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The interesting part was looking back on everything in retrospect.
When the worst was over and things started getting back to Beacon Hills' version of normal.
When Kate was dead and had taken a whole lot of bad shit with her.
Because he actually remembered how he'd felt coming back home from Allie Henson's rescue. After spending nearly all day at the station, drinking bad coffee and filling out paperwork - tugged this way, then that, before being carted off to a Search and Rescue wrap up meeting. Which ended up being more of a celebration slash ass-reaming. One for finding the pipsqueak. And two for breaking standard protocol by going off on his own and not marking his path.
He'd pulled into the driveway and felt- alive.
At the time he'd been so unused to the sensation he hadn't realized he was practically humming out of his own skin. Euphoric in an almost serene way he hadn't' know what to do with other than fall back on old habits. Forcing out the usual tired sigh as he toed off his shoes and missed the shoe rack by a mile. Heading in the vague direction of the shower as he dropped clothes along the way. Letting his Search and Rescue gear slither to the floor beside the laundry room. Swearing he could still smell a thousand different shades of pungent earth, wet leaves and crabby baby as he stumbled and nearly fell trying to squirm out of his jeans.
He'd felt well used in the best possible way.
Like he'd stretched into some part of himself he'd rarely, if ever, used.
He'd been able to ignore it for a while. Hide from it even when the world started doubling down around him. But that was it. That was the moment it all started. He could track it down to the day. Hell, probably even the hour if he ever got a hold of the official records. The day he'd found Allie Henson was the day his entire world changed. Not the night on the lacrosse field. Not even that first day out running with Chris. It'd been the day he'd woken up to his cell vibrating off his bedside table. The day he'd dragged his ass out of the house, re-reading the search and rescue briefing as her pudgy little face stared up at him from the screen of his phone.
Funny how things worked out.
Chris had even mentioned it once or twice as the years flew by on them. Talking about how that was the day he'd taken a second look. The day he'd been forced to confront the resting curl of thoughts that inevitably rose-up whenever they were within glancing distance. The same gut feeling that made him take that first step into everything they were now when they'd met on the trail a few days later.
He wasn't used to being behind the wheel in his own life. Up until Allie Henson he'd been happily riding shot-gun. Letting things happen - screaming internally about it, sure - but largely letting things ride. For some reason it'd never seemed worth the effort before. All the petty, stupid things in his life he always told himself he'd change. Only to sink just a bit deeper into a resigned sort of depression when the years passed and he obviously did nothing of the sort.
In hindsight, it'd been surprising to see how quickly he'd taken to it.
Temper tantrums and all.
And while they knew the truth - the truth about what they were and everything that'd happened - it was always interesting to hear other people's spin on it. Like the speech Natalie made at the party Lydia had thrown for them a couple weeks after they'd made things official.
The one they specifically hadn't known about until they'd gotten, well, man-napped on a sleepy Saturday afternoon and dragged into Lydia's sedan for a so called 'emergency meeting'. Apparently, as he discovered later, a simple court wedding and exchange of rings did not meet either mother or daughter's matrimonial standards.
And hey, who didn't like a party, right?
Well, he didn't, for starters.
But judging by the elbow Chris dug into his side when they pulled up in front of the Martin's lake house, pointing that out was rude. So, ultimately, he'd closed his mouth and promised sweet, sweet revenge through the slits of his eyes at Scott, Stiles and the rest of them as a swarm of people moved up to congratulate them. Weaving across the lantern-strewn lawn like miniature satellites.
He'd wanted to die within ten minutes flat.
So, naturally, the party had gone on until well past midnight.
Natalie's eyes had been warm when it was time for the open-mic portion of the evening. A feat made even more impressive considering she was splitting her attention between them and the buffet table. Staring with growing concern as the others pretty much demolished it at record speed. Something he wasn't really that concerned about considering he'd already eaten his weight in chicken wings and bacon-wrapped everything. Enjoying Chris' warm amusement as she talked about all the things that come with growing up in a small town. How things had changed on them bit by bit, instead of all at once. How they'd gotten older and she'd watched him struggle a bit. How she'd watched them lose things. His mother. Then Chris with his wife, his daughter and then some. But then Allie Henson had come along. And after that the rest seemed to have fallen into place.
He'd returned her smile when she leaned into the microphone, meeting her eyes as she nodded at the scattered applause. Closing with a collection of words that no one other than them would have even thought twice about.
It was strange how something that'd happened by chance could change everything for the better.
He and Chris had just smiled back at her – openly fond. Linking their hands with clinking wedding bands under the table as the night passed and eventually they added that moment to a long legacy of memories spanning back – maybe even as far back as the beginning. Not thinking twice about it when he rumbled a pleased sound into the soft hairs on the back of Chris' neck after they'd stumbled to the room they'd been given for the night. Listening to the festivities winding down outside as Chris' heartbeat gradually brought him down too.
It hadn't been by chance at all.
But who were they to ruin a good story?