Chapter Text
Theo Raeken was a constant in Liam’s life. If someone had told him ten years ago that this would be the case he probably would have laughed in their face.. or punched them, depending on his mood, but as time had passed it was something that Liam had accepted. This acceptance should by no means be misconstrued as Liam having positive feelings about Theo’s constant presence.
Theo had changed after hell, he came back feeling guilty about everything that he had done and wanting to be better, and over the past ten years he had been. Liam knew that and he trusted Theo but trusting someone and liking them were not the same thing. Just because he was no longer power hungry and murderous did not mean that he was no longer arrogant, sarcastic, and all around obnoxious with an apparent love of pushing all of Liam’s buttons. Liam could not bring himself to try and like the chimera but for everyone else’s sake he could tolerate him since he always seemed to be around whether Liam wanted him there or not.
Over time things had changed all around Liam but one thing that never seemed to was that Theo was always there. Ever since Liam had brought Theo back from hell he had been there. He had been there to fight with the pack against the hunters and after the older members of the pack had left he had still been around, not there all the time but he always came back to check in. When most of the puppy pack went away for college after graduation and Liam chose to stay and go to school nearby he thought that he would start seeing less and less of The chimera.
Then in a truly surprise twist to everyone involved, Theo became close with Malia. And not just in a let’s be civil casual friends who no longer despise each other way. It seemed like all of a sudden Theo and Malia had become each other’s favorite people, as if overnight they had become laughing at jokes that nobody else understands, attached at the hip, Liam and Mason, Scott and Stiles level of friends. When asked about how it happened or when they even started speaking to one another they would just shrug and laugh, Liam was pretty sure that not even Scott had known how it happened. He supposed it made sense though, with Theo’s desire for power and murder out of the picture, they weren’t all that different and after a while nobody questioned it, it was just something that was a thing now. That realization then led Liam to another one, Theo wasn’t going anywhere.
Scott and Malia were coming back to Beacon Hills after graduation while everyone else was planning on staying in their different parts of the country, not ready to return permanently yet. Liam knew that Beacon Hills was Theo’s permanent residence and that he would only be seeing more of him once Malia and Scott were back for good.
Scott was one of Liam’s best friends, practically his older brother and he couldn’t wait for him to come back, so it was safe to assume that Theo felt the exact same way about Malia’s return. So it was around this time that Liam had decided to accept that Theo would be there.
And he was.
He was there with Liam to welcome Scott and Malia back to Beacon Hills and to give them a bottle of wolfsbane laced whiskey, leading to a loud and blurry night for all four of them. He was there to tell them when he got hired as an assistant at a local television station, and Liam had been dragged out to celebrate.
He had unfortunately, been there during a very pitiful attempt on Malia’s part to set Liam and Theo up on a date. Needless to say it did not go well. That still did not seem to be enough to rid Theo from Liam’s life.
He was there at pack gatherings when everyone was in town. He was there to celebrate when Monroe had been caught and arrested.
He was there at Liam’s college graduation, next to Scott and Malia and he was there at the graduation party getting drunk with Malia, to the surprise of absolutely no one.
He was there to throw a welcome home party for Mason and Corey when they decided to return after graduating from college, it seemed that Theo had formed a friendship with Corey somewhere along the way as well. He was there on random weekends when they decided to go out to a bar or a club as a group, though he never seemed to be there for long on those nights, always finding some new guy to go home with for the night.
He was there when Liam got his first teaching job in the history department at Beacon Hills High School and Malia had insisted that the only proper way to acknowledge that he was willingly stepping foot back in that place was to take him out and essentially pour shots down his throat.
He was there at Malia and Scott’s wedding right next to Malia as her maid of honor because “screw traditional gender roles, I pick Theo.” Liam was also standing up at the altar, right beside Stiles because “I don’t care if you see him more now, Liam, I called dibs on best man when we were 10.” He was there to once again get drunk with Malia at the reception because “who gives a shit about keeping it classy, Malia? You’re the bride. You can do what you want.”
He was there in the waiting room of the hospital when Malia went into labor. He was next to Liam in the hospital room when Malia held the little girl in her arms and announced, “this is Allison,” and even though most of the people in the room had not actually ever met the girl’s namesake, everyone teared up, knowing just how much that name meant.
He was there last month at Allie’s first birthday party, with what Liam was pretty sure was everyone that they had ever met in attendance. Liam couldn’t even say that he disagreed with Theo when he told Malia that it was, “excessive as hell. She’s not even going to remember this. Save your money for when she has actual opinions on things.” Liam also couldn’t say that he was surprised when Malia responded with “you honestly think this was my idea? This was all Scott.”
He was there a week ago, on the worst day of Liam’s life.
Liam had volunteered to watch Allie while they went on date. It had been way too long since they’d had any time to themselves and he had told them to stay out as late as they wanted and that he had it handled. What he had not expected was for his phone to ring around 8pm with a call from his father telling him in a serious voice that he needed to get to the hospital. He put Allie in her car seat and drove to the hospital, trying to think of any not completely horrible explanations for why he was needed there. It wasn’t until he walked through the door and saw his dad waiting for him with tears in his eyes that his last shred of hope left him completely.
There had been a car accident.
Scott and Malia had survived countless horrors. There had been a dead pool, and Dread Doctors, and the Wild Hunt, and hunters and the Anuk-ite and they had survived it all. But as soon as there was a deer in the road and Scott swerved to miss it they couldn’t survive wrapping their car around a tree, they had died on impact.
Liam couldn’t believe what he was hearing, it didn’t feel real. He wanted to tell the doctors they were wrong, and scream, and cry, and punch something, and curl up in the fetal position. But none of that would fix anything. The only thing that he knew that he needed to do in that moment was call Theo.
And Theo was there.
He rushed through the doors, tears already forming in his eyes. Liam hadn’t been able to speak enough to give him the full story on the phone, but he knew that his own tear stained mess of an appearance confirmed all of Theo’s fears. He was in front of Liam instantly, strong arms wrapping around the beta as they both sobbed in the middle of a hospital hallway.
He kept holding Liam as Liam felt a burning in his eyes and a shift of power within him. He knew what it meant, next time he flashed his eyes they would be red. He couldn’t even think about that right now. He cried harder.
Melissa had moved away from Beacon Hills a few years back to travel with Argent and was not currently in town so when the question of who should temporarily watch Allie came up and Liam volunteered, Theo was there again, offering to help. Not wanting to yank Allie out of her usual surroundings Liam and Theo offered to stay at Scott and Malia’s house with her until everyone was back in town and more permanent arrangements could be made.
All week, Theo had been there.
And he was here now with Liam and all of their other friends currently trying their best not to fall apart, as they were surrounded by grieving people all dressed in black, having just come from the funeral.
“I hate this,” Theo said under his breath coming to a stop next to Liam and gently taking Allie from his arms for no real reason other than to hold her close. Liam could barely nod in response so Theo just continued talking as he began to sway side to side with the baby, “she would’ve hated this too, wouldn’t have stopped complaining about how everybody’s depressing chemosignals were suffocating her,” at that Liam cracked a barely there smile.
“I keep hearing all these people that I swear I have never seen in my life talking about how the service was beautiful and it’s sad but they’re in a better place now and I just want to scream,” Liam finally decided to speak. “The service was excruciatingly painful and who gives a fuck- sorry uh who gives a darn-” he quickly tried to correct due to the one year old in their company, “-if it was beautiful, they’re still dead and all this better place bull shit-“ censoring for baby ears was hard, “-is crap. They didn’t want to be in a better place. They wanted to be here with their daughter, so that they could see her grow past one fucking year old. They wanted to be with the pack- they wanted to be with us,” Liam took a deep breath as he finally finished his rant.
This time Theo nodded his agreement, knowing that saying something else would not change anything. At that moment Melissa and Derek walked up to them, Melissa immediately reaching out for her grandchild, giving them a small, sad smile.
“Guys, do you mind if I talk to you in private?” Derek asked them. They looked at each other, confused before looking back to Derek and nodding.
Once they were alone in one of the rooms Derek turned to them, “so a while back Scott and Malia asked me to help them with their will in case anything ever happened,” Derek began. Liam just nodded, not at all surprised that Derek was somehow qualified to help with something like that.
“Did they ever talk to you about what would happen with Allison if they died?” Derek asked bluntly.
Liam looked at Theo who just shook his head and turned back to Derek and answered, “um no, I guess I thought Melissa would take her.”
“Yeah, I would have thought so too but-“ Derek seemed nervous as he continued, “they named you two as the rightful legal guardians of Allie.”
Liam couldn’t breathe.
“Wait I’m sorry? Did you say us?” Liam finally managed to speak.
“Like us together?” Theo added on, his eyebrows were practically in his hair line at this point, he looked as shocked as Liam felt.
Derek sighed and nodded.
“But- why?” Liam couldn’t help but ask. Before Allie was born Liam had zero experience with babies and he knew that Theo’s situation was similar. Scott and Malia had known that. Scott and Malia had also known how Liam and Theo felt about each other. They knew that the only reason the boys really spent time together was because of them so why on earth did this feel like a good idea to them?
“They wanted to raise her in Beacon Hills, they know it’s had its problems but it was their home. They also knew that not everyone would be so eager to come back. They didn’t want anybody else to have to come back here but it wasn’t just that. Other than Scott and Malia you two were the two most constant people in Allie’s life and you were also two of the most important people in theirs. They really thought this out. They even left you the house if you decide to do this” Derek finally finished.
“Wait- decide?” Liam asked
“Yes decide. Of course you do not have to do this if you don’t want to. Melissa will be more than willing to take her if you don’t want to.”
“So Melissa knows about this?” Theo asked.
“She does. Scott actually mentioned it to her when they first made the decision and she respects it but she will also understand if you feel like you can’t do this. You can say no.”
A part of Liam was tempted to do exactly that. He loved Allie and he had spent a lot of time with her but raising her was something completely different. Melissa would do an amazing job of raising Allie, Liam knew that with certainty. But he was their first choice, well- him and Theo, which really was something that he wanted to dissect but right now all he could think was that Scott wanted this, Scott thought that he could do this. He was almost positive that Theo would not want to raise a baby, especially with him, but that would be ok. He could do this, before he even realized it, he had his mind made up. He opened his mouth without thinking any further.
“I’ll do it.” If he thought that he was shocked to hear his own voice agreeing to raise a baby, he couldn’t even begin to describe his level of surprise when he heard Theo speak.
“Me too.”
“Wait really?” He asked, trying to hide the surprise in his voice.
“Yeah. It’s possible that even in death she’s still trying to fuck with me but either way this is what she wanted. Allie was the most important thing in her life and she trusted us with her, but she wanted both of us. If you’re in I’m in” Theo stated.
“Ok, um, obviously you’ll have to meet with people to get all of the legal stuff figured out and I think there will be a trial basis where a social worker comes to do check ins before officially naming you her permanent guardians but if you all are sure about this then uh... congratulations I guess?” Derek was doing very little to hide how skeptical he clearly was about this whole situation and Liam honestly could not blame him.
He looked over to Theo who now looked just as terrified as he felt about what they had just agreed to and in that moment he couldn’t help but think that maybe Theo being a constant in his life wasn’t such a bad thing.
Maybe they could do this.