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Derek doesn’t do the whole ‘big goodbyes’ thing. There is a moment of not quite awkward silence between him and Scott after the show down with Jennifer. They both appraise each other, and Derek ducks his head slightly, “I’ve never seen that done before,” is all he says.
Scott let’s out a small puff of air, “I just knew somehow, I knew I could.”
"Because you’re a true alpha," Derek murmurs, and Scott shrugs.
Then Scott has his phone out, pressing it to his ear, and Derek can hear Stiles’ voice down the other end, telling him everyone is OK. Everyone is safe. Asking if they’re OK.
When Scott looks to Derek for confirmation, he finds he doesn’t really have any words. Derek doesn’t know if he’s OK. He doesn’t really know what OK is anymore.
Stiles is asking Scott to come collect them, and Derek hears the faint laughter of everyone on the other end, and only then does he really believe they are indeed all OK. That against the odds they’ve made it out.
They deal with Deucalion together. Derek hopes letting him go is the right decision, he feels it’s what they have to do though. After all they’ve seen; the killing and vengeance killing that has been ripping through Beacon Hills for too long, someone has to break the cycle.
"You coming, or?" Scott asks, tilting his head to look at Derek as they walk away from the warehouse side by side.
Derek shakes his head. “No, I’m…I think me and Cora are going to get out of Beacon Hills for a while, now this is all over. She finds it hard to be here.”
Scott’s face softens, “a lot has happened here, it’s understandable.”
Derek doesn’t reply, he just stares ahead; refusing to glance back at the warehouse, at where Jennifer’s body is slumped, lifeless and empty.
"OK. Then, I guess this is goodbye?" Scott places a hand on Derek’s shoulder before shoving his phone back into his pocket and starting off a light jog to find his family. His pack.
Derek watches him leaving, wonders if he should say something, but he doesn’t know what. They’ve come a long way these past few months, but Derek still isn’t really sure what they are to each other. The power dynamic between them has been in constant state of flux since day one, and now it’s shifted again.
Scott stops though, turns and looks over his shoulder, his face full of emotion that Derek can’t quite place.
"You know where to find us, if you ever, y’know…"
Derek swallows, and allows a small smile, “I do.”
And then Scott is gone.
——-
Derek leaves with Cora that night and, as they drive out of Beacon Hills together, he feels something in his chest both constrict and release at the same time.
——-
They’ve been on the road for 4 days when his phone buzzes. Cora is almost asleep. Reflex makes Derek’s body tense, if someone is contacting him them it must mean trouble. He glances in the rear mirror, they’re alone on the road, so he pulls over and reaches for his phone. The text is from Stiles.
So Scott tells me you and Cora have skipped town. I’m glad she’s ok now. Bye, I guess.
Whilst he’s holding it, it buzzes again.
You couldn’t have taken Peter too though? Really?
Derek huffs out a small laugh, and Cora blinks back into consciousness next to him, giving him a questioning look.
"Stiles says he’s glad you’re ok."
Cora rolls her eyes, but her smile is almost fond. “We probably should have stayed and said goodbye. They were your friends.”
Derek pulls back onto the road and continues driving, trying not to think about it, but he doesn’t correct her as he might have done a few months ago.
"You not going to text him back?" Cora asks quietly.
Derek exhales a breath, “I don’t know.”
Beacon Hills is behind them now, and Derek doesn’t know if keeping in touch is a good thing. He just wants to drive and forget, to focus on his sister.
"Can I text him back?"
Derek rolls his eyes. “Fine, but tell him it’s you.”
Cora grins, takes the phone and sends the text. Derek doesn’t ask what it says.
——-
Cora takes him to where she lived before the alphas found her, she introduces him to the people who’ve acted as her surrogate family — and her surrogate pack — the Walters.
Cora is welcomed with open arms and strong hugs, and Derek stands and watches these strangers who know his sister better than he does, until a warm hand clasps his shoulder.
"We’re glad she found you, we’re glad another Hale survived. Terrible business, but you’re both here now, and you’re welcome to stay as long as you want Derek.”
And so Derek allows himself to be lead inside.
——-
It takes time.
Sometimes they fight and scream at each other. Sometimes they cry for everything and everyone that is lost. Sometimes they laugh and go for walks through the surrounding woods, but gradually Derek begins to feel like he’s got his sister back properly.
Sometimes they talk about Laura, laugh at what she used to be like; so feisty and strong. They reminisce about all the times their mother scolded them. It hurts, but it’s also kind of nice.
Cora tells him about what happened after the fire, how she’d thought they were all dead and had panicked and ran and hid, just like their mother had always said. She tells him how she ran until her feet bled and healed and then bled again, then she’d hidden herself away here for years.
Derek learns that their mother had told Cora of another pack, the Walters; that they were good people, that if she ever needed them, they would be there. He doesn’t question why his mother never told him or Laura the same thing, he knows there was always a reason for everything she did, even if he can’t understand it.
———
It’s nice, being around a family wolf pack again. They make Derek welcome; he thinks the fact that he is now a beta has helped things go more smoothly.
It’s the third full moon since his arrival, and they’re all together, enjoying how the feeling of being alive is thrumming through them all that little bit stronger tonight.
Each full moon, the pack here has a tradition of talking about mythologies and histories, and Derek and Cora drink it in, listening raptly and filing everything away.
Tonight they talk about the rise and fall of rank, and Derek listens quietly. He feels Cora’s hand slide over his and squeeze, a silent thank you for what she knows he gave up. Derek finds he doesn’t miss it.
They talk of the spark and alpha possesses, how it can be snuffed out for good and how it can be relit, and Derek thinks of Peter.
He hasn’t spoken to Peter since they left.
He hasn’t spoken to any of them.
——-
At weekends they sometimes drive to the beach; Cora likes it there. Derek prefers the woods, but she’s his little sister, and it’s worth it to see her run into the waves, laughing and smiling as her hair whips around her face.
——-
Sometimes when he looks up at the moon he thinks about Scott. He wonders how he’s coping with his new found power; if he’s handling it better than Derek did.
On a still evening his mind might wander to those he used to know. He’ll think about what Isaac might be doing. He wonders whether Peter remained in Beacon Hills or moved on.
He remembers Stiles’ text.
He remembers how the last time they’d seen each other had been in that elevator. Derek had never seen Stiles like that before, the boy had been shaking, the whole lift had stunk of fear and desperation, but then his Dad was gone, Scott was gone, Melissa was gone…
He can still hear the pound of his heart, the shake in his voice, as he’d helped Derek to his feet and shoved him towards the doors saying “Go, go!” and Derek had gone.
Derek rubs a hand over his eyes. They’re probably better off without him. His place is with Cora now, and she wants to be here.
——-
Cora is doing well at School; she’s re-enrolled in the school she’d been attending before. The Walters get her a private tutor to get her caught up, and her grades are good.
Derek finds himself with a lot of spare time now she’s busy, so during the week he reads.
The Walters have a lot of literature, and he spends his days in the room that has become his, expanding his knowledge on his own kind, and loosing himself in fictional worlds.
——-
There are days when Derek runs his thumb over his phone, and comes close to making contact with those he’s left behind. Sometimes the urge to re-connect with them is so strong it tugs inside him. It feels a lot like lost pack. And that, that is something that he guesses shouldn’t surprise him.
He doesn’t call or text though.
——-
A growing uneasiness starts to form inside him after around 4 months. He has a niggling doubt that won’t let him be.
Peter.
Derek has learned a lot these last few months, and some of it has made him uneasy.
Maybe he should just call Scott, check in; but somehow it feels disrespectful, like it might be an imposition. Scott is an alpha now, to question his judgement is not Derek’s place.
Maybe everything is fine. Maybe Peter left.
Maybe that gnawing feeling in his stomach is just the bitter after effect of a life full of mistakes and betrayal.
——-
It’s been four months and nine days when Derek’s phone rings.
Caller ID shows that it is Stiles, and Derek grabs it, clenching his free hand into a fist, fear coursing though him. Fear and inevitability.
"I’m sorry, I know you don’t want to talk to us, and I know, I know you just want to leave it all behind and forget…but Derek he’s up to something.”
Derek doesn’t need to ask who.
"I’ll come home," is all he says.
——-
Stiles meets him on the edge of town, fidgeting against a lamp post restlessly until he sees Derek’s car pull into view.
"You didn’t have to come back," Stiles starts, climbing in, "I just…I wouldn’t have told you if I’d known you would come back. I just thought you should know."
Derek looks him up and down for the first time in months; he still looks tired, and his eyes look…well, darker somehow, not in colour just less bright.
Derek shakes his head. He’d thought, when he’d allowed himself to, that if he ever did return he’d find them looking rested, normal. What has been happening in his absence? What have they kept from him? Sudden he feels clawing guilt at what he might have left these kids to face on their own. Derek pushes that thought away for now.
"So you didn’t want me to come back?" is all he says.
"I…what? No, I mean…not unless you wanted to, and you clearly didn’t want to…ever, so…” Stiles trails off, pressing his palms against his knees and looking at the floor.
"I’m here now." Derek replies quietly, "So let’s start at the beginning should we?"
Stiles let’s out a manic sounding little laugh, “and what beginning would that be? The one where my best friend got bitten? The one where you became an alpha and bit everything in sight? The one where Peter came back to life? Or maybe the one where me Scott and Allison died as a sacrifice to a fucking tree to save our parents and unleashed a shit storm on Beacon Hills.”
Derek just stares at him in disbelief. “You did what?”
Stiles just shakes his head. “You know what, none of that matters right now, let’s just focus on Peter who I is on his way to becoming a full blown alpha again, only we’ve all been so busy trying to protect Beacon Hills from what we caused that none of us were paying him enough attention to notice.”
"He’s been stopped before Stiles, if we need to we’ll stop him again." Derek’s mouth is set in grim determination.
"Preferably for good this time. I for one won’t be taking any chances, if I have to chop him up into a million little cube sized pieces and dissolve them one by one in acid then so be it."
That image is unpleasant to say the least, do Derek really doesn’t know what it says about him that he snorts out a small laugh.
Stiles’ eyes zero in on him. “You don’t have to stay, you know that right? Just…share what you think might help and then you can go.”
There is something almost vulnerable about the way he says it, and Derek sighs. Pulling up at a stop light he turns to look at Stiles, “And leave you idiots to try and deal with this? I’m staying.”
Stiles shoots him the stink eye, but Derek doesn’t miss how he also relaxes into his seat for the first time since he climbed into the car.
——-
Derek has nowhere to go, so Stiles invites him back to his. They’re heading up the stairs when the Sheriff appears, looks somewhat surprised to see Derek, and gives Stiles a seriously questioning look, but Stiles just mumbles, “wolf stuff, I’ll explain later.”
With a shake of his head that seems to say ‘how they hell is this my life?’ the Sheriff leaves them to it, calling out after them, “don’t stay up too late, you have school tomorrow.”
They talk for a while, Stiles spreading out sheets of paper full of notes about Peter and his suspicions, and Derek finds that everything is indeed pointing towards him once again becoming a full blown alpha.
The work together; Derek is able to add some valuable information he learned whilst away.
As they work through things, sat side by side on Stiles’ bed, it strikes Derek how it feels like he’s never been away. He doesn’t know whether that thought is a comfort or a concern.
Stiles is all fast talking and flourishes of movement, but he starts to sag at around 1am and Derek tells him they should call it a night. “You heard your father, I’m not getting in trouble with him for keeping you up. Sleep.”
"There’s a camp bed under mine, if you want it," Stiles offers as Derek is getting to his feet.
Derek stops, “I was going to either take the couch or drive out to a motel.”
Stiles rolls his eyes. “Whatever.” He flops back on his bed and beats his pillow in a unnecessarily vicious manner before dropping his face onto it.
Derek huffs, “I’ll just get the camp bed set up myself then shall I?”
"You’re the one with super human strength, pretty sure you can handle a camp bed. There is a blanket under there with it.”
Derek is halfway though setting up the bed, which stinks of Scott, when a pillow hits the back of his head.
He spins and glares at Stiles, who just smirks sleepily into his pillow and closes his eyes.
They lay there in the darkness in silence for a while. Derek knows Stiles is still awake.
He’s not sure how much more time passes before Stiles finally cracks and speaks.
"It was weird without you here."
Derek stares up at the ceiling, a small smirk tugging at the corner of his lips. “Next you’ll be telling me you missed me.”
Stiles snorts into his pillow. “Yeah, right.”
Derek waits a beat. Waits a beat more.
“OK, so maybe I missed you like a tiny little bit. Like how you might miss an itch when it finally goes away and you don’t get the satisfaction of scratching it.”
"Go to sleep Stiles."
And Stiles does. Derek lays awake for a while longer. It feels strange being away from Cora after so long, but she doesn’t need to be here for this. Maybe he’ll go back to her after they’ve dealt with Peter. Or maybe, maybe with Peter gone she can come here…
Derek glances over at the bed, listening to the soft half snores coming from Stiles.
When he left it was what he had to do, and he doesn’t regret it; it was right for them. Maybe now though, maybe now it’s time to come home.