Teen Wolf BigBang Fic - My Isabella (Teen) - 1/9
Masterpost
The amazing cover created by keyweegirlie
My Isabella
by Moonbeam
Stiles didn’t tell anyone when Sophia first told him.
“I’m pregnant…it’s yours.”
He didn’t really know what to say or who to tell.
He knew he needed to tell his father and Scott but it just didn’t even feel like his life. He wasn’t going to lie to anyone, he knew Sophia from one of his classes but the extent of their ‘relationship’ had been three days of sex before his first class of the week had rolled around and she had done a walk of shame back to her apartment. They smiled at one another in class and chatted occasionally but they didn’t pretend it was anything more than it was. Stiles remembered it fondly, and occasionally used it as fodder for his ‘special alone time’. Then two months after it happened, just as Stiles was working like a fool on a set of assignments he would ever have to hand in as a university student…ever, Sophia knocked on his door. She had obviously been crying and he’d pulled her into the room.
She had her back to him when she’d said it. “I’m pregnant.” Then she had paused and her shoulders had tightened as though she was expecting Stiles to yell at her or something. “It’s yours.”
Stiles had been more shocked by those words than the first two. But, given she had come to tell him, it was obviously his. He didn’t even plan to say anything but his mouth opened by itself. “Are you sure?”
Then she’d turned around and looked at him. “I’ve been to the campus doctor.”
Stiles let out a breath. “What do you want to do?”
Sophia’s face had crumbled. “I can’t do that.”
Stiles threw up his hands. “I’m not saying you should do anything.”
Sophia glared at him. “Of course you were.”
“Hey,” Stiles said. “Don’t make assumptions about me. I want to know what you want to do about it.”
“If I could have gone through with it, I wouldn’t have told you,” Sophia said folding her arms. “It has fingers already.”
Stiles let out a huff of breath and walked past her to sit on his bed. “Fingers?”
“Little webbed fingers,” Sophia said. “There were these people outside of the clinic and…I couldn’t.”
“Okay. So, we’re going to be parents.”
Sophia shrugged. “I don’t want a kid, but I couldn’t do that.”
Stiles had no idea what to say to that and Sophia didn’t wait around for his reaction she simply turned and left his room.
Stiles had to search her out in the end.
“I’m going to give it up for adoption.” Sophia said as soon as he’d finally cornered her somewhere private. “I never want kids and I’m not going to let one mistake change my life. I’ll have it, put it up for adoption, and then I’ll go and become a reporter in New York like I always intended.”
“What if I want it?” Stiles hadn’t even really given it any serious thought but now that he’d said it he understood the way he had been feeling for the last week.
Sophia looked at him like he was insane. “What?”
“What if I want to keep the baby?”
“I don’t want anything to do with it.”
“I get that,” Stiles was surer about this each time he said it. “You wouldn’t have to be involved but if I wanted to keep the baby?”
“That’s your choice.”
“Do you have any objections?”
Sophia looked over his shoulder. “I don’t care. I have class to get to.”
“When is your next doctor’s appointment?”
Sophia just shrugged and walked away.
That afternoon he drove home. He arrived at a few minutes to midnight but his father was awake and was at the door in his pyjamas by the time Stiles had turned off his jeep.
“What’s wrong?”
“I got a girl pregnant.”
His father swore, once, viciously and then pulled Stiles into a hug. “Are you old enough to drink yet?”
Stiles let out a bark of laughter. “Yes, I’m going to be a father.”
“Tell me.”
They sat down on the couch, each with a small glass of whiskey. “Her name is Sophia. She’s in one of my classes. We were at a party together and we were flirting and drinking and then she came back to my place and we had sex. It was a…umm…one night stand. She came to me about a week ago to tell me she was pregnant and that she had tried to have an abortion but couldn’t. I was finally able to speak to her again today and she said she doesn’t want kids and is going to give it up for adoption.” Stiles was watching his dad closely as he spoke. His father was bent over his head in his hands. “I asked her what she would do if I wanted to keep the baby.” His father turned to look at him. “I hadn’t even thought about it really but I think I want to do this.”
“Babies are a big responsibility.”
“I don’t think I could know that the baby was out there and never be allowed to see it or know it.”
“This is the rest of your life.”
“I know. What do you think I should do?”
Stiles’ dad rubbed his hands down his face roughly and then sat back and threw his arm around Stiles’ shoulder. “Whatever you think is right. I will support your decision whatever it is but…what about school?”
“She’s only nine weeks along. I finish my final exam in seven weeks. I can finish and then sort out everything else. All I know, Dad, is that I drove all the way here and I am more sure about taking the baby now than I was when I said it to Sophia.”
They sat in silence for a long time afterwards and Stiles realised his father hadn’t finished his whiskey but was simply staring down into the amber liquid.
“If I’m going to do this,” Stiles said finally. “I know it will be hard and I would need your help.”
His father looked at him. “You will, it will be harder than you could even conceive right now but if this is something you want to do then I will help you. I think you should think about it for a little while before you make a decision. You have another two months of university left. If, when you are finished, this is still what you want to do then we will work out how to do it.”
“That makes sense,” Stiles said.
“Right,” Stiles’ dad said throwing the drink back and standing. “Bed, you have a class tomorrow, don’t you?”
“I do.”
“Go to bed and see if you are okay to drive there in the morning. I’ll make you pancakes.”
Stiles smiled and stood up. As he did he paused to yawn so widely his jaw cracked. “I’m sorry, Dad.”
“For what?”
Stiles looked down and shrugged. “Everything.”
His father pulled him into a tight hug. “Whatever you decide to do, you will never, ever, have to apologise for doing what you think is right.”
His father woke Stiles up the next morning at seven. Stiles would have complained but Sam handed him a cup of coffee and told him the pancakes would be ready in five minutes. Stiles sighed and dragged himself out of bed and towards the kitchen. They were halfway through eating when the door, that lead from the kitchen into the backyard, opened. Derek walked in and then froze.
“Stiles.”
“Derek?”
Stiles looked from Derek to his father. Derek rubbed a hand across the back of his neck and took a step backwards. “I’ll just go home.”
“No, no,” Stiles said. “You obviously came for a reason. Come in, sit down, have a pancake.”
Derek stepped awkwardly further into the kitchen but his eyes were on Stiles’ dad.
“Derek comes over for breakfast a couple of times a week,” Stiles’ dad said. “I thought you knew.”
Stiles looked at Derek with surprise. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
Derek shrugged. “Never came up.” Stiles frowned at Derek who looked at him, one of his eyebrows slowly lifting. “What are you doing home?”
Stiles looked down at his pancakes. “Something I needed to talk to Dad about.”
Derek was looking at Stiles intensely when he looked up from his pancakes. “I can leave, Sam.”
“No need,” Stiles said. “I’ll be off myself as soon as I’ve finished eating.”
“Sit, Derek,” Sam said, standing up. “I’ll make you some pancakes.”
Derek took a seat across from Stiles.
“Hey,” Stiles said with half a mouthful of pancake in his mouth. “If you two have breakfast a couple of times a week, why have I never seen you before?”
“Don’t come when you’re in town,” Derek said pouring himself a cup of coffee.
Stiles tried not to be offended but it didn’t work. He ate the last of his breakfast quickly and then stood up. “I’ll leave the two of you to it then. Bye, Dad.”
“Stiles,” his father caught up with Stiles in the hallway. “Everything okay?”
“Just have to get back to school.”
“So, it’s not about Derek?”
Stiles shrugged. “Why would Derek being here and hiding it from me be an issue?”
“Hiding it from you?”
“You never mentioned the two of you hang out so much.”
The sheriff looked amused for a minute and then sighed. “We talk about you a lot. Drive safely, and call me when you get back to school.”
“I will.”
“And if you want to talk about anything else, call.”
“Thank you, Dad. And listen,” Stiles knew Derek would be able to hear this but he said it anyway. “Don’t mention this to anyone. I want to tell people myself, when I’m ready.”
“Of course,” his father said and put a hand on Stiles’ shoulder. “You could call your cousin, Rick, though. He has experience with this type of thing.”
“I will, thanks, Dad.”
“And make sure you focus on your schoolwork. Just get through the next seven weeks, okay?”
“Bye, Dad.”
Stiles grabbed the few things he needed and went out to his car. As he was driving away he realised that Derek’s Camaro was nowhere to be seen.
Stiles struggled to focus on anything over the next few weeks. He went to see Sophia the day after he returned though.
“I was serious about wanting the option of keeping the baby when it’s born.”
“Fine,” she folded her arms over her chest and stared at him. “I don’t care.”
“If you have to go to the doctor, or anything else, let me know and I’ll come with you.”
“Fine.”
“Where are you going to have the baby?”
Sophia shrugged at him. “I’m not telling my mother about this, she’ll lose her nut.”
Stiles nodded. “If you need anything, call me.”
Sophia looked at Stiles with a frown. “Why? Why do you even care?”
“Because, I can’t imagine having a child and not knowing about them. I understand that you don’t want the baby, but I do.”
“I don’t understand you at all.”
Stiles shrugged. “Very few people do.”
Stiles had listened to his father about waiting to make the final decision and he could understand what he had been saying. But a couple of weeks later, between the end of assignments and the start of exams it all changed. They went to an appointment with Sophia’s doctor and the doctor took a photo of the baby. It was a smudge in a sea of smudges but it was a real thing and that was the end of Stiles even perhaps being able to change his mind. He had to work out how he was going to do this because he knew he had to do it.
He asked for a copy of the photo and mailed it to his dad. Three days later his father called him.
“You’ve made your decision?”
“I saw the baby.”
“I know,” his father said. “I’ve decided I want to be called Grandad.”
“I did mean to wait.”
“No, you didn’t,” his father said. “You’d made your decision before you even arrived here.”
“I’m going to tell Scott but I’m not ready to discuss it yet. I still have my exams to get through.”
“You do,” his father said.
“Dad,” Stiles said. “Is everything okay with Derek? He’s called me about five times since I was in Beacon Hills. Normally when he calls it’s for a specific reason but lately he never quite seems to know why he called or he’s hiding something. Is something going on in town?”
“Nothing’s going on in town. Quiet and mundane.”
“Good,” Stiles said. “Listen, dad. I am just about to walk into a class.”
“Right, talk to you later.”
Derek called again the next day. The howl from ‘Werewolves of London’ dragging Stiles' attention away from what he was studying.
“Hey, Derek.”
“Stiles.”
“What’s up?”
“How are your studies going? You’re almost done, aren’t you?”
“Okay,” Stiles said dropping his pen down onto the desk. “What’s the deal? You never call unless you need information, or something is happening with the pack, and you’ve called me five times in the last month for no apparent reason. Is something wrong?”
“Why don’t you tell me?”
“What?”
“I heard you and your father speaking. Something’s wrong with you.”
“Oh,” Stiles let out a breath. “I’m not ready to talk about that yet.”
“Right.” Derek hung up on him.
Stiles let out a huff of breath. “But, I’ve quite enjoyed these little chats. Oh, really? You’re worried about me? Why don’t you just say something?”
“Who are you talking to?”
Stiles span around to see his roommate standing just inside the doorway. “No one.” Stiles hung up his phone and went back to studying.
“Weirdo,” his roommate muttered under his breath. Stiles couldn’t really refute the comment.
“Hey, Scott,” Stiles said as soon as his friend answered. “I need to talk to you. I would do this in person but I can’t spare the time to drive up there.”
“What’s wrong? Derek called me and told me there was something wrong with you but I told him he was talking crap because you wouldn’t keep something that serious from me.”
“Derek called you?”
“He sounded worried.”
“Okay, listen, he overheard a conversation I had with my dad and that’s what I’m calling you about.”
“I can’t believe you are dying and didn’t tell me.”
“What!” Stiles screeched.
“You’re not dying?” Scott said a couple of long moments later.
“I’m going to be a dad.”
“What?” Scott asked loudly making Stiles pull his phone away from his ear.
“You remember I told you about Sophia.”
“Yeah, extended one night stand.”
“She’s pregnant. She doesn’t want the baby so I’m going to raise it.”
“Holy fuck,” Scott breathed out.
“Yeah.”
“Call Derek and tell him you’re not dying.”
“Really? That’s what you’ve got to say?”
“You know how he gets when you’re hurt.”
“Yeah,” Stiles said with a sigh. “Annoyed at me for getting hurt, growly and just generally pissy. Oh, and don’t forget the fact he disappears as soon as I’m conscious. I don’t know what you’re worried about.”
Scott let out an annoyed huff. “Just call him.”
“Fine.”
“Good. So…you’re going to be a dad?”
“Yeah.” Stiles was silent for several long minutes. “Scott, I have no idea what I’m doing. I’m probably going to fuck this kid up.”
“Then why?”
“Because it’s mine and…it’s family, you know.”
“Yeah,” Scott said quietly and Stiles knew that Scott understood, perhaps in a way no one else could because Scott had been there when Stiles lost his mum and Stiles had been there when Scott’s dad walked out and they had become one another’s family. They were both protective of the family they had left.
“You ready to be Uncle Scott?”
“Aww, dude, seriously?”
“Of course, they are going to need a favourite uncle and since you’re going to be their only uncle you’re a shoe-in.”
“When?”
“November.”
“Who have you told?”
“Dad and you. You are still planning on coming back to Beacon Hills, right? Because I am going to need you.”
“I’ll be there. God, another little Stilinski running around. My mum is going to be so excited.”
“You think?”
“Oh yeah.”
“I’m probably going to need her help as well. I have no idea what the hell I’m doing Scott and Sophia…it’s weird. It’s like she’s pretending she isn’t even pregnant and when she sees me she gets really closed off and at the doctor’s appointment she wouldn’t even look at the monitor.”
“You’ve seen the baby?”
“Oh yeah,” Stiles said. “It’s like a little slightly darker section in a field of grey.”
“Send me the picture.”
“You can’t scan them.”
“You have a phone, take a picture.”
Stiles took the picture and sent it to Scott. A minute later Scott disappeared in the middle of telling Stiles that he wanted to be there when Stiles told the rest of the pack…
“I don’t know what I’m looking at but it’s my niece or nephew. This is excellent…and screensaver. I’ll take pictures…maybe video, so we can watch their reactions later.”
“You know someone will see that and think you’re about to be a dad.”
“I’ll just tell them about my brother who’s having a baby and they will swoon at my sweetness and have sex with me.”
“And we shall all hope that my son or daughter is the three percent failure rate of condoms for both of us.”
“Damn straight.”
Stiles didn’t really see the point but he had promised Scott so he called Derek after he and Scott hung up.
“Stiles.”
“Hey, Derek.”
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing. I was just talking to Scott and he said that you had called him about me. I’m fine. I’m not dying or hurt or sick or anything. The conversation you overheard between my father and I wasn’t anything bad.”
“Okay.”
“So if you were worried, you don’t need to be.”
Derek was silent.
“Not that you were worried, because you don’t worry about me.”
“I’m glad you’re fine.”
“Good, how’s dad? I hope you’re not letting him eat bacon at these breakfasts you two have.”
“He’s fine.”
“Oh good, we’re all fine.”
“I like your dad.”
Stiles frowned and let out a huff of breath. “I know. I’m glad you spend time with him. I’m glad someone is spending time with him when I can’t. Not that it’s because I’m not there…except you never come over when I am, so, maybe it is because I’m not there but because I’m not there for you not for my dad.”
“What?”
“Do you only come when I’m not there because you don’t want to see me?”
There was a long stretch of silence and Stiles checked to make sure that Derek hadn’t hung up on him.
“He doesn’t need me to visit when you are home. He’s not lonely then.”
“Oh, Derek. My dad’s not like that, if he likes to see you when I’m at school, he would like to see you when I’m home, too.”
“He was just being nice.”
“He likes you,” Stiles said. “Probably why he didn’t just shoot you when he thought I was sneaking over to your house for sex when I was in high school.”
“What?”
“Before he knew about the whole werewolf thing he thought I was…well, it was a bit strange. He found out I was sneaking over to your place to do research only he thought I was coming over for sex.”
“Did he?”
“Oh yeah, confronted me about it and everything. It was the second most embarrassing…no, third, most embarrassing conversation we’ve ever had. First was the sex talk when he was going on about women and I told him I thought I was bisexual. He got so flustered. Second was when he walked in on me having sex. No, I am going to swap those, the second was worse.”
“Stiles.”
“Yeah?”
“Shut up.”
“Okay! Well, I just called to let you know I’m fine.”
“Then what’s going on?”
Stiles bit his lip. He wanted to tell Derek but he wanted to do it in person. He wished he could have told Scott in person. It would have to wait. “I can’t really tell you yet. But, I will when I’m home next.”
“Good luck with your exams.” Then Derek was gone.
Stiles never could quite work out what Derek’s deal was. They had settled into a better rhythm as a pack after everything with the alpha pack was finished. Derek even let Stiles look at the computer with all of the good information. By the end of high school, for everyone but Derek, things had been really good. The pack was close and Lydia, Allison and Stiles were as much a part of it as the wolves. Then about halfway through the summer something changed and Derek just started pulling away again. No one knew what was going on but sometimes the way they looked at Stiles, especially the way Cora looked at Stiles, told him that they suspected something. Stiles hated not knowing things that other people had already worked out.
In the end, Stiles just assumed it was Derek’s way of preparing himself for everyone leaving for university.
Stiles wasn’t sure how he managed to get through his exams. He hoped like hell he’d passed everything because he was definitely not in a position to come back and redo them now. As soon as his last exam was over he started packing his room up. He was halfway through boxing the few books that he hadn’t sold at the second-hand bookstore when there was a knock on his door.
It was Sophia.
“Where do you come from?”
Stiles frowned at the odd question but answered anyway. “Beacon Hills.”
She stared at him.
“Northern California.”
“Fine,” she said folding her arms over her chest. “I haven’t started showing too badly so I’m going home for a couple of weeks and then I’m telling my mum I’m driving to New York. Give me your address; I’m staying with you until this baby is born.”
Stiles’ opened his mouth and stared at her for a second.
“You do still want it, right?”
“Yeah,” Stiles said nodding. “Yeah, yeah. Right, of course, I’m going to be living with my dad but you can come and stay with us until the baby is born.”
“Good, as soon as it’s out I’ll drive up to New York. Apparently there is something I can sign that makes sure you can’t come back and dump the baby on me later.”
“Sophia,” Stiles started. “Have you talked to someone about this? You-”
“Listen,” she said. “I don’t want kids.”
“But, maybe you should talk to someone anyway.”
“As soon as it’s born I’m going to forget I ever had it. Understood?”
“Yeah.”
Sophia stared at him. “I need the address.”
Stiles nodded and span back to his desk. He wrote down the address and his home number hurriedly and handed it back to Sophia.
“I’ll see you in a couple of weeks.”
“Yeah, sure, see you then.”
Stiles sat down on his bed and called his father.
“Hi, Stiles.”
“Hey, Dad.”
“You all done packing yet?”
“Not yet, but I’ll be done by the time you get here.”
“Good. Then, why are you calling?”
“How do you feel about a house guest?”
“What?”
“Sophia isn’t going to tell her mum about the pregnancy so she’s going to stay with us until it’s born.”
Stiles listened to his dad’s breathing for a couple of heartbeats. “That’s fine.”
“She just kind of sprung it on me. She has been avoiding the question for ages, she avoids all the questions, but she just appeared in my room and told me the plan.”
“It’s fine, Stiles. It’s good, we can get everything ready and the baby will be born in Beacon Hills.”
“Yeah.”
“I’ll see you in a couple of hours.”
“Okay, bye, Dad.”
Stiles dropped the phone and slammed his hand into the wall above his bed. He was so sick of this. Sophia was acting strange and he couldn’t do anything about it and he had no say in anything that was going on. He was happy to help her, he wanted the baby but he really would have liked to be asked. Stiles took a couple of deep breaths as he massaged his hand. Then he pushed all of that away and went back to packing. At least he tried to push it away but like when he had been studying thoughts of Sophia and his unborn child simply wouldn’t be banished for long.
Stiles had been home for a couple of days when one morning, at breakfast, the front doorbell rang. Stiles dragged himself, and his cup of coffee, out of the kitchen to answer the door. Derek was standing on the other side.
“Hey, Derek.”
“Stiles.”
“Here for breakfast?”
“I…”
“Who is it?” His father called out from the kitchen.
“Derek.” Stiles said.
“Good, I’m just about finished with the porridge.”
“Come on,” Stiles said grabbing Derek’s elbow. Derek followed him docilely. “I haven’t seen you since I got back.”
“No.”
“Do I look different now that I’m a university graduate?”
Stiles looked back to find Derek staring at him intently. The look made Stiles pause and they stood still in the hallway until Stiles’ dad called for them.
“You don’t look different,” Derek said quietly as he walked past Stiles.
Stiles shook off the strange moment and followed the alpha into the kitchen. When he made it into the room Derek was staring at his father warily while his dad was simply spooning porridge into three bowls as though he had been expecting Derek the whole time.
“Sit down, Derek.”
Derek obeyed his father’s instruction and Stiles smiled as he took his own seat across from Derek.
“See,” Stiles said encouragingly. “I told you he’d still want to see you even if I was home.”
Derek looked at him intensely for a long beat and then dropped his head to look at his porridge. Stiles turned to his dad to share a look of strange werewolf but his dad was biting his lip and looking down at his own breakfast. Stiles shrugged and started eating. They ate in almost complete silence and Stiles would have filled the spaces, as he normally did, but at the moment he was more interested in eating than he was in working out if their breakfasts were always this quiet.
Stiles waited until he and Derek had both finished eating before he pushed his chair back and looked at Derek. Derek met his eyes briefly.
“So,” Stiles said dragging the word out. “Still want to know what Dad and I were talking about that day?”
Derek looked back up at Stiles sharply and Stiles could tell, from nothing but Derek’s eyebrows, that he thought Stiles was an idiot for even bothering to ask.
“I’m going to be a father.” Derek’s face tightened and his eyes grew darker. “I accidently got a girl pregnant. I’m going to keep the baby because she wants nothing to do with it. I have no idea how I’m going to do that or afford it but I couldn’t imagine having a kid and never knowing about it so…that’s what’s happening.”
“Stiles.” His father’s voice was a reprimand but Stiles wasn’t sure why.
“What?” Stiles turned to his father who was looking at him with…sympathy? “Derek wanted to know and I’m not going to keep it from the pack now that I’m home but I wanted to tell people in person.”
“Who knows?” Derek asked gruffly.
“You, Dad, and Scott.”
Derek nodded. “When is the baby due?”
“November.”
“The pack will help.”
“What?”
“That’s what packs do, when one person has a baby everyone helps were they can.”
“Like a village?”
Derek’s eyebrows came together in a slight frown.
“You know…it takes a village to raise a child.”
“Yes.” Derek said. “I have to go, I have a thing.”
“Derek,” Stiles’ voice stopped Derek from rising. “Don’t tell anyone else, okay? I want to tell them. Sophia will be here in a couple of weeks but I’m going to tell everyone before that.”
Derek nodded and stood, he left out of the back door.
“Stiles.”
Stiles turned to his father.
“That wasn’t the nicest way to tell him.”
“What?”
“You could have been nicer about telling Derek the news.”
“Why? He wanted to know.”
Stiles’ dad looked at him, really looked at him, like he was trying to puzzle something out and then finally he sat but with a laugh. “Never mind, now’s really not the time for that discussion.”
“What discussion? What’s going on?”
“I need to be getting to work, clean up for me?”
“Clean up and then I’m going to go and see what jobs are around town.”
“We have a backlog of data entry and records scanning for you,” his father said. “I’ve been holding off on getting someone in. Any free time you have just come to the station and you can do it.”
“Thanks, Dad.”
“Oh, believe me,” his father said. “You are going to need the money.”
“I know.”
“Talk to Mr James at the paper. I had a word to him about you helping him out.”
“You didn’t need to do that.”
His dad shrugged. “It’s my grandkid.”
“Dad…do you think I’m doing the right thing?”
His father turned completely around and looked at Stiles. “All that matters is that you do.”
“How are you so calm about this? I’m freaking out, I don’t know what to do with a kid and I don’t have a job and I’m twenty-two. This wasn’t supposed to be my life.”
“Nope.” His father buried his hands into the pockets of his uniform. “It wasn’t your plan for your life but this is your life so you need to make a new plan. You have until November to work out how we are going to do this. I’ve had a kid, and you’re pretty decent, so ask me anything you want and I will help as much as I can. Talk to Melissa, she’s smart and she will help you. Do research; it’s what you’re good at. You have two weeks before Sophia gets here to work some of this stuff out. Use it.”
Stiles took a deep breath. He was terrified but something in his chest told him this was the right decision and he had trusted that feeling for a long time. “Okay, I can do that.”
“And tell your friends, some of them just might surprise you by being helpful.”
“I already told Scott he’s now Uncle Scott.”
“That’s a start.”
“If you need anything I’m at the station.”
Stiles nodded. “Thanks, Dad.”
Stiles waited until the pack was all together in the end. He thought about telling them one by one but he didn’t feel like answering the same set of questions ten times. He waited until the first official get together, on the first Saturday after they all arrived home from school. Stiles had spent the morning baking chocolate chip and hazelnut biscuits. He left enough for his dad and then packed them all up to drive over to Derek’s place early. As he drove up he thought he could hear power tools but by the time he had made it into the house Derek was in the laundry next to the kitchen washing his hands. His back was bare and Stiles could see the sweat making his tattoo glisten. Stiles turned away from the sight. Whatever stupid crush he’d had there had never been any chance of it coming to anything and that was even more certain now that Stiles was about to be a dad.
“I hope you have milk,” Stiles said before he turned back to the kitchen. “I brought biscuits.”
Derek walked into the laundry.
“Out for a run?”
Derek didn’t answer but he didn’t smell of the forest like he normally did after a run. Stiles could smell something though and he took a deep breath. It smelled like the house when Derek had been rebuilding it.
“What have you been doing?”
Derek looked at him and then stole a biscuit from the plate Stiles was unwrapping. “Running.”
Stiles opened his mouth to speak but Derek simply walked past him out of the kitchen. “I’m having a shower.”
Stiles wasted his time before everyone else arrived trying to work out what he was going to say. Derek came back down smelling of soap and he looked at Stiles who was moving a piece of furniture.
“I’m telling everyone today.”
Derek nodded and walked out of the living room, leaving Stiles to fiddle with the furniture in the room. Stiles wasn’t sure why he was doing it but it was something to do. Slowly, the rest of the pack filtered in and Stiles had no choice but to sink down into one of the chairs and listen to everyone talking about what they had been doing. When everyone was there Stiles stood up and walked in front of the television.
“Stiles?” Lydia asked.
“I have something to tell you all.”
Scott sat up and looked at him with a questioning expression on his face. Stiles nodded.
“Hurry up, Stilinski,” Jackson said. “We don’t have all day for your drama.”
Stiles glared at him and, not for the first time, wished that Jackson had never come back from his little visit to Europe.
“Shut up, Jackson,” Derek said gruffly.
“What is it?” Isaac asked moving forward in his chair.
“I’m going to be a father.”
There was no great swell of noise or barrage of questions, all that seemed to occur was that Scott kept his eyes on Stiles and everyone else looked away.
Lydia was the first to react. She turned back to him. “I think we need more information than that.”
Stiles let out a breath.
“I think it’s fairly obvious,” Jackson said. “The idiot hasn’t worked out how condoms work.”
Stiles closed his eyes and Jackson let out a whine. Stiles opened his eyes to find Jackson wincing in pain.
“Sorry.”
Stiles frowned at him.
“Go on,” Derek said.
“We did use a condom. It was an after party thing and she got pregnant. She told me a couple of months ago. She doesn’t want to keep the baby but I am going to.”
Allison stood up and walked over to him. Stiles watched her but she wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him into a hug. “Are you okay?” She said into his neck. He nodded. She pulled away from him slowly.
Stiles smiled at Allison and stepped back. Stiles waited until she was sitting down again before he looked around. “Do you have any questions?”
“What’s her name?” Lydia asked.
“Sophia. She is going to be here in a week or so, she’s going to stay at my place until the baby is born.”
“Then what?” Lydia asked.
“She said she’s going to go to New York.”
Lydia sat back and Stiles could tell she wanted to ask more but he didn’t push.
“How are you going to do this?” Jackson asked. “You don’t even have a job.”
“I’m working on that,” Stiles said biting his lip. “I’m going to live with Dad, obviously, and I’ve got some work lined up over the next few months but I have no idea. I just know that this is something I have to do.”
“Why?” Isaac’s voice was quiet. “Why do you have to look after the baby?”
“Because it will be mine,” Stiles said. “It’s my family and it’s not something I could do, giving it up. I don’t know if it’s going to be a boy or a girl and I don’t know anything else but it’s family and you do what you have to, to protect family.”
“We are Stiles’ pack,” Derek said quietly but even Stiles could hear the note, deep and authoritative, underneath every word that told everyone that they were listening to the alpha rather than simply listening to Derek. “Pack is family. When Stiles has the baby we will all be helping. Just like we will if any of the rest of you decide to have children in the future.”
“Or you do,” Stiles said, without thinking. Derek looked at him and shook his head.
“You will need to be supportive,” Derek said, to the pack. Then his eyes fixed on Jackson. “All of you.”
The pack nodded. Stiles looked around but no one spoke so he went to sit down.
“What if she changes her mind?” Lydia’s voice was almost a whisper in his ear. “When she has the baby, what if she changes her mind about giving it up?”
Stiles felt his chest get suddenly tight and every breath he took felt harder than the one before. He didn’t notice the way the wolves around him froze but he did feel the sudden hot hand on his back. “Breathe.” Stiles took a shaky breath, and another until his head began to clear.
“I don’t know,” Stiles admitted. “She’s told me she didn’t want it from the moment I found out about the baby. She tried to have an abortion but couldn’t and I never even thought about her changing her mind.”
“I don’t want you to get hurt,” Lydia said, just as quietly.
“I think it might be too late for that.” Stiles said attempting a smile.
TBC...
Masterpost | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9