Through the years

23.

Beacon Hills - 2023

"This is taking so long." Isaac complained as he sighed and flopped back down on the couch after pacing back and forth in the room for a while. "Why is it taking so long?"

"It's like we're spending those two years with him." Jackson commented, busying himself by playing a game on his phone. It also helped take his mind off of all the possible things that could go wrong for Stiles. 

"I think I might actually die of boredom." Erica grunted before looking at Derek. "What time?"

"The first five minutes are up." he said quietly after checking the time on his phone. "It's been officially one year for Stiles."

"What's wrong with him?" Chris asked Peter after they all watched Derek wordlessly step out of the room. 

They had never seen their alpha go through so many emotions in such a short period of time and it confused them all. They didn't really want to try and question it but they could feel there was something more, something important that the hales were keeping from them. 

They didn't particularly like being kept in the dark like that. 

"We all thought Stiles would leave us after a year." Peter explained, sighing as he started to remember. He didn't really want to go through those memories either but he knew the pack needed some sort of explanation before someone was to say something wrong to the anxious alpha. "By that time, Stiles had become very close to my family. He was part of the Hale pack. His departure was a big deal for us, it hurt us. It was like one of our wolves was being ripped away from the pack. Nobody wants that."

"But Stiles isn't a wolf." Noah commented and Peter smiled sadly. 

The brunette being human had never mattered to them. 

"He isn't." he agreed. "But he was still a pack member, just like he is here. Would you feel good knowing that Stiles was about to disappear, to leave the pack and not come back for who knows how long?" he asked and saw the pain in their eyes as they imagined it happening. "It is very painful to let a pack member go like that. A pack is supposed to stay together. Always. Stiles was supposed to stay with us. He didn't. Imagine how Derek felt." he said, seeing them look at him with something in their eyes akin to confusion but not quite. "I know it's difficult to imagine it for you. You know a different aspect of Stiles and Derek's relationship than we do." he said as he gestured to himself and his niece. 

"Well, you told us they were close." Boyd spoke up. "Obviously it must have been hard for them."

"No, for us," Peter gestured to himself and Cora again. "it was hard. For Derek and Stiles, I don't think there is even a word to describe the pain they had to go through. I have to give it to them, they always knew how to hide their pain from the rest of the pack but we weren't blind. The two of them being close is not even half of what they truly were. If Stiles was there, Derek wasn't very far. They were always side by side. Nobody could have come between them. They were stronger together."

"I don't understand why Stiles was so close to him when Derek was young but not now." Allison voiced her confusion and Peter let out a small sad smile. 

"The Derek you all know," he said. "is far different from the one we grew up with. Derek was such a bright kid when he was still a cub. He would never stop smiling and would make everyone laugh without even opening his mouth." he explained and they were all listening to his every word, intrigued by what he was telling them. "As he grew older, he became a teen and of course, he somewhat became more mature. He wasn't as bright and had lost some of that childish part of his personality but he was still the same overall. He had problems with controlling his emotions, mostly his anger after his first shift during a full moon. When Stiles arrived, Derek was completely different from what he was used to. I'm pretty sure he thought Derek would be the same as Alpha Derek. He was left surprised." he chuckled.