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Step by Step, We'll Get There	By : Sasunarufan13 Category: S through Z > Teen Wolf Views: 4674 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I don't own Teen Wolf nor profit of it. Jeff Davis owns it.

Chapter List
- 24
- 25
- 26
Author's note: It's definitely longer than last time LOL I'm working with a small time skip in this one, because it felt better that way. At the same time I don't want to rush anything, so I hope that this chapter doesn't feel like that!
Warnings: Discussion about Kate and mentions of people being shot; a little bit of angst, not that much. Think that's everything for now.
I hope you'll like this chapter!
Chapter 25
"What are you saying?" His mouth felt oddly dry and he absurdly wished he hadn't finished his bottle of cola half an hour ago. "That Theo's … dead?"
The idea alone seemed so absurd his mind had trouble computing it. The man who'd killed several people, who'd tried to get rid of both Cora and Stiles and who had managed to escape both the Hales and the Nemeton – he was dead now? Just like that?
"We don't know for sure yet." Dad shook his head. "They'll first need to conduct a bunch of tests to find out who exactly they're dealing with, but they believe there is a chance it's Raeken, seeing as the car was registered on his name and witnesses had seen him driving around the neighbourhood with it a few hours before the call about the car on fire came in."
"When will you know who it is exactly?" Scott asked; his eyebrows furrowed.
Dad shrugged and sighed. "Depends on how fast the lab and such can work. I was told that around this time of the year they tend to be pretty busy, so there's a chance we'll only know for sure in January. They asked me to go to Oakdale tomorrow to discuss the case in more detail."
He shuffled with his feet and grimaced. "I want you to stay here, Stiles, when I'm gone. As long as we don't know for sure Raeken is really dead, it's best if you stay in Beacon Hills, just to be safe."
Stiles jerked his head down in a nod. "Yeah, no, that makes sense. Not like I want to see a burnt corpse anyway." His laugh was brittle and a tad jittery; his stomach doing several nauseating flips.
Suddenly the memory of the victim who'd been burnt to death rose up in his mind and he clenched his mouth shut, swallowing back the bile that threatened to escape. No, he definitely didn't want to join his dad on this particular trip.
Dad came over and squeezed his shoulder, his gaze soft. "Try not to think too much about it, all right?" He hesitated. "You'll be okay for a few hours? I need to go down to the precinct and tell the deputies what the sheriff of Oakdale found. Probably best if I gather all the files about Raeken too just in case."
Stiles forced himself to smile and bump dad's shoulder with his fist. "Yeah, dad, don't worry about me. I'll be fine. Scott's with me anyway."
"I'll be back as soon as possible," Dad promised and left with a grim face.
A couple of minutes later the cruiser rumbled to life and disappeared down the street. Two houses further Mrs. Jones could be heard yelling for her cat Tom to return home for his dinner.
"You okay, man?" Scott asked, staring at him worriedly.
Stiles stared at the controller in his lap and absently pressed down on a button. "I don't know," he eventually settled on.
He really didn't know.
"I don't know how to feel about it," he muttered later that night in the comfort of Derek's arms.
The older man had shown up right before dinner when Scott had just been about to leave to meet up with his mom in the hospital. He'd heard from Talia what had happened and had left straight away for the Stilinski home. Dad had arrived at roughly the same time and after they had shared dinner in the form of spaghetti with meatballs – sue him for feeling too out of sorts to make something more complicated than that – dad hadn't even reacted when Derek had followed Stiles upstairs, merely calling out a goodnight to the both of them.
Not that technically dad could protest with Stiles being eighteen and all that, but still, it was appreciated that he hadn't made any remarks about it nor had kicked Derek out. Or maybe Stiles looked just as shitty as he felt and dad figured nothing remotely in the area of sexy times was going to happen anyway.
Unfortunately he was right about that. They were spooning on the bed, with Stiles being the little spoon – and a very comfortable one at that – but that was about as intimate as they would become this evening.
Absently tracing Derek's fingers, Stiles went on, "Like, on one hand I'm so incredibly relieved that that son of a bitch might actually be dead, but then again, I shouldn't be so happy about that, right? I mean, he's still a human being, so … It feels wrong to be happy about someone being possibly dead."
It had been a miracle that he'd managed to eat half of his plate tonight with how knotted his stomach had felt. Ever since being told the news, he didn't know how to react. There was relief that perhaps he could finally stop looking behind his shoulder every time he went outside, happiness that the nightmare might finally be over at last, but …
It was wrong to be happy about that, wasn't it? It wasn't right to feel happy that somebody had died.
Derek's warm breath stirred the hairs in his neck when he murmured, "Do you know why I left Beacon Hills for several years after my first Run?"
The younger man paused, resting his fingers in the palm of Derek's hand. "I don't know the details," he said slowly, "but I know my dad was called to your house, because you had a problem with the woman you'd ended up with after the Run. That's all I know. That the trouble was bad enough for you to leave Beacon Hills suddenly."
It had been quite the talk of the town when the only son of the mayor had upped and left seemingly in the middle of the night, but only the people's respect for Talia as their mayor had kept them from really gossiping about it.
Derek snorted and his arm underneath the Omega curled up to close around his hip. "I guess that's one way to put it, yeah," he said wryly and released a soft sigh. "Her name was Kate Argent and while she was several years older than me, she seemed fun when she approached me a month before the Run. We met at that café in Main Street and we started talking about the book I'd been reading back then. She was … beautiful and I was … flattered that she only paid attention to me when there were other guys desperate to get her to look at them."
For some reason Stiles' stomach did several uncomfortable flips. He thought it was because of jealousy at first, even though he knew there was nothing to be jealous about, but as he listened to Derek talk, he realised he felt uncomfortable because of how creepy this Kate person sounded.
"She was the one who found me in the woods during the Run and I … didn't see a reason to refuse, even though a part of me thought it was weird she'd gone after me when she didn't know me that well. She was beautiful and funny and interested in me and I thought, well, it's only six months. What harm could six months do?"
A lot, Stiles knew from experience. A lot of bad things could happen in six months. In less than that even.
"And for the first couple of months everything seemed okay. We went on dates, started to get to know each other and then …" Derek fell silent; his whole body tensing up.
Immediately Stiles twisted around in his hold, worried. "You don't have to keep talking about her if you don't want to," he murmured, sliding his hand around the back of Derek's neck. For a moment he thought he'd made a mistake when that made the wolf tense up even further, but then he shuddered and the Omega felt him relax slightly.
Derek shook his head. "No, I need to tell you this. It's just … I haven't talked about this since I left Beacon Hills."
"Take your time; I'm here," Stiles said quietly and rubbed soothing circles with his thumb in Derek's neck, throwing his leg over his.
Hazel coloured eyes gained a distant look when Derek continued after a while, "Turned out I should have trusted my instincts after all, because the Kate I knew wasn't the real Kate. The Kate I knew was interested in me for me. The real Kate was interested in something entirely else."
"What was it?" It started raining outside, which somehow seemed fitting for the mood descending over them.
Derek's smile was bitter when he answered, "Money. She'd found out that I had inherited a large sum upon turning eighteen as stipulated by my great uncle's will."
"She tried to steal your money?" Stiles asked appalled.
Derek's dark chuckle sent shivers down his spine. "Oh no, she saw it much bigger than that. She wanted the entire Hale vault."
"How was she planning on getting that? I mean, it's not like your parents would have just given up the money." He didn't know how loaded the Hales exactly were, but given the professions they practiced, he imagined their bank accounts had several digits in them.
"She wanted to kill us all by burning us alive." Derek sounded so calm, so affably, as if he hadn't just said something horrific.
"She planned to kill you by burning you alive?" Stiles breathed out horrified, gaping at the other man. Holy shit, what had been wrong with that bitch?
"Yeah, she had it all planned out perfectly," Derek said grimly; his arm tightening around the younger man. "She waited until an evening when she knew we would all be at home and then used gloves to make a circle of Wolfsbane around the house so we couldn't escape once the fire started. She'd even made a fake will in which basically all of our assets would have gone to her after our deaths."
"What the fuck was wrong with her?" Stiles spluttered, his hand pausing in Derek's neck. "How could she just decide to burn you all alive for some money?"
What kind of evil bitch did one have to be to want to murder an entire family just to get their hands on some money? What made it even more disgusting was the fact that she'd played with Derek's feelings to get into the position to try to kill the Hales. She'd preyed on a young man and then had tried to kill his entire family.
He hoped she would burn in hell for that.
No wonder his dad had looked so grim and out of sorts when he'd finally returned home after that night.
"She wanted an easy life apparently," Derek replied quietly. "She hadn't counted on Uncle Peter showing up later than usual, though. He caught her in the middle of spreading Wolfsbane and attacked her. If mom hadn't stopped him, he would have torn her throat out."
Stiles couldn't say he blamed Peter for wanting to do that. He didn't think he would have been able to stop himself if he had caught someone wanting to kill his dad.
"After Uncle Peter and Laura had subdued her, mom called your dad and while he was handling everything, I told my parents I couldn't stay in Beacon Hills anymore. Not after I nearly got my family killed because I'd refused to listen to my instincts."
Stiles shot up and glared at Derek, who looked back startled. "None of that was your fault, Derek! She's the creepy psycho who went after you for your family's money; the only one to blame for what happened is that bitch! You did nothing wrong!"
Oddly that made Derek smile and he sat up as well, cupping Stiles' left cheek. "That's what Laura screamed at me too when she found out I was leaving town."
"I've always thought she's very smart," Stiles muttered and placed his hand on top of Derek's, staring at him imploringly. "I mean it, Derek. Nothing that happened that night was your fault. It's that psycho's fault for being so greedy. You're innocent."
"Some days that's easier to believe than other days," Derek muttered, twisting his hand around to tangle their fingers together. He lowered their hands between them on the bed, staring at them.
Stiles guessed that that was true for Derek, even though everyone else knew without a doubt that he couldn't be blamed for how psychopathic that Kate bitch had turned out to be. His experience was just another reason why the Run was outdated as shit and had to be wiped out of existence – or at least made into a voluntarily basis instead of the obligatory one it was now. He suspected a lot of shit could be prevented if people no longer were forced to attend the Run and risk encountering creeps.
They were silent for a while, the rain outside kicking up a notch and hitting the window loudly, before Stiles' morbid curiosity became too hard to ignore and he asked, "What happened to her after that?"
Derek blinked, looking a bit startled as if he'd fallen into some sort of daze and Stiles' voice had jarred him out of it. "She got put behind bars. Uncle Peter was quite disappointed about that," he snorted softly. "Her trial was set to start eight months after that, but she tried to escape a week before she would be brought to court. She managed to get a hold on a gun and threatened a couple of security officers."
Stiles started to get a feeling where this was heading to, why Derek had chosen to share this story with him tonight, and he ended up being right.
"When she fired a shot at one of them, they all fired their guns at her." Derek paused, his fingers spasming around Stiles'. His voice was a bit rough when he continued, "They brought her to the hospital, but she died on the way there. They called my mom to tell her the news and then she called me."
He raised his head to look at the younger man and sighed softly. "I remember that night very clearly, because I'd just fallen asleep after finally finishing a long paper and then at three o'clock, my mom rang me and told me Kate had died. And for the first few hours, I just sat there in my bed, trying to figure out how I should react to that. My first reaction was being relieved, because her being dead meant she could never hurt my family again. She might not have got that trial, but she was gone either way and would never bother us again. Then I started thinking I couldn't feel relieved about the death of someone else, no matter how much I despised them." He shrugged and pressed his lips tightly together.
"I struggled with how I was supposed to feel for weeks, thinking it was wrong of me to feel relief and then Laura visited me and you know what she said?"
Stiles shook his head silently.
"She said I could feel whatever the hell I wanted, and that I wasn't obligated to feel sorry for that 'fucking bitch', because she'd got what she'd deserved," Derek replied and there was a faint smile lingering around his mouth. "And she followed that up with the promise to beat me up if I ever felt guilty again for being relieved."
"That sounds like Laura, all right," Stiles snickered, but sobered up quickly. "I know why you're telling me this, I get it, but … I still feel like an awful person for being happy about this if it's indeed Theo who died. It makes me feel like … I'm evil." He shrugged uncomfortably.
A startled noise escaped him when Derek swiftly pulled him into his arms and Stiles ended up straddling him just to make the position a bit more comfortable. One hand resting on the small of his back, the other went up to cup his neck, squeezing it softly.
"You could never be an evil person, Stiles. You don't have that in you," Derek told him and brushed their mouths together in a sweet, barely there kiss. "I know a bit of what you're going through now, and I know from my own personal experience that just because everyone tells you it's fine to feel relieved and happy, that that doesn't mean you stop feeling guilty about it. They're right, though. Whatever you feel, relieved or happy or just nothing, it's fine. I can tell you this, though: you've got nothing to feel guilty about."
"I just want this nightmare to finally be over," Stiles muttered and rested his head on a strong shoulder.
"Yeah, me too." Arms slipped around him, embracing him.
He could only hope the examiner would finish his work quickly, so that he could finally put this whole shitfest behind him.
Dad returned home the following day late in the evening with the Oakdale Sheriff's promise that he would be notified immediately once the results of the autopsy were in.
There wasn't much else they could do after that, so Stiles just focused on his online classes and his visits to the Nemeton, making certain to spend time with Scott and Derek as well, now that at least the meditation part was over.
With Christmas creeping up steadily, the weather changed from rainy to very cold, icy winds cutting their skin whenever they ventured outside. The weather report promised a snowy Christmas and Stiles prayed his jeep would survive the snow if it came to that. Roscoe was already quite temperamental on a normal weather day; he didn't want to find out just how bad she could become if snow was added on top of that.
Still, even with the worry about his jeep and the whole mess with Theo lingering in the back of his mind, it was hard to ignore the holiday cheer decorating the entire town. All kinds of Christmas decorations glittered and shone and gleamed in the centre of the town and in the front yards of houses. The colours red, green and golden nearly blinded you wherever you looked and one just had to set one foot inside a store to hear Christmas music blaring through the speakers.
Stiles blamed the whole situation with the Nemeton and the possible death of Theo for why he'd procrastinated for so long to buy his Christmas presents. Being bumped and pushed and forced to stand in long queues to pay for the gifts was a very painful reminder why all those years before he'd made sure to buy the goods at least a month before Christmas started – especially because this year he had significantly more presents to purchase.
Well, he supposed he could start that habit again next year.
Hey, that could be his New Year's resolution! That was at least a more reasonable resolution than that one year he'd promised he would go on long runs in his human form four times a week or that one year he'd sworn he would get rid of his Reese's peanut butter cups addiction. That particular resolution had lasted an impressive three weeks before he'd caved.
Whatever, those cups were amazing. Who could blame him for breaking that resolution?
Either way, his resolution for next year would be to stop procrastinating to buy gifts and he was going to nail that one!
Normally.
Should be doable.
Now, though, he still needed to find a gift for Lydia before she would rip his head off with her perfectly manicured nails for not getting her anything. He loved that girl – in a completely platonic way now, of course – but man, if she still didn't scare the shit out of him sometimes.
"Cora made it quite clear that she's not planning on driving my car back in this weather and if I ever dare to suggest such a stupid idea again, she's going to rip off my balls and make me eat them," Derek said flatly, walking into the living room where he dropped his phone on the table.
"What did you do to piss her off that badly?" Stiles raised an eyebrow, turning away from the large window through which he'd been staring at the snowy blanket which only grew thicker and thicker with each hour that passed.
It had started snowing twenty minutes after he'd arrived at Derek's apartment and it didn't look like it would stop any time soon. The temperature had also dropped below freezing for the first time this winter, meaning the snow wouldn't melt away any time soon either. Two days before Christmas, it looked like the weather report would be right after all when they'd predicted snow.
On top of that, Stiles' jeep refused to start no matter what he or Derek tried. It wasn't even outside; it was parked in the garage of the building, but apparently the cold was enough for Roscoe to give up completely. At most they had got some kind of weird grinding noise out of it before they had both given up on trying to start the jeep.
Derek had suggested driving him home in the Camaro, but Cora had borrowed that car today because her own car was in the shop. Considering evening had already fallen, Derek had thought Cora would be finished with everything she had needed the car for and had called her to ask to drive the Camaro back.
No dice apparently.
Derek scowled and dropped down on the couch. "I didn't do anything, don't know why she's so pissed off, considering it's my car," he grumbled. "Guess Laura pissed her off again and she's acting it out on me."
"So I guess I better call my dad then and tell him not to expect me home tonight," Stiles said lightly, fishing for his phone in pocket.
Dad had taken the night shift today so he could take Christmas off, so at least he wouldn't come home to an empty house tonight.
"Stiles, please tell me you didn't crash your jeep because of the snow," Dad greeted him with a groan.
Stiles paused, staring blankly at the window. "You got a couple of calls like that already?"
"Yes, apparently people don't understand the notion of driving carefully in bad weather," Dad growled annoyed.
"Well, you'll be happy to hear that no, I didn't crash the jeep," Stiles said cheerfully and from his peripheral vision, he noticed Derek turning his head to look at him. "Roscoe, however, won't start and Cora refuses to drive the Camaro back, so do you mind if I stay at Derek's apartment tonight?"
Dad let out a long, gusty sigh. "I don't really have much of a choice than to agree, do I? The roads are horrible tonight, so it's best to stay where you are. Call me in the morning if your jeep still doesn't start and Derek doesn't have his car back; I'll come pick you up then."
"Will do, thanks," Stiles smiled and wandered away from the window, sinking down next to Derek on the couch. "Be safe tonight."
"Always. You too."
They said their goodbyes before they hung up and Stiles dropped his phone on the table as well, stretching out his legs. "You want to watch a movie before we go to sleep?" he suggested, grabbing the remote before snuggling into Derek's side.
They'd had dinner two hours ago before they had attempted to start his jeep, but it was still too early in Stiles' opinion to go to sleep. Who went to sleep at eight o'clock? Aside from old or sick people anyway.
"Fine with me." Derek shrugged and rested one arm around his shoulder. "Your dad has the night shift today?"
Stiles hummed in confirmation. "Yeah, so he can have Christmas day off. You're sure your mom won't mind us having over? Scott and his mom are thinking of tagging along as well."
"Nah, the more the merrier, she'd say," Derek replied dryly. "Kira not coming?"
"No, apparently her parents insist on celebrating Christmas between the three of them only."
"Bet that didn't make Scott happy," Derek snorted; his thumb rubbing circles in the Omega's shoulder.
"He's been sulking about it all week," Stiles smiled wryly.
He felt sorry for his best friend, especially because Stiles himself would be able to spend Christmas with his mate, but at least the Yukimuras had agreed to have Scott over on Christmas Eve.
They finally settled on watching some movie that dealt with a mafia clan and it was a particular scene in that movie that sparked Stiles' memory of the conversation he'd had with Peter when he'd been placing the wards.
He and Derek had ended up shifting positions on the couch with Stiles ending up lying against Derek's chest between his legs with his head against a very firm stomach – it was seriously so unfair how firm those muscles were – so he had to tilt his head backwards in order to look at the older man.
"Hey Derek, do you know how it's decided who becomes a Left Hand in your family?"
It took a couple of seconds before Derek tore his gaze away from the television – he'd become quite absorbed by it – and he looked down quizzically at him.
"Where did that question come from?"
Haphazardly, Stiles waved his hand at the television. "Oh you know, I had a conversation with Peter about that back when I was placing the wards and I wanted to know why he was following me around like a creepy stalker," Derek choked, "and he ended up basically admitting he's the Left Hand in your family and that's why he was following me, because he needed to know where the wards are. Watching this movie got me thinking about that again, so how does that get decided? Like is it a title that gets handed down from father to son or so? Or do you need to undergo some kind of exam?"
Derek blinked. "Uncle Peter is the Left Hand, yes, but I don't know how that gets decided. It's a secret only the Left Hand and its successor know about. Why don't you ask Uncle Peter about it?"
"I did," Stiles pouted. "And he said it was a story for another day. Can't find anything useful on the internet either."
"I doubt you will, considering it's a tradition not many families practice anymore," Derek murmured and linked his hands on top of Stiles' stomach. "If you really want to know, you'll have to ask Uncle Peter; I'm sure he'll be delighted to display all his knowledge about it if you ask him nicely."
"If he didn't want to tell me back then, what makes you think he'll tell me about it now?"
"Because if there's one thing my uncle loves, it's being the centre of attention and showing off just how smart he is," Derek snorted. "If you play your cards right and play nice, he'll tell you."
"Why would he tell me that, though? You just said it's a secret only the Left Hand and the successor know," Stiles pointed out and poked Derek's left hand.
Hazel eyes rolled. "Because believe it or not, my uncle's actually rather fond of you and if he already admitted to you that he's the Left Hand, then he won't make an issue about giving you more information about it. He just likes to string people along, that's all."
"I'm not sure whether Peter being fond of me is a good thing," Stiles mumbled pensively.
"It is, if you want answers from him," Derek retorted. "He's not that bad once you get to know him better."
"I beg to differ," Stiles muttered, but quietened down to watch the rest of the movie. He'd figure out later whether he'd go bother Peter for more information.
They ended up watching the first half of an old Christmas movie before Stiles grew too restless and they instead moved to the bedroom.
The snow was still falling gently down from the sky, creating a thick blanket on the windowsill and Stiles watched the tiny snowflakes join the rest while Derek went about turning off the lights and closing doors to keep the warmth inside.
Stiles turned his attention to Derek when he walked into the bedroom and blinked when the light was shut off, blanketing them in darkness, except for the window. The curtains weren't drawn yet, but Derek made quick work of those before getting into the bed with Stiles; the sheets rustling as he settled underneath them.
"Hi," Stiles grinned, shuffling closer.
"Hi," Derek smiled back, his hands wandering over Stiles' thighs before they settled like hot brands on his waist underneath his shirt.
The impromptu sleepover had left him with no other choice than to wear a shirt and some sweatpants from Derek and judging by the soft growls and the incessant nuzzling in his neck Derek subjected him to, the older man didn't seem to mind it that he was borrowing his clothes.
In fact, quite the opposite it seemed, when Stiles pressed himself closer and closer against Derek until he ended up straddling him; their hips bumping against each other. Hard heat pushed back against him and Stiles nipped at Derek's lower lip, rolling his hips leisurely against Derek's.
Derek's fingers tightened around Stiles' waist, digging into the skin slightly, and Derek caught his mouth in a deep kiss, forgoing the teasing nips and licks. His shirt rucked up a bit when Derek's hands wandered higher, travelling curiously over soft skin. Stiles' own hands weren't idle either, slipping underneath Derek's own shirt and touching warm skin. He shivered when Derek pulled him even closer, their bare stomachs touching, and sighed when a tongue slipped between his lips to curl playfully around his own.
Perhaps it was the somewhat romantic setting of being in a bedroom with his boyfriend while outside the snow covered everything in a pristine white blanket, the stars twinkling above in the midnight black sky. Maybe it was the warmth rapidly pooling in the pit of his stomach, the caressing and touching and kissing which messed with his brain functions.
Maybe it was because he wanted to feel more, wanted to completely surround himself with Derek. Derek's scent, Derek's body, Derek's touch, Derek's kisses …
Head spinning from the deep kiss, he pulled back with a gasp and catching shimmering hazel eyes, he murmured, "I want to have sex with you."
The air between them changed instantly.
AN2: Yeah, I did end it there. Felt like being a tad evil I suppose *shrugs* That said, I hope this didn't come across as rushed! You'll find out more soon about Theo's possible demise - maybe in the next chapter already, depending on how long that one becomes *hums*
Please leave your thoughts behind in a review; should you spot any mistakes, please point them out to me.
I hope to see you all back in the next chapter!
Cuddles
Melissa
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