Out Of Milk

27

Derek stood in the centre of his bedroom, their bedroom, and looked about. Stiles had left his tee-shirt hanging off the edge of the unmade bed – and Derek didn't want to move it, put it away, because that would mean that Stiles was already gone.

The soft padding of feet behind him made him turn, the toddler toothlessly grinning at him. One of the triplets, because apparently they ran in the family, holding out chubby little arms. "Affa!"

Affa. Because they were too small to say 'Alpha' – which had caused Stiles to roll about on the floor in hysterics.

"Just how often do you tell them you're the Alpha?" He'd laughed. "That they think it's your name?" But Stiles was already on his flight back to New Orleans and his scent was fading fast from the house. Every room but this one – because Derek had been disgusting and hadn't changed the sheets yet. He hated mess, dirt or clutter, but he knew once he pulled the sheets off the bed and put the stray piles of clothes away then Stiles would really be gone. Maybe for good.

Scooping up the toddler in his arms, causing an excited giggle that made him smile even though his heart was burning, Derek walked out of the room and closed the door soundly behind him, sealing the scents tightly. He'd clean tomorrow.

"Dean!" Isaac called when he saw Derek walking down the stairs, toddler in his arms. "What did I tell you about bothering Derek?"

"He's two years old, Isaac, I honestly don't think he understands." Reever said, holding out her hands for the boy. She was already starting to show again. Derek seriously hoped their new house would be ready by then – he couldn't deal with another year of sleepless nights. When Derek hit the bottom of the stairs, he handed Dean to his mother, who instantly coo'd and fussed over him. The other two were on the couch, crawling all over Jackson, who was complaining loudly, but not moving.

"You fool no-one." Erica said, walking through the door. She was covered in mud and paint, but looked pretty pleased with herself.

"How was work?" Derek remembered to ask. Stiles had pointed out he never asked – he needed to fix that.

"Great!" Erica grinned, "It's really starting to work, you know – we got three new bookings today!"

"That's great!" Reever said, dumping Dean on Jackson. "Do you need me to book them in?"

Things had changed in the two years since the kids were born.

Reever had left school to look after the triplets full time, but the triplets (Dean, Cassie and Samantha) were hardly any work at all, especially as Erica, Boyd, Derek and her own family were constantly trying to get some quality time with them. So she'd taken up working for Boyd and Erica – who were building their own empire from the ground up.

'Trisk Teambuilding' was taking off, with Derek purchasing another chunk of the forest to the north – now a corporate team building dream come true. Paint-ball, camping, trust exercises – Boyd and Erica did it all. Every week they had at least one group of bored office workers trudging through miles of forests in an effort to boost morale. They did the leg work, and Reever did the paperwork, and it all fit together like a well-oiled machine. He had very little to do with it, aside from owning half the company. Occasionally Erica would need him to fix something, or pick a group up from the main road, but aside from that…

Isaac was still at school, still working towards becoming a vet. He was doing very well, going by his midterms – was going to graduate top of his year. He had a 'way' with animals, he was personable and fast to learn. Reever was more supportive than Derek would have imagined, keeping the kids out of her mates feet until he was done studying.