Derek felt like he was intruding on the moment taking place on the floor of the bakery. He was amazed that Stiles had finally spoken. He hadn't laughed, he hadn't smiled, but he had a start on getting back to a regular life. There was just one thing still standing in the kid's way. Derek was going to hunt every single one of the Argent werewolves down. He was going to do it for himself, for Laura, and for everyone in this town that they'd hurt.

He clenched his fist, ignoring the pain in his hand. Compared to what the Argents seemed to have inflicted on others, his burn wound from the gunpowder he's used to cure Stiles was nothing. Derek already knew where he was going to begin; he was going to start with the reporter Natalie Martin. She knew something. He intended to find out what.

Derek turned away from the mother clutching her son on the floor, glad he couldn't hear the words she whispered against the top of his head. That was something private, just for them. He knew that he should tell her about her son's condition, about him being a werewolf, but now wasn't the time. He needed sleep, needed to find the Argents and make sure that they couldn't track Stiles to the bakery. If they knew who he was then it was likely they would know where to look for him. He needed to convince Laura to help him while he tried to fortify their house or the bakery against werewolf incursion. That was going to be harder than slaughtering the pack of walking nightmares.

"N-no…" a ragged voice whispered as Derek turned to walk towards the door. "D-Derek…"

Derek heard the woman behind him gasp, but he kept walking. He couldn't believe the werewolf had called out his name, couldn't turn and look or he wouldn't be able to do what he needed to do. He ignored the sound of scuffing along the floor and hurried toward the door. He reached out with his unburned hand to turn the handle, but his other wrist was seized in a desperate grip.

"No," Stiles's voice was so soft, almost a whisper. "Stay…"

Derek's mouth fell open, he couldn't pull his hand out of the werewolf's grip. Pain rippled up his arm, not from the grip but from the burn, and then as if he'd never been burned at all, the pain disappeared. He turned his head to look down at Stiles. Black veins were pulsing visibly on the werewolf's hands. Derek gasped, and so did Stiles's mother. He had no idea what she must be thinking, had no idea really what he himself was thinking.

There was no choice now. He was going to have to explain. He was going to have to look in the woman's eyes, tell her things he didn't want to, things that no mother should have to hear. Derek didn't know all the details, but he was going to have to do his best to explain what her son had become, and how he'd been treated.

"Stiles," Derek said. "Stop, you don't have to do that."

Stiles's shoulders slumped a bit, one hand let go and fell to his side, but the other still clung to Derek, black veins trailing further up his arm. Stiles wasn't even reacting to the pain he was taking though, like it didn't even register compared to what he'd suffered in the past. Derek's life was insane, there was a werewolf trying to comfort him, a hunter. The world really had become a backwards place in the past few days.

"What's happened to him?" the woman asked.

"It's a long story… uh.."

"Claudia," the woman climbed to her feet and started to walk towards them.

Derek didn't know what to say. He tried gently to pull his arm free of Stiles's grip, away from the werewolf hurting itself to comfort him. Even with just one hand Stiles's strength was immense.

"No," Stiles whispered leaning his head forward so it was resting against the back of Derek's hand. "I… I'll… t-take care of… you t-too. Don't leave me…"

Derek closed his eyes at the halting words spilling out of the werewolf. It was too much. He should have never been taken from his family. Stiles's voice was raw and broken, it must have been painful to talk after everything he'd gone through and he wanted to make sure Derek knew, with what little words he had, that he didn't want him to leave. Derek could have easily been the one on the floor. If things happened just a little bit differently maybe he'd have been a werewolf, alone, with nothing until a stranger showed up in his life. He stopped trying to pull away from Stiles, and looked up to meet Claudia's eyes.

"Okay, Claudia, I've got a lot to tell you. You're not going to believe all of it," Derek said, "Before we get into it I've got to talk to my sister outside."

"Stiles, baby, come with momma, we'll get you some food while Derek goes outside for a few minutes. He's coming back." Claudia locked determined brown eyes onto Derek. "Aren't you Derek?" she said it in a way that left Derek feeling like it wasn't a question.

"Yeah," Derek said, "I'm coming back."

Stiles finally released him, the black veins that had gone high enough that they disappeared under the short sleeves of the shirt Stiles was wearing faded away. Derek turned to look at Stiles as he got to his feet. There was more in those brown eyes than he'd ever seen before. He wasn't sure how he'd ever thought of them as withered or dying leaves. There was something building in the depths, he wasn't sure what it was, but he wanted to see. He wanted to see what those brown eyes would look like when they were lit up with a smile, wanted to hear what it would sound life if Stiles found a reason to laugh.

Stiles turned away after stroking Derek's hand a few more times with delicate brushes of his fingers. He turned and went to the outstretched arms of his mother. She wrapped him up, kissed his forehead and stroked his hair. Derek couldn't hear what she was saying to him anymore.

Derek walked out of the bakery and went to the driver side door of the van. Laura was tapping her hand against the door. She rolled down the window.

"You ready to get out of here?" Laura asked.

"Not yet," Derek said. He ignored how exhilarated Laura looked when she heard the tone of his voice. "We're not leaving until we've hunted down every one of the Argent werewolves in this town."

"That's my baby brother!" Laura grinned wickedly. "You got a plan already I take it?"

Derek smiled at his sister, he was glad they were getting back onto the same page. "Yeah. Hopefully it's good enough. I mean I'm just the brawn of this operation."

Laura poked him in the stomach and gave him a smile. He grinned back at her; it'd been awhile since he'd seen a genuine smile. It was a shame he was about to take it away. Laura seemed to sense the shift in his mood and grimaced.

"Crap," Laura muttered, "You want me to play good cop with someone to get information, don't you?"

"There's a reporter named Natalie Martin, she knows something and we need to find out what it is. There's something going on in this town and I think she's clued into it."

"What are you going to do while I'm weaseling information from the locals?" Laura asked.

"I'm going to try to explain to a mother what happened to her son. I'm going to rig some defenses up if I can or take them somewhere safe." Derek said, he ignored Laura opening her mouth and continued before she could interrupt him, "After that's done, I'm going to get some sleep so that I'm fully awake when I start hunting Argent werewolves."

Laura banged her hand on the steering wheel and let out a cheer. "Now you're speaking my language, Derek. Go tuck in your lost puppy and get some sleep. I'll do the investigating. Tonight, we'll check out the woods in the area to see if we can catch ourselves any monsters."

Derek nodded, went around to the back of the van and pulled out one of the duffel bags of supplies. He hoped that one of the Argent werewolves would track them to the bakery. He wanted to give some payback. Even more than that though, he wasn't sure he could look into that woman's eyes and try to explain what happened to her son. If one of them showed up, he wouldn't have to, she'd see for herself.