Work Text:
First thing the next morning, Derek stopped by the diner. He was going under the guise of getting some coffee but he really wanted to talk to John. Who was always there in the mornings on the weekend.
“Hey Derek!” John said when he came in. “How’d last night go? No one here will tell me.”
Derek raised his eyebrows and took a seat at the counter. “They won’t?” he asked, glancing around. Several people disappeared and John watch their movements with a frown.
“Now I’m thinking the opposite of what I had been,” he said in confusion.
“It was awful,” Derek said, and John began making him his coffee. “The waitress was rude to Stiles, spilled his shake all over him, then proceeded to get his order wrong twice in a row.”
“Wrong?” John asked, placing the to go cup in front of Derek. It was twice the size he usually got, and Derek wasn’t saying anything about it. When John felt badly he paid in free food. “How wrong?”
“His first burger mooed at him,” Derek said with raised eyebrows and John groaned.
“Who were they? I was very clear. I said, first date, Derek Hale, be good, no mistakes, reputation on the line.” John pulled out a piece of paper.
Derek gave the name of his waitress, described the man she high fived and the cook he saw peeking out from the kitchen. John wrote several things down and then nodded.
“I’ll take care of it. I promise you. And I’ll make sure everyone is aware of how very not okay this was.” John’s lips were pinched and Derek felt for him. He could only do so much, but maybe his next actions would scare the other workers.
“And the waitress?” Derek asked with raised brows.
“You’ll never see her here again,” John said grimly. “That I can promise.”
“I appreciate that,” Derek said and John gave a humorless laugh.
“You know, it’s not even for you specifically. If she did that and someone got food poisoning or an illness from a food the customer was allergic to *I’d* be in trouble. I’m saving myself the grief.”
“Still -” but Derek was interrupted.
“You can thank me for the packed lunch I’m going to give you later. You call and tell me when you want it, and how many, I’ll make it for up to ten.”
“You don’t have to,” Derek began but John raised his eyebrows.
“I didn’t get my reputation by being a stickler for money. I got my reputation by treating my customers right. Sometimes you lose a little to gain, and I’d really like to not lose your business. Besides, if I pissed off Erica she might stop working for me, and she’s ten times better than the girl you had last night. Business has increased for her shifts and I’m not complaining.”
Derek laughed and when he left he felt a whole lot better about things.
*
Isaac always came in alone. Erica and Vernon often came in together and the more time they spent with each other the more Derek thought they might be a mated pair. It didn’t happen often, if he remembered what his mother said correctly, but when it did the bonds were strong. Strong enough that both might leave a pack if one was uncomfortable.
Derek was still a little sore about that, but he tried not to be. Decisions were made, he was trying a different tactic, and the pack meeting was officially starting. His gaze went between the three of them and he took a deep breath.
“Isaac?” he started.
“Nothing much to say, I can’t smell them anywhere,” Isaac grumbled. “I’ve been all over the woods, and the paths they had made are just gone. Too much time I guess?” he asked, and Derek nodded.
“Possible. Erica?”
“They aren’t around town, at least, not making their presence known. Vern and I tried to do some sketches, tried to remember what they looked like but…” She frowned at him and pulled out a sketch pad, offering it to Derek.
Taking the pad, he began flipping through them. Most of the images were black and white, just shadows or hulking forms. He couldn’t tell anything from them at all, but then he noticed one that felt fairly familiar. It was a face, nothing else, but that wasn’t a face a person forgot. He turned the picture to Erica.
“Who was this?” he asked, voice harsh and Erica shook her head, looking over at Vernon.
“That was the last thing I remember seeing,” Vernon said. “I never saw it again, just that one moment. It’s the kind of thing that’s hard to forget.”
“His name is Ennis. I met him a long time ago.” The memories weren’t fresh, but they still hurt. It was past time he got over some of the stupid things he did. “He was vicious, and cruel, but even though he was an alpha, he wasn’t really…” Derek didn’t want to finish that sentence. After all, just a month ago he’d have said the same thing about himself. “He was always interested in fighting, not really interested in pack exactly.”
Erica caught his slip and lifted her eyebrows at him. “So now what?” she asked, allowing the sentence to stay firmly alone.
“I didn’t know he’d gone into an alpha pack,” Derek said. “I guess that means his pack is gone. Vernon, have you found out anything about where they might be living?”
“Nothing, sorry,” Vernon sounded horribly upset about that but Derek shook his head.
“Don’t be. Where have you looked?” and Derek pulled out the map he had of the town. Vernon crossed off the area’s he’d been through and Derek took a deep breath.
“Okay, Isaac, stop searching the woods. They haven’t been there, let’s stop wasting our time. Instead, I want you to do a patrol around the town. Get familiar with it, the layout of the streets and alleys. This is your territory now, and you have to be comfortable in it.”
“I know the town -” Isaac started but Derek lifted his eyebrows.
“Do you know each street by name and scent? Can you navigate blinded by feel alone?” At Isaac’s shake of the head, Derek nodded. “I didn’t think so. When my family hit about ten, our mother would have us play games of fetch, hiding things around town and we would have one night to follow her scent to the right places and grab what she’d left for us. We had to be able to pick her scent out from everything else around us. I need you to be comfortable enough with the scents of the town to be able to pick out what’s different and what’s important. So you’ll spend this week doing that. If there are any problems,” he paused, keeping his gaze on Isaac.
“I’ll call or text, I promise.” Isaac said the words, but there was a small smile on his face, so at the very least he felt pretty good about doing so.
“Good. Erica, you’re gaining a network of people who like you working at John’s.”
“Yeah, I love the job,” she said with a flip of her hair.
“Good. If I get you a picture of him out of alpha phase,” Derek asked, pointing at the sketch. “Do you think you could ask some people if they’ve seen him?”
“Oh yeah, I totally could,” she nodded.
“Great. Vernon,” he looked to the boy, considering. “You good with what you’re doing?”
“Yeah,” Vernon said.
“Concentrate on these area’s,” Derek pointed, and Vernon nodded, looking things over. “That’s all. Practice now.”
*
He was working with them on control now, because just brute strength wasn’t enough. When he was a kid he had hated his mother doing drills with him again and again. Now he understood what they were about and he wasn’t going to screw up twice. He’d made plenty of mistakes over the past year, but he was determined to make up for them.
When Scott came in he looked up and crossed his arms over his chest. What the hell did the boy want?
“You,” Scott said, pointing a finger at Derek and Derek lifted his eyebrows. “I need to talk to you.”
“Then talk,” Derek said with a shrug.
“This is private, you want them to be in on the conversation?” Scott asked and all noise of training stopped. Derek frowned at him but finally nodded.
“Anything private is pack business, so tell me what you came here to tell me,” Derek said boldly.
“I don’t like that you’re dating Stiles,” Scott snapped and Derek laughed.
“That’s his choice to make, not yours,” Derek said, and Scott nodded.
“I know that, idiot,” Scott snapped. “I’m not going to tell you not to date him, I just want it clear right now that I don’t approve.”
“Are you going to split us apart? Because that could go badly for you,” Derek said the words boldly but he didn’t feel them. He was worried that Scott’s attitude might actually convince Stiles to stop dating him and he didn’t want that.
“No, jeez, what kind of asshole do you take me for?” Scott asked, but he didn’t let Derek reply to that before he continued on. “Look, I don’t know what the hell you’ve done to the town, but I’m sick and tired of them glaring at Stiles while we’re out, and I’m done with hearing words about how perfect you are and how he doesn’t deserve you.”
Derek growled at Scott’s words. “You too?” he asked, and Scott nodded.
“Yeah. Every day. I had a guy the other day ask me if I needed help disentangling myself from him. Like he was a parasite and I a victim. I told him to shove off and leave my *best* *friend* alone and he shook his head and went away. I think he was drunk, but that isn’t the point.” Scott took several steps towards Derek and Derek’s beta’s growled at Scott. Derek put up a hand to calm them down.
“What do you want *me* to do about it? They… they remember me from before the fire, I can’t tell all of them to leave Stiles alone. I’d be doing that all day every day.”
“I don’t know what you need to do, but you have to do something. Stiles doesn’t need this kind of stigma, especially not from you.” Scott glared at Derek, and they held gazes for a time.
It wasn’t exactly a fight for dominance, but it could have been seen as that from the outside. Derek wasn’t trying to beat down Scott, and Scott wasn’t trying to beat down Derek. They were trying to find a common ground, and until a decision was made in one or the other of them…
Finally, Derek nodded. He had to deal with this problem anyway because *he* was fed up with the noises people were making. It wasn’t like this was a problem he was unaware of, he just hadn’t had it on his front burner. Scott was asking him to change that. Fine. He could do that.
“I’ll do what I can,” Derek said easily, and Scott backed away instantly, a small frown of confusion on his face.
“I thought you’d fight that harder,” he said finally and Derek raised an eyebrow.
“You think I want to hear shit about the guy I’m dating all the time? I’m not dating him because I want him to be looked down upon. Obviously I like him.”
“No, I mean, yeah, I kind of figured, although I wondered if it was some strange way of you trying to find out everything I was doing, but I got it when you actually took him out on a date. I just didn’t think…” Scott shrugged. “Whatever. Just *do* something.”
With a snort, Derek nodded. “It’s not going to be easy, and it’s going to take time,” he warned.
“Then you’d better get started sooner, rather than later.” With that, Scott turned around and began walking away.
“Was he fighting for territory or something over *Stiles*?” Erica asked, and Derek shook his head.
“Not fighting for territory. Respect. Stiles is part of Scott’s pack, and Scott feels each person is an equal.” Derek turned to Erica. “Do you know why that’s a dangerous way to lead?”
She bit her lip as she thought about that. Finally she said, “Because if everyone is equal then there is no leader?”
“Right. It’s better to have a leader with strong followers than a group of leaders. That’s why the alpha pack is hard to pull off. Their leader is even stronger than each of their individual parts, possibly stronger than all the others combined.”
Vernon shivered. “Then we’ve got our work cut out for us.”
“Wish Scott and Stiles and Allison were on *our* side for this,” Isaac mumbled, and even though Derek didn’t say it out loud, he kind of agreed with Isaac.