Masterpost You’ve got the love I need to see me through - Baby in the Pack
Masterpost
It’s quiet and peaceful, so much so that Derek doesn’t register that they have a visitor before they’re already knocking on the back door. He kicks his chair back, suddenly alert because there’s an unknown werewolf on his back porch.
“Who… How?” Stiles utters, frowning at the door in confusion. Through the screen door the blurry features of a female werewolf with dark, short hair are visible.
Derek knows that whoever it is can’t have bad intentions, because the wards Stiles has put up around the house would have alerted them to that. Still, he can’t help but warn Stiles to be cautious when the young man gets up to open the door.
"Cristina? What are you doing here? I haven’t seen you in…" He gulps and Derek follows his gaze to the young woman's feet, where there's a maxi cosi with a small child in it.
"Eighteen months?" The woman answers blithely. "Sounds about right."
All chapters on Tumblr:
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
You can also use the tag ‘Sterek Baby in the Pack fanfic’ to see all posts.
Lots of people imagine daddies!Sterek with little kids but I’m hung on their (first) kid being older, maybe 12-13. A little older than Stiles when he lost his mom and a little younger than Derek during the fire. Their kid is a spitfire boy who’s angry and upset and hurting cause he lost his family and Stiles and Derek can just *understand* him so well cause they were there too. And they want to show this boy (who’s maybe a were?) that there’s a way forward. That you can be happy after tragedy.
Derek never imagined what the universe had in store for him when he helped a little girl find her dad at the farmer's market.
featuring : worried Boyd and flirtatious Erica as Derek's best friends. Scott who has a bad habit of adopting people into his pack of friends. A lake where the magic in the stars aligns. and also a jar of fairy dust.
You’ve got the love I need to see me through - Baby in the Pack
Chapter 1/13
1.
Derek is doing the dishes with Stiles that Saturday night. It's the first weekend of summer break and the whole pack is home for the summer. The ones that left for university anyway, the ones that went to the local community college in town never left, of course. Erica and Boyd share a small apartment in town and Isaac still lives with Mrs. McCall most of the time. Weekends are for pack, though, and the large Hale house in the woods is filled with young adults in high spirits. Derek feels the strong connections between him and his pack, wolves and humans alike. It makes his chest expand and his body sing; he feels like running, racing through the woods of the Preserve. There's an energy to him that needs to be unleashed, whether it's by running, fighting or fucking. He hasn't had to fight a real fight in a long time and with his pack home he will not go looking for a one night stand in some bar. Not with his loved ones reunited again, not with how happy everyone is to be together once more.
"Earth to Sourwolf," Stiles teases, splashing some soapy suds on him. They have a dishwasher, yet after the copious homecoming meal they had not everything fit inside the machine, even though Derek purchased the largest model. It's so big, Derek often washes his dishes by hand if it's just him and Malia in the house. Even when Isaac stays over they rarely have enough dishes to warrant starting up the machine. It gets used a lot on the weekends though. Tonight Stiles offered to wash if Derek dried. He took the opportunity to update his Alpha on his secondary studies: his training to be the pack's emissary. "Am I boring you?"
Derek realises he'd zoned out. "No, sorry, I -"
"Feeling a bit jittery, huh?" The younger man smirks at him as he plunges his hands in the warm water again. He nods when Derek makes an agreeing sound. "A good run with the pack will fix that."
Stiles always knows how to read him, and it's not just because he's a perfect study in the non-verbal language of Hale Eyebrows (his words, not Derek's). He feels like Stiles knows him, understands him, even back when he didn't understand himself yet. He's come a long way since then, having his own pack grounds him, gives him a sense of purpose, a sense of belonging.
And once he had solid ground beneath his feet, felt like he could stand on his own two feet without having to tread water all the time, he started to give back that sense of security to the people who gave it to him. He offered his first three Betas a solid base to fall back on, left them free to explore the world and made sure they knew they could always count on him to be there for them, only to find they never wanted to go far at all. And for the ones that did, like Lydia and Jackson who went to college at the other side of the country, he made sure to keep in touch, to keep them involved in the things going on in Beacon Hills. He found a way to broker peace with his uncle, clearing up their communication as much as possible. Peter would always be a sly one, yet Derek can honestly say nowadays he can trust him to always have the pack's best interest at heart. Thanks to Stiles' relentless efforts he and Scott were also able to finally bury the hatchet between them. The True Alpha has his own small pack with Allison, his mom and a young teen called Liam, but still defers to Derek when there is any supernatural trouble.
Not that there was much trouble to speak of, not for the last year or two. Sometimes Derek dared to think things were like they were back when his mother was still Alpha of Beacon Hills. Even better maybe, with the Argent family firmly in their corner.
Derek watches the younger man next to him fondly, pressing their shoulders companionably together when he takes a wet plate from Stiles to dry. He never would have made it to where he is now without this stubborn, brave human. Derek owes him so much, if not everything.
Stiles glances back at him, huffing a laugh when he sees how Derek's watching him. "Such a fucking marshmallow," the young man whispers quietly, more to his own ears than Derek's. Derek hears him anyway.
An hour later everybody is gathered on the front porch of the house. The werewolves are all barefooted and bare chested, except for the girls. Not that Erica is wearing a lot, opting to go for just a sports bra and foregoing covering up with a top like Malia. The humans are dressed in track clothes and running shoes. Derek is still wearing his jeans, but he'll be losing that soon when he changes to his four legged form. He's not the only one of the pack who can, yet he's the only one who will. Being stuck as a coyote for years has made Malia hesitant of transforming fully. Or, as she prefers to explain it: "I've had my fair share of being furry already."
Derek looks out over his pack, the young adults that have been through so much and pulled through. They're all here, except for Peter. Derek knows his uncle will drop by later, unannounced yet not unexpected. And there's Cora, his younger sister. She's still with her pack in South America, but she'll visit like she does every summer. He's supposed to pick her up from the airport in a week.
"Ready, big guy?" Stiles appears at his shoulder, giving him an anticipating grin.
Derek throws his head back in response and howls. It's not the full moon but his pack is here, they're all here and he feels the Alpha energy coursing through his veins. The other wolves join his cry and even the humans join their voices with the rest. The Hale Pack is home.
You’ve got the love I need to see me through - Baby in the Pack
Chapter 5/13
5.
As it turns out, Billie was on her best behaviour when she first arrived with them. Now it’s time for bed she shows them how willful and stubborn an almost nine month old baby girl can be. “She won’t stop crying,” Stiles complains desperately, holding a wailing Billie up against his shoulder as he walks up and down the bedroom in bouncy steps in an attempt to placate her. He looks close to crying himself.
Derek can’t blame him. The incessant crying of an infant is impossible to ignore and becomes quite grating on the senses after a while. And Stiles isn’t even a werewolf; Derek was gritting his teeth against the crying a long time before the young father did.
Noah picks up the lilac bunny from the floor, where Billie has dropped it for the umpteenth time. He holds it within her reach and even though she’s upset she still grabs her beloved bunny from his hands. “She misses her mom,” the sheriff says, giving voice to something they all know to be true.
There’s something to be said for a clean break and Derek can understand why Cristina didn’t want to prolong the process of saying goodbye to her daughter any longer. She came prepared, with a well packed bag, instructions and legal papers. If anything, she had been working towards this day for some time now. He just wishes she’d involved Stiles in the process earlier. It would’ve been nice if father and daughter had been able to get to know each other in Cristina's presence, offering the little girl a familiar person to fall back on when needed. It’s hard to keep an understanding attitude towards Cristina when he’s confronted with Billie’s distress and Stiles’ helpless despair.
“There’s not much you can do, son, except be there for her.” The sheriff suggests for Stiles to put Billie down on his bed and just lay down with her until she finally falls asleep. “She’s bathed and fed, she’s just tired and sad right now.”
So Stiles climbs on the bed and puts Billie down in the middle of the mattress. Derek and Noah help to put up a wall of pillows and blankets so she can’t fall off if she rolls over in her sleep. It’s Derek’s bed and even though they put the crib and the changing table in the room already, they haven’t gotten around to changing the sheets. He hopes his Alpha scent will help in calming Billie down. She was born into a werewolf pack and even though she’s human, she’s bound to have some werewolf characteristics.
It’s another hour before the sounds of crying from upstairs finally cease. Another ten minutes later he gets a text from Stiles. [ I think she’s finally sleeping. ]
From his spot on the sofa, watching tv with Malia, Isaac, the sheriff, Boyd and Erica, Derek texts back. [ Good. Do you need anything? ]
[ No. She wiped me out. I’m going to sleep too. ]
“Both down for the count?” the sheriff asks and shows a somewhat proud smile when Derek nods. The older man stays until the movie is done and then he leaves for his own home, promising to swing by after his shift the next day.
The next couple of days are used to get Billie settled in and for the pack to adjust to the presence of a baby in the house. Stiles and his daughter move into Derek’s room permanently, which is a pretty simple case of switching out the contents of their closets and setting up one side of the large room as Billie’s space. There’s a package in the mail - courtesy of Lydia, with use of Derek’s credit card - that holds forest themed wall stickers to spruce up the cream coloured walls of the master bedroom. Another package brings matching bedding and a squirrel shaped nightlight. They move one of the armchairs upstairs, large Husky plush included.
To make things a little easier on Billie, they try to minimise the number of people around her until she’s completely settled in and used to the presence of a large number of adults around her. Stiles and Derek are her primary caretakers, with the sheriff, Isaac and Malia coming in right behind. Erica and Boyd have their own apartment in town, Lydia and Jackson stay at her parent’s lakehouse and Scott and Allison stay over with Melissa most times. The couples in his pack all visit often, though they make sure not to crowd Billie. It was clear from the get go that she was there to stay; she’s pack, she’s one of them. So there’s all the time in the world to get to know her, it doesn’t all have to happen in the first week.
Derek sits at the kitchen table, his laptop in front of him. He has Skype open, waiting for Cora to pick up his call. “Stiles!” he calls towards the living room when the icon changes. “Cora’s online.”
“Hey big bro,” his sister greets as soon as the video connection comes on. “You’re not cancelling on me, are you?”
“Of course not.” Derek frowns at the idea. He sees his sister not enough as it is already, things would have to be truly catastrophic for him to cancel her visit, especially the day before her flight.
Stiles plods into the kitchen, putting Billie in her high chair next to Derek. She immediately grabs hold of the colourful plastic rattle toy that’s attached to it, crowing enthusiastically. She had a good nap, which means she’s in a positive mood.
“What’s that?” Cora peers suspiciously at the camera. She can’t see Billie yet, the camera is only pointed at Derek, yet she undoubtedly hears the noises.
“That’s uh… a surprise?” Derek shrugs self consciously. He knows it’s a good idea to introduce Cora to Billie over Skype, before she comes to visit and is suddenly confronted with a baby in the house. But now that the moment is there, he is suddenly nervous for some reason.
“It sounds like a baby.”
“That’s because it is a baby,” Stiles butts in, sounding a tad exasperated. He reaches over Derek to grab the laptop and turn it around so the camera now includes Billie too. He crouches down behind the little girl and gently grabs her arm to make her wave at the camera. For now, Billie is still more interested in trying to stuff the rattle toy in her mouth. “Say hello to your auntie Cora, Billie!”
“Oh my god,” Cora exclaims, her mouth falling open. “When did you guys make a baby?!”
“About 18 months ago?” Stiles answers, making the translucent ball of the toy turn so the little coloured balls inside tumble and rattle. “She’ll be nine months old later this week.”
“Nine months - Wait. How come I didn’t see a baby when I came to visit for Christmas? Don’t tell me you were secretly hiding a newborn from me!” His sister is starting to sound angry.
“What? No.” Stiles frowns at her. “Billie was still with her mom back then. Cristina only brought her here last weekend.”
Cora of course recognises the name. Stiles dating a werewolf from another pack was big news back then. “You got your ex to carry your baby for you?”
Derek has trouble following his sister’s train of thought. Stiles doesn’t seem to have that problem though. “She wasn’t my ex yet when she got pregnant. And I didn’t get her to do anything. Billie here wasn’t exactly, you know, planned.” He covers her ears for that last word, as if his nine month old daughter could possibly understand him.
“Oh, you mean she’s yours.” The way Cora emphasises the word indicates she just means Stiles. Which makes Derek think she didn’t before. Which… Okay? Weird.
It gets weirder when Peter gets home later that day, appearing right before dinner. He walks in right when they all sit down, the pack complete save for the sheriff who is on shift. His uncle immediately zeroes in on their new addition, who Stiles is trying to get to open her mouth for a bite of mashed sweet potatoes from his own plate.
“I know I have been away for a while, but surely it can’t have been that long?” He stares at Billie, who is seated between Derek and Stiles at the far end of the table from where he’s standing. “She has Stiles’ eyes. I would have expected you to be the one to supply the DNA, especially for a first born,” he says to Derek.
“Hey! I’ll have you know I have great DNA!” Stiles retorts, pointing at Peter with the now empty plastic spoon in his hand. “And she’s not Derek’s, buttface, she’s my kid.”
“Buttface?” Peter raises a comical brow at the childish insult.
“Cristina sprung this delightful surprise upon us,” Lydia interjects sharply before Peter can say more. “Will you sit down now? If you keep standing there while I eat my dinner, you’ll look like a waiter. In which case I’d like you to get me a glass of sparkling water.”
Peter, unable to ever reject Lydia anything, inclines his head and goes to fetch himself a plate and cutlery so he can join them for dinner. He also brings Lydia her drink, which she accepts graciously.
Of course his uncle wants to know all the ins and outs of Billie’s story, and Derek is happy to let his Betas fill him in, with some random comments from Stiles thrown in. He much rather keeps an eye on the little girl who’s munching on a bit of broccoli than answer his uncle’s pointed questions.
After Derek has had to reach down to pick up bits of broccoli from the floor for the third time, he’s really starting to appreciate the plastic floor mat Stiles put down under the high chair. It protects the hardwood floor from food stains; Stiles got the idea from a website with baby hacks, one of his many new bookmarks on his laptop.
“The idea is that you put these in your mouth, not on the floor,” Derek suggests to Billie as he puts the broccoli back on her plate. She bangs her little fists on her plate in response, grabbing around for the next piece.
“Fatherhood looks good on you, nephew,” Peter comments casually from the other side of the table. He smirks when Derek scowls at him, not knowing exactly how to respond to the offhand remark.
“Derek has had a lot of practice with the Betas,” Stiles chuckles, clearly unbothered by the comment. “That’s what you get when you bite a bunch of teenagers.”
The others react to that with mock protests, which dissolve quickly into trading stories back and forth about times when their Alpha displayed fatherly qualities over the years. Derek listens to their recollections of him putting down the deposit for Boyd and Erica’s apartment and taking them to the hardware store for paint and wallpaper so they could make the place their own. Of how he came to their high school graduation wearing a sport coat instead of his usual leather jacket. And of course they remind each other of him becoming Isaac’s legal guardian to prevent the boy from going into the foster system. The young man, now legally an adult just like the others, smiles shyly at him from across the table. Derek smiles back warmly, filled with pride for his pack.
You’ve got the love I need to see me through - Baby in the Pack
Chapter 6/13
6.
Billie is not crawling yet, but she can roll over like a champ and uses that to move around a bit. Isaac and Malia are making a game out of it, trying to coax her to roll their way by calling her name. Derek sits on the other side of the room in one of the large armchairs by the front windows, trying to read his book. He can't help but look up at his packmates every other paragraph though, from Isaac and Malia with the baby to Lydia and Stiles on the sofa. The latter are working on their online bestiary, which is more of a scientific research project than a life-saving necessity nowadays. Stiles is doing a minor on Mythology and Folklore and has been able to use his research for the pack for college assignments pretty often. Peter brought them some rare books he found on his recent trip to who-knows-where, much to Stiles and Lydia's delight. They've been cataloguing their new finds for a good hour now. Their benefactor is sitting in an armchair across from Derek, engrossed in an obscure crime novel. The name of the author looks Scandinavian.
"Here Billie-Billie-Billie," Malia calls out, stretching her arms out to the little girl.
"You make it sound like you're calling for a farm animal instead of my daughter," Stiles admonishes her lightly. He doesn't look up from the laptop, so he's not really angry.
"I tried calling her Bill, but that sounded weird," Malia answers with a shrug. She and Isaac have been calling her all sorts of versions of her name in their attempts to get her to roll their way.
"Come on, baby girl, come to uncle Isaac." The werewolf cheers when Billie turns her head his way, leaning over far enough to roll to her side and towards him. He crawls closer to her, calling her a pretty baby. Billie chatters back happily.
"You're cheating!" Malia gripes good-naturedly. "You're supposed to call her by her name, not just call her Baby all the time."
Derek notices how Stiles looks up at that, frowning a little in thought. Next to him, Lydia cocks her head. "She does respond well to the name Baby, doesn't she?"
"That's because you're such a cute baby girl, aren't you?" Isaac coos, leaning over Billie and making faces to get her to laugh. She rolls to her back and grabs at his face instead, trying to pry her fingers inside his mouth.
"Didn't Cristina say they called her Baby most of the time?" Lydia says it gently, yet Derek can sense the more serious undertone in her voice. Stiles can too, judging by the way he narrows his eyes at her.
Malia looks up. "Like in Dirty Dancing?" Stiles and Erica had overseen Malia's cultural education, basically marathoning movies and tv-shows with her every weekend to brush her up on pop culture. The werecoyote didn't care much for movies, though she liked the ones with song and dance in them.
"I always thought that was condescending," Lydia comments primly. "Her name was Frances, not Baby."
"But Billie is still a baby. Why wouldn't I call her that?" Isaac tickles her tummy. "Isn't that right, baby girl?"
"It's not a problem, Isaac," Stiles assures quickly, his eyes still trained on Lydia. "What are you saying, Lyds?"
"I don't know," Lydia answers slowly. "I was just wondering why Cristina would call her Baby all the time."
"Just wondering." There's enough disbelief and sarcasm in the young man's response to make Derek wonder if he has to step in. But, like Stiles, he wants to see where Lydia is going with this.
"Is Billie a family name?" Lydia asks suddenly.
Stiles shakes his head, the corner of his mouth ticking up a little. "No, Cris had a thing with Green Day."
Lydia lifts an eyebrow. "Really? I'll have to teach Billie how to use eyeliner properly, in that case." She says it like she wasn't planning that already from the moment she laid eyes on the little girl. Derek has heard her and Erica discuss how they would take her shopping as soon as she was old enough.
Stiles doesn't react, he just waits for his packmate to continue her train of thought.
"Anyway," Lydia says with a subtle toss of her hair, "if Billie was the name of her favourite singer, you'd think she would be using it more for her daughter."
"I guess," Stiles admits a little warily. "You think there's a reason for that?"
"Doesn't have to be," the girl answers. "It could just be like Isaac says, she is a baby after all."
"But you don't think it's just a cute pet name." Peter says it casually, inserting himself into the conversation easily.
Derek suspects Stiles has come to the same conclusion as Peter has, he's just not voicing it, wanting Lydia to speak her mind. The girl is keeping quiet though, her lips thinning with tension.
"Cristina was using it to keep her distance from Billie," Peter offers, saving Lydia from having to say it. She throws him a glance, not correcting him. Derek hates the idea of Billie's mother not using her real name to keep herself from forming too deep of a connection with the little girl, it makes the wolf inside him pace in agitation.
Stiles gets up from the sofa in a jerky movement, pushing the laptop to the side. "I don't like this conversation," he states tersely. In a few large strides he's over by Isaac and Billie, picking his daughter up from the floor. "Come here, honey, it's nap time."
They all watch him disappear from the room in silence.
"Cristina is a shitty mom," Malia declares when Stiles is out of hearing distance - mostly.
"It's not our place to judge," Derek says, leaning forward in his chair with his elbows on his knees. His book is long forgotten. He rubs a hand over his face, sighing. "We don't know why she did what she did. We don't know exactly what she did, either. We weren't there."
His words are what an Alpha is supposed to say. Satomi Ito would be pleased to hear him talk to his pack like this, seeing how he puts her valuable lessons in practice. It doesn't feel true to say the words, though. His heart and mind are full of judgement for Cristina and her pack. He won't vent it, for Stiles' sake. For Billie's sake. It doesn't matter what happened before last Sunday, when Billie came into their lives. The important thing is that she's here now. And she's loved.
"I will try to not call her Baby anymore." Isaac sits on the floor, his arms wrapped around his knees, feeling forlorn.
"You don't have to do that," Derek assures him. "You can still call her Baby Girl. It's the intention behind it that counts." Lydia nods her agreement and even Peter nods once.
It's not long before Derek can't hold himself back anymore and he slowly walks up the stairs, wanting to check up on Stiles. He finds the door to his old room open and leans against the door jamb to watch Stiles dress Billie in her footed pyjamas. The young man has learned a lot in the past couple of days, he's already very much at ease when dressing his daughter.
"You okay?" Derek asks when Stiles closes the last button.
Stiles doesn't look at him, but he nods. He lifts Billie up and carries her over to the big bed. He puts her down in the middle, arranging the pillows so they form a wall behind her. Then he dresses down to his boxers and T-shirt, slipping into bed with her. He's been doing that for most of her naps, she goes to sleep easier when he's with her. Often, Stiles will get up again after she's asleep, but Derek has the feeling Stiles wants to stay by her side right now.
With some quiet words Stiles tells his daughter to go to sleep, laying down beside her. He rubs his hand over her back, gentling her to sleep. He hasn't told Derek to leave, so the Alpha stays for a little while, drinking in the sight before him. It's Stiles' room now, but it was Derek's first and it was his bed. To see the both of them bundled up in his bed fills his chest with a warmth that's new and familiar at the same time. It's a feeling that has grown over time, so slow and inconspicuous that Derek hardly knew it was there. It made itself known every now and then, in times of peril and times of joy. And every time it felt more and more like just a part of himself. He doesn't know any better by now, the feeling is just there. Billie's unexpected arrival has only added to it.
When Derek thinks about leaving them alone to sleep, moving to close the door behind him, Stiles speaks up. His voice is barely louder than a whisper. "Do you think it's true?" he asks. He doesn't have to specify what he's talking about.
"I don't know for sure," Derek answers truthfully. "I think Cristina knew from the beginning that she wasn't going to keep her, that she wanted to find her a better place. She might have been protecting herself."
Stiles sighs deeply, his gaze never leaving the small sleeping form beside him. His hand has stilled, but he's still holding her. "She's not a bad person, you know? At least, she wasn't when we were dating. We weren't all that serious, it wasn't true love, but it was... nice. She was nice." His voice is laced with doubt, recent events darkening his memories of his ex-girlfriend.
"The past doesn't matter," Derek tells him firmly. "Billie is here now. She's yours. She's pack. She's loved."
"Yes," Stiles whispers and the salty twang of tears fills the air. There's a small smile on his lips, the only thing that's keeping Derek from stepping into the room and sliding into the space in the bed behind the younger man. Stiles is strong, always has been, always will.
"Get some rest," Derek says, moving into the hallway, his hand on the door knob. "I'll see you later."
Coming downstairs, Derek finds Isaac and Malia and takes them for a run. Lydia declines his invitation with a gracious smile. He doesn't bother to ask Peter, who has his nose in his book again.
When they get back after nearly two hours they find Stiles and Billie in the kitchen, enjoying a coffee and a cut up banana respectively. They don't speak of the conversation of that afternoon again, but Derek catches Stiles calling Billie his baby girl deliberately in Isaac's vicinity. Malia says something weird about billy goats and just like that the tension is gone.
You’ve got the love I need to see me through - Baby in the Pack
Chapter 7/13
7.
Billie may be human, it is clear as day that she was born in a wolf pack. With her nine months old she's too young to really put it to the test, but Derek wouldn't be surprised if she's inherited some of the heightened senses of her werewolf mother. She seems to have a keen sense for smell, for one, especially around food. When he came home with groceries yesterday she nearly catapulted herself from her high chair into the grocery bag he put on the floor next to it. Isaac had to catch her from making a dive. She kept making a fuss until he took the strawberries from the bag and washed some for her. They were in a brown paper bag, so she couldn't have seen them.
She made a mess with the juicy fruit, so much that Derek was happy he'd had the foresight to strip her of her overshirt before putting the strawberries in front of her. He felt even better when Stiles came into the room, freshly showered, and told him it was 'good thinking', because red fruit stains can be a pain to remove.
When Cora arrived Billie refused to be near her until Cora was thoroughly scented by the other pack members. Derek guesses the stench of airport and stranger was not to Billie's liking. The girl is showing to be as hard headed as her father. Though she also shows his enthusiasm, laughing freely when 'auntie Cora' plays a game of peek-a-boo with her, hiding her face behind her hands time after time.
Billie is also incredibly tactile and predisposed to being around pack. She hates sleeping alone. At night she and Stiles sleep in the same bed, but her dad tries to put her down in her crib for her naps during the day. It doesn't always work, yet Stiles is determined to make it work.
Today is one of those days when it doesn't work.
They've been out for a hike in the Preserve, with Billie in the baby carrier on Stiles' back for the first part and on Derek's back for the walk back home. They thought she'd fall asleep in the carrier, but the little girl was much too excited about all the sights and sounds around her to even think about sleep. Stiles blamed it on the moon, with the full moon only a few days away. With Billie having werewolf genes, however latent they might be, it is plausible. Derek has vague memories of his parents saying that the babies in the pack were extra fussy around the full moon. Whatever the cause, they returned home with a super tired - and therefore super cranky - baby girl.
Isaac and Stiles had been discussing the merits of Marvel comics over the movies, or something like it that Derek had equal little interest in, with the result that Stiles was determined to prove Isaac wrong as soon as he had put his daughter to bed. "Just you wait, Lahey!" he'd threatened, before disappearing upstairs with Billie.
That had been 45 minutes ago. Isaac is long since immersed in some game on his phone, probably no longer thinking about the silly argument with his packmate. Derek is in the laundry room, hanging up a load of baby clothes. Some of the items are new and never worn before: Stiles wants them washed before dressing his daughter in them. The other items have fallen victim to Billie's strong drooling game. She has a new tooth coming in, Stiles discovered the tiny white dot on her gums the other day.
The Alpha has a pink tutu in his hands when he hears it: "Oh my god, I'm never getting out of here." The words are just on the edge of his hearing, he isn't even sure he hears them right. He listens for a minute, standing stock still with the poofy skirt half on its way to its place on the drying rack. There is nothing at first, but then he hears something that sounds suspiciously like a muffled curse. A baby-proof curse: "Crab apples." Derek puts the rest of the laundry up to dry, snickering quietly to the increasingly desperate - but still quiet - sounds that reach him from upstairs. It isn't until he puts the last shirt on the drying rack that there is a distinct call for help - still mostly whispered. "Derek? Derek? I need your help."
He calmly walks upstairs, imagining the scene he will find when he gets there.
It's better than he imagined. Stiles and Billie are both in her crib, Stiles' long legs sticking up awkwardly over the sides. Billie is using her daddy as a mattress, lying mostly on top of him. She's in her sleeping bag, the grey one with tiny white sheep.
"Derek, dude," Stiles breathes out in relief, "I can't get out." Derek presses his lips together to hold back on a laugh. Despite the dim light in the room Stiles catches it and sends him a glare. "It's not funny!" he hisses, sucking in a startled breath as his daughter stirs on his chest. She doesn't wake up, though, and Stiles sighs in relief. He holds out his free hand towards Derek and waves him over. "Come on, man, you gotta help me. I can't move without waking her up."
Derek comes to stand at the side of the crib, his hands folding over the edge. "I don't know," he muses in a soft voice, "you two seem pretty comfortable."
"Are you kidding me?!" Stiles shoots him dagger eyes. "I can't feel my foot! All the blood has drained from my leg." He shakes the mentioned leg for emphasis, which is propped up at an odd angle against the far side of the crib. Stiles can only just fit on the mattress with his torso, his head angled uncomfortably against the top side. He's bound to have a crick in his neck if he stays put like that. And with all the room Stiles takes up in the baby bed, there's not any room left to put Billie down as he tries to move from underneath her. He's literally stuck.
Derek shakes his head with a smile. "Alright, alright," he says, trying to figure out how to get Stiles from underneath Billie without waking her up. He decides to slide his left arm underneath her, so she's draped over his lower arm, her head resting in the crook of his elbow. Her tummy is toasty with warmth from a combination of her and her father's body heat. Her limbs dangle down, heavy with sleep, but she doesn't wake up. Stiles watches his progress warily and doesn't try to move until he's sure his daughter won't wake up from her elevated position.
"Oh, fuck - fudge," he grits out, struggling to get up. "I can't get -"
"Hold on," Derek answers, propping his free right arm behind Stiles' back to help push him up. It's awkward, with Billie in his other arm and Stiles unable to properly move his numb limbs. He ends up folding Stiles basically in half, his legs still sticking up, creating an empty space on the mattress to put Billie down in. He slides the sleeping baby off his arm, praying that the warm spot will be comfortable enough to not wake her up. It is. He quickly moves his arms, replacing the one at Stiles' back with his left and sliding his right arm underneath his legs. He lifts Stiles out of the crib bridal style, their attention fixated on the sleeping girl beneath them. She moves a little, making them both freeze in place; she snuffles against her little fist and smacks her lips, before her face goes slack with sleep again.
"Success!" Stiles whispers in triumph, turning his head to look at Derek. Their faces are really close together like this and the little uptick in Stiles' heartbeat as a result of it sounds like music to Derek's ears. The young man in his arms swallows heavily. "You eh... You can put me down now, big guy."
He does, but not until they're out in the hallway, with the door to the room safely closed behind them. It's a good thing, because Stiles groans loudly as soon as his feet touch the floor. "Fuuuhhuudge," he groans, leaning back into Derek for support and putting his weight on his right leg. "That hurts like a b-. Like real bad."
Derek chuckles and holds Stiles up with steady hands. "Do you want me to carry you downstairs?"
Stiles flushes adorably. "No," he says, making it sound almost like a question. "No," he says more firmly then, "I'm not some damsel in distress."
"Could've fooled me." That earns him a slap on the chest.
"I can walk on it." And Stiles does, using the wall for support. It's a bit slow going, yet by the time he's halfway down the stairs the pins and needles in his leg have subsided enough for him to walk on it normally again. When he spots Isaac sitting on the sofa, earbuds in, he turns back to Derek and points a stern finger at him. "Not a word about this!" he threatens.
Derek mimes zipping his lips shut with a big grin.
The incident with the crib doesn't get a repeat performance, though Billie does love to sleep on top of people, especially when she's fussy. The day after the full moon Derek is resting on the sofa, his eyes closed but not asleep, when suddenly a small body is dropped on his chest. "She's yours now," Stiles declares testily, "I'm gonna - I need. I need a minute."
Derek doesn't say anything. Stiles had been up most of the night with an angry daughter, who didn't take it well that the rest of the pack was outside in the woods, leaving her and her father alone in the house. They thought she wouldn't notice it, as they left the house after she was asleep, but apparently she woke up shortly after and refused to go back to sleep until everyone was back home again. When they got back, a little before dawn, Stiles was waiting for them in the hall, a whining Billie in his arms. "Puppy pile, now," was the only thing he said before he disappeared back into the living room, dropping down in the middle of the large sofa.
Lydia was the first to slot to Stiles' side, talking soothingly to Billie. Jackson followed her, curling around his fiancée. The other werewolves also took care to scent Billie before they dropped down on the sofa around them. They made space for Derek in the middle, when Billie stretched her arms out to him, reaching out to her Alpha. The little girl fussed for another ten minutes and then dropped off to sleep on Stiles' shoulder, one tiny hand fisted in the fabric of Derek's T-shirt. "Finally," Stiles sighed wearily. "We're doing this differently next month."
Father and daughter went to bed with Billie holding Derek's surrendered T-shirt close and despite the sleepless night, the little girl woke up at eight in the morning, demanding breakfast. The rest of the pack was still fast asleep, known to not rouse before noon after a full moon. Derek got up with Stiles and Billie, even though there wasn't much either of them let him do for them. Both Stiles and his daughter were cranky.
Stiles is clearly not handling the lack of sleep on top of a stressful night very well, so Derek is more than happy to take over Billie for a while. He shuffles a bit more upright and sits her up on her butt on his chest. She's entertained by him walking his fingers up her leg and tummy for a while, until she leans forward and pats her clammy hands in his beard. He lets her explore his face and beard for a bit, until she starts rubbing her eyes with her fist.
He eyes the clock on the wall. "I think it's about time for a bottle, isn't it?" he checks with her, getting up from the sofa with Billie in his arms. She makes an agreeable sound, bouncing a little on his arm.
Derek makes her bottle while holding her and takes her back to the sofa with him, the bottle clutched in her little hands. He settles in comfortably again, tucking her in between his torso and the back of the sofa. "We're having some quiet time," he tells her gently, "so we're just gonna chill here, alright?" She looks at him with her big honey coloured eyes, drinking contentedly from her bottle. "That's right," he smiles, assuming she agrees with him.
Her eyes start drooping when she's downed most of the bottle and a few minutes later he can take the empty bottle from her sleep slack hands. A string of milky spit forms between the teat of the bottle and her bottom lip, leaving a white drop on her lip when it breaks. Derek gently wipes it away with his thumb, shuffling down a little so he can put his head against the armrest. Her even heartbeat and breathing lull him to sleep.
He wakes up to a different heartbeat, one that he could recognise in a sea of people. It's going a little fast and it's accompanied by a rush of warm, contented chemosignals. The affection that's in there makes him smile before he even opens his eyes.
"Hey," Stiles says quietly when their gazes lock. He's smiling down upon them fondly from his position by Derek's feet. From the looks of him he's freshly showered.
"Hey," Derek answers with a sleep-rough voice. He doesn't know how long he's been asleep, but the little girl on his chest is still dreaming soundly. He lifts the hand that was resting on his stomach and holds it a little away from his body. "Wanna...?" He leaves the question open.
Stiles hesitates for a moment and his cheeks heat up, but then he nods jerkily and moves over to Derek's side.
The werewolf moves the little baby girl a little more up on his body so she isn't squished between him and the sofa, making room for himself to scoot over a little. This way, Stiles just fits on his other side. His packmate tucks himself in against his side, Derek's arm wrapping around his back to prevent him from falling off the sofa. Derek sleepily nuzzles his nose against Stiles' hair, taking in the young man's unique scent. Stiles hums quietly, settling in even closer. It's not long before all three of them are asleep.
