"I may have done something illegal." Stiles says as he climbs out of the car.

Laura's sitting on the porch waiting for him and moves to stand as he gets closer. She raises an eyebrow, "Okay, maybe doing something illegal and doing something illegal are two completely different things, Stiles."

Stiles rolls his eyes, he grew up with a police officer for a dad, fuck you very much Laura, "Alright, I did something illegal."

She eyes him warily, "What did you do? You understand that if you get caught we're going to have to answer a hell of a lot of awkward questions."

"Yeah," Stiles climbs the stairs, and opens the front door, Laura at his heels, "Being twelve years old really puts a damper on my criminal career."

Laura's nose twitches as she closes the door behind her. "You smell weird," She informs him helpfully.

Stiles shrugs off his flannel and stuffs it in his bag. He lifts his arm and shows her the rune near his elbow, "It makes me invisible and undetectable. I basically disappear."

Laura's face twitches unpleasantly, "But, like, what if that's used against you? Then no one would be able to find out where you are, right?"

Stiles never really thought about that before and pulls a face.

"Thanks Laura. Now I'm going to be paranoid for the rest of my life," He grouches, shoving his flannel in his bag. It's getting to be Mary Poppins levels of holding things. Maybe he'll draw an enhancing rune on it later. "The only ones who should be able to use them are other sparks."

Laura snorts, "Right. Because all sparks are so heavenly." She leans in close and whispers, "You know Deaton's sister? Morrell? Mom thinks shekilled Duecalion. Some guy came sniffing around here the other day from his pack, sniveling about reinstating the treaty because he's the new alpha?"

A guy comes around the corner. He's big, almost as big as Derek was in Stiles' time, except he's leaner. He has long, thick hair tied back in a pony tail, and he lets out a puff of air in response to Laura's whisper. If Stiles thinks on it, he remembers that he was one of the people in the dining room the day Laura first brought Stiles to the Hale house. He's the one who Talia told to call Deaton.

"There's no thinking about it," He says, ruffling Laura's hair as he walks past, "It was obviously a coup. You should probably try to pay more attention, baby sis. Who knows if Derrick, Cora and I won't be planning one against you someday."

Laura rolls her eyes at her brother's retreating form, makes a mocking face at his deep laugh, and shakes her head to clear the misplaced hair out of her face.

"Don't mind Tarik," She huffs, "He's a gigantic asshole and he's only here for two more weeks before he goes back to school. Thank god!"

She shouts the last part toward the entryway of the kitchen. Stiles thinks he hears a muted "Fuck you" in response.

Stiles raises a judgmental eyebrow, "Really? Laura, Cora. Derek, Tarik."

He really shouldn't be talking, considering the name his own mom gave him, but Jesus Christ. That has to be some form of child abuse.

Laura shrugs, "No one claimed our parents were exactly creative."

"Don't think I didn't hear that," A voice says, seconds before Talia steps out of the hallway and into the foyer.

Laura smiles sweetly, "Don't think it wasn't the truth."

Talia crosses her arms in front of her chest elegantly, a smile so warm that Stiles feels is only reserved for her children on her lips. She jerks her chin toward the living room, "Don't think I can't smell that you haven't vacuumed the carpet yet. The deal was that you get the car tonight only if you finish all of your chores."

Stiles thinks he sees Laura's eyes flash yellow at the demand, but she lowers her head just as quick as they came.

She sighs, and when she looks back up her eyes are their normal brown. Stiles thinks her cheeks are a bit flushed, but she sounds normal and composed when she says, "You can wait in my room until I'm done, if you want Stiles."

Talia watches Laura leave with the same fond smile on her face.

The vacuum turns on in the next room, and if Stiles listens close enough he can hear annoyed mumblings under the whirl.

Talia turns around and waves Stiles after her. He looks into the living room, shrugs at Cora's inquiring stare, and follows Talia down the hallway. She leads him to the study and Stiles sighs to himself, not knowing if he can really handle this after what he's just seen.

Derek's moan sounds in his ear and Stiles clenches his eyes shut, shaking his head as if to dislodge the noise.

Peter isn't in the room this time, thank god. Stiles feels some of the tension in his shoulders ease at that.

"Not that I disapprove of your friendship with Laura," Talia says, handing him a pen and gesturing for him to draw his silencing rune on the wall, "But is there a reason you're here?"

Stiles takes the pen from her an draws his rune into the same place as before. The pencil marks are still there, only faded from the magic eating away at it. The pen will stay longer, he thinks.

"Mostly," Stiles shrugs carefully. He puts the pen back on Talia's desk and sits in the same chair as last time, sighing, "Things are just kinda catching up with me I guess, and Laura's the closest thing I have to a friend here."

She tilts her head to the side, "You and Derek aren't-?"

"No," He cuts her off, shrugging, "No, uh, I can't really. Anytime we're in the same room I just keep thinking about my future? And everything we've been through together and how he doesn't know any of it. And it sucks. A lot."

Talia leans forward, holding her arms across her desk. "Stiles," She says with a frown, "Are you having any trouble sleeping? Exhausted? Fatigued?"

Stiles fiddles with the clasp on his big, listening to the magnet in the metal click together, "Um, a bit. But this is pretty stressful stuff, you know?" He scratches the back of his neck. "I'll get more sleep tonight," He lies, knowing he'll stay up writing down more plans or reading more of Deaton's books, despite having read them all already.

Talia's eyes narrow at the lie, "Insomnia?" At his reluctant nod, she sighs, "Headaches? Nausea? Vomiting? A sense of doom, perhaps?"

"It's not a sense of doom," Stiles corrects her, carefully avoiding admitting to those other symptoms, "It's more like... Like, I need to protect myself?" He looks away, starts playing with the clasp again, "Like I have a giant, open wound somewhere, and everyone's trying to tear it open more."

Talia nods, looking troubled, "And the other symptoms?"

"I found Kate today. At the hospital," Stiles says in a rush, not looking at Talia, "I-I followed her to a coffee shop-"

She cuts him off, voice hard, "Stiles, the other symptoms?"

His eyes snap back to hers, "I'm trying to tell you about your son."

"And I'm trying to see if you're okay."

It shocks a laugh out of him, because she sounds completely genuine about it. "Of course I'm not okay," Stiles says, once he's calmed down. His words are bitter, and he wants to reach out and grab them and pull them back inside of him. "Everyone I love and know is gone and it's just me here and I'll never see them again. How the hell could I be okay with that?"

Talia sits back at the admission, but he opens his mouth before she can speak, "I know. I fucking know that it's not how the timeline is supposed to go, okay? I get it. And I just- I- It doesn't help, alright? Knowing that they weren't supposed to be that way at all? Telling me that doesn't help me when it's three o'clock in the morning and I fucking miss the hell out of them.

"It doesn't help when I see Derek and he won't even acknowledge me and it doesn't help when I see my dad and he looks at me like I'm a stranger and it doesn't fucking help when I see these twelve year old, helpless kids who are supposed to be my pack!"

Stiles looks down at his hands. He's wound them in the strap of his bag, hands fisted between the fabric like he's holding on to a life preserver.

"When I was twelve, I lost my mom. After that, I did everything I could to make sure my dad would live for as long as possible. I didn't care about a lot of people, okay? I had my dad, and I had Scott, and that was it. Those were my people. They were the only ones I let myself care about. And then, of course, Scott got bit, and introduced me to his little wolfy drama club, and suddenly that list? That list of people I would lay my life down for? It got bigger.

"I didn't want to lose anymore family, but I've lost them all, and no one can ever fucking understand that."

Talia seems a bit taken aback by his outburst. Stiles remembers years ago, when Morrell called him to her office; her expressionless face as he talked to her. He can't help but think of her now, of what she would tell him to do.

Morrell wouldn't tell him anything, though. She would let him find his own way to deal with things, and just be an ear for him to vent to. Stiles looks away again.

Talia doesn't seem to know what to say that, and Stiles doesn't blame her. Fuck. He sighs and rubs a hand through his hair. He pulls at the thick strands, the tug at his scalp making him feel better, somehow.

He takes pity on her, and says, "I got the pictures. Of Kate. I followed her to the coffee shop and she met Derek there."

Talia's face sours at the news, but Stiles can still see that look in her eyes, like she's ready to hold him down and make him talk about his feelings again, so he barrels on, "It's enough to convict her, I think. I also have their text messages and pictures of her trunk. I could probably get them to my dad tomorrow."

"And then this will all be over?" Talia asks, moving her hands as if to encompass what all of this is.

Stiles shrugs, "It should be. I still have to do a few more things, but I think after that... Everything should be as it good as I can make it."

Talia leans over, closer to Stiles, and asks, voice soft, "What will happen to you? Does Alan have any ideas? Your mom?"

He looks down. "We, uh, haven't really talked about it. As far as I know, nothing like this has happened before. I could just fade from existence or maybe I'll get dropped in an alternate reality but..."

Stiles shakes his head. He's tried to not think about it since he decided to fix everything. Avoiding issues is easier than dealing with them, for him, and having to come to terms with the fact that he might just stop existing is, fuck, it's impossible.

"I'm scared," He admits, and his voice shakes as he says it. "I'm really, really scared, Talia."

A hand appears in his line of vision, and he watches, almost detached, as it grips his. Talia sits with him in silence for a few seconds, offering her support, before she whispers, "I'm scared too, Stiles. I've been- terrified ever since you told me what would happen to my family. I've had to stop myself so many times from just running out and putting that woman in the ground more times than I can count. But you know why I haven't?"

A hand grips his chin, tilting his head up. There are tears in Talia's eyes as she says, "Because my son trusted you more than anything. You were his second in command, Stiles. We were able to smell it the second you entered our house a month ago. My son would have trusted you with this. Derek, your Derek, trusted you with everything. His pack, his life, and his safety. And I trust my son, so I trust you too.

"You're brave, Stiles. Braver than you know. I wouldn't have been able to do what you've been doing for these past few weeks. We'll work it out, alright? I promise. We'll take care of you."

Stiles tries to swallow around the rock in his throat, but he can't so he just nods in acceptance of her words.

Talia's hand lets go of his chin to rest her hand over his heart, thumping rabbit quick under her palm, "You're pack, Stiles."

She's kind enough to hold him while he cries.

Laura finds him, an hour later, sitting on her bed.

"Hey," She says, as she goes over to her closet. She starts unbuttoning her shirt with one hand as she searches through the hangers with another, "You and mom have a good talk?"

Stiles shrugs and moves to get off her bed. After Stiles finally stopped crying, he told her about Peter and what he's done in his time. Talia had looked suitably troubled at the news, growling softly when he got the part about her killing Laura, pulled her teeth back in a snarl when he told her the truth about Paige.

He also told her about Duecalion and the alpha pack, and told her to trust this new alpha Morrell had sent. Stiles still isn't sure if she heard him over the obvious plotting she was doing in her head.

"I guess," Stiles shrugs, "She said I was pack."

Laura snorts as she slides her shirt off. Stiles is more than aware of werewolves and their weird thing with being nude, but looks out the window anyways. "Duh. You've always been pack."

Stiles makes a face at the window, not that Laura can see, "I have?"

"Don't you remember when I dragged you to meet Derek? Me telling you that you smelled like pack wasn't me just blowing smoke up your ass. Weirdo. Maybe mom didn't feel it but you've always been pack to me. I mean, after the whole thing where I kinda dragged your bleeding body to my car and threatened you. Whatever."

Stiles chuckles at the memory, wondering how he and Laura got this point when only two months ago she'd been growling and almost accusing him of murdering her brother.

"You can turn around now, by the way. Prude."

Stiles rolls his eyes but does, in fact, turn around. Laura's sitting on her bed, her phone in her hands, and Stiles' eyes zero in on her shirt.

It's a Harry Potter shirt, with D.A. stamped below Harry's body. Stiles raises an eyebrow at it.

"What?" She asks, looking at it, "Order of the Phoenix just came out last month, which you would have known if you hadn't spent three weeks avoiding me. Stop being all judgey with your future nerd cred."

"I'm not judging. It's just- Dumbledore was kind of a dick?" Stiles shrugs, looking away, only to be hit by an object.

He spins around to see that Laura threw a pillow at him.

"Spoilers!" She hisses, "Deathly Hallows comes out tonight, asshole! I'm perfectly fine thinking that Dumbledore was a really nice old man who died an untimely death until midnight!"

"Oh, that's where you're going tonight?"

Laura picks up her phone again to resume texting, "Yeah, of course. Brad's going too. Hey, do you wanna come?"

Stiles has never actually been to a Harry Potter book release. He didn't get into the series until he was ten, and after that his mom got really sick, and by then it was too late. He bites his lip, because he really shouldn't but...

But he hasn't done anything he's really wanted to do in months, and it's his only chance to go.

"Sure," Stiles says, "But, hey, do you have any mouthwash I could use?"