Chapter Text
Stiles needs a little while to recover. Turns out it’s late evening, and except for Derek and his dad, the rest of the pack had already gone home to go to sleep, when he woke up. Derek apparently shoots them all a text while Stiles takes his much-needed shower, telling them that he’s okay. His dad drops in Stiles’ room before he goes to sleep himself, wishing them both goodnight. Them both, because apparently Derek is, as the only one of the pack, not staying in a hotel now that they managed to figure shit out. Derek cleans the bowl of the soup away while Stiles showers, brings a large bottle of water upstairs with him that Stiles can’t really leave alone now that he’s fully conscious again. He still feels kind of weird, kind of weak, but he’s also laying in bed with Derek, sharing body warmth and comfort cuddles, so he can’t really complain. Despite the coma he was in, he sleeps like a baby, wrapped up in Derek’s arms huddled together in that bed that shouldn’t so easily fit the both of them. He has no nightmares, and when he wakes up the next morning, the sun is high in the sky and shines into his window, tickling his nose – not unlike Derek’s hair.
They take their time getting ready for the day. The Sheriff has already gone to retake his place at the station, now that his son is back on track. They have breakfast on the porch in the sun, and Stiles finally gets the answers he needed so desperately. Turns out the Dread Doctors had been stopped by the pack – not only the people he called for help, but Scott as well, and Theo. Derek tells Stiles in a surprisingly calm voice that Theo has also been fooled by the Dread Doctors, and really heavily hurt. At first he fell for their words and their act, but Scott and Liam finally managed to convince him that whatever was happening was shit and needed to be stopped. To be honest, Stiles couldn’t really believe that Theo was not a bad guy. With Corey, yes, that wasn’t too much of a problem – the chimera was just quiet, just a victim of those terrible creatures; but Theo?
“Believe me, Stiles” Derek says sincerely. “He has fought with us. He has killed one of them himself. He might never be part of the pack – but he’s not the enemy anymore.” Taking all things into consideration, Stiles must admit that this is not too much of a surprise – Scott has a talent of making allies out of former enemies. Take Peter Hale, for example; or Chris Argent. Still, Stiles has never been more wary of anyone but Theo. That arsehole took his best friend away from him after all – it was all Theo’s fault that this bloody bullshit went down.
He has no chance but to accept this new notion, though – what could he change? Not much, apparently. So Stiles stops arguing, instead finishing breakfast, and then going upstairs to get dressed, leaving Derek to do the dishes; again. It feels natural, in some weird way – he really enjoys this domesticity, and the thought drives a smile to his face that feels tentative and raw, like it might be ripped from him at any given chance.
It’s not long after that Stiles finds himself at Scott’s place again. There’s a lot he has to say, and a lot he needs to hear, and since he almost feels like himself again, there’s no reason to put the conversation off any longer. This time, he feels braver like before, and Derek decides to not even come in, instead joining Melissa on the front porch. So, after receiving a hug from Melissa, Stiles heads upstairs. He knows the house by heart, knows which stair creaks the loudest and when to not grip the banister because it’s kind of itchy there.
“Stiles!” Scott’s door opens wide before he even reaches it, and Scott’s beaming at him like nothing ever happened – for a second at least. “Are you okay? Should you really be up? Oh my god, I’m so sorry, Stiles! It’s all my fault. I was the biggest asshole I could imagine! Why did I not trust you enough? I’m so so so sorry!”
Stiles finds himself with handfuls of Scott, and then not anymore, and he must admit that his ears kind of really ring from Scott’s eruption of words. He does what feels most natural – he laughs. “Scott” he says, and then again, “Scott! Calm down, and let me please have a seat. We need to talk.”
So they do that. Stiles doesn’t know how much time passes, but they finally talk. Talk about how bad he felt after Scott didn’t believe him, how he turned to Derek for help. Scott tells him that he’s been blinded by lies the same as, turned out, Theo was, and that they both only realized how bad it had really gotten after Stiles disappeared. Scott tells him how sorry he is, how he should’ve never said anything like that to him. Stiles and he agree that he’s a terrible alpha, and that he should probably leave that part to Derek. Which, by the way –
“How did Derek get his alpha powers back?” Stiles asks.
“Don’t you remember?” Stiles shakes his head, so Scott explains. “You – we can’t really explain, but Lydia and Deaton have been looking into it. Seems like you’re more powerful than it seemed, Stiles; when you were desperate and tried to escape from the lab, you released a wave of – power? – so powerful that Derek’s wolf was called immediately over your soulbond. By the way, Derek, really? You should’ve told me. That makes so much sense!”
“Scott”
“Sorry. So yeah, apparently some of your power recognized Derek as its mirror, and decided to stay with him. Your panic and your power gave him enough strength to become an alpha.”
Stiles was puzzled. “Like, he became an alpha because I have – what, magic?”
“We don’t call it that yet. But yeah, maybe. Looks like your bond is so strong that you share your power, and that makes him an alpha. According to Deaton, that is fucking rare, though, so he can’t say much.”
“Wow” Stiles has a lot of new information to process. So not only is Theo but an instrument of the Dread Doctors and not that bad at all, but also Scott is back on Stiles’ side again and apologized to him. And then, now, there’s this thing with Stiles’ power. They all agreed that there must be something after Stiles’ excellent handling of wolfsbane those months past, but they never further looked into it – Deaton just told him that everybody had some kind of power embedded in their being, it just had to be awakened and believed in. Stiles’ power, as it became obvious now, was gigantic, and the situation he found himself in with the Dread Doctors awakened his full potential. This was kind of sick, and kind of scary as well.
“What did you do? You made him space out!”
Stiles looks up, and Isaac’s in the doorway, looking like a worried puppy – as much as this incredibly tall, grown-up young man could look like a puppy. Stiles doesn’t supress his chuckle. “Don’t worry, Isaac, only in a good way.” He opens his arms and lets himself be hugged by his third-favourite werewolf.
“I’m so glad you’re okay” Isaac whispers in his neck, and Stiles grips him a little tighter. They share this quiet moment, before they hear protest.
“Don’t hog him!” Next thing he knows, Stiles is surrounded by his pack. Lydia is the next to hug him and press a kiss to his cheek, and Malia threatens him that she’ll kill him should he ever pull a stunt like that again, and Liam hugs him quickly, shy. Cora manages to plop herself down on his lap, informing him how worried Derek was and that he should never ever do that to her big brother ever again. Mason and Corey are there, too, but he doesn’t get hugs from them. Derek’s in the doorway as well, watching with a smile as Stiles is pampered in attention of all his favourite people. Stiles finds his eyes over the room and smiles – a real smile this time, something that he doesn’t feel can be taken from him again. There’s the rustling inside of him again, and this time he can name it: his power, magic if you want to call it, recognizing its other half, welcoming it home, reaching out.
They all sit and talk for a while, everyone touching in some way or another, because obviously supernatural creatures have no sense of personal space. It’s warm, and it’s comfortable, and finally this round is whole – with the humans that are so essential to the pack, and the chimera that apparently belongs to them now, too; and the banshee, and the wolves. This time, they are complete, there’s nobody missing in the round, because even those that are gone – whether for good or just for a time – are with them in their minds and hearts. This time, the closeness doesn’t freak Stiles out. This time, it calms him down. This is probably also why he believes Scott’s promise.
“We will never fall out like this again. We are family, and family always stands together.”
They all ‘Amen’ to that, and Stiles recognizes the words as true, because he feels the pack bond scorching, tightening, connecting them all as what Scott just named:
Family.