This is the moment we've been waiting for. We arm ourselves with all we've got- claws, canines, katanas, guns, and knives, and prepare for Peter's worst.

But he doesn't move.

Instead, his blank expression turns into a dark sneer. His eyes begin to glow the darkest red I've ever seen in eyes. "Do you honestly think you could beat me?! I could easily kill you all in a heartbeat."

"No one should have that much power, Peter, it's not right."

"You know what?" He asks. "You're right Danielle, too much power is dangerous. Were-jaguars are an abomination of power."

"What are you-"

He comes at me fast- too fast.

It's not even until I see my own blood running down my dress that I realize he dug a gash into my throat.

I instinctively grab my throat and my knees give out, and I feel Derek's arms around me as I fall.

"You really think you can beat me?!" Peter yells.

I hear this all as I look up to Derek, his face twisted into a panicked form of shock,

gasping and desperately trying to keep me alive. He tries to take away the pain, stop the bleeding, all so frantically.

"I can take as much power as I want, considering I can now siphon power from any source." Peter says. "What, was your plan to kill me and have the nemeton absorb my power?! You stupid, ignorant…."

I hear Kate's roar, followed by an anguished scream before her voice is abruptly cut short.

Derek only looks at me. "Please don't leave me." He begs.

"Thank you, Kate. I can always use more power. Unfortunately, I simply can't resist the idea of using someone's weapon to kill them, so how about I kill all of you with the nemeton's power?!"

"D-Der…" Too much blood. "Derek."

Tears begin to stream from Derek's eyes. "Danielle."

"Can't… breathe…"

"How- tell me how I can fix it!" He says frantically.

"...make it stop."

He shakes his head. "No. I can save you, please!"

Out of the corner of my eye, I see Peter put both of his hands on the nemeton.

"Please." I manage to say. "Make… it… stop. If you love me… you'll do it."

"Danielle…" He says through tears. "You're all I have left."

"... trust me."

Derek shakes his head as his tears fall on my cheek. He leans down and kissed my forehead.

"Derek. Please."

I've never seen him so pained.

I reach over and put my hand around Peter's ankle.

"I love you." Derek whispers one last time.

Then he digs his claws into me and everything goes black.

…

Everyone says that all of this stuff happens when you die- that you see "The light", and your life plays back in your mind, and that your brain stays awake for a few minutes after you die.

Well, they've clearly never died.

Everything is black. And yes, my thoughts continue to run- I guess that's my soul living on as my body dies. That was so quick and abrupt. Thankfully, my body was in shock, so I didn't feel Derek kill me. I wonder if they killed Peter- or if Peter killed everyone I love, including Derek.

"... not too much longer."

What?

…

"A few minutes?" A familiar voice says.

Deaton? I guess aloud, though I don't really have much of a voice anymore.

"It's possible."

Yeah, that's definitely Deaton.

…

"... Danielle?"

That second voice. That's Derek. I know his voice when I hear it.

"I don't know if you can hear me…"

Yes! I can! Talk to me…

"You don't have a heartbeat or anything, but… I'm still gonna try. I may be talking to a corpse right now, but it's worth a shot."

I don't have a pulse anymore?

Oh yeah, I'm dead.

"Please." He begs again. "Please come back to me. I can't lose anyone else. I need you- I can't do this alone."

I know I couldn't have helped it, but I can't help but feel like I broke my vows. I promise, I'll never leave you...but I did.

"I can't have this happen to me again."

Derek, if only you knew how much I wanted to open my eyes and tell you it's going to be okay.

"I can't do this again…"

Hear faint sobs over me, and feel his warm hands clench mine.

…

Wait a second.

I feel his hands.

"Please, Danielle. Wake up and come back to me. I know it isn't possible, but somehow… Stay with me."

I feel his hands!

It all happens quickly. I feel my hands, my feet. It spreads throughout my body, warming my heart last.

…

In an instant, I feel my whole body again and I jolt with life.

I sit up, gasping for air.

My lungs sting with the sudden intake, making me dizzy.

I turn to see Derek, frozen with shock, his jaw dropped as he stares at me.

"...Danielle?"

It's tricky to re-remember how to work my muscles, but somehow I remember how to do what I want to the most right now.

Smile.

"Derek!"

He jumps up and goes to take me into his arms, but freezes. "Oh my- uh, Danielle, you might want to lie back down. You're still healing."

I feel the sting in my neck return and i lie back down.

It takes him a few seconds to be able to speak again.

"How in the world are you alive?" He asks in pure, dumbfounded astonishment.

I try to remember what happened, and when I do, I begin to laugh faintly.

"It's something that I learned years and years ago."

He reaches forward and brushes my hair from my face, listening intently.

"... Cats have nine lives."

Derek's jaw drops again. "How did you know that would work?!"

"I didn't. But I had to try. It was my only chance." Then I remember the whole reason we were down there. "Wait, what happened to-"

"He's dead, Danielle. Gone."

"Good, it worked. I put my hand on his ankle- hoping it'd be too much power for him."

"In the end, it was. You died right as he was siphoning the nemeton, and it was too much. His body overloaded and he died."

"We did it." I smile triumphantly.

"We sure did. But that doesn't change what you did."

I realize what he means, and prepare for the worst.

"You left me." He says. His ecstatic voice begins to drip with heartbreak and betrayal.

"I'm sorry, I-"

"No. You left me. Hours after you vowed not to."

"I wasn't trying to-"

"You LEFT me!" Derek begins to raise his voice, and his eyes tint red. "I had to do the same thing to Paige, you know that!"

"Derek, I would've bled out!" I try to explain through the pain of my neck. "I would have died anyways. Slowly and painfully, choking on my own blood. Do you really want that for me?!"

He shakes his head, still angry.

"What I did was my only choice. And it helped kill the one person who would have killed everyone. I swear, Derek, I never wanted to leave you. Please don't make this something it's not."

She continues to shake his head and closes his eyes. "I just don't know what to think anymore."

I lay there in the silence, letting him think.

"... I understand, you know." He finally says. "Why you did it. And if I didn't love you so much, I'd call this whole thing off, right here, right now. But I can't. Why? I can't lose you. Please understand that."

I nod, holding his hand tight. "I do. I really, really do. I said it at the altar, and I meant it. I'll say it again- I promise, I'll never leave you. I took this chance because it was the only way I'd have hope of coming back, and I did."

He opens his eyes and looks down at me. "I know. But don't ever do that again."

"Have I ever told you that I love you?" I ask sheepishly.

"M-hm, whatever." He says sarcastically. He grins down at me before kissing my hand. "I love you too.

"Well now that this is over, what are we gonna do now?"

"I don't know." Derek admits. "But I do know one thing."

"And what's that?"

He leans down and gives me a gentle kiss.

Then he looks into my eyes.

"We'll do it together."

Derek and I returned home a few days later and moved into his old house. We left for a belated honeymoon about a week later, and went to Hawaii, where we were able to get away for a while and relax. We went on tours, took surfing lessons, and took lots of pictures for a scrapbook I talked him into letting me make. We did some other… things as well...

When we got back home, we focused on homemaking. I tried to keep the house clean and tidy as much as I could, but one day I got very ill and was too lazy for a few weeks. Derek was very supportive of me and nursed me, but neither of us really knew how to care for a sick supernatural creature. It took us a while to remember that supernatural creatures couldn't even get sick. But nonetheless, Derek drove me to the nearest hospital and we sought help for this weird situation. That's when we found out I wasn't sick at all.

Yep- whatever you're thinking is probably right.

I'll never forget the look of shock on Derek's face when the doctor told us that I was pregnant. First, it was shock, for about fifteen seconds. But then he started smiling and never stopped.

Nine months later, it's a boy. And yes- we named him after his father.

My father was shocked when we surprised him. At first he didn't get it- we kept calling him "Grandpa", until he finally asked why. Yeah, it was a bit of a delayed reaction.

We weren't the only happy ones- eventually, my father remarried with Melissa. It was a quick, intimate wedding, but it was meaningful. As we all grew older, we went down different paths, but stayed true to the pack.

Lydia moved on to become a surgeon- no surprise there, because she's a genius, and she can predict death. She's never lost a patient.

Scott and Kira eventually had kids of their own, and they're always visiting. Kira and I are silently hoping that my son and her daughter get together twenty years from now.

As for us, we've never been happier. Derek is an amazing father, and is our son to be responsible with his abilities. We still aren't really sure which abilities he's inherited, but we'll find out sooner or later.

We take every day gratefully, knowing first hand that it could be our last. We live to the fullest and make every day count. But we don't just survive.

We live.

Thank you guys so much for reading "Stay With Me"! This was my first fan fiction and I am so happy to have been able to share it with you guys! It has been a long road, but I am so pleased with the finished product and look forward to writing more fics. Feel free to message me your requests and I'll try to write them for you, and thank you so much for all of the positive feedback! You guys are amazing. Thanks again!