Stiles would admit he was a little caught up in his own head, despite trying to stare out the window as they drove, zoning out, mutter along to the sweet lyrical pleasantries of Gasoline as they drove down through the woods. The situation was undeniably beyond stressful… and concerning… and triggering… and freshly traumatizing all on it's own. And to top it off, disturbing, given he'd dreamt about those three, only to find out… this. It was… a lot. He was pulled out of it way too suddenly as the car jerked to a slower pace, and Derek cursed as he sped back up to the speed limit. "What's wrong, what happened?" Stiles asked. Way too worriedly, he noted, telling himself to chill.

"Uh…" Derek looked to his now just mildly curious expression. "It's nothing. Saw Anna in the backseat with the rear view. Just startled me a bit. No big deal." He insisted looking back at the road. Stiles sighed softly, trying not to dwell on it, but…

"Sorry… " He said, quickly focusing back on the stereo. "With your face all made up, livin' on a screen, low on self-esteem so you run on gasoline," He paused for the ohs. "I think there's a flaw in my code…" Again for the whoa-waah-oh-oh. "These voices won't leave me alone…" Derek's fingers suddenly brushed the back of his hand and he snapped to attention. "Sorry, yeah?" He muttered on reflex, focusing his vision on Derek, who was glancing between him and the road.

"Just seeing if you wanted me to switch over to some Halsey?" Derek asked, completely serious, voice gentle and thoughtful, and a little sympathetic. Stiles shook his head, brows furrowed.

"Switch over?" He questioned vaguely, worried he knew exactly what Derek was saying. He focused on the stereo not waiting for Derek's explanation.

"Yeah? You were muttering a Halsey song so I thought you might wanna listen to that instead…" Derek answered, obviously confused. Stiles tuned his ears, listening for what he should be hearing instead of what his head apparently wanted him to hear. And then the noise around him was suddenly some indie station or playlist, playing smooth, poppy, rockish songs, the kind Stiles could never put his finger on the genre, whatever the inverse of "alternative" would be. What was worse was now he felt as if it had been what he was hearing the entire time. Even though he knew it had been Gasoline, the small screen for the radio had said as much right in front of his eyes just a second ago. But now it just said "AUX input Playing", and Stiles heard the cooing of an acoustic guitar echoing through his ears instead of the demure lilt of Halsey's deep serenades. Stiles tried not to freak out externally as his brain pulled the fire alarm of reality being broken and the world being a lie. Tried to tell himself it wasn't a big deal. He knew what hallucinating was. He knew he was fine. He smiled at his boyfriend and shook his head.

"No, I'm good with this. I was just dissociating, must have had it stuck in my head from earlier."

"Kay…" Derek nodded, looking back at the road. "You know if you wanna talk about… anything… we can, right? I'm- Scott and I are both happy to listen if you need to vent..." Stiles scoffed softly.

"Thanks, but what's there really to vent about? Bunch of ghosts following me around, two of whom I definitely caused the deaths of-"

"Stiles…" Derek interrupted curtly. "No, you didn't." Stiles wanted to believe that but, he knew better.

"Yeah, I did."

"That's not how death works, Stiles. People die when they're meant to. No matter how they die, you're not the cause." Derek said. Stiles couldn't help but laugh. He admired Derek's sage approach but he didn't have that wisdom in him. He hoped he never would.

"No…" He said. A thousand things he could say stirred in his head. Most of them violent, or vindictive, or vengeful. Some even lashing out. He picked one of the few that hurt no one but himself. "Not around me they don't." He didn't look over, he knew Derek was giving him a pitying look he really didn't deserve. Scott probably had one 10 folds, but at this point he knew better than to argue with Stiles about this. "It's not some tragic bullshit tearing me up inside, you don't have to try and cheer me up. I've made my peace with it. People die. I've watched it happen too many times to give a damn anymore. I'm just stating a fact. Annie and Jake would be alive today if they'd never met me." Derek didn't respond for a second. Stiles guessed giving up on trying to change his mind about it.

"Who's Jake?" He asked after a moment though, and Stiles stomach dropped. He blamed himself less for Jake than for Annie. But knowing now that he was stuck here, still the same as the day he died…. Not in some better place like everyone said when he died. Hell, when both of them died. That was fucking heartbreaking.

"Friend from when we were kids. I was 5, he was a couple years older. He was practically like an older brother to me and Scott for a bit there."

"Three musketeers…" Scott muttered in commiseration. Stiles smiled back at him in recognition before continuing.

"We were all playing on the monkey bars or whatever, being reckless little hellions, as you do. We both fell. He landed first…. Then me… and then 'crack'... We just landed wrong, and I landed on top of him and… it was just fuckin' brutal… he thought-... He was gone just like that. Before his mom even made it over. She was… really good people. Never blamed us. Said if it hadn't been Jacob it'd have been me, and he must've know that, or whatever… Their family moved out of town about a year after that, when she got pregnant again. Hope they're doing okay…" Stiles realized he'd been rambling but he just kept talking until he could control the lump in his throat. "And Annie, she- she was great. We were close… So I'm not really surprised at all they're… Haunting me… I guess. God, that's fucking weird to think about." Derek nodded in agreement.

"Do you remember... what's-his-face? The grumpy deputy there?" Scott asked probingly.

"Nah." Stiles answered, absolutely honest. He knew most of his dad's deputies, but he'd never heard of this Rourke guy. "Don't know a thing. I'll have to look up his file when we get back."

"Hey, what about your aunt?" Scott asked suddenly. Stiles turned to give him a confused look.

"... What?"

"You know, the one who lives out East?"

"I know who you mean, Scott, what I don't know is why the hell you're bringing her up, of all people."

"Well, isn't she like… a witch or whatever?" Scott shrugged. "Maybe she'd know about what's up with all the ghosts and stuff."

"Scott…" Stiles put a dull scolding grind into his voice as he rolled his eyes. "For the last time, Hermits and witches are not the same thing." At the very least, Derek seemed intrigued if his furrowed brows were anything to go by.

"I don't wanna pry but… If you have adult family, why didn't she take you in?" Derek asked, once Stiles stared at him for a minute.

"Ah…" Stiles winced a bit as he shifted in his seat and his jeans rubbed his thighs. He hoped it would just come off as him being uncomfortable about his estranged family. "My mom's family is…. weird. My aunt Rosa's the only person I know of, and I've never met her, we've only talked over the phone, and that was mostly limited to 'Hey manito, causing trouble?' and maybe her telling me stories occasionally. Honestly I don't know if there's even documentation that she's legally family, she's pretty off the grid. I've only talked to her a few times since mom died. I doubt anyone would've bothered to tell her about my dad."

"She doesn't know you're an orphan?!" Derek whispered astonishedly. Stiles opened his mouth to reply 'she doesn't really know much of anything about me' but Scott cut him off.

"I was just thinking, if Derek got his-... whatever- from his family, then what if-?"

"Scott, no." Stiles deadpanned a bit more harsh than necessary, shoulders tensing and pulling his fist to rest between his knees. "It's nothing like that, that's insane."

"But-!" Scott started, but Derek stopped him.

"I… think you should call her too." He said carefully, putting his hand on Stiles knee. Stiles tried not to glare when he looked over. "But mostly just because I think it's good to keep in touch with family." Stiles gaze softened at that, he shook his head to give himself an excuse to look away.

"God, you've gotten good at that fast, haven't you?" Stiles murmured, pointedly not in a bitter tone.

"At what?" Derek said sweetly, and completely unconvincingly.

"Playing me like a fiddle." Stiles clarified, smiling.

"Nah…" Derek insisted. "I'm terrible with a fiddle." He smiled over as they pulled into the mostly empty parking lot. He looked over the maybe 5 cars present. "Think your friends are here yet?" Stiles shook his head as they pulled into a spot.

"I didn't see Lydia's car anywhere. Want me to call 'em?" Derek and Scott shook their heads in sync without realizing it. Stiles felt his mouth twitch up, and his cheeks tingle as he smiled and pretended it was nothing.

"They should be here soon." Scott said, already getting out to stretch his legs. Derek nodded in agreement, hopping out too.

"We can wait a bit." He said, coming around to Stiles' side of the car and opening his door, before Stiles even had a chance to protest. Stiles didn't get out, holding up Derek's phone still plugged into the AUX.

"You forgot to grab your phone, Romeo." Stiles said, admittedly trying to defuse the tension as his cheeks started glowing a faint pink. Derek just leaned in, and scrolled on the phone still in Stiles hand with a clever little smile, before pushing play on some random cute sappy song out of the however many Derek had on this playlist, putting the phone down, and quickly turning up the volume on the stereo.

"No I didn't." He said, still smirking, knowing exactly what a charming little shit he was being as he took Stiles' hand and pulled him out of the car. "One quick dance?" He asked, adorably Stiles cursed as Derek pulled him into a wrapped embrace as the music wisped whimsically. Stiles had half a mind to pretend he couldn't dance. But he didn't. He just played along, step by step, ignoring Scott's muttered complaints about them being sappy and gross. They hardly noticed as a neon blue prius pulled up beside them one parking spot over a couple minutes later.