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“What happened?”
She tells him that there was a huge fire and lot of people died, and a lot more were injured.
She tells him that she’s gonna be at work for a while so he can stay and wait till her shift is over or he can bike home as soon as he’s finished.
He says that he’ll wait for her to finish, so that they can go home together. She smiles at him and it’s a small, somewhat sad smile. He’s already too used to seeing it. But he smiles back at her all the same.
“I love you, mom.”
“I love you, too, Scotty.”
He’s done all the duties his supervisor had assigned. He’s coming through the ICU when he sees them. They’re pale and small, the way grief makes people, sometimes. They’re also very young.
A boy and a girl with hollow eyes. They’re staring into a room with someone covered in too many bandages and attached to too many machines. His heart breaks for them.
“Hi. I’m Scott. Do you need anything?”
His voice is an indication of life that they don’t need - he can tell, but he feels like he has to do something, give them something.
Their names are Derek and Laura and they weren’t in the house. He asks if everyone had been accounted for. It’s not his place to ask. It’s not his business, but ask he does, so he knows how many and can attempt to understand what it is they might need - even if it’s just for him to go away.
A look of shock and horror… because —
“Cora! Did they find Cora?”
And the boy is in shock and the girl seems to be shaking uncontrollably, her fists clenched — nails digging into the flesh of her hands, blood falling to the floor.
He goes for the girl holds her shoulders, tells her to look at him. She’s growling and he’s afraid, but he has to try and get her to look. She does and her eyes are a strange glowing red. She stares and stares and her eyes fade to hazel.
He turns Laura quickly to the boy - her brother and she falls on him, soothing sounds coming out of her mouth.
He calls for help, for the Sheriff and begs the man that is like his own father to search the woods for a scared little girl. Laura interrupts and says she’ll go with them. Derek tries, but it cowed by the look in his sister’s eyes. He stays. They both do.
“It’s all my fault.”
“Is that you confessing? No? Then, no it isn’t.”
He sits next to the boy - older than him, taller, wider, hurting - and offers the only comfort he can.
They sit for hours until his mother comes by and he has to watch Derek’s heart break and be punched in the chest by a feeling of shame.
He looks at his mother and then at Derek and an idea forms in his head. He pulls her away to ask her a question.
“Why?”
“Because everyone deserves a safe place, a home to come back to. And I don’t think Scott minds sharing.”
“I don’t know about Laura. I don’t know about anything.”
“Well, that’s pretty par for the course for life, sweetheart. Talk to your sister. It’s just an option.”
“Welcome to casa McCall.”
He holds out his hand as if inviting them into a mansion. And his home has always been big enough for him and now it’ll be a little cramped but it will full like it was intended to be.
He had cleaned every nook and cranny he could when he wasn’t at school. He’d even gotten his best friend to help so that the house could be up to inspection and more importantly, look inviting for it’s new inhabitants.
The three of them are quiet which is to be expected. The memorials had been the previous day, so he doesn’t expect much. So when the youngest, Cora, asks where her room is, he is pleasantly surprised. All of them are, really. It breaks the tension and the air is easier to breath.
————
“So. You all are werewolves?”
“Yes. We were born this way.”
“Okay.”
“Okay?”
“Okay. It would explain a lot of things. Especially the appetites. You haven’t hurt us yet. I doubt you will. Scott loves having you here. Scott loves you and so do I, Laura. You three are our family.”
————
“Scott has a crush on Derek.”
“And…?”
“Just thought you should know.”
“Nice try, but I knew that already.”
“Well, there goes $20. I knew I shouldn’t have bet against, Cora.”
“Never bet against Cora, Stiles. She always wins. Take this as some wisdom from her older sister and loser of several dollars to Cora Hale’s intuition.”
————
“I like you.”
“I know.”
“Okay?”
“Okay.”
————
“Why did you do it, Peter? We were happy! We could have been a family!”
He struggles to get to the boy’s - no, man’s - no, Derek’s side, but the burn in his side is too deep, too painful. His head hurts and blood is dripping into his eyes. He can’t breathe. Everything fades.
When he wakes up, he is uncomfortably warm and there is a man hovering over him shining a light in his eyes. The man is speaking but he can’t understand what’s being said.
A girl his age walks in followed by a young man and a young woman and finally his mother.
They look worried and relieved and the man and woman look guilty.
He smiles at them all tiredly.
“So… When are we going home?”
————
“I love you, you know.”
“I know.”
“Dammit! Now I owe Stiles $10!”
“Cora! Some advice from me to you. No one knows Scott better than Stiles. I’m fairly certain Stiles loves Scott more than Derek and I combined and considering that I’m his mother, that’s saying a lot. All that to say: never bet against Stiles regarding Scott… Ever.”
“I know, just well, he could stop being so self aware.”
“He’s a werewolf.”
“So is Derek, Mama M.”
“Good point. He’s Scott.”
“Yeah, he is.”
————
“Never thought I’d get here.”
“Aren’t you glad you are?”
“Yeah. Yeah, I am.”