HOW HAS IT BEEN A FUCKING YEAR HOLD ON- *shuffles notes* oh no, that does check out… Oh no, god damn it…. UM, ANYWAY! I thought I promised to put up audio readings along with the rewrites (which I didn't), and that I promised to put up the rewrites on my next update (which I didn't), and then my laptop shit the bed so I couldn't work on that for several months, and then a few months ago after I got it fixed, I realized I never said any of that because I know my limitations, and then I procrastinated working updating until yesterday because I figured no one was waiting on this story, anyone who's still reading it regularly at this point just comes round when they notice a notification or something, but then I went to read a bit before bed the other day (Sterek Fic titled "Burning Houses" by yumelilo on AO3, it's completed, and what I've read of it so far is pretty dope, I recommend checking it out) and I saw JASONTODD03 ON AO3, who as of 30ish days ago (oops) WAS waiting for this, and also their comments were very flattering and exciting, so chapter time! I forgot to thank people for commenting last time, and I don't know how far back the update before last was, so I'm just going to thank people who have commented/reviewed since the last update, except ShadowSinfullySined on FFN who I also didn't reply to, because I figured I could do it next time and next time ended up being 419 days, so thank you, Sin, sorry for the wait! Thank you to JasonTodd03, DragonFlyHunter3, and Nightingale23, all on AO3. You guys really did help the writing process, most of it is just behind the scenes right now, but as a thank you for everyone's patience, I'm gonna double upload… Maybe even triple? Maybe some rewrites? I'll have to proofread after I finish the AN, so we'll see. Lol
Pre-Upload Update: You're getting 2 new chapters, the first 5 rewrite chapters, access to the archive of OG chapters on my google drive, and a public drive folder of story utilities I'm willing to share with you guys! Check the first chapter for links to those last two! FFN fans might have to hop over to Ao3 if FFN acts up. I wanted to post up to chapter 80 for y'all, but 79 mentions stuff from the later rewrites, and I'll need a bit to proofread those before putting them up. Hopefully soon!

NOW!
Sin: Your comment meant the world to me, I'm so sorry it took me this long to respond to it! Thank you for the support. And that's going to be a long journey coming, but he gets hit with emotional rollercoasters enough to make the wait easier. lol I hope you enjoy this chapter of just that.

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Chris' chest ached as he pressed the button on the touch screen of his dashboard to disconnect the call. He took a deep breath, tightening his grip on the wheel as his throat quivered on the exhale. He took another breath, and gave his eyes a gentle rub to stop the welling tears. On that exhale the shaking of his breath felt a bit more controlled. One more inhale and exhale and all that remained was the deep faint pain lurking in his chest and the nagging self criticism in his head saying what a pathetic child he was. He grabbed his keys and climbed out of his SUV. He glanced around the area out of habit and nerves, but the parking lot was busy enough that he wasn't too worried about being thorough. He only bothered giving a glance over either shoulder once he got to the automatic doors at the persistent thought that he should, just in case. He didn't notice anything notable, just fellow shoppers coming and going from the lot to the building same as him, but he still felt a bit more at ease in the wide aisles, under the looming fluorescent lights. He welcomed the feeling of safety, and the distraction, so he decided to lengthen his list, and linger amongst the bustle of tired, evening, mid-week shoppers, ignoring the old woman who always seemed to be at the store when he was, rambling at random passersby, occasionally asking for help with something, that he'd happily give even if he was in a rush.

Allison was supposed to have Lydia and Stiles over for the weekend and he wasn't planning to make her cancel yet, so he supposed he could just buy some snacks and food now rather than put it off until tomorrow or Friday. Vic was leaving on another business trip in the morning, and he wasn't great at cooking without a partner; he was easily overwhelmed in the kitchen and prone to forget to set timers and lose track of time, so something frozen and simple was a must. But he still had some pride, and finding something fairly decent and presentable the kids would enjoy was just as much a requirement as improbability of fucking it up.

It took a good bit of indecisive window shopping before he found what he thought were the best options. His anxiety prodded incessantly that he'd fuck them up and should get something more simple, that the kids wouldn't like them, that he needed to get more, that the kids had some allergies he was forgetting. His senseless worries got uncomfortably quiet as he pulled out the last item, some onion fries, Allison's favorite. He felt a strange combination of calm and panic as a faint burning itch on his wrist helped him realize what was going on. He still jumped when he turned around to find the uncomfortably familiar, still just as young as she had been the last 20 years, woman in black, standing right there as he closed the freezer door, staring, smiling at him.

"Jesus fucking christ…" He gasped, flinching to lash out for just a millisecond before stopping himself and just bracing his shock on the shopping cart, trying to calm his racing heart.

"Hello to you too, Chris." She answered in the same unnervingly calm voice she always had. "Doing well it seems."

"Damn it, Cat, you can't do that to me." He scolded, trying to reserve any warmth from his voice.

"Marin or Morrell in public, Chris." Marin, apparently, scolded back in a serious tone before going back to a casual smile. "And I'm sorry, Chris. Would you prefer I inform you when I'm sneaking up on you next time?"

"Yes. God, you're lucky I didn't stab you..." He knew her by Morrell, though he didn't use it much. They didn't really speak around prying ears too often, and Cat was a much warmer and more familiar nickname to him. 'Marin' was new to him though, he assumed that being her first name. He tried not to jump to any conclusions as to why she was giving it to him now.

"It would be inconvenient, but I figured you weren't unhinged enough to start randomly stabbing people in the supermarket yet." She said stepping out of the way for him to get around to push the cart. He complied, though he didn't know where to go with her following. 'Yet?' He thought, wondering if she knew something he didn't or if she was just teasing.

"Well, thanks for the vote of confidence, I guess…" He said, pausing as she seemed to want to look at the ice creams. He gave a glance, wondering if maybe he should get something. Ice cream was a sleepover thing, wasn't it? "Bit late for a friendly visit…" Not to mention she'd tracked him down not only in public, but to the grocery store. "Something wrong?" He kept his eyes on the frozen desserts to hide his nervousness. He didn't think she'd dance around it or wait this long to tell him if he'd done something, so he assumed she was coming to him for help with something. He would, of course, help if they needed him… However many of them were even left, he couldn't help but worry, having not seen anywhere near enough of their friends since moving back. The only one he had seen had already died... Even not considering sentimentality- and resulting grief induced worry- they'd done too much for him not to help with whatever at the drop of a hat. Cat especially. When he needed help, she always came through, without even having to ask. He almost counted on Cat more than his own family, lately in particular. But he had never really worked on anything too serious with them. Mostly espionage, appearances, and occasionally swooping in to save someone's ass. Sometimes- times like this, when he'd had such limited contact for so long- it felt like he was one of them in sentiment and little else, no matter how much Laurie assured that was mortal insecurity talking he'd eventually get over... But if the rumors of the kind of trouble the rest of the group used to get up to were even close to accurate, what they usually dealt with was well out of his pay grade as a hunter, and his moral comfort zone. Though he supposed he could say the same for Dean and his brother, especially since they'd last worked together. The experience left him grateful when he heard about the Campbells allegedly getting wiped out. He'd be lying if he said he and Cat hadn't discussed doing something about them, though they both agreed it wasn't worth the effort when it was so inevitable what they were doing would blow up in their face… They just kept an eye out for their victims who managed to escape, helping them along their way to safe areas when they could. But despite whatever happened to the Campbells, there was Sam, seemingly unscathed from the whole experience, despite being no better than his namesake at the time as far as Chris could tell… Hell knew what had been going on with him given what he and Dean got into, but that just made him all the more unnerved by his presence.

"Hm?" She hummed, looking back over at him, more at his building tension it seemed than his actual question. "Oh, no, nothing wrong in particular. Things have actually been quiet on my end of things recently. Corrine and Braeden continuing their nonsense, as usual, but that's to be expected. Jen has been suspiciously out of touch, but she claims she's just personally busy. Nothing I can't handle at the moment." Chris didn't know who that was, but he assumed Cat had mentioned her before and he just didn't know or remember her by her name. "'Bb', Chris…" She said under her breath. Ah, Blackbird. He nodded. He didn't remember much about her except that she was another witch on the metaphorical payroll (hence the "black" moniker, as with Morrell's "Black Cat"), and that she largely stayed to the side lines, sort of like him.

"Good." He settled, not about to complain about not having to help with something and not being in trouble. As strange as Cat stalking him just to say hello was, he'd happily take it over the alternatives. Maybe she'd felt his recent stress? He hoped not. Or maybe she was just checking in on how he was dealing with what happened to Laura. He wouldn't blame her, he was rough for a bit there. But he was used to losing people, used to hurting. He was in control now, if nothing else. "Any, uh, tips on an ice cream to go with? Stiles is coming over to spend the weekend with Allison and Lydia. Not sure what he likes anymore." He interrupted himself, not wanting to dwell on it anymore.

"It's sweet that they're friends already." Cat seemed to give a genuine soft smile. "Mmm… I'm not sure. Been a while since I had to take him for ice cream as well unfortunately…"Chris couldn't help but smile, remembering the few times they'd been able to get the kids together. Sunny days in parks around town, watching them bicker and play. Clau had eventually gotten so paranoid about being together out in public they couldn't keep it up. He wondered if the kids remembered each other, or if they would if reminded… "Last I checked cookies and cream or mint chocolate chip were his favorites."

"Ooooh. Hard or soft?" Chris entertained the soft casual atmosphere, as rare as it was.

"Hm, I don't know if he has a preference, but I know he'd usually opt for the frozen yogurt place over ice cream, so I would suspect soft." Cat deduced as if it was something direly important. He gave a soft chuckle.

"Ah, a juvenile delinquent after my own heart…" He joked, grabbing a container of soft cookies 'n cream ice cream, and putting it in the cart.

"So." Cat said as he finished doing so. He looked at her, taking in the calculating hardness of her expression. Shit. There was something. "I heard you had a nice little chat with our friend Dean Winchester…"

"There it is…" He sighed, partly in relief. He gave her a reassuring smile. "Don't worry, I know how to keep my mouth shut."

"I know you do, just curious… What did you two talk about?" She asked, lilt in her voice. She already knew, she must've been testing his honesty. His loyalty.

"He wanted to know about Stiles' parents, which of course included Claudia, and some guy named John…"

"M." She clarified. Rott, or "Black Dog's" real name started with an M, but given this guy's didn't, and that Stiles was paler than Claudia by a good few shades, he assumed she meant Mouse, who he never called by anything else, Mouse just always fit him so well.

"The kid?" He tried to hide his judgement, despite his shock. "I thought he was just helping Clau out with shit like everyone else. He was the dad?"

"Hm." She smiled as she gave a little chuckle. "I know you were keen to ignore it at the time, but I'll remind you he didn't stay a child, Chris." He supposed that was fair enough. God only knew how old Peter was compared to him. As surprising as it was, he couldn't deny it did explain a few things too. It still felt weird. "I don't know how this is such a shock to you, I swear I invited you to their wedding." Wait, what?

"They got married?! When I was in town? When?" How oblivious had he been?

"When John was 20, before they even had Stiles. I don't know if you were in town, I think you said you had a case to deal with when I invited you. We found it rather rude of you."

"Wait. The time with the rougarou?! Cat, you called it a fucking 'group celebratory bonding ritual', I thought it was an orgy or something! I figured it wouldn't be a big deal to skip it! You never told me it was a wedding!" He hissed annoyedly.

"Marin, Chris." Cat corrected. "It was Corrine and Peter's bonding ritual as well, and what's his face planned to propose to Melissa there. Thus 'group celebratory bonding ritual', not wedding."

"You people never tell me fucking anything…" He sighed. "Still, shocked he's who Claudia decided to get knocked up by… Not that there's anything wrong with that, he's a great guy. They just seemed… I don't know…"

"Not compatible?" Cat picked his mind, staring inspectingly as she tended to.

"Yeah, I guess. Not her type at least."

"After what happened, Claudia very much appreciated his pragmatic attitude, and having someone strong willed keeping her accountable. It wasn't the first time she'd gravitated towards that sort of personality, particularly in romantic relationships." Cat talked about it with a cold analytical detachment that still unnerved Chris even knowing her as long and as well as he did by now. "And besides, Melissa seemed quite committed to her high school sweetheart at the time, so…"

"Her choices were between the two teenagers?" He couldn't help the lightest amount of amused criticism. Cat got that annoying "well actually" look. "I'm sorry, recently teenagers, kids she knew as teenagers, barely adults, whatever you want to call it…"

"She had practically raised Peter, Corrine and Lorri weren't fond of commitment, nor am I, she wasn't close with Jennifer, and you married Victoria. Unless you wanted her to make her sister her primary partner, Chris-"

"No, no, I get it, I get it." He surrendered, giving a wave of his hand. "Just saying, optically, doesn't seem great."

"Noted." She said dismissively, evidently eager to move off the subject. "So, what all did you tell him?"

"Dean? Well, clearly I didn't realize who John was, so I didn't say anything about him. Mostly talked about Claudia and Peter the entire time, besides accidentally slipping that Rosa exists, but I assumed Stiles told them. Apparently not."

"That's… manageable. How much did you tell them about Claudia?"

"Not much at all. Claimed I didn't know her too well, friend of a friend, and we'd spent some time together and that was it. Lied about- Well, said less than I knew about her and Talia's whole thing. Just said Talia didn't seem to mind having her around too much. Other than that, around our age, spanish descent, close with Peter, maybe sort of creative. That's all. Nothing about us, nothing about any other supernatural ties, tried to push that she was human."

"Thank you." She nodded, starting to walk down the aisle again. Chris followed. "The age bit will probably be the biggest issue. On record, she was the same age as John. He's visiting the sheriff's office now. The new sheriff was close to John before Claudia, so I'm guessing she'll probably confirm Claudia was older, unfortunately. But Melissa should hopefully be able to play it off as being a typo. But I'm not sure whether Stiles thinks they were the same age or not... Whatever happens, we'll deal with it. You keep your head down and mouth shut. Business as usual." Cat directed. "Don't want you getting yourself in trouble on our account." She tacked on warmly- well, as warm as he'd ever heard her.

"Don't have to tell me twice. Doubt he'll tell me. Or ask me. Won't want me knowing Stiles' parentage. Which, perfectly fair, I guess... I'd probably hesitate to tell him if I was worried about Allison, and the Winchesters are much less trigger happy than our family."

"Stiles will be fine..." Cat was quick to say, seemingly more to herself, sounding a bit nervous compared to her usual.

"... I didn't say he wouldn't be." Chris stopped, hesitating before putting his hand on Cat's shoulder to turn her around, giving a glance around to make sure they weren't being watched before giving her a reassuring stare. "Morrell, I promise you, no matter what Dean finds out… He's not a threat. Not to Stiles, not to us. That is not something you have to worry about. He's a friend. If he wasn't, I wouldn't've vouched for him."

"... I believe you, Chris." She said, giving a surprisingly vulnerable sigh. "I'm less concerned with what he might do to Stiles, and more concerned with what he might tell Stiles if he keeps digging around…"

"He doesn't know?" Chris asked, letting go of Cat in shock. Cat shook her head, looking away, voice regaining detached composure.

"I'm not supposed to tell him until 'I have to'. As in, until there are developments to… help him through..."

"Or, he finds out himself."

"Or until he finds out himself…" She said with a minor air of defeated apprehension, as if she somehow knew that was what was coming. Maybe she did, he felt it would be rude to ask, not to mention the worry of a literal example of self fulfilling prophecy. "I worry about how he'll react if he ends up finding out before I tell him…" Cat added, concern and conflictedness heavy in her tone. He certainly knew what that felt like, wondering if doing what you were told and going with the plan was the right thing to do, wondering what it might cost if you did. He'd do what he could to help keep it from happening or at least make it easier whenever it came time to tell him, but he didn't know what he could really do. His relationship with Stiles already seemed tense as it was. And it'd be worse whenever he finally killed Derek. Might even cause him to… "snap" so to speak.

"Cat…" He mused.

"Chris." She hissed scoldingly.

"Do we really think he's… like Claudia?" He looked at her, reading her response. She froze up though, giving him nothing more than that she was shutting him out. "I mean, wouldn't he be showing signs by now?"

"I have reason to believe he is. He presented symptoms when he was younger. They regressed as Claudia started fading though, and he hasn't presented clear signs of awareness since they went dormant, as far as I know. I can't see John keeping any developments from me, nor Stiles hiding them, so I assume he's repressing it, and if he is, there's no telling when he'll come to. No guarantee he will. He's old enough at this point that he could hypothetically repress symptoms until he hits maturity with little to no complications. Maybe even longer." Cat said, honest as she clearly could be.

"Repressing? Like a bottling up kind of scenario, or?" Chris asked, worried.

"Not necessarily. It may be hard for him to deal with when he finds out, but it shouldn't lead to any more inherently explosive results than he'd be naturally prone to. The 'bottle' as one might say, could just as easily gently overflow… It's just a matter of how he chooses to deal with things and… manifest the energy he has… built up…" Cat answered, carefully dancing around what she meant. 'I don't know.' He should've known that'd be all he'd get, he didn't know what else he expected. Why would Stiles be any more predictable than his mother?

"Is it safe, having him around Allison?" He asked carefully, pleading for an honest answer. "I mean- I know it's- but like… as safe as Claudia?"

"I have no reason to believe otherwise…" She seemed to think about it, but he couldn't tell if it was the truth, which with Cat probably meant it wasn't. "Might even be less volatile, depending on how he develops."

"And if you thought I'd be a threat to him if he was a threat to her, would you lie to me?"

"Oh, absolutely." She looked to him, completely open and honest. "I don't think you'd be stupid enough to be a threat to him though." She looked at him with the eyes of a friend at odds, the way hunters looked at each other when asking if their friend had been bitten. "I think you know what I'd have to do if you were."

"Of course." He gulped, thankfully for the indication she was probably being at least mostly honest, but still unnerved by the implicit threat. She gave a nod.

"It could be vaguely possible he lost his 'spark' entirely when Claudia died. It's unlikely, given she passed naturally within the expected timeframe, but if he did lose it, he'd be… more or less human, besides perhaps some physical consequence. At the very least he certainly wouldn't remember. He'd essentially have a clean slate. If not…" She glanced at him probingly, clearly priming him for a request.

"He's a ticking time bomb?" Chris joked instead, a lot more comfortable joking about the prospect now, since Cat seemed pretty sure it wouldn't be the case, despite her uncertainty about what would be.

"... I was going to say, then some help guiding him will be very beneficial. Particularly from someone I can trust to keep their mouth shut, and keep him safe…" He could practically feel the verbal nudge she was giving him along with the compliments.

"Why do I feel like I'm being automatically volunteered?" He balked a bit of a laugh.

"Why thank you for volunteering, Chris." She said with a smile, patting him on the back as they stopped at the milk.

"I have a feeling he's not going to be very keen on my guidance and protection once I off his boyfriend though..." Chris decided to be blunt, side eyeing her. "Been meaning to get your opinion on that."

"Mm… That would cause some waves, I'm guessing…" Cat gave a contemplating look at nothing in particular, not questioning him at all.

"But?" Chris asked, feeling like Cat was getting at a "but".

"But… given our past mixed experience with the Hales, it might be best for our little proverbial pack if he was out of the way, one way or another… Whether your suspicions of him are correct or not. If he takes after Talia, him seeing Stiles will inevitably cause… trouble."

"Mischief, one might say?" Chris joked. Cat glared at him. "Oh, calm down. It's a word."

"One you shouldn't poke at the meaning of so lightly, especially with tensions as high as they are, and an abundance of your own hunters in town." She scolded.

"Everyone thinks we're dead and gone, Morrell. No one's listening for that name anymore. Anyone who cared to, already stopped bothering years ago, I'm sure."

"How sure?" She snapped, obviously not pleased with his flippantness.

"Very sure, because no one was trying harder than my family. Same goes for the rest of you, except maybe Corrine. We barely even tell new recruits about Los Lobos as anything more than a ghost story, occasionally a cautionary urban legend. We're safe, Cat, I'm sure."

"Right…" She hissed sarcastically. "Sure enough to bet Stiles' life on it? Or Peter's? Or Melissa's? Maybe Allison's, or Victoria's? Because that's what's at risk if that name hits the wrong prying ears with any association to any of us, Chris…" She insisted with certainty that made Chris anxious in a way he hadn't been in a long time. "At least until he's ready." Chris didn't know why that was what made a pit drop in his stomach.