FIC - What Makes Her Theirs
Author: verucasalt123
Title: What Makes Her Theirs
Rating: PG-13
Pairing/s: Derek/Stiles
Character/s: Stiles, Derek, child OC
Summary: This conversation wasn’t supposed to happen yet.
Warnings: references to murder of another pack,
Content Notes: angst, bad memories, happy ending
Submission Type: Fic
Word Count: ~2100
Prompt: kept
Derek and Stiles thought they had a lot more time to plan for this conversation with their daughter. A couple of years, at least. But here they were, alternating looks between each other and Lucy, trying to find a way to explain things like where she came from, why her “cousin” Max (really just Boyd and Erica’s son, a couple of years older than Lucy) said they’re not like other kids and when they got older they would be werewolves like their parents, what being a werewolf even meant, and how she ended up with Derek and Stiles in the first place.
If there were any way to wait and tell her all of these things when she was ten or eleven, that would really be ideal. But the “I’ll tell you when you’re older” line got them nowhere with their stubborn and curious eight year old.
Derek lifted her onto the sofa between himself and Stiles. The werewolf part of the story would probably be easier to explain, so that’s where they started. First, they talked about the pros and cons of their genetics. Lucy seemed to understand that it would be easy for her to defend herself when she was older, that injuries would heal very quickly, she would be stronger and faster. There was no way Stiles or Derek would bring up the fact that weres were targeted for violence and death by hunters or by other packs. Stiles tried his best to define what a pack meant.
“Our pack doesn’t only have werewolves. Your uncle Scott is kind of like the president of the club, we call him the Alpha. Your Papa is a werewolf, so are Boyd and Erica and Isaac, and Papa’s uncle Peter. But your aunt Allison and her dad aren’t, Lydia's not, I’m not, and neither is your Pop-Pop. But we all work together if there are any problems. Also, this isn’t a thing you can talk to other kids about, unless you know for sure that they are also werewolves, like Max. Unless you’re with someone who is a part of our pack, you can’t ever tell anyone. I know that might be hard, but it will help keep you safe, Okay?”
With a serious expression, Lucy nodded and replied, “I can keep a secret, Daddy. But how do you get to be a werewolf in the first place?”
Derek took over then, explaining that some people, like him, were born that way, and that some were “turned” when they were bitten by a werewolf. Most of their pack fit into that category, but Derek and his family had been almost all weres because it was in their blood. Lucy already knew that her Papa’s family had died a very long time ago, before he had even met her Daddy. She had seen a few pictures and heard a few stories, but not much else.
Talking to your kid about things that were frightening and unknown is always a difficult process. Both Stiles and Derek had wanted to protect her from that knowledge for a little while longer, let her just be a regular kid for another two years or so, when it would be necessary because she would notice the first of many changes that were coming as she started getting older.
“Papa, both of your parents were werewolves, right? So you are too. But...Daddy’s not a werewolf. And I know that boys can’t make babies together. There’s a girl in my class who said her parents are both boys, but that they had a lady grow her in her tummy, then gave her back to her dads. And there’s a boy in my class with two moms, and he’s adopted. His moms look like us, but he doesn’t look like his parents. His skin is dark, not like Boyd’s, but darker than mine. His sister was adopted too, and she looks really different from all of them, her eyes are funny shaped and her hair is black and super long, and they all had to go on a plane for a long time to get her and bring her home.”
“Lucy”, Stiles began, “we have talked before about how there are a lot of different kinds of families. Remember when I told you that boys weren’t allowed to marry another boy, and girls weren’t allowed to marry other girls. It really wasn’t all that long ago, and there are still people who think it’s wrong to have a family without a mom and a dad.”
“Yeah, and I still think it sounds dumb. If I need a lady for something, we’ve got a bunch of them around. Erica, aunt Allison, uncle Scott’s mom.” Derek and Stiles snuck a glance at each other, smiling and proud that their daughter understood things like this.
If they’d thought answering all of Lucy’s questions up until now had been a little tough, but Stiles and Derek both knew exactly where this conversation was headed. She certainly wasn’t old enough to hear all the details, but neither of them wanted to lie to her.
Derek and Stiles had just moved in to a nice two-bedroom house. The Sheriff hadn’t been thrilled about that; Stiles was just barely twenty-three and he thought his son had gotten into a really serious committed relationship way too soon. Stiles and Derek had never wavered, though - a couple of tough times while Stiles was away at school maybe - but neither of them were ever interested in anyone except each other since Stiles had been seventeen. Now he’d finished college and was in the process of writing a book about modern folklore. He could make his own decisions , and the Sheriff would keep out of it as best he could.
They’d been in the house a month or so, were planning to get married but hadn’t done it yet, when Scott told everyone there was bad news about a hundred miles away. Another pack (an old one, not older than the Hales but pretty well-established) had been attacked in the middle of the night by what looked to be a bunch of omegas that no one really knew much about. They had all gone out to where the old pack had lived immediately, but it had been far too late to help. Every one of them had fanned out as far as they could, and found nothing but dead bodies. When the pack met back up after their search, all of them were wearing devastated and haunted expressions, Derek’s face had gone pale and he looked like he was going to either weep or get sick. Seeing the extermination of an entire family was obviously more difficult for him, considering his own history.
They started talking about whether or not there was another pack nearby they would need to notify when Derek held up a hand and signaled silence. He looked to the trees on the western border of the territory, and the other weres could obviously sense or hear something out there as well. Derek and Boyd set out for that area, and everyone stayed where they were. Half an hour passed, and Stiles was getting itchy, wanting to follow and make sure nothing had happened, but Boyd and Derek emerged from the trees just then. Boyd looked solemn and Derek’s face was unreadable because he was intently staring down at something in his arms that he’d wrapped up in Boyd’s overshirt. As the two of them got closer to the rest of the pack, there was no guesswork needed.
It was a baby. A very small one, more likely a newborn. Since Derek still wasn’t talking or looking at anyone, Boyd spoke up. “She was out there on the ground, hidden in some bushes. I think maybe when the trouble started, her parents or someone tried to hide her. No way she’s more than a few days old. I guess they were hoping that if they were all killed, someone would come along and find her.”
”Well, they were right”, said Derek. “Scott, I need you to call your mom, tell her we need her, just to make sure the baby’s not sick or anything. Erica, make the rounds. Try to find out the next closest pack, see if she’s got any family left anywhere. Stiles and I will take her home until we find out whether or not there’s somewhere else she belongs.” Finally looking up from the little bundle in his arms, he asked, “Stiles, sorry, I, uh - is that all right with you?”
”Of course, yeah”, Stiles replied. Clearly this was a really big deal to Derek, and he didn’t mind having a baby around for a few days until they figured this whole thing out. The Sheriff offered to stop on the way back to pick up a few essentials. They all headed back to Beacon Hills, the baby riding in Boyd and Erica’s car. Their toddler’s car seat was way too big but it was better than nothing, and Erica had insisted, backed up by the Sheriff and Boyd.
It had been a tough week or so, honestly. Neither Stiles nor Derek knew much about babies, but they had some help. Erica was extraordinarily thorough in her search, as meticulous as she could possibly be. She’d reached out to other packs near where the attack had occurred, but couldn’t find a single relative or even close family friend who would want to take on the task of taking in the baby girl and raising her. When Erica finished explaining everything, she left Derek and Stiles alone.
Derek had been holding the little girl in his lap, feeding her a bottle and just gazing down at her sweet little face. Looking up after Erica left, he fixed his eyes on Stiles, clearly having some kind of big speech prepared. But he didn’t get a chance. Stiles asked, “You want to keep her. I don’t think there’s anywhere else for her to go, and it’s pretty obvious that you’ve gotten attached.” Derek responded, “If you’re not ready, if you’re not willing to make this kind of commitment...I don’t want to force you into anything, or make you feel like you have to choose between us staying together and us becoming parents. But...yeah. You’re right. I know what it is to lose all the family you have, even if she’s too young to understand it now.” Stiles walked over and sat on the floor next to the chair where Derek was sitting. “We should probably think of a name. We’ll have to get stuff for her, a birth certificate, adoption papers, I don’t know what else. I’m sure my dad will know someone who can help.” Derek looked down at the tiny baby girl, then over at Stiles. “Are you sure? This is a pretty big step, and we’re not even married yet.” Stiles laughed, sat up onto his knees and pressed a gentle kiss to the baby’s forehead, and another one to Derek’s lips. “We’ll have to take a crash course in parenting, probably. You know I’m not a religious guy and I’ve never been one to take concepts like fate or destiny very seriously. But...things like this don’t just happen every day. She’s here. She needs parents. We can do that. We’ve had a ton of unexpected events before. We just change our schedule a bit, make whatever adjustments that need to be made. I won’t say I’m not nervous, but we’ve got a great support group, all the family she’ll ever need, and I think we’re both kind of falling in love with her already. It won’t be the first time you and I have just closed our eyes and taken a leap into a new situation. I love you, Derek. Now, let’s talk names.”
It seemed like barely any time had passed between then and now. There was absolutely no way they could tell her right now about the massacre of her family. But they could give her little bits and pieces, tell her they had adopted her when she was only about a week old. They even told her that they weren’t married yet and it was unexpected but that they couldn’t imagine a life without her - Lucy was the best thing that had ever happened to them.
Still curious, but satisfied for the moment with the information she’d gotten, she leaned up to give a kiss to both of her dads. “I sure am glad you kept me. There’s no other parents anywhere that are better than you”, she said with a big smile. “What’s for dinner?”
Derek and Stiles both let out deep breaths, glad that this conversation had gone so well and thrilled that they could change the subject to something much lighter. There would be time enough to share the rest of the story - right now, they could just enjoy their family exactly how it was.
Title: What Makes Her Theirs
Rating: PG-13
Pairing/s: Derek/Stiles
Character/s: Stiles, Derek, child OC
Summary: This conversation wasn’t supposed to happen yet.
Warnings: references to murder of another pack,
Content Notes: angst, bad memories, happy ending
Submission Type: Fic
Word Count: ~2100
Prompt: kept
Derek and Stiles thought they had a lot more time to plan for this conversation with their daughter. A couple of years, at least. But here they were, alternating looks between each other and Lucy, trying to find a way to explain things like where she came from, why her “cousin” Max (really just Boyd and Erica’s son, a couple of years older than Lucy) said they’re not like other kids and when they got older they would be werewolves like their parents, what being a werewolf even meant, and how she ended up with Derek and Stiles in the first place.
If there were any way to wait and tell her all of these things when she was ten or eleven, that would really be ideal. But the “I’ll tell you when you’re older” line got them nowhere with their stubborn and curious eight year old.
Derek lifted her onto the sofa between himself and Stiles. The werewolf part of the story would probably be easier to explain, so that’s where they started. First, they talked about the pros and cons of their genetics. Lucy seemed to understand that it would be easy for her to defend herself when she was older, that injuries would heal very quickly, she would be stronger and faster. There was no way Stiles or Derek would bring up the fact that weres were targeted for violence and death by hunters or by other packs. Stiles tried his best to define what a pack meant.
“Our pack doesn’t only have werewolves. Your uncle Scott is kind of like the president of the club, we call him the Alpha. Your Papa is a werewolf, so are Boyd and Erica and Isaac, and Papa’s uncle Peter. But your aunt Allison and her dad aren’t, Lydia's not, I’m not, and neither is your Pop-Pop. But we all work together if there are any problems. Also, this isn’t a thing you can talk to other kids about, unless you know for sure that they are also werewolves, like Max. Unless you’re with someone who is a part of our pack, you can’t ever tell anyone. I know that might be hard, but it will help keep you safe, Okay?”
With a serious expression, Lucy nodded and replied, “I can keep a secret, Daddy. But how do you get to be a werewolf in the first place?”
Derek took over then, explaining that some people, like him, were born that way, and that some were “turned” when they were bitten by a werewolf. Most of their pack fit into that category, but Derek and his family had been almost all weres because it was in their blood. Lucy already knew that her Papa’s family had died a very long time ago, before he had even met her Daddy. She had seen a few pictures and heard a few stories, but not much else.
Talking to your kid about things that were frightening and unknown is always a difficult process. Both Stiles and Derek had wanted to protect her from that knowledge for a little while longer, let her just be a regular kid for another two years or so, when it would be necessary because she would notice the first of many changes that were coming as she started getting older.
“Papa, both of your parents were werewolves, right? So you are too. But...Daddy’s not a werewolf. And I know that boys can’t make babies together. There’s a girl in my class who said her parents are both boys, but that they had a lady grow her in her tummy, then gave her back to her dads. And there’s a boy in my class with two moms, and he’s adopted. His moms look like us, but he doesn’t look like his parents. His skin is dark, not like Boyd’s, but darker than mine. His sister was adopted too, and she looks really different from all of them, her eyes are funny shaped and her hair is black and super long, and they all had to go on a plane for a long time to get her and bring her home.”
“Lucy”, Stiles began, “we have talked before about how there are a lot of different kinds of families. Remember when I told you that boys weren’t allowed to marry another boy, and girls weren’t allowed to marry other girls. It really wasn’t all that long ago, and there are still people who think it’s wrong to have a family without a mom and a dad.”
“Yeah, and I still think it sounds dumb. If I need a lady for something, we’ve got a bunch of them around. Erica, aunt Allison, uncle Scott’s mom.” Derek and Stiles snuck a glance at each other, smiling and proud that their daughter understood things like this.
If they’d thought answering all of Lucy’s questions up until now had been a little tough, but Stiles and Derek both knew exactly where this conversation was headed. She certainly wasn’t old enough to hear all the details, but neither of them wanted to lie to her.
Derek and Stiles had just moved in to a nice two-bedroom house. The Sheriff hadn’t been thrilled about that; Stiles was just barely twenty-three and he thought his son had gotten into a really serious committed relationship way too soon. Stiles and Derek had never wavered, though - a couple of tough times while Stiles was away at school maybe - but neither of them were ever interested in anyone except each other since Stiles had been seventeen. Now he’d finished college and was in the process of writing a book about modern folklore. He could make his own decisions , and the Sheriff would keep out of it as best he could.
They’d been in the house a month or so, were planning to get married but hadn’t done it yet, when Scott told everyone there was bad news about a hundred miles away. Another pack (an old one, not older than the Hales but pretty well-established) had been attacked in the middle of the night by what looked to be a bunch of omegas that no one really knew much about. They had all gone out to where the old pack had lived immediately, but it had been far too late to help. Every one of them had fanned out as far as they could, and found nothing but dead bodies. When the pack met back up after their search, all of them were wearing devastated and haunted expressions, Derek’s face had gone pale and he looked like he was going to either weep or get sick. Seeing the extermination of an entire family was obviously more difficult for him, considering his own history.
They started talking about whether or not there was another pack nearby they would need to notify when Derek held up a hand and signaled silence. He looked to the trees on the western border of the territory, and the other weres could obviously sense or hear something out there as well. Derek and Boyd set out for that area, and everyone stayed where they were. Half an hour passed, and Stiles was getting itchy, wanting to follow and make sure nothing had happened, but Boyd and Derek emerged from the trees just then. Boyd looked solemn and Derek’s face was unreadable because he was intently staring down at something in his arms that he’d wrapped up in Boyd’s overshirt. As the two of them got closer to the rest of the pack, there was no guesswork needed.
It was a baby. A very small one, more likely a newborn. Since Derek still wasn’t talking or looking at anyone, Boyd spoke up. “She was out there on the ground, hidden in some bushes. I think maybe when the trouble started, her parents or someone tried to hide her. No way she’s more than a few days old. I guess they were hoping that if they were all killed, someone would come along and find her.”
”Well, they were right”, said Derek. “Scott, I need you to call your mom, tell her we need her, just to make sure the baby’s not sick or anything. Erica, make the rounds. Try to find out the next closest pack, see if she’s got any family left anywhere. Stiles and I will take her home until we find out whether or not there’s somewhere else she belongs.” Finally looking up from the little bundle in his arms, he asked, “Stiles, sorry, I, uh - is that all right with you?”
”Of course, yeah”, Stiles replied. Clearly this was a really big deal to Derek, and he didn’t mind having a baby around for a few days until they figured this whole thing out. The Sheriff offered to stop on the way back to pick up a few essentials. They all headed back to Beacon Hills, the baby riding in Boyd and Erica’s car. Their toddler’s car seat was way too big but it was better than nothing, and Erica had insisted, backed up by the Sheriff and Boyd.
It had been a tough week or so, honestly. Neither Stiles nor Derek knew much about babies, but they had some help. Erica was extraordinarily thorough in her search, as meticulous as she could possibly be. She’d reached out to other packs near where the attack had occurred, but couldn’t find a single relative or even close family friend who would want to take on the task of taking in the baby girl and raising her. When Erica finished explaining everything, she left Derek and Stiles alone.
Derek had been holding the little girl in his lap, feeding her a bottle and just gazing down at her sweet little face. Looking up after Erica left, he fixed his eyes on Stiles, clearly having some kind of big speech prepared. But he didn’t get a chance. Stiles asked, “You want to keep her. I don’t think there’s anywhere else for her to go, and it’s pretty obvious that you’ve gotten attached.” Derek responded, “If you’re not ready, if you’re not willing to make this kind of commitment...I don’t want to force you into anything, or make you feel like you have to choose between us staying together and us becoming parents. But...yeah. You’re right. I know what it is to lose all the family you have, even if she’s too young to understand it now.” Stiles walked over and sat on the floor next to the chair where Derek was sitting. “We should probably think of a name. We’ll have to get stuff for her, a birth certificate, adoption papers, I don’t know what else. I’m sure my dad will know someone who can help.” Derek looked down at the tiny baby girl, then over at Stiles. “Are you sure? This is a pretty big step, and we’re not even married yet.” Stiles laughed, sat up onto his knees and pressed a gentle kiss to the baby’s forehead, and another one to Derek’s lips. “We’ll have to take a crash course in parenting, probably. You know I’m not a religious guy and I’ve never been one to take concepts like fate or destiny very seriously. But...things like this don’t just happen every day. She’s here. She needs parents. We can do that. We’ve had a ton of unexpected events before. We just change our schedule a bit, make whatever adjustments that need to be made. I won’t say I’m not nervous, but we’ve got a great support group, all the family she’ll ever need, and I think we’re both kind of falling in love with her already. It won’t be the first time you and I have just closed our eyes and taken a leap into a new situation. I love you, Derek. Now, let’s talk names.”
It seemed like barely any time had passed between then and now. There was absolutely no way they could tell her right now about the massacre of her family. But they could give her little bits and pieces, tell her they had adopted her when she was only about a week old. They even told her that they weren’t married yet and it was unexpected but that they couldn’t imagine a life without her - Lucy was the best thing that had ever happened to them.
Still curious, but satisfied for the moment with the information she’d gotten, she leaned up to give a kiss to both of her dads. “I sure am glad you kept me. There’s no other parents anywhere that are better than you”, she said with a big smile. “What’s for dinner?”
Derek and Stiles both let out deep breaths, glad that this conversation had gone so well and thrilled that they could change the subject to something much lighter. There would be time enough to share the rest of the story - right now, they could just enjoy their family exactly how it was.