I needed to get this chapter out because I kept rewriting this one scene and it was driving me nuts.

The following afternoon, Stiles watches Derek as he makes their lunch for the day. She had insisted on making it in return for him taking her out last night, but he didn't even hear it. He just told her to sit at the table, gave her a quick kiss on the forehead before making his way to the kitchen. The simple, sweet gesture had caused Stiles to remember their kiss on the dance floor.

At the time, it felt nice to Stiles because Derek's plan for the night out as a distraction had worked. They talked about each other's families and childhood. She could almost see herself having a relationship with Derek.

Now after a good night's sleep, Stiles managed to talk herself into thinking that what happened on the dance floor was purely circumstantial.

The problem is her head is telling her one thing while her heart tells her another. She's practically deciding to ignore the conflict within her mind when she hears, "Your mind is wondering," Derek's voice calls out from the kitchen, "What are you thinking about?"

Dammit. Why is he always asking that question?

Stiles isn't ready to have a "defining the relationship" conversation but there is no way, she can deflect his question as easily as she can with Scott or Lydia. Mainly, because while she does love her two best friends to death, she knows they let her get away with it.

She can't lie to him. He has had enough lies already, "What's the deal here?"

He comes out of the kitchen with two plates, consisting of a sandwich and pieces of fruit. He places a plate setting it down in front of her, "Deal?"

"With us," She clarifies, looking him in the eye.

Derek's face shows confusion, "I thought I made my feelings about us rather obvious last night."

"But how do you know you're ready?" She questions so hastily, that she nearly surprises herself. She wants to run from this conversation, but she can't get herself to high tail it out there.

So, she does the one thing, she can do. Ramble her way through it, "The kiss only happened because you were feeling nostalgic about the thought of family."

Stiles' rapid heartbeat fills Derek's ears. He smells the anxiety and doubts coming off her. He isn't surprised by Stiles' question to say the least.

Derek had to have a long conversation with himself multiple times before mustering up the courage to even ask Stiles out.

He gives her a soft appearance, "Is that truly how you feel?"

"It's what I know," She answers. "You've known me for what? Six months going on seven months."

"You didn't answer my question."

Stiles turns away from him almost as if she needs a moment to think, "I feel that you can't possibly be mentally ready to be in a relationship after being in one or ten years considering the circumstances."

She turns back to him giving him a serious expression, "I feel that you are probably just projecting these feelings because this whole situation is extremely intimate considering I'm pregnant with your child." She sighs, "Like I said yesterday, you have a lot of things to deal with that you haven't gone through the proper motions for."

Derek stares at her as a sense of warmth overcomes him as he reaches over and cups her cheek in his hand, looking her over.

He can't deny that some of the things that Stiles said aren't true. The anger in finding out about Kate's involvement in the fires, still resounded within him every time he tried to find traces of her. The fact that he didn't see what the Community saw years ago, still eats at him from time to time and sometimes it felt like he would just go mad with rage and grief. Give into the animal side him, but at the same time, he felt almost at peace too.

He thought he had lost his chance at having a family after finding out that Kate couldn't have kids. But then Stiles came along with her friends and Derek started to feel whole again. Sure, things had been rocky in the beginning, but over the months Derek felt more at home with people he had just met than he had with Kate in years.

"Stiles," He says after a moment. "You and our daughter are the ones that have kept me grounded through this whole ordeal. I know it's not exactly ideal, but it is the only thing that is keeping me from losing my mind over this past month." He rubs a thumb on her cheek looking her over with affection written on his face, "I promise I will talk to someone as soon as this is all over, okay?"

"And I believe that until you do," Stiles replies softly, taking the caressing hand into her own. "We should keep this as a professional relationship."

"You care about me, don't you?"

"Probably more than I should," Stiles confesses softly just as they hear the door open and close.

Before Derek or Stiles can move, Boyd and Erica enter the dining room wearing grim-expressions, "We need to talk."

Within thirty minutes, the Preserve pack, along with Derek, Erica, and Boyd, meet at the animal clinic.

In front of them, is a slab of stone that has another face that is seemingly more human and less distraught.

"What are we looking at?" Stiles questions.

Jordan, a Hellhound that apparently saved everyone last night, answers in the form of taking Lydia's drawing and placing it next to the slab. The opening that has been left in her drawing fits perfectly with the empty space that is left on the slab.

"Is that what I think it is?" She questions.

"The Anuk-Ite, an ancient shapeshifter. A creature of disharmony. It can turn neighbor against neighbor, sowing the seeds of discord and hate." He explains, "It doesn't need fangs, it doesn't need claws. It uses something far more sinister."

Lydia thinks about the hunters' reaction to the bloody lump in the tunnels with them last night, "Fear."

Jordan nods, "When paranoia turns to anger, anger turns to violence, entire communities tear themselves apart," He shares. "The creature feeds off the fear and grows more powerful."

"It would explain what triggered Mason and Kira," Stiles relates. "Remember Scott, said that when he fought the Beast it was terrified."

"Then things are about to go from dangerous to more dangerous," Boyd predicts. "We've already warned the Community about Gerard being back after what happened with Brett and Lori, that alone has already put the Community on high alert."

"Adding that to what people witnessed on the road that night and the rumors," Erica comments. "Beacon Hills is slowly being turned into a freaking minefield."

"So if we know what this thing is," Scott inputs. "That means that we can stop it, right?"

Jordan gives him an unsure look, "I don't know." He looks to Stiles, "What do you know about it?"

Stiles blinks a bit off guard, "I don't remember much honestly, but I do remember that sometimes it's called Double Face or Two-Faces." She uses Lydia's picture as a resource for her explanation, moving her finger from side to side, "One's beautiful and the other is hideous. Which is why it represents disharmony and discord."

Derek directs his attention to Jordan. "How long have you been doing?"

"Not long," He replies. "I only started because the Hellhound that has been hunting this creature is dead," He looks to Lydia curiously. "Hence why you drew the picture."

"I drew this picture weeks ago," Lydia reminds him. "Are you telling me that there's a dead Hellhound lying around somewhere?"

"It's possible," He says plainly. "We're not exactly easy to kill."

"Is this creature easy to kill?" Scott questions.

"As long it stays separated from its other half it shouldn't be a problem," Jordan theorizes.

"Which begs the question, are we searching for something that has two faces?" Scott questions him, "Or two people?"

Lydia realizes that Scott has a point, "Two faces may mean two creatures."

"And when they come together," Stiles pieces together. "They'll be unstoppable."

"I think we should cancel the opening," Derek tells Stiles as he drives them back to the Hale House.

"What?" Stiles questions with bewilderment in her voice, "No. we can't just cancel the opening of the Academy." She shakes her head with certainty. "We've been looking forward to this for ages."

Derek gazes at her as if she has lost her mind, "Have you been listening to anything that we learned today?" He focuses back on the road, "That place will be a ticking time for both Gerard and the Anuk-Ite."

"Gerard wants us to be scared just like he wants Monroe and the others to be scared," Stiles argues. "Us being scared with the Anuk-Ite lurking around will play right into his hand and it's favor. We can't let that happen."

"I agree," Derek confesses. "But there are too many uncertainties. We need more preparation, more information, so we can figure this out without endangering lives." He takes a breath, realizing his knuckles are turning white from him gripping onto the wheel too hard. "You're supposed to be staying out of this," Derek reminds her calmly.

"I have been staying out of this," Stiles replies, crossing her arms. "I've been so out of this I didn't even know that my best friend agreed to go on a suicide mission to meet with a hunter in the tunnels alone."

"I just don't want us to fight about this. Alright?" He informs her, "When it comes to keeping you and our daughter safe, I will do whatever it takes." He sighs, but not before casually dropping, "Even if I have to bring the law down on you."

Stiles rolls her eyes, "Don't be so dramatic." She expects Derek to make a rebuttal at her comment, but when she steals a glance at him, she sees that he's wearing a stern expression, "Oh my God, you're serious."

Derek moves his head firmly. "Just think about what I said. I would love nothing more for the Academy to be reopened, but not at the expense of you and our baby's security."

Stiles does her best to keep the anger bubbling in her chest down.

She takes a deep breath, "Look, I understand this is new to you, but protecting Beacon Hills is my responsibility," She reminds him. "Not yours," Her phone starts ringing, but Stiles ignores the call as she continues talking. "I've been doing this for ten years without your intrusion, but I'll be damned if-"

A muscle ticks near Derek's tight jaw as he interrupts her with, "You're just not thinking clearly, perhaps your hormones have-"

A hum buzzed around them and Derek knows that he has made a mistake, "My hormones have nothing to do with this." Stiles tells him sharply, "I endured ten years of this, raging hormones included." She glares at him, "I didn't need an Alpha then and I sure as hell-"

Stiles' phone rings again, this time hearing it Stiles takes the chance to break away from the conversation, "Lydia?"

"If you wanna be with him," Lydia's monotone voice says on the other end. "Go, now."

"Dad," Stiles says as soon as she walks into her father's hospital room.

Upon their arrival, the attending doctor informed them, that Noah had been given a mild sedative. "Are you comfortable?" She questions fussing with his sheets and pillows. A slight catch in her voice reveals her sadness. "They said they gave you medication for the pain."

"I'm fine." He assures her, "As well as can be anticipated."

"Good." Stiles sniffles. "Then maybe there's a chance that you can bounce back."

"No, Stiles." He tells her gently, "You and I know that's not going to happen." He pats her hand and Stiles lets a tear fall onto her cheek, "It's okay. It's going to be all right. I had a vision, you see."

"I thought Lydia was the psychic one," Stiles comments in a joking manner. She goes so far as to make a laugh, but just like her attempted joke, it falls flat.

"I saw you, Stiles. I saw you and Derek, and you were so incredibly happy together," Noah tells her. "It made me feel content knowing you'll be taken care of once I'm gone."

"At least it wasn't of a sacrificial tree," Stiles says, earning herself a no-nonsense scowl from her father. Even with him being sick and on his deathbed, he still didn't crack a smile at Stiles' attempt to lighten up the mood.

She sighs in defeat, taking a seat next to his bed, "You must've seen a very faraway future," Stiles comments as she flashes to the fight, "And there's no need to rush it. You need to focus on getting better."

"Stiles, I'm not going to be getting any better." Noah tells her, giving her a gentle smile, "We both know that and it's time you start admitting that."

Derek can't focus. There are too many emotions that he is feeling right now.

Stiles had been telling the truth that she had been staying out of the Gerard and Kate situation, he knows because he couldn't help but listen to see if she was lying. But now he's worried not just because of the argument they had, but because now she is going to have come to terms with the fact that her father doesn't have much time left.

Which is why he choose to sit in the waiting area to give them privacy.

To his surprise, Lydia joins him and the two of them have been in a mutual silence with each other. Derek being stuck on what the next move will be and Lydia, well he's not sure what exactly the Banshee has been thinking.

She makes a tired sigh as she shifts in her chair, "He doesn't have much longer," Lydia says softly. This gets his attention, but he sees that Lydia isn't looking at him. She has her face in her hands, "Probably won't make it through the night."

"Are the voices telling you that?"

Lydia removes her hands from her face, sitting up in her chair. Her face slightly clenched, "When you've been a harbinger of death for as long as I have, sometimes you can just know death is going to happen without the assistance of voices."

"What about other times?"

Lydia stares at him, "What do you mean?"

"You're a powerful banshee Lydia," Derek tells her. "You have proven that there's more to your power than foretelling death." He gives a thoughtful expression, "Surely there was a time when your power has saved a life."

Lydia gives a weak smile, "There was a time after the fire," Lydia tells him. "Happened on probably one of the coldest nights of the year…"

15-year-old Scott McCall is adjusting the mirrors to Lydia's car with 16-year-old Lydia Marin sitting in the passenger seat. She adjusts the music that has been playing to a lower sound for Scott to concentrate.

"Thanks for helping me out," Scott tells her as he finishes moving the last mirror. "Mom's been working extra shifts at the hospital since that horrible storm came through."

"Happy to help," Lydia says. She notices that Scott placing his hands on the wheel, "Actually, the approved position is now 9:00 and 3:00." She informs him, "At 10:00 and 2:00, a deployed airbag could break your thumbs."

Scott gives her a cocky smile, "Mine would heal."

Lydia gives him an unimpressed stare, "Your healing speed is still too slow so how about you preserve your strength." She points to the wheel, "Now 9:00 and 3:00."

Scott nods with some eagerness and begins to drive. At a speed of a turtle.

Lydia surveys the area around them, trying her best to keep a plain expression, "Maybe you should press a little harder on the gas..."

Scott takes the suggestion, pressing down on the gas hard.

The tires squeal instantly as the car moves quickly down the street, "Whoa!" Lydia claims at the sudden change in speed, while Scott stops the car at her outburst.

He has freaked out the expression on his face as well, "Take a minute and loosen up, you're too nervous which is making me nervous..." Lydia instructs him in a hoarse pitch.

Scott nods his head in agreement as a brief silence falls between them, "Do you think she'll be okay?"

"She'll-" Lydia begins to say, but is interrupted when the sound of music is substituted with multiple voices filling her ears. She freaks out grabbing Scott by his arm as she stares at the radio.

"Lydia?" Scott questions, noticing the alarming behavior, "What is it?"

She doesn't tear her eyes away from the radio, "You hear that?"

Scott survives the area, but doesn't pick up on anything or anyone out on the road with them, "Hear what?"

She looks at Scott with a mix of fear and surprise, "You don't hear that?"

"I hear music," Scott tells her plainly. He points at the radio, "What do you hear?"

"Voices," She says plainly as the voices seemingly get louder and louder before in another instant the voices are replaced with music, "They're gone."

"Are you-"

Scott starts to ask when they hear a piercing scream coming from outside. They quickly exit the vehicle, both looking in all directions of the road, but see nothing on the road with them, "Smell anything?" Lydia questions him as they stood side by side.

Scott shakes his head, "No."

"We should probably go," She whispers. They move in opposite directions this time with Lydia in the driver's seat while Scott takes the passengers. The music is playing, but the moment Lydia puts the car in drive, she hears a familiar voice screeches through the speakers clear as day, "Somebody help me!"

"Of course, we went to the Sheriff immediately," Lydia shares with him. "But it appeared he was already aware of the situation…"

"Cordova, I want a list of any kind of industrial basement or sub-level of any building that she could've gotten into while sleepwalking." The Sheriff instructs his team of deputies in the lobby of the station, he nearly stops speaking when he sees Scott and Lydia. "It's the coldest night of the year so far and she's out there barefoot in just a T-shirt, she could already be hypothermic. Let's move fast. Let's think fast." He speaks his last sentence as a dismissal.

The urgency that has been on his face moments before is now gone when his eyes land on Lydia, "You knew." While the sentence comes out as a statement rather than a question, Lydia nods her head silently, but she doesn't miss how the Sheriff loses his composure for a second, "Okay," He says more to himself as he takes a deep breath. "Come with me."

"What happened?" Scott questions after the Sheriff closes the door.

"After Stiles started sleepwalking," He explains to them. "I had some security precautions put in. Motion sensors. Cameras." He scrabbles through his phone before he handing it to Scott and Lydia, "This is what the system picked up."

Scott and Lydia watch as Stiles suddenly sitting straight up from her bed. Then after a beat, she slowly turns her head, almost puppet-like, towards the camera. After first it appears that she is still sleeping, but when she opens her eyes, Scott and Lydia see that they are both glowing just before the feed is cut.

"Nemeton," Scott realizes.

"That's what I thought at first," The Sheriff tells them. "But almost as soon as it goes out, I get a frantic call from her saying that something terrible has gotten out, but she had no idea where she was and her leg was bleeding."

"There's something that we can try," Lydia offers.

"Unfortunately, this was when we had that strange occurrence happening through the Preserve and my abilities had gone dormant," Lydia shares with him. "But when I heard her voice and Scott didn't, I took it as a hint that they were coming back. So..."

Lydia sits in front of an unlit candle with a piece of blank paper in front of her while she holds onto a pencil in her hand. While Scott stands beside her holding a lighter.

"Now you'll just magically write down where Stiles is?" The Sheriff questions.

"It's not quite," Lydia tells him. "In automatic writing, the hand moves outside of any conscious awareness." Lydia has a perplexed expression, "Hopefully the silence, the darkness, and the light will allow me to find a more comfortable, relaxed, trance-like state." She nods her head in signal to Scott in lighting the candle. "I have to stare into the light and let go of all thought, except Stiles."

It appears to take a few minutes, but Lydia suddenly starts sketching on the paper without looking away from the candle.

While Lydia is doing this, Scott and the Sheriff talked in hushed whispers, "You remember how Lydia's predictions work, don't you?"

The Sheriff nods his head giving a waned face, "What are the chances that we'll get a straight answer and not something completely unrelated."

"I don't know," Scott answers honestly. "But if anyone can find her, it'd be Lydia."

It is at the statement something triggers Lydia as she starts sketching on the page faster and harder, "Oh, is she..." The Sheriff questions, noticing Lydia's behavior, "Should we stop her?"

Scott makes his way to the Banshee, "Lydia?" He calls out to her, but Lydia continues sketching faster and harder, "Lydia, slow down." But Lydia doesn't seem to hear him, and Scott blows out the candle that results in the Banshee to still completely.

"Is she okay?" The Sheriff questions as he moves to check on the teen, "Lydia?" He tries, only Lydia doesn't give him an answer.

"It'll take her a second before she snaps out of it," Scott shares with as he takes the paper and sees that Lydia has made a drawing.

Lydia's drawing is of an abandoned multistory building that is seemingly surrounded by a gate. It has multiple windows and seems to have a historical touch, rather than modern, build to it. But luckily for them, there is a nameplate that slightly legible and visible in her drawing.

"It took some time but we found her in the basement of the old Eichen House Clinic," Lydia finishes. "She was hypothermic but uninjured. Nothing even suggesting that something had been there." She wrinkles her nose, "We even check with Eichen, but according to them all the patients had been accounted for."

A contemplative silence falls between the Banshee and Alpha just as Stiles enters the waiting room. Her expression remains blank, but Derek can see the sadness in them as their eyes connect.

He wants nothing more than to wrap her in his arms and tell her that everything is going to be okay. But he doesn't move, not until Stiles speaks to him for the first time since their fight two hours ago.

"He wants to see you," She says in a strained voice.

Derek sits next to Noah in his hospital bed and unlike the times he had spent with Noah while he and Stiles had visited, this one feels different than the others. The smell had gotten stronger through his visit, but for the most part, Derek was able to ignore them.

The smell he's getting right now…

"Stiles told me about what happened," Noah tells him in a tired tone. "You've been put in an awkward position here and I can't say I'm surprised."

Derek makes a grunt, "A blessing and a curse." He hears Noah make a snorting sound, which he is sure was laughter. He looks to Noah for guidance, "How do you handle the things Stiles has to do?"

"The best I could," Noah answers honestly. "Before the fires, things were peaceful and Claudia didn't have to be as active as Stiles did." Derek sees a flash of grief and guilt in his eyes, "But on the night of the fires, I begged Claudia not to seek out the Nemeton. I told her I couldn't lose her just after we had lost our daughter. I knew I was being selfish, but I wasn't ready to lose my family in one night," He looks ashamed speaking that sentence.

A silence falls over them for a moment, before Derek speaks again, "I feel like I'm going to lose my family all over again." He shakes his slightly making a rueful laugh, "It's funny how Kate has been the only family I've known after all these years, and I haven't even mourned the loss of her." He sighs, "But Stiles and our baby…God the thought makes me feel like I did ten years ago." He rubs his hand down his face, "I feel like I'm failing them."

"You're not," Noah says with some endearment. "All she talks about is you and how you've managed to take control of the situation and it makes her feel a little less anxious. But Stiles is always going to worry, that's just how she is." He gives Derek an encouraging glance, "I know that perhaps things haven't exactly followed a traditional path and with this being Beacon Hills, I'm not surprised, but the two of you have a special bond."

"How do you know?"

"I've witnessed it from looking at you, I know from watching you, Derek Hale. You have an excellent heart. Strong and brave and true. You are exactly what Stiles will need to support her through the tough times ahead. Whether you know it or not and for that, I'll always be grateful."

It's the morning of Stiles' 16th birthday and Noah Stilinski is leading a blind-folded Stiles outside of their home.

"Dad, you didn't have to get me anything," Stiles claims, laughing as she walks with her hands stretched out in front of her.

"I know, but I figure it was time for you to have this," Noah tells her.

"Have what?"

He unties the blindfold from her eyes and Stiles gasps at the sight before her, "Is this what I think it is?"

"It was your mother's back when we first met in college." He tells Stiles as he watches her walking around a blue jeep. The look of awe and amazement on her face reminds him so much of Claudia.

"You guys used to call it a screaming metal death trap," Stiles muses. "I can't believe you kept it after all these years."

"She wanted you to have something when you got your license," He explains. "I know it's not much…"

Stiles shakes her head, "Dad this is perfect." She beams happily, "In a way, it's like she is still with us."

"One more thing," He tells her, edging back towards the house. "Wait right here."

Stiles watches him go back inside and continues looking over the vehicle. It still looked the same as the pictures she had seen. The color made it look like it was brand-new, enough space to haul whatever she needed, and inside a police scanner. She isn't sure if her father has purposely put one in there or forgotten to take it out.

"You're going to need this."

Stiles gives her father a deadpanned expression when she sees that he has a roll of duct tape in his hand, "Really?"

"Screaming metal death trap." He tells her, holding out the roll to her.

Stiles gives him an amused smile, taking the roll, "Screaming metal death trap."

"Have you eaten today?"

Stiles hears the question as she comes out of the memory. Scott has taken a seat next to her in the waiting room, "Have you?" She questions back.

"I'm not the one eating for two," Scott muses back. He gives her a soft look over before taking a deep breath, "You want to talk about what's gotten you so upset."

Stiles shakes her head somewhat, "Not really." But she can still feel Scott staring at her, "What are we going to do, Scott?" She questions him, her voice cracking. She turns to Scott giving him a broken expression, "What am I going to do?" Her hands shake slightly, "Gerard's building an armed army, we have a fear-enhancing creature lurking around somewhere, and my dad is dying." She tries to take a deep breath to control her breathing, "And there's nothing I can do about anything of those things because of this," She motions around her stomach as if to make a point.

"Hey," Scott says gently, taking her hands in his. "We will figure out to handle Gerard and the Anuk-Ite," He tells her with some conviction. "We always find a way, okay?" Stiles nods her head in response, "Now, let's get you something to eat."

Lydia is packing an overnight bag. She offered to get it for Stiles, so Stiles could stay at the hospital and not be far from her father. While for Stiles, it is a seemingly nice gesture but for Lydia, it was more of an excuse to get herself out of the hospital. She needed to do something about her nerves and if it meant doing something as tedious and unnecessary as getting an overnight bag then damn it she was going to.

She is placing Stiles' favorite large gray sweatshirt with a large mahogany S printed on it when the light in Stiles' bedroom begins to shift with a spider web pattern appearing on the walls. She throws the bag over her shoulder and heads down the stairs towards the kitchen.

As she fills a glass with water, the kitchen window that is located over the sink begins to crack. She focuses on the crack so hard she swears that the cracks seem to spread out like a spider web.

She reaches out to touch it, but as she does. The ringing of the phone breaks her train of thought causing her to glance away briefly. When she looks back to the window, she sees that the crack has disappeared and there is no sign of damage.

The phone continues to ring until Lydia picks it up and places it to her ear. A piercing electronic squeal comes from the handset.

As Lydia winces from the sound, her surroundings start to morphing from the Stilinski living room to a concrete room that has a massive spider web filling the full length.

As she touches it in different spots, she hears screams, sounds crawling sound, sounds of growling, and then a clear voice claiming, "She let it out. It was supposed to ride the storm forever."

She jerks away and ends up wrapping herself up in the web. She tries to untangle herself, but in doing so she's back in the living room, rightfully shaken as she recognizes that the basement was the same they found Stiles years before.

It is sundown when Noah's heart rate monitor begins to beep more slowly, and Noah's breathing grows labored. Stiles moves out the way as the buzzing of the staff work around the bedside and the call for a crash cart seems surreal. But for her, the memories of her father come crashing down.

The Sheriff is standing beside is standing by a figure on the ground, "Stiles, you need to get up." However, young Stiles doesn't move a muscle, but instead stays on the ground, "Come on. You gotta get up now. You need to get up."

None of the gentle urgings seems to affect Stiles. The Sheriff kneels down behind Stiles and places a hand on her shoulder a prompting hand covers his, "Hey." He tries to get Stiles's concentration away from the casket that is on the ground with them, "You still got me."

This seems to be enough as a teenage Stiles finally turns away from the casket and into the Sheriff's embrace.

Another flash.

Stiles and her Dad are having dinner in the cruiser. They rarely did it, but Stiles always enjoyed it. They are eating the good ole past time food of America. Hamburgers and curly fries. Well, one of them was.

"Did they forget my curly fries?" Sheriff Stilinski questions her.

"You're not supposed to be eating fries, Dad. Especially the curly ones." She chastises him. It is more of the fact she didn't want to share them.

"If I am carrying a lethal weapon, I will have the curly fries if I want the curly fries."

"If you think that getting rid of contractions in all your sentences makes your argument anymore legitimate. You are wrong." She tells him with a laugh. This earns her a look from her Dad as she happily popped a fry in her mouth.

Another flash.

Noah Stilinski wakes up in a hospital bed, hooked to a machine. He sees a sleeping Stiles waiting by his side. He reaches out, placing a hand on top of the teen's head, waking up the teen, "It's okay Stiles." He assures with a gentle smile, as she looks at him, "You still got me."

Too many memories are coming to her at once and, she sure she would've passed out had Derek not caught her by her waist.

They watch the team attempt CPR before using the panels. They shock him once, twice, each time Noah's body arching off the bed before flopping back down, pale, and lifeless.

"Maybe-" Derek starts to say.

"No," Stiles interrupts him in a whisper, almost as she knew what he was going to say. "I want to be here. I want to stay."

After a few more shocks, there is no change.

"I'm calling it," Dr. Geyer says to his team. "Time of death 2020 hours." He turns to Stiles, "I'm sorry for your loss."

But Stiles doesn't respond to his condolences. She just stares at her father's lifeless body on the bed.

"Could you give us a minute?" Stiles questions him, her voice a bit softer than normal.

Dr. Geyer nods his head slightly, "Of course."

In a manner of seconds, Dr. Geyer and his team are out of the room, leaving Derek and Stiles.

"He's gone," She whispers. "He's gone and I didn't even get to say goodbye."

Derek closes his eyes, remembering the night he lost his own family. He'd never gotten to say goodbye to them either, and it was a regret he still carried with him to this day.

"He knows, Stiles." Derek shares, "He knows how much you loved him and that you were here for him until the end. He knows how brave you are, how strong. How capable. He died a happy man because of you, Stiles."

The door to the room opens with Scott and Lydia in the threshold and Stiles immediately break away from him to be wrapped in the arms of her friends.

Derek waits silently outside Noah's room as Stiles, Scott, and Lydia say their final goodbyes.

He knows that he can't rush the process, but he wants nothing more than to return home with Stiles so she can rest and mourn. The things they learned today can be handled by the others.

He hears the door to Noah's room opens and sees the trio's eyes are red from crying and without a word, Stiles walks past Derek as if she doesn't see him and heads for the elevator.

He is about to follow when Scott and Lydia block him from going any further, "Don't follow her," Scott warns, his arms crossed. "Effective immediately, you cannot show up to the rest of the prenatal appointments. Those will be conducted at the Eichen. Until Stiles goes into labor, you stay away from her. My mom will send you reports after each appointment."

"Scott now is not the time for you to be overly protective," Derek argues, looking over the werewolf's shoulder to see that Stiles is pressing the button to call the elevator.

"He's not," Lydia tells him.

It takes a second, but Derek realizes what Stiles has done, "She can't do that," Derek argues, feeling slightly panicked as the door to the elevator that has arrived.

"Yes, she can," Lydia says with remorse. "The confidentiality clause in the contracts guards her anonymity every step of the way. If she doesn't want you anywhere near her until the baby is born, then you can't be."

Derek looks from Lydia and sees that Stiles has stepped onto the elevator and when their eyes contact he sees emptiness.