October 24, 2016 - Bloodlines Intertwined
Title: October 24, 2016 - Bloodlines Intertwined
Prompt Choice: Blood
Pairing/Characters: Chris Argent and Derek Hale with others in flashbacks
Rating: PG
Medium: Fic
Word Count: 1699
Fandom: Teen Wolf (TV)
Disclaimer: I don't own Teen Wolf or any related characters.
Summary: Chris tracks down Derek to drop a completely unexpected bombshell.
Warnings: Let’s just say it spoils for everything so far. Switches between first and third person as well as present time and flashbacks, but hopefully it isn’t too confusing.
Notes: It has always bothered me that Allison’s parents both have light hair and eyes. Excuse me while I head-canon all over and create overly dramatic backstory.
Derek came back to check in on Beacon Hills on occasion, but he never made a big deal of it. He figured he didn’t really have any reason to stay, no real remaining ties, but he liked to see how Scott and his pack were doing, even if he never actually got close enough to say anything or be seen.
He should have known that someone would notice him eventually, and it shouldn’t have been a surprise that the one to do so was a former hunter.
Chris Argent sat down on the stool next to Derek at the bar he’d ducked into to avoid the sheriff.
“You really ought to say hi,” Chris observed, signaling the bartender. “I think they’d be happy to see you.”
“It’s not my town anymore,” Derek argued. “Why do I get the feeling you’re not just here to say hello?”
Chris ordered a beer and turned on his stool so he was fully facing Derek. “I know you think there’s no place for you here anymore, but I disagree. I’d like to tell you a story, if you’ll let me.”
“You’re going to tell me a story about myself?” Derek asked, quirking an eyebrow.
“No. It’s mostly about me.”
Derek knew Chris was just stubborn enough to hound him until he listened, so he settled in and gestured for the other man to begin.
~~~~~
I think my father was always disappointed that his firstborn child wasn’t female. All of our leaders have traditionally been women, and I think he’d hoped to mold his successor. It was kind of ironic, given that he’d taken over after the death of my mother, and he didn’t meet that gender requirement either.
At any rate, nothing I ever did measured up for him, and maybe even if I had been a daughter it wouldn’t have. I still tried, though, and for a long time I did every last thing he asked of me, hoping for any sort of positive recognition.
He was the one who first introduced me to Victoria. She wasn’t really interested in me, more in the Argent name. She was from an old hunting family, too. Our marriage sealed an important alliance of forces and brought fresh troops to our cause. In time, we grew to love each other in our own way, but for the first several years, it was all business.
~~~~~
“So,” Derek interrupted, “how long until this story becomes relevant to me?”
“I’m getting there,” Chris insisted, “but the background is important.”
~~~~~
Part of the arrangement hinged on us continuing the Argent bloodline. My father wanted a female heir, and though he had Kate, I don’t think he ever really trusted her to be a leader.
Victoria and I tried for a long time, but nothing was happening. We finally saw doctors, and we discovered that Victoria was sterile. We were too legally intertwined by this point to just divorce over something like that, so we started looking at options.
Gerard vetoed adoption immediately because he wanted the child to be of Argent stock. They also feared it would be perceived as some kind of weakness if we were to openly admit we couldn’t produce an heir in the usual way. My father and Victoria discussed it without me and came up with a plan that I didn’t approve of at all.
~~~~~
“You can’t be serious!” Chris glared at his impassive father and wife. “You want me to go out and have an affair with the sole purpose of fathering a child for us to take away from the other parent? That’s insane.”
“It’s been done for years in political and royal families,” Gerard informed him. “I would go the Roman route, but I’m quite certain your sister never intends to have any children of her own.”
“I’m not that kind of man,” Chris insisted. “I can’t just use another person like that.”
“You can and you will,” Victoria snapped. “You think this is easy for me? As one of the first hunting families, the Argent line must remain unbroken.”
If nothing else, Chris had come to realize how to tell when he was on the wrong end of a losing battle. Their current base was in southern California. He stormed out of his father’s study and drove until he started to run low on gas.
He was in some small, suburban town, and he stopped at the seediest looking bar he could find. If they wanted him to play the part of a callous sleaze, he wasn’t going to hold back.
He made straight for the bar without even glancing around and asked for a whole bottle of scotch. Maybe he wouldn’t remember this shameful moment later.
The person next to him let out a low whistle. “Having a rough night, are we?”
Chris looked over to see a woman with dark hair and eyes in a difficult to describe mix of shades. “My wife sent me out to sleep with someone else, if you can believe it.”
The woman considered that for a moment. “Many men in your place might be excited at that prospect.”
“But not me,” he insisted.
“At least you know your wife is alive,” the woman declared. “My husband walked out five years ago tonight, and I haven’t heard from him since. He left a note saying he’d be back, but in another two years, I could legally declare him dead, so...” she trailed off and polished off a tumbler of some amber liquor. There were empty glasses stacked in front of her, but she seemed hardly fazed at all.
Chris raised his own glass. “How about a toast to disappointing partners?”
The stranger smirked at him. “I’ve got a better one. Here’s to deliberately making bad decisions.”
~~~~~
“So you did it, then?” Derek asked, enthralled by the story despite his best intentions not to be. “You had an affair? Allison is your legally adopted illegitimate child?”
“That’s not the half of it.” Chris ordered another beer.
~~~~~
The strange woman and I did actually spend the night together. Maybe it was just that I had become accustomed to sex being a chore, but it was good.
My phone woke me up the next morning. Victoria was checking in on me, in case I decided to just run away instead of doing my twisted duty to the family.
While I was talking to her, my bedmate woke up and started to gather her things from the mix on the floor. When I hung up and turned around, she had found a blade coated in wolfsbane oil that must have fallen out of one of my pockets, and her eyes were glowing red.
~~~~~
Derek couldn’t help a surprised laugh. “You slept with an alpha werewolf, and neither of you knew what the other was?”
“She wasn’t just any alpha werewolf, Derek. We met in this bar.”
Chris waited for that nugget to sink in as Derek’s eyes widened.
“No,” he instinctively denied. “There’s no way. I know my father was gone for a while when I was younger, but he came back. My parents loved each other--she would never!”
Chris toasted the empty space in front of him. “To deliberately making bad decisions, indeed.”
“Are you suggesting Allison is my half-sister?” Derek demanded. “That can’t be! Even if it were true, why would my mother have agreed to give her up?”
“She agreed because there was no other choice, if she didn’t want open war between the Argents and Hales. Think back, Derek, your mother was pregnant once right before she had Cora, wasn’t she? Your father did come back that year, but the timing would have been all wrong.”
Derek shook his head. “She told us she lost the baby, and she wasn’t lying, I would have been able to tell!”
“She did lose her, in a way. We had an arrangement. If the baby were a werewolf, your family would keep it, but if the baby were human, it would be raised an Argent.
“Gerard and Victoria were thrilled to have a strong, healthy baby girl, and taking her away from your mother to be raised in a hunting family was like a particularly cruel slap in the face.
“Part of the reason I was so belligerent to you is because I was sure Talia had told you and you might try to take my daughter from me.”
Derek’s face fell. “I never knew. I was awful to her, and the whole time she was family.”
“There were times you weren’t terribly kind,” Chris allowed, “but you were never really awful. In fact, you looked out for her in the beginning, bringing her home from that party and protecting her from Scott.”
“I would have done more, if I had known.”
Chris nodded. “I believe you. Sometimes, I look back at it and think about the what-ifs. What if I had never agreed to marry Victoria and just left my family behind? What if your father hadn’t returned to your mother? Would I still have met Talia? In any reality, could we have worked? Hell, given the right set of circumstances, I might have been your stepfather!”
“I don’t know if I’d go that far,” Derek cautioned, but he as wearing a small smile. “It might be worth it just to call Gerard ‘grandpa’ once.”
Chris laughed. “Only if you let me film it--for posterity.”
They lapsed into a comfortable silence. They were really very alike, and now that they didn’t truly hate each other, friendship seemed to come easily.
“Sometimes family is less about blood and more about choice.” Chris gave Derek a pointed look. “I want you to know that I consider you part of mine, blood or not. I know family is important to you, and I don’t take it lightly either. I’m sure Scott feels the same way.”
“Thank you for telling me.” Derek sighed. “I guess I could come back for a while so us loners can keep each other company, you know, since you’d rather not be around Gerard, and I actively avoid Peter.”
Chris slapped Derek on the back. “Welcome to the family, kid.”
Prompt Choice: Blood
Pairing/Characters: Chris Argent and Derek Hale with others in flashbacks
Rating: PG
Medium: Fic
Word Count: 1699
Fandom: Teen Wolf (TV)
Disclaimer: I don't own Teen Wolf or any related characters.
Summary: Chris tracks down Derek to drop a completely unexpected bombshell.
Warnings: Let’s just say it spoils for everything so far. Switches between first and third person as well as present time and flashbacks, but hopefully it isn’t too confusing.
Notes: It has always bothered me that Allison’s parents both have light hair and eyes. Excuse me while I head-canon all over and create overly dramatic backstory.
Derek came back to check in on Beacon Hills on occasion, but he never made a big deal of it. He figured he didn’t really have any reason to stay, no real remaining ties, but he liked to see how Scott and his pack were doing, even if he never actually got close enough to say anything or be seen.
He should have known that someone would notice him eventually, and it shouldn’t have been a surprise that the one to do so was a former hunter.
Chris Argent sat down on the stool next to Derek at the bar he’d ducked into to avoid the sheriff.
“You really ought to say hi,” Chris observed, signaling the bartender. “I think they’d be happy to see you.”
“It’s not my town anymore,” Derek argued. “Why do I get the feeling you’re not just here to say hello?”
Chris ordered a beer and turned on his stool so he was fully facing Derek. “I know you think there’s no place for you here anymore, but I disagree. I’d like to tell you a story, if you’ll let me.”
“You’re going to tell me a story about myself?” Derek asked, quirking an eyebrow.
“No. It’s mostly about me.”
Derek knew Chris was just stubborn enough to hound him until he listened, so he settled in and gestured for the other man to begin.
~~~~~
I think my father was always disappointed that his firstborn child wasn’t female. All of our leaders have traditionally been women, and I think he’d hoped to mold his successor. It was kind of ironic, given that he’d taken over after the death of my mother, and he didn’t meet that gender requirement either.
At any rate, nothing I ever did measured up for him, and maybe even if I had been a daughter it wouldn’t have. I still tried, though, and for a long time I did every last thing he asked of me, hoping for any sort of positive recognition.
He was the one who first introduced me to Victoria. She wasn’t really interested in me, more in the Argent name. She was from an old hunting family, too. Our marriage sealed an important alliance of forces and brought fresh troops to our cause. In time, we grew to love each other in our own way, but for the first several years, it was all business.
~~~~~
“So,” Derek interrupted, “how long until this story becomes relevant to me?”
“I’m getting there,” Chris insisted, “but the background is important.”
~~~~~
Part of the arrangement hinged on us continuing the Argent bloodline. My father wanted a female heir, and though he had Kate, I don’t think he ever really trusted her to be a leader.
Victoria and I tried for a long time, but nothing was happening. We finally saw doctors, and we discovered that Victoria was sterile. We were too legally intertwined by this point to just divorce over something like that, so we started looking at options.
Gerard vetoed adoption immediately because he wanted the child to be of Argent stock. They also feared it would be perceived as some kind of weakness if we were to openly admit we couldn’t produce an heir in the usual way. My father and Victoria discussed it without me and came up with a plan that I didn’t approve of at all.
~~~~~
“You can’t be serious!” Chris glared at his impassive father and wife. “You want me to go out and have an affair with the sole purpose of fathering a child for us to take away from the other parent? That’s insane.”
“It’s been done for years in political and royal families,” Gerard informed him. “I would go the Roman route, but I’m quite certain your sister never intends to have any children of her own.”
“I’m not that kind of man,” Chris insisted. “I can’t just use another person like that.”
“You can and you will,” Victoria snapped. “You think this is easy for me? As one of the first hunting families, the Argent line must remain unbroken.”
If nothing else, Chris had come to realize how to tell when he was on the wrong end of a losing battle. Their current base was in southern California. He stormed out of his father’s study and drove until he started to run low on gas.
He was in some small, suburban town, and he stopped at the seediest looking bar he could find. If they wanted him to play the part of a callous sleaze, he wasn’t going to hold back.
He made straight for the bar without even glancing around and asked for a whole bottle of scotch. Maybe he wouldn’t remember this shameful moment later.
The person next to him let out a low whistle. “Having a rough night, are we?”
Chris looked over to see a woman with dark hair and eyes in a difficult to describe mix of shades. “My wife sent me out to sleep with someone else, if you can believe it.”
The woman considered that for a moment. “Many men in your place might be excited at that prospect.”
“But not me,” he insisted.
“At least you know your wife is alive,” the woman declared. “My husband walked out five years ago tonight, and I haven’t heard from him since. He left a note saying he’d be back, but in another two years, I could legally declare him dead, so...” she trailed off and polished off a tumbler of some amber liquor. There were empty glasses stacked in front of her, but she seemed hardly fazed at all.
Chris raised his own glass. “How about a toast to disappointing partners?”
The stranger smirked at him. “I’ve got a better one. Here’s to deliberately making bad decisions.”
~~~~~
“So you did it, then?” Derek asked, enthralled by the story despite his best intentions not to be. “You had an affair? Allison is your legally adopted illegitimate child?”
“That’s not the half of it.” Chris ordered another beer.
~~~~~
The strange woman and I did actually spend the night together. Maybe it was just that I had become accustomed to sex being a chore, but it was good.
My phone woke me up the next morning. Victoria was checking in on me, in case I decided to just run away instead of doing my twisted duty to the family.
While I was talking to her, my bedmate woke up and started to gather her things from the mix on the floor. When I hung up and turned around, she had found a blade coated in wolfsbane oil that must have fallen out of one of my pockets, and her eyes were glowing red.
~~~~~
Derek couldn’t help a surprised laugh. “You slept with an alpha werewolf, and neither of you knew what the other was?”
“She wasn’t just any alpha werewolf, Derek. We met in this bar.”
Chris waited for that nugget to sink in as Derek’s eyes widened.
“No,” he instinctively denied. “There’s no way. I know my father was gone for a while when I was younger, but he came back. My parents loved each other--she would never!”
Chris toasted the empty space in front of him. “To deliberately making bad decisions, indeed.”
“Are you suggesting Allison is my half-sister?” Derek demanded. “That can’t be! Even if it were true, why would my mother have agreed to give her up?”
“She agreed because there was no other choice, if she didn’t want open war between the Argents and Hales. Think back, Derek, your mother was pregnant once right before she had Cora, wasn’t she? Your father did come back that year, but the timing would have been all wrong.”
Derek shook his head. “She told us she lost the baby, and she wasn’t lying, I would have been able to tell!”
“She did lose her, in a way. We had an arrangement. If the baby were a werewolf, your family would keep it, but if the baby were human, it would be raised an Argent.
“Gerard and Victoria were thrilled to have a strong, healthy baby girl, and taking her away from your mother to be raised in a hunting family was like a particularly cruel slap in the face.
“Part of the reason I was so belligerent to you is because I was sure Talia had told you and you might try to take my daughter from me.”
Derek’s face fell. “I never knew. I was awful to her, and the whole time she was family.”
“There were times you weren’t terribly kind,” Chris allowed, “but you were never really awful. In fact, you looked out for her in the beginning, bringing her home from that party and protecting her from Scott.”
“I would have done more, if I had known.”
Chris nodded. “I believe you. Sometimes, I look back at it and think about the what-ifs. What if I had never agreed to marry Victoria and just left my family behind? What if your father hadn’t returned to your mother? Would I still have met Talia? In any reality, could we have worked? Hell, given the right set of circumstances, I might have been your stepfather!”
“I don’t know if I’d go that far,” Derek cautioned, but he as wearing a small smile. “It might be worth it just to call Gerard ‘grandpa’ once.”
Chris laughed. “Only if you let me film it--for posterity.”
They lapsed into a comfortable silence. They were really very alike, and now that they didn’t truly hate each other, friendship seemed to come easily.
“Sometimes family is less about blood and more about choice.” Chris gave Derek a pointed look. “I want you to know that I consider you part of mine, blood or not. I know family is important to you, and I don’t take it lightly either. I’m sure Scott feels the same way.”
“Thank you for telling me.” Derek sighed. “I guess I could come back for a while so us loners can keep each other company, you know, since you’d rather not be around Gerard, and I actively avoid Peter.”
Chris slapped Derek on the back. “Welcome to the family, kid.”