Human is Just a Word 63/?
A/N Since it can get rather confusing, here are the surviving members of Laura's pack:
Ellen(w) with the twins Rebecca(w) and Benjamin(h)
Stacy(w) and her brother Jeremy(w)
Mark(w)
Charles(h) and his granddaughter Gina(h)
Stephen(w) and his daughter Megan(h)
Chapter 63
After dinner Sean went home and Stiles showed Lydia his room where she would sleep. Then the pack crashed in the den.
Stiles had the suspicion that this would become a nightly occurrence from now on and he had to say that he liked it. It was the only good thing coming out of this disaster.
He and Derek were in the center with a puppy Jeremy wedged between them and the rest of the pack all around them. The pack pile was bigger than Stiles was used to and there were other humans as well but it wasn't as weird as he had expected.
In the back of his mind Stiles felt the connection to all of them, weaker and still forming to the humans, and through the bonds he felt their need for closeness and something in him responded to that. He suspected his status as the alpha's mate which was more than just a title, as he had found out, but there was a need in him to take care of his pack. So it wasn't weird at all that Mark ended up sleeping with his head on Stiles' shoulder and with Stiles' fingers gently carding through the patches of hair that had grown back by now.
The next morning Derek called his school because technically it was a school day, not that Stiles had really payed attention to that. Everybody at school had probably watched the news so there were no questions when Derek told them that Stiles wouldn't come in this week.
Who had also watched the news were the other tenants in the building. If they had been oblivious to the fact that there was a werewolf pack living on the top floors before, they knew now. Two had already left, only leaving a note that they would get their stuff and hand in the keys next week. The other four were still there but there was a palpable tension in the building now.
"Tell him that we're gone as soon as we find a new apartment." The guy from the second floor told Stiles when he and Charles came back with some groceries. "Should have told us beforehand. But you don't think about humans getting caught in your stupid pack wars, don't you? I have children."
"Charming guy." Charles commented when they finally got away from him.
"He used to be nicer." Stiles said but didn't really care about the guy still muttering in the stairwell. With a pack this big they would need the whole building anyway. And even if not, they were all too on edge to have strangers living under the same roof as them.
The other three tenants were understanding when Derek told them that he would need their apartments for his pack. He didn't push it but they all agreed to leave as soon as possible.
That was one problem taken care of.
"I never thought there would be this much paper work." Stiles groaned and stood up to get more coffee. He poured a cup for Derek and Ellen as well since they had been sitting over the papers for hours.
There were funerals to be arranged and Laura's body had to be transported over. Derek would have liked her to lie with their parents and the rest of their family but that was out of question. So they had agreed that she would be buried with her pack members.
As much as they would have liked to attend, nobody dared to go back for the funerals. Laura and the others would be put to rest without their loved ones around.
Then there was insurance stuff. And workplaces and schools to inform. Gina, Stacy and Jeremy were orphans now so custody was another issue they had to take care of. And there were a zillion other things that needed to be done. Derek had offered to let Stiles out of this, he could let the adults handle this, but Stiles had just given him a look and had reached for the phone to kick the next call off his list.
Isaac had picked up Sean right after school and when they came in with the baby stuff, it was a welcomed interruption. Sean also had Stiles' homework which wasn't that welcomed and he put it off for later.
"Your parents really don't mind?" Stiles still wasn't sure what to think of this.
"If they ever find out it's gone, they will just accuse each other of throwing it out." Sean shrugged but didn't hide the evil glint in his eye.
What really put a damper on Stiles' already down mood was the call he got from his father.
"She asked about Scott." His father said.
"What did you tell her?"
"The truth, what else?"
There was not point in lying to Melissa, telling her that Scott was fine, only to let her find out later that her son was dead. It would only lead to losing her as well.
Stiles didn't ask how she took it.
"I don't like that you two are still in Beacon Hills." He said instead. They didn't know what Peter would do next.
"Me neither."
"We're clearing out the building for pack only." Stiles said. "There's an apartment waiting for you and Melissa."
She was on the mend but she was far from being able to take care of herself and Stiles knew that his dad had been committed to that job since Scott had attacked her. John had promised Scott that he would be there for his mother before Scott had left to join Derek's pack but Stiles knew he would have done it anyway.
"We're not pack." His dad said after a long moment.
"Dad, please." Stiles rolled his eyes despite the fact that his dad couldn't see him. "The only reason you're not already a beacon in my mind is because you live too far away. Pack by association, it's a thing."
It had only been a few days but he could already feel the connections to the human pack members in his mind. It would be the same with his dad and Melissa.
"Shouldn't you ask Derek before you add us to the pack?" He asked but Stiles heard the smile in his voice.
"Don't worry about that, you're welcomed in the pack, both of you."
They ended the call and Stiles took a moment to think about this. They hadn't really talked about it but he didn't feel like they needed to talk about it. His dad was pack.
For now the pack was fine with crashing in the loft but that wasn't a permanent solution. However, they would have six empty apartments once the tenants had moved out. Mark would move into Isaac's guestroom until he had his new wolfyness under control but Stiles had a feeling that that would be a more permanent thing.
Ellen and the twins needed a place. Stephen and Megan would need one of the bigger apartments because it looked like they would take in Stacy and Jeremy. Charles and Gina would take apartment number three and Lydia would get one of her own as well. Derek didn't want her too close to one of the pack members but he didn't want her out of his sight either. There was still a serious talk they needed to have with her but for now, the pack had accepted that Lydia would stick around for the time being.
That left two apartments. They hadn't talked about it yet but Stiles was toying with the idea of moving into one of them with Derek. They could make the loft a pack thing with a permanent den where the pack could sleep together every night. Maybe with a large table where they could have meals together as a pack, he had liked that at Laura's. His and Derek's bedrooms could become studies or something like that.
The last apartment was for John and Melissa if they wanted it.
Over dinner Stiles presented his idea to Derek and the others.
"I like it." Derek said and drew Stiles into his arms for a long kiss.
Stiles had missed that. There had been so much going on, so much death and grief and now the chaos of the aftermath, he just wanted to sink into his mate's arms and forget about the rest of the world for a little while.
Sensing that they needed a moment, the pack left them alone but there was only so far they could go in the vicinity of the loft. So they had to do with another longing kiss, sweet and tender, and then they just stood close, heads resting on each other's shoulders and for a moment they breathed in their mate's scent.
By the end of the week things had calmed down a bit.
Gina still looked up every time somebody entered the loft in unspoken hope that it was her mother. Stiles had done the same when his mom had died and his heart ached every time he saw hope blooming on Gina's face.
And she wasn't the only one grieving.
Over the day the pack kept themselves occupied but during the night everything came back. Jeremy woke up from a nightmare with a howl more than once. There were silent tears shed in the darkness of the night nobody commented on. Most of the time Stiles couldn't even tell who was crying and through the bonds he just got a general sense of loss and sadness from everybody.
Sean came over after school every day. To bring Stiles' his homework, he said but he usually stayed until close to midnight. One night he even stayed over, when things at home were really bad, and he shared Stiles' room with Lydia that night.
Since Stiles was either busy making phone calls or just being there for various pack members, Sean stuck to the only other person he knew. Isaac.
The werewolf didn't mind having Sean hanging around and he always had something to do for him.
By Friday the fist apartment was empty and Isaac took it upon himself to renovate it for the pack. Stiles hadn't known that the beta was a handyman but he didn't complain when Isaac offered to get the apartments ready one by one.
Mark was getting the hang of his strength as well and Isaac put him to work. They stripped the apartment down to the core so that everything would be new and fresh for the pack. Isaac, Sean and Mark made a surprisingly good team and over the weekend they were only been seen during the meals which they attended sweaty and with dust in their hair.
With Isaac busy like that his place was empty and on Saturday Derek and Stiles used it to have an overdue talk with Lydia.
If she was nervous when Derek told her to follow him, she didn't show. She just calmly went with them and then they sat at Isaac's tiny kitchen table, Derek and Stiles on one side, Lydia on the other.
"How did you know about the fire?" Derek skipped the foreplay and came right to the point.
"I sensed it." She flipped her hair back over her shoulder, her eyes on Derek in a quiet challenge. "I heard fire and a pack dying. I just knew."
She had said something like that before but only now Stiles made the connection.
"You're not human." He realized. "That's why Peter couldn't claim or turn you."
A flash of hurt flickered over her face and Stiles wanted to kick himself for blurting it out like this. He knew first hand what claiming meant. Peter had raped her.
"I'm a banshee." Lydia said coldly.
"You predict death." Derek nodded in understanding. "But question is, why would you help us?"
Stiles had pointed out a very good reason just a second ago but he got that Derek couldn't take any chances. Not with the safety of his pack.
"What Peter has done." Her eyes glossed over, lost in memory for a moment. "What he's still doing. He has to be stopped."
"Will you help us?" Stiles leaned forward, studying her face. She met his eyes with a grim nod.
Stiles had stumbled into all this, looking for answers, for anything he could get on Peter. Now he had Lydia. Lydia who had lived in Peter's mansion, who knew the pack.
She was his weapon to take down Peter and the way she looked at him, she counted on it.
Chapter 64
Masterpost