When Stiles and Isaac visited Erica, they managed to get a moment with her alone while Isaac and Boyd were engrossed in a conversation.

"How are you doing?" They asked Erica and they meant more than just what everybody was asking her nowadays.

"It's a lot to wrap my head around," she admitted. "Becoming a werewolf, joining a pack, it's just a lot."

"Not dying of cancer," Stiles added.

"Yeah, that too."

"I know that it's quite a lot to take in, believe me, I know." Stiles thought back to when they had found out about werewolves. "But it's a good thing." They paused, weighing their words. "I don't know if they've told you but Laura and Derek have lost their pack, their whole family because the wrong people have found out about them. Derek has risked everything just to help me with the pain when I was in the hospital. I got a glimpse of him before when he scared off that mugger but he could have talked himself out of that. He still took the risk just to take some of my pain. He did it because it seemed to be the right thing to do. Laura is doing the same thing now. The more people know about them, the higher the risk but it feels right. They … we want you to be pack. You and Boyd."

"He's not convinced." She glanced over to where Boyd and Isaac had their heads stuck together over something on Isaac's phone. "It's too good to be true."

"If you have questions you can ask Laura or Derek anytime, you know that, right?" Stiles emphasized. "I was kind of in your position just a few weeks ago, not the tumor in the brain part but finding out about them and joining a pack. You can ask me what you don't want to ask them, I won't tell them, promise."

"I might take you up on that."

They didn't want to exhaust Erica too much so Isaac and Stiles left not much later.

"She's taking it so well," Isaac said with his hands deep in his pockets. "She's always been the strong one. I doubt that I could deal with something like this."

"Yeah," Stiles made. "Hope we'll never have to find out."

However, they couldn't quite relate any longer. If they got a diagnose like that, their mom came to mind, the doctors had said that it could be genetic, they would ask Laura for the bite. Problem solved. Stiles didn't want to become a werewolf, they stood firm with that decision, but in case of an emergency, they would take the bite over death.

Derek stayed the night with Laura so Stiles returned to their apartment alone. It was kind of scary how quickly they had become used to having Derek around, the apartment felt empty without him.

Stiles put some leftovers in the microwave, since they knew Derek there were always leftovers in their fridge, and to fill the silence they turned on the console. At the moment they weren't addicted to one game, they had a few casually running, and they figured that it was a good way to spend the evening. They liked having Derek around but with him, they hadn't come around to play much lately.

They were still absently eating while they couldn't decide what to play when their phone buzzed with a new message.

Is Derek different? Erica asked.

Sorry if that's too personal, she added quickly. I was just wondering. Can you tell that he's not like other men?

The games forgotten Stiles kept eating with one hand while they typed out an answer with the other.

Their first impulse was to tell her that Derek was not different from other men but that would have been a lie.

He's more observant, they wrote. He relies more on body language and what his senses are telling him. No clue how he does it but he can tell when I drift into he or she territory

One question led to the other and in the end, Stiles spent the evening chatting with Erica. She wanted to know about the more mundane parts of being a werewolf. How being with a werewolf was like. She didn't outright say it but she was thinking of Boyd here.

Stiles answered all her questions honestly and added details on their own and didn't even shy back when the questions became personal.

If Derek lost control in bed. If the claws and fangs came out. If he was more animalistic.

Stiles assured her that control was not a problem and that they had never felt unsafe with Derek. However, Derek was not big on the whole sex thing to begin with so he might not be the best example for this.

Look at Laura and Kira, they added. They hadn't seen Kira in a while but she was playing regularly with Erica and Laura now and Laura had at least spent Sunday night with her.

Good point, Erica admitted. Kira didn't know about werewolves and if she didn't find anything strange about Laura …

Around ten in the afternoon, Erica had to call it a day. Over the last half an hour her messages had become fewer and farther in between, at some point Stiles had been convinced that she'd fallen asleep, and now she had to admit defeat. They wished each other a good night and then she was off.

Stiles had a feeling that Erica had come to a decision and they were pretty sure that she would contact Laura tomorrow to tell her that she accepted the offer.

Stiles knew that they were right when Derek came in to work a few minutes late but with a spring in his steps.

"Got some good news this morning?" Stiles asked when they handed him a coffee.

"Why do you already know about that?" Derek eyed them suspiciously but accepted the coffee.

"We talked a bit yesterday. Got a feeling." Stiles shrugged. "Just didn't expect her to tell Laura first thing in the morning. Soooo ... when are we going to do this?"

"Laura made a reservation for our cabin the second she got off the phone," Derek said. "Hope you haven't anything planned for the weekend."

Stiles had the suspicion that Laura had been planning this since the idea of Erica joining the pack had first come up so she already had a solid plan. She and Derek had spent a few full moons running in the forest so she already knew a good place.

Stiles hadn't been sure if they would be included in this, technically just Laura and Erica were enough and probably safer since Erica might lash out before she got the hang of her new nature but Derek assured them that Laura wanted her pack there for support.

Turned out that the hardest part about Operation Werewolf as Stiles dubbed it was to keep Isaac out of it. He was the only one not invited to their weekend trip and they had to watch out what they were saying around him at work. Which became even harder when Boyd came in for a few hours.

However, Friday morning Stiles put their bag in the trunk of Derek's car before they headed out to work. Later they would just pick up Laura and drive out to that cabin. Boyd and Erica would follow them in their own car.

As if Isaac knew that something was up, he kept asking about their plans for the weekend. It got so bad that Stiles exploded with the exclamation that they intended to screw out Derek's brains all weekend.

Coach chose that moment to come out of his office because of course, he did that was just Stiles' life. He looked from Stiles over to where Derek tried to disappear under his desk.

"What you do in your free time is your business." He was clearly trying to get pictures out of his head. "But right now I'm paying you to work and not to plan your bed adventures." He gave all of them a good glare before he carried on with getting fresh coffee.

At least that shut up Isaac.

The day dragged out for what felt like forever but eventually, Stiles climbed into the car with Derek, and not much later they were on their way out of New York.

Being stuck in a car was not much of an improvement to being stuck in the office, though. Stiles kept their eyes on the traffic around them in hope to spot Boyd and Erica but no such luck.

Laura had given them directions, they would meet up at the cabin, it was fine but Stiles couldn't help but wonder if Erica had changed her mind.

"So, you're going to bite her in the neck?" Stiles asked the first question popping into their mind. "The same spot you gave me that symbolic bite? Is there something special about that spot or is it just convenient?"

At first, Laura answered their questions thoroughly, Stiles got the impression that she was glad for the distraction, she was nervous as hell too, but it didn't take long for her to get annoyed with them. Stiles couldn't help it. They were an annoying passenger. It was better when they were the one driving but not by much. They could multitask.

"Snacks or game?" Laura asked Derek.

"Game," Derek answered promptly. "Snacks don't work, they would just keep talking with their mouth full."

"What are you talking about?" Stiles paused their train of thought and tried to figure out what they had missed.

"Here." Laura put something in their hands. "That should keep you occupied until we get there."

Stiles blinked at the Gameboy in their hands. It was clunky and old and clearly a Gameboy.

"You did not pack stuff to keep me happy over the ride." Stiles protested while their mind was screaming Gameboy, Gameboy, fuck it's a real Gameboy. "I'm not a toddler."

"If you don't want to play give it back." Laura held out her hand and out of reflex Stiles clutched the Gameboy to their chest. They had always wanted one when they'd been a kid but had never gotten one. They might have mentioned that to Laura at one point, they didn't know. Point was, they were holding one in their hands right now might as well check it out.

"You're good with kids," Derek broke the following silence to which Laura gave him a playful slap to the shoulder.

"You can't treat me like a kid." Stiles pouted but didn't even tear their eyes off the screen.

Sooner than expected Derek parked the car in front of a cabin. The driveway leading up to it had been cut through at least a mile of dense forest and when Stiles looked around in the fading light, they didn't see any lights or other signs of civilization. Just a cabin in the forest.

"You do realize that this is the classic setup for a horror movie, right?" Stiles turned with their arms spread out to point out the whole scenario. "A handful of people spending the weekend in a remote cabin. There has to be an ax murderer or some kind of monster lurking around here somewhere."

"We are the monsters," Derek reminded them from where he was unloading the trunk.

"I'm still going to keep an eye on Boyd," Stiles muttered. "In the movies, the black guy always dies first."

"Nobody is going to die," Laura said a tad too firmly. "Get the bags, I'm going to start on dinner." With that, she marched over to the front door.

"I'm sorry," Stiles called after her. For a second they had forgotten that it was possible that the bite wouldn't take and that Erica could die. And it would be on Laura. Not that there was a way to know beforehand and without the bite Erica would die for sure but if she did not survive the night, Laura would blame herself. Stiles could kick their own ass for not thinking before they made stupid jokes.

"Here." Derek handed them their bag but then he straightened up and looked over to where the path was coming out of the woods. "They're here."

"You have to say that in a singsong." Stiles couldn't help but point out but then Boyd's car came into sight. He parked next to Derek's car.

"Is it just me or have I seen this in a horror movie before?" Erica asked when she had a look around.