This is the first of a two part block, next one to follow.
Dinner with the sheriff was going to be one of the most awkward evenings of Derek's life. He'd been arrested and interrogated by this man on more than one occasion and now Cora had to go and decide to date the man's son and Derek had to spend Thanksgiving with them, but Derek would bite his tongue, and he would smile, because his baby sister needed him too. Even if he just wanted to run and hide.
Jennifer offered to cook in the cottage, and Derek readily agreed. It was much more comfortable than the loft and it wouldn't be as awkward as sitting in the sheriff's home. Just a week before Jennifer had got a call from their old neighbours who kept an eye on their Brooklyn townhouse to tell her that it had been broken into so Derek agreed to hop onto a flight, reluctant to leave despite the fact Deucalion was split in two and buried miles apart.
'Go,' Jennifer assured him, 'I can handle things here!'
New York was cold and lonely, but Derek did what he needed to, found an agency that would take care of letting the house out until they decided what to do with it, and packed up the last of their things. He instructed the agency to wait until after Christmas to rent it out and was on his way home on Tuesday morning.
He arrived back in the house when nobody was there and headed for the garage where he had finally built his upstairs gym, but the sight of the already set table stopped him. At first he smiled at how wonderful Jennifer was but he counted the places and realised there was more than there should have been. He counted twelve places. Twelve. Derek didn't fucking like twelve people! He liked two people, Jennifer and Cora. That was it. Pissed off Derek decided to put his new workout equipment through its paces.
Jennifer and Cora came home at the same time, laughing at something Derek couldn't be bothered to care about right now. 'You're home!' Jennifer called out running to him, kissing his cheek. Derek tried to shrug her off, ignored the hurt look on her face as he spooned sauce over the chicken on their plates.
'What's wrong?' Cora asked as Derek set the plates down a little hard on the round kitchen table they had.
'Nothing,' Derek muttered as Isaac slid into his own seat. They sat in awkward silence for five minutes before Isaac said he was looking for a part time job, and Cora said it sounded like a good idea.
'You don't need to, if you need more allowance-'
'I want my own money,' Isaac said barely meeting Derek's eyes. Derek understood the meaning behind it, I don't want anything from you, I still haven't forgiven you, and I'm only here because I have nowhere else.
'Stiles was talking about restaurant delivery one night a week,' Cora said.
'That's a good idea, and then you'd get to hang out together.' Jennifer said.
'No.' Derek said.
'What's your problem?' Jennifer asked. 'You haven't seen us in days and all of a sudden you come home and you're in a foul mood!'
'Just eat your dinner,' Derek muttered darkly. He knew his mood was foul, that he shouldn't be taking this out on them but last Thanksgiving he and Jennifer had spent the day with Laura and her friend, now Laura was dead and Cora who he never thought he'd see again was here, and he accepted her boyfriend and his father, he understood her need to have the boy she loved but twelve people in his home, people he didn't particularly want, that was the reason for the broken weights machine in his garage.
'No I won't just eat my dinner!' Jennifer snapped. 'What the hell is wrong with you?'
'You! This, them!' Derek snapped pushing away from the table so hard the chair fell over. Isaac scrambled away and Cora pushed back uncomfortably, but Jennifer raised her chin, ground her teeth.
'Derek,' her voice was stern, her eyes dark with anger.
Derek looked around the room, looked at his frightened beta, his trembling sister, his scared but brave wife. They were all intimidated, all because of him.
'I'm going out,' Derek said grabbing his keys and disappearing out the front door.
He drove for hours, nowhere, and everywhere. He went home, sat on his old porch, remembered his family, what his mother would say to him for acting this way, how alike his mother Jennifer were. He felt like a dick, he needed to fix things, but he was frightened all of a sudden.
When he got home he dried the dishes sitting on the draining board, fixed the chair he'd almost broken, emptied the trash. Isaac appeared barefoot in the room.
'I shouldn't have got so angry earlier.' Derek said. 'I just wanted a quiet Thanksgiving, just us. After the year we've had I thought,' Derek trailed off.
'You're different, with her. I-I barely trust anyone, it's not your fault, not really,' Isaac said softly. 'I'm just ready to run at the first-Melissa, I had to leave because I was making her edgy and I'm working on it. I over reacted.'
'I did, about the table,' Derek said.
'Yeah, you're in the doghouse,' Isaac smirked. Derek shot him a dark look but Isaac looked happy and Derek's heart swelled a little with it. 'Thanks.'
Derek nodded and wiped the palms of his hands on his jeans. It was three forty seven am and Derek had to go apologise and make up with his wife.
He closed the bedroom door softly, and watched the bed. She wasn't asleep; she was waiting for him, curled in a ball on his side of the bed, the side facing the door. Left or right had little importance to him; he liked to face the door so any threats had to come through him first, so he could protect his wife. He wasn't doing a good job of it at the minute.
'I don't like you very much right now.' She said sitting up.
'I don't like myself much either,' Derek admitted rubbing the back of his neck.
'Look I don't know what craps gotten into your head Derek, but get rid of it, because if you keep acting this way you're going to lose all of us for good. Your family died, your sister died, and I'm truly sorry for that, but open your eyes and see who's here instead of missing who's gone.' Jennifer said. She had stood up, turned the bedside lamp on. Her eyes were red like she had been crying. Derek wanted to hold her, but he knew her well enough to know he wasn't allowed near her right now.
'Jennifer,' Derek said but she shook her head.
'No Derek, I love you, but I won't be treated like that again, I won't let you treat them like that. I don't want to leave you, but I will!' She said. She wasn't lying.
'I'll sleep in the spare room.' Derek said.
'You'll sleep on the couch; I washed the sheets in case of unexpected visitors in both rooms.' Jennifer said. 'I don't have time to fuss over beds tomorrow.'
Derek nodded his understanding and turned away. 'Wait,' she said, reaching him her pillow. Derek took it from her with a grateful smile.
'I love you, I am truly sorry.' Derek said.
'I know, now go to bed,' Jennifer said.
The couch was actually comfortable, and Derek sighed burying his face into Jennifer's pillow, letting himself fall into a deep sleep he didn't expect to have. In the morning there was a blanket over him and Cora was leaning against the couch watching an old rerun of Buffy. Derek curled his fingers through her hair and watched the one where Angelus and Buffy were possessed by ghosts.