Chapter 5
Will sat silently in his armchair while Derek slumped into himself in the sofa. His eyes would have been red by now if he were human Will thinks. The way he had cried, loud and wet like a small child, grief stricken, desperate and alone beyond an abyss without Stiles near him. Even now, he is sniffling, trying to rub his running snot and tears into his Henley. Will tried to pass him a box of tissues that he kept around just for occasions like this. But Derek declined. He seemed to find him increasingly dirty Henley to clean his face just fine. It had been a difficult session, which dug up things that had been hidden for years. While Will only gave counselling to the human counterparts of any partnership, Stiles had been adamant that Will at least try. And who can say no to Stiles when he goes full protective mode?
While Will’s sessions usually ran for 45 minutes in total, Will had been extending his time restrictions for Derek and Stiles. This was the 7th single session that Derek had undertaken with Will. The single session lasted half an hour or so, and then Stiles would come and join them and they would delve into couple’s therapy for the next 45 minutes. The couple’s therapy tended to start by Stiles calming down a still agitated or too sad Derek and then Will would be regaled with more news of their pack while Stiles kept giving Derek calming touches and opportunities to scent him. Stiles was so good at handling Derek that by the time the session would be complete and they have to leave, Derek could sometimes make lame jokes that only Stiles could laugh heartily at.
Derek’s single therapy sessions started when he started having vicious nightmare form which he would wake up in a blind panic and screaming. A veteran at such behaviour, Stiles had done everything he could do to help, but it didn’t help at all. And all these, just weeks before Erica and Boyd’s marriage. Erica was a beta in Derek’s pack while Boyd was a human with whom she had been in a relationship and been living together for 3 years. Boyd was a paediatrician while Erica worked as a lawyer, and the marriage had been a long time in coming. Introduced to each other by Melissa, Scott McCall’s mother, who Stiles declares is his soul brother, Erica and Boyd had clicked instantly and the rest, as they say, is a grossly overly shared history of sexual experimentation and enjoyment.
Stiles was not sure what to do with Derek and his nightmares so he asked Will during one of his single sessions with Will. He was still doing some single session, following two couples ones and Will had tentatively offered his help. Will knew that Derek was carrying a lot of guilt and repressed emotions inside him and over the months he had come to like the guy. Stiles had been very thankful and had quickly made Derek agree to the same. It had not taken Will a lot of tricks to break Derek down, and once the floodgates opened, there was no stopping it. Stiles made sure that he did not keep dwelling in his old memories and having finally shared his buried burdens, Derek was actually starting to look at peace with himself.
Will still remembered the first time he met Derek, as he thought privately that Stiles couldn’t have picked a partner more opposite than him. Scowly McScowly, for that is how Stiles introduced Derek at first, was still not comfortable enough to take part in the sessions even though he has been there for the past 5 ones. It did not seem to deter Stiles though, who talked enough for the both, with wind milling hands and sparkly eyes that sparkled even more, if possible, whenever they landed on Derek. Will was used to one sided silence after the sessions with Dean and Cas, but Derek was an entirely differently breed, pun both intended and not.
Not that he never spoke much, no. Derek spoke when he thought it was important and or when it pertained to the matter under discussion. It took Will a bit of a time to realise that this was not Derek being obtuse or intentionally rude, just as his scowl was not so much his emoting prowess as much as a simple physical feature. He had bushy eyebrows that sat heavy on his face and even a slight twitch made it look as if he is frowning. What Will at first took as sullen reluctance, later turned into a polite interest for whatever he would say. Derek did not like talking, and for Stiles it was not an insurmountable problem.
Will sat through two sessions with the couple before he came to realise the amazing balance between the two given how different they were. Stiles did talk enough for two, but he never talked on behalf of the two. Stiles tended to go on tangents through his talks before returning to the original topic. Derek did not roam in his conversation, but when both talked to each other, the actual matter would be given equal attention and care by each. Will couldn’t help but be impressed by this seeing how he himself talked so less and Hannibal even more so. They were almost supernaturally in sync in most matters, but it did not mean that they did not sometimes required serious intervention.
At the moment, they were arguing hotly as to who should be the best man at Erica and Boyd’s wedding. Erica had already asked Allison to be her Maid of Honour, as well as invited both her partners, who apparently were much older than her and thus would also work as the perfect occasion to give them the third degree and booze to cool the burns they were obviously going to get from the Great Stilinski, as succinctly informed by Stiles himself, and Lydia and Kira were going to be bridesmaids, beautiful beyond compare. Boyd was yet to ask any of the boys, thus the fierce debate.
“He is a human, and dare I saw just the other human in our pack apart from me, so it is kind of obvious, he is going to choose me, fair warning,” Stiles says to Will and Derek. “Also, if I may add, I know how to give a killer bachelor party, in a very human way, so I win by a landslide there, hurmph,” Stiles adds smugly.
Derek rolls his eyes in an almost perfect circle, a slight smile tugging at his lips as he says, “I may be a born wolf, but we have had our share of wild parties. I mean, are your forgetting Peter, who used to smuggle in wolfsbane strained liquor, and assorted fun candy, and that was when he was in school. You have heard him reminiscence about them with the manic look on his face. I have lived with him enough to know when a party is good and just how to throw it, don’t you doubt that. And Boyd may be a human, but he is marrying a were so he is obviously going to go with me. I mean I am her Alpha, who better to choose?”
Will can make out that Derek is teasing the younger man, who seems to have fallen hook line and sinker into the charade and he pulls in a huge breath and holds forth as to the many ways his logic is faulty and how he is never going to be asked. And also gives a list of reasons as to why Stiles is the obvious and better choice.
“But you have already been selected to be the best man at Scott’s wedding to Issac. So it’s not like you will never get the chance. Just by the process of favours granted, you are already fulfilled, so that means that Boyd will ask me and then I will be the best man,” Derek answers.
“Because I know you, I know you so well, you want to be the best man because ....” here Stiles bites his lips, looking frantic and glancing at Will as if asking for directions. Will looks to Derek who is looking shocked and scared for some reason.
To clear the air, Will asks into the couple, “Do you want to finish that line right now Stiles?”
Stiles does not immediately shakes his head but he is looking at Derek in askance, for permission or the faith or the simple trust to say what he wants to and know that Derek would not take it as a personal attack. When Derek asks in a low voice, “Why do you think I want to become the best man so bad?” not looking at anyone but his own clasped hands in his lap, Stiles turns to him on the sofa and takes his hands in his.
“Because I know what you are afraid of. She... she is long dead, but you still carry such a big fear in you, of how a similar thing could happen again, under your watch, which is why you have to be so vigilant. I know you like Boyd, hell I think he is a good friend of yours, not the way Scott is as a member of your pack or Isaac is as your beta. But as a friend, and he is a human at that, a human who knows about the supernatural now, which just puts him at even more elevated risk. And you look at your pack, your pack full again not with family like it was before for you, but a full pack nonetheless, and you are acutely aware of how it can just go away just like that because it had once before,” Stiles says earnestly.
He continues, “I know that your nightmares were triggered by Erica’s wedding to Boyd, I made that out. I know that losing your pack is the ultimate nightmare for you, and now as we continue to grow, the way we are assimilating into the territory, protecting it from other predators and making peace with other packs, we are good now, we are good. And I know how that feels somedays, too good to be true, or even too good to be. But, you are not alone now, you don’t have to keep on fighting and guarding and looking for ways in which your new family can be harmed. We want you to enjoy this occasion. I want you to enjoy this occasion. I want you to be happy so so much.”
“So yes, I have no problems in giving over my best man crown to you, so long as you promise that you enjoy it. This is a family now, this is how we make memories, not letting the past haunt our present. So, Der, I will say nary a word if Boyd asks you, but you have to have faith in us. You have to remember how being together was. Let that be their legacy, that you can still find the joy in life and with us and with me. That you can be happy as they would have wanted you to be, without conditions and without anything in return. We just want that from you,” Stiles says to the quivering mess that he hugs to his heart tightly.
Will, still sitting in his armchair, forgotten that he is even in the room feels satisfied in a good way. Sure he has to intervene sometimes, pull them apart, make them see the issues for what they are, mere issues and not the death knell on their relationship. But sometimes, like now, when they make up so seamlessly, perhaps with the help of a little bit of his endeavours for them to be open with each other, when he sees his methods actually working so beautifully, he feels happy. How can he not, for this is the proof that he is working, that he is capable, that he is able to offer help and his help being of actual value?
He smiles widely at them as the couple gets up from the sofa, clinging to each other, looking happy and peaceful. Life is good, Will thinks, life is sometimes blindingly good.