impetere | spamalot } { hey it's good to be back home again

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spamalot } { hey it's good to be back home again

Cora: So you're saying he's not really going to be able to figure that out until we figure out where we stand?

Derek: I think he doesn't know what he wants right now beyond keeping that little girl safe. He needs to get that first before he's probably going to even think about himself.

Cora: [sighs softly] I'll do whatever he wants me to ...

Lydia: No. You aren't listening. As the resident crazy person, I'm making an executive decision. [she huffs and leans back against the seat] We're staying with your mother. And you and Stiles can deal with this like the theoretical adults that you are.

Derek: Thank you for being a voice of reason, Lydia. [looking at her in the rear view] And you're not a crazy person.

Cora: [is making a face but doesn't argue]

Lydia: You're not the one who had a mental breakdown and needed to leave Boston.

Derek: No, but at least you didn't a near death experience that drove you across the country for your own safety.

Lydia: That's self-preservation, not insanity. I had a screaming fit and was hearing voices in the middle of the commons.

Derek: Did they are least tell you how pretty you look today? [trying to make her feel a bit better]

Lydia: [a small smile at that, before turning her eyes out to the window] Well, it's certainly intersting to be home.

Derek: It's nice to have you home. [looks at his sister] You too, pup.

Cora: [glances back at him with a small smile] Any other surprises I should know about?

Derek: His daughter doesn't know what we are yet. But she's only three.

Cora: [she nods] So ex-nay on the erewolf-way.

Derek: Pretty much. [thinks] Oh, and Peter is Malia and Isaac's pet dog. [such a smirk]

Cora: [a sharp laugh] And he let her?

Derek: He was in coyote form at the time, and Dina is three. Pretty sure he didn't have a choice in the matter.

Cora: [she laughs harder] Poor Peter.

Derek: Dina and Ryan fell asleep on him. Mom has pictures. He couldn't shift out for almost two days [is laughing too hard]

Cora: [is laughing so hard she can't breathe] I'm sure he was very happy with that.

Derek: I think he secretly was, but we didn't see him for a day after.

Cora: Are he and Nadia still ... ?

Derek: I don't think Nadia's going to leave him because he became a pet for 48 hours.

Cora: No, but I think he might have been in it for the belly rubs.

Derek: [nope, back to laughing too hard]

Cora: [grins as her eyes turn back to the window again. She's missed this, being home with her family. It's good to be back]

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"At first she managed to fight them off. Most of them weren't very smart. They didn't think about what going up against a superhero princess would mean. It was peaceful in the kingdom for a long time, until an evil king decided that he was going to take the sword for himself, but instead of just fighting her one on one, he teamed up with an evil wizard, who cast a spell over the entire kingdom, making everyone very sick. He told the princess that unless she gave him her magical sword, all of the sick people in her kingdom would die in one week."

"For a week, she tried every spell she could think of, because she knew that giving the sword to the evil king would end very badly, but in the end she couldn't find a cure. She knew that she had to protect her people no matter what, so she did the only thing she could do. She brought the king her magical sword and made sure he lifted the curse."

"But that... she can't give it up... the monsters..." Dina closed her eyes, falling asleep slowly.

Stiles smiled to himself, his head against the door frame. There was a stab of pain, knowing this was the kind of mother Dina deserved. This was the family he should have had. And he couldn't interrupt, because he also wanted to hear the end of the story and just give his daughter that moment.

"Ah, but the princess knew something that the evil king didn't. She knew that it wasn't the weapon that made her powerful and strong - it was her love for her people. The sword just let her get rid of the monsters faster - everything that made her special, that made her a hero? Was right here."

She taps her finger gently against Dina's chest, right where her heart should be.

"She also knew that she would always have her friends and the people that she loved to help her when she needed it most, and they did. As soon as the spell was broken, the people of the kingdom came to her aid to help her fight the evil king. The king, thinking he had won, tried to fight them off with his new weapon, not realizing that a weapon, no matter how magical, is only as strong as the person who holds it. They over took him quickly, got the princess her sword back, and ran the evil king all the way to the edge of their lands, never to be seen again."

When Dina didn't respond to the end of the story, Stiles knew she was asleep and he opened the door slowly and slipped back in. "And they lived happily ever after," he said softly, tossing his dirty clothes in the laundry basket. "She, uh, she usually ends all my stories with that."

She glances over at him with a small smile, trying not too move too much so that she doesn't wake her. She knows she'll have to head back to her own room eventually, but for right now she's just going to stay put until she's sure Dina's really asleep.

"You probably tell better ones than that."

Cora isn't exactly the creative one of the family. Stories on the fly aren't really her thing, but sometimes she can make it work.

"I just retell her fairy tales but make the main hero a superhero princess. It tends to work." He knelt down to grab his pill bottles from the floor, the light from the hallway giving him something to find them with. He took a pain pill quickly and then flexed his arm since he wasn't wearing his sling.

"Thank you for helping," he added softly. "I wasn't sure if anyone was awake to hear me."

"Thank jet lag, I guess." Which is a lie. She probably would have woken up the second she heard the race of his heartbeat or felt his panic. This time, she just happened to be awake, so it took less time. "I'm still sort of on Boston time."

"Shouldn't you be exhausted then, since it would be three hours later there?" His eyebrow went up in confusion at that.

She waves a hand to indicate that she has no idea. "I slept for a while, but I normally have to be up at six AM to make my seven thirty class." She glances down at her watch. "I'm not really sure my body knows what it's doing right now. But my sleep schedule's probably going to be out of whack for a while."

"I know the feeling. When Dina was born, she was colicky and couldn't sleep. Between that and Google, I think the only sleep I got was in the sleep pods at work when I was supposed to be at lunch."

It was easier to talk about Dina. Talking about his daughter made it so he didn't have to talk about himself.

"You may not be able to escape that grip she's got on you."

"Laura and Jason were always exhausted when the kids were really little. I think Laura being home a lot of the time helped, though. She could nap when they napped."

She glances down at the girl in her arms, snuggled up close against her and back at him. For a moment she looks uncertain, almost as though she was intruding on something he didn't want her intruding in (and considering the way she left things, she honestly wouldn't blame him). She knows she could probably wiggle her way out and leave Dina and Stiles to sleep, but she doesn't want it to seem like she's running from him.

(Again.)

"I don't mind," she says softly, giving a bit of a shrug. "I mean, I can go, if you want me to. Or you could take my room?" Or he could stay, but she isn't exactly holding her breath for option C.

She would see the wheels in his head turning, going over all the options here and weighing them. "No, it's fine," he said finally. "I mean, she's starting to form attachments to people, which is good. She didn't have a lot of people who were there for her back home."

He pressed his back against the wall opposite them and slid down it to sit on the floor. The bed was too close, and there wasn't really anything else for him to sit on. And he wasn't going back to bed anytime soon after a night terror like that.

"Just be careful, or she'll start following you around everywhere. She and Ryan are attached at the hip at this point when he's here."

She shifts a bit so that she's lying down more, but that her head was still propped up enough so that she could see him. The scent of his panic was still in the air and it made her heart lurch, but for now, she just focused on talking to him. She's pretty sure this is the longest they've actually spoken to each other without fighting since she ended things all those years ago.

It feels like progress, in it's own way.

"I think that was a given," she says with a bit of a smirk. "McCalls and Stilinskis usually go together very well."

Stiles snorted. "That's what Malia told her. Though it's complete role reversal - Scott's kid is the talker, and mine is the follower." There's a small smile there. "But I'm glad they hopefully have a chance to grow up together."

"If Ryan has anything to say about it, I don't think they'll have a choice," Cora says softly. "He's just as attached as she is. He wants to include her in every little thing he can."

It's good, though. It's good to have that person grounding you, holding you tight to the rest of the family even when things are pulling at you to break away.

"It's how me and Malia were when we were kids."

He was picking at the fuzz on his sweatpants as he talked, but he chuckled. "Well, she doesn't have any siblings, so her cousin is the closest she'll have to family her age."

Of course, that came down to if he was able to stay in Beacon Hills. Coming home hadn't been as safe of a choice as he had thought. He knew he may have to leave for everyone's safety. It was one of the reasons why he hadn't pressed on telling his daughter about all the wolves around her.

Stiles, the narration hopes you're aware that the pack isn't going to let you go at this point. You came home. They're in this now. They're going to protect you with everything they've got.

That being said, Cora refrains from the comment where it's a good thing that Dina was an only child. She also refrains from saying that it's not over and she could have siblings one day. Those are things this conversation doesn't need, because it will probably lead to them talking about things neither of them want to talk about.

"I'm pretty sure the rest of the kids in the pack are pretty much accepting her with open arms. She won't be wont for friends at any rate."

Denial is not just a river in Egypt.

"Yeah, but if we have to leave, she'll lose them all." He doesn't want to leave. Being in Talia's protective custody has at least let some of the old feelings seep in a bit through his rough skin. But it comes down to safety.

Cora's head picks up slightly at that, Scott's words in her head about how he didn't want to lose his brother. She doesn't want to lose Stiles either, even though he isn't really hers to keep. She looks down at the little girl in her arms, and she knows that Dina is the priority, and she should be. She can't blame him for being scared.

"Don't decide anything too quickly," she says softly. "Please? We - " She stops short at that, unsure if she's allowed to include herself in wanting him here, in missing him, in needing that presence in their lives. " - I know things are a little crazy right now, but we've dealt with crazy before and everything was - "

Things were different then. They were new and had everything ahead of them, and when they came out of the mess with the alpha pack and Jennifer, she and Stiles came out ahead.

"You've protected us before." Finding the wolfsbane in the house, making sure they all got out of it, talking her down off so many ledges, she wants to try and at least talk her down off this one. "Let us protect you. We owe you that much."

His eyes flick up to look in her direction as she stopped herself short. He was trying to read her intentions in that - the meaning behind the words; the truth from the intentions and what it really was being said.

He had skills for that once. Especially when it came to her. He had been good at interpreting Cora since she never was good at speaking about what she felt. But it was a lost art, rusted over and given up for other skills he needed to develop to survive.

"This isn't some kind of supernatural creature coming to rain hail and damnation down on the Hale family. These are humans, Cora. Humans who aren't going to stop until they get what they want. Your mom's putting the whole pack at risk keeping me here."

He leaned forward, crossing his good arm over his knees and resting his chin on it. "It may just be easier for everyone if we just disappeared."

"No."

The word is emphatic. Determined. Probably more sure than he's ever seen from her, from the girl who had no idea what she wanted and let that uncertainty swallow her away. Her time in Boston had done her some good in at least stating the things she did know.

"You disappearing wouldn't be easier on anyone. If you keep running, you'll always be running, Stiles. It will never stop. You'll always be looking over your shoulder and Dina will grow up being afraid of everything. Is that really what you want for her? To grow up with no family, no real friends, always waiting for something to jump out of the shadows?"

It can't be what he wants. It shouldn't be what any parent wants.

"Never mind what it'll do to your dad. To Scott." To me. "This is the point of having people on your side, Stiles. So you don't have to run forever. We can protect the pack. We've been protecting the pack for decades. You're pack too. So don't act like this is some hardship on us, because it's not. Protecting our own is as easy as breathing. What would be hard is letting you go."

His mouth opened, an arrow already notched and ready to be slung back. How he was doing it for them. How it wasn't fair for his entire family to have to give up their lives to protect him. How statistically people disappeared all the time and were never found. He knew more than enough about computers to be able to keep his digital footprint hidden.

But he stopped and his mouth closed as Lydia's reminder that what they were doing was out of love.

Everyone.

He looked down, thinking about Dina. Cora was right - he didn't want her growing up alone and afraid. That was far from his plan. He wanted her to be happy. To grow up with a group of friends who were amazing and loved her and stuck together through thick and thin. A home she could call her own and not have anyone in pain or angry storming through the halls making her hide in her closet until the yelling stopped. He wanted her to have a mother who loved her and was there for things to come Stiles knew he couldn't help her understand.

It just came down to the risk being worth the gain.

"Through thick or thin," he said softly to himself, sighing and relaxing more into his slouched position.

For them, their gain is Stiles. To them, that's worth all of the risk. She can tell by the way everyone is around him, Scott especially. Stiles coming home is like the last piece of the puzzle coming together and she won't let him slip away again, make him think that he can't be around people who care about him.

She smiles a bit before nodding. "For better or worse. You're pretty much stuck with us."

He winced a bit at the better or worse, since that sounded like a marriage vow and well, a marriage is what started this whole mess.

"I just hope you guys really know what you're getting into."

Yeah, she didn't think that one through before she said it, but the sentiment is still the same. She just gives a bit of a shrug and looks down at Dina again.

"Believe it or not, we've done our fair share of tangling with humans too. We don't exist in our own private werewolf bubble."

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