
"Laura's going on a date," he pointed out. "Holly and I are just hanging out."
Peter watched him for several moments standing in the door way with his shoulder resting against the frame. A pose his mother referred to it as 'propping up the wall'.
"What?" Derek pushed after the seconds ticked past and his uncle just stood there staring at him.
Peter glanced behind him down the hall, and then closed the door as he fully entered the room.
"You know you're in high school now," Peter pulled out the chair in front of his desk and took a seat facing Derek. "Your mom and dad said it's okay for you to actually call her your girlfriend now."
"Holly's not my girlfriend," he corrected.
"Okay," he replied casually. "You know, before your dad started dating your mom they were a lot like you and Holly. Friends all through grade school, but once they hit ninth grade—"
"—Ohmigod, Uncle Peter she's not my girlfriend," he insisted.
Peter held his hands up in surrender and stood. It's as far as he got before Derek stopped him.
"Uncle Peter?"
"Yes, Nephew Derek?"
Derek smirked slightly. "What's it mean when a guy says he wants to hit a home run with a girl?"
"What?" the look on Peter face reminded Derek of the time he asked his uncle if was going to marry Ms Lindly when he caught them having in the garage. "Where did you hear that?"
"In the locker room at school."
"Do me a favor," he moved closer to Derek, placing a hand on his nephew's shoulder and bending a bit so they were eye level. "Don't repeat that to your mother unless you want to attend a missionary school in Argentina."
"Why?" he asked again. "What's it mean?"
"Guys sometimes use baseball terminology as stages of experience."
Derek gave his uncle as blank a look as he could. "Experience in what?"
"Dating, or how far they've gotten with a girl."
"I don't get it," Derek replied with a shake of his head.
Peter let go of a dramatic sigh, "I told you father he needed to get you into sports at an early age. Sex, Derek," Peter finally stated bluntly. "Hitting a home run means you had sex with a girl."
Sex. Derek started to say something but stopped. For a moment all he saw was red. He should have guessed Ryan Donahue's plan, but he didn't figure he'd be so bold as to announce it in a locker room while he was within ear shot. He'd kill him. No, he'd castrate him. No he'd castrate him, and then kill him.
"So, if sex is a home run, what's first base? Holding hands?"
"No," Peter scoffed. "Holding hands is barely considered going up to bat. First base is kissing, making out."
"Then what's second and third base?"
The relief that flooded over Peter's face at the sound of the doorbell quickly followed a repeat performance at the knock on Derek's door. Laura poked her head in grinning from ear to ear.
"Hey Uncle Peter. Hurry up, brat. I don't want to keep David waiting."
She gave Derek a playful wink and ducked back out, leaving the door open. And leaving Derek to look to Peter expectantly.
"Don't look at me. You don't need to worry about second and third base until prom. Maybe college," he added after a moment of thought.
"Don't you think I'm a little too old for the too young excuse?" Derek asked walking past his uncle and exiting the room.
"I do, which is why I didn't say it."
Derek ducked his head, barely escaping with his hair unmolested. He took the back stairs down landing him in the kitchen with his mom, Cora, and Holly.
"I want a scary pumpkin," Cora was explaining as she used the sharpie to draw the pumpkin's face on.
His mom already hollowed out the pumpkin, the seeds and inside collected in separate containers on the counter. She'd make a pie tomorrow or Sunday and freeze it until Thanksgiving. The seeds would be dried out, some planted for next year, the rest sprinkled with salt, roasted in the oven, and turned into a snack.
Holly sat on the floor legs bent at the knees next to Cora. She was dressed in black ballerina slippers with red ribbons laced up her calves over black fishnets with huge gouges missing here and there as if they'd been snagged on something and ripped free. Her tutu wasn't the normal pink of a ballerina, but black and red checkers and like him she wore fingerless gloves, but hers where ripped fishnets that climbed over her elbow. A skull and cross bone pendant threaded through a black ribbon tied around her neck, matched earrings that dangled from chains of various lengths from her ears. She'd even pulled her hair into a ball on the top of her head and wrapped it with red and black lace.
It was a tradition for Derek and Holly. They'd agree on the Halloween costume theme but the actual costumes were kept secret until the day. Technically he cheated, since the theme had been taking something normal and punking it out, but none of his other ideas worked beyond conception.
"I always liked scary pumpkins too," she agreed with Cora. "A friendly pumpkin on Halloween sorta defeats the purpose of the holiday."
Cora rewarded her with a bright smile.
"Hi Derek," his little sister waved at him then frowned and squinted. "Are you wearing make up?"
Holly looked over to Derek and grinned, hopping to her feet and doing a quick turn. "What do you think? I went punk ballerina."
"I like it, it's cool. The fishnets are a nice touch. What about me?" Derek spread his arms and smoothed his hands down the front of his jacket.
"Punk biker?" she questioned bouncing on her toes. When he nodded her face brightened with a grin, followed quickly by a look like she just realized Johnny Depp was in the living room. "Are those steel-toed boots?"
"Yeah," Derek looked down at the shoes on his feet. "Uncle Peter got them for me in San Francisco last weekend."
"Awesome."
"All right kids," Derek hadn't seen his mom leave the kitchen but she returned with the camera, "Picture time."
They stood next to each other, Derek putting his arm around her shoulder for the duration of the picture. His mother managed to snap it before Laura called out from the porch.
"Hurry up, brats."
"You two have fun tonight."
"Bye Mrs. Hale. Bye Cora."
"Bye Cora," he bent down and pressed a kiss to the top of his sister's head. "Bye mom," standing he kissed her cheek as he walked past.
"Bye sweetheart."
Discreetly, his mother pressed a twenty dollar bill into his palm as he moved past her. Safety money she called it, even though he had the money he earned from his chores. Derek and Holly got to the porch in time to hear his father delivering the tail end of his speech to David. Derek knew the speech by heart, how Holly's safety fell to his responsibility until he returned her home. A speech his uncle always balked at.
He always found it interesting how vastly different his father and Uncle Peter were.
"Okay bye dad," Laura grabbed David's hand tugging him from the porch his car.
Derek and Holly headed to the gold Camry. The only car Derek didn't recognize and the only one not parked among the others. They rode to the party in silence mostly. Holly seemed preoccupied and kept her attention out the window most of the ride. David occasionally glanced in the back at him and Holly like he couldn't believe they were actually back there. Laura chatted occasionally, but mostly she flipped through the radio channels, stopping long enough to listen to a song she liked before moving onto the next station.
It didn't take long to reach their destination, a house on the outskirts of the city, abandoned and believe to be haunted. A handful of seniors and juniors on the Beacon Hills basketball team decided to take it over for a night, throw a party and see how long they could last in the so-called haunted mansion.
Derek didn't like David. He didn't like David's friends, and he was fairly certain the feeling was mutual. His suspicions confirmed as he and Holly followed his sister and her boyfriend to the door.
"Why did they have to come?" David asked glancing back over his shoulder.
"Because you invited me," Laura replied.
"Yeah, you. Not your brother."
"Look, you wanted me to come. I told you the only way my dad would let me come was if Derek came too."
"Yeah, but I didn't think you were serious about that. They're not going to know anyone here," he continued to protest and pushed the door open.
"They'll be fine."
Derek narrowed his gaze when David glanced over his in their direction yet again. He didn't like him, he didn't smell right. He'd heard his father say that exact phrase many times in the past, but never understood what he meant until that moment. He didn't like the way David focused his gaze on Holly, or how he smiled at her even as he walked next to his sister. Derek reached out for Holly's hand, intertwining their fingers as they followed David and Laura inside. If she objected to having her hand held she didn't vocalize it. In fact she even offered a partial smile, the right corners of her lip twisting upwards.
The house looked as run down inside as Derek expected to find from the outside. A few holes in the floor would have allowed them to see into the basement if it hadn't been so dark. Someone supplied a generator used to power a CD player. And various candles chased away some of the darkness, though the scattered flame created living shadows. In addition to the music and candles someone provided a picnic table where chips were arranged and a cooler sat on the floor filled with ice and beer.
There were handfuls of people scattered in the living room talking and drinking, but most of them seemed to be in various stages of making out.
"Come on," David draped an arm around Laura's shoulder. "Let's check out what's upstairs."
"You want some company?"
Derek directed the question towards his sister, but David took the liberty of replying, "No, we don't. Find your own room."
"If I cared what you wanted, I would have asked you. But I didn't ask you. I asked my sister."
"I'm fine, Derek," Laura stepped forward and placed a kiss on his cheek. "Trust me I can take care of myself."
Derek gave David a final disapproving look but offered a nod to Laura, "Okay."
"You don't like him, huh?" Holly offered as the two watched the other couple round the second floor landing.
"Not even a little. Ever since dad let her start dating last year she's gone out with one loser after another."
"David isn't really a loser."
Derek frowned as he gave Holly a pointed look.
"He's not. He's a jerk but trust me there are way worse people she could be going out with than David."
"I guess," Derek offered with a slight shrug.
"What do you want to do?"
David had been right. So far everyone he saw was a junior or senior. Not that it mattered. Laura had been right too. There weren't that many people at school outside Holly, his sister and some of the swim team he talked to anyway. At the private haunted house party, or at a school function he would have ultimately ended up focusing his attention on Holly and Laura and whatever dweeb Laura was dating at the moment.
"Are you hungry?"
"No. Yolanda fixed her amazing meatloaf for dinner. I think she assumed because mom and dad were both home we'd have dinner like a family."
"Want to go out back?"
Holly grinned brightly and gave a nod of her head. "Okay."
Derek led them back out the front door and around to the back of the house from the outside. Theoretically, the hallway in front of them probably would have led them to the back door, or from the addition to the rear of the house, the pantry and then the back door. But he heard a couple in the kitchen making out, and he wasn't entirely sure they would have been able to get the door open. Or if the floor would support them. The house should have been torn down, but it seemed Beacon Hills was reluctant to tear down one of the first houses put up in the town.
Derek and Holly hopped over the fence and wandered around the backyard. The ground well lit from the light of the gibbous moon. Tomorrow it would be full and Derek couldn't wait. He always enjoyed the nights of the full moon as a kid, but since he changed he loved them. He compared the feelings he had while running through the forest with his family to watching color television after a life time of black and white.
Holly spun around like the ballerina she pretended to be, and then performed some other move Derek was sure had a proper name before she climbed half way up the steps and sat down.
"I bet this place was pretty once."
"What happened to the family that lived here?"
"I don't know," she gave a vague shrug. "Yolanda says that every town has its tragic legacy and that what happened in this house is Beacon Hills'."
"Yeah, but does anyone know what happened?"
"Does anyone ever really know what happens inside someone else's house?"
Derek considered that for a moment and found himself frowning slightly. Two years ago he would say yes. But that was before he realized the secrets the Hales kept.
"Well what do people say happened?"
"From what Yolanda says, the Martacks where extremely religious. Like Carrie White's mom from Carrie religious. And one day, Mr. Martack was convinced the devil had taken over his family and thought the only way to save their souls was to kill them."
"How many of them where there?"
"His wife, two kids and the dog."
"He killed the dog?" Holly nodded despite Derek's frown. "What happened to Mr. Martack?"
"That's why everyone thinks the house is haunted," Holly grinned. "No one knows."
"Then how do they know he killed them because he thought they were possessed?"
"Yolanda said the cops came over because one of the neighbors say Mr. Martack walking from the house to the shed covered in blood. When the police arrived, he confessed to killing them, they arrested him and took him to jail. But when the transport came to take him to San Francisco he was gone."
"What do you mean gone?"
"Just that," she shrugged again. "He was just gone. The cell door was locked, the bars weren't broken or filed he was just gone, like…" she raised her hand and blew against her fingers, opening them as if she were letting something fly away.
"Did you make that up?" Derek asked regarding her with a heavy amount of skepticism.
"Cross my heart," she dragged her right index finger over her heart and held her hand up. "You can ask Yolanda next time you come over."
"So he could be out here right now? Mr. Martack?"
"Yeah but, it's not like he can still really be a threat. I mean this happened back in the seventies or something and he was already, like… old."
"Well," Derek glanced over his shoulder at the shed that looked like any breeze would threaten to topple it over. "If he shows up, I'll protect you."
Holly just grinned at him. "I know."
Derek nodded his agreement. He closed the distance but held off sitting down next to her, opting instead to look up at her from the foot of the steps. Uncle Peter's comment turned round and round in his head. He never really thought about how pretty Holly was until Julie McAdams' party last year when he kissed her. And he never really thought about that kiss afterwards. He tried to bring it up a few times but Holly always changed the subject so eventually he stopped. He'd all but forgotten about it until he heard Simon Crandall bragging in the locker room he could hit a home run with Holly. He'd even gone so far as to turn it into a bet. At the time he hadn't know what a home run was, but he knew it couldn't be good.
His first impulse had been to make Simon one with his locker, but he'd already been suspended twice for fighting. Once more and his father vowed to skin him alive, while his coach promised to kick him off the swim team. When he spotted Simon chatting Holly up at her locker after school the first impulse returned with a vengeance.
Derek told himself he was just being protective of his friend. What he didn't understand was if it was just him being protective, why was he all of a sudden thinking about the first time he kissed her. And why had Uncle Peter calling her his girlfriend gotten under his skin so much? Uncle Peter always teased him about Holly being his girlfriend, it never meant anything until tonight.
"What's wrong?"
Derek shrugged and climbed the steps and sat next to Holly. As discreetly as possible he leaned towards her a bit and inhaled. She smelled like lilacs and his mom's cinnamon sticks when she pulled them right out of the oven.
"Thanks for coming tonight."
"You're welcome."
"I know it's tradition for us to sit up eating candy and watching Wolfen but for whatever reason Laura really likes this dweeb."
"I don't mind giving the wolves a break this Halloween. Not that I don't enjoy watching it with you," she added grinning. "But this is nice too. Besides we can watch it when we get back to your house. My mom said I can sleep over."
"Can I ask you for another favor?"
Holly smirked and tapped her right foot against the steps. "You keep asking for favors and I'm gonna start keeping count."
"This is serious. I mean, sorta, I don't know. It's not really for me, it's for you too but…"
She laughed at that. "Why don't you just ask whatever it is you wanna ask?"
"You know Simon Crandall?"
"You know I know him, you saw me talking to him at school today."
"Right," Derek nodded. So much for him thinking he'd been stealthily watching them from afar. "See, the thing is, he's gonna ask you out. On a date. And I was kinda hoping you would turn him down."
"Well, he already asked me out."
Derek frowned. "What did you say?"
"He asked me if I wanted to go to a Halloween party tonight, and I told him I was hanging out with you."
Derek perked up at that. "What did he say?"
"He asked me to go to the movies with him tomorrow?"
The frown returned.
"I told him I already had a boyfriend."
He shifted and looked at Holly closely. The freckles on her cheek were darker under the moonlight.
"Why did you tell him that?"
"I don't know," she gave a slight shrug. "I guess I didn't want to hurt his feelings and I couldn't think of anything else to say. But why do you care who I go out with?"
Derek started to speak but looked away. Telling her seemed like a good idea at the time, but with the cat now peeking over the edge of the bag, he wasn't sure how to break the news to her, without hurting her feelings.
He was staring at the ground with a frown etched into his brow, trying to figure out how to tell her when she kissed his cheek softly.
"That was for being a good friend. I know about the bet."
The confession surprised him as much, maybe more than the kiss. "How did you find out."
"Melissa Driver's brother was in the locker room this afternoon. He told her and she told me. I'm not an idiot. I figured something was up when he started talking to me out of the blue this afternoon."
"I'm sorry."
"It's okay. At least I have friends like you."
"If it's any consolation I wanted to punch him. I almost did punch him. I may still punch him."
"And get kicked off the team?" she shook her head. "He's not worth it. And I'm seriously not in danger of losing my virginity to that jerk."
"Do you want to be my girlfriend?" he blurted out.
As soon as the words escaped part of Derek wished he could cram them back into his mouth and down his throat, while the other part was glad he got them out. Maybe Uncle Peter was right. His parents were friends and then started dating and as far as he could tell things worked out all right for them. More than all right, they had three kids and were still snuggling and making out to the point of embarrassment.
Besides, it seemed like everyone, at least everyone in his family, expected they either already were dating or eventually would. Why, he still hadn't figured out, but it seemed for the past couple of years whenever Holly came over, or whenever he announced he was heading to her house, all the adults shared some secret knowledge passed through looks only they could interpret.
"Do you want me to be your girlfriend?"
He considered it and answered with an all convincing shrug. "Maybe? I mean everyone already thinks we're dating anyway. Everyone at school at least… and my family."
"They do?"
"Yeah," he nodded. "Uncle Peter called you my girlfriend tonight."
"Did you tell him I wasn't?"
"Yeah but he didn't seem to believe me."
Holly frowned and supported her chin in the palm of her hand. Her turn to stare at the ground in thought.
"Do you want to be my boyfriend?"
"I think so."
She fell into silence again, the frown signaling that hadn't exactly been the answer she wanted, or maybe just not the one she expected.
"Do you want to be my boyfriend because your uncle thinks you're my boyfriend? Or do you want to be my boyfriend because you want to be my boyfriend?"
"The second," he stated this time with more confidence.
"Why?"
"Well…" Derek sat up and rubbed his palms against the legs of his jeans. "We're always together anyway, right?"
"Yeah."
"And I already love you, and I already protect you. That's stuff a boyfriend is supposed to do, right?"
"Yeah, but you do that because you're my best friend. You don't think it'll," she paused, pursing her lips a bit. "Make things weird between us?"
"I don't know," Derek answered after several moments in thought. "If it doesn't work, we can just go back to being friends."
"I guess," she stated.
Though uncertainty flared in her tone, the hints of a smile peeked from the corners of her lips. Derek spotted it, even as she pressed both hands to her face to hide it. It didn't take long for her infectious smile to spread to him.
"So, what do we do now?"
"Well, the same thing we normally do, only now we hold hands and kiss sometimes."
"When?"
"I could kiss you now."
"Right now?"
Derek turned his head to regard Holly with a smile. He could have given voice to any number of the sarcastic replies spinning in his head. Normally he would have, but they were dating now.
"I'd like to kiss you now. If that's okay."
Holly didn't answer, at least not verbally. Instead she just met his eyes with large brown ones and nodded. Derek shifted, sliding closer to her. He smelled her again as he leaned in close. The scent of lilac and cinnamon. He pressed his lips against hers, much as he'd done just over a year ago. This time he didn't count the seconds on his fingers. He didn't try to make it anything more than the press of lips. He didn't want it to be more than the press of lips.
She was grinning when he pulled away. Derek barely heard the increased beat of her heart over his own. She turned away, again hiding that smile that blossomed across her face. Her smile second in brightness only to his as he placed his arm around her shoulder and pulled her closer. His gave fixed on the beautiful moon.