**Large portions of plot from Chapter One are lifted from throughout Season One and from Season Three, Episode Eight: Visionary.**
Not beta read. Apologies for any and all grammar/structure mistakes.
Also, I know that this chapter is pretty rough, I'm sort of unhappy with it, but I got tired of looking at it..so..
Numb.
Numb and exhausted, that was all Derek felt at this point. In just the span of a day, the axis of his entire world had been rocked with the death of almost his entire family. The worst part? It was entirely his fault. He may not have been the one who poured the gasoline and struck the match, but he certainly paved a direct path for the one who did.
As maybe expected of any teenage boy, he had been exerting some 'teenage independence' from his family over the past few months, with the usual skipping out on family events, keeping secrets, sneaking out and ignoring curfew. He even went so far as to get a cool, older girlfriend whom his parents probably would not have approved of: Kate. Kate who was so much more mature, more exciting, more interesting than he was. She was beautiful, outgoing and she seemed to know what she wanted: amazingly, that had seemed to be Derek.
Ah, Kate. Kate, who had apparently just used him for information in order to burn his entire family alive except for a sister and an uncle, who had barely managed to escape from the fire. Why would she want to massacre his entire family? Perhaps Derek failed to mention that the majority of his family members were werewolves and that awesome, older girlfriend he had been dating? Yeah, her last name was Argent and the Argents just happened to be one of the oldest families of werewolf-hunters still around and active today. He had thought she had been different.
Derek, in addition to just wanting some independence, had still been reeling from the loss of Paige, a girl whom he had previously met in his sophomore year and had fallen in love with. But in what should have been a time filled with happiness and new discovery, ended up being one tinged with sadness, regret and tragedy. He had seen himself building a future with Paige but had allowed his own insecurities and the interference of his Uncle Peter to ruin any chance of that. Derek had always been proud of being a werewolf, but because of Peter, had become worried that Paige would not share in his enthusiasm.
Peter not only planted the idea in his mind that turning Paige into a werewolf would prevent her from leaving him (they'd be the same, so no need for him to worry any longer), he also gave him the idea of asking one of the fellow Alphas in town to turn her. In the end, Derek propositioned Ennis (who recently lost a pack member to hunters), whom accepted probably hoping to gain favor with Derek's mother and lured Paige to the empty school late at night. Ennis attacked and bit her then left Derek to deal with the aftermath.
Immediately, he noticed that the bite wasn't taking with her and was killing her instead. Distraught, he took her to basement of an abandoned house that he had used previously to hide from hunters in and held her as she suffered. Here, she admitted to him that she always known that he was different, what with the strange things she had seen in town and around him and with the awkward way in which he sometimes spoke, but told him that she would have loved him anyway; what he had done had been for no reason and now it was going to mean her death.
Paige, in terrible pain, despite Derek leeching away as much as he could, and slowly dying, ended up asking Derek to end her suffering; he, guilty and unable to watch her hurt any further, acquiesced. Heartbroken and devastated, Derek remained behind when Peter eventually revealed himself from where he'd been hiding and observing the proceedings in the shadows to take Paige's body from his arms to go place her in the woods where she would be eventually discovered and her death attributed to another in a long line of Beacon Hills' infamous animal attacks
Affected deeply by what had gone down with Paige (including Peter's manipulation) and not wanting the past to repeat itself, Derek had elected to be more honest with Kate from the start, but also keep her separate from his family until they were further along in their relationship; unknowingly by doing this, he was feeding her the secrets that would ultimately destroy his family while preventing any member of having a chance to maybe stop what Kate was planning in the future. They'd just gathered for the Wolf Moon and he had told her that he wouldn't be able to get away this weekend to meet because of it…God. Now he understood why she had just encouraged his secrecy and never pushed for meeting anyone in his family even though she was obviously curious about them.
So, there Derek sat, numb and exhausted, haunted by smoke and ash and the image of what remained of his childhood home, on a tiny little wooden bench in the hallway of Beacon Hills' Sheriff's Department. One half of what remained of his family, Laura, sat in silence next to him, while the other half, Peter, had been rushed from the site of the house to the hospital, and the prognosis hadn't looked good.
Deputy Stilinski, a nice man with kind eyes, assured Laura that he would do everything he could to help them before helping them gather their meager belongings (the school bags they'd grabbed on their way out of the door this morning and subsequently probably the only reason they were still alive). Laura planned to check them into a hotel for the next few days while they figured things out.
Staying in the hotel day for a few days ended up being for a few weeks as they struggled to get their affairs in order. The days seemed to pass by in a blurred haze for Derek. Thankfully, he had Laura; Laura who had just celebrated her eighteenth birthday a few weeks ago and was relatively able to handle all legal issues on her own. Such as the fact that Derek was still a minor without a legal guardian until Laura stepped in to say that she would fill that role, or the fact that there was now an overwhelming amount of paperwork that needed to be filled out for funerals, the insurance company and the hospital.
Derek tried to help Laura as much as he was able, but there just wasn't much that an underage, teenage boy could actually do, so he ended up spending the time he wasn't with her curled up in a hospital chair at Uncle Peter's bedside, hoping for a change in his condition; one never came. Neither of them returned to school. Luckily, there was the fact that there were only a few weeks of school left and their grades weren't that bad; they were both allowed to pass on to next grade (in Derek's case, Laura was permitted to graduate but chose not to attend the ceremony).
While her friends were out enjoying some of the best times of their lives, she was at home planning a funeral to honor her lost family members in one of the worst moments of hers.
Laura did a beautiful job, if you were one who was able to think of a funeral as beautiful; Derek thought his mother would be proud, would feel as though Laura had honored her family. As he stood beside his sister at the grave-site (they'd only chosen one plot, with one large decorative headstone topped with their family crest), he couldn't help but feel as though the weather was wrong for this occasion. He felt as though it should be cloudy, rainy and cold—reflect how he felt on the inside; instead, the sun was out and obscured by clouds and there was a gentle breeze. The more he thought about it though, the more he realized that this was better; his mother loved this weather: it was perfect for her.
Derek couldn't bring himself to say anything, just stood at Laura's side as she ranged from saying stupid and silly to heartfelt and wonderful things about their family to the few people who'd gathered for the funeral—friends of their parents, a few of their own friends, the local vet (hm?), even Deputy Stilinski—and promised himself that he'd find a way to avenge his family, that he'd be there for Laura to make sure nothing happened to her, that she'd be safe and happy; he thought about his aunts, his cousins, siblings, mother and father and how much he loved them all and just how sorry he was.
Eventually, the fire was ruled as an accident by the Beacon Hill Fire Department who claimed the fire started due to an electrical malfunction—whatever that was supposed to mean. Laura and Derek (especially, Derek) knew better because even if the fire had been accidental, it would not have explained why none of their family members were unable to escape from the house (except Uncle Peter). However, it wasn't like they could take the story of what actually happened to the Sheriff's department and even then, Laura was still in the dark about Derek's involvement.
He was afraid to tell her, terrified that she would be disgusted with him and leave him there all alone. It's not like he would blame her. He knew that he must be smelling of sadness over-laced with overwhelming guilt, so she had to know that something was wrong, but he just couldn't bring himself to tell her and risk losing her. Thankfully (or not), she didn't press the issue probably because she was just so swamped with her own and assumed that he would come to her when he was ready.
During one of their last meetings, Deputy Stilinski brings up the idea of possible arson with the pair, but Laura quickly shut that line of thought down. At that point, they've been advised that it seemed unlikely that Uncle Peter was going to wake up from his coma (it had been weeks) and Laura just wanted to get them both out of Beacon Hills and to safety before the hunters came back to finish what they started; she been finalizing the necessary steps for the insurance company, their family had been laid to rest, and Laura had been granted custody of Derek provided that she met the conditions set forth by the state. So she politely informed Deputy Stilinski that there was no reason to think that the fire was a result of arson, thanked him for assistance those past few weeks, and mentioned that they'd really just like to start healing before ushering her brother out of the office.
And so Laura and Derek Hale, the last remaining members of the Hale family (aside from Peter), decided to leave behind Beacon Hills and all it's bad memories, with all that remained of their life before packed away in the tiny trunk of Laura's Camaro and head toward the other side of the country.
New York was nothing like Beacon Hills, which Derek both loved and was grateful for.
He loved the anonymity here; Beacon Hills was such a small town that it was impossible to fade into the background; everyone knew everyone's business; New York is much too big a city for that to be possible here. They are not those 'poor Hale kids whose family died tragically in a fire' to anyone here. It's not just the regular populace that's big here; even the Supernatural community is substantial and diverse, when back in Beacon Hills it basically only consisted of Derek's family. Sure, there was a random, peaceful supernatural creature that would pass through every once and a while or a stray Omega that would have to be dealt with, but it was mainly Hale territory and other Supernatural beings left them alone; their mother was respected. There are numerous packs cramped within this city. Laura has decided that they should just remain on friendly terms with the other packs, rather than petition to join one. They're both not ready to follow another Alpha—they found it hard sometimes to still acknowledge the change in color in Laura's eyes.
There was also plenty to distract himself with here—it was New York after all—so that he didn't dwell on why they were in a new city starting over to begin with. It wasn't that he was letting himself forget (that would never happen and he wouldn't deserve it anyway), but he had made some promises to his family at their grave site and he intended to keep them. Right now, that meant that Derek needed to focus on helping Laura and ensuring that she was happy and safe and looked after. He couldn't do those things if he lived in the past and forgot about the present.
The first few full moons were rough for Derek due to the fact that he'd essentially lost his anchor: his family. Although he still had Laura, it just wasn't the same. So, he spent those first few months adjusting himself to a new anchor: anger. Anger at himself, at Kate, at the world, etc… He doesn't talk to Laura about it and she didn't press, only offered and provided her support when he needed it. She located a nearby state park and started driving them out there during the full moon to allow him take his rage and frustration out on the local forestry until he got it under control.
And so life went on, and they established a routine. Laura settled into her new roles (best friend, Alpha, sister, mother for all intents and purposes) while Derek tried to follow her example and settle into his (best friend, Beta, brother, son). Laura, having already experienced the joys of completing her senior year in high school, refused to allow Derek to miss out on his last year and obtain a GED (something about the social environment would be good for him), so she steamrolled him into enrolling into a local school and told him to make the best of it; he kept his grades up but avoided getting too involved with any of the students-to him it just was not worth the risk. He knew that Laura was noticing his anti-social tendencies and that they were bothering her, but she was too busy working on finding a job and forming peaceful pack alliances and relations to really push the matter.
Months passed and before they could really comprehend it, they've developed a new life in New York; the insurance company had finally come through and issued the payments on the life policies, but the deaths of their family members are still too raw for them to touch any of that money right now so they put it away in savings. Derek managed to survive high school while Laura started attending classes part-time at New York University; they managed to scrounge up enough money (both from Laura's savings from her part-time job and their parents' left-over bank accounts) to purchase a modest apartment not too far from Laura's work and New York University's campus. They still called back to check with Beacon Hills Hospital to see if their Uncle Peter's condition has changed or improved in anyway, but sadly, they never received any good news.
Eventually, they started to laugh and joke again—to have fun—started to go back to the brother and sister they were before.
They don't ever officially join a larger pack, but they are satisfied with their own pack of two, spending full moons in the state parks as Alpha and Beta, both ecstatic when Laura manages her first full shift into Alpha form. There are pangs of sadness as they each thought about their mother in this form, but there are also feelings of happiness at the remembrance. They aren't healed completely (and probably never may be), but theywere healing and they had each other.
Months turned into years and Derek and Laura were continuing to slowly heal and build their life in New York. Derek found that at this point in his life, he was certainly content, if not happy.
But it seemed like his contentment couldn't last: Derek Hale was twenty when his world tilted again.