Archive of Our Own

 

The Homecoming

Stiles was currently busy in the kitchen making lunch for his daughter. She had just turned four and was currently in her, ‘I only eat white things’ phase. This didn’t mean much to Stiles because he had become proficient in making a cheesy potato and cauliflower mash, plus he had a chicken roasting in the oven. As he made his way around the kitchen preparing plates and setting them on the table, he noticed the picture of his beloved lover sitting on the counter.

“Hey Isaac… I miss you. Sara does too, but hopefully we’ll both see you again.” Stiles smiled at the smiling photo of his blonde husband and leaned in to kiss the photo.

After dating, for about 8 months, near the end of high school the two had gotten married after they found out that Stiles was pregnant with Isaac’s child. This had delayed plans of college for the two and had left them in an economic bind and so Isaac had come up with a plan: to join the army. The contract he signed guaranteed them a house and a fair sum of money which would pay for Stiles’ college degree. Stiles protested the idea but Isaac stuck fast to his plan and, soon after their daughter’s 2^nd birthday, Isaac took his place among the vast sea of enrolees. A few months into the program he was drafted and deployed to the war in Iraq. Isaac wrote a letter to Stiles with the information saying he would keep in contact, naturally that night Stiles held their daughter as he cried.

“Papa!!” a young girl screamed as she ran into the kitchen, a piece of paper flapping in her hands. As she ran her dark brown, curly hair bounced. “Hey Sar-Bear, how’s my cute little pumpkin.” Stiles said as he picked up his daughter nuzzling her cute nose which Isaac insisted came from Stiles.

Sara laughed and held the paper up to Stiles’ face, “Look what I drew papa!!”

Stiles took the paper from his daughter and gawked at the picture. In it were four figures, two larger and two smaller. He noticed the two smaller figures each had bows in their hair and one seemed much younger with blonde curls, they also both wore matching pink dresses. The two older figures seemed to be him and Isaac, he could tell by the spiky brown hair one sported and the curly brown-blonde of the other. He marvelled at his daughter’s drawing skills, for someone only 4 years old her drawings were actually pretty awesome. Though the thing that got him was the eyes on Isaac, they were a golden colour – in fact so were the two girls.

Stiles smiled at his daughter, “Sara honey this is good, but whose this other girl?”

Sara smiled and chuckled, “Silly papa! That’s Claudia, my little sister.”

Stiles stilled and set his daughter on the counter, “Honey you don’t have a little sister.”

The little girl smiled, “Not yet… But I saw her in my dream last night.”

Stiles just nodded and set his daughter on the floor, telling her to wash up for lunch. She ran off to the bathroom to do so and Stiles just let out a sigh, holding the picture in his clutches. He had found out their daughter had the ability of clairvoyance when she was 3, it had come from Stiles’ side what with him being part druid and all – a small secret his mother had kept from him. Stiles knew he shouldn’t wish for it, but he kind of relied on her power to make sure Isaac was still alive. Even though the blonde called at least once in three months; Stiles still worried and seeing pictures like this kept him going, though the concept of a new baby did sort of scare and excite him a little.

It also made him miss Isaac a little more and he held back tears, not wanting to cry in front of his daughter and upset her.

“Papa I’m done!” The little girl called as she ran back into the kitchen and climbed up onto the chair. She turned to the frame of her other father and smiled, “Hi Daddy!”

Stiles wished Isaac was here just to hear that sometimes. He sniffed and wiped his eyes as he set Sara’s picture down and started putting food on his daughter’s plate. She cheered as she saw the all white foods and dug into her meal.

Stiles watched as his daughter ate her meal and was about to dig into his own when the phone rang.

‘I wonder who that could be’ Stiles thought as he went to answer the phone. He picked it up and hit the call button.

“Hello” Stiles answered the phone.

“Why hello,” Said a voice Stiles couldn’t recognise because it sounded muffled, “Is this the residence of one Isaac Lahey?”

Stiles stilled, no-one had called for Isaac in a while, “Umm yes, it is but he’s not here right now.” He answered.

“Papa! I’m finished.” Sara called from her place at the dining table.

“Can you hold on for a moment?” Stiles asked the caller. He didn’t wait for an answer and looked over her head, to his daughter’s plate, and noticed she hadn’t eaten her chicken. “Honey you’re not done yet. You still have to finish the chicken.”

“But Papa!” Sara cried out.

Stiles gave her daughter a stern look before she pouted and picked up a fork. Stiles smiled, “That’s my girl. Your daddy would be very proud.” The girl smiled at the compliment.

Stiles’ caller chuckled at that too, making Stiles remember the guy was still on the phone.

“Sorry about that.” Stiles apologised.

“No need sir, I assume that is your daughter?” The caller asked, his voice sounding more familiar than before.

“Umm yes, that’s our daughter. Mine and Isaac’s.”

The caller chuckled, “That’s very sweet sir. Anyway, back to why I called, I have a call waiting for one Stiles Lahey from one Isaac Lahey. Would you like to accept the call?”

Stiles stilled and remained quiet for a while, causing the caller to ask for him again. He shook his head and simply said, “Yes, yes I would.”

He then walked away to the wall, and looked closely at the calendar. He hadn’t marked down any calls from Isaac that he expected, and as he flicked back to the last month he saw that Isaac called him just a few weeks ago. Stiles hoped this wasn’t some sort of ‘last call’ situation.

“Hello? Stiles are you there?” Isaac’s voice came through the phone speaker. It was a clear sound, unlike his last call which was crackled.

“Oh my gosh, Isaac. Is that you?” Stiles asked his voice almost breaking into a crying mess at hearing his husband’s voice.

Isaac laughed, “Yes baby, it’s me. How are you?”

Stiles sniffed, “I’m good, much better now that you’ve called Isaac. But why are you calling now? You called just a few weeks ago, I mean you’re not dying or anything are you?” Stiles whimpered out the last part.

“Hey Stiles, no nothing like that baby.” Isaac cooed, “I’m all good. Actually I just got a bit of free time and was told I could give a call home.”

Stiles smiled, “Aww baby I’m so happy you called, Sara is going to be so happy to hear you.”

Stiles could hear Isaac’s smile, “How is my little princess?” Isaac said.

“She’s good. Do you want to speak to her? She’d love to hear from you.”

“No actually can we just talk for a little while?”

Stiles sighed and sat down, “Yeah okay.”

“So what have you been up to since I last called.”

“Not much, just spending my time with our daughter. Studying and not doing much else, well I mean aside from working at the elementary school.” Stiles chuckled.

“Oh yeah? How are your kids going?”

“Yeah they’re good, though I can’t wait until our little girl starts the first grade next year. It’ll be exciting…” Stiles tapered off at the last part.

“Hey what happened?” Isaac asked his tone curious but playful.

“I just… You’re not going to be here for that.”  Stiles began to sob over the phone at the thought.

“Hey, hey don’t cry Stiles.” Isaac cooed over the phone.

“But I miss you, and so does Sara. I just wish you could be here right now!” Stiles kept sobbing which garnered the attention of his daughter.

“Papa, why are you crying?” Sara said as she clutched onto her father’s leg and attempted to climb onto his lap. She had begun to do this every time she saw Stiles crying, it was a means of comforting him. It upset Stiles further that his own four year old daughter had to hold him together.

“No reason, at all sweet pea. I’m just talking to your daddy and getting a little emotional.” Stiles said as he stroked his daughter’s brown locks.

The little girl seemed to get excited with the thought of her daddy and immediately made grabby hands towards the phone. Stiles smiled, “Isaac I think Sara wants to talk to you.” Stiles said as he passed the phone onto his daughter.

“Daddy!” The little girl yelled in excitement. Stiles chuckled and kissed her temple.

“Hey my gorgeous princess. How are you?” Stiles heard Isaac say over the phone.

“I’ve been very good daddy! Papa says so.” Sara began. Suddenly she was off Stiles’ lap and running into the lounge room near the front of the house.

Stiles had gotten used to this behaviour; sometimes his daughter just wanted a private conversation with her daddy.

He got up and went into the kitchen to clear the plates, figuring that Sara would now be too excited to eat.

 

***

In the living room Sara sat and quietly whispered to Isaac. She wasn’t quite aware of the fact that her hearing was beyond normal and so tried to keep these conversations as quiet as possible, to prevent her papa hearing them.

“When are you coming home daddy?” Sara whispered into the phone, her tone a little sad.

“Sar-Bear you know it might be a while…” Isaac answered truthfully; both he and Stiles thought it unfair to lie to their daughter and always told her the truth when it mattered. She was still a kid after all so believing in the tooth-fairy, Easter bunny and Santa was perfectly okay; besides with all the supernatural creatures the two had run into previously who knew if these beings didn’t exist as well.

Sara laughed a little, “Stop playing daddy. I promise I won’t tell Papa.”

Isaac let out a small laugh, “Let me guess, you had a dream right?”

Sara just ‘uh-ed’ causing Isaac to laugh again. Trust his daughter to ruin his little surprise.

“Well even then, I’m not going to tell you that way you can still be surprised when it happens.” Isaac said.

Sara pouted but agreed, “Fine, but you promise to give me a big hug when it happens right?”

“The biggest wolf hug for my little princess.” Isaac promised.

 

***

Sara had finished talking to Isaac and had run back into the kitchen to pass the phone to Stiles.

“Hey Isaac what was all that about?” Stiles asked as soon as he held the phone to his ear.

“Can’t tell you babe, it’s between me and my princess.” Isaac said playfully.

Stiles laughed, “Alright then, if you say so.”

“I do. Hey listen babe I have to go now but are you going to be out of the house tomorrow afternoon?” Isaac asked his tone slightly nervous.

“Well I have to go pick up Sara from kindergarten but after that we’ll both be here. Why?” Stiles asked curious about Isaac’s sudden interest in their exact schedule.

“No reason really, it’s just I have a special package I sent home and it should be arriving tomorrow.”

“Oh really a special package huh? What exactly is in this special package, should I keep our daughter away from it?” Stiles chuckled. The last time Isaac had said he was sending a special package home well let’s just say it wasn’t appropriate for the children and may have involved some very ‘special’ pictures.

Isaac laughed at the memory, “Sorry honey nothing like that. It’s actually for both of you, and I’m not saying anything further. Except that it’s coming by courier.”

“Alright. Well we should both be here. I’ll take some photos and send them to you when we get this mysterious package of yours.”

“Alright. Bye babe.” Isaac made a kissing sound, “Love you.”

Stiles kissed back, “Love you too baby. Be safe.”

“I will; bye.” Isaac said as he hung up and the line went dead.

Stiles stayed listening to the tone for a while before he noticed Sara tugging on his leg. He looked down to see her happy face and immediately smiled. Sure he missed Isaac but how could he be upset when he had such an amazing daughter. He pressed the red button on his phone and set it down on the counter.

“Alright Sara I think it’s time for a bath and then bed. What do ya say?” Stiles said as he leaned down to pick up his daughter.

 

Stiles put the knife he had been using to cut the sandwich crusts off, down and went to answer the phone.

“Hello” Stiles said.

“Hello is this Stiles Lahey?” the extremely nasal, more like completely blocked up, caller asked.

“Yes this is Stiles.”

“Why hello Mr Lahey, my name is… uhh… Steve,” ‘Great a telemarketer’ Stiles thought as the caller continued, “I’m calling from the Superb Courier Transport Company. We were wondering if you had received the package from our courier yet.”

“Umm no actually no package has arrived.”

“What! Are you sure sir?” The nasal caller exclaimed, seemingly panicked by this information.

“Umm yes but it's ok.” Stiles said trying to calm the man (?) down.

“No it is not sir. Please do not get alarmed. I will contact the courier and call you back.” With that the man hung up.

‘Strange guy’ Stiles thought before the phone rang once again.

“What is it now?” Stiles said, thinking it was the same guy calling yet again.

“Whoa, I think someone is a little peeved today. Maybe I shouldn’t have called.” An older man said.

“Sorry dad! I thought it was someone else.” Stiles apologised.

“It’s ok Stiles.” The Sheriff said.

“Wait actually why are you calling dad?” Stiles asked.

“What can’t a man call his son and granddaughter just for the heck of it?” The Sheriff said seemingly taking offense to Stiles’ question.

“No of course you can dad, it’s just you usually don’t.”

His father huffed, “Well apparently I can still surprise you. Speaking of which, how is that spritely young werewolf husband of yours?”

Stiles sighed, his father had never quite gotten over the fact that his son-in-law was a werewolf and it did cause some tension between the sheriff and Isaac. Of course having Stiles fall pregnant with Sara so soon out of high school didn’t exactly work in Isaac’s favour either, but everything between the two had calmed down a little just before Isaac joined the army.

“He’s fine dad.” Stiles replied.

“That’s good.” John replied in short.

Suddenly there was a beep over the phone signalling a second caller. “Hey dad, I gotta go.”

“It’s ok. Just tell Isaac I said hi okay?”

“Will do dad. Bye.”

“Bye son.” Stiles the hung up on his father and answered the other call.

“Hello?” Stiles said into the phone.

“Hey baby…” Isaac answered.

“Isaac…” Stiles said surprised to be getting another call from his husband so close to the last one.

“Surprised?”

“Umm yeah, how come you’re calling again?” Stiles asked curiosity getting the better of him.

“What not happy to hear from me? Is there another man I should be worried about?” Isaac suggested playfully.

Stiles chuckled, “Never baby, you know you’re the only one for me and of course I'm happy to hear from you but still it’s just you called yesterday.”

“Yeah well I wanted to be there when you and Sara got my package.”

“Oh well it hasn’t arrived yet.”

Suddenly the house was filled with an all bells version of ‘Ding-dong the Witch is Dead’, otherwise known as their doorbell.

“Actually that might be it now.”

“Well then go answer the door.” Isaac said.

When Stiles got to the door he noticed Sara standing there and smiling, she pointed to the door silently asking him to open it.

Stiles got to the door knob before he heard a nasal voice from the other side, “Mr Lahey are you home? I have your package.” Stiles couldn’t help but shake the familiarity in the voice and as he opened the door he realised why.

“Scott?” Stiles asked as he saw his best friend standing at his door with his right index finger and thumb holding his nose.

“Yeah it’s me,” Scott said before realising he was still holding his nose, “I mean yeah it’s me Stiles. I have that package for you.”

Scott moved to the side and just down the laneway leading up to their house, standing in green camouflage gear traditionally associated with the army, smiling a ridiculously goofy smile and holding a cell phone to his ear was none other than Stiles husband – Isaac Lahey.

“Surprise baby.” Isaac said into the phone before he hung up.

“Isaac?” Was all Stiles said as he dropped the phone on the floor and ran up to his husband practically pouncing him. His arms and legs wrapped around Isaac, who had managed to remain standing and was holding Stiles close. The shorter brunette was in tears.

Suddenly the three adults turned their attention to the little gasp that escaped the forgotten brunette child still standing in the doorway. “DADDY!!” Sara screamed as she ran to join her papa in the hug.

Scott just smiled at the scene.

***

Anyway back to the present where the twins were grilling Isaac about his time on the war field, as Derek sat off to the side pretending not to pay attention. Danny and Lydia were deep in conversation about Danny and Ethan’s plan to adopt in the near future and of course their upcoming nuptials. Scott was currently talking closely to Allison; the two seeming like they were in high school, their son was in the play pen beside them. The Sheriff and Melissa weren’t exactly much better. Stiles had just walked out into the back garden to collect some seasoning herbs before rushing back inside to give them to his daughter so she could season the pizza the two had made for everyone.

“You know what I don’t get though Isaac?” Aiden asked the blonde.

“And what would that be Aiden?”

“How did you manage to hide the whole homecoming thing from Stiles?”

Everyone seemed to pay attention to Isaac at this point, each person curious about the answer.

“Well umm, I was told about the plan to return a few of us home about a month before – even before my call to Stiles that month. I didn’t tell him because everything was still up in the air about who got to leave back home and cycle out of duty. Only about a week later did I find out that I had been chosen to go home.”

Stiles took a seat next to Isaac, who was currently sitting in one of the loveseats in the lounge. Isaac pulled Stiles onto his lap before continuing.

“When I found out I wanted to call Stiles and explain the good news, until I got the idea to surprise him instead.” Isaac turned to Stiles and stared at him lovingly, “I mean Stiles had already given me the best surprise in the world with Sara, and then he had stunned me again by agreeing to marry me. So I felt it was my turn to surprise him.” Isaac stretched his neck slightly forward to plant a kiss to Stiles’ head, everyone ‘aww-ed’ at the emotional display.

“Anyway, instead of calling Stiles I called Scott and told him my plan.” Isaac nodded to Scott who smiled and nodded back. “Then about two days later I was put onto a boat with a few of my fellow soldiers and sent back home. In fact it was a friend of mine, Joshua, who helped with getting into contact with Stiles when we finally reached port two weeks later.”

Stiles seemed to have a bright spark at this moment, “Joshua… we’ve spoken before. So that was why that operator sounded so familiar that day.”

Isaac just nodded and kissed Stiles’ head again. “Yeah he was great. Helping me check on you and everything whilst still making you believe I was in Iraq.” The two locked eyes for a while seeming to drift off into their own world.

“Hey keep going, you can make goo-goo eyes with each other later.” The sheriff called out, causing everyone to chuckle.

“Right anyway where was I?” Isaac asked as he came out of his little reverie.

“You were up to the part about your friend Joshua helping you keep Stiles in the dark.” Ethan supplied helpfully.

“Right!” Isaac said before continuing, “So after that I called Scott and got him to pick me up from the port. However he said it would take him a few hours to get there and it was already getting dark, so Josh and I decided to shack up in a motel for the night. We were in separate rooms, before any of you say anything.” Isaac said as he held up a finger, waving it around the group of people around him, all smirking slightly.

“Anyway the next day Scott came and picked me up and drove me down the coast back here. As we finally reached Beacon Hills we stopped off at the Sheriff’s place where Scott called you Stiles. The sheriff agreed to help us and called you as soon as we left; he also promised to take Sara for a night.” Everyone gave a collective snicker at the insinuation.

Stiles and Isaac just blushed, “Yeah well anyway, the sheriff called Stiles to distract him from us pulling up and then well you guys know the rest.” Isaac said as he stroked his hand up and down Stiles’ neck.

“It’s so romantic…” Allison sighed out. Everyone else nodded along, including Derek who was smiling as his girlfriend Braeden hugged him.

“Stiles, were you surprised?” Danny asked.

Stiles went red before nodding and pressing himself closer to Isaac.

“Although I feel bad now…” Stiles said muttering a little.

“Wait why?” Derek asked

Stiles looked around at his friends and then to his husband before calling Sara to come down from upstairs. Everyone turned to see the little girl all dressed in a pretty white dress, she was holding a piece of paper in her hands.

“Yes Papa.” She said as she stopped in front of her parents the paper held closely against her legs.

“Why don’t you show daddy that drawing you did?” Stiles asked her as both smiled.

Sara held out the paper to her confused father. Isaac reached out and looked carefully at the drawing recognising the image to be one of Sara’s family. He noticed the spiky haired Stiles, his curly brown haired princess and himself but the last figure he couldn’t place.

“Sara who is this little girl standing next to you in your drawing?” Isaac asked looking at his daughter’s bright face.

“That’s my little sister Claudia!” Sara exclaimed excitedly.

Everyone in the room went silent, waiting to see what would happen.

“Claudia?” Isaac asked confused.

“Yes Isaac. Claudia, Sara saw her in a dream the night you called from ‘Iraq’” Stiles said adding air quotes around the word Iraq.

Everyone seemed to catch on at this point. They all knew of Sara’s gift, but still it was a little odd to be bringing this up now, unless…

Lydia squeaked as she realised where this was headed, everyone looked at her but no-one understood. Well no one except Allison who also squeaked a little.

Isaac noticed the squeaking, “Ok so apparently they know something I don’t.”

Stiles just nodded slowly, “Yeah I think they figured it all out, especially about Claudia.”

Isaac stared at the two girls for a moment and then turned to Stiles, “Are they thinking that we would give them some kind of show to her conception or something?”

The girls went red at the insinuation but Stiles just laughed, “No, baby. Besides,” Stiles took Isaac’s hand in his, “Even if they wanted to they’ve already missed it.” He placed Isaac’s hand to his stomach.

Isaac’s eyes widened, as did everyone else’s, as they realised what Stiles was saying.

“Surprise baby, I’m pregnant.” Stiles said.

Isaac tuned out all the cheering going on around him and just leaned in to kiss Stiles passionately. As he pulled away all he could say was, “Best homecoming surprise ever!”