Stiles wasn't mentally prepared for the sound of a car parking in the gravel outside the Hale family house, his heart rate kicking up a notch as he inwardly freaked out over the prospect of coming face to face with his friends once again. Andrew was at his side in a moment, having left work early so he could be there for Stiles...or really whoever in the pack that needed a bit of reassurance during the meeting.
"It's okay, Stiles...it's just Cora. Remember, the others are coming up after Lacrosse practise, even Derek isn't coming up until then."
Stiles relaxed, letting out the shaky breath he hadn't realised he'd been holding. Stiles knew he was being stupid. He knew for a fact that the pack weren't expected for at least another hour, maybe an hour and a half, depending on how the team trained. Knowing Coach, it would probably be more like two hours before they finished the training, plus the time it would take for everyone to have showers and drive up to the Hale's house.
Really, Stiles wasn't sure why he was so nervous. While it was true that aside from Cora, everyone he would be seeing tonight had been dead in his universe. Talia had decided that it would be best if, the first time Stiles met the pack, it was limited to Scott's pack. Peter, Cora and Malia, therefore, wouldn't be there. Neither would any of the members of Derek's family that Stiles hadn't met in his original timeline. Scott, Isaac, Derek, Erica, Boyd, Jackson, Danny, Lydia, Kira and Liam would all be there, along with the Sherriff and Melissa. Ethan and Aidan wouldn't be there either, although Stiles imagined that Danny would be telling them soon enough. Like with Talia and Andrew, Stiles didn't want to be the reason Danny started keeping secrets or hiding things from Ethan.
Stiles fiddled with a loose thread in the sleeve of the jacket he was wearing, closing his eyes as he tried to settle his breathing down, smiling inwardly as he managed to fight off the panic attack that had been bubbling beneath his skin.
Opening his eyes, Stiles saw Cora looking through the door nervously, her school bag hanging over her shoulder.
"Everything okay?" She asked, her tone calm, although she was obviously curious about why her dad had his arm around Stiles' shoulder, both of them sitting on the floor of the bedroom Stiles had been given.
"Yeah, we're good. How was school?"
"Fine," Cora shrugged, "Scott and his pack are a bit curious about why we're having a meeting tonight...they kept asking me if I knew what was up. I didn't tell them anything, but they knew that I know what's going on. Scott's getting much better at telling when he's being lied to."
"They'll know soon enough." Andrew reasoned calmly, "Can you go and see if your mom needs a hand please?"
"Sure," Cora nodded with a smile, before she disappeared from sight. Stiles listened to the sound of her footsteps fading down the stairs.
"I can't wait to see them again," Stiles admitted, "Maybe it's because there's a part of me that can't believe they're all gone, that they've just all been away for the last few weeks, but there is a part of me that can't wait to see them again, while there is another part of me that is confused because I'd managed to convince myself that I wasn't going to see any of them ever again, and in a few hours everyone will be here. I hate this," Stiles tilted his head back, feeling his head connect solidly with the wall behind him. Andrew simply patted his shoulder reassuringly, not knowing what exactly to say to comfort the teenager.
TW
As it turned out, it was almost three hours before Scott's pack was all present at the Hale house, by the time Lacrosse practise finished, and they'd showered, and then Scott and Jackson had been forced to stay behind and clear up some of the equipment that had gotten muddy during the practice. Stiles had watched through an upstairs window as everyone had arrived and went into the dining room, where the meeting would be taking place.
"Hey buddy, you okay?" a soft voice asked, and Stiles startled, looking up at the Sherriff with wide eyes. Stiles knew that he should probably already be downstairs, ready for Talia and Deaton to start talking, but something in his head was making him hesitate, wanting to keep his distance. Deep down, Stiles knew it was because he was scared of how the others would react; terrified of being rejected by the only people he'd ever been friends with...who had made him feel like he belonged.
Stiles gave a small nod in response to the Sheriff's question, before he adverted his gaze back out the window.
"Come on, it's time to go. They're going to be happy to see you, you know that, right?"
"How can you know that, though?" Stiles asked, "I mean, they're all happy with their own friendships, they don't need me butting in. Scott's got Isaac as a best friend, and really, all I ever was back...back in my original timeline, was Scott's best friend. Everyone else tolerated me. Yeah, Lydia and Allison sort of became my friends over time, until I got Allison killed, but Isaac, Derek, Boyd...Danny and Jackson...Erica most of the time...they didn't like me...they weren't friends with me. They only put up with me because I was Scott's friend."
"Hey...I'm sure that's not true." The Sherriff told Stiles, "and even though they don't know you very well I know these kids, and they'd look out for you and take you into their group...their pack. Scott would never turn anyone away, and he's had a good influence on Isaac. It'll be okay."
Stiles sighed and nodded, getting to his feet and letting the Sherriff put his arm around his shoulder and steered his out of the room and down the stairs, exhaling nervously once they reached the bottom of the stairs and the Sherriff let his arm drop back to his side. Stiles missed the reassuring weight of the Sherriff's arm, but he knew why the Sherriff was keeping his distance. It was going to be hard enough to keep Scott from figuring out what had happened until the right moment without the Sherriff walking in with Stiles under his shoulder. Stiles hadn't changed that much in appearance in the last seven years after all. To a lesser extent Jackson, Danny, Lydia, Erica and Isaac would all be in the same boat. They had all known Stiles since elementary school, and Jackson, Lydia, Danny and Scott had all been in Stiles' class the year of the fire. It would need to be explained to them why their former classmate, who had been dead for 1seven years, was now sitting at the table with them, looking like he was the same age as them, even though he had died at the age of ten.
As they approached the dining room Stiles could hear the low murmur of voices in the room. He could pick out Scott's voice, and Derek's. Jackson, Danny, Kira and Isaac were talking about lacrosse. It was all so...normal, as if this was an everyday occurrence, as if none of them had died. Of course, Stiles belatedly thought, as far as this reality was concerned, none of them had died. The only one that had died had been him.
"Come on, let's go," the Sherriff offered in a gentle voice, and Stiles nodded, walking into the dining room. He was unable to resist the urge to look at the assembled pack, his gaze first landing on Scott and Derek, Derek looking as serious as he had the day Stiles had arrived in this timeline, but at the same time listening attentively to Scott. Perhaps more strange was seeing Scott, alive and well, happily chatting away to Derek, as if they'd never had issues in the past. Allison and Lydia had their heads together, and Stiles was willing to bet that they were speculating why Talia had summoned them all here. The curious, analytical look that Lydia gave him as their eyes met told him that, even though Lydia hadn't recognized him yet, she had figured that he, the stranger, had something to do with it.
Stiles let the Sherriff lead him to two empty seats, pushing Stiles into the one next to Talia, before he sat down on Stiles' other side, with Melissa on his other side. Alan Deaton was sitting on the other side of Talia, and he gave Stiles a reassuring smile as Andrew sidled into the room and sat in the only empty seat, next to Derek. Talia cleared her throat, and a hush fell across the room immediately, everyone in the room recognizing Talia's authority and quieting, ready to hear what the Alpha had to say.
"Thanks for you all coming out here, I know it's been a long week at school, and you've all got plans for the weekend, but something rather urgent has come up. I'll leave it to Dr. Deaton to explain the theory behind it all," Talia said, speaking with a confidence and degree of authority that Derek had never got the hand of, and Scott hadn't had much opportunity to use. Everyone in the room silently redirected thier attention towards the vet, who nodded.
"Thank you Talia," Deaton nodded, "You've all been summoned up here because something unexpected has happened, like Talia said. I should explain the theory first though. There are other universes...other timelines some call them, running parallel to ours. There is no way to count how many of these alternate universes there are, but there may be millions, or more, out there. In many circumstances there is little difference between different universes, and it is difficult to detect what the actual difference is. It might be some minor event in local history, such as the old post office building burning down or it could be something rather significant in terms of global history, such as the allied forces loosing World War Two. Many alternate realities have yet to defer from our timeline of events, and hinge on future events and decisions, the vast majority of which will have nothing to do with us. Now, there are ways to cross into alternate universes, although it is highly dangerous, and it can be very unpredictable. As it happens, we have a visitor from another reality...a different timeline, as it is."
Deaton went silent, and Stiles took a moment to look around the room, checking everyone's facial expressions. Allison, Kira, Boyd and Liam were all looking relatively calm, which was to be expected. None of them would have ever met Stiles in this timeline, having all moved to town after the Hale fire (or in Liam's case having been in a lower grade at school). Isaac and Erica both didn't look that fazed either, looking curious, but not as though they'd recognized Stiles. Surprisingly, Jackson, Lydia and Danny all had their eyes narrowed suspiciously at Stiles, and Stiles could tell they were on the verge of figuring it all out, which he hadn't expected. Other than to make his life miserable Jackson hadn't acknowledged Stiles' existence until after Scott started excelling at lacrosse after he got the bite, and Danny and Lydia had tended towards just pretending he didn't exist.
Not all that surprisingly, however, Scott was a lot closer to figuring it out. Stiles could almost see the thoughts flying through Scott's head as he looked from Talia, to Deaton, to Stiles himself.
"Sti...Stiles?" He croaked out finally, his voice thick with emotion, with hope and fear, grief and sadness and thinly veiled desperation. Stiles nodded and smiled at his best friend...his brother in all but blood, but not without noticing how Derek, who up until now had been glaring at him, closed his eyes in pain.
"No way," Jackson exclaimed in shock, "but you died...you died in the fire...here, when we were all just kids."
"Stiles here comes from an alternate timeline where he did not find out about the fire until after the fact. As such, he never went up to the house that night, he was never hit by the falling roof beam, and therefore he never lost his life."
Stiles happened to be looking at Derek as Talia spoke, and he saw the emotions flashing across the werewolf's face. In this timeline it had been teenaged Derek who had carried dying ten year old Stiles from the burning Hale house, who had helped perform CPR on Stiles while the ambulance was on its way. Of course Derek was struggling, Stiles knew that if their roles had been reversed and it was Derek that had died that day saving Stiles, only to reappear seven years later, as if none of it had happened Stiles would have lost it by now, no doubt about it. As Stiles watched Derek, however, Andrew put his hand on his son's shoulder, squeezing gently. Derek sucked in a deep breath, and his normal, stoic mask was back up, as if it had never gone.
"Oh my God," Scott whispered in an awed voice, blatantly staring at Stiles, oblivious to the hand that Allison had put on his shoulder.
"This change in events has altered many things in Stiles' timeline, making it vastly different from our own. Through no fault of his own, it is now impossible for Stiles to permanently return to his original timeline, as well as the actual process of creating a means by which he could return to his original reality being nigh impossible. For the moment at least it seems that Stiles will be staying here in Beacon Hills...this version of it, anyway. I thought that, since the majority of you are already familiar with Stiles, and since he will be in your year at school, he would be a good fit in your pack.
"He knows about...the truth?" Derek asked his mother.
Talia nodded, "Stiles has known about werewolves and the like for just over a year now." To support her claim, Stiles nodded in agreement, although he couldn't help but think that it would be difficult to change realities without realising that the supernatural was real, especially given that everyone in this reality thought he was dead. It sounded like something that would drive you insane. Just the thought of that made Stiles shudder, memories of his time at Eichen House and the Nogitsune too fresh and raw for comfort.
"But, if...if Stiles never broke the mountain Ash barrier and got all of you guys out the night of the fire, then..." Lydia looked from Talia to Stiles as she spoke, a look of horror crossing his face. Talia didn't seem inclined to speak, so Stiles answered Lydia's unspoken question.
"In my reality, after the Hale fire there are only four members of the Hale family left alive, plus Malia. Everyone thought Cora was dead until about six months ago, Peter was catatonic with serious burns and in long term care at the hospital, and Laura and Derek left Beacon Hills and went to New York. That was it. Laura...Laura died about a year ago, only a day or so before I found out the truth"
A stunned silence met Stiles' speech as the assembled pack processed the bombshell that he had just dropped. Stiles stayed quiet too, understanding that it was a big bombshell that he had dropped. From what he had heard Scott's pack were generally close to the Hale pack, and hearing that everyone, Derek's parents, and brothers, all of his cousins, all of Talia's siblings and their respective spouses except for Peter had died in the fire, and Laura had died as well in a separate incident. Stiles had deliberately avoided going into detail about Laura's death. It sounded like Peter was different in this reality, not driven insane by the deaths of his wife and children. Stiles didn't want to cause any trouble or tension in the pack by revealing that Peter had killed his niece for the power she wielded as Alpha.
Eventually Scott got to his feet, walking around the table towards where Stiles was sitting. He hesitated as he passed his mother's seat, and she gripped his hand tightly. Stiles, however, could read this timeline's version of Scott just as he could read the Scott of his timeline, and didn't hesitate, getting out of his chair and standing facing Scott, meeting his eyes. It wasn't strange, looking at Scott standing in front of him, like Stiles feared it would be after carrying his best friend's dead body through the woods back to the grave he had dug for him.
Instead, it felt like Stiles had come home, like after everything he had gone through, the pain, the numbness, the fear, the anxiety and depression, the guilt, the nightmares and the long, sleepless nights, all went away. Scott was here, his brother, and even though he wasn't the same Scott that Stiles had been inseparable from since they were four, it didn't feel like it mattered.
Around them, nobody spoke, the room completely silent. Every single person in the room knew, either first hand or from being told, how close Scott and Stiles had been before Stiles' death, how loosing Stiles had almost destroyed the happy, cheerful child Scott had been. It had taken years for Scott to come to terms with Stiles' death and how it made him feel, and it had taken him even longer, and lots of sessions with a councillor, for him to learn how to cope with those feelings. No-one, except maybe the Sherriff, had struggled with dealing Stiles' death more than Scott. Everyone in the room knew that, really, Scott had never gotten over Stiles' death, despite the lengthy period of time that had passed since the day that his mother had woken him up with tear stained eyes and told him that Stiles wasn't going to be at school that day, or any day after that.
Now, Scott and Stiles stood face to face, they boy who had come from another universe, and the teenaged True Alpha. Melissa and Lydia both had tears running down their cheeks as they watched Stiles and Scott look at one another.
It was Scott who moved first, sliding his hand from his mother's grip and stepping forward, wrapping his arms around Stiles, who returned the gesture, hugging Scott tightly, as if he was frightened to let go. Stiles pressed his head into Scott's neck, closing his eyes as he fought to control his sobs, fighting back the tears that were rolling down his cheeks. It was only when he felt his own shoulder becoming damp that he realised that Scott was crying too, his face resting on Stiles' shoulder, his hands resting on Stiles' back. Stiles took a steadying breath and tilted his neck back, exposing it, an sign of submission that he had witnessed Erica, Boyd and Isaac do to Derek, and then Isaac and on one occasion Liam doing it to Scott. He himself had unconsciously done it to Scott back in his original timeline, not even aware that he was doing it. It had just been a natural gesture, up until the moment that Stiles had been aware that he could hear Scott sniffing him, inhaling his scent.
This time, though, Stiles had done it deliberately, and was ready for the sound of Scott sniffing him, getting used to his scent, committing it to memory. It wasn't just this version of Scott getting his first werewolf level dose of Stiles' scent though, and Stiles knew it. The way Scott was standing, the way he had his face so close to Stiles' neck...it was Scott getting his scent on Stiles, effectively marking him as part of Scott's pack. It was Scott accepting Talia's decision that Stiles should be part of Scott's pack, and making it obvious to anyone with werewolf level scenting abilities.
Stiles had done his research; he knew what was involved in including a new member to an established pack. It would take a lot more than Scott hugging him and sniffing him over, but it was the first step, and a crucial step to take.
It was the first step to belonging to a new pack, and, Stiles found himself thinking, a new pack was just the thing he needed.
