Chapter Text
It’s all too overwhelming.
He’s the only one left.
Tears all steadily falling down Stiles’ face as he sits in his old bedroom. His father never changed a single thing in the room, his old books are in his bookcase and he thinks there might be an old Beacon Hills lacrosse team t-shirt in his desk drawers.
No matter what Stiles does in his attempts to distract himself the faces of his friends never stop flashing in his head. He sees them smiling then he sees their bodies.
He shakes his head and gets up, his breath is shaky as he walks into his fathers room. It still smells just like him and he can even imagine the smell of his mother, he can imagine the two of them laughing together at something silly he did.
He breaks.
His knees give in and he falls to the ground, tears falling rapidly as he sobs. He misses them, he misses his mother and her patience and his father who held him through his panic attacks and did everything to keep him safe.
He screams. He doesn’t care about his damn neighbours right now.
The only thing he cares about is fixing this.
He can’t live with this pain, the only way he can really think of is to kill himself. He’d be out of this misery, he hasn’t been religious for a long time but he hopes with all his heart that there is a heaven where he can see all of his family and friends.
When did everything go to hell? When were they all doomed to this fate?
He feels like there’s someone right behind him but he does nothing to acknowledge them. The only people left are the hunters, they must be here to finish the job.
All of the sudden a memory forces itself to the front of his mind.
He’s standing in the vet clinic whilst Deaton hands him a bag filled with mountain ash. “You just need a spark of belief Stiles” He remembers making a sarcastic comment at the veterinarian.
But it worked. He never had enough mountain ash. He believed and it worked.
It can’t be that easy though. Can he really turn back time just because he believes he can?
He shakes his head and gets up, this is ridiculous. He goes to turn but stops mid motion as he sees his fathers badge on his night stand.
Slowly he walks over and carefully picks the thing up. His father always followed his gut instincts even if he thought they were obscure. Stiles’ gut is screaming at him that he’s found the solution.
He brings the badge to rest over his heart, right beside where the necklace that holds his engagement ring lies and he closes his eyes. He thinks of everything that went wrong.
The Hales. Laura. Erica. Boyd. Allison. Aiden. The McCall pack.
Derek…
They were never supposed to die this way, no one was supposed to die like they all did. Beacon Hills is supposed to be safe.
He takes a deep breath and imagines himself going back in time to save the Hales. For a long time nothing happens.
Until he feels the badge disappear from his hand (he panics and feels around for the ring and is relieved for half a second when he feels it right where he left it) and his eyes are open all of the sudden and he sees something completely different from what he wanted.
Derek, standing in front of his uncle who’s throat has just been torn open, his eyes flash red as he turns to look at all of us. A smug look on his face as he says “I’m the alpha now.”
Stiles almost rolls his eyes at the stupid one liner but stops when he sees Jackson leaving out of the side of his eye. He turns to Scott to see him doing the same with Allison and Chris.
Stiles doesn’t move though. He looks back over at Derek who’s turned back to look at his uncle, his shoulders look defeated and his head hangs to hide the grief on his face.
Derek’s head tilts a little to the left before looking over at Stiles who only gives him a small, sad smile in response. He walks up to the boy, a low growl coming from him but Stiles doesn't look faced. In fact he continues smiling that small pained smile.
“Y’know when my mom died I was all alone. My dad was still at work and Scott was at home.” Derek raises an unamused eyebrow at him that Stiles answers with his own meaningful look. “No one should be alone when a family member just died.” The alpha's eyes widen as he gets a look of understanding on his face that is quickly wiped off for the blank look to take its place.
“Do you want some help burying him?” Derek scans the boy up and down before giving him a small hesitant nod. Stiles smiles at him before looking over at the side of the house with squinted eyes that widen in surprise as he walks over.
“The shovels we used are still here.” Stiles doesn’t mention what they used them for but Derek’s smart enough to fill in the blanks.
Together they find a good patch of grass beside where Derek buried Laura that they quickly dig up. Stiles almost asks if they are going to do the same thing to Peter's body that Derek did to Lauras but he gets his answer when Derek quite unceremoniously drops his uncle's body into the hole and starts shovelling the dirt back in.
Stiles blinks a few times at the sight before helping the leather clad man with the shovelling.
Once they are finished Derek walks away and Stiles watches his back as he goes but decides not to follow, he needs some time to gather his thoughts and Derek probably isn't in the mood to be around anyone right now.
He turns back to look at the dirt patch in front of him and tries to figure out what to do about Peter. Having him come back is good but he can’t allow him to traumatise Lydia like he did last time.
He closes his eyes to think, hand coming up to fiddle with the ring and when he opens his eyes again he startles. He’s in a white space, like the room he was stuck in with the nogitsune. He panics for a few seconds before seeing a figure that he knows isn’t the nogitsune because it is none other than Peter Hale.
Peter Hale, newly dead uncle of resident sourwolf. Peter Hale, murder wolf. Peter, I killed my niece, Hale.
And the worst part? He’s crying. Stiles is shell shocked. He’s seen Peter cry one time and that was when Malia was really hurt to the point where she had to get surgery even with her healing powers.
“Uuh… Peter.” The wolf's head snaps around and stares wide eyed at the teenager standing in the middle of the white void.
“What are you doing here? No, how are you here? I’m dead.” Stiles nods along to Peters confused rambling and shrugs in response.
“Well I’m not sure. I’ve discovered I have some kind of powers and accidentally they let me talk to you when I was thinking about what to do with you.” He was thinking about what to do differently but Stiles chooses his words to sound like he’s talking about Peter’s body not his future actions. Well past actions… Future past actions…
“Well you can leave now.” Peter shoos the boy who only snorts.
“Yeah, no. Not happening. Why did you bite Lydia? And why wait until now?” God he hopes these questions will lead to Peter telling him about his plan.
“Well you see, Miss Martin is what we call a banshee.” Score. “And I was gonna use her powers to make her bring me back… to life.” Stiles makes an annoyed sigh that Peter takes offence to which he is clear about in his stance. One hand on his chest and an open mouth like the drama queen all of the Hale’s have inside of them.
“Do you need Lydia explicitly or could I, with my new powers, bring you back?” Peter goes to answer but stops before scanning the boy up and down as he thinks.
“Can you promise you will try everything you can?”
“Only with Derek’s permission.”
“Why? He’s not your alpha, you don’t need to ask him about that.”
“Yeah well I am going to ask him for a place in his pack as a token human since we saw what happens to a wolf without a pack with you.”
Peter squints his eyes judgmentally at the teenager who keeps his stance, not once wavering so that Peter can tell he’s serious.
“Okay… You have a deal.” Stiles smiles a blinding smile at the old alpha and the next time he blinks he opens his eyes to that same patch of dirt. He nods his head and checks Peter off the list of things needed to be dealt with and quickly turns to look at the old Hale house.
“Derek.” No response. Well he wasn’t expecting one anyway so he walks inside alone.
There in the middle of what Stiles guesses was the dining room Kate’s body lies, throat torn out with blood all around her. If he didn’t know better he'd be sure she was dead but he’s not letting this bitch hurt anyone this time around.
Stiles feels the eyes on his back so he turns to look right back at Derek who’s giving him a weird look. Stiles turns back to the body and cocks his head to the side as if he just remembered something.
“Y’know I sit on the bench almost every lacrosse game.” Derek’s come closer but he looks unimpressed with the fact that Stiles is talking. “I heard a conversation between this bitch and her brother.” Stiles turns to look Derek right in the eye before continuing. “She asked if someone can be turned by claws and Chris said you can, so I think we should make sure she’s really dead.” Derek’s eyes widen as he looks over at Kate’s body.
“I suggest burning her.” Derek snaps back to look at the teenager with wide shocked eyes. “She burned your family alive, I think she deserves to die the same way.” Derek looks over at Kate but keeps his body turned to Stiles. He looks at her body for a few seconds before nodding slowly as he looks back over at Stiles.
Before Derek can say anything Stiles has pulled out a lighter from his pocket.
“Stiles, why do you have a lighter?”
“I brought it in case the molotov cocktails didn’t work.” Derek looks at Stiles’ chest as he talks, very clearly looking for a blip in his heart beat but after a few seconds he’s nodding to himself and reaches out to grab the lighter but stops right before it’s in his hand.
“This won’t be enough to set her on fire though.” Stiles lifts a finger at Derek before placing the lighter in his hand and walking out of the house.
Derek stands completely still, listening to the teenagers feet and he scoffs when he hears the boy trip over his own feet. The teenager curses a little to himself before finally grabbing what he went to look for.
As Stiles walks inside the house Derek just stares at him and the mole dotted teen smiles a coy smile “Also in case the molotov cocktails didn’t work.”
“Didn’t you come here with Jackson?”
“I did but I grabbed these from the car as we got out to throw the molotov cocktails. Like I said in case they didn’t work I had a back up plan and had to prepare for said back up plan in advance cus if I didn’t have the things needed... Well it wouldn't be the most efficient plan would it?”
Derek shakes his head in disbelief but grabs the gas in the teens hands and slowly walks over to Kate’s body. He stares at her and almost backs out but there's a hand on his. He looks up to see Stiles giving him a reassuring smile.
“You can do it.” Derek stares into the brown eyes in front of him and takes a deep breath. He opens the gas can and before he can get in his head again he’s pouring the liquid on her body.
Stiles stays by his side the whole time and grabs the gas can from him when it’s empty. Derek pulls out the lighter and lights the flame, it’s blown out by Stiles and Derek glares at him but Stiles just raises an unimpressed eyebrow.
“You are standing way too close. Back up to the door, you can throw it from there without burning yourself.” Derek nods his head in agreement and lets the teenager pull him over to the doorway, with Stiles on his left side Derek takes his right hand and lights the flame once more. One more glance at Stiles who smiles encouragingly at him he can finally throw the lighter onto the gas soaked body.
As they watch the flames in front of them Stiles turns to look at Derek who’s got a determined look on his face.
“I’m sorry by the way.” Derek looks over once again confused at the teenager before him. “We dug up Laura’s body. Accused you of murder twice which was just rude, we never really thought about you in all of this and even though Scott may be too stubborn to ever admit it. You’re a good guy, I know you are. You’re a good guy Derek and we need each other if we’re going to keep Beacon Hills safe.”
The two of them stare into each other's eyes as the younger voices his regrets, no lie to be detected in his heartbeat.
“And I was kind of thinking…” Derek raises an impatient eyebrow at Stiles as he trails off. “Maybe I could join your pack?” Derek’s eyebrow lifts in surprise but Stiles just keeps talking. “And I’m only talking about me here. Scott can do whatever he wants but my gut is telling me to do this and my father always follows his gut and he’s the sheriff so it can’t be bad advice right?” Stiles looks at Derek with hopeful eyes as the new alpha tries to figure out what to say.
Derek starts nodding and Stiles perks up but freezes when Derek does, the alpha glares at him with distrust. “You’re not doing this just because you want the bite, right?” Stiles shakes his head vigorously.
He stops to stare into the werewolves eyes “NO! I don’t want the bite. The only time I can imagine wanting it is if I’m dying and it’s the only way to save me, okay?” Stiles points right in Derek's face to empathise how serious he is. Derek nods his head in response, pleased by Stiles’ answer he reaches out to put a hand on the boy's neck. Stiles lets him but gives him a confused look.
“It’s a sign of trust. You trust me to have my claws at your neck.” Stiles hasn’t even realised his claws are out until Derek says so and he feels the points in his neck. Derek grabs Stiles hand and without hesitation puts it on his own neck. “And I trust you with your hand on mine.” Stiles nods dazedly at his alpha, and oh how he missed thinking of Derek as his alpha.
“I want to be involved in every question when it comes to our pack. Who our betas are going to be, where you’re going to live and I’m definitely helping with any plans on anything from now on.” Derek looks at him with an amused look on his face that Stiles doesn't understand.
“So you wanna be my right hand?” Stiles goes completely still before he grins at his alpha and nods his head.
“Yes.” Derek nods his head, a little impressed at how determined the teenager is.
“Okay then.” Stiles’ grin grows in size as he starts thinking.
“Okay you are not allowed to bite any betas until you have a proper place to stay.” Derek goes to object but is cut off by Stiles putting his finger on his lips. “You need stability before you bring anyone else into this. A den is one of the first things to make sure that you get that stability.”
Derek is impressed at the fierceness in his right hand’s words but he does make a good point.
“How do you know all this?” Stiles thanks his time with the FBI as he keeps his heartbeat in check at the surprise.
“I researched as much as I could when I figured out Scott was a werewolf and I am kind of just guessing a little.” He throws Derek a bashful smile as the alpha huffs a laugh.
The alpha stares at his first beta for a few seconds before walking off leaving said beta standing there, very confused until he sees the werewolf come back with a book in his hands.
“This book made it out of the fire. It’s pretty much werewolf 101 so I suggest reading it.” Stiles gapes in shock, he never knew this book existed and he excitedly grabs it from his alphas hands and immediately starts looking inside.
Derek smiles before turning to go to his stuff upstairs but is stopped by a hand on his arm, he looks back to see Stiles giving him a small smile.
“You should stay at my place tonight. You can get a hotel room tomorrow but for now there’s a guest room in my house and my dad is on the night shift.”
That’s how they end up arguing about what movie to watch. Derek is adamant Marvel is much better whilst Stiles argues in DC’s favour, mostly because he enjoys how riled up Derek is getting over something so normal.
In the morning Derek leaves with a smile on his face and hope in his heart. For the first time since his family died he thinks that having a pack won’t hurt, that maybe it will help him heal.
He gets his stuff from the house, checks Kate is still a pile of ash before getting in the camaro and driving over to the one motel in town.
The smile never leaves his face.