Nowhere Man Epilogue (part 1)

[1lostone]

Title:  Nowhere Man
Fandom: Teen Wolf (Still regretting NOTHING!)
Words:  68,400 words. (This can be read as complete, although I do have a small epilogue planned.)
Summary: When Stiles leaves Beacon Hills, he does it without a backwards glance. For two years he is happy on the other side of the country- until someone targets not only him, but his daughter.Unfortunately, the asshole bodyguard his dad hired to make sure he gets back home is none other than Derek Hale. And that's really not very good for either of them.
Warnings: Attempt at plot!  Angst! Descriptions of panic attacks! alpha/omega dynamics(made up to fit this story. They're not the "typical" dynamics you find in fic)! Creepy stalker behavior! A metric fuckton of more angst! Boys being stupid! (mostly) Off-screen mpreg and ... kid!fic!



Anyway, this is dedicated to mah bb, jlm121 because I love her. And she made me watch Teen Wolf, so.


Read on Ao3   ||  Chapter 1  || Chapter 2 || Chapter 3  || Chapter 4  || Chapter 5 || Chapter 6 || Chapter 7 
                      || Chapter 8   || Chapter 9 || Chapter 10 || Chapter 11 || Epilogue (posted into two parts, 'cuz that's how I roll.)

I think when an "epilogue" is longer than some of the chapters, I should just suck it up and call it a chapter. Well... whatever you want to call it, here you go. First word of caution: Please only read this if you felt the "end" of the last chapter was missing. I know it's not possible to make everyone happy... but I tried! At least I tried to make Stiles and Zoe happy, and that's what's important, right? :)

It's been a wild ride and I thank you for sticking it out with me.

---

Notes:

Note: There is an embedded image at the end of this chapter. I included the link in case it didn't embed properly.

For some reason, it didn’t surprise Stiles that Isaac was waiting at the airport, holding up a sign that said ‘CUTEST GIRL IN THE WORLD (and dad).’  Zoe was a dead weight on his hip, drooling slightly into his chest. He was pretty sure he’d run over the feet of at least twelve people with his suitcase, but he still smiled when he saw Isaac’s bright grin. His brain was so tired that he couldn’t focus. He knew there was something wrong with the fact that Isaac was standing there, but he couldn’t quite put it together.

“Hiya!”

Stiles began to reply, but yawned instead, his jaw cracking.  Isaac reached forward to take his suitcase, crumpling up the paper sign and tossing it into the trash can.

“Rough trip?”

“Three-no. Wait. I forgot about Atlanta. Four stopovers.”

Isaac did that thing where he seemed three sizes bigger, forcing the rest of the exhausted travellers to give them a fairly wide berth of space.  Frankly, right now? Stiles thought that was more impressive than the super-healing and turning furry once a month. He shifted Zoe a little and sighed.

“You must have really pissed off the Airport gods.”

Stiles smirked a little, remembering the nasty trick he’d pulled on Derek when they’d flown out to California.  Isaac gave him a weird look, but didn’t ask as they went to claim all of Stiles’ baggage and go to the parking lot.  Stiles may or may not have drooled on the window, so tired that it didn’t occur to him that Harper was supposed to be picking him up from the airport until they were through all of the Logan traffic and on I-93.

“Hey... not that I’m complaining or anything, but why isn’t Harper here?”

“Oh. Well, I could tell you....”

Stiles looked over at him, frowning at the fact Isaac’s eyes were hidden by his sunglasses.  He couldn’t tell anything from Isaac’s face.  “Yeah. That would be why I asked.”

“Hm. But then I’d have to kill you. And not even joking man, Harper’s girl is like ten times scarier than you will ever be. She wanted it to be a surprise... so it’s a surprise.”

Stiles contemplated pouting, but was afraid he’d look too much like Zoe if he did. Traffic was a bitch, as it often was, and it took a half an hour to get to Stiles’ neighborhood. To say that he was shocked that Isaac didn’t take the right exit was somewhat of an understatement.  But when he pulled up to a completely unfamiliar house, confusion warred with his shock. Curiosity won though, and when Harper and Jenna jogged down the steps after Isaac turned off the car, he was willing enough to be led around.

The three-way hug (four when Zoe wormed her way towards her Harper, attacking her kneecaps with no mercy) was slightly hysterical. Jenna wasn’t much for hugging, but Harper was all but crying, having to pull away and sniff every few seconds until she got ahold of herself.

“So. Um. Is this your new place?” Stiles hadn’t heard of Harper and Jenna moving, but to be fair he’d been a little bit out of it lately.

“Nope. It’s yours.” Harper’s grin was as wide as she stared at him.

Stiles gaped at her.

“Come on... you didn’t think that we’d - or that Alpha of yours- would let you go back to the creeperville version of Amityville Horror, did you?”

That Alpha of--? Stiles looked from Harper, to Jenna, down to Zoe and over to Isaac. His eyes narrowed. “You’re here.”

“Yeah...”

“No. I mean, you’re here.” Stiles flashed back to Derek’s absence from his life during the week after Zoe was found. To the way he’d just sort of stood there, making sure that Stiles saw him as he left. Stiles huffed out a sigh, looking up at the sky. “Hypothetically, how long would it take to negotiate a Beta from another pack to come into a local pack’s territory... across the country?”

Jenna snorted.

“About as long as it takes to fly someone from a rival pack across country, have them pack up another person’s house and move them into a rental property. Is question time done? ‘Cuz Sherlock is on, and I’m not missing it for your crazy-ass drama. Plus I made sausage dip.”

Stiles shook his head, ignoring the matching snorts from Isaac and Harper. Somehow the idea of the two of them working together was just .... terrifying. Utterly terrifying.

His brain and his heart gave a funny sort of hiccup when he thought of Derek out here, helping Isaac pack up his house and move his stuff so that everything would be settled for his and Zoe’s return. Stiles reached down for Zoe’s hand and started towards his new house. “Thanks, Jen. You know how much I love that stuff. It’s like a heart-attack and an orgasm in my mouth.” Stiles sighed, his stomach growling a little.  

“Daddy? What’s an orgasm?”

***
The light from the monitor cast a creepy glow over the bed. Stiles sat with his back propped up against the headboard, staring down at the blank email. Stiles took a deep breath, listening to the almost silent sounds of the small rental house.  He read over what he had written, deleted a few words, then frowned and changed ‘definately’ to ‘definitely’.  He was twenty-one years old, had a small child, had an IQ that was off the charts, had created and designed his own ap, but couldn’t spell ‘definitely.’

Maybe an email wasn’t the best medium for communication. But it was the one that he felt most comfortable with, so that was what he was using.

To: sourwolf@beaconhillsmedia.com

From: jbane@yahoo.com

June 24th,  2018  14:53

 

Derek,

Okay so, maybe I’m a little confused. No. That’s not true. I’m definitely confused. You are very confusing. I guess that I should start by saying ‘thank you.’ Well, typing thank you. I guess my dad or someone told you that I was nervous about coming back here.  It’s a weird feeling. I was pretty happy here before. But now I don’t know. I guess you’ve already heard that my dad was planning on moving across country with me- but now I don’t know. It doesn’t feel right.  It doesn’t feel right here, anymore. I expected everything to just go back to normal, but it hasn’t.

Zoe misses you.  Would it be okay if she called you sometime?

Stiles bit his lip again, and read the last paragraph, deleted it, then undid his action and brought it back.  Shit. Shit, this was so. Why was this so hard?

Zoe misses you. Would it be okay if she called you sometime? She’s settled in pretty well. The house is different, but we go to Harper and Jenna’s a lot.  I think she’s confused by Isaac being here, but she’s doing okay.  I’ve started back with her playgroups. She’s playing with some local  werewolf cubs. There are some humans there too- which I have to say is a little weird for everyone involved, but Ethel put her foot down and that was pretty much that.  Isaac and Harper both take turns going with me just in case. Zoe is fine- the other weres can smell that she’s powerful.  So we’re keeping busy, but she talks about ‘her friend Derek’ a lot.

I don’t know if you want to read this or not. Hell, I’m not even sure that I want to type it, but she’s not the only one that misses you. I was so hurt that you didn’t call me, or come to see me, that it didn’t occur to me that I could have just as easily picked up a phone and called you. Anyway. We do need to talk. Or email, if you’re more comfortable.  Hope to talk to you soon.

PS-  Sourwolf? I can’t believe you remember that!

Stiles

To: jbane@yahoo.com

From: sourwolf@beaconhillsmedia.com

June 24th,  2018  15:29

Stiles,

You don’t need to thank me, Stiles. I was glad that I could help, but sorry that I couldn’t do more for you while you were recovering at Argent’s place. I thought that it would be better to stay out of the way so that I didn’t screw things up any further. What do you mean by not going back to normal? The house is just a rental. We can find another one if you and Zoe if it’s uncomfortable. If you decide you want to live somewhere else please just let Isaac know.  He will be there for the rest of the month. Zoe is amazing. Beautiful. So fucking smart. She’s so amazing Stiles. I would say that I can’t believe how great you are with her, but I don’t want to sound like an ass. I can believe it, because I got the (forgive the pun) beta version. You took care of all of us. I think we were all surprised how quickly it all fell apart when you weren’t there to take care of us anymore. I guess what I’m trying to say is that I will follow your lead on this. I’ve been trying not to get in your way. We never got a chance to talk about a lot of things. When should I call Zoe? I haven’t exactly been around a lot of cubs before, but she makes it pretty easy. Honestly, I feel lucky that you’re even letting me be in her life at all.  As for the sourwolf thing- of course I remember.  I remember everything about you. And as nicknames go, it beats the hell out of  fangface.

Derek

To: sourwolf@beaconhillsmedia.com

From: jbane@yahoo.com

June 24th,  2018  15:50

Fangface,

You have my number, so call me maybe? You can call anytime, but I think she’d like to hear your voice before she goes to bed, after I give her her story.  Is 7:30 okay?

Stiles

To: jbane@yahoo.com

From: sourwolf@beaconhillsmedia.com

June 24th,  2018  15: 58

I think that you’re just supposed to delete it. If I get that song stuck in my head then I might have to rip your throat out.  I’ll call tonight.

***
(Three months later....)

“And then Michael told me that only babies cry! I didn’t mean to bite him, but he was a big... a big... stupid meanie head!”

“Language, Zoe.”

Stiles hid his grin behind his hand. Even from across the country and through the tinny speakerphone, Derek’s voice had just the right amount of  a disapproving lilt that if Zoe had had a tail, it would have curled in a little at hearing it.

“But!”

“No buts. I know your daddy doesn’t let you use bad language like that. Now take a deep breath and tell me why this... Michael  made you cry.”

Stiles bit his lip, crossing his arms over his chest.

“Because.” Zoe’s chin jutted out in her mini-Derek impression. She sat cross-legged in the middle of her bed, holding the phone in her lap. The Tiana doll that Derek had bought her never left her bed. She slept with that and the bunny Stiles’ dad had bought her every night.

“Because...?”  

Zoe growled low in her throat. Sure, it was more Simba than Mufassa, but it still held an edge of frustration that made the fine hairs on the back of Stiles’ neck stand up. “Because! He called my daddy a breeder!”

There was a few beats of silence from the other end of the phone.  Derek cleared his throat.  “And where does this boy live? Do you happen to know his parents’ names?”

Stiles started to open his mouth, but Zoe jumped in with the rest and for just a second, Stiles couldn’t make himself move. He shut his eyes.

“--and then he called daddy a really bad word and I bit him. Hard. And I’m not sorry!”

There was another silence on the other end of the phone.

“Derek?” Zoe’s hand creeped up to curl one strand of hair around her finger.

“Yes, Zoe?”

“Can I ask you a question?”

Stiles grimaced a little, wanting to step out of earshot but figuring that would be really, really cowardly.

“Of course you can.”

“If you’re my dad then why don’t you live with us?”

Stiles winced at the crash on the other end, mouthing ‘surprise!’ at the phone.

“Uh--” Derek’s voice sounded choked.

“Don’t you love me?”

Okay, this was just painful.  Stiles took a step forward and made grabby hands for the phone. “Of course Derek loves you, Zoe. That’s what daddies do. Now you know it’s past your bedtime. We can call Derek tomorrow.”

Zoe’s grin was pure Stilinski. She kissed the phone, the same way that she did for her grandpa. “Goodnight... dad. I love you.”  Derek made another strangled-sounding sound. She hung up before Stiles could get to her. Her tiny features were completely smug when she handed her dad the phone with a little tick of her eyebrow that clearly said ‘well? Now that’s set up. It’s your turn.’  Stiles was caught between laughter, tears, and applauding at the manipulative way his daughter was able to completely wrap everyone in her life around her little finger.  

He tucked her in, shut off the light, and made himself wait an extra half an hour until he was sure that Zoe was asleep before calling Derek back.  In the three months that they’d been communicating, they’d gotten in this habit of Derek calling Zoe, then he and Stiles talking for a bit before hanging up. It had started out at a rather stilted once a week, then three times, then almost every night at 7:30 on the dot, Stiles’ cell would ring.

“Hey.”

“You. You...”

“Okay, I just want to say in my defense that I probably could have handled that better. But she was upset. I guess that little toerag asked her why if she was so special, didn’t she have two parents and she was crying so much that I couldn’t help but just tell her because she loves you so much and she didn’t even know that you were her other dad so I just. I just told her even though i know that we haven’t really talked about that at all and oh my god okay I’m shutting up now.”

“Thank you, Stiles.”

Stiles flopped down on his bed, staring up at his ceiling, sighing. “Don’t thank me, Derek. I should have done it sooner.”

“No... actually considering everything, you really didn’t have to do it at all.”

They were quiet on each end of the phone. Usually they talked about everything that had been happening - Derek’s attempts to change his pack dynamics; Stiles telling him about his new game and the buzz it had created from the production company- but now they were both quiet. There was something that Stiles needed to tell Derek, but this wasn’t the time. He couldn’t exactly say when their silences had gone from awkward to comfortable, but it was nice enough that he didn’t want to screw it up.

“Stiles?”

“Hmm?” Stiles shifted a little on the bed, restless.

“Your heartbeat just spiked. What’s wrong?”

“You can hear?!--- What am I saying. Of course you can hear that. On a cell phone. From across the country.” Stiles huffed out a breath. “It’s nothing. I didn’t want to ruin your hallmark moment there.”

“You’re hilarious.” Derek waited for a few beats. Stiles could picture him maybe glaring at the phone, wanting to just order Stiles to tell him what was wrong, but forcing himself to be patient. Actually, that probably wasn’t very fair.  According to both Isaac and his dad, Derek had been doing really well lately. He’d been calmer. More in control.

“It doesn’t... matter, really.”

Derek was silent.

Stiles huffed another breath. “It’s just... my heat. Ethel had me see a doctor, and they did some bloodwork to see what was wrong. My cycle was all over the place as.. er.. you may remember.” Stiles coughed, awkwardly.

Derek did a terrible job of trying to sound casual when he asked, “Oh?”

“Yeah. I guess that I did a number on myself with the supprescents. Mixing that with what that dickhead gave me was.. uh.  He thinks that my next few heats will be really intense, then eventually I’ll sort of calm down, and be “normal. “ Whatever normal is.” Stiles paused, waiting to see if Derek would say anything.

“Oh? How often do they occur? If uh. If you don’t mind my asking.”

“About once every month and a half. My last one was.. jeez.”

Derek was strangely silent.

“Derek? Did I lose you?”

“No,” he bit out.

Stiles frowned at his phone, then went back over his conversation in his head. He rolled his eyes. “My last heat was... well. Ethel has this room, right? And I had them lock me in until it was over.” Stiles waited a second.  “Just... me.”

The whoosh of breath couldn’t have been more obvious.  “Oh. Okay... that’s uh.”

Stiles shook his head. “I have to thank you. For the idea I mean. Of flying solo, as it were. It’s not the most comfortable thing- and oh my god the jokes from Harper are fucking annoying as hell, but. I don’t want anyone right now.”  That was a lie. Stiles frowned, his heart thumping in his chest. He knew that Derek could hear it, and somehow that made it worse. Or better. He wasn’t exactly sure. “Well... that’s not ....entirely....true. Mostly. The person I want isn’t available.”

“The... person?” Derek’s voice was low.  

“You live three thousand miles away from me, Derek. That’s kind of far to er.. come. For a booty call.”

Stiles winced again, wishing that he had grown out of the neverending awkwardness that was his mouth when he just blurted things out.

Derek swallowed so hard that Stiles could hear the click in his throat.  “If you want me.... to help with. To get you through your uh. Thing.”

Stiles licked his lips. “They have vibrators for that. To-” he mimicked Derek- “‘get me thru my..uh. Thing.’ I kind of want more than that, Derek.” He paused for a moment, still not sure what was coming out of his mouth. “But don’t get me wrong. Your dick is very nice.”

Derek snorted.

The silence stretched again between them, filling up the miles. Stiles tried to ignore his stupid heartbeat, tried to ignore the eight hundred other ways he could have told Derek what he wanted. It was so scary, so absolutely fucking terrifying to put himself out there after everything that had happened. Derek had been almost militantly cautious about waiting for Stiles to decide what Stiles wanted. He hadn’t pushed. He hadn’t insisted, or demanded, or done anything else but do his very best to rebuild some of the trust he’d shattered so long ago.

When Derek finally spoke, his voice was so low that Stiles almost didn’t hear it. “I’ve had two relationships in my life, Stiles.  My first was... it was bad. Kate made sure that I knew that it was my fault that... that my family was killed. That I was the reason they were murdered. She would laugh about it.” He trailed off, for a few minutes, obviously gathering his thoughts. “What I did to you? That couple of months after you got shot was. I’d never... been like that. It was.. sweet. Laura always said that my heart was too big not to fall in love with someone.  And until then I thought she was full of shit.  Then Morel happened. Oh yeah... it was easy enough to tell myself that I had a ‘reason.’ That I was doing the right thing by getting rid of you in a way that... that would be sure you were safe. That your dad would be okay, and Scott’s mom, and everyone would be perfectly a-ok because of my ‘brilliant plan.’  I was stupid and twisted and jealous... so fucking jealous at even the thought that you would.” Derek cut himself off mid-sentence, like he couldn’t even think of finishing the thought.

Stiles was gripping the phone so hard that he was surprised that it didn’t crack.

Derek took a deep breath. “So the idea. Even the chance of an idea that somehow you would forgive me enough to even allow me to touch you again... it’s a lot to process. That you might forgive me... when I haven’t forgiven myself... It’s unreal. ”

Stiles was silent.

“Stiles?”  

Stiles took a shaky breath.. aware that his smile was so big that it was actually hurting his jaw.

“Uh. Stiles? You know that I only admit to emotions once every ten years or so, so...”

“Yeah. I’ve seen you with your daughter, buddy. Gonna have to call bullshit on the ten years or so thing.” Stiles knew he sounded ridiculous, like his birthday and Christmas had all come at once.

“My daughter. Jesus, Stiles. Unreal doesn’t even begin to cover it.” Derek was quiet for a minute or so. “So.. now what?”

“Hmm. Well, now we go to plan B.”

“Plan.. B?”

Stiles nodded, then realized that Derek couldn’t hear him nod and shook his head at his own stupidity. “Yep. I have... actually. I have a couple of calls to make. Do you mind if I let you go?”
Stiles could almost hear the what the fuck emanating from the other end of the phone and winced again. “Er. I know that my timing isn’t the best after our Oprah moment, but I promise that it’s relevant to this conversation.”

“Oh. Well, do you want me to call--”

“Tomorrow? Of course! Zoe would be crushed if you didn’t. Look, I really have to. To go. Oh my god!! Holy shit I can’t believe this. It’s perfect. It’s actual perfection and I can’t even believe that. But only if I call like, now. Oh my god I have to go, Derek. I’ll talk to you later, okay? Bye!!”

Stiles hung up quickly- ignoring the slightly high-pitched squawk of complaint from Derek’s end of the line. It only took him a few minutes to get a hold of himself. For the first time in forever, Stiles knew exactly what he wanted.

***
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