Authors Note: HEYO! XD Please tell me what you think; I would love to know XD I own nothing and no one apart from the following: Ms Scarlet Johnson, Octavian, Jasmine (Jaz), Miguel, Sasha,Janice (J), Jessie, Luna (Lu/LuLu), Grace (Gracie), Olivia Bishop (Olive) and Owen Palmer.

JUST SO YOU KNOW: like everyone else, I have no idea what Stiles' real name is, so I'm going along with what everyone else puts :) and I've made his middle name up XD

Please, please review XD

SORRY FOR THE LONG WAIT, BUT I'VE JUST STARTED UNIVERSITY!

Chapter 20

Stiles

A few days after the 'Exploding Mug' incident, I had woken up on the couch, groggily. See, Friday night, I had had enough. It was bugging me and I wanted to know what on Earth happened. So, I had stayed up late, researching. Just trying to find anything that could, maybe, help.

All I found were shitty ghost stories.

At first, I didn't know what woke me up. I just sat up on the couch, moving my laptop to the coffee table.

That was when I heard crying.

I couldn't remember a time I had ran so fast! All I knew was something was wrong. I ran out into the hallway, spinning in circles trying to figure out what had happened, what was going on. It was when I was facing the kitchen that I saw.

Little Luna was surrounded by broken glass, balling her eyes out, shards sticking to her pyjamas and into her feet. I didn't even stop to think, just running into the middle of the glass, hefting her up as I hugged her close.

I could feel my heard racing, could heard the blood pumping in my ears.

FLASHBACK - 12 year old Stiles

I hadn't meant to drop it.

The cupboard was so high and I could only reach so far, standing on an old rickety chair.

The glass had shattered around me, crying out as the chair slid from under my feet, making me fall onto the sharp edges. The shards stuck into my palm, jutted out of my knees and put small slices into my clothes. I tried the be brave, I tried not to make any noise - it would only make her angrier!

But I could never do it, even after all these years.

Ms Johnson walked in, silently. She had a tumbled in her right hand, the glass holding more whisky than it should have been. The woman just stared for a moment, no expression on her face, the dull lighting of the kitchen casting her in shadows.

I was frozen, staring up at her from my position on the floor. I didn't know what to do and nothing I said would help! Anything I did or said would only make it worse. I could only stay in that position - on my hands and knees, tears running down my cheeks.

But she said nothing.

She just stared at me.

She drained her glass.

She stood there.

I thought, maybe, she would walk away! Maybe I would be alright this time! I hoped that she was too drunk to do anything.

She threw the glass at me.

It shattered over my head, the glass cascading over me, shallowly cutting the sides and back of my neck.

The next thing I knew, I was held up against the wall by my neck, the sharp tips of claws only just piercing the skin as I struggled to breathe.

"Clean up ya mess!" she hissed, fangs extending.

I had a migraine for far weeks after she bashed my head against the wall...

END OF FLASHBACK

Derek

The entire family heard the smash. We all heard Luna's wailing. Everyone had rushed out of their rooms, practically flying down the stairs and into the kitchen... We didn't expect to come face to face with what we did.

Luna was tightly encased in Stiles' arms, the boy seeming not to realise the pain he must be in. He held her so close to him, yet he was still gentle, trying to sooth her. None of us really knew what to do, none of us moved. We wanted to. We wanted to make sure they were both alright, but seeing Stiles' eyes glazed over? We didn't want to frighten him - he could hurt himself more!

But Peter had just zeroed in on the blood on his little girl. He saw that Stiles wasn't exactly there, so he tried to get closer and take Luna from him.

Stiles just freaked out.

His feet dragged against the tiles, more glass stabbing into the soles of his feet, as he backed himself against the counter, holding onto Luna tighter.

He kept muttering how he wasn't going to let us hurt her, how we weren't going to do to her what we did to him.

That was when it clicked for me.

He wasn't seeing us. He was seeing them.

I should have realised straight away, it shouldn't have taken this long! I was the one that saw what they did to him, I had seen the bruises! I had seen what it had done to him - I had seen behind the act.

I felt like an absolute idiot.

The others tried to calm him down, tried to bring him back. Nothing was working. Nothing they said was getting through to him and getting closer wasn't an option. So what were we suppose to do? What was I suppose to do? I was supposed to be the one looking after him! I was supposed to be the one to take care of him, make sure he was safe and alright.

Some job I'm doing...

It took minutes - minutes too long - until I had an idea. Thankfully, it wasn't hard to get Luna's attention.

"LuLu, think you can help Ricky?" I asked, quietly.

She just sniffled, nodding slightly.

"Can you try talking to Stiles?" I asked her.

She nodded again, her arms wrapping around Stiles' neck lightly.

Luna tried, she definitely tried... Everything she said just seemed to mix with everyone else.

Stiles

All I could hear were voices. Nothing the voices were saying made any sense, it was just noise. It was just this mass of noise that kept getting louder and louder... Nothing seemed to stop it.

"Sti, Mommy 'nd Daddy wanna see if we're ok."

That made me stop.

It was the only thing that wasn't noise, the only thing that was formed of actual words.

But, still, it didn't make sense.

No one cared. No one but Scott and Melissa, but they wouldn't be there. They knew not to. Scott and Melissa were the only ones that cared.

And Derek.

Derek cared, right?

In the, almost, three weeks I had been in the house, Derek hadn't done anything to, physically hurt me. He had protected me, comforted me. He hadn't forced me to talk about or do anything. He had been kind to me, looked after me. He had been on my side from the get go.

So he cared. He had to care.

That thought made my head clear, cleared my eyes.

The first thing I saw - blood.

Suffice to say, it scared me.

The second thing I saw? Derek and his family staring at me, little Luna still in my arms.

"I-I am so sorry!" I stuttered. "I-I'll clean it up. Promise!"

Derek and Peter came closer to us. I handed Luna to her Dad without hesitation, the thought that he would be worried flooding my mind. Luna buried herself into Peter the moment he had hold of him, the older wolf encasing her completely before stepping away from the glass.

"J-Just tell me where the dustpan and brush it, I-I'll clean it up!" I shuddered.

Before I could even move, Derek was next to me, wrapping his arms around me and carefully moving us away from the glass. He got me to sit down on one of the kitchen chairs, the dull ache in my feet from the glass only just registering.

"You're not cleaning it up." Derek told me, crouching in front of the chair. "And you have absolutely nothing to be sorry for."

"You're definitely better than most, my boy. And I thank you." Peter smiled. "My Little Dove heals and you don't, yet you cared more about someone like us than yourself."

I just looked up at him.

I glanced at Luna, only briefly, before I shrugged.

"She's a kid." I told him. "She's a person. She deserves to be cared about. There's nothing to thank me for."

It started to get a little better from there. Everything had calmed down, Luna had stopped crying... The only thing left to do was to get the glass out of Luna and I, Oliver already clearing away the glass and blood.

The moment Derek tried to get the glass out of me, I shifted the chair back, refusing to let them help me until they helped Luna. He tried to tell me that she was already healed, that it should be me first because I was human and I didn't heal like them, that my wounds could become infected.

In the end, I won the argument.

Derek

Everything had been fine for the rest of the day.

Stiles had actually sat with us all, spoke with us all. He joined the conversation without being asked a direct question... All in all, it was as if he had started to relax, started to see that we weren't the enemy. Started to see that he would be treated differently here to how he was there.

I couldn't describe the feeling that gave me.

He still stayed close to me, still having to be reminded of little things - being allowed to sit on the couches, not having to ask for certain things - but he was doing better. He was getting there, slowly.

He was even smiling more, laughing! It was, as if, I was seeing a glimpse of the boy I had first met in that diner... I knew it would take a long time before that happened, possibly a couple of years, but it was nice to know that side of him wasn't completely gone.

Everything was going fine.

Until he disappeared after dinner.

Stiles had told me he was just going to go outside, just going to get some fresh air. I hadn't realised he was gone until Laura came to my room, asking if I knew. That seemed to be the way to go - the moment I thought I was doing well as an Alpha, something happened and I fucked up! I couldn't care for one person, how was I supposed to care for nine!

Mom tried to calm me down, trying to explain yet again that it wasn't my fault, that I wasn't prepared to be an Alpha like Laura had... Just like the last time, it didn't make me feel any better. It just made me feel like I should have been working harder, should have pushed myself to be better! How was I supposed to make her proud if things kept going to shit.

The moment we had stepped outside, the majority of us going to track Stiles, all hoping he wasn't hurt, we saw him. He came swaying through the trees, an open bottle of Jack Daniels in either hand. He had this wide grin on his face as he stumbled closer, this manic giggle bubbling from his throat as he zigzagged.

I don't remember a time I moved faster than when I did to get to him, snatching the bottles out of his hands, throwing them far from him as I kept him upright.

Up close, the smell of alcohol was so strong, I could have been sick.

"And what do we have here?" Peter asked, raising an eyebrow, his concern only slightly masked.

Stiles just laughed, his grin widening as he looked up at Peter.

"One of the few benift...beneft...benefits of being human." Stiles said, slowly. "I can drink the pain away! I don't even know why I's so sad in the first place!"

Even though we were standing still, Stiles managed to stumble slightly, my grip on him tightening. It brought on another bought of giggles, but only for a few seconds. He seemed confused, his entire face scrunching up, head tilting slightly to the side.

"Derek... Why'm I so sad?" he asked, his hands fisting in my shirt to stay standing. "This is great - I feel great!"

I could feel just how much it affected everyone standing outside with me, could feel the sadness sweeping over them all. I knew we were all thinking the same thing - how often had he drunk away his pain? How often had he drunk to forget?

I didn't say anything, didn't answer his question. It would have been useless, given how he practically fell asleep against me.

I did nothing but pick him up, carrying him up to his room to put him to bed.

I slept on his floor the entire night.

Stiles

I woke up with the mother of all hangovers!

The last thing I remembered was buying, about, three bottles of Jack, drinking around three quarters of the first one before my memory went black. I didn't need to throw up, thank God! But I had the worst headache I ever remembered having, the worst taste was infesting my mouth, and everything hurt whenever I moved.

It took a lot for me to get downstairs.

Everyone, to my delight, were fairly quiet. Talia handed me a glass of water, Oliver placed some dry toast in front of me when I sat at the table - all I could do was make a bunch of noises as thanks, but I think they understood...

I practically inhaled the water, Grace kindly refilling it for me as I nibbled at the toast. Sure, it made me feel sick, but I knew I would feel better in the long run. That was when I actually spoke.

"Derek, gimmie your hand." I muttered, turning my head slightly towards the Alpha sitting next to me.

"What?" he asked, voice muffled by whatever he was eating.

If I could, I would have rolled my eyes. Instead, I just felt wide, patting along the table top until I came in contact with his left hand, jerking it towards me until I could place it, gently, on my head.

Instantly, some of the pain was leaving me.

"Damn, you're way better at this than Scott!" I sighed, my shoulders relaxing slightly as I opened my eyes properly. "I think I'll keep you."

SORRY FOR THE LONG WAIT, BUT I'VE JUST STARTED UNIVERSITY!

Please, please review XD

Thanks for your patience everyone XD