Work Text:
It had been six years since he had left Beacon Hills. As he drove toward the Stilinski residence, he realized just how much he had missed them. Missed Stiles. He figured their 5 year high school reunion would be the perfect time to catch up, to get back in touch with everyone.. Stiles.. Not knowing where they had gone or what they had done after high school, it was a place to start anyway.
He pulled up to the Stilinski’s and it was wrong, so wrong. The house was bright green, the yard was full of garden gnomes and other tchotchkes. He rolled down his window and inhaled deeply, there was no familiar scent here anymore. Derek saw red. He knew neither Stilinski would leave this house willingly unless something tragic had happened, and the fact that it had and no one had told him, Red.
He burned rubber as he pulled out, heading off to confront the one person he knew could answer his questions. A few scant minutes later he was pulling up in front of the Howard house. It looked and smelled as it should. He was preparing to force his way to Scott if necessary when the door was flung open and he was met with a beaming smile, “Derek! Man, you look good what are you doing here?”
He closes his eyes and counts to ten twice before opening them and glaring at Scott, “Where’s Stiles?”
Scott’s face shuts down in a way Derek didn’t know he was capable of he can see the shutters go down over his eyes, possibly an attempt to hide himself from Derek, “We don’t know, we haven’t seen him since the end of Junior year.”
The fury Derek is feeling is a living, breathing thing in the air between them, his body stills in a way Scott hasn’t seen since that first year they knew him, he grits his teeth, snarling between them, “You fucking promised me Scott, You promised to look after him while I got my shit together. I could leave my territory and the people I care about in your hands, and you would take care of them. So where the fuck is the Sheriff and what happened to my Stiles and why the fuck didn’t you call me?!?”
The scent of shame is heavy in the air by the time Derek is done yelling, Scott seems to be having trouble looking at him, “He died Derek, The Sheriff died. It was toward the end of Junior year, a lot of things happened and Stiles killed a guy.”
Scott looks fully away from Derek now, “I believed and trusted someone I shouldn’t have, he warned me, Stiles. I .. I guess I drove him away. Then the Sheriff was attacked and Stiles didn’t leave his room for days.. I was too scared and embarrassed to call you. I thought you’d kill me if you knew,” He looks up and meets Derek’s eyes briefly, “Maybe it would have been better, I don’t know, but I went to the house after the funeral and there was a for sale sign in the yard and Stiles was gone. We haven’t seen or heard of him since.”
As he finishes speaking something in Scott just seems to deflate and there is a weight in his gaze when he looks back at Derek. “What was i supposed to do? I was just a kid.”
Derek looks at him, head to toe taking in the measure of the man, “You were supposed to be his Alpha, his brother.” There is so much derision in his voice that Scott flinches away from him. “This is still Hale territory. You’ve had years to find your own, or come up with a plan to buy me out of the territory, you’ve done nothing. Consider this your notice. Squatting nomad packs are no longer welcome in Hale territory, as soon as I leave here I’m going to find an Alpha to take over the territory. You should probably be gone before the new Alpha comes.
Hope that I never see you again, Scott. I may have let go of all the shitty things you did to me over the years, but I will never forgive you for this.”
Scott finally having enough of being disrespected chooses that moment to get his back up and snarls back at Derek, “I’m the Alpha!”
Derek slams the palm of his hand into Scott’s chest, throwing the other man back against the house, red eyes flashing, “You may be an Alpha, Scott Howard, but you aren’t my alpha.” Derek turned his back on him then and stormed to his car. He didn’t know where he was going but he knew he had to get out of there before he ripped Scott to shreds.
He ended up in the high school parking lot. It occurred to him that Stiles records would have had to go somewhere. He used the Hale vault to break into the school, making his way through the familiar corridors, brought a sense of longing and melancholy.
It was easy to break into the records room and thanks to his friend, Kai, even easier to find Stiles’ records. New Hampshire. Everything had been sent to a small town in New Hampshire. A sense of relief shivered down his spine at finding a concrete path to take to get him to Stiles.
*&*&*&*&
It took him four days to find Gilford, New Hampshire, and another day to find the nearest Alpha to talk about his stay in their territory, which seemed to encompass all of New Hampshire. He drove up to a well kept New England home, the whole way up the long driveway he kept giving himself a pep talk about how he was doing this for Stiles, and that this time he would do better, be better.
As he parked his car, the front door opened and a few people came out to lean various places and stare at him. He got out of the car and strode confidently, he hoped, up the walk. At the bottom of the steps he was greeted by a tiny woman with silver hair. The aura of power around her was something he hadn’t felt since he last saw his mother. It affected him deeply.
“Alpha Hale, We’ve been expecting you for some time, what brings you here, now?” Her voice is rife with curiosity and she tilts her head in that way they tend to do when curious about something.
“You’ve been expecting me?” He needs to know the answer to that question before he decides how to proceed.
Alpha McTeir nods her head sharply, “Ever since your mate moved into our territory and made himself known with those babies of his, we have been waiting for you. Your mother was a dear friend and she was very pleased with your match.” She smiles and he watches it invade her eyes, pure joy at the memory she is reliving.
Something in Derek deflates then, His mate? His mother knew? He turns sad eyes to Alpha McTeir and in that moment allows her to see him, “My mother knew?” It comes out before he can stop it, barely a whisper.
“Oh you poor dear,” She wraps an arm around him and tows him into the house, to a more private space, pushing him down onto a small sofa, “You didn’t know?”
He shakes his head slowly, his eyes filling with tears, “Why didn’t she tell me? If I had known Paige wouldn’t have died, my family wouldn’t have died, why didn’t she tell me?” He looks at her, broken in ways he didn’t know he could be.
She reaches out a hand and squeezes his knee, “You were so young, I’m sure she was just waiting until you or maybe until he got a little older. I’m so sorry, I would have reached out to you if I had known.”
He looks up at this woman, who obviously was close to his mother at one time, “I’ll tell you my story, if you’ll tell me his?”
She nods and he begins to speak, he tells her everything he has been through, losing everyone, losing Laura, gaining a pack, losing it, the fights, the torture, the sexual assaults, and ends with the story of how he became an Alpha again. He’s not sure at what point she started crying, but when he looks up, there is a noticeable trail of tears down her face.
She meets his eyes and then before he even has time to register her moving she is next to him and pulling him into a motherly embrace. At first he is stiff and he has to fight his instincts, letting people this close has not been a successful thing for him, but then he remembers that this is apparently one of his mother’s closest friends and he allows himself to accept the comfort.
“He showed up here five years ago. A beautiful 18 year old boy, he had twin cubs strapped to him, one to his chest, the other to his back, we aren’t sure how exactly he got passed our wards and protections without raising an alarm but he did,” She chuckles, “He said, “My name is Stiles Stilinski of the Hale pack from Beacon Hills, and I’m here because we’ve recently moved into the territory and my pups need to be around other wolves. I, um, researched packs who had treaties and accords with Talia Hale and I noticed that there was fondness and friendship between you, so I was hoping you would allow us to stay.”
I asked him where you were, why you weren’t with him and your pups, and he told me that you had been deeply injured and recently conquered the full shift, like your mother and your sister, and that you would find him when you were ready.
So, of course, I allowed him to stay. I helped him get the school to accept that he was a teen parent, I helped him with his applications to Lakes Region Community College, and when he wanted to set up his business, we helped him with that too.”
She wrote down an address on a slip of paper and handed it to him, “You are welcome in our territory, for as long as you need.”
He looks at the paper and then back to her, “You wouldn’t know anyone who wants to move to California?”
It takes another hour or so of haggling, but is soon decided a trade will be made. Hale territory in Beacon Hills in exchange for about half as much territory in New Hampshire, encompassing Stiles’ land and the surrounding areas. He won’t leave him again, and Scott Howard would become Alpha McTeir’s problem.
As she’s walking him to the door a coltish young woman runs up and hands the Alpha a covered basket, which she then hands to Derek, “Take this to Stiles for us and give him and the children our love, won’t you?”
Derek takes the basket, “Thank you for everything. Of course I’ll give it to him.”
“Be well Derek Hale, May the moon guide you.” She smiles and pulls him into another hug. “We will expect to hear from you both soon about the solstice.” She releases him and sends him on his way with a final pat on his back.
*&*&*&*&
He sat out in front of the house for probably twenty minutes before he heard signs of life. It started with a baby crying and got progressively louder as the morning continued, and Derek, sat in his car and listened. He listened to the familiar heartbeat go from the calm of peaceful sleep, to the fast tempo he was used to when chaos was happening. He listened to every word Stiles spoke to the four cubs he could hear in the house, and then, before Derek was ready, the front door opened and there he was.
God he was beautiful, even more so now that he had grown into his shoulders and Derek just wanted to get his hands all over him. He was carrying a tiny baby in one arm, his other hand was holding onto a toddler, there were two others about 5 years of age dancing around him. The older two children both had backpacks and Stiles was talking to them about the school bus.
It was a joyful sight, but Derek did wonder where the children had come from, was he too late? He watched as the boy stopped jumping around and became alert and stiff. The whisper of a voice on the wind caught his ear, “Daddy, a wolf.”
Stiles head snapped up sharply and he looked right into Derek’s eyes, “Derek.”
Derek is up and out of the car, striding across the street faster than human eyes can see, “Stiles!”
They embrace each other like lovers who had been separated by war, rather than two people who had never been together. Derek buries his face in Stiles’ neck taking in the scent of Stiles and wolf and babies, he notices a distinct lack of partner smell and he is so relieved.
“Daddy?!?” There is confusion and maybe a little bit of censure in the voice.
Stiles snorts out a huff of laughter into Derek’s neck before pulling away, “This is Derek honey, the wolf I told you about.” He runs his hand across the top of the head of the toddler, who has wrapped herself around his leg.
“The one who can turn into a real wolfie?” The boy has that same maniacal, questioning gleam in his eye that Stiles used to get.
“Yes, love, the one who can turn into a wolfie, wait right here while I put your siblings in the car, the bus will be here soon.”
He takes out his keys and walks over to his car, unlocking the door, and then turning and handing Derek the keys, “You’re driving.”
Derek nods, “Okay, where am I driving?” He gets into the driver’s seat and notices he doesn’t have to adjust it at all.
Stiles puts the babies in their car seats, “It’s our first try at riding the bus, so the twins are going to take the bus and we are going to follow behind and let them know everything is a-ok.” Stiles closes the door and reaches in the driver's door to grasp Derek’s shoulder, “I’ll just wait with Lucas and Leia until they board the bus and then we’ll be good to go, okay?”
“Yeah, we’ll be fine here.” Derek pats the hand that’s been resting on his shoulder and watches as Stiles walks back to the twins. He is mentally having a good chuckle over the kids names and wonders who he is in the car with.
It’s about three minutes later that the school bus rumbles down the street. Derek watches the kids intently looking for any sign of stress, but all he sees is excitement. He marvels at how Stiles is raising four little wolves alone and giving them the confidence and control to be going on the school bus at 5.
As soon as Stiles closes his door Derek starts following the bus. There is some waving going on between the two vehicles and it maybe one of the sweetest things he has ever seen. Stiles fills the air with chatter about the twins going to school and how hard it had been to decide to try the bus. He tells Derek funny little stories like when Lucas used food coloring to color himself green and how it took 3 weeks to wear off completely, or how Leia got jealous of the baby and decided to climb into the baby bathtub ring and got stuck and how Stiles thought he would have to call the fire department to get her out.
Once he sees the twins walk into their classroom with the other kids he grows serious, “How’d you find me, Why’d you come?”
Derek asks if they can talk about it back at the house because he doesn’t think either of them should be having this talk while driving. Once back at the house Derek takes it all in, things brought from Beacon Hills mixed in with new things. All of the scents, the fact that the base scent in this home that Stiles made for himself is joy.
They sit down in the living room, Stiles on the couch with the baby, little Charlie playing with some blocks on the floor, and Derek on the coffee table in front of Stiles, so close that their knees touch.
He starts by telling him how he ended up back in New York after realizing that being with a bounty hunter was probably not the best life choice, he told him about walking home after school one evening and hearing a girl crying for help, that her attacker had been so caught up he didn't notice Derek coming until it was too late and Derek hadn't known he was an Alpha until he felt the power rush through him.
He talked about finding a therapist who was in the know and he could actually talk through everything with, that they’d started with 4 a week sessions and now he’d graduated to no sessions. Finishing his degree and starting his business finding and translating old books and texts.
Then he got really intense and he looked straight in Stiles eyes when he said, “My first thought when my therapist said she didn’t want to see me anymore was that I needed to find you. You were always in my mind, always one of the reasons I wanted to get better. I just needed the time to heal enough to not hurt you too.”
He reached out a hand and grasped Stiles’ knee rubbing it lightly, to reassure himself that he was really there, “Then I went back to Beacon Hills. I figured 5 year reunion, even if you all had scattered when high school ended, someone would know where you were, what happened?”
Stiles eyes filled with tears, he closed them and seemed to be taking a moment to pull himself together. Charlie came over and climbed into his lap, hugging him and nuzzling him until he smiled at her and nuzzled back and then he started his story.
The story of how evil came to town and Scott couldn’t see it. How a killer was sent after him and ended up dying, but how Scott decided Stiles was a bad person for murdering the guy. How the Sheriff was killed and Stiles was left to flounder with no pack, no family, and no Derek.
He told him that once he knew Scott was going to turn on him he got Malia to let him into the Hale vault. He studied the old treaties, all the pack information he could find to try and find someone who would have him and that’s how he ended up in New Hampshire.
Derek didn’t think Stiles could be any more serious than he was while talking about the situation in Beacon Hills but when he changed to the topic of the children, he was the most serious Derek had ever seen.
He told him about the pregnant omega who had stumbled on his house his second night in town. How she had sought safety with someone who smelt of wolves but not pack. That she had been grievously injured by hunters before making her way there. How she had been bleeding out even as the EMTs tried to save her.
The girl, whose name was apparently Belinda, told them before she died that she had no family. That Stiles was her babies daddy, and that she had lied to him about who she was and where she came from. She told him she was sorry and begged him to take good care of their babies. Then she died, and the EMTs had to cut the babies out of her to save them.
The hospital never questioned if he was the father or not. Two days later he walked out of there with two little wolves and a new reason to go on. When the twins were three, he found a Moses basket on the front porch with Charlie in it. There was a note that said, “Please Alpha, I can’t take care of her, I know she will be safe with you.”
She came with a birth certificate already filled out, with him listed as the father, because apparently a girl can just write down whoever’s name in the father space and that’s that. There was also a form terminating the mother’s rights, and that’s how he got baby number three.
He peered deeply into Derek’s eyes before going on to baby number four, Samuel. He sighed heavily, “Samuel is a bit different. I’m not the father listed on his birth certificate… You are.”
Derek gasps, shocked by this piece of information and begins sputtering, “I haven’t.. I swear.. I didn’t.. He’s not, no..” He is shaking his head and leaning back away from Stiles.
Stiles wraps a hand around Derek’s neck, pulling him close so their heads rest against each other, “Derek calm down, it’s okay, I know. Sam came with letters too. I guess his mother’s one granted request was being able to leave me a private message.”
Stiles goes on to explain that Samuel’s biological father was an enemy of the pack, that they had already taken care of and she knew that they would kill Samuel too if they knew who his father was, so she claimed that the baby was Derek’s because he was an unattached Alpha.
It wasn’t until after she made the claim that she found out about Stiles, the alpha’s mate. It seemed that her father had also known Talia Hale and he knew that Derek had a mate. Samuel was sent to Stiles, Derek’s mate, to do with what he wished, as he was the one who was disrespected by the child’s conception.
Along with Samuel came a deed for a good amount of land around the house that Stiles hadn’t been able to afford when he bought the place, it was supposed to serve as recompense for the grave offense their pack had perpetrated on the Hale pack.
When he was done relating all of the information to Derek he pulled back, staring into the other man’s eyes, “Derek? I just need to know one thing, Did you know?”
“No. No, Stiles, she never told me. If she had told me things would have been so different, for both of us!” His eyes flashed red and his voice became more guttural, “But I promise you this, I will never leave you again, not if you will have me, never again!”
“And the children?” Stiles’ voice is filled with concern but also hope.
Derek takes in the picture Stiles presents, sitting back on the couch, a sleeping baby in one arm and a sleeping toddler half sprawled across his lap, “Our children are very lucky to have you, and I hope that one day you will all think they are lucky to have me too.”
“Fuck Derek, You can’t just..” Stiles words halt abruptly when Derek drops to his knees on the floor in front of him.
He leans in and nuzzles against the side of Stiles’ face, voice gone husky and soft, “I will never leave you again, if you will have me.” He pulls back to scan Stiles’ face for a sign of his decision.
Stiles lays Samuel down on the couch next to him, and repositions Charlie so she is leaning away from him, her head resting on the arm of the couch, then he scoots forward bringing his legs to either side of Derek’s hips and pulls them more snugly together, “Yes,” He kisses the tip of Derek’s nose, “Yes,” He nuzzles their cheeks together, “Yes.” He kisses Derek softly on the lips.
Derek chases the kiss, trying to pull Stiles even closer. He gives him several light kisses, then Stiles nips his bottom lip hard and Derek deepens the kiss, all of the passion and all of the longing he has saved up for the man before him being conveyed as their bodies begin to move together. They break for air when the feeling of eyes upon him becomes too much.
“Why you kiss Daddy,” Charlie is looking at them with her head cocked to one side.
Stiles bursts into giggles as Derek tries to formulate a response, “Because I love him, is that okay?” He asks the little girl. Stiles sharp intake of breath at his declaration has him looking away from her, then there is a small hand on each side of his face turning him back to her. She rubs her hands on his cheeks and giggles, “Love is good. Kisses is good.” She leans over and kisses Derek on the cheek, it’s a little slobbery, but still one of the best kisses he’s had.
He looks over at Stiles to see the other man beaming at him, “We good?”
Stiles shrugs, smiling, “Love is good. Kisses is good.”