Stiles let out a low breath, looking at the pack from a distance, just smiling, laughing, not even knowing what kind of mental agony he was in at the moment.
They were celebrating the defeat of the Ghost Riders, they remembered everyone that was taken...except one person, Stiles himself.
He didn't even know why he was the only one that remained erased, his fake Mom had disappeared but his room still remained behind a closed off wall.
Someone brushed past him, he looked to see who it was and his heart stopped beating, it was Lydia and she looked right through him like he wasn't even there.
'Remember I love you.' He had told her, but she didn't. Nobody remembered him.
Stiles turned around and left with nothing but the clothes on his back.
"Hey, guys," Lydia said, sitting down with her friends.
Everyone was slightly awkward around her for the past few months.
"Just got back from a doctor's appointment," Lydia added,"Everything's looking okay."
"Lydia...are you sure you don't want to--"
"Yes, I'm sure Scott," Lydia interrupted, looking at her belly that was just starting to show signs of her pregnancy,"Tell me, if you had suddenly gotten pregnant in high school and you didn't know who the mother is, would you keep it?"
"...I don't know," Scott answered finally.
"The way I see it, I'm just giving it up for a better life," Lydia admitted, her hands itching to touch her stomach but she resisted,"That's all I'm doing."
Change Of View
Tears fell down Hope's face, watching Landon and Josie kiss for the first time.
Six months she spent in Malivore, wanting to see Landon, the boy she loved, and now she does and it felt like a knife was stabbing her in the back over and over again.
It hurt so much, and if she could in that moment, she would have turned her humanity off.
With her heart pounding she turned and ran away, a million thoughts and questions in her head most of them saying one thing. Why?
Why is she the one that gets her heart broken? Why is she the only one that gets erased from everyone's memory? Why did all the most horrible things happen to her? After all she had done to save the school, Landon, even the world from Malivore, she was the one that was forgotten.
For once, she wanted to be something else so she could decide what happened to her.
Hope went down onto all fours in wolf form, her clothes tearing off as she ran away from the sight of Josie and Landon.
She gave into her instincts, hoping it would dull the pain she felt but it wasn't working.
When her parents died, she spent hours in the woods, releasing her emotions when she took the form of an animal, giving into the primal instincts that made her a predator.
Everything seemed so much clearer when she was a wolf, the hardest problems in her life could find a simple solution whenever she shifted.
But none of that worked now, being a wolf didn't take her pain, it was too strong of emotions, too human.
Hope stumbled back into human form, crying out in pain as a tree hit her bare shoulder, leaving her a sobbing mess on the ground.
She looked up at the full moon with tear filled eyes.
Then she came to a realization, she could have all the things she wanted now because she was forgotten, a clean slate.
She didn't have to stay at the school anymore because it didn't need to protect her anymore, her family's enemies can't be after her if nobody even knew she existed. She had her magic, her wolf powers, the only things she really needed to take care of herself.
She could be whoever she wanted to be now.
Standing up she muttered an incantation under her breath and new clothes formed around her, not the Salvatore school uniform with the plaid skirts, itchy sweaters, and button down shirts, but clothes she had chosen for herself.
High heeled leather boots, ripped jeans, a leather jacket, a loose t-shirt, her hair braided down her back, and her Mikaelson necklace around her neck, something she couldn't part with. The one part of her old identity that she would keep to herself.
She had bought a one way bus ticket to New York City using the leftover money she had from her tattered clothes, and she stepped onto the bus with only a moment's hesitation.
Sitting down in her seat as the bus started to move, her body tense the whole time, but when she passed the Leaving Mystic Falls sign, she relaxed, an unexpected feeling filling her.
Freedom.
Time Skip
"Hey, kid," The truck driver said, shaking Stiles awake,"You said Beacon Hills, right?"
Stiles groaned,"Yeah, thanks."
He nodded to him as Stiles hopped out of the large truck, stretching. Hitchhiking, that was his main source of travel now, in the past five months that he had left Beacon Hills he had already been across seven states, trying to settle in one place to find work or any semblance of home. But for some reason he felt the call to home, not even knowing why. He just woke up one night in a homeless shelter feeling the absolute need to go back to Beacon Hills.
So he did, walking along the freeway for a few hours while holding his thumb up for any passing vehicles.
His first stop was the school, it was the dead of night so no one was there, and grabbed a key from under a brick behind the dumpster. Coach's spare key.
Unlocking the door he stepped into the boys locker room, going immediately for the shower. It had been a couple days since he last took the shower so he took advantage.
Grabbing a towel and going to find a specific locker with a familiar combination lock,"Thank you, Greenberg, for getting held back again," He mumbled, pulling Greenberg's Old Spice shampoo and bodywash out of the locker.
He showered and used the washing machine usually used for uniforms or the shower towels.
The only clothes he had now, either donated or stolen.
Pulling on a faded red t-shirt and a tattered pair of jeans, socks with multiple holes in them, and scuffed up shoes.
His first stop was Scott and Melissa, both of them at home. Scott worked on his computer, getting ready for college he assumed, while Melissa sorted through the mail.
The next was Malia, who was at her Dad's house, looking at flights for Paris.
The next was his Dad, no longer having to go home as much because he didn't have a son to take care of.
Stiles looked at his Dad through the window of his office, his phone rang and he picked him up. Stiles didn't know what was happening but whatever it was made the Sheriff suddenly stand his eyes going wide.
Stilinski spoke quickly into the phone not noticing Stiles starting to inch closer to the window, trying to read his lips.
He was talking too fast but Stikes did recognize one word he said,'Lydia.'
Stiles took off running towards Lydia's house as fast as his human legs could carry him.
But just as he started to get near it, an ambulance came zooming from its direction.
Nearly falling from stopping so suddenly, he turned back around his heart pounding he took off running again this time towards the hospital.
Change Of View
"The head is crowning!" The doctor said.
Lydia only screamed in pain, having just arrived only moments ago, her Mother holding her hand tightly as she squeezed it viciously.
"Shoulders," The doctor said next.
When it was finally finished there was a shrill cry that pierced the air, and Lydia squeezed her eyes shut not able to look.
"It's a—"
"Don't tell me!" Lydia interrupted, her breath coming out in small pants,"J-Just take it away."
"Ms. Martin..." The doctor started.
Lydia felt her tears flood out from her closed eyes and she let out a broken whisper,"I can't be a mother."
With a look of sadness, the doctor handed the baby off to a nurse and she took her out of the room.
Change Of View
Stiles was out of breath, his lungs burning, he had managed to get past the front desk by telling them he was part of the Martin family. Then they directed him to the maternity ward, and he got there just in time for a nurse to come walking out of the room holding a crying baby.
"Uh, hi," Stiles said as the baby stopped crying, after hearing his voice,"I was uhh...I was just..." He fell silent, just looking at the baby.
The baby opened its eyes, revealing brown eyes, his eyes.
"Is...Is that...Is that Lydia's baby?" Stiles finally managed to ask.
"It was," The nurse replied,"She's chosen to give her up for adoption."
"It's a girl," Stiles said, he didn't even know Lydia was pregnant. Everything in his mind told him it shouldn't be possible, that it was only once, but in his heart he knew the baby was his.
Flashback
It was a couple weeks since what happened with the Beast and the Dread Doctors, everyone was enjoying the peace and quiet except one person, Stiles.
"Wow," Lydia said, walking into Stiles's room,"Scott was right? You're going insane."
His board of supernatural threats had expanded to every wall in his room, pictures and articles and paragraphs of historical essays all duct taped to his walls.
"What some call insane," Stiles said,"I call preparation."
Lydia looked at one of the pictures,"Witches? Really?"
"Yeah," Stiles replied.
"Aren't witches druids?" Lydia asked.
Stiles shook his head,"Druids don't have any magic, they have magical objects, Mountain ash and bestiaries and all that. Witches have their own magic, like lighting a candle with only their brain, telekinesis, and saying a bunch of random Latin words."
"What's this one?" Lydia asked, looking at an Aztec drawing.
"The curse of the sun and the moon," Stiles said,"Supposedly an ancient Shaman cursed vampires so that they would burn in the sun and werewolves couldn't control their shift on the full moon."
"But they can," Lydia said.
"I know, that's why I put that on the probably not true wall."
"You are in desperate need of a girlfriend," Lydia commented.
"If you recall, I did have one," Stiles said,"That's more than some teenagers get in their entire high school life."
"Yes, but then she broke up with you for reasons I don't really understand," She said, sitting down on his bed.
"It was mutual," Stiles reminded her, turning to look back at the wall,"Why're you looking at me like that?" He asked, not even turning around to know she was staring.
"I'm just...going down memory lane," Lydia answered,"Thinking about the little kid with a buzz-cut that would follow me around in third grade."
Stiles turned to look at her, crossing his arms over his broad chest,"Now what do I look like?"
"Well...If I just met you, I'd probably want to fulfill my needs as a woman using you. But since I actually do know you it would just be weird."
Stiles blushed,"Uh, y-yeah. Totally weird...because we're like best friends and there's never going to be the right time, and uh..." He stammered, stopping when he came to a realization, if it would be any time, it would be now. The small period between supernatural threats, a calm before the storm.
Lydia smiled a little shyly,"Where's your Dad, Stiles?"
"M-My Dad? He, uh...had the late shift at the station," He said more than a little nervously.
Lydia's smile widened,"Okay, so how about you tell me more about other supernatural things you've covered."
Stiles blinked several times,"Uh, alright."
He spoke for maybe five minutes, Lydia standing up and going next to him, shoulder to shoulder.
Then their eyes met and Stiles fell silent, he finally leaned down and kissed her, which she returned in full force. Picking her up, he carried her to the bed.
End Flashback
Stiles looked at the baby through a panel of glass, other baby's surrounding in glass boxes there with her, his daughter.
He didn't care what it took, he was going to keep her, he would raise her alone if he had to. But he was homeless, so Child Services probably wouldn't let him keep her, he needed someway where no one would take her from him.
An idea started to form in his mind, an absolutely insane one, but it definitely was an idea.