Somehow they make it through high school, the four of them.

Lydia, the family little genius, moves away and starts world domination with a simple mathematical equation that takes her closer and closer to the Fields medal.

Jackson graduates top of his class and goes to his father's alma mater: after all, the whole Hale family attended Stanford and who's he to defy tradition.

Isaac makes it through the bullies and the teasing, mostly thanks to his older brother and sister's reign of terror. Every student will remember forever the embarrassing email spreading around the whole town about a certain someone's lack of intelligence after daring to insult the youngest member of the Stilinki-Hale family.
Nobody should ever come near little Isaac, not whilst Lydia and Jackson are around. He joins his older brother after two years, but he's set to become a vet like his step-uncle Scott, the one who used to let him stay at the clinic whenever he had free time away from homework.

Erica choses not to attend college, planning to write the most amazing travel book ever written. She wakes up one day, pack her bag, hugs her dads and leaves: Derek and Stiles get a postcard after six weeks saying that she's in Argentina, helping out some ONG building houses and teaching English to local children. They get pictures and letters, but only when she has time to sit down for a minute and pour down everything she has seen in loads and loads of pages her parents collect to help her out for her book later on.

The children grow up, sometimes it look faster than it actually is and Stiles gets so depressed he has to spend all his energy in cooking and baking until Derek has to tell him to stop after he has to join the gym to lose all the weight he gained because of his husband's breakdown.

In the end it's Laura who finds the solution, As usual, she'd say. Adoption sounds like the best solution to cure Stiles' mother hen instinct and Derek has to admit he does miss the constant yelling and arguing and messing around kids bring around the house he had built especially for his huge family.

The boys come home with them nearly a year after Isaac and Erica leave. Boyd is almost eleven, coming from a good environment but the misfortune of his mom and dad dying in a car crash and his grandmother too old to take care of him. He's smart, bit of a loner like Isaac used to be, but he has a great smile that makes Derek go back in time and relive all the emotions he thought he would never leave again until grandchildren came.

Peter is weird, that's quite easy to see the first time Stiles sets eyes on him: his file said his father had been abusive and social services only took him away after his mother had ended up in a coma after some heavy beating. He is creepy and children don't want to be around him because he can get pretty scary, but Stiles notices he can be fun and sassy could easily be his second name when he has had a good day.

The rest of the gang welcomes them just like they welcomed each other so many years ago.

Jackson immediately bonds with Boyd and they talk about lacrosse and football and all the sports the older boy can teach his now-little brother when school is out and he wants to get away when their dads become too much to handle.

Surprisingly enough, Peter immediately takes a liking for Lydia. They can be found hiding around the house, talking formulas and fashion, discussing world politics while the rest of the family looks at them as if they were from another planet.

"Look at them, all scheming and concocting. Seems like yesterday Erica and Jackson last planned one of their tricks around the house" Stiles says from the kitchen counter where he's cooking dinner for one of their usual family reunions.

"Because it was yesterday, Stiles. This morning Boyd and Isaac woke up in their room surrounded by toilet paper" Derek reminds him from the table, putting down his paper and removing his glasses and getting his cup of coffee refilled before stealing away the steaming sauce from the pan his husband is fussing over "Put some more coriander"

"Oh, right. Remind me to tell them to clean up or no dessert tonight" he says moving away to check in the adjacent room to make sure Erica is actually helping Boyd with homework. It feels weird to have her back so soon, barely four months since the last time she left for a new adventure in Japan; her first book came out a year ago and she has been praised over and over by the critics and public for her outstanding creativity. Stiles has never been prouder.

" As if you'd send them off to bed with no sweets. You love them too much" Derek says, his head resting down on Stiles' shoulder and his arms embracing him from behind. Now that the house is full again they barely get time alone, but they wouldn't know what to do with all the time off they'd have. No, chaos is definitely better for them.

"You're right" he turns around and kisses him "Why don't you go out and play with Peter and Isaac? I'm sure they'd love to get some time with you, and Lydia really needs to get some time away from Maths."

"You just want me to stay away from the kitchen" he retorts, but starts heading for the garden anyway, a peaceful smile on his face.

It was around five years ago that Chris Argent sent Allison to the house to announce that Kate would stop tormenting them for good: throat cancer, the doctors said, probably caused by smoking. Jackson and Isaac had attended the funeral, mostly because their grandparents had demanded that, but after the ceremony they never spoke to Gerard or his wife again. They already had a set of grandparents who loved them: the Sheriff and Melissa, being too old to have kids of their own, decided to spoil the many grandchildren their kids provided: when Isaac and Erica turned seven, Scott announced the upcoming birth of his first born: Kyle and Jenna McCall were born on a gloomy April night and were welcomed by the whole clan during an intimate welcome-home party.

Stiles got lost in thoughts more often now, his brain getting old and slower but his disease still doing full time for him.

Derek always teased his about it, mostly because he knew how worried Stiles would get. They decided to start having regular check-ups, just in case, yet they told no one, not even his dad or Amelia.

He took the saucepan off the stove and put it away to use when the turkey finished cooking in the oven and reached the other members of the family in the backyard: his dad was playing soccer with Kyle and Boyd, who had ran off to play as soon as the last English question was answered; Lydia, Erica and Melissa rested peacefully on the chaises longues he had bought on the internet before the boys came into their lives, during one of those short-lived moments he yearned for peace and quiet. Amelia and George chatted with their daughter and son-in-law about the grandchildren still away for college while Beatrix allowed herself some giggles on the swing with Jackson pushing her.

And there, on the corner near his hydrangeas, were Derek, Peter and Isaac. His older son laying down on the grass shielding his eyes from the sun with an arm to try and watch his father trying to teach the younger boy how to swing a baseball bat. Peter huffed in frustration, starting off once again about the senselessness of such a sport when in world more important issues were going on. Stiles was sure his little boy cared about all the things he often spoke about, but he was fairly certain that this was simply the case of talking his dad's head off until he allowed him to go back to have fun with his sister.

"Daddy, would you please tell father to give up. I'm not good at sports" Peter yelled. Stiles smiled at his father when he caught the distinctive Do you need help? look and simply joined his husband and sons. He surpassed Isaac with a little jump and caught his youngest hands, gesturing for him to sit down on the ground next to him and expecting Derek to do the same without being asked. He did.

"It's not about being good at sport, kid. It's about your dad wanting to teach you something he taught your brothers and sisters before you. He did it for Jackson and Isaac, then Lydia and Erica when they demanded to be taught no matter how uninterested they truly were. And when you and Boyd came along, your father decided that he was going to teach you, too." Stiles explained briefly, looking up to his husband to simply nod to confirm: after all the years they had spent together, it was a given that Stiles would always be the one doing the talking, while Derek would handle the grunting and threatening. It came handy, especially the first time Lydia started dating and not only Derek, but Jackson had waited the whole time for her to come home with the poor boy to scare him off.

"Your dad is right. I'm sorry if it looks like I'm pushing you, but it comes with the family pack"

"Who are you and what have you done to my father?" Isaac shot up from his position grinning like a mad man at his dad "Dad, you heard him? He said sorry"

"Oh my God, I think we finally turned him into a human being!" Stiles yelled.

He certainly didn't miss the eye-rolling from both Derek and Peter, nor Jackson and George looking bemusedly at him and his son. It just was really unusual for Derek to apologize or talk about feelings, unless it was to Stiles. Maybe adopting Peter and Boyd had been the best thing they could ever do after joining their families.

And now here they are, together once again. Lydia will be leaving tomorrow, heading back to her secluded laboratory in New Hampshire to find God knows what. Jackson will be off, too, leaving for San Francisco and his endless list of patients waiting for him to help them come to term with their lives. Erica, his little girl, will pack again and head off to help some unfortunate soul away from home, keeping it all in until inspiration will hit her once again. As for Isaac, he'll be only a few towns away, starting to put away money for his own practice and animal shelter, but he'll always be too far away from home for Stiles. At least he'll have his little boys, though Boyd will probably go back to being his usual quiet self when he goes back to school on Monday, only waiting for the summer to come around so that he can go camping with his brothers; Peter will transform in a little devil as soon as Lydia boards the plane, planning some new trick to have her help him with when she decides to come home.

Derek will be there, as usual. He'll come back from work, enter the living room and ruffle the kids' heads instead of saying hello like any normal father would say. He'll go upstairs to take a shower and stop midway into Stiles' new studio, Jackson's old bedroom now furnished to look like a writer's den instead of a lacrosse maniac. He will enter the room, his shoulders finally releasing all the tension he had to keep at bay during the day and he will smile looking at his husband looking proudly at the new chapter of his children's book forming under his hands. Stiles will turn around and grin, his face lighting up and showing off all the happiness trapped down in his still tiny body.

They will meet halfway and Derek will kiss him, pouring down his soul into the other man's limbs, getting new energy in return, Stiles' endless supply of strength and his joie de vivre.

They will come down the stairs together, hand in hand, their hair still wet from their shared daily shower and they will start making dinner with Peter and Boyd talking about their day in the background. Derek will look up from the half cut tomato and catch his breath at the sight of Stiles laughing carefree at their son's joke and he will swell up in contentment, thinking that's the way thing are supposed to work.

The six of them, first, now eight.

AUTHOR'S CORNER

So here it ends. This chapter actually came easily to me, probably because I knew since the beginning that it was going to be an happy ending or maybe because the characters are so greatly created by their original authors that they're easy to work with.
I'm happy about all the reviews and kudos it got, and I'm glad my work has found someone who appreciated it so much to let me know that my efforts were noticed.