Pale Horses

Something Becomes Everything

Stiles is surprised when, by the end of his shower, he is already healing. Derek smiles at him and says that Stiles is his. Even if he is an Alpha, his bites will never linger on Stiles.

Stiles leaves the bathroom feeling really smug about that.

They get to the hospital just as John is waking up, and Stiles can't help but tearing up again. He hugs John to him carefully, and his dad hugs him back – he isn't hurt, he's okay, just a bit disoriented from all the medicine keeping him unconscious.

He says he doesn't remember anything, he remembers he was taken from his house while sleeping, and that's that, because he is the goddamn Sheriff, and his word is actually the law.

Things settle down after that.

Stiles still has to go to school, and Derek actually insists on taking him there and picking him up for weeks before he is comfortable enough to let Stiles drive there. Stiles gets annoyed at this, he complains and bitches, but he secretly loves every second of it, but he never tells anyone or they'll never let him live it down.

Jackson finds his place in their pack, with Lydia by his side, even if takes a couple of weeks for Derek to be completely okay with her. Scott settles too, and he seems calmer than before, more adjusted. He has a real pack now, he'll be fine.

Time passes and they grow. In the teens' case, literally. Boyd is taller than Derek now, and Stiles is even with his mate. Erica loses her extreme ways and seems really comfortable in her body, and so does Isaac.

She and Boyd start dating just before graduation, and everyone can tell it's a forever kind of thing – like their Alpha and his Mate.

Allison actually starts talking to Scott again by the end of the year. They take things slow this time, the truce with the Argents holding even when they officially become a couple again – this time with less idealistic puppy love, and a more practical take on life. She never really gets comfortable around Derek – or any of the wolves, really -, and he confesses to Stiles one night that he doesn't think she and Scott will last once they get into college.

They find out in two years that he is right.

Isaac grows into a confident and responsible man, and he studies hard, decided to become a doctor – which he does, with full rides and all into college.

Lydia and Jackson are the first two to get officially married, just a month after graduating from Law School – together. They have the most successful Law Firm in Beacon Hills, and are perfectly content with each other.

The Hale House actually meets a fiery end in the summer after Peter's death, a small problem with a pack of Alphas, that are absolutely no match for their pack – because they are seven wolves and a human: five betas, an Alpha, a Mate, and the most terrifying teenage girl a small town could produce.

The house doesn't survive though, and Derek takes that as a sign that the past should be, at last, left behind.

Their new house is bright and airy, and far enough from the original one that they can't even see the burned ground it used to stand on.

The sheriff has a few choice words to say to Stiles when he comes home with decorating plans for his house with Derek, but he's come to accept that his son would never have a normal life.

From all the teens, Stiles is the only one who doesn't even leave Beacon Hills for college. He attends a small one in a nearby city, commuting every day, because he can't bear staying away from Derek, or his father. Scott goes there too, but he actually gets a dorm.

Melissa and John start dating that year, and Stiles swears he knew that was bound to happen sometime.

The new Hale House is built, and Stiles moves in as soon as he's eighteen. Derek takes night classes and online courses to learn how to manage what's left of the Hale money – their insurance and their properties that he hadn't sold before he actually realized he could have a future.

Stiles becomes a Journalist – he writes for Beacon Hills biggest paper, and he's happy to report the number of weird news has never been lower. Scott is a Veterinarian, helping Deaton, and eventually taking over the business when the man retires.

Scott meets a nice girl, with dark hair and bright brown eyes, and he falls for her, one year after graduating from college. It's not teen love, it doesn't have the intensity of his feelings for Allison, but he loves her.

They haven't yet talked about marriage, but Stiles is keeping his hopes up.

Isaac actually meets a nice and cute werewolf at Stiles and Derek's Union Celebration. Derek was against it, but Stiles was adamant that his father would see him getting married, and Derek caves, as he seems to do with everything that has Stiles in it.

The ceremony is quiet and beautiful, and Derek invites a few friends from his old life, before Laura had died – including a cute Omega who captures Isaac's heart on his first smile. It's enough to say he wasn't an Omega for much longer after that, accepted into the Hale Pack that just keeps on growing.

Eight years after the whole Peter debacle, Derek is called away by a few other werewolves, and he comes back home with a small bundle in his arms – some Alpha bit a kid, four years old, and left it behind.

Stiles thinks he's too young, and his father agrees. Derek thinks they really aren't ready for it, and Melissa concurs – but they do it anyway.

They adopt little John Stilinski-Hale, who insists on being called Sky, and that's how they build a family.

A pack.

Safety and security, love and acceptance.

It's not perfect, and they have their issues – the days when Lydia is a bitch, and Jackson is a jerk, and Scott gets that faraway look in his eyes like he's thinking about Allison again, and Isaac takes something the wrong way and sulks, and Boyd gets angry at some imaginary offense, and Erica is a bit too rough with someone. Days when Stiles wants to scream at the top of his lungs that he is their age and the only kid he has is Sky not all of them, and days when Derek is quiet and brooding.

It's not perfect.

But none of them would change a thing.

Le fin.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand, this is it.

It's over.

I always feel so sad when these things get done, I can't even.

I hope you guys enjoyed reading it as much as I had fun writing it – and it was a lot.

Thank you so much for your amazing support along this story. You are all amazing.

Now, I'm gonna work on Come Out and Play and the other few dozen plots who grabbed me these past few weeks.

Let me know what you think about the end.

REVIEW!