Chapter Text
Derek is dizzy. It feels like all of his senses are muffled. He has a moment to wonder if this is what humans always feel like before his ears pop and sound and smell rush in. Even before he opens his eyes he knows at least part of Stiles' spell worked. There's no other combination of sounds that quite match the cacophony of New York City and he'd spent enough time in this particular alley to know the scent.
So. Stiles got Derek back to New York. That's good. Now Derek needs to figure out if the rest of the spell worked, too. He doesn't have his phone, so he'll need to find a newsstand. Not exactly a hard thing to do in this city.
The backdoor to the bar Derek used to work at opens and someone steps out. It takes Derek a second to recognize him as one of the bartenders. He tries to remember the guy's name. Tom? Rob? Something short, he thinks.
"Hey, Derek!" the guy says, so clearly he's not having memory problems. "I didn't think you were working again until tomorrow."
Holy shit. Holy fuck! Stiles' spell got him back to 2010. The real question is what else might have changed. Does this mean—?
Derek has no idea what he grunts at his former coworker before bolting out of the alley toward the little apartment he shared with Laura. Please don't let her be out.
Laura isn't sure where Derek went, but she's just about ready to break into the Christmas cookies without him. Really, how is she supposed to resist when they're right there? She's just reaching for the container when she hears their front door slam open, sounding like Derek forgot his keys and decided to break the door down instead of knock.
"Laura!" she hears him yell. He sounds frantic. "Laura, are you home? Please be home."
Derek's voice cracks on the word 'please', worrying Laura more.
"Derek? What's wrong?"
She isn't expecting Derek to give her a look of overwhelming relief and choke out her name with so much emotion the chemosignals are overwhelming.
He rushes over and pulls her into his arms, hugging her with a strength he never would have been able to use with a human.
"You're alive," he says into her hair, his voice wracked with joy and grief.
A chill runs down Laura's spine and she tightens her arms around Derek.
"Of course I'm alive," she says into Derek's neck. She knows she could get him to loosen his grip, but she's worried. "Are you OK?"
Derek slowly relaxes his arms and stands up straight, seeming like it's taking all his willpower just to do that. He looks at her. She barely has time to be concerned about the grief she sees in his eyes before he kisses her.
It only takes the barest instance before she kisses back. Derek kisses like he's starved for her. Laura kisses him back just as hard, pouring the pent up need from years without having this with him into the kiss.
Laura regretted cutting this part of their relationship off almost as soon as she did it. She regretted it even more when she realized Kate Argent had gotten her claws in him. They've never talked about that. She figured out years ago that Derek doesn't realize she knows. She should have talked to him about it at some point, just to tell him it wasn't his fault.
Derek breaks the kiss and just stares at her.
"You're alive," he repeats.
Laura starts to point out how weird he's being before she takes a closer look and realizes why things seem off.
"Your hair is different and you look older. You look older than me. Derek, what happened?"
"So much," he says. He takes her hand and leads her to the couch. She sits down in a daze.
"It all started in ten days from now for you and five years ago for me."
Stunned, Laura listens as Derek tells her a story he swears is true.
Derek talks so long his voice starts to fray. By the time he's caught Laura up on the last five years she isn't even interrupting him for questions anymore. When he finishes, she sits back, staring at nothing.
"I can't believe Peter killed me," she bursts out after a moment. "I can't believe I let Peter kill me!"
Derek snorts out a laugh before he can stop himself. That isn't the reaction he expected.
"He was a coma patient, Derek! I let myself get killed by a coma patient and he wasn't even an alpha!"
Laura looks so indignant Derek can't help but kiss her. When they draw apart, she smiles at him. Then she raises one of her eyebrows and smirks, giving him a look he learned to fear years ago.
"So, baby bro. Tell me more about Stiles."
"What? Why? Don't you want to know more about, I don't know, Peter or what happens next or—well, anything else?"
Derek is aware that he's protesting too much, but he can't seem to keep the words from falling out of his mouth. Laura looks amused, but she also looks stubborn. She isn't going to let this drop.
"That's why I want to know more about him," Laura says. "I remember him running wild through our house and yard when he was a little kid, when his mom would visit Mom, before...well, before a lot of things."
Her voice is sad, understandably so. Derek reaches out and grasps her hand.
"I'd forgotten all about that," he says. "He gave me a piece of candy that night at the police station. I didn't remember that we knew him before."
He doesn't have to specify which night—not to Laura. She smiles sadly, then pulls him into a hug. He clings to her, taking deep, greedy breaths of the scent of her.
"I missed you," he tells her.
"I know," she answers. "I can tell. Don't think it will get you out of telling me about how Mischief grew up, though."
"I forgot he used to be called that," Derek says."It suits him."
"So he's still always up to no good?"
"Sometimes," Derek says. "Sometimes he saves all our asses by going somewhere he's not supposed to be. There's a lot of Puck in him, but he's also reliable in his own way. And loyal. I'm not sure I've ever met anyone more loyal."
Laura watches her brother and wonders if he knows his face turns pink when he talks about Stiles.
"How long have you been in love with him?" she asks Derek.
He gapes at her, mouth opening and closin. He look like a fish. She's getting ready to tell him so when his eyebrows draw together and he gets the most indignant look on his face.
"I am not in love with Stiles," he grates out.
Laura is ready to tease him more until she realizes he's actually upset. She reaches out and grabs his hands.
"You deserve to be happy, Derek. You should be with Stiles if he will make you happy."
She doesn't understand why he looks upset, until he says, "I'm not in love with Stiles, Laura, I'm still in love with you . I missed you. I missed us. I thought—"
Ah, that's the problem.
"I didn't say you have to choose, Derek," she says, keeping her voice gentle.
There's something wild in his eyes when she says it. His face keeps twitching, like he can't settle on an expression. He stands up and walks away. He stops with his hands fisted by his sides, feet braced like he expects someone to tackle him.
"What are you saying," he grates out, the words harsh without inflection.
"I don't know, yet," Laura answers honestly, "but I won't make you choose unless I have to, and I am very interested in meeting this kid who makes you blush like this."
Derek turns to face her. He's relaxed his stance and unfisted his hands, but he stays on the other side of the room.
"He's not a kid anymore, not even in comparison to you. Time travel mixes everything up. I'm older than you are now and he's only three years younger than you at this point," Derek says, but he relaxes a little more.
"21 is still young."
"Most people don't spend that much time fighting and nearly dying. It ages you."
"Are we still talking about Stiles?"
"Fuck, Laura. I lost most of two packs, the second as alpha, before I was old enough to rent a car. Years before," he told her with a bitter laugh.
She stands up and walks to him. She wraps her arms around him. After a moment he collapses onto her, burying his face in her neck. He doesn't say anything, but she can feel his tears on her neck and the heaving of his ribs as he cries.
It takes a long time before Derek's tears run dry and even longer before he's willing to move out of Laura's arms. There are people in his pack he trusts enough to sometimes be vulnerable, but he can't imagine breaking down like that with any of them. Laura's seen him at his absolute worst, though. Besides, she was his alpha. Probably always will be in some ways. Possibly still is, or is again. Time travel is confusing.
He sits down and examines his bonds. He isn't sure how to describe what he finds. Stiles warned him this might happen, but Derek wasn't prepared for just how weird it is.
"What does our bond feel like to you?" he asks Laura.
She gives him a puzzled look before she gets that faraway look all wolves get when they look at their bonds. She looks even more confused when her eyes refocus.
"It's like there's a circle in my bond with you or a loop. I don't know how to describe it. I also can't tell if I'm still your alpha. It's weird."
Derek can tell the changes are bothering her. He's uncomfortable, and he's had years to get used to this kind of bullshit. It's all new to Laura.
"Stiles said this might happen," he tells Laura. "You only have one bond, right?"
Laura nods.
"OK, that's good. The pack could tell when there was two of me."
Laura looks at him like he's crazy, which is fair. Instead of asking him what he's talking about she stands up.
"I'm going to make hot chocolate with lots of brandy. Then we're going to eat Christmas cookies. You're going to tell me about Stiles and we're going to avoid any talk about time travel until Boxing Day," she decrees.
"Why are you so obsessed with hearing about Stiles?" Derek grumbles.
"Because," Laura yells over her shoulder on her way to the kitchen, "we may not know if I'm going to stay your alpha, but I'll always be your big sister, baby bro!"
"I'm three years older than you now," he mutters.
"Doesn't matter," Laura says. "Some things even time travel can't change."