Stiles slipped back into the depot, mind whirling away trying to figure out how to break this news to Derek, and to Isaac and Peter to a lesser extent. Chris had assured Stiles that they would call the minute Talia got there. Stiles didn't want to risk there being any sort of familiar Hale scent to the girl without warning the two wolves who would recognize it.

Peter was the first one he saw. He was working at his laptop on a makeshift desk. His nose wrinkled and he turned to glare at Stiles. "Really, Stiles?" He asked, eyebrow raised.

"I needed confirmation on something, and unfortunately Chris was the only source available."

Suddenly both Isaac and Derek were standing in the doorway of the subway car, both growling lightly.

"I was careful and made sure it was only Chris and Allison home... well them and Victoria I suppose, by the way Allison knows about her now. Funny story actually, I called Chris lady and then told Allison he reminded me of this cross-dresser I met at Jungle before I snitched about Vicky being in his head. Good times."

Isaac and Peter both smirked a bit in response, but Derek was giving him the raised eyebrow 'I question your sanity' look.

Stiles clapped his hands once before rubbing them together as he continued speaking. "Right, so Kate's memories. The gift that keeps on stabbing you in the kidneys, more or less. Some surfaced last night by way of a dream. Because it was a dream though, I wasn't positive about it and I had to be. Positive that is."

"Do you always do this?" Isaac asked head tilted.

"Do what?" Stiles asked, explanation derailed, at least temporarily.

"Get kind of flakey when explaining something you don't actually want to be explaining." Isaac said with a smirk.

"Um... possibly. Anywho, I uh managed to confirm that the dream was one of Kate's memories. Now, I would never ever drag up everything from her and the fire if it could be avoided, but this... well you need to know."

Peter spoke, standing up and walking towards Stiles. "I should probably mention that Derek knows I was aware of his relationship with her."

"There is so much more than even Derek knows. Gerard had some sick master plan. He sent Kate to seduce a Hale... by any means necessary. She wore a hemisphere and wolfsbane based perfume. She didn't want or need to get information out of you, Derek. The Argents knew about the Hales; they'd lived in peace for decades."

"So, uh, why go after the Hales at all?" Isaac asked, right before Peter followed with another question.

"And why seduce one of us?"

"From what I understand just in property alone, you guys were extremely well off. The Hales were an established pack well before the California Gold Rush, but that pushed your family from comfortable to well off. You bought up a huge area of land, but you didn't just hold onto the land, you made businesses and deals; You basically founded Beacon Hills. Your family invested in the community and in people. Those investments didn't always pay out, but more often than not, when they did, they payed out very well." Stiles stated, hiding his amusement at Peter's subtle preening over the history of their family.

"The Argents are an even older family and a powerful one, but over many long years their wealth has gone somewhat stagnant. They own property all over the world, but those are mainly safe houses and bolt holes. Their property isn't making money for them, by and large. The only reason Chris lives so well off is their fairly new practice of acting as arms dealers for both other hunters and law enforcement. They aren't exactly hurting for money, and yes, they could sell off even just a fraction of their worldwide properties and have a much improved financial outlook, but Gerard didn't want to do that."

"He had other ideas for increasing the Argent family coffers. When you look at a pack like the Hales, you have a tight knit and prosperous family. You also have an opportunity to remove that whole tight knit pack in one or two swift moves, while making it look accidental." Stiles said, grimly.

"So they swoop in and kill us all; That doesn't give the Argents access to the Hale Legacy." Peter said thoughtfully, watching Stiles. "We may have been tight knit, but there were cousins and in-laws. If we'd have all died they would have been scrambling to look for distant relatives to take over."

"Not if they had a not so distant relative ready and waiting to inherit." Stiles continued, eyes not meeting anyone else.

"A good theory, but there was no one else, unless you mean Derek and Laura, or myself, and I don't see how any of this would allow the Argents to step in." Derek was looking at Peter as he spoke, but had yet to comment on any of it, still locked onto the idea that Kate had drugged him.

"In Gerard's plan, none of you were meant to survive. He intended to use someone no one could object to; Someone he could control completely, his grandchild."

"Allison?" Isaac asked, confused.

"No, his other grandchild," Stiles said, quietly, eyes now locked on Derek. "Talia Hale-Argent."

Derek staggered back before Peter grabbed one hand and Isaac the other. After a moment or two of what could only be the beginnings of a panic attack, he looked back to Stiles and in a strained small voice asked, "Did he kill her?"

Stiles rushed forward, head shaking as he pulled Derek into a hug. "She's alive, Derek. She's alive and on her way here."

Derek's legs just stopped holding him up and when he dropped, they all dropped down around him. Stiles pulled him close and then told him what he knew. "She's pretty much been raised by a nanny, and can I say this is the one time I've ever been in favor of a child being raised by 'the help'." Stiles said with little hand quotes. "The nanny, Claudia something or other, knows she's a wolf and-"

"She's a wolf?" Peter asked, just as Derek was opening his mouth to do the same.

"The nanny was trying to work out how to tell Chris when he guessed. He had to reassure her he didn't care before she agreed to bring her here. Apparently Gerard had standing orders to keep her the Hell away from Beacon Hills."

"But she's coming here? Today?" Derek asked, his voice small, but oh so achingly hopeful.

"Once Chris convinced her to come, she said she could be here by tonight."

Derek had a moment of joy and then his features closed down. "What if she's not mine? It's not like Kate knew the meaning of the word loyal, and Gerard wasn't above trying to pass someone else's kid off as a Hale."

"Remember who's memories I have all up in this." Stiles said, tapping his own head. "I have no memory of Kate being with anyone else while she was with you; I mean, I can't swear to her not getting up to anything, I don't exactly have a good filing system going yet. However, she believed the baby was yours. Oh, and I also saw the baby when she was born. The fact is that she has your beautiful eyes, that was how I knew she was yours."

Derek leaned forward, wrapping his arms around Stiles and buried his now teary face against Stile's chest, while Peter and Isaac held him from either side. A small muffled "Thank you." was all he said for a very long while

They stayed like that for awhile, but eventually Stiles had more to say. Stiles waited until Derek pulled back and they all settled in a little more comfortably on the floor before he started talking again.

"Sooo, you two remember crazy nurse Jenny, right?" Stiles asked, uncomfortable, but needing Derek and Peter to know this.

"As loath as I am to recall that time in my life, Stiles, yes I remember my nurse. Derek killed her while trying to protect you, after all."

Derek winced, haunted by the news. Stiles quickly spoke again, hopefully to alleviate the guilt. "Good." He hissed savagely.

All three wolves turned to stare at him then.

"The bitch set Laura up to be killed, and set Peter up to do it. He sure as Hell wasn't up to running around Beacon Hills leaving cute little clues to lure her home. That had to be Gerard's work. He wanted a weak Alpha they could control. Get Gerard the bite, and then a comatose Alpha would be easy to do away with, plus he had the key to the Hale Inheritance tucked away, and killing Laura put them one step closer on both plans."

Both Peter and Derek looked ready to be sick. Isaac was holding on to Derek from the side and Stiles had one hand on Peter, helping him to keep upright, the other wrapped up in Derek's hands.

"I don't even think Peter killed her." Stiles said speculatively, causing both Hales to look up, one in shock and the other in desperate hope. "He didn't need to kill her to beat her and take the Alpha power, and his claws may be good but Laura? She was cut clean in half."

"Like with a sword?" Isaac asked, his eyes distant, as if remembering something.

Stiles nodded. "Peter needed a strong pack, why would he kill not only family, but such a strong wolf? All he needed to do was beat her." He patted the tattoo on Derek's back. "An Alpha can fall to a beta. Besides he was an older family member; All he needed to do was prove his dominance, and become her Alpha, and odds were Laura would have followed him. He did the same thing to Derek, until Derek believed he'd killed Laura. Peter was still healing. He wanted, no needed a strong pack. But Gerard didn't want a strong Alpha, so Laura had to go."

Peter sat quietly, tears falling, with a look of forlorn hope. "How do you know she was the one?"

"Because Gerard used her before. She was Kate's midwife." Derek growled at the idea of her near his child.

"That doesn't necessarily mean she knew about wolves." Isaac said carefully, playing devil's advocate.

"Normally, yeah." Stiles agreed, before continuing. "Except, one of Kate's stray 'I'm giving birth' thoughts was about how Gerard had suggested Jennifer because she knew all about wolves and wouldn't freak out if the baby popped out furry. Speaking of, is that really a thing, or was Kate just being racist... speciesist... er... a bitch?" He asked, looking up at Peter.

"Childbirth is natural and beautiful and all that," Peter said with the air of someone lecturing. "but, it's also painful and completely overwhelming to both the mother and the child. Plenty of lycanthrope mothers lose control and shift while giving birth, and more than a few babies come out at least partially shifted, but they're not really any danger to the mother, not even a human one, since they don't have teeth or much in the way of claws yet. Derek came out looking human, but I seem to recall Laura coming out looking more like a wolf pup." His voice was strained by the end, but he smiled at the happy memory.

"Talia didn't shift, but I'm fairly sure her eyes flashed once. Anyway, my point was that nurse wack-a-doodle was in the know and worked with, or at least, for Gerard. My secondary point was, bitch was crazy and at the very least nearly got me killed by Peter while she was still trying to control him. I mean I wasn't a wolf and I was nosy and in the way. There was no reason for you not to kill me at that point."

"You mean aside from how much that little key trick at the school impressed me? From the very moment I heard you insisting on getting a look at me, despite the fact that you were terrified, I knew I wanted you in my pack, Stiles." Both his mates growled at that. "Now, now; I had clearly become sane enough to ask instead of forcing it, thankfully. Someone as resourceful and stubborn as Stiles would have made sure I suffered before ensuring my death had I forced him to accept the bite, and somehow, I doubt there would have been enough left to resurrect."

Stiles smirked at him, while his two mate alternated between giving Peter shocked looks and Stiles proud ones.

"You're probably entirely right, Peter. The minute you would have tried to cut me off from my dad, like you first tried with Scott and his mom, well..." Stiles left off with an evil smirk, before climbing to his feet and offering one hand to Peter and the other to Derek.

Once both Hales were standing, he turned and pulled Isaac up and into a hug, one hand rubbing over where the bullet wound had been only the night before. He held out his free hand and pulled Derek into the hug, holding tight to his mates for a long minute, a slow happy sigh falling from his mouth.

Eventually, Stiles pulled back and shifted back into planning mode. "Okay, we have a lot of things to accomplish before tonight. Peter, how many bedrooms are in the old McMillian place? I know you mentioned a loft area, but we're probably going to need sleeping space for three adults, you, Melissa and hopefully, Dad, some kind of space for the betas if need be, and a bedroom for Talia, once we settle paternity and custody." Derek was starting to look panicked and more than a little in shock. "That's also something we need to keep in mind for rebuilding the house, too. We'll need room for the whole pack, and room for it to grow." Both Hales were now looking thoughtful and pleased at the idea of the pack growing in the future, although Derek still managed to look a little green with nerves.

Peter thought about it for a moment before he answered. "Aside from the loft area, there are four bedrooms in the main house and a small garage apartment we can easily use as another two or three bedrooms. The basement is also finished, but it's mostly a big rec room, with a bathroom and bar along one side."

"Perfect. We can use that space for the entire pack to hang out, and maybe double as sleeping space for them if need be. I don't trust that this whole thing with Gerard is over, not to mention whatever the Hell the Alpha Pack wants in Beacon Hills, so I want to try to keep as many of us close as possible. I know you guys said a couple days, but if possible I want us there tonight. We need to go see Dad today, and I'm sure you wanna check in with your... with Finstock, but could you see what you, and maybe Jackson, Danny and Lydia, can do to push things along today?"

"Of course, Stiles." He said and nodded before moving off to make arrangements.

"I know we have things to do, but..." Stiles started, before pulling both mates back towards their bed. "it's not even Noon yet, and I really just need to hold the two of you for a little bit." He barely finished speaking before he was picked up, by Derek and carried the rest of the way to their bed.

The kisses that followed were slow and gentle and just what the three of them needed.