Derek did manage to get Stiles off the dance floor for short periods of time, they had guests to take care of after all, but the second he turned his back on him Stiles roped the next person into dancing with him. By now it kind of was a running gag.

Talia and Andrew had a few dances as well but now they were back at the table where Laura had joined them. His mother was a bit too tipsy for Derek's liking but for now, she was quietly talking to Laura. She'd never been a loud drunk anyway. Not that Derek remembered many occasions where he'd seen his mother drunk.

John and Melissa were on the dance floor. There was a slow song playing and they were more shifting from one foot to the other than actually dancing but the way they were looking at each other made Derek's heart ache.

However, he only had to look up to see himself looking at Stiles the same way. The pictures were dominating the room, they were kind of hard to miss.

"Enjoying the party?" Derek joined his parents for a little break.

"I don't like Stiles," Talia proclaimed out of the blue. Her eyes were glassy and her cheeks red, maybe she should switch to water but he wasn't going to tell her that. "I don't like him."

"We know, Mom," Laura said with a tired sigh, making Derek wonder how often she'd said it before.

"You could do so much better." Tears were welling up in her eyes when she looked at him. "My handsome boy, the girls were lining up for you but you choose him." She gestured with her glass at where Stiles was currently dancing with Isaac. Red wine spilled over her hand but she didn't seem to notice. "Why him?"

"Because I love him." It was that simple. Why couldn't she see that?

"He's a man, you're never serious with a man."

"That's not true." Derek didn't want to have this conversation with her. Not now, not here, and for sure not while she was drunk.

"He's a cripple. How can you share a bed with that?"

"Mom, that's enough." Laura put a hand on her arm to calm her down but Talia shrugged her off.

"It's not." Now the tears were openly running down her face. "You were such a bright young man and then you threw it all away for him. What can he give you? What does he have to offer? But oh yeah, I forgot you let him beat you up. Because you're sick like that and get off on getting beaten."

"Maybe it's time to leave," Andrew spoke up. He tried to pry the glass out of her hand but she didn't let go. In the struggle, she spilled the rest of the wine so at least the glass was empty now.

"You're not my son." She spat the words at him. "My son wouldn't betray me like this."

"I am your son," Derek stated coldly. "Maybe you should start acting more like a mother than just a selfish bitch."

She flinched back and her eyes cleared for a second.

"I just want the best for you."

"What you think is the best for me," Derek corrected but he knew it was pointless, they had been here before. "You never bothered to ask what I want. You don't even need to ask, look, I made a picture for you." He pointed at the centerpiece. He liked this one the most because one had to be blind to not see the love between them.

"See that? That's what makes me happy, that's what I want." He wanted to yell at her but he restrained himself, this was still a party. The people around them were having fun and he didn't want to ruin that for them.

"You're right, Dad." Derek turned to Andrew. "I think you should leave now."

He didn't want to kick his dad out but if they didn't get Talia out of here now there would be a scene, they all knew it.

Andrew nodded and put an arm around his wife's shoulders. "C'mon, time to go."

Derek slumped down in his chair while he watched them leave.

"That went better than expected." Laura took the chair next to him. "I kind of expected her to blow off hours ago."

"Yeah." Derek huffed out a breath. "But I'm glad that she was here."

"You okay?" Laura patted his forearm, all big sister now.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Derek sank deeper into the chair, suddenly he felt tired. "You having fun?"

She had been stuck with their parents for quite a while but he'd seen her with his friends earlier.

"It's a nice party." She reached for the abandoned bottle of wine. She only got a few drops out of it. "Figures."

Derek couldn't help but laugh at that.

"I'll get you a new bottle," he said but made no attempt to get up.

"You're right, you know that?"

"With what?" Derek raised an eyebrow at her, not following.

"With the photos. It's clear how much you love him." She studied said pictures for a moment. "And how much he loves you."

It was just sad that his mom couldn't see it. Didn't want to see it. But there was nothing he could do about that. Derek had tried his best, he had reached out to her and had invited her to his wedding but if she couldn't be happy for him, that was not his problem.

"Wanna dance?" Laura asked and was already dragging him over to the dance floor.

He danced with her and then somehow he was dancing with Stiles again and that was good. After that, he needed a break, though, and handed Stiles over to Melissa for the next dance.

"Have you seen Haley?" Abby asked but barely stopped to wait for his answer. She was frantically scanning the crowd.

"Have you checked the bathroom?" He'd seen her earlier on the couch with Lucy and Justin but he couldn't recall how long ago that had been. A while.

"I just checked, she's not there."Abby turned on her heel to check the other half of the room but there was no Haley in sight. They weren't that many people, one person was hard to miss.

"Maybe she went outside?" Derek suggested even if he had no idea why she would go outside.

"Maybe she went to get more toys from the car," Abby mused but more to herself than to Derek who had no clue what she was talking about. He followed her to the front entrance.

"Haley?" Abby called out over the empty parking lot. It was half full with cars but there was no other person in sight. "Haley!"

Abby ran farther out into the lot, checking behind and in cars.

"She's not out here," Derek called her back. "Let's check inside again."

There were not many places where she could be, aside from the main room there were only the office and the darkroom and the letter should be locked. Derek checked nevertheless.

"Something wrong?" Lydia came up to them.

"We can't find Haley." Abby was shaking now. "Haley! Dammit, where are you?" She screamed loud enough for everybody to hear and the party came to a halt with people staring at her. Even the music stopped.

"Has anybody seen Haley?" Derek asked but he only got confused looks in return. Some turned towards the couch where Lucy and Justin were still sleeping but Haley wasn't just magically back with them.

"Call her." Stiles was at their side now.

"She won't answer," Abby reminded him in a tone that clearly said how useless that idea was.

"Yeah but we'll hear it ringing," Stiles explained. "She most likely fell asleep somewhere."

Stiles had been goofing around for hours but now his dom side bled into him. He was sitting straight in his chair, radiating confidence as if he had everything under control and knew what he was doing. Abby reacted to that and when she took out her phone, her hands didn't shake.

Everybody was holding their breath, waiting for Haley's phone to ring.

There was no ringing.

"Text her, ask her where she is," Stiles told her to do the most obvious thing.

Haley didn't answer. The checkmark didn't turn blue either.

"What's going on?" John came over to them, already in full sheriff mode.

"We can't find Haley," Stiles explained as if not everybody in the room had noticed that by now. "And Abby is targeted by a stalker," he added. "But I doubt that he even knows about them being here."

"He knows," Abby spoke up, her face ashen.

"He what?" Stiles whipped around so fast, he almost fell out of his chair.

"He was here when I brought in the flowers this morning. Josh called the police."

"Why don't I know about this?" Stiles asked while Derek was wondering the same.

"It's your wedding day," Lydia said. "What do you think?"

She had a point there.

"Okay." John took over. "We're going to do a quick search, she's most likely around here somewhere. If we don't find her in the next few minutes, I'm going to make the call."

John divided the guests into search groups and assigned them to certain areas. It would have been funny, seeing people in their best clothes crawling on the floor to peek under the buffet table but Derek was not in the mood to laugh.

The studio was searched quickly with no luck and when the outside groups came back in empty-handed, it was clear that Haley was nowhere nearby.

"I'm calling it in," John said and went outside to make the call. A few minutes later three police cars with flashing lights were in the parking lot.

Abby was sitting at the side, clinging to Lydia, while the rest of their guests were standing around, not sure what to do next. The party was over, that much was clear.

The police wanted to talk to Abby first but they made clear that nobody was to leave before they had talked to them.

"I take this is your wedding party?" An officer came over to Derek and Stiles. It was a young man but he was holding himself with a confidence that spoke of experience. "Congratulations."

"Thank you," Derek said lamely.

"When have you last seen Haley?" With the platitudes out of the way, the officer went right to his questions.

Derek had seen her sleeping on the couch quite a while ago and Stiles hadn't paid attention to her since she'd left the dance floor.

"Have you noticed somebody around who shouldn't be here?" The officer jotted down their answers.

"No." Stiles shook his head. "There are not that many guests and they're all friends and family, we know them all personally, no plus ones or things like that."

"Did somebody leave early?"

"My parents." Derek let out a sigh, he didn't want to bring this up in front of Stiles. "My mom was a bit drunk and she said things she shouldn't have said. Dad got her back to their hotel before things could escalate. And before you ask, she has a problem with me and Stiles, she didn't even know Haley or her mother."

The officer still made a note to check out his parents.

"We have to look in every direction." He apologized when he wrote down the name of their hotel.

"You better focus on the guy who's been stalking them for weeks now." Stiles gestured to where Abby was talking to another officer. "So far he has attacked her twice and he threatened to do something to Haley."

"My colleagues are working on that, don't worry," the officer assured them. Derek saw a third officer talking to John and he'd heard something about searching the area and surveillance cameras but it still felt like they were just standing around, doing nothing.

It took a while but eventually, they were free to leave.

"Not how I expected our party to end," Stiles said but he plastered a smile on his face when he approached Laura who was sitting with Lucy in her lap and Justin tucked into her side on the couch.

"I just heard that we can all go home now," he told them and ducked his head to look Lucy in the eye. "Somebody is ready for bed."

"Will they find Haley?" Justin asked.

"The police are looking for her," Derek assured him. "They'll find her."

Justin didn't look convinced and Derek couldn't blame him. After the officer had moved on to other people, Derek had been forced to listen to Stiles muttering about statistics and how crucial the first 48 hours were. It hadn't helped when Josh had joined in.

Derek looked over to where Abby and Lydia were sitting.

How had what was supposed to be the happiest day of his life turned into this?