A/N: I'm sorry it's been a while. I'm trying really hard to keep with this story, but I keep taking on more projects than I seem to be able to handle. I know pretty much where the story is going, though, so I should be updating again soon.

"I think it's a really bad idea."

Scott and Allison were over at Stiles' apartment, along with Boyd and Erica, and they were watching the two of them. Their gaze kept going from Lydia to Stiles and then back again.

"Boyd and Erica need help moving. They've been here a month and they need someone to help them bring their stuff here. I don't understand why you don't want me to go. I can pack up my old apartment at the same time so I can finally get on with getting it on the market."

Erica was watching Stiles intently, "She's got a point, Stiles."

Stiles shook his head, "I don't care, Erica. I think it's a bad idea. Especially since –" he was cut off as Lydia leapt up from where she had been sitting on the couch and ran into the bathroom. Her stomach expelled all of its contents like she had personally offended it. After she was sure she had finished, she brushed her teeth, trying to get the disgusting taste out of her mouth, and went back out in to the living room. She sat down on the couch beside Erica, who started rubbing her back.

"That's one of the reasons I think it's a bad idea," Stiles said. "You're pregnant. You've got nausea and fatigue. It's a bad fucking idea."

"Stiles," Lydia said, "I'm not backing down. It's something that's gotta be done."

Stiles rubbed a hand over his face, "I don't like it. Why doesn't Derek or Danny go with them? Hell, I'd even go. I just…I don't want you traveling across the country feeling the way you feel. Your symptoms are pretty bad."

Not that Lydia would ever tell Stiles this, but she understood what he meant. Her symptoms right now are double what they had been when she was pregnant with Kristy. They were almost twice as worse this time around. She had a really difficult time with fatigue, and barely had any energy to do anything. The morning sickness was twice as bad, too. All around, she was having a more difficult pregnancy this time.

She was almost a little flattered that Stiles was being so protective of her. She knew that he had been right when he brought her home from the hospital; she was pregnant with his child, so he had every right to worry. And she hadn't gotten any of this when she was pregnant with Kristy; Aiden had never been around for the pregnancy. And sure, she had gotten help from Erica and Boyd, but with this baby, the father actually wanted to help. She shouldn't have expected anything else from Stiles; he was always such a go-to guy. She had really lucked out with him.

And even though Lydia knew she was lucky, right now she was more agitated than anything. She wanted Stiles to back off just a little. She knew that she needed this – even though Lydia could take care of herself, sometimes she had a hard time remembering to take care of her. She was so used to taking care of everybody else that sometimes she needed a reminder. She knew that was what Stiles was trying to do right now.

"I know my symptoms are bad," Lydia said. "They're worse than they were when I was pregnant with Kristy, it's true. But Stiles, I can't sit here and do nothing. It'll make me feel worthless, like I'm not good enough. And Stiles, I need to be good enough."

Stiles' gaze softened. Lydia figured that she was finally getting through to him. After a few moments of silence, Allison said, "Stiles, she has a point. Just because she's pregnant does not mean that she can't do what she did before. She's just gotta be…careful."

"Can you do that, Lydia?" Stiles asked. "Can you be careful?"

Lydia rolled her eyes as she scoffed, "Of course I can. I want to make sure that this baby is healthy. Besides, before I go anywhere, Deaton's going to do an ultrasound."

"Were you ever going to tell me?" Stiles asked.

"Look Stiles, I love you," Lydia said, "but you're wound way too tightly right now. I get that I need to relax a lot of the time, and I do, but I need to do things for myself, too. Going from being completely independent to being dependent on someone else is a little difficult, you know."

"I'd still like to go with you," Stiles said. "When are you going?"

Lydia licked her lips nervously and then mumbled, "Tomorrow."

"Tomorrow?" Stiles asked. "Were you ever going to tell me?"

"Yeah," Lydia answered.

"When?" Stiles asked.

"Tomorrow."

Finally deciding that he was sick of hearing them argue, Scott said, "Stiles, Lydia has a point. You can't make her stop doing everything just because she's pregnant. I remember when Allison was pregnant with Mel. Ally and Lydia are a lot alike; they are both pretty independent. So you need to ease up a little and let her do this. She, Erica and Boyd are friends, remember. She wants to help them and pack up her stuff in Boston. So let her do it."

"Scott –" Stiles started, but Scott just shook his head.

"Stiles, why don't you go with them? If any calls come in, I'll take them, and you know that Derek and Danny will take care of anything that they need to. Take a couple weeks and just do this, okay?"

Stiles sighed and nodded, "Okay. Is that okay with you two?" he asked, looking at Boyd and Erica.

Boyd just nodded and Erica said, "Yeah. It's cool with me."

-x-

"Good afternoon Ms. Martin, Mr. Stilinski," Deaton greeted them as they walked through the back door. Even though it was a Sunday and the clinic was closed, Lydia had gone through the back door so that she wouldn't attract attention. Lydia walked through the door first, followed by Stiles, who was carrying Kristy. When Deaton had told Lydia that he would give her an ultrasound to make sure everything was going the way it was supposed to, he had asked her to bring her daughter.

"It's not that I want to treat her like a science experiment," Deaton had said, "but I've never actually examined and half and half before. I'd like to just check her over and make sure that she's in good health." It didn't even strike Lydia as odd – and that should've been a warning sign for her. But before she had moved to Boston, Deaton had built up a pretty good reputation within the McCall pack, helping them whenever they needed it, so there was a little trust, even though neither Derek nor Peter felt like they could trust Deaton completely.

As Deaton ran the wand over the cool gel on Lydia's stomach, she looked over at Stiles. He looked like he was going to pass out. Lydia reached her hand out and Stiles came forward a little bit and took it. "Don't look so nervous," she said. "This is all really natural."

"She's right, Mr. Stilinski," Deaton said, flipping a switch, and a heartbeat filled the room.

"That's my baby's heartbeat?" Stiles asked, and he looked like a proud father already. It warmed Lydia's heart.

"The babies are doing fine, Ms. Martin," Deaton said. That one sentence made Stiles freeze up.

"Babies? As in more than one, the plural form of baby?" He asked.

Deaton nodded, "Yeah. Sorry, I thought you guys knew already. There're two. You're having twins, congratulations."

A goofy grin covered Stiles' face, and Lydia felt really happy to have him here with her to share it with.

After she was all cleaned up, Deaton gave Kristy a once over. "She's in excellent health," he said. "You're doing a really great job taking care of her."

"I'm just mostly winging it," Lydia answered truthfully. "I mean, the pack medic I was seeing in Boston helped a lot, gave me books to read and kept an eye on her."

"Was it Rosenkrantz?" Deaton asked. "Is she still the emissary over there?"

Lydia nodded, "Yeah. Andrea Rosenkrantz. You know her?"

Deaton nodded, "We used to be good friends. I haven't seen her in a long time, though, but she is an excellent emissary."

Lydia nodded, "Yeah, I thought so. Kristy adored her."

As Stiles picked Kristy up, he looked at Deaton, "Is Lydia safe to travel?"

Deaton nodded, "She's taking excellent care of her health, Mr. Stilinski. How are the symptoms right now?"

Lydia shrugged, "Bearable."

Stiles rolled his eyes, "They're pretty bad."

"Not really," Lydia answered. "I mean, the nausea and fatigue are a lot worse than when I was pregnant with Kristy, but I'm guessing that's because it's more than one baby."

Deaton nodded, "Yeah, that's usually the case. Just take care of yourself. But I'd say you're okay to go back to Boston to pack up and help Ms. Reyes and Mr. Boyd. And if you see Andrea there, would you give her my regards?"

Lydia nodded, "I can definitely do that."

-x-

Allison and Scott agreed to take care of Kristy while Stiles and Lydia were in Boston. And when Allison told Melanie – well, it seemed like the little girl was almost going to pass out from excitement.

"How long do you think you'll be gone?" Allison was asking Lydia as Lydia was packing some stuff up. "I mean, do you know?"

"Eri and Boyd aren't going to be that hard to pack up. Yeah, they lived there for a long time, but they didn't really accumulate as much stuff as Kristy and I did. I still need to figure out what I'm going to do with all that furniture I just replaced once I moved back to Beacon Hills."

"Well, we've been in talks with Melissa to buy her house," Allison started. "It's an easy payment plan and everything, and considering she's Scott's mom, everything looks good. She even offered to just give us the house, but Scott doesn't want to do that. It's his childhood home, sure, but he has this thing about earning his own way. So if we end up doing that, go ahead and we'll store it for you. I mean, you've got the little ones on the way, so you're going to need it."

Lydia made a face, "Yeah, and something else I haven't brought up with Stiles. It's twins, Ally. We're going to need a place to live. We can't live in his two bedroom apartment forever, not with two extra babies on the way. That's just something that's just not going to fly."

"You might not have to worry about that for long," Allison said. Lydia looked at her, confused.

Allison's eyes widened and she clapped a hand over her mouth, "Uh…has Peter not talked to you about your mom and him?"

"What about them?" Lydia asked, suddenly on high alert. "Did something happen?"

"Not exactly," Allison said. "Look, I'm not the person that you should be talking to about this. It's really none of my business."

"Then how do you know about it?" Lydia demanded.

"Because Peter accepted Scott as his alpha," Allison said. "Scott pretty much knows everything that's happening in his pack all the time. And Peter's talked to him about things. It's still really none of my business. It's something that you need to take up with either Natalie or Peter."

And that's how Lydia found herself pounding on Peter's apartment door at nine at night. Ever since Deucalion and Aiden had been eliminated everyone (but Stiles, because let's be honest here) had eased up a lot. They pretty much let her come and go as she wanted. Whenever Stiles started to raise a fuss about it, Lydia always told him that was the way it was, and she had a lot of people on her side to back her up.

"Lydia,:" Peter said, opening up his apartment door. "Can I help you?"

Lydia rolled her eyes, "Can I come in?"

Peter just shrugged, stepping aside to let her in. She walked in and stopped, glaring at him.

"How may I help you?" Peter asked calmly.

"Look, Peter, I don't like you and you don't like me, so don't do this pretending shit. It doesn't become you."

Peter just watched her, unfazed.

"What are your intentions with my mother?" Lydia asked. Now, that seemed to surprise him.

"What, are you her father?" Peter asked sarcastically. "Seriously, Lydia? Intentions?"

"Firstly, my grandfather's been dead for years, but I know he would not approve of you. I still wonder if my mom knows everything about you, because part of me thinks that she wouldn't be with you if she knew that stuff. And secondly, my mother needs someone looking out for her. Now that I'm going to be living in Beacon Hills, I'm going to do just that. I don't trust you, Peter, and I'm willing to stand aside and let you be with my mother because she seems to really like you and you haven't done anything to hurt her – yet. But I swear to God, Peter Hale, you do anything to fuck her over – and I mean anything – and I'm going to put you back in the ground. I can be very creative."

"I love your mother, Lydia," Peter said, and there was a look on his face that made Lydia think that this was the most honest she had seen Peter Hale – ever. "I want a life with her. Is that so hard to believe?"

Lydia rolled her eyes, "Yes, it is. My mother is a wonderful person, and she is very loving. She deserves someone who's going to be good to her, and Peter, you haven't really shown me any proof that you aren't going to do something to fuck her over. I don't trust you."

"You've said that already."

"And I meant every goddamn word," Lydia said. "What's your angle here? What do you get out of this?"

"I'm not going to try and keep repeating myself, Lydia. I love your mother. She loves me. I asked her to move in with me."

Lydia's eyes widened, "And she said…?"

"She said she had to think about it. I'm giving her time to think it over."

"So why hasn't she told me this?"

Peter sighed, "I don't know, Lydia. Whatever you and your mother talk about, it's none of my business. But it's not like we're not together that much as it is. I stay over at her house quite a bit, and she's over here a lot, too. We go out to dinner and to the movies, and I honestly enjoy her company. You need to trust me a little more."

"Trust you?" Lydia scoffed. "There's no fucking way, Peter. You left me bleeding out on the lacrosse field."

"And I apologized for that."

"Actually, no you didn't. You explained to me why you did it, but no apologies were ever made."

"Fine." Peter's blue eyes watched Lydia's green ones intently – so intently, in fact, that Lydia felt a little nervous about being here in the first place. "Lydia, I'm sorry I bit you and attacked you on the lacrosse field. I'm sorry I pulled Stiles into this whole mess when all he did was want to protect you. But I was half crazy – I needed to avenge my family. I was not going to let those psychos get away with murdering my entire family and put me in a coma for six fucking years."

Lydia sighed heavily.

"Look, I know how much your mother means to you, Lydia," Peter said, watching Lydia intently. "And I get that. I also know that your hormones and emotions are pretty high right now, considering the pregnancy. If you don't calm down a little, though, you're going to force yourself into an early labor, and nobody wants that."

That just made Lydia furious, "Don't you fucking dare, Peter Hale. I know you don't care about me. And I'm waiting for the day that you fuck my mother over. You must want something. That's the only explanation I can come up with. So what do you fucking want?"

"I don't want anything!" Peter exclaimed, half growling, and thoroughly surprising Lydia at the sheer volume of his voice. "I love your mother, Lydia. How many times do I have to explain that to you?"

Lydia sighed. "I'm sorry," she said, surprising even herself. "I just…when I left for Boston, you were different. Everything was different. I just…I keep expecting and waiting for you to double cross us."

"I'm not going to lie to you, Lydia," Peter said, after careful consideration of his words. "Scott may be young, but he's a true alpha. He's an excellent alpha, and, even though Stiles is the one who mostly tells him what to do, he seems to know what he's doing. And yeah, I'd like to be an alpha again. Beacon Hills is Hale pack's land. It's where Talia protected, and before her, it was our parents, and so on. But I'm not like I was – I don't deserve to be alpha. I'd like to keep it in the family, so to speak, but Scott has shown time and time again that he deserves to be an alpha. But I'm not going to double cross you. And I know that if I do, you will be first in line to put me back in the ground. So I'll tell you what. If I do anything to double cross you, you're more than welcome to do whatever you want to do to put me back in the ground, because I'll deserve it."

Lydia stood there for a moment, completely dumbfounded. Peter was thinking about making a joke about her being so silent, but then decided against it.

"Fine," Lydia said after a few moments of silence. "I'll take it. But anything at all, Peter. I mean it."

Nodding, Peter watched her, "From you, Lydia, I wouldn't expect anything less."