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“Think of your anchor!” Derek commanded as he ran through the reserve with his two betas.
Well, two of the betas, anyway. It was difficult enough for Derek to try and train two betas, but four at the same time was next to impossible, so he took his pack out in small groups of two for nightly runs through the woods to both train for control and exert pent up energy in a safe and easy way. Tonight it was Isaac’s and Jackson’s turns for training and so far.... things were royally sucking.
The two idiots had already run into each other, tripping and knocking into trees and wolfing out on each other before Derek could try and contain them. Luckily they would both heal, but their clothes were permanently ruined.
“I said-Jackson, no!” Derek tackled the newest wolf to the ground, damp clumps of leaves sticking to his arms as he wrestled him into submission.All night-all damn night-the two had been bickering, taunting and Isaac had successfully goaded Jackson into yet another shift. The alpha wasn’t sure if he’d survive this night, or if he’d let the two betas survive the night. “Isaac, cut it out! You’re not helping.” he chided and once Jackson had calmed down and changed back into his completely human form Derek let him up.
“Sorry.” Isaac mumbled, but just as soon as he apologized he and Jackson were back at it.
Their run was coming to an end, anyway, Derek decided, so he opened his mouth to announce to the two betas that they should head back to the Hale house when he felt the familiar prick of static along his arms and the back of his neck. The supernatural world was brimming with the unknown, even for Derek, but he knew the telltale sign of magic. He’d felt it a handful of times after he and Laura left Beacon Hills and those times had been enough to imprint the feeling of it into his sensory memory forever.
Even now, though, Derek forgot that his betas were still, technically, pups. “Don’t move!” he ordered and, not surprisingly, both betas scoffed and trudged on. “I said-!” but he was too late. Just as he reached out for the teens a bright light erupted from the ground as if a trip wire had been cut and the forest floor was opening up to swallow them whole. Derek’s reflexes served him well enough to jump away to safety, but both Isaac and Jackson were caught in the fray of magic and were both blanketed by the cascade of light that now flowed freely from the ground.
All sound seemed to cease and Derek held his breath as he waited in stark fear and the realization that the two boys could be dead, could be suffering! It was only a moment more of suffocating anticipation until the light was gulped down into the Earth and the world returned to the regular blue-black of night. Derek winced as his eyes adjusted to the change and he stumbled forward croaking out the names of his betas, feet scuffling over leaves and rocks as he turned this way and that and then finally tripped over a root-only, it wasn’t a root so much as a small, squirming animal with blonde curls and wide, scared eyes...
“Oh no... Isaac?” To his left the pile of clothes shifted and another tiny head popped out with spiky hair. “Jackson?!”
He wasn’t going to survive the night, just maybe.
---
“Well...” Deaton cautioned, his face set in an oddly blank expression. Derek had brought the boys over to the vet clinic immediately after he realized what had happened.
“Well what?!” he hissed, trying to keep his voice down. The now toddlers, Jackson and Isaac, were ambling about the back room poking through the cage doors at the dogs there, cooing and giggling at them the way children do with puppies.
“Their mental regression does worry me a bit, however they have all of their memories and they have no trouble answering questions about themselves or about what happened; I just don’t know how to reverse this on my own.” Deaton swivelled around on his chair, rolling over to his desk squeakily as he flipped through a few papers, thumbed through an address book and then triumphantly pulled out a note with a name and number on it.
“Not on your own, but someone else might, right?” Derek hedged nervously as he hovered between the vet and the boys, making sure that the two children didn’t end up with less fingers then they started out with.
“Correct. I can call up a few old friends and ask around, as I’m sure one of them will have something to aid us-”
“Can we take him home, Dad?!” Isaac suddenly appeared carrying a wriggling dog with curly, white fur.
“I’m not your dad-and no!” Derek snapped, his mouth thinning into a tight line as he pointed outward. “Put him back where he came from.”
Isaac wilted and slowly padded back to the holding room, tiny, bare feet making soft noises on the clean tile. “I told you he’d say no...” he whispered.
“Sh!” Jackson shushed and peeked around the door frame before scampering off to help Isaac put the dog back.
Derek knew now that this was going to be one Hell of a ride.
---
The next day...
“Any student or military discounts for you today?”
Derek opened his mouth to answer the tiny woman with puffy, yellow hair that, no, sadly he had no sort of discounts, but his words never reached any sort of vocalization because the next sound to fill the space was the sound of his car horn being laid on. The tiny woman jumped and dropped a hanger, the plastic clattering on the floor near her feet and she looked, flustered, to the large windows at the front of the store.
“My word! Young people, these days!” she gasped and bagged the few clothes for him, shaky hands folding the tiny pants and shirts and stuffing them into the plastic tote.
“Yeah... here, thanks for your trouble.” Derek grumbled and snagged the bag, not waiting for his change as he hurried from the thrift store towards his car. He jerked the driver’s door open and growled, but both boys were sitting, angelic-like, in the back seat. “Which one of you did it?” he accused, tossing the bag into the passenger seat and slamming the door as he sat down and buckled himself in. He looked into the rearview mirror at the two boys; Isaac looked mortified, his eyes downcast to his thin lap while Jackson looked absolutely harassed, as if he was offended that someone would accuse him of honking a car horn. “Isaac, tell me who it was that honked the horn.” Derek ordered and waited, but when Isaac only shook his head, tiny curls bouncing around his temples, Derek huffed and turned the camaro over. He knew pushing Isaac wouldn’t do any good and he was almost completely positive Jackson had been the one to honk the horn.
“Derek, can we go to Hefty Boy?” Jackson suddenly asked through the heavy silence as the Camaro passed the local burger place.
“No.”
“But Derek, please?” Jackson tried again, earning him a glare in the rearview mirror. The boy huffed in exasperation and folded his arms crossly, pert nose pointed out the window while Isaac sat in the center seat looking equally deflated.
“Do you know why we’re not going to Hefty Boy?” Derek inquired, thick brows raised as he drove through town.
In the backseat both boys squirmed uncomfortably, not wanting to answer. Derek knew he only had to wait out one of them for the answer he sought and before the next light turned green he heard the shift of Isaac’s knees as he worked up the courage to speak up. A small smile broke his face, triumphant and a little smug. He knew his betas better than-
“Because I honked the horn.” Jackson blurted, catching Derek very offguard.
“No.” Derek answered slowly. “Although now that I know it was you, Jackson...” he let the empty threat linger and watched in the rearview as Jackson’s ears turned red.
“Because we didn’t tell you who honked the horn when you asked.” Isaac murmured finally.
Derek nodded, a sudden pang in his chest at the thought that Isaac was able to reiterate exactly what had displeased Derek without so much as a hint. The kid, and he was a kid now more than ever before, was so mistreated in the last few years of his adolescence that Derek had no doubt as to how ‘well trained’ he’d become at repeating his faults to his Father. It made Derek angry and sad. “Next time you’ll tell me the truth, right? It’s always better to tell the truth.” He took a quick glance in the rearview and saw Isaac nodding seriously. “Right, Jackson?” he repeated and the other boy nodded curtly, a pout set on his lips.
That night Derek ordered Pizza and gave the boys a bath and put them in some t-shirts of his because he’d forgotten to buy night clothes for them at the thrift store. He was exhausted by the time he crashed to the couch, limbs heavy and aching from the stress of the day, but he fell asleep to the sound of the creaking house around him, the wood groaning in low whispers under the sway of the outside wind.
---
“Dad, Dad wake up.”
Derek roused to find a wide-eyed Isaac shaking his shoulder at the edge of the couch. The boy clutched at the loose fabric of the tee he wore and his curls were pressed flat on one side of his head. Derek rolled his neck and groaned; a kink in his muscles was not helping how irritated he was at being woken up at the crack of... “What time is it?”
“Dad, it’s--” Isaac wasn’t able to finish his explanation because in the middle of speaking a loud clap of thunder shook the hollow house.
“I’m not your Dad-” another clap of thunder and a yelp from Isaac,”-it’s just a storm...” Derek complained and glowered at the toddler who only shook in his spot against the edge of the couch.
“Can you tuck me back into bed?” Isaac hedged after a few silent moments and it took another thunderclap and a stifled gasp from Isaac for Derek to concede and roll out of the comfort of the couch cushions.
As they turned down the hallway towards the stairs Derek caught the pitter-patter of tiny feet on the landing. “You and Jackson are both scared of thunderstorms?” he asked as they ascended the stairs. Isaac nodded, head bobbing along until they reached the bedroom, Jackson was already in the bed pretending to be asleep. Isaac never answered him verbally, only nodded and crawled back in, curling close to Jackson without actually touching him as Derek hastily tucked the covers around him, fingers making a tight cocoon around the boy’s tiny frame.
When Derek turned to leave Isaac whined, “No Da-Derek. Please stay? Until I fall back asleep?”
“It’s just thunder, it can’t hurt you-” a loud clap rattled the windows noisily and the sob Isaac let out had Derek sliding onto the bed with a sigh. He wouldn’t argue about thunder with a child, much less Isaac, when he could be getting the kid back to sleep so he could go back downstairs and find blissful slumber himself. “Fine. Go back to sleep.” he ordered and made himself comfortable by sitting against the headboard, head resting as he craned his neck back.
Isaac watched him for a while as if to make sure Derek wouldn’t try and leave the room. It took a while, but as the thunder rolled away Isaac’s eyelids began to droop. He slowly drifted in the limbo between sleep and consciousness and once he was out Derek relaxed.
---
“Derek I’m hungry!”
Derek started awake, the kink in his neck back and burning worse than the night before. He was still on his bed in a sitting position, having drifted off to sleep before getting the chance to escape back downstairs. Jackson was jumping on the edge of the bed in his second-hand store clothes and Derek grimaced at the fit. It would have been better to have taken the boys inside to test the lengths of the pants or maybe he should have invested in some new clothes since he was now spotting a very mysterious stain that he hadn’t observed the day prior...
“Hungryyyyy!” Jackson cried and hopped off the bed.
Derek ended up making cereal. And yes, making cereal was a total thing; he had to find bowls, spoons, get the milk out and even pour the cereal for both of the boys. And apparently Kix was totally not a good cereal even though it was ‘Kid Tested’. Jackson would not let Derek hear the end of it.
“It’s okay.” Isaac tried, spooning another mouthful and chewing contemplatively.
“There’s no sugar!” Jackson wailed and poked at the puffy cereal orbs in his sea of milk like they were floating eyeballs. “Can we get chocolate cereal? Or cookie cereal?”
“Eat your breakfast. I have to tell the rest of the pack today what happened to you two and I don’t want to hear you guys complaining about being hungry when they get here.”
“Ugh! This cereal sucks! Don’t you have eggs? Bacon? What about toast?! Can’t we make toast instead of eating this stuff?” Jackson again poked at his cereal and it took every sleep-deprived fiber in Derek’s being to not take the bowl away and refuse Jackson a meal altogether.
They survived breakfast and snack time by a hair and even managed to survive the pack meeting without any major hitches. Erica had laughed so hard at seeing tiny Jackson that she cried, but Boyd, Scott and Stiles did not look as enthused. For one thing, Boyd had pointed out, Jackson’s parents had already called the police and declared him missing and Scott had mentioned how the chemistry teacher had noticed Isaac’s absence in class without a sick call; apparently high school these days was more careful about kids ditching and when the teacher had received no notice of Isaac calling in sick from school he had called up the office and now both boys were posted as missing.
It was a huge setback for Derek. He had other things to deal with right now and there was no way to get around keeping the two toddlers with him at all times because literally no one else could take them. Boyd still worked the ice-rink after school, Erica was taking care of her mother when she wasn’t with Boyd at the rink helping out and he wasn’t desperate enough to ask Scott for any favors; Stiles was obviously a bad choice because of his father.
And he hadn’t even called Peter over to tell him any of this story because he didn’t trust him at all, so...
“We’re gonna starve!” Jackson groaned and flopped dramatically to the floor while Isaac hid a wide grin behind a thing hand.
---
After dismissing the pack Derek looked through his fridge, brought out enough stuff to make PB&J sandwiches and then admitted that, yeah, okay, he needed a grocery run. Jackson wasn’t completely wrong in his fears of starvation within the house because Derek was almost completely positive that Kix for dinner would turn his kitchen into a war zone. All he really had was cereal, milk and stuff for basic meals like PB&J, a box of macaroni and cheese and a can of green beans that he never opened because he never bought a can opened (and he was not going to use his claws, he hated the sound it made, it gave him the willies).
So after much grumbling on his part and hoots and hollers on the boys’ parts, they set out for the grocery store. The ride over was full of comments having to do with either Hefty Boy or ‘he’s touching me!’ and Derek threatened to turn the car around the entire way there. As soon as they pulled up to the parking lot of the store Derek felt a little better. The boys had calmed down a bit and Derek figured, hey; it’s getting late. The sun is going to start setting and by the time they finished shopping he could take them home, fix a quick dinner, feed the boys, dress them for bed and then possibly sleep a full night without much worry or interruption.
Yep. Things were going to be okay. Just maybe
---
He was going to rip his hair out; this had been a mistake-Derek instantly regretted taking the boys to the supermarket to buy groceries for dinner. Not only were they screaming at the tops of their lungs but they were now terrorizing down the cereal aisle threatening to tear every box off of the shelves and when Derek swoops them up and dumps them into the back of the cart they just grow more rowdy. Jackson is busy stomping on the cart bottom and causing everything in the cart to jump, including Isaac, when Ms McCall turns the corner and stares at Derek at the end of the coffee and tea aisle.
Derek is trying to pick between dark roast and mental bottles of vodka when he notices her staring at him and the two toddlers in his shopping cart. Melissa looks like she’s trying to figure out how she knows the two boys but ends up giving Derek a look-the one mothers give their children when they have the answer to their unspoken question; the one his mother gave him after telling him that he didn’t need to find a mate now, that sometimes it took years to find mates even though he had never once spoken up about his secret fear of not having a girlfriend like his cousin did.
He hated that look, especially now because Melissa was not his mother... he missed his mother...
“Derek.” she says softly as she pushes her cart closer and easily picks up a tin of french roast coffee. She obviously has her shopping routine down pat. “You okay?”
The boys are quiet when Derek peeks over his shoulder, both toddlers staring at Mellisa like she’s a monster or something. “I’m fine.” he answers quickly, voice a normal pitch and miraculously not at all bitter. “How’re... things?” he tries to ask casually but he knows it’s stunted concern. Ever since the sheriff’s station Derek has seen Melissa around town only a handful of times, mainly in passing and the most they’ve done so far is wave, or in Derek’s case just head nod. He still believes Scott inherited his alpha genes from his mother, this woman who is more of an alpha than Derek could ever hope to be right now... Maybe with time.
“Good! They’re good.” she answers and sets down her coffee tin into her cart, eyes wandering to the two boys in the cart. “You know, when Scott was little it was always easier to take him shopping in the morning.” she tells him thoughtfully and picks up a small box of honey-ginger tea from the tea shelf and plops it in with the rest of her groceries. “I’d wake him, feed him, do all of that stuff and then do my grocery shopping when the stores were relatively empty; it made things a heck of alot easier on me and on him.” She looks up at him then and Derek can only nod and give a quiet ‘thank you’ before she’s walking away.
The boys start up the racket as Derek waits in line at the checkout station. They’re hungry, they’re tired, they want candy and a toy and Derek is going to throttle them into submission until he remembers something; a stupid trick Laura would do to him when they were little. He knew moms did it to their children, but his Mother never had because he always behaved with her (or else suffer the consequences of no after-dinner cocoa).
“See that man?” Derek whispers and suddenly both boys clam up, eyes darting until they rest of the man scanning items over the bar codes on their stuff. “He’s going to get mad at tell you guys not to come back here ever again unless you settle down and stop making so much noise.”
The man, obviously a veteran at scaring the living daylights out of children, looks up and gives the most grizzly of ‘That’s right’ faces Derek has ever seen. And it works. Both Jackson and Isaac quietly settle into the shopping cart and Derek pays for his purchase without so much as a ‘but I wanted coco puffs!’
The ride home isn’t as great because Isaac cries when Jackson gets angry at him for not asking to stop at Hefty Boy-again-and they pass out five minutes before Derek pulls up to his house. They eat a quick dinner of deli-fried chicken and mashed potatoes with corn on the cob (Derek bought the ‘family feast’ from the in-store deli) and then both boys basically fell dead into sleep once they hit the mattress of Derek’s bed.
---
Things began to move in staggered intervals. Deaton’s friend who could possibly help was harder to track down than originally anticipated and Derek was having less and less luck with understanding the boys and their new needs. In truth they needed everything they had before the spell had hit them. The only difference was that now they were easier to read when trying to hide those needs.
For instance; Isaac needed constant praise, constant approval and kind regard from Derek as well as few sit-down talks about being called Dad so often. One conversation in particular had struck Derek deeper than the others, though. It had happened one evening after dinner when Isaac was getting ready for bed, already swimming in the large tee that belonged to Derek.
“Dad, will you tuck us in for bed tonight?” Isaac had asked and Derek immediately bristled. There were so many reasons why Derek didn’t want to be called ‘Dad’, but the most prominent was that he simply wasn’t Isaac’s Father. He tried explaining this to Isaac as simply and slowly as possible, but in the end Isaac looked up at him with round eyes and said, “But you take care of me and Jackson. Isn’t that what a Daddy does?”
Derek was still trying to break the habit.
Jackson, on the other hand, had no problem with calling Derek by his name. The kid was rowdy, raucous, stubborn and always had Isaac do the ‘dirty work’ when it came to asking for stuff or for permission. Jackson would instruct Isaac to ask Derek for candy or to watch cartoons and more than once Isaac had come to Derek asking if it was okay to ride the couch cushions down the stairs; the answer was always no, but Jackson somehow managed to sneak a cushion to the top landing anyway and rode the cushion down about halfway before flipping over and knocking himself purple on the rest of the way down.
Both boys had been punished with no television and no dessert that night for dinner and while Isaac nodded and explained his understanding of why he was also punished (he had been ready with a cushion of his own at the top of the stairs and had failed to call for Derek when he knew this was against the rules), Jackson was stubborn and refused to see eye-to-eye with Derek.
“I was just trying to have fun!” he griped as he sat facing a western corner of the quiet living room. Isaac had spent his fifteen minutes silently and without argument so he was currently upstairs bathing while Jackson was failing, yet again, to just sit without speaking. Derek was sitting on the couch looking over clothing ads; who knew that kids didn’t like wearing the same two outfits all the time?
“There is having fun and then there’s recklessness. What you two were doing was dangerous and-”
“But you never let us do anything fun! All we get to do is play hide and seek or watch TV. You don’t even care about us, anyway!” Jackson growled, his tiny arms crossed angrily over his chest.
“Jackson, of course I care about you guys. Why do you think I don’t want you to do dangerous things?”
“You don’t want us to have any fun! You just want us to grow up so you can get rid of us!”
The muffled sound of tiny, broken sobs filled the room as Jackson began to cry. Derek had been wondering, but he never guessed... “Come on.” he whispered as he stood and scooped Jackson up, taking him back to the couch to sit tucked against his side. “I want you guys to have fun, but when I tell you guys not to do something it’s because I don’t want you to get hurt. I worry about you guys because you’re not as big as you were before and if something happens I can’t always be there to help.” Derek explained gently, his arm holding Jackson into his side as the boy cried into his henley. “And I do want you guys to grow up, but not because I want to get rid of you. I want you to grow up again because you should be grown up right now. But, Jackson, let me tell you... if we don’t find a way to get you back to being grown up, that’s okay. I’ll still like you and you can still live here and I’ll still take care of you.”
He could feel the dampness in his side from Jackson’s tears and by now he had noticed the thin frame of Isaac creeping over from the hallway. Derek motioned for the other toddler to join them and for the next twenty minutes the three of them just sat together on the couch.
Jackson never mentioned anything about growing up after that, though he continued to get Isaac and himself in trouble, just not as often.
---
The time finally came for Derek to buck up and buy the boys actual clothes that would fit them, because Jackson had masterfully pointed out that the two outfits he wore still smelled like the thrift store soap (Derek had washed the clothes so many times and the stink never wore off) and that people would think he was weird for wearing the same things over and over again. “I’m not a cartoon character!” he had pointed out, so Derek agreed to take the boys shopping for clothes the next day.
It wasn’t a surprise that Ms. McCall had been right; the boys were much easier to work with in the morning, after having a big breakfast of cereal and a banana, teeth and hair brushed, clothes on and ready for the day. The morning stillness of the clothing store was nice, too, because the boys felt awkward being loud in a place that was so quiet, especially Jackson, who was usually the louder of the two, anyway. Once inside the store Derek shoved them into a two-seat stroller cart and picked out clothes until the boys began dancing in their seats, bored and restless. It took a good thirty minutes for Derek to finally pick out the right sizes, having first started off in the wrong section of the store altogether... but he’d asked for help from a clerk and was now picking out pants long enough for Isaac and short enough for Jackson.
The boys could not have been more different in their styles, either; Jackson wanted t-shirts with what he thought were funny or cool sayings and jeans with fun patterns on one leg while Isaac wanted t-shirts with printed graphics or super heroes on them and plain pants but he also wanted matching superhero underwear-until Jackson made fun of him and he cried and then Jackson was chastised and he started to cry, though angrily.
“Look, you guys like different things, so just keep your opinions-Jackson-to yourselves.” Derek grit out and picked out Iron Man undies for Isaac and plain ones for Jackson.
“No, I--” Jackson looked up sheepishly, tear-wet lashes blinking quickly. “I want Spiderman ones...”
Isaac gasped and looked up, his cheeks tear stained and nose red. “You like Spiderman?”
And the two were best friends again.
It gave Derek whiplash, but as long as they weren't fighting anymore he was happy, too. He had the boys try on their pants and shirts quickly, though quickly was half an hour because they constantly needed help and Derek somehow managed to just pull the two of them into one room and just dressed them himself.
At the end of their visit to the store Derek allowed one toy each; Jackson chose a giant lizard stuffed-animal with iridescent scales and Isaac chose a wolf stuffed-animal with soft, grey fur. Derek was only too happy to allow them their toys of choice and said not one word on the coincidences; he did linger on the thought of Jackson choosing a lizard and chalked it up to his natural state of cold heartedness when he was still a teen, but Derek let that go, too.
---
Driving home from the store was a chore in itself; they were still in town and passing a Hefty Boy burger joint when the boys began begging to go and eat, that they were starving. It was a lie, or at least an ill placed fibb, but Derek did not want to hear anymore whining and crying, so he conceded and pulled into the parking lot. He would normally just go through the quick and easy drive-thru, but both boys were screaming about the play-place (“Please let us play in the play-place!”) and he figured some much needed play-time would help to tire them out before heading home.
In the Hefty Boy it was quiet, a couple of people sitting down enjoying their fast food and Derek figured that was for the best. There were no other kids in the place, which was even better, mainly because Jackson had a hard enough time getting along with just Isaac, so obviously other children in the vicinity was a red-flag to get the Hell out of Dodge and safely home (where Jackson wouldn’t make any other toddlers cry). What was distressing was running into the sheriff after he threw his garbage away, turning in time to catch Derek’s eye and stop to stare.
“Oh--” the sheriff kind of gawked down at the blonde-boys hanging on Derek’s legs.
“Derek! Derek! Dereeeeeeek! I want chicken nuggets puh-lease?!” Jackson was begging while on the other side Isaac was quietly asking for, “Hamburger, please? I want the robot toy, please? Can I have Sprite?”
The sheriff gave Derek a piteous look and then chuckled. “Yours?”
“It’s a long story.” Derek amended quickly and then realized that the missing boy Jackson and runaway Isaac would be a weird coincidence with Derek’s nephews Jackson and Isaac, so he quickly thought up close-enough names and introduced the boys and Zack and Jack, fraternal twins. The sheriff bought this story easily enough, but Jackson was quick and looked mutinous before Derek cut off his rebuttal with a quick, “Go and play, I’ll grab the food.”
“Yes!” Jackson air-boxed and then ran to the door that led out to the play-place, followed quickly by a shuffling Isaac who was saying, “Ball pit!” once he got outside.
“Well good luck, son.” The sheriff didn’t hold out his hand or pat Derek on the back, although he looked like he wanted to. Instead he just nodded and left the Hefty Boy, leaving Derek to order two kid’s meals, one nuggets, one a hamburger, fries for both and also sprites, two robot toys, and a bacon cheeseburger for himself, a large coke and fries.
Outside the boys ran amok and dove into the ball-pit with as much caution as spider monkeys. Derek set down the tray of food at the outside table and called them over, already digging into his grub by the time they reached him, breathless and flushed. Derek was dishing out their respective meals, nodding as both boys detailed the game they had been playing while Derek had been ordering the food.
“And--Dad, no look--so Isaac growled at me and I dove into the ball-pit and pretended it was water and--Dad, no look I said! I jumped from that slide into the ball-pit; it was awesome!” Jackson rattled off, impressed with himself for making a one foot jump from a tunnel slide into the plastic ball-pit.
“Wow, that’s cool. You’re a real daredevil.” Derek responded easily, stroking Jackson’s ego like no big deal and shoving another bunch of fries into his mouth.
Isaac, however, had fallen silent, his straw falling from his lips as he sat in awe of Jackson.
“What?” Jackson barked, suddenly feeling under scrutiny.
The curly-haired boy shook his head, curls flying about his temples until Derek nudged him gently and nodded. “Go ahead, Isaac; what is it?”
Isaac hesitated for a moment, silence falling over the small group until he spoke up. “He... he called you Dad and you didn’t get mad at him...” Isaac answered sheepishly and then added on, “Can I call you Dad now, too?”
Jackson looked baffled, surprised with himself but also interested because as soon as the shock hit it disappeared and he looked expectantly at Derek for confirmation.
It winded Derek. He hadn’t realized he’d been called Dad and he had definitely not realized he’d answered to it, falling into some sort of fuzzy role when he was least expecting to. It took a good minute for his mind to process this and then another until the boys began looking restless. When they looked ready to pop from anticipation Derek nodded. “Yeah, you can.”
The three of them ate in relative silence until Jackson began bragging that he was the first one to call Derek Dad and not get in trouble, then another bicker broke out. Maybe Derek could get the hang of this, just maybe.
---
Epilogue
It took another whole two months before Jackson and Isaac were turned back to normal age. Deaton had tracked down his friend and together they skyped a road to the answers they needed. Derek had-had to find out where the spell originated from and found a young coven of practicing witches that called themselves ‘The Mother’s Daughters’ and were actually just middle-aged women with too much time on their hands. The spell had been placed for them to retain their youth but the spell had never worked so they ditched the idea and that was the spot Derek and the boys had stumbled upon. Apparently the witches had placed the spell in one spot and then stepped in a completely different spot, forgetting where they placed the spell originally and that was why it never worked for them-go figure.
So once the boys were teenagers again and no longer stated as missing, things went back into a strange sort of calm. There were a few differences, though... Isaac spent all his free time at the Hale house and Jackson spent as much free time as was possible without suspicion from his parents with Derek and Isaac and even learned to find his anchor (which ended up being Isaac). Derek cleared out two rooms for them to sleep in and began cooking dinner meals for three almost every night. He even started showing up to lacrosse games and had a nice, center seat in the bleachers when the boys graduated from high school.
The two betas started going out officially a little after graduation and their long-distance relationship was good, healthy and Derek was more than happy to welcome Jackson home every holiday with Isaac right there to hug him into the house. When Isaac went off to state university Derek was left home alone, having already said his temporary farewell to Erica and Boyd when they had gone off to the same college straight out of high scool. He had daily phone calls from both Isaac and Jackson and one Christmas break he was graced with the two betas and the announcement that they were engaged. Isaac had been the one to ask and Jackson had cried in the middle of the snowy plaza back in the city of his college. There was a video floating around somewhere that Danny had posted, having helped Isaac out with the surprise (and since he attended the same college as Jackson it was only fitting, plus, best friends and best man and all).
Derek had given Isaac away at the wedding. He knew, though, that he really wasn’t giving anyone away or gaining a son; he was simply watching his boys grow up and that made him happy because, yeah, he could do this.
Just maybe.