Chapter Text
The Sheriff gets out of the patrol car, straightening his belt and giving the house an incredulous look. He needs a second to convince himself not to turn around and leave again before steeling himself and starting to walk toward the door.
“Derek?” he shouts out louder than necessary. He’s learned a few things over the past few weeks that he’s still trying to get used to.
Before he can knock, however, he notices a figure off to the side at the end of the porch, making him wince and reach for his gun. But he stops short when he recognizes who it is.
“Sheriff, “ Derek inclines his head in greeting, arms behind his back and eyes wandering from the sheriff’s face to his gun and back again, not bothering to hide a faint grin.
“The fact that this thing can’t kill you actually just encourages me to use it. So no creeping up on me, understand?” The sheriff’s tone is playful, but didactic, and Derek dinks his head, smiling. ‘Like father like son,’ he thinks, before setting his poker face back in place.
“What can I do for you?”
“Tonight is a full moon. I trust that you’ll have things under control.” The sheriff gets straight to the point, waiting for the only acceptable answer.
“Of course,” Derek replies simply, getting nothing but a stern gaze from the sheriff for a few more moments.
“Good,” the sheriff nods. “Because if there is another ‘animal attack’ I will hold you personally responsible.” He turns to leave, then hesitates, bringing up a hand as if he has more to add. But he opts for another stern look full of warning instead, before returning to his patrol car.
After all he’s seen so far, he really doubts anything will ever really work out as planned, but he decides to play along for the moment and hope for the best. There’s not much he could do otherwise, anyway.
Derek doesn’t miss the concern evident in the older man, but before he can react his attention is diverted by the unmistakable sound of tires on gravel as a familiar blue jeep pulls up between them.
The two men remain still, watching as a pair of far too unconcerned boys emerge from inside.
“Dad?” Stiles shouts in surprise. “What are you doing here?”
“I could ask you the same thing,” he says, laying an arm on top of his own vehicle as he looks straight into his son’s eyes.
“Preparations~ … You know?! The full moon…”
Stiles gestures simply toward Scott, who’s already gotten his bag out of the jeep and is walking toward him, nodding a greeting to his best friend’s father.
“Mm hm … “ He really doesn’t want to know what’s in the bag, and a quick glance to the man in front of the burned down house tells him he’s not alone in that thought.
“Well, I think they can handle it on their own, Stiles. You’re coming with me.”
“What?!” Stiles blurts out immediately. “You can’t be serious! Do you know how many times I’ve saved their little werewolf asses? They will be so dead without-“
“No arguments, Stiles,” the shreiff interrupted. “Get in the car.”
“What about my jeep? I can’t just leave it here.” Stiles adds desperately, as if this would be the one argument that could sway him.
“I’m sure Scott will take care of it. Right, Scott?”
Scott just nods, knowing there’s no use going against the sheriff once he’s made up his mind. The two Stilinskis have that much in common, at least.
Stiles, on the other hand, throws his head back in exasperation, obviously unahppy with this course of events. But he hands over the keys without another word, knowing that the whole werewolf thing is still new to his father and that he’s one strike away from the possibility of military school.
“Not a single scratch, dude!” Stiles pointed emphatically at Scott before walking toward the cruiser, eyeing his father in near disbelief. “You know you can’t protect me from all this, don’t you?”
“Won’t stop me from trying,” the sheriff replies with a smile.
-
Once the patrol car is out of sight, Scott turns and heads toward the rotten porch.
“You can put your bag back in the jeep. You won’t be needing it,” Derek says, stopping Scott in his tracks.
“I’m pretty sure I will. Especially if you lock us up in this house like you said you would. I mean, do you really think that’s safe?” Scott eyes the ruin of the Hale house with barely concealed doubt, truly concerned about Derek’s plan.
“I’m not locking you up inside the house. I’m locking you up under it,” the older wolf clarifies, as if that makes it any better.
“Wait. You’re gonna lock us in the basement? Where your ... you know ... ?!”
Scott cuts himself, realizing that there is no chance to end that sentence in a sensitive way.
Derek already stressed out by the thought process of Scott, just rolls his eyes and sighs.
“Yes, Scott. The basement.” He leaves the porch but stops when he reaches the teen. “I’m going to lock you in a cell. It’s the safest place. You won’t be able to break out from there.” Honestly, Derek isn’t too pleased about the situation either, but considering the last few full moons he figures it’s for the best to give it a try.
Eventually Scott comes to the same realization and stores his bag in Stiles’ jeep without further discussion.
-
This full moon isn’t a rough one.
The other three betas are getting better at controlling their shift and the strong stone walls of the cells take care of the rest.
Derek is still uncomfortable with the thought of using the basement again after everything that happened. But since that’s what the cells were designed for, he figures it’s the best option they’ve got. He knew he should have done this sooner and spared everyone the trouble searching for alternatives, but the one sore spot he really has is his family. Some things just take time.
As he leaves the basement his thoughts drift to his pack. He isn’t surprised that Isaac and Scott were still needing restraints, but he hadn’t expected Boyd to join them. He is still a sensitive subject, one that Derek is still learning to deal with.
Just two weeks earlier the alpha pack had used the newest werewolf as bait. The pack was able to retrieve him, but he barely survived. Boyd chose not to rejoin the pack and Derek didn’t ask him to come back. But he didn’t search for a new pack either, nor did he choose to side with Scott. Derek thought he might just need time to consider all his options and decide which was best for him. What was safest.
So when Boyd showed up on Derek’s doorstep asking for help, trusting his experience on the full moon, he couldn’t say no. It feels good to be needed, to be part of a pack again. He knows he shouldn’t hang everything on a bunch of teenagers, that they are fickle by nature, but it’s in his blood to be part of a pack. And whether they accept him as their alpha or not, he still takes solace in acting the part, keeping them safe and doing whatever it takes to protect them.
Once inside, Derek sits down on the barely functioning couch, the only remaining furniture in the once grand sitting room of the fire-gutted Hale house. He hopes that he might be able to escape his thoughts for a moment and rest, but that’s shattered by the buzzing of his cell phone vibrating, loud in the silence.
He finds it atop a stack of books on top of a charred table in the living room where he had left it when he went downstairs to set up the basement for the betas. He was surprised to see five missed messages and he opened them curiously, wondering who could have sent them.
From: Stiles - 09:23pm
Full moon is smiling brightly. How are things going?
From: Stiles – 09:47pm
Everything okay? Don’t ignore me!
From: Stiles – 09:55pm
I’ll swear by god, if you’re just ignoring me, I’ll kick your little werewolf ass out of town!
One missed call
From: Stiles – 10:03pm
From: Stiles – 10:41pm
Seriously is everything okay? Are they still locked up or are they already killing people?!
Is someone dead? What’s going on? Call me!
From: Derek – 10:42pm
Everything’s fine. Stop texting.
The sound of a twig snapping outside diverts his attention from his phone and he reaches out with all his senses to see what caused it. Then he hears it. The distinct sound of a heart beating. He stands, tensed for a confrontation, but then he catches a familiar scent. Pack? No, not quite. Family. He feels it in his blood. Something he has only felt with Laura in more than half a decade. And more recently, with Peter.
Peter. He still wasn’t able to figure out, what his uncle is up to, but he disappeared at the exact moment, when the alphas were leaving town. Coincidences never existed in Peter’s life, that’s why Derek is so concerned about that fact. He knows there is a plan. Peter always has a plan and whatever it is, it isn’t going to end well.
He steps outside onto the porch, eyes trained on the direction the heartbeat is located. Just a few breaths later he makes out a figure in the woods that definitely isn’t Peter. It’s far too small and frail to be his uncle. The only details he can make out for certain are the glowing blue eyes when they suddenly start coming at him.
Derek growls out a warning into the darkness of the forest, red eyes flashing, in the hopes that the stranger would be smart enough to turn around and never come back. Their scent is all wrong. It smells of family and that pulls at him disconcertingly.
The figure with the blue eyes freezes in place and Derek catches the scent of fear and confusion emanating from them. Their heartbeat races and the blue eyes disappear.
Derek steps off the porch, a few yards closer to the edge of the clearing.
”Who are you?” He speaks calmly, not bothering to raise his voice to shout, knowing they could hear him as if he were standing right beside them. But there is no answer.
Derek sighs, uninterested in playing games. But before he can open his mouth to express that, the figure starts moving again, approaching him carefully, cautiously. Soon they emerge from the shadows of the woods to reveal themselves to be nothing more than a child.
A little girl stands before him, smelling like family, like pack, and he doesn’t understand. That shouldn’t even be possible.
He looks straight into very familiar eyes. The same eyes staring back at him every morning in the mirror. His eyes. His mother’s eyes.
The little girl shuffles closer, unsure, studying him curiously as if trying to gauge whether or not he’s really there. She still projects the same fear and confusion but now it’s tempered with excitement.
Derek studies her in the same manner, trying to understand how this child could possibly be related to him. He doesn’t know how it happened but he’s sure it is a fact. He watches her face, the shape of her brow, her cheekbones, the way the corner of her mouth is tipping up into a faint smile.
His heart skips and there’s a full second where he’s afraid it might not start back up again. He knows that smile. It belongs to the woman who destroyed everything he ever cared about. The woman who broke his heart and burned his family alive. Kate Argent.
There was a time when he would give anything to see that smile, but now the memory of it haunts him, twisting like a knife in his heart. He struggles for control over his torrential emotions until the silence is broken by the child’s shaky voice.
“Are you … my real daddy?”